we are going to be in the book
of Proverbs chapter four, if you would like to turn. Proverbs
chapter four. It has been said, one cannot
preach God high enough, nor can he preach man low enough. And
that becomes a more predominant reality for the believer the
more we grow in grace. Because growing in grace is not
seeing ourself getting better, it's seeing ourself, to the contrary,
getting worse, becoming more dependent, more needy of the
Lord, more needy of mercy, more needy of grace. And in seeing
salvation really truly is of the Lord, we don't wanna hear
anything but God preached high and man preached low. We want
to hear about the sovereignty, the holiness, the beauty of our
Savior and the wretchedness of our self and how that he put
away that sin, how that he took it and knelt it to his cross.
That's what we wanna hear about. It's good news to the believer.
When the Lord makes us realize that salvation truly is of the
Lord by his grace, then we see our utter dependence for life
For healing, I'm not talking about physical healing, I'm talking
about spiritual healing. For life, for life, for light,
for healing, for sight, the ability to be able to hear his voice.
We just read in John chapter 10, my sheep hear my voice, and
I know them and they follow me. Why do they follow him? Because
they can hear his voice. He's the doer of it. He's the doer
of it. And the more dependent we become, well, really, the
better off we are, truly. That means the less confidence
we have in ourself. The less confidence we have in ourself,
that's a good thing. That's a good thing. I mean, your confidence
has got to be something other than yourself. And so for the life of the Lord's
people, our dependency is on our Heavenly Father, isn't it?
It's on our Lord and Savior, not upon us at all. Let's read
our text here in Proverbs chapter four. I want to read three verses,
verses 20 through 22. And if you have a Bible that
has those little markings beside 20 and 23, you'll see those are
markers indicating the end of a paragraph. I don't know if
you've ever, if I mentioned that before to us, and if you don't
have it, that's fine. It says in verse 20, my son, attend to
my words, incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart
from thine eyes, keep them in the midst of thine heart, for
they are life unto those that find them, and health to all
their flesh. That word health, It means medicine. Medicine. We can't help but think
of medicine without thinking of the high physician, the great
physician, the balm of Gilead. That's the medicine, the blood
that cleanses, that purifies, that saves to the uttermost.
That's the medicine, isn't it? That's the medicine. He says
three things here. Number one, incline thine ear.
Number two, it says, let them not depart from thine eyes. and
keep them in the midst of thine heart. So it's the eyes, it's
the ears, and it's the heart. It's always a heart issue, isn't
it? It's always a heart issue. That's what man has from birth.
We are born with a heart issue, completely depraved, utterly
in darkness, unable to get to God, unable to know anything
about God until he comes to us and shines forth his light and
calls us out of that darkness into his light. Health here is the medicine that
he gives to his people. And only the Lord's people need
this medicine. They that are whole need not
a physician, but they that are sick, the Lord said. He said,
I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. The
sinner is sick and knows it by the Lord's repentance and faith
given. He realizes I'm sick and I can't
heal myself. I'm a leper. I'm unclean from
the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. And that's when the
priest declares you're clean. You're clean. Whenever the sin
has completely been exposed upon your entire body and you realize
in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing, the Lord says
you're clean because you need a substitute. You need a savior. And he gives you that savior
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we don't cling anymore to
what we do or what we think or how we feel. We cling to him
by faith, don't we? If the Lord ever in mercy reveals
our need of being blind, deaf, Being dead with a heart of stone,
we'll cry like blind Bartimaeus, Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy on me. Now, Bartimaeus, don't bother
the master. Leave him alone. No, Jesus, thou son of David,
have mercy on me. He cried louder, didn't he? And
what would it be for you to know the Lord was passing by your
way and you had a need? Would you be quiet? No, because he's
the one that put that need there. And we would cry the louder,
wouldn't we? Because it was one thing needful Bartimaeus had.
Didn't matter his popularity. Didn't matter what power he had.
He didn't have any power. Didn't matter anything to do
with pleasure. It had everything to do with
Christ. He needed to get to Christ, but he couldn't get to him, could
he? So he needed Christ to come to him, and that's us. We can't
get to him. And when we were without strength
in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Not for the people
that have a little bit of good in them. Not for the people that
are doing a little better than we used to do. You know, we quit
some habits. We're not doing those habits
anymore. No, it's the people that are ungodly, meaning we
don't know anything about God. We don't know anything about
holiness. That's when Christ died for us. And then he reveals himself
and his beauty. The light shines forth and we
understand some things about godliness that we are not godly.
We see that, don't we? The issue isn't that we see sin.
The issue is that we're born utterly and completely depraved
from the first sin, Adam. It's in our blood. It's a blood problem. Whenever
somebody says, well, I've messed up again, that's your nature
to do so. That's our nature to do so. There's
no correcting nature in us. We're going to do that which
we would not do. The interesting part of the believer
is we're the only one been awakened to the fact that we're committing
sin against the Lord and against ourself, against nature. And
the Lord is the one that says to us, fear not for I've put
away your sin. That's the good news of the gospel.
