Okay well turn back to John's
Gospel and we'll look at the ninth chapter today. John's Gospel
and chapter nine where we see a man who was blind from birth
but came seeing. Blind from birth but came seeing.
Last week we saw what Abraham saw, at least we saw five things
that Abraham saw. We saw that he saw the promise
of a people, a multitude who would be saved. We saw that he
saw the promise of a Redeemer who would come in the flesh,
a Christ who would come in the flesh to redeem. We saw how there
was the need for a priest, Melchizedek, of which Christ was in that line,
in the line of Melchizedek, a priest to stand between sinners and
the Holy God. And we saw how he saw in the
sacrifice of his son, or at least the determination to go through
with it, Isaac, he saw in that that God's means of redemption,
how God would redeem, how God would deal with the sins of his
people so that he could still be just as God, but the justifier
of that multitude that were promised. and then finally the promise
of liberty he saw that the promise of liberty that the gospel and
that the salvation that christ would win and earn for his people
was a gospel of liberty those things that he saw abraham saw
those things the pharisees They revered Abraham. They followed
in Abraham's footsteps physically, but they didn't see a solitary
thing of what Abraham saw. The Pharisees saw nothing but
their traditions, their Mosaic law, the pride in their national
elitism. They saw nothing of a surety,
even though their scriptures spoke of Christ from beginning
to end. They didn't see it at all. They were blind. Look at
verse 39 of our chapter, John 9. Jesus said, for judgment I
am come into this world, that they which see not might see. And they which see, or in other
words, think they see, those who are self-righteous, they
think they see all these things, might be made blind, or might
be confirmed in their blindness. This is why he came. The Pharisees
thought that they saw, but all they saw was their own self-righteousness. I fear that it is like so many
today in reformed Protestant religion. They've got all the
right ticks in the boxes for the doctrines that they believe.
All they can go through and they can tick all the right boxes
for what they believe. They're so proud of their progressive
sanctification in keeping the law of God. They're so proud
in these things. But you know they're as far from
the kingdom of God as these Pharisees were. They're modern day Pharisees. Now we see in chapter 9 and verses
1 to 7 the actual event, the healing of this man, the fulfillment
of the prophecy of Isaiah. Then shall the eyes of the blind
be opened. We read it at the start. Isaiah
35 and verse 5. Then shall the eyes of the blind
be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the
lame man leapers and heart and the tongue of the dumb shall
sing prophecy that when Messiah comes what's going to happen
when this promised one who is coming to redeem his people when
he comes what are going to be the signs that this really is
the real thing he is the real the eyes of the blind will be
opened In that day the eyes of the blind will be opened. Look
and see if you can see it happening. Tell, go and the disciples of
John came. John the Baptist. Are you the
one? Go and tell him. The eyes of the blind are opened.
The ears of the, all of those things are coming to pass. And
the poor in spirit, the poor in their own righteousness have
the gospel preached to them. Go and tell him. This is the
real thing. This is true Christ. And so, here we have it, going
into chapter nine. This is no chance encounter.
As Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
This isn't just a, oh, you know, he's wandering along, and would
you believe what happened that day? You know, like we sometimes
think. Oh, it just turned out that way. No, this was sovereign
grace on display. This was sovereign grace on show. This was Christ who caused the
path of this man to cross his path. This man's blindness was
severe. I believe that this man was born
without eyeballs, really. I believe he didn't have eyeballs
in the socket, there were just sockets there, just blind sockets. Why do I believe that? Well I'm
not the only one that does, other commentators do as well, but
I've always thought that about this passage. Look at his disciples'
reaction. You see, they must have seen
lots of blind people as they walked around, as they went about
the ministry. They must have seen lots. They
were blind that were healed. But look at this. His disciples
asked him, saying, Master, who did sin? Gosh, this is severe
punishment that this man has got. Look at him. How disfigured
he is. Look, he's got no eyeballs. He's
just got sockets where his eyes should be. Who'd sin, this man
or his parents, that he was born blind? And then, down in verse
9, after he'd been healed and he came back seeing, they're
saying in verse 8, um, is not this he that sat and begged?
