Luke chapter 18. This is such
a familiar story. Blind Bartimaeus. It does not
give his name, but that's his name, Bartimaeus. His name, you
may not know it, but his name means the son of a polluted one. The son of an unclean. And that's
all of us, isn't it? Like the story of Ezekiel 16.
I saw you polluted, and I came by. like our Lord did this blind
man. And I said, Leo, gave you sight. And this is, all of us, we're
all born blind, and yet we're still blind somewhat, are we
not? Do you not admit that you're
often blind to your own thoughts? You're often blind to your own
ignorance? You're often blind to the hand
of God that's chastening or leading and guiding, we don't see it.
Are we not often blind to the pits and traps and snares and
temptations of Satan himself? Are we not blind? He said that
to the church at Laodicea. It was the church. He said, Thou
knowest not that there are wretched, miserable, poor, He said, I counseled that you
would buy eye salve. I know what your eyes. What's
eye salve? The gospel. what we're doing
right now. May the Lord anoint our eyes
fresh with this eye salve, and maybe give eyes to someone who's
never yet seen. Wouldn't that be wonderful? This
day. Today's the day of salvation. The gospel's preached. Let's
read the story, verses 35 through 43. It came to pass that as he,
Christ, was come nigh unto Jericho, 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 passeth by. And he cried, saying, Jesus,
thou son of David, have mercy on them. They which went before
rebuked him that he should hold his peace, but he cried so much
the more. Thou son of David, have mercy
on them. And Jesus stood. Stop. and commanded
him to be brought unto him. And when he was come near, the
Lord asked him, 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 has saved thee." And
immediately he received his sight and followed him and glorified
God. And all the people, when they
saw it, gave praise unto God. You can just take each phrase,
each line, it came to pass. All things do now. And everything
soon shall pass away. Simon Peter told us all, seeing
then that all these things shall be dissolved, pass away. What
manner of persons are we to be? Those who don't know the Lord,
oh my, how they ought to be calling and crying now, because today
is the day. Soon it all shall pass, and then
it's too late, too late to call. But today is the day of salvation. He came to pass. He came nigh
unto Jericho. Verse 35, Jericho. What about
Jericho? It was a cursed city. A cursed
city. Remember the story of Joshua?
God gave the command after Joshua destroyed it to never have it
built again. It was a cursed city. This world
is under a curse. Remember Pilgrim? He said he
was leaving the city of destruction. This world is under the curse
of God's law and purposed by God, according to his will, to
be destroyed. But God, rich in mercy to all
that call upon him, all who call, he will save. Jericho. And I remind you that he didn't
save one person in Jericho, not one. He came near it, found a
blind man, saved him. He went through it, passed through
it, and saved Zacchaeus on the way out. Because where is Christ
found? Outside the camp. Outside the
camp. It's no coincidence that most
major cities just don't have the gospel there. You have to
go outside the camp to find the truth. He came down to Jericho
and a certain blind man, a certain man, oh don't you love the certainties
of God's Word, a certain blind man, a certain woman, a certain,
this was one of his elect, And it's certain that he's going
to receive his salvation. It's certain that the Lord is
going to save him. It's certain. Salvation is not
a possibility, not based on chance. It's certain. It's certain. Because for whom he did foreknow,
he did predestinate. And whom he did predestinate,
he called. And whom he called, he justified. And whom he justified, he glorified. Salvation is up to the Lord.
It's certain. Whomever He foreknew, whomever
He loved, whomever He chose before the world began, they're going
to hear His voice and He's going to save them. A certain blind man, this man
is blind. He was born that way. He's been
blind all of his life. All of his life. Now, if you're
blind, what does that mean? It means you cannot see. That's
profound, isn't it? What does the Scripture say?
We're blind. What does the Scripture say? We're dead, doesn't it?
