You can preach a message from
this hymn. I can preach a message from that
first verse. Open my eyes that I may see glimpses
of truth. Glimpses. We know in part. We preach in part. Place in my hands a wonderful
key that shall unclasp and set me free. The world holds the
truth. They have a Bible in their hand. We're set free. You know the
truth, you make you free. Truth as it is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We hold the truth. We hold to it. Silently now I
wait for thee. Ready, my God, thy will to see. Christ said, This is the will
of the Father which hath sent me, that every one that seeth
the Son. and believeth on him, will have
everlasting life, and I'll raise him up to the last day." Spirit
divine. Come Holy Spirit, heavenly devil.
John chapter 9. John 9. That was a great hymn. Clara Scott wrote that. I know
nothing about her. Maybe I'll meet her someday. John chapter 9. This is a familiar
It's a story, one we've looked at together many times, one you've
heard other men preach from many times. The story of our Lord
healing a blind man. And many lessons to learn here,
truth taught here. But here's what our Lord said
in verses 39 through 41. This is the truth being taught
here. Our Lord said, For judgment I
am come into this world, that they which see not might
see, and they which see might be made blind. The Pharisees
which were with him heard these words, said unto him, Are we
blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were
blind, ye should have no sin. But now you say, we see, therefore
your sin remains. That's what our Lord is saying. You must be blind to see. What a paradox the truth is. Must be blind to see. You know,
someone who's truly blind doesn't know what it's like to see. I
mean, can't see anything. Blind means no light. Fannie
Crosby, who wrote so many hymns, could see nothing. There was
no light, no light whatsoever. To be truly blind means you can't
see anything. So you don't know what light
is. If you're blind, you can't see anything. You don't know
you're blind. It's like when you're deaf, you
can't hear anything. You can't hear anything. Somebody
speaks to you, you can't hear them. You don't know you're deaf
until you're given ears to hear. You didn't realize. You see what
I'm saying? You didn't realize. I was deaf
for years. I didn't hear the words of the
book. I didn't hear a thing. Like I
see in the faces of some preaching, preaching, preaching. They don't
hear a thing. And one day I did. Is that you? One day I heard. I watched a video one time of
a young child that was born deaf. A little baby girl. And they
put one of these cochlear implants in her, you know. And when they
finally turned it on, they gave that child to her mother. And her mother spoke to her.
And her baby's face just changed. You know, she was crying and
laughing at the same time. She could hear her mother's voice. And these things meant nothing
to me. Nothing. But my heavenly Father
said, Give him ears. You don't know your death Till
you give it ears. You don't know you're blind.
You don't know you're lame till you walk. You don't know you're
a leper. John and I were talking about
that down in that whale's belly, you know. Jonah was really in
that. He was a man. He was in that belly. And you
know what was in that? You know how vile it was in that
whale's belly? Dead fish. Vomited. The Lord vomited him
out. Boy, he wanted out of that bad.
Why, it stunk. I've been there. You've got to
realize just how bad it all smells. How filthy and vile to want out. And it's going to be a vile thing
when the Lord rids you out of it. It's a blessing. It's a blessing
to be vile. To realize this world is vile.
It's a blessing. You don't know you're blind until
you see. You don't know you're a leper
until you're cleansed. You don't know you're dead until
you're alive. If you ever are, if you're ever
alive, made alive, if you're ever made to see, you know who
did it. This man. Who did it? He did it. A man named Jesus. We may look
at this twice because there's two stories here. This is the
story of salvation. This man represents all of us
at sea. This also represents a man who
got religion and got to change his ways and all of that and
he didn't know Christ. He didn't know Christ to the
end. So we may look at it twice, I
don't know. But it begins with verse 1, and, as Jesus passed
by. And, another unfortunate, should
I use that word? I don't like that word. Another
bad chapter division. And, verse 59 of the previous
chapter says that these Pharisees took up stones to cast at him.
Just before that they were taking up stones to cast at the sinner.
Now they're going to take up stone to cast it her Savior. And he hid himself. See that? He went right through the middle
of them, hid himself from them. Oh, how blind people are to who
Christ is. And he went out of the temple.
