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[0:00] Now to the passage we read in Mark's Gospel, chapter 10, looking this evening at verses 46 to 52, that section to the end of the chapter.

[0:13] Now we're looking at encounters with Jesus. We've seen three already different people in the Gospels that had an encounter with Jesus, as Jesus dealt with them and dealt with their need.

[0:26] And we come to another one here, this blind man named Bartimaeus. Bartimaeus simply means the son of Timaeus, as is mentioned again in verse 46.

[0:40] Now we admire the skill that God has given to surgeons, particularly in dealing with blindness. Surgeons deal with many ailments that cause our admiration.

[0:55] But given that the eye is such a delicate organ, and that such extreme care needs to be taken, and such precision is required when carrying out any surgical procedures involving our eyes, micro-surgery in terms of seeking to restore sight to people who have lost their sight.

[1:19] All the procedures and the skill involved in that really fills us with admiration and with thankfulness and gratefulness to God for such wonderful skills.

[1:30] And of course whenever we have surgery carried out on our eyes, it then takes time to heal after the surgery has been carried out.

[1:40] Just like any other type of surgery, it takes time to heal sometimes. And a lot of the time the eye is kept covered until surgeons know that it's time for the bandages to come off.

[1:53] And then of course there's a great thrill as the person who has had sight restored actually then comes to realize that that eye is working properly again after a long time if it's a sight that has been lost.

[2:07] And contrast Jesus. Here's somebody who was blind and begging at the roadside. And Jesus instantly healed him as he came to deal with his need at that time.

[2:25] What do you want me to do for you, Jesus said? Rabbi, let me recover my sight. And Jesus said, go your way, your faith has made you well.

[2:35] And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way. Instant. No need for a process towards finally having the knowledge that his sight was restored.

[2:48] It's just instant. That's how Jesus actually does things. That's the power of Jesus. That's the ability that he had in dealing with people's needs physically as well as spiritually.

[3:01] That's the kind of person he still is. And I want to look at two things from the passage and four brief points under each of these two headings. The first heading will be, the son of Timaeus, a pitiful sight.

[3:17] And the second one, the son of David, a powerful savior. The son of Timaeus, this blind man, a pitiful sight as he's described and as Jesus meets him.

[3:30] And then the son of David, which is how this blind man, Bartimaeus, called after Jesus. Jesus, son of David, have mercy upon me.

[3:41] And we see that son of David that Jesus is, the powerful savior who comes to deal with this man. And again, this is a representation for ourselves of our spiritual plight.

[3:53] There are ways in which, as we've seen already with these other encounters with Jesus, how our spiritual plight and dilemma is really illustrated by many of these physical ailments and these miracles that Jesus did in the likes of restoring sight to this man.

[4:13] So here's the son of Timaeus, a pitiful sight. First point under that is that here is his daily routine. This day has dawned just like every other day since whatever it was that he lost his sight.

[4:27] He was actually here laid beside the roadside, sitting by the roadside, this blind beggar sitting by the roadside and looking for someone to actually throw some money into his cup or do something that would help him in his plight and in his need.

[4:41] Somebody to supply him with something that he himself could live on for the next day at least. That same routine. Here he is with his blanket, probably some sort of light mat or maybe just rags, who knows.

[4:56] But he was sitting there with his cup and making his appeals. And you can just imagine the crowds that were there going past and very few of anybody stopping to give him any help.

[5:07] Until Jesus did so. And that's an illustration of our plight as sinners as well as we sit in our sins, as we sit in our lostness, as we sit in our spiritual blindness, as we sit by the wayside of the gospel, if you like, wondering who is actually going to look upon us.

[5:28] And as you look at a sinner described in the Bible and what we are in our relationship with God and what we've done against God and what we are in ourselves, in our heart of hearts, what we are as sinners in our rebellion against God.

[5:44] And the carnality of our mind, as Romans 8 puts it, which is enmity against God. Who's going to bother to notice us?

