In John chapter 8, verse 58, let me begin there. Jesus said unto them, that is
unto the Jews, John 8, 58, Verily, verily, or truly, truly, I say
unto you, before Abraham was, I am. Then took they up stones
to cast at him, But Jesus hid himself, and went out of the
temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by. John then chapter 9 verse 1,
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. And Jesus answered, neither hath
this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God should
be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him
that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man
can work. As long as I am in the world,
I am the light of the world. When he had thus spoken, 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 unto him,
Go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation sin. He went his way therefore, and
washed, and came seeing. The neighbors therefore, and
they which before had seen him, that he was blind, said, Is not
this he that sat and begged? Some said, This is he. Others
said, He is like him. But he said, I am he. Therefore
said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened? He answered
and said, A man that is called Jesus. made clay, and anointed
mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and
wash. And I went, and washed, and I
received sight." I was impressed with this chapter,
and I felt like that the Lord would most surely have me to
speak to you today out of this story that we have here in the
ninth chapter of the book of Saint John. Now the first thing
that I want to call your attention to is to the cast of characters
that we have here in this story and I mean by that the people
that are in this story. Let's think a little bit about
these people, the various ones that are pointed out to us, mentioned
to us in this ninth chapter of John. First of all, we have the
man called Jesus. We have Jesus passing by. Jesus, the very God of very God,
God manifest in the flesh, passing by, and he sees this blind man
that has been blind from his birth. And I thought about the
Lord Jesus Christ, this man called Jesus, and him passing by. What a day, what a blessed day
for this blind man. Oh, the majesty of this hour,
this time, the power of this hour, when our Lord Jesus Christ
passes by and his eyes light upon this blind man, and he being
full of compassion and mercy, and according to the purpose
of the Father, he is going to bestow a great miracle upon this
man. This man is going to become a
recipient of a miracle performed by none other than this man called
Jesus. The power of it. Oh, the omnipotent
one is here, the all-powerful one. I quoted in the prayer a
few moments ago what Jesus told his disciples. He said, all power
is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Certainly there is
nothing too hard for the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is
the Omnipotent One, and He is the Omniscient One. That means
that He's the All-Knowing One. He knew the purpose of the Father.
He knew the will of the Father in this matter. He knew that
the Father, that this was a, now you pardon the expression,
but this was a setup. He knew that it was. Jesus understood
that this was the time when the Father through Him, through Him
and His person would manifest Himself. And so the Lord Jesus
Christ knew the will of God. He knew what was going on here.
Now you see, there's many, many times that things that happen
in our lives and things that happen around us, we don't know
what's going on. We don't have any understanding
as to exactly what it is that's happening to us or happening
to our loved ones around us. or to our friends but the Lord
Jesus he's here and he's the omniscient one he's the all-knowing
one and so whatever he says here we need to believe it we need
to believe what he says because he knows what's going on in this
situation and then he's the omnipresent one he's able to be everywhere
or anywhere that He wills to be. And we believe that the Lord
Jesus Christ was here by divine will and purpose. That this was
the Lord's time to declare, to manifest, to reveal Himself through
His Son, Jesus Christ. So this is the One passing by. This one, the man called Jesus,
sent by the Father. So he's the first one that we
mentioned in this story. Now the second group of people
here is his disciples. And we picture them. We picture
the disciples in verse 2, and his disciples ask him, saying,
Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born
blind? Now it is evident to me, at the
very outset here, that the disciples were ignorant of what was going
to happen, and they were ignorant of the Synod. They didn't understand
what it was that our Lord was going to do. And so, not only
were they ignorant, but they were inquisitive, because they
asked Him, saying, Master, who did sin? this man or his parents. In other words, somebody had
to have done something bad, something very wrong for this man to have
been born blind. Now we see then that they were
steeped in Jewish tradition. Because it was Jewish tradition
to believe that any time anything went wrong, somebody had to have
sinned. Somebody had to have done something
awful, or it could have never happened. Now you see, as we
look at this, the Lord Jesus Christ, of course, he answers
these ignorant and inquisitive disciples who were steeped in
tradition, Jewish tradition, by saying, neither hath this
man sinned, Now by that statement, Jesus did not mean that this
man was not tainted or corrupted by original sin just like all
