sitting in our chairs there and I just said I hope that people are as excited about the walk with Jesus through the book of Matthew as I am. The stories are incredible. The stories are miracles of showing that Jesus Christ is who He said He was. He's God. He's man. He's all man. He's all God. And only Jesus Christ could do the things, only God could do the things that the Lord Jesus Christ did in the stories of the book of Matthew. And of course today there's another story of a man, two men that are going to be healed from an infirmity that is one of the most hardest things to deal with and that is blindness. And so this story comes after the healing of, after Jesus Christ will leave Jairus' house, and I know it was about four or five weeks ago that I preached that on a Sunday morning, but the next story begins in verse number 27, again, after he leaves Jairus' house. In verse 27, the Bible says, and when Jesus departed thence, when he left that place, two blind men followed him. Crying and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us. Now when you see this term, I want you to understand that you study these words, when you see the word crying, It doesn't mean that they whispered, and it doesn't mean that they spoke loudly, but it means that they cried out because Jesus is going and somehow, somebody is helping them along the way, and they're crying, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on us! Now when somebody does that, other people around are embarrassed. If somebody's in church and they begin to say amen a little bit too loud or somebody gets a little happy in the Lord, there's always that crowd, a little nervous, you know. Well that's how loud they were yelling. It was not something, because if you study that word, that's exactly what's going on. And so when he was coming to the house, so the Lord was headed somewhere, the blind men came to him. So if you get the idea, they're screaming out, and it's almost like the Lord is ignoring them. And all of this for a reason we find in the text. So he comes into the house, and the blind men came to him, and Jesus said unto them, believe ye that I am able to do this, They said unto him, Yea, Lord. And by the way, they did not ask for him to heal them of their blindness. That is not what the text says. The text said, Lord, would you have mercy on us? And the Lord says, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. And their eyes were opened, And Jesus straightly charged them, saying, See that no man knoweth. Don't tell anybody this. But, they, when they were departed, spread abroad His fame in all that country. Father, I pray that you would help us in this text this morning. The story is amazing. The story is to let us, there are several applications Lord that we can certainly make from this text and we will but I'm just reminded today that there are many, many people who are not there are those that are physically blind and what a tragedy that is and what a heartache it is and what a difficulty of life it is to be blind you can live blind but there are certain limitations But I pray Lord that we might understand that being worse than being physically blind is to be spiritually blind. And what would be even worse is to be blind and not know it. These men knew that they were blind. So I pray that you'd help me as I bring this message today. We need you, Lord, in every area today of the preaching of God's Word. Be with the one that's nearest to hell today and show them their need of salvation. Anybody that is unsaved today, I pray that you'd show them their spiritual blindness, that their eyes might be opened to the way of salvation. Blessed now in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. If we were to go back, of course, to chapter eight and look at the miracles that Jesus Christ performed, and then move into chapter nine and see these miracles that are performed, even up and to the text that I read today, these would all be miracles that would give Jesus Christ the credentials of who he was, and that was the Messiah. It proved his sovereignty over disease. It proved his sovereignty over nature, and even over the spirit world. And you can just imagine with me in that area of Palestine, as the teaching of Jesus Christ begin to move abroad, and the miracles begin to be told abroad, that the crowds begin to draw to him. There's going to be multitudes that will now come to see Him. Jesus is going to know men. He knows who's coming to Him for miracles. He knows who's coming to Him later on. He will talk about, you didn't come to, you're not asking these questions. You didn't come to see me because of anything except that you got fed. And because she got fed, it's like you can feed people and they'll come. But if you preach to them, they may not come. You can tell people you're having a singing engagement and the whole world will show up. But if you say, oh, yeah, all we have over there is preaching, well, I'm not as interested. It actually shows the spiritual inclination many times of where we're at. And so the crowd, in this crowd, there's two men. Now, the Bible tells us that they come in contact with Jesus in the sense that they hear that he's coming. So even though these men are blind, they have heard about the miracles. They've heard about the teachings. They've heard the sayings that no man speaks like this man. No man does what this man has ever done. Now personally, I'm friends with two blind people, two men that I know that are blind. that I know close enough to talk to them about their blindness, and I've done that in the