All right, if you take your Bibles
and turn with me to John chapter nine. John chapter nine. In the time of my message, this
tonight is a question. Who is the son of God? And to get that from this passage
here in John chapter nine, if you'll look in verse 35, we'll
begin there. And then we're gonna go back
to the beginning of this and come down to this this portion
again here. In John chapter 9 and verse 35,
Jesus heard that they had cast him out. Now,
this is the man that was born blind, the man that he healed. He went into, he was brought
before the Sanhedrin, he was brought before the Pharisees,
and they didn't like his answer. They didn't like his answer,
which was always, which was honoring to Jesus. And they kicked him
out. They banished him. And here the
scripture says, and when Jesus heard that they had cast him
out, I want you to know that's the best thing that could ever
happen, is a man be cast out of this world's religion. You
know that? The best thing for you in the world to be cast out
of this false religious self-righteous church. That's what this man
was. He was an outcast. And Jesus found him and said
unto him, does thou believe on the Son of God? And he answered
and said, here's the question, who is he? Who is he, Lord, that
I might believe on him? And Jesus gave the answer, and
he says, Jesus said unto him, this is the Son of God. Thou
hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And
he said, Lord, I believe. And listen, and he worshipped
him, and he worshipped him. Who is the Son of God? Now listen,
we live in a very Tempestuous and troubling time. We do. And I know this, that our attention,
the attention of the church, is being drawn away from that
which we are given to do. We have one purpose, one aim,
one focus. Preach the Word. Preach Christ. magnify Christ, honor Christ,
call sinners to Christ, tell sinners, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Our sole purpose is to
honor Jesus Christ. That's it. That is our purpose
in this world. And with all of the things going
on right now, we are tempted to move away from what we are
called to do. We are tempted to try to explain
God's providence. We're tempted to try to explain
how this works and how this works for our good. No, our attention
is to be about Christ. Let the world burn. Remember,
God's in charge of the fire that's burning it. God has purposed
what is taking place. Our purpose is to honor Christ,
to keep our eyes fixed on Him. And so my determination tonight
is to focus on the Son of God. And that's the best question
that we can ask as we are attempting to worship tonight. Who is the
son of God? That was a beautiful question.
It was a wonderful spirit-inspired question. And that's my desire
to answer that question. Now, who is the son of God that
I might believe on him? Who is he? Now, this man that asked this
question, you go back to the very beginning of this chapter,
and we find that this man was a man that was born blind. This
man was born blind. You read that in the first couple
of verses. And Jesus passed by and he saw a man that was blind
from his birth. And Jesus saw this man that was
born blind. Can you imagine what it was like
to be born blind? This man came out of his mother's
womb and saw no light. He saw no light. He never saw
the smiles of his parents face when he came into this world. He never saw their joy. This man for 40 plus years, he
saw no light. All his life was devoid of any
beauty. Of creation. Now I've seen some
beautiful things in creation, haven't you? I've seen some beautiful
things. This is even the marred creation. And yet we still can see beauty
in it, can't we? This man, he never saw a sunset.
Can you imagine that? Never seeing a beauty of a sunset
or a sunrise. He never saw the mountains and
the majesty of the mountains, majestic mountains. They're beautiful. He never saw anything in his
whole life. This man could only grow up in
the darkness and touch. He could only hear what others
described to him. He could only hear what was described,
but he, being born blind, had nothing to compare it to. He said, hey, what is this? Here's
a road. What does that look like? It
looks like a flower. What does that look like? It
looks like a plant. He had no reference whatsoever
to compare anything with anything. He was born blind. He could not relate to any color
or beauty. Well, look at this red rose. What's red? And you could begin
to try, have you ever tried to describe a color to someone who
was born blind? You couldn't. He couldn't possibly
imagine what it would look like. All he could do was imagine and
feel. That's all he had was his imagination
and what he could touch and feel. That was all that was real to
him. He could never see it for himself.
He could never experience the wonder of sight. He was born
blind. What a great picture of all men
by nature, spiritually. In fact, that is the purpose
of the Lord passing by this man and giving him sight because
the Lord would show a spiritual picture. We know this, that disciples,
they look at this guy and they say, this man, is he blind because
he sinned? Did he sin in the womb somehow?
Is it because of his depraved nature that he was born blind?
