Your Faith Has Healed You

It is a great privilege to be able to preach this morning and a great joy to be able to share with you some of the things that the Lord has shared with me in preparation for this sermon. And before we get started, I'd like to ask the Lord's help. So please join me in prayer. Father, I ask you to speak through me. I ask that your spirit would be upon me and that you would give me grace to make Christ manifest. And I pray for all who are here, Lord, that you would give us eyes to see, eyes to see him for who he is. In his name we pray. Amen. It has been said that the word of God is like an ocean. It is written so simply and plainly that anyone can pick it up and read it and understand what it is saying, and yet at the same time, it is so deep that there's no man who can search out its depths. Or similarly, it's been said that the Word of God is like a diamond, which if someone holds up to a light, they see great glory and beauty. And yet, with every angle that you turn it, you see more and more and more. And as I've prepared for this sermon, I have been made so aware of that. The passage I've chosen is found in Mark chapter 10. It's verses 46 through 52, so please turn with me there. This story, or this passage, is first and foremost the historical account of a blind beggar named Bartimaeus whom Jesus physically healed. And yet, at the same time, God in his providence through this story has given us a picture of conversion, of the man or woman who is called out of the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of light. And yet, at the same time, this is a picture of the Christian life, of the one who is called to walk by faith and not by sight. And on top of that, it is also a picture of the one who dies in Christ and who is finally given eyes to see the Lord as he really is. No longer in a mirror dimly, but face to face. And finally, woven through all that, we see in this passage a beautiful picture of true faith and the way that God responds to those who hope in him. So I pray that as we work through this passage together, the Lord will open your eyes to see these things. So let's look at Mark chapter 10 and verse 46. It says, Now they came to Jericho. And let me pause briefly and give you some context. This is Jesus and his disciples who are traveling up to Jerusalem from Galilee, and they're passing through Jericho, which was a city located alongside the Jordan River, about 15 miles east of Jerusalem. And so this is the final leg of what would have been about a hundred mile journey. And by the way, this is a journey that Jesus and his disciples made many times, but this time is the last. In only a week's time, Jesus will be crucified. And likewise, there are many stories in the Gospels about men and women who have run up to Christ and fallen down at his feet, asking for mercy and healing. Bartimaeus is the last. Also, it is worth noting that at this time, there are actually two cities called Jericho. There's both the ancient city, which Joshua marched around and was destroyed and then was later rebuilt by Hiel of Bethel in the days of Ahab, king of Israel. And then there was Herodian Jericho, which was built by King Herod the Great. And if we try to piece together all that is said about this event, both here in Mark and in Luke and in Matthew, it sounds like this is probably referring to ancient Jericho, And then later this very day, Jesus and his disciples would have passed through Herodian Jericho, which is only a mile or two away. And there Jesus encountered a short man in a tree named Zacchaeus. And, you know, if we assume that he spent the night at Zacchaeus' house, it would have been the very next day that they arrived in Jerusalem. So, continuing in verse 46, now they came to Jericho. As he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great multitude, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the road begging. And so we're introduced to this man named Bartimaeus, who's a blind beggar. And if there was ever a man. There's ever someone to stir your heart to compassion, this is him. First of all, he's blind, and if you just think for a moment of all the joys in life, how many of them we experience through our sight. You know, just think, if you were blind, you could not see your spouse's face. You could not see your children's faces. You could not see the beauty of God's creation. You could not see the mountains, the sunset. You couldn't see waterfalls and rivers. You couldn't see trees. You could see nothing. And not only that, but he was a beggar. It wasn't like America. There were no homeless shelters or government programs. He literally did not have enough to eat. And he had to beg for everything he had. And no matter how hard he was willing to work, it's difficult to imagine what sort of work he could do because he was blind. And so he's reduced to begging. And not only that, But the fact that he was begging likely indicates that he had no family because what family would suffer the shame of allowing their blind son to have to beg? And so he's probably all alone and very lonely. And finally, bear in mind that at this time it was culturally assumed that blindness and other maladies were God's judgment on sin. And if you remember, even Jesus' own disciples, when they saw this man who was born blind, they turned to Jesus and said, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents? They just assumed. And so just think about the stigma that this man had to face. So at any rate, on this particular day, Bartimaeus is sitting by the road in his usual spot, begging. When a great multitude begins to gather all around him, he hears all this commotion and naturally he wonders what's going on. So he turns and he asked someone and says, what's what's happening? And the man tells him it's Jesus of Nazareth. He's passing by. Verse forty seven. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David, Have mercy on me. Just picture that. As soon as he hears that Jesus is somewhere in the general vicinity, he begins to cry out. He can't see. He doesn't know how close Jesus is. He doesn't know how far away he is. He doesn't even know what direction to call. And yet he's calling out and calling out. And clearly, based on that response, Bartimaeus has heard of Jesus before. He's heard that name being talked about. And he's come to believe that this man, unlike any other man, has the power to heal him. This man can give him his sight. But not only that, notice what he says, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. He does not merely believe that Jesus is a miracle worker or even that Jesus is merely a prophet. He calls him the son of David. And to a Jew, there would have been no question who the son of David was. The son of David was the promised Messiah or Christ, the king whom God had promised to send, who would establish an everlasting kingdom of perfect righteousness and holiness. And that's the one that Bartimaeus believes Jesus is. And it's amazing because he's never seen him, obviously. He's never met him. And yet he's convinced that this is him. And I'd like to read an excerpt from a sermon by Charles Spurgeon and let you know what he had to say about this. Spurgeon writes, we are not told in this passage how Bartimaeus came to believe Jesus to be the Messiah. But I think we may very fairly risk a conjecture. It is quite certain that Bartimaeus did not come to believe in Christ from what he saw. Jesus had worked many miracles. Many eyes had seen and many hearts had believed because of what they saw. Bartimaeus also believed, but certainly not as a result of his eyesight, for he was stone blind. Then how did he acquire his faith? He thinks it might be in this fashion. On the nearest bank he could find outside Jericho, he sat begging in the sunlight. For blind men always love to bask in the sun. At least they feel the heat of the great orb of day if they see not its light. And as he sat there, he would hear the passers-by talking of Jesus of Nazareth. And as blind men are usually inquisitive, he would ask them to stay and tell him the story, some tale of what Jesus had done. And they would tell him how he raised the dead and healed the leper. And he would say, I wonder if he can give sight to the blind. And one day it came to pass that he was told Jesus had restored to sight a man who had been born blind. The very man that the disciples had asked Jesus about. This, indeed, was the great master story that the world has to tell, for it had never been so known before in Israel that a man who had been born blind should have his eyes opened. I think I see the poor man as he hears the story. He drinks it in, claps his hands, and cries, and there is yet hope for me. Mayhap the prophet will pass this way, and if he doth, oh, I will cry to him. I will beg him to open my eyes too, for if the worst case has been cured, then surely mine may be. Many and many a day as he sat there, he would call to the pastor by again and would say, come, tell me the story of the man that was born blind and of Jesus of Nazareth that opened his eyes. And perhaps he would even get tiresome, as blind men are wont. He must hear this story told him a hundred times over, and always would there be a smile on the poor fellow's face when he heard the refreshing narrative. It never could be told too often, for he loved to hear it. To him, it was like a cool, refreshing breeze in the heat of burning sun. Tell it me, tell it me, tell it me again, says he, the sweet story of the man that opened the eyes of the blind. And he thinks as he sat all alone and unable to divert his mind with many things, he would always keep his heart fixed on that one narrative and turn it over and over and over again till in his daydreams he would half think he could see and sometimes almost imagine that his own eyes were going to be opened too. Perhaps on one of those occasions, as he was turning this over in his mind, some text of scripture he had heard in the synagogue occurred to him. perhaps even Isaiah 35, which we read earlier in this service. He heard that Messiah should come to open the eyes of the blind. And Quicken thought, having better eyes within than he had without, he came at once to the conclusion that the man who could open the eyes of the blind was none other than the Messiah. And from that day, he was a secret disciple of Jesus. First of all, Is it not amazing that what the scribes and the Pharisees, men who knew the Scriptures, who saw the signs and the wonders and the works of Christ, men who could hear his teaching, that what they could not see, Bartimaeus, a blind man, could see perfectly well. Is it not amazing and glorious the way that God hides these things from the wise and prudent but reveals them to babes. That what things are foolishness to those who are perishing are to us who are being saved the very wisdom of God and the power of God. But secondly, can you imagine how Bartimaeus' heart must have leapt the moment he heard Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. That the one in whom he had hoped and dreamed was right there. I mean, can you hear the exuberance in his voice as he calls out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me? Verse 48. Then many warned him to be quiet, but he cried out all the more, son of David, have mercy on me. And if you think about it, if not just a few, but many people are warning him to be quiet, are threatening him. You know, it's not like he just called out once or twice. I mean, he is calling out again, and again, and again, and he is calling out so repeatedly, so loudly, and so desperately, that he is so annoying to the people around him that they are threatening him to try to get him to be quiet. And