Well, good morning, everyone. We first want to, of course,
welcome Brother Eric for coming again. Appreciate that. Looking
forward to the messages. The other announcement, just
as a reminder, we hope to celebrate the Lord's Supper, as you know,
after the second service. Let us begin our service by singing
number 235, Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior. 235, we can do that standing. I'll bless thee now, gentle Savior,
with my humble prayer While on others Thou art calling, Near by on old ground How I'll
know there's an hour calling To that blessed remind When we
at a throne of mercy Find a sweet
relief Healing there in deeper treasure Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. All on others Thou art calling,
do not pass me by. Resting only in Thy merits, would
I seek Thy face. Heal my wounded, broken spirit,
save me by Thy grace. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. All on others Thou art calling, Tell the spring of all my comfort,
more than life to me. Whom have I on earth beside thee? Whom in heaven but thee? Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. and others that were calling
to my fasting mind. Thank you. May be seated. Scriptural reading will be 1
Corinthians 1 verse 17. For Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the
cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto
us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing
the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 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. For the Jews require
a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. but we preach Christ
crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness,
but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ,
the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness
of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger
than men. For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, and
not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty. And the base things of the world
and the things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things
which are not to bring to naught things that are. that no flesh
should glory in his Presence, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. Lord, we thank you for bringing
us together this morning Wotav, give us hearts and a desire to
worship you. Wotav, be with Eric as he brings
the message. We thank you for bringing him
here this morning. Wotav, cause us to look unto
Christ for all our salvation. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Morning. Thank you again for
having me here. Turn to Mark 10. Mark 10. Mark 10 in verse 46, and we'll
read that to the end. Mark 10, 46. And they came to Jericho. And
as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number
of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the
highway side begging. And when he heard that it was
Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou
son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he
should hold his peace. But he cried the more a great
deal, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood
still and commanded him to be called. And they called the blind
man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee. And he, casting away his garment,
rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said
unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said
unto him, Go thy way. Thy faith hath made thee whole.
And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the
way. My title this morning is Mercy
Beggars. Mercy Beggars. And we'll have
four rough points. And we'll look at the first point. The Mercy Beggar. The Mercy Beggar. A blind man, most blind men,
I've heard there's some differences here and there, but most blind
men don't see any light. They sit in complete darkness. They don't see the things that
we see with their eyes. And in our Lord's day, to become
blind or to be born blind, it didn't look good for the person
that was blind and it didn't look good for their family. It
was kind of a shameful mark against them. It really didn't look good
at all. In John 9, Verse 1 we read of
one man that was born blind, and it says, As Jesus passed
by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And brethren,
every man that our Lord looked at was blind from his birth. But this one was physically blind,
and his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin,
this man or his parents, that he was born blind? They assumed
that if someone was afflicted with blindness or deafness or
some other outward affliction that surely that was a sign that
they were sinners. And all of our troubles and woes
are a result of sin in this world, right? Death came into this world
because of sin, and we wouldn't have that if we weren't sinners.
But they just looked at the outward and just assumed, well, they're
sinners, as if to say, we're not sinners, we're not blind,
we don't have this kind of affliction. And Jesus answered them, neither
hath this man sin, nor his parents, but that the works of God should
be made manifest in him. So that we see from this, brethren,
we know we can identify with it that when we look upon people
that we know, when they go through hard and rough times, it's very
easy. We find it in our own heart.
We set ourselves up on high. We look at what they're going
through and think, man, what is wrong with them? They must
be cursed of God. They just can't get their stuff
together. As though we're somehow better than they are and we set
ourselves up in judgment of others, but we don't know the heart and
the reality as it reveals in us that we need to be aware of
spiritual blindness because that's what we all are guilty of by
nature. We're all spiritually born dead
and blind to the things of God. If you turn over to 2 Corinthians
chapter 3, 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 12, we know brethren
that When the Lord shows you these
things and reveals Christ to you, and you're enabled by God's
mercy, His power, and His grace to rest in the Lord Jesus Christ,
that's a good hope. That's a good hope that we have.
