Now, there's no substitute for
simplicity, especially when we're dealing with the things of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ spoke in
language and terms which could be understood. Perhaps they did
not believe him, but they understood him. Perhaps they were unwilling
to submit to his commandments, but they understood him. Perhaps
what he said crossed their tradition and wounded their natural pride,
but they understood him. I've often said, and I heard one of our young
people repeat it this week, in regard to America's leading evangelist,
it's not what he's saying, it's what he's not saying. It's what
he's not saying. If you'll open your Bibles to
the book of Matthew, chapter 15, beginning with verse The Pharisees, the religious
leaders, had rebuked the disciples of our Lord because they went
contrary to some religious traditions. And our Lord rebuked the Pharisees
when He declared in Matthew 15, verse 10, hear and understand. It's not that which goeth into
the mouth that defileth a man, but that which cometh out of
the mouth, this defileth the man. And then came his disciples,
and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended
after they heard this saying?" They heard it, and they understood
it. They understood exactly what
he was saying. They didn't like it, they didn't
believe it, they didn't submit to it, but they understood He
offended them. Paul said that the gospel is
offensive. And when we preach the gospel,
we're going to offend. We're going to offend the hypocrite,
we're going to offend the religious Pharisee. And it's impossible,
he declared, to preach the cross without offense. It can't be
done. You can preach works without
offense, but not the cross. You'll turn to John chapter 10.
These people did not believe Christ. They did not, they were
unwilling to submit to Christ. What he said crossed their tradition
and offended their pride, but what I'm saying is they understood
what he was saying. In John chapter 10, verse 30,
he said, I and my Father are one. I and my Father are one. And then they took up stones
to stone him. And he said, Many good works
have I showed you from my Father, for which of these works do you
stone me? They answered, saying, For good
work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, because thou, being
a man, makest thyself God. They understood him, didn't they?
Jesus Christ is saying, I'm God. There's the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. And they understood that. Instead,
they didn't believe it, but they understood it. They understood
it enough to grow angry enough to kill him. And then if you'll
turn to Luke chapter 4. In the fourth chapter of Luke,
beginning with verse 28. In Luke chapter 4, verse 28.
And all day in the synagogue, when they heard these things,
they didn't believe them. They wouldn't receive them. They
wouldn't submit to them. But they heard them. and they
were filled with wrath. And they rose up and thrust him
out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon
their city was built, that they might murder him. They heard
him, and they understood what he was saying. He was declaring
that God will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, that he owes
man He said there were many widows in the land of Israel in the
days of the prophet, but God fed none of them, except a Gentile
woman. And there were many lepers in
the land of Israel in the days of the prophet, but God healed
none of them. He sent the prophet unto Naaman,
Assyrian. And they heard him, and they
understood exactly what he was saying, and they grew angry. and they were filled with wrath.
Now the Apostle Paul in Galatians chapter 2 verse 21 said, I do
not confuse or complicate or frustrate the gospel of God. If righteousness comes by the
law, Christ is dead in vain. Paul is saying here, I want you
to understand what I'm saying. I'm going to make it so plain.
I'm going to sound a clear note. I'm going to declare this message
so it cannot be misunderstood. I'm not going to confuse the
grace of God. I'm not going to confound it
and complicate it and frustrate it and send you out wondering
exactly what I said. I cannot make you believe it,
but I can make you understand I cannot make you submit to Christ
and submit to the cross and submit to substitution and submit to
sovereignty, but I make you understand it. And I cannot make you surrender
your religious traditions. I cannot make you give up being
a Baptist first and a believer second, but I make you understand
that that's a lost man's tradition. I cannot make you give up your
Catholicism, or your Methodism, or your Nazarene-ism, or some
other kind of ism, but I make you see where salvation is not
in the Church, it's in Christ. I make you understand that. Although
I cannot make you give up your tradition at all. We can see
that men understand what we're saying. Christ did. They understood
Him. They grew angry with Him. They
would have stoned Him. They would have cast Him off
a cliff. But he didn't confuse the issue. He made it plain. Now, I don't know, my friend,
if you'll ever repent. But I do know, except you repent,
you'll perish. And that's as clear as God's
Word can make it. I don't know if you ever will
repent. You may never repent. You may go to hell unwarned and
unawakened and unregenerated. and a rebel against God, but
I do know that only those who repent are saved. I don't know
if your heart will ever be broken. God may never break your heart.
