Come back to John chapter 9. We have a man born blind from
birth. It's just from his birth he's
blind. The disciples wanted to know who did sin? Whose fault is it that this man,
this beggar, was born blind? Someone had to have done something. to cause such a tragedy on this
man, to be born blind. This man never saw the light
of day from his birth. I was thinking today as I read
this, I thought the first face that man saw was his Lord. What a day that was. The first
face he saw was his Lord. Not his parents, not the crowd,
it was the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the first face he saw
when he was given his sight. And when God gives a sinner sight,
that's the face they see. When God commands the light to
shine in our hearts to give the glory of God, that we may see
the glory of God where? In the face of Jesus Christ. So this man born blind and the
disciples say, who did sin? His parents or him? We all sin. We all sin. I mean, just pick a day, pick
a sin. We all sin. You know, our Lord says in his
disciples saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents,
that he was born blind? And Jesus answered, Neither hath
this man sin, nor his parents. He's not saying they are without
sin. They are sinners just like you
and I. We all sin, parents and children.
However, our Lord is pointing out something here. It's very
important. This blindness was not a punishment. for something that his parents
or he had done. This man was born blind. I want
you to get this. This man was born blind by the
will of God. Is that too hard? It's true.
That's exactly what he's saying. That's what he's saying. Neither
hath this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of
God should be made manifest in him. God is about to perform
a work. Did you catch this? That the
works of God should be made manifest, not to him, though it was, upon
him, though it was in him. God saved that man. That man
was saved. And he said, neither parents
nor him sin, but that the works of God should be made manifest
in him. What is the work of God? It's
salvation. Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's the work of God. Christ
in you is the work of God. And then our Lord said, I must
work the works of him that sent me. Well, it's daytime. The night
cometh when no man can work. As long as I'm in the world,
I'm the light of the world. But he was born blind by the will
and purpose of God. He was born blind, and this is
God's child. I don't know how old this man
was, but I know this. He was old enough to be out on
the street begging. He was a beggar. He was blind. And this is God's
child. And He didn't just become God's
child at a certain age. At a certain age, He was brought
to know Christ. But if He's God's child, He's
always been God's child. Always been His child. I have
loved you with an everlasting love. He didn't begin to love
me 30 years ago. He loved me before the world
began. He loved me before the world began. And here's His child
sitting in the dust, blind and begging. And it's His child. It's His child. You say, God
wouldn't do His children like that. That's His child. You see,
God is going to get the glory out of this. God is going to
get the glory out of our salvation. We are going to praise Him for
His grace and for His mercy and for His love. If He did not allow
us to fall into sin and the dust and the wallow in it, we wouldn't
know what grace is. We wouldn't know that. There
are things that you and I know as sinners saved by grace that
angels will never know. We will be able to sing songs
that they won't sing. Worthy is the Lamb who redeemed
us by His blood. We know what it is to be fallen.
We know what it is to be sinful, wretched, depraved. We know what
that is. And we know what it is to be
saved from it. That's what God saves us. He's not just saving
us from going to a place. He's saving us from who and what
we are. God lent Adam, and listen, I understand this. You understand
this. If you believe the gospel, you have some understanding.
I mean, we can't comprehend all this. It's far beyond our comprehension. But we have been given an understanding. God let Adam fall on purpose. It was not an accident. Why is
Christ called the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of
the world? As someone said, before there
was a sinner, There was a Savior. The Savior was there long before
the sinner was. And God allowed Adam to follow
a purpose that he might make us trophies of his grace. That's
why he did it. Don't try to figure this out
now. Just believe. You know, this
blind man, he didn't say, go to the pool of Solomon and wash
What's that got to do with anything? You know what? He did not ask
one question. He went. I'll show you this in
a minute. And he received his sight. He believed the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, he said this. He said,
there's one thing I know. How much does a man, a woman
have to know? How much does a sinner have to
know to be saved? I don't believe it has anything
to do with how much you know. I believe it's who you believe.
