Jesus encounters a man who has
been blind from his birth. He's now a beggar. The Lord Jesus
heals him of his blindness. The religious authorities, at
that time the Pharisees, call this man on the carpet. They
want to know, first of all, they deny that he was blind. His parents
said he was born blind. His neighbors said he was born
blind. He said he was born blind, so they finally left off debating
that point, and now they begin to talk about the person that
made him able to see. And this man, in a marvelous,
wonderful, ever-increasing understanding of who Christ is, beginning at
verse 11 and taking us all the way through verse 34, Finally, the Pharisees just cannot overwhelm this guy. They can't fool him. They can't
out-argue him. Finally, they just said, you're
out of the Jewish religion. They just put him out. Threw
him out of the synagogue and out of the temple. This is a
marvelous chapter. Let me see if I can read it without
commenting much, because if you'll look at the end of the chapter,
My text this morning is verse 39, 40, and 41. 39, 40, and 41. Here's the title. One thing I know, I was blind,
but now I see. That's what this man said, in
essence, in verse 25. He said, one thing I know, that
whereas I was blind, I see. That's the testimony of every
Christian, every truly born-again, converted child of God. All right,
let's read it. Now, there are a lot of things
in a lot of these verses that I'm just going to pass over.
And as Jesus passed by, He saw a man which was blind from his
birth. And his disciples asked him,
saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that
he was born blind? You can see from that statement,
that question, that the prevailing opinion among the Jews at the
time in which the Lord Jesus was on this earth is that if
you were born with any kind of deformity, it was a result of
sin. either that of your parents or
that that you yourself would commit. And so they ask him that
question using that, did this man sin or his parents that he
was born blind? Jesus answered, neither has this
man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should
be made manifest in him. Now there's a beautiful example
of how dangerous it is to read the Bible and declare that every
single syllable, every single word means always the same thing. Our Lord does not mean, nor does
any other Bible writer mean, that there are people on this
earth beside Christ who do not sin. Our Lord is saying that
the man's blindness is not the result of sin. It's so that God
can be glorified in His Son, the Lord Jesus. Verse 4, I must
work the works of Him that sent me. While it is day, the night
comes when no man can work. As long as I am in the world,
I am the light of the world. Christ is the light of the world. When He had thus spoken, spit
on the ground, made clay of the spittle, and anointed the eyes
of the blind man with the clay. If he had not already been unable
to see, he would surely be unable to see now. And our Savior said
in verse 7, go wash in the pool of Siloam, which by interpretation
means scent. The man went his way, therefore,
and washed, and came seeing. The neighbors, therefore, and
they which before had seen him, that he was blind, they said,
Is not this he that sat in bed? Some said, This is he. Others
said, O no, he is like him. But he said, I am he. Therefore said they unto him,
how were your eyes opened? That's the normal, natural, human
response. The proper question to ask would
be, who opened your eyes? Not how. What good will it do
us to know how? We sure can't do it. They said,
how were your eyes opened? He answered and said, A man that
is called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said unto
me, Go to the pool of Siloam and wash. And I went and washed,
and I received sight. Then said they unto him, Where
is he? He said, I know not, I don't
know. They brought to the Pharisees. The Pharisees at this time were
the ruling body among the Jews. The governing council was called
the Sanhedrin. They settled all disputes. And
for the most part, with very few exceptions in our Savior's
day, all of them remained Christ-haters and were eternally lost. Thank
God there were exceptions like Nicodemus and several others
perhaps. They brought to the Pharisees
him that before was blind. Now the Pharisees were like a
religious police force. And did you know we still have
plenty of Pharisees today? Hey, that ain't the half of it.