Look, look, he's wearing the same sorts of clothes. Look,
is it? Could it be? No, he's completely
different. Look at him, look at his face,
he doesn't look the same. And some said, yes, I think it's
him. And others said, well he's certainly like him. But he said,
no it's me. It really is. There'd been such
a dramatic change in his appearance. Now Jesus found this man to illustrate
something. Look. Verse three, Jesus said,
neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents. Now, he's not
saying that the man or his parents weren't sinners, for all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There is none righteous,
no not one, says the scripture. He's not saying that at all.
Not at all. He's the only one who never sinned.
Neither hath this, but Neither hath this man sinned a specific
sin, nor his parents that have led to him having this severe,
extreme form of blindness. So what's this blindness for,
then, if it isn't punishment for a really severe sin? What's
this blindness for? He says it's that the works of
God should be made manifest, should be shown in him. He's
going to show the works of God. And what are the works of God?
What is the supreme work of God? It's God graciously bringing
to life those who are dead in trespasses and sins. It's God
graciously saving a people. It's God graciously taking that
people that walk in darkness, Isaiah 9 verse 2, and showing
them that great light, that light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But in strict justice, in strict
justice, he withholds that light and he withholds that sight from
those who think they already have it, from those who think
they're self-righteous, from those who think they have no
sin, from those who think that they're good enough for God as
they stand. He withholds the light of the gospel from them.
You see, all around, there's no shortage of light. You know
a blind man who walks around in darkness all of the time.
It's not for lack of light. There's plenty of light all around.
It's eyes that work. It's eyes with which to see that
are needed. Ezekiel chapter 12 and verse
2 says this of the people of the Jews of Ezekiel's day. Son
of man thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house which have
eyes to see and see not. They've got eyes but they don't
see anything. They have ears to hear and hear
not, for they are a rebellious house. In their rebellion against
the truth and the gospel of grace, God had blinded them and confirmed
them in that state of blindness. These Pharisees were surrounded
by light. They were surrounded by spiritual
light. There was the light of the Old
Testament Scriptures, which speak of Christ on every page. Those glorious pages, as we'll
see when we look at Isaiah 2 later today, there, in words that you
can just so readily skip over, but there is clear, clear, glorious
promises of the Church of God, of the redeemed of the Lord Jesus
Christ, of the calling out of his people. It's quite clear
there, they were surrounded by the light of the Old Testament
Scriptures. And then in the temple, every day they saw it enacted
before them. The idea of a substitute, the
idea of a sacrificial substitute in their place, paying the price
symbolically of their sins, pointing to Christ who must come and actually,
really take away sin. And then here, in his ministry,
in the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, they even had the light
of the world. He said, verse 5, as long as
I am in the world, you see what a claim, what a statement Jesus
makes. As long as I am in the world,
I am the light of the world. He's either who he said he was,
or he's the most arrogant, pretentious person that ever walked this
earth. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the
world. But he is that light of the world. He is God come in
the flesh, and they had him walking there around them. And they couldn't
see it because they were blind. They couldn't see it at all.
As Jesus said somewhere else when in the parable about the
rich man and Lazarus and the rich man in hell says send someone
from the dead to my brethren to warn them about the truth
of eternity. And Jesus said if they won't
believe Moses and the prophets they won't believe that one should
rise from the dead. They have Moses and the prophets,
they have the scriptures, they have that light. If they won't
believe that, they won't believe that one should rise from the
dead. Here they were in the full glare of divine light, but the
Pharisees couldn't see it. All they were obsessed with was
the Mosaic Law, obsessive adherence to the Mosaic Law, and it blinded
them. They had a narrow Sabbath-day
legalism, we see it again and again. It's almost as if Christ
was provoking them in performing his miracles on the Sabbath day.
You know, the man that was made to walk by the pool, the man,
this man, on the Sabbath day, as if it was provoking them,
come on, a reaction, and they did. Their Sabbath day legalism
prevented them from seeing even the miracle, which was such an
amazing miracle. Oh, there's so many that are
in that trap today in religion. in the religion of man, in the
religion of works, in the religion of law. They're trapped in this
legalism that prevents them from seeing other things. Oh, that
God would keep us from that same trap. If we live in the light
of the liberty of the gospel of grace, oh that God would keep
us there, that we might never drift away from it, that we might
never do, because the natural man, the natural heart loves
to go for rules and regulations. Tell me what I must do, tell
me what I need to do, rather than living in the liberty, standing
fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. So then
let's look at this miracle. Why was this man then so blind? Was it a severe punishment? No,
we've said already that all have sinned, but this was to demonstrate
the works of God. This man was in this condition
to demonstrate the works of God, specifically the works of sovereign
grace in redeeming a people. The man was there at this specific
time that it might be shown that Jesus was the Christ. That's
why he was there. That it might be shown that the
one who'd had this argument with the Pharisees about Abraham in
the previous chapter, that it might be shown that he this man,
this ordinary looking man, as I keep saying, was the Christ.
