May it please God to bless us
together this evening as we turn to his word and let's look at
the Gospel of Luke chapter 18 and we'll read verse 37. The Gospel of Luke chapter 18
and reading verse 37. And they told him that Jesus
of Nazareth passeth by. Well, the person that was inquiring
was a man called Bartimaeus. And he knew that there was this
multitude that were passing by, and therefore he asked what it
meant. And this was the answer that
he was told, that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." Well, did it mean
anything to him, or did it mean nothing to him? Well, very clearly
it did mean something to him. He had heard of Jesus of Nazareth. He had heard of what he had done
and could do, and therefore his response was, Jesus, thou Son
of David, have mercy me and It is significant the way he responded
The thing that he said Jesus there were many people in those
days called Jesus But here we have this specific reference
Jesus thou son of David have mercy upon me and Surely he realised
this was the Messiah, the one who had been prophesied for so
many years, and the one who had now come. And therefore, as he
heard this good news, which it was, Jesus of Nazareth passeth
by, he desired indeed that Jesus would have mercy upon him. Well, of course, we know today
that physically Jesus won't pass by. But nonetheless, when we
hear of Jesus, is it a wonderful name to us? Is it a name that
we love to hear about? or is it just to us another name? A name of little or no consequence,
just an historical name which we can read about in the Bible.
But it would seem here that this man, he had a faith given to
believe that this Jesus, who was the son of David, who was
the true Messiah, could indeed have mercy upon him. And therefore
he cried out in this way, Thou son of David, have mercy upon
me. And so have we cried? Have we cried for mercy? Perhaps we have. Perhaps we've
desired mercy and yet haven't really realised why we needed
mercy, and who to go to, and who to pray to. Many things can be very mechanical
in the lives of those who have perhaps been used to the things
of God, have been brought up in the way of God, they can be
very mechanical. And yet, no true reality No true desire in the heart,
just a mere form of traditional phrases and words. But here was
a man, a man that desired God's mercy, a God that desired God's
favour. And so he wasn't silent. As soon as he heard who it was
that was passing by, He cried, saying, Jesus of Nazareth, saying,
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy upon me. Do we desire to know that Jesus
of Nazareth is, as it were, spiritually passing by? To know that spiritually
Jesus is in the place and we do not want Jesus to pass
us by. We want to realise that there
is a real contact with him and that he will look upon us, he
will come to us, he will deliver us, he will heal us, he will
do that for us which we cannot do for ourselves. And so, such
a word as this, if we're told that Jesus of Nazareth passeth
by, he's near at hand, do we desire to cry out in prayer to
him that he will have mercy upon us? Have we ever prayed for mercy? Have we ever truly prayed for
mercy? We read that wonderful example of the publican and the Pharisee, and
we know the vast difference in their prayer. How did the Pharisee
pray? He prayed with himself. He didn't pray to God, he prayed
with himself. How many people have prayed for
themselves? Perhaps we prayed with ourselves. Perhaps we haven't
really prayed to the Lord God. Perhaps we've been proud of our
religion, proud of the way we do things, proud of the way that
we say things. Well, all those things are not
that which will bring us to a place of blessing. But the other person
who is referred to as a publican, that we may think of as a tax
collector, a despised person, what did he do? Well, we're told,
he would not lift up so much as his eyes and have smote upon
his breast saying, be merciful to me, a sinner. So we have the
two characters. We have the answer from God as
to who was the righteous one. The Lord says, I tell you, this
man, that's the publican, went down to his house justified rather
than the other. For everyone that exhorted himself
shall be abased. And he that humbleth himself
shall be exalted. So surely Bartimaeus, he wasn't
exalting himself. He was a blind man. He was a
beggar. A beggar. Hadn't got great possessions. Probably hadn't got hardly any
possessions. He couldn't work for his living. He had to beg. Because he was blind. When he heard that it was Jesus
passing by, oh, he cried out. He called out from his heart,
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy upon me. Well, we might
think, well, that was a right thing to say. Surely you'll be
encouraged. But not so. He wasn't encouraged. They that which went before rebuked
him and told him. to hold his peace, to stop calling
out, to stop praying. He was told to do that. Well,
did he do that? Did he listen? No, he didn't.
