Let's go back to that Scripture
that Brother Stanton read to us, John chapter 9. And let's visit for a little
bit this story of a blind beggar being healed. Throughout the
Word of God, we have many miracles set forth. both in the Old Testament
and in the New Testament, show forth the mercy of God in physical
healings. He is the great physician, and
he still heals even today, but usually uses physicians. He uses
medicine. Sometimes he uses surgery, and
sometimes they're just miraculous cures. as God is pleased to bring
those about. But in the Scriptures we see
lots of people who had various sorts of diseases and God was
pleased to heal them. In the Old Testament, you remember
the Israelites murmured again as they made their way toward
the Promised Land. They grew weary of the bread
from heaven. They grew weary of the manna.
And they said to Moses, why have you brought us out into the wilderness
to die? Then the Lord sent fiery serpents
and bit the people. Much of the people of Israel
died. Those who didn't die, the survivors, they went to Moses
And they said, Moses, go to God for us. They recognized they
needed a mediator. They needed someone to stand
between them and God. And as such, Moses is a picture
of the Lord Jesus who stands between us and God as our intercessor,
as our great mediator, And Moses indeed lifted up his voice to
God and prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, make
a fiery serpent, put it on a pole. And then you go tell the people
who've been bitten, you look to the brazen serpent. And all
who look to the brazen serpent, they will be healed, they will
live. The Scripture says that many
people did indeed look. They looked and they were healed
by the goodness of God, the grace of God, the power of God. Our
Lord Jesus used that as an illustration in John chapter 3 when He said,
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up. whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have eternal life." Those people who looked,
lived. Immediately the poison that was
in them, having been bitten by the fiery serpents, immediately
they were healed by God. It wasn't that a look to a brazen
serpent in itself had any power. or any virtue, any healing mercy. They did what God told them to
do. They believed God. That's what
it was. They believed God. The Lord said, if you look, you'll
live. If you look, you will be healed. Believing the Word of God, believing
the Word of God's servant, they looked and they were healed.
Further over in the Old Testament, we come to the book of 2 Kings.
A man who's a leper. His name is Naaman. He's a heathen. He's a Gentile. He's a Syrian.
Captain of a great host of soldiers under the army of Ben-Hadad,
who was the king of Syria. And he had leprosy. And so he
went to Elysha for healing. And he thought that when he got
to Elisha's house, that Elisha would come out and there would
be a great big, some kind of healing service, and the servant
of God would pass his hands over the spot of leprosy in Naaman,
and all of a sudden he'd be healed. But no, the servant of God, Elisha,
God's prophet, didn't even come out of the house. He sent a servant,
and the servant said, Go down to the River Jordan, dip seven
times, you'll come back clean. And they said, well, what's the use in doing that?
We have rivers over in Syria that are much better, narrower. We don't have to go so far. And
his servants came to him and said, listen, if Elisha had said
to you to do something great, you'd do it, wouldn't you? He
said, yeah. I said, well, why don't you go
25 miles over to the River Jordan and dip seven times and see what
happens? He said, well, I will. And he
went to the River Jordan, believing nothing but God's Word given
to him by the prophet Elisha. He dipped down seven times and
he came back up. God healed him. God healed him
of his leprosy. And of course, that's a picture.
The picture of God healed us of the leprosy of sin just like
the Israelites bitten by the fiery serpents. That awful poison
of iniquity and violence, sinfulness is in us. And there is, bless
the name of God, healing of our diseases, of our spiritual diseases
in the blood and in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
there is a healing for our leprosy because all of us by nature have
leprosy. It's spiritual leprosy. We're
depraved. We came forth from the womb speaking
lies. And yet there is the virtue of
the grace of God. God heals us Miraculously. So in the Old Testament, there
are several instances of people being healed. In the New Testament,
as well, you get to the book of Acts, you have several instances
of people who were healed by the power of God, which was effective
and effectual through the ministry of the apostles. and the evangelists
being the messengers of God sent forth with the true gospel. We
read in Hebrews 2, God also bearing them witness both with signs
and wonders and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according
to His will. You get to Acts chapter 3, Peter
and John went up to the temple. There was a beggar there who
was lame and he begged for money, give me alms and Peter said,
silver and gold have I none, but such as I have given unto
thee, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
rise up and walk. That man was healed. That's a
picture of our spiritual lameness. We have no ability to come to
the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only do we have no ability,
we have no desire. to come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
We just sang satisfied, and you mustn't reason from that song
or draw this conclusion from that song that all of our life
we've been seeking for the Lord. No, that isn't true. And that
isn't, to me, that's not the message of the song. The message
of the song is the Lord puts it in our hearts to seek Him.
