Let's take our Bibles now and
turn to John chapter 9. Unlike the chapters before this
that seemed to deal with a lot of things, a lot of issues, he
was in a lot of places, he was going here and then leaving there
and going here. Every now and then he'll hit
on something like he did with the woman at the well and there'll
just be a multitude of verses that just deal with that one
situation. And that's what I find here in
chapter 9. This whole chapter is about the
healing of this blind man, this blind beggar. And his healing
here is unlike it is in other places. In this particular place,
he uses means. He stoops down and he spits in
the dust and makes a clay, anoints the man's eyes with the clay,
and then sends him to the pool of Siloam, the pool called Sint,
to wash. And of course we know from Blind
Bartimaeus and other examples that this was not the norm. This
was not something he did in every case. And each one of these cases
are different because they all describe how God reconciles sinners
to himself. And so he points out these different
things and different means that he uses. But this entire chapter
is devoted to the healing of this blind beggar. And the very
fact that the Holy Spirit of God saw fit to preserve it is
enough to call our attention to it. Of all the things he did,
John said if everything that the Lord did were to be kept
in a book, that the world couldn't contain the books. But some things
he did were preserved and were put into a book. And the very
fact that the Holy Spirit of God did this is a great incentive
to me to look at it and to try to understand it and to think
about it and pray about it. And then just knowing that he
preserved these things to show sinners how God reconciles them
to Himself is more than enough to cause me to want to understand
it. And we talked a little bit last week about what took place
here. And the main theme of the lesson
last week was the means that he used. He used means that had nothing in themselves of
any merit, of any warrant. It was just clay. It was just
dirt. until it got in his hands. That pool had nothing, no virtue
in it. There was no virtue in that water
until he sent the man to the water, just like old Naaman.
There was nothing down in old muddy Jordan to help his leprosy
until the Lord told him to go down and dip in it. Then he did. And so it is in these means of
preaching. There's nothing in me or in any
other man that can beget spiritual life in you unless God wills
to use us to that end. And when He does, it's effectual.
That's just the way it is. Now let me give you four things
this morning. I want to go a little different
direction with this and point out some things to you. And I've
got four things here if we have time to call your attention to. And the first of these four things
is this. I want you to see and to recognize
that what he's doing here is how God establishes faith in
a sinner. It's how God calls sinners to
himself. How he comes to them and gives
them faith and draws them. Those Jews were murmuring at
Christ because they didn't think He plainly declared to them that
He was the Christ. And He said, don't murmur. There's
no need to murmur. No man is going to come unto
Me except My Father draw him. There is a drawing in this thing.
There is a coming of God to the sinner all through the Scriptures
that's taught. The sinner is not going to come
to Him. He has to come to the sinner. And so that's what I'm
seeing in this thing. And what I'm seeing here and
want to call your attention to first right off the bat is that
this is a miracle of grace. Faith in our day is not being
presented as a miracle of grace. Now it's not. You know it and
I know it. It's a decision. It's all up to you. God's done
everything He can do. Have you ever heard that in religion?
I've heard it a hundred times when I was growing up. God has
done all He can do, now it's all up to you. Well, if it is,
you're gone. You're gone. Faith is a miracle
of God's grace. You don't have the ability to
believe. The natural man, he said, he
understandeth not the things of the Spirit of God. Neither
can he know them. It's not in him to know these.
It has to be revealed. Eye hath not seen nor ear heard
what God hath prepared for them that love him, but God hath revealed
them unto us by His Spirit. Faith is a miracle of God's grace. what took place here. And I'm
beginning to worry some even in the grace movement about this
thing. And Don has an article on it
that I read on the Internet this morning. And he talks about these
things, this thing of regeneration and this thing of God becoming
a man. These are miracles. You can't understand them. You
can't explain them. And when we started, Old Brother
Barnard used to say, when we try to explain something, we
kill it. What he meant by that is we kill the glory. We take
the glory out of it. You try to explain regeneration.
