All right, John Chapter 9. John Chapter 9. To really see the beauty of the
grace of God in this chapter, you need to read Chapter 8. I didn't have time to read all
of that this morning. Well, I guess I did have time.
We're not going anywhere. But read chapter 8 when you get
home and you can really see the grace of God, the diamond of
His grace laid against the black backdrop of human depravity when
you read chapter 8. In that chapter, our Lord is
in the temple teaching. And there He reveals Himself
as the light. He said, I'm the light of the
world. He reveals himself as one sin of God. God sent him. He's the Messiah. He makes himself
known. He reveals himself as the one
who sets men free. If the Son sets you free, you
shall be free indeed. And he clearly revealed himself
to them in the temple. If you just read that chapter,
he just so clearly revealed himself. And they despised and rejected
him. They despised him so much so
they tried to kill him. Look in verse 59 of chapter 8.
In verse 58, Jesus said to them, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
before Abraham was, I am. He identifies himself as the
I am that spoke to Moses. God. Then took the stones to
cast at him. But Jesus hid himself and went
out of the temple, going through the midst of them. And so passed
by. He didn't go around. He didn't
duck out. No. He didn't duck out into a corner.
He didn't jump into the back room and take off. He went through
the midst of them. They didn't recognize him. When
he stood up, he just went right through the middle of them. And
they didn't even recognize him as he went by. That's how blind
men are. They don't recognize the Lord
when His presence is present. In chapter 8, He revealed the
darkness of religion without Him. The darkness. There's nothing worse, I thought
this morning. There's no worse way to die than
to die with a false hope A false peace, a false rest, a false
faith. There's no worse way to die than
like that. So in that chapter 8, he reveals
the darkness of false religion. He revealed their wicked hearts.
You know when God said, let there be light in Genesis, you know
what the first thing it revealed? The chaos, that darkness was
over the face of the deep. There was nothing. It just revealed
the blackness of nothing that was there. And the Lord here,
he revealed their wicked hearts, though they pretended to be ever
so righteous and in right standing with God. He made that known
in chapter eight. He revealed that. That's what
he revealed. The light was shining in the temple for a while. Just
think about that. The light. Christ said, I'm the
light, and He's shining in the temple. The very place they claim
to worship God and carry on all those services. He shined there
for a while, but they rejected the light. So now the scene moves
outside the temple into the streets. You remember the scripture. where
it says they were bidding to the wedding but they refused
to come. The wedding supper, they refused to come. Then he
said, you go out to the highways and the hedges and you bid them
to come. And they did. And the house was full. Here
it is. He's in the temple. They refused
to come to him. They refused to believe on him.
So now he moves out into the street. He goes out there into
the street. Now in this narrative, we will
see divine sovereignty. You see, back in chapter 8, He
revealed Himself, and we can see human responsibility. You
know, everyone's responsible to believe God. When God speaks,
are we not responsible to believe Him? Everybody ought to believe
God. He's commanded all men everywhere to repent and believe the gospel.
Everyone ought to believe the gospel. Henry said this one time
preaching, he said, He said, when we preach the gospel, we
preach the truth, we read the Word of God, we ought to expect
men to believe it. We ought to expect everyone in
the room to believe it. God's speaking. God can't lie.
And not to believe it? Well, God's going to judge you. Because you're responsible. You're
responsible. But here, here in chapter 9,
we will see divine sovereignty. And here's how we're going to
see it. This man did not see the Lord. The people in the temple
saw him. He stood in front of him. I'm
the light. This man was blind. He could
not see the Lord. He'd never seen his parents.
This man was blind from birth. He had never seen anything. All
he had was his imagination. And then he could only form in
his imagination what he could feel with his hands. or somebody
described it, he would try to, and I don't even know how you
can have an imagination to tell you the truth. That would be
difficult to even have an imagination, because your imagination at least
works off something you've seen. But he was blind. He didn't see
the Lord. He didn't seek the Lord. You'll
notice this. He didn't seek the Lord. He's
not like blind Bartimaeus crying out. He's just sitting there
begging, blind as a bat. And he didn't ask for mercy.
