Blessed Divine Eternal Spirit,
fill me now, fill me now, fill me now, Lord Jesus, come and
fill me now, fill me now. May be seated. Thank you, Sherry. John chapter 9. John chapter
9. This is the story of our Lord
healing a blind man, but it is also the story of how the
Lord opens our eyes spiritually. and reveals himself to those
he chooses. Now, based upon this story, listen
to this, based upon this story, I believe that a person can have
spiritual life, that a person can have eyes to see and be one of Christ's elect,
one of his redeemed. and not really fully know or
understand what is happening. I believe that. And I hope this
will meet someone's need here this morning. I can believe,
based on this story, a person can have their eyes opened, spiritual
life has been created, Be one of Christ's own, one of His elect. That is, the saving work has
begun, and they really not know or fully understand or have come
to grips with what's happened to them. I hope this will be a blessing,
be a comfort to someone. Salvation, you see, is called
being born again. Our Lord's the one that said
that. John 3. He said you must be born again,
or that is from above. If you're born flesh, you've
got to be a human being. But then later, if God is pleased,
you're born of the Spirit. Natural life, natural birth,
you see, begins when the father and the mother decide to have
a child, right? They get together in agreement
and love, seed is sown, conception has begun. I mean, conception
is there and life has begun. Life begins at conception, does
it not? And what's a little thing? It's
alive, right? Ask one of these mothers who
had that little thing, little embryo in their belly that's
about that big. Ask them, is that your baby?
It sure is. It ain't a thing. That's my child. Until finally, after a course
of time, in God's good time, nine months, the baby is brought
from darkness in full light. Life began back there at conception,
did it not? Peter said this, we're born by
the incorruptible seed, which is the Word of God, and no man
knows when God plants that seed. That's good, because he can't
take credit for it. God does. God knows who He puts
to And life begins. Eyes begin to open and understanding
and so forth. And it says, slowly the person
begins to see and hear and know that the Son of God is created. Well, that's this story. Okay? That's this story. I've
preached from this several times. My pastor always says, somebody
asked him, how long did it take you to come up with that message? You say, right now, he says,
50 years. Well, it's taken me about 20. I've preached wrong. I've preached a little right.
But I think I see now. I hope years on down the road
I'll see even more clearly. But this is a story, I believe,
of maybe somebody in here this morning. How the eyes have begun
to be opened and they really just can't put into words, can't
fully understand who this is that did this and what happened,
yet the Lord is Most certainly going to make it clear. All right,
in verse 1, it says, John 9 verse 1, As Jesus passed by, he saw
a man which was blind from his birth. The Lord came to heal
this fellow. This was no accident. There are
no accidents. Men aren't saved by chance. They're saved on purpose. If
you're one of God's elect, it's because God Elected you. Chose you. And one day in the
fullness of his time, he said, that old boy is mine. And I'm
going to open his eyes. That girl, that's mine. She's
mine. I'm going to save her. I'm going
to open their eyes. The Lord saw this man first,
didn't he? The man was blind. He didn't see crying. He didn't know what he looked
like. He didn't know anything about him. But the Lord saw this
man and came to him and looked on him with mercy and healed
him. This man wasn't even looking
for Christ. Right? That's the way it is with us.
There's some that come in here, all that come in here. At first
come in here blind. What's going on here? We're worshiping
Christ. Oh, OK. Church. Oh, yeah, we're
going to church, aren't we? And of course, at times, if God's
please, if they're one of his own, hey, I see what you're doing. I'm interested. Well, the Lord
saw this man first, you see. We're blind to the things of
God. 1 Corinthians 2 said the natural man doesn't receive the
things of God. Not your woman. The average person
doesn't see or receive the things of God. The average person is
not interested in religion. And you know, flesh is flesh. Flesh is flesh. Flesh can't see
God. We can't see God. Try as we may. Can't see God. And we're not
born with a spirit, or that is, God creates a brand new thing
called spiritual life. We're not born with that. We're
born flesh, like animals. We have a soul that animates
us, but unless God sends His Holy Spirit and takes this seed
right here and plants it in the heart, we don't have a clue. about God and don't care. But when God comes, He creates
this new thing called a spiritual person. And it's not like Hollywood
and all of them talk, he's so spiritual. Tom Hanks or whoever,
they're so spiritual. Why? Not just spiritual because
he's deep. This spirit. The Holy Spirit. The things of God. The things
of Christ. All right, verse five. Now, our Lord down here said,
as long as I'm in the world, I am the light of the world.