You can't explain regeneration. And you can't explain faith.
And what took place here was a miracle of God's grace. He
said faith is the substance. This is what Paul says in Hebrews
11. in this chapter where he talks
about faith, he said, faith is the substance of things hoped
for and the evidence of things not seen. Not seen. The seeing and hearing of faith
is with spiritual eyes and ears. Faith cometh by hearing. What
kind of hearing? Spiritual hearing. Spiritual seeing. He that hath
ears to hear. He said this over in Revelations
when he's talking to these various churches. He said, He that hath
ears to hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Take
heed. Take heed. Everybody don't have
ears. Paul said his afflictions. He
talked about his afflictions to the Corinthians over in 2
Corinthians 4. And he said, now you think about this, this man
was beaten with a whip, a cat-of-nine-tails. They had it down to a science. It took 30 stripes to kill a
man. And they hung him up and they
beat him 29 times. And they did it three times.
They hired a bunch of thugs that took him out and beat him and
left him for dead twice. They thought they killed him.
They were satisfied he was dead and left him lay there. But God
raised him back up. He was shipwrecked. He was hated
everywhere he went. Lied on, put in jail, imprisoned. He was chastised his whole life. And Paul called these afflictions
light. He said these light afflictions
are but for a moment. Now how can you say that? How
could he talk that way? Because he saw what this world
cannot see. He saw these things in the light
of eternity. In the light of eternity, this
life is a vapor. That's all it is. That's what
James said. It's just a vapor. It just comes
up here and you see it for a second and it's gone. In the light of
eternity. In the light of eternity, these
afflictions of mine are light because I see in eternity, I
see the object of God's glory to be the Lord Jesus Christ and
I see His afflictions and compared to His, mine are light. And if
I compare my afflictions to the glory that someday will be manifested
in me, if I'm a believer, then my afflictions are very light.
They're very light. And Paul said these afflictions
were but light afflictions and but for a moment in the light
of eternity, and even though his outward man perished day
by day, it was perishing, his inward man was renewed day by
day. And he says this, while we look
not at the things which are seen. That's what faith does. It looks
at things that cannot be seen. That's what it looks at. And it orders its life about
these things. He said, for the things which
are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are
eternal. And then look over here in John
chapter 10. Turn one page over there to John
chapter 10. We're talking about faith, a miracle
of God's grace. In John 10, verse 24, now the
Jews ask him this constantly, constantly. All the way back
to John the Baptist, the Sanhedrin sent out a council of men to
go ask him to see if he was the Messiah. And they're constantly
asking him this. Then came the Jews, verse 24,
round about him, and they said unto him, How long dost thou
make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us
plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you,
and you believe not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me. But you believe not, because
you are not of my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice." They hear my voice, and I know them. and they follow me. And I give
unto them eternal life, and they'll never perish, neither shall any
man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
my Father's hand. I and my Father are one." His
sheep will hear his voice, while all the rest of the world hear
nothing. How many times did Christ plainly tell them that he was
the Son of God? How many times? He sent a forerunner
before his coming that stood up and declared to the world.
Now, he was foretold by the prophets that he was coming. His spirit
and attitude and character was foretold by the prophets. They
had no excuse not to receive John the Baptist as the forerunner.
