I have both the most solemn and
the most delightful picture to present to you this morning,
so turn with me in your Bibles to John Chapter 9. But I'd like
to remind us yet again that the chapter divisions were put in
in the 13th and 14th century, and so often we lose sight of
the flow of the chapters of the Bible by just going to the numbers,
the big numbers, and then reading on. In verse 56 of John chapter
8, your father, Abraham, rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and
was glad. Then said the Jews unto him,
thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, verily,
verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am. I am God, is what he was saying. And this is the response of the
natural man. This is the response of the natural
religious man to the absolute sovereignty of God, isn't it?
Then they took up stones to cast at him. But Jesus hid himself
and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and
so passed by. 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, but that the works of God should
be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him
that sent me, while it is day. The night cometh when no man
can work, as long as I am in the world. I am the light of
the world. 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. And he said unto him,
Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation sent. And he went his way therefore,
and washed, and came seeing. I have two great prayers for
all of us. One, that we would see the works
of God made manifest. If God's manifesting his works,
If God is manifesting His works, even if it's a crumb, I want
to be there. But also, this man went his way and he came seeing,
I want for us the works of God. So here we
see the Lord Jesus Christ as he passed by. Here we see both
the extraordinary justice of God and the amazing discriminating
grace of God. He passed by a multitude of religious
people who thought that they were worshipping God. They were
still the remnants of those who had been there from the Feast
of the Tabernacles which had finished just a day before. So
this is a remarkable, remarkable picture of what it is for the
Lord Jesus Christ to appear in the midst of people. God chose Noah. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord, and he preached for 120 years, and Noah and that
generation were passed by. God chose Abraham out of a whole
nation and a whole world for himself. God's absolute sovereignty
dictates his discrimination. And if you trace all of the blessings
that all of God's people receive in this world, you find that
they just have one source in Him, in Him and in His infinite
everlasting love for His people. Every time the Lord gathers His
people together and promises to be in their midst and ministers
His word by the Holy Spirit to His bride, there are people who
have passed by It's a solemn thing and a serious thing to
hear the gospel. And what's the response? I love
Fanny Crosby wrote this hymn that some of you know. So well,
Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry. Is this your cry when you
hear about God? He hid himself. The Lord Jesus
Christ, God himself, hid himself. He made himself unable to be
seen to those religious people. He declares himself to be God
with their stones in their hands to kill him. He just walks straight
by the midst of them. Which shows us that, man, he
did give himself into the hands and the will of to be put to death. But what's
your response to God passing by? What's your response to God
hiding himself from people in religion? As I said, Fanny Crosby
wrote this hymn and we've heard it often. Savior, Savior, hear
my humble cry. While on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by. Lord, don't pass me by. Don't
pass anyone thy love by. Let me at the throne of mercy
find a sweet relief. Kneeling there in deep contrition,
help my unbelief. Trusting only in thy merit would
I seek thy face. Heal my wounded, broken spirit. Save me by thy grace. Thou the spring of all my comfort,
more than life to me. Whom have I on earth besides
thee? And let me ask you a question. Would he be righteous in passing
you by? Or do you believe that by your
activities you've earned something in his sight? This story gives
the glorious answer to that. Multitudes in this world see
themselves as seen, don't they? They were able, just as these
religious people in Jerusalem, they were able to see so clearly
with their knowledge of Scripture and their history and their traditions,
they could see that the Lord Jesus Christ was an imposter.
They could see that John the Baptist was an imposter. They
could see those things and honoured them in some ways, and yet when
it came to the very crux of the matter, God being God in their
midst, they despised him. John 9.39 is one of those verses
that we need to go to and trust that God is telling the truth
as he always must. But once again, it should cause
us to cry out. He says, for judgment I am come
into this world. For judgment, that word judgment
means crisis if you just transliterate the Greek word. That they which
see not might see. and they which see might be made
blind. Does God have the right? Does
God have the right? He does indeed. The Lord passes
by. There are in a sense two senses
of passing by, isn't it? He passed by that crowd and just
went out of their midst and hid himself from them and never Is
there a hint in the scriptures that he went back pleading and
begging with them saying, please, please, please, will you do me
a favor and come and worship with me? This is the works of
God made manifest. And this is the way that God
always works. He always works in discriminating
grace. He always works in sovereign
grace and sovereign mercy. Listen to what it says. He passed
by and he saw a man who was blind from his birth. Salvation and
seeing and worshipping God. And don't forget this man, at
the end of this chapter he just worshipped God. He bowed to who he is. He bowed
to the wonderful works of God made manifest. Salvation. Salvation is always the initiative
of God. God is the first cause of all
things. He saw a man. And this man couldn't see. He
couldn't see who the Lord was. He couldn't see who he was. He
couldn't see what was around him, good or evil. He had never
seen. He just didn't need his sight
being fixed a little bit. His sight, he had nothing with
which to see in his eyes or in his brain. He'd never done it.
