Acts 9, and let us read starting
in verse 3. As he journeyed, that is Paul,
as he journeyed he came near Damascus and suddenly a light
shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground and
heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting
me? And he said, who are you, Lord?
Then the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. It
is hard for you to kick against the goads. So he, trembling and astonished,
said, Lord, what do you want me to do? Then the Lord said
to him, arise and go into the city, and you will be told what
you must do. And the man who journeyed with
him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no one. Then
Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened, he
saw no one. But they led him by the hand
and brought him into Damascus. And he was there three days without
sight, and neither ate nor drank." Now today we're going to talk
about blindness, more specifically spiritual blindness. And we're
going to try to understand what spiritual blindness is, and hopefully
through the preaching help those who are blind to be able to see,
because that's the way God works. He works through the preaching
of the word. And if God gives power to these words, the blind
will be made to see, that's a certainty. The problem with many Christians,
and I don't know if I should put that in quotes or not, but
the problem with them is that they think they already see.
They think they already know who God is. And so they don't
consider themselves blind, and that's a problem. And I don't
know who said this, if it was my dad or some other preacher,
but I did hear it from my dad first. And I was very young,
and I was in church, probably not paying attention, but I heard
him say this. He said, salvation can be had with a look. Salvation can be had with a look. And that phrase arrested me,
and I started to listen. Now he was preaching from the
book of Numbers 21 and that is where the Israelites grumbled
against God and against Moses and saying that they were only
rescued from Egypt so that they could die in the wilderness.
That seemed to be a common refrain with them. Now not only did they
grumble against God and Moses, the bread that they were blessed
with they said was worthless. And so God sent fiery serpents
among them and many Israelites died. Then the people admitted
and confessed that they were wrong and Moses prayed for them. And the Lord answered his servant
Moses and told him what to do. And it says in verse nine of
that chapter, so Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on a pole.
And so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked,
at the bronze serpent, he lived. All he had to do was look. Now
this is as clear an illustration as there ever was about the simplicity
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Look and live. Just look and
live. Don't stand up. Just look from
where you are. Don't walk toward it because
you're afraid that it doesn't have enough power to save you
absolutely from where you are. Just look and live. Just trust
in its ability. And don't ask someone to look
for you. You must look. Now, salvation can be had with
a look. Well, that sounds too easy. That
sounds too easy. I know. Isn't it wonderful? Sounds
great. Well, there must be some gimmick,
some little trick. There's always strings attached.
Well, that's what the world's taught us. No, no strings attached,
no trick. Then why, preacher, do some people
still go to hell? Because in order to look, you
must know what you need to look at. You need to know in your
mind what it is you should look to. That's first and foremost.
Second, you need to have the inclination to look. If you don't
have either of those two things, you won't look. Some people cannot
look to the bronze serpent because they don't know what one is,
or because a false teacher has told them about a false bronze
serpent. You can kind of see where I'm
leading with this. Other people know what a bronze serpent is,
but because of their sinful hearts, they don't want to look. They
know, they just refuse. Now, of course, the bronze serpent
that was made in the desert is a picture of Jesus Christ. And
we look to Him and live. Everyone who looks to Him lives
and is given life. Well, then how do we look at
Jesus and live? Jesus is not physically here. That's impossible. Well, we look
with the eyes of the mind and the eyes of the heart. The mind's eye is kind of a phrase
used to describe what we see in our mind when we imagine something
or have a recollection of something, when we remember. Now, we all
do this. For instance, we speak on the
phone. And that person's voice, when we hear it, we kind of put
a face to that voice based on only their voice. We don't know
what they really look like, but we think we do, and we just have
that habit. And that's the mind's eye. Or
when a person's features, they can be described to us. Go look
for this or that man or woman. And that mental image that we
build up from those descriptions, that's the image we carry with
us until we meet that person. And then it's replaced by what
our eyes actually see. And then there's the eyes of
the heart. That's an expression used to describe our desires,
our desires. Has anyone else heard the phrase,
he only has eyes for her? He only has eyes for her. Of
course, that can be swapped. She only has eyes for him. That
means he desires her and only her. His heart seeks her out
and he is determined to be with her. No other woman can grab
his attention from the one he seeks. And no other matter is
more important than being with her. And many TV shows and stories,
they turn this into some sort of perverse addiction or an infatuation,
but it has its roots in love stories and is most commonly
found there. And we have a good example in
Songs of Solomon 2, where the Beloved says of the Shulamite,
