In this sermon, the speaker discusses the issue of distinguishing between a fire and a tanner of 50 in a field where everything looks the same. He then transitions to talking about how people handle money and how they trust others to identify the value of different bills. The speaker also mentions a situation where a woman in the assembly becomes pregnant and the anticipation surrounding the birth of her child. The sermon concludes with a discussion about the power of light to reveal hidden things and the impact it has on our hearts and lives.

Good morning, all you non-secret rapture folks. Delighted to have you still. I hope you'll hang in there until the real one takes place. Let's turn, please, if you will, to the Gospel by John, chapter 8. John's Gospel, chapter 8, and we'll read from verse 12. Omitting the first paragraph of John, chapter 8, coming down to verse 12. I am the light of the world. Now turn over to chapter 9, verse 1. 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. Chapter 12, chapter 12, and reading from verse 31. Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out, and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die. The people answered him, We have heard out of the law that Christ divided forever, and how sayest thou the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man? Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you. For he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goes. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the sons of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them. And then farther down now in the same chapter, chapter 12, verse 46. I am come a light into the world, but whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. Now, it's quite evident to you all, I'm sure, that the Absolute that we're going to consider this morning come from these words of our Lord in chapters 8, 9, and 12, when he said again, I am, another of the I am's of the Absolute, and he said, I am the light of the world. Let me remind you, if I may, that this again is in the eternal present tense. Our Lord continues to be what he said he was in those days, and he ever shall be, even in the millennial age to come, and for all the ages to come, he will be the light of the world. Not only will he be the light of the world, but he will be the light of the heavenly city, as you know, for the Lamb is the lamp thereof, as we read in our closing chapters. I want to just look briefly with you this morning, well, it's not going to be so brief, it's going to be kind of long, long for the, I don't know why the poor morning congregation has to suffer more time than the evening one, but that's the way it is. It's just the way it is. And so please blame those who are in the administrative capacity of arranging these things. I'm just doing what I always do, I'm just doing as I'm told. Well, almost always. Always when I'm home, anyway. Sometimes I stray away from that when I get away from home, but I want to notice the circumstances, the setting under which the Lord made this statement, I am the light of the world. In chapter 8, the story most of you will know well, comes from chapter 7. Chapter 7, when the Pharisees had got together and they'd arranged for officers to go and arrest Jesus of Nazareth. And when they went to arrest him, as you will recall, it was one of those great feast days in the history of the nation of Israel. And the officers were standing around looking for an opportunity to lay hands on Jesus of Nazareth. And as they came up to the close of the feast activities, and they went down the street of Jerusalem, pouring out the water and saying, we are as water spilt upon the ground that cannot be gathered up again. You remember Jesus, it says in verse 37, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his inward shall flow rivers of living water. This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believed on him were to receive, for the Spirit of God was not yet given inasmuch as Christ was not yet glorified. And the officers that had come from the chief priests and the scribes, listening to these words, were moved internally, moved emotionally, moved in conscience as well, and they could not, they did not find the strength either of will or their arms to arrest the teacher. He had done what he had done before, and he was yet to do many times again. He was to sway his audience by the power of his words. He that believeth on me, as the scripture has said, not will he be as water spilt upon the ground that cannot be gathered up again, as the ritualistic ceremony of that feast day prescribed, but he will be him who will never thirst again, and we were looking a little at that yesterday, weren't we, at Syker's Well, and not only will he not thirst again, but that which I shall give him shall be in him, in him, not taken upon him, but in him the outflowing of rivers of water as generated and compelled and carried on by the Spirit of God himself. Now, these words captured the imagination, evidently, of the officers, and they could not take the prisoner. So they went back to the chief priests and the scribes, and they said, Where's your prisoner? Why haven't you brought him? Well, they said, Never a man spoke like this