I want to use verses 21 through
26 of Mark chapter 8 as our text for the lesson this morning. Most of your Bibles over on the
side, you'll see it It'll tell you what's going on, the healing
of the blind man or whatever. And then it should give you a
few more references there. A lot of times it'll take you
back to Matthew or over to Luke or sometimes into John, wherever
that's recorded again. And you can read about it, get
a few more details concerning the event. In these verses Mark tells us
about the account of our Lord's return voyage to Bethsaida. He went over to Dalmanutha and
in God's providence was blocked and so he got back in the ship
and came back to Bethsaida and there was a man that was
brought to where he was and This man was blind. It doesn't
tell us anything at all about who brought him, if they were
believers or unbelievers. It doesn't say anything about it or the
man himself, if he sought to be there. But it does tell us
something about the mercy and grace of God toward this man
through his son and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there's
no greater privilege, I titled the lesson this morning, He Came
to Bethsaida. And there's no greater privilege
given to a town or a city or a country than to be visited
by the Son of God. I just, years ago, I was raised
in religion and came in contact through a witness,
was telling me, one of my old deacons there in the church,
and he said, there's a guy on TV every Sunday morning preaching
exactly what you preach, right during primetime Sunday morning.
And I said, there's nobody on TV preaching these things. Oh,
yeah. Yeah, he does, every Sunday. And so I stayed home and listened
to him. Sure enough, he did. So that Sunday evening, we attended
services up, and I met Henry Mahan. Well, he was almost like
a movie star to me. I mean, he was so far above anybody
that I knew in wisdom and the things of God and his knowledge
of the scripture. And like I said, he was on television
every Sunday, and everybody knew him. But when I first met him, just
a week or two after I'd met him, began to come to the church and
he asked me how I come in contact with him and how I come to know
these things and I was telling him about it. He called me and
he said, Doris and I would like to come down and visit with you.
Well boy, we were, I didn't know what to do. I mean, we didn't
have much money and Man, Kathy and I went to work, we was cutting
grass and trimming bushes and cleaning house and preparing
food. I mean, I counted that such a
privilege for this man to drive 50 miles down to my house to
visit with me that he'd only known for just a short period
of time. I was just absolutely overwhelmed with it. But suppose
the Son of God sent word to you They said, Walter, I'm going
to be over at your house today. Huh? You talk about overwhelmed. I'm going to be over at your
house today. That'd be a privilege above anything
else in this world, would it not? He cometh to Bethsaida. Our Lord said where two or three
are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst. But
I wonder how often when we think about gathering here on a Sunday
morning, a lot of people meet two or three times a week, we
meet here one time on Sunday morning. But how often do we
think about the Son of God and his presence being here? Huh? he cometh to Louisville. Isn't that what he's saying? If we're gathered in his name,
he's in our midst. He's promised that. And then
he told the 70 that he sent out, he sent them out to preach, and
I know they were floored when he told them this. He said, he
that heareth you, heareth me. And he that despiseth you, despiseth
me, and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me."
You see, I want you to get the impact of what he's saying here.
He came to Bethsaida. He came. He came to Dalmanutha,
but they didn't greet him, and they didn't look at him, and
they didn't account him as the son of God. Look around this country at known
grace churches, churches that preach the grace of God in truth,
who preach Christ crucified. Is there not a great vacuum all
around? Clear up through the middle of
this country, state after state after state. And to have the promised presence
of the Son of God is a great and wonderful privilege. Now
as we go through these verses, I want to try to apply these
things to our day in the preaching of the gospel and the presence
and power of the Spirit of God. Now the first thing I see is
we saw with the death man, is a man brought to Christ by the
providence of God. There's all sorts of things involved
in God's providence. It's complicated. You start to
look into it and it looks like a maze. And you certainly can't
see through it ahead. But even after you pastor it,
looking back on it, it's still, it's almost like a maze. But
God's providence is the open door that allows a poor sinner
to be brought to Christ. You think about it. He worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. God does. These things aren't just happening.