Lost. I'm going to repeat myself a
great deal today because this is just the simple truth. But
didn't our Lord say you must be blind to see? He said, I'm
come that those that see might be blind and those that are blind
might see. Have you ever been blind? Blind to God. blind to
the truth, blind to yourself, blind to Satan, blind to this
world. Yes, we're all born that way. But God chose a people,
the people that walked in darkness, blind, and seen a great light. Upon them hath the light shined.
Christ came in the gospel to many in this room, to give eyes
to the blind. He was blind and he was by the
way. Look at it. Sat by the wayside. By the way. He's not in the way. He's by
the way. He's near the way. The way is
that right before him. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
way, the truth, and the life. There's some sitting in here
right now hearing the way, but not hearing. There's some sitting
here right now where the gospel is preached, where salvation
is to be had. Don't seek. Don't need. And by
the way, that was me. I sat... I've told you so many
times. You know, do you ever get tired
of telling your stories? Other people may not want to
hear your story, but you never get tired of it. But this is
what I sat, I sat, I sat. By the way, I sat and heard message
after message after message. The preacher's kid. And sadly, tragically, I couldn't wait to leave. Couldn't
wait to leave until I got old enough to leave. And when I was
old enough, I did. You see why I cannot preach without
these two words? By God. I came back all wrong reason. Everybody comes for the wrong
reason. Everybody starts coming for the wrong reason. But God,
His reason, His purpose, His will was for me to see. And one day, sitting by the way,
He put me in the way. He opened my blind eye that I
might see. And I was not aware of anyone
else around me. By the way, it's like begging. We're all beggars. You know that?
I like to think, I've always thought I could just do about
anything, but especially when I was younger. The older I get,
the more I realize that. And I'm embarrassed, Kelly. I'm
embarrassed how weak, Mike, how weak I've become. You know how
men like to open jars for women? Give me that. Well, the other
day, Ron, I couldn't open it. It's going to happen to you boys.
It's going to happen. Couldn't open it. Weak. You know,
get weaker. Beggars. That's, we're beggars.
What do we have we have not received, huh? Let not the strong man glory
in his strength. Let not the beautiful woman glory
in her beauty. The wise man in his wisdom. Him that glory, let
him glory in the Lord. What do we have we have not received?
What do we know we haven't received? What? What? Anything. Everything.
By the grace of God, we are what we are, have what we have, know
what we know, huh? And just one little germ can reduce us to
nothing. One so-called accident can make
us... There are no accidents. The Lord does it. Begging. We're beggars. We're beggars.
We're beggars. And the thing we need most of
all is mercy. Mercy-beckered men say that all
the time, don't they? Preachers say that all the time. Look at verse 36. Hearing the
multitude pass by, he asked what it meant. What's going on? He
heard the multitude. Have they not all heard? Have
not all people heard this? Yes, Paul said, Verily the sound
is going throughout the world. Now our Lord went through city
after city, village after village, town after town, didn't He? He
went everywhere. There was not one place in all
of Israel that did not hear Jesus Christ's Word. Not one. And He went through all these
places. Were there blind men? Yes, it's full of them. Were
there beggars? Full of them. Were there lepers? Full of them.
Were there lost people? Full of them. How many were,
Carla, how many said, what's going on? What's this all about? Where
are they going? How many? Not many. This certain
man did. Wait, hold on. Where's everybody
going? What's going on? They said Jesus
of Nazareth's passing by. Now, because of what he said,
because of what he cried, he heard before. He had heard this
before. All right? Faith cometh by hearing,
hearing by the Word of God, the Gospel. How shall they hear without
a preacher? He heard somebody, somewhere,
a preacher say or somebody passing by say it. Did you hear that
Jesus of Nazareth, the man born of Mary and worked in this carpenter's
shop of Joseph? They say He's the Christ. They
say He's the Messiah. Well, He's healed lepers. He's given hearing to the deaf. He's given sight to the blind.
Pardon me, sir. What? What? Sight? Yeah, there was a man born blind,
John 9. A man born blind, the Lord Jesus
of Nazareth passed by and took his fiddle and made clay
and anointed his eye, and he saw. Really? Tell me that again. Tell me again. Yeah, who is it? Jesus of Nazareth. They say He's the Christ. They
say He's the Holy One of Israel. They say He's the Christ. They
say He's the Messiah. They say He's God manifest in
the flesh. Emmanuel has come. That's what
they say. And He had hope. He had hope. He heard. So it gave Him hope.
