in a nobler, sweeter song. We long to worship him as he is. We rejoice in being able to worship him now. But how? Well, David said, when I become like him, then I'll be satisfied. And we just can't. Can't be satisfied with anything yet, can we? Satisfied with Him as our substitute.

Let's open our Bibles to John chapter 9. John chapter 9. Someone asked, do you believe in miracles? I certainly do. But I am so thankful for the eye of faith that is able to see the spiritual miracle that the physical illustrates. A lot of times, people just are looking for something they can see and experience with their own eyes. The Lord was in Nazareth. They said, show us a miracle. We'll believe. The Lord said, a wicked and perverse generation seeketh after a sign. You just want me to prove myself? You want a sign? You want something that you're able to see with a natural eye?

What a blessing it is when the Lord, well, it's a blessing when the Lord does heal. uses the means of doctors and medication in order to accomplish that, and we're always grateful. It's a hand of God that heals however he does it. But all the miracles in the Bible are given to us so that we can be instructed and be edified in the miracles that can't be seen with the natural eye.

In order for that to happen, we must see ourselves in the ones that the Lord is healing. The disfigurement and the death that comes with leprosy and how the Lord healed lepers And we see that left to ourselves, there's no clean skin on our bodies. We are leprous, open sores, putrefying sores from the top of our head to the bottom of our feet. The leper is a picture of a sinner, of one who has no righteousness in themselves that must have a miracle of grace done in their hearts that they might find all of their acceptance before God in the Lord Jesus as their righteousness, the healing of leprosy.

A woman with the issue of blood who crawled through the crowd and touched the Lord's, the hem of the Lord's garment. And she had spent all that she had on physicians and was worse off now than before. And every child of God who has ever had the blessing of touching the hem of the master's garment can look back and see how futile all of their efforts were to be healed by physicians, to be healed by man-made religion, to be healed by works, to be healed by free will. to be left worse than they were to begin with. Now, not only do they have the obvious violations of the law as far as the sins of their life, but now they have the sin of self-righteousness on top of that. And so they're worse off. We see ourselves in that woman, do we not? That was me.

When the Lord raised Lazarus from the dead. He called him by name. Lazarus, come forth. He was dead. Oh, there's the miracle of grace that must happen in the heart that cannot be seen with the physical eye. Matter of fact, you go to John chapter 11, there were Jews that were there and actually observed the raising of Lazarus from the dead. and ran back to Jerusalem and told the Pharisees what he had done. And the Pharisees said, we've got to get rid of him. Point being that the greatest miracle of all that's observed outwardly is not going to change a man's heart. You see, the real miracles that have to happen for you and for me is a work of grace in the heart.

Well, God enables us to identify with these physical miracles that the Lord Jesus performed that we might have spiritual life. We look not on those things which are seen, for the things which are seen are temporal. We look on those things which are not seen, for the things which are not seen are eternal. Lord, open the eyes of our understanding. Enable me to identify with this blind beggar that you healed. And enable me to observe and to experience the miracle of grace that only you can do in the heart that I might have life.

John chapter 8, the Lord Jesus declares himself as the light of the world. The Pharisees hated him for it. And now in John chapter 9, he's going to perform a miracle to demonstrate outwardly what he had already revealed in word. They're not going to be convinced by it. Nevertheless, the Lord does it for our benefit.

John concludes his gospel by saying, many other things did Jesus that are not recorded in this book, but these have been written in order that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, and that by believing you might have life through his name. So the Lord has given us these miracles, not to make us say, well, I've got to have that miracle or this miracle, Lord, I've got to have, this miracle I've got to have my eyes open I'm a blind beggar by nature

another time some men brought their friend to the Lord but they couldn't get to him because there was there was such a crowd of people listening to the Lord and so The Lord was in a house teaching. They went up on the roof. They took their friend on a gurney up on the roof, removed tiles from the roof, and lowered him down in front of the Lord. And the Lord said, your faith as he'll be. And the Pharisees started murmuring, who is this? God alone can forgive sin. And the Lord Jesus said, what is easier to say? your faith has forgiven you, or take up your bed and walk. But that you might know that the Son of Man has the power to forgive sins, I say unto you, take up your bed and walk."

