<TITLE>05. Par 16-18</TITLE>L-16 And then as he set there, he could think also of, not a hundred yards from where he was sitting, this great mighty Joshua, a servant of the Lord, was walking one day for a little afternoon stroll. And as he walked, he saw a man standing with his sword drawed. And Joshua drew his sword and went for him. And he stopped and said, "Are You for us or are You for the enemy?"
And this great mighty Warrior thus standing and He said, "Nay, but I am the Captain of the host of the Lord."
That Captain had stood within a hundred yards from where he was sitting. And little did he know, but that same Captain of the hosts of the Lord was not a hundred yards away at this same time.
And that's the way it is tonight, friends. Many tries to preach Christ as the baby in the cradle. Some try to preach Him as the Man on the cross. But that same Captain of the hosts of the Lord has raised from the dead and is in this building tonight, in the same power and splendor.

L-17 And as we set as he did in the days gone by, if our meditations is taken off of our church affiliations, if our meditation is taken off of our work, or off of the superstitions that we have in our mind, and place them upon Him and His Presence, He will come and do the same thing tonight that He did for blind Bartimaeus on that day. If we'll just do it, if we'll just keep our mind stayed on Him.
And notice, it's when we are thinking on those things. The Bible said, "If there be any praise, if there be any virtue, think on these things."
Now, I want to ask you a question. What good does it do us to come to church and set in the meeting and ponder and may be discouraged because we didn't get a prayer card, or maybe be discouraged because of some ill thing a neighbor did, or discouraged about one little matter or the other? That keeps Christ away from you. It's when you're thinking on Him.
That's when the disciples, after the resurrection, was going down the road to Emmaus, as they were speaking about Him, that's when He appeared to them.
We got our minds on too many things of the world. If we would throw those things off our mind, and think about Him and His soon coming, there'd be more revelations and power in the church. But we keep thinking about the things... "What am I going to do tomorrow? What will I do next week? Will I hold my job? Will this be..." All those things are in the hands of God. Think on Christ.

L-18 And as blind Bartimaeus sitting by this gate, and blind, poor, afflicted man, no hope, but he was thinking the right kind of thoughts. Well, I can imagine as I see him, say "Oh, if I only could know that that same great Captain was standing out there at a hundred yards now, I could raise my voice, and He would hear me, and He would heal me."
And just about the time that he was thinking like that, little children begin to run by. And here come a noise along, people saying one thing and another. Some of them hollered, "Hosanna!"
The others hollered, "Say, you that raised the dead, you that raised Lazarus from the dead..."
And blind Bartimaeus' ears caught that. That was the sound of a priest. "Say, you holy-roller, you that raised Lazarus from the dead, we got a whole graveyard full of them up here. Come up and raise some of ours."
That's the same mock and scoff, that they give Him today. That old critical spirit don't die. It will sometime. But it's still alive tonight and can work through men. "Come and raise these from the dead, up here. We'll believe you." How could He do anything in a mess like that? They were in different opinions.
After while I can hear him say, "Who is it that's passing by?" And he couldn't get no consideration. No one seemed to want to help him.
And then we hear another one speak up and say, "This is that fanatic that's going around healing the people." That struck fire.


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