I was thinking as we were singing
that hymn just now how we miss the ladies. All of us men here
today, us five men singing that hymn, we sure miss the ladies
joining in with us and singing praises unto our God. If you
will, open your Bibles with me today to Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10. I begin reading today in verse
46. Mark chapter 10 and verse 46. And they came to Jericho. And
as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number
of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the
highwayside begging. And when he heard that it was
Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou
son of David, have mercy on me. Many charged him that he should
hold his peace. But he cried the more great deal,
thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still,
commanded him to be called, and they called the blind man, saying
unto him, be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee. And he,
casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus
answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto
thee? 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 he
received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. We're looking
today at the story of a man who would not be hushed. He would
not hold his peace when those around him told him to do so. This is one of my favorite stories. And yet I hesitate to call this
a story because stories are usually written to entertain us. This
is not written to entertain us, but this is a true history that
is written to inform us, to teach us, to help us that we might
learn about the things of God. I like the words of the hymn
that go like this. One set alone beside the highway
begging. His eyes were blind, the light
he could not see. He clutched his rags and shivered
in the shadows. Then Jesus came and bade his
blindness You know, the father of John the Baptist was filled
with the Holy Spirit when John was born, and he began to prophesy. And his prophecy has many wonderful
truths in it, but one thing that he said was that his son, John
the Baptist, would go before the face of the Lord to prepare
his ways. And then he said that the day
spring from on high, that is the bright and shining star,
the morning star, the day spring from on high would appear and
that he would give light to them that sat in darkness and in the
shadow of death. And we see that prophecy fulfilled
in this case of Bartimaeus. I have three divisions in my
message, and I trust the Lord will bless the word to all of
us here today. What a wonderful miracle we have
in the Lord Jesus Christ opening the eyes of this blind man. First, the first things that
we learn about Bartimaeus in verse 46. There's three things
I want to mention. Three things, three very simple
things that we see in the first verse that I read about this
blind man. First, we see that he lived in
Jericho. Now what's interesting about
that is Jericho was under a curse. When the nation of Israel came
into the land of Canaan, remember that's the first city they encountered,
and God miraculously brought the walls of Jericho down, and
then Joshua He pronounced a curse upon the man who would rise up
and rebuild that city of Jericho. So here's the first thing we
see about Bartimaeus. He lived in a city which was
especially under a curse. The second thing we see is that
he was blind. He was blind. And some people,
some of the commentators at least, they believe that we may tell
from his name that he was born blind. He was blind for sure,
and many believe that he was born blind. And the third thing
that we see is that he was the son of Timaeus. And Timaeus, according to Strong's
concordance, the word means unclean. He was the son of the unclean. Now think about these three things.
He lived in a city which was under a curse. He was blind and
he was born of an unclean man. Now these all have their spiritual
parallels. What is said and what we see
there so quickly about Bartimaeus is true of you and it's true
of me. It's true of all men as we come
into this world. First of all, we live in a world
which is under a curse. We read this in Genesis chapter
3, that chapter in Genesis which records the fall, when Adam disobeyed
God. Then we are told that God said
this, because thou hast eaten of the tree which I commanded
thee, saying thou shalt not eat of it, curse it, Cursed is the
ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it
all the days of thy life. We all live in a world that is
under a curse. Can you imagine, do you ever
take the time just to think for a few minutes about what this
creation was when it came from the hands of its creator? when
God created the heavens and the earth and fashioned everything
in that first week of creation. How beautiful, even still, we
see the beauties of creation. We see the wonders of God's creation,
even in this world that is under a curse. But can you imagine,
my friend, what this creation was before God pronounced the
curse upon it? And remember this, the curse
came upon this world because of man's disobedience. You know, man liked to blame
God for things in this world that man brought upon himself. It was man that introduced sin
into this world, which brought about the curse. People all the
time say, well, if there could be a good God, why do bad things
happen? Well, remember, man, he's the
one who by his disobedience brought the curse into this world. Not
only do we live, my friends, in a world which is under a curse,
but the scriptures tell us that every person who does not obey
God's law is cursed. In other words, the law is given
and then the law pronounces a curse upon everyone who does not perfectly,
