week's Wednesday night service
is moved to Tuesday night. We will meet Tuesday night this
week at 7.30 instead of Wednesday. Here in Mark chapter 8, this message is born from experience,
a recent experience that I went through and going
through which brought this portion of scripture fresh to my mind. Now of the five senses that we
have, natural senses that we have, touch, taste, smell, sight,
hearing, I would say without reservation
that the dearest of those senses, the one which is most precious,
is eyesight, the one that I would least like to do without. Eyesight, I believe, is the most
precious and needed of the senses. Here in Mark chapter 8 is the
story of our Lord healing a blind man, a man without eyesight. Let's look at it again. Mark
chapter 8, verse 22, and I hope to make this as simple as possible. He cometh to Bethsaida. And they bring a blind man unto
him, and besought or asked or wanted the Lord to touch this
blind man, to heal him. They brought a blind man to him. Now, as I was saying, to be blind
would be the worst thing that I can think of, really. To be
unable to see would be the worst affliction. I told you that something
happened to me recently, or something I am going through, that made
me experience this. I had eye surgery. A couple of
people in here have had the very same surgery to correct nearsightedness. All right? worked on one of my
eyes. And in the process of this surgery
that they performed on me, and Steve, I know you remember this
well, as they were preparing my eye to operate on it, they
began to do things to numb it, and so forth, until finally they
made me blind. I mean, sitting in the waiting
room, I was blind. I couldn't see a thing. I could
not see a thing. I was made blind. And I sat there
thinking, this would be terrible to be blind, to be blind. And right there's a good illustration
of before God gives a person eyesight, spiritual eyesight,
he makes them blind. You remember when our Lord said
that? If you were blind, you'd have no sin. You remember when
he said that? He said to the Pharisees, if
you were blind, you'd have no sin. But since you say you see,
your sin remains. Go and learn what that means.
But to be blind means many things. I began to sit there and think
about what it means to be blind, to be without eyesight. To be
blind, number one, a blind man cannot see danger. Right? That's the most dangerous thing
that puts him in most peril, or the worst thing about it.
He can't see danger, a blind man, a totally blind man. could
be walking toward a precipice, toward a cliff, he's about to
fall over and he doesn't realize it. Right? And he's about to fall
to his death and he doesn't realize it, he can't see. And spiritually blind, the scripture
says all men and women and young people are born blind, they're
born spiritually blind, that they can't see the danger that
they're The scripture says there is a
way that seems right to a man, but the end is what? Destruction. You are about to fall into a
pit. A blind person can't see a predator,
right? Not only a precipice, but a predator. Someone that is stalking him
or her, be it animal or human, could not see. the danger lurking. Isn't that right? Well, it's
so with one who is spiritually blind. The enemies to the sons
of Adam are on every side, and they're dressed in sheep's clothing. Satan is a beautiful and smooth
fellow. If you're a blind spirit, you
can't see his devices, right? To be blind not only is to be
unable to see danger. Now, if the doctor had just turned
me out on the street, boy, I'd have been in danger. I couldn't have driven a car.
I couldn't have walked across the street. I couldn't see danger. But to be blind also is to be
unable to see beauty. If you're blind, you not only
cannot see danger, you cannot see beauty. Right? The wonders and the glories of
creation. Can you imagine not being able
to see a beautiful sunrise? The sun comes up in its strength
and glory and beauty. The sun, not being able to see
the sun in all its beauty. Can you imagine? That would be
bad, wouldn't it? and not be able to see a starry
night or colorful mountains this time of year? Wouldn't that be
bad? Well, the scripture says, The
natural man receiveth not the things of God, neither can he
know them. He is blind. He seeth not the glory of God in creation or salvation. The
natural man cannot see the beauties of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
just not even interested. You can tell him, and so forth,
he'd be like a blind man telling a blind man, what a beautiful
red dress so-and-so has on there. Isn't that right? What a beautiful red rose, that's
a better illustration. What a beautiful red rose. Would
you look at that sunset? Isn't that beautiful? I guess. It's the same way. Young people,
this gospel, when I talk about Jesus Christ, or older people
for that matter, and you see no beauty in him, you're not
really interested. Why? work of redemption in Christ,
that's what the scripture says. There is no beauty to the natural
man. There is no beauty about him
that we should desire him. There is a passage in Revelation
that says about some people who say, I'm rich and increased with
goods and have need of nothing. But our Lord said, You know not
that you are wretched and poor. and blind and miserable and naked. Blind. Don't know. I see fine. Not if you don't see Christ as
all. Not if you don't see God as life. Not this world. Blinded by the
world. Well, you know, proof of, think
about this. Stay with me a minute. Now stay
with me for about thirty minutes. Proof of man's blindness, both physically and spiritually,
is that man has a preference for the things of man over the
things of God. This is true in the natural world
and the spiritual world. Man has a preference for the
things of man as opposed to the things of God. That's how deep-seated
this depravity and blindness, this spiritual blindness, carries
over into the natural. Listen to what I'm trying to
say here. What man calls art today? I was telling one of the brethren,
I was looking at a magazine, and they discovered some work
of art by some fellow that they just declaring that it's an absolute
stroke of genius. It's just a marvel and a wonder,
and men are sitting around looking at this thing, and it looks like
something that, well, my cat could have painted that. You
say you're not an art critic, you're not a professor, you don't
have the right to. Oh, yes, I do. Yes, I do. My cat could have done that.
