bear with us anybody that's watching
through the live streams we're trying out new software uh to
be able to stream to facebook and youtube at the same time
so if something goes awry we'll try to work with the kinks out
sometime this week and hopefully the next week have it working
but turn with me to john chapter nine we're going to start reading
in verse one uh just some thoughts a little put on my heart this
morning um Kind of some of the songs that I mentioned this morning
that we just sang, just a few thoughts coming through about
the Lord knowing us. We talked last week about God's
predestination and how providence flows from predestination. Everything
that God controls and is bringing forth and coming to pass with
his purpose flows from his predestination. He's predestinated all things
whatsoever will take place, what will come. But a lot of times
we think about that and we think about that in the terms of, as
we even mentioned last week, every little tiny detail, sin
and evil and salvation. But one of the things that sometimes
we don't really think about is the Bible says that also in that
purpose that God predestinated before the foundation of the
world and is bringing to pass in his providence, by His sovereign
control is also the manifesting of the love that He has for us.
Sometimes we don't realize that part of God's predestination
is that He would love His people. He had a love for His people
and from that love He predestinated them unto life. He predestinated
them unto salvation. He predestinated that all things
that would happen in time would lead to their redemption from
sin that would lead them to believe on Christ and ultimately in all
things whatever so be whether it's our redemption or like the
leaves out there fluttering and doing what they do all things
though the Bible says are of him and through him and to him
and it's for his glory so all things that have been predestinated
by God are for his glory. And a lot of times we don't think
about even the intricate little things of our life that God has
ordained, but he's ordained it for our glory. And one of those
things that God has ordained, as we talked about last week,
is sin and is evil, but is also sickness and affliction. And
God has ordained, he's ordained calamity all things again God
has ordained and this morning we see in these passages that
we're about to read we see not only the God's ordination of
this very event but we also see sometimes You know, we don't
think about our afflictions as God's love towards us or God's
glory being seen. But yet God did ordain a lot
of things. Well, not a lot of things. He's
ordained all things. But there are a lot of things
that we don't understand and realize that God is doing this
for a purpose. Just taking a wide step back,
look, our country seems to be in shambles. We are probably
at the lowest point in our country that this country has ever been.
It's evil. It's immoral. We've got crazy
people running the town. I mean, it just is off the record. But Brethren, my brother-in-law
is clean. So he's not going to do all these
things. He is going to go to a room and
he is for a specific purpose. And those things sometimes escape
our mind or sometimes we don't want to think about them because
we don't like them. And the fleshly man, the fleshly Adam man, likes
to rebel against God, is at enmity with God and his purposes. And
so even though we are children of grace, then that inward man
struggles against that outward man who likes to say, I don't
like that God, the inward man, is always there saying, but this
is for God's purpose, this is for God's glory. And we think,
well, how could God get glory out of what all is going on here?
