It is a sad fact that we often
fail to appreciate great privileges that we have until they're lost.
At Psalm, when she read, David had been banished because of
his fleeing from Saul from the house of God, and he found him
envious of the sparrows who built their nest on God's altar. How
amiable are thy tabernacles, how blessed we are to meet together
in this place in the name of our God. Would to God we would
come to every service expecting great things from Him. Turn with
me, if you will, to Mark's Gospel, the eighth chapter. Mark's Gospel,
chapter eight. Here the Spirit of God has recorded
for us the history of one of our Savior's miracles that is
mentioned only here in Mark chapter 8. Matthew, Luke, and John tell
us nothing about this. Only Mark was inspired to record
it. Now, none of our Lord's miracles were accidental things or just
representations of supernatural power over physical things. Every
miracle performed by the master was designed by God to teach
us something about his saving operations of grace in behalf
of his elect. On this occasion, we see a blind
man who was healed gradually by degrees. This is the only
place in scripture where we find such a healing performed. That
fact alone ought to cause us to expect something highly significant
and instructive. Let's read the event together. Mark chapter 8, verse 22. He cometh to Bethsaida, and they
bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. And
he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the
town. And when he had spit on his eyes,
and put his hands upon him, He asked him if he saw aught, if
he saw anything. And he looked up and said, I
see men as trees walking. After that, he put his hands
again upon his eyes and made him look up, and he was restored
and saw every man clearly. And he sent him away to his house,
saying, neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town. Now obviously this is a picture
given to us by God the Holy Spirit of how God saves chosen redeemed
sinners by the power of his omnipotent grace. I pray that God will be
pleased to take us by the hand as he did this blind man and
give us sight to see our Savior. And I pray that he will do that
for you who yet know him not. having eyes see not, may he be
pleased tonight to give you eyes to behold him. First we read
in verse 22, he cometh to Bethsaida. Bethsaida was a small fishing
village, the home of Andrew, Peter, and Philip. The Lord Jesus
came here on an errand of mercy. Back in verse 13 we read that
our Savior left the Pharisees. What solemn words we read there,
and he left them. He left them in judgment because
they would not believe his word. He left them, left them to themselves,
left them alone. But he came to Bethsaida on an
errand of mercy, seeking one of his lost sheep for whom the
time of love had come, a poor blind man who must now receive
his sight. Whenever the time of mercy has
come, when God will save a sinner, the Lord Jesus comes to the sinner. The work always begins with God,
never with us. You come to Christ only when
Christ has come to you. You look to Him only when He
has looked to you. You turn to him only when he
has turned you to himself. You seek him only when he seeks
you. Salvation is of the Lord. The
Lord Jesus came to Bethsaida on an errand of mercy and they
bring a blind man unto him and besought him to touch him. Here
is a blind man brought to the Lord Jesus by his friends. Here is a blind man brought to
the Lord Jesus by his friends. Now, here are three simple things
Mark tells us, important, instructive things. First, the man was blind. Blind. As such, he was a representative
of all human beings by nature. The natural, unregenerate man
is blind. Doesn't matter whether he's religious
or irreligious, educated or uneducated, very smart or very slow. All human beings are spiritually
blind. I can't stress that adequately,
either for you who are blind or for you who now see. The natural
man is blind. He has absolutely no spiritual
knowledge. No spiritual understanding, no
spiritual sight, he cannot see the things of the kingdom of
God. This poor man didn't have so much as a faint, glimmering
ray of light until the Lord Jesus touched him. And that's exactly
the case with all men naturally. There is none that understandeth,
none that understandeth anything about God. none that understandeth. Because no man by nature understands
anything spiritual, there is none that seeketh after God. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him.
Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
The natural man reads this Bible, Sometimes he memorizes the Bible,
he goes to church, he goes to religious exercises, he learns
doctrine, he learns creeds, he learns confessions, he learns
Bible history, but he can't understand anything written in the book.
Now, when you witness to folks, learn that and it'll help you.
I urge you to witness to folks. Don't argue with them. Witness
to them don't debate the things of God with them witness to them.