He says, you'll seek Me and you'll find Me when you search for Me
with all your heart. He seeks us first and we seek
the Lord who's seeking us. And we're satisfied with the
Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord seeks out the sinful. He seeks out those that are in
need of His mercy. He seeks out those whom He will
seek. He doesn't seek out everybody
who's spiritually sick. He doesn't seek out everybody
who has spiritual leprosy. I gave you that illustration
from 2 Kings about Naaman a little further down in that chapter,
Luke chapter 4, that you read to us. Our Lord used that as
an illustration of sovereign grace, effectual grace, distinctive
grace. He said there were lots of lepers. in Israel in the days of the
prophet Elisha. And yet, Elisha wasn't sent to
any of them. He didn't give any instructions
to any of them about how to be healed of their leprosy. God,
He set apart this one individual for His healing mercies. And that's the way it is with
sovereign grace. And our Lord used that as an
illustration of sovereign effectual grace, distinctive grace there
in Luke chapter 4. Our Lord didn't heal every beggar,
every lame person, every sick person. He healed those whom
He would. In John chapter 5, the man who
was lame, who had been laying 38 years, laying, waiting for
the troubling of the water. Our Lord Jesus went there. He
didn't heal everybody, but He did heal one man. There are lots
of illustrations in the New Testament of people being healed, and most
of them, most of the recordings of people being healed were healed
by the Lord Jesus. He never met a disease that He
couldn't heal. In fact, everybody who ever came
to Him looking for healing, they received healing. Were all of
them saved by His grace? I don't think so. I don't believe
so. But He healed everybody who came
to Him, whatever the disease was, He showed He had absolute
sovereign authority over the disease. It's only fitting that
the great physician performed the most of the miracles that
are recorded in the Bible. He did indeed, as I've said,
heal virtually every disease in the land of Israel. There
are many reasons why He healed people of many diseases. It fulfilled
prophetic promises regarding Messiah, You read to us from Luke chapter
4, that's a quote from Isaiah chapter 61, what Messiah would
do when He came into this world. His miracles verified His messianic
ministry. Well, hold your place here in
John chapter 9. Look over at John chapter 20. Look at John chapter 20. These
miracles verified His messianic ministry. John chapter 20, look at verse
30. John 20, verse 30. And many other signs truly did
Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written
in this book, but these are written. For what reason? For what purpose
are these written? that you might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, that He's the Messiah, that He's the Promised
One, that He's the seed of the woman, that He was the one set
forth through all of the Old Testament. These are written
that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed One,
the Messiah, the Son of God, and that believing you might
have life through His name. Turn a page or two further to
Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2 and look at the
22nd verse. Acts 2 and 22. You men of Israel,
hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God
did by Him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know. What does that word approved
mean? demonstrated it, authenticated
the fact that He's the Messiah, the
Son of God. That He's the One, He's God in
human flesh, sent to be the Savior of sinners. And then His miracles
always glorified God. Go back to our text here in John
chapter 9. John chapter 9. Look at verse
3, John 9 and verse 3. Jesus answered, He answered His
disciples who said, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents,
that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath
this man sin, nor his parents. And let me just stop and say
this, He's not saying these people lived above sin or that they
had no sin whatsoever. What He's saying is there was
no specific, nothing specific, that these did, that brought
about this disease of the eyes, this illness, this blindness
of this man. There wasn't anything that mom
and dad did, there wasn't anything that the Lord foresaw that this
man would do during his lifetime, but that the works of God should
be manifest in them. In other words, that God would
be glorified. turn just a couple of pages over,
a page or two, John 11. And we'll get to this in a few
weeks. Here's the sickness of Lazarus that resulted in his
death, John 11. A certain man was sick, John 11
verse 1, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister
Martha. It was that Mary which anointed
the Lord with ointment, wiped His feet with her hair, whose
brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore His sister sent to
the Savior, saying, Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick.
