Alright brethren, John chapter
9. Now Christ gave this blind man physical
sight. He'd been blind from his birth.
He gave him physical sight and then towards the end of the chapter
he comes to him again and he reveals himself to him spiritually. And this man believes on him,
truly believes on him and sees him spiritually. Now from the
time the Lord gave him sight, physical sight, he began to experience
some rejection from religious neighbors, leaders, even his
own parents. And at last they cast him out
of the synagogue. But Christ found him. He found
him. He spoke to this man. And listen
to what our Lord asked him, verse 35. Jesus heard that they had
cast him out, and when he found him, he said unto him, dost thou
believe on the Son of God? This man had borne witness. He told a man named Jesus, gave
him physical sight. He told him that he believed
this man was a prophet. He'd even said he had to be a
man come of God or he couldn't have worked this miracle. But
here's the question. Dost thou believe on the Son
of God? Now listen to this man. He owns
his blindness. He owns himself to be blind.
Listen to him. He says in verse 36, He answered
and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? You see
there how he owned it. He didn't know the Lord. Who
is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? Verse 37, And Jesus said
to him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with
thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. That's
when Christ gave this man spiritual sight, by revelation. He spoke
the word affectionately, shined the light in his heart, and the
man believed. And he fell down and worshipped
him. Now Christ declares the point of the whole account right
here in verse 39. Jesus said, for judgment I am
coming to this world that they which see not might see, and
that they which see might be made blind. There's two kinds
of people in this chapter. There's a lot more than just
two people, but there's only two kinds of people in this chapter.
There's this man who was physically blind who the Lord gave sight.
The Lord gave him sight. Now, he was still blind spiritually
as far as knowing Christ. He did not know who Christ was
until Christ came to him in the end. But our Lord said here,
for judgment I am coming to this world that they which see not
might see. That's what we see in that man.
He confessed, he owned, he didn't know. Who is he, Lord? And Lord
made him see spiritually. And then there were the Pharisees
and their disciples, the neighbors, and even this man's parents.
And they had confidence in themselves that they could see. and the Lord left them. He left
them in their blindness. Now I want you to notice first
of all the two different hearts between the man and in between
those who rejected him. I want you to see the difference
here. Now, God is sovereign. Christ here is the sovereign
God in human flesh. And God, just like we saw Christ
make that clay of the spittle and anoint the eyes of this blind
man, and then he used the pool of Siloam, that was the means
he used, a picture of the preaching of the gospel whereby he reveals
himself in his people. But our Lord also used these
folks who rejected this man. They were in his hand too. Their
rejection of this man was all of God's purpose right here as
well. And it was on purpose. It was
to shut this man up to Christ. It was to bring him to where
he really didn't have anybody but Christ. Now, let's look at
the neighbors first, verse 8. The neighbors therefore, and
they which before had seen him, that he was blind, they said,
Is not this he that sat and begged? Some said, this is he. Others
said, he's like him. But he said, I'm he. Therefore
said they unto him, how were thine eyes open? And he answered
and said, a man that's called Jesus made clay and anointed
my 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. The
man answered simply stating what happened. He told him his experience. He told him what he'd experienced. He said there was a man named
Jesus, a man called Jesus. He made clay and oiled my eyes.
He said to me, go to the pool of Siloam and wash. I went and
washed. I received sight. But his neighbors
sound a little skeptical here. Where is he? Where is he? But the man said, I know not. I don't know. You see the difference
here? There's a little bit of a prove
it to us kind of attitude in the neighbors. Prove this to
us. Where is he? But the man is just on in his
blindness. I don't know. I don't know. And
then we look at the Pharisees, verse 13. They brought to the
Pharisees him that aforetime was blind, And it was the Sabbath
day when the Lord Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes.
