The religious world would say,
you've got it all wrong here. You're supposed to sing that
after the message, wouldn't you? No, we need to come to Christ
now. Right now. We need to come to
Him and ask Him, Lord, open my ears right now to hear the message,
to hear the Gospel. Mark chapter 10. This story is
recorded in three Gospels. Mark chapter 10 is the one we're
most familiar with. I venture to say nearly every
person in this room has heard this, but I know for a fact that
every person in here has not heard this and not seen the Lord. Verse 46, say, He came to Jericho,
and as He went out of Jericho with His disciples, a great number
of people, Blind Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus, sat by the highwayside
begging. The Lord Jesus Christ and His
apostles, it says, they came to Jericho. Isaiah wrote, Who is this that
cometh? Who is this cometh from Bozrah? I that speak in righteousness.
Mighty to save. God manifest in the flesh. The
only begotten Son of the Most High God, the Christ, the Messiah,
the only Savior of souls walked this planet. That's who He's
speaking of here. Our Lord said, I am come to seek
and to save. I am come that they might have
life. I am come. The Lord Jesus Christ came in
the flesh. Mark chapter 10 verse 46. Now most people don't believe
that Jesus Christ is God. Most people don't believe God.
Most people don't believe there is a God. They didn't believe that Christ
was God when He was here on earth. And now 2,000 more years later,
they sure don't believe now. Fewer people. Some do. I do. You do. Some of you do. Some do only
because. You know why? You know why. Because
He chose. He chose you. That's what he
said to his apostles one time. He said, whom do men say that
I am? They said many things. And he said, whom do you say
that I am? Peter said, we believe, no, we're sure, that thou art
the Christ, Son of the living God, Son of God, God manifest
in the flesh. What did he say? You're God.
Thomas said that. He said, have not I chosen you?
If you believe that. Some do. Some believe that He
is God. Those whom He has chosen, those
whom He chose to reveal Himself to them. Paul said this one time.
He said, when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's
womb and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me. That's when I knew who Jesus
Christ was. Not until then. Not until then. Oh, may it please the Lord to
open deaf ears to hear His voice. If He doesn't, We won't hear.
Open blind eyes to see His glory. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation
is of the Lord from the choosing. We don't choose Him. From the choosing. Our Lord said
this twice in John 6, didn't He? He said, no man can come
unto Me. In another place, He said, you
will not come unto Me. He said, no man can come unto
Me except the Father which hath sent Me draw him. And He said, everyone that the
Father hath given Me. They'll come to me. Salvation
is of the Lord in the choosing, in the redeeming. No man can
redeem his own soul. They're only redeemed one way,
by the precious blood of the Lamb. Salvation is of the Lord
in the calling. We won't even call on Him until
He calls us. And boy, am I way ahead of myself.
I'm back on page 3. Salvations of the Lord in the
bringing. He has to send someone to bring
us. Salvations of the Lord in the
keeping. We won't stay unless He says, stay. Like an old dog,
huh? Come. Sit. Lie down. Stay. That's exactly what He
said. My sheep hear My voice. Well, this is God. This is the
great Shepherd of the sheep, Jehovah our Shepherd, the Lord
our Shepherd, who has come to seek and to save His own, His
sheep, His lost sheep, left the ninety and nine to come for just
one. Here's one. Blind Bartimaeus. In verse 46
it says, Our Lord came and went. He came and went. He came to
this earth and He went back to glory, didn't He? and sat down
at the right hand of the majesty on high." He is not outside of
anyone's heart's door. The Scripture says he's sitting
at the right hand of the majesty on high. Right? And it says he's
coming again, and when he does, then he will get up. Coming as the destroyer to take
his people out. And our Lord came to this earth
and He went back to glory. And when He came to this earth,
He went through various cities and villages. The Lord and His apostles. What a blessing! What grace!
