John pt. 58 | John 9:13-34

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April 14, 2024 Pastor Jeff Covenant Reformed Baptist Church Tullahoma, TN

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John, pt. 59 | John 9:35-41

John, pt. 59 | John 9:35-41

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If you will take your copy of the scriptures and turn with me to John chapter nine.
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John chapter nine. We will consider verses 13 through 34.
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Verses 13 through 34. And I know it seems like a lot of scripture here and it is. This is a narrative and we've spent so far,
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I believe it's four or five weeks in John chapter nine, getting to verse 13. And we'll have one more message in John nine next week.
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Let me open up in prayer. Oh God, Lord, we come to you in the name of Jesus Christ.
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And Lord, we ask that you give to us the ability to worship you through your word.
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Lord, your word is precious to us. Lord, we are led and guide and sanctified through your word.
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God, I pray in the precious name of Jesus Christ and by the power of your
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Holy Spirit that you will use your word through me, a weak and broken vessel to feast and to feed your people.
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Lord, we love you and we thank you. Please speak to us,
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Jesus name, amen. Again, it's good to see everyone who is able to make it this day.
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And I, again, wanna express my thanks to everyone who helped me this past week with the death of my sister,
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Elijah's mother, and for the food that was provided for my family yesterday at the funeral.
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Thank you so much. Let's begin. So in John nine, chapter 13, well,
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John nine period, our theme has been the rejection of a miracle, the rejection of a miracle.
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And today we're going to see this rejection. Remember the miracle was that Jesus healed a blind man.
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He gave him sight by spitting on the mud and with the mud, swirling it and make it, spitting on dirt and swirling it, making it mud, putting it on his eyes and anointing him.
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And he goes and he washes and he comes back seeing. Now, this narrative is going to not end in chapter nine.
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So as you read, you see in chapter 10, chapter 10 is Jesus still speaking and correcting the
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Pharisees. But this portion that we're in today is basically the ending of a long portion of a narrative that we have been going through.
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We've touched on some of the things, but we're going to just kind of encapsulate everything today so we can continue next week.
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And then the week after we'll begin in chapter 10 and we'll be looking at God's sovereignty in salvation and in depth and how
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Jesus explains this. This chapter, chapter nine, oh, better get the time on there, sorry.
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Chapter nine, like I said earlier, is an historical narrative, but it's also a spiritual narrative.
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This chapter has been setting out a pattern. This book actually has been setting out a pattern for us, how
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Jesus has been comparing the physical with the spiritual, right?
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We've been seeing the earthly versus the heavenly. That's what this gospel has been breaking down to us.
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We saw things like natural birth and spiritual birth. We saw natural water and spiritual water.
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We saw natural bread and spiritual bread, so on and so forth all throughout this gospel.
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And we also saw that this gospel in particularly is evangelistic.
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John wants people to be saved when they read this work, when they read his letter, he wants people to be able to pick up the gospel of John and read through it and God give them faith.
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As we know that faith comes by hearing and it's hearing through the word of God. John's gospel in particularly is telling you about who it is that Jesus claimed to be, who it is that Jesus is.
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And as we've been walking through this, that's where we've discovered the physical and the spiritual.
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John tells us why he wrote this gospel in chapter 20 verses 30 and 31, and it's for the purpose of evangelism.
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So let's read that verse, chapter 20 verses 30 through 31.
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It says this, now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, speaking about the book of John.
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But these, speaking of these seven signs that the gospel of John gives to us, these seven signs are written so that, here's the reason, you may believe that Jesus is the
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Christ, the son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name.
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Faith alone, and Jesus Christ gives to you life.
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The last time we were in this book doing the exposition, I mentioned although dead,
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John's been dead for nearly 2000 years, although dead, John is still one of the greatest evangelists of our time, because this wonderful, glorious gospel was written so that you may believe that Jesus is the
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Christ. And I've mentioned that as an evangelist, as someone who actively goes out and speaks to people, when asked where should we start reading,
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I point them to the gospel of John. I want them to know who
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Jesus is. That's the most important thing that we can ever know in life, is who is
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Jesus the Christ? John's whole life, his calling on up to his death was about Christ.
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His whole life to his death was nothing but Jesus Christ. Ladies and gentlemen, can that be said about us?
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From the moment when you were born again to your death, will the people say his whole life was about Christ?
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I fear for myself that that's not going to be said. But of John, we have to say these things.
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His whole life from the moment he was converted was about Christ. This gospel is not only a gospel of belief, it's also a gospel of unbelief.
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In this gospel, we discover people believing in Jesus, but we also see in this gospel, people refuse to believe in Jesus.
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We sometimes saw wrong kinds of belief, right? People were believing in Jesus for the wrong reason.
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And that's a hard, not only believing in him for a wrong reason, but Jesus refusing to accept their belief.
