Let us turn to the chapter we
read in the Gospel according to St. John, the ninth chapter. And turning for our text this
morning to the words that we have here in verses 35 through
to 38. John 9 and reading verses 35
through to 38. Jesus heard that they had cast
him out And when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou
believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is
he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him,
Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.
And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. Well,
as we come to consider these verses for a while this morning,
I want to address the subject matter of faith in the Son of
God. Faith in the Son of God, or more
particularly we might say, saving faith, the grounds of true worship. As the man says here at verse
5, Lord I believe, and he worshipped him, whilst then as he believed
in the Son of God that he was brought to an act of true worship. Why does the Lord Jesus ask that
particular question that we have at the end of verse 35, does
so believe on the Son of God? Why would the Lord put such a
question to this man? Christ doesn't need to ask the
question in any way for Himself. It wasn't that He was ignorant. We know that He needed not that
any should testify of man because He knew what was in men. We're told there at the end of
chapter 2. He knew what was in the hearts of all men. Again,
in chapter 6, we have those words at the end, Jesus knew from the
beginning who they were that believed not, and who should
betray Him. He knows all these things because
of who He is, the Eternal Son of God. Why then is the Lord
asking this particular question? Dost thou believe on the Son
of God? And I think the answer is really
found in the pronoun that we have, the singular pronoun thou. Why does the Lord speak so personally
and specifically to this particular man? It's because the Lord is
concerned to minister to him. When we read the chapter we have
it there at the beginning in verse 3. concerning the reason
why this man was born without sight? The Lord says to his disciples,
Neither hath this man sin, nor his parents, but that the works
of God should be made manifest in him. The whole chapter really
centers in this particular man and the purpose that the Lord
has to fulfill in the case of this man. He is ever mindful
of the needs of those that he has come to minister to. In every
aspect of his ministry we see it throughout all the life of
the Lord Jesus. In chapter 11 for example, and
words that we have there at verse 41. This is where he comes to
raise Lazarus from the dead. We are told how they took away
the stone from the place where the dead was laid, and Jesus
lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that thou
hast heard me. and I knew that thou hearest
me always, but because of the people which stand by I said
it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me." Here is the
reason then why the Lord performs all these miracles, that there
might be those who will come to believe that He is at one
sent by God, that He is at one who is the true Messiah, that
he is, in fact, the very Son of God. And so the Lord is asking
this question to this particular individual for the sake of the
man himself. Dost thou believe on the Son
of God? And as we come to consider this
whole passage, these four verses that I've read as a text, I simply
want to divide what I say now into two principal parts. First
of all to remind you of something of the nature of saving faith
and then in the second place to consider in particular the
object of saving faith. First of all to say something
with regards to the nature of that faith that is saving and
justifying faith. Now we know, we've I mentioned
this many times previously, there are of course a variety of faiths
that are spoken of, all sorts of faiths are spoken of in Holy
Scripture. There is a faith that belongs
to the demons. There is a faith that we might
say is devilish. And James reminds us of that
when he rebukes certain to whom he is addressing his epistle.
When he writes those words, thou believest there is one God, thou
doest well. The devils also believe and tremble. He's wanting these people then
to examine themselves. They say they have faith. Well,
what sort of a faith is it? Is it simply the faith that belongs
to the demons? And remember how at the beginning
of his ministry in the synagogue in Capernaum where we find the
Lord again healing a man, The demons recognize him. Let us
alone. What have we to do with the Jesus
of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the
Holy One of God. Right at the beginning of his
ministry then. The devils have to acknowledge
him. They know who he is. He is the Holy One. He is truly
the Son of God. There is that faith. that is
simply the faith that the demons have. And as we've said also
on previous occasions, when we think of the abode of the demons,
when we think of hell itself, there's no unbelief there. In
that dreadful place, all those who die in unbelief and go to
that dreadful abode, which is hell, and there they'll know
that there is a God. no unbelief, and yet eternally
cut off from all fellowship with God. And yet man made in God's
image, created after God's likeness, made to know God, made to enjoy
God. What an awful place to be, eternally
cut off. Or there is a faith then that
belongs even to the demons. And then Also we know in Scripture
that there is that faith that's associated with miracles. We read of it in the highly gifted
church that was the church at Corinth. And a church so gifted
in many ways and yet what terrible abuse of those gifts that God
had granted to them. The language that we have in
1 Corinthians 12 and verses 8 and 9 as he speaks of the various
gifts of the Spirit. They are apportioned to one and
to another. Paul writes then, to one is given
by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge
by the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to
another the gift of healing by the same Spirit. to another the
working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning
of spirits, and so on. He's speaking of all the various
gifts that they have been favored with. And amongst these gifts
he says, to another there is given the gift of faith. Now that is not saving faith,
because all those who are in the church, all of them must
have saving faith. That is the mark of the people
of God. They have faith. They believe
in the Lord Jesus as their God and their Savior. But in the
context there, in that 12th chapter, we see that that is a faith that
must be associated in some way with remarkable gifts, miraculous
works really. So there is a faith that is apportioned
to some there in the New Testament Church at Corinth. It was not
the gift that was given to others. And then of course we know also
that there is such a thing as natural faith. All men are not atheists. There
are those who are theists, they believe in God. The psalmist
tells us, doesn't he, on two occasions the fool has said in
his heart there is no God. And it's a great blessing really
to be preserved from atheism. We might sometimes even find
ourselves tormented. Though we trust we are those
who are real believers yet we can be tormented with black atheistic
thoughts. And some of you may have read
something of the experience of that remarkable man John Duncan
of the Free Church of Scotland. Back in the 19th century, Rabbi
Duncan, he was a great Hebraist, a most brilliant mind and he
had a great burden for the conversion of the Jews. and at one stage
he was working in Budapest on behalf of the Free Church of
Scotland amongst the Jews and because of his love of God's
ancient covenant people and because of his great knowledge of the
Hebrew tongue he was often referred to as Rabbi Duncan and he was
an Abedonian and in his biography we're told of how as a young
man he was he was beset with atheism, terrible atheistic thoughts
and he speaks of one day dancing on the brig of Dury when he was
delivered from that atheism and he knew that God was, he believed
in God but he wasn't saving faith that wasn't his conversion, that
wasn't when he come to an assurance of the forgiveness of his sins
in the Lord Jesus Christ but he became a theist, he believed
in God All we are to believe in God, we are to believe in
the record that God has given concerning Himself here in Holy
Scripture, the words of the Lord Jesus. Later in this Gospel,
in chapter 15, and there at verse 22, He says, If I had not come
and spoken unto them, they had not had seen. But now they have
no cloak or no excuse, as it says, in the margin for their
sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father. If I had not done
among them the works which none other man did, they had not had
sin. But now they have both seen and
hated both me and my Father." We are to believe the record
that we have here concerning this manifestation of God. in
the person of his only begotten son. We are to be theists, we
are to recognize the truth of God and the truth of God's word. But then there is another faith that is a temporary faith. It's
more than a natural belief, it's more than being a theist, it
seems to be a genuine faith and a trusting in the Lord Jesus
Christ and we have those solemn passages in the epistle to the
Hebrews where Paul speaks of that temporary faith for example
in the sixth chapter and there at verse 4 solemn words Paul says it is impossible It
is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted
of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the
world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again
unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son
of God afresh, and put Him to an open chain. and we not only
have that passage, we have a similar passage you may recall also later
in chapter 10 at verse 26 following why are these portions left on
record? here is a faith that seems to
be so real, that tasty of the heavenly gift it says and yet
they fall away they apostatize and there's no restoring of them
It is not a saving faith that he's being spoken of. No wonder
Paul says we have to examine ourselves. Examine yourselves,
he says, whether you be in the faith. Prove your own selves.
Know you're not your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you,
except ye be reprobate. Well, friends, there are then
these various faiths, none of them saving. the faith of demons,
the faith of miracles, the natural believing, the temporary faith. We have to examine ourselves
and prove ourselves in whether or not we have that faith of
which the Lord Jesus is speaking in this passage of us. He addresses this man Jesus heard
that they had cast him out, and when he had found him, he said
unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and
said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said
unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh
with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe.
And he worshipped him. And this faith is true faith,
saving faith. and it is seen in this, that
as soon as he makes that profession of faith, he worships. Oh, there's
worship in the heart of this man. What is his faith that he
has come into the possession of? It's that faith that is the
work of God in the man's soul. It's that faith that has come
from God himself. It's a gift of God. What is this man doing? He's looking. He's looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of his faith. Oh, it is that
faith that has come, and it's come because the Lord Himself
is ministering to him, and the words of the Lord are such efficacious
works. They're accomplishing something
in the soul of this man. This is that faith that is of
the operation of God. Doesn't the Lord say on a previous
occasion back in chapter 6, this is the work of God, that ye believe
on him whom he hath sent. Well this is the work of God.
