[0:00] let him know we care about him and leaving the nest. So be in prayer for Alex. He's moving and he's going to step into a new world all by himself so to speak. Go work for the man.
[0:21] Anyway, let's get into our Bibles to Luke chapter 18 please. The gospel of Luke chapter 18. We're going to read at the end of this an account that Luke gives of a blind man that is healed. His name is Bartimaeus according to Mark's gospel.
[0:48] Three writers record this. They all give just little different details but we'll pick it up and read it from Luke and get the gist here of what's going on.
[1:00] In verse 35 the Bible says, And it came to pass that as he was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the wayside begging. And hearing the multitude pass by, he asked what it meant.
[1:15] And they told him that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by. And he cried saying, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And they which went before rebuked him that he should hold his peace.
[1:28] But he cried so much the more, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood and commanded him to be brought unto him. And when he was come near, he asked him saying, What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee?
[1:42] And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Receive thy sight. Thy faith hath saved thee. And immediately he received his sight and followed him, glorifying God.
[1:57] And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto God. Let's bow together and ask the Lord to help us here. Father, Lord, that's exactly it.
[2:08] I ask that you'd help us in this hour. I pray that you'd help us to understand what and why was this passage recorded, how we can apply it into our life today.
[2:20] And Lord, I'm thankful for the day that Jesus Christ passed by my way and restored what was wrong with me. And Lord, it's my prayer that we'd all see this clearly, that we'd understand it, not only your power and ability, and that you're the only one that possesses this ability, but also that we have a duty and a responsibility because of what you've done.
[2:45] I pray, Lord, you'll bless the hour in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So, there's a man. He's a certain blind man. I mentioned Luke, or Mark says his name is Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus.
[3:00] Rereading this a little bit and just making a few comments, pulling a few thoughts out of here to introduce this. It says in verse 35 that as Jesus was come nighed in Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the wayside begging.
[3:13] He's sitting by the wayside. This is the road. He's just sitting there along the road. Have you ever seen anybody sitting along the side of the road begging?
[3:25] I think we've all seen that kind of more than we want to see it. This is not a great position. He's not doing well for himself. He's in a pretty bad way. He's a blind man by the wayside.
[3:38] This is a popular traveled road coming and going in and out of Jericho. Just a very popular route. It's the very, there's a road, a very traveled road from Jerusalem descending down to Jericho and that's the one that those thieves jumped that certain man in Luke chapter 10 where the good Samaritan ended up coming by and healing him.
[4:01] And so on this road nigh unto Jericho there's a man sitting there begging. It says in verse 36 and hearing the multitude pass by, well of course because he's blind.
[4:13] He can't see anything. And so he hears stuff all day long but I'm sure he's picking up. There's an awful lot more people coming by right now than typically this time of day any day.
[4:24] And a multitude is passing by. It's so much that he's calling out what's going on? What are you doing? Why all this commotion? Why all these people?
[4:35] He doesn't know what's happening. And he finds out that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by. And he had to have heard something of Jesus. There's had to have been some stories. And Mark it says that he came to Jericho and that he was leaving.
[4:47] And so maybe some things took place just a few days before or just in that time frame that week that he's hearing of what this Jesus is doing. He calls out to him as the son of David so he understands that Jesus is the Messiah and has the belief of that that this man can do some things.
[5:02] He can heal. I've heard stories of Jesus. So he hears the multitude asking what's going on. And in verse 39 it said this. It says, They which went before rebuked him.
[5:15] So that means there's quite a crowd and quite a multitude and Jesus Christ being somewhere in that multitude is, this is the early part of the multitude. The people that went before Jesus as he's behind.
[5:28] And they're just rebuking him. Tell him, shut up. Keep to yourself. Be quiet. They rebuke the man. They which went before. So, some of these followers of Jesus are there and they meet him first as he cries out.
[5:44] Christ coming from behind. And then in verse 40 it says, Jesus stood. He stood. In Mark it says he stood still. And this is the only occasion, Matthew and Mark both say that, that Jesus stood still.