Or was it his parents' sin? And Jesus said, neither. This
man wasn't born blind because of his sin or because of the
sin of his parents, but Jesus gives the reason why. He said,
but, verse three, 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, night cometh when no man can
work. And as long as I am in the world, I am the light of
the world. You see, the Lord here was going to show something
spiritual. This is what God, Christ did
with all of his miracles. He, every miracle that Jesus
performed was a picture of his spiritual work, of the work he
really came to do. He didn't really come to just
heal physical sight. He could, but he came to heal spiritual
sight. He came to give spiritual sight
to the spiritually blind. This man was born blind and so
is every child of Adam born blind. He is a great picture, a great
picture. Because man by nature is without
light. Paul said you were darkness,
not you were in darkness, you were darkness. You were darkness. We are dark in understanding
any spiritual thing. We are wrapped in darkness and
ignorance. Man by nature, just as that man
was ignorant of any physical thing you could describe to him,
he was ignorant of it. Even so, we can describe spiritual
things to a blind man, but he's ignorant of it. He's ignorant
of what true goodness is, what true righteousness is. He is
ignorant of who God is, and he cannot by his own imagination
find out. You see, man by nature, he's
got an imagination, But he can only understand, like a blind
man, he can only understand what he can touch and what he can
feel. He can't understand anything
past that. He's spiritually blind. And so then we who have spiritual
sight, anyone who is like this man later on, he's a picture
of everyone who's saved by grace. We who preach the gospel have
been given spiritual sight and what do we try to do? We try
to describe Christ, don't we? To the spiritually blind. We
try to paint the picture. I like this. I just picked this
passage of scripture before the service, but I thought it was
good. You remember that Shulamite bride, when she was asked by
those daughters, what is thy beloved above the other beloved? And you know what she said? She
said this, my beloved is white and ruddy. See, I'm gonna try
to talk to you tonight about the deity of Christ. You see,
he's God. He's not just a man that lived
2,000 years. He's God who lived from eternity,
had no beginning. And he's ruddy. He's man. I want
to paint to you a picture of God in human flesh. He's white and ruddy. He's the
cheapest among 10,000. He is the only, he's one of a
kind. He is the only God-man, the only
Savior. He is the only Redeemer. He is the only high priest. He
is the only offering. He is the only righteousness
God would accept. He is cheapest above 10,000.
He's the only one, the only Savior. His head is of most fine gold.
There's his deity again. His locks are bushy and black
as a raven, his constant unchangeableness, his constant youthfulness, he
is forever strong. That's what a youth is, is strong.
He said, he black bushy hair, what is that? That's not an old
man, that's a young man. We describe his immutability,
his unchangeableness. His eyes are like dove's eyes. What are dove's eyes? They talk
about a dove only has an eyes for his mate. Christ has only
eyes for his children, for his people. We describe Christ. We preach His beauty. We preach
the beauty of His covenant, don't we? The rainbow, what a picture
of His covenant that was. After Noah and God promised not
to destroy the earth again, God promises His people in a covenant
of grace, He will never destroy them. He will never destroy us.
Why? Because our heart, Jesus Christ,
has taken the wrath of God in our stead. He will never. And
could you describe a rainbow to a blind man? You can't. And I can't, you know, I've described
the covenant, the eternal covenant of grace to you, that God chose
the people. Christ became surety for them.
Christ came and died for them. Christ rose again for them. The
spirit of God is going to come to them. He's going to give them
sight. They will believe on him and they'll be carried into everlasting
paradise with him in the resurrection. That's a covenant of grace. Now
I described that covenant. to blind men. Doesn't that sound
ridiculous? I mean, you wouldn't try to describe
Rainbow to a blind man. Boy, I'm born blind. Why? He
doesn't have any reference. But you know what? God commanded
Ezekiel. He commanded him. He said, you
go out there and you preach to the dead bones. That's what we're
doing. We're preaching to blind men
and dead men. We try to describe these things.
We try to describe the redness of Christ's blood that satisfied
the justice of God for His people. We paint the picture of His ascension
to the throne of grace. We tell them of the darkness
and blackness of their ruined estate, that they're depraved,
incapable, and unwilling to come to Christ. And we say, behold
the Lamb of God. Hey, you blind man, listen. You
behold the Lamb of God. That's what we're called to do,
isn't it? But we know this, there's no power in us to give you sight. The power, just as this blind
man, he needed Christ to give him sight. And you who are blind,
you need Christ to give you sight. Now you may hear it and you may
draw a painting of it in your mind and you may imagine that
you understand it. But one thing is true, unless
you have spiritual sight, you'll never see it. This is not academic, friends.
