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Let's turn in our Bibles to our New Testament reading, which today is Hebrews 12. Jason and Laura are back in Ohio, and so rather than Jason reading,
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Dave will come and read Hebrews 12. Here we have some exhortations to consider
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Jesus. We have a prescription for dealing with discouragement here.
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When you are having difficulty and suffering, you need to meditate upon the sufferings of Christ.
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If you fail to do so, you're going to become discouraged. And then the exhortations of persevering in our faith to Christ through difficulty.
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And so, Dave, if you'll read Hebrews 12 and then pray for us, please. Please turn with me in your
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Bibles to Hebrews 12. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
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Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint -hearted.
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In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
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And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the
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Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives.
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It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons.
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For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, if you are left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
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Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them.
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Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time, as it seems best to them.
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But he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.
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For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant.
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But later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
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Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.
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Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the
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Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled, that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.
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For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
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For we have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words make the hearers beg that no further message be spoken to them, for they could not endure the order that was given.
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If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned. Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said,
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I tremble with fear, but you have come to Mount Zion and to city of the living
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God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festive gatherings, and to the assembly of the firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
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See that you do not refuse him who is speaking, for they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.
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At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, yet once more
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I will shake you, shake not only the earth, but also the heavens. This phrase, yet once more, indicates the removal of things that are shaken, that is, things that have been made, in order that things that cannot be shaken may remain.
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Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship and reverence and awe, for our
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God is a consuming fire. Let's pray.
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Our Father in heaven, we are so grateful for the privilege that you have given us this day to come into your house and to worship you, our almighty
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God. And we thank you, Father, for providing this place for us, for a place that we can come each
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Lord's Day and at other times during the week to worship you and to learn of you.
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And help us, Father, with all that we learn, that our walk would be more like your walk, and your talk like your talk.
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So help us, Father, each day to be more like you. We give thanks,
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Father, for your people gathered here this morning and ask that you would bless each one.
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Bless the homes, Lord, the marriages, the children that you have given us.
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May all honor and glory be given to you this day, all for Christ's sake, amen.
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Well, let's turn in our Bibles, please, to the ninth chapter of John's Gospel. We arrive to this chapter today.
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We'll probably be here for a few Sundays. And before us here in John chapter 9 is the account of our
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Lord bestowing sight upon a man who had been blind from birth.
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This is the sixth sign that John has recorded thus far in his
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Gospel. And each miracle that is described as a sign has pointed beyond the miracle to a spiritual lesson.
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And this miracle, this sign of restoring sight or giving sight to this blind man from birth also points forward to a spiritual reality.
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And this is set forth in the discourse of Jesus that continues on through John chapter 9.
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Now, just briefly we'll rehearse the five signs that we've already considered in our study.
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The first, Jesus turned water into wine. Second, Jesus healed the son of a nobleman.
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Third, Jesus healed the invalid man of 38 years. Fourth sign,
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Jesus fed the 5 ,000. And then the fifth, Jesus walked upon the water.
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Now, that was back in chapter 6 and now we're at chapter 9. So it's been a while since a sign has been identified.
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But we have one here. And so let's read the account. And again, it's a lengthy passage, but we have to break it down.
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And so today we'll consider the miracle itself which is found in verses 1 through 12.
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Now, as Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, saying,
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Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered,
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Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.
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I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. The night is coming when no one can work.
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As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. And when he had said these things, he spat on the ground, made clay with the saliva, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.
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And he said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, which is translated scent.
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So he went and washed and came back seeing. Therefore the neighbors and those who previously had seen that he was blind said,
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Is not this he who sat and begged? Some said, This is he.
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Others said, He is like him. He said, I am he. Therefore they said to him,
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How were your eyes open? He answered and said, A man called Jesus, made clay, anointed my eyes, and said to me,
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Go to the pool of Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and I received sight.
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And then they said to him, Where is he? And he said, I do not know. Now this was the
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New King James version of the passage that we read. There are a few minor differences in the expression of the newer translations.
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We'll speak of one or two of those later on. We first want to consider the details of the miracle itself and then we'll consider the miracle as a sign that pointed beyond itself to reveal to us truth about Jesus Christ.
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And that's what each sign of course ultimately does. We read in verse 1,
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Now as Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was blind from birth. There is little detail given regarding the time or place in which the
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Lord encountered this man. Usually time and place is specified, but not here. It may be that Jesus met this man shortly after leaving the temple area, recorded at the end of John chapter 8, when the crowd had picked up stones and were bent on stoning him.
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We read in John 8, 59, Then they took up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
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And I think it's reasonable to assume that our Lord and his disciples encountered this man as they were departing from the temple mount.
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Some distance perhaps away from the mob, but I think it's reasonable to think that it happened at that time.
