John chapter 9. Why do believers
get sick? Why do we have illnesses? Why
do we have diseases? Why do we have syndromes and
symptoms and all the like? Why do we have those things?
We all do. I thought about that a lot this week. There ain't
a family not affected in this congregation without just plagues
of problems and issues. Can y'all hear me okay in the
back? Can y'all hear me? There ain't a one of us here
that ain't got a whole bunch of trouble in this body, in this
mind, or in this heart. All of us do. Why? We got some
foolish answers, you know that? This old man we grew up with
and this flesh has some silly, silly things that we come up
with. Why? Why? And I ought not never dare
that I would never ask such a question. Yes, I do. Yes, I have. You have
too. You have. Lie and say you ain't,
but you have. The Lord heals a sick man. A man that's blind here in our
text. And there's a reason this man
is blind. There's a purpose for it. We can learn something greatly
from it. A purpose. John 9, verse 1. And as Jesus
passed by, who's this speaking of? Well, our Lord. And he passed by. What happened
before? He was just with all his Pharisees. And he said, I'm God, is what
he was telling them. And he said, before Abraham was,
I am. And that made them so mad, so
angry, they picked up rocks to stone him. And you know how big
them rocks was? All sizes. There's some folks that picked
up rocks big as bowling balls to kill him. They were zealous.
And there was people that picked up little tiny pebbles of indifference.
There's people that heard the God-man stand in front of them,
look them in the eye, preach to them, and they slept through
it. They didn't care. There much difference? They threw
stones, didn't they? They wanted to kill him. And
he disappeared from them. Those that thought that they
had physical eyes that they could see and that they've been all
the best colleges and seminaries there was, of course they've
been knowing God their whole life. Of course they knew him. Of course they saw him. They
knew these things. He left them. He passed them
by. And he comes to a man that cannot
see and knows he's blind. And he gives him sight. What
we need to learn first off, and as Jesus passed by, He passes
by whom He will. He's God. He does what He wants.
That ain't said enough in this day and age, or in any day and
age. He does what He wants. He's God. That's His name. If
He didn't do what He wanted, He ain't God. You are, or somebody
else is, or a rock, or a stone, or a tree, or a bird, or whatever
kind of goofy things we come up with. He's God. And boy, he
passed by. And like Obama or maybe somebody
told him, God's passing by. And he said, thou son of David,
have mercy on me. What if he passes by tonight? There's a mess of people in this
room. What if he passes by tonight? Oh, he might be pleased to save
somebody. He might be pleased to give sight to somebody that
thinks they've been seeing their whole life. He might save a sinner. And He may give us sight to see
our daily bread today. Wouldn't that be something? That's
who it starts with. Verse 1, And as Jesus passed
by, He saw a man which was blind from his birth. And His disciples
asked Him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents,
that he was born blind? 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. As long as I am in the world,
I am the light of the world. When he had thus spoken, he spat
on the ground and made clay of the spittle. And he anointed
the eyes of the blind man with the clay and said unto him, Go,
wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation, Scent,
a pool named Scent. You go wash in it. And he went
his way. Therefore, the blind man went
the way the Lord taught him and washed and came seeing." Tonight
we'll look at the beginning of salvation, the need of salvation,
and then there's a great discussion over the theological doctrine
of why man is saved, and how come, and what's the rules, and
all the answers to all the questions of why. And salvation accomplished
one at a time, one-on-one. as He does with each of His children.
And the result, the result of that salvation. We'll be spending
some time on this blind fellow the next few weeks, Lord willing.
And we looked at this last year. And this miracle hits the The
one with the second most verses committed to it. Do you know
that? When we get to John 11, Lazarus was raised. He gets 46
verses committed to that story. This fella gets 41. That's second
most in all the miracles performed. Maybe we ought to pay attention.
There may be a lot here for us to learn. And maybe we ought
not jump to conclusions. I know what this means. I know
how this ends. I know that. Let's be patient
and go through this. Let's be patient and look at
it. The Lord teaches His people with simple words, but they carry
an eternal benefit. They have eternal worth to them. They're not idle words. Everything
here means something. I don't want to jump to conclusions,
and I don't want to dive in the deep end just like these disciples
just did. I don't want to do that. I want to take it just
as the Lord tells us. So first, the beginnings of salvation.