If we understand something about our depravity, understand something
about our nature, we understand something about God, we'll realize
salvation must be of the Lord or there is no hope for salvation
for a wretch like me or you. We come from the womb speaking
lies, don't we? That's what David said. What
does that mean? Well, I'll give you a good example.
I have three daughters, and you all know them. And I pondered
whether I was going to give this analogy a few weeks ago, and
I didn't, but tonight's the night. So I have smart daughters, smarter
than dad sometimes. One time we were eating supper,
and Bethany had some carrots. And I said, you cannot have dessert
until you eat the carrots. And so I left. She came back.
I said, do you eat the carrots? She said, yeah. I said, show
me. She opened her mouth. I said, OK, good. Here's your
cookie. She ate the cookie. As soon as the cookie was down,
the carrots came out of her mouth. She never chewed them or swallowed
them. They packed in like a chipmunk. I didn't teach her that. I didn't
teach her that. She was only seven, eight months
old. I mean, old enough to eat a carrot
that's been boiled. I don't know. Smart enough to
do that. I didn't teach her that. Where'd she learn that from?
Her nature. We come from the womb, speaking
lies. Any of you that's had children
or been around other children, you've seen this example as well. All
my daughters, and one of the same, didn't matter which one,
they all did the same thing. They'd be crying, and they would want
to just be picked up. You'd pick them up, they'd quit
crying. You could shush them for a bit, pacify them, you put
them back down, they'd start crying again. There's nothing
wrong with this child. Their diaper's clean, their belly's
full, they've been burped, they're good, there's nothing wrong.
They got their blanket, they got their pacifier, nothing wrong
with this child. They want to be held. Look at me. Give me attention. Who taught
them that? I didn't teach them that. They
got it from me, because I'm their dad. But I didn't teach them
that. It's their nature. It's our nature,
isn't it? It doesn't really change when
you get older. It just comes out in different ways. You see
adults throwing temper tantrums all the time, don't you? Look
at me. We do, don't we? And that nature doesn't go away.
We learn how to mask it, how to cover it up, how to do different
things with it. That nature is still there. That
depravity is still there. That's why Solomon's saying here,
Tend unto my word, son. Incline thine ears. Open your
eyes, look. Let it sink deep down in your
heart. But if we hear that, knowing of our deprived nature, knowing
of our sin nature, what does that make us do? Lord, you're
gonna have to open my eyes. You're gonna have to open my
ears. You're gonna have to give me a heart of flesh and remove
this whole heart of stone because I'm gonna lie to myself. I'm gonna lie to you, not even
meaning to. Oh, I'm deceitful, I'm deceitful. I'm gonna hide
the carrots and act like they disappeared. They haven't, they're
still there. That's what I'm gonna do by nature. We're narcissists by nature.
We think too highly of ourself. We do, every one of us. And the
Lord in mercy comes to us and reveals what we really are. and
reveals his son. And in doing so, our flesh never
loses that narcissistic attitude. That's what Cain's problem was,
is he was narcissistical. I'm going to do this my way,
and my way is going to work. No, Cain, it doesn't work like
that. What about Adam? How did it work for him? Adam
and Eve, they did the same thing. They took matters into their
own hands. And really, it comes down to men wanting to be their own
god. That's what I mean by narcissistic. They want to be their own god.
And us, we're no different in the flesh. What happened whenever
that didn't work out after Adam had sewed the fig leaves together?
God wasn't pleased with it. Then what did he do? Well, then
he played the victim. And that's what we are by nature. We're
either, we're narcissists, we're victims. As soon as something
don't work, we're like, well, it's not my fault. The woman you gave
me. It's your fault, Lord. You gave me this woman and she
did it. Think about that, blaming God for what he gives. Somebody said, well, I would
never do that. We do it all the time. Whenever we complain about
our circumstances, we complain about our, Responsibilities when
we're tired, whatever it may be. We do it, we complain all
the time. You know it's true. But the good news is, the Lord
doesn't leave us in that state. This is why we need to be saved.
That's what he shows us. He doesn't just leave us there.
He says, no, this is the reason you need a Redeemer. This is
the reason you need a Savior, is because you can't fix this.
You can't fix your nature. You can't fix what you are. But
I can, and I did for all my people. on the cross of Calvary, that's
what he did. We don't need to be saved just from wrongdoing,
we need to be saved from self. Is that not true? You need to
be saved from your sin? Well, yes, absolutely, but I
need to be saved from myself. Myself, I'm a problem, because
I can't, all that I would do good, I do not. And the things
I would not do, that's exactly what I find myself doing. Who
shall deliver me from this body of death? That's what Paul said.
