So if you would turn with me this evening to John chapter 9. John chapter 9 and verse 1. And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. I want to preach tonight on the blind beggar. John chapter 9 deals exclusively with Christ's physical and spiritual healing of the blind beggar. The healing of the blind man was indeed a remarkable and miraculous event. especially in light of verse 32, it says, since the world began, was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind? So it's recorded that it had never happened before. The physical condition of the blind beggar and the miraculous restoration of his sight is very comparable spiritually. to the sinful condition of the natural man and the Savior's miraculous work of salvation. They are very parallel in both cases. It is Jesus who intervenes in sovereign distinguishing grace to make a glorious difference that affects a supernatural deliverance. The confession of the blind man And his testimony is a good picture of a spiritual babe's growth and grace. You can see him progressing in the chapter in his knowledge of Christ and who he is. Now, John chapter 9 really furnishes a stark contrast from what we saw in John chapter 8. In John chapter 8, Jesus is revealed as the light exposing darkness, yet hiding himself from those who had picked up stones to kill him. In John 9, Jesus reveals himself to a man who was wholly unable to see Christ's physical features. In John 8, Jesus is despised and rejected of men. In John 9, He is received and worshipped. In John 8, the blinded Jews stoop down to pick up stones. In John 9, Jesus stooped down to make anointing clay to open the eyes of the blind. In John 8, the people whom Jesus was addressing had no place in their hearts for the Word of God. In John 9, the blind man promptly receives the Word by faith and immediately obeys it in verse 7. In John 8, while Christ is in the temple, he is called a demoniac by his accusers in verse 48. In John 9, while outside of the temple, He is owned as Lord. The blind man acknowledges his Lordship. In John 8, Jesus passes by a host of unbelieving Jews, leaving them in their sins. In John 9, He stops to heal and convert just one man who was worthless according to human standards, illustrating the sovereignty of His grace. It reminds me of 1 Corinthians 1, 26 through 29. For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty and base things of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring to naught things that are that no flesh should glory in his presence. And certainly the account of the healing of the blind man is a display of God through Christ showing his sovereign grace to someone who was weak and beggarly and worthless according to human standards. And I'm thankful tonight that God in sovereign grace has chosen to reveal the glory of Christ to base weak, blind, and unworthy sinners. Verse 1, we find the object of Christ's grace. As Jesus passed out of the temple away from the unbelieving Jews, He fixed His attention upon a man that was born blind from his youth, from his birth. Christ saw a man who could not see Him. Jesus called a man who was wholly unable to call upon Him. Jesus intervened in the life of a man who was in a completely hopeless and helpless condition. The blind man did not approach Jesus and ask for healing. Rather, it was Christ who took the initiative by coming to where the blind man was and healing him. In this chapter, I read nowhere where Jesus asked for permission to heal the blind man. Rather, in a sovereign display of grace and power, He willed that the eyes of the blind man be opened. What a perfect picture of the sovereignty of God's amazing grace. This illustrates that God helps those who cannot help themselves. Yeah, you heard me right. That's what salvation is all about. He helps those who are unable to help themselves. And that's completely contrary to human reasoning. How many times have you heard it said God helps those that help themselves? On this, in this occasion, He helped somebody that couldn't help himself. Christ reveals Himself to those who are blind and unable to see His glory. Now this picture that we have of the blind man, the physical condition of this blind beggar is really a good picture of the spiritual condition of the natural man. This man was physically blind from birth. All men are spiritually blind from birth. The natural man. Every man is born with a fleshly, sinful nature that blinds him from seeing or understanding the spiritual things of God. Otherwise, listen, if people could understand, our churches would be filled. Every time we'd knock on a door and just present to them the glory of Christ and the power of salvation, they would immediately repent and believe if they had the ability. Because we've got the greatest message that has affected the greatest change in all the world. Men are blind. They are spiritually ignorant. Unable to discern. The physically blind are in absolute darkness with no ability to perceive the appearance of objects that are around them. The spiritually blind are in absolute darkness concerning the things of God, unable to understand, appreciate, or perceive the glory and the saving power of the risen Christ. The beauty of the natural world is hidden from the physically blind. Likewise, the beauty of Christ and the glories of his kingdom are hidden from those who are spiritually blind. Jesus told Nicodemus, except you be born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3 and verse 3. And the Bible is full of assertions. about the blindness, the inability of the unsaved, the natural, the unregenerate man. One of the famous ones that probably everybody here has memorized, I Corinthians 2.14, but the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 2 Corinthians 4, verses 3 and 4, But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. Ephesians 4, verse 18, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. Now, not only was the object, and you're probably wondering, why do you keep calling this guy a beggar? Well, it's revealed a little bit farther down in verse eight. It says, the neighbors therefore, and they which before had seen him that was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged? So the object of Christ's grace and healing was not only just a man, was a