Could be. Could be. He'll touch somebody this morning.
Wouldn't that be something? Open your Bibles to John chapter
9. This chapter begins, And as Jesus
passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. As
the Lord passed by. And we saw last week at the end
of chapter 8, The Lord passed by those self-righteous Pharisees. He hid themselves. He hid himself
from them, blinded their eyes so they couldn't see him. And
he went right through their midst and passed them by, left them.
And I'm so thankful he doesn't pass by everyone. The Lord will
not pass by his people. He's not going to pass by this
blind man because this blind beggar is one of his children. He's not going to pass him by.
And our Lord saw him. There he sat in his blindness.
Probably filthy, dirty, beggar. The Lord saw him. He'd been blind
from his birth. Never seen a thing. There he
sat. He didn't see the Lord. He's
blind. He can't see. He has no capacity to see. He's blind. But the Lord saw
him. What mattered is the Lord saw
him. Now, verse 2. His disciples asked
him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents,
that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath
this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God should
be made manifest in him." These poor disciples, I feel sorry
for them. I'm glad everything I've said
has not been recorded in Scripture. I've said a lot of stupid things
that could have been recorded in Scripture as an example of
what not to say, an attitude that you ought not to have. And
this question that they ask just shows you how judgmental and
how self-righteous human nature is. You know, men like to be
religious philosophers, don't they? They're just philosophizing
on the effect of sin, what's caused this situation. And they
assumed that this man's blindness was punishment for somebody's
specific sin. Maybe it was the sin of his parents,
and he's being punished for the sin of his parents. Maybe it's
his own sin that caused him to be blind from his birth. You
know, the Jews thought if a mother, when she's pregnant, they thought
if she sinned while she was pregnant, that the child would be born
with some horrible sickness or disfigurement or birth defect.
And they also thought every time somebody got sick, that it was
punishment for a specific sin. Job's so-called friends thought
that, didn't they? You know, they'd come to watch Job and
say, Job, what did you do to bring all this on yourself? But
our Lord told them and us, this is not the case. He said this
didn't happen because he sinned or his parents sinned. Now you
know our Lord's not saying that this man or his parents have
never sinned. You know better than that. He's not saying that
this man and his parents are not guilty in Adam. Of course
they're guilty. All of us are guilty in Adam.
And every sickness, now it is the result of sin. We'd never
get sick if we didn't have a sin nature. That's just the result
of sin. What our Lord is simply saying
here is this. Every sickness is not punishment
for a specific sin. It's just the result of sin in
general, but it's not punishment for a specific sin. If God worked
that way, every one of us would be blind. Every one of us. If
it was true what the Jews believed, that if a mother sinned while
she's pregnant, her child would be born blind. None of us would
have ever made it out of the NICU. We'd all been born with
a horrible sickness and we died at birth. That's not the way
God works. And here's the problem with thinking
this way. If we think somebody got sick
because they committed a specific sin, then I must be less of a
sinner because I'm not sick. I must be better than them. See
how dangerous that kind of thinking is? We'd be better served. if we are a whole lot less judgmental
and a whole lot more compassionate. Like our Lord, compassionate
with sinners. Now look back at Exodus chapter 34. Now they could
say they've got scripture to back up this question. Is this
sickness, is blindness because this man's sin or his parents?
They could say they've got scripture to back up that question. In
Exodus 34 verse 6. And the Lord passed by before
him, before Moses, and he proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, merciful
and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and
truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's
children unto the third and to the fourth generation. Now, without
a doubt, actions of parents have a profound impact upon their
children and their grandchildren. I'll give you a perfect example
of it, Elimelech. Elimelech moved his family from
Bethlehem and took his family down to Moab. And while he's
there, his two sons married idolaters and both those young men died
in that heathen land. And Naomi, his wife, was left
a widow when a limelight died in that foreign heathen idolatrous
land. And Naomi paid an awful price,
didn't she? She paid a horrible price when
she finally comes back to Israel. She said, don't call me Naomi.
Call me Mara. I'm bitter. The Lord had felt
bitterly with me. She paid a horrible price for
his her husband's actions. And if God's grace had not intervened,
A Limelech's grandchildren and great-grandchildren would have
grown up as idolaters, worshipping idols. Now, the effect of parents
has a great impact upon future generations. That's just so.
