Chapter 10, beginning in verse
36. A few weeks ago, you and I considered
the scripture, a leper came to Jesus. I want to look this morning
about a blind man who came to Jesus. The amazing thing is,
in this incident, is how this story ends. And that's what I
want to mainly dwell upon this morning. I don't want to look
at this verse for verse, but I want to look at it just a little
differently this morning. And let's read this account.
In Mark chapter 10, beginning here in verse 46, Speaking of the Lord Jesus and
his disciples, they came to Jericho. And as he went out of Jericho
with his disciples and a great number of people, lined upon
Timaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highwayside bed. And
when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry
out and to say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And
many charged him that he should hold his peace, but he cried
the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And
Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called. And they called
the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise, he
calleth thee. And he, casting away his garment,
rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said
unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said
unto him, Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately
he received his sight. and followed Jesus in the way."
That's an amazing ending for that incident. He followed Jesus
in the way. That's amazing because we've
just read the beginning of this incident. A blind man that could
see nothing. And yet the story ends by saying
he followed Jesus in the way. How could he know the way? He
was a blind man. Not anymore he was. He followed
Jesus in the way. That's the amazing thing about
this. He was a blind man. But here now he is, with full
sight, following Jesus in the way. Blind Bartimaeus is the
way the Holy Spirit identifies him here. Blind Bartimaeus. I'm amazed, and you probably
are too, as you consider the Gospels, that the amount of people,
the sheer multitudes of people, that were terribly diseased in
the time that our Lord Jesus was upon this earth. For three
and a half years in his ministry, how often do we read that he
healed the multitude? It's amazing to me as I read
that. Listen to some of these places.
He cured many of their infirmities, their diseases. Many. He healed
many of their plagues. He cast out evil spirits out
of many that were possessed. Many that were blind he gave
sight. Great multitudes followed him,
and he healed them all." You remember the occasion in John's
Gospel about the Pool of Bethesda, and what was said about that
large pool, that a great multitude of impotent folks the blind and
the crippled and the haught and the withered. A multitude of
people that were suffering these horrible diseases in the day
that the Lord Jesus was upon this earth. And it wasn't something
that had come on this nation. Suddenly, we've got record that
the Lord healed people who had been sick and crippled and diseased
most of their life. And some of them, all of their
life. You remember the woman that was bent double? And couldn't
no wise lift up herself? She couldn't look anyone in the
eye. She had been like that for 18 years. That woman had lived
that way. The man that was born blind,
we don't know how old he was, but the scripture says his parents
said that he's a grown man. He's of age. I don't know how
old he was, but he had been that way for years. The man that the
Lord gave his sight to, or healed him, died by the pool of Bethesda,
38 years. For some reason or another, and
I think we know the reason, at least one of the reasons, the
Lord had pulled his hand, God who controls diseases, and who
heals diseases, had pulled his hand back, and let this little
country, Israel be terribly afflicted with multitudes of devastating
illnesses and diseases. Why did he do that? One of the
reasons I think we have written here in the Gospel, it was prophesied
that the Lord Jesus would heal multitudes of these people. It
happened to fulfill the Scripture. Isaiah 35, verse 5 and 6, listen
to this, "...the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears
of the deaf shall be unstopped, the lame shall leap as a deer,
and the tongue of the dumb shall sing." Now, I know that has a
spiritual application, but it has a natural and physical application,
too. It prophesied of the coming of
the Son of God into this world, and that he would cause the dumb
to speak, the hawk to leap like a heart, the blind to see, and
the deaf to hear. You remember when John was in
prison, John the Baptist, and he fell into doubt of whether
Jesus was the true Messiah. You say, I'll never doubt. Be
careful. Be careful. And he sent his disciples
to the Lord Jesus. And said, you go ask him, are
you the one that we're looking for? Or should we expect another? And the Lord Jesus set them down
there and healed the blind. He made the deaf to hear. He healed the lame. Cleansed
the leper, raised the dead. And he said, now you go tell
John all things that you've seen in here. And when they went back
and told John what the Lord Jesus was doing, he had to remember,
this is what was prophesied. This is one of the reasons that
Israel as a whole is so devastated with all these diseases. It has
a purpose in it. That the Son of God might be
glorified. And that God might be glorified
in him. A blind man came to Jesus. He came to Jesus. I like that. I like to think about that because
I've come to Jesus myself. And some of you have come to
Jesus. And we rejoice in one another, don't we? When we think
that we've come to Him. And we long to see others come
to Him. And when we read in the Scripture
a statement like this, He came to Jesus, it rejoices our hearts. Because we can relate to that.