This gospel is being preached this morning right here in this
building. Christ is being preached. As
long as these doors are open, as long as the gospel keeps going
forth from this pulpit, somebody is going to have their eyes open.
That's right. Somebody's going to have their
eyes open. Verse 6 and 7. So you're in a good place. You're
in the right place. When he had thus spoken, he spat
on the ground, made clay of the spittle, and anointed the eyes
of the blind man with the clay. You know what I am? I'm an earthen vessel. What do
you make earthen vessels out of? Water and dirt. This treasure of the gospel,
the power of God, is in earthen vessels. Here's a man standing
up before you this morning. He's just spit. He's just muddy
water, and he does that quite often, muddies the water. But if God is pleased, he can
anoint the eyes, and he does quite often. uses an earthen
vessel, mud. Here's mud in your eye. Let's
hope so. Let's hope so. To open the eyes of some born-born
blind. Verse 7, he said, Go wash in
the pool of Siloam. What's that? That's Christ. He's the water
of life, is he not? Christ is blood that cleanses
us from all sin. The preacher says, go to Christ. Don't come to me. Go to Christ.
Wash. Believe. Repent. Believe. Call
on him. Confess him. He went his way.
He did what he said. He did what he said. He went therefore.
What happened? He washed. Then what happened? He came sin. That's true to His Word. Now,
all of this seems foolish. Here comes this doctor down the
road. Here comes a medical doctor down the road, all right? Here's
a blind man. Here's this wise medical doctor. Here's a blind man. What's happening
here? The Lord's healing this man.
How? Spit and mud. I never heard of that. What foolishness! That's foolishness. And none of them could believe
it from there on out. See? They couldn't believe it.
None of them could. Why he did what? Come on now. That's silly. That's foolishness. It didn't
happen to us that way. No, it didn't. That's why you're blind, but
you think you see. Well, that's a bunch of foolishness.
Well, the Scripture says it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. That, I've never heard no preacher
like that, not the way it's done. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. It's the power of God. power of God, and isn't it the
wisdom of God? That's how I see it. A preacher, preaching Christ,
preaching the Word of God, Christ. Well, now at first, when the Lord begins
to do this work, begins to open the eyes, this soul-saving work
of God, You come, you hear, you begin to see, you begin to believe
what you're hearing and seeing. But at first it's not completely
clear to that person what is happening. And they can even blame it on,
well, whatever. But you know it's usually obvious
to other people before it is to that person. You know that? Especially the
preacher. Oh yeah, I've told you this so
many times, how that I see literally blind people come in here. I
mean spiritually, literally spiritually blind. Come in and they're looking
at me, but they're not, they don't see me. You ever talk to
anybody like that? You're talking to them, and they're
your children. Every one of them, right? Are
you listening to me, honey? Uh-huh. Now, you understand,
don't you? Yeah. You ain't going to do that. No. Right? You do. You did hear me. Yes, ma'am. Can I go now? Huh? Can I go now? Is this over? I see people come in here all
the time like that. And I go now. Yeah. Yeah I see. What happened. Yeah. I was going on. And but they leave here and they
go, I'd like that. Oh, I believe that. Yeah, that's
me. That's me. And yeah, I see that. Christ
is just like he says there, isn't it? That's what it says. I believe
that. And they leave the room. And what happened to you? I don't
know. Are you saved? I think so. I don't know. But the preacher is watching,
and other people are watching. Something happened to him. Old Bill. Let's call him Bill.
All right? Let's call this fellow Bill.
Or Jill. Jill's not here, but I can use
that. Bill or Jill. Man or woman. This fellow's either
a man or a woman. He can represent all of us. But
look at verse 8. So the neighbors, therefore,
and they that had seen him before, a beggar in the street, a street
person like they were, just like them, blind like them. They saw
him before, and they said, well, is this him? Is this old Bill? Is that old Jim? Ah, it can't be. Look at him.
Look at her. Something's different, per se. Some said, yeah, that's him.
Others said, well, it's kind of like him, but it's not him.
He's different. Bill, is that you? Yes, it's
me. What happened? Well, it's me. What happened to you, Bill? Well,
verse 11 and 12, he said, A man called Jesus. Somebody came to
me. A man came to me. Made clay. Now, notice he Christ gets all
the glory right here, doesn't He? He didn't say, well, I was,
you know, I was blind and I was seeking and I, no sir. His testimony
is very simple. Somebody else made me see. He's a man named Jesus. He called
Him Jesus at first, but folks, a little while later, He's calling
Him Lord. He made clay. And anointed my
eyes and said to me, go to the pool of Siloam and wash. And
I went and washed and I received my sign. And old Bill, old Jill, what
happened to you, Bill? Well, I've been going to church. And you know, I'm hearing some things. You ought to come hear this too.