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We get a lot of people in our time and day who claim to be Christian, they claim to believe in Jesus.
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And as you read the gospel of John, Jesus refuses a lot of people's belief. He rejects it.
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No, you don't really believe in me. You profess with your mouth that you believe in me, but in your heart, you're wicked.
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You do not believe what is written. And so if you would look in John 2, it'll show you one instance of this, and we'll kind of look at some others here in a minute.
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John 2, beginning in verse 23. It says, now when he, speaking of Jesus, was in Jerusalem at the
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Passover feast, right here, listen, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.
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So when they saw Jesus performing miracles, they believed in his name.
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Look at verse 24. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about him for he himself knew what was in man.
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Ladies and gentlemen, if you believe in Jesus because of a miracle, that's the wrong reason to believe.
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We saw this with the feeding of the 5 ,000 men plus women and children, right?
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So Jesus feeds a large group of people with a sack lunch, upwards to 20 ,000 people, and they believe because of the sign.
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But they did not believe that he was the Christ of God. What you believe about Jesus matters.
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And you can believe right things about Jesus and not truly believe in Jesus and not truly have your faith accepted by God.
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That's why theology matters. And in John 8, we saw that some
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Jews believed in him and Jesus tells them that their father is not
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God, but their father is the devil. Could you imagine that? And I mentioned to you how when
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I was growing up, and I don't know if y 'all ever heard this, but I'm about to be 44.
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When I was in kindergarten, I think they still have kindergarten these days, everyone in my school were saying that we're all brothers and sisters.
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And they would say, in God's way. In God's way, we're all brothers and sisters. Ladies and gentlemen, the
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Bible is clear. You're either a child of God or a child of the devil. And the only way to be a child of God is to believe in Jesus Christ.
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We're all born children of the devil because we're in Adam. We need rescue. Why is it that God would send his
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Holy Son to live the life that we could not live, to take upon himself the punishment that we deserve?
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If not for a reason. The reason was we're captured, we're enslaved, we're bondage to our sin, following the imaginations of our mind, following after the devil.
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So God sends his son to live the life that we could not live, to take our punishment in his death.
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He was buried and on the third day, he rose again from the dead. The Bible says that those who believe that message are children of God.
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And if you don't believe that message, you're a child of the devil. I mentioned that you should structure your days, that we should structure our days based upon Christ, who he is and what he has accomplished.
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That Christ should be our all and in all. You and I should not be our all and in all.
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I should not be my all and in all. My wife should not be my all and in all. And my kids should not be my all and in all.
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Christ should be my all and in all. And when
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Christians start thinking like that, I mentioned you won't need me and I won't need someone to tell me to go out and make disciples because I would be following Christ.
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And Christ made disciples. And again, we all play that game when we was kids, follow the leader.
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We ride in our bicycles and whoever was in the lead, if they ride with one hand in the air, then everyone rode with one hand in the air.
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If they rode with one foot out, everybody rode with one foot out. You're following the leader. And if we structure our life around Christ, he is our all and in all.
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We're following him. We're going to be doing what he has done. Being an evangelist and making disciples is an overflow of Christ in us.
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This is what this book has been teaching. Jesus says in chapter eight, verse 12, to follow him, that he is the light of the world.
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And if you follow him, you will not walk in darkness, but you will have the light of life. I also mentioned, well, excuse me,
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I also made mention of why I believe Jesus made mud.
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Why did Jesus spit on the ground, swirl it, make mud and put it on the person's eyes?
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And I believe it had to do with the purpose of making the Pharisees angry.
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We see those commercials sometimes and you have a guy that wants to start some stuff and he'll say to the person, here, hold my beer.
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I'm going to go raise some cane, right? I just, again, I'm from the streets.
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This is kind of how I imagine Jesus saying, hold my wine. You know, they didn't have beer then, right?
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I see a blind person and I see some Pharisees. Oh, and guess what? It's the Sabbath.
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These Pharisees then made a strict rule built around the Sabbath and he's wanting to make them mad.
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So what does he do? Hey, Peter, hold my wine. I'm about to go start something, right?
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Anyone here have that kind of attitude? Am I the only one, right? Amen, amen.
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Jesus was a godly troublemaker. And listen, if you're a man and a woman of God, guess what you're called to be?
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A godly troublemaker. You are. We're called to tell people to repent, turn from trusting in yourself, turn from your evil ways and put your trust in Jesus Christ.
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You cannot save yourself. God sent his son, believe. And you might think to yourself, well, there's nothing wrong with that message.
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Well, that's because you're born again. The Bible says that that message is foolishness to those who are perishing.
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It's not foolishness if you're being saved, but if you're perishing, calling someone to believe in Jesus Christ is foolishness.
