Okay, turn with me to Mark, Mark
chapter 8. We're going to be looking at verses
22 through 26 today. Now this is another text that's
only recorded for us by Mark, just as we saw recently that
it was when he healed, when Christ healed the deaf and the dumb
man, that was only specifically mentioned by Mark. And we saw
how that was a picture of our salvation, how the Lord deals
with us in salvation. And here, too, again, we see
this healing of a blind man and how it, too, is a picture of
our salvation and how Christ saves us by his grace. So, What we're going to see this
morning is Christ's work of salvation for the sinner, and how Christ
uses that which is a means that is despised by us to save us,
the preaching of the gospel. But we'll see what he uses here,
it's his own spit, and how that's despised, that grosses us out,
that doesn't sound appealing to us. to heal this man, well
that's how the gospel is to the flesh. It doesn't appeal to us
and he uses a despised means to have the gospel to teach us
and to reveal to us what Christ has done for his people. And then we'll look at the end
the experience of the believer. Our title is, Seeing Clearly,
and we're gonna begin with looking at Christ's salvation for the
sinner. So look at verse 22, Mark 8,
22. And Christ cometh to Bethsaida,
and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch
him. Now, unlike man-made religion,
which teaches us that we can demand of God, that we can lay
claim to certain things and lay them upon God, that we can manipulate
God by our demands or by some actions that we do, or things
that we don't do anymore, that somehow we can motivate and manipulate
God to change his mind about us. in the sense that we can
earn a salvation by the things that we're doing and the things
that we've stopped doing now for his sake. We don't preach
that because they, such thoughts to think that God is moved by
the actions of men, that there's things that we can do and that
God just, for whatever reason, decides to forgive one person
but not forgive another, without there being any sacrifice for
sin, that it's something in the sinner that saves themselves,
that is to declare that God is willing to deny His own holiness,
that God's love is so abundant that He would deny His own holiness
and His justice. And God won't do that. God is
love. He is a God of love and He is
love. He's also a God who is holy,
holy, holy. He is just and he will not dishonor
his own name and dishonor his holiness for love, but because
of his love, he sent his son. He provided salvation. but it
wasn't at the expense or cost of his justice. He honored and
fulfilled his justice. So the scriptures reveal to us
a sovereign God who does as he pleases according to his holiness. Now we had seen last week how
the Lord left, he had just left the Pharisees. He left them in
their darkness, he left them in their sin, and now he comes
to Bethsaida, where this man is. There's a blind man here.
He becomes where this man is. So he leaves those sovereignly,
leaves them in the darkness, and now he comes to Bethsaida,
where this man is. And for all we can tell, he had
no thought of Christ. He wasn't seeking Christ. He
didn't know his need of Christ. He was there when Christ came.
And so he was brought to the Lord. And it says, well, it doesn't
really say whether it was his friends that brought him or if
possibly the disciples saw him. Bethsaida is where Peter and
Andrew and Philip are from. They may have seen this man before.
They may have known him. And when they arrived there,
they may have said, I know that man. Someone brought him to Christ
and they knew that Christ could heal this man. And we read in
verse 22, they bring a blind man unto him and besought him
to touch him. They asked Christ to have mercy
on him. how we come to this sovereign
God who is God. He's not falling all over himself
to try and save anybody that he can in the hopes that they'll
believe in him. He's sovereign and he works all
things according to purpose. It's according to purpose and
he's there now on purpose. He left the Pharisees on purpose
and now he's here in Bethsaida on purpose to do a work of grace
for this sinner here. So salvation is in the hands
of our God, and we don't demand or expect him to do anything. We ask him, Lord, would you please
have mercy upon me? Would you please be gracious
to me, a sinner who's unworthy of your kindness, unworthy of
your grace. Lord, have mercy on me." Show
this sinner here mercy. Would you fall on me, Lord, and
give me light, give me sight to see Christ Jesus, your salvation. They bring this man to Christ
because he is salvation, and it's salvation by grace. Not
our demanding, not our works. Now, in beholding Christ and
seeing Christ and seeing his work and what he does, that's
what opens up to us doctrine. That's what gives us our understanding.
