So the text for this morning comes to us from John 9 verse 24 to 34. We're going to continue with the blind man and his healing. And so we're going to read through the whole chapter of John 9. So as we saw last time, Jesus had come into this man's life after there was a discussion with the disciples wondering whether or not who sinned in this man's life, that he was blind. And then Jesus told his disciples that it wasn't that someone sinned, but rather that the glory of God would be made manifest in this man's life, and that his life would be a platform for the glory of God. And so we're gonna continue now after his healing and we're gonna look particularly at how the different reactions of the crowd and also particularly the Pharisees. So we'll read the whole chapter together. And as we do so, just pay careful attention to verses 24 to 34, which will be our text. So hear 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 means sent. And so he went and washed and came back seen. 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. And he said, I am he. Therefore they said to him, how is your eyes opened? He answered and said, a man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, go to the pool of Siloam and wash. So I went and washed and I received sight. And they said to him, where is he? He said, I don't know. They brought him, who formerly was blind, to the Pharisees. Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight. He said to them, He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see. Therefore some of the Pharisees said, This man is not from God, because he does not keep the Sabbath. Others said, How can a man who is a sinner do such signs? And there was a division among them. They said to the blind man again, what do you say about him because he opened your eyes? He said, he is a prophet. But the Jews did not believe concerning him that he had been blind and received his sight until they called the parents of him who had received his sight. And they asked them saying, is this your son who you say was born blind? How then does he now see? His parents answered them and said, we know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But by what means he now sees, we do not know. Or who opened his eyes, we do not know. He is of age, just ask him. He will speak for himself. His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that he was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore, his parents said, he is of age, ask him. So they again called the blind men, and this is our text, So they called the blind man who was blind and said to him, give God the glory. We know that this man is a sinner. He answered and said, whether he is a sinner or not, I do not know. One thing I know, that though I was blind, now I see. And they said to him again, What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? He answered them, I told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples? Then they reviled him and said, you are his disciples, but we are Moses's disciples. We know that God spoke to Moses. As for this fellow, we do not know where he is from. The man answered and said to them, Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where he is from, yet he has opened my eyes. Now we know that God does not hear sinners, but if anyone is a worshipper of God and does his will, he hears him. Since the world began, it has been unheard of that anyone open the eyes of one who was born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. They answered and said to him, You were completely born in sins and you are teaching us and they cast him out Jesus answered and Jesus heard that they had cast him out and when he had found him He said to him. Do you believe in the Son of God? He answered and said who is he Lord that I may believe in him and Jesus said to him You have both seen him and it is he who is talking with you Then he said Lord, I believe and he worshiped him And Jesus said, For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may be blind. Then some of the Pharisees who were with him heard these words and said to him, Are we blind also? Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you would have no sin. But now you say, We see. Therefore, your sins remain. So far, the word of the Lord. We'll now turn to We'll now turn and hear a message from him. So dear brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus Christ, our ascended Lord Jesus Christ, over the past number of years, it has become increasingly clear that the message that we hold to, the message that we love so dearly, is one that is not welcome in our society. Think of recent bills like Bill C-4, which makes it a real possibility of a court prosecution being brought against a member of the church, of one of our churches. It is a real possibility that a pastor or an elder of one of our churches or even one of our members may have to make a stand and witness before God because of the opposition and the unbelief that we now face. And this was something that Jesus told His disciples. This is something that Jesus said would happen to His people. In one of His teaching moments during His ministry, He warns His disciples about this very thing. In Luke 12, He says to them, And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges Me before the Father, the Son of Man, will also acknowledge before the angels of God. And then he says this, and when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities. He doesn't say if they bring you, he says when. He says it's a given. At one point in your life, Jesus says you will have to testify before unbelieving, it could be a neighbor, it could be an employer, it could be a boss, it could be at