Would you turn with me to the
ninth chapter of the book of John? And tonight I'm going to be speaking
out of First Corinthians, chapter 14, on the edification of the
church, and we're going to observe the Lord's table together. I'd like for us to read these
first seven verses of. John chapter 9, I've entitled
this message, The Work of God Made Manifest. Now, I'm interested
in having the work of God made manifest to me. 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? 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 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 sent. He went his way, therefore. And
washed. And came. See. And here we have. the works of
God made manifest. Now look once again in verse
6, when he had thus spoken. He's back on the ground. Spoken
what? Well, what he said in verse 3
through 5. When he had thus spoken after
he said, I've come to work the works of God that the work of
God is going to be manifest in this man, when he thus spoke
it. He sat on the ground, made a mud paste, took that mud paste
that he made after spitting in the ground and the dirt, spread
it on a man's eyes, and he said, you go wash in the pool. And
he went and washed, and he came seeing, and in that passage of
Scripture, God tells us that the work of God is manifest. If you want to understand what
the work of God actually is, the work of God, not the work
of man, but the work of God. If you want to understand what
the work of God actually is, may God give us grace to hear.
Listen up. Now, verse 59. Chapter eight. Then took they up stones to cast
of him that Jesus hid himself. And went out of the temple And
going through the midst of them, so passed by, the Lord hides
himself so that these people could not see him. That's a solemn thought, isn't
it? He hid himself from these people.
It was his intention for these people to not see him. He hid himself. And then he makes
himself known to somebody who could not see. Isn't that the
way the Lord works? He hides himself so that some
cannot see him. And then he comes to one who
could not see. And as Jesus passed by, he saw
a man which was blind from birth. Now, this man could not see. He lacked the ability to see. He was born blind. He never had seen. He could not see, and there was
nothing that he could do to make himself see. He was very much
like Bartimaeus, a blind beggar. As a matter of fact, verse 8
tells us, the neighbors therefore, and they which had seen him that
was blind, said, is not this he that sat and begged? This
was a blind beggar. And what a fit emblem of me and
you. Born blind. Born unable to see. Born spiritually blind and spiritually
bankrupt. Now this man could not see Christ. He was blind. But Christ saw
him. Now it's my prayer that there's
somebody here like that this morning. You can't see Christ. You're blind. But he sees you. He saw this one who was born
blind. Verse 2. And his disciples asked
him, saying, Master, they saw this one that was born blind
too, a beggar. A blind beggar. And they said,
Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born
blind? Now, the disciples have all of
a sudden turned into philosophers. You know, Christ's disciples
do that sometimes, and I don't mean that by way of compliment.
They turned into philosophers. They, too, see this man who was
born blind. And how hard hearted their question
is. How self-righteous! How judgmental! Here this man is, born blind,
and they know sin has something to do with it. Well, was he born
blind, the disciples ask, as a punishment for his parents'
sin? Did his parents sin some kind of sin that brought judgment
upon this fellow's children so that he was born blind because
of his parents' sin? Or perhaps it was something that
God foresaw that he would do. And so he punished him with blindness
before he even did it because he foresaw he would do it. As
far as that goes, where did this come from anyway? What's the
origin of evil? What's the origin of sin? Why is it that this man
was born blind? What's the cause behind all of
this? How could God allow this to happen? Why is there suffering? Why is there need? Why was this
man born blind? Was it his sin? Was his parents?
They turned philosophers on us. What did this fellow do is
what they meant. That's the bottom line. What did this fellow do that
brought him into such a state? Now, which one of us have not
had this foolish thought? You see the plight of somebody
else and you think, what did they do to bring this on? That's so self-righteous. Do
you really think you've done any better? Do you look at yourself
in any way as morally superior to that person? But Christ's
disciples can answer. like that. Now, look how our
Lord answers him in verse three. Jesus answered. Neither hath this man sin, nor
his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest
in him. Now, the Lord says it was neither.
Which man sin? Was it his parents or him that
he was born blind? The Lord said neither. Now, this does not mean
his parents had never sinned. Nor does it mean that this man
had never sinned. He is saying that this blindness
is not the punishment for some particular sin. Now, if that
is the way God worked. There wouldn't be one person
in this room with the faculty of sight. You believe that? God is the cause. God is the first cause of all
things, and the reason this man was born blind was the will of
God. That's the only answer. Any other
answer is a wrong answer. This man was born blind that
the works of God should be manifest in him. You see, God is the reason
for all things. He's the first cause behind all
things. Well, God permitted that to happen.
