It's so good to see you this
morning. And it is absolutely wonderful to be in a place where the Lord
has obviously been pleased to raise up and maintain a hearing
of the gospel. Let's take your Bibles, please,
and turn with me to the Gospel according to John, chapter 9. What I would like to do this
morning, we started, I started on this passage of Scripture
a few weeks ago, and we were not able to complete it. And
I'd like to look at it again from the beginning. Let's pray together. Our Father, we realize this morning that
we are able to approach You, You who are the God of all mercy, who sits upon the throne of the
Godhead, and we are able this morning to approach You in our
hour of need because of the great High Priest who ever liveth to
make intercession for us. Boldly we were able to enter
in with confidence knowing that our stand before you is established
not in our righteousness, but in the righteousness of Him who
is altogether Wonderful. Obedient. Father, we ask this morning,
for Christ's sake, would You bless these services. Bless them,
we pray, to Your glory, to the glory of the Blessed Son, the
glorious Holy Spirit who teaches us. Teach us, we ask of Yourself. Teach us concerning Christ. Teach us that we might behold
Him and feast upon Him who is our bread, our drink, our sustenance. And we ask these things for Christ's
sake. Amen. John chapter 9. There is no greater blessing than that God Almighty in the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is only by the Lord Jesus
that we know, that we see God, the invisible God made visible
by eyes, made new, the Lord Jesus Christ. no greater blessing than
that he himself would cross a needy man's path in mercy. The scripture says, For my God
shall supply all your need, that is, all the need of his people,
according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now, John 9,
verses 1 to 7 is what I'd like to look at for a few minutes. And here we read about the Master. He passed by, the Scripture says,
verse 1, and he saw a man which was blind from his birth. Now, here's one thing I know
about this. It was the Lord Jesus Christ that passed by. And the Scripture says that that
man was blind. So I know this, he didn't see
the Lord. He couldn't cry out for mercy
because he didn't know he was there. It was the Lord that must
make contact with a man that was blind. Now, I know physically a man
that's blind is in need. But I'll tell you of a need that
a man has that is much greater than any physical infirmity that
he's got. Physical infirmities, but for
a moment, just vapor. Oh, but the spiritual
need of a man. If he doesn't pass by and see
me in my need, I have no hope. This man was blind. He was blind physically, but
I'm going to tell you something, and we're going to see this before
this is done. This man was blind spiritually,
too. He couldn't see. Physically or
spiritually, the Scripture says, except a man be born again. He
cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven. He just can't. He can see a lot
of things. He can see morality. He can see the law. He can see
a lot of things. But he cannot see the kingdom
of God. What do you mean the kingdom
of God? It is God Almighty having, choosing to Himself a
kingdom that He Himself will save. Why? He's blind. He can't see. This man was physically blind,
but I'm going to tell you something. Every man born in Adam is, number one, blind to the
knowledge of God the Father and His everlasting love to His church. That church given the Lord Jesus
Christ, that bright. A man by nature is spiritually
blind to the mercy of God. He knows nothing of God's mercy. He's blind to it. Now, the reason
I know he's blind to the mercy of God is because man by nature
is going to try to establish his own righteousness. And a
man that thinks in his mind he can do it doesn't need mercy. Mercy, Bob, is for those that
can't do it. I don't have anything. What am
I going to give Him? What am I going to do to reconcile
myself back to God? Man by nature knows nothing.
I'll tell you this, secondly, man is blind spiritually to the
person, to the work, to the grace, to the surety. of salvation to
every one that God Almighty purposed to show mercy and compassion
to and was chosen in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ before
the foundation of the world. Man, by nature, hates God's sovereignty. He hates it. He hears of the
sovereign grace of God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And this is his reaction. That's not fair. Oh, I've thought of that. Fair. Oh, God is fair. But I'll tell you this, if God
Almighty didn't show mercy and He let man Get what he deserved. You want to talk about fair?
Just give him what he deserves. Oh, that God Almighty would show
mercy to me. Whenever I hear of electing,
predestinating, sovereign grace, I think to myself, you mean to
tell me and tell me one more time. Tell me, when I was in college, We'd take
a test, and the test results were all posted
outside the professor's door. And you'd take those tests, and
he'd say, test results will be posted in a couple of days. And buddy, I knew about when
he was going to be there. Man, I got in what it was. It
was my ID number. They didn't put names. I don't
think they did. I mean, they were, you know,
kind of discreet about it. And I knew what my number was.
And Gary, I'd run over there and I'd look. And there it'd be right there.
There was my name. I found it. I was looking. You know what I was looking for?