Christ is not in religion today. He's not there. You read with
me in Isaiah 29, didn't you? Did you read that with me? Ariel,
Ariel, he'd keep multiplying sacrifice, he'd draw near with
the lips and all that. That's all through the Bible
in him. All through every book. Religions everywhere in the form
of godliness deny the power therein. The power of God, the power of
Christ, and the preaching is his power. He says he went out
of the temple and going through the midst of them, he was right
in the middle of them, and he passed by. Passed by. It says that many times, doesn't
it? He passed by. He passed by. The Lord passes
by so many people. We're going to sing after this,
Pass Me Not. We're going to end this service,
Pass Me Not. Oh, that someone pray that from
their heart. Pass me not, O gentle Savior.
Hear my humble cry while on others I recall. Do not pass me by. He won't if you're like Bartimaeus.
Have mercy on me. He won't. He'll stop. He'll call
you. Give you eyes, he said. Were these people calling on
him? Don't go. Don't leave. No. Get out of here. Those disciples on the road to
Emmaus, he made as though he was going to pass by. He said,
don't go. Is that the way you feel about
the gospel here in this place? Don't go! We know you're going
to leave eventually. But don't go, please. My child
doesn't know you yet. Don't pass us by. Oh, what a message there is.
He passed by. Went right through the middle of them. They didn't
know him. Didn't call. Didn't cry. He passed by, but
verse 1 says, he saw a man. He saw a man, blind from his
birth. The Lord's walking. Where's he
going? When he passed by them, he left the temple, walked out
of that temple, and he's heading out of town. Where's he going?
There's a man he's coming to see. He's coming to see a man. He's going to see Him. He saw
a man. You know, this is my salvation. That man didn't see Christ coming.
He couldn't see. Bless God. Bless Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ laid eyes on him. Christ looked at him. I believe
what happened here, as they were walking and these disciples were
with them. I don't know how many. And they're
with him, and they're walking along, and he purposely walked
by. There were many blind people.
There were blind people everywhere, okay? Like Bartimaeus. People
would bring their blind relatives out and sit them on a corner,
and they'd beg for alms, for money, you know? Still goes on
today. That's how blind people get where
they are. We went out of Mexico, and it's
really just like this. We've seen people just like Bartimaeus. in rags, on the street, in the
dirt, in the filth, blind, no eyes, a little cup or something. Sad, isn't it? Somebody had to
bring them out there, isn't it? Yeah. And our Lord, as many of
them everywhere, okay, our Lord purposely walked in this direction,
because He was always, He said, I am come to seek and to save
that which is lost. All that the Father giveth me,
my lost sheep, I will find them. And he purposely walked out of
that town, and there's a man sitting there. And he saw him.
He looked on him. He might have stopped. Did he
give him something? I don't know. I don't know. I
doubt it. He could have. You see, the Lord could have
given this man $1,000 right there. He didn't give him a dime. That's not what he needs. And he walked on back. Okay? And the disciples are talking
to him. And they said in verse 2, the disciples asked him to
say, Master, who did sin that this man was, this man or
his parents, that he was born blind? They're walking along.
The Lord made it as though he was going to go on. Lord, who
did sin? Master, who did sin? This man
or his parents that he was born blind? Now, listen to me now. You'll get some great comfort
out of this. You see, our Lord, if he hadn't
looked upon this man, he would never have suffered. He would
have never been healed. He would have never been saved.
And the Lord took notice of this blind man. He doesn't need this
blind man. What's he need with a blind man? What's he need with
me? Nothing. Nothing. But he did. He took note of this man. And,
you know, the Lord looks down from heaven upon the children
of men to see if there were any that didn't see, any that didn't
understand, any that didn't call on God. He said, no, they're
all together. Become what? Filthy. There's none that understand. There's none that calleth on
God. Isaiah 59. There's none that calleth for
children. None. Not one. None will. None do, unless God
sends the gospel in power and opens blind eyes and deaf ears.
None will call. None will hear. None will see. You wouldn't have, and your children
won't. But they must hear this gospel.
