Mark chapter 10, let's read verse
46 again. 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. Last Wednesday, I had a service
with some brethren from South Africa. And at one point in the message,
I said to them, I brought up Blind Bartimaeus and I said to
them, oh, I love the story of Blind Bartimaeus. I love it so
much. And I told them we're going to
have to look at that soon. So here we are. This is as soon
as I could get to it. Pretty much everyone knows this
story. I would think most people have
heard the story of Blind Bartimaeus. It's a very commonly known account
in the scripture. But it blesses my heart every
time I hear it mentioned and every time I hear it preached
on. And here's the reason why. It's because I relate to it so
much. You say, relate to it. Well Gabe,
you're not blind. Oh yes I am. I really hope everyone will hear
me this morning. I hope everyone will hear this
this morning. I sincerely have something to
say to us. In my flesh, in my natural condition
before God, I am blind. Spiritually speaking, I am blind. I'm telling you the
truth. I am being very honest with you. When I turn my eyes within, all
is dark and vain and wild. John Newton said that. I totally
agree. Well, Gabe, you're not a beggar.
Oh, yes, I am. Yes, I am. I have been so well cared for
physically in this life, and my family has been so well cared
for physically in this life, but spiritually before God. If God leaves me alone, and this
is what I just very, very urgently want us to know, this is what
I need to say and I pray we will get a hold of. If God leaves
me to myself, if he just leaves me alone, I know where I am and
I'll know where I'll be. I will be lost, I will be helpless,
I will be by the wayside. Not in it, not in the way. By the wayside. Blind and begging. And you will too. You may not know it yet. You
know, some have been given this spiritual knowledge and some
have not. But either way, if God leaves us to ourselves, that's where we'll be because
that's where we are in our natural condition. That's where we are. It's possible that I may relate
to blind Bartimaeus more than anybody in the scripture. But that gives me hope because
that's who our Lord healed right here out of all of the people
who were here. Out of everybody that was there.
Look at verse 46. It says, and they came to Jericho. And as he went out of Jericho. He passed right through the city.
You see that? He passed right through the city.
Poor Jericho. That's the first thing that came
into my mind when I read that. I thought, poor Jericho. You remember in the Old Testament
that the Lord told Joshua to besiege. That means attack and
destroy Jericho. Many years before this in the
Old Testament. I know you've heard the story
of the walls of Jericho falling down. The Lord told Joshua, and that's
the Old Testament name for Jesus. It's the same name. That story is a picture of the
conquering victory of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what that
all pictures and points to. The Lord told Joshua to have
seven priests with seven ram's horns and the ark of the Lord and all
the people. He said, you go around the walls
of that city, blowing those ram horns one time a day for six
days. And on the seventh day, he said,
you go around that city seven times, blowing the trumpets of
God. And on the seventh time, he said,
you tell the people to shout because the Lord has given you
the city. And on that seventh time, when
the people shouted, all the walls fell down. And Israel ran into
that city and they slew every man and woman and beast, old
and young. Not one soul was spared except
for a harlot named Rahab. One soul. One soul. A covenant had been
made with one soul and Every soul that was with her in her
house. Every soul that she represented
and held with her in the safety of her house. And again, what a picture of
particular mercy that is. What a picture of particular
redemption that is. But here's the thing about it.
The whole city was destroyed. The whole city was destroyed
except for the promise of mercy that was shown to one. Is that
not mind-blowing? If you really stop and think
about that. Poor Jericho. And it was the
same situation right here. The Lord passed them by. The Lord passed them by. And to this very day, And, you know,
I feel like I'm, you know, the word went out, the word of God
went out and back and it's even recorded in the word. Some said,
these are hard sayings. I feel like I'm telling some
hard sayings. And it's sad. But it's the truth
to this very day, the Lord still passes men and women by. He still passes men and women
by. He has mercy on whom he will have mercy. He has compassion
on whom he will have compassion. And he came to the city of Jericho
and he passed right through it. Why would he do that? Why would the Lord Jesus Christ
do that? Well, number one is because he's
God and he has the right to do whatever he wants to do. It's because not one soul in
that city deserved His mercy. And that's because every soul
in that city was a sinner against Him, including Bartimaeus. Including Bartimaeus. Verse 46,
it says, 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. Bar Timaeus. Bar means the son of, when you
see that word. It means the son of Timaeus. There are other people here,
but there are two main characters in this story. The son of Timaeus
and the son of David. Two main sons, two main characters,
the son of Timaeus and the son of David. And do you know what
the name Timaeus means? It means unclean. Impure. Foul, polluted and defiled. That was Bartimaeus. And that's
me and you. That's me and you. I want us
to understand something of God's holiness as we stand in our natural
sinful condition before God. I want us to understand something
of God's holiness. God is so holy and what the word
holy means is he must do what's right. That's what it means.