Don't try to prove anything to them. Tell folks the truth Go
like our Lord told the gathering go to go home and tell your neighbors
what wondrous things God's done for you But don't try to argue
folks into the kingdom of God It can't be done and don't get
too upset with folks because they can't see I I've never gotten
upset with a blind person because he couldn't see How many times
have you run up on someone who was perhaps holding things up
and you're in a hurry? Only you get to them and see
that they're walking with one of those white canes with a red
end on it and you're like, oh my, he's blind. He's blind, no
point in being upset with that, he's blind. If you take a blind
man out and lift his face to the sun and start to describe
it to him, don't get upset because he can't see. He can't see. This past week had a young lady
going to Bible college who got very upset with me after I got
done preaching Well, she got upset when I first started preaching.
She just stayed around to let me know but got real upset got
real upset and wanted to argue things and Tried to reason with
her shows things from Scripture and she couldn't say She just
couldn't say she just couldn't say I That's what you expect
from a blind man. They understand nothing about
God, nothing about themselves, nothing about salvation, nothing
about the grace of God. This poor soul didn't have the
least ability to see anything until the Lord touched it. So
it is with all by nature. You who are without Christ, who
is a lone light, live in darkness, utter darkness. You have no sight. You can't see. You can't see
the kingdom of God. You can't see the things of God.
You're blind. You're poor, miserable, naked,
and wretched, but you can't see it because you're blind. The
Son of God is set forth evidently crucified before your very eyes
in the preaching of the gospel, but you can't see him because
you're blind. God's salvation is displayed
with just utter clarity, with utter clarity. The Gospels preach
with simplicity, so simple that a child believing God understands. But you can't see because having
eyes you see not, you're blind. This poor blind man's friends
then brought him to the master. We're not told that this blind
man believed anything. We're not told that he expected
anything from the Lord at all. He seems to have come to the
place where the master was simply because his friends persuaded
him to come. Oh, what a lesson there is there.
What a blessed man he was to have such friends. He didn't
know the Savior, but they did. He didn't believe on the Lord
Jesus. friends did and he would never
have come to Christ but his friends brought him. His friends brought
him. Oh, I urge you my brothers and
sisters, I urge you be here yourself to worship God. Be here for every
service. Doesn't matter whether I'm preaching
or someone else is preaching, be here for every service. Well,
I don't get much out of his preaching. If you don't get anything out
of it, be here so somebody else will see you sitting here. Be
here for every service. For some folks, all they know
about the things of God is you. You neglect the house of God,
you leave your family to neglect the house of God. Be here yourself.
I recall reading years ago, There was a Welsh lady who used to
go hear Philip Doddridge every time she had an opportunity to
go, and she couldn't speak English. She just spoke Gaelic. And someone
asked her, why do you go hear him? You don't understand his
language. She said, no, I don't understand
his language, but he talks about Christ so often. He mentions
his name so often, it does me good just sitting here to hear
the name of my Savior. Be in the house of God and worship
him. Do your utmost to bring others
to hear the gospel. This man had some friends who
knew the master. And they knew the master, if
he would, could heal this blind man. And they knew that there
was never a man brought in the presence of the Lord Jesus who
needed healing who wasn't healed. So they brought him to the place
where the master was. Having done all that they could
do, this blind man's friends besought the Lord Jesus to touch
him. They couldn't heal him, but they
knew Christ could. The blind man, it appears, didn't
have sense enough to pray for himself, so his friends prayed
for him. Imagine that. Imagine that. You persuade your neighbor to
come hear the gospel with you, and your neighbor comes just
because he feels a little pressure from you to come. He comes just
because you persuaded him to come, and he Not really happy
to be here, but he comes and hears the gospel and you pray
that God will be pleased to give him sight. He doesn't have enough
sense to pray, but you pray and the Lord takes him by the hand
and touches him. His friends prayed for him. His
friends brought him to the master. Blessed is the man who has such
friends. Blessed is the man who is such
a friend. Oh God, make me such a friend. Now, look at verse 23. Here we
