The following sermon is brought to you by Capitol Community Church, located in Raleigh, North Carolina. Capitol Community Church is a people awakened to a holy God. If you are searching for a new church home, or from out of town looking for a church to worship with, or simply seeking for answers, Please join us for worship at 10 45 a.m. Every Sunday morning and 6 o'clock p.m. For our evening service if you have any questions, please email us at info at capital community church.com We pray this sermon will help you grow deeper in your walk with Jesus Christ I Invite you to open your Bibles to John chapter 9. We're gonna finish The rest of the chapter this morning. I'm gonna read Verses 35 to 41. Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him, he said, do you believe in the Son of Man? He answered, and who is he, sir, that I may believe in him? Jesus said to him, you have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you. He said, Lord, I believe, and he worshiped him. Jesus said, For judgment I came into the world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, are we also blind? And Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you say, we see, your guilt remains. In John's gospel, He uses the word, this Greek word, simeon, and he uses that word to describe a miracle. He uses it 17 times throughout this gospel. For example, if you look back at verse 16, when the Pharisees were discussing what had happened, there was a division amongst this court that we saw last week. And if you look at verse 16, one group of the Pharisees said, how can a man who is a sinner do such signs? There's the word, simeon. How can a man do these things? A simeon, a sign, means a miracle work that points to a greater spiritual reality. It's something that is seen, it's miraculous, but the purpose of the sign in its very nature is to point to something else behind the sign. It's an object lesson. an object lesson. Do you remember object lessons? When you were growing up, one of the object lessons that I heard often in high school, somebody would come in and they would be trying to teach us about time management. And they would say, look, you see this jar right here? Have any of y'all seen this? You see this jar right here? This jar is your life. And you have different priorities, and these priorities are represented by these various balls. And your main priorities would be like golf balls. These would be the big balls. These would be the big priorities in your life. Smaller priorities, important but not as important, would be represented by these marbles. And then everything else, you know, time on your Game Boy, whatever, that's these little BBs that they would have. And basically in the illustration, the first thing that the person would do is they'd pour in the BBs. They say, okay, you have all these little things in your life. If you put those in first, and then you put in the next things, the marbles, then when it comes time for your big priorities, and then they try and put the golf balls in, it wouldn't fit. They say you run out of time. Then they pour it all out, and then they say, but watch this. If you put in the golf balls first, those are the main things, then the marbles, and then pour in the BBs, it would all fit. And you'd be like, wow, that's amazing. If I can just prioritize my time like that, everything will fit. It's an object lesson. We are all familiar with object lessons. Any of y'all ever go to a Christian camp where they made you do the trust fall? Any of you had that perilous experience? The trust fall was an object lesson for faith. What they would do is they would take you out to some remote place in camp, and they would have one person go up on a high rock or a platform or something, and they would say, do you trust your peers? You say, yeah, I think I trust my peers. And they say, okay, we're all gonna put out our hands, and what you're gonna do is you're gonna go up to the very top, you're gonna put your hands over your arms like this, and you're gonna close your eyes, and you're gonna fall backwards, and we're gonna catch you. It's a trust fall. And the purpose of this was to demonstrate what? Faith, faith, that you believe. It's one thing to say something, right? It's another thing to put your life in someone's hands. And so that was the whole purpose of this exercise, which camps have stopped doing now, because so many kids were dropped, and the whole purpose of the object lesson really has disappeared, because when you drop somebody, well, there it goes. But that's what a sign is in John's gospel. It's an object lesson that points to a greater reality. So let's look at this, the sign of the healing of the blind man. What is it a symbol of? What are you supposed to see? Throughout the scriptures, blindness is the sign of unbelief. and seeing is the sign of faith. That's why when Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3.3, he says, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Seeing is believing. John 12.44, Jesus says, whoever believes in me, believes not in me, but in him who sent me, and whoever sees me, sees him who sent me. See, if you believe in me, you actually believe in God. He says, I have come into the world as light so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. Point being, believing is seeing. Unbelief is blindness. when I was growing up, I loved to listen to this Christian artist named Keith Green. Keith Green started playing secular music, piano player, just incredible voice, and he really began a journey of just searching and trying to find truth. He was playing clubs in LA and trying to to make it big, get a recording record. And throughout his search, he