Now tonight we have before us
another of those miracles of our Lord that is recorded by
Mark alone. Only Mark was inspired by the
Spirit of God to give us this miracle and to give us the details
of this miracle because Mark is demonstrating that the Lord
Jesus is indeed God come in human flesh. And he is demonstrating
to us the supernatural power of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Messiah, who has come performing wonders in the earth, which were
symbols of wonders performed in heaven. Let's read together
Mark chapter 8, verses 22 through 26. The picture we have before
us at first seems to be a little strange. Seems to be something
you look at and you wonder, why on earth Did the Lord do this
and why did he do it this way? Mark chapter eight, verse 22.
He cometh to Bethsaida, a place where he'd done a lot of things,
but nobody paid any attention to him. And they don't know who
they are, but they're somebody special. They bring a blind man
unto him and besought him to touch him. And he took the blind
man by the hand Oh, would to God he'd do that for you. He
took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town.
And when he'd spit on his eyes and put his hands upon him, he
asked him if he saw aught. And he looked up and said, I
see men as trees walking. See a little, but not much. Better
than I was, but I'm not there yet. And 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, none of our Lord's miracles
are accidental. None of them are mere representations
of his supernatural power. None of them are just performed
in order that we might understand that he has power over the elements
of the physical universe. That is not the purpose of our
Lord's miracles. They were signs and wonders demonstrated
by his power to confirm that he is the Messiah, the one sent
of God. But they are also signs and wonders
to illustrate for us the far greater wonders of his grace
performed in us. And they are intended by God
the Holy Spirit, as they're recorded for us in scripture, to give
us a picture and an instructive picture of the way the Lord Jesus
works in the hearts and lives of his people, bringing them
to life and faith in him and leading them through this world
unto everlasting glory. So the healing of this blind
man is a picture of the way that God saves chosen, redeemed sinners
by the almighty power and grace of his Holy Spirit. So keep your
Bibles open here, and let me show you four or five things
in these few verses of scripture. First in verse 22, here is a
blind man brought by Christ, or brought to Christ rather,
by his friends. And he cometh to Bethsaida, and
they bring a blind man to him, and besought him to touch him. Now, if you're taking notes,
or if you take notes in your Bible, underscore three things
here. They bring a blind man and besought him. Oh, that's
a message in itself. This man was blind, blind. In that fact, he was a representative
of all men in their natural condition as unregenerate men and women
in this world. whether religious or irreligious,
whether educated or uneducated, whether literate or illiterate,
it matters not. All human beings since the fall
of our father Adam are born and live in this world in utter blindness
spiritually. That is to say, no human being
by nature has any capability of discerning or understanding
anything spiritual. Now that does not mean that he
cannot understand doctrine. That does not mean that he cannot
understand orthodox doctrine. It means that he has no spiritual
understanding, no spiritual discernment, and no spiritual character about
him. He is utterly blind. And therefore,
when you preach to them, or teach them, or instruct them, or you
try to guide folks, and you teach them the word, and you take your
children, when they're small children, and you start teaching
them the word, and you catechize them, and you teach them, and
instruct them, and catechize them, and teach them, and instruct
them, you bring them to Sunday school, bring them to church,
and they memorize scripture, and they memorize facts, and
they memorize doctrine. And when they get grown, you
look at them, and you wonder, Didn't they get anything? Didn't
anything sink in? Nothing. Nothing. Because they're
blind. They can't see. Spiritually,
they have no discernment. Spiritually, they have no eyes. Listen to the scripture. Romans
chapter 3, verse 11, there is none that understand it. I don't know why we can't get
that through our heads. There is none that understandeth,
and because there's none who understands anything spiritual,
there is none that seeketh after God. No man by nature, no woman
by nature, no child by nature will ever understand or seek
after God. They will seek after their notions
of God, they'll seek after religion, they'll seek after morality,
but they do not see anything spiritual and consequently will
not seek the Lord. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
2, or 1 Corinthians chapter 2 rather. I heard one old preacher say,
Years ago he said you could have a, it'd be easier for you to
take a jackass nuclear physics than to teach a natural man the
things of God. It can't be done. It just can't
be done. I know we, we somehow get this
notion that men and women can be educated into the kingdom
of God. They can be brought up into the kingdom. If you, if
you start them out right and teach them right and you send
them to religious schools and you, you keep them under religious
influence and you, you, after, after they get grown, they'll
just be, they'll be naturally be Christians. Oh no, they'll
naturally be lost. blind, ignorant religionist without
one speck of discernment, unless God intervenes. Look here in
1 Corinthians 2 verse 14. The natural man, the natural
man, now it doesn't matter who he is, the natural man. Doesn't
matter how many languages he knows, the natural man. Doesn't
matter how brilliant he is, the natural man. The natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, but a foolishness
to it. They're just foolishness to it.
Neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned.
Well, what do you do with poor blind men? You can fuss at them
and argue with them and get angry with them. You can take them
out in the noonday sun, turn their faces up and just stretch
their necks, get them as close to the sun as you can possibly
get them till their faces blister, but they still can't see the
sun. They just can't see it because they're blind. And there's no
need to get too upset with blind men because they can't see. Better
thing to do is what this blind man's friends did. This poor
blind man's friends brought him to the master. Now, I've been
looking at this and mulling it over. That's a I guess that's
a southern expression for lazy study. That's when you read it,
you sit down and just mull it over. I've been mulling this
over. They brought him to the master. I don't know who they
were, but they brought him to the master. We're not told that
this blind man believed anything. The scripture doesn't say, doesn't
imply anywhere that he believed anything. No doubt he had heard
about many cures. No doubt he had heard about others
who had been raised from the dead. Others who had been healed
from lameness. Others who had been healed from
leprosy. Others who had been healed from blindness. But he
apparently didn't believe it. But his friends did. He didn't
know the master, but they did. He didn't know the master's power,
but they did. He didn't know what the master
would do, but they did. And they brought their blind
friend to the Lord Jesus. It seems that he came to the
place where the master was simply because his friends, by one means
or another, persuaded him to do so. Wonder if you got any blind friends. You got any blind friends? Persuade them to come to where
the master is. Well, nobody's interested. Buy
them lunch. I'm serious. Persuade folks to
come. Invite and encourage folks. Blind
folks will never see unless they meet him who's light. These men
and women, whoever they were, had a blind friend. And they
said, the master's over here in Bethesda, Bethsaida. And he doesn't care anything
about it. He doesn't think there's anything to it. He's not interested. He's blind, but he doesn't know
there's a possibility of sight. How are we going to get him over
there? Well, Joe, I'll tell you what. I can't afford to buy him
dinner today, but you and I together, we'll go take him out to dinner.
Let's do it. I'm just speculating, but whatever the means was, they
knew their friend was blind. And they knew the over yonder
at Bethsaida is the son of God. And if he will, their friend
can be made to see. So they brought him and they
brought him while the master was there. This man didn't know
Christ, but his friends did. He didn't believe Christ, but
his friends did. He would never have come to Christ. but his friends persuaded him
to come. They couldn't give him light,
but they could bring him where light was dispensed. They couldn't
make him see, but they could bring him to one who could make
him see. They couldn't make him believe, but they could bring
him where is the master who could cause him to believe. And having
done all that they could do, they weren't satisfied. Well,
look here, we got him here now. No, they brought him. And they
set him before the master, and the scripture says they besought
him, that he would touch him. Lord, we know that if you will, just
a touch of your hand, oh Lord, just a touch of your
hand, will cause our blind friend to
see. Will you touch him? And the Lord
did. He took him by the hand. Look
at this next thing in verse 23. The Lord Jesus took the blind
man by the hand. Oh, what grace. Can you imagine how elated, how excited, how thrilled these
men were when the Lord Jesus reached out and took that man
by his hand. I've seen him do it a few times.
