to turn back in your Bibles to
Luke 18. Today's message is entitled,
Hearing and Seeing Him. Hearing and Seeing Him. If you're privileged enough to
pay attention to the Scriptures, what you will recognize immediately
in the ministry of the Lord Jesus is that He never engaged trivial
conversation or frivolous relationships with people who had come to Him
with requests. You won't find one passage in
the Scripture where someone came to Jesus recognizing that Jesus
could be the only one to fulfill their request or need and ask
Him for something stupid. You won't find that. You won't
find that anywhere in the Gospels where Jesus was used. as a bellhop
for the mere vain temporal lusts of anyone. You won't find it. It's not recorded there because
the things that are recorded in the scriptures are really
designed to teach us about the true nature of Jesus and the
true need of people. So what you will find in the
scriptures from the beginning of our Lord's ministry all the
way to the end is that the people that came to Christ were needy. sinners, needy men and women. They were the ones who gave occasion
for Jesus to manifest His glory. Needy sinners. And I will submit
to you that you won't come to Christ if you're not needy of
Him. You won't come. And our text
teaches us a number of lessons of one, I will say, receive this
as just a basic opening proposition. Scream if you have to. Cry out immediately. Without any shame or regret or
ambivalence, without regard to embarrassment or ridicule or
rebuke. Until your hearing of Christ
becomes sight. Call on God. Until you get your
need met. That's what this man did. That's
precisely what he did. Remarkable account. And our savior
is just glorious here. He's glorious because he's doing
what he's been doing for three and a half years, meeting real
needs. And he's doing this in the midst
of a journey. You and I know where he's going, don't we? We
know where our master is going. And isn't it remarkable that
on his way to where he's going, he can be so marvelously a savior
as he does. Here are people with needs all
over the place. And our master is headed where? Calvary. He's getting closer and closer
to his human demise. And I would say that you and
I, if we were facing a Calvary-like situation, we would be much more
subjectively involved with our own emotional needs. We would
be wrapped up in how we feel about what we are about to engage
in and we will probably be so overtaken by our own Situations
we couldn't hear a person crying out to us for help We wouldn't
be able to hear him Because we'd be so fixated on so mesmerized
by so so paralyzed by what's in front of us But see this man
is different. I He came to give himself a ransom
for many And what a what a glorious savior comes from eternity past
He enters into this world 33 years ago and you know, the first
group of people that he meets are barnyard keepers Who are
watching over animals? Where he has his bird As I said
the ox knows his master The ass knows its keeper. The Lord Jesus
was born with animals. What a savior. And then he rises
up in ministry and everywhere he goes, you know what he's doing? He's touching needy sinners. That's the nature of his ministry.
Here Luke tells us in the opening of our text, these words, here's
what he says. Over in verse 38, here's what he says. He says,
I'm verse 35 and it came to pass that as he was coming near unto
Jericho you guys see that you guys remember Jericho Jericho
is a notorious little town Real notorious now and and lots of
criminals are hanging out in Jericho But do you know this
that Jesus frequented Jericho constantly? You remember Jericho
is the place where a brother if he didn't have if he didn't
have his Smith and Wesson He'd get taken out remember And Jericho
is the place that the Levites and the priests don't go. They
take the other route. They get on Highway 101 and go
way around. They don't go through 580. They
don't take 80. They're afraid they might catch
a flat. Our Lord went up and down and
through these notorious places all the time. And what's remarkable
is that on his way to Jerusalem, which is only some 30, 40 miles
away. Now, if you and I were to take
that geography and place it over where we are, we would be Jerusalem
and he would be in Jericho. Jericho would have us somewhere
near Pinole. OK, you guys know the area out
there and he's headed towards this way. Pinole got some pretty
funky areas to Richmond and what have you. And for those of you who like
to study your scriptures and you kind of get sidetracked by
commentaries, don't worry about the commentaries who argue about
whether he entered in Jerusalem or exited Jerusalem. All that's
very clear. You'll read Matthew, Mark, and
Luke, and it will talk about him healing two people. And the
text talks about one person. And I would have you to understand
that sanctified logic says that if he healed two people, he at
least healed one person. That's just called sanctified
logic. Did you get that ain't no contradictions in the scripture
things that seem to be different doesn't necessarily mean irreconcilable
Contradiction just think it through okay in Matthew's gospel He was
emphasizing something different than what Luke is emphasizing
Luke's ministry is really really a ministry that has to do with
Jesus dealing with people on a personal level personal dynamic
he is called after all in the book of Luke more than any other
the Son of Man and the scripture says he eats and drinks constantly
with publicans and sinners so Christ works in the book of Luke
through the prism of Luke under the inspiration of the Spirit
differently than Matthew now Mark on the other hand has a
little bit more of a nuance in it because at least Mark tells
us who this brother is that he's dealing with and his name is
Barnabas Now Bartimaeus is the son of Timaeus, the word bar
is a prefix, it's a term that means son, and so we actually
have the man's name here. And in the gospel of Mark, because
Mark is dealing with power, the power of the kingdom of God,
the immediacy of Christ's presence and ministry in the life of men
and women, he gives us some elaboration on this individual. But suffice
it to say, our Lord is dealing with a situation where he's headed
to Calvary and he's interrupted by a need. coming the way of
needy sinners. That's a lesson for you and I.
The business of the gospel is not about avoiding people. The business of the gospel is
not about avoiding Sinners the business of the gospel is not
about avoiding difficulties the business of the gospel is not
about making your Securities life as easy and pain-free and
free of complications as possible That's you're not you're not
to pray to God to make your life easy. You pray to God to make
your life fruitful Did you hear that not not easy fruitful I
For herein is my Father glorified, that your life might be easy. So the goal of the believer as
he receives his instruction, both in terms of the mentorship
and modeling of the Lord Jesus Christ, is to want to be like
Christ. Till we breathe our last breath, we want to be productive.
