Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.heritagesermons.org/sermons/18517/blind-beggars-given-sight-quality-very-good-sermon-start-missing/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] and one particular state.

[0:17] There are one or two that I like it, but in most part there is the declaration and truth of the gospel in various ways.

[0:34] But this particular one seems to be one that is to concentrate not only upon what we might call the miracles of Jesus Christ in respect to the afflictions of one, but this affliction and this blessing was to the benefit of his soul.

[1:04] I don't know whether you can truly say that all the miracles that he did had a spiritual afterwards, that one where we must leave.

[1:19] But it is very obvious and very evident that it is so here. That he was subjects of opposition from the Pharisees and the Jews because they were unbelievers, because they knew not, nor did they seek to know anything of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[1:42] that he was the subject of the mercy that was in and through Jesus Christ. And particularly the benefit in his soul.

[1:56] The question was asked in the 35th verse, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? Jesus said, Jesus said unto him, Now I shall have seen him, And it is he that talketh with thee.

[2:14] And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. You must remember that when he was blind, he only heard his voice.

[2:25] And when he received his sight, Jesus was not present to speak to him. But the afterwards of the opposition that he, this blind man or this man that was blind came into, brought Jesus Christ again before him.

[2:50] We read in another place, on a similar subject, of the Lord Jesus Christ and a blind man.

[3:03] And the blind man's eyes were touched by Jesus. And the Lord Jesus said to him, asked him whether he could see, and he said he saw men as trees walking.

[3:15] Things were not right, but things were on the way to be right. And the Lord Jesus touched him again, and he could see perfect.

[3:29] How it relates, how it teaches, that there are these times when there must be a second touch, another time of blessing, and it was so in this man's case.

[3:43] He was brought to worship. The eunuch on the road from, in a chariot from Jerusalem, was reading about Christ.

[3:56] But he needed another touch to reveal who Jesus Christ was. And there's something very special in that, you know, because the work once begun, is carried on.

[4:11] And it will be so. What you and I know not, as we perhaps have to learn by lifetime experience, there is certainly this, if we are being taught of God, we shall be brought to know all that we need to see our salvation is indeed in him.

[4:37] Now, there was one or two things that I felt we must look at this word. Two things this man was delivered from.

[4:51] First of all, the affliction of blindness, then the necessity of begging. And what else could this poor man do but beg?

[5:05] Being born blind, he never had seen, so he knew not the blessings of nature or the objects of nature. But being in that extreme side of affliction, so he was, could occupy himself in nothing else but begging, resting upon the sympathy of those who come by.

[5:29] But I do want to see, or try to see, if we can, if the Lord will help us or direct us, that we might enter into the words that we have, I hope God gave them to me, that we might see the spiritual side of this.

[5:53] Because it's evidence. What matters in a court of law is evidence, truth. What matters in religion is evidence.

[6:06] And that evidence must be truth. And I suppose it wouldn't be wrong at this time or this moment to say this. I sat in that vestry just now and I turned my hymn book because of desire to the first hymn, 3, 5, 6.

[6:33] And in thinking about this word that we have in the 8th verse, my mind before was turned to these words, marks of grace I cannot show, all polluted is my breast, yet I weary am I know, and the weary long for rest.

[6:52] It hasn't been the first time that the hymns have been provided by the Lord, by the Holy Spirit's direction that has been proved to be so suitable to the preaching in this place.

[7:10] But there it is, marks of grace I cannot see. Well, remember in that first verse of that hymn we would address this word that we have in that respect.

[7:27] Is not this he that sat and begged? And that is a sign or an evidence or a condition that the living family of God are found in.

[7:39] As many, I suppose, would oppose such a thought. Because others think that the gospel of Jesus Christ, well, it fills and supplies and is all that is needed, but it seems to me some people don't seem to want to see the early evidences.

[8:07] Oh, there's a sufficiency in this precious gospel and in the glory of Jesus Christ. There's a sufficiency. One of the clearest evidences and this is where I should hope there might be somewhere an echo in the heart that there is a desire for those evidences.