absolutely obey God's law. You see, people are not free
from the curse because they memorize the Ten Commandments. People
are not free from the curse of the law because they've got the
Ten Commandments on a plaque on the wall in their houses,
no. The only way a person is free
from the curse of the law is if that person perfectly obeys
and does everything that the law commands. So just as Bartimaeus
lived in a city that was under a curse, so you and I live in
a world which is under a curse. And we see, we see, my friends,
all around us, the sin, what sin and the curse of sin has
brought upon God's creation, the sickness, the death, the
sorrow. You just go on, my friends. And you see, all of this is the
result of man's disobeying his creator. And then God's perfect
holy law, all of us have failed to obey it as it is commanded. And the law pronounces a curse
upon everyone who does not do the law, keep the law. And then a second thing, Bartimaeus
was born blind, so we are born spiritually blind. You know that 53rd chapter of
Isaiah, such a beautiful chapter that speaks to us of God's suffering
Savior and the victorious Savior, the saving work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. But in the beginning of that
chapter, we read these words, when we shall see Him, when we
shall see Him, there's no beauty that we should desire Him. Do
you know why it is that men see Him, that men hear of Christ
and learn of Christ and yet see no beauty in Him that they should
desire Him? It is because we are spiritually
blind and all of us rather choose death than life. The light, the scripture says
in John chapter 1, the light shineth in darkness. and the
darkness comprehendeth it not." You know, on a very dark, dark
night, my friends, you can take one of these small matches and
strike it, and that light is manifested because of the darkness. But here, the light came into
the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the light of the world,
and yet men are spiritually blind, and we live in darkness. And
there was no beauty in him that we should desire him. That was
our estimation of him. Why? Because we're spiritually
blind. John the Baptist, we are told,
was sent to bear witness of that light. That's strange, isn't
it? How blind, how dark must a person
be if he needs someone to tell him, look, there's a light. There's a light. No. John bear witness of Christ who
is the light. And number three, we are all
sons of the unclean. Job asked this question. He said,
who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? And then he answered,
not one, not one. When our father Adam sinned,
He became unclean, and then the scripture says he begot a son
in his own image. Remember, Adam was created in
the image of God, and that image was holy. But when Adam sinned,
then he had a son, and he came forth in not God's image, that
image had been lost. That moral perfect image of God
in which Adam had been created had been marred by sin. But Adam
brought forth a son in his own image. And that's true of your
father, it's true of my father, it's true of me as a father.
Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. I want you to listen closely,
if you will, to this petition of Solomon. When Solomon dedicated
the temple, you can read about this in 2 Kings, but when he
dedicated the temple, beautiful, beautiful temple there in Jerusalem,
and the glory of God filled that temple. But Solomon prayed in
dedicating that temple. And listen to this one petition.
He said, what prayer and supplication so ever be made by any man or
by all thy people Israel, now listen, which shall know every
man the plague of his own heart. And spread forth his hands towards
this house, that is the mercy seat there in the temple, spread
forth his hands, any man that knoweth the plague of his own
heart, and spreads forth his hands towards this house, then,
here's the petition, God hear, hear in heaven, hear thou in
heaven, thy dwelling place, and forgive and do. If any man know
the plague of his own heart, that tells us that most men,
are never taught the plague of their own heart. Have you been
taught that? Have you? Has God the Holy Spirit,
using the Word of God, taught you the plague, the plague of
your heart? You say, what is that? What is
the plague of the heart? The plague of the heart is that
we all are unclean. We all bring, when we come into
this world, a heart that is described by God as deceitful above all
things, desperately wicked. Who can know it? Sometimes people
say, well, if I know my heart. Well, you don't. You don't. We know this, that we all have
a plague, the plague of our heart. Those of us who have been taught
by God, the Holy Spirit, we come into this world with a heart
which is described by the Lord Jesus Christ, out of which, remember
the Jews of his day, they thought that which goes into the man
defiles the man. So they could wash their hands
and wash their pots and pans and do all their ceremonies and
they would be clean before God. But no, no, it's not these outward
things. The problem, the plague is the
heart, out of the heart, Our Lord said, proceed evil thoughts. You ever have an evil thought?
I know you do. Why? Because as face answereth
to face and water, my friends. All of us, we come into this
world and yes, we have a heart that brings forth evil thoughts,
adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, false witness, that is
lying and blasphemies. And our Lord said, these are
the things that defile the man. So here we have Bartimaeus, just
like you and me, under a curse, spiritually blind. Yes, my friends,
and we're all sons of the unclean. Now here's the second point.
