The Lord gives us many reasons
why he comes into this world, but here in John Chapter 9 he
gives us this particular one. He says, in the presence of the
Pharisees, who would in six months' time have him put to death, but
also in the presence of this blind man who was worshipping
him. To worship is to bow down before him. Lord, I believe. That's what worship is, isn't
it? I believe. And he worshipped him. And Jesus said, for judgment, I am come into this world, that they which see not might
see, and they which see might be made blind. And some of the
Pharisees which were with him heard these words and said unto
him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If you
were blind, you should have no sin. But now you say, We see
Therefore, your sin remaineth. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world. He came. We didn't come, we're born in
this world. He came into this world. He came
from heaven. He came as the Son of God. He
was before he came. He came sent of his Father. He came in a body that was prepared
for him, and he was made like unto his brethren without sin.
But he came, he came down from heaven, not to do mine own will,
but the will of him that sent me, and the will of him that
sent me is that everyone that looks to him, everyone that sees
him will be saved. He says, I've come, I've come
into this world to save sinners. I've come to save sinners. I haven't come to bring peace
on this earth. I've come not to bring peace,
but a sword. He's come and he says, Verse
39, in this particular case, for judgment. So here he is with
a man who was blind in his presence, and here he is with some people
who see so clearly. They could see so clearly through
their own religious eyes that the Lord Jesus Christ was a demon-possessed
Samaritan blasphemer, that he was worthy of death. They could
see that this man was altogether born in sins and the evidence
of that is that he was blind. This man was cast out in their
judgment. Jesus says, for judgment I am
come into this world. So the judgment is not, there's
going to be a famous court case in America, there are famous
court cases all the time, but the famous court case there at
the moment is going to be established whether the evidence is in or
not, whether the evidence justifies the accusations. It's not what this is talking
about. This is saying the evidence is all in and the verdict is
here. That's what the word means. It
means the verdict, the sentence. It means the determination of
the judge. It's the decree. of God, I'm come into this world,
I'm come into this world that they which see not might see. And what on earth can he mean? What on earth can he mean? Well
the answer is very clearly in the text, isn't it? It's not
talking about seeing through physical eyes, it's talking about
Sin, isn't it? And some of the Pharisees which
were with him heard these words and said unto him, Are we blind
also? Verse 41, Jesus said unto him, If you were blind, you should
have no sin. But now you say, We see, therefore
your sin remaineth. There is, in the judgment, a
great separation in all of humanity, isn't there? In the next chapter,
in chapter 10, we'll talk about sheep and goats. Goats can never
be made to be sheep, and sheep can never be made to be goats.
There are people in this world who, according to the Lord Jesus
Christ, have no sin. They have no sin, therefore they
must be holy and they must be righteous in the sight of God. And there are some who say we
see and their sin remaineth, which means that that sin abides
on them. It always was there since the
fall of their father Adam. It was on them when they were
born. It was on them and exacerbated by the acts that they commit
as they go through this world, and especially their acts of
religious righteousness. The Lord here is speaking in
spiritual terms, and this book that's before us is a spiritual
book, and it's to be understood in spiritual terms. Even when
he's speaking parables, they're to be understood in spiritual
terms. He's speaking about spiritually
seeing and spiritual blindness and spiritual judgment. And all
of these things will have physical manifestations and they're revealed
ultimately. They're revealed in who the Lord
Jesus Christ is. Who do you say that I am? What
think ye of Christ? Quite simply, the answer to the
question, isn't it, is all believers. see themselves as so sinful that
they cannot see why God would save them. They see nothing in
themselves which would cause God to save them, nothing that
they have done. The two great refuges of life
for people in this world is what they have done and what they
will do. And a sinner, someone who's been
made a sinner by God, cannot see why God would save them.
And God says these people are given sight. And all who can
see why God would save them are made blind. It is as simple as that. No wonder the Lord goes on in
this conversation to talk about thieves and robbers. Thieves
and robbers enter the sheepfold or try to enter the sheepfold
where the sheep are by some other way. The other way is the way
of man, isn't it? You will be saved if you. Two great words of the false
teachers always are, aren't they? I. offer you in terms of God and
if, if you do something, if you do something, if you can find
in yourself something that is the cause of God saving you,
you are made blind. One of the glorious things about
these pictures in John's Gospel and these pictures throughout
the Gospel accounts is that we need to keep reminding ourselves
that all of these events happened after the Jerusalem Council and
after the events where the church was attacked vigorously by the
false teachers who came in, these thieves and robbers. They robbed
God of his glory and they robbed and thieves the comfort of God's
people from them by saying that you must do something to be saved.