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It should be noted the account itself is rather indefinite as when this event occurred. One surmise at some time had transpired between the events of John chapter 8 and this event of John 9.
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He wrote, It's likely some time has elapsed since the attempt on Jesus' life, but more than this we cannot say.
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I don't know how he can say that with confidence because there is no indication of time given here.
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John did state, however, that it was Jesus who took notice of a man who was blind from birth.
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And so Jesus is shown to observe this man, and then Jesus took the initiative to heal him.
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He's a well -known man apparently in Jerusalem. We read in other places in the
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Gospels that Jesus healed men of blindness. This is perhaps one of the most remarkable accounts in that this man was blind from birth.
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But let's just consider some of these, the similarities and the distinctions between this miracle and other miracles when
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Jesus healed blind people. Mark records that Jesus healed blind Bartimaeus in Jericho, which would have taken place about six months after this event of John chapter 9.
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And so in Mark 10 we read, Now they came to Jericho, and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great multitude, blind
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Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the road begging. And when he heard that it was
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Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.
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Then many warned him to be quiet, but he cried out all the more, son of David, have mercy on me.
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So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called. And they called the blind man, saying to him,
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Be of good cheer, rise, he is calling you. And throwing aside his garment, he rose and came to Jesus.
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And so Jesus answered and said to him, What do you want me to do for you? And the blind man said to him,
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Rabboni, that I may receive my sight. And Jesus said to him, Go your way, your faith has made you well.
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And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road. Now, interestingly, in Matthew's account, that was
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Mark's account, in Matthew's account of this event, there were two men crying out to Jesus. And we would assume no doubt
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Bartimaeus was one of them. And Jesus healed them both, according to Matthew's account.
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Now, another instance in which Jesus healed a blind man was
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Luke 7, 18 -23. And actually here he healed many blind people on one occurrence.
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And this was done in order to cite evidence for John the Baptist to convince him that Jesus was indeed the
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Messiah. John the Baptist had some concerns, some doubts, because Jesus didn't seem to be living out the way that John had thought the
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Messiah would be manifested. And so we read in Luke 7, Then the disciples of John reported to him concerning all these things.
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And John calling two of his disciples to him sent them to Jesus, saying, Are you the coming one, or do we look for another?
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And when the men had come to him, they said, John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, Are you the coming one, or do we look for another?
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And that very hour he cured many of infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits, and to many blind he gave sight.
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Many blind. And Jesus answered and said to them, Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard that the blind see.
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The lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them, and blessed is he who is not offended because of me.
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And then Jesus went ahead and spoke about how great a man
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John the Baptist was, lest any one of his disciples perceive that this should be a slight on John's character.
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It wasn't. Jesus didn't seem to be meeting the common expectations of the
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Jews as to the nature of the Messiah's mission and method.
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Well, in Matthew 9 we read of Jesus healing two blind men, and this is different than the issue earlier we mentioned.
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In Jericho, when Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed him, crying out, saying,
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Son of David, have mercy on us. And when he had come into the house, the blind men came to him.
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See, in the earlier passage they were in Jericho, but not here. Jesus said to them,
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Do you believe that I am able to do this? They said to him, Yes, Lord. Then he touched their eyes, saying.
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See, earlier he spoke, you know, the account that we have in John 9, he made some clay out of his spit.
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He touched their eyes, saying, According to your faith, let it be to you. And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, saying,
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See that no one knows it. But when they had departed, they spread the news about him in all that country.
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Later in Matthew 12, we read of Jesus healing a man of both his blindness and his mute condition.
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This was caused by demon possession. And one was brought to him who was demon possessed, blind and mute.
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Can you imagine that kind of existence? And he healed him so that the blind and mute men both spoke and saw.
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And all the multitudes were amazed and said, Could this be the son of David? Could this be the Messiah?
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And when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons, attempting to discredit him in the eyes of the people.
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And later still in Matthew 15, we read of many blind people were brought to Jesus, along with others with their infirmities.
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And Jesus healed them all. Jesus departed from there, skirted the
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Sea of Galilee, went up on the mountain, sat down there. Then great multitudes came to him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, many others.
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And they laid them down at Jesus' feet. He healed them. And so the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing.
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And they glorified the God of Israel. In Matthew 21, we read that Jesus healed blind people when he was in the temple.
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Then the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. And then lastly,
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Mark 8, we read of a rather strange account in the manner in which
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Jesus healed another blind man. Then he came to Bethsaida, and they brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him.
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So he took the blind man by the hand, led him out of the town. And when he had spit on his eyes and put his hands on him, he asked him if he saw anything.
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And he looked up and said, I see men like trees walking. And then he put his hands on his eyes again, made him look up, and he was restored and saw everyone clearly.
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And then he sent him away to his house, saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell anyone in the town.
