Good morning. The Lord told Nicodemus in John
chapter three, more importantly, the Lord speaking to us this
morning, a man can receive nothing except it be given to him of
the Lord. That's where we are right now.
Lord, I can't get anything. I can't receive anything unless
you give it to me. Let's stand together. Tom's going
to come lead us in the hymn on the back of your bulletin. How blessed, blessed is the place
when Jesus Christ, our God, reveals His glory and His grace and sheds
His love abroad. Here on His throne, the mercy
seat, Emmanuel, God's Son, has promised He will sinners meet
and make His goodness known. Oh, thank you, Lord, for such
a place, the church you're blessed about, where sinners saved by
sovereign grace together worship God. Please be seated. Would you please turn with me
in the Word of God to Matthew 25. Matthew 25 verse 1. In the nation of Israel, they
would take the ram's horn and they would blow it. And that
was a signal to the people that it's time to gather for worship.
And that's what we try to do here. We read the Word of God
and signal out as that it's time to meet together and worship
the Lord. And as we start verse 1, I always
ask myself and children that we teach, I said we're looking
for two things. What do these verses tell us
about Christ and how He saves His people? That's what I want
to know. What's the Lord revealed to me?
What's this tell me about you and salvation? Verse one, this
is a parable the Lord had given. He says, then shall the kingdom
of heaven be likened unto 10 virgins, which took their lamps
and went forth to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were wise and five
foolish. They that were foolish took their
lamps and took no oil with them. But the wise took oil in their
vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried,
they all slumbered and slept. I'm guilty of that. The Lord's
coming and I'm guilty of slumber and sleeping. And at midnight,
there was a cry made, behold, the bridegroom cometh, go you
out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose
and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the
wise, give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out. But the
wise answered saying, not so, lest there be not enough for
us and you, but go ye rather to them that sell and buy for
yourselves. And while they went out to buy,
the bridegroom came. And they that were ready went
in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other
five virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. And verse 12 is what
I want us to see. But he answered and said, Verily
I say unto you, I know you not. Verse 13, Watch therefore. For
none of us know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son
of Man cometh." I'd like to think, I guess, that
this oil is God's Spirit. There can be no light without
the Spirit of God. And if you have God's Spirit,
you will have light. And when the Bridegroom cometh,
that's the Lord Jesus Christ, those five, were ready to meet
him. And they went to the wedding.
This is the day of judgment. And he went, they went in and
the five that were not ready, they came and knocked on the
door and the Lord answered him just as he did the Pharisees.
I don't know you. And he never opened the door
to them. I pray the Lord impress upon our hearts that Christ is
coming back. And I have to tell you, I hope
you're better than me. He could be coming today. Do
I really believe that? Or do I just take it? Well, he's
coming back sometime. Oh, that we would be prepared
to meet him today. Tomorrow's too late. May we bow
in prayer. Lord, we've gathered this morning.
We're thankful for your promises to know that the Lord Jesus Christ
is present with us right now. He's here right now, Lord. And
we ask, Lord, that you would enable us to worship you. You
would enable us to pray to you are right. And Lord, that you would prepare
our hearts to meet with you. We ask your blessing upon our
pastor and his family and that you would comfort and encourage
them. But this morning, Lord, that you would put your words
into his heart and in his lips. Give him boldness to speak, Lord.
And we pray for us sinners. Oh, Lord, that you might give
us the faith to believe it. Send your spirit to us, Lord,
or all will be in vain. We especially pray for those
who are strangers to the grace of Christ. And we plead with you, Lord,
for their souls. They will not come to you, Lord,
and they cannot save themselves. But we know, Lord, that you and
you alone are able. And we plead with you, God, for
their souls, that you would be willing this day to reveal yourself
to them, and give them the faith, the belief. We ask that Christ
would take this prayer and make it acceptable to God the Father.