And so it's really good to read these accounts of the healings
of these people in light of the fact that they are descriptions
of how God saved sinners and they are, in a sense, an acted
parable by the Lord Jesus Christ of what the books of Galatians
and Philippians and all of the rest of the New Testament is
saying, that God God saves people by sovereign grace, free sovereign
grace. And you think of the stories
in John's Gospel, isn't it, again and again and again, you have
people that are characterized by one thing, that they're helpless. They're helpless, aren't they?
What was the Samaritan woman? In terms of the Jews, she was
lost and he comes to her. The nobleman
cries out because he has no power or strength in himself whatsoever
to save his son. The crippled man had been lying
there crippled beside that pill for all of those years, and the
religious world had walked by him and they could do nothing.
He was helpless, wasn't he? The blind man had been in Jerusalem
all of these years, 30-something years at least, and not one person
was able to do a single thing for him. He just sat there as
a beggar. Couldn't see, couldn't see, couldn't do anything to
help himself. Do you see? They're all pictures
of graves. What was Lazarus? What a glorious picture of salvation
Lazarus is. He's dead in his tomb and he's
rotting. What a picture of us in our fallen Adam. Bound in
darkness, dead. And the Lord comes along to all
of them and he says, leave. He just says, leave. He says,
see. He says, leave. Oh, brothers
and sisters, come to you, isn't it? He says
live. He says live. They're all pictures of what
is impossible with man, is possible with God, and salvation is a
glorious, glorious picture. that pictures the character of
our God in the salvation of sinners. He's the one that does it all.
He's the one that does it all. He's the one that speaks words
of power and there is a creation. The blind are blind as to why
God would ever save them. Those that can see might talk
much about grace, but their grace isn't this God has done everything
he possibly can he's laid out before you this extraordinary
salvation of Lord Jesus Christ and even he loves you and he's
died for you he's done absolutely everything and if you will take
the first step God will save you If you can take the first
step, brothers and sisters, you don't need God to save you. If
you can take the first step, you're not Lazarus in that tomb.
If you can take the first step to see, you're not the blind
man. If you can take the first step, you're not the cripple.
All of the pictures of the Bible are saying what modern religion
says about our God. All of it is turned upside down.
We are saved by sovereign grace. And we call it free grace. And
that's just a repetition of words because grace is always free.
Grace is always free, grace is always sovereign, grace is always
saving because grace, our Lord Jesus came and he's full of grace
and truth. Grace is only ever exercised
towards the elect. So someone who's not preaching
the God's electing love in the Lord Jesus Christ is not preaching
the grace of God. We are saved by grace. the blind in this world. If they're
saved by grace, they can't see why God would save them. And
if they're saved by grace, they can't see why God would keep
saving them. The only possible reason for their salvation, the
only possible hope they have, is in the perfect and finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me read a description of
grace. And it's good to know, isn't
it, we are saved by grace and this is what Paul says in Ephesians
chapter 2 isn't it again he says God who is rich in mercy for
his great love Wherewith he loved us. His great love is an eternal
love, an everlasting love. When he loves his people, he
loves them to the end, and he loves them, and his love is stronger
than death, and everyone he loves must be saved. His great love,
wherewith his love, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened
us together with Christ. By grace are you saved, and has
raised us up together with him and made us to sit in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. But God, oh the words of grace,
aren't they? But God, but me are the words
of those who can see. Grace, let's read some of these
glorious descriptions. It is the eternal and absolute
free favor of God manifested in the vowsachment, the giving
of spiritual and eternal blessings to the guilty and the unworthy. Divine grace is the sovereign
and saving favour of God exercised in bestowing blessings upon those
who have no merit in them. Blind. for which no compensation
is demanded. It is the favour of God on those
who not only have no positive desserts of their own, but also
who are thoroughly ill-deserving and hell-deserving. It is completely
unmerited and unsought. This blind man wasn't seeking
the Lord. He was sitting there with his beggar's blanket out
in front of him. It is altogether, and I love this description,
it is altogether unattracted by anything in or from or by
the objects upon which it is bestowed. Grace cannot be bought, cannot
be earned, cannot be won by the creature if it could it would
cease to be grace. When we say a thing is said to
be of grace, the recipient has no claim upon it, that it was
in no wise due to him. It comes to him as pure love,
unasked and undesired. grace. It comes to the helpless,
it comes to the hopeless, and it comes to those who can see
nothing in themselves. Also, grace reminds us that God
is absolutely sovereign and we are in his hands. And he has
the right, as the potter, to do with his creation as he sees
fit. God's grace is sovereign like
our Lord. And grace reminds us that God
the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit do all of
the saving from eternity to eternity, including the activities of bringing
lost sons, his children, to him and causing them to know that
they are And that's what the Lord Jesus Christ is doing in
these saving acts, isn't he? He's going to these particular