See, the Lord given us, again, the reason why he performed the miracle, to demonstrate who he is and what he did, that we might desire that miracle. What miracle? The forgiveness of sin. spiritual sight, Lord, that I might see. That's what these miracles are about.

Isaiah chapter 59 verse 10 says, we grope as if we had no eyes. We stumble at noonday as if it were night. We are in desolate places as dead men. Now, that's what we are by nature. We're blind. This man was born blind. He had never seen himself. He didn't know what he looked like. He had never seen another man. He'd never seen the Lord Jesus. And certainly, he didn't have any understanding of how it is that God would be just and justify the ungodly at the same time, how God would redeem a guilty sinner. He had no ability to see that. He was blind from birth.

Let's read a couple of verses here. Chapter 9, verse 1, And Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? And Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I ordained this man from birth to be blind all these years for this moment in time, that I might come and manifest the works of God in him."

Some will hear that and say, well, that was cruel. No, not if the Lord has given you eyes to see. Verse four, I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day, the night cometh when no man can work. The first hour we talked about how perishable that basket of summer fruit is. And the Lord is telling us the night's coming. The night's coming when no man can work. The sun's gonna set, the door of the ark's gonna be closed. This is an urgent matter.

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and he made clay of spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with clay, and he said, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation sent. And he went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing."

Here's the means by which the Lord heals, that which comes out of his mouth, his word. He sends us to a pool of water, representing the word of God and the spirit of God. And through the means of the preaching of the gospel, he's pleased to save them which believe.

How can they call upon him in whom they've not believed? And how can they believe on him in whom they've not heard? And how can they hear without a preacher? Faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the word of God.

And we're gonna find out that this man He wasn't looking for the Lord. There's a difference between him and blind Bartimaeus. You remember blind Bartimaeus in Jericho, blind Bartimaeus heard about the Lord Jesus and heard that he was coming and began to cry, Jesus thou son of David have mercy upon me. This man never asked for mercy. He didn't know the Lord was in his presence. The Lord took notice of him. He wasn't seeking after God. No man seeketh God at any time. That's what we are. We're not. I heard people say, well, I found God. Well, guess what? God's not lost. We are. We're the ones that have to be found, not him. And if we ever If we ever are given eyes to see him, it's because he sought us out and without any initiative on our part.

Blind from birth, we come from the womb speaking lies. David said I was shaping in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That's how we come into this world. We come into this world as flesh, dead, sinful flesh. We inherited that sin nature from our father, Adam. The Lord tells us in Romans chapter five, by one man's sin, that's Adam in the garden, sin entered into the world And so death passed upon all men for all have sinned. That means that when Adam sinned, we sinned. You hear some people talk about Adam being our federal head and that God imputes to us the guilt of Adam. That's really not a very good way to describe our relationship with Adam. You and I were in the loins of Adam when Adam was in the garden. He's more than our federal head. He's our seminal head. We were there. By one man, sin entered the world and death by sin for all sin. In Adam, we sinned. And we've not been able to escape. that old man since, have we?

A blind beggar, not begging God for mercy, begging men for alms. The Lord took notice of him. He sent him to the water of life and he came back to see him. He made no appeal to Christ. He didn't ask for mercy. He didn't seek the Lord. The Lord found him. The Lord singled him out. Like the man at the pool of Bethesda. Remember that man? He was crippled. And when the Lord showed up there, the scripture says there was a mulch. Do you remember the pool that the angel would stir the water and the first one in the water would be healed? And there were a multitude of people there that were blind and halt and lame, afflicted with all sorts of diseases. You would have, based on the Jesus that a lot of people believe in, he would have stood up on a pedestal and declared healing to everybody there. He didn't do it. He singled out one man. And that's how the healing of God happens. He singles out one man. He speaks effectually to one man.

This blind beggar, like you and me, was beyond the help of any man. Only a miracle from God could heal him. Nothing man had to offer. And if he did, like the woman with the issue of blood, go and look for healing from physicians, they would have just taken his money He'd have been worse off. Now he'd be blind and poorer than he was before. No, no man can help me.

David said this in Psalm 146, put not your trust in princes nor in the son of man. You're not talking about Christ as a son of man, he's talking about another man. In whom there is no help. My sin problem is such, my spiritual blindness is such that no man can help me. No man can heal me.

