I want to repeat the text again,
found in Mark chapter 8. If you'd turn there, please. I say quite confidently, I want your attention this morning
There are some things in this scripture and in my message that
need desperately to be heard and to be received and to be
understood. In verse 22 of Mark 8, And he,
Christ, cometh to Bethsaida, and to bring a blind man unto
him, and besought him, urged him to touch him. And the Lord didn't touch him.
Rather, he took the blind man by the hand, and here's the Lord
of glory leading a blind man out of town. And when he had spit on his eyes,
they didn't ask him to spit on him, they asked him to touch
him. And he spit on his eyes and put
his hands upon him and asked him if he saw. He looked up and
he said, I don't see too well. Now a leper to be healed has
to be healed completely, or is he still a leper? If a dead man
is raised, he has to be raised or is still dead. But a blind
man can either see dimly or clearly, but he still can see. And the
Lord had healed him. He saw, but not clearly. Blurred vision. And after that
he put his hands again upon his eyes and made him look up. And he was restored and he saw
every man clearly. He saw everybody just like he
was. Now, William Cowper, back in
1750, wrote a hymn which goes like this, God moves in a mysterious
way his wonders to perform. God plants his footsteps on the
sea and rides upon the storm deep in mysterious minds of never-failing
skill, never-failing skill. He treasures up his wise designs,
and he works his sovereign will. So you fearful saints, fresh-couraged
tape, the clouds you so much dread, are big with mercy, and
they will break with blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord
by feeble sense. but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence,
he hides a smiling face. One thing we need to be taught,
and we need to be reminded of it quite often, that our God
accomplishes his divine purpose in regard to his divine Son and
all who are in him. I hear these preachers say, God
has a plan for your life. Now, wait a minute. God has a
plan for Christ and a purpose regarding the preeminence of
Christ. And whatever comes to pass in your life, good or bad,
is going to be for the glory of Christ. You may be used to
betray him, deny him, or crucify him, but you'll be used for his
glory. You may be used to honor him,
praise him, or eternally glorify him by preaching the gospel,
but you'll still glorify Christ. An almighty God is going to accomplish
his purpose, his divine purpose, in his own way, in his own time,
for his own glory, and he will not conform to the patterns or
molds or ways set out for him by men. Now, I'm going to do
it. Naaman said, I thought, here was a man with
leprosy who came all the way from his home country down here
to the prophet of God and stood outside his little shack, a famous
man, an influential, powerful man, number two man in a kingdom, and he came to see the prophet
of God. He did condescend to come down
to this man's little shack. And he stood outside and sent
one of his servants in. And the servant came out and
said, the prophet of God said for you to go dip in the river
Jordan seven times. He said, what? I thought surely
since I came so far, I thought surely since I condescended to
show myself at his door, I thought surely he'd come out to me. and
say something to his God and I'd be clean. And he went off
in a rage. And I'll tell you this, any man
who attempts to put the living God in a human mold is in for
trouble. He will not fit any mold devised
by human thought or human mind. Thou thoughtest, he said, I was
altogether such a one as thyself. Your thoughts are not my thoughts,
your ways are not my ways." In our text, they brought a blind
man to Christ and they said, touch him. And he refused. He absolutely refused. They said,
touch him. And our Lord took him by the
hand and led him clear out of town. Left him standing there.
Left him standing there. And when he healed him, he said
to him, don't even go back and tell him. You know what he said? Don't go, you go right on down
the road here to your house, don't you go and tell them. The
God of men's imaginations, the God of men's imagination works
as they expect or design or tell him to work. They put him in
a mold. That's the reason all of these
religious services you watch on television, these so-called
revival meetings you go to, all follow the same pattern. They
close with the same words, they sing the same song, and they
go through the same motion. God's in a mold. He's in a mold. They've set a pattern for it.
It's time to do this, time to do that, it's time for God to
do this, time for you to say the same old sinner's prayer.
