Now let me read again from Mark,
chapter 8. My text is found in chapter 8
of Mark, beginning with verse 22. The title of the message
is, He Touched Me. It says in verse 22, And he,
our Lord, cometh to Bethsaida And they bring a blind man unto
him, and besought him to touch him. And he took the blind man by
the hand, and led him out of the town. And when he had spit
on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he
sawed off. And he looked up and said, I
see. I see. But his sight wasn't too clear,
was it? He said, I see me in his trees. The detail was not bad, but he
did see. But he saw me in his trees. walking. He'd never seen a tree
before, but he'd felt them, and he knew what a tree was like.
And after that, the Lord Jesus put his hands again upon his
eyes, again upon his eyes, and made him look up, and he was
restored and saw every man clearly. And the Lord sent him away to
his house, saying, go into the town, nor tenant to any in the
town. And most of our Lord's miracles
of healing, like I told you this morning, they have reference
to spiritual miracles. He said, I came that the blind
might see, and the deaf might hear, and the lame might walk.
be set free. But in most of our Lord's miracles,
the people were made whole at once. The deaf heard, and the
dumb spake. And the lame took up their beds
and wept. The lepers were cleansed. The
dead lived. They were raised. Demons left
completely. But here, in this incident, sight
was partially restored. Partially restored. And then,
later, the man saw clearly. Now, I believe, and many others
do too, I'm not alone in this, but I believe our Lord is teaching
us a very important truth. And we know the eye is the emblem
of understanding, or the door. of understanding. We say, when
we understand something, what do we say? I see. When we want
someone to understand something, we'll say, let me show you something.
Look. So the eye is connected with
the understanding. Let me show you where our Lord
said that in Matthew chapter 13. Our Lord talked about men
who could who could see but not understand, hear but not understand,
read but not perceive. In chapter 13 of Matthew, verse
13, therefore speak out to them in parables, because they seeing,
they don't see. They don't see spiritually. They
see physically. Hearing, they hear not, neither
do they understand. You see what he's saying? man
can have natural eyesight and natural hearing and still not
have any understanding. And here this man, the Lord Jesus,
put spit on his eyes that he could see, but not clearly. Now
the leper was cleansed entirely, or he's not clean. In other words,
when you You cleanse a leper, he's got to be cleansed, or he's
still a leper, he's got a spot on him, the scripture says, just
one. The devils must all be cast out, you can't leave one little
imp in there, they've all got to go. And the dead, when Lazarus
came forth, he lived. He lived. But the eye, can be
opened by degrees. Do you see what I'm trying to
say? This will help you, it helps me. The eyes can be opened by
degrees. Now Paul wrote about that in
1 Corinthians 13, and this over here in 1 Corinthians 13, this
is exactly what Paul is saying, that we see but we don't see
too well. Later on we'll see better And
then later on we see better, and then one day we're going
to see perfectly. Perfectly. But I still see. Like the man
talking about his faith, I believe, Lord, I believe, help thy mind
underneath. How can you have both? Well,
you can. You can't, the dead got to be raised completely.
And the lepers got to be cleansed completely, and the sinners got
to be saved completely. But his understanding can be
very limited. I'm thankful. I'm thankful it
can, aren't you? And so this is what Paul is saying,
1 Corinthians 13, verse 9. We know in part. We preach in
part. Paul didn't say, I declare unto
you all the counsel of God. He said, I haven't shunned to
declare all the counsel of God. No man ever preached all the
counsel of God. or even a part of it. A small
part. We know in part. We preach in
part. I haven't told you everything. I don't know everything. Just
a little bit. Just enough. Sufficient to say. But when that which is perfect
is come, that which is in part shall be done away. When I was
a child, I spake as a child. But I spanked. I understood as
a child, but I understood. I thought as a child, but I thought. But I became a man, I put away
these childish things. My understanding was better.
For now we see through a glass dimly, but then, oh then, face
to face, now I know in part Blessed is the man who knows, he knows
in part. He that thinketh he knoweth,
knows not as he ought to. Then shall I know even as I am
known. John Gill said this about this incident here in Mark 8.