a judicial authority, who knows? But Jesus says Christians will have to bear witness about Christ and acknowledge him before men at some point in their lives. Now for the disciples, this came later on in their life. This came after Jesus ascended into heaven. Just think of all the events in the book of Acts. But for the blind men in our passage, this happens right away. Jesus anoints this man's eyes with mud, he goes away to the pool of Siloam, he washes, he comes back healed, and immediately he's questioned. And so even before he comes to a full knowledge of who Jesus is, he doesn't even really know who Jesus is at this time. Right away, he has to testify before an unbelieving audience about Christ's work in his life. And he does so in the face of unbelief. He takes his stand, you could say, on the witness bench and boldly speaks about the light of the world who shone light into his life. Because those who are healed by Jesus Christ will testify to his works even in the face of unbelief. And so that's our theme this this morning, those healed by Jesus will testify to His work even in the face of unbelief. And we'll see three things. We'll see that they will testify to the opposition of His work, they'll testify to the truth of His work, and also testify to the authority of His work. So after Jesus had put mud on this man's eyes, the blind beggar, he goes to the pool of Siloam, he washes and he receives his sight. As we saw last time, suddenly he could see. Light comes pouring into his eyes, he could see color, he could see people, he could see expressions, facial expressions. There's no need for his walking stick anymore, he could leave that at the pool. He didn't need it to judge distances because he could see. Christ, the light of the world, had shone into his life and changed it forever. This wasn't like a little pebble being dropped into a little pool. It was like an explosion sending shockwaves into the community. It sent ripples, shockwaves into everyone's lives who knew this man. You think about those neighbors. Suddenly, they noticed that those deathly white holes that used to be his eyes suddenly had life in them. They could actually look into his eyes. And this gets them talking as we read in verse 8. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, is this not the man who used to sit and beg? So they start to talk about what happened. And so some see evidence of God's work in this man's life, but then right away we also see others who respond in disbelief. They say, no, no, no, no, he's just like that man. He's not the man, he's like the man. You're just confusing him for someone else. And so regardless of that discussion, they bring him before the Pharisees, because after all, a miracle had occurred and this warranted a comment from the religious authorities. So they bring him before the Pharisees and the man tells a story. Now, this man knew the sound of displeasure, but suddenly as he's telling these Pharisees about what had happened, he sees what displeasure looks like in someone's eyes. He sees that first-hand. The Pharisees weren't impressed at all. The passage tells us why. It says there, now it was the Sabbath day. It was the Sabbath when Jesus had healed this man. Jesus worked on the Sabbath. You see, in order for him to heal the man, he had to get the dust and he had to knead it in his hands. And kneading was one of the 39 forms of work that the Pharisees said was a violation of the Sabbath. So Jesus broke the Sabbath. But then what happens was they faced a little conundrum. You see, they couldn't deny that a miracle happened, but the man who did it broke the Sabbath. And any man of God wouldn't break the Sabbath. And so, the problem was for them, it couldn't be of God, but then the problem is, okay, if they say it wasn't of God, well then how in the world did the miracle happen in the first place? And so something didn't add up. And so right away you see a division forming in the Pharisees and the Jews. You see some of them who say, this man is not from God because he broke the Sabbath. And others are saying, well, he's got to be from God or else how in the world would this have happened? And now already what we see in this passage is that as the work of Christ, as His glory is being revealed in the world, it results in two very different reactions. You have either belief and acceptance, those who are kind of warm to His message, and you have opposition and unbelief. And what's interesting, if you read through the passage, as we did together, you notice that most of the people that this blind man talks to don't believe Him. You have some who do, but the majority of them don't. You see that with the crowd. Some say, wow, this is a work of God. Others like, no, no, no, no, this is, you're just confusing this guy. And you see that with the Pharisees as well. It was the majority of them who disbelieved, who didn't believe what had happened. It even says that was the reason why they asked his parents. It's because they didn't believe that this man had been born blind. That's what verse 18 says. And so they go to his parents. But when the parents don't tell them what they want to hear, they go back to the blind man. And so we get to our text in verse 24. Now sometimes it can happen in the justice system that a person can be prosecuted for a crime that they didn't commit. regardless of the evidence, simply because the investigators have one conclusion in mind. And if you take a look in history, you'll see that. There's certain people who have experienced jail time for large portions of their life, and then it turns out later on that actually they didn't do it. And it was because the investigators neglected the evidence. A