Only a new creation sees. Only a new creation. He needed
a creative miracle of God to come away seeing. And so do you, brothers and sisters.
You need a creative miracle of God. This man not only had never seen,
he was a beggar. Just think of his situation.
He was about the same age as the Lord Jesus Christ. He had
probably been in this city for most of his life and certainly
he had been there most likely for the last three years. And
for three years in Israel, there would have been this extraordinary
fame of the Lord Jesus Christ. Crowds came to him and there
he was. In the city, where the only man
in all of human history who had ever given sight to the blind,
this messianic miracle, this man was teaching every day. He was coming and going, and
there was not even evidence of this man calling out to the Lord. And there's not even any evidence
that anyone that he knew had taken him to the Lord, who had
healed multitudes. He didn't even have the compassion
of the disciples. Listen to what it says in verse
chapter two. And his disciples asked him,
Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born
blind? How empty are the thoughts of
a natural man that doesn't see? How self-righteous! How self-righteous! They say, we're not blind because
of what I did. How often when you pass someone
do you see in desperate situations are your automatic, natural,
sinful thoughts saying, well, that's all their fault. It's
all their own fault. I just love the ignorance and
the honesty of the disciples in the presence of the Lord that
they might expose our self-righteousness. How unloving were they! They
just looked at him and were prepared to pass by instead of going to
him and saying, We have this man here with us who can heal
the blind. How hypocritical. How hypocritical. The Lord saw him. He saw him
in a special way, a way of grace, a way of compassion, and a way
of love. The Lord always sees his people
like that. Don't you love the story of the Good Samaritan and
the father when he saw him? The father always had his eyes
on his son, that was always his son. His father saw him and he
had compassion and he ran. That's the only time in the scriptures
where we ever have a picture of God in a hurry. And he fell
on his neck and he kissed him. My son, who was dead, is now
alive. Oh, how our natural thoughts
need to be adjusted, how our view of things in this world
need to be adjusted. Jesus answered, verse three,
neither this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of
God should be made manifest. Don't you love the shoulds and
the musts of God? This man had 30 years of blindness,
30 years of blindness, and he was about to see that particular
day that despite all that had been said, and all the snickering
and all of the judgmental activities for all of his life, this man
was loved by the Lord Jesus Christ all the days of his life. Was
there a purpose to his pain? Yes, there was. The works of God were going to
be manifest. Did he know that there was a purpose to his pain?
No idea whatsoever. Could God be glorified in this
man? Absolutely yes. He read the works
of God are going to be made manifest in him. Did this man know? And
did anyone else around know? Was this seen now as good? Does this man see this now as
good? You see, brothers and sisters, the journey is painful, the journey
is difficult, and the journey is through streams of water,
and the journey is through fire, and the journey is through trials. Does he now worship and trust
and glorify? Christ alone. Yes, he does. He's been doing it for 2,000
years, brothers and sisters, and he's got a long, long time
to go. He's got a long, long time of worship left before him.
Our God, in the works of God, shows that he is the first cause. He is the reason. He is behind
all things. Whatever he does is right. Whatever
he does is for his own glory, and he does not owe us an explanation. He just calls on us to bow and
worship and trust. Everything is to his own glory. The fall of man is to his own
glory. The cross, the most evil thing
that man has ever done in this world, is to his glory. The recreation, the giving of
sight to the blind, it's all for his glory. In fact, this
man's blindness, we are told, was purposed that the works of
God may be made manifest. His blindness was designed for
his mercy. His blindness was an act of God's
grace. God's grace never changes. God's
grace is the same, eternal grace, saving grace. His blindness was
by God's divine providence. In fact, for all of God's elect,
all of our afflictions are designed and brought to pass If you could ask the saints in
heaven, you would just be amazed at their stories of the grace
of God. How God says, I will have mercy
on him, I will have mercy. That's what it is for him to
be sovereign. I will have mercy on him, and I will harden him,
I will harden. Can you bow before a God like
that? You will. You will. You will bow before
this God. We are in the hands of a sovereign
God, and I love it that way. I love it that way. The deeper
the trials and the darker the day, the more I love to think
that this is God's work. This is God's work. Listen to
what he says in verse four. I must. He said, should the works
of God should be made manifest. He said, I must. Don't you love
the musts of God? I must work the works of him
that sent me wild at this day, when no man can work. I must
be about my father's business are the first words that came
from the Lord Jesus Christ. The night cometh when no man
can work. And he's talking about that night
of the darkness of the cross of Calvary. No one worked on
that day. He says, I trod that winepress alone. He says that
work is done in that darkness. The work is done. No man works.
