In this sermon, the preacher discusses the story of Jesus healing a blind man in John chapter 9. The sermon emphasizes the demonstration of God's love through the cross of Calvary and how Jesus is the light of the world. The preacher also highlights the finite and precious nature of the remaining time Jesus has to serve the Father before his crucifixion. The sermon encourages Christians to redeem the time and emphasizes the importance of believing in Jesus as the promised Messiah for everlasting life.

John's Gospel, chapter 9. Tonight, the Gospel according to John is built around eight miracles of Jesus and seven I Am statements of Jesus. We come in chapter 9 to the sixth of those eight miracles. And the miracles are recorded by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle John in order that, down through all of the ages, men and women like you and I, in a search for the truth concerning life and Jesus Christ, might read this Gospel, what Jesus said and what Jesus did, and in reading that accurate account concerning him, that we would believe that he is the promised Christ Messiah, believe that he is the Son of God, and that in believing in him, we would have everlasting life in his name. Now, chapter 9 begins with, now Jesus passed by. Now, as Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was blind from birth. Now, chapter 9 is a continuation of chapter 8. And to deal with it independent of chapter 8 is to miss chapter 9 entirely. In chapter 8, Jesus has been dealing with the religious leaders. He has declared himself to be the light of the world. He has declared himself to be, I am, to be divine. He has declared himself there in this chapter to being the one who was sent by God. Those three great truths over and over again, as we saw last week, until, you know, you just finally think, come on, you guys, you've got to get it. Concerning the religious leaders, they didn't get it. They didn't want to get it. So they picked up stones and they're ready to stone Jesus. Jesus departed from their midst, passed by, as we're told at the end of the chapter. And as Jesus passed by them, he saw a man who was blind from birth sitting there in the area of the temple. And as they're passing by this blind man, Jesus' disciples asked him saying, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Now, Jesus is going to heal this man. And the healing, as I said, is very much tied to chapter 8. Jesus is going to allow these religious leaders to reject his claims concerning himself. But when he heals this man born blind, in essence, what he is doing to the religious leaders is, all right, you won't accept these things about me, explain this. And he heals the man who was blind from birth and now, knowing that they're going to bring that man to these same religious leaders and ask them for their conclusion concerning what Jesus had done for them. And so their trouble is just beginning. And in performing this miracle of healing a man who is blind from birth, Jesus is essentially confirming his claim to deity. In chapter 8, only God can heal a man who has been blind from birth. As best as I understand, he's the only one that can heal a blind person, period. I look at you and I see no hope for healing in the room on our part, nor behind the pulpit. So they're making their way now and they evidently stop where this blind man is, probably begging in the area of the temple. And his disciples say, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? So we know that this man, there's a man sitting there and he's been blind from birth. Now, the prevailing religious teaching of the day by the rabbis concerning those who were born blind or born handicapped, for a more contemporary term at the time, was that anyone that was born handicapped had to be because of sin. And so the disciples looked at this man who has been born blind and they deduce that since it is because of sin, they narrow it down to two culprits. Either this man was guilty of sin and brought the blindness on himself, or his parents were guilty of sin and he was bearing the consequences of their sin. Now, there was a religious teaching of the rabbis in that day that it was possible to sin in the womb prior to birth. Those of you women who have had a sharp kick in response to something delicious that you ate might be inclined to believe this, but the clear teaching of the Bible is that life does begin at conception. And since life begins at conception and on the outside of the womb, we manifest ourselves very early as being descendants of Adam in that we sin. So it wasn't inconceivable to the rabbis that having that sinful nature in the womb, that there could be the capacity for sin. And perhaps as a teaching upon which to base that teaching, they might have looked to Isaac and Rebekah's sons, those twins Jacob and Esau, when as they struggled, literally they fought in her womb. That's a troubled pregnancy. And she goes to the Lord and she says, Lord, what in the world, why am I this way if all is well? And she inquires of the Lord and the Lord says, two nations are in your womb. Two nations? It's worse than I thought. Two peoples. And the Lord began to speak promises to her. And so there was this struggle between the two nations and peoples, even within the womb. Well, they thought it could have been the parents that had sinned. The teaching that a child was born handicapped because of some sin of the parents, that would have been and would be to this day an extraordinarily cruel teaching and stigma to place