[5:56] Who's going to take anything to do with our plight, with our dilemma? And this passage is saying to us powerfully, Jesus, the son of David, is. He notices, he actually sees as he goes by, and he deals with that person in their dilemma.

[6:16] He hears his daily routine, and suddenly it's interrupted. And he hears a message, that's the second point, a message that gave him hope.

[6:27] Because when you come to look at the gospels and the different accounts they give, there are slight variations in the accounts they give of such events as these. And when you look at Luke's account of this incident, he tells us that this beggar, Bartimaeus, heard a commotion.

[6:44] Obviously there was a commotion. Mark tells us here there was a great crowd following Jesus with their intense interest in him. And the crowd would be not only the noise of their feet going by, but the hubbub as they spoke about this man that they were seeing and following, and the amount of amazement that was throughout the crowd as they followed Jesus from place to place.

[7:07] This man, Bartimaeus, heard this commotion and heard this noise. And Luke tells us he asked what it meant. And they told him, It's Jesus of Nazareth who's passing by.

[7:21] That's what it means. The crowd is following this Jesus of Nazareth. And this noise that you're hearing, it's all about this. This person, this Jesus, he's passing by here.

[7:33] That's what's causing the stir. And as soon as he heard that, as Mark says, when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.

[7:47] Now bear in mind that this is presenting us with gospel truth. And that this is illustrated, as we've said, of our own plight as sinners and how we have God's provision against that brought to us in such wonderful passages as these in the gospel.

[8:06] That's essentially what's happening every single time the gospel is preached. That's what's happening right here in this building this evening. Nothing less than what happened in the days of Bartimaeus is happening right now in this building because this gospel is Jesus' gospel.

[8:24] This word is Christ's word. This commotion, if you like, of the days, in the days of Bartimaeus is an illustration of the fact that Christ in the gospel, the noise of his feet, if you like, are in this place tonight in the words of Scripture, in the words of the gospel.

[8:46] Are we listening out for that? Do we hear that? Have we become so used to the noise of Jesus passing by that we don't really notice it anymore or we don't notice the same as we used to?

[9:03] I hope every one of us tonight here, as we're looking at this passage and what it illustrates for us and teaches, as a live experience for ourselves, that we are indeed hearing the feet of Jesus and Christ passing by us in the gospel.

[9:20] That's what's happening. That's what the gospel is. It's Jesus passing by us, passing by our lives, confronting our lives, coming to encounter us in our need as lost sinners, as needy sinners.

[9:36] That's what's happening. And this man immediately, he heard the noise, cried out to Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. That's the third point.

[9:48] The daily routine, it began the same as every other day. The message that gave him hope, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. Thirdly, this prayer then that he uttered, because that's essentially what it is.

[10:05] And you know, it stopped Jesus in his tracks. That's not putting it too strongly. Because Jesus responds to the cry of those who cry out to him for mercy.

[10:17] That's what you read here, that as he cried out, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy upon me. As we'll see in a moment, Jesus actually stopped when we come to look at Jesus himself and responds.

[10:30] But this is his prayer. Jesus, Son of David. Now you notice the title that he uses with which he addresses Jesus. And in many ways, that's a contrast to many of the religious authorities, the scribes, the Pharisees that were taking notice of Jesus and his ministry and his claims at that point.

[10:53] They were dismissing him. They were dismissing his claims. They were angry at him. They were actually seeking to get rid of him. They didn't accept his claim to be the Messiah, the Son of David, as was promised in the Old Testament.

[11:07] Here's this beggar. Here's this poor wretch of a man. And he hears the news. He can't see him with his eyes. He's still blind. But he hears the news that's conveyed to him.

[11:19] Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. So what does he do? He cries out to him, but not only cries out to him, but he uses this messianic, prophetic title given in the Old Testament, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.

[11:34] He recognizes. We don't know quite how, but the title that he gave to Jesus is very much part of the Old Testament prophecies about the coming of the Christ.

