I remind you again that it has
to do with a man that was born blind to whom our Lord gave sight,
and then that plays out through all of this chapter. I'd like
to speak this morning from it on the subject, the man born
blind, converted. The conversion of the man born
blind. Let's look at verse 35 and following. They had cast him out of the
synagogue because he was taking up for the Lord Jesus. And in verse 35, Jesus heard
that they had cast him out. When He had found him, He said
unto him, Do you believe on the Son of God? He answered and said,
Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said
unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh
with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. And Jesus said, For judgment
I am come into the world, that they which see not might see,
and that they which see might be made blind. Some of the Pharisees
which were with him heard these words and said unto him, Are
we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were
blind, ye should have no sin. But now, you say, we see, therefore,
your sin remaineth. Now, the last part is quite a
mystery. Now, the careful reader of these
things will observe that John is unique among all of the Gospels
that we have in our New Testament. The fourth Gospel, the Gospel
of John. In that, the first three Gospels,
Matthew, Mark, and Luke, cover many of the same things. They record many of the same
events, miracles, and such like, that our Lord worked in His life. But John wrote this gospel somewhat
later. And John, in his gospel, lays
the heaviest of his emphasis upon the deity and the sonship
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You notice that he opens
his gospel with a declaration of the eternality of the Word
of God, which is a reference, of course, to the Son of God
in John chapter 1, verses 1 through 4. And near the end of that gospel,
John sums it up by saying, in John 20, 30 and 31, that many
things that Jesus did are omitted from this book, that is, the
Gospel of John. But he said these are written
that you might know that the Son is the Son of God, and that
believing you might have life. in His name. Also, we notice
that John is much more selective in the miracles of our Lord that
he includes in his gospel as we saw recently in a study on
the miracles in the gospel of John. And I think we can agree
with the writer J.C. Ryle in saying that each one
of the miracles that John has recorded in his gospel gives
a very vivid picture of spiritual truth and also a proof of the
deity of our Lord. For example, I am the bread of
God that came down from heaven. I am the resurrection and the
life, as He raised Lazarus up out of the grave. I am the light
of the world, as He gave sight to a man that never had seen. I am the Son of God, the very
One who has come down from God the Father. Now, again in John's
Gospel, we have a few places where the Lord Jesus Christ is
written up as having dealt with an individual. In John's Gospel,
there is some one-on-one between the Lord and another. For example,
there is Nicodemus. in a meeting at night. There
is the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well in John chapter 4. There is this man who is given
sight here in John chapter 9. And when not many, but an individual
is being taught and is being blessed and is being instructed
by our wonderful and blessed Lord. Now the providence of God
carries the day here as much as it did with this meeting of
the woman at the well of Jacob. Water to draw she came at exactly
the same time that our Savior was there, weary and resting
upon the curb of the well. And as the Lord and His disciples
were leaving the temple, here in John chapter 9, there sat
a blind man by the providence of God, somewhere by the way,
probably begging for alms of the people that pass by. He was born blind. He never had sight in all of
his life. It was not a case where he once
saw and lost his sight. He never had sight in all of
his life. He had never seen his parents'
face. He had never seen the temple
with His own eye. He had never seen the beauty
of nature. He was born and raised and lived
in a world of darkness from the time that He was born. Now, as
they look on that man, the disciples of our Lord have a puzzling question
to come into their mind. They say to the Lord, Lord, who
is responsible for this man being born blind? Who is it that has
sinned, the man or his parents, that this man has been born blind? How could this be unless they
believe somehow in the pre-existence of souls in a previous life? But then his parents, This they
might conclude from Exodus chapter 20, verse 5, that the sins of
the parent are passed upon the children unto the third and the
fourth generation. However, the Lord's answer is
this. Neither this man nor his parents
has sinned in order that he is born blind, but this is a special
dispensation of the providence of God that the works of God
should be made manifest in this man. For I am come to do the
works that my Father hath given me to do. It was a special work,
a special dispensation of the providence of God. His blindness
is intended to be the occasion of the display of the power of
