And someone asked him what he
attributed the blessings of the Lord on his preaching to. And
he said, well, number one, the grace of God, sovereign grace
of God. He said, but number two, my men
prayed for me. He literally, there were literally
men meeting together, praying for him before every servant.
John 9 verses, let's read 1 through 12. 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 sin, 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. Well, 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. And 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 was by interpretation sin. He went his way, therefore, and
washed. and came see him. For the neighbors therefore,
they which before had seen him that was blind, said, Is not
this he that sat and begged? Some said, This is he. Others
said, He is like him. He said, I am he. And therefore said they unto
him, How were thine eyes opened? He answered and said, A man that
is called Jesus made clay and anointed mine eyes. and said
unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam and wash. I went and washed,
and I received sight. Then said they unto him, Where
is he? He said, I know not. At the end of this chapter, look
at this. This man did not know who Jesus
Christ was. He didn't know where he was.
He didn't know who he was. And the Lord came to him and
said unto him, Verse 35, Thus thou believe on the Son of God.
He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might also believe
on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou
hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And
the man said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. Salvation
is to know in the words of our Lord. to know the true and living
God and Jesus Christ, whom he sent, the Son of God, sent by
God, as he said, to do the work, the work of God. He had to do
all of it. Sovereign Lord. It's to bow to,
it's to worship, not believe in Jesus. This man before believed
in Jesus. He believed he was a healer.
He even called him a prophet, didn't he? But he didn't know
the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Lord came to him and
found him in the inn and revealed himself to him and questioned
him, the man believed and called him Lord and bowed to him and
worshipped him. The big difference. Big difference. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a story of a man who,
like many, had a saving experience. He had an outward transformation.
He became zealous in his religion or his witnessing to others.
And he even experienced some persecution for his beliefs and
was cast out. But he didn't know the Lord Jesus
Christ. You know, we love the statement. Look at chapter 9, verse 25. They asked him about this Jesus,
this man. They said, He's a sinner. And
he said, Whether He be a sinner or no, I know not. One thing I know, that whereas
I was blind, now I see. We use that a lot. preached just
on that verse. John Newton wrote Amazing Grace. I once was blind, but now I see.
And we all use that. I once was blind, but now I see.
Which is true. All of God's people were blind
until he gave them eyes to see him, see his glory. But they
know who Christ is. Their eyes are open to know.
The Son of God hath come, John said, and given us an understanding
that we might know Him that is true. And we're in Him that is
true. Even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God
and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves
from idols. That other Jesus is an idol.
Well, the true meaning of this story, I've just summed it up. This is a man who had an outward
transformation, a radical change, everybody saw it, so he's different. He became zealous, persecuted
for that zeal, kicked out, but he didn't know Christ. And Christ
had to come to him personally, one-on-one, and reveal himself
to him, and the man hit his knees and believed on the Lord Jesus
Christ. I had a man who was in contact
with me by email several years ago. And he was just going on
and on about my preaching, and he listened to my father's preaching,
on and on. He just called me and him to
the greatest preachers ever. And I take that with a grain
of salt, honestly. I don't pay any attention to
that whatsoever. Zero. I've had people tell me,
sit right here for years and say, you're the greatest gospel
preacher I've ever heard, and they're gone. Never hear from
them. I pay zero attention to that.
Well, this man would go on and on and contact me. And one day
in the course of our correspondence, he brought this up. I know this.
I was blind and now I see. And I just casually said in response
to him, well, you know, that man really wasn't saved. He didn't know who Christ was.
He just believed in Jesus. But he had to come to know the
true Christ. He fired back at me. He got so
angry with me. Yeah, I know this. I once was
blind. He kept bringing that up. I once
was blind, but now I see. I said, yeah, I believe that
too. And I sent him a message. The
first person I ever heard preach this the way it really is was
him. back in 89, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he preached it in context
as it was, like I just summed it up to you. And I sent the
man a message by him. Never heard from him again. Mad
at me. Well, I hope nobody gets mad
at me over there. But this is the story. All right. He was born blind and everyone
knew him. Then one day he saw, he's a changed
man. Look at verse 8 and 9. The neighbor
said, Is this he that sat? They saw this man sitting in
the gutter, day in and day out, for years. He's an older man
right now. He's a 40 years old man. They
saw him sitting in the gutter, and now all of a sudden he sees.
He's walking around. He's a different man. He's counting
at this chain. And some said, verse 9, that's him. And others
said, well, it's like him, but he's different. And the fellow
said, it's me. It's me. That can't be old Bill. Let's call him Bill, okay? I
don't know what a good Jewish name would be. Isaiah. Let's call him Bill. They'd say,
he's so different. He used to be so wild. He was
a notorious sinner. Look, I saw him running around
the streets all the time. But look at him. He's changed.
