We are actually finishing up the chapter, Luke 18, we're finishing the chapter today in verse 35. And you'll see that this is a passage on the man who is blind, who will see. We've seen the blind see in other passages in the Gospel of Luke, but this is a special one. This is a special healing, and we'll get into that perhaps in a few moments after we read the text, but know that this is an important life, an important event in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, will you stand with me as we read from Luke 18. Luke 18, picking up in verse 35. As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. They told him, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. And he cried out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me! And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, what do you want me to do for you? And he said, Lord, let me recover my sight. And Jesus said to him, Recover your sight, your faith has made you well. And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our Lord stands forever. You may be seated. As I was reading this text, I was reminded of the early days in space exploration. Perhaps some of the engineers will remember this time with NASA as they launched the Mars Climate Orbiter. It was in the late 90s and they had spent and devoted much time to ensuring that nothing would go wrong with this spacecraft. Unfortunately, due to a simple calculation error, one of those teams used the imperial metric while the other one decided to use the metric system. And so as they saw their work fly up, They saw it also come crashing down at a later moment. You see, they had done all the work. They had done all the right preparation in their own minds, and yet they did not think of everything. Imperial versus metric. Who would have thought there'd be such disastrous consequences with such a disastrous end? But perhaps it is a lesson that before we can see Jesus truly, our hearts must be prepared rightly to receive him. We must have adequate preparation. We must make sure that we are actually ready to see Jesus Christ as he comes before us. The preparation can make all the difference. It can make all the difference between having a salvation or it ending in disaster. Jesus is now nearing Jerusalem. He is on the last leg of his journey. He is rounding third base in his ministry. He's about 15 to 20 miles away from the great city. About 15 to 20 miles west of here we'll see St. Louis. That is how close Jesus is. to seeing his own demise. And Jesus, as he enters and goes through and to the city of Jerusalem, he comes to the city of Jericho. This may or may not be the Jericho that you all are familiar with. There are actually two Jerichos. There are the Jerichos of the Old Testament, you know that one well, where they march around the city and the city walls come falling down. But Herod the Great also established a Jericho too. That was only one mile away from the old Jericho. We don't know. He might be an old Jericho or a new Jericho. But he is around Jericho nonetheless. And as he is passing through Jericho, right before he gets perhaps to the most dangerous part of the journey into Jerusalem, he finds a blind man on the side of the road. This would be Jesus' last miracle before he enters the city. There are a few others, the ear of the man going back on his head. But this is the last miracle before Jesus enters his city. In some ways it's a concluding miracle of his public ministry. As Jesus prepares in the Passion Narrative to be offered up as a sacrifice for God's people, here is where his ministry begins its end. And it ends with the blind seeing. And this is no doubt on purpose. This is no doubt on purpose. You remember earlier in Luke, as we studied the passages together, that Jesus' ministry, as Luke recounted, was to give mercy to the poor. That was the good news of the gospel, to offer mercy to the poor and that the blind would see. And so what better way to end your ministry than doing just that? Offering mercy to the poor beggar on the side of the street, and then granting him sight to see. It is the bookend of his ministry, the end of his ministry, as he looks forward to Jerusalem beforehand. But Jesus is applying the parable that we've already talked about just a few sermons ago. That parable with the Pharisee, the self-righteous Pharisee and the humble tax collector. And as he applies it in this passage, we see that this poor blind man is like that tax collector and that the crowd around him is like the Pharisee. They try to silence those who they deem unworthy. But perhaps today we're going to focus a little more on this blind man. Spiritual transformation cannot be something that comes from within ourselves. We live, or we at least at one point, we lived in a culture that infused the gospel with self-help. The Lord helps those who helps themselves, we're often told. But this is not the case with this blind man. What about those who cannot help themselves? What about this beggar, this blind beggar on this side of the road? Is there hope for him? Is there hope for you? Well, without a spiritually transformed heart, There is no hope. Before you could see Jesus with your eyes, you must spiritually see him in your heart. That's the main point of this sermon. That before you can see Jesus, your heart must be prepared to see him. Before you can see Jesus, your heart must be prepared to see him. And so we're going to look at some of the evidences of how we know our hearts are prepared to