They're not just circumstantial. Well, as luck would have it,
no, that ain't how it is. He worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will. And his providence is the open
door that allows that sinner to be brought to Christ. And
in Dalmanutha, this providence shut the door. You know, before Paul, I'm gonna
talk about some of that here in a little bit, but before Paul,
before he came there to Philippi, God shut the door. He wanted
to go over there where Lydia lived. He didn't know Lydia,
but that's the city he wanted to go into, but God's providence
blocked it. Well, Lydia wasn't there anyway.
She was over here in Philippi. So he went over there, and Lydia
and her whole house was saved after hearing him, and so was
the Philippian jailer. and his whole house, and began
the foundation of that church. But in Dalmanutha, that providence
shut the door. And even so in Bethsaida, he
could have blocked the way, but he didn't. And I can't tell you
why our Lord is pleased to raise up churches where he does. I
don't know. I don't know why. Except to say,
as he said, I have much people in this place. He said, you continue
here. I have much people here. Or to say what he said, I must
need to go through Samaria. Now here's what our Lord said. He said, my father worketh hitherto
and I work. I don't know where. I don't know
where. I just know that he does. And
I know how that he does. What are you trying to say? I'm
trying to say this. There's spiritual and divine
powers at work here. I'm talking about in this text.
There's spiritual and divine powers at work. There's things
behind the scenes that you don't ever see and a lot of times we
don't even think about. I mean how often do you think
about the providence of God? Not very often. And yet that
very providence of God is the mesh of everything working together
for our good and the very door, the very opportunity that brought
us to Christ. There's eternal and changeable
purpose being fulfilled. Even as we speak here this morning,
but especially in our text, there's an invisible and powerful forces
employed there. And this is true today as much
as then. The Spirit of Christ is no more
working independently in our day than Christ was in His day.
Christ said, I didn't come to do my own will. I didn't come
to just do whatever pops in my head. I came to do the Father's
will that sent me. There's a purpose behind my coming. And there's a purpose behind
God's providence. Christ was carrying out the Father's
eternal will, and even so, the Spirit of Christ. And then secondly,
I see a poor blind man left to the mercy of God. What does it mean to be blind? Well, it means to go any distance,
I have to be led. I have to be led. I was caving one time. I used
to love to go into caves. And there's several places up
in Kentucky where there's a lot of caves and you can go in there
And back in that day, they'd let you go in there on your own.
They weren't marked, and you didn't have guides, and you could
just go back there and explore those caves. And we were about
an hour one day, way back under that mountain in a cave. And
my flashlight went out. And I thought, well, I'll just
stand here a minute. My eyes will get used to the
dark. They didn't. I'm telling you, when there's
no light, You can hold that hand right here, and you can't see
it. You might feel the heat radiate off of it, but you can't see
it. And I thought, how are we going to get out of here? And
I sat there and sat there and sat there. And finally, I decided
to just say, damn. And I smoothed me out a little
place right there next to him, and I took that flashlight apart
and kind of took my fingernail and cleaned them points on that
old flashlight and put them batteries back in. And it had a little
weak light, boy, and we were running to get out of that cave.
And just about time we got out, that light went out. To be blind
means there's no light. No light. Now God has put the
light of conscience in us. Tells us there is a God. And tells us he's active as God. But to go any kind of a distance,
I have to be led. Now you just think about that. A blind man sees nothing. He's
totally at the mercy of God. Everything he knows comes from
an outside source. You take a blind man and you
lead him in here and you say, this man's of God. How does he
know that? This man's reading from the Bible.