This isn't the work that men can perform of themselves. And
how does God bring a man to such a faith as this? He has to see
what he is, he has to believe first of all in his own belief,
he has to feel what he is. He has to learn the awful solemn
truth of his total depravity, his utter inability. All of these
things. He has to be brought to see that
his salvation is all together by the grace of God. For by grace
are you saved, through faith. And that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God. Oh, it's the gift of God. And how does God bestow that
gift? the Lord God bestows it so sovereignly. When Peter writes
there in the opening words of his second epistle, he addresses
those who have obtained like precious faith with us. That's
who he's writing to, believers. Those who have obtained like
precious faith. And it's interesting, the verb
that he uses to obtain because that word is associated with
the casting of a lot. It has the idea of obtaining
something by the casting of lots. And of course, maybe as children
we would, in our play, sometimes cast lots amongst ourselves as
to who was to do a certain thing. We draw a straw and the one who
draws the shortest straw, well, they're going to have to do that
particular task. No one else wants to do it. We've done it
in our childhood, I'm sure, many, many times. And we think, well,
that's simply a chance thing. You cast a lot, you don't know
how the lot will fall. But it's not a chance thing.
The fictitious powers of chance and fortune I defy. My life's
minutest circumstance is subject to his eye, says the hymn writer,
out true. The wise man. in the book of
Proverbs there at the end of chapter 16 informs us how the
lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposing thereof is
of the Lord. All the Lord disposes it. To
us it seems a mere chance, but it's not. It's something that
comes under the sovereign hand of God and that's how we obtain
faith. we've obtained, like precious
faith if we have it, from the sovereign gift of God is what
the Lord Himself has been pleased to bestow. Oh, that's saving
faith. It's not the work of man, it's
not duty faith. It's the gift of God. It comes
by the operation of God. It's the work of God in the soul
of the sinner. Yes, the man believes But he
only believes because God has worked so graciously and so sovereignly
and so effectually in the soul of that man. And the all important
thing really here is the object. Oh, it's the object of saving
faith. And so I want us to turn in the second place to consider
this object. The man says, Lord I believe.
and he worships him. Now why is he worshipping him?
Because of the one who is the object of his faith. What is
the Lord's question back in verse 35? Dost thou believe on the
Son of God? Who is this man, Jesus of Nazareth? He is God is God manifest in
the flesh he is the eternal son the son of the father in truth
and in love that's who he is and here of course we we see
that blessed truth of the eternal sonship of the Lord Jesus all
the important question Or another important question we might say
that must come to us if we're brought to saving faith is that
that we have at the end of Matthew 22. What think ye of Christ? And remember how the Lord speaks
there. The Pharisees were gathered together,
we're told, and Jesus asks them, saying, What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? They say unto
him, The Son of David. He saith unto them, How then
doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto
my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies
thy footstool? If David then call him Lord,
how is he his son? And no man was able to answer
Him a word, neither does any man from that day forth ask Him
any more questions. Here is the discriminating ministry
of the Lord Jesus. What is He doing with these Pharisees?
He's silencing them. And that's why He asked that
question, what think ye of Christ? Whose Son is He? How different
it is here with this man. Or the Lord simply ask Him this
gracious question, dost thou believe? I'm the Son of God."
And in asking the question there is a communication of grace and
this man is able to say, Lord, I believe. Or another man in
the Gospel could say, Lord, I believe, help thou my non-believer. But here we see something of
the glories of Jesus of Nazareth. He is David's son, yes, but he
is also David's Lord. He is made of the seed of David
according to the flesh, He is declared to be the Son of God
with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection
from the dead. That's how Paul begins to define
the Gospel at the beginning of Romans. He speaks of the person
of Jesus of Nazareth. He is David's son, he is a man,
the seed of David, but he is also the eternal son of God. Or doesn't God say it back in
the psalm, in the second psalm, thou art my son. This day have
I begotten thee. What is this day? That is the
eternal day. Neither yesterday nor tomorrow,
but at present time, today, this time. eternally begotten of the Father. Oh, this is the one, you see,
and this is the one who is the object of faith. What? Thinking
of Christ is the test to try both your state and your scheme.
You cannot be right in the rest unless you think rightly of Him.
It all begins here. Our views of who Jesus Christ
really is. Such a vital question. He is
God. And this is what this man is
acknowledging. It's a faith in the Son of God that we see. And the Jews understood this.