And here's what He thought. If He ever passes by here, If he ever comes within earshot
of me, I'm going to holler. I sure hope he comes my way.
He's a beggar. He can't get there. He can't
go. He doesn't know where to go.
He can't see him if he was coming. You've got to be broad. But he
can cry. My dad preached a message. This
is a message to hear. All right? Message to hear. He
didn't put one in this week's bulletin. Or did I? Did I? Okay.
Next week. Message to hear. What can a sinner
do? What can a sinner do? The first
thing is cry. Call. Because whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Was he saved
because he called? No. He was saved because the
Lord called him. But you know he was saved because
he called. And you won't be saved unless
you call. Say, I'm not saved. I don't know
the Lord. You haven't called. It's as simple as that. He said,
whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. I'm
not saved. Then you haven't called. Right?
Is that right? Whosoever shall call. And here's
what I say to all of us. Young, old, saved and unsaved. All of us. Call. Keep calling. Saved from sin. Saved from yourself.
Saved from this world. Saved from the God of this world.
Saved from wrath. Saved, saved, saved. We need
to save it. That's my next message. Well, look at this. Here's what
he did. Verse 38. He cried, saying, Jesus,
our son of David, have mercy on me. He's calling him the Christ. Jesus, the man, son of David,
the Christ, the God-man. That's what he's calling it.
You see, he heard, as I said, he heard somebody say, they say
Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of David, the Christ. Because
here's the gospel, the gospel of God concerning God's Son,
declared to be the Son of God with power of the seed of David. That means he's the King, the
coming King, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Messiah, Son
of David, as we said, the only one. Don't you love Isaiah 25? We said, this is our God. We've waited on Him. He'll save
us. He's the only one that can. Not just Jesus, but the Lord
Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ. He's our
God and our Savior. Jesus, thou Son of David. What
did He ask for? Now, when He was begging before,
He was begging. What was He begging for? Money.
One thing. Every day. Alms for the blind. Alms for the blind. Every day. Day to day. Alms for the blind.
Somebody said Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. Mercy! He never asked for mercy before.
He never asked for sight before. Now he does. One thing. Don't need money. I need mercy. Mercy. He cried, have mercy upon
them. Oh, may the Lord have mercy.
May the Lord have mercy on us all. Us, our children, our neighbors. May the Lord have mercy. Look at verse 39. They that went
before him rebuked him that he should hold his peace. What peace? You don't have any peace. You know what He must have said
to them? You can be silent. You must not be blind. This is
my only hope. And since He cried all the more,
that much more, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. He began Jesus
as Son of David. And when it's all over, He's
going to call Him Lord. That's salvation. He cried the more. And brothers
and sisters, as time passes by, we ought to cry all the more.
It's getting unpopular. Talk about mercy. Talk about
God's sovereignty. Talk about man being in sin.
But brothers and sisters, we see them. We cry all the more. As the day approaches, Son of
David, have mercy on me. And verse 40 says, and Jesus
stood. Mark's gospel said he stood still. It means he stopped. Now, there's a multitude, a vast
throng of people. You ever been in a crowd? What's
going on? Is everybody silent? Oh, no.
It's a raucous thing. It's lots of noise, rambunctious
crowd, you know. Everybody's scurrying here and
there, lots of noise. People are hollering this and
that and the other, you know, like a crowd, like at a county
fair or whatever, when a famous person is around. Everybody's
just making hoopla, you know. But this one man cried. The Lord
keeps walking. He's going to walk all the way
through Jericho to get to the other side. He just keeps walking.
All of a sudden, he stopped. He heard something. He heard someone. You know, he's waiting on that
cry. He knew he was going to call. Because he called, he was
going to call him. He knew he was going to be stopped.
