[0:00] just now or in the days to come. Let's worship God. Worship his name by singing to his praise from the Scottish Psalter in Psalm 67. Scottish Psalter in Psalm 67.
[0:12] All our worship is from the Psalter this evening. Psalm 67, the first version of the psalm. Lord, bless and pity us, shine on us with thy face, that the earth thy way and nations all may know thy saving grace.
[0:25] Let people praise thee, Lord. Let people all thee praise. Or let the nations be glad in songs of their voices raise. Psalm 67, the whole psalm to God's praise.
[0:40] Lord, bless and pity us, shine on us with thy face, that the earth thy way and nations all may know thy saving grace.
[1:13] Let people praise thee, Lord. O let the nations be glad, in songs their voices raise.
[1:45] Christ, the Lord, bless and pity us, let the nations be glad, and may not be glad, in songs their voices raise. Thou justly people judge, on earth rule nations all.
[1:56] Let people praise thee, Lord. Let people praise thee, Lord.
[2:10] Lord, let them praise thee, O great and small.
[2:22] The earth, her fruit shall yield, our God shall blessings send.
[2:37] God shall us bless, and shall him fear, unto earth's utmost end.
[2:55] Let's join together in a word of prayer. Let's pray. Lord God, we come before you again this evening and give you praise, the privilege we have of being in this place gathered together.
[3:19] Gather together, not out of habit, not out of sheer pattern of our weekly schedule, Lord. We're here to worship you. We're here to glorify and to praise your name.
[3:30] Help us for a short time together this evening to know that you are here with us, that your presence is very much present, not because of anything special of this building, not because of anything special in us, Lord, but your presence is here because your word tells us that you have made your home in and with your people.
[3:49] You have chosen to dwell in your people, to make your home in us, to work through us. And because we're here this evening as your people, and you are here with us, we're here just now before the presence of you, the holy God, the only one who is the only truly living God.
[4:12] You deserve all power, all praises, all glory, one who is holy, holy, holy. And at this very moment, this very evening, as we gather together, we admit and we confess that we are creatures made from the dust.
[4:29] And in our bodies, in our minds, perhaps even in our spirits just now, we are so aware of that creatureliness. We are so aware of that dust we are made from. We are so aware of our frailty, so aware of our infirmity, even just now.
[4:44] We are so aware that we come before you a holy God who can behold no sin, who can behold no evil, a holy God who must and who does and who will perform justice, a holy God who is perfect in all you do and all you say, a holy God who right now sustains all of your creation, that nothing is beyond your power, nothing is beyond your understanding, you are the God who your word tells us who not only created but also as it were named and numbered the very stars of heaven.
[5:27] Your word also tells us that this evening you are the God who has numbered the very hairs on the heads of your people. Yes, you are great and lifted up.
[5:38] Yes, you are highly exalted. Yes, you are worthy of honour and praise for all eternity. Out of your love, out of your care, out of your mercy, you have the person of your son.
[5:51] You have made yourself knowable to your people. That you, out of your glory, out of your love, you for your own glory, you, Lord, for the sake of your son having a people for his own possession, you, out of love for your people, so we would have a saviour and a means of access to you that you sent your son.
[6:10] That you showed in so many glorious ways you're a God who is willing to come down to our level. Help us never to grow tired or to grow weary or feel wonder, but we have a saviour who's at your right hand, a saviour who stepped down.
[6:30] To come down for the eternal glory of heaven, the eternal glory of his name, his person being praised by the angelic host for all eternity, he stepped down from that privileged position.
[6:44] Born. Born into this world. Made like us in all ways apart from sin. Who felt every emotion we feel. Who saw and who experienced the full reality of being one of his creatures.
[6:58] Who saw the destruction and the pain and the misery that sin brought into his created world. Who lived every day stepping closer and closer to his death on the cross.
[7:10] Knowing what it was he was heading towards. Knowing he would hang on that cross out of obedience to the Father. Out of love for his people. For the joy that was set before him.
[7:21] He endured that for us as his people. Lord, help us not to lose sight of the glory and the beauty and the wonder of that. Help us not to grow tired of meeting together as brothers and sisters to think on these things.
[7:33] Would you pray for this gathering, for this fellowship, the brothers and sisters gathered here this evening. We thank you for them. We ask you to bless them. Bless us as we come around your word just now.
