Civil Government: Power, Nations, and Constitutional Order: Where We Are & How We Got Here

It's Crying Time Again

Transcript: AI Transcript

Professor: John Weaver

Subject: Civil Government

Genre: Sermon

Dictation Name:

Date: 2008-12-28

Synopsis: John Weaver preaches from Mark 10:46-52 on Bartimaeus, urging believers to recognize their desperation, renew their determination to cry out to God, and depend solely on Christ for deliverance. He applies this to personal, family, church, and national life, warning that America is under God's judgment and only desperate, persistent prayer will bring help.

[John Weaver] Mark chapter 10, beginning there with verse 46. 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 side 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 me. 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 for 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.

[John Weaver] I want to bring a message today which I have entitled, It's Crying Time Again. I preached on this passage numerous years ago, dealing with the subject of salvation. However, as I was reading through the book of Mark, I read about Bartimaeus again and another thought entered my mind. And the reason I entitled this message, It's Crying Time Again, some of you are probably familiar with an old country song by that same title. Now, I don't know the song, don't even know the author of it, but I believe the song was about some man's girlfriend or some man's wife leaving him and thus it's crying time again because she's left him. Well, the message has nothing to do with anyone's love life. But it certainly has a lot to do with life. There's a vast contrast between that song, It's Crying Time Again, and the Stoic position where Stoicism teaches that real men don't cry. In fact, we get a lot of our modern day expressions from the Greek philosophy of Stoicism.

[John Weaver] For instance, when we tell someone, keep a stiff upper lip. or don't be overcome by your emotions, or real men don't cry. That's just simply the philosophy of Stoicism. Certainly, the Bible disagrees with Stoicism. In fact, the shortest verse in the Bible is John 11, verse 35, Jesus wept. Our Lord wept over Lazarus. He not only wept over Lazarus, he wept over Jerusalem. And I can assure you that Jesus Christ was a far better man than all of us put together. And Jesus Christ endured far more than you and I could ever think of enduring. And yet the Bible says that Jesus wept.

[John Weaver] Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet. And of course, you know how he wept as he saw Jerusalem destroyed. In 2 Kings chapter 8 and verse 11, the Bible tells us that Elisha said let's countenance steadfastly until he was ashamed and then the man of God wept. And the reason he wept, he knew what Hazael, the king of Syria, was going to do to the women and children of Israel. He said let's countenance steadfastly until he was ashamed and then the man of God wept. You will find all through the Bible that many prophets, many real men, wept.

[John Weaver] Have you ever asked yourself, what does it really take to make someone cry or at least cry out? And if you think for a moment, I'm sure that you can outline and list a number of reasons that would cause people to cry or at least cry out. You could list pain. torment, desperation, realization, financial ruin, a host of other reasons. In fact, you find in the Bible that men cried and cried out over their sins, over their families, over the loss of their fortunes. They cried and wept over nations, over rulers, over their burdens and over many things. But when you read the Bible and compare and or contrast, what real men did in those days, have you ever noticed that in our modern day that hardly anyone is disturbed over the condition of our country, our sins as a nation, our immorality, our lack of faith, our wickedness, and our corruption that prevails not only in this country but in the government in general? Where in the world is the human cry against Marxism, Communism, and socialism.

[John Weaver] Where in the world are voices being lifted up against our unconstitutional acts and laws that are being passed by Congress? What about the absurd and insane and absolutely stupid rulings that have been issued from our judicial system? Have you ever asked what in the world is it going to take to make us cry or cry out to the Lord? It seems as if we have gone along for so long that absolutely nothing affects us anymore. Well, let me ask, what did it take to make Bartimaeus cried out? What did it take to make him cry and beg the Lord for help?

[John Weaver] I want to just give you three things today. First of all, I want you to notice that there was a realization of desperation. When you study Bartimaeus, you can find that there was indeed a realization of desperation. Look at verse 46. 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 highwayside 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 upon me. Now, what in the world made Bartimaeus cry out for help? Well, here's the answer. He was desperate. No one was able to help him. He was blind. He was a beggar.

[John Weaver] And for all practical purposes in his day, he was useless. It may have been that even his family could not help him.

[John Weaver] Now, Matthew Henry gives an interesting comment on verse 46. He states that Bartimaeus, the blind beggar, who is much talked about here, was Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, which signifies, as Matthew Henry and some other scholars think, that not only was Bartimaeus blind, but Timaeus, his father, was blind. So that would make Bartimaeus the son, the blind son of a blind father. So the word Bartimaeus means literally the son of Timaeus, which could refer to the son of a blind man or certainly the son of an unclean man. So you see that Bartimaeus was not only helpless, but basically he was hopeless. He could not only not help himself, but no one in his family could help him either. In fact, no one in the circle of his friends could help him. If he was the blind son of a blind father, he was indeed in a desperate case. In other words, if Bartimaeus was to receive help, it had to be from someone outside of his circle. His family couldn't help him. His friends couldn't help him.

[John Weaver] He was desperate. You know, our Lord underscores this desperate condition in Matthew nine and verse 12, if you will hold Mark 11 or Mark 10, we'll come back there. But look in your Bibles very quickly, the Matthew chapter nine. And notice what our Lord said. And this passage is just so applicable. Notice what he says in Matthew nine and verse 12. Our Lord says this, but when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, he's talking to the Pharisees, he says, they that behold need not a physician, but they that are sick, but go ye and learn what that meaneth. Now notice what he said, they that behold need not a physician, but they that are sick.

[John Weaver] In other words, no one is going to a physician until he realizes he can't help himself. He not only can't help himself, his home remedies do not work, his neighbor's home remedies do not work. In other words, no one visits a doctor just to say, Doc, I understand you need a payment on your new Mercedes and I just want to come by and give you some money. Nobody does that. Our Lord says, they that behold need not a physician. In other words, you have to be desperate to go to the doctor. You can't heal yourself. Nothing you do helps. You're desperate.

[John Weaver] Have you ever thought about Peter? You remember that passage in Matthew chapter 14, where Jesus was walking on the water? And Peter said, Lord, if it be thee, bid me come unto thee. Let me ask you a question. When Peter stepped out of that boat and began to walk on the water, did he immediately cry out to Jesus Christ for help? No. Listen, walking on the water was a wonderful experience while it lasted. He didn't need any help. But when he took his eyes off the Lord and saw the wind boisterous and the waves and he began to sink, what did he do? He cried, Lord, save me.

[John Weaver] In other words, all of a sudden he got desperate. And when he got desperate, he cried out, listen to me carefully. Desperate people not only need help. But desperate people won't help. Have you ever tried to help someone who was not desperate? I have. You know what they'll do? They will laugh at you. They will ridicule you. They will mock you. They'll say, not me. I remember one year years ago, I spoke to a young man.

[John Weaver] I was around him for several days. And I observed how he spoke to his wife and how he treated her. And before I left him, I said, son, I want to tell you something. The way you talk to your wife and the way you treat your wife, one of these days she's going to get fed up and she's going to leave you. You know what he said? Not me. She won't leave me.

[John Weaver] It was at six months that I got a phone call. The young man was crying. He said, Preacher, my wife left me. What can I do? It's interesting how he didn't want to listen to me when he could have listened to me. But after she's left, he's now desperate And he's willing to listen. You know, a lot of people are like the wicked when the Bible says in the book of Psalms, chapter 10 and verse six, listen to this. The wicked saith in his heart, I shall not be moved, for I shall never be in adversity.

[John Weaver] Somehow we think that nothing will ever happen to us, have you noticed? that many Americans, and unhappily many professing Christians, somehow think that we in this country shall never ever be in a state of desperation. Even with our economic crisis that's looming over our heads, and I don't care if you take conservative economists or liberal economists, they're all saying the same thing, what we're going through in the next few years are going to be worse than the Great Depression era. And one of the reasons it's going to be worse is because we don't have the character now that people used to have back then.

[John Weaver] We have been turned into a nation of parasites where everyone wants to live off someone else and everyone wants everything handed to them on a silver platter. No one wants to work. No one wants to be responsible. No one wants to be accountable. And we think that somehow we are never, ever going to be in a state of desperation. Our national sins do not concern us. We've come to think that sodomy, sexual perversions, socialism, Marxism, welfareism, big government tyranny, the loss of our rights are somehow normal. And that all of the fires and droughts and floods and hurricanes and tornadoes are somehow, are just merely the freaks of nature. They're not really.

[John Weaver] the hand of a righteous God judging us. I want to ask this question. Does God really judge nations? You have to remember this. Nations are not like individuals. Nations do not have souls, in that sense of the word. In other words, nations must be judged in time and history. Let me just show you the truth of the Bible. I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you would, to Jeremiah chapter 5. Jeremiah chapter 5. And there's three passages that we really need to look at. Just to answer the question, does God judge nations? Look in Jeremiah chapter 5 and let's begin reading there with verse 7. Jeremiah 5 and verse 7. Look at this. I'm going to show you what God says about a nation that had fallen into idolatry and adultery.

[John Weaver] You know, our politicians tell us that our private lives are our own. What we do in our private lives is no concern of the people of this country. That's a bunch of hogwash. And whenever individual citizens take that same attitude, that's still a bunch of hogwash. Watch this. Jeremiah chapter five, beginning with verse seven. Look what God says. He says to his people, how shall I pardon me for this?

[John Weaver] Thy children have forsaken me. and sworn by them that are no gods, that's idolatry. When I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery, physical and spiritual, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlot's houses. They were as fed horses in the morning, and everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife. Watch what God says. Shall I not visit for these things, said the Lord, and shall not my soul be avenged on such a what? Nation as this. Idolatry and adultery. And God asks, shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as well? I'm not judge a nation like this.

[John Weaver] Skip down, if you would, to verse 25. And look and see what God says about corruption, fraud and wicked civil rulers. Jeremiah chapter 5 verse 25. God says, your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have been withholding good things from you. For among my people are found wicked men. They lay wait, as he that said of snares, they set a trap, they catch men.

[John Weaver] As a cage is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they become great and waxen rich. They are waxen fat, they shine, yea, they overpass the these, the wicked. They judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper, and the right of the needy do they not judge? Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?"

[John Weaver] Ah, you talking about corruption? You talking about fraud? You're talking about wicked civil rulers, and look what God says. Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? Turn right over to Jeremiah chapter 9. Jeremiah chapter 9. And notice what God says about treachery, deceit, injustice, fraud, lying, planned and premeditated destruction. Jeremiah chapter 9, beginning there with verse 2. Jeremiah says, O that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people and go from them. Why did Jeremiah want to get away? For they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men, and they bend their tongues like their bow for lies, and they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth.

[John Weaver] For they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the Lord. Take ye heed every one of his neighbor, and trust ye not in any brother. For every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will walk with slanders." In other words, you can't trust any of them. They are all wicked. They will deceive everyone his neighbor, and will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.

[John Weaver] Their habitation is in the midst of deceit. Through deceit they refuse to know Me, saith the Lord. Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them, For how shall I do for the daughter of my people? Their tongue is as an arrow shot out, it speaketh deceit. One speaketh peacefully to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he layeth wait. Shall I not visit them for these things, saith the Lord?

[John Weaver] Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?" Now, I want you to take note that everything that God destroyed the nation Israel for And everything that God destroyed Judah and Jerusalem for is prevalent, prominent, and abundant in our country. Now, here's my question. Do you think that God will judge other nations and let us slip by? We could ask that question another way. Is God just? And if God is just, God is going to judge the wicked.

[John Weaver] Do you realize the most horrible thing is to be in a state of desperation and not realize how desperate you are? I have known people who thought they were perfectly healthy and were dead in two weeks from cancer. I've known people who thought that nothing would ever happen to them and they'd be dead in several days in an automobile wreck. You know what this nation is like. Here's a good illustration. We are like a family in a car.

[John Weaver] that has left the road and we're going over the cliff. And we check the engine and it's still running. The lights still work. The transmission is still in drive. The radio still plays. And besides that, we think we're making excellent time. And we don't even see the canyon floor below in which we're plunging. We're in a desperate state. We don't even realize it. You will never be saved. And you will never be delivered until you realize the desperate case that you're in.

