on the other day, a car accident. Remember them in your prayers, if you will. That's Chris Young and the Locusts family.

Begin our worship service tonight with your hand out, Christ to the cross, son to the dear, the old love of the cross.

? All are here, far away ?
Christ of the cross He healed in suffering and shame
And there in His grace
Behind my place
The purpose of God to fulfill
So I'll cherish the Christ of the cross
And before His throne I'll bow down
I will cling to the Christ of the cross
For He is the King I must crown

name of God lift His glory above, to bear all my sin on the tree. So I'll cherish the Christ of the cross, and before His throne I'll bow down, I will plead is a king I was crowned in the Christ of the cross and it was so divine of all the blessed beauty I see glory over my eyes and all can imbue mine with glory So I'll cherish the price of the throne And before this throne I'll bow down I'll cling to the right side of the throne He is the King I must crown.

Through the crisis of the cross, I must never be true. His shame and repose may be rare. For in love He conquers strains. His glory forever I'll share So I'll cherish the Christ on the cross And before His throne I bow down He is the King I must crown.

Turn your hand, it must be hymn number 113. Excuse me, 267. 267.

Oh, things work out for good. All things work out for good, we know, such is God's great design. He orders all our sins to be blown, our purpose is divine. For purpose is divine Is this the faith that keeps me still No matter what the test And makes me glory in His will For well I know it's best For well I know it's best So now the future holds so clear, but dark's the world begun. And mortals are immortal here, until their work is done. Until their work is done. You made the path You chose for me, we'll all be understood. If Heaven's clear and I a see, all things work out for good. All things work out for good.

We'll read the first three verses tonight. The title of my message is, Who Sinned? John chapter 9 verse 1, 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 hath this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God should be manifest in him.

Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, most merciful and gracious God, who loved us before the foundation of the world, and because you loved us, You sent your son into this world of your propitiation for our sins. For even your word declares herein is love, not that we loved you, but that you loved us, and sent your son, the propitiation for our sins. We thank you for that knowledge, that though we were entirely unlovely and unlovable, you loved us. It is a marvel and a wonder. We thank you for your grace that is abundant, abounding even greater than where sin abounded. We thank you for your mercy that's new every day. We thank you for the perfect death of Jesus Christ that satisfied your law and justice and put away our sins. that separated our sins from us as far as the east is from the west. We are thankful that in him we have full forgiveness from sin. And we know it's to the praise and the glory of your grace.

Father, we pray for those who are sick, those who are going through struggle and tribulation. I know especially for Sharon, she's recovering. I ask Lord you to continue to be with her also being Peggy Hill, and she's recovering from her back problem. I'm thankful that Judy's feeling better. We pray for this Chris Young and for the Yolks and Locust families lost this loved one.

Father, we ask that you would give us grace to pray for each other, to remember each other, call each other's names out to heaven. Help us now this night as we look at your work to see the glory and the wisdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to see the weakness and frailty of our own flesh, and cause us and our hearts to fall upon him. For he is our help, our shield, and our defense, our rock, and our weary land. Help us now, we pray in Christ's name.

Now this chapter is a treatise on Christ being the power and the wisdom of God. It sets up his verbal destruction of the various hopes of the Pharisees. It goes all the way through chapter 10. And these Pharisees at this time are bent on killing him and putting him out of business. And these first three verses are full of information concerning the various notions of men and also the declaration of God's sovereignty in all things. We just say all things work out for good. We know. But this is God's design for his purpose here below.

Our Lord is not the business of hiding from the Pharisees and passing through the midst, as it says in the last verse of the previous chapter, then took they up stones to cast to him. But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by. And as Jesus passed by, he saw man, which was blind, from his birth. He saw a man that was blind, and whether him being blind from birth was common knowledge or not is not revealed. The Lord knew it, and it appears the disciples all knew this fact about this blind man, that he was born this way.

This entire episode will end with the Lord declaring the difference between the elect and those who are elected. unto salvation by using what he did for this man as an example of the difference between those whom God has ordained to salvation and those he has not. If you look at verses 39 through 41, speaking of the same fact, he's the same Pharisee. He said, Jesus said, for judgment I am coming to this world that they which see not, there's a blind man who sees not, They which see not might see. And they that see, that is the Pharisees who say they see and we understand, they might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words and said, are we blind also? And Jesus said, if you were blind, you should have no sin. He's talking about this blind man who was made to see. But now you say, we see. Therefore your sin remaineth.

