John chapter 9, I titled the message, A Man Called
Jesus. A man, a real man, and his name
was Jesus. Let's look at some of the verses
of this chapter. We can't touch on every verse.
It would take way too long. We have here in this first verse,
And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his
birth. This man was born blind. He came into this world blind. He came into this world in absolute
darkness. This man had never seen light. He didn't know what a tree looked
like. He didn't know what the face
of his mother and father looked like. If he had brothers and
sisters, he never knew what a human being looked like. He was born
blind. I've been thinking about this
for a couple of weeks. I mentioned this, I think, a
couple of weeks ago when I brought a message on Chapter 8. The other
night, as I was going to bed and the lights were out, I shut
my eyes and tried to walk to the bed. Of course, the zipper's
out so Vickie couldn't see me. She thought I was a nut or something.
I shut my eyes. And it was already dark. But it was even more dark when
I shut my eyes. I lay there and I kept my eyes
shut. I just looked at the darkness. I thought, this is the way this
man lived. He got up in darkness. Went through the day in darkness.
ate his breakfast, lunch and dinner in darkness. Everything
this man did, he did in darkness. He was born blind. You know in the Scriptures, when
it speaks in the Gospels, it speaks of the miracles that Christ
performed, the healing of blindness is spoken of more often than
any other ailment, any other affliction. This is such a picture
of how we come into this world. We come into this world utterly,
utterly blind, spiritually. We live in spiritual darkness. We walk in spiritual darkness.
We live, eat, and breathe in spiritual darkness. This is our
light. We have no light by nature. of who God really is, of who
Jesus Christ is, of what we really are. We don't see ourselves for
what we are until God gives us light, until he gives us some
understanding, until he commands the light of the gospel to shine
into our hearts. Not until then do we see something
of what sinful creatures we really are. This man was born blind. I notice something else here.
This man did not seek for help. He didn't cry for mercy. He's
a beggar. It shows you there in verse 8. He sat and begged. He wasn't
asking for mercy. He wasn't looking for it. He
had accepted his blindness, so to speak. This was his life. He sat and he begged. He didn't
look for mercy. He didn't ask for it. He wasn't
thinking about it. No more than we were when God saved us. Not at first. Not seeking for
it. Not asking for it. Not when He
first saw us. Not when He first found us. When you had a desire after Him
and you began to think upon Him, that was evidence He had already
thought upon you. That's evidence of His passing by you and doing
something for you. And this man's case was hopeless.
There was nothing they could do to get him his sight. It was
not even possible. There was nothing there to work
with. Nothing there to work with. And that's us. Hopeless. Hopelessly blind. No one can
give you spiritual sight but God. No one can enable you to
see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ but God himself.
Only He can do it. And then something else that
I saw here, and I see here, is divine sovereignty. As I said,
this man wasn't looking for Him, asking for Him, seeking Him.
He was sitting there begging, but the Lord passed by. You think
He just happened to stroll by that day? He purposely, purposely
passed by this beggar. who was born blind. He purposely
did it. And he passed by in mercy. This man had no idea mercy was
on his trail. This man had no idea that grace
was about to be bestowed upon him. It had already been bestowed
upon him, but he's about to find it out. As the Lord passed by. He passed
by him in mercy, in grace, and he passed by him on purpose.
And he saw that blind man. He looked upon that blind man.
That blind man didn't see him. He couldn't detect him. He couldn't
detect him from anybody else standing around there. But he
saw that blind man. Just as he saw us long before
we ever came into this world. We never saw him for a lot of
years. Several years. I didn't see him. Blind as a bat. Blind as a bat. You didn't see him either for
several years. And one day you saw him. Not with his fleshly
eyes, but eyes of faith. God gave you spiritual eyes.
And then you saw him. He really became real to you.
He wasn't just someone who lived. He's someone who lives. Became
real. The Lord saw this blind man.
And the disciples asked the Lord. When they looked at this blind
man, they had no feelings for him. They looked at him and they
said, this is interesting. Lord, who sinned? Who sinned? This man or his parents that
he was born blind? Who committed the sin that caused
this man to be born blind? Who is to blame here? Who can
we blame? The disciples believed that one
of them, either the parents or this man, have to have committed
some great sin. I don't know how they could have
thought which one's sin. He was born that way. I thought,
how could they have asked who's sin, him or the parents? Because
he was born blind. What could he do? What could
he do? But they said, Lord, who sinned,
this man or his parents, that he was born blind? They thought
something had to have happened. And our Lord, our Lord, see they
didn't know. They looked at this situation
and they didn't even have a clue or an answer, but the Lord did.