You mean to tell me that God is being glorified in the raising
up of all this evil and wickedness and all the things that's going
on and everything? Well, it might not seem like
it in the immediate now, and that's the problem with our society
now, and especially, you know, we were talking about social
media a while ago, and everything, and we spend a lot of time on
social media, That, I believe, is part of the reason that the
country is the way that it is. But one thing that we don't realize
is with social media, it makes us a people that is so, I don't
even know how to explain it, but we have to have everything
now. I mean, it's just instant gratification, instant pleasure,
instant entertainment. We were talking about this a
while back, me and the family, and everything, you know. Having
a fast food restaurant with a drive-thru where you can just pull up and
order a meal and then drive away within five, 10 minutes, man,
that's awesome. I mean, to have that, that's
a blessing, so to speak, maybe. The food situation is a different
story. Somebody get me on that, but
to be able to just drive up and get you something to eat and
then drive away is just really a neat thing. But yet, sometimes
we'll get there and they may take, well, it's gonna be about
three minutes on your fries. Well, we get all upset. Well,
you ain't got fries ready right now? See, we've become so attuned
to being able to get what we want, when we want, immediately,
that sometimes we don't think that there is a purpose, there
is a reason, there is something going on. But even at that, we
do not have the patience to see things through. And whenever
it comes to afflictions, whenever it comes to hardships, whenever
it comes to turmoil, whenever it comes to all these things
that we would term negative, we don't step back and try to
look and see what's the bigger picture here. And God does receive
glory out of that. We want immediate gratification,
but the glory of God will be seen in evil being destroyed,
evil being judged and destroyed, that all wickedness is not getting
out of the view of God. God's not turning the blind eye. God's not saying, well, that's
okay. God is not an unjust God, that
every detail of everything will be laid bare before Him. It may not happen exactly right
now when you want it to happen, but eventually all things will
be to the glory of God, whether it be in His righteousness and
redemption and love and grace and mercy towards the vessels
of mercy or whether it be for destruction in his judgment and
his wrath and his hatred towards sin and all the righteousness
that's included in that in the destruction of the vessels of
wrath that's been fitted for destruction. And eventually all
that and their father, Satan, will all be destroyed and be
thrown into everlasting darkness. So, as we begin to kind of look
at some of these events that might take place, especially
those that may seem to bother us a little bit, like afflictions
and things like that, we've got to remember that it is for the
glory of God and that if we are His children, that those things
are for our good. Everything that he is given,
the Bible says, that he's done, if we are the called, we love
the Lord and we are the called according to his purpose, that
is for our good, right? So we read here in John chapter
nine, the story of a man who was blind by birth. Now I couldn't
think, well, I could think of a lot of things that might be
worse than this, but that would be pretty bad to have been born
into the world, never to have seen anything, be able to experience
sight at all and know nothing. and everything, how scary that
might be. To live in a place where you
can't see what's going on, you can hear activity happening,
but you don't know what's happening. You don't know exactly what's
happening, if something's coming at you, if something's gonna
get you, if you need to duck your head when you're walking
through somewhere. I mean, you don't know what's happening.
So I can't imagine how it is to grow up blind from birth. But here we see a story of a
man who was blind from his birth, And I'm going to start reading
here, I'm going to read down to verse 7 and maybe pick out
some things and some thoughts in this passage. It says that
as Jesus passed by, and this right here, brethren, I'm just
going to stop and say, this is the reason why I wanted to talk
about this because this phrase actually is what blessed my heart. And I spoke about this verse
before a long time ago whenever I was preaching through John.
This phrase just really grips my heart because it shows the
love and compassion of Jesus. If you remember, Jesus is walking
through. I mean, there's a bunch of people
that is around. I mean, he's in a crowd of people.
He's walking through. And it says here, as Jesus passed
by, he saw a man who was blind from birth. I mean, Jesus saw
a man. Now we know that Jesus is God.
He knows all things and he knows exactly where everybody is. He
knows all events. He has an appointed time for
everything. Uh, if you remember whenever,
uh, uh, the disciples of him was walking and they come to
this place and Jesus said, you need to go ahead and go on over
here. I must need to go through Samaria. Why did he must need
to go through Samaria? Well, because the Lord had appointed
a time for him to meet a woman, uh, in Samaria and to talk with
this woman. And, uh, The disciples didn't
have a clue about that. Matter of fact, they was like,
why are you going through Samaria for? We don't go through Samaria,
we go around Samaria. And Jesus said, I must need to
go through Samaria. Why? Because he had one of his children there. He had an appointment to meet
his children and he was going to go meet that child. They didn't
know that they were a child at that time. Nobody knew that there
was a child at that time, but there was a child of grace and
the Lord had to go and meet them. It was an appointed time. Well,
this is the same thing we see here. Jesus passed by and he
saw a man. And I think about that, how me
as a sinner, who is unworthy, who is evil and vile, the corruption
of my heart, the intent of my heart, the Bible tells me the
intent of my heart is evil continually, that in Adam there is no good
in me, that all my righteousnesses are as filthy rags, But at some
point, Jesus passed by and saw me. Now, I'm talking about an
experience here, brother, because we know before the foundation
of the world, Jesus knew us and he wrote our names down in the
book. OK, the Bible says that he wrote our names down in the
book of life before the foundation of the world. He knew us. He
loved us with an everlasting love. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about there was a
point in time that this sinner who was in Adam, who was dead
in trespasses and sin, who knew not God, I knew religion, but
I didn't know the true God. I didn't know the true Jesus.