We want to be fruitful. I want the way of my life to
run into sinners all the time I want to run into needy sinners
all the time And then I want to be the kind of vehicle by
the grace of god that I have something to give to a needy
sinner Are you guys hearing what I'm saying? This is what our
lord is modeling for the disciples. Remember I told you a while back
the disciples were really struggling between the pharisees and their
rhetoric And the lord jesus and his methods The Pharisees would
whisper, well, Jesus doesn't wash his hands before he eats.
The Pharisees would whisper, he lets publicans and sinners
touch him. The Pharisees would whisper,
he eats on the Sabbath day. Every Sabbath morning, there
they go, going through the cornfields, eating popcorn, violating all
the rules. And the disciples, you know,
you can get wind of this because of that Adam 1 principle in you,
that legalistic principle in you, you can start wanting to
separate yourself from Jesus as if Jesus doesn't know what
he's doing. And our master always had an appropriate answer for
those kind of carping arguments, didn't he? You know what his
answer was? I have come to seek and save that which is lost.
That's a preeminent motive that trumps all of the externalities
of religion that tries to make you and I look like something
that we're not. So you know what will expose you and me is the
needs of other people when they get dropped in your lap. And
then you realize how cold and how hard-hearted you are and
how self-righteous you are and how pharisaical you are and how
uncaring you are. Am I telling the truth? That's
why we like to work around folks. We like to be good religious
people, not ready to meet needs. But our Lord teaches everywhere
he goes. And this here is a teaching lesson too, which brings me to
my second point. The blind man is a type for us
today, a lesson of a type of hearing only sinner in this context. He's a type of the hearing only
sinner in this context. And that is the context of an
individual who has an impediment, who has a very serious impediment,
a physical ailment that corresponds to a very serious spiritual problem. When a man or a woman is blind
spiritually, you are in trouble. Now, thankfully, the man that's
in this account, he's acting like he's in trouble. We got
a whole lot of religious folks who are blind who don't even
know they're blind. And here's the other thing that
adds insult to injury with regards to that. They are the kind of
people like this blind man, now watch this, who have had the
privilege of being around biblical truth all his life. This blind
man before us is not an individual who lives in the Decapolis. He doesn't live in Athens. He
doesn't live in Greece. He lives in Jericho. And Jericho
is right up against Jerusalem, of which the Jews had traversed.
And it was much, much about biblical truth that this blind man was
privy to. This is kind of like your average
church folk person. grow up under the hearing of
the word, have a basic understanding of religious concepts and truths,
and therefore you have a sort of hearing, a sort of hearing,
you are brought nigh, you guys understand what I'm saying? Brought
nigh, this is often how we are if you grow up in the church
as a young man or a young woman, where you have heard biblical
truth, but that biblical truth has not come home to be reality
in your life. You are the hearing only type
of religious person. And that's what this blind man
represents. Now, here is the affordable benefit. At least
he's hearing. But he knows hearing for him
is not enough. So on this occasion, our Lord
decides to teach by passing by this way. You see, as he must
needs go through Samaria, he must needs go through Jericho.
Because going through Jericho, he's going to perform one last
miracle One last notable miracle before he goes to Calvary. He's
going to open the eyes of a blind man in the presence of the mob,
in the presence of the multitude, in the presence of his disciples
to teach the preeminent nature of his Messiahship. You see,
Messiah came to open the eyes of the blind. He came that He
might open the prison doors to those that are bound. He came
to liberate men and women from darkness, from the chains of
bondage, from those things that keep them from seeing the glory
of God for which they were made. And so what our Lord is doing
now is taking an occasion to reaffirm His Messiahship. Don't
you fool yourself for one moment. This is not a coincidence. God
runs the universe. God providentially orders events.
When Jesus passes by somewhere, this is not by accident. And
worship is not by accident. When you come to church on Sunday,
it's not by accident. I know you think it is, but it's
not. And you know what's not by accident on Sunday? When Christ
is passing by you. It's not by accident that God
in his providence set you up where you have been hearing the
truth for months and months and months and years and years and
years. It's not by accident, you blind Bartimaeus. It's not
by accident. So don't think that this is kind
of a coincidental thing. God in his mercy is setting up
some lessons for us. The blind man is a great type,
type of the hearing only. And he actually, he actually
encompasses a number of things when you and I Think about blindness
in the scripture. Not only do we draw from the
old testament the reality that god makes the blind the deaf
and the dumb Isn't that what he said in the book of exodus
who makes the blind? Who makes the deaf who makes
the dumb do not I the lord? He makes people blind. He makes
people dumb. He makes people lame. He makes
people Watch this now to need him To need him He says I didn't
come to heal the righteous I came for those that are sick Are you
following me? This is God's economy in this
world right now. Sometimes what we do as secular, highfalutin,
scholarly, learned Gentiles and pagans is we kind of want to
castigate God for all the suffering that's going on in this world.
