Mercy For The Blind

Q: What does the Bible say about spiritual blindness?

The Bible states that spiritual blindness is worse than physical blindness, as it prevents individuals from seeing their sin and need for salvation. Spiritual blindness affects all of humanity as a result of the fall, leaving us incapable of recognizing our true condition before God. Scripture emphasizes this reality, suggesting that those who think they see are often the most blind. For instance, Isaiah 42 indicates that there are none so blind as those who believe they are fine spiritually. It is crucial for individuals to understand their lost condition in order to seek mercy and salvation through Christ, rather than relying on their own abilities or righteousness.

Q: How do we know that salvation is by grace alone?

Salvation is solely by grace, as it relies on Christ's righteousness rather than our works. The central tenet of salvation in Christian theology is that it is by grace alone through faith. Ephesians 2:8-9 affirms that it is by grace we are saved, and not of ourselves; it is a gift from God. This underscores the belief that human efforts or righteousness can never earn salvation. Instead, it is through faith in Jesus Christ, who fulfills all righteousness on our behalf, that we are saved. By recognizing our own spiritual bankruptcy and coming to Christ as beggars in need of mercy, we embrace the grace that God offers freely.

Q: Why is acknowledging our sinfulness important for Christians?

Acknowledging our sinfulness is vital as it leads us to seek Christ's mercy and understand our need for His righteousness. Recognizing our own sinfulness is the first step towards salvation. In the sermon, it is highlighted that like Blind Bartimaeus, we must cry out for mercy when we see our true condition. The awareness of our sin allows us to appreciate the grace of God in Christ. It is through understanding that we are beggars, entirely dependent on God for mercy, that we can truly partake in the salvation offered through Jesus. This acknowledgment humbles us and brings us into a right relationship with God, enabling us to receive the good news of the gospel.

Q: How does the story of Blind Bartimaeus illustrate salvation?

The story of Blind Bartimaeus illustrates salvation by depicting the journey from spiritual blindness to seeing Christ as the Savior. Blind Bartimaeus's narrative serves as a powerful allegory for salvation in the Christian faith. Initially, Bartimaeus is portrayed as helpless and blind, unable to see his need for Christ. Once he hears of Jesus passing by, he cries out for mercy, representing the sinner's response to God's call. His persistent cries highlight the desperation that accompanies genuine faith. When he is finally brought to Christ, he acknowledges his need, and Jesus grants him sight. This transformation from blindness to sight symbolizes how God opens the eyes of the spiritually blind to see their need for Jesus, culminating in faith and redemption.

Q: Why do people often fail to see their need for God?

People often fail to see their need for God due to spiritual blindness and false confidence in their own righteousness. Many individuals walk through life with a false sense of security, believing they are spiritually 'fine' without acknowledging their sinfulness. This spiritual blindness fuels presumption and complacency, leading them to think they can stand before God based on their own merits. The sermon emphasizes that until people recognize their lost state, they will not seek the mercy of God. Scriptures such as Romans 3 highlight that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, underscoring the necessity of recognizing our condition before we can earnestly seek God's grace and mercy.

