It's good to see you, each of
you, this evening. Good to see Brother Doug Salyer
with us, he pastors locally, and we welcome you and the rest
of you. Let's go back to John chapter
9, the passage that was read to us just a few moments ago,
John chapter 9. Let me speak to you about spiritual
spiritual sight and spiritual blindness. Spiritual sight and
spiritual blindness. Our Lord Jesus is in the religious
capital of Israel, that is Jerusalem. It is the Sabbath day. He goes into the, toward the
temple And as he makes his way, he sees a man who is a beggar,
but he has a deeper, deeper affliction. He is indeed blind. He couldn't work, and so he is
reduced to being a beggar. His condition sets forth the
spiritual condition of every individual who enters into this
world as a result of a union of a man and a woman, and this
includes God's elect. Because each of us enters into
the world absolutely, totally depraved. And as we get older,
we make that depravity known by our words and by our actions. but make no mistake about it,
all of us are born in sin. Let me draw your attention to
a few things here as we kind of go through the chapter, and
then especially I want to focus on some things right at the end.
But as we think about this man's condition, setting forth the
spiritual condition of each of us, let me say this, first of
all, he was found outside the temple. which indicates the fact that
all of us are by nature alienated from God, and we're outside in
the church of our Lord Jesus. This man was ever so close to
the temple. He's at the very gate, but he
isn't in it. In the scriptures, the temple
of God, the literal temple, Solomon's temple, this one that was rebuilt,
it pictures the people of God, the church of our Lord Jesus
Christ. We read in 2 Corinthians chapter
6 that the Lord says, you're the temple of the living God.
That's all of the people of God. God said, I will dwell with them,
in them, and walk among them. I will be their God, and they
shall be my people. This man is, he's near the temple,
but he's not in the temple. There's a most interesting scripture
in the Gospel of Mark, Mark the 12th chapter. Our Lord speaks
to a man who was a scribe. And the man had some good things
to say. And our Lord said, thou art not far
from the kingdom of God. You're not far, but you're not
in. And I wonder if it could be that
There is an individual here this evening, or maybe one who is
watching the internet. You're near the kingdom of God. You're, as this man, near the
temple, just outside the gates. Maybe you read the scriptures,
and maybe you are regular in your attendance, and maybe you
give. Maybe you do a lot of things
that the world called good things and religious things, but here's
the issue. Are you in the temple? Are you in safety? I was thinking
about Noah building his ark, the ark that God gave him instructions
and the dimensions and so forth of how it's to be built. And
over those many, many years, Noah, who was a preacher of righteousness,
he preached and he built, he preached and he built. And I
suspect there were others who helped him, people who worked
for him, most likely neighbors who prepared food for Noah and
the workers. And maybe as they, as Noah, having
been drawn of God into the ark. God called Noah. He said, get
into the ark. Get thee into the ark. And Noah
went into the ark. He and his wife and his sons
and his sons-in-law. And God shut the door. I wonder
if there weren't some neighbors who were there as Noah went in
and said, goodbye, Noah. We think you're a fool. Whatever you're going to do,
you know, you go ahead and do your thing. It's been good knowing
you. I've enjoyed working for you. You sure have been a good
neighbor." And they shut the door. God shut the door. And
there they were really close to the ark. But they weren't
in the ark. They weren't in the ark. There's
only one place of safety. And my friends, there is but
one place of safety for your poor soul, and that's in the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's to be in the temple of God.
