Let's turn back to Mark, the
tenth chapter. It may be, as I try to speak
from this portion of the Word tonight, it will be more effective
if you have your Bibles open and occasionally can glance down
at the Scripture to which I'm referring. I've preached several
times from this passage of Scripture. And I love it, especially love
it, for several reasons, chiefly two. I believe this story of
Bartimaeus is a beautiful picture of how sinners come to Christ. I believe it's a beautiful picture
of how sinners come to Christ. And then secondly, I especially
love this portion of Scripture because I identify, I identify
personally with this blind beggar. What he was physically, I am
spiritually and I identify with him. Those are the two reasons
why I preach from it again tonight is because I believe if anybody
is interested in knowing how does a sinner come to Christ.
I believe you'll see it this evening. And then secondly, personally,
I identify with this blind beggar for what he was physically, I
am spiritually. Now verse 46, and they, that's
Christ and his disciples, came to the city of Jericho, a great
city, a wicked city. And as they went out of Jericho,
this is the picture that I form in my mind, the Lord Jesus Christ
came into this city, and he didn't tarry there very long. But everybody
had heard of him, and a great crowd thronged about him, and
his disciples were walking along with him. And the Master went
right on through the city, probably approaching one of the gates
leading out of the city, and all these people were around
him and with him. And his disciples were with him,
and they were going through the city toward the gate, walking
down one of the thoroughfares toward the gate, leading away
from the city. But for the time, Christ was
there. In his presence, in his power,
he was there. The Lord Jesus Christ was there.
Now, the point I wish to make here is that the Lord Jesus Christ
is here tonight. He's present just as much as
he was present here in Jericho. There are two scriptures I want
you to look at, first of all in Acts 17. Christ is here. You know, sometimes when we think
of stories like this of Bartimaeus and the thief on the cross and
the Canaanite woman and people who encountered the Master when
he was here on the earth in person, we say, That would really have
been something if we had been there then and could have encountered
him personally. Well, he's here tonight. He's
present. He's present. He's present in
his word. He is present in his gospel.
He is present in his power to save just as much now as he was
then. Christ is here. Christ is here. Now let me show you that in Acts
17, verse 24. This is Paul speaking. He said,
God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he
is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made
with hands, neither is worship with men's hands, as though he
needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all
things, and hath made of one blood all nations of men for
to dwell on all the face of the earth. and hath determined the
times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation, that
they should seek the Lord, that they should seek the Lord, if
haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not
far from every one of us. For in him we live, and move,
and have our being." You see what he's saying? He said he's
here. He's not far from any of us,
for in Him we live and move and have our being. Christ is here.
One other scripture, over in Romans 10. Now listen to this,
in Romans the 10th chapter, beginning with verse 5, Paul writing under
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Now watch this, Romans 10, 5.
For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law. that the
man which doeth those things shall live by them. Here's the
righteousness. If you seek righteousness through
the law, through works, through deeds, then obey the law perfectly
and you live by the law. But nobody can do that. You know
that. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this
wise, say not in your heart, who shall ascend into heaven,
that is, to bring Christ down from above us. Can we go up into
heaven where he is and bring him down? the righteousness which
is of faith." That's what we're talking about. Don't say in your
heart, well, we're going to have to go up to heaven, bring him
down, or descend into the deep and bring Christ up again from
the dead. But what does it say? The Word
is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that is the
word of faith which we preach. That's how close he is to us
right now. He's in the very words I'm saying.
He's in the very word that we're reading. He's in your heart and
in your mouth. His presence is right here. And
when I see this scripture here in Mark 10, and here's Christ,
Jesus the Lord, God incarnate, walking down this cobblestone
street, thronged by people and his disciples. And all the folks
sitting along the wayside, he's there. He's there. He's there. They saw him. They heard him.
But is he not here right now? You see, our God does not dwell
in temples. He's not restricted to one place
in one time. He's omnipotent. He's omniscient. He's omnipresent. He's here.