I guess he could. Man calls that art. Isn't it
beautiful? Isn't it glorious? And ignores. And won't even give
God credit for anything that he's done. Make a man a genius
for scrambling something. And won't even declare or acknowledge
the genius that is God our Creator in all things. Don't even see
his signature and all that he's done. Man's blind. You see how
it carries over into everything. Man's thoughts and opinions,
oh how we hold in high esteem the thoughts and the wisdom of
this world. When this book, one line of this
glorious book is full of infinite wisdom. Man can't see it. Can't see it. And yet they marvel. You ever
read some of this poetry? Poetry? I thought poetry was
supposed to rhyme. Didn't you? I don't know. I thought
it was supposed to rhyme. I was walking through the woods
and saw a clarinet that was singing. Wonderful. Let's sit and listen to that
flower. Make her rich, or him rich. Give him our money. Write
more. All the proverbs, the psalms,
man's mind carries over into everything, especially religion,
especially spiritual matters. Man's thoughts and opinions and
religious works and so forth over the person and work of Christ
would rather have Well, you know, a blind person
cannot only not see beauty. You know, if you can't see beauty,
what else can't you see? The opposite of beauty. If you
can't see beauty, that means you can't see ugliness. As a matter of fact, whatever you
think is beautiful, it might be ugly. Well, the blind person cannot
see, and spiritually speaking, can't see himself. If you're
blind, you can look in a mirror. And you know, this word's called
a looking glass, a mirror, as it were. We look into it and
see ourself. But if you're blind spiritually, you don't see yourself
here. You look in the mirror and you're a blind person. You
could have a horribly disfigured face and think, I look all right. Right? You can't see the blemishes.
You can't see dirt. Your face could be covered with
soot and mud, but you don't see it. I look fine. No, you're blind. That's the way it is spiritually.
A man who is blind to the holiness of God is blind to his own sinfulness. Right? and who's blind to the
sovereignty of God and don't see God's hand in everything,
how that God just keeps giving and giving and giving and providing,
how that every good and perfect gift comes from above. A man
that doesn't see that thinks he does something, thinks he's
getting it. A man who doesn't see the hand of God giving him,
giving him, he thinks he's done it. You remember Hosea over,
or Gomer over in Hosea? You remember Gomer? You remember
when Hosea kept leaving things on her doorstep? You remember
that? You remember the story? If you don't, here's the story.
Hosea, who loved Gomer, kept leaving things on her doorstep,
food and so forth, raiment and so forth. And she thought it
was her lovers, it says. She thought it was somebody else.
And it was Hosea doing it. And the men and women of this
world, or you or someone here who doesn't recognize that everything
we have is by the grace of God. Everything we've got. Let not
the beautiful woman glory in her beauty. Let not the wise
man glory in his wisdom. Let not the strong man glory
in his strength. Why? Because God gave it to you,
that's why. What do we have we haven't received?