The experience of Bartimaeus here in verse 46, this is where
It gets good. This is where it gets good, as
far as I'm concerned. His experience. The first thing
I'd say about this is Bartimaeus lived on the generosity of others. He was a beggar. That's what
he was. At one point in my life, I lived
in a city where there was a fair amount of beggars. And they were
like Bartimaeus. They were begging because of
some physical or some mental disability. Over time, as I lived
in that city for almost 10 years, I came to recognize different
ones. And you might not believe this,
but after 40 years, I can still remember one of those beggars,
a little lady, and she didn't have any hands. And she sat begging. And when you would give her a
gift, she'd do like that. I never will forget that. And
I came to recognize her and others as well over time. Why? Because they were always in the
same place. And I would imagine Bartimaeus
was like that. He had found a good place. Maybe
there was some shade there. There was traffic there. And
someone every day, just like those beggars that I came to
recognize in that place, someone would lead Bartimaeus out there,
I'm sure, every morning. And he would sit down, and he'd
go to work begging. And they'd come back in the afternoon,
and they'd lead him back home. That was his experience. He was
a beggar. He lived on the generosity of
others. And I mentioned this because
you and I, all of us, we too, we live on the generosity of
the Lord God. We live in God's world. We breathe
God's air. We drink God's water. We live
on the generosity of God Almighty. You know the Apostle Paul preaching
in Athens in Acts chapter 17, he said this about the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He said, God that made the world
and all things in it, seeing that the Lord of heaven and earth
dwelleth not in temples made with hands, you can't build a
place Like these people that have their little idols and their
little shrines and they place him in his position and say,
you stay here. You stay here. I'll come back
and get you when I need you. No, that's not God, my friends.
No, God is everywhere present. He giveth to all men, the scripture
says. We live and move and have our
being in him. We live. Every day, our life,
we live. on the generosity of the Lord
God. The only thing you have, the
only thing I have that we can really, really, really call our
own is our sin. That's it. That's really all
we have. that we can call our own. Everything
else, we've been given. You say, well, I have a good
mind. Who gave it to you? I have a strong body. Who gave
it to you? Paul asked that question, didn't
he, to the Corinthians? What hast thou that thou hast
not received? Oh yes, he was a beggar. He lived on the generosity of
others. And second, now listen, he heard
what produced his response. You notice in verse 47 it says,
and when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he probably
heard first a commotion. He'd been sitting here, no doubt,
in this place for some time. He recognized when there was
a big crowd coming. It would kind of alarm a person
who couldn't see, who was blind, and so he no doubt asked, you
know, what does this mean? And he heard He heard it was
Jesus of Nazareth. That was what was causing the
noise. But I want you to notice what
his response was. And we must see this. Now you're
going to miss the message if you don't see this. You must
see this. He heard, now listen, he heard
that it was Jesus of Nazareth that was causing the noise. but
he doesn't cry, Jesus of Nazareth, have mercy on me. That's what
he heard, but you see, when he starts crying out, it's Jesus,
thou son of David, have mercy on me. That was the name, that
was the title at that time that most of the Jews understood referred
to the Messiah, the promised one, one who had been promised
of old. He would be the son of David. You know, if you look at the
order in which these prophecies were given in the Old Testament,
first, he was to be the seed of the woman. Next, he was to
be the seed of Abraham in whom all the nations of the earth
would be blessed. Next, Jacob prophesied and said
he would come through the tribe of Judah. And then he was revealed
to be the son of David. David's son. Other people maybe
had not paid any attention when the law was being read there
in the synagogue, but I would imagine Bartimaeus, even though
he couldn't see, he was listening and he heard this. He heard that
when the Messiah came, He would open the eyes of the blind. That's in Isaiah 35 in verse
5. And no doubt he heard when they
read Isaiah 42 in verse 16, I will bring the blind by way that they
knew not. I will make darkness light before
them. Others at that time maybe asked
the Lord and some did, art thou the Christ? He didn't. He knew, he knew, Jesus, thou
son of David, have mercy on me. And I want you to notice third,
he cried out for mercy. Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy on me. He didn't think of striking a
deal. Now God, if you'll do this, I'll do that. You've heard people
say that, I'm sure, or just be sure of that. God doesn't make
deals with men. How deceived is a person who
thinks like that? He came seeking mercy. You know,
when God revealed or proclaimed his name before Moses, that's
the first thing he said, the Lord, the Lord God merciful. And in that passage in Micah,
it speaks about the fact that he delighteth in mercy. He delights in mercy. He didn't
come trying to work out some kind of an arrangement with God. No, he came crying, mercy, mercy. The prodigal son, when he came
home in our Lord's parable, he didn't speak to his father and
say, now father, if you'll get that best robe and the ring and
the sandals and bring them out here and put them on me, I'll
do this, that, and the other. No, he said, father, I'm not
worthy. I'm not worthy to be called one
of thy sons. Make me as one of the hired servants.