Being blind from birth and being made to see by Christ's power is a picture of the elect in nature and in grace. We who have received God's grace were blind to all things spiritual. We could not and would not see Christ. But the salvation of the elect is not conditioned upon us seeing Christ. but that He sets His eyes upon us. This is what matters. Does He see us? We know that He seeks His sheep, according to Luke 15, until He finds them. And those saving eyes have been set on the elect from the foundation of the world. And at the appointed time, He saw us and came to us and gave us faith to see Him. That's pictured over in Ezekiel. chapter 16 in verse 8, it says, Now when he passed by thee and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love. And I spread my skirt over thee and covered thy nakedness, yea, I swore unto thee and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine. Thou becamest mine.

Our Lord saw this man. He couldn't see Christ. He was blind. He'd been blind from birth, but our Lord saw him.

And disciples, When they saw this blind man, they had three questions, and though they may seem to be questions that could flow from the natural mind, they are actually religious questions formed from a religious mind. Because the issue that they address is sin. And we don't know anything, we don't even know that sin is sin, apart from the revelation that God has given in his book. That's how we know what to call it.

Our Lord told the Israelites, He said, you talk about heaven, you talk about hell. Who told you that? Where'd you hear that? I've declared these things from old. So if a person talks about hell or heaven, ask them, where'd you hear about that? They say, I don't believe in heaven. Say, where'd you hear about it? So these people are talking about sin, so it's a reference that they are talking in a religious manner. This is how they were informed. that this is a sin, so this is what they address.

The sin is understood or seeming addressed in reference to some concept of God. You don't know, you can't really talk about sin and not have some reference to the concept of there being a God and a reckoning for sin. These are disciples and the basis of their questions are formed by their Jewish religious minds. All these boys were Jews. They were Jews. How old was a Jew himself? And his disciples were among the Jews that he called to be his disciples. And their questions revealed a religious mindset concerning the troubles that attend men.

For they asked this question, who sinned? And look at this blind man. Can't see, been blind, born that way. They said, who sinned? People have that mindset. They have that mindset. Chris Christopherson, they said, why me, Lord? What have I ever done? What he had done made a difference in his life and his standing before God. You remember the sound of music. Maria said, I must have done something good because good things have happened to her. She must have done something good. I've been so many times to the hospitals and went outside and talked to people in the family. Sometimes I've heard men and women actually say, you know, to a relative, you know, if you were doing better, your mama wouldn't be sick. So that's the mindset. If somebody has troubles and trials have come their way, they must have done something bad. That's the way people think.

So the disciples, the first thing they say when they see this man blind from his birth, they say, who's sin? Who has sin? Somebody's sin, and this man is born blind because of it. Because of it. This was their first question. Who's sin? Who's sin?

Their second question to ask was, did this man sin? Did he sin? Now think about this. Since he was born blind, this asked if he sinned in the womb, and thus was born blind. Because that's the way they ask you. Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Did He send the womb that caused Him to be born alive? Well, there were a lot of theologians in that day and a lot of theology from different people. Pythagoras was a theologian and the Greek theology that held that the souls of sinful people could transmigrate into the souls of babies in the womb and therefore get their sin from somebody else. The Jews and some writers declared that the unborn child could sin. We know that all are considered sinners, we know that from the truth of the word of God, from the gospel of Romans. It says, for by one man sinning in the world and death by sin, so death has to come to all men, in whom all sin, speaking of Adam. And he didn't sin, he said, even those who didn't sin after the similitude of Adam's transgression. So when a child is born, he's born in sin.

But the indication here is that the sin was prior to the birth. What did this man do that he was born in sin? Well, active sin is generally attributed at birth. That's the language of scripture. Scripture says the child comes forth from the womb as soon as he is born, speaking lies. David said, I was conceived in iniquity. Scripture states that in the womb, children knew neither good nor evil. That's what he said of Jacob and Esau. The children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God's election might stand, saith the elder shall serve the younger. That's in Romans chapter 9 and verse 11.

They haven't done any good or evil. So the question was to them, a reasonable question, because that was the thinking of the day. whether it be the Greek idea or whether it be the Jewish idea, they thought that a child could sin in the womb and cause himself to be born blind.

