Alright, turn back with me now
to Matthew chapter 9. I'm going to talk to you for
a little while this morning about seeing without seeing. That's what these blind men did
who came to Christ. You know, whenever we begin to
examine the Word of God closely, And that's what we do when we
go through verse-by-verse studies. It causes us to look at and consider
things that normally we wouldn't be looking at. You know, we all
have those fundamental verses of Scripture that appeal to our
heart and appeal to different situations. One of my favorites
over in Romans 8, verse 28, and we know that all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the call according
to His purpose. And we get in these situations
and circumstances, and these Scriptures come to our mind,
and we're familiar with them. We're familiar with them. Everybody
knows what John 3.16, For God so loved the world, and so on.
We know these things. We have these Scriptures memorized,
and they are familiar to us. But when we go verse by verse,
we begin to see things and deal with things that normally we
don't deal with. And it's a good thing, because
all Scripture, Paul said, he was talking to Timothy, and he
said it's given by inspiration of God, and it's profitable for
you. It's profitable for reproof and
for correction and for instruction in righteousness that the man
of God might become a mature man. And we see these things. But as I began to go through
that Sunday School lesson and then came over here to Matthew
9 and began to look through this text that I read to you a few
moments ago, I noticed this very first word, And. You realize that three out
of these five verses of this text begin with that word and. A-N-D. Now, and is a word that
we use in our language to connect things. Him and her, here and
there. We connect things with that word.
This word has a meaning of connection. It's put there to connect things
together. And as I began to look over this
chapter, I realized that 18 of the 38 verses of this chapter
begin with the word and, A-N-D. And then as I began to look through
the book of Matthew, I found out that this word is preeminent
in this book in the beginnings of these verses. And I turned
all the way back to the start, Winston, and I noticed there
that there is a genealogy. And you know what he says there?
Listen to this, Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob
begat Judas, and Judas begat Pharaoh, and so on and so on
until you come to Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was
born Jesus, who is called Christ. Everything written in the book
of God has a connection to Christ. That's what I want you to see. It's all connected, John. We
just don't see it. We just don't see it. In the
Old Testament, everything testifies of the Messiah who is coming.
I remember one time Brother Scott Richardson stood up to preach
at the conference and he told everybody, he said, Take your
hymn book and turn to page whatever it was that he was preaching
from. And everybody grabbed a song book. And he said, not a song
book, a hymn book. H-I-M. That's what this is. The entire Old Testament has
one story. It says, somebody's coming. Somebody's
coming. It starts over in Genesis chapter
3. Somebody's coming. Somebody's
coming. In the four Gospels it says, Somebody came. And then
in the remainder of the Scripture, from Acts through the book of
Revelation, it says somebody is coming back. He is the theme
of this book. We could say and to everything
we read in this book. It has a connection to him. Now,
turn with me to Ephesians chapter 1. Everything in the book of
God has a vital link to the person and work of Jesus Christ. The
Lord appeared to His disciples on the Emmaus road, and He spoke
to them. And then later on, He revealed
Himself to them. And then when He left, they turned
to each other and they said, Didn't our hearts burn within
us as He opened to us the Scriptures? Well, what did He do? What did
He do? Well, he said, beginning in Moses
and all the prophets and the Psalms, he showed them the things
concerning himself. He showed them those things that
were connected to him. What made these things burn in
their heart is when they saw the harmony and the connection
of these things to him. Biblical knowledge is of no value
to you whatsoever unless you see it in connection with Him. Now, you can just throw it out
the window. I wouldn't walk across the street
to talk about predestination except to say this, that that
destination predetermined of God is to be like Him. You take Him away, you've got
no end for predestination. You take him away, there is no
election. Why would God choose you outside
of Christ? You see what I'm saying? You
take away the foundation of the acceptance of God, of the glory
of God, when you take him away. Everything in the book of God
has a connection to the person and work of Christ. And everything
in heaven and earth that takes place in time and eternity has
a connection to Christ. Now, most of Ephesians chapter
1 is just one sentence. Did you realize that? It's just
one sentence. It's got colons and semicolons
and commas. If you read it, almost all of
it is one sentence throughout that chapter. And he begins over
here, I'm going to start in verse 3, where he said, Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ.
