Turn back to Matthew chapter
9. Let me say this before I get started
or I'll forget it. Sign-up sheets are on the counter
and no Wednesday night service. I'll forget that. All right. Matthew chapter 9. I titled this message this. We all have a this. That struck
me when I was reading this. We all have a this. You believe
that I'm able to do this. Whatever it is, individually,
we all have a this. You believe I'm able to save
you. You believe I'm able to save
you from this. Whatever it is. This sin issue. This self-righteous problem. You believe I'm able to do it. Now what we have before us this
morning are two blind men. Two blind, physically blind.
It's evident that they had their eyes open spiritually because
they called him the son of David. Even though they could not see
with their physical eyes, they were physically blind, They could
see who He was. This is the Messiah. And we have these two blind men
who needed and desired their sight. And they were totally
convinced, one thousand percent, that the Lord Jesus Christ could
give them their sight. I have no doubt they heard of
His fame. If you'll see in verse 26, it says, And the fame hereof
went abroad into all that land. They heard of his fame. And when
they heard of his fame, here's what they believed. This is the
Son of David. This is the Messiah. Now over
in Isaiah, it speaks of the Messiah, and it says, He will give sight
to the blind. And they remembered that scripture.
And when they heard of His fame, they said, this is the Messiah.
This is the Savior. This is the Redeemer. This is
the One who can give us our sight. And they believed it. With all
their heart, they believed that this One, this Jesus, see, they
couldn't see with their physical eyes. They had never seen Him.
No more than we had never seen Him. We'd never seen Him, but
we believed. They had never seen Him with
their physical eyes. He was going about and they heard of the fame
of Him. But they believed. They believed He could give them
their sight. And what we are going to see
here in these verses is the power of Christ to give sight to the
blind. And we're not talking just physical
blind here. It wouldn't matter. It would not matter. It would
not save me at all. It would not be any salvation
and the Lord giving me physical sight. If I were physically blind
and He gave me my physical sight, that wouldn't save me. But if
He gives me spiritual sight, as you talked a little bit about
this morning, if He gives us light and understanding and sight
of who He is, if for the first time we can say, I see. I remember distinctly when I
heard Henry preached the gospel on television, I said, that's
it. That's it. I read the scriptures and I read
the scriptures a lot back when I was 20 years old. Made a profession.
Read the scriptures a lot. But there was something missing.
And that which was missing was Christ. It was Him. And then one day I heard the
gospel. I heard a man preach the gospel Well, the first time I had light,
I understood. Understanding. He gives us understanding. That's seeing. That's what it
is to see. So we see that Christ has the
power to give spiritual sight to the spiritually blind. And
we also see here that faith, this faith, is God-given. God gave these men faith. of
His fame. They heard of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And they believed. Why didn't
the others believe? Why didn't the multitude believe? Why didn't
the Pharisees believe? The Scripture says it was given
on your half. Not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for
Him. It was given to you to believe. If you and I believe the Gospel,
I mean truly believe it, it was given. It's a gift of God. Faith is a gift of God. to be
able to believe is a gift of God. And there's much said in
the scriptures about faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. First
of all, He is the object of faith. He's the object. He said in one
place, Thy faith has saved thee. Well, who saved? Christ. It's the object of faith that
saved. He's the object of our faith. Any faith that does not
draw its life, its strength, from the Lord Jesus Christ is
not faith at all. You know what it is? It's superstition. That's all it is. Any faith that
doesn't draw all of its life and strength from Christ is nothing
more than superstition. He's the object of it. Isaiah
45.2, he says this, Look unto me, and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth. I
am God and there's none else. Look to me. Salvation, Spurgeon
said, salvation is to be had in a look. It's looking to Him,
looking to a person, looking to God's Son. He's the object
of it, and He's the author of it. It begins with Him. True
faith begins with the Lord Jesus Christ, and true faith will end
with the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the author of it, and He's
the finisher of our faith. Now, there are many blessings
that are communicated to us through faith in Him, looking to Him.
