Alright, brethren. Mark chapter 8. You can go ahead and turn over to Romans 11 if you'd like. Leave a marker there in Mark chapter 8. Romans 11. I've titled this message, Degrees of Growth. I was going to do degrees of growth and healing, but it won't fit. So we'll do degrees of growth. You want to grow? We're going to have to learn about God's ways. Not just, not just watch him, not just be innocent bystanders, not just say what something else is happening somewhere else. We're going to have to be taught his ways. I was reading that. It's just laid on me so heavy there in Psalm 103 verse seven. It says he made known his ways unto Moses. God made known his ways unto Moses. Here's what I'm doing and why. and his acts under that physical nation Israel, they gotta see it happen. I don't wanna just see it happen, I wanna know why. I don't wanna just watch it in other assemblies, I wanna be a part of it and experience it and I wanna know why. Well, they can do that, but why can't we? I want that to happen for us, don't you? I do. There are so many things, and this is our nature, and we're lying to everybody and ourselves if we say it ain't. I wouldn't do things the way the Lord does it. My brother Scott Rich said that. He said, if I had the power of God, I'd change everything. I mean, boy, I'd be busy. If I had the wisdom of God, that's what we need. Wouldn't change nothing. I'd just thank him. I'd thank him. I thought of Abraham. The Lord came to Abraham. He said, I'm gonna make a great nation. You go outside and look up. You see all them stars? There was no light pollution. Look out there where you live. It's one of them dark sky cities. So they can see all the lights. There wasn't no lights. And the Lord waited till Abraham was a hundred years old to even get started. Give him an infant. That ain't what I'd have done. Is that your way? That ain't my way. It wouldn't be. What about Lot? That man that left because of goods and stuff, he didn't say, let's give up. We got plenty. Let's stay here where the gospel is. Well, I got to get down to Sodom. And he started getting into government. He started worrying about things. And he's watching a lot of C-SPAN down there in Sodom and getting an active voice in the community. And he lost his witness with his family for God. And the Lord called him just lot. Peter said, that's a righteous man, that righteous man. and to let him be in Sodom and have a relationship with one of his daughters that ended up producing Moab. Is that your way? I wouldn't have done it that way. It's God's way. It's what he did. Jonah, that prophet, he went through preaching. First off, he run off, didn't he? He was a fatalist, and he tried to go down to Tarshish. The Lord made him go to Nineveh. And he preached through Nineveh, and he wasn't happy when he did it. And he got up on the side of that hill and he said, people's going to think my reputation's tarnished. Because I said, Lord's going to burn this city down, and I know he's going to save them, but maybe he's going to burn it down anyway. And he kicked his feet up and said, I'm going to watch this place burn to the ground. That was the very prophet that the Lord used to record the largest revival ever. that we have in written history, wasn't it? Is that your way? Is that the one you'd have picked, or do you pick that nice, educated young fella? Just so sweet and personable. God said, I'm gonna give you something undesirable. It's not my way. Job allowed Satan, the Lord allowed Satan to go and take absolutely everything from Job. Didn't kill his wife, and all she did was tell him to kill himself. Curse God and die. And then the Lord sustained him, because he wanted to, and doubled everything the man had. Is that the way you'd have done it? Why didn't he just double it anyway and say, hey, read this book? That ain't God's way. Israel, we're reading that, right? You think they was happy when they got to the land of Goshen in the middle of a famine? Everybody else in the world's destitute and dying. They're watching their babies, little three-year-olds just starving to death with distended bellies and dying of cramps. Starvation's a bad way to die. Everybody's watching their grandbabies die. And here comes Israel on wagons riding the land of Goshen and everything they touch just multiplies. Now to bring them into that and leave them there for 400 years and turn that into bondage to where they're being beat to death on a daily basis. Would you have done it that way? Just to show the Lord's power, glory, might? He did. Not my way. Moses, the one that's gonna bring him out, 40 years old, strong, smart. He's the highest ranking man in the good old boy system inside of Pharaoh's house. His adopted grandson. He's got pull, don't he? That's logical. God sent him to the backside of the desert for another 40 years. He refused his strength. He refused his smarts. He refused his position. Wait till he's 80 years old, till he couldn't hear too good, and probably it wasn't too good to listen to. No reputation at all. Everybody forgot who he was. And the Lord said, now it's time to get to work. Let's go. That's not the way I'd have chose. The Lord's ways are different than our ways. Isaiah 55 says, for as the heaven are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Well, I just don't think. Who cares what you think? Who cares what I think? It don't matter what I, Kevin, what do you think about that? It don't matter. What's the word say? What's God say? That's what matters. And people won't get mad over what I think. That's the way that's his opinion. And when I say God says this, People stop talking to me, or they start saying real bad things about me, and they start murmuring, they start ganging up together behind my back. Why didn't you, it's been there the whole time. I just said, remember, that's what it says. Don't get mad at me. They can get mad at me, it's all right. There in Romans 11, look at verse 33. Romans 11, verse 33. Oh, the depths. of the riches, this is rich, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his good