Now go with me to Matthew's Gospel,
chapter 9. The Gospel of Matthew, chapter
9. We've been studying through this
gospel and we've done it before once, maybe twice, I forget,
but I'm still learning and I hope
you are too, being blessed by it. Read with me verses 27 through
31. Matthew 9, 27-31, and when Jesus
departed thence, two blind men followed Him, crying and saying,
Thou Son of David, have mercy on us. And when the Lord was
come into the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus saith
unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? And they said
unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying,
According to your faith, be it unto you. And their eyes were
opened. And Jesus straightly charged
them, saying, See that no man knoweth. But they, when they
were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country. The Lord healed So many people,
and we've looked at every instance that is recorded
in Scripture throughout all the Gospels. We've looked at them
together over the years. And we've looked at them, I believe,
so many times that I know I'm speaking from my own heart that
we often lose the amazement at these stories. Like the mercies
of our Lord to us, all of the miracles that the Lord performs
in our lives daily, we take them for granted and we are not thankful
and amazed. We just sang that hymn, that
amazing grace. Everything we are is by the grace
of God from the hands of the God of all grace. But we have
so many mercies and they're so often and so constant that we
lose sight of just how amazing they are and how thankful we
should be. People in a few chapters over
in Matthew 15 said when the Lord, they saw the dumb to speak, the
maimed to behold, the lame to walk, the blind to see, they
glorified the God of Israel. They were amazed. They wondered,
oh, that we would be more amazed and more thankful. These two
men were blind. I mean, they couldn't see. Can
you imagine? Try to imagine that. One time
I did just that. I tried to see how long I could
go with my eyes closed, just in the house. It's a terrible
thing. These men were born blind, I
believe. And for the Lord to give them
eyesight. Do you know how real they were? And how desperately
they needed their eyes open? Well, we sang that hymn, and
everyone in here that knows it from the heart can say, I once
was blind, but now I see. Once was blind to God, blind
to myself, blind to the truth, blind. And you know what we're going
to see tonight? We're still blind. We're still
very blind. We still need our eyes open.
We're still blinded by many things, and we still need the Lord to
open our blind eye. Well, look at verse 27. It says, it reads, When Jesus
departed, thence. Our Lord came to this earth for
a short time. He came to particular places. He went to particular people,
because the Lord has a particular people that he chose. The Lord
didn't come at a chance, He came on purpose to do a job that God
sent Him to do, to save a people that God gave Him to save. And
He found them where He put them. The people didn't find the Lord,
He found them. He said, I am come to seek and
to save that which is lost. Like the shepherd who left the
ninety and nine and went after the one lost sheep. And we've
been seeing that all through. There was a certain man, a certain
woman, and he went to where they were. He found them. He found
them. But then he departed. It says
this over and over again. The Lord came to Capernaum, then
he left. The Lord came to Jericho. He passed through Jericho. He
didn't save anybody in the city of Jericho. He doesn't have to. He saved one blind man on the
way in, Bartimaeus, and saved a publican on the way out, Zacchaeus,
and passed by the whole city. He departed. The thing I want
us to note and to take very seriously is that the Lord departs after
a while. Everywhere. Every church in the
Revelation of seven of them, and the candlesticks, you know,
gone. They were thriving, they had
their gospel, and they're gone. I was speaking to Brother John
Chapman on the phone yesterday, and he said to me, he said, you
know, when Henry left Ashland, I thought, maybe the gospel's
leaving here. And maybe it is. There's going
to come a time. And it will. And there's reasons
for that, too. The Lord has his sheep, and he
calls them out. And he has no more. But also,
like Ephesus, the church at Ephesus left their first love. And so the Lord left them. The
church at Laodicea became rich and increased with goods. It
had need of nothing. and were lukewarm. And the Lord
said, Spew you out. Children of Israel, we read last
Wednesday in 1 Corinthians 10 how they all drank of that same
rock. They ate that same meat. They
heard that same gospel. And after a while, they all said,
We're tired of this white bread. And we're tired of Moses. And
God said, I'm tired of you. So that's a vital warning. And he departed. He left. And he always does after a time.
And, you know, well, there were two blind men. Let's look at
it. He departed. But there were two blind men,
it says, and they followed him. Two men. Two men. These two blind
men were together. Were they related? Were they
brothers? Maybe. It doesn't say. Were they friends?
