We'll be looking at Mark Chapter
8 this morning, the Gospel of Mark Chapter 8. This passage
of Scripture came to mind recently after I went through a certain
experience. Something happened to me that
brought this passage of Scripture to mind. Now, here in Mark Chapter
8, is the story of the Lord Jesus Christ healing a blind man. Let's read beginning with verse
22 of Mark chapter 8. And it says, And he, or Christ,
cometh to Bethsaida, and they bring a blind man unto him, and
besought, or asked Christ to touch him. A blind man. Now, this is not just a story
of physical blind man or the healing of a physically blind
man. But this is a spiritual story.
As with every story in the scripture, it has a spiritual meaning behind
it. And I hope you'll see it with me. But this man was born
blind. He was blind. And to be blind
means that you cannot see danger. To be blind, you cannot see if
you're approaching a cliff, a precipice, and about to fall over. You cannot
see that imminent danger. To be blind, you're unable to
see a predator, whether man or beast. You cannot see the danger
or a dangerous enemy. And did you know that all human
beings are born blind spiritually? By nature, they're born blind. Man is born blind to the dangers
of his soul. The Scripture says there is a
way that seems right to man. Man thinks he is going the right
way when the Scripture says the end is death and destruction. Man is blind to all of the enemies
all around him on every side. And some, or if not most, are
dressed in sheep's clothing. So man is blind by nature, blind
to the danger of his soul, blind to his enemies, the true enemies. We wrestle not with flesh and
blood, Paul said, but with principalities and power, unseen forces. Well, this man was blind physically,
and not only could he not see danger, but to be blind physically
you cannot see beauty. This man could not see or behold
the wonders and glories of God's creation. He couldn't see a beautiful
sunrise or a starry night or the beautiful mountains or the
beautiful ocean. And man that is born blind spiritually,
he receiveth not the things of God, the Scripture says. He doesn't
see God's glorious or beautiful character. He doesn't see Christ. his work of redemption. The Scriptures
even says, when we see him, there is no beauty about him that we
should desire him. Nothing about God or Christ or
salvation or redemption that the natural man is interested
in. No man is blind to the beauty of God. And the blind person,
the one who cannot see, not only cannot see beauty, but cannot
see ugliness. That is, he can't see himself. A blind man can look in a mirror,
but cannot see the blemishes, cannot see the dirt, he cannot
see his disfigurement. He may think he looks all right,
but in fact he cannot see. And man who is blind by nature,
spiritually, man who is blind to the absolute holiness of God,
You must be able to see God's holiness and God's justice and
God's glory before you can see your own sinfulness. But a man
who is blind to the glory of God is blind to his own depravity. He cannot see his own sin or
his own filth. He may think he is all right,
but he just cannot see himself as he is. A man who cannot see
God's sovereignty He cannot see his own dependence and helplessness
and weakness. A man who cannot see God's providence
or God's rule and reign over all things and God providing
all things, well, he may think that by his own power and wisdom
and strength he obtained all that he had. When the Scripture
says, what do we have that we have not received? And if we've
received it, why do we glory? Why would a man glory? as if
he had not received it. Yes, by the grace of God we are
what we are, but a man who is blind to the grace of God thinks
that what he has and what he is is of his own making. Well,
there was only one hope for this blind man. Christ was this man's
only hope of seeing, to be brought to Christ, to be touched and
healed and made to see by Jesus Christ. And this is what every
human being needs. Every human being needs to be
brought to see the Lord Jesus Christ, needs to be brought to
hear the gospel, and to have the Holy Spirit open their eyes
to see their need. And no man can. No man cometh
except the Father draw him. Now, like I said, before God
gives sight, He shows us how blind we are. And we don't realize
it. We don't realize we're blind
until we, later on, until we see. I told you that this message
was brought about by an experience I went through. Well, recently
I had eye surgery to correct nearsightedness. Some of you
may know something about radial keratotomy. Well, I had that
performed upon me. Before they performed that surgery
on me, though, they blinded me. They put drops in my eyes to
the point that I could not see. I was blinded. But that was necessary. It was absolutely necessary before
they could operate on me that I might see in the end. And so
it is. Before God gives spiritual eyesight,
He first shows us how blind we are. Now look at verse 23. And when the Lord Jesus Christ,
when they brought this man to Christ, it says, He took the
blind man by the hand and led him out of town. Christ laid