[8:32] Come and go to the house of God without a desire then what is what is what is what is your religion worth? It's no more than straightforward habit and it will have no effect upon it will have no effect upon the soul.

[8:54] But come and go the throne of grace come and go the means of grace and if the Lord is working in your soul it will be a desire for spiritual things what I know not teach they'll me.

[9:12] And the whole of the scriptures concerning the gospel not the old not the New Testament alone but the Old Testament in complete agreement with the New will have these evidences for you to see and I suppose I know I've said lots of times but the book of Psalms are full of these characters who are brought into a state of need and that's what a beggar is a person who has nothing to support himself nothing within himself he lives or what he begs go and look at the book of Ruth and she lived Naomi lived and Ruth lived upon what she gleaned there was no other means of sustaining her in life's journey remember the promises and the experience of those who have indeed been brought into the need of the promises being fulfilled we could fill this morning service I suppose if we were directed to do so by the evidences of the need but we must look at this in a gospel way then is not this he that sat and begged well the first evidence is there's a need and we're now talking and I hope you can see the difference we're now talking in spiritual language not in mercy of the miracle of sight we're now trying to speak of the things which the people of God come into could this be said of all of us of all that is in this few number that is in Zor this morning could it be said of all of us is not he is not this he or she that sat and begged but how did you come to sit and beg because

[11:33] God wrote a need into the soul there are some things dear friends that are to be left alone and not to be touched or dealt with because they have nothing to do with what is the one thing needful but there are certain things with the evidence is of course is without them there's no evidence of life call upon me and they are trouble I will deliver thee and thou shall glorify me and how many have known this word to be positively and truly the expressions or the evidences of their state in their soul and we would say this wouldn't we it would be right to say it you go and look into your life you go back in your days when you were without

[12:36] God and without Christ in the world what a hopeless place that was it wasn't to you but it was spiritually and you could sum all that up you know how many years you may have lived in that or how many years one lives in that state and condition as being a hopeless religion but there's also something else which is exceedingly solemn it's a helpless religion because there's nothing in itself there's nothing at all which will stir up your natural mind to seek for things which are for your spiritual benefit but once God puts his hand to the work and that's the evidence you know it's the hand of God in this work he will show you what you haven't got not what you have got and he will show you this you can look at these

[13:37] Pharisees that we've read of here or the Jews as well you can read all about them and you can see it clear as crystal can't you they were unbelievers living and dying in unbelief they'll live and die destitute you and I tell you this if a man or a woman is brought by the grace of God to beg he'll never die as a beggar he will never die destitute in other words is not this he that sat and begged and there are the marks of that beautiful hymn marks the grace I cannot see can you see that do you understand that this mark of grace oh this is not reading the bible this is not singing the hymns this is not listening to the sermons this is an inward work and God puts it in his people and I'll bring you and I often continually to this place as a beggar there's a word in the gospel which is very particularly particular to me and you know it says this it came to pass the beggar died there's a word in the psalms isn't there he will regard the prayer of the destitute for who made him destitute and who put a spirit of prayer in him

[15:19] I said to somebody today earlier today or yesterday perhaps earlier today oh that he might be with us as it was with the prodigal I will arise and go to my father and say unto him father I sinned against heaven why did he go why did he return home because he was in want that's why there was a there was a mighty famine in that land and he began to be in want and having a desire or a want or a seeking spirit is of God but these things are directed in one place and to one person if you are a beggar a spiritual beggar you will be directed to the

[16:29] God of all grace God in three persons Father Son and Holy Ghost it will be directed there and so much as the Holy Spirit may be your instructor in the things of God so much will be your desire for and seeking after are those things which will suit the case or the condition or the state that you're in I read last night for our reading about the the son who was subject to fits I have brought unto thee my son and he explains what the effect of these convulsions were and what that what they were what those convulsions could have done they could have cast him into the fire or into the deep but he was spared his life was spared so that he should be the subjects of mercy what do we read here neither hath this man sin nor his parents but that the works of God should be made manifest in him not to him well that poor parent that poor father in all his great need said this if thou canst do anything have compassion on us and help us you come to a very low place in such petitions and such supplications if thou canst do anything well in this state you are wholly dependent on the appearance and of the mercy of