There's a lot of people believe that Christianity is nothing
more than mere academics. That if you can attain some kind
of knowledge by some study of your own, that you can become
a Christian. That's not true. You can have
all the education you want. If Jesus Christ does not come
to you like He did this blind man and give you sight, you will
remain blind and you will die in your sins and there is no
hope for you. Don't you see why you should
be pleading to Him to give you sight? Because He's the only
one, the chiefest among ten thousand. He's the only one that can do
it. I can't do it for you. I can only tell you about it.
I can't make it happen for you. Only those who give sight will
see the beauty of Jesus Christ. Like in Isaiah, we saw no form
nor comeliness in Him that we should desire. Now listen, tonight,
you don't have any desire. You know why? You're blind. If
you ever saw Him, you would desire Him. If you ever had a glimpse
of Christ, there would be nothing to keep you back from worshiping
Him. Nothing. Why? Because He's altogether lovely. He's altogether full of desire. Full of beauty. And we who see
Him, what? We desire Him. We want Him. And so, this man pictures us
in our nature. And what we need, we need is
sight. And secondly, we see Jesus came to give sight to the blind. Remember over in Luke, our Lord
Jesus preached his first sermon in Luke chapter four and verse
18. And he said this, the spirit
of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach
the gospel. Listen to the poor. Are you poor in spirit? You bankrupt
without any righteousness. That gospel is for you. He said,
I came and he has sent me to heal the broken hearted. Are
you broken hearted over sin? Well, see, the gospel heals broken
hearts. It heals broken hearts over sin.
The priest delivers to the captive. Are you captive? Has sin got
a hold of you and you can't get rid of it? The justice of God,
does it loom over your soul? He said, well, I gotta preach
gospel to captives. Well, if you're like the Jews,
they said, well, we've never been in bondage to any man. Well,
I'm not preaching to you, am I? The gospel's not for you. Free men for cactus, those who
can't free themselves. And listen, for recovery of the
sight to the blind, spiritually blind, Jesus came to do. This
was the purpose Jesus opened this man's eyes. This man was
a very special case. Now, Jesus opened many blind
eyes in his ministry. He opened many blind eyes, but
this one was a very special case. This man was born blind. This
man was born blind. In fact, in all of Scripture,
this is the only one. In all of Scripture, this is
the only man born blind that Christ healed, only one. Matter
of fact, this man, this beggar, he wasn't an educated man, but
he knew that. Look at verse 32. He said, since
the world was, he's talking to the Jews. He said, didn't you,
isn't this wonderful what he did? Isn't this amazing? He said,
since the world began, it had not heard that anyone opened
the eyes of one that was born blind. This was a very special
case. But more importantly, Jesus tells
us the reason why and the purpose of this healing was to demonstrate,
to manifest the work of God. Jesus said that, but that the
works of God should be made manifest in him. This work is the work
of salvation. Declaration of the power of God
and salvation was the purpose of his healing. He was born blind
so that the work of God should be manifest in him personally,
as it is in all of us. I can identify with this man
spiritually. And if you're a believer in Jesus
Christ, you can identify with his blindness. And listen, you
can also identify with his healing. The Lord makes it clear that
the whole purpose of this blindness was that it should reveal the
work of Alcaeus' salvation for his elect. Now, why do men murmur
against God who is sovereign and who alone has the right to
make his creatures as he sees fit? You know, men complain about
this. I remember talking with a man,
his child was born with Down syndrome. And he was angry with
God. He was angry. He said, well,
if God's good, then why did he make my son like this? I said,
well, one reason, your son's a lot better than you are. Your
son's a lot better off than you are. Your son's kind. Your son's gentle. You're not. He kicks against God's sovereignty.