In your Bibles, Mark chapter
10 Mark chapter 10 I believe the most precious physical
sense that I have is my eyesight I believe if I had to do without
either my hearing, which I am losing, or my sense of taste,
or smell, or touch, or eyesight, I believe my eyesight would be
the thing I would be the least willing to part with. Eyesight,
it's a real, a true blessing. A friend of mine, you know him. lost an arm when he was a young
man. And one day, in trying to sympathize
with him or know something of how he felt, I tried to go, I
tried to start my day and go as long as I could without using
that arm, the same arm that he lost. I had a great deal of difficulty. Couldn't hardly dress myself
or anything. I had a lot of problems. But I got by. I got by. But if you ever tried this, if
you ever tried to close your eyes for a long period of time
and try to do without your eyesight, you can't hardly make it, can
you? You can't hardly make it. It's
tough. Now, if physical blindness is
the worst affliction of our body, then spiritual blindness is worse
still. According to that verse of Scripture
we read a while ago in Isaiah 42, there are none so blind as
those that say they see, that think they see. And many people,
if not most, people in this world think they are in good shape,
think they are all right spiritually. think that they have a good idea
of who God is and how they stand before God, when in fact they
are standing at the edge of the precipice, standing at the edge
of the pit. This is the reason for all the
warnings, solemn warnings. As I said before, we don't have
a negative message. We have positive redemption in
Christ. The problem is that people, there's no one lost. There's
no one blind. There's nobody that are truly
sinners in the hands of an angry God. Are there? If you ask them,
you'll find out. I'm just stating a fact. That's
the whole problem. Barnard preached a message one
time on preaching that gets men lost. And that's what we need
these days. If you would ask most people,
they would tell you that they're all right, that they're fixed
up, and they would probably give you, their reasoning would probably
be because of something they have done, whether it be works
or their faith. But nobody's lost. Nobody's lost,
that's the whole problem. And people need to see, if people
ever see that they're lost, then they'll start begging for mercy,
won't they? But not until then. So thus we preach warnings, warnings lest people presume. But we also preach promises lest
people despair. See, the scriptures are full
of them. Our Lord himself preached on hell more than anybody. Isaiah,
Jeremiah, all the prophets preached, woe, woe, woe. But then they
followed it up with blessing, with the promise of salvation.
So we want to preach these things with a tear in our eye, with
true concern for people's souls and hearts. Nevertheless, we
want to be true, true in telling men where they stand, based upon
what they're saying. We want to tell them the truth
from God's We don't want to preach peace when there is no peace,
do we? We don't want to prophesy smooth
things just because people want to hear smooth things. We want
to preach peace when men find out they're in warfare with God.
When they find out that God is angry with them, then we've got
a message of comfort and peace. Then we've got positive good
news. But most people think they see.
But yet they're blind to the truth of the scriptures. And it's sadder still that those who claim to be the
guides of these people are in fact blind themselves. You know,
man's really in bad shape. If he is blind and the man he's
following is blind, the scripture says they'll both fall in the
ditch, won't they? He won't do the man any good that's following
the man sincerely if the man he's following is blind. If they're
both blind, his sincerity won't do him any good. He's got to
know the truth. He's got to worship the true
and living God and spirit and truth. But most people are blind as
to who God really is and as to who they are by nature, where
they stand before this God that is condemned. under his wrath
and his judgment, condemnation. And what salvation really is,
that it's not in anything we do, that it's in the Lord Jesus
Christ, totally. It's in his righteousness. It's
in God's hands, first of all. Well, here in Mark chapter 10,
this tells the amazing story of how a blind man receives his
sight. You've heard this over and over
again, many times, I'm sure, and I hope the Lord will bless
it to us. But this is not just a story
of a man's physical healing. This is more than that. This
book is spiritual. This book has a spiritual meaning.
Every story in it, every parable, whatever, tells a spiritual story. And this is a perfect story of
salvation. of how God gives sight to those
that are spiritually blind. And that's all of us by nature.
All of us by nature. So look at it here in Mark chapter
10. You pray for me. I mean really,
pray for me right now. Mark chapter 10, look at verse
46. And they came, our Lord and his
disciples, came to Jericho. And as he went out of Jericho
with his disciples, A great number, a large crowd, a huge throng
of people were with him. Blind Bartimaeus, over in Luke
18, it says, a certain blind man. I like that, too. A certain
blind man. Blind Bartimaeus was his name,
the son of Timaeus. He sat by the highway side. Now, this scripture doesn't say
