Luke 18.35 Luke 18.35 starts with this phrase,
and it came to pass. That's not the same thing as
saying it just so happened. This is not once upon a time.
This is, it teaches preordination. This tells us that this event
was purposed before and then the time came and it happened. It's not a coincidence that in
the way this is recorded, if you look at the previous verse,
verse 34, it says that the Lord was talking about how that he
must go to Jerusalem and be betrayed and suffer and die and rise again.
And his disciples had no idea what he was talking about. They
didn't understand anything. And then the next thing we have
is Him opening the eyes of the blind. That's us. And this is the way it is with
everything that came to pass. But especially we need to see
this with regard to the Lord saving His elect. By His Son,
by what His Son was doing and what He was going to do. What
He has done now. Acts 13.48, when the Gentiles
heard the gospel, they were glad and glorified the word of the
Lord, and as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed. Of
course they did. They were ordained to eternal
life. And the way a sinner has eternal
life is by grace through faith in God's Son. Of course they
believed. Religion talking about, you know,
the Lord's done all he can do. No, the Lord's done all. And
that's what we see here. He just brings it to pass. Included
in the definition of the original word there, it came to pass,
is the word finished. And we know that the Lord finished
salvation on Calvary. He said it's finished when he
shed his precious blood for his people. But the Lord's work on
this earth is not finished in a sense until he saves everybody
that he shed that blood for on Calvary. And one of them is this
old blind beggar. He was finishing what he came
to do by saving one of his sheep. It says in John 4, 4, he must
needs go through Samaria. And we find out why, because
when he goes through Samaria, he runs into a woman at a well.
And he ended up staying there for two days and many believed
on him, it says. It doesn't just say there was
a blind man there in our text either. It says a certain blind
man. Everything about God saving his people is certain. The Lord
didn't save blind people. Not physically anyway. He saved
certain blind people. He saved this blind man and it
was no random event. Remember the story of the pool
of Bethesda in John 5.2, it says, now at Jerusalem by the sheep
market, a pool, there was a pool, which was called in the Hebrew
tongue Bethesda, having five porches. And in these lay a great
multitude of impotent folk and of blind and hard of hearing.
Halt and withered, waiting for the moving of the water, for
an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled
the water. Whosoever then first, after the
troubling of the water, stepped in was made whole of whatsoever
disease he had. And a certain man was there.
Wait a minute, there was a whole bunch of people, there was a
multitude there, and they all were sick and diseased and deformed
in different ways. But there was a certain man there.
And the Lord walked right up to him and said, will you be
made whole? He wasn't talking to anybody else that day. And
the man didn't even say yes and the Lord made him whole anyway.
That's my testimony. He came right where I was. And this certain man, it came
to pass that he sat by the highway side and he was begging. He was
a beggar. Always remember that these stories,
all of these miracles of our Lord are spiritual pictures of
salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ raised
the dead because we by nature are dead in trespasses and sins.
Ephesians 2. He made the blind to see because
except a man be born again he can't see the kingdom of God.
John 3. He saved a beggar here because
we are all spiritually bankrupt before God. We owe an infinite
debt and we have nothing to pay. In Luke 7, our Lord told a story
to a man named Simon there about two debtors whose debts came
due. And one owed a little bit and the other a lot. And he said
in Luke 7, 42, when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave
them both. And he asked Simon, tell me therefore,
which one is going to love him the most? The one who owed a
little bit or the one who owed a lot. And I'm not telling the
whole story today, but the Lord in applying that parable turned
to the woman that was there. You remember her? All we know
about her is that, I don't know what her name was. I know this,
she was a great sinner. And one of the things he said
was this, her sins, which are many, are forgiven. And she loves me a lot. And I'll tell you that he's teaching
there and in our text that our spiritual condition before God
is all the things in these other miracles. It's death and blindness
and paralysis and incurable leprosy, but it's also a debt that we
owe. And we're not only unable to
pay, but there in the text where we just read, we don't have anything
to pay. There's a difference between
not quite getting there and not even being able to start. We
have nothing, nothing to pay. And if by God's grace we are
forgiven, it's because Christ paid our sin debt in full on
Calvary when he shed his precious blood. And because of him and
what he did, we are frankly forgiven. And those who are forgiven at
all are forgiven much. The story there is not, you know,
who's gonna, does John love him more than Simon? If you love
the Lord a little bit, you're going to hell. There's no such
thing as loving him a little bit. There's no such thing as
him forgiving us a little bit. And so how can there be a little
bit of love? The truth is the matter is all of us that know
the Lord and that will know the Lord are that one who owed much. And at first this man in our
text was begging men in our story. He was sat by the highway side
begging. What's that saying? He was asking people for money.