men are. He didn't mean that. But what
he means is that there was no particular sin in the lives of
his parents or in his life that caused this to be. Now that's
what he meant. And he goes on to say, neither
has this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of
God should be made manifest in him. In other words, this man
is before us here, he's blind, Jesus is saying, and the reason
has nothing to do with what he did or his parents, but it's
got everything to do with the plan, the program, of God in
that this is a man in which God is going to work and show forth
his power in a miracle. And God is going to make manifest
himself in this man. Now that sheds an altogether
different light upon it, does it not? It really does. Now,
sometimes when things happen to us, of course we immediately
begin to blame ourselves. We look at ourselves and we say,
well, surely I've messed up some way or another or this wouldn't
have happened in my life. Surely I must have caused this
somewhere or another. And you know that most of us
feel that way at different times in our lives. But, you know,
as mature people in the faith of the gospel, we should come
to understand that really and truthfully, we're not so big
and so important that we always have got to have a part in everything
that happens in the world. You know, some people feel like
that nothing can happen at all around them unless they've had
something to do with it. But my friend, God is at work,
and He's at work in the lives of His people. He's at work in
the lives of people around us, and we need to be aware of that.
And don't be too quick to jump to a conclusion and say, well,
I caused this, or I made this happen. You're not that big,
my friend. God's doing a whole lot of things
in this world that you've got nothing whatever to do with.
And you need to understand that. You know there are some people
that believe that they're so big that they can make God love
them. Now my friend, there isn't anybody
in this room or anywhere else on the face of this earth that
can make God love them. And then many, many times we
feel like that we make God cease to love us by what we do. Well,
aren't we really important that the God of the universe, the
God of heaven and earth, that He's going to cease to love us
because of some little something or other that we've done? No,
the Lord loved us without cause. He loved us freely, and He'll
continue on to love us without cause, freely, as were His children
as He was pleased to make us His children, as He was pleased
to put us into the Lord Jesus Christ, and deck us out in the
robe of righteousness, and everlasting salvation belongs to us, and
it has nothing whatever to do with us one way or the other. It has everything to do with
the purpose of God in Christ Jesus. And we need to understand
that. So my friend, be real careful.
Don't be like these disciples who were stooped, as we said,
steeped in Jewish tradition that immediately said, we, or that
this man or his parents had something to do with this. You need to
believe God. The Bible says, if thou shalt
believe, you will see the glory of God. You need to believe that
God is working in the lives of your relatives, and in the lives
of your children, in the lives of your friends. You need to
believe that. And just because they have a
bad day, or a bad week, or a bad experience, that doesn't mean,
you see, that the end of the world is coming, and that God's
given up on you and them. You just keep believing God,
you trust God, and you trust them with God. And God will bring
to pass a glorious, a glorious purpose. Now then, Jesus said in the last part of
this story, and I want to mention this at this time, this was for
judgment he said that I come into the world. Now, in this
particular case, the Lord Jesus Christ was not He did not come
to bring judgment or to send this affliction upon this man.
He came to deliver this man and to heal him. And we will refer
to that a little bit later in our message this morning. But
the next people that I want us to notice here is the neighbors.
And that is found down in verse 8 and 9. Now the neighbors therefore,
and they which before had seen him that he was blind, said,
Is not this he that sat and begged? And some said, This is he. And
others said, Well, he's like him. But he said, I am he. Now these neighbors, they didn't
know what to make of this. And it's apparent to me that
many of them, while they were neighbors, they hadn't really
paid a whole lot of attention to this man. That they hadn't
looked upon this man with any compassion or with any tenderness. They hadn't looked upon this
man as one who was in need and probably had not prayed for him. Because, you see, they looked
upon him and before they had seen him, that he was blind,
said, Is not this he that sat and begged? And some said, well,
this is he. And others said, well, he's just
kind of like him. We've noticed him in passing,
don't you see? Kind of like the Good Samaritan. Remember in the story there of
the Levite and others that passed by and just passed by on the
other side? Well, this is kind of the way
these neighbors were. And some said, this is he. Well, but he
said, I am he. I'm the fella that's been sitting
here. You people have been passing
me day by day, on and on and on through the years. I'm he. I'm the man. I'm this man that
God has been pleased to heal. I am this man that God has been
pleased to do a miracle in. Well, then next we have the Pharisees
in verse 13. Notice in verse 13. He says,
They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind.