much about this fellow, this blind man. It just really gives
three descriptions of him. First of all, it tells us who
his father was. It says, blind bar Timaeus. That
word bar means the son of. Remember how our Lord called
Simon, Simon bar Jonah. That is, Simon son of Jonah. a blind son of a man named Timaeus. It doesn't even give his name.
That's significant, I think. But some people, no one really
knows much about Timaeus, but some people say that Timaeus
was a blind man also. Well, that would work here. Some
people say that Timaeus means man of honor, man of honor. And that would work here, too.
Both those would work. At any rate, the first identification
of this man is with his father. This is the first description
it gives of this man, that he's the son of a certain person.
He's identified with his father. And we, we are the sons of Adam. Adam was created in honor, in
glory, wasn't he? He was created in honor, but
he fell from that honor. Our father, our first father,
Adam, was an honorable man, wasn't he? The name Adam means Man,
one meaning of it means man, and he was the most glorious
of all beings until sin came, and he fell into sin. And then
his name could be rightly called Earth, because dust he wasn't,
and dust he was to return. He fell from honor. He became
blind spiritually, didn't he? He became blind spiritually. He became an enemy. of God. God cast him out of his
presence. He fled from God. He became blind. He became hateful. Sin came in
this man's life, Adam. He became blind to the truth,
blind to his God, to spiritual life. He lost that in the fall. And that's how we are identified.
By one man's sin, sin entered into the world, and death So,
Beth passed it on all men, that's it. We fell in our father Adam. By one man's disobedience, the
many, who's that? That's us. That's all of us.
The many were made sinners. So, that's the first thing it
says about old Blind Barr, is that he was the son of Timaeus.
That's about all it says about it. But this, it does qualify
him a little further. It says he was blind. That he
was blind. That means he couldn't see. That
means what it says it means, doesn't it? He was blind. If
I take my glasses off, I can't see too well at all.
Most of you are a blur to me. And you look better. Those of
you who are a blur to me. But this says he was blind. He
couldn't see. I can hardly see my notes here.
He couldn't see at all. He was plumb, stone blind, the
old saying is. He couldn't see at all. He couldn't
see. He could go into a mirror and
look, and he couldn't see what he looked like. He couldn't see
what anybody else looked like. He couldn't see beauty. Somebody could hold up to him
the most beautiful painting in the world, and he couldn't see
it. It would mean nothing to him.
Beauty doesn't mean anything to him. You could show him anything. He could be standing at the edge
of a cliff. He wouldn't see danger. He's
blind. He's blind. He couldn't see anything. Well, that's us, the Scripture
says. We're born blind. We're born
blind as a result of the fall, having eyes they see not. We
read that Scripture. Why? Because the God of this
world has blinded our eyes, blinded our minds, lest we see the light
of the glorious gospel. You see, we don't see ourselves,
do we? The Scripture describes us like this, as a man who beholdeth
himself in a glass and goes away and forgets what manner of man
he was. In other words, we can see ourselves from the Scriptures.
I mean, the Scriptures plainly reflect to us what we are by
nature, but we don't see it by nature, do we? We're blind. We're
blind until God opens our eyes. We're blind. We don't see beauty.
We don't see the beauty of God. We don't see the beauty of Christ.
We don't see the need of Christ. We don't see the need of imputed
righteousness. We don't see the need of hearing the gospel. We
don't see these things as beautiful. We don't see the glory of God
in the face of Christ Jesus by nature, do we? We don't see.
We're blind. We're blind. And we are, by nature, standing
at the edge of a cliff. One thread is holding our lives,
one breath, keeping us from pitching into eternity, into hell, isn't
it? But we don't see it. Men don't
see that, do they? One breath. God is holding them. Men don't
like to be talked of as being puppets. I'm glad God's got me
on a string, aren't you? I'm glad God's got a hold of
me, because if he lets go of me, then there's no hope. I'm
gone. I'll fall. And men can't see
it. You know, old Barnabas, he had
an old dirty rag on him. He was probably the most filthy
man in town. But it didn't matter to him,
did it? He couldn't see. Some say that a loss of one sense
will make you lose another, or heighten another. I don't know.
But he probably smelled terribly. But he couldn't see his dirty,
rotten, filthy rags, could he? And men by nature can't see that
this righteousness that we're going about to establish Thinking
that God is going to accept us by then, that God takes notice
of what I'm doing, and thereby he's going to accept or reject
me on the basis of what I'm doing. They don't see that these are
righteous rags, is what they are. Filthy rags. They don't
see that, do they? They think they look pretty good. Well, he was also something else. Look at this, verse 46. It said,
He sat by the highway side, excuse me. This blind son of Timaeus sat
by the highway side, begging. It's not much of a qualification
for a man, is it? He's the blind son of a blind