If you're not still one, you used to be one. Either I still am or I was a
Pharisee. And if God has delivered me,
In general, from that, there's still enough Pharisee in all
of us in our dying days. Pharisee loves outward appearances. How does it look? What are people
going to think? And on and on. They brought to
the Pharisees, verse 13, him that previously was blind. Now
it gets interesting, even more interesting, and it was the Sabbath
day. I'll just make a little suggestion,
you can believe it or not, it doesn't matter to me. The Lord
Jesus went out of his way to perform a great many of his miracles
on the Sabbath day just to get at the Pharisees because it made
them so mad they could not see straight. They thought it was
their duty. If Christ healed a man on the
Sabbath day, they thought it was their duty to kill him. God
would be honored thereby. But at any rate, it is the Sabbath
day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Then again,
the Pharisees also ask him, how he had received his sight. There's
that word again, how. 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 keeps not the
Sabbath. Others said, how can a man that
is a sinner do such things, such miracles? And there was a division
even among the Pharisees. They say unto the blind man again,
What say you of him, speaking of Christ, that he has opened
your eyes? Now the man started out in verse
11 calling Christ a man that is called Jesus. In verse 17
he said he is a prophet. But the Jews did not believe
concerning him that he had been blind and received his sight
until they called his parents, 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 does 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 sees,
we know not. Or who has opened his eyes, we
know not. He is of age. Ask him, he shall
speak for himself." Now we find out why the parents refused to
speak. These words spoke his parents because they, fearing
the Jews. For the Jews had agreed already
that if any man did confess that the Lord Jesus was the Christ,
the Messiah, He should be put out of the synagogue, out of
the Jewish religion. Therefore said his parents, he
is of age, ask him. Then again called they the man
that was born blind, and said unto him, Pharisees, speaking
to the man that used to be blind, give God the praise. We know
that this man is a sinner. And what ground are they charging
Christ with being a sinner in John chapter 9? Because he breaks the Sabbath,
he breaks the Sabbath. The man answered and said, verse
25, whether he be a sinner or no, I know not. One thing I know, that whereas
I was blind, now I see. Whereas I was blind, now. All right, back to John chapter
9. One thing I know. I was blind, now I see." We can't
say that. We don't ever remember being
spiritually blind. We have missed Christ and the
gospel. This man's being born blind is
a perfect picture of spiritual blindness. Now watch what happens. We stop reading at verse 25.
Watch what happens between here and the end of the chapter. See,
this man has physical sight, but he still doesn't know who
Christ is. He knows some things about Him,
and he's willing to stand up for what he knows in the face
of terrible opposition. But he doesn't know that the
Lord Jesus is God, and no man is saved whose Savior is not
God. I can't help that. That's just
how it is. I didn't write the rules, but I love the truth that
the Lord Jesus is God Almighty. And if a man's got a problem
with that, he's got a real problem. And if he dies with that problem,
he'll perish. Watch this old fellow. I don't
know what age he was. It doesn't matter. He gets bolder
every time they drag him back before the Pharisees. Verse 25,
let's read that one and then we'll read the rest of them.
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. Then said they to him again,
What did he to you? How opened he your eyes? You
know, I actually saw a book in a religious bookstore once upon
a time, and the title of it was How to be Born Again. What if
somebody sent you a book, How to be Born Physically Again?
You'd think they'd need to go on up to Dorothea Dix somewhere,
wouldn't you think? Well, religiously speaking, anybody
stupid enough, yes, that's what I said, stupid, to try to tell
people how to be born again. Don't even understand the subject,
let alone be able to shed any light on it. The new birth is
a miracle of grace from God. It ain't nothing a preacher can
give you nor anybody else can give you. Read a whole library
of books and you won't know any more than you do now, probably
less. How opened he your eyes? The
man answered them, I've told you already and you did not hear.
Wherefore would you hear it again? Now here's some of that boldness.
Will you also be his disciples? Now he might as well slap these
guys as to say that. Then they reviled him and said,
You are his disciple, but we are Moses' disciples. Proud of
it too, by the way. We know that God spoke to Moses,
but as for this, and the literal reading here is There's no word
there. It's left blank. The King James
translators put in a word for us. We know that God spoke unto
Moses, but as for this fellow, this unspeakable one, we know
not from where he is. We don't know where he gets his
authority from. We don't really know where he
came from. Though you can go back a couple
of chapters and they claim they do know. They said, we know his
father and his mother and his brothers and his sisters. We
know where he came from. Where was it? Galilee. They said nothing good ever came
out of Galilee. Now they've changed horses and
they claim they don't know from whence he is. The man answered
and said unto them, this old boy's getting bolder by the minute.
