John chapter 9. I pray that the
Lord will break the bread of life to us today. That he'll
reveal himself in his word. Trust that he will. Because if
he don't, we certainly won't see him or know anything about
him. You know, I've preached from here the last couple of
Sundays. And I want to finish up this whole chapter this morning.
And I hope it'll be a blessing to you. But let's start reading
in verse 24. John 9, 24. Now, these are the Pharisees
that were questioning him, questioning his parents, questioning him.
Now, they're talking about Christ now. Then said they to him again,
what did he to thee? How opened he thine eyes? He
answered them, I've told you already, and you did not hear.
Wherefore would you hear it again? Will you also be his disciples? Then they reviled him and said,
thou art his disciple, but we are Moses' disciple. We know
that God spake unto Moses. As for this fella, we know not
from whence he is. The man answered and said unto
them, Why, herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from
whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. Now we know
that God heareth not sinners, but if any man be a worshipper
of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. Since the world began,
was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was
born blind? If this man were not of God,
he could do nothing. They answered and said unto him,
Thou wast altogether born in sins, and doest thou teach us? And they cast him out. Jesus
heard that they had cast him out, and when he had found him,
he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered
and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus
said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh
with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. And Jesus
said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which
see not might see, and that they which see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which
were with him heard these word and said unto him, Are we blind
also? Jesus said unto him, If you were
blind, you should have no sin. But now you say, We see. Therefore, your sin remains. Now back here in John 9, I want
you to look with me, and we're going to start in verse 24. Remember,
this man was born blind. Disciples showed no compassion
towards him. They was wondering who sinned,
this man or his parents, and how our Lord put clay on his
eyes. And he came after he washed his
eyes, and he came seeing. But there was great enmity after
the Lord Jesus Christ had opened this blind man's eyes, this man
that had been born blind, opened his eyes. There's great enmity
against Christ. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. The natural mind is enmity. And
here these Pharisees and religious people, no matter how many miracles
are seen, how many testimonies are given to the glory of Christ,
And how many people stand to see what Christ done for them?
Without a revelation, without the regeneration, without the
new birth, man is against God. He's against God. And I'll tell
you, I'll just give you an illustration of that. James gave this to me
this morning. And this is an illustration.
I'm going to give you an illustration of what people find on church
bulletin boards. They got a Bible full of verses
of scripture to put up there. But they find some of the most
ridiculous things. And so the carnal mind is enmity
against God. I mean, people say, I don't hate
God. You don't hate the one you know.
You don't hate the one that you've imagined. But when you're confronted
with the God of the Bible and your own sinfulness, you'll find
out real quick what you think about God. But first question
here is, will anyone be in heaven because of you? Huh? And nobody
will be in hell because of me. Or you. And listen to this one.
And you think hell ain't half full. Our church is prayer conditioned. Ignorance. Blindness. Enmity. Against God. All the things that
they can put up. And they want to put up something
stupid like that. And listen to this one. S-O-N, sunscreen
prevents sin burn. Enmity, enmity, and that's what
I'm talking about. I don't care how many miracles,
you know they saw Lazarus raised from the dead. Men stood and
saw a dead man, been dead four days, come out of the grave,
didn't change their attitude or heart toward Christ. They
saw a man born blind, begging for a living. And they, instead
of rejoicing in it, didn't see Christ, and mad at Christ, and
angry at Christ. And so without Christ revealing
Himself, without the new birth, man is against God, and I tell
you we see the fruit and effect of the sovereign grace of Christ
in this man here when his blind beggar born blind Christ opened
his eyes. But I want to start again here
at verse 24. Look at the Pharisees enmity
here, You know, they had already told him in verse 22, if anybody
confessed that he was the Christ, they'd be put out of the synagogue.