upon any parent who was already dealing with the added challenges of a handicapped or special child. But that was the teaching. When the child was born in this condition, it's one of these two things. Blame had to be found. And we like these formulas. People do. We don't like mystery in our relationship with God. Because mystery involves trust. It involves faith. So we like to look at something and say, well, it's always this or it's always that. So, all right, then that is. And even though it creates casualties in the minds of people and of people, and it doesn't match the scriptures, it's fine. It makes my life easier, my world easier. But there's no formula for figuring out some of the things in life that idea that someone was born in that condition because of the sins of the parents. Perhaps it was a misinterpretation of Exodus chapter 20, verse 5, where the Lord spoke of visiting the sins of the fathers on the children unto the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me. The Lord wasn't talking about this kind of thing. The Lord was talking about there was the effect of parents' decisions and their sins upon the children, those that hate God. It's a tragic mishandling of the passage to conclude that every misfortune that befalls a child is a reflection of a parent's spirituality or the lack of spirituality or because of some sin in their life. Yet it goes on today. This idea that an absence of complete health or whatever it might be is because of some lack of spirituality or some sin in somebody's life. It's as old as the hills. It's as old as Job, which is probably the oldest book in the Bible. Job's comforters. They come to Job. Now remember, Job is not only scraping his pussy sores with a piece of pottery and he's covered himself with ash not only as a mourning but probably to absorb the pus. As bad as his physical condition is, his heart condition is far worse. He has lost his entire family except for his wife. And they come and they say to him for chapter after chapter after chapter, if you will just confess your sin and get right with God, then this will lift off you. And the implication was not only that his diseases were because of sin in his life, but the death of his children because of sin in his life. There couldn't have been more wrong and yet they wouldn't budge from the position. There's even within our own hearts a tendency to think that as soon, so often, so many of our lives, as soon as something bad happens, it must be that something's wrong with me. God's lowering the hammer on me. I mean, it's kind of the first thought that so many have. There's sin in my life. Not necessarily. I got sick with the flu right after Thursday night or during Thursday night. I got sick with the flu. I never considered it sin in my life. I thought to myself, I got the flu. I don't think I'm above getting the flu. I'm all for being anointed with oil and prayed. I'm all for God healing me. But if that's what's going to happen, and I fully expect that if the Lord tarries and I die by natural causes, that's the means by which I go into heaven's glory. That I will die of whatever I get sick of last, but I won't die. I will receive my perfect healing, and in one nanosecond, I will see heaven's glory with my own two eyes. But there is this idea so often that, oh, you know, what is it? God's hammering me because something must be wrong. There must be something wrong. But suffering's not always the result of sin. Some suffering or some handicap can be an opportunity for God's grace and for his healing to be displayed. One of the things that troubles me concerning the disciples in this passage, and I'm not above it, is these budding theologians think nothing of carrying on this discussion within the air shot of a man who was born blind from his mother's womb. How many times do you think he heard that discussion in his life? We'll find out, surely this week, later in the passage, that he is of adult age and he's been begging at the temple for long years. And so how many have stopped and, you know, waxed philosophical and theological about the source of all of these kinds of things? I am amazed what people will say to other people or say in front of other people. And they have lost complete consciousness of the fact that this is a real-life human being just like you who hears as good as you. He's only blind. And how much perhaps even more painful it would be to endure those conversations through the years than to be blind. You might get to a point where you say, I accept the blindness. Stop these people from coming and talking about me and trying to solve theological questions within earshot of me. Have each of them do something good. Give me three shekels and get out of here. Jesus answered them and said, neither this man nor his parents sinned. He's not saying that they've never sinned, but the cause of this man's physical situation is not because of their sin. Jesus rejected the view that all suffering was due to sin. But that the works of God should be revealed in him. That was the reason for it, that the works of God might be revealed in him. God knew that this man was going to be born blind, but he also knew that he was going to heal that blindness. He was going to use that healing of that blindness to reveal himself to the world. So instead, the problem existed so that God could display his glory in the midst of what looked like a tragedy to the human eye. God didn't cause it, but he's going to heal him and he's going to work it together for good. I