He must do what's just. He must do what is in accordance
with the law. He is holy, and he's so holy,
he is such a strict judge that breaking one law, and I'd love
to take the time to take you through the scriptures and just
show you scripture after scripture, and I will if you want me to. He's so holy that to break one
is to break the law. If you break one, you have broken
his law. And to break one law in his eyes
is to be completely ruined, totally ruined. It's to be a lawbreaker.
Once you break one law in his eyes, you're a lawbreaker. You're
a sinner. I was driving over here this morning, and I was
late, and that was pushing me a little harder than normal,
but I can't do the speed limit on John B. Dennis in front of
Eastman Chemical Company to literally save my life. And I looked down. It's a 45 and I was doing 60.
You know, they could almost haul me to jail for that. And I told
everybody in the car, it's official. I'm a sinner. Well, you're just
breaking the speed limit. Tell that to God. God is holy. Now, I'm not holy and you're
not holy. Christoph said to me, he said, the sad thing is, is
that I don't care, I don't mind that you're doing 16 of 45. And
that's because we're not holy. Does that make sense? But God
is holy. and to break one law makes a
person to be a sinner before him. We look pretty good to each
other. I'll just go ahead and tell you,
you all look very nice to me. We look good to each other in
each other's eyes, but before God, let me just tell you what
these pages say, because a lot of people really don't know what
those pages say. But these pages say that in the
eyes of God, we are wicked, ruined, depraved. You know what the word
actually calls us? Ungodly. Sinners. That's what it calls us. And
I have to be honest with you and tell you, that's what I am.
I don't want to be. I want to be a good person. I want to be
a good husband and father and friend and brother and law-abiding
citizen. The needle wasn't lying this
morning. I'm a sinner. And so are you. Isaiah 64 says, we are all as
an unclean thing. And that word unclean right there
in Isaiah 64, that's the Old Testament. Okay, we're here in
the New Testament. That is literally the exact same translated word
as timaeus, same word. We are all as timaeus. We're all as an unclean thing
and all of our righteousness is before God. Righteousness
is good deeds. Holiness and sanctification is
purity in being and character inside. Righteousness is good
deeds without. All of our righteousness is in
the eyes of God are filthy rags. That was Bartimaeus and that's
you and me and it's sad, isn't it? That's so sad. That's just
so sad. Isaiah 1 says, in the eyes of
God, from the crown of our head to the sole of our foot, you
know what it says we are? Wounds and bruises and putrefying
sores. Revelation 3 says we are wretched
and miserable, poor, blind, and naked in the eyes of God Almighty. That was Bartimaeus, and I hate
to say it, but that's you and me. According to the word of
God, every soul here, starting with me, is a son of Timaeus. I'm looking at a bunch of sons
of Timaeus. Verse 46, and they came to Jericho,
and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great
number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the
highway side begging. And when he heard that it was
Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou
son of David. You know what the name David
means? We know what Timaeus means. We know what we are in our sinful
flesh before God. But the name David means beloved. This is my Beloved Son, the Son
of David. If any soul is going to be welcomed
and accepted by God, it is only going to be in the Beloved. Christ Jesus, the Beloved. Verse 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. He cried out because he knew
who Jesus of Nazareth was. That's why he cried out. Do we know who Jesus of Nazareth
is? Have we heard the fame of Him?
Have we really heard the fame of this man? Turn over to Matthew
4. Matthew 4, verse 23. And Jesus went about all Galilee,
teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the
kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of
disease among the people. And His fame went throughout
all Syria. And they brought unto Him all
sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments
and those which were possessed with devils. and those which
were lunatic, and those that had the palsy, and He healed
them. And there followed Him great
multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from
Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan. The fame
of Him went throughout all Syria, and everywhere else too. The
fame of Him. Have you heard of this man, Jesus
of Nazareth? He heals sick people. I mean He heals truly sick people. How about us? Do any of us here
have the sickness of a loathsome disease? Not just a disease of the flesh.