That's not Bill. That's not Bill. This fellow
was different. This is a typical scenario, people.
This happens all the time. This is what religion calls salvation. There was a revival meeting down
at the Free Will Baptist Temple, Pentecostal Holiness, that my
friends invited me to go. This is Bill's testimony. My friends invited me to go.
Well, I was drinking pretty bad at the time. Just went through
a bad divorce, and so I went, and preaching. I don't remember
what they were saying. But after it was over, they started
singing, Just As I Am. They sang 100 verses of Just
As I Am. And my friends were urging me
to go down front. And the preacher was calling
anyone who needs help. Anyone who needs help. And everybody had their head
down. I raised my hand. And he said,
you come down front. And I went. And I was crying.
And they prayed for me down there, and they all slapped me on the
back, and they said, Bill, you believe in Jesus? I guess I do. You want to go to heaven, don't
you, when you die? Well, yeah, I do, don't you?
Just accept Jesus as your personal Savior, and you'll be saved.
God loves you, Bill. Does He really? Yeah, He does.
And I said, okay, I will. And they said, you're saved. And so I guess I let Jesus into
my heart and they said I was saved. You know, a warm feeling
came over me. Yeah, something happened. And
I, something happened. I felt like a changed man. You
know, I quit my drinking from that day forward. I quit my drinking,
smoking and chewing and running around with women that do. And
I've been loving Jesus ever since. That happens all the time. That's
what people call salvation. You know, that's not salvation.
That's a religious experience. That's an emotional experience.
That's an experience based on some kind of trouble a person
is in. It's not found in the Bible. Nowhere will you find that kind
of salvation. This man witnessed. Look at verse
10. And 11, they said, how were your
eyes open? And he said, a man's called Jesus. Neil, how'd you get saved? I
accepted Jesus. I believed in Jesus. It was Jesus
that saved me. Get it? Barnard used to say,
Jesus doesn't save. The Lord did Jesus save. Bill, how did you get saved?
Well, a preacher told me about a man named Jesus that loved
me and died for me, and so I accepted him as my personal Savior. I
was baptized, and now they said I'm born again, I'm spirit-filled,
and I'm a tongue-talking Christian. Tell us more about Jesus, they
said. Where is he? He said in verse 12, I know not. I don't know where he is. even began to witness, as I said,
verse 16 and 17, they said to him, this man's not of God, he
doesn't keep the Sabbath day. Others said, how can a man that
is a sinner do such miracles? There was a division among them.
There's a division among them. They said to the blind man again,
verse 17, what do you say about it? That he hath opened thine
eye. He said, he's a prophet. He's
a prophet. Is that enough? He's a prophet? A prophet? You ask every single
child of God who Christ God has revealed His Son to, and they
will tell you He's that prophet. He's not just a prophet like
any other prophet. He is that prophet. Like Moses
said, a prophet like unto me the Lord will raise up. But He's
that prophet. capital T, capital P. That prophet,
that priest, that king, he didn't know the Lord Jesus Christ, didn't
know who he was, didn't know where he was. Didn't know where
he was. You ask every child of God, where
is Jesus? He's seated on a throne. The
other one, I bring this up all the time because Dagon's got
to fall. You know that? The false gospel's
got to fall. We've got to knock his head off,
his arms, his legs. Like Psalm 115 says there, God
has no hands but you're, no feet but your feet. Dagon, when the
ark was put in there, right beside Dagon, that false gospel, that
idol of God, knocked that idol over, knocked his arms and legs
off, and knocked his head off eventually. This is what's got
to be done for people to bow to the Lord Jesus Christ. Their
old God's got to be killed. He's got to be seen for the idol
that He is. If it's not for you, maybe it's
for somebody listening over Mixler or maybe Sermon Audio later.
You know, there was a man I knew, a friend years ago, who was a
star football player for the University of Georgia. But he
was a notoriously wild man, exact same age as me. And he was notoriously
wild. And that made him be an excellent
football player. You've got to have about a half
a brain to run your head into walls and stuff and like it. But he became a star football
player for the University of Georgia. And later on, he went
to some kind of religious service and got saved. He was so notoriously
wild that the hometown, a little small town like Rocky Mountain,
The hometown put it on the front page. So-and-so got saved. And he started preaching. You
remember who I'm talking about. He started preaching. Well, it
lasted a while. It lasted a while. Well, look at verse on down here,
verse 20. For they said to him, they called
his parents first and said, is this your son? This is him. He's
changed. He's different. That's your son?
It sure is. And the parents said, they asked
the parents, well, how did he get his, how did he see? They
said, ask him, verse 24. So they called the blind man
again and said unto him, give God the praise. We know this
man's a sinner. Talking about Jesus. And the
man said, whether he's a sinner or not,
I don't know. He doesn't know the Lord Jesus
Christ. He doesn't know who he is. He doesn't know why he came.