He couldn't work, he couldn't support himself. If he had any
family he couldn't support them because he was blind. He was
limited, greatly limited in what he was able to do. And as he
sat by the highway side begging there, who was he begging then?
Anybody that came by, anybody that came within shouting distance
of him, as you reckon. But in the spiritual picture
now, what can men do? Religion might address the symptoms
of his beggary by tossing him a coin every once in a while,
with which he could pay his own way for a while, but he's always
going to owe more, he's always going to need more, isn't he?
But salvation is not had by a sinner paying his own way. And so the Son of God comes by.
And Bartimaeus cries, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy
on me. Who's he begging now? He's still
begging. He's not talking to men now.
He's not talking to sinners. He's talking to the Savior. He's
still begging, but now he's crying out to the one who can do more
than toss him a coin. He's crying now to the one who
is able to eliminate the cause of him being a beggar in the
first place. That's salvation. Religion deals with the symptoms
of sin. They clean the outside of the cup, but inwardly, there's
our problem. It's our heart. It's our nature.
It's what we are, not what we do. And only Christ can do something
about that. the Son of God. The Lord Jesus
Christ does not teach a sinner how to do better. If our sins, our debts, and even
what we imagine are good deeds, are paying back a little bit
of that debt, how long is it going to take you to pay for
mocking and torturing and murdering God's Son? How many coins do
you need to to get by on that. Our debt to God's justice is
infinite. It's unpayable. And the truth
is, even what you think is a payment on that debt is really just you
incurring more debt. Because even our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags in the sight of the Holy God, whose Son we
crucified, Isaiah 64, 6. No, what the Lord has to do is
eliminate our debt and the cause of our debt, sin. And he had to pay it in full,
and by his grace we know something of the cost. We know this, we
know we weren't redeemed with corruptible things such as silver
and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot. And he put away our sin by the
sacrifice of himself. A sinner's only hope is Christ
and His precious blood. We must be justified freely.
In the parable we read a while ago, He frankly forgave them
both. We have to be justified freely through the redemption
which is in Christ Jesus. We can't pay a little bit on
it and the Lord picks up the slack. We have nothing. We are nothing. We can do nothing. And sinners are justified freely
Not just on a whim, but through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. We're forgiven the debt because
He paid it in our stead. To redeem us, He had to bear
our iniquities and suffer the wrath of God in our place. And
so if He ever passes by you in the preaching of the gospel,
here's what you do. In your heart, before God, here's
what you do. Verse 36, and hearing the multitude
pass by, he asked what it meant. What does it mean? What's all
this commotion? What are they doing? Think about this. He heard
the multitude, but why was there a multitude? What he was hearing was the commotion
that surrounded the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what this is here this
morning. Why is there a group of people here? We're not a multitude,
Chris. You have it all over this world. There's a multitude. And
I tell you what, in glory there's a multitude which no man can
number. And you know what they're doing? You know what it's about? It's
about Him. And that's what this multitude
was. Everywhere the Lord goes, there's a group of people making
some noise because of Him. You see the picture here? It's
pretty plain, isn't it? Because of who he is and what he has
done, there's a multitude making some noise. And this man said,
what's this about? What's this all about? Why are
these people all gathered together? And what are they talking about?
This is a picture of the church, which is simply a gathering of
people because of him, wanting to be with him, talking about
him, following him. That's what this multitude was,
and that's what we are. And he said, what's going on?
Every once in a while somebody will wander in here and say,
what's going on in here? And I pray they find out one way or another. So some come
here not really knowing what it's about. And before you know
it, they're one of the multitude, such as it is here. That's what
happened to Bartimaeus. The church here is just a part
of a multitude which no man can number, who Christ has redeemed
with his precious blood. Millions dead, now live again. I love singing that. In this verse, Bartimaeus is
saying, what's this multitude up to? And in verse 43, he joins
the multitude. He's following Christ. And now
he's part of it. That's what happened to me. What is this multitude all about?