Everybody here suffers from diseases from the flesh. I'm talking about
a disease of the soul. You know, every sickness in the
scripture, every physical sickness in the scripture represents the
sickness of the soul. The sin sickness of the soul. Look at Luke 5 with me. Luke 5 verse 12, it says, and
it came to pass when he was in a certain city, behold, a man
full of leprosy. You know, leprosy was something
that just consumed the whole body. It's a physical sickness
that represents the spiritual condition of the soul, the sickness
of sin that has just consumed men and women. But think about
this, okay? Think about this scenario. Verse
12, it came to pass when he was in a certain city, behold, a
man full of leprosy who seeing Jesus fell on his face and besought
him saying, Lord, if thou wilt thou canst make me clean. And
he put forth his hand and touched him saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed
from him. And he charged him to tell no
man, but go and show thyself to the priest and offer for that
cleansing according as Moses commanded for a testimony unto
them. But so much the more there went a fame abroad of him. And great multitudes came together
to hear and to be healed by him of their infirmities. He said,
don't tell anybody. And that man ran and told everybody. And that's what we're doing. You're looking at a man who was
healed. Can you imagine when a person
who had leprosy, okay, all of these things were real events,
these were real moments, real stories of real people, and they
happened and they were recorded for our spiritual learning, to
learn something of Christ and to learn something of salvation.
But can you imagine when a person who had leprosy, we don't really
have that much anymore. But I mean, Can you imagine when a person
who had leprosy heard that there was a man who with one touch
could heal leprosy? Can you imagine the hope that
would enter that person thinking, I wonder if he can heal me? Can you imagine the desire in
that diseased one to get to him and see if he would heal me. I need to get to him. Can you imagine the searching? I mean the searching. Seek ye
the Lord while he may be found. Can you imagine the seeking and
the searching? Where is he? What did you say
his name was again? His name is Jesus of Nazareth.
And he was here, but you just missed him. He came into town
and he healed one man right over there by the pool of Siloam.
And then he left town. Well, where did he go? Well, he appeared to be going
to the next town. Thank you. I'm going to follow
after him. Ma'am, have you seen a man named
Jesus of Nazareth? Seen him? He just healed me of
my issue of blood. I was sick for 12 years. Stand back. I have leprosy. Do
you think he can heal me? Well, I don't know. You're going to have to talk
to him about that. But that man over there was deaf all of his
life. And I saw Jesus of Nazareth stick
his fingers in his ears and say, Epithah. And he can hear. That man right over there had
a whole legion of devils inside of him. He lived in the tombs. Never had any clothes on. He
cut himself. He was a lunatic. You see him
right there. He's sitting, clothed, and in
his right mind. That man was lame. I'm telling
you, that man has been laying there. I've known that man for
50 years. He's been laying there. He was
so lame. Look at him. He's leaping as
a heart. And if you look right over there
in that group of people, he is still here and he is still
healing. Luke 5 verse 12, and it came
to pass when he was in a certain city, behold, a man full of leprosy
who seeing Jesus fell on his face and besought him, saying,
Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And he put forth
his hand and touched him. He did something no man could
do. You can't touch a leper. If you touch a leper, his disease
will be transferred into you. Yes, I sure will. He put forth his hand and touched
him saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately, he was made whole. His leprosy
departed from him. Now that's wonderful for a leper
who can see the Lord Jesus and come to him where he was. But
here's the problem for Bartimaeus, he was blind. He was blind. He could not see
where the Lord Jesus was. He had no ability to come to
him. All Bartimaeus could do was sit there blind, helpless,
pitiful. That's all he could do. He sat
there in the darkness of his own thoughts and his hopeless
dreams. Hopeless dreams. Imagine the
filth of this man. He sat on the highway side. He
sat on the ground. You have horses and camels and
dust. Imagine the dust that's been
covering this man. Imagine the stench of this man. Imagine the rags he was wearing. Just imagine the pitiful state. All he could do was sit there
in darkness and listen to the world pass by. That's all he
could do. And based on this, you know that in the depths of
his soul, his one desire was that somehow he could get to
the Lord of glory. He knew, I'm a beggar. He knew that that's the first
thing a man or woman has to know before they're healed by the
Savior. They have to know the reality
of their condition. This man knew I'm a beggar. But he knew and believed if I
only had the opportunity to beg from him. All my hope and all my desire
would be to get to him if I could only get to him. But I know that
with me in my condition, it's impossible. With me, this is
impossible. Turn with me over to Luke 18.