We've seen him do it a few times here. And we keep bringing folks
to him. We keep praying, Lord, touch
him, touch him. And when he reaches out to take
him, Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your
mercy. What condescension. He who is
God, he who is God, in whose hands are all power, all authority,
all dominion, all grace, all mercy, all life, all light, reaches
out to take a man who's blind. in his hand. Now Larry, there's
an instruction here. There's an instruction here.
He took the blind man by the hand in verse 23 and led him
out of the town. And when he spit on his eyes
and put his hands upon him, he asked him, do you see anything?
First, the master took him by the hand. That's tremendous act in itself. One day the Lord Jesus took me
by the hand. Maybe today he'll take you by
the hand. If he takes you by the hand, or if he takes you
into his hand, he will open your blind eyes. If this great God
and Savior is pleased to take you in his hand. He'll never
let you go. If he takes you by the hand,
you're perfectly safe. He says, no man can pluck them
out of my hand. No man. My father which gave
them is greater than all, and no man can pluck them out of
my father's hand. You see, if he takes you by the
hand in time, if, He comes to you tonight,
you are just taken by surprise. He just passes by, takes you
in His hand. What's going on? Let me tell
you what's going on. If He comes to you in time, takes
you in His hand, it's because He took you in His hand in eternity
as your covenant, as the one responsible to God to save you.
John Gill, I think, expressed it better than I ever could.
He said, when the Lord Jesus takes sinners by the hand, he
becomes their guide and leader, and 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. He
makes darkness light before them, and the crooked thing straight,
and he does not forsake them. Next. He took this blind man
and led him out of town. How come? How come? That's not written there for
just to fill up space. He took him out of town for some
reason. Perhaps he took him out of town because he would not
satisfy the curiosity of these unbelieving folks in Bethsaida.
But I think there's more to it than that. You remember back
in Hosea, the Lord speaks through Hosea and he says, I will speak
to your heart and I will allure you and bring you unto me into
the wilderness. He always, when he's dealing
with sinners in mercy, he always takes you out. He always, he
always brings you out. You see the Lord Jesus will fix
it. So that when he takes you in
the hand of his grace, and brings you to himself, that nobody of
any significance in all the world, nothing of any significance in
all the world, except you, a guilty sinner, and him, the sovereign
king. and the Lord took him out of
the city. You remember that woman taken
in adultery, taken in the very act? The Pharisees got her and
they brought her and they would accuse her and had the Lord Jesus
stone her to death. The Lord Jesus stooped and rode
on the ground, stooped again, rode on the ground. I don't know
what he said. I got a feeling maybe he had some names and places.
I don't know, but I got a feeling maybe he said something that
fixed it. So those fellas knew they better
shut up and leave her alone. And when he looked up the second
time, all her accusers were gone. He said, woman, where are those
thine accusers? The scripture says the woman
stood alone in the midst. Oh, blessed, blessed, blessed
work of grace. When the Son of God takes you
by the hand and brings you alone, standing before him in your naked
guilt. And he says, where are your accusers?
