This is from John 9. This is our sermon text. John 9. I'll be reading verses 1-7 of the Gospel of John. Jesus is leaving the temple precincts when we read in John 9.1. As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he be born blind? Jesus answered, it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, go, wash in the pool of Siloam, which means scent. So he went and washed and came back seeing. Sends the reading of God's holy word. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of God abides forever. Let's pray. O Lord, we thank you for giving us your word, sure and certain. And we thank you, O Lord, that it will not go back to you void, but accomplish your good purpose. We trust you, O Lord. We pray that this morning we would be blessed by your word, even if we are challenged in our actions and our thoughts. May it be good for us and a blessing from you that we may grow in our most holy faith together. May the thoughts of our hearts, meditations of our hearts, and the words of my mouth be pleased in your sight, our rock and our Redeemer. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, the recent events in the news from earlier this week are on everybody's thoughts and hearts, undoubtedly, that a sister congregation would suffer such a horrible event. The Presbyterian Church in America is a church that we have fraternal relations with. I myself was ordained in the PCA at first before I came into the OPC, so I'm familiar with many of these people, and it is a hard and horrible thing This passage deals with it in an indirect way, but it is a passage that illustrates in concrete fashion what we just confessed. We confess with the Nicene Creed, this confession of faith going back so long ago as a summary of biblical doctrine, that we believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. And there are two words there that we can focus on. Almighty. If you say Almighty, it could be pretty scary. He may appear to simply act out of whim. He may appear to act arbitrarily, but he doesn't toward his children because he's a Father Almighty. We believe in God the Father Almighty, and He Himself teaches us to call upon Him as Father. It's how He identifies Himself to us. We sang about that in Psalm 103, that earlier hymn, His love is like a father's to his children, tender and kind to all who fear His name. This is what a father's love should be. We fathers don't always imitate that well, but this is our Father's love toward us, tender and kind, and He is almighty. So these things happen in our world. We live in a world that is, as the Catechism says, has fallen into the estate of sin and misery, theological expression for what we see around us. This is not new. There's sin and misery surrounding us all the time. Evils that are committed. And we have confessed of faith in light of that, which people hate. And we read in Matthew 10, they hated our Savior, they'll hate us for the same reason. Because they hate God. Brothers and sisters, now you see the reality of that. But we stand fast, not in our own strength. We stand fast in the strength of God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. This is your Father, and we placed our trust in Him. Placing your trust in Him involves three things. It involves assenting, to His Word, it involves personal trust in Him, and it also involves knowledge. We have to know Him. This is why the Creed is so helpful. It supplies knowledge of God in a very succinct way. Next week we'll look at a confession of faith in Scripture itself. There are actually several articulated in Scripture that we could look at as essentially confessions of faith, like the Nicene Creed. You will find that in Romans 10, for example, which we'll read at the end of our message. But here, God the Father Almighty is displayed in this passage in John 9. Now, I have to admit, this is one of my favorite passages in John. It is so sublime. It is so profound. The things that are happening here, you look at it, and your first and second glance is like, oh, okay, yeah, interesting. Then your third and fourth glance, you'd say, now wait a second. This is really interesting. This is something that shows God's providential care for one of his own. It shows how he has sent his son to seek and save the lost. It's a fascinating story, so I commend to you to read just all of Chapter 9. And I only read a part of it, I just read the first part. As it unfolds, it's fascinating to see what's going on. Let me give it away. Don't tell me secrets if you want me to keep them quiet, all right? Because this is just too much fun. When you look at this story, the unbelief of the Pharisees drives this man to faith. They expect this guy to give up on the faith, and he looks at what they're saying and says, wait a second, we never heard about, what about, but look, I know I was blind, I know, I now see. If this man's a sinner and didn't come from God, how could he do the work of God? How could I now see? And the Pharisees are going, oh, shut up, you were born entirely in sin. That's verse 14, by the way. and their unbelief just gets harder and harder. They're faced with the evidence, and it drives them harder and harder into unbelief, which drives this man to be softer and softer in faith, until finally, he professes faith. He makes a confession of faith in Jesus. Now, part of what's also fascinating about this is Jesus does this act and then disappears. He's no longer in the story. He's the main subject of the story, But he's not there guiding the story. It just sort of unfolds until, at the end, he appears to the man. Notice he doesn't appear to the Pharisees. They're standing around, but he's talking to the man. And he says, do you believe in the Son of Man? So this is a fascinating story for that end. But it opens with a theological question from the disciples. they ask this fascinating question, which every theological student asks. Which man sinned, or whose sin? This man or his parents, that he should be born blind? How many times have we thought that? Whose sin that this calamity would fall on these people? Elsewhere in the Gospels, Jesus talks about a tower falling on people and destroying them in Galilee. He says, do you think they were worse sinners than you? So here are the disciples, this theoretical question. Here's a man born blind from birth, and they don't say to the Lord, oh, I wish you would heal him. They say, who sinned, this guy or his parents? Now, I want you to think about that first part. This guy sinned so he's born blind. There's only two options. He was born, he was, he sinned before he was born. That's odd. Or he sinned in the womb. Against whom? Against whom did he sin in the womb? He was born in sin, as we all are, after Adam and Eve, but is that the reason he was born blind? Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind? Maybe he sinned right at the moment of being born? Who knows what they're thinking, frankly? Who knows what they're thinking? This is the kind of thinking that you get. Because we want to look on that and say, oh, well, there's something deserved here. Obviously, this guy deserves it, either personal sin or his parents. And nowadays, of course, there are other things attributed for the reason for this. But then this is a really common answer. And Jesus says, no. This is typical of Jesus. If you read the Gospels long enough and people ask him questions, and if you expect him to answer their questions, you're sometimes going to be frustrated because he's not answering their question. He's often answering the question they should have asked. This is actually part of what's happened all the time. They don't understand who he is and what he's up to. They ask these questions and he's like saying, well, if you knew who I am and what I'm up to, here's what you would have asked. So his response is just no, neither. No, wrong question. Why did this happen that the works of God might be displayed in this man? Now, this is a man of Israel. This is a man that we read about in Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55 belongs to that man, that God's Word will come down for blessing upon his people. This was the hope and encouragement for this man, though he was born blind. This is how people should have encouraged him. You are a member of the people of God. Despite the trials of this life, God doesn't hate you. He's not punishing you for sin if you experience trials of life. This, by the way, is what I want you to remember as a result of this. It's not God's hatred. toward you that causes you to suffer in this life. This is what Jesus just told you in Matthew 10. And here it is displayed with this man. Because God had something better for him. He wanted to personally intervene in his life when he was ready. When he would finally, slowly, but finally come to see what's really important. And what's happening here is he encounters the Lord Jesus Christ. Now it may not be evident to you, but John has shaped this narrative around creation. This is a narrative with echoes of creation. Now you all know that John 1 opens with clear, obvious connection to Genesis 1. In the beginning was the Word. Genesis 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. It's the same wording. Here, though, all things were created in the Word. He was with God. He's the creative agency of God, this Word, and then he became flesh and dwelt among us. Well, here is the creator the Son of God Himself acting to begin the new creation, everlasting life in the Kingdom of God. He's been talking about the Kingdom of God a little bit, and now He's going to display it. Here it is. He is the light of the world, verse 5. I am in the world. As long as I'm in the world, I am the light of the world. Now, as soon as he leaves this world, we could be driven to despair until you go to Matthew 5 and he says to you, you are the light of the world. He has left you in this world to fulfill his mission to bring light into this dark world. And the light doesn't originate from you. It is his light reflected in you. I am the light of the world. In the beginning was the word, and God spoke, and there is light in Genesis 1. Day and night. We must work the worship of God of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. Day and night, Genesis 1. Day and night here. Jesus says, I have to work. And as long as I'm here working, it's day. Night is coming. Now, do we have night now and no working of God? Not yet. That's going to lead to the last day. Until then, you are the light of the world, the salt of the world, and He's left you behind. With His presence, I'm with you even to the end of the age, that you might work the works of God until that last day. Our Lord is talking about this being a new creation work. Now we don't read about it here, but it's in verse 14. Now it was the Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. This is part of what John is doing to sneak up on you. He has this unfolding story, and he leaves out this essential bit so that it would build up, and then all of a sudden, oh yeah, by the way, it's the Sabbath day when Jesus healed this guy. The Sabbath was a sign and seal of new creation in its original giving. God rested and he held up before us an eternal rest and new creation glory in that Sabbath. And here Jesus is acting on the Sabbath to fulfill its purpose, bringing in life out of death, bringing in light out of darkness. This guy had complete darkness. He was born blind. He had no residue of the idea of color He didn't know what color was. He'd never seen it. Imagine a world without color. I'm a little colorblind, but it's just a little. A friend of mine is colorblind. I mean, fully colorblind. Eh, it's no big deal. He knows that'll be fixed eventually. But imagine not being able to see and not even knowing what color is. What a loss that would be. This guy has no sight. He never had any sight. Utter darkness. And then a darkness like that could creep into your soul. You know what I mean. You can have a darkness of soul leading to despair. This guy was on the brink of that. And our Savior rescued him, new creation work, bringing light into this guy's life, working the works of God as at the beginning, day and night. It's a new creation because his father had sent him to take care of his people, whom he has a fatherly care over. Now, these disciples, they have this question, and I'd like to warn you that sometimes we have this question. It's a perverse feature of people, including myself, when we sin, to look at the misfortune of others and think, I'm glad it happened to them and not to me. I really didn't deserve that. They must have. This is found in Proverbs. Whoever mocks the poor, insults his maker, he who is glad at calamity will not go unpunished. We cannot be glad at the calamity of others, even upon our enemies, even upon those who persecute us and mock us and threaten us. Love your enemies, our Lord says, because that's what God has done. He has loved his enemies to the point of sending his Son on our behalf. We don't rejoice in the calamity of anyone. We cannot. It's a type of self-justification. I must be okay. I must be good. I must be favored by the Lord. That is not the source of your favor with the Lord. Your source of your favor with the Lord is the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of