If you will take your Bibles
and turn with me to John chapter 9. John chapter 9. I had fought
with this verse all week. I had been trying to preach something
else all week, and that just didn't work. God wouldn't have
it. This is the message that He has given me this week, and
I pray the Lord bless it to your heart this morning. John chapter
9, and our text will be found in verse 39. The title of my
message this morning is Light for the Blind. Light for the
Blind. In John 9, verse 39, the Lord
Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they
which see not might see, and they which see might be made
blind. In this chapter, Jesus, we just
read at the beginning of our service, that Jesus healed a
man that was born blind. He was born blind, but when He
was brought before the Pharisees, He testified concerning the Lord
Jesus Christ. They asked, who did this to you?
Who gave you sight? And He said, this man Jesus.
He gave me sight. Well, they didn't like that answer. So they cast him out. They cast
him out. They kicked him out of the place
of worship. And when Jesus heard they'd kicked him out, He came
and found him. And when He found that outcast
man, outcast by the religious world, He not only gave him physical
sight, but the Lord Jesus Christ determined to give him something
far greater. He determined to give him spiritual
sight. Spiritual sight, to give sight
to those which see not. The Lord Jesus Christ had determined
to open his eyes, to believe the truth that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. Look at this in verse 35 of chapter
9. He says, when Jesus heard they
cast him out, And when he had found him, said unto him, Dost
thou believe on the Son of God? And he answered and said, Who
is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus answered and
said unto him, 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 he
worshipped Him. Notice this man's response to
the light of the gospel that was revealed to him when Jesus
Christ said, I am the Son of God. Notice what his response
was. I believe. I believe. Faith is the response
of sight given. Faith is the response of sight
given. This revelation wrought faith
in this man as it does everyone that sees the light. When Jesus
Christ preached the light of the gospel, when that message
is preached, Jesus Christ, He is the light of the gospel. He
says, I am the light of the world. When that message is preached,
a light goes forth. A light goes forth that's not
seen with the physical eye. You don't see light beaming from
me, do you? You don't see light shining from
my body out into the congregation. But when I speak of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and I say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
thou shalt be saved. When I say that, light goes out.
Spiritual light goes out. And my friend, when this gospel
light goes out, every time it goes out, there are two responses.
Sight and blindness. That's it. There's no middle
ground. There's sight and there's blindness, and that's it. Every
time this gospel goes forth, either somebody was blind and
now they see, or they are blind thinking they see, and they're
even more blind than when they walked in the door. That's what
happens every time this gospel is preached. Now, see, first
of all, Yet the light reveals that all men are blind by nature. That's the first thing the light
will reveal. When I preach the gospel, the first thing the light
reveals is that all men are blind by nature. Born spiritually blind. Jesus said, I've come to do the
work of the Father in that first few verses there in John 9. And
one of the works that I thought about and read about was the
creation. That was the work of God, wasn't
it? But see, all of the works of God picture one work of God. All of the creation of God pictures
the work of salvation to a sinner. That's what it does. In Genesis
1.1, little children can quote this, in the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. And what was the earth like?
It was without form and void and darkness. Get that? Darkness passed over the face
of the deep. The earth was a perfect picture. This earth that was created and
it was dark and devoid of form, it is a picture of the natural
man's heart and soul by birth. That's a picture of my heart
when I came into this world, and that's a picture of your
heart when you came into this world. Some of you still have
this heart. Some of you still are blind and
cannot see. And you still have this heart
of chaos, this heart of darkness. And you're groping about in the
dark, searching for something to fill the void, something to
fill the emptiness inside. You know, this is in every man,
but I think it's more clearly seen in some than others. Right? We can visually see this in some
more than others. See a man. Picture a man in your
mind this morning. See a man that is bent on vice
and sin. Think of him. Maybe you know
him. See a man in his rage, in his heart against every law and
lives his life in defiance of every order. See a man that hates
his father's commands and despises his mother's plea. See that man,
boastful, proud. Everything he touches turns to
chaos and disorder. His family, his job, his life
is nothing but a massive chaos spinning out of control. In his heart, he's a raging sea
and finds no rest. He finds no comfort but in the
hurt of others. He's only satisfied when he's
brought other people down to his miserable level. See that
man. Everything he touches is in destruction. See this man, he is a beast and
has no religion, nor does he believe in God, nor does he fear
God. You see, in a man like that,
we can definitely see the heart of darkness. We see it in a man
who is a murderer, a rapist, a person that commits incest. We see that in that man. We say,
that man is vile. We can definitely see it in him.