And she said, they're all gone. He says, neither do I condemn
thee. Go and sin no more. He took this man out of the city. He took him out of the camp of
human religion and out of the camp of worldly ambition and
out of the camp of sins dominion and out of the camp. But not
just out of the camp. He brought him out of the city
unto himself. That's the key. A lot of folks
leave the camp and never go to him. A lot of folks get involved
in this thing or that, but never go to him. The Lord Jesus takes
a sinner by the hand. leads him out of the city unto
himself alone. And there he speaks to your hearts. And then the Savior spit on his
eyes and touched him. Now it took a lot of mulling
on that. Why? I have often thought, well, actually
what he did is he spit, made a little mud, stuck it on his
eyes. But this text seems rather obvious. He spit on his eyes
and then he touched him. Certainly there is a picture
here of a man's absolute surrender to Jesus Christ, the Lord. You see, if ever you meet him,
and ever he deals with you in grace, he's going to conquer
you. He's going to conquer you. And
if he spits in your eyes, that'd be all right. If he calls you
a dead dog, that'd be all right. If he, if he exposes your sin,
makes you understand you are worthy of nothing but utter contempt
from God Almighty, that'd be all right. You've seen him and
you know what he's saying is so, and you just bow before him. But I think if you turn to Revelation
3 verse 18, you might see a little bit of instruction in this regard
as well. The Lord Jesus says, I counsel
thee to buy of me gold, tried in the fire, that thou mayest
be rich. This is gold you can't buy with
money. You buy it without money, without price. This is the gold
of free grace. And white raiment, come buy perfect righteousness
to me. How do you do that? By faith.
You just, you cast off your 50 garments and you take his righteousness. that thou mayest be clothed,
and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine
eyes with eye salve that thou mayest see. The spit from our Savior's lips
represents then the eye salve of the gospel with which the
Son of God anoints the eyes of the blind. Men come and sit,
They're blind. You sit before me just as blind
as a bat. Just as blind as a bat. And God
the Spirit takes the gospel. And with the touch of almighty
grace, you begin to see. He didn't just
spit on him. Scripture says he spit on his
eyes. He touched him. That touch represents the almighty
arm of free grace without which the gospel is utterly useless
and ineffectual. Oh, but if he will take the eye
of the free grace and anoint your eyes with the touch of his
omnipotent hand of grace, then you'll begin to see. This is perhaps Above all else,
a picture of our Lord's sovereignty in the exercise of his grace.
If you turn over to Mark chapter 10, you'll see this blind man that
is begging for mercy as the Lord Jesus passes by. The Lord deals with him a little
different. Look at it. Mark the 10th chapter in verse,
well, let's skip down to verse 51. Jesus answered and said unto
him, what wilt thou that I should do unto thee? And the blind man
said unto him, Lord, I sure would like to see that I may receive
my sight. And the Lord Jesus took him by
the hand led him out of the city, and spit on his eyes, and touched
him, and said, do you see anything? No, that's not what he did, is
it? Look what it says. And Jesus said unto him, go thy
way, thy faith hath made thee whole. But pastor, what's the significance?
God will not be put in a box. He never limits himself. and
he cannot be limited by men. He heals some men gradually and
others immediately. Some with spit and others without
any. You see, all saved sinners have
the same needs. We're all sinners. We're saved
by the same Savior. We trust the same Redeemer. We
experience the same grace. We believe the same gospel. But
we don't all experience grace the same way. You get into a
lot of trouble. And I warn you of this because
I see it all the time. I see it in history. I see it
in my own experiences in this life that I've lived in this
world for the past 30 years as a believer. I see it day by day
among preachers and among religious writers around the world. We
have a terrible tendency to want to put God in a box and say,
no, God does things this way. And we want to get everybody
to measure themselves by our own stick. And we don't have
much of a stick to measure by. I recall when I was just a young
man, I read a book by Thomas Boston. I believe it was Thomas
Boston, either Thomas Boston or Thomas Watson, Thomas Boston,
called The Human Nature and its Fourfold Estate. And it's a good
book. It's a very, very good book.
And I've read Pilgrim's Progress. Very, very, very good book. Except
when you get the notion that in order for a person to be saved,
he got to walk in the same experiences that Bunyan describes in Pilgrim's
Progress, and got to pass through the same experiences that Boston
describes in Human Nature's Fourfold Estate. We dare not do so. James Jordan, sitting there,
I have no idea of what your personal background is in life. Let's
just suppose that he's been raised moral, upright, upstanding man. He'd been a man who was a model
child, model citizen, and God revealed his grace in him. And
another is just kindly left to fend for himself, jerked up by
the hair of his head, raised by his wits on the streets, a
rebel, a rogue, and God reveals his grace in him. It's not reasonable
to expect that James experienced the same thing as other fellas.