When Jesus heard that, He said, This sickness is not unto death,
but for the glory of God. He did all of His miracles for
the glory of God. that the Son of God might be
glorified, thereby His miracles always glorified the Lord. So
His miracles, they fulfilled messianic prophecies. His miracles
verified His messianic ministry. And then His miracles always
glorified God. And then fourthly, His miracles
demonstrated His deity. His deity. Go back to John 5. Look at John chapter 5 and verse
36. John 5 and 36. Our Lord has already brought
forth John the Baptist as a witness of his identity. He says here
in John 5.36, But I have a greater witness than that of John, that
is, John the Baptist. For the works which the Father
hath given me to finish the same works that I do bear witness
of me that the Father hath sent me. His works demonstrated his deity. Let me give you another reference
on this. Look at Mark the 2nd chapter, I believe it is. Mark
the 2nd chapter. Here is our Lord, and there is
before Him a man who is sick of the palsy. His friends have
lowered Him down from the roof because there were so many people
around the Savior that they couldn't get to Him and His dear friends,
and these are good friends. Can anybody bring you to the
Lord Jesus, at least physically, anybody who's interested in getting
you to the only One who can help you, the only One who can save
you, that's a good friend right there. And this guy had several
good friends. They said, listen, there's only One who can help
you. That's Jesus of Nazareth. And I tell you, if you'd be a
real, a real friend to your family and to your friends, Get them
under the sound of the gospel. You've got to bring them to Christ
Jesus. I know you can't bring them to the point that they believe
Him, but you've got to get them under the sound of the gospel,
under the sound of His voice. His gospel is the voice of Christ
Jesus. You've got to hear. Don't people
have to hear the truth? They've got to hear of who God
is. They've got to hear of what we are. They've got to hear of
Christ Jesus. They've got to hear of His blood.
They've got to hear of His righteousness. They've got to hear of God's
salvation and hear of these friends. They say, we've got to get our
friend to the Lord Jesus. Well, there's so many people
there. Somebody get a ladder. Let's get up on the roof. They
got up on the roof and started tearing the tiles away. They
lowered this man down right in the presence of the Lord Jesus.
In verse 5, when Jesus saw their faith, He said to the sick of the apostasy,
He said, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. But there were certain scribes
sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, why does this man
doth speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
only? And that's right. Who can forgive
sins but God only? Only God can forgive sins. A
man can't forgive sins. Don't go to a priest. Don't go
behind some cloth and some... screen or whatever. There's a
man sitting on the other side who's more vile than you are
and confess your sins to him. That's wrong. That's wrong. He can't forgive you. He can't
absolve you. He doesn't have any nail prints
in his hands. He hadn't been sacrificed for
sinners. Only God the Savior can forgive
sins. Only one who shed His blood can
forgive sins. They said, who can forgive sins
but God only? Verse 8, immediately when Jesus
perceived in His Spirit, you see, He not only forgives sins,
He knows people's thoughts. When he perceived in his spirit
that they so reasoned within himself, he said unto them, Why
reason ye these things in your hearts? Whether is it easier
to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or
to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? that ye may know
that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins. He
said to the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, Arise, and take
up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. And immediately
he arose, took up his bed, went forth before them all, insomuch
that they were all amazed, glorified God, saying, We never saw it
in this fashion before. We never saw anything like this
before. He's God. He's God. It demonstrated His
deity. His deity. If He's not God, He
can't save us. If He's not God, He can't do
us any good. So as you go back to John chapter
9, let me make some observations about this miracle. And I'd say the first thing is
this, only John relates this miracle. In other words, Matthew,
Mark, and Luke, they don't. And like the very few miracles
that John has led of the Spirit of God to record, he describes
it in great detail. One of the things that you'll
notice as you read through the book of John, you pay attention
to this, verses Matthew, Mark, and Luke, John, whenever he does
set forth a miracle, he really sets it forth. I mean, he goes
into depth. about the miracle. And I'll say
this, secondly, there are four miracles that John mentioned
which our Lord performed in or near Jerusalem. First of all,
back in chapter 2, the purifying of the temple. Chapter 5, the
healing of the impotent man. Right here, the healing of the
man who is born blind. And in chapter 11, the raising
of Lazarus from the dead. And then also this, note this,
this is one of those miracles which had been predicted that
Messiah would perform. I'll give you a reference, I'll
just read it. Isaiah chapter, Isaiah 29, 18. And in that day
shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of
the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. Literally,
the eyes of the blind shall see out of the blackness. of darkness. People have no ability whatsoever
to see. All of a sudden, they can see. They can see. This man, born
blind. Boy, that's a picture of us,
isn't it? Born spiritually blind. We've
been in darkness all the days of our lives until the light
of the world comes to us and enlightens us. Who is the light
of the world? Just one. The Lord Jesus said
back in John 8 and verse 12, I am the light of the world.