Oh, wretched man that I am. For those the Lord do leave to
themselves, he says in Ephesians 4.18, having the understanding
darkened, being alienated from the life of God to the ignorance
that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. Now right now we're talking about
blindness and deafness and a stony heart. That's the three things
we're talking about. But if that heart is never repaired by the
Lord, it doesn't need to be repaired, it needs to be replaced. If our
heart's never replaced by the Lord, It'll just deceive us all
the way to the end, won't it? All the way into the pit, all
the way to death. Lord, take out this heart of stone. Give
me a heart of flesh, one that understands things of godliness,
that understands things of truth and justice and holiness, things
that I don't understand, because our flesh can't comprehend those
things. If left to ourself, we are in
serious trouble. But the good news is, The Lord
said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Somebody said, well, I believe
everything that you said just thus far really describes me,
my depravity, my sin. I got good news. Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief, Paul said.
You see yourself as a sinner, that's a gift by grace. Not that
you committed sin, but to see yourself as the sinner. That's totally different. That's
a gift from the Lord. And in seeing yourself as the
sinner, you'll see him as sovereign and seated and successful and
the savior. You'll see him as that. Let's read this again. My son,
verse 20, my son attend to my words, incline thine ear into
my sayings. Let them not depart from thine
eyes. Keep them in the midst of thine heart for they are life
unto those that find them. And I love how the Lord words
this and their health to all their flesh or their medicine
to all their flesh. I love how the Lord words that when he says
life unto those that find them. You remember the parable of the
sheep. The Lord said he left 99 behind to go find the one
sheep. It doesn't say the sheep was
looking for the shepherd. It says the shepherd went looking
for the sheep. So the sheep's out there in the wilderness,
and the shepherd finds him, puts him on his back, carries him
back to the fold. Does the sheep say, look who I found? Well,
that doesn't make any sense, does it? But kind of how we are
most of the time, if we're being honest. No, it's not that we
found these things. It's that they've been bestowed. They've been bestowed. He found
us. He was never lost. We were the ones lost. Ain't
that right? He was never lost. We were the
ones lost. And he came to where we were with the medicine. He
came to where we were opening our eyes. He came to where we
were opening up our ears, allowing us to attend unto his words.
He said, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And I know
I've told you this before, but this is true. really stuck with
me. One time I preached a message
on he that hath the ear to hear, let him hear. And this was in
a false church and a woman comes up after me service. And she
said, I have ears that work just fine. Thank you very much. I
don't, you have my ears or I heard every word you said. I was like,
well, you didn't hear a thing. I said, then that's what I thought. Because
the truth of the matter is, is it's not the hearing ear. It's
the Lord has to cause it to be heard and the inward parts has
to be heard in the heart. through the eyes of faith, through
the ears of faith. It's not something that we hear. It is something
we hear audibly through the preaching of the gospel, but it's something
that we hear on the inside, not on just the outside. Unless enabled, we'll remain
just like that other woman. I pray the Lord be merciful for
her. I haven't talked to her in years and years. Don't know
anything, what's going on with her now, but I pray the Lord
be merciful to her. But unless the Lord doesn't do something, we'll just
remain blind. The most important part in salvation
is that the Lord does it all. And if he doesn't act, if he
doesn't move, if he doesn't do, we remain blind, we remain deaf,
and we remain with a stony heart. There's nothing he has to do
for us to be blind, for us to be deaf, and for us to have a
stony heart. We're born that way. We're born that way. You know, men talks about searing
their conscience with a hot iron, things like that. I'm not talking
about the conscience, I'm talking about the heart. The heart's deceitful. Conscience tells us by nature
what's right from wrong, but the conscience can't lead you
to Christ. Only the Lord can do that. If left to ourself,
we'll remain blind, we'll remain deaf, and we'll remain with a
stony heart. But the good news of the gospel
is this, the Lord will not and the Lord cannot lose one sheep. He will not and he cannot lose
one sheep. It's not only that he's not willing
to lose one sheep, he can't. It's an impossibility. He cannot
lose one sheep or he's not God. It's that simple. And we know
he's God. He cannot, will not lose one
sheep. All that the Father give to me
shall come to me, and he that cometh to me I'll in no wise
cast out. See, the Lord will not lose one sheep. It would diminish his perfect
record. It would ruin the work of the
cross. It wouldn't have been finished
then, would it? It would make God a liar. No, this is not possible things
that we speak of. He cannot lie. He cannot lose
one sheep. That means every sheep will at
some point in this life, hear his voice. At some point in this
life, see his face through the eyes of faith. At some point
in this life, they'll have a new heart given to them by the Lord.
One that seeks after righteousness and true godliness. One that
seeks Christ. One that beats by faith alone. That's what he gives to his people.
I want us to look at John, and we'll spend most of the time
remaining in John chapter nine. Now we read John chapter 10 a
little bit ago, and that is a conversation that continues from chapter nine,
but it's dealing with the young man that's blind from birth. And I want us to see how this
transpired, because we're talking about blind men right now. We're
talking about being deaf, and we're talking about being having
a stony heart being dead. You know, a stony heart can't
beat. Think about that. A heart of flesh can beat, but
a stony heart can't beat. And that's the point, isn't it? The purpose of our Lord coming
was not to make a way. The purpose of our Lord coming
is because he is the way. He is the truth. He is the life. And no man comes to the father
but by him. The purpose of him coming was to successfully redeem
his people, to die upon a tree, taking our place, our room instead,
becoming our surety, becoming our substitute, and putting away
our sin by the sacrifice of himself. And that's exactly what he did.