Amen. Number 352 from the hardback
hymnal, 352. you Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly. While the nearer waters roll,
while the tempest still is high, Hide me, O my Savior, hide, Till
the storm of life is past. Safe into the haven guide, O
receive my soul at last. Other refuge have I none, hangs
my helpless soul on Thee. Leave, ah, leave me not alone,
still support and comfort me. All my trust on Thee is stayed,
All my help from Thee I bring, Cover my defenseless head With
the shadow of Thy wing. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in Thee I find. Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind. Just and holy is Thy name. I am all unrighteousness. False and full of sin I am, Thou
art full of truth and grace. Plenteous grace with Thee is
found, Grace to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams
abound, make and keep me pure within. Thou of life the fountain art,
freely let me take of Thee. Bring Thou up within my heart,
rise to all eternity. Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Isaiah 43, please. Isaiah chapter 43. Verse 8 is our text. Bring forth the blind people
that have eyes and the deaf that have ears. And my question this
morning is, what is it that blind people see and what is it that
deaf people hear? I've titled this message, Hope
for the Blind and the Deaf. To be physically blind or to
be physically deaf in this world would be difficult. To be spiritually blind and spiritually deaf would make
life with God impossible. Relatively speaking, few people
suffer with the physical handicap of blindness and deafness, while
the vast majority go through this world spiritually blind
and spiritually deaf. If a person is physically blind
or if they are physically deaf, it is obvious to them and to
everyone around them. Spiritual blindness and spiritual
deafness, on the other hand, is undetected by everyone except
for those who can see and hear. Religion is blind. When the Lord spoke words of
condemnation against the religious establishment of His day, the
disciples came to Him in private and said, Lord, You've offended
them. And the Lord said, Leave them
alone. For they are blind guides leading
blind people, and if the blind lead the blind, they're all going
to fall into the pit. Now I don't want to fall into
the pit. I need the Lord to give me sight.
The church at Laodicea proudly thought that they were increased
in goods and needed nothing. And the Lord said to them, do
you not know that you are miserable and poor and blind and naked? Come unto me. Buy gold, tried
in the fire. bring forth the blind people
that have eyes and the deaf that have ears. Now the scriptures are clear
that we come into this world spiritually dead in trespasses
and sins and one thing I know about dead people is that dead
people are blind and dead people are deaf. You show me a corpse
and I will show you a person who cannot see and cannot hear.
And the Lord makes it clear that that's how we came into the world. And if we have any hope of having
eyes to see and ears to hear, He's going to have to give them
to us. In Matthew chapter 9 the scripture says, Two blind men
came to the Lord and begged for mercy. Have mercy on us, son
of David, that we might see. And the Lord said to them, Believest
thou that I am able to do this? And they said, Yea, Lord. And
the Lord said, Let it be according to your faith. He's the only
one that can give hearing ears. In Proverbs chapter 20, verse
20, the hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made them
both. So if I'm gonna be able to see,
he's gonna have to open the eyes of my understanding. If I'm gonna
be able to hear, he's gonna have to unstop my ears and enable
me to hear. When John sent word back to the
Lord, wondering if he was the Christ, or should we expect another? John was in prison, waiting to
be beheaded, and wondering, if this is the Christ, why am I
here? And what did the Lord say? Tell John, the blind see, and
the deaf hear. That will assure him. And it did. John was able to
go to his death with the hope that Jesus was the Christ, the
Son of the living God. Why? Because He had given blind
people sight and He had given deaf people hearing. So what about you? Are you by nature blind and deaf? Are you completely dependent
upon Him to give you sight and hearing. That's what this verse
is saying. Bring forth the blind people
that have eyes and the deaf that have ears. Where do we get those
eyes? Where do we get those ears? In John chapter 9, the whole
chapter is about a man that the Lord healed from blindness. And
the scripture says that He found him in the synagogue and the
disciples He brought him up and said, Lord, why is he blind? Is it because of his sin or is
it because of the sins of his parents? And the Lord said, oh
no, you got it all wrong. Neither. This man was born blind,
been blind all his life. Why? The Lord answers the question. He says, but that the work of
God might be manifest in him. That's why he was born blind,
and that's why you're born blind, that's why I was born blind.
