We look back, as Brother Carl
just said, and we think, where did the years go? I remember when I used to look
at people older than I was, and I thought, man, these people
are old. Now I'm old. But I can say, with the Scriptures, I've never
seen the righteous forsaken. I want you to take your Bibles
and turn to the gospel according to John 9. We are continuing
our study through this blessed book, and I will deal with it. Verses 18-23. But to bring us
back up, a blind beggar had been healed on the Sabbath day. Now
there's a spiritual significance. You know how many times we would
see where the Lord would perform a miracle on the Sabbath day. And how many times the Scriptures
recorded that. It was on the Sabbath day. Now,
there's a reason for that. The reason is that we are being
reminded when we talk about the Sabbath day, our Sabbath day,
our day of rest is a person. Our day of rest is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is our rest. from labor, trying to establish
righteousness before God. And when he healed on the Sabbath
day, what was being said was this, spiritual life is given,
is imparted. And it's given apart from any
labor that the recipient did. He healed on the Sabbath day. Well, the Pharisees started badgering
this beggar that had been healed. They started pushing how he had
received his sight. Now you know it's a miracle that
has been performed. And the religionists were more
concerned, more interested in discrediting the Lord of Glory
than honoring Him. Here was a man that had been
born blind. I will go to the doctor for a check-up,
and when the doctor tells me, Everything looks great. I might
say, well, you know, you should be trusting the Lord. I strive
to. I struggle to. And I'm still
in this flesh. Still struggling. Thank you,
Lord. I don't know how to be thankful.
I don't know how. Here's a man that was born with
no sight. He had never seen blind from
birth. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
and spit on the ground and took that spittle and wiped it on
his eyes. He told him to go wash in the
pool of Siloam. And he did and he could see.
This is marvelous. A blind man has been healed.
A man has been made to see. And all the Pharisees wanted
to do was just argue against the One that did it. Almighty God calls men to preach. He sends preachers. And they
come and they preach the gospel of God's grace. I pray God keep
me from deviating from these words. I don't want to deviate. I tell you this, if I'm reading
and I catch myself doing something, missing a word, something like
that, I want to do the right thing. I want to do the right
thing. I don't want to say anything
to you that's inconsistent. If I said something that was
inconsistent, I did that in Mexico. I had to get up after a service. I misquoted scripture. I couldn't
stand it. I had to get up and just stop
Cody. So, Cody, let me just... And I want to be consistent. But God sends preachers. And
then He says that through the preaching of the gospel. That's
the power of God in salvation. And God calls men and women out
of darkness. Spiritual darkness. And gives
them new heart. And they rest, Carl, in life. They rest in God's mercy and
grace. And man by nature wants to fuss
at the One that did it. That said He had the right to
do it. and called him out of darkness. How do you receive
your sight? What sayest thou?" That's what
he said in verse 17. What sayest thou of him that
he hath opened thine eyes? And he said he's a prophet. First of all, he said he was
a man. Now he's saying he's a spokesman from God. Well, verse 18 says,
but the Jews did not believe concerning him that he had been
blind. and received his sight until
they called the parents of him that had received his sight.
One of unbelief. That's the only way that an unregenerate
can be described. Just an unbeliever. God's people regenerated by the
grace of God believing. They just believe it. Now there's
a lot of things I don't understand. And I'll admit that. I don't
understand a lot. But believe it? I must believe
it. It's His Word. It's His Gospel. What was seen to be so obvious,
this man could now see, was just totally ignored. And what was
so apparent to the healed beggar, formerly blind, what he thought
would be so welcome by others, was scorned and ridiculed and
disputed. by the unregenerates. That's the way the gospel of
God's grace is. If you want to know what goes
absolutely contrary to the world's thoughts, the world's religions,
it's the gospel. That which honors God. Verse
19-21, they asked him, saying, Is this your son? They called
his parents. They said, Is this your son? Who? Ye say. with born
blind. How then doth he now see? Notice
how they are putting the pressure on these parents. They ask them saying, is this
your son who you say was born blind? Then how doth he now see? His parents answered them and
said, we know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But by what means he now seeth,
we know not. Or who hath opened his eyes,
we know not. He is of age, ask him. He shall speak for himself."
Unable to deter that healed beggar. And I'm telling you, by the grace
of God, that's a believer right there. A believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ. You cannot convince him that
God's Word is not so. Not a believer. Why? Because
they're kept by the power of God through faith. God keeps
them. That's why they don't quit. If
the Lord doesn't keep them, they'll quit. And if one quits, it's
because God didn't keep them. I've got God's Word on that. They went out from us because
they were not of us. For had they been of us, surely
they would have remained. They would have remained. There's
no doubt about that. They couldn't deter him, so under
the direction of their father, the devil, they tried to discredit
the Lord, the formerly blind beggar, by trying to pit his
family against him. Matthew 10.36, a man's foes shall
be they of his own household. It hurts. It hurts. Men don't
believe you. Family don't believe you. Tell
them the truth. This is what God has to say.
