Thank you, Tom, for picking that
hymn. Let's open our Bibles together
to John chapter 11. John chapter 11. I've titled this message, Faith Is
Not Blind. Faith Is Not Blind. Our text is found in the 11th
chapter of John beginning at... I'm sorry. I feel like I'm in the wrong
place in my Bible. Give me just a minute. Okay, I'm sorry. John chapter
11 beginning at verse 7. Then after that, saith he to
his disciples, let us go into Judea again. And his disciples
said unto him, master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee,
and goest thou thither again? And Jesus answered, are there
not 12 hours in the day? If a man walk in the day, he
stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But
if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no
light in him." They had tried to kill the Lord
the last time he was in Jerusalem. And as far as the disciples could
tell, they had barely escaped. And now the Lord, in finding
out that Lazarus was sick in Bethany, said, let us go back.
Let us go back. And these disciples were afraid. They were afraid, and rightly
so. You would be too, I would be. They thought, you know, this
is it. Matter of fact, Thomas is gonna
say, you know, let us go, but we're gonna die with him. These
disciples were sure that going back to Judea would result in
their death. Oftentimes, the Lord leads his
children into places where they don't know what to do. The
reason I wanted to read that passage from Psalm 107, because
it is true that the Lord's grace begins at our wit's end. And it's not until we have no
place else to go that we find ourselves crying out to him.
The Lord was putting his disciples in a place where they were gonna
have to rely on him. They were gonna have to just
hear what he said and do what he said to do because it didn't
make sense to them. How oftentimes the Lord does
that in our lives. He takes us to places we don't
understand. He puts us in situations that
don't make sense to us and we find ourselves in a place we
don't know what to do. And that's the Lord. That's the
Lord raising up the waves. The way of the Lord is through
the seas. The scripture tells us that.
And the seas are often turbulent. And we find ourselves like those
disciples on the boat in the Sea of Galilee. Lord, care us
not that I perish. Lord, you're gonna have to do
something. And that's when he, just as we read in Psalm 107,
what happened on the Sea of Galilee was a fulfillment of what was
said about the Lord in Psalm 107. He spoke and the waves were
calm. What manner of man is this? that
the wind and the waves obey his voice. The Lord took Moses from
the backside of the desert and sent him in to deliver the children
of Israel. Lord, who am I? How am I gonna
be able to do this? And then for the next 40 years,
he led this massive group of Israelites that are called the
stiff-necked people continually rebelling against God, and Moses
was in a place where he was dependent upon the Lord for every step
of the way. Abraham is called the father of the faithful. And
Abraham was comfortable in the Ur of the Chaldees with his father
and his family, and the Lord called him out to go to a land
that he did not know. And step by step, he had to wait on the Lord to show him
what to do. He didn't know where he was going. What a picture. We walk by faith,
not by sight. The flesh resists. The flesh, because it operates
by sight, wants to know what's going on and wants to see what's
next, but the Lord is going to make it so that his children
have to walk in the valley of the shadow of this death in which
we live by faith, not by sight, trusting him all along the way. Let us go back into Judea. Lord,
they're gonna kill us. Proverbs chapter three, verse
five. Trust in the Lord with all of
your heart and lean not on your own understanding, but in all
of your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy path. You know, we make our plans and
God deviseth our ways. Here's the disciples. They're
gonna walk in the light, but it'll be walking after him, following
after Christ. That's what it means to walk
in the light. The Lord tells us that in this
world we shall have tribulation but that we're to be of good
cheer because He has overcome the world. It's His world. He's ordained every part of it.
He's purposed it for His glory and for our good and He's going
to put us in a place where we have to look to Him and trust
Him. Trust Him. He is our light. When the flesh
wants the light of the world to shine to show us what to expect
The Lord turns that light out and makes us depend upon that
light that can't be seen with the arm of flesh. You know, I
was thinking that the men of this world suffer many of the
same things that we suffer. They suffer disease, they suffer discouragements. They suffer
death, they suffer divorce. What's the difference between
the believers suffering and their suffering? Unbelievers are able to find
rest and comfort in the wisdom of this world and in the arm
of flesh. They're able to rely upon those
things, we can't. We try, we try to find our hope
in those things that we can see but we can't find any rest there. And so, for us, the only rest
that can be found is the rest that can only be found in Christ
and that can only be found through the eyes of faith. But this faith
is not a blind faith, it's a faith that the Lord shines that light
and shows us how we are, how we are to walk. John 8, verse
12 says, I am the light of the world. He that followeth after
me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. And so having light in a dark
place is following after Christ. It's looking to him. He that
followeth me shall have the light of life. And apart from him,
we have no light. We can't find light where the
unbeliever can find light. The unbeliever might be able
to make a covenant with death. They may be able to look to their
performance and find some comfort of hope even in death. Well, you know, how many unbelievers
you've heard say, well, yeah, I'm not worried about dying,
you know, I've been a good person. And the scripture tells us they're
going to stand before God and say, but God, but Lord, we did
many wonderful things in thy name. We look to ourselves, we
can't find any comfort. We can't find any assurance of
salvation in our works. And so there's no place to rest for the believer outside of Christ. Let us go into Judea. Lord, they're
gonna kill us, but we're gonna follow you. We're gonna follow
you, whatever you say. If we walk in the light as he
is in the light. That's what the Lord is telling.