Now, this is the beginning and the source and reason for everything
that has taken place and is taking place and will yet take place
in time. Right here. It began with God, who of his
own free will, and God is the only one who has a free will,
a sovereign will, determined to bless a people in Christ. And he gave those blessings in
him. That's what this is saying. Verse
4, According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that in order that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love. Now, here's the blessing. God
chose a people and he put them in Christ by covenant union. That's what this is talking about.
And from that day, he views that people as he looks on his son,
and as he looks on the purpose of redemption that he purposed
in his son. That's what he sees. He sees
us in Christ from eternity, holy and without blame, before him
in love. That's how he sees it. He knows
what the end is going to be. He's determined that end. Verse
5, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will.
By way of this covenant union with Christ, God has foreordained
his elect to be his own children, his own offspring. And this predestination
to be sons and daughters was something that pleased him to
do. He took pleasure in doing it. good pleasure of his wills,
to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made
us accepted," verse 6, "'in the Beloved.'" Everything God does
toward his elect is to the praise of his free and sovereign grace.
We can't earn it, and we certainly don't deserve it. What on earth
could a person do or be to cause the eternal, immutable, omnipotent
God of glory to set in motion all of creation, all of providence,
and all of salvation. Now, you think about that. I
mean, somebody comes up your door. We had a satellite company
that we had our TV reception through. I called my wife one
day and said, you've won a three-year cert. And she called me and she
said, they want my social security number. I said, don't you give
them no social security number. Go uptown and find out if this
thing's for real before you give anybody anything. And she did.
And they said, yeah, this is genuine. And so on. But the whole time we were thinking,
well, we didn't even enter a contest. How come we're getting these
things? Can you imagine what could you
do, John, What could you do as an individual to engage the whole
character and reputation of God to sacrifice His Son and to guide
all providence and to create all things just for you? What could you do? How could
you believe that the gift of faith or the gift of salvation
is anything owing except to the grace of God. That is what Paul
is saying here. It is to the grace of God. The only reason any man can find
to obligate God to himself is to see himself more valuable
than God. That is the truth of it. To see
himself on an equal or higher standing than God. To see himself
more important to eternity than the character and reputation
of God. Everything towards the redemption of sinners is to the
praise of the glory of his grace. He just says it time and again
through Ephesians chapter 1. And you'll never come to understand
anything about eternal election, predestination, adoption, or
redemption until God gives you an experimental knowledge about
his grace. We're accepted in the beloved.
And outside of Christ, we're no better than the fallen angels.
the world that perished or the sodomites that God burnt to a
cinder. Then in verse 7, he says, In
whom we had redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins according to the riches of his grace. By the terms of
this covenant, this covenant redemption, the blood of Christ
was required. His soul must be made an offering
for sin. You can read about it over in
Isaiah chapter 53, verse 10. and all of this because it pleased
the Lord to bruise him according to the riches of his grace. Wherein
he hath abounded toward us, verse 8, in all wisdom and prudence,
having made known unto us the mystery of his will according
to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself." We are
not born with an inherent knowledge of God. The only thing we know
is what we are, and we don't know that to the extent we ought
to know it. We don't know God. Conscience and creation in Romans
chapter 1 testify of his existence and of the eternal power in Godhead. But as to the end of these things,
as to why, why would God create a world and allow man to fall
and then provide for him a redemption? Why? That's what the sinner asks,
why? Why are these things? Isn't that
what people ask? Why? Why? Well, here's why. It's according to the good pleasure
of His will. That's why. Because it pleased
God. He just says it time and again.
