Good to see everybody. We'll start this morning, turn
to Mark, Mark chapter 8. But before I get started, It's always good to meet brethren
and be amongst the brethren. Let me read you something out of
Romans. Coming up here, or going anywhere
really, but just specifically the Lord laid this on my heart
to share with you all this week. Romans, and you don't have to
turn there, but this is out of Romans 15. Paul said, I'm sure
that when I come to you, when I come to you, or when I go preach
somewhere else, or at my own home church in Jackson, Missouri,
I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel
of Christ. That's really all I have for
you is the gospel of Christ. But I know that it's the power
of God unto salvation. I know that's the best thing
we can do is gather together. He said, I come to you, and I
come in the fullness of the gospel of Christ. And he says, now I
beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake and
for the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me today. in your prayers to God for me
as we pray for you. And then he says also that I
may come unto you with joy, and so far I have, just the fellowship
has been outstanding, that I may come unto you with joy by the
will of God and may with you be refreshed. That's my desire
is to share the gospels, to have us embrace Christ and be refreshed
because whether you know if you're like me tomorrow you go to work
or you're going to go out in the world tomorrow and you got
friends I'm not saying that that's none of that is wrong what I'm
saying is that there's nothing like the fellowship of the believers
and brethren, and being refreshed. That's why we come here. That's
one reason why we come here. And I pray that this morning's
message on Mark chapter 8 will start in verse 22, the Bible
class this morning. I just have a simple outline,
that's who I am, I'm nothing complex. But I hope and pray
that the Holy Spirit will aid, with his aid, to proclaim that
one and only gospel, the grace of God, or as Paul said, the
simplicity that's in Christ. And this gospel that you've been
a part of and partaker of is called by this world foolishness.
So what we're doing here today, you know, people drive by that
don't go to church and say, well, they're people. Well, you know,
it's foolish. I got other things I need to
do. I need to make money. I need to spend, you know, all
these different excuses. So the world calls this truth, the truth,
foolishness. But being heralded of God, it's
called wisdom and honor and will bring him glory. Let's look at
verse starting in verse 22 of Mark chapter 8 And it says and
he that's Christ came to Bethsaida and they bring a blind man unto
him and besought him to touch him and Christ 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 the man looked up and said, I see men as trees
walking. And after that, Christ put his
hands again upon his eyes and made him look up. And the man
was restored. He was restored. and saw every
man clearly. Every man clearly. That's what
we're going to look at the last portion of verse 25. He was restored
and saw every man clearly. Well, how can this be? How can
this be? This man was blind, okay? He couldn't see anybody physically.
He couldn't see anybody naturally and he certainly couldn't see
anybody spiritually. He's blind. We know what that
is, what that means. He had absolutely zero ability
to view or behold or perceive anyone or anything. But again,
our text says he was restored and he saw every man clearly. Another rendering of this text
says, he saw absolutely all men plainly. I like that. He saw
absolutely all men plainly. And I just, when I read that,
I just couldn't get over the wonder of the free and sovereign
grace that's found only in our kinsman redeemer. It's by his
grace that this man saw. Well, I'm gonna, we're just gonna
have, I got three points for this morning's Bible class, just
three points. Being restored, point number one, I'll go over
the points and then we'll go back and look at them in a little
more detail. Being restored, this man saw plainly or he knew
or he saw himself. He saw every man. He was a man.
