There are some things I would
like to say about God today before I go into a lesson. We've been
spending our time, I think every service that I've been here,
we've been looking at one of the miracles that the Lord Jesus
Christ performed during his personal ministry. Now his ministry lasted
about three and a half years from the time that he was introduced
and started preaching and doing things till his crucifixion was
about three and a half years. And during that period of time,
he performed a number of wonderful miracles that we still read and
thank God about because each of those miracles share with
us something that he does for his people spiritually. He raised
people from the dead to show the necessity of raising us from
the spiritual dead. He healed their blindness because
we need to have our blindness removed so we can see spiritual
things. He caused people to be able to speak so that we could
speak, demonstrates how to speak about Christ and so forth. But
there are three particular attributes about God that I would like to
preface our lesson today. And those three attributes, now
they're not separate from God, they are God. And he's the only
one that has these attributes. One of them is omnipotence. He has all power. Now he's the
only one that has all power. Anybody else is under that, subject
to that, below that. So he is omnipotent and that
means he's all powerful. There's not a thing that God
wants to do that he doesn't do. He is not held back by anyone
or anything. He rules in the armies of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth. That's what the Bible
tells us in the book of Daniel, that it is he that is the ruler
of all things. And he does all things after
the counsel of his own will. He looks, does, and performs
as he sees fit. Now, there are times people may
say, well, he didn't have my permission to do that. Well,
he's God and he's omnipotent, so he can do what he pleases
to do. Another of his classic attributes
is that he's omniscient. And by that, he knows all things. You know, everything God does
has an intellectual purpose. or a definite goal. He doesn't
go off half-cocked. He doesn't say things he doesn't
mean. He doesn't have to catch his words out here and hope he
could put them back. He doesn't have to bite his lip. He knows
all things, and besides that, he's all-powerful. So when we
look at God, the God of the Bible, he has some characteristics about
him that no one else has. He has the characteristic of
being all-powerful, and he has the characteristic of being all-knowing. He knows everything. And because
of that, he can make purposeful plans and have them carried out. Now, I've made plans in the past,
but since I didn't have control over everything, some of those
didn't come to pass. Some of those went by the wayside.
But God never made a plan that he didn't carry out. And the
third defining characteristic about God is that he is omnipresent. He is all places at all times,
so that means he is infinite. There is no place that you can
put God. You know, Solomon, when he dedicated
the temple in the Old Testament, he says, there's no way that
God could be contained by this box. A lot of people want to
put God in a box, but God cannot be put in a box. He is all-knowing,
all-powerful, and ever-present, all at the same time. Now, that's
characteristics about God and God alone. That's what the Bible
tells us about this God. His omnipotence. I'd like to
speak a little bit about that because we find in the book of
John, chapter 9, and we went to this miracle one time about
a man that was born blind. I would just like to read a couple
of those verses over there because it shares with us a great deal
about these characteristics of God, that he is all-powerful,
all-knowing, and ever present. He is everywhere at the same
time. Now, it's hard for me to imagine
that. But from God's side, he said, that's just the way I am.
Uh, I was thinking about, uh, I have a friend that we've been
having some discussions and I mentioned to him, I said, now, if, if one
of your children is about to step out into traffic, are you
going to say, okay, okay, uh, do what you think's best. Uh,
if you want to step out in traffic, that'd be fine. If you want to
stay where you are, that'd be fine. Or do you get out there
and grab his arm? Well, Have you ever had to pull
one of your children out of traffic or out of danger? Probably so.