It's to be among the people of God, spiritually speaking. Certainly it's good to be here
tonight. It's good to assemble with the
people of God on the Lord's Day as we meet together, but I'm
talking about being a member, a member of the body of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Indeed, those who have been chosen
unto salvation, redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus, they
will be drawn, called, called effectually to believe on the
Lord Jesus, and then we're brought in by the effectual call of the
Spirit into the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we're made
alive. Here's, though, the only thing
you can know. You don't know your election
except by your faith. You don't know whether you're
one of those that Christ has bought. We never say to you,
smile, God loves you. I never say to you, Christ has
died for you. Only say those things if you're
a believer. If you're a believer, the only
way you can know you're one of God's people, one of God's elect,
one of those that the Lord Jesus bought with His precious blood,
is do you believe the Savior? Are you in Christ Jesus? Don't miss the Savior. Don't
miss Him. Here's this poor blind beggar. He's just outside the temple.
ever so close. Here we are under the sound of
the gospel of God's free grace. The message of redemption. The
only gospel there is. The gospel of the good news of
a work already finished. A work already done. A work that
God's own beloved Son has fully completed. You see, the message
of the gospel is not sin or do, it's sin or it's done. It's finished. It's already been finished by
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's already redeemed his people. This is the one you must know.
You must know to know him and be found in him. That's safety. That's safety. Are you in or
out? Because you're one or the other,
that's for sure. The second thing is he was blind
and therefore he didn't see the Savior when the Savior drew near
to him. This miracle is not about the
Savior responding to the cries of a blind beggar. The blind
beggar didn't make a move toward the Savior at all. This is about the Lord of glory
coming to where this man is. in his awful condition. This
is about the Lord doing for him what the man did not ask the
Savior to do for him. Our Lord indeed did heal him
of his physical infirmity. Then that led to the healing
of his spiritual infirmity, his spiritual blindness. Thirdly,
this man was blind from birth. This is a malady that's lifelong. That's us. Born, born in sin. I don't know what, you know,
I hear people talk about the age of accountability. What is
it, 12 years old, okay, reach the age of accountability. No,
you're a sinner from birth and accountable. A sinner from birth. We came forth from the womb.
Speaking lies. That's what the scripture says.
We've said it before. These little babies, they're
so sweet. We just love them to death. You're
a little pork chop. Last night, Anna was over here spending some time with Pat.
We had dinner with the Coons Monday night, and Anna was there. They're so cute. We just love
these babies to death. Make no mistake about it. They're
sinful. They're sinful. And they'll grow up. There'll
be a revelation of their sinfulness. It will be brought out, what
they are. This man was blind from birth,
so are we. That's our condition. We don't
become sinners as a result of something we've done. We do what
we do because we're born sinners. That's our nature. That's just
what we are. by birth. For by one man sin
ended the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men. For that all had sinned, that
is, all sinned in Adam. He was our federal head. He was
our representative. God has two men by whom and through
whom He deals with the whole human race, the Lord Jesus and
Adam. And in Adam we fell. In Christ
Jesus all of His race are made alive. All of Adam's race we
fell. We died in Adam. All of our Lord
Jesus Christ's race, all the Father gave him in covenant grace,
made alive in the blessed Savior. But in Adam we died. We got this
problem from birth. From birth. And I'll tell you
this, fourthly, this man's beyond the help of anybody. Beyond the
help of any person. He's helpless. He's hopeless
unless God intervenes. Oh, we read about his mom and
dad a little later in this story, and they saw mother, when he
was born into this world, she thought she had a perfect baby.
Perfect baby. And then it wasn't long before
she realized, and she said to her husband, he can't see. He can't see. This is a malady
from birth. Nobody could help him, and I'm
sure she took him to all the physicians. Can't you do something
for my baby? Oh, please help my baby! Nobody could do a thing. And
I'm telling you, such is our depravity, such is our sinfulness,
such is our condition. We're beyond human help. You can't do anything for yourself,
and nobody else can do anything for you either. Not spiritually. Oh, we tell you the truth. I
do tell you about Christ Jesus. I tell you about God in His holiness,
God in His awesomeness, God in His sovereignty, God in His justice,
God in His grace. I tell you about the Lord Jesus,
His blood and His righteousness, His sacrifice, His substitutionary
death. I tell you about the work of
the Spirit of God in effectual calling, in His quickening grace. Only God can do something for
you, All I can do is tell you about God, tell you about Christ
Jesus, but I can't save you. I can twist your arm if I wanted
to. I don't. I could beg you. We've seen 14 standards of justice. I am trying to get you down here
to a proverbial altar, and there is no altar in a church. Our
altar's in heaven. He's the living altar, Christ
Jesus. But I can't save you. I can't
give you life. I can't give you sight. I can't
give you hearing. I can't give you a new heart.
