From this ninth chapter of John,
John 9, our message today is, all blind but one. All blind
but one. If you're familiar with this
chapter, you'll understand the thought of my message. All blind but one. We have all
been in a crowd somewhere at some time and seen one person
who was blind, perhaps with a C&I dog or being led by a friend. But here in John chapter 9, we
find a crowd where there's not just one blind man, But we find a crowd who are all
blind but one. And we'll refer to most of the
verses in this chapter. But I'll begin by reading just
two verses, verses 24 and 25. Then again called they the man
that was born that was blind and said unto him, give God the
praise. We know that this man, talking
about the Lord Jesus, is a sinner. He answered and said, whether
he be a sinner or no, I know not. One thing I know, that whereas
I was blind, now I see. He had told them that it was
Jesus who had given him his sight. And they said, why, he's a sinner.
Give God the glory. Well, this man was giving God
the glory and didn't even know it. Jesus Christ is God. And in verse 25, this man really
has things in their proper perspective. Whatever he knows or don't know
about a lot of things is not the issue. But he says this,
there's one thing I do know, that whereas I was blind, now I see. Before we look at
all the blind people in this chapter, I want to give you five
precious things about our Lord's dealing with this one man who
was blind, but now can see. Number one, Christ's mercy towards
sinners is not determined by the defiance of other sinners.
This is a precious thought. In the previous chapter, the
last two verses, chapter eight, verses 58 and 59, Jesus had said
unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was,
I am. Then took they up stones to cast
at him. But Jesus hid himself and went
out of the temple, going through the midst of them and so passing
by. He had been rejected. Efforts
were made to stone him. And then goes right into chapter
nine. I think we can safely say Had the Lord Jesus Christ been
like you and I, instead of being in the mood to help a blind man
at this point, he would more likely have been in the mood
to do nothing good for anyone ever again, if he were like us. But you see, he goes straight
from this rejection and efforts to stone him right into chapter
9 and shows compassion. So I repeat, number one, Christ's
mercy toward sinners is not determined by the defiance of other sinners. Number two, his treatment of
sinners is often contrary to reason and really goes against
the grain of religious pride. The poor fellow was blind already, and instead of prescribing some
good eye drops for him, our Lord very offensively spits
on the ground, makes a little ball of mud, and puts mud in
the fellow's eyes. Now, I don't recommend you try
that, but the Lord did that. It was very unreasonable, very
unreligious. And number three, his treatment
of this man never involved an invitation, but a command. He said to him,
go. Not come, but go. Wash in the
pool of Siloam. So there's a command given rather
than an invitation. Number four, Christ's treatment
of this man involved not only a command to go and wash in the
pool of Siloam, but it created in the man's heart a willingness
to obey the command. Verse 8 says, the man went and
washed. and came seeing. And the number five thought,
Christ's treatment of this man yields greater results than was
promised. If you'll read it carefully,
Christ never said, go wash and you'll be healed. He just said,
go wash. He never said, send me $200 and
I'll see what I can do. He just said, go wash. I hear a lot of these racketeers
nowadays talking about claim the promises of God, embrace
the promises of God, always with a materialistic emphasis and
self-interest toward health. and wealth. They take the scripture
and they twist the scripture and they teach people how to
supposedly back God in a corner. Well, I want to say it's not
happening. It does not happen that way. Not at all. Here's
how God's saving grace works. Jesus never promised the man
anything. He just said, go wash. And it
was an effectual word to this man's heart, and he obeyed and
went. That's how grace works. The Lord
Jesus wasn't handing out lollipops to anybody that would listen
and make a little effort to obey. Oh, no. Oh, no. When he's calling
out his sheep, one of his elect, along with the command, comes
an effectual working in the heart. to obey, and to go. So it's not
that this fellow was in a position that he had anything the Lord
needed. No. But the Lord had everything
he needed. And that's the way it works.
