I'll be speaking this morning
again from John chapter 9. If you want to go ahead and turn
there, this is a little series. I don't know how long it's going
to be, as long as the Lord keeps me here, I guess. But it's a
little series of messages that we're bringing here on this man
born blind. And as I've already told you,
a man delivered from physical blindness, but typical of God's
elect in this world who are, in each successive generation,
delivered from spiritual blindness. Because we're all born spiritually
blind. We don't know anything about a just God and Savior.
We don't know anything about the God of this world. We come
into this world and we fall into the traditions of man, thoughts
of our own thinking, We worship those things that we know not,
like Christ told the woman at the well, you know not what you
worship. Well, that's what we all do before God brings us to
the gospel. So it is a privilege and it is
a blessing to be under the gospel, I hope, and I know you do realize
that. Okay, in these first five verses
we spoke on last time I stood before you, the first five verses
I said speak of the reason for spiritual blindness. And we saw
here in verse 3, here let's read that verse, well let's just read
all these verses on down through here and then I'll make those
comments. Starting in verse 1, John 9 in
verse 1. And as Jesus passed by, he saw
a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked
him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents,
that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither has this
man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God should
be made manifest in him. There is the reason right there
in verse 3 for spiritual blindness. that the works of God should
be made manifest in him. And remember, he's typifying
the deliverance from spiritual blindness that God brings each
of his elect to. So go on to verse 4. Christ said,
I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day.
The night cometh when no man can work. As long as I am in
the world, I am the light of the world. When he had thus spoken,
he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed
the eyes of the blind man with the clay, and said unto him,
Go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation sent. He went his way therefore, and
washed, and came seeing." We covered the reason for spiritual
blindness in the first lesson. And today we want to look at
the remedy for spiritual blindness. The reason, and now the remedy.
Who in this world right now, or at any given time, gives evidence
that they are in God's eternal favor? I mean, everybody thinks
they are in God's eternal favor. Who gives evidence that they
are in fellowship with God? Everybody you and I know thinks
they're in fellowship with God. Depending on who is being asked
this question, you get a vast array of answers. No telling
how many different answers from so many different people. Some
would say the sincere, those that are sincere about what they're
doing, they're certainly in God's fellowship. Those that are dedicated
to their cause, that they're sincere about their religion,
they're sincere about their study, their prayer, those kind of things.
They're sincere about their morality, certainly those that are believing
are in God's fellowship. So you get just a vast array
of answers. But this is what God's Word says
about those who would be in the fellowship. Only those who have
been delivered out of spiritual blindness. Only those who have
been given spiritual sight. Only those to whom this work
of God has been manifest. Those are the ones that give
evidence that they're in the favor of God, that they're in
the fellowship of God. Last time, we looked at the reason. Today, the remedy. Spiritual
blindness, let me talk about that for just a minute, because
that could mean a lot of things to a lot of different people.
Spiritual blindness, though, is an infirmity that prevails
over all of us. Even God's elect, everyone born
into this world, it prevails over all of us by nature. And
it's an infirmity that none of us, are either able to see, nor
do we have any ability whatsoever to deliver ourselves from. It's
that kind of an infirmity. So what is spiritual blindness?
What are we really talking about here when we talk about spiritual
blindness? Well, spiritual blindness is
an ignorance of what it takes for a sinner to be found in the
favor of God. If you're ignorant of what it
takes, of what it took the Son of God to do in order to put
sinners in favor with God, that's spiritual blindness. It's an
inability to know what it takes for a sinner not to be under
God's wrath. It's not knowing what it takes
for God to demonstrate His justice as well as His mercy toward a
sinner without compromising either one. Or, as you hear us often
say, how can God be both a just God and a Savior? How can He
deal with us in justice and show us mercy without compromising
either one? The spiritually blind are those
who are on the broad way that this word speaks of that's leading
to destruction. They are those on a way, a way
that seems right unto man, but the end thereof is a way of death. They are those described in Romans
10 as being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about
to establish a righteousness of their own. All these are spiritually
blind, and the spiritually blind are involved in all of these
things. But let's look at the Word of God for the definition
we want to settle on for spiritually blind. Look with me over to 1
Corinthians 2 for just a minute. Talking about what is spiritual
blindness now. To be spiritually blind is to
be ignorant of the things freely given to us by God. Here in 1
Corinthians 2, look down with me to verse 9. Paul says, But as it is written,
I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that
love him. have no inkling by nature of
who God is, what He's done in Christ, what it took for us to
stand before Him, nor the things that He's prepared for those
that will be brought into the knowledge of His love for them.
