Let's go back to that scripture
that our brother just read to us in the Gospel of John, chapter
number 9. Here is one of our Lord's miracles. It's one of two miracles that
John gives a great deal of attention to, that is two miracles that
occupy entire chapters. This one, John chapter 9, the
healing of the man who was born blind. And then in John 11, the
sickness and then the death and the resurrection of Lazarus. Now this great miracle here found
in John chapter 9 certainly sets forth the spiritual blindness
of each of us by nature. It shows that our salvation,
our rescue, our recovery has got to be of God. Go back to the first verse, says
Jesus, the scripture says, John 9, as Jesus passed by, he saw
a man which was blind from his birth. Blind from his birth,
is that not our dilemma spiritually? spiritually blind from birth. Our condition is one that is
a situation we inherited. We've always been blind from
birth, blind to the glories of God, blind to our own vileness,
blind to our neediness, Blind to the beauties and the glories
of our blessed Savior. Blind to the fact that we're
wretched creatures who deserve nothing from God but wrath and
judgment. Blind to the fact that heaven
can only be attained by the grace of God given to poor sinners
through the Lord Jesus and His merits. We're blind to these
things. We are a people who have spiritual, we're spiritually
dead, we're spiritually blind, spiritually deaf, spiritually
lame, totally depraved. That's, if you have studied TULIP
before, that's what the T stands for, total depravity. That doesn't
mean that we're as bad off as we could be. We could be worse. We could express our nature in
a more vile way, in a more outward way. And it's only by the grace
of God that we don't do that. God keeps us back. He keeps us on a, shall we say,
a short leash. So that we don't embarrass ourselves
and embarrass our families and our church. So that we don't
bring in reproach upon the gospel of our Lord Jesus. This is our
condition by nature. I don't know that any of you
get National Geographic. I do, and it was last month's
issue, I believe. I just picked it up and started
reading it. We get it, and I read it sporadically
as I have opportunity, try to stay up to date on some of the
things that men are saying. Here's the cover of it, if any
of you do get National Geographic. Here's the cover. It says, Why
Do We Lie? Why Do We Lie? And they talked
about university studies that had been done, and they interviewed
various psychologists and sociologists, and they have discovered something
very remarkable that even the young people, even the children,
without having to be instructed, they know how to lie. And this
was a fascinating study to them. And they have also come to this
conclusion that the older you get, the better you get at it. Well, here's what I say. You
don't need to invest any more money in these studies. Pick
up a Bible and it will give you the answer to this question.
Why do men lie? It's because of total depravity. Let me give you a verse. Look
over and go back to the book of Psalms. Psalm 58. And as I was reading through
the article, and I haven't finished it because I got to laughing
so much, I couldn't finish it. But I'll go back to it because
I'm kind of interested. And they gave various illustrations
of people who have become famous by lying, famous liars, presidents,
and on and down. But I thought of this verse of
Scripture. Psalm 58 verse 3, are you there? Surely you are. The wicked, that's
the ungodly. That's us. Right? That's us. The wicked are estranged
from the womb. That is, we're strangers. Strangers. We went astray. What David is saying here is
that as soon as we came out of the womb, we were already sinful. We're sinners already. You don't
do something to become a sinner. You're already a sinner. Here's the reason we sin. It's
because we're born sinners. We're not innocent. You take
these sweet little babies and these little Children, we embrace
them, we love them. Man alive, they just mean the
world to us. But they're just little sinners.
That's what they are. Even when they just come out
of the mama's womb and they get them all cleaned up and wrap
them up in the blanket and give that baby back to mother and
she's hugging it and dad, he's so proud. I got this boy. And grandma and grandpa and the
other set of grandma and grandpa, both sets, they come in, they
say, whoopee, we've got a sweet little baby. Oh, what an innocent
little baby. Wait! Not innocent. Not innocent. He's already sinful. See, we went astray from the
womb. And then it says, strangers from
the womb, estranged from the womb. Then it says, they go astray. And I'll tell you what that word
means. They're like somebody who's intoxicated
and just staggers about. We just stagger about in our
iniquity and our sinfulness and in our depravity. Well, when
does that happen? as soon as we're born. Speaking
lies. Speaking lies. And when I read
this over here, and as you read it, we looked at this last Wednesday
night, this man who's blind from his birth. Listen, folks, that's
us. Can't you see yourself there?
