Alright, brethren. Mark chapter
8. You can go ahead and turn over to Romans 11 if you'd like.
Leave a marker there in Mark chapter 8. Romans 11. I've titled this message, Degrees
of Growth. I was going to do degrees of
growth and healing, but it won't fit. So we'll do degrees of growth. You want to grow? We're going
to have to learn about God's ways. Not just, not just watch
him, not just be innocent bystanders, not just say what something else
is happening somewhere else. We're going to have to be taught
his ways. I was reading that. It's just laid on me so heavy
there in Psalm 103 verse seven. It says he made known his ways
unto Moses. God made known his ways unto
Moses. Here's what I'm doing and why.
and his acts under that physical nation Israel, they gotta see
it happen. I don't wanna just see it happen, I wanna know why.
I don't wanna just watch it in other assemblies, I wanna be
a part of it and experience it and I wanna know why. Well, they
can do that, but why can't we? I want that to happen for us,
don't you? I do. There are so many things,
and this is our nature, and we're lying to everybody and ourselves
if we say it ain't. I wouldn't do things the way
the Lord does it. My brother Scott Rich said that. He said,
if I had the power of God, I'd change everything. I mean, boy,
I'd be busy. If I had the wisdom of God, that's
what we need. Wouldn't change nothing. I'd
just thank him. I'd thank him. I thought of Abraham.
The Lord came to Abraham. He said, I'm gonna make a great
nation. You go outside and look up. You see all them stars? There
was no light pollution. Look out there where you live.
It's one of them dark sky cities. So they can see all the lights.
There wasn't no lights. And the Lord waited till Abraham was
a hundred years old to even get started. Give him an infant.
That ain't what I'd have done. Is that your way? That ain't
my way. It wouldn't be. What about Lot?
That man that left because of goods and stuff, he didn't say,
let's give up. We got plenty. Let's stay here
where the gospel is. Well, I got to get down to Sodom.
And he started getting into government. He started worrying about things.
And he's watching a lot of C-SPAN down there in Sodom and getting
an active voice in the community. And he lost his witness with
his family for God. And the Lord called him just
lot. Peter said, that's a righteous
man, that righteous man. and to let him be in Sodom and
have a relationship with one of his daughters that ended up
producing Moab. Is that your way? I wouldn't have done it
that way. It's God's way. It's what he did. Jonah, that prophet,
he went through preaching. First off, he run off, didn't
he? He was a fatalist, and he tried to go down to Tarshish.
The Lord made him go to Nineveh. And he preached through Nineveh,
and he wasn't happy when he did it. And he got up on the side
of that hill and he said, people's going to think my reputation's
tarnished. Because I said, Lord's going to burn this city down,
and I know he's going to save them, but maybe he's going to
burn it down anyway. And he kicked his feet up and said, I'm going
to watch this place burn to the ground. That was the very prophet that
the Lord used to record the largest revival ever. that we have in
written history, wasn't it? Is that your way? Is that the
one you'd have picked, or do you pick that nice, educated
young fella? Just so sweet and personable. God said, I'm gonna
give you something undesirable. It's not my way. Job allowed
Satan, the Lord allowed Satan to go and take absolutely everything
from Job. Didn't kill his wife, and all
she did was tell him to kill himself. Curse God and die. And then the Lord sustained him,
because he wanted to, and doubled everything the man had. Is that
the way you'd have done it? Why didn't he just double it
anyway and say, hey, read this book? That ain't God's way. Israel,
we're reading that, right? You think they was happy when
they got to the land of Goshen in the middle of a famine? Everybody
else in the world's destitute and dying. They're watching their
babies, little three-year-olds just starving to death with distended
bellies and dying of cramps. Starvation's a bad way to die.
Everybody's watching their grandbabies die. And here comes Israel on
wagons riding the land of Goshen and everything they touch just
multiplies. Now to bring them into that and
leave them there for 400 years and turn that into bondage to
where they're being beat to death on a daily basis. Would you have
done it that way? Just to show the Lord's power,
glory, might? He did. Not my way. Moses, the
one that's gonna bring him out, 40 years old, strong, smart. He's the highest ranking man
in the good old boy system inside of Pharaoh's house. His adopted
grandson. He's got pull, don't he? That's
logical. God sent him to the backside
of the desert for another 40 years. He refused his strength. He refused his smarts. He refused
his position. Wait till he's 80 years old,
till he couldn't hear too good, and probably it wasn't too good
to listen to. No reputation at all. Everybody
forgot who he was. And the Lord said, now it's time
to get to work. Let's go. That's not the way I'd have chose.
The Lord's ways are different than our ways. Isaiah 55 says,
for as the heaven are higher than the earth, so are my ways
higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Well, I just don't think. Who cares what you think? Who
cares what I think? It don't matter what I, Kevin,
what do you think about that? It don't matter. What's the word
say? What's God say? That's what matters. And people
won't get mad over what I think. That's the way that's his opinion.