But now, let's never get so taken up being judgmental that we forget
to preach forgiveness of sins in Christ. The same passage that
they could have used to ask this question, you know, the Lord
will by no means clear the guilty. visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children and upon the children's children
to the third and fourth generation. Now, that's true, isn't it? But
that same passage sure has a lot to say about mercy and grace
and forgiveness of sins, too, doesn't it? I think they forgot
that part. They just read this part down
here at the end. Let's never get so taken up with defending
our doctrine and proving that we're doctrinally sound that
we forget to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to God's
sheep. Now God's sheep, all of them,
both the saved ones and the lost ones, do you know what they need?
They need Christ to be preached to them. They need to feed upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. None of them need to be impressed
with what great theologians we are. They need Christ. So let's
not get caught up defending our doctrine and showing how much
we know. Let's just preach Christ. Now
our Lord says this happened, this sickness, this blindness
happened. that the works of God should be made manifest. And
that's the title of the message, the manifold works of God. Well,
what are the works of God our Lord's talking about? He's talking
about all the work of Christ in salvation. And that's what
we're going to see a picture of in this test, the manifold
works of God, the works of God that are seen in salvation. And
first we see this in our text, the glory of Christ is seen in
his work of salvation. The Lord tells us this man's
blindness wasn't a punishment for a particular sin. His blindness
was for a reason. That the works of God would be
made manifest in him when the Lord healed him. His blindness
was so that the glory of Christ would be seen by men. God works
that way, doesn't he? Christ stayed put while Lazarus
was sick and he stayed there until Lazarus was dead three
days. He allowed Lazarus to die. So that when he got there, the
glory of Christ would be seen when he raised Lazarus from the
dead. God put Adam in the garden. God knew what Adam was going
to do. God could have stopped Adam from falling if he wanted
to. He could have kept Adam from sinning if he wanted to. But
God allowed Adam to fall in the garden. Now, there's no excuse
for it. Adam's fall was a horrible event
in human history. Adam's sin brought death and
damnation on all of his race. What a horrible thing. But God
allowed Adam to fall. He allowed that death and destruction
to enter into the world so that Christ's glory and salvation
would be seen when he came incarnate to save his people from their
sins. Only God can do that. Only God can bring good out of
evil. That's the way God works. And
he allowed this blindness to happen so that the glory of Christ
would be seen when Christ came to healing. The second thing
we see is about the manifold or manifest works of Christ is
this. The work of Christ in salvation is necessary because of our sin. The man in our text was born
blind. And every son of Adam is just
like spiritually, we're born blind. We don't have any ability
to see. No matter how hard you try, no
matter how hard the preacher tries to make you see, we cannot
see. Because we don't have the capacity.
We don't have the ability. We're born blind. We're born
blind because we're born from Adam's seed. We've got Adam's
sinful nature. We're so blind. We don't even
know we're lost. We can't see how bad our condition
is. We can't see the filth of our sin. We might think we're
a little bad, but we don't see the filth and the corruption
of it. We don't see the depth of our sin. We don't see the
spiritual nature of sin. We can't see. We're blind, so
we can't see the hopelessness of our condition. We still think
somehow we can help ourselves. You know why we think that? Because
we're blind. We can't see. We're spiritually
blind, so we can't see Christ. You can hear people talk about
Him. You can hear people sing about Him. You can hear people
come to Him. You can hear people confess Him,
but you can't see Him. We can't see salvation in Christ. We can't see righteousness in
Christ. We read the Word, but we can't
see Christ in His Word because we're blind. Now, we say men
are spiritually blind. It doesn't mean they can't read
the words that are written on a paper. It doesn't mean they can't understand
the words written on the paper. It doesn't mean that they can't
understand the gospel. When they hear a priest, they
can't understand the ABCs of the gospel. Of course they can.
The gospel is so simple. Little children understand the
gospel. I mean, it's not that they can't understand it. When
we say they're spiritually blind, it means their understanding
is darkened. So they don't have the capacity
to believe it. That's what we mean. Look in
Ephesians chapter 4. I'll show you that. They don't have the
capacity to believe it. Because our understanding is
darkened. A lot of times we don't even understand
what the gospel means. But here's the problem. I don't
understand it's talking about me. I understand total depravity. When my understanding is darkened,
I don't understand. I don't see. I'm totally depraved. That's having your understanding
darkened. Look at verse 18. Ephesians chapter 4. Having the
understanding darkened. being alienated from the life
of God through the ignorance that's in them because of the
blindness of their heart. That spiritual blindness is the
blindness of our heart. We're so blind. We don't even
know what light looks like. Because we can't see it. We've
never enjoyed light because we're blind. And this man was blind. He is beyond the help of any
man. Nobody could help him. Man has
never yet found a cure for blindness. It's beyond the reach of man.