It says there in verse 1, Jesus passed by. He saw a man which
was blind from his birth. What's it going to take for a
sinner to be saved? God's going to have to be pleased
to do it. He's going to have to look on the situation. He's
going to have to act first. It's going to have to be His
will and His covenant to do so before we see anything, before
mankind knows anything. He's going to have to see that
sinner. That's what happens. Turn over to Ezekiel 16. You
got Jeremiah after Isaiah. Jeremiah limitations to Ezekiel.
If you get to Daniel, you went too far. Ezekiel 16. The Lord saw this blind man. He saw
Him first. This man was blind from his birth.
Here in Ezekiel 16, the Lord sends somebody right after their
birth. Ezekiel 16 verse 1, Again the word of the Lord came unto
me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,
and say, Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem, Thy birth
and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan. Thy father is an Amorite,
and thy mother an Hittite." How does he start off? All of your
heritage is bad things. All that pedigree you got ain't
worth a nickel. That's what he's saying to them.
God said so. Thus saith the Lord. And as for
thy nativity, as for that innocent little time when you was born,
and you was just a cute, cuddly little baby, As for thy nativity,
in the day thou was born, thy navel was not cut, neither was
thou washed in water to supple thee, thou was not salted at
all, nor swaddled at all. Remember what we looked at salted
last week? Lot twice. That's what's required,
isn't it? That's required. You didn't meet
the requirements from birth. You came into this world, your
umbilical cord wasn't cut, you wasn't salted, you didn't have
Christ covering you from your birth. He wouldn't swaddle at all, had
no covering. Verse 5, None eye pitied thee, nobody cared. To do any of these things unto
thee, to have compassion upon thee, that thou wast cast out
into an open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that
thou wast born. You came out of the womb and
you were through in a field, left your defenses. What defenses
does a day old baby have? None, and you ain't salted, and
you're naked, and nobody's there, and nobody cares. That's called
helpless and hopeless. Save yourself, little baby. You
can't. Verse 6, and when I passed by
thee, oh, when the Lord passed by. That's where it started,
wasn't it? When I passed by thee and saw
thee. Now we're getting somewhere.
And saw thee polluted in thy own blood, I said unto thee,
when thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee,
when thou wast in thy blood, live. How is somebody going to
be saved? How is a sinner going to be saved?
We all have an end, you know that? Everybody in this room
is going to die. And you're going to meet your
creator one day. And you either going to stand there because
you made a decision for Jesus, or you was a good little boy
and girl, and you worked hard, and you was super religious,
and I never missed a church day. And I sang in the choir, and
I played guitar, and piano, and everything else, and saxophone
for the church, and we had a drummer. It was great. Slideshows, handing
out lollipops to kids. Or you're going to stand there
covered in the blood of Christ. And that's all going to be the Lord's
doing. When He saw His people, He passed by them and He covered
them. And He told them, live! How am I going to have spiritual
life? God's got to see you, come your way, come nigh to you, where
you are, and make you live. By His word. By what comes out
of His mouth. That's what it is. Live. That's
how He does it. That's the source of salvation.
Now, what's the need of salvation? It says in our text, this man,
just like all of us, he was blind from his birth. Just like this
helpless baby in a field, we have no sight spiritually from
our birth. Well, now everybody's got a little
good in them. No, they don't. No, they don't. Turn over to
Ephesians 4. I'm going to read this to you, but it's good for
us to look at. Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4 verse 17. Ephesians
4 verse 17. This I say therefore and testify
in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk
in the vanity of their mind. What Gentiles is that? People
of this world. Not physical Gentiles, but spiritual
Gentiles. Those that don't know the Lord.
Those that walk after the vanities of their mind. I get the funniest
phone calls and emails. There's a church. They fired
their pastor mid-service, I guess. But they had a big old backdrop. Who knows how much that sign
cost. And it was a cross. And it's always swaying, you
know, because it's hip and cool. And it says, embody the world.
At least they're telling the truth. What foolishness! Don't walk as the Gentiles walk.