And that's our responsibility is to get them to hear this gospel. If within our power at all, we
must do that. They're acting like these people
brought this blind man from on. But our Lord saw this man, and
he was blind from birth, and all people are. We're all born
blind, blind to God. Though the heavens declare His
glory firm, but it's all clear and clear if you have eyes. You're
blind to the truth. When the Lord reveals the truth
to you, you say, that's it. That's the truth. But the world
just doesn't see it that way. That's your opinion. No, it's
not my opinion at all. That's what He says. It was Brother
Henry Sword one time. Brother Henry Sword was reading
Romans 9 to, I think, his sister. And he had a few sisters, I think,
didn't he? You tell me. But anyway, he's
reading to one of them, Romans 9. And she said, I don't believe
that. He said, I'm just reading God's
Word to you. She said, but I don't believe
it like you read it. That's what it says. When you open your eyes,
that's what it says. Believe it. God's Word, the truth about God,
the truth about man. If he opens your eyes to see
who God is, you'll fear God. You'll fear God. If he opens
your eyes to see what you are, you'll fear God. You'll say, oh, wretched man
that I am. If he opens your eyes to see this world for what it
is, you'll want out. You won't save from it. If He
opens your eyes to see that the God of this world has this whole
world in His grasp, you'll see, help, save us from the, deliver
us from the evil one. If He opens your eyes to see
eternity, to see His salvation, to see eternal life, what that
means. It's not just the duration of it, it's the quality of it.
We were talking about holiness and righteousness and goodness
and love and mercy and where God is and God's people are wholesome. Does that appeal to you? A land
wherein dwelleth righteousness. Does that appeal to you? Doesn't
to this world. Nothing about that appeals to
anybody in this world except those that are not of it. You've got to open your eyes.
You're born blind. I know a couple who wants nothing
more for their daughter than for her to see the whole world. I want our daughters to see Christ. I want our daughters to see this
world as it really is. I want our daughters to be delivered
from this world. You don't have to go out of Franklin
County to see what the world is like. It's just as violent here as
it is in Italy. All those places. You don't have
to go anywhere. We need to see other cultures.
Let me tell you about other cultures. They're filthy. No God. What about the food? There's
good food. I've had food, the best food in all of Paris, France,
but it doesn't hold a candle to Doris Mahan's taters and beans. You tell me, is it not so? Irene
Davis. You don't have to go to France
to get good food. I'm telling you the truth. What
I want for your daughters and for mine is that they might see
Christ. He might deliver them from this
world. Because if they go out in that
world, they might like it. Right? I don't want them to see
it. I don't want them to like it.
I want them delivered from it. Is that right? Open our eyes. Well, they asked,
listen to this, this will help you. They said, who sinned that
this man was born blind? A child is born, he's born blind,
and his mother would make things, if I hadn't have eaten this or
eaten that, if I hadn't done this, I hadn't done that, if
I hadn't, you know, what is the medicine they took? Blame it
on this and we'll sue this company. The child gets sick and dies.
Well, if only I'd have this. You know, all this sudden infant
death. If only I'd have turned him over.
If only I'd have done this. If only I'd have done that. No. No. My son's in prison. If only I'd
have done this. No. No. That ain't it. You know, we're told how to raise
our children. And we should train them up the
way they should go when they're older and not depart from it.
And you see some parents raising a child and he grows up an obedient
son and so on and so forth. And the parents are to be commended. They are. They did what the Lord
told them to do. They raised that child right.
Right? Right? That's right. And here's another
one that set a bad example, and he visits the iniquity of the
children upon the fathers, whatever the fathers and mothers do, that's
what the children are pretty much going to repeat. Right?
That's right. But the way it all turns out,
who's to cause? The Lord. The Lord, yeah. That's comfort for you. David
had 19 sons. As far as I know, he had two
of them were believers. Did he raise them up in the church?
He sure did. That's what he should have done. But how they turn out, he said,
the Lord. 100%. You can't save their souls,
you can't damn their souls. And what they do, God's not taking
it out on you. What He does to them, He's not
taking it out on you. Ezekiel 18, Deuteronomy 24, He
says that children will not suffer, be punished for the iniquity
of their fathers, or vice versa. No, sir. Every person is going to be dealt with personally
by the Lord. And we blame ourselves, and we
should. But the way they turn out is
of the Lord. Completely. Samuel had two sons,
they were both locked. Eli had two sons, they were both
locked. And on and on it goes. We can't take credit for their
salvation, and brothers and sisters, you're not going to take the
blame for their damnation. And somehow, someway, when it's
all over, you're going to see and know as you've been known,
and you're going to say, Amen. And you're going to bless God.