past. And the thing about being blind is you can't drive a car. You can't see yourself in the mirror when you shave. You cannot color coordinate your clothes. Brother Elliot, Charles Elliot is one of the two men I'm talking about, and it was always amazing to me, Brother Elliot, when I would go pick him up from the airport. And if you'll remember that ever since 9-11, you're not allowed to go back through security to go back. For those that don't know this, before 9-11, you could go through security and you could go all the way to the gate. When somebody come off, you could be there to greet them right when they would come down the runway. outside of a secure area before people would come to meet you. But if you go to the airport and you're going to pick up somebody that's blind, you go to that airline and they have a profile that they're blind and so they know that you're there to pick them up, they'll give you a pass that you can go through security and meet those people as they come down the runway. And when Brother Elliot would come down the runway, he was always, he had somebody that would help him either in a wheelchair or they would carry him. Of course, he would have his cane and it's very, it's very, and he's told me so many stories. I mean, can you imagine this man? He would leave his home in Phoenix, Arizona in an airport and would fly to Sri Lanka and he would do all that blind. And he said that he's gotten himself a couple times in trouble because he says he might be standing there just looking and he might be looking at somebody and some man thinks he's looking at his wife and he's just staring right at her. And he's blind, he cannot see. And he said several times he's almost gotten in trouble because you cannot necessarily tell. So he said, I had to start wearing dark glasses and carry my cane to show that I am blind. And so I was always amazed as I would take him into his motel room and then he would put his suitcase on the bed there and then he would go around the room and he would step off how far it was to the bathroom, how far it was to the bed, how far it was to the thing and within 10 minutes he'd say, okay, I'm ready. And I say, and the thing about Brother Elliot, he was always the sharpest dresser you could, I mean, just teed to the dress. And I ask him, how in the world do you come out without having a purple tie on with a green suit or whatever? And he said, well, he said, my wife lays my shirts in there and she puts little cards in there and every card tells me what color the shirt is. And so he goes, that's how I know what color my suit is, what color my shoes are. And so he even had little cards in his shoes. He had little cards in his socks. And when he'd take his socks off, he'd put the cards back in there. When he'd take his suit off, he would be able to know the card, the size of the card or whatever, how they had this system worked out to know. But here's what I'm saying is, he was limited on some of the things he could do. One time he was preaching for Dave McCracken, And Brother McCracken was pastoring in Stillwater. And Brother Elliot got done preaching and he told Brother Elliot, I want you to sit in the passenger seat. I want you to sit in the driver's seat of the car. And Brother Elliot said, this could be bad. And Brother McCracken got down in the floor and drove. And he went into the parking lot and he wanted everybody, all the people that were there at the restaurant to see Brother Elliot driving and they were all freaking out. Now, listen, now, this is a side note, now you can set him in this side, put him in a Tesla, a full driving Tesla, and just put it on there, Brother Elliot could drive. I'm gonna call him and tell him that, son. The point I'm trying to make is this, some types of blindness, there's no cure for. Brother Elliot lost his sight after he was in the Air Force, and he got the disease that causes you to continually go blind. There's no cure for it. And by the age of 32, he was blind. Now, so when he went blind, his wife was 32 years old. And when his wife passed away in her 60s or whatever, she told Brother Elliot at all times, Brother Elliot, Brother Charles, I just want you to know, I look the same today as I did when you went blind. And he said, sounds good to me because that's how I remember you. Now that's sad in some ways, but Brother Elliot has overcome that, and he is able to do many things, preaches great messages, and I've often said about the preaching of Brother Elliot, he sees a whole lot more things than I do. He has a lot more spiritual insight maybe on some things that I might have, but the idea is that not only are you limited in areas of your life, there is no cure for the type of disease that he has. he will be blind until he dies, unless a great miracle took place. There's more than 60 references to blindness in the Bible. And according to the World Health Organization, this is the most amazing thing. Now I know that Trump just said we're getting out of the World Health Organization, and that's not my, I'm not preaching politically, but according to the World Health Organization, right now, worldwide, The greatest cause, the most common cause of blindness in the world comes from cataracts. Over 17 million people worldwide are blind because of that. And the reason that is so absurd to us in America is because if you have cataracts, you go to the doctor. and they remove the scale from your eyes, and they put a lens inside of your eye, and the next day you may be a little bit cloudy, but within a week or so, you're right back to normal. And by the