Let's be turning to Luke chapter 18. In today's passage our Lord gives a blind man his sight. Now that in and of itself is certainly a miracle of our Lord that this blind man should receive sight so that he can now see. But for those of you with spiritual sight, you that see spiritually, there's a much greater miracle that our Lord does for this man. This is a spiritually dead man who is now made spiritually alive. He's spiritually blind. as well as physically, but he's spiritually blinded, he receives spiritual sight. He's spiritually ignorant, and the Lord gives him spiritual wisdom. He's a faithless man, and the Lord gives him faith and grace.

Now, just so you know, Mark's gospel, which is in chapter 10 of Mark's gospel, There's more details in that passage than what Luke or Matthew write and include in their account. So I will at times be quoting from Mark chapter 10 if you want to put a marker there as well. But as we go through this, I want to bring out in particular seven things where we see the grace of our God and what he does for Bartimaeus here, where we see the grace of God for sinners, what he does for you that have no righteousness of your own. and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for all your salvation. And these gospel truths are revealed here to us in the healing and the giving of sight to this blind man. So beginning in Luke 18 verse 35, it came to pass that as our Lord was come nigh unto Jericho, And the other Gospels, Matthew, Mark, tell us that it was actually he was now leaving from Jericho when this happened.

We're told here that a certain blind man sat by the wayside begging. And Mark is the one that tells us his name, Blind Bartimaeus. Now, we're never told whether this man was born blind or if he became blind. I tend to think that he became blind. in his life, but some men think that he was born that way. But the spiritual picture here is that he is blind now. His condition is blindness here. And it accurately describes us and our nature in Adam. It describes what we are in Adam.

We don't have a right spiritual knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't know the true and living God. We don't know how to worship the true and living God. We don't know how to come to the true and living God, except God reveal Christ to us except he show us Christ except he give us that cry for mercy and to show us that only Christ can give us that mercy. Only Christ redeems and saves his people to the uttermost. Only in Christ do we come to God and worship him in spirit and in truth.

And so when you look at Adam, back in Genesis chapter 2 and 3 there, when you look at Adam and what God did there, Adam was made upright and he had fellowship with God. He saw the voice of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. He saw Christ. He saw the Savior, the one for whom all these things are made for his glory. All right. He made these things for his glory. And so Adam saw him.

But then Adam and we in Adam fell in sin. And we lost sight of God. We lost that fellowship with God. And Colossians 2, 13, like Ephesians 2, but Colossians 2, 13 describes the state that we are in from which our Lord saves us from. And in Colossians 2.13, Paul wrote, and you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened, made alive together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses. Dead men don't see. We can't see. And we're raised from death.

We're given sight in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so what the Lord is showing us is that if you believe, if you believe the Lord Jesus Christ, if he's all your righteousness, it's because God has given you sight, spiritual sight. It's not because you got spiritual sight and then saw Christ. You see Christ because God gave you spiritual life, because he gave you sight. We were blind, but now, you that believe him, now you see that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. So everything we are in Adam by nature, Christ has come to deliver his chosen elect people from that bondage that we were sold into in Adam. Christ has come to deliver us from that bondage.

When our Lord was in the synagogue in Nazareth, declaring the gospel of God's grace to his hearers, He said in Luke 4, he was quoting from Isaiah, Luke 4, 18 and 19, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

And he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind. to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. These are all spiritual works that our Lord is describing here that God the Father had sent him to do. He accomplishes redemption. He accomplishes salvation and works the salvation that he has wrought in the hearts and minds of his people.

He does this for us, brethren, And so these physical healings, these works which our Lord did here, written in the Gospels here, they demonstrate, they were done, the physical works were done to demonstrate that the Father had sent him, that God was with him. It was validating what he said of himself concerning the Father. These works validated that this was not just a philosophical man, just some ordinary man. This was the Son of God sent to us come in the flesh.

And so the works that he's accomplishing in his people now If I pictured in these works, these works that are written here, they have a spiritual significance. They speak of and define what our Lord is doing for us who by nature are blind and dead and need to be raised from the dead and given sight and to have our ears open to the truth, to hear.

Because a lot of people hear this and don't believe it. and yet you hear it and do believe it. That is a miracle of grace for you. And so now, by his grace, we walk by faith. in the spirit and his grace. And I am 100% convinced. And I've seen miracles. I've seen physical things done to myself in the beginning. But those things, like the Lord just doesn't do those things all the time because we walk by faith. We've seen things that show us that God is real and true. we walk by faith, and that is the greater miracle that you're seeing, is that even without seeing those things, without the Lord just swooping in and doing miraculous things physically for us, you believe, you walk in faith and continue to believe Him. That's a miracle, a spiritual miracle of grace done for you. Now the second thing, here is that at this time Bartimaeus is occupied in worldly things.