The miracle has been worked, and he had obeyed the Lord, he
received his sight, and then they brought him, the Jews did,
to the Pharisees. They brought him to the Pharisees,
and it was the Sabbath day, don't you see? Verse 14, when Jesus
made the clay and opened his eyes, and boy, that created a
big problem. That was an awful thing for Jesus
to have done, was to have healed this man on the Sabbath day. Well, it was awful as far as
these Pharisees were concerned, but not as far as Jesus and this
man was concerned. Then again, in verse 15, the
Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. And
he said unto them, He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed,
and do see. Therefore said some of the Pharisees,
This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the Sabbath day.
Well, how many times have we heard that in our lifetime? Well,
you're not of God because you do not keep the day that we believe
you ought to keep. I was accused one time of painting
my house on Sunday. The truth of the matter is I
never even painted it on Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday. I never
had anything to do with that, but I was accused of painting
my house on Sunday. This man is not of God, because
he keepeth not the Sabbath day. And others said, how can a man
that is a sinner do such miracles? In other words, if he is a sinner,
such a sinner as you Pharisees say that he is, well, how can
he work these miracles? There was a division among the
people because they couldn't figure out how this man could
have healed this blind man, how this man called Jesus could have
healed this blind man and yet been such a sinner that he broke
the Sabbath day and yet God used him to work this miracle. Now
then, let's go on with the story here. In verse 18, we have the
parents of this man. But the Jews did not believe
concerning him that he had been blind and received his sight
until, until they called the parents of him that had received
his sight. And they asked them, saying,
Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then doth
he now see? And his parents answered them
and said, We know that this is our son. and that he was born
blind. But by what means he now seeth,
we know not. Now beloved, I want you to know
that I look upon these parents with contempt. I look upon them
with contempt because they absolutely knew more than they were willing
to confess. But they were afraid of the Jews. They had no backbone Whatever. I want you to notice what they
said. We know that this is our son. We know that he was born
blind. We know that. But by what means
he now seeth, we know not. We know not. That was a lie.
They knew better than that. But they wouldn't admit as to
what it was that had happened to their son that he now sees
and they said we know not. Or who hath opened his eyes,
we know not. We know not. It's amazing, isn't
it? You know, there's a lot of times
when people are saved, and the Lord saves a young person. And
I've heard parents before say, well, I don't know what happened
to him. I don't know what happened to him. Well, fully on that,
you do know what happened. The Lord entered their lives.
The Lord changed them. They're new creatures in Christ.
That's what happened. I mean, they're different because
Christ came into their lives. And they've been changed. Now
these people knew, these parents, they knew exactly what had happened. And the Bible says, these words
spake his parents in verse 22, because they feared the Jews.
They feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that
if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put
out of the synagogue. Throw him out! Anybody that says
that this man who healed this man was the Christ, the Messiah,
throw him out! The anointed one of God, no!
If a man says he is the Christ, then cast him out of the synagogue. Therefore said his parents, he
is of age, ask him. He is of age, ask him. Well, I have nothing but contempt
for these parents. And then we have the man that
was healed. I want to talk a little bit about
him. First of all, we have his case laid out clearly before
us. He's a blind man. and he's a
candidate for the ministry and power and working of our Lord
Jesus Christ. I want you to turn back with
me to the book of Luke chapter 4. The book of Luke chapter 4. I want to read verse 18 to you.
Verse 18. The Lord Jesus is reading the
scripture before the synagogue on the Sabbath day And verse
18, he reads that part of Isaiah which says, The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel
to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. To preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. But we see that the ministry
of our Lord Jesus Christ was to this very end that there would
be blind people that would have the recovery of their sight.