And He's made known these things. He's made known unto us the mystery
of His will, verse 9, according to the good pleasure which he
purposed in himself. We're not born with this knowledge,
but we get this knowledge by the Spirit of God and the preaching
of the gospel. I read it to you in the Sunday
school class. This is a mystery, a hidden wisdom of God, hidden
on purpose, hidden because it's given to you. He's hid these
things. He said, I thank thee, Holy Father,
that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and
revealed them unto me. They're hidden. And this mystery
of God in eternal redemption, it's got to be given. It's the
gift of God. And it's against everything that
we are. We won't fight. What's this lunatic's
name over here that they come and took all the children from?
We went by there the other day and looked at his little thing
over there. I don't care. He said, if a man
comes in his own name, him you will receive. I don't care. You
can go through the Jim Joneses and the Father Divines and all
these men of the past. You can just go through Joseph
Smith and all these people. They come in their own name,
and people just drink it up. But you come in the name of God. You come in the name of His character. You come in the name of His purpose
and His promises and His Son, and man won't have anything to
do with it. You know that's how the Holy
Spirit convinces you of sin? Right there. Right there. One day, He'll open your heart
if He pleases. And just like that, He'll show
you that you're unbelieving. Here's your sin. Here's proof
of your sin before God. Here is nothing but grace and
nothing but goodness and nothing but mercy, and you won't have
it. And it's free. And you won't have it. That's
sin. It's against everything that
this world calls religion. Paul said, after the way they
call heresy. He was brought up for disturbing
the people. He was brought up, they charged
him falsely for being a false prophet and for stirring up the
people against that nation. And the governor brought him
forth and Paul stood before him and he said, I didn't do any
of them things that they said I did. He said, here's what I
did. Here's what I'm guilty of. You want to charge me, charge
me with this after the way they call heresy, so worship I, the
living God. Now, that's what I'm guilty of.
That's what I'm guilty of. Verse 9, He made known unto us
that He blessed us in Christ, and chose us in Christ, and predestinated
us to adoption, and bought us with His blood, and loved us
from eternity. He made known unto us the mystery
of His will, and it was all according to His eternal purpose which
He purposed in Himself. That's where the reason's at
in Himself. That's why you can't find it.
Oh, sometimes I just look, what is the purpose of God in that?
You know what I'm looking at? I'm looking at that, and I'm
looking at me. Purpose ain't in either one of them. The purpose
is in Himself. You want to find the purpose
for some unexplained loss? There it is. Please God. Please
God. Now watch this, verse 10. All
of these things that I've mentioned, and if you've read with me here
in this chapter, That, verse 10, in the dispensation of the
fulness of times, he might gather together in one all things in
Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even
in him." The mystery of the will of God is in Christ. It is that
everything from eternity that was purposed, and everything
in the beginning that was created, and everything in the The process
of time that comes to pass and everything that's going to come
to pass in the future is a gathering together of those things which
were given Him in eternity. That's what's going on. He's
gathering them in. Gathering them in. What was given
to Him? The revelation of God. You remember
over there, I think it's in Revelation chapter 5, where it said, John,
he wept. This book of Revelation is the
revelation of Christ in the heart of John. That's what it is. You
want to be able to understand all these dark mysteries in the
book of Revelation, you just think about this. This is the
experience of the grace of God and the revelation of Christ
that God gave of His Son to John. That's what it is. And John said,
I begin to weep because he that sat on the throne had a book
and it was sealed and nobody could open it. Neither was any
man found worthy to open this book. This is the book of all
God's eternal purposes and decrees, this book. And then he said,
I heard one of the elders say, here is a lamb slain as it was
a lamb slain before the foundation of the world. And he took the
book, and he took those decrees, and he took the seals of God's
perfections, and he opened that book. And he began in Genesis
to open the seals. And then he took the law of Moses,
and he opened them a little bit more. And then he took the prophecies
of Isaiah and Jeremiah and Daniel, and he opened them a little bit
more. And then he came in person, and he opened up the glory of
God before men. Right here on this earth. Stood
right here in a body and declared that glory. It's the mystery of God's will. And it's the gathering together
of these things. It's the opening of the seven-sealed
book. That's what it is. And you go
on over to Revelation chapter 7, and you find him, and in his
hand is a book opened. He's still opening the seals.