I was looking for my name. The disciples came to the Lord
one day and they said, even the demons are in subjection to us. He said, don't rejoice that demons
are in subjection to you. You listen to me. You be thankful that your name
is written in heaven. in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And Almighty God, before the foundation of the world,
chose and wrote my name in distinguishing grace. And then in time, sent,
and by the means of the gospel of God's grace and His Holy Spirit,
took that message of free grace, and he told me, I wrote your
name. I wrote your name in mercy and
compassion. I wrote it in my son. Thank you. Thank you. I don't
want to talk about when I was younger and walked down the aisle. I was baptized, and I kept this,
and I did this, and I'm faithful here, and I don't want to talk
about that. You want to talk about it? Let
me talk about Him. Him who loved me and gave Himself
for me. Man by nature is blind to that.
He's blind to the grace of God Almighty. Thirdly, he's blind
to the quickening power of God the Spirit in mercy and grace
that blows as He wills. Men want to talk about things
that they are accomplishing. Let me talk about Him who accomplishes
in quickening power what the Father chose to do and what the
Son covenanted and said, I will make good on what, Father, You
chose. That's what He said in John 17,
I finished the work that You gave Me to do. I've given Your Word to these
that You gave Me. They've kept it. And the Spirit
of God blows sovereign like the wind as He willed. Oh, when it
pleases God, He stops. And in the power that I have I don't even know how to talk
about it. He quickens. He parts life. He gives them
a new heart created in righteousness. The very life of Christ made
new. And for the first time, I see. This man was blind from his birth. In verses 2 and 3, the disciples
asked him, said, Who did sin? This man or his parents that
he was born blind? And Jesus answered, Neither hath
this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God should
be made manifest in him. The Lord's answer to these disciples
was one that showed them that man reasons one way, but man's
reasoning is Not God's reasoning. Man's reasoning is this. Why was this man infirmed, stricken, sick? Why was this man sick more
than others that we're looking around? Is it something he did? Maybe his parents. Is that the
problem, Lord? Surely there must be something
underlying here. I don't know what he's done, but
evidently there must be a real problem there. It must have been
him or his mom and daddy. That's the only way we can figure
it. The Lord said neither. No, neither one. He said this
man's blindness. I'm not talking about anybody
else. I'm talking about this man right
here. blindness was for the occasion and the
display of the works of the glory of God. This man was born blind. I don't know how. Some speculate
he was 23, somewhere in that area. I guess it's because of
something that his parents said later. He's of age, you know.
But nonetheless, this man, 20-something years before Gary, was born blind. Why was that man born blind and
maybe his brother or his sister or his cousin or his neighbor?
Why was that man born blind? Almighty God, before the foundation
of the world in His infinite wisdom and mercy and grace for
that man's good and for the glory of God, took his eyes physically and
he couldn't see. Never has he been blind from
birth. Never saw. Twenty-something years
this man went through blindness. Why? The Lord said for one reason,
that the works of God might be made manifest. Now think, what
a blessing! What a blessing! How many times
did people come by and pat him on the head? How are you doing,
old buddy? You doing OK today? Yeah? Yeah, I'm doing all right. They walk away and talk to the
one while they're walking and say, you know, bless his heart.
Isn't that pitiful? And there's the object of God's
mercy sitting there, never, ever realizing, not one time, Why
is that man blind? The Lord told him. He said, this
man was born blind that God might be made manifest. The glory of
Almighty God. Oh, how merciful! God proves
His love to His own. In these seasons of sorrow and
hours of temptation and times of trouble, James 1, verses 2
and 3 says, My brethren, count it all joy. Regard it as a joyful
thing. Oh, if I could just see as he
reveals things are. I used to tell my kids, I probably
said this. That's all right. I'll say it
again. I'd tell my kids this growing up. Situation never changes. Only the way you look at it.
Still there. But how do you see it? Is this
a? Is this a curse or is this a
blessing of Almighty God? Count it all joy when you fall
into diverse temptations. Proofs. Proofs. When God Almighty is pleased
to prove to you concerning His faithfulness. God's not proving
anything to Himself. He knows what He's going to do.
You count it all joy. You call it as God says it is. When you fall into divers, proofs of God's faithfulness to you.
Temptations, proofs. Knowing this, that the trying
of your faith, the proving, same word, the proving of your faith
worketh patience, accomplishes endurance. God Almighty is going
to prove to you. His faithfulness. Chastisements. Man born blind. What a blessing. Oh, being chosen in, represented
by the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to me. Being chosen in
and represented by the Lord Jesus Christ. chosen
in, represented by, and having His justness, His righteousness
imputed to you is the sole reason of your justification before
God. There is nothing else. There's
nothing else that will answer for you. I've done this. I've done that. I've done that.