see our Savior performing His operation of grace upon this
man in a most unusual way. We have no other picture like
this in all the Word of God. He performs this work of grace
gradually and He does it in private. This is intended to teach us
some things we need to learn and remember. This is what the
Son of God does for sinners in the saving operations of His
grace when He turns them from darkness to light. Verse 23,
He 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 anything,
if he saw all. First, the master took this man
by the hand. That was itself an act of great
condescension. But here's a far greater act
of condescension. One day he took me by the hand. He took me by the hand as my
surety in old eternity, and taking me by the hand, separated me
from the rest of the human race by sovereign election and particular
redemption. And then at the time appointed
when he would make himself known to me, called the time of love,
the God of all grace stooped to take me by the hand in effectual
calling. And I'm here to tell you, if
he takes you by the hand, he will open your blind eyes. If
he takes you by the hand, He'll never let you go. If he takes
you by the hand, you're perfectly safe. No man, he said, can pluck
you from my hand. If he takes you by the hand in
time, he took you by the hand before time began. When the Lord
Jesus takes a sinner by the hand, he becomes their guide and leader. John Gill said, a better and
safer guide they cannot have. He brings them by the way they
know not, and leads them in paths they had not known before, makes
darkness light before them, and crooked things straight, and
does not forsake them. Next, the Savior took him by
the hand and led him out of the town. You remember in Hosea 2,
when the Lord God gives us a picture of his love for his elect. He
tells Hosea to go love a woman. And Hosea says to Gomer, I will
allure thee unto me in the wilderness, and will speak comfortably unto
thee. The Lord Jesus has a way of getting
his elect alone with himself. He may do so in a huge crowd. He may do so in a small gathering. He may do so at the dinner table.
He may do so in the lonely watches of the night when you are alone
in your bed at night by yourself. But he has a way of getting his
own alone, away from the world, alone to himself. That story
in John chapter 8 of the adulterous woman, they brought her to the
master. And Moses said, Killer, what
do you say? And the Lord got rid of her accusers,
and Jesus was left alone with the woman. Oh, now we see God
working. Oh, the Lord God, our Savior,
brings His elect into the wilderness alone with Himself. And He does
so to speak comfortably, to speak to their heart. to speak grace
to them. He led this blind man out of
the town because he wasn't interested in the town, just in this one
man. Now that's a hard pill for some
folks to swallow, but not for this man to swallow. He led him
out of the town because he was interested only in this one blind
man. He didn't want the applause of
the people of Bethsaida. That meant nothing to him. What
he wanted was the heart of this chosen sinner. The people of
Bethsaida, because of their unbelief, were declared in Matthew 11,
21 to be unworthy even to witness the wondrous works of Christ.
What a declaration. Because of their unbelief, He
said he would do no more miracles among them. They were unworthy
even to witness him performing his works of grace and kindness.
So he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of town. When the Son of God saves people,
he always calls them out to himself. In our scripture reading, the
last two days have been the last four chapters of the book of
Jeremiah. You read the chapters and God speaks about false religion. He speaks of false religion under
the emblem of Babylon, the great whore. And he always calls his
elect out of the world's religion to himself. Come out and be you
separate, saith the Lord, and I will be a father unto you.
come out of Babylon, and the Lord Jesus graciously calls His
elect out of the religious nonsense unto Himself that's found in
this world. He calls us outside the camp
of worldly ambition, calls us the sinner chosen by His grace
whose heart has always been set just on things on the earth,
now to be set upon Him. He calls us outside the camp
of riotousness and revelry and sin into the camp of grace and
truth and righteousness. And he calls us out of the camp
unto himself. Oh, I pray that he will do that
for you who yet know him not. Oh, may he call you out unto
himself. Can you imagine how elated How
delighted, how thrilled, how excited this man's friends were
when they saw the master stretch out his hand and take this blind
man. That's what we wanted. That's
why we brought him. Now the master has taken him
in hand. They saw him stretch out that
arm, which they knew was the arm of omnipotence, omnipotent
mercy, love, and grace, and they were thrilled. Now, watch this.