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Now, we don't have time to get into that, but it certainly should not be understood as reflecting that somehow
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Jesus attempted to heal this man fully and was only successful halfway. That's not what is being portrayed here.
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It's been commonly interpreted that this is, again, an illustration of how
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God restores spiritual sight to spiritually blind people.
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He will restore a measure of sight to people that are coming to salvation in Christ, but they don't understand and see things clearly at first.
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But then he clarifies their vision at a later time. And so that's the way this passage is commonly treated by expositors.
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But upon initially seeing this man, the disciples inquired of the Lord the cause of this man's blindness.
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We're back in John 9. Perhaps they had known of this man, for what they asked of Jesus betrayed this knowledge.
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They asked Jesus, Rabbi or teacher, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?
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Apparently he was a man that was commonly known. You see, of course, they assume that this man's blindness was due directly to the result of someone's specific sin.
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It must have been his own sin. And what they think is that maybe when he was in his mother's womb he sinned and so he was born blind.
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Or the sin of his parents that resulted in God's judgment of causing him to be born blind.
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And this just reflects really what we commonly do.
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We tend to attribute specific causes to effects.
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And this is what the disciples did. Now there is the truth that all infirmity in this life is due to the entrance of sin into the world.
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Through the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve, there would be no sickness or death if it were not for Adam and Eve.
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But to assume that this specific man was born blind because of either a sin he had committed or that his parents had committed was ill -founded and the
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Lord Jesus corrected them. And so the question of the disciples revealed their errant thinking.
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I thought the New Reformation Study Bible had a good footnote on this. And so I've included it in your notes.
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Many Jews like Job's friends, if you're following our reading chart, we're in Job now, 6 through 8 this morning.
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Many Jews like Job's friends believed that every temporal misfortune was God's punishment for some specific sin.
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May I just interject this? I know that there are some among us that have this tendency.
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Something bad happens to you and you're looking for some specific sin that caused it.
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And I would encourage you, don't go there. Yes, sometimes we commit a sin and it would seem like the chastening hand of the
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Lord is immediately upon us and we see the connection. But to somehow assess or interpret every misfortune that you experience, try and identify some sin that caused it is not wise.
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And I would caution you about that. And so with a congenital affliction, the explanation could be that the sin had been committed in the womb or by the parents whose sinful act victimized their child.
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Jesus dismisses these as improper explanations. But this is not to say that certain trials are not the
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God -ordained punishment for certain sins. Because that does happen. And he cites the life of David after his adultery and murder.
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The child died in infancy, you remember. It was born out of that adulterous relationship. Neither does
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Jesus here dismiss the biblical doctrine of original sin. Original sin is because of Adam and Eve's sin.
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Sin has permeated the entire human race and has its effects today.
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Neither does Jesus here dismiss original sin, which teaches that all suffering is the consequence of our corporate sin and rebellion to Adam.
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But it is unwise and uncharitable to judge that the sufferings of others are specifically punitive.
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The question put to Jesus presents a false dilemma. Only two possibilities were given.
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Was it him or his parents that sinned? For the man's affliction, his own sin or the sin of his parents,
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Jesus offers a third option. You and I just don't have the ability to make clear, definite assessments of God's work in providence.
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The Lord explained to his disciples the reason that God had this man born blind. We read in verse 3,
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Jesus answered neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. That was why he was born blind.
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Of course, Jesus was referring to the work of God that he was about to perform in healing this man of his blindness, that the works of God should be revealed in him.
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We can perhaps imagine the difficulty that this man had endured through his years of blindness. The other night as I was driving down to pick up Mary at the airport,
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I happened to be listening to a radio interviewing a sports radio personality somewhere down in Carolina.
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And he happened to comment, I was born blind. And now he's this head radio personality in that market as a sports announcer.
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And he commented that he wouldn't have it any other way. It was quite an amazing account that he related.
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But you can imagine the difficulty that this man and these other blind people had in this society back then.
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He was consigned in that day to be a beggar. We saw other blind people that we read about were beggars.
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Depending on the charity of others to get through life. As one wrote, we should observe first in this passage how much sorrow sin has brought into the world.
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A sorrowful case is brought before us. We're told of a man who was blind from his birth. A more serious affliction can hardly be conceived.
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Of all the bodily crosses that can be laid on a man without taking life, none perhaps is greater than the loss of sight.
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It cuts us off from some of the greatest enjoyments of life. It shuts us up within a narrow world of our own.
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It makes us painfully helpless and dependent on others. In fact, until men lose their eyesight, they never fully realize its value.
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The blind man may not have been an old man. For we read later in the passage of his parents.
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They're called upon to give testimony. They said to the Jewish leaders respecting their son, he is of age, ask him, he'll speak for himself.
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The man was probably a younger man. One can easily imagine the common opinion of others regarding him if they were his disciples.