[7:44] To lay aside the various many anxieties and worries and concerns. The burdens that we have outside this place. For a short time, Lord, to listen to your word. To listen to you as you speak to us through it.
[7:57] We pray for those here this evening who are yours, who know you and who love you. We ask, Lord, you would open our ears and open our hearts. Help this evening to be a day of, an evening of blessing for us.
[8:08] Help this day to be a day where we have spent time together, time around your word. We would leave this place having grown in our love and in our knowledge of you. We pray also for those here this evening who are yours but who, for whatever reason, are feeling far away from you.
[8:25] Those who have wondered or those who feel as if they're wondering. Lord, we ask you bring them back to yourself. You would show them that you have not changed that you have not moved. We pray for those who long to be here.
[8:38] Brothers and sisters who would wish nothing more than to gather together with their fellow saints but who, through reasons of age and infirmity and for other various reasons, cannot gather as often as you wish.
[8:52] Lord, we ask you to be with them. They're alongside them and if it's your will, Lord, you would afford them even just now a certain special sense of your presence with them that they would know that we are praying for them.
[9:05] We pray for those who mourn, even those who mourn of recent in this congregation, Lord. You know their exact situations. You know the exact pain they're in. Lord, you alone can come alongside and comfort them.
[9:20] Your Holy Spirit, he alone is the ultimate comforter. We ask you give us wisdom as we seek to comfort them. Help us in ways practical to be of assistance. Help us to spiritually and practically and in love to come alongside those who are mourning just now.
[9:35] We pray for those also who are mourning perhaps of a death of many months, indeed many years ago, as anniversaries come and go, Lord, at this time of year. We pray for them that you be with them also. We pray, Lord, for those here this evening who don't wish to be here.
[9:51] Those here this evening who perhaps have been taken out by a loved one, by a wife, by a husband, who are here just to take off a box for the week. Lord, first of all, we thank you for them. We thank you they are here.
[10:03] We thank you they find themselves in this place hearing your word. We ask that even this evening, even though they have no desire to be here, that you would, through your word, impact them. Through your word, you would open their eyes.
[10:16] You would turn their heart of stone to a heart of flesh. Likewise, we pray for those who have no interest in this place, for those who have no idea and no care for you or for your word.
[10:28] We pray even for those who we love, those who we care for deeply, those who are our family members and our friends, our colleagues and our neighbours, those who we long to know you, those who we long to see transformed, those who, as it stands, are facing a lost eternity.
[10:45] Lord, we ask you would use us, use us as bold witnesses, gentle, loving, careful. Give us opportunity, we ask, to share the gospel with those around us who desperately need to hear it.
[10:58] Lord, forgive us for the many times that we shy away from sharing the gospel, the many times we find ourselves lost for words and to our shame we find ourselves embarrassed, if we're honest, embarrassed as how we say things or how we do things.
[11:13] Lord, give us, we ask, wisdom. Give us, we ask, opportunity. Help us to be zealous with that true zealousness as we seek to share the gospel to those who need to hear it.
[11:23] Lord, help us this evening to find our minds and our hearts focused on your word. Lord, bless this congregation, bless all that goes on in this place. Bless your word that goes out from this place day after day and week after week.
[11:36] We pray especially just now for your pastor here, Lord, we do pray for Reverend McKeever, we thank you for him. We pray, Lord, you be a strength just now as he recovers from the illness, Lord, that you be with him and help him.
[11:49] We do pray for this congregation as a whole as they find themselves in the process of looking to have one to serve alongside Reverend McKeever as their assistant minister.
[12:00] Lord, we ask for wisdom for the congregation, wisdom for those involved in the process. Also, I do pray, Lord, for the one whom we have in mind. Thank you for him and thank you for his ministry.
[12:13] Pray for him and pray for his family in the days and weeks, indeed, perhaps even months to come. Lord, that your name would be praised whatever the outcome may be, that you would be glorified. Your people would be upbuilt in you.
[12:28] We come before you this evening and we are aware of our sinfulness. We are aware, as we said, of our frailty. We are aware that even this day we have sinned against you, a holy God, in our words, in our actions, that to our shame, perhaps even willingly, we have gone astray.
[12:49] We ask you, bring us back to yourself. Help us to cling to the one source of true salvation that there is, the Lord Jesus Christ, to cling on to his promises, to remind ourselves of his finished work and that alone.