[John Weaver] You know what made Bartimaeus cry out? He realized he was desperate. He couldn't be helped. He couldn't help himself. His family couldn't help Him. His friends couldn't help Him. And if Christ did not help Him, He would not be helped. So when he heard that Christ was coming along, he began to cry out, Thou Son of David, have mercy upon me. Go back in your Bibles to Mark chapter 10. Let me show you.

[John Weaver] Secondly, this is even what made Barnabas cry out more, not only a recognition of his desperation, but secondly in verses 47 and 48, you have a renewal of determination. Now watch this. Verse 47, 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 me. I love this next verse. And many charged him that he should hold his peace. But he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy upon me. So when he hears Jesus Christ is walking by, he cries, Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. Everybody, shh, hush, hush.

[John Weaver] He doesn't want to hear you. He doesn't want to have time for you. Be quiet. No one can. Shut up. And the more they tried to get him to shut up, the louder he cried, Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy upon me.

[John Weaver] Now, let me tell you, we not only need in this country a recognition of our desperation, but we need, secondly, a renewal of determination. Do you realize there are many that have warned us, that have cried for years telling us where we are headed? In fact, some have cried for so long and so loud that they really don't even want to cry anymore. Their attitude now is what's the use of crying? No one is listening. Thankfully. That was not the attitude of Noah, Daniel, Moses and the other prophets. Let me tell you something. We cry. And we cry out. Because we're commanded to cry out. We don't give out, we don't give in. We don't give up, we don't quit, we don't despair. Even if no one is listening, we still keep crying. If no one hears, we still keep crying. Why? We've been commanded to cry. Now listen, do I want people converted? Of course I want people converted. Do I want people to obey the Bible? Yes. Do I want people to honor Jesus Christ and live holy lives?

[John Weaver] The answer is yes. However, I don't cry out just to get people to live holily and trust Christ and to live holy lives. No, I cry out because God has commanded me to cry out. That's a vision in and of itself. You say, where? Well, look in your Bibles to Isaiah 58 in verse 1. Look what he told Isaiah. The same principle is true. Look in Isaiah 58 in verse 1. Here God commands and he says, cry aloud, spare not. Lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins.

[John Weaver] Now notice what he said. Cry aloud, spare not. Lift up thy voice. like a trumpet. That's loud. Lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgressions, and the house of Israel, or the house of Jacob, their sins. God says, look, I've commanded you to cry. You know, there's a passage in Isaiah 40 that is quoted in the New Testament a couple of times, and the primary reference, of course, was to John the Baptist. But in Isaiah 14, verse 6, the voice said, cry. And he said, what shall I cry? And here's the message.

[John Weaver] All flesh is grass and all the goodness thereof is of the flower of the field. What does that mean? When he says cry, you cry, all flesh is grass. Here's what it means. You're mortal. You're temporary. You're going to die. All flesh is grass and the goodliness thereof is the flower of the field. I tell you what, you go pick the most beautiful flower that you can find in the field or out of your flower garden and put it in a vase on your table and see how long it lasts. You know what's going to happen? It's going to turn brown and the petals are going to fall off. Because it's grass. It's a flower. It fades. It dies.

[John Weaver] Listen, if you realize how desperate you are, you will be determined to keep crying until you are heard. Barnimaeus cried to the Lord. Now look at it. In Mark chapter 10, the Bible says this. In Mark chapter 10, watch now, if you would please, at verse 48. And many charged him that he should hold his peace, but he cried the more a great deal.

[John Weaver] Now the word literally means he cried out with a loud voice. He really wanted to be heard. Why? because he really wanted to be helped. He was charged by others and commanded by others to be quiet and to hold his peace, and yet he cried out the more the Bible says a great deal. The more he was discouraged by others. The more he encouraged himself. How did he encourage himself by?

[John Weaver] Keeping on with his crying. He cried Lord Jesus have mercy upon me. Misery is the object of mercy. He wanted mercy. He was in a miserable state. He was in a desperate state. He could not help himself. His family could not help himself. And so when others said, just shut up and be quiet. No, no. He cried and he cried out even more.

[John Weaver] Now, let me ask you, how determined are we? And the fact of the matter is this. Most of us are really not determined. In fact, most of us are just easily discouraged. We give in, we give up, we quit. You know, all it takes for the average Christian to give up is for someone to talk about him and let him find out. And you know, then he develops this poor me attitude. Well, if that's the way they feel, I'll just quit.

[John Weaver] I'm not going to do this anymore. Or all it takes is for the government to put a little pressure on you or a little persecution and you cave in. You know, those folks in Hebrews 11 were not like that. All those Christians that you read about in Fox's Book of Martyrs were not like that. They were determined to do right and believe right even if it cost them their life. It's true that most Christians go around in a state of despair and desperation simply because of a lack of faith and obedience in their own life. And the truth of the matter is we know nothing of perseverance. We know nothing of determination. Here's a blind man that was determined to be heard. It's time that you and I renewed our determination.

[John Weaver] What we need is a good dose of biblical backbone. We need to become reinvigorated with holy intestinal fortitude. And for some of you South Georgia folks, that's just plain guts. That's what we need. We need some real holy guts just to stand our ground and say, here it is. I'm not giving up another inch. I've drawn my line in the sand. We have to learn determination and perseverance.

[John Weaver] Let me give you two illustrations. Turn in your Bibles. First of all, the Luke chapter 18. You're familiar with this story. It's one of my favorite stories. Luke chapter 18. It's about the widow woman. who appeal to the unjust judge, but notice if you would Luke chapter 18 beginning with verse two, our Lord is teaching this parable that men ought always to pray and not to faint. And he says in verse two, there was in a city a judge who feared not God, neither regarded man. Now notice he feared not God, neither regarded man, by the way, those two things go together. If you don't fear God, you will not regard man. You want to know why these tyrants can kill millions of their own people, they have no regard for man. They have no regard for life. They don't fear God. If you have no fear of God, you'll have no regard for man. You don't care what happens to man. The only reason there is indeed what you and I would call humanitarian aid, the only reason you and I Know anything about compassion and hospitality and gentleness and civility is because we fear God.

[John Weaver] But here's a judge who feared not God nor regarded man. Watch verse three. And there was a widow in that city and she came of him saying, Avenge me and mine adversary. She had been wrong. And he would not for a while, but afterwards he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. Now stop there. Here's this widow woman. She comes to the judge and says, Avenge me and my adversary.

[John Weaver] I'm not going to do it. I don't care anything about you. I don't care. I don't care one thing about what happened. Get out of here.

[John Weaver] Next day she is back, avenge me and my adversary. I don't care. Didn't you hear me? Get out of here. Next day she's back. The next day she's back.

[John Weaver] Finally the unjust judge says, look, I don't fear God and I don't regard man, but I tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to give this widow woman what she wants just to get her off my back. I'm tired of seeing her. I'm tired of listening to her. I'll do it just to get rid of her.

[John Weaver] Now I want you to watch the application that our Lord made Himself. Look at it in verse 6. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge said. Did you hear Him? Now look, verse 7. And shall not God avenge His own elect, who cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them? I tell you, He will avenge them speedily. Now listen. Here's what our Lord is saying. Do you think that God is like that unjust judge? Do you think that God is uninterested in justice? That God is uninterested in righteousness? That God is uninterested in mercy? Do you think God is uninterested in compassion? No, no, no. He says, listen, the trouble is not with God. The trouble is with us. We're not crying day and night. God will avenge his own and he will avenge them speedily. Here was a widow woman who was unafraid to appeal to an unjust, heathen judge. And we, as God's people, cannot be determined to cry to the holy, righteous judge of all the earth, knowing that He's our Father.

[John Weaver] We can't even determine to cry consistently Why did this widow woman get what she wanted even from an unjust judge? She was determined. And our Lord says, hear what that unjust judge said. And shall not God avenge his own elect who crime him day and night? I tell you, he will avenge them speedily. God is not like that unjust judge. He's willing. To avenge his own. The truth is that God is far more interested in righting wrongs than we're interested in having them righted. God is far more interested in giving justice than we are in crying for justice. God is far more interested in turning this world right than we're interested in having it turn right. The problem is not with God. The problem is with us. We don't cry. We're not determined saying God do what needs to be done.

[John Weaver] We want to give up. We want to give in. We want to quit. We want to say. I've been crying for 20 years and he hadn't done it yet. I got news for you. God does not work on your timetable. But he does work. And your responsibility is not to tell God when to do something. Your responsibility is to obey God, and God's going to do it in His time, I can assure you.

[John Weaver] Now, let me show you another illustration. Look in Luke chapter 11, beginning there with verse 5, just to show you determination. We not only need a recognition of our desperation, we need a renewal of our determination.

[John Weaver] Now there's a word used in this passage. It's a little different from determination. It's the word importunity, but it means the same thing. So look into Luke 11, beginning there with verse five. And he said unto them, which of you should have a friend and shall go in him at midnight and send him friend, lend me three loaves for a friend of mine in his journeys come unto me and I have nothing to set before him.

[John Weaver] So here's the here's the story. A man has company come in on him, maybe unexpectedly. That's nothing to feed his friends. So he goes to his good friend and he says, look, I need some. I need some bread. I need to borrow some groceries. Lend me three loaves. I have nothing. Watch if you would please. Verse six, for a friend of mine in this journey is coming to me and I have nothing said before him.

[John Weaver] And he from within shall answer and say, trouble me not. The door is now shut and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give to thee. Words don't bother me now. I'm in bed. Call me in the morning. Watch verse eight. I said to you, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend. Yet, because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he asks. In other words, the man in bed says, look, I might as well get up and give him the three loves because he keeps on knocking. I'm not going to get any sleep. I'm not going to give it to him because he's my friend. I'm going to give it to him, get him out of my hair so I can go back to bed. Look what our Lord says. Our Lord makes his own application. He says in verse nine, and I say unto you, ask and it shall be given you.

[John Weaver] Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth. To him that knocketh it shall be opened. Isn't that amazing? He says, if a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if you ask a fish, will he give him, for a fish, give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? Well, of course not.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to note, our Lord says, whoever asks, receives. Whoever seeks, finds. Whoever knocks, it is opened. Interestingly enough, in this passage, The words ask, seek, and knock are present active participles. What does that mean? It means he keeps on asking. He keeps on knocking. He keeps on finding. In other words, he asks, he seeks, he knocks, not one time, but constantly and continually until he gets what he wants. That's determination. That's an opportunity. So our Lord says, here's a man in bed.

[John Weaver] He won't get up and give to his friend just because he's his friend. But if that friend keeps on knocking, he's going to give him what he needs. There has to be a determination. I want you to go back in your Bibles. To Mark chapter 10, I want you to see this. You know what determination is? Determination is an attitude that will not be denied, deterred or discouraged. Determination is an attitude that's going to ask and seek and not until it receives. Now, let's ask this question.

[John Weaver] Barnabas was crying, everybody said, hush up, shut up, don't don't bother the master. Be quiet. And when they tried to discourage him, The more he cried out, the more he was encouraged of himself. And let's ask this question. Did his determination pay off? Well, look in verse 49. And Jesus stood still. Isn't that an amazing statement? And Jesus stood still. Here was a man One man crying for mercy.

[John Weaver] And it stopped the Son of God. And Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called. And they called the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, he calleth for thee. I'll say it paid off. Christ stopped. Christ heard. Christ called for Bartimaeus. You know, I like the next verse. Look at verse 50. After they tell him to be of good comfort that Christ calls him and he casting away his garment rose and came to Jesus. Bartimaeus was getting to Christ as quickly as he could. He was getting rid of anything that might impede him, that hindered him or thwarted him. That robe that would slow him down, he cast it off. He got rid of it. He wanted to get to the Son of God.

[John Weaver] He was determined that nothing would stop him. What do we need? We need recognition of our desperation. We need a renewal of determination. And then if you'll notice, thirdly, there is also a recognition of dependency in verses 51 and 52. And Jesus answered and said to him, what will thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said to him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. Jesus said to him, Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. Now watch verse 51. Then Jesus answered and said to him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? Think about that. Here's a man crying. The Lord stops. He calls him and he asks him, what wilt thou that I should do unto thee?