decisions? No, his judgments. His judgments and his ways past finding out for who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his counselor or who hath first given to him and it shall be recompensed unto him again. That's the God we serve. That's the God who gave us this scripture that recorded these miracles for us and sustained it so we might learn something in 2023. Who's known his mind? I want to know it. Do you? I got some good friends on this earth. One of my best friends sitting right there and she knows me pretty good. I know her pretty good. We drive down the road, and both of us at the same time, we'll read, don't even mention it, read a sign on the side of the road, and we'll have the same comment, won't we? Didn't even read the sign out loud. He said, you're my friend. He said, servants, they don't know what their master's doing. I told you what I'm doing. He's gonna teach us people. I wanna be taught. Do you wanna be teachable? I pray for that often. I wanna have a teachable spirit. Do you, or do you wanna instruct? I want to be taught. If God's the teacher, I don't need some other man to teach me. If it's just worldly stuff, I can figure it out on my own. I can Google it. If it's things concerning Him, I want Him to teach me. And I want to be teachable when He does it. I want to learn. This miracle of the blind receiving sight in degrees, this degree of growth and degree of healing, this is a display of the Lord's sovereignty in exercising His grace, in performing His grace on an undeserving, unworthy sinner. That's what this is. The purpose of the healings that Christ performed throughout all the scriptures, all the New Testament, it's not simply to show us that He had power over flesh. Like, look at the miracles I can perform. I can make you whole in the body. That's not just it. Not just to prove he was God of creation, because all of creation testifies he's God. And it wasn't just to prove that he's the God of creation, that was simply something that took place to typify, or as a result of, him being the God of salvation. All these things of him healing the blind and the lepers and the deaf and the dumb, that was to show what he does in the hearts of his people and saving them. Now I wish he'd give us ears to hear and tongues that speak right, and we can say shibboleth. That'd be nice, wouldn't it? Might learn something. And not watch it happen, but have it happen to us. I wanna know his ways. Five times throughout the scriptures, the Lord healed a blind person. Do you know that? There's five healings of blind people in the New Testament. Three of them, he just said it. He just spoke, and they were healed. That's right, right? We know that, now let's understand something. One of them, he spit on the ground, he made this mud paste and put it in their eyes. And then this one, we'll look at tonight. This time he does it in degrees. He spits in a man's eyes, puts his hands on him. He can see some, but he don't see totally. And then he puts his hands on him again, after a confession's made, and he sees clearly. He sees clearly. What can we learn from that? I don't want to simply witness the act, what he's doing, and I don't want to simply watch others rejoice. Well, what'd you think about that message? Well, everybody else seemed pretty happy about it. What'd you think about that message? That's what the apostles did, didn't they? Who do men say that I am? Well, some say this and some say, hey, that's nice. Who do you say I am? It don't matter what somebody else thinks. What do you think that I am? I want to understand God that is acting and doing all these things, and I want to experience it. And I want you to. I want others to. I want the people that ain't here tonight to. I want your family to. I do. I want them to work in us, all of us, me and you and your family and your neighbors. I want your neighbors to be saved. I want all men to be saved. What can we learn from this? First, just the learning, okay? We're gonna establish the stage of learning, and then hopefully learn something. First off, as soon as we think we've got the Lord figured out, we find out His ways aren't our ways. We say, all right, well, somebody's gonna be saved. This is gonna happen, and this is gonna happen, and this is gonna happen, and now we have an algorithm to solve this. I've been working on this for a few weeks. We have an algorithm to solve this. And then we go read, John the Baptist had the Holy Ghost from the womb. Now, how do I make that fit my systematic theology and try to explain it away over four hours of yickety-yacking? I don't. I bow to it and say, amen. I don't know everything. Now that's so. Did the Lord send his spirit or an angel to preach to a baby in a womb? I don't know what he did. I'll ask him sometime in the next 60 years and he'll tell me about it. When I'm with him in glory, I'll know all things. I'm like, that's easy. Why didn't I think of that? But until then, that's so. And that's what happened. But I know what happened with me, and you know what happened with you, and I know what happened to every other believer we talk to, don't we? It's in our same shoes. First thing we can, in this learning thing, is we figure out we can't put the Lord in the box. And the second thing concerning this learning, if we can learn something, is instead of guessing what the Lord will do, What do you think the Lord's going to do next week? How much time have I wasted over the last six months wondering what the Lord's going to do? What do you think He's going to do? What do you think He's going to do about this? What do you think He's going to do about the elections? What about this? What about that? Instead of us doing that, it'd be real good and beneficial to learn what He's already done. We know what He's done. We don't know what He's going to do, and I want to learn Him. That might help us handle whatever we got coming. Make it awful easy. I want my life to be a little bit more graceful. Do you? Or do you want to run around with a head with your chicken cut off? I want to learn