All right, well, if you have your Bibles, now that I do, please reach down and grab them once more and open them up to John chapter 9. John chapter nine. After two weeks off from our series that we've been working through, we are back today in the gospel according to John. And we will be beginning chapter nine. We're gonna focus on the first seven verses, but I'm gonna read all the way to verse 12 for our sermon scripture reading today. So John chapter nine, beginning in verse one. This is the word of the Lord. Now as Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. The night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. When he had said these things, he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva. And he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And he said to him, go, wash in the pool of Siloam, which is translated scent. So he went and washed, and came back seeing. Therefore the neighbors and those who previously had seen that he was blind said, Is not this he who sat and begged? Some said, This is he. Others said, He is like him. He said, I am he. Therefore they said to him, How were your eyes opened? He answered and said, a man called Jesus made clay and anoint in my eyes and said to me, go to the pool of Salome and wash. So I went and washed and I received sight. Then they said to him, where is he? He said, I do not know. Let's bow our heads. God, we thank you for this wonderful word that you have laid out before us to feast upon today. God, we thank you that you were a worker of many mighty miracles, all of which point to the truth that you are our living, loving, conquering God and King and Savior. God, I pray that that truth would come alive within each of us today, that You, Yourself, by the power of Your Holy Spirit, would preach directly to the consciences of everyone hearing these words. I pray that Your Word would be like a sword that goes straight into the innermost part of our being, that Your Word would be like a hammer that shatters any hearts of stone that might be here today. I pray that Your Word would be like a salve to bind up those hearts, Lord, and give them new life. God, I pray for myself as I embark upon this weighty task of preaching your gospel, Lord, that you would give me the words to speak. Give me great unction and freedom as I approach this task, Lord. If I begin to say something that's wrong, I pray, Lord, I pray that your Holy Spirit would just guide me back on the right path. If something's written wrong in my notes, that you would just put the words into my mind that are the right words to say to your people today. God, we pray your blessing and we thank you for this wonderful gift in Christ's name. And amen. You may be seated. We'll work through four main points in our sermon today, and I'll go ahead and give you all four so you can have a roadmap of where we're going. First, we'll look at the caring initiative of the Savior. The caring initiative of the Savior. Then we'll look at the glorious purpose of the suffering. The glorious purpose of suffering. Third, the messianic healing of the blind man. The messianic healing of the blind man. And then finally, we'll look at the necessity of responding to Christ in faith and obedience. The necessity of responding to Christ in faith and obedience. So we'll start with point one there, the caring initiative of the Savior. If you remember back a few weeks ago when we were last in John, you may recall that we spent a long time discussing Christ's ministry in Jerusalem during and right after the Feast of Tabernacles. That's one of the fall feasts that the old covenant believers observed. It seems that some period of time, maybe about two months, give or take, has elapsed from that time where we were in John 7 and John 8 until the events that we're looking at today. But here we see Jesus back again in Jerusalem. John 9 1 opens with the word, now as Jesus passed by. Or as some translations say, as he was passing by or as he went along, he's just walking down the road. However you render it, we can see that wherever Jesus was headed, this was not his final destination for the day. He was walking to somewhere else, seemingly on a different mission. And then he sees this man who has been blind from birth. And whatever other plans Jesus had that day, he sees an opportunity here to do good to someone and to glorify his father in heaven, and he takes it. In verse four, Jesus says, I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. The night is coming when no one can work. Now, what does he mean by that? I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. Jesus is talking about redeeming the time. Or as the pagans of old might say, he's talking about seizing the day. Carpe diem. He's making hay while the sun shines. Jesus knew that his life on earth was like a vapor in the wind. Here today and gone tomorrow. And he was absolutely determined not to waste a moment of his life. Jesus was very intentional with all of his time. One of Jonathan Edwards resolutions was, resolved never to lose one moment of time, but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can. That great pastor wrote that when he was only 17 years old, resolving not to lose one moment of time. Where do you think Edwards got this motivation from to live like that? I think he got it in part from the example of Jesus Christ. Now, this does not mean that Christ was a workaholic. Many in our day and age in America are infected with that particular disease. They think that making money or building their own kingdom or pleasing their boss or their clients is the most important thing they could spend their time on. They always show up early and stay late at work. They always have their phone on them and they are always checking their messages. Meanwhile, their wives are neglected and they miss their children growing up. That's not the type of working that Jesus is talking about here. Jesus rested. He observed the Sabbath as well as the other