Christian stewardship, the joys of Christian stewardship, of
putting your money to work for the Lord.
And last month this assembly had as one
of its projects Christian literature behind the Iron
Curtain.
Since then we received a shipment of books,
new Christian books that have been published in
Poland and also one that was published in
Yugoslavia.
And this is the type of ministry that
the Christians here have had the privilege of
participating in.
You know each one of these booklets is
a tremendous victory for the Lord Jesus.
To us it practically means nothing.
We have so many books we don't know
what to do with them.
But they have very few Christian books in
these countries and every one of them is
a real victory for the Lord Jesus.
These books were translated from the English into
Polish by a converted Jewish brother in a
little town called Bielsko-Biała.
They have to go to the communist censor.
That takes a while and he comes up
with a few minor corrections just to, I
mean he's a bureaucrat, he has a job
to do.
He doesn't know anything about the doctrine but
it doesn't hurt him.
Then these books are all printed on communist
presses.
A few years ago they didn't want to
touch anything that had anything to do with
the precious name of the Lord Jesus.
Now they're glad to do it.
The same with this little booklet.
This is what the Bible teaches, the Emmaus
Correspondence Course, what the Bible teaches.
It's in Croatian, printed in Yugoslavia.
So rejoice with us that the way God
is working behind the Iron Curtain.
If any of you have friends who understand,
who read Polish, I wish you'd come up
and help yourself afterwards.
I'll leave them down here on the floor.
If anybody has friends who can read Croatian,
please come and help yourself to this one
too and just keep them moving.
Now shall we turn in our Bibles this
morning to John chapter 9 please.
The ninth chapter of the Gospel of John.
Just read for sake of time a few
verses at the beginning of the chapter and
then a few verses at the end.
John chapter 9 verse 1, And as Jesus
passed by, he saw a man which was
blind from his birth.
And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who
did sin?
This man or his parents, that he was
born blind?
Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned nor
his parents, but that the works of God
should be made manifest in him.
I must work the works of him that
sent me while it is day.
The night cometh when no man can work.
As long as I am in the world,
I am the light of the world.
When he had thus spoken, he sat on
the ground and made clay of the spittle,
and he anointed the eyes of the blind
man with the clay.
He said unto him, Go wash in the
pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation sin.
He went his way, therefore, and washed, and
came seeing.
What do you think of that?
Verse 39, Jesus said, For judgment I am
come into this world, that they which see
not might see, and that they which see
might be made blind.
And some of the Pharisees which were with
him heard these words and said unto him,
Are we blind also?
Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind,
ye should have no sin.
But now ye say, We see.
Therefore, your sin remaineth.
Chapter 10, verse 1, Verily, verily, I say
unto you, He that entereth not by the
door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some
other way, the same is a thief and
a robber.
But he that entereth in by the door
is the shepherd of the sheep.
To him the porter openeth, and the sheep
hear his voice, and he calleth his own
sheep by name, notice, and leadeth them out.
Just tuck those last words away in the
back of your mind for a few minutes,
and leadeth them out.
It was one of those lovely days when
the Lord Jesus was moving about with his
disciples, and he came upon this man who
had been blind from his birth.
And the disciples came up with about one
of the most worthless questions that could possibly
be asked.
They said, Master, who did sin, this man
or his parents, that he was born blind?
Well, it could hardly be the man himself
that had sinned, if he was born blind,
unless it was in a previous incarnation which
the Jews never believed in.
The Jews were never believers in reincarnation.
But it was just a case of hoof
-and-mouth disease.
They were always putting their foot in their
mouth.
And I'm glad, too, because, you know, it
shows the helplessness of man.
I want to tell you, friends, if you're
spiritually blind, man can't solve your problem.
And I really think that's why this happened.
I really think that's why the scripture records
that the disciples came up with this stupid
question, who did sin, this man or his
parents, that he was born blind?
Just to show you, don't depend on men.
If you're spiritually blind, if you're unsaved, without
God, without Christ, and without hope in the
world, get your eyes higher than men.
Jesus said, neither this man nor his parents,
but that the works of God might be
made manifest in him.
Jesus was saying that in the purposes of
eternity, this man was exhibit A, to manifest
the wonderful power of his miraculous work that
was about to take place.
And then the Lord Jesus said, I must
work the works of him that sent me
while it is day, the night cometh when
no man can work.
And then the Lord Jesus did a most
curious thing.
He took some clay.
I can see him stooping down, can't you?
Taking some of that clay from the ground
and mixing it with some of his own
spittle and anointing the eyes of the blind
man.
Well, that's surely a strange cure for blindness,
isn't it?
I'm sure if you went to the medical
clinics today and asked them, what do you
think of clay and spittle as a cure
for blindness?
Most people would think, well, it goes without
saying.
But you know, the wonderful thing is it
works.
It works.