[John Weaver] Bartimaeus, you've got my attention. You've stopped me. Here I am. Just tell me what you want. I'm willing to help you. Bartimaeus said, Lord, that I might receive my sight. Listen to me, Barnabas learned a very important truth. What did he learn? He learned that he was helpless. That he was hopeless. But that Jesus was the Son of God and that Jesus had all power. And that Christ could do anything And therefore, he learned dependence. He learned to depend solely and completely and totally and absolutely upon the mercy and grace of the Son of God. What did he say? Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy upon me. Lord, if you don't help me, I can't be helped. If you don't have mercy upon me, I don't get mercy. If you don't give me grace, I don't get grace. Lord, I'm totally, absolutely dependent upon you.

[John Weaver] You know, we need to come to that position in this country, not just as individuals. But we need to come to this position as a nation. Listen, as much as I might admire and respect and love the Constitution of the United States, I have to confess, folks, the Constitution is not going to save us. In fact, for all practical purposes, it is null and void. And they're even now calling for a new constitutional convention which would destroy what little rights we have left. And I got news for you, there certainly ain't no politician going to save us. Politicians are not interested in people, they're interested in themselves. The only one who's going to save us is Christ. Have we ever reached this position? Have we ever come to this truth?

[John Weaver] If God does not help us, we are not helped. Our help is only the one true and the living God who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ. In Psalm 121 verses 1 and 2, David said this, I will lift up mine eyes into the hills from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord who made heaven and earth. My help, he says, is in the sovereign God. In Psalm 46 and verse one.

[John Weaver] The very passage of Martin Luther. Used to write that hymn, a mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing. Psalm 46 verse 1 says, God is our refuge and strength, the very present help in the time of trouble. God is our refuge and our strength. In Psalm 108 and verse 12, the psalmist said, give us help from trouble for vain is the help of man. Vain is the help of man. Psalm 115 and verse 11. The Bible says, Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield.

[John Weaver] I don't know if you're familiar with this story or not, but in 2 Kings chapter 6, the Syrians had surrounded Samaria. The people inside Samaria were starving to death. If they went outside, the Syrians killed them. If they stayed inside, they starved to death. And the famine was so great, they were eating dove's dung and rotted grape peels. And finally, in 2 Kings 6, one came to the king and appealed for help. And here's what the king said. The king of Israel said, if the Lord do not help thee, when shall I help thee?

[John Weaver] Out of the barn floor or out of the wine press? The king of Israel said, all I can give you is dung and rotted grape pits and peels. If God didn't help you, I can't give you any help. And folks, I've got news for you. We've got to reach the point in our individual lives, our family lives, our church lives, our national lives. If God doesn't help us, we're not helped. Man cannot help us. Man can try. Man can plan. Man can do all kinds of things. It does not, does not, and will not, and cannot save us. All man can do is make us more desolate, more desperate, and more destitute.

[John Weaver] The truth of the matter is, just like Barnabas, we need Jesus Christ, and we need Him now. We just don't realize how badly we do need Him. But when our car hits that canyon floor, we're going to realize we're in a desperate case. It may be too late, but we'll realize how desperate we are. Let me make just a couple of applications. The first one is this.

[John Weaver] Desperation becomes those who wish to be saved. You know, the Bible says that praise is comely for the upright. As praise is comely for the upright, desperation is comely for those who want to be delivered. We will never desire deliverance until we become desperate. You know what our Lord said in Matthew 11 verse 12? Our Lord speaks of heaven being taken by force. Have you ever stopped to think about this? Desperate men are forceful men. If there was no water, and I had one bottle of water in my hand, It was the last Bible.

[John Weaver] And everyone in this room was perishing. And I had the only Bible. And I was unwilling to share. You think I'd be in a fight? You think somebody would be attacking me trying to take that bottle of water away from me? Yeah. You know why? Desperate men are forceful men. They're ready. They're ready to do whatever is necessary. because they realize their state of desperation. It is our desperation that enables us to have determination which will result in our dependence upon the Lord.

[John Weaver] The question you have to ask is this. Would you cry out as Barnabas? Have you realized the desperate situation that you're in, our families are in, that we're in, that our grandchildren are in, that our children are in. You know, we sit around. Granny Doris can do this even more than I can. But I can, I can sit here all day and tell you how the world, how America has changed since I've been a boy. Think of how much it's changed since she's been a little girl, and she's only 21.

[John Weaver] Can you believe the change that has been in our lifetime? I'm going to tell you, my grandchildren and some of these children do not even know what real freedom is. We think we are free today. We are not free. I told people and I still tell people, I believe Alice and I were about the last generation to experience a little bit of freedom back in the 50s.

[John Weaver] But we just don't realize. The desperateness of our situation and most Christians are at ease in Zion. They're comfortable until the car hits the canyon floor.

[John Weaver] So it's crying time again. It's time we got. What Bartimaeus had. A realization of our desperation. renewal of our determination so that we can have a recognition of our dependence upon the only one who can help us. It's time we learn to cry, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy upon me and my family and my church and my state and my nation. And what did our Lord say? Hear ye what the unjust judge said, and shall not God avenge his own elect who cry unto him day and night? Yea, I tell you, he will avenge them speedily. It's time to cry for mercy. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we do ask for your grace and your help and your mercy. We thank you.

[John Weaver] for Your Word, for Your truth, for Your promises. We ask, Father, that You would open our eyes that we may see, open our ears that we may hear, and give us wisdom in this day and time to know what to do and where to turn, how to prepare. Give us grace and determination. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray. Amen.

It's Crying Time Again

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	33109195234
Subject	Civil Government
Course	Civil Government: Power, Nations, and Constitutional Order: Where We Are & How We Got Here
Genre	Sermon
Date	2008-12-28
Dictation Name
Book	Book 009: Civil Government: Power, Nations, and Constitutional Order — Chapter 9
Source Timed Segments	73

Formatted Transcript

Opening

Mark chapter 10, beginning there with verse 46. 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 side 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 me. 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 for 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.

Introduction: The Call to Cry Out

Weaver introduces the message by contrasting the country song 'It's Crying Time Again' with Stoicism, noting that the Bible shows real men like Jesus and the prophets wept and cried out.

I want to bring a message today which I have entitled, It's Crying Time Again. I preached on this passage numerous years ago, dealing with the subject of salvation. However, as I was reading through the book of Mark, I read about Bartimaeus again and another thought entered my mind. And the reason I entitled this message, It's Crying Time Again, some of you are probably familiar with an old country song by that same title. Now, I don't know the song, don't even know the author of it, but I believe the song was about some man's girlfriend or some man's wife leaving him and thus it's crying time again because she's left him. Well, the message has nothing to do with anyone's love life. But it certainly has a lot to do with life. There's a vast contrast between that song, It's Crying Time Again, and the Stoic position where Stoicism teaches that real men don't cry. In fact, we get a lot of our modern day expressions from the Greek philosophy of Stoicism.

For instance, when we tell someone, keep a stiff upper lip, or don't be overcome by your emotions, or real men don't cry. That's just simply the philosophy of Stoicism. Certainly, the Bible disagrees with Stoicism. In fact, the shortest verse in the Bible is John 11, verse 35, Jesus wept. Our Lord wept over Lazarus. He not only wept over Lazarus, he wept over Jerusalem. And I can assure you that Jesus Christ was a far better man than all of us put together. And Jesus Christ endured far more than you and I could ever think of enduring. And yet the Bible says that Jesus wept.

Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet. And of course, you know how he wept as he saw Jerusalem destroyed. In 2 Kings chapter 8 and verse 11, the Bible tells us that Elisha set his countenance steadfastly until he was ashamed and then the man of God wept. And the reason he wept, he knew what Hazael, the king of Syria, was going to do to the women and children of Israel. He set his countenance steadfastly until he was ashamed and then the man of God wept. You will find all through the Bible that many prophets, many real men, wept.

I. A Realization of Desperation

Bartimaeus cried out because he was desperate—blind, a beggar, and helpless. Weaver explains that no one seeks help until they realize they cannot help themselves, and warns that America is in a desperate state but does not realize it.

I want to just give you three things today. First of all, I want you to notice that there was a realization of desperation. When you study Bartimaeus, you can find that there was indeed a realization of desperation. Look at verse 46. 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 highwayside 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 upon me. Now, what in the world made Bartimaeus cry out for help? Well, here's the answer. He was desperate. No one was able to help him. He was blind. He was a beggar.

And for all practical purposes in his day, he was useless. It may have been that even his family could not help him. Now, Matthew Henry gives an interesting comment on verse 46. He states that Bartimaeus, the blind beggar, who is much talked about here, was Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, which signifies, as Matthew Henry and some other scholars think, that not only was Bartimaeus blind, but Timaeus, his father, was blind. So that would make Bartimaeus the son, the blind son of a blind father. So the word Bartimaeus means literally the son of Timaeus, which could refer to the son of a blind man or certainly the son of an unclean man. So you see that Bartimaeus was not only helpless, but basically he was hopeless. He could not only not help himself, but no one in his family could help him either. In fact, no one in the circle of his friends could help him. If he was the blind son of a blind father, he was indeed in a desperate case. In other words, if Bartimaeus was to receive help, it had to be from someone outside of his circle. His family couldn't help him. His friends couldn't help him.

He was desperate. You know, our Lord underscores this desperate condition in Matthew 9 and verse 12, if you will hold Mark 11 or Mark 10, we'll come back there. But look in your Bibles very quickly, at Matthew chapter 9. And notice what our Lord said. And this passage is just so applicable. Notice what he says in Matthew 9 and verse 12. Our Lord says this, but when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, he's talking to the Pharisees, he says, they that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick, but go ye and learn what that meaneth. Now notice what he said, they that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.

In other words, no one is going to a physician until he realizes he can't help himself. He not only can't help himself, his home remedies do not work, his neighbor's home remedies do not work. In other words, no one visits a doctor just to say, Doc, I understand you need a payment on your new Mercedes and I just want to come by and give you some money. Nobody does that. Our Lord says, they that be whole need not a physician. In other words, you have to be desperate to go to the doctor. You can't heal yourself. Nothing you do helps. You're desperate.

Have you ever thought about Peter? You remember that passage in Matthew chapter 14, where Jesus was walking on the water? And Peter said, Lord, if it be thee, bid me come unto thee. Let me ask you a question. When Peter stepped out of that boat and began to walk on the water, did he immediately cry out to Jesus Christ for help? No. Listen, walking on the water was a wonderful experience while it lasted. He didn't need any help. But when he took his eyes off the Lord and saw the wind boisterous and the waves and he began to sink, what did he do? He cried, Lord, save me.

In other words, all of a sudden he got desperate. And when he got desperate, he cried out, listen to me carefully. Desperate people not only need help, but desperate people won't help. Have you ever tried to help someone who was not desperate? I have. You know what they'll do? They will laugh at you. They will ridicule you. They will mock you. They'll say, not me. I remember one year years ago, I spoke to a young man.

I was around him for several days. And I observed how he spoke to his wife and how he treated her. And before I left him, I said, son, I want to tell you something. The way you talk to your wife and the way you treat your wife, one of these days she's going to get fed up and she's going to leave you. You know what he said? Not me. She won't leave me.

It was about six months that I got a phone call. The young man was crying. He said, Preacher, my wife left me. What can I do? It's interesting how he didn't want to listen to me when he could have listened to me. But after she's left, he's now desperate and he's willing to listen. You know, a lot of people are like the wicked when the Bible says in the book of Psalms, chapter 10 and verse 6, listen to this. The wicked saith in his heart, I shall not be moved, for I shall never be in adversity.

Somehow we think that nothing will ever happen to us, have you noticed? That many Americans, and unhappily many professing Christians, somehow think that we in this country shall never ever be in a state of desperation. Even with our economic crisis that's looming over our heads, and I don't care if you take conservative economists or liberal economists, they're all saying the same thing, what we're going through in the next few years are going to be worse than the Great Depression era. And one of the reasons it's going to be worse is because we don't have the character now that people used to have back then. We have been turned into a nation of parasites where everyone wants to live off someone else and everyone wants everything handed to them on a silver platter. No one wants to work. No one wants to be responsible. No one wants to be accountable. And we think that somehow we are never, ever going to be in a state of desperation. Our national sins do not concern us. We've come to think that sodomy, sexual perversions, socialism, Marxism, welfareism, big government tyranny, the loss of our rights are somehow normal. And that all of the fires and droughts and floods and hurricanes and tornadoes are somehow, are just merely the freaks of nature. They're not really.

the hand of a righteous God judging us. I want to ask this question. Does God really judge nations? You have to remember this. Nations are not like individuals. Nations do not have souls, in that sense of the word. In other words, nations must be judged in time and history. Let me just show you the truth of the Bible. I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you would, to Jeremiah chapter 5. Jeremiah chapter 5. And there's three passages that we really need to look at. Just to answer the question, does God judge nations? Look in Jeremiah chapter 5 and let's begin reading there with verse 7. Jeremiah 5 and verse 7. Look at this. I'm going to show you what God says about a nation that had fallen into idolatry and adultery.