[13:05] We ask all these things in and through and for his name's sake. Amen. Well, let's now turn to reading God's word at the Gospel of Mark.
[13:18] Gospel of Mark in chapter 10 and we can read from verse 32 of the chapter. Mark chapter 10 in verse 32.
[13:33] We'll read to the end of the chapter. Mark 10, verse 32. Let's hear the word of God. And they were on the road going up to Jerusalem and Jesus was walking ahead of them and they were amazed and those who followed were afraid.
[13:55] Taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, See, we're going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles and they will mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him.
[14:17] After three days, he will rise. And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.
[14:28] And he said to them, What do you want me to do for you? And they said to him, Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory.
[14:40] Jesus said to them, You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or to be baptized the baptism of which I am baptized? And they said to him, We are able.
[14:53] And Jesus said to them, The cup that I drink, you will drink. The baptism which I am baptized, you will be baptized. But to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.
[15:08] When the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And Jesus called them to him and said to them, You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.
[15:23] But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant. And whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even a son of man came not to be served, but to serve, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
[15:41] And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.
[15:59] And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped and said, call him. And they called the blind man, saying to him, take heart, get up, he is calling you.
[16:16] And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, what do you want me to do for you? A blind man said to him, Rabbi, let me recover my sight.
[16:30] And Jesus said to him, go your way. Your faith has made you well. And immediately, he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.
[16:42] Good praise to God for his holy and his perfect word. Let's again sing to God's praise, this time singing from Psalm 40. Psalm 40, these great words, of course, of salvation.
[16:59] Psalm 40, we can sing verses 1 down to verse 5. I waited for the Lord my God and patiently did bear. A length to me did incline my voice and cried to hear.
[17:11] He took me from a fearful pit and from the miry clay on a rocky set my feet establishing my way. Psalm 40, verses 1 to 5 to God's praise. I waited for the Lord my God And this and he did bear A length to me he did incline My voice and cry to hear He took me from a fearful pit
[18:12] And from the mighty glade And on a rock he set my feet Establishing my way He put a new song in my mouth Her God to magnify Many shall see it and shall fear And on the Lord rely
[19:17] O blessed is the man whose trust Upon the Lord relies Respecting not the proud For such as turn aside to lies O Lord my God The wonderful many are The wonders Who has done Thy gracious thoughts
[20:20] To us were far Above all thoughts are gone In order none can reckon To thee if them declare And speak of them I would be more Than can be numbered Let's for a short time Come back to the chapter we had Mark chapter 10
[21:20] Mark chapter 10 We can look this evening at the account we have From verse 46 to the end I can't we all know so well I'm sure For the healing of Bartimaeus For the sake of the text We can perhaps just take The last two verses Verse 51 and 52 And Jesus said to him What do you want me to do for you?
[21:49] A blind man said to him Rabbi let me recover my sight And Jesus said to him Go your way Your faith has made you well And immediately He recovered his sight And followed him On the way The last time We were together We were looking I believe In the Psalms We were looking at some of the The pilgrim Psalms The Psalms about journeying About how We saw that the Christian life Is one of travel One of journey Even before that A few years ago We looked together already In Psalm 84 And seeing that great Psalm Speaking of the Christian's journey This evening In these few Short verses We also have a journey Of sorts It's a much shorter journey In some ways But also It's an eternal journey We follow the journey Of this man Bartimaeus This poor blind man And we see his journey
[22:49] Not just from Blindness To receiving sight But also from death To life We also see his journey To eternal life As we go on Through these verses Together this evening As we go through them We'll look just very simply Following the verses Under four very General headings First of all Looking Verses 46 Down to verse 48 We see the condition Of Bartimaeus His condition Then in verse 48 Again we see the crowd Around Bartimaeus Then verses 49 To verse 50 We see Or we hear Of the call And also the care Of Jesus Towards Bartimaeus And finally In the last few verses We see the conversion So his condition The crowd around him The call of Jesus Towards him And finally His glorious Conversion Conversion As we spend
