Now we're looking in the 10th
chapter of Mark. Beginning there in verse 32. And it says, And they were in the way
going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went before them. And they were
amazed, and as they followed, they were afraid. I don't think there's another
place in the scriptures where it says the disciples were afraid
but here when they were with the Lord. And he took again the
twelve and began to tell them what things should happen unto
them, unto him. saying, behold, we go up to Jerusalem
and the son of man shall be 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 shall scourge him and shall spit upon him and shall
kill him. And the third day he shall rise
again. And James and John, the sons
of Zebedee, came unto him saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest
do for us whatsoever we shall desire. And he said unto them,
what would ye that I should do for you? And they said unto him,
grant unto us that we may sit one on thy right hand and the
other on thy left hand in thy glory. But Jesus said unto them,
ye know not what ye shall ask. Can ye drink of the cup that
I drink of, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized
with? And they said unto him, we can.
And Jesus said unto them, ye shall indeed drink of the cup
that I drink of, and with the baptism that I am baptized with
all shall ye be baptized. But to sit on my right hand and
on my left hand is not mine to give, but it shall be given to
them for whom it is prepared. And when the ten heard it, they
began to be much displeased with James and John. But Jesus called
to them, to call them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know
that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise
lordship over them, and their great ones exercise authority
upon them, but so shall it not be among you. But whosoever will
be great among you shall be your minister. And whosoever of you
will be the chiefest shall be the servant of all. For even
the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister
and to give his life a ransom for many. 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 Timaeus, 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 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 casting away his garment,
rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, what wilt 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. Now the Lord had already told
his disciples I believe back in the eighth chapter we read
it, what was going to happen to him when he went up to Jerusalem. Of course they didn't believe
it. They didn't understand it. They
thought he was, surely that wasn't going to be the thing that would
happen to him because after all he was the Messiah. and they
figured he was going to restore the kingdom to Israel. He was
going to trample down the Roman government. So they were just
waiting for the time when that would occur and so this came
as quite a shock to them. So again when he comes and he
tells them basically exactly the same thing. We go up to Jerusalem
and the Son of Man shall be delivered. it says here that as they were
in the way going up to Jerusalem now this was in their mind even
though he's fixing to reiterate it to them again it was already
in their mind that he had already told them when I get to Jerusalem
they're going to kill me and so it says here that Jesus went
before them they were amazed and as they followed they were
afraid I think it started sinking into their mind, well now wait
a minute. You know, if he's going up to Jerusalem, and he's our
leader, and he's the one we're following, and they're gonna
kill him, what are they gonna do to us? You know, it's a lot
easier to talk about following the Lord than it is to do so. You know, as Peter found out,
he said, Lord, you know, though all these men shall deny thee,
it won't ever happen to me. And so it is that men in their
own strength have no strength at all. And so they were afraid. They didn't want to die quite
yet. They didn't think. I mean, they
were kind of wanting to triumph with Christ, but they weren't
ready just exactly necessarily to suffer with him. And the Lord said, you know,
that you can't inherit the kingdom of God except through suffering.
Now, fortunately for us, thankfully, Christ has suffered in our stead. But there is no entrance into
the kingdom of God apart from suffering. And that's ordained
by God that it be so, because of sin. And he took them aside again,
told them what would happen, and he gave it to them in great
detail. and you know there's not one part of this that could
be left out because he ordained that this should occur exactly
as it did by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of
God you see he set forth these things that he would be delivered
unto the chief priests and unto the scribes and they would condemn
him to death and shall deliver him to the Gentiles, to the Romans.
So it was, had to happen that way. And they shall mock him,
and they did. And they shall scourge him, and
they did. And shall spit upon him, and
they did. And shall kill him. He said, by the determinant counsel
and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands
have crucified the Lord of glory. Make no mistake about it. It
was men that slew the Lord Jesus Christ. They put him to death.
The one who was the savior of sinners. Now, that was ordained
by God. He determined that it should
be so. His brother Al read there this morning that he hardened
the hearts of those tribes that would come against the people
of God. He said, I'll show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and
I'll harden whom I will. That's all in the sovereign purpose
of Almighty God, and who can say anything about it? But make
no mistake about this, that just as those heathen tribes hated
God and hated the people of God, they were not trying to seek
the Lord and the Lord hardened their heart. See, the Lord doesn't
harden the hearts of men who are seeking God. He hardens the
hearts of men who will not seek God, even as Pharaoh. Now the scripture says that the
Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, but the scripture also says that
Pharaoh hardened his heart. And so it is, wherever you find
men with hard hearts, you can be sure that they are men who
will not seek the Lord. That's what the Lord said to
the Pharisees. He hardened their hearts. He
made them so that they would not come unto him. But he said
to them, ye will not come to me. that you might have life. He said search the scriptures
for in them you think you have eternal life but they are they
which testify of me and you will not come to me that you might
have life. And so the Lord does indeed harden
men. Now this is a that's a terrible
thing when the Lord gives men over to a reprobate mind, to
a reprobate heart. We read about it a few weeks
ago in Pilgrim's Progress of the man who was in the cage.