Doctrine doesn't lead to Christ. Christ leads to the doctrine
that we hold and that we believe and that we teach here. And so,
one of the things that we see in this man that is just like
our case, is this man's in darkness. And that's how we are, brethren.
We're born into darkness. We come forth depraved and not
having any sight. We dwell in darkness. We have
no light. In John 1, 5, speaking of Christ,
we read, us. The darkness comprehends
it not. We don't know the things of God.
We don't understand that he's salvation. That's why when it's
revealed to you and you realize I've sat forever in churches
listening to messages and I never understood my depravity or I
never understood that Christ is salvation. I never understood
that he's the righteousness, that he's my righteousness. I
always thought there was still something I had to do. And I
was always confused and misunderstanding these things. But when he reveals
it, then we see it. But until then, we're in darkness.
We might understand We might understand a lot of things about
God and about Christ, and a lot about systems of doctrine and
theology, and still not be saved, still not know Jesus Christ,
who himself is salvation. In John 3, 19 and 20, the scriptures
tell us about our heart. They tell us about the natural
man left in darkness, where we read, this is the condemnation,
that light, Jesus Christ is that light, has come into the world,
and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds
were evil. For everyone that doeth evil
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds
should be reproved. And that's why we see throughout
the scriptures so many cases where men or women are left to
themselves and they don't believe. They refuse to believe Christ.
When you see those scriptures, it's not teaching us that it's
man's will that decides for or against Christ. Man's will always
refuses Christ. Man's will, left to himself,
will always deny Christ and refuse the salvation that God's provided
in Christ. It's only when grace is shown to the sinner that that
sinner believes Christ. Only those that are given that
grace, given the Spirit, made alive, given faith, they're the
ones who believe on Christ. Otherwise, they love darkness. That's where we all were, where
we all were saved out of. We all were bound in darkness. Christ said, I am come, a light
into the world that whosoever believeth on me should not abide
in darkness. And so he's the one who goes
forth and gives them light and breaks the chains that are holding
them in death and delivers them out of that prison of sin and
death and bondage that keeps us in darkness and loving it.
So here's this man, he's blind. And the Lord is going to show
him kindness and he's come sovereignly to Bethsaida to physically and
spiritually heal this blind man. And he's brought to the Lord
by his friends or the disciples and It's by the Lord doing this. As this man's blind, we see what
we are because the scriptures reveal to us that there's none
that understands and there's none that seeks after God. We're
not the ones who initiate the contact with God first and then
he shows us mercy. It's always God initiating the
first move. It's always God coming upon us
in grace and mercy to bring us, to cause us to see our need,
to cause us to seek after him. He's the one who initiates that,
who begins that. As Christ said, ye have not chosen
me, I have chosen you. That's in John 15, verse 16. And then in Ephesians 2, three
through five, speaking of the wicked works which we all had
done in the flesh, till the Lord saved us, we see that, it says
in Ephesians 2, 3, among whom also we all had our conversation
in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. But God. But God, who is rich
in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us, made us alive, together with
Christ, by grace are ye saved. So to say that we are gods, that
God now accepts us in the beloved, that he receives us and that
we have fellowship with him and are saved by his grace, to say
that we first believed him and that we first sought him is to
deny that we're saved by grace. And it's to call God a liar,
because throughout his scriptures, He shows to us over and over,
it's by His grace that we are saved, not something we have
done. That's just works salvation.
When you look at something that the sinner must do, that simply
works salvation. Now his friends, they prayed
for him. They besought Christ at the end
of verse 22. They besought Christ to touch
him. So Christ took this man by the hand and he takes him
apart from the town. And that's good for us to see. That's an encouragement for us
who have loved ones, family or friends that we pray for. We try to give them a message. We try to send them a message.
We try to speak a word in season, a comforting word to them, knowing
the things that they're going through. We try to We invite
them and say, just come, just come and listen, don't give anything
in the plate, don't feel any obligation, we're not going to
bind you here, but just come and just listen, just hear the
Gospel. And we pray for them, and we
don't see anything. And we wonder, what's going on,
Lord? Are you going to do anything
for them? And we see how Christ took this
man apart. from the town. And that's good
for us to see that there's a lot of times, all the time, we don't
know what the Lord is doing. We don't know how he's using
that word that we've said, how it works as a seed that may lay
dormant there for a long time before anything is seen or witnessed. And that's how the Lord works.