But I know who can. I know who can. And maybe he will. But he doesn't
have to. He doesn't have to. Just like nobody can help this
man, nobody can help us. I tell you, unless God intervenes,
I'm born blind, I'll stay blind, I'll die blind, unless God does
something for me. Don't tell me exercise my free
will. My will's in bondage. Don't tell
me if you'll do something for God, God'll do something for
you. Well, I can't do anything for God. That's my problem. I
can't do anything good at all. I am absolutely shut up to free
and sovereign grace. If God doesn't do something for
me, nothing can be done for me. And I can't make Him do anything.
I can't make Him do anything for you. I can't make Him do
anything for my children, for my grandchildren. I say, Oh Lord,
if you will, you can show mercy. If you will, but it's up to God,
isn't it? It's not up to you. I tell you,
we better be honest with people and tell people, it's not up
to you. It's up to God. Let's stop begging people and
start begging God to do something for folks. Well, he's beyond
me and I'll tell you this, he is a beggar. He's a beggar. He can't purchase a remedy, even
if a remedy existed, which it didn't. You know what, he's completely
dependent on the charity. I tell you what all of us are,
we're a bunch of charity cases. That's what we are. We're a bunch
of charity cases. And here's the thing, the natural
man, we're just too arrogant, too proud to admit it, that we
need God's charity. We think we can do something
to fix this problem between us and God, and when told we have
no ability, we're just too arrogant to own up to it. And I'll tell you something else,
this man made no appeal to the Savior. He uttered no cry for
mercy. We won't come to the Lord Jesus
that we might have life. That's just the way we are. That's
what the Savior said back in John 5 in verse 40. He looked
at the Jews. He said, you won't come to me
that you might have life. Not only will we not come, we
can't come. We can't come. And it isn't that
the Lord has got a stop sign out in front of Himself that
says, you can't come to Me, you don't have any permission to
come. No, we just won't come. We don't have the ability to
come. We don't have the desire to come. When Adam fell, having
willingly violated God's law, God came calling in the cool
of the day. Did Adam and Eve say, oh Lord,
forgive us? Please forgive us, we bow before
you, we beg for mercy. No, they ran from the presence
of God. They tried to hide from God in
a forest that God made. I'm gonna hide behind a tree.
I'm gonna see if I can hide behind, I'll get you a big tree, Eve,
and hide behind that tree and hide from God. What utter foolishness. They weren't seeking the Lord.
This man's not seeking the Lord, but the Lord's seeking him. The
Lord's seeking him. He made no appeal to the Savior. He uttered no cry. And I'll tell
you this, our Lord Jesus comes across this man who's blind,
who obviously can't see who it is that's approaching him. Our
Lord deals with him in mercy. And he only deals with this man
in mercy. You can read the historians. It was very common, especially
on the Sabbath day, for poor people, for beggars to gather
outside the gates of the temple, at the entrances and at the exits,
and they'd have their cups out there. because people are coming
to church, so they're more of a charitable mood. And, you know,
dropped some money in my cup. Lots of beggars there, lots of
sick folk. It says in Matthew 21, 14, the
blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed
them. There's always lots of sick people
at the temple. Acts chapter 3, Peter and John
went up to the temple to pray. There's a lame man, he's a beggar,
he's asking for alms. And Peter said, silver and gold
have I none, but such as I have, give I unto thee. In the name
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. So there's
lots of sick people there, lots of lame people there, lots of
blind people there, but only one man Realize the healing power of
the sovereign Christ. This is an instance of sovereign
mercy, that's what this is. You say, well yeah, but this
man, he wanted, he wanted this. No, we've already established
the fact that he doesn't even know Jesus of Nazareth is there. He can't see. But our Lord sees
Him. Our Lord saw Him from old eternity
when God gave Him to Jesus Christ, His surety. And our Lord has
always had His eye on this blind beggar, just like you who are
the Lord's people, He's always had His eye on you, even from
old eternity. When our Lord went to the temple
that day, He came looking for somebody. He came looking for
somebody. And he found him. Because when
our Lord Jesus goes looking, he always finds the one he's
looking for. So the Lord performs a miracle. First of all, this man is given
his physical sight, and then the man immediately begins to
run into trouble. We know that the physical healing
will lead to a spiritual healing. But he immediately finds that
he has some contention. First of all, his friends and
neighbors try to figure out what happened. They want to know how
this blind man was healed. So he endures a time of questioning
from them. And really he can't answer them
because he never did see who did this. Because the Lord Jesus
spat on the ground, made some clay and on his eyes said, go
wash, go wash. And then our Lord Jesus kind
of slips away. He doesn't come back. Our Lord
doesn't make a reappearance till much later in the chapter. So when the man washes, he looks
up. He doesn't see the Lord Jesus.