So that God would give all the glory for having given us sight. Now I fear that that parable
that Michael just read might be accurate in illustrating the church as far as the proportion
of people that are blind. I wonder, I wonder sometimes
if half of us are not ready. And when I wonder that, I have
to wonder about myself. Lord, don't let me be a foolish
virgin. Don't let me confuse information
for inspiration. Lord, open my eyes and unstop
my ears because I cannot hear the voice of God and I cannot
see Christ unless the Lord does it. No amount of preparation,
no amount of study, no amount of good works, no amount of effort
on my part will bring me to where I can see and hear. He has to
do it. And the Lord said that at the
end of John chapter 9. He said, for judgment came I
into the world that they which see not might see. And that they
which see might be made blind. Did you get that? For judgment
came I into the world, that they which see not might see, and
that they which see might be made blind. And the next verse,
the Pharisee says, are you suggesting that we're blind? The Lord had
just called them blind guides leading the blind. Are you saying
that we're blind? And the Lord said, if you were
blind, then you would have no sin. But
because you say you can see, therefore your sins remain. If you were blind, you'd have
no sin. But because you say that you
believe, therefore your sins remain. What does a blind man see? That
the only hope he has to stand in the presence of a holy God
is to be without sin. The only chance. Do you see that?
Do you see that the only hope that you have to stand accepted
in the presence of a holy God is to be sinless? Now you make
that statement to religious folks who are living out by the law,
and they'll say, well, you know, I'm doing my best, but I'm not
sinless. God teaches you the gospel, you'll
understand what the Lord said, for judgment came unto the world. If you were blind, you'd have
no sin. But because you say you can see,
therefore your sins remain. Listen to what the Lord said
in 1 John chapter 3. Whosoever is born of God does
not commit sin. For his seed, that's Christ,
remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he's born of God. Can you see that? Your only hope
to stand in the presence of a holy God and be accepted by Him is
for you to be without sin. How can it be? How can a person
who is nothing but sin stand in the presence of a holy God,
sinless, to be found in Him? Not having my own righteousness
which is of the law, but that righteousness which is by the
faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, I can be accepted in the
Beloved. There is a man, there is a man
who never sinned. And if he stands in my stead,
if he presents himself on my behalf, if he offers up his righteousness
for me, Then I can be without sin. Why? Because his seed remaineth
in me, and I cannot sin, for I'm born of God. You see that? Those who can't see, the blind
Pharisees, the one that the Lord said, because you say you can
see, therefore your sins remain, they were hoping in their righteousness
for the hope of their salvation. They were hoping in their obedience.
They were hoping in their free will. They were hoping in their
works. Those who can see have all their
hope in Christ. If any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. Can you see
that? Can you see that apart from Christ,
you're nothing but sin, and in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are
perfectly righteous, without sin, accepted in the Beloved? What is it that a blind man sees? He sees that all the Word of
God is true. He doesn't pick and
choose. He doesn't say, well, yeah, I
got that, but you know, I don't know about this other. Listen to Isaiah chapter 29,
verse 18. In that day shall the deaf hear
the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out
of obscurity and out of darkness. In that day. In that day. In that day they will know that
in the volume of the book it is written of me. They will know
that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable
for doctrine and for correction and for reproof and for instruction
in righteousness that the man of God might be thoroughly furnished,
thoroughly furnished unto all good works, perfect before God. Can you see that this book is
a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, well I can't, I don't understand
it all. I didn't ask that. I don't understand
it all either. A whole lot of it I don't understand.
But it doesn't keep me from believing it. Our Lord said in John chapter
8 verse 47, He that is of God heareth God's words. You do not
hear my words because you're not of God. In that day. What else does a
blind man see? He sees that he's without sin.
He sees that the scriptures are the only means by which he can
know God. And all of them are about Christ.
He just sees that. He doesn't look for an experience. He doesn't look for a feeling.
He doesn't look for signs and wonders. A wicked and perverse
generation seeketh after a sign. He's looking to the Word of God.