[11:48] And as you find, describing the likes of Isaiah, for example, to pick out one example, Isaiah chapter 42, and verse 7, and then verse 16, in that chapter, speaks about the Messiah coming and giving sight to the blind.

[12:06] One of the things that are mentioned as far as miracles is concerned, the miraculous works that he would do, the ministry that he would perform, the things that he would actually bring to be accomplished by him, he will give sight to the blind.

[12:23] He will open the eyes of the blind. Now that's happening here literally, of course, but there's a spiritual meaning to it as well. He came to open the blind spiritually, those who are blind to God and to God's claims and to the reality of Jesus himself as the Messiah.

[12:40] So this is a messianic miracle. It's a miracle prophesied in the Old Testament of this very son of David. And this is what this man is actually recognizing, at least in the title that he gave to Jesus.

[12:57] When he hears it's Jesus of Nazareth, somehow or other, he's heard that this Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah. Maybe he heard Jesus himself before this, who knows?

[13:08] But anyway, that's what he says. Jesus, Son of David, have mercy upon me. And the words, have mercy, that's itself an interesting term, especially in the context.

[13:27] Because this is a beggar, sitting by the roadside, blind, in need of help. Here's Jesus, the Savior, coming alongside him and passing by, right beside him.

[13:40] And the word there for mercy or for have mercy upon me, it's really a word that's often used literally for a beggar asking for alms and giving alms to a beggar, giving a beggar something in response to their plea.

[13:56] Have mercy upon me. And you see there are plain words there on the part of Mark. He knows that this man is actually literally a beggar looking for alms physically, but here he is crying after Jesus of Nazareth for mercy, and here is Mark recognizing the spiritual import and weight of that language, and what he's really saying is, yes, I'm a beggar, literally Jesus, but you have something to give to beggars such as I am, and that's mercy, that's spiritual alms.

[14:26] Help me, my plight. Isn't that what you are yourself? Isn't that what I am too?

[14:37] In our sin, in our dilemma, in our lostness, aren't we in the position where we need to beg? I know we're too proud to beg naturally.

[14:48] That's our human condition in our sinfulness. That's what sin has done to us. It's distorted our mind. It's distorted our priority. It's distorted our vision. It's made us blind to reality.

[14:59] And pride is something in our hearts that closes our hearts against humbling ourselves, against coming to see ourselves as in need of begging God for His mercy, and seeing ourselves as lost sinners sitting in the dust of this world in our sin, in need of God giving out alms to us.

[15:22] That's where you and I are by nature. That's what you and I need to truly realize that we're no better than beggars. And yet it's beggars that Jesus came to save.

[15:37] And it's beggars that Jesus hears. You know the way that God in His Word speaks about the proud. And as against the humble, those who humble themselves, those who come to confess that they are beggars in need of God's help.

[15:54] What does He do? He gives grace to the humble. He doles out alms of a spiritual kind, but the proud He keeps at a distance. As long as our heart is proud and closed against the claims of Christ, don't expect God to actually draw near to you.

[16:15] And you know, it's very difficult for us in our human heart to accept that we are actually sinfully proud.

[16:29] And we really don't want God deep down. That we'd rather look after ourselves. That we have a false sense of our own ability.

[16:41] But all of that is true of us. And here is God saying to us, let this blind beggar be a lesson to each one of us.

[16:53] Whether we occupy pulpits, sit in pews, or elders in the church, or whatever, deep down, naturally, this is where we are. This is where we begin. This is how we come into the world.

[17:05] This is where our need is highlighted. That we need to come and indeed it's a very great privilege to realize that we need to beg God for His mercy.

[17:16] That's where life begins, if you like. At that point where you sit in the dust and realize nothing else is going to do for you but what God has by way of gifting you in Jesus Christ.

[17:29] And if I need to beg for it, then so be it. I need to beg for it. And God has promised that if I beg for it, He will not refuse me.

[17:40] He will not cast me away. He will not kick me into the ditch and say, I don't like beggars. Go somewhere else. Jesus, Son of David, mercy on me.