man and a beggar. He wasn't much, was he? He wasn't
much good to anybody, not even himself, old blind Bartimaeus. He was a beggar. He was poor. He couldn't help himself. He
was totally dependent on someone else for his food, his clothing.
You know, they didn't have rehabilitation programs back then like they
do now. The government didn't supply jobs and so forth for
them like they do now. He was a beggar. If left alone,
he would perish. Now understand me, I'm not making
fun of blind people at all. Some people live very productive
lives as blind, physically blind. My aunt was a blind woman. She
was a piano teacher. and very adept at it, very good
teacher at that. And I'm making fun of blind people.
Some people are more productive than people that see physically.
But back then, now a blind man, he was just left alone. He was
a goner. Somebody had to do everything
for him. There weren't the opportunities back then that there are now.
And you know, this is us. This is a picture of us. We're
poor beggars. We're beggars, totally dependent upon God Almighty,
totally dependent upon God, a God we don't even know, don't even
know. For our food, our clothing, our
shelter, we're bankrupt. We can't keep God's law, even
though we think we can. Can't please God, even though
we think we can. If left alone, left to ourselves,
we're going to perish. But you know, maybe you ask,
if you'd ask Bartimaeus, he's sitting there with a tin cup
and pencils in it. Begging for money, if you'd asked him maybe
what he was, he might not have admitted that he was a beggar.
He might have thought that was a pretty honorable position to
be in, you know. This is an honorable job, you
know. Well, we're beggars, yet we think we're something, don't
we, by nature? We think we're pretty honorable. But no, the
scriptures say that we're beggars. We're beggars before God, beggars
before the king. It's sad when a little child
insists upon doing something they can't do. How many times
have your children insisted upon doing something? You say, let
me do it. No, no, no, I want to do it. And they're totally
incapable of doing it. So you let them do it. And they
make a fool of themselves. They just fall all over themselves.
Well, that's men by nature. They don't want God. They don't
want anything to do with God. And we fall all over ourselves.
And it's sad. were to be pitied, yet were to be blamed. And men
say God helps those who help themselves. That's not the case. God helps beggars. The king gives
handouts to beggars. Beggars. The king gives sight
to blind men. Blind men, not those that think
they see. Well, so he was a blind son of a blind man, and he was
a beggar. And he was sitting by the side of the way. By the
highway side, he said, begging, just sitting there, not doing
anything. I mean, by the highway side. That's significant. I want
you to listen to the beggar's cry here. Over in Luke 18, it
says that somebody told him that Jesus was passing by, and he made a response to that.
Now, I believe his cry, what he said here in a moment, we'll
see. I believe his cry indicates that he heard of Jesus before.
because of who he said he was, the son of David, and so forth.
He asked him for mercy. I believe that he had heard of
this Jesus before. Perhaps he'd been sitting there,
you know, he sat probably in the busiest place. He asked somebody
to place him in the busiest part of town so he could get more
change or handouts or whatever. Perhaps he had overheard someone
talking one day, two men standing there talking, and perhaps one
of them was talking to the other and said, did you hear about
the man Jesus? Prophet, mighty in word and deed.
Why, we heard stories the other day, someone said that they saw
him heal a man. Said that they saw him heal a
lame man. And oh, Bartimaeus was listening. He thought, that's interesting.
Huh, a lame man. And then somebody else may have
said, yes, we heard he raised a dead man. Bartimaeus thought,
this is interesting. This is interesting. Who is this?
It's Jesus. Jesus, that's his name. Where's
he from? Nazareth. Nazareth, that's where
he's from. They say he's the Christ, they say he's the son
of David, the promised Messiah, the one that was to come. And
then, one day perhaps, he heard somebody talking. And somebody
said, hey, did you hear the other day that Jesus of Nazareth, the
one that they call the Messiah, the son of David, did you hear
that he healed a blind man? What? Old Barnabas said, what? Wait, come here. What did you
say to me? What did you say? Tell me that story. Other people
may have been walking by. They may have heard this. They
weren't interested. They weren't blind. But he was. Tell me this. Who? What's his
name again? Jesus. Jesus is his name. Where's he
from? Nazareth. And you say he's the Christ? You think he's the
one? Yes, I think he is. Jesus of Nazareth. He's the one.
He heard this and he got excited. He got excited. And he's around
here somewhere? Yes, he is. He is. He's around here somewhere. I
don't know where. I don't know where, but he's around here.
Maybe somebody quoted him this scripture. Maybe one of the disciples
said, yeah, he might come through here and he might heal you. And maybe he quoted him this
scripture out of Isaiah 35. It says, your God will come and
save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall
be open and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Maybe somebody