Just like sin. Man can't find a cure for sin. There's no cure for it. Man cannot
help our sin. But you know, the Lord healed
more blind people than any other disease that he healed. Because
that's one of the sure proofs of the Messiah. Now look at Matthew
chapter 11. When our Lord heals this man, gives him sight, that's
sure evidence he's the Christ, he's the Savior. Matthew 11,
verse 2. He is beyond the help of man,
but he's not beyond the help of the Messiah. Matthew 11, verse
2. Now when John had heard in the
prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, and
he said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look
for another? Jesus answered and said unto
them, Go and show John again those things which ye do hear
and see. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers
are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the
poor have the gospel preached to them. The blind receive their
sight only from him that is to come, from the Messiah. And our
Lord healed more blindness than any other disease because that's
a sign to everyone he's the Messiah. But he also healed blindness
more than any other disease because blindness is such a good picture
of us by nature, our sin nature, our spiritual condition. We don't
have any ability to see. And no matter how hard you try,
you can't conjure any up. You just can't make it. The only
way the blind will ever see is if the Lord gives them eyes that
see. So every time the Lord gave sight
to a blind person, he's giving us a picture of salvation in
him. Sinners do not need help improving. You don't need me
or anybody else preaching how to live better. Sinners don't
need help improving. Sinners need a savior from sin. This man, this blind beggar,
Eric, he don't need glasses. He needs eyes to see. The natural
man, he don't need glasses. He doesn't need reformation.
He doesn't need a change in his behavior. He needs to be given
life in the new birth. That's the only way he can be
helped. This blind man doesn't need corrective lenses. He doesn't
need an implant or contact lenses. He needs new eyes. His don't
work. His are blind. The natural man
doesn't need to be educated. He doesn't need to become a theologian.
He needs to be given the mind of Christ and the new birth.
This blind beggar, he doesn't need ointment. If you rub ointment
on his eyes all day long, he'll never reach the problem. He needs
new eyes. The natural man doesn't need
ointment. That's all man-made religion is. It's ointment to
put on the problem. It's ointment to make it look
better or make it stink less or something, all man's religion
is is ointment. You can rub it on and roll around
in it and be involved in it all of the day long, and that ointment
will never reach the root of the problem. My friends, what
we need is Christ. We need Him. We need Christ to
be our Savior from sin. And this blind man is a beggar. After the Lord heals him, in
verse 8 they said, wasn't this he that sat and begged? He's
a blind beggar. He doesn't have any resources.
He can't come up with anything to help himself. Even if he could
go pay for a cure, he can't do it. He doesn't have any resources.
He's completely dependent on somebody else to give him the
necessities of life. Now, isn't that us by nature?
We're blind beggars. We don't have any resources.
We're completely dependent on Christ to save. Completely. If
He doesn't save us, we'll be damned. We're completely dependent
upon Him. This blind beggar sat and begged. That's us, mercy beggars, sitting
there begging. And Scripture says the Lord saw
him. He didn't pass him by. He saw him in compassion and
mercy. That's where salvation always
begins. That's the third thing we learn here. Salvation always
begins with the Lord seeing the sinner. The Lord's always seen
his people. He never lost sight of them.
They never got out of his sight. Oh, they're lost. They didn't
know where they were. They didn't know the way back.
But the Lord's seen them. He's always seen his people.
And he comes right to them at the moment they need saving.
He never passes them by. Ever. You know, walks, passes
them by because he can't see them, and he didn't see them,
so he passes them by. No, he sees them. And he never passes
them by. This man couldn't see the Savior.
We read of other blind people crying out, Jesus, thou Son of
David, have mercy upon me. This man, he didn't cry out for
mercy. He just sat there in his darkness. But, oh, the Lord saw him and
had mercy on him. That's where salvation is. It
begins with the Lord seeing his people and he has mercy on them.
He sees them in compassion and love. Salvation is of the Lord. Mercy is always sovereign mercy. It's mercy from the king to the
sinner. The fourth thing we see here
is this. The work of Christ, the manifest work of Christ in
salvation is urgent. vital, necessary work. Look at verse 4. Our Lord says,
I must work the works of him that sent me while it's day.