This man believed Jesus Christ. This man believed God's Son.
God's Son stood there and spoke to him, and he believed Him.
And Christ enabled him to believe Him. The man, he's blind. He'd never seen Him before. He
didn't know Him from Adam. But he believed Him. And the
reason he believed Him, the Lord said this, I must work the works
of Him. There was a work going on in
that man that wasn't going on in those Pharisees. The work
of grace. The work of God's Spirit. Creation. Creation. God let Adam die on
purpose. He said this in Genesis. In the day you eat thereof, thou
shalt surely die. He didn't say, Adam, if you eat
that tree, you'll die. He said, Adam, the day you eat
it, you're going to eat it. You're going to eat it, and the
day you do, you're going to die. You're going to die. God's will
will be done. God's thoughts and God's ways
are far above ours. We think on this level. He's
on that level. Infinite. Infinite. God said,
I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. Is there evil in a city? God
said this. Is there evil in a city? And
I have not done it. Providentially, He rules and
reigns and controls everything. If something happens to a city,
are you saying God's far off in a country and has nothing
to do with that? We know this. And I'm not going to try to explain,
but we know that God is the first cause of all things. He can't
be God if he's not. Turn over to Isaiah 45. Isaiah
45, verse 7. I formed the light. You say,
that's good. God said, let there be light.
And there was light. And create darkness. I make peace
and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things." Now, are we going to preach Him
or not? Are we going to believe Him or not? This is the God of
the Bible. This is the God of the universe.
This is the God of creation. This is the God of our salvation.
This God is our God. This is who He is. And our Lord says here, let's
go back to verse 3, Jesus answered, neither hath this man sinned,
nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest
in him. I must work the works of him
that sent me. I must fulfill God's will. That's
what he came for, to do the will of his Father, which was to save
a multitude of sinners given to him by the Father before the
world was, or no one would be saved. No one would be. He came to satisfy justice. He
came to call sinners to repentance. He came to heal sinners. He came
to save sinners. That's what he came to do. I
must work the works of him that sent me while it is day. It's
still day. One day, one day, he'll call
that last sinner to repentance. He'll call that last sheep home. And it'll be night, and no man
can work. It'll be over. As long as I am
in the world, I am the light of the world. You understand the gospel. You
believe the gospel. If you believe the gospel, you
understand. You understand how God can be
a just God and a Savior. And you know why? Because Christ
is the light of the world. That's the world He saves. That's
the world He's saving. For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son. He loved Jews and Gentiles, Americans,
Africans, Mexicans. He loved the world. There's people
out of every tribe, tongue, and kindred under heaven that God's
going to save. And He said, I'm the light of
that world. How is it you understand the gospel? How is it that this
Gentile, these Gentiles here, how is it we understand the gospel?
How is it you believe the gospel? Because Christ has given you
light. Christ has given you light. He's
given you understanding. You know, Noah, I've told you
this before, but Noah saved the animal world, didn't he, in the
ark. God saved them in the ark. The animal world was saved, but
not every animal in the world was saved. Not every one. And then our Lord, after He says
this, He does the work of grace. He saves this man. When He had
just spoken, He spat on the ground. As I said, the gospel is offensive. It's offensive. Even to some
of his children before they are brought to faith in Christ. I've
known some that hated election. They hated it. Called it unfair. Called God unfair. Like you would
have chosen him if he hadn't chosen you. But I tell you what, when the
Lord does a work of grace, it is not offensive. You fall in
love with it. You fall in love with it. And
you know that's the only way it can be. He told his disciples, you did
not choose me, I chose you. Let's get the order straight.
I chose you and ordained you. So when he had just, he sat on
the ground, he made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the
eyes of the blind man with the clay. And he said to him, go
wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation, sin. And he went his way, therefore,
and he washed, and he came seeing. He came back with his sight,
with his sight. I want to give you three points. I'll make them
brief. The man's condition, the sinner's
condition, the sinner's cure, and the sinner's confession.
