Join us now for the chapel hour, coming to you from the campus of Bob Jones University. Our speaker today is Dr. Sid Cates, principal of Bob Jones Academy. The title of his message is Christ's Relationship with Blind Bartimaeus. The text is from Mark chapter 10, verses 46 through 52. Could we please turn to Mark chapter 10? Mark chapter 10. This morning, when I woke up, I was thinking the fact the first time I spoke in chapel was 30 years ago this summer, 1976. I was a grad student here working on a degree and sat right here beside Dr. Stenholm. I don't know if you knew Dr. Stenholm or not. So I was sitting there and I was a little bit frightened. It was the first time I had the opportunity to speak in chapel. And I told Dr. Stenholm, I said, you know, it's really kind of frightening. He said, don't worry about a thing. He said, see those Bible teachers back there in the back? If you say something wrong, they'll let you know afterwards. So I said, shake me up a little bit more. One of the great men of teachers here at Bob Jones was Dr. Walter Fremont. Dr. Fremont had many classes under Dr. Fremont. Dr. Fremont was the dean of education here for many years. and arguably was probably the dean of Christian education throughout the entire country, still living. He's in the hospital, Barge Hospital. He's been there for a number of years. And he had a great influence on my life, particularly in the area of teaching and most importantly, principal teaching. As a matter of fact, if you attended any of his classes, he always emphasized principal teaching. I can hear him now say, and I heard him many times say this, young people will forget the facts you teach them over a period of time, but the principles will stick with them. As a matter of fact, we have a number of videos of Dr. Fremont. All of them generally have to do with marriage or dealing with couples. We have only one videotape of Dr. Fremont that has to do with the area of teaching, and that is in the area of principle teaching, which he puts so hard. His emphasis on principle teaching has carried over into my life of studying God's word. When I go into God's word, many times, sometimes I just read it just to be reading it. But when I study God's word, I look at God's word, ask the Holy Spirit as I go through a small portion of scripture to help me to see some principles that are there that would affect my life. And of course, if the Holy Spirit does what the Bible says he does to lead us into all truth or guide us into all truth, then he will do that. He will show us principles. He will show us truths. And that's what I want to do today as we look at this portion of scripture found in Mark, chapter 10. We're going to go through just a few verses and look at some principles or what I call jewels that God gives us, some principles that we can apply to our life, not just the facts of this story, But principles in there involved in this story, some of you will become pastors later on and you'll have churches and you've been taught in the seminary here in the Bible classes, the importance of teaching principles as you prepare a message for people in your church. But all too often, many of you, by far the greatest number, you will be in a Sunday school class teaching young people or teaching adults, perhaps. And many times we just simply go over the facts that are in a particular portion of Scripture without understanding the importance of teaching the principles that are in that portion of Scripture. And so I want to talk with you today or maybe give you an example of a teaching technique that you can use in teaching Sunday school that will help you to get principles across to those that are listening to you. Now, this portion of Scripture here is called the healing of blind Bartimaeus. And three of the principles, there are a number of principles in here, but three that I'm going to emphasize come in the form of three questions. And that's the first question is, how important are you or how significant are you in God's eyes? Question number two or principle number two, do you ever wonder if God hears you when you pray? Do you ever wonder that? And number three, how long does the salvation process take? These are three principles, three jewels that we're going to mull over in the 21 minutes that we have remaining here. But let's take a look at these verses here. And before we do, let me give you a scenario or give you the background exactly what's taking place here. Christ is in Jericho. He's finished a good part of his ministry already. He has healed people who are sick. He has fed thousands at one time. He's healed multitudes. He's taught about the coming kingdom. He's taught about his importance in the coming kingdom. He's taught about the fact that he is God. He's talked about the fact he's a son of God. He's talked about the resurrection. He's talked about a number of things up to this point, and people have heard about it. He's, of course, he's challenged the Pharisees. He challenged the the local religious leaders of the day. They've become angry with him, but he's also influenced a number of people. He's become quite popular. So when he comes into a town, he's famous. I mean, after all, he's healed people. He's healed blind people. And so they want to see this man. So he comes into Jericho, a small town not far from Jerusalem. He comes into Jericho. And when he comes into town, everybody is familiar with him. And so there's a big parade. The county commissioners, the county officials decide there's going to be a parade. So they perhaps meet