[23:49] A short time Looking At this wonderful Section of scripture Those of us here This evening Who know the Lord Those of us Who love the Lord As we go through These verses What a chance Is for us To be reminded Us to the wonder And the care And the love Of our saviour His tenderness Towards this man His care Towards this man And each one of us Here this evening Who are Christians That's all true I'm sure We can all say We find ourselves Somewhere In the story Of Bartimaeus Each one of us Who know the Lord Who love the Lord We can all say Can't we But once Yes we were blind Once we were Nothing more Than a beggar Spiritually a beggar But now We've been given sight Now we've been given All the riches And more riches Could it ever Have begun To ask for For any here This evening Perhaps even Those online Who as of yet Don't know Jesus You as of yet
[24:49] Cannot say That you know him That you love him That you follow him Please listen To God's word This evening You've probably Heard this account Many many times I'm sure you have But listen Just once more This evening To God's word And hear As to the journey Of this man As to his journey From blindness To sight His journey From being lost To being found By the saviour And just as the Christians We can find ourselves In this account Our hope And our prayer Is You'd find yourself In this story This account Even this evening You come into this place Yes you are Spiritually blind We'll see that later on But our prayer is God through his word Would work Even this evening You'd leave this place Like Bartimaeus With your eyes opened Following Jesus Let's begin With our section here Looking at the condition Of this blind man Verses 46 down
[25:51] To verse 48 We find a few things Actually about Bartimaeus Scripture tells us A good few details Of course Jesus We said Jesus The disciples They've just Walked out of Jericho They've left Jericho As he passed Jericho As a crowd Passes Jericho Our attention is drawn Away from the crowd To the city walls To outside city walls Our eyes are drawn Down on the ground And here we find This man Bartimaeus A blind beggar The son of Timaeus He's sitting By the roadside A blind man A beggar A man Who had no hope In this society We of course Read this account And we do of course Feel sorry I'm sure For Bartimaeus We think Well that's a hard life He had But perhaps we forget That even in our culture We are so privileged In many ways We have a health service We have charities We have all these
[26:52] Different groups Of course there are many We know ourselves Who are still beggars In our towns In our cities But there's help For them There's at least some Help for them In some way Not true for Bartimaeus Not true for the beggars Of his day There's no health service There are no charities This man is useless He is worthless He's uncared for He is here Outside the walls On the ground The crowd's just Passing him by No care for him No time for him Not giving him A second look We could say He has no use To society No purpose Towards society He has no use Or purpose in life We could say As far as the crowd Around him Sees him A useless Pointless Worthless Blind beggar Who they pass by Day After day Scripture tells us more
[27:56] About this blind man We see As we read on In verse 47 This blind beggar As uncared for As he was We're sure We find three more Things out about him First of all He knew something About Jesus Verse 47 He heard Jesus What's passing by When he heard It was Jesus of Nazareth He began to cry out And say Jesus son of David Have mercy on me At some time In some way This blind man As he sat And begged And listened to the crowds Passing him by He's heard something About Jesus Something about this man Who they say Is doing miracles This man Who they call Perhaps the Messiah The Saviour This man Who they've called The son of David The one who's been Promised to come And to save his people Bartimaeus has heard Something about Jesus How much
[28:58] Or how Of course we don't know But he's heard something He's heard enough About Jesus To know That Jesus Might just be able To help him He might just be able To help him Somehow This man Who's healed Other people This man Who's saved Other people This man Who's perhaps Even given Other blind people's sight Maybe Just maybe He might help me Too He knew Something about Jesus But also this blind man He also He knew His need We'll see that More later on He knew He needed help He knew That no one And nothing else Could help him And he knew He needed Jesus To stop He knew He needed Jesus To come And to come Alongside him And to help him And to heal him We'll see that Of course As we go on As we look And remind ourselves As to the condition Of Bartimaeus
[29:58] We find ourselves I'm sure Thinking This is a poor soul And he was a poor soul In all definitions Of that word Of course he was But the truth is That there are some Here this evening Who are Just as bad And perhaps We could say Even in a worse Condition A worse state Than this poor Blind beggar By the side Of a road How can you say that Who are you Who are you To come up there To tell me That somehow My life is worse Than a poor Useless beggar A few thousand Years ago And perhaps You have all You want in life You've had a good life You're successful Perhaps Good job Happy family And so on And so on And we praise the Lord For that Always good gifts Come from him But scripture tells us That without Jesus Spiritually You are blind Spiritually