You know, our politicians tell us that our private lives are our own. What we do in our private lives is no concern of the people of this country. That's a bunch of hogwash. And whenever individual citizens take that same attitude, that's still a bunch of hogwash. Watch this. Jeremiah chapter 5, beginning with verse 7. Look what God says. He says to his people, how shall I pardon thee for this?

Thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods, that's idolatry. When I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery, physical and spiritual, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses. They were as fed horses in the morning, and everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife. Watch what God says. Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord, and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? Idolatry and adultery. And God asks, shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? I'm not judge a nation like this.

Skip down, if you would, to verse 25. And look and see what God says about corruption, fraud and wicked civil rulers. Jeremiah chapter 5 verse 25. God says, your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have been withholding good things from you. For among my people are found wicked men. They lay wait, as he that setteth snares, they set a trap, they catch men. As a cage is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they become great and waxen rich. They are waxen fat, they shine, yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked. They judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper, and the right of the needy do they not judge? Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

Ah, you talking about corruption? You talking about fraud? You're talking about wicked civil rulers, and look what God says. Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? Turn right over to Jeremiah chapter 9. Jeremiah chapter 9. And notice what God says about treachery, deceit, injustice, fraud, lying, planned and premeditated destruction. Jeremiah chapter 9, beginning there with verse 2. Jeremiah says, O that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people and go from them. Why did Jeremiah want to get away? For they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men, and they bend their tongues like their bow for lies, and they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth.

For they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the Lord. Take ye heed every one of his neighbor, and trust ye not in any brother. For every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will walk with slanders. In other words, you can't trust any of them. They are all wicked. They will deceive everyone his neighbor, and will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.

Their habitation is in the midst of deceit. Through deceit they refuse to know Me, saith the Lord. Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them, for how shall I do for the daughter of my people? Their tongue is as an arrow shot out, it speaketh deceit. One speaketh peacefully to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he layeth wait. Shall I not visit them for these things, saith the Lord? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? Now, I want you to take note that everything that God destroyed the nation Israel for, and everything that God destroyed Judah and Jerusalem for, is prevalent, prominent, and abundant in our country. Now, here's my question. Do you think that God will judge other nations and let us slip by? We could ask that question another way. Is God just? And if God is just, God is going to judge the wicked.

Do you realize the most horrible thing is to be in a state of desperation and not realize how desperate you are? I have known people who thought they were perfectly healthy and were dead in two weeks from cancer. I've known people who thought that nothing would ever happen to them and they'd be dead in several days in an automobile wreck. You know what this nation is like. Here's a good illustration. We are like a family in a car. that has left the road and we're going over the cliff. And we check the engine and it's still running. The lights still work. The transmission is still in drive. The radio still plays. And besides that, we think we're making excellent time. And we don't even see the canyon floor below in which we're plunging. We're in a desperate state. We don't even realize it. You will never be saved. And you will never be delivered until you realize the desperate case that you're in.

You know what made Bartimaeus cry out? He realized he was desperate. He couldn't be helped. He couldn't help himself. His family couldn't help him. His friends couldn't help him. And if Christ did not help him, he would not be helped. So when he heard that Christ was coming along, he began to cry out, Thou Son of David, have mercy upon me. Go back in your Bibles to Mark chapter 10. Let me show you.

II. A Renewal of Determination

When the crowd tried to silence Bartimaeus, he cried out even more. Weaver calls for a renewal of determination to keep crying out to God despite discouragement, using the parables of the persistent widow and the friend at midnight as examples.

Secondly, this is even what made Bartimaeus cry out more, not only a recognition of his desperation, but secondly in verses 47 and 48, you have a renewal of determination. Now watch this. Verse 47, 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 me. I love this next verse. And many charged him that he should hold his peace. But he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy upon me. So when he hears Jesus Christ is walking by, he cries, Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. Everybody, shh, hush, hush.

He doesn't want to hear you. He doesn't want to have time for you. Be quiet. No one can. Shut up. And the more they tried to get him to shut up, the louder he cried, Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy upon me.

Now, let me tell you, we not only need in this country a recognition of our desperation, but we need, secondly, a renewal of determination. Do you realize there are many that have warned us, that have cried for years telling us where we are headed? In fact, some have cried for so long and so loud that they really don't even want to cry anymore. Their attitude now is what's the use of crying? No one is listening. Thankfully, that was not the attitude of Noah, Daniel, Moses and the other prophets. Let me tell you something. We cry. And we cry out. Because we're commanded to cry out. We don't give out, we don't give in. We don't give up, we don't quit, we don't despair. Even if no one is listening, we still keep crying. If no one hears, we still keep crying. Why? We've been commanded to cry. Now listen, do I want people converted? Of course I want people converted. Do I want people to obey the Bible? Yes. Do I want people to honor Jesus Christ and live holy lives?

The answer is yes. However, I don't cry out just to get people to live holily and trust Christ and to live holy lives. No, I cry out because God has commanded me to cry out. That's a vision in and of itself. You say, where? Well, look in your Bibles to Isaiah 58 in verse 1. Look what he told Isaiah. The same principle is true. Look in Isaiah 58 in verse 1. Here God commands and he says, cry aloud, spare not. Lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins.

Now notice what he said. Cry aloud, spare not. Lift up thy voice like a trumpet. That's loud. Lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgressions, and the house of Israel, or the house of Jacob, their sins. God says, look, I've commanded you to cry. You know, there's a passage in Isaiah 40 that is quoted in the New Testament a couple of times, and the primary reference, of course, was to John the Baptist. But in Isaiah 40, verse 6, the voice said, cry. And he said, what shall I cry? And here's the message.

All flesh is grass and all the goodness thereof is as the flower of the field. What does that mean? When he says cry, you cry, all flesh is grass. Here's what it means. You're mortal. You're temporary. You're going to die. All flesh is grass and the goodliness thereof is the flower of the field. I tell you what, you go pick the most beautiful flower that you can find in the field or out of your flower garden and put it in a vase on your table and see how long it lasts. You know what's going to happen? It's going to turn brown and the petals are going to fall off. Because it's grass. It's a flower. It fades. It dies.

Listen, if you realize how desperate you are, you will be determined to keep crying until you are heard. Bartimaeus cried to the Lord. Now look at it. In Mark chapter 10, the Bible says this. In Mark chapter 10, watch now, if you would please, at verse 48. And many charged him that he should hold his peace, but he cried the more a great deal.

Now the word literally means he cried out with a loud voice. He really wanted to be heard. Why? Because he really wanted to be helped. He was charged by others and commanded by others to be quiet and to hold his peace, and yet he cried out the more the Bible says a great deal. The more he was discouraged by others, the more he encouraged himself. How did he encourage himself by?

Keeping on with his crying. He cried Lord Jesus have mercy upon me. Misery is the object of mercy. He wanted mercy. He was in a miserable state. He was in a desperate state. He could not help himself. His family could not help him. And so when others said, just shut up and be quiet. No, no. He cried and he cried out even more.

Now, let me ask you, how determined are we? And the fact of the matter is this. Most of us are really not determined. In fact, most of us are just easily discouraged. We give in, we give up, we quit. You know, all it takes for the average Christian to give up is for someone to talk about him and let him find out. And you know, then he develops this poor me attitude. Well, if that's the way they feel, I'll just quit.

I'm not going to do this anymore. Or all it takes is for the government to put a little pressure on you or a little persecution and you cave in. You know, those folks in Hebrews 11 were not like that. All those Christians that you read about in Fox's Book of Martyrs were not like that. They were determined to do right and believe right even if it cost them their life. It's true that most Christians go around in a state of despair and desperation simply because of a lack of faith and obedience in their own life. And the truth of the matter is we know nothing of perseverance. We know nothing of determination. Here's a blind man that was determined to be heard. It's time that you and I renewed our determination.

What we need is a good dose of biblical backbone. We need to become reinvigorated with holy intestinal fortitude. And for some of you South Georgia folks, that's just plain guts. That's what we need. We need some real holy guts just to stand our ground and say, here it is. I'm not giving up another inch. I've drawn my line in the sand. We have to learn determination and perseverance.

Let me give you two illustrations. Turn in your Bibles. First of all, to Luke chapter 18. You're familiar with this story. It's one of my favorite stories. Luke chapter 18. It's about the widow woman who appealed to the unjust judge, but notice if you would Luke chapter 18 beginning with verse 2, our Lord is teaching this parable that men ought always to pray and not to faint. And he says in verse 2, there was in a city a judge who feared not God, neither regarded man. Now notice he feared not God, neither regarded man, by the way, those two things go together. If you don't fear God, you will not regard man. You want to know why these tyrants can kill millions of their own people, they have no regard for man. They have no regard for life. They don't fear God. If you have no fear of God, you'll have no regard for man. You don't care what happens to man. The only reason there is indeed what you and I would call humanitarian aid, the only reason you and I know anything about compassion and hospitality and gentleness and civility is because we fear God.

But here's a judge who feared not God nor regarded man. Watch verse 3. And there was a widow in that city and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. She had been wronged. And he would not for a while, but afterwards he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. Now stop there. Here's this widow woman. She comes to the judge and says, Avenge me of mine adversary.

I'm not going to do it. I don't care anything about you. I don't care. I don't care one thing about what happened. Get out of here. Next day she is back, avenge me of mine adversary. I don't care. Didn't you hear me? Get out of here. Next day she's back. The next day she's back.

Finally the unjust judge says, look, I don't fear God and I don't regard man, but I tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to give this widow woman what she wants just to get her off my back. I'm tired of seeing her. I'm tired of listening to her. I'll do it just to get rid of her.

Now I want you to watch the application that our Lord made Himself. Look at it in verse 6. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. Did you hear Him? Now look, verse 7. And shall not God avenge His own elect, who cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them? I tell you, He will avenge them speedily. Now listen. Here's what our Lord is saying. Do you think that God is like that unjust judge? Do you think that God is uninterested in justice? That God is uninterested in righteousness? That God is uninterested in mercy? Do you think God is uninterested in compassion? No, no, no. He says, listen, the trouble is not with God. The trouble is with us. We're not crying day and night. God will avenge his own and he will avenge them speedily. Here was a widow woman who was unafraid to appeal to an unjust, heathen judge. And we, as God's people, cannot be determined to cry to the holy, righteous judge of all the earth, knowing that He's our Father.

We can't even determine to cry consistently. Why did this widow woman get what she wanted even from an unjust judge? She was determined. And our Lord says, hear what that unjust judge said. And shall not God avenge his own elect who cry unto him day and night? I tell you, he will avenge them speedily. God is not like that unjust judge. He's willing to avenge his own. The truth is that God is far more interested in righting wrongs than we're interested in having them righted. God is far more interested in giving justice than we are in crying for justice. God is far more interested in turning this world right than we're interested in having it turn right. The problem is not with God. The problem is with us. We don't cry. We're not determined saying God do what needs to be done.

We want to give up. We want to give in. We want to quit. We want to say, I've been crying for 20 years and he hasn't done it yet. I got news for you. God does not work on your timetable. But he does work. And your responsibility is not to tell God when to do something. Your responsibility is to obey God, and God's going to do it in His time, I can assure you.

Now, let me show you another illustration. Look in Luke chapter 11, beginning there with verse 5, just to show you determination. We not only need a recognition of our desperation, we need a renewal of our determination. Now there's a word used in this passage. It's a little different from determination. It's the word importunity, but it means the same thing. So look into Luke 11, beginning there with verse 5. And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.

So here's the story. A man has company come in on him, maybe unexpectedly. There's nothing to feed his friends. So he goes to his good friend and he says, look, I need some bread. I need to borrow some groceries. Lend me three loaves. I have nothing. Watch if you would please. Verse 6, for a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.