That's the way it works. Now, in this chapter, and I hope
you'll stay with me just a few moments. We won't be too long. I've said that before, hadn't
I? But we won't be too long today. There are four groups of blind
people in this chapter. Not physically blind, but blind
in other ways. Blind spiritually, if you will. And we'll look just a moment
at each of the four. Number one is the disciples. Our Lord's
own disciples. When they saw this man that was
born blind, they asked the Lord concerning him in verse two,
Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born
blind? Well, at that time, as in our
time, people had some strange beliefs. They still do. They believe that any and every
affliction could be traced back to some specific sin committed,
either by the individual who had the affliction or by the
parents of that individual. It insinuated that any and all
affliction was simply payback on God's part. A lot of people
think like that nowadays, that God's just up there with a big
old stick waiting on you to stomp your toe so he can beat you over
the head. Hey, you don't never do anything
but stomp your toe. You don't have to wait. That's
not it at all. That's not it at all. Well, even
Christ's disciples never understood this basic fundamental that one's
condition in this world, physically, is no indication that he or she
is any more or less a sinner than anyone else. They never
understood that. But this is the thinking of depraved
humanity. It comes natural for people to
believe that because this one has cancer and this one has a
heart attack and this one is blind This one breaks her leg
or something. It's because God is not quite
so pleased with them as he is everybody else. Well, that thinking
springs from a mindset of works religion. In other words, it implies that
if you were living as good as I live, you'd be having it as
good as I'm having it. That's the implication. Even
Christ's disciples were caught in this mindset. And they were
blind to the truth of God's purposes and God's providence in the world.
And so they asked this question, who sinned, this fellow or his
parents? Our Lord taught this lesson in
Luke 13. There was a tower. A tall tower
that fell, the Tower of Siloam, had fallen and killed 18 people. And the Lord asked the question,
do you think these 18 were greater sinners than everybody else?
And the answer was no, they were not. They were not. We know that these disciples,
the 12, They were all God's elect except Judas Iscariot. They were his children, but yet
they were affected by the common beliefs of their time, just like
we all are to some degree. And there's the business of religious
knowledge, and there's the business of being a step ahead of everybody
else and being a cut above everybody else. And religious people are
the worst for it. Sovereign grace people are awful
for it. I heard a dear preacher years
ago, Brother Henry Mahan, greater grace preachers you'd ever hear. He pastored for many years in
Ashland, Kentucky. And he said, I tell the people
at our church, when we have visitors come in, you want to be friendly. We ought to be friendly and talk
to people, befriend people. But he said, we need to be on
guard about something. And I'm saying that to us this
morning. He said, if we're not careful, we'll find ourselves
asking questions. What do you believe about this
or that? How much do you know about this or that? And he said,
people will conclude very quickly that they don't know as much
as you do and feel inferior, and they would not fit in, and
they could not be a part of our church. So we ought to guard
against that. He said, and I say, it's not
our goal to expose people's ignorance and gloat in our knowledge. Not
at all. But rather, it's our business
as the Lord's people to patiently strive to help people and direct
them into the truth. I'll tell you, I have a problem
with the fact that so many good people are so ignorant. Not that
I'm so smart, but there's a lot of good people that's really
ignorant. And God is sovereign even in
giving light and understanding to people. And I need to be more
mindful of that and I need more patience in that. I heard a dear,
dear, dear old saint, been in church longer than most of us
have been in the world and loves God. made the statement just
today now, today I'm talking about. The Lord's been so good to us.
This was early this morning. The Lord's been good to us, but
he has been so disappointed in us so many times. He has been so disappointed.
Dear, dear sister, dear, dear sister, but she did not understand
that God is God and that in God's omniscience, disappointment is something he's
not capable of. No, no, not at all. But I need to be careful in this,
especially I'm considering here the disciples. They were the
Lord's people. They were his children. He'd
been teaching them. They were truly his, but they
were confused. They were locked into this thinking
about blindness and they were blind themselves as to the cause
of this man's blindness. They were blinded by superstition,
blinded in religious and traditional thinking. All right, number two,
the second group, this man's neighbors were blind. Look with
me at verse eight. The neighbors, therefore, and
they which before had seen him that was blind said, is not this
he that sat and begged? Some said, this is he. Others
said, he is like him, but he said, I am He. They were blind
in unbelief. Some said, I believe it's Him.
Some others said, no, it just looks like Him, but it's not
Him. But He said, I am He. They said to Him, well now, what
happened to you? How is it that you now have your
sight? We know you were blind. And he
told them, verse 11, a man that is called Jesus made clay and
anointed mine eyes and said unto me, go to the pool of Siloam
and wash. And I went and washed and I received
sight. Verse 12, they asked him, well,
where is he? Where is he? The man said, I
know not. I don't know where he is. And
these neighbors, they said, now there's something going on here
that we don't understand. And it's too hard to believe what we think we're witnessing.
It's hard to believe what we're seeing with our own eyes. And we prefer to just remain
blind to this. We cannot process this in our
minds. And that's what people say today.