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And now we live in a day and time where everyone needs a safe space. I thank God that I was born in a trailer park, that I was raised in a trailer park, man.
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I really do. There's no safe spaces in a place when your place is on a hitch. There isn't.
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Our living room had wheels. I'm thankful for the hard times.
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Amen. They build character. I believe he spits on the dirt, he swirls it around, makes mud for the purpose of making the
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Pharisees mad. Look in verse nine, verse 39 of chapter nine.
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Nine. Chapter nine, verse 39. Jesus said, for judgment,
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I came into this world that those who may not see.
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I mean, excuse me. For judgment, I came into this world that those who do not see may see and those who see may become blind.
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He said, speaking to the Pharisees, I came into the world to heal the blind and for you religious leaders, you stiff -necked people who have physical sight,
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I came so that you may be blind. Ladies and gentlemen, people don't say these kind of words these days.
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They're afraid of the church attendance. They're afraid that you'll stop giving. They're afraid that you'll stop coming. They're afraid of God's word.
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Let God be truth and every man a liar. Now, I'm gonna read verses one through 12 just so we know where we have been.
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And I'll give just a little bit of commentary. So verse one, as he, speaking of Jesus, passed by, he saw a man blind from birth and his disciples asked him, rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?
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Remember, as we were walking through this, this was something that they believed that could either be passed down or that a child must have had sinned in this parent's womb.
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There was this thing going around at this time that if your child was kicking the mother real hard in the womb, that that child was a sinner.
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It's not gonna be an easy birth that this child was going to be wayward.
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Imagine that. And so it was imagined that if a kid came out and something was wrong with him, they would ask the mother, well, did he kick a lot when he was in the womb?
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But those were real conversations taking place in Judaism. And I also mentioned that with a sexual transmitted disease such as gonorrhea at this time, 98 % of children were born blind.
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It's 48 % today in America and it's still upwards to 75 % in third world countries where if a woman has gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted disease, if she gives birth, the baby is born blind.
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That if you are pregnant and if you're doing meth or if you're doing heroin or if you're doing crack cocaine, your child can be born addicted to that drug.
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Your addiction can be passed on to the child. And so there's this thing, who sinned?
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Why is this child born blind? Is it because he kicked too hard or is it because his mother had some sexually transmitted disease?
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This is the conversation behind the conversation that's taken place in the text. Jesus answered, it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God may be displayed in him.
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This man was born blind, has lived most of his life blind for the purpose of this moment when
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Jesus sees him. Him being blind was for the glory of God.
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And for people today, that is a hard pill to swallow. Why? If God is so good, you ever heard that question?
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Why is this happening? If God is so good, why are the people starving? If God is so good, why did someone pass away in my family?
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Listen, everything is done for the glory of God. The Bible says that all things work together for the good of those who love
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God, those who are called according to His purpose. And that's why yesterday at my sister's funeral,
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I was able to lift my hands and worship God. Because I don't understand it one bit, but I know that her death was for our good and for the glory of God.
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And if I was to enter into eternity and see the mind of God, I wouldn't be able to see how it could have happened any other way.
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But right now I'm trapped in this skin -layered vessel, right? And there's still things that I don't understand.
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But I know one thing, God is good and everything is for His glory.
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Verse four, we must work, Jesus still speaking, the works of Him who sent me while it is day.
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Night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Having said these things,
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He spit on the ground, made mud with saliva. Then He anointed the man's eyes with mud.
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And He said to him, go and wash in the pool of Siloam, which means sin. So he went and washed and came back seeing 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?
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Some said, yes, it is he. Others says, no, but it is like him. He kept saying,
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I am the man. So they said to him, then how were your eyes open?
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And he answered, the man called Jesus, made mud, anointed my eyes and said to me, go to Siloam and wash.
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So I went and washed and received my sight. And they said to him, where is he?
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And he said, I do not know. He was so different after receiving his sight, after receiving eyes to see that those who knew him did not recognize him.
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Can that be said about us, right? We're born into this world spiritually blind and in the new birth, we're given eyes to see.
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Jesus says, no one can see the kingdom of heaven unless they're born again. You cannot see the kingdom of God.
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You don't even have an idea that there is a kingdom of God unless you're given eyes to see.
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Now, when people see you today, they say, hmm, that's not the same person.
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So, well, he's like him. And you're over here saying, hey, I am the guy. Something's happened.
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Is that true in our lives? I pray it is. Sometimes I have doubts about myself.
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Let me tell you. The miracle was he was given eyes to see. And so too, you and I in salvation.
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Now, in our outline, the outline hasn't changed. We're going to compare and contrast what seems to be taking place in this chapter.
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And it is physical blindness versus spiritual blindness and physical sight versus spiritual sight.
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In verse four, we see the word day mentioned in the historical context.
