Heard by God - John 9:26-34

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. John chapter 9 from verse 24. This is the word of the Lord.

So for a second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner. He answered, whether he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see. They said to him, what did he do to you?

How did he open your eyes? He answered them, I have told you already and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples? And they reviled him saying, you are his disciple.

but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from. The man answered, why, this is an amazing thing. You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him, Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.

If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. They answered him, you were born in utter sin and would you teach us? And they cast him out. This is the word of the Lord. Our Lord himself said that heaven and earth will pass away, but his words will never pass away.

Let's come before our Lord and King at the time we have together before him in prayer. Lord, we come before you this afternoon Come as needy people before a generous God who promises to bestow a lavish upon his people the greatest of gifts. We come, Lord, before you, knowing our frailty, our brokenness, our sinfulness, knowing our weakness, knowing, Lord, how weak we are and how needy we are of you. We recognize apart from you, we can do nothing. So Lord, we come and we feel like we're little chicks in a nest with open mouths.

We ask of you to fill us. Fill us afresh with the power of your word. Press it, Lord, I pray, into the deepest part of our souls. Lighten our minds and our hearts to the beauty of the cross, to the beauty of our Saviour, the glory and the splendour of our triune God, we ask. Please, Lord, I pray, presence yourself among us by your Holy Spirit.

Give us light this evening. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, brothers and sisters, we've been in the ninth chapter now for a little while, and we are quickly approaching the climax of this chapter. Now, you might ask, that's a bit strange.

You might say, brother, the title in our Bibles tells us that this chapter is about a man born blind being killed. And hasn't that already taken place? Hasn't that already taken place back in verse seven? Hasn't the climax already of that climax? Are we not heading downhill?

No. No, that's what we're thinking and we've got it all wrong because the climax is yet to come. The zenith of this chapter, the main thrust, the main event of what's going on is yet to come because it is true that what we have before us is a man born blind and a tremendous magnitude of a miracle that is Christ who presented himself before this man to display the power and the glory of God in that man on that day in Jerusalem and he made those eyes to see. created sight out of nothing. There was lifeless eyes and now he can see.

And we're not going to downplay the glory of that miracle. It astounded that man as well as everyone else around him. They were completely astonished and rightfully so. Who has ever heard of a man born blind who has now been able to see? As wonderful and as glorious as that is, the main event is yet to come, because what is far more glorious than a miracle of physical eyes open to see is the eyes of one's spirit, the eyes of one's soul, which are in blindness, in darkness, to be made to see the glories of God.

Made to see the need, the utter need that we have for His salvation, the utter need that we have as wretched sinners, unworthy sinners, grasp of God for all eternity in a place he calls hell. There's a reality there. And there's a glory to that miracle that takes place in the heart and the soul of every believer who is united by faith in Jesus Christ, by the grace of God and by his grace alone. but I also submit to you that this section that is before us, and the section that we'll be meditating upon this evening is from verses 26 through 34. You'll notice, I've said on previous sermons, it is the last of three interrogations.

This is the man whose eyes were made open once again, the Pharisees are coming before him, and they will continue to ask a series of questions. But what is seen for us is two things. We will see how the Spirit of God is at work in the life of this man, even now, although he's not a regenerated person. You need to know Christ intimately. You need to know him as Savior, and he doesn't know him as Savior as yet.

But we see the hand of the Spirit of God opening his eyes, illuminating very key, important details, bringing him to the point where the fruition of that is the salvation of his soul. When Jesus meets with him again, he meets with him twice, the first time to open his physical eyes, and the second to bring sight to the spirit. But also what we find in this chapter is we find that these religious elites, these Pharisees, the ones who are supposed to have 20-20 vision when it comes to spiritual matters, they're gonna be found to be blind. Absolutely blind, blind as bats, thinking they have eyes to see. The rude awakening will be that you do not have eyes to see.

You see nothing of the Spirit. In fact, you are dead as far as the Spirit of God is concerned. You may be able to see with your physical eyes, but that's about as far as it goes. Now, these are men who are steeped in hypocrisy. We know this already according to the study that we've had in the fourth gospel.

They're immersed in what they call religion, a cold religiosity, a cold legalistic religion. The fabrications of their own mind are elevated to the law of God and they impose that upon the people, saying that this is what God requires of us. A system that they have built. But spiritually speaking, they could not see Spiritually speaking, these Pharisees, which is the emphasis, really, on the next few verses that we'll go through this evening, these Pharisees are as blind spiritually as this man was physically before he had an encounter with Jesus Christ. Couldn't see a thing.

Grump around and feel his way. These men are that blind, spiritually speaking. Because apart from Christ opening the eyes, they will remain blind. But beloved, I want us to see that although everyone who is born in Adam, and we've spoken about the state of the natural man, we've spoken about the fact that we're born in iniquity, born in unrighteousness, born in enmity to God, we're born sinners. Born in darkness.

Now, apart from an encounter with the living God through His Son, Jesus Christ, as we've seen here, take place already, physically speaking, with this man being born alive, one remains in darkness. So it does require the hand of God to touch the soul, to pierce the heart, to bring light where there was never light in the first place. We need to get that straight in the beginning. Something supernatural needs to take place. However, at the same time, we have another truth that's spoken of in Scripture, and that is this.

that even though the light will not come unless God does a divine work, people who are living or abiding in darkness love it there. They're not looking for the light. They hate the light. They love the darkness because their work is evil. And so when presented with light, that will scatter like you turn the light on in a room and the cockroach will just run into darkness.

Straight away, that is the state of the natural man. That's the state of every single one of us, beloved, before we had an encounter with Jesus Christ. So that is to say that being in the darkness, apart from the encounter with Jesus Christ, one cannot see, but at the same time, it's not as though they're pleading for mercy. or pleading for help. It's not as though they recognize that they're in the darkness.