That's what he's teaching these disciples right now. He stayed
two days behind. That certainly will glorify him
all the more when he raises Lazarus from the dead, who'd been dead
four days. He's trying the faith of Mary and Martha, leaving them
back, not knowing what's gonna happen. Now he's trying the disciples'
faith. And they object, they say to
him, but Lord, we're gonna die if we go back there. Nevertheless,
whatever you say, Lord, we're gonna, And that's when the Lord
said, I am the light of the world. He that walks in the light as
I am in the light. If we walk in the light as he
is in the light, we have fellowship, one with another. We have fellowship
with each other. We have fellowship, most importantly,
with Christ. And the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us of all
of our sin. There's our hope. Isaiah chapter
2 verse 5 says, O house of Jacob, come ye and let us walk in the
light of the Lord. The Lord's telling these disciples,
we've got to walk in the light while it's day. The night's coming
when no man can work. And what he means by that is
that his light is to do the will of his father. And he tells us
over in John chapter eight, I think, the light's only gonna be with
you for a little longer, and then the light's gonna be out,
and you've got to, and that's what he's saying right now. This
light that you have with you now, my light is walking in the
will of my father. And we have to do this. What
the Lord's declaring, he's not just trying their faith, but
he's declaring himself to be an obedient to his father. He's
saying, this is the will of my father. I'm doing what my father
has told me to do. And I'm walking in the light
while it's a day. Psalm 89 verse 15 says, blessed
is the people that hear the joyful sound. They shall walk in the
light of his countenance. To hear the joyful sound of his
voice, come, follow me. Follow me, what Matthew got right
up from his table, and follow Christ. All you that are burdened
and heavy laden, come, come. Learn of me. My burden is light,
my yoke is easy. I've carried the burden of this
world already. in looking to Christ and resting
in him, we're walking in that light. This faith is not blind faith.
I looked up a definition for blind faith and this was the
definition I found. The absence of any reason, evidence,
argument. The absence of any reason, evidence,
or argument is blind faith. Well, if Christ has revealed
himself to us we have lots of reason, we have plenty of evidence
that And we've got the strong argument of God's word to direct
our steps. So it's not blind faith. Our
eyes are wide open. The only people blind are those
who can't see. The Lord told those Pharisees
when they asked him, are you saying that we're blind? What
did the Lord say to them? If you were blind, then you could
see, but because you say you can see, therefore your sins
remain. The only blind ones are the ones who, blind faith is
the life of the unbeliever. They're the ones who have no
reason. They're the ones who have no evidence. They're the
ones who have no argument for the things of God. And they're
walking blindly. The child of God, we've got reason.
Although the gospel cannot be understood by reason. When the Lord reveals it to us,
it's the most reasonable thing we've ever heard in our whole
life. It's the simplest, clearest,
most truthful thing that we've ever heard. It's so reasonable
that we've risked everything for it. I mean, we can't not
believe it. It's so reasonable to us. When the Lord gives you faith,
nothing else makes sense. It is profoundly reasonable. Faith is not blind. It's reasonable that God is God. It's unreasonable for someone
to say, well I believe that there's a God but he's not omnipotent. He doesn't have the power to
overpower me and my free will. He's not sovereign. He doesn't
have the right to choose according to his own will and purpose who
he's going to save. He's not. You see, that's unreasonable. That's just nonsense to say that
there is a God and then strip him of the attributes of God. This is not blind faith that
we have. It's the most reasonable thing
we've ever heard. It's the only thing that makes sense. We believe that our God is a
God of purpose. He's not taking a shot at it
here and there and trying to figure out what to do next. He's
omniscient. He knows the beginning to the
end. He's God. What reason there is in our faith. It's perfectly reasonable. It's
reasonable that if there is a God, he must be holy. And then holy
must be just. If he's just, he's gotta be righteous. He's gotta demand payment for
sin. And there's no way that I could
possibly satisfy his justice. There's no way I could measure
up to his holiness. I've got to have a substitute.