The night cometh when no man can work. Now the work of Christ
in salvation is a necessary work. He said, I must do this. I must
work the works of salvation. I must work the work of my Father.
I must come as a man. and produce a perfect righteousness
for my people or they'll never be made righteous. I must come
as a man and obey all the law so my people can have a perfect
obedience. They'll never have it unless
I give it to them. I must do this. I must come and suffer
for the sins of my people. I must suffer all the penalty
of the broken law for my people otherwise their sin debt will
never be paid. I must die as a substitute for my people or
they'll never live. This is a necessary work. There's
no salvation without it. And the work of Christ in salvation
is an urgent work. Our Lord said, I must do this.
I must do the work that my father sent me to do right now. I can't
delay. I can't take a day off. I must
do it today while it is still day. Because when night comes,
the work day is over. You work in the daytime. Now
the night that our Lord's referring to is the time of his death.
That time he lay in the tomb. At that time the workday's over.
The work's finished, isn't it? Before he lay there, what'd he
say? It is finished. He finished the work while it
was day. Time at night comes, the workday's
over. And that time is rapidly approaching.
So the Lord says, I must work now. This is an urgent work.
Fifth, the work of Christ in salvation is the work to enlighten
His people. His people who sit in darkness.
Go to verse 5. As long as I'm in the world,
I am the light of the world. Now, if Christ is the light of
the world, don't you think it would be a good idea for blind
people to come to Him? If you're in darkness, wouldn't
it be an awful good idea to come to Him as the light of the world?
It sure would. Christ is the light. that enables
us to see who God is. Christ is the light that enables
us to see how God saves sinners. We never would know how God saved
sinners if Christ didn't come and in His light. Now I see. Now I see how God can make a
sinner righteous. Now I see how God can be just
and justifier. Now I see how God can be holy
and still have mercy on me in the person of His Son. Now I
see. Christ the light enables us to
see all the true meaning of scripture in the light of Christ. Now I
go back there in Exodus 34. Now I can see, oh, it wasn't
some specific sin that causes blindness. It wasn't some specific
sin. Now I see the purpose in this
is so God can be merciful. It's not through me keeping the
law. It's through the obedience of Christ. Now I see. Now I see
the point of the whole Old Testament. It's not law. It's Christ. It all tells me of Christ, in
His light. Now I see that. The work of Christ
in salvation is to enlighten His people who are born in darkness.
Now look at verse 6. When He had thus spoken, He just
said, I am the light of the world. Here that man sits in darkness.
I am the light of the world. When He had thus spoken, He spat
on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and anointed
the eyes of the blind man with clay. Now doesn't it seem backwards
to you? To heal a blind man by blocking
his eyes with clay? Seems backwards to us, doesn't
it? But the way God saves sinners is backwards to the natural man.
Whatever you think is the right way by nature, it's backwards,
I promise you. And that's the sixth thing we
see here. The work of Christ in salvation required that God's
Son become a man. Instead of giving men the ability
to keep God's law, Instead of giving men the ability to earn
their own righteousness, that's the way we do it, isn't it? Instead
of doing that, God made his people righteous by sending his son
incarnate, by sending his son to be a man who would live a
life of perfection in the flesh so that he could make his people
righteous through his obedience, through the perfection of Christ.
That's what's pictured here in this clay. God made the first
Adam out of clay, didn't he? Out of the dust of the ground.
Well, God gave the second Adam, his son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He gave him a human body, a body of flesh that he prepared for
him in the womb of the Virgin Mary. And Christ makes his people
whole by applying himself to them. He comes in contact with
us. He became what we are. He became
flesh. And he joined himself to his
people. He came in contact with his people,
with a union that's so close. When the father sees his elect,
he doesn't see his elect. He sees his son because his son
joined himself to us. He came in contact with us. I love this picture. The creator
himself spits on the ground and makes clay. and anoints that
clay on those blind eyes, the eyes of that blind man. That
clay had to come in contact with the problem. It's almost like
the Creator is making eyes out of that clay. He made Adam out
of clay. It's almost like He's making
eyes out of clay and putting new eyes in that blind man's
head. Well, when God saves a sinner,
it's not almost like we're made new creatures. We are made new
creatures, a new creation in Christ Jesus. Now, the Lord decided
he's going to put clay that he makes out of spit and put on
this man's eyes. Well, couldn't the Lord just
have spoken and healed him? Sure, he could have. That's what
he did to blind Bartimaeus. He said, receive your sight.