You have a God. Act like it. Serve Him. Worship
Him. Verse 18, "...having to understand
and darken," that's what this world is, "...being alienated
from the life of God through the ignorance that was in them,
because of the blindness of their hearts." Blind from birth. They have blindness in their
hearts. And they've got phylacteries,
and they've got robes, and they've got Bibles, and they go out and
they preach, and they sing songs, and they sing some of the songs
we sing. They preach from the same texts we preach from. And
they conduct marriages, and funerals, and all kinds of things. And
their graveyard dead. They're blind. Leaders of the
blind. That's how we come into this
world, every one of us. This man was blind from birth
and he knew it. But he didn't know what it was to see. And
I thought about that. Could you describe to somebody
that was blind that's never seen what it is to see? He said, well,
you look at your eyes. Well, what's looking? We always
say that, don't we? See? See? I know a fellow that
was blind one time. I said, you see what I'm talking
about? He goes, I don't see it, Kevin. You know what I mean. They'll
take their hands and touch and say, you feel this part of your
body I'm touching? Yeah. Well now, whenever them things
work, you don't have to hear for what's in front of you. Those
things that shows you what's in front of you. What's show
mean? Where do you start? Where do you start to explain
to somebody that's blind what it is to see? He never did see. He didn't know what things looked
like. But more importantly, he didn't know what he looked like. He didn't know what he looked
like. Spiritually, he didn't know his
sin. He didn't know this sin-filled earth all around him, this cursed
earth that we lived in. He didn't know that. That knowledge,
if the Lord gives you eyes to see, you don't get cleaner as
you get older. If you're a child of God, you
don't get cleaner as you get older. You get dirtier. And you
see your dirt and your sin more and more and more. That's growing
in grace. Man grows down if God grows him and Christ is exalted. I must decrease. He must increase. And this world gets just nastier
and more vulgar and sicker to us every day. Not just we're
getting old and things change. A lot of things changed in my
lifetime. I don't like text messaging and short letters and all that
stuff. A lot of things I don't like. I see the sin more and
I see my sin more. It waxes greater and greater,
but thankfully His grace does too. I went three months one
time without a mirror. We had a polished piece of plastic
on a humvee. It was called a mirror, and he
tried to shave in it. After about a week, we quit shaving.
I went three months. I thought, well, I look just
the same as this. It's only been three months. And then I got in front of a
real mirror, and you know how much I've changed in three months?
Boy, it was drastic. It was drastic. We don't realize
how much we look in a mirror at ourselves and how much we
love ourselves and how prim and proper ourselves are until we
go without one. We don't realize how much we
use a chair until you don't have a chair for a year. We have a need for the Lord to
look upon us. He knows our frame. That's what
we just read in Psalm 103, wasn't it? We need Him to look on us
as a father pitieth a child, and for Him to understand our
frame, how weak we truly are, and for Him to do something about
it. For Him to be merciful. For it would make us cry unto
Him. But this man here wasn't crying
yet, was he? Was he crying out, Lord be merciful to me, a sinner!
No, he was just sitting there, wasn't he? Before the Lord begins
to work in us, in one of His sheep, we don't seek Him. We
don't know who to seek. We don't know how to seek. We
may do what everybody else does. We may do what grandma or grandpa
did. But we don't know what we're doing. And we truly do not know
how bad we ought to seek Him. What's more important? You tell me something's more
important than seeking mercy from a God we've offended. There ain't
nothing. I'll save you some time. There
ain't nothing. Well, I got some stuff going
on. You got some stuff going on on the way to hell. Turn over Romans chapter 3. Back a few pages. Romans 3. Romans 3 verse 10. As it is written,
there is none righteous. No. Not one. And there's a colon there, isn't
there? There's going to be a listing. Paul, tell us what the context
of that is, Paul. Verse 11. There is none that
understandeth. He ain't got a good handle on
it. There is none that seeketh after God. Period. Who comes
into this world? That's just why I was looking
for God. No, you weren't. You were looking for a God. You
weren't seeking the true and living God. Not if the Lord hadn't
saw you first, if he hadn't passed by your way, if he hadn't done
something for you. You've seen somebody you can corral and have
reins on and make them do what you want. They are all gone out
of the way. They have become unprofitable.