man blind from birth, but he was known as a common beggar. A beggar is an individual who is unable to make a living on his own but must depend on the charity of others. They would often sit in the streets at a familiar place and hope that somebody would help them. A beggar possesses nothing. In the grand scheme of things, the way that human beings measure things, a beggar is entirely unprofitable. no ability to provide for himself or others. And again, this description furnishes us with an accurate picture of the natural man, the unsaved man, who is a spiritual pauper with absolutely nothing to offer God. In fact, the very best works that a man can muster up are considered by God to be nothing more than filthy and worthless and unclean rags. Isaiah 64 and verse 6. How deplorable a condition the natural man finds himself in. It would indeed be terrible to be blind and have to beg for a living, but it's even more perilous to be spiritually blind with nothing to appease the wrath of God. And if a person who is saved, who is physically blind and who is a pauper, they know that at the end of this life, their poverty and blindness will cease, but not so with the natural man. His spiritual poverty and His spiritual blindness will continue on throughout all eternity, only He'll be in the lake of fire suffering the wrath of Almighty God for His unbelief. My heart is cheered by the fact that even though this man was in a deplorable condition, Jesus came right to where He was. He saw him and showed mercy to him. Praise God that Jesus sees the terrible condition of his people and has compassion upon them. None of us are any better than those who die in their sins and go to hell forever. That's exactly what we all deserve, no matter who you are. Yet God in his marvelous grace intervenes. He opens our eyes. He reveals the glory of Christ in our hearts. He gives us a desire to know Him, to love Him, to follow Him. He gives us faith to believe His redemptive work. All of this is by the grace of God. And I am so glad tonight that I am one of the blind beggars that God has lifted from the dunghill of human depravity just like in 1 Samuel 2 and verse 8. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory. Now verses 2 through 5, we have a difficult question and the Lord's answer to the question. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither had this man sin, nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. As Jesus beheld the plight of the blind man, the disciples asked him a very difficult question that has often plagued the minds of men. They wanted to know the cause of this man's suffering, whether it was because of some sin found either in him or his parents. Now, it is true that all suffering All physical defects in the world can ultimately be traced back to the fall of Adam and sin as its cause because God told Adam the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die. He died spiritually, later he died physically and from that moment on His physical body began to decay. It's the way it is. We don't evolve. We decay. Now, it's also true that some of the most wicked people for generations have enjoyed good health and prosperity, while those who are pious and holy suffer terribly. Now I don't, I'm sure that Fannie Crosby looked at her blindness as she was content with it. She accepted it. She wrote some of the most glorious hymns. So God, it's something that you can't explain just merely by looking at things from the outside. God has a purpose. God has a reason. Now many of the Jews in interpreting Exodus 20 in verse 5 regarded all human suffering and congenital defects as being caused by ancestral sin. And so it was only natural for them to say, did his parents do something wrong? Is that why he was born blind? Now everybody today that espouses the theory of reincarnation, has the same kind of mindset. They believe that suffering in the present is a result of bad behavior in a former life and that if you do wrong as a human being you might come back as a cockroach or something like that. But the inquiry by the disciples reveals a coldness in their demeanor. They didn't ask what they could do in order to help this blind man. It seems rather that they were more interested in discussing points of philosophy. There are some things you can't explain. And I personally feel like those kind of things are not worth my time. They're not worth my attention. There's far too much that I can learn, knowledge that I can gain without trying to find out things that are unknowable. As we talk about theology and doctrine, let's never lose sight of our responsibility to reach out to people who need a Savior. Yes, talk about the truth, love the truth, but don't forget what this whole book is about. It's about Christ saving people all around the world. So with all our knowledge, let's never lose sight of our mission. The answer that Jesus gave in verse three is profound and remarkable. Jesus answered, neither hath this man sin, nor his parents, in order to get this blindness. Jesus certainly believed that they were sinners. But that the works of God should be manifest in him. Now Jesus was not saying that there was no sin either in the man or his parents, an idea that would have been contrary to the whole of Scripture. By the way, this is something, this is a teaching moment as they say. This is a verse that if you just lifted right out of its context and tried to comment on it, you could say that there are some people who are not born in sin. Now why is that not true? Because we have a whole volume of scripture to prove otherwise. That's why everything is important as you read the Bible, as preachers preach the Bible. They must explain the context. You can't just go off on some wild, harebrained idea. from one verse of scripture. That's how John Hagee comes up with 24 blood moons and everything else about when Jesus is coming back. It's nonsense. It's one of my pet peeves. Now, he does, however, make it clear that the cause of this man's blindness could not be attributed to a specific sin either found in him or his parents. The lesson is this, not all suffering is immediately due to sin. Some of the most godly people in history have suffered great affliction. Paul the Apostle, one of the greatest missionaries the world has ever known