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The day here, it's not a literal 24 -hour day. It represents the three and a half years of Jesus's ministry.
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And the night here represents Jesus's three days and three nights in the earth when he was crucified and put into the tomb.
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And last week, we looked at the timeline concerning application for us today. We saw that the three days, excuse me, that the day was a representation of our own ministry while you're still alive.
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The ministry that you have while your heart is still beating, that's this day. We must work while it is day.
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You must do the works of Christ while you are alive. Night is coming, your death, when you will no longer be able to do the work of God.
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You will not be telling people about Jesus in heaven, right? Five minutes after my sister passed away, she knew more about God than I will ever know until I die.
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And I've been studying the Bible since 9 -11 when the towers fell, daily.
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Five minutes after her death, she knew more than I could imagine. She could teach me something.
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I spoke about how you and I are only here for a short time and how we need to run the race faithfully and finish well.
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So let's take some time and walk through this. And as we do, I want you to see that the
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Pharisees begin their investigation. Look at verses 13 through 15.
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No, excuse me, 13 through 16. It begins with the neighbors.
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You see the word they. They brought to the Pharisees. So who is the they?
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You look back in the context, it's the neighbors, those who recognized him, begging, but they wasn't sure if it was the same man.
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And so they bring him to the Pharisees, the man who had been formerly been born blind.
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Now, it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes.
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So the Pharisees asked again. Now right here, the text is not clear.
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It says asked again. So either they asked him already and the text didn't record it, or the again is speaking about whenever he was questioned by the neighbors or those who recognize them.
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The text doesn't say. Commentaries kind of go back and forth.
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I'm gonna say, I have no idea. I wanna say since it says that they, speaking of Pharisees asked again, that this is probably the second time that they ask and the text doesn't record the first time they ask.
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They asked again him how he received his sight.
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And he said to them, he put mud on my eyes, I washed and I see.
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And some of the Pharisees said, this man is not from God for he does not keep the
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Sabbath, speaking of Jesus. But others said, how can a man who is a sinner do such signs?
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And there was division among them. As you know, the
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Pharisees had a, and I spoke about it just recently, a real strict view of the
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Sabbath. They actually believed that you could help someone on the Sabbath, but you couldn't heal someone on the
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Sabbath. You could help, but not heal. For instance, let's say that today there was a strict view of the
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Sabbath. If someone was to cut themselves real bad, we would be allowed to wrap the wound, put a
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Band -Aid on it, but we would not be allowed to stitch it. Not saying that I stitch wounds.
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Maybe she can, I cannot, okay? I ask my wife, I will, that ain't good.
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It's hard for me to watch a movie and see someone get cut. I'm over there, my eyes are going back and I'm freaking out, right?
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Which you imagine that you're allowed to bandage someone, but you wouldn't be allowed to actually properly take care of the wound.
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They were allowed to, they were not allowed to fill up a lamp with oil, light a wick, or blow out a lamp on the
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Sabbath. They couldn't fill one up, they couldn't light it, and if one was lit, they couldn't blow it out.
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Oh, you think that's weird? They were not allowed to cut their fingernails, pluck a hair from their head, or pluck a beard hair on the
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Sabbath. I would have been stoned to death.
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Amen? I mean, there's just sometimes, there'll be an eyebrow hair, just kind of like floating. Am I the only one?
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Come on! I would have been stoned.
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Now, I'm gonna be honest with you, this one right here hits me hard. Imagine being stoned to death for clipping your fingernails. This hits home for me because when
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I was growing up, in I would say a secular Christian home, my dad wouldn't let us cut our fingernails on Sunday.
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He said, it's the Lord's Day, you can't cut your fingernails. When I finally understood that that was garbage, and I could freely cut my fingernails on Sunday, you know how liberating that was?
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The bondage that we put ourselves under. And as we know, in Matthew 12, verse eight,
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Jesus tells the Pharisees that He is the Lord of the Sabbath. He says, Sabbath was not made for man, but man for the
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Sabbath. Jesus says that in this verse, He says, for the
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Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. He is saying,
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I am the master of this day. I am the master of this day.
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And it says the word Son of Man. So Son of Man, as we've been walking through this, means the
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Messiah, right? When you say, I'm sorry, Son of David means
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Messiah. When you hear someone say Jesus, Son of David, they are saying
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Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus is the Christ. If you hear someone say Jesus is the
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Son of God, they are pointing to Jesus's humanity. And when you hear them say that Jesus is the
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Son of Man, they're pointing to His deity. It seems like it should be reversed, but that is how it is.
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When Jesus takes on flesh, He is the Son of God.
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That's the title for Him taken on flesh. And Jesus ruling and reigning in heaven, given the keys of the kingdom, given the kingdom, it's
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Jesus, Son of Man. Now look with me in chapter five of this gospel.