Were they old friends? Did somebody bring them there,
both of them, together for a long time and they somehow ended up
together and they became best friends because they had something
in common? They're blind? What mercy! God would open the
eyes of one blind man, let alone two. And if they're brothers,
what mercy! What mercy! The Lord would open
the eyes of two brothers. He opened the eyes of Jacob,
not Esau. Right now, I have a brother who is blind,
doesn't know it. But I still hold out hope. These two blind men, they were
two blind men. The Lord healed many blind men,
blind people, and many examples up I numbered over 80 times it
speaks of the blind in the Scripture. Many blind. Much said of being
blind. Look at John chapter 9 with me. The Gospel of John chapter 9. Much said about being blind. And both of these men were blind,
and people, every one of us are blind. by nature. All men and
women and young people are born blind. And as we will see, we
are yet blind to many things and still need our eyes open. Now, when the Lord came here,
one of the things that He did the most was to heal the blind. And this is proof of who He is,
because it says in Isaiah 35, it says, Your God will come.
And he, be strong, your God will come and the eyes of the blind
shall be opened. The ears of the deaf shall be
unstopped. When he sent word to John, remember John sent two
disciples and said, are you the one we look for? Or do we look
for another? Is there another Christ coming?
Are you the Christ? And he said, you go tell John
again that the blind received their sight. This is how you
know him. And here in John chapter 9, the
whole chapter is the story of a blind man whom the Lord gave
eyes to. You know the story. You remember
his testimony. He said, I once was blind. He
didn't know much, but he knew this. I once was blind. But now
I see. But yet he was still blind because
the Lord had to really reveal Himself to him. But our Lord,
after He healed that blind man, He said this, and there were
some Pharisees, there were some religious people standing there
who thought they knew something, thought they knew God, thought
they knew the truth, thought they knew the Bible, thought
they knew what salvation was. And our Lord said in verse 39,
He said, For judgment am I come into the world, that is, to judge
between the righteous and the wicked, judge between the sheep
and the goats, judge between this and that and the other.
come into this world, that they which see not might see, and
that they which see might be made blind." Well, those Pharisees then, they
perceived it. Is he talking about us? Surely
he doesn't think. We're blind. I mean, we've gone
to religious school all our lives. We've studied the Bible. No,
not surely. And they said that to him. They
said in verse 40, the Pharisees heard him say these words and
said unto him, Are we blind also? And listen to this now. Our Lord
said unto them. Now listen carefully. If you
were blind, you should have no sin. But now you say, we see, therefore
your sin remaineth. Do you know what that means? Well, I thought I did, but I
learned some more about this, okay? Our Lord said for judgment,
I'm come, He said, I'm going to make the blind see, and I'm
going to go make those who think they see, I'm going to blind
them. In Isaiah 6, Isaiah saw the Lord. high and lifted up. His train filled the temple.
And when he described the Lord God, the true God, he says, a
whole earth trembled and shook. He said, and he cried three things
about the Lord. The chief attributes of the Lord
God of Scripture that very few people know anything about. But
those who know Him do. Holy. Holy. Holy. Not love. Holy. Holy. Holy is the Lord
God above. The whole earth is full of His
glory. And Isaiah said, I said, woe is me. Isaiah was a fine
man. As good as any man on earth,
when he saw the Lord, holy, he said, woe is me. I am a man of
unclean lips, and dwell amongst a people of unclean lips. In other words, I am a wretched
sinner. He sang that song, Amazing Grace. So many people all over
the world sing it because they like the sound of it, but don't
know anything about Amazing Grace. John Newton did. He wrote it.
He said it saved a wretch. Like me. You know, new tombs
have taken that out. The word rich. Because people
don't like it. It saves such a one as me. A rich. But then Isaiah, the
Lord said to Isaiah, you go take this truth of who I am to a people. And he said, blind their eyes. Blind their eyes. Blind to right, lest they see. Our Lord said, I've come to make
the blind see, and I've come to make those that see blind.
