Matthew chapter 9. Let's read
verses 27 down to half of verse 30. It says, And 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,
Yes, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying,
According to your faith, be it unto you. And their eyes were
opened. Now this is another question
that God asked to a sinner. God our Savior asked two blind
men here, believe ye that I am able to do this. What I want
to point out in this passage tonight is very important to
understand. Scriptures teach that with the
heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. That's apart from any works we
do. That's the total opposite of
works. With the heart man believes unto
righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Let's first look at these blind
men. The actions of these men are
worth imitating for anybody who would be saved by our Lord Jesus.
And they're good for a believer to imitate. We often need the
Lord to save us from different trials and afflictions and whatever
kinds of obstacles that come up in our way. First of all,
notice they came to Christ Himself. Verse 27 says, When Jesus departed,
thence two blind men followed Him. Now before this, Christ
had been to a well-known person's house and He had healed a woman. Verse 26 says, And the fame hereof
went abroad into all the land. And when Jesus departed thence,
these two blind men followed Him. Christ had come near to
where these men were and Christ had made it known so that these
men heard about Christ and they heard about He was able and what
He had done for this woman that He had healed. Scriptures tell
us that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
God alone gives spiritual life and God alone gives faith. It's
God who draws his child to Christ. He makes us see our need and
he draws us to Christ. And he does that through the
hearing of the faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what had happened to these men. He must receive the glory. He
first causes us to come to him. He has to receive the glory.
Now, Christ has come near to each of us here. with the gospel. He's brought the gospel to you
here. Now, will you do like these men did? These men had heard
about Christ, the fame of Christ. Now, you've heard about the fame
of Christ. Will you come to Him? That's
what they did. They came to Christ. Now secondly,
notice how they came to Christ. It says they followed Him, verse
27, says they followed Him crying. Crying expresses their importunity. These men came with a dire need
and they came there in earnest. They came there humble. They
came there pleading and begging with Christ. It's because they
had a need. These men were blind. And they
saw Christ as the only one that could cure them and heal and
take care of their need. Do you realize you have a need?
You have a need. We're sinners by nature and you're
a sinner. Sin and death and judgment and
eternity, these are things not to take lightly. These are things
to be earnest about. These are things to be serious
about. You will die and you will meet
God in judgment. And God will by no means clear
the guilty. God is holy and He will by no
means clear the guilty. You will face eternity somewhere. Now those are things above everything
else that ought to make us serious about hearing the Word of God.
These are things that ought to make us diligent to read His
Word, diligent to seek Him, diligent to know how does He save sinners. It ought to make us diligent
to come to Him. These men that nothing stopped
them from coming to Him. In Matthew 11 and verse 12 it
says, From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom
of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force.
And those that have a need, like these men have, won't let anything
stop them from getting to Christ. Notice also how they came perseveringly. Verse 28 says, when He was coming
to the house, the blind men came to Him. And you put yourself
in these men's shoes. Try to think about this. These
men are blind. They're in total darkness. How
are they following Christ? They had to have listened carefully
for his footsteps. They had to have stayed close
on his heels. They had to have gave some due
diligence to not let him out of their hearing because they
couldn't see. They had to hear him and they
had to stay near him. And even when they got to this
house where he was, they didn't let that stop them. They came
right into where he was and came there to him. Now, they did so
because they hungered and thirsted. after Christ. They knew that
Christ was the only one that could heal them. Now, has God
given you this hunger? Has He given you this thirst
for Christ? Do we have a real thirst after
Christ? A real hunger for Christ? When
you're thirsty, you want to go to the fountain. When you're
hungry, you want to go to where the food is. And those that are
thirsty and hungry go to Christ. They diligently seek Him and
they want to draw near, as near to Him as they can and stay right
on His heels. Notice these men's petition when
they got to Him. Verse 27 says, they said, Thou
Son of David, have mercy on us. You see, they honored Christ.
They said, Thou Son of David. They honored Christ, confessing
Him to be God's Messiah. They believed the Scriptures.
The Scriptures declared that He would be sending Christ through
David. He would be the Son of David.
And by saying, Thou Son of David, they're saying they believed
Him to be the Christ. They believed Him to be the Messiah,
the King of His kingdom, the King over His kingdom who's doing
His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. They believed Him to be the Christ. Now, those
who come to Christ truly come to Christ, come honoring Christ.
