Title: Christ
Heals Blind Bar-Adams
Text: Mark
10: 46-52
Date:
November 15, 2012
Place:
SGBC, New Jersey
It is
great comfort for me to see examples where the Lord Jesus Christ called out his
sheep while he walked this earth because Christ is doing the same thing from
his throne in glory right now.
The
example we will see tonight is with Bartimaeus.
The Lord Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem to lay down his life to
accomplish atonement for his people.
Mark 10: 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 highway side begging.
I. GOD SAVES TOTALLY HELPLESS SINNERS
Spiritually Blind Beggars
All who
the Lord shall save are like Bartimaeus.
What he was outwardly is what he was and what all God’s elect are inwardly,
spiritually: blind, poor, unable to work to provide life for himself. All he could do was sit and beg for mercy
from another. That is the spiritual condition of all men born of Adam—Christ Heals Blind Bar-Adams! Not all sons of Adam, only blind sons of
Adam.
We are
so spiritually blind that we think we see, think we can do something to make
ourselves acceptable to God. We can’t even
see we need salvation or that we are unable to work for salvation, until God
gives us life and spiritual sight to see our blindness in sin. Those who boast of their will to choose
Christ, their works of bringing themselves to God, works of the flesh to make
themselves holy, are like the Pharisees who thought they could see?
John 9: 39: And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into
this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be
made blind. 40: And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these
words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? 41: Jesus said unto them, If ye
were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin
remaineth.
When
the Spirit of God gives us spiritual life the first thing God makes us to see
is that we are blind, totally poor in sin, our flesh profits nothing. Only then
will a sinner come empty to Christ! Begging mercy from Christ!
So we
see that a work of grace had already begun in Bartimeaus. This is not teaching us that we come to
Christ of ourselves. It is showing us a
sinner will believe and come to Christ when God the Spirit has already given
life, a hearing ear, and faith to believe.
That is the only way Bartimeaus was made willing to call on Christ.
II. GOD DRAWS HIS ELECT TO CHRIST THROUGH THE
TRUTH OF CHRIST.
Mark 10: 47: 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.
When He Heard
Clearly,
this means he heard that Christ was right then walking his way. But the Lord said he had faith—he believed
Christ. He called on the Lord. He called
on his name—in truth. So Bartimaeus had heard
of Christ prior to this, been given spiritual life and faith by the Spirit of
God. We know that by the scriptures: Christ
said he had faith—how?
Romans 10: 10: For with the heart man believeth unto
righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11: For
the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. 12: For
there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all
is rich unto all that call upon him. 13: For whosoever shall call upon the name
of the Lord shall be saved. 14: How then shall they call on him in whom they
have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not
heardand how shall they hear without a preacher? 15: And how shall they preach,
except they be sent?…17: So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the
word of God.
The key
here is that God uses the TRUTH. Faith
in a false god is no faith at all. God does something for that sinner
first. Only God regenerates and gives
faith. No sinner can call on Christ in
truth if they have never heard the truth of Christ. God in his wisdom, has chosen to use the
proclamation of the gospel, using nobodies with no power in them, that no flesh
shall glory in his presence but in God alone.
We don’t use a committee to choose preachers. God must raise up and send
his witnesses. And there is no power in any of us who are his witnesses—“we
have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power might be
of God and not of us.” A man must first
be given life, ears to hear, the gift of faith.
Only by God doing all the work in converting his witness will that man know
the power of the gospel and so depend upon the power of God alone. It is men
whom God makes to see their nothingness that God uses to deliver God’s
treasure.
“Of HIS OWN WILL begat HE US with the WORD OF TRUTH, that
we should be a kind of firstfruits of HIS CREATURES [HIS CREATION]” (James 1:
18)
Eph 1:13: In whom ye also trusted, after that ye HEARD
the WORD OF TRUTH, the GOSPEL of your salvation:..
Calling on the Name of the Lord
So you
see, prior to Christ coming to Bartimaeus, God has worked this in Bartimaeus. He
knew who Christ is, listen to the NAME HE called upon.
Mark 10: 47…he began to cry out, and say,
Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me.
His
name is Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. He believed Christ
to be the Son of David, the promised Messiah. (Isa 9:6-7) Only God in Christ can show mercy. Only when mercy has already been shown, giving
a sinner life, ears to hear, faith to believe on Christ, will a sinner cry on
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ with a pure heart of faith as did Bartimaeus.
III. THOSE GOD DRAWS EFFECTUALLY TO CHRIST CANNOT
BE TURNED AWAY
Mark 10: 48: And many charged him that he
should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David,
have mercy on me.
Faith Will be Tried
Many
will try to turn us away—friends and foe, strangers and loved ones—many will do
all they can to tempt a child of God away from Christ. But this is certain; the power of God gives a
desire for Christ which no one or nothing can quench.
Matthew 11: 12: And from the days of John the Baptist
until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by
force.
Application: It is heartbreaking to hear the reasons men give for not
believing on Christ or for leaving the gospel.
Concerning those who depart from Christ, the scriptures tell us plainly
what they were doing all along.
Ezekiel 33: 30: Also, thou son of man, the children of
thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the
houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I
pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the LORD. 31 And they come unto thee as the people cometh,
and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will
not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth
after their covetousness. 32 And, lo,
thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and
can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not. 33:
And when this cometh to pass, (lo, it will come,) [in the end in the great day
of the Lord] then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them.