And He's got to give us light. Otherwise, we'll be in the blackness
of darkness forever. He's got to shine the light on.
He's got to turn the lights on in our minds and in our hearts. He's got to illuminate us. In
other words, He's got to give us spiritual understanding and
perception and eyesight. The Scripture says the hearing
ear and the seeing eye both come from the Lord. And He's got to
do that physically and He's got to do that spiritually too. He's
got to give us ears to hear His voice. He's got to give us eyes
to see who God is in His perfection, God in His holiness, God in His
justice. God in His righteousness, God
in His grace, God in His love, God in His mercy. He's got to
give us spiritual eyesight to see ourselves and our awful dilemma
and our awful sinfulness laden with iniquities that all of our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags. He's got to give us eyes
to see ourselves. Otherwise, we'll never run to
the Lord Jesus. Well, we've got to see what we
are. We've got to see our dilemma. We've got to see how bad off
we are. And seeing our sinfulness, then the Lord gives us eyes to
see the Lord Jesus Christ. To see Him as God. To see Him
as man. To see Him as the only Savior.
To see His blood, that alone which can wash away our sins.
What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
I know it's a religious society today we're living in, and for
the most part, it's a bloodless religion. They don't want to
talk about blood anymore. Used to talk about that slaughterhouse
religion. Well, He's the Lamb who was slaughtered
for sinners. He died on the cross. He's God's
sacrifice for sin. He's the sin offering. His blood
washes our sins away. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. And His righteousness robes us.
It covers us. He gives us eyes to see Christ. To see He's the one we need.
I don't need religion. I don't need to be baptized and
wash my sins away because that won't do it. I don't need to
come to the communion table, take the Lord's Supper thinking
I'm eating literally the bread of Christ and drinking His blood.
I ain't doing that. I'm not doing that. And that's
not going to do me any good either. I need Him who saves. That's
who I need. I need the Lord Jesus Himself. This is one of those miracles
which had been predicted by the Messiah that He would perform. And this is one of those miracles
that you remember when John was in jail, John the Baptist now. When John was in jail, he sent
a couple of his disciples to Jesus and said, are you the Christ
or do we look for another? Now, I don't think it was because
John had his doubts. I think it was to verify in the
minds of his disciples who this was, that this is the Messiah.
This is the Son of God. And here's what the Lord Jesus
said, you go show John those things which you do hear and
see. And the first thing He said was, the blind received their
sight. The very first thing. He said,
the blind received their sight. Go tell John that. The blind
received their sight. Tell him the lame walk. Tell
him the lepers are cleansed. Tell him the deaf hear. Tell
him the dead are raised up. Tell him the poor have the gospel
preached to them. I'll tell you something else
about this miracle. This miracle was performed on a man that most
everybody in Jerusalem knew. Because you see, he's not only
blind, but he's a poor beggar. Which it wasn't unusual for poor
beggar, blind beggars to go to the temple to beg, to beg alms,
because people went to the temple to pray, they went to put money
in the treasury, and they're feeling kind of generous, and
so that's where the blind beggars would go. People knew this guy. And that's obvious as our brother
read down through this passage of Scripture. People said, we
know who he is. And then others said, well, he
sure looks like him, but I'm not so sure. And the man said,
it's me! It's me! That's what he said. It's me. And I'll just give you this for
a thought. This miracle, like the sickness
and the death and the resurrection of Lazarus, occupies an entire
chapter. You think about that. That's
how important this is. John chapter 11, it's all about
Lazarus, Lazarus whom the Lord loved. His sickness, His death,
which our Lord Jesus said, it isn't death, it's sleep. That's
what He said. His raising Him, And then the
Jews all stirred up and mad and upset because of what happened. Let me give you five things real
quick. Number one, the passerby. Look at verse number one. And
Jesus passed by. Back up to the last verse of
chapter 8. You know, chapter divisions are
not inspired. Then took they up stones to cast
at Him. But Jesus hid Himself and went
out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed
by. He passed by. He passed by them. And He didn't stop. They're picking up rocks. Because He said before Abraham
was, I am. They're going to stone Him to
death. But our Lord hides Himself. He goes out of the temple. Passed
through the midst of them and so passed by. I think that happened
on Friday. Because we know the next day
is the Sabbath. And then the next day as Jesus
passed by, He saw a man which was blind from his birth. Here's the passerby. At the end of chapter 8 and verse
59, he passed by the Pharisees. While these folks, they argued
with him the whole chapter practically, John chapter 8. They're so upset
with him. And then when he dared to say
before Abraham was, I am, he would say, I am. I'm the great
I am. I'm the one who spoke to Moses
out of the bush that burned, but it wasn't consumed. They
said, that can't be. Picked up stones to stone him.