He sat down at the right hand of the majesty of the throne
on high. Everything is finished is his great pride. Righteousness
is finished. Satisfaction of the law of God
and the justice of God is finished. Redemption is finished. Justification
is finished. Forgiveness is finished. Your
sins are put away, brothers and sisters. Sanctification is finished.
Salvation is all finished. Our gospel message is good news. It's not good advice. The Lord
said, I have glorified thee in the earth. I have finished the
work which thou gavest me to do. Everything is finished. the manifest works of God. Verse 5, he says, as long as
I'm in the world, I am the light of the world. And if you go back
to John chapter 8, you will see that the light of the world is
there given to show us how he can have before him a woman,
a picture of the church who is caught openly guilty in wickedness
and depravity. And the Lord Jesus Christ can
have her brought before him and say, neither do I condemn you. Why did he say that? Because
in him there's absolutely nothing to condemn her for, brothers
and sisters. I am the light of the world,
the light of how God can be just and justify the ungodly. It's
the light of the gospel. Verses 6 and 7, every time everyone
comes to this story, I'm sure they're fascinated by what verses
6 and 7 mean, isn't it? What an extraordinary thing to
do. When he had thus spoken, when he had said, On the light
of the world, I'll show you how the light of the world manifests
the works of God. 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 clay. And he said unto him, Go
wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation sent. He went his way, therefore, and
washed, and came sea. I've put in the bulletin that
article by Henry Mahan, which I wrote out regarding this. He
says, and I'll just read it for you quickly, but many writers
spend a great deal of time discussing the spittle, the dust, the clay,
and the pool of Siloam. They go into a great deal of
detail about all these things, and most of what they say may
be so. But this one thing is clear to me. He used means. The Lord Jesus Christ always
used means. He doesn't have to use means.
He said to Bartimaeus, you're healed. Your blindness is gone,
Bartimaeus. Here he uses means, just as he
did at the tomb of Lazarus. He said to those people, they
moved the rock away. Do you think someone who has just raised someone
from the dead and causes a dead man wrapped up in clothes to
come out of his tomb couldn't move a stone? Of course he could,
he uses memes, brothers and sisters, and they're gospel pictures for
God's saints to be edified and be encouraged. He used means
which had no virtue in themselves, none whatsoever, spit and dust,
clay and a pool, in them all no virtue whatsoever, and the
means used were distasteful and foolish in the minds of natural
man. What a silly thing to do! If
you want to open someone's eyes, why do you begin by spitting
on the dirt and putting clay in his eyes? The foolishness of preaching
is that by which spiritually blind sinners receive their sight. The preacher and his words have
no power to save until they are used by the hand of God Almighty. What made the dust at cleansing
that pearl sufficient and effectual? There was no virtue in any of
them. was in the hands of the one who
used them according to his good pleasure. But just in closing,
I want us to be reminded of a couple of things that when the works
of God are made manifest, always the works of God are going to
lead us to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we always go
there. We always go and say, all of
our gospel is about the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
I am determined to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. And what are we by nature, brothers
and sisters? dust. What were we made from? The dust of this earth. And what comes from the mouth
of our Saviour? It's always holy, it's always
perfect. In Leviticus 16, if an unclean
person spat on a clean person, the clean person was unclean
all day long. all day long. And when the Lord
Jesus Christ was hanging on Calvary's tree, on his face and on his
body was the drying spittle of those people who despised him. Everything that comes from the
mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ is holy and virtuous. And as much as it might horrify
us, There is nothing distasteful in what comes from the Lord Jesus
Christ. There's nothing distasteful in the water that comes from
him. This is special spit. I can say that reverently, but
it is, like everything that came from him, it was perfectly, perfectly
holy. We are dust. It's a picture,
I believe, this clay, this cut clay, is a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ, God becoming flesh and dwelling among us. as we
are in this world and yet without sin. He kept the law of God absolutely
perfect without ever sinning. He was holy and taught in word
and deed. He was loving in everything he
did. He loved his Father and he loved people. He loved them
infinitely and he loved them effectively. But in opening the
eyes of the blind, What He creates and what comes from Him as a
special creation must come into contact with us. And that's what
happened, isn't it? He on the cross came into contact
with sin in the most extraordinary way. He was made sin and we quote