No, He's the first cause. Even of this man's blindness. God is the cause of causes. He's God. Well, He needs to explain
why He did this. No, He doesn't. He doesn't have
to explain the thing to you. He is God, and whatever He does
is right, and He does what He does for His own glory. That is his motive behind all
that he does, his own glory. And the most striking illustration
of this is the fall of Adam in the garden. Now, why did Adam
fall? Because it was God's purpose. God purposed this. God didn't simply foresee it.
God didn't simply allow it to happen. It was all a part of
God's purpose. He said, in the day you eat thereof,
you shall surely die. He didn't say, if you eat it,
you'll end up dying. He said, when you do, you'll die. Now, I find no need to try to
apologize for what God does. Whatever He does is right, whether
I understand it or not. He said, I am the Lord. Beside me, there's none else.
I form the light. I create darkness. I make peace. I create evil. I, the Lord, do
all these things. That's who He is. He reigns. And He is the reason this man
was born blind. He is the first cause of all
things. Adam fell. It was all part of
God's plan. And God does what He does in
order to make Himself known. He said that the works of God
might be made manifest in this man, that you might be enabled
to see. If it wasn't for the fall of
Adam, what would we know about the forgiveness of sin? What would we know about grace? What would we know about tender
mercy? and the loving kindness of God.
We'd not know any of these things if it were not for the fall of
Adam. So you see, God, this is one of the glorious things about
God. Only God can do this. You and I can't, but He can.
He brings good out of evil. That's how glorious He is. He
brings good out of evil. Now, who sinned? This man or
his parents? Neither one of them. God ordered
this man's blindness. that the works of God might be
made manifest in him." Verse 4, the Lord says, I must work
the works of him that sent me while it's day. The night cometh
when no man can work. I must work the works of God,
the works of him that sent me. He said, and drink is to do the
will of him that sent me." His first words were, I must be about
my father's business. And that's what he was doing
while he walked upon this earth. He was working the works of God. He was fulfilling God's purpose. He was the sent one of God. He's
the one God sent to save His people from their sins. He came
to keep the law. He came to die. He came to honor
His Father's law. He came to satisfy the claims
of divine justice. He came for these purposes. He
said, I must work the works of Him that sent me. While it's
day, there's a sense of urgency here. While it's day, the night
cometh when no man can work. So we see a sense of urgency
here. Verse 5, He says, As long as I am in the world, I am the
light of the world. Now, what's a light for? You're
seen by a light. You see, it's only in light of
Him that you see who you are, who He is. You understand His
gospel. I love the first time this... It's not the first time. It's said in John 1, but in John
8. Look in John 8, verse 12. Then spake Jesus again unto them,
saying, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall
not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. I am
the light of the world. Now let me tell you exactly what
that means. I'm the light of the world. Our Lord just said
to this woman who was caught red-handed in the very act of
adultery, He said, I do not condemn you. Now how can that be? The
law condemns her. She, by Irrefutable evidence
is caught. She's guilty. And yet the Lord
says, I don't condemn you. How can that be? Well, Christ
is the light of that. He's the light as to how God
can be just and yet justify the ungodly. He's the light as to
how God can accept you and embrace you and receive you and see you
as not guilty. He's the light of the world.
Now he said, as long as I'm in the world, I am the light of
the world. Verse 6, back to our text, John
9. When he had thus spoken, he now
in this blind man is going to do a work that makes manifest,
that makes obvious, that reveals the work of God. If you want
to know what the work of God is, listen up. When he had thus
spoken, verse 6, he sat on the ground. And he made clay of the
spittle. He made a mud paste. And he took
that mud and he placed it on the eyes of that man that was
born blind. And then he said, Go wash in
the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation sent. He went
his way, therefore, and washed and came seeing. Now, in this miracle of this
man who was born blind, actually never seen the light of the sun.