people and saying, you're mine. You're mine. You're mine. I own you in love. I have you as mine. You're mine. God the Father,
God the Son do it all from eternity and they do it all And what's the difference between
those who can't see and those who think they can see? It's just pride, isn't it? It's pride. And that marked this
religious world. They were proud. They were so
proud. They could see why God would
save them. They again and again remind the Lord Jesus Christ
why God would save them. We're Abraham's children. We're
Abraham's children. We are of that select group of
people in this world. We are, they said in John chapter
9, we're Moses' disciples. We follow Moses. We're not just
Abraham's children, but we're Abraham's children who obey the
law of God. And we're Abraham's children,
and we're Moses' disciples, and here we are at the very temple
of God, worshipping. And we can see, we can see why
God will save us. We can see because of all the
things that they do. Oh, brothers and sisters, I pray
that we would know the voice of the shepherd that calls in
grace. It's a grace call, isn't it? And the message of the gospel
is a proclamation of grace. And when you think of grace,
you can't help but think of Paul, who was the most unlikely person
in all of the world to be saved. Those Christians would have looked
at Paul and he's taking them off and having them killed and
prancing around this world seeking whom he may devour. and the Lord
meets him. He says of his salvation, but God,
but God, can you say but God? I was a sword of Tarsus, I was
a child of Adam in this world, but God, listen to what Paul
says, but when it pleased God, when it pleased God, who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace. And the call of grace is a call
of God coming to His own and causing them to worship. Listen
to what He says in Galatians 1.16. He's called me by His grace
to reveal His Son in me. This is spiritualising, spiritual
side, isn't it? To reveal His Son in me that
I might preach Him among the heathen. God's servants are preachers
of grace because they are the recipients of grace. And God's
sheep love to hear the message of grace because they've been
saved by grace. Those who are saved by grace
can't see a single reason in themselves while they be saved,
and the others can see. They can't see themselves as
a sinner. As Obadiah says, the pride of
your heart has deceived you. See, the execution of God in
this judgment is here, isn't it? It was there on those particular
people at that time. And if God makes someone blind,
that's what the text says, doesn't it? John chapter 9 verse 11.
He makes them blind. If God makes them blind, it doesn't
mean that they stop being religious. It doesn't mean that they stop
being outwardly moral. It doesn't mean they stop being
knowledgeable of the scriptures. It doesn't mean they stop seeing
themselves as righteous and worthy. In fact, the very judgment is
the fact that they do see themselves righteous. They see themselves
as so righteous they can stand in judgment on God and God's
servants and God's people and look down their nose at them.
To the blind, the warnings of God fall upon deaf ears. To the blind, the evidences of
grace are hidden from their sight. To the blind, what the child
of God rejoices in offensive, that God would choose
the people, that God would put those people in the Lord Jesus
Christ. What's the first cry that comes out of the hearts
of people when they hear about God's eternal, sovereign, electing
love? That's not fair. That's not fair. A sinner standing in judgment
of God. What a glorious revelation it
is from God. What a great gift of God it is
to be made to see yourself a sinner. A sinner by nature. A sinner
by birth. A sinner by choice. A sinner
by practice. Sin is what we are. It's a noun
that describes us. And sin is what we do because
we are sinners. And sinners say with Paul, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death, O wretched man? I'm a wretched man. I'm a wretched
man. Amazing grace that saved a wretch
like me. Thanks be to God. Thanks be to God for his deliverance. sent you to hell, would he be
righteous and just and holy? he would still be righteous and
just and holy, wouldn't he? There's not a day goes by when
I'm not called upon to think how on earth can you dare consider
yourself a Christian when those are the actions and those are
the thoughts and they are the lack of things that you would
be doing and they are the commission of things that you ought not
to do. What a glorious thing for us to know when we have absolutely
nothing to recommend ourselves to God and we're sinners, we're
caused to call upon him, aren't we? Those sinners in Acts chapter
two, with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ on their hands,
with the judgment of God justly about to fall on them and send
them to hell, and Peter comes and preaches the Lord Jesus Christ
to them and says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord,
who's gonna call upon the name of the Lord? Sins hurt nothing. God be merciful
to me, the sinner. The only way that that sinner
who comes to the temple in Luke chapter 18 can find any acceptance
with God is that God would look into that temple and he'd look
to the mercy seat and he would look to the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ in that mercy seat and he'd look to his propitiation,
he'd look to everything that he'd done, he'd look to the transaction,
the glorious transaction of salvation between God the Father and God
the Son. And you be merciful to me. You look there and you
can be merciful to me. Because all of the sins of all
God's people were laid upon the others. And then we are given sight to
see that all of our acceptance is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
When God looks to his Son as my propitiation, if God looks
to his Son as bearing all of my sins in his own body on the
tree, I can come to him. I can come to him in his Son. I can call on him in his Son.