It's like Paul says in Acts 17 and verse 3, this Jesus, this
Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ. He kept expounding
from the scriptures that this Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, this
man is the Christ. the sinner's substitute, the
savior. And also that we might see that
he's the creator. In what? In that he performed
such a remarkable act of creation in this miracle. It was an absolutely
remarkable act of creation that this man should be given sight.
One who had been in such an extreme condition of blindness. Now think
all the time as we're going through this. The blindness, the physical
blindness of this man is symbolical. It's a picture of the spiritual
blindness that we're all in by nature. For by nature man is
born blind spiritually. By nature born blind spiritually. It must be an act of God to give
sight. It must be an act, or we will
not see. It must be an act of sovereign
grace to give sight to the soul. And it's Him that does it. He
is the one that does it. It's not something we can whip
up by our own works. It's something that we must depend
upon Him to do. Pass me not, O gracious Savior,
is what we're going to sing at the end. Hear my humble cry.
While on others thou art calling, Don't pass me by. Please don't
pass me by. While you're calling on others,
don't pass me by. We're dependent on him, dependent
on his grace. So look at the means of this
miracle. Now, He says he must work the works of him that sent
him while it is day. The night comes when no man...
He had a ministry to accomplish. Remember he's in in the last
few months of it. He's between the Feast of Tabernacles in the
September and the Passover at which he'd be crucified the following
March, April time. So he's in that final six months
of his ministry and he must work the works of him that sent him.
The proclamation of the gospel. the establishment of the righteousness
of his people and of them in him. All of these things he must
do. While it is day, he must do it. The night comes when no
man can work. He'll be taken out of the world.
He'll be gone. He must do these works while
he's in the world. As long as I am in the world,
I am the light of the world. And when he had thus spoken,
verse six, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle.
and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay and said
to him, go wash in the pool of Siloam. The means of the miracle,
the means, he spat on the ground. If you went outside now, you
children, with your mum and dad and you spat on the ground I
imagine they'd have something to say to you especially if it
was in the high street in the middle of the day with people
they'd think what disgusting children have their parents not
taught them any manners that you don't do things like that
in public he spat on the ground can you imagine the dry dusty
road the dry street there would be dried cake dusty mud there
and he spat on the ground And then he bent down and with his
fingers he moulds it into like a piece of plasticine, this mud
and spittle. And then he comes to the man
and he moulds it into his eye sockets. And then he says, go
and wash in the pool of Ceylon. Go and wash there. He used means
that are distasteful to polite society. He used means in which
there's no healing power at all in themselves. You think of it,
there's spit. Yes, okay, I mean the modern
thing is that if you've got a cut or something like that, that
saliva has remarkable healing powers, so spit on it and you'll
do it some good. Well, there may be something
in that, but you know, in terms of making a man who was born
blind able to see with new eyes, no, no. Just think, you know,
the eye clinics that talk about curing world blindness. If all
you needed to do was to spit in people's eyes then that would
be very easy. No, this is distasteful to polite
society and it's got no healing power in itself, the spit and
the mud. It's foolish. It's illogical
to the natural mind. How's that going to work? Here's
a man who's born blind. He's just got sunken sockets
where his eyeball should be. Go and wash in the pool of Siloam,
outside of Jerusalem. It's outside of Jerusalem, it's
not even in Jerusalem, not just that pool over there. Go and
wash in the pool of Siloam. It's outside, you have to physically
go out of Jerusalem and down to where there was the river,
you know where they got the buckets of water for the Feast of Tabernacles.