Listen to this scripture, Acts 13, 39. And by Him, oh what a
blessing this is, and by Him all that believe are justified. Now you have to be guilty to
appreciate that. You have to be guilty, know you're
guilty, know you are just as guilty as guilty can be. to appreciate being justified,
cleared of all charges. And by Him, all that believe
are justified from all things, not just one thing, not just
two or three things. I mean all things. Your whole
life is cleared of all charges. The Romans 3.38, Therefore we
conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds, without
my obedience to the law. Oh, what a blessing. What blessings
are communicated to us through faith? Now, in light of all this, what's the worst? If we're going
to catalog sin, what's the worst of sins? If we're going to catalog
it, and we do, as human beings, we catalog sin, but sin is sin,
no matter What it is. But the worst of sin and the
most wicked of sin is this. It's this. It's unbelief. Not
to believe God who cannot lie. It was Satan's, as Spurgeon said
in one place, it was Satan's firstborn child. He said to Eve, hath not God
said? Put a question mark on the Word
of God. Unbelief is the root of every
known sin. Every known sin. All other sins,
no matter what it is, flows from an unbelieving heart. That's
what it comes from, an unbelieving heart. When anyone hears the
gospel and leaves lost, you know why? It's because they don't
believe God. It's because they do not believe
the record that God gave of His Son. But this is not the case
with these two blind men. They came believing. They came
believing. They are examples of faith. Who
would have thought? Who would have thought these
two blind men, I guarantee you they were just poor beggars.
Poor blind beggars, that's all they were. Who would have thought
that they would be examples of faith? Who would have thought? Faith is found where you least
expect it. It will grow up where you least
expect it. It will pop up in a person where
you least expect it. You know, you might be thinking,
well, so and so and I just know the Lord is going to send somebody
else over here. Just totally unexpected. Believe the gospel. It will be found where you least
expect it. Now let's look here at the seekers. First of all,
they're two blind men. Blind. Blind as a bat. They are
companions in misery, but soon to be companions in mercy. And they both had the same need.
Blind. Blind. I tell you, we all have
the same need here. That's to be saved from sin.
That's to be forgiven, washed, cleaned, pardoned, justified.
We have that need. We are companions also. We are
companions. And then they followed Him. Listen,
they followed Him crying. They were desperate. I tell you,
when God awakens a soul and makes that soul to see its desperate
case, to see itself as it really is, they'll be crying. There will
be crying. There will be crying for mercy.
There will be crying for forgiveness. There will be crying for cleansing. You see, faith is not a silent
grace. It's not a silent grace. These
men were earnest. They were crying after Him. They
were desperate. The only hope that they had of
seeing was passing by. The only hope they had of having
their sight, of being able to see, that way they could go out
and make a living with their families. The only hope they
had was passing by. And the Lord went to another
place. And these blind men, I thought about this, he didn't walk out
of Matthew's house and then stop and talk to them. He just kept,
he went right on. But he knew where they were.
He knew they was after him. They didn't slip up on him. You
don't slip up on God. But he went to another place
where he was going to preach and made them follow him. Drew
them, really, the best way to say it. He drew these blind men,
blind as blind can be. You try to follow somebody blind.
Shut your eyes and try to find your way home. Or shut your eyes
and try to follow somebody just for a minute. How difficult that
is. It's difficult. But they did. They followed Him. You see, people
who are desperate don't mess around. Their hope was passing by. They were not going to just let
it pass on by. They were going after Him. You
do not have to beg men to come to Christ. When the Lord shows
men who they are and who He is, you do not have to beg them to
come down and do this or do that. They are going to follow Him.
They are going to go after Him until they find Him. Guaranteed. Guaranteed. We have looked at
some of these cases here in this chapter. You had the ruler's
daughter that was dead. Oh, he was desperate. What if
it was your daughter or your son that was dead? That would be desperate, wouldn't
it? Oh, how desperate that would
be. And then you had the woman with the issue of blood who came
after him in the crowd. And she kept saying, if I can
just touch the hem of his garment, I'll be made whole. And then
we had these two blind men who were coming after him. No one
needed Christ like these men need Christ. And no one needs
Christ like a sinner needs Christ. As old Scott would say, a doomed,
damned, ill-deserving sinner. No one needed Him like they needed
Him. The multitude was following Him
because they were impressed with the miracles. They were impressed
with the raising of the dead and the healing of the man with
a palsy. They were impressed. But those
two blind men needed Him. It's our need that brings us
to Christ. That's what drives a sinner to
Christ. His need of Christ and the Lord's ability to meet that
need. No one needed Him like they did.
And they would not rest. They would not rest. They would
not stop. They did not say to each other,
this is getting too hard. This is just too difficult. To
try and follow Him, we can't even see. You know, they had
to keep asking people, which way? Maybe feeling along the
wall, trying to follow Him. How difficult that was. But they didn't rest until they
got to Him. Not until they got to Him did
they find rest. And I'm telling you, the soul
will never find rest until it finds its rest in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Never. Never. It'll never find
it. People try everything. They do
many things. This human race does many things
to try and satisfy itself and to find some kind of peace and
to find some kind of rest, but it's not going to happen. It's
not going to happen. But the person that finds Christ,
even if he has just a little of this world, will find peace
and rest and contentment. You'll find it. True faith never
rests until it finds Him to be their rest. Not until then. Nothing else will do. It's give
me Christ. That's all Mike sings. I love
so much. Give me Christ or else I die.