He could have done that if he wanted to. But the Lord didn't
choose to give this blind beggar sight that way. at this time. Because this time, at this particular
case, our Lord says specifically He's going to heal this man so
that the works of God are manifest, made manifest in him. So the clay had to come in contact
with the problem. Isn't that how God saves sinners?
In order to save, the Lord Jesus Christ had to come in contact
with the problem. He had to come in contact with
the sin of his people. Sin's a problem. We can say we've
got all these other problems, but here's the problem. It's
sin. And Christ came in contact with
the problem. He took the sin of his people
and his body on the tree. And he put that sin away through
the sacrifice of himself. He was made to be sin. He came in contact with the sin.
Now, all of how God saves a sinner is backward to the natural man.
Salvation by the death of another. Life by the death of another.
Salvation through the righteousness of another. All that seems backward
to the natural man. And you know it doesn't stop
there. It's backward to the natural man for God to send a preacher
to preach to a dead man. People say, well, if I do believe
that all men are dead, that no man can come to the Father, They
can't understand or understand these darkness. If I believed
you'd believe, I wouldn't go preach. Well, I wish you wouldn't,
but they do. It's backward to the natural
man that for God to send his servant to preach to a man who
cannot believe, who's dead, who can't hear, who can't see. Isn't
that backward? But that's how God saves sinners. God is pleased But it pleased
God by the foolishness, what men call foolishness. They say
it's foolish to preach to a dead man. Well, it pleased God by
the foolishness of preaching to save them to believe. It's
just backward to the natural man. Well, the claim has been
applied to the eyes of the blind man. Can you see? He can't, can
he? He's still blind as a bat. The
Lord could have spoken the word. May you see. The Lord could have
put the clay on his eyes and made him see, but he didn't.
This blind beggar is going to be healed so that the works of
God are made manifest in him. This man had to be obedient and
go wash in the pool of Siloam. That's what our Lord said in
verse 7. You go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation
sin. This man went where Christ told
him to go. The work of Christ in salvation
produces obedience. Every time it produces an obedient
son, an obedient daughter. He went where Christ told him
to go. And he did what Christ told him
to do. He washed. And he came to see. He got his
sight. Now, it wasn't him washing that
gave him his sight, was it? Christ gave him his sight. The
power of Christ gave him his sight. But would he have been healed
if he didn't go wash? No, he wouldn't, would he? He had to
be obedient. And that's a picture of the obedience
of faith. You must believe. Every one of
us here, you must believe. Somebody else can't do it for
you. You must believe. Well, I believe. Well, am I saved
because I believe? Absolutely not. It's Christ who
saves. But can you be saved without
believing? No, you can't. You must believe. And I'll tell
you when you'll believe. When God gives you the gift of
faith. And when He gives you faith, you will believe. You'll
help it. You'll believe. And you'll be
obedient. Christ said, repent and be baptized. Why repent? Will your repentance
put your sin away? No. It's the blood of Christ that
put sin away, isn't it? Christ said be baptized. Will
baptism wash your sin away? Absolutely not. Sin can only
be washed away in the blood of Christ. But this blind man was
told to go wash. Now where was he told to go wash?
In the pool of Siloam, which means sin. Sin of God. That pool is a picture of Christ. You go wash in Christ and you'll
be clean. A sinner is washed from all of
our sin in a fountain of blood, not a pool, a fountain of blood
that's open for sin in the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. You
see, it's His blood. It's not the waters of baptism.
It's the blood of Christ. But at the same time, I'll tell
you this, I don't have any confidence of anyone's profession of faith
if they've not been obedient to the Lord's first command and
been baptized. You confess Him and believe in
baptism. Faith always produces obedience. This man was blindly
obedient, wasn't he? He blindly obedient. Now, it's
not our obedience that saves, it's Christ's obedience that
saves. But when God saves a sinner, he makes that sinner willing
and obedient. And I know when you'll be made
willing. It's in the day of God's power when he does not pass you
by and in power has compassion upon you. God gives both the
power to believe and he gives the will to believe. That's exactly
what happened to this blind man. He went his way. See that? He went his way, therefore, and
washed and came seeing. He went his way. That was the
way he wanted to go because he got a new want to. That's why.