see Jesus. First evidence. It's quite simple. A prepared heart, please, for mercy. A prepared heart, please, for mercy. We see this in verse 35. And as he drew to Jericho, a blind man who was sitting on the roadside was begging. And hearing the crowd go by, he inquired what it meant. And they told him it was Jesus of Nazareth. passing by. So the setup before the man offers pleas to the Lord Jesus Christ, he inquires who he is. The blind man's name was Bartimaeus, if you're wondering. Bartimaeus. We see this in the Gospel of Mark, the same exact event. Also in the Gospel of Matthew, this is a three-peated situation and event. We know his name. His name is Bartimaeus. And when you learn the name of someone in scripture, it's often for a significant reason. Oh, you might say, well look at those genealogies. I'll spare reading them. How is there any importance in any of those? There is. There is. But that's not about that. Mark notes his name. And why does Mark note his name? It's because this man would become influential in the church. This man, at the end of the passage, follows Jesus into Jerusalem where Jesus would die. And he would become a local leader in the early church. This blind man, this blind beggar, who is viewed as filth of the world, named Bartimaeus, has a better recognition in the scriptures than the rich young ruler from the passage before. He is known. He is known by Jesus and he is known by the church. That's who this Bartimaeus is. But he was about to receive a life-altering experience. Something that would change his life forever. He, you see, he had an eye affliction. And eye afflictions were common in the ancient world. They're as common as strep throat in our time, it seems. Because of various hygiene issues and other quality of life situations that we all enjoy, kids often became blind. And being blind was not a good sign, if you could believe it. Because those who became blind often remained blind for all of their lives. We don't know how long Bartimaeus was blind, but he was blind for quite some time. And when you became blind, your life changed. Your life changed. You lost everything. And so this man has more than a mere eye affliction. He's impoverished as well. He has no sight, and he has no money. And so he sat on the road to Jerusalem. He hoped that those who'd pass by would have pity on him. They'd have pity on him and care for him. And this was particularly a busy season. It was a Black Friday kind of event, as people would travel from all over the country to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. And so he knew this was a time when important people came by. And it was a great opportunity to find another day's meal. But on this day, he would hear a different commotion on the road. He wouldn't be able to see with his eyes, but he would hear it with his ears. And that commotion would lead to an important man passing by. It would lead to the common question. If you were blind and you heard a commotion, what was the first thing you would ask? What is going on? Who is passing by? What is the event going before me? I hear the raucous. I hear something great happening. This must be an important man passing by me. Because he has an entourage. I can hear them down the road as they come. Who is passing by me now? That's what Bartimaeus asks. And the response is Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. A local friend, maybe another beggar, perhaps someone in the party of Jesus' group, they tell him, this is Jesus of Nazareth who is passing by. Jesus was a common name in Israel. Jesus. Jesus was like John in our own time. Jesus was known by many, but there were many Jesuses. And so they have to qualify. This man has to know which Jesus, which Jesus is passing by, which important Jesus comes by me. We know that the meaning of Jesus, the Lord saves, offers salvation. But which one is he? He is the one from Nazareth. A special Jesus that we'll see in a moment that causes the light bulb to go off immediately. in this man's mind. But oddly enough, in my own high school experience, I was not the only Scott in my grade. We had four Scots. We had four Scots. And unfortunately for me, my best friend was one of those Scots. And so whenever we would hang out with our broader friends group, it would be indiscernible if they said Scott. You'd never know. Which Scott are they talking about? Are they talking about Ed Berg? Or are they talking about the other Scott? I won't divulge his name. Who are they talking about? And so how do we distinguish one another in the midst of a group? We hung out all the time, almost every day. We would drive each other around in great freedom. How do we distinguish one another? I became Ed. I became Ed. And so if you call Ed, you might get Ed Model, you might get Ed, Ed Berg. But we had to distinguish one another. And that's what happens here. This man needs to know how to distinguish this Jesus. Who is this man? What is the identity of this Jesus? He is the one of Nazareth. And that's when we get the immediate reply. There is no wait. He doesn't wait for the moment to pass by him. He doesn't have analysis paralysis. He cries out in verse 38. Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. This is a blind man, but is he really blind? That's what I questioned when I read that verse. Is he really blind? Well, yes, he's physically blind. But that response, That response isn't the response of the rich young ruler from last week who says, good teacher. Flattery. No, this is a title, a unique title, that this blind man gives to Jesus. Son of David. The son of David is unmistakable. This man, this poor blind Bartimaeus, is recognizing the royalty of the man who comes by him. This is not a mere another Jesus. This is royalty. This is the man who is promised in the Old Testament, who would come after David. You remember God promising David that there would always be a son of David on the throne. That prophecy. This Bartimaeus, this blind man who can't see two inches in front of his eyes, can see it in Jesus. He knows his identity. That he is a son of David, kin. He is the heir apparent to the kingdom of Israel. And this man recognizes it. This man sees much better than the crowd around him. This man sees perhaps in some ways better than us, if we're honest in our own hearts. And because he recognizes and understands his identity, he has request. I know who you are. You are the powerful sovereign that is to rule this country, to rule this people, to rule this world. I have a request. Have mercy on me. You see, when you recognize the identity of the Lord Jesus Christ, the proper response is this blind man's response. It's to have mercy on me. You, oh God. You, Jesus Christ. You are God who sits on a throne. You are sinless. All power is underneath you. You possess it all. You have the power to vanquish by your arm's fling. Have mercy on me. The mercy isn't merely to have recognition over his pitiful state. He is in a pitiful state. His mercy is deeper than that. It's a mercy that is asking for the Lord to intercede and to make things right in his life. Have mercy on me. You see me in my pitiful state, now show compassion upon me, O God. Have compassion upon me, O son of David, rightful heir of this kingdom here. You see my sorry state. And you and you alone are the only one who can intervene and make it right. Have mercy on me. He's asking for Jesus' compassion upon him, this poor, blind beggar. Please, oh Lord, have mercy on me. Deliver me as it has been prophesied that you are to deliver all of Israel. Deliver me. We obviously know the connection to sin, but it is also connected to our own bondage. Oh Lord, deliver me from what ails me, from what holds me back, from what shackles me down. Deliver me from all that harms me. That's what this man requests. And that is what a heart that is ready to receive Christ also requests. Have you ever pled to the Lord? Have mercy on me, oh God. I have no right to even stand in your presence. I am a mere blind beggar on the side of the road. I am not worthy in myself. And so have mercy on me. You know your heart is ready to receive Christ, that as you go before Christ, you sense your own sin. Sometimes I hear Christians who talk about after they come to salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, it seems that they find out more and more about how unworthy they are. That after years and years of growth and sanctification, the sin that they have just seems to cascade. It seems like there's more. Why do I seem worse on these latter days of sanctification than the first? Well, I would argue that you're not actually worse. You're just heightened in the sense of your own sin. Heightened like this man who cannot see. Those who go from spiritual blindness to truly spiritually seeing start to see their own sin. It starts to stick out to them. My family bought a new Traverse over the week. And now as we drive on the road, we see the Traverse everywhere. There are Traverses everywhere. Maybe you've had that. Maybe you bought a Kia Soul. You've never seen a Kia Soul in your whole life. And now every time you drive, you see Kia Souls. They're everywhere. That's how your sin is. It's everywhere. But you don't notice it until that spiritual blindness is removed. It's like buying a new car. Like, wow. I didn't think these things were so popular. That's your sin. They're so popular in your own heart and you start to recognize it. Why? Because you know the identity of the Jesus who's in front of you. And that's why you plea. You plea because you know who you stand in front of and your own sin is you stand there. The second thing I want you to see, though, before you can see Jesus, your heart must be prepared to see him. The second thing you need to see is that you must persevere in rejection. A prepared heart, a heart that is ready to receive Jesus, must persevere in the midst of rejection. And that is what this blind man experiences. As he pleads, as he calls out to the Lord Jesus Christ, Oh, have mercy on me. What does the crowd do? They reject him. They push him to the back. They sideline him. He is too lowly of a state to come before this great teacher. We see this in verse 39. Look down in your Bibles with me. And those who were in front rebuked him. After he said, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. They rebuke him. And what do they tell him? Be silent. But he cried out all the more. He cried out of the moor and he repeated again, Son of David, have mercy on me. We don't know how many times he said it, but I am assuming he chanted it. He kept saying it. Son of David, have mercy on me. Son of David, have mercy on me. And the crowd is saying, shut up. Get to the back. You are not significant. Get to the back. You are unimportant to this teacher. He is going on pilgrimage to Passover. Leave him alone, you filthy beggar. The crowd rebukes him. They throw him to the back and they desire to silence him. This man seems unaware of his surroundings and he doesn't