God and confirm the Lord that He is indeed the light of the
world. And it is a messianic proof. According to Luke 4, and verse
18, that Messiah will give light to them that sat in darkness,
and the recovering of sight unto the blind. Now some have said,
from studying the Scripture, that the Lord healed a greater
number of blind people during His ministry than of any other
bodily infirmity or affliction. In healing blind people, we read
in the Scripture, one He only touched in Matthew chapter 9,
29 and 30. In Matthew 20 and verse 34. Another in Mark chapter 8 and
verse 32. He used spittle on the eyes of
that man and anointed the eyes of the man with that. Sent him
then to wash in a well-known use pool of water a distance
away that he might then receive his sight. The man did so, perhaps
led by a friend or a family member or someone there kind to him
that heard our Lord's command, perhaps was curious, wanted to
check it out, wanted to follow it through. The man did as the
Lord told him, and the Scripture in chapter 9 says that the man
came seeing. He came away with his sight. Even as Naaman came away up out
of the water, with new and tender skin. It was not a case of restoring
sight unto this man by accident or disease, for the man was blind
all the days of his life. The Lord actually created sight
for this man upon this particular occasion. He gave sight where
there had been none before. He gave sight to eyes that never
had work and that never had seen before. And the newly sighted
man caused quite a stir and a contention about town with his new eyes. Apparently, he was known by sight
by many in the city, probably begging almost every day. It was known by many that the
man was blind that he had no sight, as he sat there beside
the temple, or by the way, and begged alms of those that came
by, or on the street corner where the people would meet. And the
people wanted to know here, in John 9, verse 10 through verse
12, how is it that your eyes were opened? How is it that you
have sight? How is it that after all of this
time you now can see? He tells them in verse 11, a
man named Jesus. That's all up to this point that
he knows. A man named Jesus made clay and
put it on my eye, and sent me to wash in the pool I did, and
I came away sighted." And then they say, where is he? Where
is this man? He says to them, I don't know,
in verse 12. Or he had gone and Jesus had
conveyed himself away. Then in verse 13, and forward,
the Pharisees, ah yes, they have to stick their nose into this.
The Pharisees get involved. They want to know, how did he
have his sight? Well, he recounts for them his
experience, and if you look in verse 16, they conclude, looky
here, This man is not of God. He does not observe the Sabbath
day. He's a violator of the Sabbath
day. This man is not of God, for it
was the Sabbath day when our Lord did these things. Other
people said, look, wait. How can a man that is a sinner
do such great works as these? So then, in verse 17, as we move
along, they ask the former blind man, what do you think of Him
that opened your eyes. What do you say about Him? What
is your opinion? And the blind man moves a step
further. He said, I think He is a prophet. Then in verse 18, they doubt
the man's story and so they go to the home of the man's parents
and they say, is this your son? Was he really born blind? Is it a fact that he never had
seen in his life, how is it then that he now can see? They confirm
to the Pharisees, yes, this is our son, yes, he is born blind,
yes, he now sees, but how he sees, we know not. He's of age, go and ask him. Now verse 22, Notice this, any
that confessed the Lord Jesus Christ were subject to excommunication
out of the synagogue. And the man's parents were fearful
of that and were reluctant to say much about it unto the Pharisee. In verse 24 through verse 34,
they berate the man and they degrade the Lord Jesus Christ,
saying, in verse 24, we know this man, meaning Jesus, is a sinner. The man replies,
sinner or not, I do not know. But one thing I do know, where
as I was blind, now I see. The man stands his ground in
the face of these hostile Pharisees, He chides them. He says, Oh,
are you wanting to become His disciples also? And they say,
Lookie here, we are Moses' disciples. You are His disciples. As for this fellow, we don't
know anything about him or where he comes from. But the man with
new sight waxes bolder and bolder And in verse 30 through verse
33, presenting them with what J.C. Ryle called, quote, an unanswerable
argument, unquote. The man says to them, look, You
call him a sinner, yet he opened mine eyes. Could a sinner do
such things? Since the world began, was it
ever heard that a man opened the eyes of the blind? Does God hear sinners in such
a way as that? If this man were not of God,
he could do nothing, the man says unto them. Remember what
Nicodemus said in John 3 and verse 2. We know that thou art
come from God, for no man can do these miracles that you are
doing except God be with him. Now we need to give earnest heed
to the words of the man in verse 30 through verse 33, and that
upon several accounts. Let's look at them. A. The man
given sight as much as was in him at the time and according
to the light and the knowledge that he possessed of the matter,
defends his benefactor, the Lord, as a special person, one having
been sent from God, as one that God heard, who did what no other
had ever done in all of the world. As a prophet, yea, and more than
a prophet, he considered the Lord Jesus Christ. Then Beelitz
noted, he faces alone the hostility of the Jews and the Zealots and
the Pharisees. He waxes bolder and bolder in
the face of their attack upon his gracious giver of sight. He risked incurring the wrath
of the enemies of Jesus. They see something in Jesus that
they do not see. It ever bears repeating, I think,
that the religious leaders, that those that are in power, the
doctors and the scholars, as they are referred to, are usually
the most corrupt in that religious movement. They are the ones who
question the authority of the Scripture. Those high muckety-mucks
in power in religion question the Scripture and question the
deity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. They are what our
Lord called blind leaders of the blind in Matthew 15 and verse
14. He called them blind guides in
Matthew chapter 23 and verse 16. But then see, we notice something
else about the man, we also see that when they cannot answer
his logic, when they cannot deal with the logic of the man concerning
the Lord, what do they do? They attack the person rather
than answer the question and deal with it. And they slander
his lowly condition. And they charge him with being
nothing more than an ignorant sinner. They say, look, you are
born blind and you mean to instruct us. You are nothing more than
a sinner in your lowly condition in life. Do you expect to give
counsel unto us? Altogether, born in sin, and
yet would you be our instructor? you born blind, a proof of your
being a low and vile sinner." Because you see, they're not
speaking here of original sin per se, but they have made some
erroneous conclusion that the man born blind is owing to some
particular sin. Remember, the disciples thought
the same thing back in the second verse of chapter 9, which the
Lord corrected in verse 3 and in verse 4. And then notice the
indignant response to the man's word. Their wrath reaches its
apex. In the last words of verse 34,
And they cast him out. Not just out of the chamber of
the Sanhedrin where they were meeting, not just out of the
temple, and not just driving him out of the room of the building
and out of their presence. Most expositors are agreed. It was a formal excommunication
of the man. First, let's remember something.
Looking back at verse 22, please, while I read it again. These words spake his parents,
because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already
that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put
out of the synagogue. John explains why the man's parents
were reluctant to get involved in the controversy. They were
reluctant to defend their very own son and the blessing and
mercy that God had bestowed upon him. The Jews had agreed. If any confessed that he is the
Messiah, they will be excommunicated out of the synagogue. Excommunication. Now, this was one way, or one
tool, if we may refer to it as that, that the Jews used to suppress
the people from espousing and believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. They threatened them with excommunication. You receive Him as Messiah and
you will be excommunicated. J.C. Ryle wrote this, to a Jew,
excommunication was the dread second only to the dread of death,
unquote. George Hutchison, in his commentary
on John, noted, the members of the Jewish synagogue did generally
fear to undergo this censure, unquote. Gil described it, this
struck great terror in the minds of the people to be put out,
to be excommunicated, to be sent away. And the reason was such
excommunicated persons were then anathemized They were cut off
from the whole body of the synagogue and the congregation of the people
and as such they were no longer reckoned members of the Jewish
commonwealth of Israel. Cut off and cast outside. This was a dreaded situation
for a Jew to be in, who believed that the Jews were the chosen
people and congregation of God, and that salvation had to be
only within the body or the country of Israel. Now, excommunication
was a long-standing tradition. In fact, we read way back in
Ezra chapter 10 and verse 8. A form of excommunication was
practiced there after the Babylonian captivity, when they were not
only cut off, but their goods were confiscated from them as
well. So thus we read in verse 22,
the Jews likely the Sanhedrin authority, had made a decree
that if any Jew owned Jesus to be the Christ, he should be deprived
of membership in the synagogue, no longer reckoned a part of
the commonwealth. This they used as a way to suppress
and keep the people in fear and in check from openly professing
the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ or for speaking publicly about
Him and in favor of the Lord. Well, did it work? Was this a
successful endeavor? We read in John chapter 7 and
verse 13, how be it? No man spoke openly of him for
fear of the Jew. Yes, it had an effect. They were muzzled. by their fear
of the Jewish enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ. Consider John
19 and verse 38, where we read of a man named Joseph, a good
man, one who would take the body of our Lord and give it a decent
burial. Described there, however, as
a secret disciple of Jesus out of fear of the Jew. John 19 and verse 38. Now concerning this Joseph, each
one of the Gospels mentions him. Matthew calls him a rich man. Mark calls him an honorable counselor. And Luke also calls him a counselor,
a good man, and just. The same had not consented to
the counsel or the deed of those who took counsel against Jesus. And something else is added about
this man Joseph. He was one of those who waited
for the consolation or the kingdom of God. Again, in John 12, this
time verse 42 and verse 43, we read of another sort of people
cowered down by this edict of the Sanhedrin. This time, it
is chief rulers of the synagogue who believed on him, But listen,
because of the Pharisees, they did not confess, lest they should
be put out of the synagogue. So John, so handy with explanation,
tells us here in verse 43, they loved the praise of men more
than the praise of God. That's in John chapter 12. The
Lord said to His disciples, in the upper room discourses, in
John 16 and verse 2, preparing them for some of the things that
were to follow. He says to them, they shall put
you out of the synagogues. And he that kills you will think
that he does God a favor, does God service. Whosoever kills
you will think that it is a service unto God, that he is doing the
work of God. My, we hear Paul confessing that
in the book of Acts. I cannot resist making here some
application of these things to our day and our time. Gone is the time, folks, when
people and the public admired a Christian person practicing
Christian principles. Gone is that time from among
us. It is now considered radical,
dangerous, and unacceptable to be a Bible-believing Christian
in our day. Why? If you let it be known that
you believe in creation according to the Bible's account, you will
be ostracized. You will be considered an imbecile
for not believing in scientific evolution. and all gasp, horrors,
horrors, horrors. They believe the Scripture are
the divinely inspired Word of God. Boy, that's dangerous, isn't
it? To believe that the Word of God
is indeed the Word of God. For shame, for shame, they actually
do not believe that gay is good. According to the scripture, they
do not accept that. What mindless robots, they say,
are those Christians to believe in a literal heaven and a literal
hell after this life? Or to believe so narrow-mindedly,
bigots they are and biased, that there is only one true God and
only one true gospel. Many would be put out of their
jobs and out of their livelihood if they stood for the Scripture
in that place, for the progressives have gained control of the academia
and also of the media and of the government, while Christians
are suppressed and pushed under and criticized, and Muslims are
protected and brought to the front with privileges. But now
I'm off of my soapbox, and let's get back to John chapter 9, and
the excommunicated man, and how our Lord Jesus Christ brings
His belief to maturity by revealing Himself unto the man that He
is the Christ. It appears that Jesus purposely
sought him out. In verse 35, the word spread
around that the man had been excommunicated, had been put
out of the synagogue. And the Lord Jesus Christ found
him, and personally spent time with him and dealt with a man. The Lord asked him a question.
The question is this, Do you believe on the Son of God? I noticed some versions had it,
Son of Man. But the question is, Do you believe
on the Son of God? Now, Christ does not ask this
for His information, but as Gil said, He asked the man this question
in order that he might draw out the faith and belief of that
man even more. Draw it out into exercise. and to direct it to its proper
object and end. He has high notions of the Lord
already, thinking that the Lord is a prophet, thinking that this
man who has given him sight, where he never had one, is a
prophet, and in verse 17, that he is of God, verse 33, sent
by God, that no man could do these things except he be from
God. But true faith must rise higher. It must rise higher than that
Jesus is a prophet, or a good teacher, or a good example. No less than a full confession
that Jesus is the incarnation of the Messiah standing in flesh. That's the faith of God's elect. God's elect rise higher than
calling Him a prophet, a teacher, He is the very Son of God in
the flesh. Faith does not stop at calling
Jesus a good man, or a teacher come from God, or a prophet mighty
in word or in deed, or one who can tell all things that ever
I did. Faith finds no rest for the sole
of its feet until it is fixed upon Christ in His blessed and
divine person. Compare the experience of the
woman of Samaria who met Jesus at the well to draw water. and the progress in her view
of the Lord in John chapter 4. This sort of parallels John 9.