God had just become, or Christ had just become his way. And
he came seeing, because Christ is the light of the world. And
eighth, I'm going to give you this. Sight comes from the new
birth, which is the work of Christ in us. Look at John chapter three,
back a few pages of John chapter three. You'll see when you're
born again, but until you're born again, you cannot see. Sight comes in the new birth.
Look at John three, verse three. Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. But after we're born again,
we see. After we're born again, I see
who God is. I understand. See means to understand. I see who God is. I see. I understand who I am after I've
been born again. After I've been born again, I
see how God can save a sinner like me through the sacrifice
of Christ my substitute. I see that. After I've been born
again, I see how God can make a sinner like me righteous, even
though you will never see me do one righteous thing in this
flesh. I see how God can make me righteous
through the imputed righteousness of Christ. I can't explain that,
but I see it. I believe it because I've been
born again. After God gives me life, I see, I understand how
God can take my sin away by making Christ to be sin for me at Calvary
and washing that sin away in His blood. Now I see. Now I see I was blind. I was blind. Now I see. I never understood
blindness until I could see. You never understand spiritual
deadness until God gives you life. When God gives you life,
you say, oh, I see, I see, and He gave me life. That's the manifest
work of Christ in salvation. Now, I want to give you one more
thing. I want to give you a word of comfort. In a time of trial,
there's comfort from the manifest work of Christ. This man had
been blind all his life. He was born blind. He'd been
blind for at least 30 years. In verse 23, his parents said,
he's of age, ask him. He's of age means he's at least
30 years old. That's a long time to be blind.
I mean, that's tough business, being blind for 30 years. But you know, our Lord loved
this man that whole time. He loved him from all of eternity.
So, of course, he loved him when he was born. But he was still
blind, wasn't he? The Lord loved him, but he was
blind. All that time spent in darkness
was no accident. It was God's purpose so that
we and others would see the manifest work of Christ in salvation when
Christ came to him and didn't pass him by, but had compassion
on him and healed him. That was God's purpose. Nobody
saw that purpose. All those 30 years of his blindness,
nobody had one clue. We were as blind as that man.
We didn't have any clue why he was blind. And then the Lord
came and healed him. Now I see. Our trials are the
same way. Boy, they seem like they last
a long time. I've never had a trial seem like it was short. They
seem like they last a long time. And we're in the midst of that
trial. We have no idea what God's purpose is in it. And even afterward,
a lot of time we don't know what God's purpose is. Sometimes we
do, but most times we don't. I have no idea what God's purpose
is in this. We don't know when God will be pleased to deliver
us. He will, but we don't know when. I have no idea. But this
is what I know. God does have a purpose in it.
Now, I'm not just saying that. to sound religious. That's a
real religious thing. You know, well, God has a purpose
in this. There's a reason for it. Well, that's true. God does
have a purpose in this trial. And his purpose is this. It's
for his glory. And he's going to get glory for
it somehow. I don't know how, but he's going
to get glory for it the same way he got glory in healing this
blind man. And I can be satisfied with that,
honestly. If God's given me sight, I can
be satisfied with that. Now, you're going to have to
remind me. It's going to be grievous to this flesh. It's going to
be tough and painful, and this flesh is going to rebel against
it. You're going to have to remind me of it. But I'd be satisfied
with it if God's given me sight. If God's given me sight to see
the Lord Jesus Christ, I can be satisfied in anything that's
for His glory if He's given the eyes to see. Maybe He gives eyes
to see. Maybe He would. Let's bow in
prayer. Our Father, how thankful we are
that You've given us Your Word, that You've given sight to Your
people, that we could see the manifest work of Christ in salvation,
in the healing of this blind beggar and what comfort we find
in the manifest work of Christ in healing our brother, this
blind beggar. We see how you heal us. We see
how you save blind, wretched, sinful beggars and make us righteous,
make us accepted. Father, we're thankful. We're
thankful that you didn't pass us by. We know that's what our
sin deserves, but how thankful we are for your mercy. You didn't
pass us by, but in mercy and grace gave sight to see the Lord
Jesus Christ. And we pray that you continue
to be merciful. Lord, would you continue to give
sight to blind beggars through the preaching of the gospel?
Make us faithful. Oh, make us faithful to preach
Christ. so that other blind beggars may
see Him by Your power and by Your grace. It is in His name
we pray and give thanks. Amen.