man, and the chief priests and pharisees were indignant. They were disappointed, and they said, Are you also deceived? Why, these people that don't know the law, they'd be deceived, but you should not have been deceived, and in the council in the Sanhedrin at that time, when they were arguing thus, was the man who came to Jesus by night. Isn't it interesting how some of these early characteristics carry on through one's life and one's history, and we find that that which we was, we are, and that which we determined we would never be, we have continued to be. I remember my mother said about my father, and my mother died at 86, and my father died at 98, and my father had little mannerisms at the table that my mother did not appreciate at all, and she said on one occasion she corrected him for something, some little thing, rattling his fork against his teeth, or some of those major infringements of society and culture, you know. So my mother said, I'll change him if it's the last thing before I die. Well, she died and didn't, and some of these things, you know, that we are determined ourselves to change before we die, we discover they're cropping up, cropping up, and cropping up. Here's a man who came to Jesus by night, but that was some time ago, and he's sitting in the Sanhedrin, and this is Nicodemus, and Nicodemus steps into the arena, into the ring, and he says, does our law judge a man before he hears him? Because they had never had an interview, you understand, at this time with Jesus of Nazareth. They were accusing him, they were indignant because of his miracles and because of his sayings, his words, and they were determined to kill him if they possibly could, and they were planning and scheming all kinds of ways in which to do it. And so Nicodemus comes to the defense, supposedly, of the law, but as I understand it, he's actually coming into the defense of him whom he had visited by night, and who had spoken to him concerning the new birth. So they turned on him, and they said, art thou also of Galilee? Don't tell me that you, the teacher of Israel, have now also been taken in by this lowly Galilean prophet? Arise and see, for out of Galilee arises no prophet. And the council was dismissed with that. And then it says they went to their own homes, and Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. But you know they didn't stay in their own homes, as the subsequent passage regarding the next morning early proves to us. For the next morning early, as our Lord goes to the temple, the people gather around him, and he sits down to teach them. And while he's teaching them, along come the Pharisees, and they bring with them a woman taken in adultery, and they set her in the midst. Now what is this? This is a plot to succeed the previous plot that was a failure. This is another piece of strategy whereby they are going to trap the Lord, take him prisoner, and possibly accuse him, if they can, under the sentence of death. They have been scheming about this for some time already, and this is the latest maneuver in their strategy to kill him. So when they went to their own homes, I don't know how many of them did, and I don't know how many of them didn't, but I know some of them certainly came out of their own homes afterwards, and they got their heads together during the night, and they planned this trap. So they knew where to get this adulteress, and they apprehended her in the morning, and they brought her to the Lord, and they said, now, Master, Moses in the law commanded us this woman should be stoned because she was taken in adultery. What sayest thou? Now, you see, it's one of those traps which later on they laid for his feet again, with a political overtones to it, but this now is with legal overtones to it. This is what Moses said in the law we are to do. We are to stone this woman to death, but what sayest thou? Had they heard his message before when he said, You have read in the law this, but I say unto you. You have heard it said of the ancients this, but I say unto you, and how he added to, if not revoked at part, that which their tradition had taught them concerning the law. So they said, well, this is what Moses commanded us. Now, what do you say? They're looking for a way to trap him, and they think they have something whereby he cannot escape, but he said, what sayest thou? And the Lord, if he were sitting at the time that appears that he was, he rises up off the seat where he's sitting, and he stoops over, and he starts to write on the ground. Please, after the meeting, don't ask me what he wrote. I don't know. I have heard a lot of speculations about this, but what the scripture does not say, I leave sometimes to a little bit of hopefully sanctified imagination, but not in this case. It's too touchy. I remember I was having some messages at one time with a large chart from the Revelation, the book of Revelation, and I came to the part of the seven thunders, and we were reading about the seven thunders. They uttered their voice, and John was going to write the content of the message, the voice of the seven thunders, and of course, the angel said to him, seal it up in the book and don't write it. Leave it. As Daniel was told to do with some prophecies that he received, and