And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not. The door is now shut and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give to thee. Words don't bother me now. I'm in bed. Call me in the morning. Watch verse 8. I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. In other words, the man in bed says, look, I might as well get up and give him the three loaves because he keeps on knocking. I'm not going to get any sleep. I'm not going to give it to him because he's my friend. I'm going to give it to him, get him out of my hair so I can go back to bed. Look what our Lord says. Our Lord makes his own application. He says in verse 9, and I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you.

Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth. To him that knocketh it shall be opened. Isn't that amazing? He says, If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? Well, of course not.

Now, I want you to note, our Lord says, whoever asks, receives. Whoever seeks, finds. Whoever knocks, it is opened. Interestingly enough, in this passage, the words ask, seek, and knock are present active participles. What does that mean? It means he keeps on asking. He keeps on knocking. He keeps on finding. In other words, he asks, he seeks, he knocks, not one time, but constantly and continually until he gets what he wants. That's determination. That's importunity. So our Lord says, here's a man in bed.

He won't get up and give to his friend just because he's his friend. But if that friend keeps on knocking, he's going to give him what he needs. There has to be a determination. I want you to go back in your Bibles to Mark chapter 10, I want you to see this. You know what determination is? Determination is an attitude that will not be denied, deterred or discouraged. Determination is an attitude that's going to ask and seek and knock until it receives. Now, let's ask this question.

III. A Recognition of Dependency

Bartimaeus recognized his total dependence on Jesus for mercy and healing. Weaver applies this to the nation, stating that only Christ can save us, not the Constitution or politicians.

He was determined that nothing would stop him. What do we need? We need recognition of our desperation. We need a renewal of determination. And then if you'll notice, thirdly, there is also a recognition of dependency in verses 51 and 52. And Jesus answered and said to him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said to him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. Jesus said to him, Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. Now watch verse 51. Then Jesus answered and said to him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? Think about that. Here's a man crying. The Lord stops. He calls him and he asks him, what wilt thou that I should do unto thee?

Bartimaeus, you've got my attention. You've stopped me. Here I am. Just tell me what you want. I'm willing to help you. Bartimaeus said, Lord, that I might receive my sight. Listen to me, Bartimaeus learned a very important truth. What did he learn? He learned that he was helpless. That he was hopeless. But that Jesus was the Son of God and that Jesus had all power. And that Christ could do anything. And therefore, he learned dependence. He learned to depend solely and completely and totally and absolutely upon the mercy and grace of the Son of God. What did he say? Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy upon me. Lord, if you don't help me, I can't be helped. If you don't have mercy upon me, I don't get mercy. If you don't give me grace, I don't get grace. Lord, I'm totally, absolutely dependent upon you.

You know, we need to come to that position in this country, not just as individuals. But we need to come to this position as a nation. Listen, as much as I might admire and respect and love the Constitution of the United States, I have to confess, folks, the Constitution is not going to save us. In fact, for all practical purposes, it is null and void. And they're even now calling for a new constitutional convention which would destroy what little rights we have left. And I got news for you, there certainly ain't no politician going to save us. Politicians are not interested in people, they're interested in themselves. The only one who's going to save us is Christ. Have we ever reached this position? Have we ever come to this truth?

If God does not help us, we are not helped. Our help is only the one true and the living God who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ. In Psalm 121 verses 1 and 2, David said this, I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord who made heaven and earth. My help, he says, is in the sovereign God. In Psalm 46 and verse 1. The very passage that Martin Luther used to write that hymn, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, a bulwark never failing. Psalm 46 verse 1 says, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in the time of trouble. God is our refuge and our strength. In Psalm 108 and verse 12, the psalmist said, Give us help from trouble, for vain is the help of man. Vain is the help of man. Psalm 115 and verse 11. The Bible says, Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield.

I don't know if you're familiar with this story or not, but in 2 Kings chapter 6, the Syrians had surrounded Samaria. The people inside Samaria were starving to death. If they went outside, the Syrians killed them. If they stayed inside, they starved to death. And the famine was so great, they were eating dove's dung and rotted grape peels. And finally, in 2 Kings 6, one came to the king and appealed for help. And here's what the king said. The king of Israel said, If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee?

Out of the barn floor or out of the winepress? The king of Israel said, all I can give you is dung and rotted grape pits and peels. If God didn't help you, I can't give you any help. And folks, I've got news for you. We've got to reach the point in our individual lives, our family lives, our church lives, our national lives. If God doesn't help us, we're not helped. Man cannot help us. Man can try. Man can plan. Man can do all kinds of things. It does not, does not, and will not, and cannot save us. All man can do is make us more desolate, more desperate, and more destitute.

Conclusion: It's Crying Time Again

Weaver concludes by urging the congregation to cry out for mercy like Bartimaeus, emphasizing that desperation is fitting for those who want to be delivered, and that God will avenge His elect who cry to Him day and night.

Desperation becomes those who wish to be saved. You know, the Bible says that praise is comely for the upright. As praise is comely for the upright, desperation is comely for those who want to be delivered. We will never desire deliverance until we become desperate. You know what our Lord said in Matthew 11 verse 12? Our Lord speaks of heaven being taken by force. Have you ever stopped to think about this? Desperate men are forceful men. If there was no water, and I had one bottle of water in my hand, it was the last bottle.

And everyone in this room was perishing. And I had the only bottle. And I was unwilling to share. You think I'd be in a fight? You think somebody would be attacking me trying to take that bottle of water away from me? Yeah. You know why? Desperate men are forceful men. They're ready. They're ready to do whatever is necessary, because they realize their state of desperation. It is our desperation that enables us to have determination which will result in our dependence upon the Lord.

The question you have to ask is this. Would you cry out as Bartimaeus? Have you realized the desperate situation that you're in, our families are in, that we're in, that our grandchildren are in, that our children are in. You know, we sit around. Granny Doris can do this even more than I can. But I can, I can sit here all day and tell you how the world, how America has changed since I've been a boy. Think of how much it's changed since she's been a little girl, and she's only 21.

Can you believe the change that has been in our lifetime? I'm going to tell you, my grandchildren and some of these children do not even know what real freedom is. We think we are free today. We are not free. I told people and I still tell people, I believe Alice and I were about the last generation to experience a little bit of freedom back in the 50s.

But we just don't realize the desperateness of our situation and most Christians are at ease in Zion. They're comfortable until the car hits the canyon floor.

So it's crying time again. It's time we got what Bartimaeus had. A realization of our desperation, renewal of our determination so that we can have a recognition of our dependence upon the only one who can help us. It's time we learn to cry, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy upon me and my family and my church and my state and my nation. And what did our Lord say? Hear ye what the unjust judge said, and shall not God avenge his own elect who cry unto him day and night? Yea, I tell you, he will avenge them speedily. It's time to cry for mercy. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we do ask for your grace and your help and your mercy. We thank you.

for Your Word, for Your truth, for Your promises. We ask, Father, that You would open our eyes that we may see, open our ears that we may hear, and give us wisdom in this day and time to know what to do and where to turn, how to prepare. Give us grace and determination. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray. Amen.

Study Guide

Major Themes

Desperation as a Prerequisite for Deliverance

Summary: People will not cry out to God until they realize they are helpless and desperate, like Bartimaeus who was blind and a beggar.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'He was desperate. No one was able to help him. He was blind. He was a beggar.' and 'You will never be saved. And you will never be delivered until you realize the desperate case that you're in.'

Determination in Prayer and Crying Out

Summary: Believers must persist in crying out to God despite opposition and discouragement, as Bartimaeus did when the crowd tried to silence him.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'And many charged him that he should hold his peace. But he cried the more a great deal... The more he was discouraged by others, the more he encouraged himself.'

Total Dependence on God Alone

Summary: Salvation and help come only from God; human efforts, the Constitution, and politicians cannot save us.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'If God does not help us, we are not helped. Our help is only the one true and the living God who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ.'

National Judgment and the Need for Repentance

Summary: God judges nations for idolatry, adultery, corruption, and deceit, and America is guilty of these sins and under judgment.

Evidence: Weaver reads Jeremiah 5 and 9, asking, 'Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord, and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?' and applies it to America.

The Example of Biblical Figures Who Wept

Summary: Jesus, Jeremiah, and Elisha wept over sin and suffering, showing that real men cry and cry out to God.

Evidence: Weaver cites John 11:35, Jeremiah as the weeping prophet, and 2 Kings 8:11 where Elisha wept.

Key Arguments

Desperation leads to crying out

Summary: Bartimaeus cried out because he was desperate and helpless; similarly, people only seek God when they realize their desperate condition.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'What in the world made Bartimaeus cry out for help? Well, here's the answer. He was desperate.'

God commands His people to cry out

Summary: Weaver argues that crying out is not optional but commanded by God, citing Isaiah 58:1.

Evidence: Weaver reads Isaiah 58:1: 'Cry aloud, spare not. Lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgressions.'

Persistent prayer moves God to act

Summary: Using the parables of the persistent widow and the friend at midnight, Weaver argues that God responds to persistent, determined prayer.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'And shall not God avenge his own elect, who cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you, he will avenge them speedily.'

America is under God's judgment

Summary: Weaver asserts that the sins of America—idolatry, adultery, corruption—are the same sins for which God judged Israel, and God will judge America.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'Everything that God destroyed the nation Israel for... is prevalent, prominent, and abundant in our country.'

Only Christ can save

Summary: Weaver emphasizes that human solutions are vain; only Jesus Christ can deliver individuals and nations.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'The only one who's going to save us is Christ.'

Scripture References

Mark 10:46-52

Context: The main text of the sermon, recounting the healing of blind Bartimaeus.

John 11:35

Context: Cited as the shortest verse in the Bible, showing that Jesus wept.

2 Kings 8:11

Context: Elisha wept when he saw what Hazael would do to Israel.

Matthew 9:12

Context: Jesus said the whole need not a physician, but the sick, illustrating that only the desperate seek help.

Matthew 14:28-30

Context: Peter walking on water and crying out when he began to sink, showing desperation.

Psalm 10:6

Context: The wicked think they will never be moved or in adversity.

Jeremiah 5:7-9

Context: God asks if He should not avenge a nation for idolatry and adultery.

Jeremiah 5:25-29

Context: God asks if He should not avenge a nation for corruption and wicked rulers.

Jeremiah 9:2-9

Context: God asks if He should not avenge a nation for treachery, deceit, and lies.

Isaiah 58:1

Context: God commands to cry aloud and show His people their sins.

Isaiah 40:6

Context: The voice said, Cry, and the message is that all flesh is grass.

Luke 18:2-8

Context: The parable of the persistent widow, teaching that God will avenge His elect who cry day and night.

Luke 11:5-13

Context: The parable of the friend at midnight, teaching persistence in asking, seeking, and knocking.

Psalm 121:1-2

Context: David says his help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.

Psalm 46:1

Context: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Psalm 108:12

Context: Vain is the help of man.

Psalm 115:11

Context: Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord; He is their help and shield.

2 Kings 6:27

Context: The king of Israel says, If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee?

Matthew 11:12

Context: The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force, illustrating desperate men are forceful.

Historical References

Stoicism

Context: Weaver contrasts the message with Stoic philosophy that teaches real men don't cry.

Matthew Henry's commentary

Context: Weaver references Matthew Henry's comment that Bartimaeus means son of Timaeus, possibly indicating his father was also blind.

Fox's Book of Martyrs

Context: Weaver mentions Christians in Fox's Book of Martyrs who were determined to do right even at the cost of their lives.

Martin Luther's hymn 'A Mighty Fortress Is Our God'

Context: Weaver notes that Martin Luther used Psalm 46 to write this hymn.

Great Depression era

Context: Weaver says economists predict the coming economic crisis will be worse than the Great Depression.

Important Quotes

And many charged him that he should hold his peace. But he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy upon me.

Significance: Illustrates Bartimaeus's determination to cry out despite opposition, which Weaver uses as a model for persistent prayer.

And Jesus stood still.

Significance: Highlights that Bartimaeus's cry stopped the Son of God, showing the power of desperate, determined prayer.

If God does not help us, we are not helped.

Significance: Summarizes the message of total dependence on God for deliverance.

Desperate men are forceful men.

Significance: Connects desperation with the forceful taking of the kingdom of heaven mentioned in Matthew 11:12.

It's crying time again.

Significance: The title and concluding call to action, urging the congregation to cry out to God like Bartimaeus.

Discussion Questions

What does it mean to be desperate for God, and how can we cultivate that desperation in our own lives?