The next thing our Savior did, if he had allowed anyone to see
it, if anyone had seen it, they would have looked upon his work
as something utterly despicable, contemptible, and foolish. When
he had spit on his eyes, he spit on this man's eyes. He spit on
his eyes. What can be more contemptuous
in the outward display than for someone to spit right in your
face? I've only had it happen once,
and I knocked him to the ground. I was just a boy, spit in my
face, and I knocked him to the ground. But the master spit on
this man's eyes, and two things he did. He displayed the necessity
of this man being stripped and he stands before the Lord God
humbled by the spit on his eyes. And he does it because he used
the spit of his mouth to heal the man. Why did he do it? Some suggest that it was a common
medical practice. Doctors believe that there was
healing medicinal power in human saliva. Doctors have believed
a lot of nonsense. And so the Lord, they say, used
the ordinary medical means to heal this man of his blindness
and contributed his divine power to the medical means. Needless
to say, that's nonsense. Now hear this and hear it well.
The Son of God did not employ falsehood to give sight to the
blind. And the Son of God still does
not employ falsehood to give sight to the blind. People have
the idea that religion is good. The worst thing on this earth
is religion outside Christ. The worst thing that can happen
to you is for you to become religious and not know Christ. The worst
thing that can happen to you is for you to attend some synagogue
of Satan. Call it Baptist, Catholic, Methodist,
Pentecostal, call it what you will, where Christ is not worshipped. Oh, no, no. The Son of God does
not use falsehood to give light, to give sight to the blind. But
our all-wise Savior did choose, and He still chooses. to use
terribly despicable means to perform his work of grace upon
this poor blind man. God has chosen the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. God has chosen the foolishness
of gospel preaching to save them that believe. I have the blessed
privilege of giving my life to this this blessed work. And I
go wherever God opens a door, wherever God gives opportunity.
I use whatever means is at my disposal, whether it's recorded
message, preaching publicly in the pulpit, writing, writing
letters, writing tracts, writing books, writing articles, writing
hymns, whatever means I have the ability to use, I have the
blessed privilege of using what I have at my disposal to preach
the gospel of God's free grace by which God has ordained the
salvation of His elect. And I preach the gospel with
just that expectation. I know His word shall not return
to Him vain. It will accomplish what He has
purposed, and it will bring forth fruit to His glory in the saving
of His elect, wherever they're found. God has chosen the foolishness
of gospel preaching to save His elect. The spit of our Savior's
lips represents that eye salve of the gospel with which the
Son of God anoints the eyes of the blind, we're told in Revelation
318. Now, look back at our text. After spitting on the man's eyes,
the Lord Jesus put his hands upon him. The touch of his hand
is the symbol of omnipotent grace, without which the means of grace,
the preaching of the gospel, is utterly useless. Rock Barnard
used to say, and say often, if the only voice you hear is my
voice, it will profit you nothing. We preach the gospel, but all
we can do is declare God's truth. Only God can speak to you. Only God can speak to the heart. Only God can cause his word to
be effectual to you. And our Savior, touching this
man's eyes, speaks of the omnipotent power of God going forth in the
preaching of the gospel. As our Lord Jesus spit on the
blind man's eyes, he took his own infinitely efficacious life
and health out of himself and imparted it to this poor blind
man. Do you remember when God created
Adam? He made man out of the dust of the
ground. And the scripture says, God breathed into his nostrils
and man became a living soul. What a picture of God's saving
grace. The Lord Jesus breathes the breath
of life into dead sinners from himself. He gives his spirit
to dead sinners and causes them to live by the power of his grace. That's what he's done for us,
isn't it? In the new birth, he puts his life in us, makes us
new creatures, makes us partakers of the divine nature, and lives
in us. So that every child of God can
speak truthfully, saying, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation
this. Christ liveth in me. That's what he does for sinners
by the omnipotent touch of grace. Look back at our text again.