have any care. He just continues. What does he have to lose? He's a poor beggar, he's blind on the side of the road. What does he have to lose? And so he perseveres. He calls out again. And again. Even with the rebuke of the crowd trying to silence him in the back. This is where the crowd becomes like the Pharisee. The Pharisee who rebukes the tax collector. This is like the last passage where the disciples rebuke the child coming before Jesus. The crowds always seem to try to push those who want Jesus most away. They did it for the young child. They do it for the tax collector. And they try to do it for this blind beggar as well. It's like they try to put a hedge around Jesus to protect Jesus from those vile sinners on the outside. But Jesus... Jesus, He has a different response. And we can see that response in verse 40. This blind man might be blind and he cannot see anything, but he can see. He can see spiritually. And because he can see spiritually, when he offers pleas to Christ, Christ hears. And not only does Christ hear, He doesn't ignore. Think of how easy it would be to ignore. There's a lot on Jesus' mind at the moment. He's 15 miles away from his death sentence. He's on death's row, as it were. He knows. He just told the disciples in the last passage, I'm going to Jerusalem and in Jerusalem I will die. I will be mocked. I will be shamed. He knows the road ahead is difficult. He has all the cop-out in the world of just ignoring this blind man and continuing on. We would all empathize. Oh, Jesus had a lot on his plate. We're reminded in just a few passages from here, he cries tears of blood. He has a lot on his plate. If anyone had an excuse to ignore this man, it was Jesus. And yet even with all that on his mind, even with all that on his mind, he stops. He stops. And he commands this man to be brought to him. That's the kind of Messiah Jesus is. Even as he heads to death, he shows compassion to those who need it. shows compassion to you, shows compassion to me. You might feel inconsequential in this world. You might sometimes, I know I'm guilty of it, feel like a nuisance to Christ. Oh Lord, you saved me and yet I keep going back and messing this up. You might feel like a nuisance, insignificant, You might often think of those besetting sins. Those sins that you struggled with since childhood. Anger or otherwise. Those ones that always come back to your heart and haunt you. You might say, I am such a nuisance. I'm so inconsequential. I'm unworthy. Yet, if you have a heart that sees Christ, You are not unworthy to him. Even in the midst of him dying for your sins, he stops. He stops and listens. He calls you, he beckons you to him. He calls you. Come to me. Even in the midst of rejection, we are accepted in Christ. Those who are ready to receive Christ, even in the midst of rejection, you are received by Him. Even if your peers reject you, even if your family thinks of you as the black sheep, it's often how I feel in my own family. The odd duckling out, doing the weird things. You are accepted by Christ. You're not irredeemable. And that's what you need to see in the second point, that you're not irredeemable. That those who see Christ, they persevere in rejection and He saves them. We see how he saves them in the last point here. As we prepare to see Christ, we also prepare to proclaim Christ. And that's what we see as Jesus begins the conversation. This is a short conversation. He asks in verse 41, what do you want me to do for you? Jesus beckons the man to him. He stops. He slows his roll and he says, what do you want from me? It seems quite obvious. This is a poor blind beggar. He could sense that. He knows it. He can see that he can't see. It seems like his needs are obvious, and yet Jesus asks almost an obvious question. Everyone in the crowd would have known. He wants your money. He wants your favor. He wants a meal. He wants his problem, all his problems, he wants them to be reconciled. It seems so obvious, but Jesus asks, and so you might wonder, why does Jesus ask it? It's because he wants to know the man's heart. He wants to hear with his own ears the man's heart. Will he just ask, like he's asked all these people that have come by before for a simple handout? for his needs, his lowly physical needs to be met. Will he just ask for another handout? That's what Jesus wants to know, because in merely asking for a handout, it reveals that he doesn't know who Jesus truly is. And so his humble request is quite significant. He doesn't ask for mere food. Doesn't ask for money. He doesn't ask for a day in the inn. What does he ask for? Lord. Lord. Let me recover my sight. He calls him Son of David, and then he calls him Lord. Curios, Lord, my Lord, my King, my Superior, I am your servant. Have mercy on me, how? By letting me recover my sight. The Son of David, oh powerful Son of David, let me see again. That's not the request you'd expect. The request you'd expect is just for some more money, just to get by for another day. But what this man asks from Jesus is somewhat impossible. A man who's been blind for quite some time, who hasn't seen who knows for how long, perhaps even from his childhood, he asks Jesus the impossible. Let me see again. It was a permanent thing to be blind. There is no hope of recovering sight. And Jesus, he has quite the interesting way to cure people of their blindness. Some of our homeopathic people might love Jesus' blind healings. Rubbing mud and spit, I'm sorry. But this time he does none of that. He