And he couldn't seek the Lord. He couldn't find the Lord. Because
the Lord hardened his heart. And so that's the thing that
we cannot fully and completely comprehend. But it's in the hand
of the Lord. And far be it from us to rail
against the Lord who made His creation exactly as He would
have it to be. and causes things to occur according
to the good pleasure of his will. Now that angers the natural man.
There is not a natural man born into this world that does not
in his flesh rebel against such a thought as that. Because men
want to be the masters of their fate and the ones who control
their life. Adam did. Did he not? I mean, he said, well, you know,
this might be a pretty good thing. I think I'll eat this thing.
I know the Lord said not to do it, but, you know, I think I'll
do it. Because men, by nature, desire
to go their own way. And apart from the mercy of God
to turn them around, they will continue on that way. And unfortunately,
there's not a thing in the world that you or me or any human being
can do to change that situation. Only the Lord in his mercy and
in his kindness that would change the heart of a man to seek after
him can cause it to be so. And so he told them exactly what
was going to happen to him. This was an irreversible course. It could not be changed. And James and John, Thinking
about that, you know, do you ever, and oft times when I read
the account of Pilate, and he's, you know, speaking to the Lord,
and he says, well, you know, I could turn you loose anytime,
and the Lord says, you couldn't do anything without the power
of God. But I get to thinking, well, Pilate, come on, man. I
mean, you know, think what you're doing here. How stupid can you
be? But yet, according to the mercy
of God and the redemptive work that he would manifest in the
behalf of his people, it was necessary that Pilate do exactly
what he did, was it not? I mean, if Pilate did not pass
that death sentence upon him, then all of these things could
not have occurred, could they? But they were going to occur
because God ordained that they occur. just as much as he has
ordained that we be here this morning. And James and John,
the sons of Zebedee, came unto him, saying, Master, we would
that you would do for us whatsoever we shall desire. Now isn't that
pretty common? Isn't that what most people think
that prayer's about? Lord, we want you to do what
we want you to do. Well, the Lord said, when you
pray, pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in the earth
as it is in the heavens. And so they came. Now I think
it's Matthew records this for us and I believe Luke does too. And it appears that their mother
was with them when they came there. And they made this request. Now I don't know if she put this
in their mind, you know, here he is, he's fixing to come into
his kingdom here, and you need to get in on the ground floor.
You know, go on and put in a good word for yourself. I mean, you
know, get his favor. I mean, isn't that the way men
think? I mean, we want to weasel our way in, and we want to get
some advantage. And so it is that they asked
him. And the Lord said, well, what
do you want me to do for you? Now he didn't ask them that because
he didn't know, did he? He wanted them to say it. Because
later on he wanted to bring it back to their mind what they
were asking. And they said, Grant to us that
we may sit one on the right hand and the other on the left. We
don't ask much. We just want to be second in
command here in the kingdom. That's all we want. Lord, we
want to glorify you, but we want a place of glory too. Now, that's
kind of the way that men often approach the Lord, do they not?
But you see, when the Lord said, thou shalt have no other gods
before me, he didn't mean he wanted to be in first place.
And then, you know, you could fill out the order however you
wanted it to be, but he meant that there would be no gods before
his face, that there would be nobody lifted up in place. He
said he was a jealous God, and that he would have glory unto
his name. And there's no place for men
to be jockeying for position in the kingdom of God. And Jesus said to them, you don't
know what you ask. You don't know what you're talking
about. He's telling them, look, you're eager. You're asking something
that cannot be. He said, can you drink of the
cup that I will drink of? I mean, can you go into Jerusalem? Can you go into the face of Pilate? Can you pour out your life? Can you, when they revile you,
can you not revile them? Can you pray for those that despitefully
use you? Can you drink this cup that I'm
about to drink? Can you bear the sins of men? And they said unto him, we can. Now, you hear a lot about that
today. In fact, most preachers, or a lot of preachers, want to
stir you up. They want to get you to where you'll say, we can.