You know, you look at the suffering in the world and you go, wow,
it's so enormous. The world is filled with so much
pain, so much difficulty. And you know what we want to
say? Where's God? God's where he always has been. in the midst of it, in the midst
of it. It's God's economy to get human
beings to realize they need him. And on this occasion, we get
to focus in on an individual who is such. This blind man represents
religious people in general. Remember what James chapter 2
said, James chapter 1 around verse 22 through 25 says, be
not hearers only deceiving your own selves, but be ye doers of
the word. And our Lord, and this is a really
important truth for us, because if you and I are just mere hearers,
if you and I are individuals that are satisfied with hearing,
but not seeing, you and I are in a miserable state. And the
Word of God would tell us that Jesus constantly dealt with the
rulers in his day, and you know what he called them? Blind. He
said in Matthew chapter 15, 14, if the blind lead the blind,
they will both fall into the ditch, right? So blind people
are people who need to be guided. Blind people are people who need
to be taken by the hand and led in the right direction. You and
I, in a real sense, are blind. I know you don't want to believe
it, but it's true. We need to be led. Am I telling the truth? I know you think you see, but
you don't see like God sees. Can I make the analogy? You are
technically blind. You know how a person can actually
see some stuff, but they have the little placard that says,
I'm technically blind. That's how believers are. We
see some stuff, but we're technically blind. I'm telling you the truth.
I'm telling you the truth. But there are others who are
more blind than us. And what the Bible says is babes in Christ,
new believers, new converts, folks that are just coming into
a basic knowledge of Bible truth are called blind babes. And according
to the book of Romans chapter two, Paul admonishes the Jew
who thought he could see saying, are you a guide to the blind?
Are you a teacher of babes? See, we're talking about a process
here, aren't we? We're talking about a process. And so he admonishes
them because those folks who thought that they were teachers
were themselves blind. I hope you aren't in that situation.
Now, if you're a babe and you are blind, I wanna give you some
advice Don't be settled with being a babe or blind. Don't
be settled with being able to hear only because that hearing
should transform itself into a revelation by which you enter
into a greater knowledge of the Savior. We wanna grow up into
Him in all things. Now, can you imagine blind Bartimaeus
growing up as a little boy going to a synagogue and worshiping
And just just worshiping week in and week out but because of
his impediment because of his blindness he constantly had to
be guided by somebody You could sense deep down inside of blind
Bartimaeus that he struggled with the reality That he could
not see Am I making some sense now? He did a lot of things that
blind people can amaze us with certain skill sets that they
acquire to be functional But one of the things that blind
Bartimaeus didn't do, which blind folks do in our generation, is
pretend that they see as well as people who can see just because
they're able to function. No, you know what he did? He
let people know not only was he blind, but he was a beggar. Now follow this now. He didn't
have a problem recognizing his condition. That's a good thing. And because of the nature and
scope of things in that generation, begging was what blind people
often had to do, because they didn't have the resources that
we do today. How humbling, isn't it? You know, I was listening
to our elder when he made mention of Todd and his wife, and I've
been knowing them for years and years and years, and Donnie Bell
and Mary as well, his wife Mary, and for years and years and years,
and I would talk to my brothers as we started hitting that summit.
Y'all don't know what the summit is. The summit is the big five
O. That's the summit. I would talk
to my, some of y'all at the big eight O, I said, yeah, oh, is
that the summit? I thought the summit was the big eight O. But
when we started coming up over the the crest of the big, big
summit. We start talking about our ailments
and our afflictions. That's how you know you reaching
the summit. Once you talking more about your afflictions and
you are about your accomplishments, you know you did hit the summit.
Now, now ain't nothing happening yet. No, no, no, no diseases,
no, no cancer, no this or that. You just talking, right? We talking
aches and we talking pains. We talking groans and grunts,
but we know right around the corner that what befalls the
next man is going to befall us. This is true. You can run from
it all you want, but you can't hide. You can pray all you want
to, but if God has ordained suffering to bring you to Calvary, to bring
you to Christ, here comes suffering and you better receive it as
the angel of mercy that is designed to be. Because I have never heard
of anybody being serious about Christ unless they are under
afflictions. In their afflictions, they will
seek me quickly. They will seek me quickly. He
represents the blind Pharisees. Jesus admonished the Pharisees
in Matthew chapter 23, four, five times, ye blind guides,
you blind fools, you blind hypocrites, you blind leaders. Now that was
a rebuke and sharply because they should have been beyond
their blindness by now. The reason they were still blind,
even when they were pretending to be leaders in the church,
and capable of being what we call seers. That's what the scripture
calls leaders in the church, seers. The reason they were still
blind is because they never met a day like this man Bartimaeus. They were too proud to acknowledge
that they were blind. They were too proud to humble
themselves and beg. They were too proud to see the
moment Jesus was passing by. And so in our account, this blind
man is not only a man to be pitied, he's a man to be admired. Because
he at least knows how to handle his disadvantages. Look at what
he says over in verse 36 and 37. And hearing the multitude,
do you see that? Hearing the multitude pass by,
he asked the question, what does this mean? Hey, what's going
on? Now I hear the ruckus. I know
this area. This is where I do my business.
And I hear a bunch of people coming by. Remember, this is
Jesus headed to Jerusalem. And so not only does he have
his disciples, which Mark's gospel says, but he has the whole multitude,
just that large crowd of religious folks. Again, this represents
church. But he's hearing the crowd passing by and he's asking
people, sort of putting the fillers out there. Hey, what's going
on? What's happening? Give me some clarity. Give me
some specifics. What's taking place right now? Can I submit something to you?
That once God begins to call you and you begin to study God's
Word and you begin to become aware of certain doctrinal truths
concerning redemption and salvation, but you still sense, you still
sense you don't have a handle on the Word of God. Ask. Ask. Seek. Knock. Beseech. See, you want to be able to have
the Word of God bear the kind of fruit that it moves you from
the blindness of a babe into a status of sight. So what this
blind man is doing is recognizing his blindness. He has submitted
to the reality of his situation, and he's taking advantage of
people who are a little further down the road than him. We're
all like that in the church. Some of us are a little further
down the road than others. Am I telling the truth? We're a
little more knowledgeable than others. We have a little bit
more insight than others. Remember now, you're still technically
blind. Put your card out when you have
to fool. Look at it and say, oh, I forgot I'm still blind.
