We're going to begin. All right. We'll be in Mark chapter 10.
Mark chapter 10, and our text will be in verses 46 through
52. Mark 10, 46 through 52. And our
title is Faith Obtains Mercy. Faith Obtains Mercy. Now by this time in our Lord's
ministry, he's on his way to Jerusalem. to redeem his people,
and many were following the Lord, but they were following him for
various reasons. Some were following him having
left all, as Peter and the other disciples, but some because they
thought that they could benefit in some way in the flesh. Our
Lord said in John 6, 26 to some that were following him earlier,
he said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye seek me not because
ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat the loaves and were
filled." So many saw the miracles that Christ did. Many saw his
miracles and yet they did not believe him. And that's a testament
to our fallen nature as men. Turn over to John 5. John chapter
5 and go to verse 39. And what we see in the scriptures,
throughout the scriptures, what the Lord is revealing to us is
that man is dead. He's dead in his trespasses and
sins. All he has is a human nature.
He doesn't have a spiritual nature. So that he cannot, he will not,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that he might have eternal life. And it doesn't matter if you're
religious at all. Religion doesn't save anyone.
Christ saves his people, not religion. And look at John 5,
39. Search the scriptures, Christ said to the religious Jews, for
in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which
testify of me. So that without God-given faith,
we need God-given faith. Without that, religion will profit
us nothing. And he says, verse 40, ye will
not come to me that ye might have life. And that's the testimony
of man. You will not come to me that
you might have life. And so Christ and God the Father, they don't
leave salvation in the hands of man. They don't wait for man
to get a clue and for man to figure out his need of salvation. It's by grace. Salvation is by
grace. The Lord God works salvation. He gives his people faith because
of what Christ has done. Look at verse 42, Christ says
it, But I know ye that ye have not the love of God in you. I
am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not. If another
shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. How can ye believe
which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh
from God only? You're not seeking God's gift
of salvation, because in the flesh We're dead. In the flesh,
we're in darkness. We don't know our need of Christ. We don't understand that and
think, therefore, that by our works, by the things that we
do, the good things we do, the bad things that we avoid, we
think in our natural flesh that this is what saves us, that this
is why God will be merciful to us. That's natural man, but the
scriptures are constantly revealing no, we're dead in trespasses
and sins. That's why God sent Christ. That's why he sent his son to
do that work of salvation, to deliver his people from darkness
and from death. So, men with natural sight, they
could see Jesus, they could see his miracles, they could see
his face, but they could not believe God, they did not, and
they could not believe on Christ for salvation. But here we have
this blind man in our text named Bartimaeus. Look back in Mark
10, verse 46, put a marker because this will be our text. Verse
46, it says, And they came to Jericho. And as the Lord 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. Now, Bartimaeus never saw a miracle
that the Lord performed. Bartimaeus never saw Christ. He didn't see him at all. And how many today of us are
like Bartimaeus? We're all like Bartimaeus. We've
never seen Christ. We've never seen the miracles
that he performed there. in the flesh. So Bartimaeus only
knew Christ by the hearing of what others said. You see how
that's why we're very similar to Bartimaeus. We only know him
by what others have testified of him. We didn't see his miracles,
we haven't seen his face, and yet God has sent his gospel that
we might know him according to truth, according to spirit, and
in truth. And God doesn't require, what
we see in this is that God doesn't require the natural sight of
man. He doesn't require the works
of the flesh. God doesn't look to us in our
flesh to work salvation, but rather God's power is what redeems
us from death. It's God's power that redeems
us from death and darkness and delivers us from that bondage.
So what we see in the scriptures is that the Lord God, he deals
with the heart. He works salvation in the heart. He gives his spirit, he gives
his power, and he circumcises the heart so that it's not a
work of the flesh, but it's a work of God. It's a divine power. It's a miracle of grace wherein
he delivers us from that spiritual death and that condemnation of
the law and gives us light and life and liberty in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Turn over to 2 Corinthians 3.