Our Lord healed on the Sabbath day on purpose. He did this on
purpose because it outed the Pharisees, and where their real
confidence was, was in their obedience. And so he did that
on purpose. And then again, the Pharisees
also asked him, and they said, they asked him how he had received
his sight. And he said unto them, he put
clay upon my eyes, and I watched, and I do see. Again, he answers
plainly. He couldn't go into any more
detail than that. He said, I don't know how this happened. He put
clay on my eyes. He did it. I went and watched,
and I see, but he did it. But the Pharisees are asking
him, they're not asking him here yet about who. They're not saying,
who did this? We want to know him. They want
to know, how'd he do this? There's some sort of hocus pocus
going on here. Some sort of underhanded stuff
happening. That's what we want to know,
how he did this. Religion without Christ is mean and it's cruel
and it's unmerciful. And these Pharisees show the
hardness of heart in men who think they see. Men who think
they see. Men who are confident in themselves,
they're righteous. Here was the hardness of their
heart, verse 16. Therefore said some of the Pharisees,
this man is not of God." They're speaking of Christ. They said,
this man is not of God because he keepeth not the Sabbath day. Others said, how can a man that's
a sinner do such miracles? There was a division among them.
The Pharisees didn't rejoice. I mean, you think about this.
This man had been blind from his birth, and they knew this
man. This man was at the entrance
to the temple every day begging alms. They knew this man was
blind. They knew it. But they didn't
rejoice, even in that he had now physical sight. They didn't
rejoice in that. And their focus was not Christ. Their focus was not Christ's
works. It wasn't even the miracle that he did, even physically.
Their minds were set on carnal things. The only thing they had
their hearts set on was, this man broke the letter of the law. He broke the letter of the law.
He didn't keep the Sabbath day. And they accused the lawgiver,
Christ the lawgiver, of breaking the Sabbath day. They called
the sinless God-man a sinner. That's what they did. You know,
God gave the Sabbath day to give men rest after six days of working
during the week. He gave the seventh day, Saturday,
so men could rest and their animals could rest and everybody could
rest. And so God provided everything
they needed on that Friday. so that they
would have full provision all the way through the Sabbath so
they didn't have to do anything. They could just rest. That was
it. That was it. It was meant for
them to just rest and be refreshed and renewed from all that work
and rest from it. And what a beautiful picture
of Christ that is. Our Lord God sent His Son Christ
said there at the beginning of the chapter, I must work the
works of Him that sent me. And our Lord sent His Son, the
Son of God came to work the works of God that His people couldn't
work. Those works were coming to redeem
us from the curse wherein we fell in Adam and put away all
our sin, making us the righteousness of God, justified in Him, and
then come and shine the light in our hearts to make us know
this good news so that we can rest in Christ from all our works
of trying to be accepted. with God. And yet the Pharisees
took this beautiful picture of Christ and turned it into a work. It was meant to be rest and they
turned it into a work for righteousness. For righteousness. I saw something,
there's a thing going around and you probably already know
about this but You know up in Manhattan, there is a line that's,
I don't know, about big as your finger, that goes around, all
around the perimeter of Manhattan. And it's on the telephone poles,
it's on the street lights, you know, it's on the, sometimes
alongside of buildings, but it's a thin, it's a line, a fish,
like a rope that goes around. You know what that is? The Jews,
have their tradition is you can't leave your living room on the
Sabbath. But that is an extension of their
living room so that they can go out of their house on the
Sabbath and go to and fro and they're not breaking the law. I can jump over a barn if you
let me build the barn. That's moving the gold line. The law is exceeding broad that
men cannot keep it. That's the whole purpose. But
that Sabbath was right there between the law to God and the
law to men. And Christ, our Sabbath, came
and he loved God and his neighbor as himself by laying down his
life on the cross to put away the sin of his people so that
now by his grace we can just rest in Christ and do what we
do because we love him, because we want to serve him, not because
we're afraid, because we want to. The spirit he gives is not
a spirit of bondage again to fear, it's a spirit whereby he
makes you know you're a son. You were a servant, now you're
a son. He called you to be a son and
he makes you know you're a son, you're a child of God. So that
you can, if you have any need or any trouble or anything that
comes, you can cry, I have a father, father, father, help me. You
have access to his throne of grace. But these men accused Christ
of being a sinner. He gave that law and they accused
him of being a sinner because he healed a man on that day. Showed mercy. Verse 17, they
say unto the blind man again, what sayest thou of him that