heinous crime took place. The public wanted to prosecute someone. Even though the evidence didn't point to that person, they prosecuted him anyway. The investigators only looked for the conclusion that they wanted to see. And that's what you see with these Pharisees. They were only looking for the conclusion that they wanted. And that conclusion was, Jesus is a sinner. And so they were looking for anything that would support that. That's all they wanted to hear. And so that's why they ask Him for a second time. They go to Him and they say for a second time, they called the man who had been born blind and they say, give glory to God. We know this man is a sinner. And it's emphatic in the original. They're saying, we know this man is a sinner. We're sure of this. There's no doubt in our minds. And so even though the evidence pointed to the contrary, even though the evidence pointed to the fact that God had worked a miracle, it doesn't get them to rethink what had happened. They say to Him, give glory to God. Now maybe you recognize that phrase, give glory to God. Well that phrase comes up in Joshua 7 with Achan. You might recall what happened with Achan. Achan had taken something from the Lord, And then the lots were cast to figure out who it was, and it turned out Achan was lying. And just before he is stoned, Joshua pleads with him to confess his sins. And Joshua says to him, give glory to the Lord God of Israel. Confess your sins. So the Pharisees are convinced this man is lying. And you see that already in his words. So what they're saying is this. We know that Jesus is a sinner, and you're hiding something, so tell us your story again, and just be very careful how you want to tell us it. Be careful about what you say. So the evidence pointed that a miracle had happened, but they insist that their understanding of things was right. Why? Why do they do that? What we see is that it's because of the work of Christ, even His healing work, it divides. It separates into two camps, as we said. Those who are for Jesus and those who oppose Jesus. And the Pharisees were the latter. They hated Jesus. We read in John chapter 5 that they were persecuting Him. And we read in John chapter 7 that they attempted to arrest Him and even stone Him. And they hated him so much so that as we read together, they excommunicated anyone who associated with him, anyone who had sympathy for his ministry, anyone who supported him. Beloved congregation, you also will face opposition and even blatant unbelief. when you witness and you testify to those around you about God's work in your life and about who Christ Jesus is. But when this happens, when this happens, don't think right away that it's because of your poor witness. Sometimes we can do that. Don't think right away that it's because you could have shared the gospel differently. And sometimes that's what we think as well. And sometimes it's true, but what this passage is showing us, God's Word is telling us that Christ divides. Some people will listen to you by God's grace, and we praise God for that. But what the Word is telling us today is that there will be people who will oppose Him out of unbelief, even when the evidence points elsewhere. Even when the evidence is saying, no, Jesus has done an amazing work. And so we can take courage in that. Because if people oppose you, they're not rejecting you, but they're rejecting Jesus. As Jesus said, if the world hates you, he says this, know that it has hated me before it's hated you. And so the opposition that we experience, the opposition that we may face, and the unbelief, It's because they're not going against us. They're going against us because they're going against Christ. And so it will happen that when we testify about God's work in our lives, no matter what place God puts us in, that we will face unbelief and we'll face opposition for that. Yet even in the face of unbelief, we will testify to the truth of what Jesus has done. And that brings us to our second point. So there is this momentous occasion in the life of Martin Luther where he witnesses before kings and emperors about the true gospel. Maybe you know the historical account. So it's because Martin Luther had composed some writings speaking out against the heresies in the church about workspace righteousness and heresies like that. And so the Pope and the Emperor Charles IV I mean Charles V, called them. They required Martin Luther to come and to speak. To come and have a court hearing. And so there at this imperial hearing in Worms in Germany, Luther takes his stand. And he says this amazing statement. He says this, Since your most serene majesty and your lordships require of me a simple and clear and direct answer, I will give one. I am bound by the scriptures I have quoted. My conscience is captive to the word of God. I will not retract anything since it's neither safe nor right to go against conscience." And then here are these famous words that he says. He says, "'Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.'" "'Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise.'" And so despite the pressure that Martin Luther experienced, Despite the pressure he experienced to deny the truth of Scripture, and the opposition that was mounting up against him, against the true gospel of Jesus Christ, Luther, this monk of little standing, he does not back down. He holds on to the truth of God's Word. He holds on to reality. And that's what happens in verse 25 of our text. We get a little here I stand moment. That's what we could call it. So verse 25, the blind man, he's got this opposition against him, there's unbelief, and he says to them in verse 25, whether he is a sinner or not, I do not know. One