something he's already done. You know why? Because he's God and he changes not. I want to learn him. Him. Now what do we know about this event? What can we learn from this event that's going to be our text? Don't turn there yet. About a blind man getting his sight. Okay, he's blind. That's sin. That's sin. That's what it pictures. And that's where blindness come from. You're sick in the body. You know why you're sick? Sin. It's bad, too. And something that's so perfect, created in the image of God, it kills it. Sin kills it in a vapor of 70 years. That's how poisonous this stuff is. Folks used to live six, seven, eight, hundred, nine, you know, hundreds of years seeing some bad stuff, worse than we think it is. Remember, there's another blind man. In John 9, Jesus passed by the way, he saw the man which is blind from his birth. This guy may have been blind after he was born. He knew what trees looked like, didn't he? I don't know. But this one for sure was blind from his birth. Nowhere is this recorded. Nobody's ever healed somebody that was born blind and became seeing. And his disciples ask him, say, Master, who did sin? Who did sin, this man or his parents that he was born blind? Why did he come from the womb? Did he sin in the womb? We wanna learn something. And the Lord said, neither this man sinned nor his parents. Were they sinners? Of course they were. This is important, hang with me. Of course they were. but that the works of God should be manifest in him. You know why he was born blind? So I can be glorified, and he's gonna learn of me. He didn't have a choice from being born blind. He didn't have a choice from getting healed. He already was blind, and that's to show us all of us are born blind too, ain't we? You didn't understand it. You didn't have good hand on God, and then you found the right preacher. God says so. You may not remember who preached to you. You may not remember, but that's the way he does it. He said so, and if he said it, it's so. Back in Mark, you can stay there in Romans 3, we just read it, I'll read it back to you. In Mark 8, 22, it says, And he cometh to Bethsaida, and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. Here's a blind man, Lord, and we want you to just touch him. If you touch him, he's gonna have a sight back. They had it all figured out, didn't they? We know this pattern. We can just get him to touch him, It's gonna be fine. Lord didn't do what they wanted him to do. He took him off to the side. Anyway, who'd they bring? A blind man. He cannot see. He's still in Romans. Turn back a few pages, Romans 3. What does this man, what does this healing of blind people picture? That's us by birth. If I can look up and I can say, there's a clock on the wall back there, and this room's painted white, and these chairs are painted gray. That's a detriment because spiritually, we're born blind. Just because we can physically see, we think we can see spiritually. Just because you own a Bible and you can read it, and you might be able to get up and teach a Bible school, that don't mean you know God. We're born spiritually blind, and the Lord has to give us sight and teach us something. You can't teach nobody else something you ain't been taught, can you? He was blind. That's what all mankind comes in this world as, spiritually blind. Look in Romans 3, verse 10. As it's written, there is none righteous, no, not one. Mankind can be kind of okay with that. Well, I mean, nobody's perfect, right? There's banners all around this county. We don't like perfect people. No perfect people allowed. Well, they ain't unrighteous. To miss the marks, to perish in eternity of hellfire and brimstone, isn't it? To not be like Christ is to die forever. Well, verse 11, there is none that understandeth. Why, now I got a handle on this. God says you don't. Apart from him sending a preacher to you, and a man to explain these things to you, and him working in you through that jawbone of an ass. You don't understand. Yes, I did. Well, your experience don't line up with what God says. Every man's a liar and he's true. That offends, doesn't it? And there's none that seeketh after God. Now, I was looking for him. Was he lost, or was you lost? This blind man, they said, we're gonna give you sight. He's like, uh, okay. They said, no, you're gonna be able to explain sight to a person that's never seen from birth. Where do you start? Oh, man. Remember Eve? Lord said, I'm gonna multiply your sorrow in childbirth. Ain't nobody ever had a baby. She come from Adam's rib. And she's like, okay. I probably had that coming, whatever that is, sure. Go out, what do you tell your friends and your neighbors, your children? What do you tell your children? You're gonna die and perish in your sins. You're gonna die and go to hell. And to be separated from God, he's gonna forsake you for eternity. And they go, oh, okay. I never experienced that. Nobody seeks after God. I was looking for him. Unless he drew you, no, you were not. Is that offensive? That's God's word. They are all, it says none too, how inclusive? People worry about inclusivity these days? Okay, here's something for you, none. What about grandma? That scripture says none, doesn't it? To double down verse 12, they are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good. And just in case you was worried about it, no, not one. None. We come in this world blind. Everybody we think highly of and we respect that outside of Christ, they're blind. Outside of his work, through his spirit, they're blind. They ain't, you might be in their ship, they ain't in my ship because they're blind. Can't have fellowship with them. You get that? I mean it because I care for y'all. I mean it because I care for my family. None were blind. How did that blind man get there? Remember that one that was lame and they brought him through the ceiling? How'd he get there? Friends brought him, didn't they? Nothing was recorded about this blind man wanting to get to the Lord. Nothing was recorded about that one lowered through the ceiling. Now if I could just get over