Well, it's good to see y'all out and see if you remember those who requested prayer. I think the Lord's helped for them. Remember each other in your prayers also. Farley's not feeling well, so remember her in your prayer if you will. Let's begin our worship service tonight with hymn number 118, When I Surveyed the Wondrous Cross. 118. When I survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of Glory died I'm a just king, I count my balls, and put contempt on all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, Saved in the myth of Christ my God. All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood. See from His head, His hands, His feet, sorrow and love flowed me profound. need, or porch, or post, or ridge, or crown, were the whole realm or major mine, that were a present far too small. love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. In number 475, Redeemed. How I love to proclaim it. 475. Redeem, how I'm called to proclaim Thee! Redeem, I come, Lord of the Lamb! Redeem, to receive good and mercy! ♪ His child and forever I am ♪ Redeemed, redeemed ♪ Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb ♪ Redeemed, redeemed ♪ His child and forever I am ♪ Redeemed and so happy in Jesus' name The language my rapture can tell I know that the light of His presence With me I can daily dwell Redeemed, redeemed Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb Redeem! Redeem! This shall be forever I am! I think of my blessed Redeemer! I think of Him all the day long! I sing, for I cannot be silent! His love is a theme of my song! Redeemed! Redeemed! Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb! Redeemed! Redeemed! His child and forever I am! I know I shall see in His beauty The King in whose heart I belong! It's Turn your Bibles, please, to John the ninth chapter. We'll read verses four through 13 tonight. Our Lord says, 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. And when he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground and made clay of spit. 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 sinned. He went his way, therefore, and washed and came seeing. The neighbors, therefore, and they which before had seen him, that he was blind, He said, is not this he that sat and begged? Some said, this is he. Others said, he's like him. But he said, I am he. Therefore, said they unto themselves, how were thine eyes opened? And the answer they said, a man that is called Jesus made clay and anointed mine eyes and said, go to the pool of Siloam and wash. And I went, and I washed, and I received sight. They said to him, where is he now? He said, I know not. They brought to the Pharisees him that before time was blind. Let's pray. Our Father, merciful and gracious Lord, you who do all things after the counsel of your own will, you who are great in all things, and can never fail. We praise you for who you are. And as Paul said, we pray for what you've done for us. We're thankful in our hearts for the forgiveness of sins. For the fact that you will never charge us with sin. You will remember our sins no more. We know that is because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ, because he and his great work on Calvary's tree satisfied your laws, demands, and your justice, put away our sins by the sacrifice of himself, and was made to be unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Father, we pray for those of our company who are sick, going through trials and troubles of heart and body. We ask your help for them. For the others on the prayer list, we ask for your help for them. Remember, especially those who are afflicted with this chest problem, this terrible cold and flu that's going around. That should bring them back to a good measure of health. Help us tonight, Father, as we look at your word. Give us understanding and appreciation for the things that our Lord says here and for the glory of what he did. Help us to bow down to your sovereignty with hearts full of thanksgiving and praise, knowing full well that the judge of all the earth shall do right. Help us now to pray in Christ's name. Amen. and stated that this blind or this man was blind from birth and he stated that he was blind from birth so the works of God should be manifest read in verse 3 Jesus said neither this man's sin nor his parents but that the works of God should be manifest in him now the word manifest means to be visually realized or clearly seen the root word means to enlighten or to bring to light. That's what this Word Manifest means. So this man's blindness was ordained to bring God's works to be openly displayed. And the open display of God's work will be to cause this blind man to see. That's what our Lord is talking about in verse 4. And this visible display is not about faith. Because faith has nothing to do with sight. We know that from the scriptures, if you turn over to 2 Corinthians just for a moment, when it speaks about the children of God living in this world, he said in verse 18 of chapter 4, while we look not at things which are seen, but at things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal. But the things which are not seen are eternal. And in the next chapter, in verse 7, it says this. For we walk by faith, not by sight. Yet the manifestation of the works of God in this place was for to be viewed and to be seen. So it's not about faith here. It's about something else. This