If you will, open your Bibles
to Luke, Luke chapter 18. There's a story here in Luke
about a blind man. So I was telling the brethren,
there was a friend of mine called me one day, a mutual friend had
written a book. And he said, have you read his
book? And I said, I don't want to. I had a desire to read his
book, but I hadn't bought it, hadn't read it. And my buddy
George said, Kevin, he said, he talks about you in there.
He said, there's a story of you in that book. And he told me
what chapter it was in. And you know what happened that
evening? I bought that book and I read it. I wanted to see what
he had to say. And it sold fairly well, and there's a lot of bad
things he could have told. I want to know what was in there.
He was kind to me. He was generous. But if there
was a story about me, I'd want to know it. In the Lord's wisdom,
he gives us these scriptures. He tells us of Christ, and he
tells us of our brethren in there that are at times weak, very
weak. David, Peter, every one of them. And He tells us times are strong.
He comforts us. And He uses all that. That way
we don't get too low to where we despair. And we know that
others have done that. And we look to what they did. They were pointed to Christ,
weren't they? When we get low, we're pointed to Christ. But
I was reading this text here in Luke 18, and I thought, man,
that's a story of me. That's something I've experienced. And it was there to comfort me.
I want us to read this together. Luke 18 and verse 35. And it
came to pass, as he was come nigh unto Jericho, as Christ
come through, a certain blind man sat by the wayside begging.
Always take note in the Scriptures when it says a certain place
or a certain man. A certain blind man sat by the
wayside begging, and hearing the multitude pass by, he asked
what it meant. And they told him, that Jesus
of Nazareth passes by. And he cried, saying, Jesus,
son of David, have mercy on me. And they which went before rebuked
him, that he should hold his peace. That's what we read this
morning. Many times, faithful men and women that know the Lord
rebuke other people because they approach the Lord not to suit
them. Or they do something that's different. Or they're rough around
the edges. Or they're too polished. They rebuke them. I pray. I never
bring reproach on this gospel. That's a fear I have. But I also pray I'm never a stumbling
stone. I hope I never keep a man or
a woman from coming to Christ for any reason. Any reason. What was that man's response?
There in Luke 18.39. He cried so much the more, Son of David,
have mercy on me. The Lord made him persistent. And Jesus stood and commanded
him to be brought unto him. And when he was come near, he
asked, saying, What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee? And
he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight. And Jesus said unto
him, Receive thy sight. Thy faith hath saved thee. And
immediately he received his sight and followed him, glorifying
God and all the people. When they saw it, gave praise
unto God. There's a few things when I read
this passage of scripture that just stood out to me. It was
my experience. And as I looked at it and the
Lord blessed me with it, I realized that's the experience of the
Lord's children. Every one of us. So what were
these things? First thing was there was a need.
That certain blind man sitting on that roadside begging, he
was in need. No one had to tell that man he
was blind. He was physically blind. He knew it. It was so
altered, so changed his life that he had to depend on others.
He had to beg just to be able to have enough money to live
on. He was helpless. And that's a good place to be.
It's good when the Lord brings us down, makes us helpless. A certain man was begging because
he was physically blind, but that wasn't his problem. There
was a time I had eye surgery when Jaylee was a little baby,
and for three days I couldn't see. And you talk about changing
my life, that was a difference. I needed to see. But I could
adapt to that. There's people that function
in this world every day that's blind. But that wasn't my true
need. I wanted to physically see, but
I was spiritually blind. I need to spiritually see. That's
my true need. Turn over 2 Corinthians chapter
4. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 3, But if
our gospel be hid, this good news is hid, it is hid to them
that are lost, in whom the God of this world, that's Satan,
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine unto them. Four, because of that, because
Satan blinds the minds of men, and we looked the other day,
in this heart, who can know it? I don't know my own heart. Because
of those reasons, we preach not ourselves. We don't preach man.
I don't tell you to look to me. I tell you to look to Christ.
I don't tell you to look to yourself. I tell you to look to Christ.
