I'm back with Mark, Mark chapter
10. Mark chapter 10, and we are going
to turn to a lot of different scriptures this morning. My subject
this morning is a description of those whom the Lord says,
and for a title, to shorten it up, is Just As I Am. I've got time to make myself
presentable. You know, when we go and visit somebody, especially
if we're going to visit someone of a dignitary or someone who
has some credentials, we try to clean up that one. This is
not the way we come to Christ. This is not the way we are before
Him. We come to Him just as I am. And I want us to look at a description
this morning of those whom the Lord saves. Now, when our Lord
came into this world, He did many miracles, many, many miracles
as proof of His being, as proof that He, the Messiah, who was
given power over all flesh, the scripture says, that He might
give eternal life to as many as the Father gave to Him. But
these miracles of healing have a far deeper meaning than just
healing fleshly and permanently. They have a far deeper meaning,
because that's all we see, and we've missed it. We've missed
it, because they have a far deeper meaning than that. And I hope,
by the Lord's grace and power, that He enables us to see something
of this once again. Now, here in Mark chapter ten,
we have blind Bartimaeus. I cannot imagine what it is,
what it would be like to be actually physically totally blind, never
to see the handiwork of God, never to see what life actually
looks like. You know, a man who is truly
blind cannot see even when the light's turned on. You know,
you can shut your eyes, and I can go over here and turn the light
on and off, and you can tell when somebody's turned the light on
and off, but a man who's truly blind, he cannot even detect
the presence of God. That's the description of all
those whom God sent. They have no spiritual sight
whatsoever, none at all. All are born blind to spiritual
truth, to spiritual light, spiritual understanding. They don't have
it. We cannot see God in any way, shape, or form, not really.
We cannot see Him until Christ comes along and gives us sight. Like he did to blind Bartimaeus,
he told him, receive your sight. And when he received his sight,
the first thing he saw was Christ. It was the Lord Jesus Christ. He looked him right in the face.
That's the first one he saw. And we see not. We have no real
sight until we see him, until we see the Lord Jesus Christ
through his light. Not until we see him that we
actually see light. That one blind man said, I was
once blind, but now I see. Now I see. Now I see Him. I see
Him as my Savior. I see Him as my Lord. I see Him
as my, I see Him as my all in all. I see Him. Now, turn over
to Mark, chapter seven. We're going to turn to several
scriptures this morning. Mark, chapter seven. Look in verse thirty-one, "'And
again, departing from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto
the Sea of Galilee through the midst of the coast of Decapolis.
And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment
in his speech. And they beseeched him to put
his hand upon him. And he took him aside from the
multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit and
touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he
sighed and said unto him, Epithet, that is, be open. And straightway
his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loose,
and he spake plain." Here's another description of those whom the
Lord sent. Here's a man that is deaf and
dumb. Deaf and dumb. He cannot hear,
nor can he speak, because he can't hear. You know, people
who have real deafness. had a real problem with faith,
and so he could not hear or speak. Unlike others, he could not hear. He could not hear of the power
of Christ. He could not hear of the miracles
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why others had to bring
him to Christ, because he couldn't hear of Him. He couldn't hear.
He couldn't hear. And our Lord took this man aside.
He took him aside, and He opened his ears. And he loosed, it says,
his tongue, and he spake plainly, plainly. Here's a description
of those who are born into this world who are God's children. They're God's elect, born spiritually
deaf and dumb. That's the way we come into this
world. We could not hear the truth,
nor could we speak the truth. We came into this world spiritually
deaf and dumb. The Scripture says, "...the hearing
ear and the seeing eye is of God." He's the one who gives us ears
to hear. He that has ears to hear, He said, "...let him hear."
And that hearing ear is of our Lord. And that loose tongue,
that ability to speak the truth, to speak the things which you
heard, that's of our Lord, that's of Christ. I go over to Mark,
Chapter 2. Over here to Mark, Chapter 2.
In Mark, Chapter 2, look at verse 1 through 5. And again, he entered into Capernaum
after some days, and it was noise that he was in the house. It
was told that he was in the house, and straightway many were gathered
together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them. No, not so much as about the
door. And he preached the word unto
them, and they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy,
which was born of four." Four people carried him. And when
they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered
the roof. They put a lot of effort here,
didn't they? A lot of effort was put forth here to get this
man to Christ, because they knew. These four people here knew that
if they could get him to Christ, that this man could be healed.
