here in this twelfth chapter.
In the twenty-eighth verse, it says, Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from
heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. And the people therefore that
stood by and heard it said, that it thundered. Others said an
angel spake to him. And Jesus answered and said,
This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes. Now is the judgment of this world.
Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if
I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." This, he said, signifying what
death he should die. And the people answered him, We have heard out of the law
that Christ abideth forever. How sayest thou that the Son
of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man? Jesus said, Under them yet a
little while is the light with you. These things faked Jesus and
departed, and did hide himself from them. Let me read a few verses here,
beginning at verse 1, 9th chapter, verse 1. And as
Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind
from his birth. And his disciples asked him,
saying, Master, who did sin? this man or his parents that
he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath
this man sinned, nor his parents. Now, here it doesn't mean that
they had never sinned, but it means that there was no special
or particular sin that caused this man to be born blind. So he said, Neither hath this
man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God should
be made manifest in him, in this blind man. So he said, I must
work the works of him, the works of God the Father, who sent him,
who appointed him and gave him authority, I must work the works
of him that sent me. While it is day, the night cometh
when no man can work." Well, this here is one of the great
works of the Lord Jesus. He did many miracles. As a matter of fact, his life is personified in he
went about doing good. Even his enemies were eyewitnesses
to his good work. He said, I must work. I must work the works of him
that sent me. While it is day, the night cometh
and no man can work. I think he had in mind here that
his time was short. There's only to be a few days
now. that he would walk upon the face
of the earth, that he would go to the cross and die, be buried
and rise again and go back to whence he came. And so this was
one of the great works. that the Master, the Lord Jesus,
did. He gave sight to one that was
born blind. It's a great work if you can
give a man sight who had never before seen the light of day. He was born blind, but this man called Jesus is going to give
him sight. Blind from birth, born blind, never seen the light
of day. A more sorrowful case of this
blind man that is brought before us cannot be found. I suspect that the worst thing
that could happen to a person is to be blind and can't see. Now, Bob can see very good. He can see a little bit, but
not very much. But he had about 80 years that
he did see. So it would be hard for Bob,
I suspect, evaluate the awfulness of the
condition, I'll never see it. I don't think that there's any
greater ailment that can fall upon a person born of Adam's race to be born
blind, to be without sight. A more serious infliction can
hardly be conceived in all bodily afflictions to be born blind,
no sight. It's a terrible thing to be born
with no fingers or toes, to be born deaf, serious afflictions. I don't know that Dying is not as bad as being
born without sight. I think it's the worst thing
that could happen to a man, is to be born without sight. Nothing's greater, I don't guess,
than the loss of sight. If you don't have sight, that
cuts you off from all the enjoyments of this life. not able to see
the shining of the sun, the blue sky, and see the mountains and
the rivers, the face of your loved ones, shuts you up to a
narrow, narrow world, a world of your own. You have to visualize
and painfully think about what is outside of this restricted
area in which you live, this world of darkness, man born blind. It makes a man helpless and dependent
upon others. It has to give him a cane, a
white cane, a seeing eye dog to make his way around. Jesus
saw this man. The man didn't see Jesus, he
couldn't see. The initiative came from the
Lord Jesus, not from this man. This man, he didn't know that
Jesus was in town. He didn't know anything about
Jesus. He wasn't looking for Jesus. He wasn't like blind Bartimaeus
who heard of Jesus. and got out there along the roadside,
knowing he was going to pass this way, and cried out, Have
mercy, thou son of David, have mercy! And the Lord heard his
cry, and the Bible says that Jesus stood still, kept on going. There was other cries. There
was other picturesque things there in that area at that time,
but none of them moved the Lord Jesus. He just kept on going,
but when blind Bartimaeus cried, and they told him to hush, and
he cried louder, it says Jesus stood still. The cry of this
blind man, cause Jesus to stand still. He can make the sun stand
still. He can do all things, nothing
too hard for him. But the cry of a poor blind man
without sight and a beggar man at that made him stop in his
tracks and stood still. This man was born blind, He did
not see the Lord Jesus Christ. He did not, in all probability,
even hear about him. But the Lord saw this man and
healed him, given him his sight. The Lord here, in this particular
case, came to him unasked. He wasn't asked. He took the initiative. He took
the first step. You know, the approach and appeal
nowadays is that if you make the first move, then God will
meet you along the way. That is, if you take the first
step, the Lord will take the next step and come in your direction.
Meet the Lord halfway. Well, this man didn't take the
first step. He wasn't interested in who the
Lord was even. Maybe he had never heard about
him. I don't know. But the Lord saw
the blind man and came to him. unasked and healing this poor
blind man that was painfully helpless and dependent upon others. In fact, until men lose their
sight, they never fully realize the value of sight. Now blindness,
like every other bodily infirmity, is a fruit of sin. What I mean by that is this.