We preach not ourselves, but Christ, Jesus, the Lord, and
ourselves, your servants for Jesus' sake. blinded the minds,
that's what Satan did. The mind in the New Testament
means the whole of me, all of me. By nature, we're blind to see
ourselves as we truly are. And because of that, we're blind
to see Christ and His glory. But through Him giving us sight,
giving us spiritual eyes, we see ourselves as we are, that
need, worthless, wretched, And we see Him as He is, holy, lifted
up, seated on the right hand of God, ruling everything. We
are made to see things which are not seen. Those spiritual
eyes, spiritual ears, things that are eternal. Look down in
verse 18, 2 Corinthians 4.18, it says, While we look not at
the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen,
For these things which are seen are temporal, but the things
which are not seen are eternal." If it was something physically
that needed to be seen, that blind man would have been in
trouble. But if it was a thing that's unseen, that's eternal,
that's what he needed to see. That's what he needed to give
eyes. Are you interested in seeing those things? I am. That's the things I want to know
of. That's the things I want to learn. This blind beggar was.
So first off, he had a need. Secondly, he had an interest.
Someone that has a need, has a sinful heart, is going to have
an interest to do something, have something done about it,
isn't it? I'll just read our text. You stay there. Luke 18, 36 says, Hearing the
multitude pass by, he asked what it meant. He wanted to know what
this commotion was. Let's turn over to Acts chapter
8. Acts chapter 8, verse 27. An angel came to Paul and told him
to go to the desert. And this is what happened. Acts
8, 27 said, And he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia
and eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians,
who had the charge of all her treasure and had come to Jerusalem
for to worship, was returning and setting in his chariot, reading
Isaiah the prophet. Then the spirit said unto Philip,
go near and join thyself to his chariot. And Philip ran thither. That's what we saw last week.
Paul said, I'm ready to preach the gospel. the power of God
unto salvation. The Spirit told Paul to go there
and Paul ran. The apostles immediately, when
they were called, they straightway left the boat. They immediately
dropped their nets. The Spirit said go and he ran. I hope I can run. And Philip
ran thither to him and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah
and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? You know what
that means. He's reading out loud. It's good
to read out loud. He was reading out loud, I said,
you know what that means? And that eunuch said, how can I accept some man
should guide me? And he desired Philip that he
would come up and sit with him. And Philip got up there. That
man had a desire. He had an interest to know these
things. And he didn't tell him what those
scriptures were about, did he? Philip told him who those scriptures
were about. That Jesus. Look down at verse
35. It said, Then Philip opened his
mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto
him Jesus. He didn't tell him, just open
your Bible there, and we'll keep it, and that will allow us to
talk about Jesus. He went to that scripture, showed
him what he just read, and he didn't understand. He said, no,
buddy. He said, this here is about Christ. This here is about
our Savior. And he showed him. Once we're born again, given
life, that new spirit has discernment. You can't stand to hear lies
about someone you love. If someone came and told lies
about my wife, we're going to have a problem. If someone tells
lies about the Lord, I have that same burn inside of me. I don't
want to hear it. I have a desire. A desire to
hear the truth and a desire to hear the truth proclaimed. But
do we know everything? We understand that all these
scriptures are about the Lord and we just stopped learning.
So I have the answer key. Did that desire go away? If the
apostles were here today, I would want to ask them some questions
and sit down and listen. They knew, didn't they? Better
way of saying it, they know now. They fully know now. I want to
tell you what these great men use of God said. Christ gave
the parable of the wheat and tares, right? And after many,
several parables, he said, those that have ears, let him hear.
And that's after he sent the multitude his way to Matthew
13, 36 says, and then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into
the house and his disciples came unto him. These are great men. And Lord just told them, if you
have ears here and they said, declare unto us this parable
of the tares of the field. Oh, it comforted me. I don't understand everything.