quoted him that scripture and he thought. He thought, maybe,
just maybe, just maybe, if I'm lucky, if I'm lucky, maybe he'll
pass by my way. Maybe. Oh, I sure hope he does. Sure hope he does. And folks,
some of you heard that one day. Some of you who are blind by
nature, blind to the beauty of of blind to God's holiness, blind
to His justice, blind to His sovereignty, blind to your own
sinfulness, blind to your own unworthiness, blind to your danger,
one day you heard from a faithful man, from this book, that God
indeed will show mercy to some sinful creature, that God will
indeed Save some people and only through a certain Jesus, a certain
savior, because there's other Jesus being preached. But you
got to have the right one. You got to have the one from
Nazareth. You got to have the one prophesied from the Old Testament
scripture. You got to have the Messiah,
the right one, the sovereign Christ, the sovereign particular
redeemer. You got to have him. And you
thought maybe, maybe, maybe. He didn't say, maybe I'll look
out. Oh no, you heard first of all that God was sovereign and
He does what He pleases. And you thought, maybe, maybe
He'll show mercy to me. Says that He delights to, maybe
He would. So, old blind Bartimaeus sat
waiting, waiting, hoping that someday,
just maybe, this Jesus of Nazareth would pass by. his way. Well, over in Luke 18, another
version of it, it says that hearing the multitude one day, it says,
hearing the multitude pass by. Now, wherever Christ was, it
says here and in other places, that a great multitude of people
followed him. And wherever he was, There was a crowd. There
was a lot of noise, a lot of confusion, a lot of things going
on, a lot of hustle and bustle of people. It was loud. It was
a mob scene everywhere he was. He attracted the fury of people,
and he attracted the adulation of people. Everywhere he went,
there was a large crowd with a lot of noise and a big scene.
And Blind Bartimaeus was sitting here one day, and he heard the
multitude pass by. And Luke 18 says he asked what
it meant. He asked what it meant. And somebody
told him, said, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. In verse 47, it says, when he
heard that, when he heard that name, when he heard that it was
Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, Jesus! As loud as he
could, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus, Jesus,
Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy. He'd been crying louder
and louder. Jesus, he heard that name. Jesus,
Savior, Messiah, Son of David, have mercy. I need mercy. Have
mercy on me. Come to me. Jesus, he kept crying,
crying. In verse 48, it says, And many
charged him that he should hold his peace. hold his peace, you
know? And perhaps they came up to him
when he heard him crying out and said, come on now, quit rocking
the boat, hush up now, quit crying out so loud, stop this, you're
bothering our tradition, you're interrupting our worship service,
don't cry out like this. You know, nobody had to come
up to him and tell him to repeat after the sinner's prayer. Now,
blind Bartimaeus, you know you're blind, don't you? You know you're
sinner, don't you? Yes, I'm a sinner. You know that
Jesus is son of David? Yes, I believe that. Well, repeat
after me. Jesus. Jesus. Thou son of David. Thou son of David. Have mercy.
Nobody had to do that. He knew what he was. He knew
where he was. He knew where he was going. And
he knew who his only hope was. Nobody had to tell him how to
cry out. But he cried out of a heart that had been pricked.
In truth, in spirit, he cried out for mercy. Nobody had to
get between him and the Savior to tell him what to do. Oh, no. In fact, they tried to get in
between him, didn't they? Hush up now. Look at what they
said. Many charged him, hold his peace. They said, peace,
peace, when he thought, I have no peace. They were crying, peace,
peace. Hold your peace. He said, I don't
have any peace to hold on to. The peace I've got, it won't
hold me. I need mercy is what I need. And he cried to Moore a great
deal. He kept crying. Boy, I tell you, God's willing
to answer that person. Like in Luke 18, the importunate
widow. Shall not God avenge his elect?
Are they crying to him day and night? Yes, I tell you, he said,
he will avenge them speedily. He'll answer them. And don't
give up hope, folks. If you're in a bad way and you
keep crying unto God for relief from whatever it is, keep crying. Keep crying. He delights to show
mercy. He'll hear you. You know, these people didn't
know what it was to be blind, did they? They were blind, and
they didn't know it. But he was blind, and he knew
it, and he knew what he needed, and he kept crying, crying out
to the Lord. And you know, people will hinder
us from coming to Christ. They don't believe in spiritual
blindness. They believe that men are just, you know, have
trouble seeing a little bit. That they don't, you know, eventually
they'll see his light. They'll see. They believe that men are
just sick and not dead, that they just need a little help.
They don't see that men are dead and blind, poor, miserable, naked,
blind. They don't see that. And men
will, they don't want to hear anything about this blindness.
They don't want to hear these cries for mercy. They don't want
to hear. Family and friends and religionists,
they don't mind you getting religion. Accepting Jesus as your personal