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Chapter five, we're gonna see Jesus once again say, hold my wine.
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So in chapter five, Jesus heals a lame man on the Sabbath. This man was laying by the pool, waiting for this ritual that they believe that would take place, that an angel would come down and swirl the water once the crippled people saw that the water was moving.
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If they were able to get into the water, then they believe they could be healed. Whether that's true or not, the Bible doesn't say, but this was a belief going around in that day.
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Jesus heals this man. And in verse 16 says this of chapter five.
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And this, speaking of what Jesus did, and this was why the Jews were persecuting
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Jesus because He was doing these things, healing that man on the
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Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, my father is working until now and I am working, meaning that God the
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Father is working in heaven, so I work. And as you read on through it, He says, I can only do what my father does.
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I do what I see my father doing. And then verse 18 says, this is why the
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Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him because not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was also calling
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God, His own Father, making Himself equal with God. And that's why when we pray, we pray our
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Father. So we're including everyone in here.
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There's nothing unique about me where I can say that God is my father, although He is, but we are the church, we are a body of believers.
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And so at this time, if you would have said my father, that was blasphemy. They would stone you to death.
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And so Jesus says that, calls God, His own. He says, my father is working until now, to them that's blaspheming, and he deserves to be stoned to death.
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And of course, in the Lord's Prayer, Jesus tells us to pray our Father because it's seen as blaspheming.
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So in our text, we see that there's a division. Some believed He was from God.
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Some believed that He wasn't from God. Some believe that still today, right? Nothing's changed.
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Some still today believe, some don't. Some things just never change.
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Now let's go back to our chapter. I'm trying to get through this as quick as possible, but you know how
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I wrote. Verse 17. So they said again to the blind man, what do you say about him since he opened your eyes?
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This is, he said, he is a prophet.
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So verse 17 again. So they, the Pharisees, said again to the blind man, what do you say about him, speaking of Jesus, since he opened your eyes?
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He said, he, speaking of Jesus, is a prophet. This blind man has good theology.
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This blind man could very well be pointing to Jesus being the prophet that was spoken about by Moses.
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Moses tells the people that there is going to come one like him from among them.
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And when he comes, they, the Jews, are to listen to him.
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Jesus, the book of Hebrews, tells us that he had to be made like his brothers in every way, so that he,
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Jesus, could become the faithful high priest. Jesus fulfills the prophecy that was spoken about by Moses.
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And this man, calling Jesus a prophet, could be speaking about this, him, fulfilling the word spoken by Moses.
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And I believe it does. And we'll, as you get into chapter five, chapter six, and chapter seven,
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I believe it proves that, but we don't have time to go back and revisit that. Again, verses 18 through 23, we're trying to get through this narrative today.
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The Jews right here is speaking of the Pharisees. A lot of times in this, particularly in the
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Gospel of John, when it just says the Jews, it's speaking about the religious Jews. It's not talking about every single
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Jew. So in this conversation, according to verse 12 and 13, he is speaking to the
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Pharisees. So the Jews, the Pharisees, did not believe that he had been born blind and had received his sight until they called his parents, the parents of the man who had received his sight, and asked them, is this your son who you say was born blind?
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How then does he now see? And his parents answer, we know that this is our son and that he was born blind, but how he now sees, we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes.
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Ask him, he is of age, and while, and he will speak for himself.
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His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed, if anyone should confess
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Jesus to be the Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore, his parents said, he is of age, ask him.
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Now, in their investigation, they presupposed that this man was not born blind and was not healed.
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It would have been easy enough to prove that this man was a liar by contacting his parents, and his parents telling the
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Pharisees that this was not their child. But in this, we'll see the cowardness of their parents.
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That's what we see. We saw the cowardness of their parents concerning them being removed from the synagogue.
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These parents feared the Jews, but they didn't fear God. They feared the
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Jews. In chapter 12 of this glorious gospel, beginning in verse 42, it says this.
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Nevertheless, many, even the authorities, believed in him, speaking of Jesus, but for fear of the
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Pharisees, they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue.
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Verse 43, for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.
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Ladies and gentlemen, we can be that way sometimes. You ever been in a position where you know you need to speak up, but you don't?
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It's the fear of man. It's the fear of man. We know that we should say something.
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We know that we should take a stand, but instead we allow our cowardness to take control.
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Wait, am I the only one guilty? Forgive us, that's right, forgive us.
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Now at this time, it was probably already well known that if you confess Jesus to be the Messiah, you are not going to, you're going to be removed from the synagogue.
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Jesus has been in his ministry for quite some time by now, but I want to show you something from Romans chapter 10 that's very important concerning the confession here.
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Romans chapter 10, beginning in verse nine, we'll read verse nine and 10.
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Verse nine, because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is
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Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
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For with the heart, one believes and is justified and with the mouth, one confesses and is saved.
