May it please Almighty God to
bless the reading of his word to the prophet of our souls this
evening. We'll read just a few verses
in the Gospel of Mark. And chapter 10, and we'll read
from verse 46 to the end. From verse 46 to 52, it's the
well-known account of blind Bartimaeus and how his eyes were opened. So the Gospel of Mark, chapter
10, and reading from verse 46. And they came to Jericho. And
as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number
of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the
highway side begging. And when he heard that it was
Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, Thou
son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he
should hold his peace. But he cried out the more a great
deal. Thou son of David, have mercy
on me. And Jesus stood still and commanded
him to be called. And they call the blind man.
saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee. And he, casting away his garments,
rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said
unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said
unto him, Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately
he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. Well, it's quite clear that this
man, blind, Bartimaeus had a real need. He was blind. He couldn't
see. And how wonderful it was that
he heard that Jesus was coming along and that he was able then
to cry out. We're told he cried out, Jesus,
thou son of David, have mercy on me. And of course, this is
the actual account of what happened on that occasion. But the picture
that we have is this man was blind and that he needed to see. And put in the context in a spiritual
scene, by nature, we are all blind. We do not see the way
of salvation. and yet how we need to see. And we have this man here who
cried out that he might have his sight. That wasn't what he
cried for initially. He just cried out, thou son of
David, have mercy on me. And what a wonderful truth that
is and how wonderful it is if that comes into our hearts and
causes us to cry out in a not dissimilar way, Lord Jesus, have
mercy upon me. Because there we may feel to
be blind, we may feel to be ignorant in the things of God, and we
need God to have mercy upon us. Indeed, what does that mean?
We need God to come and to open our spiritual eyes and it is
a great blessing when God does this and therefore our life changes
whereas we were blind we did not see and of course a blind
man he can't see his way he can't see where he's going and that's
just the same in our spiritual life until God comes and opens
our spiritual eyes we don't really know where we're going, what
we're doing. We're dependent upon God's mercy
toward us. A blind person needs to be given
directions. He cannot direct himself or herself,
doesn't know which way to go. It's the same usually in our
spiritual life, when the light from heaven begins in our heart,
We need direction. We need what to do. We need,
perhaps, how to pray. We need directions. And what
a great blessing it is that we have a God who does hear and
answer prayer, and a God who does give directions. Because in a natural journey,
without any eyesight, to go from A to B, unless we know the hazards
which exist, we'll easily fall over and trip over and perhaps
hurt ourselves in the journey. But the great blessing is, in
our spiritual life, again, there are those stumbling blocks, perhaps,
which we can fall over, and don't really understand the way that
God will have us go. We're, as it were, not able to
see, and God can take up the stumbling blocks out of the way
so that we don't stumble. And then sometimes on a journey,
if we couldn't see, we might fall into holes, we might fall
into pits. what a blessing it is that we
have a God who knows where those holes are and where those pits
are and could lead us and direct us so that they are avoided. This is the kind and gracious
voice of the Saviour. Well I believe A seeking soul
would be like this man, this blind Bartimaeus. We will be
blind spiritually. And we're told that he began
to cry out and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy upon
me. Well, there is a beginning in
every believer's life. And what a blessing if in our
lives we also come and cry out, Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy upon me. Some people, like they did here,
they may try to stop us. But this man, he wasn't put off. They charged him and said, told
him to hold his peace. What was the effect? We're told,
he cried out the more. A great deal. Thou son of David,
have mercy upon me. And if we fail to be spiritually
blind and not know how to press on, how to go forward, we have
a God. who knows directly how that can
be brought about. And so we have this wonderful
testimony. This man then, having been told
to stop, he cries out a great deal more. Didn't stop him at
all. Had the reverse effect. Thou son of David, have mercy
on me. Now, the good news for this blind
man, and my friends, it's a good news for a believer. Jesus knows. And Jesus hears. And Jesus commanded this man
to be called. And they call this blind man,
saying, be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee. And that's good
news for a believer, a believer who seeks, a believer who desires to hear the voice of Jesus. The good news was that he was
called and commanded to come. And they call the blind man.
And they tell him, be of good comfort, rise he calleth thee. What a wonderful blessing that
is when we hear that call to come to the Lord Jesus. And this man, this blind man,
he was not disappointed. And believers are not disappointed. He cast away his garment, rose
and came to Jesus. He didn't stop. No, he had a
need, a real need, and he wanted to come to Jesus. And therefore,
when he came to Jesus, Jesus knew precisely, of course, why
he had come. And he said unto him, What wilt
thou that I should do unto thee? Well, Bartimaeus responded very
simply, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And again, it comes
down to a personal desire, a personal cry. It wasn't false. It came from his heart. He really
needed to have his natural sight granted to him. And in a spiritual
way, the people of God really want their eyes to be opened
spiritually to understand God's great plan of salvation and to
have the evidence that God is calling them and God is opening
their eyes Well, it's a wonderful little testimony, a wonderful
example for you and me today. And so as this blind Bartimaeus
asked the Lord that I might receive my sight. It's interesting how
it's phrased. He didn't say I demand. He asked
in a humble way that I might receive my sight. Jesus said,
go thy way. Thy faith hath made thee whole. He'd been given that faith to
cry to Jesus. He'd given that faith to come
to Jesus. He'd been given that faith to
hear what Jesus said. And so we're told, thy faith
hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his
sight. What a blessing that is, if God
hears our cry. We may have been blind, but as
we come to the Lord Jesus and he gives us that command and
our eyes, our spiritual eyes are opened and we observe something
of the great truth of the gospel. And so this man immediately received
his sight. And what did he do? He followed
Jesus in the way. Well, that's a wonderful evidence,
isn't it, of the power of God. Here he was, he come to Jesus. Jesus gave him his sight and
the result was he followed Jesus in the way. Well, we're thankful
that we have such words to encourage us in our life today because
we have the same Lord Jesus that did this great blessing for Blind
Bartimaeus. And he can do the same for us
in our spiritual side. So, may it be so. Well, may God
bless these few remarks. It's a lovely account and it's
in the 10th of Mark and other places as well. But we can thank
God for it. So, may his word be applied.