there, I sure would like to see him. He didn't even know what sight was really and truly. He didn't even know he needed to be healed or what the healing even was, what that would be like. He had no desire. Nevertheless, his friends brought him. You might be here tonight because a friend brought you. Maybe that's how you came here a long time ago. You're sitting here, right? Now, let me ask you, what about your friends? What kind of friend am I? What kind of friend are you? To those we call friends. Now, let's not go around saying how friendly we are and we don't invite nobody to church. I need to work on that. I'm convicted of that. His friends brought him. There's another one. Turn over to John chapter four. There was this lady at a well one time, and the Lord came to her, and they had an exchange. Those Sumerians, they were the half-breeds, and there was paths around that town so that the Jews didn't even have to go into their city limits. They didn't want nothing to do with them. And here the Lord went and spent some time with this woman. He said, give me something to drink. Had an interaction with her, because that was one of his daughters, wasn't it? She'd been married a bunch, and he told her everything about herself. Here in John 4, verse 28. Lord told her everything about herself and it just amazed her. Verse 28, the woman then left her water pot and went her way into the city and saith to the men, come, see a man which told me all things that I ever did. Is this not the Christ? He said bad things about you. Yep, I'm a bad sinner and he's a great savior. This is the Christ, come see him. Well, she's just a woman, what does she know? She knows God. My, listen to her. Me and Discount, those things, just stand up and read 1 Samuel 2. Preach on hand as prayer. Maybe y'all go learn something. And they went out of the city and came unto him. Now look down at verse 39. And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified he told me all that I ever did. So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them, and he abode there two days. And many more believe because of His own word. They came because she told them. They came because they knew her. And now He preached to them for two days. God spoke to them. And said unto the woman, verse 42, now we believe. Now we believe, not because of thy sayings, we didn't believe because of what you were saying, for we have heard Him ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world. That's what it says, right? Now let's turn over to Acts 2. I got your attention, let's look at it. Acts chapter two. This isn't me saying it. I want you to get a hold of this. I mean it. Well, now Don said it. Now Henry said it. Now Rolfe said it. Now Gil said it. Now Jesse said it. Now John said it. I heard a lot of that. I've said it 10 times. God says it. God says it. Get a hold of it, okay? Not because them men say it. It's because God said it. Look here in Acts 2 verse 42. And they continued steadfast in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles, and all that believed were together, and had all things common. So I preach on this week in a common prayer, we have a common salvation. It ain't dime store common, you can't go down to Walmart and get it. You ain't gonna get it, it has to be given, but it's a saying, to everyone that believes. and they sold all their possessions and goods and pardoned them to all men as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple and a breaking of bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, comma, next verse, praising God, comma, and having favor, living peaceably with all the people, with all men. and the Lord added to the church daily as should be saved." How'd this blind man get to the Lord? They brought him. How'd that lame man come through the roof? His friends brought him. That's a friend, isn't it? That's a good buddy. That's a good friend. I want to be a good friend. I don't want to be a bad friend. I don't want their blood on me. I want to be a good friend. I do. He that hath friends must show himself friendly. I ain't got many friends." Well, try being nice. Stop saying mean things to people and picking at them and judging everything that comes out of their mouth and having something to say. But the proverb there in Proverbs 18, 24 has a colon. And there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. John 15 says, you are my friends. Lord says, Lord Jesus Christ says, you're my friends. If you do whatsoever, I command you. Well, we got to do what he commands. How can we not we know he's God He says go over and walk out that door. If I just laid down I'd hover out that door. He said it it's gonna happen We know who he is. He said you're my friends Now do you want to be like Christ? Do I want to be like Christ I Won't be friendly. I won't be judgmental and picky and mean to people. I won't be kind to people I wanna be like he is. I do. I do. Now, as old brother Henry says, now let's turn to my text. Mark chapter eight. Mark chapter eight. Verse 22. Mark 8, 22, and he cometh to Bethsaida, and there bring a blind man unto him, and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. Now, he didn't do what we asked him to do. Yeah. People gathering together in the prayer meeting, they said, we're going to get together and we're going to pray until this happens. I wish they'd stop committing mutiny and trying to bend the Lord's arm to do what they want him to do. Well, no, we're going to get a prayer lesson. We're going to pray that that cancer goes away. That's hard. It is. And somebody in this generation needs to explain to people where trials come, who trials come from, not where, who trials come from and why they're sent and what the outcome is. Somebody needs to tell these people. Wish people quit ganging up on him. Lord ain't going to do anything at our beck and call. Now all of our needs are going to be provided, that's so. And you ever start praying and you say, Lord, I wish, If I could just hope, I'm pretty pleased. And then you realize who you're talking to and you