Turn with me to Mark chapter
8. If you've looked at the bulletin this morning, there's a rough
outline there already. We're going to go into a little
more detail. I couldn't help myself that this verse just stuck
out. So I thought, well, I've already
written the bulletin, but I'm going to just go ahead and preach
it anyway. Mark chapter 8. verses 22-25. And he, that is Christ, cometh
to Bethsaida. And they bring a blind man unto
him, and besought Christ to touch him. And Christ took the blind
man by the hand, and led him out of the town, And when he
had spit on his eyes, he put his hands upon him and asked
him if he saw aught. And the man said he looked up
and said, I see men as trees walking. And after that, Christ
put his hands again upon his eyes and made him look up. And he was restored. And this
man who was blind saw Every man clearly. Every man clearly. This simple outline is for the
simplicity that's found in Christ. Perhaps this lesson, in its simplicity
and singularity, it's foolishness to the world. But what the world
calls foolishness, God calls wisdom. And God will honor No
matter how simple the truth is proclaimed, he will honor his
own wisdom wherever it is preached and wherever
it is heard and believed. So wherever people are in this
world, we know some people that have small groups. We know some
folks that don't have pastors. Wherever this word is preached,
and believed and obeyed Christ's worship, He takes note. He takes note. As I said, this
passage, I made a reference to it in this morning's bulletin.
The passage and the words I specifically want to look at are found in
verse 25, the last part, and He saw every man clearly. Christ made him look up and he
was restored. restored and saw every man clearly. We'll take a little bit of a
deeper dive into this phrase. Now, it says he saw every man
clearly. How can that be? How can that be? For this man
was blind. He could see no one, absolutely
zero. He could hear, maybe his sense,
which is often the case, the sense of hearing becomes more
heightened But he had no ability to view, to behold, or see or
perceive anyone or anything physically, naturally, and we'll look at
it spiritually. But again, our text says very
clearly, he was restored and saw every man clearly. Every
man clearly. Grace and mercy was obviously
shown to this sinner, this blind man, by the Lord Jesus Christ. And I have three, just three
basic thoughts. When God, if we say God has done something
for us, we're included in these three, these three thoughts.
Seeing every man clearly. If God has touched us, if God
has healed us, if God has been gracious to us, if we have tasted
that the Lord is gracious, we plainly Understand, and that's what that
word is. He saw every man clearly. That
means, in the Greek, he saw absolutely all men plainly. That word is
plainly. That word is plainly. When we,
by the grace of God, have a vision of Christ, we understand and
we know and we behold ourselves clearly. We behold ourselves
clearly. In religion, and even in normal
human circumstances, we're like Isaiah. And if you want a turner,
you can, Isaiah chapter 1. This is RMO, as it were. This is how we respond, how we
act, especially if we have the doctrine and don't have a heart,
or if we just have religion and don't have Christ. This is us
to a T. Isaiah chapter 1. And verse four,
Isaiah said, ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity,
a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors. They have
forsaken the Lord. They have provoked the Holy One
of Israel unto anger. They are gone away backwards.
A lot of preachers stand up and that's what they say, but they
also say, look at chapter five, Look at chapter 5, verse 8, 11,
18, 20, and 21. Look at this. Here's us. Isaiah chapter 5, verse 8,
woe unto them. Not me. that join house to house, that
lay field to field till there'll be no place, that they may be
placed alone in the midst of the earth. Verse 11, woe unto
them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow
strong drink. Look at verse 18. Woe unto them
that draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin, as it were,
with a rope. Verse 20, woe unto them that
call evil good and good evil. Verse 21, woe unto them that
are wise in their own eyes. And these are all truths. We
are this way. But you got this guy up here
hammering. Woe, woe, woe, woe. But as I said, if we get a clear
view of the gospel, a clear view of Christ, we'll get a clear
view of ourselves. Isaiah 6 verse 1, in the year
that King Uzziah died, I, this is the prophet, he says, now
I, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, sovereign, holy,
majestic, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. And then look at verse five.