Context: Weaver emphasizes that Bartimaeus cried out because he was desperate and helpless.

How can we maintain determination in prayer when we face discouragement or opposition?

Context: Weaver uses Bartimaeus's example of crying out more when told to be quiet.

In what ways are we tempted to trust in human solutions rather than depending solely on God?

Context: Weaver argues that the Constitution and politicians cannot save us; only Christ can.

Do you believe America is under God's judgment? Why or why not, based on the biblical passages cited?

Context: Weaver reads Jeremiah 5 and 9 and applies them to America's sins.

What practical steps can we take to 'cry out' for our nation, families, and churches?

Context: Weaver concludes by urging the congregation to cry out for mercy like Bartimaeus.

Applications

Recognize your desperation

Summary: Acknowledge your helplessness and desperate need for God's mercy in your personal life, family, and nation.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'You will never be saved. And you will never be delivered until you realize the desperate case that you're in.'

Persist in prayer despite opposition

Summary: When discouraged or told to be quiet, cry out to God even more, following Bartimaeus's example.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'The more he was discouraged by others, the more he encouraged himself... Keeping on with his crying.'

Depend solely on Christ for deliverance

Summary: Stop trusting in human institutions or leaders; place your complete dependence on Jesus Christ for salvation and help.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'The only one who's going to save us is Christ.'

Cry out for national repentance

Summary: Lift up your voice like a trumpet to show God's people their sins and plead for mercy on the nation.

Evidence: Weaver cites Isaiah 58:1 and says, 'It's time we learn to cry, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy upon me and my family and my church and my state and my nation.'

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T13:45:56Z

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T01:17:09Z

Clean Transcript

It's Crying Time Again

Clean readable transcript. This view follows the Commentary.net cleaned segment text while preserving timestamps for audio follow-along.