thing I know, that though I was blind, and now I see. Though I was blind, now I see. And so you see the Pharisees coming and pressuring him. They wanted this man to join them in their unbelief. They wanted this man to let go of the reality of what had really happened in his life, despite the fact that the evidence pointed directly to Christ, which, by the way, is what unbelief does. It demands us to let go of reality. It demands us to let go of what we know to be true. And yet, even with all that pressure, this man won't deny the obvious. He won't deny what had happened. And it's amazing if you think about who this guy was. Because if you put yourself in the blind man's shoes, it would have been far easier for him to just let go of Jesus. You know, just to concede to the Pharisee's point and say, okay, yeah, he's a sinner, I guess. And walk off and just live a life now that he has his sight. He could have said, you know, I had some sort of herbal concoction and now I'm healed. He could have conceded the fact that Jesus was a sinner. That would have been far easier for him. He wouldn't have had to deal with the Pharisees. He would have actually saved his seat in the synagogue. But he doesn't. He says, whether this man is a sinner, I do not know. I'm not commenting on his character. But one thing I do know, though I was blind, now I see. He anchors himself in the fact of what Christ had done. And in that statement, he sided with the truth. He holds on to the reality of what happened, despite the pressure. And it's a remarkable thing when we think about who he was. He was a nobody. He was a beggar on the street. He had no job. He certainly had no sort of academic standing like the Pharisees did. He had no status. He had no formal training. He probably had little family. He was just one of the mob. He was a nobody. People didn't take notice of him. He was the type of person that the Pharisees disdained. And yet, here he is, boldly speaking up for Jesus Christ. Here he is, acknowledging Jesus before men and testifying to his work. Even despite the little that he knew about Jesus, he stood up for the truth. He would not back down. But rather, he declares the reality of what his Savior did in his life. And so here we see one of these amazing things that God does in this world, where God uses the weak, the so-called foolish in the world to declare His wisdom, to declare His power in Jesus Christ. For as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1, he says there, it pleases God that though the folly of what we preach, that through the folly of what we preach, to save those who believe. For Jews demand a sign, Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ and Him crucified. A stumbling block to the Jews, folly to the Gentiles, but to those who are called, it's the power of God and the wisdom of God. So God uses this weak man, this man of little repute, to declare His glory and to stand for the truth in front of these Pharisees. Now at this point we need to note that the blind man was merely stating a physical fact. He was simply saying, I'm not going to deny the obvious. I woke up this morning blind, as usual. I woke up and my eyes couldn't see three feet in front of me. I lived in darkness. But through an encounter with Jesus Christ, I can now see everything. So he's simply saying something that physically happened. It was a testimony about his physical healing. And yet, the amazing thing, in that one phrase, in that one phrase, he captured the experience of every believer here this morning. Everyone who believes in Jesus Christ has this, I was blind and now I see, moment. At one point in our lives, we were blinded by our sin and by our unbelief, but then through the powerful working of Jesus Christ in our lives, whether that was gradually or maybe in various moments in our lives, God broke our heart of stone and He gave us hearts of flesh. He breathed life, he shone the light of Jesus in our eyes, in your eyes, and his spirit made you alive in Christ. And this is the story of every believer, this is the story of every Christian. As that famous hymn goes that we'll sing together later on, I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, and now I see. As I mentioned earlier, we live in a world that is increasingly more hostile to the message that we hold to. And we will face a lot of pressure. You will face, in your individual lives, when you are witnessing before the world, you will face a lot of pressure to twist the truth, like this blind man experienced. Because he could have twisted the truth, and things would have been fine for him. We will face pressure to ignore, just outright ignore, the powerful work of Christ in our lives. To outright ignore God's Word and the truth of it. To go along with their unbelief, which is what the world wants us to do. Just think of the whole discussions that are going on, that are raging in the church about homosexuality and the LGBTQ movement. There is so much pressure to twist scripture, to twist it, so that we can join in an unbelief. And so we will face that in our lives. And beloved, so there is a call here. There's a call for us in this passage to hold on to the truth. To hold on to the reality of what Christ has done in our lives. To take our stand, you could say, with Luther. And like this blind man say, I was blind but now I see. Here I stand. I cannot help but do otherwise. Because those healed by Christ will testify to the truth of what Christ has done in your life, even in the face of unbelief. For ultimately, ultimately we recognize that Christ's work has authority, and that's what we'll see in our last point. So even though this blind man doesn't back down, he stakes his claim, you