All right, back in Mark chapter
8. Mark 8, let's read these verses
one more time, starting at verse 22. And 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 aught. 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, a couple of Sundays ago,
in Mark chapter 7, They brought to our Lord a man who was deaf. And one of the questions that
we asked was this. If a deaf man was never told
that he was deaf, would he know it? Would he know it? If nobody ever told him that
there's something called sound and you can't hear it, Would he know it? The same thing
can be said about a blind man. If he was never told that he
was blind, if all he ever knew was darkness, that's all he ever
knew. Would he naturally know and understand
that he was blind? No. The answer is no. Now, just like every portion
of scripture in this book, this text shows us how God deals with
sinners in salvation. That's what every word in this
book is telling us. How God deals with sinners in
salvation. These scriptures were not written
to teach us morality. They do teach us morality. But
that's not why God wrote them. These scriptures were not written
to show us the way. Does anybody in here want to
go to heaven? Well, if you follow this, here's the way. The scripture
was not written to show us the way. These scriptures were written
to declare to us the finished work of Jesus Christ who is the
way. That's why God wrote this word. These scriptures were written
to notify us. That's all. Notify us of what
he has already done. The theme of the Word of God,
if you want to open any page and find out what is it talking
about? What is it talking about? What's
that talking about? It is finished. That's what it's
talking about. Every single page. It is finished. But His finished work is evidenced
in His own time. and in his own way to his own
people. His finished work is evidenced
in his own time and 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
says, He cometh to Bethsaida And they bring a blind man unto
him, and besought him to touch him. Now I love how it says,
and they bring. I just love that. I love that. So many times throughout the
Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, it says, and they brought. And they bring, or and they brought. And if God has purposed to save
somebody, I want us to really understand this. If God has purposed
to save somebody, he's going to do it. I mean, there's no
ifs, ands, or buts about it. Well, you know, he never did
get to come hear the truth. No, he's going to do it. He is
going to cross his path with the gospel and he's going to
bring him in and he's going to save him. But he has purposed to use the
means of the preaching of the gospel to do that. And knowing that, how wise would
we be to bring our loved ones to the Lord and to his word,
to his gospel, where he said he would be, two or three are
gathered. How wise would we be to bring
them before him in prayer? Now, let me tell you something.
If you have a loved one who is in need, there is one great physician. We got some smart doctors in
Kingsport. I think we have a pretty good,
I don't know much about the medical field, but I'm sure we got some
smart people in it. But there's one great physician. And he has never lost a patient. Never. And this flesh does not
believe him. And this flesh does not believe
on him. And this flesh does not think
he's real. And this flesh does not think
he can actually do something. That's a great idea, but I got
a real problem here. There is one who is able. And his name is Jesus Christ.
And he's a real man sitting on a real throne ordering every
soul on this earth. And the heart of every soul on
this earth is in his hands. And he can turn that soul withersoever
he will. And if we have a heart for that
soul, let's bring him to the Lord. Bring Him to the Lord. I can't do anything for anybody.
I got two souls right there that I would love to do something
for them, but I can't. But I know who can. So there's
one thing I need to do. I need to bring them to His Word. I need to bring them to His Gospel. I need to bring them to the place
where He said He would be. And I need to bring them to the
Lord. They're in your hands. Thy will be done. Take your burden
to the Lord and leave it there. Well, he said in verse 22, he
cometh to Bethsaida and they bring a blind man unto him and
they besought him to touch this blind man. Now, if this story
is only about a blind man, we don't need to be here for this.
We could all get in our cars and caravan to a LASIK surgery
center. It's amazing what they can do
there. They can do cornea transplants. They can make blind men see.
You can put your eyes on a donor list. You know that? They can make blind men see. But that's not what this story
is about. This man spiritually represents
blindness of the soul. 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 a very important question How
do you know if a man is spiritually blind? All right, how can you
tell if a man is spiritually blind here's how you can tell
I 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 that that man sees things to
be is something has to be done. He has to make some kind of decision.
He has to maybe get somewhere, like some water. He has to do something to make
it effectual. That right there is spiritual
blindness. Spiritual blindness. 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's a spiritually
blind man. I mean blind. A man who believes. If I will turn over a brand new
leaf and 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 God will
be happy and I'll get to be with Him forever. That is a spiritually
blind man. That man is blind as a bat. I
mean blind as a bat. Absolute darkness. and he doesn't
know it. He has no clue. Verse 22, And
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 of contemporary worship When God deals with a
sinner, He leads him out of all that mess. Every bit of it. He gets him alone. Now, he might
be in the middle of a bunch of other people, but He gets him
alone. I mean alone. The man is not
caught up in what's going on around him. God gets him alone. Individually, one-on-one, alone. That's how God deals with His
people. This thing starts to become me. Me. This book calls men sinners,
but all of a sudden, this book starts to say, I'm a sinner.
