I ask you to turn back with me in your Bibles to the passage that we read together just a moment ago. And I would direct your attention to the end of this chapter, Luke chapter 18. And we'll be considering together with the Lord's help, these words regarding the blind man. We read in verse 39 and the beginning of verse 40, and they, which went before rebuked him. that he should hold his peace. But he cried, so much the more, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood and commanded him to be brought unto him. God says that the natural man is dead in his trespasses and sins, that the natural man is blind and ignorant and dwells in darkness. And there are many who would reject this notion. And there are some who would even question this notion. who think to themselves, well, that doesn't seem to be quite the case for me. I feel, after all, very much alive. I can blink and my heart is beating and I am animated. I can eat food. I can run and walk and go places. I am alive. And yet the Bible says that I am dead and trespasses in sin. And the confusion lies in a failure to distinguish between the body and the soul. People are comprised of both, of both bodies and souls. And so you can have a body that is very much alive, very animated and full of vigor and physical strength and so on, and simultaneously have a dead soul. You say, well, minister, how do we know if our soul is dead? Well, you think by way of parallel to your own body. Can you hear the truth when it is preached? Not just hear it with your anatomical ears, the physical ears that you have on the side of your head, but does your heart actually hear it? Do you see the truth as it is in Jesus and recognize the beauty and the glory that belongs to him? Do you see the provisions that are found in him and their application to the salvation of your own soul? Do you receive the truth that you hear? Do you believe it? Do you lay hold of it and walk in it? If the answer is no, then that's an indication of spiritual deadness. The natural man cannot discern the things of the spirit, being dead in trespasses and soul. After all, a person can be sitting in a dark room and they can have the most remarkable treasures set before them, full of untold numbers of pounds, money, great worth. And yet, though all the treasure of the world will put before them, they would be unable to see it. And so it is that in the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ and preaching Christ, crucify Christ, the greatest treasure of heaven and earth, the greatest treasure that the world has ever known. can be set before men and women and boys and girls who are in unbelief and yet unable to see it, spiritually unable to see it. The Bible tells us that the world by wisdom knew not God. And Jesus said that if the light in you is darkness, how great indeed is that darkness? Well, here in Luke chapter 18, at the end of this passage, We have the context in the verse that actually precedes verse 35. You'll note there that that earlier section ends with the disciples' failure to see. Notice what it says, and they understood none of these things, and the saying was hid from them. Neither knew they the things which were spoken. And so on one hand, you have this spiritual dimness and his disciples, many of whom indeed are in a state of grace. But then it's contrasted with what follows in this section, the blind man's spiritual sight. And these two things are held side by side. Jesus, as you will recall, undoubtedly, at this portion in the Gospels, has been on the move. He has set his face like a flint toward Jerusalem. He has been engaged in his Galilean ministry. And now he's heading to Jerusalem. He comes to Perea on the east side of the Jordan River. He crosses over the Jordan. in route to Jerusalem, and he comes to the city of Jericho, which is about 12 miles from Jerusalem. And it's interesting at that point, as we pick up here in our text, it's interesting to call to mind that 1500 years earlier, 1500 years earlier, another Jesus, had crossed this very same path. Started on the east side, crossed over the Jordan River, and made his way to Jericho. The Old Testament name for Jesus is Joshua. And Joshua came to Jericho with a message from God. And it was a message of no mercy, that the city of Jericho would be sacked. that it would be pillaged and that the people would be annihilated. All of the people except one, the most unlikely candidate, the harlot Rahab. Rahab cried for mercy by faith and she received it. And now here is the Son of God. Here is God himself incarnate, who finds himself in that same place. And there is this interchange that's given to us with this blind man whom we're told elsewhere, his name was Bartimaeus. We're going to note three things this evening as we consider together with the Lord's help this passage. First of all, the request. First of all, the blind man's request. Mark tells us in his gospel that his name is Bartimaeus. And you can appreciate something of the desperation of his condition. He is blind. So he is unable to see. He's left as a result. to become a beggar. And he spends all of his days rising morning by morning, going down to bed night by night, spending his days begging. Very unlike what we would find