All he knows is a man named Jesus healed him. But he endures this
time of questioning. Well, then his neighbors take
him to the Pharisees. You need to go see the elders
of the church. You need to go see the religious
hierarchy. You need to go before the Sanhedrin. And they said, how'd you get
your sight? And he said, a man put clay on
my eyes. I wash and I do see. Well, there
was mixed reactions and mixed opinions among the Pharisees
about the one who supposedly healed this man. So they asked
the man this question. Look at verse 17. They say unto
the blind man again, what sayest thou of him that he hath opened
thine eyes? He said, he's a prophet. He's
a prophet. The Jews believed a man was a
prophet, if he could perform miracles. And you can look these
up. John 6.14, John 7.31 tells that. Then the Pharisees said, they didn't believe this man
was blind before, so they sent for the man's parents. And the Pharisees put the man's
mom and dad through the proverbial ringer. Mom and Dad, they were hesitant
to answer because they feared the Jews. They didn't want to
be cast out of the temple. They didn't want to be excommunicated.
So they said, he's our boy. He was born blind. But we don't know by what means
he sees and we don't know who healed him. Ask him. I don't have much confidence
in this man's mom and dad, because it looks like if they cared about
their son, he wouldn't be a beggar. You'd think they would have taken
care of him. And now when push comes to shove,
and they see, well, boy, I might be kicked out of the church for
this, they don't take a stand, but they throw their own boy
under the bus. Just go ask him. So the Pharisees
bring the man back in, but he told them, he said, I'm convinced
that the man who did this, the Jesus who did this, he's from
God. That's what he said. He says this, look at verses, go down to verse 26, or verse
25. They said, verse 24, they said,
give God the praise. We know this man's a sinner.
He answered and said, well, whether he's a sinner or not, I don't
know. I don't know. I don't know anything about him.
But I do know this. I was blind. Now see, I know
that. They said, what did he to thee? How opened his eyes? And he said,
well, I've told you already, you didn't hear. Are you going
to become one of his disciples too? He said, and the men said, well,
you're one of his disciples, but not us. We're Moses' disciples. They said, verse 29, we know
that God spake unto Moses, but as for this, as for this, We don't know from whence he
is. And the man said, well, that's
a marvelous thing. But you don't know where he come
from, and yet he opens blind eyes. Well, the Pharisees thought he was
talking too smart to them. And so they cast him out. They
said in verse 34, you is altogether born in sin. You think you're
going to teach us? They cast him out. You're excommunicated. Among the Jews, other than death,
the thing that they feared the most was excommunication. Don't
put me out. But they put him out, out of
the life of Israel, out of the nation of Israel. He's already
been an outcast. He is a blind beggar. He's already
an outcast and now he's cast out of the temple and the synagogues. They said, you're not a member
of our church anymore. You're out of here. They said,
oh man, that's tough. I tell you, false religion is
tough. And false religious people are some of the meanest people
in the world. You'd think these folks would
say, this is a wonderful thing. What a glorious thing. Oh, we're
so happy for you. Man, I knew you since you was
a baby and you couldn't see. And your mom and dad led you
around. And now you can see. Oh, oh,
thank you, Lord, for healing this man. Oh, no, not a word
like that. Get out of our church and don't
ever come back. But look at verse 35. Jesus heard
that they cast him out, and the Lord Jesus did something. See, as soon as they dropped
him, somebody was there to catch him. And actually, the best thing
that could happen to this man was for that false religious
organization to kick him out. That's the best thing that happened
to him. The sooner he parted ways with them, the better. And I'll give you several things
real quick. Number one, the Savior found him. He had already been physically
healed. That's a wonderful miracle. But physical healing, blindness,
physical blindness, that's not the heart of the problem. The
heart of the problem is he's deprived, he's spiritually blind.