savior. Changing your ways and so forth.
But just don't beg for mercy. Certainly not in a worship service.
Don't interrupt the worship service. We've got our program to attend
to, you know. And they'll tell you, they'll tell you to hold
your peace. You're not that bad. I'm not that bad. So, you know,
you're not that bad. Sure enough. You're not that
bad. But the sinner whose heart's been pricked, he has no peace.
He has no comfort. He has no joy. He sees he needs
Christ above all else. He needs Christ. And what we
have won't hold us by nature, our righteousness, this peace
that we've tried to make between ourselves and God. This thing
of trying to get right with God, it won't hold. It won't hold.
It won't hold water. Well, verse 49. He began crying
this out louder. The more they told him to stop
crying, the louder he got. And verse 49 says, And Jesus
stood still. The Lord of glory. You know,
the Scripture describes him in many different places as a consuming
fire. Revelation, the first, second
chapter, first chapter, describes him as as his countenances in
the sun shines in all its strength, his head white as wool, his feet
that burn as fine brass, his voice as the sound of many waters.
He talked about Hugo, the power of Hurricane Hugo, this Lord
that we worship. Oh my, that was the snap of his
fingers, that was the breath of his mouth is what Hugo was.
This is the all-powerful, all-sovereign, holy God we're speaking of here,
and He was in the body of a man right now. This One who has the
voice of the sound of many waters was coming through here. This
God whom no man can stay His hand or say unto Him, What are
You doing? This God doesn't stop for anybody
but the cry of a poor sinner. Like that one time, he was rushing
through, or walking through the crowd, and he just stopped. He
said, somebody touched me. The disciples thought he'd lost
his mind. Lord, there's everybody gathered.
The throng is gathered around. Everybody's bumping up. What
are you talking about? Somebody touched me by faith. He turned and looked at the woman.
He knew who it was that touched him. Some woman, by faith, had
come up and touched him. Touched him. And he's walking
through this day. And he, you know, most people
probably didn't hear this man. Didn't hear this little beggar's
cry. This poor, miserable man. But somebody heard him. The only
one that really counts. Soul winners heard him, and they
tried to quieten him down. But thank God the Lord heard
him. Right? That's what he said later on.
But he was walking through there in all the hustle and bustle,
and he heard this Jesus, our son of David, have mercy on me. He stopped. The Lord of glory
stopped at the cry of one needy sinner. And he said, Go get that
man over there, that blind man. Yeah, that one. Go get him. Lord,
you don't need him. One of the visiting dignitaries,
you know, that was escorting him in, said, Lord, you don't
need this man. He's just a beggar. Perhaps want
a former blind man. You know, we do that every now
and then, don't we? We forget where we came from.
Spurgeon said it's kind of like sometimes we act sometimes like
a blind man or a man who's been pulled out of a ditch. He's in
a ditch with a lot of other people, and somebody comes along in mercy
and pulls him out of the ditch. He couldn't get out himself,
but somebody pulled him out. He said, and the man got a stick
and started hitting everybody over the head with it. Why are
you in the ditch? What's wrong with you? That's us sometimes,
isn't it? We forget that somebody pulled
us out, too. That by the grace of God, we
are what we are. And what we have, we have received.
Sometimes we forget that in righteous, in holier-than-thou attitude
towards people that are ignorant. Sometimes we forget that. And
perhaps when somebody like that says, Lord, you don't need him.
He's blind. What good is he to you? You don't need him. No,
I don't. But he sure needs me. He sure
needs me. And that's who Christ said he
came to call the needy, the sick, sinners. Oh, the well need not
a physician, but they are sick, right? The righteous need not
a savior. They just need helping out a
little bit every now and then when they get in a mess, you
know? Well, our Lord gave commandment. Look
at it. Jesus stood still. In verse 49,
He commanded him to be called. You know, this wasn't the first
time He commanded. Oh, no. This wasn't the first time. You
see, the Apostle Paul describes it here in 2 Timothy, chapter
1. Let me read this to you. We were
called a long time before we heard it. He says, God has saved us and
called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. Remember I told you over
in Luke 18, it said a certain blind man, a particular man. God had called this man from
the foundation of the world. Christ knew he must need to go
through Jericho. He must need to go through this
place to save this one man. Has to, according to his divine
purpose, according to his divine glory. But the commandment had
to come. He had to be actually, physically
called by the word of the Savior, didn't he? He commanded. He commanded. The decree was made a long time
before, but the actual calling was finally made. It finally
came. So they called him. They called him. Christ gave
commandment. And whoever the Lord divinely
says to send a word to, they'll come. They'll come. Christ, his
word, will not return void. It will accomplish that whereunto