And the man or the woman who does not see that everything
I am is by the grace or the gift or a handout from God, he comes
from above. A man can receive nothing except
it be given him. A person who doesn't see God's
hand in everything he is, he's blind. Oh, I've worked, Nebuchadnezzar,
you know. Oh, look what I've done, Nebuchadnezzar
said. Well, God said, I'm going to
show you, you're going to see. You're going to see when this
whole thing is over. And Joe had to bring him down
and be like an animal before he could see clearly. The same way in blindness, you've
got to be blind before you can see. God's going to show us we're
blind. Well, look here in the story
here. And two, they bring a blind man
unto Christ and besought him to touch him. There's only one
who can give someone eyesight. I don't care what religion ministers
say in the day, you know, I'm going to win him to Christ, I'm
going to win him. You can bring somebody to church,
or you can bring somebody to hear the gospel, and only one
person is going to make you sick. And it says, "...they brought
him to Christ, and besought him to touch him." Verse 23. Well,
he took the blind man. Verse 23, "...Christ took," or
laid hold on. Christ apprehended, got him by
the hand, by the arm, by the neck, or something. Got a hold
of him. Christ took that man, that blind
man. laid hold on him, and look what
he did. Look what he did. He didn't take him up on a stage,
in front of everybody, make a big show. Look at it. It says in
verse 23, he led him out of town. Let's get out of here. Grabbed
ahold of his arm. Let's get out of here. Let's
get away from this mess. You and me. That's what salvation is going
to be. Christ is going to have to lay hold on you, not the preacher
laying hands on you, but Jesus Christ laying hands on you and
leading you out. Out of what? Self? Sin? The world leads you out
of religion? passage over in Hebrews says,
go unto him without the camp. This is the reason I just give
no credence to all this stuff going on in religion today. It's
a great show outside the camp of religion.
You lead a man out of tradition, out of superstition, out of sin
and self, the world leads you unto, lead out but unto. the
truth, which is Christ. It's Christ in you. You're going
to have to see Christ. You're going to have to hear his voice.
He's going to have to lay hold on you, on me. He's going to have
to give us eyes to see. Lead us to the gospel. Lead us
to see God's glory. Lead us to see ourselves. Lead us to see Christ hanging
on that truth. Only Christ can do that. Well, here's my advice to someone
in here who may not see and wants to. Be like old blind Bartimaeus
when he asked you, what wilt thou say, Lord, that I might
see? I want to see. Everybody that
asks to see, see. Verse 23, it says that he led
him out of town, and look what he did to him. Now man's thoughts
are just, God's thoughts are just not man's thoughts, his
way is not man's way. So he led him out of town, took
him out where nobody could see it, but he and him. And it says he, when he had spit
on his Now what that means, a preacher,
he didn't spit in his face. He didn't do that, surely. No,
no. What he did was, you know, he
licked his fingers or spit in his hands or made some salve
out of something, you know, wet his hands and put it on his eye.
Well, it doesn't say that, does it? Now, he may have done that. In
another place it does. It says he spit and he took some
dirt and made mud and put mud in his eye, but it says here
he spit in his eye. And I like that. What's about
the most degrading thing you can think of? Somebody spitting in your face.
Huh? Wouldn't that be the most degrading thing you could think
of? It says Christ spit in his eye. Oh my! You want to heal him that way? That's the only way he's going
to see if I spit in his face. Do you understand what I'm saying
here? Whoever Christ exalts, the first
thing he does is a base. You're nothing. I know what religion
is saying. Oh, you're something, you're
somebody. God loves you. Not spitting in
the face, caress him. Let's love them into the kingdom,
you know. You're worth something. God needs
you. Spitting Christ's face? Oh, no,
he wouldn't spit in our lovely face. Why did they spit in Christ's
face? Because that's what I deserve.
That's the reason they spit in Christ's face, because he was
mean. That's exactly what I deserve. Well, before God exalts a man,
he humbles him, he abases him. Before your graduated, you're
degraded. And I'll tell you this, too.
You know, pride's got to be a base before sins can be erased. You're going to have to have
a low esteem of yourself. I don't care what religion says.
We're going to have to have a low self-esteem before Christ will
be highly esteemed. Is that right? Uh-huh. So we're going to have to be
a nothing before Christ is out. We're going to have to be unworthy
before we can sing that song, Worthy is the Lamb. We're going
to have to be helpless. God doesn't help those who help
themselves. God helps those who can't help
themselves. God doesn't save those who clean
their act up. He saves dirty, dead dog sinners. Stinking sinners. Dead by this
time, Lord, he's stinking. Good! Now you see who alone must
save him. Guilty. You ought to be guilty
before you need mercy. Isn't that right? Well, I'll tell you what was
applied to this man's eyes, though. It says he spit. Now, what is spit? Where does
it come from? It comes from your mouth, doesn't it? Huh? Who was
this? Who spit? Say, Jesus did. Who? The Lord
Jesus Christ. Well, what's his name? Tell me.
Word? So, the Word spit in his eyes. What came out of the mouth, the
Word, gave him eyesight. Whatever comes from the mouth
of God, the Word of God, is what was applied to this man's eyes.