You may keep that old double, stony, divided heart till you
take it to the grave, but I know that God saved it such as be
of a broken heart. That's clear in the Word of God.
I don't know if you'll ever be born again. But I do know that
except a man be born again, he'll never enter the kingdom of God.
And I don't know whether God will ever show mercy to you.
He doesn't have to. God has to reveal justice. He has to provide justice because
He is just. But God doesn't have to show
mercy. I do know it's not by works of righteousness, but according
to His mercy He has saved us. I don't know if you'll ever believe
on Christ. You may believe facts about him.
You may have some limited historical knowledge of him. I don't know
if you'll ever kiss the Son in affection, in faith, but I do
know he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. That's
clear. And I don't know when you'll
die, but I do know it's appointed unto me and wants to die, and
after that the judgment. And after judgment, eternal hell. I don't know if your name's in
the book of life. It may not be. But I do know
whosoever is not found written in the book of life is cast into
hell. That's what the Bible says. We do not confuse. We do not
distort. We do not frustrate the grace
of God. We cannot make men believe it.
We cannot make men receive it. We cannot make their stiff necks
bow or break their divided hearts. But we can make them understand.
We can lay the issue out before them. We can stop them on their
road to hell and confront them with the truth. And what they
do with it is their business. It may be difficult for you to
find the grace of God. But it's no secret where it's
found. It's in Christ. That's right. It may be difficult
for you, and you and you, to find the grace of God. You may
never find it. But it's no secret where it's
found. It's in Christ. That's where
the grace of God is. The love of God's in Christ.
The mercy of God's in Christ. The salvation of God's in Christ.
Life is in Christ. Everything's in Him. He's the
source of life. In Him was life, and the light
which lighteth every man that cometh into this world is in
Christ. It may be a mystery to you why
God saves sinners, but it's no mystery how God saves sinners,
is it? It may be hard for your pride
and your selfish will to bow to the sovereignty of God, but
there's no doubt it must bow. It must surrender. It must submit. Oh, that there would come forth
from God some prophets in these days who were not afraid to declare
the truth and to make men understand what they're saying. We're using these little old
silly, sentimental, emotional, religious expressions, and they're
sickening. We need to declare the truth.
And if men become offended, let them become offended. When the
Pharisees, when the disciples came to our Lord and said, the
religious people were offended when they heard what you said,
He said, leave them alone. They are blind leaders of the
blind, and if the blind lead the blind, they both fall into
the ditch. I want you to turn in your Bibles
to Mark chapter 10, verse 46 through 52. The gospel of God's
redeeming grace will be preached. And you'll understand it. I'm
going to preach it tonight so that you can understand it, what
I'm saying. The claims I'm making, the charges
I'm bringing forth, and the remedy that I'm offering. It's going
to be clear, and you'll understand it, and you'll either be saved
by it, or you'll reject it and be damned by it. Condemned. Further condemned. Darkness upon
darkness. Condemnation upon condemnation. And verse 46 of Mark chapter
10, it says, They came to Jericho, and as he went out of Jericho. He went out of Jericho. The Lord of salvation, the Lord
of glory is passing by. He. He. This is very God of very
God. This is our blessed Redeemer.
No pretender to the throne. He is God's anointed. He is God's
Savior. He is the physician of souls.
All else has failed. He cannot fail. This is God's
man. This is God's elect. This is
God's chosen ones. The prophets spoke of Him. The
prophecies foretold Him. And the types prefigured Him. And He's passing by. It says he went out of Jericho.
Matthew said Jesus passed by. Jericho is the world. He was
in this world. The world was made by him, and
the world knew him not, but he was in this world. He, God's
anointed, God's chosen one, was in this world. The word was made
flesh, actually became flesh and bones, and dwelt among us. And men heard it. and they touched
him, and they talked to him, and they saw him. He was in this
world, and he's in this world today. He's passing by right
now. We are reenacting this scene
right this minute. Blind Bartimaeus is with us.
Every sinner is like Blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, the son of
his father, the son of Adam. But Jesus Christ is passing by. He's passing by in his Word.