We all see through a glass dimly while we're down here. Don't
you pretend you see everything as it ought to be seen. It's
a dim glass. We look through this distorted
view without the mercy of God. It's not going to be crystal
clear, but it can be better than it is. It can be better than
it is. I'm making some sense. So what
he does. Because he takes advantage of
the people who are a little bit more knowledgeable, the people
who have gone with the Lord Jesus Christ, the people who have done
three things. They have heard the master and
his teachings. They followed him from the beginning
of his ministry to the point where they are. And then they
have the capacity to tell it to others. How do you know you
are a witness for Christ? You've heard the gospel. You're
following the Savior and you're telling others about Christ.
You guys got that? See, they had the benefit of
being with the master on that same trajectory with the master.
And then when people inquire who were less fortunate than
them, they could give them specific information. Now you are being
profitable to people. Last thing you want to do is
turn people another way. You want them to have the right
answers. So the crowd represents those
who are privileged to see. The crowd represents church folk. Sometimes they're real disciples.
The disciples were amongst them. I hope that's the case for you.
I hope you are a learner of Christ. I hope you are committed to biblical
truth. I hope you are committed to following
Christ. In fact, they're headed with
him to Calvary. You guys see that? But see, on
their way to Calvary with Christ, they're being blasted. by continual
manifestations of his Messiahship. What a blessing. You guys heard
the last verse of the account. And all the people gave glory
to God for the things that Christ had done. See, that's not part
of my message, but I'll say it now. You and I ought to be absolutely
elated when God is pleased to do something in our midst in
the salvation of a soul for his glory sake. We are to stay continually
excited about the salvation of sinners, about the revelation
of God's glory in the life of men and women. We are not to
move away from that joy of our first experience of grace to
where we care no longer about men and women having their needs
met. So the crowd represents that.
But the crowd is typical, just like a lot of folks, we misprioritize
our calling. Don't we sometimes? Don't we? You know what we do? After a
while, we actually start acting like we own the church. And then we begin to redefine
the mission. Do you know what these knuckleheads
did when once they gave him the impetus, the motivation, the
grounds, and the cause for calling on God? And he actually called
on God? You know what they did? They
said, shut up. Don't do that. Can you imagine
the ludicrously of a person actually getting right information from
you about the right person who can solve their problem? And
then they go about going to that person. Did you stop them? You
didn't got your priorities all messed up, haven't you? Look
at the text. This is how fickle church folks
can be. And they told him, verse 37,
that Jesus of Nazareth passed by It's in the present tense. Jesus is right now passing by. Jesus of Nazareth. Bartimaeus,
you know Jesus, not any Jesus, the Jesus of Nazareth, the one
you've been hearing about for the last three years. This is
the one that's passing by. Now he's passed by many times,
Bartimaeus, but he's passing by again this time. Are you guys
hearing me? What do you mean? Christ passes
by in the faithful preaching of the Word every time it's preached. He passes by where we exalt Him,
where we preach Him, where we proclaim Him, where we glorify
Him, where we exalt Him. Christ passes by in the preaching
and teaching of Scripture. The only way he passes by in
the hearing of the soul of the sinner today is in the proclamation
of the Word of God where you visualize in your mind you comprehend
in your mind a Manifestation of the glory of God in Christ
and you know there is in that moment That opportune situation
by which if you need him You are to do but one thing call
on him call on him. So what did they tell Bartimaeus?
He is passing by. Jesus of Nazareth is passing
by. The one who has done multiple miracles. He's raised the dead.
He's healed lepers. He's healed folks who were paralyzed. He's done so many marvelous things.
Jesus alone has done these things. Bartimaeus, here he comes again.
See my point? And so Bartimaeus, after receiving
more biblical information concerning the nature of our Savior and
his nearness of proximity to them, he does what is appropriate. Verse 38, and he cried, saying,
Jesus, our son of David, have mercy on me. I know it sounds
like we religious folks, you know how we, well, we take Bible
stuff and we just weigh it out, don't we? Like in our vernacular,
you know what we love to say all the time? Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy. And you know, that little phrase
has been dragged into every nightclub and honky-tonk joint and secular
music industry. They'll have, Lord, have mercy,
riding on the backside of perverted hip-hop songs. Lord, have mercy.
Am I telling you the truth? But you know, the Lord, He knows
the difference between the flippant, vain use of biblical terms and
a heart that actually calls on him. Am I making some sense?
He knows the difference. So you can use the phrase all
you want. He ain't listening. When you go, Lord, have mercy. My wife was showing me a video
the other day of some lady who had a fire going on in her house,
and she used one of those religious phrases. I ain't gonna tell you
what it is, but she used one of the religious phrases, and
some marketing cat took the phrase and put a clip on it and turned
it into a music song, a little music, made millions of dollars
off of it. That's what people think about Jesus of Nazareth,
the one alone who has the capacity to show mercy. But this man,
Bartimaeus, didn't have an iota, a scintilla, a drop, insincerity
in his heart he was serious Jesus of Nazareth son of David have
mercy on me now I'm here to tell you that's full of doctrine that's
full of teaching This brother is not ignorant about Christ.
In fact, he knows some things about Christ that you and I don't
know, but now he's cutting to the chase because he's not here
as it were to show how much knowledge he has about Christ in the eyes
of the multitude or even the disciples. You know, we love
to talk about what we know, but it's another thing altogether
to call on Jesus. Are you hearing me? It's another
thing to call on Jesus. Yeah, one could say now I know
who Jesus of Nazareth is Yeah, but you do you really know it?