He's got to do something for me if I'm gonna be made right
with God. It's gotta be by grace. That's the only thing that's
reasonable. Our faith is not blind faith. It's not us just reaching out
into something that we hope is going to work out in the end.
That's what the unbeliever does. We walk by faith, not by the
sight of our flesh, but we do have sight. The Lord has given us eyes to
see. So this faith is not blind in
that it has no reason. And it's not blind in that it
has no evidence. What is the evidence of your
faith? Is it not your faith? It's what
the scripture says. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. I can't see
these things with my eyes, but I can't not believe it. I can't
not believe it. The faith that God has given
me is the evidence. I didn't come to these things
by myself. Here's the evidence that I have.
The evidence that I have is that I see and that I believe. I'm persuaded, I can't be unpersuaded. I've been taught of God, I can't
be untaught. I know these things are true. I'm able, by the grace of God,
I'm able to set my affections on things above where Christ
is seated at the right hand of God. I'm able to look to him
and cry out to him and rest in him and rely upon him and believe
on him. Here's my evidence. The evidence
is my experience. My love for Christ is real. It's
real. It's based on his love for me,
but I've got to have him. And I want to know him better.
And I want to love him more truly. And I long for that day when
I see him as he is and be made like him. When I be rid of sin
and be made in the likeness of Christ. The Holy Spirit in the darkest of hours The Holy
Spirit speaks truth and peace and hope and rest and comfort
to my soul. When I've got no place else to
go, when I'm at my wits end and God brought me there, he raised
up the seas. He gave me no place else to go
except to him. And when I went to him, I found
him faithful and I found him sufficient. And I trusted that
whatever he did was right and whatever he's gonna do was gonna
be right. And not just right, but best,
best. Able to rest my immortal soul
in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm able to
believe that he is the sovereign savior of sinners, that he's
the son of God, and that he accomplished what
he came to do, put away all the sins of all of his people and
establish a righteous. I can rest there. That's my evidence. We're not, what did that Psalm
say in Psalm 107? They run to and fro. Looking for something. Some of
us had that experience in religion. Went from one religious persuasion
to another religious persuasion. Catholicism to free will Baptist
to reform to whatever. And listening, oh, well, there's
a preacher over there. Maybe he's got something that'll scratch
my itch. Maybe he's got something that
now what do we, we just want to fight. We've got Christ, we
just want more of him. Just give me more of Christ.
I don't need to look anywhere else. Able to rejoice in Christ, able
to be happy in him, content with him. When sorrow and sadness, when
shame of sin and sickness and whatever, whatever come, I find
Christ. to be my solace. That's my evidence. He is my evidence. I can come to him with my sin
and know that he's not going to cast me away. He's not gonna, he's not gonna
roll his eyes. He's not gonna say, not again.
No. He's like the father waiting
for the prodigal with his arms open, lavishes him with kisses,
puts a new robe on him, shoes on his feet, ring on his finger. He always receives his children.
He never puts them off. We want to follow him. We want
to honor him. This is my evidence. Tasted the sweetness of his grace
and we want more. We want more. Even when we wander from him,
We can't stay away. You just can't. He keeps bringing us back. He
got you on a leash. He can't go far. This blind face has reason and
it has evidence. What could explain our love for
the church, our love for his word, our love for his people?
What could explain that? We had just decided we were gonna
love these things. The world doesn't love it. Are these not the manifestations
of Christ in this world that we're attracted to? We're drawn
to him and so we're drawn to those things which he's provided
for us here in this world. Yes, there is a strange attachment of the flesh to this world. And that's the daily struggle,
isn't it? The Spirit warring against the flesh and the flesh
warring against the Spirit. We cannot be what we ought, what
we want to be. If it wasn't for the Holy Spirit
giving us a new spirit in Christ, we wouldn't have any interest
in things of God. We'd go right along with everyone
else. And if it wasn't for the flesh
that still remains with us, we'd be with Him in glory. The attachments of this world, though often they seem very strong,
are but a spider web compared to the cords of kindness that
he uses to draw us to himself. He overpowers those things in
this world and keeps us coming before the throne of grace to
find help in our time of need. No, our faith is not blind. It
has plenty of reason, has plenty of evidence, and it has an argument. It has an argument. That argument
is nothing less than the word of God. God has taught us, he's
made us to believe that this is his word. And we've hung the
hopes of our immortal souls on his promises and on what he has
said. Here's our argument. And when
the accuser of the brethren, that's what Satan is called.
He's called the accuser of the brethren. You remember Sunday,
we were looking at Ziba and Mephibosheth. And when Mephibosheth went back
to David, Mephibosheth said to David, Ziba deceived me. And I ran out of time, I didn't
get to the next point that Mephibosheth said to David that Ziba also
slandered me. He slandered me before the king.