The forerunner came out and he pointed to him and he said, ìBehold
the Lamb!î This is the Lamb right here, the Lamb. He did all these miracles and
by those miracles God Himself said, ìThis is my Son.î He was
approved of God by miracles and wonders and signs which God did
by Him in our midst. But we donít see it. Why? Because we donít have the eyes
to see it. We hear it, but we don't hear it. That's what I
want you to see. Faith is a miracle of God's grace. His sheep hear His voice while
the rest of the natural world hears nothing. His sheep see
Him in His glory while everybody else sees nothing. His sheep
receive the blessing of eternal life, and it's by and through
this gift of faith while the rest of the world cling to empty
professions. This blind man now, because of
a birth defect, something he inherited in his birth, something
that affected him in his birth, he could never see apart from
this intervention of God. Now that's what he's telling
us about faith. There has to be an intervention
of God. If God leaves you alone, If He
leaves you alone, you'll go through life and you'll find by natural
reasoning and logic, you'll find something you call faith and
you'll cling to it until you die. Now it's foretold and declared
throughout the Scriptures. Paul describes this work in Ephesians
chapter 1. I wish you'd read Ephesians 1.19
and then follow it down through chapter 2 this afternoon. in
the light of what he's saying and what we're talking here this
morning about faith. Paul called it, knowing the exceeding
greatness of his power to usward who believe, according, here's
how we believe, according to the working of his mighty power
which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and
set him at his own right hand in the heavens. Now he said,
here's what takes place. Here's what you saw in Christ.
That's exactly what's going to take place in time in you. Same thing. That's what faith
does. This miracle of faith is manifested
in the raising of Christ from the dead, from the holy and just
condemnation of God. He was condemned of God. Christ was. God poured out His wrath on him.
God put him on that cross. I know those Romans made the
decisions and took the votes and stood before the people,
and I know the people got together, but when they did, they did what
God's hand and God's counsel determined before to be done.
He's on that cross because God put him there. And it's God punishing
him on that cross, pouring His wrath out on him on that cross.
And God took him from a vessel of wrath to the throne of glory.
when he raised him from the dead. He took him from the darkness
of the tomb to the light of heaven. One operation. He took him from the holy and
just condemnation and death to a son accepted and highly favored
at God's right hand. One who inherited. He inherited
because he was appointed to inherit it. that sin of his people. But he went to an inheritance,
a grand inheritance of the glory of God. And just as Christ was raised
from the dead, he says down in chapter 2, and you, this is what
he did in his son, and you, he said, you who were dead in trespasses
and sin, hath he quickened together with him. That's what faith is
all about. It's a raising from the dead.
It's a miracle of God's grace. And then secondly, this grace
is provenient grace. What does that mean? That means
a grace that came before. That's what that means. Came
before. It's very interesting to me in
this chapter that when the Lord came to this man and performed
this miracle of grace in him and gave him his sight and gave
him these instructions, that the Lord disappeared out of his
sight and this man didn't know who healed him. He didn't have
a clue. He didn't have a clue. Later
on, he came to him and the Lord asked him, well, he said, who
is he? He didn't know who he was. He
didn't know who he was. He said down in verse 35, he
said, asked him if he believed in the Son of God. And he answered
and said, Who is he that I might believe on him? And Jesus said
unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh
to thee now. He didn't see anything. He never
saw Christ. Christ anointed his eyes with
that clay and sent him off to the pool. And he didn't start
seeing until he'd come back from the pool. He'd never seen Him. The Lord said, you've seen Him.
Ain't that what He said? You have both seen Him and it's
He that talketh to you right now. How did he see Him? He saw
Him by faith. That's how he saw Him. God gave
him faith. in this miracle of grace. And
he believed this man to be sin of God. And here he stands. I want you to see this. This
is an old blind beggar. He spent his life sitting on
a blanket. He was blind from his birth.
And he had no education. He didn't go to seminary. He
didn't know anything about what was going on. And he stood before
the Sanhedrin. He stood before the priests and
the doctors of the law and put them to silence. He'd just been
saved by an hour. But by faith he inherited that
wisdom of God in Christ. And he put this bunch of self-righteous
doctors to shame. They had no wisdom. to resist
what this man said to him. None whatsoever. The only thing
they could do is criticize him and deride him. And they said,
you're altogether born in sin. And do you teach us? They didn't
answer his question. Here's his wisdom. He said, it's
never been heard from the beginning of time that any man has ever
received his sight that was born blind. And here's a man who comes
along and we know that nobody can do that kind of thing of
themselves. It has to be sin of God. And
here's a man that comes along and gives sight to a man born
blind and you don't know who he is. Isn't that fascinating?