And when I say God says this, People stop talking to me, or
they start saying real bad things about me, and they start murmuring,
they start ganging up together behind my back. Why didn't you,
it's been there the whole time. I just said, remember, that's
what it says. Don't get mad at me. They can
get mad at me, it's all right. There in Romans 11, look at verse
33. Romans 11, verse 33. Oh, the depths. of the riches, this is rich,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are
his good decisions? No, his judgments. His judgments
and his ways past finding out for who hath known the mind of
the Lord or who hath been his counselor or who hath first given
to him and it shall be recompensed unto him again. That's the God
we serve. That's the God who gave us this
scripture that recorded these miracles for us and sustained
it so we might learn something in 2023. Who's known his mind? I want
to know it. Do you? I got some good friends on this
earth. One of my best friends sitting right there and she knows
me pretty good. I know her pretty good. We drive
down the road, and both of us at the same time, we'll read, don't
even mention it, read a sign on the side of the road, and
we'll have the same comment, won't we? Didn't even read the sign out loud.
He said, you're my friend. He said, servants, they don't
know what their master's doing. I told you what I'm doing. He's gonna
teach us people. I wanna be taught. Do you wanna
be teachable? I pray for that often. I wanna have a teachable
spirit. Do you, or do you wanna instruct?
I want to be taught. If God's the teacher, I don't
need some other man to teach me. If it's just worldly stuff,
I can figure it out on my own. I can Google it. If it's things
concerning Him, I want Him to teach me. And I want to be teachable
when He does it. I want to learn. This miracle
of the blind receiving sight in degrees, this degree of growth
and degree of healing, this is a display of the Lord's sovereignty
in exercising His grace, in performing His grace on an undeserving,
unworthy sinner. That's what this is. The purpose
of the healings that Christ performed throughout all the scriptures,
all the New Testament, it's not simply to show us that He had
power over flesh. Like, look at the miracles I
can perform. I can make you whole in the body. That's not just
it. Not just to prove he was God of creation, because all
of creation testifies he's God. And it wasn't just to prove that
he's the God of creation, that was simply something that took
place to typify, or as a result of, him being the God of salvation. All these things of him healing
the blind and the lepers and the deaf and the dumb, that was
to show what he does in the hearts of his people and saving them. Now I wish he'd give us ears
to hear and tongues that speak right, and we can say shibboleth. That'd be nice, wouldn't it?
Might learn something. And not watch it happen, but have it
happen to us. I wanna know his ways. Five times
throughout the scriptures, the Lord healed a blind person. Do
you know that? There's five healings of blind people in the New Testament.
Three of them, he just said it. He just spoke, and they were
healed. That's right, right? We know that, now let's understand
something. One of them, he spit on the ground,
he made this mud paste and put it in their eyes. And then this
one, we'll look at tonight. This time he does it in degrees.
He spits in a man's eyes, puts his hands on him. He can see
some, but he don't see totally. And then he puts his hands on
him again, after a confession's made, and he sees clearly. He
sees clearly. What can we learn from that?
I don't want to simply witness the act, what he's doing, and
I don't want to simply watch others rejoice. Well, what'd
you think about that message? Well, everybody else seemed pretty
happy about it. What'd you think about that message? That's what
the apostles did, didn't they? Who do men say that I am? Well,
some say this and some say, hey, that's nice. Who do you say I
am? It don't matter what somebody else thinks. What do you think
that I am? I want to understand God that
is acting and doing all these things, and I want to experience
it. And I want you to. I want others to. I want the
people that ain't here tonight to. I want your family to. I
do. I want them to work in us, all
of us, me and you and your family and your neighbors. I want your
neighbors to be saved. I want all men to be saved. What
can we learn from this? First, just the learning, okay?
We're gonna establish the stage of learning, and then hopefully
learn something. First off, as soon as we think we've got the
Lord figured out, we find out His ways aren't our ways. We say, all right, well, somebody's
gonna be saved. This is gonna happen, and this
is gonna happen, and this is gonna happen, and now we have
an algorithm to solve this. I've been working on this for
a few weeks. We have an algorithm to solve this. And then we go
read, John the Baptist had the Holy Ghost from the womb. Now,
how do I make that fit my systematic theology and try to explain it
away over four hours of yickety-yacking? I don't. I bow to it and say,
amen. I don't know everything. Now
that's so. Did the Lord send his spirit
or an angel to preach to a baby in a womb? I don't know what
he did. I'll ask him sometime in the next 60 years and he'll
tell me about it. When I'm with him in glory, I'll know all things.
I'm like, that's easy. Why didn't I think of that? But
until then, that's so. And that's what happened. But
I know what happened with me, and you know what happened with you,
and I know what happened to every other believer we talk to, don't we? It's in
our same shoes. First thing we can, in this learning
thing, is we figure out we can't put the Lord in the box. And
the second thing concerning this learning, if we can learn something,
is instead of guessing what the Lord will do, What do you think
the Lord's going to do next week? How much time have I wasted over
the last six months wondering what the Lord's going to do? What
do you think He's going to do? What do you think He's going
to do about this? What do you think He's going to do about the elections? What about this?
What about that? Instead of us doing that, it'd
be real good and beneficial to learn what He's already done.
