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

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April 21, 2024 Pastor Jeff Rice Covenant Reformed Baptist Church Tullahoma, TN

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John, pt. 60 | John 10:1-10

John, pt. 60 | John 10:1-10

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If you will, at this time, please take your copy of the Scriptures and turn with me to the
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Gospel of John, chapter 9. The Gospel of John, chapter 9, we'll consider verses 35 through 41.
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We'll finish this chapter today. Chapter 9 of the Gospel of John, verses 35 through 41.
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This is our 59th message in this glorious Gospel.
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Let's pray. O God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God, I beg you, by the name of Jesus the
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Nazarene, Son of God, Son of David, Son of Man, Lord, that you will speak today, that you will use me, this weak vessel, to articulate the magnificent works of your hand.
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Without you, I can do nothing. Please, through the power of your
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Holy Spirit, teach us your word. Amen.
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All right, John, chapter 9, verses 35 through 41.
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Let's begin with that reading. Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him, he said,
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Do you believe in the Son of Man? And he answered,
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And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him? Jesus said to him,
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You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.
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And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him.
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Jesus said, For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.
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Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him,
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Are we also blind? Jesus said to them,
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If you are blind, you would have no guilt.
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But now that you say we see, your guilt remains.
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Our theme for this Lord's Day is spiritual blindness, and that's exactly what's been taking place in this chapter, and I would add, through the whole gospel.
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In order for someone to not be spiritually blind, they must believe that Jesus is the
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Son of Man. It's a prerequisite. You must believe that Jesus is the
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Son of Man. Today's message is foundational to chapter 10.
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Everything Jesus says in chapter 9, verse 41, and chapter 10, verses 1 through 18, is a response to the question posed by the
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Pharisees in verse 40. In verse 40 of this chapter, the
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Pharisees asked Jesus, Are we also blind? So today, if you're wondering if you are also blind,
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I'm hoping to answer that question for you. In our outline, we're going to focus on spiritual sight and spiritual blindness.
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So point number one, spiritual sight. Point number two, spiritual blindness. I know what you're thinking.
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Jeff, are you truly a Baptist? You didn't give us three points. Well, it is what it is.
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And as we transition, John chapter 9 has to do with the rejection of a miracle.
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The rejection of a miracle. In John 9, Jesus heals a man who was physically blind, who was born blind, and he did so by spitting on the ground.
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And with his saliva, stirring it around to make mud. And he puts the mud on the man's eyes.
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Jesus could have healed this man from blindness by just saying, Hey, open your eyes.
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Right? He's done so in other gospel, other witnesses that we have.
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He has just told people to open their eyes. However, that's not what takes place in John chapter 9.
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The problem was not that he healed this man, nor that he used mud to do so.
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The problem was that he did both of these things on the Sabbath day.
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Look back with me at verse 14 and verse 16. Verse 14.
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Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes.
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Verse 16. So the Pharisee says, This man is not from God, for he does not keep the
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Sabbath. You remember last week I spoke about this strict view that these religious leaders had.
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I spoke about how they were not allowed to fill a lamp with oil.
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They were not allowed to light the wick. And they were not allowed to even blow out the fire from the wick on a
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Sabbath day. That they were not allowed to do simple tasks that we need to do quite often, especially me sometimes, right?
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You weren't allowed to pull a hair out of your head, to pluck a hair. Or if you had a wild beard hair, you weren't allowed to trim it or to pluck it.
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I mentioned last week about eyebrow hair sometimes. Sometimes you just wake up and they just point it out, right?
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Like as you're going about your day in your peripheral, you see these wild hairs just hanging down.
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Well, if it's the Sabbath, guess what? Deal with it. You cannot do anything about it.
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They had these strange strict views. You couldn't even cut your fingernails on the
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Sabbath day. And I told you my story of growing up and how my dad wouldn't let me cut my fingernails if it was the
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Lord's Day. And then how coming to know the God of this book and knowing this book and realizing how false that is just before service starts.
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Usually when Sunday school takes place, I have this little leather pouch that I made with scissors and stuff like that in it, nail clippers, and I go into the restroom.
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For some reason, that light in that restroom is a lot better than the light that's in my restroom at home.
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And I can see hair sticking out in places that I normally can't see in the restroom that I have at home.
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So I desperately rely on the bathroom, in the church's bathroom, to make sure that I don't have any wild eyebrow hair sticking out.