How does he know that? You see what I'm saying? Everything
this man considers it comes from an outside source. He's totally
shut up to the mercy of God. Blindness is a picture of that. It's a picture of the natural
man. He's blind. He can't see. Our Lord said,
if the light that be in thee be darkness, if all you ever
see is darkness, then how great is that darkness? Our Lord said, how great is that
darkness. Now here's a blind man and they
take him by the hand and they led him out and they said, you're
standing before Jesus of Nazareth. And my friends, millions have
led naturally blind men in the places in the buildings just
like this on a sunday morning on wednesday night or whenever
there's a meeting at revivals or whatever and they said you're
in the presence of god this man preaches the gospel but in truth it's another jesus
it's only by the mercy of god that poor blind sinners are actually
led to stand before God our Savior. And then thirdly, Christ took
our, He took that man, they led him up to Christ and then Christ
took him by the hand and led him away from them. Isn't that
something? Well you see in that, I see,
Christ saves men, not in religion, but out of it. He saves them
out of it. Now they may be used in the providence
of God to bring a sinner near, near to Christ. I was in religion
when the Lord began to work in me, but he didn't save me in
religion and he didn't save me by their gospel. The Lord took
me by the hand, the Spirit of God, ever how you want to say
it, and led me out. And that's what he does. He calls
us out of this world. He takes us by the hand. And
that's what our Lord did with this blind sinner. Here he is. Now who knows why they brought
him. I suspect, knowing where this was and what our Lord said
about it, he cursed Bethsaida. Woe unto thee, Bethsaida, for
their unbelief. And in my mind, when they brought
this sinner there, they just wanted to see a wonder. They
wanted to see a miracle. Our Lord said, religion is nothing
more than the blind leading the blind. That's what he said. They
may be used in the providence of God to bring a poor sinner
near to the gospel, but then he or she will be led out of
that place by the hand of our Lord where he alone will receive
all the glory in their salvation. And we do what we do. and what
we can to publish the gospel, but in the end it's Christ who
leads poor sinners to the place where he's purposed to do his
work. And that's what he did with this
sinner. All right. Fourthly, Christ refused to use
the means that men requested of him to use. And there's no
doubt in my mind that sometime in the past they watched him
or they heard from others that he touched people. And so they
assumed that that's what he would do with anybody that they brought.
He'd touch them. And then, of course, they formulate
this thing in their head and get all sensual about it and
what this touching is and go through all kinds of stuff. But
they brought him up there, and the Lord just took him by the
hand. As far as I can tell, he didn't say anything to them.
He just turned around and let him out there. Clear out of Bethsaida. Took him out in the country.
Got away from everybody. It doesn't even say his disciples
were there. He led this man out. And they requested that he touch
this sinner, which he did. But the first thing he did is
spit in his face. Said he spit on his eyes. Now there was a time when God
spoke to our fathers through all sorts of means. He tells
us that in Hebrews chapter one. Personal revelations, dreams,
visions, out of fiery clouds, out of burning bushes. One time
he even spoke through an ass. Henry wrote an article one time
and said sometimes he still does. But it says in these last days
he speaks unto us by his son. The testimony of God concerning
his son is complete, his work is finished, and it's clearly
revealed in the word of God. And while religion would go on
with their ceremonial washings and their anointings and their
individual revelations, it's Christ that dictates where, when,
and how. And he tells us that in the scriptures. Now, if it was just a man speculating,
saying, well, I think the Lord uses the preaching of the gospel,
and I think he does this, and I think he does that, then you
could just put it on the shelf with the rest of the speculation.
But when Christ says, this is what I do, then we need to take
heed. Because he's the one doing the
work. So instead of this touchy show,
our Lord led this man aside and spit in his face. But isn't that
what happens when Christ leads a poor sinner to a gospel church? He's expecting, we had a guy
came in the old building down there one night, a friend of
we. And he done had it in his mind how he was gonna pray a
prayer and everybody was gonna lay their hand on him and then
he was gonna be saved. He was gonna make his decision
and he was gonna make this big show and then he was gonna go
home and tell everybody what a wonderful thing he did for
Jesus. And I told him, no. I said, what
you gonna do is just sit there and be quiet and see what the
Lord's gonna do. We'll see what he's gonna do. Everybody on the outside expects
this gentle touch, this touchy show. But instead, they get spit
on. It's like being spit on when
you're first told all your righteousnesses are as filthy rags. That's that
old leper's cloth filled with pus and blood and stinking rag,
and he has to hold it over his face, and he says, unclean, unclean. It's like a menstrual cloth.
It's unclean. That's your righteousnesses.
That's not your sins that you think about over here. This is
your righteousnesses. This is your best prayer you
ever prayed. This is all your church attendance.
This is the best gift you ever gave. Filthy rags. Abomination in the sight of God.
