Let's take our Bibles this morning
and turn with me to the gospel according to John 9. John 9. I'd like to look at verses 6
to 12, and I've entitled this message, The Cure of Spiritual
Blindness. Before we begin, let's ask our
Lord's blessing. Our Father, how wonderful it
is to be in this place this morning by your grace and mercy, by the
kindness and longsuffering of your eternal purpose to give
us this time. I pray, Lord, bless your word.
Cause us to hear. Help us to worship for Christ's
sake. Amen. The Lord had been speaking to
his disciples concerning a poor beggar's physical blindness. And this blind man that our Lord
is getting ready to deal with was just like every object of
God's mercy. The blind man did not initiate
the meeting. His meeting with the Lord of
glory was one that Almighty God had eternally purposed to have. Verse 1 of chapter 9 that we
looked at last time, it said, And as Jesus passed by, he saw A man. A particular man. A man that was just among the
crowd, but a man that was the object of His mercy. A particular
man. And what happened next was truly
a miracle of God's grace. The Lord healed that blind beggar
of his physical blindness. And in time, we're going to find
his spiritual blindness too. The Lord healed that man with
the same power that he heals Spiritual blindness. I want you
to turn with me to Matthew 9. Matthew, just hold your finger
there in John, and turn to Matthew 9. And I want to read something. Let's read verses 1 to 6. Matthew
9, verses 1 to 6. It says, And he entered into
a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city. And behold,
they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith,
said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven thee. And
behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This
man blasphemed. And Jesus, knowing their thoughts,
said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For whether it
is easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Arise
and walk, but that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power
on earth to forgive sins, then saith he to the sick of the palsy,
Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine own house, that you
might know that the Son of Man hath power to forgive sins."
He said, take up your bed and walk. It takes unlimited power
to heal a man of palsy. Unlimited power to forgive sins. And they're both found in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Both of those things, that power,
that authority. Which is easier to say? Is anything
impossible with God? Thy sins be forgiven thee, take
up your bed and walk. Here was the Lord of glory that
was going to heal this blind beggar back in John 9. But how
he healed. That blind beggar speaks totally
of God's wisdom in the salvation of his elect. How he did it. Verse 6 says this is where we
begin. When he had thus spoken, he spat
on the ground and made clay of the spittle and he anointed the
eyes of the blind man with the clay. Here was a man, blind. Now how he did it. Now this is
marvelous. I read some of the things that
were said concerning the Lord, the spit, the mud, the clay,
trying to see into some things about it. And the Scripture is
silent on a lot concerning what our Lord did. It's silent concerning
exactly what He did and when He did it. There's a lot of things
we don't know. I don't want to speculate. I
don't want to just say things that the Scripture is not clear
on. But there's one thing that I
do know about what happened right here. When the Lord was pleased to
heal this blind beggar, what he did was he spit. He spit on the ground. He picked
it up. That's dirt, dust. It was just spit. Spit with dirt in it. And he
wiped it on that man's eyes. And you know, if you think about
that, I know when my kids used to, you know, they didn't try
it but just a time or two. And I'd catch them spitting or
trying to spit on, you know, one of the other ones or something.
And I'd tell them, I'd say, don't do that. That's nasty. Now that's nauseating. Don't
you let me catch you do that again. And here's the Lord of
Glory, and He took some of His spit, and He took and made a
little ball of spittle and dirt and wiped it, anointed that man's
eyes. Let me ask you this. Is that
not a beautiful picture of the way in which our Lord heals spiritually
His people? But that which is absolutely
nauseating to this world. This world would look and consider
the way in which God heals sinners. And they'd say, that's nasty. You mean to tell me that you
truly consider that Almighty God sovereignly chooses and elects
and that Christ died only for His elect and that Almighty God
is going to use nothing more? You mean to tell me you give
no credit whatsoever to man, or man's will, or man's ability,
or man's works? Are you saying that that counts
for nothing? I want you to turn to 1 Corinthians
1. 1 Corinthians 1. Verse 21 to 29. 1 Corinthians 1. 21. For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews
require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach
Christ crucified unto the Jews, a stumbling block. Unto the Greeks,
foolishness, but unto them which are called. both Jews and Greeks,
Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, because the
foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God
is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called, but God has chosen the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty, and
base things of the world, and things which are despised hath
God chosen. Yea, and things which are not
to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory
in His presence. God has chosen the foolish things. That word foolish there means
the hidden things. God has chosen the weak things,
the strengthless things. Two things, two thoughts on that. God has chosen those that are
without strength in themselves, but also God has chosen that
which the world looks at and says, that doesn't have any strength
in it. God has chosen the base things
of the world. Things that the world considers
to have no nobility. It hasn't got any honor in it. God has chosen the things that
are despised. Things that the world says has
no account to it. That's not worth anything. God
has chosen what the world considers foolishness. When Stephen's hearers, when
Stephen was being stoned, this is what he said. And I'm telling
you, here's a man that's getting ready to leave this world. They're
throwing rocks at him and they're stoning him. They're breaking
him. And the life of this man is getting
ready to be taken out of this world. And this is what Stephen
said, Behold, I see the heavens opened. It was a man that God,
I mean just moments before God took him out of this world. He was saying, this is what I'm
looking at. And the others around him, they
didn't see anything. But here was one that God was
getting ready to receive to Himself. And this is what the Scripture
says, and this is what this man saw. I see the heavens open,
and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. Then they
cried out with a loud voice, and they stopped their ears,
and they ran upon Him with one accord. What they were saying
is, this makes me sick, what you're saying. It was a man that
God allowed the privilege moments before he left this world. And
he saw this. I see the Son of Man standing
at the right hand of the throne of God. They couldn't stop him
from seeing that. They just ran on him, mad, angry
to the world. The gospel of God's free grace
is nauseating. It's nasty, but to believers
in the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul the Apostle said in Acts 24.14,
after the way they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers,
believing all things that are written in the law and the prophets.