He did this to honor his father and to redeem his chosen people. Let's read John nine, one through
five. And as 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. Jesus
answered, neither had this man sin nor his parents, but that
the works of God should be manifest in him. I must work the works
of him that sent me. While it is day, the night cometh
when no man can work. As long as I am in the world,
I am the light of the world. The purpose of the Lord coming was so that his people would
be made to see. We were dead in trespasses and
in sins. The world at the time was in
a religious just a religious time. You see
the Pharisees, how they acted. Nobody was anticipating change. They didn't want change from
the religious sex that they had, the religious, the piety that
they had. They were all happy with that.
And they had convinced men of the lies that they had and the
different ceremonies they had, much like today, really. It's
much like today. And if the Lord would have just
left them like that, we would still be under the law. We would still
be under the curse. But he condescended. He chose to condescend. What
that word means is that he came from above, robing himself in
the likeness of sinful flesh. And we can't understand that
because that's all we are is flesh. But I'm talking about
his glory was not revealed except for once on the mountain of transfiguration. He had to robe himself in flesh,
in dust. He had to become a man in order
to redeem them that which were under the law. We can't enter
into that condescension going from that high to that low. We
could say it'd be like us becoming a worm, but that's not even sufficient,
because we're sinful creatures becoming just a creature in the
dirt. No, we're talking about a spiritual being, the Lord Jesus
Christ, putting on flesh and blood, being born of a virgin
in a manger, and living 33 and a third year, preaching the kingdom
of heaven, and then dying in our place. We can't understand
that condescension. It's impossible for us to. We
believe it, though. It's our only hope, isn't it? If he hadn't
chose to do that, we would still be blind, we would still be deaf,
and we would not have a heart of flesh, we would have a heart
of stone, but he did. He did that for his people. And
he says right here, and this is where the gospel starts in
this chapter, and as Jesus passed by, as Jesus, that's where it
starts. You got a blind man here, has
no hope of getting to Christ, doesn't even know who he is probably.
I mean, he has to tell him later on that he's the Messiah. He
has no idea. A man blind from birth, never
saw anything in his life. You know, you tell a blind man
what orange looks like or what red looks like, and I'm certainly
not speaking in a manner of trying to speak down about anybody or
make anybody feel bad. I'm just saying, think about
this. If you tell somebody, you try to tell them, okay, well,
pink looks like this or orange looks like, it doesn't matter.
They've never seen it. They don't understand what you're talking
about, do they? Try to explain a rainbow to them. Try to explain
the sky to them, or what a bird looks like. It has feathers.
What's feathers look like? You get what I'm saying? There's
no understanding whatsoever. And that's what it's like trying
to convince men that are still blind and still in darkness about
the gospel. That's why the gospel's not debated,
it's declared. The Lord has to be the teacher.
The Lord has to be the intercessor. The Lord has to be the one to
open the eyes. So whenever we say, this is the Lord, Jesus
Christ, They say, well, now my eyes have seen the king. Now
my understanding's been opened. That's what the gospel does. Unless the Lord chose to come,
we would still be blind. We would still be deaf. We would
still have a heart of stone, but because he did, he gives
his people sight. He allows them, enables them,
causes them to hear his voice, and he gives them a heart that
worships him. How do we worship? Looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of faith. That's how we worship. We look to Christ. We look to
Christ. Now the purpose of the Lord Jesus,
the purpose of the Lord Jesus was not to make a way if you
choose it. It's not a path that one determines
to get upon. And the example here is perfect
because it says, as Jesus passed by, it doesn't say, and as they
brought the blind man to Jesus. Think about all the people Christ
would have passed by right then. I don't know how many people
would have been in that city, that town. I can't even remember where they're
at right now, honestly, but I have no idea how many people would
have been in that area, but he passed by all of them and walks
up to a blind man. Walks right up to him. Why? Because
that man was chosen. Chosen of God. Well, let's read. He'll tell you exactly why he
was chosen. In verse six, when he had thus spoken, he spat on
the ground and made clay of spittle and he anointed the eyes of the
blind man who sat with the clay and said unto him, go wash in
the pool of Siloam, which by interpretation is sent. He went
his way therefore and washed and came seeing. He just told
us in verse three, Neither hath this man sin, nor his parents,
but that the works of God should be manifest in him." That's the
purpose of this man being blind. That's the purpose of the Lord
Jesus Christ going to where he was. And it's the same for you
and I and everyone that professes Christ by faith. Everyone that's
given faith to believe him, he comes to where we are. At his
appointed time, he passes by and he comes right to where we
are and he anoints our eyes. What is that a picture of? Well,
it's, he made clay, didn't he? Out of spittle. Under the Levitical
law, if you spit upon somebody, you had to go wash and you were
considered unclean till dark. Not when the Lord Jesus Christ
did it. No, whenever he did it, it was not unclean at all, was
it? It was clean. It's a picture of him anointing
the eyes, the clay that we are, and it being washed away. It's
a picture of our sin being washed away when he bathed in the water.