Not physical blindness, that's not the biggest thing, spiritual
blindness. And I know some folks who are
physically blind and we take eyesight for granted, I'm sure
we do. We all thank God for that mercy.
But there's something a whole lot worse than physical blindness
and that spiritual blindness. And there's something a whole
lot greater than being the object of God's healing mercy to get
your eyesight back, physical eyesight back. That's when God
gives you spiritual eyesight. Let you see who he is. Let you
see what you are. and cause you to see who Christ
Jesus is and see what Christ Jesus did for sinners that God
might be just and justify the ungodly. The Savior found me. And just like in the giving of
physical sight, the Lord initiated this meeting too. He seeks out this man and he
finds him. I think back about the story of the lame man back
in John chapter 5. The lame man waiting for the
water to be troubled. The Lord said, take up thy bed
and walk. Later, the Lord found him in
the temple. He found him too. He's going
to find all of his lost sheep. Luke chapter 15. That shepherd
had a hundred sheep. He left the ninety and nine. lost one. And when he found him,
he picked him up, laid him on his shoulders, went home rejoicing. He said, rejoice with me, I found
my lost sheep. The Lord saved Zacchaeus, And
the Savior said, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save
that which was lost. Here's a seeking Savior, here's
a finding Savior, and here's a saving Savior. That's who he
is, the Lord Jesus Christ. Of us it is written, no man seeketh
after God. Thank God he seeks us. And every sinner he seeks, he
finds too. He finds. Well, look at the Savior's
question. The Savior has a question for
him in the verse 35. Dost thou believe on the Son
of God? Now, the man already has acknowledged that the one
who healed him was a man called Jesus. That's verse 11. And then
he said the one who healed him was a prophet, verse 17. And then he acknowledged that
the one who healed him had been sent by God, verse 33. Now what's happening here? What's
happening here? In a mysterious way, in a miraculous
way, the Word of God, it's absolutely penetrating this man's heart. He's finding out who the Savior
is. You've got to find out who He
is. He said a man named Jesus, A prophet? Somebody sent of God? He's learning who this is. You've
got to find out who Christ is. I was talking with a man one
time. He said, listen, it's nothing
to be saved. All you've got to do is just
obey the command of the Apostle Paul and Silas, who said the
Philippian jailer, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou
shalt be saved. As long as a man believes on
the Lord Jesus Christ, he'll be saved. I said, but which Lord
Jesus Christ? Because so many are preached.
You've got Jesus preached over here, and Jesus preached over
there, and Jesus preached in this church, and that denominator.
