11/14/2001

I think I told you last Sunday that I like coming to church here. I really enjoy the fellowship of allot of people we know, of course, through the years and I think you folks to things very well, not nobly necessarily but very well done beautifully, everything you do is well done with real class and we appreciate that so much. If it wasn’t so far away we’d be here every Sunday.

I want you to turn to St. John Chapter 9 this morning. I probably shouldn’t ask this question, but I wonder how many of you use the tapes, that are listening to the tapes every week. One person, two, three OK. If I understand you are suppose to be at Chapter 9 of St. John, eight and nine is that correct? At least that is what I understood your Pastor to say. By the way, has anybody heard from him? He is coming home, I thank of Lord for that and I’m sure you do to. When will he be back? Next week-end in time to preach.

Alright this morning we are going to be talking about the message that John writes to us about in Chapter 9, the first few verses especially and the whole chapter actually is related to this particular event which was the healing of the man born blind. He was blind from birth. Now whether you realize that or not or have thought about it but we were all born blind spiritually. None of us had any spiritual eye sight until sometime years later and some of you may be here this morning that have not yet had spiritual eye sight given through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Through his salvation and we are all out of step and in need of good sight. Blindness was never God’s plan, never God’s plan. He did not intend of us to be blind. I think if Adam and Eve had not sinned we would have all known God from the very beginning of our lives and we would have had reason to have sight but as it is we are blinded to our own sins, we are blinded to our own needs and we are blinded to what God has for us. So consequently there was a blindness that has to be cured and that cure is in Jesus Christ.

‘As he went along He saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Neither this man nor his parents sinned; said Jesus, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.

As long as it is day we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Having said this he spit on the ground made some mud with the salvia and put it on the man’s eyes.” “Go,” he told him, “wash in the pool of Siloam,” this word means sent, so the man went and washed and came home seeing. His neighbors and those who had formally seen him begging ask, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” “Some claimed that he was and others said, No, he only looks like him.” But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”

How then were your eyes opened they demanded and he replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes, then he told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed and I could see. Where is this man they ask, I don’t know he said. Later of course he met Jesus and was able to identify him with the help of the Lord himself. But at this particular point he really didn’t know what Jesus looked like, hadn’t seen him because he had been blind. It’s rather interesting the first question that comes out of the mouths of the disciples is here is the blind man they asked, “Rabbi, who sinned this man or his parents?” Have you ever heard people say the reason there children are thus and so or these problems come because of sin in there life or somebody sinned. So this is punishment, I understand, from God. In fact, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robinson got in real trouble after the bombing in New York City because they said this is coming on America because of our sins. Which may be true. But it was not a good time to say it. So it isn’t up to us to establish blame. But sometimes people feel like it is necessary. I have heard people say the reason this child was born this way or because of this problem is because of sin in the lives of the parents or somebody sinned and I have seen people hurt terribly by that. Such a cruel and unnecessary statement because certainly in this particular case, Jesus answered them and said, ‘This happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life”. Neither this man nor his parents sinned but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. So this situation was here available so that God might receive the glory and honor.

Remember the story in the Old Testament, the story of Joseph and his brothers when Joseph was sold into slavery. And many years later he told his brothers you didn’t send me here God sent me here. Although they had sold him into slavery, yet God’s hand was in it. You meant it for evil but God meant it for good. Sometimes we have situations happen in our lives that we may think are from you Lord at the time, but in reality God has a plan to do something special in our lives at that time.

I would like to have you turn to Isaiah Chapter 57 for a moment. There is a passage there I want to highlight. We often hear of problems arising, people dying, people being killed, seems so unnecessary and troubling to us and this particular passage has been helpful to me and to others as we used it. Isaiah 57, Verse 1, “The righteous perish, but no one ponders it in his heart. Devout men are taken away and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil.” We don’t know God’s plan for our lives and we don’t know why bad things happen to good people. We don’t know why children die and people die in accidents that just doesn’t seem to have any reason at all and it is possible that the Lord may be taking the righteous away to spare them from evil. We don’t know what is down the road, we don’t know what evil could befall us in our lives. So often the Lord takes people out of the way to spare them from evil.

And Jesus said that the reason this sickness was on this man, back to John Chapter 9, was so that the power of God might be manifest in this life, the work of God might be displayed in his life. I have a spotlight on me here so I can’t see you to well but that is all right. At least you can see me, good or bad. When the spotlight is used in theatres and various places the spotlight is used. It highlights the person that the spotlight is on, which you’d never see the person shine in the spotlight. You seldom never know who the spotlight comes from. That is true in this situation. God was using this situation to spotlight God. To let people know that God was still in power and still on the throne and he was able to heal the sightless or the blind. The blind man was healed in a very unusual way. Jesus spat on the ground and made mud from the salvia and put it on the man’s eyes. I thought this was rather interesting, someone said one time that as the result of the work of Christ and healing of the blind we could start cults with the various kinds of ways that he healed. Christ healed in four different ways blind people. This was one of them, he made mud and put it on the eyes and so a whole cult could be started on the healing of the eyes. Clay on the eyes was one group, another one he simply touched their eyes and they were healed, so we could have another cult group that started out of touch only. Another one, another place in Mark Chapter 10, he just simply spoke the word and the blind man was able to see and so another cult could start up, another denomination could start up just on the spoken word. Then one time he just simply spat on the man’s eyes, didn’t even make mud and the man was healed. So we have all kinds of possibilities, all kinds of methods that were used and God has the right to use any method he wants to change our lives.