He's here in His Word. He's here in His Gospel. He's
here in His power to bless and in His power to save. He's not
far from any of us because it's by His permission I'm breathing.
It's by His permission I'm standing. It's by His grace that I have
any existence. In Him I live and move and have
my being. He's here. God doesn't supply
light. He is light. He doesn't just
supply life, He is life. Without Him, we can do nothing.
So He's here. And don't say, well, we need
to meet God. Who shall ascend into heaven
and bring Christ down for us? He's already come down, incarnate
in human flesh. Well, who shall descend in the
deep and bring Him out of the grave? He's already risen. He's
risen gloriously and victoriously, and He's here. The first thing
that needs to be established, He's here. Just as much as he
was right there. All right, it says, and he was
going through Jericho with his disciples, and blind Bartimaeus,
there was a man named Bartimaeus sitting by the highway begging. You don't see this much in this
country. You do in Mexico. You did when
I was a kid. I remember in some of the large
cities when I was a child, during the Depression and during the
hard times, people begged, but still in Mexico they're there
now. But if I could draw a picture in my mind of this man, a very
pitiful sight, he was a blind man, and evidently up in years,
40, 50 years of age. And he's sitting there on the
ground beside the highway. He'd been there, he'd been begging
there for a long time, a long time. Blind Bartimaeus was sitting
in the dust and the dirt with an old garment around him, probably
an old blanket, and he had something. His hands were gnarled and dirty
and fingernails dirty, hair matted. He had something in his hand,
a cup or something, that he was using to beg from the people.
And this crowd of folks came down, there he sat. Now, it tells
us four things about him, four things about Bartimaeus, and
I see myself sitting right there. Jesus of Nazareth is passing
by, the Lord of glory, the King of kings. And there that beggar
is sitting by the wayside. Christ is going to cross his
path. He's going to go right by him,
right by him, just like he's here tonight, Bob, just like
he's passing right through. And this man is sitting there.
I know four things about him. Number one, I know who his daddy
was. It says, Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus. Now, they say
B-A-R, Bar, is son of. Bar Timaeus, son of Timaeus. Barabbas, son of Rabbas or something. Simon Bar-Jonah, son of Jonah. But he was, it mentions here
his father, Timaeus. Now, I know who my father is.
I know that We had this television special on roots recently and
the black people tracing their roots back to Africa and so forth. But I'll tell you, every one
of us, every one of us have the same father. And every one of
us can trace our roots, not back to Ireland or Scotland or England
or the black forest of Germany or Africa. We can trace our roots
all the way back to the Garden of Eden. That's my daddy, Henry,
son of Adam. Charlie, son of Adam. Jim, son
of Adam. David, son of Adam. And you girls,
daughters of Adam. We can all trace our roots right
on back to Adam. Henry, son of Adam. And I'll
tell you this, I have his name and I have his nature. I have
his nature. Man, a fallen man, and a sinful
man. As in Adam, all die. In Adam,
death and sin and condemnation passed upon all men, and I bear
the image of my father Adam." Here sat Bartimaeus, the son
of Timaeus. Here stands Henry, son of Adam. Secondly, I know that Bartimaeus
was not only the son of Timaeus, but I know that he was blind.
He could not see and never had been able to see. And you and
I, sons of Adam, are blind also. We may not be blind physically,
but we're blind spiritually. And oh, how blind we are. There's
none so blind as those who will not see. We cannot see our sin. We cannot see God's glory. We cannot see the truth of Jesus
Christ. Having eyes, Christ said, they
cannot see. They cannot see. And the God
of this world, watch this, hath blinded our minds. That's where we're blind. We're
blind in our minds. We're called bittersweet and
sweet bitter. We're called holiness evil and
evil holiness. We're blind in our minds. There
I sit, son of Adam. There I sit, blinded in my mind. I cannot see. Spiritual, to Bartimaeus,
physical things were not seen. And to me, spiritual things in
the kingdom of God are not seen. Here's the third thing. Bad enough
to be blind. But Bartimaeus was poor, poverty
stricken. I'll tell you this, my father
left me poverty stricken. He sold my birthright, he lost
my inheritance, he lost my estate, paradise, and now spiritually
I'm clothed in rags. The best I got. Let me show you
this in Isaiah 64. Isaiah 64. I expect Bartimaeus had on the
best he had. Here sits this old blind beggar,
the son of Timaeus, and blind, and poverty-stricken, sitting
there in rags, but it was the best he had. It was all he had.
