Well, good evening. It's certainly
a joy to be with you. Norm found out we were coming this
way and asked me if I'd be willing to preach for you all tonight.
And I said, oh, it would be a great blessing. So it's an honor and
a blessing to be among dear, dear friends. And I thank you
guys for praying for us as a church the last year and a half. You all know what happened. We
went through a little rough period. But I'm so thankful you prayed
for us. We're on the other side of it. And it's been absolutely
amazing. The last year has just been such
a sweet, sweet fellowship amongst our group. And I'm just very,
I covet your prayers. I covet your prayers. And I was
telling Norm, outside of Central Point, this was the first Grace
Church I ever preached at. So you guys are real dear to
us. So Vicki and I have always been very welcoming. So thank
you Norm for the honor of being here. Open your Bibles if you
would to Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10. We've been going
through a series at home called Encounters with Christ. And It's
been a very profitable study. We've been looking at certain
times when Christ would have an encounter. And we know these
encounters are divine. They're divinely appointed by
God. And so it's very interesting to go through and look at each
one and see how the Lord dealt with the person or people. Certain
people, like the Pharisees, dealt with in one way. And then, of
course, we know with sheep, he dealt with them in another way.
And it's just incredible to see his deity manifest, to see his
power on full display, and who he really is. He's God incarnate
in the flesh. The ancient of days walking amongst
us. So let's read this portion here
in Mark chapter 10, starting at verse 46, and we'll go to
verse 52. Scripture declares, and they
came to Jericho, And as he went out of Jericho with his disciples
and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of
Timotheus, sat by the highway side begging. And when he heard
that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say,
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged
him that he should hold his peace, but he cried out the more, a
great deal. Thou son of David, have mercy
on me. And Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called.
And they called the blind man saying unto him, be of good comfort,
rise, he calleth thee. And he casted away his garment,
rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, and he's not asking this for information, he's God. He asked him this, what will
thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him,
and here's the key, Lord, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, go thy
way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately, look
at that, immediately, he received his sight and followed Jesus
in the way. My, my oh my, we're introduced
here in this narrative to a certain blind man named Bartimaeus. And this identifies him out of
all the others that were around. And scripture declares in verse
46, and they came to Jericho, and as he went out of Jericho
with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus,
the son of Timotheus, sat by the highway side begging. Now
our master, our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ is with his disciples. He's departed Galilee and he's
on his way to Jerusalem. He came to the region of Judea,
which we see in Mark chapter 10, verse one. Let's turn there
quick. It says, and he rose and thence
and came into the coast of Judea. by the further side of Jordan
and the people resort unto him again. And he was want, he taught
them again. And we see he's heading up and
he's going to Jerusalem. He's going to Jerusalem. We see
this in verse 32 of this chapter, look at this. And they were in
the way going up to Jerusalem. So we know now that he's on his
way to Jerusalem. And it says, and Jesus went before
them. He's leading. He's before his people. Praise
God, God goes before his people. He goes before us. And as they
fall, that's what we do. We follow him, don't we? They
were afraid. And he took again the 12 and
began to tell them what things should happen unto him. So why
were they going to Jerusalem? Well, they were going there to
partake in the Passover, but more importantly, The Lord Jesus
Christ was going there to be the sacrifice for his people.
To die for the sins of his people. He's the Lord's Passover lamb.
And remember scripture says in Isaiah that he set his face like
a flint to Jerusalem. That means an unmovable stone
in the Hebrew. He was set to what he had to
do. He was on a mission, beloved. He knew what he must accomplish.
