Yuba-Sutter Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Rick
Warda. We currently meet at the Yuba
County Library, located at 303 2nd Street in downtown Marysville,
California, on the corner of 2nd and C Street. Weekly services
are held on Sunday at 11 a.m. at the library. For more information,
visit our website at ysgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Rick Warda. The scripture for our sermon
today is found in Mark chapter 10. And they came to Jericho,
and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great
number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the
wayside begging. And when he heard that it was
Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of
David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he
should hold his peace. But he cried the more, a great
deal. Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still and commanded
him to be called. And they called the blind man,
saying to him, Be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee. And he, casting away his garment,
rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered him and said,
What wilt thou that I should do to thee? The blind man said,
Lord, that I might receive my sight, And Jesus said to him,
Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he
received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. I have entitled
this sermon, Mercy Sought, Mercy Found. This scripture preaches
the gospel to sinners. The lesson in it is clear. God
brings sinners in their need to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He causes them to know their
need and cry to Him because of it. He leads them to His Son
and leaves them with His Son in the hand and at the mercy
of God in Christ alone. I would like to bring your attention
to seven points in this scripture. First, a sinner needing mercy. Second, mercy sought by a sinner. Third, Christ glorified for His
compassion to a sinner. Fourth, O sinner, what do you
want Him to do for you? Fifth, the gracious gift of saving
faith. Sixth, following Christ by faith. And seven, redemption applied. First, we see here a sinner needing
mercy. Bartimaeus was a blind beggar. His need was apparent. He could
not provide for himself. He had nothing to give. He had
no money. He spent his time begging. He
therefore describes our spiritual poverty by nature. He had nothing
to contribute to his salvation. nothing to bring to God. He was
unclean. Bartimaeus means son of the unclean. Like him, we are unclean in sin. We are guilty before God because
of our sins. What the law says, it says to
them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and
all the world may become guilty before God. Romans 3, 19. As
Bartimaeus was the son of the unclean, we became guilty before
God in our father, Adam. By one man's disobedience, many
were made sinners, Romans 5, 19. Not only are we guilty for
our own sin and our sin in Adam, but the nature we receive from
our father Adam is nothing but sin. We were conceived in sin. Psalm 51.5 We are spiritually
blind from birth. Romans 3.11 says there is none
that understandeth. We are alienated from the life
of God because of the blindness of our heart. Ephesians 4.18-19
We are guilty before God and corrupt in nature. We are sinners
by practice and sinners at heart. Jesus said, from within, out
of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts. Mark 7, verse
21 and 23. Sin comes from within us as physical
blindness prevents us from seeing physical light. Spiritual blindness
prevents us from seeing the truth about ourselves and the truth
about God. Though we are sinners, we are
blind to it. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 1 John 1.8 Moreover,
we cannot understand spiritual things. 1 Corinthians 2 says,
The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned. We do not know God, we do not
know His Son, we do not know our blindness, and most especially,
we do not know His salvation. We have nothing spiritually.