He really had a need. He really desired to see Jesus
and that Jesus would hear his cry. And so the effect upon him
was the reverse. They rebuked him, but he cried
so much the more, thou son of David, have mercy upon me. He cried so much the more, he
needed Jesus. What a good thing, you know,
when we come to a position where we need Jesus, And we may not receive any encouragement. We may receive encouragement
to stop seeking, to stop praying. You know, the devil will tell
us it's no use praying. You may as well give up. You
may as well stop. But in this case, you see, he
didn't listen. His case was very needful and
he knew here was Jesus close at hand he didn't want Jesus
to go out of his hearing and therefore he came in his way
and he cried so much the more thou son of David have mercy
on me isn't it a good illustration a good picture we have of a truly
needy soul someone that really desired God, to look upon him,
to hear his cry, to have mercy upon him. When the Spirit of
God works in our hearts and shows us perhaps our blindness, this
person was naturally blind, but we are all spiritually blind
until the Lord comes and opens our eyes. None of us have any
spiritual sight until that time. And therefore if we are spiritually
blind, we don't really understand the things of God. And yet we
recognise that we do need something. We realise that perhaps we have
been in opposition to God. We walked our own way, we planned
out our own life, we've done that that we wanted to do, and
everything may have fallen into place, and yet, it may be described
as this, there's an aching void that the world can never fill. There is no true peace in the
things of this world, however pleasant they may appear to be,
There's always something which is empty, something which is
vain, something which hasn't quite gone right, something which
has spoiled it. The only true happiness and the
only true peace is through the knowledge, coming to the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ as that one who we can call upon in our
time of need, and that one who does hear, and that one who does
answer prayer. So this man, he persevered against
opposition. If you and I are coming to Jesus,
there'll be opposition. The devil will oppose with all
his might. And suppose it's true that nearer
we come to Jesus, the greater the opposition. The devil hates
any possibility of you and me coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we shouldn't be surprised
to receive opposition and to have it pointed out to us, well,
there's no point in praying, there's no point in seeking for
Jesus because you prayed so often and in any event, nothing's happened. Well, perhaps we haven't prayed
in faith. Perhaps we've just used a form
of words. But, blessed be God, when it
comes to that time when there is a real cry in our heart, a
real prayer from our heart, not just words from our mind, but
it is really as the Spirit indicts prayer. It won't be a fancy prayer,
it won't be a clever prayer, but it will be a real prayer. The publican's prayer was very
simple, wasn't it? But it was very real. God, be
merciful to me, a sinner. This man really was praying in
the same way, wasn't he? Thou Son of David, have mercy
upon me. Well, he wasn't put off. He pressed
on. He pressed on. And my friends,
in spiritual life, there is a pressing on. The Apostle Paul speaks about
pressing toward the mark set before us in the gospel. Oh,
the Christian life is not an easy path. It's not a smooth
path. this continual opposition. And that opposition is generated
in our heart by the devil, who swiftly comes, whenever he has
an opportunity, to attack us and to try and stop us praying.
Sometimes, you know, when you try and pray, and you may desire
to pray, and yet, as you start to pray, it's as though the devil
comes alongside. and distracts you. So you find yourself thinking
about something else that you never intended to, and you find
that prayer isn't as easy as you thought it would be, and
you come then to a position where, rather than a fanciful prayer,
it's really more of a groan But you know God marks a groan, he
marks a sigh. And what does that really signify?
That signifies that you're sick of yourself. You're sick of your
failures. And you desire that God will
look upon you and have mercy. And although there's opposition
then in that situation, you cannot stop. You have to press on. You have to pry on. Oh, he cried so much the more. The devil couldn't stop him.
He tried to. And devil cannot stop God's people
in the appointed time when the Lord comes and grants that access
in prayer, that liberty in prayer. Again, not praying long prayers. but simple prayers from the heart. Oh, this is the great need today,
the great need we have to pray from the heart, that God would
bless us with true prevailing prayer. How needful it is that
we may not be restrained, but that as we find opposition, God,
give us grace to pray harder. So much the more. Jesus of Nazareth
passeth by. We don't want him to pass by
and pass us by. We want him to hear our cries. We want him to hear our prayers. Oh, the day in which we live,
how we need God to come. and bless us with that right,
true spirit of pervading prayer. Because Jesus, Jesus was there. And Jesus, we read, Jesus stood,
he stopped, and commanded him to be brought unto him. Jesus had heard his cry. There
he was, crying out more and more, We almost can see, can't we,
his great desperation that God would indeed have mercy upon
him, that he wouldn't go by and see him no more. He wanted Jesus
to take notice of him. Is that your cry? Is that your
desire? That the great God, the Lord
Jesus Christ, will come. and take notice of you, so that he will hear your prayer,
and he will answer. Well, the Lord came, didn't he?
The Lord was here, and as he was passing by, he heard this
blind man calling out, and the command was to be brought unto
him. brought to the Saviour. And when
he was come near, he asked him, what wilt thou that I should
do unto thee? Now, of course, he had a very
great need, didn't he? And he said, Lord, that I may
receive my sight. Well, we may have the same need
in a spiritual way. We may not seem to be able to
see our way. We can't seem to see the path, the path of life. We can't seem
to see the right direction to the Lord Jesus. And so we need
spiritually to receive our sight. Well, it was a good answer, wasn't
it? Lord, that I may receive my sight. That sight so that we might indeed
see the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, be blessed with that true
spiritual sight. Lord, that I may receive my sight. His prayer so far had been answered,
hadn't he? God had mercy upon him. And now the Lord was inviting
him to pray for the detailed, as it were. You see, the prayer
of mercy is a very broad one, isn't it? It's a very good one.
