Bibles, and let's go to the Gospel of Mark. The Gospel of Mark. We're going to turn to Mark chapter 10, and we're going to look at this story of a blind beggar. His name was Bartimaeus, that the Lord Jesus Christ healed on his way to Jericho. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we're so thankful again for this day you've given us. What a privilege it is to be here, Lord, and to hear your Word preached. And we're so thankful, Lord, that we're able to have our pastor go away and to enjoy a rest with his family. We know how much he labors in the Word, and he worked throughout this whole pandemic and really didn't take much vacation. So I just pray, Lord, that you would give him good rest and allow him to enjoy time with his family. And as we're here today, Lord, I pray that you would help us to pay attention to your Word and to open up our hearts to the message, those saved among us and those that are lost. I pray, Father, that you help me, Lord, to preach your Word. I don't want to just simply read from my notes. I want to be filled with your Spirit and to preach your Word, Father. Help us today. Help us, Lord. We need you. I pray, Lord, that you would help us to understand what is being preached today, Lord. We thank you. We just pray we have a good rest of our day and bless this message in Jesus' name. Amen. We're looking in chapter 10 of the Gospel of Mark and verse 46. And they came to Jericho. And as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highwayside begging. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he should hold his peace. But he cried the more a 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 thee. Verse 50, 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. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately, immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. Thank you. You may be seated. Our Lord Jesus Christ throughout his earthly ministry performed many, many miracles. He fed 5,000 miraculously with a couple of fish and a piece of bread. The Lord Jesus Christ famously walked on water. He raised up his friend Lazarus from the dead. Jesus miraculously did the impossible. He also healed many that were physically sick. In Matthew 18, 16, when the evening was come, they brought unto Him many that were possessed with devils. And He cast out the spirits with His Word and healed all that were sick. In Matthew 12, 15, but when Jesus knew it, He withdrew Himself from thence, and great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all. The Bible says our Lord was about doing good. He was compassionate to the masses. The Bible says when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them. In Mark 1.34, and He healed many that were sick of diverse diseases and cast out many devils. Mark 3.10, for He had healed many, insomuch that they were pressed upon Him to touch Him, as many had plagues. So we see that the Lord Jesus Christ has many other names He is known by, but these miracle healings show why He's called the Great Physician. Amen? Jesus did not practice medicine. Amen, Dr. B? He didn't practice it. He is the Great Physician. He is the perfect cure for whatever our ailment is, physically and spiritually. The Lord fulfilled prophecy with these miracles, and that's seen in Isaiah 35, 5. No need to turn there, I'll just read it. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Messiah was going to perform these miracles to prove who he was. John the Baptist even had his moment of doubt when he sent his disciples to see if Christ was the Messiah. You remember the story. Matter of fact, let's just turn there in Luke chapter 7. Let's go to the Gospel of Luke chapter 7. In verse 19 of Luke chapter 7, the Bible says, And John, calling unto him two of his disciples, sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that should come, or look we for another? Luke 7 21 to 22 and in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues and of evil spirits and unto them and unto many that were blind he gave sight then Jesus answering said unto them go your way and tell John what things you have seen and heard how that the blind see the lame walk and and the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached." And that brings us to our story of this blind beggar that Jesus and the disciples encounter on the road to Jericho. Now the Gospel of Matthew states that there were two blind men, and we see that in Matthew 20, 30. But Mark and Luke mention only one. And Mark tells us that his name was Bartimaeus. This in no way is a contradiction because we know the Bible doesn't contradict itself. It's simply Mark and Luke concentrate on Bartimaeus. Maybe he was the one that was most vocal. Maybe the other one didn't respond. So there's no contradiction in the Bible whatsoever. And we also see that there's... Bartimaeus is one of three people who were healed by Jesus who was actually named. It was Bartimaeus, he rose Lazarus from the dead, and he healed Malchus. Everybody else, we don't know their names, so it's kind of special if you think about it. And that brings us to our first point. Number one, his pitiful condition. His pitiful condition. Let's go to verse 46 of our text. And the Bible says, And when he came to Jericho, And as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highwayside begging. So we see that Bartimaeus, his disability, he had a disability. We find here that Bartimaeus, he was unable to physically see. He was totally blind. He was in total darkness. I remember one time we went on a family trip to Cooperstown, right? It