[5:56] The only time the Bible says something like that, Jesus stood still. Something arrested his attention and caused him to stop. Dead in his tracks. It was a blind man crying for mercy.
[6:10] And it's an interesting thought and we'll mention that again later on. So this story though, as we just read, it describes something greater than just a historical count of just one more of the miracles.
[6:21] Yep, Jesus does a lot of miracles. He healed this person and they brought that, brought the one down through the roof and he healed that one. He told the one, take up your bed and walk and now here he heals a blind man.
[6:31] It's more than just one more in all of the gospel accounts. There's definitely a purpose. It illustrates something to us and it's plain to see as we preach through this this morning.
[6:43] It illustrates a sinner coming to Jesus Christ in faith to receive something more than just eyesight. It illustrates a sinner coming to Jesus Christ to receive a gift of eternal life and then it describes even what subsequently follows receiving his sight.
[7:01] Now I want to point out three things from the end of this passage and it'll just be this. We'll look at the request, we'll look at the result and then we'll look at the response. And so the request we've already read, it's in twofold.
[7:14] It starts off by him calling out twice in 38 and 39 for mercy. Have mercy on me. Have mercy on me. When he comes to Jesus Christ specifically asks what do you want?
[7:27] He says, Lord, in verse 41, that I may receive my sight. That's the request. And that's all we get from the blind man. Just a request. He didn't give in to those that rebuked him.
[7:40] He pushed all the more, cried out the more. But that was all he did. All he got from this is a request. That's all we see from him. In this passage, he's a blind man.
[7:50] And his need then is really obvious. It's very obvious. This handicap that he lived with paralyzed his life. It brought him to the place that he is by the wayside begging.
[8:03] He doesn't have a government that's going to care for him and that's going to put him in an apartment and make everything accessible. That's not part of his life. As a matter of fact, the government just said, get out of the city.
[8:14] He's out there in a pathetically low place begging outside of the city. You know what he is? He's an outcast. He's an outcast.
[8:25] You know who else is outside of the city? Lepers are outside of the city. You know that in your Bible. Matter of fact, in Luke, I think just a chapter before, in chapter 17, there's an account of 10 lepers that are crying out to Jesus for mercy.
[8:39] There's lepers that are out. They're not allowed to be inside the city. Anybody that has a disease is sent outside of the city. They go show themselves to the priest. Yep, you've got to be put out for seven days.
[8:50] You come back and see me again. And for certain people, that's where they were. And Bartimaeus is sitting out there with another blind man, according to Matthew. He's got company and they're all outcasts.
[9:03] He doesn't belong inside. He's sitting on a road that is well-traveled and living a life where he's begging, relying on pity from other people.
[9:14] His legs are fine. He gets up and walks to Jesus Christ. His hearing is fine. I'm sure his hands are fine. If only he could see. That would make all the difference.
[9:25] That's his greatest need. And just to, I'm not going to illustrate being blind for you, but in thinking on this this week and in being here in the office yesterday and studying through this, I'm just trying to put myself into his shoes.
[9:41] He's trying to, I'm sure we've all walked in dark places before and stumbled. We understand what it is to not be able to see or not be able to see very well. I'm sure you've been blindfolded, played a game like that or anything.
[9:54] Yesterday, I just got out of my desk, closed my eyes and said, I'm going to walk around my office. It's just to live a life of a blind man for a little bit. And I made it by feeling my desk and chair and made it to the door, outside door.
[10:08] And I thought, okay, now I'm going to try to go to the other door. And I felt my way around and the whole time my hands are just going like this and I'm reaching, just my hands are moving nonstop, swinging my arms.
[10:21] If you could have seen me, I'd look like I was a bird that's trying to get off the ground. And I made it to the door and the door was open and I thought, let's see if I can make it through the fellowship hall in the kitchen and across here.
[10:33] And so I stayed against the wall and felt my way and the whole time I thought, I'm pretty sure there's no tables and chairs out sitting here. I'm pretty sure it's wide open. This should be really easy.
[10:44] And I'm just feeling the wall and I didn't want to be too dependent on that so I ventured off of it and my hands are just feeling, eyes are shut. And I'm coming across to where I felt carpet on my feet and I thought, okay, I know I'm in the fellowship hall and I know there's a column somewhere close by.