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And ever since I've become 35, you know, we get hair coming out of our ears.
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Right? And I'm so glad I'm not under this position of the law to where if I trimmed a ear hair, you don't strap me down as an ex and stone me to death.
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And I mentioned how Jesus was a godly troublemaker. That they have taken the law and they have perverted the law in such a way, and Jesus in his godly troublemaker.
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You know, Jesus is from the streets. He's from Nazareth. Whenever regular religious people would mention
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Nazareth, I had this preacher that I was under in the Reformed circle, he would say, oh, Nazareth, and he would spit.
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Because people were disgusted by men from Nazareth. They were looked at as trailer park or project.
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And Jesus, being from Nazareth, sees these religious leaders, knows it's the Sabbath, and he sees a blind man, and he probably tells
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Peter, because Peter and John are always beside him, right? He says, hold my wine. I've got some trouble to make.
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And that's what I see taking place here. Jesus tells them to hold his wine, because he is a godly troublemaker.
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The story starts with a man that was physically blind from birth, and it ends with him being given physical sight.
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The religious leaders start out with physical sight, and as we progress in this story, we see that they are spiritually blind.
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They were lost. They were following the devil, carrying out the desires of their mind, which is their imaginations.
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Whatever it is that their mind can think, their flesh wants to pursue.
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And ladies and gentlemen, you can do that with God's law.
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They did it. There's self -Christian cults today that do so. There's even other religions that take
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God's law and do so. Think Islamism. You can pervert
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God's law. They were lost. They were following the devil.
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They were carrying out the imaginations of their mind. Turn with me real quick to 2
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Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians 4. We're going to look at verse 4.
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Now, in the context here, Paul is just speaking about the letter of the law and the law of liberty and how people reject the gospel because their mind is focused on the letter.
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In verse 4, he says, In their case, the God of this world, which is
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Satan, has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel and the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
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These religious leaders, although they thought they were following God, it was the
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God of this world, and he was blinding their minds. They thought they were doing
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God's work, carrying out the imagination of their mind on how they could formulate this law to keep people from doing certain things, but they were only perverting the law, doing the work of the devil.
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Turn with me to 1 John 3. 1 John 3.
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I want to read for you verse 10, and then we're going to look at chapter 2.
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1 John 3. Verse 10. The apostle John writes,
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By this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil.
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Now, let's stop right there. It's one or the other.
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You are either a child of God or a child of the devil. You're either doing God's will or you're doing the will of the devil.
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Let's continue. Whoever does not practice righteousness, that's law -keeping, is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
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I mentioned that there's two sins that 1 John deals with. If you can understand this, you'll understand the whole book.
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The first sin is they were hating their brothers, whether it's the Jews not receiving the Gentiles or if they were just fighting in amongst themselves as the church which is why
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I say it's so important for us as the church. It doesn't matter if there's a different denomination.
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If they hold to the core values of Christianity, we should not be in fighting with them.
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Jesus said that you will know my people by their love for one another. It's not about yarmulkes or whatever it is that you can put on your head, turbans or brooklets covering your face.
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These are not signs. The sign that you are in Christ is that you love your brother.
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And 1 John tells us if you don't love your brother, you are walking in darkness and you are a murderer.
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And it's also the sin of not believing that Jesus is the
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Christ. So look over in chapter 2, verse 18.
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He addresses this group of people as children. He addresses them as believers.
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Children, Christians, it is the last hour and as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many
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Antichrists have come. Therefore, we know that it is the last hour.
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Verse 19, they went out from us. Verse 18 mentions two people groups.
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The children, Christians, and the many Antichrists.
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They went out from us is saying that the Antichrist, the many, went out from the children.
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They went out from us, but they were not of us. If they had been of us, they would have continued with us.
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But they went out that it might become plain that they are not all of us.
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But you have been anointed by the Holy One and you have all knowledge.
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I write to you not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it and because there is no lie in the truth.
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Verse 22, who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the
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Christ? This is the Antichrist. He who denies the
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Father and the Son. You might say, well, it doesn't say that they denied the Father. Verse 23, no one who denies the
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Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son, confesses him to be what?
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The Christ has the Father. This is talking covenantally.
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You're either a child of God or you're a child of the devil. And if you do not believe that Jesus is the
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Christ, you are a child of the devil, you are Antichrist. Many people talk about this one world leader that will pop up.