[18:34] God let me go back to that word marks of grace I cannot see all polluted is my breast but a good hymn writer wasn't altogether right that was his feelings because by his very feelings he expressed that there was something there it was John Newton burdened with a load of sin harassed with tormenting doubt hourly conflicts from within hourly crosses from without all my little strength is gone think I must without supply sure upon the earth this nun can be more weary can more weary be than I he was right but he was also to be reminded that the condition that he was in painful that it was dark as it was it was the evidence of life because there he was in his hymn begging is not this he that sat and begged perhaps this might be considered to be an unusual question but could you remember the first time that you really prayed because if you could that was the first time you felt your need soul of

[20:06] Tarsus it is recorded of him behold he prayeth that's not the first time the man prayed but it's the first time he prayed as a sinner and the knowledge of his waywardness his gross iniquity and the depth of his sin had this sacred sanctifying influence upon him that it brought him to pray about it is not this he that sat and begged you might look at Saul of Tarsus and say well he got something to beg for hasn't he so you and I something to beg for every day we got something to beg for if you're honest before God every day there's something to beg for and the

[21:08] Lord will see it and will bring you into those places and the knowledge of those states and conditions where it is outward or inward where you will resort to the throne of grace if you're gracious if you're gracious is not this he that sat and begged without trying to put words in this text that's not there but it suddenly struck me this introduction is not this he that sat and begged what else can a poor sinner do stand still and stand still you will have to the Jews at the Red Sea were told to go forward the mystery of Ruth and Naomi and Boaz was not yet clear but the advice that was given to

[22:18] Ruth was to sit still and there's one or two things which go in line in Jehoshaphat answer to his prayer in the 20th chapter of the second of chronicles they were to stand still now why is this still business brought into this world in this is not this he that sat well I'm not one of those sort of people that I hope can express of doing things I know when you come back to Gosia when you come back to the Red Sea rather I know there it says that they were to go forward but that was when I was told to do that rather such was the spirit of the Jews in that place that they would have gone backward would to

[23:19] God that we stayed in Egypt they said so there was an eye on Egypt for going back I was I've read the 73rd Psalm recently and the poor man the psalmist was in a very sore place until he went into house of the Lord and so going there there was this revealing of the way and of the blessings that were his and of the solemn pathway of those who were rich and in need of nothing to mercy of this mark then is upon us is not this he that sat and begged something to beg for something to require something that the word says doesn't it he loads their shoulders well with woe and thus obtains his end the definition if I might put it of a real

[24:29] Christian to my mind is not on what he knows but rather what he needs a minister said to me last night and I believe he was talking about a godly man in Holland and he said to those that were dear to him that he had in his possession a container and he said I put a coin in that container every time the Lord has blessed my soul and they came when he died those near and dear to him found this container and inside of it was three coins three coins what does it say he was a beggar all his life he was a most godly man evidently but the visits and blessings that he could speak about was not many and prosperous but few and I tell you this although this man was delivered from being a beggar as he was a believer in

[25:51] Jesus Christ in this he would have been a beggar all his days oh there was times and there are times bless you be God when you have what I call tokens show me a token for good they which hate me may be ashamed and those wonderful tokens and they are wonderful because the only ones that will satisfy you or me were ones that God will give one of the tokens of a needy soul is a needy soul you know oh don't overlook many of us I suppose will complain bitterly about the poverty that we feel spiritually within I don't know there's more in need of the appearance of the Lord as we address one another here in this house of God but what a mercy to be in that case