Jesus Christ is the Bible. He's passing by in his Spirit. He said, I go away, I'll send
you another Comforter, and he will take the things of me, and
he'll show them to you. And he's passing by, Paul said,
in his minister, for his minister is an ambassador for Christ,
and he stands and beseeches men in Christ's stead. So just as
in that day at Jericho, he was passing by, and he is passing
by today. But notice it says this, and
here's an interesting thing. It says, he went out of Jericho. Oh, he was there, but he didn't
stay. Will God continue to speak to
you? Christ didn't pass by Bartimaeus
but one time. Christ didn't pass this way but
one time. This man was not confronted,
actually confronted, with the claims of Christ but one time.
And Jesus Christ our Lord continued on his way. God said, My spirit
shall not always strive with man, He says, their foot shall
slide in due time. Will he pass this way again?
I don't know. This may be the last day. There's
got to be a last day. This may be the last sermon.
There's got to be a last sermon. This may be the last call. There's
got to be the last call. This may be the last opportunity. There's got to be a last opportunity. Isn't that right? And it came to pass that he went
out of Jericho. He, the Redeemer, the Savior. God's anointed. There he is. And there he goes. And it says
in verse 46 here that there was one present who was in need.
Here's somebody who needed him. And a great number of people
went with him, and blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the
highway side begging, a man in need. And it says in verse 47,
when he heard. My friends, this is the first
step in any man's salvation. This is the first step. It's
when he hears. Either the law of God or the
gospel of God either the convicting voice of the Holy Spirit or the
calling voice of the Holy Spirit, but any man's first step toward
heaven is when his ear for the first time is tuned to the gospel. This man heard. Now, not just
any voice. Too many people are listening
to the wrong voice. Eve listened to Satan, and you
know the result. Adam listened to Eve. Judas listened
to the chief priest. But this man heard Christ, and
he began to cry. Look at the next line. And he
began to cry out. No cold religion here, no cold
formalism here, no cold fatalism here, no turning to men, no turning
to form, no turning to creed, no turning to the law. He began
to cry out, Somebody said, It's the Lord.
He said, Who is that? They said, It's the Lord Jesus
Christ. Jesus! Thou Son of David, have mercy
on me. He sought the Lord. How many
times in the Word of God does it declare, Seek ye the Lord? My friends, the Bible doesn't
command us to seek peace. It commands us to seek the Lord. If you have the Lord, you have
peace. You can't have peace without the Lord. The Bible doesn't command
us to seek heaven, it says, seek the Lord. The Bible doesn't command
us to seek eternal life, it's seek the Lord. If you have the
Lord, you have peace, you have rest, you have heaven, you have
eternal life. This man began to cry for the
right thing, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. He chose the right approach.
It was not justice, he sought, but mercy. We don't want justice. We want mercy. Mercy. He heard, and he cried, and he
began to cry for the right thing. Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy. Have mercy. This is what the
publican prayed for in the temple. Be merciful, be merciful unto
me, the sinner. Now notice the next verse. It
was a determined cry. And the next verse said, Many
charged him that he should hold his peace. Now, he got no help
from those about him. I may wound you a little bit
here, but I want you to listen to me. If you ever get serious about
your relationship with God, if you ever get serious about
your soul salvation, I'm not talking about going to
heaven when you die. Everybody's going there, they
tell me. I'm not talking about you get interested in church
work. Everybody's a church worker. I'm not talking about if you
get interested in the Jesus movement. There are a lot of people interested
in that. But if you ever get serious, dead serious, cold,
dead serious about your relationship with God, about your soul's condition,
and you ever begin to seek the Lord in a saving relationship,
not many people do, but if you ever do, you're going to get
no help from those about you. you'll be hindered. And I'm telling
you the truth. First of all, Satan will hinder
you. I've had people come here to hear the gospel, and I thought
they were interested in the gospel. They said, that's a good message.
Never heard it like that before. And they began to manifest some
kind of interest. But then they can't make it out
anymore. All these different things began
to come up, and they can't go to church. Now, Satan's not going
to pave the way for you to go hear the gospel. You can put
that down. He's going to hinder you. Blind Bartimaeus, he was
blind, sitting in darkness. A beggar sitting in his rags.