don't write it. So the voice of the seven thunders are going to be left to be heard when they are actually sounding. So, would you know it, dear sister comes along to me as a young lady. She came along to me and she said, Mr. Adams, please, I have a problem. Would you please help me? I said, yes, what is it? Glad to do so. She said, I want you to tell me, what did the seven thunders say? Yes, yes. John wasn't allowed to write it, but I'm supposed to know. And that's the way it is, you see. And this is what happens here. This is what Moses said, but what do you say? And the Lord rose from his seat, stooped over, and he wrote on the ground. And I don't know what he wrote. While he's writing on the ground, they see, because you see, these judges of the woman, the adulterous woman, are standing all around her in a half-moon circle, just waiting to thunder their condemnation. And the Lord is writing on the ground, and evidently they saw what he wrote, or whether they did, I don't even know that either, for that matter. But when they saw him bypassing, they thought, their question, and wouldn't answer it, then they felt very smug about this. You see, we have him in the trap. He doesn't want to answer. We know, as on previous occasion, he has forgiven such things as this, and such women as this woman. And we know that in between, or amongst, rather, his disciples, he has some such as this woman is. So, we have him trapped. We know that he would like not to have to answer this question, because he is one who imparts forgiveness. His words are words of grace. They marveled, didn't they, in Nazareth, at the words of grace that proceeded out of his mouth. So, they have him trapped, and he wants to avoid it. He won't face the issue, so he's facing the ground, and they're looking at one another. I can just see them, these long-robed, long-bearded, long-faced Pharisees. How else could they be? And they're looking at one another across the half circle, and they're very pleased, and there's a twinkle in their eye, and there's a knowing nod of the head, and so on and so forth. We're not going to let him out of the trap this time. So, they persist asking the Lord while he's still writing on the ground, as though he heard them not, but he did, of course. So, when they persisted asking him, he rose up, and he made a comment in a very quiet, even, modulated voice, and he said, He that is without sin among you is going to be the first to cast a stone at her. And then he turned, and he continued writing on the ground. What happens? It's what happens when light shines into a dark cell. That's what happens. The light shining in. What did he say? He said, He that is without sin. Did he say without the sin? No. He said, He that is without sin. If you would be an executor of the righteous law of God, make sure that you are qualified to execute it. You know, there's a difference between a sentence being dictated and a sentence being executed. That comes up in Hebrews chapter 2, doesn't it? Because the law that was given by Moses was also given by angels. And if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape? But then, did every transgression receive the execution of the sentence? There's a difference between a sentence being dictated and executed. And if every transgression and disobedience of what was spoken by angels, that sentence was dictated, was it always executed? You know, it wasn't. It wasn't. And if you're wondering what was actually what was dictated by angels, you just have to go back to Deuteronomy chapter 6, and you'll see there that when God gave the law to Moses, he wrote with his finger, it says, doesn't it, on the tables of stone that he himself had carved and he wrote the Ten Commandments, and he spoke these ten words, and he added no more. So, what Jehovah did with Moses the first time on the mount, and there was another time you recall, he gave Moses the Ten Commandments on two tablets of stone carved by the hand of omnipotence, and written upon them by the finger of God were the Ten Commandments. These he spoke, says Deuteronomy, and added no more. Well, where did the rest of the law come from? It was given into the hands of angels, as Galatians tells us, and as Hebrews also indicates. So, the moral code, the dietary code, the social code that was given to the nation of Israel, who spoke all that to Moses? It was spoken by angels. It was the administration of angels. Now, the Lord is writing on the ground, and as he's writing on the ground, they persist in asking him until he made that statement, and then he turned away from them. He never looked at them, each in the eye, when he said, he that is without sin among you, let him first cast the stone at her. He merely spoke over again, and left the light to shine in to the darkened consciences of these who would be her executors as they were her accusers. So, one by one, was there any whispering amongst them? I don't know. What did he say? What did he say? He said, he that is without sin among you, let him be the first to cast the stone at her. Did he say, without sin? He said, without sin. Now, what happens? The light that shines in to these hardened consciences of these accusing Pharisees begins to work in their souls, as the word is so