We know what He's done. We don't know what He's going
to do, and I want to learn Him. That might help us handle whatever
we got coming. Make it awful easy. I want my life to be a
little bit more graceful. Do you? Or do you want to run
around with a head with your chicken cut off? I want to learn something he's
already done. You know why? Because he's God and he changes
not. I want to learn him. Him. Now what do we know about
this event? What can we learn from this event
that's going to be our text? Don't turn there yet. About a
blind man getting his sight. Okay, he's blind. That's sin. That's sin. That's what it pictures.
And that's where blindness come from. You're sick in the body.
You know why you're sick? Sin. It's bad, too. And something
that's so perfect, created in the image of God, it kills it.
Sin kills it in a vapor of 70 years. That's how poisonous this stuff
is. Folks used to live six, seven, eight, hundred, nine, you know,
hundreds of years seeing some bad stuff, worse than we think
it is. Remember, there's another blind man. In John 9, Jesus passed
by the way, he saw the man which is blind from his birth. This
guy may have been blind after he was born. He knew what trees
looked like, didn't he? I don't know. But this one for
sure was blind from his birth. Nowhere is this recorded. Nobody's
ever healed somebody that was born blind and became seeing. And his disciples ask him, say,
Master, who did sin? Who did sin, this man or his
parents that he was born blind? Why did he come from the womb?
Did he sin in the womb? We wanna learn something. And
the Lord said, neither this man sinned nor his parents. Were
they sinners? Of course they were. This is important, hang
with me. Of course they were. but that
the works of God should be manifest in him. You know why he was born
blind? So I can be glorified, and he's
gonna learn of me. He didn't have a choice from
being born blind. He didn't have a choice from getting healed.
He already was blind, and that's to show us all of us are born
blind too, ain't we? You didn't understand it. You
didn't have good hand on God, and then you found the right
preacher. God says so. You may not remember who preached
to you. You may not remember, but that's the way he does it.
He said so, and if he said it, it's so. Back in Mark, you can
stay there in Romans 3, we just read it, I'll read it back to
you. In Mark 8, 22, it says, And he cometh to Bethsaida, and
they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him.
Here's a blind man, Lord, and we want you to just touch him.
If you touch him, he's gonna have a sight back. They had it
all figured out, didn't they? We know this pattern. We can
just get him to touch him, It's gonna be fine. Lord didn't do
what they wanted him to do. He took him off to the side.
Anyway, who'd they bring? A blind man. He cannot see. He's
still in Romans. Turn back a few pages, Romans
3. What does this man, what does this healing of blind people
picture? That's us by birth. If I can look up and I can say,
there's a clock on the wall back there, and this room's painted
white, and these chairs are painted gray. That's a detriment because
spiritually, we're born blind. Just because we can physically
see, we think we can see spiritually. Just because you own a Bible
and you can read it, and you might be able to get up and teach
a Bible school, that don't mean you know God. We're born spiritually blind,
and the Lord has to give us sight and teach us something. You can't
teach nobody else something you ain't been taught, can you? He
was blind. That's what all mankind comes
in this world as, spiritually blind. Look in Romans 3, verse
10. As it's written, there is none righteous, no, not one. Mankind can be kind of okay with
that. Well, I mean, nobody's perfect, right? There's banners
all around this county. We don't like perfect people.
No perfect people allowed. Well, they ain't unrighteous.
To miss the marks, to perish in eternity of hellfire and brimstone,
isn't it? To not be like Christ is to die
forever. Well, verse 11, there is none that understandeth. Why,
now I got a handle on this. God says you don't. Apart from
him sending a preacher to you, and a man to explain these things
to you, and him working in you through that jawbone of an ass. You don't understand. Yes, I
did. Well, your experience don't line
up with what God says. Every man's a liar and he's true.
That offends, doesn't it? And there's none that seeketh
after God. Now, I was looking for him. Was he lost, or was
you lost? This blind man, they said, we're
gonna give you sight. He's like, uh, okay. They said,
no, you're gonna be able to explain sight to a person that's never
seen from birth. Where do you start? Oh, man. Remember Eve? Lord said, I'm gonna multiply
your sorrow in childbirth. Ain't nobody ever had a baby.
She come from Adam's rib. And she's like, okay. I probably
had that coming, whatever that is, sure. Go out, what do you
tell your friends and your neighbors, your children? What do you tell
your children? You're gonna die and perish in your sins. You're
gonna die and go to hell. And to be separated from God, he's
gonna forsake you for eternity. And they go, oh, okay. I never
experienced that. Nobody seeks after God. I was
looking for him. Unless he drew you, no, you were
not. Is that offensive? That's God's word. They are all,
it says none too, how inclusive? People worry about inclusivity
these days? Okay, here's something for you,
none. What about grandma? That scripture
says none, doesn't it? To double down verse 12, they
are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good.
And just in case you was worried about it, no, not one. None. We come in this world blind.
Everybody we think highly of and we respect that outside of
Christ, they're blind. Outside of his work, through
his spirit, they're blind. They ain't, you might be in their
ship, they ain't in my ship because they're blind. Can't have fellowship
with them. You get that? I mean it because I care for y'all.
I mean it because I care for my family. None were blind. How did that blind man get there? Remember that one that was lame
and they brought him through the ceiling? How'd he get there?