So then again, call they the blind, the man that was blind
and said unto him, give God the praise. We know that this man
is a sinner. So they had done talk to this
blind man once. And they couldn't get satisfaction. They couldn't get anybody to
admit that Christ wasn't who He said He was. They think He's
an imposter. He can't possibly be God. He
can't possibly perform these kind of miracles. So they called
this blind man again. And after speaking to his parents,
and they back in the presence of the Sanhedrin, all these Pharisees
are together. And what they were wanting to
do is want this man to discredit Christ. Wanted him to deny Christ. Wanted, they want Christ discredited. Now they're trying, going to
try again to shake the testimony of this man. And this is the
first thing they said, give God the praise. And that's what we
say. Let's praise God. God, to God
be the glory, great things he hath done. But they started out,
you know what you need to do? You need to give God the praise.
That's a good thing to do. But oh, if they'd have left that
alone right there. But look what they said. This
man, we know that this man is a sinner. Now they're talking
about Christ. They're talking about the man
who opened this man's eyes. How did they know he was a sinner?
Did they see him do anything that was sinful? Did they see
him do anything that was wrong? Did they hear a wrong word out
of his mouth? What did they see him do that
they'd say, we know this man is a sinner? And oh, we know
things about him. What they're saying is we know
things about him that you don't know. So give God the praise. But oh, listen, join us in dishonoring
this man. Look over here in John 7, 19.
Oh, listen, give God the praise. Join us in dishonoring this man,
Jesus. Oh, he has to be a sinner. Why
does he have to be a sinner? because he's not on our team. Look what he says. Our Lord Jesus
said to these Pharisees, Did not Moses give you the law? And
yet none of you keepeth the law. Why go ye about to kill me? What is it about me that you
hate and despise? Because he exposed And when a
man's exposed, if God don't save him, he's gonna get angry. But
look here in the first 25. Look at the fruit of grace. Look
what God does. When he does a work for a man,
that man's gonna stand his ground. He answered and said, whether
he'd be a sinner or no, I don't know. I don't know. That's not
the issue with me. That's not an issue with me.
He said, whether he'd be a sinner, one thing I know. And that's
what he said, one thing I know. And beloved, that's one thing
that we all need to know. That's just one thing. If you
know Christ, you know, the Bible talks about one. one Father,
one God, one Lord Jesus, one baptism, everything, one way. And I tell you, that's why anybody
can't get confused when you only got one. How can you be confused? And he said, one thing. When
Christ is everything, then you don't need nothing else. And
he said, this one thing I know. I know this. I don't know much
about him. And I don't know what you fellas
are talking about. I know this right here. I don't
know he's a sinner, and he boldly stood his ground, fearlessly,
simply, and here's what he done, just told what he knew, walked
in the light that he had. And this one thing I know, I
know I was blind, I know I was blind, Oh, you know, ain't that the
most wonderful thing? You knew when you was blind and
you knew when you see. You know, you know, I don't know
how many times I've seen this over years. Somebody be sitting
and be listening and all of a sudden they'll say, I see, I see. That's what he's talking about.
And I know when I, I know, I know I was blind. I knew when I didn't
see. But look what he says. Now, now,
now I see. Oh my. many things many many
things a young believer may not know oh when i was a young i
didn't know very much many things a young believer may not know
he can't debate points of theology he may not be able to tell you
where a bible verse is and explain a lot of things to you may not
know a thing in the world about prophecy but one thing he knows
that he was blind and now he sees he knows that he didn't
see one time and then one day he saw and I tell you he understands
this and he knows that the understanding of his mind has been opened the
eyes have been opened And he sees Christ that Christ is the
one that gave him his sight. He understands that clearly.