But the living God is responsible to no creature. The living God
will accomplish his purpose in bringing the glory, all the glory
to his Son and accomplishing his will and purpose in keeping
with his divine character as it pleases him. He just might
save a jailer by shaking a jail off its foundations with an earthquake.
He just may meet with a woman, a seller of purple down by a
riverside who's met with some people who went there to pray. He just might walk under a tree
and look up and call down a tax collector sitting up there out
of curiosity wanting to see who Jesus was. He just might. He just might
make a trip all by himself to Samaria and sit down on a well
at 12 noon and wait for a harlot to show up. He just might go
in a cemetery somewhere and find a naked man whose mind is all
gone, who cuts himself with stones and screams all night long and
bring him to a knowledge of himself. But by all that is holy and high,
he's not going to do what you ask him to do and tell him to
do. That's exactly right. He's not going to do it. Because
in that way, you get the glory and he doesn't. He'll keep Israel
in bondage for 400 years. We'd never have done that. 400 years. He brought them into
Egypt when they were 70 strong and left them there till they
were 3 million prisoners chafing under the chains and fetters
of pagan guards and taskmasters. And he'll refuse Moses efforts
to right wrongs and embarrass him in front of his people and
the Egyptians. Embarrass him. Moses is the likely
one. He's 40 years old in the prime
of life, graduated from the best schools. He has entrance into
the palace. He's Pharaoh's grandson. And
if anybody can get the job done, Moses can. And so Moses stepped
out and two Egyptians, two Israelites were being mistreated by an Egyptian,
he killed him. And then the next day he went
down, two Israelites were arguing, he straightened them out. And
that made the Israelites mad at him and the Egyptians too,
and they all ran him out of town. And God will set him on the backside
of a desert for 40 more years till he's become the meekest,
most humble, broken man in all of creation. Then he'll come
to him and say, Moses, go down in Egypt. Lord, I just left there. Go down there and lead my people
out. I'm in no shape to lead them out now. Now, if you'd have
contacted me 40 years ago, I had some power and some influence,
but Lord, you humbled me and shamed me in front of everybody,
and now nobody even knows my name down there. Moses? Who's
Moses?" See what I'm saying? He'll leave Abraham childless
until he's 100 years old. That's not the way to do it.
And refuse Abraham's efforts to help him out. He'll allow
Satan to buffet and persecute and literally break his servant
Job and then turn his mourning into joy. He'll pass by the pride of Jesse's
household. He's going to anoint a king over
Israel. And he'll pass by the pride of
Jesse's household, boys that were hand-picked, men-picked. educated, prepared, schooled,
disciplined, educated in economics and warfare. He'll pass by every
last one of them and go out in a shepherd's fold and pick up
a shepherd lad and make him king of Israel. That's God's way. That's God's way. We've reversed
it. He'll make Judas an apostle He'll
elect him to the office of treasurer of the group and then leave him
to his greed. He'll allow the great apostle
Peter to be sent to his wheat. He, who shall be the preacher
of Pentecost, becomes the most embarrassed of all the disciples
because he's the only one who openly denied his Lord. He'll
leave Saul of Tarsus in religious tradition until he's 40 years
old. He'll allow him to hate and persecute
the church of the living God. And then he'll bring him to faith
and put him on the road as an evangelist and make every turn
and every corner and every straight stretch to be a place of trouble
and trial and persecution. even to putting him in prison
and taking his life. Why? He'll permit Paul and Silas,
Barnabas and Mark to fall out, have an argument, and go their
separate ways. He'll send his son into the earth
in human form, lay our sins on him, and then turn his back on
him while he died in agony. Who can know the mind of God,
his ways of past finding out? I don't understand God. If you did, you'd have an idol
on your hands. Be glad you don't. Turn to Psalm
89. Listen to this. Psalm 89, verse
6 through 11. Listen to this scripture. Psalm
89, verse 6. can be compared unto the Lord. With whom shall you compare him?