We are in darkness. We are helpless in a kingdom
of darkness. What we need is mercy. And secondly,
we see here a sinner who needed mercy seeking for mercy. In the large numbers of the passing
crowd, only the blind cried for mercy. In Ezekiel 36, God promises
great spiritual blessings to His people in the everlasting
covenant of His grace. In every promise, He binds Himself
to fulfill all conditions. He puts no conditions on His
people. But after telling out those great and precious blessings,
he says, I, the Lord, have spoken it, and I will do it. Ezekiel
36, verse 36. God gives to those who have nothing
and can give nothing. He does all. He gets all the
glory. His own sovereign prerogative
promised what He would give and to whom He would give it. But
in all of the sovereign unconditional promises of Ezekiel 36, in the
last verse, the Lord tells us the way in which He would make
these promises our own. He says that He would work in
us to cause us to seek Him for what He promised to give. Thus
saith the Lord, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house
of Israel to do it for them. Ezekiel 36 verse 37. Though God
has unalterably given eternal blessings to His people in Christ,
He has also unalterably determined to give them through the means
of His own choosing. He will cause us to seek mercy
from Christ out of the emptiness of our need, even in the face
of our uncleanness. in our utter helplessness. To
bring the light of Christ into our own souls in this posture
of needing mercy, He causes us to seek that mercy in Christ
alone. Psalm 3417 says, The righteous
cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them from all their
troubles. When you don't know if you know
God, when you can't produce peace and joy in your own soul, when
you can't even find words to pray, when you are in this bankrupt
condition, a spiritually blind beggar before God, what do you
do? If you are the Lord's, you will
cry to Him. You will say from your heart,
Lord, I am ignorant, full of sin. Do for me what you do for
helpless sinners. When you thus pray, the Lord
hears. And if the Lord hears, He will
save. That is His promise. That is
His work. He tells beforehand what He does
to make us cry to Him in Christ, so that when we cry, When mercy
from God in Christ is our only plea, then we will know this
is the Spirit of Christ bringing us to Himself. He tells us what
to do. Call upon Me in a day of trouble. I will deliver thee, and thou
shalt glorify Me. Psalm 50 verse 15. Do you see
the pattern? We recognize His work in us when
we are at the bottom and see Christ as our only help and hope. Call. Call upon Christ the Lord. Call on Him in the trouble of
your soul. He will save. He will glorify
Himself. And we will glorify Him. It will
be to His glory only and we will know it and say so. Let Jesus
Christ be glorified for what he did and why he died. Anything that causes me to cry
out of the depths is a mercy from God. There is comfort in
knowing that it is God who uses all trouble without and within,
especially within, to drive me to Christ. I find great comfort
that no matter how far I have fallen, Christ remains my only
hope of salvation. Psalm 62 verse 5 and 6 says,
My soul, wait thou only upon God. For my expectation is from
Him, He only is my rock and my salvation. All mercy from God,
all salvation and all spiritual blessings are found in the Lord
Jesus Christ alone. We call on God in Christ alone. We come to God by Christ alone. Jesus said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. John 14, verse 6. And Peter said,
there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby
we must be saved. Acts 4.12. My soul, do not think
you can open your own eyes or wash yourself from your own uncleanness. Trust God in Christ alone. Call upon Him. He will save. He will glorify Himself by doing
so. And from our heart and with our
lips, we will ascribe all glory to Him. Salvation is not you
making yourself acceptable to God. It is coming to God in Christ
as an unclean, helpless, needy sinner and asking Him to do for
you what you cannot do for yourself. It is looking to Him for all
that God requires of you in spite of all that you are. It is looking
to Christ and finding Him to be everything in salvation. The one who needed mercy here
is, by the merciful operation of the Spirit of Christ, made
to seek that mercy in Christ alone. That is the second lesson
we learn. The third thing we see here is
that when Bartimaeus cried, the Lord Jesus heard and he stood
still. He called him. He had compassion
on him. Our crying to Christ alone, our
seeking salvation from Him, is the work of the Spirit of Christ. He says from Ezekiel 36, Thus
saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the
house of Israel to do it for them. All of the blessings God
has for sinners in Christ, He gives His Spirit to them to ask
Him for. His grace produces the cry, the
righteous cry, call upon me in the day of trouble. When in our
uncleanness and utter spiritual lack we find ourselves looking
to Christ for mercy, We must recognize that is His work. If we are left with nothing but
Christ, that is the signature work of the Spirit of Christ
in us. All men experience trouble, but
hypocrites do not look to Christ alone for salvation in their
trouble. Job said, hypocrites in heart heap up wrath, they
cry not when He bindeth them. And Hosea 7.14 says, they have
not cried to me with their heart. It is a blessed thing to be poor
in spirit. It is God's work to make us so.