Do you know him in this moment of need? Do you know him right
now in your troubles? And do you know him effectively
enough watch this now that your knowledge is beyond hearing.
I It has transcended hearing because see when your knowledge
is inadequate and defective Watch this. Now the jesus that you
know about Is not the jesus you call upon in time of need That's
the difference Am I making some sense? That's the difference
you didn't read your bible for years. You can even quote verses
backwards and forwards in time of trouble You don't even know
how to call on jesus See, so this blind man knows a lot of
stuff. We can learn from this brother. He's not as blind as
we think. He knows he has a need and he calls on Jesus. Now, the
thing about this call. Is that when he calls the first
time and we might as well get this in our system. The Lord
Jesus did not respond. Stay with me now, those of you
who like to get your hamburgers from Quick Ways and Jack in the
Box and In-N-Out. Stay with me for a moment now.
You know how we do it. We're a soundbite generation.
Stay with me now. Jesus got to answer my prayer
in 24 hours or something's wrong, right? Are you hearing me? And
see, most people really think that if they say it right in
the right way, Jesus is going to answer them. But let me let
you know something. His ear is not too heavy to hear. His hand is not too short that
it can reach over and deal with your need but God will frequently
not Answer your prayers when you call on him right away He
will frequently not because his responding to your prayers is
not about you It's about him it's about his glory and And
it's about what he's extracting out of you that's necessary to
bring glory to himself when and if he decides to respond to your
prayers. Do you understand, ladies and
gentlemen, that if you call on Jesus, you are simply cooperating
with him in his sovereign purpose to get glory to himself whenever
he wills? If you call on Christ, you are
simply cooperating with God to act when he will, how he wills,
to get glory the way he wills in your life. So after you have
called on him, don't assume that he's gonna answer you right away.
And then the crowd gets in the way. Be quiet, be quiet, be quiet,
be quiet, be quiet. What a good test. Here you are,
you have a need. And you've been calling on Jesus,
and now your religious folk are telling you, well, just stop.
You stop. Actually, the reason Christ hasn't
answered your prayer yet is because you didn't pray the right way. I have to teach you how to pray. Your prayer didn't have enough
faith in it. Well, what language did you pray
in? Did you pray at the altar? Was
your mind right when you, listen, let me tell you something. When
you need God, all of that prerequisite stuff is rubbish. It's rubbish. Do you understand that? When
you call on God the right way, he doesn't hear the form of your
prayers and the method of your prayers and the techniques of
your prayers. He hears the voice of your prayers. Ooh, that's
wild. I told you that go to the psalms.
I love the psalms. I love the psalms. David says
you have heard the voice of my supplication Not just my religious
rhetoric my religious methodology my religious technology God hears
the voice on the inside of the prayer And when that voice is
not there god's not hearing it See because he produces the kind
of prayer that he answers in you So he cranks up the volume
here in this, uh, this learning lesson that we are about to go
engage in because Jesus is headed to Jerusalem. I mean, yeah, Jerusalem
and the blind man is calling on Jesus, but Jesus is acting
like he doesn't hear him. Now, you know, Christ hears everything,
but he's acting like he's not hearing him. So the anxiety level
rises in the blind man because Jesus is what passing by. And
the people say, don't, don't call on the master rebuking him.
And you know what he does? He screams louder. And they rebuked him for it and
that he should hold his peace. But he cried so much the more. Listen, I told you there are
three forms of prayer laid out in the Bible. That's the prayers
that we articulate with our words. Then there's the prayers that
take place when we groan. And then there's the prayers
that take place when we cry. Are you hearing me? And I'm here
to tell you, when you cry out to God, he hears, he hears. This blind man cries out over
the heads of all of these religious folk who are being fickle today.
And do you know what the text tells me? Verse 46, and Jesus
stood. Now you're talking about authoritative
prayer. to get the son of God to stop
in his tracks for you. Did you see that? God stopped
for this man. See, the Lord is doing something
right. He's teaching his disciples something. In fact, back in Luke
chapter 11, he told him, he said, listen, fellas, when you call
on God, you better keep knocking. When you call on God, you better
keep asking. When you call on God, you better
keep seeking. What's your point? God is inclined
to respond to the prayers that are sincere and real and desperate. He gets glory out of desperate
prayers. He gets glory out of desperate
prayers. Here, can I say something about a desperate prayer? A desperate
prayer reveals a desperate person who knows only a sovereign God
can answer desperate prayers. See, a desperate prayer tells
me something about the God you know. See, if you stop short
of a desperate prayer, you don't believe that God answers prayer. You don't believe that You don't
believe that and let's let's learn some lessons here. I know
that this blind man knows that God answers prayer I know he
knows you know how I know Because he named Jesus by name and then
he called him the son of David See the crowd didn't give him
that information he got that from his own Bible study and
You know what he did? He read the Tanakh from Genesis
to Malachi. And all through the Tanakh, you
know what the Tanakh taught this blind man? That the Lord, the
Lord hears the cry of the poor and the needy. He heard in the
Tanakh that the Lord, watch this, He opened the eyes of the blind. The psalmist says it over and
over the Lord openeth the eyes of the blind psalm 146 around
verse 8 He literally says he opens the eyes of the blind.