And now all of a sudden he comes seeing. In this miracle of this
man that was born blind, we have the work of God manifest. When he had spat on the ground. I'm a big baseball fan. I love
baseball. What do baseball players always
do? We were watching and Lynn says, why do they do that all
the time? They spit, spit on the ground all the time. I mean,
you just spit. But I don't know why they do
that. But this spit is special spit. And I say that reverently. This
is the spit of the Lord Jesus Christ that makes this spit very
special spit. He spits on the ground. And he makes a mud paste out
of that spittle and anointed the eyes with this mud paste. Now, the Lord always uses means. He could have just snapped his
fingers. He could have just willed it. The man would have seen.
But the Lord always works through means. He made a mud paste. And what I think is really neat
about this, the Lord works in spite of the means, doesn't he?
He doesn't so much work because of the means, he works in spite
of the means. How is mud in this fellow's eye
going to give him sight? Well, if the Lord blesses him,
it does. And if the Lord uses me or you, it's going to be in
spite of us. Not so much because us, but in
spite of us. And that's a blessing to me.
That's a blessing of grace. He works in spite of the means.
Now, he anoints this man with this mud And that man is commanded
to go himself and wash in the pool of Siloam, which is sin,
which is Christ's sin, wasn't it? He's sent by the Father for
a specific purpose. He was given a specific commission.
He came to save his people from their sins. And this man was
commanded, you go yourself. Somebody can't do it for you.
You're going to have to get to that point of Siloam and you're
going to wash. And in washing, he came seeing. Now, we have a man that was blind
from birth. Now who's that picture? That's
me and you. Blind from birth. Born blind. Born without the capacity to
see. Completely unable to see. And there's not one thing this
man could do to make himself see. You couldn't give him corrective
lenses. You couldn't do anything to help
him out. He was completely stone blind. He couldn't see who God
is. He couldn't see who he was. He couldn't see anything. He
was born blind. He was a blind beggar. That's me and you. Here he sits,
a blind beggar. And in Christ spitting on the
ground, remember, this is that the works of God might be made
manifest. Remember, and I say this reverently,
this spit was special spit. This spit brought into the ground
in that I see the incarnation of Christ. God became flesh. Now, flesh is made of what? Dirt. The dirt of the ground. God became
flesh. Here's the work of God, that
God, first of all, that God, the holy God, the creator God,
the glorious God, God became a man. God became flesh. And in the flesh, God kept the
law. The God-man honored God. He never sinned. He lived a life
without sin. Isn't that glorious? So in Christ spitting on the
ground, I see the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
this mud paste made of the spittle of Christ and the dirt of the
earth had to come in contact with that blindness. That mud paste was placed upon
the eyes of him that was born blind. That mud paste had to
come into contact with that blindness and on the cross. And I don't
understand this, but I believe it. On the cross, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Holy Son of God, came into contact with sin. Now that just... I don't understand how that is. I don't know. You know that He
never sinned in His person. He never thought sin. He never
did sin. Scripture says He knew no sin.
Yet, on the cross, the Scripture says He was made. That means more, much more than
sin being charged to his account and he had to be liable for the
punishment of it. It means more than that. He was
made to be the thing itself. It's called substitution. Substitution. My sin became His,
and He became guilty. He actually experienced the shame
of it, where He felt ashamed before His Father. My sin actually
became His. He said, my iniquities have gone
over my head as a heavy burden. They're too heavy for me. My
sin became His. He became guilty before God. He came into contact with sin. That's what substitution is.
He became what I am. That's why I said, my God, my
God, why has Thou forsaken me? Because God forsakes sinners.
Why did He die? There's only one reason for death.
What's that reason? Sin. The soul that sinneth shall
surely die. He came into contact with sin. That mud paste was placed upon
his eyes, my sin became his. And I also want us to notice
this, that the Lord didn't make that paste and then say, now
you reach down and you grab a handful of it, rub it in your eyes. No,
the Lord applied it to him. Only the Lord could do this.
Only the Lord could make the application. I never will forget one time
hearing a preacher say this. And I remember it hit me. Preacher
said he'd been caught in some kind of scandal. is one of those
TV preachers. And he'd been caught in a scandal
and he was being interviewed about it. And he said, well,
I did that. I'm sorry I did. He said, but
I put that sin under the blood of Christ. And I thought, oh,
so you have the right to do that. You can just up and put your
sin under the blood of Christ. There's only one who can do that.