Let's see if we can see this. First of all, he was blind from
birth. His blindness was something he
received in the womb. He did not become blind at a
certain age. He was born blind. We do not
become sinners at a certain age. We are born sinners. If that were not so, we would
not die at birth. It is sin that brings forth death. This is a great picture of us
by nature. All are born spiritually blind. We cannot see God. That's what the Lord said to
Nicodemus. Except you be born again, you cannot see the kingdom
of God. You can't understand it. You can't understand the gospel.
It just makes no sense. It's foolishness. Scripture said
to the natural man, it's foolishness. To them that are perishing, It's
foolishness. We're all born blind by nature. We are sinners at birth. Listen
to what David said in Psalm 51. I was born in sin and shapen
in iniquity. He said right from the get-go,
I was born in sin. And sin did my mother conceive
me. It was not a sinful act. It was
a sinful seed. It was a sinful seed. The wicked, it says in the Psalms,
the wicked go astray from where? The womb. It says the wicked
go astray from the womb, speaking lies. You don't have to teach
your children how to lie. You don't have to do it. It is
a natural instinct in us to do so. Science and the medical field
have been trying since, since the fall. I mean, don't you,
you know they tried all kinds of stuff back then also. Trying
to cure sickness, trying to cure diseases. when the very root
of the problem is sin. Whatever sickness I have, you
know, I may come down with a terminal sickness. The root of it is sin. I didn't have to do anything
to get it. I was born with it. You know, insurance companies
now, they want to know your ancestry. What's your father had? Did he
have heart trouble? Is there cancer in the family? You have
to write down all this. Go get life insurance. You've
got to write down all your medical history because they know that
genetically you're prone to the same thing. You don't have to
do anything to get it. It's passed down. I inherited
sin. I inherited it. There is a cure. There is a cure for sin. And it's not in a bottle. You
won't find it in a therapist's office. You find it in the Lord
Jesus Christ. That man's real. That man's God. And the forgiveness of sin, the
cleansing from sin, the breaking of the power of sin is real.
It is absolutely real. Look at verse 7. Here's the man's
cure. And he said unto him, Go wash
in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation, scent.
And he went his way therefore. He believed him. He took that,
he spit on the ground and made clay out of it. And he put it on his eyes, and he said, now go to the pool
and wash. You know, faith is a gift of
God, but it's you believing. It's you believing. I can't believe for you, you
don't believe for me, and it's you believing. And he told this
man what to do. He told him to go to that pool
and wash. And the man went. He believed exactly what the
Lord said. He believed he was going to get
his sight. He believed it. And he went his way and he washed
and he came seeing. I have no doubt his parents,
probably even himself, went over to the countryside Trying to
find a cure for his blindness. Before they finally gave up.
And they put him out on the street begging. Like that woman with the issue
of blood. Remember her? She said she tried many physicians
but only grew worse. Spent all her living with these
physicians of no value. But she only grew worse. But
she heard of the Lord Jesus, and she said, if I can but touch
the hem of His garment, I will be made whole. God's at work
in her. Oh, the mysterious work of God. And that frail young lady made
her way through that crowd, that mob that was thronging Him. That
mob was thronging the Lord. They were touching Him as He
was walking by. And then she comes up and touches the hem
of His garment. And immediately, it says, her
blood dried up. She was cured. And he perceived
that virtue went out of him. And he turned around and he said,
Who touched me? And the disciples said, Are you kidding? Basically,
that's what they were saying. Are you serious? They said, Lord,
the crowd is thronging you and you are saying who touched me? He says, somebody has touched
me. He knew who she was. She tried to slip off back into
the crowd because she was just a frail woman and she didn't
want to be made a, you know, she wasn't supposed to be out
there. She had a blood issue. Anybody that touched her was
unclean. Everything she touched was unclean. She wasn't supposed
to be out in that crowd. And so she was going to slip
back off, but he was not going to let her slip away. He pulled
her out of that crowd and made her confess before that whole
crowd who touched him. And she did. And that's what
he does here. This man had come to the end
of himself. He was sitting there as a beggar
with absolutely no hope of ever seeing. Ever seeing. The sinner
could do nothing to cure his or her sinfulness. Now you can
try. You can try all you want to try.