What mercy! that God came down to this earth
to save such unworthy creatures as we are, such rebellious creatures
as we are, and sent His Son to die for them. What mercy and
what grace! And He sent His Word, sent His
Gospel, and His Gospel went into every village and town. You remember
that verse where the Lord said, let's go into this village and
that village and every town. He said, I must preach. What
a blessing! When the gospel comes to a town,
the gospel came to this town years ago, didn't it? Wherever the gospel is, the Lord
is. Where two or three people are gathered, the Lord is there.
He came and He has a preacher that He leaves there for His
sheep. What a blessing. What a great work that men perceive
not. That's what He's talking about
in Isaiah 29. The work of the gospel. Open blind eyes. Deaf ears. That's the work. The
work of God. The saving of souls through the
preaching of God. But men perceive it not. But then He went. He went out. He always does. Wherever He comes,
He always leaves. So much more as we see the day
approaching. This gospel ought to be more
precious to us and more dear to us. than it was when we first heard
it. Especially us old folks. The closer we get to seeing our
Lord. It's going to be soon. But this
gospel will be the most joyful sound, the most needful thing
on this earth. We're getting ready to meet God.
And the gospel comes and the gospel goes. Jerusalem was where
the first church started, didn't it? There's no church in Jerusalem
right now. It's a huge church, wasn't it?
Wasn't it? Thousands of people. There's none. Then it moved up
into Antioch. Remember? Ephesus. Philippi. Not there now. Not there now. And it's not going
to stay here. Bless God that He sent His gospel
here. Bless the Lord. Thank the Lord. But it's not going to stay here.
You know why? That's why Scripture says today
is the day of salvation. Whenever the Gospels preach,
boast not thyself of tomorrow. When I get ready, like was it
Grippa, was it? At a convenient time. I'll hear
this, it's not convenient right now. I'm busy. Oh, Grippa. No tomorrow. Christ, the Spirit
of God, the Gospel of God, the truth of God comes and it goes.
And if there's no truth, if there's no Gospel, if Christ and Him
crucified is not preached in a so-called church, put Ichabod
over the door. The glory is departed. God's
not there. They have big buildings and big
programs and thousands of people. But if the gospel is not there,
God is not there. Christ is not there. He came
and he went. See that? He came and he went
out of Jericho. Jericho was condemned by the
Lord. Jericho was condemned by the
Lord to Joshua. Remember, Joshua is the one who
destroyed it. Do you remember who he saved out of Jericho? Well, one lady. and her family,
Rahab the harlot. He sent his servant, and that's
another message, but he sent his servants in to find one notorious
sinner, bless God, and brought her out, buddy, and her family,
whoever was under that scarlet line, that blood of Christ, he
brought them out and then he leveled that place. And the Lord
said, curse it as anyone that builds this city again. Well,
they built it again. See, it's not cursed. No, yes
it is. Our Lord in Luke's Gospel said
He came and He went through Jericho. He didn't stop. He didn't save
anybody in Jericho. Not one. It's a big city. Some
say 400,000 people or more. He didn't save one person. He
saved Zacchaeus going in. a publican, and he saved a blind
man coming out. And neither one of them deserved
it. But that's who he came to save,
publicans and harlots and the blind. Oh, how the world scoffs
at this, you know, who Christ is and why He came, what He did.
And where he is now, they scoff at this. Oh, we don't do it.
We glory in it, marvel at it. Well, it says this man, he went
out and there was a blind man sitting there, Bartimaeus. You
know the story. A blind beggar sits there by
the wayside. Now, this is a real story. This
is a gospel picture. This is the gospel so clearly
of who came, why he came, who he came for, how they come to
him and how they're saved. That's what this is a picture
of, salvation. And Luke's gospel said it was a certain blind man.
I love that. Whenever the Scripture says a
certain man, a certain woman, a certain blind man, Luke said.