Just not reasonable. The same grace, yes. The same
power, yes. The same Savior, yes. But not
from the same path, not walking in the same shoes. It's foolish
to anticipate it. And yet there are many who would
suggest, well, if you, you know, if you haven't experienced things
the way I have, well, you just can't be saved. I know, I've met a
few fellas, who presume that they're spiritual
judges, you know. They know who's saved and who's
not. And they meet you and they say, well, tell me how the Lord
saved you. And you can almost know when
they ask. What they want to know is you
tell me and I'm going to decide whether or not you got the real
thing. I recall years ago that I won't, yeah, I will too. I'll
tell you the story. I haven't stuck my neck out too much in
there. Brother Ralph Barnard was preaching and meeting one
of these fellas who had a, he had a reputation for you know,
he had been a preacher and then God saved him and he figured
everybody had to go through the same experience he did and go
through a time of deep conviction and seeking the Lord and walking
in darkness and groping for light and then after a while you finally
come to experience it. The whole church had a reputation
for it and Barnard would go down to preach and The pastor wasn't
in, but his secretary met Barnard and she said, now tell me, Brother
Barnard, how did the Lord save you? This ain't none of your
damn business. And what he intended for her
to understand was, I'm not interested in your opinion about me. I'm
not interested in that. And I'm telling you, we dare
not set ourselves up as self-righteous judges of God's people in this
world. Take people that their profession
and leave it alone. I've often used the illustration,
these two fellows, I can imagine them meeting up down the road.
And this old blind fellow who had the spit in his eye, he meets
up with Bartimaeus, who never had been spit in the eye. And
he gets talking to him. He said, tell me, Bartimaeus,
about your experience with the Lord. He said, oh, I was sitting
outside Jericho one day, and the master passed by. And I said,
Jesus, our son of David, had mercy on me. And he said, what
do you want? He said, oh, I want to sing. And he said, well, all
right, you can sing. He said, huh? What did you say? Yeah, I was
sitting by the Jericho railroad and the master came by and I
said, Jesus, that son of David, have mercy on me. And he said,
what do you want? And he said, oh, I want to see.
He said, all right, you can see. And I've been seeing ever since.
And this old boy, he ain't got it. You mean he didn't take you
outside the city? No. He didn't spit in your eyes. Spit in my eyes? No, I never
had anything like that happen. He didn't first spit in your
eyes and then touch you and cause you to see a little bit and then
later he touched you again and caused you to see more? No. No, it didn't happen like that
with me. Well, we're not glad for him. And they form two different
denominations. One of them is the spit in your
eye Baptist church and the other is the non-spit in the eye Baptist
church. And that's just about how silly it gets. Our Lord deals
with his elect sovereignly as he will through the preaching
of the word by the power of his spirit, bringing chosen sinners
to faith in Christ in such a way that no man gets any glory for
it. The Lord Jesus then required
a confession from this blind man. He said, do you see anything? Remember, this man had not expressed
any faith in Christ. He had not even acknowledged
his blindness and his. But now the master requires him
to acknowledge both his infirmity and the power of God that he
experienced, he said, you see that? And he looked up toward
heaven, he said, yeah. I see men as trees walking. You
see, there is no salvation apart from a personal confession of
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if confession of faith is
not at work, faith doesn't say, say, what shall I do? What does
God demand? No, no. You read Romans chapter 10, faith
doesn't say who's going to come down from heaven or who's going
to ascend up to heaven. Faith says it's already done.