in the midst of all that, Can you imagine what must have been going on in Bartimaeus's own mind? Jesus of Nazareth is somewhere nearby, the one whom he has hoped for and dreamed of, and he is calling out for him, and he's calling out for him, and he's calling out for him, and there's silence. He doesn't hear anything. Must he not have felt that awful ache of doubt in his heart? You know, what if this Jesus isn't who I expected? What if he can't really open the eyes of the blind? What if he can, but he doesn't really care? He must have felt that. And yes, at the same time, Bartimaeus knows that this is his only chance. There is no other Savior. There is no one else who can open his eyes. All his hope is in Jesus because Jesus is the only hope he has. And so in spite of it all, it says he cried out all the more. Verse 49. So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called. Now, this is God himself in human flesh. And he has come down to die on a cross. And he's literally walking out of Jericho on the last leg of the journey to get to Jerusalem where he will die for the sins of the world on a cross. I mean, how could his mind be on anything else? And in the midst of that, he hears Bartimaeus' voice. And he stood still. His heart, his mood, he's filled with compassion and he stopped. He commands him to be called. Continuing verse forty nine, then they called the blind man, saying to him, be of good cheer, rise, he is calling you. And throwing aside his garment, he rose and came to Jesus. So suddenly, instead of hearing be silent, Bartimaeus hears, take heart, rise, he's calling you. Can you just imagine how his heart must have jumped with excitement? And so he springs up and it says he throws aside his cloak. And by the way, this is probably the most valuable possession he has. You know, what would keep him warm at night, but in some way it was restraining him or restricting him. He just takes off and throws it aside and comes to Jesus as fast as he can. He's not willing to let anything slow him down. Verse 51, so Jesus answered and said to him, what do you want me to do for you? And, you know, at first we might ask, well, why does Jesus even ask? I mean, doesn't he know? Isn't it obvious? But notice the honor he bestows on Bartimaeus by asking that question. Because what he is basically saying is, how may I serve you? Do you remember what it was that Jesus' disciples were arguing about just prior to this on the journey? They were arguing about which one of them was the greatest. If you look just sooner in Mark chapter 10 in verse 42, it says that Jesus called his disciples to himself and said to them, you know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the son of man, that's Jesus, did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. And here, I believe in demonstration of that, we see Bartimaeus running forward and falling down before Jesus. And I think I see our Lord God himself, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, kneeling down beside him with all compassion and humility and asking him, what do you want me to do for you? Verse 51. Continuing verse 51, the blind man said to him, Rabbani, or rabbi, that is, my master, my great one, that I may receive my sight. And isn't there just a beautiful simplicity in Bartimaeus' response? He doesn't mince his words, he doesn't use vain repetitions or flowery words of eloquence. He just says what he means and he asks for what he wants with all sincerity and earnestness. Verse 52, then Jesus said to him, Build your way. Your faith has made you well. And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road. And can you imagine what that must have been like? Jesus just says the word and the blind man suddenly can see. I've been in a cave before. I went spelunking and we turned off all the lights and experienced true darkness when you cannot see your hand in front of your face. And what a thing it is when you turn on the one flashlight and it just fills with light. That's what it was like for Bartimaeus, except instead of seeing the inside of a cave, the first thing he saw was the smiling face of the Lord Jesus Christ. And after receiving his sight, he says that Bartimaeus followed Jesus on the road. And by the way, what a beautiful picture of the doctrine of regeneration that is. of the reality that when a person becomes a Christian, you don't just change what you do, but God himself supernaturally changes you on the inside and changes what you want to do. And Jesus tells Bartimaeus, go your way. Go where you want. Bartimaeus followed Jesus. He says, I want to be with you. And that's how it is. When someone becomes a Christian, you don't have to pressure them like, oh, you need to read the Bible. Oh, you need to pray. Oh, you need to seek God. Christians seek God because they want to seek God because God himself has put that desire in their hearts. Also, you ever wonder how far Bartimaeus followed Jesus? So he started following him down the road. given that he probably had no family to return to, that it was time for the feast of the Passover when the Jews would gather in Jerusalem. And also, some commentators think that the reason Mark actually mentions Bartimaeus by name, which is rare in the Gospels, is because Bartimaeus was later a member of the church in Jerusalem and thus well known to Peter. Because of those things, I think it's plausible or even probable that Bartimaeus just followed him all the way to Jerusalem. And if he did, what a sight it must have been. Because you remember what happens. It says that as they drew near Jerusalem, Jesus and his disciples, Jesus sent two disciples to fetch a donkey and a colt so that he could ride on them into the city. And Matthew tells us that this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet saying, tell the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you