Now this was no chance meeting. This was not Bartimaeus' lucky
day. How many blind men were in this
city at that time? Many. You can count on it. How
many beggars sat on the street that day? Many. Many. This was not any chance meeting,
but this was the day ordained and predestined by God before
the world began for this man to hear the Son of God's voice
and to see His blessed face. and follow him for the rest of
his days. This was one of his elect vessels, one of his lost
sheep who's going to hear the shepherd's voice. You've got
to hear it first before you say it. This is a man who was blind
to his glory. He's about to see. A man who's
dumb, who never called. He's going to call. And a fellow
who can't come, who's going to come. Salvation is by chance. Salvation is no happenstance.
Salvation is not by luck, not by man's will, but it's by the
will of God. And it's certain for all the
elect. It's by grace that it might be sure for all the elect
of God. The Lord had someone bring Bartimaeus
this day. and sent him down in this precise
place like Zacchaeus. You know the story of Zacchaeus,
it's in Luke 18 and 19, these stories are back to back. Zacchaeus,
there was one tree, one sycamore tree that the Lord was going
to pass under that day, and he had Zacchaeus climb that tree
that day. And we've looked at before how
that, Men probably tried to cut that tree down for years, but
the Lord wouldn't let it happen until this man, until he finds
this man up a tree. One of the brethren said, that's
the church. That tree is the church. That's
where he'll put his elect, up a tree, where they're going to
meet Christ. Brother John Chapman entitled that, Up a Tree on Purpose. Up a tree on purpose to meet
the Lord, to hear from the Lord. Well, that's another story. He
had this man sitting in this precise place on this precise
day. This was his day. Not lucky day,
but the day of his salvation. The day that the Lord had predetermined
before the world began. Like that child in the field
of Ezekiel where the Lord said, this was your day. The day of
life, the day of love. I passed by you and saw you in
your pollution, and I said, live. This is your day. That's what Isaiah, we read that
in Isaiah 29, verse 18, it says, In that day, the day of their
salvation, shall the blind see. The deaf hear. Blind Bartimaeus. Blind Bartimaeus. The name Bar,
you know, the word Bar, you know, means son of Timaeus. Son of
Timaeus. Who this man was, we don't know.
Don't know anything about it. But here's the point. He was a son of his father. And maybe he was a blind man. I don't know. But, you know,
we're just like our father. They were born like our father
Adam, dead in trespasses, blind. There's a natural blindness. This man had a natural blindness.
Bargamaeus had never seen God's creation. He couldn't see creation.
He couldn't see God's handiwork. He couldn't see any beauty in
it. He couldn't see any glory in what God had made with His
hands. He couldn't see clearly the things that God had made.
He couldn't see Himself. Like David said, I am fearfully
and wonderfully made. He couldn't see other people
as they really are. He could not see the dangers
about Him. He couldn't see anything. He
literally could not see. Well, there's a spiritual blindness
that all human beings are born with just like this. Though the
heavens declare His glory, though the firmament showeth His handiwork,
day unto day uttereth speech, night unto night knowledge. The
things that are made are His eternal power and Godhead are
clearly seen. Scripture says they have eyes
but they don't see. His eternal power, His Godhead,
His glory, the glory of the Creator is so clear when He opens your
eyes. But not until then. You can look
at things so wondrous, so amazing, God's marvelous creation, and
not see it at all. Can you? Men and women, scientists
and doctors. This is what Isaiah said, I'll
bring to nothing the understanding of the wise. Now look into these
things. I see all these intricate DNA
and all these, you know, everything that goes together to make it,
and they won't see a thing. Can't see the forest for the
trees. Can't see the hand of God. Blind. Can't see creation. Can't see beauty. Jesus Christ,
God came to this earth, and it says when we see Him, there's
no beauty in Him, but we should desire Him. Men and women look at the people
on this earth whom God says are positively ugly in their pride,
in their vanity, in their glory, in their haughtiness, and everything
they have was given to them by God, their wisdom, their knowledge,
their ability, their beauty, their strength, everything given
to them. Man and all his amazing, seriously,
man's brain that can create things like computers and architecture
and his hand, that does all this and yet don't believe somebody
created Him? How blind can you be? And are not thankful to give
Him all the glory. That's Romans 1. Blind. And such were some of you. All
of you. Me too. Can't see creation. And Christ came, the altogether
lovely Son of God, His words are beautiful, his personality
is beautiful, his work is beautiful, everything about him, glorious
and wondrous, grace poured from his lips. No man spoke like this
man. No man did the things that he
did, full of wisdom and glory and power and honor. But men,
not interested. I don't see any beauty in him. Let's listen to these scientists
and these people. Let's listen to these fellows.