Still opening the seals. I don't care how obscure it is,
or how shocking it is, or how much it throws us into a tizzy.
God has a purpose in it, and the purpose is his redemptive
glory in Christ. Listen to this, verse 11, In
whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will. It is in this sovereign, eternal,
glorious, appointed God-man from eternity that we look and see
an inheritance obtained. You are not going to find it
in this sweet little Jesus boy. You are not going to find it.
There is no inheritance there, just decisions and things of
that nature. A good example you might find,
you might find a lot of things, but you're not going to find
an inheritance until you see Him as He is. That's where the
inheritance is. And discovering His grace and
mercy, they come to realize that they have an inheritance purposed
of God, preserved in His Son, and that God has engaged Himself. Did you hear me? God has engaged
Himself. All that He is. Then His sovereignty,
His omnipotence, His omniscience, His omnipresence, everything
that God is, is engaged to bring about this purpose and to give
you this inheritance. It's sure. David said, It's ordered
in all things, and sure, and that's all my salvation right
here. Listen to this. Verse 12, that
we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in
Christ. Now that's not talking about
some man that first trusted in Christ and then he found this. That's not what that's talking
about. Do you know what that's talking about right there? I'm going to prove
it to you here in just a second. Who first trusted in Christ?
God did. God did. Back yonder before the
foundation of the world, God took everything that is ever
going to be, and He put it into the hands of His Son. That's
what that's saying. That's what that's saying. And
I can prove it to you by verse 13. It says, In whom ye also. Do you see that? In whom ye also
trusted. after that you heard God trusted
him. You reckon I can trust him? God
put everything that is in his hands. You think I could trust
him? In whom you also trusted after
you heard. What did you hear? You heard
the truth. That's what you heard. You heard
the truth. The gospel. of your salvation, and whom also,
after that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit
of promise." The one I think that you will probably most recognize
was Pharaoh of Egypt. And you remember that Joseph
went down to Egypt, and God in his providence raised him up
to be second in command in Egypt. This man whom his brother sold
into slavery, sits down there now at the right hand of the
monarch of Egypt. And that monarch gave Joseph
a ring. It was the royal seal. You know what made things official
in Egypt when Joseph took that ring and put it down in that
wax on that piece of paper? That it was law. You know what
makes a believer official? When the Holy Spirit of God takes
Christ, that seal, and puts it on His heart, He bears witness with our spirit. His Spirit bears witness with
our spirit that we are the children of God. I can't do that. He can. He can. Oh, we're sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise. Only God can confirm these blessings
that He has purposed in Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ comes
and goes in the preaching of the gospel in our day. And though
He stood before them in human form, it was not His form that
they saw, but the glory and majesty of God who appointed Him. I'm
going to prove that to you here in just a minute. He appointed
him heir of all things before the world was. It was the gospel
he preached concerning himself that brought about faith in their
hearts, not his body. He said to them one time, they
all left him. He started talking about eating
his flesh and drinking his blood, and boy, they hightailed it out
of there and said, we don't want him farther than this. And they
left because they had no spiritual understanding. They wanted to
plow everything like Nicodemus, naturally. And they all up and
left him. And he turned to the twelve,
and he said, Will you go also? You're free to go. You want to
go with them, go with them. They said, To whom shall we go?
Thou hast to what? The words. That's what happened. They heard.