visible manifestation addresses a specific time in the history of our Lord Jesus Christ here on earth. And also covers what we call the Apostolic Age, or the age until the full revelation of God was finished in this book that we hold in our labs. And at this time, there were visible miracles, not only performed by the Lord Jesus Christ, but performed by his disciples, and later on the apostles, in the book of Acts. And they were for the purpose to cause me to stop, to pause, and to listen to the word of the Lord. the preached gospel. That's why they were given. And they were given at this time because they were moving from an old covenant that was being dissolved, or has been dissolved, to the new covenant. When the old covenant was a covenant of works, and a covenant conditioned upon the works of men, the new covenant was conditioned upon the work of Christ, and it had nothing to do with the works of men, and it was all about faith. What we have given by God to his children in this day, since the apostolic age, is this thing called faith. We believe what God has said. We don't see anything. And what we do see, we don't put any confidence in because it's temporal and it's going to pass away. We look at things that are invisible as they are declared in the word of God. And scripture clearly says that when God gives us faith, we understand these things. We understand the world's form. How do we know? Because we can look at the earth? No, we don't understand it because of that. We understand it because the word of God says it. We understand the world's form, whether it means it or not, by faith. Well, faith is the evidence of things hoped for. The substance of things not seen. That's what faith is. So these works were performed so men would stop and hear the thing that brings faith to bear. And that is the Word of God. The hearing of the Gospel is how faith comes to men. And all will be taught of the Father. And all who are taught of the Father, according to John 6.45, come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Everyone whom God teaches comes to the Lord Jesus Christ. So the works of God that are manifest are the miracles performed by the Lord Jesus Christ in this instance. And our Lord explains this and displays it in the verses of this passage. The first phrase of verse 4 reveals the Lord was sent to this man in particular. For he said that this man is blind, that the works of God might be manifest in him. Then he says, I must work the works of him that sent me. The Lord must work this work that the Father has sent him to do. And if the Lord must do something, that thing must be done. It's that simple. In chapter 4, in verse 4, we knew that he had to go to Samaria, because there was a woman at the well, and he had to meet and tell her about himself. And he says, I must meet, go to Samaria. I must meet. In chapter 10 of this book, when he talks about bringing his sheep to the foal, he says, other sheep I must bring, and there should be one foal and one shepherd. In Acts chapter 4, when Peter was preaching the gospel in Acts chapter 4, he says, there is no other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved. I used to quote, might be saved, and I got corrected by that by one of the brethren here in the church. He said, oh, it's a must. Must be saved. So if somebody must be saved, I can guarantee this, somebody's gonna be saved. Gonna be saved, and has been saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. This man, born blind, must receive his sight, lest the Father's works fail to be done. And that can never be the case. Our Lord said, I do all my pleasure in what I purpose shall stands in Isaiah chapter 46 and verse 10. And since all visible displays of God's power are pictures of something else, We are thankful and glad that we're able to read about these people in scripture who are being healed by the power of God. But these people go on and die and some of them weren't even thankful. Didn't come back and thank the Lord for what he had done. Some of them thought of it and some of them didn't. But we know that those healings of the natural body ended with a person's death. They still got sick and died of old age. But these healings and miracles pointed to something else. They pictured a spiritual truth. These are the visible powers of God, and they picture the spiritual truth. And the miracles speak to the salvation of the elect in one form or another, whether it be opening the eyes of the blind, or unstopping the ears, or raising the dead, or making the lame to walk again. All those are synonyms or definitions of a lost man, blind, deaf, Dumb, lame, hawk, these are all predicted in trespasses and sin. These are pictures of man born in sin and it's the spiritual truth about his condition. God gives grace, or gives faith by grace, and he gives it to his elect to see Christ where? Here, in his Word. That's where he's seen. You look over at Isaiah 35, the promise of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says some things are going to happen when he comes. In Isaiah chapter 35, verse 3, it says this, strengthen ye weak hands and confirm the feeble knees. This is also quoted in Hebrew speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. Say to them that are fearful heart, be strong. Fear not, behold your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense, He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as