think every one of us is born into this world with some catastrophic handicap. Some of you I know with several. I say it fondly. For one, it's blindness. For someone else, it's something else. All of us are descendants of Adam, born in with some marks, of course, of that fall. And while they look like a tragedy to everybody else, all they are is an opportunity to do something great in our life, in changing that in our life. And then as God does it, that he would receive glory for it and be recognized for who he alone is in this world. And Jesus said, I must work the works of him. That is the father who sent me while it is day. The night is coming when no one can work. Now, in those days, they didn't have electricity. So daylight represented a time to work. Daylight was precious time in the ancient world because there was work that could only be done during the day. It couldn't be done at night. And when nightfall fell, then that work had to cease. We have the ability to turn on electricity and we have the ability to put lights on our tractors and all of these things and work day and night. That's not the way that they would have heard. So Jesus is now in the final six months of this three and a half year public ministry, and it constitutes daylight, but it is a period of opportunity that is fast coming to an end. And so Jesus speaks of this remaining time that he has to serve the father this side of glory as something finite and something precious. I've always appreciated when Paul wrote by the Spirit of God to the Ephesians and he exhorts us as Christians to redeem the time. Now, when I was a kid, we used to redeem bottles. The small bottles were worth, they went up in the course of my childhood at their highest value. The small bottle was worth three cents and the large bottle was worth five. And when you came upon some bottle someplace, this was a time when candy was a penny. Wow. You could head to the drink and tell and buy a whole pocketful of candy. And so you learn to redeem something. But the word redeem there in the book of Ephesians, it means to buy it back, to spend time and to treat it as something so valuable as if you were paying for it. And so Jesus never commanding us to do something that he doesn't also do. He redeems the time. And as long as I am in the world, Jesus said, I am the light of the world. Tonight, I declare to you from the Word of God in this simple place that Jesus is the light of the world. He is the way out of darkness. I don't care what darkness you're in. I don't care how deep you're into sin. I don't care how deep you're into the occult. I don't care how deeply self-consumed you are. Jesus is the light and the way out of that darkness. You're sitting in a room filled with people that he's led out of that darkness. He's the light of the world. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Well, listen to this. Anybody can come along and say they're the light of the world. I mean, we've got speech makers and philosophers and theologians and religious leaders all through human history that have boasted great things concerning themselves. There was a saying that I used to hear when I was growing up, and the saying went like this. Put up or shut up. Sometimes I say it to the television during presidential elections. Most often during election time in the United States of America. Anyone can say anything. So Jesus has said some amazing things. But he's not just some big blabber like everybody else in the world. He can back it up. I'm the light of the world. And when he had said these things, not content with merely saying them, he spat on the ground and he made clay with the saliva and he anointed the eyes of a blind man with the clay. Now, aren't God's ways of healing interesting? You know, sometimes he would just speak the word and the person would be healed or, you know, or he touched their eyes and they'd be healed. This is a novel thing he does here. He spits on the ground. He makes some clay out of it, puts it on the guy's eyes. And I mean, if you follow in his footsteps and become the spitting evangelist. But he does it, as we're going to find out very shortly. On the Sabbath day. And one of the interpretations or traditions that the religious leaders had added to the law of Moses concerning the Sabbath day, and they had added hundreds, was that it was against the law of Moses to spit on the Sabbath day. Because when a person would spit on the Sabbath day, and that spit would hit the dirt of the ground and the dirt would go up on both sides, it would furrow the dirt and constituted plowing labor on the Sabbath day. I am not kidding you. No hissing at me. And I'm just making fun of whoever did that. I'm not making a big deal out of it. I'm just kidding. I don't want somebody to feel like this, you know, there. The second thing that was strictly forbidden, according to their interpretations. Associated with the law of Moses was you could not work clay. On the Sabbath day, it constituted labor. Jesus does both. And all the way through the gospels, I'm telling you, it's like he did it on purpose, and I think he did it on purpose. The disciples could just wake up and go, it's the Sabbath day. Here comes trouble. He's going to do it. I know he's going to do it again. And Jesus seemed to take not a perverse pleasure, but he seemed just intent upon trampling under their man-made traditions that were being added to God's law, and that caused people to be so concerned with the traditions that they never got down to understanding