Mark the 10th chapter. We have a very interesting story
before us this morning in Mark chapter 10. I've preached from
this portion of scripture before, but it's always a blessing to
me to go back and read how the Lord of Glory crossed the path
of a sinner, gave him life and salvation, and that's what this
is a picture of. Now the title of the message
this morning is found in verse 49 and the title is simply Jesus
stood still. The Lord Jesus Christ stood still. We read a moment ago in Joshua
chapter 10 the Lord of glory gave Israel a great victory over
the five kings of the Amorites and Joshua at his word, commanded
the sun and moon to stand still, and God brought it to pass. You remember? We read these words
a moment ago in Joshua 10. And there was no day like that
day before it or after that the Lord hearkened to the voice of
a man, Joshua, and the Lord fought for Israel. The sun stayed. Till Israel had won the victory. Now it's one thing to cause the
sun to stand still. S-U-N. Now that's a glorious,
glorious, powerful miracle. Great miracle. Well preacher,
do you really believe that? Absolutely. Absolutely I do. But before us here in Mark chapter
10, we have a blind beggar who caused the God who created the
sun to stand still. at the cry of a beggar, the Lord
Jesus Christ on his way to Calvary's tree to accomplish salvation
for his covenant people, to give his life a ransom for many, to
earn for them perfect righteousness, to put away their sin. And here
as he's walking out of Jericho with this large crowd and this
commotion, he hears the cry of a beggar named Bartimaeus. And the Lord Jesus Christ stopped
in his tracks. What a glorious sight this is
this morning. What a wonderful, amazing picture
we have before us, as the Lord of Glory marching to Calvary's
cross, and there to accomplish salvation for us, and hear the
cry of a needy, dirty, ragged sinner, sitting, begging in the
dust, and the Lord of Glory stopped. like the publican who cried Lord
be merciful to me the sinner you know the encouraging word
is this the Lord Jesus Christ is the same today yesterday and
forever the same Lord who showed mercy to blind Bartimaeus and
giving him forgiveness and sight and salvation is the same Lord
who hears the cry of sinners today I'm gonna cry I'm going
to call upon the Lord. How about you? Lord, have mercy
on this sinner. He's the same omnipotent Lord
that's able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by Him.
He hears the cry of His people. Because He is the living God. Because He's the all-knowing
God. He hears the cry of a sinner in need. Do you ever cry out
for mercy? Do you ever ask the Lord to have
mercy on you, a sinner? Do you ever ask the Lord to save
you for Christ's sake? Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Call upon the name of the Lord
now. Call out of a need. Call out of your need to God
who is able to meet our need and call for mercy. Cry for mercy. Now let's take a closer look
this morning at this story of the Lord showing mercy to a needy
sinner. And put yourself in the place
of Bartimaeus. Put yourself just in the dust,
on the roadside, dirty, ragged, filthy, in need, hungry, cold,
And here comes the Lord of Glory, passing by this way. What would
you do? Well, I don't need you. No, I
need, I need Him. Cry out for mercy. We see, first
of all, in this story, we clearly see in this story the sovereignty
of God in salvation. The sovereignty of God in salvation. For salvation begins not with
the sinner. Salvation begins with God. We
see the sovereignty of God in saving sinners. Our great God
will have mercy on whom he will have mercy. None are deserving
of mercy. But thank God he is merciful
unto his people. There was a great number of people
in that crowd that day. You see what it says there? Verse
46, And they came to Jericho, and as he went out of Jericho
with his disciples, and a great number of people. There's one
old beggar over here. God singled him out. God from
all eternity purposed and decreed this day that their path would
cross. It was no accident. What God does, He does on purpose. Those whom God saves, He saves
on purpose. Purpose and grace. There was
a great number of people in the crowd that day, but the Lord
Jesus was on the trail of one sheep, one elect, named Bartimaeus. The Lord Jesus was seeking out
His one sheep as He was going to Calvary's cross to pay for
His sin debt. He singles out this man and shows
mercy to him. Bartimaeus was one of those given
to the Lord Jesus Christ in that eternal covenant of grace. We
read the words in John 6, 37, All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and those that come to me I will in no wise
cast out. Remember what the Lord said to
His disciples? He said, You've not chosen me,
but I've chosen you, and I've ordained you. unto salvation. Had the Lord not chosen us in
that eternal covenant of grace, we have never, we never would
have loved Him. We never would have believed
Him. We never would have bowed to the sovereignty of God. God
who was sovereign. Had He not chosen us, we never
would have believed the gospel. We never would have embraced
the Lord Jesus Christ. So there we see the sovereignty
of God in salvation. Second thing we see is this.