just declares. just declares, Lord, let me recover my sight. And Jesus, what does he say? Recover your sight. Your faith has made you well. And immediately, as verse 43 says, he recovered his sight and followed him. Last miracle that Jesus does before entering the city of Jerusalem is giving sight to the blind. But this man saw before he saw. I don't want you to forget that. There are two ways to see in the Bible. You can see spiritually and you can see physically. This man clearly, as Jesus passed by, had great spiritual sight. Better sight than everyone in the crowd. He saw with greater clarity than all in Jesus' entourage, it seems. Those who physically had sight did not see. It's perhaps worthy of reminding ourselves of that. Sometimes when you're physically blind, you know that you can't see. You know it. It's dark. When you're spiritually blind, you often do not know. You think all is well. You're happy as a clam. Spiritual blindness is a much different and more difficult blindness because you think you see when you do not see. And this crowd thought they saw. But they did not. Instead of honoring the beggar who recognized the Davidic heritage of Jesus Christ, they try to silence him. They're spiritually blind and they do not see. They don't even know it. It's the warning. And that's why Jesus tells this man, who does see, you may have your sight back. You already see, dear friend. And now I'm going to grant you physical sight. Why? Because your faith made you well. I want to focus perhaps for just a few moments on this idea of faith. What is the faith that made this man well? We must remember that faith is not how we are saved. The object of faith is how we are saved. The object is the Lord Jesus Christ. True faith is not a fickle faith. It's not my faith in the Chicago sports that I once had. It's fickle. It's fickle every season, every team. It's oh, so fickle. That's not the faith that we have here. Faith is threefold in the New Testament. It is threefold. It is a knowledge that we have. We must have knowledge in order to have faith. There is an intellectual dimension in regards to faith. It is impossible to have faith in Jesus without knowing who Jesus is, in other words. If you want to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you must know who He is. Presbyterians love this part of faith because we think that it is only knowledge by which we are saved. If we know all of our theological commitments, then we'll be truly saved because we have a perfectly true theology. But it's not true. Knowledge, don't think too highly of it. It is still a component of faith, but it is not all of faith. And even with a rudimentary knowledge, a childlike knowledge of Christ, one can be saved. But there is a knowledge aspect to it, but it must not stay in the brain. John Calvin says, the Word of God is not received by faith as it flits about at the top of your brain. but when it takes root in the depth of your heart. And that leads to the second idea of faith. It's knowledge, but it is also belief. It is believing what you know. Two different things. The demons, for example, knew who God was. They didn't believe in Him. They didn't believe in Him. They didn't offer their assent to Him. They didn't submit to Him. They didn't approve Him. When you have knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and saving faith, you also have belief in what He is teaching. It's more than knowing that Jesus came to die for sins. It's actually believing it in your heart. Many can have a knowledge of Christ without having a belief of Christ. You can know all things about the Bible. You could have read it from front to back and you have a great knowledge. You can recall verses, chapters, and times. But unless it hits the heart in true belief, not like the demons, but like those who follow Christ, You'll remain lost. And the second part is belief. The third part of saving faith is trust. Fiducia is the Greek word for it. That you must trust him. It's the volitional. It's not only that you have a knowledge of it. It's not only that it's hit your heart and so you believe it. It's that now you act upon those beliefs. You surrender to Jesus Christ and do what he commands. But in all of that, faith is not what saves you. Faith is the vehicle that brings you to salvation. It is not salvation itself. It's not how great my faith is. It is not that I have faith. It's what I have faith in. So B.B. Warfield talks about, it is not faith that saves, but it is the object of faith, Christ himself. Christ is the one that saves. So though Jesus says in this passage, your faith has made you well, what he is saying is, your faith in me has made you well. You recognized who I am. When you heard my identity, you declared, Jesus, you are the son of David. Recognizing his divinic lineage, his power, his authority. When you called me Lord, you recognized that I am over you and I have the power to make or break you. I am your king. You recognized all that. You put your faith in the right Savior. The right Messiah. The Israelites would put their faith in all sorts of people. The Maccabean Rebellion would happen just a generation before Jesus Christ. They would put their faith in those revolters as they would follow many to die in Jerusalem. They put their faith in the wrong Savior. Don't make that mistake yourself. Place your faith in Jesus Christ. And as you place your faith in Jesus Christ, you know your heart is ready to receive him when you're ready to proclaim him, to