We had before us a picture of our Lord's sovereignty in the
exercise of His grace. Now let me milk this a little
bit. We all try to put God in our
box. But God won't fit in your box
or mine. God never operates like we think
he should. He never limits himself and he
cannot be limited by men. He heals some men gradually,
others immediately. Some with spit and some without
any spit. I say that to say this, all saved
sinners, every saved sinner trusts the same Savior. Every saved
sinner experiences the same grace. Every saved sinner believes the
same gospel. But we do not all experience
the grace of God the same way. In fact, I believe, I'm safe
to say, and I can show you by example from Scripture, No two
believers experience God's grace exactly the same way. This comes
as a shock to some, but God just doesn't deal with everybody the
same. I stress this because it's important. We have a way, just
something about humanity. We start to think about spiritual
things and we think we've got to find an example and we will
pattern our lives after the example. Folks used to have testimony
meetings. I don't care much for them, where
folks get up and brag about what God's done for them. But after
a little while, you'd hear one fellow start to repeat the same
thing the other fellow said, because it sounded good and impressive. Don't ever try to mold yourself
into the image of any other man, no matter how much you admire
that man or that woman. Don't do that. Seek rather to
be molded by the grace of God into the image of Christ. We're
told in the New Testament of at least five men who were blind,
all of whom the Savior healed. We won't read them tonight for
the sake of time, but I'll give you the references. I read them
all again this afternoon. Matthew chapter 9. Mark chapter
10, Luke chapter 18, and John chapter 9. Matthew 9, Mark 10,
Luke 18, and John 9. Of these five men, three were
healed by a mere word from the master without him ever touching
them. One was healed by the Savior
spitting in his eyes and touching his eyes. Another was healed
by the Savior spitting on the ground and making clay and putting
the clay on his eyes. All five cases, there are certain
things that were done differently. All five cases, there are certain
things that were just done differently. So it is with God's elect. The Apostle Paul, Saul of Tarsus. Oh! What a glorious salvation
he experienced. God struck him down, unhorsed
him, laid him on his back, the sun shone as the noonday sun
and he heard a voice from heaven speaking, oh, what a glorious,
glorious salvation. Let me tell you about another
one. There was a woman by the name of Lydia. And that same
man, Paul, came and opened the scriptures and reasoned with
her out of the scriptures. And the Lord opened her heart. She was just by the riverside
with a group of women who came on the Sabbath day to read the
scriptures and Paul came and reasoned with her out of the
scriptures. And the Lord opened her heart.
No brilliant light from heaven. No casting her down on the ground. No voice from heaven. Lord just
opened her heart. Oh, that's glorious salvation.
When God saves a sinner it is glorious salvation. But He does
His work with each one as He will. It would be foolish for
Lydia to suppose that she wasn't really one of God's children
because she hadn't gone through the experience that Saul of Tarsus
went through. It would be foolish for Paul
to to say, well, I can't be a child of God, because God didn't deal
with me like He did Lydia. It would be foolish for these
five blind men to think of themselves, I can't see, because God didn't
give me sight the same way He did others. They knew better.
Though they were blind, they saw. And so it is with God's
elect. After he touched the blind man's
eyes, the Savior asked him if he could see anything. And he
looked up, verse 24, and said, I see men as trees walking. Boy, that doesn't seem like much,
does it? I see men as trees walking. I recall when Faith was nine
years old, we were living out in Junction City, we hadn't been
in Danville very long, and her school teacher, Myra Mundy, told
us, said, Faith seems to have trouble seeing. She squints an
awful lot, and she's sitting right on the front row. And so
we took her to the eye doctor, and she had trouble seeing. She
came home with some glasses, and she's standing at the back
door of the house, and she looked out and said to her mother and
I, she said, I never knew trees had lots of leaves. They just
looked like a big green blob to her. For the first time, she
could distinguish leaves on the tree. All those nine years, all
she saw was just green blob on the tree. That's all she could
see. This blind man opened his eyes and saw men as trees walking. That doesn't seem to be much
unless you've been blind all your life. Oh, can you imagine
the thrill of his soul? I see men as trees walking. When the Lord God saves a sinner,
that sinner is immediately translated from darkness to light. Every
saved sinner sees the kingdom of God, but we don't immediately
see everything in the kingdom of God. When the Son of God who
came to give light to this spiritually blind sinner, my experience of grace was much
like that of the blind man in our text. First, the Savior spit
in his eyes and touched them. As a result of the Savior's gracious
work, when he looked up, he saw men as trees walking. His sight was imperfect and the