I know men are sinners. Drive down the road. But this
book starts to reveal, I'm the sinner. Verse 23 says, 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 aught. The only thing that'll open a
blind man's eyes is what comes directly from the mouth of God,
his word. The truth of his word, that's
the only thing that'll open eyes. Verse 23, 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 is a
gradual thing. It's a gradual thing. It's a
work that God performs over time. Believers end up, you know, you
ask a person who is spiritually blind, when did God save you?
He'll say, June 13th, 1973. That's a blind man. That is a blind man. When God
opens a sinner's eyes, you ask him, when did God save you? He'll
say, I don't know. I hope He saves me today. And
then tomorrow, I hope, I don't know. Not even worthy to be saved. I can't believe God would even
look my way. But it's a work that God performs
over time. And at first everything doesn't
make perfect sense. You got a guy saying something
and I've never heard anything like this before. I literally
have never heard anybody say anything like this before. The
lines are a little bit blurry. It's all a little confusing.
I see, but I see men as trees. Verse 25, after that he put his
hands again upon his eyes and made him look up and he was restored
and saw every man clearly. He came again and put his hands
on his eyes. Faith comes by hearing. And hearing,
and hearing, and hearing. Why is it that men who came to
know the truth 40 years ago are still coming to hear the truth?
Don't you have it? I got it. Time to move on. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing,
he put his hands on him again. I want the Lord to put his hands
on us again. Would you touch us again? Would
you touch us again? Verse 25, 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.
When God opened his eyes he saw every man clearly and I'll tell
you this that right there is how we can recognize his work. All right? That's how you can
recognize His work. When God opens the eyes of His
child, He causes that child to see every man clearly. He sees the first man, Adam,
very clearly. He sees the natural man that
he is very clearly. He sees the God-man, Jesus Christ,
very clearly. And all of a sudden, he sees
a new man very clearly. Now, let's see quickly if God
has opened our eyes. Let's see if we can clearly see
what happened to the very first man. The very first man. I want
you to go with me to Romans 5. Romans 5, look at verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man, sin
entered into the world, and death by sin. That one man is Adam,
the very first man. As by one man, sin entered into
the world, and death by sin. What happened to the very first
man in the garden? What happened to the very first
man in the garden? He died. He died spiritually. When Adam sinned
in the garden, at that moment he was spiritually separated
from God. The wages of sin is death. Adam was not rebuked in the garden. This is so important. This is the foundation of it
all. This is so important. Adam was not rebuked in the garden. Adam was not just punished in
the garden. Adam did not just receive a slap
on the wrist in the garden. He died. He died. After he sinned, he could not
come back. He could not come back and beg
for forgiveness. He could not do anything that
would return his favor to God, and the reason is because he
died. He died. Go over to the funeral
home. This is the greatest example
I can think of. Go to the funeral home and walk
up to a casket and say to the body in the casket, if you will
beg for forgiveness, you can live again. I wish the preachers would do that.
That's what they're telling me in every service. I wish they'd
do that. I'd love to see a big group of
preachers go over to the funeral home, walk up to the casket,
tell the family, excuse me, If you'll say you're sorry, you
can live again. If you'll beg for forgiveness, God will give
you life again. He's dead. He is dead. He is absolutely
dead. A dead man cannot do anything. Men and women are going around
telling others, if you will ask for forgiveness and start doing
better, you can live again. Eternal life. You must be blind. He's dead. He's dead. And I'm going to tell
you this. Outside of Christ, we're all dead. We're all dead. Adam died. In Adam, all die. In Adam, all die. Well, I didn't
come from Adam. What? In Adam, all die. Not me. In Adam, all die. I was born alive. In Adam, all
die. It's my choice and my right.
You're dead. No, I'm not. In Adam, all die. In Adam, all
die. You see, in Adam, every person
who is born to Adam is dead. We come forth dead in trespasses
and sins. What that means is, in Adam,
all die. Get my point across here. What
I'm trying to say is, in Adam, all die. We're born into this
world dead. Dead, dead. Verse 12 says, Wherefore
as by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin. All right, now the verse goes
on to say, And so death passed upon all men, for that all have
sinned. Now who are all men? You and
me. This word of God says that you
and I are born dead. We see the first man, he died.