[30:58] You are blind You have no hope Of seeing No hope of healing Yourself Even more than that And perhaps even more Offensive To our egos More offensive To our personality Scripture tells us But without Jesus We're also beggars You think Well yeah I'm not I'm really not I provide for myself I provide for my family And so on I'm sure you do I'm sure you do But spiritually Dear friend You are a beggar Like Bartimaeus You're just waiting For the world To throw you scraps As it passes you by Nothing for yourself Can't really help yourself You just sit there Waiting as the world Passes you by As it throws you A few pennies And a few scraps Here and there It's perhaps
[32:01] Even worse than that There are some here Perhaps even this evening And you're actually Much Much Worse Than this poor Blind beggar Your situation Is perhaps Much more dire Than his ever was Because for all His infirmity For all his Many issues And problems He knew his need He knew his need And more than that He knew only Jesus Could help him In that need This poor blind beggar For all the issues And problems he had He knew He had To call out to Jesus To save him To help him If you're here this evening And we love That you are And we praise God That you are And we love to see you With us Of course we do Perhaps even those online We love We praise God That you're listening in If you're here Or listening this evening And if as of yet You have no interest In Jesus If as of yet You can't say You've called out To him To save you
[33:02] And you find yourself In a worse place Than this man By the roadside These few thousand years ago These few thousand miles away He knew His need He knew Jesus alone Could help him Jesus alone Could save him So what happens He hears Jesus Is coming by And Bartimaeus We see in verse 48 What does he do Go in verse 47 We see he cries out Jesus son of David Have mercy on me What happens What happens The second Bartimaeus Opens his mouth To call out to Jesus In verse 48 And many rebuked him Telling him To be silent To be silent We praise God For our Bible translations And we have The blessing In our country Of many Many good translations And we trust These translations Well But there's something
[34:03] In verse 48 The wording here It's good It's correct Of course it's correct But it's much more strong And even from a pulpit Perhaps You'd be quite uncomfortable Saying The strength Of the words Of verse 48 The crowd rebuked him Telling him to be quiet To be silent It's Sit down And shut up Bartimaeus Keep your mouth shut That's what we're saying The stronger words Being used here Bartimaeus Sit down Keep your mouth shut Shush Know your place Stay where you are The second Bartimaeus Calls out to Jesus The crowd Fires up And they keep Or try at least To keep him Quiet To keep him silent To keep him down Dear friends The Christians here The brothers and sisters here Will tell you That our testimonies I'm sure Will all match In some way That the second We began To show a saving interest In Jesus Either the crowd
[35:03] Around us Or even ourselves Internally We find The opposition Beginning straight away Don't we Even as Christians If we're honest How many days Have you woken up And had a good plan Of praying And reading scripture Phone goes Something else happens Chores get done And if we're honest Evening comes Bible is there Still closed Prayers are unsaid And the day has gone by And we've said and done nothing Dear friends The second you show us A saving interest in Christ You will face opposition You will It will come again Internally Because naturally We know from scripture Naturally We hate God Naturally We despise him Naturally We do anything To go away from him But also you'll face Opposition from those Around you Those who love you And those Who mean well As they see you Perhaps come out To church more often As they see you
[36:03] Reading your Bible More often As they see you Perhaps wanting to pray Or wanting to come To the prayer meetings And so on and so on They'll begin to worry For you That family member That friend Who cares for you Will think What's happened to them I mean They're okay with you Coming to church But once you think Well now they're actually Believing this stuff They believe this Ancient book They actually believe What's being said From the pulpits And it worries them Because naturally Of course They want nothing To do the gospel either You will face Almost immediate Opposition We give praise to God That in our culture In our country Our opposition We face It's not Hardly ever violent It's hardly ever vicious But at times And for some people That is the case We know that sadly There are some Who face awful Opposition from Family members And friends But you will face Vitriol You will face Mocking You will face All manner Of opposition The second you show
[37:04] A saving interest Or any interest at all In wanting to know More about Jesus And following him If this evening You find yourself Even just now Wanting to know more Wanting to examine Wanting to read more Wanting to find out more About who Jesus is Just be prepared For opposition What happens here In the face Of opposition What happens Once a crowd In verse 48 Tells Bartimaeus To keep his mouth shut And to sit down Does he follow them Does he listen to them What happens Verse 48 The second half He cried out All the more Son of David Have mercy on me Bit Helen Bartimaeus Shush And he just shouts Even louder Dear friends When the opposition Begins to ring in your ears Don't give up Don't give up