He just knows that he got his eyes, his physical eyes healed. He had an outward transformation. I don't know anything about this
man. I don't know where he is, I don't know who he is, I don't
know why he came, I don't know what he did, I don't even know
if he's a sinner or not. I just know that I was blind
and now I see. Oh, do you now? We have eyes now. Everyone in
here has eyes. Scripture says, having eyes to
see, but they don't see. Physical eyesight is not the
eyesight we need. We need spiritual eyesight. We
need to see the unseen. We need to believe the unsinged
of Him. We need to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, not in the historical Jesus, but on the Lord Jesus
Christ. We need to see Him where He is.
We need to see why He came, who He is, why He came, what He did,
who He did it for, and where He is now, and that He's coming
again. He's not a failure, He's not a wannabe, not a try-to-be,
that He's the Savior. You won't call on Him whom you
don't believe. You won't believe in Him whom you've not really
heard, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ. And you won't believe,
you won't call without a preacher, a true preacher, no false prophet.
Nobody's ever saved under a false prophet, because they don't know
Him either. How do you open your eyes? He said, I told you before,
will you be His disciple? Verse 28, they reviled Him, said,
you're His disciple, we're Moses' disciples. And the man went on to witness.
This is a marvelous thing. I'm changed. He's opened my eyes. Down in verse... Now, verse 31. We know God heareth
not sinners. Here's his testimony. God heareth
not sinners. Any man be a worshipper of God,
and doeth his will, him he heareth. Well, that's partly true, isn't
it? You know who God hears? He hears through Jesus Christ.
He won't hear anybody except through Jesus Christ. No man
cometh unto the Father but by Jesus Christ. Part of the truth
is not the truth. Ed did say, if this man were
not of God, he could do nothing, verse 33. Isn't that what Nicodemus
said? Didn't Nicodemus say that in
chapter 3? We know that you're a man of
God, and no man can do the things you do, except God be with you.
What does Nicodemus say? No, he wasn't. Now, you could
call this, and here's a way to look at this, grace before grace. That the Lord is operating on
this fellow before he comes to him and fully reveals himself
to him. Like the woman at the well. She, you know, the Lord
began to speak to her. She didn't know who she was speaking
to. Didn't know who he was until later he reveals himself to her.
This could be grace before grace. You can look at it like that.
But in the context, he doesn't know Christ. Because Christ said,
this is salvation. Or I look at it, down in verse
34. And they cast him out. They said, you're born in sin,
you're going to teach us. And they cast him out. He was
persecuted, became so zealous. Do you know any zealous Christians? Do you know any zealous Christians?
Boy, I know lots of them. You hate to see them coming,
don't you? I mean, you hate to see them
coming. They're going to corner you, they're going to corral
you. Do you believe in Jesus? Are you saved? Like that barber
had a fellow in his chair. The barber just got saved. And
back when they used to use straight razors to save men, he had this
fellow in his chair, Mac, and he had his neck up like that
and had a straight razor up against him. He said, Are you prepared
to meet God? Did you get that? Yeah, no. That's what they do. They corner
you, corral you, irregardless of the hope. They don't know
it. They don't know it. You can tell when they talk
about it. Like this man. You can tell if they know him
or not. All God's people know Him. They all know Him the same
way. They'll all be taught of God.
John 6, 45, our Lord said, they'll all be taught of God. And every
man hath heard and learned that the Father cometh unto me. What
do they do? They bow to Him. They believe
on Him. And they know they wouldn't have
come unless they were drawn, unless they were chosen, They
all know this. When you hear this man, well,
if you ask this man after it's all over, ask him then who saved him. He said, I didn't know him, but
now I do. He's the Lord Jesus Christ. This
is what our Lord asked him. Verse 35, the Lord They cast
him out. The Lord heard. They cast him
out. And when he had found him, who found who? Huh? I'm not splitting hairs
here. I'm telling it like it is. Every
child of God whom the Lord saves knows they were blind, they were
dead, they were lepers. until the Lord, through the preaching
of the gospel, comes and finds them. But they weren't looking.
This man wasn't looking for Jesus Christ, was he? He's going on
his way. He's fixed up. He's okay. He
sees. He has no further need. He's
not following. He's not looking for Jesus. Is he? I believe he
followed Him from here on out. But the Lord was looking for
him, and the Lord came and found him, and the Lord spoke to him. And here's what he said, Does
thou believe on the Son of God? And he answered and said, Who is
he? Lord, sir, then I might believe on him. See, the question is not have
you had a religious experience? Have you accepted Jesus? Have
you made a decision? Have you let Him into your heart?
Have you made a change? Have you quit this? Have you
quit that? Have you started going to church? Have you done this?