And I'll tell you this, clothed in the best I have, in my best
spiritual righteousness, listen to what God says about me, verse
6 of Isaiah 64. This may be offensive, but it's
true. But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses,
the best we have, are as filthy rags. Filthy rags. And we all do fade as a leaf,
and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. There I say
it. There I say it, spiritually.
Now, all this, these are examples and illustrations of redemption.
And this man, Christ was passing through, and I'm telling you,
he's here. But we are by the wayside. We're not in the company
of the redeemed. We're by the wayside. We're sons
of Adam. We're spiritually blind. The
best we have is filthy rags, filthy rags, sitting there in
our poverty. Fourth thing about him, he was
begging. He was begging, he was asking
alms of those, watch it now, who could not really change his
condition. I don't care what people gave
him, they couldn't give him his sight. They couldn't give him
his sight. I don't care what people gave
him, they could not give him ability to earn his way. I don't
care what people give him, when they left him, whatever they
put in his cup, they left him still blind, they left him still
helpless, and they left him still poverty-stricken. So no matter
what people, and we, that's the way we are, we're going about,
we have some kind of religious or spiritual or emotional interest
in philosophy, or living right, or doing right, or all these
things. But Bartimaeus, Bartimaeus needed the help of one who could
adopt him, one who could give him his sight, one who could
make him rich in grace, and nobody else was able to do that. You
see, the church can't do that, and preachers can't do that,
and priests can't do that. Nobody can do that. So when the
Lord Jesus Christ was coming down this road, there sat a man
that only Christ can help. There sat a man that no one could
do anything for, no one. The son of Timaeus, he's going
to stay the son of Timaeus. He's blind, he's poverty-stricken,
and he's begging. And Jesus Christ alone can help
you. And that's the condition you and I are in. We're son of
Adam. We're going to have to be adopted by somebody who can
help us. That's our Lord. We're going
to have to have our sight restored. We're going to have to have our
condition changed. We're going to have to be made
rich in grace. And only Christ can give it.
All right? Notice verse 47. And when he heard, and when he
heard, this blind beggar, when he heard, that it was Jesus of
Nazareth. Now, he couldn't see. He couldn't
see, but he could hear. He could hear. Turn to Romans
10 and 17. I want to show you a scripture
here. I want to be as plain and emphatic
about this as I can. This is the way God saves sinners.
Now, listen to this. So then, faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. Do you see that? Faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. God hath chosen
by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." This
man heard. He couldn't see. He was blind,
poverty-stricken, poor, ragged, begging, but he could hear. And
he had heard something. What had he heard? Now, this
is what I believe he had heard. Number one, back when he was
a boy, back when he was just a lad, He had heard of the Messiah
that would come, because every Jewish boy was schooled in the
promises and prophecies about the Messiah. This man had heard
that a Messiah was coming. Take the woman at the well. The
woman at the well didn't have anything to do with the disciples
or anything to do with the movement of Jesus of Nazareth, but when
he came to the well, she didn't know who he was. and was talking
to her, she said something like this, I know the Messiah is coming,
and when he is come, he'll tell us all day. Here was a woman
that was a loner, she was a woman that was a great sinner, she
was a woman, had no affiliation probably with the synagogue,
because they would have kicked her out. But she did know a Messiah
was coming, and evidently this beggar sometime in the past,
had heard that the Messiah was coming. Now, you know why I believe
he knew that? Look at verse 47. When he heard
that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say,
Jesus, thy son of David, have mercy on me. One day the Lord
Jesus Christ was talking to the Pharisees, the scribes, and the
lawyers. And he said, what think ye of
Christ, whose son is he? What did they reply? Son of David. This man said the same thing.