You're going to say, He's right. He's right. It's just a miracle. He saves me. You won't blame
God. You give Him all the glory. You
hear me? Neither. He said in verse 3,
neither this man or his parents, but the works of God should be
made manifest in him. He said, 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 am the light of the world. This man didn't sin, his parents
didn't sin, that he's blind, but that the works of God should
be made manifest in him. dead and given life, God's going
to get the glory for them. Anyone who's dead and trespassing
in sin and have been quickened, God's going to get the glory
for them. Anyone who's blind and now they see, God's going
to get the glory for them. That the works of God may be
manifest in him. He said, I must work, verse 4,
I must work the works of him that sent me. Christ came to
do this work, didn't He? The work is His. Salvation is
of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's completely His work. We
say that, don't we? Why? Because it's so. That's
why we call on Him. And what I just said, you bring
your children to hear the Gospel. Okay? You must. Don't take them
to see the world. Bring them here and sit them
in this pew. Okay? If it's within your power at
all, you bring them here to hear the Gospel. You talk to them.
Deuteronomy says, talk to them while you're walking, while you're
sitting, talk to them. That's what the Lord tells you
to do. That's your purpose in life. That's why He's given you
children, not to see that they have the best food and the best
clothes and the best houses and all that. No. To teach them,
to bring them up in the nurturing, the fear of the Lord. That's
your purpose for having children. You hear me? That's so. My son-in-law, before
they had children, he asked the Lord, don't give us children
if they don't belong to You. That's a good prayer, isn't it? Seriously. So bring them and
talk to them and all that. But when it's all said and done,
there's nothing you can say or do that's going to convince them.
This is why he said pray without ceasing. Call. Job said, it could be my children
haven't called on you. What are you going to do, Job?
I'm going to call for them. He did, didn't he? He never quit.
Lord have mercy on him. So, salvation is up to the Lord,
you know. Do what He tells you to do. But when it's all said
and done, it's Christ that's going to have to say it, and
Christ is going to have to do it. I must work the works. That's why we call on the Lord.
That's why I hate modern religion. It does all these tricks and
tactics. Right now I've got all this trick and treating, treating,
trouble, crap. They're inviting kids all the
time. There's no mention of God, no mention of Christ. You know,
come, food, fun, family. They're trying to sneak them
in and get a profession of faith out of them. Boy, I wouldn't let my children
go to one of these false places for nothing, because they're
going to get a false profession out of it. It's evil. It would be two-fold more of
the child of hell than they were to begin with. Christ is going to have to do
the work. He's going to have to do the work. It's not of us,
it's Him. Christ came to do the work. What's the work that Christ
came to do? What did the Father send Him
to do? Huh? Save His people from their sin.
Save them from this world. He came to do that work of redemption
on Calvary's tree, and when He was a 12-year-old boy, He said
that. His first words out of His mouth
as a human being, He said, I must work the works of my Father.
Came to save His people from their sin. And it's His work, not ours. And the last words that he said
as a human being on this earth when he was crucified, he said,
it is finished. He finished the work. Finished
the work of redemption for his people. It's finished. You know what? I love this. Psalm
92, David said this, I will triumph in the works of thy hands. I'm so glad that I'm in His hands,
my times are in His hands, my salvation's in His hands, my
soul's in His hands. Aren't you glad? Good hand. He said, I'll try up in the works
of that hand. He said in Isaiah 26, Thou wilt ordain peace for
us, for Thou hast wrought all our works for us. I'm so glad. What makes religion mad makes
me exceedingly glad. And salvation is of the Lord.
Ask Jonah. Now, I'm not going to get out
of this filthy, vile place if the Lord doesn't speak the Word.
The Lord spoke the Word. The moment of it. As long as I'm in the world,
verse 5, he says, I am the light of the world. We live in a dark
place, don't we? The Gospel's still here. The
Gospel's the light. The Gospel's the power of God.
Christ is the Gospel's power of God. Nothing else. He's still
here. I have reason to believe that
the Lord is yet going to save someone that's in darkness through
this means. Why? The Gospel's still coming. We're still here. That gives
me hope for your children. And for some people around here,
look at this, and you'll love this. Verse 6, when he had thus
spoken, he spat on the ground, spit, made clay of the spittle. You and I think of spit, we think
of something vile. Well, whatever comes out of man's
mouth, it is. That's why we think of it so,
as such. But it's moisture, it's something
wonderful. Have you ever been without moisture in your mouth?