And that is the scary thing, because the man who was healed from blindness, he knew he was blind. He knew. His parents had told him. He knew that he has these appendages on his eyes that do not work. He's heard the descriptions.

He's heard about the colors and the different details of the wonderful world that God had created. He knew he was missing out on something. But the devastating thing is, and the really scary thing that brings terror to my bones, is this, that these men did not know they were in the darkness. They truly believed that they were in the light. And in the darkness, they were pursuing the things of the flesh, pursuing the very things that desired and made them happy.

They were pursuing the evil agendas that they had, and they thought they were doing okay. The question that may be on your mind, how is it How is it that someone can be so blind? What we've seen before us in the testimonies of those they've interviewed already, and how can that which is so clear be unseen? How can they see the obvious hand of God upon His Son, Jesus Christ, in the miracle that they've just witnessed, and the other teachings of the Lord, and then trying to go toe-to-toe with Him on the biblical scripture, and then saying, and hearing everyone say, He speaks like no one else. He doesn't speak like the scribes or the Pharisees, but with authority.

There's a different type of authority. God must be honest, but how can they not see when the evidence is stacked up against them? How can they not see? Well, a few years ago, a few years ago, one of my children, I don't remember which one, asked me to sit down and watch a short video with him. It wasn't a long one, quite a short video.

I thought, okay, it's not a problem, I'll do that with you. And it began by having a group maybe half a dozen or so of young adults in a studio. And before the video began, there was a challenge. And your challenge, Daddy, is to count how many times they passed the ball one to another during this short video. They had one basketball among them, that's it.

Six or seven of them. Now, it wouldn't surprise me if you've all seen this video. You may have seen it already. It wouldn't surprise me because I'm normally the last person to see these things. Nevertheless, I'm up for the challenge.

All I need to do is count, and I think I know how to do that well. And they played the video, and they began to pass the ball. The young adults went from one place to the other in the studio, on the screen, going from one place to another, and passing the ball one to another, and I'm counting away. And as the time progressed, the passes became a little bit faster, a little bit tricky, but I coped okay. It didn't go on for very long, actually, only maybe, I take it maybe a minute.

And then it comes to an end. And before they had a chance to pause and ask the question, I quickly answered the obvious. I presumed what's going to come out of my child's mouth, a 64, I'll put it, or 72 or 38. Actually, I don't remember the number, so don't hold me to it. But I thought I had it right, whatever number I had given at that point in time.

But then out of nowhere, out of nowhere, it was no. No, no, that's not what I wanted to ask you. Did you see the big black gorilla on the screen? I thought that you're joking. And then quickly I thought, if my child's asking me to watch something, there's probably going to be something in it.

So I thought maybe as I was counting, there might have been a flash on the screen, like one of those micro really things. Because I'm a pretty observant guy. And I thought, you have to be really quick for me not to capture it. Sure enough, they rewound the video, about a minute or so. Rewound, that's my vintage.

Boy, they did a little bar to the words again. And beloved brothers and sisters, it was incredible. What had happened is this man with a big black gorilla suit, While these two children, or these young adults, are passing the basketball to the other, and I'm engaged in counting, this gorilla walks across the screen. Casually, from one side to the other, probably a quarter or half the time that the screen was actually on, he was on there, and I did not see him. Actually, to rub salt into injury, and to deflate my confidence and self-esteem even further, he stops right in between the screen among these people, and he begins to pound his chest.

And then he walks off the screen. I love the brothers, it's like, I did not see it. I was so blind to what was taking place right before my eyes because I was preoccupied. I was preoccupied doing something else. I had something in my heart, something in my mind that I was engaged with, that took control, and I could not see what was so clearly before my very eyes.

Let me start with this. The truth of the gospel And the spiritual truths that Jesus Christ our Lord proclaimed are nothing like gorillas. I want to get that out there, because there's no disrespect in that way. Our Lord is all glorious. He's infinitely splendid.

He's beautiful. So I'm not comparing Him in any way, shape, or form to a gorilla. But there is a single point I'm trying to make that may be well illustrated with that illustration. Because beloved, I know the other point where the analogy breaks down is this. I said it before, without an encounter with the living God, without an encounter with the light of the world, without an encounter with Jesus Christ, no matter how many times you rewind that video and replay it and rewind it and replay it, you'll never see.

You'll never see the beauty of Christ. You'll never see the need of your soul to be forgiven. You'll never see the filth and the wickedness that remains in here, that apart from his grace will be destroyed under the wrath of God. So let's get that straight as well. So the analogy breaks down on many points, so I'm not trying to link everything here.

There's only one single point that I'm trying to make. And that is, in the natural state, Man is willfully given over and preoccupied with not so much counting the passes but with his own selfish agenda. You see, we as preachers are selfish to the This life is all about me. Our brother mentioned earlier the spirit of self-entitlement. We think that we're worthy.

We think that we're owed something. That's because we are the center of our universe. We lust for things in this world by our sinful nature. The desires of the flesh is what we long for, and it occupies all our minds apart from Christ. Our soul is given over to these things.

The apostle John says, what is in the world? If the love of the world is in you, you don't have the love of a father. And what is in the world, he goes on to say in 1 John 2, you remember, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the one that is demonstrated for us in the text that is here, with the life of the Pharisees, the religious elite of the first century, is the pride of life. The pride of life. with overarching concern to be popular, to be prestiged, the position, to be respected, to have wind blown under your sails, to be applauded by all.

They were more concerned with the glory that comes from man than the glory that comes from God. So that means the system that they had built together may not be that anyone gets in our way to try and tear them up. So occupied, so immersed, so occupied, entrenched in this agenda of theirs, its evil agenda, that it mattered not how clear the gospel is, how clear the teaching of our Lord is, how wonderful the invitations our Lord presented. Come unto me. It didn't matter.