So the first point is that he saw himself clearly. That's essential. Secondly, this person whom the
Lord graces to be able to see again, he sees every man clearly
or plainly. I think the second thing is all
men. All men, women, and children Surely we see as they are of
what the scripture says. It sees every man clearly. And
the third thing is this man who was touched saw the God-man clearly. So just three points. So let's
look at the first point. Being restored, this man saw
plainly or he knew or saw himself clearly. We're in Mark chapter
three, I'm sorry, Mark chapter eight, and we're looking at the
last part of verse 25, Christ healing this blind man. When
our supreme and majestic Lord reveals himself to us, one of
the first things he does is shows us ourselves. We've been talking,
Bernie with Pizza Ranch and Eric and we were talking and it never
ceases to amaze me when you speak with people, religious or not,
that's one of the main things they don't see. They don't see
the sovereignty of God and they don't see themselves. But when
God opens our eyes, we see ourselves very clearly as in turn if you
want to to I Isaiah chapter 1 this is this is the progression that
I'm talking about Isaiah chapter 1 Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 4
the Lord's the verse Isaiah 1 verse 1 in the vision of Isaiah the
son of Amos this is a vision verse four, a simple nation of
people late with an issue of evil doers children that are
corruptors they have forsaken the war. They have provoked the
holy one of Israel and they are going away backwards. Look at
verse eight 1 verse 8, and the daughter of
Zion is left as cottage in the vineyard, as lodge in the garden
of cucumbers, as besieged city. Look at verse 11. To what purpose is the multitude
of your sacrifices unto me? and in on and on and he goes
in different passages in the first five first five chapters
for verse I was in chapter 1 chapter 5 look at verse 8 and this is
Isaiah still talking woe unto them verse 11 of chapter 5 woe
unto them verse 18 woe unto them verse 20 woe unto
them in verse 21 wall into the but
if God touches you and by the sovereign race to the preaching
of the gospel you can hear the truth The year that King Uzziah died,
I, Isaiah, saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and
lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Verse five, then
said I, woe is me. Woe is me, I am undone, because
I am a man of unclean lips, and dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the king, The Lord
of hosts, I've seen the king. Why? Because he touched me by
his grace, his gospel. He's glorified. And again in
2 Samuel chapter 9, turn there with me if you would, 2 Samuel
chapter 9. 2 Samuel chapter 9 verse 1, and
David said, Is there yet any that is left of the house of
Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? Let's skip
down to verse 6. Now Mephibosheth, the son of
Jonathan, the son of Saul, was come unto David. He fell on his
face. The king said, is there anybody
out there? And they said, yeah, there's this one Mephibosheth.
And the king said, fetch him. And Maurice Montgomery always
used to say, that's fetching grace. That's fetching grace.
Now, he fell on his face and did reverence. And David said,
Mephibosheth. And he answered and said, behold,
thy servant. David said fear not for I am surely I will surely
show the kindness for Jonathan my father's sake and will restore
thee all the land that saw Look at that. There's that word again
restore Just like in that mark. He's restored his sight and David's
gonna restore everything that his saw his father and now shall
eat bread at my table continually and a look at his response and
Mephibosheth the touched the moved the converted the convicted
the repentant sinner bowed himself and said what is thy servant
that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am so when
he does something for us He shows us ourself And then we got the
same thing in Mark chapter 7, you don't have to turn there,
about the woman, you know, she came and the Lord said, I'm just
sent to the children of the house of Israel, not the dogs, and
she said, yeah, Lord, but the dogs, she considered, she said,
I'm a dog. And, you know, do we see ourselves
as that? Oh, it's not politically correct
to say that. Yes, it's the believer throws
that stuff away and says, God has revealed himself to me, and
shows me what I am. This is one of the initial lessons
of God's gospel understood and believed upon in the heart. I
am the chief of sinners. I am the chief of sinners, Paul
said. We, by God's sweet grace and mercy, are less concerned
about the people and the few next to us, in front or behind,
and we are astonished, amazed, and brought low as the Holy Spirit
reveals to us were clearly we deserve not the least of God's
mercies. You know, the penitent man, he's,
you know, he pounded on his chest, God be merciful to me, the sinner. So the Lord's gonna back you
in a corner and you're gonna have to deal with, you're gonna
have to own up. You know, we own up to what we
are. And this concept can be further
illustrated, and you know, we don't have to turn there and
look there. When you get home, Zechariah chapter 12, the latter part of
chapter 12, the Lord dealing with His people, every house
apart, personally, and in that wonderful chapter 13, verse 1,
there's a fountain opened. So He will do this. So secondly,
back to our text, He was restored and saw every man. He sees Himself. But he also sees his neighbor,
he also sees his fellow church members, he sees boys and girls. When the person to whom, secondly,
the Lord graces to see every man clearly or plainly, sees
all men, women, and children, surely as the scripture declares
them to be. Romans chapter 3, there's none
good, no not one. They've all gone out of the way. Their throat is an open sepulcher.