The Word of God, which he uses to give sight to the spiritually
blind, as the psalm says, "...entrance of thy word giveth light." Light
is the essence of eyesight. The doctor explained to me, showed
me a little graph, you know how the light comes in there, and
if your lens is wrong, the light doesn't . . . Light, light, light,
light is sight! Light is sight. The entrance
of thy word, give it light. Otherwise we're in darkness.
Well, like I said, when Christ first begins to open a sinner's,
a man's eyes, he sees. He's blind, he sees he's blind.
But he does see a little bit. Look down here at verse 23. It
says that he put his hands upon him, spit on his eyes and put
his hands on him, and asked him if he saw anything. Do you see
anything? When Christ first dealt with this man, he did a degrading
thing to him, seemingly, but he did it. And he asked the man,
Do you see anything? Do you see anything? Well, look
at what the man says, verse 24. He says, He looked up and said,
Well, I see men as trees walking. I see men, but they all look
the same. I see everybody the same. I see,
yeah, and they all look the same. like walking trees. Oh, but look
at that woman, she's beautiful. Look over here, this is—no, it
doesn't all look the same to me. Yeah, but look at this man, he's
so animated, he looks like a tree to me. An inanimate object. A dead piece
of wood walking around. When God begins to open a man's
eyes by the truth, to the truth and by the truth, by the gospel,
the first thing he acknowledges, the first thing he sees is, all
that sin comes short of the glory of God. Every man in his best
states, all together, I see everybody the same, myself included, dead. Isn't that right? Dead. And Adam all died. That's what I see. I see what
happened in the garden. That's the first thing God causes
a person to see. I see what happened in the garden.
A man died. I see all men the same. There's
none good, no, not one. There's none righteous, no, not
one. They're all dead. I see men as trees walking. But that's real eyesight. I mean, that's eyesight. A person
doesn't see men like that, he can't see. Well, look at verse 25. Read
on. It says in verse 25, After that
he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up. Now look up. He touched him again. He kept dealing with him. He
kept working with him. But mind you, this didn't take
long. He did not leave him in that
state long. I'm to be operated again this
Wednesday night to restore my other eye, hopefully. They're
not going to leave me that way long. I didn't want them to. When I went back, he said, how
are you doing? I said, fine, fix the other one,
quick. I want to see clearly in both
eyes. The Lord didn't leave this man
in limbo. He opened his eyes clear. And how he did it, he said, Look
up. It doesn't say this, but I know
this. I know what he saw when he looked up, first thing. He
saw Christ. Scripture says, Look unto me
and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth. I
am God, there is none else. God makes a man look good. That
means he looks to Christ. He sees men as they are, all
the same, dead and drenched. And then he touches him and keeps
working with him from the Word. The Word keeps working on him,
and he sees Christ. And then he really sees things
clearly. After you see Christ crucified, you will really see
things clearly. He said he was restored. That
means he had twenty, twenty visions. And saw every man clearly. The day of my surgery, I noticed
some, right after the surgery, I was really afraid, Steve and
Mary can enter into this, they've both gone through this. I was
really afraid to look. afraid it didn't work, or afraid
it was worse, or just afraid, you know. Did you feel that way
a little? Afraid. Well, finally, I got up enough
nerve, you know, men used to drive me home, and I got up enough
nerve to peek. You know, I noticed some immediate
improvement. Oh, there's some blur, but I could see a little
bit better than I did before. I noticed some immediate improvement
in my eyesight. But then, you know, the day or
two later when I went back to the doctor and they gave me a
test, they said my eye was 20-20 vision. I could see clearly. But, you
know, not really. Not really. Why? I can only see
out of one eye. And this is really bad. Right
now, the state I'm in now, this side of the room looks good,
this one looks bad. Well, actually, it's the other
way around. The fuzzy side looks better.
But what I'm saying is you need both eyes to see clearly. You
need both eyes. It's both eyes working in sync,
working together that gives you really 20-20 vision, perfect
eyesight. Did not the Lord say? But a man can't be foggy on this
and clear on that. Huh, Joe? A man can't think,
well, it's my grace, but, you know, it's my work, so it'll
be good work. That's not 20-20 vision. You
haven't seen Christ yet. Well, you know, it's my grace,
but you'd better keep that law. No, that's not 20-20 vision.
That's not. Your eye ain't single yet. It
hasn't cleared up yet. And you know, we do retain, when
God begins to teach us the truth, we do have some foggy notions,
don't we? Huh? God doesn't open up our
eyes completely, clearly. He teaches basic truth. But after
the Word keeps coming, he begins to clear it all up.
And the more you see Christ, His glory, the clearer things
become, don't they? Huh? The more the Word enters.