And that's why he gives Christ the glory. He sees himself as
he never saw before. This blind man had never seen
himself. Never seen himself. But when
Christ opened His eyes, He could see Himself. He could see everybody
else. And beloved, when Christ opens
our eyes, the first thing we see, not only Him, but we see
ourselves, and what a blind, begging, miserable wretch we
are, and we got to stand up for the glory of Christ. And they
know whom they have believed. They may not know much about
him, but they know that he's the one that done it. They know
that he is the one that done it. They know they've passed
from death unto life. But look at this unbelief and
enmity again in verse 26. Then they said to him again,
oh, these fellas, I tell you, you think man's heart, I told
my neighbor yesterday, I said, man left to himself, he'd believe
hell's a nice house and the devil's a groundhog. Man left to himself,
he just cannot believe nothing. But look what he said here. Then
they said to him again, what did he to thee? How opened he
thine eyes? What difference does it make?
As we've heard before, what difference does it make? Oh, my son, but
said unto him again, how did he open your eyes? Explain that
to us. We don't believe in miracles.
And especially if it's done on the Sabbath day. They'd asked
him this before. They couldn't get him to deny
this miracle. They couldn't get him to dishonor
Christ. And what they was trying to do
was find a discrepancy. get him to contradict himself,
and here's the thing about unbelief, unbelief is always concerned
with how something's done instead of who did it. I'm interested
in who did it, I don't care how it took place, who did it, and
they're trying to discredit this man and unbelief's always occupied
with how something's done instead of how it was done. And oh, look
what he said to them. Oh, listen. He's getting indignant
now. He's getting aggravated at them.
And he should. And he should. He answered them.
I told you already. I told you. How many times do
you want me to tell you? You think I'm a liar? You think
I'm making it up? You think that there's something
wrong with my testimony? You think there's something wrong?
He answered them and said, I told you already. Huh? Oh, listen. Then look what he said, and you
did not hear. You didn't hear then, why do
you keep asking? You didn't hear. And oh my soul,
how many people don't hear, they don't hear. This man answered
these fools according to their father. He exposed their foolishness,
their unbelief. And I tell you what, God, God
takes the foolish to confound the wise. And look what they
said to it. Can you imagine people being this cruel, this mean in
religion? I can. I've seen it happen. And
then they, then in verse 28, they reviled him. Oh my, reviled
him. They despised him. That word
revile means it means it's the strongest language that you're
just an idiot, you're just a nasty man, you're just a corrupt man,
you're an ignorant man, there's nothing right about you. They
reviled him and look what they said, reviled his disciple, unable
to intimidate him, to justify their treatment of him, they
resort to they're going to vilify him. They said you're his disciple,
Well, I tell you what, I wish people would believe that about
me, that I'm his disciple. But he didn't cringe before.
No, no. He didn't cringe before. You
know they're God's people. You go through the book of Acts
and how many times Peter, James and John and other disciples
were brought before the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin is 70, 70 Jews. The high priest and all these
great, great men, these doctors and lawyers and scribes and all
these religious people, 70 of them sitting around. And they're
all against you. And they're all threatening you.
And they're all wanting to do something against you. And here
they are, they just revile him. And then they said, you're his
disciple. I'll tell you how they know he was they was his disciple.
Well some folks don't know you're a Christian unless you got a
cross on your lapel or a cross around your neck or you got some
kind of a badge on that says you're a Christian or got a bumper
stick on your car says you're a clergy or got a fish on the
back of your car let you know I got a neighbor that he's got
He took his old vehicle and put all kinds of scriptures across
the back of it. And you can't get up close enough
to read them unless he stopped. He wants everybody to know he's
got religion. And I'm going to tell you something
else. I'm going to throw you a loop right here. I go out to eat pretty
often. And I see people sometimes when
they come in to eat, they'll all get together, you know, and
then they've got to bow their head and they've got to let everybody
know that they're Christians by praying in public. And, you
know, that's what the Pharisees did. I'm telling you what, God
knows that we're thankful that we don't have to go out in public
and let everybody know and bow our heads and put on a show in
front of everybody saying, Boy, them folks are not ashamed of
Jesus. Look at them. They're praying
out here in public. Now, you can do that if you want to. I'm
not going to do that. And I'll tell you why. I'm going
to tell you why. People do that only to be seen. I'm telling you. I'm telling
you the truth. That's the only reason people do that. You're
thankful in your heart. You're thankful that you've got
a place to eat. You're thankful that you can afford a good meal.