We see the condition, the sad and desperate condition of blind
Bartimaeus. He was not only blind, he was
broke. Look what it says. He sat by
the highway side begging. Blind beggar. Now that's pretty low. That's
about as low as you can go. He was blind and broke. Notice,
first of all, he was a son of Timaeus. See what it says there?
Bartimaeus, which means son, he was a son of Timaeus. Son
of Timaeus. Now, some think his father, Timaeus,
was also blind. And that blind Bartimaeus received
his blindness from his father. He was a blind son of a blind
father. Born blind because his father
was blind. His blindness passed right on
down to his son. Sound familiar? Our story? In our Father Adam, we've all
sinned and come short of the glory of God. In Adam, we've
all lost our spiritual sight. We're all born blind and dead,
having no eyes to see the glory of Christ, the beauty of Christ,
or our need of Him. By nature, we're born in sin
and iniquity. By nature, we love darkness,
not light. We're just like old Bartimaeus,
blind. That's the way we're born. We
don't have spiritual eyes or life to see the beauty of Christ.
We're in love with ourselves until God gives us salvation.
The second thing we see about Bartimaeus, he was not only blind,
but he was bankrupt. He was in poverty. He was desperate. He was reduced to publicly begging
in the street. That's low. But he was hungry. He was in need. And the only
thing he could do was beg. Have mercy. Would you have mercy
on me as a people pass by the highway he set himself by that
public through way where people would be passing by and somehow
he held out his hand or he held out a cup or he held out something
and said have mercy have mercy I've been down in Mexico in some
of the pueblos and some of the people just sitting out in the
street begging begging And I couldn't but pass by that beggar, but
to drop a peso or two in his little cup. Have mercy, have
mercy. Blind Bartimaeus was totally
bankrupt. And this too is exactly our condition
in our fall, in our ruin, in Adam. Reduced to spiritual poverty. Totally depraved. Totally bankrupt. I mean by that, having no righteousness
of our own. I mean by that, void of all spiritual
goodness. I mean by that, that man in his
best days is altogether vanity, and nothing, and dead, and stinking,
and filthy, rotten to the core. That's you and I. And Adam all
died. No wonder the scripture said
there's none righteous, no not one. Not only was this man blind,
not only was this man a beggar, but he lived in a city that was
cursed. Jericho. That's where the nobodies
lived. Not up in Jerusalem. They were
headed to Jerusalem. Down in Jericho. Place of depravity. And that's where we live. That's
where we're born. We're born into Jericho. We're
not born up on the mountaintop. We're born down in the valley.
Down in the valley of depravity. Down in Jericho where there's
none good. No, not one. You see our condition
is just like old Bartimaeus. Blind. Dead. Begging. Nobody loved him. Nobody needed
Bartimaeus. Cast out. He was the outcast
that the outcast cast out. Here's the third thing. Verse
47, verse 48. Notice Mark 10, verse 47, 48. When he'd heard that it was Jesus
of Nazareth. Oh, now wait a minute. When he
heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say,
Jesus, thou son of David, Can you hear him cry? Have mercy
on me! There was a crowd there. I'm
sure he raised his voice. And many in that crowd that day
said, That's old Bartimaeus. Hush! Nobody's interested in
your cry. Hush! Bartimaeus. Look what it
says. And many charged him that he
should hold his peace. He should just be quiet. The
Master's coming through here. But he cried no more a great
deal. Thou son of David! have mercy on me and the Lord
stood still the Lord stood still now this man he could not see
but he could hear about the Savior coming his way. Somehow by the
sovereign providence of the Lord, some way, somehow he heard the
good news of the Lord Jesus Christ showing mercy to others. Somehow
he heard the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ healing others.