The Lord is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart,
that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and
believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation. If we confess, our sins. He's faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But
you're going to have to make the confession. You're going
to have to make the confession. Secret disciples are always suspect
disciples. No one can be looked upon or
treated as or think of himself as a child of God until Christ
is confessed by him. Our Savior requires and deserves
such a confession before men. And the believer's confession
involves several things. It's not a one-time thing, but
a lifelong thing. It's a heart confession. It's something more than reading
a statement off a piece of paper or a card some repeating something
after some deceitful slick soul winner trying to convince you
that you're saved so he can put another number on his chart. It's a heart confession. But
with the heart confession comes a lip confession. Those who know
the master with their mouth confess him. It is a baptism confession. It is a confession made so that
we are buried with Christ in baptism and rise to walk with
him in the newness of life, doing what he himself has commanded
and thus draw a line of distinction between ourselves and all our
previous lives and all our previous experiences. And it's a life
confession. The believer in his day by day
life Behaves in such a manner that in his life he acknowledges
Christ as Lord, he's master, he's my king. And it's a faith confession. It's a confession that comes on the basis of nothing but faith
from a fallen saint. so that the believer, when he
has no evidences and his heart's cold, dead and empty,
looks yet to Christ and says, Lord, you know everything. You
know that I love you. It's a confession of faith, not
based on his work or his goodness, but rather based upon Christ's
work and Christ's goodness. And it'll be a judgment day confession
as well. We'll stand before God being examined as to the ground
upon which we shall enter into God's everlasting kingdom. And
we'll look on him and confess the Lord, our righteousness,
our wisdom, our sanctification, and our redemption. Now look
at verses 24 and 25. We see here that the light of
God's grace sometimes comes gradually. The Lord asked him if he saw
anything and he looked up and said, I see me and his trees
walking. And after that, he put his hands again upon his eyes
and made him look up and he was restored and saw every man clearly. Christ, who is the light of the
world, came preaching the recovering of sight to the blind And now
he gives what he preached. And he compelled the man who
received his sight to tell what had happened to him. This blind
man received his sight gradually. The work was as truly gracious
and as truly miraculous and as truly glorious as the healing
of Bartimaeus in chapter 10. Both men were blind, both men
were healed by the power of the Son of God. It's every bit as
glorious, every bit as miraculous, every bit as gracious as the
healing of that woman with an issue of blood or the healing
of the leper who was covered with leprosy. But somehow it
was less spectacular. However, it is not a miracle
to be despised and ignored simply because it was gradually performed. Our Lord shows us here that his
works in the lives of chosen sinners are sometimes gradual
rather than climactic. Now listen carefully to me. I
realize the person's either born again or he's not. I realize
regeneration is God invading the heart of a dead sinner and
giving him life. And I realize that there is no
salvation apart from the knowledge of the gospel, the knowledge
of God in the gospel, the knowledge of God in his son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. But men and women usually come
to light and understanding in spiritual things gradually, not
all at once. They think they come all at once.
Brother Joe Terrell said one time, he said, he said, a Christian
and a preacher are just like an old red wasp. And I said,
what do you mean? He said, they're always biggest
when they're first born. They never get any bigger. And
that's exactly right. Most of the time we think, well,
boy, I've got everything now. But this man received his light
gradually. The scripture tells us about
Lydia, a seller of purple, who was down at the riverside, worshiping
with a bunch of women. Jewish women doing what they
could to the best of their understanding in a Bible study according to
the law and Paul went down there and began to reason with them
from the scriptures Nobody else paid any attention But the scripture
says the Lord opened Lydia's heart She understood who said
The Philippian jailer Seems to have got it a little quicker
Seemed to have been a little more climactic. Something more
demonstrably drastic happened to that Jada. Lydia was a religious
lost woman seeking in the darkness of her lost religion to understand
something about God. And she had a Bible and some
knowledge of the Bible. And Paul came and reasoned with
her from the scriptures. And the Lord opened her heart.
She says, yeah, I see that. The Philippian jailer was a crusty
old retired soldier, kind of a salty old boy. And he was about to be a man
who thought himself about to be executed because the prisoners
had escaped and he was about to take his own life. And so
Paul rather said, do yourself no harm. And he came in and said,
what's going on? What must I do to be saved? So
Paul said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved. And I'll do that. and beats all the alternatives.