old covenant feasts. He spent time with his disciples. He spent a lot of time in solitary prayer, talking to his father in heaven. Jesus even took naps. He was not a workaholic like some American businessman, but he was intentional with his work time, with his rest time, with his traveling time. He did not waste a single moment. He used every minute of every day to glorify his father in heaven and to love the people he had come to save. So here we see a perfect example of this. Jesus is walking down the road and we often think of travel time as kind of dead time. Nothing happens when we're traveling somewhere. Maybe he's headed to the temple to preach. Maybe he's going to a synagogue meeting or going to have a Sabbath meal with some friends. We don't know. But we do know what he does while he's passing by. He takes an opportunity to bring physical and spiritual healing to a man who is suffering. And that also leads, as we'll see later in the next week or two, to an opportunity to teach unbelievers the gospel. He's redeeming the time and just building on each opportunity he has to further his father's kingdom. Verse one, one more time. As Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was blind from birth. We can see an interesting contrast here. The blind man obviously cannot see. but Jesus sees him. And not only can Jesus see him with his eyes, but he looks at this man and he knows him completely and he has compassion on him. So Christ walks over and our Lord's disciples say, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind? I think sometimes when we read the Bible, it's easy to look down on our brothers and sisters in Christ who lived long ago, like the apostles here, when really these men should be regarded as our heroes. But we read an account like this and sometimes we can think, These guys don't understand anything. Why can't they just get it already? And in a lot of ways, that's true. We see it over and over. Jesus is saying something crystal clear, and it's just going right over the disciples' head. And here again, they are confused. But look at what they do. They're confused, so they ask Jesus to explain things to them. Jesus, we're not exactly sure why this man is blind, but we know what terrible effects sin has had on the world physically and spiritually. And we know that you know everything. So can you tell us what's going on? Why is he blind? This is a model for us. Maybe you realize, I hope you realize, you haven't gotten everything figured out about life or theology or whatever it might be. So where do you go to for answers? Do you look to the world for wisdom? I hope you don't. You look to Christ and you think, okay, Jesus, I'm not sure about this problem I'm dealing with here. Is the solution option A or is the solution option B? Give me wisdom. And it's okay if both of those options are wrong. That's what was the case with the disciples here. It might be option J that you need to pursue. You didn't even know that was an option on the table. But the important thing is that you come to Christ for wisdom. Now we don't have Jesus walking amongst us every day like his apostles did. We can't look him in the face and ask him a question and expect him to answer just like a friend would. But we do have his infallible word, his word that cannot lead us astray. And it's a treasure chest of wisdom for every single area of life, every area of life. Further, if we're in Christ by faith, then we have, the Bible says, the same Spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead living within us. He is a great source of wisdom. We have Christian brothers and sisters who can help us think through things. We have prayer. And it's true that prayer very often feels like a one-way conversation. But the apostle James tells us that if anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. So we can pray. We can go to God and say, Lord, which way is correct? He might say, son, you're not even facing the right direction, but that's okay. Here's how you should go. So here we see the disciples coming to Jesus with a question, and they're totally wrong in what they're thinking, and he gently shows them the error of their thinking. Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Verse three, Jesus answered, neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. The night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. And that leads us right to our second point today, the glorious purpose of suffering. This assertion in verse three teaches us a lot. Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but he's suffering so that the works of God would be revealed in him. First, we learn here that just because people are suffering, that does not mean that they are worse sinners than anyone else. Thinking like this is the exact error that Job's friends made. Job was bereaved of his children, his wealth, his health, and his wife became bitter and hostile toward him. She said, just curse God and die. Imagine having your wife say that to you as you're sitting there in ashes mourning. And Job's friends think, man, you clearly must have sinned big time to deserve all of this. And they were wrong. The temptation to think this way is present even with us today, even amongst born again Christians. Do not fall for it. And I'm not saying you should never trace a line between sin and suffering. If a man frequently is given over to drunkenness and then he gets cirrhosis of the liver, well, that is what theologians call just desserts. That means he reaped what he sowed. The sin brought the suffering. We need to observe that pattern and be willing to be honest with ourselves and with our loved ones about that when we are stricken with afflictions. It is always a good opportunity to examine ourselves when we are suffering. but we should never see someone suffering and just assume that they must be unusually bad sinners or that they are more immoral than we are. It's true that all suffering comes from sin and we all