Ain't that something? You won't even take recognition
of it. They had no wisdom to come back
at it. I tried to teach folks here,
and as much as I can as your pastor, I tried to insist on
it, that when folks come here to hear, don't back them up in
a corner and start picking at them. Don't try to to make up
your mind where this man stands before God, just leave him alone.
He come here to here. Now let God do His work. And
I don't mean let that in the sense that your letting is going
to let God do anything. I'm just saying get out of the
way. That's what I'm saying. Just get out of the way. The
Lord will do His work in time. He may take time like He did
with this man. He may anoint the eyes. He may spit in the dust. He may
send him off to a pool. I don't know what He's going
to do. But I know where He's headed. He's headed to Christ. But what I want you to see in
this healing of this blind man is this prevenient grace. Grace
had been coming to this man before the foundation of the world.
God appointed for him a mediator. He appointed for him a lamb and
slayed him in the mind and purpose of God before the world was ever
made. Grace was coming to him. Grace
was being appointed for him. A substitute was appointed. A
righteousness was to be manifested. In due time, God sent forth His
Son. When the fullness of time was
come, Christ came forth, born of a woman, made under the law.
When the fullness of what time? That time that was decreed and
appointed before the foundation of the world. And when that time
came, He came forth. When He came forth, He manifested
that righteousness. When that time came forth, he
accomplished that redemption. And then he ascended and went
back to heaven, sitting at the right hand of God, still making
intercession for this old blind beggar. He's still begging, he's
still sitting on his blanket, still sitting in ignorance, still
sitting in darkness. Christ making intercession for
him in glory. And he said, it's time now to
call him. And he goes to him. And he begins
this work in him. That's how it happened. If grace
comes to you in time, it's been coming to you from eternity.
If grace comes to you in time, it's going to keep on coming.
Because it's been determined to begin with. And nothing's
going to stop it. Nothing's going to stop it. Provenient grace finds the sinner
where he is. Providential grace brings him
where he can hear, and saving grace gives him ears to hear. And this provenient grace is
eternal, it's everlasting, and it continues to come. This is
the third thing that I believe is very necessary, and it always
accompanies the objects of God's grace. He discovers by his or
her own experience that the religion of their fathers has neither
part nor lot with this work of God done in them. Totally simple. This man sat there and listened
to these Jews all his life. He was a blind man. He couldn't
see any difference. He couldn't hear any difference.
He was a natural man. Sat there on his blanket. He
was a nobody, and he listened to them, day in, day out, day
in, day out. He didn't have any problem with
what they were saying. He didn't have any problem with
what they were doing. He just held out his little whatever
it was he held out, and they stuck money in it, and that's
how he made his living, and he let what was go. He found no problem with it whatsoever,
until the Lord did a work of grace in his heart. All of a
sudden, this blind man who don't know nothing is in contention
with the religious leaders of his nation. You see that? Why? Because grace and works
won't mix. That's why. Grace and works won't
mix. He discovers, and we do by our
own experience, The religion of our fathers has no part or
lot in this work. They won't acknowledge it. They
won't find pleasure in it. And they won't rejoice with you
about it. I came home thrilled to death
telling my dad what the Lord had done for me. I never seen
him get as mad as he did that day. It shocked me. I couldn't believe
he did that. I couldn't believe he reacted
that way. The religion of this world cannot produce this miracle
of grace and it will question everybody who claims to have
it right in their heart. They're going to question it. They'll cross-examine
anybody who promotes this, anybody who
declares this, anybody who stands up and testifies about this miracle
of grace. They're going to try to find
some explanation, some understanding as to how it was done. Everything
religion produces is according to the logic and reason of a
