ONE THING I KNOW
(BOOK OF JOHN, CHAPTER 9)
Sermon preached by Daryl F. Mallett, Cornerstone Baptist Church (1/6/2013).
Inspired by sermon of the same name preached by Evangelist
Richard Harper.
INTRODUCTION
At the end of John, chapter 8, the Pharisees begin speaking
with Jesus about Abraham, and Jesus says something that proves His importance
and His incarnation and His immortality when He says, “Before Abraham was, I
AM.”
The Pharisees don’t take that very kindly and they take up
stones to kill Him.
Now if you or I were running from a crowd intent on stoning
us to death, we would be worried only about ourselves. But Jesus was never
worried about only Himself.
In fact, as He passes through the midst of them, He comes
upon a man who had been born blind sitting by the way. Moved with compassion, He
stoops down and spits on the ground and makes clay. He anoints the blind man’s
eyes with the clay and told him to go wash in the Pool of Siloam which, in the
Hebrew, means “sent.”
And the Bible says he went and washed in the Pool of Siloam
and came away seeing.
What a great miracle. What an incredible miracle.
You know, if someone could do a miracle like that today,
right here at Cornerstone Baptist Church, if someone could make a blind man
who’s never seen the light of day, to make him see, the whole world would take
notice, would they not? CNN would park a truck outside and do exposes on the
lives of everyone in the building, and they would make this day “Man Been Born
Blind Day” and they would have parties and parades and celebrations, and they
would give the man who perpetrated the miracle the keys to the city, and they
would hoist the blind man up on their shoulders and carry him around town and
say, “This man was born blind and now he can see! What a great miracle has
taken place!”
But that’s not what happens in this case.
The man that was born blind goes back and tells his and
neighbors and his neighbors, they aren’t sure whether he’s the blind man or
not. So he tells them, “A man came and anointed my eyes with clay and I washed
in the Pool of Siloam and I came away seeing.”
So they take him to the Pharisees and the Pharisees ask him
what happened. So he tells them, “A man came and anointed my eyes with clay and
I washed in the Pool of Siloam and I came away seeing.”
And the Pharisees call his parents in. Now, of all the
people on the face of the Earth that you would think would be excited about
this miracle, it would be his mom and his dad. But they don’t even stand up for
him.
Here is a man who was born blind, can now see, and it seems
as if no one except for himself is excited about it.
And that’s where we pick up the story in verse 19.
“And they asked them, saying, ‘Is this your son, who ye say was born blind? How then doth he now see?’ His parents answered them and said, ‘We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind: But by what means he now seeth, we know not; or who hath opened his eyes, we know not: he is of age; ask him: he shall speak for himself.’ These words spake his parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. Therefore said his parents, ‘He is of age; ask him.’ Then again called they the man that was blind, and said unto him, ‘Give God the praise: we know that this man is a sinner.’”
And I love this verse:
“He answered and said, ‘Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not. One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.’”
I’m going to preach to you today on “One Thing I Know.”
#1 – This is an UNPARALLED MIRACLE
There have been a lot of great miracles in the Bible,
haven’t there? There’s a fellow by the name of Moses who stood by the banks of
the Red Sea and waved a rod in the air and said, “Behold the mighty power of
God” and the waters parted. And there’s a fellow by the name of Joshua who
marched with his army around the walls of Jericho seven times on the seventh
day and then blew a trumpet and the people shouted and the walls fell down. And
there’s Daniel, who spends the night in a lion’s den. And Shadrach, Meshach and
Abednego, who walked into the fiery furnace and they come out unhurt, and the
form of the fourth man is like the Son of God.
There are a lot of great miracles that take place in the
Bible…a lot of healings, people being raised from the dead and the like, but
never in the history of the world up until this point in John, chapter 9, had a
man that was born blind been given his sight. What an incredible miracle this
is.