Luke 18, verse 35 says, And it came to pass that as he
was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the wayside
begging. And hearing the multitude pass
by, he asked what it meant. What's going on? Why is there
so many people passing by? And what's all the commotion? Why is all the hollering? What's
going on? Verse 37, and they told him that
Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And he cried, saying, Jesus,
thou son of David, have mercy on me. He started crying, beloved,
beloved, my savior, my king, Jesus, thou
son of David, Please. Oh, I wouldn't even try to intimidate
this man's cry. But can you only imagine the
cry? Please. I mean true desperation. Today is the day of salvation. This is it. And this is it alone. Right now. One need. One thing is an evil. Can you
just hear this man crying? crying. Please, please pass me
not, O gentle Savior. Hear my humble cry while on others
thou art calling. Do not pass me by. Please don't
pass me by. Even me, Lord, even me, let thy
blessing fall on me. Verse 39, and they which went
before rebuked him that he should hold his peace, but he cried
so much the more, thou son of David, have mercy on me. He was crying so loud, everybody
started telling him, hush, hush, you're gonna disturb the Savior,
hush. And he kicked it into high gear. I need it and I need it now.
I gotta have it. I cannot let you pass by. Go back to Mark 10. Verse 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. 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. You know what that means? You
know what that just said? God stopped. That's what it means. Oh, he was crying, please, I
need mercy. I need forgiveness. I need grace. I need healing. I need salvation. And God Almighty stood still. God stopped what he was doing
for this one man. Why would God do that? He would do it because it was
purposed before the foundation of the world for him to do it. He would do it because he went
that specific way on purpose just for that one specific man. He knew what he was doing before
anybody else knew what he was doing. It's because the father
sent the spirit into the heart of that man, drawing that center
to Christ. giving him a desire and a need
for the healing touch of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why he stopped. It's because
Bartimaeus was one of his own. God stands still for every single
one of his children. What the Savior did for Bartimaeus,
this is what the Savior did for me and you. And this is what he'll do for
every soul that he redeemed in his own blood. Verse 49 says,
Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called. And they call
the blind man, saying unto him, be of good comfort, rise, he
calleth thee. They said, Bartimaeus, you, he's
still crying. They said, wait, wait, Bartimaeus,
you, me? Yes, he's calling you. Wretched, poor, miserable you.
He commanded you to come to him. Every soul that hears the command
is gonna have the same response Bartimaeus did. Verse 50 says,
and he casting away his garment. And that's what every soul will
do. Bartimaeus, cast away his old, filthy, wretched, vile garment. The first thing that a sinner
who comes to Christ will do is cast away his old, wretched,
vile self-righteousness. His own miserable, sinful covering. His own covering of his works. And it's because Christ will
give him a new one. He'll put his spotless, pure
robe of righteousness on. Verse 50 says, 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.
I want to see you. Seeing Christ is salvation. Seeing Christ for who he truly
is, not who men think he is. Not who we have been wrongly
told that he is. Seeing Christ as he has declared
himself to be in the word of God is salvation. He cried, Lord,
save me. What do you want me to do for
you? I want you to save me. I want you to heal me, restore
me. By your mercy, by your grace,
for your own namesake, you're my savior, you're my king. Verse
52, And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way, thy faith hath made
thee whole. And immediately he received his
sight. At the command, the healing is
complete. He didn't say, now here's your
site, but you're going to have to go to a, what do you call
it, eye doctor? Optometrist or something like
that. You're going to now have to go to an optometrist and he's
going to give you a series of different spectacles with all
these different prescriptions. And slowly over about six months,
you should start to notice healed, finished, done. And that's how
it is with God. Finished and done. And after he was healed and received
his sight, you know, he can now go wherever he wants to go. He
can do whatever he wants to do. What did our brother Bartimaeus want
to do? Look at verse 52, the end of
it, it says, he followed the Lord Jesus Christ in the way.
That's what he wanted to do. He followed the Savior. That's
what every saved sinner will do. Now, I think I've been 40
minutes I don't do that. Normally, I'm done 10 minutes
ago, but I'm done now. Let me just tell you this. Please
listen to me right now. The Lord Jesus Christ is passing
by. Right now, I mean it, I'm not
joking. Where two or three are gathered
in his name, he said, I'm in the midst of you. The Lord Jesus
Christ is passing by right now. I'm saying with confidence. He
is still here. And he is still healing. If in your heart you need him. If you. Cannot leave this world
without him in your heart, silently in your heart, cry out to him. Cry out to Him, Lord Jesus, Thou
Son of David, my Savior and my King, my God and my Lord, have
mercy on me. Please have mercy on me. Wash
my sin-sick soul in Your blood. Heal me of all my uncleanness
and let me follow You. If you have that desire in your
heart, it's because the Father put it there. And if the Father put it there,
the Savior will stand still for you, and He will call you, and
He will heal you, and you will be glad. And you will glorify
and praise God Almighty the rest of your days for it. Lord Jesus,
thou Son of David, have mercy on me. Every soul who cries that
from the heart will hear, rise, He's calling you. Amen.