He said, neither want. Neither party is to blame for
this man's blindness. Neither one. Neither one did anything to cause
this man to be blind. I wrote down this morning, we
need to be careful what we blame people for, don't we? We need
to be careful. Job's friends thought He must
have done something. Job, boy, you must have done
something to bring all this upon you and your family. Our Lord
said this man's blindness was not caused by some act of sin
by his mother, his father, or him. This man's blindness is for God's
glory and His eternal good. That's why He's allowed to be
born blind. All our afflictions, all of them,
are appointed by our Father. All of them are. And they are
for our good and His glory. Just because I have some affliction
doesn't mean I must have done something bad. Or someone must have done something
bad. No, it's for His glory. All the
afflictions of God's children are for His glory. And they're
good. This man's blindness was appointed.
It was appointed for this day for Christ to heal him and demonstrate
His power. And it was appointed for this
man's good. His eternal good. Was not Christ glorified when
He healed this man? Was he not glorified by that?
That man glorified him. That man, it says, worshipped
him. He worshipped him. Every time a sinner is saved,
Christ is glorified. Every time. And this was part
of his work. To give spiritual healing. And
to give sight, it says, to the blind. He says there in verse 4, I must
work the works of him that sent me. I was given a work to do by the Father, and I must work
the works. He came to work. He came to earn
our salvation, and He did it. He did it. And He says here in
verse 4, I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day. Well, it is
the appointed time for me to work. He had an appointed time
to be on this earth and to work out our salvation, to redeem. He had an appointed time. It's
the day time. It was his time. That's what
he's saying. Well, it is day. The night cometh,
the night time of death. He's got to die. When it comes, he said, no man
can work. Boy, it's daytime. He said, I
must work the works of Him that sent me. Our Lord had a certain
time to work. And work He did. And He did it
well, didn't He? When He completed the work of
our redemption, He cried out, it's finished. That was the last
thing He cried. It's finished. Finished. I finished the work. that You've
given me to do. And as long as I am in the world,
He said, I am the light of the world. You take away Christ and there
is no light. If you take away the Son, the
S-U-N, if you take it away, there is absolutely no light. And if
you take away the Son of Righteousness, there's no light. If you take
him out of preaching, if you take him out of the message,
there's no light in the message, nothing but darkness. That's
all it is. He's the light. He's the light
of the world. Part of his work during his day
was to give light to the world, to the world of sinners given
to him by the Father. He said, I'm the light. After
he told them this, he answered their question. He said, neither
did any man sin. They're his parents, nor this
man. I'm the light of the world, and
I must work the works of him that sent me. Now he turns around
and he deals with this blind man. After enlightening the disciples,
giving them some sight on this, he turns around to this blind
man. And after he had thus spoken
to the disciples, he didn't ask this blind man if he wanted to
be saved. He just saved him, didn't he? Our Lord, when He saves sinners,
He doesn't ask them if they want to be saved. He doesn't make
salvation possible for them. He literally saves them. He takes
a hold of them and saves them like He would a drowning man.
Who's going to ask a drowning man if he wants to be saved?
That would be ludicrous, to ask a drowning man. No, what you're
going to do, I tell you what you're going to do, you're going
to take him by the hand and pull him out of the water. That's why he saves sinners.
He lifts them like a brand from the fire. And when he had thus spoken, He did something that was offensive. Most people find this offensive,
spitting. He spat on the ground. He spat on the ground that blind
man was made for. He spat on the ground. He made
clay in the spittle. Is he whipping up some kind of
potion here? That's what some people would think. You get these
faith healers now, that's what they would turn us into, wouldn't
it? Whipping up some kind of a potion. Like holy water to
the Catholics. Making something out of water.
It's just water. It's just clay. But he made clay in the spittle.
And then he applied it. He applied it. That blind man
couldn't see. He couldn't see to apply anything.
The Lord applied it to him. He applied it to his eyes. He
spit on the ground, took it and put it in his hand and made some
mud out of it and just wiped it over his eyes. And then he told him, he didn't
tell him to open his eyes. He didn't say, now you can see.
In some instances, he told them to receive their sight. Just
spoke and they received their sight. But here he said, you
go to a certain place, you go to the Pool of Siloam, and you
wash. And he went. He didn't question
the Lord. He didn't argue with Him. He
didn't debate with Him. He didn't say, what is going
on here? He did what he was told. The
Lord spoke and he believed Him. But the Lord spat on the ground,
He made clay of the spittle. The Lord uses means. I believe
all this is showing. The Lord uses means. He uses
means in saving sinners. There was no power in the spit.