They knew that. They believed. They believed
that. With all their hearts, they believed that the Lord could
heal this man. So they tore up the roof, and they uncovered
the roof where he was, and when they had broken it up, they let
down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. They let that
man down through the roof. They were not going to let that
crowd keep them out. And when Jesus saw their faith,
he said unto the sick of the paltry, Son, thy sins be forgiven
thee. Here's another description of
those whom the Lord sent. Here's a man who was crippled. He could not come to Christ by
his own strength. He couldn't do it. He was paralyzed.
He couldn't walk. Others had to bring him. Others
had to bring him to where Christ was at. All are born this way. We're
all born this way. We come into this world crippled,
broken, paralyzed, without strength. We cannot come to Christ in our
own strength. We cannot come to Christ in the
strength of this flesh. We can't do it, not at all. The
flesh cannot take you to where He is. The flesh won't take you
to where He is. It will not take you there, not
at all. We cannot see the way, we cannot
hear the directions, we cannot ask for help, we cannot walk
to where He is. Why? Because we are blind, deaf,
dumb, and crippled. That's the description of life.
The Holy Spirit must reveal Christ to us. This is a spiritual journey,
not a fleshly journey. A spiritual journey of coming
to Christ and laying hold of Christ, that's a work of God,
that's not a work of the flesh. Not at all. Now, turn to Mark,
chapter one. Mark, chapter one. Look in verse 39. And he preached in their synagogues
throughout all Galilee, and he cast out devils. And there came
a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and
saying unto him, If thou wilt." Oh, he had it right, didn't he?
He had it right. Oh, if we could just get this
across to everyone we preach to. If thou will, Lord, if you
will, you can make me whole. Lord, if you will, you can save
my soul. Lord, if you will. It's all in his will, not mine.
He said, if thou will, here's a helpless. You notice, everyone
here, and you'll see this as we go through this, everyone
who the Lord saved was a hopeless case. No one came to him who
just had a T-shirt or a header. Everyone who came. with hopeless
and helpless, and the only hope they had was Him. It says here, if thou wilt, thou
canst make me clean. And Jesus moved with compassion,
put forth His hand and touched him and said unto him, I will. I will. This is my will. Here's my will that you be clean.
I will be thou clean. And as soon as he had spoken,
immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed. This man was an outcast. This
man was ate up with leprosy. He was ate up with it. He had
leprosy from head to toe, head to toe. Even the law rejected
him. Even the law condemned him. How
would you like to walk around this town here in Ashland and
have to cry as you go through the streets up here down the
sidewalks? How would you like to go down the street crying,
unclean, unclean, putting your hand over your mouth? And everybody
parts when you come around. Wouldn't that be awful? Wouldn't that be awful? Every
time you walked into where a crowd was, it was just like the party
of the rich. Everybody just gets out of the way because you're
unclean. This is a description of all
of those whom the Lord sent. The leprosy of sin permeates
our being from head to toe. There's not an ounce of me or
a part of me that's not without sin, not by birth. It permeates us all the way through,
rejected, condemned by the law. No cure among the sons of men. No cure for sin. We try to cure
cancer. We try to cure heart disease.
and all these other ailments. If we could cure sin, then it
would take care of all the problems, wouldn't it? We can't do it.
We can't do it. He can't. We can't. No cure for it, the motive of
the sons of the Lord. Nothing we can do can make us clean. Nothing that we do can make us
clean. If we become holy, if we become
clean, the Lord will have to say, I will be thou clean. I
will be thou clean. The Lord will have to make us
clean. Thy works can't make us clean, not at all. Being close to someone, or listen,
or being born from parents who have been made clean will not
make me clean. It will not make me clean, not
at all. Holiness, I read this one time.
I can't remember who I read it from. Holiness is not infectious,
but sin is. The Lord must make us clean if
we are to be clean. I want you to read something
over in Haggai. Haggai chapter two. Haggai chapter two. This is interesting. In Haggai chapter two, look in
verse twenty. If one bears holy flesh in the
skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or
potty, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy?" If he
touches it, shall it be holy? And the priest answered and said,
no, no, he can't pass on holiness, no, not weakly enough. Now look
at verse 13. Then said Haggai, If one that
is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priest answered and said,
It shall be unclean." We can pass on sin. We cannot pass on
holiness. He must make us clean. He must
do it. I thought that was so interesting.