God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven his people. And God, for Christ's
sake, can accept us. One of the glorious things of
salvation by grace is that it is a magnification of all of
the glory of God in all of His attributes. His holiness is magnified,
His justice is magnified, His righteousness is magnified, His
faithfulness is magnified. Everything about our God, His
love is magnified in His saving and all of my acceptance before
God. is in the Lord Jesus Christ and
Him alone. Listen to what our text goes
on to say. Verse 41 is remarkable, isn't
it? you should have no sin. That's the declaration of
the gospel, isn't it? If you were blind, you would
have no sin. It doesn't say, if you were blind,
your sins would be forgiven. It says, if you were blind, you
would have no sin. If you were blind, you would
have no sin. The Lord Jesus Christ bore the
sins of all of his people on Calvary Street and they're gone. They are gone, brothers and sisters.
Just turn with me to 1 John 3. Sin in the justice of God, in
the holiness of God, can only be in one place at one time. If all of my sin was laid upon
the Lord Jesus Christ, it cannot be on me. That's what it is to
be justified, is to be a person who in the presence of God has
never sinned. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
owned all of my sins as his own. He claimed them to be his own.
He was manifested, verse 5, you know, this is what all believers
know, that you know that He was manifested to take away our sins
and in Him is no sin because He took them away under the justice
and the judgment of God and they are gone. Whosoever abideth in
Him sinneth not. Sinneth not. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen
him, neither known him. Little children have no man to
save you. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous. That's what a believer does.
He does righteousness because all the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ is all of his doing. All the doings that I
have before God are the doings of the Lord Jesus Christ. He that committeth sin is of
the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this
purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works
of the devil. Listen to verse 9, 1 John chapter
3. Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin. If you go to all the commentaries,
almost all the commentaries in the world, they'll change that. You go to translations, they'll
change it. And they'll say, doesn't commit sin habitually. I'm here
to tell you, brothers and sisters, I sin habitually. That's not
what the text says. It's not what God says. Whosoever
is born of God does not commit sin. For, the reason is, his
seed, the seed is the Lord Jesus Christ remains in him. Who he
is before God, the Father is the Son, isn't he? And his seed
remaineth in him and, listen to it, listen to what God says,
he cannot sin. He cannot sin, because he is born. What a glorious thing it is to
be born again. No wonder Nicodemus was told.
If you are not born again, Nicodemus, you can't see the kingdom of
God. You can't see who the king is. You can't see the kingdom.
You can't see what the king does in saving his people. You can't
enter the kingdom of God. You must be born again. To be
born again is to have that declaration. There's only two groups of people
in this world, aren't there? And here they are laid before
us in John chapter 9, in the very presence of the blind man,
in the very presence of that harlot. And both of them have
done nothing to save themselves. Both of them are the recipients
of God's sovereign grace. Oh brothers, what debtors we
are to the grace of God. There are those, who think they
can see and their sin remains on them. Your sin, to those who
can see, to those who can look to something that they've done,
to those who can look to a sinner's prayer that they've prayed, to
those who can look to their works of righteousness, to those who
can look to their law-keeping, to those who can look to anything
in themselves, they can see one tiny stitch on the robe of righteousness
that they have woven with their own hands. That's what the Virgin
said, isn't it? If there's one stitch in the robe of righteousness
that's got your fingerprints on it, the whole lot will come
undone on the Day of Judgment. God must punish sin. That's what
the cross is all about. He came to take away our sins. I have no sin. No sin. I can't see anything in myself. If you're blind, you should have
no sin. If you're blind, you would have
no sin. What a glorious blindness. What
a glorious blindness. What a glorious saviour. And
when he opens the eyes of the blind, what do the blind Two things, and they're both
exactly saying the same thing, aren't they? Lord, he acknowledges
God is absolutely sovereign. He says, Lord, I believe. And
he worshipped him. May God make us blind, bring
us to believe, and bring us to worship.