divinely inspired, and often works in our hearts, doesn't it? Particularly when some of it jumps out at us by the Spirit of God, and he applies it to us. And so, they begin to get restless. They look at one another, then they look at the ground, and they look at the woman, and then they look away, and then they decide that the best thing is to get out of here fast. One by one, beginning at the eldest, they leave. The Lord's not even looking at them. He's not paying any attention to them. He's writing on the ground, and the woman is standing there, and finally they're all gone. The whole circle has disappeared from the eldest to the least, to the youngest of them. And they leave, and they left the woman alone. Jesus was there, and the woman in the midst. Her condition, her position hadn't changed in the least. Her sin was still stamped upon her history, and the guilt of it upon her conscience. And she's standing there, and she's not moved an inch from where she was when they stood behind her with their accusations. So, the Lord rises up again from writing on the ground, and he looks at the woman, and there she is, disheveled, disturbed, agitated, and guilty. And he said to her, woman, where are your accusers? Has no man condemned you? Oh, you see, there's a difference between an accusation and a condemnation. They had accused her, but they weren't qualified to condemn her. And that's a very nice distinction. It's a clear distinction, isn't it? How easy it is to accuse. How easy it is to criticize. How easy it is to bring somebody else under the focus of attention and accusation. Accusation is one thing. Execution is another thing. And not one of them was qualified to execute and carry out the accusations that they made. They could accuse all right, but they could not condemn. So, our Lord put the two words together. He said, woman, where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you? And she said, no one, Lord. He said, neither do I condemn you. Neither do I. What's he saying? I could have. He was the only one under those conditions that could have. There was another one there that could have carried out the sentence which they had tried to apply by their accusation under the law of Moses. But he could have, couldn't he? He was the only one there without sin. And I think sometimes, my brethren, we must be certainly very cautious, mustn't we? It's far easier to accuse than to execute. We can accuse without being qualified to execute. The sentence may be there. Make sure we are qualified to execute it if we bring the accusation. So, he said to her, neither do I condemn thee. Neither do I. They couldn't. I could, but I won't. And you know, I've heard it said, well, the Lord just passed lightly over the adultery. No, he didn't. No, he didn't. He said, go and sin no more. He classified it for what it was. He gave her the energy and the ability and the peace of heart and strength of spirit to not sin anymore. He didn't condone it. He didn't pass over. He didn't treat it lightly. He said what it was. He called it what it was. It was sin, but he also granted forgiveness for it. And in addition to granting forgiveness for it, he also empowered her to rise above it and to sin no more. Now, after that little episode, what happens? Then the Lord comes out with a statement that we read here in John 12. I am the light of the world. And if you stop and think of the setting in which he made that statement, you see there are two things about light. The first is that light reveals. It was the light that shone into the hearts of the accusers. It was light that made them feel uncomfortable in the presence of him who is going to say, I am the light of the world. This is absolute light. This is one of the absolutes that we have, for our Lord is the light of the world. And when that light shines into a dark area, as the hearts of the Pharisees unquestionably were, then what does it do? It reveals what had been hidden, what had been secreted, what was condoned, what was held under, even when they were accusing another. So, light always does that, doesn't it? Light reveals. Light reveals that which is not known or seen before the light comes in. But when the light comes in, you see everything clearly. You know what's in that dark closet, and in the dark closet of our hearts so often, that's the first thing light does. And there's another thing about light, and it's perhaps the only thing, you may question this, and you're welcome to question it, but as far as I'm concerned, as far as I can see, light is the only element in the universe you can't contaminate. And you can't contaminate light. You can have pure water, and you can contaminate it, and then you have to put it through some RO process or whatever, you have to filter in order to make it palatable. You can do that with water. You can do that with a number of elements, but you can't contaminate light. It shines into the darkest hovel, and it remains clean. It's not contaminated by the circumstances under which it is brought. Light is not contaminated. And he said, I am the light of the world. And then he went on to say, in addition to that, he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. What's he referring to? Well, of course, you'd say