proclaim his glory. We see that glory that is proclaimed is both internally, but also received by the community itself. Those blind people, those people who are blind as a bat, When they saw it, they praised God. That crowd that once hated Him, when seeing the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, turned. Turned. I don't know how far that turning was, but we see that they praised God for it. But I want to zero in again. We're not focusing on the crowd so much in this sermon. We're focusing on this blind man. What does the blind man do? He does two things when he recovers his sight. He follows Jesus and he glorifies God. Those who are ready to receive Jesus, what do they do? They follow Jesus and they glorify God. That is a heart that is ready to receive Christ. That is a heart that is ready to view and look and see the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a heart that follows Him. I can't imagine this blind man's experience. He is 15 miles away from Jerusalem. He is seeing for the first time in his life. And what does he do? He follows Jesus. The rich young ruler in the last passage was told by Christ, sell everything and follow me. This man doesn't need to be told to follow Jesus. He just follows. And the sad reality for this blind man, as sad as it is, some of the first experiences that he would receive with those new eyes that could see, the mocking. the subjugation of the Lord Jesus Christ, handed over to Pontius Pilate, the one who he says is the son of David, the one who he calls Lord. His first memories of sight would be the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ. I must speculate a little. I hope you will forgive me for it. But his first experiences were at the foot of the cross, watching the one who he claimed as the son of David perish. Those were his first experiences. sometimes wonder if recovering this man's sight was a blessing or not. He truly saw spiritually who Jesus was, and then he had to physically see who Jesus was as he died. A difficult first few days in the life of this man. And yet he glorifies. And yet he glorifies. and he praises him. He has true fiducia faith. Before you can see Jesus, your heart must be prepared to see him. You must be prepared. Before you can physically see the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, your heart must be prepared to see it. Otherwise, you will not receive him as king. You will not receive him as the son of David. And so I hope that these three fruits are in your life. That as your heart is prepared to see Christ, even as we celebrate Him in this season, that you are a Christian that pleas with Him. Have mercy on me, O God. That you are a Christian that perseveres in the midst of rejection. That you are a Christian that proclaims His glory. that you're a Christian that truly sees Him, not merely physically like the crowd around Him, but spiritually sees Him, that you're not spiritually blind and dead in your sin. We must be on guard then. be on guard to not be like the crowd in this passage. For those who are Christians, we must be those who welcome people to Jesus Christ. We must not, we must protect at all costs the temptation to push people we see as unworthy away from Christ. We must be warned by the temptations of the crowd, those who silence the blind, those who are like the crowd that push some away. No, if you're a Christian here today, you experience that true sight by welcoming. by welcoming, welcoming those who do not know Christ into fellowship with Christ. How do you do that? You do that by welcoming them to your church, your friends, your neighbors, by inviting them in to experience the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that they might have eyes to see. Remember, faith has a knowledge component. They must know Jesus. They cannot know Jesus unless they hear about Jesus. And so invite them in. Bring them in that they might sense their own weight of sin and plead to Christ like you plead to Christ to. Have mercy on me. For the non-believer amongst us, I implore you, whether you know it or not, you're spiritually blind and it is a difficult thing to discern. But if you've not followed Christ in the way that we have outlined with this blind man here, then maybe you are blind. Maybe you are comfortable. Maybe you enjoy the worldliness around you. Maybe you want part of Jesus, right? Like the crowd in this passage, they want part of Jesus. They want the parts of Jesus that they agree with. But today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart. Instead, come before the throne of grace, pleading for His mercy. but first he must know his identity. That is where it started with this blind man. He recognized the identity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you here today do so likewise? I want to close with Matthew 13 when it says this, Let us close in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you, O Lord, that you have mercy on us. And we pray, O Lord, and we plead. We plead for ourselves, but we also plead, O Lord, to you that your spirit would work in the lives of those who do not know you. We pray, O Lord, for perhaps those in our own congregation, whether they be small children, or aged. We pray, O Lord, that your humbling gospel would grant true sight today and that your spirit, O Lord, would change our hearts forever. May we be, O Lord, as changed as the blind man in this passage as we worship you on this Lord's Day. It's in Jesus' holy name we pray. Amen.