Well, see, my purpose is, by the grace of God, to stir you
up to say we can. Lord, we can't do it. Lord, we
need you. See, it's not about what we can
do for the Lord, but it's what we hope the Lord will do for
us. And there's a vast difference between that mindset, dear brother. You know, it's a vast difference
between confessing our sins before Almighty God and speaking to
Him of righteousness that we possess. We have none. He said, ye shall indeed drank
of the cup that I drank of. He said, you are going to die
for my name's sake. He said, it's going to happen.
Just like he told Adam in the Garden of Eden in the day thou
eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. He's saying to them, yes,
you are going to die for my sake. You're going to suffer in my
behalf. But to sit on my right hand and
on my left hand is not mine to give, but it shall be given to
them for whom it is prepared. Now, who is it prepared for? It's prepared for Christ. See,
he's the alpha and the omega. He's the beginning and the end,
and there is no one occupying a side throne or a secondary
place of command in the kingdom of God. He is the alpha and omega. He's all in all. And so he said,
you don't know what you're asking for. He said, it's not mine to
give. He says, my kingdom is not made up like that. And when the ten heard it, they
began to be much displeased with James and John. Now they weren't
upset about the idea of being installed into the second place
in the kingdom. See, they weren't saying, yes,
we've got to all be humble before the Lord. They were just mad
because James and John beat them to the punch. You know, they
didn't think about it quick enough. And so they were mad because
they didn't get in there and get in the Lord's ear. But see,
they didn't understand that the Lord wasn't paying any attention
to that anyway. They had the same idea that James
and John did. But Jesus called them. You don't
teach them a lesson. He said, you know that they which
are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over
them, and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But it shall
not be so among you, but whosoever will be great among you shall
be your minister. See, that's totally contrary
to how men think about what it is to minister or to be in a place
of authority. The Lord Jesus Christ had the
greatest place of authority and he demonstrated the greatest
servitude, did he not? He said, if a man will be great
in the kingdom of God, let him learn to be the servant of all.
Paul said it like this, esteem one another above ourselves. not equal to us. See, a lot of
people want everybody to be equal. I mean, that's kind of what our
founding fathers, that's written in our Constitution, that they
believe that all men are created equal. Well, that's actually
not true. We're not all created equal.
I mean, we're all created exactly how the Lord would have us to
be, and some people's smarter than others, some people's richer
than others, some people, you know, have an understanding that
others don't have, and all sorts of things, talents. But, all
of it is unto the glory of God. And so he said here to them,
whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister,
and whosoever you will be the chiefest shall be the servant
of all, even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered to,
but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many." Children
of God are not looking for somebody to do something for them. Now,
we live in a nation that has unfortunately turned into a nation
of people looking for what somebody's going to do for them. Is it not
true? I mean, everybody looking for
some new government program, and the politicians, of course,
they're ready to tell everybody, well, we're going to give you
this, and we're going to give you that. Well, that sounds good.
I'm going to vote for him because he's going to give us this. But
see, that's totally contrary to what the Lord said, how His
kingdom operates. We're not looking for what somebody
does for us. I've heard people say, well,
you know, I don't, I quit going to that church down there because
I wasn't getting anything out of it. Hmm. Well, you wasn't getting anything
out of it. You went for the wrong reason.
So we don't come together because of what we're going to get out
of it. Now be sure of this, we're going to get something out of
it. It's going to be a blessing. But that's not the motivational
factor of why we meet together. It's not so we can find out what
we're going to get out of it, but what we can give to our brethren. Let every part, every joint supply
that which the body is in need of. See, the Lord has given gifts
to all of his children for the benefit of the body. Now I don't
know what those things are. And you might not either. But
you can be sure of this, that when the Lord brings people together
in the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of God is in their midst,
they are helping one another. They're bearing one another's
burdens. And it may not be in some overt, outward activity
that somebody performs. See, a lot of people think, well,
the only way you can minister to somebody is stand up and take a text and
preach to somebody. Well, that's ridiculous. You
know, there's many ways to minister unto the people of God. Oftentimes,
we minister most to one another when we just show up. Because
it's an encouragement to us, is it not? To see brethren who
desire to come together with brethren. And when we neglect
the assembling of ourselves together, it's kind of, it's not a good
thing. I mean, it doesn't help us, you
know? It discourages us. And so we
encourage one another by coming together. Simply. I mean, if we just came together,
remember when Job's, Job first had his, these pestilences came
upon him, the troubles came upon him, and his friends, which were