That's the water that he sent him to. Go and wash, just wash
your face, go and wash your face there. He didn't take him. Jesus
didn't take him. He told him to go. Jesus, we
don't read that he instructed the disciples to take him either. Think about that. You go and
wash in the pool of Siloam. He left him to obey on his own. There was no healing power in
the water. It required faithful obedience by the man. He had
to put himself out of the way and go outside of Jerusalem And
he had to trust and obey what the Lord Jesus Christ said to
him. What's the significance of these things? These means
of this miracle? What's the significance of the
spit and the mud and the anointing and the washing? It's all about
gospel preaching. That's what it symbolizes. Look
at 1 Corinthians chapter 1, Paul's first letter to the Corinthians.
And look at the first chapter. And look at verse 18. He's talking about the Gospel.
The Gospel. Christ sent me not to baptise
but to preach the Gospel. Not with words of wisdom, lest
the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. Verse 18.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. As foolish as spit and mud to
make new eyes. Foolishness. But unto us which
are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will
destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. what God is saying there in the
Old Testament scripture of which this is a quotation is that those
who think they're wise in their own estimation and you know there's
plenty of them today there always have been those who think they're
so wise you know the professor of unbelief who writes his books
telling us what an idiotic thing it is to believe in a God there
are plenty of them around I will destroy the wisdom of the wise
and I will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? Yes, he has. In the gospel of
his grace, he's turned on his head, on its head, the wisdom
of this world. Verse 21, for after that in the
wisdom of God, the world by its own wisdom knew not God it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching the foolishness of the message
preached the foolishness of the gospel preached that one should
stand in the place of a people and that that people should be
united with him so that in him he might establish their righteousness
and everything that is needed for their acceptance with God
and then go to the cross and pay their sin debt in full. That
is the preaching of the gospel. By the foolishness of preaching
that message to save them that believe. He saves those that
believe. How do you know you're amongst
them? You believe it. You believe that gospel. This
I know. This one thing I know. I believe
that gospel. For the Jews require a sign,
and the Greeks seek after wisdom. Jews require a religious sign
of sorts. The Greeks, the Gentiles, in
all of their philosophy, they require wisdom. But we preach
Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the
Greeks foolishness. but unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom
of God. This spit and mud and anointing
and washing is symbolical of those things, of the things of
the gospel of grace. The things that bring salvation
are those things that are distasteful to the natural man. You saw I
put that piece by Pastor Scott Richardson who passed away this
week on the back of the bulletin. When the Holy God and a ruined
sinner meet on a blood-spattered platform. Ooh, distasteful, I
don't like the sound of that. A blood-spattered platform. Oh
no, I don't like that. That's what the natural man thinks.
He says, when that happens, all is settled once and for all.
Settled in such a way as to perfectly honor and glorify God and eternally
save the sinner. The only proper meeting place
between God and man is the point where grace and righteousness
meet and perfectly harmonize. Nothing but perfect righteousness
could suit God, and nothing but perfect grace could suit the
sinner. But where could that take place? Only in the cross. There it is that mercy and truth
are met together, and there the believing sinner finds peace
for the heart and conscience. You see how distasteful it is
to the natural man, but to the soul that is saved, to the soul
that believes, those are the sweetest words. That in his death,
in that cruel, dreadful, shameful death, is my peace. My peace
with God is in that. You see, when it comes to salvation
and eternity, most people want that. Most people have a sense
of immortality. Most people have a sense that
when their body dies, their soul, their spirit is going to go on
living. But what do they want for their fitness for that life?
What do they want to know the truth about it in this life?
Well, what would the natural man want with his eye sockets? He'd want to go to Harley Street,
wouldn't he? He'd want to go to the top eye specialist in
Harley Street. And so they do with religion.
They want to go to the Harley Street eye specialists of religion,
the ones that have got a name for themselves, the ones who
minister in the elaborate buildings, the ones who've got all of the
right traditions and connections and political power and all of
these things. They don't want to go to the
rough carpenter with his northern accent. That's the way it is
in this country, you know, that it's the northern accent that
is the one that's kind of looked down upon as intellectually inferior.