You're thankful that you're with people that you're with. Do you
think that's right? Most folks, the scribes love
to stand in the street corners praying for to be seen of men.
Give me one reason why anybody would bend down and pray over
a hamburger unless they wanted to be seen. And that's what these
fellas are about. That's what they're all about
right here. You're his disciples. I don't have to pray in public
for folks to know I'm a disciple. I don't have to wear a lapel
pin. In fact, most folks don't even know, when you're out in
public, they don't know whether you're a Christian or not. The
only way they're gonna have any idea you're a Christian if you
do something to let them know you're a Christian. Ain't that
right? You all looking at me like Cash
started a new game. You know, I'm being honest with
you. I'm being honest with you. Listen, you can pray all you
want to over all the food you want to, and I'll never say,
I won't belittle you, but I'm telling you what, people do what
they do for it to be seen when they do it out in public. I'm
telling you that. Ain't that right? I think I, you know, but
oh, listen, how do they know? Well, he would stay, he wouldn't
deny Christ. That's how he knew. And we can
deny, I'll tell you what, we can deny a lot of things, but
boy, we cannot deny Christ. But look what he's, they said
on, went on and said there in verse 28. Doubt his disciples,
but oh my, listen to what they said. We're Moses' disciples. We're Moses' disciples. We don't
care about Christ. We don't care about God. We don't
care about His Word. We don't care about the prophecies.
We don't care about what they said about the Messiah coming.
We're Moses' disciples. Well, turn with me to John 5,
46, and we'll see if they're Moses' disciples. We'll see if
they're Moses' disciples. And oh, this is a purely intellectual
knowledge. We're Moses' disciples. Our Lord
Jesus Christ said here to these Pharisees, had you believed Moses,
you would have believed me." If you'd really been Moses' disciple,
if you'd believe Moses, you'd believe me. Why? Because Moses
wrote to me. But if you believe not what he
has to say and what he wrote, how shall you believe what I
say with my words? How shall you believe? And all
they said, we know who you are and we know we're Moses' disciples. We're religious tradition handed
down. And this fact that they were
Moses' disciples, it didn't affect their hearts. It didn't affect
their understandings. It didn't move their hearts.
It didn't break their hearts. It didn't show them mercy and
grace and compassion. Had no effect upon their lives.
Let me tell you who God's with and who's God's for. Look in
Isaiah 66. This is who God blesses, this
is the man God's looking at. And these fellas standing up
here saying, we're Moses' disciples. Oh my, but it didn't affect their
lives, didn't move their lives. It just, oh listen, they just
handed down from father to son, to father to son. Look what he
said here in verse 1. Thus saith the Lord, the heaven
is my throne. The earth is my footstool. Where
is the house that you build unto me? Where is the place where
I can rest or my place of rest? For all those things hath mine
head made. And all those things have been,
saith the Lord. But this is the man that I'll
look to. This is the man that I've got
my eye on. Even to him that is of a poor and a contrite spirit
and trembles at my word. I mean, the Word affects me.
The Word teaches me. The Word makes me understand
how desperately I need the Lord Jesus Christ. And oh, it makes
us tremble, the fact that we think that we would ever deny
Christ or deny God's Word. But look what they went on to
say. verse 20 29 back over here in John 9 29 we know that God
spake unto Moses we know that as for this fella we don't know
we don't even know where he's from don't know if you know we
don't know when he is or who he is or what he's here for this
miracle as miracle meant absolutely nothing nothing they continued
in unbelief they had the testimony of his parents said, Yes, this
is our son. Yes, he is born blind. Yes, he
now sees. This is him. They ask him twice. And he says, Yes, it's me. They
even ask his neighbors. And I'll tell you, this tells
us this, this tells us this, they had three witnesses, and
that the mouth of two or three witnesses ever were to be established.