was Cooperstown. I think we were coming back from Cooperstown and we stopped in Howe Caverns upstate. In Howe Caverns, they bring you down to the cave and they have this thing where you're on the boat in the water. They take the lights and they shut off all the lights to show you what it's like in a dark cave. And I'm telling you, that was pretty frightening when they shut off the lights and you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. No matter how wide your pupils dilated, you were trying to see, you couldn't see. That's how blind Bartimaeus was. He was in total darkness. And Bartimaeus, we see that he wasn't injured in any way that caused him not to see. This affliction, it seems, was how he was born. He was blind from birth. And that's even worse. He never saw his family, ever. He never saw his environment around him. He never saw a sunrise, a sunset. Think of how beautiful a sunrise and a sunset is. Blind Bartimaeus has never seen it before. He never saw any of God's wonderful creation. He never even saw his own face. There's only so much one can discern with their other senses, right? Your sense of smell, your sense of hearing, touch. Sight is the greatest and most important sense, in my opinion. To add insult to injury, some commentators say that his father, Timaeus, was blind also, making his condition hereditary. So blindness was common in our law day because of poor hygiene, the amount of dust in that region, contagious eye diseases, and the lack of technology and modern medicines that would heal simple eye conditions. So I want you guys to be thankful. I want to be thankful that we were not born in those days, amen? Think of all the modern conveniences that we have today, that we enjoy, right? That we enjoy here in this country, right? I mean, every year, I have these corrective glasses. I go to Walmart to see the eye doctor. He gives me an eye exam, and then I go, he writes a prescription, I get a new pair of glasses. Simple as that. To fix my farsightedness. Some people have designer sunglasses that are able to block out UV rays, maybe a cool pair of Oakley's or even I have a pair of prescription sunglasses. They didn't have that in those days. I mean, you think about eye drops, medical eye drops that you can heal conjunctivitis or pink eye with that. They didn't have that in those days. Maybe pink eye could have been detrimental to cause someone to lose their sight in those days. I think even today you can even get eye transplants. I don't know, maybe your iris or something. But none of these modern things were available then. So if you had any issues with your eyes, you were in trouble. Then we see that he was destitute. Let's go back to our text in Mark chapter 10 in verse 46. Blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging. It would have been one thing if he was blind, but if he had money. Amen? If he was wealthy. It would have softened the blow just a little bit. But his father being disabled also probably caused his family to be impoverished. But as one can imagine, there was not much one who was born blind can do to support himself. There were no social programs like we have today. There was no government assistance. There was no charitable organizations as such. I mean, over here, just on Long Island, we have, what is that, Island Harvest that comes and they collect money or food for the poor. And my route in Westbury, the senior citizen complex that I deliver to, they have this organization called Long Island Cares that comes and brings the elderly food there. I mean, that's a great thing. That's good. Thank God for America and for the wealth that we have here. But they didn't have that in those days. Bartimaeus did not have access to these organizations, so he resorted to the most humiliating thing one can do, and that's to beg. They have to beg for money just to feed themselves. Most of us have encountered someone who was in a similar condition. Poor, destitute, possibly with a disability in front of a store. I mean, I remember that one time, where were we? We were in Manhattan. We seen this girl who was on the side of the street. She was our age, just naked in a plastic bag, probably strung out on drugs. And it just felt so bad for her. We gave her a track and we gave her money. I mean, I know we're not supposed to do that, but it's hard to see someone in that condition, begging or just destitute on the side of the road. Sometimes even off the exit of a ramp on a highway. We see it all the time over here on the LIE. We saw one the other day coming home from church. It was a lady on the side of exit 57, just sitting there with her mouth covered, begging for money with a cup in her hand. And I'm a sucker for that. I'm sorry. I know we shouldn't do it, but I give people money. Whatever it is, I give them a dollar, five dollars, and I try my best if I have a gospel track, I give them a gospel track. Because their need is greater than money. They need healing spiritually. You see people who hold signs that say that they're homeless or they need money to feed their children, which always gets me. What also gets me is disabled veterans, people who served our country, who come back maimed and can't support themselves and there's no help for them. And they resort to being homeless or begging. And as we see beggars like this, how many people, how many people just walk by? Just walk by. How many people don't even look their way? How many people tell them to get lost or to leave them alone? How many people in this day looked upon blind Bartimaeus with disgust? He