They had one thing in mind. Count the passes. retain and preserve this empire that we built for ourselves, and put it under the guise of true religion. Beloved, the pursuit of evil desires is what engages and occupies the mind of an unbeliever every day, every moment of every day, unless the God of the universe pervades their heart supernaturally and brings light. This is the deception of the world.

This is the deception of the power of the prince, the prince of power of the year, the God of this age. You might remember what the apostle Paul says about him. It's like a veil has been placed before their eyes, and they're in this dark world and they love it, and this is where they The Apostle Paul says it this way, even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled for those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded their minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel, of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. Now be careful, the Apostle Paul is not denying the fact that when God moves, no one can get in His way.

No one. When God moves, it doesn't matter whose faith it is. who obeys the God of the universe. He can't rebel against him and have his way because as far as the leech that God has given him. And the Apostle Paul knows that because he's taught us.

But what he's saying here is the veil comes over the eyes so they cannot see the gospel. That veil, beloved, is the things that they desire. The thing that stops them from seeing some of the light that's trying to permeate their lives is the desires of their own soul, the lusts of their own flesh. They're preoccupied in doing the things and being an enemy with God and doing the things that satisfy the sinful nature. And they're not crying mercy, mercy, mercy.

No, they're reveling in that nature. So in the story that is before us, I don't know about you, but I see that the testimony has been pretty clear. That the testimony of this man on two occasions, the testimony of his as far as saying, this is my son, and yes, he was born blind, but they're not gonna go any further than that. The persecution will be too great a price for them to pay. And then when they come back to this man, it's not as though he changes his testimony.

I love the way, what he says, we looked at this last week, when they come back, he's got so many questions of his own mind, and he says, though I was blind, And now I see, but before it says that this one thing I know, one thing I know, he's pretty firm. Now they've stepped up, they've eaten, they've done it on his parents, they've worked with his parents, but this guy seems to be guarded, I'd say. Seems like the spirit of God is working on him even now, until the Lord saves him. such depth of unrighteousness, such love for the darkness, such vigour towards the desires that they have that pervade every part. And that's your total depravity.

Every part of the mind, the will, everything is corrupted by sin. And so they're not going to So they'll come back and they'll press even further. Last week we looked at verse 25. Let's begin with verse 26. Maybe, just maybe he'll cry.

They said to him, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? Both questions. Everybody received the answers to. There's nothing new to find out here.

They've been told back in verse 15, he said, that he put mud on my eyes, like in concise form, you've got to love yourself. He put mud on my eyes, so what? And now I can see. What more info do you want? Who's the he?

Jesus. He says, man may call. But the Pharisees are desperately looking for a way to refute what is being said, a way to bring disrepute to Christ and His power so that those who are tempted now to follow after Him and become His disciples may think twice, may come back to the Pharisees and the religious leaders of the day and say, you know what, you're our guardians, we listen to you. But so fortunate that you did the investigation. God knows, we may not even believe this message.

There's a great amount of dishonesty in what they're doing. And I think this man is starting to catch on. Because in verse 27 he answers them, I've told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?

I said this man is starting to see disingenuous and he catches on to the, I guess, the double-facedness of the Pharisees. Because he now realizes this is no longer a fact-finding mission. The strong agendas at play, the strong motives at play. And it doesn't matter which way you look at it, brothers and sisters, if you're thinking about it right now, there cannot be a holy motive in this unless they are truly looking for the truth. And if they are seeking the truth, then the only right outcome which you would be defending The only rightful outcome is to actually now walk after Christ, to become His disciples.

What is a disciple? A disciple is one who learns, a learned one, one who stays with Christ, learns from Christ and follows after Him. Now, is this man being sincere? I reckon he's taking a jab at them. I think he knows well enough that they're not going to follow after Christ.

I think he's heard enough. I think he knows enough about these religious leaders to know that their agenda is something other than truth. And what they're trying to do is instill fear in people, and especially in him. But at this point, it's not working. Everyone in Jerusalem broke under their pressure.

This guy. This guy seems to hold on, hold strong. Do you also want to become his disciples, he says. Now it seems clear to me, at least, and I'm sure to you as well, that these Pharisees, they never really did like this guy, let's face it, right? I mean, they may not have had anything against him until the time of the miracle, but up until this point, they didn't really like this guy.

And it's needless to say now, after he says this, Well, let's just say now they like him less, again. Do you wanna be his disciples? Do you wanna be his disciples, he says. What do we hear? 28, and they reviled him.

Abused him. They derided him. This word's only used four times in the New Testament. Only four times. And one of those times you might remember in 1 Peter 2, 23, they reviled him.

He did not return. When they reviled him, he did not revile them. When they reviled him, that was when they spoke of Jesus Christ. Why did they revile this man? As I said earlier, it is very likely that he was a part of the furniture there in Jerusalem It's very likely that his Pharisees, who were very much all about giving alms, all about showing the people that they're giving benevolence to those who are less fortunate Very likely that as they walked by him, the beggar had his hand out or a hat down I don't know how they used to do it in those days, that they would have given a few coins Very likely that now Now he becomes the object of their hate, but is it that he's become the object of their hate, or is there something else happening?

I think there's something else happening. It's not that they hate him inherently, but they hate the one he professes. You see, Jesus has already warned us and warned everyone. He says, if the world hates you, Know that it has hated me before he hated you. He says that to the disciples in a few months' time, but that's the theology.

They revile this man because he's sympathetic to Christ. As I said, he's still not yet a believer. But if you're gonna be sympathetic to Jesus, if you're gonna speak favorably about him, we hate him so much, you're gonna feel the wrath. of the full brunt of the wrath of the Pharisees. They reviled him.

Verse 28, and they reviled him saying, you are his disciples. It's interesting that even when they refer to Christ, they're not saying like... that one. I don't even want to mention his name. It sounds like it might be poisoning.

It's you. Are his disciples? Well, we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses but as for this man, we don't know where he comes from. You're his disciple.