It’s pretty apropos, if you will, because in John, chapter 9
and verse 5, Jesus said, “I am the light of the world,” and
what better way to illustrate that you are the light of the world than to open
the eyes of a man who’s never seen any light at all, never seen a sunrise or a
sunset. What better way to prove you’re exactly who you say you are than by
opening the eyes of one that was born blind. This is the first time this
miracle has ever been done.
But it’s more significant than that. There are some miracles
that Christ did, like turning the water into wine and others, that weren’t
specifically prophesied as signs of the Messiah. This one, however, is.
In the Book of Isaiah, chapter 35, verses 5 and 6, “Then
the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be
unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb
sing; for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.”
This was a prophecy of the Messiah himself. Jesus has just fulfilled
the prophecies of Isaiah, chapter 35, verses 5 and 6, proving to be the Christ,
or the Messiah of Israel.
Jesus himself proclaimed it in Luke, chapter 4, verses 17
through 41, as we read part of it… “And there was delivered unto Him the book
of the prophet Esaias. And when He had opened the book, He found the place
where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath
anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the
brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight
to the blind… And He closed the book,…[and said] This day is this scripture
fulfilled in your ears.”
In this unparalled miracle, Jesus is the first one to ever
do it, and He is also the fulfilling proof of the prophecies of the Messiah by
taking a blind man who’s never seen and making him to see. This is an
unparalled miracle.
Now, note, please, there is:
#2 AN UNWAVERING MESSENGER in this story, isn’t there?
His neighbors ask him, “What happened?” And he said, “A man
came and anointed my eyes with clay and I washed in the Pool of Siloam and came
away seeing.”
Then the Pharisees ask him the same question, “What
happened?” And he said, “A man came and anointed my eyes with clay and I washed
in the Pool of Siloam and came away seeing.”
I want you to notice this unwavering messenger’s story,
please. IT’S ALWAYS EXACTLY THE SAME. He doesn’t alter it depending on the
crowd, he doesn’t alter it depending on what the people around him believe. He
tells the story of his testimony the same way every single time.
I tell you what, listen carefully to this, if you’re here
this evening and you’ve never trusted Christ as your savior, there will not be
one person who draws celestial breath for eternity that doesn’t have the same
exact story…
I was lost in my sins, Jesus Christ died on an old rugged
cross and shed His blood for my salvation, I accepted Him as my personal
savior, and that’s why I’m in heaven.
I don’t care what race, color or creed you are, whatever
country you go to or come from…Brother Phillips would tell you the same thing
about Kazakhstan if he were here…wherever you go, every person on the face of
this earth that’s on their way to heaven has EXACTLY THE SAME STORY. We don’t
have anything that other countries do not have. We go to heaven the same way.
They go to heaven the same way. His story is the same every time.
What does it say when you have a great testimony on Sunday
morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night, but don’t have a great testimony
when they’re in the world because they don’t stand up and give the same story
they would give at Cornerstone Baptist Church on Sunday morning?
This man has the same story no matter who he’s talking to.
I want you to notice his Story. I want you to notice his Surety.
Look what it says in verse 25. “This ONE THING I KNOW.” I
tell you what, follow this if you please, They’d have had a hard time
convincing this blind man that he couldn’t see any more. Think about it, if you
will, if they said, “No, no, this is a figment of your imagination that you can
see. You’re just trusting a false hope. You’ve got a crutch called religion.
You’re trusting all those things.” Someone might have said to him, “How dare
you think that you’re the only one that has the way to recover the sight of the
blind. What makes you so proud?” They’d have had a hard time convincing this
fellow he couldn’t see, wouldn’t they?
Just like a Christian. They’d have a hard time convincing me
I was lost. Wouldn’t they you? It’d be pretty difficult for them to say, “No,
no. You’re trusting in fables. You’re trusting in religious crutches. What
makes you think you know the only way to heaven? What makes you think my way
won’t get me to heaven, or this fellow’s way won’t get him into heaven? What
makes you so arrogant and proud that you know the only way?”