A man coming to Jesus. My intentions this morning, brothers
and sisters, in looking at this passage, is not only that my
heart might be filled with joy in seeing this man come to Him,
but give you some instructions and to give you some comfort
and encouragement. You here this morning that haven't
come to Him, maybe this will encourage you to come. Those who have never come to
the Lord Jesus, one of the reasons this morning that I want to preach
from this passage is to encourage you to come. Maybe those who have been thinking
about coming, I want to instruct you to come. Maybe those who
have tried to come, And they're discouraged in coming. I want
to encourage you from this passage. Maybe those who desire to come
and want to come, but don't know how to come. I want to encourage
you and instruct you from this passage. Now, you and I could
spiritualize this this morning. I could preach from this and
spiritualize it. I could do that. But I don't
want to do that. I could say, and it would be
alright to do this, to go through here and say Jesus came to Jericho,
and I could tell you that Jericho was a cursed city. And you remember
Joshua chapter 6, that it was cursed and overthrown, and I
could tell you here's a city that was cursed, and we could
spiritualize that. And say, here's a blind man living
in a cursed city and he had to escape this cursed city or die
in it. And we could spiritualize that
and probably get some good out of that. And we could say, Jesus
Christ came to this cursed city. He came to this cursed earth
and was made a curse for us. But I don't want to do that this
moment. There's a time for it and we could profit in it. But
I want to look at this this morning without spiritualizing it at
all. I want to look at it realistically. I want to look at it just as
it happened, physically happened. Here was a real man who had a
real need And he actually came to the Lord Jesus Christ and
followed Him in the way. And I think if we'll just look
at this, it will instruct us and profit us this morning. And
I want to concentrate this morning on one thing, just one thing. People who have never thought
about coming to the Lord, people who want to come to Him, people
who are discouraged from coming to Him, That's what I want to
deal with this morning. I want to look at some negative
aspects. I say that because the way this
incident ended, he followed Jesus in the way. But I tell you what,
it wasn't that easy to get to Jesus. There were some negative
things that happened, was present, that hindered him. And that's
what I want to look at this morning. There's always things in our
life There's things in my life, there's thoughts I have, there's
circumstances I face that discourage me, even to this very day, from
coming to the Lord Jesus Christ, to seek the salvation and the
well-being of my soul. You see that in yourself, don't
you? Let's look at this then. The
first thing, and I want to give you some negative things here,
found in verse 46. That's what I want to concentrate
mainly on this morning. Here's the first negative thing
about this man coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, Bruce,
I've tried to come to Him. I want to come to Him. I just
ought to come to Him, and I'm having problems. Well, here's
another man having problems. But you can be encouraged in
this. The story ends by him following Jesus in the way. He had problems
too. And here is the first negative. Here is the first negative. It's
found here in verse 46. And I want to take them in order
from verse 46. And the first thing is this.
Barnabas. had a very, very narrow window
of opportunity in which he could come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you see that? A very, very narrow window of
opportunity. We find that here in verse 46,
look what he says. And they came to Jericho, and
as he went out of Jericho. The Lord Jesus was always moving. He never settled down any place.