If we don't come to Christ honoring Christ, we're not really coming
to Christ. We come honoring Christ as the head and representative
of all God's elect. That's how you honor Christ.
You come honoring Christ as the only one who has ever fulfilled
righteousness for His people, who has completely, totally fulfilled
the law, completely, totally satisfied justice for His people,
is to honor Him as Lord and as the Savior. They came there honoring
Him, is to honor Him for laying down His life for His people.
shedding His blood. You ever just sit and think about
that? That Christ shed His blood for us. He laid down His life
for His people. For sinners. For sinners. Sinners
who in our hearts and minds were enemies of His. He laid down
His life. He shed His blood. When you come
to Christ, you come honoring Him for His precious blood. They
came here honoring Him. You honor Him for faithfully
calling you. For quickening you. For preserving
you. You honor Him because He provides
everything you need in this life. everything we have He gives.
When the heart's persuaded that Christ is all, then there'll
be much honor given to Christ. And then notice in this petition
that they sought mercy. Verse 27 says, they said, Thou
son of David, have mercy on us. Wherever God's created a new
heart, there'd be no more vain ideas that we deserve anything
from God. That's what men think. Whenever
men speak contradictory and denying the doctrine of election, that
declares that God chose the people not based on any good or evil
in us, but he did it because he will. He chose to save some,
he chose to pass by others. And men say, you know, Why does He choose some and pass
by others? Men are saying by that that they
deserve for Him to choose them. That they deserve for Him to
show them mercy. And the fact of the matter is
when He has shown you mercy and He has shown you something of
yourself, you realize I don't deserve anything from God but
wrath. I don't deserve anything from
God but eternal condemnation. And so you come to God no more
like you deserve something. You come to God like a condemned
criminal who's coming to the sovereign judge who alone is
just to show you free pardon because he alone has satisfied
his own justice. You come there like a beggar
on a street. Have you ever had a beggar on
a street walk up and make demands of you? You ever had a beggar
walk up and act like you owe him something? A beggar comes
with his hand out begging you to give you just whatever you
got to give him. He'll be happy with whatever
you have to give him. And that's how you come to Christ
when He's shown you what you are and you have a need. So we
see how these men sought Christ. They followed Christ Himself.
They came earnestly, perseveringly, honoring Christ, asking mercy
at His hand. Whenever one of Melinda's friends
got married, my mother was telling me a story.
She was at the wedding and I don't know if they forgot to put out
the water or just forgot to provide water. I don't know exactly,
but there was no water out at the reception and everybody was
thirsty. And so mom went back and found
the water pitchers or found some pitchers and filled them up with
water and brought them and put them out. And it was hot, you
know, out in the summertime down in Arkansas. And she said when
she put those water pitchers out, folks just about knocked
her over getting to the water. That's because they were thirsty.
And that's how you come to Christ when you're thirsty. These men
are blind men. But they're coming to Christ.
They're not letting their blindness stop them. They're not letting
the fact they got to follow Him where He's going. They're not
letting the fact He's in a house and they got to get into that
house. They're not letting nothing stop them. They followed Him
and that's what you do. If you're really hungry, you'll
have an urgency, an urgency. All these excuses and all these
lame reasons men yield goes out the window. If you today, right
now, knew you were about to die and you knew where the hospital
is and there's a physician there, you wouldn't make excuses for
going there. You would go there because you
had a need. If you have a real need, you'll
believe on Christ. You'll come to Him believingly.
Secondly, here's the question. Verse 28. And Jesus saith unto
them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? Now, the first part
of this question concerns their faith. He says, Believe ye. Now, do you find it odd that
after what we just looked at with these men, how they came
there, you know, contrite, they came there crying, they came
there begging mercy, honoring Christ. Do you find it odd that
Christ asked them if they believed that he was able to do this?
That almost seems like an odd thing. I mean, it looks like
they believe it. Why did He say this to them? Well, here's three
reasons. Number one, men can do a whole
lot of things outwardly that look like real faith. But Christ
will have you... He'll have you to express what's
in your heart. What's in your heart. Do you
believe in your heart Christ is able to do this? And also,
Christ knows the heart. He knows what's in our heart.