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And maybe there will be a one world leader that pops up and he will be an Antichrist. But ladies and gentlemen, anyone who denies
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Jesus Christ is Antichrist. The nation of Israel, if they deny that Jesus is the
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Christ, they're Antichrist. Muslims, Antichrist. Atheists, Antichrist.
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Buddhists, Antichrist. Jehovah's Witness, Antichrist. Mormons, Antichrist. You want me to keep going?
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One is Pentecostals, Antichrist. If you deny who
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Jesus is, you are Antichrist. They're child of the devil.
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Now listen, I don't care how many commandments these Pharisees were able to keep, if they're not able to believe in the
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Son, they do not have the Father. By not having the
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Son, they are not practicing righteousness and therefore they are children of the devil.
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Say it with me, Antichrist. Point number one.
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Let's go to our text. Spiritual site.
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We'll read verses 35 through 38. If I can get to the page, here we go.
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35 through 38. Jesus heard that they had cast him out.
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Remember in the previous verse, he would not give glory to God the way that they wanted him to.
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He did tell the truth about what he thought Jesus was, who he is, and so they kicked him out.
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They cast him out. It doesn't say if it was out of the temple. It doesn't say if it was out of the synagogue or if it was out of the city.
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It just doesn't say. In my opinion, they brought him to the synagogue, maybe he was inside, and they just kicked him out of the synagogue.
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But the text doesn't say, so my opinion doesn't really matter. Jesus heard that they had cast him out and having found him, he said,
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Do you believe in the Son of Man? He answered, Who is he, sir?
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Now right here you see, sir, your translation might say lowercase L -O -R -D.
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All right, that's curious, but when it's all lowercase, it just means sir. That's just what it means.
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So some translations will say lord, but you need to understand it means sir. That I may believe in him.
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And Jesus said to him, You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.
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He's telling him that he is the Son of Man. And he said, Lord, capital
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L, lowercase L -O -R -D. This is master. He says,
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Master, I believe. And he worshiped him.
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So this blind man who was healed will believe that Jesus is the Son of Man, and he worshiped him.
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Verse 39. Oh, excuse me. Yeah, verse 38. And he worshiped him.
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All right, so let's look at the Son of Man real quick. And I've been telling people that I would like to have a one -day conference.
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I know what y 'all thinking. My members here. Conference again. Just a one -day conference to where we go through four messages.
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Son of God, Jesus, Son of God, Jesus, Son of Man, Jesus, Son of David. And then the fourth message will be how they all interconnect.
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But we can't get it done sooner rather than later. We'll just do it New Year's. Okay. So we're gonna look at Son of Man real quick.
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So Jesus, Son of God, has to do with God becoming flesh. This is God taking on flesh.
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This is the incarnation, right? God in heaven enters into time by becoming flesh.
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The second person of the Holy Trinity leaves heaven, steps down from his throne, takes on flesh.
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This is when you hear, Son of God, that's what you should think. It's the
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God -Man becoming flesh. Jesus, Son of David, informs us who this
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Jesus, Son of God is. That it is the Messiah. When you read through the Old Testament prophets, that's concerning the
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Christ, concerning the Messiah, it is that he is going to be a son of David, meaning that he will keep the covenant, he will keep the law, he will sit on the throne of David, and his kingdom is everlasting.
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So when you hear someone say, Jesus, Son of David, they are professing that Jesus is the
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Messiah. Jesus, Son of Man, has to do with a human who is divine.
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Son of God, divine, becoming flesh, Son of Man, a human who is
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God. Who is God. His humanity is pointing to his deity.
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Jesus is referred to as Son of Man 82 times in the New Testament.
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80 times by Jesus himself, once in a narrative, and by Stephen one time in Acts chapter 7 verse 56.
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Acts chapter 7 verse 56 says this. And he said,
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Behold, now this is whenever Stephen is being stoned to death for preaching
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Christ, as these stones are coming toward him, hitting him, he says, Behold, I see the heavens open and the
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Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. Jesus says of himself in Matthew chapter 12 verse 8,
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For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. I promise I'm not going to go through all 80.
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Matthew chapter 8 verse 20, Jesus says to him, I mean, and Jesus said to him,
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Foxes have hoes, birds have air, I mean, the birds of the air have nests, but the
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Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. The King, the
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God that became flesh, the one in whose humanity points to his deity, was homeless.
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He had no place to lay his head. Luke chapter 9 verse 44, Jesus says,
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Let these words seek into your ears. The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of man.