objects were obscure, but the first time in his life he could
see. That's often the way it is with
newborn babes in the family of God. They may not see much and
may not see very clearly, but they see. I shouldn't say they
may not, they don't see much. And they don't see very clearly,
but they can see. And sadly, they think they see
everything perfectly real clearly and become authorities on things
about which they know nothing. And they speak like college boys
in ivory palaces, you know, they've got everything lined out just
exactly right. They see, but they don't see
very clearly. though you may not see as clearly
as you wish. If you see men as trees walking,
it's beyond doubt evident that the Lord God has given you eyes
to see. You see, eyes, seeing eyes, are
the result of Him giving life. If I see the Lord Jesus as my
all-sufficient, complete Savior, trusting Him alone, I'm born
of God. For seeing is just another way
of saying believing. Look unto me, and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth. To see Christ, to look to Christ,
is to believe Him. And as the book of God speaks,
that is the evidence of life. The evidence of salvation, the
evidence of salvation, the evidence of salvation is not something
that you do. The evidence of salvation is
believing. Our Lord Jesus somebody said and said by this shall all
men know that you're my disciples because you love one another
We know others by their love for us We observe men loving
one another and that tells us they're the Lord's disciples
But if you think your love for me Are your love for your neighbor? Are your love for anybody else
is evidence of spiritual life? I challenge you to look carefully
at your love. Because what we call love doesn't
come close to being compared with that love which is described
for us in 1 Corinthians 13. Does it? Does it? Beareth all things, believeth
all things, hopeth all things, is not puffed up, is not easily
provoked. Which of you knows your own experience
of love, that kind of love? Anybody? Anybody? If you should
raise your hand, I'd tell you you don't know God and you don't
know yourself. Oh, no, no, no. Well, how does
a man know he's truly saved by God's grace? Faith is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. I know that
my name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the world
began in sovereign election because I believe on the Son of God.
I know that Jesus Christ died in my place at Calvary because
I believe on the Son of God. I know that I've been called
by God the Holy Spirit because I believe on the Son of God. And I don't know any way to to
preach honestly except to be honest. I don't often feel very
close to Him. I don't often feel very spiritual. I don't often feel things I wish
I felt. Not often. I come here three
times a week begging God to melt my icy heart. to break my hard
heart, to cause me to worship Him in spirit and in truth, because
that's the way I am most of the time. And the Lord keeps us that
way. People talk about living on the
mountain underneath the starry sky. Not me. Not me. I live in the valley, looking
up. But I'll tell you something about
the valley. Things grow in the valley. They never grow on the
mountaintop. The mountains we have in the
east, they can grow up there, but they're not very high. You
get out there where Rex was and try to find something on top
of the mountain. The air is thin and you get kind of dizzy. Nothing
grows very high. Our Savior is found riding on
a white horse in the midst of his churches in the valley of
myrtle trees. That's where God keeps his people. ever looking up. Whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. This I know. I believe that Jesus
of Nazareth is the Christ of God. And God says I'm born of
God. That's what God says. I long
to see more of him and to see him more plainly. But the sight
I now have is the blessed gift of God to my soul. And the fact
that I now see begets in me the lively hope that he who has begun
a good work of grace in me will perform it to perfection. Robert
Hawker made this observation. The way to appertain or to ascertain
the reality of spiritual life is not unsimilar, that is, it's
not unlike what is done in doubtful cases in respect to natural life. It is a sure sign of life if
the body can feel, though other symptoms of health may be suspended.
There's a vast difference, he says, between deadness and death. If a man can speak, he cannot speak, and yet is conscious
of what others say, he has life. If a man cannot speak and yet
he can take food, he has life. If he can't take food but he
can still move, he has life. If he can't move and yet he can
breathe, he has life. And in like manner, the soul
that is breathing after Jesus, though he does not move, has
life. He's looking up like this poor
creature and he seeth, all that he seeth is imperfect. But Jesus
will do by him as by this blind man. He will put his hand upon
him again and that leap will make him behold every object
clearly. Back seven years ago after the
last major surgery I had, I went through a period of time when
the doctors and nurses all presumed I was totally unaware of what
was going on around me. I couldn't speak. I couldn't speak. I couldn't speak any more than
any man who was absolutely dead. But I heard everything they said.