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They believe that this is blindness with the direct result of God's judgment either on his or his parents' sin.
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And we tend to be little legalists and judges and we tend to view others in that way.
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We shouldn't, but we tend to do so. But again, the Lord corrected this opinion. This man was not born blind because of sin that he had committed in the womb or that his parents had committed.
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Now again, oftentimes a specific sin might result in an affliction. And there are examples of this in the scriptures.
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In the case of King David and his son, born to Bathsheba may be cited. The child died in infancy due to David's sin.
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There are indeed consequences for sin, always consequences.
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Jesus told the man to whom he showed mercy when he healed him at the Pool of Bethesda, see you've been made well, sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.
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A lot of people bring worse things upon themselves because of the way they live in defiance or disregard of God's laws.
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But regarding other instances, it's clear that there were no direct sin that was the cause of one's calamity.
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And so we see, for example, our Lord's instruction in Luke 13, verses 1 and following.
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This is quite instructive. They were present at that season, some who told him about the Galileans whose blood
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Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. Pontius Pilate was a very cruel despot and he killed some
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Jews mixing their blood with the animal sacrifices. Jesus answered and said to them,
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Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans? Because they suffered such things,
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I tell you no, but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.
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But again, oftentimes we may be quick to assume that a person's calamity must be a direct result that person sinned against God.
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It wasn't so in this case. Now, someone, of course, could argue that these people died because of cruelty of Pilate.
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So Jesus himself poses a situation where you could really only, you know, credit the providence of God in bringing this about.
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He declared, Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem?
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I tell you no, but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. You know, the same kinds of things happen to righteous people and unrighteous people,
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Christians and non -Christians. We're not immune to things happening to us.
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Thankfully, God preserves us in spite of these things. Their tragic deaths could not be attributed directly to sins that they had committed.
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Jesus set forth the time of death as uncertain from our perspective. You don't know if you're going to be here next week.
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None of us do. The time of death is uncertain from our perspective, and therefore we should always be ready to face
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God, repent of sin, and be right with him. And so it's clear from our passage of John 9 that we're not capable of assigning specific causes for the afflictions of difficulties that people, particularly
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Christians, experience. And yet we tend to do so. Again, as one wrote, this is
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Donald Carson. The disciples assume like most Palestinian Jews of their day that sin and suffering are intimately connected.
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In one sense they're correct. They are simply working out the entailments of the fall. If rabbis argued there is no death without sin and no suffering without guilt,
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Paul in the New Testament would certainly agree. But once theologians move from generalizing statements about the origin of the human race's maladies to tight connections between the sins and the sufferings of an individual, they go beyond the biblical evidence, whether in the
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Old or New Testament, that a specific illness or experience of suffering can be the direct consequence of a specific sin.
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Few would deny that it is invariably so. Numerous biblical texts flatly deny.
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And so that should be a lesson for you and me about not passing judgment and assessments on people and their relationship to God based upon what happens to them.
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By the way, some are greatly troubled by what Jesus declared regarding this man.
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It was for the purpose of the glory of God that this man was born blind. They advocate that this passage should not lead us to think that God causes people to be born in this world with great afflictions only to glorify
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God himself through that matter at a later time in life. They see that as unjust. And so here is one effort from a commentator
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I really highly regard, but it kind of surprised me to read this. He was attempting to take the blame off of God.
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The purpose of his blindness was that a divine work should be wrought in him and the divine glory be revealed as it's revealed in all the signs of this gospel.
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And then I emboldened and italicized this. This does not mean that God deliberately caused the child to be born blind in order that after many years his glory should be displayed in the removal of the blindness.
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To think so would again be an aspersion on the character of God. I think the man is terribly wrong because that's exactly what
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Jesus said was the reason for the man's blindness. He went on to say it does mean that God overruled the disaster of the child's blindness so that when the child grew to manhood he might by recovering his sight see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and others seeing this work of God might turn to the true light of the word.
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Of course we'd all agree with that statement, but to somehow say that God is unjust or would be unjust if we said he was in control of him being born this way he regards as an aspersion on the character of God.
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But we would argue that God has decreed all that takes place in history. He's not the chargeable author of sin, but even reaching to the tragic and difficult physical problems that people suffer.
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And so yes there are oftentimes problems we encounter due to our own sin, but on the other hand there are problems that people experience that cannot be attributed to any cause except that what things they experience are in the purposes of God.
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One of the difficulties with the position that objects to God dealing in this way among people is the wrong notion that people have a right to health and vitality and that God would be unjust in withholding from people what is due them.
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I have a right to my eyesight, a right to hearing, and woe is
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God if he denies it me. And you hear this all the time.
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There's a declaration now that every person in America, not citizens, even not a citizen, has a right to health care.