There is none that doeth good. No, not one. We have a need to
be saved. Salvation begins with the Lord.
Salvation is of the Lord. He begins it. He finishes it.
He sustains it forever. We need it desperately more than
we think. Even when the Lord shows us our
need, we ain't got a good handle on it. Or we'd hit our faces.
We'd be prostrate before the Lord. We'd have the fast that's
approved that He gives. You want something to eat? Uh-uh.
I need mercy. That's what I need to eat. And
this is all a heavily debated topic. Did you know that? Back
in our text. What a shame. God purposes for
His elect, He chose before time because it pleased Him. to be
saved. He comes to them first. He looks
upon them. He seeks them out. He saves his
people. He saves his sheep. He lays down
his life for the sheep. That ain't no good. And he has
to because we're graveyard dead. Man ain't got a lick of nothing
in him. It's good. And that's a heavily debated
topic. Now he can put on airs and you can get your stack of
books that high and go to every college you want to in the world
and debate it very carefully with a very fine voice and oratory
and that's the problem. That's the debate. Look here
in verse 2. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who
did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? You know,
it says our Lord saw this man and he didn't mention him. He
was passing by and he looked and he saw the blind man. It
doesn't say anything about the disciples bringing him up, did
it? His name wasn't called out. Is that Tim? Is that Bill? Is
that Ralph? Susie? No, nothing. The Lord stopped
and he looked at that man like a father pitieth a child. I wonder
what his face looked like. And he stared at him so long
that the disciples, those that followed him, said, what's he
looking at? Is he still looking at him? Why
is he looking at that fellow? That guy's blind. Can you tell? Is he blind? I think he's blind.
They had a conversation. The Lord's still looking at him.
Never took his eye off of him. And so they come up with their
wonderful theological questions. Lord, who did something wrong?
This fellow or his mommy and daddy? Is that why he's blind?
What happened? The reason he may be blind in
man's eyes. A whole lot of thoughts of pagan
reincarnation comes in. These ideals that if you did
something bad in a former life and now in this life you come
to and you're either up a level or down a level depending on
how good or bad you was. No, that's not it. Maybe this is
a punishment for generational sins because they knew the law,
didn't they? They've had the law shoved down
their throats from birth. Little blind babies eating the
law. And the reference here in my Bible is Exodus 20. That's
the third commandment. And it says, Thou shalt not bow
down thyself to them, to the idols, the graven image, nor
serve them. For I, the Lord God, am a jealous
God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children
unto the third and fourth generations of them that hate me. Did he
break the law? Did his grandparents break the
law? Great-grandparents? Is that why he's blind, Lord?
Maybe it was punishment for him committing sin. This person,
this individual committing something. What if he was saved? We're going
to look at this story throughout. 41 verses. Was he saved at the
end? Was he saved at the beginning?
Is he saved right now already? Was he saved later when he worships?
The better question is, am I saved? That's a better question. The
better question is, do I see? The Lord told Peter that. He said, if I will that he tarry
till I come, if one of my children, I decide that they wait till
I come, what's that to you, Peter? And he said, follow me. What's
that to you? Follow me. Old Brother Pink wrote
this one time, and I want to read this slowly. Let us beware
of becoming so occupied of the problems of theology that we
fail to preach the gospel to lost souls. Amen. Amen. Let's quit getting wrapped
around the axles about the... Well, this is provenient grace. Let's preach the gospel to lost
sinners. How about that? That's what I need to hear. I
want to hear how God saves sinners. How sure is that salvation that
He performs? Do I got a hand in it? Because
I better not. It ain't sure if I do. Am I plumb saved? Am I plumb holy? Plumb righteous? Forever, ever, ever? No matter
what? That's what I need to hear. Whose fault is this? Whose condemnation?
Who's condemning this man? That's what they're asking. Didn't
we see that in chapter 8? That woman caught in adultery?
The Lord came to her, and after he'd run them all off one at
a time, starting with the oldest, working his way down. And he
said, woman, where are thine accusers? Hath no man condemned
thee? And she said, no, Lord. They ain't here. And he said
unto her, he told her some great news, neither do I condemn thee. Go and send no more. What's wrong with this fellow?