[17:55] Who is Jesus to myself and to yourself tonight? Do you recognize this title in Him? Have you come to see Him as your Messiah?

[18:09] The one sent into this world to deal precisely and completely with your need and my need in relation to God, in relation to eternity, in relation to all things.

[18:24] Well, He says, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy upon me. So, the daily routine. He began the day just in the same way as usual. He then heard a message which gave Him hope, which is essentially what we hear in the Gospel to give us hope to.

[18:40] And He then had a prayer which led to Jesus stopping over Him, which called out to Jesus as the Son of David, a recognition of that He is the Savior.

[18:50] here. And then fourthly, as we see that fourth point in our first heading, here is also a rebuke that's intended to silence Him. And isn't that also interesting?

[19:04] Many rebuked Him, telling Him to be silent. But He cried out, All the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. Now, you can relate that to life as it really is here and now today.

[19:17] Because as God's claim comes to you and to me and as God invites us and calls us through the Gospel to come to Him and to come to beg this grace, this life from Him that He has so abundantly to give us, there is another power at work.

[19:34] There's another voice in your ear that's saying to you, you don't need that. You don't need to go that far. Leave that for those who are really down on their luck as the world will put it.

[19:47] Those who have really reached a very low point in their lives. You're not like that. Look at yourself. You don't have these problems. You're not prone to drunkenness. You're not a drug addict. You're not any of these things.

[19:59] You're a decent, civil human being. You're upright. You have work to go to every day. You don't need to go all that far with your relationship to God. Just keep your foot in the church.

[20:10] Just keep reading your Bible every so often just to practice the Lord's Prayer and give that out and that'll be it. That's enough for you. That's enough religion. Don't listen to the people who are truly, fully integrated into following Christ and going to prayer meetings and all of that sort of stuff.

[20:32] Here's a rebuke telling him to be silent. He's saying, they're saying to him, look Bartimaeus, just look at who you are. Just look at yourself sitting here.

[20:46] Well, you couldn't see himself, of course, but just think about yourself. You're sitting here. Here you are a beggar. What are you asking? You're asking this Jesus, son of David, to have mercy upon you. Be silent.

[20:57] Be quiet. He doesn't want to know you. You know, tonight there are many, many voices in the world. Voices that you hear on your television. Voices you come across on the internet. Voices you hear in your conversation with people, even in your own locality, that are actually calling upon you to be silent so that you won't cry out after Jesus.

[21:20] You know that. I know that. That's the world we live in. That's life in the world as it really is. And even as I'm preaching tonight, there may well be a voice that you're hearing, as well as my voice, as well as the voice of God through the gospel that is imploring you to be silent and not to go all the way with becoming a follower of Jesus.

[21:46] That you don't really need to be that involved. Well, don't listen to that voice. Instead, do what Bartimaeus did.

[21:59] Because the more that he was called upon to be silent, the more they rebuked him, telling him to be silent, you see, he cried out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me.

[22:13] And tonight I say to you and to say to myself, the more you actually hear voices telling you to be silent and not call upon Jesus, the more you're told not to follow him, the more you must be determined to do it.

[22:32] The more you hear the voice that tells you to be quiet and not to become so involved in your religion, the more you actually have to do what Bartimaeus did.

[22:42] Your soul depends on it. Your eternity depends on it. Your acceptance with God depends on it. The friendship of God is related to it.

[22:53] How you react, how you respond to the call of Christ and the gospel. Here's the son of Timaeus. He's a pitiful sight, but he's such a lesson to us all to earnestly seek Christ and to call out to him for mercy.

[23:15] Nobody else can do that for us, you see. We can have all the ability we have in this world and all the gifts and all the expertise, but only Jesus can deal with our plight. Only Jesus can cover our sins, can give us righteousness, can give us true hope, can be our companion through death and into eternity.

[23:37] Only he can do that. And because of that, take careful note of Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, who goes beyond this rebuke, telling him to be silent, and all the more cries, Son of David, have mercy on me.