Christ came from the north, from Galilee, and he was walking the
streets of Jerusalem and Judea with his northern accent, from
having been an apprentice carpenter with his earthly father Joseph
in the village of Nazareth, up north, as they say. The other
way around in the United States, it's the down southers that are
the they looked down upon ones intellectually. No, they didn't
want him, these Pharisees. No, they didn't want him. They
would have wanted the Harley Street eye specialist. And so
it is with other preachers. Think of Bunyan. What was John
Bunyan? The tinker of Bedford. The one
who sold pots and pans as he walked the streets. The tinker
of Bedford who God used so powerfully But yet the establishment didn't
want to hear him. They locked him up for 12 years
in Bedford jail. What about the old coal heaver,
William Huntington? That's how he made his living,
heaving coal. And yet he was a preacher of God's grace, and
he was a pastor of providence, and he was so mightily used.
What about what the world would regard as the feckless, pathetic,
weaver of cloth, John Warburton, the Lancashire weaver of cloth,
how mightily he was used in the hands of God when he showed him
the gospel of his grace, and when he saved him, and when he
raised him up as a preacher, though he'd had no formal learning,
he'd been to no college, none of those things God taught him
by his spirit from this book he had a copy of the Bible he
even wanted some rich benefactor who liked his preaching he asked
him would he get him a copy of the commentary of John Gill and
I value the commentary of John Gill greatly I think it's a wonderful
work and mightily used and the man said no I want you to get
your sermons from God through his word not from John Gill so
he wouldn't buy him a copy of John Gill's commentary but you
see these are the common preachers that God uses the thing that
we need to see look at Revelation chapter three in the letters
to the churches in Revelation chapter three seven letters to
seven churches and in the final one Laodicea Laodicea has so
many parallels in our society and our churches today they think
they've got everything that they need they think that they're
full They think that they are rich and increased with goods
and have need of nothing. And they don't know that they're
wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked because they
don't know Christ. Christ is not at the core of
their gospel and of their message. And Jesus, the risen Lord Jesus
Christ, counsels them to buy gold tried in the fire that they
may be rich. That's where to get your gold,
from him tried in the fire. and white raiment from him, his
righteousness, that you may be clothed, not with your own filthy
rags of righteousness, and that the shame of thy nakedness do
not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, eye ointment
from him that you may see. He loves as many as he rebukes.
Be zealous, therefore, and repent. Eye salve, anoint thine eyes
with eye salve. What's the I salve? It's gospel
I salve. Gospel I ointment. I ointment
for the eyes, for the spiritual eyes, that leads to life, spiritual
life. And the man's going, the man's
going to the pool of Siloam and finding the means to go. Oh how
important it must have been to him. I don't know whether he
got there himself or whether he got friends to help him. But
Jesus said go and wash and he found a way and he made it his
top priority. He went and he washed and he
came seeing. It's got echoes of Naaman. You know Naaman the Syrian with
his leprosy? And he comes expecting a big fanfare and people to make
a fuss of him and the prophet to come out and treat him as
a foreign dignitary and do all sorts of things for him and Elisha
didn't even come out to meet him. Elisha just sent his servant
and said, go and tell him to go and wash in the Jordan seven
times and then his leprosy will be healed. And Naaman at first
said, What an insult. He doesn't even bother to come
out to see me. Have I not got good enough rivers back in Syria
where I live? Aren't they good enough for me
to go and wash in? I'll go, and the servant said,
oh my lord, it's worth a try, isn't it? What is there to lose? Just do as he says and go and
wash in Jordan. And he goes and washes and he
comes out with his skin like a child's skin, clear, fresh. echoes of Naaman. Obedience.
Look at John 3 verse 36. He that believeth on the sun
hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the sun shall
not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him. believing
on the Son. That's what that man did, he
believed what Jesus said, and went and washed. And here it
is, as simple as this. Is the Gospel complicated? It's
the most deep, profound thing you will ever learn in this life.
But is it complicated? No. He that believeth on the
Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. We see
the Pharisees' blindness. Look at them. Verse 16, Therefore
said some of the Pharisees, This man, Jesus, is not of God because
he keepeth not the Sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that
is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among
them. They couldn't deny that the man had been healed, although
they kept trying. They couldn't deny it, but they
said, oh, it's a miracle performed by God, and this man, Jesus,
is trying to get the credit for it, for being around at the time.
It's just one of those things that from time to time happens.
Miraculously, the man was healed, but it's nothing to do with him.