He works in secret, apart from us. It's not by what we want
or what we think or the way we think it should happen. It's
all according to His sovereign will and purpose. So you who
have loved ones and are praying for someone or for a few or many,
pray for them as often as the Lord lays them on your heart,
but wait on the Lord. Wait on Him and trust Him. Trust
Him. He knows how to save His people. Now here we see Christ's
divine separation between one sinner who receives his grace
and those who do not receive grace, those who are passed by
with no grace or mercy. It says in verse 23, he took
the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. Now why did Christ lead this
man out of the town? Look back in Matthew 11. Matthew
11, hold your place in Mark 8, because we're coming right back,
but Matthew 11, Remember, they're in Bethsaida,
and Christ had already been to Bethsaida, and he pronounced
woe against Bethsaida. He pronounced woe, and that's
what we see in verse 21, Matthew 11, 21. Woe unto thee, Chorazim! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For
if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in
Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth
and ashes. So now, just like those Pharisees
that he left back there in Dalmanutha, so he's leaving the town of Bethsaida
in darkness. He's not coming back there. He's
not doing a work of grace in that town for those townspeople
to see and to behold that this is indeed the Christ. And he
charged this man, actually look down in Mark 8 verse 26. Mark 8, 26 and 27, he charged
this man to tell no one. It says, And he sent him away
after he had healed them. He sent him away to his house,
saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.
And Jesus went out and his disciples into the towns of Caesarea Philippi. They didn't even go into the
town of Bethsaida. And it's possible that the townspeople
would eventually learn what Christ had done for this man, but he
didn't tell them. Christ wouldn't be there. When
they would find out, Christ wasn't there, and he wasn't going to
heal anyone else or show them any sign or do anything before
them. And so Christ judges that town
and the occupants. He leaves them to themselves. And there's no record, there's
no indication that this man told those people. Like when we read
about the dumb and the deaf man, and Christ said, don't tell anyone,
we read in Mark 7.36, that Christ charged them that they should
tell no man, but the more he charged them, so much the more
a great deal they published it." But not here in Bethsaida, there's
nothing recorded that says he went and told people and all
these people came out of the city wanting to see Christ and
bringing their sick. Nothing. He just left that town. And we see for this man, Christ
effectually leads him. He effectually calls him to himself. As we read in John 6, 44 and
45. No man can come to me except
the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him
up at the last day. And so it's a work of God that's
done for the sinner. It's his work because we must
be born again. Otherwise, we don't see the kingdom. We don't see the value of Christ.
We don't see the need of Christ. We don't see that Christ is really
Lord and Savior. We might have high opinions of
him, good thoughts about him, but he's not our Savior. and
we don't understand it. We think because we speak well
of Him or we have some system of theology that we know Him
and that we're saved by Him, but that's not salvation. Knowing
Christ, having Christ revealed in us by His Spirit, giving us
the new birth, that's how we know the Lord Jesus Christ. It's written in the Prophets,
and they shall be all taught of God. Not the flesh. The flesh
doesn't teach us these things. God teaches His people Christ. And every man therefore that
hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me, so
that it is an irresistible calling, as Christ said in John 6, 37,
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. So Christ came to this
cursed place, Bethsaida, that he had already pronounced a curse,
to show mercy to this one sinner. And isn't that a picture of what
Christ did for us? He came to this sin-cursed world. The sin we've committed in Adam
and in our own flesh, we're sinners. And Christ came to this sin-cursed
world to show his sheep mercy and grace and to deliver them
from the condemnation of their sin and their darkness so that
we see that we're unworthy. We haven't done anything to earn
salvation and to earn the mercy and the grace of God. It wouldn't
be grace if we earned it. It would be work. But because
it's grace, that means God is showing it to us even while we
are enemies. And we're all enemies until he
shows us grace and delivers us from that and applies the blood
of his son, which has redeemed us because it's through his death
that we are reconciled to God. And so that before Christ, before
his death, we're enemies of God. After his death, we are reconciled
to God. In time, he's going to bring
us to know that. He's going to cause us to hear the gospel,
and his Holy Spirit is going to come in and give us life.