today, someone who is handicapped in one way or another. The only support that he had was alms. The only support that he had was the charity of those who passed by him, no agencies or others that would supply for him. And indeed, a section of the population in Jesus' day would have found themselves in similar circumstances. But as a result, he's overlooked. As a result, he's considered as tangential and on the periphery of society. When he dies, it will go relatively unnoticed by those who are around him. And so on this day, he begins like every other day. He knew that, in this case, pilgrims would be making their way to Jerusalem for Passover. And so those in Jericho, the crowds would be swelling a bit. The City of Roses, as Jericho was called. would be filled with people. And maybe, maybe as he woke up, he thought this will be an opportunity for more ulms than others. People are in a religious mentality, they're in route to this feast, and perhaps they'll give more, there'll be more people, and so on. We can't say, but undoubtedly some of these things are going through his mind. And there he is sitting by the wayside. He's sitting along the route that people would have ordinarily traveled. and he can't see anything. but he can hear. And he hears the hubbub of the crowd, he hears the stir and all that's taking place in the crowd that is passing by. And so he reaches out, the text tells us, and he asks, you know, what is happening? What exactly is all this noise? What is the significance of this particular group of people that are passing by? And he's told, in great brevity, Jesus of Nazareth, is passing by. He knows two things, a name and a place. Jesus of Nazareth. But that was enough because that registered in his mind. That corresponded to things that he had heard and things that he had come to know. He knows of this Jesus of Nazareth. Perhaps he heard tell of earlier, as it's recorded earlier in Luke chapter four, how Jesus had gone into the synagogue and opened the prophecy of Isaiah and began to preach to the people there and to teach them that these words were being fulfilled and the words included that the blind would see. Perhaps he had heard that and heard about some of the other miracles that Jesus had performed and had heard recounted for him, some of the teaching and Jesus preaching and so on. Whatever the case, he knew something of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here, my friends, we see the first sign. the first sign of faith registering in the record that is given to us of this man. And so he cries out, now we're told more, he cries out with a loud voice, son of David, Have mercy upon me, son of David, which was another way of saying Messiah. He's recognizing that this Jesus of Nazareth is the one that the prophets had foretold of, the one whom God had spoken of. This is the anointed of the Lord, the one who would be anointed above measure by the Holy Spirit. This is none other than the Messiah himself, the one born in the city of David. The one who was of the line of David, the one who would inherit the throne of David, all of that Old Testament background now flowing into his consciousness. And so he's emboldened and he cries out, O thou son of David, Messiah, have mercy upon me. No doubt this would have irritated. It would have irritated and bothered rabbis and Pharisees and scribes who overheard him. And yet from the top of his lungs, this man is frantic. This man recognizes this is my only opportunity. This is it. I may never have another. And so he casts aside any inclinations towards social custom and what's proper and so on. And in his frantic, he cries out to the Lord. You'll notice the determination in verse 39. They which went before him rebuked him, that he should hold his peace. But he cried so much, the more. It says here that they that went before him, this could actually be translated they who were leading him. It could refer even to people of rank. It's not just the crowd, necessarily. Who are they? Well, they're nameless. We don't know for sure. But regardless, what do they say? They say to him, children, they say, shh, quiet. Don't disturb things. Don't be obnoxious. Don't draw attention to yourself. So much the more. He cried. Isn't this interesting? Because here is this blind man, and there are many, many others around him, and they have eyes. They can see. They can look out upon the world. They can see all that's happening. They can look upon the person of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, and yet they are spiritually blind. They cannot see their sin, and they cannot see the Savior. They are dwelling in darkness. And by way of contrast, here is Bartimaeus, and he can't see. He's physically blind. And yet he does spiritually see. He sees himself. He sees his need. He sees his desperation. And he sees something of the Savior. He himself is walking in the light by way of contrast. He knew who this Messiah is and he would not be quiet. He would not shut up. The kingdom is taken by violence. And he was one who pressed into it. And so he cries again. What does he cry or to whom does he cry? He cries to the Messiah. What does he cry? He cries for mercy. What a beautiful word. He, as a Jew, knew all of the Old