Maybe there's somebody like that this morning here. Maybe there's
someone that's a proud boaster of his religion. Maybe he's proud
in his heart and he hates anything about God. And he doesn't care
anything about God or the worship of God. And he'd rather be someplace
else than have any love for it at all. You can definitely see
that this man's blind, right? You see, this man has no sight
concerning the spiritual things of God, nor interest in God. No doubt you can see this man's
boastful and defiant. But my friend, this curse, this
blindness does not extend only to the proud boasters and vile
wretches of society, but it also extends to the men of good report. To the men that are in religion,
see another man, if you will. Another man that is a religious
man, attends the worship services faithfully, constantly giving
his money and his time to the hungry and to the poor. See this
man, everything he touches doesn't turn to chaos, it turns to gold.
See this man, he's good in the sight of all men and kind to
others. See this man, he is a very religious
man. He talks of his works of religion
and boasts of his good deeds. This man believes in Jesus. He
believes in God. But this man thinks that his
own works of his hand will please God. This man that you see now
is a man that thinks his religion is going to save him. He thinks
his religion is going to make him accepted with God. You see, it's a little harder
to find it in this man, isn't it? On the outward. Remember
the Pharisees? We look at them and ridicule
them and kind of say, you know, how could they be so blind? In that day, the people thought
if there were anybody to go to heaven, one would be a Pharisee
and one would be a Sadducee. See, in this day that Jesus is
speaking, when Jesus talked to these Pharisees like He did,
they didn't understand. These people were religious.
These people were good. And you couldn't blame them for
anything, outwardly. And I'll tell you what, you didn't
see any of the rage or chaos in these people until Christ
did what? Until he shined the light, until he shined the light
of the gospel into that dark place, it is then you'll see
a religious man begin to foam and spit at the things of God. When the God of the Scriptures
is preached and He is displayed as the sovereign Lord of the
universe, a man like this will begin to foam and hate that God
and see that His God is nothing like the God of the Bible. When
he sees that, you'll begin to see this same chaos that you
saw in the other man. You'll begin to see that his
true character be manifest. When the light of God's gospel
is manifest, that God is sovereign in salvation. Men don't have
a problem with God being sovereign. They have a problem with God
being sovereign in salvation. You see, if a man's not in control
of his own destiny, he begins to hate and despise a God that
rules sovereignly over everything. When a man sees that his Jesus
is not Jesus at all, but a figment of his imagination, he will hate
the light. He will hate the light. He will
say in his heart, I will not have this man to rule over me.
Let us break their bands asunder and cast their cords from us.
See, both men may be different, outward appearance, but I'll
tell you, both men are the same on the inside. Both are blind. Both are born spiritually depraved. In verse 39, look at our text. Jesus makes a statement concerning
the reason He came into the world. I want us to notice this reason. Look at this. For judgment I
am come into the world. Judgment. What does He mean by
judgment? Now, I like this method, so I'm
going to use it. First of all, let's find out
what it's not talking about. Let's see what it's not meaning.
Jesus said, I am come for judgment. What does He mean? He does not
mean that He come to condemn the world. Otherwise, He would
have contradicted Himself. Remember, in John chapter 3 and
verse 17, when the Lord Jesus Christ said to Nicodemus, God
sent His Son into the world not to condemn the world. Not to condemn the world. You
see, Jesus Christ didn't come to condemn the world. He didn't
come to sentence man to death. You see, that had already been
done, hadn't it? When Adam ate, when Adam disobeyed
God, it was then that the whole human race was plunged into blindness,
into death. That's where it started. So Jesus
didn't come for that purpose. That would already been accomplished.
That's already been done. Well, then what does it mean
that Jesus came to be a judge that came for judgment? He didn't
come to condemn it, but rather he came to establish judgment. To execute judgment. See, God out of the mass of Adam's
fallen, ruined, depraved, sinful, blind, vile race, God had determined
in Himself out of mercy and love to choose a people. God did that
before the foundation of the world. He chose a people and
set His love upon them. He purposed to save them who
were ruined and under the condemnation of God. Oh, but God is holy. God is just and could not forgive
sins without judgment and justice being satisfied. You see, therefore,
Jesus said, I come to establish judgment and justice. Why? So that God might show mercy
and give us sight. so that God might set in order
the things necessary. The word judgment, this same
word is used by the thief on the cross. Remember him? The
one the Lord saved? He was there and the other one
was railing on Christ. And he did it hours before. He
was railing on Him too. But it came time and the Lord
touched his heart and opened his eyes. And what did this man
say? He said, we justly are condemned. Now that word condemned is the
same word here for judgment. In other words, judgment means
a result of the action. Result of the judgment given. In other words, if you were sentenced
to death like that thief, this word has the idea of judgment
being executed. A result of the sentence. Jesus
has come to execute judgment. To execute judgment. To set in
order His throne of judgment. The thief rightly assessed that
he was receiving judgment for his crime. It was said of Jesus in Isaiah
chapter 9 and verse 7. He says, "...of the increase
of His government shall be no end upon the throne of David
and upon his kingdom, to order it and to establish it..." Here
it is, "...with judgment and with justice." Jesus came to execute judgment.