probably smelled foul. I mean, he was homeless. He was blind, begging for some change just so he could buy his next meal. This description, though, this description does not only describe Bartimaeus' pitiful condition, being blind and destitute, it can also describe the condition of a lost person. A lost person, even worse, who thinks that they're okay. Amen? Let's turn our Bibles to 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 4, 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Let's look at verses 3 through 4. The Bible says, But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. Let's turn to Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 18. having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. So we see here that if a person is lost, they have not repented of their sin and placed their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, God says in His Word that their minds and their hearts are blinded. By who? And who? We saw in the 2nd Corinthians, it's by the God of this world, the devil. This is a position that many people today, sadly, are in, and it's because of pride. Pride is very blinding. Very blinding. People who are lost, they just think that they're okay. Right? They're going about their business, doing whatever they want, you know. Que sera, sera. Nothing matters. You know, I'm okay. You're okay. Don't judge me. I'm okay. The laity of the seed in church thought everything was fine. They were in need of nothing. They had riches. They were fine. They didn't need anything. But in Revelation 3, 17, the Bible says, Right? That describes the lost. They think that they're okay. We're not okay. It's not okay. Jesus tells us about the rich farmer in Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter 12, he says, because of his pride, he did not realize his true condition. He was blind to reality and made those grandiose plans that did not include God. Let's look at that story in Luke chapter 12 in verse 18. Luke chapter 12, verse 18. The Bible says, and he said, this will, look at now, I do. I will pull down my barns and build greater. And there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thy knees, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then, who shall those things be which thou hast provided? So we find here that the laity in church and the rich farmer were blind to themselves and were not as well off as they thought. In Matthew 6.23, the famous portion of Scripture, if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness? Religion also does a great work at keeping people blind spiritually. It's because a person thinks that they are fine also because they are trusting in something. They're trusting in their religion, right? The Pharisees, one of them, Jesus gave them sharp rebukes for their blindness a number of times. We see in Matthew 23, 13, bewoven to you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites. He told them. In verse 16, he says, Woe unto you, you blind guides. He called them blind. They were blind guides. The Pharisees were religious, but they were lost, and they were influential to many in Christ's day. And this is why a preacher always tells us, you have to be careful. Be careful what you hear, right? Be careful how you hear. Be careful who you hear. You always have to be on the lookout for false teachers. Be careful who you're listening to. False teachers can lead you astray. They're blind guides. Matthew 15, 14, speaking of the Pharisees again, Jesus said, they'd be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both are going to fall in the ditch. Then we see we have Nicodemus. He was another one who was blinded by his religion. He was also a Pharisee, and when Jesus said, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God, he responded, of course, with one of the most ignorant comments of all time. He said, can a man enter into his mother's womb a second time? I mean, talk about spiritual blindness. He was really ignorant. Saul of Tarsus was sincere and zealous in his religion. He thought he was doing the work of God by persecuting Christians and even executing them. So religion has done an incredible, incredible work of blinding the masses. I mean, think of all the billions of people in this world who have given over to Catholicism, to Islam. Islam, those guys are zealous, but they're wrong, as wrong can be. Think of Hinduism. Think of, I mean, how about atheism? Atheism, whether they like it or not, they're a religion, and they're blinded by their religion. So if you're lost today and spiritually blind, Be of good cheer. There is a cure for your blindness. There was a perfect cure for Bartimaeus' blindness and we're going to see that. But first let's look at his persistent cry. Let's go back to our text in Mark chapter 10 in verse 47. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he should hold his peace. But he cried the more, a great deal. Thou son of David, have mercy on me. So we see Bartimaeus may have been blind, but he wasn't deaf. Amen? Verse 47 says that when he heard, when he had heard that it was Jesus, the fame of Jesus The Bible says, it just went out throughout the land. Bartimaeus must have heard of Jesus healing the man with the withered hand. He could have heard of his healing of the centurion's servant from afar. It's possible the story of Jesus healing the lepers made its way to the ears of this blind man. There was no cure for blindness. In all the Old Testament, there's no account of any blind person receiving his or her sight. But the Old Testament did predict the opening the eyes of the blind would be a function of the Messiah when he came. Jesus had already healed three blind men. Perhaps someone had told Bartimaeus that these men had received their sight. So there was hope for him. There was hope. It's like when someone has a condition that seems hopeless, a medical condition, you know, when you hear anecdotal accounts of how this treatment worked or maybe this worked, you know, it gives the patient hope. So Bartimaeus probably had that hope that, you know, this Jesus, he healed a blind man before. You know, I need to see him. Maybe he can heal me. And verse 47 says, when he heard it was Jesus. You know where I'm going with this. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing the Word of God. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing the Word of God. You do not have to see to have faith. Remember Thomas, doubting Thomas, Didymus, wanted to see and he wanted to touch for himself in order to believe that Christ rose from the dead. He didn't want to believe it by faith. He wanted to see it. He wanted to touch it. He wanted something tangible to understand that Jesus came back. Let's go to John chapter 20. John chapter 20. Let's look at this story. Verse 24, But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger in the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. Thomas had to see to believe. It's unfortunate. His faith was based on his sight, but not Bartimaeus. Not Bartimaeus. He heard it, and he believed it. In John 20, 29, Jesus saying unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen. and yet believe. Amen? So we are to walk by faith and not by sight. In Hebrews 11.1 the Bible says, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11.6 says, But without faith it is impossible to please him. So let's go back to our text in verse 47. of chapter 10 of Mark, the Bible says, and when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And this cry here doesn't mean he was weeping. This cry is a vociferous shout, a vociferous shout, a loud shout of trying to find where is Jesus. I don't see him among the way. I can't see, but just maybe he can hear me. He shouted extremely loud. And you know, I wouldn't make light of any gospel song ever. Remember, brother? But I guarantee you, he was not singing, Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior. He had my humble cry. He didn't say that. He screamed it out. Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me! His cry was desperate. And why? Because his situation was dire. It was dire. Bartimaeus has a need and here was his chance to be healed by our Lord. His cry was desperate because Bartimaeus did not know if Jesus would ever come that way again. Amen? And Bartimaeus was right. Where was Jesus headed? He was going through Jericho to go to where? Jerusalem. That's right. He was on his way to the cross and he was never going to pass through Jericho again. And let's look at that. We're still in Mark chapter 10. Let's look at verse 32. Verse 32, the Bible says, And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem. And Jesus went before them, and they were amazed. And as they followed, they were afraid. And He took again the twelve and began to tell them what things should happen unto Him, saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be delivered unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death. and they shall deliver him to the Gentiles, and they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him. And the third day he shall rise again." So our Lord was on his way to the cross where he would be crucified and pay for the sin of the whole world. This was Bartimaeus' only chance, his only chance. Bartimaeus, he did not procrastinate, you see. Back to our text in verse 47, we see, and when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out. His cry was instantaneous, it was immediate. He did not squander his opportunity to meet with Christ. He did not have to read another book. He did not have to say, I'll wait till the next revival meeting. or next conference, or I'm not ready right now. He didn't say, I'm not willing to humble myself, or I really wonder if Jesus would save me. He did not do that. He did not squander the opportunity. Again, in 2 Corinthians 2 verse 6, 2 Corinthians 6 verse 2, excuse me, Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Bartimaeus did not let any excuse get in the way, and he did not let any detractors present there deter him. Let's look at verse 48 of our text. The Bible says, and many charged him that he should hold his peace. But he cried them more a great deal. Thou son of David, have mercy on me. So you mark it down. When you start having thoughts of coming to the Savior, the devil will send detractors to discourage you. I mean, I had friends and family say, oh, what, you're a Christian now, you don't do this, you don't drink this, you don't smoke this anymore, you don't do that. I mean, they were discouraging. But that's what the devil does. You need to look past them, you need to ignore the noise, because it's just placed there by the devil to discourage you. These distractors here, I mean possibly it was probably the other blind men with him. Maybe it was, you know, part of the crowd. Maybe it could have been some of the apostles. Who knows? Telling him to quiet. They didn't have his best interest in mind. And you would think they would have encouraged him to go to the Lord to be healed because he was the only one who could heal them. Heal him. They heard of these miracles also, but no. They told