Curious Critical Control

Last time we looked at a notable miracle and that was the healing of a blind man. Now this is certainly a notable miracle because if you search the Old Testament and even until this day there doesn't seem to be any incidences where a blind man, and especially a blind man who was blind from his birth, is healed. If you jump down to John 9, verse 32, this blind man actually says this, 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 so the idea that throughout history, human history, there has not been any incidences, at least this man's recording or remembrance of anything that God would heal a man that was born blind. And so that's what we talked about last Sunday, this amazing healing. We learned some lessons I trust from this story.

And certainly we all come born into sin. We all come blind. We grope around in darkness apart from the Lord Jesus drawing us.

The Bible says that Jesus is the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Praise God for that. If you came into the world, you have received some light from the Lord Jesus.

And I don't know what you're like, but if I'm in a dark, dark, dark, dark place where there is no light, and there is a light that shines off in the distance, I am going to gravitate to that light. I'm going to go and seek out that light because I don't want to sit in darkness. And so Jesus is that light, and everyone gets a glimpse throughout their lifetime of that light.

It may be in your childhood. It may be in your youth. It may be at a revival meeting.

It may be in a church service. It may be on a billboard if you're an atheist and you're lost and you're driving along. There's many times where God makes attempts to shine light into the human heart.

But He lights every man that comes into the world. Praise God for that. Well, this man here had the opportunity to see some light, and he was healed.

And I told you last week that blindness is physically an issue where the light receptacles in the eye do not receive light. Without light, there is no sight. Without light, there is no color.

Without light, there is no shape. And so we need light to see physically, but we also need light to see spiritually. And if you want to know where the light is spiritually, it's right here in this book.

Because this book describes the person of Jesus Christ who is the light of the world. Well, I'd like to teach on a few things here this morning. I know that the Bible says that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable.

So I don't care where you turn, especially here in the New Testament, whatever you read, whatever verse you read, or whatever story, or whatever doctrine, it is profitable, either for instruction, correction, reproof, rebuke, that the man of God may be perfect, complete, thoroughly furnished unto every good work. And so we're going to look at verse 8 down through verse 23. And I'm going to take the time, if you don't mind, to read this passage.

We'll come back and go over it here, verse by verse. But after this blind man is healed, after God does a miraculous work, remember Jesus said, I must work the works of Him that sent me while it is day. And one of these works is the healing of this blind man.

But after this blind man is healed, the Bible records three specific responses to the healing of this blind man. And the first one comes from the neighbors, or those who had seen him and knew that he was blind from his birth. The next comes from the Pharisees, those religious leaders.

They respond to this miracle. And the last one comes from the parents. And so as you go down through this chapter, you see how different people respond to this work of God.

And I think we can learn from each of these responses different lessons. And so I'd like to do that this morning. I want to read, starting in John chapter 9, verse number 8. The neighbors therefore, and they which before had seen him that he was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged? Obviously this man was a beggar.

Some said, This is he. Others said, He is like him. But he said, I am he.

Therefore said they unto him, How are thine eyes open? He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay and anointed mine eyes and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam and wash. And I went and washed, and I received sight. Then said they unto him, Where is he? He said, I know not.

This blind man doesn't even realize who Jesus is yet. He's going to meet the Lord here at the end of the chapter, but he doesn't realize who he is. Verse 13.

They brought to the Pharisees him that was aforetime blind, and it was the Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said unto them, He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed and do see.

Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the Sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them. They say unto the blind man again, What sayest thou of him that he hath opened thine eyes? He said, He is a prophet.

Well, now let's look at the third group here. But the Jews did not believe concerning him that he had been blind and received his sight until they called the parents of him that had received his sight. And they asked them, saying, Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then doth he now see? His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind.

But by what means he now seeth, we know not. Or who hath opened his eyes, we know not. He is of age, ask him, he shall speak for himself.

These words spake his parents, because they feared the Jews. For the Jews had agreed already that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. Therefore said his parents, He is of age, ask him.

So we have three different groups here. God gives us these three groups here in his Word for a purpose. And I think we can learn some things about human nature and about correct responses and not correct responses, and even about false concepts and false religion and the way that religion controls men and women.

So let's take a look at these three things. I have three words. All of them start with a C, so you can remember them.

I look at these neighbors as those who are curious. They are the curious ones. Curiosity.