But these men, these men, they had the parents, they had the
man, and they had his neighbors. And that tells you that testimony
meetings don't work. You can testify all you want
to. No more than, you know, and I'll tell you, when a man ain't
gonna believe, they said, boy, Phil, if I could just give him
my testimony, I believe I could win him with my testimony. No,
no, and places have these, churches have these testimony meetings,
and people get up, tell how bad they was, and now how good they
are. Testimony meetings don't work.
No more than me telling you what I ate'll feed you. Faith comes by hearing, how? By the Word of God. And oh, look
what this man said here in verse 30. I love this, I love this. The man answered and said unto
them, I mean, he looked them in the eye and said, why, herein
is a marvelous thing. What a marvelous thing! Who ever
heard of such a thing? And you don't know from which
he is, where he is, or who he is, or where he come from, and
yet, yet, he's opened my eyes. You roll on up to it. You don't
even know. You say, I don't know him. Don't
know where he come from. He's got no credentials. He's
got no power. Got no authority. And he said,
but what a marvelous thing. And yet he hath opened mine eyes. And here God uses the foolish
to confound the wise. He's babes, here's a babe that
sees and these wise men stand blind. Now look what happens
now. And he goes on talking now. He's
saying what the Pharisees say. He says in verse 31, Now we know
that God heareth not sinners. If a man's outside, outside of
Christ and that, we know that God heareth not sinners. But
the other side of that is, that if God don't hear a sinner, he'd
never hear us. He'd never hear us. But that's
what the Pharisees said. So he's repeating what they said. Now we know that God heareth
not sinners. But if any man be a worshipper
of God and does God's will, God hears that man. God hears him. Oh, this is one of their pet
doctrines. If a man wasn't of God, this man wasn't of God,
he is an imposter. How did he open mine eyes? How
did he do that? If this man is not of God, if
he's just an imposter, and you don't know where he's from, tell
me how he opened mine eyes. Explain that to me. And then
look what he goes on. He ain't through with these men
yet. Since the world began, I mean since God said let there be light
until this day since the world began was it not heard that any
man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. Moses didn't
open any blind eyes No prophets opened any blind eyes, especially
somebody born blind. Only Christ could do this. Only the power of God could do
this. Only God himself could do this. And look what he says in verse
33. Oh, listen, he's got it. He's answered them. If this man
were not of God, he could do nothing. If he wasn't of God,
if he's like you say he is, he couldn't do a thing. Let me tell
you something right here. Look how this man grew while
he was witnessing, while he was talking to them. First of all,
he said a man, that is called Jesus, opened my eyes. Secondly,
he called him a prophet, and now he says he's a God. you see
how he grew just just talking just in talking to these religious
people he started out knowing him as a man then he's a prophet
and now God sent him he couldn't be nothing but God's the only
one that could send this man and oh if this man were not of
God he could do nothing but look at the self-righteous arrogance
of these people and when Jesus and they answered and said unto
him listen to this listen to this And I tell you what, this
is just self-righteousness, fundamentalism, legalism, this is all it can do. The answer
said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins. I guess they weren't. I guess they weren't born innocent.
I guess they didn't know nothing about being a sinner. You ask
most folks. You ask most folks. Are you a
sinner? You ask your neighbor. You ask
the next fellow that's around you. Are you a sinner? And most
of them will say, I've made a few mad mistakes. I've made a few
moves in my life. I've done some bad things. But,
boy, to really say I'm a sinner, really say I'm a sinner, I don't
know about that. And that's what these fellows,
you was born in sins. We wasn't. We was born Jews. We're Abraham's sons. We're Abraham's
children. I mean, we got a pedigree. My
mother helped start this church. My daddy helped start this church.
My grandpa preached in this church. I tell you what, they brought
half of the bricks that went on this side. My granddaddy bought
the bricks that went on that side. Them stained glass windows,
my great uncle paid for them. And they go on in their religion
like that. They just start pointing at things.