Who among the sons of the mighty can be like unto the Lord, greatly
to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had
in reverence of all them that are about him? O Lord God of
hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto or to thy faithfulness round
about thee. Thou rulest the raging of the
sea. When the waves thereof arise,
thou stillest them. Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces
as one that is slain. Thou hast scattered thine enemies
with a strong arm. The heavens are thine, the earth
also is thine. As for the world and the fullness
thereof, thou hast founded them. Turn to Romans 11, let's read
this. In the 11th chapter of Romans, verse 33, and I'll tell
you something else while you're finding that. Listen to me. It says, his ways are past finding
out. He does not work according to
human patterns and thoughts and ways. He'll kill a Spurgeon at
58 years of age. In the height of his ministry
with orphanages, pastor's college, books being published every day,
the largest congregations in the world, one of the most influential,
powerful, truthful preachers that ever preached, 58. Same
age I am right now. He'll kill a top lady at 35 who
wrote Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me. He'll kill a Brainerd at
29, David Brainerd, of whom Jonathan Edwards said, any system of theology
that produces a David Brainerd is worthy to be studied. 29. He'll kill a Robert Murray McShane
at 29, and he'll let a John Wesley live to be 90. How about that? It says here in Romans 11, listen
to this. Romans 11, verse 33. Oh, the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable. Don't
try it, just bow to it, are his judgments, his ways of past finding
out. Who hath known the mind of the
Lord, who hath been his counselor? Or who hath first given to him,
and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, through
him, to him are all things to whom be glory forever." Let me tell you a story. There were two staunch, solemn,
strict Christian gentlemen who had a friend, it's a true story,
who was spending a week with them before he sailed to China.
Their friend was an unbeliever, did not know Christ, and they
had prayed for him. They were earnest men. They were
very solemn, strict, and earnest men. And they prayed for this
man, and he was going to spend a week with them before he sailed
to China. Well, that week, these two friends
determined that they would take him to hear several strong Calvinistic
Reformed preachers. They wanted him to be saved.
before he went to China on business. And so they took him to hear
these different men, to no avail. His heart was not blessed and
his soul was not moved. He was still as unbelieving and
obstinate at the end of six days as he was when they started.
One preacher was left, one Reformed preacher. His name was Roland
Hill. And they saved Roland Hill to
last, and I'll tell you why. Because Roland Hill was a bit
eccentric. People said he was vulgar in
his speech and comment, considered to be much too humorous, too
much humor and foolishness. And so they didn't take him to
hear Mr. Hill until last Friday night. And they prayed. Oh, how they
prayed. Lord, don't let, subdue that
Mr. Hill. Don't let Mr. Hill be too humorous and too
vulgar and the common language in his antidotes offend people. Like talking about sinners being
wiggling maggots and men being totally wretched to pray and
some of the vulgar terms and language. And they said, Lord,
just protect us tonight. And they said when they got there
that Surrey Chapel, that's where he was preaching, Surrey Chapel,
he said that Surrey Chapel was wilder than it had ever been.
And Mr. Hill was in rare form. Oh, Mr. Hill embarrassed them
from the time he got up there to the time he sat. All those
strong, strict, solemn Reformed brethren Too much humor, too
much vulgarity, too commonplace language and all that. And when
they went out, they just wanted to hang their heads. They were
so embarrassed, they didn't even speak to their friends walking
between them. They were so embarrassed. Finally,
one of them looked at the young man in tears with it streaming
down his eye. Just streaming. And he said this,
God broke my heart tonight. I believe I've found Christ. Don't put God in a mold. Don't
you put God in a mold. I'll tell you another story that
moved me. I read one time, we just, we
have our ways for God to work. They brought this young man to
Christ and they said, touch him. He just looked at him. Touch
him. He wouldn't do it. There was a certain believer
I read about who had grown children who were not saved. They weren't
saved. Didn't know God. And he had prayed for them all
his life. He'd been so greatly concerned
for them. He wanted them to be saved. So
he had it all planned in his mind, how they were going to
be saved. He was going to come to die.
He was going to live until he got old and he'd come to die.
And he would have all them about his bed. He thought of this so
many times. All his children would be called in. The doctors
say, your dad's dying. They'd bring the children in.