Oh, he said if it be that bears the holiness. In the spirit,
that means, if he touches something, he doesn't make it holy, but
sins. Me, what I am. I passed it on
to my son, and they passed it on, and we all passed it on.
Well, you get it. He will have to make us clean.
Now, let's look at another description. Over Mark, Chapter 5, there's
another description of those whom the Lord saves. So far,
everyone has been helpless and hopeless, hasn't he? Look at
verse one, "'And they came over unto the other side of the sea,
into the country of the Gadarenes. And when he was come out of the
ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an
unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs, among the dead.
And no man could bind him, no. not with chains, because that
he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains
had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces,
neither could any man tame him. And always, night and day, he
was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and cutting himself. He was destroying himself. That's
what every man's doing right now outside of Christ. He's destroying
himself, destroying himself. But when he saw Jesus afar off,
he ran and worshiped him, and cried with a loud voice, and
said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of the
Most High God? I adjure thee by God, that thou
torment me not. And he said unto him, Come out
of the man, thou unclean spirit. And he asked him, What is thy
name? And he answered, saying, My name
is Legion, for we are many. And he besought him much that
he would not send them away out of the country. There was now
there those swine, and he cast him into those swine. They cast
him into the swine. Now, here's what it is for this. Here is a man under the power
and influence of Satan. He's under the power and influence
of another sinner. Here's a man that tried to destroy
himself. He cut himself, he tried to destroy
himself. This whole world is lost, and
listen, this whole world, now listen, is under the influence
of an evil spirit. Not just parts of it, not just
over in the darkest parts of Africa, this whole world. I tell
you, Hollywood's under more of it than Africa is. That's the
whole. You're under another spirit.
Our Lord said to those Pharisees, you, and these were the religious
leaders, you are of your father, the devil. And would you have
thought that? Would you have thought that the
Apostle Paul, before the Lord Satan, was that you of your father? Well, he was always the Lord's
son, we know that. Those Pharisees, those Pharisees
whom the Lord said, leave them alone. He says in Ephesians 2,
verse 2, "...wherein in time pass you off according to the
course of this world," listen, "...according to the prince of
the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience." There is a spirit of evil that this world is under,
and they operate under it. come out of him. He cast him
out. He cast that demon out. No man
is his own. No one's his own. He's either
under the influence of another spirit, or you're under the power
and influence of the Holy Spirit. So it's one or the other. We're
not our own. Now, here's another description
in Matthew 18, Matthew chapter 18. Matthew 18, verse 11 and 12. For the Son of Man is come to
save that which was lost. Now think ye, if a man have a
hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave
the ninety-nine, and go into the mountains, and seeketh that
which is gone astray? But the Son of Man is come to
save that which was lost. There's another description of
those whom the Lord sent. Lost. Christ came to save that
which was lost in the fall. If you can say, I've never been
lost, He didn't come for you. He came to save the lost. The lost. A lost person. Let me give you a description
here of a lost person. A lost person is one who is on the wrong
road, traveling by the wrong map, going in the wrong direction,
believing he's all right when he's all wrong. That's the law. Well, that's lawful offense.
That's real law. He's blinded, it says over in
2 Corinthians 4, he is blinded by the God of this world. Blinded
by the God of this world. But when God, when God commands
the light of the gospel, to shine into his heart, then he sees
the way, Christ. He sees the way, Christ, and
he changes directions. He walks after godliness. He
follows Christ. He follows him, and the word
of God becomes a light unto his path and a guide to his feet. For the first time, the word
of God means something to him. Now, turn over to Philippians
3. Here's another description. There's another description of
those whom the Lord saves. In Philippians 3, Paul says in
verse 4 of Philippians 3, "...though I might also have confidence
in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof
he might trust in the flesh, I am more religious." Religious. "...circumcised the eighth day
of the stop of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, The Hebrew
of the Hebrews has touched in the law a Pharisee concerning
zeal persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which
is in the law, blameless." Here's another description of those
whom the Lord said, religious. I've never met anyone, and I
personally haven't met anyone that was not religious. They
could always carry on some kind of conversation with me. over
the Bible, over the Word of God, over that Christ. They're religious. Paul was very religious. Lost,
but religious. He believed that he had it right. He believed he had it right,
but he was wrong. He was wrong. We are all religious by nature. Everyone comes into this world
religious by nature. You can go anywhere into this
world. I don't care what country you
go to, where you go, there will be a religious, some type of
religious service going on. Some type of false hope given. No matter where you go, it's
just religious. It takes Christ. to break these
false hopes and these false religions. Most everyone I've seen and talked
to and preached to other places, most of them have come from some
other congregation, some other false hope or false religion.
