nearly every professing Christian
claims to have had a saving experience. And it usually goes something
like this. They were having a revival meeting
at the local Free Will Baptist Church or Pentecostal Holiness
Church, and some friends of mine invited me to go. Well, I was
drinking pretty bad at the time, having just gone through a divorce.
So I went down to the meeting, and after the preacher got up
and preached a little bit, I really don't remember what he said,
but they started singing a song, Just As I Am, or something, and
the preacher was calling out to anyone who needed help or
to raise their hand and to come down front, and so I went. I
just felt compelled to go down there, and I was crying real
hard, and we prayed, and I repeated a prayer after him, and he told
me that if I would accept Jesus as my personal Savior, if I would
let Him into my heart and make Him Lord of my life, then I would
be saved. And so I did. And a warm feeling
came over me, and something happened. I was a changed man, and I quit
my drinking and quit my smoking and got baptized and joined the
church, and I have been living for Jesus ever since. That is
a very typical situation right there, but that is not salvation. That is just a religious experience. Salvation is not accepting Jesus. You won't find that anywhere
in the Bible. You won't find any preacher,
any prophet, any apostle, anybody telling people to accept Jesus. You won't find anybody, any experience
like that in all of the Scripture. And salvation is not quitting
this or quitting that. Reformation. Salvation is to
know the true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. That's what
Christ said in John 17, verse 3. It's to know the true God. Not a God you let do anything. No, that's not God at all. Salvation
is to know the true God who does what He will, with whom He will,
when He will. Salvation is to know the true
Jesus Christ Not the one that you let or accept or receive
into your heart. No, no. But the one, the sovereign
Lord who comes to you and where you are and reveals Himself to
you. Now here in John chapter 9, if
you have a Bible, the Gospel of John chapter 9 is a story of a man who, like
many today, had a saving experience. But he was lost. He didn't know
Christ. And I'm reading from John 9,
verse 1. It says, As Jesus passed by,
he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And down in verse
6 and 7, it says that Christ spoke and spat on the ground
and made clay and anointed the eyes of the blind man with clay
and told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. And he went his
way, therefore, and washed, and he came see." You know, he received
his sight. Now this was a miracle. Something
miraculous had happened to this man. He was born blind, and everybody
knew him. Perhaps they saw him begging
or saw him on the street corner. And then one day, all of a sudden,
he could see. He was a changed man. Everybody
recognized that something wonderful had happened to this man. Look
at verse 8 and 9. It says, The neighbors therefore,
and they which before had seen him that was blind, said, Is
not this he that sat and begged? Some said, Well, this is he. Others said, Well, he's like
him. Well, they said, This can't be. Let's just call this fellow
Bill to remember him by. They said, this can't be old
Bill. Why, he's so different. He used to be so wild, but he's
changed now. You know that many notorious
sinners get religion to the amazement of many. I once had a friend
who played football at the University of Georgia, and he was a wild,
partying fellow. And he got religion. He got saved,
so to speak. And he was so notoriously wild
that when he, so to speak, got saved, you know, they put that
in the headlines of the local newspaper in the town he was
from. And he began to preach even. And he told me later on, after
we talked, he said, I was I got saved, but I was lost, he said.
Well, this fellow here in John 9, he was different. Something
happened. He was changed. And he told the
people that Jesus did it. Look at verse 10 and 11. They
said, How were your eyes opened? And he said, A man that is called
Jesus. He did it. He anointed my eyes,
told me to go wash, and I washed, and I received my sight. And
the same thing can be asked of some people, ìHow did you get
saved, Bill? How did you get saved?î ìWell,
the preacher told me about a man named Jesus who loved me and
died for me, and so I accepted him as my personal Savior and
was baptized, or got washed, and now Iím a born-again, Spirit-filled,
tongue-talking Christian.î Well, they said to this fellow, they
said, ìWell, tell us more about him.î Verse 12, they said, ìWhere
is he? Tell us more about Jesus. Where is he?î And the man said,
ìI know not.î He didn't even know where Jesus Christ was.
Well, this fellow even began to witness for Jesus. Even though he didn't know who
he was, really, he began to witness for Him. Look at verse 15 through
17. The Pharisees asked him how he
received his sight. And he said, well, he put clay
on my eyes and I washed and do see. And they said, well, he
can't be of God. He broke the Sabbath day. In
verse 17, and they said, how is it that he opened your eye?
And he said, he's a prophet. The man said, he's a prophet.