If I ever stand up here and say I know everything there is about
these scriptures, you better sit down and have a talk with
me. If anybody else does, I wouldn't heed them. Those great men, they
said, tell us what that meant. That was humbleness, wasn't it? They knew they had a need and
an interest to come to Him. And you know what the Lord told
them in verse 37? He answered them. He comes to him and told
him what it meant. God in human flesh preached to
those men. That's powerful. We looked at last time. He said, I must leave that that
comforter may come. Nothing's changed. That comforter
still comes, but at the time it was crossed in the flesh.
He spoke to him directly. Those apostles, they had to see
him in the flesh, didn't they? He left. And now through that
Holy Spirit, through the comforter he uses, Weak, sinful, wretched
men, like this one you're looking at, to tell you of Him. To preach
not myself, but to preach Christ. Nothing's changed. Nothing's
changed from Adam, till then, till now. That poor needy man,
that blind man here, that commotion, he wouldn't know what was going
on. And he shouted out, he asked his people, what does this mean?
He asked them what it meant. Look there in our text, we'll
look at Luke 18, verse 37. He asked what it meant, and they
told him, comma, that Jesus of Nazareth passeth
by. That Jesus. They didn't tell
him that Jesus passed by, the fact of Jesus is passing by.
They told him, when he asked what it meant, they told him
what it meant, that Jesus. of Nazareth passeth by. He's
the one prophesied of old. Every picture, every type in
the Old Testament declared that Jesus, the Son of God, that Savior. And it was all according to the
Scriptures, wasn't it? That was a miracle. What happened
this weekend there in rescue was a miracle. What happened
here today, if the Lord Uses my weak words if he puts power
in them in your heart and you rejoice or are comforted or you're
offended It doesn't return to him boy. It doesn't If it's if
it's his word going out It's a miracle that we treated as
such clay brought that up each one of us men studied this weekend
We all stayed in the house together and we break off Study and we
come visit and we break off and study not once Did we ask each
other? Hey, show me your notes. Where
are you preaching from? Not once. And John wasn't even
there with us. And you know whatever message,
we all had the same message. We all preached the same thing.
Because the theme was the same. The object of that message was
the same. That was miraculous, wasn't it? But Clay was saying
that, and I had already topped it. I told him that I was supposed
to steal it. Tell him I stole it from him.
But do we treat it as such? If Christ was standing here in
the flesh, and we knew He was going to be here, would we be
here? Would we be attentive? That's what's happening if He
uses me. If He turns your hearts on, if He gives you those spiritual
eyes to see and those spiritual ears to hear and a heart to understand.
That's what's happening. Is that my opinion? I don't have an opinion. I'm here
to state fact. Let's turn to Matthew chapter
11. We've looked at this before,
last year, but it's good to look again. I want to hear that old,
old story, don't you? Matthew chapter 11 verse 1, And
it came to pass, when Jesus was made an end of commanding his
twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and preach in
their cities. Now when John, speaking of John
the Baptist, had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he
sent two of his disciples and said unto him, Art thou he that
should come, or do we look for another? Many say, And I've commented
on this before. John the Baptist, he was training
up those two disciples. And that's probably true. But
John the Baptist, outside of Christ, was the greatest man
to walk the earth, wasn't he? But you know what he was? He's
a man. Fully. Not the God man. He's just a
man. He was worried. He's in prison. He needed comfort
too, didn't he? And you know what the Lord did?
There in verse 4 it says, Jesus answered them saying, Go unto
John again, Go and show John again those things which he do
hear and see he heard They saw these miracles take place that
Christ is about to list they saw those those blind people
physically receive insight They saw those dead people physically
being able to hear people with the palsy Paraplegics quadriplegics
physically being able to get up and walk they saw those but
they heard something didn't they? They heard that that glorification
of Christ after those miracles were performed. They heard that
spiritual miracle that took place. But the Lord lists those miracles,
and here they are. He says, verse 5, the blind receive
their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf
hear, the dead are raised up. If we saw any of those happen,
that's a miracle, isn't it? And the poor have the gospel
preached to them. It's the miracle of the poor
being preached to. Is that a miracle? Christ said
it was. Are we poor? Am I a poor, needy sinner? Christ
says I am. Scriptures say I am, don't they? But what do we need? What do
our interests need to be on? It needs to be on that Jesus. The preaching of Him. That's
the only thing that'll help. So what happens when a sinner
has that good news preached to him? So he had a need, he had
an interest. He was preached to. The sinner
cries for mercy. I cried for mercy. And our text
said that he cried saying, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.