When it comes to methods, there are all kinds of ways of helping people become spiritually seeing or sighted. It used to be we thought that anybody who was saved had to come to the alter and we prayed with them and they were converted at the alter. I have heard people say that is the only it happens yet. You can’t be saved if you don’t go to the alter. I have had people tell me that. Well, I am not so sure they are a Christian because they never went to the alter. Well, that is interesting because the Lord used all kinds of methods to help people become sighted. They can begin to see in church and certainly they can begin to see and have the blindness healed by reading the Bible, and that is probably one of the reasons you are using the Bible readings, so you get acquainted with the word of God which is definitely the way you become healed or sighted.

The Gideon’s have tremendous stories, I am sure you have had Gideon’s here that tell the story of people just reading the Bible and becoming sighted. Then there are those who get there sights when they are listening to a song and God speaks to there heart. Another listening to a tape. Sometimes people have told, I have heard stories, about people who are just driving down the road and suddenly the conviction of God came upon them so powerfully that they couldn’t drive any longer had to pull off the side of the road and give their heart of Jesus and really be born again, become sighted.

We have the story of one of our first Bishop’s, Bishop Martin Beam, who told the story about when he was converted. He was so under conviction, so heavily burden, by the fact that he really didn’t know God in a personal way. He had been chosen to be the preacher of a church in the Mennonite denomination, the way the did that, they have three, four or five young men in the congregation that they thought might be able to be pastor. So they would put there name in a Bible, and the one that drew out the right slip of paper is the one who became the pastor of the church. Well, his name was drawn and he was so upset about it and so concerned and burdened about it that he began to pray, Lord help me to know you and to really know what this is all about. And so one day he was plowing in the field behind a team of horses and he would stop at the end of each furrow, at the end of each row, and kneel down and pray and ask God to touch his heart and the reveal himself to him. Then he became so heavily burdened that he got into the middle of the field one day and he just couldn’t plow any further, stopped the horses and knelt down right in the middle of the furrow and begged for God’s attention in his life. And he was genuinely given sight, he was not blind any longer after that moment. And then there are those who receive their sight in Revival services and a Pastor’s heart is always glad when somebody receives sight and in a morning or evening worship service. So there is no limit to ways that the blind can be given sight.

The blind man himself they ask him about it and they said why don’t you give God glory because certainly a sinner couldn’t heal a blind man and he says, I don’t know about that, all I know is that once I was blind but now I see. That was proof enough for him that Christ had the power to bring healing to his life, into his eyes.

Religious leaders thought there was only one way to God. By keeping the law and some of us have said the only way you can be saved in to go to the alter or be sincere. We heard about a professor that is teaching said anybody who is really sincere about there religion will be saved. That is not the scripture. And we trust that professor will be converted himself.

The Pharisee says we know that this man was a sinner, later in the Chapter and the blind man said, ‘One thing I know where as I was blind, now I see’. So the conclusion to this message is, Christ has the same power today, he is making blind people to see every day. There are people being converted all over the world, in fact, just a few years ago, the first time they ever paid any attention to how many people were being converted there was something like thirty-six thousand a day worldwide. Gradually that increased until at present they figure there are well over two hundred thousand people being converted every day of the week around the world. We are not seeing as much of it in America as we ought to see and would like to see. But God is giving sight to the blind around the world. I don’t know whether any of you have heard any news this morning, what has happened in Calcutta with the thousands or hundreds of thousand of Indians who renounced Hinduism. Anybody hear any news casts this morning about that? Did you hear something about it? No, over a million Hindus are to meet in Calcutta today, probably over with by now, to renounce Hinduism. They figure there will be hundreds of thousands who will receive Christ and proclaim Christ as Savior. That is tremendous.

Are you spiritually blind? Do you know Jesus as your personal Savior? Have you received him, have you received spiritual sight? I trust you have. We sing a song sometimes, a chorus, I want to see Jesus. What a tremendous desire that is. We all want to see Jesus and want to know him. One of my favorite songs used to be Open My Eyes that I may see glimpses of truth thou hast for me. That is my prayer this morning. Lord, open my eyes that I may see.

Father, I pray that you would be with this congregation that if there are those who are still blinded, have not yet seen Jesus, who have not yet received Jesus as personal Savior that your Holy Spirit would work powerfully in their lives and that even at this moment they would cry out to you Lord, that I might see.
For Jesus Sake, Amen.

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