he's referring to the adulteress. Yes, undoubtedly, she was walking in darkness. And the light of life, which our Lord himself said he is, he not only represents it, he is the light of the world. And when he in his person comes into anyone's life, spirit, or home, or business, or assembly, wherever he is, he is the light. Beyond him there is no light. He that follows me, said the Master, shall not walk in darkness. Oh, but you say, that's the adulteress. Just a minute. We're not finished yet. Who else was there? The Pharisees. They were there. You remember at the close of chapter 9, the Pharisees are going to question the Lord if they were still walking in darkness. Unquestionably, they were. And the darkness that reveals what is there shone into their hearts, and brought that uneasy feeling in the presence of the light of the world. They will not walk in hypocrisy, who move in the light of the world. They will not walk in ungrounded criticism, who company with him who is the light of the world, because not only does he say, I am the light of the world, but he speaks about the light of life. And he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Light reveals, and then the second thing is, light heals. And that's the woman, isn't it? Neither do I condemn thee. Who's saying this? The light of the world. Who's saying this? The one who knows what adultery is. The one who knows sin in all its ramifications is. The one who is going to be made sin for us. This is the light that comes into the sore, to the leprous, cancerous condition of the heart and soul of man. What does it do? It reveals, but it heals. That's what it did in the case of the woman. You see the contrast, of course, between the Pharisees, her accusers, and the woman who was the accused. They were exposed to light that they could not stand, and she was healed by the light that she so sorely needed. Light reveals, and light heals. And our Lord said, I am the light of the world. Then he spoke about the light of life. What is the light of life, do you suppose? Without which light there is no life, of course, but the light of life is when we walk in the light of his person, in the light of his presence. It is life. Do you remember the words from Leviticus, chapter 18, I think it is, in connection with the giving of the law, how God said from then on, I think it's quoted four times in the New Testament, the man that does these things will live by them. The man that does these things will live in them. What's he saying? What is life? Life is to walk in the light of the law. What is life now? Life is to walk in the light of him who is the light of the world. And if a man does these things, he will live by them. What does that mean? It doesn't say he's going to have eternal life if he keeps the law. No, but it said very clearly, and the Lord repeated it himself when he was here, the man that does these things will live by them. What is life really in its essence? It is the fulfillment of the requirements of the law of God. And you know that underwriting the law, the basis, the whole basis of the law of Moses was that four-letter word, love, because the whole law is fulfilled in this one word, thou shalt love the Lord thy God and thy neighbor as thyself. He that loves the Lord his God will not violate his Sabbath under the law. He that loves the Lord his God will not make another God to go before him and to worship. He who loves with his whole heart and soul that which God has been pleased to give him will love and live in the light of love. And he who loves his neighbor certainly will not lie against him. He will not covet what he has. He will not steal from him. He will not provoke him to wrath. No. Love is the underlying basis of the whole law. It took me a long time to see that, you know, but then I learned slowly. It took me a long time to understand that the essence of the law was love. It's the fulfillment of the love of God. Now, what the light did in this case was the light revealed, and then the light healed. Now, let's move over in our thinking now to chapter nine, and here's the Lord is walking down the streets with his disciples in the city of Jerusalem, and as they walk down the streets of Jerusalem, they see a man that was born blind, and then these geneticists, can I call them that, from the sea of Galilee, these rustic folks from the north who were considered uncouth and unlettered and unlearned and uncultured, and who were despised by the Jews from Judea, they said to the Lord as they're walking along, see this man was blind from birth. Master, who sinned, this man himself or his parents, that he was born blind? Have you ever figured that one out? Ever come to the bottom of that kind of genetics? How can a man sin so that he would be born blind? Is there any such thing as prenatal sin? Well, what are they saying? Or is there such a thing that sin in life could be retroactive to the pre-birth state? How do you figure it out? Some of these fishermen, you know, could ask you a question or two, keep you busy thinking. Lord, who did sin, this man or his parents? Now, that his parents had sinned, of course, that's the logical thing, we see that often, don't we? Parents may sin with the result that the children are born blind