Which one is it that you believe? Well, he's Jesus, God who saves. He's that prophet. He's one scent
of God. And you know what the Lord Jesus
is going to do? He's going to reveal to him that
this one who stands before him, this one who gave him sight,
is the Son of God. He's the Son of God. Nobody can
say but God, the Son of God. That's who He is. He's Jesus. He's the prophet. He's the one
who come from God. He is God. He is God. After all, isn't this... You
know, let me just read this to you. The Lord Jesus said in verse
35 again, Does thou believe on the Son of God? What is the reason
for the Spirit of God having John write this book? We've already
established that over in John chapter 20. These things are
written that you might believe that Jesus is the Son of God. He's the Son of God, and this
is established throughout the book. Who is He? He can't save
us if He's not God. He can't suffer and die if He's
not man. He's the God-man, that's who
He is. He's God, so He meets every demand
of God. He's man, so He knows what we
need. He's a sympathizing high priest. And since God can't suffer and
God can't bleed and God can't die, the Lord Jesus became a
man. He is God incarnate. He suffered,
bled, and died. Here's the issue. Who is Jesus
of Nazareth? The Lord says to him, do you
believe on the Son of God? This is vital. When the Ethiopian eunuch was
reading Isaiah 53, and the Lord sent Philip out there to preach
to him, to enlighten him as to that passage he was reading,
he began at the same place and preached unto him Jesus. And
they came to water, and the eunuch said, here's water, what doth
hinder me to be baptized? Philip said, if you believe,
if you believe, I'll baptize you. He said, I believe that
Jesus of Nazareth is the son of God, the son of God, not a
son of God, not one of many sons of God. He's the son of God. He's express image of God. He's divine. Then here's the revelation of
the Son of God, verse 36. He answered and said, Who is
he, Lord? Who is he that I might believe him? You know, this man,
he was as bold as a lion when he stood before the Sanhedrin.
He didn't back down. They're going to kick him out
of the church. We'll vote you out. You better give right answers
to the questions we're going to ask you. He's as bold as a
lion. Kick me out. Vote me out. Whatever
you got to do. But I'll tell you what I think.
And what I believe. But now he's meek and lowly and
humble before the Son of God. Who is he? Who is he, Lord? Who is he, Lord? And he said, verse 37, thou hast
both seen him and it is he that hath talked with thee. There
are four times in the book of John that the Lord Jesus very
expressly, very definitely declared his sonship. John 5.25, this
passage right here, John 9.37, and then John 10.36, and John
11 verse 4. He declared his sonship. Something he didn't do, and not,
at least not this definitely, not this matter-of-factly, he
didn't do this in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the synoptic Gospels,
only in the Gospel of John, because remember again, this is the theme
of this book, Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God. Well, does this man believe?
His belief, here's the fourth thing, his belief is evidenced
by worship in verse 38. He said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped Him. How do
you know when spiritual eyesight has been given to somebody? They
worshipped Christ Jesus. They worshipped Christ Jesus.
What a miracle. This man sees the glory of God
in the face of Christ. What do true believers do? They
worship. They worship. Here's a man with
two biographies. He's blind physically and he's
blind spiritually. And now he's physically seeing
and he's spiritually seeing. And I tell you, we're people
with two biographies. We were dead. Now we're alive. We were blind. Now we see. We see through a glass darkly,
but we see, we see. I see something of who God is,
I see something of what I am, and I see the glory of God in
the face of Christ Jesus, don't you? I see. But here's the last thing, here's
judicial blindness. Verses 39 through 41. Verse 39, Jesus said, for judgment,
for separation, I'm coming to this world that they would see,
those they would see not, might see. This man didn't see, but
now he sees. He didn't see anything spiritually,
but now he does. And that they would see, that
is, they think they see, might be made blind. Let me tell you
something. All of us, by nature, are spiritually
blind. On top of that, there is satanic
blindness. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. If our gospel be hid, it's hid
to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world, Satan,
has blinded the minds, lest they should see the glorious light
of the gospel. But there's another kind of blindness. And this blindness is brought
on by persistent unbelief, even when faced with absolutely clear
evidence, like these Jews had, these Jewish leaders. Throughout
the book of John, any time you see the Jews, it's always in
a negative way. You know, the Lord had sent them
the prophets, He gave to them the tabernacle. He gave to them
the kings who typified the Lord Jesus, the King of kings. He
gave to them all the offerings, all the sacrifices. He gave to
them the very Word of God. The Lord Jesus came into this
world. These people saw the miracles
which He did by the power of the Spirit. And still they denied. These people rejected. These
Pharisees, they rejected the Lord Jesus. They rejected this
man. They even rejected the miracle.