It says that he sat by the wayside begging. He's seeking alms to satisfy his fleshly needs. That's where his heart is, that's what he's thinking. He's not in the way of God, he's by the wayside. just looking to satisfy his fleshly needs. And he's not aware, he's unconscious of his spiritual need. He's unconscious of what he needs for his eternal soul. He's just not thinking of those things.

And so he sits there unaware of these things until the Lord passes by him. and until the Lord Jesus Christ draws near to him and passes by him. And we're told in verse 36 and 37, and hearing the multitudes pass by, he asked what it meant. And they told him that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by. Now, if this man's heart now was only set on earthly treasure.

He would have thought, this is wonderful, great. Hey, what about me, people? As you're going by, can you remember to drop in some money here? Can you give me some change so that I can eat and satisfy my needs? No, this man wasn't even thinking about earthly things anymore.

Mark adds this in 10.47, 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. There was a work, a need, that he suddenly had a cry for mercy that was suddenly made known in his heart. And so our Lord, as he's gone by, gives this cry for mercy to Bartimaeus. He didn't have that cry. until Christ drew near, until Christ was gone by. Then he cried out for mercy, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.

And so this is a work that God does in all his children. He awakens you to see your need of him. that without him you must perish, you must die eternally, you need Christ. That is a work of his grace in you. That is a miracle of his grace. Only when Christ draws near, then you know your need of his mercy. Because he has come near to you. This was not his cry before until he heard that Christ was passing by. And then the cry goes up. Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.

And that's how it is with the sinner. That's how it is with every sinner. Once the Lord draws near and makes you to know what a sinner, a vile wretch you are, how you have offended holy God and his law and broken it all, that's when you begin to cry out for mercy. That's when you're stirred and made aware of just how desperate your wicked heart is and how desperate you are for his mercy. And so that's a miracle of his grace. We cry out to him for mercy when he draws near.

Now third, all three gospels that record this, Matthew, Mark, and Luke here, they're careful to say that all that was said to him when our Lord went by was that Jesus of Nazareth was going by. That's what they said. They didn't say the son of David is going by. They said Jesus of Nazareth is going by.

And this man instantly, when he heard that, cried, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. He didn't cry out for the man, he cried out for the Savior, for the Christ. to save him, to redeem him, to remember him, and to show him mercy. And so this is a blessed word, Jesus, thou son of David. This man, by saying those words, is confessing that Jesus is the Christ, that he is the Christ sent of God to save his people, to accomplish that promise made unto our fathers in the garden.

And he's admitting that there. That's who the son of David is, and every Jew knew that. They knew that whoever the Christ was, he was the son of David. We're told in Matthew 22, 41 and 42, while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, what think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? They say unto him, the son of David. They knew this. They knew that the son of David is the Christ.

And this blind man can see Jesus of Nazareth. He's blind, but he can see this Jesus of Nazareth is the son of David, that he is the Christ. He sees what the Pharisees can't see. Though he's blind and they can see, he sees that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Son of David.

Now, similar to this, our Lord was asking his disciples, this is in Matthew 16, verse 15 through 17, he saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Now the disciples here, Peter speaking for them all, didn't use the title the son of David, but I want you to notice something about this confession that they made in calling him the Christ. When a sinner recognizes and acknowledges that Jesus is the Christ, He said to them, he said, blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And what our Lord is saying is when a sinner truly confesses that Jesus is the Christ, that He is their only hope of salvation. And that cry for mercy goes up. When that's done in them, that confession that Christ is all my righteousness.

Lord, don't receive, I don't want to be received. I don't want you to look at me in my righteousness, in my works. Please don't look at my works. See me in Christ. Cover me, wash me in his blood. Lord, receive me for Christ's sake, for his righteousness.

When that cry is wrought in a sinner, that's not of this flesh that does that. That's what he's saying. Flesh and blood hath not revealed this to you. Flesh and blood didn't reveal this to blind Bartimaeus. They just told him Jesus of Nazareth was going by. The Father, which sent Christ, revealed to him, this is the Son of God. you cry out to him. He has the mercy that you seek. He can save you. He can provide all that you need. And that's a work of His grace. When the Lord makes you to know that He's all my righteousness, that I don't have any hope in myself.

I don't have the works. I don't have the righteousness. I'm a sinner. I don't have what it takes to stand before God, but Jesus, but He is the Christ. He's the one whom the Father sent. and you flee to him, you cry out to him for mercy, that is a revelation of God. That's God revealing that confession in you.