But He's going to have you to confess your heart to Him and
before men. You know, He said, He that is
ashamed to confess Me, I'll be ashamed to confess Him before
My Father in Heaven. And the Scriptures point blank
declare in Romans 10 that if we believe on Him, if He's given
us faith, we're not ashamed to confess Him. If a man don't confess
Christ, it's because he don't believe on it. That's the only
reason. The third reason is, it's not a question of whether
others close to you believe, it's a question of, do you believe? He brought this question to them.
Do you believe? Do you believe? That's the question. Faith in Christ is essential. Turn to Hebrews 3. Faith in Christ
is a must. It's absolutely essential. Hebrews 3.18. This is speaking
of those that would not enter into the land of Canaan when
they came to the promised land that God had promised them. He
says here in Hebrews 3.18, To whom swear he that they should
not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not. So we see that they could not
enter in the cause of unbelief. Look down at chapter 4 and verse
2. He says... For unto us was the gospel preached
as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit
them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. Look at
verse 6. Seeing therefore it remaineth
that some must enter into God's rest, and they to whom it was
first preached enter not in because of unbelief, he says in verse
7, Today, if you'll hear His voice, harden not your hearts.
He's saying, therefore believe on Christ. Believe on Him. Look
at verse 11. Let us labor, therefore, to enter
into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of
unbelief. Do you see how important faith
is? Christ said this. He said, He that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be
damned. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. In John
3 he said, He that believeth on Christ is not condemned. But
he that believeth not is condemned already because he has not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Now those are the
words of the Savior Himself. Now we cannot deny the Lord's
words. These are His words. He's saying
faith is essential. Faith in Christ is essential.
In Hebrews 11, 6 He said without faith it's impossible to please
God. because those that come to God
must come believing that He is and believing that He is a rewarder
of them that diligently seek Him. Let's look to Abraham to
see if faith is essential. Turn to Romans chapter 4. Romans
chapter 4. Here was a guilty sinner. He
never had the law of God given at Mount Sinai. Here he was a
hundred years old. He's got a wife who's beyond
the age of childbearing. And yet God has promised Abraham
he will be the heir of righteousness. He will be made perfectly righteous.
It's what he promised him. He promised him he'd be the father
of all who believe. This man who has no children,
who's a hundred years old, who has a wife that's barren and
can't have children. That's what he told him. And
God promised that Sarah would have this child at the time appointed
and that through Isaac This child that would be born, the Messiah
would come. And it would be through the Messiah
that Abraham would be made righteous and all the elect of God scattered
in every nation would be made righteous through faith in Him.
And Abraham was given faith by God. He was given faith to see
Christ's day and he believed God. Why was that necessary?
Look at Romans 4.13. It says, For the promise God's
promise that Abraham should be the heir of the world was not
to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness
of faith. For if they which are of the
law be heirs... Now here's a reason. He says,
because if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made
void and the promise made of none effect. That's why faith
is essential. If you can be made an heir by
your law keeping, then faith is made void and God's promise
in Christ is no longer effectual. Well, whose faith is made void
here? Christ's faithfulness is made
void. It's the same thing that Paul said in Galatians when he
said, I don't frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness
come by the law, Christ is dead in vain. That's what he's saying
here. Now read on, look at verse 16.
Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace. To the
end, the promise might be sure to all the seed, to all the elect
of God, to all the children of Abraham. That's why faith is
a necessity, that salvation might be by grace. Faith is salvation
by grace. And look here, that God's salvation
might be sure to all God's elect. Why is that necessary? Read here,
read on. Not to that only which is of
the law. You see, the elect Jews, they
were under the law given at Mount Sinai. They had the law. But
the elect Gentiles didn't have it. Look here. Not to that only
which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of
Abraham. The elect Gentiles were like Abraham. We never were under
the law at Mount Sinai. Abraham wasn't either. But see,
if salvation comes by the law, then none of God's elect Gentiles
could be saved because they were never under the law. So then
we all have to be saved the same way. And God's saying here, we
shall. We're all going to be saved through
faith in Christ. Now read on. It says here that
Abraham's the father of us all. Verse 17 says, As it is written,
God told him, I've made thee a father of many nations. before
God whom he believed. You see, he believed even God
who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as
though they were. He doesn't call those things that be not
as though they were, he doesn't call them as though they are
when they're not, not because he won't bring them to pass,
he calls them that way because if he says, if he said Abraham's
going to be a father of all who believe, he's going to make him
a father of all who believe. If He said that all His children
are going to be blessed in Christ, they're going to all be blessed
in Christ. So, whatever God says it, even though it's not even
brought to pass yet, it shall be brought to pass because He's
going to do it. Now look, verse 18. Abraham, against hope, believed
in hope that he might become the father of many nations. According
to that which was spoken, When God said, So shall thy seed be.