Son of David. You see, the Messiah is the seed
of woman, the seed of Abraham, and the son of David. And this
man knew that. Back in the background, he had
heard that a Messiah was coming. All right? Secondly, another
thing I believe he had heard. I believe that he had heard months
before that one Jesus of Nazareth claimed to be the Messiah. Jesus
of Nazareth claimed to be the Messiah, and Jesus of Nazareth
had opened the eyes of someone who was blind. This word, here
he sat by the wayside. He was blind, but he could hear.
And he heard people talking. They tell us that when one of
the senses is dull that another one picks up and does the extra
work. In other words, a man who is
blind, he can usually hear much better. A man that is deaf, many
times can see much better, or something like that. This man
sat by the wayside, and he had this background of knowing of
a Messiah, and he'd hear people talk. He had his little tin cup,
and he'd sit and he'd listen to folks, listen to them. And
he heard people talk about Jesus of Nazareth. You know, down in
Nazareth they heard what he did in Capernaum, they heard what
he did in Bethsaida, they heard what he did in different places.
The word went everywhere. And he sat and listened. And
this struck a note. He opened the eyes of a man who
was blind. He opened the eyes of a man who
was blind. And you know that prophecy from
Isaiah, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, the prophecy of the
Messiah, He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor,
to set at liberty the captive, and to open, to give sight to
the blind." And I'll tell you, somebody said, Jesus of Nazareth
claims to be the Messiah. People are saying that he's the
Messiah. And some people scoffed at it,
but I'll tell you this, he didn't scoff at it. He was blind. They scoffed at it because they
weren't blind. But when he heard that, Jesus
of Nazareth opened the eyes of a man who was blind, more than
one. And then I'm sure this went through
his mind, perhaps someday. As he sat there in his darkness,
sat there in his poverty, misery, filth and dirt, and he heard
those people talking, the Messiah, the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth
claims to be the Messiah, and he opened the eyes of a man who
was A man who was blind. And I know this went through
his mind. Someday, someday, he just might come my way. Oh, my one hope. Nobody else
could give him sight. There's nobody on earth that
could give him sight. Nobody. My one hope is Jesus
of Nazareth. So he's sitting there on this
eventful day. We sing that song, Oh, What a
Day. Oh, what a day! Here he sits with that back,
son of Timaeus, blind, poverty-stricken, helpless, begging. And he had
all that in his mind. Jesus of Nazareth opened the
eyes of a man who was blind. They say he's the Messiah. Wouldn't
it be wonderful if he was the Messiah? Wouldn't it be wonderful
if he came my way? Wouldn't it be wonderful if he'd
show mercy to me? Wouldn't it be wonderful if he'd
make me home? And I know he sat there and thought
of those things. And he heard a great commotion
that day. And he was sitting there in his poverty and dirt.
He said, what's going on? What's all the noise? There's
just a rush of people. I imagine people, you could feel
them walking by him. He said, what's all the noise? What's the noise? And somebody said, Jesus of Nazareth
is walking by my soul. Gracious sakes of life. Well,
what you do now, you repeat the sinner's prayer after me. It's so amusing. He'd been waiting
on Him for months. He'd been thinking about Him
and no one else for months. He is blind, you see. He was
hopeless, helpless. He wasn't on welfare. They didn't
have any welfare then. He was at the bottom, kicked
around, abused. And so I said, Jesus of Nazareth
is passing by. Can you imagine how his heart
must have raced? I'll tell you the whole problem.