You might recall that when John the Baptist was in prison, and
he heard about the ministry and the works of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that he sent his disciples to Jesus to ask Him if He truly
was the Christ, or whether they should look for another. And you remember that John sent
back to them, or that Jesus sent them back to John and told him
that the blind have their sight restored. That's one of the marks
of his ministry. And so here we have this man,
his case is that he's blind, he was blind from his birth,
and he's a candidate for the Lord Jesus Christ to show forth
his power and grace and mercy in his deliverance. And so there
was an old colored preacher one time, he had a three-point sermon
on this man. He said, first of all, number
one, he said he was blind. Number two, he said he was blind
in both eyes. And number three, he said he
couldn't see a lid. He truly was blind. He truly needed a miracle from
the Son of God, this man called Jesus, in order that he might
be able to see. Well, let me say a few things
about this man and his condition. First of all, let me say that
he was not blind for the want of light. He was not blind for
the warner of light. Jesus was there. There is plenty
of light. Notice what the Lord Jesus Christ
said in verse 5, As long as I am in the world, I am the light
of the world now beloved Jesus was here and he had power to
restore this man's sight and so this man what I'm trying to
point out now I want you to see that it's no accident that this
man is here and that he's in the condition that he's in and
many many times you know people end up in a church service they
don't know why they're there And maybe the preacher don't
know why they're there, but they're there, and they're in the condition
they're in, and they're there for a reason, for a purpose.
And God has many, many times laid hold of a dear soul and
brought life and light into their soul when they came into a church
meeting like this. Through the power of the gospel,
they were regenerated and become new creatures in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so this man was blind, but
I want you to see that it was on purpose. God had set this
up. He had set the stage. And it
was not for the want of light that this man was blind, no.
And we know that the same is true about lost people in this
world. We know according to Psalms 19,
in the creation of God, there is light to be had. The invisible
things, Romans 1 says, of Him from the creation of the world
is clearly understood by the things that are made. There's
light in this world. There's no need for lost men
to go around saying, well, I wish there was some evidence that
there was a God in the heavens. I wish there was some evidence
that there was a God. Listen, my friend, the world
is full of evidence. There's evidence everywhere in
God's creation and then also in the Word of God. How clear
the Word of God spells out God and His purpose as He was pleased
to reveal it. In John 5 and 24, a great verse,
a verse that I memorized very early in my Christian life, such
a blessing to me. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me,
hath everlasting life, shall not come into the judgment, but
is passed from death unto life." The Word. He that heareth My
Word. My Word. And so, beloved, there's
light in the Word. There's the message of life in
the Word. And so this man was blind, but
it was not for the want. of light, because it was there. And then there was the conscience
light, which is in every man. In John 1 and verse 9, that was
the true light, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, which lighteth
every man that cometh into the world. There is a light in every
man that comes into the world, the light of conscience. the
light of conscience. You have a conscience and that
conscience tells you that there is a God and that you're obligated
unto Him and that you're going to give an account before Him. And so this man was blind but
it was because of the purpose of God. It was because God was
going to do a work in him and reveal Himself and manifest Himself. I'm always glad to see Our God
revealed Himself, aren't you? I really am. You know the Bible
says concerning saved people, it says that we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus and two good works which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. But I like that, don't
you? We are His workmanship. Oh, beloved, listen. We're children
of God because of Him and because of His workmanship. And that's
why God brought you into this world, was because He purposed
that He was going to save you and bring you into His family. You're here today and you're
God's child. It's because God would have you
in His many-membered family. He brought you, and it's His
workmanship that you're in Christ Jesus. What you are in Him is
the display of the power and grace and the mercy of our God. And then He was not blind because
someone failed to do His duty. Now, I want to point this out
to you. Because, you know, many of the
people in the religious world, they indicate that the world's
in the shape it's in because somebody failed to shine the
light. Somebody failed to do their duty.