Mark chapter 10, beginning there with verse 46. 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 side 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 me. 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 for 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.
#1 | 0:02 to 1:03 | cleaned
I want to bring a message today which I have entitled, It's Crying Time Again. I preached on this passage numerous years ago, dealing with the subject of salvation. However, as I was reading through the book of Mark, I read about Bartimaeus again and another thought entered my mind. And the reason I entitled this message, It's Crying Time Again, some of you are probably familiar with an old country song by that same title. Now, I don't know the song, don't even know the author of it, but I believe the song was about some man's girlfriend or some man's wife leaving him and thus it's crying time again because she's left him. Well, the message has nothing to do with anyone's love life. But it certainly has a lot to do with life. There's a vast contrast between that song, It's Crying Time Again, and the Stoic position where Stoicism teaches that real men don't cry. In fact, we get a lot of our modern day expressions from the Greek philosophy of Stoicism.
#2 | 1:04 to 2:19 | cleaned
For instance, when we tell someone, keep a stiff upper lip, or don't be overcome by your emotions, or real men don't cry. That's just simply the philosophy of Stoicism. Certainly, the Bible disagrees with Stoicism. In fact, the shortest verse in the Bible is John 11, verse 35, Jesus wept. Our Lord wept over Lazarus. He not only wept over Lazarus, he wept over Jerusalem. And I can assure you that Jesus Christ was a far better man than all of us put together. And Jesus Christ endured far more than you and I could ever think of enduring. And yet the Bible says that Jesus wept.
#3 | 2:20 to 3:03 | cleaned
Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet. And of course, you know how he wept as he saw Jerusalem destroyed. In 2 Kings chapter 8 and verse 11, the Bible tells us that Elisha set his countenance steadfastly until he was ashamed and then the man of God wept. And the reason he wept, he knew what Hazael, the king of Syria, was going to do to the women and children of Israel. He set his countenance steadfastly until he was ashamed and then the man of God wept. You will find all through the Bible that many prophets, many real men, wept.
#4 | 3:04 to 3:45 | cleaned
Have you ever asked yourself, what does it really take to make someone cry or at least cry out? And if you think for a moment, I'm sure that you can outline and list a number of reasons that would cause people to cry or at least cry out. You could list pain, torment, desperation, realization, financial ruin, a host of other reasons. In fact, you find in the Bible that men cried and cried out over their sins, over their families, over the loss of their fortunes. They cried and wept over nations, over rulers, over their burdens and over many things. But when you read the Bible and compare and or contrast what real men did in those days, have you ever noticed that in our modern day that hardly anyone is disturbed over the condition of our country, our sins as a nation, our immorality, our lack of faith, our wickedness, and our corruption that prevails not only in this country but in the government in general? Where in the world is the human cry against Marxism, Communism, and socialism?
#5 | 3:46 to 5:11 | cleaned
Where in the world are voices being lifted up against our unconstitutional acts and laws that are being passed by Congress? What about the absurd and insane and absolutely stupid rulings that have been issued from our judicial system? Have you ever asked what in the world is it going to take to make us cry or cry out to the Lord? It seems as if we have gone along for so long that absolutely nothing affects us anymore. Well, let me ask, what did it take to make Bartimaeus cry out? What did it take to make him cry and beg the Lord for help?
#6 | 5:11 to 5:59 | cleaned
I want to just give you three things today. First of all, I want you to notice that there was a realization of desperation. When you study Bartimaeus, you can find that there was indeed a realization of desperation. Look at verse 46. 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 highwayside 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 upon me. Now, what in the world made Bartimaeus cry out for help? Well, here's the answer. He was desperate. No one was able to help him. He was blind. He was a beggar.
#7 | 6:00 to 6:51 | cleaned
And for all practical purposes in his day, he was useless. It may have been that even his family could not help him.
#8 | 6:52 to 7:01 | cleaned
Now, Matthew Henry gives an interesting comment on verse 46. He states that Bartimaeus, the blind beggar, who is much talked about here, was Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, which signifies, as Matthew Henry and some other scholars think, that not only was Bartimaeus blind, but Timaeus, his father, was blind. So that would make Bartimaeus the son, the blind son of a blind father. So the word Bartimaeus means literally the son of Timaeus, which could refer to the son of a blind man or certainly the son of an unclean man. So you see that Bartimaeus was not only helpless, but basically he was hopeless. He could not only not help himself, but no one in his family could help him either. In fact, no one in the circle of his friends could help him. If he was the blind son of a blind father, he was indeed in a desperate case. In other words, if Bartimaeus was to receive help, it had to be from someone outside of his circle. His family couldn't help him. His friends couldn't help him.
#9 | 7:01 to 8:22 | cleaned
He was desperate. You know, our Lord underscores this desperate condition in Matthew 9 and verse 12, if you will hold Mark 11 or Mark 10, we'll come back there. But look in your Bibles very quickly, at Matthew chapter 9. And notice what our Lord said. And this passage is just so applicable. Notice what he says in Matthew 9 and verse 12. Our Lord says this, but when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, he's talking to the Pharisees, he says, they that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick, but go ye and learn what that meaneth. Now notice what he said, they that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.
#10 | 8:23 to 9:07 | cleaned
In other words, no one is going to a physician until he realizes he can't help himself. He not only can't help himself, his home remedies do not work, his neighbor's home remedies do not work. In other words, no one visits a doctor just to say, Doc, I understand you need a payment on your new Mercedes and I just want to come by and give you some money. Nobody does that. Our Lord says, they that be whole need not a physician. In other words, you have to be desperate to go to the doctor. You can't heal yourself. Nothing you do helps. You're desperate.
#11 | 9:07 to 9:48 | cleaned
Have you ever thought about Peter? You remember that passage in Matthew chapter 14, where Jesus was walking on the water? And Peter said, Lord, if it be thee, bid me come unto thee. Let me ask you a question. When Peter stepped out of that boat and began to walk on the water, did he immediately cry out to Jesus Christ for help? No. Listen, walking on the water was a wonderful experience while it lasted. He didn't need any help. But when he took his eyes off the Lord and saw the wind boisterous and the waves and he began to sink, what did he do? He cried, Lord, save me.
#12 | 9:48 to 10:36 | cleaned
In other words, all of a sudden he got desperate. And when he got desperate, he cried out, listen to me carefully. Desperate people not only need help, but desperate people won't help. Have you ever tried to help someone who was not desperate? I have. You know what they'll do? They will laugh at you. They will ridicule you. They will mock you. They'll say, not me. I remember one year years ago, I spoke to a young man.
#13 | 10:37 to 11:20 | cleaned
I was around him for several days. And I observed how he spoke to his wife and how he treated her. And before I left him, I said, son, I want to tell you something. The way you talk to your wife and the way you treat your wife, one of these days she's going to get fed up and she's going to leave you. You know what he said? Not me. She won't leave me.
#14 | 11:21 to 11:47 | cleaned
It was about six months that I got a phone call. The young man was crying. He said, Preacher, my wife left me. What can I do? It's interesting how he didn't want to listen to me when he could have listened to me. But after she's left, he's now desperate and he's willing to listen. You know, a lot of people are like the wicked when the Bible says in the book of Psalms, chapter 10 and verse 6, listen to this. The wicked saith in his heart, I shall not be moved, for I shall never be in adversity.
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Somehow we think that nothing will ever happen to us, have you noticed? That many Americans, and unhappily many professing Christians, somehow think that we in this country shall never ever be in a state of desperation. Even with our economic crisis that's looming over our heads, and I don't care if you take conservative economists or liberal economists, they're all saying the same thing, what we're going through in the next few years are going to be worse than the Great Depression era. And one of the reasons it's going to be worse is because we don't have the character now that people used to have back then.
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We have been turned into a nation of parasites where everyone wants to live off someone else and everyone wants everything handed to them on a silver platter. No one wants to work. No one wants to be responsible. No one wants to be accountable. And we think that somehow we are never, ever going to be in a state of desperation. Our national sins do not concern us. We've come to think that sodomy, sexual perversions, socialism, Marxism, welfareism, big government tyranny, the loss of our rights are somehow normal. And that all of the fires and droughts and floods and hurricanes and tornadoes are somehow, are just merely the freaks of nature. They're not really.
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the hand of a righteous God judging us. I want to ask this question. Does God really judge nations? You have to remember this. Nations are not like individuals. Nations do not have souls, in that sense of the word. In other words, nations must be judged in time and history. Let me just show you the truth of the Bible. I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you would, to Jeremiah chapter 5. Jeremiah chapter 5. And there's three passages that we really need to look at. Just to answer the question, does God judge nations? Look in Jeremiah chapter 5 and let's begin reading there with verse 7. Jeremiah 5 and verse 7. Look at this. I'm going to show you what God says about a nation that had fallen into idolatry and adultery.
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You know, our politicians tell us that our private lives are our own. What we do in our private lives is no concern of the people of this country. That's a bunch of hogwash. And whenever individual citizens take that same attitude, that's still a bunch of hogwash. Watch this. Jeremiah chapter 5, beginning with verse 7. Look what God says. He says to his people, how shall I pardon thee for this?
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Thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods, that's idolatry. When I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery, physical and spiritual, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses. They were as fed horses in the morning, and everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife. Watch what God says. Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord, and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? Idolatry and adultery. And God asks, shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? I'm not judge a nation like this.
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Skip down, if you would, to verse 25. And look and see what God says about corruption, fraud and wicked civil rulers. Jeremiah chapter 5 verse 25. God says, your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have been withholding good things from you. For among my people are found wicked men. They lay wait, as he that setteth snares, they set a trap, they catch men.
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As a cage is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they become great and waxen rich. They are waxen fat, they shine, yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked. They judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper, and the right of the needy do they not judge? Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
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Ah, you talking about corruption? You talking about fraud? You're talking about wicked civil rulers, and look what God says. Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? Turn right over to Jeremiah chapter 9. Jeremiah chapter 9. And notice what God says about treachery, deceit, injustice, fraud, lying, planned and premeditated destruction. Jeremiah chapter 9, beginning there with verse 2. Jeremiah says, O that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people and go from them. Why did Jeremiah want to get away? For they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men, and they bend their tongues like their bow for lies, and they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth.
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For they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the Lord. Take ye heed every one of his neighbor, and trust ye not in any brother. For every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will walk with slanders. In other words, you can't trust any of them. They are all wicked. They will deceive everyone his neighbor, and will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.
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Their habitation is in the midst of deceit. Through deceit they refuse to know Me, saith the Lord. Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them, for how shall I do for the daughter of my people? Their tongue is as an arrow shot out, it speaketh deceit. One speaketh peacefully to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he layeth wait. Shall I not visit them for these things, saith the Lord?
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Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? Now, I want you to take note that everything that God destroyed the nation Israel for, and everything that God destroyed Judah and Jerusalem for, is prevalent, prominent, and abundant in our country. Now, here's my question. Do you think that God will judge other nations and let us slip by? We could ask that question another way. Is God just? And if God is just, God is going to judge the wicked.
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Do you realize the most horrible thing is to be in a state of desperation and not realize how desperate you are? I have known people who thought they were perfectly healthy and were dead in two weeks from cancer. I've known people who thought that nothing would ever happen to them and they'd be dead in several days in an automobile wreck. You know what this nation is like. Here's a good illustration. We are like a family in a car.
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that has left the road and we're going over the cliff. And we check the engine and it's still running. The lights still work. The transmission is still in drive. The radio still plays. And besides that, we think we're making excellent time. And we don't even see the canyon floor below in which we're plunging. We're in a desperate state. We don't even realize it. You will never be saved. And you will never be delivered until you realize the desperate case that you're in.
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You know what made Bartimaeus cry out? He realized he was desperate. He couldn't be helped. He couldn't help himself. His family couldn't help him. His friends couldn't help him. And if Christ did not help him, he would not be helped. So when he heard that Christ was coming along, he began to cry out, Thou Son of David, have mercy upon me. Go back in your Bibles to Mark chapter 10. Let me show you.
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Secondly, this is even what made Bartimaeus cry out more, not only a recognition of his desperation, but secondly in verses 47 and 48, you have a renewal of determination. Now watch this. Verse 47, 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 me. I love this next verse. And many charged him that he should hold his peace. But he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy upon me. So when he hears Jesus Christ is walking by, he cries, Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. Everybody, shh, hush, hush.
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He doesn't want to hear you. He doesn't want to have time for you. Be quiet. No one can. Shut up. And the more they tried to get him to shut up, the louder he cried, Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy upon me.
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Now, let me tell you, we not only need in this country a recognition of our desperation, but we need, secondly, a renewal of determination. Do you realize there are many that have warned us, that have cried for years telling us where we are headed? In fact, some have cried for so long and so loud that they really don't even want to cry anymore. Their attitude now is what's the use of crying? No one is listening. Thankfully, that was not the attitude of Noah, Daniel, Moses and the other prophets. Let me tell you something. We cry. And we cry out. Because we're commanded to cry out. We don't give out, we don't give in. We don't give up, we don't quit, we don't despair. Even if no one is listening, we still keep crying. If no one hears, we still keep crying. Why? We've been commanded to cry. Now listen, do I want people converted? Of course I want people converted. Do I want people to obey the Bible? Yes. Do I want people to honor Jesus Christ and live holy lives?
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The answer is yes. However, I don't cry out just to get people to live holily and trust Christ and to live holy lives. No, I cry out because God has commanded me to cry out. That's a vision in and of itself. You say, where? Well, look in your Bibles to Isaiah 58 in verse 1. Look what he told Isaiah. The same principle is true. Look in Isaiah 58 in verse 1. Here God commands and he says, cry aloud, spare not. Lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins.
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Now notice what he said. Cry aloud, spare not. Lift up thy voice like a trumpet. That's loud. Lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgressions, and the house of Israel, or the house of Jacob, their sins. God says, look, I've commanded you to cry. You know, there's a passage in Isaiah 40 that is quoted in the New Testament a couple of times, and the primary reference, of course, was to John the Baptist. But in Isaiah 40, verse 6, the voice said, cry. And he said, what shall I cry? And here's the message.
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All flesh is grass and all the goodness thereof is as the flower of the field. What does that mean? When he says cry, you cry, all flesh is grass. Here's what it means. You're mortal. You're temporary. You're going to die. All flesh is grass and the goodliness thereof is the flower of the field. I tell you what, you go pick the most beautiful flower that you can find in the field or out of your flower garden and put it in a vase on your table and see how long it lasts. You know what's going to happen? It's going to turn brown and the petals are going to fall off. Because it's grass. It's a flower. It fades. It dies.
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Listen, if you realize how desperate you are, you will be determined to keep crying until you are heard. Bartimaeus cried to the Lord. Now look at it. In Mark chapter 10, the Bible says this. In Mark chapter 10, watch now, if you would please, at verse 48. And many charged him that he should hold his peace, but he cried the more a great deal.
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Now the word literally means he cried out with a loud voice. He really wanted to be heard. Why? Because he really wanted to be helped. He was charged by others and commanded by others to be quiet and to hold his peace, and yet he cried out the more the Bible says a great deal. The more he was discouraged by others, the more he encouraged himself. How did he encourage himself by?
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Keeping on with his crying. He cried Lord Jesus have mercy upon me. Misery is the object of mercy. He wanted mercy. He was in a miserable state. He was in a desperate state. He could not help himself. His family could not help him. And so when others said, just shut up and be quiet. No, no. He cried and he cried out even more.
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Now, let me ask you, how determined are we? And the fact of the matter is this. Most of us are really not determined. In fact, most of us are just easily discouraged. We give in, we give up, we quit. You know, all it takes for the average Christian to give up is for someone to talk about him and let him find out. And you know, then he develops this poor me attitude. Well, if that's the way they feel, I'll just quit.
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I'm not going to do this anymore. Or all it takes is for the government to put a little pressure on you or a little persecution and you cave in. You know, those folks in Hebrews 11 were not like that. All those Christians that you read about in Fox's Book of Martyrs were not like that. They were determined to do right and believe right even if it cost them their life. It's true that most Christians go around in a state of despair and desperation simply because of a lack of faith and obedience in their own life. And the truth of the matter is we know nothing of perseverance. We know nothing of determination. Here's a blind man that was determined to be heard. It's time that you and I renewed our determination.
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What we need is a good dose of biblical backbone. We need to become reinvigorated with holy intestinal fortitude. And for some of you South Georgia folks, that's just plain guts. That's what we need. We need some real holy guts just to stand our ground and say, here it is. I'm not giving up another inch. I've drawn my line in the sand. We have to learn determination and perseverance.
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Let me give you two illustrations. Turn in your Bibles. First of all, to Luke chapter 18. You're familiar with this story. It's one of my favorite stories. Luke chapter 18. It's about the widow woman who appealed to the unjust judge, but notice if you would Luke chapter 18 beginning with verse 2, our Lord is teaching this parable that men ought always to pray and not to faint. And he says in verse 2, there was in a city a judge who feared not God, neither regarded man. Now notice he feared not God, neither regarded man, by the way, those two things go together. If you don't fear God, you will not regard man. You want to know why these tyrants can kill millions of their own people, they have no regard for man. They have no regard for life. They don't fear God. If you have no fear of God, you'll have no regard for man. You don't care what happens to man. The only reason there is indeed what you and I would call humanitarian aid, the only reason you and I know anything about compassion and hospitality and gentleness and civility is because we fear God.
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But here's a judge who feared not God nor regarded man. Watch verse 3. And there was a widow in that city and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. She had been wronged. And he would not for a while, but afterwards he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. Now stop there. Here's this widow woman. She comes to the judge and says, Avenge me of mine adversary.
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I'm not going to do it. I don't care anything about you. I don't care. I don't care one thing about what happened. Get out of here.
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Next day she is back, avenge me of mine adversary. I don't care. Didn't you hear me? Get out of here. Next day she's back. The next day she's back.
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Finally the unjust judge says, look, I don't fear God and I don't regard man, but I tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to give this widow woman what she wants just to get her off my back. I'm tired of seeing her. I'm tired of listening to her. I'll do it just to get rid of her.
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Now I want you to watch the application that our Lord made Himself. Look at it in verse 6. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. Did you hear Him? Now look, verse 7. And shall not God avenge His own elect, who cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them? I tell you, He will avenge them speedily. Now listen. Here's what our Lord is saying. Do you think that God is like that unjust judge? Do you think that God is uninterested in justice? That God is uninterested in righteousness? That God is uninterested in mercy? Do you think God is uninterested in compassion? No, no, no. He says, listen, the trouble is not with God. The trouble is with us. We're not crying day and night. God will avenge his own and he will avenge them speedily. Here was a widow woman who was unafraid to appeal to an unjust, heathen judge. And we, as God's people, cannot be determined to cry to the holy, righteous judge of all the earth, knowing that He's our Father.
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We can't even determine to cry consistently. Why did this widow woman get what she wanted even from an unjust judge? She was determined. And our Lord says, hear what that unjust judge said. And shall not God avenge his own elect who cry unto him day and night? I tell you, he will avenge them speedily. God is not like that unjust judge. He's willing to avenge his own. The truth is that God is far more interested in righting wrongs than we're interested in having them righted. God is far more interested in giving justice than we are in crying for justice. God is far more interested in turning this world right than we're interested in having it turn right. The problem is not with God. The problem is with us. We don't cry. We're not determined saying God do what needs to be done.
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We want to give up. We want to give in. We want to quit. We want to say, I've been crying for 20 years and he hasn't done it yet. I got news for you. God does not work on your timetable. But he does work. And your responsibility is not to tell God when to do something. Your responsibility is to obey God, and God's going to do it in His time, I can assure you.
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Now, let me show you another illustration. Look in Luke chapter 11, beginning there with verse 5, just to show you determination. We not only need a recognition of our desperation, we need a renewal of our determination.
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Now there's a word used in this passage. It's a little different from determination. It's the word importunity, but it means the same thing. So look into Luke 11, beginning there with verse 5. And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.
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So here's the story. A man has company come in on him, maybe unexpectedly. There's nothing to feed his friends. So he goes to his good friend and he says, look, I need some bread. I need to borrow some groceries. Lend me three loaves. I have nothing. Watch if you would please. Verse 6, for a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.
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And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not. The door is now shut and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give to thee. Words don't bother me now. I'm in bed. Call me in the morning. Watch verse 8. I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. In other words, the man in bed says, look, I might as well get up and give him the three loaves because he keeps on knocking. I'm not going to get any sleep. I'm not going to give it to him because he's my friend. I'm going to give it to him, get him out of my hair so I can go back to bed. Look what our Lord says. Our Lord makes his own application. He says in verse 9, and I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you.
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Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth. To him that knocketh it shall be opened. Isn't that amazing? He says, If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? Well, of course not.
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Now, I want you to note, our Lord says, whoever asks, receives. Whoever seeks, finds. Whoever knocks, it is opened. Interestingly enough, in this passage, the words ask, seek, and knock are present active participles. What does that mean? It means he keeps on asking. He keeps on knocking. He keeps on finding. In other words, he asks, he seeks, he knocks, not one time, but constantly and continually until he gets what he wants. That's determination. That's importunity. So our Lord says, here's a man in bed.
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He won't get up and give to his friend just because he's his friend. But if that friend keeps on knocking, he's going to give him what he needs. There has to be a determination. I want you to go back in your Bibles to Mark chapter 10, I want you to see this. You know what determination is? Determination is an attitude that will not be denied, deterred or discouraged. Determination is an attitude that's going to ask and seek and knock until it receives. Now, let's ask this question.
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Bartimaeus was crying, everybody said, hush up, shut up, don't bother the master. Be quiet. And when they tried to discourage him, the more he cried out, the more he was encouraged of himself. And let's ask this question. Did his determination pay off? Well, look in verse 49. And Jesus stood still. Isn't that an amazing statement? And Jesus stood still. Here was a man, one man crying for mercy.
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And it stopped the Son of God. And Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called. And they called the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, he calleth for thee. I'll say it paid off. Christ stopped. Christ heard. Christ called for Bartimaeus. You know, I like the next verse. Look at verse 50. After they tell him to be of good comfort that Christ calls him, and he, casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus. Bartimaeus was getting to Christ as quickly as he could. He was getting rid of anything that might impede him, that hindered him or thwarted him. That robe that would slow him down, he cast it off. He got rid of it. He wanted to get to the Son of God.
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He was determined that nothing would stop him. What do we need? We need recognition of our desperation. We need a renewal of determination. And then if you'll notice, thirdly, there is also a recognition of dependency in verses 51 and 52. And Jesus answered and said to him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said to him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. Jesus said to him, Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. Now watch verse 51. Then Jesus answered and said to him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? Think about that. Here's a man crying. The Lord stops. He calls him and he asks him, what wilt thou that I should do unto thee?
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Bartimaeus, you've got my attention. You've stopped me. Here I am. Just tell me what you want. I'm willing to help you. Bartimaeus said, Lord, that I might receive my sight. Listen to me, Bartimaeus learned a very important truth. What did he learn? He learned that he was helpless. That he was hopeless. But that Jesus was the Son of God and that Jesus had all power. And that Christ could do anything. And therefore, he learned dependence. He learned to depend solely and completely and totally and absolutely upon the mercy and grace of the Son of God. What did he say? Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy upon me. Lord, if you don't help me, I can't be helped. If you don't have mercy upon me, I don't get mercy. If you don't give me grace, I don't get grace. Lord, I'm totally, absolutely dependent upon you.
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You know, we need to come to that position in this country, not just as individuals. But we need to come to this position as a nation. Listen, as much as I might admire and respect and love the Constitution of the United States, I have to confess, folks, the Constitution is not going to save us. In fact, for all practical purposes, it is null and void. And they're even now calling for a new constitutional convention which would destroy what little rights we have left. And I got news for you, there certainly ain't no politician going to save us. Politicians are not interested in people, they're interested in themselves. The only one who's going to save us is Christ. Have we ever reached this position? Have we ever come to this truth?
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If God does not help us, we are not helped. Our help is only the one true and the living God who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ. In Psalm 121 verses 1 and 2, David said this, I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord who made heaven and earth. My help, he says, is in the sovereign God. In Psalm 46 and verse 1.
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The very passage that Martin Luther used to write that hymn, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, a bulwark never failing. Psalm 46 verse 1 says, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in the time of trouble. God is our refuge and our strength. In Psalm 108 and verse 12, the psalmist said, Give us help from trouble, for vain is the help of man. Vain is the help of man. Psalm 115 and verse 11. The Bible says, Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield.
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I don't know if you're familiar with this story or not, but in 2 Kings chapter 6, the Syrians had surrounded Samaria. The people inside Samaria were starving to death. If they went outside, the Syrians killed them. If they stayed inside, they starved to death. And the famine was so great, they were eating dove's dung and rotted grape peels. And finally, in 2 Kings 6, one came to the king and appealed for help. And here's what the king said. The king of Israel said, If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee?
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Out of the barn floor or out of the winepress? The king of Israel said, all I can give you is dung and rotted grape pits and peels. If God didn't help you, I can't give you any help. And folks, I've got news for you. We've got to reach the point in our individual lives, our family lives, our church lives, our national lives. If God doesn't help us, we're not helped. Man cannot help us. Man can try. Man can plan. Man can do all kinds of things. It does not, does not, and will not, and cannot save us. All man can do is make us more desolate, more desperate, and more destitute.
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The truth of the matter is, just like Bartimaeus, we need Jesus Christ, and we need Him now. We just don't realize how badly we do need Him. But when our car hits that canyon floor, we're going to realize we're in a desperate case. It may be too late, but we'll realize how desperate we are. Let me make just a couple of applications. The first one is this.
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Desperation becomes those who wish to be saved. You know, the Bible says that praise is comely for the upright. As praise is comely for the upright, desperation is comely for those who want to be delivered. We will never desire deliverance until we become desperate. You know what our Lord said in Matthew 11 verse 12? Our Lord speaks of heaven being taken by force. Have you ever stopped to think about this? Desperate men are forceful men. If there was no water, and I had one bottle of water in my hand, it was the last bottle.
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And everyone in this room was perishing. And I had the only bottle. And I was unwilling to share. You think I'd be in a fight? You think somebody would be attacking me trying to take that bottle of water away from me? Yeah. You know why? Desperate men are forceful men. They're ready. They're ready to do whatever is necessary, because they realize their state of desperation. It is our desperation that enables us to have determination which will result in our dependence upon the Lord.
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The question you have to ask is this. Would you cry out as Bartimaeus? Have you realized the desperate situation that you're in, our families are in, that we're in, that our grandchildren are in, that our children are in. You know, we sit around. Granny Doris can do this even more than I can. But I can, I can sit here all day and tell you how the world, how America has changed since I've been a boy. Think of how much it's changed since she's been a little girl, and she's only 21.
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Can you believe the change that has been in our lifetime? I'm going to tell you, my grandchildren and some of these children do not even know what real freedom is. We think we are free today. We are not free. I told people and I still tell people, I believe Alice and I were about the last generation to experience a little bit of freedom back in the 50s.
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But we just don't realize the desperateness of our situation and most Christians are at ease in Zion. They're comfortable until the car hits the canyon floor.
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So it's crying time again. It's time we got what Bartimaeus had. A realization of our desperation, renewal of our determination so that we can have a recognition of our dependence upon the only one who can help us. It's time we learn to cry, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy upon me and my family and my church and my state and my nation. And what did our Lord say? Hear ye what the unjust judge said, and shall not God avenge his own elect who cry unto him day and night? Yea, I tell you, he will avenge them speedily. It's time to cry for mercy. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we do ask for your grace and your help and your mercy. We thank you.
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for Your Word, for Your truth, for Your promises. We ask, Father, that You would open our eyes that we may see, open our ears that we may hear, and give us wisdom in this day and time to know what to do and where to turn, how to prepare. Give us grace and determination. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray. Amen.
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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T13:45:56Z