[11:01] If I can find that column the right way. And my hands are reaching for the column and I knew I just left the wall back there. The column's got to be right here and I'm going, I'm walking, taking another step, no column, taking another step, there's no column.
[11:14] And finally I gave up, opened my eyes and the column was back there. I had already walked right past it and veered off to the right and it just, it showed me I have no bearings.
[11:25] In my mind, I think I'm going somewhere straight. I so quickly can get turned off to the side. Not only that, but look like a complete utter fool walking around pretending I'm blind.
[11:37] Quickly, I got off course and very limited was I in my movement and clueless even to where I was. And really, I noticed I only knew for certain what I could touch.
[11:51] That was the only thing I knew for certain. I imagined things were a certain way in front of me and around me, but I didn't know it for sure if I couldn't put my hand on it. And it just reminded me as I played this silly scenario yesterday in the church of a lost man without Christ, the Bible describes him as being blind.
[12:14] The Bible says that the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. In Ephesians it says because of the blindness of their hearts. Jesus Christ dealt with the Pharisees.
[12:26] They said, are we blind also? And in so many words, yeah, you are. You're blind even though you say you can see. And a lost sinner without Christ, without God in this world is likened to a blind man and I thought to myself, man, how quickly you can get off course not knowing the Lord, not having the light of the word of God illuminating your path, not knowing the truth.
[12:49] How foolish you look and how dependent you are on what you can touch and all you know is what's in front of your nose. What you can see and feel in this life, that's all you have.
[13:02] You have no connection, no understanding, no vision of truth and reality of God and what he's created. I came to understand there's quite a lesson in that description of a sinner being blind.
[13:18] The Bible says that just like blind men, men love darkness. It says that they're of the night. It describes them as walking and stumbling in darkness, not knowing the light of the world.
[13:31] Bartimaeus in this story pictures for us a sinner that's in need of salvation. A sinner that hears the good news. He hears that Jesus is coming by and faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God and then this sinner calls out to the Lord Jesus Christ.
[13:53] As Romans 10, 13 says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. He pictures for us a sinner that's in need of salvation and Jesus stood still because any sinner can get Jesus' attention when he calls out to him for mercy.
[14:11] Christ will always hear the sinner's request for mercy. And so there's that picture there and there's in the request is this sinner calling out for mercy calling out for his sight to be received.
[14:25] And now let's see quickly the result. In verse 42 Jesus said unto him receive thy sight thy faith hath saved thee. In other gospels it said thy faith hath made thee whole.
[14:37] But Luke shows us there's a there's a greater picture here. Thy faith hath saved thee and immediately he received his sight. You want to talk about the result immediately he received his sight.
[14:52] Let's notice first of all this result was sudden. It was sudden. It was immediate. Jesus said receive thy sight. Can you pick can you see that?
[15:02] Can you this was a real miracle. Just setting aside the analogy and the message to stand there and see a blind man that is fumbling around and begging all and then to see him just boom looking around and beholding for the first time light and the first person he sees is the son of God that gave him his sight.
[15:23] Immediately there was no prescriptions written out and take this to the doctor take it to the high priest. There was no home remedies. There was no googling of how this is going to work out.
[15:37] No instructions that he had to carefully follow to the T no strings attached to any of this just receive thy sight. It took place that very moment and the only requirement was the man to exercise faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
[15:52] There was no candles. There was no confessionals. There was no baptism. There was no holy water. Nobody sprinkling anything. Nobody wearing robes and nobody kissing anybody. There was just Jesus Christ telling that man that had a great need receive thy sight and he received his sight.
[16:10] It was sudden. This blind man offered Jesus Christ nothing. He came to Jesus Christ a blind helpless beggar and he just asked him will you give me my sight?
[16:22] And right there on the spot he was made whole. It was sudden. You know what religion says? Jesus says receive thy sight. Religion says no, whoa, whoa. This man has to do something.