It's a very necessary one. But that mercy If received is
to direct us to more detailed requests. And here was a detailed
request that he might receive his sight. Now what a blessing
it is if you and I receive spiritual sight. And if you and I pray
for spiritual sight. If the Lord has invited us, he's
come to us and asked us, what will thou that I should do unto
thee? We may not have been able to get past that prayer. Oh Lord, thou son of David, have
mercy upon me. And let's just hark back to that
phrase because it is important because he wasn't praying to
the unknown God. He wasn't crying out to the unknown
God. He was crying out to the true
God. And therefore if we are able
to cry out to the true God from our heart, we can believe that
the Lord will hear our prayer and then perhaps invite us to
ask in detail, Lord that I might receive my
sight. What a wonderful blessing it
is if we're brought to that simple position and condition to desire
that we might receive spiritual sight. It may perhaps be like
that man in the Bible who had his sight open so far and he
was asked what he saw And he said, I see men as trees walking. That meant he didn't see things
clearly. And it's a good thing to be honest
in the things of God and not to pretend that we understand
and see things clearly. It's a good place to be honest
and to be inquiring And if people say, well, do you understand
that? Don't be ashamed to say, well,
I don't. I don't really understand that.
But don't say you do understand it when you don't. And so here
was this gracious request, Lord, that I may receive my side. Did the Lord turn away from him? The Lord said, receive thy sight. Receive thy sight. Thy faith
hath saved thee. Jesus of Nazareth passeth by. What was this man blessed with
then? The gift of faith to pray. The gift of faith to persevere
in praying against all opposition and not to give up. It would
have been very easy, wouldn't it? When the people rebuked him
and told him to be quiet, to stop praying. But no, he cried
out much more. So much the more. He needed Jesus. He had an urgency in his prayers. What a blessing it is, isn't
it, to have urgency in our prayers, to have real concern that our
prayers might be answered. How needful it is today to come
like that, with that cry, that cry from the heart and that earnest
desire that the Lord would come and He would have mercy. He will
hear our prayers. And how do we come in faith,
believing that Almighty God does hear and does answer prayer? That which is not of faith is
sin. How many sins have we committed
in our prayers? How many prayers are we uttered
without faith? How important it is to be blessed
with true, simple faith as we come in prayer believing that
God can and will have mercy. This man was blessed with faith. We're told he was. Thy faith
hath saved me. And we know, of course, that
faith is the gift of God. So this man couldn't glory in
any of his own ability. He couldn't say, well, it's my
wonderful prayers that have been answered. Not at all. God had mercy. God had given
him faith to believe, given him faith to press on and to persevere
in prayer. and to be blessed then with the
wonderful favour of receiving his sight. Well how needful it
is for us today in our spiritual life to be blessed with spiritual
sight and to be blessed with that faith to believe that Jesus
can give us sight. Those things perhaps which we
don't understand, those things which we just can't perceive
perhaps. to come to God in faith. Perhaps it may be that we need
God to come and to direct us. He will come and bless us and
speak to us and tell us, this is the way, walk ye in it when
you turn to the right hand or when you turn to the left. It
may be an answer to our request God's mercy, to be directed in
such a way and then to come and to pray such a prayer in faith. We don't recognise at the time,
oh well that was a prayer of faith and that wasn't a prayer
of faith. But I do believe this, that when God comes and gives
us a spirit of prayer, it is then a prayer of faith And we
do have the evidence in our souls that our prayers have entered
in, through the merits of the Saviour, into the holy place. These times are precious and
these times are special. But my friends, we should seek
after them. Be blessed with that true prevailing prayer, to believe
that we come to a God who can and does answer prayer. How often
we come without faith. Thy faith hath saved thee. Well, what did the man do then? What did the man do? Did he just
accept it, the wonderful blessing of natural sight? Did he just
go on his way? We're told, who had received
his sight, what did he do? He followed the Lord and he glorified God. What a
good outcome, wasn't it? What a good outcome, to follow
the Lord, follow that One who had heard and answered his prayer.