Testament vocabulary, that God is rich in mercy, that the Lord has plenteous mercies, that the Lord has enduring mercies, that there are new mercies every morning, that he has great mercy, that the Psalms teach us, that those who even hope in his mercy, that God delights in such who hope in his mercy. And it is for mercy that he cries. to the Messiah, have mercy, he says, upon me. This is the language that we so often sing in our songs. Two dozen songs without even trying, I'm not going to list them for you. Two dozen songs that give us this kind of language. Have mercy. upon me." Indeed, this is the cry, my friend, of every single believer, everyone who's ever caught a saving sight of the Redeemer, everyone who has come to a saving knowledge of the Redeemer. They have learned to say, and they have learned to sing, have mercy, have mercy upon me. Indeed, we spend all of our days crying to the Lord for his mercy. There's an importunate prayer here, one that is unwilling to yield, one that continues to press, one that is ultimately prompted by what? Why is it that he's so bold? Why is it that he won't give up? Why is it that he continues to cry? You might say, well, because he's blind. But I would say it's more than that. His importunate prayer is prompted by the sight, the spiritual sight of the Savior. It is Jesus of Nazareth. who is within earshot of this man. And so there's desperation, yes. And there is an earnestness. Bartimaeus is saying, I'm in dead earnest. I must have this. I must have him. I must be brought near to him. And so he's given boldness to press near to the Savior. And so it begins with the request, blind man's request. But then secondly, we have the response. Secondly, we have the Savior's response. The Savior's response. Jesus, as we said, he's on a mission. Jesus has set his face like a flint to Jerusalem. He is going to be undeterred. He's not dilly-dallying around. He's beating his path toward Jerusalem. He's coming to the culmination for the very purpose for why he's come into the world. He's going to be undeterred from the cross that is set before him. And yet notice this response. These, I think, are some of the most precious words in this whole text. Words that could be and should be written in gold. They're found in verse 40. And Jesus stood. In Mark's gospel it is, and Jesus stood still. Golden words, my friend. Why? Because those four words give us a window into the heart of the Redeemer. And Jesus stood still. You know something, Bartimaeus couldn't see that Jesus stood still. He couldn't see it at this stage. He didn't know the response of the Savior. But this is his response. And why is that so significant? Why, again, are these golden words, and Jesus stood still? The reason is this, because at the cry of a sinful beggar, a cry for mercy, Jesus is stopped dead in his tracks. He stopped in his tracks at the cry of a sinner for mercy. So here he is surrounded by this crowd, this multitude we're told. There's all the hubbub, the noise of all the crowd and all the stir and everything that else is happening. And over the noise of all of that, Jesus says in essence, stop everything, stay put. I hear a sinner. who's crying for mercy. Now, some of you here this evening are saying to yourself, well, that's well and true, and we can see it in the Word of God, but that was 2000 years ago. And I have news for you, my friend. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The revelation of his glory to us, the revelation of his heart to us in the Gospels, is a revelation of the heart of the Savior who now sits upon the throne of the heaven. And it is appropriate for us to think, as it were, that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the God-Man, the Incarnate Word, who is now glorified, enthroned in heaven with innumerable throng of angels, one angel able to slay 285,000 people in a single night, and there are numberless, numbers of these angelic hosts and all of the praise that's taking place. And we have the spirits of just men made perfect there and everything else in heaven. It's as if we are being taught here this evening, that in terms of the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can almost imagine Christ seated in heaven and saying, standing up from his throne and saying, stop everything. I hear the voice of a sinful beggar. and storn away on the Isle of Lewis tonight, who's crying from their heart for mercy. That's the heart of the Redeemer that I come to preach to you this evening. That is the heart of the Savior who has stopped in his tracks at the cry of one who cries to him for mercy. The Lord has not changed. The Lord comes to us in the preaching of the gospel and the preaching of Christ crucified. And it is Christ himself who's coming in the ministry and through the ministry of his word. And he's saying, look upon me. Not only am I able to save you from your sins, I am, I can save to the uttermost with the strength of my invincible arm, my blood which was shed, the atonement which has been made, the sacrifice which has been offered is able, sufficient of itself to save untold millions of worlds, as it were. He is able to save to the uttermost. But the word for you this evening is this, and this is what hits some of