2 Corinthians 3 and go to verses 12 through 15. And what we see here in 2 Corinthians
3.12 is that those who hope in Christ, those who are looking
to Christ, not their own works, not something in their flesh
to speak well for them, but those who look to Christ, they have
a good and a sure hope. It says there in verse 12, Paul
writing to the believers, seeing then that we have such hope,
we use great plainness of speech. That is, we preach Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. Not man's works. We're not exalting
and lifting up and raising up man to excite him and motivate
him in the flesh to do something for Christ. We're saying, man,
sinner, you can do nothing. Christ must do all for his people. So it's not by our works, but
we declare that salvation is of the Lord, all right? And what
we see though today all around us is that man-made religion
deals a lot with the flesh. They deal a lot with teaching
people and guiding people and steering them towards morality
and steering them towards the law and to looking to something
that they can do better in the flesh. And they tell them, if
you don't do these things, then you can't be a Christian. If
you don't do what we say, and you don't do it the way we say
it, you can't call yourself a Christian. And so they turn your eyes away
from looking to Christ, and they turn you to look to the flesh.
They turn you to worry and to fear about the flesh and what
you can do. And we do declare that man is
a sinner. And that should wake us up and
reveal to us we have a great need, but it's not going to be
found in your flesh. Your salvation will not be found
in the flesh. It's to turn you to the one who
does save his people, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says there
in 2 Corinthians 3, 13, it's not as Moses, which put a veil
over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly
look to the end of that which is abolished. But their minds
were blinded. For until this day remaineth
the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament,
which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day when Moses
is read, The veil is upon the heart. And so it doesn't matter
how these churches that speak a little bit about Christ, but
turn their flock to the law and cause them to look to the law
for morality, to know how to walk. They turn them to the law.
It doesn't matter how often they try. There's a veil on the heart.
Without Christ, There's no light. There's no salvation. It doesn't
matter how moral, how humanistic you are, what good works you
do or don't do, you're still dead in your trespasses and sins.
But it wasn't just the religious Jews that had this problem. It's
all Gentiles. It's every one of us. And Paul
said to the Ephesians in Ephesians 4, 17 and 18, This I say, therefore,
and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other
Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding
darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart." So
you see whether or the religious Jew, or even a religious Gentile,
there's a veil over the heart. When you're just looking to Moses
for salvation, to know how to walk before God, there's a veil
over the heart because we think that by our works, by our deeds,
we are working a righteousness for ourselves to be accepted
with God. And if you don't believe that and you're just walking
according to the darkness of the Gentiles, there's a blindness
of the heart. We're still walking in darkness.
So whether you're religious or not religious, without Christ,
there's nothing but darkness and blindness. So naturally,
when we look at Bartimaeus, when we're looking at him, we're thinking,
wow, what a poor miserable, blind, wretched, awful sinner. That's
just terrible that this guy is so miserable and he has no hope.
But what we fail to see is that, like him, we're the blind, poor,
wretched, miserable sinner. We're the ones who are naked.
We're the ones who can't work a righteousness for ourselves. And whereas Bartimaeus, yes,
physically he was blind, but he knew it. He knew that he was
blind, and he knew and saw his need of Christ. We, in the flesh,
don't see our need of Christ. We think that because I see and
because I hear, I can do all these things, I can work salvation
for myself, and don't see our nakedness and how what an awful
state we're in. We're the miserable wretches
and we're the ones that need Christ and we need his hope and
his salvation to save us. Our minds are the ones that are
blinded. There's a veil on our heart by nature, our thoughts
are vanity by nature, and our understanding as we come forth
as sons and daughters of Adam, we come forth with a darkened
heart and a darkened understanding. But yet here's this man who's
blind Right? And he believes Christ. He believes
Christ. And there's some here that, there's
many here, all of us here have sight, we have hearing, and we
have many means available to us, and yet how few really believe
Christ. How few really look to the Lord
Jesus Christ for salvation and rest in Him. and have committed
all things to him for the hope of their salvation and deliverance
in that great and final day." So this man only heard of Christ
from others just like we hear today from others. We don't see
Christ's miracles. We don't see what he did there
when he walked in the flesh and yet he believed. It says there
in Mark 10 47, 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. So we see that salvation is not
a natural work. We don't look to the flesh, and
we don't preach the flesh. We're not talking about the law
for salvation. We're speaking about Christ,
because only Christ alone can deliver. And salvation is helped,
and it's not hindered by the flesh. That is, our flesh hinders
us from coming to the Lord and believing on him, but God isn't
prevented from saving us because our flesh doesn't believe. God
is able to overcome the flesh. Remember, it's they that are
whole, they have no need of the physician, but they that are
sick. And Christ came not to call the righteous, but sinners
to repentance. So we need to be brought to see
that we're the sin-sick sinner. We're the ones that are blind.