The whole problem of what we call religion today, the preacher
gets up and preaches a sermon. And then he comes to the end,
and he's got to report some additions this week, or next week, or sometime,
but they won't let him be the pastor if the church doesn't
grow. Somebody might ask him, how many
did you have saved this week? And folks out there, you want
them to go to heaven and all that. So we get the choir to
sing, and we use methods. We bow our heads and close our
eyes. Can you imagine that foolishness? I tell you why we have to do
that. There's nobody blind out there. There's nobody helpless,
there's nobody hopeless, there's nobody lost. Because when he
said, what's the commotion? Now, there's just one in all
the world who can help him. There's just one in all the world
who can give him sight. There's just one and he knows
it. He knows it. He knows how hopelessly, helplessly
lost he is. And they said, Jesus of Nazareth
is passing by. His heart began to pound like
that. A thrill surged through his body. My hope, my help, my sight, my
life is here. Jesus! Jesus! He couldn't see. He didn't know
where he was. He just heard people. He didn't
know where he was. That way, that way, that way. And he just
began to holler and all the rest. Jesus, thy son of David, have
mercy on me. Oh, all that is implied in that
name. Listen to me, my friend. He wasn't
shooting an arrow in the dark. He knew who he was calling on.
You can tell by, he said, Jesus, that's Joshua, that's God is
my Savior. That's the Old Testament word
for Joshua. Thou shalt call his name Jesus. He'll save his people
from their sin. Thy son of David, let me tell
you something. He knew he was calling on the Messiah. And I'll
tell you what he's asking for. He's asking for mercy. Mercy. No cold theological calculations
regarding time and words and people. Just a poor, blind, helpless,
hopeless beggar knowing his only hope and his only help was in
that man, Jesus of Nazareth, who was passing by. Listen to
me. Need determines action. That's just so. I'm tired of
arguing with people over Bible and Scripture. I'm tired of reasoning
with people. Why don't you accept Jesus? Won't
you come to Jesus? I'm tired of begging beggars
to get help. That's ridiculous. If a man ever
gets lost, he'll be found. Christ Jesus came to save the
lost. If a man ever gets at the end
of his rope, God will save him. If he ever comes to his wit's
end, And I'll tell you this, you might as well start leaving
them alone until God brings them back. Bartimaeus didn't need
any. Actually, to be honest with you,
the people didn't help him at all. There wasn't any soul winners
in that bunch. Listen to what it says. In verse 48, many charged
him he'd hold his purse, they said. Can you imagine somebody saying,
put your hand down? Put your hand down. No, thank
you, I see that hand. We'll even bend them when we
don't see them. They said, hush, hush. Well, the more they said
hush, the more he cried. I'll tell you this, he's pressing
into the kingdom of God. This man knows the urgency of
the hour. He knows today is the day of
salvation. He knows Jesus of Nazareth, Luke said, is passing
by. is passing by. He wants to see
now, not next month. He wants to see now, not next
year. He's been blind long enough. And he kept crying. The more
they said, hush, the more he cried. Jesus, thy son of David,
have mercy on me. Now look at verse 49. And I'll
tell you, I wish I could lay hold of and preach all that I
know is here. It says, And Jesus stood still. Brethren, somebody wrote a hymn
one time, said, let not conscience make you linger, nor a fitness
fondly dream. All the fitness he requires is
to feel your need of him. That if there ever was a man
who needed Christ, it was that man. If there ever was a man
who knew it, it was that man. If there ever was a man who wanted
Christ, it was that man. And he cried for mercy. And it
says here that Christ stood still. Stood still. The Lord of Glory
stood still. His ears opened to the cry of
that sinner. God delights to show mercy. He
was mindful of Bartimaeus. Now, my friends, you know, there
must have been the mayor of the town must have been there. Jesus
Christ was at least a famous person, a prominent person, the
mayor must have been there, the council must have been there,
the Pharisees and Scribes and Sadducees, there were a lot of
people there. Notable people, influential people, rich people,
powerful people, everybody followed him. If a man came through here
giving sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf and legs
to the lame, truly now, not one of these tent meetings, but truly
everybody would go and crowd around, especially in these days
when folks were in the marketplace and on the street. But he didn't
stop for anybody. He said he was passing through,
he was walking and just going right through this town of Jericho,
right on out towards Jerusalem, wherever he was going, and one
man, the dirtiest man there, the poorest man there, the weakest
man there, the blind man there, called his name and he stopped. The Lord of Glories stopped. And he says in that next verse,
and you know I think of this, David said, when I consider the
heavens, the sun and the moon and the stars which thou hast
made, the majesty and the greatness of our Lord, what is that man
that Christ is mindful of him? Good. That's like me stopping
by a mangy old broken, dying dog, stopping and daring to help
him. That's like the President of
the United States stopping by a mangy dog. That's not even
that much. It's like an angel from heaven
flying down, taking care of a mangy old dirty dog. The Lord of Glory
stopped and commanded him to be called. Oh, I know, don't
you know that crowd was amazed? But that's the way our Lord works.