Blind! No beauty in Him that we should
desire Him? Don't see any glory in this Gospel? Ha! Can't see the danger, can't see
themselves. Men are so blind they can't see
themselves for what they are. Why? Wretched, miserable, poor,
blind and naked, helpless, beggars in the hands of God to do with
that. God in Isaiah 1 says, He said, why would you be stricken
anymore? Romans 1, the wrath of God clearly
revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold or suppress the truth and unrighteousness for
wickedness and ungodly gain. And God sends these things, calamities
and disasters and earthquakes and hurricanes and floods, and
men don't see it as a hand of God. Just don't see it. Like
the Egyptians, all those plagued, didn't see it. Clearly seen,
but didn't see it. Why? Darn. And God said in Isaiah
1, why should you be stricken anymore? You will only revolt
more and more. Can't see themselves for what
they are. Sinful. Can't see the danger that we're
in. Cannot see the danger. They're one breath away. from
meeting our Creator that we don't acknowledge. One. And then what? So foolish. So blind. Everything
given from above and they don't see it. Well, here sat a blind man in
Beacon. I hope there's one in here this morning. You know,
all believers are still blind at times. We need to do what
this man did. We need to see what this man
saw. This blind man begging, it says. He's blind. He's naturally
blind. He's spiritually blind. And he's
begging. A beggar. Have you ever seen a beggar?
You know, we have some homeless people in Roanoke anyway, maybe
a couple around here. But the truth be known, They're not beggars like they
used to be. There's help. People can find help. But now,
back then, there was no welfare, there was no Social Security,
there was no nothing. And when somebody got poor, got
like in debt or whatever, they lost everything. If they didn't
have somebody to take care of them, they absolutely had nothing. Nothing. Not another meal. Not a home. Hopefully they had
just something to wear. And that's it. And Mexico is
that way now. In other third world countries,
you go to poor countries, you'll find lots of beggars. They bring
them out every day and set them on a street corner. And all day
long they sit there and beg. Now that's poor. You're totally
dependent. What it means to beg is you're
totally dependent on somebody to give you a hand out. It means
everything you get is going to be by grace. Everything you get
is going to come from somebody else's hand. You don't have two
pennies rubbed together. And your pockets have holes in
them. You don't have a place. Somebody is going to have to
do something for you. Now, that's a beggar. And it says here in verse...
And men don't know it, but we're beggars. They don't know it. Everything we have, every good
and perfect gift comes from above. Well, this man sat by the highway
side, verse 46. He sat by the wayside begging. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the way, didn't He? Not a way, I am the way, the
only way to God. In the volume of the book, it
is written of Him. And how many today, if not most, are near or close to the truth,
literally, but not in Christ? He said to that rich young ruler,
he said this very thing, thou art not far from the kingdom
of heaven. But that's not good enough. Must be in the way. Some right here in this room
are sitting under the sound of this gospel, and you're not in
Christ. That's close, isn't it? That's
real close. Not in Christ. That's not good
enough. Many people say they believe in God but don't know
Christ. Verse 47 says, when he heard
this blind beggar Heard something. He heard something. You know,
Scripture says, Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord
shall be saved. That's Joel 2. Paul quoted that in Romans 10.