He knew he must die in order to save his people from their
sins. And so he's heading to Jerusalem. We see that in verse
32 again. He's heading to Jerusalem. He's
going to be the sacrifice for his people. Look at Mark 10,
verse 33 and 34. This brings us out. He's saying,
we go to Jerusalem and the Son of Man shall be delivered. He
already knows What's gonna happen to him? And he says, delivered
unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn
him to death and shall deliver him to the Gentiles. And they shall mock him and scorch
him and shall spit upon him and shall kill him. In the third
day, he shall rise again. Oh my, he's declaring to them
what is going to come to pass. Oh my. So they were headed to
Jerusalem to partake in the Passover, but more importantly, he was
going there to die. He was going there to die for
you and I as God's people. He was doing that for us. My,
not just us, but the scripture says a number that no man can
number. He's going to die for sheep. The great shepherd of
our souls is gonna give his life for us. And he did it, didn't
he? He saved us from our sins. All
we preachers do, we proclaim to the Lord's people and to ourselves
what the Lord's already done for us. He's already completed
the work. It's finished. It's finished. And we see here in verse 46 of
chapter 10, that they came to Jericho. It says here, and they
came to Jericho. And as he went out of Jericho
with his disciples, a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus,
the son of Timotheus, sat by the highwayside begging. Now
think of how many people, think of how many people the Lord passed
as he was going there. He just passed them by. He just
passed them by. He's walking on his way to Jerusalem,
and he probably passed a multitude of people. He passed a multitude
of them. And this is one of the oldest
cities in the world, Jericho. It was often called the City
of the Palms. The name means the perfumed, because it was
a very fertile and beautiful area. It was also about 18 miles
northeast of Jerusalem at the ford of the Jordan River. And
we see in verse 46 that our Lord was leaving Jericho with his
disciples, and a great multitude was with him. And here's blind Bartimaeus.
How many days had he sat in this place? How many, and we know
he's blind. Somebody had to guide him there
every day. Somebody had to take him there
every day, leave him there for the day. And here he is begging,
Blind Bartimaeus is begging by the highway, it says. Look at
verse 46 again. And they came to Jericho, and
as they went out of Jericho with his disciples, and a great number
of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timotheus, sat by
the highway side begging. They say that blindness of all
five senses is one of the worst ones to lose. Because it's the hardest to live
without. It's the hardest to live without. Blindness makes
the person who is blind dependent on the graciousness of others. The kindness of others. But it
also makes one susceptible to mischief by others as well. And think of this. Every one
of us in this world is born spiritually blind. Spiritually blind, every
single one of us. We all fell in Adam. So we come
into this world, dead in trespasses and sins, and not only dead in
trespasses and sins, but spiritually blind. Blind as a bat. Except
we don't have no radar. We are just blind. We can't see
nothing spiritual. We can't understand anything
of God. The scripture says, there's none that seeketh after God.
There's none that understand God. There's none righteous,
no, not one. That's our state. That's the
state of everyone in this world, whether they believe it or not,
in your natural state. People say, well, I don't believe
that. Well, don't change it. They're still dead in their sins. They're
still dead. So we see here that blind Bartimaeus
is sat by the road begging. He's begging. Verse 46 again says, and they
came to Jericho, And as he went out of Jericho with his disciples
and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of
Timotheus, sat by the highwayside begging, begging. And this is
a picture of us in our natural state, blind beggars, blind,
bankrupt, spiritually bankrupt beggars. Except no one can help us, can
they? No other human can help us because they're in the same
state as we are. Naturally dead in trespasses. See, religion
tries to fix other people, but they're dead in trespasses and
sins and they can't help anybody else either. And think of this, as a physical
blindness, physical blindness made a Levite unfit for the priesthood. If you're spiritually blind,
you're unfit for the priesthood. God has to give us sight. God
makes us kings and priests. He does that by his grace and
mercy. So spiritual blindness makes
one unfit for God's service, right? And the one who is blind spiritually
has no relationship with the true and living God. Only by
the power of God, only by the regenerating power of God, when
we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God and given faith
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, can we see God. And then
we see him by faith. We were looking at the passage
this past week on Sunday about if you hope for something and
you see it, it's not hope. See, we've never seen Christ,
have we? With our physical eyes, but we sure have with our spiritual
eyes. He's revealed himself to us,
and now we see him. Not, we see through a glass darkly,
like Paul was saying, but then when we go home, when we breathe,
think of this, think of this. When we breathe our last breath,
and when our eyes close in death, the first one we will see is
Christ. The first one we will see is
our redeemer. And then we'll see him face to
face. Oh, what a day that'll be. Makes us homesick for heaven,
doesn't it? Oh, it makes us homesick. Only the Lord can give spiritual
sight. We cannot give ourselves spiritual
sight and we cannot give anyone else spiritual sight. Only the
Lord can give us spiritual sight. Only the Lord can regenerate
us. You see, you guys know this, that decisionism has replaced
regeneration. And we do not know this side
of eternity, the damage that's done. Brother Henry used to say
that all the time back in the 70s and 80s. We've had another,
what, 30 years of it. We have no idea. My, people praying
a prayer and thinking, I'm good now. My goodness. And we who were in a religion
were in that state. Praise God he delivered us. Praise
God he gave us sight to see him. Eyes to see him. My. And notice he was in progress
because he sat by the highwayside begging. He had nothing. And
again, he couldn't take himself there. He had nothing. He's bankrupt. He's got nothing. He's begging.