deserve far worse than we get in this life. But Jesus shows us here that not all suffering is a result of particular sins that you committed. You may just be suffering so that God can do a wonderful work of mercy in your life that will cause you and everyone around you to praise God and it will be worth it. It could be that. On the other hand, we should not assume that just because someone has an easy life, that that means they are unusually righteous. This is a temptation in the church as well. If everything is going well for someone, we can make the mistake of thinking that they must be obeying God better than anyone else. When someone has an amazing marriage and amazing kids and tons of wealth and is in amazing shape, we can think, wow, they really must be walking in obedience. We even tend to look up to those who are mighty in business, whether or not they are mighty in the spirit. Many a church deacon or elder board, especially here in the South, is full of influential men in the community who have little life in the spirit of God. But Jesus corrects all these misunderstandings here. He says, this man isn't suffering for any particular sins that he committed or any particular sins that his parents committed. He is suffering so that the works of God would be manifest in him. Now think of that, this man, had probably been suffering for 20 or 30 years or more. And it wasn't because of anything he had done wrong. He had never seen a sunrise. He had never seen his parents' faces. In that time and in that culture, he probably had no education or very minimal education. He had no hope for a meaningful vocation. He had no hope for marriage. His participation in the religious life of Israel was limited. His parents, as we'll see later next week, did not seem overly caring or supportive of him. He was in many respects an outcast. He almost certainly battled feelings of abandonment and loneliness. To borrow a language that was used to describe Jesus himself, this man was a man of sorrows. And all of these sorrows were his for one glorious purpose. This man had been suffering for decades, so that on this one particular day, 2,000 years ago, the Son of God would pass by him on the road, almost it seems like by chance, would see him, have compassion on him, and therefore the works of God would be made manifest in this man's life. That his whole life of suffering, decades of suffering was building up to this point. This was the apex of this man's life up to this time. God glorifying himself through healing his eyes. That is the whole reason Jesus says that this man was born blind. He missed seeing his entire childhood. He missed learning to read. Imagine just opening your eyes at age 30 and not knowing how to read, not knowing a trade. He missed everything, all so that the works of God would be revealed in him. Now, do you think that for the rest of that man's life, he was bitter because of everything he missed or grateful for all that Christ did for him that day? There is no question in my mind that man was grateful. You can see it as the rest of the narrative unfolds in John chapter nine. You have a choice to make. We can learn from this here. You have a choice to make every single day of your life. Are you going to be grateful for the wonderful things the Lord has done through you? All the blessings that he has given you? Or are you going to be bitter about the things that he has withheld or that he has taken from you? Pastor Chuck Swindoll said that life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. Now, it's not the most theologically accurate quote in the world. I'll grant that. But there is an enormous amount of practical wisdom here from Pastor Swindoll. You can't control the hand of providence. And we should be grateful that we can't. You cannot choose what afflictions or what blessings the Lord has assigned for you. but you can control how you react. And someone might say, well, James, even if I react well when things are going good and I don't focus on the negative, what am I supposed to do though if I get dealt a hand like this blind man had before his healing? What if I have a 20 years of blindness situation? I don't mean it has to be blindness. Could be any massive stroke of suffering. Could be that your spouse divorces you. You weren't unfaithful. You loved the Lord. You loved your spouse, but he or she just up and leaves one day and takes the kids too. It could be that a child passes away through no fault of your own. And he's here one day and then he's gone the next. Or you or a loved one becomes paralyzed Whatever it might be. Chuck Swindoll might say that life is only 10% of what happens to me, but I really feel in this moment like I'm getting a 90% blow. That it's just clouding out everything else. What do you do then? One humbling thing about being a pastor is you end up walking with people through situations you've never been in and they look to you for wisdom. I've never been in any of those situations I just described. But some of you have, and some of your loved ones have. When your suffering feels like the water's coming over Niagara Falls and it's overwhelming and there's no end in sight, your only option, your only option when suffering like that comes is to cling to the promises of God. That's it. It is always, always, always better to build your life on the promises of God than on your perception of the providence of God. I'll say that one more time. It is always better to build your life on the promises of God than on your perception of the providence of God. Promises like the name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run into it and are safe. or all things work together for good to those who love God, who are called according to His purpose. Promises like, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. or all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. For this is the will of him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day. Even if God's will