Feelings come and feelings go. Feelings are deceiving. My only warrant is the Word of
God. None else is worth believing.
That's my only hope. I can't rely upon a prayer that
I prayed. I can't rely upon a feeling I
had. I can't rely upon experiences that I had. I can't rely upon
any... I've got to hang all the hopes
of my salvation on the revealed truth of God's Word. And the
Lord said, if you know the truth, the truth will set you free. What else does a blind man see?
He sees that he's nothing but sin, apart from Christ, and in
Christ, he's without sin. If you were blind, you would
have no sin. But because you say you can see,
they were looking at all the wrong things, weren't they? Therefore, your sins remain. When the Lord gives you eyes
to see, you just know that the hope of your salvation is bound
up in the Word of God. Reveal Christ to me. What else does a blind man see?
He sees that the only hope for anyone to be saved is for God
to predestinate it. I was sharing the gospel with
a man this week, older than me, been religious, and confessed
to me he didn't know the Bible. He said, but I started talking
to him about God sovereignly choosing a people before the
world began. His eyes lit up. He said, I don't
know much. He said, but I've always known
that had to be the way it was. And I said, Jay, you're very
close. I've always known. He said, if God is God, how is
it that he could be dependent upon us to choose him? When I started talking about
election and predestination, he just knew it was true. And I'm very hopeful. I thought,
well, maybe the Lord's opening your eyes. He hath chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless
before Him in love. There's my hope. I see that.
I see that. I cannot choose God. He's got
to choose me. He's got to make me willing in
the day of His power that having predestinated us unto the adoption
of children according to the good pleasure of His will. I
see that if God be God, then He's absolutely sovereign. He's
not dependent upon me for anything. He's the one who has the right
to make from the same lump of clay a vessel of honor and a
vessel of dishonor. Bring forth the blind people
that have eyes and the deaf that hear. What about you? Is there hope
for your soul? Can you fit your... Has God given
you eyes to see? John chapter 9 at the end of
that story. By the way, the Pharisees began
to interrogate this man that the Lord had healed, wanting
to know who healed him and how he healed him, because the Lord
healed him on the Sabbath. And they said, he cannot be of
God because he violated the Sabbath. He broke their rules on what
was to be done on the Sabbath day. And the man said, he said,
I don't know. The Lord had not revealed himself
to him yet. They asked him who healed you a man called Jesus. That's all he knew It's all he
knew and the Lord Didn't reveal anything else. He left him to
himself because that man had to be excommunicated out of religion
and that's exactly what happened and they said They said you're
one of his disciples We are Moses' disciples. That's what they said.
We're Moses' disciples. We're living by the law. And so they excommunicated him. They condemned him to hell. That's what they did. That was
the dreaded thing. You remember they brought his
parents and his parents wouldn't talk with him because the parents
had heard that if anybody supports Jesus of Nazareth, they're going
to kick him out of the synagogue. To be kicked out of the synagogue
is to be condemned by the religious establishment that you're going
to hell. And that's exactly what they did to this man. They put
him out of the synagogue. Now, I can't imagine. I mean,
what a day. He'd been born blind, been blind
all his life. All of a sudden, for the first
time in his life, he sees. And within hours after he sees,
he's condemned by the religious establishment as hellbound. And so he's sitting there trying
to figure out what's going on. And the scripture says, the Lord
found him. You see, he had to be put in
that position before the Lord was going to reveal himself to
him. And the Lord found him and came up to him and he said, do
you believe on the Son of God? And the man said, who is he that
I might believe on him? And the Lord said to him, you
see him and he that speaketh to you is he. And he fell at
the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he cried, I believe, and
he worshipped Him. And that's when the Lord saved
him. I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living
God. I don't know much, but I know
that. I believe on him. All I can do
is fall at his feet and worship him. I've got no place else to
go. Will you lead me also? The Lord
asked the disciples, Lord, where should we go? You alone have
the words of eternal life. We know and are sure that thou
art the Christ, the son of the living God. You have shut us
up to yourself. You see, coming to Christ is
never a choice. If you have a choice between
Christ and anything else, you will choose something else. Every
time. The only way you're going to
come to Christ is if He cuts off all your other choices and
shuts you up to Him. And you say, how do you know
that you've come to Christ? Because I've got no place else
to go. I've got no place else to go.