kind of miserable comforters in some ways, but at least they
came over there and they just sat with him and said, I think
for a week, and didn't, nobody said anything. Now was that useless? No. You know, it's just the coming
together of God's people. The Lord said, where two or more
of you are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst. Now
just because we come together doesn't mean he's in our midst,
but when he has called us together, and when by his grace we come
together in his name, then he is in our midst. That's a blessed
thing. I mean, if we just came here
and didn't say anything. That in itself would be a blessing. But the Lord has given us things,
other blessings as well. For the Son of Man came to give
his life a ransom for many. And they, when they came to Jericho,
and as he went out of Jericho with the disciples, blind Barnabas
sat by the highway side begging. Now again, in one of the other
gospels, Matthew, I believe, he says that there were two blind
men. And there's been some controversy over, well, exactly what's the
solution to this situation? Well, of course, it could be
that Mark only, the Lord would have Mark only to mention Bartimaeus
for whatever reason, and not mention the other one, whereas
Matthew mentioned both of them. Another thing is that in Luke,
it says that this occurred when they were going, when the Lord
was going into Jerusalem. And here it says, or into Jericho,
and here it says he was going out. So another solution to that
dilemma in the minds of men could be that he healed two of them
going in and one of them going out. I mean, I don't know. I
don't have a problem as I read this that the Lord saw fit to
record it in the eyes of one man one way and the eyes of another
in another. It's still true. And in both
cases, the Lord healed these blind men that called upon his
name. And another amazing thing is that all of them say, and
Jesus stood still. Oh, think about that for a moment. The God of eternity, who has
need of nothing, doesn't need one thing. but goes
about doing his will according to the good pleasure of his own. And yet, at the cry of a blind
beggar sat by the roadside who didn't have one thing to add
or help the Lord with. See, people always want to do
this stuff to help the Lord. We want to do the Lord's work.
We're going to do all these things for the Lord. He's just waiting
for us to help Him out. This blind beggar couldn't do
anything, could he? But he needed some. See, he knew
he was blind. And he wanted to see. And the Lord stood still. He
stopped on his journey. See, he was on a journey. Think
about this. He was on a journey to Jerusalem. He had already told his disciples,
I'm going to Jerusalem and I'm going to lay down my life for
the sake of my people. He was on a determined avenue
of purpose. He was going with that purpose,
but his purpose was as well, on the way to heal his blind
man. And Jesus stood still. I think those are some of the
most glorious words in scripture. Now men sometimes just pass over
such things as that, but the Lord stood still. He didn't just
pass and say, okay, be healed, but he stopped. And he ministered
specifically to this blind beggar. Out of all those people that
were there, it's as if nobody else existed but this blind beggar. And he said, be of good cheer,
be of good comfort, rise. And he casting away his garment,
rose and came to Jesus. Now isn't that the only way that
a sinner can come before the Lord? You got to cast away your
garment. See, because every man is clothed
in his own righteousness, he thinks. But a man must come before
the Lord naked and bare without any covering whatsoever. And
that's exactly what blind Bartimaeus, he casting away his garment,
he didn't want anything to hinder him, but he wanted to come to
the Savior. And he came there without a robe,
but he went away with the greatest robe that could be given to a
man. Because he went away clothed
in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Oh, what a glorious transformation
What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said
unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said,
Go thy way. Thy faith hath made thee whole.
Now what was his faith? Was his faith that he believed
so much that he came to the Lord? Was it his activity of faith?
Is the Lord saying, your faith, what you did? Brother, if you
just gotta have faith, if you'll just have faith today, you know,
you gotta confess this thing and you gotta claim it. I mean,
is that what the Lord said to him? And you gotta not doubt. No, he said, thy faith hath made
thee whole. Now, what was his faith? His
faith was Christ. He knew that Christ and Christ
alone could heal him. He didn't believe he had any
activity. He thought, well, you know, what
can I do, Lord? You can heal me. You can do it. And the Lord said, thy faith
hath made thee whole. Christ does make whole blind
men. He does. Blind beggars that call upon
him shall be saved because he is the savior of sinners and
he saved us such as called upon his name oh what a glorious savior
he is and immediately he received his sight and he followed Jesus
in the way why did he follow Jesus? because that was his faith
What else could he do? Peter said, Lord, to whom shall
we go? That's the words of eternal life.
We can't fall off after somebody else. We can't dabble in Christianity. Some people say, well, you just
need to give it a try. Well, you know, a man who's been
given faith, he can't try it. It becomes his life. It becomes
the thing that he desires. He can't help it. He wants that
which Christ has. And he believes that Christ has
what he needs. Oh, that's the work of God. There was a lot of blind beggars
on the road to Jericho, no doubt, or in Jericho. But it was unto this man whom
the Lord came. Oh, that the Lord might give
us eyes to see today.