But my friend, here's the good news, He came not to execute
judgment on us, but He came to execute judgment on Himself. He came to establish justice
and judgment by the execution of Himself on the cross. That is the purpose He came into
this place. In John 3, Nicodemus was told
of the Lord, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. The nation of Israel
had sinned against God. And as a result, God has sent
those serpents to bite them. And when they were bitten, it
was death. There was no cure. There was
no cure for these things. When they bit you, it was certain
death. And my friend, that's exactly
what happened to us. Our sin had bitten us. Our sin coursing through our
veins was our destruction. And yet God has provided a remedy. How? He lifted up His own Son
on the cross. He lifted up Christ, His own
Son. It says of Acts chapter 2 and
verse 23, Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God. God delivered Him up. God delivered
His Son up and set Him on the cross to bleed and die. Why? To establish justice. This matter of justice is very
important with God. It's vitally important for us.
God doesn't sweep things under the rug like we do. God doesn't overlook sin like
we do. You see, God, in order to stand
before God, you must be as holy as God is. And not one ounce less holy. Anybody here qualify by nature?
Anybody? Anybody want to take that challenge?
My friend, God's justice is all important. And therefore He sent
His Son so that God could be just and still justify worthless,
vile creatures such as we are. So that He could rightly forgive
and pardon our sins. He lifted up His Son, for without
the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. As Moses pointed the Israelites
to the serpent in the wilderness, right now at this time, I point
you to Christ. I point you, behold the Lamb
of God. Look and see Him high and lift
it up. For sin, for my sin, He established
justice. Therefore, by establishing His
justice, what did He do? What did Christ do on that cross? Was He making salvation possible? Did He just make salvation possible
for everybody and just hope and, oh please, somebody accept me? Is that what He was doing? Oh no, my friends. When Jesus
Christ died on that cross, He did not make salvation possible.
He accomplished salvation for His people. He accomplished salvation
for His people. He sealed their pardon with His
blood. He secured and purchased their
forgiveness, their redemption. That's what He did on the cross. took all of the sins of all of
His people of all times, and He put them on Himself, and
He bare our sins in His own body on the tree. And when God saw our sins in
His Son, He executed His wrath in full measure. That's what
He'd come to do. He'd come to establish justice. He'd come to establish the justice
of God. Now, when this message is preached,
that Jesus Christ is satisfied God's justice for all who come
to Him, all who believe on His name, all who trust in Him and
love Him, my friends, My sins are gone. My sins are gone. Now, this message, when that
goes forth, it shines out a light into the dark world. And He was
lifted up. He promised to draw all men unto
Himself. Isn't that what He said in John
12? He said, when I am lifted up, I shall draw all men unto
Myself. Now, is He saying all men without
exception? Does He mean all men without
exception? Well, let me ask you this. Are all men without exception
going to be drawn to Him? Are all men going to be saved? My friend, we must recognize
that if Jesus Christ said something and He doesn't accomplish it,
He's not Christ. Isn't that right? But my friend, Jesus Christ will
draw all His elect unto Himself. He will do it. He will do it. He has accomplished their justice.