[16:36] You don't just give him eternal life. Okay, Bartimaeus what are you going to do? Are you going to give to the poor? Are you going to promise that you're going to do right the rest of your life?
[16:47] Are you going to be a good man? Are you going to clean up your life? What are you going to do for Jesus Bartimaeus if you want him to do that for you? That's not in the passage. He asked for mercy to receive his sight.
[17:02] The result was sudden. It happened right away. Jesus Christ was only looking for faith and for Bartimaeus to believe on him. And the salvation that we receive and the eternal life that God gives to sinners is just the same.
[17:16] It's not a process. It's not the sum of somebody's deeds and actions that build up over their life. That's what every single religion on this earth says. Not one of them is different.
[17:27] They all teach you to do this and do that and just keep on doing it and you'll get there. But that's not Bible salvation. The Bible salvation is not a process. It takes place in a moment.
[17:40] In a moment of time when a sinner calls out to Jesus Christ in faith. There may be steps that lead up to that moment. There may be people or influences.
[17:50] There may be a crowd that says it's Jesus of Nazareth. There may be those elements but when the sinner calls on Christ and has a face to face meeting with Jesus Christ asking for mercy, the salvation that's given is sudden.
[18:05] It happens immediately. You may speak to people that are already following Jesus Christ. That may happen in your life. It happened in his.
[18:16] But when you call on Christ it happens suddenly. Secondly, it's also satisfying. You can't miss that. He received his sight in verse 43. Immediately he received his sight.
[18:28] He rose up to come where Jesus was as a blind man and now he's no longer blind. that impediment that had consumed and had absolutely controlled his being, his life, his quality of life was gone.
[18:44] Was gone forever. He was powerless. Everybody else was powerless. Any doctors, any family members, anybody that loved him could do nothing to help this man to this day.
[18:56] But when he got his sight and they all saw it, that was some satisfying miracle. the results of this request was that he received his sight.
[19:10] He sat and begged. I mean, he begged. Just, what in the world? What kind of life is that? I have no, I cannot connect to that at all. To just have your hand out and put on a sad face and try to just please, please, and not have food, not be able to eat, not have any way of taking care of yourself or connect with other people or anybody that's going to love you because you're helpless and you're an outcast and you're blind.
[19:39] But then to call out to Jesus Christ and find out that he'll listen to you and he'll let you come on and bring him. In the other passages, he called for him to come to him and he'll bring you in that the Lord Jesus Christ would heal any of us.
[19:55] The result is that it was sudden, that it was satisfying, and as I said, the first person he sees is the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only that, but he's surrounded by believers. He's surrounded by believers in Jesus Christ that are now, according to that passage, giving praise unto God.
[20:12] What a difference, experiencing something that he had never known in his life. And so then this brings us to the most important thought this morning, the response. In verse 43, it says, immediately he received a sight and followed him, glorifying God.
[20:30] And then there's the response not only of him, but of the people. But for now, let's look at Bartimaeus' response. He followed him, glorifying God.
[20:40] With his blindness now gone and put behind him, his life is brand new. It's brand new from right there forward. He can see. He can understand things now that were once confusing, that he couldn't relate to, they were completely unrelatable in any way.
[20:59] That's all changed. He can walk and he can run without fear. I couldn't barely even walk six inches at a time yesterday without being afraid of smacking or tripping over something.
[21:12] This man's, all of that's gone. He can rejoice today like he's never rejoiced before in his life. Now he knows the Lord Jesus Christ personally.
[21:24] Now he can follow Jesus Christ along with a multitude of others. A multitude. His new life is now marked by bringing glory to God.
[21:35] It says that he followed him bringing glory to God. I imagine as Bartimaeus followed Jesus Christ, he gets to hear the word of God. Something that was rare, if ever, in his life.
[21:48] Now he can follow and hear the Lord Jesus Christ teach, hear him preach, see other sinners come to him, see him heal other people. He gets to experience a whole new thing, a whole new part of the life that he had never understood or perceived.
[22:04] And life continues to change as he's taught the word of God. He begins to learn things he's never heard before. He begins to grow in the truth. He begins to change on the inside.