They'd gather around the bed. And there'd be the glow of heaven
about him. And he'd talk with them about
the Lord. And then he'd quote scripture to them and tell them
how good God had been to him and how gracious God had been
to him. And they'd sing some hymns. He'd talk with them about
Christ, and he'd quote scripture and sing and praise God, and
then as he was praising God, he'd just slip out to meet the
Lord. And those young people would be greatly impressed. Sounds
good, doesn't it? And that sounds like the way
it ought to be. That's the way I'd do it. But not so. When he came to die, his body
was wracked with so much pain. that he wept and prayed to die.
His body was wracked with such pain that he didn't even speak
to his wife before he died. He just kept crying, God let
me die, God let me die, God let me die. And he also was filled
with great anxiety about his own soul and trouble about his
own relationship with Christ. And his deathbed was not a scene
of praise or rejoicing, but a scene of great anguish and great grief. God will take all of our little
plans and dash them to pieces because he's going to get the
glory. He's going to bring men, not
to men, not to a system, not to a doctrinal position, he's
going to bring them to Christ. And he's going to strip us and
whittle us and embarrass and humiliate us and cut us and undress
us and kill us until he brings us to where we can't look any
way but up and rejoice in his mercy to such
a dead dog. That's true. I was down in a meeting not so
awful long ago in a certain place at a Bible conference. The pastor
told me about this this week. I didn't know about this at all
until this past week, the Bible conference. But I was at a Bible
conference, several preachers there, and we ate supper at the
church, and then we went outside in the churchyard and were standing
under the trees. I was—Darcy and I were standing
with a whole group of people about 20 yards from the church,
or more. And I turned to Doris, my wife,
and I said, honey, would you go get me a cup of coffee? And
she turned and walked off to go get the coffee. Got it and
brought it back. There was a lady standing there
who I'd known for some time, member of the church, but I didn't
know this, that she was a very strong feminist. She believed
in equal rights, etc., etc., etc. And when I told my wife
to get me a cup of coffee and she obeyed, this lady got fighting
mad, very angry. Why didn't he get
his own coffee? What right has he got to tell
her to get him a cup of coffee? And she was so angry, angry. So we went in church and Scott
preached first. And she stayed and heard him.
And then she got in the lay-up. I was to follow Scott and preach.
She lay up, went outside, got in the car and put the keys in
the ignition. And she sat back and thought,
well, I ought not leave. Took the keys out, you know,
and opened the car door and got out, came back in, sat down way
back in the back. God gave me a little liberty
that night to preach Christ. And when I got through preaching,
we all stood, and back in the back a man cried out. He said, I've heard enough. I've
heard enough. I'm coming to Christ. He came
down the aisle. We talked to him a minute, and
then that lady slipped out, started down the aisle, tears streaming.
You know what she said? Everybody heard her. She said,
I'm bowing. I've never bowed before. I've
never bowed before. And if you've never bowed, you've
never been saved. I'm talking about authority. I don't care who you are, and
God will use a cup of coffee to do it. He'll use what he pleases. Now, the way to win that woman
is to sit down and talk to her about the place of the husband
in the home, and the place of the principal in the school,
and the place of the father, and the place of the mother,
and argue and say this scripture and that scripture and the other
scripture, and do it that way. That's your way. God's way is
for some poor preacher to turn to his wife and say, get me a
cup of coffee, and then to preach Christ, and
God breaks the heart. I'm bowing. I've never bowed.