And they said to Him, Are you saying that we're blind? And
He said, If you were blind, you'd have no sin. Now, here's the
thing. The first thing, the first evidence,
the Lord, of spiritual eyesight. This first evidence that the
Lord has truly opened someone's eyes to see the truth, to know
who God is, to know who they are, is that they realize they
were blind. These men, these two men, both
knew, we're blind. We're blind. That's the first evidence. The
first evidence of spiritual life is to realize I'm dead in sin. See, a dead man doesn't have
any feelings. You can laugh, he won't laugh
with you. You can cry, he won't cry with
you. You can tell him the good news, he won't rejoice. You can
tell him the bad news, he won't fear. Dead. But when the gospel,
the life-giving sound of the gospel comes, gives life, and
he realized that there is fear of the Lord, and there is mourning
over sin, and spiritual eyesight is for those that are blind.
How simple could that be? How simple could that be? And
all that are truly blind, like these men, every single person
that realizes they're blind will, like these two men, cry to the
Lord Jesus Christ for one thing. Not a new house, not a new car,
not health and wealth. Mercy. Mercy. That's what they want. You know,
I just saw this just today. They didn't ask Him to give them
eyesight. They didn't even mention eyesight. They just said, have mercy on
us. All truly blind, they cry and
they receive their sight. All who know, and our Lord said
this to the church, I quoted it at Laodicea, He said, You
are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. Knowest
not that thou art wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. He said, I counsel you, buy from
me gold, trident of fire, eye salve that you anoint your eye.
Here is the eye salve. The truth. Buy the truth and
sell it not at any cost, whatever the cost. So first evidence of
spiritual eyesight is to know you're blind. Blind. Don't know
God. We're not born knowing God. We're
not born seeking God. And religion can't show us who
God is. We can't search and find God. Can't go out on a hill.
I used to do that, go out and sit cross-legged and try to,
you know, enter into whatever the Hindus do to try to experience
God. And that's what these signs put
up, in short, experience God. Come experience. You can't promise
anybody that. God must reveal himself to you.
And it's not an audible voice. It's not a vision, not an apparition.
He reveals himself through the truth. Who he is. Who he is. God is not how we
think he is. He is how he is. And how he reveals
himself through his word. We're blind to who God is, we're
blind to who we are, we're blind to what we are. Men and women
and young people think, I'm okay, you're okay. No, we're not okay. I just quoted it. We're wretched.
God is angry with the wicked every day. And the wrath of God
is revealed from heaven, Romans 1 says. How blind are men and
women? The eternal power and Godhead
are clearly seen by the things that are made. But they can't see it. Blind. The truth is so clear, and you
can't see it. Can't see it. We're blind. Blind. And then further evidence that
someone has sight. The first evidence is you realize
you're blind. And further evidence is, you
realize, I'm yet blind. There was another man who was
healed, and he said, I see men walking in trees. Remember that?
The Lord anointed his eyes, and the Lord said, what do you see?
And he said, not much. I see men walking in trees. Paul
said, we know in part. We preach in part. We know that
much. We know that much. And I tell you this, the more
we see, the more we realize we don't see. The more we see in
His Word, the more we see of the truth, the more we realize
we don't know. The more we see of Christ in
the Scripture, the more we see of ourselves and how far short
we come. And we keep crying out, Oh Lord,
have mercy on me. So the evidence of sight is to
know that we're blind, and it's sight to know that you're still
blind. Our Lord said this in John 9, He said, If you were
blind, you'd have no sin. If we are blind, we will cry
for mercy, and Christ will give it to us. The sins are gone. But to a self-righteous Pharisee,
it says, oh, I'm not that bad. God is not that holy, and I'm
not that sinful. You think you're saved, but your
sin remains. So this is for the blind, forgiveness
of sin. You know, if we really saw clearly,
we wouldn't repeat the same sins over and over again, would we? And if we saw clearly, we wouldn't
see a moat in our brother's eye because we couldn't get past
the log in our own. So we need to admit it, all of
us, we're yet blind. And if we admit that, the Lord
forgives it. All right, these two blind men followed him. Look
what it says. Two blind men followed him. You
can't follow somebody if you're blind. Can you? How did they follow him? They're
blind. They can't see. Well, we don't
walk by sight. How do we walk? They were listening for his voice. He was passing by, and Bartimaeus,
that's how he heard. Somebody said, Jesus of Nazareth
passes by. And he cried out. He couldn't
see him, but he heard. He heard. These men heard, and
they followed his voice. He said, my sheep hear my voice,
and they followed me. And I'm just quite sure that
they asked others, do you know where he is? Do you know where
the Lord is? Yes, he went, yeah, come with
me. And they followed, and they listened
carefully, and they followed his voice, and they followed
others that were following him. Faith cometh by hearing. And the point here is that blind
men followed the Lord. Blind men. weren't blindly following
him, but they were listening and they were following the Lord.
