Okay, today now we're going to
conclude our chapter Luke 18. Luke chapter 18, and I have been
just totally, totally blessed by looking at each verse and
each word in Luke chapter 18. Line upon line, word upon word,
precept upon precept. And today we come to the last
few verses in Luke 18 verse 35 down to verse 43. The title of
the message this morning then will be taken from what is said
in verse 40 of Luke 18, Jesus and Jesus stood. Now remember, He's on His way
to do the Father's business in Jerusalem. He's on His way to
make an atonement for the sin of God's elect. He's on His way
to fulfill all that are written of Him in the Scripture. He's
on a very important business trip for His Father. You remember
he said, I must be about my father's business. And as he's so busy
doing the work of the father, it says in verse 40, and Jesus
stood. Over in Mark 10, we read a moment
ago, and Jesus stood still. Now this is a miracle. This is
a miracle. We're gonna study in a couple
weeks, we've been going through the book of Joshua. But in Joshua
chapter 10, the Lord gave Israel a great victory over the five
kings of the Amorites. And Joshua at his word commanded
the sun and the moon to stand still and God brought it to pass. Now, how can that be? I can't
explain it. I don't even understand it, but
I believe it to be so because God says so. Joshua 10 says this,
And there was no day like that day, before or after, that the
Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man, and the sun and moon
stood still, and the Lord fought for Israel. Now it's one thing
to cause the sun in the sky to stand still, And that means that
the earth stopped. That's a great miracle. But here
before us in Luke 18, a blind beggar caused the God who created
the heavens and the earth, who created the sun and the moon
to stand still. A cry from a needy beggar stopped
the Lord Jesus Christ in his tracks. And he heard his cry. A miracle. A miracle. Now, you remember from our lesson
last week, the Lord Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem to give
His life a ransom for many. He said, I must go to Jerusalem. I must lay down my life for my
sheep. There is no other way for salvation
to be accomplished than the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified
for the sin of God's elect. And on Calvary 3, when the deed
was finally done, he said, it is finished, salvation is accomplished. Now nothing could stop him from
going to the cross, nothing could stop him from dying there to
die for the sins of his people, not his disciples. Peter tried
that, didn't he? Lord, don't go there. Peter tried
that. Not even the plans of Satan could
deter the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember Satan in Luke 4
took him up on a high mountain and said, if you do this and
this and fall down and worship me, will everything be okay?
He said, get out of my way. I've got to go to Jerusalem.
The Pharisees couldn't stop him. They tried to throw him off a
cliff, as we read earlier. They tried to stone him on several
occasions, but he just simply passed through their midst. But here, a cry of a needy beggar
stopped the Lord of Glory dead in his tracks. Aren't you interested? I am. Why did he stop? The cry
of a mercy beggar stopped the Lord Jesus Christ and he stood
still and heard the cry of a needy beggar. What a wonderful and
amazing picture we have before us. The Lord of glory marching
to Calvary to accomplish the salvation of his people stopped
by the cry of a needy sinner crying out for mercy. Now, I
understand that I repeat myself a lot. But it needs to be repeated. Truth always needs to be repeated. The Lord Jesus heard the cry
of this sinner, healed this poor sinner, and he received his sight. Look at Luke 18, 42. And Jesus
said to him, Receive thy sight. Thy faith hath saved thee, thy
faith hath made thee whole. Here's a man who had never, he
didn't know what the blue sky looked like. He didn't know what
the red earth looked like. He had never seen his father.
He'd never seen his mother. If he was married, he had never
beheld the eyes of his wife. Now this man sees. What a miracle! He sees. He was blind, blind,
blind. Now he sees. Like the poor leper
who cried out to the Lord to be healed. Lord, if you will,
you can make me clean. And the Lord said, I will. Be
thou clean. like the publican who cried,
Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner. And the Lord said, that
man went down to his house justified rather than the other. You see,
the Lord Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, forever.