a heart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing. And in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall bring a pool, and thirsty lands bring springs of water. In the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for those. The wayfarer men, though fools, shall not err therein. no lion shall be there nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereof shall not be found there for the redeemed shall walk there and the ransom of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy in their heads they shall obtain joy and gladness sorrow and sighing shall flee away that's all the picture of what comes now this is what our Lord is doing here when he comes he's making this blind man to see again spiritually That's what he does for the elect. Now the last phrase of verse 4 relates to the fact that the work of the Lord was a short work. He says this, while it is day, I must work the work to him that sent me while it is day, the night cometh when no man can work. Our Lord's ministry, actual ministry on the earth, was a very short ministry. As far as preaching goes, when he reached the age of 30, which is what was When a Jewish man reached the age of 30, he was considered a man. And then he could be a priest, he could hold an office. But at that point, he couldn't do that. Our Lord, when he reached the age of 30, began to preach. He came preaching the kingdom, preaching the peninsula, the kingdom of God as a man. And he preached for approximately three years. That was part of his work, to declare the gospel. That was to show people who the Father was, to show them who had sent him, and then the short work that he did was in a few hours on the cross. And there he finished the work, a short time to finish the work he had been sent to do. Often the word night, as it's spoken of here, metaphorically refers to death and the grave where all work ceases. Our Lord's work of salvation has ceased. He finished that work. He's not daring to save his people. He's already redeemed his people. The Holy Spirit will take the gospel and reveal that to those who have been redeemed that they indeed have been redeemed. The visible manifestation of Christ's work ceased with his physical death. He cried it is finished. But the invisible spiritual work continues to this day because he is the risen Lord. And that for all eternity. Scripture says in Romans 8.34 and Hebrews 7.25 He ever liveth to make intercession for the saints. Our Lord God who sits at the right hand of the Father intercedes for us. Why? Because we need someone to intercede for us. He prays for us. Then in verse 5 the Lord picks up the root meaning of the word manifest which is enlightened. Speaking of his brief time on earth and the world, he says, as long as I am here, as long as I am here, even now he begins to prepare his disciples for the fact that he's not going to be here always. He's not going to live to be an old man and gather a multitude around him. He's going to be here for a short time. As long as he is here, he says, I'm the light of the world. I'm the light of the world. What does that mean? Simply this, that he's the only light in the world. He enlightens and exposes and discloses all things and is the singular revelation of the Father in heaven. In the very first chapter of this book, that's how John the Baptist describes him. In verse 9 of chapter 1, he says, ìThat was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.î Now it goes on to explain that he came into this world as the light of the world, but the world didnít receive him. For he was in the world, but the world was made by him. The world didnít know him. He came to His own, that is, His Jewish people, and they didn't receive Him, but as many as received Him, gave Him power or authority to become the sons of God, even in them that believe on His name, which were born not of the blood, not of the will of the flesh, or the will of man, but they were born of God. They were born of God. He is that light of the world, the light of the world. In John 17, that light, that enlightenment, had a particular purpose. This is the high priestly prayer of our Lord. In John chapter 17, verse 4, it says this, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world began. I have manifested, there's that same thing, I have enlightened In truth, as he walked this earth, he visibly displayed God, because he was God himself. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. So this is the manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He refers to what he's about to do. He's about to give light to one who has dwelt in darkness. As the promise was in Isaiah 9 too, they that dwelt in darkness have seen a great light. And this man's about to see the light for the first time. And after he spoke these words, he spat on the ground and made some mud or clay and spread the mud on the eyes of this blind man. and told the blind man to go and pull his sight on him. And he did so, and washed himself, and he did so and received his sight. It says he came to see him. He came to see him. Strange thing, this. There was an old Jewish tradition among the Jews that actually, if you did make mud from spittle and put it on people's eyes, it would cure eye disease. I don't think that's what that was talking about, but nonetheless, That was an old Jewish tradition. But he did. He spat on