like a lily among thorns, so is my love, so is her, so is
she. among the daughters." Those are
words of a poet in love. The one he seeks is like a lily. And I don't know if you've ever
seen one. I keep forgetting what they look like. They're just
beautiful flowers. But the one he seeks is like
a lily, and all the other daughters or all the other women around
are like thorns. And what a metaphor! What a metaphor. The Shulamite, if she knows how
the Beloved feels, must feel wonderful. Her Beloved has likened
her to a lily, a flower that stands out among flowers. And He has said that all the
other women, all those who would naturally catch the eye of the
Beloved, they're like thorns to Him and to be avoided because
of the pain that they would cause Him. That's the difference. Now, God is known by these two
extra sets of eyes, the eyes of the mind, the eyes of the
heart. When Jesus knocked Paul to the ground in Acts 9 and blinded
him with a great light, he made Paul's physical eyes match his
spiritual ones. Paul went to the ground and said,
Who are you, Lord? Who are you that just knocked
me down and blinded me? Now isn't that kind of a telling
question? Especially from Paul. He who
was the Hebrew of Hebrews. Remember, Paul could stand tall. He was quite the Jew. But he did not know that Jesus
was talking to him. He didn't know it was Jesus.
And he didn't know that it was Jesus whom Paul was persecuting. Not the true one. Paul was spiritually
blind. He neither knew who God really
was, nor did he want to follow Him. Paul claimed that he could
see, yet he was blind. And just as Jesus told those
Pharisees in chapter 9 of John, The book of John says, if you
were blind, you would have no sin. But now you say, we see.
Therefore, your sin remains. It is with the mind's eye that
we come to know the Lord through knowledge. And this knowledge
was revealed to Paul, and he became a reborn man. Paul says
in Ephesians 1, Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in
the Lord Jesus and your love for all of the saints, Do not
cease to give thanks for You, making mention of You in my prayers,
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding
being enlightened. And again, he says in Colossians
1, for this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease
to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge
of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. These
are kind of like facts to know, things to know. that you may walk worthy of the
Lord, fully pleasing Him, being faithful in every good work and
increasing in the knowledge of God." And Peter says the same
thing in 2 Peter 1. Grace and peace be multiplied
to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord as His
divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life
and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory
and virtue. This knowledge they speak of
is Jesus Christ. Him. Him. Not when He was born, not the
exact year the prophets spoke, not the names of the prophets,
anything like that. It's Him. It's Him. He being
the seed of promise back in Genesis, He being the great mediator between
God and men as it says in 1 Timothy, and He being made sin for us.
That's the knowledge. And this knowledge is needful
for salvation. Now, why is it needful? Because
we must know who to look to or who to look for. We must know
who it is first. For example, if you were sick
and the cure was just a certain medicine, But the vial that that
medicine came in was next to a whole bunch of other ones.
And those other ones, they had different colors. And those other
ones might even harm you, or they just might do nothing. But
either way, there's the one medicine that you need. You would demand that the doctor
tell you which the correct medicine is. and where to get it. And in the same way, we need
to know how vile our sin is to God. You need to know that you're
sick. And you need to know who the
Christ is. You need to know where to get
the cure, and who to get it from. And we need to know where to
find Him. But some would hear the words,
look and live, And then they would say, well,
tell me where to look. I guess I need to know. Tell me where
this is. And they can even read in Romans 10, for whoever calls
on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And so they only have
this shallow understanding. And so they go to the preacher
for knowledge, but the preacher is a false one. False preacher. He doesn't preach Jesus as the
absolute Savior, and so his listeners are under the impression that
they've found THE Christ. That they've just gained the
knowledge of THE Jesus Christ, and so they call on this Jesus
Christ, but He's a false one. Instead of calling on Jesus of
the Gospel, they call on a Jesus that is not found in the Bible. And that's a danger. Jesus preached
against those false teachers many times. Many times. But it's
not all the false preacher's fault. From our birth, from our
very birth, we think we can go to God on our own, but we can't. We can't. That's a lesson I had
to learn. We think we know who God is,
but we really don't. We really don't. Even if we've
read this thing, this Bible, cover to cover, we don't. We think we know how He saves
sinners, but we're wrong because we keep trying to save ourselves. We just do it all wrong. We think we go close to God with
certain pleadings, with our talents, certain actions that we do once
or multiple times, coming up to the pulpit, you know, walking
the aisle. But instead, we're just moving
farther away from God with those. We think we know what God wants
from us, or the fact that we think He wants something from
us to gain salvation. And so we offer our dedication
and our piety, our feelings. But those are wrong for salvation. It says, but the natural man
does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are
foolishness to him. That's why we think we know.