way, let me just say this, we don't do fruit baskets for when you get your teeth cleaned. We don't do fruit baskets when you get a filling field, and we don't do fruit baskets for cataracts. We might have 50 years ago, because it was quite a procedure. Today, you're in and out in no time. And I'm not minimizing, again, anybody's prayer request, but somebody prays for cataract surgery, you'll be okay. I may not pray for that, because I don't pray when you get a tooth pulled. Boy, it's getting a little quiet in here, Well, our pastor, he's just so insensitive. No, I think some things we just overblow. Somebody say amen. All right, here I am, I've already done it again. I'm just telling you, it's a simple procedure in the day in which we live. But in our story, Jesus is dealing with men who are permanently blind. And when I think of blindness, I cannot help but think about spiritual blindness. I think of people who cannot see the truth of their lost condition, but when you realize you're blind and live in spiritual darkness, there's only one place to go to, and that's to Jesus Christ. These two men in our story knew that they were blind, and they knew that there was nobody that could do anything about this debilitating disease that they had, except they had heard about a man who had healed a man from leprosy. They had heard about a man that their servant had been healed, and they had heard these stories, and they had heard about this man who preached like nobody else. And they said, boy, if he ever comes around here, I wanna make sure that we reach out to him. And so the truth is, is the men were blind. And when Jesus departed, two blind men following him. Let me also give you in New Unger's Bible Dictionary, it says this, about this time period and blindness in the area of Palestine. And by the way, I think about this, because we take so many things for granted, like sunglasses. I'm almost positive there were no sunglasses. at this time period. Research, I couldn't find anybody had anything to do with sunglasses. So I'm pretty sure, in fact, I think it was Benjamin Franklin that kind of invented the bifocals and got the idea of glasses going. And so there's no glasses, there's no sunglasses. And because of that, Unger says this, he said, eye infections were among some of the most common of the diseases in the Bible times There were destructive diseases. They prevailed to a frightful extent, mostly in Egypt. Among the lower classes, it's been the exception to see both eyes perfect. Did you hear me? It's the exception to the rule to not have some kind of eye problem at that time. A large proportion, Unger goes on to say that a large proportion of the population had lost an eye. A number were totally blind to the excess. There was many eye diseases in Palestine and Syria. As I mentioned earlier, that's why over 60 times blindness is mentioned. But here's some of the causes that we may not have thought of at this time. Heat, sunlight, dust, uncleanness, unclean habits. You know, I remember when I was getting ready to have eye surgery, to have LASIK surgery, and the doctor was talking to me about, hey, your eyes are, you know, 20-20 is good best perfect eye, right, 20-20. My one eye was 29-25, and the other eye was 2875. Now if you don't know that, that's pretty much blind. If I took my glasses off before I had LASIK surgery, I saw men as trees walking. If I took my glasses off, I would not be able to identify anybody in the front row here, except that I knew that they were sitting there before I put my glasses on. I don't need glasses now to see far off, but I do need glasses to see close up, and to read a computer. And so, instead of being one of these preachers that does this all the time, or this all the time, I went to the doctor and said, give me bifocals. I want glass in the top so that when I look out, I know who people are. But when I read the Bible, I wanna be able to see it, so that's why I wear glasses. But he began to tell me, he said, now listen, when I do this surgery, because I'm gonna have to cut so much off of your eye, he said, I just want you to know that if you're ever in a terrible wreck, and you have a head concussion thing, and you could go blind. You could be blind because of how much I'm gonna cut off. Then he said, you still want me to do it? I said, yeah, let's do it. Then he said this, this was the second thing he said, he goes, do you rub your eyes? I said, yeah, he goes, you can't rub your eyes. He said, you cannot rub your eyes for at least six months, because it'll damage your eye. And I begin to think, you know, the eye's a pretty sensitive thing. There's a lot of issues that can go on with the eyes and we just take for granted our eyesight. And the idea is bad habits, you know, given in dirt, and you ever get an eye infection? It's probably, eye infection, you touch a door or something, you rub your eye without realizing it, next thing you know, you got an eye infection. You get an eye infection in America, you go to the doctor, they give you some drops or antibiotics, and it hopefully goes away. You do it during this time, you might lose your eye. So we don't know how these, we don't know these guys blind from birth, we don't know if they got blind, we don't know. Here's what we do know, they were blind. And these men were suffering from something that was very, very disabling. And nothing short of a miracle was going to help these men and they knew it. And then you look at the next thing, so not only were they blind, but notice how they came to Jesus. There's two things here that I see. They