He cannot have done it because he did it on the Sabbath day,
and he broke the Sabbath day law. You see how hard their hearts
were. There'd been something that nobody
had ever seen since the foundation of the world, said the man, that
one born blind should have his eyes restored. And then verse
24. They'd ask the parents, and the
parents said, he's of age, ask him, he can speak for himself.
And again they called the man that was blind and said to him,
give God the praise for this miracle that's happened to you,
not this man Jesus. We know that this man Jesus is
a sinner. Why did they know that? Because
he healed somebody on the Sabbath day. Because he did miracles
on the Sabbath day, therefore he must be a sinner. How can
he possibly be of God? The law says you shall do nothing
on the Sabbath day, and he did, therefore he cannot be of God.
He's a sinner. how hard, how unable to see the
truth that lay behind the Sabbath picture. Verse 34, they answered
and said to him, because he says to them he says to them from
verse thirty he almost has a cynical tone to his voice if the translation
is correct why herein is a marvelous thing that ye know not from whence
he is and yet he's opened my eyes well that's an amazing thing
you with all of your learning you don't know what's going on
he's opened my eyes something that's never been done before
And you don't know where he's from, or who he is, since the
world began. Was it not heard that any man
opened the eyes of one boy blind? If this man were not of God,
he could do nothing. He's teaching them. This poor
beggar, this poor ignorant beggar is teaching them. And they answered
and said to him, verse 34, thou wast altogether born in sins. Weren't we all? And dost thou
teach us? Do you dare to teach us? And
they cast him out. They excommunicated him. They
kicked him out of the synagogue. And that was terrible in that
society. That was terrible. You know,
you hear about in Islam, if a child growing up in an Islamic family
converts to Christianity in Pakistan. I mean, honestly, they'll go
out of their way to murder that child because there's just so
much honor involved in it. It's a dreadful thing to come
out of that society. And so it was here. They excommunicated
him. They basically cut off everything
he ever had. He made his living by begging.
How was he going to make his living now? They cut him off.
They kicked him out. They excommunicated him. Cruel,
strict interpretation of the scriptures. I remember, this
is true, I remember 20 odd years ago some church elders who thought
that they were so righteous and so absolutely perfectly upright
they prevented people from going to a conference to hear Henry
Mahan preach a gracious gospel. Why? They'd heard a rumour about
another preacher that was scheduled to preach. You'll remember that,
won't you? They'd heard a rumour. I haven't substantiated the rumour,
they heard a rumour. But because of that rumor they
wouldn't let their people go and hear gracious words of gospel
from the lips of Henry Mahan. You see the spirit of the Pharisees
lives on. It's just as Jesus said in John
16 and verse 2. Let me read that to you. He says
then they shall put you out of the synagogues. Yea, the time
comes that whosoever kills you will think that he does God's
service. That's it. That's the spirit of these Pharisees.
What about the man? restored to sight, brand new
eyes. What did he know? Verse 25, he
answered and said, whether he be a sinner, Jesus, or not, I
know not. One thing I know, that whereas
I was blind, now I see. He could see what the Pharisees
couldn't see, because it wasn't only physical eyes he had, it
was spiritual eyes. God confounds the wise. God uses
foolish things. And he dared to teach them. How
outrageous was that? They excommunicated him, but
look in verse 35, Jesus found him. Jesus heard, as a man. Jesus
the man heard, as God he already knew. But Jesus the man heard
that they had cast him out. And when he had found him, he
said to him, Do you believe on the Son of God? He answered and
said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? Jesus said, you
have both seen him and it is he that is talking with you.
He said, Lord, I believe, and he worshipped him. Jesus found
him and showed him that he was the Christ, that he was the prophet,
the priest, the king of his people, that he was God our Savior. And the man heard The man heard,
as Romans 10, 17 says, faith came by hearing, and hearing
by the word of God, and it was the word of God himself who was
speaking these words, and faith came by hearing. Note that faith
didn't come by the miracle as such. The miracle was incidental,
and the man worshipped And Christ accepted his worship. That new
sight he had was a wonderful gift, but it was just incidental
because that man had spiritual sight and spiritual life. Life
in the Son of God. That's what he had. That's the
thing that we preach about. That's what we talk about. That's
what we seek to let people know about. Life in the Son of God. Life in him. Amen.