And Peter quoted it in Acts 2. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord, here's the rest of it, shall be saved. How
then shall they call on Him whom they have not believed? You're
not going to call on Him. the Lord if you don't believe
that He is Lord. You don't make Him Lord. You're
not going to call on the Lord if you believe He's Lord. You're
going to beg Him for mercy. You're not going to make Him
Lord. How shall they call on Him they've
not believed? How shall they believe in Him they've not heard?
How shall they hear without a preacher? How shall they preach except
they be sent? true preachers, sent. It's written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. Boy, Bartimaeus couldn't see these
feet right now, but boy, they were beautiful feet walking by
him. Faith cometh by hearing, he said,
hearing by the Word of God. Twofold meaning in that. Faith
cometh by hearing, not by choice. Not by free will. Oh, no. By grace He is saved through
faith. And that's not of yourselves. That's the gift of God. Not of
works, lest any man should boast. Not even the work of faith. We
believe according to the working of His mighty power. Ephesians
2, 19. The working of His mighty power. Faith cometh by hearing. And the hearing ear and the seeing
eye of the Lord made them both. And you won't hear unless the
Lord says, hear. Faith cometh by hearing. Yeah,
you must hear the gospel. But you won't hear it. You'll
hear message after message after message after message. Like me,
preacher's kid. Message after message after message.
Hell, until I was sick of hearing it. And then when the time came,
I was old enough, I'm out of here. You know what my salvation
is in two words. But God says, you will hear. You will hear. And you will believe. And you will cry. And you will
call. And you will come. And I will
save you. And I will keep you. Oh, there's a big difference
between, and I meant to bring this up in the Bible study. The
difference between the truth, the true gospel, and the true
God is this. The difference between the true
God and the true gospel and the false one and the God who's not
God is this. The false gospel says, if you
will, God shall. It's up to you now, if you will,
God shall. That's a false gospel. You won't
find that in the Bible anyway. Now here's the truth. Truth of
the matter of salvation, who God is, how salvation comes. If God will, you shall. And I
know it's so. Those who've had this happen
to them, they know it's so. Barnabas is not going to argue
with you about whether or not God chooses and God saves and
God opens the eyes of the blind. Saul of Tarsus is not going to
argue. When it happens to you, you quit arguing, don't you? Simon Peter and James and John
out in the boat, not caring a thing about that Jewish preacher named
Jesus of Nazareth. But God chose them, sent Christ,
said, go call those boys. Bypass all these other boats
and choose them and call them. They will come. I've given them
to you. And buddy, they did. They aren't
arguing about election. They're blessing God to high
heaven. Blessing God to high heaven. He heard something. He heard. This thing wasn't done in a corner,
like Paul said to Agrippa. Everyone heard. Everyone throughout
Judea, all over Israel, and the world for that matter, had heard
about this Jesus of Nazareth. You know, many are called. Many
are called. But what does it say? This Jesus of Nazareth, everyone
heard about this man, this miracle worker, this prophet. As it was
then, so it is now. Bartimaeus heard, but he heard
more than that. He heard more because of what
he said. He heard more about this Jesus of Nazareth. It could
be that he went into the temple and heard a fellow get up and
read Isaiah 29. In that day, the eyes of the
blind will be opened, they'll see out of obscurity, and to
meet the poor will increase their joy in the Lord. And that day,
coming today, all through the gospel of the Old Testament,
it is written of Christ. Somebody's coming for His people,
coming. The Christ is coming. God, I
love Isaiah 25, it will be said, in that day, this is our God. We've waited for Him. He'll save
us. Isaiah heard that. Bartimaeus
heard that. He heard the truth, he heard
that of the son of David, of the lineage of David, that the
Christ would come, born of a woman, made under the law to redeem
them that were under the law, of the line of David, a priest
forever like the order of Melchizedek. He heard that, yes he did. That
the Christ is coming, the Messiah, the only Savior, the only mediator,
the covenant head. He heard that. That's the Son
of David. The King is coming, gathering
his people into his kingdom. The King of kings and Lord of
lords. And I'm sure that Isaiah really,
Bartimaeus really did perk his ears up when he heard them talking
about the blind seeing the heavens and the sight restored. I bet he went to the preacher
and said, would you read that again next Sunday? He heard somebody say something
about him, didn't he, to Christ? Because this is what he said.