That's us. He had never seen anything. He'd
never seen the sunshine. He could lift his face up and
feel the warmth of the sunshine, but he couldn't see it. He couldn't
see his hands. He couldn't see his mother. He
couldn't see his daddy. He couldn't see whatever situation
he was in. He had to have somebody to assist
him anywhere he went, whatever he did. Somebody had to bring
everything to him, food to him, clothes to him. Somebody had
to bathe him, all of these things, because he couldn't do anything
for himself. That's us, spiritually. That's
us, total depravity. It's a total inability. We don't have any spiritual ability. And we can't see, we can't see
how awful we are. Oh, as we look through the Scriptures,
we can read the words, we can read the verses, we can read
the chapters, we can read what these inspired writers tell us,
we can read what the Holy Ghost says to us, we can read what
the Lord Jesus says to us when He teaches us, but we still have
no spiritual ability to receive or perceive what is being said. We just can't see. We can't see
what this is about. You can understand the history
of it. You can understand the chronology
of it. You can memorize the words, but
you can't get the message because we're blind. Just like this man. Blind. We're sinners from birth, like
this man who was blind from birth. And we have no spiritual abilities. Lord Jesus looked at those folks
in John chapter 5 and verse 40. He said, and you will not come
to me that you might have life. Well, why won't they come? Can't
see that they need a Savior. Can't see that they need righteousness. Well, I'm alright. I'm not a
bad person. I know I've made some mistakes,
but wait, don't condemn me to hell. God ever gives you eyesight,
you'll be amazed that you wasn't there already. You'll say, my,
it's been just the mercy of God that kept me out of that place.
Because I came forth from the womb speaking lies. I went astray
as soon as I breathed my first breath in this world. I've always
had my fist in the face of God. When I was a baby, it was a little
fist, and as an adult, it's a big fist. Say, no, no, I won't bow
to you. I won't bow to your sovereignty.
I won't bow to your authority. I'll control my own destiny.
That's the way we are by nature. Why do you think men fight so
hard against God's sovereignty? It's for this reason it takes
all the power out of their hands, it takes all the control out
of their hands, out of God's hands and gives it to them. They
don't like that. Men don't like God having control
over all things. In Luke chapter 4, when the Israelites
throw our Lord off the highest pinnacle and dash His brains
out, what was it that drove them to such a fury? What drove them mad? The message
of sovereign grace. I tell you, the Word of God,
the Word of God unadorned by the fancy words of men, just
the naked bare Word of God, the Word of God setting forth who
God is, the Word of God setting us forth, Just the naked Word
of God. If God ever gives us an inkling
of what it's about, then we'll say, oh my goodness, I need a
Savior. I need a Savior. I'm so far off
from God. I can't come to God. It's a wonder
God lets me keep on breathing. It's a wonder God gives me mercies
every day. Oh God, how can you do that?
I'm amazed you hadn't put me away a long time ago in the pit.
That's if God ever gives us eyes to see, if He ever restores our
blindness. I'll tell you why men can't see
the glories of Christ Jesus. I'll tell you why men can't see
their need of Him, needing His blood. Needing His sacrifice? Needing that sin offering? Needing that righteousness which
alone puts you in good standing with God? That righteousness
which alone you are justified by? They are blind! They can't see! These men, the Jews, the leaders
of religion, That one who is absolutely perfect and immaculate. That one who is wholly undefiled. That one who never lied. That
one who is absolutely the exact image of God. That one who went about doing
good and performing miracles. They couldn't see Him for who
He was, the Son of God, because they were blind. Blind. I know we, as believers, we ought
to live exemplary lives. We've been going through this
in our Sunday school classes. I wrote the lessons on this.
what our Lord told us in His instructions to us in the Sermon
on the Mount. And we seek to follow His laws,
which are not harsh, they're not burdensome. But have you ever heard somebody
say, live so that others will see Jesus in you? Let me tell you something. When
our Lord walked on this earth, they couldn't see Jesus in Jesus. Or they sure not going to see
Jesus in me. That's the Lord of glory. He
walked in perfection. He was perfect under parental
law. He was perfect under civil law. He was perfect under divine law.
He's a perfect man. They couldn't see Jesus in Jesus. They're not going to see Jesus
in you. They might see religion in you.