I've never bowed. I've never bowed. Look back at
the text a minute. Have you ever bowed? Have you ever been conquered
by Christ? Conquered. Whosoever shall save
his life will lose it. And whosoever shall lose his
life for my sake will save it. Here in verse 22, he cometh to
Bethsaida, and they bring him a blind man. I mean, that's us,
totally blind, without sight, and said, Touch him, touch him. But our Lord Jesus Christ did
not bow to their pattern or their ways or their mold. He took the
man by the hand, and he led him clear out of town, just the Savior
in the center, just the Savior in the center. And I tell you,
if I could, turn back to Mark 7, and here's another example
just like this. In Mark 7, verse 32, listen,
and they bring unto him one that was dead, Mark 7, verse 32, and
had an impediment in his speech, and they beseech him to put his
hand on him. He didn't do it. He took him
aside from the multitude, took him out by himself, Bob, you
see it, by himself. He singled him out by himself
and put his finger in his ears and spit and touched his tongue,
and touched his tongue. And he said, Ephrathah, be open. Look at the next verse, 23, "...took
that blind man by the hand, and led him out of town." Led him
out of town. I don't want to read what's not
in this verse, but I'm simply saying what they brought this
man to Christ, and they set forth a way. They set forth a pattern. They set forth what they felt
that Christ ought to do, and our Lord Jesus Christ did it
His way. And the main thing about this
I see is the Lord Jesus took this man, isolated him from the
crowd, and it was Christ and the sinner. And I really believe
that's where the business is done. I see folks making professions
because they get in trouble or they get sick or they want the
children to have a good daddy. wife to have a good husband or
want to meet mama in heaven. They got all these humanistic
reasons for getting religion or humanistic reasons for making
professions or humanistic reasons for getting religion. I'm so
sick of it, I just look for somebody to come to Christ because he's
Christ. Come to Christ because he's a
sinner. Come to Christ because he's wretched and undone. Come
to Christ because he needs Christ. Come to Christ and do it Christ's
way and not our way. All these different denominations
have got their way. The Baptists, the Methodists
sprinkle you when you're a child, the Baptists get you to come
down when you're about four years old, and the Catholics get you
to be confirmed, and the Church of Christ gets you to be baptized,
and somebody else gets you to do this ABC of the Gospel of
Roman Road, and all that trash. You know what men need to do?
They need to come to Christ. and be isolated with Christ and
be dealt with by the Redeemer himself, Charlie. All of this experience and decisions
and professions and things that we've gone through all of our
lives to get fixed up for heaven are man-made, most of them. And
they came to our Lord and said, touch it. He said, I won't do
it. He took him by the hand, took him out of town, got out
there by himself. And you know what he did? He
spit in his eye. My soul. I know somebody said, somebody
said that that was in connection with the Savior's mouth, the
Savior's word. But let me tell you, a spit is
spit. I don't care who spit it is. Spit is spit, and spit is
offensive. It is. It's vulgar and offensive
and degrading. I don't care who does it. And
that's simply saying this, our Lord Jesus Christ spit in his
eyes, God saves by a gospel that's offensive. And we're going, these
fellas said, touch him. You know, that's what we do,
touch him. Our Lord spit in his eyes. And
our God saves by a gospel that's offensive. We don't want to offend
anyone. Don't single anybody out. Preacher,
don't embarrass anybody. Don't tell a man he's lost. Man
sleeps on the gospel. Preacher, don't rebuke him and
wake him up. Let him go on sleeping. You may offend him. He won't
come back. Then let him stay home and sleep. This gospel is offensive. Our
Lord's ways and methods are offensive. He's spitting his eye. We use
a gospel that's offensive. God uses men that are offensive. And God applies the spittle of
his heart, gospel, to a proud heart. Lord, spit on me if you want
to, but just save me. I deserve to be spit on. I spit
on you when you're hanging on that cross. I don't know why
our whole system of justice has got the idea you don't want to
offend the criminal. That's the reason we've got so
many criminals. But I'll tell you this, the gospel
that saves is offensive. Depravity is offensive. God's
elective grace. I know preachers are embarrassed
to preach God elected a people, yet they elected their wives,
chosen. Some of you have adopted children.
You elected those. You elect your president. You
elect your congressman. You elect your sheriff. You elect
your mayor. You elect your security commissioner. You elect your
student in school. And yet you won't let Almighty
God elect his bride. Especially you choose men who
are worthy. He chooses men who are not worthy.