[38:04] When the devil Himself Feels as if it's Dragging you away From your Bibles And from prayer And from Finding out more About who Jesus is Don't give up Follow Bartimaeus You just Keep your ground And you cry out All the more Towards Jesus What would have happened If Bartimaeus Had listened To the crowd Around him What would have happened If he had Kept his mouth Shut He shouts out To Jesus The crowd Says Shush He listens to them He sits As a way back down Quietly And he lets Jesus And the crowd Pass him by What we know From scripture And we in fact Even read together In verse 32 onwards In that section That Jesus Would not Pass this way again Simple as that Jesus is heading Of course
[39:05] Slowly at this point Towards The cross Jesus would no longer Would ever again Pass by Where Bartimaeus Was And if Bartimaeus Had kept his mouth Quiet Had sat down And said nothing And if he had Listened to the crowd Jesus Would have We see here Quite literally Passed him by His chance Would have Passed him by He lived out The rest of his days As that blind Beggar Dear friends The illustration Here is clear Isn't it It's not complicated You've heard this Before And we've said this Before Even from this Poupet I've said it Before But we get So comfortable Don't we We get so comfortable In our Procedures We're comfortable In our process We get so comfortable In our weekly Patterns Why does anyone Stand up here Why are we here We're here Because this is Real This is serious The gospel
[40:05] Is real The gospel Is for all Who listen to it But also the Consequences of Ignoring the gospel Are real Just like Bartimaeus If you Let this Gospel chance Pass you by And we know This ourselves So well And we see it In our own lives I'm sure many of Us have known This in our lives Of how quickly Life can change That one phone call That one wrong Turn on the road And so on And so on And life is destroyed And life is changed And opportunity Is gone It's gone Be like Bartimaeus Be like Bartimaeus Even this evening What's keeping you away From calling out to Jesus Just now Generally What is keeping you away How do you answer That question Dear friends Is it pride Is it pride Is it what others
[41:06] Would say About you Think About you And to our shame That's often the case Isn't it Is it perhaps You think You aren't good enough Aren't holy enough Aren't well versed Enough in your scriptures Aren't living a good Enough life Dear friends For how many Have gone before you Who live a better life Than you lived Who know their Bible's better Than you know them But who die Not knowing Jesus Be like Bartimaeus Call out Even just now In your minds Call out Take this chance As the Lord Has given it to you Once more This evening He calls out He ignores The crowd And he calls Out To Jesus Don't be dismayed Don't be disheartened
[42:07] As you face opposition Cry out All the louder So what happens He calls out He cries out What does he Take in place In verse 49 And Jesus stopped And said Call him And Jesus Stopped Professor John Angus Always reminded us In college That there's no Wasted words In scripture How true that is The start Of verse 49 Doesn't need to be there Really does it It doesn't add To the story Because it doesn't add To the account Jesus stopped But actually of course It does It adds so much Here we see Jesus The son of God We read of course In verse 32 Here he is His mind on the cross Heading that way Slowly Every day It passes He is one
[43:07] Step closer To bearing on his shoulders The full wrath Of all the sins Of all his people He is about to face A hell A literal hell We can't begin To imagine He is about to face An eternity worth Of wrath Poured out onto him For the sake of his people All the time Being mocked All the time Being derided All the time Living his every day As fully man Fully God But fully man Seeing the disaster That sin Has created And caused In his created world All that weight All that pressure Pushing down On our saviour As he makes way To the cross And he hears The cries And the calls Of that one Useless Pointless Worthless beggar Who was sitting By the roadside Jesus Son of David Have mercy on me Jesus Have mercy on me Again The words Of Bartimaeus here
[44:09] They're The grammar of it Is repeated He's not crying out Once He's crying out Again and again And again Bartimaeus is crying out Again and again Again The eternal Son of God Our great and glorious Saviour He stops He stops To hear The cry Of this man A man who is Worthless to the world But who is not Worthless to Jesus Jesus stops To listen to What happens then Jesus stopped And said Call him And they That's the disciples And the followers Of Jesus And they called The blind man Saying to him Take heart Get up He is Calling You Take heart Get up He is Calling You Dear Christians This is where we Again find ourselves Coming into this story Isn't it This account Here is The great
[45:09] And glorious Privilege That we have As Christians This is the duty It's given to us Isn't it As those who follow Jesus Jesus gives us This duty To tell Those around us To share With those around us The great Glorious Gospel call Of this verse What is the gospel We share What is the gospel We as Christians Have been entrusted with To tell Those around us Take heart Get up He is calling you We can't save anyone We know that We can't save anyone We could sit here And stand here And go through Every sermon I could think of And your minister Could come back Tomorrow And he can go Through all his Archive of sermons We can go down the road And go through their archive And go through every church On the island We can't save anyone What is our job As Christians Is to point them To someone