[26:55] I do believe it it's a hard thing to say and it's a harder thing to believe but what a mercy to have a needy soul it's a painful path absolute painful path if you're not in it you don't understand it but if you are in that path you'll realise what a mercy that is one day when the Lord hears the prayer of the destitute no help in self I find and though I sought it well the nature treasure in my mind is sin and death and hell that's all we've got and you know when you realise the mercy of this condition you won't moan about that condition you won't complain and you know Satan will take advantage of this state at times and say well if you're a child of God you wouldn't be in this empty poverty stricken state he would somewhat cause you to be more distressed if it could please if the

[28:07] Lord let him do so but the outcome and the Lord puts his chastening hand upon his people you know there's an outcome there's something that will come by it and through it it's a great mercy when you can read and I've thought about it much in the last day or two it's a great mercy when you can read the third chapter of the book of the revelation and find out as many as I love I rebuke and chasten be zealous therefore and repent that's a great mercy it's not a very happy sort of subject is it it doesn't lift you up or relate to you and send you home rejoicing with false comforts and false hopes but may it send you home looking in looking for these marks of emptiness and poverty go and find these professors of religion and ask them what they haven't got rather than what they have got such that our beggars in Zion will only be content with what comes from heaven if the sermons find you out if the word of

[29:39] God finds you out there's not something to boast about something to be thankful for the good man here this blind this man that was blind I was going to say hadn't got a lot to say really had he because it was all a bit of a mystery to him this wonderful appearance because he never had seen it wasn't that he sight deteriorated or anything like that but I was thinking when I read this down how they asked him about his sight not about his the mercy of his they seemed not to be concerned with the mercy that the man experienced well he came to this place didn't he in his experience one thing I know whether he be a sinner or no I know not one thing I know that whereas I was blind now I see whatever they said of

[30:48] Jesus Christ and they had plenty to say about him blasphemously so I mean couldn't take away the blessing that he had could it that's a wonderful mercy you know when though you and I are opposed or often distressed because of the hardness of the way or the distress that we're brought into how we have to beg for the Lord's appearance but when he does appear you know what a wonderful transformation that is there was a word here somewhere somewhere here in this gospel it's about it's in that chapter where it says yes chapter 16 and the

[31:54] Lord Jesus uses if I might say a most common expression a woman when she is in travail hath sorrow because her hour is come but as soon as she is delivered of the child she remembereth no more the anguish for joy that a man is born into the world it's not this he that sat and begged I did think about the ninth verse some said this is he others said he is like him but he said I am he don't wish to enlarge the text but you know as well as I do whether you're a beggar I say that without little hindrance people have views of this or views of that some say that they haven't got what they want or they don't possess what other people possess could you not can you not and I sure you can you know

[33:04] I believe you can can you not look at the state of your own spiritual life and see where there is this mark this mark of poverty and this mark of need it will keep you aware of the need of the person of Jesus it will keep you waiting at the throne of grace it will bring you in in that state and condition of poverty and spiritual things we're talking about of poverty which only the Lord can supply one of the things that you want to be aware of here it was what he was he was a beggar in a natural sense of the word he was a beggar not now he isn't he will be if he's a spiritual as he is a spiritual soul so will he learn along the pathway what it is to beg but that was the mark that was the evidence that they knew him that he was a beggar it's not this he that sat and begged this is he others said he's like him but he said I am he could you not can you not say that where the work of grace is you'll have to say it is so you know sometimes when you know yourself a little more deeper than you know now you'll say to the

[34:42] Lord something like this Lord put away my hypocrisy take away my pride my religious pride keep us from this hypocrisy that religious people seem to so often experience would you know what a sin hypocrisy was if you hadn't had it revealed to you and shown to you if you knew what it was to be spiritually proud you'd have to know it by revelation to complain about the sin of it how many of us and I'm using this word experimentally I hope how many of us have to confess our poverty our poverty in prayer and without speaking too personal but do you not feel the poverty of prayer