He passed by them. And then in chapter 9 and verse
1, as he passed by, the next day, he saw a man. That word saw means more than
he just glanced at him. It means he gazed at him. He
looked at him. Our Lord fixed His attention
upon him. And I'll tell you, it's a wonderful
blessed day when the Savior of sinners fixes His attention on
you. in His grace and in His mercy. He looks at you. He sees your
neediness and He sees you as an object of His sovereign grace.
He sees you as one of those sheep that the Father gave to Him from
before the foundation of the world. He sees you given to Him
in the covenant of grace. He sees you as one of those for
whom He shed His blood. He sees you. There's a scripture, and we don't
have the time to turn to it, in Luke chapter 18. Blind Bartimaeus. The scripture says when Blind
Bartimaeus, he heard some commotion, he asked somebody, he said, what's
going on? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. He said, Jesus of Nazareth is
passing by. He said, Jesus, thou Son of David,
have mercy on me. Jesus, thou Messiah. I believe
that you're in the Messiah. You're passing by, but don't
pass by without stopping and doing me good. Ezekiel chapter 18, that infant
cast out in its blood. That's you and me and our depravity.
The scripture says, the Lord says, I passed by. I saw you in your depravity.
I saw you in your defilement. I saw you in the mess you were
in. And behold, it was a time of love. And I said, live! And you lived. Jesus passed by. And here in John chapter 9, here
is the passerby. In Mark chapter 2, a man by the
name of Matthew sitting at the seat of customs collecting taxes. And the scripture says, as Jesus
passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the seat
of customs and he said to him, he saw, he focused on him. And
he said, Follow me." Two words, that's all he said. Follow me!
Boy, you talking about an effectual call. You talking about a call
that went right to his heart. Follow me! And Matthew just pushed
the books aside and I'm sure he gave it to his assistant and
said, I'm out of here. I'm gone. I'm not giving two
weeks resignation either. I'm gone now. I'm following Him. I'm following the Savior. Reach out and touch the Lord,
we sing, as He passes by. You'll find He's not too busy
to hear your hearts cry. He's passing by this moment. He's passing by this moment!
And He is! He's passing by this moment!
By His Spirit, through His Word, your needs to supply. Reach out and touch the Lord
as He goes by. That's the passer-by. Here's
number two, the problem. Here's a blind beggar. We know
he's blind, and in verse 8, the last statement says, "...is not
this he that sat and begged?" Blindness was an all too common
thing in the ancient world. And his blindness sets forth
the spiritual blindness of all of us by nature. See all of these miracles that
our Lord performed and the diseases that he did heal, those diseases,
they picture our spiritual illnesses and diseases. And you know what
the scripture says, by his stripes we're healed. What does it take
to heal us of our spiritual diseases, our spiritual cancer, our spiritual
leprosy, our spiritual blindness, our spiritual deafness, our spiritual
lame? What does it take? It takes the
stripes of the Lord Jesus Christ. God made His soul an offering
for sin. Oh, this man's got a problem,
like we all do. Blind, and he's a beggar. He's
poor. He got nothing to offer to God.
I tell you, it's a blessed day when the Spirit of God shows
us that we're just absolutely broke. As a saying used to be,
I'm plum broke. I'm plum broke. That's us by
nature. We're spiritually absolutely
plum broke. We got nothing to offer God.
