Matthew 9, this morning, verse
27. When Jesus departed thence, two
blind men followed Him, crying and saying, Thou Son of David,
have mercy on us. And when He was coming to the
house, the blind men came to Him, and Jesus saith unto them,
Believe ye that I am able to do this. And they said unto him,
yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying,
according to your faith, be it unto you. And their eyes were
opened, and Jesus straightly charged them, saying, see that
no man know it. But they, when they were departed,
spread abroad his fame in all that country. Now this chapter nine of Matthew
and the previous one, give us a sense of what our Lord's days
on this earth were like. That's what I'd like us to see
first off this morning. I pray the Lord will give us
a sense of what it was like to be with Him and to see Him on
a daily basis, what His days were, how they were spent. Verse
one of chapter nine refers to him passing over. He entered
into a ship and passed over. And where he was passing over
from was the land of the Gergesenes, where he had cast the devils
out of these madmen that are mentioned there. And as he was
sailing over into the land of the Gergesenes, he passed over
to that place and then passed over from there. But when he
was passing to, where the mad men were. With the devils, he
was sailing over into the land of the Gergesenes. And that was
when the great storm arose, which the Lord calmed by the
command of his voice. His disciples said, don't you
care that we perish? Have you ever said that? In your
heart, doesn't God care? And the reason they had been
in that ship when the storm arose was because Christ was thronged
by great multitudes before that, and that's why he
got into the ship and passed over into the land of the Gergesenes.
That and he had some sheep over there. But that was the earthly reason
there, that he was just being thronged by so many multitudes
And our Lord's business was not with multitudes. It was with
individuals. He left a multitude to go save
one man. And the reason that he was thronged
with great multitudes to begin with, and therefore got into
the ship and went over into the land of the Gergesi and Passover
from there to our text is in verse 16 of chapter eight. When the even was come, they
brought unto him many that were possessed with devils. And he
cast out the spirits with his word and healed all that were
sick. Multitudes, they brought unto
him many and he healed all of them and cast out devils from
them. And when the crowd began to form was when he was at Simon's
house In verse 14, when Jesus was coming to Peter's house,
he saw his wife's mother laid and sick of a fever. And he touched her hand and the
fever left her. Did you know that's why fever
leaves? At the touch of his hand. It comes and goes at his command,
just like the winds and the waves. She ministered unto them. And
it was on the way to Simon's house was when the centurion
met our Lord in the way, who according to the Lord himself
displayed great faith when he said, if you just speak the word
only, Lord, my servant will be healed. You see what his days
were like? And it was when the Lord came
down out of the mountain where he had been teaching his disciples,
he came down out of the mountain to go to Capernaum, and that
was where he was met by the centurion. But as he came down out of that
mountain to go on that road where the centurion met him, Before
he passed over into the land of the Gurgisene, before he healed
everybody they brought to him, and then because of the great
multitude, they had to get in the ship and leave and go to
the Gurgisene, and then from there passed over to where we
are in our text. The leper met him at the bottom
of that mountain and cried, Lord, if you will,
you can make me clean. And now in our chapter here,
he enters into a ship and passed over and came into his own city. And behold, they brought to him
a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed, and Jesus seeing their
faith, and said unto the sick of the palsy, son, be of good
cheer. You can't walk, but you don't
have any sin. You're paralyzed. but your sins
are gone. Be of good cheer. And then he
healed him of his paralysis too. You see what I'm saying? And then verse nine, it tells
us that he passed forth from there and he met Matthew sitting
at the receipt of custom. Called him, follow me, follow
me, and he did. dealt with the Pharisees over
that. And then in verse 14, came to John's disciples and he taught
them how that salvation is not accomplished by patching up the
holes in your old garment. You need a new garment. And then in verse 18, while he
spoke to them, the ruler of the synagogue comes to him concerning
his daughter. And while he's on the way to
that man's house, he's met by the woman with the issue of blood. Just in a brief passage of scripture,
we get a bit of a sense of what our Lord's days were like. She'd had an issue of blood 12
years, and then he reaches the, Ruler's house deals with the
fools that were making a scene there, is laughed to scorn by
them, and wakes up his sleeping daughter. And she wakes up looking into
the Savior's face with his hand on hers. And then we come to
verse 27. And when Jesus departed thence,
two blind men followed him, crying and saying, Thou son of David,
Have mercy on us. Two words in this passage this
morning, mercy and able. I just want to look at those
two words, mercy. Have mercy on us. Have mercy on us. They didn't say we'd like to
see, although they would have. They
did want to see, didn't they? Oh my, but the thing is, mercy,
mercy. We're not only blind, but we
deserve to be blind. That's what mercy is. Is God
not giving you what you deserve? And all of these encounters of
our Lord that are recorded here show how that He is the Savior
of sinners. He is the Savior of the soul. He came for this reason. This is why He came. It shows
how that it is by faith in Him that sinners are saved. He is
saying By all of these events, all of these circumstances, all
of these encounters, what you need is me. That's it. That's it. You just need me. Remember when the multitudes
were hungry and they said, where are we going to send them? There's
nowhere near here they can get any food. He said, they don't
need to go anywhere. I love that, don't you? They don't need to
go anywhere. They're already there. They're exactly where they need
to be with the Son of God. He is the fulfillment of our
every need. Both earthly and eternally. Christ himself. He washes the leper clean, the
spiritual leper. with his precious blood. He has
power on earth to forgive sins. He didn't say to that man, rise
up and walk, until later. He said, your sins are forgiven
you. Like the ruler's daughter, you
hath he quickened, which were dead. Dead in trespasses and sins.