But they're not going to see the Lord Jesus in you because
they couldn't see it in Him. What's the issue here? What's
the problem? Blindness. And I'll tell you
what, just like this man couldn't give himself sight, you can't
give yourself sight either. Not spiritually. God's going
to have to give us eyesight. There's got to be a revelation
of grace. You know, years ago, Billy Graham
had the hour of decision. And for decades we've heard about
make your decision for Jesus. It's not about making a decision,
it's about God doing something for us. Not about you doing something
for God. Now, we're responsible to repent
of our sinfulness, to repent of our dead works, to repent
of our idolatry, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But here's
the fact of the matter. We can do none of those things
unless God does something for us. He's got to initiate salvation. It's of the Lord and of Him holy. He gives life. He gives faith. He gives repentance. He gives
grace. He gives mercy. He keeps us safe. He justifies us. He's going to
glorify us. It's all of the Lord. And this man, he's in an awful
shape. The Lord gave him sight. Boy,
what a day that was. All of a sudden, he could see.
And the Lord didn't despise means. He said, Our Lord, after he spit
on the ground, made some mud, and anointed that man's eyes,
I reckon the man even knew that the Lord spit on the ground.
Because he couldn't see. And even if he did know, I don't
think I'd defend him. Here's a man who's trying to
help, or in his mind anyway, is attempting to help him. And
he says, and I'll go wash in the pool of Siloam, which means
sand. And I bet that man said to his
friends who were leading him, he said, take me to the pool
of Siloam. Well, what are you going to go
down there for? Because this man, he rubbed something on my
eyes, and he told me to go and wash, and I'd come forth seeing.
And I'll tell you what, I believe him. I believe him. And he went forth and washed,
and he came forth seeing. I hear two questions that arose
due to this, and this is what I want to talk about in the rest
of our time. Whence is he? Who is He? Whence is He and who
is He? That is speaking of the Lord
Jesus Christ. They want to know where the One
was who healed Him. First of all, the neighbors.
Look at verse, let me back up a little bit where Terry read.
Look at verse 8. The neighbors therefore, and
they which before had seen Him that He was blind, said, Is not
this He that sat and begged? Others said, some said, this
is He. Others said, He's like Him. But
He said, I am He. Therefore said they unto Him,
How were thine eyes opened? He answered and said, A man that
is called Jesus made clay, anointed my eyes, and said unto me, Go
to the pool of Siloam and wash. And I went and washed, and I
received my sight. Then said they unto Him, Where
is He? Well, where is He? He said, I don't know. Because
our Lord just sort of vanished. He just slipped away. And you'll
notice as we go down through here, our Lord didn't reappear
until the Pharisees excommunicate this man from the temple. And
when they reject him, our Lord receives him. They reject, they
turn thumbs down on him and our Lord said, I'll take you. I'll
take you. So verse 13, they brought to
the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind. It was the Sabbath
day. The Pharisees also asked him
how he received his sight. He said unto them, He put clay
upon mine eyes, and I washed, I do see. Therefore said some
of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth
not the Sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that
is a sinner do such miracles? And there was division among
them. Where is He? That's the question
they asked. Drop down to verse 29. When the Pharisees said, verse
28, then they reviled Him and said, Thou art His disciples,
but we're Moses' disciples. Then they said, We know that
God has spoken to Moses. As for this fellow, you notice
the word fellow is italicized. It was just, as for this, whoever he is, they didn't even
dignify him by saying, as for this man, as for this teacher,
as for this rabbi. It was just, as for this, we
know not from whence he is. We don't know from whence he
is. And that's what the man said. The man answered and said, well,
that's a marvelous thing. That's an amazing thing. Remember, he's talking to religious
people. He's talking to religious leaders.
He's talking to students of the Bible. He's talking to preachers. He's talking to rabbis, he's
talking to priests, he's talking to the leaders of Judaism. He
said, well that's a marvelous, that's an amazing thing that
you don't know where he is and yet he opened my eyes. Here's
a man who heals and you don't even know him. And you don't
know where he came from. Now this word, W-H-E-N-C, wince,
means more than what is his immediate location. It actually has built
into this word the idea of a source or origin. We don't know his
origin. We don't know his origin. We
don't know where he came from. But our Lord had said to these
Jewish leaders over and over again where He came from. In
John chapter 6, He said, I'm the bread come down from heaven. He told them His origin. He told
them whence He came from. He said, My Father sent Me. Go
back to John chapter 6. Look at John chapter 6. Look at verse 31. Or verse 32,
Then said Jesus unto this crowd that followed him, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but
my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread
of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto
the world. Then said they unto him, Lord
evermore, give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am
the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But
I said unto you that ye also have seen Me and believed Me
not." Look at verse 38, "...for I came down from heaven." They
say, whence is He? Where did He come from? What's
His origin? Well, He's already told them. But they didn't believe Him.
They didn't believe Him. He said, I'm from the Father.