As we've looked at before, last month, the Canaanite woman when
she approached the Lord. We'll turn there again. Matthew
15. If you're Matthew, turn to Matthew 15. It's good for me to read it again.
I hope it's good for you to read it again. This blind man, did
he approach the Lord the right way? He said, Thou Son of David,
have mercy on me. And I read this text. If you weren't here last month,
I commented on it briefly. But this Canaanite woman approached
the Lord and said, Have mercy on me, Lord. And He ignored her.
Boy, that stood out in my mind from a young age. What if I approached
the Lord and He ignores me? Why would He do that? Let's read
it. Matthew 15 and verse 21. Then
Jesus went thence, and departed into the coast of Tyre and Sidon.
And behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coast and
cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son
of David." That sounds just like that blind man, doesn't it? But
her sentence continues, her thought continues. She said, My daughter
is grievously vexed with the devil. She had a reason he had
to have mercy on him. Something was wrong. He owed
her. And he answered her not a word. And his disciples came
and besought him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth after
us. There they are again, our brethren, like me, getting
in the way. But he answered and said, and
he's speaking to his disciples, I'm not sent but unto the lost
sheep of the house of Israel. If you have a reason that the
Lord needs to deal with you, you ain't lost. Verse 25, then
it came, then came she and worst of it saying, Lord, help me.
But he answered and said, it's not meat for the children's bread
to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs. She, she
said, Oh, we called him Lord, but said she just needed help.
I've looked at last time. There's two being helped, being
saved in there. She didn't just beg for mercy. She, she didn't
need saved. She just wanted some help. And
they said, it's not meat to take the children's bread and cast
it to dogs. And now here, now this lines up better with that
blind man begging. And she said, truth, Lord, yet
the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table.
She said, you are truth and I'm a dog. You know what the result? Did he ignore her? Did he get
on to her? He said, O woman, great is thy
faith. That was a quick turnaround,
wasn't it? He can do that. Be it unto thee even as thou
wilt. And on top of that, that was the spiritual miracle. Here's
the physical one that goes with it. And her daughter was made
whole from that very hour. We call on that one who has authority
and power to grant mercy. That Jesus. David Edmondson sings some specials.
I'm going to try my best to get a recording of them. He writes
songs as well. He wrote a song called, If Thou
Wilt. If I can, I'll get a copy of it and share it with you. This is the verse he got a song
from. It said, And behold, there came a leper and worshipped him,
saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus
put forth his hand and touched him, saying, I will. Be thou
clean. And immediately his leprosy was
cleaned. Man didn't come with a knowledge
of scripture. He didn't come knowing a lot
of doctrine. He didn't come anything in him. He hadn't attained a certain
level. He just said, if you will, you can make me clean. He knew
that he knew who the Lord was. He knew he was able. And he said,
Lord, if you will, you can. And he was cleansed immediately. Look back at our text, Luke 18. Someone has a need. They have
an interest. The Gospels preach to them. They come to the Lord. They beg
for mercy. And you know what always happens?