Assyria at the time of Hezekiah had an army that was much more powerful, much more deadly than the little army of Israel. They had already conquered all the other nations and the king of Assyria sends his emissary down to Hezekiah and says to Hezekiah, go ahead and give up because we're going to destroy you if you don't. And Hezekiah went before the Lord and the Lord told him, the battle's not yours, it's mine. And I'm going to destroy the army of the Assyrians. And Hezekiah, in faith, stood up before the children of Israel and said, God has spoken. The Assyrians come against us with the arm of flesh. We go against them in the name of the Lord our God. And God sent an angel that night and destroyed the army of Assyria.

The arm of man can't help us. No, the power of sin, the power of Satan, the power of death, and the strength of the law is too great. We can't be delivered from it. Our inability to believe, we can't make ourselves believe. We can't decide one day we're gonna believe any more than this man could decide he was going to see.

You see yourself in this man? This is the purpose of this miracle. We might be able to identify with him and say, yes, Lord, that's me. He was a beggar, completely dependent upon the mercy of others. He had nothing to offer. He was a taker all his life.

Now, one of the things I've learned about people in this world is generally there are people by nature that are either takers or givers. I pray the Lord make us givers to one another. To one another, we wouldn't be takers. But when it comes to our relationship with God, we have nothing to give. We're on the receiving end. He's the benefactor, we're the beneficiaries. We're like this blind man. All we can do is take. All we can do is stretch out an open hand with nothing in it. Nothing in my hand I bring, but only to the Christ of the cross do I cling. We don't cling to a cross, we cling to a person.

I want you to notice that this man was outside the temple. Let's read some more, verse eight.

The neighbors, therefore, and they which before had seen him that he was blind, said, is not this he that sat and begged? And some said, this is he. And others said, well, he is like him, but he said, I am he. Therefore said they unto him, how are thine eyes opened? And he answered and said, a man that is called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said unto me, go to the pool of Shalom and wash. And I went and washed and I received sight. Then said they unto him, where is he? He said, I know not. I don't know. The simplicity and the honesty of this man's testimony I want you to notice he was outside the temple. The Lord's going to say to these Pharisees, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again. Speaking of his body being the temple, that Old Testament temple and this temple in particular was given by God to Moses, very strict and very specific instructions on how to build it. And the reason why is because everything in that temple illustrated Christ, who is the, the Bible says that the word was made flesh and he dwelt among us. That word dwelt is tabernacled. He tabernacled, he templed among us. He is the temple of God.

destroyed this temple in three days and I will raise it again. And at our Lord's trial, they accused him of saying that he was going to destroy the temple. No, you're going to destroy this temple, but I'm going to raise it again. Where was this man? He was outside the temple. He wasn't in the temple. In the temple is where worship takes place. He was ungodly. Now, being a blind man, I don't know what sort of ungodly behavior he may have been engaged in. He'd be limited in that, I'm sure.

But the word ungodly, as we've seen in many occasions in the past, in the New Testament is the word worship with the Greek alpha in front of it. And just like in the English language, when you put an A in front of a word, it reverses the order of it. And so ungodly in the Bible means unable to worship God. That's what ungodly means. whatever other shameful behavior a man might be engaged in, I was unable to be in the temple. I was unable to worship God. I was unable to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. I couldn't see. I was a blind beggar born that way. I couldn't save myself and no man could save me. I was a taker. I was completely dependent upon him for everything.

Ephesians chapter 2 says we were by nature children of wrath even as others. Separated from God, dead in our trespasses and sins. Godly. Colossians chapter 1 verse 21 says, you that were alienated, alienated from God, and enemies in your mind by wicked works. I love the way the Lord tells us that. He's talking to believers. You were alienated by God. and you were enemies in your mind because of your wicked works. God elected a people. The Lord Jesus became their surety in an eternal covenant of grace, and God says, I have loved them, all of them, with an everlasting love. There's never been a time when God's elect were in the mind of God, his enemies. They were always loved of him.