They heard. What did they hear? They heard
the words. that God give him. He prayed in John chapter 17,
I've given them the words which thou gavest me. I give it to
them, and they gladly receive them. He goes, I'm telling you,
in the preaching of the gospel. And they said, To whom shall
we go? Thou hast the words. Now back over here in Matthew
chapter 9. There were two blind men that
followed him, and they were crying, saying, Jesus, thou son of David,
had mercy on us. And when He was come into the
house, that is, the place where He was staying, wherever that
was, the blind men came to Him, and Jesus saith unto them, Believe
ye that I am able to do this. And they said unto Him, Yea,
Lord. Then touched He their eyes, saying, According to thy faith,
be it unto you. And their eyes was opened. Let me give you five things here
this morning, just briefly. I'm just going to give you five
things and you study them See if what I'm saying is so. This
story begins with a sad departure. I want you to see that. It begins
with a sad departure. Now, if Christ is all, and I've
already read it to you that He is. Everything's purposed in
Him. All the blessings are in Him.
Everything's in Him. Predestination's in Him. Election's
in Him. Everything's in Him. If Christ
is all, and the Scriptures say that He is, If in him alone dwells
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and this is the testimony
of God, if all spiritual blessings are in him, in purpose, in promise,
in prophecy, in procurement, if God has trusted all that he
has and is into his hand, and I read to you that it is, and everything that God desires
and all that he has ordained He's put it into His hands. Then
for Him to depart is to leave us empty. Empty. Nothing. If all the light of
God is in Him, and Scripture says it is, in Him He was the
light of the world. He lighteth every man that cometh
into the world. If this light shall depart, what's
left? Darkness. darkness, emptiness,
and ignorance. The gospel of God came to that
place, accomplished what God sent it to do, and then He departed. And He said to them, It will
be more tolerable in the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for
you. For if they had heard what you
heard and saw what you saw, they would have repented and sat cross
and What a horrible thing it is for
you to hear this glorious gospel of Christ and then turn your
back and walk away. But then secondly, there is a
destination of purpose declared here. He didn't just depart.
It said he departed thence. He departed with a destination
in mind. He left here to go there. You see that? There is a gathering
together of all things in Christ. It's been purposed and predestinated
by Him who works all things up to the counsel of His own will.
And His will is the coming of Christ into this world to preserve
everything given Him by the Father. And it's His will that everyone
that seeth the Son and believeth on Him may have everlasting life. And he said, I'll raise Him up
at the last day. He comes to men in our day by
the preaching of the gospel and the power and presence of the
Holy Spirit of God, and he knows his sheep. They said, if thou
be the Christ, tell us plainly. He had been telling them from
the day they were born. The angels told. They gathered
together and sang out who he was. The entire heavenly host
testified who he was. The Father testified who he was.
John the Baptist, the last prophet of God, testified who he was. God Himself testified who He
was. He said, if you don't believe
Me, believe Me for the works sake that I do. Believe Me for
the miracles that I do before you. God is testifying of who
I am. They turned and they walked away. They wouldn't have it. But these
two blind men, they cried, Jesus, thou Son of David. You know what? This book is a book of substitution. That's what it is. It's a book
of redemption, and it cries out from beginning to end of a Messiah
that will come. He'll be the seed of the woman,
the seed of Abraham, the root of Jesse, the seed of David. There's a man coming. He's going
to be the angel, the covenant, the Messiah, the prophet, the
priest, the king, the Christ. And the four Gospels declare
this, that Jesus, that's born of Mary, the wife of Joseph,
is the Christ. To call on him as thy son of
David is to say we believe him to be the promised one of God.