We want to become disciples of Jesus? You're his disciple. It's incredible to me how they mean that as an insult when it's the greatest privilege. they're wiping his face in the mud, when in fact they're giving him the greatest accolade. To be a disciple of Jesus Christ is to know God.

It's to be forgiven of sins. It's to know eternal life. It's to know that my sins have been forgiven and I will be with you for all eternity. You are my, can you see how what is evil becomes good and what is good becomes evil? Isn't that incredible?

As I said in last few weeks, the role reversals, these men should have known better. And now they're calling that which is the highest honor. And they're thinking that by calling him a disciple of Christ that they are slurring him and deriding him and insulting him when they actually don't have eyes to see because they're so immersed, so captured with the lustful desires of their flesh. So we've been enjoying the darkness. No.

No, we're not His disciples. This is beneath us. Jesus is beneath us. You are His disciple. We wouldn't even dream of stooping that low.

As for us, we're disciples of the great prophet, Moses. He's tried and true. We know Moses is from God. When they look back and they say that, as for this man speaking about Christ, and we don't know where he comes from, they're not so much saying that we don't know Jesus' genealogy. It is very likely that Jesus was going to the temple in Jerusalem with his family, with the caravan from Galilee, probably three times a year.

And they would have come to know the people quite well. They probably would have known him. His parents, we don't know Joseph was alive, we don't know his brothers possibly. So it's not as though we don't know where he comes from, as in we can't link his genealogy, but it's more a question of authority. I said that last week, but I'm gonna explain it this week.

It's more a question that we don't know, we don't know by which authority he speaks, by which authority he claims to be doing these miracles. Although at this point in time, we're not too sure, 100% at least, if they acknowledge the miracle. And we know that it's a question of authority because of the question, because of what's written in verse 29. We know that God has spoken to Moses, that's on one side, that is for this man. So now they're comparing Moses with Christ, that is for this man.

We don't know where he's come from. Moses, we know, speaks on the authority of God. Yahweh speaks through Moses. Moses is the mouthpiece of God. We know that.

His teachings, his writings, his prophecies, that were spoken by Yahweh through Moses, and we have the Scripture. We know the authority of Moses. He spoke on behalf of God. The authority of God is carried through the writings of Moses. But this Jesus, well, who knows where he comes from?

I think the implication is he's certainly not from God. No thanks. We'll pass. We'll stick with Moses. What a devastating thing to say.

Religion, religion holds on to the letter, but it completely misses out on the spirit of what is written. Yes, Moses is a prophet from God. Jesus is the son of God. Moses had a prominent place in history. Yes, he was the mouthpiece of God.

Yes, his writings were authoritative as much in the 1500 years earlier as it was in the first century when these people, when this narrative was taking place. But beloved, Moses' writings, they also had a prophetic function. writings were pointing forward. They had a context and were authoritative in the contemporary time that he lived in and even beyond. But all the while, the writings of Moses were pointing to something to come, to a fulfillment to come, to the consummation, to the completeness of his writings to come.

He eroded, he was the shadow of the substance that is to come. The prophets were like that. The prophets had a function in the time or the epoch that God raised them and gave them words and put words on their lips so that the words are authoritative in that time. But all the prophets were speaking about something greater than just the epoch that they lived in, every one of them. I know that for sure, and I stand on the authority of Scripture, because Jesus himself said so in Luke chapter 24.

All Scripture was pointing to Jesus Christ. Every prophet from Moses to John the Baptist, they're all pointing to Jesus Christ. And our Lord, and our Lord himself said so. He's already taught this in the Sermon of the Mount. You remember that verse on Matthew 5, 17, that very controversial verse.

Do you think, oh sorry, do not think, Jesus says, I've come to abolish the law, all the prophets, I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. Oh, all the ink and the pages, they've been written on those two words. What does it mean to abolish? What does it mean to fulfill? The Law and the Prophets, Jesus is saying, will be fulfilled.

He has come to fulfill both the Law and the Prophets. So that means the Law and the Prophets had a prophetic function. If Jesus is going to fulfill them, to complete them, it means they were given with a contemporary function, but also a greater overarching function that was looking towards Christ. All of it, the prophets and the law. Beloved, there's a shadow in the past that is now fulfilled in Christ.

He's the substance of what was written. Christ is the fulfillment of the writings of Moses and the prophets since. Christ is the fulfillment, and all the prophets, if they knew as much, would be able to utter what John, the last of the prophets, you remember, John the reformed Baptist, John the Baptist, my apology, and they would say with John that, I must decrease. He must increase. He had a prophet who was faithful, knew himself to be the bride, the best man, not the bridegroom, the best man.

But when Christ came, according to Jesus, he is the Savior of the world. Israel, meet the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Meet the Son of God who is a declaration of God and to his disciples, he said, I must decrease, he must increase. My joy is now complete because the bridegroom has come. For the law was given through Moses.

Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Moses knew his function. His writing pointed to another. In fact, if we look at Deuteronomy chapter 18, a chapter we looked at only about, what, 10 weeks ago now, he was always pointing to people of Israel saying, yes, I am a mouth of God, I do speak on behalf of God, but there's someone greater than me to come from among your people. He will come, and when he does come, If he does not listen, God will recompense from him.

Listen to him. When Messiah comes, when this great prophet comes, listen to him. And this great prophet has come. And these Pharisees do not recognize him. What a grave, grave thing.

The great error it would be for someone to uphold as the final authority, and not to see that the fulfillment comes in Jesus Christ. Beloved, if we miss that point, if anyone misses that point, let me tell you this, they miss the whole point of Scripture. If you're pointing back and saying, it's all about that, we need to carry it forward as it is, you've missed the whole point of Scripture. There's something far more glorious to come. All that was going on in the old, as glorious as that is, is being fulfilled in Christ.