He did not ask the Lord for mercy. He didn't ask him for his sight.
It says in verse one, now, as Jesus passed by, as he passed
by, he doesn't stay where he's not wanted. He left the temple.
The light left the temple. But he left also because he had
work to do. He said, I must work the works.
I thought that was an interesting statement. I must work the works.
Work the works that my father has given to me to do. I must
work the works of him that sent me. So he didn't stay. He didn't stay in one place very
long. He had work to do. And then as he went out of that
temple, he wasn't running out of the temple. He wasn't running
out. He was walking out of the temple
and he saw a blind man. He saw a blind man. Here's something
that I thought was so interesting. Our Lord was not so preoccupied
with Himself and His safety that He had not time for the needy. It was not like He had to hurry
up and get out of town. They was after Him. He walks
out of the temple and He sees a blind man. And He has compassion
on this blind man. And the reason he has compassion
on this blind man, this blind man is one of his children. It's
one of the sheep, the lost sheep he came to save. And he spied
him out. And there he sat, outside the
temple. Those inside the temple, they
didn't believe on him. Outside, there's one who's going
to believe on him. He's going to believe on him.
And then after he sees this blind man, and he was blind from birth,
his disciples ask a question. This is one of the titles I started
to give it. Who did sin? Who did sin? Who did sin? Did the parents
sin or this man sin who was born blind? His blindness has to be
the result of some grievous sin of the parent or the child. Isn't
that the way Job's friends thought? Isn't that how they thought of
Job? But here's an interesting fact I learned in my readings
this week. I got this from A.W. Pink. There
were three schools of thought in that day taught by philosophers
and some of the Jewish teachers. They had picked this up in their
Babylonian captivity or the Persians or the Greeks, they picked some
of this superstitious stuff up and they incorporated it into
their belief. There was the belief of reincarnation.
You remember when the Lord asked the disciples, Peter especially,
who do men say that I am? Some say you're Elijah. Some
say you're Jeremiah. Some say you're John the Baptist.
Some say that they have come back, reincarnated. Herod, you
know what he said of Christ? He's John the Baptist, come back
from the dead. And here's what they believed in his reincarnation.
If someone in their first life was sinful, They would come back
and pay for their sinfulness in their second life, their second
reincarnation in this life. And the disciples, so that sheds
a little light on the disciples saying, who did sin? And then here's a second thought.
They also thought and some believed that a child could sin in their
mother's womb. Remember Rebecca, when she was
pregnant with Esau and Jacob, he said they struggled. They
struggled in her womb. They fought in her womb. And
she said, if it be so with me, why am I thus? So there were
some of the Jewish teachers who believed that their child could
sin in the womb. And then the third one was hereditary.