Give me Christ. In Matthew 11, 12 it says the
kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force.
No, Jacob said, I'm not going to let you go. We're going to
wrestle all night. I mean, he said, I'm not letting
you go until you bless me. Until you bless me. Until, Lord,
you give me what I need. Salvation. Because had the Lord
not blessed him that night, Esau would have killed him. Jacob said, I'll not let you
go till you bless me. That's faith. That is God-given
faith. God-given faith is like that
woman who kept coming to that judge and just knocking at the
door, just wearying him, that earthly judge, just wearying
him. And he said, I'm going to have
to do what she wants because she's not going to leave me alone.
That's faith. That's God-given faith. That's
the faith that honors God. And faith that honors God, God
will honor. Because it's faith that's of
God. And I want you to notice something
else here. I've already spoken of it a little bit. Their faith
was a persevering faith. If God gives faith, it will be
a persevering faith. It will continue on. It was hard for them to follow
Him, but they didn't quit until they got what they were seeking. Following Christ is never easy.
It's never easy. It's never going to be easy.
Not in this life. Not in this life. It's never easy following
Him. He said this, with much tribulation,
with much tribulation shall ye enter the kingdom of heaven.
It's not an easy road. It's constant fighting within,
within the heart, within this old nature that we still have,
and it's constant fighting without. The battle never stops, does
it? Even when you go to bed, you dream. It's just a constant
battle, a constant battle. Your dreams are worthless. It
just never stops. But they followed Him, and you
know why they followed Him? Because of who they believed
Him to be, Son of David, this is the Messiah. That faith which perseveres is
that faith which believes Jesus is the Son of God. He's the Messiah. He's real. And it does not quit. It does not quit. And that's
the reason we follow Him. Because of who we believe Him
to be, the Son of God. And true faith carries with it
knowledge, knowledge. Do you know it's absolutely impossible
to believe on someone you don't know? It's not impossible. You can't believe someone you
don't know. Not at all. These two men believed in their
hearts that He was truly the Son of David, the Messiah, and
He could do something for them. That's the place God brings every
sinner whom He saves. Jesus Christ is the Son of God
and He can do something for me. He can do something about this
sin issue I've got. He can do something about this
wretched nature I've got. He can save me. I know without
a shadow of a doubt He can save me. Through His blood, through
His righteousness, He can save me. He can do it. This is the
one whom God promised would come and sit upon the throne of David.
This is the one. This is the one. True faith always
honors Christ. It always does. You know what
the greatest honor you can put up on somebody? Just believe them. Take them
at their word. One of the greatest dishonors
is to say, no, I don't believe you. You know, that's not going
to happen. But a great honor, probably the
greatest honor you can put up on someone is to say, if he said
it, it'll happen. If that man gave you His Word,
you can take it to the bank. And that's what faith is. It
takes God at His Word and it acts upon it. Lives upon it. The just shall what? Live by
faith. The just shall live by that God-given
faith. Every day, every day, you'll
walk by faith, believe in God. If it's of God, you will. And then here, they had a definite
need. They had a definite need. Their
sight. Their sight. They wanted to be saved from
their blindness. Sinners, whom the Lord saves, have a definite
need, and that's to be saved from sin. If the Lord saved me
from sin, I don't have anything else to worry about, do I? Because
that's the whole issue, this sin issue. If He can save me
from my sin, everything will be all right. Everything will
be all right. And they had a definite need.
They wanted to see. They were not crying just for
anything. They spoke specifically. They
asked specifically, Lord, We want to receive our sight.
Save us from this blindness. Remove this blindness. And they
asked for it. They knew their need and they
asked for it. I say this, you need mercy, ask
for it. Just ask for it. You need pardon,
ask for it. We don't have to go through ceremonies
and rituals and denying this and doing that. Just ask for
it. You need cleansing? Forgiveness? A new heart? Ask for it. They just ask for it. So simple. That's what children do. When
children want something, don't they just ask before they go
to the store? They ask for it. They just ask
for it. With a sincere heart, just ask
for it. Don't ask for things in general.