Because if he doesn't attend the preaching of the gospel,
We ain't going to hear it. It isn't going to do anything
for us. But to those whom He calls and draws and brings to
Himself, He causes them to hear that Gospel and to believe it,
because He gives them all things necessary to lay hold of the
Lord Jesus Christ and to see and to know what He has done,
because He's applying it. He's the one doing all the work
for us. It's all by His grace and mercy. And we see how He's washed us
in His blood, that there was no other way but that He did
this work for us. And we see that and we rejoice
in what He's done. Isaiah 53, 4 and 5 says, Surely
He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did
esteem Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But He
was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities,
and the chastisement of our peace was upon Him And with his stripes
we are healed. So we understand what he bore
was what I should have bore in hell apart from God for all eternity. which I could never have paid
off that debt, but Christ, he drank that full wrath of God,
the whole cup of the wrath of God dry for his people. And he did that work for us in
grace and in mercy, not because of anything we've earned. And
Christ did that for each of his beloved children. As he says
in John 10, 15, I lay down my life for the sheep. He's the
one who does it and lays down his life for the sheep. So that
none of his sheep are lost, just like he prayed in that high priestly
prayer in John 17 when he said, none of them is lost. And that's true. He was saying
that of the disciples, his apostles, except for Judas, the son of
perdition. But that's also true of us. None of us is lost. He's successfully saved all his
people. And we understand why Christ
went to such lengths to do this. Why did he come? And he who is
perfect and just and holy and without sin and righteous and
has all things, why would he do this? for us. It's because
we were His. We were given to Him by the Father.
The Father chose us and gave us to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He gave us to Him and so Christ is fulfilling that covenant which
was initiated by God the Father when He chose us and put us in
the Lord Jesus Christ. So that He said, other sheep
I have. not just the Jews, but other
sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring,
and they shall hear my voice, so that it is according as he
hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and accepted of him in love. without blame before him in love.
Even so now, Christ leads this man, just like he leads all the
sheep, he brings them out of darkness. And he took that blind
man by the hand and led him out of the town where he could speak
peaceably to him. and kindly, and he reveals himself
to this man, apart from all the others, separated unto himself,
and he reveals his light to him, so that he might see that all
his salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's how
God works for each of us, brethren. Each of us, as it says in 2 Corinthians
4-6, for God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
has shined in our hearts. to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And that's what
this man's gonna see. He's gonna see the Lord Jesus
Christ. And as he does this, he calls
us out. He calls us apart from that city. He calls us out of the camp to
go where Christ is, to bear the shame and the hatred of the world,
to bear that with Christ. As it says in Hebrews, turn over
there, in Hebrews 13. Hebrews 13, verse 10. Hebrews 13, verse 10. We have
an altar. whereof they have no right to
eat which serve the tabernacle." All those people that are religious
and doing all these things to earn favor with God, he's saying
they have no right to eat at this table. They have no right
to partake of Christ. For the bodies of those beasts
whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest
for sin, they're burned without the camp. They take those things,
once they're done, once they got the blood out, they take
those things outside of the camp, because they're repulsive and
filthy, and they burn them outside the camp. Wherefore Jesus also,
verse 12, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood,
suffered where? Outside the gate. He suffered
outside of the city of Jerusalem, there in the place of the skull
in Golgotha. And the Apostle says in Hebrews
13, 13, 13, let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing
his reproach. We're saying, Lord, you can have
this city. We're saying to the people of
this world who have no They don't partake in what Christ has done. We're saying, you can have it.
This fashion of this world is passing away. You can have it.
For we, verse 14, have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. So we go where Christ is. He
calls us apart out of the city to be with him, to go where he
is, bearing the shame and the reproach. Alright, next we see
this despised means. We see here, we have a picture
of the gospel. And women, especially those who
love what they do, who look to their works and think that they're
pretty good, especially those that despise others because they're
so good and others aren't quite like them, they don't love the
Gospel because the Gospel declares what Christ has done. The Gospel
declares that Christ is our salvation and that we're not able to work
our own works of salvation and please Him. Look at verse 23.