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I might just get off on a tangent here shortly. As rights laid out in our
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Constitution, our Bill of Rights, our rights that no one can take away from us, but there is no right that is articulated that we can demand that others must give us or provide us.
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That is contrary to the whole concept of personal rights because that imposes something on others to do for you and our
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Constitution isn't set up that way and that's what troubles so many people today and they'd like to see it rewritten.
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But many people think that we have a right to certain things and God himself doesn't have the authority and would be unjust to deny us of those things.
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But this is not right. We who are Reformed understand that our sin has rendered us guilty before God and that we are undeserving of the least of God's benefits.
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We have nothing to claim that somehow God is obligated to show favor to us.
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We deserve hell. Anything less than hell is blessing. God is under no moral obligation to give any one of us any or all of what other people enjoy in this life.
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He is free and just to withhold his blessing for we're undeserving of the least of his favors.
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And so the Holy Scripture set forth God as the sovereign ruler over all his creation and though God is not the chargeable author of sin because of secondary causes,
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God rules over all sin and injustice of men as well as the health and ill health of all human beings.
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And God purposed to glorify himself through his work of mercy and grace in this man when he experienced the power of Jesus Christ to give him sight.
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God is sovereign and he's a good God in what he does and he's good in what he doesn't do.
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There is no blemish on God's character. Donald Carson again rightly wrote, although Jesus does not disavow the generalizing connection between sin and suffering, he completely disavows a universalizing of particular connections.
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In this instance he insists that neither this man nor his parents sin rather this happens so that the work, and the word translated work is literally plural, works of God might be displayed in his life.
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Formally the concluding clause could be taken as a result clause with the result that or a purpose clause and order that.
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Either way John certainly does not think that the occurrence of blindness from birth was outside the sweep of God's control and therefore of his purpose.
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Clearly the Lord Jesus is making it known that this man was born blind because it was in the purpose of God to glorify himself when he healed him through Jesus Christ.
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And so these disciples were unwittingly assuming the role of Job's friends when they sought to explain the cause of Job's afflictions to be his sin.
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They were wrong. God had given permission to the devil to afflict Job because God had given everything good to Job, but because God was there worthy to be praised.
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Regardless of having given things to Job, he allowed the devil to take everything away from Job, and Job continued to praise
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God. The Lord Jesus made it clear that God had a purpose in this man having been born blind.
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It was not due to his punishment for sin, but for his purpose to glorify himself through his son
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Jesus Christ. A good practical lesson for us from this is that rather than attempting to identify the specific cause for one's afflictions, which may not be possible,
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Lord, I don't know why you're doing this, clearly you're in control, I don't know why, nevertheless we should look for the possibility to bring glory to God through whatever has afflicted us.
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In other words, rather than looking for a cause for my suffering, Lord, how through this suffering can I glorify
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Jesus Christ? That ought to be the attitude of the Christian. Our Lord appended to his answer to his disciples of verse 3 with the comment of verse 4,
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I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day, the night is coming when no one can work. Jesus made this response just before he restored sight to the blind man.
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He was asserting that healing this man was an opportunity that presented itself then on that occasion, and perhaps at what might seem to be an inopportune time.
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And I think this statement of Jesus suggests he probably was just coming from the temple. They just escaped this mob, now they're passing through, but he felt compelled to stop and heal this man.
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The opportune time is now, and therefore we need to serve God now, regardless of everything else that's taken place.
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Our Lord's reference to it is day was the time of earthly ministry.
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I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. He's talking about his earthly ministry. The night is coming when he will have departed out of the world, and so he has a limited time, he's suggesting to his disciples, to do these good works for people, to serve people.
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He says I've got to do it now, and the time is rather short. And so he was intimating that his time among them was limited, and probably a shorter duration than they had thought.
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As one wrote, and this was F .F. Bruce, moreover the Father's works must be done while it is day, which meant so far as Jesus himself was concerned, while I'm in the world.
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The coming night was the period of his withdrawal from the world, so in John 13 30, Jesus went out into the night, while the other disciples remained in the circle of the true light, while the true light was with them.
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To the same effect, Jesus, when he was about to raise Lazarus from the tomb, another sign in which the glory of God was shown, said, are there not twelve hours in the day?
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If one walks about in the daytime, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this life, with the implication of an analogous truth, where the light of the heavenly world is concerned.
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And so he's just emphasizing to his disciples, we're not going to have a whole lot of opportunity. And so it's right to perform the works of God now.
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The New King James version in that verse, verse 4, reads, I, you know,
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I must do the works of God. If you were following along in the ESV, you might see the pronoun we at the beginning of that verse, instead of I.
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Down through history, there was a change in the text due to some scribal change.