lowly and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey. And as he is riding into Jerusalem on this donkey, it says that there is a very great multitude who spread out their clothes on the road and they cut palm branches and spread them out on the road before Jesus. And as he rides in, it says that the multitudes were crying out, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And can you imagine what that must have been like for Bartimaeus? The one who had hoped and dreamed of this son of David whom he had heard about, There he is seeing him with his own eyes and joining in with all the people crying out, Hosanna to the son of David. And how that should make us long for the day when we will see this same son of David riding into the heavenly Jerusalem and join with all the heavenly hosts and all the saints in praising him, our God and our Lord and our savior. Now, what I'd like to do next, since we haven't actually read the whole passage in its entirety, I'd like to just read it for you now that we've been through it and help you really appreciate all that is said here. And then after that, I'd like to turn and just draw out a few points of application. So, please follow along as I read the passage. Now, they came to Jericho. As he went out of Jericho with his disciples, And a great multitude, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the road begging. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Then many warned him to be quiet, but he cried out all the more, son of David, have mercy on me. So Jesus stood still. and commanded him to be called. Then they called the blind man, saying to him, Be of good cheer, rise, he is calling you. And throwing aside his garment, he rose and came to Jesus. So Jesus answered and said to him, What do you want me to do for you? The blind man said to him, Rabbani, that I may receive my sight. Then Jesus said to him, go your way. Your faith has made you well. And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road. And as we step back and we ask ourselves, why did God place this story in scripture? What is it meant to teach us? And as I said at the beginning, there is so much here. that there is simply so much that must be left unsaid. But there are two main things which I believe God intends to teach us through this passage. Number one is that God answers the prayer of the one who has faith in him. And secondly, Bartimaeus is an example of true faith whom we should imitate. Look at verse 52. Jesus says, Go your way. Your faith has made you well. This both tells us something about Bartimaeus, that he had faith, and also something about God, that God healed him because of his faith. So first, God answers the prayer of the one who has faith in him. Bartimaeus believed Jesus would restore his sight. He asked Jesus to restore his sight. And Jesus says, in effect, because of your faith, receive your sight. Similarly, in Matthew 21, Jesus said, Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt and say to this mountain, be removed and be cast into the sea, it will be done. And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive. And so God answers the prayer of the one who has faith in him. Now, before we go any further, I want to address a question that is bound to come up. If God healed Bartimaeus because of his faith, does this mean that blind people like Woody and Carolyn or those with some other kind of chronic disease or malady, like Lisa, that they just need to have more faith so that God would heal them. Is that what it means? Absolutely not. Why? Well, first of all, it is crucial to understand that faith is a gift of God imparted by the supernatural working of the Holy Spirit. As it is written, for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Or in Romans 12, think soberly about yourself, just as God has dealt or given to each one a measure of faith. Or we can look to first Corinthians 12, where faith is listed as one of the gifts of the spirit. And so the notion that you can somehow conjure up enough faith to manipulate God into giving you what you want is ludicrous. It's not biblical and it's not true. Rather, it is the spirit who grants us faith and he grants us faith in order to pray according to the will of God. Secondly, we must never lose sight of the fact that the Christian life is a call to suffer. In Philippians 129, it says, For to you it has been given on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake. And so as Christians, we are called to take up our cross daily and follow Christ. And what I want you to see in this is that the work of the Spirit is often not to give us the faith to pray for healing. Sometimes it is, but many times it is the work of the spirit to give us the even greater faith required to not ask for healing or deliverance, but to ask for the grace to glorify God in the midst of the suffering we face. Remember the apostles when they were first preaching the word and the priests and the Sadducees laid hands on them and they beat them and they put them in custody. Did the spirit burden their hearts to pray for their safety? to ask God to deliver them from the persecution? No. In fact, it says, after they were beaten, they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And you remember what the Spirit did burden their hearts to pray for? They prayed, now, Lord, look on their threats and grant to your servants that with all boldness they may speak your word. And so the one who has faith to ask God for healing, glorifies God. But the one who has the faith to not ask God for healing, but who says, your grace is sufficient for me, for your power is made perfect in weakness. This one glorifies God more. So the passage does not mean that everyone in need of physical healing just needs to trust God more so that he would heal them. It does mean that God answers the prayer of