the purpose of the law. It is very easy in religion to end up in a religious system where there are so many rules that a person spends so much time keeping the rules that they never have any time for a personal relationship with God. God has a beef with that. And that's what the religion of the scribes and the Pharisees had turned into. And Jesus, as he said in the other gospels, he declared to them that their interpretations concerning the Sabbath as they were applied to him and to man were wrong. Their interpretations as they applied to man were wrong because they did not mix in mercy. And Jesus said, when you interpret God's law in order to come to the proper interpretation, you'll never have to violate God's mercy. If it violates God's mercy, you've come to a wrong interpretation. And then concerning them trying to apply the law of Moses, concerning the Sabbath to himself, to Jesus, Jesus said, I'm not under the law of Moses. So he spits on the ground, he makes clay, and he puts it on the man's eyes. How does this tie to chapter 8? The earth. Man was formed from the dust of the earth, we're told in Genesis. It is fascinating to know that the same 17 basic elements that make up the earth also make up the human body. It is one of the amazing testaments to the truthfulness of the creation account in Genesis. And what Jesus is doing by bringing life out of the dust of the earth is he's backing up his I am statement concerning himself and he is taking them back to Genesis. And again, he knows that they're headed to those religious leaders to tell them how it is that Jesus did these things. And Jesus knows that the man that's going to be healed, he's not going to get any of this because he wasn't around for chapter 8. But he knows the religious leaders are. And when he brings and heals this man of his blindness and brings light to his eyes, he is testifying physically to the truth of his statement concerning himself in chapter 8, that he is the light of the world and that he gives light to those who follow him. So he anoints the man's eyes with clay and then he said, go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is translated scent. Now, this is weird again. Go wash in the pool of Siloam. The pool of Siloam is on the northeast corner, Jerusalem. This man is sitting in the realm of the temple. We've been to Israel. We've been to the pool of Siloam, only been to the pool of Siloam one time because of the area that it's in is very, most often dangerous to go into it. But we were able to visit it at one time. It is a considerable distance from the temple mount where the area of the temple area where this man is sitting. So he tells the man to go to the pool of Siloam to wash his eyes. But he tells him to do it at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles, when all around the area of the temple, there was ample water there from other sources. The sources being the Jewish mikvahs or ritual baths all around the temple area. They would have these kind of cisterns dug out of the ground. They would fill them with water and you're going to meet with God. And so the Jews would come in. They would completely immerse themselves in the water, come up out of the water, and then they would go and make their offerings. And what this represented physically was their desire to be clean before God. So these mikvahs are all over the place. Jesus could have said, go over to that mikvah and take and wash your eyes and then go show yourself, you know. But he doesn't. He says, I want you to go to the pool of Siloam. Why does he tell him to go to the pool of Siloam? Because Siloam means scent. And he is bringing the religious leaders face to face with the truth that this man's healing came from the place called scent. As he drives home the other great truth that he tried to drive home to them in chapter 8, and that is as he spoke to them over and over again, I am sent by the Father, is brilliant, brilliant. He's going to heal this man. He's going to save this man. But he continues to try and reach these religious leaders. And so what did the man do? He went and he washed and he came back seeing. Now, you know, you put yourself there where Jesus takes and then puts that clay upon the man's eyes and all and then forces him in essence as an act of obedience to go this somewhat great distance to wash his eyes. Now you have a man who is not only blind, but now there's mud in your eye. I mean, he's got to walk along. I mean, it's just as if things couldn't get any worse for him. It's like God. I mean, I thought I was bad off before you started working in my life. Now I've got mud in my eye and the whole thing. And so he goes there and for the average person looking at that man and what Jesus had done, they ought to think to themselves, that's the cruelest thing I've ever seen anyone ever do to a blind man. And it would be if God wasn't doing it. Or someone could look at that and say, that's the cruelest thing the cause of human being to put their faith in that I've ever seen. And it would be if God wasn't in it. And I think as it relates to salvation. Salvation is so simple. It's as simple as go wash in the pool of Siloam. And so he went and washed and came back saying, believe in him, receive his Holy Spirit into your life and you'll have everlasting life. To make salvation that simple, the forgiveness of sins that simple, would be cruel to sinful man to get their hopes up in that way if it weren't true. And if it weren't God speaking it. So he goes and he comes back