He can't find any worthy. I don't know why men are embarrassed
to tell this ungodly religious world that Almighty God is God,
and He has elected a people. And they say, well, I'm going
to bring my friend to church Sunday. We hope Brother Man doesn't preach
on election. If God's in it, that's exactly what Brother Man
will preach on that Sunday. I'm going to bring my friend
to church. I hope he doesn't get on that particular redemption
because that's offensive. If God's in it, that's what I'll
preach on that Sunday. Because God's going to whittle
your friend down and embarrass your friend and shut his big
mouth or send him to hell. And you with him if you're embarrassed
by God's gospel. That's right. Touch him, Lord. Take him by the hand and let
him out of town. And spit in his eyes. And spit in his eyes. And spit in his eyes? Yeah, he
spit in his eyes. I wouldn't have done that. I
know we wouldn't. Because we ain't God. And he'll
do as he will, when he will, with whom he will. And he doesn't
have to do anything for any of us. We're just charity cases. He put his hands on him and said,
Do you see? And he said, I see me and his trees walking. Now
listen. The man says, I see, but not
clearly. And this is our condition when
the Lord first opens our eyes. Isn't that right? I see God's
sovereignty. That's big enough to see. I see
my sin. That's big enough to see. I see
my only hope is Christ. That's big enough to see. But
I see other things in a blurred fashion. I see men as trees. Blurred vision. And if you leave
a man in this state, he'll be a good debater. He'll be a good
arguer. That's the reason why some of us at first say we argue
so much and debate so much because we don't see clearly. Men who
have poor sight usually have poor understanding. Sure they
do. Sure they have poor understanding.
Well, I see a clock, but I can't tell exactly what time it is.
Poor understanding. Oh, it's 1121. I see better now. Dim sight leads
to exaggeration, too. Leads to exaggeration. Men as
trees? Men as trees? Men aren't big
as trees, nor do they look like trees. They did to him. And men
exaggerate election. They don't see clearly. They
exaggerate prophecy. They exaggerate church truths.
They exaggerate all these other things. They don't see clearly.
Dim sight is dim understanding. Dim sight leads to arguing and
debating. Dim sight is poor enjoyment. But details bring out beauty.
So our Lord Jesus Christ, watch here, our Lord spit in his eyes
and he said, do you see? Well, he said, I see, but I see
me in his trees walking. I see me in his tree. Wouldn't
you hate to discuss me and with that fella? He'd have been really
warped in his understanding, wouldn't he? But then our Lord
touched him again. He said he put his hands on him
again and made him look up. He put his hands on him and said,
look up, look away from yourself, look away from men, look away
from everything, look up to God. Look up. And when he looked up,
he was restored and he saw every man clearly. When you see God
in his glory and holiness, then you begin to see yourself and
other men as they really are, clearly. I understand human nature
a whole lot more than I ever did, a whole lot more than I
ever did. In those early days of some revelation
and some sight, you had a misunderstanding of yourself and everybody and
everything. But, oh, when you began to see
Him, you began to see Him in the streams, you began to see
Him in the stars, you began to see Him in the rustling leaves,
you began to hear Him in the voice of a bird. You begin to
see him more and more in his word. You don't exaggerate things
out of proportion. You don't bend things to suit
your poor sight. You begin to see and understand
people. They're just like you. They're
people. I'm a man of unclean lips, and all the folks are unclean
lips. You begin to hear him, see him,
walk with him, begin to enjoy him. You see details. are real beauty, details. You see His majesty and supremacy
and preeminence. But to do that, His hand has
to be on you. You have to look away from yourself
and this mess we're in and look up, look up. Oh, I see things
a little better now. I see the battle's not mine,
it's the Lord's. I see the church is not mine,
it's the Lord's. I see this little girl's not
mine, it's the Lord's. I see all that I have is not
mine, it's the Lord's. I see Him. I see Him in everything. He's my prophet, priest, and
king. All the universe is under His control. I see Him. And then you begin to see every
man clearly. I see what you're doing, see what you're saying.
See, what I'm doing is that. I say, in the light of God's
holiness, we're unclean. In the light of God's glory,
we're so weak. In the light of God's power,
we're so much flesh. Don't put God in a mold. He just
won't fit. He just won't fit.