Just look at the world. And I know there are many that say he's the son of God and he's the Christ, but then they just go on living the way they always live. They just go on loving this world and have no change. That's just a fleshly acknowledgement that he's the Christ. with no understanding. They don't follow him.

But you that know that Christ is all the righteousness of God given unto you, that's of God that gives that confession. And so that's not flesh. That is God revealing. And the Father revealed that very confession, this very thing to blind Bartimaeus. He saw it. He saw it.

Now the fourth thing we see here in this account is the opposition that he must now endure from the world. Now, because this cry for mercy has gone up, and he's crying out for Jesus, the son of David, to save him, now there's opposition that comes against him. Look at Luke 18, 39. And they which went before rebuked him.

As soon as he started crying out, they rebuked him that he should hold his peace. But he cried out so much the more, thou son of David, have mercy on me. They tried to shut his cries up. They tried to shout him down to silence and overcome his cries for mercy.

They came against this blind man who was now seeing his need for Christ. Now the world's rising up to oppose this blind man who sees his need of Christ. And it's an example of what we see in the world when the Lord stirs the heart of a sinner. and he pricks the heart of a sinner, and he makes you to see your guilt, your shame, your sin, your need, and you begin to cry out and speak to others of your need of his mercy and grace.

This world opposes that, right? Before that comes, You may be a miserable, unhappy person in the world, but you're in a world with other miserable, unhappy people, and as miserable and unhappy as you are, it's all okay. This is how the world is. This is just how it works. But once you're stirred up to see your need of Christ and to feel your need of him, and to beg God for his blood to cleanse your sin and to cleanse your soul and to remove the guilt from you, that's when this world opposes you. That's when it's different.

Things are suddenly different, because now they didn't have a problem with you being miserable before, but now they have a problem with your hope. in Christ and your cry for mercy. Now they're going to say something. Now they've got a problem with you about that. And so they come in with every excuse to silence you until it passes, until Christ passes by and he's out of this. And they'll do that, or the world will come in and just try and take your mind off of it by giving you and filling you up with this world's pleasures. and the things of this world.

And if you're not his, it'll work, right? And it'll be sufficient for you. And you'll be satisfied with that and let that cry go. But if you're the Lord's, that cry cannot be silenced. You're gonna keep crying. You're gonna keep needing him. You won't be able to let it go. And you'll keep crying out to him because it's not of the flesh.

It's of the Lord. He's the one working it. And so if you're a sinner, and this is the fifth thing, there's no remedy for your sin but Christ alone. He's the only one that can give you relief and help in your time of need. And so in that sense, sinner, cry. Cry out to the Lord. Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. Don't let that cry go. Keep begging him for mercy and grace. Don't let the world come between you and Christ. If you need him, stay on, stay on not crying and keep crying for him to save you and to give you that relief that only he can give, which is that hope and confidence that he is my righteousness.

Don't look to your works, don't look to yourself, you're not gonna see it. You that see that you're a sinner, that's what he shows you. You that see that you're a sinner, and that you can't please God, you can't fix it, you can't just turn to the law and start doing everything right now. It doesn't work, you're never gonna do it.

But you that know I'm a sinner and Christ alone is the savior of sinners. Lord save me. When he shows you Christ, that's where he gives you that peace and relief in Christ. That's where you're gonna find it. Keep looking to him, keep coming and crying out to the Lord because that's what he shows his child. And me is your life, he says. And me, in Christ, that's all our salvation. Sixth, with this cry, when they tried to silence him and he cried out all the more, Jesus stood. Jesus stopped. He stood still. He heard now.

Our Lord knew this is not the cry. of worldling, right? This is not the cry of someone only born in this world that wants just a worldly need met. No, no, no. This is something more. This one is one of the lost sheep of God pleading for mercy. What does our Lord tell us? He says, I am the good shepherd and know my sheep and am known of my sheep. That's what's taking place here. This is the good shepherd recognizing, I know that. I know that cry. And they know me. And I'm sent here for this purpose.

And so Jesus stood and commanded him to be brought unto him. And I like how Mark puts it in Mark 10, 49. It says, Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee. Obviously, these are not the same people that were shouting him down. These are other people sent of the Lord to call him and to tell him the good news. Rise, he calleth thee. That's a picture of his grace to send his word to you.

All right, to tell you of the mercy of God. in Christ to save sinners. How that He is the Savior, the very salvation of God, sent to save His people from their sins, from the punishment, from the ruin, from the death, from the bondage, from the dominion of sin. Christ is the Savior. He's the one that turns us from the love of self and sin to cast all upon Him.