We're the ones that have a dark heart and a dark understanding.
And the Lord, through the gospel, by His power, by His Spirit giving
us life, He makes the sinner to know that. When he's determined
to save that sinner, he makes them to know, I'm the problem. I'm the one who's wicked. I'm
the one who can't save myself, and yet you sent Christ to do
that work for me. Lord, have mercy upon me. So
salvation is a spiritual work, and God is just to forgive his
people, not because we've done anything good or right to earn
it. God is just to forgive because He sent His Son, who obeyed Him
in all things, who willingly became a servant and went up
there to Jerusalem, bearing the sins of His people on the cross
before Holy God, who poured out His wrath upon Him in the place
of the sinner, in the place of His people, who had earned that
damnation and earned that condemnation by their own evil works, by their
works of righteousness that they thought they were doing to please
God, Christ bore the penalty of our sin, and He paid the redemption
price with His own blood. His blood covers us and washes
away the sin of His people. And the Spirit of God, because
Christ rose from the dead, the Spirit of Christ comes, and gives
life to his people that they should know what Christ has done
and accomplished for them. what He's worked and done for
them. That's why we speak of it's a spiritual work. We can't
give ourselves life. We can't birth ourselves to know
this. God must do this for us. And He did all the work. And
so for this cause, Christ came to deliver us from darkness.
And it says in Isaiah 42, verses 6 and 7, this is God the Father
speaking to the Son. He said, I, the Lord, have called
thee in righteousness and will hold thine hand. will keep thee
and give thee this is to Christ for a covenant of the people
for a light of the Gentiles to open the blind eyes to bring
out the prisoners from the prison and then that sit in darkness
out of the prison house and then earlier he said in Isaiah 35
5 then the eyes of the blind shall be open and the ears of
the deaf shall be unstopped. And we hear this, and those who
are in the flesh hear this, and they say, well, how does this
apply to me? I'm not blind. I'm not deaf. I'm not dead. I'm alive. How
is this going to help me? Well, in reality, in the spiritual
sense, we are blind, and we are deaf, and we are bound and in
prison and in darkness until the Lord gives us light life
and liberty and delivers us from that bondage and that death that
we're in naturally. So Bartimaeus, he heard that
Christ was passing by. Someone told him that Jesus of
Nazareth is going by. But when he heard Jesus of Nazareth
is going by, He understood this is Jesus, the seed of David,
the son of David. This is the Christ, is what he
was confessing. It's not just a man from Nazareth. This is the Christ, the promised
seed of the woman that God promised there in the garden. So he begged
for mercy. While there were many there that
saw nothing more than Jesus of Nazareth, he heard and saw, this
is the Christ. This is the one whom God sent
to save his people. And so, Artemius needed mercy,
and for all he knew, Christ may never pass that way again. He may never come that close
to where he is, and so he made sure that he cried out for mercy,
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And only God can
put such a cry in the heart of a sinner. He's the one who makes
his people to know, I'm the sinner, I have a need, and I don't know
if I'm ever going to hear this gospel again. God, have mercy
on me. Save me, the sinner. Deliver
me, don't pass me by, but have mercy upon my soul. And none, they tried to quiet
him, and none could quiet him. He just cried out all the more,
knowing that he alone, this Christ, is the only one that can save
me. And so we see here that Bartimaeus
made use of the means that he had. And he couldn't do much. He was a blind man. He was poor. He couldn't do much, but he made
use of the means that he had. What means did he have? Though
he couldn't do much, he could beg. He could beg. And he was
out there begging for some hope, for some sustenance of life. And so he went to the highway
between Jericho and Jerusalem, which was a busy highway. In
shame, he went up there humbly and was begging for bread, begging
for some good. to happen to him, because all
he could do was beg. And one day then, the Messiah
came passing by, and he heard, and he cried out, and Christ
showed him mercy. Showed him mercy. So, the relevance
here is that the church, it's a picture of, well, the church
preaches the gospel. And that gospel, and the church
is likened to a highway in scripture. Isaiah 35 verse 8 says, And in
highways shall be there and a way, and it shall be called the way
of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over
it. What's it mean by the unclean?