You ain't done nothing. There's not one thing that will
stand before God Almighty, He whose eyes are as a flaming fire. If He sees one discretion, one
little point, one dot that wasn't dotted on an isle, one T that
wasn't crossed, if every jot and tittle is not accomplished,
Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you."
All of my righteousness. I want to know something about
being just before God. What is it? Here it is. All of
my righteousness is His righteousness because I'm chosen in Him. I
stand in Him, covered with Him. He's my banner. He's my salvation. He's my surety. He's my friend. He's my husband. He answers for
me and He told me, He told me, I will never leave you. I'll
never leave you. I'll never forsake you. Not those
that my Father gave me. Oh, Lord, how can I know? How can I know? that the Father
gave Me to you." He said, They come to Me by faith. They trust Me. And they don't
look to themselves. Oh, when I hear anything that
concerns something that a man starts talking about that he's
got to do, I think, Oh, my Lord, have mercy. I don't want to hear
it. I don't want to hear it. Tell
me of Him. who is saved by grace, chosen in Christ, represented
by, answered for by, the surety is, and do you know what? Faith is the effect. God-given faith is the effect
of justification. What it is, faith believes it
and rejoices in it. I am not saved by faith. I am
not saved by faith. I'm not saved by faith. I'm saved
by grace. And God tells me about it. And
I know it by faith. Faith is not my salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ is my salvation. And how do I know it? He told
me. And His Spirit bears witness
to my spirit. This man is blind. Who sinned, Lord? Was it this
guy, this guy, his mom and dad? Neither. This man was born blind
that the works of God might be made manifest. Verse 4, I must
work the works of Him that sent me while it is day. The night
cometh when no man can work. I want you to notice who works
the work of Him that sent the Lord Jesus Christ. Who works
them? He said, I do. He does. The obedient servant
must work the works. That's what I quoted a while
ago. He said, I finished the work that you gave me. What work
was that, Lord? To glorify the Father by the
obedience to His law. in the redemption of His people.
That's the work He gave. All that you've given Me, I've lost none. Save the son
of perdition that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. How many
is He going to lose that the Father gave Him? Gave Him in
mercy and in compassion. How many will He lose? None of them. I must work the works. The night
cometh when no man can work. The night cometh. That is, his
departure from this world. The night cometh. When he leaves,
the night cometh when no man can work. Mike, when he's out of the world,
what man is going to work? There's none. There's no other.
The night cometh. When I leave, no man has the
ability to work. No man has the ability to do
anything. Without me, you can do nothing.
No man can come. No man can. No man has the ability.
No man can do anything. No man can work. As long as I'm
in the world, he said, I am the light of the world. When I'm
gone, the night comes. There's no more work to be done.
Oh, those blessed words inspired by God's Spirit, when
from the cross our Savior said, it is finished. You mean there's nothing else
to do? There's nothing else to do. You mean there's no other,
there's no more, you mean there's no more keeping of the law for
Christ is the end. He's the completion of the law
for righteousness to them that believe. You mean there's, are
you telling me that there's nothing else that needs to, there's nothing
else for me to do? No. It's done. Salvation is complete. Now what happens is, He calls
out those that He's everlastingly loved and He's answered for and
He tells them about Him. And I tell you this, they go
to their grave in this life wanting to hear that one more time. Don't
tell me, don't tell me about something that I need to do.
Because when you start telling me about something that I need
to do, you are disputing my Lord's Word because He said it was finished.
Now, don't you be disrespectful to Him. Well, salvation is by grace,
but you have to. No. They say, well, you've got to
believe. I'm going to tell you this. that I believe is by the
grace of God. He gave me a new heart that seeks
after Him. If He didn't give me a new heart,
what am I going to do? Remember, I was blind by nature.
I must work the works of Him that sent me. And when, verse
6, He had thus spoken, He spat on the ground, and He made clay
of the spittle, and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with
clay, Now, he just said in verse 4, I must work the works of him
that sent me. What were those works? He came
to seek and save that which was lost. Now, here he is physically. You know, I know that there's
a lot of hucksters on television and they're going to have healing
services and they're going to touch somebody And this person
is going to walk across the stage back and forth, and they're going
to take the crutch, throw the crutch out there. I heard Brother
Henry say one time, he said, you know, a man can be healed
physically, that's right, but one of these days he's going
to die. Then what? Every time the Lord Jesus Christ
heals someone, He was preaching a spiritual
message. This man was physically blind.