came, number one, they came crying. And number two, they came seeking mercy. That's what the Bible says there in verse number 27. They followed him crying and saying, thou son of David, have mercy on us. Now I've already screamed out, but I looked at this word, the word crying means, listen to this. Here's the definition of the word cry here. To scream, to call aloud, to shriek. I mean, don't make me shriek. You don't want to hear me shriek. But you get the idea. It would be embarrassing. Now even the disciples that sometimes when people would cry out, they'd go, Lord, can we kind of put them away? The Lord said, no. They've got a problem. you know what they knew, they weren't whispering, they weren't talking loud, they were shouting, they were driven. Now here's what, now it's possible that someone had read to them the scriptures, or they had read the scriptures, let me give you some. Like Isaiah 29, 18, maybe if they were blind from birth and their mother read the scripture to them, and they looked at all the verses where it talks about blindness, maybe their mother read them Isaiah 29, 18, and in that day, Shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness? Or maybe Isaiah 35, 5, Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Maybe they read that. Maybe they heard that. But the thing that jumps out at me of this text is not the crying and not necessarily, and the seeking of mercy. Yeah, these are the times, but here's what is amazing to me is that when they cried out, they said, thou son of David! Now when they screamed that out, everybody heard that. Thou son of David! Now listen, this is amazing because this is the first time this messianic title of Jesus Christ is mentioned in the gospels. It's the first time. It will be spoken for other times in the book of Matthew, but these two blind men are the first to scream out and to screech out, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us! You know what the Pharisees would have said? They would have been ready to stone these men, because they would have said, oh, they're calling Jesus Christ the Messiah. He was! It's like when reading through the book of John, oh my, reading through the book of John, and Jesus begins to talk about himself as I and my father are one and they were crazy mad because they said this man equaleth himself with God. Well listen my friend, by the time you get to John, all the things he's done in Matthew and Mark and Luke and all the things that you've seen, he is the son of God. He is God. He is the Messiah. Thou Son of David. So, and again, it will occur five more times, I said four, five more times in the Gospel of Matthew, and this is more than a simple descendant of David, but this title is the prophetic son of David, the one who was prophesied to reign in majesty and glory. You know what the blind men were saying? This is the Messiah, this is the one we've been waiting for. This is the one that Moses spake of that prophet. That's what they were saying. And so, you know, there's people like that. A little cray-cray going on here. But it ain't cray-cray if you're the one that's screaming it out. Notice, first of all, that they did not ask the Lord for healing. They made no demands except for mercy. By this time, many people had been healed by Jesus, yet they did not, yet these two men did not insist on healing. They just called out for mercy. They were appealing to the compassion of Christ. And by the way, the only way to approach Jesus Christ to be saved is to ask for mercy. but thou, O Lord, are a God full of compassion and gracious, long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. That's found in the Old Testament, Psalm 86, 15. In the New Testament, we read verses like, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Mercy is God withholding the judgment that we deserve. And that's what they're crying out for. God, show us mercy. Jesus, show us mercy. While extending us to the grace we do not deserve. Mercy is the only basis upon which we can approach the God of heaven. God, have mercy on me. Because you know the truth is, if you want to write it down, I'll sign it for you, we all deserve hell. But because of mercy. And so when they were coming to the house, verse 28 says, the buying men came to him and Jesus saith unto them. So they've cried out. They've asked for mercy. They've screamed to the top of their voice. Jesus bypasses them. He just goes into the house. He does not stop to touch them. He does not communicate with them. He does not say anything to them. He just goes into the house. But these men are not dissuaded. They go right in. You can imagine a blind man, excuse me, get out of my way. Where's Jesus at? And they hear His voice. They stopped before Him. And they followed Him along the road for a while before entering into the house. And Jesus went into the house and the blind men followed Him. And listen, here's one application right here, I thought. Let me write down this little application. God doesn't always immediately answer us when we cry out to Him. We can cry for mercy and He can listen. but these men didn't get a median answer. They didn't get a median answer like some have done when it comes to healing, but they didn't quit. They didn't give up. They kept going. They didn't let the condition of their blindness to keep them. It did not deter them. They followed him. They cried out for mercy, and then they expressed their belief in his ability to do what only he could do. That's why we read the next thing when he says, believe. Ye that I am able to do this. Now let me give you