Who are the unclean? Those who are righteous in themselves
who think that they can work a righteousness. They're the
unclean ones, but for those it shall be for those the wayfaring
men, though fools, shall not err therein. And Bartimaeus is
one such wayfaring man. He's a fool. He's one who is
ignorant of the ways of God and the ways of righteousness, and
so he's crying out to the one who can save him, to the one
who can have mercy upon him. And so, We ask ourselves, am
I a fool? Am I blind too? Am I death? Am I spiritually dark and do
not know how to save myself? Or are we one of the wise of
this world, one of the wise men of this world who are going to
hell in our own wisdom, in our own righteousness, in our own
good works, trusting ourselves? We've got to be brought to see
that we don't have a righteousness and a way to save ourselves. So we make use of the means which
God has given to us. We go to that highway, to the
church where the gospel is being preached, where Christ is exalted.
Not man's works, not lifting up man, but lifting up Christ
and where he is preached in plainness clarity and simplicity because
that's the only good for our souls. Doesn't matter, we could
be theologians and still go into hell. We need Christ and Christ
alone can save us. So has God shown you your need? If you need him, he's merciful
to the needy sinner. He's a merciful and a gracious
God to the needy sinner. He says, where two or three are
gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
Go to the highway, go to where the gospel is preached. And he
says in Hebrews 10.25, we're not to forsake the assembling
of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting
one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. Have you grown weary with the
preaching of Christ? Have you heard enough of Christ?
Do you know all that you need to know? So that's no big deal.
If I miss when the brethren are gathered together, I don't need
to be there. I could go and do other things. Or do you see your
need of Christ? When the brethren are gathered
together, we should make every effort to be there, because the
Lord blesses His people there. He passes them by, and when He's
going there, that's where we're going to hear Christ, and we're
going to hear our need of Him, and in mercy He ministers that
word to His people. And it's good for the brethren
to hear the same thing, right? It's good for us to listen to
other men preaching on sermon audio and things, but isn't it
a peculiar blessing when you're hearing the same thing that your
brothers are hearing? And the same thing at the same
time, and you think, did you hear that? I heard this. And
that's where the Lord creates that unity of mind and that singleness
of heart so that at the same time, you're all of one mind
and of one purpose and say, you know what, we should do this
now. We should begin doing this. And so it creates that unity
there. But the problem is, the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But unto
us which are saved, it is the power of God. So then Paul would
say, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. So it's a blessed thing for us
to be able to gather together as a body and to hear that word
preached. And I know that God is sovereign. We know, we declare that here
very plainly and clearly that God is sovereign. He's going
to save all his people, all for whom Christ died and shed his
blood. They are and shall be saved, nothing preventing it.
And yet the Lord says, for these things I will be sought. I will
be sought of. He teaches us to seek Him and
to beg Him and to cry out to Him for mercy. As He said through
Ezekiel in 36-37, I will yet for this be inquired of by the
house of Israel to do it for them. And so we seek Him. And
we don't play games. We don't try to think highly
of ourselves that we don't need that and everything's going to
be fine. Because we see how many Souls have been shipwrecked through
through the years how many people we know that once professed Christ
that walk with him no more and And you see it in the scriptures
for Demas hath forsaken me having loved this present world even
Demas Paul said Alright now, so Bartimaeus cries out for mercy
from Jesus the son of David. And we read in verse 48, many
charged him that he should hold his peace. Now it's possible
that some of these that told him to be quiet were some of
Christ's friends, maybe. They knew that he, since they
got through Jericho, Christ had been very, or even on the way
to Jericho, Christ had been very focused about going to Jerusalem. He had just said to them what
would happen to him as the Son of Man, what's going to happen
to him when he goes to Jerusalem, and he's very focused. But more
likely, these are enemies of Christ because they're actually
upset about the reference that he's making, calling him the
Son of David, because that's a very That's a pretty critical
title that he's ascribing to Christ, to Jesus of Nazareth. He's saying, this is the Christ.