Look at verse 47. When he heard that it was Jesus
of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou Son
of David, have mercy on me. Son of David, that's the Christ. Have mercy on them. Verse 48 says that many of them
were around there and they saw Christ and didn't see Him. They
had eyes, but they couldn't see Him. They had ears, but evidently
they didn't hear His voice and they'd have been crying too.
Right? They didn't see any beauty in
Him. It was just a big crowd. And they said to him, verse 48,
they charged him that he should hold his peace. What peace? I don't have any peace. Hush
up now, no. Scripture says, whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord, he's coming by right now. And he began to cry the more
a great deal. Thou Son of David, have mercy
on me." What's he crying for? Mercy. One thing needful, isn't it?
Mercy. These people that told him to
shut up, evidently they didn't need mercy. These people that
told him to be quiet, evidently they didn't know anything about
being blind, did they? A leper came down one day. The
Lord came down in multitudes and says, The Lord came down
from the mountain and says, one man came, he was a leper, and
he fell down on his knees and worshiped him. Lord, he called
him. If you will, what do you want?
I want to be clean. The rest of the people weren't
dirty with him. The rest of them weren't blind. Oh, my. My, my. Have mercy on me. There's one thing needful for
us, and that's the mercy of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. One thing needful, though you
may not see it, is to hear His voice and to call on Him. Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. If you don't
call, you won't be saved. I love that it's said that He
kept crying and crying and crying. He wouldn't quit crying. He's
not going to quit calling until his eyes are open. That's what it means to call
on the name of the Lord. Somebody says, well, I've called on it.
Oh, no you haven't. Not if your eyes aren't open.
If you're obviously following other things and other people
and going after this and that and the other and are in false
religion, No, no. He's not calling. He said, Whosoever
shall call. Just Jesus. The name of the Lord. Jesus Christ. That's Son of David. That's who He's calling on. Jesus
Christ. Son of David. Look at this. Verse 49. Jesus stood still. There have been a lot of messages
preached on those three words, and a half hadn't been told. Like we're trying to say, this
is God. This is God come to earth, Son
of God, to do God's work, to do God's will. Every hour of every day, every
step was ordered by the Lord from eternity past. Every place
He would go, every village, every town, every person He would see,
every healing, everything that He did, known unto God are all
His works from the beginning of the world. Predestined, predetermined,
every gesture He made, every word He spoke, every place He
went, ordered by Him. He was a busy man, wasn't He?
He said, I must work while there's twelve hours in the day. I must
be about my Father's business. What's that? The Father sent
me on business to save His elect. And I've got to find them. And
they're everywhere. They're where the Lord put them.
And I'll find every one of them. I won't lose nothing. I'll find
them. I'll stay up all night if it
takes me. And he went about finding them.
He's a busy man. And there was this big crowd
of people, you know, mostly curiosity seekers, mostly people wanting
their bellies full of something, like people today in religion.
If you just give me a new car, just give me a new house, just
give me a wife, give me this, give me that, give me, give me,
give me. That's religion, isn't it? And in the midst of this den,
you know, there are people laughing. You know there were people laughing
and talking and carrying on and talking about the chariot races
and talking about the games and talking about Rome and politics
and all that. You know this was going on. But
one man, one poor blind beggar, dirty and enraged, sitting by
the wayside, a useless, worthless, no good to anybody, no who needs
him. Start crying out to the Lord
of glory. And in the midst of that then,
Jesus Christ heard one voice. He heard one voice in the midst
of all those other voices. A cry for mercy. One cry for mercy. And he stood still. Stopped him. Like that time he was walking
through. Remember the time he was walking through a great crowd?
