Alright, brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to Mark chapter 8. Let's go to the Lord
before we begin. Our gracious Heavenly Father,
we thank You for bringing us here again Trust, Lord, that
it's your sovereign hand that assembles your people. Thankful
Christ fitly frames us together as the head of his church. We
thank you, Lord, for assembling us here today. We pray, Father,
that the word spoken will be glorifying to your dear son,
our Redeemer. We pray, Lord, your blessing
to our hearts. In Christ's name we pray, Amen. Mark 8, verse 22. Mark 8, verse
22. And the Lord cometh to Bethsaida,
and they bring a blind man unto Him, and besought Him to touch
him. And he took the blind man by
the hand and led him out of the town. And when he had spit on
his eyes and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought. And he looked up and said, I
see men as trees walking. After that, he put his hands
again upon his eyes and made him look up. And he was restored. and saw every man clearly. And he sent him away to his house,
saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town. The Lord Jesus came to Bethsaida. He comes there to Bethsaida.
When He walked this earth, there were certain places the Lord
went to. And He went to those places on
purpose. He went to those places on purpose. He did everything according to
purpose, his purpose, the purpose of God. He went there because
he had lost sheep in those places where he went. He came to seek
and to save that which is lost. He's the great shepherd of his
sheep and he went to those places on purpose. And he comes here
now to Bethsaida and if the Lord comes to to anybody that he's
saving and giving sight, he's gonna come near to you. We can't
come to him, he's gonna come to you. He's gonna come to his
child. Now, Bethsaida was one of the
towns upon which the Lord pronounced woe. But, the Lord called Philip,
Andrew, Peter, from there, from that town, that region, And you
know, just like with Seder had woe upon it, this whole world
has woe upon it. Cursed by the fall. And yet,
just like he had some elect in that town, the Lord has elect
in this world. Those he's loved from everlasting,
those he's gonna find, those he's gonna call out. But due
to our sin, it's Christ who comes to us. It's Christ that comes
to where we are Call us. Call his child. Now, first of
all, let's see here, what was this man's condition? This is
the condition of every sinner born into this world. This is
the condition of every body God saves. When he comes in grace,
this is the condition of everybody he saves, a spiritual condition. This man was blind. He was blind. This is the spiritual condition
of every man as we come into this world. We are spiritually
blind. We don't understand God, not
the true God. We have our opinions and our
thoughts, and it's just the vain imaginations. It's not according
to the Word of God. And we can't hear what God says,
nor do we even seek what God says in His Word. Paul said that
so plainly. Let me read this to you from
1 Corinthians in chapter 2. He said, he said, the natural man, 1 Corinthians
2.14, the natural man, that's how we come into this world,
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they're foolishness unto him. disgusting, scandalous,
offensive. Neither can he know them because
they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth
all things. He has discernment to know all
things, yet he himself is discerned of no man. For who hath known
the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have
the mind of Christ. That's how you're given spiritual
sight. Christ has made wisdom to you, gives you faith to behold
the Lord Jesus. That's our spiritual sight. Romans
3.11, Paul said, There's none that understandeth, there's none
that seeketh after God. This is our natural condition.
Sinners think they see, Sinners think they can see, especially
religious sinners. You remember with the Pharisees,
when our Lord, he said, for judgment I'm coming to this world that
they would see not might see, and they would see might be made
blind. Those that are true sinners,
made to know their need, made to see their blind, their undone,
their unrighteous, their ungodly, those made to truly see their
need, he said, I came to give them sight. And he said, but
those that see, those that can do it on their own, those that
just need a little help, he said, I came to make them blind. leave them in their blindness.
And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard those words
and they said to him, are we blind also? And this is what
the Lord said. He said, if you were blind, you
should have no sin. In other words, if you're really
blind, Christ will save you. If you're entirely ruined in
sin, Christ will save you. He said, I didn't come to call
the righteous. I've come to call sinners to repent. And he said,
but now you say we see, therefore your sin remaineth. That's the
word of the Lord. That's the word of the Lord.