or ever will know. was constantly plagued by bodily afflictions in his eyes especially. I like what A.W. Pink said. Indirectly the Lord here rebukes a spirit which all of us are prone to indulge. It is so easy to assume the role of judge and pass sentence upon one another. This was the sin of Job's friends recorded for our learning and warning. The same spirit is displayed among some of the faith-healing sects of our day. With them, the view largely obtains that sickness is due to some sin in the life, and that where healing is withheld, It's because that sin is unconfessed. But this is a very harsh, harsh and censorious judgment and must frequently be erroneous. Moreover, it tends strongly to foster pride. If I'm enjoying better health than many of my fellows, the inference could be it is because I'm not so great a sinner as they are. The Lord deliver us from such reprehensible Phariseeism. Another one of my pet peeves is fake healers. To me, they are some of the most dastardly, wicked people on the face of this earth, in the name of religion, going around saying that they have the power to heal people if those people have enough faith to believe. and making a living doing it. If they really had the power, they'd go to hospitals. They'd go to places like Africa, where there's so much disease, and people don't even know how, the most rudimentary elements of good health, they don't know how to even live. But instead, they go to places where wealthy people or people who may not be wealthy but give everything they got with the hope of being healed. That's wicked. Jesus declares that the reason why this man was born blind was because God purposed and permitted it for his own glory. Nearly every circumstance in life can be boiled down to this very simple yet profound principle. Things are as they are because God has a purpose and it will ultimately bring glory to his own name. Before the world began, God had determined to receive glory through the condition of this particular blind man. And God has his own wise reasons for permitting sickness and disease, oftentimes that he may be glorified in a public way. Such was the case with the sickness and death of Lazarus. John 11 and verse 4, which we'll be studying later. It's amazing to me that after He had been in the grave and His body was already decomposing, Jesus came to where He was and said, Lazarus, come forth! And He did! How about the afflictions of the Apostle Paul? The miraculous healing of the blind man revealed the glory and power of Christ in a profound way. And notice also the fact that Jesus, who was equal with God, the father. Again, most of the time when you read the Bible, you don't you don't draw this out. You read over it. But he knew. The divine counsel from all eternity, he knew precisely why God had allowed the birth of this blind man. Jesus reveals it. He had a divine knowledge of the substance of the eternal decrees of God. Verse 4, Jesus said, I must work the works of Him that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Here he proclaims that his entire purpose on earth was to work the works ordained for him by the Father who had sent him. The works of Christ, the works Christ was ordained to perform, not only pleased God, but they were predestined by God. Those works include revealing the perfections of God and ministering to the needs of His creatures. The greatest work that Christ was sent to accomplish was the redemption of His elect. These works were necessary because Christ was one in nature and will with the Father. Those of us who were saved should regard our purpose on earth as being similar to that of the Savior's. We are in this world for the express purpose of glorifying the One who saved us and serve Him through good works. Same principle applies to us. Jesus also expressed an urgency about his mission. He knew that his earthly life would soon be ended by cruel crucifixion. He knew that the night of death was soon to fall upon him. Jesus teaches us by precept and practice that we are to make the most of our present opportunities. for service and for worship. None of us know when our day of life will close and our bodies will enter into the darkness of the grave. However, we do know that as long as we have breath, we must live for God. How I pray that the Lord would place in our hearts a greater urgency. a greater diligence in serving him. Last time I visited George Sherman in the hospital, I learned that he was 71 years old. And it struck me that I'm sick, I'm going to be 60 years old. My life will soon be over in the grand scheme of things. How have I served the Lord? Am I doing all that I can possibly do now for the glory of God? Am I making a difference? Am I a light? And how little time we have left our lives could soon be over. Can we honestly say that we have done all that we could for the honor of God, for the glory of Christ's Kingdom? Romans 13 says, And that knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand, let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. And then in verse 5, Jesus once again asserts that as long as He is in the world, He is the light of the world. Soon His life would come to an end. But as long as He lived, He would indeed reveal the light and the glory of God. He would expose the sinful depravity of mankind. Every miracle that Jesus performed, every word that He spoke, every sin He forgave was a glorious ray of light from an unseen God, revealing His nature to man as the express image of God. And as lights of the world, we are likewise called upon to reflect the glory of our Lord by the way in which we live for as long as we live. Let's do what we can as long as we have ability and life for the glory. Let's determine to be more faithful, more diligent Not just in assembling together, but in serving together. Making a difference where we are. That old song by Anita, right in the corner where you are. Remember that song? She was an orange juice lady, Anita Bryant. We had that record at my dad's when I was a kid. You know what a record is, Brandon? Okay, I didn't know how old you were. But I can remember as a kid listening to that song, Brighten the Corner Where You Are. And I think it's a great lesson. We need to be lights for the glory of God. Let's all stand. We'll sing a song. Page 148. Bye.