I didn't know the true gospel. I didn't have love for that kind
of God. Matter of fact, I was very antagonistic
and had animosity against sovereign grace. I had animosity against
election and predestination. I didn't want that. I didn't
want to hear people talk about that. I had some family that
believed that and talked about that, and I didn't want to hear
nothing about that. But yet, there was a point in
time when, so to speak, Jesus passed by and he saw me in my
condition, blind. I couldn't see. Oh, I thought
I could see, as all of us do, don't we? Every one of us thinks
that we can see. I mean, there was a time I thought
I had a handle on this right here. I thought, man, I know
that I grew up underneath the preaching of that. I've studied
this. I know this. And, you know, at, uh, uh, you
know, I was teaching, uh, adults, you know, when I was a teenager
in the church that I grew up in, I was teaching adults and
boy, what kind of an ego that gives a man, you know, and as
a young man thinking that I had a handle on all this and I can
just, you know, debate anybody and prove anything and, you know,
But now I realize I don't know nothing. As Larry said, how many
sermons? 5,000 and still don't think I
know anything. As many sermons as I've preached,
as much time as I've spent studying and reading the Bible and hearing
preaching and being under the word of God and all that stuff,
I still can say I still don't know nothing and I'm ignorant
of a lot of things and have a lot to learn. And as God wills and
gives the spirit to reveal things to me. You know, there's a lot
of things that I still don't know and I need to know. But
yet there was a time whenever I was completely blind of all
things spiritual, as is all of us. If we are children of grace,
there was a time whenever we walked in ignorance, when we
walked in deadness, whenever we had no spiritual understanding,
no spiritual life, we were blind. In fact, the Bible says that
we're not only blind, but we're deaf. We can't see spiritual
things and we couldn't hear and understand spiritual things.
We were blind and deaf. But yet the Bible says that Jesus
passed by and he saw a man. And I'm thankful that the Lord
saw a man. He saw me and he had compassion
on me. He had love for me and that he
give himself for me. and that He sent His Spirit to
give me life so that I might experience Him and know Him. See, we always have it backwards
in modern-day evangelicalism. It's us that sought after the
Lord. It's us who chose the Lord. It's us who accepted Him. That's
just the opposite of what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches
that no one seeks after God. The Bible says that we don't
accept him, that we must be accepted in the beloved. We're the ones
that have to be accepted in Christ Jesus. We don't follow after
him and look after him. Now, once he gives us spiritual
life, yes, that's true. The Bible does say, seek and
you will find. But who's that speaking to? It's
speaking to the child of grace who has been given spiritual
life to be able to do that. Without that spiritual life,
no man seeketh after God. No man comes to me. That's why
Jesus said, you know, no one comes to the Father except they
be drawn. Nobody comes to the Father except
to be granted unto them that they might come. They have to
be granted spiritual life so that they can even have that
desire to come to the Lord. And here Jesus, he saw someone
who was blind, who had no idea about anything that was going
on as far as visually. And he had compassion on him.
He saw him out of all the crowd. His heart was set upon him and
he came and he began to minister unto him. He said, and Jesus
passed by. He saw a man which was blind
from his birth. Matter of fact, I've got another
verse here that I want us to look at before I move on. I want
to go ahead and move on. 1 John, or not 1 John, excuse me,
John chapter 1. John chapter 1. This is Jesus calling out His
disciples. It's where we're at here. Look
at verse 43 with me. The day following Jesus will
go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow
me. Now Philip of Bethesda, Bethsaida,
the city of Andrew and Peter, Philip findeth Nathanael, and
saith unto him, We have found him of whom Moses in the law
and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come
out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and
see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and saith of him, Behold,
an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. Now there's a whole
other sermon in that. I'll try not to get off track
and get into that. But that doesn't mean that Nathanael
was sinless, by the way. That just meant that Jesus knew
that he was one of his. that his righteousness had been
imputed unto Nathanael. Therefore, there was no guile
found in Nathanael. Nathanael was a child of grace.