But my friend, we must understand that it's God that is at work. God is doing something. This
is God's work. And so, if his parents had dropped
him on his head, well, of course, obviously, that could have created
a problem. But there's nothing in this door
that indicates that his parents had been at fault. Actually,
it seems to me like the Lord had absolved his parents completely
from having any fault in the matter. And so, we know that
Mephibosheth, now we know that in the Old Testament, one of
Saul's descendants, whom David later brought to the palace,
and he ate at David's table, we know he had been dropped.
And so he was lame on both of his feet, because the maid that
was one that was caring for him had dropped him. And so he was
lame on both his feet. But this man, This man was not
blind because of any fault or that somebody failed to provide
religious training for him. Now, of course we believe that
parents should provide religious training for their children.
We believe that. We believe that you ought to
bring your children into the house of God to listen to the
word of God, to hear the gospel of redeeming grace. We believe
that you ought to do that. We believe it's right for you
to do that because we believe God uses means in the rescuing
of lost souls and bringing them into his regenerating power. God uses means. We'll have a
little bit more to say about that in a few moments. And I
believe also that churches should be missionary minded. They should
send out the gospel because the Lord Jesus Christ said, go into
all the world and preach the gospel. Go into all the world
and preach the gospel. So the church should do that.
But this man was not blind for the want of somebody not fulfilling
their duty. Now this man, and as we know
that he was blind from birth, so are lost people blind when
they come into this world. They're blind, they're dead in
sin, and they're blind spiritually. Blind. They come into this world
that way. And the Word of God says in Psalm
51 and verse 5, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin
did my mother conceive me. In other words, it's not that
the church has failed to shine the light. It's that men are
born in sin. They're born in sin and are blind
by nature just like this man was born blind and came into
this world in that condition. Lost people are blind from birth. In Psalm 58 and verse 3 it says,
The wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon
as they be born speaking lies. So you see, they're born with
a fallen nature and they're blind before God, spiritually blind.
Now in Ephesians 2.1 it says that we were by nature the children
of wrath even as others. And so this blindness, my friend,
is a blindness that was brought upon this man by the purpose
of God. God allowed it to happen and
the fall also was allowed to happen by God. And the state
that men are in in this world, oh what a glorious, glorious,
marvelous manifestation, the grace of God, that God has chosen
a people and that He has, in Jesus Christ, that He has made
them people perfect before Him, so that as He looks upon them,
He finds no spot or blemish or any such thing in them, but that
they are perfect before God. Oh yes, clothed with His righteous
garments on, they're as holy as the Holy One. Now let me say
that this blindness, it is evident that it could not be cured by
human skill. And the blind man mentioned this. He said that it was not known
since, he said since the war began in verse 32, was it not
heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. This man could not have been
cured by human skill. Do you know of any lost person
that you could save? Well, my friend, if you could
save them, they'd just get lost again the next day. Because human
skill or human ability, preacher ability, we cannot give life
to a dead sinner, a blind sinner. We cannot open their eyes that
they might see the glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, the cure, I want to say
a few words about that. Now the cure took place in verse
6 and verse 7. Notice it. Let me read it to
you. When he had thus spoken, he, Jesus, spat on the ground,
made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind
man with the clay. And he said unto him, Go wash
in the pool of Siloam, which is thy interpretation sent. He
went his way therefore and washed, and he came seeing. Hallelujah. He came seeing. Well, the question
arises then, who gave him the sight? And of course the answer
is this man called Jesus. He's the one that gave him the
sight. Whose decision was it? Whose decision was it? Was it
the blind man's decision that he would be healed or that he
would have his sight recovered? Was it his decision? I think
not. It was the decision of the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself. He passed by. There's no indication
that the blind man in any way, shape, or form knew that Jesus
was near. But it was Jesus that made the
clay of the spittle and applied it and told him what to do. He
did it and he came seeing. And so this was entirely the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm going to tell you there's
no son of Adam. that ever passes out of death
unto life spiritually without it being the decision of the
God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is Jesus Christ that gives
life to whomsoever He will. He quickens whomsoever He will. And so in this world stage, as
things are happening day to day, And there are some that are being
converted, some that are being brought out of sins, death, into
the life and liberty of the gospel. It is the decision and the decree
of God Almighty being fulfilled and brought forth. That's what
we're seeing all the time. And so it was Jesus. He's the
one that could do it. He's the one that had the commission.