Somehow he heard about the Lord one day when a leper approached
him. How the Lord of Glory cleansed that leopard when the leopard
said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. And the Lord
said, I will be a clean. Somehow he heard about the goodness
and the grace of God manifested through Christ Jesus. Somehow
he heard about the Lord healing a crippled man and forgiving
his sin. Somehow he heard about how the
Lord of Glory raised the dead. Here was a widow woman. taking her son out of the city. And her young son laid in that
coffin dead, a dead corpse. And the Lord of glory, as that
coffin passed through, held out his hand and touched the coffin.
And life came into that young child. He heard of the glory
of sovereign power and mercy of God in Christ Jesus. And he heard the Lord of glory
was passing that way. What's he going to do? The Messiah,
the Son of David, that's what he's saying. The Son of David,
well that's the Messiah, that's the Christ, the Christ of God,
the anointed of God, the Son of David is passing by. And he
calls out for mercy, he calls out for help. He heard the truth
was given, he heard, and the truth, he heard the truth and
was given faith and called upon the Lord for mercy. You remember
the thief on the cross? Those two thieves there, nailed
on each side of the Lord Jesus as he dies on Calvary Street.
And you remember what that one thief said to him? He said, Lord,
remember me when you come into your kingdom. He heard the truth
and was given faith and called upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice
in verse 51 in our story, Jesus answered and said, What wilt
thou that I should do unto thee? And the blind man said unto him,
Lord, that I might receive my sight. He called upon him as
Lord. He heard, and he called. He heard, and he believed, and
he called upon the Lord. Now what can we learn from this?
I think several things. Number one, the necessity of
hearing the word of truth. hearing the true gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. You can't trust an unknown Christ.
You've got to hear the word of truth. Faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the word of truth. Blind Bartimaeus heard of the
Lord Jesus Christ and called out for mercy. We see the necessity
of hearing, not just preaching, but hearing the truth. of who
God is, who the Lord Jesus Christ is, and what salvation is all
about in Christ Jesus, how He saves sinners by His grace. Second
thing we can learn from this, God has ordained the preaching
of the gospel to the calling out and the conversion and regeneration
of His people. It pleased God through preaching
to call out His people. There is a necessity because
God has ordained the preaching of the truth to call out His
people. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. Being born again, not of a corruptible
seed, but of an incorruptible seed, the word of truth. I want you to find 1 Thessalonians
chapter 1. And here's what's being said.
Here's what I'm trying to say. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, look
at verse 4. We've read this many times. It's
good to repeat. This is a quote worth re-quoting.
1 Thessalonians 1 verse 4, Knowing, brethren, beloved, your election
of God, for our gospel came not unto you in word only, verse
5, it came not only in word, but it came in power in the Holy
Ghost, and in much assurance, as you know what manner of men
we were among you for your sake, and you became followers of us
and of the Lord, having received the word. in much affliction
with joy of the Holy Spirit." We see the necessity of preaching
the truth. God has ordained the preaching
of the gospel to the calling out of his people. And thirdly,
when the Lord is pleased to bless his word to our understanding
and to grant us faith in Christ Jesus, we cannot but cry upon
the Lord for mercy. We cannot but cry upon the Lord
for mercy. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord, the Lord shall be saved." Now notice this, when the crowd
tried to quiet Bartimaeus, he cried out the more great deal.