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Speaking of his crucifixion, notice the difference between Son of Man and the hands of man.
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Matthew chapter 26 verse 64, this is whenever he has been already taken into captivity.
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He's being questioned by Caiaphas and Ananias. And they ask him, is he claiming to be
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Christ, Son of God? And Jesus said to him, You have said so. But I tell you from now on, you will see the
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Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power coming on the clouds of heaven.
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Stephen, when he's being stoned, he sees Jesus standing. That's Jesus standing up from his throne, paying attention to his body, which is being stoned.
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Turn with me to Daniel chapter 7, and we'll see where the Son of Man comes from.
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Daniel chapter 7, we're going to read verses 13 and 14. Daniel chapter 7.
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This is Daniel having a vision. And I saw in a night vision, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, think about what he just said to Ananias.
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There came one like a Son of Man, and he came to the ancient of days.
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This is God the Father, the Son of Man, Jesus, coming to the ancient of days,
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God the Father, and was presented before him. And to him, the
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Son of Man, was given dominion and glory in the kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.
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His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed.
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You say, well, when did this happen? Acts chapter 1, verse 9. We see the Son of Man being lifted up in his ascension, and he's taken away by a cloud.
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And at that moment, at that moment, he was presented before God the
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Father. He has kept the law through his resurrection.
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In Acts chapter 2, we see that he sits on the throne of David, and at his ascension, his father gives him the kingdom that's everlasting.
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Ladies and gentlemen, if you're a Christian today, you're in his kingdom. Unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
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And if you're born again, although it might not be tangible, you're in it.
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You're in his kingdom, and it is an everlasting kingdom. It will not end.
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Matthew chapter 28, verse 18 through 20, Jesus speaking to his disciples, and it says,
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And Jesus came to them, his disciples, and he said, All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.
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Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations. Right over here, it says, in Daniel, verse 14,
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And to him was given dominion, the glory, and the kingdom, and all peoples, nations, and languages are to serve him.
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He says, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, because that is true, and make disciples of all nations.
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Baptizing them, who? The disciples, in the name of the Father, and of the
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Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold,
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I am with you always to the end of the age. Jesus, Son of God, enters into time.
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Jesus, Son of David, keeps the law, and Jesus, the Son of Man, receives the kingdom.
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And in our text, in John 9,
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Jesus finds the man whom he had healed from blindness, and he asked him if he believed in the
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Son of Man. He says, Do you believe that I am the
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God -Man? If you remember, earlier on, when he was confessing who
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Jesus was, he says, He has to be a prophet. And we looked at that this could be speaking about the prophet that Moses prophesied about, that there would be a prophet that would come from among them, the
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Jews, and when he came, the Jews were to listen to him. They were to no longer follow
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Moses. They were to follow Jesus Christ. Do you believe?
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The man finds out that Jesus is the Son of Man, that he is the God -Man, and he believes, and he worships him.
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He worships him. He worships him. Jesus is
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God. He's worthy of our worship. He's worthy of you coming out today to worship him, and he's also worthy for you every day by yourself or with your family to worship him.
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This man was not only healed from physical blindness, but we see here in this text that he was healed from spiritual blindness and given spiritual sight.
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Sight to believe and to worship Jesus as God. Point number two. We'll read verses 39 through 41, and we'll come back to 39.
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Jesus said, For judgment I have come into this world that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.
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Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, Are we also blind?
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Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you would have no guilt, but now you say,
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We see your guilt remains. Now some may hear this and think,
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Wait a minute. It might be you. I thought the Bible taught that Jesus did not come to judge, and you would be kind of right if you're thinking that.
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You're kind of right, right? You're kind of right. Turn with me to John 3.
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We'll look at verses 17. John 3, verse 17. Now depending on your translation, it might differ a little bit, and I'll try to accommodate for that.
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Verse 17. Jesus speaking, For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn.
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So your translation might say judge. To judge the world or to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
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The Bible says that God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
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Well, just keep reading. Verse 18. For whoever believes in him is not condemned, is not judged.
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But whoever does not believe is judged already. You're condemned already if you do not believe in him because he has not believed in the name of the only
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Son of God. Verse 19. And this is the judgment that light has come into the world.
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John chapter 8, verse 12. Jesus says, For I am the light of the world. He says,
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Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness. He is the light of the world pointing to himself being the light that was in the wilderness that the
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Israelites would follow. Light has come into the world and people love darkness rather than light because their works were evil.