We think we got it. We think we're wise. It continues, nor can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned. That's in 1 Corinthians
2, verse 14. Paul knows what he's talking
about. Paul knows exactly what he's talking about. Yet, we think
we're right. Why? We think we're right. The eyes
of the mind are blind to spiritual things. We're unable to know
who God is, what He requires, and whom He saves. It's beyond
our ability to understand. Paul even says in Romans 10,
How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed,
and how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?"
You've got to hear it to know it, and then you've got to believe
it. So what does salvation look like?
Does it look like merit, or choice, or Christian living? Or does it look like an ordinary
man who was the son of God, who did the works he saw his father
do, and who came to save a nation not of this earth, not the nation
state Israel? So which knowledge is correct
and how are we sure we have it? Can we gain this knowledge just
of ourselves? Jesus himself tells us that we
cannot, we cannot. In John 6, 44, he says, no one
can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. Only the
calling from God himself will show you Jesus as he truly is
and show you your sins as they truly are. That's how you gain
it. And once we have obtained the
knowledge, is that it? Do we then have salvation? We
just got the facts. No, of course not. Are you cured
after the doctor tells you the medicine you need or are you
cured after you've taken the medicine? Knowledge of doctrine and the
Bible convinces some into believing that they have obtained salvation
because they know the verses and they've read the commentators
and they've studied the Bible cover to cover. I was in that
boat once. That was not a good boat. I thought I had it. Because I
was like Paul. I had grown up in a gospel preaching
church. I thought I had it. I had never
been lied to. I had never been told falsehoods. So I thought I had it. I was wrong. Now Paul, of course,
had that kind of knowledge and, along with a passionate belief
in it, yet he counted it all as rubbish, that he may gain
Christ. Now knowing the truth is different
from believing the truth. Believing the truth comes from
the heart, and the eyes of the heart, they direct our desires. Or you could say they are our
desires. Remember what the poet said in
Songs of Solomon, like a lily among thorns, so is my love among
the daughters. Now with men, which you know
it's easy for me to preach as one because I am one, but with
men it's easy to know what their desires are. You just take a
look at their bank accounts before and after they get a girlfriend.
You can see where their desires are. That money goes right after
their desire. And Jesus said, for where your
treasure is, there your heart will be also. The truth of the
world is, one of the truths that we learn when the gospel is revealed
to us, is that people will do what they want to do. Even if
they know better. Even if they know better. Why
do people say one thing and then do the opposite? Why don't they
just do what they said they'd do? Because they did not want
to. That's as simple as it is. Their
desire was to do something else. Desire can even sometimes go
beyond knowledge. In high school, I went out with
a girl for many years, and she was just abusive, physically
and emotionally abusive. Now, I knew in my head it was
bad to continue with her. But the heart wants what the
heart wants. My desire for her was so great that it overruled
my knowledge of her. That can happen. But when you
have the knowledge of Christ coupled with the desire for Him,
they complement one another. They are both good. Your knowledge
doesn't say to your desire, this is bad. And your desire doesn't
tell your knowledge to be quiet. I like this no matter what you
say. Neither one wins out above the other because you both know
Him and therefore desire to be like Him and with Him. They are
together. Paul says in Ephesians 3.16 that
He, being God, that God would grant you according to the riches
of His glory to be strengthened with might through His Spirit
in the inner man. That Christ may dwell in your
hearts through faith. That you being rooted and grounded
in love, there's desire. may be able to comprehend with
all the saints that is the width and length and depth and height
to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge. And it does. But let's make that sentence
a little shorter. You could shorten it to say that God would grant
you to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge. That's
it right there. He's talking about faith. He's
talking about belief. Once you have tasted and seen
that the Lord is good, you have a desire to follow him. That's
just true of everybody. He's not lost one that's been
given him. The Shulamite from Songs of Solomon
who was so loved by the poet that he called her a lily among
thorns. Do you know how she in turn described
him? Turn to Song of Solomon chapter
5, Song of Solomon 5. I love these words. Starting in verse 10. This is
the Shulamite talking. She says, My beloved is white
and ruddy, chief among 10,000. His head is like the finest gold,
his locks are wavy and black as a raven. His eyes are like
doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk and fitly set. His cheeks are like a bed of
spices, banks of scented herbs. His lips are lilies dripping
liquid myrrh. His hands are rods of gold set
with beryl. His body is carved ivory inlaid
with sapphires. His legs are pillars of marble
set on bases of fine gold. His countenance is like Lebanon,
excellent as the cedars. His mouth is most sweet. Yes,
he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved. And this is my friend, O daughters
of Jerusalem. Now it's as if she's saying to
all the women in town, do you see now why I desire Him? Isn't this a man to be desired?