tried, he experimented with a ton of things, Buddhism and psychedelic drugs, all sorts of things. And one day the Lord, he was just wrestling, and the Lord saved him. And he described his experience of coming to salvation in a song called Your Love Broke Through. Your Love Broke Through. Listen to what he says. He says, I've been blind all these wasted years, and I thought I was so wise, but then you took me by surprise, like waking up from the longest dream, how real it seemed until your love broke through. I've been lost in a fantasy that blinded me until your love broke through. That's the experience of the unbelieving life. That the Bible says that you are lost in your own fantasy, and you don't even realize you're lost. You don't even realize you're lost. until one day you meet the Lord, just like Paul did on the Damascus Road, and his love breaks through, and your eyes are opened to the truth. Seeing is believing. So here's what's taking place at the end of John chapter 9. So, catch you up. First part of John chapter nine. Jesus heals a man born blind by sending him to the pool of Siloam, which means sent. He is healed. Middle of the chapter, there is a huge debate about what happened with this man. and the Pharisees basically held court, and this man schooled the Pharisees. He out-argued the arguers, and as a result of that, they cast him out of the synagogue. So that's what's happened to this point. So this man has been healed of his blindness, and here's what Jesus is going to do. The last six verses, Jesus is going to complete the object lesson. So he now sees physically, but he doesn't yet see spiritually. So Jesus is going to circle back around and make sure that this man understands what it means to see spiritually. Let me give you some words to help navigate you through the text this morning. The first word you might write in the margin of your Bible next to verse 35 is deliverance. Deliverance look at verse 35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out and having found him Now remember what has he been cast out of he's been cast out of the synagogue He told the Pharisees that Jesus was a prophet. He told the Pharisees that he believed that Jesus was sent from God and He said, if you look at verse 33, just two verses above, he says, if this man were not from God, he could do nothing. And for that, they cast him out. And if you think about what the implications are of being cast out of the synagogue, it meant that your entire cultural life was over if you are a Jew. If you are cast out of the synagogue, your family relations, your friend relations, your experience of worship, all of it is negated. You are now a religious and social pariah. That is the experience of this man. I found a verse this week, really, really amazing verse. Psalm 27 10 says, for my father and my mother have forsaken me. but the Lord will take me in, and that's what happens here. The father and mother, they basically wash their hands of this, you remember, but Jesus comes, Jesus pursues, he comes after this man. Remember, Jesus came to seek and save that which is lost. Spurgeon described the experience of salvation as the hound of heaven. He comes for you, God comes for you, just like Jesus comes for this man. That's how salvation happens. is that God comes for you and wakes you up from your spiritual slumber. Jesus seeks out this man. He circles back around to bring him to spiritual deliverance. Now, how do you begin an evangelistic conversation? How do you begin an evangelistic conversation? Here's how Jesus begins. He begins by asking him a catechism question. We're our students here. What is a catechism question? It's question, answer. I ask you a question, what is justification? You give me the answer. What's the chief end of man? Excellent, good. He begins by asking this man a catechism question. Do you believe in the son of man? What in the world? This is where you're going to begin. This is how you're going to start with this question. Do you believe in the Son of Man? What is he even talking about? Well, to understand what he's saying, we need to do a little bit of an Old Testament Bible study. I want you to turn to the left to the book of Daniel, to Daniel chapter 7. because every Jew would have a basic context of what Jesus is talking about here because they would know, they would have been taught about this apocalyptic figure of the coming Son of Man. I want you to look at verse 13, just verses 13 and 14. Daniel says this. I saw in the night visions and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man. And he came to the ancient of days and he was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom. Now notice this, it's really important, this next phrase. That all peoples Nations and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away. In His kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed. That is the coming Son of Man. Now notice in verse 14, is this kingdom just for Israel? Is it just a Jewish kingdom? No, it is not. Who is it for? He says it's for all nations, all peoples, all languages. So that explains what Jesus is doing with this man. What has just happened to this man? He's been kicked out of Judaism. According to the teaching of the Pharisees and the Sadducees at the time, you are now without hope in the world of salvation. But what Jesus is doing here is he's saying, do you know what is the Son of Man? Because the prophecy of the Son of Man in Daniel says salvation is not just for the Jew. When the Son of Man comes, salvation is for who? Everybody. all peoples, all languages. It's inclusive of the Gentiles. It's inclusive of the world, that Jesus is the universal mediator. So, if you turn back