I'm like and what I'm here and I've heard I believe you know
I believe God's God. Now. I believe salvation is of
the Lord. I wasn't interested but you know
now I'm interested. I believe and I've seen some
things. I believe I've received some
things. Verse 12, they asked him questions about Christ. They
said unto him, Where is he? He said, I don't know. And he
didn't. The Lord left. He's gone. Have you seen Christ, Bill? No. No. What happened to him? I just, I don't know. I'm just
hearing the preaching. That's all. No big experience? No, you didn't
see a vision? No. I don't know. No. Verse 13. Now, listen to this
before we go on to verse 13. Our Lord said this in John chapter
1. He said, As many as received him, to him
gave he the right, the power to be the sons of God, which
were born, not of blood, not born spiritual, not of the will
of the flesh. You just don't decide to be a
Christian, not of the will of man. Nobody prays you in, no
preacher, not even your mama. can make you a child of God,
but of God. As many as receive Him, they've
been born of God. All right? Now listen very carefully.
For somebody to sit, come in here and sit and listen for 45
minutes, I mean a former, somebody like
me, a former hell raiser. For a devil, to make a devil
come and sit and listen about Christ, that's a miracle. That's a miracle in itself. You remember the story back there
of that fellow who had the demons and the Lord had him sitting
down, shutting up, clothes on him? listening to Christ. That's
a miracle in itself, people. It's a miracle in itself to get
somebody that's not interested in this to come in and sit down
and listen for 45 minutes, let alone then begin to receive it. Hey, that's a miracle for a man or
woman formerly who was repulsed by church. Let's go to church.
Honey, you coming? No way. I'm going hunting. I'm going fishing. I'm going
to the races. You coming? No, I got to do that. I got to
do that. I'm going to make all kinds of excuses. Until they finally say,
where are you going? I'm going to church. I'm coming too. What? You see that? What? OK. Something's happening. Something's happening. Sit and
listen and finally say, finally come sit and listen and hear
it and say, you know, I believe that. I believe that. Something's happening. Old Bill.
Old Jill. She is old Jill. She'll be 50
real soon, everybody. She's not here. But don't anybody
say that. Verses 13 through 15. So they
brought him to the Pharisees. They brought old Bill to the
religious experts. Him that was a four-time blind.
It was a Sabbath day when Christ made the clay and opened his
eyes. And the Pharisees said unto him, asked him again how
he received his sight. He did it. He did it. He did
it. Old Bill went back to work. He'd
been hearing the gospel, or Jill, been hearing it. Went back to
work, okay, and there's a bunch of Pharisees down in M2. They're
over at Roneal, or wherever it is you work, all right? Bunch
of Pharisees, religious. And when they hear about old
Bill, you know, old Bill's going to church now. Old Bill! We'll
catch him. Let me ask you a few questions. Right? You got any old bills
out there? What do you think about this?
What do you think about that? Well, I don't have all the answers. I do know this. God is God. I know that. God's God. And I know this. I know I can't tell you exactly
where it is. I can't quote it to you verbatim.
I don't know a lot, but I do know this. Salvations of the
Lord. Jesus Christ. It's all in Christ. I know that. But we're dead,
blind. Our good work can't save us.
We're saved by grace, salvation in the blood, and the righteousness
of Christ. That's about all I know. He does it. He does it. But what? That's what I say. That's what I say. He did it.
How will you say? He did it. Is that good enough? What do you know? He's all. God's God. Christ is salvation. I'm a nothing. If I'm saved,
you'll have to do it. Is that good enough? Well, you don't know enough,
Bill. They're the ones who are blind.
He now sees. Who is he? What does he see?