And that's what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3, 3-12, seeing
then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech,
so that brethren, you know it, from the days of your religion,
that men speak of Christ, and then they begin to keep on speaking
and talking about all these things that you need to do. Stop doing
this. Start doing this. If you're a
Christian, you need to be doing this now, and you need to stop
doing that, and don't be seen doing those things. And you brethren
have shared that testimony with me often, but That's not our
hope is in those things. Those things will follow. If
there's something that needs to fall away or to be stopped,
the Lord does that and it's through the preaching of the gospel consistently
to his people. It's by teaching them what Christ
has done and it's in seeing Christ that our hearts are comforted.
And then we're willing to let go of the things of this world
and willing to identify with Christ. And so we use great plainness
of speech by preaching Christ consistently and declaring that
salvation is of the Lord. It's not in the things that we
do or in the things that we don't do. Because as soon as you start
making a list of things of do's and don'ts, that's immediately
what the flesh focuses on. Because the flesh says, oh, that's
carnal. I can do that. I can relate to that. I understand
what's going on there. I can do that. Let me work at
that. Because this other thing that they're talking about, hoping
and trusting in Jesus, I haven't seen him. I don't know what to
do there. I don't know how to rest in Jesus. We don't. None
of us by nature does. And so to the modern day Pharisee
and to the Jews in his day, Paul says in verse 13, and not as
Moses. We use great plaintiffs of speech
and 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 listen, 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 their
heart. Brethren, that's the spiritual
blindness, that's the blindness that we all need to beware of,
that men by nature are spiritually dead and blind. And then Paul
goes on, it's not just the Pharisees, but even those Gentiles who don't
even think about the Lord, don't even think about God or going
to services and hearing the gospel at all. He says, this I say therefore,
this is to the Ephesians, this I say therefore and testify in
the Lord that he henceforth walked 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 hearts. So brethren,
we don't judge by carnal sight and carnal reasoning. We don't
look at those things. We declare plainly that salvation
is of the Lord and it's of the Lord Jesus Christ. Him is peace
with God and not these other outward and carnal things. Certainly
not looking at others' afflictions and judging ourselves or others
by the afflictions and the hard times that we go through or don't
go through. That's not our measure. Measuring ourselves by ourselves. Listen to those things that were
said there. Minds are blinded, there's a veil on our heart,
our thoughts are vanity, our understanding is darkened, and
we have blindness of heart. That's all of us by nature, brethren.
So this blind man's eyes in John 9 weren't blind because of sin,
but rather he was born blind The Lord purposed it. He did
this thing that the works of God might be made manifest in
him. And there's another thought for
us that when you look at your outward circumstances and you
begin to bemoan your life and think, ah, why is my life so
hard? Why is it so miserable? Nothing
I do turns to gold. It all seems to be trouble and
sorrow and vanity. Don't look at those things and
think that you're cursed of God. If the Lord's hand is in it,
then a blessing is in it. If it's used of God, if it's
of God, then he'll use it to drive you to Christ, lest we
set our hearts on this world and become fools that are just
truly darkened and blind in our own minds. It says that after
this, our Lord, well, we read here that our Lord was going
to Jericho, right? He's passing through Jericho,
he comes to Jericho, and now he's going out to Jericho. And
the reason why he was going to Jericho is because he was passing
through there on his way to Jerusalem. And this is what was on his mind
as he was going to Jerusalem. It came to pass when the time
was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face
to go to Jerusalem. So he's on his way through Jericho. He's got to pass by there. The
Lord knows he has people there, but he's on his way going to
Jerusalem because the time has come that he should be received
up. And that tells us He was thinking of and way down impressed
in his mind and in his spirit that, I'm going to do that work
for which the Lord sent me into this world to do. I'm going to
put away the sin of my people. And this is weighing on his mind
heavily. And we read there, Mark 10, 46.