or born defective, born dysfunctional, or whatever the word is they're using today, maybe born blind, like Beethoven. There are many cases of this, aren't there? A parent sinned and as a result of that the children are born defective. I can understand that part, but did this man sin, Lord, that he should be born blind? I have to wait and ask some of these fishermen, geneticists, when I get to heaven, what they were thinking about that day. But anyway, that's what they asked the Lord, and the Lord said no. No, he said neither did this man sin nor his parents. This man was born blind 40 years ago or whatever, in order that the works of God might be manifest in him. Now, I want you to go back in your thinking. When this child was born, how did the parents react to the birth of a blind baby? You say you don't know. Well, there might be something a little later on in the story that indicates how they felt. I know if I were to have had a blind child born in my home, I would have had a strong reaction to it, I'm sure. And these parents, they must have been disappointed. This child that's born blind in their home is destined to be a beggar. He's destined to sit by the wayside begging for the rest of his life. And this is my son. And I have got to look forward in those days as they had to a son who would constantly and eternally be a beggar. They must have had very strong feelings. Don't you think? You parents and grandparents, have you had someone like this? We had a little interesting case about this up in the assembly at Waynesville. Some of you know we're here. And I recall when these two young folks were married and they were both blind. The one was born blind and the other was blind early in life by an accident. And this man and this woman, they were married. And of course you know how the conversation went around. Let's hope they never have any family. Can't you hear the ladies? Oh, this is going to be terrible. Why did they ever get married? Why did the parents let them? Shouldn't they know better than that? What were they thinking about? Let these two blind people get married. Well, these two blind people got married. And not only did they get married, but they had a little business of their own. And the father told me on more than one occasion, he told me, he says, you know, Brother Dave, they run their business. I said, Pete, how do they run your business? He said, just fine. I said, they were selling furniture and chairs and stuff. And we were out to see their little furniture place one time. And he said, not only that, but they are so independent that they don't want us to put a finger to this business at all. They are running their own business. I said, how do they handle money? Because some places, some countries, you know, the bills are smaller and larger and so on. Some of them, like in my country, they're of a different color, but that doesn't mean the blind people does it. But here in the United States, they're all the same size, they're all the same color, they're all the same field. How can you tell a five from a 10 or a 50? So I said to the father, how in the world do they handle money? Oh, he says, no problem at all. They handle money. I said, how do they do it? By the feel of it? Or just how do they know what the one dollar? No, he says, they trust everybody. Everybody tells them that this is a 10 or this is a 20 and so on. And they keep their bills straight in the till and so on. So they were running this business. And then one day we all heard in the assembly that she was pregnant. All horrors. Now what's gonna happen? Can't you hear that she's going around the whole place? Well, then of course then they came, and you of course, and the baby was born. The ladies couldn't wait to see if that child could see. I wonder would she be born blind? Will it be born blind until they knew it was a she? It was a little girl. And then I remember we were there, my wife and I I remember the day that the first time they brought the child to the meeting, to the service, and everybody was just so, I can picture a few of the older ladies standing around the door now when they saw the car drive up. Sure enough, the mother got out with the baby, all wrapped up in her arms, and so forth, and they're all waiting to see, will its eyes be open or will it be closed? You know, will it be a child or a kitten? They all wanted to know. And sure enough, the mother comes through the door, and three or four of the ladies stand there looking at it, and guess what? The baby's asleep. And guess what more? They slept all through the service and slept until they went home and nobody knew. Oh, it was devastating. They didn't find out. Well, of course, that could only last so long, you understand. Later on, we learned, sure, a little girl can see, she feels fine, she sees blind, and she grew up to be a little tot running around. And then, of course, the ladies want to know, how's the mother going to handle this? The child can see, and she can't. So what happened was, she put a little bell on her, you know, tied a little bell on her so when she was running around the house she knew where the child was, and the child got pretty smart about that, you know, so she got, so she could hold the bell and it wouldn't