them basically to pipe down. Be quiet. Don't bother Jesus. Maybe they thought that Jesus would have no interest in a poor, blind beggar on the side of the road. But God's thoughts are not our thoughts, thank God. His ways are not our ways. We may roll up our windows passing a poor beggar on the side of a highway. We may pretend that we're on the phone to ignore someone begging outside of a store. We may look down on people because of our perceived elitism or foolish prejudices, but God doesn't see us like that. He sees us all as sinners in need. Thank the Lord that he's not like us. So we see there where Detract is present, but blind Bartimaeus was determined. He was determined. And in verse 48 again, and many charged him that he should hold his peace, but he cried the more, a great deal, even louder, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. His persistent cry was a simple prayer, a simple prayer that had fervor and zeal. Have mercy on me. Excuse me. Let's turn our Bibles to Hebrews chapter four, Hebrews chapter four. We'll be at verse 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So Bartimaeus spent his whole life begging for money. He had no dignity left. Amen? So it was nothing for him to beg the Lord for mercy. Amen? He addresses the Lord as Son of David. The fact that Bartimaeus addresses Jesus as the Son of David, which is a messianic title, shows that he recognized him as the Messiah. So let's look in Hebrews 11. If you're still in Hebrews, go to chapter 11. Let's look at verse 6. We're going to finish that, but without faith, it is impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God, what does it say there, must believe that He is. Amen? So, lost person, do you believe what the Scriptures say about Jesus Christ? Do you believe that He is God in the flesh? Do you believe that? I mean, people might say, like, you know, of course, I know who Jesus, but I remember I was talking to a family member, I'm not going to say who, but, um, I was talking about Jesus Christ coming to the earth to die for our sins, and I said, you believe that, right? And they said, perhaps. And I'm like, what do you mean perhaps? They didn't believe that Jesus Christ really came to, like it was some kind of fantasy or fairytale, which is wrong. I mean, time is measured by Christ, before Christ. Come on. Matthew 1.23 says, Do you believe the Gospel? The death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus Christ? We are commanded by Christ to repent and to believe. Let's go to Mark chapter 1. Mark chapter 1. If you're not repenting and believing, you're being disobedient to the command of Jesus Christ. Mark chapter 1. in verse 15, and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. So Bartimaeus believed who Jesus was and what he can do for him. He knew in order to have his eyes open, his mouth had to open. Now let's look at what Bartimaeus' great faith and persistent cry does. Let's go back to our text in Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10. in verse 48, and many charged him that he should hold his peace, but he cried to More a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And what does the Bible say? And Jesus stood still. Jesus stood still. I could just picture him with this in my mind's eye, just like watching him not knowing what Christ is and just trying to shout as loud as he can, Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus, on his way, focused, going to the cross, He stands still. Can we see what faith does? Faith stops and grabs at God's attention. That's what faith does. He stood still. Look at this effect. It was this unrelenting cry for mercy. It had such an effect on the Son of God. He stood still. It caught his attention. Faith works. We see that faith works. Faith in God is not a blind leap without any evidence, or even worse, contrary to the evidence. Faith is simple trust. It's trust. God is moved by faith, and He requires it. The centurion, we saw, had faith that Christ could heal his servant from afar. Let's turn real quick to Matthew chapter 8. Matthew chapter 8. And I'm not going to apologize for all the scripture references, because Brother Joe told me not to. Amen? So, deal with it. Matthew chapter 8, verse 5. And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion beseeching him and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou should cometh under my roof, but speak the word only and my servant shall be healed. Amen, for I'm a man under authority, having soldiers under me, and I say to this man, go, and he goeth, and to another, come, and he cometh, and to my servant, do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and he said unto them that followed verily, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. The centurion believed Christ could heal his servant, and he believed Christ can do it just by speaking the word only. He said, he shall be healed. Talk about unwavering faith that this centurion had. Hebrews 11.6, remember, he that cometh to God must believe that he is. The Syrophoenician woman cried out to Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, oh Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed with the devil, and we see that in Matthew 15.22. Our Lord answered her by saying, I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But after her persistent prayer, persistent prayer, she called him Lord. Our Lord commended her and said, O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. And our Lord also commended the faith of blind Bartimaeus. In Mark chapter 10 in our text, in verse 