This is the son of David, this is the Christ. And they hear
that, and they don't like that. And Matthew and Luke record it
saying that they rebuked him. They rebuked him and told him,
you need to be quiet. You need to stop saying this
about this Jesus of Nazareth. And so they became angry with
him because he was saying, this is the Christ. And we read in
verse 48, and many charged him that he should hold his peace,
but he cried the more a great deal, thou son of David, have
mercy on me. So what we see there is as Christ
was nearing the end of his earthly ministry, as he's nearing Jerusalem
now, because this is the last time he's coming this way, he's
going to Jerusalem, you can see that the Spirit was burdening
the disciples, he was burdening his people, that is becoming
more and more evident that this is indeed the Christ. You religious
Jews are going to crucify the Son of God. You're going to crucify
the Christ that God has sent to save His people. And He was
making it very evident and known to them what they were about
to do. And it's relevant to us today because many know Christ. Many believe that Jesus of Nazareth
really is the Christ. And they say nice things about
Him. They call Him the Son of God. And yet they really don't
believe Him. They don't look to Christ for
everything. Christ is just a component, a little factor in their whole
salvation. He's not everything. He's not
all. They're not trusting and believing in Him for salvation.
And so when they stand before others, they feel ashamed. They
feel ashamed of the hope that they have in Christ. But the
reality is that that end day is hastening on. That final day
is hastening on, and the end is nearer now than when we first
believed. And that final day is hastening
on, and so will you allow the opposition of this world to oppose
you and to cause you to feel ashamed so that you're afraid
to open your mouth, or that you don't open your mouth and confess
Christ before men? His people may fear at times,
they may feel a sense of concern and fear, but The Lord enables
you to stand with Christ, to open your mouth and to confess
Him before men, because you just don't know what's going to happen.
Yeah, you may be ostracized for it, you may be put aside for
your hope in Christ, but you may also be used by the Lord
to be speaking the truth to another believer that's yet in darkness
and blind in their sin. All right, in Matthew 10, 32
through 34, our Lord said, whosoever therefore shall confess me before
men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in
heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also
deny before my Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am
come to send peace on earth. I am come not to send peace,
but a sword. And so this world is going to
hate and despise those that love the Lord Jesus Christ. But even
though we suffer in the flesh for our love and confession of
Christ, your Heavenly Father knows. He knows the things that
you have need of, and He will provide. He'll strengthen and
sustain you and give you what you need, and we'll never be
ashamed for confessing Christ. And that day, in that day of
judgment, we shall not be ashamed. for believing on Christ and resting
in him alone and trusting all our salvation to Christ. Paul
wrote to the Romans saying, for the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. And think about Bartimaeus. Did Bartimaeus go away ashamed?
When he cried out for Christ, have mercy on him, was he ashamed?
Was he just left and bypassed and forgotten about? Or did he
go away rejoicing? Let's see that there. So Bartimaeus
cries out to Christ and it says in verse 49, and Jesus stood
still. Christ stood still. When he heard
this man crying and begging for mercy, Jesus stood still. This is the one for whom all
things are created and by whom all things were created for his
glory. And this one stands still at
the cry of a needy sinner who can't save himself. And if you
think about it, just how incredible that is, Christ is, His heart,
His mind is weighed down with the burden that He's about to
take upon Himself the sin of His people. He's going up to
the cross where He'll be misused and mistreated by Jew and Gentile
alike, but more than that, He's going to be bearing the shame
and the sin of His people before a holy God whom he's had fellowship
with for all eternity. And he's going to endure that
separation from God his Father for a time to put away the sin
of his people. He's going to die and be laid
in the grave, trusting that the Father will raise him from the
dead, as he said, that the Father will not leave him in the grave
to see corruption. And it says in Luke 9.51, when
the time has come that he should be received up, he steadfastly
set his face to go to Jerusalem. And that's what he's doing now.
