The contrast between the responses of the rich young ruler and blind Bartimaeus to Jesus' call, highlighting that while both had burdens and sought Jesus, their approaches and ultimate outcomes differed significantly. The rich young ruler, burdened by a fear of death and clinging to his possessions, was asked to sell all he had and follow Jesus, but he went away grieved, unable to relinquish his wealth. In contrast, blind Bartimaeus, burdened by his darkness and despair, cast aside his garment and eagerly followed Jesus after receiving his sight, demonstrating a willingness to surrender everything for spiritual healing. The core lesson emphasizes that true discipleship requires surrendering all to Jesus, and that while riches can be a stumbling block, a willingness to obey God's will, whatever the cost, leads to true fulfillment.
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Let's turn together to Mark chapter ten, shall we? Mark chapter ten. I've been trying to prevail on Brother Meskut to stay a little longer today and bring the message tonight. He's on his way to Texas, and Texas is a long way. So you may have a change of voice tonight. You can hear me most any time, but have you been here before, Brother Meskut? I ran out of fingers. Well, I'm just hoping that perhaps we can hear him tonight, but he does have plans and we don't want to too seriously disrupt them.
But it would be nice to hear his voice bringing the message tonight. Did I talk to you long enough for you to find Mark ten without embarrassment? Then look at verse seventeen, will you please? Verse seventeen And when he, that is the Lord Jesus, when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one that is God. Thou knowest the commandments. Do not commit adultery.
Do not kill. Do not steal, do not bear false witness, defraud not, honor thy father and mother. And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest, go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven. and come take up the cross and follow me." And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved, for he had great possessions.
And Jesus looked round about and said unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God. Now a very different story from the same chapter. Verse forty-six. And they came to Jericho. And as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway, sighed begging. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on thee, and many charged him.
that he should hold his peace. But he cried the more a great deal, Thou son of David have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they called the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee. And he, casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole.
And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. Shall we pray? Our Heavenly Father, once again as we hold in our hands thy word, and as we read these stories of old time from thy word, we know that thy Holy Spirit lingers at our side, anxious to use these verses, thy word, to be a blessing to our hearts. We pray that he may not be hindered in the ministry that he seeks to perform this morning.
Our hearts are so different. And we've been reminded in our opening prayer that our needs are so different. But Lord, thine adequacy is so great. Not one of us needs go away from here this morning without taking a blessing direct from thyself with us. Then we pray that thou wilt, through thy spirit, minister to our individual needs. And so honor the Lord Jesus. and bring glory to thy name. We ask in his name. Amen. Now I realize that this is the first Sunday in a new year.
Immediately as I was thinking about these things, I felt it was obvious that I ought to lay before you the challenge of a new year. But I'm not going to do that. Tucked away in my Bible here, I have had some notes for a long time that I've gone back to from time to time to ponder. In fact, if I look them here, they're dog-eared and part of them I can scarcely read. But you know those thoughts come back to me afresh today, because although we are at the beginning of a new year, We have only just left behind an old one.
And I wonder how you spent the last hours of the old year. Last things seem to have some special sort of significance about them. More than once, I've had people tell me sometimes with tears in their eyes about the last words of loved ones. Those last things are very precious. Also, I've had people talk to me about how they spent the hours, the last hours of a year. I can remember, fifty years ago this month, how I spent the last years of an old year, almost.
Not quite, but very close to the end of the year, fifty years ago, I gave my heart to the Lord Jesus. And I remember the watch night service that year. I was just thirteen years of age. Now you can figure out my age. I was sixty-three last year. That is nineteen-eighties. So that'll save you getting distracted. But I remember how that old year slipped away and I was only just a very few days old in the Lord. But I launched into a new year with something brand new in my heart and in my life.
And to me it was a very wonderful new beginning. And I'm just wondering whether there's anybody in the service this morning who's never had a new beginning like that. That's really my exercise, listen. I read to you the story of a rich young man, and I read to you the story of a blind old beggar. Now these two stories are only two out of several that have to do with the last journey of the Lord Jesus. If you look at the chapter, you'll find it begins like this. And he arose from thence, and cometh into the coasts of Judea.