Friends brought him, didn't they? Nothing was recorded about this
blind man wanting to get to the Lord. Nothing was recorded about
that one lowered through the ceiling. Now if I could just
get over there, I sure would like to see him. He didn't even
know what sight was really and truly. He didn't even know he
needed to be healed or what the healing even was, what that would
be like. He had no desire. Nevertheless,
his friends brought him. You might be here tonight because
a friend brought you. Maybe that's how you came here
a long time ago. You're sitting here, right? Now,
let me ask you, what about your friends? What kind of friend
am I? What kind of friend are you? To those we call friends. Now, let's not go around saying
how friendly we are and we don't invite nobody to church. I need
to work on that. I'm convicted of that. His friends brought him. There's
another one. Turn over to John chapter four. There was this
lady at a well one time, and the Lord came to her, and they
had an exchange. Those Sumerians, they were the
half-breeds, and there was paths around that town so that the
Jews didn't even have to go into their city limits. They didn't
want nothing to do with them. And here the Lord went and spent
some time with this woman. He said, give me something to drink. Had
an interaction with her, because that was one of his daughters,
wasn't it? She'd been married a bunch, and he told her everything
about herself. Here in John 4, verse 28. Lord
told her everything about herself and it just amazed her. Verse
28, the woman then left her water pot and went her way into the
city and saith to the men, come, see a man which told me all things
that I ever did. Is this not the Christ? He said
bad things about you. Yep, I'm a bad sinner and he's
a great savior. This is the Christ, come see
him. Well, she's just a woman, what does she know? She knows
God. My, listen to her. Me and Discount, those things,
just stand up and read 1 Samuel 2. Preach on hand as prayer. Maybe y'all go learn something.
And they went out of the city and came unto him. Now look down
at verse 39. And many of the Samaritans of
that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which
testified he told me all that I ever did. So when the Samaritans
were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with
them, and he abode there two days. And many more believe because
of His own word. They came because she told them.
They came because they knew her. And now He preached to them for
two days. God spoke to them. And said unto the woman, verse
42, now we believe. Now we believe, not because of
thy sayings, we didn't believe because of what you were saying,
for we have heard Him ourselves and know that this is indeed
the Christ, the Savior of the world. That's what it says, right? Now
let's turn over to Acts 2. I got your attention, let's look
at it. Acts chapter two. This isn't me saying it. I want
you to get a hold of this. I mean it. Well, now Don said
it. Now Henry said it. Now Rolfe
said it. Now Gil said it. Now Jesse said
it. Now John said it. I heard a lot of that. I've said
it 10 times. God says it. God says it. Get a hold of it, okay? Not because
them men say it. It's because God said it. Look
here in Acts 2 verse 42. And they continued steadfast
in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of
bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul,
and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles, and all
that believed were together, and had all things common. So
I preach on this week in a common prayer, we have a common salvation.
It ain't dime store common, you can't go down to Walmart and
get it. You ain't gonna get it, it has to be given, but it's
a saying, to everyone that believes. and they sold all their possessions
and goods and pardoned them to all men as every man had need.
And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple and
a breaking of bread from house to house, did eat their meat
with gladness and singleness of heart, comma, next verse,
praising God, comma, and having favor, living peaceably with
all the people, with all men. and the Lord added to the church
daily as should be saved." How'd this blind man get to the Lord? They brought him. How'd that
lame man come through the roof? His friends brought him. That's
a friend, isn't it? That's a good buddy. That's a
good friend. I want to be a good friend. I
don't want to be a bad friend. I don't want their blood on me.
I want to be a good friend. I do. He that hath friends must show
himself friendly. I ain't got many friends." Well,
try being nice. Stop saying mean things to people
and picking at them and judging everything that comes out of
their mouth and having something to say. But the proverb there
in Proverbs 18, 24 has a colon. And there is a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother. John 15 says, you are my friends.
Lord says, Lord Jesus Christ says, you're my friends. If you
do whatsoever, I command you. Well, we got to do what he commands.
How can we not we know he's God He says go over and walk out
that door. If I just laid down I'd hover out that door. He said
it it's gonna happen We know who he is. He said you're my
friends Now do you want to be like Christ? Do I want to be like Christ I
Won't be friendly. I won't be judgmental and picky
and mean to people. I won't be kind to people I wanna be like
he is. I do. I do. Now, as old brother
Henry says, now let's turn to my text. Mark chapter eight.
Mark chapter eight. Verse 22. Mark 8, 22, and he cometh to
Bethsaida, and there bring a blind man unto him, 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. Now,
he didn't do what we asked him to do. Yeah. People gathering together in
the prayer meeting, they said, we're going to get together and
we're going to pray until this happens. I wish they'd stop committing
mutiny and trying to bend the Lord's arm to do what they want
him to do. Well, no, we're going to get a prayer lesson. We're
going to pray that that cancer goes away. That's hard. It is. And somebody
in this generation needs to explain to people where trials come,
who trials come from, not where, who trials come from and why
they're sent and what the outcome is. Somebody needs to tell these
people. Wish people quit ganging up on
him. Lord ain't going to do anything at our beck and call. Now all
of our needs are going to be provided, that's so. And you
ever start praying and you say, Lord, I wish, If I could just
hope, I'm pretty pleased. And then you realize who you're
talking to and you realize who you are and you realize what
he's done for us. And you just go, thank you, Lord. You go from trying to bend his
arm to bowing. That's a good place to be. Prayer
of submission. That's the sacrifice of our lips. That's submission. Anyway, the
Lord took his blind man by the hand and he led him out of town.