If Adam had never fallen, I don't think that people would have
been born blind, deaf, or dumb if Adam had not fallen. that he was in. All the pains
and diseases and physical effects to which we are liable came in
when Adam fell. Before Adam fell, there was no
blindness, there was no disease, there was no sickness, there
was no pain. It was because sin by, listen
to me, By one man, sin entered into this world. By one man. It doesn't say, by one man's
sin. It says, by one man, sin entered. That's the reason. That's the
first cause. And so we ought to hate sin. that monster that sprang in from
out of nowhere on us and diseased us and paralyzed us and separated
us from a good and holy God. We ought to hate sin with a godly
hatred. the root of all of our cares,
troubles, and sorrows. And we all have them. One, you may not have the sorrows
that another person has, or the troubles that I have, or the
weariness of soul that others have, but we all have these things. It goes with being a sinner. Sin has brought these all about. If it was not for sin, there
would not be any misunderstandings and fallings and hatred and things
of that nature, the sin of all forms of evil and drunkenness
and wars and rumors of wars and all of that business. There would
not be anything like that if sin had not entered in. So we ought to hate sin. Sin is the proof of the fallen
nature. That's the proof because the
fallen nature loves sin and finds pleasure in it. That's proof
that man has failed, fallen to the lowest rung, down there,
can't do anything about it. Well, the disciples here, They
asked the Lord Jesus Christ about this man who was blind from his
birth, who Jesus healed, came unasked, and noticed, too,
that it says here that as Jesus passed by, He passed by there. I think he
passed by there on purpose. I think he knew the man was standing
there before he passed by, and especially he designed his route
that it would bring him right by that fellow. I say that's
the providence of God. I say that Jesus did this on
purpose. I say this was no accident. This was foreordained. This had
to come by. And as Jesus passed by, He saw
the man. The man didn't see Him. He couldn't
see Him. But the Lord seen Him. The disciples
asked Him about this black man. Well, I've already told you it
wasn't because of a special sin. It wasn't because his father
had sinned or his mother had sinned or Someone had committed
adultery or idolatry or some other outward, awful, disrespectful
thing, wasn't that? It wasn't a spatial sin, but
he said this man was born blind, that the works of God should
be made manifest in him, that the glory of God might be seen
in this man, in this healing. Well, our Lord, as I said, I
believe he kind of understood that he wasn't, his sojourn from
heaven, his sojourn here upon this earth,
being away from his Father, away from the throne, he's down here
only for three short years in his time His time was passing
real quick, and he knew he wasn't going to be here very long, so
he said, I must work the works of Him that sent me while it
is yet day. Ain't got much time left. Just a few short days, and I
got to do the work of the Father while I'm here. My Father worketh
hitherto, and I work. I come to do the will of God. I must do His will. He would
miss no opportunity to work works of mercy doing His Father's business. Morning, noon, and night, always
doing the work that the Father gave Him to do. That, He said
in one place, was His meat and His drink to work the work of
God, do the will of God. He said, I must work, night cometh
when no man can work. Let us, brethren, learn from
this, that our time is short here upon this earth. It's like
a shadow, and the shadow is about to pass over us. we go off out into reality. So let us work and do our Master's
bidding while there is yet time. Let us pray. Let us read the
Word of God and let us hear the Word of God. Let us do good in
our generation. Let us serve God, be obedient
to God. Our time is short. and our daylight
will soon be gone. The daylight will soon be gone
for most of us, even for the very youngest of all of us. The day is short for you. If
you was born yesterday, the day is short. Life is swift to pass by. shadows are long. Opportunities
lost can never be retrieved. Whatever our hands findeth to
do, the Bible says, do with all of our might, all of our will. It says, Night cometh, our Lord
said, when no man can A second lease on life is not to be had. Let us be about our Father's
business. Oh, the second thing I want to
mention is this. I want you to see the different
ways or the different means that our Lord used in working different
miracles on different occasions. In healing this blind man who
was blind from birth, he could have said a word or not said
a word and the man would have been healed. He could have thought
it. It could have just passed fleetingly
by. and he could have willed it and
it would have been done. God, you cannot put God in a
box and make him do a specific or certain way. God will not
take orders from you or from me. Oh no, this blind man could
have been healed with just one word. or not one word or just
a thought. Or the Lord Jesus Christ could
have touched him with his little finger or his thumb or pointed
at him or thought about him and he could have been healed. He
could have given a command and he would have been healed. But
instead he sat on the ground and made clay out of the spittle
on the ground. And he anointed the eyes of this
blind man. Now, in all of this, there was
no inherent healing virtue. There was no virtue in the spit. There was no virtue in the clay. There was no virtue by putting
the plaster of clay upon his eyes. But, you can rest assured,
it was for wise reasons that only God himself knows that the
Lord was pleased to use these means to bring about the sight
of that blind man. A lesson to be learned here is
that the Lord of heaven will not be boxed in or tied down
to the use of anyone's means on conferring a blessing to men
or women. He will not be shut up in a corner
or put in a box. He will work his own way and
he will not allow anybody or a group of people to prescribe
how he will confer a blessing upon an individual. Now the healers
of our day say you've got the preacher must put his hand on
somebody's head. I don't know that the Bible teaches
it. It's not the way our Lord, He didn't do it any way He wanted
to do it. He didn't have to come forward.