Why is he blind? Who sinned? Who broke the law? Boy, what
a lesson to learn for us. Did any one of these disciples
who profess to be given sight, spiritual sight, did any of them,
did they kneel down real close to this blind fellow, get right
up in his ear and whisper to him and say, God's right in front
of you. The God man, the Messiah, the
one promised. He's standing right there. He
saved me. If he saved me, he'd save anybody.
Call to Him. Call to Him. Cast all your care
on Him right now. Beg Him to give mercy. He delights
to show mercy. Call on Him. Did one of them
do that? They were accurate. They were
looking for accuracy, not love. You see the big difference? Big
difference, ain't they? What's the answer to that? Who
sinned, Lord? Why is this fellow sick? Why
does he have a permanent condition his whole life? He's at least
30 years old. Because his mommy and daddy said, he's a man, you
tell him. Why was this ailment given to him? Look here in verse
3. John 9 verse 3. 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. As long as I'm in the world,
I'm the light of the world." Was this man a sinner? Of course
he was a sinner. Of course. What about his mom
and daddy? Were they sinners? Did they come into this world wholly
different than somebody else? No! Of course they were sinners. All have sinned and come short.
But the primary cause of the illness, that was the question
they had, wasn't it? The primary cause of the illness, as it is
with all things that are given to believers, if you've got the
sniffles, or you've got a broken heart, or you've got a broken
mind, or a broken body, whatever it is, if it's given to a child
of God, it's for the glory of God being manifest in that saint. What a thought! What a thought! How many times do we hear of
a trial God gives to one of his children,
and we think, what'd they do? I gotta know the details. Well,
what happened? Well, how'd this come about?
Well, what about this? Well, what about that? And they
don't stop till you pass out a hyperventilator from exhaling
on inhaling. Why, why, why, why, why, why? Who got you sick? I had a man of great intelligence
one time. I got the flu years ago, 15 years
ago. I mean, big mind. Got a Wikipedia
page. Big fella. And three weeks later, he got
sick. And he said, you got me sick. And I laughed. And I said,
yeah, all right. No, he was mad, like I intentionally had staged
this and gotten his Cheerios or something. I thought you were
supposed to have some intelligence. You're a fool. What? What's wrong? I didn't make you sick. I made
you sick. That's what Joe's miserable accusers
come to him, didn't they? These wise religious men. And
they said, what'd you do? What'd you do? You did something.
What'd you do? Them legalists, that's what they
did. What happened? Tell me what happened. What'd
you do? What'd you think? You said something. You done something.
And Elihu, this young fella. stood up, and he said, I'm like
a bottle of wine that's getting ready to bust. I can't hold it
in no longer. You knuckleheads, what's wrong
with you? Walking around professing your knowledge to me and learning
and everything. And he said, I attended unto
you, I waited on you, and behold, there was none of you that convinced
Joe or answered his words. Not a one of you could have something
to say to him. You can't change his mind. He said, lest you should
say, we have found out wisdom. He told his old learned men,
we finally got some wisdom. God thrusteth him down, not man. Five believers get sick because
God gave it to them. He thrusts them down so he could
be made manifest. His works, his glory, his sovereign
power on all things could be made manifest in their hearts.
That's wisdom. That's wisdom. So let's quit
acting like fools. Christ must send illnesses and
diseases at the appropriate time. He said in verse four, I must
work the works of him that sent me while it's day. The night
cometh when no man can work. This man was at least 30 years
old. That's when our Lord entered his public ministry. He was little
babies until he was 30. And when he was 30, you go down
to Sanhedrin, and they'd say, if you's fit, lay hands on your
son. We can use, we'll ordain this
one to be. No, I said, Lord went to work. What did John the Baptist
do? He turned 30, he went to work. They said, he's a man,
you ask him. His parents asked that in verse
23. They said, he's a man, ask him. The Lord must do this and
he did it in time. He let this man stay blind a
long time. What a blessing if the Lord makes somebody blind
or halt or weaken the heart. What a blessing if the Lord gives
somebody cancer. That's wonderful. Good. Wonderful. What if he does that
to save them? What a privilege it is for a
believer to be given a tremendous trial that the glory of God,
that His workmanship might be made manifest in them. Oh, it's
a blessing. That's the work of God. That's
something special. We know some folks right now
end up with cancer and diseases and family problems and everything
else from inside out. If they're God's children, what
a blessing that is. What a blessing. When we're reading
Romans 5.3, we have tribulations. That works patience. And patience,
then you start doing that over and over, you get some experience
with it. And then you're not hopeless no more. You have hope.