Two or three times in the gospel, we read that He came to Jericho,
but He never stopped. We read that he came into Jericho,
he went through Jericho, and went out of Jericho. But we never
read that he stopped in Jericho. The longest he ever was in that
place was when he stood still and called this blind man. He
never settled down in Jericho. And blind Bartimaeus lived in
Jericho. And him being a blind man, he
probably never ventured very far out of that city. And what
I'm saying is this. If this man was to ever come
to the Lord Jesus Christ, he must come now. Because Jesus
was passing through. He was on his way as he went. See there? Blind Barnabas was
here where he lived. But Jesus was on his way. He wasn't stopping. So therefore
I say, his opportunity of coming to the Lord was a present opportunity. As he went. Could you and I say, and be honest
in saying it, could what we conclude this morning from this, that
blind Bartimaeus must come to the Lord now, or he indeed may never come at
all. If he does not take advantage
of this opportunity. He may never get another opportunity.
Could we not say that? Because the scripture says here,
as he went. Now, somebody will say, and I
can almost hear some people say, Bruce, how in the world does
this fit into your folks' system of theology? We heard you preach a few weeks
ago, and you folks are always quoting and teaching and preaching
from John 6, 37. All that the Father gives to
me shall come to me. And here you talk about a narrow
window of opportunity. You need to get your system of
theology and stick with it. You're so inconsistent. Ain't
that what people teach us, tell us, and accuse us of? Well, when
we preach from John 6, 37, we preach that. And we believe that. They shall come. But when we
come here and preach from this, we preach this also. And if there's
any inconsistencies in it, people have to take that up with God.
I tried to get a system of theology one time, and I really did. I
looked up system in my concordance, and I couldn't find it. I looked
up theology, and I couldn't find it. And I just come to the conclusion,
I better leave the systems of theology up to those that have
some wisdom about those things. And what I better do, being as
dumb as I am, I better stay in the book. And what I find in
this place, I'll preach that. And what I find over here in
this place, I'll preach this. And here we find a man in a most
dreadful condition. He's a blind man, and he's a
beggar, and he's going to die there if he cannot get to the
Savior, the only one who can deliver him. But we find him
in this predicament. The Savior is passing him by. He's not stopping. He don't live
whereby Barnabas lived. And it's therefore now or never. And I would plead my case this
morning by saying this. I say it's a narrow window of
opportunity and he must come now or never. But if you would
ask him, what would he tell you? You feel it in this man that
it's now or never. You feel the anxiety that's in
him. Because as soon as he hears that
Jesus of Nazareth is passing by, what does he do? Does he
say, I think I'll wait until tomorrow? No. He doesn't say that. He immediately
knows that in just a few moments, the Lord Jesus is going to be
gone. So what does he do? He begins to cry. It's now or
never. It's now or never. Lord Jesus,
O Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. Stop and have mercy on
me. Have mercy. He felt that. He
felt that. Why do we even emphasize this?
Why do we emphasize this? And why do we call this a negative? Well, we emphasize it for this
reason. It's so. It's so. There have been a lot of people
who have missed their opportunity. The Lord Jesus spoke to the nation
of Israel and said how often I would have taken you under
my wings as a mother hen takes her little chickens and you would
not. And now your house is left unto
you desolate. It's the truth, brothers and
sisters. It's a living reality this morning, that if you're
at all concerned about your soul, if you're concerned about being
saved, being right with God, having your sins washed away, it may be now or never, Why don't we tell young people,
young teenage people, why don't we tell them to go ahead and
sow their own? Get this out of your system. Go ahead and lay
low, and disobey your parents, and don't worry about seeking
the Lord. You've got plenty of time for
that. Why don't we tell them that? It's not so. It's just not so. You and I have
known carloads of teenagers who were suddenly taken out of this
world. Why don't we tell a man and his
wife to go ahead and have your children? Go ahead and work hard,
and lay something up for retirement, and take your vacation every
year or two, and enjoy life, and enjoy your family. And when
you're retired, and after you've lived in retirement for a few
years, then think about seeking the Lord. Why don't we tell them
that? We had a couple that used to
sit right over there. I remember them well. Glenn and Gene remember
them well. They went on a vacation and never