You remember when our Lord was walking through that crowd and
they stopped, somebody touched me. Simon Peter and all, Lord,
everybody's throwing you. Everybody's, no. Somebody touched
me. Somebody laid hold of me. Somebody
really needs me. And somebody was calling. Everybody
was crying, but this man was calling. Somebody needs me. Do you? He'll stop. There's a story, and I wrote
it down, Joshua, got the wrong glasses again, Joshua 10. I ought
to throw them away. Might be the best message I've
ever heard. Joshua 10, like John 10. Joshua 10, it says that Joshua
asked the Lord, they were fighting the Amalekites, somebody. And
Joshua asked the Lord to not let the sun go down, to make
the sun stop. And it did, for a full day, so
that Joshua could fight the enemy. And it says in the next verse,
it says, there's never been a day like it, the sun stood still,
that God hearkened to the voice of a man. That's what it said,
Joshua 10, 14. There's never been a day like it. The sun stood
still. You can't stop the sun from shining.
You can't stop the earth from rotating, can you? Huh? The sun
stood still. One sinner called. One blind
man called. One beggar called. One needy
person cried unto the Lord. And the Lord God from heaven
stopped. You think he'd stop for you?
You're not worth it. But if you cry, he will. Why? Because he's God. It's the
glory of a man to pass by a transgression. And it's the glory of our Lord
to stand still for one sinner. Read on. It says that He commanded
him to be brought unto Him. The Lord Jesus Christ heard this
blind man calling and commanded him to be brought on it. Commanded
him. Salvation. We say it all the time because
false religion is so full of it. And people need to hear this. And some people haven't heard
this. They haven't seen it. It's so blind to the deception
of false prophets and false religion. But false religion is telling
everybody, God wants you, God wants this, God wants that, and
Jesus provided or offered salvation. It's not an offer. Salvation
is not an offer. It's not something God invites
you to do. Nowhere did God say, won't you
please accept me? Nowhere did Jesus Christ stand
up and say, will anybody have me? God didn't send his son to the
cross to say, would anybody accept this? That's repulsive. And I wouldn't send my daughter
to die for any sinner, period. But if I did, buddy, it's going
to accomplish what I sent it to do. She is not going to die
in vain. I am not going to do that. It
won't happen. And I'm not going to offer her
any money. Would you? Here, have her. If you want her,
don't send her back. Are you kidding me? Now, God purposed salvation. He sent his son to die, and every
drop of his blood is effectual. to the praise of the glory of
His blood and His righteousness and His grace. It's not an offer. Christ offered Himself to God,
not man. And God accepted it on behalf
of every single person God chose. None of them deserved it. Not the blind man. Why is he
blind? Because the Lord made him blind.
Why is he called? Because the Lord made him know
that he's blind and made him call. That's what the Lord had
already purposed to save this man. Salvation is up to all,
from start to finish. Well, it's not an offer, it's
a command. It's a command. Psalm 71.3 says, Thou hast given
commandment to save men. Almighty love arrests that man.
Commandment. Salvation is by command. God's
command. For whom he did foreknow, he
predestinated, he called. Come. Kings don't invite their
subjects. A sovereign. An all-powerful
king. You know the story of Mephibosheth,
the lame beggar? Mephibosheth? Did David send
two men down there and say, ask Mephibosheth if he wants to come. He says, is there any left of
the house of Saul that I might show kindness to him for Jonathan's
sake? They said, there's one. He's
down in the house of no bread. He's lame on both his feet. He
can't come. He's your enemy anyway. He won't come. David said, go
fetch him. David's the most powerful man
on earth. He's sent two of his most strongest men. One of them
killed 300 Philistines. One of them! He won't come. Pick him up. Fetch him. Put him on your shoulder. I said,
bring him. He won't come. He can't come.
But when the king gives a command, he will come. Oh yes, he will. Don't you love the statement
that all of God's people are saved against their will with
their full consent? Thy people, Psalm 110, 3, shall
be willing when? In the day of thy hour. It is
God that worketh in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Philippians 2, 13. Not of him
that willeth or of him that willeth. It's of God that showeth what?