They've come out of it. All religions. It takes Christ
to break these. It takes Christ to call us out.
It takes Christ to give us life. It takes Christ to give us a
real living hope and break the traditions and false religions
that we're born and raised in in this world. It takes Him. True Christianity. It's so beautiful, isn't it?
It's so beautiful. But true Christianity is a person,
not a system. There's another description over
Matthew 5. Matthew chapter 5 and verse 3, "'Blessed are the
poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' David
said, "'I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me.'
Our Lord said, "'The poor have the gospel preached unto them.'"
Listen, "'Blessed are the poor,' Christ says, Poor, needy sinners. That's who he's saying. That's
good news. Spiritually bankrupt. We don't
even have a penny in our spiritual bank. We may have some over here
in the bank across the street, but we don't have any in that
spiritual bank by nature, not as we come over this world. They
are so spiritually poor, they cannot pay spiritual attention.
They don't have to do it. Therefore, the Lord must pay
it for them. He must pay that spiritual attention
for them. Here's what I'm saying. He paid
spiritual attention, real heart attention from the heart. You know, man observes things
outwardly, but he observes them inwardly from the heart. He paid real spiritual attention
to the law. He magnified the law, and he
made it. He made it honorable. He gave Himself as a sacrifice
for sin and the atonement for sin. He paid, listen, He paid
all the attention to all the requirements that the poor in
spirit could not pay. He did that so that He might
present them, every one of them, holy in His presence. He paid
what I could not pay. Here's another, here's another
Mark. Turn over to Mark, Chapter 7. I'll wind this down. I've
only got two or three more. Mark, Chapter 7. In Mark, Chapter 7, look in verse
25. For a certain woman, whose young
daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell
at his feet. The woman was a Greek, a Gentile,
a Syrophoenician by nation, and she besought him that he would
cast forth the devil out of her daughter. But Jesus said unto
her, Let the children first be filled, for it is not need to
take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs. And
she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord, get the dogs under
the table to eat of the children's crumbs. And he said unto her,
For this saying, Go thy way, the devil is going out of thy
daughter. Helpless. When I read this, I thought,
helpless, like that woman with the issue of blood who tried
every doctor. Helpless. Helpless. I doubt she
was. Helpless. Lord, here's what she's
saying. Here's what she's saying. Lord,
help me. Help me. You ever been there? And that's all you can say. Lord,
help me. Help me. I'll tell you this,
if you can say that and I can say that, we've said enough.
You've said enough when you said, Lord, help me. Peter prayed one
of the greatest prayers of all time. He said, Lord, save me. Save me. That's enough. Now, he said enough. Lord, save
me. No man will pray this prayer
until God makes him helpless, until God shows him his inability.
She knew that she had no resource, no help, unless he did. Then over, here's another description. I'll just tell you this one.
Over in John chapter 11, he said to his disciples, Lazarus is
dead. The woman, the widow's son, in
Luke 7, is dead. There's another description of
those whom the Lord saves. Dead. This is how everyone comes
into the world, spiritually dead, no life to die. Christ must give
us life if we are to have it. If we are to have life, He has
to give it to us. We are born dead, says the text,
and He must give us life. And then here's another description.
Sentence. Peter said this. Lord, depart
from me, I am a sinful man. I am a sinful man. Paul said
this after the Lord saved him, O wretched man that I am, O wretched
man that I am. All of this, all of these descriptors,
all these people we looked at this morning, all of this is
found in each person whom the Lord saved. We are spiritually
blind, deaf, dumb, crippled, diseased, under another spirit,
religiously lost, poor and needy, helpless, spiritually dead, and
very sinful. We need Him. We need Christ. We need Him. We need Him to come
where we are in sin. He has the power and the authority
to do it. He said, I have power over all
flesh and good, and all life, as many as thou hast given me.
I don't need a doctor. I don't need a priest. I need the Lord Jesus Christ. It says in the Scripture, he
is able to save unto the uttermost, then to come unto God by him,
seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. All of these that I have described,
who come to Him, are holy, righteous, and are whole in His touch. You take that which is crippled
and makes it whole, that which is blind and gives it sight,
that which is dead and gives it healing. But He does. He does. Okay, Mike.