He's the one that had the anointing. He said, God has anointed me
to recover those who recover the sight of the blind. Now,
the leper had it right, did he not, when he said If thou wilt,
thou canst make me clean. You remember that testimony in
Matthew 8? He gave this testimony and said, If thou wilt, speaking
to Jesus, thou canst make me clean. It is the will of God
that determines the healing of this man, and it's the will of
God that determines your salvation. And you're not going to be saved
apart from the will of God being executed on your behalf by the
Divine Spirit. Now, another question that I
asked myself in this story was, was this man the only blind man
there on this occasion? Well, you may say, well, it would
be conjecture for anyone to say yes or no. Well, I think that
there were others there. Now I base this on the fact that
in Luke 4 25 when it talks about there were many widows in Israel
in the days of Elijah the prophet but into none of them was our
Lord sent but unto the widow at Zarephath And it was to her
that he was sent, but unto none of them. Fact is, the scripture
says there were many widows. And then it went on to say that
there were many lepers in the day when the Lord healed Nahum
and the Syrian. But there was none of them that
was healed. And so, beloved, I think it very
possible, highly possible, that there were many blind men that
were there on that occasion by the Pool of Siloam. Many that
were there, but our Lord, in His divine purpose, purposed
to heal this blind man. And I don't know how many lost
souls there are here this morning, and I certainly wouldn't venture
to say there's none, but I don't know how many there are, but
I don't know how many God will save either out of this group.
How many that God will bring to Himself, I do not know. That's
in the hands of the Lord. But undoubtedly, there were many
blind men that were there on this occasion. They would gather
in that place to beg and ask alms. Now, the Lord Jesus spat on the ground.
Now, we're talking now just a little bit about means. He spat on the ground and made
clay in order that he might be able to apply it to this blind
man's eyes. And we're not limiting God when
we say that God uses means. We're not limiting God. When
God uses, when the Bible says He uses means, He teaches, it
teaches that He uses means. We're not in any way limiting
the power of God when we say that. Any other man using these
means, would it have worked? Let's say some other man would
have walked up there and said, well, hey, or maybe he's seen
what Jesus did. And so he said, next time I see
a blind man, I'm going to try that. I'm just going to spit
on the ground here and make me a little bit of clay. I'm going
to try it. Would it have worked? The answer is no. It would not
have worked. Why did it work when Jesus did
it? Can anyone tell me that? Why
did it work when the Lord Jesus did it? It was because He's God. and because he has all power
in heaven and on earth and there is an effectual grace and power
in every work that our Lord does and so it was effectual when
our Lord did it God uses means now you may wonder about why
that he would do that well could not God save people without the
gospel being preached I'm not saying that he never has But
I'm saying as far as the Bible is concerned, it indicates that
God uses the means of the preaching of the gospel to regenerate souls. For an example, the Bible says
in 1 Corinthians 1.21 that God has chosen through the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. And Jesus sent the church
out, said you go into all the world and preach the gospel.
and make disciples of men, and baptize them in the name of the
Father, the Son, and the Spirit. And I'll be with you always,
even to the winding up of the ages. And so God uses means. Now, let me just point out a
couple things to you. Turn back with me to Matthew
chapter 3. Matthew chapter 3. We'll be done
here in just a moment. Matthew chapter 3. I won't talk
as fast as I used to. And I'm slowing up, and maybe
it's for the best. Matthew chapter 3, and I want
you to look at verse 9 with me. Look at that. Maybe I'll skip back to verse
7. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come
to his baptism, he said to them, O generation of vipers, who hath
warned you to flee from the wrath to come? bring forth therefore
fruits meet for repentance now look at verse 9 and think not
to say within yourself we have Abraham to our father for I say
unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children
to Abraham now I want you to think a little bit about that
verse now what the Lord Jesus is saying here that there's as
far as God is concerned There's no shortage of children of Abraham. People believe in an Abraham.