Nothing better, was there? And in so doing, his that his
clear concern was to glorify God. That of course is the real
purpose of your life and my life, to glorify God. And if God has
come to us, if he's passed by, Jesus, Nazareth, passeth by,
if he's heard our cries, heard our prayers, stood still, called
us to him and asked us, what wilt thou that I should do unto
thee? And then we come and we pray
to our God and the Lord has seen fit to give us that living faith
and blessed us with an answer to our prayers. What's the result? Our result should be to glorify
God because that which God has done in us and for us will be
so that His name might be honoured and glorified. And I believe
the true Church of God, they want to do this and they love
to do this because they realise in some small measure what a
debt they owe to Almighty God. Almighty God has been so gracious
to them and come to them. And then to realise that that
same almighty God, in granting them that mercy, it's because
he has, in his great love, delivered their soul. In bringing them
into spiritual light, giving them spiritual eyes, it means
that their soul has been delivered from that state of death. my
friends, that deliverance has come through the work of the
Saviour, through the finished work of the Saviour. And therefore
we can say that the cost to give that liberty, to give that answer
to our prayers, has been that the Lord Jesus Christ has had
to pass through an agonising death in order to comply with
the holy will of his father. Now then, if we have some little
understanding of the cost to almighty God in answering our
prayers, surely our concern should be to bring glory and honour
to our great God and to acknowledge this God so high so mighty, has
heard my prayer. And I believe in that situation
we come like this. We come to prove that in fact
God gave us the prayer. God put the prayer into our hearts. To pray a right prayer. To pray a prayer that will receive
his blessing, we'll receive his answer. And we have to realise
then, it's all of grace. It's all of his mercy toward
us, all of his love, his infinite favour that has come and caused
us to cry unto him in a time when he may be found and to have
received answers to our prayers. so that we then may glorify God." And the statement here is powerful,
isn't it? We don't read, well, this man,
he then went back to his house and sat there for some time and
just wondered what he should do and how he should act. Immediately,
he received his sight and followed him. The Scripture is very beautiful,
isn't it? And you know, what a blessing
it is when a child of God is blessed by the Spirit of God
and has answers to their prayers and their desires, like the Apostle
says and like the Saviour says, to take up our cross and to follow
the Saviour. Immediately. Follow Him. Glorifying God. You know, and
it had a wonderful effect. A wonderful effect. And all the
people, when they saw it, gave praise unto God. What blessing
there was. What followed from initially
just a simple cry. How it developed. They told him that Jesus of Nazareth
passeth by. And the simple cry was, Jesus,
thou son of David, have mercy upon me. And we see the whole
scene develop from there, didn't it? Well, it's a blessing, isn't
it, in our life when we are given that prayer, that cry. I like
to refer to it as a cry because This man cried out. And as I
sometimes said, you know, when a little baby needs attention,
it can't speak, it can't talk, what does it do? It cries. What a blessing it is when we
perhaps are lost for words, but we can cry to our God in words
like this. Thou son of David, have mercy
on me. Because it's comprehensive, isn't
it? We have many needs. We need much mercy. He has to
have a simple faith and a simple prayer. And so, then there was
the opposition. Don't forget, you and I will
receive opposition. The devil will say, well, no
point in praying anymore. The Lord won't hear anyway. You're
just too bad. You're just too far off. You
just ignored the Lord too many times. The Lord won't hear. Don't listen to the devil. He's
a liar. He always has been. He always
will be. And so, this man, he wasn't put
off by the rebuke of those people. He cried out much more, much
more. Oh, he had a real need, didn't
he? He needed his eyes to be opened, and so do we, in a spiritual
sense. We need our eyes to be opened.
My friends, unless our eyes are opened, we will remain blind
and we will never see the way that leads to eternal life. So
then he cried the more and the Lord, Jesus stood, he stopped. And he commanded him to be brought,
commanded him to be brought. The devil couldn't stop, the
devil can't stop the commands of God. You see, when the Lord
works, when the Lord calls, the work is done because it emanates
from God. And the devil cannot fight Almighty
God. He's tried and he's lost the
battle. And so the simple question then,
what wilt thou that I should do unto thee? God came tonight
and asked you that question. What would you say? What would
you say? Well, I want this and I want
that and I could do with a bit more money here and for this
and that. Or to say very simply, Lord, that I may receive my sight,
my spiritual sight. And I may have those eyes which
are opened to behold the glories of the Savior and to by faith
look forward to the promised land of eternal happiness. And
so this man received this straight answer. Receive thy sight, thy
faith, and save thee. How important for all of us to
be blessed with faith. You know, we read, don't we,
in the 11th chapter of the Hebrews, those worthy people, they weren't
any different to you and me. They were sinners of the earth.
God gave them faith. And my friends, God gives us
faith. God gave this man faith. And
as God had given him this faith, he said, receive thy sight. And
immediately, see, God gave him the sight. And he followed him. My friends, it's a blessing to
be a follower of the Lord. When we consider what he's done
for us, giving his life and dying upon Calvary's cross, surely
we should long to take up our cross daily and following him,
desiring that his name might be honoured and glorified and
the people may observe it. That many may see it in this
dark age in which we live, that people may see that we have been
with Jesus and have learned of him all the people when they
saw it gave praise unto God. Amen.