The more the word deals with you, the clearer it all becomes.
And he said, I see all men really clearly now. I see every man
clearly. All flesh is vanity. I see the
world fading and dying. I see Christ as all in all. Well, look at verse 26. And he
sent him away to his house, saying, don't go into town. tell anybody
in town. Don't go into Bethsaida. No. Don't go in there. Go home. Why did he do that? Why did he do that? Doesn't he
want the glory and the honor? Doesn't he want everybody to
know that he heals eyesight? No. He didn't come to heal everybody's He came to heal that man. If
he wanted, he could heal every blind man's eyesight, couldn't
he? But he didn't. He chose that man. And he said, don't go into Bethsaida,
don't go into town, because Bethsaida, you remember one time when the
Lord said, Woe is unto thee, chorazin. Woe is unto thee, Bethsaida. Because if the mighty works had
been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, they'd have repented
a long time ago. Whoa, whoa, whoa. You know, the
gospel's not in every place, is it? There's some towns I don't know
of a gospel church in. Why? It must be a reprobate place. That's just so. That's just so. In closing, this illustration,
and then too, like I said, the Lord didn't intend for every
man to see. Every man wasn't chosen to see.
It's his sovereign pleasure. That man didn't deserve it, but
he chose it. Christ had mercy on that one
man, didn't he? The brethren and I were discussing
this before the service. One of Rick was asking me about
the surgery. He said, did they use laser?
I said, no, he used a scalpel. Sharp instrument. He said, that's
just like the word, isn't it? Quick. Sharp. He said, that's how long it took.
I said, it didn't take long at all, about 15 minutes. Actual
cutting took about 15 minutes. He said, yeah, it's just like
the word, isn't it? Quick and sharp. what God does with his word. Once he does it, it's done. Quick, sharp, piercing, the word
of God. Then he said to me, he said, and I told him how I
could see. I said, 20-20 vision. He said it was worth the cost,
wasn't it? I said, it sure was. But you know something? I didn't
pay for it. I didn't pay for it. You know
who paid for it? My father paid for it. And I didn't ask him. I did and
I didn't. Really. I did and I didn't. He
suggested it a long time ago when it was being done. But my
father paid for it. I see because my father paid
to have my eyes cleared up. If that isn't a picture. I didn't pay for my spiritual
eyesight. Christ did. It was a costly thing,
but it didn't cost me anything. Oh, I'm so glad he did. I'm so
glad he did. And you know what else? Like this, you reckon this blind
man, Christ said, don't go into town now, go home. You reckon
he told anybody at home? Well, number one, they could
tell right off. Hey, he said, something's different. He can
see. I tell you one way, he said,
look at that. Hey, look what you, look, ooh,
isn't that beautiful? Look at, ooh, wow. Everything he saw was beautiful. I never seen it. Look at here.
And that's exactly when the next morning, the next
morning, I told you I didn't want to open my eye. I woke up
at about five something the next morning. It's dark. I wanted to look out my window
and see. I haven't done that in years.
Ten, fifteen years I haven't been able to open my eye. You
people who can see clearly, you take it for granted. I guarantee
you take it for granted. You open your eye, you don't
see. That's just like spiritual eyesight. So we take for granted,
well, the next morning, when finally a little light started
coming up, I could see. I called my folks, 615, I think. They're not awake at 615. But
they didn't mind. I said, Mom, I can see. Thank you. And so it is with
everybody who has their eyes open. Everything is the simplest
of things. Would you look at that? Look
at that, preach, look at that. I've seen that, but God forgive
me, it's lost its glory and its beauty. Give me new eyes to see,
fresh eyes again. Look at that. Isn't that beautiful?
Look at that. Look here, look here, look here, look here. Don't
you know, Sherry, that that's what it is, everything you saw.
Would you look at that? And if God doesn't give you eyes
to see, you won't see any beauty in this at all. But once he does,
it's all together lovely, isn't it? And you'll wake up and you'll
call somebody. Look here. Don't you see what
I see? All right. May the Lord use that
to open somebody's eyes. All right, Brother Joe, you've
got a hymn picked out. Stand with me, and let's sing the first and the last stanza. First and the last stanza. Lord, have I not lived the pride
I received? Praised have you, Spirit, since
I have believed. All is better, saved by grace. All is better, saved by grace. All is better, saved by grace. I know He'll save me, save me,
save me, save me. Well, in this great world we
care how He knows. Much more to tell it, but I'm
afraid. Oh, it's better to say my praise. Thank you, and don't forget,
Tuesday evening service at 730, Tuesday evening.