Then said I, woe is me. Woe is me. I am undone because
I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord
of hosts. So in Mark, Chapter 8, when we're
touched through the preaching of the gospel, the grace of God,
when we're touched by Christ, the Holy Spirit of redemption,
we see ourselves clearly. Turn with me to 2 Samuel chapter
9. 2 Samuel chapter 9. I want you
to note the wording here. Second Samuel chapter nine, verse
one. You remember the story of Mephibosheth?
And David said, is there yet any that is left of the house
of Saul that I, the king, type of Christ, may show him kindness
for Jonathan's sake? The king, as I guess you'd say,
the Lord God, for Jonathan's sake. The Lord Jesus Christ's
sake. Look at verses six through eight.
Now when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul,
was come unto David, to the king, he fell on his face and did reverence. And David said unto Mephibosheth,
and he answered, he said, behold thy servant. You see, we see
ourselves clearly. We are not our own. We are bought
with a price. We are the servants of the Most
High. But look at, read on. And David said unto him, fear
not, for I will surely show thee the kindness for Jonathan thy
father's sake, and will, oh, where's that word again? Restore. The all the land of Saul, thy
father, that thou should eat bread at my table continually.
But this is what Mephiboshah said. And he bowed himself and
said, what is thy servant? That you should look at such
a dead dog as I am. That's what we see. We see clearly.
We are dead dog sinners is what Maurice Montgomery used to say.
That's what we are. We see ourselves when we're touched
by the grace of God. We're touched by the gospel.
We see the blood as we've never seen it before. We've seen blood
without the shedding of blood. There is no remission of sins.
We see this. We say, I'm a dead dog sinner.
I'm a dead dog sinner. Or go back to our text in Mark.
Turn back one page to Mark chapter seven. Mark chapter 7, verse
24 through 26, or as this, we plainly understand and know and
behold ourselves clearly, as in Mark 7, 24, and from thence
he arose and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon and entered
into a house and would have no man know it, but he could not
be hid. 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 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 meat to take the
children's bread and cast it unto the dogs. And she said,
yes, Lord. She saw ourselves as a dog. That's
exactly, she saw herself as a dog. And again, 1 Timothy, 1 Timothy
chapter one. 1 Timothy 1, verses 15, 16, and
17. This is a faithful saying, says
the Apostle Paul, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. How be it for this cause I obtain
mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering
for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life
everlasting. I tell you one of the initial
lessons of God's gospel as it begins to sink into the heart
is I am the chief, I'm a dead dog sinner, and I am not worthy. to receive the least of the mercies
of God. We, by the gracious Holy Spirit,
are less concerned about the person and the other few, but
we are astonished, amazed, and brought low regarding self. We
see all men, and we're men, men, women, boys, and girls, we see
ourselves clearly. Or we say like that publican,
Luke chapter 18, God be merciful to me. God be propitious. God cover me. what grace begun,
what mercy applied to see clearly what and who we are in the eyes
of a holy God. Well, we could turn to Zechariah,
but we don't need to do that. But this is further illustrated
in Zechariah chapter 12, when it says the spirit of grace and
supplications comes and it says, every family apart, it says the
wife apart, child apart that we see we see what we are and
then that marvelous passage in chapter 13 verse 1 then there's
a fountain open but we must see and we do we must see clearly
scripturally and the knowledge is different you may just i'm
just a sinner that's fine some other oh it's horrible you know
um Martin Luther said he would beat himself with whips. I'm
not saying you've got to do that. I'm saying the conviction is
the same. The conviction is the same. We see ourselves clearly from
what the Scripture says. Some more, some less. But we
see. We don't have to be told. We're
a sinner. We don't have to be told. We know it in the heart. We know it in the heart. Each
family, every person, individually apart. Zechariah chapter 12.
Secondly, that person whom the Lord graces to see every man
clearly also sees all men, all women, and all children plainly
as the scripture declares them to be. Romans chapter 3. You don't read this and say,
well, this is speaking about somebody else. This is speaking
about me. Romans chapter three, starting
in verse nine, what then are we better than they? No, in no
wise. For we have before proved, both
Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin, as it is written,
there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understands. There is none that seeketh after
God. They're all gone out of the way. They are all together
become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher.
Their tongue they have used to seat. Their poison of Asp is
under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction
and misery are in their ways. The way of peace have they not
known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Romans chapter
five, the first part of verse 18. Therefore, by the offense of
one judgment came upon all men to condemnation. There's nobody
excluded. We see what the scripture, we
see clearly, we see plainly what the scripture says about us and
about everyone else who was born of Adam's race. Again, Genesis
chapter three. Genesis, I'm sorry, we'll skip
that one. Genesis chapter six, this pretty
well hits. This pretty well says it all.
Genesis chapter six and verse five. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. That is, that's what we are. That's who we are. And again,
once again, in the scriptures, Mark chapter seven, Mark chapter
seven, verse 21, 22, and 23. For from within, out of the heart
of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication, murders,
thefts, covetous, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, evil
eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from
within. within and defile the man. When
Adam sinned, we didn't stumble. As they said, we fell completely
in the garden. Within, within the heart. Yes,
we know not only by the sacred books teachings, but by the Holy
Spirit illumination that man at his best state, says Psalms
39, is altogether vanity. It's useless. That's what we
see. We see these two things very
clearly. But the last thing that we see clearly is the God-man. He was a man. He was a man acquainted
with our sin. He was a man tempted and yet
did not sin. We see all, what's this passage
say, and he saw every man clearly. He's sitting there, after that
was done, he's looking right at Christ. But if we get a full
view of Christ, that mirror, that gospel mirror that's talked
about in James, We see ourselves, but the religious man, he goes
away and soon forgets what kind of man he was. Not us. Now, we have to be continually
reminded. That's why we gather together twice a week. That's
why we gather together. That's why we pray for one another
and encourage one another because we forget. The world creeps in. We've got to wash our feet, clean
our feet. But thirdly, we see by the sovereign grace of God,
we clearly see, plainly see Christ, the God-man, and as he is revealed
in this word, in this word. We won't turn to these passages
of scripture, I'll just quote them. We see he is our savior,
Matthew 121. We see he is our brother, our
friend, and our keeper, Jude 24. We see He's fulfilled every
jot and tittle against us and set us at liberty, Matthew 5,
verse 18. We see that He honored the law
and the lawgiver, Isaiah 42, 21. We see that He took upon
Himself our sin and shame and graced us to life and peace,
1 Peter 2. We understand plainly by His
touch, by His anointing, He, the father's own beloved son,
suffered the horrible death of the cross, Isaiah 53. We see that he was led as a sheep
to the slaughter for his own particular darling sheep who
were ignorant and backward as any. We know plainly he who knew
no sin, he who knew no sin, He did no sin, he didn't have any
sin, but he was cut off. And Daniel says that was not
for himself. Brethren, may we adore Him because
we see ourselves, we see what this world can, and we see Him. May we adore Him always. May
we follow Him continually. We owe so much. We owe so much
to Him. Yet I tell you this, we were
blind, who were blind to all things Christ, grace in the Bible,
now see him most plainly. Him who loved us and washed us
from our sins. Him who would absolutely redeem
his lost sheep and protect and comfort them. Him who was in
need of no one. He was self-sufficient. One of
his attributes is his solitariness. He didn't need anybody. He didn't
need angels to sing his praises. He had praise in the whole universe. He was in need of no one. He
left his father's side and he left his father's fellowship
to seek and to save the greatest tyrants of all time, you and
I. This passage here, I just, this
always, It's just, and I pray it always does tug at my heart
when I read this. Greater love hath no man than
this, than a man lay down his life for his friends. You are
my friends. That's just absolutely amazing.
John chapter 15. So I pray that we may be given
eyes to clearly see ourselves and what this world has for us,
nothing, and clearly see the Savior, to be given a clear view,
path to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, with
whom, whether we know it or not, we have to do. So may He give
us May we say, Lord, touch me. Lord, get a hold of me, and don't
let me loose. I desire to see you clearly. Nathan, would you close us? Heavenly Father, we are glad you have
done something