Do we see the natural man here? As God caused us to see, David
said, I was conceived in iniquity and
in sin. Did my mother bring me forward?
Sin is not just what I've done. Sin is what I am. It's what I am. We were conceived
in sin. We come forth from our mother's
womb speaking lies, don't we? That's the way you can tell if
a man is a sinner. That's how you can tell if he's dead. He
comes forth speaking lies. I've always been speaking lies.
It takes God to stop those lies. Jeremiah 17 says, The heart is
deceitful above all things, and it's desperately wicked. Whose
heart? Your heart and my heart. It's deceitful above all things,
desperately wicked. Now let me ask you a question.
Can we see that? I don't understand what you're
talking about. Can we see that? Has God had mercy on us and caused
us to see every man clearly? Every man. We don't have to fool
ourselves. We don't have to pretend. Just
look right there in the privacy of our own heart, privacy of
our own mind. God said in Genesis 6 that the
wickedness of man was great. Every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart was only evil continually. Tell him to straighten up and
fly right. What is wrong with that guy? He's dead. He's dead. Jeremiah 13 says you're trying
to change your iniquity. Wouldn't you love to stop sinning?
Wouldn't that be great? You're trying to change your
iniquity. He said, can the Ethiopian change his skin? Can the leopard change his spots? I don't like my color pattern.
I'm going to change it. It's impossible. With man, it's
impossible. Can we see that? We are what we are. You can't
do anything about it. Well, should we just close the
book and go on home? There's another man we need to
look at. Go with me over to 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 22 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. You see that, don't you? There's
one hope for sinners. We see that, don't we? There's
Jesus Christ and this over there. No! There's one hope for sinners. When God opens a sinner's eyes,
he clearly sees, if God does not show mercy to me through
the blood of my Redeemer, I'm going to die in my sin. I'm going to go stand before
God in my sin. And He's going to judge me in
my sin. And He's going to cast me out into hell's eternity in
my sin. Somebody says, you're making
all that up. No, I'm not. God said that a long time ago. He's
probably changed by now. No, He hasn't. I love the story in the book
of Judges of a man named Manoah and his wife. God opened their
eyes. He opened their eyes and they
saw God's holiness. And they saw their own sinfulness. And they saw a sacrifice for
sin. And they were both struck with
the fear of the Lord. And Manoah said to his wife,
God is going to kill us. We've seen God, we've seen His
holiness, we've seen that He punishes sin, we've seen that
we're sinners, and God is going to kill us. And his wife said,
no, if God was going to kill us, He would have never showed
us these things. He would have never opened our
eyes to see all of these things clearly. Clearly. Go with me back to Romans 5. Romans 5 verse 17 says, for if
by one man's offense death reigned by one, that's Adam, in Adam
all die, much more they which receive abundance of grace and
the gift of righteousness, that's Christ, 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. You know people say make this
statement Adam sinned and I'm suffering for it. That's not
fair. Well, let's talk about this.
Christ lived perfectly. And I get the reward for it. I tell you, that's not fair.
He suffered for my sin. God killed him because of what
I did. That's not fair. But that's what
God did. Verse 19 says, For as by one
man's disobedience, many were made sinners, So by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. What did he do to redeem us?
What did He do to save us? 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 died. He became our substitute. And when He became us, We became
Him. I don't even understand that
statement, but I believe every word of it. Absolute substitution. We became the righteousness of
God. Can we see that? Has He opened our eyes to see
that? Now, I'm going to close with this. One more man, the
new man, the result of God's work, Go with me to Colossians 2. Colossians 2. When God opens
a sinner's eyes, he sees that Christ is his all. Christ is
his all. He sees that his life is hid
with Christ, in Christ. And God causes him to truly see
for the first time in Christ it really is finished. I mean
it's finished. Everything. There's nothing more
to do. 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. Complete. restored, redeemed,
reinstated, perfected, holy, sinless in Him. Has God given us eyes to see
that? We might say, well, I do see
it, but I see it kind of fuzzy. I do see what you're saying.
I see men, but they kind of look like trees. If that's the case, let's all
cry, Lord, touch my eyes again and make me see. Touch me again. Reveal these things more clearly
to me than I saw them before. Touch me again. Touch me again
through your Word. Cause me to see my God. caused
me to see myself, caused me to see my Redeemer. Every man, clearly. All right, let's stand together.