I look at the Pharisees as those who are the critical ones, criticizing the Lord Jesus wherever he goes. And I look at those parents as the ones who are controlled. They are controlled by fear.

The fear of being put out of the synagogue. So you have the curious, the critical, and the controlled. Let's look at each one of them and learn some lessons here this morning.

Let's acknowledge the Lord before we do. Heavenly Father, we acknowledge you again this morning. Thank you again for the Word of God.

We acknowledge it's powerful, it's quick and powerful, especially to those whose hearts are open, whose hearts are broken, who are hungering and thirsting after righteousness. And Lord, may the Word of God be powerful to hearts here today, and may you quicken our heart and mind and teach us. And even as we sang, may the Comforter teach us in all things and quicken us, Lord, and quicken our hearts and minds.

We pray your blessing upon us as we open up your Word here this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. So we have these neighbors, first of all.

And these neighbors are curious, curious. I looked up the word curious. The word curious means an increased desire to investigate and to learn.

Curiosity is a good thing if you're curious about good things, like these people who are curious about this amazing miracle that they have just witnessed or seen this man whom they knew, who is now a much different individual. You can imagine knowing this man pretty much all his life, maybe passing him on a regular basis as he is sitting begging. And if you've ever seen a blind person, especially someone who's blind all their life, that their eyes pretty much disappear, they sink in their heads, their lids pretty much close, their facial expression shows that they are blind, they have a sunken look in their face.

But can you imagine how different this man must have looked after Jesus healed him and his eyes were opened and he was given 20-20 vision? The amazing change that occurred. And so much so that people said, I think he is the man, but I'm not sure, probably because he was so much different in appearance than what he was before. And there are some questions here that they ask.

In verse number 8, is not this he that sat and begged the curiosity that they had in their heart? Verse number 10, the question is, how were thine eyes opened? How did you get your sight? And then the most important question in verse number 12, where is he? Or where is this Jesus? Where is he? They are searching, they are inquiring and wanting to know about this one who healed the blind man. Well, when Jesus does a work, and you'll find this throughout the Bible, when Jesus does a work in the Bible, that work affects, always affects great change in the life of the individual. You go back and look at the works of God.

These that Jesus are doing, it always produces a great effect in the life of the individual. And that always stirs up the curiosity of the people around this individual who see this miracle, and that gives opportunity to the one who is healed to testify of the grace of God. Because of all the curiosity that is stirred up by the work of God.

And so you have this exact thing happening here. Their desire, in verse number 8, is this the man who sat and begged? And their question, how were thine eyes opened? And then in verse number 11, this blind man gets the opportunity to share his testimony. And that testimony gives people the desire to seek the Lord Jesus Christ.

I'd like you to hold your finger here and turn with me to Acts chapter 3. There's a very good example of this, how this all works. In Acts chapter 3, another healing. This time it wasn't by Jesus, but Peter and John go up into the temple at the hour of prayer, and there's a man that is healed.

And so I'd like to read this story, and just show you the same thing that happens here. In Acts chapter 3, verse 1, Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain man, lame from his mother's womb, again from birth, was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple.

Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked an alms. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.

Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.

And he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered with them into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. Would you not say that was one of the great works of the Lord? Here, God is doing a great work.

Verse 10, And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the beautiful gate of the temple. And they were filled with wonder and amazement. These words are curiosity.

They were amazed at what they saw, at that which had happened unto him. And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John. By the way, when I read that, I wonder, why wasn't he healed? Why wasn't he totally healed? Why did he have to hold on to Peter and John? Well, if you've been lame from your womb, you've never learned to walk.

I mean, children have to learn to walk. This guy's never walked a step in his life. His body is now healed, but he's going to have to learn to walk.

And so, as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch. It is called Solomon's Greatly Wondering. This miracle has caused great curiosity.

And this great curiosity has called many, many people to run, to witness, to see what is going on. How did this happen? And Peter here takes a wonderful opportunity in verse 12, And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Why marvel ye at this? Or why look so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his son Jesus, whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. But she denied the Holy One, and the just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead.

Whereof we are witnesses, and his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. And so you see how God works here.

He does an amazing work. That amazing work stirs up the curiosity of the multitudes, and they seek to understand what happened, and how did this happen. And that gives opportunity for the servant of God to share, and to give testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, last week I spoke about, and someone mentioned here this morning, God's desire to glorify himself through man's fallen condition. You know, Jesus said of this blind man, he's blind not because of his father, not because of his own sin. He is blind because God wants to manifest His mighty works through him.