Mercy. He said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. I will have mercy. And whomever
He chooses, whomever His purpose show mercy, He's going to show
mercy. And he gives the command, the gospel command. Salvation
is by command. It's through the preaching of
the gospel. When God says come, they will come. Not before and
not until. I was such a rebel. No, I don't
have that. And one day, well, I do have
that. I don't believe that. One day,
well, I do believe that. One day, I'm out of here. Next
day, I'm in here. I don't want that. Ooh, I got
to have that. What happened? I forgot. Gave the command. We call on God. Lord, give the
command. Call her. She hasn't heard you.
Open her eyes. She hasn't seen. She doesn't
see herself. He doesn't see himself. He doesn't see this world. He
doesn't see the pit he's about to fall in, the pit he is in.
Lord, open his eyes, please. We don't ask blind people to
see. We ask God to give them sight. We don't ask dead people
to accept Jesus. We ask God to give them life. And He gave the command. He does.
He's still giving the command. Who's going to walk in that door
next? Who's going to get in that pool next? Whomever God commands. Oh, Lord. Give the command. Anyway, He said, He commanded
him to be brought where? Christ said, Bring him to Me. If we're going to be saved, it's
going to be by Christ, and we're going to see it's Christ, it's
Christ, it's Christ, it's Christ. People come here all the time,
and they hear, they hear, they hear, and then they leave. What
do they hear? Christ. That's it. Tell me, is
that not who we preach? Is that not all we do here? Preach
Christ? All right, if somebody comes, and they don't see, and
they leave, what does that tell you? They didn't need Christ.
If you want the truth, I'll tell you not what it is, I'll tell
you who it is. If you want the truth, you want
to be saved, I'll tell you who it is, Jesus Christ. You want
the way, you got the answers, I'll tell you who it is, Jesus
Christ. The way to what? Name something. Truth, the life. It's all Christ.
Christ is all. It's all we preach. Why? Because
He's all. That's all there is. Don't ask
any other questions. Ask him. Have mercy upon him.
And if he does, he'll show you Jesus Christ. He's all the religion
you need. Jesus Christ is all the religion
anybody needs. All right. He said he came to
him. They brought him to Christ. And
when he was come near, he got near. Don't you love that? Come near, we have boldness to
come to the throne of glory by a new way, Jesus Christ. And
he said, our Lord asked him. Now, he's not asking for information.
The Lord never asks anybody anything for information. When he asked
Adam, where art thou? He knew where he was. That's
where he put him. He's asking so that that person
might confess, that that person might see for themselves where
they are. Adam was hiding. Adam was naked. Where art thou? Meaning, now
where are you? Now look at you. Now look at
what you've done. Huh? What have you done to yourself
now? Now where are you? What wilt
thou? You know the Lord gives mankind
He's put the world in their heart. Ecclesiastes says, puts the world
in their heart so that if anybody goes after anything, they can
get it. You work hard enough, you can get it. If you study
hard enough, you can go to any school in America. That's right.
If you work hard enough, you'll make a lot of money and you can
buy anything you want. You can do it. God does that. He's given all things all and
if you want after it, go for it. This is dangerous. It's dangerous. What wilt thou? What do you want? What do you
really need? And this man said one thing. One thing. I want to receive my sights.
I want to see. I want to see. Isn't that what
we do? We need to see. See God. See ourselves. See the
world for what it is. See Christ. See our need of Him. I want to see. I want to receive
my sight. What did our Lord say? Look at
verse 42. Receive thy sight. Is that it? That's it. He'll say, see yon mountain Sinai? Walk up to that and you get to
the top. Receive thy sight. With a word. With a word. Receive thy sight. Isn't it?
Where the king is, there's power. Receive thy sight. Receive thy
sight. People say, I'm looking, I'm
looking, I'm looking. I'm caught. No. No, you're not. Or you receive
thy sight. Now, receive, what does receive
mean? First, John 1, 12 and 13, as many as received Him. You
know that? What does receive mean? A glass. Right, this is a receptacle. A receptacle. Can it put water
in itself? If it's empty. Now it's empty. Is there anything in it? No. Can it put anything in it? No.