He's going to Jerusalem to redeem his people. And we read of, in
Joshua, Joshua 10, it speaks of when Joshua prayed that the
Lord would allow the day to go on longer, that Israel would
defeat his enemy. Israel would defeat them, and
the Lord, it says, hearkened to the voice of a man. Nope,
never hearkened to the voice of a man like that before, nor
since then. And yet here we see the Christ,
the Son of God who created that very Son that stood still. We
see Him, Himself, on His way to redeem His people, standing
still for that needy sinner. What a hope and encouragement
for us who are needy sinners, who have no means, no ability
to save ourselves, but Christ heard the cry of a beggar and
had mercy upon Him. be encouraged. Christ stood still. So this man, we see the love
of Christ for him in what he did for this man. He blinded
this man. He allowed this man to be blind
that he would be able to show mercy to him here, that he would
come and heal his eyes and make him to see. And so Whatever afflictions
and trials and tribulations we go through, we tend to not like
it at all in the flesh. But as Isaiah said in Isaiah
65, 8, he said, there's a blessing in it. And God does it. And God
does all things. All things are in his hand and
all things are in his control. It's for a purpose. It's for
a purpose. Don't be angry and curse God. It's for a purpose. Keep begging
Him and seeking Him for mercy, and He'll reveal His will in
His time. We may not know exactly what that affliction was for,
but if you're drawn to Christ, and you're hoping and looking
to Christ, and you're more sweetly pressed to Christ than you were
before, that's a blessing. That's a mercy. No matter what
loss you lose in the flesh, for you to know Christ, nothing could
be more precious and more needful than Him. And it says, Jesus
stood still and commanded him to be called. And they called
the blind man, saying unto him, be of good comfort, rise. He
calleth thee. And so Christ, you know, He caused
that man to be blind, He healed that man, or He passed by that
man that He might show him mercy in the time of His love. He caused
someone to come and speak of Christ that He knew this is the
Son of David, and He commanded that that man be brought to Him,
and He called that man himself. He called him and then he spoke
graciously to him and he said, go thy way, thy faith hath made
thee whole. And then Christ went on to Jerusalem
and redeemed Bartimaeus, delivering him from all his sins and condemnation. Alright, now our final point
here. We see in Bartimaeus how that faith obtains mercy. God-given faith, that faith that
Christ worked in him. Because the Spirit gave that
to him. That's not of the flesh. That's of the Spirit of Christ.
And faith obtains mercy. It says in verse 50, when he
was called, he casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus. That is, Bartimaeus left his
works. He cast everything that he had
worked for, everything he gained, he just cast it behind him like
it was trash, because in comparison to Christ, all our works are
nothing but dumb. We have nothing to boast of and
nothing to glory in of ourselves. We glory in and boast in the
Lord Jesus Christ. As Paul said, that I may win
Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness,
not my own garment of my works, but the righteousness of Christ.
That I may know Him and be found in Him, not in my own righteousness,
but in that righteousness which God has provided for me in His
Son, Jesus Christ. All right, verses 51 and 52 of
our text. 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. So Bartimaeus asked that he would
receive his sight, and Christ gave him his sight, but more
than just the physical sight, he gave him faith, he gave him
spiritual sight. He took away that spiritual darkness
that was his, and we know that he had life and faith and that
Christ delivered him spiritually because when Christ said to him,
go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And when he said
go thy way, what did he find? He received his sight and followed
Jesus in the way. So the way that he went was following
Christ in his way. And that's what the believer
will do. They'll They're delivered from their sin, they're given
spiritual sight and delivered from that darkness and that prison,
and they follow Christ. They take up the cross and they
follow him all the days of their life. I pray the Lord will bless
that word to your hearts. Let's pray and then we'll be
dismissed for about 12 minutes. Lord, we thank you for your mercy
that you have upon sinners. And Lord, like Bartimaeus, We're
blind, Lord. Spiritually, we are blind and
deaf and ignorant and fools and unable to work righteousness
for ourselves. But we thank you that you came
to do that very work of salvation in its entirety. And Lord, we
ask that you would have mercy upon us. Give us that faith,
give us life to look to and to hope and to cry out and beg for
mercy from Christ alone, not trusting our own works. And Lord,
we know that there are many that are ill and sick, and we think
of even the wife of the man who takes care of this place, Lord,
and he asked for prayers of mercy. And so Lord, he seeks mercy. We ask that you would show him
mercy and reveal to him that you indeed are the Lord God,
the God of heaven and earth, and that there is none like you.
And Lord, we pray that you would be with us again in the next
hour. We pray that you take these words,
Lord, and separate the precious from the vile and lay to our
hearts that which we have need of hearing. We pray this in Christ's
name, our Lord and Savior. Amen.