came back. Do you remember them? It's a reality, brothers and
sisters. There was a lot of people, a
lot of people, teenagers and middle-aged people, that had
had opportunities that sat under the gospel. But it was a narrow,
narrow window of opportunity. I say coming to the Lord Jesus
is an opportunity, and it is a gracious opportunity. If the
Lord of glory visits you, it's a gracious visit, but it may
be a short visit. He owes us nothing. Be as anxious about this as Barnabas
was. That's what I'm saying. Be as
anxious about coming to the Lord Jesus Christ as Barnabas was. Are you here this morning and
you're lost without the Lord? Be anxious about this. This morning
may be the only opportunity and your last opportunity. Say with
dear Fanny Crosby, Pass me not, O gentle Savior. Hear my humble
cry, While on others you're calling, Don't pass me by. And here's
the fearful thing about it. This morning, while I'm preaching,
and while you're sitting, may be the last opportunity you have
to call. Jesus as He went. I think it would be presumptuous
on our part to think the Lord Jesus Christ healed every blind
man in Jericho. I doubt that seriously. As far
as I know, since it's not recorded in the
Scripture, Most blind men in this city died
blind. Jesus did not live there. He
did not settle down there. He was not there alone. Here
was a blind man who had just a short window of opportunity
to come to the Lord. Use this as a cowboy would use
his spur. I used to ride a lot of horses,
and I've had some horses that you either had to spur or whip
them to get them to go. Let this be a spur to you this
morning. Let this be a whip on your naked legs for you to come
to Christ. Get this in your heart. I've
got to come now. Now is the acceptance time. Today,
if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart." Now, if that
won't fit into our system of theology, that's all right. That's all right. We don't need a system, don't
we? We don't need a system. Secondly, here's something else. Here's something else. And here's something to hinder
this man. It's found there in verse 46. A great number of people
went with him. There was his disciples and a
multitude of people all around the Lord Jesus Christ. I think
you and I sometimes forget how difficult it was physically to
approach Jesus Christ. It was difficult to get to him.
He was always strong by this crowd of people. The poor man
who brought their friend on a cot to be healed of the Lord. And
they got to the door and couldn't get in the house. The house was
full of people. They started trying to scrabble through the
door. And those people said, you can't buck the lion. Get
out of here. Get him out of here. They tried
to get him through the window. They couldn't get him through
the window. Finally, they had to get up on the house and take
up the roof, of all things, and let him down at the feet of the
Lord Jesus. The woman who had the issue of
blood, she said, if I can just touch him, I'll be made whole.
But she couldn't get to him. So she had to press her way.
She had to press her way to him. Why do I tell you this this morning? Because there's always something
going to stand in your way. I'm amazed at this, but I've
learned to watch for it. But I'm amazed at it. It's happening
right now. As soon as somebody professes
an interest in spiritual things, As soon as they let it be known
that they in some measure are beginning to seek the Lord almost
immediately, some calamity comes. Or something will come to interfere
with their seeking the welfare of their souls. I'm amazed at
that. I see it all the time. Sometimes the things that come
up seem so legitimate. There are people that you will
invite to service, lost people, and you want to come to hear
the gospel. And things will go well all week long, but it will
come Saturday night or Sunday morning and somebody will get
sick or somebody will die. And they can't come. And it's
legitimate. At least it seems legitimate. If you're going to seek the Lord
and you're going to seek the welfare of your soul, you need
to know this. You're going to have a devil
that's going to oppose you all the way. You're going to have
a world that's going to tempt you and put the cares and the
pleasures right in your way. You've got a nature within you
that's going to oppose you. Here was a man who wanted to
come to the Lord Jesus, and here was a multitude of people that
stood in his way. And when he cried to the Lord
to have mercy upon him, what did they do? They said, shut
up. Shut up. What if he had listened? What if he had listened? What
if he had got so discouraged about it all, he'd say, I can't
get there. This is too great an obstacle
to get over. I might as well just sit down
and forget it. What would have happened? There's always things to discourage
the Christian. There's always things that will
stand in the way of anybody who begins to seek the Lord. Hold your peace. Shut up, they
say. At what cost? At what cost? Hold your peace? Hold your peace? Man, it's now or never for me.