They came to Jericho. And as he went out of Jericho
with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus,
the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging. And when
he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, He began to cry out
and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. Now, when we
describe a man as blind and a beggar, as someone who's crying out for
mercy, there again, we think, oh, what a poor, pitiful, miserable
wretch that guy is. But brethren, these are marks
of the Lord's grace working in a sinner here. We see that, you
know, Bartimaeus' father, His name is Timaeus, and that name
signifies that this was an honorable man, Timaeus was. He was honorable. He was profitable. He was useful
to society. And then his son, Bartimaeus,
is not useful to society. He's not a profitable man. He's
a worthless man. Timaeus probably felt, this man,
this my son, who's named after me, is a stain to me. He's a stain to my honor. And
if Timaeus is honorable, and probably wealthy, he could have
provided for his son. And yet here his son is, out
on the roadside, begging. Which means his dad said, son,
I'm done with you. I want nothing to do with you.
You did this to yourself. You brought this upon yourself.
Get out. I don't need you anymore. You're
of no use to me. But in the kingdom of our Savior,
these marks are works of God's grace and his mercy on the sinner.
It says, that the whole have no need of a physician, but they
that are sick. Christ came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. Let's look at these adjectives.
It's a little bit blindness. It's blindness, right? It's not
offensive to call a blind man blind, I suppose, because he's
blind, right? But have you ever called a religious man blind?
How do you take to that? That's an offense, right? Because
when you say someone's blind, you're saying, you don't know
God. You think you know God. And if there's one thing that
a righteous man knows is that I know God. If I know nothing
else, surely I know God and I know salvation, I know these things.
And you're telling me I'm blind? Right? And that's what happened.
We saw this with the Pharisees. Some of the Pharisees which were with
him there when he healed the man born blind, they heard these
words and said unto him, are we blind also? And Christ said,
if you are blind, you should have no sin. But now you say
we see, therefore your sin remain it. And then there's another
word here describing Bartimaeus, that he's a beggar, a beggar. You remember that woman, the
Sidonian woman who had her daughter vexed with the devil? And she
came to Christ. She wasn't even a Jew. She was a Gentile. She
came to Christ seeking mercy from Christ. And it says that
she cried unto him saying, have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son
of David. My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil. But he answered her, not a word. And he spoke
to his disciples, not even to her, but he spoke to his disciples
and said, I am not sent unto the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. And that didn't offend her. And yet she came and she
worked, worshiped him saying, Lord, help me. She's begging
for the mercy from the savior. And he answered and said, it
is not meat to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs.
I know when I had a dog, when I had a steak bone or something
like that, I made sure I ate every piece that I wanted off
that bone. And before I offered it to the dog, I would say to
my daughter, honey, do you want this? It's a nice tender piece
of meat here. Would you like to have it? And if she wanted it,
I'd give it to her, not to the dog. And that's what Christ is
saying. And she said, truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the
crumbs which fall from their master's table. She begged him
for a crumb of mercy. And at this, Jesus answered and
said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee
even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very So we see these marks here of this work of the
Lord's mercy and grace. Here he is blind and a beggar. Someone that we would say, what
a worthless person. I'm glad that's not me over there.
But it also says that he heard. Someone told Bartimaeus that
Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And what did he say? Jesus
of Nazareth have mercy on me? He said, Jesus, thou son of David,
have mercy on me. He was looking to the Messiah.