He said, as soon as the Lord put the spittle in the man's
eyes and laid hands on him, He saw. He saw. But it was very obscure and very
limited. He said, I see, I see, I see
men as trees walking. He didn't see very well, did
he? But he saw. He saw. Even so, said Mr. Gill, even so, as soon as the
gospel of Christ comes with power, darkness is dispelled. And the
light of the glory of God is seen in the face of Christ Jesus,
though at first very limited and very small. Oh, the sinner is convinced of
sin. The sinner is convinced of his
inability to save himself. That's the reason he turned to
Christ. The sinner is convinced of the suitability of the Lord
to save him, but there's so, so much, much that he doesn't
know about Christ, about his person and work, about his glory,
about his mercy and his grace. Things that he just cannot yet
see nor understand. This is what our Lord said to
the disciples. Turn over to John 16. John chapter 16. What our Lord
said to his disciples in John 16. He said in verse, John 16
verse 12, what's this? I have yet many things to say
to you. But you cannot bear them now."
Don't you know that they loved him? Peter said, you know I love
you. Don't you know they believed in him? They believed him, didn't
they? And they understood, we know
you're the Christ, the Son of the living God. They believed
that. But our Lord said here in John 16, 12, you cannot bear
these things now. I've got so much to tell you,
so much to read. But you don't see what you're
going to see. And then he said, how be it? When He, the Spirit
of truth, is come, He'll guide you into all truth. For He shall
not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He
speak. And He'll show you things to
come, and He'll glorify Me, and He shall... Now the Lord's talking
here to save me, redeem me, children of the King. He shall receive
of mine in short to you." Paul said this to the Church
people of Hebrews. Let me read you what he said
over here in Hebrews chapter 5. He was talking to them. They knew the Lord, and he said
this in Hebrews 5. He said, "...of whom," he talked
about Christ in chapter 5, verse 10, called of God a high priest
after the order of Melchizedek, of whom we have many things to
say and hard to be uttered, seeing that you are dull of hearing.
For when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need
that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the
oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk and
not strong meat, Everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the
word of righteousness. He's a babe, but he's alive.
He's a babe, but he's living. He's a child of God. So let's
look at this miracle here in John a minute. Let me see if
I can briefly show you some things here that I believe the Lord
would have us to understand about people being converted about
our own experience. Just look at the man, verse 22. And he cometh to Bethsaida, and
they bring a blind man to him. Now this man was blind. What
more suitable example can we have for our religious generation? Blind. All men by nature without
Christ, not you, but your friends and neighbors and loved ones
and you once were spiritually blind. Now this man is not like
the man this morning. The man this morning was possessed
of demons. He was a dangerous man. He was
a man to be feared. He was a man who was dangerous
to others. He was a man to be avoided. He
was a wild man. Most of my friends are not wild
men. and wild-winded. Most of them
are very religious, and very questionable, and not to be avoided
at all. And they're not dangerous at
all, but they're blind. You understand? They're blind. And this man here was not a leper. He didn't run around saying,
don't let my shadow fall on you, unclean, unclean. He wasn't someone
who's to be put away in a prison or put away in case he infects
others and causes them to be sick. He's
not contagious. He's just blind. He can't see. And I'll tell you another thing
about most of our friends. They're religious people. Most
everyone I know is connected with somebody's church, but they're
blind. And Paul, the apostle Paul described
them in 1 Corinthians 2, he said this, if they had known who Christ
was, they wouldn't have crucified him. But eye hath not seen, and
ear hath not heard, neither hath the inner of the heart, or the
understanding of men, what God has prepared for them that love
him, but he hath revealed them to us. If our gospel be hid,
it is hid to them that are lost, whether in the pulpit, or the
pew, or wherever they may be. The gospel is hid, they are blind,
in whom the God of this world hath blinded them. They do not
see. the glory and majesty of our
God. I listen to men preach on the
television occasionally and on the radio when I'm driving, and
I hear them talking about God, and it's not the God of the Bible. They don't know anything about
His sovereignty and majesty and His glory. They talk about man,
and they don't know anything about His fall and His depravity. They don't know what happened
in the garden. And they talk about salvation
and they don't have any understanding at all of covenant salvation. Grace, eternal sovereignty, election,
God's sheep, they don't understand, they're blind to these things.