Now that I've told you all about Him? In the same way, do we desire
Christ? Do we desire to follow Him? If
we do, it's because we have heard of Him as He is faithfully described
in Scripture. But that desire didn't spring
from knowledge only. Just as the knowledge wasn't
understood from preaching only. Both the knowledge and the desire
came from God. Both of them. They've both come
from God. God says in Ezekiel 11, Then
I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within
them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh and give them
a heart of flesh. You didn't do that. You can't
do that. God did that. Recall how the scribes and Pharisees
had much knowledge of Scripture. Everybody knew it. They made
sure everybody knew it, that they had knowledge of Scripture.
But what did Jesus say to them? He said, but you are not willing
to come to me that you may have life. They had no desire. They
had no desire for Jesus, nor God the Father. In fact, they
admitted that their desire was not salvation through Christ,
but salvation through the law. And it's the law being with its
many regulations and continual never-ending bloodletting. And
they admitted that they did not want God as their Father. They
told Jesus, we have Abraham as our Father. As if they said, take that Jesus,
Abraham's our father. Those misguided Pharisees were
blind to the man that stood in front of them. And because they
neither had the knowledge of him nor the desire to follow
him, they were spiritually blind. Just like Paul used to be. Paul
grew up blind, not knowing God or Jesus Christ. The God and
the Jesus that Paul knew, they had the same names. They were
called Jehovah and they were called Jesus. He wouldn't say
Christ, but he would say Jesus. That was his name. The God and the Jesus that Paul
knew, they performed the same miracles. You can read about
it. It's right here. All in the Old Testament. And I don't know how he would
have denied the things that Jesus did. But the God and Jesus that Paul
knew, they spoke to the same people through the prophets,
and they created the same earth. Same, but different. Paul did not have true knowledge,
and he did not have a desire for the true God, even though
he read about Him. He knew Him. So what was different
about Paul? This is where the accusations
fly. What was different about Paul? He was just like the Pharisees,
and Jesus called the Pharisees hypocrites and liars. Makes him
a hypocrite and a liar. John the Baptist called them
a brood of vipers, and these same people led Jesus to be crucified. And Paul likewise approved of
the persecution of the church. and of the stoning of Stephen. We find the Pharisees doing what
they have always done in later passages, even after Jesus was
crucified. They just keep going, showing
that they did not change. So what happened to Paul that
made him change? Back to Acts 9. Acts 9, verses
17 and 18. It says, and Ananias went his
way and entered the house, and laying his hands on him, that
is Paul, he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared
to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive
your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Immediately
there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received
his sight once more, and he arose and was baptized. And at that moment, something
like scales fell from his eyes and he was no longer blind. That
which he once did not know, he learned. He didn't learn it fully. This is his first time not being
blind. He or him who did not, I'm sorry,
him who he did not desire, who he detested with such fervor,
that he was famous for. Paul was famous for this. Him
he desired to see and to know and to behold. And it began right
there. The scales from Paul's spiritual
eyes, they fell off and he could see. And that's a marvelous thing
it is to behold the Lord Jesus because when you see Him rightly,
you see that He is altogether lovely. just like it says in
Song of Solomon. So I ask, who do you see? Who do you see? Do you lack knowledge? Well, pray that God grants you
a hearing ear, because that's how you gain knowledge. Do you
lack desire? Pray that God gives you a living
heart. If you are His, have no fear, Jesus promises to you,
all that the Father gives me will come to me. And the one
who comes to me, I will by no means cast out. And finally,
are you blind? Are you blind? Well, salvation
can be had with a look. Salvation can be had with a look.
That's all I have. Bruce, would you pray for us,
please?