Man kicks again. Does not the potter have power
over the clay to make what he will of us? Why aren't we thus? Physically speaking, why aren't
we thus? God made us this way. I don't like what I do. What
is that? God, does he not have a right
to do with you as he pleases? And the reason, if you kick against
that, isn't that just a manifestation of the rebellion in your own
nature? The kick against God? We do. We do. God is sovereign in all things,
including the blindness of this man. This man was blind because
God made him blind. And listen, God gives spiritual sight to
whomsoever He will, and He withholds it from whomsoever He will. Now
this was not the only man in Israel born blind. He wasn't. Yet he is the only one Jesus
chose to give sight to. Isn't that amazing? Is that not
astounding? Of all Israel, This man, is it
not astounding you who have been given sight that of all the people
he should choose you, are there not 10,000 better than
us? I dare say there's a world better
than me. There's a world more deserving
of this than me. Yet he chose me. He gave sight. It is the grace of God. Man is
marred with sin and God has the potter. He has power over the clay to
make one lump of the same lump, a vessel of honor and a vessel
of discipline. I'm going to read from you Jeremiah chapter 18.
Jeremiah chapter 18. Verse one, the word of the Lord
came to Jeremiah, and he said, rise, go down to the potter's
house, and there will I cause thee to hear my word. And he
went down to the potter's house, and behold, he wrought a work
on the wheels, and the vessel that he made of clay was marred
in the hands of the potter. So he made again another vessel,
as seemed good to the potter to make it. Our Lord God is the
potter and in his hands, you listen as he marred, he marred
the first creation. He did. Why? So that he should
show his grace in taking the same lump of marred clay and
making a better vessel, a better vessel. Man is marred in sin
of the whole lump, is full of evil, yet the potter hath made
another vessel that seemed good unto him. Even so, God does in
sovereign grace take the marred clay in his hands and makes it
as he pleases. This man was marred with physical
blindness and more than that, spiritual blindness. But in the
hands of the sovereign God, this man was purposed to be a vessel
of honor. He was one who was to experience
the work of God. He was chosen. He was chosen. And this is the reason man is
marred with sin, that men are born blind so that Christ should
give life and light and open their eyes that all the glory
should be given to God. All the glory should be given
to God. This is why salvation is the
way it is. so that God should get all the glory for it. That
he should receive all the praise, all the honor. That's what was
purposed here. God was going to give this man
sight not based on anything this man had done or could do for
him. He purposed to give him sight
so that the glory of God should be manifest in him. Now how was he given sight? Look
back at your text. It's very interesting what the
Lord does here. It says in verse six, and when
he had thus spoken, he spit on the ground and he made clay of the spittle
and he anointed the man's eyes that was blind with the clay
and said unto him, go wash in the pool of Salome, which by
interpretation is sent He went his way therefore and washed
and came seeing. Jesus spit on the ground. He
made a little mud pie, little mud puddle. And he put that mud
puddle and he rubbed it in the eyes of this guy. Can you imagine
the surprise? This guy's blind. He doesn't
know what's going on. All of a sudden this guy's putting mud
in his eyes. I don't know if you ever had
mud in your eyes, but it is painful. that grit and the sand get in
your eyes, it is irritating. Now when you get mud in your
eye, what's the first thing you want to do? You want to get it
out. You start rubbing your eyes and
what is it? Is it getting better? When you just rub your eyes and
you just rub it in, that old grit is just grinding into the
eye. It's painful. You see, in order for God to
give you sight, the first thing he's going to do is make sin
painful. He's going to show you the problem. The problem with this man is
his eyes. He couldn't see. Unless God irritates the man
concerning his sin, he'll never have a need to wash. He'll never
have a need of Christ if he's not first concerned about his
guilt before God. That's what he's doing. He must
expose our sins. And when he does, it hurts. It
hurts. It's very painful to learn that
all your religion is vain, isn't it? All that you had and all
that you can do is nothing. You'll never love God, you'll
never serve God, and you'll never believe on Christ until you first
realize you can't. And when you realize you can't,
it's then Christ shows you He can. And he sent him to this
pool called scent. Who else was this pool but Christ? Christ is the pool because he
is the one scent. He is the one scent of God to
what? To recover the sight of the blind. He said, go and wash in this
pool. And Jesus is the pool that cleanses
away our sins. He was sent of God to wash away
the sting and guilt of sin, and by the Spirit of God, His people,
they washed themselves and make themselves white in the blood
of the Lamb. And that's what it said in Revelation.
These are they that made their robes white in the blood of the
Lamb. They washed themselves in His
blood. It's a miracle. And then what?