Hereditary. Over in Exodus 20 verse 5, it's
written that God would visit the iniquities of the fathers
on their children to the third and fourth generation. So some
believe that. Here's my question before I go
on with it. But here's my question I thought
of. Does it really matter? Does it really matter? Here is
a needy sinner. Here is someone who is blind
and needs mercy. Does it matter who sinned? Does
it matter where sin come from? Does it matter why God allowed
sin? Does it matter where did it come
from? Does it matter? Here's what matters, how do I
get rid of it? How is this issue of sin taken care of? I don't
care how it got in, it's how you get it out. It's how can
I stand before God? I'm not gonna spend all my time
in trying to figure out where it came from, how it came into
existence. I'm concerned with how it can
be taken care of and gotten rid of. That's what I'm concerned
with. They were caught up on a theological
question. That's what they were caught
up. The Lord's looking at him in mercy. They are looking at
him as a theological problem. Brother, I'm not a theological
problem. I'm a sin problem, and I need God's mercy, and I need
the Lord to put it away, and only He can. Now, here's the
answer. Neither one has sin. Now, that
doesn't mean they have no sin. We all have original sin. We
all have original sin. His problem is not from something
his parents did or he did. His real problem is from original
sin. We are born in sin and shaped
in iniquity. That comes through the parents
and all the way back to Adam, to the original sinner is Adam. But neither one, he said, did
sin. We know that. Many parents, I thought about
this as I was going over this, many parents have beat themselves
up over birth defects of their children when they shouldn't. It's original sin. It's just
sin. That's what it is. It's just sin. But now here's what we're going
to see. We will see how the Lord has sovereign mercy on this blind,
Beggar, blind from birth, which is a great picture of us, spiritually
blind from birth. Mercy unsought and unasked for
at first. You know, before we seek mercy,
mercy sought us. Before we asked for it, it was
given to us. You know the very fact that you
ask God for mercy, that you ask God for grace and forgiveness,
the very fact you do that is evidence that mercy has already
begun, grace has already been bestowed, or you wouldn't be
asking. You wouldn't even know you're
blind. The Pharisees didn't. They said, we see, we're not
blind. We'd be not sinners. That's what they said. In verse 3, Jesus answered, neither
parent nor child sin, but that the works of God might be made
manifest in him. The works of God. It's the work of Christ, the
work of grace, the work of the Spirit and regeneration, the
work of divine power, that this would all be made manifest in
this man. Has God saved you? You know the
works of God are manifest in you day by day. The work of grace, the work of
His divine power to keep you, the work of God is manifest in
His children every day. Every day, this man was born
blind for the glory of God. Now, I'm not going to go back
and say why this and why that. I tell you this, whatever, whatever
trial, whatever heartache, whatever I've gone through is for the
glory of God. This man sat there, I don't know
how old he was, this man sat there for years. I know his parents
said he's of age. Ask him, he's not a child. And
he sat there for years begging, begging, begging, begging. And
that's the Lord's child. But it's time. It's time for
him to be born of God, and it's time for God to be glorified,
and it's time for Christ to be glorified in him. It's time. And his time has come. The sinner
is for the glory of God's grace. You know that? We're for the
glory of His grace. This man's blindness was for
God's glory as all our afflictions are for our good and our Father's
glory. And I thought of this, was not
Christ glorified when he healed this man? Was he not glorified
when this man came seeing? This man called Jesus, was he
not glorified? Well, listen. Is he not glorified
again this morning in this story, as we tell it again? Is he not
glorified again? When I read this story, I think,
Lord, you can do this for me. You gave this man sight, you
can give me sight. This was part of his work, was
to come into this world and give sight to the blind, and he does
so right here. This is evidence of his messiahship. And he says in verse 4, I must
work the works of Him that sent me. Our Lord was given a work
to do. He came on a mission. And that
mission was to save lost sheep. And He's going to do it. He was given a work to do and
he must be about it. He came to work out righteousness
by his own obedience. And I mean his own obedience
from the cradle to the grave. All his obedience between the
two is our righteousness. It's our righteousness. To shed His blood. Listen, He
came to shed His blood for the atonement of our sins. Our sins
have been atoned for. God has been reconciled. God's been reconciled. He came,
the Lord Jesus Christ came to work the works. And He worked
the works. And then He cried, It is finished. I mean, His whole life was working
the works. That's what he was given to do.
And he did it. And he said here in verse 4,
I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day.
The night cometh when no man can work. While it is day, his time on
earth, I think that could mean that. And night could mean the
time of his death when he leaves this world. But in between that,
for 33 years, he was given a work to do. And that was the day. That was the day. Certain work to do in a certain
amount of time is what he's saying. Whatever time we have left, now
listen, whatever time we have left, let us work in our Father's
vineyard while it is day. The gospel day. This is a gospel
day. This is a day of grace. And we have a work to do. I have
a work to do. Stand here and pastor this church
and preach the gospel. I have a work to do while it's
day. The night is coming. There'll come a time if I don't
just drop dead, just drop over, you know, die, that I have to
step down from weakness of the flesh or of the mind, I have
to step down. But right now it's daytime for
me and it's daytime for you. It was the Lord saying, when
He says the day, there's a specific time to work, given to us in
our day to work. Let's be about our Father's business.