And so we talked about how we have infirmity, we have sickness, we have blindness, we have our lost condition. We have those things because it is the heart of God to magnify His Son in each one of us. And so here's how it works in Christianity.

God does a great work in fallen man. This draws men's curiosity, and therefore men are able to testify of the work and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you go back and look in the New Testament of how Jesus did amazing works to different people, the maniac of Gadara, people who are blind, all of these miracles cause people to be curious and to wonder and to be amazed and give opportunity for the maniac and for these who have been healed to testify of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Saul was a good example, a man who was an enemy of the Lord, but God did a great work to him. And in Acts chapter 9 it says in a straight way, he preached Christ in the synagogue that he is the Son of God, but all that heard him were amazed. What were they amazed about? They were amazed of the change that had occurred in his life.

It says, Is not this He that destroyed them, which called on this name in Jerusalem? This amazing work of God, turning this man from an enemy of God to a friend of God, caused great curiosity amongst people. And of course Saul, who was later called Paul, took advantage of that and shared his testimony of how Jesus changed his life. And he did it often.

Go back here to John chapter 9, and this man does the same thing here. This man, where God wrought a great miracle in his life, it changed his life, and it led people to be curious, it led people to be amazed at what happened, and that gave opportunity for the blind men to glorify this Jesus through his testimony. Now, how many of you were born blind? Ah, we've got some here.

Good, we're thinking. Yes, we should all raise our hands. Spiritually, we were born blind.

How many of you have been given sight? Raise your hands. So we have many people here who God has done a great spiritual work. You know, salvation is God's greatest work to bring glory to Himself.

Do you realize that? You know, you can heal blind eyes, you can raise up dead bodies, you can heal broken or lame limbs, but the greatest glory that God gets and the greatest curiosity people will have is when God changes a life and turns a life from darkness to light. When God does that, how many were amazed or wondered, how does God do this in you? You know, I'm just going to throw this out here. First of all, I think if you're truly converted, there ought to have been a great change in your life.

Amen? So much so that people say, what is this? You know, Brother Jerry, or Jerry, you used to be this kind of person, now you're this kind of person. How did this happen? I think if you go back and you look in the Bible, you'll see that those who have met Jesus, as Brother Eli said, truly met the Son of God, there is a great work that is done. The Bible says, If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.

Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. Instead of people coming to us and saying, how were your eyes opened? How did this happen to you? They ought to be saying things like this.

How did you find peace with God? How do you have such joy in your life? How did you get victory over that alcoholism? How did you get rid of those cigarettes? How did you get rid of that pornography? How did this happen to you? Right? How did you get your marriage mended? How did you come to give your life to the Lord Jesus Christ and His work? These kind of things amaze people. It's amazing. It's a wonder.

And then you can testify of the glory of God and share of all that He has done. You know, I remember I was converted. There were questions that came to me, just like this blind man.

They come to me and said, Man, why don't you come out drinking with us again? Why don't you party anymore? What's happening? Why are you going to church? Why are you reading that Bible there? Why don't you play golf anymore? What's going on with you? I had a chance to share with them. Isn't it true here this morning that God wants to glorify Himself in us? Would you agree with that? Just like He wanted to glorify Himself in this blind man? Isn't it not true that that requires a change and even a great change in your life? Isn't that true? How does it glorify God if nothing changes in your life? If you're the same person you was before your profession of faith and you're the same person today? But you know, I believe, and the Bible teaches this, if you'll surrender yourself and truly accept the grace of God and stop resisting the grace of God, how many of you know that God wants to dramatically change every one of us here? Amen? And it's the grace of God that's going to do it. And if you'll surrender and yield yourself to the grace of God just like this blind man, he didn't do anything.

He just was a willing man to say, Lord, do whatever you want. And the Lord touched him. He put clay on his eyes and said, now you go down and wash.

He went down and washed. He surrendered to the will of God and the grace of God did a tremendous work in his life, so much so that people were amazed and he had an opportunity to give a testimony and point people to Jesus. Amen? That's Christianity.

I'm a lost sinner. I yield myself to the grace of God. God does an amazing work in my life.

People who know me, my neighbors, they say, what is happening to you? God is doing an amazing work in your life. Tell us about it. It gives us an opportunity to say, hey, here's what's happening.