He came seeing. He came seeing. It's a miracle. Miracle, now being brought to
the attention of the Pharisees. What a miracle this is. I mean,
this is astounding, isn't it? This is the only one in history
that had ever been made to see being born blind. You figure
that the religious people of that day would say, wow. You
think they would go, that's astounding. Who did this? We got to know
who this is. We want to worship him. That's not what they did. When
the Pharisees found out about this, that he was healed, the
only thing that really bothered, the only thing they concerned
themselves was it was on the Sabbath. That was it. Verse 13 and 14, it says, when
they brought to the Pharisees him that afore was blind, And
it was a Sabbath day that Jesus made the clay and opened up his
eyes. Now there's just mad, not because
he even healed him, because he made clay. He spit on the ground
and rubbed some ground. That was a lot of work to them. It was a Sabbath day. That's
what caused them to be so angry. Whenever the power of God is
manifest in the saving of a sinner, you can be sure of this. The
self-righteous men will rise up and condemn it. That's what happens. Self-righteous
arise up and condemn it. If it is not done in the manner
and by their traditions, they will reject it. They say, well,
oh, you believe in Christ. Well, have you been baptized?
No. Why? No, you've not had the miracle
yet. You've got to be baptized before
that happens. We reject that. Well, have you
seen the priest? No? Oh, well, you surely can't
be saved then. You hadn't seen the priest. You
hadn't went through the spiritual rite. You hadn't come down to
the front of the church. You hadn't said the sinner's
prayer. You can't be saved. You can't see. It's true that this man didn't
know much, nor was he of that religious order of the Pharisees.
but he knew something that they didn't. He knew something that
they didn't. He experienced something that
they didn't. He said this, look, I don't know
anything, but this I know, once I was blind, but now I see. This
I know, once I was blind, but now I see. The grace of God is
always a surprise, isn't it? It was a surprise. But when it
comes, the person it comes to knows it. Nobody else might know
it. Everybody else might reject it.
But the person it happens to, he knows it. He knows it. Don't
you imagine that this man was surprised when he wiped that
mud off and saw? Let me ask you this, weren't
you surprised? when God gave you faith to believe and you
realized that your sins were gone? Weren't you surprised? Let me ask this, aren't you still
surprised that my sins are just as gone today as they were yesterday
and the day before, and they'll be just as gone tomorrow as they
are in all the future until I go to glory? They're gone, and I'm
surprised every day God loves me. I'm just surprised. I'm amazed
that he actually even thinks of cares about me in any degree,
but he does. He was surprised when he saw
how much more surprised when he came out of that water, seeing
for the first time he was surprised. And this is always how salvation
comes. It comes by grace and it comes
as surprise. Nobody's looking for it. You
got that? There is none that seeketh after
God. That what the scripture says? None. Well, pastor, I was
seeking after. No, you weren't. God found you. You didn't find him. You were
blind. What could you find? You couldn't
find anybody. He found you. He found us. And when he saves
us, it's a surprise. He was surprised to his neighbors.
He was surprised to the Pharisees. Listen, they were surprised too,
but not to salvation. Who is it that made this man
see? Who is it that healed this man? At this time, he didn't
know Jesus was. He said, you know, I know he's
a prophet. He's gotta be. Nobody can do
this except God hear him. This man was healed physically.
But by the providence of God, he was not yet healed spiritually
until we come down and he was cast out. Now go back to your
text. Now he was now cast out. He was given sight and now he's
cast out by the religious world. And verse 35, when Jesus heard
it, that he was cast out. Listen. Salvation comes when
you got nowhere else to go. This man was cast out of the
only place known to man where you could worship God. The temple
was the only place that men could worship and be accepted with
God at that time. And he was outcast from that.
He was excommunicated. He was cast out when Jesus found
him. He was cast out. Listen, in order for Christ to
come to you, guess what? We have to be cast out. Like
lepers. Like lepers. This man was cast
out and Jesus found him. Jesus found him. He found him
when he was cast out. This is where he finds all sinners,
outside the camp. Isn't that what Paul said? Paul
said, we must go forth outside the camp where Christ was crucified. We go forth unto him outside
the camp. The only way we're going to go
outside the camp is we get kicked out of everything else. That's
what God by providence and grace does. He kicks us out of everything
else so that we go to him. And that's where he finds us.
He finds us as outcast lepers outside the camp. Are you an
outcast? Are you a sinner? Jesus Then comes to this man
and what does he do? He preaches to him the gospel
in a question. Does thou believe on the son
of God? Why does he ask this question?
