Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church,
located at 905 Yadkin Street in Kingsport, Tennessee, would
like to invite you to listen to a message of sovereign grace
by their pastor, Gabe Stoniker. And now, Pastor Gabe Stoniker. I want to invite you to turn
with me this morning to the book of Mark, chapter 8. And I wanna
begin reading verses 22 through 26. Mark chapter eight verse
22 says, and he cometh to Bethsaida. This is speaking of our Lord
Jesus Christ. It says, he cometh to Bethsaida
and they bring a blind man unto him and besought him to touch
him. And he took the blind man by
the hand and led him out of the town. And when he had spit on
his eyes and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought. And he looked up and said, I
see men as trees walking. After that, he put his hands
again upon his eyes, and made him look up, and he was restored,
and saw every man clearly. And he sent him away to his house,
saying, neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town."
Now, I want to begin this by asking a question. Think about this question. If a blind man was never told
that he was blind, would he know it? Would he know he was blind? If darkness was all he ever knew,
if that was all he ever knew, would he naturally know and understand
the condition that he was in? The answer's no. Now just like every portion of
scripture in this book, This text shows us how God deals with
a sinner in salvation. These scriptures were not written
to teach us morality like so many people think they were.
That's what most people believe. They believe that the scriptures
were written to teach us morality. They believe these scriptures
were written to show us a better way. But that is not why they
were written. These scriptures were written
to declare to us the finished work of Christ. who is the way. These scriptures were written
to notify us of what he has already done. That's why the scriptures
were written. They were written to say, it
is finished. But his finished work is evidenced
in His own time. And it's evidenced in His own
way to His own people. And this Word tells us how we
will know His work, how we will recognize His work. Verse 22 right here in Mark chapter
8 says, and He cometh to Bethsaida. And they bring a blind man unto
Him and besought him to touch him. I love how it says they
bring. So many of the gospels, it says
they brought this one, they brought that one. If God has purposed
to do a saving work on the heart of a sinner, that sinner will
come to the Lord Jesus Christ. In God's good providence, that
sinner is going to be brought to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now knowing that, how wise would
we be to bring our loved ones to his word and bring our loved
ones to his gospel? to the place where he has said,
if two or three are gathered in my name, I will be in the
midst of you. How wise would we be to bring
them before him in prayer? Well it says in verse 22, he
cometh to Bethsaida and they bring a blind man unto him and
besought him to touch him. Now if this story is only about
a blind man receiving sight, we don't need to be doing this
right now. You don't need to be sitting there listening to
this right now. I don't need to be opening this
word for us to see how a blind man can physically receive his
sight. We could all go down to the LASIK
Surgery Center. They can do amazing things down
there. They can do a cornea transplant now. Did you know that? They
can make a blind man physically see. But that's not what this story
is about. This man represents spiritual blindness. Blindness of the soul. Man's eternal problem is not
a physical problem. The problem is in his soul. Now here's a very important question.
How can you know if a man is spiritually blind? How can you know if a man is
spiritually blind? Here's how you can know. A spiritually blind man sees
good people and bad people. moral people and immoral people. Those who do right and those
who do wrong. A man who sees that is a spiritually
blind man. When it comes to salvation, a
spiritually blind man, the way he sees it, Something has to
be done. He has to make some kind of decision. He has to maybe get in some water
somewhere. He has to do something to make
it effectual. That right there is a spiritually
blind man. A man who sees, if I live my
life this way, I get to go to heaven. And if I live my life
that way, I have to go to hell. That right there is a spiritually
blind man. A man who believes, if I turn
over a new leaf, and if I stop doing the things that I'm doing,
And if I do good deeds to offset my bad deeds, then at the end
of this whole thing, God will be happy with me and I'll come
out on top. That is a spiritually blind man. That man is blind as a bat and
he does not know it. He does not know it. Mark 8 verse 22 says, he cometh
to Bethsaida and they bring a blind man unto him and besought him
to touch him. And he took the blind man by
the hand and led him out of the town. All of the hoopla and all of
the chaos that goes on in contemporary worship I'm going to tell you
this, when God deals with a sinner, he leads him out of all that. He gets him away from all that
mess. He gets him alone. He might be
in the middle of other people, but God deals with his own individually. one-on-one alone. That's how he does it every time.