Experience works hope. And hope, that kind of hope that
God gives through the trials He sends, it maketh not ashamed. You ain't gonna be ashamed from
it. Why? What kind of hope do you have? I got strong faith.
No, you got a strong God. I got a strong Savior. Christ
is my hope. That's why I'm not made ashamed.
He said in verse 5, as long as I'm in the world, I'm the light
of the world. Well, He's ascended now. This happened 2,000 years
ago. As Brother Greg said the other
day, this happened the day before yesterday. In Lord's time. This happened
a long time ago, didn't it? He's ascended. What's that mean?
His light's the only light, but he sends it through his people,
don't we? We'll see in a bit. Our darkness is coming, individually.
And we should persuade sinners while we have light, while we
live on this earth. Darkness is approaching. I'll
die. You are going to die. And what
a privilege it is while we are alive to tell sinners where mercy
can be found. And sometimes, we get to see
mercy happen. We get to see the Lord work and
save His people from their sins and tell them about it. He saw
them, He comes to them, and He works in them. And we get to
watch that happen. What a blessing that is. We rejoice
on this earth. The heavens rejoice, don't they?
Over one sinner that repents. In eternity, we'll all know.
That's a blessing we have now. The work that we have in this
ministry that God gave us for us to preach the gospel is only
happening on this earth. When we're in glory, everybody
will know Him. Hebrews 8 and 11 says, And they shall not teach
every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know
the Lord, know Him, come to Him, cry for mercy. For all shall
know Me from the least to the greatest. We'll all know Him
then. Well, while believers are on
this earth, we're told to preach the gospel to all creatures every corner
that we can get it. And Solomon wrote this, the wisest man born
of Adam. Let's listen to it. Whatsoever
thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might. Semi-colon
people always stop there, don't they? If the Lord put it in your
hand to do it, do it with all you might. Give it all you got.
For there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in
the grave, whether thou goest." That's where you're going. You're
going to die. God's gave us something to put
in our hands. He gave us the good news of His Son, the person
and work of Christ Jesus, our Lord. We have a Lord now. What
a privilege it is to further His gospel. Christ began salvation
by His look, His intention, Because there's a true need. And debating
it doesn't matter. Not to the one who's being saved.
What's the facts? What's the inner workings of
this? It don't matter. Am I His or am I no? That's what
I want to know. But there's a work of salvation.
He initiates it. There's a great need. People
debate about it all the time. But God does it. Here's what
He does. John 9 verse 6. When He had thus spoken, He spat
on the ground. and made clay of the spittle.
And he anointed the eyes of the blind man with clay, and said
unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation,
Scent. You go wash in the pool named
Scent. You know, that's a despised means the Lord used here. That's a gross means. He spit. Would you like me to spit on
you? Would you like me to spit in my hand and rub that on you?
That's gross. You've got germs, don't you?
That's foolish means, isn't it? But oh, the value of this God-man
spit. Oh, what precious spittle that
is. Can you imagine? That's what
that woman believed when she said, if I could but touch the
hem of his garment, don't you dare spit on me. But if that
man spit on me, all it changes is because of the who, doesn't
it? It's not gross if you know who
Spithead is. He's the water of life. That's what came out of
his mouth. And he became a man like Adam, like us, to be our
representative. Dirt. That's what Adam is, isn't
it? Red dirt. God picked up dirt. He put living
water in it. And He took that and mushed it
up and made clay. And He made it one with that blind man and
smushed it into him. You see that? Christ came to
the earth. He became one with His people.