Their tongues they have used to see. Poison of ask is under
their lips. Whose mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction
and misery are in their ways. And the way of peace, the way
of grace, Christ is our peace, peace have they not known. So
we see this, the reality of our neighbors. We see the reality
of Those in government, those in our jobs, we see this. You don't have to turn to Romans
5 and verse 18. Therefore, as by the offense
of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. We're not
born in this country, you're innocent until proven guilty,
not in the court of God's law. and he does this by revealing
himself to us. Again, we could look at Genesis
6, verse 5, God looked at man and every man's thoughts, thoughts,
were evil continually. Are we that bad? Yep. And this is our warrant. This
is our warrant right here. We are that bad. So yes, indeed,
we No, not are we we know not only by the sacred books teachings
But by the Holy Spirit's illumination like he says in Psalms 39 verse
5 man at his best state is altogether vanity Henry he Henry's always
saying even the Lord's he's gonna have to empty he uses empty vessels
He's gonna have to empty us before he'll fill us We're gonna have
to see that we're blind before we'll see. And that's just the
way, that's the simple illustration. Like I said, I don't try not
to preach complicated, but simply, and he restored this man's sight,
and he saw every man clearly. And that's what we're gonna do.
See ourselves, see our neighbors, and thirdly, and very importantly,
we'll see the main the main questions you saw every man, was gonna
take it from We know, we are fully persuaded
that clearly and plainly we see that man Christ, he's the God-man
and the only Savior among men whereby we must be saved. As
he is revealed in his word, we see him as our propitiation,
we see him as our atonement, our blessed covenant, The highly
favored mediator between a thrice-holy God and vile, sinful men, we
understand by divine disclosure He is our Savior, Matthew 121. He is our elder brother, our
friend, and our keeper, Jude 24. He fulfilled every jot and
tittle against us and set us at liberty, Matthew 518. We now
see Him clearly. We're still looking through a
glass darkly and dimly, so we have a lot to learn. But these
are fundamental truths that He does when He reveals Himself
through the preaching of His Word. We see that Emmanuel, that
is Christ, honored the Law and the Lawgiver, Isaiah 42. We see that He by Himself purged
our sins and died the just for the unjust, 1 Peter 2 and 1 Peter
3. We see that he who knew no sin,
he who had no sin, he who was cut off but not for himself,
Daniel 9, we see him. And once we see him, You can't unsee it. You know
how people say that. You know, you see something and you can't
unsee it? Well, this is a good thing. Once you've seen yourself,
there's no hope in you. There's nothing we can do no
matter how young or how old we get. I read something this morning,
a bulletin this morning on my phone. Somebody said, when God
first saved him, His sins then and his sins now are the same.
They don't get any better. I remember Henry saying, talking
to me years ago, he said, when you get older, you know, I figured
it'd get easier. He said, it doesn't. And I think
I understand what he means. This world, the folks in the
world, and it doesn't mean we don't love them. That's not what
I'm saying. I'm saying we see them for what
they are. And that's why we try to encourage
them and help them to look to Christ. But we'll see ourselves
first. But we must see Christ. And every
man clearly. Look and live. That's what we
see. That's what we do. So I tell
you and I tell myself, let us adore Him. Let us follow Him.
Worship Him. And love Him evermore. We who
were blind to all things Christ, all things grace, and all things
Bible. But now we see him plainly. He stole our heart. He's the
altogether lovely one. And he loved us and washed our
sins away. And you think about this, and
I think about this more of late, we look and see Him. Him, who
was in need of no one. That's one of the concepts of
Arthur Pink's book, The Attributes of God. It's got a chapter in
there on the solitariness of God. He is in need of no one. or nothing. Nothing we do adds
to him. He spoke and the worlds were
created and he's not just up there trying to figure out, you
know, how the next move. No, he's the Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the end. He who was in need of no one
or nothing left his father's side and his fellowship to seek
and to save the greatest tyrants The greatest tyrants of all time. I don't remember the story, maybe
Bunyan or somebody, but some guy came in and he was in a study
and he said, he was all excited, interrupted his study and he
said, the Lord just saved so-and-so, and this guy was notorious. Everybody
knew him in town. And he just, well, that's wonderful. He says, but ever since the Lord
saved me, I've not been in despair for anyone else. And that's what
I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. So, John
15, greater love hath no man than this, that he lays down
his life for his friends. We? the friends of God, oh my, in
redemption. So I close to have you think
about this. I pray that we be given eyes
clearly to see ourselves and the Redeemer and be given an
entire view or path to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank you very much.