Verse 23 says, he took the blind man by the hand and led him out
of the town. And when he had spit on his eyes
and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought. The only thing that will open
a blind man's eyes is what comes directly out of the mouth of
God. His Word. The truth of His Word. That is the only thing that will
give a spiritually blind man sight. That's the only thing. Verse 23 says, he took the blind
man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when he had
spit on his eyes and put his hands upon him, he asked him
if he saw ought. And he looked up and said, I
see men as trees walking. When God gives sight, it's a
gradual thing. It's a work that God performs
over time. And at first, everything doesn't
make perfect sense. That person will say, I've never
seen anything like this before. I've never seen this in the word
before. I've never understood these things
before. The lines are a little blurry. It's all a little confusing. I see. Yes, I see. But I see men as trees. Verse 25 says, after that the
Lord put his hands again upon his eyes and made him look up
and he was restored and saw every man clearly. Our Lord again put his hands
on his eyes. He did it again. And this word
says, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing, and hearing, and
hearing, God's word. What comes from the mouth of
God? He did it again. He put his hands
on his eyes, and he made him look up, and he was restored. And he saw every man clearly. And the Lord sent him away to
his house, saying, neither go into the town, nor tell it to
any in the town. When God opened his eyes, he
saw every man clearly. After he finally saw, he saw
every man clearly. And I'll tell you this. That
right there is how we can recognize his work in us. We are all by nature blind. We're all born into this world
spiritually blind and we don't naturally know it. But in God's good time, he crosses
our path with his word, his truth, what has come directly from his
mouth. He draws us to himself. He draws
us to his gospel. And we begin to see some things.
And after he speaks to us again and again and again through his
word, we begin to see some things clearly. We see every man clearly. It's the evidence of God's finished
work. And this is what we see. This
is what a true sinner will see when God does a work and gives
him eyes, gives him sight. That sinner will see, number
one, the first man, Adam. He said, I see men clearly. He's going to see the first man,
the very first man ever entered into this world, Adam. He's going
to see him very clearly. The second man he's going to
see is the natural man that he is. As he was born into this
flesh, he's going to see his own self very clearly. The third man he's gonna see
is Jesus Christ, the God-man. He's gonna see him very, very
clearly. And the last man he's gonna see
is the new man, the result of Christ's work, very clearly. Now let's see if God has opened
our eyes. Let's see if God has done a work
on us and given us spiritual sight, all right? Let's see if
we can see clearly what happened to the first man, all right,
the very first man. What happened to him? If you're
turning with me, look at Romans 5. Romans 5, verse 12 says, wherefore,
as by one man, Adam, talking about Adam. As by one man, sin
entered into the world, and death by sin. Death by sin. What happened to the very first
man in the garden? What happened to him? You know
what the answer is? He died. He died. Spiritually, he died. When Adam
sinned in the garden, at that moment he was spiritually separated
from God. He died. The wages of sin is death. Adam was not rebuked in the garden. He was not just punished in the
garden. He didn't just receive a slap
on the wrist. He died. After he sinned, he couldn't
come back and beg for forgiveness. He couldn't do something to earn
God's favor again. He died. Let me ask you this, what can a dead
man do? What can a dead man do? Go over
to one of the funeral homes in town. Walk up to a casket. Say to the body that's laying
there in that casket, if you will just beg for forgiveness,
you can live again. I'm sorry, what? He's dead. Can't you see that? He's dead. A dead man can't do
anything. But you know, men are going around
telling other men, if you'll just ask for forgiveness and
start doing better, you know, come on now, if you'll just...
I'm sorry, wait a minute, what? Can't you see he's dead? What
are you, blind? That's what I would love for
for men to ask these preachers who are going around telling
people, if you'll just straighten up and fly right. I'm sorry,
wait a minute, what are you blind? Can't you see this? Can we clearly
see what happened to the first man? Verse 12 right here in Romans
5 says, wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and
death by sin. Death by sin. Now let's just keep reading that
verse. And so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Now let me ask you this, who
are all men? Well that's me. And that's you. This Word of God says that you
and I were both born into this world dead in trespasses and
sins. Can we see that? Has God caused
us to see that? Over in Psalm 51, David said,
I was conceived in sin. You know what that means? It
means you and I haven't just committed sin, it means we are
sin. We were conceived in sin. Psalm 58 says, we come forth
from our mother's womb speaking lies. The way you can tell if a man
is a sinner is he's been speaking lies since he was a child. That's
us, isn't it? Jeremiah 17 says, the heart is
deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Whose heart? My heart. Your heart. Can we see that? We don't have to try to pretend
to fool ourselves. All we have to do is look inside
the privacy of our own heart, the privacy of our own mind.