Verse 10, But God hath revealed these things unto us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth
the things of a man, save the spirit of a man which is in him?
Even so, the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
Now we have received, he's talking about those that have been delivered
from spiritual blindness here, we have received not the spirit
of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might
know the things that are freely given to us of God. We didn't
know them, But God, through the Spirit, brought us to the knowledge
of them. Verse 13, Which things also we
speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth. This doesn't
come to us by philosophy or studies in this world's teaching, but
by the simple gospel of how God is just, to justify ungodly sinners
by the imputed righteousness of Christ. We speak not the words
which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches,
comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man,
the natural man would be one still in spiritual blindness,
who hasn't been delivered. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto
him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself
is judged of no man. For we have known the mind of
the Lord, that we may instruct him, but we have the mind of
Christ. That is, we have it by revelation. We have it, the mind of Christ.
We understand how God, through the Lord Jesus Christ, through
His person and His work, through His incarnation, has accomplished
the salvation of a multitude of sinners which he chose before
the world began. Spiritual blindness is not knowing,
not valuing what God Himself has done through Christ to deliver
sinners out of His wrath and into His eternal favor. Failure
to know what Christ has accomplished by His life and death for every
sinner He lived and died for is spiritual blindness. Failure
to know that Christ's death alone delivered every sinner of God's
choosing out of His wrath and into His eternal, unchangeable
favor is spiritual blindness. So, that's the first thing we
want to understand is what it is to be spiritually blind. It's
to not know how God can deal with us both in justice and in
mercy without compromising either one through the death of His
Son. Now this passage we're looking
at back here in John 9, this passage is both literal and it's
typical. And what do I mean by that? Well,
it's literal in this. There is a man who was born blind
and he is delivered from that, literally delivered. He's given
sight so he can see things. He can see objects that he couldn't
see before. And it speaks of Christ spitting on the ground,
actually spitting, and making a little clay of that spittle,
and anointing the eyes of this man, and then sending him to
a specific place, the Pool of Siloam, and that man going and
washing. These are all literal things,
but also this passage is talking about typical things. Typically,
He's talking about, as I've already said, God's elect all men, Really,
all men are born spiritually blind, but the elect are typified
in this man who is delivered from spiritual blindness. Christ
said over in verse 39 that we studied earlier, He said, For
judgment I am coming into this world that they which see not
might see. That would be His elect. We're
born not seeing spiritual things, not understanding the God of
this Word, nor the Christ of this Word, but we're brought
into that knowledge and understanding. And he says also that they which
see not, well, they that see not might see, and they which
see might be made blind. Those who in this world, in this
world's religion, who think, who imagine, just like we did
before God brought us to the Gospel. Imagine that we see how
man can stand just in God's sight, apart from the finished work
of Christ, apart from His accomplished redemption. They think they see,
but they're really blind, and they'll be made to see that.
If not in this lifetime, through deliverance, they'll be made
to see in the end. We'll see four elements in this
story here. We'll see a man born blind. We'll
see the spittle that I spoke of. We'll see the clay made of
the spittle. And we'll see this pool of Siloam.
And I'm going to talk about these four elements and what they typify
in God delivering His sheep, His elect from spiritual blindness.
Let's look at these elements as we consider the remedy for
spiritual blindness. The first thing we have here
And I'm looking in verse 6 if I didn't tell you that. Christ said, When he had thus
spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle,
and anointed the eyes of the blind men with clay, and said
unto him, Go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation
sin. He went his way therefore, and
washed, and came to see him. First we have the man, blind
from birth. Now this man typifies all of
God's elect as we are born into this world. Now, he was born
blind, he said back in verse 3, for a specific reason, that
the works of God should be made manifest in him. God's elect
are born for that very same purpose. We're born into this world spiritually
blind, not knowing the One who has saved us, not knowing the
One who laid down His life in order that we might stand before
God and be counted just. We don't know Him by birth. And
we're born ignorant of Him for the same purpose, that the works
of God might be manifest when He delivers us out of that spiritual
blindness. If any sinner ever looks to the
God who justifies the ungodly based on the imputed righteousness
of Christ alone, it will be for one reason only, because God
mercifully, graciously, freely ended that sinner's spiritual
blindness and gave them eyes to behold and rest in the Savior
that He sent. Christ told His disciples in
Matthew 13 and verse 11. He was answering this question
that they had asked of Him. Why speakest thou to them, the
multitudes, in parables? And Christ answered them, He
said, Because it is given unto you. He is speaking to His disciples.
Given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. But
to them it is not given. And then on in verse 16, He said,
Blessed are your eyes. for they see, and your ears for
they hear. The only ones who see and hear
are those who are blessed by God to do so. Although most of
us are not born physically blind. In fact, none of us were born
physically blind. All of us are born spiritually
blind. We were born seeing with these
physical eyes, but we were born ignorant of a just God and Savior. Just like this man, we're born
in need of a Savior. who will end our blindness and
enable us to see what we never saw before. We've seen in the
Gospel, and by the Spirit of God entering into our heart and
bringing us to this Gospel and causing us to know the Savior
of this Gospel, we've seen things that a natural man will never
see. It's things that only God makes known in the hearts of
His people. So we'll see things that we never
saw before. So the first element in this
story we have here is the man born blind. The second we see
here is the spittle. Christ actually spat on the ground
and made a clay of spittle and put it on the eyes of this blind
man. This spittle is typical of Christ's incarnation. It's
typical of His walk in the earth, His work of obedience unto death. It represents the necessity of
Christ's coming. His presence, His very presence
in the earth. In John 1.14 we read, And the
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. That was a necessary
thing for Christ to come and tabernacle among His people.
Everything purposed by God in eternity was absolutely dependent
upon Christ coming in time and working out or actually accomplishing
what had been purposed. Christ's coming was necessary
for these two reasons. It is Christ's work alone that
satisfied the law and justice of God and established the only
righteousness by which God is the just justifier of ungodly
sinners. without Christ coming, without being made under the
law, without Him obeying that law in every jot and tittle,
and then laying down that sinless, obedient life in a sacrifice
to God, and bearing the sins of His elect, and putting away
those sins in that just satisfaction. Without His work, there could
be no sinner who could ever stand before God and be counted just. So the first reason is that Christ
had to come to satisfy the law and justice of God on behalf
of those He represented. The second work that is necessary
for Christ to come to this world, it is Christ's work alone that
exposes the best work of man to fall short of God's standard. Christ had to come and meet the
standard so that He could reveal in that standard that He met.
that all our best efforts, even my best prayer, even my best
preaching, no matter what I do, my best effort falls short of
God's standard. Christ said in Matthew 5 and
verse 20, For I say unto you that unless your righteousness
exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees,
you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. The scribes
and Pharisees are still today some of the most zealous, religious,
dedicated men to their religion that's ever been known in the
history of this world. But unless your righteousness
exceeds theirs, Christ said, you won't enter the kingdom of
heaven. In Acts 17 and verse 31, he says, Because God has
appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness
by the man whom He has ordained, He has given assurance of this
to all by raising Him from the dead. In other words, He's given
assurance to all by Christ's resurrection that it'll be by
the standard that Christ met, the standard of His righteousness,
that He's going to judge this world. So you'll either be found
in the righteousness Christ reckoned to you, or you'll be found wanting,
lacking, not measuring up to that standard in a righteousness
you think you've worked out. Christ had to come to uphold
and satisfy God's standard, to magnify the law and make it honorable. And His doing so exposes the
best efforts of men at falling short of the standard. And that
is what's typified by the clay. Christ had to come. That's typified
by His fiddle. But what's blinding the eyes
of men is typified by the clay in this story. This is the next
element I want to talk about. The clay is typical of something
over the eyes of this man that was preventing him from seeing.
Now Christ put the clay there, I know that. But He's showing
us that there's something over our eyes that are preventing
us from seeing spiritual things. The clay is typifying all those
things in a sinner's life that keep him from seeing his real
need for Christ. Some of those things would be
self-righteousness, moral excellence, traditions, things highly esteemed
among men, even faith when you view faith as a condition necessary
to appropriate what Christ has done. Even faith. All those things
are covering the eyes of sinners to where they can't see their
need of the Savior who has come and worked out a righteousness
that God accepted and imputed to His people. These are things,
most of which are not wrong in themselves, but by nature we
think these things make up some part of our acceptance with God.
Before God delivered each one of us, we thought our going to
church, our reading our Bible, our being good parents and good
citizens and good patriots and all these things We wouldn't
have said that that's what recommends us to God, but we would have
thought God was highly pleased with those who do those things,
much more pleased with them than He was who did not do those things. And therefore, it's these things
that keep us from seeing our real need. We have a real need. Every sinner born into this world
has a real need. What's a sinner's real need?
It's the Savior who has done it all. It's a substitute who
has borne God's wrath to completion. It's a surety who has stood in
our place under the law, obeying all its precepts, and yet suffering
all the penalty we deserve for our disobedience. Our real need
is a representative who has established a righteousness which a just
God has accepted and imputed to His elect, a righteousness
which gives them an unchangeable standing of righteousness before
Him. Spiritual blindness is not seeing
our need for such a representative, such a surety, and such a savior. So the clay typifies all that
stands in the way of all of us by nature. All that keeps us
from looking to Christ alone for all of salvation. That clay,
all these things I mentioned, and multitudes of other things,
That clay must be washed away before these blind eyes can see.
And that brings us to the last element in this story. What can
wash away that clay? What can wash away those things
that are preventing us from seeing our real need? Well, that's typified
by the Pool of Siloam. That's the fourth element in
the story, the Pool of Siloam. It's a specific place specified
by its name. And you can see in the context
here, the name, it says, which is by interpretation, sin. And that literally is having
been sent. Now, we know that every word
of Scripture is inspired by God. These words right here, of course,
are no exception to that rule. Christ did not just tell this
man to go somewhere and wash off the clay that he had anointed
his eyes with. He didn't just say, go to the
first well of water or go to the first water you find and
clean yourself up and you'll be okay. He didn't say that.
He was sent to the pool whose name is Scent, having been sent. He was sent to the pool which
typified the one God sent. In Nehemiah 3.15 you could read
about this pool. commissioned to rebuild Jerusalem.
You can see there how this pool was rebuilt by a certain man. I don't remember his name, but
if you want to read about it, it's in Nehemiah 3.15. This was
a pool that flowed under the walls of Jerusalem, and many
went there for healing. In fact, we used to sing an old
song. I don't know whether we still
do, though we go over Cold dark mountains seeking the sheep,
or along by Siloam's fountain seeking the weep, or helping
the weep, or something like that. But anyway, it's a known place. It's written of. What do we know? This pool was a part of the temple.
It was a part of that temple that Solomon built. What do we
know about everything that was a part of that temple? In some
way, To some degree, it typified the person, the offices, or the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Solomon, who built the temple,
was as careful with every detail of the temple as Moses had been
in building that tabernacle. Careful to follow the pattern,
because the pattern was all about the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything
about it typified Him. Everything in it pointed centers
in some way toward the Lord Jesus Christ. It's no accident that
this pool had many years before been named Siloam, or Scent. Or, it's not an accident that
Christ commanded this blind man to go wash in a pool whose name
was Scent. It might be that the pool was
named for this name, named this name Scent, just to complete
this story when Christ came. I don't know that. But what it
teaches us is that the only thing that will wash the clay from
our eyes, the only thing that will wash those things that are
keeping us blinded to how God can be just and justify, the
only thing that will enable sinners to see the Savior we all need
but none of us by nature are seeking, the only thing that
will remove these obstacles is the one that God sent. The one
He sent. The one who accomplished all
of the salvation of His people. That Savior brought home to the
heart by the Spirit of God under the preaching of the Gospel.
The work of God is to bring each of His elect and each successive
generation to believe on Him. Him whom God has sent. Look back
at John 6 and verse 29. Christ is responding here to
some people who want to know how they can work the works of
God. They said that in verse 28. John 6, 28. They said unto
him, What shall we do that we might work the works of God?
Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God,
that you believe on him whom he hath sent. The one God sent. The one God sent to stand in
the place of a multitude of sinners and to bear away their sins in
His body on the tree to bring in that just satisfaction and
that righteousness that we all needed but none could establish.