Don't beat around the bush. Ask for it. Ask for what you
need. David did. David said in Psalm
51, Lord, create within me a clean heart and a right spirit. He
just asked for what he needed. Who has God ever refused who
came to Him sincerely for these things in Christ? As we go through the Gospel of
Matthew, see if He ever refused anyone. See if He ever refused
a sinner who came to Him for mercy. See if He ever refused
a sinner who came to Him for forgiveness or for cleansing
or help. He never refused one. Never. And then these men were conscious
of their need. They knew they were blind. They
knew they were blind. See, it takes a work of God to
take a man and for him to admit and to see that I can't see. I need the Lord to give me my
sight. Lord, give me hearing. Let me hear. As Frank taught
this morning, As he was teaching this morning, I sat there and
said, Lord, let me hear what you're saying. Let me hear the message. I didn't
come here this morning just to hear several verses be expounded. What's the message? There's a
message in this. What is the message? Let me hear
it. Let me hear it. These men were conscious. God made them conscious. They
were conscious of their need and who He was, and it moved
them to cry unto Him. Lord, give us our sight. Here's
what they asked for. Do you know what they asked for
first? Do you know what the first thing
they asked for? Mercy. Lord, have mercy on us. It says in verse 28, and when
he was coming to the house, the blind men came to him. They did
not stop following. They followed him all the way
to the next place. And he sat down in the next house.
He was going to preach in the next place. And they just went
on in. They just went on in. And Jesus
said to them, well, back up here in verse 27. And when Jesus departed
then, two blind men followed him, crying, saying, Thou son
of David, have mercy. Mercy on us. That's the first
thing they ask for. Mercy. You know what they are
saying? Here's what they are saying. Lord, we do not deserve
what we're asking for. We don't deserve forgiveness.
I read to you in Psalm 103. Forget not all his benefit. That's
a benefit of his mercy. Forgiveness. We don't deserve
it. We don't deserve mercy. We don't deserve forgiveness.
We don't deserve pardon. We don't deserve any of these
things. We don't. But we have Him in Him because
He deserves everything. Our Lord deserves everything.
And we ask for forgiveness for Christ's sake. First thing they
ask for. Mercy, listen, on us. Well, they got particular with
it, didn't they? You know who needs mercy? Guilty
people. Guilty people need mercy. Sinful
people need mercy. Christ died for the ungodly.
He didn't die for any good people, because there's not any. There's
not any. That's what the Word of God says.
Riches need mercy. Our Lord said the whole need
not a physician, but the sick. The sick. They're the ones who
need mercy. They're the ones who need help. We plead with God like beggars.
Lord, have mercy on us. Have mercy. Listen to my prayer. Listen to my request. Have mercy,
Lord. Just listen. Give me attention. We plead for mercy through the
blood and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know,
that's the only grounds that a sinner can stand on. All other
ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.
David said in Psalm 51, according to thy loving kindness and tender
mercy, blot out my transgressions. Not according to my merits. I've
lived a pretty good life and I messed up here at this wonderful
spot. No, he said, Lord, according
to your loving kindness and your tender mercy, blot out my transgression. Do you know what that transgression
he's talking about? He's talking about two things here. It's just
one transgression. Different things happen, but
it's just one big transgression. He committed adultery with Bathsheba
and had her husband murdered. And you know what he's saying? Blot that out. It wasn't a little
white lie like what we call little white lies. He's saying, blot
out this adultery, this murder that I've committed, Lord, blot
it out. And you know what? He did. He called David a man after his
own heart. And listen, David is not asking
God to do something that is ungodlike. He's asking God to do something
that is just like him to do. Show mercy and blot it out. Blot
out my transgressions. God delights to show mercy to
sinners. He delights to do it. Now the
question our Lord asked them, and he asked everyone who's in
soul trouble, this question, believe ye that I am able to
do this? He didn't talk to them about
their blindness, did he? He didn't talk to them about how they became
blind or anything. He said, do you believe that I'm able to
do this? These men sought to have their
sight, They desperately wanted to see, and our Lord asked one
question that stood between them and sight. Do you believe I'm
able to do this? What a question. Do you believe I'm able to give
you your sight? And this question is put to every
one of us. Anybody struggling with sin?