[35:45] I don't mean the poverty of your prayers so much as the poverty of not praying because you know there are certain things which in natural views in natural ways in life experience will teach you what to do and experience will tell you the outcome but not so in spiritual things in natural things it will be I do remember sometimes in work in those work days and I was put into places where I've never been before in experience I may or I never had needs like this before and there was nobody there to call on other than the Lord and the Lord showed me the way through these things and you learn in the natural things of life what we call experience you know how to deal with them but is not the pathway of the people of

[36:48] God not like it oh I know that we know what it is to be troubled with sin every day and how we have to mourn over it but the pathways of the children of God are ordered of God and directed of God and the things which happen unexpectedly will cause you to consider that you lack the wisdom of God to deal with it or the appearance of the Lord you know how many of us could honestly say before God what things we have experienced the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ to your soul is that what you cry for is that all the time I was speaking about Job yesterday and I thought of that word in the 23rd of chapter of his book oh that

[37:53] I knew that I might find him the first chapter says he was a man that feared God and eschewed evil he was honoured of God with grace in his soul he was in the midst of a most distressing trouble when he was brought into abject sorrow over the loss of his family and then brought into abject poverty and the loss of his possessions and then the Lord allowed him to be afflicted in his body you can't consider what the poor man felt like but such was the grace of God oh that I knew where I might find him it sharpens the exercise doesn't it it is what the Lord Jesus said to Martha one thing is needful and that's what you'll pray for that's what

[38:53] I will pray for if the Lord brings us into this place where we are poverty nothing but poverty you wouldn't think that a child of grace who has made a profession an open profession has walked in the ordinances of God's house should come to such low places but he does or she does and there's teaching in it and there's mercy in it such a person who is steeped in religion and steeped in scriptural knowledge could argue doctrines and such like there's no poverty there they're full of knowledge but knowledge without experiences of no good and knowledge without desire or exercises of no good what a mercy to be in this text saying this morning is not this he that sat and begged if the

[40:01] Lord keeps this word with us we might look at what we are brought to beg for and I mean what I said then the Holy Spirit's mercy in teaching a sinner you know is to show him what he needs to show him what he needs if you're a convinced sinner and God has by his spirit convinced you of your sin he'll show you you need his precious blood to atone he'll show you what it is to have an interest in the person of Jesus and you can only have an interest in the person of Jesus when Jesus Christ is revealed to you what he's done for you how can you say how can you be honest before a heart searching God and say you've got an interest in Jesus Christ if you've never seen what he's done for you never had revealed to you what he's accomplished for you and in you what if he's put a need there that's a great mercy if he's put an emptiness or a poverty that's a great mercy you know but it will bring a desire or a want or a longing for those things to be revealed and tell me tell me can the be amongst thy children a room for me is not this he that sat and respect amen the notices for this morning are as follows god willing there'll be a preaching service on wednesday evening our pastor is expected to preach then and again next lord's day let us conclude this morning's service by singing hymn 183 by covenant transaction transaction transaction and blood says jesus my people are mine their sin bearing victim i stood yea for them my life did resign the curse of the law i sustained did them from all cursing set free that when by stern justice arraigned the sinner should look unto me hymn 183 cant thy above heaven threg would which shall redefine threshold note thy spirit in of th�ически jesus

[43:49] Let's pray, let's pray, my soul.

[44:01] Let's pray, let's pray, let's pray, let's pray.

[44:31] Let's pray, let's pray, let's pray.

[45:01] . . .

[45:31] pytanie. His heart, histers drink on earth.

[46:11] Panger, angel, angel, sin.

[46:24] Back to hisern трin n. Thank you.

[46:59] Thank you.

[47:29] Thank you. Thank you.

[48:29] Thank you. Thank you.

[49:01] Thank you. Thank you.

[50:01] Thank you. Thank you. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[50:13] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[50:25] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. be brought in that condition.

[50:38] Forgive all that has been amiss in thine eyes. Bring us again safely to thy house this evening. May the grace of the Lord Jesus and the love of God the Father, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, remain with us now and always.

[51:03]  Amen. Amen.