the ground, he made blood, put it on these men's eyes, and said, go wash in this pool of Siloam. Now remember, this man is blind. Still blind, and now he's got mud in his eyes, and all in his eyes. And he's still blind, and he goes to the pool of Siloam. I tried to find out in reference to where he was at the pool of Siloam, how far he had to go. I couldn't find that. He came to see. This may seem strange, however. Strange, however. to natural logic. A man blind from his birth, the Lord spits on the ground and makes mud and puts it in his eye. That seems like a strange thing to do. The application of mud seems a strange means to such a delightful end. But it pictures the response of men to the preaching of the gospel. We preach the gospel and God says it's foolishness to men. Foolishness. We tell men. They're not saved until they hear the gospel. Not say until you hear the word of truth. They must hear the gospel. That's the clear declaration of scripture. They must hear the gospel. And the gospel is foolishness to men. How can it be that God came down here and became a man and then died and rose again the third day and went and ascended back to earth? How can that be the salvation of men, the only salvation of men? That seems foolish. It's foolishness to men. Our Lord said that. The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit, but their foolishness doeth. Their foolishness. And it seems like a foolish thing here to spit on the eyes. But it is the power and the wisdom of God. That's what the gospel is. It's foolishness to the Greek and the Jew. It says in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 23 through 25. But to them that believe it is the power and wisdom of God. Power and wisdom of God. And the washing of the eye spiritually refers to the power and efficacy of the Prince Word. Over in Ephesians chapter 5, that's the way it's described. Described in the terms of water in Isaiah chapter, or excuse me, Ephesians chapter 5 verse 25. Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. that He might sanctify it, that is to set it apart, make it holy, and cleanse it, how? With the washing of water by the Word, by the Word. And then over in Titus, chapter 3, and verse 5, it says this, It says, not by works of righteousness shall we be saved, which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. That's not talking about baptism. That's talking about the Word of God. Washing of water by the Word of God. The washing of the eyes spiritually refers to the power and the efficacy of the preached Word of God. Some attribute the toast I thought about this. There's a toast that people give off at parties and things when they have a drink. They make a toast to people. And it's a toast that means hope you have good health. Hope you have a good life. You've probably heard this. People say, here's mud in your eye. That's where this probably came from. I looked it up, and that's most entomologists would say this is where that came from. Here's mud in your eye. It came from mud in an eye healing the blind man. This one blind man came to see, he said. See, he had been physically changed and it was obvious to his neighbor. They saw a physical change automatically. They had seen this blind man and they'd seen him as a poor beggar. Isn't this the man who sat and begged? That's what they asked. Sitting with outstretched hands waiting for some alms from a kind benefactor. Now he was up and about. And they're not even sure that he's the same person he was. can't be him, can it? That's the kind of language that is said and speaks up here. It says in verse 12, then they said unto him, no, excuse me, verse 11, and the answer said, a man is called Jesus. No, that's not what I'm looking for. Verse nine, the son said, this is he. The other said, well, he looks like him. He seems like him. But he said, I'm the one who is sitting here begging. I'm the blind man, and now I have received my sight. He declared that he was a former blind beggar. That's what he was, just moments ago. He was a former blind beggar. Now he's a walking, talking, seeing man. When asked how he received his sight, he told him how it had taken place. This man called Jesus. He don't know him yet. That's still coming. That's still something that's going to happen here. But he said this. A man, in verse 11, called Jesus, made play, and anointing my eyes, and said to me, go to the pool of Siloam and watch. And I went, and I watched, and I received my sight. I received my sight. It could have been that he had been told all of this, or that some conversation had taken place that had not been recorded in the account by what he said. But I thought of this fellow, and I thought about being blind. I don't know anything about being blind. I've never been blind. I can close my eyes, and I can still see a light coming through my eyelids, but I don't know what it is to be blind. If you and I went blind today, we would still have mental reference to things we had seen. If we went blind today and somebody would say, there's beautiful white clouds in the sky, we could see that in our brain, because we had seen it before. Someone said the sky is blue. We can see that in our head because we've seen the sky is blue. This guy's never seen anything. Think about this. He's never seen a thing. He has no reference point. No reference point. What it would be like if we had never seen blue and