And so it's a beautiful picture here of the grace of God in calling the lost sheep by what? By the voice of God. And Jesus is the voice of God. And I use that term because it says in the garden that when Adam and Eve fell, it says that they heard the voice of God walking in the cool of the garden. They heard the voice of God. Jesus is the voice of God. And when we preach this word, we're declaring, speaking by the voice of God.

You're not hearing a man, you that believe. You're hearing Christ. You're hearing the Savior. You're hearing the good news of the one whom the Father sent to save his people from their sins. So it is that in the preaching of the gospel, the call goes out, but it's made effectual to the sheep who hear Christ's voice calling them, calling them by name effectually. Our Lord said to the unbelieving Jews, ye believe not because you are not of my sheep. And then he said, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And so a child of God hears his voice calling them in the preaching of the gospel, which reveals to the sinner, God is calling me.

That's what I need. That's the only hope in salvation for me, a sinner, to deliver me from my sin. To remove the enmity that I have in my breast for God and to give me life and fellowship in Him and to give me life and eternal life. Forevermore, an inheritance in the Lord Jesus Christ.

He knows my name, he knows me, just as he knew Moses' name and called unto Moses, just as he knew Paul's name when he's called Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Just as he calls all his people throughout history, in the scriptures and throughout history, by name.

He details to you that he's speaking to you. Only God can do that. Again, many can hear it, and can leave it. But God's sheep hear the voice of Christ, and they need Christ. And so they hear, they rise and recognize, He's calling me. This is my hope. This is my salvation.

Christ is all, and that's what He does in His people. whom He did predestinate, them He also called. And whom He called, them He also justified. And whom He justified, them He also glorified." In other words, what God has done for a sinner in Christ, He delights to make it known to you. He delights to bless you with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. It pleases Him to do that for you.

And so, when God calls, there's a repentance from old, dead works. You may have been religious for years, but when he calls and you hear him and it's made effectual to your heart, there's a casting off of the form that you were trusting in, the way that you did it, the works, everything that you trusted in, Before, just coming to church, reading your Bible, lighting candles, saying prayers. When you thought, that was my salvation, those become old and empty. And you turn from those things, and all things become new.

That is, you see Christ is all. Christ is all. He's everything. He is my life. That's the new creature. And so I say that because in Mark's gospel, Mark 10.50, It says, and he, casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus. That's everything this man had, was this garment. And when Christ called, he still hadn't even received his physical sight, yet when Christ called, he cast it off.

It was dung to him. It's a picture of the righteousness and the works that we hope in, And our mages, they sour on, we sour on them. It's become worthless to us. We don't need, these weren't doing anything for me. Christ is all. And so that's what he works in us, that casting off of the old garment, the casting off of my former righteousness, which is no righteousness at all, and to have the righteousness.

I want the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what I want to be found in. is in his righteousness. And so that's the work of God. What faith, what confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ is wrought in that man right there in the call. Seventh, our Lord's manifold spiritual blessings were just coming upon Bartimaeus now, right? Like they're just beginning to pour out upon him.

And it says in verse 40 and 41 of Luke 18, And Jesus stood and commanded him to be brought unto him. And when he was come near, he asked him, saying, what wilt thou that I shall do unto thee? And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight. And so this request for sight was coming from a much deeper and greater need that he had in himself that he wasn't fully even comprehending at that time.

But our Lord not only intended to restore, to give him his physical sight, but he gave him life. He gave him so much more. He worked all these things in him. That's why he's standing now before the face of Christ, receiving these manifold blessings, because Christ already healed this man. He already gave him faith. to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And it's a much greater spiritual sight than what many of the Jews had. They didn't see this, but he saw it already. And so verse 42 and 43, and Jesus said unto him, received thy sight, thy faith hath saved thee. The faith that God gave him already saved him. And immediately he received his sight and followed him. When you have spiritual sight, that's when you begin to follow Christ. You follow him spiritually. You depend upon him. He's your shepherd. He's your savior.

He's your Lord, your God, your all. and you follow Him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto God. But you that believe here, this proof that the Lord has done this in you, just like Bartimaeus, you follow Him, and you glory in Christ. That's how you glorify God. That's how you worship God in spirit and in truth. It's nothing more than believing Christ and following Him, trusting Him, and serving Him. walking in love and faith and hope with your brethren. You're not out there doing what the world would call miracles, but it's miracles of His grace.

It's the fruit of the Spirit being wrought in you to show that kindness and gentleness and love and faithfulness. And for others, and especially for the brethren, because God has done that for you. He's shown you grace and kindness and gentleness. Remember that, and bear that fruit unto others, that patience and those works unto others as the Lord has done it for you. And so he follows Christ now, glorifying God and worshiping Christ in spirit and in truth. And that's what he does. A blessing, and bless my heart to see it. I pray it blesses yours as well.