saying, and imagine I wear glasses. Then they get stronger all the time. But I remember the first time I got glasses and I put them on and I couldn't believe how much of life I was missing. I saw leaves again. I saw details again. This man has never seen in his whole life. He puts that water on his eyes. The clay goes off and he sees for the first time in his life. He's a changed man. And therefore the neighbors and those who previously had seen that he was blind, they said, is not this he who sat and begged? I mean, he has so changed because of the Lord's work in his life. They don't even recognize him. And some said, well, it's he. Others said, well, it's like him. And he said, it's me. And therefore they said to him, and this is, of course, the curiosity that happens. People question the source of life changing change. And so they said, how were your eyes opened? And he answered and he said, a man called Jesus made clay. He anointed my eyes and he said to me, go to the pool of Siloam and wash. And so I went and I washed and I received sight. It's a great encapsulation of things. And you notice in verse 11, he describes Jesus as a man called Jesus. The revelation concerning Jesus is going to unfold as the chapter goes on. And then they said to him, where is he? Where is this guy that's able to do this? And he said, I don't know. See, by the time he got his sight, Jesus was long gone. He didn't have sight when he had contact with Jesus. So he said, I don't have the slightest idea where he is. They brought him, who was formerly blind, to the Pharisees, the friends and the neighbors, anticipating, I'm sure, that the Pharisees are going to break out those little party poppers and have a great time. Look at this. I can't believe it. Can you? And they're excited. They come in all of their excitement over what Jesus has done in this man's life. And they expect that the Pharisees are going to share in all of that excitement. And so they bring him to the Pharisees. Oh, here's the bad news. Verse 14, that was the Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and he opened his eyes. And then the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight. And so they said, tell us now, what is it that happened? And he said to them, he put clay on my eyes and I washed and I see. And therefore, some of the Pharisees said, this man is not from God because he doesn't keep the Sabbath. And others said, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second. How can a man who is a sinner do such signs? And so there was a division among the Pharisees. Nicodemus was probably among that group that said, hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second. You can't say that he's not of God. Remember when Nicodemus came to him in John chapter three, he said, we know that you're come from God because no one could do the works that you're doing unless they were come from God. And so there's this division among the Pharisees here as it relates to all of this and the conclusion concerning Jesus. And they said to the blind man again, now, what do you say about him? Because he opened your eyes. And so they're willing to accept that a miracle has happened. But they want to know what kind of a conclusion that this man has come to as it relates to Jesus and all of that. And the man said, he's a prophet. In other words, he's from God. This man is listening to the argument back and forth. He's of God. He's not of God. He's of God. He's not of God. No, he couldn't. Well, it's over here and all that thing. And he comes in and when he says he's a prophet, he's taking the side of those who think that he's from God. But the Jews did not believe him, that he had been blind and received his sight until they called the parents of him who had received his sight. And so they called the parents and they asked the parents saying, is this your son who was born blind? And how does he see now? So there's two questions. Number one, is this your son who you say? And now they want to believe that he was born blind, that you say, was he, is this your son who you say was born blind? And then what's their opinion about how he sees? And his parents answered and said, we know that this is our son and that he was born blind. Pharisees have to think rats. You know, this is a true miracle that's happened here. But by what means he now sees, we don't know or who opened his eyes. We do not know. He's of age. Ask him and he'll speak for himself. This is very sad, isn't it? This should have been one of the happiest days in their lives as parents. And these religious leaders are going to spoil it for them. I mean, here's their son who is able to see. This is their boy. And it would have been so nice if the religious leaders had just, you know, recognized it for what it was that they're going to spoil the whole thing. And we see in a moment why it is that they take and they roll the thing over to their son. They said, well, he's of age. He's an adult, apparently. And so his testimony holds before your inquiry. Ask him about it. We can't offer you an eyewitness account as it relates to his healing. We weren't there. And his parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that Jesus was the Christ, that is the Messiah, he would be put out of the synagogue. And therefore, his parents said to him, he is of age. Ask him. Now, it is a pretty big thing that they have been put out of the synagogue. Here, you know, in the United States of America, somebody doesn't like you over here. You just go over