Don't make me think. Don't make me think about the
truth. And so they said, we'll not labor
with this matter about what happened. We'll just take him to those
more qualified than we are to deal with such matters. So here's
what they did. Verse 13, they brought to the
Pharisees him that aforetime was blind. Now, you know, the
Pharisees had the reputation of being the elite in religion,
spirituality. And it was understood that if
anything like this ever came up, you ordinary people don't
deal with it. Don't be taken in. Don't believe
anything or anyone except the Pharisees approve of it first. Because you're blind. You need
us to decide for you. Well, I know a lot of church
folk like these neighbors. Blind. And gladly so, willingly
so, wouldn't have it any other way. You ask them, well, what
do you believe about such and such? Well, I believe what my
preacher believes. Well, what does your preacher
believe? Well, he believes what the Bible says. Well, what does
the Bible say? Well, I don't know, but that's
what we believe. How pitiful, what blindness,
what blindness, and they wouldn't have it any other way. All right,
the number three group, is the Pharisees. Verse 14 tells us
it was the Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened this
man's eyes. Now verse 15, then again the
Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He
said unto them, he put clay upon my eyes and I washed and do see. Therefore said some of the Pharisees,
this man is not of God because he keepeth not the Sabbath day. Well, that confirmed it for some.
He's not of God because we think he broke the Sabbath. They had
no earthly idea what the Sabbath was, what it was all about. They were blind, totally blind.
to God's truth and to God's Son. Others said, how can a man that
is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among
them, a division. Some said he's not of God or
he wouldn't have done this on the Sabbath day. I will tell
you, that was the unpardonable sin with those Pharisees was
to do something on the Sabbath day. And others said, well, If
he was a sinner, if he wasn't of God, he sure couldn't do such
miracles as these. And so they had a falling out.
There was a division among them. It's blind people fighting blind
people. Imagine what kind of sight that
would be. Blind people fighting blind people. Well, that's what
this was. They say unto the blind man again,
what sayest thou of him? that he hath opened thine eyes.
He said, he is a prophet. But the Jews did not believe
concerning him that he had been blind and received his sight. They were blind in unbelief. They're seeing what had happened
clearly with their physical eyes. But verse 18 says, they did not
believe concerning him that had been blind and received his sight. They were blind in unbelief. We'll come back to the Pharisees
in a few moments, but number four is the parents. They're
blind. What kind of blindness do they
have? They're locked into the blindness of spiritual bondage. Verse 18, the Jews didn't believe
concerning him that received his sight until they called the
parents of him that had received his sight. And they asked them,
saying, Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then
Doth he now see? His parents answered them and
said, we know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But by what means he now seeth,
we know not. Or who hath opened his eyes,
we know not. He is of age. Ask him. He shall speak for himself. Now these are good religious
folk who think more of their religious
standing than they do their own son. And
the miracle Christ wrought in opening his eyes. These words spake his parents
because they feared the Jews. For the Jews had agreed already
that if any man did confess that he was Christ, that is, if any man confessed
that this Jesus was the Christ, this fellow should be put out
of the synagogue. Therefore, said his parents,
he is of age, ask him. They refuse to testify and to
identify with their own son and rejoice with him and believe
on Christ with him. They refuse that. Why? For fear
of being kicked out of the synagogue. I want to say the bondage of
religious involvement. and religious acceptance is the
worst kind of blindness there is. I love for you to be here and
I appreciate you that come faithfully and that I can know from week
to week as certain as you're not sick or something bad wrong,
you're going to be here when it comes to church time. That
means a lot to me. But at the same time, it is wrong
that you should feel or that I should pressure you into any
type of bondage, bondage of religious involvement. And it's wrong that
you should want to be exalted and thought to be something
great, religious acceptance. It's the worst kind of blindness
there is. So in reading this story, everybody
in town is blind. The disciples, the neighbors,
the Pharisees, the parents, everybody except this one man and the Lord
Jesus who gave him his sight. All blind, but one. Now verse 24 takes back up with
the Pharisees. Then again called they the man
that was blind, and said unto him, Give God the praise." We
know that this man, talking about Jesus, is a sinner. Here is a plain statement. They
claim to be in fellowship with God. And they exhort this man
to give God the praise in one breath. And the very next breath,
they call Jesus a sinner. And their blindness is so great. They don't say, we think this
Jesus is a sinner. No, they said, we know he's a
sinner. We know he is. In verse 25, the
man don't even claim to be so smart as they claim to be. And
so he says, well, I'll tell you this. I don't know nothing about