sat by the road begging. And back in these days, it was
not uncommon for the blind to be beggars. It was not uncommon
for them to be beggars because of their disability. Their disability
hindered them from employment back in those days, so a lot
of them were beggars or relied on the mercy and compassion of
others. So this man's unable to provide
for himself. He can't provide for himself
what he needs. We can't provide for ourselves
spiritually what we need. But it's all in Christ. It's
all in our great God and King. Scripture declares all spiritual
blessings are in Him, in Christ, in Christ alone. The scripture, the Holy Spirit
says of us, surely these are poor, they are foolish, for they
do not know the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God. That's
us in our natural state. My. So Bartimaeus resided, he
resided in a fertile place. Jericho was a very fertile place. And yet, and yet he has nothing. Nothing. And think of this. No one could help him. He's blind. No one can cure him
of that. None could help blind Bartimaeus. The fragrance of that place couldn't
help him. It was very fruitful, couldn't
help him at all. Couldn't help him at all. My
oh my. Man-made religion is known for
its false worthless gods. The gods of man-made religion
always tells you there's something for you to do. But there's nothing
we can do to save ourselves. We can't make ourselves alive. If we're dead spiritually, which
we are when we're born, have you ever seen a dead man pray
a prayer? Have you ever seen a dead man
get up and walk? My, I've seen a few dead people
and they can't say a word. I saw my mom when she died, and
there was her frame, the tent, but she was gone. And she couldn't
get up out of there. She's graveyard dead. Like you
said, I'll never forget when we were down at rescue, and you
said Ephesians chapter 2, where it says, we're dead in trespasses
and sins. It means your graveyard dead. Graveyard dead, you can't
make yourself alive, neither can I. But there's one who can
make us alive. Oh my. There's one who has all
power and might in his hands. Oh my. So we see here, we see
here that Jesus is going by. And this is not by chance or
luck. The world says chance or luck. There's no such thing as
chance or luck. This is, we see right here before
us, divine providence at work. Divine providence. This all comes
to pass by divine providence. And what power we're gonna see
here on display. Look at verse 47 now, and it
says, when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to
cry and say, Jesus thou son of David, have mercy on me. So here's
our Lord. He's leaving Jericho on his way
to Jerusalem. He's going there to redeem his
people from all their sins. And here's this poor blind beggar
on the side of the road who probably no one really cared about except
for his family. And he's crying out. He couldn't see. He couldn't
see. He couldn't see that the Lord was passing by. No, he couldn't see at all, but
he could hear. And I imagine people around there
probably said, it's Jesus. It's Jesus of Nazareth. Well,
however, however he heard, it says he heard. He heard that
it was Jesus of Nazareth, verse 47 says. And what does he do? What does
he do? What does this poor, needy, bankrupt man do? Well, he does
what every needy sinner does. He does what every sinner who's
been shown their need by the Holy Spirit of God of Christ,
he does exactly what all of us did. And what every sinner who,
by the grace of God, has been granted faith to believe on Christ,
what's he do? He cries out. He cries out to Christ. He says,
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And look what happens. Oh my, look at verse 48. And does not the world do this?