Here he goes, boys. We don't know what he's gonna
do over there, but he's gonna work on him. And he's gonna work on him
personally. Individually. And there's something to learn
in this too. What did he do necessarily? Did they go down, did they go
up? I don't know. That was out of town. And that was the Lord's
doing. No experience is exactly alike. There's no cookie cutter experience.
It's like a thumbprint. Everybody's individual, different,
right? Individual. Now there's some things that's
common through all this. If we're spiritually blind, we're spiritually
blind. That's a great, we need a great position if we're in
need, right? We have those things in common.
But the actual coming to Christ and when he starts working, we
don't know. I remember the first message
I remember remembering, okay? Bear with me, this is important.
Try to stay with me. If I lost you, stick with me
now. I don't remember those things. I don't remember the day that
I said that, the lights are on, I remember. And I'm thankful.
You ought to be thankful if you don't know. I don't know the
Lord. Brother Gabe said that I tickle me that the Lord saved
me sometime between 1992 and 2005. Somewhere through there.
Like Lord saved me. Pretty good spread. And if I
knew the exact thing, I try to recreate that every time and
not look to God. I keep going back to playing that music and
them traveling bands and not looking to God. I keep going
back to that time whenever I was studying and I felt real spiritual
because I was studying after work and stayed up late and not
look to the Lord Jesus Christ. That time I listened to a message
on the radio, not the Lord Jesus Christ. Or that time that man
came to town. Not that time God sent a man
to preach to me about God. You see the difference? The living lay at the heart.
It's a good thing. We would lean on that experience
and not lean on the Lord. But the Lord will work in his
children personally, personally, one-on-one. The Lord told Hosea,
he said, I'm going to get Gomer. Therefore, behold, I will allure
her. I'm going to attract her. I'm going to comfort her and
bring her into the wilderness. That means out in the boonies,
out in the middle of nowhere in an undesirable place. And
I will speak comfortably to her. I'm going to talk to her heart.
Nothing's changed, that's what God does now. We might be sitting
in a room full of people, but God gets us by ourselves, ain't
nobody else alive. And it ain't Kevin Thacker talking
to you, it's God talking to you. I just happen to be the water
hose that the living waters come out of. I'm just a spigot. Turn over John 6. John 6. The Lord has to do this, he has
to work in us, he has to take us by ourselves, and he has to
teach us and speak to our hearts, because we won't, we can't. There's
a difference between can't and won't, and we won't neither.
You get that? We can't and we won't. John 6, 43. And this is all mankind, this
is all the blind. All of mankind. John 6, 43. But this is what
the Lord does. Jesus therefore answers him saying,
murmur not among yourselves, no man That says no man, not
most men, no man. No man can come to me except
the father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise him
up at the last day. It is written in the prophets
and they shall be all taught of God. That means he's gonna
give a teachable spirit and then he's gonna teach them. He's gonna
give them a spirit, make that teachable spirit and then teach
that spirit. Now what's our job? Go into all the world, make disciples.
That means preach to them. Baptize them. That means baptize
them. And this makes people mad. Teach them. That's what he told
us. That's what the master said, wasn't it? He said, they shall
be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father Cometh unto me." And that's
cometh. That's continual. That's not,
well, he came to me. He's going to come. Cometh. Day
in, day out. Me and Miss Shelby's talking
about praying. We pray without ceasing. It don't stop all day
long. We go outside, we're talking
about hummingbirds. You gotta say it. And I was like, the Lord
feeds them and takes care of them and gives them a nest. You
know how big an egg is? He did that. and just in awe of him. Thank you, Lord. I thank you
for trees. Gives them birds a place to stay and shade for us. Oxygen,
makes oxygen for us. I like oxygen, don't you? I need
it. And he provides my needs. They shall be all taught of God.
Every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the
Father, they cometh to me, verse 46, not that any man hath seen
the Father, Save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath,
always has, has it right now, always will, hath everlasting
life. That's the needs of a blind man,
isn't it? That's the needs of us having to have some wagons
bring us to Goshen. God's providence must act, because
we won't and we can't. Now back in our text, Mark 8,
verse 23. Mark 8, 23. And he took the blind
man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when he had
spit on his eyes, he put his hands upon him and he asked him
if he saw aught. You see anything? The Lord spit
on his eyes. Now, many commentators say that
was the medical practice of the day. You read that in a commentator,
mark it out, he's wrong, okay? He missed the mark. That's all
there is to it. That's not it. That may have
been at some point in history, probably after this was written,
somebody tried that. That's what's called practicing
medicine. They don't know what they're
doing. But we know now that salivary amylase does not affect corneal
function. Spitting in somebody's eyes ain't
gonna help them get sight, right? We know that now, that's a fact.
We can back it up. What does that mean? What does
that mean? And the commentator's saying
that, what's that mean? That wasn't a medical, by me
saying that wasn't the common medical practice of the day.