The fact of the matter is we do know the only way. His name
is Jesus Christ. And it has nothing to do with pride. It has something to do
with just trusting Him as our personal savior. In fact, it is the very
antithesis of pride. We stand up and boldly claim, “We cannot get there on our
own!”
If you’re a true Christian, you don’t want people to trust
your “religion” or your “denomination”. We just want you to trust our Savior.
That’s all we’re interested in. Everything else comes later. Trust Jesus Christ
as your personal savior.
This fellow says, “One thing, one thing I know. I don’t know
if this man’s a sinner, I don’t know where He’s from, I don’t know what He did
to the clay, I don’t know if the waters have any healing powers in them, I
don’t know anything but one thing. I was blind and now I see.”
I’m telling you, Christians know more than anybody. Wait a
minute, Daryl, hold on, are you saying Christians are the smartest people in
the world? No, I’ve met far too many of us to make that statement. But
Christians know more than anybody. Here’s an illustration.
Evangelist Richard Harper went to public school at Fort
Huachuca, Arizona in the early 1970s… The world is 650 million years old…carbon
testing and dating methods… Was she right? In 2001, in USA Today, there was an
article where scientist claimed the world is 11.25 billion years old. The
science teacher was wrong by 10 billion, 500 million years. She doesn’t know a
thing. Was the USA Today author right? He doesn’t know a thing. Not to put
anyone down; the point is there is nothing that we can know that God doesn’t
let us know.
The fact of the matter is as a Christian, we can know a
great many things, can’t we?
We can know we’re saved. 1 John 5:13: “These things have I written unto
you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye
have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”
We can know that we’re saved forever. 2 Tim 1:12, Paul
wrote: “For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not
ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is
able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.”
We can know He will rule and reign. Job 19:25: “For
I know [that] my redeemer liveth, and [that] He shall stand at the
latter [day] upon the earth.”
We can know that He loves us. Romans 8:38-39 “For
I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love
of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
And we can know that He’s going to come back and get us. 1
John 3:2: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we
shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him;
for we shall see Him as He is.”
I’m trying to tell you that, while Christians may not be
smarter than anybody else, but when the sun goes down and the darkness comes
and the doubts and wonders about eternity creep in and the worrying whether
there even is a heaven or a hell, the Christian doesn’t worry. We just trust
Jesus Christ that He’s going to keep His word as illustrated in Numbers 23,
verse 19: “God is not a man, that
He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: hath He said, and
shall He not do it? Or hath He
spoken, and shall He not make it good?”
We know more than lost people do.
Notice please this man’s Story, this man’s Surety,
now let’s look at his Solitude.
You’d think somebody would stand up with him. You’d think
his mom and his dad, whose faces he had never seen; you’d think they’d have had
to tie them down, wouldn’t they? If you had a child who was ailing and someone
could just touch them and heal them, wouldn’t you shout it from the rooftops?
Wouldn’t you tell everybody? What would they have to threaten you with to shut
you up? This man has never seen his mother’s smile, he’s never seen his
father’s face, he doesn’t know what a bird looks like. You would think his
parents would be running up and down the streets of Jerusalem shouting, “My boy
can see! My boy can see!” But no, they say, “Hey, he’s of age, ask him.” They
were afraid of getting kicked out of the synagogue. You’d think his neighbors
would be happy that he wasn’t sitting at the end of the road with his cup,
begging any more. But they’re not even happy about that.
So in his story, he had surety, but he also had solitude.
Then there are:
#3 THE UNBELIEVING MINISTERS
The Pharisees are the religious leaders of the day. These
are the fellows who know more about the Bible than anyone else. All you have to
do is ask them and they’ll tell you that you don’t know as much as they do.
These are the religious leaders. They’ve given their lives to studying the Old
Testament and memorizing its passages so they can walk around and brag about
how much they know about the Bible. By the way, that’s the wrong reason to
study the word of God.