realize who you are and you realize what he's done for us. And you just go, thank you, Lord. You go from trying to bend his arm to bowing. That's a good place to be. Prayer of submission. That's the sacrifice of our lips. That's submission. Anyway, the Lord took his blind man by the hand and he led him out of town. Here he goes, boys. We don't know what he's gonna do over there, but he's gonna work on him. And he's gonna work on him personally. Individually. And there's something to learn in this too. What did he do necessarily? Did they go down, did they go up? I don't know. That was out of town. And that was the Lord's doing. No experience is exactly alike. There's no cookie cutter experience. It's like a thumbprint. Everybody's individual, different, right? Individual. Now there's some things that's common through all this. If we're spiritually blind, we're spiritually blind. That's a great, we need a great position if we're in need, right? We have those things in common. But the actual coming to Christ and when he starts working, we don't know. I remember the first message I remember remembering, okay? Bear with me, this is important. Try to stay with me. If I lost you, stick with me now. I don't remember those things. I don't remember the day that I said that, the lights are on, I remember. And I'm thankful. You ought to be thankful if you don't know. I don't know the Lord. Brother Gabe said that I tickle me that the Lord saved me sometime between 1992 and 2005. Somewhere through there. Like Lord saved me. Pretty good spread. And if I knew the exact thing, I try to recreate that every time and not look to God. I keep going back to playing that music and them traveling bands and not looking to God. I keep going back to that time whenever I was studying and I felt real spiritual because I was studying after work and stayed up late and not look to the Lord Jesus Christ. That time I listened to a message on the radio, not the Lord Jesus Christ. Or that time that man came to town. Not that time God sent a man to preach to me about God. You see the difference? The living lay at the heart. It's a good thing. We would lean on that experience and not lean on the Lord. But the Lord will work in his children personally, personally, one-on-one. The Lord told Hosea, he said, I'm going to get Gomer. Therefore, behold, I will allure her. I'm going to attract her. I'm going to comfort her and bring her into the wilderness. That means out in the boonies, out in the middle of nowhere in an undesirable place. And I will speak comfortably to her. I'm going to talk to her heart. Nothing's changed, that's what God does now. We might be sitting in a room full of people, but God gets us by ourselves, ain't nobody else alive. And it ain't Kevin Thacker talking to you, it's God talking to you. I just happen to be the water hose that the living waters come out of. I'm just a spigot. Turn over John 6. John 6. The Lord has to do this, he has to work in us, he has to take us by ourselves, and he has to teach us and speak to our hearts, because we won't, we can't. There's a difference between can't and won't, and we won't neither. You get that? We can't and we won't. John 6, 43. And this is all mankind, this is all the blind. All of mankind. John 6, 43. But this is what the Lord does. Jesus therefore answers him saying, murmur not among yourselves, no man That says no man, not most men, no man. No man can come to me except the father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets and they shall be all taught of God. That means he's gonna give a teachable spirit and then he's gonna teach them. He's gonna give them a spirit, make that teachable spirit and then teach that spirit. Now what's our job? Go into all the world, make disciples. That means preach to them. Baptize them. That means baptize them. And this makes people mad. Teach them. That's what he told us. That's what the master said, wasn't it? He said, they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the Father Cometh unto me." And that's cometh. That's continual. That's not, well, he came to me. He's going to come. Cometh. Day in, day out. Me and Miss Shelby's talking about praying. We pray without ceasing. It don't stop all day long. We go outside, we're talking about hummingbirds. You gotta say it. And I was like, the Lord feeds them and takes care of them and gives them a nest. You know how big an egg is? He did that. and just in awe of him. Thank you, Lord. I thank you for trees. Gives them birds a place to stay and shade for us. Oxygen, makes oxygen for us. I like oxygen, don't you? I need it. And he provides my needs. They shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the Father, they cometh to me, verse 46, not that any man hath seen the Father, Save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath, always has, has it right now, always will, hath everlasting life. That's the needs of a blind man, isn't it? That's the needs of us having to have some wagons bring us to Goshen. God's providence must act, because we won't and we can't. Now back in our text, Mark 8, verse 23. Mark 8, 23. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when he had spit on his eyes, he put his hands upon him and he asked him if he saw aught. You see anything? The Lord spit on his eyes. Now, many commentators say that was the medical practice of the day. You read that in a commentator, mark it out, he's wrong, okay? He missed the mark. That's all there is to it. That's not it. That may have been at some point in history, probably after this was written, somebody tried that. That's what's called practicing medicine. They don't know what they're doing. But we know now that salivary amylase does not affect corneal function. Spitting in somebody's eyes ain't gonna help them get sight, right? We know that now, that's a fact. We can back it up. What does that mean? What does that mean? And the commentator's saying that, what's that mean? That wasn't a medical, by me saying that wasn't the common medical practice of the day. The Lord spit in those eyes, that's what he did. Ain't got nothing to do with medicine. That means he doesn't use a false way to save. Now you hear me. You hear me good. If you sit underneath a false gospel, you can't know God. You can't know Christ. God doesn't save through a lie. Well, Kevin, I know some things. God says you didn't. Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord. Not Jeremiah, the Lord said this. And do tell them and cause my people to err by their lies and by their likeness, by being affable about it and flippant. making jokes about it. You make jokes about God's Word if you want to, I ain't going to. I pray he'd keep me from it by their likeness. He said, I sent them not nor commanded them, therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord. Well, I think it did some good, me sitting down there in that false church. Okay, well, you think that, that's your heresy. God says it didn't. He said, I won't profit it. You want to sit there and then go on about your life and yickety-yack 23 hours a day about all the things you did in a false church? I don't. God calls it unprofitable. This was the means that the Lord used by spitting in his eye. Why? That's disgusting. If it's offensive for me to walk up and just... and spit in your face right now, I'm pretty sure that was offensive 2,000 years ago and 2,000 years before that. And if the Lord lets this place go on another 2,000 years, get you a time machine, go spit in somebody's face, see if they like it. Answer is no. Whether you know about salivary amylase or not. It's despised. It's despicable. And that's exactly what the Lord does. That's what physically took place. That's how the Lord saves his people and gives them sight now, through the preaching of the gospel. That's a means no one locks. They like to lock themselves in their basement, say the church age is over, and you can figure it out on your own. Here's the Bible, go read. Now, I say that and reading the Bible in the ear is too much. Me and Kierman was talking about it today. Read your Bible. Get your skin and read it in the ear. That's a lot, but it ain't gonna hurt you, harm you to read God's word. I'm not telling people not to read God's word. I get lost in it. I just read it and just get one verse sometimes and just chew on it like a Werther's original, wall that thing around all day. Why does the Lord use that means? He said, after the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. You had wisdom, but you didn't know God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Well, they believe. Well, God sent a preacher to them. Well, no preacher ever came. Well, then he, I don't know what he did. He says that's how he's gonna save. The Jews require a sign. The Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. That's the person and the work, the finished work. He came, the propitiation. Blood had to be shed. It was his blood, not just some blood, the person's blood. To the Jews, that's just a sleepy old stumbling block, ain't it? And to the Greeks, foolishness. Watch, don't, I can figure this out on my own. I had a man tell me that. I've seen him twice in my whole life. And he said, well, I could just read that about the house. Well, go on and do it. That's what the Lord told me to do, wasn't it? The kingdom of God's coming down to you. Go get up on your hill and sit there and figure it out on your own. Be your own prophet. Be your own preacher. Warm yourself by your own fire. It's a sad thing. I know the outcome. He said, but unto them that are called, Those that have been drawn, that can't come, won't come, both Jew and Greek, don't matter who he's born to, Christ, the power of God, the wisdom of God. How the Lord did that's right. How he did it to me is right. Go ask the eunuch what you think his opinion on this. It's right, it's needed. We're told to count those that labor in the word, double honor. You ever read the next verse to get the context of what that means? Well, we ought to share his messages and his bulletin articles on Facebook. Go read the next verse. You can do that at home. The messenger is not the message. John the Baptist, he said, I'm just a voice. He didn't say I'm the last of the Old Testament prophets. I'm the Lord's cousin. I've had the Holy Ghost from the womb. You know who you're talking to? He said, I'm a voice. Tell you about another one. We preach the person and the work, the grace of God, but Christ is the gracious one. He's the gracious one. Psalm 42, no, Psalm 45, verse two says, thou art fairer than the children of men. Grace is poured into thy lips. Therefore, God has blessed thee forever and ever. Grace comes out of his lips. The master stood up in the synagogue and read, and he said, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. and all that bear him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth." What an honor it'd be for him to spit in our faces. What an honor physically, spiritually. What an honor it'd be if he sent a man to come preach. That's what old Bunyan, people say, oh, over in England, that town, boy, old Bunyan, man, that was the Lord chastening him and punishing him. That was the Lord punishing that town. You get that? The greatest blessing the Lord could do is send one of his men to tell you what this word says, and said, remember, remember it, sir. That's the greatest blessing the Lord could bestow on a county or whatever, province. Little children in this place is better because of her, in this community. It's so, and that's just her going to work there today. The greatest curse God could send a community is for them to reject him and fight him and question him and then starve him out and run him off. He'll take his candlestick from them. Grace proceeds out of His mouth. When the Lord works in a center, when He sends one of His preachers, and when we have friends that bring us to hear that message, that's not the man, it's what the Lord says. He's gonna make us know our blindness. It's gonna be apparent, there's no shadow of a doubt. And we'll be brought to where the Lord is already. Remember, He