He didn't know the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't know who he
was. He didn't know why he came. Down
in verse 25, look at it there. The man answered them and says,
I don't know whether he's a sinner or not. One thing I know, I was
blind and now I see. I don't know much about Jesus.
I don't know where he came from or where he is now or what he
is. I think he's a prophet. Whether
he's a sinner or not, I don't know. I just know that I'm a
changed man. Something happened to me, and
I'm changed. My, my. Well, this fellow had an experience,
and it was a real one. Something definitely had happened
to him. He had an outward change. He was not the same. He became
a witness. And he even suffered some persecution
for his religion. Look at verse 34. It says in
verse 34 that they cast him out. They cast him out of their church.
He was just too zealous for them. The old guard there, he just
put them to shame, and he was just too zealous, and they just
cast him out. Well, do you see what all can
happen to someone and they still not be saved? Salvation is when
the Lord God, the Lord Jesus Christ finds you. Not you finding
Him. He's not lost. Salvation is when He opens your
eyes to know Him, who He is, and causes you to worship Him.
Let's see that here in this story. Verse 35, Jesus there heard that
they had cast Him out, and when He had found Him, when Christ
found this man, let me ask you, who chose who? Did you choose
Him or did He choose you? Who finds who? Who is the one
who is lost here? Someone says, I found Jesus. I didn't know he was lost. I
thought, we're the ones that are lost. Who's looking for whom? This man wasn't looking for Jesus.
Well, he had already had an experience. He wasn't looking for anything
or anyone. But Christ came looking for him.
Who accepted who? Well, Christ had accepted this
man, had chosen to come and reveal Himself to this man. And look
at what He asked this man. He said, Does thou believe on
the Son of God? He didn't ask him, Would you
accept me as your personal Savior? He didn't ask him, Would you
let me save you? He didn't ask him, Do you believe
on Jesus? No. He said, Dost thou believe
on the Son of God? And the man answered and said,
Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him? Who is He? How I wish more people would
ask this question. Who is He? Who is God? What is God really like? Who
is Jesus Christ? Why did He come? Where is He
from? Where is He now? What is salvation? How can a man be just with God? It's sad to say most folks who
have had an experience, who have accepted Jesus, who now read
their Bibles a little bit, they now have all the answers. Though
they can only quote maybe part of One verse, John 3, 16 or Romans
8, 28. Now they have all the answers
and you can't tell them anything. That's so sad. But in verse 37,
it says that Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him
and it is he that talketh with thee. Now, this man had saw the
Lord before, but he just saw him as a man. He saw Jesus before. That's who he said. He said,
a man named Jesus healed me. But now, after Christ spoke with
him, after hearing him speak, he saw him as more than a man.
And verse 38 says, the man said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. Evidently,
he fell down at his feet and worshipped him. Lord, I believe. Do you remember the story of
the thief on the cross? There were two men hanging on
the cross, one on each side of the Lord Jesus Christ. And at
first, both of them, it says, began to taunt and make fun of
Christ. And one of them, who thought
he was just a man named Jesus, well, when the Lord looked on
him, or when the Lord decided to reveal Himself to that man,
The man all of a sudden said, Lord, remember me. Lord, accept me. Not, I've decided to accept you. No, Lord, remember me. Lord,
accept me. Lord, would you have mercy on
me? Lord, would you do something for me? Lord, would you let me? Not, I've decided to do this
or I've decided to do that, but Lord, would you? Would you save
me? The same thing happened to Saul
of Tarsus, whom the Lord later named Paul, the apostle. He was
religious, but he was lost until the Lord brought him down off
his high horse, until the Lord destroyed all his religion, and
the Lord revealed himself to Paul as more than Jesus. And
when he did, Saul of Tarsus, or Paul, said, What would you
have me to do? Not, I've decided to serve you,
but Lord, what would you have me do? See, salvation is not
you or me accepting Him, but it's Him accepting us. Salvation
is not us doing something for Jesus, but it's Him doing something
for us. And in verse 39, Christ said,
judgment, for judgment I'm coming to this world. For judgment. that they which see not might
see, and they which see might be made blind. And some of the
Pharisees which were with him heard these words and said unto
him, Are we blind also? And Jesus said unto them, If
you were blind, you would have no sin. But now you say, We see. Therefore your sin remaineth.
My, my, do you know and worship the sovereign Lord Or have you
just accepted a Savior named Jesus? May the Lord reveal Himself
to you.