He recognized, this is Christ. This is the one I've been waiting
for. This is the one, the only one who can have mercy on me
and save me from what I have the need of most. He cried out. And it makes me think of what
Christ said to his disciples, Whom say ye that I am? And Simon
Peter answered him and said, Thou art the Christ, the son
of a living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art
thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it
unto thee. but my Father which is in heaven. Bartimaeus here
heard of the Father. He knew that this One in him
and in him alone is salvation. This is the One who can help
me. He heard from the Father in heaven that this is Christ,
the One who can have mercy upon me. And sinner, I would say to
you, this One whom we preach, this Jesus is the Son of David. He is the One whom God chose
and elected and ordained and anointed to be the one to come
and to put away the sin of His people. Look to Him, trust Him. He's able to save. He's a successful
Savior. All that He's come to save, He
shall indeed put away their sin. If sin is put away and they'll
stand complete before God, there's not another thing that you need
to do. Come with nothing in your hand, having no hope in the things
that you do, having no hope in what you do or don't do, what
you did yesterday or what you didn't do. Look to Christ. We're
all sinners in need of His grace and in His mercy. His blood alone
is able and sufficient to wash away our sins and to give us
life and to present us perfect and whole and complete before
God so that God shall indeed not turn us away. We won't go
away ashamed, hoping in Christ. He'll receive every sinner who
comes to Him seeking mercy. Right? That woman She received
mercy. She wasn't turned away. She received
mercy. Christ said, Peace I leave with
you. My peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give
I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be
afraid. Come to him. No sinner ever seeking
mercy coming to Christ ever went away empty, ever went away ashamed
that they came to him, that they would dare come to him. They
received that which they sought for. All right. Bartimaeus cries
out for mercy from Jesus, the son of David, and we read there
in verse 48, many charged him that he should hold his peace.
Now it's possible that these were friends of Christ that felt,
you know, don't trouble the Savior. He's had a busy week, you know,
he's been a little out of it lately. It's possible that they
were friends, but what's more likely is that it actually says
that it was a great multitude of people that were there, not
just disciples, but there was quite a mix of people, people
that believed and people that didn't believe. And there were
some there that told Bartimaeus, keep down. Don't say those things. Don't say thou son of David.
You can call him, but don't call him thou son of David. We know
what you're doing. You're calling him the Messiah. Keep it down. Matthew and Luke say that they
rebuked him. He was rebuked for saying that.
And did it stop him? No, he cried out all the louder.
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy upon me. And it's amazing how the Lord
used that. Again, he's only, I think, 10
or 13 miles or something like that from Jerusalem. And it was
only a short while after that he was with Bartimaeus that he
comes into Jerusalem. And what do the people call him?
They ascribe to him that he's the Messiah. It says in Luke
19.35, they brought a colt to Jesus, and they cast their garments
upon the colt. And they set Jesus thereon. And
as he went, they spread their clothes and away. And when he
was come nigh to Jerusalem, Even now, at the descent of the Mount
of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice
and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that
they had seen, including the recent healing that they would
see of Bartimaeus, saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the
name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And
some of the Pharisees from among the multitude that were there
said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. Don't let them
call you Messiah. Don't let them praise you for
that. You're just a man. You're just Jesus of Nazareth.
Tell them to be quiet. And he answered and said unto
them, I tell you, that if these should hold their peace, the
stones would immediately cry out. So there's Bartimaeus crying
out, and many charged him, saying, hold thy peace. But he cried
the more a great deal. Thou son of David, have mercy
on me. He heard of the Father, was taught
that this one, this one can heal him, this one will have mercy
on those who come to him and seek him and beg him for mercy. He wasn't turned away. And brethren,
this world will oppose us. They come against us. And we
know it. We know it's coming. If we say
certain things, we know that people are going to look at us
funny and treat us differently and not think very highly of
us. But the Lord uses those moments. Have you ever been with somebody
and they seem to sincerely say something of the Lord? They seem
to just thank the Lord in sincerity and you look at them like, do
you know? Have you heard the truth? Do
you know who Christ is? It may be, you know, just giving
God thanks and praising him sincerely that someone may hear it and
ask what the reason for the hope is that you have. You don't know
how the Lord will use it. Don't be afraid to stand with
Christ. This world will hate you for it, and they'll persecute
you for it. They'll tell you to hush up and be quiet, and
things may not go well for you as the world counts wellness.