Hold my peace? Is that for the good of my soul
to hold my peace? Whatever's standing in your way,
dear soul, this morning, for securing the eternal salvation
of your soul, you've got to get over it. You've got to get around
it. You've got to get through it.
And I assure you, there will be many, many things opposing
you from doing that. You might as well get ready.
I don't mean to discourage you, but we find it in our text this
morning. And you'll find it in your experience. Everybody here
that's come to the Lord Jesus has experienced some of these
things. And thirdly, let's add to this.
Let's add to this. He had a narrow window of opportunity.
It's now or never. And then he had all this opposition.
And then add to this, we're told there that he was a blind man. He was a blind man. Can you imagine
the dilemma this man was in? I can almost see him standing
there and he may have thought of it. All he knew was there
was a loud commotion going on. He couldn't see anybody. Someone
told him it's Jesus of Nazareth, the son of David. Can you almost
see him standing there and he's crying out in this direction?
And suddenly the thought hits him. You're probably not even
crying out in the right direction. Jesus is probably over here.
You dumb, blind men, you might as well leave it shut up. You
can't see. I tell you, when I was seeking
the Lord, when I was seeking the Lord, I had no idea how to
find Him. My spiritual understanding was
so darkened, I was as dark in my mind as this man was with
his eyesight. And it so discouraged me. But here was a man that was so
blind, so truly blind, he had never saw the sunlight. Never
saw the beautiful trees, his mom and dad, or his siblings.
He lived in utter darkness. But here's a great encouragement
for you and me. In the end, he received full
sight. He was utterly in the dark, but
in the end he received his sight. My dear lost friend, If you have never begun to pray,
then begin to pray. If you have never begun to seek
the Lord, then begin this morning to seek Him. You may say in yourselves,
I don't have any understanding how to seek Him. You mean you can't see Him. You
can't see in your mind how to seek Him. You can't see how to
come to Him. then begin to seek Him. Just
like this man did, who was blind, who could not see Him. If the
thought comes to you, you're not even crying in the right
direction. Then cry on anyway. When your poor mind seems to
be so blinded and all around you is dark, seek on, dear soul. Cry to the Lord for mercy. And remember this precious promise. Listen to this. Remember this
precious promise. I will bring the blind by a way
that they know not. I will lead them in paths that
they have not known. I will make darkness light before
them. and crooked places straight.
These things will I do, and not forsake them, saith the Lord."
There is a precious promise that you can hang on to in your darkness. You may say within your heart,
I can't see Him, but He can see you. Isn't that really what matters?
Let that be a comfort to you. Would not that been a comfort
to this man? I can't even see him. I don't know
if I'm crying in the right direction. But here is what counts. Though
you can't see him, he sees you. And though you cannot see your
way to him, he can see perfectly how to bring you. Therefore, don't be discouraged.
Don't despair. Seek Him. Cry as this man did,
though your understanding is as dark as his was physically. Don't be discouraged. Let this encourage you, dear
soul. The darkness you now feel multitudes have felt before.
Multitudes who have felt the same darkness that you feel now
have yet lived to see the day when they were given light and
sight and they followed Jesus in the way. I was talking with someone not
long ago. Why don't you come to the Lord?
And it almost shocked me when they told me. I don't know how
to. I don't know how to. Haven't we all been there? We've
all been blind, haven't we? And it's a discouraging thing
when you don't know which direction to go in. What do we do? What did this man do? Jesus. Thou Son of David, have mercy
on me. Have mercy on me. And our Lord
Jesus is such a compassionate, kind, and good Savior. He will not long reject that
cry for mercy. He'll give sight. He'll give
relief. I said not to the children of
Israel, seek ye me in vain. I speak righteousness. I speak
the things that are right, saith the Lord. I call these negative things,
I don't know if I'm right about that, but they seem negative
to me. The things that hindered this man, in a sense. But they're
all turned to His advantage, and turn them to your advantage.
You feel this morning like you have a narrow window? That's
wonderful. That's wonderful. Then be anxious about seeking
the Lord. You feel this morning that you're
hindered from coming to Christ? That's good that you know that.