left them. He left the Pharisees and he come here and then they brought a blind man to him. He's already there. We're gonna be brought where the Lord is already and he will get us by ourselves and deal with us effectually through the preaching of his grace. And there will be an undoubted effect. Now other people could say it's subjective, but in that person, it ain't. There's no question something's took place. Look at verse 24, Mark 8, 24. And he looked up and said, I see men as trees walking. Lord said, you see anything? He said, I see men as trees. Guess he knew what trees was. Guess he knew what men looked like. He said, I see men as trees walking. If God gives a blind sinner spiritual sight, some say, well, physically, that ain't too good for the Lord healed him that way. Well, that's better not seeing. It's a sight better than not seeing. God gives a blind sinner spiritual sight. If he works in somebody, me or any other preacher cannot convince them otherwise. You or anybody else you know that walks on this earth can't convince this man otherwise. It's like, you ain't seeing men walking in trees. He says, I just saw them. You think what you want to think. I see men walking in trees. I don't need to do any more work on top of what Christ has already done. When the Lord first gives somebody a spiritual sight, I don't need to do nothing else. And you know what's a blessing? I can't undo it. If the Lord gives you spiritual sight and he sends me off a deep end, that don't matter. Or if I try to convince you he'd had none, you said, no, no, I see him. He gave me sight and I see. And I can't convince anybody they're not seeing. It's obvious. And with that, I cannot shake anyone's assurance and I cannot give anyone assurance. I've been accused of taking people's assurance away from them. And I've had people beg me to give them assurance. I can't do either. I can say, you don't know God. And he was, okay. I've had people tell me, I don't know God, and I ain't a child of grace. You can go pound sand, as we say in the army, and go do pushups somewhere in a nasty place. Or drink it, for all I care. I know him. I'm his. He's revealed himself to me. I cannot give assurance. I'll tell you what we can do. We can sure shake assurance up in our own selves by looking to ourselves. Someone says, I don't have assurance. I don't know if I'm a Lord. Well, you're looking to you or this world. You ain't looking to God. If he's looking to God, you say he's wonderful, isn't he? He's gracious. He's mighty and great. He's on his throne. He's doing everything perfect. I may not see it as that, and I'm still hurting, but it's right. That's good assurance, isn't it? What does this healing in degrees signify? All those other four times or three times the Lord said it and one time he spit on the ground? We can learn from that, that when the Lord saves somebody, they're plumb saved right then, they're fit for glory. You're holy. I'll take a stand on it. And the new man, because there's two natures in a person that's saved, the new man's holy and can't sin. Take it to the bank. You know how I know that? That's where it says so. That's what the word says. Your plumb say we can learn from that ain't what we see here. Well, we could see a growth in grace. Have you grown in grace? I ask yet not too long ago. We've been here right at four years. We're coming up on a week, ain't we? We've been together four years. Are you better off four years or are you better off now than you was four years ago? Now, not everybody answer at once. I'm playing don't answer out loud. Think about it. Has God taught you anything? If we're alive, we're growing, ain't we? I've been the same height since I was 15 years old, but this skin replaces whatever, seven years. Growing, fingernails growing, head cut, hairs gonna grow. We growing in grace? Those that God saves grows in grace, don't they? We see all mankind as trees. Remember what the Lord said, weep not for me? Do you remember that couple of Wednesdays ago? What'd he say at the end of that? He said, whenever they see what happens to a green branch, they're gonna be terrified of what happens to a dry branch. He's the green branch, he's not fit for burning. You see that? We're dead wood. In fact, if the Lord, if he sees sin on his son and that's what he does to his son, what do you think he's gonna do to you? Gonna be bad, isn't it? But we see men walking around as trees. You know what we see? Firewood. The best man, if Winston Churchill, I don't know, pick somebody famous you like or whatever. Grandpa, whatever. The best one that ever lived, they ain't nothing outside of Christ but firewood to light the candle for his glory, that's it. We're starting to see things as they are, not as we think they are, not as some old grandma and grandpa told us they was, as they truly are. We go back to Romans three. There's none righteous, there's none seeks God, there's none understands. We believe what he says. God reveals that. And then thirdly, what we can see here is a picture of the entire life of the believer. This is a growth in grace. This is, Lord healing this man in the grief shows us that, that we learn a little bit of time. When somebody's first, that saved a man in John that was blind. Lord's worked and he believed God, he did as God commanded. And his confession got simpler and simpler and simpler and simpler, didn't he? Until he got kicked out of church and then the Lord found him. Did you worship God? I said, who is he I worship? Man saw 22 people his whole life. If your salvation was dependent on you picking, now somebody got on me about this before. If your salvation was dependent on picking him out of a line up of 10 people, you willing to make that chance? No, he's gonna have to come to me. He's gonna have to reveal himself to me. And I ain't seen him in this body, and I'm gonna see him face to face here someday soon, I hope. Won't be as long as it has been. He's gonna have to do the same. But this is also a picture of the entire life of the believer. Right? We're born blind, the spirit