And He's revealed in us. He makes His abode in us. Makes
us one with His Son. That's a despised and foolish
means, isn't it? Wouldn't covering a man's eyes
make it harder to see? Isn't that our logic? Hey, he's
blind, he can't see nothing anyway, you just put a big old mud bath
on him. He ain't gonna see, surely ain't gonna see nothing now.
Oh, if that man could see at that minute, right then when
the Lord put that on his eyes, you know what he'd see? Christ
the God-man. Heaven and earth met together
in one. That's all he would say he would. Nicodemus had to learn this.
He was one of the Pharisees. It was said he was the ruler
of the Jews, a mighty religious man. And he came to Jesus by
night and said, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come
from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except
God be with him. And the Lord said unto him, verily,
verily, truly, truly, you pay attention, you pay attention.
I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see
the Kingdom of God. I got just as much being born
a second time as I did the first time. God had to do it. It had
to please Him to separate me from my mother's womb. This is
the same in our day. Nothing's changed. The Lord says
as long as he's in this world, he's the light of the world,
isn't he? Well, he's a sinner. What about now? The word of life
must be put in some dirt. He takes earthen vessels, clay
pots, and he applies Christ to those that he saw before time
by using his word, what come out of his mouth in his earthen
vessels. Paul said that we have this treasure
in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power of God
may be of him, not of us. How does God save sinners? Through
the foolishness of preaching. You mean some guy's got to stand
up? That's just foolishness spitting on the ground, isn't it? You
mean you ain't going to know God unless the Lord sends a man
to stand up and speak to you what he says? Yeah, that's it. That's the only way it's going
to happen. Well, what about a false gospel? He said no. He said it
won't profit my people. I worry. I worry for people.
I do. My heart hurts for them. It's almost like I've got to
give an account. People think they've been saved underneath
some nonsense and then they happen to come around. This is a better
way of thinking because they're higher on the hog. They've got
a little higher theology now. Oh, don't rely on them things.
You'll perish in your sins. Bow to God. Cry to Him for mercy.
He'll give you sight. And those earthen vessels of
the Lord's sins that He puts His water in. That mud, He mashes
us together. That's what they say, we're a
building fitly framed together that groweth into a holy temple
of the Lord. All those blocks, a tool didn't touch them, they
had to be rubbed together. Rubbed together. The Lord spits
on the ground and mashes together that blind man. And He gives
His water into some old dirt. And He uses that to make Christ
manifest in the heart of His children. That's what happens
in our day through preaching the gospel. Together, local assemblies,
the church in our generation, the body of the whole, just like
our father Abraham, we look for a city that hath foundations
whose builder and maker is God. We look for Christ's coming,
don't we? What's the result of salvation? If the Lord does His
work, is that guy going to unsee? No, he ain't either. Look here, here's a result of
the Lord working in somebody. He said in verse 7, here's a
command with instruction given with it. John 9 verse 7, He said
unto him, Go, wash in the pool of sin. What's sin? Christ was the one that was sin,
isn't it? He said you go and wash and be immersed in Christ
only. Go drown yourself in Christ.
Go cover yourself in Him, in that pool of Christ. That's what
we do in baptism, don't we? When we first hear the gospel,
the truth, and the Lord tells His children to do something,
you do it. You obey. And we go into the waters to
show we were buried with Him. We died with Him. We live perfect
in this life in Him. We died on that cross in Him.
Our sins put Him there. We were buried with Him, and
we're risen with Him right now. Well, what a hope we had to...
This old body dies. What's that? That's nothing.
Sin's been put away. We've been given eternal life.
But He says, go wash in the pool of Siloam. Here's the result. He went. He went. He went His way, therefore He
went the way of Christ, the way He told Him. And He washed and
He came out seeing. When the Lord gives life, He
knows His sheep. He loves them. They follow Him.
They follow Him. They obey Him. Do we obey the
law and the letter? No, we obey the law of Christ,
that law of liberty, law of love. That's what we want to do. I
pray He'd come to us and use whatever means pleases Him and
give eyes to the blind. Wouldn't that be something? What
floor made us see today? If we keep this up, He's going
to save somebody. He's going to comfort His people. And He's
going to be glorified. Amen.