Can we see what's in there? God said in Genesis 6 that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Well surely he needs to just
straighten up and fly right. Surely all he needs to do is
rededicate his heart to Jesus and that'll fix it. He's dead. He's dead. Jeremiah 13 says,
you're trying to change your iniquity? He said, let me ask you this,
can the Ethiopian change his skin? Or can the leper change
his spots? It's impossible. With man, it's
impossible. We are what we are, sin, sinners,
and we can't do anything about it. Well, should we just close
the book and be done? No, there's another man we need
to look at. 1 Corinthians 15, in verse 22,
it says, for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be
made alive. When God gives spiritual sight
to a blind man, he clearly sees the God-man, Jesus Christ, the
Redeemer, the only hope for sinners. When God opens a sinner's eyes,
he clearly sees that if God does not show mercy to me through
the blood of my Redeemer, I'm gonna die in my sin. I'm going
to go meet God in my sin. I'm going to be judged in my
sin. I'm going to be cast out into
hell's eternity. Somebody will say, you're making
all that up. No. Well, God said that a long time
ago. Maybe he's changed his mind. No. He said, I am the Lord. I change not. That's fearful,
isn't it? That's fearful. Back over in
Romans 5, verse 17 says, for if by one
man's offense death reigned by one, if because of Adam's sin,
sin reigned to all men, much more They which receive abundance
of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus
Christ. Therefore, as by the offense
of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so
by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto
justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. What did our Lord do to redeem
us, to save us, to make us righteous? Hebrews 7 says He became us. He literally took our place. He literally bore our sin. The wages of sin was death, He
died. He became our substitute. And when He became us, we became
Him. The righteousness of God. When
He died, we lived. Can we see that? Has He opened
our eyes to see that? Well, let's close this by looking
at one more man. the new man, the result of God's
work, the result of Christ being our substitute, the result of
being washed in his blood. In Colossians chapter 2, Colossians
chapter 2, when God opens a sinner's eyes, he sees that Christ is
his all. He sees that his life is hid
with Christ. In Christ, everything is finished. There's nothing more to do and
God is satisfied. Colossians 2 verse 9 says, For
in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete in Him. You are complete, restored, redeemed,
reinstated, perfected, holy, sinless in Him. In Him. Has God given us eyes
to see that? We might say, well, I do see
men, but they look a little bit like trees right now. Well, if that's the case, then
let's all cry, Lord, touch my eyes again. Touch my eyes and make me see. Touch me, Lord, through your
word again. Open up the word to me. again,
cause me to clearly see the condition that I was born into. Cause me
to see what mankind has done against you and therefore the
condition he is in. Cause me to see what I am by
nature. Cause me to see myself. And Lord, cause me to see my
God. calls me to see my Redeemer, calls me to see the One who dealt
with me in mercy. And then because of that, through
that, calls me to see, Lord, what I am now in Him. What I am now because of His
work, His finished work. Lord, calls my heart to rejoice
and find comfort in Him. Until next Sunday morning, may
the Lord bless this word to our hearts. You have been listening
to a message by Gabe Stoniker, pastor of Kingsport Sovereign
Grace Church in Kingsport, Tennessee. If you would like a copy of this
message or to hear other messages of Sovereign Grace, you can write
to our physical mailing address at 905 Yadkin Street, Kingsport,
Tennessee 37660 or log on to our website at kingsportsovereigngracechurch.com. If you would like to come and
worship with us, our service times are Sunday morning Bible
study at 10 o'clock a.m., worship at 10.45 a.m. and 6 o'clock p.m.,
Wednesday evening at 7.30 p.m. Please tune in next Sunday morning
at 8.30 for another message of God's free and sovereign grace.