The third question is another that is probably based on religious teaching. They ask this. The first question is who did sin? The second is did this man sin? And the third question is did his parents sin? Did his parents? That's probably based on religious teaching.

The scripture often declares that God passes the sins of the father down to the children through the second, third, and fourth generations. And what that means generally, and I know rather specifically, refers to the fact that when a father sins, there are ramifications that travel down through the history. of their family, of their family, that it ramifications, effects, and consequences of parents' sins sometimes follow future generations.

You probably know of occasions like this, of somebody in the community who's done a horrible thing, the father's done a horrible thing, the children suffer because of that. Because the father or mother has done a horrible thing. You know, a son of a murderer may carry that stigma throughout his life. I saw a documentary of a young girl, she was probably in her thirties now, but still young to me, and her father was that guy up in Chicago that killed all of those boys. And she's carried that stigma all her life. And so that's what it means when the Lord gives us the sins of the father as home to the children for the third and fourth generation.

So when they ask this question, did his parents sin? that caused him to be born blind. Some Jewish teachers assert that some evil a mother does during pregnancy can be transferred to the unborn child. Some of the Jewish teachers and writers said that.

So religiously, they were asking religious questions. Who sinned? Who sinned? Why is this man having troubles? Somebody must have sinned. Did he sin? Did his parents sin? So these are religious questions. They are informed by religion, which kind of tells us that though people outside of religion have no interest in what they seem to have in religion, they don't belong to a church, and say they don't believe in God and all that, but they talk like this. You're having trouble, you must have done something wrong.

Every person born in this world, born of Adam, is a religious person. Some way, some form, he is a religious person. Everybody that's born of man is born in the image of God. It says that in scripture, first Peter. Also in Genesis. Every person is religious. They might not say religious things, they might not sing amazing grace, but they the language of religion just as these men did and they were truly religious men after these three questions come forth the Lord has the answer the Lord has the answer he says this in verse 3 neither has this man sinned now he's not talking about the fact that this man's a sinner he's a sinner but he's saying The cause of his blindness was not that he sinned. That's not the cause of his blindness. Neither this man sinned nor his parents. The cause of his blindness is not his parents.

Well, why was he blind? For a reason that has nothing to do with anything he did or didn't do or his parents did or didn't do. He is blind that the works of God should be manifested in him. Think about that. This man was born blind. Had never seen anything. How come he was born blind? Because God made him to be born blind. Because God has intended for the foundation of the world to do something for that foundation. that His works might be made manifest. That's the message. The answer is in the message that the Lord's prophets and preachers bring. What is that message? God is sovereign. Here's where it starts. This is where everything starts. God's love is sovereign love. Nothing that Christ did or anybody else did causes God's love. Christ's death on the cross did not cause love, God's love. God's love caused the death of Christ on the cross. God's love for His people sent His Son to die in a room instead. God's love is behind it all. And that's sovereign love.

Why in the world would God love somebody like that? What manner of love is this, John said, that we should be called the sons of God? Of all people, we should be called the sons of God. Why didn't God love us? Because He would. Because he did. And you ain't gonna have no other answer than that. He is absolutely and completely silent. This is the message. This is the message of it. Today it will always be the message of this, how everything starts. If you don't start here, you miss it. You miss the whole shooting match. There is no gospel preach that God is my soccer. We might as well close up this joint and maybe turn it into a casino and make a little money out of it. Because if God ain't sovereign, there ain't nothing to this mess.

That's the language that our Lord said, and Paul quoted in Romans chapter 10, but in Isaiah chapter 52, verse 7. It says this, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet that bring up good tidings. That's the sound of somebody coming with good news. That publishes peace. Peace, would you like to hear that? Good things are going to happen. It publishes salvation. We love that word. How does it all take place? That saith unto Zion, that is the church, the elect, the people of God, the sheep, his bride. That saith unto Zion. What's the message? Straighten up and fly right. Is that it? You'll just do this and God will help you along the way. God helps those who help himself. What in the world is the message that we preach? Thy God reigneth. Doesn't say he will reign or he has reigned, though those are true. It says, E.T.H. Presently, present tense, active voice, he reigns. This is the message.

This man was born blind, not because he or his parents sinned. They were sinners indeed, but their sin was not the cause, not the cause of their child or their son being born blind. He was blind because of the sovereign God. who does all things after the counsel of his own will, made him so in order that his son might manifest once again that he was God, doing what only God can do, and that is the work of God.