ring, and then she'd just run around on her own. It was all because there was no sight, no sight in the child, in the parents rather, but the child had all the sight that she needed, and she learned to play some tricks on it, you can be sure, as children only can in a situation like that. They did not have the light of life. She had the light of life, you see. She could see light, she could see things, she knew where everything was, and she was able to manipulate them to her own benefit too, and trick the parents very well if she could. They'd let her. Well, they had different schemes, that's a longer story, it's still going on. But however, I've been thought about this in connection with the Lord's statement, He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Here's a blind beggar at the side of the road, is this life? Is this living? You wouldn't think so. If you were a blind beggar, I'm sure, even if you had never seen better, you knew there was better. You knew there were other things that you couldn't do, there were things you had never seen. And so, the Lord pauses with this man who's been born blind, and what's he going to do? Well watch what he does, and let me suggest something to you. Watch the Lord's miracles, how He performed them, because He didn't perform miracles the same way every time. No. Why, He gave a man blind a way up there in the north on Bethsaida, and he had to do it in two stages, and there's a reason for that. Remember that one? So in this case, the man sitting by the roadside here, the Lord spits on the ground, He makes clay of the saliva, and He puts it on the blind man's eyes. Did He ever do anything unnecessarily? Did He ever do anything just for the sake of doing it? No. Well, then He must have a reason for doing this, wouldn't He? So He anointed the blind man's eyes with clay, clay that was the product of His own mouth, and He put this on the blind man's eyes. He didn't do that at Jericho when Bartimaeus got his sight, He didn't do that at Bethsaida when the blind man of Bethsaida got his sight. Why is He doing it in Jerusalem? He must have a reason for it. What did the clay do to the blind man's eyes? Certainly did not improve his sight at all. Why did He do it in Jerusalem? What's the reason for this? He says to the blind man, now go to the pool of Siloam and wash. So He sent him away to the pool of Siloam. And you remember the whole story, the subsequent story. The man goes down and he washes the clay off his eyes, and he opens his eyes and he can see perfectly. And he comes back seeing. Remember what he said later, one thing I know, whereas I was blind, now I can see. And they're looking at him and they're marveling at this. And I look at him and I say, why did the Lord do it this way? And why did He do it this way in Jerusalem? He never did it that way anywhere else. And then I have discovered that, in thinking about this, that when the Lord healed blind people, and sometimes lepers people as well, He healed them in direct association with the place where He did it. Bethsaida, the place where He'd done many wonderful works, the place where 25% of His apostles came from. And yet He had to take the man by the hand and lead him outside the town before He could give him his sight back. And then when He got him outside the town, He had to do it in a two-stage miracle before the man. Why? Because it was in Bethsaida. Now, in Jerusalem, what's He doing here? He's adding to the man's seeming blindness with the clay. What was the sin of Jerusalem? You might ask, what was the sin of Bethsaida to? You might ask, what were the conditions of Jericho when Bartimaeus got his sight? What was the sin of Jerusalem? What was the crowning sin of Jerusalem? All they saw was the prophet from Nazareth was Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter's son. This man that has never learned, how can he perform these things? Why should we listen to him? The ignorant people that don't know the law, they're deceived. But we rulers, we chief priests and we scribes who know the law of God, we are not deceived by him. This is only the carpenter from Nazareth. What's that? That's clay in the blind man's eyes. What was his humanity when they discovered that he was the Christ, the Son of the living God? As they said in chapter 6, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, the sent one. Their eyes are open, and that made the difference, didn't it? I am the light of the world, he said, and the light of the world was the one who came from the light of the Father's presence, and came to bring light that we, you and I as well, might walk, not in darkness, but in the light of life. And this is life, my friends, to walk in the light of him who said, I am the absolute, I am the light of the world. So we pray. Our Father, we thank Thee for being able to come together to meditate in Thy presence, to meditate upon Thy Word and the glorious wonders of this glorious person, the absolute I Am. We thank Thee that He is the light that reveals, and He is the light that heals. He is the light that brings to us the opened eyes and the vision of that which came from the skies. Blessed are Thy people in all the activities today, we pray, as we commend this to Thee in His name. Amen.