What the Lord did, the washing of water by the word. He went
to where he was sent. to where he could do that. That's
what Salome means. And this is where we are sent to is under
the sound of the gospel to hear and that the Lord may be pleased
to wash us and to give us new eyes to see. Now his condescension was not
to open a door. If you walk through it, it's, he is the door. He
is the door. He said, I am the door to the
sheet fold. His purpose was to honor his father and redeem his
chosen people. And that's what he did. And as Jesus passed by,
now that he's here at this time, now that he's present, he's got
a purpose. And that purpose is as Jesus passed by, he saw a
man. Well, I hope if he passes by
tonight, he sees a man and a woman in this room. I hope he takes
notice of us, not because we're blind and we're poor and we're
miserable or wretched, not because we're good, but for the sake
of his glory, for the sake that the works of God should be manifest
in us, that he would get all the glory for it. I hope he takes
notice of us. If he doesn't, we're gonna remain
blind, we're gonna remain deaf, and we're gonna remain with a
heart of stone that does not seek after him. Our hope is not that we choose
him, but that he chose us and he predestined us to be conformed
to his image. Our hope is that he will have
mercy on whom he will have mercy. You preach that message in some
places, they get mad when the Lord said, I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy. That doesn't make me mad, that
gives me hope. He said he'll have mercy. And he has a sovereign
right to do whoever he wants to or not. He's God. But for
him to say, I will have mercy, That's good news to me. That
means he will have mercy. Well, maybe he'll have mercy
upon me. Maybe he'll have mercy upon you. It doesn't make me
angry. It makes me rejoice. Lord, have
mercy on me, the sinner. I'm blind and I'm deaf. My heart's
stone-full. Stoney, it's not gonna come to
you. The disciples asked him, and so many
people do this, don't they? Whose sin is it? Is it his sin
that's the problem here, where he's blind, or is it his parents?
Did they sin? And that's the problem. Whose
sin is it? Earlier today, I was talking
to my wife and daughter. We were talking about a group of individuals. And I did a experiment on them
without being announced to them. They didn't know I was doing
it. And they didn't know I was going to tell you about it either.
So it may be a cold car ride home. Basically, I looked at
him and I said, now, which one of these guys do you really think,
if you knew one would be going to hell, which one would you
pick? And they said, that one. Both of them picked immediately.
And I said, why is that? By the way he looks, or by the way he
conducts himself, or this and that. And I said, you know what
that's called? Self-righteousness. That's what that's called. That's
exactly what we do by nature. We look at others, and we justify
ourself. Or we look at others. It was
a great example. I did the same thing. I'm no
different than they were. But that's the point. We look at
others, and we think, OK, well, I'm not as bad as this guy. So,
or this person can't be that bad because of this and that.
We're talking blind, okay? Every one of us, no exceptions.
It doesn't matter whether you have, it doesn't matter what
you're born with or without, what you have, whether you have
tattoos or you don't, how you talk, it doesn't matter. Born
blind, period. That's it. That's it, born blind. And if God doesn't come to where
we are, it doesn't matter what state that we're in, if he doesn't
come to where we are, and say, receive thy sight, I'm gonna
remain blind. And I'm gonna walk right over
the edge into the pit being blind. But I love what he said. He said,
this man's not blind because of his sin. Oh yeah, he was blind
because of sin. Sin is the reason that we have
cancer. Sin is the reason that we get sick. Sin is the reason
that we have blindness and heartache and all the things that we have.
That's not the reason this man was blind. Why was he blind?
For the purpose of God to be placed upon him, for God to get
glory out of this vessel, to make him a vessel of honor. No
higher honor in the world than to know the Lord said, you are
mine. I've bought you. I've saved you. I've redeemed
you. You're my vessel of honor. I love you. No greater honor
in this world. For the purpose of the glory
of God, this man was blind. Have you ever thought, the Lord
tells them here, I'm the light of the world. Have you ever thought
about the utter confusion that was going on this time whenever
the Lord arrived on the scene? You had the Romans, they were
in charge of basically the world at that time, and the Jews hated
the Romans, and that's why they hated Christ, just because they
thought the Messiah would conquer the Romans and set up an earthly
kingdom. And he said, my kingdom's not of this world, and that's
why they hated him. But they also hated him for the truth's
sake. You know that to be true. But everything was chaotic and
it was turned upside down, so to speak, much like what we have
today. They call good evil and evil good. That's the day that
we're living in right now. And yet the Lord in mercy shows
up at his appointed time. He walks up, he walks up to a
rough, probably mangy looking fisherman named Peter, and he
says, follow me. I'll make you fishers of men.