is for you and your people to be in bondage under a wicked pagan king for your whole life, never to see your homeland, you can still hold onto the truth that God's will for you and for all his people is to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a hope and a future. That is God's rock solid word. We would do well to remember the words of the anti-Nazi resistance activist, Sophie Scholl. She said, I will cling to the rope that God has thrown me in Christ Jesus, even when my numb hands can no longer feel it. Cling to God's loving word, even when you can't see his loving hand. Sophie's head was cut off by the Nazis shortly after she wrote that. And she died believing the promises that God had planned the promises that God had planned good for her and for her life, and she will obtain a better resurrection for it. Sometimes in life, we may be enduring a hard providence, and we may not understand what good could ever come from this until years later, or maybe not until eternity. Puritan pastor Matthew Henry writes that the sentences in the book of providence are sometimes long, And you must read a great way before you can apprehend the sense of them. But I can assure you that no matter how hard or how long or how mysterious your suffering is, everything that you are going through is for one glorious purpose. It's so that the works of God should be revealed in you. That's not unique to this blind man. That is for everyone. Everything that you are going through, good and bad, is so that the works of God should be revealed in you. God will be glorified through your life, either through saving you and growing you in holiness and glorifying you one day, or through damning you in his great and terrible justice. He will be glorified. Your life's purpose is to bring glory to your Father in heaven. How are you going to respond then? Let's continue on in our text. Picking back up in verse six, this will be our point three, the messianic healing of the blind man. When Jesus had said these things, he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And he said to them, go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is translated scent. So he went and washed and came back seeing. Now I'm calling this point the messianic healing of the blind man. Not just because the Messiah, Jesus is the one doing the healing, but because the healing itself is messianic in nature. When Jesus makes the blind see, he is fulfilling Old Testament prophecies about the coming Messiah. The Messiah is the anointed one who will be prophet, priest, and king over God's people. And there are several prophecies in the Old Testament that tell us how we can recognize this man when he comes. Isaiah says that when this anointed one comes, then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer and the tongue of the dumb shall sing. How do we know the Messiah is coming? He will be opening the eyes of the blind. When John the Baptist is put in prison, soon to be beheaded for calling on the civil rulers to obey God's law, someone tells him about all the wonderful works that Jesus is doing out there. And so John sends two of his disciples to Christ to ask him, he says, are you the coming one or are we to look for another? This is the man who is the first person to recognize that Christ was the Son of God. This is the man who said, behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. And now he's under persecution and he's starting to wonder. Doubt is starting to creep in to John's mind. Even he needs confirmation. So he sends two of his men on a fact-finding mission. And Jesus answered and said to these two disciples, go and tell John the things which you hear and see. Do you want to know if I'm the Messiah? The blind see and the lame walk. The lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear. The dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. That's all it took. Jesus did not say, yes, tell my cousin I truly am the Messiah. Tell him to stop worrying. He needs not to doubt. No, he says, tell him the blind see. The fact that Jesus was healing blind people was proof positive that he really was the anointed one of God. But that's not all we can learn from this miraculous and messianic healing here in John nine. Look with me at a couple other things we can draw out from this act of compassion. First, we see how intimate Christ is with the blind man. People had been ignoring this man all his life. And Christ just could have walking by on the road, he could have said a word, and this man's sight would have been instantly restored. He created the universe by speaking it into existence. Certainly he could have spoken and given this man perfect vision. But he spits on the ground, he makes a clay with his fingers, and then he rubs the clay over the man's eyes. This is very intimate. In fact, if we saw Jesus doing this, we might feel a little uncomfortable. It almost seems too intimate. Like when your mom licks her finger and starts rubbing something off your face in front of everyone, and you're like, it just, it's very intimate. If a stranger tried to do that to you, you'd probably step away and think, whoa, hold on now. Can you give me an explanation first of what you're doing? And not only is it intimate, but there is an echo of God's wonderful work of creation here. God made man by putting his almighty hands into the dirt, carefully crafting this body in his fingers and breathing life into him. So here, the God-man, Jesus Christ, restores a man in a very similar way. He uses his mouth, he uses his hands, he uses the dirt, all to heal this man's eyes. Another interesting aspect of this healing is that what Jesus is doing would normally make someone's eyesight worse. Children, listen to this. I've got a question for you. If you go outside, I'm not recommending you do this, but if you go outside and you spit on the ground and you mix up mud with your fingers and you rub it all over your face, are you gonna see better or worse? You're