Have you done that? The question of all questions is, do you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ? Not in Jesus, but on. Have you
cast all your soul, your sin, laid your hands on the head of
the scapegoat? Have you cast all your hope your salvation
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ? That He is the foundation of
your faith? That everything about you, your
whole eternal life, future is resting on this foundation that
no man, other, that can't be laid but this, that God hath
laid. That Jesus Christ is your only
hope, His righteousness, His shed blood. Am I going too far?
No, that's in what it means to believe on Him. Everybody believes
in the historical Jesus. And many people like this man
confess Him and are zealous about Him. He's a good man. He's a
prophet. He's a healer. Well, look at what He did for
me. That's not the question. Have you believed on the Lord
Jesus Christ? On the Lord. on the Son of God. That's what it means to be Lord,
people. The Son of God. See, he thought it not proper
to be equal with God. Because he's the Son of God doesn't
mean he's less than God. It means he's equal with God.
It means he's the only bodily appearance or image of God. He's the only God that man will
ever be with. And see, the Son of God. But he is God. He's not less
than God. He's God. That means He's the Creator.
That means He's the Owner. That means He's the Judge, the
Jury, the Executioner, the only One to save, the only One to
pardon, the only One to clear, the only One who has the keys
of hell and death. That's the Son of God. The Son
of God. God hath given all things. Christ
said that. He hath given all things into
My hands. That's what Christ did. Who is
He that I might believe on? Oh my, would that more people
would come in here looking to know who Jesus is, really is,
and weren't satisfied. And this is what the Lord does
to many people that are in religion and have had an experience like
this man. The Lord makes them brings them in debt, in distress,
and discontented with modern day religion, discontented with
their old profession of faith, with their old religion that
they had, their old experience. It won't hold up in times of
trouble. And the Lord makes them like those men that came to David,
discontented, looking for somebody to be a captain over. a Lord
and a Savior, make some sinners. We're going to see, oh, Ephraim,
what the Lord has to do to every one of His people. Who is He,
Lord, Sir, that I might believe on Him? And Jesus said unto him,
Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with thee.
Didn't Christ say, My sheep hear My voice? The voice of a stranger
they won't hear. voice of this gospel, this false
gospel, it's not of the Lord Jesus Christ, that won't say. Got to hear from Him personally
in the truth. And He said, Lord, I believe. And He worshipped Him. How's
that? Every person you see in the Scriptures
that found out who He was, hit their knees. Every knee shall
bow, and every tongue shall confess that he is one of the Lord. That's
what He calls Him from now on. Who saved you, Bill? The Lord
saved me. How did He save you? By sovereign,
electing, redeeming grace. By the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. By the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. By the Spirit of God coming to
me when I was dead and trespassing in sin and quickening me with
the Word of God, opening my blind eye Not my physical eye, but
my spiritual eye, to see Christ, who He is, the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Opening
my deaf ears to hear His powerful, sovereign voice. To know who
He is, why He came, where He is now, what He did, who He did
it for, and He's coming back again. Oh, no doubt now. He knows Him. He knows Him. And that's what
our Lord said. In conclusion, for judgment I've
come into this world that they which see not might see. You
see, you've got to really be blind spiritually to see. That
they which see might be made blind. Religious professors think
they see. Some of the Pharisees within
heard these words and said, are we blind also? Oh, brethren,
if they'd known who he was, they wouldn't be questioning him. If they'd known who he was, For
the past five chapters, people, we've been looking at these Pharisees.
The Lord's been dealing with a bunch of Pharisees, and they
keep arguing and bickering, but, but, but, but, but, but, but,
but, but, but, but. Don't they? And the Lord is so
merciful that He did it for us. He wrote all this down for us.
Whatsoever things are written are written for our learning.
We don't question that. There's no question in our mind
about who does the same, about who He is. If they knew who He
was, they wouldn't be questioning Him right now. They'd be like
this blind man on their knees. Say, we're blind. Please reveal
Yourself to us. And our Lord said in conclusion,
verse 41, if you were blind, you'd have no sin. And we've
looked at that Sunday dinner. You've got to be dead before
you're made alive. You've got to be blind before
you see. You've got to be deaf before you hear. And if you were
dead and the Lord quickens you, you know it. You don't question
depravity. Some believe this doctrine, others
don't. I was dead. Lazarus, do you believe
in the doctrine of death? You don't understand that. You're
not dead, are you? I was dead. And the Lord raised me. That's
my salvation. He did it all. I didn't have
a clue. If you were blind, you'd have
no sin. That's who He came to save, not
the righteous, but the unrighteous, sinners, dead and trespassing
in sin. And now if you say, well, I see. What do we see, people? What
do we know? Well, the Son of God has come
and given us an understanding that we might know Him. He's
all we need to know. Christ is all. All right. Okay. It's over.