But if there was, God is able to take these stones laying here,
and I'm sure He pointed out on the ground, these stones, God
is able to take these stones and to raise up children unto
Abraham. He can do it. He can make children out of stones.
You believe He can do that? Absolutely He can do that. God
can now he didn't purpose to use that means to produce more
children to Abraham he didn't wasn't pleased to do that but
he could have done it okay I want to show you one more verse Luke
19 and verse 40 turn to Luke 19 notice verse 40 now the Lord
Jesus come into Jerusalem And you remember that there had been
an ass's coat tied up, and the disciples were sent in to get
this coat, and they loosed the coat. because the Lord had need
of him. And they brought him to Jesus
to cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus thereon.
And as he went, they spread their clothes in the way. And when
he was come nigh even now at the descent of the Mount of Olives,
the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God
with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen.
Oh, there was a time of great jubilation and praise being given
to God, rejoicing and praising God, saying, Blessed be the King
that cometh in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven, and glory
in the highest. And some of the Pharisees, there's
them Pharisees again, religious folks of our Lord's day, from
among the multitude, said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. Tell them to shut up. Don't let
them be making a scene here, praising God, rejoicing and being
glad. And I want you to look what the
Lord Jesus said. And he answered in verse 40,
and said unto them, I tell you that if these should hold their
peace, the stones would immediately cry out. In other words, if these
disciples wouldn't praise me and rejoice because as this lowly
king comes into Jerusalem, why? The Lord Jesus said these stones
would begin to praise God. They'd begin to shout and rejoice
and be glad in the Lord. Now, what I'm pointing out is
to you that the Lord can use means. Now, he wasn't pleased
at this time. No! There were living men there
that could offer praise and thanksgiving to God. God didn't have to make
stones praise Him, but He could have. And that I want you to
see. And so the Lord can use means. He can do it when He needs to
and when it is His purpose to do so. But now we're not in any
way. Now the use of means represents,
I believe, the fact that we're earthbound creatures ourselves.
And now, we're not to despise the use
of means. We're not. We're not to worship
means either. No, we're not. And as soon as
God saves us, the quicker we can wash the means out of our
eyes, so we can see Christ better, the better off we are. There
are some people that go through years and say, talk about preacher
that, I got saved under so-and-so's ministry, I got saved listening
to so-and-so. Well, wash it out so you can
see Jesus better. The man called Jesus, the one
who is responsible for you having been enabled to see and believe. And so, wash it out. So it represents
the reason why God uses means is because we're earthbound creatures.
And now, notice quickly and I'll close the results. What happened? Verse 25 of John chapter 9. Listen to what it says. He answered and said, whether
he be a sinner or no, talking about Christ, The blind man,
after he'd been healed, he said, whether he be a sinner or not,
I know not. He said, I don't know anything about this man.
All I know about this man is one thing I know. I know this. He says, whereas I was blind,
now I see. No question about it. I was blind,
I now see. Isn't it wonderful when you hear
a converted soul saying, I know I was lost, but I know I am found. I know that I am now saved. I know that I belong to Christ. I know that I'm His. Well, this
was the result. I don't have to ask anybody else
about it. I don't have to ask the preacher whether I'm saved
or whether I'm not. I know I was blind, now I see. I know it. And beloved, it's
always good whenever you know it and don't have to have somebody
tell you. I'm suspicious of anybody's so-called
conversion when they've got to have somebody else to tell them
it happened. And I see that happening all
the time. I see it in the literature sometimes that you read. And,
oh, you say this prayer and now you're saved. Well, now be careful
now. I'd rather have them tell me
that they're saved rather than me tell them that they're saved. Now this is important, I think,
and we should reflect upon it. So this man, not only does he
know, have a know-so experience with God, but he speaks out for
Christ. Look in verse 27. He answered
them, I have told you already. They come to him, they want to
know again. Because they were trying to trip
him up. They said, tell us again, how
open are thy eyes? How do you do this? And he answered
them, I told you already and you did not hear. Wherefore would
you hear it again? I like this, will you also be
his disciples? Will you be His disciple? This
man called Jesus. Will you be His follower? Would
you follow Him with me? Would you do that? Ah, no. No, they weren't interested in
that, were they? Then they reviled Him. They reviled
Him and said, Thou art His disciple. But they let that cat out of
the bag in the next statement. But we're Moses' disciple. See,
they were blind to who Jesus was. They didn't know who He
was. They didn't know he was the Messiah, the Christ. They
said, we're Moses' disciples. And for anybody in that day,
after Jesus had come on the scene to make a statement like that,
it showed their absolute ignorance of God's will and purpose. and
ignorance of his son. That's what he showed. We're
Moses' disciples. You proud of that? God help you,
my friend. If you're one of Moses' disciples,
then you're not Christ's disciple. Then you don't belong to him.