Turn to 1 Corinthians. Let me show you something. The
Lord Jesus called him. He called him. It says here in
1 Corinthians 1, verse 26, and you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty, and the base things of the world, and the things
which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not
to bring to naught the things that are. Do you reckon there's
anybody here tonight, this preacher included, that could really honestly,
not theoretically or theologically or anything like that, but really
by experience, spiritually, can take our place right there by
the highway side? I mean, son of Adam, blind, poverty
stricken, with no hope, no help, without God in this world. hopelessly,
hopelessly doomed and damned to eternal poverty. And the Lord
Jesus Christ is coming by, and we can direct our minds and our
attentions and our thoughts away from all things, even our poverty
and weakness, and cry out, Jesus, thou Son of David. That's what
the thief on the cross did. He said, Lord, remember me when
you come into your kingdom. That's what the public in the
temple said, Lord, let your blood be propitiation for me on the
mercy seat. You let anybody hear it from
that position, and that's the position from which you call,
because Christ stood still. I see it right here in front
of me. And Nicodemus came and all this sort of thing, but nowhere
does it say, Christ stood still, except right in the call of a
helpless sinner. And the Lord Jesus stopped and
called him, and they came over there and said, Be of good comfort,
he calls you. Now what's the next verse? Verse
50. And he, casting away his garment. And there he sits, whatever that
garment, probably an old blanket, probably sitting there on the
ground with an old I visualized, of course this was a long time
ago, but I visualized one of these old army blankets, you
know, something of that sort, some old worn ragged blanket
that he has around him. And it served the blind man for
several purposes. One, it covered his miserable
flesh. He had no one to care for him.
He must have been a man whose flesh was neglected, dirty. and scales, and he just covered
his miserable flesh with this old blanket. Second thing, it
provided warmth for him, and it provided some comfort. There
sitting on the ground with all kind of wind blowing and sand
storms and dirt and things around him, that blanket provided him
warmth and comfort, and then thirdly, it provided him protection
in his little miserable possessions. He probably had a little Some
people had given him some silver coins. He had them stuck in his
blankets, you know, so kids couldn't come by and steal them. If he
just put things out there by him, folks would steal it. So
this blanket protected him. It covered his miserable flesh.
It provided warmth and comfort. It protected him and his possession. And it was all that he had. All
that he had. But I'll tell you, when the Lord
called him, he just threw it away. He wouldn't need it anymore. He knew that he would be healed,
and he came to Christ without his blanket. Listen, another
hymn writer wrote this, Nothing in my hands I bring. See, I'm
not going to need this blanket anymore to cover my nakedness.
He's going to give me a robe. I'm not going to need this blanket
anymore to provide me warmth and comfort. He's going to provide
me comfort and warmth. and food and all things that
I need. I'm not going to need this blanket to protect me anymore.
He's going to give his angels charge over me. He's going to
put a hedge around me. And so he just took that old
blanket, Bob, and threw it away. And he came to the Lord. Nothing
in my hands I bring. Simply to His cross I cling,
naked. Come to Him for dress. Helpless,
look to Him for grace. black out to the fountain fly,
wash me, Savior, or I die." Well, look at the next verse. And he
came to Jesus. Don't bring anything. Don't bring
anything. Don't bring anything. You don't
need it anymore. You don't need it anymore. And
Jesus answered and said to him, now what? Our Lord never asks
a question for information. Never, never, never. One day
the Lord came to Adam and said, where art thou? God knew where
he was because he came to it. But the question he's asking
Adam is not for information, it's for confession. It's for
Adam's response. He wants to know if Adam knows
where he is. He wants to hear it from Adam. He wants to hear
it. He wants to hear from Adam what
his condition is. When he asked Cain, he said,
where is your brother? He knew where his brother was.