Now you read on who the story, and you'll find it says, He cometh into the coast of Judea. It says, He was gone forth into the way. It says, they came to Jericho. And then it says, they went out of Jericho. You know, the Lord Jesus was always coming and going. And eventually it says, He came nigh. to Jerusalem. Now the Lord Jesus was never going to traverse this path again. As he came nigh to Jerusalem, he drew near to the cross. And that journey that we just mentioned was the final one that the Lord Jesus made during his sojourn in this scene.
But you know, that was the journey where it says, He cometh, He was gone out, He came, he went out, and as the Lord Jesus came and went, there were those who made contact with him and left the same way that they met him. But there were those who made contact with him, and they left him very, very different beings. It isn't necessary to come into contact with the Lord Jesus and leave the same way that he came. This was the journey on which the Lord Jesus met the lepers.
And as a result of that contact they were cleansed. This is the journey on which I was going to say mothers brought their children. Now there's no evidence that they were the mothers of the children, though I think some of them must indeed have been and they wanted the Lord Jesus to touch the children. And as a result of that, the children got a blessing. He blessed them. The blind man, he got his sight. A publican on that journey, he got pardoned for his sins. But a rich young ruler, he just got his opportunity. I often wonder what the final outcome of that contact was.
The last we read of this young man was this. He went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. That's a strange mixture of people. That is indeed a conglomeration of heterogeneous matter. If you were to take those individuals and examine each one, why you'd see that the Lord Jesus on his last journey ran the gamut of contact. But I picked up these two because, strangely enough, they have certain things in common. And then obviously they have certain things in contrast.
There was a ritual on the one hand and a blind beggar on the other. Now is it possible for us to find something that these people have in common? I think perhaps I don't think there's any doubt about it that their contact with the Lord Jesus was the last, that they were going to have an opportunity of knowing. I remember visiting Blantyre in Scotland. In fact, I've been there more than once. As some of you Scottish folk will remember Blantyre, that was the little village where David Livingston was born.
And the house in which he was born is there, the room in which he saw the light of day is still there, and furnished with some of the original furniture. For a bland tire, the building has been turned into a museum. And on my visits, I've always looked forward to entering a dark room, part of that museum. As you walk into the darkness, all that you can see are six or eight small panels of light. As you approach the first one, instructions tell you to reach down at the right side of the panel until you find a handle and to pull it up.
Now as you pull it up, there lights up in front of you in relief a large picture or carving or something of the sort. in relief of an incident in the life of David Livingston. I remember the very first one there shows David Livingston in silhouette, sitting on the beach, shaving his eyes and looking out over the ocean, and the sun is just beginning to rise. This is an illustration of the beginning. When David Livingston, looking into his future, with his heart of adventure, is wondering what it's going to hold, what is going to unfold during the day of his existence as he, a youth, sits on the beach at its beginning.
There's another of those panels, and as it lights up, it shows a lion leaping out of the bush toward David Livingstone, another one of a native hut. and David Livingstone with his old leather bag of medical tools making his way into minister to a native. There's a picture of him, a sick man being carried on a litter. Does this strike a chord in somebody's heart? Do you remember these things? Some of you folk have been to Blantyre. But you know, the last one was always the challenge for me. It was a picture, a relief of the inside of a native mud hut.
And there's a young man, a servant, David Livingston's servant, and he is peering into the hut, and the daylight is coming in through the door and shining on a part of the hut inside, and there's a little nightlight burning there. and David Livingston is on his knees beside his bed. Dead. His last exercise was to pray, and he died on his knees praying at his bedside. That's a wonderful way to spend one's last hour, one's last moment, one's last opportunity.
Now I want us to see what these two men did with their opportunity. What did these two have in common? Well, in the first place, each had a burden. That much they had in common. The young man comes running to the Lord Jesus, falls on his knees, and says, Master, good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? Now this young man was not thinking about life after death. He was thinking about living forever. That's why the Lord Jesus said, you just got to obey the commandments. If you don't sin, you don't have to die.