And he stopped. He said, somebody touched me.
Don't you love that? Let's preach on that next Sunday.
Wednesday. He said, somebody touched me. And the disciple, Lord, this
crowd is just thronging you. They're all around you. Somebody touched Him. One poor woman with an issue
of blood crawling on her hands and knees and said, if I could
just touch the hem of His garments. Everybody there to get whatever
they could get out of this Jesus fella. She was there needing
mercy. Needing healing. Crawled and
she touched Him. And He stopped. The only thing that will stop
the Lord is the cry for mercy. I heard one voice, and he, look
at this, oh, oh, I love this, verse 49, he commanded him to
be called. Commanded him. John Davis and I love Psalm 71
verse 3, is it? Don't we love that? Thou hast
given commandment to save me. That's what David said. I'm saved
by command, not by my free will, but by the command of Christ,
by the will of God, by the command of Christ. That's what Joel 2
and Acts 2 and Romans 10 says. The end of that says that whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord says, as many as the Lord
our God shall call. None will call unless He calls
them. You know why Bartimaeus is calling right now? He's one
of the called. Well, preacher, what's the point?
The glory of God. God be the glory, great things
He hath done. We won't call unless He calls
us. No one will call unless they're called by the Lord, by His sovereign
call. And you hath He quickened who
were dead, called. Oh, don't you love II Thessalonians
2? We're bound to give thanks to
God for you, brethren, always. Brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto
He called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Aren't you glad He called you? If you called, it's because He
called you. Thou hast given commandment to
save me. Almighty love says, arrest that
man." David sat on his throne and there
was a crippled fellow down in Lodibar, his enemy by nature, one of Saul's
sons, and David sent command, said, go fetch him and bring
him to me. And he brought him. They brought
him. Strong men. He's coming. And they sat him at his feet.
And David said, Mephibosheth. Spoke peace to him. Spoke mercy
to him. Spoke kindness to him. He said,
Mephibosheth, everything you lost, I've given it back to you.
And not only that, I'm adopting you as my son. Bodying out everything against
you. Forgiving all your trespasses. Restoring everything to you a
hundredfold. Adopting you in my family. And
from the rest of this time forward, you're going to sit right beside
me at the king's table. What do you think about that? What
do you think about that? That was me. That is me. Still am. He said, go get Bartimaeus. Called him by name. He said,
I have my sheep. I call them by name. And they
come. Go get Bartimaeus. And who did
he send to get him? He sent somebody to go get him. What a privilege. What an honor.
Maybe James. Maybe Thomas. Maybe Bartholomew.
One of them. It doesn't say who it was. That's
not important. It's not important who it was
that went to get him. It's not important the messenger
that gave the comfort to the felon. The important thing is
the glory belongs to the one that sent him. He sent James
or John or Peter or Thomas or one of them. And he said, Go
get Bartimaeus. And I'll go, I'll go. No, here,
send me. Like I said, send me. And so
he finally said, No, Thomas, you go get him. So he went down
there and he said, Bartimaeus? Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.
Look at verse 48. Verse 49. He stood still, commanded him
to be called, and they called the blind man. Somebody went
up to Bartimaeus and said unto him, Be up good. You can stop crying. He's still crying. Shut up, David. I'm Mark's son. He stopped, stopped,
stopped. He's calling you. Like Mary at
Lazarus' tomb, crying. The Master sent somebody and
said, He's calling you, Mary. He's calling you. Oh, God would
call somebody here who hadn't heard His voice and seen His
face before it's too late. I hate emotion in the pulpit.