And the blessings that the Old Testament saints enjoyed was a retrospective that Christ would come You take Christ out of the equation and no one lives. Jesus now, presented before these Pharisees, he tells them, he's already told them, claim to be his disciples. Moses was always pointing to me. Do you think you're disciples of Moses? Do you think that if Moses was here, he'd be proud of you?

Do you think he'd be impressed with the fact that you've memorized in your mind the first five books of the Bible, the books of Moses? Do you honestly think he'd be impressed? He is an impressively impressive being, by the way. humanist people. But do you think Moses would be impressed that that's as far as you go, that you can recite Scripture and teach Scripture, but not have the eyes to see why he was given now that Messiah has come and the light has come into the world?

Would it impress him to see what you think it had at the heart of John the Baptist? I must be impressed. You must be impressed. Moses. If Moses was before them, he'd be disgusted.

He'd be outraged at how they've abused the scripture. How they've abused the people under their care as shepherds. That's in fact why the next chapter is about the good shepherd, because Jesus is reflecting on the shepherds of Israel and one of the people called the Pharisees. Jesus tells these men, chapter five, and it's read, it rings true here as well, he says, there is one who accuses you, Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me.

But if you do not believe his writings, then how will you believe my words? Someone has eyes to see. Upon reading Moses and being confronted with Jesus, the Spirit of God will empower that person to have eyes to see. You're the prophet that Moses wrote about. You're the fulfillment.

We know God has spoken to Moses, they say. But as for this man, we do not know where he comes from. I've said it before, and I think it's worth repeating. Whenever you hear those words, we do not know, from their mouth of the Pharisees, you need to take note, because they are as scarce as he is. They know everything.

They practically got man's stuff on everything. The answer is just like that. But here we have them pleading ignorance about something. They're pleading ignorance, as I said earlier, about the authority by which Jesus is acting, by which Jesus is performing these miracles. They're pleading ignorance pertaining to the authority of Christ.

Well, that's a problem. That's a pretty big problem, because arguably the greatest miracle thus far that has taken place in Jerusalem under their care was at the hand of this man called Jesus. And if they don't know by which authority he performed that miracle, then I don't know about you, but I would think that should be on the top of their list to find out. Now, whether they're being sincere or not, we don't know, even though in the earlier, in the previous chapter, they already claim that Jesus' authority is one that comes from Satan himself. You're deeply possessed, they said.

But here they're saying we don't know by which authority, or they say we don't know where this Jesus comes from. Moses we know is from God, but we don't know where this Jesus comes from. How many times has our Lord told them? How many times has He said, I've been sent by the Father? How many times has He told them?

Countless times He said before them. But it reminds me of that verse in 2 Timothy, you know the one, always learning and never able to arrive to the knowledge of truth. It's not a lack of evidence, it's a lack of light. So we have before us two groups of people, and both are lacking in knowledge. Two groups of people, and both are ignorant to a critical fact, a critical knowledge that would pertain to salvation of their soul.

Two people. And both are presented by God's grace, by the end of this narrative, with the knowledge necessary. The knowledge that they lack. So on the one hand, you have the binary. And the Bible has said what he knows already.

One thing I know, that I was once blind, but now I can see great. And then to start to work his way about what he really knows of the scripture, trying to decipher or unpack at least the answer to the question. To the dilemma or the question that he has, in verse 25 when he says whether he is a sinner, I do not know, you remember that, because the Pharisees are claiming Jesus is a sinner. Okay, so he's going to find that out before the end of the chapter, before the end of the narrative. That's one, and on the second, on the second hand, we have the Pharisees.

And the Pharisees are also lacking in critical knowledge. Knowledge without which one cannot be saved. Now, you're not saying knowledge produces salvation. That's not at all. And what do they lack?

They lack what we've just heard. We know where Moses comes from, he's from God, but as to this man, we don't know by which authority, you could say, if I'm paraphrasing, by which authority Jesus comes from or acts upon. And both of these ignorance, both of these groups, with true knowledge. And they'll both come from the mouth of this simple beggar. The Pharisees, the ones who are so used to teaching in the streets and in the synagogues and in the temple space, they will now be schooled by open, and reading, and examining, and testing, and reading all the rabbis of their day, and they will be taught the simple realities and the truths that they require to know.

And by the end of this narrative, we're going to see in the response of both these groups, who it is who's had that knowledge, opened up by the spirit of God and the light pervading the darkness to press that knowledge in the deepest part of the soul where they don't have access to only God can do that work and who as I said earlier like a cockroach run away into the darkness The man answered, why this is an amazing thing. You do not know where he comes from and yet he opened my eyes. Okay. You're admitting your ignorance. The know-it-alls are admitting their ignorance, and we can work with that, this man is saying.

Good, you don't know, okay. We can work with that. I love the way he speaks, because he doesn't play in that space of conjecture. He doesn't go to places where he doesn't really know. He just speaks to what he knows and knows to be true.

So it's human. He loves facts. He loves the obvious. He loves the certainties. He seems to be a lover of truth already.

We only have to go back a few verses to see that one thing I do know, he says, that though I was blind, now I see. And from that basis, he's able to begin with the knowledge that he has of scripture and to what has taken place in his own experience. He's able to, over time, even over the time of this last interrogation, to grow. He's actually growing before us, and I love that. It seems like the Spirit of God is actually growing in this person as he speaks, as he meditates upon the truth of Scripture, so that by the end of the narrative, he has what he needs.

The Lord has given him the light that he requires. All he needs now is to see Christ with open arms and to believe. And so now he, I think a little bit of smugness. I mean, after all, how often does a common beggar have an opportunity to teach the elite Pharisees? So he continues, verse 31.

We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshipper of God and does his will, God listens to him. You see, we know, this is something he knows. 32, never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. 33, if this man were not from God, he could do nothing. That's the body of truth that he's going to speak to the Pharisees, and one that will be expounding.