They don't know anything about the twofold work of the Redeemer,
His righteousness and His blood. Be of sin, the double cure, save
from wrath and make me pure. Christ's righteousness for our
sanctification. Christ's death and blood for
our justification. They don't know anything about
those things. They don't talk about how God can be just and
justified. They say, God loves you. I heard
a man go up there last night, and I don't know what his name
was, Billy Jones. He said, Billy Jones loves you.
Billy Jones' church loves you. And God loves you, and Jesus
loves you. Well, I'm in pretty good shape
then. Nobody's got anything against me, in heaven or anywhere. So
who can lay anything to my charge? These men don't know anything
about a God who's angry with a wicked. They don't know anything
about this business of sin separating us from God. We need a mediator. We need an advocate. We need
somebody to help us. Somebody to go to God who can
reconcile Him to us. They don't preach those things.
They're blind. They don't preach them because
they don't know them. They don't know anything about
how God can be just and justify. Essential. This is essential.
They don't see security and perseverance. They talk about, well, he got
saved, but he backslid and he's lost now. A goat becomes a sheep and he
becomes a goat again? How do you work that? A man becomes
a child of God and then he ceases to be a child of God. I've got
four children. None of them can cease to be
my children in any shape, form or fashion. I don't care what they do, they're
still my children. And if you're a child of God,
he said, my sheep, they'll never perish. But these folks are perishing. What's going on here? Christ
shed his blood for people in hell? He didn't have the power
to save them? You know, they're not maniacs,
demoniacs, demon possessed, lepers. They're just blind. They're just
blind. Well, I'll tell you good news. Somebody brought him to the right
person. They brought him to Christ. They brought him to Christ. They
can't anybody give sight but Christ. The seeing eye and the
hearing ear is of the Lord. He's the only one that can give
sight. They brought him to Christ. And secondly, they prayed for
him. I don't know what more you can do for a sinner. Bring him
to where the gospel can be heard. Bring him to where the gospel
is preached. Give him a tape. Give him a book. in some way
bring him in contact with the gospel of Christ. They brought
this man in contact with Christ. And they prayed for him. They
said they besought him. Lord, touch him. Touch him. That's what we're doing here
this morning and again tonight and what the Lord willing do
next Sunday is try to confront men with Christ. with Christ
and pray for him. I don't know anything else to
do other than those two things. Well, verse 23, And the master
took the blind man by the hand and led him out of town. He isolated
him. He isolated him. The master is
going to be between him and the sinner. Now I want you to listen
to me for a few moments. And I know people mean well. But soul winners and preachers
and other so-called helpers just try to help too much. Sinners, this thing of conviction
is personal. It's your, it's God dealing with
you. We talk too much to people. We
need to preach to them and pray for them. We try to reason And
true conviction is personal, true repentance is personal,
true faith is personal. That publican in the temple,
he stood alone. It was between him and God. He said, Lord, you be merciful
to me, be centered. That's isolation, isn't it? The
thief on the cross. There was another person in that
whole crowd helping him or assisting him or aiding him. He talked
to the master. Mark, you're coming into our
kingdom. You're not going to stay dead.
Would you remember me? And I'll tell you, I feel like
this whole service starts when I see all those people gathered
down foot. And I see these preachers talking to them, they're raising
their hands, they're saying all these things together, and they're
chanting and all. Salvation is a personal matter. This sinner's
got to repent before God alone. This sinner has got to cry out
to God alone. This sinner has got to sue for
mercy alone. This sinner has got to be dealt
with alone. And I'll tell you, I wish That
soul winners, most of them would go out of business, just totally
shut down, take the sign down and get out of business. That's
right. Because they're doing too much
damage. I can't save people, but God
can. And I would urge anyone here
who has an interest in Christ and a desire to know the Savior,
Get alone. As we preach to you, show the
Word to you, the Gospel to you, then get alone. Go in your bedroom,
or in your office, or out in the woods, but somewhere and
fall on your face before God, like that publican, like that
thief, and say, Lord, I'm a sinner. I need help. I'm lost. You died for sinners. I am a
sinner. Save me. Speak peace to my heart. Do that. Do that. And when He speaks peace to your
heart, speaks peace to your heart, then tell everybody about it.