He walks up to a man named Philip, and he says, Philip, I saw you
under the tree praying, follow me. He goes up to Matthew, and
he goes up to John, and we see the works of the Lord as he has
his disciples there, and how he's charging them with the truth,
and giving them all these abilities, and how he's healing all these
people, and all these wonderful humanitarian things, but nobody
can see that he's not just healing blinded eyes, he's healing the
inward man, unless they're the ones being healed. If you're
being healed on the inward part, you're gonna know something about
it. Peter was told the truth by the Father. The Lord said,
who do you say that I am? And he said, I believe thou art
the Christ, the Son of the living God. The Lord said, blessed art
thou, Simon Bar-Jonah. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
this to you, but my Father, which is in heaven. He's given you
eyes to see. He's given you ears to hear.
He's given you a heart to believe. That's what we need. We need
him to come to where we are, whether we're sitting under a
tree or we're, I like to fish, maybe I'll be fishing. I don't
know, wherever it is, Lord, come to me. Don't leave me to myself
and arrest me. calls me to see Christ is all. Give me a heart, a new heart.
My heart's ugly. It's dark. Give me a heart that
believes, a heart that rests. Don't you get tired of your unbelief?
Yes. I'm exhausted with my unbelief. Lord, help me from my, save me
from my unbelief. And he says, fear not. I've put
away your sin. You shall not die. You shall
not die. By his grace, he sent forth his
son in darkness. I love that the Lord condemned
darkness. Think about that. He condemned
death, hell, and the grave, meaning that he put it away. It was the
end of it for the Lord's people. And light had no fellowship with
darkness. So when he entered the scene,
darkness had to flee. It's gone. That's what he does for his people.
There's no more darkness. You won't believe this, but did
you know, you do believe this by faith, but did you know there
is no darkness in you anymore? Think about that for a second.
Think about that for a second. It's gone. It's gone. I'm not talking about the flesh.
I'm talking about this new man that he's put inside of us. There's
no darkness in that. It's all light. And every time
that light comes out, that darkness has to flee. Isn't that glorious?
That's what the Lord does. He gives us a new nature. Well, let's look here at verse
number six. It's interesting how the Lord
chose to heal him. It says, when he had the spoke, he spat on the
ground and made clay of spittle and anointed. It means he spread
the clay upon the eyes of the blind man. He anointed the eyes
of the blind man with the clay. Now, I don't know how you would
feel about somebody spitting on the ground and making clay
and putting it on your eyes, but I would imagine the Lord
would have to give faith to even allow that to take place. I understand
they didn't really have understanding of diseases and things that we
do, but that would be what my girls would call gross. You understand
what I'm saying here? It had to be faith that allowed
the Lord to do that. He had to just bow to it. You
understand what I'm saying? And so, as soon as he gets done
with that, he tells him to go wash in the pool of Siloam, and
he does. Now look at verse eight. The neighbors therefore, and
they which before had seen him that was blind, said, is this
not he that sat and begged? Some said, this is he. Others
said, he is like him. But he said, I am he. I am he. Therefore said they unto him,
how are thy eyes opened? He answered and said, a man that
is called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said unto
me, go wash in the pool of Siloam. Go to the pool of Siloam and
wash. And I went and washed and I received sight. Then said they
unto him, where is he? He said, I know not. Then they
brought him to the Pharisees. and it was the Sabbath day. Okay,
so the Lord, the Sabbath. Now you understand what I'm saying
here. The Lord is the Sabbath. All those pictures of the Sabbath
day, that pointed to Christ. That's the one that the Father
rested upon, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Sabbath healed somebody on
their Sabbath day, and they became upset. But he's the Sabbath. You see what I'm saying here?
They couldn't see it. They could not see it. We're
gonna see why in just a minute, but they could not understand
that they were talking to the Sabbath himself in person. He
is the Sabbath, whom the Lord rested upon, and they could not
see him. They could not see him. Pharisees
lost their mind. They hated God for his Christ
because they hated the light that Jesus Christ shone forth.
It revealed their sin. Didn't reveal that they were
righteous, it revealed that they were sinners, that they needed a savior and
they didn't want a savior. They were good enough on their own. Lord,
I thank you that I'm not like this man and I'm not like this
one. I tithe, I fast, I pray, I do all the things I'm supposed
to do. I thank you I'm not even like this publican back here.
That was their mentality. And that's every man's mentality
by nature whenever they approach God with their self-righteousness.