Why, herein is a marvelous thing. that you know not from whence,
from where he is, and yet he has opened my eyes." You fellows
are supposed to be the leaders of our religion and you don't
know who this is? What you been doing? Now the
man continues, verse 31, now we know that God hears not sinners,
but if any man be a worshiper of God and does God's will, Him
God hears. Since the world began, catch
this, was it not heard, it has never been heard of before that
any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. Do you know what makes that so
graphic? It means that this man did not
even possess the organs of sight. This is not an eye disease, my
friend. This is a man who has no sight,
born with no eyes. He said, since the world began,
it's never been heard of before that any man opened the eyes
of one that was born blind. He continues, if this man were
not of God, he could do nothing. They need to change chairs, don't
they? I mean, he could instruct them
if they'd listen. They answered and said to him, You were altogether
born in sins. Do you teach us? They think his
blindness is the result of that sin. Do you teach us? What happened? And they cast him. Friends, there are certain places
to get put out of as an honor where Christ is not loved and
preached as the all and in all. We ought not find ourselves in
that company. God help us to have half the
boldness this man possess. So the Lord Jesus, in verse 35,
heard that they had cast him out. And when he had found him,
when Christ had found him, and that's how all of us are found
or any of us who are found, Christ finds us and then enables us
to find him. When our Lord had found him,
he said to him, do you believe on the Son of God? the Son of
God, the man answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might
believe on him? You cannot believe in a Christ
of whom you've never heard. You just can't do it. And Jesus
said to him, You have both seen him, and it is he that talks
with you. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. And now
these following last Remember, this man's case is a perfect
word picture of what happens to a sinner when God turns the
light on, gives us sight in our soul, in our inner being. Verse 39, Jesus said, for judgment
I am come into this world. I wish that I brought with me
the reference where the Lord Jesus says the exact opposite
of that. And yet the Bible never, ever
contradicts itself. It's my stupidity in not understanding
what it means by what it says. That's the whole problem. The
Lord Jesus here is bringing a kind of judgment. You can't say what
He says. You can't preach who Christ is
and what He does. You can't take the gospel of
Christ anywhere that it doesn't have two opposite effects. I'll show you that in just a
moment. Just take my word for it at the present. The Bible
either condemns or it makes alive. It either makes men blind or
gives them sight. It is the nature of the truth
and Christ is that truth. It is the nature of the truth
itself. Wherever it goes to produce those
two opposite effects. You can't change it. Now you
can doctor up your gospel a little bit and trim it back here and
there and then you ain't got no gospel at all. It won't do
either one. So this judgment is not judgment
day judgment. This is simply the effect of
encountering the Christ of Holy Scripture. When a man meets Him,
it ain't the same as meeting the President or anybody else
in this world. You can go sit down and talk to the Pope if
you could bear it, but it ain't going to do you any good. But
I'll tell you, if you meet Christ, you'll know it. So will other
people. Why this kind of judgment? Some
people I read behind called it a judicial judgment. But it's a judgment that simply
is. It's not someplace you go. It's
not doing a certain thing. It's wherever Christ and his
gospel goes. This judgment follows in his
train. It's inevitable. Jesus said,
for judgment I am come into this world, that they which..." Here's
the judgment. "...that they which see not..."
What happens? Might see. "...that they which
profess to be blind..." Might see. But you can't have that
one now without the other one. "...and that they which see might
be made That is, their blindness becomes permanent and irreversible. A man cannot ever hear the gospel
of Christ and be unaffected. He's either affected for good
or ill. All right, there's the judgment.
I want to come back to a few scriptures here in just a moment,
but let me see if I can get to the end of the chapter. I'll
just can that page and let's work on the second page. Some of the Pharisees which were
with him, and during a certain period of our Lord's public life,
everywhere he went, there were some Pharisees there. I mean,
they were sent there on purpose. They wanted to know what he said,
what he did, what happened, all the details, trying to find charges
to bring against him. Some of the Pharisees which were
with him heard these words. about that judgment in verse
39. And said unto him, Are we blind also? That's a good question. Am I blind also? Well, I either
am now or I used to be. One of the two. This man said,
Am I blind? Are we? Speaking of himself and
his cohorts, the Pharisees. Are we blind also? Look what
our Lord said. Jesus said unto them, If you
were blind, get this now, you were blind. If in your own sight,
your own mind, you were truly spiritually blind and you know
it, you wouldn't have any sin. You know why? Because Christ
has died for you. Ain't no way in this earth that
you'll ever know. that this is true about you,
that you're spiritually blind, except the grace of God in Christ
acquaints you with such knowledge. Everybody else thinks they can
see. Jesus said unto them, if you were blind, you would have
no sin. You should have no sin. But now,
you say, we see. Therefore, your sin remains."