49, let's go there, Mark 10, 49, The Bible says, 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 thee. And he, casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus. So first we see the fickleness of the crowd, of the people, the detractors. A minute ago they were telling him to be quiet, not to trouble the Lord, and the next minute they're like, you know, be of good comfort, come, he's calling for you. So we see that he cast away his garment in verse 50, and he, casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus. Blind Bartimaeus, most likely, he looked apart every part of the beggar. I mean, he was disheveled. His garments must have been raggedy. They must have been heavy. You see, like, someone homeless, when it's cold out, they have, like, these big coats full of holes in them, and they're trying to keep themselves warm because they're outside. And he must have looked that way, and he must have smelled badly. The clothes must have weighed him down. He took off his dirty, raggedy robe as he came to Jesus, so nothing could hinder him. This pictures Him casting away His filthy rags of works, and the Lord is going to replace it with a robe of righteousness. Amen? And when a person comes to Christ, they need to cast away. The same way Bartimaeus casted away his garment, you need to cast away all your doubts. Forsake all your thoughts and just come to Him the Bible way. Repentance and faith. Amen? And what a contrast we see here with Bartimaeus and with the rich young ruler. Let's turn in our Bibles. Well, we're in Mark chapter 10. Let's go to verse 17. Verse 17. And we'll see the story of the rich young ruler. 1017, the Bible says, and when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running and kneeled to him and asked him, good master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is God. Thou knowest the commandments, do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness. Defraud not, honor thy father and mother. And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. Then Jesus beholding him loved him and said unto him, one thing thou lackest. Go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor. And thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come take up the cross and follow me and he was sad at that saying and went away greed for he had great possessions so the young the rich young ruler he acknowledges Christ as God because he said he called Jesus good master and Jesus told him that there was none good but God so he knew who Jesus was So when the Lord told him to sell whatever he had and to give it to the poor and to follow him, he was sad. And he went away grieved because he had great possessions. So he chose the world and his possessions over Christ. He chose his possessions. He chose his things. Listen now. He chose his relationships over Jesus Christ. And he went away sad in greed, the Bible says. So you see there's no joy in the temporal. You see the contrast. Bartimaeus casting his garment away, his only possession. And you will see how happy of a choice that was. And that brings us to our final point. Number three, his perfect cure. His perfect cure. Let's go back to our text in Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10. Verse 51 we see, 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. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole, and immediately Immediately, I love saying that word immediately, he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. So first we see Bartimaeus' desire. Bartimaeus has the Lord's attention and he asks, what wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man does not ask for material blessings. He doesn't ask for money. He doesn't ask to have his bills paid. Amen? It's like when Pastor trained some of us to do work when someone walks an aisle, he told us the first thing you should ask a person is, why did you walk the aisle? Like, you know, what do you want? Like, you don't want someone to come up and say, you know, me and my husband are fighting, and you know, me and my wife are fighting, or we're in debt. You want them to understand that their desire has to be to have their sins forgiven, and they want to be right with God. So that was Bartimaeus' desire. He's asking for a miracle. He's tired of his condition. He doesn't want to live in darkness anymore, Bartimaeus. And if you're lost today, and you know it, What's your desire? Is it your desire to have the blindness removed from your heart? Are you tired of your sin and life without Christ? Proverbs 13, 15 tells us that the way of transgressors is hard. It's hard. Are you tired of your spiritual blindness? Jesus said in Matthew 11, 28, Are you heavy laden? Remember that gospel tract I was talking about before that had the the depiction of sin as a heavy bag. That's why Jesus said, take my yoke upon you, because my burden is light. Why don't you come to Christ? Come to the Savior, the same way Bartimaeus did, with faith, believing He can save you. Let's turn in our Bibles to John chapter 6. John chapter 6, one of my favorite verses in all the Bible. And you hear it a lot from this pulpit. John chapter 6, verse 37. The Bible says, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I will in all wise cast out. So we see that Bartimaeus came to the Lord, and the Lord did not cast him out. If you come to him today, he won't cast you out either. Amen? His healing, we see, was definite. In verse 52, the Bible says, And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way, thy faith made thee whole. And, my favorite