And He's saying, I've got to be about my Father's business
while it's day. So He's out there and He's giving
this man sight. He's saving. That's what He came
to do. He came to save. As long as I'm in the world,
verse 5, He said, I'm the light of the world. Part of his work was to give
light to those who sat in darkness, and while he was here, he shined. The sun shined while he was here.
And by his grace, he still shines. He's shining here this morning.
I'm telling you, the Lord's shining here this morning. He's given
us light again this morning, and he's the light. But now he's
told this. He says here that his disciples
ask him, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that
he's born blind? And Jesus answered, neither hath
this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should
be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him
that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man
can work. So now he's going to work. Now
he's going to work. As long as I'm in the world,
I'm the light of the world. Then in verse 6, verse 6 and 7, he's
going to save. He's going to save. It's like
class is in now. When he walked out there, and
this man, he said, now class is in. Now pay attention. Pay
attention. And now here in verse 6, he spat
on the ground. And he made clay of the spittle.
And he applied it to the man's eyes. and told him to go to the
pool of Siloam and wash. That meant sent. He was sent. You know, when I first started
reading this, I thought, what does that clay mean and the spit? And then it just, it dawned on me,
keep it simple, stupid. Quit trying to make something
complicated or something out of everything. God uses means. Blind Bartimaeus received thy
sight. All he had to do was speak. Here
he chose to use means. He uses means. He uses ministers,
preachers, like this morning. It may be he'll open somebody's
eyes this morning through my preaching. It might be. He used
Henry to open my eyes. He used him. Scripture says, He hath put this
treasure in earthen vessels. He has put this treasure of the
gospel, the preaching of the gospel in clay pots, like me. He uses preaching. That's what
he tells us in 1 Corinthians. He has pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them to believe. And then notice here,
he spat on the ground, he made clay of the spittle, he applied
it to the man's eyes, and he told him to go to that pool of
Siloam, and he went. He went. This is an act of faith. It's an act of faith. True faith
is evidenced by obedience. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. It's an act of obedience. When
there's true faith, I guarantee this, where there's true saving
faith, that person will follow the Lord's command in baptism,
Taking the Lord's Supper, not forsaking the assembly of the
saints, reading His Word, He that loves
me will keep my commandments. Reading and studying His Word
and seeking His will, it's an act of faith, it's an act of
obedience. And then there's tried faith. There's tried faith. Listen. He spit on the ground. He made some clay, some mud.
And he put it on his eyes. At first I thought he put it
on his eyelids. And that's what you think? He put it on his eyes. He couldn't see. He put it on his eyes and told
that man to go and wash. And you know that man went to
that pool of Salome blind. He was still blind. He's trying his faith here. He's
proving his faith. He was still blind. Do you know
how hard it is to find that pool blind? But we don't read of him hesitating. He didn't say, but Lord, I'm
blind, I can't. He just said, go to that pool
and wash. He got up and he went. He went. You know why he went?
You know why he went? Because he was sent. God sent
him and he obeyed. He obeyed. He did what the Pharisees
refused to do. He believed. He believed what
the Lord... He believed the Word. He didn't see Him. He just believed
what the Lord said to him. And there's something else I
see here. In this spitting on the ground and making some clay,
some mud, and putting it on his eyes, I see the offense of the
gospel. Spitting clay? Spitting clay? Would somebody spit on the ground
and put it on you, would you find that offensive? You see,
the gospel's offensive to some. It's offensive to everyone at
first, I mean, by nature. Most people would be offended
by that. It seems so foolish, so foolish to do such a thing
and expect the man to see. to put mud on his eye, just spit,
basically spit in his eyes, spit and put it on his eyes and expect,
how foolish is that? The Pharisees thought it was
foolish, they kept saying, how did you see? No, tell us again,
how did you see? No, that's foolish, there ain't
no way, tell us again. Now really, that's what they're
saying, really? Now come on, come clean with
us, come clean with us. You expect us to believe he spit
on the ground and made some clay and put it on your eyes, and
you went down to that pool and washed, and you can now see?