You know it must be important if the devil has raced up against
you to keep you from coming to Christ. That he'd take time from
his busy schedule to keep you from coming to the Lord? This
must be very important. Therefore use that to cry the
louder. If it wasn't important, I'll
show you this, you would not be hindered from coming to the
Lord. That's why you're hindered, because your soul is at stake.
And your soul is the most precious thing you possess. Are you blind this morning? Are
you in darkness and you feel it? Use that as a hope. Let it stir up a hope in you.
Here was a man who was blind too, but he received his sight. You say this morning, Bruce,
you just don't realize how blinded my understanding is. No, I don't. I don't. But I know this much. After you've
went through a long, dark night, you rejoice in the day. You rejoice
in the day. And it may be dark now, but you'll
rejoice when the Lord does give you light. Lastly is this. This man was a beggar. He was
begging. Verse 46 tells us that. He sat
by the highwayside, begging. He was a beggar. A man who had
nothing. He wouldn't go to this man if
you needed help, would you? He needed help himself. He's
the type of fellow you don't want him. Because every time
he seen him, he was fagging. He had nothing. He had no influence
with people. You wouldn't get him to go plead
your cause with anybody. He had no leverage in negotiations. He was a beggar. He was a poor
man. He had nothing. That's why the
poor in this world are often oppressed and neglected. They
have no influence. They have nothing. But what a blessing it is to
be a beggar. It's a blessing to be a beggar. In a sense, in a sense, It was
the greatest blessing that could ever happen to this man, that
he was indeed a beggar. You remember the rich man who
came to the Lord Jesus and said, what must I do to have eternal
life? And the Lord said, go sell everything
you have, give to the poor, take up your cross and follow me. Oh, wouldn't it be a blessing
to be rich? Wouldn't it be such a blessing
to have everything you needed? If you wanted anything, you went
and bought it. I can't imagine to be that rich.
Can you? Would you rather be that rich
man who came to the Lord Jesus and was told to sell everything
he had, and he went away from the Lord Jesus, grieved? Would you rather be that man?
Or would you rather be this man? Wasn't it a blessing to be a
beggar? Here was a man who knew he had nothing to lose and everything
to gain by coming to the Lord. What a blessing it is to be a
beggar. It's not really the giving up
of things. That wasn't that rich man's problem.
It wasn't really giving up of his riches. The Lord Jesus went
ahead to say, how hardly shall they who trust in riches. That
was his problem. You know the whole problem with
a rich man. He would not give up himself.
That's the problem. That's the problem. Here was
a beggar and he knew he had nothing. He had nothing to give up. But
you know in a way, in a way, it's just as difficult for a
beggar to give himself up as it is for a rich man to give
himself up. My Son, give me." Now here's
the Lord of Glory. Here's the Lord of Glory. I've
always been amazed at this verse. I know we've let free will run
us out of it. But here's what the Lord of Glory
says. My Son, give me. The Lord doesn't mean anything,
does He? But here He is saying, give me
something. Give me something. What is it? Give me thy heart. Ain't that amazing? And you know
that's the most difficult thing you'll ever give up. It's the most difficult thing
you'll ever give up. I was talking with a man just the other day,
and he told me, he said, I pray all the time. He said, I cry,
I cry, I thank the Lord for mercy. That's good in a way. That's
good. That's good. We all come there.
But you know, there's a negative aspect of that too. There are
people who trust in their prayer. There are people who trust in
their tears. Men have prayed their selves
to hell. Men have wept their selves to
hell. Here was a man who cried for
mercy. Lord, thou Son of David, be merciful
to me. But that wasn't enough. That
wasn't enough. What does the Lord require of
this man? I'll tell you what it is. He said there in verse
50, he cast away his scarf, and he rose and came to Jesus. What was in that garment? Commentators
tell us that this was basically their living, their welfare was
in this garment. They used it as a knife to stay
warm. It was a large garment they sat down and bagged, and
it spread out around them, and what people give them They'd
take it and tuck it underneath that garment. They'd hide it.