That somebody may see. All right? Now, they didn't believe
him, so they asked his parents. Verse 20 and 21. Now, this is
so applicable. They asked his parents. Verse
20 and 21. His parents answered him and
said, Well, this is our son. Yes, he was born blind. No, he
never went to church before. Verse 21. But what means he now
seeth we don't know? Who hath opened his eyes? We
don't know. Ask him. We don't know what's happened
to him or her, but just ask her. Verse 22. Now, they spake this
because they feared the Jews. The Jews had said that if anybody
confessed Christ, he'd be put out of the synagogue. It's still
that way, people. It's still that way. You believe
this truth, be Christ, salvations of the Lord, you'll be put out
of religion. Now, these religious parrots of old
Bill or Jill, they were religious. But Barbara, they're blind, just
like the Pharisees. Why? They didn't see what Bill
saw. It didn't happen to them. They
didn't believe the Christ that Bill was believing. And they didn't want to leave
the synagogue. You see, that's tradition. That's tradition. That's where
they've always gone, the church. I'm so glad old Bill's got religion
now. He's finally going to church.
But we're not going to leave out. We're happy. I know a man in Asheville, Kentucky, man is what his wife's dead now
she died of cancer. Well it's. Todd Nyberg's wife's. Father. You know by the time
I preach to. His wife Lynn. Dear sweet. Believer. Well Lynn Nyberg. was Lynn something and her sister
Leanne and her brother Chuck. You know three finer people?
All three believers. This man, the father of these
had three children. All three of them were believers.
All three of them. Isn't that marvelous? But not
that man. He rejects thumb down. All three of those children tell
him constantly, Dad, there's one truth, there's one Lord,
there's one faith, there's one salvation, there's one hope.
Dad, that's not the truth, Dad. There's one truth. All three
of them. It looked like he listened to one of his children. No. Your
mother and I have always gone to church here, and so you can
have that, but we're not going to leave. That's sad, isn't it? It's sad. He stays where he's at. That's
what old Bill's parents did. Verses 24 and 25. So they called
him again. They again called the blind man
and said, Give God the praise. He is. He's praising Christ. We know that this man's a sinner,
and he answered and said. Folks, we say the wrong things
at first, don't we? I've heard you say some things that I wanted to address, but
no, they don't know what they're saying. I mean, early on, whenever
God... We don't know everything right
off the bat. And we say some old things that we used to say,
you know. I was lucky. All right, let it ride. It'll
drop there. Lord will teach them there ain't
no such thing as luck. And old Bill, you know, he's
just being honest here. Verse 25, he says, whether he's
a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I know, I was blind. Tell us now, Bill. Tell us, Jill.
Tell us what you really believe. Well, I've already told you. And I can't tell you anymore.
But I'm telling you. Something has happened. I was blind before, and now I
see. Ah, boy. Well, that person, like
old Bill, The Lord is, that's one of his own, and the Lord is going to take him and going
to reveal himself very clearly to him. Yes, he is. Yes, he is. They tried to talk to him about
the law of Moses. Down in verse 29. Well, Bill,
Jill, if this is so, Moses said this. We know God spoke through
Moses. They tried to talk to him about
the law. Is this familiar, Jill? Jill and Bill Barrett. Moses said, well, I don't know
about Moses. verse 31. Now all he could say
was verse 31. Now we know that God heareth
not sinners. God's holy. I don't know about the law. I
don't know about Moses. Yeah, it says don't do this,
do that. Yes, and I've tried, but I can't.
But I know this. God's holy. God's holy. He won't hear sinners. And now If this man, verse 33, if this
man were not of God, he couldn't do anything. If Jesus Christ is not God, not
my only hope, then he can't do anything. He can't do anything. Jesus Christ,
the only holy man, the only way to be accepted by God. If He's
not what He says He is and what the preacher is telling me, I
have no hope. Well, verse 34, they answered
and said unto him, Well, you're altogether born in sin. Are you
going to teach us? See, you don't know anything
about Moses, the law. You're just a sinner. Look at
you, smoking them cigarettes. You can't be saved like us. You can't be saved. Boy, that's mercy right there. And that's God's mercy for a
religion to kick a fellow out. You can't be one of us. Good. What mercy? They rejected old
Bill. Verse 34 and 5 said, You're born
in sin. They cast him out, but Christ
heard. Jesus heard. They cast him out,
and he found him. You see, all of man's cast-outs are God's pick-ups. Gospel is for religious outcasts,
people. You know that? The gospel is
for religious outcasts. Religious outcasts. That's what
Hebrews says. Let's go to him outside the camp.
He's not in the camp of modern religion. I know they're talking
about Jesus, and everybody looks good and sounds good, but they're
a bunch of self-righteous Pharisees and hypocrites. And they hate
the true God, and they hate the true Christ, and they love their
own righteousness, and they hate all this talk about salvation
being by grace, because they love their works. And if you
begin to say, give God really all the glory, like they told
this man, give God all the glory. He is! And he did, and they didn't
like it. Get out of here! We didn't get
you saved. You're not one of our members.