But trust Him that if you're moved to speak something to someone
in a timely manner, the Lord may use it and bless it to their
heart in a way that if you just kept quiet would have just come
and gone and passed by. And the Lord may use somebody
else to teach them the gospel then and not you. But just trust
the Lord. He said, well, when he had called
the people unto him and his disciples also, he said unto them, whosoever
will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross
and follow me, signifying the death that we have with Christ.
And when Christ was crucified, we who hope in him were crucified
as well, that there's no hope for us in this world. This world
isn't going to provide for you. They're not going to stand with
you in that day. You're not going to want to stand with them in
that great and final day. For whosoever shall save his
life, Because that's what we're doing. I know, I feel it too
in my own heart. And I've kept quiet in certain circumstances. It was to save my life. But he
says, those who shall save their life shall lose it, but whosoever
shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall
save it. So just remember, whose are we? Whom do we serve? It's Christ.
I know that there's times when certain people, they won't hear
it. You know, and eventually there just comes a time where
you're done talking to them because they're just trampling on what
you're saying and it's just upsetting. But those, you don't know, it's
usually the most, the least person that you would think that'll
hear the gospel that seems suddenly pricked in heart and interested.
For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world
and lose his own soul? For what shall a man give in
exchange for his soul? Whosoever therefore shall be
ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful
generation, With him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when
he cometh in the glory of his Father with his holy angels. The Scriptures say, Whosoever
believeth on the Lord shall not be ashamed. Whosoever calls on
the name of the Lord, they shall not be ashamed. And think of
Bartimaeus. They told him to hush up. And
if he hushed up, that would have been it. He would still be sitting
there, not today, but in that day he would have sat there again
down on that dusty hot road blind, with no mercy, having not seen
the Lord. But Barnabas cries out to Jesus
and we read, Jesus stood still. And when you think about this
one who formed the heavens and the earth and did all things
for his own glory, stands still at the cry of a beggar. He stood
still because one for whom he would die was crying out, Lord
have mercy on me. Christ is, as I read before,
He's on His way to Jerusalem. He's pressed in His heart and
in His mind. He's thinking about what He's
going to do. And that's surely weighing on
His heart and mind. He knows that He's going to be
there on that crossroad, bearing the weight and the sin of His
people, looking and trusting in the Father alone to have mercy
on Him. and to deliver him, but he's
going to pour his wrath out on him first. He's going to destroy
him, burn him up. But he consumed, I mean, he consumed
the Lord's wrath, but there he is, weighed down with that weighing
on his mind, pressing on him, that I've got work to do. And
there's a beggar calling out to him, like, I'm too busy for
you. I've got to go and do this important
work. But no, he stood still, he stopped for this beggar. And when you think about it, Bartimaeus probably was in this
condition for quite some time. He probably was, you know, a
handsome, fine young man living high on the hog, on his daddy's
money and things like that. And then he gets struck with
blindness and he's brought low. And every night, every day he
thinks, I did this to myself. I did this to myself. I brought
this upon me. I could have heard what Moses
was saying, but I chose not to listen. And I did this to myself. Just like dad said, you did this
to yourself, son. Get out. You ain't my son no
more. Get out. Go take care of yourself now.
I'm not taking care of you anymore. And every day he'd go over there
to that road, that dusty road and that hot sun. And if a kid
came up and kicked him in the face with dust, he wouldn't even
know who did it. They would mock him. and treat him spitefully
and use him and just, he was nothing. He was useless to the
world. And all he could think of when he'd go to bed at night
is, I did this to myself. Lord, would you please have mercy
on me? Would you please have mercy on
me? Lord, I'm sorry for what I did. Please just heal me of
my blindness. Give me sight again, Lord. And
he'd probably dream, and he could see again in his dreams, and
then he'd wake up, and ah, that crushing feeling to know, nope,
the Lord didn't hear me. I'm still blind. And you know
when you're chasing to the Lord and you've cried out and begged
God for mercy, you're begging him, Lord, please just take,
take the affliction away. I know what I did. I know what
I did, Lord, please. I'm sorry. And it doesn't go away. And still
you go on day after day after day after day after day in that
condition. And that's where Bartimaeus is.