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Sometimes scribes felt like they were correcting the text. And then once, of course, a variant entered the manuscript tradition, it would often be repeated in subsequent copies.
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Really, whether it's I or we is immaterial. However, if you take the translation as the we, as probably what
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John originally wrote, and I think that's probably right, Jesus is not just saying
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I need to do the works while it is day, but we need to do the works while it is day. And so there's a generalizing application for all his disciples.
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In other words, there's a word here for you and me, not just a statement of Jesus, that I must do the works while it is day.
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And so we are to serve. We must do the works of him who sent me or us while it is day, because the night is coming when no one can work.
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And so we're to work now for the night is coming when no one can work. And this means that we are to be always ready to serve the
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Lord in whatever setting or situation we find ourselves. And so sometimes situations arise, opportunities arise, and they're not necessarily convenient.
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This was probably not a convenient time for Jesus and his disciples after they're getting away from the mob that want to stone him.
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But the opportunity presented itself. He'd stop, he'd heal this man, bring glory to God in doing so.
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And we should have that kind of mindset as well, always attentive and watching every day, every place we are, for an opportune moment or occasion when we can bring the glory to God through Jesus Christ, through what we say or through what we do in how we serve others.
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As one wrote, The life that we now live in the flesh is our day. Let us take care that we use it well for the glory of God and the good of our souls.
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Let us work out our salvation with fear and trembling while it's called today. There's no work or labor in the grave toward which we're all fast hastening.
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Let us pray and read and keep our Sabbath holy. Hear God's word and do good in our generation like men who never forget that the night is at hand.
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Our time is very short. Our daylight will soon be gone. Opportunities once lost can never be retrieved.
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A second lease on life is granted to no man. Then let us resist procrastination as we would resist the devil.
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Whatever our hand find it to do, let us do it with our might. Quote from Ecclesiastes, The night cometh when no man can work.
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Jesus then declared in verse 5, As long as I'm in the world, I'm the light of the world. This is an interesting statement.
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Here, Jesus is claiming to be the source of truth about God and his will. And it was being manifested to the world through him.
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Of course, when Jesus left the world, he didn't leave it in complete darkness because he left luminaries. He told his disciples later,
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You are God's light as well. And so we continue onward in his absence.
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But the actual light in Christ, of course, departed from this earthly sphere. Now, look at that statement again.
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As long as I'm in the world, I am the light of the world. We saw back in John 8, the previous chapter,
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John 8 verse 12, Jesus declared, I am the light of the world. And here we read the same
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English translation. I am the light of the world. And as we've been working through this gospel, we've been focusing on those
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I am statements. I am the light of the world. I am the water of life. And so we might read this verse, verse 5, and think this is another example where Jesus is making the claim that he is
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God, the God I am at the burning bush. But that would be a mistake because the
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Greek text behind this English translation isn't the same as in those other examples.
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In those other examples where Jesus claims, I am, I am
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God, you had a Greek pronoun, I, ago, and then the verb, a me, to be,
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I am. But in this verse, and it was common in Greek language, the personal pronoun,
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I, is not included. It's implied, but it's not included. What that indicates to us, that this is not the same meaning or emphasis that Jesus gave on earlier occasions, as one wrote.
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The clause, I am the light of the world, echoes the affirmation of John 8, 12. In other words, it sounds like the same thing,
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I am the light of the world, but it does not carry the same emphasis here. The independent pronoun, ago, and that's the first person singular pronoun, you, or pardon me, first person singular pronoun,
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I, ago is absent here, so that this statement does not rank as John 8, 12 does among the
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I am affirmations of the fourth gospel. The incident introduced in these opening verses of chapter 9 is an acted parable setting forth
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Jesus' ministry as the light of the world. And so I'll say, if you're witnessing to a
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Jehovah's Witness and you're calling upon those I am statements where Jesus is claiming to be
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God, don't go to this verse, because it's not stating that directly.
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Now we read in verses 6 and 7 that Jesus took the initiative to give sight to this blind man. Again, we read, when he had said these things, he spat on the ground, made clay with the saliva, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, and he said to him,
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Go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is translated scent, probably just because it was close by, convenient, not because there was anything special in the name scent.
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So he went and washed and came back seeing. Now we read the other passages where Jesus healed blind people and we see that there were different ways and circumstances in which the
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Lord gave sight to the blind. On occasion it was due to the faith the blind one had when he was healed by Jesus, but this was not always the case.
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He used various means, ways to heal people. On one occasion he spit on the eyes of the blind man and laid his hands on him.
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On another occasion he touched their eyes, and in the case of Bartimaeus, Jesus simply spoke the word.
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And so the Lord used different methods in effecting the healing of the blind men or people.
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And thankfully did it in different ways or else you'd have faith healers today mimicking the single way in which
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Jesus healed people, claiming to heal people of their blindness. And so the method by which
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Jesus healed these people is not an important factor. What Jesus was eliciting from this man and others was an obedient faith.