Because if people were coming by and they were going to bag
it from them, and they're sitting there with all these gifts all around,
I ain't helping you, man. You've got everything in here.
You've got more than I've got. So they would take and hide it
underneath this garment. And other baggers would steal
it from them if they didn't hide it. So they used this garment
to conceal their stuff. It was their security blanket. What's the first thing this man
did when he came to Christ? He threw all that away. He threw
his security blanket away. Everything he had in him, he
threw it away. And here's what it comes down
to, dear soul, is this. It comes down to this. We must
give ourselves to the Lord. They first gave themselves to
the Lord. And tell what the Scripture said
about the early church. We hear these free willers, Armenians,
whatever they are, talking about give your heart to Jesus. I don't
mean that. I don't mean that. I don't mean
saying that. I don't mean doing that with
the assent of the mind. When I talk about the heart,
give me your heart, son. I'm talking about what we are,
who we are. The heart. You know what the
heart of something is. You cut into a watermelon. I
love the heart of a watermelon. You get beyond all the seeds
and boy the heart is the good part. It's the essential part.
That's what the Lord says. You give me yourself. You give
me yourself. I told Joe coming down here this
morning. Sometimes, when you're off in
some of these places, you run into some of these people who
say, you know, I'm lost, but I've been seeking the Lord for
ten years. I have a hard time understanding
that. I just do. You know, I really don't believe.
I don't believe. I've prayed and I've been praying,
Bruce, for ten years, the Lord save me. I doubt that. I doubt
that. Can you imagine this man standing
up there in his anxious condition for five hours? And I'm going to tell those people
this, you've got a problem. And I bet what your problem is,
you're trusting in your seeking. And what you must do is get past
that. Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no longer know,
these for sin cannot atone? Thou must save, and thou alone
can save." And here's what I'm saying, brothers and sisters,
you come into Christ, then come and give yourself up
to Him. You want Him to speak to you
and say, what do you want, Glenn? What do you want from me? You
want Him to talk to you and deal with you? Then you're going to
have to come and give yourself up to Him. If you don't, dear
soul, I'm telling you this, if you don't come to the Lord Jesus
and literally give yourself away to Him, and I can't explain it.
All I can do is tell you that. I've experienced it. I can't
tell you how to do it. But if you don't come and give
yourself to Him, you'll never know Him. He'll reject you. He'll refuse
you. He will not reveal Himself to
you. You're going to have to come right to Him and give yourself
up to Him. That's what this man did. He
cast away that garment of security. Cast away what he had hid. He
threw it all away and came to the Lord Jesus and yielded himself
up to Him. Lord, here I am. Here I am. Just like I am. And that's when
the Lord spoke to us. And that's when He'll speak to
you. But if you're going to stay way back over yonder with your
little security blanket, and keeping your things hid, and
keeping the doors of your heart slammed against Him, then you're
going to stay there. But I'm crying, and cry your
way right into hell. But I'm calling for mercy and
call right into hell. There's a time to come and give
yourself up to Him. That's what I'm saying. If you've
never done it, God help you to do it today. God help you to
come to Jesus Christ and to God by Him. And then when you do,
you know what you'll say? Now I can see. Now I see. And I'll tell you what you'll
do. You'll follow Him in the way. You'll follow Him in the
way. Gracious Father in Heaven, O
our wise God, our tender and merciful Father, You truly are
our Father. When we think of our awful blindness
and stupidity and how You gently and secretly brought us to Yourself,
looked upon us as we wandered in the darkness, and You put
it in our hearts and brought us to Yourself and opened our
eyes, O Lord, we bless You for doing this. Thank you for giving
us eyes to see you, to see your glory, to see your saving attribute,
to see your tender mercy. Thank you for giving us our sight.
Thank you for the great privilege and honor and necessity of following
you in the way. I pray you'll take this message,
especially this morning, to the poor lost. Those who have no
eyes of yet to see. Let this poor blind Barnabas
encourage them to come to you for their sight. In our Lord
Jesus' name, Amen.