If you will, take your Bibles
and turn with me to Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10. Our lesson this morning is about
sovereign mercy. I don't know how much you think
about it. We use terms so loosely in our generation. We've been
raised that way and it's just the general talk of men, it rubs
off on you, don't it? He said evil communications corrupt
good manners, and that's what happens. It passes on to you. A fellow told me one time, he
said, if you want to write well, read good writers. And he said,
you'll learn to write very good. My point is, we're talking about
mercy. We're talking about even the
word good. That word had been used so commonly. And when that rich young ruler
come up to the Lord, it just come out. He just said, good
master. And he stopped him right there. And he said, why callest
thou me good? And that's how we use terms.
But when we're talking about mercy, I want you to understand
this because this is what this lesson is all about. Mercy comes
from God. Things that men call mercy out
here are not mercy. Mercy comes from God, and therefore
it's sovereign because God is sovereign. So that's what this
story's about this morning, this account, is about sovereign mercy. And you may say, well, sometimes
men are merciful. Not really, not really. That is, not of themselves. I don't know how much you think
about it, but the Bible said the heart of the king is in the
hand of the Lord just like the rivers of water. He turneth it
whithersoever he will. God works in men, causing them
to do things that naturally they wouldn't do. And he doesn't necessarily
do it for them, although they become beneficiaries of it, but
he's not doing it for them, he's doing it overall to fulfill his
purpose. God's restrained on men, isn't
that a merciful thing? God restrains men from being
as evil as they could be. But men mistake that for their
own righteousness. They don't look at it as mercy,
they look at it as something that they've done, something
that they've earned. So this mercy comes from God. You know old Pharaoh, he wasn't
a believer, and he wasn't a godly man. But God, through Joseph's
influence, and God's work in him, and primarily for God's
elect, he caused him to mercifully preserve that known world all
around Egypt. If there's mercy found, the source
is the sovereign God of glory and through his son, Jesus Christ.
Now read with me in our text an account of the mercy that
I just described. Mark chapter 10, verse 46. 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. Brother
Don said one time, through the word of the Lord, the son stood
still. 24 hours, stood still. But here, the one who commanded
the son to stand still, stands still. 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 mercy found him. He didn't find mercy, although
he can say that, but mercy found him. And mercy prepared him and
mercy called him and mercy made him whole. And he knew it. He knew it. And this mercy is
the sovereign mercy of God. I like I like Mark's account
of what happened. He said he came to Jericho, and
as he left Jericho, he didn't do anything in Jericho. He healed
some blind men before he got there. And he dealt with Zacchaeus,
but that was on the outskirts of the city. And then as he was
leaving Jericho, he healed blind Bartimaeus. Now I have five things
that I want us to focus our study this morning on, five things
plainly manifested in the salvation of this blind beggar. And the
first thing is this. He was an object of mercy. How'd he get to be an object
of mercy? God appointed him. God chose
him to be an object of his mercy. You see, the purpose of God in
salvation is to manifest his glory, not ours. His glory. What is his glory? Well, his
glory is who he is. When you talk about the holy
God, H-O-L-Y, that holiness has to do with wholeness. the wholeness
of God, all of his attributes, all of the things that, all of
his character and all of these things working in harmony with
one another. The glory of God has to do with
the justice of God. He's not gonna save anybody apart
from his justice being satisfied. It has to do with his righteousness. He's not gonna save an unrighteous
man. He's not gonna save an unrighteous
man. He said, I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners
to repentance. If he saves you, it's because
he hath made you righteous. And how does he make us righteous?
In his Son. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believe. God's gonna manifest
his glory And he's gonna manifest this glory in the one place that'll
really make it shine, and that's in the salvation of sinners. So old Bartimaeus, he was chosen
of God for this very purpose, as an object of mercy. And he's
a picture of every chosen sinner that God has purpose to save,
old Bartimaeus. He was born in darkness. and
so are we. We're blind. I mean, I don't
know how many years of my life I walked around as a blind man.