something here. I'm gonna make three applications, but let me make another one right here. You know, life has difficulties. Life has challenges. Life has things come that we'll never, ever, ever be able to comprehend this side of heaven. And I believe when we get to heaven, it probably won't matter anyway. But we still don't understand it. But yet here, these men, in their difficulty, trusted God anyway. I don't think you could understand why you were received the choice to be blind and others did not receive the, you know, did not get blindness. But when facing personal struggles, whether it's physical, emotional, spiritual, the idea is we just need to keep on coming to the one who can show mercy. Don't stop. Believe that I'm able to do this. Now we know these men believe that. And we know that Jesus knew that they believed that. So the question is why? Did Jesus ask these two men the question that He asked Him? They had already called on Him for mercy. They had already persisted in following Him through the crowds and into the house. They had already acknowledged Him to be the Son of David, the Messiah. Jesus, we know, would already be aware of their faith. He knew that. So why did he ask them about the belief? Now listen, here's the reason. It's because Jesus wanted from them a public profession of their faith. There is no such thing as a secret Christian if he's a Christian. A Christian wants to publicly profess his salvation. He wants other people to know that he's been saved. That's why people are to follow the Lord in believer's baptism. because that shows that they believe, they are confessing their public profession, and not only that, but they are identifying with a church and the doctrines of the beliefs of that church. They're saying, I believe in salvation, look what Jesus did for me, he gave me mercy, the grace of God has been bestowed upon me, and I want everybody to know it. That's a public profession. Jesus said, if you believe it, then let's have you say it to everybody. They said unto him, yea, Lord, that's a public profession of their faith. These men testified of personal saving faith. To believe in the heart is essential, but one must be willing to step up and make a public profession of faith. that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Notice they called him Lord. That was evidence of their belief that he is the Lord. He's the Lord of lords, king of kings. They knew that He was the rightful heir to the throne of David, and they were so confident in that that they said, Thou art the Messiah, Thou art the Son of David. Yeah, they believed. These poor blind men had better spiritual insight than the Pharisees that Jesus has been arguing with. And by the way, that doesn't quit because in our text there's another criticism. It's amazing. You know, I never really noticed this as much as when I was studying through the book of Matthew and preparing the messages. It's like every time Jesus Christ does a miracle, they're whining about it. They're complaining about it. They're criticizing Him. Now, I'll go ahead and get to that, but notice, here's the criticism. And when the devil, well there's another man that is saved here in this passage. But notice the criticism is this, but in verse 34. But the Pharisee said, he casteth out devils through the prince of devils. It's like people who say things who ain't got nothing else to say. So they just make up something. But I'll tell you this, the key to moving the hand of God is a heart of faith. But without faith it is impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. There's no other grounds upon which to approach God. Faith is the first step of a Christian's life. Faith is simply taking God at His word. And these men well knew that the coming Messiah would have the power to give sight to the blind. Isaiah said that. Then this is the interesting part here in verse 30 where Jesus, I call it a mystery charge, and Jesus has done this before, but he said, now don't tell nobody. Now let me ask you this. Naturally speaking, if you've been blind all your life, and you just got healed from blindness, and Jesus said, now don't tell nobody, And the sky is blue. I mean, all their life they had touched people on the face to be able to see what they looked like. Okay, we won't tell nobody. They couldn't help it. Now, let's just make sure that we understand this. The word straightly charged means give a stern or solemn charge. So Jesus was very stern about this. Strict orders, don't say a word. And I know the motivation of Jesus, I believe, is that because, you know, remember when He fed the multitude, I mean, they'd seen a lot of things. People had seen a lot of things. When he fed 5,000, probably 20,000, 5,000 men, could be 20,000 people, and he did it with a couple of fish and some loaves of bread, they went to take him as a king. They wanted to force, you know. And most men would love, I mean, most men would like that. So Jesus said, it's not my time, so don't tell anybody. I don't want people to rebel against Rome. I don't want anybody to attempt to make me a king before it's time. And by the way, that's not the time. Jesus will be the king. But not at this time. His mission is totally different. His mission is to come to seek and to save that which was lost. And His mission will be to die for the sins of the world so that we could be saved. But they, when they were departed, the Bible says, spread abroad His fame in all the country, 31 says. So even though they immediately went out and spread it everywhere. You know what? If you were blind, now you