I'm from the Father. Look also here in John chapter
6, look a little bit further, a little deeper into the chapter.
Look at verse 60. The scripture says, many therefore
of his disciples, John 6, 60, many therefore of his disciples,
when they heard this, when they heard his doctrine said, this
is a hard saying, this is offensive, this is intolerable, intolerable
word, intolerable doctrine, who can hear it? When Jesus knew
in himself that his disciples murmured, they grumbled, He said
unto them, Doth this offend you? What, and if you shall see the
Son of Man, ascend up where he was before? Whence cometh this
man? Well, I'll tell you where he
came from. He came from heaven. That's where he came from. He said on one occasion, You
are of the earth, earthy. I came from heaven. Go back to John chapter 3. And
throughout the gospel of John, this just keeps on arising because
you see, this establishes His identity. He is the eternal God. The invisible God made visible,
made manifest in the flesh. John chapter 3. Look at verse
13. No man hath ascended up to heaven,
but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is
in heaven. He's saying, here I am, the Son
of Man, and even while I'm here in my deity, I'm still in heaven. He's everywhere being God. They said, whence cometh this man? He told them over and over again.
And then the next thing, going back to John chapter 9, the next
thing, not only is he, but here's the other thing that arose. Who
is he? Who is he? After the Jews examined
this man, they heard what he had to say, they put him out
of the temple. They excommunicated him. That means he's cut off from
Israel. He was to them as a dead man.
They didn't do business with him. It's as though he didn't exist.
That's why this man's mom and dad were so fearful and so very
careful in how they answered the Pharisees, lest they, as
our brother read to us, lest they be put out of the temple. It says in verse 22, these words
speak as parents, very careful, very deliberate in how they answered,
Because they feared the Jews, John 9, 22, for the Jews had
agreed already that if any man did confess, if any man did confess that Jesus was the Christ, and
that's the he they're referring to is Jesus. If any man did confess
that he was the Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue,
that is, excommunicated. I mean, they had a disciplinary
committee and they meant business. And if you said Jesus of Nazareth,
He's the Christ, He's the Messiah, He's the promised Savior, He's
the one all the prophets wrote about, He's the one all the sacrifices,
all of those directed the attention of the people to Jesus Christ,
they all portrayed Him, they all pictured Him. If anybody
said Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, He's the Messiah, He's
the only Savior of sinners, He's the only way to God, they say,
you're out of here! You're out of our church. Don't
you ever come back and as far as we're concerned, you're dead
to us. That's a zeal for your religion right there. We'll put
you out. That was the penalty for confessing
that Jesus is the Christ. His mother and dad, I don't know
how much they knew. But they didn't confess that
Jesus was the Christ. But they didn't consider this.
They didn't consider what the penalty is for not confessing
that He's the Christ. It's a stiff penalty to be paid. Turn back to Matthew chapter
10. Matthew chapter 10 verse 32.
Yeah, they wouldn't confess that Jesus is the Christ because they
are going to be put out of the church, be put out of the synagogue,
be put out of the temple, be put out of Judaism. But they didn't stop to consider
what it would mean if they refused to confess that Jesus is the
Christ. Matthew chapter 10 verse 32. Whosoever therefore shall confess
me before me, and him will I confess also before my Father which is
in heaven." I don't know about you, but I make this confession
tonight from my heart. I believe that Jesus is the Christ.
Don't you? I believe Jesus is the Son of
God. I believe He's God manifest in the flesh. That's what I believe.
I believe He's the only one who can save sinners. I believe His
blood washes away the vilest of sins. I believe His righteousness
robes us and justifies us. I'm justified by the imputed
righteousness of Jesus Christ. That's exactly what I believe.
I confess Him. I confess Him now. If you talk
to me after service, if you talk to me on the street, I'll confess
Him to you. By His grace, I make that confession. I've confessed Him in baptism.
I was actually preaching the gospel. I had learned the gospel. I was already pastoring a church. And then I became convicted that
I hadn't been baptized since I learned the gospel. And I'll
tell you, I called a couple of preachers. And I said, I'm going
to be baptized. They said, don't do that. And I said, well, I got to this.
He said, yeah, but you confess Christ every time you preach.
I said, no, no. Here's one of the things about
baptism. It's the answer of a good conscience
toward God. I said, I was hoping you fellows
would rejoice with me. And I called up my dear friend,
Tim James. And I said, Tim, I'm convicted
about something. He said, what's that? I said,
Tim, I have learned the gospel, I love the gospel, I preach the
gospel, but I hadn't confessed Christ in believer's baptism.