But it says, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. Verse 48 says, Nathanael saith
unto him, Whence knowest thou me? And how often have we thought
that? When did you know me? When did you? Maybe you've had
the thoughts Why did the Lord place his love upon me and not
others? You know, we used to always talk
about, you know, there may be two brothers sitting side by
side in the church and one is saved and the other one isn't.
How is it that one became saved and the other isn't? Especially
like, let's go back even to Jacob and Esau. Here we got two brothers
that are twins coming out of the same womb at the same time.
You would think that, of course, as we talk a lot about how twins
are so much alike and have the same thought processes and characters
and mannerisms, even ones that have been separated at birth,
growing up, find out that sometimes they go into the same profession
and marry people that have the same characteristics and all
that. I mean, it's just kind of a weird thing like that, how
God does stuff. But here we have it. Jacob and
Esau came out of the same womb, same mother. And here is one
who is loved of God and one who isn't. One who is blessed to
be saved and one who isn't. And we say, well, what caused
this to be such, you know, how is it that this one has love
set upon him and this one isn't? Well, that's the sovereign choice,
the sovereign election, the sovereign God. causes that. And it's God's right
to do that. And so I can't say that I came
to Jesus, that I did this or I did that, because I could do
nothing had He not came to me. Jesus did not come to me, but I have come to Him. Jesus did not knew Him before
the foundation of the world. Nathanael's coming, yes, is a
thing that happens in time. Some people may say, well, there
was means. He had a guy that went to him and said, hey, come
and see this man. And he took him to the man. And
when he went to the man, he listened to the man. And the man talked
to him. And after he talked to him, he began to believe and
follow him. So there you go. There's means
and all that. Now, brethren, that is all ordained of God as
well. That was predestined of God. And Nathanael would not
have even known or come or done anything had it not been being
known of God before the foundation of the world. Look what it says
here, Nathanael saith unto him, whence knowest thou me? Look at Jesus' answer. Jesus answered and said unto
him, before that Philip called thee. So see, this takes out
means, don't it? Before Philip even told you about
me and told you to come and follow and see me. He said, before Philip
called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. Nathanael answered and said unto
him, Rabbi, thou art the son of God, thou art the king of
Israel. Immediately Nathanael knew, there's
no one that can know that. No one can know me in such a
way. We know Nathanael was there under the victory and Jesus knew
that. How did Jesus know that? Because
Jesus is omnipotent, because he's omniscient, excuse me. He's
God. And he knows all things. But
more importantly, not only does he know all things, He knows
his sheep. He knows his sheep. Look at John
chapter 10. John chapter 10 verse 14 Jesus
says, I am the good shepherd and I know my sheep and am known
of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even
so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. And
other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also,
here it is, I must bring. And they shall hear my voice,
and there shall be one foal and one shepherd." So here we see
again that Jesus knows His people. He knows them. He sees them. He is aware of them. Whatever
point in time that they are, whether it's in the Old Testament,
whether it's in the New Testament, he knows his children. And every
one of those children that he knows, the Bible says he loves. And every one of those ones that
he knows and that he loves, the Bible says he laid down his life
for them. And all these people that
Jesus for everybody is incorrect. That is not the biblical gospel. That's not the biblical atonement.
The biblical atonement is that everyone that whom Christ died
for is his sheep. And Jesus made very clear that
there were some that were his sheep and some that were not
his sheep. He told the religious leaders, he said, you don't believe,
you don't hear my words because you are not my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and they
follow me. See, we follow Him because He comes to us, He sees
us, He knows us, and as we're fixing the seat, He causes us
to see. Look at, if we would, back in
chapter 9, He says, And His disciples asked Him, saying, Master, who
did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Now,
that's just kind of the natural thing that everybody thought.