see, you want everybody to know it. There was another occasion of a blind man. And he said, they said, explain this to us. Explain this to us. He goes, let me explain it to you. Yesterday I was blind, today I see. And they wanted to make all kinds of accusation, throw his parents out of the synagogue, all kinds of stuff. And they said, who did this to you? Jesus. Now who'd you say did this to you? Jesus. Now listen, who did this? And I'm not being ugly, but it's like the guy saying, are you guys idiots? The son of David made it so that yesterday I was blind and today I see. And all they can do is say that he's had as a devil. Then another miracle takes place, and I'm not gonna really deal with that, in 32 and 33, a dumb man brought to Jesus, and we know the man's condition was a result of being demon-possessed. We're told that once the demon was cast out, the dumb spake, and the people marveled at that miracle also there in the text, but that's not my message. But the Pharisees, all they could do is criticize, which their criticism never ended, and there's always those that are gonna give to complaining or criticism, And those you're just gonna have to live around. But God is still good. God still heals the blind. God still saves. Sometimes people get saved and maybe they don't say exactly the right words. Listen, you can tell, I love when a new Christian gets saved. They may not say all the theological words exactly right, but once you hear their testimony, you're like, And these blasphemous Pharisees credit the devil with performing the miracle. You think the devil wants somebody that's blind to be able to see? Not a chance. But let me give you some applications of what we're doing. Number one, be like the blind man, be persistent. Keep on seeking the Lord. He works on his time. Jesus Christ, God does not work on our time. I've tried to help God on several occasions. And I've come to realize He does not answer my prayers on my time. He answers them on His time. But they didn't stop. When Jesus went in the house, they didn't stay out and say, well, you know, they don't really want blind men in there. They were working their way through there. As I mentioned earlier, we can persistently bring our needs to Him and know He is more than capable of intervening on our behalf at any time. He's God. Second of all, when Jesus said, believe ye that I am able to do this, brings to practice, do we really trust God? I've always been amazed that people sit in church and say, I trust God, I trust God, I trust God, until an overwhelming situation comes their way. And then you have to ask, do you trust God? Is God good or is God not good? Do we trust Him only in the good times or do we trust Him in the times that we don't understand? You see, we say we do it, but when it comes to hard areas of life, do we? These men did. We must have a trust toward God in all areas of life, especially salvation. And we must trust when the problem is way bigger than we are. Three. Finally, Jesus' instruction to keep the miracle quiet contrasted with the men's inability to do that. contains their joy and speaks to the human nature and the gratitude that we should have when we got saved. And not only should our gratitude be something when we got saved, but our gratitude should be today, Lord, thank you for saving me. Thank you for saving my wife. Thank you for saving my children. Thank you for saving my grandchildren. because we have to understand, while obedience is important, the spreading of their news reflects their authenticity, that they really had the joy of the Lord, and when it's inside of you, it just had to come out. You know what? They requested mercy. Guess what they got? Mercy. In our lives, this could encourage us to share the good things God does for us, not for self-glory, but to point others toward Him, balancing humility with the testimony of what God has done for us. So this, persistent in faith, this is what we need right here this morning. We need persistence in our faith, we need to trust in God's ability to act in our life, and the gratitude that should naturally overflow. Now listen, if you are just so overjoyed by what God's done, and you say it, I've never done that for me. Go tell somebody else. Don't stop. Keep on rejoicing. Keep on praising God. But you know what, this morning, it's a sad thing. You know, these men knew they were blind. But what's sad is people that are spiritually blind and they don't know it. I pray God would open your eyes to that truth and you would be saved. before it's too late. What do you mean before it's too late? Well, one day it'll be too late. I don't know when that'll be, but one day it will. Let's stand this morning, every head bowed. Keep trusting. God can do anything. Be grateful for the goodness of God. Lord, thank you for saving these men from their blindness. Thank you for showing mercy. Thank you that they gave a public profession and the gratitude of what took place overflowed them. I pray we would have gratitude, Lord, in our salvation and the goodness of God, even in the times we don't understand. Lord, I pray that if there's one here that's spiritually blind, never been saved, I pray that the Lord would open their eyes to their need and then come and ask mercy to the one who can give it to them, and that's still the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank you, Lord, for your goodness and your grace and your mercy. Help us to be persistent in our faith. In Jesus' name, amen. We're gonna sing Just As I Am. Most people know that, Just As I Am. If you need to come and pray.