I tell you, it's like being spit in the face. That preacher stands up and says
man at his best state is altogether vanity. And people start picturing
old grandpa, old uncle so and so, favorite old aunt or whoever
it was that they've looked up to over the years. Man at his
best state. Altogether vanity. None good. Oh, he was such a good man. None
good. None righteous. None that seeketh after God.
And none that understand it. Well, I just sat down, read the
Bible, and figured it out. You're a liar. And none that
understand it. But isn't that like being spit
in the face when that preacher stands up and tells you that,
and you've never heard that before? Man, that's offensive. Is it not like being spit in
the face to hear your traditional religion is nothing but Antichrist? That church he was raised in
was so fond of that pastor and so fond of those brothers and
sisters down there. A man stands up and tells you that's
Antichrist. Satan's their father. They don't
know God. And then to learn that all your
years of service was to Satan and not God. The works of your father you
do. That's what our Lord told those Jews. And then, to find
out that your will, that's the, boy, you've been cradling that.
That's like a jar full of egg money, boy, you've been caught
on that. I got a free will, I have a will
in this thing, I've got a choice in this thing, I can decide And
then you find out that all that will that you've cherished so
long has been in bondage to your nature and it's not free at all.
Like being spit in the face. And then to find out what you
used to call the love of God was just enmity. It was just
enmity. When the Lord touched this blind
sinner, he touched him and spit on him. When the Lord touches
a man, that's the first thing he does. This is just like a
smack in the face. He tells him the truth and it's
offensive to him. It cuts him to the bone. And
every blind sinner is a proud rebel who must come to know who
and what he is. First thing the Lord does. When
the Holy Spirit's come, he's gonna convince men of this. What's the first thing? Sin. Sin. Sin ain't what we thought
it was. It wasn't what we thought it was. I knew that sin was a
transgression of the law. Anybody with no sense to read
the book can know that. It's a transgression of the law.
But sin is not so much what you do as it is what you are. If
you wasn't what you are, you wouldn't sin. And I don't try intentionally
to offend any man, but the gospel of God's sovereign grace in Christ
is offensive. It's offensive. Job said this
about man. He said, behold, even the moon
and it shineth not, yea, the stars are not pure in his sight.
How much less man that is a worm. Now you look that up in your
concordance and it gives one definition to that word worm,
maggot. And when you see the variation,
you look at it, it says wiggling maggot. It ain't just a maggot
laying there, it's an active maggot feeding on corruption. I'm telling you, the gospel sometimes
is just like being spit in the face of this blind man. But then our Lord asked him after
he spit on him and touched him, he said, can you say, what do
you say? They said, I see men like trees. Like stick people. They kind
of all look the same. And I see them, they're walking. They're walking. But what does
Ephesians 1 say about that dead sinner walking? He walks according
to the course of this world. He walks according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit who now worketh in the
children of disobedience. They're all walking. but they're
not walking like they think they're walking. And he saw men. He didn't see them in detail. He didn't see a lot of differences,
but he saw men all the same. He saw them like trees. When spiritual sight begins,
it recognizes all men the same, all men walking, but can't discern
individuals in particular. He saw them walking, but they
all walked the same. But then our Lord touched him
a second time. He didn't spit on him twice.
He spit on him the first time he touched him. And then the
second time, he just touched him and told him, look up. And
he did. And then he saw all men clearly,
seen them clearly. It's by the touch of Christ and
the sight of Christ that every detail of man is clearly seen. And then fifthly, and I'll be
brief on this, when Christ healed this poor sinner, he took him
away from others. He separated him as an individual. It was just Christ and the blind
man. When the Lord does a work in
men, he does it individually. Now I tell you, that night when
Paul preached, he not only saved the Philippian jailer, but he
saved his whole house. But he saved every one of them
individually. They all heard, they were all
convicted, they all believed. Every last one of them. And it's
a mistake when you start talking about our faith. Talk about your
faith. Our experience, no, yours. Yours. Y'all may see alike, hear alike,
and feel alike, but what they hear and see and feel, they receive
from him, not as a whole house, but as individuals. My sister, myself, and my brother-in-law,
all converted just about the same time. But the Lord dealt
with us one-on-one, one-on-one. And God always deals with a man
one-on-one. Well, may the Lord be pleased
to use these things for our benefit.