And here's that word that in all of the pictures of salvation
that we saw, none of those nitty ones use this word. So there's
more yet to learn here in our text. Each one of those is teaching
us, isn't it? It's Christ, faith in Him, believing
on Him, trusting Him, having Him. But there's a word in our
text that's not used in any of those other ones. Every one of
these miracles is necessary for us to see, to understand something of the miracle of saving grace. In this text here, there's this
word mercy, mercy. Not only are we in all of these
cases, we're in the storm and we're going down. We've got no
control. We're tossed about and hopeless. We're blind as a bat. We can't
see God. We can't see the kingdom of God.
We can't enter into the kingdom of God. But this word here tells us that
in all of this, we're there. We are what we are and are where
we are because we deserve it. We deserve it. Matthew 5 7 blessed are the merciful
for they shall obtain mercy In the day of judgment we obtain
mercy in this life we obtain mercy We've had mercy before
we even knew what mercy was from God He's not preaching there that
people who themselves are merciful receive mercy as a reward for
their mercy Saul of Tarsus was a merciless
killer of God's people when the Lord had mercy on him. And you know what he said? I
obtained mercy. I obtained mercy. In verse 13 of our context, but
go ye and learn what that meaneth. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. For I'm not come to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance. I will have mercy, and he'll
have mercy on whom he will. Our Lord taught this in response
to the Pharisees' charge concerning our Lord eating with publicans
and sinners. They charge, you know, implying
like Simon did in his house, if he knew who this was, He wouldn't
let her touch him. And they're implying here, if
he was who he said he was, he wouldn't eat with these people. And our Lord said, you need to
learn what mercy is. Go learn what that meaneth. I will have mercy. He didn't come to reward people
who were religiously self-righteous, but to have mercy on people that
needed it. And our Lord showed in everything
that He did, His willingness to have mercy on sinners. He
healed them all, didn't He? That's a picture. Whosoever will,
let him come and take the water of life freely. He loves having mercy on sinners
to cleanse and to raise and to heal and to bless and to call.
He does that freely. When he opened his mouth, he
preached free sovereign mercy. And these two blind men came
to him and said, give us some of that. We need mercy. God has revealed himself to all
of us now that he's plenteous in mercy. He's plenteous in mercy. For thou, Lord, art good and
ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call
upon thee. Psalm 86 5. Are you interested
this morning in mercy? Or do you just need a helping
hand from the Lord? Are you desperate? and in a desperate
case because you deserve it, or you just need the Lord to
meet you halfway. If you need mercy, well, you've got to come where
mercy is. They came to him and said, Jesus,
thou son of David. When they called him the son
of David, they were acknowledging that he was the promised Messiah
of God. David had several sons. This
is the son of David. And that was a common way for
Jews to refer to the promised one, the one of whom Isaiah said
in Isaiah 7, 14, therefore the Lord himself shall give you a
sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive
and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel, God with us. They knew who he was and they
came to him for mercy. They knew that this was the one
who said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And they came to find out if
they could get in on that. We don't come presuming, Lord,
if you will. We don't come saying, Lord, I'm
ready for some mercy now. If you want to though, you can
give me some. Everything that we've seen in
the book of God has taught us that We desperately need his
mercy, that he's able to give it. He has power to forgive your
sins, and he's willing to have mercy, and he commands you to
ask for it. Remember his sermon in Matthew
7, 7, ask and it shall be given you, seek and you shall find,
knock and it shall be opened unto you, for everyone that asketh
receiveth. and to him that knocketh it shall
be opened. Or what man is there of you whom
if his son asks bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks
a fish, will he give him a surfing? If you then being evil know how
to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall
your father which is in heaven give good things to them that
ask him? Thou son of David, have mercy
on us. You remember how that having
preached this, he was met by a leper who came and asked? That
was, we're going back even further now. You just keep going back.
It's the same message everywhere. The same remedy to every problem
a sinner has. And when Christ's gospel is preached
and his people are met in his name, he says, there I am. Are there any who need mercy?
Mercy assumes guilt now. You understand that? If you need
mercy, it's because you're guilty. Mercy is not being given what
you deserve. It's not being left in your miserable
case. In gospel terms, what we're guilty
of is sin, of course, against God. Our miserable case is that
we're vile in the sight of God, and what we deserve is God's
eternal wrath. And anybody that knows that will
ask for mercy. That's why salvation is pictured
as opening the eyes of the blind. If you ask for mercy from the
son of David, then you can already see. You see, these men knew
something already, didn't they? They were blind physically, but
they already saw that Jesus was the son of God, that he was the
son of David, the son of David, which means he's the son of God.
and that they needed mercy. They knew that what they needed
was mercy, and they knew that he could give it. Our Lord asked them a question.