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Confession is a powerful thing. They were afraid of the
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Jews out of fear of being kicked out of the synagogue.
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Ladies and gentlemen, if you believe that Jesus Christ lived a life that you could not live, was buried, and on the third day, he rose again, if you believe that's faith.
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Bible says that we are justified by faith, right? Romans chapter five, verse one, therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God.
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And it says, and you confess with your mouth, confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is
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Lord. You will be saved. The power of confession.
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Now let me give you a scenario to where we could probably feel for these parents. Because we all know that we've failed, right?
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We've failed to confess Jesus sometimes because of the fear of men. And it's real easy as you're reading through this chapter to say, oh, those parents suck, right?
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They're cowards. And not really see ourselves in the story. Remember I told you at the beginning here that, when someone, they believe that someone was born blind, it's either that the baby kicked too hard or that the parents had some kind of sexually transmitted disease.
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It's believed that this man was never allowed into the synagogue.
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Because of his blindness, they would have considered him to be unclean. This man was not a part of the synagogue because he could not see.
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Because they had no real definite answer of why he could not see, they would have labeled him unclean.
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Go back to verses one and two. As he,
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Jesus, passed by, he saw a man born blind from birth. From birth.
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And the disciples asked, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents? Like this was a real issue taking place during this time.
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Who sinned, him or his parents? Now, of course, because of his blindness, he was not allowed at the synagogue, but could you imagine at the time that this child was born and his parents being members of a synagogue, their child being born blind, and the
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Pharisees of that synagogue asking, who sinned, this man or his parents?
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There could have been a time, this is just a could have been, this is nothing that I know for sure, but there could have been a time where they questioned the parents.
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Is this woman sleeping around in her husband? Does she have gonorrhea?
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Is she passing this blindness off to her children? And if that took place, the parents would have been considered unclean and not allowed in the synagogue.
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So there could have been a time where this family was removed from the synagogue because their son was born blind.
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And at this moment in our text, since their child is grown, they do not want to be removed from the synagogue once again.
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And listen, that is all speculation. The text doesn't say. In narratives like this, we kind of have to look into the text.
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I don't want to say I suggest the text, but we just kind of have to look into the background of what's taken place.
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We know one thing for sure, that they believe that it was either the sin of the child or the sin of the parent to ask to why this child was born blind.
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We also know through history and studying that if you have something wrong with you, you were considered unclean and you were not allowed in the synagogue.
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His parents just say, he is of age, ask him. And I don't know why, maybe it's just me, but I always hear that in a woman's voice.
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But no, just forgive me. Like it's the mother saying, it's him, it's him. It's not me,
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I don't have gonorrhea. But that's just, when I read it, that's how I see it, okay? Forgive me.
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Look at verse 24. I think that's where we're at. Yeah, yeah, verse 24.
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I told you, no, hold on, I'm in the wrong chapter. Okay, all right, verse 24.
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So for the second time, they called the man who had been born blind and said to him, give glory to God.
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We know that this man was a sinner. So right here where it says, give glory to God, this is a quotation taken from Joshua 7, verse 19.
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And in chapter seven, we had some, particularly from Judah, a clan of the
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Israelites who had taken stuff that they were told not to take, right?
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They wanted something that didn't belong to them. They were not supposed to have it, so they took it anyways.
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And when they did so, they caused the whole nation of Israel to sin. I always say that saying, as goes the king, so goes the kingdom, right?
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So when one person of the Israelites does something, the whole nation can be punished for it.
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And so the nation of Israel, they go to war against Ai, and they're defeated.
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They, 36 of them are killed, and the rest of them run off. 3 ,000 people run away out of cowardice because they were being defeated.
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And they were being defeated because Israel had sin, and it's the sin of Achan.
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Achan had stolen these things that did not belong to him. He was coveting for them, and he took them, and God tells him what has taken place, and they had this big ordeal to where all the clans had to come forward, and these questions was asked, and I can't really read all that text, it's gonna take too long, but they said, when they found out it was
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Achan, he tells Achan, he says, tell the truth. But in the way that he says tell the truth, it's a quotation from here, give glory to God.
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He says, give glory to God, how? By telling the truth. Did you take what you were not supposed to take?
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He admits to it. Him and his family are put to death by the whole nation stoning them, and they were set on fire.
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You say, oh, that's a little hard to swallow. Yeah, I get it.
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But all of that was done to the glory of God. He, the
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Pharisees are trying to approach this blind man in the same way, saying give glory to God, because these
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Pharisees also want to stone somebody. It's the Sabbath day.
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You're not supposed to do anything on the Sabbath. Verse 25, he answered, whether it is a sin,
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I do not know, one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now
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I see, and for some reason that reminds me of a hymn. Amazing grace, how sweet that sound, that saved a wretch like me.