And there is that about the gospel that
seems preposterous, ridiculous, absurd to the natural mind,
but it works.
And actually, when you stop to think of
it, it wasn't so ridiculous either.
When a man is born blind, what he
really needs is two new optic nerves.
Nothing else will ever do.
And the creator was on the scene this
particular day.
The one who made man in the first
place was there, and he took the constituent
parts of man, and he made two new
optic nerves.
Man's made of the dust of the ground
anyway, that's what he took.
What a wonderful thing.
He anointed this man's eyes with clay and
spittle, and he said, go and wash.
And he went to the pool of Siloam,
and he washed, and he came seeing.
I, it's marvelous, isn't it?
It's a wonderful thing when you've been blind.
Blind since birth.
This man had never seen another human being.
He didn't know what a tree looked like,
or a lake, or a bird.
Had no idea what those things looked like.
And then all of a sudden, he has
his sight.
Because Jesus the creator is there.
And you know, there's more than one miracle
there.
There's more than just the miracle of sight.
There's a miracle of adaptation.
He began to see things and recognize them
too.
Recognize them for what?
They were, he didn't have to go through
a prolonged educative process.
That was part of the miracle of the
Lord Jesus, that into the new world into,
into which he was introduced, he was completely
adapted to it right away.
Do you know, I think one of the
most beautiful things is this, that when he
got his sight, the first person he saw
was the Lord Jesus.
What could be better than that?
First person he saw was the one who
gave him his sight.
It's a wonderful thing.
I guess I have particular love for this
miracle in the Gospels, because I ought to
be blind.
But this same God, in a very miraculous
way, preserved my sight.
Makes me think years ago on the Long
Island Railroad, on the commuter train, there was
a man who used to go up and
down the cars and say, if you have
any friends who are blind, tell them about
Dr. Crocker.
I was blind and he gave me sight.
Do you know, I can believe that that's
what this man said the rest of his
life.
As he went around, and there were a
lot of blind people there in the Middle
East, and there still are, and I can
hear him saying, if you have any friends
who are blind, tell them about Jesus.
I was blind and he gave me sight.
Well, it wasn't very long before the neighbors
started crowding around this blind man, and they
started to argue.
You know how it is in the neighborhood.
Everybody has his nickel's worth to contribute.
Somebody says, looks like the blind man.
They said, yeah, it looks something like him.
Some of the others said, and he removed
all doubt.
He said, I'm he.
They said, whatever happened to you?
Mind you, he didn't know too much.
He said, a man that is called Jesus,
a man that is called Jesus.
He hadn't taken some very deep courses in
theology.
It's wonderful how little you can know and
be saved, isn't it?
Just to know that you're a sinner, that
Christ died for sinners, and that by receiving
him, you have everlasting life.
You don't have to know much more than
that.
This man just said that.
He said, a man named Jesus.
He anointed my eyes.
He sent me to the pool.
I went and washed, and I came see.
Marvelous, really.
Well, they said, we've got to take this
man to the religious leaders, get their verdict
on what has happened.
And so they hurry him off to the
Pharisees.
Now, the Pharisees were the Orthodox leaders of
the day.
And all of a sudden, they're confronted with
a man who'd been born blind and who'd
been healed.
However, there was one thing that was very
bad about it, and that was, he was
healed on the Sabbath day.
He was healed on Saturday, the seventh day.
And this bothered them very much.
So they started to quiz him, and they
weren't happy.
You'd think they would have been happy.
This man had been in their parish all
their lives.
They hadn't been able to do anything for
him.
You'd think they'd have been glad for him,
wouldn't you?
But they weren't.
They were angry because he was healed on
the Sabbath day.
If they had been blind, and Jesus had
given them sight, they wouldn't have cared what
day of the week it was.
But this is another quirk of fallen human
nature, and it's still true today.
There are still religious leaders in the world
today.
And if a babe in Christ goes up
and tells them, you know, I just got
saved.
I've been born again through faith in Jesus.
They become like raging maniacs.
They say, how could you be saved?
You were baptized when you were a baby.
Something like that.
Just the names and the faces have changed.
The facts are still already there.
So the Pharisees are quite unhappy about it
all.
They said, tell us how it happened.
And he gave his testimony the second time.
You know, there's nothing quite as powerful to
me as the testimony of a person who's
recently been saved.
It has tremendous impact to it.
Nobody can deny it.
They knew this man was blind.
Now they know he sees, and there's not
much they can say.
But they say, this man is not of
God.
The Pharisees, they say, if he were of
God, he wouldn't have healed you on the
Sabbath day.
Imagine the cant, the hypocrisy of it all.
And so they said, and what do you
think of this man that healed you?
Well, he had nothing but good to say
about him.
No wonder he said, I think he's a
prophet.
But that means a spokesman of God, a
representative of God.
Well, the plot thickens.
They go to the parents.