Blind. Oh, I could see the road and
the sky and the trees and colors and read books and things like
that, but I couldn't see anything spiritual. Spiritually, I was
blind. Couldn't see anything in this
book. I'd try to read this book. My daddy was a preacher and I
would want to get into this book and read it like he did. And
I'd read this book and it made absolutely no sense to me at
all. And so I'd go down to church
and I'd listen intently. And I was going in there with
the young people, so this was supposed to all be broken down
to its basics. And the only thing they ever
talked about was stories. They talk about Samson and his
strength. It's just stories. Moses in the
Red Sea and on and on and on it went. Just moral stories. Man born in darkness. The Bible
said they walk in a vanity of their mind, now listen, being
alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that's
in them because of the blindness of their hearts. And this is
it. Natural man, he can't, there's
none that understandeth. He can read, but he can't understand,
he can't perceive, except you be born again, you cannot perceive
the kingdom of God. So like Bartimaeus, we're blind
spiritually. And every man comes forth from
the womb with the curse of his father Adam's Nature. And before God intervened in
our lives, Paul said in Ephesians 2, 3, after describing in detail
our lives, he said, and you were by nature children of wrath,
even as others. And like Bartimaeus, we all find
ourselves seated on the main road. Anytime, if a man gets
religious, that's where he goes. He goes to the main road, isn't
it? That's where he sits. We find ourselves seated on the
main road, the broad road, the road most traveled, the road,
the Bible said, to destruction. And we all, like Bartimaeus,
sit there as beggars, because that's what we are. We're spiritual
beggars. And like this blind sinner, our
whole life could be summed up as mercy. You that are here this
morning who truly believe, to whom God has revealed something
of his glory to you in your salvation. When you look back over your
life, what do you see? If you had to sum it up, you'd
have to use the word grace or the word mercy, wouldn't you?
Paul said, what have you gotten that you haven't received? And if you received it, why do
you act like you didn't? Everything we have been given
to us, everything in eternity, providence and salvation been
given to us, it's the gift of God. Every drop of water, every
morsel of food, every grain of salt, the gift of God. The Bible
said in him we live and move and have our being. And old Bartimaeus sat by the
roadside fully dependent upon the mercy of God. And it doesn't
matter if you're a rich Zacchaeus or a blind pauper like Bartimaeus,
you're a spiritual beggar. Our money doesn't keep us from
being spiritual beggars. We're still beggars. And then secondly, I want you
to see that Bartimaeus went where he thought his needs could best
be met. Now in a natural sense, he said,
I need money, I need food, I need drink, I need clothes. Where
can I get those things? The main thoroughfare running
through Jericho is right here. It's well-traveled. Well, take
me up there. So they led him up there, and
he sat down on his blanket. He went to a place most frequented
by people, and he went where he thought he could best be seen.
He went where the majority went. Is that not the story of your
life? Boy, it is mine. And this is the case of most
folks that I've known. Their conscience begins to trouble
them. They head for the place where
they think their needs could best be met, and they'll go to
a big church somewhere. They'll go to a church that has
a name in the community, something their loved ones recommend. And it doesn't take long to find
these places. Modern churches are quick to
post the numbers of souls that they've saved, the number of
professions that they've gotten out of mostly children. Soul winners, they call them. But a man with spiritual needs,
he goes where those needs could be met. Bartimaeus had heard
something, and we'll get into this in a minute. He had heard
something about Jesus of Nazareth. And in my opinion, this old blind
beggar wanted to go up on that road because he knew sooner or
later if Jesus of Nazareth was gonna pass on that road. He might
have even heard how that he healed those blind men on his way in
to Jericho. But a man with spiritual needs,
he goes where those can best be met. He needs the truth. There come a time in my life
where I needed the truth. And I knew what was in those
churches out there, lies, deceit, quoting half verses of scripture,
twisting things around. A man with spiritual needs needs
the truth. Not only does he need the truth,
But he needs the power of God, not the persuasion of some Hollywood
evangelist. He needs the power of God. He
needs God to do a work in him, not just for him, but in him. He needs a son of God to pass
his way so he can call on his name. And blind sinners, spiritual
beggars, hungry and thirsty souls need what only God can give them. Where can such a person hope
to get these needs met? Well, the scripture said it pleased
God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. You believe that? You believe that? Or you think
you can just go home and get in your closet or go out in the
woods and get on a boat in the river out there on some isolated
lake God will speak to you out there, he'll take care of things.