to the right real quick, I want you to turn to the end of John chapter 1. To the end of John chapter 1, do you remember Jesus responds to Nathanael at the end of John chapter one, because Jesus said that he saw Nathanael under the fig tree, and Nathanael was amazed by this. He says, Rabbi, you are the son of God. This is verse 49, you are the king of Israel. Jesus answered him, because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these. And he said to him, verse 51, Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened in the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. What's he talking about here? He's talking about, do you remember the story of Jacob's ladder in the Old Testament? Where Jacob was in the wilderness, he used a rock as his pillow, had a dream, and he saw angels coming up and down on a ladder. Jesus is saying, I'm the ladder. I'm the ladder. I'm the stairway to heaven for everybody who will believe in me. Turn over the page to John chapter 3. This is Jesus' encounter with Nicodemus beginning in verse 11. Look at verse 11 of John 3. He says to Nicodemus, truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, what he's saying here is earlier, Jesus had just been talking about scripture to Nicodemus. He just, Jesus had said, unless you're born again, you cannot even see the kingdom of God. Unless you're born of water and the spirit, you will not enter the kingdom of God. He was quoting Ezekiel 36. That's what he was saying. He's saying, I've just been talking about scripture to you. And you're a teacher of Israel, so you should know scripture. You should know these earthly things. You should know everything that I've been talking about. But he says, now, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? In other words, how can you believe if I tell you new revelation, if I give you new info, new gouge? Verse 13, he says, no one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. There it is again. Now, notice his purpose for talking about the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. Two things, just really quickly. Remember the story in Numbers? The children of Israel bat again. God sends serpents. They bite and poison many. God sends a means of deliverance. Moses puts up a bronze serpent. Everyone who looks to the serpent lives. Jesus says that's what the purpose of the Son of Man is. The Son of Man is sent into the world that I might be lifted up. What's He talking about in being lifted up? The cross. He's talking about the crucifixion. Now notice, is it just so that the Jew can be saved? What does He say at the end of verse 15? That whoever, whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. So here's what I'm wanting you to see, that when Jesus asked him this question about the Son of Man, he's saying, look, salvation is still possible. Don't you know that the Son of Man provides salvation? Inclusively. Inclusively. It's for not just the Jew, it's for everyone. And I could show you more passages. John chapter six, Jesus says the same thing. He says, this is 653, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. So the son of man provides universal salvation. That's the point. So if you turn back to John chapter nine, And look at verse 36. Here's the man's response to the catechism question. He answered, and who is he, sir? that I may believe in him. So remember that this man thinks he knows that Jesus is a prophet. He believes that Jesus is sent from God. So he's willing to listen to whatever Jesus says. And he asked him, what is the identity of this son of man? And that leads to our second word. I want you to write the word delineation next to verse 37. delineation. So we saw deliverance, verse 35, delineation next to verse 37. Jesus said to him, you have seen him and it is he who is speaking to you. So Jesus delineates who the Son of Man is. He says, you've already seen him with physical sight, and let me narrow it down for you further. It's me who is speaking to you right now. So in very explicit terms, Jesus is saying, I am the son of man. I am the one who rules the nations. I am the one who brings universal salvation. Jesus is saying, because what was the question? Who is he that I may believe in him? Jesus is revealing himself as the object of faith. Jesus is revealing himself as the object of faith. And that's what true evangelism is, that we explain to people who Jesus is and point them to believe in him. The reason why we do this, the reason why we do this is because he is the only way to God. He's the only way. Jesus points to himself, it's not prideful to point to himself, because he is the only means for salvation. He alone is the one that is lifted up that all may believe in him. Going back to Keith Green, when Keith Green was on this exploration, this journey, he started reading about all these religions. He just started reading about what different religions believed. And one thing that he found in common with so many of these religions is that they all believed that Jesus was this esteemed character. They all believed that Jesus was a way to God, just not the way. So for example, Buddhism believes that Jesus has reached a heightened state of enlightenment. Islam believes that Jesus is a great prophet. Sikhism views Jesus as the holy man. So what Keith said is he said, all other religions say that Jesus is a way, but then when I went to Jesus and I listened to what Jesus says, he said, I am the only way. So all the other religions, in the words of Keith Green, said Jesus is cool. Jesus said, I'm the only one who's cool. I'm it. And so Keith said, by process of elimination, I went with Jesus. Because he said, I am the only way. That's John 11, 25. Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. John 14, six. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. The apostle Peter said in Acts 4, 12, and there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Jesus is the only way. So believe in Jesus. Only Jesus offers the forgiveness of sins. Only Jesus provides a blood atonement. Only Jesus provides a resurrection from the dead. Christianity, at its heart, is simply that. It's Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He is the only way. Paul said this, for Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. A stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. We must not be ashamed to delineate the fact that Jesus Christ is the only way. People will be fine. People will be fine if you say that Jesus is a way. They're fine with that Jesus. They're fine with a Jesus who does not proclaim exclusivity. But Jesus said, I am the way. So if you're gonna go with Jesus, you have to go with Jesus on his own terms, right? That's what C.S. Lewis said. He's either lying, He's either crazy, he's a lunatic, or he is who he said he is. He is Lord. So we have to go with Jesus as he said. So that's the second D delineation. Third, right next to verse 38, devotion. Devotion. He said, Lord, I believe. and he worshiped him." I want you to notice three things about what this man says. Three things. First, I want you to notice this man's faith. Very simple statement, I believe. I believe. He believes that Jesus is the Son of Man. So this, in the story, remember this is the picture, this is the completing of the object lesson, of the picture of salvation, right? That's what this is. So let me ask you a question. What saves? What saves? It's faith. Do you see a single work here? Do you see a single good work mentioned? No. In John's gospel, it's always faith, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. It's faith and faith alone that saves. And I know that that's elementary, but we have to fight for that truth in every generation. And every generation, people want to add works to faith. And say, yes, I believe in Jesus, but yeah, I'm also a pretty good person. And I'm working, you know, I'm pretty sure God will accept me because I love the Lord and I help old ladies cross the street next to the Wegmans. You know, whatever it is. but it's faith and faith alone that saves. Second thing I want you to notice is how the man addresses Jesus. Notice, notice how he addresses Jesus. He says, Lord, the Greek word is kurios, kurios. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, Yahweh, the word Yahweh or Adonai is translated into Greek as Kyrios, which means Lord, which means Lord. This man understood that Jesus is Lord, and that's no small thing. That is no small thing. When I was in high school, this would have been late 90s, early 2000s, there was a controversy called the Lordship Controversy. And basically, the gist of this controversy was that some people taught that you could accept Jesus as Savior, but not as your Lord. Not as your Lord. They said that to accept Jesus as Lord, was to add works to salvation. So they said, look, I believe, you know, all that we have to ask people, basically, is just, do you believe that Jesus is your Savior? And if they say yes, then they're a Christian. We don't have to tell people that Jesus is Lord, and that they need to submit their life to them. In fact, to do that, they said, that's an extra work, and now you're adding works to salvation. So you first accept Jesus as Savior, and then later, as an act of discipleship, you submit to Him as Lord. So hypothetically, and all sorts of people taught this when I was growing up, you could believe in Jesus intellectually, but not have your life changed by Him and submit to Him as Lord. That was the thing, is as long as I walked an aisle at the youth camp, as long as I signed a card at a Billy Graham crusade, as long as I made some type of intellectual commitment to Christ as Savior, then it didn't matter if I submitted my life to his lordship. And I would debate all sorts of people about this. There was even a girl in my AP English class, she would turn around and she would argue for this position. The problem with this position, one, is scripture, but it's a misunderstanding of saving faith. When you believe in Jesus, you believe in all of Jesus. You believe in the entire person of Christ. And Jesus is Lord. He's Lord. You can never divide a person. You can never divide a person. When you accept a person, you must accept them for who they are. For example, if you're going to accept me, you can't just accept me as Grant. You have to accept me as Grant Castleberry. You can't divide me. You can't say, well, I accept you as Grant, but not as Castleberry. It's the same with, for example, throw out King Charles. You can't just say, okay, I accept you as Charles. Accept you as Charles. I don't accept you as King. No, no, no, you can't do that. because He is the King. You have to accept Him as He is. And this is what Jesus said throughout His entire ministry. Let me just give you one proof text, John 12, 25. Jesus says, whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Now notice this. He's talking about lordship. If anyone serves me, he must follow me. And where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. So we must come to Christ for all of who he is and trust him as Savior and Lord. If somebody says, I believe in Jesus as my Savior, but not as my Lord, that is a huge red flag. Third. Third thing to notice is this man's response. Look at his response. Immediately following faith, what does he do? He worships the Lord. He worships the Lord. The Greek word that is translated for worship