And what does that say about people who say they're seeking
the Lord half-heartedly? These blind men really wanted
an audience with the Lord, and they followed him in spite of
their inability. And they found him. It says He came in verse 27,
I'm sorry. They cried. They cried. They followed Him crying. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord. That means cry. Cry out. Like Bartimaeus. They told Bartimaeus
to be quiet. And he cried the louder than
that. You see, evidently they weren't blind. Barnabas was blind. And he knew there was only one
person that could heal him. So he cried the louder. Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord. That's not a one-time thing.
That's not a... Have you ever... Someone was going, driving off.
This happened to me one time. Someone's getting away. I think
it was Hannah in the car, and I needed to tell her something.
And I went running and hollering at her, hollering at her, screaming
and hollering, chasing after her. And finally, she stopped. I didn't want her to get away.
To cry means to keep calling, not quit calling, to keep calling. If we don't call, we won't be
saved. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be
saved. If we don't keep calling, we won't be saved. And I'm still
blind, and so are you, my friends. And so we come to this house,
this house. That's where the Lord came, was
to a house. And He's promised to be where
two or three are gathered in His name. And if you're blind,
you come, thou with us. And He's giving eyesight to the
blind. And so we come, and what we come
to call upon the Lord for is what they called upon Him. Son
of David, have mercy on us. Have mercy on us. Son of David. They didn't call Him Jesus. They didn't say, Jesus, we need a
new job, we need money, we need a house, we need a wife, we need
out of this mess that we're in. Son of David. Christ, Messiah,
Son of God, Holy One of Israel, Christ of God, we need mercy.
You're the only one that has mercy for a dead dog, blind sinner
like us. Lord, have mercy. Have mercy on us. Us. They cried together on us. Forgive us. Have mercy on us.
Well, he came into this house, verse 28. Apparently, he ignored
them briefly, like that Canaanite woman. Remember? She came to him and he ignored
her. And then he sent someone else
to tell her that he had only come for the lost sheep of the
house of Israel, his elect. He wouldn't come and try to save
everybody. He didn't need anybody. He came for his lost sheep, his
elect. Now that didn't keep her away.
And then he called her a dog. He said, it's not fit to give
bread to dogs. You're a Gentile dog. And she
said, now that didn't keep her away. And she said, truth, Lord. Truth, I'm a dog. But if I'm
your dog, then all I want is some crumb. And the Lord marveled. And he gave her what she wanted.
But we come. Crying for mercy. Dead dog sinners. And our Lord said then, in verse
28, look at this. Jesus said unto them, finally
he said to them, believe ye that I am able to do this. Hebrews 11 says, without faith
it's impossible to please God. And he that cometh to God must
believe that he is. You don't come to God believing
just any old thing. He won't hear you. You don't
come to God believing or coming in irreverence or without fear
and without respect and without worship and thinking of Him as
the old man upstairs and thinking how badly He could use you and
what you can do for Him He won't hear you. He that cometh to God
must believe that He is. He is what? He is God. He is
God. Beside Him there is none else. And man is not God. You know,
no man will cry for mercy until they know that they are wretched,
miserable, poor, blind and naked. And the only way we know that
is when we see God, like Isaiah did. Holy, holy, holy. And no one will cry for mercy
until they believe that He has mercy and He doesn't have to
show it. Our Lord said, I will show mercy. In Exodus 33. I will have mercy. God is merciful. He delights to show mercy. But
He said, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. It's
my prerogative. Mercy means not getting what
you deserve. It's His prerogative. God is just. God is merciful. But His mercy is sovereign. We don't come to God demanding
it. We don't come to God expecting
it. We don't come to God thinking He owes it to us. Oh, no. That's not the meaning of mercy. Let's come to Him believing that
we don't deserve it. Unworthy. And it's His mercy,
it's His prerogative to show it, it's His will, and only He
is able to show it. He said, Do you believe that
I am able? The first thing He said, if you look between the
lines, He said, Believe ye that I am able. Believe ye that I am. I am that
I am. Most people do not believe that
one named Jesus was any more than a man. Most religion still
doesn't think He's much more than a man. They say things like
this, won't you accept Jesus? He's standing outside your heart's
door. They don't know the I Am, do they? Who's seated on the
throne of glory. Scripture says that the earth
is beneath His feet. That does as He will with whom
He will. That's the God. That's Jesus
Christ. He's no longer a baby in arms. He's no longer a man
on a cross. He's a king on a throne. Lord over all things. He said,
all power is given unto me in heaven and earth. He said, all
souls are mine. He said, I have the keys of hell
and death. I do with my own what I will.