He told the king things that weren't true about me. Ziba's name translated means
statue. Statue. A statue is the form
of a man without any life. Satan is the form of godliness
who denies the power thereof. And when the accuser of the brethren
comes to us, he uses the law to accuse us of our sin. And
we know in our conscience that there's truth to his accusations. And so if we listen to the accusations,
what do we do? Well, we make new commitments
and he takes us back to the law and he makes us to try to fix
the problem with being more faithful to the commandments of God. Ziba has slandered me, king. The accuser of the brethren,
if he is successful in the accusations that he makes against us by getting
us to look to our sin and look to the law and trying to fix
the problem, then he succeeded. The power of God is that our
sin's been put away. The power of God. He's got the
form of godliness. The law is a form of godliness.
He's got the form of godliness denying the power thereof. The
power of godliness and the power of repentance and the power of
forgiveness and the power of walking in the light is the grace
of God. That's the power. It's the grace
of God. Let me show you that. Turn with
me to Titus chapter three. I'm sorry, Titus chapter two,
verse 11. For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared to all men. teaching us that denying
ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously,
and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope
and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior,
Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem
us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people,
zealous of good works, These things speak and exhort and rebuke
with all authority and let no man despise thee. Yes, these
are the things that God puts in the hearts of every believer
to want to do. The power to do it, it's the
grace of God that teaches us these things. It's the grace
of God that teaches us. The accuser of the brethren would
put us back under the law. God's in his word, he's given
us plenty of... Let me show you another one,
Ephesians chapter five, turn with me there real quick. Verse eight, for you were sometimes
darkness, I mean, you used to walk in the dark. You didn't
have any light. We're talking about faith and the light of
faith that's in Christ and in his word. And we don't separate
those two things. For you were sometimes darkness,
but now are you light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is
in all goodness the righteousness and truth." And righteousness
and truth. This is the Spirit of God that gives us that. The
Spirit of God teaches us to look to Christ and to follow Christ.
These disciples, as far as they were concerned, they were going
to die. But they were willing to follow the light. Why? Because
the Lord had revealed to them that he was the light. and whatever
he purposed for them, are they proving what is acceptable unto
the Lord and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of
darkness, but rather reprove them? For it is shame even to
speak of the things which are done of them in secret." You
know, the things that are done in this world, we shouldn't even
be talking about them. But all things that are reproved
are made manifest by the light. For whatsoever do it, for whatsoever
doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, awake thou
that sleepeth and arise from the dead and Christ shall give
thee light. You see, there's no way to walk
as the Lord would have us to walk and as we want to walk.
apart from Christ giving us that light. See then that you walk circumspectly,
not as fools, but as wise. God has made him to be our wisdom,
redeeming the time because the days are evil. The world in which
we live is evil. It's an evil world. Lord, if
we could, we would not participate in any of it. And here's what
the Lord's telling us. Walk after me. You'll not fulfill
the lust of the flesh. Wherefore, be ye not unwise,
but understand what the will of the Lord is, and be not drunk
with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Speaking to yourselves in psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in
the heart as unto the Lord. This is a spiritual work. See,
the world doesn't know anything about this. He goes on to tell
us how wives relate to the husbands and husbands to the wives and
in chapter six, the children to their parents and servants. But those things can only be
done in light of what the Lord's telling us here. It's a spiritual
work of grace. It's not a work that we pull
ourselves up to and that's... God's Word is our argument. It is the grace of God that teaches
us to deny ungodliness and worldly lust. Do we not sing that in the hymn
Amazing Grace? You know, you hear unbelievers
sing Amazing Grace. They say, don't sing that. At
least change the words to the first line. You don't believe
yourself to be a wretch. When we sing Amazing Grace, brethren,
let us sing from the heart. "'Twas grace that taught my heart
to fear and grace my fears relieved. "'Twas grace that brought us
safe thus far. And it is grace that will lead
us home. And all of that grace is in the
glorious person of our Savior, who we look to, follow after. He's the light of the world. Lord, where you're leading us
right now, we're gonna die. Come, follow me. Follow me. Walk while you have the light.
And here's the glorious truth of the believer's walk. You walk
in the light that God's given you and he gives you more light. Just the way it works. All right,
let's pray. Our heavenly Father, thank you.
Thank you for your word. Lord, thank you for your grace.
Thank you for the revelation of thy dear son. Forgive us, Lord, of our, our rebellion and even our hesitancy
to follow thee. Lord, you know what's right.
Thank you for continually bringing us to our wit's end, that your
grace might begin. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. 226, 326, 326.