he hath opened thine eyes? He said, he's a prophet. It's
important to understand this man doesn't know Christ yet. He doesn't know Christ spiritually
yet. He hasn't believed on him. But
he did hear Christ say, I must work the works of him that sent
me while it's day. He heard Christ say, I'm the
light of the world. And Christ anointed his eyes
and he went and washed and came away seeing. And so the man saying,
he must be a prophet. I'm saying he's a prophet because
he told me the works of God that were going to be done. That's
the reason I was born blind and now I see he's got to be a prophet. Well, then his parents rejected
him. Verse 18, but the Jews did not
believe concerning him that he had been blind and received his
sight till they called the parents of him that had received his
sight. This is amazing when you think about it. The Jews seek
after a sign. What greater sign could the Lord
have given than that he gave a man who'd been blind from his
birth physical sight? Did that make them bow down and
believe him? No. No. They didn't believe it. They
would rather say, you're lying. That whole time we saw you sitting
at the temple, you were faking being blind. You weren't really
blind. or something else, but they wouldn't
believe Christ did it. Now look, verse 19, and they
asked them, called his parents, and they asked the parents, they
said, is this your son who you say was born blind? How then
doth he now see? His parents answered them, we
know that this is our son, and that he was born blind. But by
what means he now seeth, we know not, or who hath opened his eyes,
we know not. He's of age, ask him, he shall
speak for himself. And these words spake his parents
because they feared the Jews. For the Jews had agreed already
that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put
out of the synagogue. Therefore said his parents, he's
of age, ask him. Now that's the effect right there
of legalism. That's the effect of it. that
it has on sinners. It produces and instills and
promotes the fear of man rather than the fear of God. The spirit
of grace is a spirit of grace. It's not a spirit of fear. It's
a spirit of grace. But this is that spirit of the
Pharisee. They had their thumb on these
folks, and if they confess Christ, they're kicking them out. They're
kicking them out of the synagogue, and that was a big deal. Verse
24. Then again called they the man
that was blind, they said to him, give God the praise. We
know that this man is a sinner. Now listen to this man. Now I
just want to point out the difference in the spirit of these men who
said they could see and this man who, he's been given sight,
physical sight, but this man's realizing he can't see spiritually
is what's happening. He understands now that I don't
know. He said, he answered, whether
he be a sinner or no, I don't know, I don't know, I know not.
One thing I know, Whereas I was blind, now I see. I was physically
blind and now I physically see. Verse 26, then they said to him
again, what did he to thee? How opened he thine eyes? And
he answered them, I've told you already and you did not hear.
Wherefore would you hear it again? Will ye also be his disciples? This man's taking his place as
a disciple of Christ. At least he wants to be. He said,
will you also be his disciple? And then they reviled him and
they said, thou art his disciple. We are Moses' disciples. We know
that God spoke unto Moses. See how they're saying they've
got sight. We know. We know God spoke to Moses. As
for this fellow, we know not from whence he is. But you know,
their contempt for Christ right here shows their blindness. They don't know Moses. They're
not disciples of Moses. It's easy to be a disciple of
a dead prophet. That's easy. They don't believe. If Moses would have been alive
in their day, they'd have rejected Moses, just like they're rejecting
Christ. Christ said that, listen, John 5, 45. He said, do not think
that I will accuse you to the Father. There's one that accuses
you, even Moses, in whom you trust. For had you believed Moses,
you would have believed me. For he wrote of me, Christ said. But if you believe not his writings,
how shall you believe my words? Now the Lord used all this, he's
showing this man, he's working for this man, he's showing this
man something. And what he showed this man here
is his distinguishing grace, how particular his grace is.
Verse 30, the man answered and he said unto them, why herein
is a marvelous thing, that you know not from whence he is, and
yet he hath opened mine eyes. God uses those that he passes
by to amaze you who he has called. Doesn't he do that? He uses those
that he passes by to just make you that he has called to marvel. Because you see men who are more
wise, you see men who are more prudent, you see men who know
the scriptures more, you see men who are mighty men and noble
men, that he's passed by. And yet he's shown himself, revealed
himself to us sinners. poor, desperate sinners that
he's made us to see we are, that makes you marvel that he would
show mercy to sinners like we are. And that's what this man
says. Now listen to the man. Verse 31, he says, now we know
that God heareth not sinners. This was a pet doctrine of the
Pharisees right here. And so he meets them right where
they are. And he says, we know that God heareth not sinners.