word, immediately he received his sight. So when we see, when Jesus healed someone, it was definite. It was definite, it was immediate. It was not like these charlatans we see on TV, amen, where you have to like give money today and then come back tomorrow to get the rest of the healing, right? He didn't defraud people, he did not make claims of healing, and he did not deliver. He delivered. Think of all the false claims that these hucksters make. I mean, I think of like Benny Hinn. It's one of our running jokes where we have this gif of him like Is it his coat? I don't know if they replaced it with a lightsaber, but he's knocking people out. It's just an act. It's so foolish. It's disgusting. It's blasphemy. Think of Harold Camping, who probably knows better now, with all his false predictions of when the end of the world was going to happen. Pat Robinson just recently said that the Earth was going to get hit by a meteor after the election. Did it happen? No, it did not. That's not like Jesus. Jesus was not a fraudster like these guys are. And just think, Bartimaeus, he didn't have to give money, he didn't have to, you know, pay off the disciples. Jesus just simply spoke and immediately he received his sight. Instantaneous healing. No surgery, no medical treatments, not come back again. Not so when the great physician is at work. His healing was immediate. Immediate and it was definite. And the same goes for when one is made whole spiritually. You pass from death unto life. You exit the kingdom of darkness and then you are translated into the kingdom of his dear son. You are dead in trespasses and sin and instantly your spirit is quickened, the Bible says. The Bible says, and immediately he received his sight. And then we see his direction. In verse 52 the Bible says, and immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. This was the natural reaction to being made whole by the Savior. It was to follow Him. Just as immediate as the healing was, so was Bartimaeus' instinct to follow Jesus in the way. The notion that someone is saved and gets away from the Lord for years clearly is not scriptural. And unfortunately, as Brother Coco can tell you, this is the testimony of many pastors today in the pulpit. Not every saved person is called into the ministry, but every saved person is called to serve God. John 10, 27, My sheep hear My voice, I know them, and they follow Me. Amen? The demoniac of Gadara was made free from his sin. Immediately, he wanted to follow the Lord. But in this instance, the Lord sent him back home to be a witness. Romans 6.22, of course, the day can't go by without us quoting Romans 6.22. But now being made free from sin and become servants to God, you have your fruit, holiness, and the end, everlasting life. So you're made free from your sin and become servants to God. Not 10 years later, not getting away from the Lord in my teenage years, and then I come back to serve the Lord after I was saved on my mom's knee when I was four years old. It doesn't work that way. Verse 52, and immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. Not only was Bartimaeus healed physically, but he was made whole spiritually. His life hereafter would never be the same. It's like that verse in 2 Corinthians 5.17, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things become new. Salvation brings new life. It brings new purpose. And this encounter with the Savior gave Bartimaeus a new direction. Let's turn to the Book of Psalms. Let's look at Psalm 40. Great verse. Psalm 40, excuse me, one and two. I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings." And this established my going speaks of a new direction. Bartimaeus, before his healing, was in a horrible pit. Amen? A horrible pit, literally the sounding pit, where nothing was heard except the howlings of wild beasts or the hollow sounds of wind. and broken from the craggy sides and roof. Harbored pit speaks of a deep dungeon where one is kept captive, similar to Joseph and Daniel. The miry clay, where the longer I stayed, the deeper I sank and was utterly unable to save myself. Think of quicksand. The miry clay is like quicksand. The more you need help to get out of quicksand, the more you try to work yourself, the lower you get and the worse off you get, the deeper you get. That's the same thing with work salvation. The more you try to work yourself out, the deeper you're going to sink. That's why you need somebody to help you. Jesus takes you out of the quicksand, out of the miry clay, and he puts your feet on a rock, on solid ground, solid footing. The pit of perdition, the mud of corruption, these are figurative expressions to point out the dreary, dismal, ruined state of sin and guilt, and the utter inability of a condemned sinner to save himself, either from the guilt of his conscience or the corruption of his heart. Set my feet upon a rock that has changed my state from guilt to pardon, from corruption to holiness, and consequence of which my goings are established. I have now power over all sin and can walk steadily in the way that leads to God's kingdom." Now that was a quote from someone, I don't remember who it was, but I'll look it up later. So it doesn't matter what pit or mirey muck that you're in today. The Lord is willing to pull you out. He is able to do exceeding, abundantly above all that we ask or think. But it's gonna require you to come to Him. Come to Him with the same faith that blind Bartimaeus had, with the same persistent, determined cry. Come to Jesus today, amen? He will, in no wise, cast you out. Amen? Let's pray.