the Father toward you in Him. That is our whole comfort in life and death. That is our whole righteousness, is the righteousness of our Savior. And our apostles here, they fall into that. Which man sinned, or who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind. They were glad at the calamity because it's a way to make yourself feel better. But this is about the works of God. Now, part of what's unusual about this happening in John 9, Jesus doesn't normally heal people unless they ask. Either they ask or friends and family members ask. He doesn't just wander around healing people arbitrarily. That's not what he does. But here, this question provokes him to demonstrate the truth that this man was there that the works of God would be demonstrated, of new creation, life out of death, that that's what he's up to in the world. That's his mission in coming into the world, is to bring light and life into the world. So this man was put there as a sign of that. This is to the works of God. would be performed in him, and that God would be glorified. This is why also he makes a mud pack. I know, children, he spit. Now look, it's a very dry area, okay? It's an area where you just don't have a lot of water around. And he didn't carry a water bottle, so he spit, and he made a mud pack out of it. It's fine. made a little mud pack, and put it on his eyes, and he said, go wash. Now at this stage, at this stage the guy could have not washed. He could have just gone like that. What are you doing? Now you get a little bit of faith. That's why he did that. You get this little bit of faith. Okay, well, nothing to lose, I'll go wash. Do you think he really understood that he would come back seeing? Notice what Jesus says to him. Go wash in the pool of Siloam, which means sent. There's no promise that he would see. It just says go wash. Go wash over there in that place where you're sent. Go wash." Jesus didn't tell him that he would be healed and seen, but that's what happened. He came back seeing that little bit of faith. The power of your faith, brothers and sisters, is not how big your faith is. Oh, I want you to have huge faith. I want you to have faith that will move mountains. But your faith is not in your faith. And it's strength. Your faith is in the Savior who is strong. There's your strength. That's what faith is. Trusting in Him and His strength and His power. God the Father Almighty. That's whom you put your trust in through the Son. And here God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, had just put a little mud pack on this guy's eye. It's kind of silly in a sense, this little mud pack. It wasn't anything healing to the mud. It was the faith and his power. And the guy went and washed, he came back seeing. Imagine, imagine first time in his life, he came back seeing and just the colors. He didn't come back and things were kind of fuzzy. Oh, I see people, but they look like trees wandering around. That's another episode. No, he came back seeing. Everything was bright and clear. This is what Jesus did for him to demonstrate his power and the grace of God. And this was also a sign that Jesus came to reverse the fall. This world of sin and misery is what Jesus was going to turn on its head. and bring life and joy and no more misery or sin, no more of the things which cripple us and cause us so much pain and grief and anxiety. Those things will all go away and be remembered no more in the new creation glory that awaits, paved for us by our Savior on the cross. This was God's purpose. It is, in the words of one author, a severe mercy that this guy was born blind. A severe mercy. I like that phrase. It's a good way to describe what happened to this man. A severe mercy. You read the rest of John, and you'll see it wasn't easy for him, but in the end of the day, he fell down before the Savior and worshiped him. And then Jesus acknowledged, this man now sees." I'm not talking about physical seeing. This man sees eternal life. This man now has an inheritance with the saints in glory forever in eternal life with me that I'm purchasing. This was a work of God the Father Almighty through the Son. This is whom we profess with that creed that we professed earlier. And by the way, that Matthew 10 that we read, it's translated, if you acknowledge me before men, you could just translate that confess. The same word can be translated confess or acknowledge. If you confess me before men, I will confess you before my heavenly Father. This man, born blind, now has an inheritance. to be confessed before the Father of Jesus by the Savior. The Son at the right hand of the Father, as we also confessed in the Nicene Creed, He will confess your name to His Father if you confess Him. This is your hope and confidence, that our Savior will pronounce your name before the great King, the Father Almighty. Here now, the reading of Romans chapter 10. This gets to the issue of confession and of the Father and what we're talking about here. I'm reading Romans 10. Let me go ahead and read a little bit of the context. Start with verse eight. Talks about the word of Moses, speaking of Christ's work to descend and then to ascend. Now verse eight. But what does it say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith that we proclaim. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes and is justified. And with the mouth, one confesses and is saved. For the scripture says, everyone who believes on him will not be put to shame. Brothers and sisters, put your faith in God, the Father Almighty, in all the trials of this life, and they are real. We don't make light of that. These are real trials, real troubles, real anxieties await us if we let our guard down. But you put your trust in God, the Father Almighty, through all the circumstances of life, and you have an inheritance that will never be shaken. You have a Savior who professes your name before his Father, the maker of heaven and earth, and your hope will be fulfilled for life everlasting in his presence. Through the glory of Christ, Amen. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we pray that you will help us to see right your scripture, your truth. As we make this confession, O Lord, may we make it day in and day out, confidently growing evermore in our most holy faith. Be with our children in particular. May they grow in the same faith that we have. for their good, for their encouragement, for their strength in the world which is increasingly so scary. But may they always grow in confidence and courage in the faith of our Lord Jesus, a strong Savior, quick to come and bless them. We pray in Christ's name, amen.