If you'll submit to us, Let us baptize you again, and you'll tow the line and quit
them old dang cigarettes, like us, then you can be saved. We'll decide. No, get out of here. But Christ. But God. He found it. He found it. Christ found it. That's salvation
in a word, isn't it? He found him. We don't find him,
he finds us. That's the way it happened in
the beginning, and that's the way it happened here in the end,
isn't it? And it says in verse thirty-five, Christ began to
really speak to this man, reveal himself to him. Now, verse thirty-five,
when he had found him, he said unto him, Do thou, dost thou
believe on the Son of God? You see, the question eventually
comes down to real personal. Yes, I believe God is sovereign.
Yes, I believe. Yes, I believe. Do you need Christ? Do you believe the Son of God?
Do you need this salvation? Do you believe from your heart
that God is God? You're in His hands, and you
need mercy at the hands of this God. And it's only one place
to get it. And that's in Jesus Christ. Do
you believe that Jesus Christ is your only hope? Who is He? You just tell me. Just preach
to me. I want to believe. That's what
he's saying there, verse 36. Who is you, Lord, that I might
believe? I want to believe. I think I do. I do believe. I want to believe. If you'll
make yourself, if you'll make Him clear to me. Who's speaking? Christ is speaking. He doesn't
even know it's Christ speaking. You know? He doesn't even know it's Christ,
but Christ is the one speaking to him, telling him these things.
Do you believe in the Son of God? Christ said, My sheep hear
my voice. Nobody's ever heard the audible
voice of Jesus Christ, and since he went back to heaven. Oh, yes,
they have. Been through muddy vessels, but
they hear him. At first, they think it's a man.
Who is he? I want to believe. And Christ
said, in verse 37, Jesus said unto him, You've seen him. You've
been hearing about him. You have seen him. It's he that
talketh with you. I'm talking to you right now.
I'm the one that opened your eyes. That's why you see. You get out of your belief. Lord. Verse 38. I believe. And what did he do? He worshipped him. He worshipped
him. He worshipped him. What does
that mean? Does it mean he got religion and went through all
this stuff people like to talk about? He just worshipped Christ. He believed Christ. John, he
believed Christ. And he was thankful to Christ.
He believed. He didn't all of a sudden go
and buy him a black robe. He believed Christ. He worshipped. I do believe. I believe. Thank you. Thank you for opening
my eyes. You did it, didn't you? Yeah,
I did. Thank you. Lord, I'm yours. I'm yours. Well, verses 39 through 41, I'll
quit with this. Jesus said these parting words
to these bunch of Pharisees, for judgment I'm coming to this
world. But they which see not might
see. They which see might be made
blind. You know if you've never been
blind, you don't, you'll never see. If you've never been blind, you'll
never see spiritually. If you've never been lost, I
mean lost, I don't mean you're looking for the way. I mean you're
lost. I mean physically lost. If you've
ever been physically lost, you know what lost is. That means
you can't find your way. Somebody had to come get you. That's lost. If you have never
been lost, Brother Sam, you're never found. If you've never
been a sinner, you don't have a Savior. You've
never been guilty. I mean, plumb, dead dog, hell-deserving
guilty. You don't have mercy. But, for the poor, the blind,
the halt, the lame, the ignorant, the unrighteous, the sinner,
there's salvation. There's eyesight. And some of
the Pharisees, verse forty said, Are we blind? Well, he said, if you were blind,
you'd have no sin. But now you say we see. You say you see, don't you? Your
sin remains. This man said, I know one thing.
I don't know much, but I know this. I was blind. Is this your confession? Everyone
in here who you believe the Lord is open your spiritual is this
not about yet. Brother Henry is this not about
it. I know this. I was once blind. And now I see. What do you see old Bill? I see Christ. All right. I hope. I hope. You've got to use that for somebody.
Bill or Jill, be he or she who they may be. 163. There's only one hymn to
sing after this. 163. Open mine eyes that I may
see. Let's stand. 163. 163. Open my eyes that I may see glimpses
of truth thou hast for me. Place in my hands a wonderful
key that shall unclasp and set me free. Silently now I wait
for thee. Ready, my God, thy will to see. Open my eyes, illumine me. Spirit divine, second as the
last, open my ears that I may hear. Everything's lost to the hands
of time. I'm a bluebird.