These blind men saw that. They saw this. You see, faith discovers by the
revelation of God in the gospel that everything God is, everything
God has purposed, and everything God is doing is wrapped up in
this man. That's what it sees. Paul said
all the promises of God in Christ are yea and amen. There is no
negative side to that. In Christ they are all yea and
amen, all the promises. Brother Tim James said one time,
you can take all the ifs. Somebody was telling him, yeah,
but preacher, it says if, if, if. And it just goes on with
the if. If thou shalt continue rejoicing until the end. If you
keep these things. All these ifs. He said you take
all them ifs and sew them into a necklace and put them around
his neck. In him. All the promises of God
are yea and amen. If you have Him, the ifs are
gone. The ifs are gone. He's the God-man. And I'm telling you this, the
revelation of God, the mystery of God, the revelation of grace,
and the revelation of the gospel is Christ. It's a person. It's
not a thing. It's not a movement. It's Him. On the isle of Patmos, this old
man John had been exiled. They couldn't stand to hear his
testimony, and so they took him out on an island and isolated
him from every other man on the face of the earth. And they put
him out there, and God gave him the revelation of what? Christ. You read the first verse of the
book of Revelation. This is the revelation of Jesus
Christ. That's what it is. The revelation of Christ, that's
what the gospel is all about. This is life eternal, that they
might know thee the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom thou
hast sent. So I see here a sad departure,
and I see a destination of purpose. I see a glorious revelation.
And then fourthly, there's a godly conclusion to faith. I don't
have to sit down here and talk you into a decision. If you ever
hear the gospel, you'll come to your own conclusion. You can
read about it over there in Romans chapter 3 after Paul goes through
here and he tells you there's none good, none righteous, none
that seeketh after God. All these things, we're together
become unprofitable. He said, We know that all things
whatsoever the law saith, it saith to them that are under
the law, that every mouth may be stopped, that we all become
guilty before God. Then he begins to talk about
Christ. He said, therefore, we conclude,
isn't that what he said? We conclude that a man is not
justified by works, but by grace, by faith. There is a godly conclusion. And before these blind men sat
a man, a very controversial man, a man rejected by mainstream
religion. They wouldn't have him. A man
that many said was, he was possessed by, they said he does miracles,
yeah, but they said he does those miracles by the spirit of Beelzebub.
Is that what they said about him? He didn't have a good reputation
among established religions. They despised him. They hated
him. They called him an imposter. This man went cross-grain to
every tradition the elders established. He just blew them away. And this
man asked them in the confidence of his home, isolated from the
crowd, he said, Do you really believe that I am able to do
what you ask me to do? Now, I'm telling you right now,
this is where faith is born, right here. This is where faith
is born. The gospel tells you that God
put everything there is in this man. And then he shows you by the
Spirit of God who you are and what you are and shows you your
total depravity, your total inability to do anything that God requires
of you. And he said, here is salvation
in this man. Do you believe he is able to
do that? Paul said, For I am persuaded
that he is able to keep that which I committed unto him against
that day. He was persuaded by what? By the Gospel. By the Gospel. By what he heard. And to the best of my ability,
I set before you this morning this man, Christ Jesus, as he
is set forth in the Scripture. And I'm saying to you on the
authority of this book that in this man is the only hope you
have for eternal life and for forgiveness of sins and
for a righteousness acceptable to God. Do you believe he's able
to do that? Then trust him. Trust him. Some of you here may be in disagreement
with what I'm saying, and you're clinging to your old concepts
and ideas about Christ. Let me ask you this. Can that
Jesus do what you ask Him to do? Can He do that? Can the Jesus
that's being preached in the churches of our land, can He
accomplish salvation? Can He accomplish redemption?
Can He save to the uttermost, like Paul said, those that come
unto Him through Christ? Can He do that? You see what
he's asking these blind men? Do you think I can do what you
ask me to do? And they said, yeah, Lord. Yeah,
Lord. I believe you can do it. And
here's what he told them. He said, according to your faith,
according to your faith, be it unto you." All the press, all the multitude,
all of organized religion followed him and didn't see a thing. These two blind men who didn't
have eyes saw his glory. They saw his glory. And I'm telling
you, we're here this morning and we're spiritually blind by
nature. We're just blind as a bat. We can't see nothing. We're just
roped around in the dark, feeling of this and stumbling over that. Can you see His glory? Then trust
Him. Trust Him.