But don't run down with a whole bunch of people and don't gang
up on God. That's dangerous. You don't want
something like that. I tell you, I tell you, if you
get it alone, it'll stay alone with you when you're alone. If
you had a crowd help you, then every time you get a little assurance,
you're going to have that crowd with you. You're going to have
that sphincter built up, you know. And I tell you, if He spoke
peace to you, He'll keep on speaking peace to you. It doesn't matter
to me how old you are, if you're ten or if you're a hundred. Get along with God. Our Lord
took him by the hand and said, let's get away from these people.
Let's get out of town. And he walked him out of town.
That's right. Walked him out of town. Dealt
with him alone. That's just practical truth. All right, what's this now? And
he led him out of town, and when he spit on his eyes. Now this
is hard. But let's go back to Mark 7 a
minute. He spit on his eyes. Mark 7,
verse 32. Mark 7, 32. And they bring unto
him one that was deaf, had an impediment in his speech. And
they beseeched him to put his hand upon him. He took him aside
from the multitude. Here it is again. Get away from
this crowd. And he put his fingers in his
ear, and he spit. He touched his tongue. And looking
up to heaven, he sighed. And said unto him, Ephratah,
that is, be open. And straightway his ears were
opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed. And he spit
plainly. He spit on him. Why spit? All right, let's see if I can
do anything with that. Whatever use spit has. I know it has a
lot of uses. I think it'd be without it. You
know, moisten your mouth, mix your food. I know whatever spit
may have use, whatever use, it won't cure blindness. I do know
that. I do know that. I know that the isolation didn't
cure him. He got off by himself, but that
didn't cure him. Christ did. The spit didn't cure him, Christ
did, didn't heal him. I know that. Somebody said this
has reference to the Savior's mouth. Grace poured from His
lips. That's alright. I love that. Now, I'll tell you what I think. Spit is offensive. It's associated with disgust. Not hardly anything you can do
to a fellow worse than spitting on him, I guess. Just spit on
him. And our Lord, they spat in his
face, showing their utter disgust and contempt. Well, the Lord
spit on his eyes. And God saves men by a gospel
that is offensive. It is offensive. He saves men
by A gospel that's offensive to the natural man. Paul wrote
over here in 1 Corinthians about this gospel. 1 Corinthians chapter
1. He said, the preaching of the
cross. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. He says, the preaching of the
cross, the blood of Christ, the sacrifice of the Redeemer is
to them that perish, scandalous. That's what that word foolishness
is. Scandalous. Nonsense. Disgusting. Unto us who are saved, it's the
power of God. For it is written, I'll destroy
the wisdom of the wise, I'll bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the debater of this world? Had not God made
foolish the wisdom of the world, After that, in the wisdom of
God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by this
scandalous, offensive, disgusting foolishness of preaching the
cross to save them that believe. The Jews require a sign, the
Greeks seek after wisdom. When we preach, Christ crucified
to the Jew, a stumbling block. To the Greeks, scandalous. So when our Lord spit on his
eyes, it's an indication that God saves men by a gospel that's
highly offensive to the natural man. Highly offensive, disgusting,
the cross. And then God saves men through
preachers. Instruments of clay, of flesh,
whom men despise. Do you know that men despise
true preachers of the gospel? They don't despise philosophers
and organizers and promoters and
folks like that. It's like when they took up stones
to stone our Lord. He said, many good works have
I done you, for which of these do you stone me? They said, we're
not stoning you for good works. We've got no objection to good
works. We're stoning you, we hate you because you're a man.