hold on this man and led him out of town. And this is exactly
what the Lord must do for every single person whom he is going
to give spiritual eyesight to. He must lay hold of us. He must
apprehend us. And then he leads us out of,
out of self, out of sin, out of this world, out of religion. Last week we looked at a passage
in Hebrews that says, Let us go therefore unto him without
the camp. Christ takes a person out of
religion, outside of superstition, out of tradition, out away from
all of the voices and many voices throughout the land. And Christ
takes us away from all of these different voices to hear His
voice, Him and Him only. He takes us to hear the gospel,
to see God's glory, to see Himself, to see Christ crucified. Well,
look at this, verse 23. He took the blind man by the
hand and led him out of town, away from everybody, away from
all the voices, away from all the hubbub and the uproar of
the crowd and the people. And it says, when he had spit
on his eyes, He spit on the man's eyes, or rather he spit perhaps
in his hands and rubbed it on the man's eyes. Now, we may think
that's a degrading thing to actually spit and put that on a person's
eye. Well, that's a good picture there. Only when a man is humbled and
brought down will he be exalted. Our pride must be abased before
sins will be erased. Only the person who has a low
self-esteem will esteem Christ most highly. Only the person
who sees himself as nothing at all will see Christ as all. Only the person who feels himself
to be unworthy will say, worthy is the Lamb. Only the person
who says, I am helpless, will see Christ as his only hope.
Only the absolutely guilty will see his need of mercy. So while
this may be a degrading thing to some, yet this was necessary
for the man to see. And so it is. All who God brings
down or abases, he exalts. But the person who exalts himself,
the Scripture says, he'll be abased. Well, I want you to notice
what was applied to the man's eyes. What Christ put on this
man's eyes came from Christ's mouth. There's another name for the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's found in John chapter 1.
It says, "...in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God." The same was in the beginning
with God, and all things that were made were made by Him. And
it says, "...the Word was made flesh." Christ is called the
Word of God because He is the manifestation, the revelation
of God in the flesh. Christ is called the Word. And
so what came from Christ's mouth was what he applied to this man's
eyes to make him see. And so do you understand? It
is the Word of God, that which comes from the very mouth of
God, which God uses to give eyesight to the spiritually blind. It's
not miracles and signs and wonders that opens a person's eyes. It's
the word of God. And more specifically, Peter
said, it is the gospel which by the word is preached unto
you. Which by the gospel is preached unto you. The scripture says
the entrance of thy word gives light. And light is the essence
of eyesight. And so when Christ first begins
to open a man's eyes, he does it by his word, by the preaching
of the gospel. And that man begins to see. Look
at verse 24. It says, the man looked up. Christ asked him if he saw anything,
and it says, he looked up and said, I see men as trees walking. I see men as trees walking. Well, When God begins to open
a person's spiritual eyesight, they don't see very clearly,
but they do see. And the first thing they see
is they see everyone as the same. They see all men and women as
the same. Sinners before God. This man
looked and saw all men as trees walking." Well, that is, they
all looked the same. And when God opens our eyes,
we see that man is nothing before God. Man is just a sinner. That's the first thing he acknowledges.
And look at verse 25. It says, after that, Christ put
his hands again upon the man's eyes. You see, as a man comes
to hear the gospel, over and over again, God begins to clear
things up for him. He begins to open his eyesight
to see the truth clearly. And it says, He made him look
up. See, after a man sees his own sinfulness, God makes him
look up, look to himself, look to Christ crucified, look unto
me and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth. If
I am God, there is none else. And it says he was restored.
That is, his eyesight was restored and he saw every man clearly. The day of my surgery, the day
I had my eye surgery, I saw some immediate improvement in my eyesight.
But now, many days later, I see a vast improvement. I'm beginning
to see things very clearly. 2020. And so it is when God reveals
the Gospel. In time, all things are seen
very clearly in light of Christ, in light of God's Word. We see
all flesh as vanity. We see the world as fading and
dying. We see ourselves as hopeless
and helpless. We see Christ as all in all. We see salvation is of the Lord. I advise you to go and read John
chapter 9. John chapter 9. Verses 39-41. Go back and read those things
for yourself. And ask God to tell you just
what that means. Well, may the Lord bless this
message to your heart. Until next Sunday, good day.