But we do not trust our poverty. We do not trust our crying. We
thank God for it because true poverty of soul leaves us with
nothing but Christ. As Paul was blind in his self-righteousness,
and saw that Christ was his only righteousness, that is the work
of the Spirit of God in us. Now, at his first cry, the crowd
rebuked Bartimaeus. Isn't it ironic that in all of
this large crowd of seeing people who followed Jesus, there was
none who cried to him for mercy except this unclean, blind beggar? Why did none of this faceless
crowd cry? Wasn't it because they did not
see their blindness? Why did they not hear his cries? Wasn't it because they never
knew his need? They did not have fellowship
in his sufferings. When we find Christ to be our
all, we have fellowship with those rescued from the same sinking
ship who have found salvation on the Lord Jesus Christ, their
only rock. We ache for others to see their
need and to cry to Christ and find Him to be their all. But
the crowd were as those that knew nothing of need, nothing
of sight restored out of darkness. With the psalmist, Bartimaeus
could say, I cried to the Lord with my voice. I looked on my
right hand and beheld, but there was no man that would know me.
Refuge failed me. No man cared for my soul. Psalm 142, verse 4. Though they scolded him to hold
his peace, he cried the more, a great deal. Oh, see here the
work of the Spirit of Christ in this needy sinner. Psalm 55
verse 16 and 17 says, As for me, I will call upon God, and
the Lord shall save me. Evening and morning and at noon
will I pray and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice. By God's
grace, Bartimaeus could find no rest until Christ gave him
sight to rest in Him. The crowd rebuked his crying,
but Jesus stood still. See here a great miracle of grace. The Lord said in Joshua chapter
10 that when the sun and moon stood still at Joshua's command,
there was never a day like it before or since. But here is
a much greater miracle. It was not noble Joshua who here
cries out, but an unclean, blind beggar, a sinner. He cries out
of his emptiness. Jesus came to do the eternal
will of God, and now he sets his face like a flint to keep
that eternal appointment at the cross. He would not be deterred. He would not be turned. His chief
business from eternity was to give himself a ransom for many,
and he was about to accomplish that work. But see here, a great
miracle of mercy. A sinner cries to the Son of
Righteousness out of the depths. And the Lord of glory hears and
stands still. Why did Jesus hear this man's
cry and stand still? Why did he have compassion on
him? The crowd showed him no mercy. Yet the one whom Bartimaeus had
offended by his sin now stops in compassion to grant him mercy. Why does the Lord Jesus show
compassion to a helpless sinner? Because He is rich in mercy,
because of His great everlasting love to His people. Ephesians
2 verse 4 says, But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great
love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has
made us alive together with Christ. By grace you are saved. Jesus hears the cry of His own
Spirit in the cry of needy sinners. Romans 8.26 says that the Spirit
helps our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray
for as we ought, but the Spirit itself makes intercession for
us with groanings which cannot be uttered, and He, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who searches the hearts knows what is the mind
of the spirit because he makes intercession for the saints according
to the will of God. Now, the mind of the spirit is
the will of God for the salvation of his elect. This is the will
of him who sent me, Jesus said, that everyone which sees the
sun and believes on him may have everlasting life. And I will
raise him up at the last day. John 6, verse 40. The Lord Jesus
had compassion on this blind man who cried for mercy out of
his darkness. Because the Lord Jesus himself
cried out of anguish of soul. He cried on the cross out of
the darkness, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me and from the words of my roaring? Psalm 22 verse 1 and 2. And in
Lamentations chapter 3 verse 8, the Lord says in prophecy,
When I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer. Did not the Lord
Jesus show compassion to this sinner because, as our substitute,
He felt the full burden of our sins in His own body and soul? He who is all compassion was
denied compassion that He might have compassion on guilty sinners. When he was made sin and bore
the curse of God in his body and soul on the cross, the sun
and the sky did not shine on him. For salvation's light to
shine on us, the light of the world bore the darkness of the
loss of God's presence in his own soul. He says, O my God,
I cry in the daytime, but Thou hearest not, and in the night
season, and am not silent. Is this not His glory that He
hears and shows mercy to sinners? He had come and passed through
and was now leaving Jericho, that cursed city. Before he went
there, he said he came to give his life a ransom for many. He
paid the ransom of himself that God demanded to redeemed cursed
sinners from the curse of his law. Christ has redeemed us from
the curse of the law being made a curse for us. Galatians 3.13
Yet now the Lord Jesus pauses on his mission at the urgent
cry of a desperate sinner. It was all determined before.