I had to be pulled out of danger sometimes. I'd have done a stupid
thing, and my mom or dad helped me out. I did the same thing
for my children. Well, sometimes I've had to tell my children
this. I would tell them something,
and you know what they'd come back with? W-H-Y. Why? And you know my answer was, because
I said so. Sometimes that's it, because
I said so. Well, when I look at the Bible
with that view, God says some things just because he said so. And it's not up to me to question
them. It's up to me to believe them. Well, in the book of John
chapter nine, there's an incident that God desired, purposed, to
have put in the Bible so that I can read it, you can read it,
and we can see the power of God here, but also in this we see
that his characteristics, those three very important characteristics,
are carried out. Because it tells us here, Jesus
passed by and saw a man which was blind from his birth. That's
quite a malady for someone to have. it's hard to explain the world
to someone that has never seen it. In fact, you can't explain
it. Well, the sky is blue. They would say, I don't know,
what is that? Well, anyway, this man has been
born blind and his disciples ask a question that is so commonly
asked when someone has a real illness or a problem. And that
is, master who did sin, this man or his parents? Because most
people have the idea that when someone has a health issue, it's
because they did something terrible and God is after them. Well,
we read here that the disciples asked that who did sin, this
man or his parents, and that he was born blind. And these
are the words of the Lord Jesus. He said, Jesus answered, neither
this man's sin nor his parents. Now he's not saying that they
never committed a sin, but they never committed a sin that caused
this malady, this blindness. But he goes on to tell us, but
that the works of God should be made manifest in him. He's
telling us that this man was born blind. For this very moment,
when I pass by, I notice him, we have a divine appointment,
and I'm going to heal him of his blindness. He is the one
I intend to heal today. And you know, you think about
that and say, oh my goodness, this man is in a very special
place to have the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, come by
in his ministry and heal him of a blindness that he's had
all his life. What a special thing Christ did
for that man that day. And it was by divine appointment.
He's all-powerful, he is all-knowing, and he's ever-present. So these
characteristics about God, we're going to see everywhere in the
scriptures. You know, the Bible tells us about this omnipotence,
this all-powerfulness. I like a little power once in
a while. I used to teach school and I had to have a little bit
of power. You had to have something in your voice that keep the kids
from taking over, you know? Well, anyway, the omnipotence
of God, the all powerfulness of God is recorded in many places
in the Bible. And in the book of the Psalms,
Psalm 115 and verse three says, but our God is in the heavens. Now, there's a lot of gods, but
this God of God's people is in the heavens. Not a stone god,
not a gold god, not a tree god, but the God of God's people is
in the heavens, and he goes on to tell us, he hath done whatsoever
he hath pleased. Now that's a wonderful thing
to find out about God that he does what he pleases and he is
the God that can do what he pleases and he's the God that come along
in his ministry by divine appointment meet a guy that's born blind
and heal him and tell his disciples this man was here by divine appointment
this day so that the son of God God, the very God in human flesh,
could come by and speak the words and heal this man. Now, that
man had a special event in his life. You know what? He never
forgot it. He never once could forget what God did for him that
day, that he was healed, born blind. Well, how could he? Well,
it says he hath done whatsoever he pleased. In the book of Isaiah
chapter 55 and verse 11, so shall my word be that goeth forth out
of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void,
but it shall accomplish that which I please. and it shall
prosper in the thing whereinto I have sent it." So God, because
of His power, because of His omnipotence, because of His omniscience,
because of His omnipresence, we find out that God can say
something and His words never come back void. They're going
to accomplish exactly what He wants them to accomplish. That's
a wonderful thing about God, that His Word is powerful enough
to accomplish what He wants it to accomplish. So He's not beholding
to man at all. We're beholding to Him. We're
beholding to God that He might bless us, but we're not adding
a thing to God. He is going to accomplish His
purpose and His Word because He just does that. That's God.
It shall not return void. I don't know how many times I
spoke to one of my kids and they just paid no attention. You know
where they got that from? From me, because my parents would
say something to me and I paid no attention. They probably thought
I had a hearing problem. I didn't have a hearing problem,
I just had a wanting problem. I didn't want to do it. Well,
God's word is not wasted. God's word is not wasted on anybody. And it accomplished, Jeremiah
32 and 17, it says, Ah, Lord God, behold, thou hast made the
heaven and the earth. by the great power and stretched
out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee." He made the
heavens and the earth out of nothing. I heard a discussion,
we had a speaker come to our church just recently, and he
shared with us that there were some scientists that decided
they were gonna have a contest with God. Now this is all made
up, of course, but it makes a good story. These scientists were
gonna say, we can make life just like you did. He says, okay.
Let's begin. He says, give us some mud. She
said, uh-uh, uh-uh. You don't get any mud. He didn't
start with mud. He started with nothing, absolutely
nothing, and created everything out of nothing, everything. So we can't create life. God
is the only creator of life. But it says, there's nothing
too hard for thee. And in Genesis 18, 24, is there
anything too hard for the Lord? There's absolutely nothing too
hard for the Lord. He can accomplish his purpose
because he said, I'm all powerful. There's no restraint on me. I
have no restraining power on him. He can do anything but lie. What a wonderful characteristic
about God, that he is all powerful, all knowing, and ever present.