is proskunio, and that word means to bow down. Bow down. So here this man is, wherever Jesus found him, and he is literally bowing down before Jesus and worshiping him. True faith always leads to doxology. True saving faith always leads to worship, a deep devotion to Christ. And that's one of the ways that you know that you are a genuine Christian. is that you desire to worship the Lord. You desire. Listen, I talked to my Roman Catholic friends, and they talk about their worship experience before they were saved, and they said, I would go to the mass, And I would literally just be going to put the check in the box. I'd be sitting there on my watch. I'd be thinking about what I was gonna go eat as soon as the Mass was done. I was thinking about the laundry list of everything that I had to do during the week because I was just there to be there and I was gonna go and do my thing. The true Christian longs to worship Christ. The true Christian loves Christ, wants to worship Christ, has a hunger thirst for worship, just like this man. Well, this leads to division. Division. I want you to write that next to verse 39. Division. Jesus said this, for judgment And this is really a summary statement. He says, I came into this world that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. The word that's used, that's translated judgment is the word crema. And that word, I looked it up in the lexicon this week, it has a broad range of meaning in the New Testament. It's used, I guess Siri for some reason picked that up. I don't know if you heard that. Crema. In Jesus's first coming, he came on a salvation mission. This is what's interesting. You know, when Jesus came, he came to save. He came to seek and save the lost. It's his second coming that he's coming in judgment. So what does it mean here when Jesus says, I came in judgment? For example, John 3, 17 says, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world or judge the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. So Jesus didn't come to condemn the world. He came to die for the sins of the world. He came to save the world. But here's the sense that this, what this word means. It means that when Jesus came, he brings an element of decision. It brings an element of decision in his wake. When Jesus came, he demanded a decision. He said, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. If anyone wants to come after me, he must deny himself daily and take up his cross and follow me. He said, go and sell everything you have and give it to the poor and follow me. Everybody that Jesus encountered, he pressed for a decision. And the wake of that decision held eternity in the balance. What you decided to do with Jesus, basically summarize your eternity. If you reject Jesus, then you are condemned to judgment. That's what Jesus means when he says, for judgment I came into the world, that's John 3, 18. He says, whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. So, Jesus forces you to a decision. What will you do with Christ? I grew up going to the Alamo, and at the Alamo there was a South Carolinian lawyer named William Barrett Travis, and he was running from past issues in South Carolina. Somehow ended up at the Alamo, and somehow ended up in command of the Alamo when Jim Bowie got sick. And you remember what he did at the Alamo? Did anybody see the John Wayne movie? William Barrett Travis drew a line in the sand. And he said, if you're gonna stay, you gotta cross the line. And that's what Jesus does. He draws this line in the sand, this line of division. And he says, if you are going to believe, you have to cross the line. He forces the decision. And so this is the outcome he brings us to. This is really important. Look at what he says. Don't miss what he says here. He says, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. Let me explain this. Here's what he's talking about. When he says those who do not see, who end up seeing, he's describing those people who realize their moral bankruptcy before God. He says it is these people who come to the end of themselves that Jesus enables to see. then those who see, who become blind, those are the people who think they are good people. These people, though they think they see, are blind and are given over to more blindness. So what Jesus is saying is that to enter the kingdom, you must realize that you are a spiritual pauper, a wretched sinner, a blind beggar, and that apart from Christ and His work, you will never enter the kingdom. Here's the thing, you have to come to the end of yourself. That's what He's saying. So much of what American Christianity has said is that we're just good Christian people, and we do the right thing, and we try to keep the golden rule, and of course, we love Jesus, but other than that, we go about our regular, ordinary lives. And friends, I'm here to tell you today, that's not good enough. because based on your own merit, you will never enter the kingdom of God. What Jesus says here is that you have to come to the point where you realize that you are blind. And what's interesting about that, throughout the history of the church, the past 2,000 years, most of the people that have come to the realization of the fact that they're blind are the dregs of society. That's why so many people in prisons get saved, because you don't have to convince somebody in prison that they're a sinner. and that they won't make it. I have to convince people like you that you're sinners, right? But you won't make it. You won't make it. I don't care who your family is. I don't care how much you've tried to be a good person. What Jesus is saying here to you today is that you are blind in and of yourself. And until you get there, you'll never see. Because this is why He came. He came to open your eyes. He came to open your eyes to the reality of the fact that you need a Savior. And that leads to, this is tragic. This is tragic, but this is where most of our world is. This is where most of our world is. This is the last point right next to verse 40. Denial. Denial. Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and they said to him, are we also blind? Is that what you're saying? And Jesus said to them, if you were blind, in other words, if you would admit your blindness, then you would have no guilt. But now that you say we see, your guilt remains. So here's the problem with the Pharisees. is they are not willing to admit their blindness. And friends, it's the same problem 2,000 years later. They say, yeah, I fall short, but I'm not blind. I'm not really desperate. Yeah, I've made some mistakes. As Pat Green says, I hope St. Peter's gonna let me in, right? You know, I've been a decent person. I hope he lets me in. But you haven't come to the end of yourself. You haven't come to see your sin problem. Secularism says that man can do anything. That man can create a utopia on earth. That's Marxism. That man can transcend time and space. That's transcendentalism. That man can master his own fate. That's humanism. Our culture is so blind today, it says we can see It says we don't have a problem, we can see. I just follow my heart. I'm just guided by my feelings. Love is love. This is what I identify as. I can see. Don't question my feelings. Don't question what I think. And Jesus says, Jesus says unequivocally, you are blind. And until you realize that you are blind, you will never see. You will never see. So you might ask, man, our world is so dark. How is anybody gonna get saved? How are we gonna convince anybody? that they are blind when people are so hostile to the truth. Do you remember what the apostles asked Jesus that exact same question with the rich young ruler? Do you remember what Jesus says? He says, with man, it's impossible. But with God, all things are possible. Because what does God do? What do we see at the very beginning of this story? God opens the eyes of blind people so that they can see. With man it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God. Let me give you just a few application points as we close. First, Understand the nature of saving grace. Understand the nature of salvation. It is God who seeks you out. I once heard a hymn that said, I found Jesus. Technically, you found Jesus after he found you. Jesus is the one who comes and finds you. John 6, 44, no one comes to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. This man's story is our story. We are the blind person that is made to see, who Jesus circles back around and finds, draws us to himself so that we can believe. And the reason why I emphasize that is so that you can realize that salvation is for the glory of God and not for your own glory. You didn't become a Christian because you're smarter than someone else, but because Jesus pursued you. Second, it is faith alone that saves. It is faith alone that saves. Christ gives you all of the benefits of his work through faith. To add a single work to Christ's work is to negate Christ's work. It is faith and faith alone that saves. Third, Jesus's Lordship is paramount for true salvation. Faith in Christ, trust him as Lord. When you trust him in faith, you are surrendering your life to him as Lord. So that's a great question to ask. That's a great question to sit down and ask yourself. Have you just believed here? Or have you truly trusted Christ as Lord in your heart? Four, true faith leads to worship. True faith leads to worship. We of all people should be a worshiping people. We should hunger to worship God. We should hunger to praise Christ, to give our thanks to Him because of all that He's given us. If you understand salvation, if you understand what Christ has done for you, it leads to doxology, it leads to worship. And then fifth, True salvation only occurs when you come to the end of yourself. So have you come to the end of yourself? Have you gotten to that point where you said, okay, God, I know Grant Castleberry. I know that I can't get myself in. It has to be you and you alone that saves me. That's the point. That's the thing that Jesus is trying to teach us, that you come to the point of blindness, and then you can see. Praise be to God. Heavenly Father, we We declare our blindness, Lord, and our inability to save ourselves, our inability to reach the kingdom of God by our works, and Lord, we profess our need for Christ and Christ alone and his cross and his resurrection for our salvation. It is to you this morning that we hope, that we look, that we place our faith. Lord, help us be ambassadors for Christ in this dark world. We pray, Lord, that you would open up the eyes of the blind that those people that we minister to would come to the end of themselves, that they would realize their blindness, and in so doing, that they would look to Christ and be saved. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man is lifted up, that all who look upon Him may see and be saved. We pray, Lord, that you would continue to do a work of salvation in our community, Lord, that People wouldn't just come here who are believers, but Lord, that you would draw the unbeliever, those that are searching, just like Keith Green, those that are searching for the truth. And Lord, may you open up blind eyes. We pray, Lord, for you to continue to do this work of salvation for your honor and your glory. Amen. Thanks for listening. For more sermons, information, and events, check out our website at capitolcommunitychurch.com.