The same Lord who showed mercy, and I think this blind man is
the same as the blind man in Mark 10, blind Bartimaeus. There's just too much that's
similar to think it's somebody different. Now, if you differ
with me, that's okay. But let's not get off the main
message of what's being taught here. The same Lord who showed
mercy to blind Bartimaeus as he's identified in Mark 10, is
the same Lord who hears the cry of sinners right now. He hears your cry. He knows your
heart. He said, come boldly unto the
throne of grace that you may obtain mercy, find grace to help
in time of need. He is the same omnipotent Lord
who does not change, that is able to save to the uttermost
all that come to God by Him, saying that He ever lives, right
now, He ever lives, seated at the right hand of God, He ever
lives right now, this moment, right now, to intercede for us. to make our worship acceptable,
to hear our cry of mercy. Does the Lord hear the cry of
his people? Absolutely, absolutely. Now, let's take a closer look.
at what happens here with this blind man being made whole and
the Lord showing mercy. The first lesson the Lord is
teaching us here, we clearly see in this story the absolute
sovereignty of God. The absolute sovereignty of God. in the salvation of sinners. Our great God and Savior will
have mercy on whom he will have mercy. Remember he said it is
not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy. And it came to pass, verse 35,
that as he was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man
sat by the wayside begging, and hearing the multitude pass by,
he asked what it meant, and they told him that Jesus of Nazareth
was passing by, and he cried, saying, Jesus, thou son of David,
have mercy upon me." Here's one man begging for mercy, and the
Lord of glory heard his cry. Now there were a great number
of people in that crowd that day, but the Lord Jesus was seeking
out one particular man. He says here, a certain blind
man. The Lord Jesus Christ was seeking
out one of his sheep for whom the Lord was going to make an
atonement for his sin, to pay his sin debt. You see, the Lord
of glory is always looking for His sheep. He's on the trail
of His sheep. Even this day, even today, He
will cross the path of His people with the gospel of God's sovereign
saving grace, and He will have mercy upon them, as it says there
in verse 35, whenever we see these words, and it came to pass. It just didn't happen. God ordained
this very day, this very moment, this very time, in that day and
in this. God brought it to pass. We're
going to see next week, Lord willing, in Luke chapter 19,
that the Lord Jesus Christ came to Jericho. You remember Jericho
was a cursed city, a pagan city, that God at one time completely
destroyed. And the Lord went to Jericho
not only to heal this certain blind man, but also to meet with
another wicked sinner named Zacchaeus. And when the Lord came to that
sycamore tree and found Zacchaeus up that tree, In curiosity to
see what was going on, the Lord in Luke 19 verse five said, Zacchaeus,
make haste and come down, for today I must abide at your house. You see the Lord passing by Jericho,
not only to call out this certain blind man, I believe it's Bartimaeus,
but also later going through this same city of Jericho, finding
Zacchaeus stuck up that tree, and the Lord calls him to Christ,
make haste and come down, the Lord called him to himself. Bartimaeus
was one of those, the Lord Jesus Christ, like Zacchaeus, was chosen
in that eternal covenant of grace, unconditionally chosen by grace
and blessed because of Christ. We call that The Bible doctrine
of election, unconditional election. God chose this certain blind
man just as he chose Zacchaeus. The Bible doctrine of election.
Does the Word of God teach it? Absolutely. What do we mean when
we say that God unconditionally chose a people? God in that eternal
covenant of grace chose a people in Christ before the foundation
of the world and predestinated them to be conformed to the image
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are bound to give thanks to
God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has,
from the beginning, chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto He called you
by our gospel. We call that the Bible truth,
the Bible doctrine of election. It is a blessed, blessed doctrine. We call that salvation by the
grace of God. We call the Lord crossing the
path of His people, giving to Him in that covenant of grace,
choosing them out of darkness, making them, making the marvelous
light of the gospel to shine in their heart. We call that
salvation by the grace of God. That's how God saves sinners.
All of God, all of grace. He's a God of all grace. He's
a God of all power. Our Lord said, all that the Father
giveth to me shall come to me and those that come to me I will
in no wise cast out. Now, you can't read this book.
and deny that God elected a people unto salvation. It's just as
plain, if you'd be honest, just reading the words. God chose
us in Christ before the foundation of the world. Now what do those
words mean? God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the
world. What else can it mean? You try to make it mean something
else, you're dishonest before God. And that's what preachers
do today. Well, that's not really what
it, that's what it says, but you know, that's not what it
means. Come on. Let's be honest before God. God chose a people. Our Lord
said, you didn't choose me, I chose you. Now, why do men want to
ignore that and preach up man's will? They call it free will.