He's just like the rest of that outfit, and they wanted him to
stay that way. They were beggars, and they wanted
him to be a beggar. They were blind, and they wanted
him to stay blind. They were dead, and they wanted
him to stay dead. They were going to hell, and
that's where they wanted him to go. And he began to cry out, Jesus,
our son of David, help me, have mercy! They said, hush, hush. He's not going to pay attention
to you. You're wasting your time. Satan's going to hinder you.
He's going to do everything in his power to keep you out from
under the sound of the gospel. He'll send your relatives to
visit you on the Lord's Day. He'll make Grandma sick on Saturday
night about one o'clock so you can't make it to Sunday school.
Because Satan's not in the business of bringing men to Christ. He's
in the business of keeping them away from Christ. And that's
what these folks, he cried out and they said, HUNCH! Why you
wasting your time? He's not going to have anything
to do with you. And you're alright, you just
stay where you are, you're not going to make any progress, but
he cried out to Lord! I will not be denied." Like old
Jacob as he wrestled with the angel of the Lord, and the angel
of the Lord said, Let me go! He said, I'm not going to let
you go, you bless me. I'm going to read that Bible,
I'm going to hear that gospel, I'm going to camp on the doorstep
of King Jesus till he invites me in or kicks me out. And that's
what this fella did. And that's what folks do when
they get interested in the gospel. The gospel, not a gospel, not
any gospel, not some gospel, the gospel. The gospel of redemption,
the gospel of substitution. When people get interested in
their relationship with God, some young person will get interested
in the Lord, interested in salvation, interested in the gospel, and
then they'll get to dating somebody that don't go to church, and
first thing you know, they don't either. Satan's not going to send you
a husband, young lady, who loves the Lord. Satan's not going to
send you a wife, young man, who loves Christ. He's going to send
you somebody to wean you away from those things. Exactly. Exactly. Hush, they said. He
cried out, Hush! Nobody helped him. And nobody's
going to help you either. He's going to offend you, he's
going to wound you, he's going to cast stumbling blocks in your
way, he's going to do everything in his power to keep you out
from under the gospel. But this man cried out the more. He would not be denied. He cried
out a great deal more. Thou son of David! How many times
he said it, I don't know, but here he said it twice. He kept
crying. Have mercy on me! And verse 49
says, And Jesus stood still. I can't guarantee you God will
save you, but I can guarantee you this, He's not going to save
you if you don't seek Him. I can't guarantee you God will
save you, but I can guarantee you this, He's not going to save
you unless you call on Him. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. This man kept calling, and Jesus
stood still. Somebody said, the voice that
stops the Lord Jesus Christ is the voice who cries out of a
sincere need and out of a broken heart. And Jesus stood still
and commanded him to be called over a hundred and sixty times
in the Scriptures. The redeemed are referred to
as the called a hundred and sixty times. They are the called of
Christ Jesus. They're the called of God. They're
called out of darkness. As many as the Lord our God shall
call, whom he called, he justified. Oh, how sweet to hear the voice
of him who calls. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst they shall be filled, Not with a passing fancy, but
with a permanent dwelling of God in
the heart. Christ said, My Father and I
will come in and take up our abode. Hear this blind man sitting
by the wayside, and the Lord passes by, and he hears the commotion. He says, Who is it? And they
said, It's Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus, thou Son of David, thou
art the sovereign King, thou art the promised Messiah, thou
art the Lord, thou art the Anointed, have mercy on me. And people
begin to put stumbling blocks in his way. They begin to try
to misdirect his attention. They tried to turn his attention
away to something else, and he kept crying, kept crying, Lord,
this is my only hope! Have mercy on me! The Lord Jesus
Christ stood still, and he called him. And he called him. And they called, the blind man
said, Be of good cheer, he calleth thee. he calleth thee." And verse 50
said, And he, casting away his garments, arose, and came to
Jesus. Shall he call, and I not respond? Shall he invite, and I not accept? I have been seeking him. Shall he give, and I not receive? This is what I need! This is
what I cried for! This is what I sought! Mercy! Mercy! The forgiveness of my
sin, the restoring of my sight. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? And the blind man
said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said
unto him, Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately,
immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. It was battered and scarred, and the auctioneer thought it
not worth his while. to waste much time on the old
violin. So he held it up with a smile,
and he said, What am I bid, good folk? Who starts the bidding
for me? A dollar? Two dollars? Somebody make it three. Going
once? Going twice? But north from the
room far back, a white-haired man came forward and picked up
the bow. And he tightened the loosened
strings. And then he played a melody as pure and sweet as a caroling
angel sings. And then the auctioneer in a
voice that was quiet and low. What am I bid now for the old
violin? He held it up with the bow. A thousand! Two thousand! Who will make it
three? Three thousand! Going once, going
twice, going... Gone, cried he. And the people
cheered, but some of them cried, we don't understand. What changed the worth of that
old violin? And he said, the touch of the
master's hand. And many a man with life out
of tune and battered and scarred by sin is auctioned off by a
foolish crowd just like that old violin. A drink, a fall, and he stumbles
and he's almost gone. And then the master comes. And
the foolish crowd never can quite understand the change that's
wrought in a sinner's heart by the touch of the Master's hand. I can't make you believe that.