Because the answer to this question is salvation. This is salvation. Do you believe
on the son of God? This is eternal life. To believe
on the Son of God is eternal life. Go with me a couple of
places here. Go to John chapter three. Look at John chapter three
in verse 36. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. But he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Don't you see this is the important question? Don't you see this
is the important question? Do you believe on the Son of
God? Why? Because to believe is life and
to not believe is death. Go to John chapter 11. John chapter
11, our Lord speaking, After the resurrection, after the death
of Lazarus, in verse 27, let's go back to verse 25. Jesus said
to her, to Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever
liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
And she said, yes. She said, yes, Lord. I believe
thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which had come into the
world. You see, she was saved. She had
a resurrection of the soul. She had been given sight. She
could see him. She believed on him and to believe
on him is life. Go to John chapter 20. John,
at the close of this book, he starts talking about why he wrote
this gospel. in John chapter 20 and verse
31. He said, there are many things
written here that Jesus did not read in this book, but these
are written, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
son of God, and believing you might have life through his name. Do you believe the son of God?
Do you believe on the son of God? Go to Acts chapter eight
and verse 37. Acts chapter eight, in verse
37, Phil is speaking that Ethiopian eunuch that desires to be baptized.
He said, if thou believe us with all thine heart thou mayest.
And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus is the son of God. You know what he was? He was
saved. He had salvation. He had sight.
Do you believe on the son of God? Go to 1st John chapter 5. Go
to 1st John chapter 5. 1st John chapter 5 and verse
9. John says, if we receive the
witness of man, the witness of God is greater. For this is the
witness of God, which he hath testified of what? His son. Look at this. You see what this
is? Look at this you got in your hands. What is this? This is
what God testified of his son. This is the testimony of God's
son you have in your hand. If we receive the witness of
men, sorry, in verse 10, he that believeth on the Son of God hath
this witness in himself. This word is in us. This word
is in us through the Spirit of God. We have this witness of
ourself of the Holy Spirit. He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar because he believeth not the record that God gave
of his Son. And this is the record. God has
given us eternal life and this life is where? In His Son. Is this not the most important
question? Dost thou believe on the Son of God? Today you who hear, do you believe
on the Son of God? This alone is salvation. To believe
on the Son of God is what? To believe His deity, isn't it?
Do you believe He's God? Do you? To believe on the Son
of God is to believe He is man. To believe He is the only high
priest, the only surety, the only hope of salvation. That's
to believe on the Son of God. But notice the wise response
of this man. He didn't just say, yeah. How
many people you ask, do you believe on the Son of God? They say,
yeah, yeah. When did you believe? Well, I
just believed all my life. This man was wise, wasn't he?
Listen to what he asked. Who is he? This man recognized he didn't
know him. Who is he that I may believe
on him? If salvation is to believe on
the Son of God, don't you think you ought to know who He is? Don't you think you should ask
that question? Who is He? Instead of saying, yeah, yeah,
your kids do that? Mine do. I tell them something,
they say, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I know. That's what men do with
Christ. They hear this message and they
say, well, I done heard this. I don't need to hear this again. This is the question that religious
men will never ask. You know why? Because they would
have to put into question if they know Christ at all. You
know what believers do? We do this all the time, don't
we? Do I really know him? Why? Because we desire to make
our calling in election sure. We don't desire to be found in
the end, to be found nothing but reprobate in the end. I want
to know that I know him. Who is he? Who do I believe on? Religious men won't ask this
question because they may have to denounce their Christ. Mansour
may reveal that they don't know him at all. Who is the son of
God? Who is the Christ, the savior of men? How can I know him and
believe on him? It is my desire always that every
blind man may see. that God may give sight and let
you know who Christ is. How may you know him? Listen,
only by divine revelation. Just like this man's healing,
it was by divine power, wasn't it? I could take mud and put
it on a hundred blind men, tell them to go wash, and how many
is gonna come see? None. None. I have no power. I can't reveal Christ to you. I can present him to you. I can
show you who he is according to the record of God, but I can't
reveal him. He has to reveal himself. Jesus said this, no man knoweth
the father except the son, and to whomsoever the son will reveal
him. Salvation is a divine revelation. Jesus said, my sheep hear my
voice and I know them and they follow me and listen, I give
unto them eternal life and they shall never perish.