And there is no reason why He will not send His Spirit to come
and give them life and faith, for He has accomplished everything
for them, everything necessary for life and godliness. Jesus
will draw His people because He has established justice and
judgment. He says, I am come to establish
judgment, and by doing so, Jesus Christ makes a division among
men. When this gospel light goes out, it divides. It divides darkness
from light. I was in here last night, going
that hallway back there, and it's dark. He cut out the lights,
and I almost ran into the door. It was so dark. But when I cut
on the light, what happened to the darkness? It fled. And that's exactly what
happens every time the light of the gospel shines. Darkness
must flee and light will always take its preeminence. When the
gospel light goes forth, when it shines forth, there will be
some who are given light to see. And then there are others who
will be made even more blind than they were before. As we
have seen, all men are blind. But the problem is the depraved
heart of man thinks he can see. Some of you may have made a decision
for Jesus or did something like that in your little childhood,
and you think, well, I'm alright, I understand what you're saying,
I acknowledge it with my mind, and yeah, I know I'm not faithful
to do anything of the things of God, but you know, yeah, I
believe in Jesus, so I'll be alright. Oh, my friend, you're
blind. You're blind. Blind, but you think you see. You think you see. There are
many that do that. Some men are like these Pharisees.
They believe themselves to understand God's demands. Do you understand
God's demands? You do if you see. These Pharisees thought themselves
able to see, but what did they do to this man that was blind? He was healed. What did they
do to him? what they say about Him. Thou wast altogether born
in sin. In other words, you were born
in sin. We weren't. We're holy. We're righteous people. You see, a man that is blind
and thinks he sees, usually that man is always looking down on
somebody else. He's usually always looking down on somebody else. These people had no problem seeing
the sin in others, but they were blind to see their own need of
a Savior. Blind to see their own corruption of their own heart. My friend, if you want to find
sin in me, you're not going to have to look very far. I promise. You want to find fault in me?
You'll find it. You'll find it every time. I'm
full of it. And I know when I look at you,
I'll find it in you too. But what good does that do us?
Does that do us any good? To see the sin of others and
not see the sin of our own heart? The sin of our own heart is the
problem. We must be given sight to see
our sin and guilt before God. We must see our need of a Savior.
To see that no matter what we do or how hard we try, we cannot
please God. I've asked this before. When
is enough enough? When do you think enough good
works is enough to please God? Do you think you'll ever reach
that? Do you think you'll ever come to an end to that? There
is no end, my friends. You cannot do enough. You cannot satisfy God's demands
in yourself. Have you seen that? Do you know
that? Oh, but when the light shines,
when the light shines of the gospel is preached, praise God,
He has purpose to open the eyes of some. I'm thankful He's had
the purpose in His heart to open the eyes of some men. When this
gospel is preached, He has purpose to send His Son to satisfy the
demands of God's justice so that they which see not might see
His issue. Have you been blind to see how
God could forgive you? Have you had trouble? Have you
thought about that? How can God forgive me? Are you devoid of understanding
how God saves sinners? How God delivers the enslaved
to be free? If God will give you sight this
morning, my friend, then He will open your eyes to see your need
of deliverance. Your need of deliverance. And
when He does, you will see that there is only one hope. There's
not two, only one. You will see that there's only
one Savior, and His name is Jesus Christ, who is God manifest in
the flesh. Jesus said, Verily, verily, I
say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came
before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
I am the door. If any man enter in, he shall
be saved and go in and out and find pasture. To those of us
who are given sight, we see Christ, His blood and righteousness as
the only door. That's the only door to heaven,
my friend. There is no other door. If you
go to another door, you're not going through a door but a window.
And who goes through windows? Thieves and robbers. I'll make this very plain. If your door is Jesus Christ plus anything,
you are a thief and a robber of the glory of God. You are
coming in another way. My friend, it is either all of
Christ or it is nothing at all. It is either all of Christ or
nothing at all. You add one thing to your salvation,
one thing to the blood and righteousness of Christ, we have defiled the
sacrifice and it's worthless. If we were to add even our will
or our works into the salvation of the Lord, we have defiled
it and it's worthless to us. See, Jesus Christ is the only
way. God asks this question to the
people of Israel, will you rob God? If any man goes to God by
their will or works, they are robbing God of His glory and
they've not been given sight. You then are blind. It is because putting our hands
defiles the sacrifice and pollutes it. But whosoever he gives light
of the gospel to see, we see Jesus Christ as our only door,
our only Savior. We see His blood is enough. His
blood is enough. His righteousness is enough.
He doesn't need mine added to it, I promise that. I have none
in myself. His is enough. I believe on Him
alone for all my standing before God. Do you? Isn't that right,
you that believe? Isn't that something you can
enjoy? Yes, it's something we rest in.