the one who has faith in him. And as Jesus said, if you can believe, all things are possible for him who believes. And I mean, can you imagine Jesus not healing Bartimaeus? Can you imagine, you know, this man, Bartimaeus, who has hoped in Christ with everything that he has, has dreamed of him and is calling out to him with all his heart. Can you imagine Jesus Just not healing him? This man that would throw off his most valuable possession to run to the feet of Christ. I mean, can you even imagine Jesus not healing him? Notice what Jesus says to him. He says, your faith has made you well. He takes himself right out of the equation. It's as if he's saying, how could I not heal you? Your faith has compelled me and therefore it can be said your faith itself has made you well. And what I want you to see is that God is so loving and he is so gracious, he is so compassionate, so tenderhearted and so committed to his own glory that God cannot bear to disappoint the one who hopes in Him. I believe that is the main point of this passage. And so the main application is very obvious. It's hope in God. Trust in Him. Place all your hope and all your desire and all your longing on Him, not on anything else. Everything else that we may hope in will disappoint us. God will not. We are a people who stand on the brink of eternity. Our life is a vapor. And one day we will stand with all the world before God to whom we will all give account. Riches will not matter. Fame will not matter. Beauty and health will not matter. The one thing that will matter is whether or not you are counted worthy of God's kingdom in the age to come. And if your hope is in your own righteousness, or your own goodness, or in anything else, it will fail you. There is no one righteous, no not one, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But if you are like Bartimaeus, and your hope is in God himself, in the richness of his mercy, in the depth of his love, and in his power to forgive, you will find him to be everything you have ever hoped for and much, much more. He cannot bear to disappoint you as it is written. Now, hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us. For God demonstrates his own love toward us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God is so loving and he is so devoted to not disappointing the one who hopes in him that he even came down to die on a cross so that the one who would look to him and hope in him for mercy and for forgiveness so that that one will not be disappointed. There is mercy and there is forgiveness because Christ went to the cross and he paid it all. And he who hopes in him will not be ashamed. He will not be disappointed. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. So if you do not know the Lord, trust in him, hope in him. Do it now. You do not know when you will die. Bartimaeus had one shot and he cried out with all his heart, do that and you will be saved. But if you will not believe, take heed. Because if it was faith that made Bartimaeus well, then without it, Bartimaeus would have remained blind. And just as God's very nature is to give grace to the one who hopes in him, the scriptures say, let not him who doubts suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. And just as he who believes in the sun shall have everlasting life, the scriptures say, he who does not believe the sun shall not see life. but the wrath of God abides on him. Seeing then how essential faith is, how everything rides on faith, let us look now to our second main point, which is that Bartimaeus is an example of true faith whom we should imitate. And quickly, I would like to point out six characteristics of true faith that we learn from Bartimaeus. I'm going to spend the most time on the first one. So point number one is this. True faith comes not by sight, but by the word of God. And if you are someone who struggles with doubt, you need to hear this. If Bartimaeus did not need his eyesight to come to believe that Jesus was the Messiah, nor do we. You see, in a sense, true faith is blind. Not that it is contrary to reason or sound mind, but in that it is not ultimately based on what may be seen with our eyes or experienced with our senses. In Hebrews it says, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the confidence of things not seen. We do not look to visible signs and wonders for proof that Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus himself told us that we are a generation to whom no sign will be given, but the sign of Jonah, who spent three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, just as the Son of Man spent three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And secondly, Jesus said that Secondly, even if God were to work many outward signs and miracles, Jesus has told us that if we will not hear Moses and the prophets, neither would we believe if one were to rise from the dead. Sight would not convince us anyway. You may ask then, but if I cannot see God, how can I know what he's really like? Bartimaeus teaches us that true faith comes by hearing. and not by sight. He heard the words of the prophet and he heard the testimony of those who had seen Jesus and he believed it. That's how he acquired his faith. And if you will give yourself to the hearing of God's word and you will search the scriptures and you will humble yourself to strive to search out the truths that are here. I stand as a witness before you today that God, even as he gave sight to Bartimaeus, he will open the eyes of your heart to behold wonderful things in his word. You will begin to see a glory and a truth and a wisdom and a beauty in this book where you will say, these are the words of life and there are no others. And secondly, you will begin to see God as he really is. You will see his holiness. You will see his goodness and his love. And you will see, in contrast with