This is what God has to say. Unbelievers look for anything
to justify their unbelief. and discredit, disregard the
Lord Jesus Christ. They will never come out and
say, I hate what he has to say. I hate the Messiah that declares
Himself to be sovereign. I hate that. I hate that one.
I hate that. I had someone tell me the other
day, I think it happened, I thought that it was Ephesians 1, but
someone told me the other day that it was Brother Henry Mahan. All he did, he stood up and read
it was 2 Thessalonians 2 is what he read. Go back and read 2 Thessalonians
2 in verse 13 is the one we've quoted so many times. We are
bound to give thanks, brethren beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and beliefs of the truth. Read all of 2 Thessalonians. Brother Henry Mahan stood up,
they said, and read 2 Thessalonians 2. He just read it. No comments. No comments. He
just read the Scriptures. And a man came up afterwards
and said, I don't believe it the way you read it. He just
read it. Man by nature hates God's Word. And if they can find any out,
any lie, any false foundation, they'll grab it. They'll try
to make God's people to be those exclusiveness people. You don't believe in giving everybody
a fair shake. No, the problem is man by nature
excludes himself. Man excludes himself. You will
not come. You will not come. You see, here's
the truth. God sets forth what God demands.
And then God gives what God demands to God's people. If God leaves
a man to himself, it's not God's fault. It's not. What part of whosoever will,
when we were just speaking a while ago, are we not preaching? But
it's all according to the Scriptures. Amazingly, we see again that
unless the Spirit of God gives a new heart, there's no love
for the Savior. The Lord had plainly, openly
healed a man, and they would not see it. They would not see
it. I do not believe that. Verse 22 and 23, these words
spake his parents because they feared the Jews. For the Jews
had agreed already that if any man did confess that he was Christ,
he should be put out of the synagogue. Therefore, said his parents,
he is of age. Ask him. Only when the Lord has given
life to a sinner. When the fear of
the Lord, the respect of God is his attitude, will a man resist
the words and attitude of disrespect toward the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself? Man by nature will try to intimidate God's people, try
to make them look narrow-minded, irresponsible. But I'll tell
you this, those that are irresponsible are those that will not believe
God. We're going to die. We're going
to die. He is our hope. He is our life. Those that heard Stephen preach
in his dying hours, the Scripture says they stopped their ears.
That most dangerous thing that a man, a woman, can do? To stop
their ears against God's Word. Ralph Barnard said this, man,
God doesn't send honest men to hell. You find a man or a woman
and they say this, I know this, I know, I am a helpless,
hopeless sinner. There's not very many of those.
Not many. But you find a helpless, hopeless
sinner, then I've got some good news for you. There's a Savior.
There's a Savior. Christ came into this world to
save sinners. Paul said, of whom I am chief. Chief. These Pharisees, they weren't
honest. with this beggar. They said,
this man is not of God. He healed on Sabbath day. They
weren't honest with themselves because in their blindness, they
looked every way to justify themselves at the Savior's expense to disbelieve
the Messiah. The Scripture says, Jeremiah
17.9, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked. Who can know it? And they weren't honest with
those that stood and heard their lies. 1 John 2, verse 22, Who
is a liar? But he that denieth that Jesus
is the Christ. And in those words right there,
when it says that Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed One, the
One from God, and all those things that God said about Him, Everything
that was declared concerning the Lord Jesus Christ and God's
sovereignty, everything about Him, he is a liar that denieth
that Jesus is the Christ. But one day, honesty and justice,
God's wrath is going to put an end to all rebellion. But this heel beggar, he had
one friend. That one friend. We're going
to look, Lord willing, next time at that one friend that he had. It wasn't his parents. His parents
didn't stand with him. The crowd, the Pharisees, it
was a man that God Almighty had given life in his eyes. And everybody
was against him. Parents came and they said, he's
a mage. I don't want to say anything
about him. Why? I might get kicked out of church.
I might get kicked out of y'all's church. I might not be able to
go in here. You know, he's lies anymore. He had one friend. Proverbs 18,
24, a man that hath friends must show himself friendly, and there
is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Lord, help me that I might stand,
stand faithful if everyone else forsakes me. If everyone else
pushes away. Lord, keep me. Lord, keep me
because You alone are my life. Lord, help me for Christ's sake
Stand firm. Kept by your power. And in that
day, in Him, to hear you say, as one of your sheep, enter in. Enter in to the kingdom that
has been prepared for you from before the foundation of the
world. Thank you, Lord, for your grace and mercy for Christ's
sake. Amen.