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He put clay on his eyes of his spittle, go wash in the pool of Siloam. Not that there was anything special about that pool, not that there was anything special about the saliva that Jesus had or the mud that was formed.
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Just as the waters of the Jordan River were not special when Naaman the Syrian was healed of his leprosy, there was nothing inherent in the clay or even the saliva to heal.
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Rather he went forth in obedience to Jesus because Jesus told him what to do. This man was blind and yet in faith he obeyed
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Jesus and he encountered this wonderful healing where sight was bestowed upon him.
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Here Jesus took the initiative. It wasn't like Bartimaeus, son of David have mercy on me.
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Jesus took the initiative and came to this man and gave him sight. Well now we consider the response of the people quickly to this man who could now say he appeared to be so different and the miracle was so unbelievable that they questioned whether this was him.
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And therefore the neighbors, those who previously had seen that he was blind said, is not this he who sat and begged?
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Some said it's he, others said he's like him, but he said I am, I am he.
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Then they asked him, how are your eyes open? A man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes, said to me, go to the pool of Siloam and wash.
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So I went and washed and I received my sight. And so he was so much like another man, so different than what he was before, some at first doubted his identity.
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But after he affirmed to them he was the man that they had formerly saw blind and begging, they asked him how this miracle had taken place.
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And the simplest explanation is given. This man named Jesus did it.
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I went and washed and received sight. But notice the ignorance of this man.
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He's really clueless at this point. All he knows is that Jesus was this man who healed me. They said to him, where is he now?
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I don't know. Later on, Jesus comes and finds him and reveals himself to him.
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And then it says that this man who was sight restored to him believed. Here he was a recipient of this miracle by Jesus, but he was really clueless as to the identity of Jesus.
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He was quite informed. No doubt he, like all the people of Jerusalem, had heard of Jesus, but he didn't know his true identity.
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He didn't know where he was. But later, Jesus would find him and reveal himself to him fully.
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Now, before we close, we just need to point, and we're going to explain this, expand on this more fully later, but we need to show how this miracle is a sign pointed to something beyond the miracle itself.
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And so at the top of page 9 in your notes, the miracle is a sign of the Lord Jesus who bestows spiritual sight to the spiritually blind.
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And that's what this miracle ultimately points to. Not just that this man received physical sight, but when you are brought to salvation in Christ, Jesus gave you spiritual sight where formerly you were in spiritual blindness.
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That was your condition. And we don't have time right now, but we will later. We find throughout the passage that this is exactly the application that the
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Lord Jesus gave concerning this miracle. Here, physical blindness reveals in some ways the nature of spiritual blindness.
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The physical sight that Jesus restored to this man was indicative of the spiritual understanding that Jesus gives to those who are spiritually blind when
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He brings them to salvation through faith in Christ. And so the fact that this man was born blind from birth was itself an indication that all people are born spiritually blind to the things of God, that they are in need of spiritual illumination that only
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Jesus can give His people. As one expressed, granted the symbolism of the chapter, it's likely that this detail, blind from birth, in addition to heightening the effect of the miracle, signals that human beings are spiritually blind from birth.
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And that's how each of us are when we're born into this world. We're spiritually blind with a blindness that has far more ramifications and implications than this physical blindness that this man was born with.
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You think he was bad off? You and I were worse than he was in our spiritual blindness.
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And only Jesus can enable this blind man from birth to see for the first time in his life.
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And only Jesus can enable a spiritually blind man from birth to see for the first time spiritual realities, the way of salvation through faith in Christ.
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And to show you that this has been a common way to understand this, think of Amazing Grace, the hymn that John Newton wrote.
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He quotes from this passage in the first stanza, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
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I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. And that's the statement of the man later in the passage.
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And of course the Holy Scriptures teaches that all men outside of Christ are hopelessly blind to the truth of their fallen spiritual condition.
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At least this blind man knew he was blind. Spiritually blind people don't know they're spiritually blind.
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They're worse off. And only Jesus Christ can bring them true spiritual sight so as to be saved from their sin.
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The Apostle Paul wrote of this spiritual blindness, which he attributed to the devil. He wrote that the power of God must cause a person to see light, or they'll remain in darkness because of the devil.
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Paul talked about his ministry, New Covenant ministry. Since we have this ministry, we receive mercy, we don't lose heart.
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We've renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness or handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
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We preach clearly and truly the truth and nothing but the truth, without compromise and without condition and without qualification.
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However, even if our gospel is veiled, apparently it is veiled to some.
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They don't see it. It's veiled to those who are perishing. This is all non -Christians whose minds the
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God of this age has blinded. That's the devil, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
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We're going out in the world and we're telling spiritually blind people to see spiritual things, and we recognize that they're incapable of doing so.