You know what that blind man did He read the book of Isaiah
and all through Isaiah the messianic age was what was encouraged and
in the messianic age You know what? We're told in Isaiah 35
That the Lord will open the eyes of the blind One more passage,
Isaiah chapter 55. Go there. I want to show you
how Isaiah 55 is the passage that this blind man thought about
when the people told him Jesus was coming by. Isaiah 55 is a
vivid set of instructions to help you and I understand that
when we are in a position like this blind man, how to get God
to hear us. Isaiah 55, a wonderful chapter.
on the free grace of God given to sinners who are so poor that
they can't buy the grace of God with money. Ho, everyone that
thirsts, come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come
ye, buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without
money and without price. What a great proposition. See,
ain't a poor person not gonna stand before God and said, I
was too poor to receive the gospel. God says, I'll give it to you
for free. See, so nobody's gonna escape this thing. Watch it,
verse two. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which is bread, not bread, and your labor for that
which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me. Is that what he says? Listen
diligently to me. And I submit to you, children
of God, that's exactly what this blind man did. He listened diligently. He said, what's going on? They
explained to him that Jesus was passing by right now. See, he
wasn't a careless listener. He wasn't a dull of hearing listener.
His listening was diligent. It was accompanied by a heart
of need. You know how when you need some
information bad enough to save your life, you'll listen to it?
You know how we go to sleep when people give us pamphlets about
health and diet and stuff like that? You don't read that pamphlet.
You throw that stuff on your... You know how you throw the pamphlet
on your kitchen table? Come on, tell the truth. The
last time you sat up and read a pamphlet, backwards and forwards
on that little seven-inch font to tell you how to solve your
help. But as soon as you felt that little knot in your side,
I bet you started reading that pamphlet, didn't you? You read
it back and forth and then you look for the number to call.
You needed the website. You saw, you see how different
now that pamphlet becomes when you need it. And this is what
God is saying about hearing. A lot of people I know, I'm here
to tell you, do not listen to the gospel or listen to Christ
diligently. They are half-hearted hearers
because they don't have a need. They don't have a need. Listen
to what he says hearken diligently unto me and eat ye that which
is good and let your soul delight itself in fatness a metaphor
for ingesting the word of God a metaphor for receiving the
word of God as your daily meat now watch verse 3 here is Here
is the principle of Luke 18 being fulfilled incline your ear Incline
your ear. It's as if the Spirit of God
was saying to blind Bartimaeus, Bartimaeus, this is the time.
There's going to be a group of people passing by you any moment. Once you start hearing the noise
and the volume and the decibel goes up with regards to the ruckus
of the crowd, I want you to watch this. Incline your ear. Bartimaeus, give me your ear.
Listen, because this is time for you. Hearken to me, incline
your ear. Now watch this, and come unto
me. How does a man or a woman come
to God? They first come by what? Hearing. Incline your ear and
come unto me, hear and your soul shall live. Now I want you to
mark this now. This is why I know Bartimaeus
responded to Jesus with the term son of David. Here it is. Incline
your ear come unto me and hear and your soul shall live and
I Will make an everlasting covenant with you even the sure mercies
of David Are you hearing me even the sure? Mercies of David, you
know what this proposition is if you listen to God and you
come to God by faith He will give you the sure mercies of
David. I Jesus of Nazareth thou son
of David what have mercy on me You know what he's doing He's
saying to God fulfill your promise Providence has worked everything
out. I have need of mercy right now You have passed by in the
person of your son Jesus Christ, and I know he's the son of David
I know he's the king of glory. I know that he has the keys that
can open and the keys that can shut. I know he has all authority,
all power, all dominion. I know this. And in my moment
of need, I am asking for mercy. I'm asking for mercy. Now, children
of God, understand this. If you ask God for mercy, you're
going to be covering the gamut. You're gonna be a smart prayer
warrior. Lord, show me mercy. Because you see, mercy is going
to be the gift that's going to fit every need you have. See, mercy is God doing for you
what you don't deserve. When you ask for mercy, you're
asking for God to exercise the keys to open things. and to shut
things. Here's the mercy that this blind
man is asking for. Son of David, have mercy on me. I have a need. I'm blind and
I want to see. Go back to our text. We'll close
it up here. Point number four, right use
of biblical knowledge or right use of biblical knowledge. As
I had said before, It's real easy for us to become academic
about biblical truth. It's real easy for us to learn
doctrine and learn teaching and yet not appropriate scripture
the right way. It's real easy for us to divorce
ourselves from the biblical characters of Scripture and the glorious
person and offices of Christ and find ourselves never applying
the Word to our lives. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? It's real easy to do that. But this man did not do
that. He was afforded the knowledge
of God and the Scripture tells us faith comes by hearing and
hearing by the Word of God. And this man is now acting on
what he knows. He's acting on what he knows,
all that he knows, given the situation that's at hand before
him and his real need which is before him. I assert to you,
this is a right use of knowledge. What do you mean? A right use
of knowledge should make you hungry for more. In other words,
biblical knowledge shouldn't cause you to be settled on your
lease. Biblical knowledge shouldn't
have you to be so content that somehow you are kind of sitting
up and saying, you know, I'm all right. They are right. I'm
all right with the world. We're all all right. I don't
need God. Biblical knowledge ought to make you more hungry
for God. Biblical knowledge ought to make
you more hungry for a knowledge of God. When the Word of God
is rightly applied to the soul, it should create in you a greater
hunger. In fact, we were talking about
light in our men's study last night. If the Word of God is
piercing and manifesting to you the glories of God in Christ,
it should be showing you your deficiencies. It should be showing
you your weaknesses. It should be showing you your
faults. It should be bringing you low and causing you to request
of God to heal me. That's what biblical knowledge
should be doing. With this blind man, that's exactly what it did.
A right use of knowledge. What is he doing? He's calling
on God. He's asking God. He's crying
out to God. And in fact, I would submit to
you that what this man is doing is actually called faith. Look
at how our Lord responds. Verse 41, our master says, what
will you? I'm sorry, verse 40, Jesus stood
still and commanded him to be brought unto him. And when he
was come near, he asked him saying, what will you that I should do
unto you? You guys see that? What will
you that I should do unto you? Since you have called on me with
such a volume of words that you've caused me to stop the whole crowd,
everybody's watching. And so I've called you to myself
mark's gospel says when jesus called him others went and told
him jesus wants you He dropped his blanket. He dropped his clothes.