Because we have sight to see. We know that our sins are nailed
to the cross and we bear them no more. Praise the Lord. Oh
my soul, I don't know about your soul, my soul, praise the Lord
for He has taken all my sins away. Why? Because I was blind. I was blind. He said, if you are blind, you
should have no sin. Have you been blind? Or have
you always been saved? Have you always been saved? Oh,
no. I was blind. Now I see. But my friends, some who hear
this gospel, it will not affect them the way it affects you,
believer. To those who do not believe, it will not affect you
the same way. It will cause those who are not
saved, those who think they see, to retreat back into their false
religious hopes. I spoke with a man about the
gospel of Christ, and he said, Preacher, if what you're telling
me is true, if God is sovereign, then that has turned my religion
upside down. I said, so be it. So be it. You know what that man did? He
retreated back into the darkness and he went out and found ten
more people just as evil as he was, and tried to come back with
their responses. He can bring a whole truckload
of people, don't bother me. That doesn't change the truth
of the gospel, my friend. You see, there are people that
hear this gospel that will retreat. This gospel is a saver of death
unto death to some, and a saver of life unto life to others.
Some will hear this message and hear joy, peace, life, love,
Christ. Others will hear this message
and they will harden their hearts and go away even worse than they
came. You know, I was in Houston and
I had to work on my house. And my hands are pretty smooth
right now, but back then I used to work with them a lot and had
a hammer in my hand. And I was hammering away and
I got done and man, I had blisters all over my hand. And then I
had to get up the next day and wrap it up and keep doing it.
But you know, when the blisters got healed, I noticed this about
my skin, become calloused. My dad's hands are real calloused.
Worked all his life. Real rough. And I noticed that
on that callous part, there's a little less feeling than the
other part of my hand. Many people will come to hear
the light of the gospel, and they'll hear it, and what'll
end up happening is they'll get a sore on their conscience. They'll get a prick in their
conscience. They'll feel bad about things that they've done,
and then they'll go away, and they'll just try to heal that
up. They'll try to get something to heal it up. And when they
come back the next time, they feel a little less guilt. And
next time, a little less. Next time, a little less. What
is happening? My friend, the gospel light is
blinding them to the truth. You see, God uses this gospel
to do one of two things, either to give you sight or to make
you blind. And every time it's preached,
it does that whether you like it or not. It does that every
time. Every time. When Jesus said, for judgment
I am come, He also meant not for just the atonement, but also
to separate men, to divide men. So the gospel divides men. And when God takes a vile wretch
like that beggar, that beggar at the gate who was born blind,
who was a nobody, who was vile to everybody around him, when
God saved that man and let the religious people go to hell,
they didn't understand that man. The religious people around them
said, hey, was that the blind beggar? No, that couldn't be
him. That couldn't be him. It's the same way when God saves
a sinner. That sinner who was vile and
wretched, a drunkard, an adulterer before, has now become meek and
lowly in heart and loves the Lord. And people don't understand
that person. You, believer, people don't understand
you. They won't understand you. You will be a point of division
among people. You will always be that way.
And when this gospel message is preached, it's also a division.
When I say the Lord is sovereign, it divides. See, when I say the
Lord is sovereign in salvation, that divides my God from every
other God, doesn't it? Well, my God's not sovereign.
Well, your God's not my God. My God gives every man a free
will. Your God's not my God. Your God
is not the God of this Bible. And see, when you say that, what
happens? Division. I don't want to talk to you no
more. I don't even like to hear you no more. Why? Division. Jesus said, I've come
not to bring peace, but a sword. Sword of division. And when this
light shines, I promise you, it'll divide. It'll divide. This message divides those that
can see and those that think they can see. That's what it does. It shines
in. And many of you, maybe some of
you will go away from this place and you'll say, I don't care
anything about what he said. That doesn't affect me at all. You know, I've got to be here.
I don't want to. I don't like it. I don't like
that message. Well, you're just going to go
away more callous than you were before. Maybe somebody will go
away seeing. Isn't that our prayer? Maybe I would know Him more.
Do you long to know Christ more? I do. I long to know Him as I'm
known. I long to love Him. Don't you? I long to love Him. I long to love Him like He loves
me. How can I do that? The light of the Gospel, my friends,
shines the light of the love of God in our hearts by His Spirit. I pray that God would bless this
to our hearts and that God would send forth this light and let
us see that it is finished, my friends. Salvation is accomplished. Mission accomplished. Salvation
is accomplished and all who believe on Him, my friends, shall be
saved. That's a promise. If you go out of here like you
came in, blind, I pray for you. I pray that God
will have mercy. Let's stand. I'm sorry, we're
having the Lord's Table today. I almost skipped the process,
didn't I? We have the men come forward
and prepare the table for us, please.