This may make the world sick. Spiritually, just like if somebody
were to spit on somebody else, you'd say, that's nasty. But consider what our Lord was
setting forth. He's going to heal this man.
And He did it in a way that to the world was nauseating. Verse 7 says, He said unto him,
Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation, scent. He went his way therefore and
washed and came seeing. Our Lord spoke to this man personally. He had put some spit and dirt,
but it was his spit and dirt. And he put that on that man's
eyes. What a precious ointment. Can you imagine? How precious
that is to this blind man. And he told him, the Lord told
him, he said, you go and wash. And he did exactly what the Lord
told him to do. He said, my sheep, they hear
my voice. He spoke to that man. How many
people did he tell go wash? One. And what did he do? He followed. Somebody said, well, couldn't
the Lord have just spoken to him and healed him? Sure He could.
He listened to what the others were thinking. He heard their
thoughts. He saw once a group of men carrying
a fellow sick of the pollen. He saw their faith. Could He
have done it any other way? He could have done it any way
He wanted to. Why did He do it this way? Because He wanted to.
What did this man do? He followed. Faith is the evidence
of life. Regeneration. Now I do understand,
as I said a moment ago, we're going to see that this man, as
of yet, has not been called out of darkness. But this is what
I would refer to as prevenient grace. Grace before grace. The grace of God that would Put
this man exactly where he was, and cause him to do what he did. In time, we are going to see. The Lord is going to reveal Himself
to him. And this man is going to believe. And here is the Lord
of glory taking this man and doing just exactly. How many
times did you come and hear the gospel before God called you
out of darkness? Why did you come? You came because
He drew you. He worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will. He does as he will to the army
of heaven among the inhabitants of the earth. How many inhabitants?
The inhabitants And none stays His hand. Nobody stops Him. Nobody
has the right to question Him. And nobody's question changes
anything that God does. His counsel is going to stand.
This man was blind. The Lord physically healed him.
And the Lord is going to spiritually heal him in time. But this man,
for right now, he did just exactly. The Lord told him, He said, I
want you to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. What if this man would have decided
he was going to go somewhere else? You go and you wash in the pool
which is, by interpretation, scent. You know, the very name
of that pool speaks volumes. Do we not see that which sets
forth the one that spoke to the man that was blind? Here is the
sent one, sent of God, now sending forth this blind beggar to behold
in the very pool, in the water that represented Christ, the
sent one. That set forth, that water in
the pool of Siloam, set forth that sinners are cleansed only
by His blood from the very fountain of His side. Husbands, Ephesians 5, 25, 26,
love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave
Himself for it that He might sanctify and cleanse it with
the washing of water by the Word. Oh, look, I mean, these things
You know, the Lord saw him in particular. The Lord took that
which is nauseating to the world, to the flesh, spit, dirt. You think, man, if you're going
to cleanse something, surely that's not the way you're going
to. You're not going to put dirt in a man's eye. I can't hardly
stand it if a little speck gets in my eyes. I work, work, trying
to get that out. Stuff like that. He just took
that spit and dirt and just wiped it. Now you go wash. You wash in this pool. Our Lord
speaks. He said, you sit and hear the
gospel. The gospel. Well, what if I pick
another message? What if I hear, the gospel is
the power of God unto salvation. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
it. This is the power of God unto salvation. You go to the
pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation, sent, and you wash in that pool. We're not cleansed by the washing
of baptism. We're washed in the precious
fountain of His blood by faith. That fountain that was open for
sinners, the water of life itself, the blood of Christ. It's the
blood of our Lord alone that is the merit and foundation of
God's mercy. Here's what He said, when I see
the blood, I'll pass over you. Not when I see your faith, not
when I see your will, Not when I see your works. When I see
the blood. But we believe. By faith, we
believe. But I'm telling you, what Almighty
God sees, He sees the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it
is in Him alone that by faith we see and believe that which
God says is so. He has always seen the blood
of His people. His Son, the Lamb slain from
before the foundation of the world. It is the blood of Christ,
Jesus Christ, His Son, that cleanseth us from all sins. This man, Scripture
says, went his way therefore and washed and came seeing. What healed that man? The power
of God. The power of God. The power and
grace of God. But where you find cleansing
and salvation, you're going to find the evidence of obedience. Faith. God's people believe. We believe. We believe. Was our
faith the source of our salvation? No. Our faith is the evidence
of salvation. For by grace are you saved. Through faith, through the means
of faith, you believe it by faith. Faith is not the source and the
foundation of our salvation. That's what the world preaches.