Then you're not saved if you be Moses' disciple. And there's
many, many people who will swear up and down that Moses is to
be adhered to as much as Christ is. And I say they're blind. That's the problem. Okay, and
then there's another thing that I want you to see in verse 38.
He believes on the Son of God. Verse 38, and he said, well,
let me just give you a little background here to this. He answered
and said, Who is He, Lord? Jesus had come to him and said,
Dost thou believe on the Son of God? Last part of verse 35. And he answered and said, Who
is He, Lord? Who is He, the Son of God? Who
is He that I might believe on Him? And Jesus said to him, Thou
hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And
I want you to notice verse 38. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. Now, beloved,
here's something we need to just say a word or two about. Now,
I want you to think with me on this. We are always trying to
get somebody to say they believe, aren't we? Oh, will you confess
Christ? Will you say you believe on Him?
My friend, the elect of God, now hear me out on this, the
elect of God, they just want to know who He is so they can
believe on Him. And as soon as they find out
who He is, and as soon as they find out who it is that's speaking
to them through the Word, Lord, who is He? Lord, oh, who is He,
Lord, that I might believe on Him? And one of the elect of
God, poor lost sheep, they hear the voice of the Lord in the
word and they said they say who is it Lord that I might believe
on him and he said Lord I believe and he worshipped him he worshipped
him now I'm telling you God can take care of his work he can
take care of his work yes he can and God is in the business
of revealing his son and when he does that to one of his poor
sheep They cry out, Lord, I believe, I believe. No arm twisting, no
arm twisting, no trying to talk this man into something that
he wasn't interested in, no trying to slip him into the kingdom
of God with a shoe spoon, no! Oh, well, we'll get another personal
worker to come deal with you. No! If he's one of God's elect,
who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? I want to believe
on Him. I must believe on Him. John 6
is so plain on this. And I'll close with this. I've
been slow, but I've enjoyed this myself. Now, you may not have
enjoyed it much, but I've enjoyed it a whole lot. In John 6, I
just give you these things here. Begin with verse 45 or 44. It
said, No man can come to Me except the Father which has sent Me.
Draw him, and I'll raise him up the last day. It is written
in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man,
therefore, that hath heard and learned of the Father, he comes
to me. He comes. If the Father has taught him,
he'll come. He's coming unto me. He can't
come except to be drawn to the Father. But when he hears, when
he's taught by God, then he must come to Christ. Not that any
man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen
the Father. Verily, verily, I say to you, he that believeth on
me hath everlasting life. So you see what happened? This
man believed, and he had what? He had everlasting life as well
as having his sight restored. Now you see, I believe that our
application of John chapter 9 this morning has been absolutely scriptural
when we kept referring back and forth between this blind man,
his case, and the case of lost sinners before us. Absolutely
scriptural. Absolutely scriptural. And sometime,
I can't do it this morning, but I would like to deal with verse
39 through 41 when I'm able to do it. because the time has gone
from us this morning and I've kept you long enough. I think
the tape recorder might have quit a while ago. Did it? Oh,
it's still running? Good. Good. Well, may the Lord be pleased to use
what has been said to His glory, to His praise, to His honor. Does anyone have anything to
say