Change your habits, whatever. You're still as sinful and as
rotten as the day you were born. You may go from being an open
wretch to an open self-righteous person, but you're still rotten
as ever. There's nothing we can do to cure our sinfulness. Only
Christ can make us whole. Only Christ can put us in our
right mind. Do you remember that demonic? He was possessed with legion.
They said, because we're many. I said, what's your name? He
said, legion, because we're many. And that man, nobody could tame
him. They tried to chain him and break
it. Ran around the cave naked, cutting himself, screaming, crying. And the Lord walked up to him
and cast that devil out devil's out. And he was in his right
mind sitting at the feet of Christ. He can do that. He's still in
the saving business. He can do that. Only Christ can
put away sin. Everybody's telling us we must
do something with Jesus. Pilate said, What shall I do
with Jesus? The Lord said, you can't do anything
with me, Pilate, except to be given me from above. It's not what you and I are going
to do for him. It's what he's done for us. And
our lives are spent praising him and thanking him for it.
Salvation is the work of the Lord for the sinner. and in the
sinner. And last of all, here's a man's
confession in verse 11. He answered and said, A man that
is called Jesus made clay, and ointed mine eyes, and said unto
me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash. And I went washing.
I received sight. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. Do you believe that? Well, if
you do, you'll believe on Him. If you do, it's because you do
believe. See, He confessed His sins. He
said, I was blind. He said He anointed my eyes with
clay. He said to me, go wash. And I
went and washed, and I received my sight. I was blind. I'm not that bad. You don't need
Christ, do you? You don't need Him. Bad people
need Him. Broken people need Him. Sinful
people need Him. Ungodly people need Him. Are
you ungodly by nature? Truly, by nature. It says in
Romans, He died for who? The ungodly. Don't call me ungodly. I can tell you this, He didn't
die for you then. He died for sinners. He died for the ungodly. You want to find out how ungodly
someone is, you just let God withdraw his hand. Just watch God withdraw his constraining
hand just a little bit. You'll see how ungodly men and
women are by nature. It's the sovereign constraint
of God that keeps his human race in check. Let him withdraw it and you'll
see it. And he confessed who gave him
his sight? A man that is called Jesus. Later on, the Lord met him. He got excommunicated. You read
the rest of this chapter, the Pharisees interrogated him. I
mean, interrogated him. They were angry with him. And
they finally excommunicated him. But the man never renounced Christ.
He wouldn't do it. I said, I don't know about you
guys, but I know one thing. I was blind, but now I see. You
guys didn't do it. You guys didn't do it. He did
it. He did it. You see over here in verse 35,
Jesus heard that they had cast him out. They had excommunicated
him. And when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe
on the Son of God? And he answered and said, Who
is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him,
Thou hast seen him. Oh, he sure did. He looked him right in the face.
And it is he that talks with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe.
And he worshipped him. And then in verse 38, as I just
read, that's his praise. He confessed his disease. He
confessed who saved him, and he praised him. He praised him
there in verse 38. And he said, Lord, I believe.
And he worshipped him. He worshipped him. You know, I've had good eyesight,
physical eyesight, pretty much all my life. I need these for
just reading. But I've had good eyesight. I wouldn't know what
it would be like Just blind. Can't even see the light of day.
Can't even tell the light's on. There's nothing there to eat. Even if
you shut your eyes you can tell the light's on. But to be totally
blind is not as to be in absolute darkness. And then one day, you see. And there's no doubt who gave
you that sight. No doubt. You weren't educated
into it. Talked into it, pressured into
it. I was blind, but now I see a man named Jesus. A man called
Jesus gave me my sight. He's our Savior. Well, if you see, if you believe,
a man called Jesus gave it to you.