I am the Lord. I am merciful to whom I will show mercy. And
that way you come in fear. Fear of the Lord. Do you believe
that I am? He said to that woman at the
well, the woman at the well, he said, when Christ has come,
He'll show us. He said, I am. Just drop the
water pot. Those soldiers and that mob came
to take him in the garden. He walked out in front of his
disciples. He said, whom do you seek? They
said, Jesus. He said, I am. And they all fell
down like stalks of corn hit the ground. Jesus? Get up. Now, let them go. I'm coming with you. You can't
take me, but I'm coming with you. The Father sent me. You're
not taking me. I'm going. No man takes my life
from me. This is God. This is God. Do you believe that I am? He
said, if you believe not that I am, you'll die in your sin. It's not faith to believe in
a God that can't save you unless you let Him. That means you don't
believe He's able. Right? Do you believe that I
am who I am? And that I alone am able? You're
not able. Do you believe that you're not
able? Like the children of Israel,
the Lord had to put them in a place that they knew they could not
possibly get out of. We're in a place that we can't
get out of. We're going to be destroyed unless
God saves us. That's where God brings every
one of His people, to realize that our salvation is in His
hands. Do you believe that I am able? The only one able? Not you and me. I am. Not if you let me. I am able. Able. The only one. We must believe
that He alone has mercy and He is able because Scripture says
Abraham believed God. He believed that what God had
promised, he was able also to perform. Scripture says he's
able to say to the uttermost. Scripture says He is able to
keep us from falling. We cannot keep ourselves. We
cannot keep ourselves. We cannot put away one sin. We
cannot make ourselves acceptable with God. But I tell you who
can. The only one is Satan. Jesus
Christ. Scripture says He is able to
keep that which we commit by His grace to Him against that
day. He's able to present you, Paul,
for the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Listen to
this one. Paul said in Ephesians 3, he's
able to do exceeding abundantly above what you even ask for things.
Far more able than we know. Well, our Lord said to them,
and they said to him, yes, yea, Lord. No doubt in their mind. Yea, that's why we came to you.
He didn't come to this person or that person. When a person
finally realizes what they are, blind, when they finally realize
that it's one who can give them sight, they'll quit going here,
quit going there, quit going to this person or that person,
and they'll come to Jesus Christ. Until then, they'll go everywhere
looking for whatever, like that woman with the issue. And they
won't be any better, but they'll be worse. They'll spend all their
money on false religion, go here, go there, until they're blind. So the Lord shows them they're
blind, and then He brings them by His Spirit to hear the gospel. And God, through that gospel,
opens their eyes. And they cry out for mercy. Yes, Lord. Then, verse 29, He
touched their eyes, saying, According to your faith, be it unto you.
According to your faith. Did their faith give them eyes?
Come on. No. What's faith? It's not a
thing. We've looked at this many times,
haven't we? You know this. Some in here may not know this.
But people all the time say things like this. He has great faith.
She has great faith. Their faith got them through
it. Their faith got them through it. What do you mean by that?
In other words, their, something they did, got them through this. That's not saving faith. That's
not the faith of God's elect. The faith of God's elect has
nothing to do with them. It's not of yourselves, faith.
It's the gift of God. And here's the gift of God. And
you read it in Jeremiah 9. He said, Rejoice in this, that
you know and understand Me, that you believe Me. You don't believe
in yourself. You don't believe in your faith.
You don't believe in your church. You don't believe in your preacher.
You believe in Me. Faith is a person. We don't have
faith in our faith. Faith doesn't get us through
it. Christ gets us through it. Faith doesn't save us. Christ
saves. My decision doesn't save us.
His decision saves us. My will doesn't save me. His
will saves me. My devotion doesn't save me.