I'm hanging all my hopes on Him. I put all my eggs in one basket. And I'm persuaded that He is
able to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that
day. I'm not hedging my bets. It's not Christ plus a prayer
I prayed or a decision I made or work that I performed or any
evidence of righteousness in my outward behavior. No, no,
no, it's on Christ alone. And I believe that he's the son
of God. What'd that Ethiopian eunuch
say? What doth hinder me to be baptized after Philip had preached
to him Jesus from Isaiah chapter 53? If thou believest with all thine
heart, thou mayest. Now, what do you believe? With
all your heart. We're not wholehearted about
much, aren't we? We're pretty much divided about everything,
aren't we? If God has given you eyes to see if there's anything
in your life that you believe with all of your heart, it is
that Jesus is the Son of God. What'd that Ethiopian say? I
believe that that Jesus you just preached to me is the Christ,
the Son of God. And he baptized him. You see, that's what the blind
see. No man speaking by the Spirit
of God calleth Jesus accursed. And no man can call him Lord
but by the Holy Spirit. Isn't that what we just saw in
1 Corinthians chapter 12? I don't believe in a Jesus who
made an offer of salvation to save everybody, but his hands
are tied and he's dependent upon man to exercise his free will
before what he did can work for them. That puts man on the throne
of God. And that's declaring Jesus to
be accursed and something less than God. What did that man say? The Lord
asked that blind man in John chapter 9, do you believe in
the Son of God? Actually he said, do you believe
on the Son of God? Who is he Lord? You both see
him and he that speaketh to you is he. Oh Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. Well, what is it that the deaf
hear? Hearing and seeing go together. When God gives you, when God
gives the blind eyes to see, he also gives the deaf ears to
hear. You remember in John, in Revelation, I'm sorry, when John
was on the Isle of Patmos, and the scripture says, the Lord
began to speak to him, and it was like the sound of many waters
roaring, and the scripture says, and John turned to see the voice
that had spoken unto him. The hearing and seeing go together,
don't they? So what is it that the deaf hear? Well, they hear the call of God
to come. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy burdened. I'll give you rest. Take my yoke
upon you. My yoke is easy, my burden is
light. I've got a burden I can't carry.
The burden of my sin, is more than I can bear. Lord, I can't
do anything but come to Christ. Am I warned for coming? Is your
call to come? The Spirit and the Bride say,
Come! Have you heard His call for you to come? It's not just a general call
to all men. It's an effectual call. Has he
made you willing to come, to come to Christ? My sheep hear
my voice and they follow me. You say,
well, how do I know if I've come? Because I ain't got no place
else to go. Again, you just, you just got no place else to
go. I have cast all the hopes of my salvation Christ Let me tell you something else
a deaf man hears a deaf man hears the voice of the law And he doesn't want anything
to do with it The dead man the deaf man hears
the law say guilty Condemned And the law doesn't say anything
else to him. And the deaf man needs the voice of the law to
be silenced. And the only hope that he has
is that one might keep the law on his behalf. And so again,
he flees to the law giver. who satisfied the demands of
the law, and he believes that Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. He didn't want
anything to do with the law. He loves God's law. God's law
is holy, God's law is just, God's law is good, but he knows that
the law can't make him holy. He knows that the law can't justify
him, and he knows that the law can't add an ounce of goodness
to his being before God. He needs one who has made the
law of God honorable. The voice of the law. He's heard it, and it's been
silenced. He hears the voice of Christ. He hears the voice of Christ
saying in the volume of the book it is written of me. And he is
always looking for Christ. Michael, what you said, what
does this passage tell me about Christ? I need to know Him better.