How does his sheep know his voice? By divine revelation. This understanding,
this opening of the eyes of the blind to see and know Christ
This is done by the power of the Holy Spirit and only through
the preaching of the gospel. Isn't that what Paul said in
Romans chapter 10? Romans chapter 10 and verse 13, I believe. Romans
chapter 10. Verse 13, whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they
call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe on him in whom what? They have not heard. And how
shall they hear without a preacher? You see, this is the means God
chose by which to give spiritual sight, preaching. That's what
Christ was doing to him. He was saying, who is the son
of God? He was provoking thought in his heart. And then the spirit
moved on him to say, who is he? Who is he? So you gotta hear the word of
God. Whom did this man believe to be the son of God? And Jesus
said this. He just said, thou has both seen
him and it's he that talketh with thee. And the man said this,
I believe. I believe, and listen, he worshiped
him. But notice what Jesus did right
after that, verse 39, and he said unto him, for judgment I
am coming to the world, that they which see not might see,
and they which see might be blind. What did Christ do after he believed? And this man was saved, right?
This man knew him. This man believed on him. Did
he know everything? No. What did Christ do? He preached
the gospel to him. He preached the message that
he is come for judgment. He came into the world for judgment. The true son of God became a
man to establish righteousness and endure the judgment of God
for all the elect people. He came into the world to satisfy
the judgment of God. The only way this man could be
saved is Jesus said, I came into the world for judgment, to be
judged. And when I am judged, I am going
to do two things. He said this, that they would
see not you, you, that you who saw not might see. But there's
another side of his victory, of his work, and that is they
which say they see might be made blind. Jesus Christ, the good shepherd,
came to give his life for the sheep, all those that the father
gave. You remember what he said, them I also must bring. He said,
I got other sheep that are not of this fold, them I also must
bring. I must bring them and there'll
be one fold and one shepherd. Christ came into the world for
judgment to save his elect people. This declaration of the gospel,
this declaration of the gospel that Jesus Christ has came into
the world to accomplish salvation. You know what this gospel breeds?
Division. between those who are blind and
made to see and those who think they see and are made blind.
This gospel brings division. It brought division here. It
brought it when Christ said, I am the good shepherd. They
murmured among themselves. You remember he said, why are
you murmuring? Why are you murmuring? But to all who see the gospel
of Jesus Christ, who by faith see the Son of God, we know this,
that our Savior was a successful Savior. He said, for judgment,
I'm coming to the world. And you bet this, judgment was
extinguished. The wrath of God was forever
extinguished at Calvary. He was made sin for us, who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
That He might reconcile us to God through His perfect work. Jesus was a victorious Savior
and all those that the Father gave Him, listen, they are born
blind, But he said, I came for judgment that they might see. Jesus, by his death, had forever
put away the sins of his people. And God made it clear by his
resurrection and ascension to the throne. Many believe Jesus'
death was nothing more than a gesture of goodwill. False religion believes
his sacrifice was only an example of love. Others believe his death
was for all the sins of all men, even those in hell. But we who
believe on the Son of God know this. His death, the death of
the Son of God was no failure. In fact, he said he shall not
fail nor be discouraged. We believe that the son of God
accomplished salvation for all them that are blind so that they
might see. But for those who say, we see,
they should be made blind. Those Pharisees, they understood
what he's talking about. Then he said, you talking about
us? Yeah. Yeah. I'm talking about you.
Jesus said unto them, verse 41, if you were blind, you should
have no sin. Isn't that the most astounding
thing? If you were blind, you would
have no sin. You see, Christ came to give
sight to the blind, not to those who say they see. If you were blind, you would
have no sin. I know this, I was blind. I was blind, but by grace and
power of God, because he satisfied the justice of God, now I see. What do I see? It's not what
I see, it's who I see. I see Christ, the son of God,
as all, capital A-L-L, all my salvation and acceptance with
God. I believe on the Son of God,
don't you? I believe in his deity. I believe in his humanity. I
believe in his office of high priest. I believe he is the only
sacrifice God accepted, and he is my only hope and righteousness
before God. I see the Son of God. Do you? If you do, then you were blind,
but now you see. And you know what? You have no
sin. Isn't that astounding? You have
no sin, no sin. I pray God will bless this to
your heart.