What are they talking about? Look at it. They told him, Jesus
of Nazareth is passing by. That's why we're here. The first lesson in this verse
is that all of it was about one thing. And it was somebody. The second lesson is that this
somebody is passing by. there's an urgency to the gospel
that is inherent to the gospel itself the message is that he's passing
by the one who cannot only help with the symptoms of your problem
but he's the solution he's the remedy to your problem and you
really just have one problem you can talk about different
aspects of it is CNR a problem? yeah Christ Jesus has made an
end of sins, made reconciliation for iniquities, and brought in
everlasting righteousness. Are you interested in that? That's
Daniel 9, 24. Are you interested in that? He's passing by. He's
passing by. Is he going to be here tomorrow?
I don't know. I don't know. Is the law of God
your problem? Yes, Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believes on him Romans 10
for he's passing by Is your problem your inability to do anything
about your problem Yes Don't keep trying to do something for
God find out if he'll do something for you. That's what Bartimaeus
is doing here Have mercy on me What's Bartimaeus gonna do for
him? I don't know. I Can you think of anything? What's he going to do for Bartimaeus?
I know what Bartimaeus wanted him to do. Have mercy. Have mercy. He's passing by. Hence the urgency
of Bartimaeus. Look at verse 38. And he cried,
saying, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And they which
went before rebuked him that he should hold his peace, but
he cried so much the more. Why? He's passing by. He may come and go and I not
have what I need. You think that's possible this
morning? You think he might come and go and leave you where you
sit? Why wouldn't he? I don't know what he's gonna
do, but I know this, if I was you, I'd cry out. I'd cry out
to him. Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy on me. Religious imposters are begging
sinners to do something for God, and real sinners are begging
God to do something for them. And it's urgent. I got to have
him. I got to have him right now. And you can't shut him up, whoever
they are. You can't shut him up, can you? You don't have to
beg them to do something for God. Whosoever, whoever these ones
are that went before, not only were they unable and unwilling
to do what needed to be done, they didn't even want to be bothered
with it. They just didn't even want the peace to be disturbed.
But Bartimaeus is done dealing with men. He's been begging men
up until now, but not anymore. He's not talking to them, is
he? He's not talking to them anymore. At first, you know,
the story's about what can man do for me today? But when the
Lord Jesus Christ passes by and you know Him, you know who He
is, you're not dealing with men anymore.
He's doing business with the Son of God now. Now some sinners
in this thing of salvation, in this vital matter which is pressing
upon you, some will discourage you. like these ones did here. And some will do the opposite.
Some perhaps are praying for you and wanting very much to
maybe be used as a witness for the Lord, to see that the Lord,
to see the Lord do something for you. And they'll do anything
to get you to Christ, and that's good, but sooner or later now,
either way, you're gonna have to do business with Him. It's
gonna be Him and you, sooner or later. You've got to do business
with God's Son, yourself. Jesus, how does the phrase end? Me. Jesus, thou Son of David,
have mercy on This is the problem, you see.
And I know people don't like you to say, to warn against believing
doctrine and not believing Christ. Some don't see a difference in
that. But let me tell you something. The difference is life and death. What's important for me is not
to know that God has mercy on sinners and how he does it. What's
important for me is that he has mercy on me. And it's important
how he does it. He just does it one way. That's
by Christ and his precious blood. And he does it sovereignly. He
says, I have mercy on whom I will have mercy. If he has mercy on
you, you're going to know that. But what you need is not to understand
that doctrine. You need him who is the doctrine. And this son of David, this was
the common phrase, one of the common ways that the Jews identified
the Messiah. There's no question about what
he's saying here. Jesus thou son of David. If you bring up
the fact that he's the son of David, the reason you're doing
that is you're saying you're the Messiah. You're God's son. Salvation and its accomplishment
is between the father and the son. You remember when Abraham left
his servant there and him and the boy went up Mount Moriah.
This business is between father and son. What happened on Calvary,
I didn't have anything to do with that. But if Christ accomplished
salvation on Calvary, he either has or will accomplish salvation
in you. And that's going to be between
him and you. In time he does that and it's something I can
tell you about if God's pleased to use me for that. But I can't do anything about
it now. It's going to be him and you. Now who is going to
do this? Jesus, thou son of David. Do you remember when the Pharisees,
they gathered together and Jesus asked them saying, what think
ye of Christ? Whose son is he? And they said, he's the son of
David. The Jews, that was the phrase they used. He's the Messiah,
the Christ, the Messiah, the same thing. He's the son of David.
That was their pat answer, and it was correct. But our Lord
had another question for them. How then does David in spirit
call him Lord? Saying, the Lord said unto my
Lord, sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy
footstool. If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?