Does not the world do this? Oh, you don't wanna follow him. He don't have time for you, Barnabas.
You're just a blind beggar. Look what happens. Verse 48,
and then he charged him that he should hold his peace. But
what does he do? He cries even more. Is that not
what a poor needy sinner does? Is that not what we've done?
Is that not what we continue to do? We cry out, oh Lord, have
mercy on me. Have mercy on me, Lord. Oh, have
mercy on me, please. And he says here, he cried more
a great gift. I believe he got louder. I believe
he got louder. Now, son of David, have mercy
on me. In Bartimaeus, he had to overcome some discouragements
here, didn't he? And this brings forth the fact
that the kingdom of heaven suffered violence and the violent take
it by force. Oh my, as soon as the sinner
is brought into a serious concern for his soul's everlasting welfare,
the enemies of Christ go at him. They try to strifle all conviction. They try to crush the hope that's
within him. But you know, again, this was
by divine providence. Just as the Lord said, I must
needs go through Samaria. He's passing through Jericho. Same reason. We're gonna see
it so clearly. He needed to go through Samaria
in order to save his people there. And we found out that not only
did he have a sheep at the well, but praise God, he had a whole
bunch in the city. Oh my. And he needed to go through
Jericho, beloved. Again, it's not by chance, not
by luck that he's going through Jericho. It's by divine providence.
It's by the will of God. It's by the will of God. There's
sheep over there. And this is the same of all God's
children. Think about how the Lord brought
you to a place, and think about this, when you
think about that, think about the Lord moving your grandparents,
your great-grandparents, right, to where they moved to, and that
all happened by God's will and providence, to the place where
you would be born, And then he bought you and he bought me to
the place where we'd hear the gospel. And all that, all that
moving. Robert Hawker bought forth that
with Joseph and how all that happened in his life was orchestrated
by God. Including where his parents and
his grandparents and his grandparents' grandparents moved. That's incredible. It's absolutely
incredible. The Lord, the Lord is, So in
control. He's an absolute sovereign. He's
an absolute sovereign. And just as this blind man couldn't
heal himself, every one of us who are God's people, we can't
heal ourselves. We're incapable. We lack the ability to heal ourselves. Everything we do is tainted with
sin. But oh, the mighty power of God. My oh my. And look at this. So he's crying out, Jesus thou
son of David, have mercy on me. And remember who he's crying
out to. He's crying out to the Lord Jesus Christ. Who is he?
He's God incarnate in the flesh, right? And as he's crying out, he's
told to stop crying out, and then he cries out even louder.
Oh, and the scripture says, no man
can come to me, right? Except the father draw them. Christ speaking out of his people,
his sheep. And you know what? We will never
come to Christ until he comes to us. How many days did Bartimaeus,
how long? He'd been blind from his birth
as far as we know. He'd been begging all his life. And the Lord comes to him. Look at this, this is to me remarkable. God incarnated in the flesh is
walking from Jericho towards Jerusalem. And this man, blind
Bartimaeus, cries out, cries out, have mercy on me! And God
stood still. Christ is God. It says, and Jesus
stood still. God in the flesh stood still.
You know why he stood still? There's the bleating of one of
his lambs. One of his loved ones from eternity
is crying out to him. One of his lost sheep is crying
out to him, have mercy upon me, Lord. And he hears the cry of
his lost sheep and he stands still. God incarnate in the flesh
stands still. My, at the cry of one of his
people. It says in Jesus stood still
in verse 49, and commanded him to be called. Look at that. And
they called the blind man saying unto him, be of good, look at
this, be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee. My, good comfort,
oh yeah. God in the flesh is calling you.
Oh my. And what a wonderful, amazing
picture we have here before us. Our omnipotent God stopped in
his tracks. at the fleeting of one of his
sheep, at the call of one of his sheep. What love we see here. He passed by all those others.
And think of all the others in the crowd. He didn't stop at
their voice, but he stops at the cry of one of his sheep.