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Jesus didn't come to judge the world. Jesus is the judgment. He is the judgment.
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If Jesus was to quote the U .S. President Henry S. Truman, he would say,
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The buck stops here. What we believe about Jesus matters.
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It matters. What we believe about Jesus matters. If you believe Jesus is who he says he is, then you have been given spiritual sight.
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And thank God because most people have not been given this. You can see.
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You can see the kingdom of God. You know that you're in this kingdom.
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And you know that there's people around the world that you cannot get to today that are in this kingdom.
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I like to speak about my friend Braden. Braden's in Eggerman, Idaho. We're in the same kingdom.
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And there's no way that I can get to him today to shake his hand and hug his neck. And we're in the exact same kingdom.
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And yet we can open these doors right here and walk out and we think, Man, I don't see the kingdom.
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Shame on us. We need to know that the kingdom is here and we are in it.
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And we as Christians need to live like we're in it. What we believe about Jesus matters.
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But however, if you do not worship him, it's because you don't really believe in him.
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And therefore, you are spiritually blind. Being religious is not enough.
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And as a matter of fact, it may only condemn you. Turn with me to the gospel of Luke.
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The gospel of Luke, we'll look at verse, chapter five. We'll read verses 27 through 32.
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32 being the key verse. Luke chapter five, 27 through 32.
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It reads, After this, he went out and saw a tax collector named
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Levi, that he here is Jesus, sitting at a tax booth. And he said to him,
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Follow me. And leaving everything. Think about that, he left everything.
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He left his job post. He rose and he followed him and Levi made him a great feast in his house.
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There came a large company of tax collectors and others reclined at the table with them.
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And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled at his disciples saying,
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Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Which today would be pimps and prostitutes.
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Why do you eat with tax collectors and sinners? And Jesus said to them, Those who are well have no need for a physician, but those who are sick.
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Verse 32, key verse. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
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In the case of some, growing up religious only hurts your standing before God.
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Some of the hardest people to witness Christ to are those who have a Christian background.
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Because if Christ has truly opened your eyes from spiritual blindness to see him and his kingdom, listen to me, you could never walk away from it.
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You could never walk away from his kingdom. You can never walk away from him.
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Why? Because you are his. You are his. And unlike you, he does not lose his possessions.
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You are his body. He does not chop off his hand and throw it away. He keeps you.
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And he nurses you. And if you run off and try to sin, and guess what he does?
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As a good parent would, the father disciplines you. He will not allow rebellion in his kingdom.
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He will not allow it. No one has ever been more religious than the religious
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Jews. And still today, the nation of Israel, American, wherever they are, who fall under Judaism are anti -Christ.
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And there's groups of Christians who refuse to witness to them Christ because they still think they're
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God's people. We are God's people. And God has called us to be the light of the world, the light to the nations, and to take
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Christ to them. And shame on us if we don't. Shame on you if you don't.
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When you're judged, I'm not going to be there to be judged for you. They believed that their eyes were open, but Jesus came to show them that they were blind.
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The religious Jews asked Jesus a question in verse 40. Look again at verse 40 of our text.
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Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, Are we also blind?
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Jesus responds to this question in verse 41 and in chapter 10 verses 1 through 8.
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But for today's message, we're only going to get to verse 41. Now let's read that again, but let's add verse 41 to it.
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Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and they said to him, Are we also blind?
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Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you would have no guilt.
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But now that you say we see, your guilt remains. Have you ever had a conversation with someone that was actually two different conversations going on, or is that just me and my wife?
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Right? Like you're having a conversation. You think she's understanding what you say.
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She's nodding her head or he's nodding her head and there's a yes and some amens. And weeks later, you go back to this conversation and you find out we were talking about two different things.
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Are we the only ones that this happens to? I blame it on the woman, but that's just me.
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I mean, it can happen with some dudes as well, I guess, right? But that's what's happening here.
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They're having two different conversations. The religious leaders, the Pharisees, they're thinking that he came to make them physically blind.
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That's what they're thinking. That's what seems to be going on in this text.
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Jesus switches the conversation from physical to spiritual while the
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Pharisees are still thinking it's physical. They answer, are we also blind? Like they're looking out of their eyes.
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They're questioning Jesus' sanity. You're saying we're blind, I can see you.
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I mean, Jesus very well could have struck them with blindness, right? We see this happen to Saul, Paul. He could have struck them with blindness.
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And as a matter of fact, that would have been the kind of sign that would cause someone to believe, right?