And he tells them, “I’ve been made to see.” Look at verse
26. They ask him two questions. “What did He do to thee?” And “How opened He
thine eyes?”
Isn’t that exactly what the world still asks about God?
“What did He do?” and “How did He do it?” They want to put God into a little
tiny worldly-sized box so they can figure Him out. “What did He do?” See, the
world can’t fathom an omnipotent God. And sometimes, neither can we as
Christians. “What did He do? How did He do it? Let’s put God in a box. Let’s
make God our size. Let’s make God someone we can figure out.”
He could tell them what He did. He could tell them how He
did it. And they could’ve anointed all the ground in all the City of Jerusalem
and covered all the eyes of all the blind men and sent them all to the Pool of
Siloam and not one of them would have been able to see.
We can’t figure God out and we can’t duplicate Him. We just
trust Him by faith. Because “without faith it is impossible to please
Him, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a
rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11 and verse 6.
These fellows want to know all about what God did. They’re
not going to trust Him. They doubt every single thing that’s going to be said
to them. “What did He do? How did He do it?”
They wanted to put God into a little box. They wanted to
figure God out. “What did He do? How did He do it? Explain it to us so we can
understand it! Explain it to us so we can understand it! Let’s make God small
enough for me!”
God says, in Isaiah, 55 and verse 9, “For My thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways My ways.”
Paul puts this way in Romans 11 and verse 33: “Oh,
the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How
unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!”
David puts it this way in Psalm 139 and verse 17: “How
precious are Thy thoughts unto me, oh God! How great is the sum of them!”
We can’t figure God out. Neither could the Pharisees.
Neither can anyone.
“What did He do? How did He do it?” The world wants to ask
those questions today.
Every Christian person has heard a story or know a person –
former alcoholics that couldn’t beat the bottle, even after going to AA
meetings; abusers who couldn’t stop beating their wives no matter how much
counseling they’ve gone through...me… – people who couldn’t fix their problems
no matter what they tried. And then we come to a fundamental Bible-preaching
church and we come forward and something miraculous happens and we crawl out of
our seats and come forward and kneel at the altar and someone opens a Bible and
we are set free from our sinful ways.
“What did He do? How did He do it?” You’ll never figure it
out, no matter how hard you try or how long you live.
#4 THE UNIVERSAL MESSAGE
Look at verses 27 and 28 with me. Now it’s hard to imagine
this man saying this without a bit of sarcasm in his voice.
“He answered them, ‘I have told you already, and ye did not hear.
Wherefore would ye hear it again?’” Here it is… “Will ye also be His
disciples?”
That one question is the universal message, isn’t it? That’s
why Cornerstone Baptist Church exists. That’s why the Phillips family is going
to Kazakhstan. That’s why Pastor Leonard preaches here. That’s why evangelist
Richard Harper travels around the country. That’s why the Troells will travel
thousands of miles to go to another country and leave their families behind and
have to learn a different language and different culture all so they can ask
one question: Will you be His disciples? Isn’t that why we do it? Isn’t that
why?
I have to tell you, that’s why Jesus came. Luke, chapter 19
and verse 10: “For the Son of man is come to seek and save that which was lost.”
That’s always been the question, since the moment He died on
the cross and rose again; there has been no other question. “Will you or will
you not be His disciple?” He puts it on the table, doesn’t He?
Lost person, listen carefully. Every time you hear the
gospel of Jesus Christ preached, you make the decision to either be His
disciple or not be His disciple. That’s the question. The whole message today
can be summed up in one question:
WILL YOU BE HIS DISCIPLE?
Any other message to the lost person is almost a waste of
time. It all boils down to that question. “Will you be His disciples?” Or will
you reject Him?
Notice, what they choose. Verse 28. They say, “Thou
art His disciple, but we are Moses’ disciples.” Watch carefully. They
trust Mankind. They get asked the universal message, the question, “Will you be
His disciple?” and they say, “We would rather trust a man.”