Mercy is provided. Luke 18.40 says, And Jesus stood
and commanded him to be brought unto him. And when he was come
near, he asked him, saying, What wilt thou that I should do unto
thee? And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight. And Jesus
said unto him, Receive thy sight. Thy faith has saved thee. And
immediately he received his sight. When sinners are called, they
are given sight immediately. spiritual eyes immediately. Now
like we looked at before, if thou wilt, you may not understand what you
see, but you'll know that you see. You may not know that what
you're hearing, but you know that you hear. You may not know
really what you believe, but you know that you do believe
in Him, don't you? And then right away, straightway,
it said immediately he received his sight. And just like those
nets of straightway, leaving the boat, straightway leaving
the nets, immediately cleansed of leprosy, immediately given
sight. It's right then. And you know what he did after
all those things happened? He followed Christ. It says in
verse 43, and immediately he received his sight and followed
Him. Just like Philip was going on
that road between Jerusalem and Gaza, He was told to go, he went. He didn't know why. The angel
didn't tell him what he was going to be doing. They said, go down
there. He got up and went, didn't he? Do you know why he did that? He believed God. From an early
age, I never had a problem believing that there was a God. But did I believe God? I never
had a problem believing man fell in the garden. But did I have
a... I had a problem believing I fell
in the garden. Philip believed God. I want to
believe God. He said, my sheep hear my voice
and they follow me. I want to hear His voice and
I want to follow Him. So what do we do after all those
things and we follow Him? It says there in Luke 18.43,
"...and immediately received His sight and followed Him, glorifying
God." You say, well I want to follow the Lord. I want to follow
Jesus. And what would Jesus do? Glorify
God? You want to follow Christ? Glorify God. As the scriptures
say, follow me as I follow Christ. Don't follow a man that's not
glorifying Christ. Christ glorified God, didn't
He? We follow Him and we glorify God. And after that, it says,
and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto God.
The others, those in attendance, they didn't praise that man for
walking the aisle. They said, oh, you just learned, memorized
so many scriptures. No, they praised, they glorified
God too for that sinner, didn't they? Isaiah 25 says, he will
swallow up death and victory and the Lord God will wipe away
all tears. from off all the faces, and rebuke
of his people shall he take away from all the earth. For the Lord
has spoken it, and it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is
our God. We have waited for him, and he
will save us. This is the Lord. We have waited
for him. We will be glad and rejoice in
his salvation." We'll rejoice in his salvation when we're saved,
and we'll rejoice in his salvation when someone else is saved, won't
we? We rejoice together. Christ said, I say to you that
likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth
more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance.
So he says the heavens rejoice, the saints in heaven rejoice
when a sinner comes to know Christ. The angels do. He says likewise
I say to you there is joy in the presence of the angels of
God over one sinner that repenteth. Heavens rejoice, angels rejoice,
people that already know Christ rejoice. And that sinner especially,
this sinner especially, when I heard Christ for the first
time, when I was given those eyes to see, I rejoiced in Him.
And everybody else rejoiced around me, didn't they? And nothing
changes. All these people that rejoice,
they had some experience, didn't they? They walked with the Lord
for a while. Same rejoicing. I pray the Lord will keep us.
I hope he'll give us and let us see our need. We're needy.
I just hope he lets us know it. I hope he makes us know we're
needy, makes us beg for mercy, preaches to us. And then I hope
we rejoice in him for ourselves. And I hope we rejoice in our
brethren from here on. and every new brethren that comes.
And if they come, they're going to be rejoicing. That'll cheer
us up even more, won't it? That'll warm your heart. Bring
you to remembrance of that first love which He keeps us with. Let's pray together. Heavenly
Father, thank You for giving us an example of what we experience. Thank You for letting us know
we have brethren and we're not alone. Lord, they go through
the same thing we go through What a comfort You make them
to us. You're so kind to us, Lord, so
generous in all these things on this earth, in our trials
and our joys. Always been so kind, so generous
to us, Lord, and how much more so in that salvation. You sent
Your Son for us and He was victorious. His work was effectual. He's
accomplished redemption. Our warfare is over, Lord. Let
us rejoice in Christ. Let us rejoice in our salvation
we have through Him and let us rejoice with our brethren whenever
you save one of your elect. Lord, call out your sheep from
this area and add to the church daily as you see fit. Give us
the grace to be thankful in all things in that For Christ's name's
sake, for his name that we ask it, amen.