The only one who can take your sin and put it under the blood
of Christ is God himself. He's the one who does this. He's
the one who applies the blood. You can't apply it. You can't
just say, I put my sin under the blood. No, only God can put
your sin under the blood. Only God can apply the work of
His Son to you. You don't have any control of
this. Just like that blind man didn't have any control of this.
You don't have any control. It's up to the Lord as to what He's
going to do. Now, here this man has the Lord apply this muddy
paste to his eyes. Now, don't miss this. Let's go on reading verse six.
When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground and he made clay
of the spittle and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with
the clay. And he said unto him, you go and wash in the pool of
Siloam, which is by interpretation, sinned. And this blind man had
to go to the pool and wash. He had to do it. Nobody could
do it for him. He had to do it. Now, the first thing I want us
to notice, he says, you go in the pool and wash. Now, this
is what happens when God saves the sinner. Here's what happens
to his sins. His sins are washed away. Now, what happens in washing? Now, when you put something in
the washing machine, if it's dirty and you put it in the washing
machine, what's the idea? It's not to cover up the dirt,
is it? It's for the dirt to be washed away to where it's not
there anymore. Now, if all you're doing is light
washing, covering up something, that's no good. You know, when
Lynn paints a room, She always scrubs. I hate this part of it,
too. She wants me to help her sometimes. Scrub the room down,
because you don't paint over dirt. And you shouldn't paint
over dirt. That's right. It's wrong to paint over dirt.
Now, this is what the blood of Christ does. This is when He's
applying to you. It washes away the sin. It doesn't
make it to where it's just covered up, but it's still there. No,
it's gone to where I literally, truly have no sin before God. Now, this is the work of God.
He makes it to where my sin not is simply covered over. It's
still there, but he can't know it's gone. That's what our Lord
did on the cross. Hebrews 1, 3 says he by himself
with no help from us. He by himself purged us, put
away our sins. That's so wonderful. I've been
washed, washed, but notice what he says to him. He says, you
go to the pool of Siloam. and wash. You, yourself, must
personally come to Christ. You, yourself, must personally
go to that pool and wash. You, yourself, must believe the
gospel. There is no salvation apart from
your personal faith in Christ. You must wash. Now, it's not
your believing that washes away your sins any more than it was
that mud that actually restored the blind man's sight. Was it
the mud itself that restored his sight? You know better than
that. It was the power of God. It was the grace of God. It was
the miracle of God that restored his sight. But that blind man
would not have been given his sight if he refused to go and
wash in that pool of Siloam, wouldn't he? What if he said,
no, I'm not going to do it. Give me my sight now. No, God wouldn't
have restored his sight. You yourself, nobody can do it
for you. You yourself must believe on
Christ and you will not have salvation apart from believing
on Christ. You yourself are called upon
to trust Christ yourself. He said, now you go, you go and
wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation, sin. Well, what's it say? Verse six,
verse seven, he said unto him, Go wash in the pool of Siloam,
which is by interpretation sent. He went his way. Therefore, you see, Christ's
way became his way. He did what he wanted to do.
You know, the Lord's not going to have any unwilling disciples.
Thy people shall be willing. in the day of thy power, all
of his people will be willing. They will willingly be saved
by the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know, right now, I am
willing to be washed, aren't you? I'm willing to be saved
by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I know it's because He made
me willing. There was a time when I wasn't
willing to be saved by His grace, but I am now. He went His way. The way of Christ became His
way. And what happened? He went His way, therefore, and
He washed. That's faith in Christ. He washed. Just like Naaman did. He went
to that pool and dipped down seven times. He didn't want to
at first. He was mad at first. You remember the story? He said,
Go dip down in the River Jordan seven times. Naaman said, I'm
not going to dip down in that filthy old river, that ditch
water. Wow, the rivers are a lot better
where I'm from. And then, remember, his servant
said, now, if the prophet would have told you to do something
great, you would have done it. Why not just wash and be clean? And
so he went and went down into that river seven times. He washed
and he came out with his leprosy gone, his flesh just like a baby's. Well, this fellow went into that
pool slow and blind as a bat. How he even got in there, I don't
know. Did he grope? Did he crawl? I don't know. He went into that
pool, blind as a bat, and he stuck his head down in that water
and washed away that muddy paste that was on him, and he opened
his eyes and he saw. He'd never seen before, but now
he sees. He came seeing. And this is what God does when
He saves a sinner. They see. Now you listen to me. I see who God is. I surely do. I see. Now, I see. I don't know how
well I see it, but I see that God is God. I see that He's altogether
glorious. I see that He's all-powerful.