Don’t we do that today? Lost person, listen. You trust you?
Are you trusting you and your good works to get you to heaven? Is that the
plan? You’re going to trust the person that you shave in the morning in the
mirror, men? Ladies, you’re going to trust that person that you look at when
you put your makeup on? You’re going to trust that person to get you to Heaven?
Listen, please. You can’t trust that person to get you to work on time. You
can’t trust that person to drive the speed limit on the Interstate. You can’t
trust that person to always do exactly what you’re supposed to do. And yet
miraculously that person in the mirror is going to take you to Heaven. If you
can get to Heaven on your own merits, it must not be much of a place.
You can’t get there. You’re trusting a man. Just like these
fellows are. “You go ahead and be Jesus’ disciple. We’ll be Moses’ disciples.”
You keep trusting a man and you’ll end up in Hell every time.
Notice what else they say. “We know that God spake unto
Moses.”
Now they’re trusting their religion. Don’t we do that? But
the priest says I’ve got to have the sacraments. This denomination says I have
to do good works. This denomination says I have to do this or that. I’m going
to do all these things that everybody tells me in my religion I’m supposed to
do.
If you have a religion that tells you to get to Heaven by
works, you just have a religion. And works. If you have a religion that tells
you that Jesus died on the cross and if you just simply trust Him in childlike
faith, then you have salvation. Salvation trumps religion every time. Religion
ends up in Hell.
These fellows say, “We’re going to trust Moses, we’re going
to trust a man and we’re going to trust our religion to get us to Heaven.”
Then they say, “…as for this fellow, we know not from
whence He is.”
Watch this carefully. They’re lying. These fellows know what
Isaiah 35:5-6 says. These fellows know that this is a sign of the Messiah. And
by the way, these are also the same fellows you said a few chapters earlier,
“Is this not the carpenter’s son from Nazareth?” They did know where He was
from!
They knew exactly who He was.
They were lying. And if you end up spending eternity in Hell,
it’s because you did the same thing. If you said, “Oh, I don’t need Jesus. I
can get there on my own.” you’re no more honest than the Pharisees.
You cannot drive down the street here, on the shores of a
country on the opposite side of the world from where Jesus walked, two THOUSAND
years later, and not think there is something to this Book. You cannot sit in
this congregation and see peoples’ lives, like mine, that have been utterly
transformed, and not think there is something to this Book.
I’m telling you this evening, if you go to Hell, you lied to
yourself to get there. You trusted man and you trusted religion and for all
eternity, you’ll wish you listened to the blind man.
#5 UNUSUAL MENTOR
Things change quickly, all of a sudden. This man, who only
met Jesus 15 minutes ago now, is going to teach the Pharisees.
Look at verses 30 and 31. “The man answered and said unto
them, ‘Why herein is a marvelous thing, that ye know not from whence He is, and
yet He hath opened mine eyes. Now we know that God heareth not sinners.”
This man, after 15 minutes, knows more Bible than the
Pharisees, than a lot of Christians who have been saved for 40 or 50 years. He
knows that the Christian living in sin will NOT have his prayers answered.
We expect God to answer our prayers, even when He’s promised
that He won’t.
Psalm 66 and verse 18. David said, “If I regard iniquity in my
heart, the Lord will not hear me.” Isaiah 59 and verse 2. “But
your sins have separated between you and God, and your sins have hid His face
from you, that He will not hear.”
We wonder why we don’t get our prayers answered. If we get
the sin out of our lives, we will. We have hundreds of prayer requests a month.
God answers one and we get all excited. We should be excited for every answer
to prayer, don’t get me wrong. But do you think that out of the hundreds of
prayer requests that we have, that God only wanted to answer one? Really? From
His unspeakable riches, and owning the cattle on a thousand hills, that He
wanted to answer only one of your prayer requests a month? Only twelve for a
year? God has a quota for each of us? That’s not the case.