The Lord spit in those eyes, that's what he did. Ain't got
nothing to do with medicine. That means he doesn't use a false
way to save. Now you hear me. You hear me
good. If you sit underneath a false
gospel, you can't know God. You can't know Christ. God doesn't
save through a lie. Well, Kevin, I know some things.
God says you didn't. Behold, I am against them that
prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord. Not Jeremiah, the Lord
said this. And do tell them and cause my
people to err by their lies and by their likeness, by being affable
about it and flippant. making jokes about it. You make
jokes about God's Word if you want to, I ain't going to. I
pray he'd keep me from it by their likeness. He said, I sent
them not nor commanded them, therefore they shall not profit
this people at all, saith the Lord. Well, I think it did some
good, me sitting down there in that false church. Okay, well,
you think that, that's your heresy. God says it didn't. He said,
I won't profit it. You want to sit there and then
go on about your life and yickety-yack 23 hours a day about all the
things you did in a false church? I don't. God calls it unprofitable. This was the means that the Lord
used by spitting in his eye. Why? That's disgusting. If it's
offensive for me to walk up and just... and spit in your face
right now, I'm pretty sure that was offensive 2,000 years ago
and 2,000 years before that. And if the Lord lets this place
go on another 2,000 years, get you a time machine, go spit in
somebody's face, see if they like it. Answer is no. Whether you know about salivary
amylase or not. It's despised. It's despicable.
And that's exactly what the Lord does. That's what physically
took place. That's how the Lord saves his people and gives them
sight now, through the preaching of the gospel. That's a means
no one locks. They like to lock themselves
in their basement, say the church age is over, and you can figure
it out on your own. Here's the Bible, go read. Now, I say that
and reading the Bible in the ear is too much. Me and Kierman
was talking about it today. Read your Bible. Get your skin and read it in
the ear. That's a lot, but it ain't gonna hurt you, harm you
to read God's word. I'm not telling people not to
read God's word. I get lost in it. I just read
it and just get one verse sometimes and just chew on it like a Werther's
original, wall that thing around all day. Why does the Lord use
that means? He said, after the wisdom of
God, the world by wisdom knew not God. You had wisdom, but
you didn't know God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Well, they believe.
Well, God sent a preacher to them. Well, no preacher ever
came. Well, then he, I don't know what he did. He says that's
how he's gonna save. The Jews require a sign. The
Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. That's
the person and the work, the finished work. He came, the propitiation. Blood had to be shed. It was
his blood, not just some blood, the person's blood. To the Jews,
that's just a sleepy old stumbling block, ain't it? And to the Greeks,
foolishness. Watch, don't, I can figure this
out on my own. I had a man tell me that. I've
seen him twice in my whole life. And he said, well, I could just
read that about the house. Well, go on and do it. That's what the Lord told me
to do, wasn't it? The kingdom of God's coming down to you. Go get up on your hill
and sit there and figure it out on your own. Be your own prophet.
Be your own preacher. Warm yourself by your own fire. It's a sad
thing. I know the outcome. He said,
but unto them that are called, Those that have been drawn, that
can't come, won't come, both Jew and Greek, don't matter who
he's born to, Christ, the power of God, the wisdom of God. How
the Lord did that's right. How he did it to me is right.
Go ask the eunuch what you think his opinion on this. It's right,
it's needed. We're told to count those that
labor in the word, double honor. You ever read the next verse
to get the context of what that means? Well, we ought to share
his messages and his bulletin articles on Facebook. Go read the next verse. You can
do that at home. The messenger is not the message. John the
Baptist, he said, I'm just a voice. He didn't say I'm the last of
the Old Testament prophets. I'm the Lord's cousin. I've had the
Holy Ghost from the womb. You know who you're talking to?
He said, I'm a voice. Tell you about another one. We preach
the person and the work, the grace of God, but Christ is the
gracious one. He's the gracious one. Psalm
42, no, Psalm 45, verse two says, thou art fairer than the children
of men. Grace is poured into thy lips. Therefore, God has
blessed thee forever and ever. Grace comes out of his lips.
The master stood up in the synagogue and read, and he said, this day
is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. and all that bear
him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded
out of his mouth." What an honor it'd be for him
to spit in our faces. What an honor physically, spiritually.
What an honor it'd be if he sent a man to come preach. That's
what old Bunyan, people say, oh, over in England, that town,
boy, old Bunyan, man, that was the Lord chastening him and punishing
him. That was the Lord punishing that
town. You get that? The greatest blessing the Lord
could do is send one of his men to tell you what this word says,
and said, remember, remember it, sir. That's the greatest
blessing the Lord could bestow on a county or whatever, province.
Little children in this place is better because of her, in
this community. It's so, and that's just her
going to work there today. The greatest curse God could
send a community is for them to reject him and fight him and
question him and then starve him out and run him off. He'll
take his candlestick from them. Grace proceeds out of His mouth.
When the Lord works in a center, when He sends one of His preachers,
and when we have friends that bring us to hear that message,
that's not the man, it's what the Lord says. He's gonna make
us know our blindness. It's gonna be apparent, there's
no shadow of a doubt. And we'll be brought to where
the Lord is already. Remember, He left them. He left
the Pharisees and he come here and then they brought a blind
man to him. He's already there. We're gonna be brought where the Lord
is already and he will get us by ourselves and deal with us
effectually through the preaching of his grace. And there will
be an undoubted effect. Now other people could say it's
subjective, but in that person, it ain't. There's no question
something's took place. Look at verse 24, Mark 8, 24.