you where you're seated this evening. He's not only able, he is willing. Do you hear me? He is willing to save all who come to him, and he will cast out none who will come to him. He delights in those who hope in mercy, as we sing in the Psalms. He is the one who delights to bestow mercy. Indeed, He is attentive to all of the cries of sinners who come to Him. And if a million souls were to cry to Him at the same exact time from this sin-cursed world, He would hear all of them as if He was only hearing one of them. And He would receive every one of them. the same. This is the Savior. And Jesus stood still. And we're told that God the Son commands, right? It's in the imperative here. He commanded him to be brought unto him. He commands it. Here is this man. You know, at this point, his heart is pounding. Mark's Gospel tells us that he throws off his cloak, right? He's scurrying in a frenzy, if you will. And he's brought to the Savior. He says, command him to be brought near to me. And when he was come near, so now here is Bartimaeus, and he's standing before the Lord Jesus Christ, brought to the Savior, led undoubtedly by the hand of another. Can you picture it? Bartimaeus, the blind beggar, before the eternal sun, enfleshed. Bartimaeus cannot see Jesus. Bartimaeus cannot see Jesus seeing him. And yet there he is before the glory of the altogether glorious one. And notice the condescension of our Savior. He asked him saying, what wilt thou that I shall do unto thee? Here is the King of heaven. Here is the Lord of glory. And he asks the beggar a question. What do you want me to do for you? My friends don't miss this. This is the living and true God. This is the kind of God that the God of the Bible is. who comes to needy sinners, who comes to them in the ministry of his word. And he's saying in essence to you this evening, what will you, what will you have me do for you? How is it that I can help you? How is it that I can serve you? How is it that I can address the needs that are before you? Here, it's the Lord saying, open thou, open thy mouth wide and I will fill it. The question is, do you believe this? Do you believe that this is the Savior? Do you believe that He's the same this evening? Do you believe that He's coming to you in the ministry of the Word and that He condescends to you, the likes of you, you of all people, and says to you this evening, what will you that I do for your own soul? Well, this beggar believed it. He believed that the Lord was able. He believed that the Lord was willing. to do whatever he would ask. And isn't it interesting? Jesus knew. Jesus knew. Jesus knew his need long before he asked it. Jesus knew the depths of it. Jesus, in fact, knew the answer to the question, and he knew all that was going to follow. And yet he asks him the question anyway, because in asking the question, he's actually drawing out Bartimaeus, he's drawing him out. The tenderness of this divine physician, of this great shepherd coming to this lost sheep, he's drawing him out. He's bringing him to confirm what his heart's desire is. He's bringing him to manifest his faith. So he wants us to ask, He wants us to answer. He wants us to tell him what it is that we need, what it is that we desire, what it is that burdens us. The real question this evening is, what would you ask for? No better. What do you ask for this evening? Be honest, don't give me the answers that you know you're supposed to give. Don't give me the answers that you've been taught and you can repeat and so on and so forth. What actually is your obsession? What is it that makes you tick? What is it that you long for? What is your great desire? What you see as your great need? This man says, Lord, that I may receive my sight. Jesus said unto him, receive thy sight. Thy faith hath saved thee. We're told in verse 43, and immediately, immediately, he received his sight. Here, one second, blind as a bat, blind as blind can be, and within a split second, a millisecond, a nanosecond, the man is given all of his sight. Right? He was blind. He was begging just moments ago, before the Lord Jesus Christ had come. And now he has full sight. And he has the end of all that this represents, right? There's no surgery. There's no period of darkness. There's no bandages and recovery and process and so on and so forth. No. Boom. And he has his sight. In totality. But what's more precious than this? Think, what is the first sight he has? The first sight he has is the Savior. He's standing before the Redeemer. The first thing that his eyes ever light upon, the first thing that he ever puts his eyes upon is the Lord Jesus Christ. What glory he was seeing at so many different levels, the glory of God in the face, of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was his faith, Jesus says, thy faith hath saved thee. It was his faith that lie behind all of this. It wasn't just his physical sight that he was asking for. It wasn't just his physical sight that he needed. He recognized more than that, deeper than that. So Jesus says it's his faith that saved him. Do you stumble at that? Do you stumble? You say, well, how can it? It's Jesus that saves. It's not faith that saves, and so on and so forth. And we're Calvinists and whatnot. And