You were alienated, and by your wicked works, what are our wicked works? But Lord, we've done many wonderful works in thy name. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity, for I never knew you. Wicked works are not necessarily the things that men are shameful about. Wicked works are the things that men do to try to atone for themselves before God. They're dead works. And you by your wicked works were alienated from God and were at enmity with Him. Not because He was your enemy but you were. Yet The rest of that verse says, yet now he hath reconciled you. He's reconciled you, adopted you. No more do we look at our wicked works. No longer do we look to our dead works to come before the throne of grace. We have no boldness before God based on anything that we've done. Our boldness before God, our ability to present ourselves in the presence of a holy God is that we are confident that the Lord Jesus accomplished everything that God requires for me to be able to call him my father. So we come to find help in our time of need. We come boldly, not confident in ourselves, but confident in him, in him.

Ephesians chapter 2 verse 12 says that we were without God and without hope in this world. If we're going to enjoy the benefits of this miracle, it's going to involve having seen ourselves lost. dead in our trespass and sins, hell deserving, separated from God, unable to save ourselves. And the glorious truth is that if a man ever catches a glimpse of that, that's the moment that God has saved him.

You know, the Puritans used to have what they called mourning benches, where, you know, the hellfire and brimstone wrath of God was preached and people would come weeping. Jonathan Edwards preached a message on sinners in the hands of an angry God. People were laying on the floor and crying and weeping. And if they just showed enough sorrow, if they just repented sincerely enough for their sins, then the Lord would save them. He would reward them with salvation. That's a works gospel. That's just a works gospel.

If you've ever come to believe that you're a blind, dead beggar outside of the temple, a sinner with no ability to save yourself, that's the evidence of our salvation. There's not one of them at least, that's why, that can only come when the Lord Jesus has revealed himself. I know there's people who like those people on the mourner's bench. I hear people talk about it. They think, well, I'm just going to wallow in my guilt and in my shame. I'm just a dead dog sinner. I'm just a mercy beggar. We sang that hymn. I love that hymn. I'm just a sinner saved by grace. But you gotta be in the right spirit to sing that hymn. You can't just say, well, I'm just a sinner, as if sin is no inconsequential, or as if we can excuse or justify our sin by just saying, well, I'm just a sinner.

If the Lord has ever showed us that we are by nature outside the temple, born blind, begging. He's humbled us to come before him. That's a good sign. That's a sign of life. Is it not?

The Lord puts us in the temple. In the book of Revelation, believers are likened to pillars in the temple of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is seated on a throne on the temple of God, and all the saints of God are joining their voices in praise and worship in the temple of God.

The church, right here, where we are right now, in Ephesians chapter 2 is called the temple of God. And the believer himself is called the temple of the Holy Spirit. The temple is the place where God is. The children of Israel when they were in exile in Babylon wanted to come back to Jerusalem so they could reestablish worship in the temple.

We can't know God unless we worship Him in the temple. I must be found in Christ. If I have any hope of being in the heavenly temple for eternity, I must be in that temple now. By nature, I'm outside the temple. How am I going to get in Christ? He's going to have to put me there. He's going to have to seek me out. He's going to have to open the eyes of my understanding. He's going to have to unstop my ears. He's going to have to take out my heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh. He's going to have to give me faith to believe what I'm hearing and what he has said.

Say, well, what's the evidence of my salvation? The Bible's clear on that. Faith. Faith is the evidence of things not seen. We don't look at outward evidences. It says, I believe you. I believe what you said. I believe that this is me. This is me. Well, I'm a sinner in need of grace.

In the end, this man is going to be put out of the temple, the man-made temple, the temple of brick and mortar. And by that, the Bible means that he identified himself with Christ and they excommunicated him. Now to be excommunicated, to be kicked out of the temple means that you've got no hope of being saved. You're going to hell. You've been put out of the presence of God. And after they excommunicated him, the Lord Jesus appeared to him again. Believest thou on the Son of God? Who is he, Lord, that I might believe? You have both seen him, and it is he that speaketh unto thee. Lord, I believe, and he worshiped him. That's how this story ends. He worshiped him.

How do I know I believe? No longer am I unable to worship God. Oh, I can't worship him like I would, like I hope, like I want to. One day I will. One day I will. that I do worship him. I ascribe to him all glory and all honor and all praise. That's what the heavenly choir is singing in Revelation chapter five. They ascribe to the Lord Jesus who's sitting on the throne, all power and all glory and all honor and all grace go into the lamb. And that's what we say when it comes to our salvation. He's done it all and he gets all the glory and did it all by himself. Oh, what a, what a savior.