And he believed. Can it really be that simple?
Yeah. It's just that simple, just that
profound. You remember Saul of Tarsus was stricken on the Damascus
road and saw a light. And he said, Lord, what will
you have me to do? And the Lord revealed himself
to him, but Saul was still kindly blind. He walked around with
scales on his eyes for three days, it looked like. And when
he heard the word explained by another old believer, the scales
fell off his eyes and he began to see. Now I see. Now I see. J.C. Ryle made these simple but
profoundly instructive comments. about this man's experience and
the lessons it's intended to convey. First, Ra said, we are
all naturally blind and ignorant in matters which concern our
souls. And then he said, secondly, conversion is an illumination,
a change from darkness to light, from blindness to seeing the
kingdom of God. Remember, our Lord said in Nicodemus,
you cannot see the kingdom of God. You can't perceive it, much
less enter into it. And then Ryle made this observation
as well. Few converted people see things
distinctly at first. While we are rightfully insistent
that there is no saving conversion, no true salvation, no true faith,
apart from the knowledge of Christ, to know Him in eternal life,
that is eternal life. Or to know Him and God in Him
is eternal life. And yet, Knowing him in his true
character, as he's revealed in the gospel, we readily acknowledge
that saving knowledge may be, indeed always is, as long as
we live in this world, very, very partial, very partial. But if we just see a little bit,
just a little bit, I get a some amusingly sad things come
across my desk. This week I got something. I've
gotten two or three notes of this kind. A fella says, all
Bible questions answered. I thought to myself, I've got
a few I'd like to ask, but I ain't going to get into that. All Bible
questions answered. And people get the idea, man,
there's nothing I don't know about this. I'm going to tell
you the truth. Bobby, I've spent most of my
life, every day studying this book. I spent 30 years preaching
from it. And I will be honest with you. I recognize there's a whole lot
less in there I do understand than there is that I, a whole
lot more in there that I don't understand than there is that
I do. A whole lot more. I don't have all the answers.
I don't have them all. And you ought to be afraid of
any man who thinks he does. And you sure ought to be afraid
for yourself when you begin to think you do. Men and women who know the Lord usually, usually know that they've
come by gradual, gradual slight degrees to know a little bit. Peter, you know, he knew so much. He knew the doctrinal history
of the Old Testament. He was well instructed in those
things. But so much he didn't know. So much he didn't know. The woman with an issue of blood. I dare say she didn't know very
much. Larry, I expect she wasn't even
concerned about the names of the fellas who came in the land
of Israel. She didn't care whether it was
Joshua, Caleb, or all of them. She wasn't going to say it. I
don't imagine she gave one hoot as to which king reigned at which
time. Now, the knowledge is there. It's revealed. It's open. All
you got to do is study the history. But she was dying. And she knew
she was dying. But I'll tell you what she did
know. She knew. But if she could just
touch the hem of his garment, she'd be made whole. Now that's profound, deep, God-given
knowledge. Don't you ever despise that. She walked away whole while the
learned theologians stood around and debated what was going on. They could recite the law and
recite the additions to the law given by the traditions of the
father, but they didn't know. They'd just touch him. They'd be made whole. I hope you understand what I'm
trying to say. Light is light, but it usually comes to our sin
blinded souls by degrees. We see spiritual things gradually. That's been my experience. I knew when first God saved me
something about the corruptions of my deeds. I knew that. But now 30 years later, Bobby,
I'm beginning to learn. I'm just beginning to learn something. about the corruption of my heart. I know the doctrine of total
depravity. You can learn that from any good theology book. But I'm beginning to find out
what total depravity is. I'm beginning to learn something
about it. I quickly grasp the fact that
Jesus Christ being God in human flesh, though I can't yet begin
to understand that, but I did quickly grasp the fact that if
he's God in human flesh, that he's certainly able to redeem