What a blessing of God's providence to blind this man that he might
know his need and find himself on the wayside as Christ is passing
in the crowd, and then to find Christ alone as his all. Redemption's work was finished
on the cross, but it must be applied to the redeemed. The
ransomed must be released. In Acts 13.38 it says, through
this man is preached the forgiveness of sins. Because the release
Christ earned by his redemption must be preached to the redeemed. Jesus came and passed through
and was now leaving the cursed city. Yet here he is granting
to his redeemed the liberty his ransom purchased, forgiveness
of all my sins with perfect righteousness and faith to see it all in him. That is what the gospel is. By
his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained
eternal redemption for us. And because he obtained this
redemption, the blood of Christ shall purge your conscience from
dead works to serve the living God. Hebrews 9 verse 12 and 14. From our enslavement to sin,
to freedom in our conscience from all guilt, in order that
we might serve God with a pure conscience. Redemption purchased. is now redemption applied. That's why Jesus came to Jericho
to open the eyes of this blind man and that is why the Spirit
of Christ moved him to cry to apply the redemption Christ would
purchase. That he might have eyes to see
his Redeemer and the redemption that he obtained for him by his
own blood. Now Jesus commanded the blind
man to be called. King David commanded Mephibosheth
to be fetched. Here, David's son and David's
Lord fetches this sinner to himself. Every believing sinner is rightly
named the called of Jesus Christ, Romans 1.6. And they're also
the called according to his promise, Romans 8.28. The crowd now carries
the good news from the Lord Jesus, be of good comfort, rise, he
calleth thee. Christ speaks comfort to all
who are brought to Himself. He says in John 6.37, Him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. His call accomplishes
His will. Psalm 71.3 says, Thou hast given
commandment to save me. And the Lord says in Ezekiel
16 verse 6, When I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in
thine own blood, I said unto thee, In thy blood, live! Yea, I said unto thee, In thy
blood, live! Bartimaeus cast away his garment,
that smelly, foul thing that he once clutched close, he now
flings away. All that he formerly held close
became of no value when his Redeemer called him to himself. All of
the possessions of this world, all of the approval and praise
and most especially all that I once trusted is now disgusting,
nauseating and revolting. Paul says in Galatians 6.14,
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto
the world. In my blindness, I thought something
that could be called mine, even the rags of a beggar, had some
value to God. But seeing that God finds all
value in Christ for me, and hearing His call in the Gospel, I gladly
relinquish all to have Him alone. The fullness of the Godhead dwells
in the human nature of Christ, and every believer is complete
in Him. Fourthly, Jesus asked Bartimaeus,
this sinner, what do you want me to do for you? What do you
want from God? What do you need? The Lord of
glory stands before you in his human nature. The Creator and
Upholder of all things who asked King Solomon, Ask what I shall
give thee now, asks this unclean blind beggar, What do you desire
that I shall do to you? O dear sinner, what do you want
from the Lord of glory? Choose your words carefully.
Consider who you are asking. He is able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or think. You're coming to a king, John
Newton said. Large petitions you should bring. Examine your great need in the
light of the gospel. Consider that the Lord Jesus
is rich in mercy. There is help in no other, but
all help is in Him. Let His compassion open the spring
of your need to bubble up in supplication for what only the
sacrifice of the Son of God could procure. Ask what He purchased
by His own sacrifice. Can anything be of greater value
than that which required the blood of Christ to purchase?