There was no power in the clay. And there was no power in the
water He washed in. All the power was in the one
speaking. All the power was in the one
who said to him, Go and wash. All the power is in Christ. All
the salvation is in Him, even though He uses means. There is
no power in this clay pot standing here this morning. That's all
I am. That's a clay pot. There's no power in me. I watch these men on television. They put their hand on these
people and they knock them down. That is so fake. There's no power in it. All the
power is in Him. There's no power in this clay
pot. There's no power in the waters of baptism. There's
no power there. The power is in Christ. And when
he said to that man, go, he gave him the power to do it. Power
went with that word. Paul said to the Thessalonians,
the gospel came to you in power, not in word only. And the preaching of the gospel
is offensive to lost men. Him spitting? People find that
offensive. They find that offensive. And
to put it on that man's eyes, that's even more offensive. The
preaching of the gospel is offensive. It's offensive to lost men. Not
to saved men. It's the power of God's salvation
to them that believe. But it's offensive to lost men
and women. It's foolishness. That looked
like, to the average person, that looked like foolishness.
to spit on the ground, make a little mud out of it and put it on his
eyes, and then tell him to go wash. But that's what God uses. He
uses means, doesn't He? God uses means. He's going to
use a pastor, a preacher to preach the gospel, and His sheep are
going to hear, and they're going to believe. And they're going
to follow the Lord in baptism. The water doesn't wash away their
sins, But the power is of God. The power is of God. And this
blind man obeyed Him. What if he had stood there and
said, why would I want to do that? He would have still remained
blind. He did what the Lord said, go
wash. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved. Baptism
doesn't save anybody, but obedience. It's evidence. It's evidence
that God has saved. It's evidence that God has saved.
Obedience. An obedient man, it's just evidence
that God has saved him. It's not the reason for him being
saved. That's the evidence of it though. As one writer said,
he blindly obeyed. He made his way down to that
place. It was not easy for him to get there. He walked down
to that pool of Siloam blind. But I tell you this, he walked
down there this time believing somebody. He walked down there
believing the Lord. And he went all the way down
there. And he did exactly. Not like Naaman who got upset.
He said, why do I want to go to that place and dip down in
that river seven times? We've got better rivers here. It's not in the water. It's obedience. It's obedience. And then when he came back, he
came back, it was evident the Lord did something for him. It'll
be evident. The Lord saves a man. It'll be
evident. It will be evident. The Lord saves a man or woman,
he'll make a change and they will not be the same. They'll
not be the same again. And those neighbors, the neighbors
therefore, and they which before had seen him, that he was blind,
said, Is not this he that sat and begged? Is this not the same?
Is this not that blind beggar that sat over on the street corner?
And they were looking at this man. And this man was looking
at them for the first time. And some of them said, Well,
this is, yeah, it's him. And others said, Well, it looks
like him. Looks like him, but something's different. There's
something different about this man. Well, he has his sight. He can see now. He's not staggering
all over the place. His path is now straight because
he can see. The Lord gave him his sight.
He gave him his sight. And they said unto him, How were
your eyes opened? Tell us. How did this happen?
How were your eyes opened? And the first thing he said to
them was, a man called Jesus did it. Before he ever told them how,
he told them who. Because how doesn't mean anything
if you don't have who first. Who's got to be on first? I don't
want to get into that. But who's got to be first before
how? How were thine eyes opened? People
are always more concerned with how rather than who. Religion
is. Not believers. Religion is more
concerned with how. How can I get to heaven? How can I do that? It's not how. Spook can take you there. It's
who's going to be there. He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart. Salvation is who saves. That's
what it is. Satan is so subtle. He'll take
the name of the Lord Jesus. He'll take the name of people.