never seen the sky? And somebody said, the sky, what would be our reference point? What would be our reference point? describes things immediately, which is an amazing thing to me. Like spittle and mud and clay, he'd never seen them. He didn't see it on his eyes because he washed it off his eyes. He had no mental reference to see what had happened to him. What an onslaught of visual image must have been in this man's mind. His language is almost matter of fact in his answer to his neighbors. And here it is a lesson worthy of note. What did he say? What did he say? He didn't say, you know, I've been blind all my life. There I was sitting there in the dirt. My hand outstretched. And wonder of wonder the bolt of lightning came. He didn't say anything like that. A man called Jesus. He came and he made some mud and he put it on my eyes and said go wash and I did that and now I'm seeing it. There's a very plain thing. This is a lesson worthy of note. We don't need to elaborate on the story of our conversion or explain our former condition in great detail. That's what most people do when they talk about salvation. A lot of talk about how bad that was. and all the vile things they did. And then they have some type of wondrous epiphany. Here's what you say when somebody asks you how you were saved. A man named Jesus, he came and saved me. Because that's what happened. That's what happened. I remember this one fellow that used to attend here. He attended here for about six weeks. He wanted me to get into the soul healing business, but I never did get into it. He told me how he got saved. He said, I told the Lord I'd serve the devil all my life. Now, if he'd saved me, I'd serve him for the rest of my life. That was his testimony of salvation. I told him, I said, if that's your testimony, you ain't got nothing. He didn't come anymore after that, but nonetheless. The message of a sinner saved his plane. Jesus did. He made me see. he made me see. They asked the man where Jesus was and he told them he did not know where he was. Evidently, our Lord did not hang around for the applause of men or schedule a healing crusade for the next engagement. Our Lord didn't do that. Crowds gathered around him, but he didn't go. He gave an announcement that there was going to be a revival in town. In John chapter 2, verse 23, it says, Now when Jesus saw Well, when he was at Jerusalem at the Passover and the feast day, many believed on his name when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, and needed not any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. Our Lord did miracles, but he never advertised that he was coming to town to do miracles. This man was ordained from all eternity to sit there at that place. That place on that day. So the Lord would come to him and make him see again. It's all a part of God's wonders plan. Their question was not to find the Lord that they might receive a blessing from him. They said, where is he? He said, I don't know. what they did next reveals their motive verses 13 and 14 they brought to the pharisees him that at four times had been blind and it was the sabbath day when jesus made the clay and opened his eyes again this whole conversation started way back when our lord on the sabbath day told a man to take up his bed and walk we've been laying on this line on the Sabbath day. And they said we're going to kill him because he's broken the law. And here he does it again. Healing on the Sabbath seems to be a practice of the Lord because he's the Lord of the Sabbath. He's the one true Sabbath. He is the word Sabbath. Shabbat means to rest. It doesn't mean anything else. That's what the word means. He's the rest that we strive to enter into, to rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. But He's the Lord of the Sabbath. Maybe that's why He was healed on the Sabbath so many times. Not the only two times He did it. In Matthew chapter 12, verse 8. verse one says at that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn now remember on the sabbath day according to Jewish law you couldn't pick up a stick you couldn't pick up a stick, you picked up a stick on the sabbath day you were saying that the Lord hadn't finished his work in six days that's what you were saying through the corn and his disciples were hungry they began to pluck the ears of corn to eat on the sabbath day when the Pharisees saw it And they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day. But he said unto them, Have ye not read that David, what David, when he was hungry, and they that were with him, how he entered the house of God, and did eat the shewbread which was not lawful unto him to eat? Neither for them that were with him, but only for the priest. Haven't you read about that? Or have you not read in the law how that on the Sabbath day the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are blameless? But I say unto you that in this place is one greater than the temple. But if ye had known what this meaneth, I would have mercy and not sacrifice, ye would not have contended guiltless. For the Son of Man is the Lord, even of the Sabbath day. Why did he heal a man on the Sabbath? Because he's the Lord of the Sabbath day. He's Lord over all. There's much more to be said about this blind man who came to see. We'll get into that in the weeks to come. Father, bless us to understand and pray in Christ's name. Amen. God bless you.