[22:15] And this never would have happened if he was just a blind man sitting by the wayside begging. Now he not only gets to hear the word of God, he also gets to meet other believers, other men and other women that are traveling their lives with Jesus Christ, following him.
[22:32] Their lives have been changed also. These are people that have been following Christ for weeks, for months, for years even. Men that have been called, the apostles are there following Jesus Christ.
[22:43] Bartimaeus gets to set his eyes upon John and Peter. He gets perhaps to speak to them. He gets to hear of others that were healed and hears their stories of how they met Jesus Christ.
[22:54] There's a whole new world that's been opened up to him now that his eyes are opened up. Bartimaeus can hear the word of God. He gets to meet other believers. He gets to hear their stories.
[23:05] He gets to learn of Jesus Christ. He followed him. He could have said this. He could have said, wow, thanks. That's what I asked for. Thank you.
[23:18] And then just made his way right back over to the place that he knew and the company that he was familiar with, the people that he's been with for years. And he could have went right back and sat down and picked up his cup or his bowl and started begging again.
[23:37] That man could have done that. His problem, his greatest need was solved. He could have said, you know, that's nice. You all go on. This is where I'm from. And following is just not for me.
[23:51] He didn't even ask me to follow him. Peter, you better because he said follow me. But he didn't ask me to follow him. So, you know, you guys go ahead. I'll just go back to that.
[24:02] That's something that Bartimaeus could have done. He could have stayed with the beggars, people with diseases, messed up lives. But no, I don't think he was really interested in staying there by the wayside anymore.
[24:18] However, it's sad. It's sad to apply this thought and it's disheartening and it's really, it's disturbing and it hurts even when it's someone you know. To see some blind sinner call out to Jesus Christ and then just within a few short days or weeks go right back to where they were.
[24:39] There's a man that came to church here a few times and he said, boy, I needed this, I needed to get in church, I needed God in my life and then he disappeared. And I called, we talked on the phone and he was struggling with some things and I encouraged him, tried to encourage him to pray, to read his Bible, to actually put on the new man and try to walk in Christ.
[24:57] I tried to encourage him to get back in church and yeah, I'm going to try and gave me some excuses. And then I reached out again and won't even respond. Just went back to the wayside, just went back to begging instead of following Jesus Christ.
[25:12] It happens all too often. I believe this church would probably be filled, I believe so many other churches would be filled if there weren't so many beggars and sinners that went right back to where they were.
[25:23] Having met Jesus Christ, decided, that's fine, but I'm not really going to follow him. I'll just receive my sight and sit here and enjoy what it's like to have my sight.
[25:34] It is kind of sad. Now we look at his response that he followed him. I want you to see the response of others in the last part of the verse. It says, and all the people, when they saw it, they gave praise unto God too.
[25:51] And understand, it said all the people. You're talking about a multitude. You're talking about something blowing up right here. A loud, I'm sure the entire city is saying, now what kind of tumult is going on outside?
[26:03] What's happening outside? Oh, Bartimaeus received his sight. Bartimaeus, they knew who he was. That beggar that's always calling for our money, wanting us to help him.
[26:13] That outcast, that low man. Yeah, Jesus Christ did something in his life. He changed his life forever. And those people that were there couldn't help but to give praise unto God.
[26:27] The same people that earlier rebuked Bartimaeus are now praising God for what Jesus Christ had done. They didn't expect this to take place.
[26:38] They're just moving on. They're heading to the next town. They're thinking of Jesus and what he'll do. And they're bypassing these outcasts, these beggars and all else on the side of the road rebuking them.
[26:50] Get out of here. They're not thinking on that. They're thinking, what's Jesus going to do in the next town is work here and Jericho is done assuming we're done here.
[27:02] But to their unexpected surprise, Christ now has another follower. One very excited man that is glorifying God along the way. I don't know about you, but I think it's very exciting to see a new believer follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
[27:19] To get excited about Calvary and about salvation and then start into the Bible and start learning and get excited about things they're learning and to have questions and get answers and then get excited about the answers.