Really? Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. And notice, you'll
notice here in verse 8 and 9, after he did this, He became
a flaming witness for Christ. The neighbors there in verse
8 and 9, the neighbors knew there was something different. They
said, this is that man that was blind. And some said, well, it
looks like him, but surely it can't be him because he can see.
But they knew something was different. They knew something was different.
And an opportunity for him was given to witness for the Lord
Jesus Christ. Here in verse 10, how were your
eyes open? And he answered in verse 11 and
said, a man that's called Jesus. Here's something interesting. That's all he knew. Henry has
a message. How much does a man have to know
to be saved? That's all he knew, a man called Jesus. A man called Jesus made clay
and anointed my eyes, said to me, go to the pool of Siloam
and wash. And I went and washed and I received
my sight. I received my sight. He gives glory to the Lord Jesus
Christ, even though he had not yet seen him with his eyes, but
he gave him the glory. Have you seen him with your eyes?
Not physically, I haven't. I haven't seen him. I've never
seen him. With the eye of faith I have, so did he, because he
went. He believed him. He believed
that person that was talking to him, even though he couldn't
see him, he believed him. He believed him. I find it interesting how people
are more interested on how rather than who. How did you see? The interesting question is who
made you to see? Who? And he said, a man called
Jesus. That's who and that's how. Here's what a sinner has to know
to be saved. He just has to know the one that
saved him. The Son of God. The Son of God. Not another one. Not another Jesus as Paul spoke
of, but the Son of God. The one this book reveals. His
name is our right to the throne of grace. Whatsoever you ask
in my name, I will do it for you. His name, in his name are
we saved. We are saved in the name of Jesus
Christ. Now the Pharisees come along,
and I'm going to wind this down. But they come along and they
persecute him. Look in verse 13. They brought
him to the Pharisees. Him that was aforeblind, and
it was on the Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened
his eyes. They didn't care about their eyes being opened, the
blind man, being blind from birth, they didn't care, it was their
Sabbath day. And again, the Pharisees asked him, how did he receive
his sight? He put clay on my eyes and I
washed. And they just didn't believe that, no more than they
believed the Lord when he was in the temple. They didn't believe
him in the temple. They interrogate him. And what
they do, they just keep asking the same question over and over
and over to see if he's gonna... They're gonna try to trip him
up. That's how you do it. That's what you do when you interrogate.
You're trying to trip him up. So the Pharisees are trying to
trip him up. And they finally call the parents.
And it's interesting here that these parents are called in because
you and I get to see that the parents have nothing to do with
it. The parents are lost. The child is saved. The one born
blind is saved. God reaches into a home and He'll
save this one and He'll leave this one alone. Is that not right? God's sovereign, isn't He? God
demonstrates His sovereignty right here. Those parents, they
said, He's of age because it had already been determined if
you confessed Him to be Christ, you were going to be excommunicated.
And they said, he's of age, talk to him. Talk to him. Well, the Pharisees call him
back in and they interrogate him again. And in verse 25, he said, now
whether this man's a sinner or no, as you say, I don't know
about that. I don't know all about that. But this one thing
I do know. And I know this too, and some
of you know it. I was blind. And now I see. Now, brethren, you know, if you
were blind, if a blind man right here, you know, if my eyes were
blind, I mean, when you're blind, blind, you can't even see light.
You don't even know if there's light on or off. And all of a sudden,
you have sight and you can see your parents for the first time.
You see light. You see what light reveals. You
don't see light. Light has no color to it. Light has no form
or shape to it. What you do see is what light
reveals. And he could see all these things. At one time, he
could see nothing. Now, you know this. You know
this. At one time, you could not see. But now you can see. I see how God can be a just God
and a Savior. I see that. I see how God can
save me through the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ.
I see that. It's clear as a bell to me. I
see that Jesus Christ is all my righteousness, all my hope.