All the Jews understood this. They would seek to kill him when
he said he was the Son of God. Remember back in chapter 5. when he tells a man to take up
his bed and walk on the Sabbath day and he performs a miracle
but it's a Sabbath day and the Jews are there ready to pounce
on Christ and we told in chapter 5 and verse 18 how the Jews thought
the more to kill him because he not only had broken the Sabbath
but said that God was his father making himself equal with God
they understood What he meant when he referred to himself as
the Son of God, he made himself equal with God. And that was
the charge that they would lay against him before Pontius Pilate. Here in chapter 19 and verse
7, we have a law, by our law he ought to die because he made
himself the Son of God. That's what they said. They understood. And so did this man. But there
is a difference you see. They would accuse Jesus of Nazareth
of blasphemy and they would stone him as a blasphemer because he
said he was equal with God. But what does this man do? He
worships him. He worshipped him. Do you remember
what the angel said to John there in the book of the Revelation?
Worship God. Worship God. Worship God then
in his Son, there his love, and there alone. He is the blessed object of our
worship. Or did we not just sing it in
the hymn? Do we understand sometimes the
words that we sing? Sometimes we can be so taken
up with the tune. It's nice to have a nice tune.
We want good tunes. but all to remember the solemnity
sometimes of the words that we utter in the act of worship we
worship God in his Son because there we see the wonder of the
love of God to sinners and see it here with this man,
dost thou believe on the Son of God? he answered and said,
who is he Lord that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him,
Thou hast both seen him, and didst thou see the talkers with
them? And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. It's a revelation that was granted
to this man because the Lord Jesus Christ who was working
this faith in the soul of this man just as with Simon Peter at Caesarea
Philippi, where he makes that great confession, Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the Living God. And what does the Lord say
to the disciple, Blessed art thou, Simon by Jonah, flesh and
blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is
in heaven. Oh, it's a revelation. And so
too here it's a revelation. No man can say that Jesus Christ
is Lord but by the Holy Ghost. There's a revelation. They had cast this man out. How
sad it is. Verse 34. Thou wast altogether
born in sins and dost thou teach us and they cast him out. The margin says they excommunicated
him. This is what they did egregiously.
This is why his parents were so reticent, as we see previously,
verse 22. The Jews had agreed already that
if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put
out of the synagogue. That's what they did, they cast
him out. But now the Lord Jesus finds
him, when he had found him, or the Lord finds this man and addresses
these gracious words to him, Dost thou believe on the Son
of God? Now Christ is that one, you see,
who gathers together the outcasts of Israel. As the Psalm says,
He gathereth the outcasts. those who cast out, those who
feel themselves so often to be very far from God, those who
feel that there's no hope that they could ever be saved. There's
something wanting in them. They're so different to all those
other people who have ever come to salvation. But these cast
out ones, you see, these are the ones that the Lord comes
and seeks after. Well I want, as we begin to draw
to a conclusion this morning, to observe two ways of the Lord's
working with this particular man two significant things really
that we see in verse 37 Jesus said unto him thou hast
both seen him and it is he that talketh with thee it is he that
talketh with thee you know there is such a thing as the hearing
of faith. There is such a thing as the
hearing of faith. Isn't that the mark of all those
who are proved to be the sheep of Christ? There's a sequence, isn't there,
to what we have in this 9th chapter. When we come into the 10th chapter,
it's all following on really. from what the Lord had done in
this great miracle to give sight to a man that was born blind. And what do we see there in chapter
10, where the Lord speaks of himself as the Good Shepherd?
And he says at verse 27, My sheep hear my voice. My sheep hear my voice. and I
know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal
life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hands. And previous to that he says
at the end of verse 5 they know not the voice of strangers and
how true it is of this man he knows not the voice of strangers
those who would come and speak against Christ and dismiss Christ
as a great sinner. How the Lord enables this man
to give such a remarkable defense of the one who had given him
sight. Oh it was a marvelous thing he
said. A marvelous thing. That this man could heal a man
who was born blind. He is one then who very much
hears. He hears what Christ has to say. And isn't that how faith comes?