there. Somebody says, you know, listen, we don't like the way that you look. Get out of the church, you know, and you say, that's fine. There's 140 others in town. I'll just go over to one of them. To be put out of the synagogue in Jerusalem was essentially to be excommunicated. But it wasn't just to be excommunicated from religious instruction or from a spiritual place to meet. Typically, your whole livelihood, your family structure was tied to that. To be excommunicated would mean that your family would shun you. You would lose those relationships with your family. So you lose your family. You lose your livelihood. When we were in India, one of the last couple of times, there was a place. And India is a great place to see the whole way that the ancient world would have been like, because Israel is so modern now, it's tougher to see that village kind of setting. But you go to the villages and all in India, and they've got one place to pump the water and all, and they've got one baker and they've got one butcher. And if the whole place is Hindu and you become a Christian and they excommunicate you, then nobody sells you bread. Nobody sells you meat. You don't have a job tomorrow, and you don't get any water, and you can't see your family. That's the kind of stand that people take to follow the Lord in some parts of the world. Yet there in India, when someone comes to know the Lord, and I'll tell you, it really separates the sheep from the goat, you know, in terms of really being born again, because these people come to know the Lord. And when they come to know the Lord, they take out all of these Hindu gods, they pile them out in the middle of the road, broken, and then the entire village watches and waits for the Hindu gods to destroy them in their house. And then when they're powerless against the God that they have chosen to serve, it becomes a witness to everyone. But there has to be that stand first. But you risk everything. The parents aren't willing to risk everything at this point. But the man is, and the man's willing to because he's got to change life. And so this is the whole vibe of what's happening there. And so therefore, his parents said, he is of age, call him. And so they again called the man who was blind and said to him, give God the glory we know that this man is a sinner. Give God the glory for the miracle. This guy just happened to, you know, fall down and say something near you. And I don't know, but it didn't really have anything to do with him. Now, he is with the grand poobahs of Jewish religion in that day. The highest place he has ever reached in that society is as a beggar at the temple. The entire scene, what these Pharisees are trying to do to him is to badger him and intimidate him into denying Jesus and going their way, exerting enormous pressure upon him to change his story in front of his family and in front of his friends. And you notice his response in verse 25. And he answered and said, whether he's a sinner or not, I don't know. And he knew they didn't know either because they had just been arguing recently, as in five seconds ago. He said, one thing I know, and I'm going to hold on to what I do know, as Pastor Chuck said Thursday night, that though I was blind, now I see. He is in this passage identifying himself with Jesus and thus risking being put out of all those things that I've talked about. And yet he makes a stand anyway. And he is in essence saying, this man, this one has changed my life. And I will not be so ungrateful as to deny him in this setting. When I came to know the Lord, the most instrumental thing initially was the prophetic element of the word of God. The kind of things that we looked at this morning and other areas of the scripture. And that became like a rock foundation for me as it related to my faith in the Lord and in the word of God. But God brings people into the kingdom of God a lot of different ways. They don't all come in this way. For others, they experience something between them and God. And the change is so dramatic in their life. They become a new creation. And they don't know prophecy. They don't know theology. They don't know this. They don't know anything. All they know is this is what I was, and I am no longer that. And it is because of this man's word and obedience to that word. And you're never going to budge me from it because of what he's done in my life. The testimony is a powerful thing, a very, very powerful thing. And so he comes in and he's a man with a testimony of the power of God. In Acts chapter 3, when Peter and John went up together to the temple in the hour of prayer, the ninth hour, there was that man there who was laying from his mother's womb. Silver and gold have I none. And the healing power. And he's dancing and jumping and all of these things. And so they hauled everybody before the religious leaders and all of this. And the interrogation begins to go on. They begin to argue down what it is that's happened in the name of Jesus and all of this. But it's beautiful what is declared there concerning the religious leaders and seeing the man who had been healed standing with them. They could say nothing against it, the power of a changed life. That's what's happening here with this guy, the power of a changed life. And no one's going to budge him from it. And then they said to him again, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? Now, they're trying to get him to tell his story again, doesn't he? And you did not listen. This is right out of chapter eight. He said, why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples? So now here they are. The word also, he's clearly identifying himself with Jesus at this point, if anybody had missed it up to now. But here as he says this to them, he is in speaking this to them. Well, I've lost my thought. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples? And then they reviled him and said, you are his disciple, but we are Moses's disciples. We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don't know where he's from. And then the man answered and he is smart. He's listening to what they're saying. He is in a debate with them. He's never got to do this before. They wouldn't talk to blind people. And the man answered and said to them, why this is a marvelous thing that you don't know where he's from. And yet he's opened my eyes. You notice in verse 29, they said, as for this fellow, we don't know where he's from. So he takes their confession that they don't even know enough about him to know where he's come. And yet they've come to a conclusion about him. How can you know who he is and come to a conclusion about him if you don't even know where he's from? This is what the guy is saying here. And yet he's opened my eyes. This is a sharp guy. Now we know that God does not hear sinners. But if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, he hears him. And since the world began, it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of him who was born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. And they answered and said to him, you're completely born in sins. And are you teaching us? And they cast them out. They were losing the argument. They were losing the argument. The great religious leaders were losing a theological discussion concerning Jesus to a man who had begged at the temple all of his life. The testimony is a powerful thing. And facts concerning Jesus Christ are stubborn things. And when they can't deal with the facts, they just get angry and they go back to their teaching. You're completely born in sin. You have sin or your mother and father had sin. That's why you were in this condition. And you're teaching us. They're not teachable at all from a person like this. And they cast them out, excommunicated him. And Jesus heard that they had cast him out when he had found him, found him the seeking Savior. He said to him, do you believe in the Son of God? And he answered and said, who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him? So he confesses his ignorance concerning the Son of God, the Messiah. He said, I don't know who he is, Lord. Who is he that I may believe in him? Jesus said to him, you have both seen him and that is he who is talking with you. And so Jesus reveals himself as the Messiah now to this man. And then he said to Jesus, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. No Jew would worship another human being. He is acknowledging Jesus not only as the promised Messiah, but as in verse 35, the Son of God. He's recognizing him to be divine and giving him the worship that he deserves. Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him in verse 38. The rest of the earlier part of the chapter had to do with God healing him, cleansing him of his physical blindness. Now his spiritual blindness is taken care of also. And Jesus said, for judgment, I have come into this world, into this world that those who do not see may see and those who see may be made blind. And then some of the Pharisees who were with him heard those words and they said to Jesus, are we blind also? And Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would have no sin. But now you say we see and therefore your sin remains. Jesus said, if you were blind, you would have no sin. They knew enough about Jesus to come to the right conclusion concerning him. If they didn't know anything, then they would have been less responsible. But he said, now you say we see, therefore your sin remains. Knowing what they did about Jesus, and indeed they considered themselves experts concerning Jesus, made them all the more responsible for their unbelief. And Jesus didn't let them squirm out from under their responsibility. He said, you're responsible for your sin and thus your sin remains. Beautiful, beautiful story. I don't know how many in this room, I won't ask for a show of hands, but how many all over the world, in order to be the Lord's workmanship, have faced this kind of a response by the religious system that you grew up in, in order to now walk faithful with the Lord? With this thing you've been a part of all of your life, and now all of a sudden the Lord comes in, you're born again by the Holy Spirit, and you're a changed person. It's obvious. And now you begin to speak about the fact that Jesus has changed you, the necessity of being born again. What happens? You know, you end up in a theological discussion or argument or whatever, and the whole thing ends up in a place where facts are stubborn things and out you go. But who meets you out there? Jesus meets us out there, and leads us on in a personal relationship with him. Beautiful lessons from the chapter. The demonstration of God's love is the cross of Calvary. God demonstrated his love toward us in the while we were yet sinners. Christ died for the ungodly. It is not my circumstances. Then the beautiful testimony of the man in verse 25. One thing I know, once I was blind and now I see. Why? Because he's the creator, because he is the sent one, and because he is the light of the world.