Now it's important to see here, and I want to make you aware of something. Either this man so happened to say the right things at the right time, which is a possibility, or he's a lot smarter than we think. Because he's not only got a grasp of Scripture, which is incredible, wonderful grasp of Scripture, the doctrines and the theology that has been taught in only these two or three verses, we could spend weeks on unpacking, it's incredible. But not only does he show a grasp, a proper grasp of Scripture, but he's now using the argumentation style of the Pharisees against them. That's what he's...

That's what he's doing. He's using the tool and the logic that they've used against him and against Christ, and he's turning that upside down, showing how they were fallacious in it, but he's using it properly now, because he's predicating that argument upon truth. That's what we're seeing here. It's incredible. Let me give you what I mean.

Earlier in verse 16, the Pharisees argued the same way. They said Jesus is not from God. Why? Precisely because he's a Sabbath-breaker. A law-breaker, they said.

So the premise that they had was law-breakers cannot be from God. If you break the Sabbath, then you cannot be from God. And if Jesus had broken the Sabbath, then that would make him a sinner. That would make him not from God. It's not my logic.

I said that back then, of course. The logic is only watertight if you get all the variables right. Now, setting aside, just for a moment, that Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath, and there are some complexities in that, but setting that aside, at the very least, one must have a proper interpretation of what the Sabbath is. The logic breaks down completely if you call that which is man-made the Sabbath law. And so that's why we see their logic broke down.

It was no longer watertight. It will only remain watertight if it is predicated upon the truth of Scripture. So we have here in verse 31, we know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshipper of God, literally a God-fearer, you may have that in some of your translations, and does his will, God listens to him, never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. So what he'll establish is this.

In his mind, there is no doubt, there is absolutely no doubt that this miracle was from the hand of God. No one has ever seen anything like it. You can go back to the Old Testament, and you won't see a single one like that. In fact, you won't find any blind people made to see in the Old Testament. You see the God brought blindness upon the Syrian army, and then he restored it again.

But you won't see. Restoration of blindness is very scary. You know why? Because in the Old Testament, the prophets, that was a miracle pointing towards the Messianic Age. That when you see blindness, eyes are opened of the blind, you are to know that the Messiah is among you.

The prophet spoke to this. And so he, his mind and his understanding established, what has happened to me cannot be, cannot be. Now, we have to be careful because some wonders are spoken of in Scripture as though they are from the powers of the enemy. I mean, think about Varro's sorcerers with the first two or three of the miracles. They're trying to match what Moses did with the power of the artwork.

But it seems like this guy's looking beyond that and saying, this type of miracle has to be with the hand of God, and he's pointing to something greater. There's no power of darkness that can accomplish sight or blindness. Beloved, there are some miracles that Jesus did exclusively. You might remember in John chapter 15, he says so himself. He says that he did miracles that no one else did.

And those who had the Old Testament were able to look it through with eyes that the Lord had opened. They would be able to see that there are some So, one is undeniably that the miracle that God's hand was in it was this, to restore the souls who drink sake with his wine. And if the scripture teaches that God doesn't listen to fragrant sinners, but only those who fear him and those who do his will, as he says, then the conclusion is if Jesus is the one who opens doesn't listen to the prayer of sinners. The assumption here is that Jesus prayed. This is the assumption, because Jesus is speaking to the Father as a power of God.

I have no problem with that. It's not described for us in that way, but we know Jesus, on occasion, prayed to the Father before he performed the miracle. Actually, in John chapter 11, we see that in the raising of the dead from Lazarus. So the assumption is here, the conclusion is that Jesus must be, in fact, not a sinner like you suggested, you Pharisees, but from God. Because if Jesus is not from God, he can do nothing of the sort.

I love that. If he was not from God, he can do nothing. That's the words of this man who has now had his eyes opened. Unpacking what is being said is profoundly theological, beloved. and we'll barely skim the truths this evening.

I'm looking at the time and it's escaping, so I won't be too long. But we won't plumb the depths, we won't even go close to that. But let me just bring up some points. Let's first look at God does not listen to sinners. Think about that for a moment.

Is the God of the universe obliged to answer the prayers of sinners? Is this man on the money or is he not on the money? You see, it's interesting because you'll find many, many, many, many modern day Christians that would say, no, that's not true. Anyone who falls on their knees and prays that God is listening and God is prepared to answer, they sound like the Bible says. Look, we can't allow our emotions to be involved.

The truths that we know of God has to be revealed from God. And the truth that He's revealed is clear. It's perspicuous from Scripture. And we need to take that truth, take it to heart, and believe it. We need to speak the truth of God and the things that pertain to Himself, His essence, His personal, His properties, and we need to relay those according to what He's revealed to us in Scripture and no way else.

And when this man says that God does not listen to sinners, he's right on the money. And scripture proves it. Let me give you some examples. Jeremiah chapter 11, verse 9 through 11. Again, the Lord, this is speaking to the people of Israel.

Again, the Lord said to me, A conspiracy exists among the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have turned back to the iniquities of their fathers, the forefathers, who refused to hear my word. They have gone after gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that I have made with their fathers. Therefore, Therefore, thus says the Lord, behold, I am bringing disaster upon them that they cannot escape.

Though they cry to me, these are iniquitous people. These are people indulging in the pagan practices against God. Though they cry to me, I will not listen. This is His covenant people that cry out. Give me another example, Ezekiel 8, again, to Judah, speaking to Judah, in particular to the abominations that have taken place in the Temple of Jerusalem.

He says, therefore, I will act in my wrath, my eye will not stare, nor will I have pity. And though they cry in my ears, loud voices, I will not hear them. Psalmist and Psalm 18, come and hear all who fear God and I will tell you, I will tell what he has done for my soul. Cried to him with my mouth and high praises was on my tongue. It is very important.