I don't know if he will or not, but I can tell you this, what
he says in his word, and I don't have any other information about
God, but what he says in his word is it pleased God through
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Paul said, I thank God for you,
beloved. Talking about the Thessalonians,
he tells them in his first letter how he knew their election of
God. The gospel came in power, came
in the Holy Ghost, renewed their heart, made them examples of
grace, caused them to discard their idols and come to the living
God. worked in them a patient expectation
on the coming of Christ. They sounded out the gospel everywhere
they went. And then in 2 Thessalonians,
he said, I thank God for you, beloved, for God hath from the
beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of spirit
and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel. Now I'm gonna tell you something.
You wanna know something about God, you wanna be partaker of
that glorious work of God, go where God says the means are. Does that mean you have to come
here? Not necessarily. But you better find somebody
preaching the gospel and go sit down. Maybe, maybe, there's no
guarantee that he will, but maybe God will speak to you. If he hadn't spoke to the people
gathered there, they wouldn't be gathered. That's a good sign,
isn't it? God does speak. There's some
folks there. God does work. He's done something
for them. They keep coming back. Maybe he'll speak to you. And then the third thing I want you
to see And our text is that every blind beggar, when they hear
that Jesus is passing by, will cry out from their heart for
him to hear them. I don't know where Bartimaeus
got his information. It says two times in the other
Gospels that the Lord sent out So many preachers. I think he
said 120. Sent them out, two by two. And what he said was that he
sent them out into such places as he himself would go. Would he go through Jericho?
Yes, he would. Did he send some men out there
to preach to them? Yes, he did. Did Bartimaeus hear
them? Well, he heard. He heard. The Bible say, how shall you
hear without a preacher? Do I believe that those preachers
came and preached the gospel to Bartimaeus? Absolutely. Without
question. He preached to him. And that
man knew. Knew. They told him. He sent
us out to preach to prepare men and women because in all of these
places where he's gonna come. So that's where he went. Was he looking for clothes and
food? Yeah, but he was mainly looking for this Jesus of Nazareth
that he'd heard about, because if he'd give him some eyes, he
wouldn't need their clothes anymore. Fact is, when the Lord called
him, he took his garment and threw it down. Took it off. I know that what Bartimaeus heard
was true. I know that because when he called,
he called him Jesus of Nazareth. The scripture foretold Nazareth
as the place of his upbringing and he called him the son of
David. That's identifying him as the Messiah, the promised
one. To him give all the prophets
witness. No doubt he'd heard that this Jesus had given sight
to the blind because his faith didn't hesitate to ask for it. And his call was a call of desperation. Oh, how man's inhibitions, how
they take the back seat when this thing becomes a reality.
And nothing holds them back then. Everything else goes, well, you
know, they'll sit around for a while and they'll say, well,
I don't know what folks think about me if I do that. You know,
I'm kind of shy. He has all kinds of inhibitions,
but not when the Lord calls him. When he reveals to him what he
is and reveals to him his need and hears the answer to all his
needs, all his inhibitions take the back seat. Desperation takes the floor.
They couldn't shut him up. They didn't even know why he
wanted to, they probably thought he wanted some food and clothing
and everything and he wanted to be, They didn't know this
man was seeking to be saved. They didn't know this man was a sinner. He was a beggar. And they tried to shut him up.
But he cried out for more. A great deal more. They couldn't shut him up. And
normally a word would have silenced him. because he was dependent
on men. He couldn't afford to offend
people. That was a source of his income.
They couldn't shut him up. He could not, would not be silenced. He utterly refused to exercise
any kind of restraint. He saw this as an opportunity
given to him by God and he wasn't gonna waste it. You know what the scripture says?
I looked at this for years and didn't understand what it was
talking about. I think I've got a little bit of understanding
of it. He says in the book of Revelations, let him that is
a thirst come. You know what he's saying? Get
out of their way. Men want to restrain. Satan works
in men. He wants men to restrain you.
