Take your Bibles and go with me to John chapter 9. We're going to start in verse 30. You will notice the text that is on the screen goes through chapter 10, verse 21. And we're not going to read that far today. But we will make some references down into the next chapter as we go along through these verses. Let's start in verse 30. John chapter 9. I got the wrong... Yeah, no. I'm sorry. You're going to have to pray for me this morning. We had kind of a stressful beginning to our week. We've had kind of a very stressful set of circumstances that transpired. And when those things happen, the Lord reminds me how frail I am. And my old friend, my fungal infection, loves to feed off stress. And so on Thursday, I had a major rebound of my infection and then that makes me just feel so, I don't know if any of you have ever had a fungal infection that's gone systemic. It makes you, when it dies, you get it killed off. So you go through the process to purge and then you got all these toxins and they just make you feel like, sicker than a dog. So my brain is here, but the Holy Spirit's brain is much better than mine. And so you pray for me as we go into this. Yes, sir. That's right. Amen. Yes, sir. Yeah. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us of our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us of our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us of our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us of our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us of our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us of our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us of our trespasses, as we forgive those Lord, I thank You for the prayers of Your people. Lord, as we just go into Your Word, I pray that, Lord, Your Holy Spirit would make Your Word sweeter than honey to our souls. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Look with me in verse 30. The man answers. This is when he's going through this inquest on whether or not he is going to own Jesus as the Christ for healing him. So the man answers, why? This is an amazing thing. You don't know where he comes from and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. But if anyone is a worshipper of God and does his will, God listens to him, never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. Book of Isaiah, what was one of the marks of the Messiah? What would he do? He would give sight to the blind. Never since the beginning of the world has anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. They answered him and they mocked him. You were born in utter sin. Would you teach us? And they cast him out. Jesus heard that they had cast him out and having found him, he said, Do you believe in the Son of Man? The man answered, who is he, sir, that I may believe in him? Notice the word sir. Jesus said to him, you've seen him? It is he who is speaking to you? He said, he doesn't say sir. He said, Lord. Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. Jesus said, for judgment I came into this world that those who do not see may see and that those who see may become blind. Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, are we also blind? Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would have no guilt. Now that you say, we see, this is just fleshly boasting, isn't it? Boasting in the flesh, not gospel testimony. They're not testifying, he made me see. They're saying, we see. Now that you say, we see, fleshly boasting, you're still in your sin. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber, but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the gatekeeper opens, the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, and he leads them out. Let's jump into the text for a few minutes. There are some major divisions, some things that are happening. Jesus finds this man. After he is cast out, Jesus goes and finds the man. He says to him, notice again what he says, Jesus goes to him and he reveals himself to the man. He says to the man, do you believe in the son of man? That is one of Jesus' favorite self-designations for himself. He is the son of man. That comes from the book of Daniel. You will see the son of man coming on the clouds of glory. This is one of those titles that makes the rulers of Judaism, the Pharisees, think that Jesus is a blasphemer because he's calling himself the son of man. The son of God, the son of man. Jesus reveals himself to the man, the man responds to Jesus. Who is he, Lord, that I can believe in? Who is he, sir, that I can believe in? It's I, I'm who's speaking to you, it's me. Lord, I believe. And that is how the man responds. Then there was a question by the Pharisees. Pharisees say, Well, are you saying that we are blind? And Jesus says, for this cause I came into the world to bring judgment. That those who think they see may become blind and that those who know that they're blind can see. And then Jesus launches in In answer to this situation, he launches into the Good Shepherd discourse. I've been looking forward to preaching on chapter 10 for a long time. I love this chapter. He is the Good Shepherd. There is a break in your Bible between chapter 9, verse 41, and chapter 10, verse 1. We've talked about this before. Most times when we have our personal Bible reading, we read chapter to chapter. We just kind of stop at the end of a chapter, and the next day we pick up. Sometimes we don't realize, we don't think about the fact that those chapter and verse divisions were not put in there by the Holy Spirit. They were put in there by men to help us, right? It's nice that we can say to each other, turn to John chapter 10 verse 1, because it helps us. It's a tool. But those divisions weren't inspired by the Holy Spirit. In the way that Jesus is speaking, Jesus just continues from this thought. Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you say, we see, your guilt remains. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. And what we're going to see is Jesus uses this situation to draw a stark contrast between himself, the good shepherd, and the Pharisees, who are thieves and robbers, who are blind leaders of the blind. And he makes this contrast in this next chapter between himself, the good shepherd, who leads out his sheep, who knows them by name, who calls them by name, who goes in front of them, who leads them to green pastures and still waters, and the Pharisees, who were in it for the dough, who were just in it for the power, for the prestige, and to be seen of men. And he makes this contrast. If you will notice in chapter 9, verse 40, this section begins with this phrase, some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, are we also blind? But then if you look in chapter 10, verse 6, it says this figure of speech, Jesus used with them, but they couldn't understand. Why didn't they understand it? Because the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, because they are foolishness to him. Neither can he know them. They are spiritually discerned. They don't understand what he's saying. So Jesus again says to them, truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. And then if you look over in chapter 10, verse 19, at the end of this discourse, it says this. There is again a division among the Jews because of these words. Many of them said, he is a demon. Some said, he's insane. Why are we listening to him? Others said, these are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? And that links us right back into the story in chapter 9. And then we see the Feast of Dedication and we see a shift in time of a couple of months into the next verse. So really, chapter 9 and chapter 10 through verse 21 are all part and parcel of the same situation. So the Pharisees have a question and Jesus answers them by pointing to these Notice it is a figure of speech. Notice that again in chapter 10 verse 6. He's using an extended metaphor, a figure of speech, different than a parable. A parable is a story with a heavenly meaning, a story that everybody can relate to that has a heavenly meaning. This isn't a parable per se, because there's not a story that's flowing out. It is a figure of speech. The figure of speech has to do with sheep, It has to do with doors. It has to do with sheepfolds. It has to do, in what we are studying today, with seeing and blindness and with guilt removed and guilt remaining. And so what we really see, as we mentioned before we partook at the Lord's table, someone's guilt is removed if they understand that they are spiritually blind apart from the Lord. but their guilt remains if they willfully and boldly assert in the flesh, I can see. These Pharisees. And you will notice in the scripture, these analogies are used several other times. Let's look at a couple of times. Seeing and blindness. In Matthew chapter 23, Jesus talks to these Pharisees during the last week of his earthly life, right before he goes to the cross, right before the Olivet Discourse. And he says to the Pharisees, woe to you. He's not saying woe like ho, he's saying woe. That means spiritual damnation to you. Woe, woe is upon you. Woe to you, you are blind guides and you say. We won't go into everything they say, but Jesus is just showing their spiritual blindness. In the same chapter, in verse 7, he says, you are blind fools. In verse 19, he says, you blind men. So these men who are blind fools, who are blind guides, blind men, because they teach error. They are thieves and robbers as we see in John chapter 10. And then Jesus says this about them in chapter 23, verse 23. He says, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You tithe mint and dill and cumin. Can you imagine that? So it's like you go to McDonald's and you buy a Happy Meal and you pick off the seeds. Got to make sure I tithe the right number of seeds. For them, it was when they would harvest. Making sure, you know, you tithe mint and dill and cumin. And yet you have neglected the weightier matters of the law. What are the weightier matters of the law? Is it tithing mint and dill and cumin? Or cumin, however you say that? No. The weightier matters of the law are justice and mercy and faithfulness. What is the law all about? It's about justice, doing justice. It's about showing mercy and faithfulness. And then Jesus says, these you ought to have done. In other words, he said, you should have tithed, because it was prescribed by the law. These you ought to have done, and you should not have neglected the others. You are blind guides, and you strain out a gnat, and you swallow a camel. You're so consumed with some little thing, and you miss the weight of your thing. You're blind. There's another analogy in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 that is very similar. Instead of saying seeing and blinding, he's going to talk about being wise and being foolish. Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool, that he may become wise. For the wisdom of the world is folly with God. For it is written, he catches the wise in their craftiness. And again, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile. So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours. Then he comes back to this issue that had caused so much division in the church. For all things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or the present, or the future. What is he saying? In Christ, all these things are yours. That's kind of an astounding statement, isn't it? These things are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's. And in chapter 1, he ends the chapter by saying, let no one boast in himself. In Jeremiah chapter 9, verse 23, God says this to us, thus says the Lord, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom. Let not the strong man boast in his might. Let not the rich man boast in his riches. You know why? Before we get down to this, because in the previous verses he shows that all three of these people, the wise man, the mighty man, and the rich man, all three of those people are about to die because Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, is coming. And he said, your bodies are going to lie and fill the streets. Read the beginning of Jeremiah chapter 9 sometime. It is a sobering chapter. I think America needs to take heed. We're saying we are mighty. We are saying we are rich. We are