And you're the one that's the sinners, not us. I remember,
I'll tell you a little story. Years and years and years and
years ago, I didn't know straight down Paul Alvatory. But these
fellas was doing something and I invited them to a meeting.
I was preaching a meeting over in Vandiver. And I invited these
two men to a meeting. And both of them said, a man
alive, he said, you know, I don't go because there's just too many
hypocrites. I said, well, come on, two more won't make a bit
of difference. And you know, both of them showed
up that night. One of them moved to California and the other one
is a Camelite preacher now. The other one's a Camelite preacher. Oh, I tell you what, that's a,
but I remember, you know, sometimes, you talk about a babe, that's
out of the mouth of a babe. But all these fellas look at
their self-righteous pride and their arrogance. Oh, one so lowly,
one so sinful, one so stupid, one so ignorant. You're going
to teach us? And that's the way they, you're
going to teach us? You're just born in sins and you're going
to teach us? Huh? You're going to teach us?
Tim James told me about a time, you know, there's a lot of campgrounds
over there and he has in the summertime, he has a lot of visitors
over there, Sequoia. And he said he was preaching
one Sunday morning to a lot of visitors there in their campers,
and said he addressed himself as a sinner. And a woman came
up to him after service and said, I've never ever heard a preacher
ever call himself or address himself as a sinner. He said,
every preacher I've ever heard always calls everybody else a
sinner, and he's the only one in the place that's got anything
going on for him. And she just was shocked that
this man would address himself as a sinner. And she told him,
I said, every preacher I've ever heard preached, they're talking
about how sinful you are and how you need to get right with
God and how you need to start repenting, how you need to change
your way of living, how you need to get on the altar and how you
need to quit that bad habit, how you need to start changing
the way you dress and start going to the wrong places and start
going to the right places. And that's what they said here,
you're just born altogether in sins and you're gonna teach us? And look what it says, and they
cast him out. They finally excommunicated him. Said, buddy, you're never gonna
come in any of our synagogues. You're not coming in any of our
churches. But look what our Lord Jesus Christ did. Now Christ
comes and the revelation of himself. Jesus heard that they had cast
him out. Oh my. He's outside. He's outside
that. He's outside. Nobody in these
fellows don't want nothing to do with him. He's too bad of
a sinner. He's blind, but now he sees, but he's still too bad
of a sinner. He gives God all the glory and Christ all the
credit, but he's still, you know. But our Lord, when they heard
it, when our Lord cast him out, and that's where Christ goes
after. He goes after those that are cast out. And listen to this,
and when he had found him, now let me tell you something, that's
the whole business of salvation, when he found him. He found him.
You know what, he has found the lost sheep. He puts him on his
shoulder. Christ came to seek and to save
that which was lost. He come to find sheep which are
not of this folk. Everywhere you find Christ, even
people that's just like Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus didn't have a clue
that Christ knew anything about him. And the Lord looked up and
he's up that tree. Zacchaeus! Why did he say that? He found him up a tree. Told
him what to do. Oh listen, and he revealed himself
to him after he was cast out. Go on and I'll tell you something.
How many of us have been brought out of false religion with the
gospel? Almost all of us have been brought
from a false profession and false religion. Very few people have
ever been saved that wasn't brought out of fundamentalism, freewillism,
legalism, self-righteous religion. Now, ain't that right? Most of
us have been brought out of that. Very few haven't. And oh, listen. And when he had found him, Christ's
got to found him. God's got, Christ's got to find
you. And he found him, and Christ started a conversation with him.
He said unto him, oh my, he'd just been put through the ringer.
He'd just been put through the mill, but oh, he stood true to
what had happened to him. He just dealt with what had happened
to him, nothing more. And our Lord Jesus Christ asked
him, Do you believe on the Son of God? John said, You know,
he that is born of God believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. And oh, look what he said. He
answered and said, Well, who is he? And look how he said it.