This is our other word this morning. Do you believe that I am able
to do this? And keep in mind now, that in
front of everybody, including this man, the established respectable
religious leaders of that day had already shown openly that
they rejected this Jesus of Nazareth. They didn't believe anything.
They willfully were in their unbelief of Christ. The whole
city had already come out and told him they didn't want him
in their town when he healed the madman, he was charged with
blasphemy by the religious authorities when he forgave that man's sins
in the beginning of chapter nine. And look at what they said about
him just after our text in verse 34. But the Pharisees said, he
casteth out devils through the prince of devils. So you see what our Lord is asking
and why? And this is the question this
morning, isn't it? Paul said in Acts 24, 14, but
this I confess unto thee that after the way which they call
heresy, they say he's a blasphemer. They say he's possessed of a
devil. But so worship I the God of my
fathers, believing all the things that are written in the law and
the prophets. When I preach the Lord Jesus
Christ, as he's revealed in the law and in the prophets, in the
word of God, sovereign, almighty, his blood effectual to save,
they say of me just what they said of my Lord. Just as he said they would. He
said, they've hated me before they hated you. This man blasphemeth. And then he asked them this question,
do you believe? Do you believe? Now think about
this. If he's able to show mercy, then
he's sovereign. What manner of man is this that
the winds and the seas obey his will? If he's not the Lord with all
authority, In John 17 too, he said, you've given me power over
all flesh that I should give eternal life to as many as thou
hast given me. If he doesn't have that sovereign
authority, then he might make mercy available, but he can't
just give it to you. He can't just bestow it. Do you
believe he's able? Is he sovereign? Can he just
give mercy if he wants to? That he's able to show mercy
means that his precious blood redeems sinners. The only way mercy can be shown
to a sinner is if satisfaction is made for their sins. Without
the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins. Now he's
either able to show mercy on sinners or he's not. That's the
issue, isn't it? And if he is, then he must actually
and effectually make satisfaction for their sin. God's not just
gonna wink at your sin. It's got to be put away. Do you believe that he's able?
Well, that issue is raised often in scripture. We see all these
other, that's another word though, we saw in all of those cases
where he saved the woman with the issue of blood. She said,
if I could just touch the hem of his garment, and he turned
around and said, who touched me? But in all of those, this
word, but each one teaches us, and all together, they teach
us how God saves sinners. In this word, able, I wanted
to look at those two words, mercy. We're the way we are because
we deserve it. We're in this case of our own
so-called free will. And Abel, what a question. You
remember what King Darius asked Daniel when he was in the lion's
den? Is your God able to save you
from the lion? What a question. Turn over there
with me to Daniel chapter 6 just for a minute. Daniel 6.20. Daniel 620, and when he came
to the den, you remember he had a rough night because he was
worried about Daniel. Oh, King Darius. He loved Daniel. And when he came to the den,
he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel. And the king spake
and said to Daniel, oh, Daniel, servant of the living God, oh,
That's what I would like people to call me. Just start calling
me that from now on. Oh, Chris. Servant, no, you don't
have to say it. Oh boy, isn't that wonderful
though? Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ. What a privilege. Is thy God. Whom thou servest continually,
Abel. That word deliver is save. Is
he able to save you from the lions? Then said Daniel unto the king,
O king, live forever. Now God hath sent his angel,
and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not heard me. For as much as before him, innocency was found in me. O King, have I done no hurt. Also before
thee, O King, have I done no hurt. And this is the spiritual
truth of that God has sent his angel. The angel of the covenant. Listen to Malachi 3.1. Behold,
I will send my angel. The word is messenger in the
King James, but it's angel. It's translated angel more often
than any other way. I will send my angel and he shall
prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek shall
suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant,
the angel of the covenant. The Lord Jesus Christ, whom ye
delight in, behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. Oh, is your God able? Oh, Daniel. Is your God that you serve able to save you from the law? Why was he in the lion's den? that unalterable law of the Medes
and Persians. It was as the law of the Medes
and Persians. It was irrevocable. No exceptions. God's law. There's no compromise,
is there? There's no kind of, you know,
there's no good outweighing your bad. There's gonna have to be
innocency found in you. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that angel of the
covenant, my savior, he's able to honor his own unalterable
law, uncompromising law, and yet delivered me from the destruction
required by that very law. The law requires that the lions
devour me But when the lions, when I went
into the lion's den, they weren't hungry. They weren't hungry. He shut
their mouths. He sent his angel, the messenger
of the everlasting covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ, and because
of him and what he did when he came, innocency is found in me. It's that simple. And in all
of those for whom he shed his precious blood. And he's able,
unto him who is able, Paul said, to present you faultless before
the presence of his glory. Is he able to show mercy? You
see what he's asking, am I able? They said mercy, what'd they
ask for? Mercy, you believe I'm able to bestow mercy? That's
what he's asking. Come you sinners, poor and wretched,
weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus ready stands to save you,
full of pity, joined with power. You know what the next line is?
He is able. He is able. He is willing. Doubt no more. Amen. Let's pray.