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To have something put on you such as blindness by a person and then they were able to take the blindness away from you.
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Like talking about getting someone's attention. That would have woke them up, right? We saw this with God and Moses, right?
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When God gave Moses leprosy in his arm and then he took the leprosy away.
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That got Moses' attention. Moses was like, okay, I'm going to listen. What do you got to say?
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He just gave me leprosy and took it away. He made me unclean and then clean again.
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I'm gonna listen to this guy. That got Moses' attention. Just like if Jesus would have gave them physical blindness and taken that physical blindness away from them, would have gotten their attention.
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But as we know, Jesus came so that those who can see become blind.
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Look with me again at a different gospel. The gospel of Matthew chapter 11.
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Matthew chapter 11 verse 25. Gospel of Matthew chapter 11 verse 25 says this,
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At that time, Jesus declared, I thank you,
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Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and the understanding and have revealed them to little children.
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Today in this service, you got to witness how God has revealed these things to little children.
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Sarah was added to the body of Christ in baptism. She put on Christ.
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She was clothed with Christ. In front of your eyes, you saw this take place.
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She believes. She knows there's a kingdom. She knows that Jesus is the
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Christ, the Son of the living God. That Jesus is the God -man. She believes this.
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And she showed it publicly with her confession. Yet we have these wise men in the world who think they know it all.
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Science, science, science. As if the Bible isn't scientific. The most logical thing in the world is to believe that there's a
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God. Creation declares its glory. Nothing comes from nothing.
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If there was nothing in the beginning, then there will be nothing now. Something had to create us.
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Jesus came to reveal to us who this God is. You can only know the Father through the
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Son. Again, back to our text, John chapter 9.
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You see, verse 41 here has to be interpreted spiritually.
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There's just no other way around it. I'm going to read it the way it would sound if it wasn't.
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Verse 41. If you were blind, you would have no guilt.
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So think physical blindness. If you were physically blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you say we see, your guilt remains.
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That just doesn't make any sense. So if you were blind, you would have no guilt.
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Well, what's he saying here? Guilt of what? For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Everyone has broken
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God's law. If you're able to keep the law, you do not need a Savior. So this guilt here and this blindness here doesn't seem to fit what
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Jesus is saying. It doesn't seem to fit. So blind here in verse 41 has to be spiritual.
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I believe it is speaking about being ignorant of the word of God concerning Jesus Christ.
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And as we've seen through John 5, 6, 7, and 8, they didn't like being called ignorant of the word of God.
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But Jesus keeps reminding them that they know the Scriptures, but they don't know the
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Scriptures because they don't know Him. They don't understand that these Scriptures were revealing to them
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Him. And when it says you have no guilt, the earliest manuscripts recorded as you would have not sinned.
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Now all of our modern day Bibles will have you will have no guilt, which is a good translation. But the way the
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Greek renders it in the early translation, in the earliest text manuscripts that we have, it would say you would have not sinned.
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So is he saying that if you were physically blind, you would have not sinned? No, physically blind people sin.
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Physically blind people sin. You can be blind, deaf, and dumb, and guess what you are?
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A sinner. You're a sinner, just like everybody else. If you ever told one lie, you're a liar.
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If you've ever stolen a dollar, you're a thief. So on and so forth. And for some reason, the liar thinks he's better than the thief.
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Every one of us have committed sins. So I'm going to read this again, but I'm going to interpret it in light of its interpretation.
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Verse 41. This is how I see it being laid out. If you were blind to the word of God concerning me, you would not be guilty.
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But since you say, we know the word of God concerning the
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Messiah, your guilt remains. That better helps us to better understand the spiritual aspect that's taking place.
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If you were blind to the word of God concerning me, in order to be a
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Pharisee, you had to be able to recite the Torah and the
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Tetevim, the Netevim, and you would have to be able to recite by memory the 300 and something prophecies of the coming
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Messiah. They knew these prophecies. They knew what the word says. He says, if you were blind to the word of God concerning me, you would have no guilt.
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But since you say, we know the word of God concerning you, the Messiah, your guilt remains.
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And I'm reminded of that verse, I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
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The sin here, the sin of guilt here is unbelief.
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They did not believe. They're blind because they don't believe that He is the
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Son of Man. Remember the theme verse of this whole gospel. And this time,
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I want you to turn to it so you can see it. John chapter 20. I know we've looked at it a lot and there's some messages where I'll just recite it, but I want you to see it this time again.