He stood still, the scripture says. This is one of the ones that
the father gave him in eternity. This is the one of the ones that
he's going to Calvary's cross to pour out his life. My. He's woven that perfect coat
of righteousness, right? By his life. That was for us. He did that for us. He had no
sin. So he's fulfilling the law perfectly. He's weaving that
coat of righteousness that we're clothed in by living a perfect
life. And now he's on his way to satisfy
the demands of God's justice and the demands of God's law
and the wrath of God, which will be poured out upon for you and
I. And as he's going there, he hears
the cry of one of his sheep and he stands still. My, what an
incredible portion of scripture. The cry of his sheep stops him
and he didn't leave his sheep there. He didn't say, ah, pardon me,
yes, no. He's loved this lamb, this sheep
from eternity. Oh my. And he's come to this
earth to die in the Roman place. And he hears the needy cry for
mercy from one of his sheep. How did Bartimaeus cry out? Well,
he's being born again by the Holy Spirit of God. He's crying
out in faith. Have mercy on me. Is that not
what we cry out to the Lord? Again, not just when the Lord
saves us, but we always cry that out now, don't we? Lord, have
mercy on me, I'm so frail. Oh my. And our Lord did not leave that
sheep where he was. He called Bartimaeus to him. What a picture of effectual calling.
He called him. He called him. Did Bartimaeus
say, well, you know, I think I'll wait and make a decision
whether I'm going to come or not. No, I think I'll just wait. No.
When God calls a sinner, they come to him. They run to him.
Thy people shall be made willing in the day of thy power. in the
day of God's power. And every one of us can testify
of that. Every one of us. And all we see here, the effectual
call of the shepherd. My sheep hear my voice and they
follow me. They follow me. And we see that
on full display here with Bartimaeus. He pictures us in our blind,
natural state, born again by the Holy Spirit of God, crying
out to the Great Shepherd of our souls. He calls us, what comes first,
faith or regeneration? Regeneration. You must be born
again. You preach that in the message
we listen to on the way up here. You must be born again. You must
be. My. and he's mourning it, he'd cry
not to God. Did you cry out to God before the Lord saved you? I wasn't in, oh, I was in
religion, but before I was in religion, I didn't ever care
about the Lord. I never cried out to him, unless
I got in trouble and said, Lord, I'll never do this again, but
the next night I was doing it all over again. But as far as knowing about God
and caring about Him, I didn't have a clue. Like I told Norm,
I had a God of my own imagination. I cooked Him up in my mind. He's
powerless. My. But the true God of the Bible,
when He calls you, you're gonna run to Him. You're gonna run
to Him. Oh my. And look at verse 50,
look at Bartimaeus' reaction to the call. And he, casting
away his garment, rose and came to Jesus. Bartimaeus, he knows
only Christ can heal him. He's called on the Son of God
to have mercy upon him. And notice here, this little
wee figure, he casts away his garment. You know where I'm heading,
brother. Oh, it just shows you workspace
religion. Self-righteousness. The coat of self-righteousness,
cast it away. We come to the Lord with nothing.
We come to him with nothing. My, and he came to Jesus, yeah. He came to him. I was listening
to Brother Rupert, sermon by Brother Rupert a while back,
and Brother Rupert said, when the Lord's calling a man, a team
of wild horses connected to him couldn't stop them from coming
to Christ. My, I had to laugh at that, it's so true. It's so
true, can't stop him. So what a picture here of a sin-sick
sinner running to Christ, fleeing to Christ for mercy. Fleeing
to him, made willing in the day of God's power. And note the
beautiful words in verse 49. And they call the blind man,
saying unto him, be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee. He calls
you, the master's calling you. Christ calls for his lost sheep. He calls for him. You know, he
called every one of us. It was a time of love. When we're born again, all might
call us with that effectual call. And we ran to him. We ran to
him. What a Savior. What a wonderful,
merciful Savior. And he comes to Christ, casting
away his garments. He rose and came to Christ. Oh my, the Son of God loves needy
sinners. He loves needy sinners. The problem
is we can't find sinners anymore. And one will never think they're
a sinner unless Christ reveals to you that you're a sinner.