He's everything. I see that in Him I'm complete.
I see that. One time I didn't see anything.
I didn't see anything. I see that. Oh, one thing I know,
I was blind, now I see. And they got mad about that.
They got mad. Then said they to him again,
what did he do to thee? How opened he thine eyes? They're
trying to trip him up here. They don't want to believe the
truth. They don't want to do that. And I think it's interesting
what they say here, and they don't know how revealing what
they said. In verse 28, and they reviled him. They reviled, they
despised him. They despised him as much as
they did the Lord. And they said, you're his disciple. But we're
Moses' disciples. We're law disciples. We're disciples
of the law. Well, they are. And they'll perish
under the law. We know that God spoke to Moses,
but this fellow, we don't know from where he is. We don't know
where he is. But now let me bring this to
a close. I mean, I could go on and on
with this. There's so much here, so much. And they answered and said to
him, you were altogether born in sins. And you teach us, and
they cast him out. They excommunicated him. They
said, you're born in sins. Thank God you know that, don't
you? They didn't. They didn't. And Jesus heard, He heard that
they had cast him out. And when He found him, He said
to him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? This is the first
time He laid eyes on Jesus Christ. He believed Him. He did what
the Lord told Him to do. He believed Him. And now this
is the first time He looked upon Him. And it's interesting here,
and the Lord said to him, and Jesus heard that he was cast
out, and when He found him, He said, Dost thou believe on the
Son of God? And he answered, said, Who is
He, Lord? Who is He? That I might believe
on Him. Tell me who He is. Reveal Him
to me, and I'll believe on Him. Because he trusted that man,
Jesus Christ, that man who's called Jesus. He trusted what
he said. Because he received his sight. He took him at his
word. That's what faith is. It's taking God at his word.
Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said
to him, Thou hast both seen him... seen. When did he ever see him?
when he was talking to him when he was blind. He heard him. By
faith, he could see him, though he couldn't see an image. You have seen him, and it's he
that talketh with thee. He made himself known right there,
I'm the one, I'm the Son of God. And that's what, you go read
chapter 8, now that's what he told the Pharisees. That's what
he told the Pharisees. I'm of God. God sent me. God
is my father. He kept saying, God is my father.
And they rejected him. And he says, here, do you believe
on the son of God? And he said, who is he? He said, I'm talking
to you. And listen. And he said, Lord, I believe.
I believe you're the son of God. And he worshipped him. He worshipped
him. How simple is that? That's not
complicated. Let's be careful. Let's do this.
Let's be careful that we don't throw out a whole set of doctrines
that someone's got to believe to be saved. You know what you
have to believe to be saved? God. You just have to believe
God. The Lord said over in chapter
8, that he that is of God heareth God's words. If you believe God, the doctrine
that you believe will be the right one. He won't teach you
a wrong one. He's not going to teach you a
lie. And Jesus said, For judgment I am coming to this world, that
they which see not might see, and that they which see might
be made blind. The Pharisees said, We're not
sinners. We're Abraham's seed. We don't have a problem. We don't
need you. But that blind man, He needed
the Lord. He needed him so much that the
Lord had to save him, open his eyes before he even knew who
the Son of God was. You know, God has to save us before we'll
ever know that we were lost. God has to give us sight before
we will know we were blind. That man, he never really understood
what blindness really meant until he was able to see. Now he knows
what blindness is. And some of the Pharisees which
were with him heard these words and they said, he's talking about
us. He's talking about us. And Jesus said to them, if you
were blind, oh God, make me blind. You should have no sin. And now
you say, we see, therefore your sin remains. And then he goes
on to say, verily, verily, I say to you, he that enters not in
by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way,
the same as a thief and a robber, and that's you Pharisee, you're
thieves and robbers. This man entered in by the door.
And then that chapter goes, then you really start seeing some
light when you read the chapter 10 with it, 8, 9, and 10. It's
amazing how it all goes together, isn't it? When you have, listen,
when you can see.