he has sent it. And it will bring everybody whom
he sent the word to, to pierce their heart, to make a savor
of life unto life. Or else he'll send it. for somebody's
condemnation, right? He can do that, too. Can he not
of the same lump make one vessel this way and one vessel that
way? Yes, he can. Well, 160 times in the Scriptures
it talks about calling, God calling people, calling people. Well,
look at this, verse 49. Jesus stood still and commanded
old Bartimaeus to be called. And they called the blind man,
saying unto him, Barnabas, no, no, no, Jesus, Barnabas, wait
a minute, hold on now, stop. Be of good cheer. Be of good
cheer. Fear not, little flock. Fear not, Barnabas. He's calling
you. Oh, my. He's calling you to me. Yeah, you. Oh, my. Calling you. Be of good comfort. And, buddy,
when the gospel comes to you, it's the only thing that's ever
comforted you, truly. The only thing that will comfort
you. I remember hearing this before, and it upset me. Because
I heard a man say, until you've seen the Lord actually dying
for you, putting away your sins, until you've seen that, you'll
never experience true comfort and peace. Now, I remember that
tore me up. Because I'd never really seen that, him dying for
me. I knew he died for sinners. I knew I was a sinner. But one
day, by his grace, I saw he died for me, this old sinner. Oh, then comfort came. Be of
good comfort. That and that only is when the
gospel will comfort you, give you peace. He said, be of good
comfort, rise. He's calling you, man, you. He's calling you. He's calling
you. Me? Yeah, you." Well, what was
his reaction? Look at verse 50. It says, he,
old Barnabas, this particular, this certain blind man that the
Lord had picked out from all eternity, he says, he cast away
his garments and robes. Now, he must have had an old
blanket or a robe or something that he'd use. down through the
years, kind of a security blanket, you know, an old robe. He probably
didn't have many suits of clothing. And he used this thing for various
things, to cover him, to warm him up, to protect his little
cup, you know. He probably got the money out
of the cup and put it in his robe somewhere, protect him,
his possessions. But it was a hindrance to him
now. He had himself all wrapped up, all secure in this blanket.
I think it was a useless thing, but he thought he was safe and
warm. And in good shape, as long as he had this blanket with him.
But somebody called him. What was the first thing he did?
Don't need this anymore. My comfort's calling me. My protection
is calling. My Lord is calling me. And he
cast that old robe away. And you know, all of us by nature
have this self-righteous robe, don't we? We're born with it.
It's our security blanket. Well, God, you know, surely,
they say things like this. You must be living right. Yeah,
I am, you know. I've got this robe of righteousness.
We think it's good protection. We've got to cast that away,
don't we, to come to Christ. We've got to be done with this
old filthy robe of self-righteousness, this dirty, rotten rag. We can't even keep it. We can't
keep our works and add them to this new garment. Uh-uh. Uh-uh. Can't do it. Our religious traditions,
our profession of faith that we made, our old companions,
we can't keep them. Got to cast him away, cast him
away, this old self-righteousness, this old profession, and come
to Christ. That's what it said he did, ultimately.
It says he got up, he didn't tarry, he cast that garment away,
first thing, and rose and went to Christ. Came to Jesus Christ. Came to Him. You know, he came
by faith. He didn't know If the Lord was
going to heal him, did he? Nobody said, be of good comfort,
be of comfort, Jesus of Nazareth's calling you, he said he's going
to heal you. Didn't say that, did he? Be of good comfort, he
calls you. But he went anywhere. The promise
wasn't to him that he was going to be healed, was it? But he
believed anyway. He came in faith. And he went
away with sight, didn't he? And that's how we've got to come
to Christ. We want a feeling. We want to feel more sinful,
so we'll come to Him. We want to feel more faith, so
we can come to Him. We want to feel this. We want
to feel that, don't we? More confidence before we come
to Him. That won't do it. You just got to come by faith.
You just got to come believing. Believing. And then you'll go
away with sight. And someday, our faith will actually
give way to sight. To sight. Well, look at verse
fifty-one. He came to Christ, and Jesus answered and said unto
him," He's spoken to him, "'What wilt thou that I should do unto
thee?' Now, he knew what he needed, didn't he? Oh, he knew. He knows
what things we have need of even before we ask, doesn't he? He
knew. But he demands that we confess
our need before him. That's the first thing. That's
what John came preaching. Repent. John didn't come preaching
the promise first and then repent. Repentance comes first and then
the promise of forgiveness. John came preaching that. Repent.
Even our Lord came preaching that. Repent. And then preaching
the gospel of the kingdom. And the Lord demanded of old
Bartimaeus here, what he was, he demanded he acknowledge what
he was, what he needed, most of all. And he demands of us
that we confess what we are by nature, confess our sin and our
need of him. What did old Bartimaeus say?
Lord, I need a new house. This one's I'm in. It just ain't,
you know, the roof's leaking. I need a new chariot. I need