He didn't give no invitation. He saves whomsoever He wills,
and how He wills, and when He wills, all by the good news of
the gospel, certainly. All right, he works his way.
We'll not allow anyone to prescribe to him how he does it. But the
great question here tonight is this. Are the eyes of your understanding
and the eyes of my understanding open? That's the important thing. Do you have eyes to see? The
eyes of your understanding, have they been open? Has the light,
the Lord Jesus said, I'm the light of the world. Has the light
of the world came in and dispelled the darkness and made you see
spiritual things? Have you got spiritual light?
Do you know how God can be just and justify him that believeth
in Jesus? Do you know who Jesus is? Do
you know why Jesus came? Do you know what Jesus accomplished?
You know, what happened to him and where it went and where he's
at now, what he's doing. Has your eyes been opened to
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ? Well, has your eyes been
opened to his power? Well, my eyes have been opened
here this evening to his power because I see that he can give
sight to a man that was born blind. Nobody else can do that. It's never been done before and
it's never been done since. That a man who was born blind
received his sight. But our Lord did it. I know He's
got power. The Bible says that all power
is given unto Him in heaven and in earth. Has that power. I know that about Him. Ah, listen. Here, in this particular case,
he does which is impossible. Without God, without the means
of medicine, he cures the incurable and the sinner, and the sinner
that's so destitute, so far off from God, so bad that It seems
like he could not be any worse. It's impossible. He's endurable. Only the Lord can save him. The Lord has the power to save
him, to cause the light to shine in, the gospel to be made known
to his soul, that he can see and that he can hear. Oh, he
gives sight here. Such a mighty work could never
be done by mere men. And only the light of the gospel
can he make shine into a man's heart that he can see and give
him understanding. Well, just let me conclude by
turning the page, if you will. This whole chapter is about this
man. Did you ever notice that? There's 41 verses. It all has
to do with this man born blind. This is an important chapter,
you know that? This is a great work that our Lord did, an important
event, and many questions are answered here. This fellow up here that was
born blind, now most people get about three or four verses like
I did, and they conclude that the man's saved, and they go
on from there. But up here, he's not necessarily
saved. He's got his sight, but that
doesn't necessarily mean that he's a convert. You look over
here in the latter part of this. Verse 30, verse 31, verse 30,
The man answered and said unto them, Why, herein is a marvelous
thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath
opened mine eyes. Now we know that God heareth
not sinners, but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth
his will, him he heareth. He said, We know that God heareth
not sinners. Well, I wonder if he heard me.
I'm a sinner. Since the world began, it was
not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was blind.
If this man were not of God, he could do nothing. They answered
and said unto him, that is, these Pharisees are talking to this
blind man, They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether
born in sins. Of course, we all were born in
sin, conceived in iniquity. And do you teach us? You was
born in sin, blind man, you got your sight, but you was still
born in sin. And he said, They cast him out.
They cast him, they excommunicated him. They kicked him out of the
synagogue. Well, that was the rule then. The chief priests
and scribes, they all said, if any man confesses this man Christ
and says he's the Christ, kick him out of the synagogue. That's
what they did. Well, Jesus heard that they had
cast him out. And notice these next three or
four words. And when he had found him, I'm
telling you, if you're ever found, it'll be because Jesus found
you. You can't find yourself. You're lost. You're so far off
from God you can't come back by yourself. He's got to come
where you are. He's got to find you and bring
you back. He's got to work a work of grace
in your soul and give you spiritual eyes that you can understand
the gospel. It says, And when he had found him, when our Lord
Jesus found this blind man who had his sight, when he found
him, He said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? Now,
a man's not saved if he doesn't believe on the Son of God. He's
not saved up there where he says, I once was blind and now I see. Now, I know that all these fellows
that preach, they preach and say, well, yeah, listen, I once
was blind but now I see. Well, that may be true that you
was blind and now you see, but that's not proof that this man
was saved. Because our Lord says, Do you
believe on the Son of God? And he said, Who is he, Lord?
He said, I don't even know who he is. How are you going to believe
if you don't know who you're believing? And he said, Who is
he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him,
Thou hast both seen him. This he couldn't have done prior
to this. Thou hast both seen him, and
it is he that talks with thee. And you know what he said? He
said, Lord, I believe. Now, that's when he was saved.
He was saved when he believed the Lord Jesus Christ to be the
Savior of sinners, to cleanse him from his sins by his precious
blood and to clothe him in his righteousness and make him fit
for God's heaven. He said, Yeah, I believe. And
the next thing he did, he fell down and worshiped him. He blessed
his name. He thanked him. He praised him.
And Jesus said, For judgment I come into this world. Well,
all right. That's a good chapter.