abounds towards us and quickens us, and then at the end, best day of our life. Like Jacob went to Joseph, the Lord said, Joseph's gonna put his hand on your eyes. Christ, we're gonna lay down and die. The Lord's gonna put his hand on our eyes. He's gonna say, what you see now? I see through a glass darkly, dimly in this earth. We do, that's what the scriptures say. But there's gonna come a day, these scales are gonna fall off and the only one we're gonna be looking at is him who took his hand off of it and did all the work. We're gonna see as clear as day. We're gonna know as we've been known. He put his hand upon his eyes and made him look up, verse 25. And he was restored. He didn't say, look at where you came from. He didn't say, look at all your friends that brought you. He didn't say, look at the scriptures and look at all the commentaries you've been reading. He said, look up, look up. And he was restored and saw every man clearly. I'll have to turn one more. I know I'll cap you. I'll quit. First Corinthians 13. First Corinthians 13. I hope this ties it all together for you, it did for me. 1 Corinthians 13 verse 9. Paul writes that church at Corinth. They was in a mess, wasn't they? And he called them brethren. You know how we went through Galatians? He don't ever call Galatians brethren. Think about that. But he's writing to Corinth. 1 Corinthians 13 verse 9. For we know in part And we prophesy in part. I don't know the details of everything, but I know that outside of Christ, all man ain't nothing but firewood. But when that which is perfect is come, what's that? No, it's who's that. Then that which is in part shall be done away. And Paul says this here at verse 11. When I was a child, I spake as a child. I understood as a child. I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. Now, we take that verse there out of context, and we say, should boys become men in this life? Yes, they should. Let me tell you something, you raising young children, there ain't no such thing as adolescence. That's a creation of the last 60 years. There was no such thing as adolescence before. You was a child, and you was a man. You was either acting like a baby. You might be able to shave, and you might be my age or older. You was either acting like a little kid, or you was acting like a man. That's one of the two. But what's the context of this? He's talking about when the Lord comes, isn't he? Well, what's that child mean? What's context? The Lord said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Right now, I'm a child. I'm just a little toddler on this earth. I'm a babe in Christ. We all are babes. Now, some of us is 13 months old and some of us is 12 months old and we think there's a hierarchy. We don't know nothing. We're babies. We're children, ain't we? Verse 12. Four, he said that when I was a child, I acted like a child, and when I was a man, I'm a man. Verse 12, four, because of this, now we see through a glass, darkly, we see men as trees, but then face to face, now I know in part, but then, when that final day shall come, like I said, this is a picture of the whole life of a believer, that vapor, from the time we're saved to the time we're with the Lord, but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now by the faith, hope, charity, that's love. These three, but the greatest of these is charity. If we've seen this stuff and the Lord's worked in us, the greatest thing we have is his love. Now we have faith in him. We didn't have that before. That's a gift of God. We have an expected end. Not like, I hope I'm saved. I can expect these things. You can expect these things because the word says so and we believe him because we have the faith and we have love. The love of God shed abroad in your heart. That don't mean that's a little tiny sliver and you're nice every other Sunday. If God's worked in you. That's what he said, right? It shed abroad and we love the brethren. And our homes open up to them and our pocketbooks open up to them and our pantries open up to them. But the greatest of these is love. Why? Faith's gonna go away. When I die and all these things that Paul's talking about, when I go from being a child to being a man, and I see him face to face, I don't need faith. Right there he is. It's not that everything's unseen. It seems right there. He's right there. And I don't need to have an expected end. He's the beginning. That's the end, is being with Alpha and Omega. There he is. To tell all that, the Lord just took a man by the side, spit in his face, stuck his hand out and said, what'd you see? A man walking in his trees. What'd you see now? Clearly. You reckon we can learn something from him? I hope he teaches these things. Let's read, go back here, Mark 8, 25. How close? Mark 8, 25. After that, he put his hands again upon his eyes and he made him look up. He made him. He didn't say look up. He made him look up. Look into heaven. And he was restored and saw every man clearly. We're going to see that first man, Adam, like we ain't never seen him. We'll have an understanding. Not knowledge, we'll have an understanding. And that last man, that last Adam, Christ, we're going to understand him. I look forward to that day. I want to worship him as he ought to be worshipped. I want to know as I'm known. I do. And he sent him away to his house saying neither go into this town nor tell it to any in the town. I'm looking, I'm working real hard on being able to try to put that, I understand it, I can't explain it. Don't tell nobody. You reckon he went home, didn't tell nobody? I love that woman. And if the Lord said you love her, I'll put complete love of you, now don't tell nobody. You could duct tape my mouth shut and you're gonna figure out within a day or two I love her. Won't you? That man went home and served him. Now he can see clearly. Now he can see to serve. Now he can see that he had liberty to love and liberty to forgive. Liberty to further the gospel. Finally. Never did before. Now he can get after it. Can't you? I hope it's a blessing to you. Let's pray together.