[46:10] Who will save them Who can save them Our job is to echo The cry Of this gospel call To tell Those around us To tell those Who are lost Who are blind Who are dead spiritually Tell them Take heart Get up He is calling you Christians This is our duty This is our privilege Even this new week What a joy it is for us What a joy it should be For us at least That we as believers Have this great Gospel commission Given to us Not dependent On our experience Our ability And so on and so on Each one of us Has been placed In our own mission field Haven't we In your own home A place of work A place of study perhaps To your neighbours Day by day Whatever your life Looks like That is where God Has placed you To serve him To take out This gospel call Again for those Here this evening This is the gospel call Once more being said To you Once more
[47:11] This is it being Shared to you The words of Jesus To Bartimaeus Are being repeated Again this evening And they're being said To you Take heart Get up He is calling you Dear friends As we said We can't save you If we could We would We would We would We would come And shake you And make you believe Make you cry To Jesus yourself That doesn't work The gospel call That works Because it's God's word This is the call To you Once more If nothing else This evening Listen again to this This is the gospel call To you As you search For meaning Search for purpose Search for answers As you see That there's something else In life Surely there's more To life Than I've experienced So far Surely there's a reason And a purpose Surely there's a way Of salvation The call of Jesus
[48:12] Comes out to you And he says Take heart Get up He is calling you Dear friends That's a call To you just now Take heart Get up He is calling you What's the response Of this gospel call To finally come To the response The conversion We could say Of Bartimaeus Let's see us In verse 50 To the end So Bartimaeus Hears this gospel call And throwing off His cloak He sprang up And came to Jesus Just the same way That the words We see in verse 48 To describe the The rebuke And the Vitriol Of the crowd Are quite Carefully worded Here we have the same again In verse 50 This throwing off And the springing up Strong words That cloak is gone He chucks it off
[49:13] And he springs up He's gone The second he hears The call of Bartimaeus Is somehow Clawing his way Towards where Jesus is Or being helped We hope Again No wasted words In scripture Why are we told His cloak Has been thrown off Why do we care Why is it important to us What is this Cloak What was his cloak To him It was his world Wasn't it It was his world It was all that he had Was his cloak At this time It was what he used To gather And to collect The scraps Of food And the pennies And whatever else Was thrown at him From the world This cloak Which represented All that he once was All that he once did It's gone It's thrown off Spartimaeus Is about to be Cloaked About to be covered By something Much more glorious Than his cloak He's now about to be Covered by the Finished work By the By the righteousness Of a saviour
[50:13] Who has called him Who has shown love To him And he springs up He springs up He makes his way Straight to Jesus The old life Has been thrown off him And when Jesus Asks this Almost strange question You can say Jesus said to him What do you want me To do for you?
[50:37] Jesus knew Jesus knew What Bartimaeus needed Of course he did He knew That he was about To heal this blind man And give him life And give him sight But still we see The care Of Jesus Jesus' respect This man As a created creature And he asked Bartimaeus What Will I do for you?
[51:04] What do you want To do for you? The blind man says Rabbi Let me recover My sight Rabbi Let me recover My sight Rabbi Let me see Let me see And this is the cry Isn't it Every Christian Here this evening This has been our cry At some point Rabbi Teacher Jesus Open my eyes Please open my eyes The Christians here As we once felt That darkness And we once realised That we've been Spending our whole life Walking with our eyes shut Walking in darkness And our cry One day was Jesus Open my eyes Let me see And we see the world Didn't we?
[51:45] We saw the world As it really was We saw him As he really was He opened our eyes And we're no longer Scared of him He opened our eyes And we're no longer At the weight Of the burden Of our sin Hanging over us He opened our eyes And like Bartimaeus We were able to Spring up And go straight to him Rabbi Let me see Let me recover My sight And Jesus said to him Go your way Your faith has made you well And immediately Immediately He recovered his sight And followed him On the way Dear friends Perhaps as Christians And we do take blame For us as Christians And we must As Christians take blame We add sometimes We add to salvation We add layers And we add parts What scripture does not give us And we're wrong in doing that And we know that And we confess that But salvation
[52:47] Is expensive It costs our saviour All We know that But to receive salvation To receive salvation If we receive it Like Bartimaeus It doesn't require Any great performance There's no special ceremony There's no song No dance No special handshake What is required in salvation?