I hate it. But I wouldn't give you a plug nickel for a preacher
that didn't have any. A burden. Be of good comfort. Rise. You know what will happen to
you when the Lord calls you? He'll quicken you. Rise. He calleth thee. He won't rise
until He does. He calleth thee. And look at
verse 30 and 50. I've got to quit. It says that
Barnabas cast away his garment. He rose and came to Jesus. Cast away his garment. He had
a robe on. It was his only earthly possession. This robe. And as I said, he
was blind. He couldn't see himself. And
you know good and well that robe, that was dirty, filthy, stuck. And that was his only earthly
possession. And it was his only source of
comfort or ownership and kind of like a security blanket. And what a picture that is of
man, everything he takes comfort in, security in, especially religion. Man takes great security in his
riches and his possessions and his wisdom and his power and
his whatever, his decision, his religion, that's the worst thing
of all, and his righteousness, his morality, his profession
of faith, his baptism, his joining of the church, his diligence
and attendance of church. And as Scripture says in Isaiah
64, 6, it's filthy rags. And all our righteousnesses are
filthy rags. And if we ever hear of the blessed
Son of God, if we ever hear of the Lord our righteousness, we
will in our hearts beat, yes, in our hearts beat, throw away
everything that we took refuge in, everything we took comfort
in, everything, all our goodness, all our knowledge, all our righteousness,
all our religion, all our profession of faith, and we'll come running
to Christ. Throw it away. Do you ever truly hear the truth,
the gospel? You'll throw away that old religion,
that old profession. You'll throw it away as a minstrel's
cloth, the scripture called it. And he cast it away and rose
and came to Christ. See, he's risen. He's risen.
He's quickened. And Jesus answered and sat on
the hill and asked him a question. Verse 51, What wilt thou that
I should do unto thee? What a question. If the Lord asked you that question,
what would you say? That's a revealerism. If the
Lord asked you, said to you, I'll give you anything you ask
for, what will you have? It's in my power to give anything.
What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? What would you
ask for? I'll tell you what David said.
He said, One thing have I desired, and that will I seek after, that
I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the Lord. I want to see Him. Not Mama. Not heaven. Him. Bartimaeus said, I just
want to see Him. I want to see. You know what
the first thing he saw was? Huh? Lord, that I may receive my sight.
And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee
whole. There you are, see? It's his faith that saved him.
Why did he believe on Christ? God gave it to him. Why did he
call? God called him. Why? Why did he come? God commanded
him. Why did he believe? This faith is a gift of God.
Faith doesn't save. The God who gives it saves. But
he uses this faith. His faith honors God. It honors
Christ. He said, who's to ever believe?
But you don't do that of yourself. He gets the glory. And faith
is not a thing you do. It's a person you believe in.
Faith is not a thing you do. It's the one you look to. It's
who you cling to. It's who you trust in. What Christ
is saying is, the one you're looking to, the one you've been
calling on, has saved you. That's faith. You're calling
on me? The son of David? Yes, sir. You're saved. You're calling on the only name. I receive my son. Go thy way.
Now, he said, go thy way. Look at this. Oh, I love this.
Go thy way. Thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately,
He received His sight. I worry about people that sit
and sit and sit and sit under the Gospel and never come to
Christ. Never call, obviously. I worry.
Honestly, that worries me more than anything. The Scripture
so many times says immediately. That there's still hope as long
as the Gospel is preached. That's why I'm still preaching.
Immediately, he received his sight. And as I said, what did
he see first? What did he see? Not a what. Who? He saw the face of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Those eyes that had been darkened,
that darkened heart and darkened understanding is now enlightened.
He now sees the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in a face. And that face is Jesus Christ.
And Christ said, go your way. He said, I think I will. What
did he do? He thought, that's my way from now on. My way. Where are you going? I am too. And he followed him. And he's
still following him. Right now. If you look in heaven,
you'll see him right there. Right there. Alright. Brother
John, if you'll come and lead us in closing here, a couple
of verses. Let's all stand and turn to number
511. Number 511.