But if any man be a worshiper of God and doeth his will, him
he heareth. He's using that because this
is what the Pharisees used. This is what they used. This
is what they loved to use right here. And he said, now, If that
be so, he said, since the world began, was it not heard that
any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind? Here's the
conclusion. If this man were not of God,
he could do nothing. He's saying, this man can't be
a sinner. He can't be. If he were not of
God, he could not have done this miracle. Nobody's ever done a
miracle like this since the world began, to give a man sight. He's got to be of God, the man
said. Those that boasted they could
see. Those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. Verse
34, they answered and said unto him. Now get this, this man,
he don't know much. He knows a man named Jesus did
this. He said, I believe he's a prophet.
He said, I was blind, now I see, I know that. And he said, I know
this, he couldn't be a sinner. and do this. He has to be of
God. This man is sitting here bearing witness of Christ and
this would be for their good what he's saying to them if they
would just listen to it. Even though right now he hasn't
been given spiritual eyes to cast it all on Christ. He is
telling what he knows and if they would have listened, this
was He wasn't professing, I see.
He wasn't saying, I know it all. He was just telling them what
he knew. But here was their response. They answered and said unto him,
verse 34, thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach
us? And they cast him out. C. H. Macintosh said, this was the
brightest moment in this man's career. These men, though they knew it
not, had done him a real service. They had thrust him out into
the most honored position of identification with Christ as
a despised and rejected one. Verse 35, now Jesus heard that
they had cast him out, and when he'd found him. Our Lord never
sleeps, he never slumbers. He is all-knowing and all-seeing. He knew exactly what was transpiring
here. He knew what was taking place.
And he was just waiting for this right here. This was the whole
purpose of it. And he went and he found him.
And he said to him, Does thou believe on the Son of God? Now
that's the question. Do you believe on the Son of
God? Do you believe on the Son of God? That's what he's asking
him. Does thou believe on the Son of God? The man answered,
who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And then the
Lord revealed himself to him. That man owned his blindness.
He didn't know the Lord Jesus. But Christ came and Christ spoke
and revealed Himself to this man. Now this is something very
important. This man had had a great experience. This man had had a great experience. More than me or you, any of us
have had. This man had been blind all his
life and God gave him sight. The Lord came and gave him sight.
He had experienced rejection from the established religion
of the day. He had been given an opportunity
to stand up and bear witness of what he did know and give
his testimony. He had done all of this and then
he was rejected of all these men. Now Christ told us we should
expect to be rejected. He said I didn't come to send
peace but a sword. Men are going to be rejected.
Believers are going to be rejected. And if they accused Christ who
only did that which pleased the Father and knew no sin, if they
accused him of sin, I can guarantee you, he said, if they called
me Beelzebub, they're gonna call you Beelzebub. If they called
him a sinner, they're gonna call you a sinner. It's not going
to be men who reject the gospel and refuse Christ and reject
His people. It's not going to be their fault. They're going to blame God's
people. They're going to blame. If they did it to Christ, He
said they're going to do it to you. But here's the point I'm
making. Salvation is not in any of that. Salvation is not put in confidence
in any experience, no matter how grand it might be. We have to be brought to own
our own blindness. We have to be brought to own
our blindness. We could be cast out of free will works religion.
That don't mean anything. or whatever, all these things
this man experienced. We've got to be brought to own
our own blindness, to own our need for Christ to be the light,
for Christ to work the works, for Christ to be the one who
leads us and teaches us and be our salvation. We've got to be
brought there. He answered and said, who is he, Lord, that I
might believe on him? He didn't know, but he was honest
and he was brought to this place. He shut up to Christ. and says,
Lord, I don't know who he is. And Christ revealed himself in
his heart by his word. He said, verse 37, and Jesus
said unto him, there's the word speaking the word, Jesus said
unto him, this is the greatest gospel preacher that ever was,
right here, preaching himself. And he said to him, Thou hast
both seen him, and it's he that talketh with thee. Over in Romans
10.13, he said, whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord
shall be saved. How then shall they call on him
of whom they have not believed? But before that, how shall they
believe in him of whom they have not heard? And before that, how
shall they hear without a preacher? And before that, how shall they
preach except they be sent? Here you have that fulfilled
in the most vivid way you could ever see. Here's Christ, the
sent one of God, the preacher, the prophet, priest, and king
of his people. And he comes forth and he preaches
himself. He declares, I am the Son of
God. That's what he declares to this
man. And the result of that was, Verse 38, He said, Lord, I believe. And He worshipped Him. That's
always what's going to happen. That's when the light shines. That's when grace enters the
heart. That's when we bow and say, He's everything. Dost thou
believe on the Son of God? What does that mean? What is
it to believe on the Son of God? When we believe on the Son of
God, We believe that he is God. as a man in human flesh, the
mediator by whom we are saved, by His works alone, entirely
of Him, His person. He is the Savior, the salvation.