He called him Lord, Lord, capital Lord, capital L, Lord. that I
might believe on Him. If I knew who He was, if I knew
who He was, if He's the Son of God, and I knew who He is, I'd
believe Him. If I knew who the Son of God
is, I'd believe Him. I'd believe Him with my heart
and my soul. And our Lord said unto him, Thou
hast both seen Him. Never seen Him before. He sees
Him now. Why? Because He's got eyes. He
can look at Him. And listen to this, And it is
He that talketh with me. I'm the son of God talking to
you. I'm the son of God that you're looking at. And look what
this man said. He said, Lord. Lord. And I love this. I believe. I believe. And he worshiped him. He adored
him. He embraced him. I'm quite delighted. Oh my. See, before them he is
indignant and got aggravated at the Pharisees. But when Christ
comes, his humility, he falls down and he said, oh Lord, I
believe, I believe. He was fearless before his enemies,
but humble before Christ. And oh, our Lord, four times
in this epistle up to this time, our Lord had called himself the
Son of God. And here He calls Himself the
Son of God. And I tell you, Lord, I believe and worshiped Him.
Where God begins His work, He's going to finish it. He's going
to finish it. And this is where we're at. I'm
going to make just a few comments right here. And look what our
Lord said. And I've said this so many times.
Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world. I come
here to make the difference, to make the judgment, to make
the decision, to sit on the throne, That they which see not, that
those who are blind, like this man was born blind, might see. And that they which see, just
like these Pharisees, I see, you sinner, I'm not. You're wrong,
I'm right. That they which see, well this
stuff is staying blind, staying blind. And some of the Pharisees
which were with him heard these words and said unto him, Are
we blind also? And they said this with Aaron,
believe me. Are we blind also? You think
we're blind? And our Lord said unto them,
if you were blind, you admit you're blind, that you don't
see nothing, you don't see the scriptures, you don't see nothing,
you don't see your sinfulness, you don't see Christ, you don't
see his glory, you don't see his power, you don't see his
grace. If you were blind, You know what? I'd have brought you
to the place where you'd had no sin. But you say, you say,
we see, we see, we see things our way, you see things yours. You do things your way, we'll
do things ours. You believe what you want to
believe, we'll believe what we want to believe. And our Lord
Jesus said, because you see, you're going to die in your sin.
And when you run across somebody that knows everything, as Floyd
used to say, save your breath to cool your coffee. Ain't that
right? Ain't that right? Just what are
you going to say? When you meet somebody that's
got all the answers, don't even ask them a question. Find somewhere
else to go. Get a fishing pole and go fishing, Bruce. That's
what we'll do, won't we? Run across people like that. Our Father, oh, our blessed,
blessed Savior, How wonderfully gracious and kind you are to
us. To let us hear of Christ. Let
us hear of his power. Let us hear what it is to believe.
And Lord, every one of us in here who believe, we're like
that blind man. Lord, I believe, I believe, I
believe. And Lord Jesus, we worship you
and you alone. We want no one else but you.
You're our all and in all. You're all that we need. You're
all that we want. You're all in our salvation.
You're all in the preserving of our lives. You're all in the
scriptures. You're all, you're all, you're
all. Lord, we thank you for that, that you've made us to see it,
to know it, believe it. And Lord, may this gospel in
the hands of the Holy Spirit be found effectual, be found
effectual, and be, make it effectual by the Holy Spirit. Not let it
just be my words, let it be the words of the Holy Spirit in power.
and in assurance. And Lord, grant it for Christ's
sake. And we're going to meet in a little while, and we're
going to eat, and we're going to visit. And we thank you for
these ladies and men that's prepared this food and brought it in here.
All the love, all the care, all the effort that went in to do
it. They bring their best. They bring the best that they've
got. And Lord, we thank you for that. And Lord, when we meet
this afternoon, bless our time together. for we're truly thankful
for all that you do for us, what you provide for us, and we bless
you in Christ's holy name. Amen. Amen.