You know why? Because they're still blind and
they're still deaf. and they're still dead and trespasses
and in sin. The Lord ever makes us a sinner, we won't brag on
old number one because number one won't be me anymore, it's
him. He changes the numbers, doesn't he? I'm just a zero now
and I'll remain a zero unless the Lord puts the one in front
of us, then we'll be a number that no man can number. Well, they interrogate the mother
and father of this blind man and out of fear, they look and
say, well, he's of age, ask him. They're scared to death of the
Pharisees. I don't know, ask him, he's of age. And that's
exactly what they do. Look at verse 24. Then again
called David the blind, the man who was blind, and said unto him, give God the praise. Boy, now there's a religious
statement, isn't it? A self-righteous statement. Give
God the praise. We already know the truth. Might
as well just say what we wanna hear. We know that this man is
a sinner, talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. He answered and
said, whether he be a sinner or no, I know not. One thing
I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see. I've titled this message,
One Thing I Know. One Thing I Know, and that was
a long time to wait to give you the title, I apologize. I just realized
I didn't give you the title. I normally have it at the top,
but anyways. One Thing I Know. Whereas I was blind, But now
I see. The man didn't get any glory
for that, did he? What's he gonna brag about, going to the Pool
of Shalom? He couldn't even make it to the Pool of Shalom unless
somebody helped him. He was blind. You see him staggering down the
road trying to get there? He couldn't have got there on
his own. There's no pride in salvation. He gets all the glory. Either
you come completely abased, you come completely humble to him
as a mercy beggar, or you cannot come. It's that simple. You must
come begging. Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner.
In my hand, no price I bring. I'm blind. I'm deaf. I can't
see. I can't hear. I don't know where
I'm going. I'm in darkness. I'm dead in trespasses and sin.
Unless you save me, I will not be saved. I cannot be saved. Verse 26, then said they to him
again, what did he to thee? How he opened up thine eyes.
He answered them, I have told you already, and you did not
hear. Wherefore would you hear it again? Will you also be his
disciples? Then they reveled him and said,
thou art his disciple, but we are Moses' disciple. There it
is. There it is. They're going to the law for
their righteousness, aren't they? He just told them exactly where
their righteousness lied. We know that God spake unto Moses,
says, for this fellow we know not from whence he is. Now here's
the best answer this young man could have come up with. The
Lord gave him this, listen to this, verse 30. The man answered
and said unto them, while herein is a marvelous thing, that you
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 worshiper of God and doeth
his will, him he heareth, since the world began. Was it not heard? that any man open the eyes of
one that was born blind. If this man were not of God,
he could do nothing. Well, that just made them mad,
and look what they say. They answered and said unto him, thou wast
altogether born in sins. You're the sinner. You were altogether
born in, not us, you're the one born in sins, altogether. You
don't know what you're talking about. Thou wast altogether born in
sins, and thus thou teach us? How dare you, T? Who do you think
you are? That's what the truth does, doesn't it? It offends.
It cuts. It divides and separates. That's
what the truth does. Every time. There is no middle
ground with the truth. There is no middle ground. Thou was altogether born in sin,
thus thou teach us, and they cast him out. They cast him out. That's exactly
what will happen if your eyes are open If you're able to see
and you're able to hear, if the Lord gives you hearing and he
gives you sight and he gives you a heart of flesh, you're
gonna be cast out of some places. There's gonna be people that
don't wanna be around you anymore. Especially because you don't talk the way
you used to talk. And I'm not talking about the
language you use or whatever, I'm talking about who gets all
the glory in a conversation pertaining to the gospel. You're gonna give
the Lord the glory. You're gonna tell them it is
finished and they're not gonna like that. They're gonna get upset. They
tried to stone Christ, and these two chapters alone, they tried
to stone him three times. Took up stone, then they took up stones
to stone him. Then they took up stones to stone him. Then
they would have taken him, but he passed by them. They tried
to kill him three times. Verse 35, they heard that they
had cast him out, and when he had found him, the Lord Jesus
found him, he said unto him, dost thou believe on the Son
of God? And he answered and said, who is he, Lord, that I might
believe him? Now think about this. The man had been healed
by the Lord Jesus Christ. He admitted it's not a sinner. All he knows is whereas he was
blind, now he sees. And he also said, has it not
been heard from the beginning of one being blind and yet being
made to see by another man? So it's never been heard of before.
And yet he still does not know that he is talking to God. This is so important for us to
realize because he's past finding out. He's not one that we can
locate on our own. He's not one that we can seek
after on our own. He's not one that we can choose on our own.
He must do the seeking. He must do the calling. He must
do the saving. And that's exactly what he does
for his people. He answered and said, who is
he, Lord, that I might believe on him? Verse 37, and Jesus said
unto him, thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh
with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. I love that. Lord, I believe
that he just make that decision right there on the spot. I think
I'll let you come into my heart. That's not what he said. Lord,
I believe. I was blind and now I see, Lord,
I believe, and he worshipped him. What is worshipping? Oh,
it's taking sides with God against yourself. It's saying, truth,
Lord, I am a dog. I'm the sinner and you're the
Savior. I need to be saved. Have mercy on me, the sinner.
Worship is looking to Christ as everything in your salvation,
not clinging to anything of yourself, but clinging to him. Jesus said,
for judgment, I'm coming to this world that they which see not
might see, and they which see might be made blind. Well, that
rubbed the Pharisees wrong, didn't it? Some of the Pharisees which were
with him heard these words and said to him, are we blind also?