And when faced with absolute clarity that a miracle was real,
they said, well, what he does is by the power of Beelzebub.
They just rejected, rejected, rejected, and then something
happened. Judicial blindness. There's no
way they're going to believe. God's blinded them. It's like
in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Because they believe not the
love of the truth, receive not the love of the truth, God sends
people a strong delusion. Sends them a lie. Sends them
some slick talking preacher and man, he gets them saved just
like that. Then God's going to damn them
for believing it. You know what that is? That's
judicial blindness. And when somebody is judicially
blinded like these folks were, they're dead while they live.
They're sure for hell's if they're already there. This is judicial
blindness. This is often spoken about. Look,
I'm going a little bit late, but look at John chapter 12.
Turn over a few pages. John chapter 12. That's what
this is talking about. And this is what happened to
these people. Man, the Lord gave mercy after mercy after mercy. He sent Him preacher after preacher
after preacher. He sent Him His Son. He came
into the world. The world received Him not. And
all of these miracles, they denied Him. And then they said, well,
He does these things by the power of the Elzebub. Look at John
chapter 12 verse 35. Then Jesus said unto them, yet
a little while is the light with you. Walk while you have the
light, lest darkness come upon you. For he that walketh in darkness
knoweth not whither it goeth. While you have light, believe
in the light, that you may be the children of light. These
things spake Jesus and departed and did hide himself from them. He's done with them. He's done. He's not going to preach to them
anymore. Now he's going to preach to his disciples. Keep reading. But though he had done so many
miracles before them, yet they believed not on him, that's not
the end of the sentence. Keep reading, that the saying
of Esaias or Isaiah, the prophet might be fulfilled, which he
spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? Isaiah 53, 1. And
to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore they
could not believe, because that Esaias said again, he hath blinded
their eyes, he hardened their hearts. That they should not
see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted,
and I should heal them. That's judicial blindness, right?
Don't you toy with the things of God. This is serious business. You want to play games, go out
yonder somewhere. Don't you play games with God.
Don't you play games in here. God just fix it. He can fix it
so that nothing good will ever become of you. That's what this is about. And go back to our text and I'll
finish up here. And look at verse 40. John 9,
40. And some of the Pharisees which
were with him heard these words and said to him, Are we blind
also? You talking about us? Are you
saying we're blind? Are you saying we're untaught?
Are you saying we're unlearned? Are you saying we're like the
heathen? Are you saying we have no spiritual understanding whatsoever? And the Lord turns the tables
on them in verse 41. He said unto them, if you are
blind, if you recognize you didn't have
any sight, if you knew you were lost and you was concerned about
it, If you were disturbed by your guilt before God, if you
weren't wrapped up in your own robe of self-righteousness that
stinks to God, then you'd have no sin. You'd be forgiven. You'd be taken away. Watch the
wording. But now you say, you say, we
see We have understanding. Remember
what they said to this man up here? You teach us? You teach
us? You're just an old sinner. You
teach us? Do you know who we are? I'm Reverend
so-and-so. I'm Dr. so-and-so. I'm a rabbi. I've got my degrees. I've got
my THD and all that kind of stuff. I'm a big shot. Don't you know
who I am? I'm the head of the denomination. They can't be taught. They can't
be taught. I'll tell you a characteristic
about all God's people. They're teachable. Isn't that
right? God's people can be taught. And
they can be taught by somebody who is otherwise kind of unlearned. They can't. Not these people. We see Therefore, this is what the Savior
said, your sins remain. They're always going to be with
you. They're part and parcel of you. You ain't never going
to get away from them. And our Savior said, if you die
in your sins, where I am, you're not coming. May the Lord give
us broken hearts to confess our blindness and our poverty, to
admit being guilty before his holy law, to confess we're sinners,
and to flee to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's got to give us sight. Lord, give us sight. Give us
sight to the glory of your free grace.