[27:32] It's a wonderful thing. I give praise unto God when a new Christian gets saved and when they grow in the Lord. It's a thrilling thing. It's a blessing to see their life change and to see them once a helpless beggar and now glorifying God.
[27:48] Does it get any better in this life? life? I'm reminded of something that's in connection with this passage. There's been several songs that have been written about Bartimaeus.
[28:02] There's a song that describes from the person of Bartimaeus saying, my name's Bartimaeus and all day long I sit by the wayside begging and it describes him coming to Christ and feeling power in his body and his eyes seeing and it kind of builds to a crescendo in the song.
[28:20] It's exciting. There's another song that's written that says, Jesus passed by my way and in verse 37 it says, they told him that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by and the song's written about what happened to Bartimaeus and it's likened to what happened to me and to you when we received our sight and were saved by Jesus Christ.
[28:42] Some years, a few years ago my wife has an uncle that passed away of a heart attack. He owned a garage and there in the office of that garage they found him laying on the floor dead.
[28:57] And the funeral, he didn't attend church, he wasn't a godly man in any way. The only hope of the family was that he grew up as a young boy, his mom took him to church with all the other boys, there's a load of them.
[29:13] And the only hope was he heard the gospel and believed on Christ but as the 50 to 60 plus years down the road, the few that were saved, they got together and they really could not nail down and say whether Dave was born again or not.
[29:27] They didn't know. None of them knew. His lifestyle was nothing of salvation, of the church, of the Lord, just drinking and cars and motors and turning wrenches.
[29:41] And so at his funeral, it was not held at any church but I guess a family member, a daughter or somebody went to some kind of pretty loose, soft kind of preaching church and so their minister came and preached the sermon or the funeral and what he did was this, he came to Luke chapter 15 to the prodigal son and he read the passage of the prodigal going into the far country and then he came to himself and he decided to go back home and he said this, my only hope is that our beloved Dave, in the moments that he was passing from us, that he had a moment that he could come to himself and call out to God.
[30:28] That's all he could say because there was nothing that he could say. There was no testimony from his wife or children or brothers or family that could say he's in heaven now, he's with the Lord because he trusted Christ.
[30:44] And we're all just sitting there like this is so aggravating, it's frustrating to sit here and to listen to this and not hear him even really preach the gospel and not know what happened to that man.
[31:00] And so what followed that, my wife was stirred about that, it bothered her. And so she decided to get up in church the next Sunday and sing a song, Jesus Passed By.
[31:12] And she sang about this blind man, Bartimaeus, that sat by the wayside begging. And the song describes him receiving his sight and what she said before she got up to sing, if there's like a few things in my life that I'm really proud of, of my wife, this is one of them.
[31:30] She gets up to sing, she doesn't like to be up there singing, she doesn't sing solos, she doesn't want to get in front of you, she doesn't want to get in front of anybody. But she got up there and said, my uncle just died and nobody knows if he was saved or lost.
[31:45] And I want everybody to know that I received Jesus Christ as my Savior. And that when I die, and when it's my casket, I want my kids and my husband and everybody in my life and family to know that I'm with the Lord because I've been saved.
[32:03] And she got up and sang as a blind man was sitting there by the way, he cried to Jesus for mercy that day. Jesus commanded and gave him his sight and oh, what a difference when Jesus passed by.
[32:17] I don't know if I remember the second verse to that. And just like that blind man, I wandered along in the darkness of sin. I was always alone. Then one day I met him and he made things right and oh, what a difference when Jesus passed by.
[32:34] What a difference. Well, my question is, what's your response to Jesus passing by your way? I don't know about that man that was in the casket that day because nobody knew.
[32:48] If he was saved, not a soul in the place knew it. I wonder about you. If you've received your sight, are you following him?
[32:59] And if you are, does anybody on this earth know it? Does anybody know it? Does anybody at your work know that you were a blind beggar and you met Jesus Christ and all you can do is follow him and glorify God?
[33:16] What is your response to Jesus passing by? Have you called out to him in mercy and received eternal life? If you've received it, then who knows about it?