I see that He's absolutely sovereign, the first cause of all things.
I see He's absolutely just. I see He is as He's revealed
in the Word of God. I see who God is. I see. He can see. Well, I don't see
that. Somebody says, then you're blind.
Anybody that has sight, what do they do? They see. But I don't
see that. Then you haven't seen yet. have been washed. What is the
evidence they've been washed? They see who God is. And they see who they are. He came seeing. Now, I see who
God is, but listen to this. I also see who I am. I don't
see it as clearly as I should. I realize that. But I see that
in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. I see It's not
just because I've been taught this and I know the right doctrine.
I see truthfully that I am in myself totally depraved, sinful
without any spiritual ability, totally dependent upon the grace
of God. I see that. And I see, He came
seeing, I see how God can love somebody like me through what
Christ did. I see how God can put away my sins. through what
Christ did. I see that Christ is altogether
lovely to the Father. I see that His precious blood
is such that if He died for me, I must be saved. I see that. I see that if I have
His righteousness charged to me, and that's what God does,
just as truly as He became sin, He takes His perfect righteousness
and His perfect obedience and charges it to my account. It's
substitution. He became what I am that I might
become what He is. I am righteous before God. I
see how I can be righteous before God. He came seeing. I see that He's all in salvation. He came seeing. You know something
about sight and blindness? I remember this fellow was born
blind. That's what he's born. He didn't really understand blindness.
That's all he knew. If you were to talk to him about
seeing, he could have heard what you're saying, but it would have
meant nothing to him. You could have described colors and shapes
and so on, and it wouldn't have meant anything to him because
he's blind. He might even be able to say the words and articulate
them right, but he was still blind. He had no true understanding.
He was born blind. But when he was given sight,
That's when he understood blindness. He didn't understand blindness
before. It's all he knew. But now that he's been given
sight, he has some understanding of blindness. He sees now. Look in the last few verses of
this chapter. We'll get to this in a few weeks.
Look in verse 39. And Jesus said, for judgment
I'm coming to this world that they which see not. Might see. And that they would see. Might
be made blind. Well, that's a powerful statement.
He comes in mercy for those who see not. Now, who are these people
who see not? Well, I'll tell you one thing
about their sight. They cannot see why God would ever have mercy
on them. They can't see why God would ever look in favor upon
them. They just can't see it. They don't charge God with injustice.
They don't argue against the doctrine of grace. They can see
why God sent them to hell. They're sure of that. But they
can't see why it ever looked in favor on them. Now, Christ
said, I came to save that person. I came to get inside. And that
person who sees, that person who can see why God would save
them and see why God would love them, they can see why God would
accept them. Oh, I mean, look what all I've done. Look, look,
I've believed, I've repented, I've changed my life. They can
see why God would save them. What does God do to that person?
He passes them by and lets them drop Him down. He said, for judgment
I've come into this world, that they would see not, might see. and they which see might be made
blind. Now this fella came seeing. Now this is the work of God made
manifest. Here it is. God became flesh. The incarnation of the Lord Jesus
Christ. In Him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead in a body. He came in the flesh and He kept
God's holy law. He never sinned. And He was brought
into contact with sin. Just as that mud was placed upon
that man's eyes, He, as the sinner's substitute on the cross, was
made sin. And here's what took place as
a result of Him being made sin. There was some washing. Not whitewashing,
but washing. Sin was removed. Sin was taken
away. My sin is gone. And I'm called
upon to go and wash in that pool. There's faith in Christ. You
can't be saved without faith. You can't be saved not believing
the gospel. You yourself must believe. You yourself must trust
the power of His blood to save you. He went His way. It became His way. He went His
way and washed and He came seeing. seeing who God is. Now that is the work of God manifest
in this poor old blind man. Now he went a long time without
seeing. Don't you reckon he appreciated
his sight once it was given to him? Has God given you sight? Praise God for it. That's the
work of His grace. Let's pray together.