Not one thin spiritual dime. That's why Augustus' top lady
said in his great hymn, Rock of Ages, Nothing in my hands
I bring. I got nothing to bring. Don't
bring your works. Don't bring your baptism. Don't
bring your prayers. Don't bring your Bible readings,
all those things. Don't bring them. Nothing in my hands I bring. Come as a poor old beggar. who's
got nothing and needs everything. Because you're coming to the
storehouse of God's mercies. You're coming to the One who
is abundantly, He's rich in grace, He's rich in mercy. But poor
old sinners like you and me. And then thirdly, here's the
purpose. The purpose is for the Lord Jesus
As it says in verse 4, that he might work the works of him that
sent him while it's day. The night cometh when no man
can work as long as I'm in the world. He said, I'm the light
of the world. The purpose of this is for Christ
Jesus to work a miracle. Do you know this man's blindness
was designed for his mercy. Isn't that interesting? His blindness
was designed for His mercy. And I bet you all those years
that He lived, He didn't think His blindness was a merciful
thing, but it was a merciful thing. You see, our Lord Jesus works
it so that before our conversion and after our conversion, All
things are working together for good to them that love God, to
them who are the called according to His purpose. You see, this man's blindness
and then his poverty, that's what wound him up right there
outside the temple, which is where a certain passerby would
be. All arranged by God's sovereign
purpose and plan. And then here's the power of
the physician. When he had spoken, he spat on
the ground, verse 6, made clay of the spittle, anointed the
eyes of the blind man with the clay, and said to him, Go, wash
in the pool of Siloam. Which is by interpretation, scent. We'll see if he believes God. We'll see if he believes God. Yeah, he does, because it says,
he went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing. Here's the power of the physician.
Now, when our Lord spat on the ground, and with His spittle
made some clay, and anointed that man's eyes, That's kind
of repulsive to the natural man. What? I come in and have a healing
service. No. He did it this way. He did it this way. You see, God uses means that
are despised by the natural man. And you know today in the spiritual
healing of sinners, you know what he uses? The foolishness
of preaching. The foolishness of preaching. The thing that men despise. The
thing that men say, no, I think we ought to have time for sharing. I had a fellow years ago, He
got upset with me and he left the church, he and his wife and
his kids, but he came to me and said, I think we need to have
testimony meetings. We just hear from you all the
time. I think we all ought to share. We all ought to have a
voice some. I said, no, we're not going to
do that. We'll just preach the gospel.
Well, I'll go somewhere where they do believe in sharing. Well,
go ahead. But this is God's ordained way
right here. It's not by having sharing sessions. It's not by testimony meetings. It's not by having quartet singings. It's not by having all of these
things. It's by one sinner standing up before other sinners, opening
the Word of God and preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's the means that God uses.
And the world says, no, that's old fashioned. But God says,
that's My Word. That's what I'll bless. That's
what I'll bless. And the Lord healed him. His
name is Jehovah Rapha. I am the Lord that healeth thee.
The Israelites came to the bitter waters of Marah. Cast a tree in there Moses. He
did and sweetened them waters. How does God heal sinners? By
the cross of Calvary. That's how He heals sinners.
Well, and then here's the last thing. Here's the puzzlement.
Verses 8-12. The neighbors which before had
seen Him that was blind, they said, Isn't this He that sat
and begged? I know that guy! And some said, Yeah, that's Him!
And others said, I don't know, he looks like him, but I don't know. And the man said,
it's me. I'm he. I was blind. I once was lost, but now I'm
found. I was blind, but now I see. It's
me. They said to him, how were your
eyes open? He said, a man that is called
Jesus. I say, that would be a good title
for a sermon right there. A man that is called Jesus. Oh,
what a man! Never a man speak like this man! What a man! He's the good man! That's who this is. A man that
is called Jesus. A man that's called Jesus, that
means the Savior of sinners. He shall save His people from
their sins. A man who's called Jesus. What
does that mean? Jehovah who saves! Not Jehovah
who wants to save, but Jehovah who saves, who is the Savior,
Jehovah who is our salvation, who accomplished salvation by
substitutionary death on the cross, that God might be just
and the justifier of everybody who believes on this Jesus, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Who do we give credit for for
our salvation? A man named Jesus. A man named
Jesus. Well, we'll pick up verse 13
next Wednesday night. If we're still here, Lord willing. And we'll look forward to that. Well, let's get our psalm books
again. Number 259. The rock that is
higher than I. 259. Good to see you tonight. Appreciate the visitors that
are with us. Thankful you came. I'm thankful for you folks that
are regulars. It's good to see the same old
faces, same young faces, same faces. That's stand and sing,
259. Oh, sometimes the shadows are
deep, And rough is the path to the goal, And sorrow sometimes
vanishes free, Like tempest now over the soul. Hold into the
rock, let me fly To the rock that is higher than I Hold into
the rock, let me fly To the rock that is higher than I Oh, sometimes how longslings
a day, And sometimes how weary my feet, But toiling in honest,
lusty ways, The rock's blest and shadowed out stream,