He took the blind man by the hand, and when he had spit on
his eyes. Think about that, the offense
of spitting. Do you want someone spitting in your face? That's
usually a pretty demeaning thing when someone spits in your face. And he spit on this man's eyes,
and that's a picture of the offense of the gospel to us by nature. We don't like to hear the preaching. We don't want to be instructed
in that way. We want to work things out ourselves
and show that we know something and we can do this ourselves.
We don't need all kinds of help or we don't need any help, but
people find the gospel an offense because it declares, it puts
man in the dust, it puts man down and puts man low and it
lifts up and exalts Christ. It exalts our God that He alone
works salvation for His people and we don't save ourselves. We see here that the gospel declares
we are at the mercy of God to show us kindness, to show us
favor, to do for us what we can't do for ourselves. As Paul wrote
to the Corinthians, that the preaching of the cross is to
them that perish foolishness, but to us which are saved That
is, just like having that despised thing, like that spit on the
face, it's the power of God. We understand that though it's
a shame to many people and they don't like it, we appreciate
it, we love it. We love the Gospel because it
declares our salvation. For it's written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. And then a little later he said,
for after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe. And so here he takes this man
and he spits in his eyes and that's how he heals him. He spits
in his eyes and then he touches him and that's how he heals him.
But it's like the Lord filling his preachers, taking a man who's
just an earthen vessel and filling us with spit, and then like a
drink offering, just pouring us out upon the people. And it's
in that foolishness that the Lord saves his people. He works
faith in his people through the preaching, but attending that
preaching, because apart from him attending it, there is no
salvation, and we won't hear him or see him. And the Lord
says in Revelation 3.18, I counsel thee, to anoint thine eyes with
eyesalve that thou mayest see. That is, sit under the gospel,
hear the gospel of Christ, hear what he has done for his people and beg the Lord to have mercy
upon you that you be enabled to hear it and to even hear beyond
all the distractions and the things. It's such a a good picture,
isn't it? Just that beeping that's going
on now, it's just a good picture of the distractions of this world,
but beg the Lord that he enables us to hear the grace and the
mercy of what Christ has accomplished for his people through this gospel. And after it's preached, we see
that Christ touched them. Because without Christ laying
his hand to the work, our preaching is useless and it will do nothing.
It won't save the people at all. It says in verse 23, And when
he had spin on his eyes and put his hands upon him, That's when
it became effectual. That's when that man began to
have light and to see. And that brings us to our last
point, the believer's experience. We see there, and Christ asked
him if he saw all. And that's a picture that the
Lord is going to draw a confession out of us. We're not going to
be secret Christians. He's going to bring a confession
out of us. He's going to cause us to confess our need of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and to declare what he's shown us. He's going
to bring that out of his people. And so he draws this confession
out of the man, and he looked up, verse 24, and said, I see
men as trees walking. You see the weakness of the man.
You see the inability of the man. He doesn't even see clearly,
but what he sees, he confesses. He says, I see men as trees walking. And it's not anything more, anything
less. He's just honest and sincere. I see men as trees walking. And that's where we are, brethren. Many of us are like that. We
don't all have the greatest amount of sight of certain things, but
we know one thing. We're sinners. We're weak. We
can't save ourselves. We need the Lord Jesus Christ,
and he is the righteousness God has provided for his people.