If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. Isaiah 59, behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that he cannot save, or dulled, or ears dulled that he cannot hear, but your iniquities, your iniquities, you sinners, your iniquities have made a separation between you and God, and your sins have hidden his face from you. he does not hear. Now the point and the reason why I'm taking so many scriptures is this. There's a very important point that I just need to make very quickly and that is just because this man says it doesn't make it true.

I believe that this is the Word of God, it's inerrant, it's infallible, it's God-breathed, and everything in this Word is completely true and it's 100% accurate. But what this man says is accurate, it is the proclamation from his mouth, but it doesn't make it true. I'll give you an example. The Pharisees already said, Jesus is a sinner. No, third party speaking through the text of scripture, it doesn't make it true.

So just because this blind man, or man who was once blind whose eyes have now been opened, just because he utters these words, we just don't take them as gospel, we need to prove they're gospel, because they didn't come from the mouth of an apostle. They didn't come from the mouth of Yahweh through his people, necessarily, but it's coming through the mouth of a man who has yet to come to know Christ intimately, and it's we just supported it with Scripture. This is the first part. So if God is not obliged to listen to sinners, and that is a scary, scary reality. We'll get into that in a few moments.

If God is not obliged to listen or to answer the prayers of sinners, to whom does he listen? Now I can take you to many examples just like last, but I know we're running out of time very quickly, so let me just give you some reference to Psalm 66, the continuation of the psalm that I began earlier. I can take you to Psalm 34, 16. I can take you to Malachi 16, verse three, sorry, chapter three, verse 16 through 17. But the truth is so eloquently summed up in Proverbs 15, verse 29.

Listen to this truth. The Lord is far from the wicked. Isn't the camp of Israel, isn't it depicted above that? Anything unclean is to go in. Only that which is pure and holy and without blemish and complete is to be in the presence of the Lord because he cannot look upon sins.

So he goes on to say that the Lord is far from the wicked but he hears the prayer of the righteous. So who is the one that the Lord hears? Whose prayers are answered? There's no disputing that this miracle is a demonstration of the power of God. Even the Pharisees, I think, have come to believe that.

Can't be sure 100%, but when they did say to the man initially on the second interview, they said to him, dear, glory to God, I think what they were trying to do is say, yes, we acknowledge the miracle happened, the Pharisees just told us that, but we don't believe Jesus did it. If glory be Yahweh, not to Christ. I think they know, but I can't be sure. And if God only listens to the righteous, the conclusion is that Jesus is righteous. He's not a flagrant sinner like these men have said.

He can't be. The statement of ignorance on both parties has now been answered. So the first, whether this man is a sinner or do not know, has been answered. Ignorance has turned into knowledge. The Spirit of God has given knowledge.

And this man now has answered that question. He now knows that, is he from God? God doesn't listen to sinners. And if Jesus prayed that God had listened to Christ, then he cannot be a flagrant sinner. He must be from God.

He believes this truth, and this truth will be manifested in the next chapter by God's grace. And the ignorance of the Pharisees is answered as well. Because now they know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, according to what this man is saying, if they hear, that the authority by which Jesus is working is that of God. Because they know that God doesn't listen to sinners. And if they knew even a cursory understanding of Scripture, they would know that this miracle is a miracle at the hand of God.

No one else can explain it any other way. And if that's the case, with Christ. But they were so deeply immersed in their own legalistic religiosity, they couldn't believe. Now, even given the benefit of the doubt, although we know the character and say, okay, let's give them the benefit of the doubt, they overlooked what was taking place. We rerun the video and we play it again.

Surely they can see. They can't ignore it. There's no rebuild room. They can't get out. This one argument is watertight, and they know it.

The evidence is scriptural. The only rightful response is for them to concede, fall on their knees. But is that what happens? They don't. The hard hides become harder.

The darkness that they live in becomes even darker. And they'll continue to harden their hearts until there is no remedy. I think one of the scariest words in the Bible. And I'm bending there to Jesus. I ask him, you were born in utter sin, and would you teach us the arrogance, the pride?

You were born in utter sin, would you teach us? Hey, by the way, the irony there is it's proof is to have a civil understanding of the disciples. Remember that the disciples asked Jesus a question, who's sinned, he is, or the mother's, that this man was born blind. So then the archeology knew, because that's a product of your own sinfulness, that you were born in this state of disability, and therefore, you were born in sin. The disciples had their theology corrected by the Lord, they still had their theology, but at the same time, they probably don't understand their ancient knowledge that this man was born blind.

A miracle did take place. The pride is, I don't care what the evidence, I don't care if you rewind that tape and you show me that gorilla. I don't care. We have an agenda and we're holding on to it no matter what. How many times have we been preaching with us walking the streets to our friends and it sounds like Embracing by faith.

Where else can you go? You have no explanation in your theology. You have no explanation in your ideology. You've got no explanation in the framework of all your understanding to the sin problem. Christ is it.

Believe. No. I'm going to hold on. I'm going to hold on to the wickedness. Hold on to my sin.

I'm going to hold on. came into the world. But those who do not see may see, and those who see may see. That's why we can't be blind. Beloved brothers and sisters, I've rushed through the last section, but I really don't want to end the sermon without making just a few final remarks.

And the remarks are going to be on God answering the prayer, and the fact that he's not obligated to answer the prayer of the sinner. And we've established that biblically, we've gone back and we've read the prophets and we know that God is not obligated to answer the prayer of sinners. Where are sinners? Every one of us are sinners in this room. Realize the tense.

I'm not saying we're sinners. We are sinners. You know, as I was reading these words, they moved me. We are sinners. We don't deserve a heavenly father.

We don't deserve Proverbs 15 says, the Lord is far from the wicked and he hears the prayer of the righteous. Put your hand up if you claim righteousness. What's the standard of righteousness? What is the standard of righteousness to come into the presence of God and not to be crushed under the weight of his glory? How clean is clean enough?

Can I go through a day without sinning? Is that enough? How about two days, or a week, or a month? Is that possible? I don't even know.