My. So in time, the Lord sent someone
to tell this man about his greatness and grace. And the Lord Jesus
Christ passed his way in mercy and in love. And he heard this man's cry.
He heard the cry of one of his sheep. And then he commands him
to be called to him. And what a call was the call
of Christ. What a cause for great rejoicing.
The master called you. Oh my. calls you. And look at these
words, be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee. Beloved of God,
rejoice, he called you. He called you with his effectual
grace. He regenerated you by his almighty power. Rejoice,
rejoice. He didn't call everyone around
him, did he? But he did call Bartimaeus, almighty. And then look at verses 51 and
52. Bartimaeus rises up and what
does he do? He runs to Christ. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, what will thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said
unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said
unto him, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately
he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. Look at these
wonderful words here. These are just wonderful words
before us in these two verses. Our Lord asked Bartimaeus what
he would have Jesus do for him. What would you have me do for
you? Well, again, this isn't for information. No, not at all. My, this is like, he's heard
the cry of one of his bankrupt lambs, a bankrupt sinner, spiritually
bankrupt, blind. And what's our cry? Lord, save
me or I die. Save me or I die. My oh my. Save me or I'll perish in my
sins. And look at what the Lord says
to him. Jesus said unto him, go thy way, thy faith hath made
thee whole. What a word of grace. These wonderful
words pour forth from the lips of God incarnate in the flesh. The great savior of sinners. The lamb of God. The great Passover
lamb. God in the flesh tells him, go
thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. Now that faith he's
been given. That's God given faith. And that
faith has one object. And that's Christ. One object. And that's Christ in Him alone.
And that God-given faith only hopes in Him. It only hopes in Him. We know
that. The only hope for us, you take
Christ away, we have nothing. Nothing. No hope. But oh, what a hope we have,
beloved, in Christ. What a hope we have in Him. My oh my. My oh my. And he cried for mercy. When
God's sheep cry for mercy, what do we get? Mercy. Grace. We don't get what we deserve,
do we? Not at all. And this poor sinner is enabled
by the same grace that calls him to cast away everything of
his own, cast his garments away. Oh my. Filthy rags of his own
righteousness, that picture. Just cast him away. Cast him
away. And he came to the Lord Jesus
Christ. He ran to him. And how did he
come? Just as he was. Poor, naked and
blind. Oh my. What a picture. Wretched. He came in a wretched state.
Ready. Ready to receive mercy if the
Lord willed. And what is the result of this
God-given faith? Well, it's casting all on Christ.
It says, immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus
in the way. Since we've been doing these studies at home,
something we've seen all through these studies, these encounters
with Christ, is the healing that God does is immediate. You know,
when we get sick or we have surgery, there's healing time for us.
Sometimes we're down one one of the dear brothers is back
at the home. He has to have knee surgery We
were here be out for almost a year because it's so they have to
work on his knee and on this foot a Year's recovery time look
at this. It's instant immediately he received
a sign immediately just like He's whole And think of this
not only is he not only is he healed physically but but he's
healed spiritually. You begin faith to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. He receives his sight and it's
an immediate, complete healing. When God cleanses a sinner by
the precious blood of Christ, it's an immediate, whole cleansing. And you know what, like Brother
Bruce Crabtree says, we can't mess it up. We can't mess up this wondrous
salvation that Christ has given us by the sacrifice of himself. And now, now we're clothed in
that perfect righteousness of Christ that he wove for us. We're clothed, so when God sees
us, right? He sees us in Christ. My, my
oh my. The master, Look at this, what
does he do? He follows Christ. He becomes
a servant. He becomes a servant of Christ.
Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. Who is the way? Christ. He's
the way, the truth, and the life. Oh my. My, oh my. So it is with all of us who are
called by the grace of God. All who are called by the grace
of God follow Christ. In the way of faith, by God-given
faith, we have one hope. And that one hope is Jesus Christ
our Lord. Glory be to our great Savior. Thank you Brother Wayne. We're
going to sing the first verse.