They go to the parents of this blind
man.
And they say, is this your son?
They said, yes, that's our son.
They said, how come?
They said, well, we really don't understand all
the complexities of it ourselves.
We do know he was born blind.
And we know that this was his condition.
And now we know that he sees.
And they started to quiz the parents a
little bit too closely.
And then the parents stopped.
They didn't want to answer any more questions.
They pled the Fifth Amendment.
I'll tell you why.
The Jews had made an edict that anybody
who became a follower of Jesus would be
excommunicated from the synagogue.
And so when the heat became a little
too much, the parents said, look, don't ask
us any more questions.
He's of age.
He can speak for himself.
And so the Pharisees go back to the
blind man again for a second dose of
testimony.
And this time they get a little too
much.
They get more than they really wanted.
They said, tell us again how it happened.
And he said, it's just the way I
told you before.
And they said, but a man like that,
he can't be a good man.
They said, well, that's a strange thing.
He said, the blind man said, from the
time of creation, there has never been a
single case where a man was born blind
and received his sight.
And you say that the man who did
it isn't a good man.
There's something strange here.
He was growing fast.
You know, if the Pharisees had had a
daily quiet time that day and if they
had been reading in Isaiah chapter 61, they
would have read that when the Messiah came,
one of the things he would do would
be to recover sight to the blind.
And when the neighbors came with this blind
man to them, they would have said, hey,
maybe the Messiah has come.
Maybe the Christ has come.
I don't think they had a quiet time
that day to you.
They were completely oblivious of it all.
And all they could think was evil of
the Lord Jesus.
The blind man said to them, I don't
know all about it, friends, but I know
that once I was blind, but now I
see.
That's wonderful, isn't it?
Can't beat that.
You know, it's one of the most wonderful
things that can happen in any of our
lives.
We're all born spiritually blind.
We have no capacity to see God or
to understand the things of God.
No matter what our intelligent quotient is, no
matter what native abilities we may have, we
cannot understand the things of God because they
are spiritually discerned.
But the Lord Jesus has to come and
anoint our eyes spiritually before we can ever
see.
Notice what the man says, the blind man
says in verse 30, the man answered and
said unto them, why herein is a marvelous
thing that ye know not from whence he
is, and yet he has opened my eyes.
Now we know that God heareth not sinners,
but if any man be a worshipper of
God and doeth his will, him he heareth.
Since the world began, was it not heard
that any man opened the eyes of one
that was born blind.
If this man were not of God, he
could do nothing.
And they were furious.
Marvelous, isn't it?
What a clear testimony he's giving for the
Lord Jesus.
The Pharisees are furious.
You know what they do?
It says they cast him out.
They cast him out.
What does that mean?
It means they excommunicated him.
He's no longer a member in good standing
of the local synagogue.
For what?
Because he received his sight.
You say, well, it's not rational.
Of course it's not rational.
Still the way it is in the world
today.
They cast him out.
Who was out there waiting for him when
they cast him out?
They cast him out into the arms of
Jesus.
What's the next thing you read there?
Verse 34, the end of the verse, it
says they cast him out.
The very next word is Jesus.
Jesus heard that they had cast him out.
And when he had found him, he said
to him, do you believe on the Son
of God?
And the blind man said, you tell me
who he is and I'll believe on him.
Well, he said, it's the one who's speaking
to you.
It's the one who gave you your sight.
And he bowed and worshiped him.
It's beautiful, isn't it?
Wonderful how God can take a man who's
blind and make a worshiper out of him
for all eternity.
And he's still in that business today.
But then I read those difficult words of
the Lord Jesus at the end of the
chapter.
Jesus said, for judgment, I'm coming to this
world that they which see not might see,
and that they which see might be made
blind.
Well, it's difficult, isn't it?
There were two aspects of the coming of
the Lord Jesus into the world.
He came to two classes of people.
There are people in the world today who
are blind and who are willing to admit
it.
These are people who are unsaved.
They know they're not saved.
They know they're sinners.
They know that if they received what they
deserve to receive, they'd go to hell.
And they confess that fact before God, and
he gives them sight.
They're blind, and they're willing to admit it.
There are other people in the world who
are just as blind, but they wouldn't admit
it.
Oh, me?
You mean I'm a sinner?
Oh, they'd never be willing.
They can always think of people who are
lower on the totem pole than themselves, you
know.
They're always justifying self.
Christ comes in blessing on those who admit
their blindness, but his coming means judgment for
those who are unwilling to admit it.
Everybody's blind, but not everybody's willing to admit
it.
Now, the Pharisees caught the force of his
words.
Did you notice that?
They said, are we blind all?
Are you trying to infer that we're blind?
Why, we are the religious aristocracy of this
country, and you're telling us we're blind?
Is that what you're saying?
And Jesus said to them, if you were
blind, you should have no sin.