Matter of fact, this was a thought process of these men at this
time. The Jews believed that there
was cause and effect, and if you sin, that God made, you know,
did all this stuff, and there is. God does punish sin in different
ways and things like this. And there was also the Old Testament
scriptures that the sins of the father will be passed down upon
the sons to the third and fourth generation, I think it says,
and everything. and that in and of itself needs
its own explaining, but just the repercussions of sin. See,
if I live a debaucherous lifestyle in front of my children, if I
live as a drunkard, or as an adulterer, or as an abuser, or
whatever it is like that, and my children grow up seeing that,
that's gonna affect how they are, and they may become the
same type of person in their life, and if they do that, then
their children may do that as well. It's not saying that the
guilt of the father is going to be punished in the children
because of what the father did. That's not what that's saying.
But what that's saying is it's saying that this effect of living
in such a way is passed down to your children and that they
will experience and be judged for the same things, right? But
here we see these people thought this man was born blind because
either something that he did or something that his parents
did and that he was suffering this blindness because of that.
Now look what Jesus says here, brethren, and I think this is
a very, very amazing verse that Jesus says here and it goes along with
what we talked about last week. Jesus answered, neither hath
this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God should
be manifest in him. The whole reason this man was
caused to be blind from birth had nothing to do with his genealogy,
had nothing to do with his physiology, had nothing to do with his psychology,
had nothing to do with his parents' sin, or his own sin, it had nothing
to do with anything that God ordained this man to come into
this world made blind. This man came into the world
made blind, without the ability to see, without the ability to
function with sight. That's how he was made. From
birth, he was like that. And Jesus said, this has nothing
to do with whether this man sinned or whether his parents sinned.
It has nothing to do with anything. The only reason that this man
came into this world completely blind is that God should be manifest
in him. Now, brethren, let's think back
to our beginnings. The whole reason that we came
into this world in Adam blind Unable to keep the law of God.
Unable to do anything righteous before God. The reason Adam was
made the way that he was made was so that the glory of God
might be made manifest. We talked about this last week
in the predestination stuff when we were talking about sin and
evil. The reason that God ordained Adam's sin and that He made him
a man natural, He made him a man earthy, He made him a man unable,
or excuse me, without the spirit of God and unable to keep the
law of God. The reason that God made him
that way and said it was good, by the way, not saying that what
Adam did was good, but he said the way I made Adam, he looked
upon Adam and he said his creation was good because Adam was made
for the purpose that God created him to be and that was the man
who would bring sin and evil into the world. And so therefore,
Adam was brought in, so to speak, blind, without the Spirit of
God, without the ability to obey God, and whenever, as Romans
5 says, the law came in so that the sin, so that the law came
in so that the sin might abound. So that sin would come into the
world, and death came by sin. Why? Because God, before the
foundation of the world, had set up Jesus Christ to be a surety
for a people that he loved before ever there was any sin, but yet
God had predestinated that these people that he loved would be
brought forth in bodies of flesh, natural men, and in that natural
man would not be able to do anything to please God or have a righteousness
of their own, but yet God to display His mercy and righteousness
and grace and love and justice would bring forth a Redeemer
to redeem them from their sins. But He also would bring forth
judgment upon all those that He did not set that love upon.
And so we see that Adam coming into the world blind, so to speak,
if you want to say that, coming into the world the way that he
was, was predestined to fall predestinated to be the one that
would sin and bring that sin upon all mankind because everything
reproduces after its own kind, remember? We are a seed of Adam,
so we are reproduced after his likeness, made in his likeness,
after his image. We too have come into the world.
Every one of us has come into the world made blind. But yet, in God's appointed time,
like with this man, Jesus passes by. And he brings light out of
darkness. He causes us to see. He gives
us sight. He says, this man, neither this
man or his parents, but that the works of God should be made
manifest in him. Now, the works of God should
be made manifest in him. So this man is made blind so
that there is something that will be made manifest about God
working. But look how verse 4, Jesus ties
this together. He says, I must work the works
of Him that sent me. So who's doing the work? It's
Christ. It's not us moral reformation.