To me they're kind of alike. The woman of Samaria, John chapter
4, and let's trace out her progress when she met the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 9, she easily recognizes
him as a Jew. Thou a Jew, ask a drink of me. Verse 9, But then, verse 11,
when she has heard a bit more from this man, she calls him
Sir, more respectful. She moves up to Sir. Then look
at verse 19, when he tells her about all of her husband's and
her personal immoral life, she says there, I think you must
be a preacher. You must be a prophet. And then notice in verse 29,
Jesus says to her, I am He. And in verse 29 she said, Is
not this the Christ? She says to the people of the
city. So she has gone from Jew, Sir, Prophet, to the Christ. And her faith now is open and
enlarged. So with a man in John chapter
9. We notice in verse 11 he refers
to a man that is called Jesus. That's all he could say at the
time. A man named Jesus anointed my eyes and I have my sight. But look in verse 17, when they
ask him, he said, I think that he is a prophet. Look at verse
25, he said, a sinner or not, he made me see. Look at verse
33, he must be of God, how could one do these things if not? Look
at verse 36, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? These two people share a blessing
in common in that the Lord said to the woman of Samaria in John
chapter 4 and verse 26, that speak unto you am He. And to the man in John 9, verse
37, it is He that is talking to you. That is, I that speak
unto you, I am He. The Son of God, the Son of Man,
I am. And notice what we read. The
man said, I, I believe. And then notice, and he worshipped
him, the Lord Jesus Christ. We have to remember, the Jews
stumbled at the lowliness of Christ. in the flesh as a man. The humility of our Lord, a man,
as Isaiah described that, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. Could such be the Messiah? A man of such misery? A man of
such suffering? A man of such rejection? Could
this indeed be the Messiah? Now, some following thoughts
were gleaned from George Hutcheson's commentary on the Gospel of John,
chapter 9. That though faith must take up
Christ in both of his natures and all of his offices, yet such
faith never finds sure footing till it goes through the veil
of his humanity and finds him to be true God." I think that
describes well the experience of this man. For the man who
first took Christ to be a prophet and to be from God is now carried
further He is ready and He is willing to believe on the Son
of God if He can know or have it revealed unto Him. Verse 36,
Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him? For some, right
in the presence of our Lord, right in the midst of the congregation,
know Him not. until He is revealed unto them. Christ must be revealed unto
us. God must reveal His Son unto
us that He is the Son of God, that He is the Christ. Consider
the two disciples on Emmaus Road. They talked with the Lord Jesus
after His resurrection. They didn't know who He was.
They thought He was a stranger. But then He revealed Himself. He opened their eyes and they
knew that it was Him. There cannot be a sound faith
apart from revelation, nor will there be saving revelation apart
from election and reprobation. For consider why some heard Jesus
say, I and my Father are one. and wanted to stone him to death. I and my Father are one, and
they wanted to kill him right there on the spot. While this
man in our text hears the Lord claim to be the Son of God and
says, I believe. He does not say, oh, get out
of here, you couldn't be, I doubt that. No, I believe. And then follow that up with
worship, maybe bowing on His knees before our Lord and our
Savior. and worshiping Him. Those, listen
to me, those who stop short of Christ's full deity do not have
the faith of God's elect. It is not a matter of accepting
Jesus as a personal Savior, as we've heard for 50 years and
more. People say, oh, I just accepted
Jesus as my personal Savior. We often hear that. The faith
of God's elect is expressed by the Apostle Peter in Matthew
16. Thou art the Christ. the Son of the Living God. Thou hath the words of life,
and we believe and are sure." Here is an example of that adage
in Isaiah 42 and 3, Matthew 12 and verse 20. This man that our
Lord met, a bruised reed, he will not break or smoking flax,
he will not quench. Here's this poor man, as it were,
a broken reed of smoking flax, and yet our Lord heals the break
and fans the flame. This blessed man received a twofold
sight from our Lord on that day. His eyes were opened, which was
the lesser blessing, but then the eyes of his understanding
were also opened, that he saw, knew, recognized, and believed
on the Lord Jesus Christ. He received two sights that day
that he never had before. Born blind physically, but also
blind spiritually. And the Lord cures the one and
then the other. The man believed and the man
worshiped the Savior. And notice that Jesus did not
refuse. the worship of the man, like
Paul and Peter did, stand up. No, he accepted the worship of
the man because he is very God indeed. Well, there's a sequel
here in the last few verses. We don't have time to look, except
very quickly, how Jesus brought the separation in giving sight
to the ones that see not, while blinding those who were supposed
to have light, sight, understanding, and seeing. A judicial blindness. incapable of comprehending and
receiving the truth of Christ. These false teachers who claim
light and knowledge and sight in spiritual manner fancied themselves
as beacons of truth and beacons of light became darkness. because Jesus stood in their
very midst and their ignorance rejected Him. While an ignorant
one born blind is given light by the light of the world and
then directed into the faith of Christ the blessed Lord. Yes, this man born blind is further
converted. And thank God, what a wonderful
testimony and work of our Lord it is indeed. He who gives sight
sees indeed. He that has the light of the
Lord sees the things of God. Thank God, folks, for revelation
and for the Lord opening the things of God unto His people.