him at the square and they begin to march through the city. Very important person. They probably clean the city up if the president of the United States comes to our town. If somebody of importance comes to our town. We had a big group of movie stars that came to our town the other day for the BMW charity golf tournament. You know, they rolled the red carpet out for them. They cleaned the town up. They made sure the television cameras, everything is there. And so Christ is there. He's a very important person. He's a VIP. And they're marching him through the city. And there's a parade going through and then over here in the corner is a nobody. Smelly, dirty, blind man by the name Bartimaeus. And the story we pick up on the story here, Mark chapter 10, is all about Christ's relationship in these few minutes with blind Bartimaeus. Verse 46 of Mark chapter 10. And they came to Jericho, and as they went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he should hold his peace, but he cried out the more great deal. Thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called. And they called the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise, he calleth ye. And he, casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. Then Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. Father, Lord, I pray that you might bless this time. I can only stand before these young people knowing I've been cleansed by the blood, Father, and knowing I'm just a human instrument to use thy words and to thy truths and principles in this word. Blessed, allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives in Jesus name. Amen. Let's take a look at a few of these jewels here and maybe answer some of the principled questions we asked earlier. First of all, I want you to notice this. It says here in verse forty six that there was a great number of people there, a great number of people. I know that when he fed five thousand, there were at least five thousand men there, maybe more than that. He fed four thousand. He many times is involved in big crowds. And yet, one of the things I want you to notice is he notices the little things. He notices a smelly, as I said, blind man sitting over in the corner. He notices him. Nobody else notices this blind man, Bartimaeus. And when we get to the point, if God allows us to have a ministry, God allows to be a Christian school teacher or pastor or Sunday school teacher. If we get so involved in the big picture and don't notice the little things, really God can't use us because the example that he gives here is that he notices the little things. In the feeding of the five thousand, he noticed a young lad or one of his disciples did, and he took an unknown young man and he fed the entire group with the young man's lunch. When he was by the pool of Bethesda, he noticed an impotent man who could not get into the water. He noticed him. Nobody else cared, but Christ cared. God notices the little things. When we can't notice the little things, God can't use us. I'll never forget when I was young, six years old, seven years old. How how important are we? How important are you? How important are we when we're six or seven years old? Maybe maybe maybe I was probably about eight years old, third grade, somewhere around there. And I remember going to back then. That was 50 years ago. We I'd go to a movie theater on Saturday morning, pay nine cents to get in. My dad would give me a quarter, nine cents to get into the movie theater. We saw a cowboy movie, which was always good. Cartoon, a serial, and one of these love films, which is really a waste of time. But there was always the cowboy film at the beginning. My favorite cowboy was Rocky Lane. I remember one time I broke my arm. I was in third grade and I went to the theater because Rocky Lane was going to be there. He sat right on the front row. Right on the front row. I sit on the front row. And here was Rocky Lane up here and he was talking and I asked him a question and I had a broken arm. And he said, yes, a young man with a broken arm. And I asked him, I don't remember what the question was. So when the film got ready to begin, he came down off the stage, came down, picked me up, put me in his lap. I felt really important as a little eight, seven or eight year old boy. Here was a great cowboy who won the West, by the way. The West would not be tame today without Rocky Lane and John Wayne perhaps. There he was sitting in my lap, very important. You know what? I'll never forget that. He actually signed me a picture and put his autograph on it. I still have that at home. My daughter knows I've got that framed and everything. Rocky Lane. I was important to him. And Blind Bartimaeus was important to Christ. Now we go a little bit further in the story because we know he's important because we see this. The Bible says that Blind Bartimaeus was sitting by the highway side, verse 47, and when he heard it was Jesus of Nazareth, because he heard that it's Jesus of Nazareth with his healing people, He cried unto him. He said, Jesus, our son of David, have mercy on me. He also says the same words practically in verse number 48. This is a short prayer. Eight little words, nine, eight little words. That's all he said. Jesus, have mercy upon me. God doesn't expect us to pray great flowery prayers. O thou, the God of heaven, the God that flung the stars and the moon and the sun into space. We just pray short Prayers, we get a hold of the throne. You go through Wal-Mart parking lot. Do you not say, Lord, help me to find a parking place? You