a new set of clothes, that old robe. I laid down my robe to
come to you. I need a new robe. Oh, no. That's
not what he said at all, was it? Look at it. He said, Lord,
there's one thing I need, just one thing. I need to receive
my sight. I need to receive my sight. Lord,
I want to see, that's all. That's all. I just want to see.
And a true sinner, a true sinner that God has truly dealt with,
when he sees Christ as his all in all, He's the only one he'll
desire. Mercy is all he'll require. Mercy is all he'll need at the
Savior's hands. Lord, I just need my sins done
away with. I just need to know that you
got rid of my sins for me. That's all I need. I've got everything
I need. Houses, lands, car, job, all
these things. I need assurance that you died
for me, that you saved me, that you put away my sins. That's
what I need. More than anything else, I need to see my sins brought
about. I need to see with eyes of faith.
I need to see the Savior dying for my sin. That's all. And that's
all we still want to see, isn't it? Now, after we've come to
Him, after He's given us sight, that's all we still need, isn't
it? One thing is needful. That's to sit at the feet of
the Savior and hear how He did away with our blindness. That's
still the good news. More about Jesus would I know,
more of his love to others show, more of his saving fullness see,
more of his love who died for me. Well, what happened? Verse 52, Jesus said unto him,
Go thy way, thy faith hath saved thee, hath made thee whole. Go
thy way. by faith that made thee whole."
And he received his sight immediately. It says, and immediately he received
his sight. And the Lord said, no, go your
way. You're healed. Go your way. What
way did he go? Look at it. Verse 22, he said,
he followed Jesus in the way. See, he was by the highway side.
He was beside the way. He wasn't in the way. But now,
Christ said, now what way do you want to go? Now, what covering
do you want? Your covering? Now, what do you
want to do? Where do you want to go? I want
to go with you. That's where I want to go. And that's what
the sinner says. The Lord says, go your way. And
in effect, that's the liberty he gives us, isn't it? Choose
you this day whom you will serve. And a truly redeemed man will
never say, well, I want to live for the world. I'm going to serve
men, and oh no, a true redeemed person will always say, I want
to serve my Savior. I want to go thy way. Not my
will be done, but thy will be done. Thy way. Not my self-righteousness,
but his imputed righteousness. Not my glory, not unto us, not
unto us, but unto thee be all the glory. I want to go your
way. And he followed him. And God's
people will follow him, Christ's people. Anybody who's really
been blind, really receives eyes to see the beauty of Christ,
His sovereign mercy and His salvation, the love of God. They won't have
it any other way. It's His way or no way. And they
realize, and you know, they've had their blindness, they've
been delivered, they've been healed from their blindness.
And they come up to somebody, somebody whose position they
were in before, and they come up to that person and say, You're blind. I know, I was there. You're blind. You need to say,
I'm not blind. Yes, you are, man. I know you are. I was right
where you are. You need Christ. You need to
bow to his imputed righteousness. You're going about to establish
your own rights. You need Christ. You're doomed. You're damned
if you don't bow to his imputed righteousness. Oh, I'm all right. And he begs and pleads with him,
like the Apostle Paul, who said that verse, who quoted that verse.
Oh, I wish I could wish myself a curse for my brethren, my kinsmen,
according to the flesh. They have a zeal, I acknowledge.
They have a zeal for God. They're sincere in what they're
doing. But they're sincerely wrong.
They're going about to establish their own righteousness. Would
to God that we had the boldness and the courage to tell people
as it really is, you know, without fear of offending people. Not
doing it to boast ourselves over people. Not doing it to... Sometimes
we do do that, I'm ashamed to say, but if we could, out of
true zeal, or true zeal for the glory of God and true concern,
compassion for the souls of men, tell them right where they are.
Man, you're in a burning building. You're in a burning building.
You're going to die if you don't get to Christ, to Christ of Scriptures,
Well, God grant us that we may be able to gird our loins and
go out with the gospel and warn men to flee from the wrath to
come, flee to Christ. I'm going to get right into the
message here, John. Turn with me to Philippians chapter
1.

Mercy For The Blind

What does the Bible say about spiritual blindness?

How do we know that salvation is by grace alone?

Why is acknowledging our sinfulness important for Christians?

How does the story of Blind Bartimaeus illustrate salvation?

Why do people often fail to see their need for God?

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Mercy For The Blind

What does the Bible say about spiritual blindness?

How do we know that salvation is by grace alone?

Why is acknowledging our sinfulness important for Christians?

How does the story of Blind Bartimaeus illustrate salvation?

Why do people often fail to see their need for God?

Sermon Transcript

About Paul Mahan

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