All right, now I want to go to the book of Matthew. The book
of Matthew chapter 9, here is another incident about a couple,
two people that were blind. Now, I've known very few people
that were completely blind. I've known a few people that
were greatly impaired, but they could still see a few things.
I have a dear friend up in Canada. He can't drive anymore because
his sight is so far gone that he can't, but he can see a little
bit. He can see a few things. He can
see something with a magnifying glass, but to be absolutely and
totally blind. Well, here in the book of Matthew
chapter nine and verse 27, there's just three or four verses that
I want to read here. Verse 27, it says, when Jesus
departed thence, Two blind men followed him, crying and saying,
Thou son of David, have mercy on us. Now, we have two of them. They're in the right place at
the right time, and we have an almighty, all-powerful God that
they're following. Someone that nothing is too hard
for. You know, I think, well, the
hardest thing possible would be to raise the dead. You know
what Jesus did? He did that very thing. He raised
the dead. He brought people back to life
again that he intended to raise. Lazarus come forth and a man
comes out of a tomb. All right? So here we have two
blind men fall at him crying saying, thou son of David have
mercy on us. Now there's an interesting thing
about mercy. I've never been in a courtroom where I had to
plead for mercy. I've read about it. I've heard
about it. I've heard people go into the
courtroom and they say, have mercy on me, Judge. You know
what? They couldn't demand it, though.
You cannot demand mercy. It has to be given. And these
two knew that. They wanted mercy, but they could
not demand it. It could only be given by someone
who could grant it. Now, we're going to find out
that the Lord Jesus has the ability of granting mercy. He's God. There's none like him. So they
said, have mercy on us, thou son of David. They recognize
something about this person. In the book of John, it says,
the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. God came in the flesh
and dwelt among us. What a blessing. I can't comprehend
what a blessing that is, that he would come in the flesh. God
would come in the flesh and dwell among us. That's what they're
saying. Son of David, have mercy on us. And when he was come into
the house. Now, it's an interesting thing. Jesus didn't even stop to have
a conversation with him. He just went on to his house.
Now, the Bible tells us he never owned a house. He didn't have
a place to lay his head, but he went into some borrowed house
there, and it says, he came into the house, the blind men came
to him, and Jesus saith unto them, believe ye that I am able
to do this? Do you believe that I am able
to do this? Healing the blind. And they said,
Unto him, yea, Lord, takes a lot of God-given faith to believe
God. It's not something that we do
naturally. It's God-given faith. Yes, Lord,
I believe you can. to do something that they had
never seen before, to believe something they never believed
before, that God would give them the belief to believe that he
could do that. Then touched he their eyes saying,
according to your faith, be it unto you. Now we find out that
faith is a gift. For by grace are you saved through
faith. That's not of yourselves, it's
a gift of God. Faith is a gift. So they had
faith given to them by the Lord, And according to that faith,
and their eyes were opened and Jesus straightly charged them
saying, see that no man know it. Well, they went out and told
everybody. Do you have faith to believe
to open your eyes? If we have faith granted to us,
yes, we can believe he is God. Well, he's omnipotent, all-powerful. There's nothing too hard for
him. He's omniscient. He's all-knowing. He knows everything
about us and every issue between us and God. And he is omnipresent. He's everywhere. I remember reading
about a man that heard a rocking chair
rocking down in the living room. So he got up to go down there
to see what was going on. There was a person in that named
Trouble. He said, oh, it's just you. I'm
going back to bed. The Lord will take care of that.
You know, that's the way the Lord does. He takes care of that.
All right, so two blind men. Just as we found out with regard
to the other one, the disciples didn't ask at this time who did
sin, this man or his parents. They just recognized the fact
that there was a blind man, two blind men. They came to the Lord
Jesus crying, now son of David have mercy on us. We're having
to trust you with this. And he left them alone. They
came following. My sheep hear my voice and they
follow me." And Jesus said, believe ye that I am able to do this.
And they could have said, not one word you've ever spoken will
return unto you void, but it will accomplish that whereunto
you have sinned. And then they were healed that
very moment. What a blessing we find that
God is, as he's found in the scriptures, and he does that
for people when it comes to their blessed spiritual salvation.
God alone can save us from our sins. Mike, would you come up
here one more time and lead us in a hymn in closing?