[23:57] You know, there's many of you, I'm sure, want to take the next step in your spiritual journey. Want to take the next step towards becoming more fully a disciple of Jesus.

[24:13] Take that step. Just as Bartimaeus did. And the more you have a resistance to you doing that from your own heart or from out with yourself, the more you need to overcome that and say, what better thing could I do than to go further in my relationship with Christ?

[24:38] To actually come out more openly on his side? To show that I am a believer? To join the Lord's people when they meet for prayer or Bible study, whatever.

[24:49] So he cried out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. And then secondly, very briefly, the Son of David, a powerful Savior.

[25:04] And the first thing you notice there is verse 49, Jesus stopped and said, call him. And they called the blind man. Now that's interesting. Jesus stopped. And whenever you find that in the Gospels, Jesus actually stopped.

[25:17] That's significant spiritually. It's not just something that shows you that he literally stopped at that point. You go to Luke chapter 19, you find there an account of Zacchaeus who ran up into the tree.

[25:31] And when Jesus came to the tree, he stopped and he looked up and he looked up into Zacchaeus' face and he told him to come down that he was going to have to go to his house today. Salvation was going to come to that house.

[25:42] It's a wonderful thing when Jesus stops over a human life. When Jesus takes note of a beggar crying out to him, he stops.

[25:58] And you know, nobody in all the world, however attentive they might be to our needs as human beings, as individuals, nobody in all the world, nobody else in existence, is as intensely interested and committed to the detail of your life the way Jesus is.

[26:19] Nobody's going to take such time over you as Jesus will. Nobody's going to take such an interest in you as Jesus will than Jesus does. Nobody's going to stop over you to the extent with which Jesus stops over sinners that cry out after him.

[26:35] There are a few things more marvelous to notice than the Son of God stopping over needy sinners. You find the same in the Old Testament.

[26:47] For example, in Ezekiel chapter 16, God is there, of course, speaking accusingly to Israel why they have left him, why they've abandoned him, why they've gone away after other idols.

[26:59] So he takes them back and he gives them a picture of how he found them and what he did with them when he found them and made them into his people. He describes them with the imagery of a child that has been brought into the world and then just abandoned and cast out into the open field having been uncared for from the time of birth.

[27:20] And he says, then I found you. I came across you and I stopped and I took you up and I treated you properly and I made you beautiful and I cast my cloak over you and you became mine.

[27:40] You see what God is saying. We don't get lost in a crowd when Jesus looks upon us. He sees exactly who you are, what your need is, whatever your age is.

[27:55] Every young person in here tonight, wonderful to see them, great to see children, families coming to the gospel because Jesus is looking at your need as a young person and he sees exactly who you are, what you like, what he can do for you, what you need from him.

[28:13] So be encouraged from this. And this is for you as well. As you cry to David, as you pray to David, as you cry to Jesus, the son of David, as you pray to him, even if you think your prayers are very simple compared to what you know as adult prayers or other people's prayers, all you need is this prayer.

[28:32] Jesus, have mercy upon me. It's all there. So Jesus stopped.

[28:45] And then next you see Jesus called him. He stopped and said, call him. Well, of course, he was saying to the people who were reporting this to Jesus and the crowd, his disciples probably, go and call him.

[28:58] But yet, it's Jesus himself who's actually calling him through the call of these people. And that's what happens really with the gospel. It's Christ's call that's conveyed through the preaching of the gospel.

[29:11] But you notice the encouragement that they gave to this man. They called the blind man saying to him, take heart, get up, he is calling you. What's your greatest encouragement?

[29:24] To come to know Jesus, to come to Jesus, to receive what he has to give to needy sinners. What is your greatest encouragement? It's the fact that he's calling you.

[29:38] That he hasn't just passed by you and gone away and left you where you are. That he has given you the privilege of hearing his voice, of hearing his call.

[29:51] And of course, there is no voice and no call as serious and as committed to what he's saying as Christ is.