And you say you're God. And that we don't like, that's
offensive. God became a man. And preachers who are true to
the gospel, and preach the gospel of the cross, substitution, effectual
redemption, successful redemption, I'll tell you the average religious
is about seeing you spit in his face. That's right, isn't that
right? That's how they equate it, just
about that disgusting. Disgusting. And I'll tell you
this, but God will apply the spittle of grace to every proud
heart. I'm sure of it. John quoted a
verse, Father, go to me. Six things God hates. Seven are
abomination. What's the first one? A proud
look. God resisteth the proud. And
I'll tell you, here stands this man and our Lord spit in his
eyes. He told that Canaanite woman,
he said, I don't give the children's bread to dogs. That's putting you down, isn't
it? And I tell you, grace will put you down, but we have to
be put down before we can rise. Got to be stripped. And then,
watch this, he said he put his hands on him. Oh, I tell you,
he spit on his eyes, but then he put his hands on him. Oh! You know, all we can do with
this, even this hated gospel, we can tell men the truth. We
preach the truth. We preach God's sovereignty and
election and redemption and call of the Spirit and perseverance
and all these glorious things. But He's got to touch them. He's
got to touch them. That's what the men said when
they brought this sinner to Christ. Lord, touch Him. Touch Him. Touch Him. Touch Him. He touched me. And you know what
happened? He asked him, verse 23, do you
see? He said, Lord, I see. I see. He'd never seen before. But he
sees now. He sees now. And I believe he
saw him sort of limited, didn't he? I see me and his trees walking. He saw about as well as I see
with these glasses on and half of you. Who is that? See, I don't even know. I don't
even, I can't, I cannot recognize one person in this car yet. And
that's the way that man's eyes were. He saw. But all obscurity he saw. And I believe that in the early
days of grace and revelation, that's pretty much the story
of every one of us. I'll tell you the best example
of that are the twelve apostles. Three years, John, four years
they were with the Lord. And even at the last, they were
arguing about who's going to be greatest in the kingdom of
God. And even as you read a moment ago, Jim, when our Lord told
them about dying on the cross, Peter took him aside and said,
don't do that. That's all we have to do is to
see immaturity and limited knowledge and understanding is look at
these poor men. and then look at our poor selves.
And I'll tell you this, somebody said this one time. Dim sight. Sight that's not clear,
not detailed. Dim sight. Now get this, this
man, he'd have made a good debater, wouldn't he? Wouldn't he have
made a good religious debater? Wouldn't he have made a good
one? He thought he saw, but he didn't see much. And somebody
said one time, it's poor sight and dim understanding which causes
men to argue religion. Listen, men who see clearly,
don't argue. Because they're convinced of
the facts. There's no use arguing. Dim sight leads to exaggeration. What do you see? Men as trees? That's a pretty poor description
of men, isn't it? Trees. And usually you'll find
a man with dim sight. He'll exaggerate. He'll exaggerate
one doctrine above another. And dim sight leads to limited
joy and limited peace. It's details that make beauty.
Paul said, or that I may know Him. The power of His resurrection. The thing that makes me happy,
when our Lord said, do you see all? He says, I see. I see. I just imagine that he might
have been content, if that's all he did have, wouldn't he?
To see that much. But there's more. Watch this.
After that, and after that, And thank God for after that. You
know, our Lord said this, and Scott preached on this one time,
it was so good, right here in this church. He said, the Lord
said in Matthew 11, come unto me and I'll give you rest. And
there's a rest in which we enter, cease from our labors and works
and enter his rest. But then he said, take my yoke
upon you and learn of me and you'll find rest. And that's
this man, I see, but wait a minute, there's more coming. After that,
after that, he put his hands again on him, and again, and
again, and again, he puts his hands on us. It made him look
up. And he was restored, and he saw
every man clearly. Ah, he made him look up. Look
where? Look to Christ. Look up. Don't look in here. Don't look out there. Somebody
said one time, I put this in the bulletin, this is just part
of it. The more we see Him, the more
we see. He's the teacher and He's the
lesson. He's the light and He's the object of sight. And the
more we see Him, the more we look to Him, the more we see.
And this thing of growing in grace and the knowledge of Christ
is looking to Christ. Not looking to ourselves or our
thoughts or our ways. Look into Christ. Not looking
to our brethren, the best of them or the worst of them. Look
into Christ. Not looking to our blessings
or our trials, but look into Christ. Not looking to our deeds
or our sins, but look into Christ. Not looking to the law or to
the ordinances, but look into Christ. Not looking to success
or failure. but looking to Christ. Not looking
to my gifts or my lack of gifts, looking to Christ. Not looking
to my joys or my sorrows, not looking to my faith, whether
strong or weak, but looking to Christ. Now, and anew, and tomorrow,
and always, looking to Christ with a fixed gaze, until I see
Him as He is. And I'm changed into His likeness. That's the way to see more. Look
to Him. Because it's all in Him. It's
all in Him. I see. Dimly. But the more He teaches me and
the more He touches me and the more He blesses me, the more
I see. But you know what? It's always
Him. It's always associated with Him.
Every new experience, every new blessing is in here.