And that's enough for us. So all are going to trust the
same Savior. All are going to believe the
same gospel. All are going to have the same
grace shown to them. But we all see that the experience
of that grace varies in us. The experience, the level. The
Lord gives his as he wills the gifts to his people severally
as as he will and he reveals he gives that measure of faith
whereby we see christ more clearly or less clearly and we lay hold
of him and believe on him but it's going to be the truth it's
the true christ it's the true gospel it's true grace but it's
it's all the experience of it may differ you know in the scriptures
there's five there's an example of five different people being
healed and three of them were healed by by Christ speaking
a word. He didn't touch him. There was
no spit involved. He spoke a word and they were healed. Then there's
this man. Christ spit directly upon his
eyes and then touched him. And that man then began to see. And there's another one where
Christ spits on the ground. and make spittle clay, and then
anoints the man's eyes with that, and tells him to go wash in the
pool, and then he came seeing after that. So we see there that
there's a different experience to a degree that people have,
but like this man, we're all going to have light. The Lord's
going to give each of his children light to know that I'm a sinner
and Christ is everything. He is my salvation. I can't be
saved apart from Christ and only Christ. We're going to see that
and understand that. After he gives us life, this
new birth, we're brought to see gradually as he's showing us
and teaching us and sits us under the gospel and is feeding us
of Christ, we begin to see as we're growing in this grace and
the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, we see more and more
how much he saved us, what a sinner I am, how dark I was. We don't
know that right from the beginning. We might have a sense of it,
but he continues to reveal it to us that in spite of me, in
spite of the continued religion that's in my heart, in spite
of the Arminian in me, in spite of the lawlessness in me, in
spite of the lust in my heart, in spite of all the wickedness
and darkness that's in me, Christ has shown me mercy, and I didn't
even understand the wholeness of it, but he keeps revealing
and showing me and taking these grave cloths off of my eyes,
like he did to Lazarus, and delivers me from that. Paul wrote to the
Philippians, saying, Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained,
let us walk by the same rule, that's the gospel, and let us
mind the same thing, that's Christ. But it's according to the level
that He's brought us and showed us and revealed to us. And so
that as we grow in Him, we see more and more Christ is all. Turn over there to Colossians
3. Colossians 3. Colossians 3 is a very practical
chapter. It's very practical. It reveals
a lot about our walk in Christ. And in Colossians 3.11, Colossians 3.11, where there
is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian,
Scythian, bond or free, but Christ is all and in all. So that we
don't fully grasp what he's doing, how he grows us in the gospel. We see the spit through which
he applies to us through this gospel, these truths in this
word, he's applying it to us. and he's pouring it on our eyes
so that we're growing in Christ. And then he shows us, that's
where the practical walk comes in verse 12. Put on therefore,
Paul says, as you're growing in Christ, put on therefore as
the elect of God. Holy and beloved bowels of mercies,
kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering. Why? Why does he say all those things?
Because we're all growing at different levels. We're all seeing
and coming and understanding these things. those that are
weak and young in the faith may be doing things that maybe they
shouldn't be doing, that might be hurtful or offensive in some
way. You have those that have been
in there for a long time that maybe are doing things that are
offensive and hurtful to the young believer and maybe causes
them to stumble that they don't understand so he's telling us
verse 13 forbear one another and forgiving one another if
any man have a quarrel against any even as christ forgave you
so also do ye right we see that there's different gifts some
people are very merciful and just kind and gracious and always
say nice things, and others are a little more brusque and just
more direct, and they maybe offend people. Some people are very
good at giving, some people are more stingy, some people are
great cooks, some people aren't, and there's all kinds of different
gifts, and we're all at different places. And he's saying, love
one another, be patient with one another, because the Lord's
growing you in grace. You're all alive in Christ according
to His salvation and His merits and His righteousness, so don't
get on each other's cases. Be patient with one another,
forgiving and forbearing. Just trust that they're the Lord's
and you don't have to get up in their face. Above all things,
he says, verse 14, put on charity or love, which is the bond of
perfectness, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to
the which also you are called in one body, and be thankful. All right, so there's just one
more thing I want us to see in verse 25. After that, Christ
put his hands again upon his eyes and made him look up, and
he was restored and saw every man clearly." Now, on this earth,
we see every man clearly in the sense that in Adam, we see our
fall. We see how we sinned in Adam. We see that more and more clearly.
We understand that we sinned there in the garden. We were
in Adam when he fell. we fell, and we're all in darkness
because of him. And we see Christ, how that he
is the perfection of God, and he's the perfect man, and that
in Christ, in Christ alone, the believer is made whole and reconciled
to holy God. We see Clearly what sinners we
are. The Lord shows us that it's not
my works of righteousness which I've done, but it's because of
him and his righteousness. And we see that it's the new
man, that this old man doesn't believe. This old man didn't
do anything. to save himself, but it's the new man that Christ
has created in us. We see that and we understand
more and more that it's his work of grace in regenerating us.