What was he doing? He was coming to the father seeking
mercy just like this man. Mercy, mercy. They tried to shut
him up. But I tell you what, Bartimaeus
had a need and he knew who it was who was passing by and they
could not hush him up. You know, there's a scripture
which says, the kingdom of heaven suffered violence and the violent
take it by force. When God saves a sinner, that
becomes all important to that person. David said, one thing
have I sought, one thing. Most people are seeking so many
different things. No, Bartimaeus, he was seeking
one thing, one thing. And he knew if he received it,
it was going to be a gift of mercy. He didn't deserve it. Now here's the last thing, and
I say I've got very little time, but I want you to see the grace
of Jesus, the son of David. The first thing we read, he stood
still. He stood still. His ear is not
heavy. No, my friends, his ear is not
heavy that he cannot hear. Who is a God like unto thee that
delights in mercy? He stood still when that woman
with an issue of blood came, and in the crowd she said within
herself, if I can but touch the hem of his garment, I shall be
made whole. And she touched, and he stood
still. Who touched me? Who touched me? Virtue has gone out of me. Who
touched me? Yes, nobody else in that crowd
probably heard Bartimaeus, but Jesus, the son of David, did.
His ear is always open to the cry of those who come seeking
mercy. Always, always open. The second
thing, he commanded him to be called. That's the second thing. He stood still. He commanded
Nicodemus, Bartimaeus to be called. And that's just a real good picture,
isn't it? Of God's effectual call. God's call. You see, we preach
the gospel, we preach it, broadcast it, that's the word that's used.
Go into all the world and broadcast, just like a farmer goes out and
he broadcasts the seed, he sows it everywhere. And some hear,
and some come. Those are the ones who are effectually
called. Somewhere from the cradle to
the grave, Everyone that God has given unto his son in that
everlasting covenant is going to come to Christ, is going to
look to Christ. They really are. Why? Because
God called, he commanded, Christ commanded that Bartimaeus be
brought to him. And then one other thing, Jesus,
son of David, gave him his sight. Some people have wondered, I
wonder why the Lord asked him, what wouldest thou that I should
do unto thee? Well, remember this, this man
was a beggar. What was he usually begging for?
He was usually begging for money. Is that what you want? Is that
what you're asking for? Oh no, oh no, that I may receive
my sight. That's what I want. A lot of
people that want to come to Christ, my friends, and they want this,
that, and the other. But remember this, the Lord Jesus
came into this world for one reason, and that was to save
sinners. He came to save, He didn't come
to make you rich. He might, He may not. But I tell
you one thing, if He saves you, He's made you rich. May not be
in the things of this world, but these things are all temporal.
They're all passing. Oh, yes. I'll tell you this morning, if
you do like Bartimaeus, when he heard that the Lord commanded
him to come to him, what did he do? He cast off that old coat. He just threw it off. That old
coat that you have, you've made it, fig leaves. You've done good
and you're trusting in your goodness and what you've done and you
believe that's going to make you righteous before God. Throw
that away, my friends, away with everything you've ever done and
look to Christ. That's what Bartimaeus did. He
came to Christ. And our Lord said unto him, thy
faith hath made thee whole. It's not your crying. It's not
your importunity. It's not your vehemency or anything
like that. No, it's faith. And why is it
that God has chosen faith to be the grace? And it is a fruit
of the Spirit, just like love is and joy and peace. Why is
it that God chose faith? Because faith is a receiving
grace. That's all. It's the empty hand. The empty hand that's put out,
and the one who comes by puts some coins in the hand. The hand
didn't do anything. No, it was the giver who put
the coin. It's Christ who gives life. Faith
just receives it. Just empty hand. Thy faith hath
made thee whole. You know where Bartimaeus is
today? Well, the scripture here says
that he followed Jesus in the way. I tell you where he is today. He's not sitting by a highway
begging. He's in glory. He's in glory,
my friends, looking into the face of the blessed Lord Jesus
who came by that day and saved him, had mercy on him. Don't
you look forward to that day. Someone sent me before the service
here this morning a link to a hymn where we'll never grow old. We'll
never grow old. Oh, don't you look forward to
that place where we'll never grow old. To be with Jesus. That's heaven. To be with him. That's where Bartimaeus is. Brother
Bill's going to come and he's going to sing this hymn, Grace
Greater Than Our Sins. And His grace is greater, greater
than our sins. His blood cleanseth from all
sin. It's number 209 in our hymn books,
Grace Greater Than Our Sins. You join in. Praise God for His
wonderful, marvelous grace.