He wants to hear Cain tell him. He wants to hear Cain say in
his pride and arrogance, I'm not my brother's keeper. That's
what he wants to hear. When he asked the rich young
ruler, he said, do you know the commandments? And the young man
said, what should I do to inherit eternal life? He said, do you
know the commandments? He wants to hear him say, I've kept them.
In his self-righteousness, he damned himself right there. He
said, I've kept them. That's the basis on which I stand.
I've kept them. Also, he asked Abraham. When
he told Abraham he'd have a son, he said, Abraham, Sarah laughed,
and he said, I heard Sarah laugh. Is anything too hard for God?
What you got to say about that? He asked Abraham that. Is anything
too hard for God? So here's the blind man, and
he stands beside the master, and the master said, What do
you want me to do for you? What do you want him to do for
you? What do you want him to do for you? Well, I had in mind
meeting Mother in Heaven. Or I had in mind a mansion next
door to Jesus. I had in mind so forth and so
on. What have you got in mind? I'll
tell you what this man had in mind. Listen, one thing. Lord,
that I might receive my sight. That I might receive it. You're
the giver of sight. You're the giver of light. If
I get it, it'll be solely a gift. that I might receive and my sight
I want to see. He that seeth the sun and believeth
on him hath life. That's all I need. That's all
I need. All I need is my sight. That's
all I need. I need my sight. I need spiritual
sight. If a man ever gets spiritual
sight, he's all right. Did you know that? He'll see
his sins, he'll see his inability, he'll see God's righteousness,
he'll see God's justice, he'll see Christ the Redeemer, he'll
see the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. That's all I
need, Messiah. That's the priority. That's first.
I need to see. That's the reason I'm in the
shape I'm in, because I can't see. What do you want? Oh, Lord,
that I may see, that I may see, that I may see the Son, that
I may see the truth, that I may see thy glory. And Christ said
in verse 52, Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And
immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. You know that Christ's way became
his way. He followed Christ. That was
just a normal, natural thing for him to do. When he received
his sight, he saw the Lord, and he walked right along with him.
Right along with him. Now, would you be a lawyer, a
debater, then study the law? Would you be a sectarian or a
denominationalist, study the church? Would you be a theologian? Fill your library with all of
these old volumes, musty books written many years ago. Would
you be a religionist? Study the history of religion.
But would you be made whole? Come to Christ. Look to Christ. He's passing by. And we want
to know all these religious answers to all these religious questions
and commotions and all that. I'll tell you what we need to
do. We're just like that fellow by the wayside. We need to call
on him. Lord Jesus, our son of David,
have mercy on me. And he'll call you. And he'll
probe your heart with this question, what do you want? What's your
priority? What's your objective? What do
you want? I want to see. I don't want any higher, uppermost
seat or glory or success. financial prosperity or necessarily
health and a long life. I just want to see. That's all.
Lord, I want to see. I want to see. I want to see
the Son. My Lord and my Redeemer. Our
Father, we're grateful for every promise of your Word. The hope
that we have right here in this story. I know what I am. Son of Adam. I know what I am
by birth and nature and practice, by choice. I know what I am.
I'm in this miserable condition that all men are in, by nature
and by birth. And I know that Christ is our
only Redeemer, our only hope. He's the way, the truth, and
the life. He's the one who gives sight to the blind, hearing to
the deaf, and strength to the lame, and life to the dead, and
hope to the hopeless. And he's here, right here in
his word, right here in his power to save. And I call on him, Jesus,
our son of David, have mercy on me. If you do anything for
me, it'll be mercy. It'll be grace. It'll be because
of your love and not because of anything I am or any contribution
I can make to your glory that I might see, that I might see. O Lord, that I might see. In
Christ's name we pray. Amen.