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It's like telling this blind man, begging on the side of the road, you know, look up and see. He's incapable of doing so.
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And the people we're trying to reach are incapable of spiritually seeing the reality of things.
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And so God has to act. God has to intervene. And Paul declared this takes place in 2
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Corinthians 4, we don't preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake, for it's the
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God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, referring to Genesis 1, when
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God said, let there be light. The same powerful work of God in creation, who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
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Whenever a person comes from spiritual darkness to spiritual sight, spiritual blindness to spiritual sight, is because the power of God, an act of creation has taken place, and the
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Lord turns on the lights, and a person sees as he had never seen before.
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I recently, at the Banner Truth Conference, was able to purchase the four volumes of John Newton's works, and I found in one of the volumes, the first time
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I opened it up last night, was a collection of his letters that he wrote.
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And I found this one letter, and it was entitled, I was once blind, but now I see.
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And here he wrote to somebody about spiritual blindness. And this is how we are dealing with a lost world.
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I'm going to read these words of Newton, and then we'll close. The reason why men in a natural state are utterly ignorant of spiritual truths is they are wholly destitute of a faculty suited to their perception.
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They don't have spiritual eyes to see. A remarkable instance we have in the absurd construction which
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Nicodemus put upon what our Lord had spoken to him concerning the new birth. And in the supernatural communication of the spiritual faculty by the agency of the
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Holy Spirit, in other words, giving you spiritual eyes to see. I apprehend the inimitable and abiding criterion which is the subject of our inquiry does primarily consist.
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Those passages of Scripture wherein the gospel truth is compared to light lead to a familiar illustration of my meaning.
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Men by nature are stark blind with respect to this light, and by grace, the eyes of the understanding are open.
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Now, I felt compelled to give that rather difficult paragraph, but now it gets a little simpler.
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Among a number of blind men, some may be more ingenious and of better capacity than others.
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They may be better qualified for such studies and employments which do not require eyesight than many who can see, and may attain to considerable skill in them.
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In other words, a blind man through his own study. But with respect to the true nature of light and colors, they are all exactly upon a level.
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A man born blind, if ingenious and inquisitive, may learn to talk about the light, the sun, or the rainbow in terms borrowed from those who have seen them, but it's impossible that he can have a just idea of either.
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And whatever hearsay knowledge he may have acquired, he can hardly talk much upon these subjects without betraying his real ignorance.
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The case of one blind person has been often quoted. He believed that after much inquiry and reflection, he had at last found out what scarlet means, or what scarlet was.
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And being asked to explain himself, I think says he, scarlet is something like the sound of a trumpet.
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This man had about the same knowledge of natural light as Nicodemus had of spiritual. Nor can all the learning or study in the world enable any person to form a suitable judgment of divine truth until the eyes of his mind are opened, and then he'll perceive it at once.
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And indeed, this comparison is well suited to show the entire difference between nature and grace, and to explain the ground of that enmity and scorn which fills the hearts of blinded sinners against those who profess to have been enlightened by the
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Spirit of God. That letter was, I really appreciated it, and so I included the entire letter in an appendix to your notes.
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And maybe if you have some time, you can read it. On a later occasion.
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Spiritual blindness, spiritual sight. And it's all set forth through Jesus healing this man of his physical blindness, being blind from birth.
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It was an act of the sovereign grace of Jesus Christ who saw this man, took note of him, stopped in his tracks because he purposed to heal this man of his blindness.
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And the same thing happened to you and me when we were converted to Jesus Christ. He came upon us and he took note of us.
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He saw us in our spiritually blind condition, and he restored our spiritual sight. And all of a sudden, things became real.
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It became true. And we saw them for the first time with understanding and clarity.
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That was an act as great as God's act of creation in Genesis chapter 1. And when we go out in the world and we attempt to witness to people out there, we need to understand they are both spiritually blind and spiritually dumb.
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They cannot hear. They cannot understand. When we go forth, we preach the gospel knowing that the
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Spirit of God will use the gospel to create life in dead sinners.
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And as we go with that confidence and prayer and faith, we'll see remarkable things occur.
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And we are seeing that happen now, aren't we? And I hope, you know, one aspect of that is we realize our own inability whatsoever to change hearts.
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Only God can do that through Jesus Christ. Amen? Let's pray. Thank you,
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Father, for your word. Thank you, Father, for this miracle. And we pray, Lord, that you would help us to have confidence in the power of Jesus Christ to restore spiritual sight to those who are currently spiritually blind.
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Help us, our Lord, to proclaim the truth faithfully, fully, completely as the
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Apostle Paul declared in 2 Corinthians 4. And that we pray that you would bless that gospel to the conversion of many.