[30:04] 100% genuinely saying, go and call them. Aren't you hearing that tonight? Even if you've been a Christian for many years, it's still Christ's call through the gospel that's coming to you and saying, come to me, come to know me better.

[30:25] Come to get yet another feeding from me that I can give you of this salvation that I have to give out each day to needy people such as yourself.

[30:36] And I need to do that. And I need to know that. We can't come to the pulpit, Kenny or myself, without knowing the feeding of our own souls. We are dependent on this Jesus for our daily bread as anybody else.

[30:48] and if you're here tonight and you haven't yet come to him and you haven't yet come to know him as your savior, well, here's your great encouragement among many other encouragements, but here's your great encouragement in the passage.

[31:05] He is calling you. Not me. But he is calling you through the gospel. And can you?

[31:18] Can you consider that and turn away from it? Can you consider the fact that the Son of God, this Messiah Savior, the Son of David, is calling to you personally through this gospel tonight?

[31:35] Can you possibly say, well, not right now. Give me more time. let me live a little more of life.

[31:48] Let me get a little more experience. Let me work out what I'm going to say to my family or to my friends or to my workmates. You may not have the time for that, but you have the time now to respond to his call.

[32:08] Take heart. Listen to the words that he said to Bartimaeus. Take heart. Get up. He is calling you. Leave your place of lostness and come to him.

[32:22] He is calling you. And you see then, throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. He sprang up and came to Jesus.

[32:33] Now you can sense. You can sense, can't you? As you read these words, you can sense the excitement in this man's life. something has come into his life that's now actually filled him with such hope.

[32:48] Not only the message, but the call that Jesus has addressed to him personally. He threw off his cloak, he sprang to his feet and he came to Jesus. It's a new day.

[33:00] The old routine is gone. Something else has taken its place. Jesus. How excited are we, you and I, over Jesus?

[33:14] Over being with him? Over coming to him? Here is a man who was so excited he threw off his cloak and everybody could see it happening in the crowd around him and they were probably looking in amazement at this man who had just a few moments before that been sitting there begging for amazement.

[33:38] Here he is throwing off his cloak, jumping to his feet and coming to Jesus. No delay, no sense of embarrassment, no wondering what people are going to say about him.

[33:51] He just wants to get to Christ. Christ. And of course then Jesus, Jesus actually made him ask a question or answer a question rather.

[34:07] Here he is coming to to Jesus and the moment he meets with Jesus, Jesus says, what do you want me to do for you? The blind man said to him, Rabbi, let me recover my sight.

[34:23] Jesus was concerned that he would bring out what he really wanted to give priority to. You mustn't think that, well, he should have asked forgiveness for his sins, he should have asked something spiritual, surely he should have gone beyond something to do with his physical sight.

[34:40] But this is his priority at this time. This is what Mark is really saying, that Jesus made him focus on the priority there physically for him, which was to receive his sight, to restore, have his sight restored.

[34:52] And that's why the gospel is addressing you and I the way it does. Because Jesus is asking us this question tonight, what do you want me to do for you?

[35:05] What's your priority? What's the most important thing to you? What takes precedence over everything else? And isn't it the same in a spiritual sense?

[35:17] Lord, that I might receive, that I might recover my sight, that I might have new eyes, that I might be converted, that I might know you as my Savior, that my sin might be forgiven.

[35:37] Fix on the priority the Bible gives you and answer him in that way. And then he healed him. This man was not going to be put off by any of the rebukes that he received.

[35:53] This is his moment, you see. And this is his moment as Jesus puts the question to him and now as he's answered it, Rabbi, let me recover my sight.

[36:05] What a great moment that is when he puts that to Jesus. and in my experience and the experience of all who have come here to know the Lord, even if it wasn't anything spectacular such as it wasn't for myself, it wasn't the kind of moment where you could tell forever more afterwards where you were when it happened, what the time on the clock was, how old you were, maybe it happened over a period of time for most of you as well, but you can tell the moment that you came to tell Jesus your priority.