could say, they come back to him and try again. And they say to him, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? And here you see them trying to get him to contradict himself. And of course, by this time, the blind man recognizes that they're just not listening to him. And he sees right through their question. They're not listening to him, and so he asks them a rather provocative statement. He says, why do you keep asking me these questions? Are you interested in becoming one of his disciples as well? And with that question, he destroys all the pretense in their investigation. And with that, as the text says, they reviled him. They spew out insults. It almost opens the floodgates of what they really thought about who Jesus was. And then you can hear it in what they say. They say, you are that fellow's disciple, but we're disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don't know where he came from. You can hear the hatred, the malice, the vitriol. Notice, congregation, that throughout this chapter, not once do the Pharisees use Jesus' name. Not once do they ever refer to him as Jesus. They say, this man, that man, that fellow. They hated him. You see, asking a Pharisee if he wanted to become a disciple of Jesus for a bit of a A comical example, you could say it's like asking a Maple Leaf fan if they want to become a Boston Bruins fan. It's just not something that's going to happen. It's an outrageous thing to think. Even for them to consider the possibility. In their eyes, Jesus was inferior. In their eyes, he was just this upstart person who was walking around without any qualifications for what he was doing. He was just this backwater Jew from Nazareth. They had no idea where His authority came from. And that's what they were denying. That's in essence what they were denying. They denied that Jesus taught with authority. They denied that He had been sent. They denied that He'd been sent by God and was doing the work of God, as we saw last time. They rejected that the source of Christ's ministry was God, that Jesus was His messenger. And so they denied that, rather to say, well, you know what, this guy is some backwater, but were disciples of Moses. That's where our authority comes from. This guy doesn't have authority, but we do. But the sad thing, brothers and sisters, is that they weren't disciples of Moses. Because if they rightly understood what Moses was saying, what Moses had revealed, they would have grasped who Jesus was. They would have understood that Jesus was sent by God, that He was commissioned by Him, that He had authority from Him. Moses gave the law. Christ even says this in John's Gospel. But Jesus is the fulfillment of that law. He is the fulfillment of the revelation to Moses, of God's revelation to Moses. And this is exactly what Jesus says to the Pharisees in John 5. He says to them, Moses will condemn you. for your unbelief. Why? Because if you believe Moses, you would believe me. And this is what we see with Jesus. Just think about that passage in Luke, where Jesus is on the road to Emmaus, and what does it tell us? It says that Jesus, beginning with Moses, spoke to those disciples all the things in Scripture concerning himself. If they were reading the Scripture, If they read Moses, if they believed Moses, they would believe Jesus. Now, brothers and sisters, this is a bit of an aside, but I think it's important for us to note here. So what these verses show us, what the words of the Pharisees show us, is that we can be in God's Word and yet be very far from Him. It's possible for us to read the contents of Scripture and completely miss who Scripture is speaking of. The Pharisees thought, they really thought, they were disciples of Moses. They were the experts of the Scriptures. But they completely missed God's revelation, the fullness of God's revelation to Moses, which was Jesus. They missed what God's revelation to Moses was all about. It was about His Son. And so, brothers and sisters, as a congregation, we need to be careful. That in your study of the contents of Scripture, as you study it, that you don't miss the person of Scripture, which is easy to do. That we don't miss that it's actually about Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. Jesus even warned the Pharisees of this. He said to them, And so if we want to avoid this in our lives, We need to read the Word humbly, not for its own sake, thinking that Scripture is our salvation in and of itself, but rather read God's Word so that we would spend time with the Word who became flesh, Jesus Christ our Savior. So that's the aside. Now let's return to this blind man who's getting railed at by the Pharisees. So things start to get really intense for him. The Pharisees are insulting him, but this man just becomes even more bold. He says in verse 30, he says, why this is a marvelous thing that you don't even know where he's from, yet he has opened my eyes. He says, while you think he's a sinner, you think he's a sinner, but he's healed my blindness. And we know that God who worked this healing does not work miracles for those who are sinners. It doesn't work through sinners. So obviously this man who healed me is from God, or else he wouldn't be able to do anything. That's that awesome statement in verse 33 where he says, if this man were not from God, he could do nothing. Now do you see what the man is saying? So the Pharisees are saying, we're disciples of Moses and God has spoken to Moses. That's where we get our authority from. We get it from Moses. And what this man is saying, yes, True. God spoke to Moses. But this man, Jesus, speaks to God and God listens to him. God listens to Jesus. That's what he's saying in these verses here. He's