That God wants to, and you by your faith Are you by your works? Are you by anything? That's what
makes salvation effectual. No. We are saved by the grace
and the power and the mercy and compassion of God Almighty. God saves His people by Himself
and tells them about it. And by faith, they believe Him.
This man was cleansed. by the grace and power of God,
and God was pleased to use the means of spittle, dirt, water
out of a pool. But boy, what those types, pictures
and shadows set forth. Verse 8 to 12, the neighbors
therefore, when they which before had seen him that was blind,
said, Is not this he that sat and begged? Some said, This is
he. Others said, He is like him.
But he said, I am he. Therefore said they unto him,
How were thine eyes opened? And he answered and said, A man
that is called Jesus, made clay, anointed mine eyes, and said
unto me, 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? And he said, I know not. Now we find the formerly blind
beggar questioned by those that had been around him for years. And there was an indecisiveness
about him concerning his identity. How did that happen? What went on? You know, there's
a lot that we don't know. This beggar now finds himself
in a situation where he can see. He can physically see. The eyes,
they're looking at him. been where someone has died before
they close their eyes. When you look into the eyes of
one that has just left this world, they're not looking back. There's
a look. You're looking and you see their
eyes, but it's different. They don't have the glitter. They're dead. They're dead. Their
eyes, but they don't see. And now this blind beggar, he's
coming out, he's seeing. And they say, what happened to you?
How did that happen? And this blind beggar, he said
this, this is what happened. He said, a man called Jesus made
clay, anointed my eyes, said to me, go to the pool, shalom,
wash. I went, I washed, and I received
sight. This blind beggar that formerly
could not look back. He's looking at him now. And
he's different. His eyes are... They said, I
don't know if that's the guy I once knew. Well, he looks like
him, but I think he must be like somebody else. I don't know.
He said, no, I'm him. I'm the guy. I'm the same world. This man now had Eyes to view his environment
physically, but for those spiritually that God calls out of darkness. They're different. There's life
there. They have sight. They truly see. They see that which they could
not see before. When John's disciples came to
the Lord, they asked him, said, Are you he that should come,
or do we look for another? And the Lord told John's disciples,
He said, You go tell John. He said, The blind receive their
sight. Physically, yes, but spiritually. The lame walk. Physically, yes. Yeah, but spiritually, those
that had no ability whatsoever to walk before God with honor,
faithfulness, now walk before Him in Christ. He said the lepers are cleansed. Physically, yes. But those that
have been plagued with the leprosy of sin, dead, Cleansed. And the deaf hear. Physically,
yes. But now, those that Almighty
God has been pleased under the preaching of the gospel, by the
grace of God and the power of the Spirit of God, now they hear. They hear Christ. They hear God's
honor and God's glory. God's grace. And His mercy to sinners. And the dead are raised up. Physically? Yeah. But you that have been
blessed by God in the first resurrection, raised from the death of your
spiritual depravity, life raised up. Now, in this life, the first
resurrection, regeneration, that's the first resurrection. You're
going to have part in the second resurrection. And the Lord will
call you out of the grave, call you to Himself. And He says in
the poor, have the gospel preached to them. Physically? Well, yeah. Maybe in the things of this world,
but the poor in spirit. That Almighty God would take
those in themselves have nothing and reveal to them that they
have nothing. And then raise them up. The poor. These that now realize who in
Christ they are. Heirs of God. Joint heirs with Christ. Oh,
the exceeding riches of His glory. Here's an old blind beggar that
was totally at the mercy of those that would help him. We were
in Mexico the other day and we were walking and we were in the
town square I guess. I walked by and here was a poor
old woman that was sitting down and she was just all crunched
over and didn't even look up. And she had a cup in her hand. And that was it. That was all
she had. That was all she had. And I thought to myself, well,
what a picture of man by nature. She couldn't do anything for
herself. Who would hire her? Who wants
her? Who needs her? Who is that? She's just an old, poor woman. There's no telling how old she
was. Couldn't have done anything if
it would have started storming right now. I mean, what could
she do? That's the kind right there that
Christ came to this world to save. And oh, the mercy and grace
of God that God would reveal. We're the beckers. We're the
needy ones. Without Him, we have nothing. We can do nothing. Lord, bless
these words to our heart, for Christ's sake.