That's what faith does. Faith believes the Word of God.
God said it. That settles it. It's so. Verse
19. And being not weak in faith.
Now this is something else faith does. Faith doesn't consider
anything else but God's ability. Being weak in faith, he considered
not his own body now dead. when he was about a hundred years
old. Neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. If anybody had
a reason to say, you know, now this is a little... Now we got
to be reasonable here. If anybody had a reason to say
that it was Abraham, he's a hundred years old, his wife can't have
children. But he staggered not at that.
He didn't consider that. He didn't even let that come
into the equation. Look at this, verse 20. He staggered not at
the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving
glory to God. That's another reason we got
to be saved by faith. Faith gives all the glory to
God. Only faith gives all the glory to God. Now look at verse
21. Here's the definition of faith.
Being fully persuaded that what God had promised, God was able
also to perform. And therefore, through faith,
because he believed God, it was imputed to him for righteousness. Whenever the telegraph was invented,
they stretched a cable from England through the Atlantic to the United
States of America. And men on that side of the continent
and on this continent here could now communicate with each other
because there was a cable between here and there. That's what faith
is. Faith is like that cable. Faith
unites us with Christ Jesus so that through faith all the spiritual
blessings that God has for his people in Christ are communicated
to us from Christ the faithful to the faith of that one he's
given faith unto. It's like that cable. And for
these reasons, faith in Christ is essential. It's essential.
People will say, well, what about this circumstance and that circumstance?
The circumstances are of God. And he rules the circumstances. He said the gates of hell shall
not prevail against my church. He will get the gospel to his
child and is able to give his child faith wherever they are.
He put them where they are so he can show you how great he
is to be able to get the gospel to them and give them faith in
Christ. Now look, back in Matthew 9,
the next part of the question concerns the object of true faith. That first part considers you
believing. Now this is why you must believe.
Now here he considers the object of faith. Matthew 9, 28. He says,
Believe ye that I am able. Believe ye that I am able. Now,
with a confession that Christ is able, there also comes a confession
that I'm not able. That's part of confessing Christ
is able, is to confess I'm not able. I wouldn't need Christ's
ability if I had ability. Now, true faith is confessing
I have no ability. But now, due to sin, due to men's
carnal pride and arrogance, Due to the fact that most are taught
from their brought up being taught this, most believe that salvation
and righteousness and holiness comes by a combination of believing
on Christ and you doing your part. That's what most people
believe. Most people are taught that is
partly by the grace of God and partly by your works. I was riding
a train back from New York City with a man one night sitting
beside me on the train and he got to talk about religion and
we were talking and I was telling him salvation is all of God,
all of grace, all by Christ's work and he was agreeing with
everything and he got to his stop and he got up to get off
and he got to the door and the last thing he said, he turned
around and he goes, but we got to do our part and he jumped off
and I didn't get to say anything else. That's what most people believe.