Read this Bible. And he'll turn that around to
a how and forget the who. Salvation is who. Paul said,
I know who I have believed. I know. I'm convinced. I know. A man called Jesus. That name means Savior. A man, a real man, the God-man. He didn't know it yet at this
time, but he's going to know it. But a man called Jesus made
clay. And he anointed mine eyes. And
he said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, And wash. And I went. I like how simple. I really like
how simple this testimony is. And I went. And washed. And I received sight. I received
sight. A man called Jesus did this. A man called Jesus gave me my
sight. You don't have to be a theologian Do not have to be a theologian
to be saved. You just need to know and believe
a man called Jesus. He's the Savior. He's the Messiah. He's the Redeemer. This man called
Jesus. You know, the Pharisees over
here said, ask for this fellow. They wouldn't use his name. They
wouldn't call his name. They said, this fellow. But this blind man says, no,
it's a man called Jesus. You may call him a fellow, but
I know who he is. This man called Jesus. He made some clay. He looked
in my eye, and I received sight. The Word of God says, Thou shalt
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. What a name! What a name! No
other name has caused so much stir in this world as His name. No other name. There is no other
name given under heaven whereby we must be saved. God the Father
recognizes no other name except His name, His Son's name. To some it means nothing. To
others it means everything. It's life everlasting. His name is the sweetest name
I know. No other name. His name is our
right to the throne of grace. We sing a song, take the name
of Jesus His name. It's not my name. My name will
not open that door. But His name does. He has taken
possession of heaven for every one of His elect in His name.
Whatsoever you ask in my name, I'll give it to you. What a name. A man called Jesus. Turn over to Philippians chapter
2. Look in verse 9. 9 Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him, and given him a name which is above every That at
the name of Jesus, that name of humiliation, that name that
they thought so little of, that name that they ran in the ground,
at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, things in heaven,
things in earth, things under the earth, and that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. A man called Jesus came by, made
some claims. nor in my eyes, told me to go
wash. I went and washed and I received
sight. How simple that testimony is.
People like to stand and give some of these unrealistic testimonies. But this man did not embellish
his story. He simply told what the Lord
did for him. Truth is simple, isn't it? I'm
learning this as I get older. If you want to keep it simple,
just tell the truth. Truth is simple. When you lie,
it gets complicated. You've got to remember how you
told it. It gets complicated. But truth is simple. It never
changes. And it doesn't take long to tell.
It does not take long to tell. And that's what he did. He did
not try to impress people with some stretch story. He just told them who saved them
and how. The Lord saves and He saves us
by His blood and His righteousness. He saves us by Himself. And when He told them this, when
He told them the truth, persecution began. Boy, this guy, as soon
as he received his sight, they attacked him. They came after
him. Satan is not quiet very long,
is he? False religion soon steps forward
and persecutes the child of God. The son of the bondwoman persecutes
the free. That's what happens. They left him alone when he was
blind. They just passed him by. But boy, when he received his
sight and he gave glory to God, he gave glory to the Lord Jesus
Christ, persecution began. And then they brought him to
the Pharisees and the Pharisees started to question him. And
they got upset because this was done, this miracle of giving
this man his sight happened on a Saturday. And it just made
them mad. Who would do such a thing on
a Sabbath day? Who would heal? Who would do something good on
a Sabbath day? Who would break our Sabbath?
The Lord of Sabbath. He's not restricted to days and
laws. He is the law. He's not under
these things. He is. He's over all. We ought to expect trouble. over
the gospel, because darkness hates the light, and it always
will. If you'll notice in verse 16, Therefore said some of the
Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he teacheth not
the Sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that's
a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division. It
always causes division. I'm telling you, the gospel will
always cause a division. Truth will always cause a division.
Light divides, doesn't it? You turn the light on, it divides
the darkness. God divided the light and the
darkness in the day, and He divided it with the light. I tell you, He divided the darkness
and the day. He divided it with light. And Christ is light. And when this man was saved, The real enemies stood forth.
The real haters of the gospel stood forth. And it was the religious
people in town. It was the religious people.
And it caused a division. Once a man sees spiritually,
he never wants to go back. He never backs down, and he never
wants to go back to darkness. Would you want to go back to
blindness? If you were born blind, and you received your sight,
And you, for the first time, you could see God's creation,
you could see. Would you want to go back to
darkness? No, neither does the believer. He doesn't want to
go back to that wicked life. This man did not care if they
excommunicated him. He could see. He could see. And he couldn't deny it, and
he wouldn't deny it. He said, I can see. I don't know all about
the questions you're asking me. I don't know all about this man.
But that's one thing I know. I was blind. I know it. A lot
of these Pharisees, they didn't know it. They didn't know him.
They didn't believe it. They didn't believe the story. But he says, that
doesn't matter. I know it. I know it. I was blind. Now I see. Now I see. A believer cannot
deny the truth that they were once blind, but now they see. A man called Jesus gave me my
sight. Religion didn't give me my sight. Pharisees didn't give
me my sight. Keeping the commandments didn't
give me my sight. A man called Jesus gave me my sight. And I
can't deny it. And I can't deny Him. He's the
one who did it. He's the one who gave me my sight. He's the
one who saves. And we don't deny that. And then they called His parents.