Man's will is not free. Anybody that says that is an
ignorant fool. If man's will is free, walk out
that door in about 30 minutes and start flapping your arms
and start flying. If your will is free, I want
to fly. If you flap as hard as you want
all day long, you can jump maybe. You're not going to fly. You
know why? It's your nature to walk. Man's
will is in bondage to his nature. Oh, he has a will. We don't deny that, but it's
in bondage to his nature. Man's will is not free. If God
doesn't intervene and make us willing in a day of his power,
we'll never believe the gospel. Now here's the second thing.
Not only a lesson of sovereign mercy, God will have mercy on
whom he will. But here we see the sad condition of this man.
A certain man, I believe it was Blind Bartimaeus, sat by the
highwayside begging. Bartimaeus was in a sad shape,
in a desperate condition. He was not only blind, but he
was broke. I mean he was flat broke. He
was bankrupt. All he could do was to find his
way to the public highway, sit down there in his dirty rags,
and put out his cup and beg. Now that's about as low as it
gets. It says in Mark 10 that he was
the son of Timaeus. Blind Bartimaeus was the son
of Timaeus. Some think that his father was
also blind and that he received his blindness from his father.
A blind son born of a blind father. That's our problem too. Did you
know that? In our father Adam, we've all sinned to come short
of the glory of God. In Adam, all have lost their
spiritual eyesight. All are born in sin, born blind,
having no eyes to see the glory and beauty of Christ, no eyes
to see our need of Him, loving darkness and hating God. Their hearts were filled with
wrath. Remember, we read in Luke chapter 4. That's all of us,
blind, dumb, and ignorant. Second thing about Bartimaeus,
he was in poverty. He was bankrupt, he was desperate,
reduced to publicly begging on the street. And this too is a
picture of our condition in our fallen and ruined state in Adam.
reduced to spiritual bankruptness, spiritual poverty, totally bankrupt,
having nothing to please God with, having no righteousness
whereby we can please God. We are void of all goodness,
empty of all spiritual goodness, having no righteousness, and
without God, bankrupt. That's all of us by nature. Blind
and bankrupt. Man in his best state is altogether
vanity. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Now here's the third lesson.
In verse 36 down to verse 39. This man was blind, but he had
ears. And hearing the multitude. passed by, he asked what it meant. And they told him that a man
from Nazareth, he's called here Jesus, is passing by. But notice
in his cry, he doesn't cry out, Jesus of Nazareth, have mercy
on me. Now this is significant. He cries
out rather, thou son of David, have mercy upon me." And, of
course, those in the crowd rebuked him to hold his peace and shut
up. But he cried to much more, thou
son of David, thou son of David, have mercy upon me. Now, by the good and sovereign
providence of the Lord, some way, somehow, he heard about
the Lord showing mercy to others. and healing others." Maybe he
heard about the Lord healing other lepers, or causing those
who were lame and crippled to walk, or how he raised the dead. You remember, he touched the
coffin of that widow's son, and he that was dead was raised again. Maybe he heard about how he brought
forth Lazarus from the dead when he said, Lazarus, come forth.
Well, that question he heard about the Lord Jesus being the
promised Messiah, the Son of David, the King of Israel, and
he called upon Him as Lord, as Messiah. He heard the truth and
was given faith and called upon the Lord for mercy. Now, I want
to show you something here that's significant about this son of
David. Hold your place here and find
Matthew 22. He calls upon the Lord Jesus
Christ in his office as the Messiah, the Christ of God. In Matthew
22, look at verse 41. While the Pharisees were gathered
together, Jesus asked them, saying, What think ye of Christ? You see it, verse 42. Whose son
is he? And they said unto him, The son
of David. Now, they knew this because the
scriptures teach that the Messiah would be the son of David. Look what the Lord says here.