His devotion, His blood, His righteousness, that's faith. Faith's in Him. According to your faith, according
to your Christ, so be it unto you. You believe I'm able? Yes! Then that's the way it is, because
I am. According to your Christ, so be it unto you. According
to your God. Somebody said, you believe once in grace, always
in grace? Depends whose grace it is. You believe a person once
saved, always saved? Depends on who saved you. If
God saved you, it's forever. If Christ has you in His hands,
He said, no man can block you out. According to your faith,
so be it unto you. Oh, my. This is the faith of
God's elect. This is the faith that saves,
and it's not the faith that's the person that we have faith
in. Well, so He opened their eyes. He opened their eyes. According
to your faith, be it unto you. Their eyes were opened. What
did they see? What was the first thing they
saw? What was the first thing they saw? Him. Huh? Him. Every single blind man the Lord
healed, the first thing they saw was Him. Him. I meant to bring out the old
Saul of Tarsus, that religious fellow. He thought he saw everything. He thought he knew something.
He thought he was saved. He thought he knew God. He quoted the Bible.
He didn't even know God. He didn't know God. He went about
to do away with this way. Talk about this Christ being
the only way and sovereign God. And he went about and Christ
came to him and put him in the dust. Put him in the dirt. He
said, now what are you going to do with me? Who are you, Lord? I'm Jesus. I'm just Jesus you
think you're going to put out of business. I might have mercy
on you. Now who's in whose hands? And
he said, what will you have me to do? Not what am I going to
do with you. What will you have me to do?
And you know what he did when he saw Christ? You know what
he did to him? He blinded him. He blinded him. When he saw Christ,
he blinded him. He's blind to his own glory now.
He's blind to the world, blind to everything but Christ. And these men saw Christ. Have
you ever looked into the sun, either on purpose or accidentally,
and then you look away, what do you see? A big spot. If you look long enough, it will
blind you. Not completely, but you'll see that big spot. It
will burn your retina, burn a hole in it. Steve, they say people
that burn their retinas welding, that's what they see. Ty, you're
a welder. That's what they see, is they
see this big glow. Well, when you see Christ, you'll
see Him as all. You'll see Him at every time.
You'll see Him on every page. You'll see Him in everything.
Sun. Sun comes up. That's a sun. Rainbow. That's
a covenant. Tree. He's a tree of life. Water.
He's water of life. Bread. He's bread of life. Him. You'll see Him. Your eyes
will be open. You'll see Him. That Christ is
all. And look at what He said to them
in closing. He said in verse 30 and 31, He
charged them, saying, See that no man knoweth. Don't tell anyone. And that's
odd. I thought the Lord wanted us
to go out and tell others about Him. Well, this was before He
went to the cross. This was before His work was
completed on Calvary's tree. And our Lord is not here to set
up an earthly kingdom. Religion still believes that
today, that he's coming back to this earth, going to sit on
a throne over in Israel, and Israel's going to be a kingdom
and all. Christ said, My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, we would fight. There's
not going to be a big fight over there in the Middle East, God's
people against the world, Armageddon. No, sir. It was already fought
at Calvary, and the land won. The Lord is not coming back here.
He's not going to set His foot on the earth. He's going to destroy
it with the brightness of His coming, take His people away
from here, and they'll forever be with the Lord. This kingdom
is not of this earth. And they came one time to try
to make him king, and he passed away because he already is king. He doesn't need them to make
him king. God made him king. He's not here to establish an
earthly kingdom. He's here to establish a heavenly
kingdom. He's here to call out His subject
into His kingdom. His kingdom is everlasting. His
kingdom is in heaven, and He's here to make these poor paupers
His sons, His king, to bring them out of this world. Not come
back to it, but bring us out of this world. into the glorious
kingdom of his Son." He said, don't tell anybody. Well, what
did they do? They spread it abroad. And he didn't mind, I'm sure.
It was a test, I believe, for them. Here's the point. Those who have
really had their eyes open to see Christ's glory, you know
who they'll talk about? Who they'll talk about? Not their
church, but their Christ. Not themselves, but Him. And Peter said it. He said, We
can't help but speak the things we've seen and heard. What are
you speaking of, Peter? John, what do you say? He said,
We beheld His glory. That's who we're declaring. Lord, open our eyes. Open our
eyes to behold Your glory. Open the eyes of someone who
has not yet seen who You are. That's our prayer. You're dismissed.