I'm speaking to you this morning
from the Gospel of John, the Gospel of John chapter 9. And
in this chapter is a story of the Lord Jesus Christ healing
a blind man. There's a great lesson to learn
here. The truth is being taught here and the moral of this story
or the lesson to be learned is found in the last three verses
of John 9. I read to you verses 39 through
41. And the Lord said, For judgment
I am come into this world, that they which see not might see,
and that they which see might be made blind. But some of the
Pharisees which were with him heard these words and said unto
him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were
blind, You should have no sin. But now you say, we see. Therefore
your sin remaineth." What a lesson to be learned here. If you were
blind, he said, you would have no sin. But if you say, we see,
your sin remaineth. Here's the truth. You must be
blind to see. You must be dead to be given
life. You must be lame to walk. You
must be lost to be found. You must be a leper to be cleansed. Now, once you realize this, once
you see, once you hear, once you're quickened, made alive
by the Spirit of God, then you see, you hear. Do you see? Perhaps not. But here in chapter
9, verse 1, as Jesus passed by, He saw a man which was blind
from his birth. He saw this man. This man didn't
see Him. The man was blind. But the Lord
looked upon him. The Lord saw him. The Lord looked
upon him in mercy. The Lord set his eye upon this
man. The Lord purposed to give this
man eyesight. The man couldn't even see the
Lord Jesus Christ coming. He didn't know who he was. He
couldn't see who he was. He's blind. Now this is a lesson
in the truth, in the gospel. You must be blind to see. If
you've never been blind, then you don't See, if you've never
been dead, then the Lord hasn't given you eternal life, spiritual
life. If you've never been lost, then
you are not now found. But the Lord passed by and he
saw this man, which was blind from his birth. Just before this,
in chapter 8, the Jews said to him, you're not 50 years old. Have you seen Abraham? He said,
verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am. The Lord Jesus Christ is saying
there to these religious Jews, he said, I am God. He said in
another place, he that hath seen me hath seen the Father. I and
the Father are one. You know how few people know
that this man, Jesus of Nazareth, is God Almighty. He's the God
who created all things. By Him all things were created.
Without Him was not anything made that was made. He's God
manifest in the flesh. Most people think He's just a
man. But no, this is God with all power. He said that. All
power is given unto Me in heaven and earth. Power over all flesh. He said that in His prayer to
the Father in John 17, verse 2, as thou hast given Him power
over all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. If you're dead, you must be given
life. If you're blind, you must be
given eyes. If you're lost, you must be found.
You can't find yourself. If you're lame, you can't walk.
You must be given feet. You can't take the first step.
The Lord must come to you and find you and call you and quicken
you and give you eyes and ears to hear and eyes to see. People,
someone may say, why do you say all this? You're always saying
this. Why? Because it's true. It's for His glory. Salvation
is of the Lord, and it's for His glory. The Jews took up stones
to stone Him because He said this. But He passed through them,
through the midst of them. He passed by. He passed them
by. That's His divine prerogative. He saves whom He will. He said, I am God. And I will
show mercy. What wonder that is that God
would have mercy on anyone. But he said, I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious, not who lets me, but to whom I will show this
grace and show this mercy. Salvations of the Lord for his
glory, for his glory, for his honor. So he passed by these.
And in chapter nine, it says, as he passed by, he saw a man. He looked upon this man. He passed
by those Pharisees. He passed by those self-righteous
religious people who thought they saw. And he looked upon
this man who was blind from birth. That's what it said. Blind from
birth. Now, all of us are born blind. All of us are born dead in trespasses
and sin. All of us are born captive to
the God of this world. Salvation is of the Lord Jesus
Christ, of the Spirit of God, God the Father. Salvation is
of the Lord. Unless He comes to us, we'll
not come to Him. Unless He calls us, we'll not
call on Him. Unless He gives us eyes to see,
we'll not see Him. Unless He gives us ears to hear,
we'll not hear His voice. So the Lord saw this man. He
was born blind, as are we. Man is born blind to God, blind
to the true God. Our Lord said this in His prayer,
again in His prayer, John 17, verse 3, He said, This is life
eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. Most people are blind to
the only true God. Most people believe in a God
they've imagined, a God they think God to be. Listen as I
read to you from God's Word as He describes Himself. This is
the God of the Bible. This is the true God, the living
God. He says in Psalm 50, the mighty
God, almighty, the mighty God, the Lord hath spoken and called
the earth from the rising of the sun to going down thereof.