Actually, I don't think it's possible. But is that enough? The Bible teaches us even one single sin. One single sin is deserving of the wrath of God. And let me tell you how I know that's absolutely true.

The Bible says it, but also one sin front all humanity into darkness. Every one of us, is a sinner, and the Bible teaches us that only the righteous will get peace. Only the righteous have the ear of the Lord. No matter how sincere you are, no matter how well-intended you or I are, if we have sinned, if we're anything short of the righteousness that is proclaimed according to Scripture, then we don't deserve the ear of God, full stop. The other thing I was thinking about when I was preparing, maybe we can understand that in the unregenerate state, when we prayed, and we know friends who don't really believe that if a child is sick, they'll plead with the Lord for healing.

If the business is going bust, they plead with the Lord to bring back the business. If a relative is doing unwell or if there's a circumstance in life and they would come on their knees and even ask you to pray for them, we can understand that. Let's take it a step further and say that if the Bible teaches us that sinners don't have the ear of God, in other words, he's not obligated to answer the prayer of the sinners and only the righteous His absolute perfection. And how about this? What about when I first prayed in repentance for the forgiveness of my sins?

Was I worthy of Him hearing that prayer? Was God obligated to me when I said, Lord, forgive me, I'm a sinner? For the very first time, was he obligated to hear my prayer? Does it take away anything from the cleanliness of my heart? No, I'm still a sinner.

I'm still wicked, I'm still wretched within. I've still sinned against him, and therefore I am unworthy of his ear. Beloved brothers and sisters, if you're standing here or sitting here, and you've been saved by the grace of God, if you know that your sins have been forgiven, Do you know how you know? Not because you're worthy or I am worthy, because there's only one who is worthy, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Only Christ and Christ alone.

That's it. He's the sinless lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He's the son of God. He's the righteous one. He's the one who's never sinned, ever.

He's the one who uttered these words. He says, the Father has never left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him. What is righteousness? What does it mean that God only hears the prayers of the righteous? What does righteousness mean?

It is to do what is right and good and pleasing in His eyes, always without ceasing. That's the standard of Jesus. Why does he say those words? Because God needs to remove from sin and unrighteousness. But Jesus says, you've never left me alone.

I've never sinned. I only do, he says, always do the things that are pleasing to you. I've only ever done that which is righteous. The absolute epitome of righteousness. That's the Jesus who died upon the cross, In John chapter 11, that's the chapter I told you where Jesus does pray before he restores the life of Lazarus.

He says, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. He continues, I knew that you always hear me. What confidence. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of people standing around that they may believe that you send me. So how is it that the day we were saved, how is it that that day, when we did actually repent of our sins and embrace Christ, how is it that the Lord heard us that day?

Why did he lend an ear to us that day? Let me tell you why. Because of your union with Christ. Because you brought the foundation of the world in love and were united in Christ. Beloved, apart from the union that we have as believers in Christ, you will not have the ear of the Father.

Yes, He allows the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. Yes, He allows the sun to shine on the just and the unjust. But the fact of the matter is, no one is worthy of the ear of God unless he's perfect and righteous and divine. So by virtue of the union that we have in Christ, by virtue of the union that began in the heart and in the mind of God from eternity past, and the pledge to unite a people unto the Son, His bride, And the fact that we have a Savior who's perfect and only does that which is pleasing to God, fallacy means obedience. A Savior that is complete.

All that the Father gives to me will come to me and I will cast down none and He'll preserve them and raise them up. On the last day, the perfect Savior from beginning to end, by virtue of the fact that Spirit of God is the one through the Father drawing unto the Son blind deaf people who cannot see, who do not hear, who love to see and want to run away in the darkness like those cockroaches. They have care for God. They have care that ever been in Him. They love their passions of the flesh.

They love the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. And this is what they live for. And it satisfies the heart and they never were looking to God and they never prayed the truth of things. By virtue of the fact and the merits of the incarnate son of God who bore the wrath of God and bled and died and he says, by virtue of our union in Christ. The way the Father looks upon the Son, the love of the Father upon the Son is the same love He loves you and me with.

If you don't believe me, just read the last three verses of John chapter 17. Who's worthy of that? Who's worthy of that? And if Jesus says, Father, I know you always hear me, for I always do what's pleasing to you, then by virtue of the union we have in Christ that is established by the grace Not because we've earned the righteousness. Not because even now that we are righteous, or even now that we are worthy, but because of the blood of the Lamb of God that was shed, and the righteousness of Christ that now is accounted to us, that every time we pray, even as sinners, He heals us.

He heals us. Beloved, we're still sinners. We're still just as unworthy right now to be heard by God as we were the day or before he saved us. Just as unworthy as our neighbors who don't know Christ. Just as unworthy.

The only difference is grace. The difference is that God, in His love, from eternity past, and by His grace, elected a people, and if you're one of those people, your eyes have been made open to see the beauties of Christ, the filthiness of our sin, and you've embraced Him by faith and said, Lord, your blood cleanses me clean from my unrighteousness. And no matter what, even when I'm in the depth of my sin, He said, forgive me, and He forgives me. That's the teaching of our Lord. We've read it hundreds of times possibly, but have we taken notice in closing?

This is what He's teaching, He's in John chapter 14. This is the confidence that we have. He says, whatever you ask in my name, This I will do, that the Father may be glorified in his Son. Speak him to the disciples by extension to the Christian. Then in the next chapter, in John chapter, sorry, glorify my Son.

If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. And again in John chapter 15, whatever you ask, the Father, it is in my name, he will give it to you. And again in John chapter 16, truly, truly I say to you, The reason you're able to go into the throne room of grace and you're able to speak and plead and pray and supplicate with a good and holy God who cannot look upon sin is because of Christ. You don't go alone. You go wrapped in his blood and in his righteousness.

Open your eyes to the glorious.