That's what He had started out saying, I must work the works
of God. This man was born blind to show
for me to work the works of God, that they might be manifest in
Him. I must work the works of Him
that sent me, He said. He said, I am the light. The
works of God in saving a sinner are the works only God can do.
Nobody else can do them. Only God can do the works in
bringing us from a conceived sinner in our mother's womb to
God, holy, perfect, without fault, without blemish. Only God can
work that work. And since only God can work that
work, since He must work that work, He sent His only begotten
Son to work the work. And Christ came into this earth,
the God-man mediator, to work the works. And He has made His
people the righteousness of God in Him. He did that on the cross.
It is finished. It is finished. He put away the
sin of His people because He bore it away. He bore it away. He bore it to a land not inhabited. He went into the grave. He justified
his people. His people have died under the
curse and condemnation of the law, and we are risen with Christ
righteous and complete in Him. and then he must work this work,
he must send this gospel to us, and he must speak the word as
the gospel is going forth, and shine the light into our hearts
by his Holy Spirit, just like he did to this man right here.
I am the light of the world, he said. That's to believe the
Son of God, believe he's the Son of God, is to simply say,
he is all my salvation. What we just read, he is holy,
holy, holy, and there is no other. There is no other. that's holy
but him. And if we're holy, it's because
we're holy in him. He's entered in and he's shined
the light just like this man. Do you see what separateness
is, how he separated this man out? He didn't reveal to this
man who he is when that man was still in the synagogue and in
there. He had them cast him out. He
brought him out and he separated him and then he revealed himself
to him. And he believed him. He believed he is the Son of
God. And those that are given sight to believe he's the Son
of God, we never stop owning our own blindness and ourselves
and our total need of Christ to be our light. We don't ever
get to this. If we stop that, if we stop owning
our blindness and You know, we see through a glass darkly. We
do see, we have the light of life, we see. But there's a lot
of darkness and there's a lot of darkness. And if we ever get
to the point where we say we see, apart from Him being our
light, we'll be right where they were, where these men in the
temple were. Paul prayed for the Ephesian
believers. This is what he prayed for the
Ephesian believers. that God would give the spirit of wisdom
and revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding
be enlightened, being enlightened. that you may know what is the
hope of his calling and what is the riches of the glory of
his inheritance in the saints. What's the exceeding greatness
of his power to us were to believe according to the working of his
mighty power." Well, didn't they already believe? Yeah. But he's
saying, I want you to know, I want that light to shine more. And
I'm praying to the light that he will shine that light more.
and enlighten your eyes. The psalmist prayed in Psalm
119, 118. Open thou mine eyes that I may
behold wondrous things out of thy word, Lord. Open thou mine
eyes. Paul said, I count all things
lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my
Lord. And then in verse 10 he said,
that I might know him. Didn't he already know him? But
we never stop praying, Lord, give me sight. Give me sight. Shine your light. And it is.
The light shines more and more into the perfect day. He said
in Isaiah 50, Who's among you that feareth the Lord? Who's
among you that feareth the Lord? You believe him. That obeyeth
the voice of his servant. You obey the voice of Christ.
That walketh in darkness and hath no light. Let him trust in the name of
the Lord and stay upon his God." What are we trusting him for?
He said, I'm the light of the world. He said, I'm going to
give you light. He said, I'm going to shine the light of my
countenance and I'm going to lead you in the way. And so when
the day is dark, you count on him. You look to him, you trust
him, you pray to him, Lord, give me some light. How often do we
come into, we don't know what God's doing in Providence. We
just don't. It's just that simple. And to say, oh, I see. I know
what he's doing. Oh. Or, I don't know. Give me light. Give me light.