And he looked up and said, I see men as trees walking. Lord said,
you see anything? He said, I see men as trees.
Guess he knew what trees was. Guess he knew what men looked
like. He said, I see men as trees walking. If God gives a blind
sinner spiritual sight, some say, well, physically, that ain't
too good for the Lord healed him that way. Well, that's better not
seeing. It's a sight better than not
seeing. God gives a blind sinner spiritual
sight. If he works in somebody, me or
any other preacher cannot convince them otherwise. You or anybody
else you know that walks on this earth can't convince this man
otherwise. It's like, you ain't seeing men walking in trees.
He says, I just saw them. You think what you want to think.
I see men walking in trees. I don't need to do any more work
on top of what Christ has already done. When the Lord first gives
somebody a spiritual sight, I don't need to do nothing else. And
you know what's a blessing? I can't undo it. If the Lord
gives you spiritual sight and he sends me off a deep end, that
don't matter. Or if I try to convince you he'd
had none, you said, no, no, I see him. He gave me sight and I see. And I can't convince anybody
they're not seeing. It's obvious. And with that, I cannot shake
anyone's assurance and I cannot give anyone assurance. I've been
accused of taking people's assurance away from them. And I've had
people beg me to give them assurance. I can't do either. I can say,
you don't know God. And he was, okay. I've had people
tell me, I don't know God, and I ain't a child of grace. You
can go pound sand, as we say in the army, and go do pushups
somewhere in a nasty place. Or drink it, for all I care.
I know him. I'm his. He's revealed himself to me.
I cannot give assurance. I'll tell you what we can do.
We can sure shake assurance up in our own selves by looking
to ourselves. Someone says, I don't have assurance.
I don't know if I'm a Lord. Well, you're looking to you or this
world. You ain't looking to God. If he's looking to God, you say
he's wonderful, isn't he? He's gracious. He's mighty and
great. He's on his throne. He's doing everything perfect.
I may not see it as that, and I'm still hurting, but it's right.
That's good assurance, isn't it? What does this healing in
degrees signify? All those other four times or
three times the Lord said it and one time he spit on the ground?
We can learn from that, that when the Lord saves somebody,
they're plumb saved right then, they're fit for glory. You're
holy. I'll take a stand on it. And the new man, because there's
two natures in a person that's saved, the new man's holy and
can't sin. Take it to the bank. You know
how I know that? That's where it says so. That's what the word
says. Your plumb say we can learn from
that ain't what we see here. Well, we could see a growth in
grace. Have you grown in grace? I ask yet not too long ago. We've
been here right at four years. We're coming up on a week, ain't
we? We've been together four years. Are you better off four
years or are you better off now than you was four years ago? Now, not everybody answer at
once. I'm playing don't answer out loud. Think about it. Has
God taught you anything? If we're alive, we're growing,
ain't we? I've been the same height since I was 15 years old,
but this skin replaces whatever, seven years. Growing, fingernails
growing, head cut, hairs gonna grow. We growing in grace? Those
that God saves grows in grace, don't they? We see all mankind
as trees. Remember what the Lord said,
weep not for me? Do you remember that couple of Wednesdays ago? What'd he
say at the end of that? He said, whenever they see what
happens to a green branch, they're gonna be terrified of what happens
to a dry branch. He's the green branch, he's not fit for burning.
You see that? We're dead wood. In fact, if
the Lord, if he sees sin on his son and that's what he does to
his son, what do you think he's gonna do to you? Gonna be bad, isn't
it? But we see men walking around
as trees. You know what we see? Firewood. The best man, if Winston
Churchill, I don't know, pick somebody famous you like or whatever.
Grandpa, whatever. The best one that ever lived,
they ain't nothing outside of Christ but firewood to light
the candle for his glory, that's it. We're starting to see things
as they are, not as we think they are, not as some old grandma
and grandpa told us they was, as they truly are. We go back
to Romans three. There's none righteous, there's
none seeks God, there's none understands. We believe what he says. God
reveals that. And then thirdly, what we can
see here is a picture of the entire life of the believer.
This is a growth in grace. This is, Lord healing this man
in the grief shows us that, that we learn a little bit of time.
When somebody's first, that saved a man in John that was blind. Lord's worked and he believed
God, he did as God commanded. And his confession got simpler
and simpler and simpler and simpler, didn't he? Until he got kicked
out of church and then the Lord found him. Did you worship God? I said, who is he I worship?
Man saw 22 people his whole life. If your salvation was dependent
on you picking, now somebody got on me about this before.
If your salvation was dependent on picking him out of a line
up of 10 people, you willing to make that chance? No, he's
gonna have to come to me. He's gonna have to reveal himself
to me. And I ain't seen him in this body, and I'm gonna see
him face to face here someday soon, I hope. Won't be as long
as it has been. He's gonna have to do the same. But this is also
a picture of the entire life of the believer. Right? We're
born blind, the spirit abounds towards us and quickens us, and
then at the end, best day of our life. Like Jacob went to
Joseph, the Lord said, Joseph's gonna put his hand on your eyes.