As we're told in Romans 10, faith cometh by hearing. And hearing
by the Word of God. There is a hearing. When we come
together and we sit under the sound of God's Word, are we those
who really want to hear God's Word? And we're told at the end
of Malachi, them that fear the Lord, how the Lord hearkened
and heard. Isn't that how we're also to
hear his voice, we're to hearken. Or we should be all ears unto
the word of God. We're told concerning those of
the Hebrews who fell in the wilderness, They could not enter in. They
couldn't enter into the promised land because of unbelief. The
word preached did not profit them. Not being mixed with faith
in them that heard it. Who are we? Those who hear because
we want to believe it. We want to feed upon it. This
is how the Lord works here. It is He that talketh with them. It's when the Lord comes in the
ministry, isn't it? and we're not just hearing then
the word of the preacher but we're hearing the voice of Christ
my sheep hear my voice, he says have we ever heard that voice? the blessed effect when that
voice is heard that effectual call of God in the gospel of
his grace but there's not only the hearing there's also here
the seeing, there's the sight of faith the Lord says thou hast
both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee." There's a
sight of the Lord. There's a sight of faith. John very much was aware of that. Of course he was one of those
favoured disciples. He was the most favoured disciple
in many ways. The one that was leaning upon
his breast at the supper. and there he opens the first
of his three epistles that which was from the beginning, he says,
which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes, which
we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life
oh what a knowledge, that's an experimental knowledge that's
a real knowledge of the Lord Jesus that the apostle is speaking
of And this man, this man saw the
Lord. We're told, aren't we, in verse
1, as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his
birth. And what does the Lord do? He
gives sight to the blind man. verse 6 he spat on the ground
and made clay of the spittle and he anointed the eyes of the
blind man with the clay and said unto him go wash in the pool
of Siloam which is my interpretation since he went his way therefore
and washed and came seeing although born blind He'd never
seen anything. This man saw Christ in the flesh. He saw Christ with his natural
eye. The Lord found him, remember.
Here in verse 5, he saw the Lord with his physical sight. But
more than that, he also sees Christ with the eye of faith
and that's his confession really in verse 38 Lord I believe and
he worshipped him well that's the language that's the language
of faith chapter 6 verse 14 this is the will of him that sent
me that everyone which seeth the son and believeth on him
may have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up at the last
day. He that seeth the Son, and believeth
on Him." Oh, there is to be that recognition, you see. It's such
a vital part of saving faith. Thus I believe on the Son of
God. If you don't believe on the Son of God, you cannot have
saving faith. Here is that one who is the only
object of faith. What is faith? It's that looking
onto Jesus, looking away onto Jesus, taking the eye off every
other object and looking away to one object alone, looking
only onto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Oh, He
says, look unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth,
for I am God, and there's none else. It's look, it's look and
live. That's faith. That's saving faith. What does the Lord say? As long
as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Here at verse
5, He is the light of the world. I am the light of the world,
he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have
the light of life." Oh, it's the light of life. The Swami
says, in thy light shall we see light. And what is there when
we have that light and we see? Well, is there not a sight of
ourselves? Doesn't the Lord give us a sight
of ourselves? a sense of our needs we see what
we are, we see where we are we see how hopeless the case is
we see that we're lost we're dead in trespasses and in sins
and you know the Pharisees were all together without such a sight
as that They were all together without that sight. They had
no sight of self. What does the Lord say in the
closing words, the last three verses? Jesus said, For judgment
I may 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? Jesus said unto them, If ye were
blind, ye should have no sin. But now ye say, We see, therefore
your sin remaineth. All these foolish Pharisees. What an awful state. The state
of condemnation. It's what the Lord speaks of.
Remember back in chapter 3, verse 19, this is the condemnation.
that light is coming to the world, and men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone that
doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved, but he that doeth truth cometh
to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they
are wrought in God." There's a difference, the difference
between the man that was born blind who is given his sight
and these Pharisees who vainly imagine that they serve him,
they're all the time blind and ignorant and dead in trespasses
and sins. Oh, thank God for that gospel.
God, you commanded the light to shine out of darkness, Paul
says, to shine in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God. in the face of Jesus Christ.
Here's the gospel, the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God. And it's all together in the
person and in the work of the Lord Jesus. Or the question then that the
Lord is asking this man, does thou believe on the Son of God? In fact, the preposition is really
somewhat stronger than this, literally. The question is, does
thou believe into the Son of God? Does thou believe into the
Son of God? The hymn says, but he that into
Christ believes, what a rich faith has he in Christ. He moves and acts and lives from
self and bondage freed. Oh God grant him. that we might
have the faith of this man and that we might worship Christ
as this man was moved to worship him he said Lord I believe and
he worshipped him Amen