He dropped everything and ran to jesus He was serious about
his request Now here is where the lord is going to get glory
in this open public demonstration of calling on jesus because a
lot of people call on jesus and jesus said they call on me in
vain repetition with their mouths they do love me, but their hearts
are far from me." Now, it would have been utterly ludicrous if
the crowd would have told Bartimaeus that Jesus was passing by and
Bartimaeus would have said, oh, is he really? Can you tell me
what kind of clothes he got on? Or how fast is the pace that
he's going? Tell me how tall he is because
I can't see him. So you tell me, tell me something about Jesus.
See, that would have been a ludicrous response, wouldn't it? It would
have been a response that would have indicated that Bartimaeus
didn't see his need. It would have indicated that
Bartimaeus didn't have a proper use of biblical knowledge. It
would have indicated that Bartimaeus was simply given over to vain
speculations about the God of glory and not really recognizing
that biblical knowledge is designed for you to come to know God.
And in this occasion, when he responds by crying out to God,
not only is he crying out to God, as it were, to show a form
of devotion and religion, because folks can do that in prayer.
Have you ever met people, boy, they prayed as if somehow, boy,
they were a cousin to Moses or a cousin to Elijah. Have you
ever heard praying like they're a relative to Hannah or somebody
else? Y'all, you must be Hannah's great niece the way you praying.
And I'm simply saying that we can abuse every form. And then
Jesus shows up and says, what do you want? And you go, well,
I don't know. I was just praying. I'm not sure
what I want. In fact, I didn't even actually
expect you to show up. Lord, really, I didn't even expect
you to stop. Now, I'm used to begging. You
know, I make a dollar out of 15. You can go on, Lord. I didn't
mean for you to show up. You didn't. See, that's funny, but the reality
is this. Everything that has transpired
up to this moment, God has sovereignly orchestrated. He created the
world. He created the masses of the
people in the world. As you heard me say earlier,
He created your affliction. He created your problem. He uses
your difficulties. He uses your troubles. And in
His mercy, He enters into your troubles. We'll be worshiping
the incarnate God in a couple of weeks. There is no other gospel
in the world that brings glory to God like the gospel of the
incarnate Son of God. He entered into our suffering
in the most intimate way. He became like me in all points,
free of sin. That's glorious. And then you
know what he did in time? He passed by me and gave me an
opportunity by his grace, first opening my ears to hear him.
and then to give me a heart to want to know Him. That's God. There's a whole lot of blind
people in the world that don't want to know God. But there are
many blind people who do. This is the reason we preach
the gospel, so that the blind might come to want to know Him.
Jesus said, what will you that I will do unto you? What is the
will of your heart? What is the desire of your heart?
What is the passion? What is at the core of your prayer? Got it, ladies and gentlemen?
What's at the core of your prayers? What are you praying about? And
here's what he says. He said, Lord, Kyrios is the
word. You are the ruler, you're the
master, you're the owner, you're the sovereign. I like the way
Mark puts it. He said, Rabboni. He's used only
one other time, and that's in John chapter 20, when Mary Magdalene,
you know Mary loved her some Jesus. Did she love her some
Jesus? She looked and it was evident by her life. She's the
first at the tomb. She'd already broke a bunch of
oil on his head, spent a bunch of money before his burial. First
one at the tomb, spent some more money on his burial. And then
he's not there and she's talking and deliberating with the angels
and all the people about, you know, how Jesus got taken and
took his body and ran off. I'm so glad our theology is not
built on Mary Magdalene, aren't you? Sisters, know your limits. Know
your limits. That's bad doctrine in the area
of justification, okay? No, ain't nobody took him. He
rose again with all power in his hand. Nobody took him. And
our Lord knew she was getting ready to build a doctrine of
heresy. He was about 30, 40 feet away from her, and he interrupted
her. That's how good he is. That's
our God. He rose again from the dead,
and before he went to glory, he touched people. Mary's heart
is full of love for Christ, and she can't stand it that she don't
know where he is. You know what the text tell me
in John 20? She turned back. Everybody else was going a different
way, and she turns back. She's ready to go one more time
and investigate the tomb. One more time, and just maybe
I missed something. And she saw the gardener, and
the gardener said, hey, what are you seeking? There we go
again. What are you seeking? God's getting
ready to get glory. The angels are about to see how
God's elect come to him in the deepest of needs. And she says,
I'm seeking the master. He said, I am he. She said, Rabboni. Now, in the Greek, in Aramaic,
the word master in this context, rabbi. was the typical term for
someone that respected you as a teacher. Rab was one of the
lesser terms as someone that recognized you as a teacher,
but didn't respect you as one. Like he's their teacher. He ain't my teacher. But when
you use the term Rabona, you know what you're saying? You
are my master. You are my master. Mark says that when The blind
man began to speak with Jesus. He excluded everybody in the
universe. And he owned Jesus as his own
master. What will you that I will do
for you? You are my master. This is what I want. I want to
be able to see you. I want to be able to see you.