This is us. One other point, maybe two, I want you to notice that no one pitied this man. You know, when we look at a beggar, We might have a moment of sorrow for them. I know they show commercials on TV sometimes. I can't even look at them. But whatever pity I have for these people, I get over it pretty quick and move on with my own life. The disciples showed their lack of pity for this man when they wanted to accuse him of being in the condition that he was in because of his sin or the sins of his parents. How self-righteous was that on the part of the disciples? We're not blind because we've not committed the kind of sins that he or his parents have committed. Is he blind because of his sins or because of the sins of his parents? How insensitive, how self-righteous, how condescending. And that was the disciples.

And notice in verse eight, the neighbors therefore, the neighbors therefore, there's no mention in this story about this blind man having any friends, any friends. They're just called neighbors, the people that pass by him every day. Is this him, or is this somebody else? It reminds me of Job. Job's friends tried to comfort him, and he ends up calling them miserable comforters. You've not been friends. And Elihu comes, and he exposes those miserable comforters for what they are. Reminds me of our modern-day culture. Heard a man say one time, well, you know, I've got, and he mentioned the number, I don't know, it's a couple thousand friends. You don't. No, you don't. Get yourself in real trouble. See how many of those Facebook friends come to your deliverance. Truth is, in this world, if we have one or two good close friends that were able to, I mean that's, this man had no friends. Worse than that, the Pharisees approached his parents and said, is this your son? And they said, yes, he is our son, that we know. He was blind. How did he become, how did he get to where he could see? Let's read these verses together. Verses 20, look, his parents answered them and said, we know not what this, we know that this is our son and that he was born blind. Yeah, it's our son, he was born blind, it's the same person. But by what means he now seeth, we know not. Or who hath opened his eyes, we know not. He is of age, ask him, he shall speak for himself.

These words spake his parents because they feared the Jews. For the Jews had agreed already that if any man did confess that Jesus was the Christ, he should be excommunicated, put out of the synagogue. Now don't you know this man had already told his parents what had happened and who healed him? His parents wouldn't stand up with him. The disciples were abusive and condescending. He had only neighbors that just saw him and didn't even know for sure if it was... Now his parents won't even stand with him.

David said this in Psalm 27 verse 10, when my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. Can a woman forget her child and not have compassion on him? Yea, they may forget, but I will not forget thee. Isaiah chapter 49, verse 15. Ezekiel chapter 16, a baby is born horribly deformed. And the parents take that child and put it out in the field to die, be eaten by wild animals, whatever. I mean, it's a cruel picture. It's a horrible picture. And the scripture says, the Lord passed by. Your day of love has come. When you are forsaken by your mother and your father, you have no real friends, cast your care upon me, for I careth for you. Truth is, he's the only one that really cares. The only one that really cares.

Let me illustrate that like this. You care for anybody else as much as you care for yourself? Aren't you the first? I mean, your needs are the first ones you're aware of, are they not? We see in our own wicked hearts The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can know it? We see the selfishness of ourselves in whatever compassion and care we might have for others. And we do. We have loved ones and children and grandchildren. We love them. We'd die for them. But we don't know their needs like we know our own. And we don't know our own like he knows us. He is the only one that really cares for you. And he is the only one who understands. And he is the only one who's able to meet your need. This man had nobody. He's the only one that can help. Oh, and what a help he is. What a help he is.

Oh, the forgiveness of sin, the ability to worship God, to enter into the presence of a holy God and to bear our souls with him and to know that there's nothing that we can say to him or nothing that we can ever do that will cause him to leave us or to forsake us. If God be for me, who can be against me? You see yourself in this blind man? Is this you? Let's pray.

Our Heavenly Father, by your Holy Spirit, remind us of who we are, left ourselves, who we've been, who we would be, and then comfort us in who we are in Christ, thy dear son, and cause us to come before your throne of grace and find our help. Oh, what needy people we are. Save us for your namesake. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.

Adam? 129. 129 in the hardback tendril? 129. Let's stand together.