Jesus said to him, if you were blind, you should have no sin. But now you say we see, therefore
your sin remaineth. Can you admit that you're blind? A blind person don't really know
what they're missing out on until they receive their sight. But
as soon as they receive their sight, then they realize I've
never seen anything before. And that's what it's going to
be like when we stand face to face with him. We're going to say
the half's not been told me. I've heard of the hearing of
the ear. I've saw what the seeing through
faith, but now my eyes have seen the King. This young man believed
on the Lord. He confessed, I'm a sinner. All
these men were like, you're born in sin. And what that does when
a religious individual does it, say, well, you're no better than
I am. And we start comparing apples to apples. People get kind of
mad about that stuff. You tell somebody you're a sinner,
like, well, you're a sinner, too. Well, in religion, it was like a contest
or something. You look at each other now in
the gospel, and you're like, you're a sinner. It's like, yeah.
I know. Truth, Lord, I am. Lord, have
mercy on me, the sinner. You're not gonna insult me by
calling me a sinner. I'm not near as bad. I'm a lot worse
than what you think I am. That's the truth of it, isn't
it? We don't want everybody to know how bad we are. We're embarrassed
of ourselves sometimes. Not as often as we should be.
But he tells them here, because you say, you see, therefore your
sin remaineth. The confession to the believer
is, Lord, I'm blind. Lord, I'm deaf, and I love the
response of the Lord when we say that. He says, no, you're
not. I've given you your sight. No, you're not. I've given you
ears to hear. My sheep hear my voice. You can hear me now. You're
not blind. You're not deaf. You have a heart
of flesh, not a heart of stone, one that believes. That's what
he does for his people. He passes by, and rather than
passing us by, he passes by where we are and comes to us. And the
scripture talks in Ezekiel about how he spread his skirt over
us as a time of love, how that he swaddled us when no one had
pity or compassion upon us. We were polluted in our own blood
and he washed us, he swaddled us, he took us in as his own
children, all by grace. For by grace are you saved through
faith, in that not of yourself, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. These men failed to believe because
they were not given faith. It's that simple. It really is.
It really is. Scripture says, the hearing ear
and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them.
Proverbs 20, chapter 12, or chapter 12, verse 20. Hearing ear and
the seeing eye, the Lord had made even both of them. Unless the Lord comes to where
we are, And he says, I am. And I love that. He doesn't,
it's not what religion has made it out to be, where it's some
big outward expression or something. It's all on the inside, isn't
it? You just hear that still, small
voice. You hear that, you have peace. For the first time, I
have peace with God. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I have peace with God. I believe Him. You hear that
still small voice saying, I put away your sin. There's a rejoicing
and a rest in that. You can't find it anywhere else
because there's nothing else that compares to it. It doesn't
exist in anything else. We've been made to trust in His
blood alone. His righteousness alone is our
righteousness. His resurrection is evidence
of our justification. We have The evidence of our sin
being put away by him saying it is finished by shedding his
precious blood. We've been given eyes to see
and ears to hear. We've been made to believe with
the heart of flesh. We're given faith, we're given
sight. We hope in, we cling to. It's
like Jacob wrestling with that angel. He didn't wrestle him
the way that men think that he wrestled. Boy, you need to wrestle
with God more. get closer to God. He was clinging
on to him like a baby. He thought he was gonna die,
and he had latched ahold of him and was not willing to let him
go. Lord, I cannot let you go till you bless me. You may kill
me, but I've got to have Christ, and that's what we're made to
do. That's what we're made to do. We believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ as all of our wisdom, all of our righteousness, all
of our sanctification, and all of our redemption. We have no
confidence in the flesh. Now I just briefly want to read
our text one more time in closing, if you'd like to turn back to
Proverbs chapter four. Verse 20, my son, attend unto
my words, incline thine ear unto my sayings, let them not depart
from thine eyes, keep them in thy midst to thine heart, for
they are life unto those that find them in health, medicine,
to their flesh, medicine, to that heart of flesh that he gave
us. The believer will read this passage and they will say, Lord,
I will hear if you give me ears. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Lord, I will see if you take
the scales of this sin off of me and allow me to have sight.
If you say live, I will be alive. Lord, if you give me sight, I
will see your face as my only hope. I will hear your voice
as my only hope for eternal life. Lord, if you become the great
physician unto me, you are the great physician, but if you become
the great physician to me and you use that medicine, that balm
of Gilead, you wash me in your blood, I'll see you, I'll hear
you, I'll believe you. Lord, make me trust you evermore. We say, Lord, cleanse me. Lord,
cleanse me. This one thing I know, whereas
I was blind, now I see. If you will, Lord, thou canst
make me whole. I will be thou made whole. Let's
pray. Father, we desire to be made
whole by your precious blood, by your work alone. Bless us
to our understanding for your glory. In Christ's name, amen.