all of that, of course, is true. But faith is the gift of God. Faith is given by God. It's given to us by a sovereign hand, and so on. It's all of grace. He's the one who gives faith, and then increases faith, and grants the fruit of faith, and the blessings of faith, and closing with Christ by faith. He's the one who gives all of these things, and much more, the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no shame in this, no burden in this. No, his faith is what brought him into union with Jesus Christ. His faith is what brought him into a saving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. God does not believe for you. You believe, but it is God who enables you to believe. And it is the gift that comes from his hand. So it leads us first to last, beginning to end, top to bottom, all of grace. It shows the magnitude of the glory of Jesus Christ in giving to sinners what they could never have themselves, spiritual ability to see something of the Lord Jesus. Not only do we see the desperation of our spiritual bankruptcy, our inability to make sense of anything that matters, but also the glory of God and giving us what we lack and stand in need of. You see, there's a difference. It's not just having heard about the Lord Jesus Christ, you can have glorious light shining all around you without it ever shining into you. You can sit under the preaching of the gospel this evening. And the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ shines on without it ever shining into you. We need to pray Oh, Lord in thy light. We will see light. that the Lord would make us to see not only how feeble we are, how desperate we are, how needy we are, but that we would have a sight of the Savior himself. That we would be brought to the consolations of a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. And so there is the response. And thirdly, hastening on, there is the result in verse 43. Thirdly, there is the end result. And immediately he received a sight and followed him glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto God. Bartimaeus not only has new eyes, Bartimaeus has a new heart. He's been saved from his sins. And it's seen in the evidence, he follows him. He follows the Lord Jesus Christ. He glorifies God. He esteems him. This is the response of a believing heart to follow after the Lord, to seek the glory of the Lord. We're told that all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to the Lord. So that not only is it the case that over the repentance of a single sinner, the whole angelic host breaks out in praise. but also here in this world, the redeemed of the Lord, and seeing the repentance of a sinner join in that praise, in glorifying God. There were some who had told him earlier to be quiet, who now looking on in some amazement at what had happened, and others who join in worshiping the Lord for all that he is. He follows Christ, was Bartimaeus with Jesus in Jerusalem? Was he there, Passover? Was he there in the upper room? Was he there, you know, at the cross or in the surrounding circumstances and so on? We don't know. And we'll never know in this world. The Bible doesn't tell us. But surely he would have been one of those who followed on in seeking the Lord, who knew laterally of his resurrection and his ascension. and would have sought his glory, would have taken up his cross to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, to live for him with an ongoing sense of his sin and with an ongoing sense of the glory of God's grace and the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, right? This is the result that comes. And so this evening we're brought unto the word and we're brought to hear the voice of the great shepherd in that word. And as I said, it's not enough just to have heard something of the glory of the gospel. There are some who think that they can see. Perhaps you're here this evening and you think that you can see, but you don't. You think that you can see. Paul, who was Saul of Tarsus at one point, he thought that he could see. He was an accomplished theologian. He had enormous amounts of the Bible memorized. He knew the Old Testament backward and forward, and so on and so forth. He was numbered among the visible people of God, and yet he could not see. He too was blind. You can have your Bible, you can have all the facts, you can know your catechism, you can have all these things, and no relish of Jesus Christ. No taste. of how good His grace is. No faith in Him. No sight of the glory of Him. Indeed, we can become hardened. We can become petrified. Our hearts can become like marble. If we were to take a stethoscope, spiritually and metaphorically speaking, and put it up to your chest, your spiritual heart, there would be no beating. Calloused under the gospel. Is that true this evening? You say, well, minister, I think it may be true. It may be true. I've sat under the gospel so many times I can't number them. Is it true? My heart has become calloused and so on. Well, you find yourself very much in the place that Bartimaeus found himself. Here is the Lord Jesus Christ coming. Oh, that God would put the words in your mouth, thou son of David, have mercy. Not only have mercy, have mercy generically, have mercy