It's not us appropriating the means. It's not us seeking after
God. No, it's a work that only Christ
can do. The only way that any of us are
ever going to be made whole again, if any of us are ever going to
be made to see, if any of us are going to ever be made to
hear, to understand, to love God, to love the brethren, to
trust in Christ alone, to desire righteousness and holiness, if
any of us are going to be that, It's going to be a work of Christ,
and not our own work. The flesh produces nothing but
sin. The flesh profits nothing. The
only thing that can produce anything is Christ. And by His Spirit,
He works in us. By His Spirit, He has given us
life. He has given us love for God,
and He has given us love for the brethren. And he says, I
must work the works of him that sent me. So he is sent of God,
right? Christ is the one who is sent
of God. God sent Christ. Now, that doesn't
mean that there are that Christ is not God. Christ is God. But we're talking about the man,
Christ Jesus, God becoming flesh, God entering into to human flesh
and coming as our surety, coming as our redeemer, coming as our
substitute. God coming, tabernacling with
man. God with us, right? God sending himself as Christ
into this world. And whenever he said he came into
this world, he came to do what? All that God told me to do. He
sent me into the world to do all that, and in John chapter
17, I believe it is, Jesus said, I've done all the things you
told me to do. I've lost nothing. All these
that you've given to me, I've lost none of them. But notice
if you would, he said, he's the sent one. I must work the works
of him that sent me. So Jesus is the one sent to do
the work, and so therefore, the manifesting of the works of God
is found in the man Jesus Christ. Whether it be the initial experience
as we experience belief and repentance and faith and spiritual awakening,
quickening, or whether it is his objective work on the cross,
His obedience for us, His death for us, His resurrection for
us, that objective work of His is also the work of God that
He was sent to do on our behalf in our stead. But also the works
that He is doing in us through this experience of that salvation. But keep in mind that word sent
there. It says, 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 sat
on the ground and made clay 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. So Jesus told us the definition
of the word Siloam. It means to be sent or sent. S-E-N-T, not S-C-E-N-T. Sent. He said, go wash in the pool
of Siloam, which is by interpretation sent. He went his way therefore
and washed and came seen. See, whenever he was washed in
Siloam, he came seeing. Brother, I put forth to you that
Jesus is Siloam. He's the one sent. He is the
one sent by God. And in being sent by God has
become the fountain of living water. That those who are washed
in that fountain come seeing. Revelation. Chapter 22 I believe it is. Revelation chapter 22 and verse
1. It says, and he showed me, this
is John speaking and the angels took him and says, and he showed
me a pure river of water of life as clear as crystal, proceeding
out of the throne of God and the land." Jesus said that He is living
water. He said that those that are His,
that out of His belly shall flow rivers of living water. We spoke a couple of weeks ago
when we were talking about the eternal value union, that that
life that God had before the foundation of the world, that
was Christ's eternal life, is given to us, that eternal life
that is in us is the life of God himself. That's Jesus Christ's
life. He is life. And we have life
in us. And it says here that if we have
Christ in us, that in our, in us flows rivers of living water. Christ is that living water.