But in closing, I want you to look at something. The Lord,
the Scripture said, He spat on the ground and He made some clay. Here is the Master working the
works of Him that sent Him. And He is setting forth now a
spiritual message. Listen to it. Watch and see. The eyes of fallen man are blind
spiritually. You know that. They are blind
because the seeing eye, the hearing ears of the Lord. There must be, for a man to see,
there has got to be another creation. There has got to be a new creation. And here is the Master in type,
in picture, He spits on the ground and he
takes that spittle and he makes some clay and he puts it on that man's eyes. Adam,
when he was created, was created out of the dust, the dirt. But he died in rebellion. That
old flesh, that nature. And I'll tell you this, it'll
never be reformed. It's never going to be what's
flesh is flesh. It's dead. Paul referred to it
as this body of death. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I'll tell you who will. The Lord.
The Lord will in time. In time. Now here the Lord Jesus
shows His work. Man was created the first time,
and here in picture and type, he takes some dirt, spit, but it's his spit. I was thinking
about that this morning. How precious is that which comes
from him? How precious that he would take
his spit, mix it with dirt, Give it to a man. Here was a picture
of Almighty God creating anew. Adam was made first time. Here's
the Lord going to make some new eyes. Made them out of spittle. Type picture. Preaching. Verse 7 said, He said unto him,
You go and you wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation,
scent. And he went his way therefore,
and he washed, and he came seeing." The Lord put some dirt and spittle on this man's
eyes. And this man was told, the Lord
told him, he said, you go and you wash with some water. And we're taught something here
of how the Lord causes his people to see some water. Ephesians
5, verse 25 and 26. Husbands, 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. The Lord told him, he said, you
go wash. You go wash in this pool that
is, by interpretation, scent. You go wash in some water that
its very name says the scent one. Scent. And he went, the
Scripture says, and he washed. And he saw. He saw. How does God cause His people
to see? By His Word. That's how we see. How do I know who He is? What
saith the Scriptures? What saith the Scriptures concerning
Him? These Scriptures, He said, you
go wash. And He washed and He saw the
Word. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of God. It's the power of God unto salvation. I'm not ashamed of that. I'm
not ashamed of the gospel of free grace. Why? Because I know
this, if God is going to give anybody anywhere eyes to see,
they're going to see it through this Word. They're going to see
of Him. And He came and He washed and He saw. I tell you this,
it wasn't his going, it wasn't his washing that was the reason
that he saw. That wasn't the reason he saw.
He saw by the power and grace of Almighty God. His going and
his washing exhibited the power and grace of God to give spiritual
sight to the blind. If God caused you to cross the
gospel, the path of a preacher, Preaching Christ, was it to your
honor that you were sitting there? Or was it to the honor of Him
who does all things and orders all things after the counsel
of His own will? That you looked in the Scriptures and the Spirit
of God opened your heart and gave you life as you read. Was that your ability to do that? Or was it God's? I'm going to just close with
what happened to this man. Look at verse 24 and 25. Oh,
these self-righteous Pharisees, these ones that just all they're
concerned about is the law and all they're concerned about is
the rituals. All they're concerned about is this. All they're concerned
about is bringing honor and glory to themselves. They talk about
me. That's all about me. I'm going to straighten you guys
out. I'm going to do this, that. And here was a miracle of God's
grace. God called a man out of darkness,
spiritual and physical. They questioned him a few times.
Then again, verse 24, they called the man that was blind and they
said unto him, Give God the praise. We know that this man's a sinner.
And he answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know
not. One thing I know, that whereas
I was blind, now I see. Verse 35, Jesus heard that they
had cast him out, and when he had found him, he said unto him,
Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said,
Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said
unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh
with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. Let me
ask you something. This morning, Has Almighty God given you eyes
to see? If He has, I'm going to tell
you two things you're going to see. Number one, you're going
to see that in you there dwells no good thing. You're going to
see that you didn't start the process of your salvation
and you don't maintain it. But I'm going to tell you this,
you're going to see Him. You're going to see Him who is altogether
lovely. You're going to see Him in whom
the Father is well pleased. And a sight of Him, your soul has been set free.
If the Son of Man makes you free, you're free. And I'm telling
you, You don't want to go back to the yoke of bondage. You don't
want to go back to rules and regulations and arguments and
stuff. No, I'll tell you what you want.
You want to be where He is. And you want to sit and you want
to hear one more time how He's put away your guilt for His glory
and for your good. Let's take a bow.