Isn't it something? You could go down here and join
the First Baptist Church, and your relatives wouldn't say a
word. They'd put their arm around you, they'd thank God for you. You go down to Methodist Church,
and your relatives that are Baptists will hug your neck, thank God
for you. But you tell them you're gonna
come down here and join the church, and they'll try everything, and
their power will talk you out of it. Am I telling the truth? Sure they would. Isn't that something,
how Satan works in men, trying to restrain you from coming to
Christ? These men didn't know they were
doing any harm, but they tried everything in their power to
keep Bartimaeus from getting to Christ. He said, let him that is a thirst
come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
Get out of his way. Don't be a hindrance. The Lord's
done a work in his heart, now leave him alone. Leave him to
do what the Lord's enabled him to do. And then fourthly, God
has ordained the means, so take advantage of it. In 2 Samuel
14, 14, it says, we must needs die. What are these means? It's the means of prayer. Well,
why should we pray? Everything's fixed. God's already
chosen his people, he's already ordained the means, why should
we pray? Because prayer is as ordained as the salvation of
sinners. That's why. And here it says,
in 2 Samuel 14, 14, it says, we must needs die, we're like
water spilled on the ground which cannot be gathered up again,
neither doth God respect any person. Yet doth he devise means
that is banished be not expelled from him. God ordained the means. And the greatest of these means
is Christ. His condescension as a man, his
death, his resurrection, his life. And without him, he told
us we can do nothing. And then prayer in Ezekiel 36,
the Lord spoke of rebuilding the ruined places. planting the desolate places.
And he said, I, the Lord, have spoken it, I'm gonna do it. Well,
that's the end of it, ain't it? Listen. Verse 33, I think it is, or 35,
I can't read my own writing. Thus saith the Lord God, I will
yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it
for them. Now he just said he was gonna
do it. And he swore by his own name that he was gonna do it.
But he said, I'm still gonna be inquired of you to do it. Can anything prevent the coming
of God's kingdom? No. Yet he commands us to pray. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done. And also preaching, how shall
you hear without a preacher? And then fifthly, there are discouragements
to overcome. Mark 10, 48, many charged him
that he should hold his peace, but he cried a great deal more. It's an undisputed fact that
every sinner that truly seeks the Lord will always find this
world attempting to hinder him from coming. Why is that? Well, in John's
first epistle, in chapter four, he gives several reasons. The
first is that they have the spirit of antichrist. That's the general
spirit that's in worldly religion. That's what he's talking about.
They have the spirit of antichrist. That simply means contrary to
Christ. Everything that they believe
is contrary to the Christ of scripture. And in verse five,
he gives this reason. Not only do they have the spirit
of antichrist, but they're of the world. They've got the nature
of their fallen father. They're partakers of his curse,
influenced by this world's philosophy and grounded in its lies. I'll
never forget these three painters. They'd been waiting for weeks
for me to come up and visit one of my members. He was building
a new house and they were in their drywall. Boy, as soon as
I come in the door, man, they pounced on me. He said, so you
don't, You don't believe that man is a free moral agent. I
said, well, I don't believe man's moral at all. I believe he's
a sinner. And I know he's not free. How
can he be free? He's a sinner. Sin dwells in
him. Sin possesses him. You walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air. He's not free, and I know he's
not moral. The only thing I can agree with is the fact that he's
an agent. He's responsible. This is the second reason why
they don't want you to come to Christ. They're of the world.
And then thirdly, in verse 8, 1 John chapter 4, it says they
don't know God. See, this is the problem. Men
think they know God. They think God smiles, God loves.
They think that's how God is. Can you imagine seeing that sticker
on the outside of the ark when the storms came? That little
smiley face? They don't know God. Their only
thing about his justice, his holiness, his righteousness,
his purposes, his eternality, and they know absolutely nothing
about his son. They don't know God. And those
God calls, he irresistibly calls, and all these obstacles are overcome
because, John said, greater is he that's in you than he that's
in the world. And then lastly, look at this
gracious command. He tells us in Mark 10, 49, Jesus
stood still and commanded him to be called. Now, I don't know
if you've ever thought about this, and I'm gonna have to quit.
I'm past my time. If God called you, his son commanded
for you to be called. And if he commands your calling,
you're gonna be called. And you're gonna come. Well,
you say, Bartimaeus exercised his free will. No, he was willing
in the day of God power. Because with the command comes
the ability to do it. And Paul goes on, I'm gonna be
preaching out of Colossians 1, he goes on there in Colossians
1 and said, he hath made us meet to be partakers with the heirs,
these enlightened heirs, these enlightened saints, those to
whom God has revealed his gospel. All right, thank you.