Sure you have. After surgery or sick or whatever, you have
no moisture. David said, my moisture's dried
up. It's awful, isn't it? What do
you need? Water. Okay? Whatever comes out of man's
mouth, and this is What man did when God came down
here, when the Lord Jesus Christ stood before him, you know what
they did? They spit in his face. That's the worst thing you could
do to another person. It's the worst show of contempt
and hatred. I'm going to draw up the dregs
of filth in my mouth, and I'm going to just spit in your face. Oh, it's horrible. Sickens you
to think of it. What if somebody did that to
me in front of you? What would you think? What if they did it to your son? What if they did it to your wife?
What would you do, John? They did it to God's Son. Our
God's mercifulness. Alright, here's the difference
between man and the God-man. You know what comes out of his
mouth? Mercy. Grace. You know what came out
of his mouth? Healing. Love. Grace poured. The spit that came
out of him healed his pain. What is it going to take to open
the blind eyes of our children? Something that comes from the
mouth of God. The Word of God. That's what it's going to tell
you. The Lord, this is not the only
time He did it. He did it to a man in Mark 7.
He did it to a man in Mark 8. He took spit from his mouth in
Mark 7 and touched the man's tongue. The man was deaf. He
touched his tongue with the spit from Christ's mouth. And he spake. What did he say? Salvation to
the Lord. Loosed his tongue. Then in Mark 8, he took spit
and put them in this man's ears. He was deaf, or his eyes. He
touched his eyes. And he saw. How did he see? What came from the Lord's mouth. How are we going to see? What
comes from the Lord's mouth? He's going to have to do it.
He made clay in order this man's eyes. Made clay, dirt, wet dirt. You know what we're going to
see, the first thing we're going to see? He put this clay on his
eyes, okay? Well, the first thing he saw
really was clay, dirt. What does that mean? He's the
potter and the clay. Dust thou art, dust thou shalt
return. I'm a vessel of clay. And then he saw Christ. I thought about this, too. You
know, we have this treasure in earthen vessels. No, clay pots. Yeah. How shall they hear without
a preacher? How shall they preach except
they do sin? Nobody's going to hear, nobody's going to see without
a preacher preaching the gospel of Christ. Nobody. Not one exact
one in this group. Not one. Right? That's right. There's a group
of people up in New Jersey that many of them have had their blind
eyes opened by a man named Clay. Clay. Oh, he's just a man. He's just from Arkansas. Anything
good come out of Arkansas? The gospel did. I'm going there
this week. Going all the way to Lewisburg,
Arkansas. And ain't nothing there but catfish
and gospel. I wouldn't rather be anywhere
else. Would you, Mindy? A man named Darwin. Clay pot. Open-blind ass. Not in the temple. Outside the
camp. out on the side of the road in
the dust and the dirt and the red clay of Franklin County in
Arkansas, opened a blind house. He said, verse 7, Go wash in
the pool of Siloam. That's the king's pool. Hezekiah's
the one that dug it. It means King Hezekiah dug these
conduits and made this pool right in there in Jerusalem, beautiful
pool, and the waters flowed so softly. He's the one that brought
water from that pool that people could just rest in and lay by
and quiet some. Soft waters. Isaiah talks about
the soft waters, Shalwa, and water came from that pool, the
conduits, to all the people in Jerusalem. You see what all that's
about? You know, the church where Christ is, like the pool of Bethesda,
the house of kindness, pool of scent, gospel scent, where God's
people are blind and haught and lame and withered and come and
lay, and Christ comes and anoints us with soft water, leaves us
beside the still water, restores our soul, restores our music.
He did. That's what he did. He said,
go wash. Go. There's a place. See what Christ
did? There's a place to go down there.
You go down there and you wash there. That's where you wash.
And you'll see. You'll see. There's a place where
the gospel is being prayed. Yes, there is. It's not everywhere.
It's not everywhere. Where is it? Well, it's right
down there on a little hill outside of town. Go there. And you'll
see. And you did, didn't you? Why? How? The Lord gave you the commandment. You wouldn't have gone. You wouldn't
have come, wouldn't you? You wouldn't have washed. And
I know this has reference to baptism. There's a pool. You need to get in it. And you'll
see. You'll see. Oh, bless God's holy name. Oh,
bless him. Bless the Lord, oh, my soul. If you're blind, oh, may the
Lord open your eyes. If he has, get in that booth
and confess him who did it. Okay. John, you come. Pass me
not, number what, 235?