Christ, we're gonna lay down and die. The Lord's gonna put
his hand on our eyes. He's gonna say, what you see
now? I see through a glass darkly, dimly in this earth. We do, that's
what the scriptures say. But there's gonna come a day,
these scales are gonna fall off and the only one we're gonna
be looking at is him who took his hand off of it and did all
the work. We're gonna see as clear as day. We're gonna know
as we've been known. He put his hand upon his eyes
and made him look up, verse 25. And he was restored. He didn't
say, look at where you came from. He didn't say, look at all your
friends that brought you. He didn't say, look at the scriptures
and look at all the commentaries you've been reading. He said,
look up, look up. And he was restored and saw every
man clearly. I'll have to turn one more. I
know I'll cap you. I'll quit. First Corinthians 13. First Corinthians
13. I hope this ties it all together
for you, it did for me. 1 Corinthians 13 verse 9. Paul writes that
church at Corinth. They was in a mess, wasn't they?
And he called them brethren. You know how we went through
Galatians? He don't ever call Galatians brethren. Think about
that. But he's writing to Corinth. 1 Corinthians 13 verse 9. For
we know in part And we prophesy in part. I don't know the details
of everything, but I know that outside of Christ, all man ain't
nothing but firewood. But when that which is perfect
is come, what's that? No, it's who's that. Then that
which is in part shall be done away. And Paul says this here
at verse 11. When I was a child, I spake as
a child. I understood as a child. I thought
as a child. But when I became a man, I put
away childish things. Now, we take that verse there
out of context, and we say, should boys become men in this life?
Yes, they should. Let me tell you something, you
raising young children, there ain't no such thing as adolescence.
That's a creation of the last 60 years. There was no such thing
as adolescence before. You was a child, and you was
a man. You was either acting like a baby. You might be able
to shave, and you might be my age or older. You was either
acting like a little kid, or you was acting like a man. That's
one of the two. But what's the context of this?
He's talking about when the Lord comes, isn't he? Well, what's
that child mean? What's context? The Lord said,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, except you be converted and become
as little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Right now, I'm a child. I'm just a little toddler on
this earth. I'm a babe in Christ. We all are babes. Now, some of
us is 13 months old and some of us is 12 months old and we
think there's a hierarchy. We don't know nothing. We're babies.
We're children, ain't we? Verse 12. Four, he said that
when I was a child, I acted like a child, and when I was a man,
I'm a man. Verse 12, four, because of this, now we see through a
glass, darkly, we see men as trees, but then face to face,
now I know in part, but then, when that final day shall come,
like I said, this is a picture of the whole life of a believer,
that vapor, from the time we're saved to the time we're with
the Lord, but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now by the faith, hope, charity,
that's love. These three, but the greatest
of these is charity. If we've seen this stuff and
the Lord's worked in us, the greatest thing we have is his
love. Now we have faith in him. We didn't have that before. That's
a gift of God. We have an expected end. Not like, I hope I'm saved.
I can expect these things. You can expect these things because
the word says so and we believe him because we have the faith
and we have love. The love of God shed abroad in
your heart. That don't mean that's a little tiny sliver and you're
nice every other Sunday. If God's worked in you. That's
what he said, right? It shed abroad and we love the
brethren. And our homes open up to them and our pocketbooks
open up to them and our pantries open up to them. But the greatest
of these is love. Why? Faith's gonna go away. When
I die and all these things that Paul's talking about, when I
go from being a child to being a man, and I see him face to
face, I don't need faith. Right there he is. It's not that
everything's unseen. It seems right there. He's right
there. And I don't need to have an expected end. He's the beginning. That's the end, is being with
Alpha and Omega. There he is. To tell all that, the Lord just
took a man by the side, spit in his face, stuck his hand out
and said, what'd you see? A man walking in his trees. What'd
you see now? Clearly. You reckon we can learn
something from him? I hope he teaches these things. Let's read, go back here, Mark
8, 25. How close? Mark 8, 25. After that, he put
his hands again upon his eyes and he made him look up. He made
him. He didn't say look up. He made him look up. Look into
heaven. And he was restored and saw every
man clearly. We're going to see that first
man, Adam, like we ain't never seen him. We'll have an understanding. Not knowledge, we'll have an
understanding. And that last man, that last Adam, Christ,
we're going to understand him. I look forward to that day. I
want to worship him as he ought to be worshipped. I want to know
as I'm known. I do. And he sent him away to
his house saying neither go into this town nor tell it to any
in the town. I'm looking, I'm working real
hard on being able to try to put that, I understand it, I
can't explain it. Don't tell nobody. You reckon
he went home, didn't tell nobody? I love that woman. And if the
Lord said you love her, I'll put complete love of you, now
don't tell nobody. You could duct tape my mouth
shut and you're gonna figure out within a day or two I love her. Won't
you? That man went home and served
him. Now he can see clearly. Now he can see to serve. Now
he can see that he had liberty to love and liberty to forgive.
Liberty to further the gospel. Finally. Never did before. Now
he can get after it. Can't you? I hope it's a blessing
to you. Let's pray together.