[36:39] which was to be saved. And it's a big moment. It's a big, big moment. Has it been your moment?

[36:54] Because Jesus responded, go your way, your faith has made you well. Now that doesn't mean that it was because of the man's faith or because of the strength of the man's faith that he came to receive his sight.

[37:07] No, he believed in Jesus. We could see that even from the address that he used Jesus, son of David. He had faith in him as the Messiah. Even then, it seems. And what Jesus is saying, your faith has brought this wellness into your experience.

[37:23] It has brought this healing to you. The faith that you exercised wasn't the cause of receiving his sight, but it was the means by which he drew the power of Jesus into his life, if you like.

[37:37] And made you well is a word which sometimes is translated, especially in the authorized version, it would be translated very often, has made you whole. And the word in Greek has a double meaning, and it depends on the context, although sometimes like this, especially to do with the miracles of Jesus, it has that double meaning.

[37:59] There's no way around that. It's not cheating, it's not being able to decide which meaning it is, because to be made whole is really the same word in Greek as to be saved.

[38:09] Your faith has saved you, your faith has made you well, your faith has made you whole, because that's really the thrust of the passage. That's what it's telling us as we read it, that this man is for us not just an instance of where he received his sight physically, but that has become a a means of teaching us.

[38:33] When we bring our priority to be saved to Jesus, then that's what happens. And through faith, we are made whole, we are made well, we are saved.

[38:46] And you can see what he then did, he followed Jesus in the way. He has a new purpose in life, a day that began like any other, a day that found him to begin with sitting by the roadside begging, a day I'm sure that went through his mind, I'm sure it went through his mind as he began that day, well I wonder how much he'll be put in my cup today, I wonder how much I'll have to live on today, I wonder who'll remember me today, will anybody at all take notice of me, will it be just like any other day?

[39:29] What a difference in the way his day ends. He has a new purpose in life, he's become a follower of the Jesus who opened his eyes, and that's what a disciple is, a follower of the Jesus who opens eyes.

[39:51] Jesus, and may you and I, every day that we live, may we be followers of this Jesus, may we know that our eyes have been opened by this Jesus, and we live in thankfulness to God that he didn't leave us sitting by the roadside in the misery of our sin, but he brought us up, and brought him into the family of the saved.

[40:25] Let's pray. Gracious Lord, we give thanks that your gospel addresses us so personally. We give thanks that you speak to us through it, and give thanks that you remember us in our plight as sinners, for no one else could provide for us what you have provided.

[40:47] No one else can deal with us tenderly and powerfully the way you can. We thank you tonight, Lord, for the assurance we have from your word, that when we do indeed come and respond to the overture of the gospel to come to you, that you are there to welcome us, to change us, and to bring us to know the benefit of your power in our lives.

[41:12] Grant that each of us, Lord, here tonight may know this for ourselves, for your glory's sake. Amen. Well, let's now sing in conclusion this evening, singing in Psalm 146.

[41:28] Psalm 146, we're singing from page 191, we'll sing Psalm's version, and singing verses 6 to 10.

[41:39] He who made the earth and heaven and the seas with all their store, he who keeps us every promise, who is faithful evermore, he delivers from oppression and relieves the hungry's plight, he releases those in prison to the blind, the Lord gives sight.

[41:55] Psalm 146, from verse 6 to 10, in conclusion. He who made the earth and heaven and the seas with all their store, Emmanuel, shall we love and More.

[42:35] He deliver до and release the hungry's fire.

[42:50] He releases those in prison to the plight the Lord's side.

[43:06] Though to arm and down He raises, God He lies in righteousness.

[43:22] He protects and cares for changers, widows and the fatherless.

[43:37] He frustrates the greatest purpose, so the Lord to endless years brings to every generation.

[44:00] Praise to God, O Zion, praise. I'll go to the main door this evening. And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you now and always.

[44:18]  Amen. Amen. Amen.