wise. We've gotten over the binary world of men and women. We're wise. And all the while, Nebuchadnezzar is coming, embedding among us by the tune of thousands amongst the Hispanic migrants that are coming. You watch this and look at it closely. There are thousands of single fighting age Chinese men walking into this country. They are being housed outside Panama in the Darien Gap, outside of the Darien Gap, in UN camps, and are being bused north and are infiltrating with the migrants. The migrants are a cover. Don't fool yourself. We are in deep doo-doo. We are in deep doo-doo. Let not the rich man think my riches are going to save me. We cannot as a country have thumbed our nose at God the way we have and expect that God will not chasten us as he did Israel. We are in trouble. Let not the rich man say, my riches will save me, but let the one who boasts, boast in this, that he understands and knows me. I am the Lord. I practice steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight. declares the Lord. We think we see, and we show ourselves to be fools. Jesus and the man. We see a progression in the man's faith. Early in the chapter, notice with me, early in the chapter when he is asked by the Pharisees, who healed him? He says in verse 11, the man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, go to Siloam and wash. Last week, I was not clear on this. I want to make clear. The man did know that the man who healed him, his name was Jesus. But he did not know who Jesus was. He did not know he is the Christ. That does not come till Jesus reveals himself. So the man is still left in this quandary. This man named Jesus healed me. Whether he was a sinner or not, I don't know. This thing I know. Once I was blind, now I see. So at the beginning, he calls him a man. And then when Jesus is talking to him, notice, Jesus said, do you believe in the Son of Man? In verse 35. In verse 36, he answered, and who is he? Sir. A title of respect. Title of respect, but no title of divinity. And then Jesus says, it's me. Me who am speaking to you. I who am speaking to you. I am the Son of Man. And what does the man say? Lord. This is conversion. This is when not just now he can see physically, now this man can see spiritually. He is regenerated, he is born again. Lord, I am believing. And what did he do? He worshiped. He worshiped. This man who had been cast out worships Jesus. Two applications about the man and then I'm done. This is a courageous man. Isn't he? This is a guy with guts. We talked about that last week a little bit with the cancel culture thing. You know, this guy is being threatened, first of all, that they're going to cast him, they're going to disfellowship him. They're going to cast him out. And the guy takes it. His parents don't even do it, right? We looked at that last week. His parents don't stand with him. They throw him under the bus. This is a courageous man. Now, why is he so courageous? Let's just think about it and then we're done. Number one, here's the first reason. This is the story of a man who was willing to follow the truth wherever it led him, even at great personal cost. He was a seeker of truth. Whether he's a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I know, I didn't see it, now I do. Who is he? Jesus said, it's me, Lord, I believe. This is a man, this is the story of a man who was willing to follow the truth wherever it led him. You know, most people do not have that strength of character. Most people are willing to go along with what the crowd says, with what the culture teaches, and will just flow with the tide and go along with it. This is a man who was willing to stand against it and to seek the truth wherever it led him, no matter what it cost him. Remember what Jesus said, if any man would come after me, let him do what? Count the cost, take up the cross and follow. So this is the story of a man who was bold in the truth. This is the kind of guy that God is seeking. In John chapter 4, Jesus was talking to another outcast, a woman of Samaria, and what did Jesus tell her? This woman who had been married five times, the guy she now had was not her husband, God is seeking what? worshippers. Who are those worshippers? Not many mighty are called. Not many noble. God has chosen the foolish of the world. God has chosen the blind. You know, God's chosen the Samaritan women. God is looking for worshippers. The other application is this. This man's courage was born in gratitude. I fully believe that. Why did this man have so much courage? The reason this guy had so much courage was because Jesus had radically transformed his life. And since Jesus had radically transformed his life, he had a radical commitment to Jesus. Right? He had a radical commitment to Jesus because one minute he could not see, and then a minute later he could. Jesus changed his life. And when Jesus changes your life, It gives birth to a courage of soul, and that is born out of gratitude. Not just working it up within us. It's gratitude. That's why the Apostle Paul would say, I mean, the Apostle Paul was guilty of killing Christians. Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? He becomes a believer when he follows Jesus. Paul said, I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God. to those who believe. So this man's courage was born of gratitude. Because Jesus radically transformed his life, he had a radical commitment to the one who changed him. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for your word. I thank you, Lord, that as far as the east is from the west, So He removed from me my sin. It wasn't because anything that I had done or any good that I had done, it was because of good in Christ and because He died for me. Lord, I know that in a place, a room like this, there are people that are struggling under the burden and the weight of their sin. Then it consumes them. They wake up with it on their mind. They go to bed with it on their mind. And there's just guilt that remains, and they don't know what to do with it. Jesus, find them. Reveal yourself to them, that they may say to you, Lord, I believe, and that they may worship you. And so we pray in Jesus' name.