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I once was blind, I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now
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I see. That's what this blind man is saying, him in the physical sense, and I also believe in a spiritual sense, and we'll get to that probably next week.
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And right here in our text, you have a man who was physically blind, given physical sight, proclaiming victory to the spiritually blind religious leaders, who, by the way, had physical sights.
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Ladies and gentlemen, listen, it is better to be born physically blind, looking to Jesus in faith, than to have perfect vision and not recognize the
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Savior. Say that again, it is better to be born with physical, to be physically blind.
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You're thinking that would be tough, and it would be, but it would be better to be born physically blind, looking to Jesus Christ in faith, than to be born with perfect vision, 20 -20, and not recognize the
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Savior. Verses 26 through 29. And they said to him, what did he do to you?
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How did he open your eyes? He answered them, I have told you already, and you would not listen.
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Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?
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And they reviled him, saying, you are his disciples, but we are disciples of Moses.
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We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.
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Over and over and over throughout this gospel, we see comparisons being made between Moses and Jesus.
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John 1, verse 17 says this, for the law was given through Moses.
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Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ, right? The law was given to Moses to give to the people.
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Grace and truth is given to Jesus to give to the people. And it's not saying that in the law there is no grace, or is it saying that in grace there is no law?
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I think sometimes we can confuse these things, and when we do, we have bad theology.
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We need to understand that in the law there is gospel, and in the gospel there is law, but the law is not the gospel, and the gospel is not the law.
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Moses came to them with a bunch of do this and live. Jesus comes and says,
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I've done this for you, so that you can live.
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In John 5, verses 45 through 47, I want you to hear what's being said here.
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John 5, verses 45 through 47, Jesus says, do not think that I will accuse you to the
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Father. There is one who accuses you, Moses.
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You can also think the law. You ever told a lie? You ever stolen something?
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You ever looked with lust? When you break God's law, the law accuses you.
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You're guilty. The law, Moses, listen to what he says.
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Upon whom you have set your hope, for if you believe Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.
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But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe me? And I mentioned earlier, after he fed the 5 ,000 people, he was, it was the, you know,
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Moses brought manna. I mean, God gave Moses manna from heaven.
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Jesus points out that he is the manna that comes from heaven. Chapter six, verses 32 through 33.
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Look at verse 32. It says, Jesus speaking, truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my father who gives you the true bread from heaven.
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For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven, who gives life to the world.
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They said to him, sir, give us this bread. Always Jesus said to them,
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I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall never hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
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Jesus is greater than physical bread. And look at verse, chapter seven, verse 19.
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Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keep the law.
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Why are you seeking to kill me? Jesus kept the law. Jesus did not deserve death.
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The Pharisees who claim to be disciples of Moses have not kept the law.
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Therefore, they deserve death, not Jesus. They deserve death.
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You and I deserve death, not Jesus. He lived the life that we could not live.
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Every one of us are liars and thieves. Every one of us are adulterers and murderers at heart.
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None of us have loved God the way scripture commands. We need a substitute.
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We need someone who can do what the Bible requires in our place. We need an atoning word.
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We need some, we need, when God sees us, we need him to see Jesus and not us.
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That's what we need, and that's what the gospel provides. But in the gospel, there is law.
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Jesus says, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. He says, if you love me, you'll love one another.
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If I love you, I won't steal from you. I won't lie to you. I won't try to sleep with your wife. You won't try to sleep with mine.
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So on and so forth, right? Jesus calls us to do these things. He calls us to love one another.
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And there's more that I could point out, but usually when preachers say that, there really isn't.
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There really is. But these religious, pharisaical Jews kept emphatically declaring their allegiance to Moses as his disciples and their rejection to Jesus as the son of man, which is the
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God -man. Now, let's wrap this up with the last few verses.
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I cannot wait till next week where we can get out of the narrative portion of this.
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You don't know, I really don't. Narratives are hard to preach. But again, we're wrapping it up because we spent six weeks in this so far.
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I believe it's five or six weeks. All right, so verses 30 to 31.
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The man answered, why, this is an amazing thing. You do not know where he comes from and yet he opened the eyes of the blind.
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And we know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does
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God's will, God listens to him. Proverbs 29, verse eight says this, if anyone turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.
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So if I'm witnessing to you, or if you're a Christian and you're living in sin and I say, hey, brother, you need to repent.
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And you say, oh, I'm good, I'm good. Me and God, we got our own thing going. Me and Jesus got it all worked out.
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Bible says, he doesn't even hear your prayer. Your prayer is an abomination to him.
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And by saying that God hears Jesus, when Jesus heals people, that means
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God has to hear Jesus. So that means that Jesus in one sense is sinless.
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That's what this man is speaking about. This man, this blind man has really good theology. Verse 32, never since the world began, has it been heard that anyone's been able to open the eyes of a blind man.