gonna see a lot worse, right? I think what Christ is showing us here with this very strange act is that the land which was cursed because of man is now going to be used to bless man. Jesus in this strange and dirty action is restoring dignity to one of his children who had been cut off from society, who didn't have that intimate contact with others and he's restoring dignity to him and he's restoring dignity to the earth as well. We're getting a glimpse of how Jesus will remake our bodies and in fact, the whole of creation when he comes again in glory. And then finally, we come to the last point of our sermon today, the necessity of responding to Christ in obedience. We'll look one final time at verses six and seven. When he had said these things, he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And he said to him, go wash in the pool of Siloam, which translated means sent. So he went and washed and came back seeing. Well, we already looked in detail at Christ rubbing the clay onto the man's eyes. But if you notice, this didn't actually heal him of his blindness. There are other cases where Jesus's actions directly and immediately restore sight to the blind. There's five times in the Gospels that Jesus gives sight to a blind man. For example, in Luke 18, Jesus heals a blind man simply by saying, receive your sight, your faith has made you well. And immediately the man received his sight and followed him glorifying God. Or in Mark chapter 8, the healing of yet another blind man is pretty similar in some ways to what we see here. In Mark's account, Jesus spits directly into the blind man's eyes and puts his hands on him. And then the man began to see right away, but not super clearly. He said, I see men walking now, but they look like trees. So Jesus put his hands on him again and made him look up and he was restored and saw everyone clearly. So there are these different accounts where Jesus healed other blind people in different ways. But here in John 9, Jesus highlights the importance of obedience as it relates to healing. After rubbing the blind man's eyes with the clay, Christ says, go, wash in the pool of Siloam. So here's this man who is still completely blind, and now he has mud smeared all over his eyes, and he's walking to the pool of Siloam. And I don't know how far that was. It could have been a hundred yards. It could have been two miles, but it wasn't right there where Jesus was. So just imagine this, there's this blind man walking through Jerusalem. And the people here have seen him time and again, begging in the streets, hoping for someone to show him some mercy and compassion. And then today he's walking to a place, maybe he doesn't ordinarily go. And it looks strangely like his face is covered in mud. And people are probably wondering what is going on with this guy? Then the blind man walks out into the water, he gets in and he starts washing his face in faith. And as the clay starts to come off his face, something happens that has never happened to him before. He's seeing things. Some of the people that Jesus healed of blindness lost their vision at some point in their lives. We know, for instance, the man in Mark 8 was not blind from birth because Jesus said, can you see? And he says, yes, I see people walking around, but they look like trees. If he had been blind from birth, he wouldn't know what trees look like. But this man in John nine has never seen a single thing. His whole world has been one of utter blackness. And here the light hits his eyes and he starts seeing. And he washes more and perhaps he finally, he can't believe it's finally happening. This is what he's always wondered about and hoped for to be able to see. So he finishes washing his face. He walks out of the pool and he starts to go back to where Jesus was. And he's walking through town again, no more mud on his face, he's dripping wet and he's smiling from ear to ear and he's just looking around, taking everything in, people, buildings, trees, flowers, the temple, he can see. Now, do you think his vision would have been restored to him if he hadn't obeyed Jesus and gone and washed in the pool? Of course not. It would not have been restored. If Jesus said, go wash. And the man said, no, I believe in you, Jesus. You can heal me right here. You don't need me to go to some pool to wash off. It's not gonna work. Jesus might've cursed him further right there. This man had to obey to receive the blessing. Now I'm gonna emphasize obedience here, but I don't want us to forget the first point this morning, the caring initiative of Christ. Look at those first several verses of this chapter and you will see that the blind man has very little information about what's going on and he has no active role in this whole situation until verse 7. Jesus is the one who initiates going over to him. Jesus and the disciples have a conversation about the blind man. Jesus is the one that makes the clay and smears it on his eyes. The blind man seems passive through this entire process. For all he knew, a group of people just came over to him and started having a conversation about him while he was right there. And then one of them whose name happened to be Jesus starts rubbing mud on his face and giving him instructions. Christ could have said, hey, my name is Jesus. I'm the son of God. I'm going to heal you of this blindness that has been plaguing you for your whole life. And he could have done it right then and there. Jesus has no need to go through this whole ordeal with the mud and the spit and the water. Christ is the healer, the man does not heal himself. Christ is in charge, Christ takes the initiative. Nevertheless, he wanted the man to trust him and obey him in order to be healed. And this is a very important lesson for us to learn. God is absolutely in control of everything. He foreordains everything that comes to pass. Every little mote of dust that dances in the sunbeam does so at his command. The steam that rises up from your morning