What is it? Empty. What's going to have to
happen? I, somebody, would like to pour
water in it, okay? All right, what did it do if
I decide to fill this up? It's my choice. This is a receptacle. It's empty. I don't need it. But if I decide to fill it, who
did it? What did this do? If I fill this
up, what did it do? Accept it? Accept it. Receive it. Do you understand
the difference? What if the vessel said, I ain't
going to take this? Yes, you are. If I decide to fill you, I'm
going to fill you. It's a receptacle. You cannot
get any plainer. Salvation is received. Grace
is not something of yourself. It's received. Faith is received. Repentance is received, not accepted. Knowledge is received. What we
need to do is be an empty vessel and say, fill me. Blind. Give me sight. I can't hear. Give me ears. A little child,
teach me, I'm empty. And if he decides, if he has
already decided, he's going to fill you with all the fullness
of God. What's that? Jesus Christ. In him dwelleth all the fullness. If you ever see Christ, the water
of life, All your questions will be answered. About man's will,
about the world, about sin, about salvation, about who God is,
about what man is. You've received knowledge. You've received life. You've
received eyes. You've received hearing. You've
received grace. You've received mercy. You've
received grace. Isn't that wonderful? I love
it. I still feel so empty at times. What do I do? And he wouldn't call if he didn't
receive a call. Right. Why do you say that? Because
God gets all the glory. Because it's so. Because it's
so. Receive, that's it. Oh, but look,
preacher, it says, thy faith has saved thee. He said, thy
faith has saved thee. See that? You know, my dad used to say,
look at a scripture. And if it seems to say something,
take other Scriptures and throw it at it. And if you can knock
it off, if you can knock that down with another Scripture,
God doesn't contradict Himself. Right? By grace you say, through
faith and that not of yourself. Oh, hold on now. Then His faith
is really not Him doing anything. Faith is just another word for
Christ. Thy Christ hath saved thee. The
one you're calling on. The one who called you. The one
who gave you eyesight. The one who you're looking to.
The one who you called upon. Faith doesn't save us. Christ
saves us. Where'd you get this faith? Christ
gave it to you. Of His own will begat He us with
the word of truth. Faith is not of yourself, it's
a gift from God. And all he's saying here is that the Spirit
of God has given you faith that look to call upon me and all
who call upon me will be saved. We're saved. That faith has saved
him. Faith's not the Savior, Christ
is, but it's the evidence of salvation. All right, verse 43,
and immediately he received his sight. And what's the first thing
he saw? Christ is standing right here
in front of him, okay? And he says, Receive thy sight. His eyes were open. What does
he see? What does he see? It's not a what. It's a person. He sees, he's looking in the
face. He sees the light of the knowledge. He's never seen the
light before, John. He's never seen the light. He's
been in darkness all his days. And when God spoke the Word,
he sees the light of the knowledge, the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. He sees everything. He sees everything
now. He now sees everything very clearly. He sees Christ. What did he do? What did he see? He saw Christ.
What did he do? Followed Him. Followed Him. Oh, he's in the way now. He followed
Him. And what's he doing? Glorifying
God. Salvation is for the glory of
God. The glory of God's Son. And if
the Lord saves you, you know what you'll say? The Lord saved
me. You won't say, I got saved. You
won't say, I accepted Jesus. You won't say, I saw the light.
You won't say, I let him into my heart. You say, the Lord saved
me. The Lord revealed himself to
me. The Lord opened my blind eyes. The Lord preached the gospel
to me. The Lord, because salvation is
up above. And he glorified him. And all the people saw it. And
buddy, when God saves somebody, especially a man who's really
blind, there's only one person who gets the glory. It's obvious. God did it. God did it. They saw it and they gave praise
unto God. Are you blind? Oh, my. He came for the blind. Okay.