That's where we, that's where believers are. We're walking
in His light. You think about when you're,
when I was younger and you'd have a porch, we'd be out on
the porch and the light, porch light be on and if I was out
there by myself, I would not dare. All I could see was darkness
out there. I would not dare come off that
porch and just get out in that little edge of the darkness out
there in the yard where you could play in the yard because it's
too close to the darkness. But if my father was out there,
if he was out there, I could play as easy and without fear,
not afraid of the darkness. I had him right there with me.
That's what, you know, when Abraham looked to himself and he went
into Hagar and he married Hagar and he produced Ishmael, the
Lord appeared to him about 13 years after that. And the Lord
appeared to him and said, Abraham, I'm El Shaddai. I'm God Almighty. I'm God all-powerful. Walk before
me. That was the confidence. That
was the sanctifying word. You're walking before me. I'm
the light. I'm right here. I got you protected. and be thou perfect. That was
a promise to him. The only reason he didn't destroy
him for turning back to his flesh and his works with Hagar was
because he was perfect in Christ. He was perfect in Christ. And
he's teaching him now, walk before me and be thou perfect. What's
the strength for him to walk before God with a sincere heart,
looking to the Lord alone and believing that God was going
to provide that promised seed and redeem all his people? What
was Abraham's strength to do that? The Lord appeared to him and
said, I'm El Shaddai, now walk before me. He renewed his covenant
promise to him. Over and over and over you see
him renewing his covenant promise to Abraham. I've made my covenant,
I will Abraham, you shall, I will, you shall, I will, you shall. He kept renewing that, that's
the light. It's hauling Christ the light,
Christ the seed, reminding us over and over and over, renewing
his covenant in our heart. I'm the light. That's what keeps
us walking in his light and begging him for more light. And the more
that light shines, there's this notion that the light shines
and you just start walking around like a Q-beam, you know, and
shining so brightly and everybody's just looking at you. I know this
about that light. The more that light shines, the
more you find out that your only salvation is Christ the light. And the more you see, it ain't
me. It ain't us. That's what the
light shows you. The more the light shines, the
more we see. That light, doesn't it shine
more and more into the perfect day? And didn't Paul, didn't
he start out speaking of himself being the least of all the saints
and then by the end saying, I'm the chief of sinners? That's
where the light, when the light shines, you see yourself more
and more and more as being the darkness. And you see Christ
more and more and more as being the salvation, the righteousness,
the holiness. Now verse 39, I'm going to quickly
end. And Jesus said, for judgment
I have come into this world that they which see not might see,
and that 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? You could just almost hear the
way they said that. It's okay to talk about self-righteous
folks if they're out there somewhere. Or blind folks if they're out
there somewhere. But don't you say we're blind.
Don't you say we're... That's up. Are we blind also?
And Jesus said to them, if you could say, yes, we are, if you
could say that, if you could say, yep, that's me, I'm the
sinner, that's all. Christ is all my righteousness.
If you were blind, you should have no sin. Sin is a transgression of the
law, and Christ came to put away the sin of his people, and in
him is no sin. If you're in Christ, if you believe
him, listen to what Christ said. If you were blind, if you said,
with this man that he saved here, he said, Lord, who is he that
I may know? I'm blind. The Lord said, I'm he. And he
believed on him. The Lord said, that man has no
sin. He has no sin. Is that good news
to you? No sin. But he said, now you say, we
see. Therefore, your sin remaineth. Oh, Lord, don't ever let us get
to the point of saying, we see. Keep us saying, Lord, I need to know you. I need to
be found in you. I want to know more of you. Apart
from you, I'm blind. I need him. I need Christ. I need him to be all. Keep us
there. If you're there, you have no
sin. You have no sin. That's good
news. Amen. Let's go to the Lord. Father, thank you for this word.
We thank you that our Redeemer declared the truth of the Gospel
and made us see what it is to be totally dependent on Him,
take our place as sinners in need of Christ our light, in
need of Him to work the works of God for us, to be our all,
our representative, our intercessor, our perfection before You. Lord, hear us in Him. We need
to be found in Him. And please don't let us look
to ourselves. Don't let us ever be exalted
to think that we can see. Keep us blind, Lord, that we
might truly see, spiritually see. Thank you for your grace,
thank you for your mercy, your free forgiveness in Christ. In
his precious name we pray, amen.