natural man. If he can't understand it, he
ain't going to have it. Everything that God produces
in the heart of a saved sinner, when he regenerates him, is a
miracle of God's grace and cannot be explained. Everything they produced, decisions,
commitments, law, fear, intimidation. Look down here in verse 30. All
they could do was deride him and accuse him of being demon-possessed. And he said, well, herein is
a marvelous thing. And he goes on and tells them
in these next several verses, about what took place. Faith
creates in us a new man. It does what natural men cannot
do. It produces a constraint. A constraint. Paul said, the
love of God, the love of Christ, constraineth us. The natural
man, he clenches his fist and he sets his jaw and he makes
a commitment and he said, I'm going to walk with God. And he
don't last 15 minutes. And he failed. Their foot, he
said, will slip in due time. They can't do it. A saved man
doesn't even try to do it. God puts it in his heart to do
it. And he constrains him by the love of Christ, and he does
it. He's not looking to be rewarded
for it. He doesn't fear God in that sense that he's afraid of
Him. Because God has shown him that He came to him in love and
mercy and grace. And He loves him. And that love
of Christ constrains him, causes him to walk. Faith creates in
us a new man. It embraces what they despise. True faith embraces sovereign
authority. It does. It rejoices in you. Aren't you glad he's in charge?
I'm glad Obama ain't. God's in charge. He's in charge. God sits on the throne. Well,
yeah, but He don't rule over our will. Come on. It embraces what this world despises,
and that's sovereign authority, sovereign grace. I'll tell you
this, I love you, but I'm glad you're not in charge of dispensing
grace. I'm glad he is. Why? Because he's righteous.
I'm not righteous. He's righteous. He's going to
do it right. He's going to dispense this grace
the way it ought to be dispensed. If he gave it to the Catholics,
they wouldn't give it to the Protestants. If they gave it
to the Protestants, they wouldn't let the Catholics have it. If
he gave it to the white man, he wouldn't give it to the black
man. If he gave it to the black man, he wouldn't give it to the
white man. Who's going to dispense this grace? Only he. You see what I'm saying? Any
man. I don't care who he is. Paul
said, I don't care if he's Greek or Hebrew or female or male or
bond. I don't care who he is. God will
dispense this grace, and when He does, He'll do it according
to His goodness, and He'll do it according to His righteousness.
Righteous when He does. Worldly religion revolves around
man. You can read about it over in
Revelations. It said 666 is the mark of the
beast. That's what it is. He said what
is 666 is the number of a man. Man, man, man. You walk into
a church, sit and listen. Sit and listen. I challenge you.
Go in there, sit down and listen. What's he talking about? Talking
about man. Who's he appealing to? Man. What's
the basis of your salvation? Man. What's the hope of eternity? Man. Huh? Man, man, man. That's the beast. Don't follow the beast. Follow
him. That's what happens. God comes
in, does a work of grace in your heart, and you begin to discover,
I mean immediately, discover that the religion of your fathers
is not up to snuff. And the more you look at it,
the more evil it is. And finally you come to see it.
It's the beast. That's what it is. It's the beast. It's a miracle of God's grace.
It's always preceded by grace. It's grace that led you there.
Grace that opened your heart to hear. And it manifests to
us in ignorance and foolishness of worldly religion. And then
fourthly, prevenient grace always leads us to the source of grace,
and that's Christ. And I'll stop there. But it brought
him to Christ. And when it did, Christ manifested
Himself to it. He said, Who is He, Lord, that
I might believe? You've already seen me. And now
I'm here talking to you." And it said, and he worshipped Him.
He worshipped Him. That's where it leaves us. You
don't worship. If you can't see a miracle of
God's grace in Christ, you can't worship Him. You can't worship
Him. I used to try to worship and
conjure in my mind what worship was. when I was in religion. I'd sit there in the pew and
I'd listen to them go and their songs and all this and it'd create
feelings. But there was no worship because
there was no miracle. When you see something out of
your hands, high and lifted up, you worship. You worship. Thank you.