If someone gets one prayer request answered a month, we
think they’re a prayer warrior. When in reality God has so much more for us.
But this man hits the nail on the head. “The Lord heareth
not sinners.”
So you’re telling me I’ve got to keep unconfessed sin out of
my life? That’s awful hard to do. Yes it is. But look what you get in return.
Jeremiah, chapter 33 and verse 3: “Call unto Me, and I will answer
thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”
Jeremiah, chapter 29 and verse 12, “Ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye
shall search for Me with all your heart.”
The unspeakable riches of Christ, His wealth, is available
for us, but we’ve got to get the sin out of our lives.
This fellow has only known Jesus for 15 minutes and he knows
more than most of us. I don’t know about you, but what I end up doing is to
begin to doubt that God answers prayer. “I keep praying and praying and praying
and God never answers.” Excuse me. I just indicted myself. Because I certainly
didn’t indict God.
He teaches them about prayer. But then, he teaches them
about faith in God.
Here we are as Christians. We know we need God to provide
something in a miraculous way. We need God to provide a certain amount of
finances, so we get down on our knees and say, “Dear Lord, please give us this
amount of finances.” We get up off our knees and we pick up our telephone and
we call our bank and make arrangements for a loan. That negates the very word
“faith.”
This man thinks God can do anything. Look what it says in
verse 33. “If this man were not of God, He could do nothing.” This man is
under the impression, after only knowing Jesus for 15 or 20 minutes, that God
can do anything.
You know, if you were born blind and Jesus made you seen,
someone would have a hard time convincing you that there are limits to the
power of God, wouldn’t they?
Let me tell you something. We were born lost, and God saved
our wretched souls and forgave all of our sins, and yet we can be convinced so
easily that God needs our help. This man understands God.
Gamaliel basically says the same thing in Acts, chapter 5,
verses 38 and 39: “And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone:
for if this counsel, or this work be of men, it will come to naught. But if it
be of God, ye cannot overthrow it, lest haply he be found even to fight against
God.” The Lord says in Genesis, chapter 18 and verse 14, “Is
anything too hard for the Lord?” Those are great statements, but this
man makes the statement that God can do ANYTHING He wants to. The Lord will
answer our prayers if we get the sin out of our lives and ask Him and trust
Him.
So the unusual mentor. He’s teaching the Pharisees about
prayer. And he teaches them about God.
#6 HE’S UNACCEPTED BY MEN
Look at verse 34.
“They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins…”
Praise God.
I have to tell you something about Pastor. I have to tell
you something about Brother Lee. I have to tell you something about myself. We were all three of us born in sins.
God uses sinners. The Pharisees hit the nail right on the
head. Yes, he was born in sins. Yes, he was a lost man. Yes, he did meet Jesus
on the road. Yes, he did get healed. Yes, his life did change. That’s what God
does for sinners!
The people who doubt that they’ve ever sinned, the people
who think that their goodness will get them to Heaven, those are the people who
have no hope.
Notice the way they say it. “THOU wast altogether born in
sins, and dost thou teach US?” You know what they’re saying? YOU were
born in sins…but WE weren’t.
If you weren’t born in sins, if you’re not a sinner…you
don’t need a Savior. If you’ve never committed an error in your life, you don’t
need to get saved. That’s what the Bible says. “He that believeth is not
condemned. But he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not
believed on the only begotten Son of God.” John, chapter 3 and verse
18.
Even if it were in your power to live a perfect life, if you
never trusted Christ as your Savior, you will still go to Hell.
You were just born in sins. Who do you think you are? And
then they cast him out.
They cast him out. Now this is not saying they just told him
he couldn’t come back next Sunday. They said you can never come back. This
fellow gets kicked out. This isn’t just kicked out of a social gathering, though.
This is kicked out of the religion of his family. The entire city, the entire
nation, is built upon the Jewish religion. This is a theocracy. They kicked him
out. He’s not very popular.