I heard every word they said. I remember on the first occasion,
The nurse said, when he comes out of this, he said to Shelby,
he won't remember any of this. I remember her saying it. Remember
it distinctly. I had life, but I couldn't speak. The life didn't seem like much,
but I had life. And the blind man who saw me
in his trees walking could see. He could see. When God first
saved me, I knew whom I believed. But I didn't know much about
him. I knew that the Lord Jesus is my God and Savior. But I didn't
know anything about eternal sonship. I didn't know anything about
the three persons of the Holy Trinity. I was convinced of my
sin. But I didn't know the difference
between iniquity, transgression, and sin. I was convinced that
Christ had brought in everlasting righteousness for me and that
I had no righteousness but Him, but I didn't have a clue what
imputed righteousness was or imparted righteousness. I was
convinced that judgment was finished by the judgment of my sin in
Christ my substitute. I had no fear of condemnation,
but I didn't know a thing about suretyship, covenant grace, or
electing love and divine predestination. I knew that it was God who saved
me. The salvation is of the Lord,
but I didn't know a thing about God's decrees. Every now and
then I get a letter or somebody will ask me in a conversation,
what is your lapsarian position? For you who don't know, you don't
need to know what all that is, but it's a theological term referring
to theological nonsense. But if somebody had asked me
about my lapsarian position, I'd have said I don't know anybody
from Blackland. That's all I knew. Had no concept of the theological
things. If someone had asked me about
election, I probably would have said I'm not old enough to vote.
This is what I'm saying. I knew my Savior, but I really
knew very little about Him and very little about how He had
saved me. I could say with the blind man
our Lord healed in John 9, once I was blind, but now I see. Once I was blind, but now I see. I didn't see much. All I saw
was like seeing men as trees walking. And I said all that
to say this, let us never despise the day of small things. Not
in yourself and not in others. I told one of the members of
the congregation, where Brother Frank Hall is pastor, this past
week he came up to North Wilkesboro. I said, I remember when Frank first started
coming to services, and just shortly after I baptized him,
he would talk about a lot of stuff, ask a lot of questions,
and got a little bit annoying. Got a little bit annoying, until
Shelby said, yeah, he reminds me a whole lot of you. He reminds
me a whole lot of you. God saves sinners, and he deals
with each of his elect, gradually teaching them by his grace. And then our Lord Jesus, oh,
thank God, he's God of the second touch. He touched the man again. and said, look up now. And he
saw every man clearly. It's been 10 or 15 years ago,
Brother Rex Bartley read this portion of scripture one night
from the pulpit and made this observation. I don't think I'll
ever forget it. He said, when the Lord gives
a man sight to see clearly, he sees every man clearly. The first
man, Adam, our fallen father. he sees clearly. The second man,
the last Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ, our covenant head, he
sees clearly. The natural man, dead in trespasses
and in sins, corrupt within, corrupt without, he sees clearly. And the new man, made a new creature
in Christ Jesus, created in righteousness and in true holiness, he sees
clearly. Oh, may God open your eyes and
cause you to see. And may God continually touch
us by his grace that we may see clearly. Oh, that I may know him, Paul wrote. Bobby, he had known him for a
long time. He had known him for a long time. He said, I want
to know him. I want to know him. I've had the privilege of spending
my life as an adult studying this book every day. By your
generosity, I'm able to spend my days and nights studying scripture. I don't have to go out and work
with my hands for a living, and I thank you for that. But every time I open this book,
Mark, it gets bigger. It just gets bigger. Oh my, how
little I know. I want to know Him. I want to
know my Redeemer experientially in the fellowship of His sufferings
and in the power of His resurrection being made conformable unto His
death in all things. And I want that for you. Thank
God for crossing my path and giving me eyes to behold my Savior. And thank God for every instrument
He's used to cause me to see more clearly. And thank God for
grace that continually causes me to see Him who loved me and
gave Himself for me. May He do that for you, for Christ's
sake. Amen.