Full, free, perfect redemption, forgiveness of sins. Ask for
your soul's cleansing. Ask from Him what God Himself
delights and holds up to this onlooking universe. His perfect,
justifying righteousness. I will ask that God find me in
Him alone. I will ask Him to dwell in me
now by His Spirit of grace, that He might be precious to my soul,
that I might know Him by this precious faith as He reveals
Himself in the Gospel. I will ask Him for the saving,
keeping, glorifying grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. I will
ask Him as a psalmist in Psalm 106 verse 4 says, Remember me,
O Lord, with the favor that Thou bearest unto Thy people, O visit
me with Thy salvation, that I may see the good of Thy chosen, that
I may rejoice in the gladness of Thy nation, that I may glory
with Thine inheritance. I will ask Him to take away all
iniquity and to receive me graciously. Hosea 14.2 As King David, on
hearing all of the promises of God, said, Lord, do all that
is in your heart, do as you have said in the everlasting covenant
of your grace, say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. Psalm 35 verse 3. Lord, give me this faith that
is more precious than gold. That is what Bartimaeus asked
for when he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight. So the fifth thing we see in
this account is the gracious gift of saving faith. Jesus said
to him, Go thy way, by faith hath made thee whole. In the
margin of my Bible, the word translated whole is saved. It is translated saved 93 times
in the New Testament, compared to only 9 times as whole. Jesus opened the physical eyes
of Bartimaeus. But in the Gospel, Jesus says,
Go thy way, thy faith hath saved thee. What did Bartimaeus believe? He believed Jesus to be Lord
and Christ. He believed only Christ could
save him. He therefore cried only to Christ
the Lord. He was only quieted when the
Lord Jesus called him and told him he was a saved man. As he
believed Christ, he received from Him. Do you believe God
only received you in His Son, having perfectly finished the
work of your redemption? Believers believe Christ. They believe He is everything
in their salvation. Psalm 62, 6, He only is my rock
and my salvation. All who see Christ as such are
given what they believe, an everlasting salvation in the Lord. Isaiah
45, 17. And sixth, we see in this account
that saving faith follows Christ. Jesus told Bartimaeus, Go thy
way, thy faith hath saved thee. But God-given faith finds Christ
crucified as my only way to God. Every believing sinner goes this
way. Bartimaeus' way was now Christ
alone. Saving faith lives on Christ. Jesus said in John 6, 53, whoever
eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. We eat and
drink Christ when we worship God in Christ, trusting that
we have no other righteousness but the perfect righteousness
of the obedience of Christ alone. By God's grace we find all our
sustenance. in Christ and Him crucified. Paul said, I live by the faith
of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians
2.20 Faith in Christ is not a one-time act. If you ever believe Christ,
you will continue to believe Him. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul
says, Brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached
unto you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand,
by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I
preached to you, unless you have believed in vain. If you believe
Christ only once, then you have never believed Him at all. Jesus
said, My sheep hear My voice, and they follow Me, and they
shall never perish. They continue believing Christ
because they have no other Savior and no other Lord. And finally,
here we see the glorious work of Christ our Redeemer. On His
way to the cross, to pay the ransom of Himself to God for
His people, Jesus hears the cry of His own Spirit from the heart
and lips of this poor, unclean, blind man. He cried to have what
Christ's ransom would soon obtain for all of His elect. The Lord
of Glory stands still. He calls him. He opens his eyes
to see that his salvation, full and free, is Christ alone. The blind man goes on living
in this Christ-given faith, and the redemption Christ purchased
is being continually applied to him. The Redeemer and his
ransom become the life and sight and joy and peace of this believing
sinner. And this is how he lives. As
every disciple, he follows Christ, who alone has the words of eternal
life to his soul. The redemption Christ purchased
by his blood is now applied to his redeemed. You've just heard a sermon by
our pastor, Rick Warda. You may contact us by email or
by phone, or download a copy of this sermon by visiting our
website at YSGraceChurch.com