That's a weighty statement. I'll tell you, that's almost
sacrilegious to even do anything with it. I'll tell you what it
will do. How about we turn to a couple
of places in our Bibles and get a sense of what's going on in
John chapter 9, especially these last three verses. Let's see,
the first place I need you to go with me is Matthew chapter
13. And I'd like to read verses 10
through 16, Matthew chapter 13. The Lord Jesus has just given
the parable of the sower and the seed, and He concludes that
parable in verse 9 by saying, Who has ears to hear, let him
hear. And the Scripture says in Proverbs
chapter 20, we'll not turn there, The hearing ear and the seeing
eye, both of them are from the Lord. Now verse 10 through 16
in Matthew 13. And the disciples came and said
unto our Lord, Why speak you unto them in parables? Lord,
why are you teaching in parables? He answered and said unto them,
Because it is given unto you. given, the free gift of God's
grace, given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom
of heaven. But to them it is not given. That old boy in John 9 received
a sight that all the Pharisees failed to see. For whosoever
has, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance.
But whosoever has not, from him shall be taken away even that
that he has. Therefore speak I to them in
parables, because they seeing see not, in seeing they see not,
and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. In them is
fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which said, By hearing you shall
hear, and shall not understand, and seeing you shall see and
shall not perceive. For this people's heart is waxed
gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their ears they
have closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears, and should understand with their
heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed
are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. How about one more scripture?
Acts chapter 7. Remember what's in Acts 7? Stephen's
preaching a message concerning Christ. I don't know if he ever
got to the end of it, but he got far enough. They stoned him
to death. Saul of Tarsus, whom we know
as the Apostle Paul, was the ringleader of that group. Anyway,
I want to read you three verses out of Acts 7, just three verses. 52, 53, 51. These are his concluding statements. You stiff-necked and are uncircumcised
in heart and ears. Stephen speaking to the Jews. You do always resist the Holy
Ghost. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets have not
your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which
showed before of the coming of the just one, namely the Lord
Jesus, of whom you have been now the betrayers and murderers. He charges these men, as the
charge should be leveled against every man in every generation,
no matter their race or place or anything else, as being the
crucifiers of the Lord Jesus Christ. You hear people boast,
well, if I'd have been there, I'd have done this, that and
the other. That's a lie. If we'd have been there, we'd be thirsting
for His blood except for the grace of God. Verse 53, who have
received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it. Can I get one more verse in?
Let me just read you this. You can turn to it later or write
you a little memo or Write it on your hand, whatever you do. I won't give you the Scripture
until I get finished reading. Paul writing about the gospel
ministry as being always successful. How else can we put this? God
always gets the job done. But it might be surprising how
it turns out. Just like the guy in John 9.
What took place there? Do you know? The will of God. the salvation of a lost sinner?
That's still the business that God's in, my friend. Still is.
Listen to these words. Now thanks be unto God. This
is Paul the Apostle. Now thanks be unto God who always
causes us to triumph, to obtain victory. And this is in Christ. Causes us to triumph in Christ. and makes manifest the savor,
the aroma of the knowledge of Christ, of His knowledge by us
in every place, wherever the gospel goes, this takes place. And here are the two inevitable
results that you could not change if you were the most powerful
man on this earth. The devil himself can't change
it. The Pope can't change it. Here's what the gospel does.
For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ. This is what God receives
when Christ is preached. We are unto God a sweet savor,
same word as in verse 14, aroma of Christ in them that are being
saved and in them that are perishing. Christ must be preached. You
and I do not determine the outcome. Let me correct that. We don't
even influence the outcome. You find me a preacher that believes
that. You just might have yourself a gospel preacher. We're all
born believing that we can do wonderful things. We can save
sinners. We can box him in and hedge him
up and give him the Roman road and some of this other, I started
to use a bad word, some of this other stuff. For we are unto
God a sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved and in them
that perish. Listen carefully, and I'll finish.
To the one, we're the savor of death unto death. To the other,
the savor of life unto life. Paul adds, who is sufficient
for these things? Only God is sufficient. By the
way, that was 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 14 through 16.