You got to do your part. Salvation must be all of grace. It must be all of Christ. It
must be all through faith in Christ because we have no ability. whatsoever. We have no ability
to give ourselves spiritual life. We have no ability to give ourselves
faith and repentance. We have no ability to make ourselves
the righteousness of God and to put away our sins, to justify
ourselves, which God requires. We have no ability to make ourselves
perfect, and God won't receive us if we're not perfect. We have
no ability to make ourselves holy. We have no ability to persevere
in faith. We don't have ability to take
our next breath or bat our eye if God don't give it to us. You
and I have no ability, spiritual or temporal, to do anything whatsoever. Every good and every perfect
gift comes now from the Father of lights with whom is no variable
and is neither shadow of turning. Everything that you have, you
got it from God. Everything. What do you have
that you didn't receive from God? Everything came from Him. Turn over to Romans chapter 10. He said it's the spirit that
quickens the flesh, profits nothing. Now look here at Romans 10. God
teaches this in our hearts. Men are going about trying to
establish their own righteousness. trying to ascend up to heaven
or descend into the deep. They are trying to go great distances
and make great sacrifices. And here is what men think. Do
you think this? Now listen. Do you think you
have to experience some great experience before you believe
on Christ? Some great experience that takes
you to the heights or some great experience that takes you down
to the deepest depths? Read the word here. Romans 10
verse 6. The righteousness which is of
faith speaketh on this wise. Say not in thy heart, who shall
ascend into heaven? That is, to bring Christ down
from above. What great thing am I going to
have to do? or who shall descend into the deep. That is, to bring
Christ up again from the dead. That's what men are doing by
their works, by their ceremonies, by their church activities. That's
what men are doing who are looking for some great experience that
they experience before they call on Christ. He says, that's not
what the righteousness of faith says. But what saith it? Verse
8. The Word is near you, even in
your mouth and in your heart. It's the word of faith which
we preach. That's what I'm preaching to
you now, the word of faith. It's near you, it's in your mouth,
it's in your heart, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Look at verse 10. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. And with mouth confession is
made unto salvation. Christ asked these men only one
simple question. That's all he asked them. One
simple question. He said, Believe ye that I am
able to do this. That's all he asked them. Sinner,
believe you that Jesus Christ is able? That's the question.
Do you believe that Jesus Christ is able to be a merciful and
faithful high priest before God in things pertaining to God and
do it for His people, do it for you? Do you believe Christ is
able to make you the righteousness of God, to put away your sin,
to present you faultless and without blame before His Father
in Heaven? Do you believe Christ is righteousness? That He is holiness? That He
is the one thing needful? Do you believe Christ is able
to sanctify you? That Christ in you is the holiness
without which no man shall see the Lord? That when He enters
in and makes you holy, you meet to be a partaker of the inheritance
of the saints in life. Do you believe Christ is able
to save you? That's what I'm saying. And to
do it all from beginning to end. able to keep that which you committed
unto Him against that day, able to provide all your need in this
life. Believer, that's something we
need to believe, that He's able. He gave His life for us. He'll
give whatever else we need in this life. And we get so doubting
and so full of unbelief and act like we never even heard of our
Lord. To believe God has raised Him from the dead is to believe
that Christ is the Alpha and Omega, the author and finisher
of our faith, that all the work is accomplished in Him, that
His people are complete in Him, and that there's no other work
for me to do. I'm complete in Christ. That's
what it is to believe God's raised you from the dead, is to believe
God has received Him, and is satisfied with Him, and is satisfied
with all who come to God in Him. Christ asks a very pointed aspect
in this question now that I think is relevant. Look here in verse
28. He says, Believe ye that I am
able to do this. To do this. It was not enough
to say, do you believe? That wasn't enough. Because everybody
will tell you they believe. They write songs about it. You've
got to have faith. And everybody likes that. They
don't offend anybody. Yeah, you've got to have faith.
It makes me feel good and fuzzy to sing about faith. The devils
believe there's a God in Trimble. It wasn't enough to say, do you
believe? It wasn't even enough to say, do you believe Christ
is able? A lot of people believe Christ is able to do a lot of
things. to do a lot of things. Many believe
Christ is able to do a lot. So it wasn't enough to ask, believe
you that Christ is able. These men had a specific need. And so Christ asked them specifically,
do you believe that I am able to do this, to do this? You see, men will say they believe
Christ, men will say they believe grace, men will say they believe
salvation is of the Lord, men will say they believe it's not
by our works. But when you get to the specifics
of salvation and you say, God has to choose whom he will and
he does so and he passes by whom he will because salvation is
by grace. It's not based on any good or
evil in us. Do you believe that God's able to do this? When you tell them a man is dead
and trespasses in sin, he don't have a spark in him. There's
not any goodness in him. God can't use anything that's
there. God's got to come and completely, totally, of His own
Word, speak into existence something that was not there before and
put a new man in you, created in righteousness and holiness.