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Talk about good theology. This man is correct. Nowhere in the old covenant scriptures is it written that someone opened the eyes of a blind person.
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Nowhere in the old covenant scriptures. But in the old covenant scriptures, the Messiah is promised.
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And the Messiah is promised to open the eyes of the blind. So if you turn with me to Isaiah chapter 42,
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I promise we're wrapping up. In Isaiah 42, we're going to see a progression, even a timeline.
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We're going to see the baptism of Jesus in verse one, verses two and three, Jesus paying for our fine.
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Verse four, we're going to see the new covenant law written on the hearts of those who believe.
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Verse five, we're going to see God, the giver of life. Verses six through nine, we're going to see
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God speaking to God, particularly in verse seven, the work of Christ. Verse eight, God doesn't share his glory with false idols.
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And in verse nine, the passing of the old covenant and the revealing of the new covenant.
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Look at this, verse one, behold my servant. This is speaking of Jesus' baptism.
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Behold my servant in whom I uphold my chosen, in whom my soul delights.
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I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations.
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How does he do that? By living the life we could not live and taking upon the punishment that we deserve.
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He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it hurt in the streets.
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A bruised reed, this is speaking of his crucifixion, he will not break. In a faint heart, burning wick, he will not quench.
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He will faithfully bring forth justice as our substitute.
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He will, right here, verse five, thus, oh no, where am I at? Verse four, excuse me, please, thank you.
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Verse four, he will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in all the earth and the coastland waits for his law.
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How is the coastland going to get his law? The promise to Abraham. Through this seed, all the nations of the world will be blessed.
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How? The covenant, Jeremiah 31, Hebrews 8, his law will be written on our heart.
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Thus says God, the Lord, Yahweh, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, gives breath to the people and spirit, so he gives breath, he gives natural life and spirit to those who walk in it.
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This is speaking of our salvation. Verse six, I am the Lord, I have called you in my righteousness, so this is
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God speaking to God. God the Father speaking to God the Son. I am the Lord, I am
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Yahweh, I have called you in my righteousness. I will by the hand, excuse me,
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I will take you by the hand and keep you, I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations to open the eyes of the blind, physically and spiritually, and to bring out the prisoners, those who are enslaved to sin and the devil, from the dungeons and the prisons and those who sit in darkness.
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I am the Lord, that is my name, my glory I will not give to another, nor my praise to carved idols.
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Behold, the former things have come to pass, speaking of that old covenant, and the new things
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I now declare before thy spring forth, I tell them.
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Now the last two verses, 33 and 34. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.
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They answered him, you were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?
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And they cast him out. Now it doesn't say where they cast him out to, this could have been that they cast him out of the synagogue or they cast him out of the city.
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It does not tell us, but we know that they were unwilling to hear from him because he was born blind, he was born unclean.
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The story started with a man who was physically blind from birth, and it ends with him given physical sight.
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The religious leaders started with physical sight, and as the story has progressed, we saw that they were spiritually blind, they were lost, they were following the devil, they were carrying out their desires, the imaginations of their mind, just like you and I before we were saved.
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So here's the question, have you been saved by the grace of God, or are you at present tense walking, following the devil, following the imaginations of your mind?
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Because like I said, if you are, listen to me, Jesus Christ has lived a life that you could not live.
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He pleased God, you cannot please God. He is son of David, son of man, son of God.
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He fulfills the old covenant prophecies as the son of David. He is
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God himself who sits on the throne, who after he fulfills the gospel, and as he descends, he is given a kingdom by which you cannot see unless you're born again.
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And so I pray today that if you have not repent and put your faith in Jesus Christ, that you will do that.
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And next week, we'll slow it down again. I'm sorry for all the texts today, but if you wanna talk, we are available to you.
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Let's pray. Father, Lord, we love you and we love your word.
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There's just so much in here, God, that I feel inadequate to explain.
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And Lord, we just look to you in faith. Lord, we just ask that you will give us grace and give us mercy and that you will give us understanding and that you will allow us in faith to live like you have called us to live and to know that we're going to fail.
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When we fail, we need to know that if we fall, that if we confess our sins, you are faithful and just to forgive us of our sins.
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Lord, that's why after the message, we partake in your meal. We partake in this wonderful, glorious supper that you have given to us to grow us in holiness.
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And God, I pray right now, if there's anyone in here today and they're living in sin and they're refusing to repent, that you will keep them from partaking.
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But Lord, if there's anyone in here today, which is probably all of us who have sinned this week,
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Lord, that you would give us the ability to confess our sins, that you will break our hearts for what breaks yours.
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And that as we confess our sins to you, we know that we are perfectly cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ.
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And we are able to partake in this meal with a clean conscience, knowing that we are forgiven. So again,