But we also, I want us to see in Proverbs 4.18, I'll read it. Proverbs 4.18 it says, but the
path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more
unto the perfect day. And there's coming A day for
each of us, it's fast approaching, when we'll all lay down in death,
our eyes will close in sleep, and we'll awake, the Lord will
touch us. And we're going to awake in that resurrection morn
to see Him whom we love. And we're going to see Him face
to face. And then shall we indeed see
every man clearly when we behold our Savior and our Lord, our
Husband, whom has done all this work for us and we'll see him
clearly as Paul wrote for now we see through a glass darkly
but then face to face now I know in part but then shall I know
even as also I am known I pray that the Lord will Bless us that
He'll touch our eyes and cause us, by His grace, to see Him
and to behold Him and to grow in that clearer view of the Lord
Jesus Christ and what He's done for us. Let's pray. Our gracious
Lord, we thank You, Father, for the grace that You've shown to
us in Your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, we ask that You would be
merciful to us, Lord. Help us Help us, Lord, to see
Jesus, to see our Savior, our Lord, to see and understand more
and more this grace which he's shown to us. Lord, that he would
be all our righteousness and all our hope. Lord, that you
would grow us in Christ, grow us in this grace and this knowledge,
and that we would indeed be loving, and for bearing and for giving
to one another. And we do thank you for the peace
that you've given to us in Christ here. We pray this in Jesus'
name, our Lord and Savior. Amen. All right, we're gonna... Let's have Levi and Scott, if
you could come up and then... Scott, if you would pray, and
then hand out the thread and the wand. If Christ is your hope,
then by all means, partake. If He's all your hope, but if
you are still looking to yourself, then don't feel any obligation.
This isn't a religious thing where we're looking at you and
you have to do it. If Christ is your hope, then partake of
the bread and the wine, which picture His blood and His body,
which was broken for us, and His blood which was shed for
us to redeem us to God. Father, we come to you again,
thankful today for a place to come to hear the gospel. Father,
for the pastor that you've sent to preach that gospel to us. Father, we ask that you open
hearts, eyes, and ears to hear the gospel. Father, we ask that
we not just know doctrine and miss Christ completely, but that
we trust Christ alone. Father, we ask that you watch
over and care for us as we go through the week. Be with all
those that are afflicted. You know what issues each of
us have. Father, we ask that you just
watch over and care for us in Christ's name. I'm going to be reading out of
1 Corinthians 11. Can you hear me okay? 1 Corinthians
11, and I'll read verses 23 and 24, and then we'll take the bread,
and then I'll read the next part, and then we'll take the wine
together, and then we'll give it about a minute, and then you
can come up for the last hymn. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians
11, 23, For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered
unto you. that the Lord Jesus, the same
night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given
thanks, he break it, and said, Take, eat, this is my body, which
is broken for you, this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner, Also he
took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament
in my blood. This do ye, as oft as ye drink
it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread
and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. Our closing hymn will be number
204, in the hardback, 204, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. O soul, are you weary and troubled? How blind in the darkness you
see! There's light for a look at the
Savior, And life more abundant and free. Turn your eyes upon
Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth
will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Through death into life everlasting
He passed and we follow Him there For us in the fourth dominion
For more than conquerors we are Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look
full in His wonderful face, and the things on earth will grow
strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. His word shall not fail you,
He promised. Believe Him and all will be well,
And go to a world that is dying, His perfect salvation to tell. I was going to say that, you
know, Just that beeping going on there
reminds me of how the Lord used, even the firehouse, when we were
in the firehouse meeting with Clay, the firemen would come
every once in a while, and the alarm would sound, and the door
would go up, and the door would go down, and then it would go
up again, and down again, and up again, and down again. And
the Lord uses those things, like we saw earlier this morning,
how you look at understand the excellency, prove or try what
the Lord's doing. He does these things so that
we don't become complacent where we are, but that he takes those
little things to stir up that seed and that thought in our
hearts to say, Lord, is there a place where we could meet,
a place where we could gather together that would be quiet,
that's our place, that we don't have to break down and set up
each time, and a place that doesn't have the wall busted into, hopefully,
and sirens going off, alarms going off that we can't fix or
do anything about, but the Lord does that, so be encouraged and
let it remind us to pray that the Lord will give us a place
like that where we can meet and praise his name in peace and
quiet and hear it. He does that. He did it for the
brethren up there in New Jersey and he'll do it. for us here,
we believe. So, all right, there's food in
the back. If you didn't have anything,
if you didn't bring anything, just stay anyway. We have plenty,
so I hope you'll stay. I look forward to joining with
you guys.