Day after day. Who knows how long he was in
that condition? Probably for a real long time. And all he
knows is that he has gotten what he deserves. And he doesn't deserve
mercy. But then he hears, Jesus of Nazareth
is gone by. And he hears, oh, this is the
one. This is the Savior. And he cries out, Jesus, thou
son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy on me. Be quiet, Bartimaeus. Don't talk
like that. Oh, have mercy on me. Jesus,
thou son of David, have mercy on me. And he doesn't know if
the Lord's going to hear him or stop or look his way. And
it gets quiet. And he don't know if Jesus has
just passed him on by. Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy on me. If he lets it go by, that's it.
He's going to be staying blind for the rest of his days. And
he doesn't know what's going to happen. But then we read that
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. Are you blind? Are you a beggar? Has God shown you your need of
him, that you're a sinful, miserable wretch, unable to save yourself,
unable to make yourself clean, to make yourself righteous, to
make yourself presentable unto holy God? Has he shown you that? Or are you still thinking, well,
you know what? Yeah, I'm inspired now. I'm going to try harder
tomorrow. I'm going to start today. I'm
going to try and be better now. If there's still something that
you can do to bring yourself and recommend yourself to God,
just stay there on the roadside. Just stay there in the dust.
He's not calling. But, if you see that you're a
sinner, and that there's nothing you can do to make yourself whole,
there's nothing you can do to make yourself clean, there's
nothing you can do to fix this corrupt, dead, cold, dark heart,
then be of good comfort. Arise, He calleth thee, for Christ
is the Savior of sinners. He's the great Physician that
heals the sick, that heals the lame, that gives hearing to the
deaf, and makes the blind man see. He alone is able to do that. He's the mighty Savior. If you've
got nothing to bring, come to Christ. And you know, I know
you hear it, you think about it, how dead and how cold I've
been and how worthless I've been. But all things are approved and
are made manifest by the light, for whatsoever doth make manifest
is light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou
that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give
thee light. Come to the Savior. He sent his
messengers to preach the gospel to you. Think of what a mercy
and a kindness that is that you're here. Each one of you are here
to hear the gospel. That's a mercy right there. Christ
says at the end of the book in Revelation 22, verses 16 and
17, I, Jesus, have sent mine angel. That's not an angelic
being. That's a minister of the gospel. I've sent mine angel
to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root
and the offspring of David and the bright and morning star.
And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth
say, Come. And let him that is athirst come,
and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.
If you have a need of Christ, and you have no hope in anything
else but Christ, come to Christ. He receives sinners, all those
who come to him, begging mercy, seeking mercy, never go away
empty, never go away ashamed. Be of good comfort. Rise, he
calleth thee. All right, our last point. Bartimaeus
heard and he rose up and he goes to the Lord. It says that he
cast away his garment, rose and came to Jesus. And you think
about what a commitment this guy showed. He took all of his
possessions and just chucked them away like they were trash
and he came to the Lord, looking to the Lord. But there is a more
beautiful picture in this as well. When you think of how our
works are filthy, they're worthless, They're of no profit to the Lord.