[53:09] To cry out to Christ for it To cry to Jesus That he would save you He would open your eyes There's no performance here There's no ceremony Immediately He recovered his sight Christ's ability His power His infinite wisdom And power And love And care as such But this is the reality Isn't it?
[53:32] Immediately You come this evening to Jesus And you gently cry out That he would save you He opened your eyes This month This week This day Come and cry out That he would open your eyes What does Bartimaeus bring?
[53:47] He brings nothing other than The knowledge That only Jesus can help him You this evening Have so much more Biblical knowledge And understanding I'm sure Than Bartimaeus had Of course you do You have the privilege Of how many years In this building How many years Under the gospel Take all that Bully to Bartimaeus And go straight to Jesus This evening Ask Jesus The same thing That he asks Rabbi Lord Teacher Jesus Let me see Let me recover my sight Immediately He recovered his sight And followed him On the way See Jesus tells him To go your way Go your way Your faith has made you well But Bartimaeus Could have of course Gone back To the life He had known The only life He had known Backed and Grabbed his cloak again And sat down again And started begging After all
[54:48] That's his job Because that's His life Jesus says Go your way Of course Bartimaeus does Go his way Doesn't he His way Is now the way Of his saviour He immediately Recovered his sight And followed him On the way What have we said Of you This evening What have we said Of you Perhaps even this week You cried out To Jesus That he would Give you sight That he gave you That sight He gave you That new life That he saved you That you Like Bartimaeus Are now following him On the way That's our hope That's our prayer That's what we desperately Long to see True for everyone In this place This evening Like Bartimaeus You would know Jesus for yourself You would see him For yourself You would follow him For yourself Let's bow our heads Now A word of prayer Lord God
[55:49] We again Thank you for your word Thank you Lord For the gift of it We ask that As we have read Now the account Of blind Bartimaeus Of the care And the love And the Compassion And mercy Of your son Towards that Blind man We do ask That would be The same testimony For many here This evening They find themselves Blind now But they would come To know For themselves What it is To see To see truly To see eternally To have their eyes Opened For the one Who has done all That needs to be done For their salvation Lord you forgive Anything that was said Not in accordance To your word To give you praise That the power Is not In the one who Preaches the Lord The power is in Your living word I ask you Bless your people Here this evening Encourage us Also as we seek To be reminded Of the wonder Of our salvation You are a God Who saves All that comes to you You are a God Who saves all Who cry out For that salvation You are a God Who has saved Your people Here this evening You gave us These new eyes That new heart And our way Is also now
[56:49] The way of our saviour Help us As we come to sing Our final item of praise To do so Of hearts and minds Focused on you Giving you praise It's got all these things In and through And for Christ's Precious name's sake Amen Let's conclude By singing to God's praise I'm seeing the One of the words Of course is Psalm 46 Scottish Psalter And Psalm 46 Singing verses 1 Down to verse 6 God is our refuge And our strength And streets are present In streets are present
[58:02] In Therefore Although The earth Remove We will Not be Afraid Though Hills Amidst The seas Be cast Though Waters Roaring May And Troubled Be In O'er The hills Thy Swelling Seas To Shade A river A river
[59:03] Is Who Steams To Glide The city Of Our God The city Of Our God The holy The holy The holy Place Wherein The Lord Most high Hath His abode God God In the midst Of Her Doth Dwell Nothing Shall Her Remove The Lord The Lord To Her Unhelper
[60:04] Will And That Right Early Proof The Heathen He Then Raged To Mouth O Sleep The Kingdoms New Bed Where The Lord God Utter In His Voice The Earth Did Melt For Fear Let's close in prayer Let's pray Lord our God Go before us We ask the rest of this evening God bless us and keep us Help our eyes to be opened toward the glory and the wonder of who you are
[61:09] The glory and wonder of salvation for the Lord Jesus Christ The only Saviour We ask this evening and indeed this new week We would need a week of salvation for even some here this evening You would open their eyes and show them their need of Jesus We call it to him And like Bartimaeus they would follow him in the way We leave that Lord in your sovereign hands we give you praise for that Ask all these things in and through and for Christ's prayer's name's sake Amen