They called in His parents. And they wouldn't answer for
him. They were afraid. They didn't want to lose their
place in the church. They didn't want to lose their place in the community.
They didn't want to do that. Because if anybody confessed
Christ, confessed him to be the Christ, they were going to be
excommunicated. So they said, well, they threw their son to
the wolves. There's your religion for you.
They threw their own son to the wolves. They said, ask him. He's
of age. They wouldn't even stand there
and fight for their own son. But he never denied it. He never
denied it. He stood right there in the face
of religion, of their animosity, of their
mockery, and that blind man who now sees never backed down one
time. This beggar. Here he stands with
his sight, but you know he's standing there in beggar's clothes
because he's a beggar. Here he stands there poor. They
even got mad. It says there they cast him out. They got so mad at him, they
cast him out. For holding on. For holding on to this man called
Jesus. For giving this man called Jesus
all the glory for his sight. They cast him out. If you look
in your margin, it says they excommunicated him. That was
the best thing they could have done for him. Run him off. There was nothing going on there,
that's for sure. Not at all. But look what happened.
After they cast him out, and I'll close. After they cast him
out, Jesus heard that they cast him out. He knew that. He knew
they cast him out. And He went looking for him.
He went looking for him and He found him. He never leaves His
people alone. And he said to him, Doest thou
believe on the Son of God? And he answered and said, Who
is he, Lord? Capital L. Who is he, Lord? Who is the Son of God that I
might believe on him? You tell me, because I believe
what you tell me. That's what I like about this. You tell me
who he is, I'll believe it. You gave me sight. You gave me
salvation. Lord, speak. And what you say,
I'll believe it. He said, Who is He, Lord? And
I might believe on Him. And Jesus, that man called Jesus,
said to him, Thou hast both seen Him, you've seen Him, oh, have
you ever? You've seen Him, and it's He
that's talking with you. I'm the Son of God. And he said,
Lord, I believe that. I believed with the Son of God. And he worshipped Him. Those
Pharisees didn't worship Him. The religious leaders and people
of that day, they didn't worship Him. Very few worshipped Him.
But this blind man, when the Lord spoke, he believed every
word He said. And he worshipped Him. And Jesus
said, For judgment I am coming to this world, that they which
see not might see, and that they which see might be made blind. Those Pharisees kept saying,
We see. We're the children of God. We're Abraham's seed. God's
our Father. That's what they said over in
chapter 8. They kept saying, Hey, we're not lost. We are not
sinners. We're not born of fornication.
What are you talking about? You're talking to us like we're
a bunch of lost people. Well, you are. They said, no we're
not. This blind man said, I was blind. I was blind. But now I see. Those Pharisees said, we've never
been blind. We've never been lost. Yeah, well, you are. They which see might be made
blind. That blind man knew he was blind, didn't he? Every one
of you whom God has saved, you know you were lost. You know
you were blind, and you don't deny it, do you? You say, I was
lost? Lost as lost could be. Well, now you see. That's evidence that God's given
you sight, that you can see that you were lost. And some of the Pharisees which
were with him heard these words and said to him, listen, are
we blind also? Are we blind like this man? Are
we blind? Are you saying we're blind? Are you talking to us? That's what they're saying. Are
you talking to us? Are you saying we're blind? We're the leaders.
We are the spiritual leaders of this town. We study the Word
of God every day. And you say we are blind? They
were upset. Oh, is they upset? Truth upsets
people. Jesus said to them, if you were
blind, you should have no sin. You wouldn't be to blame. Who
did sin? This man or his parents? He said
neither one of them. And we know that we all sin.
We know that. He's not saying that they were without. We all
sin. But it wasn't because of some particular sin that he was
born blind. But he says here, if you were
blind, you would have no sin. But now you say, we see. We're
not lost. We've never been lost. Therefore, your sin remains. Your sin remains. The Lord saves
blind people, doesn't He? He saves spiritually deaf people,
spiritually blind people, spiritually crippled people, Dead? But those self-righteous people,
no, we're all right. See, the physician came to save
the sick. The whole don't need one. You need a physician? I
do. Boy, I do. I need the true physician. I need the Son of God to save
me. Not help me, I mean truly save
me from myself, from my sins. Who saved you? A man called Jesus. He saved me.