You believe Christ is able to do this? God alone can fulfill
His own law. God alone can justify His people
of our sins. God alone will receive all the
glory for this. He will not receive any work
you've done outside of Christ. Do you believe He's able to do
this? And then you start finding out whether men really believe
on Christ or not. When you get to the specifics,
you believe I'm able to do this. Believe it, this applies to us
in temporal things too. It does, in temporal or spiritual
things. You know, you have a sin that troubles you. And we know
Christ put away our sins on the cross. We know He's justified
us. But I want to stop this. I don't want to sin anymore.
I don't want to do this. Well, I believe that Christ is
able to do this and to turn me from it and make me repent from
it. Give me strength to turn from it. What if you're out with
a group of friends and they're behaving in a way that's dishonoring
to the doctrine of Christ? You don't want to dishonor the
doctrine of Christ. You want to be able to stand
with Christ, but you need strength from Christ to do it. You need
strength with Him to bear reproach that you'll receive. You need
strength from Him to make your stance for Christ effectual in
their hearts. Maybe not then, but at least
later on. Do you believe Christ is able to do this? I tell you
what, when we get ready, time comes and we go in to get in
a building. Everybody here is going to experience
what I've been experiencing from day one. When you put your name
down on a big old loan and depending on other centers to stay together
and make the note, you experience what I've experienced from day
one. You have to trust God to give the income. You have to
trust God to give the faith. You have to trust God to give
the willing hearts. And I'm telling you, Christ is
able to do this. He's able to do this. All these
things we come into, just personal things we come into in our lives,
we ought to always ask ourselves this question. When we come to
that thing and we find ourselves doubting and questioning and
in the turmoil, is Christ able to do this? Do you believe Christ
is able to do this? We must believe on Christ for
every specific aspect of salvation, for every specific aspect of
our lives. And when we believe Christ is
able to meet each specific need, then we behold Christ meeting
each specific need. But when we don't believe, we
don't get to see Christ's glory in meeting our needs. The sinner
who doesn't believe that Christ is his righteousness, except
there are He keeps on mingling his so-called law keeping with
his so-called faith. That man will never, he'll never
see that Christ is the end of the law because Christ is only
the end of the law for everyone that believes. He won't get to
see it. At the edge of Canaan, those
who wouldn't believe God was able to deliver them, they didn't
get to see it. They died in the wilderness. Joshua and Caleb
saw it. They believed God was able to deliver them. If these
two blind men had not believed that Christ was able to give
them sight, to do this specific need for them, they would have
walked out of there blind as they walked in. Because Christ,
when He was among His countrymen, you remember what it said? He
did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. That
was the reason. They didn't believe Him. He didn't
do anything there. And Mark says He could there
do no mighty work. Be sure to understand, it's not
that Christ can't do what He pleases. He can do whatever He
pleases. But it's this, Christ will not
manifest His glory and His ability unto us until He makes us give
Him all the glory by giving us faith in Him. It's only then
that He'll do the things. When He's given us faith to give
Him the glory, then He'll show us that glory in doing it. Because
then we trust Him to do it. Christ gave these blind men the
faith to believe that Christ was able to do this. He gave
them the faith. He had done something inside
of them far greater than what they were asking for. So that
they could come to Him believing He was able to do it. And Christ
works faith in His children. And then He draws this confession
of faith out of us. And because true faith gives
him the glory, saying, yes, Lord, therefore true faith gets to
see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. But only faith does.
You know why your hearts light up when you hear how Christ fulfilled
the law and is all your righteousness? Because you believe He is. Those
that don't believe that, they don't see any glory in it. Those
that don't believe Christ comes and calls His people through
the gospel, they don't see any glory in it. You don't believe,
you don't see the glory in it. But when you believe, you see
the glory. He said, Martha, did I not say to you that if you
would believe, you would see the glory of God? She was believing
a doctrine. I believe He'll rise in the resurrection.
I've been taught that. I know there's a resurrection.
I know the doctrine of the resurrection. He said, Martha, I am the doctrine.