If you start standing for God the way this fellow does,
you’ll get kicked out of some things, too.
He was unaccepted by men.
#7 THE UNDENIABLE MESSIAH
Jesus goes and finds him. Remember the bumper stickers that
said, “I found Jesus?” You didn’t find a thing. He found you.
Jesus hears he’s been kicked out and He goes and He finds
him. Liberal theologians claim that Jesus never claimed to be the Son of God.
But Jesus asked the man, “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?”
And he says, “Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?” And Jesus said,
“Thou
hast both seen Him…” Think about that. This is a blind man. He’s not
seen a whole lot of people…
“Thou hast both seen Him and it is He that
talketh with thee.” You can interpret that any way you want to, but the
blind man knew exactly what He was saying, because what does he do? He falls at
His feet and worships Him.
Jesus wasn’t beating around the bush, He wasn’t hinting. He
said, “You’re looking for the Son of God? You’re talking to Him.” The blind man
had no problems understanding that. We can prove it a few different ways.
First, He proved it by doing the miracles. Second, He proved
it by announcing it. Thirdly, He proved it by accepting worship.
Jesus doesn’t tell him to get up. No, because He alone is
worthy of worship. He IS the Son of God. It was prophesied by Isaiah, in
Isaiah, chapter 9 and verse 6, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son
is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be
called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The
Prince of Peace.”
It was proclaimed by John the Baptist when he said, “Behold,
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
It was
proclaimed by Peter when Jesus asked “But whom say ye that I am?” and
Peter answered, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
And it was
proven by His resurrection from the dead in Romans, chapter 1 and verse 4 it
says, “He PROVED to be the Son of God with power…by the resurrection from the
dead.”
We have an undeniable Messiah. Anyone who thinks otherwise
is deceiving themselves, just like the Pharisees did. Anyone trusting any other
way to heaven, you might as well be trusting Moses and what Moses said to get
to heaven. Moses was a great man of God, but he never claimed to have the way
to heaven.
This man was sure. He wasn’t 75% sure he could see, was he?
You think he was 95% sure he could see? Don’t think so. Maybe he was 99.9% sure
he could see. No, see, the thing about this fellow is…he was a hundred percent
sure he could see. And the one thing about salvation is…that it’s one of very
few things in our lives that we can be 100% sure of.
If you’re thinking to yourself, “I went forward and signed a
decision card when I was young at a vacation Bible school or at a youth camp or
during a Sunday morning service but you know I’m not a hundred percent sure.
I’ve still got nagging doubts.” Listen carefully to me. We’re not here to notch
our gun or pad our numbers or anything like that. If you’re only 99% sure,
that’s not good enough. The only concern is that you are 100% sure that Heaven
is your home.
99 isn’t good enough. 99 means there’s a 1% chance. 99 means
you’re gambling.
It’s stupid thing to gamble with your money. It’s a
foolhardy thing to gamble with your life. So what does it say about you,
gambling with your eternal soul, with even a 1% chance that Heaven’s not your
home. That nagging doubt…
Jesus said that we can know. Jesus said, “And
I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any
pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all
and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.”
You can be 100% sure. Why would you settle for 99? Why would
you stand there and go, “Whew! I made it!” when you can go to sleep tonight and
never have another doubt about eternity. How much would that be worth?
How many
good works did the blind man sitting by the side of the road have to do to get
into Heaven?
None.
How many works do YOU have to do to get to Heaven?
None.
It’s simply by trusting Jesus Christ as your Savior. It’s
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And it’s free. All
you have to do is ask.
I’ll tell you where the blind man is. He’s exactly where he
was at the end of John chapter 9. He’s still kneeling at the feet of the Son of
God.
And I’ll tell you where the Pharisees are. They’re still
hoping that Moses will get them out of Hell. But it will never happen.
This evening, you can be as sure of salvation as this blind
man is sure of his sight. All you have to do is ask.
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