He was determined, Bartimaeus was determined in his heart to
seek mercy where mercy was found. He was determined in his heart
by the grace of God to get to the Lord Jesus Christ at all
expense. He came to the place in his heart,
in life, where he came to this place. He must have Christ now. And he cries out for mercy. He
sought mercy where mercy is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Have
mercy on me. Have mercy on me. You ever cry
out that way? You see, it's not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He
saved us. You see, His desperate need determined
His violent cry. I tell you what, if God ever
so works in your heart to show you your need of the Lord Jesus
Christ, you will throw everything away to get to Him, to come to
Christ and fall in love with Him. You see your desperate need
will be determined as you see your desperate need you'll cry
unto the Lord for mercy. Now listen to this scripture
in Matthew chapter 11 verse 12 you remember reading these words
from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven
suffered violence and the violent Take it by force What I'm saying
is this when God so works in your heart and in your life To
show you your need of him that he's altogether lovely You throw
everything aside and come to Christ right now come to Christ
and Don't move a muscle Coming to Christ is not a physical thing.
Coming to Christ is by faith. I don't invite folks down front
here to come to Christ. You go look to Him. Don't come
down front here and make a decision. Don't do that. Salvation is not
down here. Salvation is in Christ, in the
Lord Jesus Christ. All the violent take it by force.
If God ever works in your heart that way, you'll cry for mercy.
And you won't stop crying till He relieves that in your heart.
I would encourage all of you to call upon the Lord for mercy.
He's able to meet all our needs according to His riches in glory
through Christ Jesus. Now listen to me. Are you thirsty? Are you thirsty for the water
of life? Have you ever really, really, really been thirsty,
naturally speaking? Naturally? How that craving,
they tell me one of the strongest cravings of the human body is
that craving for having your thirst quenched. I tell you,
if you're really thirsty, you'll find some water somewhere, somehow,
someway. You'll get to the water. And
my friend, if God ever gives you that spiritual thirst for
the Lord Jesus Christ, and to show you that He is the water
of life, You'll drink of Him. Our Lord
said to the woman at the well that day in John chapter 4, Whosoever
drinketh of that water, whosoever drinketh of the water that I
shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give
him shall be in a well of water springing up into everlasting
life. Lord, give me that water. I want to drink of Him. Are you
thirsty for the water of life? Look to Christ. Believe Him.
Are you hungry for the bread of life? Come to Christ and eat. Our Lord said, I'm the bread
of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth
on me shall never thirst. Are you thirsty? He's the water
of life. Are you hungry? He's the bread
of life. Are you weary, heavy laden with guilt? Are you grieved
over your sin against God? Our Lord said, Come to Me. I'll give you rest. I'll give
you rest may God help us to do so here's the fourth thing in
verse 49 misery is the object of mercy misery is the object
of mercy and Jesus stood still blind Bartimaeus crying out for
mercy and the Lord of glory stood still He stood still and commanded
him to be called. And they called the blind man.
And they called the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort,
arise, he calls you. The cry of mercy stopped the
Savior in his tracks. Our great Savior hears the cry
of his people. I can make good on that. Turn
to Psalm 40. Psalm 40. the Lord hears the
cry of his people Psalm 40 verse 1 Psalm 40 verse 1 I waited
patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me and he heard
my cry he brought me up also out of a horrible pit Out of
them I reclaimed, set my feet upon a rock, established my going. He hath put a new song in my
mouth, even praising to our God. Many shall see it in fear, and
shall trust the Lord. Blessed is the man that maketh
the Lord his trust. Respecteth not the proud, nor
such as turn aside to lies. I waited patiently for the Lord.
He inclined unto me, and he heard my cry. I'm going to cry. I'm going to
beg for mercy before the Lord. The Lord commanded him to be
called, and they called the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good
cheer, comfort arise, he calleth thee. You see it in verse 49
of our text. What a great blessing it is to
be called with that powerful, irresistible call of God. Oh,
I tell you, This is not the call of a mere man. This is the call
of God Almighty. His call never goes unheeded.