that, your own sinfulness and your desperate need of forgiveness and your desperate need of a Savior. And you will see that God has provided that Savior in Jesus Christ. And finally, you will also, through the eye of faith, through scripture, you will begin to see God's hand, his hand of providence working in you and through you and around you and in this world. God will show it to you, but it comes through the hearing of his word. Secondly, true faith is birthed in a humble heart. Not only was Bartimaeus blind, but he was poor. He was a beggar. He was the lowest of the low and he was not too proud to beg for mercy. And if there is one thing that will blind you and prevent you from trusting God, it is pride. That is why the scribes and the Pharisees could not see Jesus for who he really was. And that is why the scripture says, has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom? And why Jesus said, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. You see, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And if you would have a heart of faith, You must first humble yourself to become a beggar for the grace of God. And a great prayer to start with is that of the man in Mark 9 who cried out, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Number three, true faith is grounded on the character of God. Notice that Bartimaeus cried out, have mercy on me. And mercy is, by definition, undeserved. Bartimaeus' faith had absolutely nothing to do with who he was, what he had done, or what he deserved. It had everything to do with who Jesus Christ is, and who God had promised to send, and what God had said. And you see, if you think that God could never forgive you, That is actually insulting God. Because that is saying that his grace is insufficient to cover your sin. And it is not true. Number four, true faith makes bold requests. Bartimaeus asked for his sight. He asked for something miraculous. And he asked for it boldly and loudly and desperately. You see, faith asks not in accordance with what one deserves, but in accordance with who God is. And if we saw God for who he is, his eagerness to answer prayer and the riches of his grace, oh, what more we would ask for. Jesus said, ask and it shall be given you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives. And he who seeks finds. And to him who knocks, it will be opened. And he goes on to say, If a human father, being evil, knows how to give good gifts to his children, how much more will your father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? You know, we are offered such a depth of relationship with the living God, yet we do not have because we do not ask. And we do not ask because, as C.S. Lewis said, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us. Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. So let us ask greatly and boldly, and above all, let us ask that we might know the Lord more deeply and intimately. Fifthly, true faith is singular. That is, if you have faith in God, you cannot have faith in anything else. Faith has no backup plans. Bartimaeus knew that he had no other options, that Jesus was his only hope. There were no human doctors that could heal blindness. There was no one else. That is why his cries were so urgent and why he literally threw aside his most valuable possession to get to the feet of Jesus as fast as he could. There was no backup plan. There was no thought, well, what if Jesus doesn't heal me? He didn't even think about that because he was so convinced that he would. But we are so prone to having plan B. We are so prone to walking in our own strength. And I do not have time to do justice to this point, but I will say two things. Number one, if we seek to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ, We cannot strive after our own. As Paul said, if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. Secondly, if we would minister in the power of the spirit, we cannot minister in our own as well. It says that if we build with wood, hay or straw, it will be revealed by fire and the fire will test each one's work of what sort it is and anything that we build or any ministry we do in our own strength, it will burn. It will not last. Number six, true faith perseveres. It is not dissuaded by obstacles or disappointments. Bartimaeus was blind for a long time. He waited year after year. And finally, even when Jesus was passing by, he cried out to him again and again and again. And there was no answer. And then those around him began to threaten him. And yet he cried out all the more. That is a picture of faith. God will test our faith and you will face trials of various kinds. Loved ones will die suddenly. Close friends will betray you. You will experience failure and pain and doubt. God will seem distant. All will seem dark. And through it all, God will force us to be patient. He will force us to let go of everything else and cry out to him. And he does this for our good, to refine and to purify and to sanctify us. And the longer we've lived the Christian life, the harder the tests will become. But we must persevere. We must cry out again and again and again. Just like Bartimaeus, we must pray and lose not heart. And God will deliver us. For our God cannot bear to disappoint the one who hopes in him. Let's go to Lord in prayer. Father, we praise You. We praise You that You are a God who cannot and will not disappoint the one who hopes in You. We praise You for the beauty and the glory of the grace that You showed Bartimaeus. We praise You that You gave that blind man his sight. But we praise You even more that You extend to us the offer of everlasting forgiveness for our sin, that we may experience everlasting life. Lord, I pray that you would give us eyes to see the urgency of this message. I pray that you would give us hearts of faith to receive it. In Christ's name, Amen.