Anybody struggling with the guilt of it? Do you believe that I'm
able to put this away? Do you believe that I'm able
to provide you with a righteousness that is spotless and without
blemish? Do you believe that? The Jews
didn't. It says in Romans 10.1, they
went about to establish a righteousness of their own. What's the answer? Well, it's
either yes or no. You ever try to get a yes or
no answer out of somebody? I was talking to a man some time
ago, and all I wanted him to do was just say yes or no. I
couldn't get it. I couldn't get it. I had to try
to give this long explanation. Just yes or no? Is it no or yes? Isn't that a complete sentence? Is it no? Isn't that a complete
sentence? You don't have to go and explain
this whole thing. It's either yes or no. To you who feel something of
the vileness of sin, do you believe I'm able to wash this away? Do
you believe I'm able to do this? Do you believe I'm able to wash
you clean? Wash you spotless and present
you spotless before the throne of God? Do you believe I'm able
to do this? Do you believe that Christ is able
to deliver you from the punishment of sin? Do you believe He can
do this? You believe He's able to deliver
you from the kingdom of darkness? Translate you into the kingdom
of God? You believe He's able to do this? You believe He's
able to keep you from falling? You ever fear falling? Falling
away or just falling into sin? You believe He's able to keep
you? You believe He's able to do this? You believe He's able to save
unto the uttermost them that come unto God by Him, seeing
He ever lived to make intercession for them? You believe He's able
to do this? It's yes or no. He knows the answer. He knows
the answer in my heart. He knows what this heart believes.
He knows. Faith in Christ is essential. It is essential to salvation.
Believe ye that I'm able to do this. In Acts 20, 21, testifying both
to the Jews and to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ. It is essential. Faith is the
vessel that receives Christ, just as that glass received water.
That glass didn't do anything. Water was poured into it. It
received it. God-given faith receives the
Lord Jesus Christ, the water of life. To as many as says in
John 1, 12, to as many as received Him. How did you receive Him? By faith. By faith. I've never seen Him.
Have you seen Him? I've never seen Him. If you have,
I don't want to hear about it. Because that's another one. I've never
seen Him. But I've seen Him by faith. I've
seen Him in His Word. I've seen Him. And man will make no progress
in salvation who does not believe, listen, who does not believe
that the Lord Jesus Christ is able to do all things, especially
this, whatever it is in your case. You believe I'm able to
do this. And listen to their response. Here's their response. It's not
complicated. It's not long. You don't even have to have much
of an education to understand it. Yes, Lord. Yes. Not a commentary, just a
yes. Yes, Lord. They didn't stammer
or stutter. They said, oh, you know they
said this exuberantly. I can just hear them. I don't
want to say it as loud as I think they said it. Because they were
excited. They had His attention. Wouldn't
it excite you if you had God's attention? They had His attention. And I believe they said with
great enthusiasm, yes, Lord. Yes. We believe you're able to
do this. True faith always cries out,
always cries out, yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Abraham believed that
God was able to do all that he promised. All of it. Can you
decidedly, without hesitation, say, yes, Lord. I believe you're
able to do this. I believe you're able to take
care of this sin issue, this sin problem I have. You're able
to do it. Yes. You know what he said? According
to your faith. Oh, I said that faith is essential. According to your faith, be it
unto you. In one place it says, he did
not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. Here's the proof. Here's proof
that they believed. their eyes were opened. If they
had not believed, if they had been pretenders, they would have
still been blind. And it wouldn't have been because
he couldn't have done it. He's not working apart from faith. He gives faith and faith believes. Listen to these scriptures. Then
said Jesus unto her, in Matthew 15, 28, O woman, great is thy
faith. What did she do? She believed
him. She believed him. Be it unto thee even as
thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. Matthew 9.23. There's one, this
one here. Jesus said unto them, If thou
canst believe all things, if thou, Mark, I'm sorry, Mark 9.23. I thought I was in the wrong
place. Mark 9.23. I can't read my own writing.
Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him
that believeth. Oh, if you can believe. As that
one said, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Help me to
believe, Lord. Help me to believe. And Luke
18.42. And Jesus said unto him, Receive
thy sight, thy faith, and hast saved thee. Who saved? Christ saved him. The object of faith saved him,
but it was not without faith. It was not without believing
God. Our Lord did not question them
about their plans, what they were going to do. He didn't put
them on probation. When they said, Yes, Lord, He
said, Receive your sight. Receive your sight. He said,
Then turned to their eyes, saying, According to your faith, we are
done to you. And their eyes were opened, and Jesus straightly
charged them, saying, See that no man knoweth. But they couldn't contain it.
They couldn't contain it. But when they were departed,
Spreader brought his fame in all that country. Do you believe, our Lord says,
do you believe I'm able to do this? If you're able to believe
that, That's when God saves us, when you believe I'm able to
do this.