He said to them, How then doth David in his spirit call him
Lord? Now this is from Psalm 110 verse
1. Saying, The Lord said unto my
Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy
footstool. If then David called him Lord,
how is he his son? Now there's one to figure out,
work on that a while. How is he his Lord and Savior
and God and yet he's the son of David. In his humanity, remember
he's the son of David. He is declared to be the son
of God, made the son of David. Remember Romans chapter 1, verse
46, And no man was able to answer him a word, neither doth any
man from that day forth ask him any more questions. What think
ye of the Son of David? What think ye of the Christ?
This man was taught of God that this Jesus of Nazareth is none
other than the promised Messiah, the Christ of God. He is the
Lord Jesus Christ. And he calls upon Him in his
office as Lord and God. Now we learn from this several
things. The necessity of hearing the
word of the Lord. Hearing the true gospel of Christ,
faith is not granted nor given by listening to the lies of men. You'll never arrive at truth
listening to lies. That is impossible. You'll never
know the true living God by listening to some man describe another
God, another Jesus, or another gospel. You'll never arrive at
the truth. You see, faith comes by hearing
and hearing the Word of Truth. Our Lord said in John 8, It is
the truth that sets you free. You shall know the truth and
the truth will set you free. Now, I make a big deal about
this because it is a big deal. You'll never have the faith of
God's elect granted by listening to a false message or a false
gospel. Secondly, God has ordained the
preaching of the gospel and the truth of the gospel to the calling
out and conversion and regeneration of his people. That's why the
Lord makes much of preaching. Now we don't make much of preachers,
at least I don't, I'm just a sinner, I'm just a voice, I'm just a
messenger. We don't make much of the preacher, but we make
much of the means that God has ordained, that is the preaching
of the gospel. It pleased God through the preaching
of the gospel to call out His people. Our Lord said, with the corruptible seed, but
by the incorruptible seed, which is the Word of God. The Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ must be preached, and the Lord will draw His people
through the preaching of that Gospel. The third thing, when
the Lord is pleased to bless His Word to our understanding
and grant us faith, we cannot but believe the Gospel of Christ. That's why I don't beat up on
people to believe. If God calls you by His grace
and grants you faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will do this
certain thing, you will believe Him. You can't do anything else. You see, we don't make a choice
to believe. We believe the gospel because
we have no choice. That's right. We believe according
to the working of His mighty power. Whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. How they are going to
call? And whom they have not heard
or believed. And how shall those preach except
they be sent? There is a necessity of preaching
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice this crowd tried
to rebuke Bartimaeus. when he cried out for mercy,
and they tried to stop him, but he cried the louder, Thou Son
of David, have mercy on me. He was determined in his heart
to seek mercy where mercy was found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he cries out, and this is
my constant plea in my heart, All the time. God be merciful
to me, the sinner. You want to know what to pray?
I pray that for myself and for this congregation all the time. Lord, I woke up this morning
at 3 o'clock this morning. First thing was on my mind, Lord
have mercy on us this day. Enable us to worship Thee in
spirit and in truth. You see, his desperate need determined
his violent cry. They tried to hush him. No, you
can't hush. You can't hush someone who has
a need of mercy. I would encourage all of you
to call upon the Lord for mercy. He's able to meet our need according
to His riches in glory. Call upon Him. You say, well,
I need mercy. Have you ever called upon the
Lord and asked Him for mercy? That's our constant cry. Are
you thirsty for the water of life? Come to Christ and drink
of the water that He gives. He said, Isaiah 55, Ho, everyone
that's thirsty, come ye to the waters. He that hath no money,
come ye, buy, eat, yea, come buy wine and milk without money
and without price. He told the woman at the well,
that he's the water of life. Drink of me. Whosoever drinketh
of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the
water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing
up into everlasting life. Are you thirsty? Call upon him. Are you hungry for the bread
of life? Our Lord said, Come to me and eat. I'm the bread
of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. He that believeth on me shall never thirst. Are you
weary and heavy laden with guilt and grief over your sin? Our
Lord said, Come unto Me, and I'll give you rest. How do we come to Christ? A lot
of people think it's something physical. How do you come to Christ? We
don't invite folks down front and invite them to come to Christ
by coming down front. That's nonsense. That's nonsense. Come to Christ and don't move
a muscle. We come to Christ by faith. By faith, that's the gift of
God. Faith is always coming to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Here's the fourth thing. Misery
is the object of the Lord's mercy. Verse 39 and 40. Verse 40, the
Lord stood still and commanded him to be brought unto him. And
when he was come near, he asked him, saying, What wilt thou that
I should do unto thee? And he said, Lord, that I might
receive my sight. Lord! Misery is the object of
the Lord's mercy. The cry of mercy stopped the
Savior in His tracks. Our great Savior hears the cry
of His people. Hold your place there and let
me show you this scripture. It will be a blessing to you.