The wages of sin is death. Don't sin, you won't die. He was afraid of death. He didn't want to die. That was his burden. He was a rich young man. He had everything going for him, and because of that he didn't want to relinquish it. He didn't want to let it go. If only I can cheat death, if only I can go on and on and on and on, death is going to rob me of everything I have. And death is going to usher me into, I don't know what. Oh, he had a burden. He was afraid of death. I don't know whether you've ever had a fear like that.
I remember two girls talking to me in Stornoway off the northwest coast of Scotland there, the island of Lewis. And the thing that brought them to Christ that night following our open air service was the fact that they were both afraid to die. They were just young. One was named Mary MacLeod, the other was named Mary MacLeod, which is not surprising because the island is full of MacLeod. The strange thing about it is these two girls lived together, slept in the same bed, they were not related, and eventually we learned to call them Mary A and Mary B. But they confessed that night by night they would sit on the side of the bed and they would talk about these things and together they would try to face this horrible thought that one day they had to leave this scene, they had to die.
And because neither of them could say that she was ready to die, Their conversation always ended at a stalemate and they crept into bed desperately afraid. Now God saved them one night on a key there, on a pier in Stornoway, and that fear was once and for all vanished. I met them after that when I used to visit the island, and it was a joy to see the change in those two young women. But the fear of death is a very real thing. In fact, the Bible says men are kept in bondage all their lives, lifetimes, all their lives, because of the fear of death.
He's a wise man who, if he's not prepared to die, is afraid of dying. A very wise man. But he is a wise man, if he's not prepared to die and afraid of dying, if he does something about it, because the Lord Jesus can deal with the very thing that brings the fear of death. The sting of death is sin. And once sin has been faced, and confessed, and forsaken, once the favor from sin has been received into the heart, then a man is saved, and he has no reason ever after that to be afraid of dying. Yes, this young man had a birth. He was afraid of death. The other one had a burden.
He was enduring the despair of darkness. He was a blind man. If he wanted to go someplace, somebody had to lead him. And if he tried to go alone, he would trip over every stone in his path. His darkness was intense. His darkness was heartbreaking. And his burden was to get rid of the darkness. But each had his burden. though the burdens were very different. They had something else in common. Each of these two men was anxious to meet the Lord Jesus. I know that because the first one came running, and the second one cried out, and when they tried to silence him, he cried out the more a great deal, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.
They were anxious to meet the Lord Jesus. In the case of the first man, this rich young ruler, his anxiety overcame his pride, and he not only came running to the Lord Jesus, he dropped on his knees as he asked the Lord Jesus, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? So each had a burden. Each was anxious to meet the Lord Jesus, and there was something else they had in common. received an answer from the Christ of God. So the first we read, Jesus said. And the second we read, Jesus said.
He gave an answer to them both. I wonder whether there's somebody here and you have these things in common with these two men. You have a burden. I don't know what it is. Perhaps it is that your sins are not forgiven. Perhaps it is that your life is not right with God and your back slidden. Having a burden, are you anxious to meet the Lord Jesus, that you might give him an opportunity of doing something about your burden? For he's the burden-bearer. Cast your burden on the Lord, and he shall sustain thee.
The Lord Jesus said, Come unto me, all ye that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Do you have a burden? Are you, like these two men, anxious to meet the Lord Jesus, that he might do something about your need? Then I can guarantee you'll have the third thing in common with them, for he will not turn his back on you. He'll give you a reply, he'll give you an answer too. like he did to the rich man and to the blind beggar. Some people have a burden, but they're not anxious to meet the Lord Jesus.
They're not anxious to come to him. Maybe although they have a need, they don't recognize what that need is. or maybe recognizing the need, they still don't realize that the Lord Jesus is the only one who can meet it. Or perhaps they're afraid of coming to Christ because of the demands that he might make upon them. Some people are afraid to get saved even though it means getting their sins forgiven and having their burdens lifted because they say he'll interfere with the way I live. He'll expect this of me.
He'll expect that of me. I'll have to give up this. I'll have to give up that. And there are people who give up the best because they're afraid of giving up the second best. The poet said he'll do better for you than the world can do. He's a mighty Savior, strong and true. He'll save you by His grace until you see His face. He'll do better for you than the world can ever do. So they had these things in common. Now what did they have in contrast? Oh, that's so very easy. One was a ruler and revered.
The other was a beggar and he was reviled. They had something very much in contrast. In fact, we might say as we look at these two men, one had everything. He was rich. He was young. He was attractive. The other one had nothing. He was a beggar. He was blind. He was probably old or older. And he was repulsive. One had everything. The other had nothing. But you know, the contrast goes very much further than that.
And what is more, the balance changes. Because we were just looking at them for the contrast on the surface. Now I want you to go a little below the surface and see how the one contrasts with the other, but how the balance is changed. Both of these men come to the Lord Jesus, but they come in very different ways. The young man, the rich young man, the rich young ruler, comes running to the Lord Jesus in his finery. When the blind beggar is told, come, he calls for you.
It says very significantly that he casting away his garment, The only thing he had he cast away, lest it should get between his feet and trip him up and prevent him from reaching the Lord Jesus. That's a very different way to come to the Lord Jesus. Oh, there are people who come to Christ. And they say, like the man who was in the temple, patted himself on the back and said, Oh God, I fancy I must not as other men are. I do this, I do that, I give this, I give the other. I'm not even like this poor publican here. They come in their finery.
They come in their well-dressed condition. They come in their own righteousness, which in God's sight is as filthy red. But the blind beggar said, I'm not even going to hang on to this. And he threw away the only thing he had, his garment. So they both came to the Lord Jesus. But they came in different ways. They both gasp out their distress. But they use different words. The rich young ruler comes and says, What shall I do? The blind beggar comes and he says, Have mercy on me.
There are not the people who come to the Lord Jesus, and they want to come doing. They want to come doing. Another poet wrote, Lay your deadly doing down, down at Jesus' feet. By the word of God says very clearly, of God's salvation it's not of works lest any man should boast There isn't a thing that we can do that will bring us marriage before God and make salvation our experience. The young man said, what shall I do? What shall I do? He expected to be able to do. Was he not a young man? Was he not a rich man? Was he not a ruler?
Why, there was little he couldn't do. What shall I do? The answer to that was there isn't a thing you can do. there isn't a thing you can do. And if you and I make an approach to the Lord Jesus, and we have that same attitude, we want to do something to save ourselves, we want to do something to atone for our own sins, we want to do something that will make God smile upon us and forget all about our sin, we are trying in vain, our efforts are fruitless and futile, there's nothing we can do. But the beggar came in the right attitude and said, have mercy on me. You see, a man doesn't get saved, a woman cannot be converted until they come acknowledging their lust and lust sinners, hell deserving sinners.
If we get our just deserts of sinners, we shall land in hell. You know, a person who recognizes that is not going to come to the Lord Jesus and say, what shall I do? He's going to come and say like the blind man did, please have mercy on me. Lord, you know what I am. There's nothing I can hide from you. The things that seemed to be so commendable in my life, I now see them as they are and I abandon them. Lord Jesus, there's no hope for me unless you have mercy upon me. Both of these men we said got their reply from the Lord Jesus, but how differently they responded.
Do you remember what the Lord Jesus said to the rich young ruler? He said, follow me. And the rich young ruler responded like this. He went away, sorrowful. Do you remember what the Lord Jesus said to the blind man? He said, go thy way. Do you remember what's written of the blind man? He followed Jesus. That's the difference. When the challenge of the Lord Jesus comes to our hearts, we're going to respond one way or the other. Now that's true whether we are sinners seeking God's salvation or backsliders seeking restoration from the Lord.