I want to know more about Him. And he hears the voice of Christ
cry from Calvary's cross. He gets in on what the Lord Jesus
Christ is saying to the father from the cross when the Lord
cries, it is finished. Oh, there's his hope. There's
his hope that everything that God is looking to him for, he
looks to Christ. That the Lord Jesus Christ has
satisfied not only the demands of God's law, obedient even unto
death, but he has put away his sin by the sacrifice of himself
and has sanctified once and for all. Made him holy before God. He
hears Christ's voice. It's finished. It's finished. And he hears the voice of God. What's the voice of God say?
The voice of God spoke audibly three times during our Lord's
ministry. Three times. And all three times
it said the same thing. This is my beloved son. in whom I am well pleased, hear
ye Him." Hear Him. He hears that. God's pleased
with Christ. He's not pleased with me. He's
pleased with the Lord Jesus Christ. And all I can do is hear His
voice. All I can do is trust that it's finished. The work of redemption has been
fulfilled. The law has been satisfied. He hears the voice of God say,
and he, the Father, shall see the travail of his soul and be
satisfied. You and I We just cannot feel the sorrow for sin in the way
that God requires. When the Spirit of God comes,
He convicts the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. And I hope you know something
about the conviction of the Holy Spirit beyond just the conscience
of your flesh. that the Spirit of God has revealed
to you that everything about you is sinful. But the tears of repentance have
to be washed in the blood of Christ to be accepted before
God. We're just not capable. We're
too dull. We're too numb, we're so accustomed
to sin that it doesn't bother us much. Oh, but it bothered
him. Oh, it bothered him. He drank
that cup to its bitter dregs and he suffered the travail of
his soul. God made him who knew no sin
to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. He bore our sins in his body upon that tree and
suffered the forsaking of the father. And God said, I see the
travail of his soul and I'm satisfied. You see, God's never going to
be satisfied with the travail of your soul or my soul, but
he's satisfied with Christ. Have you heard his voice? Bring to me the blind people
that have eyes and the deaf that have ears. Sit thou here at my right hand
until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Now that's the voice
of God. We have an advocate seated at
the right hand of God making those who are at enmity with
him by nature his footstool. What did the Lord say to Mary,
or to Martha? Martha, Martha, you're encumbered
about with so many things. You're so fretful, you're so
worried, you're so distressed. But Mary, she has chosen that
one thing needful. What did she do? She was sitting
at the Lord's feet, listening to His voice. And the Father said, Sit thou
here at my right hand until I make thine enemies, not footstool.
And then when they were Steve, when they were stoning Steven
in Acts chapter seven, what did Steven, what did Steven do? Steven
looked up and the scripture says, and heaven was opened. And he
saw the son of man standing, standing before God on his bath. You see, the Lord's seated in
that his work is finished. But when it comes to defending
one of his children, he stands up before the father and he says,
that's one of mine. That's one of mine. Have you heard the voice of God? Bring forth the blind people. that have eyes and the deaf that
have ears. What is it that the blind see?
What is it that the deaf hear? Have you seen? Have you heard? Oh, I pray the Lord to open the
eyes of our understanding and unstop our ears. Our Heavenly Father, we're so
very thankful for the revelation that You've
given us of Thy dear Son. And oh, how hopeful we are that
You would bless Your Word with Your Spirit, cause these blind eyes to see
and these deaf ears to hear. For we ask it in Christ's name.
Amen. Number nine. Let's stand together. "'Tis not that I did choose thee,
O Lord, that could not be. This heart would still refuse
thee, hadst thou not chosen me. Thou, from the sin that stained
me, hast cleansed and set me free. of old thou hast ordained
me that I should live to thee. Your love had no beginning, no
cause in me was found, that you should choose to save me, a sinner
strongly bound. But grace not earned or sought
for, Was purpose for my soul. For me salvation wrought, For
Christ paid the dreadful toll. ? T'was sovereign mercy called
me ? ? And taught my opening mind ? ? The world had else enthralled
me ? ? To heavenly glories blind ? ? My heart owns none before
thee ? ? For thy rich grace I thirst ? This knowing, if I loved Thee,
Thou must have loved me first. Yeah.