The master that I know and have heard about for years. And years
and years and years. Somebody else teaching me about
you. Some other book I read about you. Some other message I hear
about you. You are my master. My soul owns
you. Faith comes by hearing. I know
I love you. I know I desire you. But I need
to see you for myself. For myself. Master, I want to
see you for myself. You know what that man was asking
for? Salvation. Redemption. The totality of the
promises of God to men and women. We've said it before, I'll say
it to you now. Salvation is a look. Salvation is a revelation. Salvation
is when the blind soul is made to see the glorious Christ. in
the preaching of the gospel? Isaiah 45, 22. Look unto me,
all ye ends of the earth, and you shall be saved. Because I'm
God and there is no one besides me. That's that look that the soul
must have in order to be secured in the reality of the Redeemer
who died for them. Do you see Jesus? Remember the Gentiles? John chapter
12, remember them? They come running to the disciples
saying, men and brethren, we want to see Jesus. We've been in our third world
country. We've been in remote places. We've heard about him.
We've heard about him. Now we want to see him. You remember
what our master says? Now is the son of man glorified.
Now is the son of man glorified. Now is the hour in which the
son of God will come to be known by Gentiles in every nation,
kindred, tribe. He was rejoicing because Gentiles
were coming to see him. Do you see Christ? The Bible
tells us in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 verse 18, we all who had had
that initial salvation look are right now looking to Jesus. Are
you looking to Jesus? Are you right now looking to
Jesus? If you are, guess what's happening? He's transforming
your soul. He's transforming your soul by
that look of sanctification. The Spirit of God is transforming
us into the image of Christ by the Spirit of God from glory
to glory to glory as we look to Christ. Are you still looking
to Christ or have you been distracted? And you know what the Bible tells
me, and we've been learning this in the Friday study. This is
how simple God's made the instructions for us, Brother Rick. He made
the instruction simple. Look unto me until you see me
face to face. You mean, pastor, all salvation
is, is folks sitting around looking at Jesus? Yes. Yes. To sum it up in simple terms,
yes. The job of the soul is to set
its sights on the son of God and hone in like a radar system
and stay fixed on Jesus until he shows up. Because there's
a day coming, the Bible tells me, looking unto Jesus, who's
the author and finisher of our faith, is telling me he's coming
the second time without sin unto salvation to those that look
unto him. And the Bible tells me in that
day, Revelation chapter 22, they shall see his face. They shall
see his face. All crying, all tears, all sorrow,
all pain, every curse, every burden, every trial, every tumor,
every cancer, every depletion of our body will be done away
with when we see Him. When we see Him. When we see
Him. What will you that I will do
for you? I will that you give me my sight. Two more things.
I want you to see it. See, when a person prays to Jesus
like that, guess what Jesus is going to do? He's going to give
him that answer. Listen to what it says verse 42 and Jesus said
unto him receive your sight Lord I want to see receive your sight
He didn't hesitate It's in the imperative. It was a command
For those of you who say, you know, God will never ask you
to do something. You can't do now I want you to see how ludicrous
this is Okay. Now watch this now you blind
from birth and somebody come to you and tell you to receive
your sight and You're gonna look at him like he's a nut. Unless
he's God. Because God can tell you to do
something that he knows good and well you can't do. Because
what he tells you to do, he will do for you. That he might get
all the glory. See, the blind man did not respond
to the imperative, he received the imperative. He didn't respond
to the command, he experienced the command. He didn't respond
to the command, he became the beneficiary of the command simply
because he had already operated in the principle of faith. Faith
is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. He that comes unto God must believe that he is and is
a rewarder of them that diligently. Am I telling the truth? See,
God's gonna test your faith. He's going to test your faith
and see Christ is doing a bunch of things all at one time. He's
testing the mob. He's testing his disciples. He's
testing his blind man. Everybody gets tested. When we
all come under the auspices of the preaching of the gospel,
you all get, listen, you don't get, you know, ain't no free
pass for you. Once you say you believe, you're going to be tested
on that. You're going to be tested on that. Especially if the Lord
show up like he does in preaching and teaching where it's faithfully
done. He's going to test you when you call yourself a believer.
What will you? I want to see. Receive your sight,
your faith has saved you. That's where our elder was stuck
on that phrase. Receive your sight, your faith
has saved you. What faith? The public demonstration. calling on God in spite of the
opposition in spite of the carving of the people saying stop be
quiet hold your peace he continued to call out on Jesus of Nazareth
and then when Christ said come here he got up and came that's
faith and when he comes into the presence of God faith says
Lord I want to see you that's faith guess what that kind of
faith is going to be answered This is the reason for which
God created you and me, to see his glory. He created you to
behold his glory. He didn't make your eyes to look
on the vanity of this life. Lord, turn away my eyes from
vanity. He made your eyes to see his glory. The reward of
faith is what we're looking at here. He's blessed this man to
see. And then the evidence of faith, finally, point number
seven. What happens when a man or woman receives the benefit
of coming to see Christ in his glory in a saving way? Well,
this was true of all of the subjects of Jesus's mercy. Look at verse
43. And immediately he received his
sight and he did what? And he did what? See, there you
go. This is how we know it's real.
When God gets a hold of you and he shows you his glory, you are
compelled to follow that man even to Calvary, even to death. Jesus has a whole group of folk
who have been beneficiaries of his mercy following him to Calvary.
This blind man has just been given his sight and guess what
he does? Immediately he follows the band. He comes into the body. He's part of the congregation
that's headed with Jesus to Calvary. Do you see the message? Do you
see the message? He's not saying, Lord, I thank
you, I got another job to do. Lord, I thank you, but I got
to catch up with my partners. Lord, I thank you, but. No, he immediately
after salvation joins with the fellowship of those who are following
Christ to Calvary. And that's the question that
I would have for you as we close. What do you will? What's your
desire, blind man or blind woman? Is your desire to see Him, to
know Him? Is your desire to behold His
glory and follow Him? Is your desire to see His face
finally and experience the blessings of eternal bliss with God? I
hope it is. I hope it is.