Christ is him who is in us. doing the works of God so that
God might be manifest. And as we will see, not only
in time, but for all eternity, that it might be manifest the
glory of God. He has done this so that God
would be glorified, not only now, but for all time. The Bible says that we are going
to be gathered around the throne of God and we are going to be
singing worthy is the lamb who was slain. who has redeemed us with his
blood. We're going to be crying, holy,
holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is filled with
his glory. Listen, we're going to be glorifying
God for the punishment and the judgment upon wickedness and
upon evil. I mean, a lot of times we don't
think about that, but the Bible is very clear, especially whenever
you look in the Old Testament. The Bible says, I laughed at
their derision. He said, go wash in the pool
of Siloam. in the pool of the one who was
sent. In Isaiah chapter 35, if you want
to turn back there, just got a few more thoughts to share. Verse 1 says, the wilderness
and the solitary places shall be glad for them, and the desert
shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. How can the desert blossom? We know the desert is barren,
right? How is the only thing, how is
the only way that in the desert something can blossom? This is saying that there's going
to be water that comes through the desert so that things might
begin to blossom. It shall blossom abundantly and
rejoice even with joy and singing. Think about the barrenness of
our heart, the barrenness of who we are apart from Christ
Jesus. Before Christ came into us and
that well sprang up with living water, we were barren. We were
dead. You look in the desert, that's
basically what it is. It's just deadness. Nothing's there. You
might find a few carcasses there. Anything that goes into the desert
that's alive, unless they find water, they're going to end up
dead too. Anything that I produce in my
flesh, the flesh of this deadness, will be dead. Anything that comes
into this desert that I might put forth as works, will be dead
before God. The Bible says that they're filthy
rags. The Bible says that they cannot please him, that they're
nothing. Jesus said that they are workers
of iniquity. Those people that come before
him said, did we not do this and do this and do this in your
name? And he said, depart from me, you doers of iniquity. I
never, you workers of iniquity, excuse me. But it says, it shall
blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing. The
glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it. The excellency of Carmel
and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord and the excellency
of our God. Strengthen ye the weak hands
and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are fearful
heart, be strong. Fear not. Behold, your God will
come with vengeance. Even God with recompense He will
come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall
be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap
as an heart, and the tongue of the dumb sing, for in the wilderness
shall waters break out and streams in the desert, and the parched
ground shall become a pool and the thirsty land springs of water
in the habitation of dragons, where each lay shall be grass
with reeds and rushes, and a highway shall be there, and a way, and
it shall be called the way of holiness. The unclean shall not
pass over it, but it shall be for those, the wayfaring men,
those fools shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any
ravenous beast shall go up thereon. It shall not be found there,
but the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransom of the Lord shall
return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon
their heads. And they shall obtain joy and
gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. It says there
the ransom of the Lord shall return. This man who was blind from birth
came forth blind from birth, but he didn't return back that
way. He returned back seeing. Every one of us who are children
of grace, we come forth from the womb spiritually blind, spiritually
dead, spiritually a desert, spiritually unable to hear. But brother,
we don't go back to God that way. We came from Adam dead,
we go back to God alive. Why? Because we've been sent
to the pool. We've been sent to the pool of Siloam. We've
been sent to the place where the rivers of living water are. And where the rivers of living
water are, what does it say here? It says that they will flourish.
It will bloom up. The only way that we can enjoy
the graces that God has given us as far as our understanding,
our love, our faith, our brokenness, our contrite hearts, humility,
patience, love, the gifts of the Spirit, joy, peace, long-suffering,
meekness, gentleness, temperance. All those things, those are the
things that are springing up and flourishing in the child
of grace. Because the desert's been watered. Because the pool
of Siloam, we've been cleansed in the pool. Because there has
been put within us the waters, the everlasting waters. And it's
all because it all comes down to He saw us. He saw us. Before the foundation
of the world, He saw us. And He put His love upon us.
It wasn't nothing any good that He saw in me. It wasn't anything
that I would ever do for Him. He saw me in His eternal wisdom,
His eternal purpose. He saw me and chose me. I don't
deserve that. You don't deserve that. No one
deserves that. This man came blind into this
world and a lot of people say, well, he didn't deserve to be
blind. What did this man do? He didn't do nothing. You know,
take the opposite side of what these disciples were saying. Say, what did that man do? Why
did that little baby come in blind for? That little baby is,
you know, experienced that. Brethren, we forget that even
from the womb, we come forth speaking lies. Even from the
womb, we come forth, the Bible says, that we are wicked and
evil from the womb. We look at these little babies
and we think how precious and how wonderful, but they are flesh,
they are of the earth, earthy, and as they come forth from the
womb, they come forth at enmity with God. And so yes, even these
little babies that come forth because of their unrighteousness,
and you say, well, how can they be unrighteous if they've never
sinned? Brethren, it's because of who they are. In Adam, who
they are. Listen, we deserve anything that
would ever come to us as far as any kind of bad thing or evil
thing or whatever because of who we are in Adam. We don't
deserve anything. And this man who was blind from
birth, he didn't deserve to be made whole. Matter of fact, the
very fact that he was an enmity of God, an enemy of God, the
very fact that he was of Adam meant that he didn't deserve
the righteousness of God, the healing that God brought to him.