Turn to the book of Psalms and find Psalm 40. Psalm 40, verse
1. Psalm 40, verse 1. I waited patiently for the Lord. Now he's worth waiting for, is
he not? He inclined unto me, and heard
my cry. He brought me up also out of
a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, set my feet upon a rock,
established my goings, he hath put a new song in my mouth, even
praise unto our God, many shall see it and fear, and shall trust
in the Lord. I waited patiently for the Lord.
He inclined unto me. He heard my cry." Did he hear
the cry of Bartimaeus? Oh, yes, he did. Yes, he did. And they called the blind man,
saying, Be of good cheer and comfort, he calleth for thee.
Mark 10, 49. What a great blessing it is to
be called with that powerful, irresistible call of the Lord.
The call of the gospel in the hands of God the Holy Spirit
never goes unheeded, but is always answered in a suitable manner.
When God calls out his people from death, Darkness to life
and light, his people willingly respond to him in the day of
his power. Peter said, you are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people
that you should show forth the praises of him who called you
out of darkness into his marvelous light. And the Lord stood and
commanded him to be brought unto him. Mark said, the Lord called
for him. And when he was come, verse 41,
what wilt thou that I should do unto thee? And he said, Lord,
that I may receive thy sight. It's not given here, but over
in Mark chapter 10. Let me just read this to you.
Notice carefully what happened. Jesus stood still and commanded
him to be called. And they called the blind man,
saying unto him, Be of good comfort, arise, he calleth for thee. And he casting away his garment,
rose and came, to the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Lord calls us,
we're going to come. We're going to come. We're going
to come to Him. Look what this man did when the
Savior called him. He arose by the command of Christ.
He cast off his outer garment, and then he came to the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is a glorious sight, and
this is exactly what happens when the Lord causes the sinner
by his powerful call of the gospel. He raises us up from the dead
and shows us our need of Christ. He causes us to throw away our
garment of self-righteousness and he causes us to flee to Christ. He said, no man can come to me
except the Father which sent me draw him. Now, look what happens. And the Lord said, And he said
to the Lord that I may receive my sight, Luke 18, verse 42. And the Lord said to him, Receive
thy sight, thy faith hath saved thee, verse 43. And immediately
he received his sight, and followed him, glorifying God. And all
the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto the Lord. The Lord asked him a simple and
direct question, What is your need? Now the Lord knew what
his need was, but this man confesses that he is blind and needs healing. Lord, that I might receive my
sight. And he immediately received his
sight. You see, the Lord healed all
those that had need of healing. Remember from Luke 9, verse 11. All those who call upon the Lord
and ask for mercy shall receive mercy, because he delights to
show mercy. One more time, verse 43. And
immediately he received his sight, he followed the Lord, his sheep
hear his voice and they follow him, glorifying God, God forbid
we should glory save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
all the people when they saw it, they gave praise unto God
for salvation. of sinners is of the Lord. He followed Christ in the way,
and true saving faith honors the Lord Jesus Christ, and He's
always honored by Christ. Thy faith hath made thee whole.
Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, may God be pleased right
now, for Christ's sake, to hear our cry. I'm in need of mercy
right now. Lord, have mercy upon me right
now. May God be pleased right now
for Christ's sake to show mercy to me. and give me eyes of faith
to see Him. May God give all of His grace
that we, like this blind Bartimaeus, would follow the Lord Jesus Christ
in the way and glorify Him. How do we glorify Him? By believing
Him, by worshiping Him in our heart. Well, that's the end of
Luke 18. It's been a blessing to me and
I trust it has been to you.