It's when we're brought to that Savior's scent of the Father
that the clay is washed from our eyes that we might behold
the very glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The spiritual
blindness of sinners is ended when we are brought to rest all
of our salvation and acceptance with God in the Savior God has
sent. Now, I've explained to you four
elements in this story. We looked at the man blind from
birth, the spittle, the clay that was made, and the pool of
Siloam. But because the self-righteous religionists of our day and every
other day would say that I've omitted the most important element,
What would that be? What would he think that is?
It was Christ's command to go wash. He left that out. That's a part of this story.
I've got to address one more thing. I've got to bring one
more thing here to your attention. If we look at what I'm talking
about right here in verse 6 again, Christ said to him in verse 7,
Go wash in the pool of Siloam. And I want you to notice what
is not here. There's no promise here connected
to Christ's command. He did not say to this man, if
you will go wash, you'll receive your sight, did he? The command
was simply go wash in the pool of Siloam. No promise attached
to it. The Scriptures never promise
a sinner anything based on that sinner's doing. Never. You won't
find a promise here in God's Word that has a condition or
a requirement for a sinner to meet. But that's not the way
the religion of this world sees it. John 3.16, a very familiar
verse to all of us, says, Whosoever believeth on him... How does that first go? For God
so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son that whosoever
believeth in Him. Now they see that believing as
a condition attached to that by God. Romans 10, 13, Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord, that's a condition to them.
John 1, 7, If we confess our sins, God is faithful. But I'm
telling you, God never made a promise. He never issued a command that
required a sinner to do one thing, not even to believe, in order
for that promise to be real to that sinner. I mean, for that
promise to be fulfilled. It won't be real unless you believe.
It won't be real unless you call. But the calling and believing
are no conditions to be met in order for that promise to be
fulfilled. I remind you of a lesson we recently
heard on Acts 16 and another very familiar passage in the
Philippian Jailer. You remember that. We just heard
from it a few weeks ago. The Philippian Jailer asked Paul
and Silas, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And Paul and Silas
said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
Now again, just like Christ, they didn't say, If you'll believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll be saved. As we learned from
Mandy's lesson there, Paul and Silas were correcting the jailer's
wrong assumption that there was something he could do. You see,
that jailer is typical of all of us by nature. We all think,
well, there's something I need to do. There's something I've
got to do. But that wrong assumption has to be corrected by the Gospel
that says those resting in Christ alone are the ones who are saved. It's not your doing that will
save you, Paul and Silas told the Philippian jailer. Salvation
is in the one who has already done everything to save every
sinner he lived and died for. That's where you find salvation.
Not in your doing, in His doing. Not in your meeting a condition,
but in Him meeting every condition. The only promises in God's Word
are based on Christ alone. They're based on His doing and
on His dying. They're not based on conditions
that sinners must meet. 2 Corinthians 1.20 says, For
all the promises of God in Him, in Christ, are yea, and in Him,
amen, unto the glory of God by us. There were indeed conditions
to be met in order for sinners to stand and be counted just
in God's sight. There were conditions. But Christ
met every condition. He didn't leave any conditions
to be met by sinners in order for us to be saved and justified. Romans 10 forward that Bill quoted
in his message, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes it. Those resting in Christ know
that He's met those conditions and know that even their believing
in Him was not a condition that they met in order even to appropriate
His work to them. So I've tried to tell you here
about the remedy for spiritual blindness. And I've said that
it is a Savior. who delivered every sinner he
lived and died for out of God's eternal wrath and into God's
eternal favor by his obedience unto death alone. And then, in
time, the Spirit of God delivering a sinner to that gospel that
declares such a Savior and convincing that sinner that their only hope
is to be found in Christ and His imputed righteousness alone.
Romans 6 and verse 17 and 18 says, but God be thanked that
though you were the servants of sin, you were spiritually
blind. You were under the dominion of
sin. You were going about to establish
a righteousness of your own. You were the slaves of sin, yet
you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you
were delivered. The Spirit of God is going to
deliver every sinner the Father chose and that Christ redeemed
in time to this gospel and convince them that their only hope is
in Christ alone. And having been set free from
sin, you became the slaves of righteousness. The remedy for
spiritual blindness is to be delivered from going about. It's
to be brought to the one scent of the Father. It's to find your
rest in salvation in Christ's blood and imputed righteousness
alone. Now, next in this series of messages,
we're going to look at the response of those delivered. to those
who are not delivered. But today, I hope you've learned
something about the remedy for spiritual blindness.