generally, have mercy on sinners. But oh, that the Lord would put into your mouth, thou son of David, have mercy upon me, me in particular, me as a needy beggar, me as a hard hearted sinner. Oh, Lord, have mercy upon me. Some of you are different. You find yourself in circumstances where you do see your sin. Indeed, all you see is your sin. And you think to yourself, you don't know my life. And you don't know my history. You don't know where I've been and what I've done. And you don't know all of the wreckage that's come in its wake. And you don't know the depths of it. You don't know the guilt that's on my soul. You don't know all of the burdens that I'm bearing. I see my sin. I see that I am, as it were, a blind beggar. without any hope in this world, but you haven't seen the Savior. You've seen your sin, but you haven't seen your Savior. And we know it because you haven't come to Him. You haven't come to Him. You haven't found yourself at the feet of the Savior. You haven't come saying, Lord, this is what I need. I need spiritual sight. I need to see, I need to be brought to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are others of you who confuse things, you confuse not seeing enough with not seeing at all. And there are some of you in that condition, perhaps you're not willing to come forward, you're not willing to make the steps to public profession, because you think that not seeing enough is the same as not seeing at all. When in fact, you have seen something of the Savior. The Lord, you've seen, as Isaiah 35 says, that Christ came for this very purpose, the eternal Son of God, infinite in glory. assumed to himself a human nature condescended as a servant came into this world in order to offer himself as the sacrifice for sin. He came for this purpose. You have a Bible this evening with an Old and New Testament. You have the message of Jesus Christ in the four gospels. And the whole purpose for him coming was to give sight, spiritual sight to spiritually blind sinners. If this is His purpose, then no wonder it's His delight to bestow it. No wonder He revels in and gathers glory to Himself. You think to yourself, I'm a beggar taking something. And you've got it all wrong. That in the Lord bestowing something, bestowing grace and forgiveness and salvation and reconciliation and redemption, the Savior is actually in that gathering something. He's gathering glory to Himself. No wonder he delights to hear the cry for mercy in the heart of sinners. This is the message of the gospel. It's the message that comes to you. Do you see your need this evening? That you are at the end of the day, however tidy and pretty and handsome and strong and accomplished you may be, that at the end of the day, you wake up and go to bed every night as a beggar before a holy and just God. And unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of heaven. You cannot see it. Blind to sin by nature, but in great need of the Lord Jesus Christ. This evening, may you see Jesus. May you cry out to him. as a poor beggar before God. Christ is actually passing by in the preaching of his word. He's here this evening. He's passing by in the preaching of his word. His word is nigh unto you. Oh, that you would lift up your little voice and cry for mercy. He will give sight. You cry out for mercy and he will give it. You will be led by grace to follow him. And for those of you who are in a state of grace, there's something sweet and retracing the steps. Why? Because the fact is that our entire life is one Ebenezer after another. Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. If we look in what we call in our country, the rear view mirror, the mirror that's over the windshield. You look into the past behind you, it's just the road is littered with Ebeneezer's. Hitherto, if the Lord helped us, we've cried for mercy so many times. And the Lord has delivered so many times really, wherever the Lord's people are gathered, every congregation is a congregation of beggars for mercy. A congregation of Bartimaeuses who have spent their days crying for mercy to the Lord. who have been led to magnify Him for the glory of His grace, to love Him, to seek His glory, to praise Him, to follow Him, to serve Him, to be all, do all, spend all, to withhold nothing out of love and gratitude for Him. What a Savior, what a God there is in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus stood still, and we never forget it. As one has so aptly said, and as you've heard countless times, preaching is one beggar telling other beggars where to find bread. Bread is to be found in the bread of heaven, the bread that has come down from heaven, that we feed upon by faith in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. May God bless his word to us and stand for prayer. Our gracious and eternal God in heaven, the God of all grace. Oh Lord, give us to see by thy mercy something of the heart of the Redeemer. Melt us under the sight. Draw out our hearts with faith and fresh repentance to turn anew to him, whom to know is life eternal. O Lord, we magnify thy name. Surely there is no God like unto thee in heaven or in earth. Magnify thy son among us for thine own glory. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen.