Blind Bartimaeus - the Unsaved Believer — Major Ian Thomas

Blind Bartimaeus and the Unsaved Believer

Blind Bartimaeus the unsaved believer. I thought we might tonight Focus our attention upon the story of an unsaved believer that's given to us in the Bible. It was read for us out of the 18th chapter of Luke's gospel, but we'll turn to it as It is recorded for us in the 10th chapter of Mark.

Bartimaeus by the Roadside

Mark chapter 10. It's the story of Bartimaeus, you know the story well enough. 46 verse of Mark 10. 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 side. Begging notice the grouping there. First of all, of course the Lord Jesus. He was there always is. Wherever you go, of course, he's here tonight without a shadow of a doubt. And then his disciples and there are always some of those around doesn't matter where you go.

There are always some of his disciples. You can go to the most quaint odd places in the world, but you'll find disciples sometimes quaint odd disciples, too. There are plenty of those around. But doesn't matter where you go, you'll find disciples.

Those who know the Lord Jesus Christ is their Redeemer and are numbered Amongst those who have been raised from the dead and are sharing his resurrection doesn't matter where you go in the whole wide world.

And I've proved it. I've traveled about 50 or 60 world countries of the world and I've never yet never once been to any place anywhere. But I haven't found a site. Don't let anybody persuade you that people don't get converted that they're getting converted by that by their thousands all over the world.

You'll find disciples When I was serving in the British forces in the Royal Fusiliers most famous regiment in the British Army. And as I Can't resist telling folk always largely responsible for winning the war.

I Was in the Middle East for part of my service and I had a little book called Servicemen's guide to missions in the Middle East little red book. It's like a Bible to me and Wherever I went I could look it up and find where disciples were and my fellow officers.

They were quite astounded. I'd be somewhere in the desert I'd say if I had an hour or two to spend going off to see friends. I say you can't have friends here as I've got friends everywhere members of the family.

Because it doesn't matter where you go you'll find a site the Lord Jesus. Here's this up just a few you won't find many but just a few handfuls and Then of course, it said a great number of people. The crowd the Lord Jesus his disciples and the crowd wherever you go, that's the grouping and Of course normally the crowd.

By far Outnumbers the disciples, of course in a in a service like this. We we anticipate that the Proportion will be reversed quite obviously one would anticipate On a Sunday evening service here in Ryde Baptist Church.

The disciples will probably considerably outnumber the crowd. But there's the groupies and of course one other thing hidden away in the crowd the immediate object of Christ's quest the one person in particular for whom he is around and that's what makes life so incredibly exciting when you're a Christian and Especially if it's your privilege in one way or another to proclaim The good news of the gospel.

I don't mean just as a preacher. Just an ordinary businessman housewife schoolboy University student bus driver taxi driver wherever you may be. It's your privilege and mine if we know Jesus Christ to be his witness.

So I I embrace in the preaching of the gospel all Who redeemed in the blood of Christ? Have on their lips the good news that God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son. That whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life.

And what is so exciting is that no matter where you go as a disciple with the Lord Jesus present in the crowd. Somewhere in the crowd there will be the immediate object of his quest tucked away. Absolutely certainly tonight here in this church congregation, although you're strangest to me most of you Tucked away that some boy or girl or man a woman who is the immediate target for tonight now I may never know I may never know but God does and incident if you're the target you'll know and Some you don't even know what's going to hit you.

That's what makes it so exciting. We have tens of thousands of young folk come to Capon Ray and our other centers. Well over a hundred thousand we've had and any number of them come utterly utterly unwitting of God's what's going to hit them.

Pagan little rascals. Never been exposed to the gospel, but I've seen them grow up. I've seen that the life transforming power of the Lord Jesus as he's broken into their lives because they were the immediate Immediate object to this quest.

Christ's Quest for Zacchaeus and the Samaritan Woman

It's it's exciting. Of course it was true of the Lord Jesus when he was here on earth in all many many places. You remember how on another occasion coming out near Jericho same situation there was that fat little man Zacchaeus Climbing up a tree man, who though we're told he was little a statue probably made up for his lacking height by sideways expansion and Couldn't get to the front because the crowd and so he went ahead and and climbed the sycamore tree.

You remember the story I gathered the leaves around him perched as he was precariously upon that inadequate branch. Pretending that he was a sycamore bud. Some bud. And the Lord Jesus who had an immense sense of humor.

He must have a sense he wouldn't give us a sense of you hadn't got one himself and and we're so such funny creatures the heaven must roar with laughter the stupid things we do and. And as he was coming along there there he could think of this.

Poor fat little man hiding up that tree imagine the few leaves would hide him from God. No, no more stupid. No more ludicrous than the way some of us have in the past. Tried to hide from God and probably one or two of you here still trying to hide just as ludicrous and of course the Lord Jesus as you know stopped right under that tree and Pretended at first course he didn't didn't know that Zacchaeus was there and if Zacchaeus had had the courage to let go of the branch.

He was holding on to he'd a pat himself in the back. But he didn't let go and he probably put my head to choose in the very tree under which he's gonna preach. That man didn't choose that tree. Christ chose the tree.

Wouldn't matter which tree he hid in. Any any tree Christ would have stood under that tree. He could have hit himself in a cabbage and Christ would have stood by the cabbage some cabbage. You see this is this is the marvelous thing about it.

Many look straight up into his face. And you know what happens when one person a crowd looks straight up and keeps looking up. Everybody looks up and Zacchaeus looked into this Mass of faces look like ten million years as red as beetroots.

He could wish himself anywhere without that tree. And the Lord Jesus caught him by name the immediate object of his quest. He was the woman by the well you remember send all the disciples off so the woman wouldn't be embarrassed and.

Then the course of the conversation he said. Don't get your husband. Don't have one right. He said you've had five. The man you're living with now isn't your husband the immediate object of his quest.

Marvelously converted that woman marvelously converted the means under God of bringing about a great spiritual awakening in her town when she went back. The immediate object of his quest that's why he went that way.

He must need to go through some area. That's how it's what he had to go that way. What to meet that woman late at night. Come in. You still up oh, yeah waiting for you. What do you mean waiting for me?

How'd you know I was coming? Cosmic Nicodemus, I may be a stranger to you, but you're not strange to me. I've been hanging around a long time. We should come earlier. Nicodemus in the dead of night. You don't really fancy that you're a stranger to Christ tonight.

I'm sure there may be some to whom Christ is a stranger, but please don't fancy. That you're a stranger to Christ. There's nothing about you that he doesn't know. And you may be tucked away somewhere here in this little crowd and the immediate object of his quest.

The Immediate Object of Christ's Quest

I Remember preaching in a reformed church in in our reaching us Friesland in Germany after the service I was talking to a friend on the steps and While we were talking my friend suddenly noticed a lanky 15 or 16 year old German boy.

And he looked terribly miserable so miserable my friend couldn't help but remark upon it and any. He nudged me. He said doesn't he look miserable. We did. I hate to see a boy look miserable. So I went up and I said what's your name?

He said Ingo Lummer. That's a name. They have names like that. It sounds more like a disease, but it's actually a name. And I said were you in church? Well, he said yes. Did you listen to what I was saying?

I did. Do you know that the Lord Jesus Christ is your Savior that he's redeemed you and lives in your heart. He said no, I don't. Very bitterly, so I knew he didn't he made it very clear. I said wouldn't you like to and The amazing thing is this that just as earnestly as he had answered bitterly.

He said yes with all my heart. I said one extraordinary thing. There you stand on front of the church steps just coming out of a service where I've explained exactly how a boy can be saved looking as miserable as a foggy bank holiday and You want Jesus Christ to save you with all your heart and Christ wants to save you all his heart what it is.

Let us stop it. Absolutely. Nothing. Isn't it crazy? All you've got to do is say, thank you. Then it was my turn to be taken by surprise. I'd hardly said that before he whipped off his cap bowed his head and said, thank you.

That was all converted. The immediate object of his quest few years ladies now Bible school in England. The last time I actually saw him was an aid in in South Arabian Peninsula as a mission with the mission the Red Sea mission team.

Now he's in Western Canada. I just got a letter just a few weeks ago with his wife's photograph. Because he's got married which is pretty obvious, but there was this miserable looking boy, you see. But the immediate object of Christ's quest it's absolutely fascinating.

How the Spirit of the Living Christ will close in upon this boy this girl that man that woman. Just a week or two when I go when I was in New Zealand I I spent the evening with a with a family called Faulkner in Howick.

Same district where we have our Cape and Ray Lodge. I Went to see the family because I've met their son in Europe. John they were members of a Baptist Church there in high. And he'd been to a Christian youth camp, I think he'd been moved but although emotionally stirred and maybe even having registered a decision.

He wasn't regeneral. He was a believer, but he hadn't understood really what it meant to exercise faith. So he was an unsaved believer and Of course inevitably it just faded out fizzled out within a week or two and he hit the road.

Came from a good home, but he just left home 19 years of age to sing pop songs in dance halls and coffee shops bars Hotels. Did it for a year and his great ambition was to find his way to Europe and then you know get a bit of vocal training and fight his way out until he was one of the top ten and.

So he transferred what little money he had to a bank in England. He got on a Russian ship that was due to go to Moscow. But was to call it Southampton and he was going to get off at Southampton managed to get a visitor's visa.

But when he got off at Southampton He Didn't fall into the hands of thieves, but he fell into the hands of something infinitely worth British immigration. And they were rough really rough. He ended up in jail.

To be deported next morning taken in a police car. But he pleaded with them not to put him on the ship to send him to Russia in Howick in in New Zealand. He had bumped into dr Tony Han who directs our youth center there and his wife and our director from close to Mueller that mr Gilchrist mentioned a dr Dwight Wadsworth who's been here in Sydney happened to be in New Zealand and bumped into the boy, too.

And hearing of his ambition to go Europe. He said if ever you find your way to Europe come and see me in Germany so he said send me to Germany and They put him on a plane to Germany, which was heading for Hamburg Way up in the north miles away from our center in Germany.

But a truck backed into that plane damaged the wings so they turfed all the passengers out and stuck them on a plane for Frankfurt. About 60 miles away from where we are. Amazingly well, of course when he got to Frankfurt had very little money in his pocket.

It was all in the bank in England couldn't speak a word of German, but an American couple Graciously took pity on him drove him into the city dumped him in a hotel. They went to the American consulate and he said I'm looking for a man whose name I can't remember.

And he lives within the dress I've lost. But it's something to do with a place called Cape and Ray that's all he knew just one word Cape and Ray. Please find him. Well, that was a tall order so tall they couldn't reach and they looked up everything could find nothing.

So He went to the British consulate same story. I'm looking for a man whose name I can't remember at an address I've lost something to do with Cape and Ray. But it didn't call Cape and Ray in Germany.

It's called Falkensteig torch bearers in German close to me. They're not Cape and Ray Hall. So they couldn't find a thing. So the poor boy was very depressed. He was penniless without the language in a strange country other side of the world from his home.

He was feeling pretty lonely. And he was just just commiserating with himself and talking to the girl at the desk in the British consulate when a young German girl Came by listen to the conversation excused herself for for breaking into the I Trust you won't think me rude.

But I overheard the conversation and and you use the word Cape and Ray and my mother went to that place 20 years ago when she was a girl and If you like to ring up the London Exchange and tell them to find a place called Cape and Ray up the northwest of England they'll be able to give you the address of the place in Germany and.

They did and I met him three weeks later at our German conference grounds. Where he was participating in our German Bible school. Couldn't understand a word of German. So he wasn't learning too much. But but you know what?

He said he's I haven't read my Bible so much in all my life as I have these last three Weeks, it's just as though God were the other side of a thick plate-glassed window as though he was trying to say something to me.

I Said I think he is Loud and clear. And it was my privilege to take him back to England just a few days later got him in. For a year he attended our Bible school. And I last saw him just for Christmas when he came to the Sunday morning service in Los Angeles where I was preaching.

Where he's in a Bible college for four years preparing For Christian ministry the immediate object of Christ's quest. On a ship heading for Moscow way the other side of the world. You can't run away from God.

Why try. He's got nothing, but good things for you. Well here was here was blind Bartimaeus the immediate object of Christ's quest a poor blind Beggarly believer you say why do you call him a believer.

Bartimaeus's Knowledge of Jesus

Well from the context it says when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth. He began to cry out and say Jesus thou son of David mercy on me. He heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth. That was his human title.

Just as I might say mr. Smith of London or mrs. Brown of Brisbane or Tom Jones of Adelaide. Jesus of Nazareth, that's where he lived. But the moment the moment they said this is Jesus of Nazareth his human title.

Immediately he began to cry out and say Jesus son of David that was his messianic type. That was the Bible title used in the Old Testament for the Christ of God. The Savior having heard that with Jesus of Nazareth, why should he call out to the Messiah?

Because sitting as a poor blind beggar. Somehow he had become unshatterably convinced that this Jesus Was God's son the promised Messiah. I don't know how he came to that conviction. He had of course listeners a beggar sitting in the gutter to the chatter of the crowd.

He had here of course of amazing things that were happening. The the dumb could speak and the The deaf could hear me the lame could walk and the blind could see. He probably heard how some miserable hypocrites playing religion had dragged a poor woman and thrown her at his feet and said Shall we stone her?

Caught in the act of adultery. Stone her? That's what Moses said. Shall we stone her to death? Said Jesus right. That's exactly what Moses said take her out stone her to death. But half a minute he said Let he that is among you be the first.

To cast a stone who is without Sin. And he began to write with his finger on the sand and as they watched what he wrote from the oldest to the youngest. They couldn't get out quick enough they didn't seem to like what he was writing.

Convicted by their own conscience. I Think he was just writing a few things. He knew about each one of them as He could about you tonight and He was left alone With this poor miserable woman that no man condemned me none.

Nor do I. I Don't condone your sin, but I forgive it now go and Sin no more. He heard all of this as he sat there in the gutter and He became compellingly aware that this must be this must be the son of David of whom as a Jewish boy, of course he had heard.

From the Old Testament scriptures every Jewish child had to learn whole chunks of the Bible. Hunks of it. He would have learned a passage like this for instance. It would have been still probably vivid in his mind.

Oh everyone that thirsteth come ye to the waters he that hath no money come by me. What a message for a blind poor beggar. He that hath no money. Come by and eat yay come by wine and milk without money and without price.

Incline your ear and come unto me here and your soul shall live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you even the sure mercies of David the Messiah the Christ of God. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found.

Call you upon him while he is near when he's near enough to be found seeking when he's near enough to be Called upon call upon it. Don't miss your chance. He remembered this. Let the wicked forsake his way in the unrighteous man his thoughts.

Let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon to our God for he will abundantly pardon this Jesus of Nazareth God's son Son of David. I don't know just how he became convinced of the facts.

But that he was a believer is evidenced by his reaction at once as They told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. But you see the tragedy was this that until this point until this moment in time.

Everything that he had come to know about the Lord Jesus Christ and everything he had come to believe about the Lord Jesus Christ Had left him exactly where it found him poor blind and a beggar in the gutter.

And of course Whatever you may have come to know about Jesus Christ. Whatever you may have come to believe about Jesus Christ if you've never made personal contact. If you've never mixed it with faith.

That at your invitation deliberately intelligently personally has allowed him to move into your heart in your life. Then everything, you know and everything you believe about Jesus Christ leaves you spiritually in the gutter unchanged.

What he knew and believed about Jesus Christ didn't change his way of life. Didn't lift him out of his circumstance left him where it found. That's all that religion can do for you. That's all that Christianity can do for you and for me if it's just Christianity.

That's all the Bible can you to do for you and for me if you just like to learn whole chunks of the Bible by Heart and do nothing absolutely nothing about it. Then you'd have to join Bartimaeus where he sat.

Poor blind beggarly believer unsaved a faithless believer. The impotence of an impersonal belief. I suppose the folk most afflicted with this of those boys and girls who are brought up in evangelical families.

Where from their earliest days like that boy? I spoke to this morning around the family table and the reading of the Bible going to church, you know. Shoved into Sunday school. They've had it. They've had it day in day out week in week out month in month up till everything is utterly familiar.

But they've never come to Christ never come to Christ a familiarity that is almost bread contempt. Are you one of those? You could preach the gospel back to me almost word for word, but you're not a Christian.

You're not converted. You're not saved. You've never been to Jesus. You don't know that your sins are forgiven. You're not born again. You're not alive. You've been house trained. You do the right thing and say the right thing.

You go through the motions. But you're unregenerate. You're spiritually dead. You're a poor blind beggarly believer. Just like Bartimaeus what made the difference. The sudden awareness that Jesus himself was at hand.

Moving from Belief to Saving Faith

That's what made the difference and this is what makes the difference again and again in the lives of those who've gone on Sleepily year in year out and never been really born again. Suddenly they're confronted with the fact that Jesus is alive and Jesus is on hand that he's passing by.

It may be through some office friend. It may be as you go perhaps to some Christian camp and you're precipitated into the company of a lot of young folk who are Alive in Jesus Christ and there is silhouetted against their liveliness your own state of death and destitution.

It may be that the Holy Spirit graciously moves into your life on The occasion of some bereavement or Some act of which you're downright ashamed and makes you really frightened frightened of yourself.

And God uses it To assure you that there is somebody alive and on hand near enough to help. You could see he could hear the buzz of excitement. He knew that something strange was on and he grabbed at somebody's shirt.

I expect and said what's what's on? What's the excitement? They said Jesus Jesus of Nazareth is passing by and suddenly he recognized that he was near enough to be sought and found he was near enough to call upon and Suddenly he recognized the sheer the sheer bankruptcy of a belief that left him where it found poor blind and a beggar in the gut.

And he began to cry out and he traded the impotence of his impersonal belief for the importunity of a saving faith. He said Jesus son of David have mercy have mercy upon me. Please do for me what I've known and believed.

Do for me what I've heard you've done for others moving to my life. Lift me out of this situation. In other words for the first time in his life. He acted intelligent on what he had come to know and believe.

And what was the reaction of the crowd? But that's the extraordinary thing the reaction of the crowd Was the same than it is today. Many charged him that he should hold his peace as soon as he began to act intelligently on What he knew.

The crowd said keep your mouth shut get back into your gutter. Get back to where you belong. We don't mind what you believe about Jesus Christ. We don't mind what you know about Jesus Christ, but don't make a fool of yourself.

Don't act as though it was true. Now isn't that extraordinary? Nobody minds you going to church. Nobody minds you being a member of a Bible class. Nobody minds you singing in the choir. Nobody minds you being a soloist.

Nobody minds you singing in an oratorio. I know that my Redeemer liveth, but please please please don't act as though you had got a Redeemer who was alive. You can sing in the choir man of sorrows. What a name for the Son of God who came ruined sinners to reclaim.

Hallelujah, what a Savior. Fine. They say marvelous so glad you sing in the choir. But please don't come and tell us that you're one of the ruined sinners that Jesus saved to make a fool of yourself. Don't go to fanatical extremes.

You can turn religion and Christianity and the cross and Easter and Christmas and which Newton term a whole lot into religious entertainment. But please please don't be real. We don't mind you being a phony.

The world's full of them. Religious political financial social the world is just packed tight with phonies. We don't mind you being a phony. You can sit in the front row at church. We don't care get in the pulpit if you like, but don't get converted.

Don't get saved. Don't get redeemed. Don't be real. Extraordinary isn't it. Ever met the crowd? Of course you have in your school class. Some of you have met the crowd even in your own family circle. I did.

I Was the only person in my family is the youngest boy in the family. And my brother would fling my Bible across the room when I wanted to read it at night. Ever met the crowd. Perhaps you're one of them.

Perhaps you're one of the crowd that keeps the boy sitting next to you from coming to Christ. Because you've told him all too often to get back into his gutter where he belongs. And not to make a fool of himself.

Wouldn't that be sad, but the marvelous thing is this when a person Has really become aware of the living Christ in touching distance. Takes more than the crowd to keep his mouth shut. He cried the more a great deal thou son of David have mercy on.

He didn't care to this what the crowd said. That's the marvelous thing that's always happening always happening. Suddenly as the Spirit of God moves in upon a boy or girl a man a woman the immediate object of Christ's quest.

Tucked away in the crowd and the Lord Jesus becomes Compellingly Present. Takes more than the crowd to keep him out here. He cried so much the more he was sick and tired of being an unsaved believer. Are you sick and tired of being a member of a Sunday school class or a? scripture union reader and not saved of going through all the motions and reciting the Evangelical jargon and knowing in your heart the whole time you're a phony.

He was and he did a very sensible thing. Casting away his garment. He rose and came to you at the invitation of The crowd. No the crowd will never invite you to come to Christ. They'll only lead you to hell.

It was at the invitation of the disciples. Jesus stood still. Of course he did that's what he was there for. Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called and They call the blind man saying to him be of good comfort.

Rise he calleth thee. That was the message of a disciple. They came to him and said cheer up. The Lord Jesus is waiting for you. He calls to you of course for me. Yes you. That's that's the message of a disciple.

Now I warrant that many a disciple is pretty clumsy in the process. Some of it like bulls in China shops. They can be beastly tact tactless and and they may embarrass you on occasions. But listen never despise a disciple.

You don't often meet them. They've got very good news, and maybe even though they did blurt it out. You just don't know how much courage it took when they did blurt it out. Never despise a disciple. He's got very good news.

He's got the kind of news that will get you out of the gutter. Spiritually he threw away his garments. You might think that was wasteful. But you didn't see his garments. Just beggars rags. Beggars rags and he dropped the lot of course.

You see every rag he had in his back was secondhand. Every crusty stubbed into his mouth was secondhand. Any coiny of a finger was tossed out of charity from somebody who didn't need it his whole life was secondhand.

He was a beggar and you can sit week after week in church participate and not within sincerity and yet. Your only experience of Christ secondhand the experience of a poor blind. Beggarly believe he dropped a lot.

He dropped a lot and he came to Christ. The Lord Jesus said What wilt thou that I should do to you? But whatever would the blind man expect of the Lord Jesus of whose reputation he'd heard so much. Made the blind see the lame walk the dumb to speak and the deaf to hear whatever should he expect.

Oh? Yes, but you see the Lord Jesus didn't want there to be any mistake or any Misunderstanding about this in so many words. I think what he was saying to Bartimaeus was this. Bartimaeus. I want to make quite sure that you know what the score is.

I want to make quite sure that that you know what? You want do you realize that if I open your eyes you can never beg again. You can't sit there living on charity not the moment. I open your eyes. The moment I heal you the moment I open your eyes you're on your own two feet.

And you've got a job to do new responsibilities and instead of living on other people's charity. You'll be at the giving end instead of the getting in. Maybe I've got you wrong Bartimaeus. Maybe all you're really looking for is is a nice soft cushion that I can give you so you can beg more comfortably.

Masses of people go to church for that lots and lots of people embrace religion not because they want to be different. But just as a cushion for a bad conscience that isn't salvation. I Wouldn't deceive you tonight if you receive Christ as your Redeemer.

If you claim forgiveness through the precious blood that he shed upon the cross it means that from that very moment the Lord Jesus and the power of his resurrection will claim the right by his Holy Spirit to invade your soul and Occupy your humanity so that your hands become his hands your feet his feet your lips is to speak with your ears is to hear.

With your mind is to think with your eyes is to see with. From that moment on you become expendable for God. New responsibilities. Exciting marvelous caught up into the timeless purpose of an eternal God.

So that Jesus Christ takes up residence within your humanity and walks again the streets of the city of Sydney. That's what it means to become a Christian and Jesus Christ wanted to lead him past the peril of merely impressionable emotions.

It's the easiest thing in the world to stir people's emotions and get them to register some shallow Decision on the crest of some emotional weight and it's an absolutely Absolutely nil spiritual content.

I'm not interested. I want you to know this that if you would have become a Christian tonight If you were to claim Christ as your Redeemer, it would introduce you to a new vocation. It would mean that he as God has the right to claim total Monopoly of every area of your being body soul spirit mind emotion.

And will you become a body wholly filled and flooded with Christ? Himself and your body becomes available for him to live with honor. Nothing less than that and Bartimaeus said Lord That I might receive my sight.

I don't care what the consequences are. I'm through with the beggars rags. I'm never going back to that gutter open my eyes. Whatever new responsibilities it may involve from now on Unexpandable. And the Lord Jesus said go thy way your faith has allowed me to make you whole and Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way.

You know what it says in Luke's Gospels read to us immediately. He received his sight and followed him glorifying God and all the people. When they saw it Gave praise unto God they were amazed staggered Absolutely staggered.

The Transformed Life of a Saved Believer

He was a man who till then had been the object of their pity a second-hand beggar and The one who had been the object of their pity was now a source of wonder. Amazed staggered. God's been specializing in this all down the centuries.

He took a profligate drunken sought by the name of Augustine Saved his soul and st. Augustine was the man who traditionally was the first to bring the gospel to the British eyes and Indirectly to your Australian sure Richard Weaver drunken brawling fighter would go to the public houses as the Godless miner he was and fight and come back battered and bleeding to grab his mother by her hair and Drag her round and round the kitchen floor by her hair because she dared to pray for him.

But God saved his soul and Richard Weaver converted to God cleansed in the blood of Christ Regenerate through the gift to him of the Holy Spirit through whose presence he shared the life of a risen Savior as the converted Collier went up and down the mining districts of Yorkshire and preached the gospel with such authority that big wicked evil men Would drop on their knees in tears of repent and the one-time object of pity.

Richard Weaver Became a source of one say can I bring you the message of a a disciple tonight. Pretty clumsy I know. Pretty rugged, but good news the Lord Jesus is passing by. May be so far as you're concerned never Never to pass this way again, and yet you are the immediate object of his quest and it's my joyful privilege To bring to you in his name His invitation arise he said he call it thing.

Wouldn't it be a marvelous thing to trade your impotent Impersonal belief For a living faith and know a living God. Is there some doubt in your mind as to your relationship to Jesus Christ tonight. Would you like to clarify the issues.