Predestined, purposed, known unto God all his works from the
beginning of the world. He created the world. He owns
it. He orders it. He's a judge of
it. It does all things according
to His will in heaven and in earth. I read on. It says in
verse 3, Our God shall come and not keep silent. That's speaking
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah said the same thing in
Isaiah 25. Isaiah said, They will say, This
is our God. We've waited on Him. He will
save us. In verse 3 of Psalm 50, it says,
Our God shall come and not keep silent. A fire shall devour before
him a fire Hebrews 1029 says our God is a consuming fire do
you know anything about the God who's a consuming fire perhaps
not because most false prophets all false prophets most preachers
today tell everyone all the time God loves you Jesus died for
you and nowhere in the Bible does it say that no sir No prophet
ever stood before people and said, God loves you. Smile, God
loves you. Nobody ever said that to the
people, the general people. No, sir. God is a consuming fire. God is holy. God is righteous.
God is just. God will by no means clear the
guilty. I read on in Psalm 50. He says,
if I were hungry, I would not tell you. How many times do you
hear these preachers tell you, God needs your money, God needs
you to do this for Him, to do that. God has no hands but your
hands. That's another God. That's a false God, an impotent
God, a helpless God. That's not the God of the Bible.
He said, if I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you. He said, all the fowls
of the mountain, the beasts of the field, the cattle on a thousand
hills are mine. God doesn't need your money.
He said, all the gold and all the silver and all the mines
is mine. This is the God of the Bible, and He said in verse 21
of Psalm 50, He said, Thou thoughtest I was altogether such a one as
thyself, but I will reprove thee, and set these things in order
before thine eyes. And He goes on to warn us, Consider
this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there
be none to deliver. My, my, that's the God of the
Bible. That's the God who is God. Do
you know this God? That's who came. That's who walked
this earth. Someone says, No, God is different. God is changed. That's the God of the Old Bible.
This is the God of the New Testament. He's all love. No, sir. God said
in Malachi 3.6, I'm the Lord, I change not. Hebrews 13.8, Jesus
Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. The same God in
the Old is the same God of the New. Always will be. He says,
I am that I am. He doesn't change. Well, here
in John 9, he came to this man and his disciples asked him,
Lord, Master, who did sin that this man was born blind? His parents or him? Who sinned? And our Lord said in verse 3,
neither hath this man sinned nor his parents, but that the
works of God should be manifest in him. Neither. That is, God
purposed this. God purposed all things. He says,
I kill, I make alive, I wound, I heal. I, the Lord, do all these
things. He is God. Nothing is by chance. Nothing is happening of its own
free will. No, God worketh all things after
the counsel of His will. I can hear the argument now.
What does it matter? That's what they said to Paul
in Romans 9. Well, who can resist his will? If everything's according
to God's will, then what will be, will be. But Paul said, O
man, who art thou that replies against God? Shall the thing
formed say the him that formed me? Why have you made me this
way? Hath not the potter power over the clay to make of one
lump a vessel of honor and a vessel of dishonor? Yes, he does. He has that power. That's his
prerogative. Don't. God giveth not an account
of his matters to any man. Just know this. The judge of
the earth doeth right. He does what is right. They said,
Who did sin? He said, Neither. This is for
the glory of God. In verse four, the Lord said,
I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day. The night cometh when no man
can work. Christ came to do a work, sent by God, to do the work of
salvation. Salvation's not your work. It's
not a cooperative effort between God and man. It's God's work.
Salvation's of the Lord. Salvation's of God. God the Father
chose a people. God the Son came to redeem those
people. God the Holy Spirit regenerates
them, calls them, quickens them, gives them repentance and faith,
and causes them to come to Christ, and gives them a new nature.
Salvation's of the Lord. Christ said, as a 12-year-old
boy, I must do the works. I must do my father's business.
On the cross, he said, it's finished. The works sent by him are works
of salvation. He said, as long as I'm in the
world, I'm the light of the world. He's the light. There is no light
apart from Jesus Christ. So when he had thus spoke, he
spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed
the eyes of the blind man with the clay. If you ever see, it's
going to come from the mouth of the Lord. It's going to be
from His word. It's going to be the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ that opens your blind eye, that quickens
your dead soul, gives you a new life, a new spirit, new heart,
new mind. Eyes to see yourself. Eyes to
see the truth. Eyes to see the sin that's within
you. Eyes to see your need of Christ.
Ears to hear His blessed truth and believe it. The heart to
receive it. So that came from his mouth, and he anointed the
eyes of this man, and said, Go wash in the pool of Siloam, which
is by interpretation scent. And he went his way therefore,
and washed, and came see. Our Lord told His disciples,
Go into all the world and preach the gospel, and he that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. Why does someone believe? It's
not of themselves, it's the gift of God. But the gospel is the
power of God and the salvation. And he sends his preachers out
with the gospel, and they preach, and they tell men, believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God moves on them,
gives them a heart to believe, and they believe, and they confess
Him in believers' baptism. Salvation is of the Lord. Do
you see? Do you understand this? May the
Lord give you an understanding. Until next Sunday, good day.