His call is always answered. His call is never resisted. When
God calls out His people, it's from death and darkness to light
and life in Christ Jesus. When He calls, His people willingly
respond. Thy people shall be willing.
in the day of His power. You see, it says of His people,
they're a chosen generation, they're a royal priesthood, they're
a holy nation, they're a peculiar people that they should show
forth the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into
His marvelous light. He called us. This call of the
gospel and the power of God the Holy Spirit is an effectual call.
It's an effectual call. What does it mean to call someone
effectually? It means it gets the job done. He calls His sheep with an effectual
call, a powerful call. He calls His people with a personal
call. Look what it says in the text.
He calls, verse 49, He calls for thee. It's a personal call. You see, He knows His sheep by
name and He calls them by His grace personally. So it's an
effectual call. It's a personal call. And watch
this. It's a call of comfort. It's
a call of comfort. Be of good comfort. You see,
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ brings comfort to the
heart of the sinner. Be of good cheer. Rise up. He calls you. Here's the last thing, verse
50. What's going to happen? What's old Bartimaeus going to
do? Here he's sitting by the roadside begging. He hears the
Lord of Glory passing by, and he begs for mercy, and the Lord
stops and hears his cry, and the Lord commands him to come.
What's going to happen? Look at verse 50. And he, casting
away his garments, rose and came to Jesus. Came to Jesus. Look what this man did when the
Savior called him. Look what he did. He did three
things here. He rose. He cast off his garments. What do you reckon his garments
looked like? That outward garment. I bet he was a mess. I bet his
outward garments were dirty and smelly. He arose, He cast off His garments,
and then, most importantly, He came to the source of life and
salvation. He came to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a glorious sight, and
this is exactly what the Lord of glory causes a sinner to do
when he is powerfully called by the gospel. God who begins
a good work in you, He'll finish it, He'll complete it, He'll
perform it in the day of His power. These three things we
see here, He arose, He cast off His garment, and He came to Christ,
are the very same three things that God does in us by His grace. He raises us from the dead to
see our need of Christ. You have to be quickened who
were dead. He causes us to throw away our garments of self-righteousness. and count all of our religious
righteousness as garbage, as dung, and we come to Christ and
we see Him. And He causes us to flee to Him. Flee to Him. Salvation is in a person, in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Neither is there salvation in
any other. For there is no other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. What begins
in grace I read this years ago, stuck with me. What begins in
grace will end in glory. God who begins that work of grace
in your heart, He will perfect it. He will complete it. Look
what happened in the story here. Look what happened when he came
to Christ. And Jesus answered and said to him, What wilt thou,
verse 52, that I should do unto thee? And the blind man said,
Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said, Go thy way, thy
faith hath made thee whole. And immediately, immediately
he received his sight. You see that? Immediately he
received his sight. Look what happened to him. He
received his sight. God commands the light to shine
in our heart. Look what Bartimaeus did when
the Lord Jesus told him to go his way. You see that? Jesus
answered and said, what wilt thou that I should do unto you?
And the blind man said, Lord, that I might receive my sight.
And Jesus said unto him, will you go thy way? Thy faith hath
made thee whole. And look what it says here. And
he followed Jesus in the way. He followed Jesus in the way.
He said, my sheep, hear my voice. I know them, they follow me,
and I give unto them eternal life. Those called by the Lord
become faithful sheep following the Great Shepherd. For Christ,
He is the way, He is the truth, He is the life. No man comes
to the Father but by and through the Lord Jesus Christ. When He received His sight immediately,
what did He do? He followed the Lord Jesus in
the way. And His sheep, when they have
life, light, and salvation, they follow Christ in the way. He followed Christ in the way.
True saving faith honors the Lord Jesus Christ and is always
honored by Christ. Thy faith hath made thee whole.
You see that being justified by faith? We have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. now let me send you home with
these words that's a glorious story of God showing mercy to
a man in need may God be pleased now for Christ's
sake to give you sight if you're yet blind to give you faith if
you're without him and may the God of all grace like Bartimaeus
And may God give us all grace like Bartimaeus to follow the
Lord Jesus Christ in the way for his great glory and for his
great name. Well I pray the Lord will bless
that message to your heart and give
us some