I cannot make you receive Him. And I cannot make you direct
your attention to Him. And I cannot make you lay down
these playthings. And I cannot make you turn from
your tradition. And I cannot make you turn from
worshiping your denomination. And I cannot make you turn from
these foolish things. But I can tell you where the
grace of God is. And I can tell you where it can
be found. And I can tell you that every
blind Bartimaeus who sits by the wayside, naked, diseased,
broken, sinful, and blind, who hears the voice of the Son of
God speaking through His Word, and who cries out to Christ,
I'm in need, I'm unable to help myself, I'm broken, I'm deserted. And when you begin to cry like
that, when you begin to seek the Lord, when you begin to seek
a real saving relationship with Him, I guarantee you this, If
you and Papa don't know the Lord, they'll try to keep you from
knowing him. And if your friends don't know
Christ in a saving relationship, they'll try to keep you away
from him. And they'll do it every way under the sun. They'll deny
there's anything to what you believe. They'll deny that there's
anything to God's sovereignty. They'll deny there's anything
wrong with their tradition. They'll put every stumbling block
they know in your way. Your friends will, your family
will, your loved ones will, your sweetheart will, and the devil
will. He'll do everything in his power to leave. Now just
hush, you're all right. Don't get excited. You're all
right. But this man wouldn't let them
do that to him. He kept on crying, Lord, and
nobody can help me but you. There's nobody's blood that can
cleanse my guilt but yours. There's nobody's death that can
satisfy a holy law but yours. And Lord, I'm not going to quit
until you answer me. And I'm not going to let you
go. You bless me. And I'm not going to turn from
this way of seeking until you touch me. I'm not going to stop
crying until you call me. I've got to know you. And I believe
if you ever get dead serious about this, like Brian Bartimaeus,
I believe you'll hear him say, Our faith hath made thee whole. And when you do, they can laugh
all they want to, because you've got something that they don't
have, and you know something they don't know. And they can
ridicule and find fault, but I'll guarantee you if you ever
come, not to a religious experience, but to a real living relationship
with Christ, you'll never lose it, you'll never leave it, and
it can never be taken from you. Nothing this side of heaven or
hell, or on the other side either, can separate me from the love
of God which is in Christ Jesus, my Lord. The foolish crowd never
can quite understand the change that's wrought in a sinner's
heart by the touch of the Master's hand. Our Father in Heaven, let
the potsherds of this earth strive with the potsherds of the earth.
But, O God, don't let us be so foolish as to strive with our
Maker. Let men toy with the playthings
of this world and argue about them and reason about them, but
don't let us toy with our souls, with our eternal relationship
with Thee. Heaven's a long time, and so
is hell. Eternity hath no end. What shall
it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul? If I gain the esteem of this
world, If I gain the pleasures of the flesh, if I gain the happinesses
of this world and lose my soul, and lose my soul, I want to know
Christ, Christ Jesus the Lord, Christ Jesus in His effectual
sacrifice, Christ Jesus in His substitutionary work, Christ
Jesus in His mediatorial glory, oh, that I may know Him. and
the power of His resurrection. I count all things but dung that
I may win Christ and be found in Him. Deny me not. Let the
prayer of every heart in this congregation tonight be, Lord,
lead me to seek Thee, and seeking Thee to find Thee, and finding
Thee to love Thee. and loving Thee, to never leave
Thee. For Christ's sake we pray, and
in His name. Amen.