What does that mean?
Jesus is saying, if you are only willing
to admit your blindness, your sin would be
relatively nothing.
Actually, they would still have sin in a
sense.
We're all sinners, born in sin and shaped
in iniquity.
But the Lord is saying, oh, if you'd
only repent of your sin, admit that you're
blind, then your sin would be comparatively nothing.
But you say, we see, therefore your sin
remaineth.
What does that mean?
Well, they professed to have 20-20 visions
spiritually, and yet the Son of God, the
eternal Son of God was standing in front
of them, and they couldn't see him with
any appreciation.
All they could do was complain, because he
had given sight to a man on the
Sabbath day.
He said, you say we see, therefore your
sin remaineth.
It's a terrible thing to be blind and
not be willing to admit it, isn't it?
No help, no hope for anybody like that.
I read the first verses of the next
chapter because they're very closely connected, and there's
a very beautiful touch there.
Jesus first of all speaks about the Pharisees,
he that entereth not by the door into
the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way,
is the same as a thief and a
robber.
That's the Pharisees he's speaking about there, that
you've just been reading about.
He's saying in so many words, you Pharisees
are thieves and robbers.
You see, they had usurped the place of
spiritual leadership in Israel, but they didn't have
the proper credentials.
They didn't have the credentials of the Messiah,
the Christ of God.
But he that entereth in by the door
is the shepherd of the sheep.
That's the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
To him the porter openeth.
You may think of the porter as being
John the Baptist who came saying, behold the
Lamb of God which taketh away the sin
of the world.
Or you might think of the porter here
as being the Holy Spirit of God.
Both are true.
Or you might like to put them together
and say that the porter is the Holy
Spirit working in and through John the Baptist.
To him the porter openeth, and the sheep
hear his voice.
Ah yes, the sheep hear his voice.
One of his sheep heard his voice in
the previous chapter.
There were all kinds of voices around the
blind man that day.
But the wonderful thing, he recognized the voice
of the true shepherd.
Isn't that lovely?
First thing you know, he was testifying against
the Pharisees.
He'd been brought up under their rule.
Now he's testifying against them, and he recognizes
the voice.
Tell me who he is, he says, and
I'll follow him.
And Jesus said, I am he.
The sheep hear his voice, and he calleth
his own sheep by name.
Ah yes, he called this one by name.
And leadeth them out.
That's interesting, isn't it?
It may be that a person is in
some modernistic liberal church association.
He gets saved by the grace of God.
Does the shepherd leave him in that kind
of a place?
He doesn't.
He leads them out.
Maybe somebody in the meeting is in that
position today.
Maybe you know and love the Lord Jesus,
but you're still affiliated with some religious organization
where the name of Christ is not honored
as the only son of God.
I want to tell you, the shepherd wants
to lead you out.
He really does.
Now he didn't have to lead the blind
man out.
They kicked him out.
You know what they were doing?
In their spite and rage, they were only
doing what he would have done anyway.
And they saved him the trouble.
And you know, that's a marvelous thing in
the great providence of God.
If a man obeys the Lord, God blesses
him and honors him.
If a man fights against the Lord, it
doesn't defeat God's purposes.
The Pharisees didn't defeat God's purposes.
They only advanced his purposes.
Ah, but they lost out on the blessing.
They lost out on the blessing.
So Christ leads his sheep out to fountains
of living water.
He not only leads them out of bad
church associations, but he leads them out of
all kinds of partnerships and associations where his
name is not loved and honored and leads
them beside the cool waters.
Perhaps there's somebody here this morning and the
shepherd's voice is being, is sounding forth.
I wonder, do you hear his voice?
I wonder if there's someone here in all
your life, you've been blind to the beauty
of the Lord Jesus Christ that he's speaking
today.
He's willing to open your eyes and all
it will take on your part, say yes
to the son of God.
All it will take will be to break
at the foot of the cross and say,
Lord Jesus, I've been blind all this time.
Open my blinded eyes and he'll do it.
I'll never forget during the second world war
in Hon, I think it was in Honolulu,
time of the blackouts.
One night, a fellow got down on his
knees to trust Christ as savior, but he
said, Oh Lord, I've been in a blackout
up until now, but now I see the
light.
Wonderful, isn't it?
If you have any friends who are blind,
tell them about Jesus.
I was blind and he gave me sight.
Shall we pray?
Oh God, we thank you this morning for
the wonderful Lord Jesus Christ.
Creator, sustainer, redeemer, savior, healer, and friend.
Thank you for this lovely account of the
man born blind who received his sight.
We thank you Lord for all in our
meeting today who can look into this story
and see their own lives reflected therein.
We pray today that through the word of
God and by the spirit of God, any
who are outside of Christ might come to
him today, confessing their sin and receiving him
as their only hope for heaven.
We ask it in his worthy name and
for his sake.
Amen.