him, whether he's a sinner or not. I don't know. All I know
is this one thing. You can't argue with me about
this, whereas I was blind. Now, I see. Well, they continue
to interrogate the man on and on and on. Verse 26, Then said
they to him again, What did he to thee? How opened he thine
eyes? He answered them, I have told
you already, and you did not hear. Wherefore would you hear
it again? Why ask him again for? Will ye also be his disciples? He is being a little facetious
now that's a big word for me it's easier to say he's being
a little bit of a smart addict now why do you want to hear the
story again are y'all interested in being his disciples they said the next verse look
you're his disciple we're moses disciples verse 29 we know that
god spake unto moses As for this fellow, talking about Jesus,
we know not from whence he is. The man answered and said unto
them, Why, herein is a marvelous thing. This is amazing. This is amazing. So amazing. For wise fellows
like you, you know not from whence he is,
and yet he hath opened mine eyes." He's nailed them. And they don't
know what to say next, so they blurt out a most foolish
statement. And that's what often happens
when you don't know what to say next. They blurted out a most foolish
statement, verse 31. Now we know that God heareth
not sinners. Uh-oh. It leaves us out, don't
it? But if any man be a worshipper
of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. That's works religion. You've got to do God's will and
you've got to do it real good for him to hear you. Verse 32, the man just keeps
pouring it on. Since the world began, was it
not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born
blind. But it's happened to me, he says. If this man were not of God,
he could do nothing. They answered and said unto him,
Thou wast altogether born in sins, like they weren't. And dost thou teach us You can't
tell us nothing, boy. We're religious leaders in this
town and you're a nobody. And they cast him out. That's
their only choice. Kick him out. Kick him out. When a man tells the truth and
magnifies the Lord Jesus Christ, Kick him out. If he's going to
give Christ the credit for everything, kick him out. If he's not going to praise us
and bow to our religious expertise and leadership, kick him out. They cast him out. Jesus heard that they had cast
him out and when he had found him When he had found him We don't have any in between
there That it took the Lord a long long time To inquire and find
out where he was. No, it just says when he found
him. He knew where he found him He knew where to find him He found him, he said unto him,
Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is he,
Lord, that I might believe on him? Jesus said unto him, Thou
hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. You're talking to him, the Son
of God. And he said, Lord, I believe. and he worshipped him. So everybody's blind but this
one. And the last three verses, verses
39 through 41, are very, very rich in predestination, election,
and reprobation. Listen as we read. Jesus said,
for judgment I am coming to this world, That they which see not
might see. Talking about the blind man. And that they which see or think
they do. Those who in their own eyes have
good sight. He said, I've come that they
might be made blind. Don't look at me, Craig. This
is the Bible. I'm reading out of the Bible. Nope, it's not the Reader's Digest.
Nope, it's not National Geographic. This is God's Word. And some of the Pharisees which
were with Him heard these words and said unto Him, Are we blind
also? You wouldn't be talking to us,
would you? Jesus said unto them, If you were blind, you should
have no sin. I would open your eyes. I would
forgive your sins. But now you say, we see. You can't do nothing for us.
We see. Therefore, your sin remaineth. The big difference in the one
man and all the others was this. He was born blind and knew it. They were blind and didn't know
it. Didn't know it. So if you were
in the dark this morning about all this, about who God really
is, about who Christ really is, about what salvation really is,
about whether you belong to him. If you're in the dark about all
this, you had better not play the fool and deny your condition and just go on like you're in
the know. That's what this crowd did. But
you'd best crawl off somewhere and confess to the Lord your
darkness and your blindness and your ignorance and your fear
of judgment and express to Him your desire and ask Him to open
your eyes, to cleanse your heart, to give you spiritual vision. And if you're able to truly do
that, it'll be because he's already put the mud in your eyes. It's but a matter of time. You'll
reach the pool of Siloam and the work will be done. Your
eyes will be open. John Newton said, in the great
old beloved Him, amazing grace. I was a wretch and could be nothing else but
a wretch. I was lost, but now I'm found. I was blind, but now I see. As you and I struggle and stumble
through this world, we should ask God for the hope this man
had in John 9. And I thank God this is my hope
this morning. If everybody around me is boastful
and proud in their blindness, and I won't tell you they are,
buddy. You just wait till tomorrow, wherever you go, school, job,
town, and just look around. Oh, yes. They're proud in their
blindness and wouldn't have it any other way. Help me to just
pause and say, thank you, Lord, for opening my eyes. Help me
to love you and praise you for it forever. blind but one. Lord, thank you for making me
that one. Amen. Let's stand together.