the verses often and we talk about it and each time we do
we have to say, I don't have a clue what that means. We swim
in sin like the fish swim in the sea and hardly ever take
any notice of it until we get caught out in something grotesque. But he was made sin. He was made
the sin of all of the people that God had given to him before
the foundation of the world. He came into contact, he touched
these people, he touched the leper. and he must come into
contact. He became what I am, and he died
on Cowboy's Tree. The glory of the Gospel is in
the pictures of substitution and satisfaction. This mud paste
of the Lord be applied. God must apply His
Incarnation. God must apply all of what is
involved in His Incarnation. He must apply His mercy. He must
apply His righteousness. It's imputed to us eternally,
but it's imparted to us. As sin was to Him, there is a
glorious transaction. And He says to this man who's
been anointed, You go. You personally go and
you personally wash. No one can believe for you. No one can repent for you. No one can love God for you. You go. One of the glorious things
of the gospel is that when the Lord Jesus Christ commands, with
his command comes the power to go. How does a blind man get
to a pool? by the power of God. How does a blind man find the
pool and get into it without falling in and drowning himself?
By the power of God. He washed, he washed, he washed,
he washed away all of that clay. And just as all of our sins are
washed away in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, God washes away our sins. He doesn't cover it up. He washes
it away in his own blood. You must go, and you must believe. There is no personal salvation
without personal believing. Did the man restore his sight?
Would his sight have been restored if he didn't go? He went, therefore. One of the glorious things about
the Gospel is the power of God to make His way our way and to
make our way His way. In the story of Bartimaeus, Bartimaeus
immediately received his sight and the Lord said to him, go
your way. You can see now, you go your way. Bartimaeus immediately
received his sight. What did he do? He followed Jesus
in the way. If you see, you'll follow Jesus
in the way. He went and he washed. He simply
believed. The words of the Lord Jesus Christ. How silly the command. How silly the whole process seems
to the natural man. But how efficacious, how powerful
are the words of Christ's belief. You remember Naaman the Syrian?
You go down there and dip in the Jordan. It wasn't the Jordan
that was going to heal him of his leprosy. It was him being
humbled that was going to heal him. He said, we've got these
amazing rivers up there where I come from in Syria. They're
beautiful rivers and they come out of these mountains, they're
fresh. You want me to swim, you want me to dip in this sewer
of your Jordan? And someone said, if the God
had asked you to do something monumental, no one would have
done it. And here he is. He just asked
you to do You go and dip seven times in
this muddy Jordan, and he came out with his flesh like a baby's. He washed and came seen. Salvation is seeing Christ. His glory in His incarnation,
His glory in His absolute sovereignty over all things, His glory in
saving mercy and saving grace and all He does in manifest people get all of the glory and
all of the manifestation of seeing him in his glory. The blind man
goes on to say, I was blind. One thing I know, just one thing
I know, I was blind but now I see. I was blind to who God was. I
was blind to who the Christ of God was. I was blind to who I
was. I was blind to this world around
me. And now I see all the washed. All the washed brothers and sisters
see. All the washed see His precious
blood. They see His precious righteousness.
They see His glorious and precious union with His people from before
the foundation of the world. They see that He is all in salvation. They see that He is all There are a multitude in this
world who claim to see, and yet God makes them blind. There are
a blessed remnant in this world who can't see one particular
reason why God would want to save them. I can see a lot of
reasons why God would want to pass me by. and yet for judgment
of coming to this world, that they that see not, see nothing
in themselves, might see. And they which think they see
and stand in judgment of God and his people might be made
blind. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we pray that you would have mercy upon us, that we, like this blind
man, might be seen of you coming to us And Heavenly Father, we
praise you that you come to us where we are and as we are. And you come to us in the preaching
of the Gospel. And in the preaching and the
proclamation of the Gospel, in that new birth that comes from
your Word becoming Spirit and life to us, we see the Lord Jesus
Christ in his glory. O Heavenly Father, we pray that
you'd cause us to go into this world and into this week, having
seen the works of God made manifest, to see our Saviour washing our
sins away in his precious blood. O our Father, he is precious
to you, he's precious to the saints in heaven, You alone can
cause us to see and make him precious to us, our Father. Bless
your words to our hearts that we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.