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John chapter 20, verse 30 and 31. Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples.
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And you can read about these other signs in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, which are not written in this book, the book of John.
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But these, these seven signs, these seven miracles were written that 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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You can catch that. This book was written so that you may believe that Jesus is the
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Son of God and that by believing, you may have life.
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If you don't believe, you do not have life in His name.
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This is speaking of eternal life. The man who was healed from physical blindness believed that Jesus was the
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Son of Man and therefore was given life. The Pharisees who claimed to be the teachers of the word, of the law word, did not believe that Jesus was who
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He said He was and therefore they remain in their sin and death. They went out from us.
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This is covenantal. They're holding on to shadows.
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They're holding on to things in the Old Testament that was pointing to the new covenant.
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They're holding on to things that no longer exist. Hebrews says that they're fading away.
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They are vanishing. They're holding on to these things. They're holding on to the temple. They're holding on to their good works.
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Jesus came. He lived the life that we could not live. He took upon Himself the punishment that we deserve and they did not receive it and so therefore they, the religious
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Jews, followers of Yahweh, the race by which
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God gave to us the promised seed, went out from us.
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Went out from us. Those in the kingdom of God, His people.
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If you are a Christian here today, it's because you have come to Christ. John chapter 6 verse 35, all that the
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Father gives me comes to me. You believe that Jesus is the
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Son of God, Son of David, and Son of Man and the life that you have been given is eternal.
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You cannot lose it. If you're not a Christian here today, it's because you have not come to Christ.
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Ever come to Christ. You do not believe that Jesus is the
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Son of God, Son of David, Son of Man. Therefore, you do not have eternal life in His name.
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So today, I offer to you life in His name.
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The Bible says, come and drink, come and eat, come and buy without money.
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You can come and feast upon the bread of life without the moolah.
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Your money's no good here. Your works are no good here concerning your salvation.
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On that cross, the God -man became sin.
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Galatians tells us, cursed is anyone who hung upon a tree.
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You ask yourself, how was it that Jesus took my sin upon Himself? Jesus became the curse.
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He became the curse so that you may have freedom in His name, so that you can live.
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We broke God's law. God paid our fine by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to live the life that we could not live, to take the punishment that we deserve.
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He was buried, and on the third day, He rose again according to the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven, and He sits on the throne of David at the right hand of God.
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He is ruling and reigning, ruling and reigning His kingdom that is on earth, but yet it's in heaven.
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It's here, but it's not yet. It's here. You're in it, but it's not tangible. But He's coming again, and when
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He comes, He's going to judge the living and the dead, and at His coming, the part that's not tangible will appear on earth.
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And my friend Braden, who is in Ergerman, Idaho, anytime I want, that very day, I can walk up, shake
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His hand, and hug His neck. Anytime. Just not today, unless the
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Lord graces us with His second coming. Ladies and gentlemen, you can have life in His name, and it's not by doing good works.
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It's by believing that He is the Son of God, that He left heaven and took on flesh, that He is the
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Son of David, that He kept the law, that He was given a kingdom, and that He is the Son of Man, that in His flesh,
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He was still God. He's God. And if you believe that, you can have life in His name.
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So have you been washed in the blood of the Lamb? Have you been washed in His death, burial, and resurrection?
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We are available to anyone who wants to talk. Pastor Cal, myself, and also our deacon
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Josh. Let's pray. Oh God, I love
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You, and I thank You that You hear me. I thank
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You because of what Christ has done. You always hear me. Lord, I ask for Your blessing to be upon us as a church, and Lord, I pray that You will cause everyone in here,
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Lord, to be radical in their faith, knowing that You have done the work that we could not accomplish.
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And what we're called to do, Lord, is to go tell. Right now I'm reminding myself, go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ has come.
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Lord, please allow Your blessings to fall and give us revival.
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We pray this in His name. And Lord, as we approach Your table, Lord, we ask that You bless this table.
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Lord, I ask that if there be any here today who has been living in sinfulness and they're unwilling to repent, that You will keep them from this table lest judgment falls upon them.
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Lord, I ask that there's those who are here today, like myself, who have sinned this week, that we have confessed our sins to You, knowing that You are faithful and just to forgive us of our sins, and that as we approach this table, we can do so with confidence, knowing that it's been washed in the blood.
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Lord, we thank You and we love You. Please use this meal to grow us in holiness.