A true believer
may stumble for a season, like we see with so many faithful men in the
scriptures, but the power of God keeps him, making his heart fixed on Christ,
making him have to have Christ. When Christ has dominion in his heart, God’s
power makes him lay aside vain denominational traditions, vain doctrines and
creeds of men, vain experiences, professions, and works.
Grace
makes a believer willing to deny his own loved one and their false god rather
than deny the God of his salvation; grace makes a believer look over the
shortcomings and personal difference of brethren; grace will make you overlook
the meeting place—I have passed up nice buildings to meet in lowly places—but
they had the gospel; grace makes a sinner submit all to Christ, to the plain
testimony of the scriptures and lay aside the excess.
Grace
makes a sinner lay aside all for Christ because grace makes Christ All in all
who believe. Grace makes Christ, more
and more, the one thing needful. The
more men try to silence the believer the louder he cries for Christ his Lord to
have mercy on him.
IV. CHRIST JESUS ANSWERS THE CALL FOR MERCY THAT
HE PUTS IN THE HEART
Mark 10: 49: And Jesus stood still,…
A Broken and Contrite Heart
There
are many that call but they call on another jesus for vain reasons and vain
things.
Matthew 15: 7: Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of
you, saying, 8: This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and
honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. 9: But in vain
they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
But
those born of God, taught of God, drawn of God—cry out for Christ from a broken,
contrite heart—and Christ always hears--And
Jesus stood still.
It does
not matter who you are, what you are, what you have or have not done, grace
makes each vessel of mercy nothing but an empty-handed sinner calling on the
only one that is able to save him! Our
Redeemer is no respecter of persons. Besides
that, there is nothing in us to make one more respectable than another.
Romans 10: 12: For there is no difference between the Jew
and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
13: For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord SHALL BE SAVED!
That is
God’s word, not mans! It wouldn’t be in
the word of God if it were not true!
Psalm 145: 17: The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and
holy in all his works. 18 The LORD is
nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. 19 He will fulfil the desire of them that fear
him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them. 20 The LORD preserveth all them that love him:
but all the wicked will he destroy.
Assurance of the Effectual Call
Mark 10: 49: And Jesus stood still, and
commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of
good comfort, rise; he calleth thee.
The Lord’s
call convinces the sinner that the Lord will receive us—his call gives us every
reason to be of good comfort, to come boldly to his throne of grace: his call assures
us that we are loved by God because his effectual call is the fruit of God’s
everlasting love toward us; his call assures us we are chosen of God, for, “whom
he did predestinate, them he also called”; his call assures us that Christ
redeemed us, for the Lord Jesus says, “All that the Father give to me shall
come to me and him that cometh to me I WILL IN NO WISE CAST OUT!”
Casting Off our Garment
Matthew 10: 50 And he, casting away his garment, rose, and
came to Jesus.
The effectual
call of our Lord makes the sinner cast off his own garment. This garment is an example of every fleshly
thing that once covered us. The holy
calling which is of God makes a sinner put off the unholy which is of us: the
old man with his filthy deeds, along with the garment of our own filthy-rags,
so called righteousnesses, that so-called holiness by the letter of the
law. The heart is made pure, the sinner
is sanctified, when he is made to know that in our flesh dwells no good
thing! Until the heart is purified men
just can’t renounce themselves for Christ alone.
Sanctification
of heart makes us arise, leave all and come naked to Christ: to be robed in his
righteousness, to be justified freely by his grace, to be washed in his blood,
for that peace with God which Christ accomplished for us, for salvation
beginning to end by the Author and Finisher of faith.
V. ONE DAY CHRIST SHALL MAKE THE BELIEVER COMPLETELY
WHOLE.
Matthew 10: 51: 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. 52: 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.
Bartimaeus
had been made whole inwardly by the word of Christ by which God gave him life
and faith to believe on Christ. Then
Christ called Bartimaeus to him personally and Christ gave him sight outwardly.
The Author and Finisher of Faith
Faith
makes us whole because it lays hold on Christ who is the Author and Finisher of
faith. When the Spirit gives us this life
and faith to call on Christ and we are made whole inwardly—all by his blood and
righteousness, by his incorruptible Seed.
Then by
his grace, we follow Christ the rest of our life— Christ said, Go thy way…so Bartimaeus followed Jesus in the way--our way is Christ the Way.
Throughout
our life, many try to hinder us along the way like those did Bartimaeus, but by
God’s preserving grace we keep believing on Christ, calling on Christ and
Christ hears us and keeps giving us more grace.
Then
one day—either after we die or when Christ returns—Christ shall call us to
himself, our spirit shall be with immediately and one day our bodies shall
arise from the grave. We will cast off
this garment of flesh forever and come to him. Then we shall be completely
whole in body and spirit.
Psalm 64: 4
Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto
thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness
of thy house, even of thy holy temple.
Are you
satisfied? If not why are you not? No one but the triune God in the person of
Christ Jesus has received all the glory in what I have told you. If you are not satisfied for Christ to
receive all the glory there can only be one reason. May Christ cause us to unwrap our arms from
around ourselves and wrap them around him.
That is my prayer.
Amen!