[33:27] Does anybody know about it? Are all the people giving praise unto God? I imagine if Bartimaeus would have turned and said, I'm going right back to where I was, all the people would have been just jaws on the ground, just quiet.
[33:43] Like, what's up with him? And Christians today would say he's not really saved. He never received his sight. But there he would. But no, his following Christ, God's getting glorified from his life and he's getting praise from so many others.
[34:00] I wonder this morning, what's your response to Jesus passing by? I believe I'm preaching to mostly if not all saved individuals who understand the gospel and have exercised faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
[34:16] And that's great. Getting your sight is great. I wouldn't want to live without it. But then what's your response? that's what I want to drive home.
[34:26] What's been your response to receiving your sight? Are you following him? Because that's the only way there is to live the Christian life, is following him. Get up on that road, get out of that ditch, and follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
[34:40] See where he takes you. You'll get to hear his word. You'll get to learn things you've never learned before. You'll get to grow in ways you never imagined. You'll get to do things you never do sitting by the wayside with those outcasts.
[34:55] You'll get to glorify God. You'll get to spend time with God's people and learn of them and be encouraged by them and meet them and oh there's so much more.
[35:06] But what's been your response? Do you think those outcasts are more fun? Do you think that life has more to offer? You'll see it so much clearer when we get out of this life and when we stand on the other side and look back.
[35:22] I think when you are holy and without blame before him, when you're purified in your new body, you'll look back at this life and you won't even want to look back at this life.
[35:35] Even those of you who are trying to do right, you'll still look at yourself and say oh, I was so pathetic. I was so lazy. I was so full of fear.
[35:48] Instead of seeing what you could have been. Now I'm not trying to put pressure on anybody but I'm trying to draw this thought is are you following him like you ought to be following him and letting him lead you in this life now that you've been born again?
[36:02] If your eyes have been opened, where are you at? And who knows it? Who knows it? Let's close our eyes and bow our heads. We'll be dismissed here in just a minute.
[36:14] You have a testimony. You have a testimony that you don't get to write the story and decide this is what I want other people to say about me or think about me.
[36:29] You are writing the story by how you live your life and the words that come out of your mouth and your deeds and actions and your love for Jesus Christ. If any man loved God, the same is known of him.
[36:40] And if you're following Jesus Christ, the other believers see it and Jesus Christ sees it as do you. Your life's changed.
[36:52] I wonder if anybody knows. I wonder if those beggars in the ditch, if they know that your life's been changed. I wonder if they know that you've been born again and that you've received sight.
[37:06] Or do they say, hey, welcome back. Where you been? Because if they're blind, they don't know that you've received your sight. They can't see. Has there been a change in your life?
[37:22] Or Father, I pray that your word would have free course, that would bear fruit, that we'd be convicted and convinced of these things.
[37:34] May we follow the lead of Bartimaeus, that poor blind beggar, and how his life was changed, and follow you. Lord, that's all I want to do.
[37:46] That's all I want to do in this life. I don't care about anything else. I just want to follow you. I want to glorify you. You gave me my sight. You've redeemed me from my iniquities.
[38:01] You've pledged to give me so much more. I want to follow you. I don't care what this world offers. I don't care the temptations that are there. I want to follow you.
[38:14] Oh God, I pray you'd put it in all of our hearts, that desire and drive, that motivation and that duty to love you with all of our hearts, to stay close and allow you to lead and to never ever say no to you.
[38:35] May you get the reward for which you suffered. May you get the lives of each of your children here this morning. If anybody here is not sure that they're saved, God, I pray that you'd let them be impressed with their need to have their eyes opened and to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.
[38:55] Show them how it can be done today and let them not wait. As your heads are bowed and eyes are closed, I want to give you a moment to ponder and to consider if you're following the Lord Jesus Christ and secondly, does anybody know it?
[39:16] Does anybody at your work know it? Does your lost family know it? Do your friends know it? Have you told anybody?
[39:27] Have they seen a difference in you? God's called us to let our light so shine before men.
[39:42] God help us all to take that serious. You're going to give account of yourself before Jesus Christ for your response to him giving you your sight. Amen.
[39:53] Thank you.