coffee follows the exact pattern that God drew for it. So he's in charge. And when it comes to God doing wonders in our life, it is no different. God's in control. We do not take initiative. Before we are saved, we are just like this man in our story. It's like we're sitting by the side of the road completely blind. We don't even know what sight is. We've heard people use words like red, green, oak, daisy, ocean, and we have no idea what any of these things look like. And one day Jesus is walking by right in front of us and we have absolutely no clue. We are oblivious to God's presence. We don't see him, we don't call out to him. We're not aware that the God of the universe is passing by and he could heal us in the twinkling of an eye. That's how we are before we're saved. Jesus is the one who seeks us out and saves us. He's the one who gives us the new birth. He's the one who makes us alive when we're dead. He's the one who takes away our blindness to make us see. If God waited for us to obey before he saved us, we would all be damned. But even with all of that said, there's a mystery here. the mystery of human responsibility. We cannot presume that God is going to do a great work in our lives apart from our obedience. We cannot presume that he is going to save us, bless us, grow us in holiness, give us a long life, or do anything good for us if we don't trust his word and do what he says. I'm not talking about perfection. I'm not talking about earning our salvation. But if we aren't through the Holy Spirit trying to obey, if we aren't striving for perfection, if we aren't running the race according to the rules, why should we hope that God will do anything for us? Over and over again, we see in scripture that obedience leads to blessing. You don't save yourself, you don't contribute anything to your salvation except the sin which made it necessary. But do you think God is going to save you if you don't trust in him? If you refuse to walk in his ways, he will not. You have an active role to play in the Christian life. You are not just a robot going about mindlessly doing what God has planned. You have to be active and you have to obey. It is not optional. He is your Lord. He is your King. You are his subject. You must obey. And this remains through throughout the whole of your Christian life. If you wanna be blessed by God, you have to obey his word. Even when you don't think it makes sense. Even when he works through ordinary everyday means that aren't exciting to you. I talked to a man once who said he did not need to be baptized. He said, because God didn't need a pastor to dip him in the water or pour water on his head in order to save him. I thought, sure, that's absolutely true in and of itself. God saves a lot of people before they're baptized. And on the other hand, you can be baptized and not saved. There's nothing magical in the baptismal water that automatically saves you. Just like there was nothing magical in this water in the pool of Siloam that took away this man's blindness. But do you really think if God has said, repent and be baptized for the remission of your sins, that you will stand before him justified on judgment day if you refuse to do that? There's no reason why you should have that hope. Do you really think if you choose disobedience to God's commands, he will bless you just because he can work apart from means? It's like people who say, well, I believe in Jesus. He's my savior, but I don't go to church. And going to church doesn't make you a Christian. All the adults in this room have met people like that. We've met people like that. And once again, it's completely true. That going to church doesn't make you a Christian. But do you really think that that's how God is going to be pleased to work in your life? That he's going to bless you for disobeying him? Jesus could have healed this man in John 9 without the dirt and without the spit and without the walking, without the water, but he didn't and he wouldn't. If this man had refused to walk across town and wade into the pool and wash his face, he never would have been healed. And we need to remember that if we want to be blessed by God, we need to trust him and we need to do what he says. God is not bound to means. He can work without them. He can work against them. He can work above them. He can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants. But Jesus often chooses to bless his children through their obedience. So follow Christ in obedience. Even if your flesh doesn't like it at first, even if you are confused, even if you are scared, trust that your loving Savior always has your best interest in mind and that he will do all things for the glory of his Father and for the good of his people. Let's pray. God, we thank you for this wonderful word of your sovereign healing of the man born into blindness. God, we know that apart from the quickening grace of your Spirit coming into our lives, we would remain in blindness. We would remain dead, God. But you have brought us to life in Christ Jesus, and we thank you for that. God, I pray that none of us would ever presume on your grace. that we would not run wildly into sin thinking, it's okay, God will forgive me. He paid for my sins on the cross. God, I just hope and pray that we would hear when we get tempted to do that, when we're tempted to either to not obey something or to directly disobey something, that we would hear the Apostle Paul speaking to us that those who live like that, their condemnation is just. God, grant us a desire to obey. Grant us willing hearts, Lord, softened hearts to your law, hearts that love you, that want to honor you with everything we do. God, I pray that you would give us that. Give us great personal holiness. Help us to hate sin, especially our own sin. Help us to hate it more than anything else, Lord. Your word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, oh God. Help us to see that clearly and walk joyfully in it. In Christ's name, and amen.