The Lord doesn't need our works. He's not looking to us for our
works and our works of this flesh. But rather Romans 8, 8 tells
us plainly that they that are in the flesh, they that are trying
to come to God by the works of their flesh cannot please God. They that are in the flesh cannot
please God. Think about that. It says it
so plainly. We miss it all the time. They that are in the flesh
cannot please God. So anyone who would come to God
to present themselves to God in their own garment of works,
in their fleshly works, in the things that they tried to do
to make themselves presentable to God, they will go away ashamed. They will be turned away into
darkness. They shall not receive mercy in that day, but they'll
be sent away empty. But those who come to Christ
seeking mercy from Him, and have no hope in themselves, they shall
be washed in his blood." Because that's the work of the Spirit,
the Spirit giving them life, showing them what they are by
nature, showing them their need of Christ. That's what he did
for each one of us here who believe and hope in him. We didn't know
until he gave us life, until he spoke that word into our hearts,
showed us what we are by nature, showed us how much of an offense
we are to God, and showed us our need of Christ and that Christ
is able and willing and receives all who come to him. and all
who come to Him were given life by the Spirit and washed in His
blood. The blood of Christ purges our
conscience from dead works to serve the living God. So that
if you're still trusting in something that you do, Christ plus something
else, then you've not been purged in your conscience, you've not
been washed in the blood of Christ. For all those washed in the blood
of Christ, He purges us from that. That doesn't mean that
a wicked thought doesn't go through your head where you think, oh,
maybe I should read my Bible this afternoon juice up my batteries. Those stupid thoughts go through
our head from time to time and we realize, oh Lord, forgive
me. There I go right back to those
dead works of the flesh, but he saves us from those things.
Romans 7, 5, and 6, for when we were in the flesh, the motions
of sins which were by the law did work on our members to bring
forth fruit unto death. That's what they brought forth,
the motions of sins is working in us. You hear that law and
you think, all right, I'm going to make myself better. Nope,
the only fruit it brings forth is dead fruit, stillborn fruit,
fruit that can not feed you, fruit that you can't live on,
fruit that's not going to help you in that day when you stand
before God. But having His Spirit now, He
fills us with the Spirit, giving us life in Christ so that we
look to Him and depend upon Him and trust in Him and it says,
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus
who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. For the
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free
from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in
the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. So Bartimaeus there cast away
his garment, and when he did that, a picture of his He's no
longer trusting in those works of the flesh. It pictured him
just casting away all his hope of the things of this world,
putting them all behind him that he might win Christ, as Paul
said, that he might win Christ. And he found in him not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but the righteousness,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ, his faithfulness, righteousness,
which is of God by faith. All right. And then there at
the end, Mark 10, 51 and 52, 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. Bartimaeus went there just knowing
that this one is able to save him, to do for him what he cannot
do for himself. He went there looking for sight,
And he received spiritual sight as well. He received faith from
the Lord. And we know this because Christ
said to him, go thy way. Thy faith hath made thee whole.
And which way to Bartimaeus go? It says that he received his
sight and he followed Jesus in the way. And I know that he was
saved from his sins because in the beginning of Christ's ministry
in Mark there, It says that there was a man sick with a palsy,
and that the house where Christ was was so filled they couldn't
even bring him in there, so they went up on the roof with him,
and they ripped open the roof, and they lowered him down, and
what did Christ say? He said, Son, thy sins are forgiven
thee. That was the first thing Christ
said to him. Thy sins are forgiven thee. And it wasn't until the
Pharisees and those that were there said, What was this man
speaking? Blasphemy. No man can forgive sins but God. And he said, so that you know
that the Son of Man hath power to forgive sins, I say unto thee,
this man, rise, take up thy bed, and go into thy own house. And
he was healed. But he first forgave him of his
sins. And so Bartimaeus was forgiven of his sins, and he followed
Christ in the way. Amen. Let's pray. Our gracious
Lord, Lord, we ask that you would take
these words, Lord, of just things that have been said, Lord, that
by your Spirit you would apply them to the hearts of your people.
Lord, show us our need of Christ, and show us that Christ is sufficient,
that we, like Bartimaeus, might be willing, enabled by your power,
to leave all these things behind, and to trust Christ, and to follow
Him, Lord. We pray this in Jesus' name,
our Lord and Savior. Amen.