And they couldn't answer that. They knew a lot of doctrine,
but they didn't know the son. And no man was able to answer
him a word, neither dared any man from that day forth ask him
any more questions. Who's going to give me what I
need? Who's going to do for me what
I need done? I'm a beggar, I can't do it.
And men can't do it. With men it's impossible. Jesus
the Lord of Glory. What is it that we need? Who's
going to do it? Him. Christ. God's Son. What do we need Him
to do? Have mercy on us. We don't need
a chance. We don't need an opportunity.
We need mercy. Only one can give it. And that's
the one we've offended. And He is the Lord that said, I will
have mercy. on whom I'll have mercy. That
was the first word, Lord. That I might receive my sight.
When he said, what do you want me to do for you? Lord. So who's going to accomplish
it? Him. What do we need? Mercy. Who needs it? Me. Not mankind. Not sinners. I do. It's important now. I am the sinner. I am the sinner. The publican in Luke 18, 13 cried,
God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And that's what Bartimaeus is
saying here. Verse 40, and Jesus stood and commanded him to be
brought unto him. He's making commands. Of course
he is. He's the Lord. Remember that
scripture which says, he hath commanded the blessing. He hadn't
offered it. He's spoken and it's done. That's
what happened He commanded him to be brought
unto him and when he was come near he asked him and what a
picture they said there's so much in this We could preach
for a year on this one passage of scripture and not even touch
it What a picture he can't even come on his own bring him Where's
he gonna go? He might say, well, I'm gonna
come to Christ. Christ may be over there and Bartimaeus might
end up over there. That's what's gonna happen if
you try to come to him in your flesh. You're gonna miss him. Bring him over here. No man can come unto me except
the Father which hath sent me. Draw him. That word draw means
take you from where you are and bring you to someplace you're
not. That's what God did for me. And he said, what wilt thou that
I should do unto thee? And he said, Lord, that I may
receive my sight. In Mark's account, listen to
what Mark recorded in Mark 10, 49. And Jesus stood still and
commanded him to be called. And they called the blind man,
saying unto him, be of good comfort. Rise, he calleth for you. Two things, be comforted. If he's calling for you, something
good fixing to happen for you. And the second thing, get up. Get up. How does a man say? By coming to Christ. How does
he come? It doesn't say no man can come
unto me. It says no man can come unto
me except. Oh, be of good comfort. Rise,
he calleth thee. Listen to Joshua 10, 12. You've
heard this comparison, I bet, made before, but I want to look
at a couple of things that I've never seen before. Joshua 10,
12, then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord
delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel. And he
said in the sight of Israel, son, stand thou still upon Gibeon,
and thou moon in the valley of Agilon. And the sun stood still. And the moon stayed until the
people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Here's Israel
in battle. And they're fighting and it's
getting dark. And Joshua says, son, stand still. But he spoke
to the Lord, you notice, before he said that. We don't have any power at all.
We got to get it from him. And the sun stood still in the
midst of heaven so that they could avenge themselves upon
their enemies. Is this not written in the book of Jasher? So the
sun stood still in the midst of heaven and hasted not to go
down about a whole day. The sun stopped in the sky for
24 hours, give or take. And there was no day like that
before it or after it that the Lord hearkened unto the voice
of a man. For the Lord fought for Israel.
That's why he did it. To save his people. To assure victory for his elect,
God made the Son stand still that day in Joshua chapter 10.
And in our text this morning, the Son, S-O-N, stood still for
the same reason. To save his people. He saves
them one at a time, doesn't he? The salvation of his elect. Why
did Joshua need for the Son to stand still? So he could see. That's how they won. They could
see. Why did the sun stand still in
Luke 18? So Bartimaeus could see. In Joshua 10 it was a great miracle
that God would physically interrupt the course of nature and hold
the sun in place for a whole day. It expresses there in Joshua
10 what a marvel it is that God would hearken unto the voice
of a man. Wow, that never happened before or after that. God hearkened
to the voice of a man. In Luke 18, what a miracle of
God's love and grace that God the Son would hearken unto the
voice of a sinner that cried for him. Stop and command him to be brought
near. What a miracle of His grace. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Does that amaze you? Could you be more astonished
if the sun stood still in the sky for a day? Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. What wilt thou that I shall do
unto thee? Lord, that I might receive my
sight. This spiritual picture is one
that's repeated in scripture several times. What is the one
thing that you want? Think about this in spiritual
terms. What is the one thing that you desire. Here's somebody
that can do anything. Job said, I've been on the ash
heap, and I've learned two things. That you can do anything, and
that when you do, nobody can stop you. There's nothing you
can't do, and there's nobody that can stop you from doing
it. What are you going to say if
that one asks you, what do you want me to do for you? Listen
to what David said in Psalm 27, for one thing have I desired
of the Lord, and that will I seek after. That's what I'm going
to ask for. That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all
the days of my life. Why do you want to do that, David?
That I may see, that I may behold the beauty of the Lord and inquire
in his temple. The first thing that Bartimaeus
ever saw was the face of God's Son. This is the first thing we ever
see spiritually. God who commanded the light,
God who said, let there be light, spoke to my black heart and said,
let there be light. And you know what I saw? I saw
His glory. Where'd you see it, Chris? In
the face of His Son. 2nd Corinthians 4 6 and Jesus
said unto him receive thy sight Thy faith hath saved thee And
Theologians heads exploded all over the world Thy faith saved
you Your faith saved you. Oh But it didn't mean that Can
faith save a man depends on where he got it from? Oh For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that's not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. If God gives you faith in his
Son, to see Christ, to see his glory in the face of his son.
What is his glory? Christ crucified. Christ himself
is the brightness of God's glory, the express image of his person.
Just to see him is to see the glory of God. All of the attributes
of God shining forth in Christ and what he did on Calvary. If
God gives you faith to see him as your righteousness, as salvation
accomplished, as your sin offering, as the Redeemer, Mediator, Savior. That faith will save you because
salvation is of the Lord. I don't believe the word hath is
insignificant here. Thy faith hath saved thee. Think
about this, Bartimaeus, before he saw physically, he could already
see spiritually. He already knew, this man can
make me whole. Mercy is his to give. He saw that before he saw anything
with these eyes. And so it is with salvation.
If you come to Christ this morning for salvation, he's already saved
you. You wouldn't have come if he
hadn't. Verse 43, and immediately he
received his sight and followed him. Now he is the multitude. What's that multitude doing?
You fixing to find out, Bartimaeus? Have you found out? There's a reason why there's
a whole bunch of people gathered together. It's because God's
son is passing by, that's why. and glorified God. And all the
people when they saw it gave praise unto God. Whenever God
saves somebody, He gets all the glory. That's how you know that
God saved somebody. If somebody says, I got saved!
And then they start talking about what they're going to do for
the Lord, you know. I heard somebody talking the other day how important,
it's so important for me to have God in my life. What? God in your life? You don't know
who God is. Is that how you would describe
how God saved you? I have God in my life now. Christ
is life. That's not just nitpicking. You
don't say I'm so happy to have God in my life now if God saved
you from hell by his free mercy and his precious blood. That's
not how you describe that. He gets all the glory, doesn't
he? Your life, what are you talking
about? When religion goes through their
rituals and somebody gets saved, then sinners are going to glory
in themselves. We've all witnessed it. That's
not what happened here. Everybody's glorifying God in
the person of his son. Also listen to this Mark 10 52
and Jesus said unto him Go your way. This is Mark's account again
of the same story. Jesus said unto him go your way
Thy faith hath made thee whole and immediately he received his
sight and followed Jesus In the way in the way What's your way? There ain't but one way Well,
you know, you have your truth and you have your truth. There's
one truth. There's one way. There's one
life and it's a person. It's Christ the Lord. God is
still teaching us that, isn't he? It's so easy to be removed
from the simplicity, the all-inclusiveness that is in Christ Jesus. And
look now, the Lord didn't hand him a copy of the law and say,
now go keep this. He said, go your way. That's
what we're doing in this life. We're going our way. Our way just happens to be a
little different now, though, than it used to be. Oh, we were
all children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich
in mercy, with his great love wherewith he loved us. quickened
us in Christ Jesus. Do what you want to do. That's
what he said. Go do what you do. What did Bartimaeus want
to do? He wanted to be with Christ,
didn't he? Wherever I go, I'm like, by God's
grace, I want to be like Moses, don't you, Lord? If you're not
going with me, I don't want to go. I don't want to go. That's how it is. We're free
from the law. What does freedom mean? Him. There's no such thing as free
from him. Free from the law, yes. What does freedom mean? That
we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. Freedom is him, seeing him, knowing
him, following him. And by God's grace, that's my
way. My way is the way because God has done something for me.
And I pray that he would save us all by his grace. Let's pray.