Or believers who have been disobedient seeking his forgiveness. We've got to remember the words of the mother of the Lord Jesus at the feast in Cana of Galilee. Whatsoever he set unto you. Do it. Some of us, maybe all of us from time to time as believers, get concerned in our hearts about the will of God for our lives. We know basically because we believe the Bible and because our intellect tells us that it's true that the God who loves us and has plans for us has plans for us that are best.
And yet because we are short-sighted and because we are selfish and because oftentimes we have other ideas, we hesitate to go the way that God tells us or wants us and obviously wants us to go. We want the will of God only if the will of God fits in with our plans. The Bible gives to us a principle in this connection and this is a word for speaker and hearer alike. The will of God is going to be revealed only to those who are willing to do it whatever it is.
I don't think any of us would hesitate to pray or God I'm willing to do your will, I'm willing to go all the way with you, providing that your plan fit in with mine. But the word of God says he that willeth, to do his will, shall know. It's much, much harder to pray and say, Lord, whatever your will is, Wherever it lends me, whatever it demands of me, I'm telling you solemnly now, and I'm one hundred percent sincere.
Whatever your will is, if you will show it to me, I will do it. Under those conditions, God will show it to you. But God will expect you immediately to be true to your word and to do it. This young man had a stumbling block in his life, It was not just that he was a rich man, because the Lord Jesus said, how hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God. He didn't say they couldn't enter in. How difficult it is for them, he says. Another place we read, not many mighty, not many noble are called. He doesn't say not any. It says not many. The reason is the rich man has to take his riches and lay them at the feet of the Lord Jesus.
so that he can do with them what he will even take them away if he chooses now the Lord Jesus looked at that rich man and it was not because he was a rich man that the Lord Jesus said this to him but because he was a rich man whose heart was set on his riches go and give them away there the stumbling block your riches are the things that are keeping you away from me get rid of them but he went away grieved for he had great professions. There are people who choose other things or other people rather than the Lord Jesus. On more than one occasion in the past years in the works, I've had a woman sitting seers in an inquiry room and say to me, I'm afraid if I do trust the Lord Jesus and I know it's what I ought to do and I know I ought to do it now, it's going to wreck my marriage.
You don't know my husband. My husband not only has no fear of God, but he blasts things. If I go home and tell him that I've become a Christian, I know what will happen. He will put me out of the house. That's a very, very solemn decision to have to make. But I could never do anything but counsel such a woman. If you're not willing to trust the Lord Jesus for so great a thing as your salvation, Are you not prepared to trust him having been converted to take care of your affairs and your needs and look after that problem of your husband thereafter? I've heard some very, very encouraging stories about women who took that stand and how God surprised them by the wonderful way that he undertook.
But I remember a girl of fifteen telling me one night, if I trusted Christ, and went home, my mother would put me out on the street. But she trusted Christ. At eleven o'clock I got a call to say she was on the street with a small suitcase being turned out of the house. I remember going with my host with whom I was staying during those special meetings. We drove over and picked that girl up and we put her in the YWCA and paid for a week of her lodgings and then said, now look, We're going to keep in contact with you and we believe that God is going to undertake.
She stayed there one night, two nights, three nights, four nights, five nights. On the sixth day before the week was out, her mother got in touch with her and she said, I want you to come and see me. She went back home and her mother said, I didn't really believe it would mean this much to you. Pack up your things and come back. You know what happened? That girl eventually won her mother for Christ. Now, if she had refused to trust the Lord Jesus, she would have gone to hell and her mother would have gone to hell with her. Sometimes it costs a tremendous amount to trust the Lord Jesus, but it always costs a tremendous amount more not to trust.
Our story ends with two men. One of whom has everything, and the other has nothing, but it's the rich man who has nothing. The blind beggar has nothing. Shall we bow in prayer? Our Heavenly Father, how we thank thee for thy perfect knowledge of us. There's not a heart here, but is like an open book before you. We do not read each other's minds. We cannot tell what's in each other's hearts. But Lord, there's not a thing we can conceal from thee.
We only pray that in his last quiet moments, thy Holy Spirit shall bring to bear upon our hearts the truth that he has in mind to challenge us with on this Sunday morning. And all we pray for the grace and