It's Crying Time Again

John Weaver | Freedom Ministries

John Weaver preaches from Mark 10:46-52 on Bartimaeus, urging believers to recognize their desperation, renew their determination to cry out to God, and depend solely on Christ for deliverance. He applies this to personal, family, church, and national life, warning that America is under God's judgment and only desperate, persistent prayer will bring help.

Opening

Introduction: The Call to Cry Out

Weaver introduces the message by contrasting the country song 'It's Crying Time Again' with Stoicism, noting that the Bible shows real men like Jesus and the prophets wept and cried out.

I. A Realization of Desperation

II. A Renewal of Determination

III. A Recognition of Dependency

Bartimaeus recognized his total dependence on Jesus for mercy and healing. Weaver applies this to the nation, stating that only Christ can save us, not the Constitution or politicians.

Conclusion: It's Crying Time Again

But we just don't realize the desperateness of our situation and most Christians are at ease in Zion. They're comfortable until the car hits the canyon floor.

It's Crying Time Again

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	33109195234
Subject	Civil Government
Course	Civil Government: Power, Nations, and Constitutional Order: Where We Are & How We Got Here
Genre	Sermon
Date	2008-12-28
Dictation Name
Book	Book 009: Civil Government: Power, Nations, and Constitutional Order — Chapter 9
Source Timed Segments	73

Lecture Guide

Outline

Introduction: The Call to Cry Out: Weaver introduces the message by contrasting the country song 'It's Crying Time Again' with Stoicism, noting that the Bible shows real men like Jesus and the prophets wept and cried out.
I. A Realization of Desperation: Bartimaeus cried out because he was desperate—blind, a beggar, and helpless. Weaver explains that no one seeks help until they realize they cannot help themselves, and warns that America is in a desperate state but does not realize it.
II. A Renewal of Determination: When the crowd tried to silence Bartimaeus, he cried out even more. Weaver calls for a renewal of determination to keep crying out to God despite discouragement, using the parables of the persistent widow and the friend at midnight as examples.
III. A Recognition of Dependency: Bartimaeus recognized his total dependence on Jesus for mercy and healing. Weaver applies this to the nation, stating that only Christ can save us, not the Constitution or politicians.
Conclusion: It's Crying Time Again: Weaver concludes by urging the congregation to cry out for mercy like Bartimaeus, emphasizing that desperation is fitting for those who want to be delivered, and that God will avenge His elect who cry to Him day and night.

Major Themes

Key Arguments

Desperation leads to crying out

Bartimaeus cried out because he was desperate and helpless; similarly, people only seek God when they realize their desperate condition.

Weaver says, 'What in the world made Bartimaeus cry out for help? Well, here's the answer. He was desperate.'

God commands His people to cry out

Weaver argues that crying out is not optional but commanded by God, citing Isaiah 58:1.

Weaver reads Isaiah 58:1: 'Cry aloud, spare not. Lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgressions.'

Persistent prayer moves God to act

Using the parables of the persistent widow and the friend at midnight, Weaver argues that God responds to persistent, determined prayer.

Weaver says, 'And shall not God avenge his own elect, who cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you, he will avenge them speedily.'

America is under God's judgment

Weaver asserts that the sins of America—idolatry, adultery, corruption—are the same sins for which God judged Israel, and God will judge America.

Weaver says, 'Everything that God destroyed the nation Israel for... is prevalent, prominent, and abundant in our country.'

Only Christ can save

Weaver emphasizes that human solutions are vain; only Jesus Christ can deliver individuals and nations.

Weaver says, 'The only one who's going to save us is Christ.'

Scripture References

Mark 10:46-52: The main text of the sermon, recounting the healing of blind Bartimaeus.
John 11:35: Cited as the shortest verse in the Bible, showing that Jesus wept.
2 Kings 8:11: Elisha wept when he saw what Hazael would do to Israel.
Matthew 9:12: Jesus said the whole need not a physician, but the sick, illustrating that only the desperate seek help.
Matthew 14:28-30: Peter walking on water and crying out when he began to sink, showing desperation.
Psalm 10:6: The wicked think they will never be moved or in adversity.
Jeremiah 5:7-9: God asks if He should not avenge a nation for idolatry and adultery.
Jeremiah 5:25-29: God asks if He should not avenge a nation for corruption and wicked rulers.
Jeremiah 9:2-9: God asks if He should not avenge a nation for treachery, deceit, and lies.
Isaiah 58:1: God commands to cry aloud and show His people their sins.
Isaiah 40:6: The voice said, Cry, and the message is that all flesh is grass.
Luke 18:2-8: The parable of the persistent widow, teaching that God will avenge His elect who cry day and night.
Luke 11:5-13: The parable of the friend at midnight, teaching persistence in asking, seeking, and knocking.
Psalm 121:1-2: David says his help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.
Psalm 46:1: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Psalm 108:12: Vain is the help of man.
Psalm 115:11: Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord; He is their help and shield.
2 Kings 6:27: The king of Israel says, If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee?
Matthew 11:12: The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force, illustrating desperate men are forceful.

Historical References

Stoicism: Weaver contrasts the message with Stoic philosophy that teaches real men don't cry.
Matthew Henry's commentary: Weaver references Matthew Henry's comment that Bartimaeus means son of Timaeus, possibly indicating his father was also blind.
Fox's Book of Martyrs: Weaver mentions Christians in Fox's Book of Martyrs who were determined to do right even at the cost of their lives.
Martin Luther's hymn 'A Mighty Fortress Is Our God': Weaver notes that Martin Luther used Psalm 46 to write this hymn.
Great Depression era: Weaver says economists predict the coming economic crisis will be worse than the Great Depression.

Important Quotes

And many charged him that he should hold his peace. But he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy upon me.

Illustrates Bartimaeus's determination to cry out despite opposition, which Weaver uses as a model for persistent prayer.

And Jesus stood still.

Highlights that Bartimaeus's cry stopped the Son of God, showing the power of desperate, determined prayer.

If God does not help us, we are not helped.

Summarizes the message of total dependence on God for deliverance.

Desperate men are forceful men.

Connects desperation with the forceful taking of the kingdom of heaven mentioned in Matthew 11:12.

It's crying time again.

The title and concluding call to action, urging the congregation to cry out to God like Bartimaeus.

Discussion Questions

[Question]

What does it mean to be desperate for God, and how can we cultivate that desperation in our own lives?

[Context]

Weaver emphasizes that Bartimaeus cried out because he was desperate and helpless.

[Question]

How can we maintain determination in prayer when we face discouragement or opposition?

[Context]

Weaver uses Bartimaeus's example of crying out more when told to be quiet.

[Question]

In what ways are we tempted to trust in human solutions rather than depending solely on God?

[Context]

Weaver argues that the Constitution and politicians cannot save us; only Christ can.

[Question]

Do you believe America is under God's judgment? Why or why not, based on the biblical passages cited?

[Context]

Weaver reads Jeremiah 5 and 9 and applies them to America's sins.

[Question]

What practical steps can we take to 'cry out' for our nation, families, and churches?

[Context]

Weaver concludes by urging the congregation to cry out for mercy like Bartimaeus.

Applications

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