and save his people. But it was a while before I was
able to apprehend that he was willing to save me. Big, big difference. I got the concept of forgiveness
pretty quickly, and the idea of forgiveness. I'd go to bed
at night, and I'd cry, oh, what I wouldn't give to be so forgiven
of sin is to have no terror, no dread from God ever again. But it was a while later I experienced
forgiveness. God gives light gradually, usually
not all at once. First, the good news of the gospel
was revealed to my soul and I was made to at last see and apprehend
God's forgiveness and Christ's willingness to save and the fact
that he had redeemed and saved me. But then the great truths
of the gospel were graciously sealed to my heart as well. This
man's healing, however, was completed. First, the Lord spit on his eyes
and touched him and said, do you see anything? He said, I
see men as trees walking. And then the Lord made him look
up again and he laid his hands on his eyes again. And he said,
now do you see anything? He said, oh yeah, I see everybody
clearly. You see, the Lord Jesus will
finish what he's begun. And Larry doesn't need any help
from us. You get that? I recall several years ago now
when God first began to deal with Jenny Bartley and she had
started asking questions and every now and then she'd stop
me and say something to me. Rex and I talked a good bit.
Prayed a lot. What are you going to do with
her? Absolutely nothing. What are you going to do with
her? Same thing I've been doing since she was that high. I'm
going to preach truth to her. I'm going to wait for God to
work in her heart. Because if God begins it, He'll complete
it. And what He begun in you, He
will yet complete. He will perform it until the
day of Jesus Christ. The Son of God never took up
anything in His hands to do. that he did not do thoroughly
until at last he could say, it's finished. And when I see God
beginning to deal with folks, or I think he is, I say, I see
the Lord's dealing with this one or dealing with that one.
I don't know. I don't know. I gave up calling
that shot a long time ago, but sometimes it appears the Lord
will begin to deal with someone. And mama or daddy get a little
antsy, they get a little anxious and they want you to get them
to do something. No, leave them alone. Leave them
alone. Pray for them. Leave them alone. Preach to them. Leave them alone.
Get them under the sound of the word. Leave them alone and wait. It's God's work. You'll do it.
You'll do it. And this man's healing, gives
us a picture both of the present and future condition of God's
saints in this world. We're just like him. While we
live in this world, we are, Paul said, now we see through a glass
darkly. We're kind of like a fellow driving
down the road, pitch dark night, The rain pouring down out of
the skies, no markings on the road, and he's got just one headlight
and it's on dim. And he can see, but all he can
see is just a little bit right in front of the nose on his face.
And he can't see anything else with any clarity. Now, the most well-learned, The most deeply experienced,
the most devoted of God's saints in this world are just that shape. We're driving down the road and
no markings on the road and rain pouring down around us. And our headlight seems off the
deal. But as we are led by the Savior,
he will lead us at last into the land of light. You'll see
everything clear. Now I see a little bit of truth.
I try to preach it to you. I see a little bit of practical
application of things. I try to share those with you.
I see a little bit of God's providence. Oh, but my soul, those wheels,
Ezekiel had that vision and God gave him the vision so clearly
so he could see those wheels with all the spokes in them and
wheels inside wheels. Well, I see the wheels, but it
looks like a fuzzy ball to me. All I see is just a little bit,
just a little bit. And all I can tell you is that
the wheel of providence is moving everywhere in everything according
to God's purpose. I just can't tell you how or
where or what's coming to pass. And it's best that way, Bob.
Because while we live here, we walk by faith, not by sight. And bless him who gives us the
light to walk by faith and not by sight. Amen. I hope that helps you. All right,
let's turn in our hymn books to number 205. Number 205, and
I'll ask the ushers to come, or not the ushers, the deacons
come and serve the Lord's table for us. Bobby, you assist them,
please. Free from the law, O happy condition.