don't pray a great flowery prayer. That's been in a state of prayer all the time. He prays a short one. What the principle trying to teach here, you don't need a great prayer to get God's attention. Eight or nine words is all he prayed here. Should be in a state of prayer all the time. My wife and I were driving through the Indiana. I actually wasn't driving. John Cross, the press rep, was driving. We were going through snowy, icy streets and all of a sudden we hit a patch of ice and we started turning around. Never forget my wife saying, Jesus help us. Jesus help us. Jesus help us. That's all she said. Jesus help us. And he did. I'm not sure it was because of her prayer, but he helped us. We spun around. We were in the media and had to get a record to pull us out, but we were all safe. Jesus help us. That's it. Not sacrilegious at all, that he prayed a short prayer. Next verse says this, or the rest of that verse says, and many charge him, verse 48, many charge him that he should hold his peace. You know, be quiet. You're an embarrassment to us. We're trying to show our best foot forward in the city and you're an embarrassment. Will you please be quiet? They pushed him to the side because he wanted to do what's right. He wanted to get the Lord's attention, but he was an embarrassment. To the city. But he didn't pay attention to them. Notice the next verse here, he says, but he cried the rest of the verse, but he cried out a more great deal. Thou son of David, have mercy upon me. And notice this next portion of the verse, verse forty nine, one of the most beautiful verses or words in all of Scripture, and Jesus stood still. A nobody praise to Jesus, a crowd of noise, and Jesus Stops. Stop to think that maybe when you pray to our Lord. That he stops. Listen. That's awesome, how many millions of Christians are on this Earth today? How many times do we say a short little prayer, Lord, help me? God stands still. I mean, that that's striking to me. The principally cares enough about your prayers. They stand still and particular from somebody who's a nobody. You know, one of the things that. That I wonder about is, how does he do that with millions of Christians? I don't know how it is. I don't know how he could create the earth from nothing in six days in the universe in six days, but he did. I can't explain the Trinity. I can't explain even salvation, how God could save my soul. I can't explain that. I can't explain how God can stand still when we pray. But I think he does. And then notice the rest of this here, he says that Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called, and they called the blind man saying, be of good comfort, rise. He called the notice the hypocrisy of the group who earlier had said, be quiet, shut up, you stinking old man. Don't embarrass us. Now they go over there and say, oh, would you rise? Be a good cheer. Come on. The Lord wants to talk to the. And notice what happens here, verse number 50, and he casting away his garment rose and came to Jesus. Now, let me share with you this garment. If you're a blind man, you have nothing. Nothing. Nothing but what you have on your body and what you have inside your coat. Maybe you've got some cleaning or hygiene utensils in there. Maybe you've got some food that you've picked up on the street somewhere, but all you've got is here. You can't see anything. And the only comfort you've got, the only security you've got is your coat. That's all you've got. When young people come and they make fun of you and they they push you around and they try to throw you and to try to inflict pain upon you, all you got is your coat to protect you. That's all you got. That's everything you've got. If you close underneath, but that's it. When you sit by the building there and people come by and they throw some money to you, all the protection you've got is this coat. That's all. And the Bible says he threw that coat away, he cast the garment away. Why did he do that? Why did he throw the only security blanket that he had? Because he had faith that God would take care of his problem. So he cast his garment away. He knew he was going to ask God to heal him of his blindness, and he threw it away. You know, when you come to Christ, you really have to throw everything away. When God calls you to go into the ministry, you have to throw everything away. Man, who's my youth director when I was saved in Charlotte, was in the Marine Corps, did in the post office, had a number of children, I think six children. He had a good job. God called him to the ministry, went to Missouri to go to a Bible college out in Missouri. I remember helping him pack up. He sold everything. All he had was a station wagon and a few bits of furniture that he put into a trailer behind him. He sold everything else and he left everything behind. All his security, all his relatives, everything, took his family and he went to a college out in Missouri. That's what God demands, throwing everything away. And why did he throw it away? Because of faith. We go to look at verse 51. It says, Christ, he goes to Christ and Christ asked the question again, another puzzle to me. He says, what wilt thou that I should do unto thee? Christ asked the question. Christ knows everything. Why does he ask the question? What do you want me to do? I mean, he knew what this blind man wanted. But he still asked the question that teaches us something. Why would he ask the question, what would thou have me to do? Basically, he wants us to ask first. James Ford says, is he asking receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it on your own lust? You have not because you ask not. He wants us to ask. He wants to depend upon him. Forgive me, Academy students. I want to give an illustration. It fits so well in here. I gave the other day in chapel, Academy Chapel. My little granddaughter was with us. She was almost two. Her name's Savannah. prettiest granddaughter in the entire world. She was with us the other day, and I was doing a little bit of yard work in my yard, so I got my wheelbarrow out of my garage, and I was pushing my wheelbarrow out of the garage. It was empty, and she was standing in between the handles there, pushing the wheelbarrow too, little Savannah. And so being the aggravating person that I am, I set it down so it wouldn't go anywhere, and she's going like this, going like this, and she says, Pappy, help! Well, that made me feel good because she wanted me to help her. When my girls who were growing up and now adults, they used to say, I don't need any help, Daddy. I can do it all by myself. What makes me feel good when somebody says, Pappy, help. You know, that's what Christ is saying, it makes him understand we depend upon him when we ask first, what would thou have me to do? He wants us to ask. Lord, that I might receive my sight, Lord, Lord, you know what that word means? That means he's now trusted. It used to be Jesus, the son of David, son of David, human. Now it's Lord, I recognize you as Lord. You know, he didn't pray the sinner's prayer. You know, when the thief was on the cross, he said, Lord, remember me when I come into thy kingdom. He didn't pray the sinner's prayer. As a matter of fact, he was already saved by the time he asked. It wasn't the words that he asked. It was the fact that he trusted. He believed it was instantaneously. Salvation doesn't take weeks or days or months to work through us. It happens when we believe, when we trust. All of a sudden, he trusted. Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Christ said, go that way. Thy faith hath made thee whole. It wasn't his prayer. He didn't even have to ask the prayer, say the prayer. God knew his request before he even asked. He said, go, your faith. Hath made thee whole. And the Bible says this, verse number 52, the latter part, and immediately. He received his sight. Not later, because of his faith, immediately he received his sight. You know what I think Christ is trying to say here? We're once blind to the things of God and now salvation occurs and it's immediately. Not tomorrow, a further emphasis that it's immediate, salvation is immediate. Remember, they're going back to the thief on the cross. The thief said, Lord, remember me when I'll come to that kingdom. By the time he prayed that, he was already saved. And the Lord said today thou shalt be with me in paradise, even though he never been baptized, even though he never attended church or the synagogue, as far as what I know, even though he's a pretty rough individual. He didn't say, I'm sorry, fella, you've never been baptized. I'm sorry you haven't been to church. He simply said today thou shalt be with me. It was immediate. When it comes to salvation. And notice the last little jewel here. He says, and he followed Jesus. In the way. Put down his garment. Received his sight and all that must have been a blessed time to see things he had never seen before. And now he followed Jesus in the way. So did the thief on the cross today. Now she'll be with me in paradise. He followed him. The important thing, salvation following him. I said at the beginning, I said we're going to look at three questions, principles that are in here. There are a number of principles in here we've looked at. One principle was that we look at was how important are you in God's eyes? How important was blind Barnabas in God's eyes? Very important. The second question here, do you ever wonder if God hears you? And Jesus stood still. What would that have me to do? Yes. And the last was, how long does the salvation process take place? And immediately. Immediately, three principles from all the jewels we see in this word, these few words here, but also I sometimes will look at these portions of scriptures and I'm ending here. I look at these portions of scriptures and I say, why did the Holy Spirit decide to choose to put this in here? I mean, I mean, there are multitudes of things that happened in Christ's life, his ministry for three years. Why did God choose this one instance to put in here? There were many that he didn't choose. Why did he choose this? And many times when I read this, I ask the Holy Spirit, why did you put this in here? Why? How does this speak to me? And here's how it spoke to me. That even though when I'm around my family, I'm very important. Very important. But as a person, when I'm around other people, I'm not very important. But in God's eyes. In his eyes, I'm a very significant person, no matter who I am, no matter what lot in life I have. God sees me as important. As he saw a smelly, stinking, blind Bartimaeus on the side of the road who cried out, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy upon me. You've been listening to the Chapel Hour, coming to you from the campus of Bob Jones University. Our speaker was Dr. Sid Cates, principal of Bob Jones Academy. For a cassette or compact disc copy of today's message, send a check for $6 to Campus Store, Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina 29614. Be sure to mention the name of the speaker and today's date. The Chapel Hour has been sponsored by Bob Jones University.