Oh, if we could find a sinner that's blind. If we could find
a sinner that's really a sinner. Really a sinner. Really and truly
a sinner. Christ came to open the eyes
of those that are spiritually blind. God the Father declared
that about the Lord Jesus. In Isaiah 42, 6, the Lord, God
the Father, speaking of God the Son, speaking to him, and he
said, I've called thee in righteousness, and will hold thy hand, and will
keep thee, and I'll give thee for a covenant of the people,
for a light of the Gentiles, to open the blind eyes. and to bring the prisoners from
the prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison
house. That's why Christ came, to give his people sight, to
open the eyes of the blind. Through the preaching of the
gospel, Christ causes the blind to see out of obscurity and out
of darkness. That's what Isaiah 29.18 said.
He said, And this is what he said. He
said, those that are blind, that he's given sight, he said, those
are my witnesses, that it's all of me. He said, in Isaiah 43,
he said, bring forth the blind people that have eyes and the
deaf that have ears. Let all the nations be gathered
together and let the people be assembled. Who among them can
declare this and show us former things? Our Lord Jesus declared
the end from the beginning. He's God in human flesh. He declared the end from the
beginning, came into this world, took flesh, and he gives sight
to his blind people, hearing to his deaf people, and he said,
these are my witnesses. Whoever heard of anybody being
able to do what I've done? He said, let them bring forth
their witnesses that they may be justified or let them hear
and say it's true. You know, when men say that,
you know, by their seeking, by their study, by their decision
for Christ, when they contribute, attribute something to themselves
in being able to see Christ and know Christ, According to what
we just heard our Lord say in that scripture, they're saying
I'm not a witness of Christ. Because Christ said my people
are those that were so blind they couldn't see, so deaf they
couldn't hear, and I gave them sight and I gave them hearing.
That's His power, that's His glory to do that. And so that's
His witnesses. Are there some witnesses of Christ
here today? There's some of you sitting here
today. They can say, that's my story. I was blind. I was blind. And He gave me sight. To all of His grace. Alright,
secondly now, go back here to Mark 8. This man had some mighty
good friends. He had some mighty good friends.
It says there in verse 22, Christ came to Bethsaida and they bring
a blind man to him and besought him to touch him. Now if you
would show your family and your friends, brethren, if you would
show them how much you really love them, bring them to hear
the gospel. Ask them to come with you to
hear the gospel. Just don't require anything of them. Just say, would
you just go with me to hear the gospel preached? If the Lord gave them sight,
if he gave them hearing ears, if he gave them faith in Christ,
they'd find out you loved them more than anybody in this world
because you brought them to hear the one who is life. You brought them to hear the
gospel of the one who is life. This man's friends brought him
to Christ because they knew Christ was the only one that could give
him sight. They obviously believed Christ or they wouldn't have
brought their friend to him. They knew Christ had the healing touch. They asked the Lord to touch
him. Those are good friends. Those are good friends. They
asked the Lord to touch him. That's what we do for those we
love. We pray the great physician will touch him. That's what they
did. They came to the Lord and besought
the Lord. They beseeched the Lord that
he would touch them. That's what we do for those we
love when we pray for them. We're praying to the Lord and
beseeching the Lord that he would touch them. that he would touch
him. You remember when that leprous
man came to the Lord and asked the Lord to heal him? Now you
think about leprosy, and that day there was no cure for leprosy. If you had leprosy, it was a death sentence, and
it was contagious. It was contagious. And the Lord,
not only was willing to heal that man, the Lord reached out
and touched him. Nobody else would touch him.
It was in the law that a leper had to be separated out from
society. He had to be put out. And if
he came anywhere near anybody, he had to cry unclean, unclean. And the Lord Jesus reached out
and touched him. And with that touch, he healed
him. He healed him. That touch represents the sin
of God's people being transferred to Christ and the righteousness
of Christ being imputed to his people. That's what Christ did
for his people. That's how he makes his people
clean, righteous, holy before God. When family or friends have
come to hear the gospel and you bring them and they hear the
gospel, Even if it's your children and they come and they hear the
gospel. If they have a question, it's okay to answer the question
or whatever, but don't talk too much. Don't talk too much. Let them think on what they heard.
You know, some of that's our flesh. We want to reason men
into the kingdom and we'll try to talk to them and we'll just
muddle up what was preached or we'll get them debating and arguing. Let them hear what they heard
and let them be along with God and trust God to deal with them
and pray for the Lord to touch them. Pray for the Lord to touch
them. Salvation is the Lord teaching
a man in the heart one to one. That's what it is. So what did
the Lord Jesus do? Verse 23. And he took the blind
man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when he had
spit on his eyes and put his hands upon him, he asked him
if he saw ought. The Lord, they bring this blind
man to him and ask him, will he touch him? Will he give him
sight? And the Lord takes this blind
man by the hand. The Lord had to reach out and
take him by the hand. He's blind. He couldn't take
the Lord by the hand. The Lord reached out and took
you who believe Him. The Lord reached out and took
you by the hand. He took you by the hand. We didn't
have sight to take Christ by the hand any more than this man
did. This is the sovereign hand right here that created the heavens
and the earth. This is the sovereign hand that
Isaiah said holds the hollows in the palm of His hand, in the
hollow of His hand. This is that sovereign hand.
God come down in the flesh and took this man by the hand. And
what did he do with him when he took him by the hand? He let
him out. Our Lord Jesus took every one
of his elect by the hand. Long before we ever knew Him,
long before we ever experienced it, He took us by the hand when
God the Father chose His people and trusted them to Christ. And
Christ entered a covenant with the Father to redeem us and bring
us to the Father without spot, without blemish. He took us by
the hand then. He took us by the hand when the
Lord Jesus came to us and made us look at those pierced hands
that were pierced, those palms that were pierced on the cross
and made you see Him by faith dying under the justice of God
in the room instead of His people and made you to hear Him say
that He did it for you. That's when we heard the gospel.
When he made you know his, he laid down his life for the sheep
and he made you to know that he did this in distinguishing
grace for his people. That he came and he actually
went under the justice of God for his people. That actual,
the justice of God was poured out on him instead of on his
people. And he made you to know, when
you beheld Christ on the cross, that he was there bearing that
justice of God, to satisfy God's justice, to declare God's justice,
and he was doing it in your room instead. He makes you know that. And he declares to you, I've
graven thee upon the palms of my hands. Thy walls are continually
before me. I'm protecting you. I'm graven
you on the palms of my hands. And when he makes that word affect
you, he takes you by the hand. He takes you by the hand. And
when he takes his redeemed by the hand, no man can take you
out of His hand. He took His people by the hand
from eternity. And when He comes and irresistibly
calls you by His grace, no man can take you out of His hand.
Listen to what He said in John 10, 28. I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of My hand. That's what he said of his people.
Justice is satisfying. He put away the sin of his people.
They cannot perish. It wouldn't be just for God to
let his child perish when he's already satisfied justice. No
man will pluck them out of his hand. Now what did the Lord do
when he took him by the hand? Verse 23 says, He led him out
of the town. He led him out of the town. When
the Lord Jesus comes to deal with us in grace and to teach
us, the Lord Jesus Christ, he's going to lead us out. He's going
to lead us out. He's going to lead us out. This is how we're sanctified.
This is what sanctification is. We were set apart by God the
Father in divine election. We were set apart by Christ on
the cross when He laid down His life and sanctified us by His
one offering. We're set apart when He comes
in spirit through the gospel, takes us by the hand, and leads
us out. What's He lead us out from? He
leads us out from all our vain thoughts and our vain ideas that
we were imagining. He leads us out of vain religion
that's putting the work in your hands and putting the work in
sinners' hands and telling them there's something you need to
do to make yourself be saved. What does this mean? What did
Jonah learn? What does this mean? Now, let's
put our thinking caps on here this morning. What does this
mean? Salvation is of the Lord. That means just what it said. Salvation, A to Z, beginning
to end, is of the Lord. He said, I will not share my
glory with another. That means every part of salvation
has to be his, because if any part of it was of us, we would
glory, we would boast. That's what Paul said in Ephesians
2. He said, by grace, that's free, unmerited, undeserved,
demerited. Brother Greg and I were talking
yesterday about how many ways we describe grace, and it's all
redundant. Grace. By grace are you saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves, not of works, lest
any man should boast. That's why salvation, and every
part of salvation must be by the Lord, because we would boast.
And God said He saves through the Christ in Him crucified,
through the preaching of this message, that no flesh of glory
in His presence. 1 Corinthians 1.30, But of God
are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that he that
glorieth let him glory in the Lord. The praise and the glory
for salvation goes to God. And the only way that you and
I will not boast in it is if God makes us to see that all
we contributed to salvation was being blind. Sin. We couldn't see. We couldn't
do one thing. Could that blind man give himself
sight? Could that blind man do anything to give himself sight?
This man knows he's blind. He knows he has a need. He wants
to have sight, and they've brought him there. When the Lord makes
you see that you're blind, and makes you see that you need him
to give you sight, you want him to give you sight. You're not
trying to argue against him then. When you see you're a sinner
and you need to be saved by another, But the Lord has to lead you
out. He has to lead you out from the vain preaching and from the
world's opinions and from being concerned about the world's applause
and worried about being, you know, your friends not rejecting
you. He has to lead you out from all
of that and get you along, just you and him. He said, I will
bring the blind by way that they knew not. I'll leave them in
paths that they have not known. I will make darkness light before
them and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them
and not forsake them. That's God's promise. Doesn't
that sound good to you? You that know him now, you that
see him and believe him and can hear him now, doesn't it seem
foolish to you that you once hated that message? Doesn't that
seem ridiculous that you hated the message that declares that
I will make darkness light before them and crooked things straight?
These things will I do to them and not forsake them? And you
hated it because you didn't get something to glory in. Why do
you love it now? He gave you eyes to see. He gave
you eyes to see. Salvation is between Christ and
His child. He's going to bring us out into
the wilderness, get us alone with Him, just like He did Gomer,
discover to us our lewdness, and He's going to teach us the
truth, teach us the gospel. Well, then what did the Savior
do? Now look at this next thing, and this is where I got my title. He spit on his eyes. You see
that? He spit on his eyes. Verse 23,
took the blind man by the hand, led him out of the town, and
when he had spit on his eyes, he spit on his eyes. This spitting on his eyes is
a picture of what John heard the Lord speak of as the eye
salve. It's what he heard the Lord say
in Revelation 3.18. I counsel thee to buy of me gold
tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment that
thou mayest be clothed. That's his righteousness. And
that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine
eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see. The Lord did this
to the deaf man. Look back there at Mark 7. Mark
7 verse 32. They bring unto him one that
was deaf. Mark 7, 32, they bring unto him one that was deaf and
had an impediment in his speech. And they beseech him to put his
hand upon him. And he took him aside from the
multitude and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit and
touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he
sighed and said to him, epiphati, that is, be opened. And straightway
his ears were opened and the string of his tongue was loosed
and he spake plain. What does this represent? What
is this spit? What is the first thing that
comes to your mind when you think of somebody spitting in your
eye? Or somebody spitting on your
tongue? Do you not think that's disgusting?
That's disgusting. They spit upon our Lord Jesus
Christ. And spit upon Him. Why? To show
their disgust for Him. They did what was the most disgusting
thing they could do. They spit upon Him. The preaching of the cross is
to them that perish foolishness. It's scandalous. It's disgusting. It's offensive. That's what this
spitting on his eyes represents. Foolish. What the world calls
foolishness. The preaching of the cross is
to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved,
it's the power of God. This is how the Lord gave this
man sight. This is how the Lord gave you
sight. For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by its
own wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe." Disgusting! A man beaten
and bloody, hanging on a cross, suffering the wrath of God in
place of His people. Blood, blood, blood, blood, blood,
all through the Scriptures. Blood, lambs slain to picture
Him. Every message we preach, we're
preaching about the blood of our Redeemer poured out Like
a lamb before the shearers is done, so he opened not his mouth,
he went to the slaughter. That's disgusting to natural
man. Talk about something more refined. Talk about something
that's not so offensive. The necessity of Christ doing
the work to make his people righteous, obeying the law. Romans 5 couldn't
be more clear, by the obedience of one. many made righteous. By the obedience of one, that's
Christ alone. Paul said if I preach circumcision,
if I just gave sinners something to do, then the offense of the
cross is ceased. Then men wouldn't persecute me.
They don't find that disgusting and foolish, but if I preach
this bloody cross. And if I preach how the necessity
for God to be holy is that he had to kill everybody that broke
his law because God is just and he will by no means clear the
guilty. And if God's going to kill us and be able to show us
mercy, how can he do that? How can he execute the full penalty
of the law upon you and yet show you mercy? If he slays you, you're
going to be dead, eternally cast out into outer darkness in hell.
And if he shows you mercy without honoring the justice of God and
honoring the law we've broken, He's not just anymore. How can
he do both? How can he be just and merciful? The only way is God himself in
the person of his son came into this world and took flesh. It
behooved him and all things to be made like unto his brethren
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the iniquity
and iniquity of his people. That was the only way God could
be just and merciful. The only way. It's not, that's
not disgusting to us anymore, is it? That's the message that
you delight to hear. You delight to hear. That's how
he gave you sight. It says, and then the Lord touched
him. He put his hands upon him. This gospel, if we can preach
this gospel, we can preach this gospel, but what's gonna make
us sinner here? What's gonna break our heart?
What's gonna make us see? It's gonna be the touch of Christ's
hand. The powers of God, not of us.
It'll be the touch of his hand that does it. Verse 23, then
the Savior asked the man a question. He asked him if he saw anything. When the Lord gives one of his
children sight, the Lord's going to require a confession from
us. He's going to require us to tell
him what we see. Not one time, but all our life.
We're going to be coming to him confessing. Moses described the
righteousness which is of the law. You want to come to God
in the law? You want to come to God, you
want one, just one part of your salvation to be by your law keeping.
Here's what's required. The man that doeth those things
shall live by them. That means you're going to have
to do everything required in the law without sin from the
womb until the grave. Well, the fact is, is if you
could do it from the womb to the grave, you wouldn't die.
You'd be righteous. Us dying physically is just proof
we are the sinner. It's just proof we are the sinner.
Christ couldn't die. He knew no sin. The only reason
he died is because he laid down his life. He took our sin and
he laid down his life. But the righteousness which is
of faith says this, the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth
and in thy heart, the word of faith which we preach, if thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe
in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. For with thee heart, man believeth
unto righteousness. These aren't involved. Running's
not involved. All our many wonderful works
are not involved. Man believeth unto righteousness,
and confession is made unto salvation. The Lord said, what do you see?
What do you see? We come confessing our sins to
Him. He said in 1 John 1-9, if we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We confess Him before men and
believers baptism. He said, whoever shall confess
Me before Me and him will I confess also before My Father which is
in heaven, but whosoever shall deny Me before Me and him will
I also deny before My Father which is in heaven. When He gives
you faith to trust Him, you're not ashamed of Him anymore. You
don't care if people don't want to be your friend anymore because
you believe Christ. You see Him and know Him and
love Him and appreciate what He's done for you and you want
to confess Him. Well, what did the man say when the Lord asked
him this? Verse 24, he looked up and he
said, I see men as trees walking. I see men as trees walking. Spiritual
sight comes gradually. Spiritual sight comes gradually.
Christ gives the measure of grace. And each of His people, He gives
the measure of grace that pleases Him to give when it pleases Him
to give it. That's what He said in Ephesians
4. This is how we're going to have
unity with one another is to always remember that not everybody
has the same measure of faith or any of the other graces the
Lord gives. He gives in a measure as it pleases
Him. And all who He saves, we trust
the same Savior We're going to experience the same grace of
God saving us. It's all by His grace. And we're
going to believe the same gospel, born of one spirit. We have one
Father who's in each of us, working in each of us, one hope. We have
all this oneness, but we don't all experience grace in the same
measure. Blind Bartimaeus was given sight
all at one time. Just, he could see. The blind
man in John 9 had to go wash in the pool of Siloam. Then he
came away seeing. But the Lord gave this man sight
gradually. Gradually. At first he had light. He could see. But his vision
was blurred. Isn't that how it is with us
at first? When the Lord first gives you
sight. He didn't pretend to see what he didn't see. When God
gives you sight, he makes you confess what you do see, but
not what you don't see. He confessed what he saw. First
of all, when we first are called by grace, and you know this is
true, because you went so long thinking this, we first thought
sin was only in what we do. That's what we thought sin was,
only what we do. And then as he shows you more
grace, you begin to see sin is in my thoughts. It reaches to
my thoughts, the thoughts and intents of my heart. And as he
grows you a little more, you begin to see sin is all I am. I was conceived in my mother's
womb in sin by incorruptible seed from Adam, my first father. It sins what I am. I didn't sin
to become a sinner. I came out of the womb and I
sinned because I was a sinner. He began to cry, woe is me, I'm
undone. I need the Lord to save me. First we see righteousness in
Christ's accomplished work of redemption. We see and hear the doctrine
of election, and the doctrine of particular redemption, and
the doctrine of perseverance of the saints, and we're thrilled
to hear this doctrine. But then he begins to show you
more and more, Christ is my righteousness. Christ is my holiness. Christ
is my wisdom. Christ is my redemption. Christ
is heaven to me. It becomes a person. Salvation
is a person the more he grows you. Christ always finishes what
he begins. Now how did he make this man
see more clearly? Look at verse 25. After that,
he put his hands again upon his eyes and made him look up. You know how Christ is going
to make you see more clearly? He's going to turn you from you,
from looking at you, turn you from looking at your brethren,
turn you from looking at this world, turn you from looking
at what's going on over across the ocean, turn you from looking
at everything in this earth and cause you to look up to Christ
Jesus the Lord. Christ said, I'm the light. And
it's in His light that we see. And He'll make you see. When you see Christ, that's when
you begin to see more of yourself. And the path of the just, the
path of those Christ justified is as the shining light, the
shining more and more into the perfect day. The more you see
Christ, the more he increases, and the more you decrease. The
more you see he's all, and the more you see you're nothing.
The more you see he's salvation, and the more you see how incapable
you are of saving yourself. This is true growth. The more
you see him, the more you diminish, and the more he becomes all in
all. We began to see, he said, I see then when the Lord did
this, he was restored, he saw every man clearly. You see Adam
clearly. You see that I was in Adam and
I sinned in the garden and I died. You begin to see yourself clearly.
I am the sinner, ungodly, unrighteous, incapable. And you see Christ
Jesus the God-man clearly. He's all. He's all. He's all. That's what I pray the Lord does
today. Let me give you one more word
and I'm going to finish. The Lord told this man after
he did this for him, it says verse 26, he sent him away to
his house saying, neither go into the town nor tell it to
any in the town. Now you think about that. There
is God in human flesh. And he gives this man sight.
And he tells this man, don't go in that town and tell anybody
about it. You see, this town of Bethesda,
or Bethsaida, they despised Christ. He had come and worked many miracles
there, and they didn't want him there. They despised him. And
Christ is not a beggar. He's not a beggar. If you don't
want Christ, and you don't want to hear his gospel, and you despise
this message, and you say, I'll be just fine without it, he'll
leave you by yourself. He'll leave you by yourself.
Now listen to what he said. Look at Matthew 11, 21. This
is important. Listen to what he said now. Matthew
11, 21. He's giving you privileges to
have this gospel, but if we don't want these privileges, listen
to what he said in Matthew 11, 21. He said, Woe unto thee, Bethsaida. That's
where he was, right there with that man. For if the mighty works
which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they
would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I
say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon
at the day of judgment than for you. That's some serious business
right there. Look what he said to Capernaum.
Thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, you'll be brought
down to hell, if the mighty works which have been done in thee
had been done in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But
I say unto you, it should be more tolerable for the land of
Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee. Brethren, do not,
do not neglect. Here in the gospel of Christ,
do not neglect. Go into the Lord's throne of
grace. Do not neglect reading his scriptures. He's given you
all this light, all this privilege to know more and more of Christ.
Use the light he's given you and walk in it and he'll give
you more light. But he said if a man despises
these privileges I've given, he said I'll take them away.
I'll take them away. But you that he saved, you that
he's opened your eyes, you will seek him. You will keep, because
he's holding your hand, leading you out. And he'll keep you singing,
amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like
me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. I was blind, but now
I see. And he'll keep you singing. And
in that day, when we see him, 10,000 years, it's going to be
like it was the first day. We see him face to face, face
to face. We're going to be like him, learning
about him all our days. I pray you bless that. Father,
thank you for this word. Lord, we ask you to bless it
to our hearts, open our eyes, make us to see. We pray, Lord,
you'd be gracious to touch us, apply this disgusting, offensive
gospel to us, make us behold Christ Jesus as our all. Make
us bow to him and trust him. Thank you, Lord, for having worked
us and your people. And Lord, we pray for those that
don't know you. Pray, Lord, that you'd work this
in them. Pray you would draw our neighbors
and those around this place, that you'd bring them to hear
the gospel. What mercy and grace, Lord, that
you save sinners. How thankful we are. We praise
you. We exalt you. We give you the
glory. In Christ's name, amen.