God be pleased to bless us together
this evening as we meditate in his word. Let's turn to the word
of God and read a few verses in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter
20. Gospel of Matthew, chapter 20,
and we'll start reading at verse 17. Gospel of Matthew, chapter 20,
and starting to read at verse 17. And Jesus, going up to Jerusalem,
took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them,
Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be betrayed
unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn
him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock and
to scourge, and to crucify him, and the third day he shall rise
again. Then came to him the mother of
Zebedee's children with her sons, worshipping him and desiring
a certain thing of him. And he said unto her, What wilt
thou? She saith unto him, Grant that
these my two sons may sit the one on the right hand, and the
other on the left in thy kingdom.' But Jesus answered and said,
Ye know not what ye ask? Are ye able to drink of the cup
that I shall drink of, and to be baptised with the baptism
that I am baptised with? They said unto him, We are able.
And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be
baptised for the baptism that I am baptised with, but to sit
on the right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but it shall
be given to them for whom it is prepared of my father.' And
when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against
the two brethren, But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know
that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them,
and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall
not be so among you, but whosoever will be great among you, let
him be your minister. And whoso will be chief among
you, let him be your servant. Even as the Son of Man came not
to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life
a ransom for many. And as they departed from Jericho,
a great multitude followed him. And behold, two blind men, sitting
by the wayside, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out,
saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. And the multitude
rebuked them, because they should hold their peace. But they cried
the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. And Jesus stood still and called
them and said, What will ye? that I should do unto you. They
said unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. So Jesus
had compassion on them, and touched their eyes, and immediately their
eyes received sight, and they followed him. In the word of God, we have a
number of occasions when there were those who were blind and
they prayed and sought that they might have their sight. And like this account here, Jesus
had compassion on them and touched their eyes and immediately their
eyes received sight and they followed him. Well, I want to
really draw your attention to the reality that We have that
natural position set before us in the Word of God. And there's
a couple of other references we'll go to in a moment. But
first of all, the great truth is that all of us need spiritual
sight. You see, we all have natural
sight, don't we? And how important it is that
God opens our eyes. And we also have the other position
where By nature we're in darkness and we want God to give us light. We need God to give us light
in that darkness and also then to give us sight. Because even
if we have our sight and it's still dark, we won't be able
to see anything. I remember when we had Matthew
Pack with us. As you know, he was blind. And
I asked him one day, I said, Sir Matthew, what can you see? Can you see anything? He said,
nothing. He said, it's completely dark.
And that's a real picture for us to realize that naturally,
that's how we are by nature. It's just as though It's pitch
black and there's no sight. And so how we need God to shine
the glorious light of the gospel into our heart and to give us
spiritual eyes so that we see the wonderful truth of God's
word. In the book of Psalms, Psalm
119, which we've meditated on, as you well know. And in that
Psalm 119, in verse 18, the Psalmist, who we think was David, he prays
so much of that Psalm, his prayer. And he prays, Open thou mine
eyes. And he wanted them for a reason.
Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of
thy law. And as we know the law really
refers to the whole truth of scripture and in those days David
realized the need he had God would indeed open his eyes and
we know of course that God did open his eyes and blessed him
and how relevant that is today that God indeed opens our eyes
because when that occurs we see wondrous things out of thy law
and the truth is that when that occurs we're amazed that we didn't
really see or understand the great truths of scripture. And what we observe is, it's
the mercy and grace and goodness of God that grants us these blessings. And so the picture really is
a very good one for us to recognize and to realize and to look into
our own hearts and to observe whether God, in his great love,
has indeed opened our eyes, given us that light, so that we, just
like David, behold wondrous things out of thy law. And the wondrous
things, of course, are the whole plan of salvation, the redemption
of our souls. It's a wonderful picture. It's
a wonderful favour. for us to spiritually understand
these great truths. You know, the Apostle John in
his gospel and also in his epistle, he makes comments and he tells
us, he hath blinded their eyes. God does blind people's eyes
and harden their heart. He hardens people's hearts. What
a blessing, my friends, if our heart has not been hardened and
our eyes have not been blinded. He tells us that they should
not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart,
and be converted, and I shall heal them. well we have the two
sides there's the one side the other side is therefore to be
left I want a blessing if God comes and gives us then sight
as our spiritual eyes are opened and it's a great evidence that
you and I possess the life of God in our souls whether we are
able to observe those two great and glorious truths that the
light has shone and our eyes have been opened. Well, I hope
tonight we can look to our God and see the wonderful blessing
that is to be known and felt. You know, in the earlier part
of this chapter which we read together in that, sorry, in the
ninth chapter of Matthew, we read the twentieth chapter, 9th
chapter of Matthew, again we read some very relevant parts,
relevant words in the 9th chapter and verses 28 and 29. We read
about the blind man. 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 come into the
house, the blind men came to him, And Jesus said unto them,
Believe ye that I am able to do this. They said unto him,
Yea, Lord. You see, as we come to God, may
God give us faith to come to him believing that he can do
these great things, that he will give us our spiritual sight. And then we're told, then touched
he their eyes, saying, according to your faith, be it unto you. And their eyes were opened. Their
eyes were opened. You see, when the Lord comes
in a spiritual sense and touches our eyes, our eyes are opened. And we marvel at it. And I believe
we praise God for it. And God, our way, rejoicing to
realize that we have such a kind, gracious, and merciful Lord God. In the Corinthians, the Apostle
Paul, who knew about that very clearly, as we know, on the Damascus
Road, the Lord gave him that sight. Initially, he had scales
upon his eyes, but they did come off, and he saw clearly. But he wrote in the Corinthians
in the first epistle The fourth chapter and the fifth verse.
Therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come. The Lord come, who both will
bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest
the counsels of the hearts. And then shall every man have
praise of God. And I'm sure of this, if God
comes and opens our eyes and shines light into our heart,
there will be, there must be praise unto our God. So this evening as we think of
these great truths and the great relevance of them and to be able
to examine ourselves, we're encouraged to do that, that we should examine
ourselves as to whether we are in the faith or not. We don't
want to be deceived, do we? We don't want to be left and
recognize that we don't possess this great blessing. But may
God give us all faith so that we're able to observe God has
given us spiritual sight, spiritual sight, so that we have a great
view of the wondrous things of the Gospel. And the wondrous
things of the Gospel are really to direct us to see ourselves
in some measure as God sees us, and that is as a lost and ruined
and fallen sinner needing salvation. But then what a great blessing
if the Holy Spirit again opens our eyes to behold the wonderful
remedy which is to be found in and through the death of the
Saviour, who stood in our place, who bore the punishment instead. And when that light shines and
our eyes are opened to receive it, well, surely we praise and
glorify our God for his great love and great mercy toward us. Well, may we all have the evidence
of it. And if we don't, to pray earnestly
that we may and that God may look upon us and remember us
for good with that favour he bears unto his people. Well,
may the Lord enable us to think upon these things and may be
truly profitable to our souls.