Those were by grace. Those were by mercy. Those were
out of love for the man. whenever we look at our salvation,
listen, the very fact that God quickens us to life, that He
gives us understanding, eyes to see and ears to hear spiritual
things, that He gives us a desire to come, that He gives us faith
in Christ Jesus, that He gives us repentance from dead works
and repentance from false gospels, and that He gives us the perseverance
to stand in that faith and to stand in the Word of God. Listen, all those things are
grace and mercy that God has given to a sinner that could
never do those things. A desert will always remain a desert unless
water comes and causes it to flourish. A dead man can't produce
anything. A dead man has to be made alive.
And so like with the prophet, the question is, can these bones
live? What was God's reply or what
was the prophet's reply? Only thou knowest. The only way
that we know if one of us could ever be alive is if God knows
us. Only He knows those who He will
make alive because He knows them and He sees them and He has compassion
upon them and His grace and mercy will always be set upon them.
So anyway, I pray that that's been some comfort to you guys.
There's a song that my daughter sang one time when she was really
little. I think I may have mentioned
it just a few weeks ago. I happened to find the words to it, at least
to the first verse and the chorus and everything. And I thought
I'd read that to you. The name of the song is Jesus
Knows Me, This I Love. Now we always have heard the
song Jesus Loves Me, This I Know. But this was kind of a twist
on that is Jesus knows me, this I love. And that's kind of what
put my mind to some of the songs that we're singing this morning,
is the fact of Jesus knowing us is something that brings joy
and excitement to my heart and to any child's race, I would
say, is the fact that unless he knows us, we'll never spring
forth with seeing and hearing and light. But the words of the
song goes, first verse says, before time was measured, before
there was light, before any colors were set in the sky, he knew
all about me. Every breath that I would take,
he called me by name. And then the chorus goes, Jesus
knows me, this I love, though I'll never understand how he
could see the heart of me and want me just the way I am. Jesus
knows me, this I love. Now, for a little kid's song,
I thought that was pretty doctrinally sound and everything. But that's
the thing, is Jesus does know his people. And as he sees us
in Adam, there is nothing there that he could ever want. That's
why I always say, why did Jesus place his love on me? It isn't
nothing in me. The only answer to that is because
it was God's will. That's the only answer that we
have from Scripture. The only answer we have from
Scripture is that He has caused us to differ. He has caused us
to do that because He has loved us in everlasting life. Anybody
got any questions or any comments or anything you want to add to
that? Okay, I don't know this song,
but if you want to sing it for me. Poor, weak, and worthless,
so I am. I have a rich, almighty friend. Jesus, the Savior, is his name. He freely loves, and without
him, He ransomed me from hell with blood, And by His power
my foes controlled. He found me wandering far from
God, And brought me to His chosen fold. He cheers my heart, my
warmth supplies, and says that I shall shortly be in front with
him above the skies. Oh, what a friend is Christ to
me. Anybody else got another song
you want to sing? Let's bow and have a little prayer.
Lord, we thank you again for who you are. We thank you for
all that we are in Christ Jesus. We thank you for your word. We
thank you for the time together this morning, Lord. And we ask
that you just might bless it, that you might be with us as
we leave today, that you might be with us until we meet again. Lord, that you might keep us
safe, that you might keep us in the faith. We pray, Lord,
that today that the Lord Jesus been glorified in all that we
have done and all that we have sung and said.