I am the resurrection. You believe that I can do this
and you'll see my glory. And she believed and He raised
Lazarus from the dead. She saw His glory. So lastly,
it was because Christ gave them the faith to believe that Christ
indeed was able to give them physical sight. It was because
He gave them the faith that they gave this answer. Verse 28. They
said unto Him, Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. They didn't add anything
to it. They didn't make any conditions
on it. They just answered with a simple, Yes, Lord, we believe
you're able to do this. Look at verse 29. Then touched
he their eyes, saying, According to your faith, be it unto you. And their eyes were opened. Now
listen carefully. For the true believer, that which
Christ works in us outward, is the result of what Christ has
already worked in us inwardly. Faith in Christ's sovereign ability
to do this was in their heart. That was in their heart. Christ
had already put it in their heart. And so, when he asked them, do
you believe that I'm able to do this? With the mouth, confession
was made. Yes, Lord. Where'd that come
from? It came from the heart. That's
where the faith was. And it came from the heart, because
he'd already given it. So, what Christ did outwardly,
when he touched them and he gave them sight, it was according
to what Christ had already done within them. So, he said, according
to your faith, be it unto you. And their eyes were opened. When He says according to your
faith, who's your faith looking to? It's looking to Christ. What's
it looking to Christ for? Christ's ability. to do that
very thing. And so, according to that faith,
which is trusting Christ's ability to do it, Christ does it. And
it's because He's given that faith. Now sinner, let's bring
this home to you. You need Christ to perform every
specific aspect of salvation. Every aspect. You need Him to
make you alive. Now let me make this point. Most
of the things that God calls on us to confess that we believe,
the truth of Christ that He calls on us to confess that we believe
Christ is able to do this. Most everything He calls us to
confess that we believe, He's already done it for us. Every
bit of it. Now, you need Christ to make
you alive spiritually. Do you believe He's able to do
this? If you do, it's because He's already done it. And He
says, be it according to your faith. You are alive. That's
what Christ said. You need Christ to make you a
new creature in righteousness and true holiness, in the righteousness
and holiness of Christ Himself. Do you believe Christ is able
to do this? If you can say yes, it's because Christ has already
done it for you. And so Christ, when you say yes,
Lord, in faith, Christ speaks in your heart and He says, according
to your faith, be it unto you. You're righteous and holy. You
need Christ to make you willing to confess Him publicly. You
believe Christ is able to make you do this? If you can say yes,
He's already done it. And He'll say to you, be it according
to your faith and you'll confess Him publicly. You'll be willing
to do it because He made you willing. Now listen to this,
this is the great one. God given faith believes in the
heart and confesses with the mouth. Yes Lord, I believe that
you're able to make me the righteousness of God in you and save me from
my sins. And then Christ says, according
to your faith, be it unto you, you have been made the righteousness
of God in Christ. That's what faith does. When
He does that, I'm going to tell you something, when He speaks
that into your heart, do you think, now this is a physical
thing, these men couldn't do anything about it, but when He
said, be it according to you, according to your faith, the
scripture says there, their eyes were opened. Could they stop
that? Nope. Would they want to stop
it? Nope. It's just what they wanted. Just
what they wanted. And when God speaks this into
your heart, you can't stop it and you don't want to stop it
because it's just exactly what you want. Just exactly what you
want. Now, here's the question to go
home with. This is the question for you
if you're just now coming to Christ and you just Struggling
with these things, it's a question to you who believe, who are facing
any kind of need in this life that Christ alone can meet. Believe
ye that Christ is able to do this. That's the question. I pray He'll
give you faith to answer like these men did. Yes, Lord. Amen. Our Father, we thank You for
Your Word. We thank You for showing us pictures of Your faithfulness, increasing the faith that You've
given, giving faith that wasn't there, bringing us to see that
all the abilities in You, not in us. And Lord, we pray that whatever sinner hears wrestling
with coming to you, wrestling with confessing their sins and
confessing their need and their faith in you, what you do for
them, what you do for these two blind men. And we pray, Lord,
for the believer that's struggling with whatever temporal thing
that he's facing and doubting and fretting and worried that
you'd speak into his heart and ask him this question. Believe you Christ is able to
do this. And make us answer, Lord, yes,
we believe. Lord, we pray you help our unbelief.
Only you can. Forgive us of that wretched,
wretched sin. Keep us by Your grace, by Your
faithfulness. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.