Why is this man blind? It wasn't his sin, it wasn't his parents. Nobody sinned and caused it. Nobody sinned. It was an act of God that made him blind. He was born blind because Christ was going to make him see. That's why he was born blind.

You mean God uses people? God uses everybody. Everybody in this world has a purpose. There is no unemployment in God's economy. None whatsoever. Everybody got a job. Everybody serves a purpose. You and I will serve a purpose. We will serve a person that will honor His grace and His glory, or we will serve the purpose that will honor His justice and His wrath, but we will serve His purpose because He's God and that's what He does.

The troubles that attend the elect are by sovereign ordination. Through much tribulation, Paul said, we enter into the kingdom of heaven. Look over at James chapter 1. The book of James is all about our reaction to trials and tribulations in this world. That's what it's about.

James chapter 1 and verse 2 says, my brethren counted all joy. When you fall into divers temptations, that word temptations is trials, troubles. Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work. She may be perfect and in time wanting nothing.

Don't try to stop what's happening. Trust the Lord. Trust the Lord.

Israel was in slavery in Egypt. What a dilemma for a nation, the 12 tribes of Israel, the sons of Jacob, God's chosen people, were in Egypt in slavery, making bricks out of mud with no straw. Why? Because they were predestinated and ordained to be there even before they existed. It was the promise of God to Abraham. Jacob hadn't been born yet. Isaac hadn't been born yet. Abraham was told this by God in Genesis chapter 15.

Abraham didn't know he was going to have a son named Isaac who had birthed two sons named Jacob and Esau. He didn't know about these centuries. God said to Abraham, verse 13 of chapter 15, why is Israel suffering in Egypt? He said to Abraham, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years. And also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterwards shall they come out, that is, thy people, with a great substance."

Long time before it ever took place, our Lord had ordained that Israel would go into slavery. How did he figure, how did he make that happen? He sent a family. After Jacob was born, he married Leah and Rachel. They bore sons, 12 of them, and they had a family. And they had nothing. Several years before, they got mad at the boys. They got mad at one of the boys named Joseph. Of course, he was kind of a fella that was honored and above the other boys. He had been given a coat of many colors. And he even said, you know, fellas, he went out to them and said, fellas, I had this dream that y'all bowed down to me. All of you bowed down to me. Oh, it made them mad. And they dug a pit, threw him in the pit. They was going to kill him. They said, better not kill him. Let's do something else. So they slew him east. He took his coat, that coat of many colors, he covered it in blood and took it back to his father and said he was slain by the lion. But that actually sold him into slavery in Egypt.

In Egypt, he was raised up because he was a brethren. He was the one whom God had said, your brethren are going to bow down to you. Another one of those things that God had ordained didn't look like it was going to happen. But he was chosen by Pharaoh because he was smart. He had solved riddles. And they figured out signs and symbols while he was in prison. And Pharaoh said, you've got some smarts. I want you to help me out. I've had this dream. There were seven fat cattle and seven lean cattle. I don't know what that means.

Jacob said, well, here's what it means. It means for seven years, you're going to have plenty in this land. And then you're going to have seven years of famine. Well, that seven years of famine was what Jacob was going to feel back here in Israel. He said that what you need to do is everything you grow in those years of fat, make you some storehouses to store your grain and your corn and your wheat, all those things for those seven years of lean income, you would have plenty to feed your people.

Famine came to Jacob's land, and Jacob said, I've heard that they have corn. Egypt. Yep, let's go to Egypt. You know the story. You know the story. They finally ended up seeing Joseph, the one that they had discarded and thrown away. What did they do? They bowed down to him. He said, get up, I'm your brother. He said, you meant that Throwing me in that pit. Killing that beast. Bloodied up my coat. Lying to my father. You meant it for evil. God meant it for good. To save much people alive. Much people alive.

All that took place because God said years before that people were going to sleep. They were delivered out of Egypt by God's mighty hand. Why is this man blind? Not because he sinned. Not because his mother and daddy sinned. He was blind because God was going to make him sin. This was God's work manifest and will yet be the thing that enrages the Pharisees.

God is sovereign. That's the message. What he has purposed will stand, and he will be glorified. In Isaiah chapter 14 verse 24, he said, what I've purposed, what I've thought, shall come to pass. God is sovereign. That's not the God you know. You don't know God.

Father, bless us to understand and pray in Christ's name. Amen.