saying that God is working through this man. And he's saying, you know what, if God wasn't working through this man, he wouldn't have been able to heal me. And again, like we mentioned, this man barely knows who Jesus is. But here he is, acknowledging that Jesus is doing the work of God, that he comes with authority from God, that he's showing the power of God, that God listens to Jesus. So what you see actually already in our text is there's a progression in this man's understanding of who Jesus really is. So previously he makes a statement about what had happened physically to him. He says, I was blind and now I see. But here his view of Jesus develops. He recognized that a miracle ultimately points to the miracle worker. As one commentator says, the work points to the worker. It says something about who He is. You can't just accept a miracle and not accept the One who did the miracle. It says something about His authority. The fact that Jesus carried out a miracle says something profound about who Jesus is. And this blind man, he's growing in his understanding, he's acknowledging the fact that Jesus is sent by God. He might not know exactly how that happened, but he knew that this man came from God. And so he wasn't going to brush him to the side. He wasn't going to ignore him. And so what you see is that the Holy Spirit is working in this man's life. He's working in this man's life, even as he's testifying under trial, even as he's under the fire, you could say. The Spirit is working in this man, not only so that he's more bold, but also as he testifies that he comes to a greater understanding of who Jesus is. Beloved congregation, the same is true for us today. Our world does not want us to say that Jesus Christ is from God. They're happy if we say that Jesus is just a man. They're happy if we say that Jesus is just a notable prophet, that he's an ancient influencer, someone that maybe we should take note of. But they do not want us to say that Jesus is from God. They don't want to hear that their relationship with Jesus Christ determines their relationship with God. That the work of Christ on the cross, displayed in the life of the Christian, demands a response from them. They don't want to accept that. So when you face opposition, as you testify to Jesus Christ, know this. that the Spirit will give you the words to speak. Jesus said in Luke 12, He said, when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and the authorities, He finishes that statement with this. He says, do not worry about what you will say or what you should answer, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say. The Spirit will fill your heart and He will give you the words to speak, even in the face of unbelief, so that you will testify to the truth And you will testify about the authority of Christ and His claim on the lives of everybody around us. The Spirit will give us utterance. And then the other amazing thing that this shows us is that like the man, as we testify about Jesus Christ in our individual lives, it will confirm us in our conviction of who Jesus is. It will confirm us in the authority of Christ in our life. And brothers and sisters, we will be a platform to display the glory of God as we saw last time. And so next week, we're going to deal with the consequence of testifying about the work of Christ. And for now, we just need to recognize that it will mean opposition. It will mean opposition. It will mean being cast out like this man was cast out. But, as we will see next time, and we'll just mention it briefly, but for those who are in Christ, for those who acknowledge Jesus before men and stand and take their stand, it will lead to great acceptance. And so, brothers and sisters, as we testify to Jesus Christ, as we do so in the face of opposition, and as we do so holding fast to the truth, and as we do so holding on to the fact that Jesus carries authority, We will give glory to God. It's interesting, the Pharisee says, give glory to God, and they wanted him to deny Jesus. We will give glory to God when we acknowledge him before men. Amen. Let's now come before God in prayer. Dear gracious Father, we thank you for the testimony of our fellow saints who boldly spoke to others about your powerful work through them. We thank you that you filled them with your Spirit to stand in the face of opposition, acknowledging Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. And as they acknowledged you before others, your Son, Jesus Christ, is acknowledging them right now before your throne. And Lord, one of those saints, as we see, is this blind man. And we thank you for his testimony. We thank you for your gracious work in his life. And we pray that you would fill our hearts with your Holy Spirit, that as those healed by Christ, that we would also testify of his work in our lives. That we would do so even in the face of unbelief, even when we are pressured to denounce our Savior and to reject him. For Lord, you have made us as a chosen race. You have made us a royal priesthood, a holy nation. You have made us your own special people. The sole purpose for that is that we may proclaim the praises of our God who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. So testifying to the world that we were once not a people, but now we are a people. That once we had not obtained mercy, but now we have obtained mercy through Christ our Savior. And so we pray that you would work your spirit in us, that we would be able to do that, that we would take our stand for Jesus Christ and testify to His work in our lives. Father, receive our offerings of praise and our thanksgiving as well, and hear our prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.