I said, I want you to come up here and baptize me. Come up
to Central Baptist Church here and rock him out and baptize
me. He said, I will. He came up and he baptized me. I confess him. Don't you? I confess
him. But, watch this. Verse 33, but
whosoever shall deny me before men, him also will I deny before my
Father which is in heaven. This man's mom and dad, I tell
you, they didn't realize then how serious this situation was. They wouldn't identify with Jesus
Christ. Will you identify with Christ
Jesus, the only Savior? I say amen to it. I identify
with Him. I tell you, Moses, when he came
down from the mountain and a whole bunch of the Israelites involved
in idolatry, dancing around like a bunch of religious idiots around
a golden calf, He came down there, and boy, he was upset, and he
got them all out there, and he said, Who's on the Lord's side?
Come over here! You're talking about decision-making.
It's time to make a decision. It's time to come to a verdict. That's what Brother Barton used
to preach about, bringing sinners to a verdict. It's time to come
to a verdict here! Who's on the Lord's side? Let
him come over here! And the Levites came over, and
he said, Now strap on your swords. And I expect a bunch of people
ran to their tents and some of them stayed out there in defiance.
He said, right there's the enemy. Right there's the enemy. Who's
on the Lord's side? You gonna confess him or you
gonna deny him? Well, this man has experienced
a great miracle. He's been healed. He's got his
sight. But you know what? He still didn't
know Christ Jesus. He didn't know the Lord. And
I'm convinced there were lots of people that the Lord healed
during His earthly ministry. I mean, He virtually eliminated
disease out of Israel. Because it says He healed everybody
who came to Him. All manner of diseases. He conquered
every disease. But that don't mean He healed
them spiritually. And this man, he's been healed of his blindness, but he hadn't been spiritually
healed. And so in verse 34, the Jew who's
answered and said unto him, you was altogether born in sin, and
you think you're going to teach us? The implication is you were
altogether born in sin, but we weren't. You're a sinner, but we aren't. And they said, we just consider
this your notice you're out of the church. Now, our Lord reappears, verse
35, and Jesus heard that they cast him out. Old George Whitfield
preached a sermon one time. And as he was preaching, he heard
somebody in the crowd say, man, that guy, he believes that the
Lord will even take the devil's castaways. He said, yes, He will. He'll take the devil's castaways. And here's the devil's religion.
Here's false religion. And they cast him out. And the
Lord Jesus said, I'll take you in. And watch it. And when he had
found him, oh, blessed day, when the seeking shepherd finds a
lost sheep and when he found him. And when he found him, he
said to him, do you believe on the Son of God? And he answered and said, who
is he? Lord, that I might believe him. Who
is he? Does thou believe? What a question. What a question. Philip and the
Ethiopian eunuch riding along in the chariot. Philip having
taught him the gospel from Isaiah chapter 53. They get to a little
pool of water, some oasis out there in the desert, and the
Ethiopian eunuch tells the driver, just stop the chariot. He says
to Philip, he says, here's water, what does hinder me to be baptized?
Philip said, if you believe, if you believe the Son of God,
you can be baptized. That Philippian jailer, he come
out trembling and shaking, thinking that this was going to be it
for him. And Paul said, don't be afraid,
we're all here. I know there's an earthquake
and all the doors were shaking loose and fell off the hinges,
but we're all here. And that guy called for a light
and he sprang forth and he said, sirs, he'd been listening to
these men praying and singing praises to God all night long,
singing about the Lord Jesus Christ. Probably singing, what
can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
He said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? They said, Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thy house. That's what I say to you. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And our Lord Jesus, He says to
this man, Do you believe on the Son of God? He said, I don't
know who He is. I don't know who He is. He said,
Who is He, Lord? And verse 37, Jesus said unto
him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with
thee. He's talking to you, right? I'm
standing right in front of you. He said, Lord, I believe. Lord,
I believe. Lord, called him Lord. And you know how we know he believed
him? He worshipped him. He worshiped Him. Oh yeah. We worship Christ Jesus. Those
who believe Him, believe who He is, believe what He did, believe
why He did it, believe where He is now, we worship Him. We gladly worship Him from our
hearts. We're delighted to assemble together
and join our voices together and sing praises to Him and worship
Him. We sometimes sing that chorus,
we've come into this house and gathered in His name to worship
Him. That's what we sing, to worship
Him. Well, let's sing a closing song,
326, More About Jesus. Oh boy. Study more about Jesus.