What the Lord is doing. This is the kind of a response that we ought to desire. The curiosity that the neighbors had.

And this blind man was able to point them in some way to Jesus, although he didn't even know who he was yet. He just knew his name. He thought he was a prophet.

Later on, in the end of the chapter, he's going to meet the Lord and the Lord is going to say, you know, you need the Lord Jesus. And the blind man is going to say, well, who is he? Who are you? And the Lord is going to say, I'm Jesus. I'm the Messiah.

Oh, I believe now. So, the neighbors. I guess the lesson we can learn from the neighbors is this, that people ought to look at our life if we're a child of God and they ought to see a change.

Amen? That change ought to bring glory to God. And let's yield ourselves to the grace of God and let God do it every once for His glory. Well, the second group here is an interesting group.

We've talked about them many times and I've shared some of these things before. I'll share a few different things here this morning. But the Pharisees, the religious leaders.

The Pharisees responded with criticism. They found fault. They always did.

That's the problem with the Pharisaical mindset. It always looks for fault. It always looks for something wrong.

Whatever Jesus did needed to be criticized. And the root of that was envy and pride. They were very envious of Jesus.

They were very proud people. And so when Jesus did something wonderful because their hearts were full of envy, they had to knock Him down. When He did something wonderful and raised Himself above them in the other people's eyes, they had to criticize Him and knock Him down.

So the Pharisees were critical. It's not a good response. Well, the criticism comes here from the Pharisees because of this reason.

Jesus violated the commandments and extra-biblical standards of men. If you look at verse 16, here's what they said. Therefore said some of the Pharisees, this man is not of God.

Why? Because he keepeth not the Sabbath day. Others said how can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them. You can imagine how they're thinking.

These are religious people. They're thinking, I just saw this man who I know was blind from his birth. I've given him money in his cup.

I mean, I've given him money over the years. I know he was blind. Now this guy's walking around.

He's got 20-20 vision. And I'm a religious Pharisee. And in my heart it's like, whoa! I know he just did a miracle, but I also know if he did that miracle on the Sabbath day, he's a sinner because he's violated the tradition and commandments of men.

So I can't accept him because he's a sinner, but I had a real struggle because he just did a miracle that's never been done from the foundation of the world to today. And so amongst the religious Pharisees there was a division. Some people were saying he must be of God.

Others were saying, no, he cannot be of God. So there was a tussle. The Bible calls it division amongst them.

And the reason why they criticized him on many occasions is because he was violating their standard, violating the commandments and doctrines of men. Here, he was keeping not the Sabbath day. Now let me ask you a question.

Did Jesus always keep the Sabbath? Yes, He did. As a matter of fact, Jesus never sinned, right? He was without sin. He fulfilled the law to the jot and tittle.

He fulfilled everything that God His Father had commanded in the law. He fulfilled the spirit of it. He fulfilled the heart of it.

He was not a sinner. As a matter of fact, back in chapter 8, verse 46, He says, which of you convinces Me of sin? No one could convince Him of sin. So why then would they not believe that He was from God? Because in their mind, He was not a Sabbath keeper.

He was violating the Sabbath law. He did not keep their standard. He did not keep their commandments, the Jewish commandments of men.

The Jews had many rules and standards that were added to the Sabbath commandment. And I've shared this with you before, but this is a problem again here. They had these standards and rules to put a fence around the commandments.

And of course, Jesus was violating those on a regular basis. You remember the guy who He healed? He says, now pick up your bed and walk. That was a violation of the Jewish standard, the Jewish commandments, the commandments of men.

And here, the Lord actually broke a couple of them. And if you go back in history and you read all the commandments and doctrines of men that the Jews had laid out and made them rules, you'll see how Jesus was truly a sinner in their eyes. Let me just read to you four of them that He violated by healing this blind man.

First of all, one of the Jewish standards and rules was that you could not heal on the Sabbath day only if the life was threatened. It was all detailed. You could only heal or administer, a doctor could only administer help to an individual whose life was threatened to save life only.

You could not minister healing to someone whose life was not being threatened. Was the blind man's life being threatened? No, it was not. And so Jesus violated the Sabbath commandments according to the Jewish tradition.

Here's an interesting one. You could not knead bread. Do you know what I mean? To put the dough together and knead.

You couldn't do that or any other type thing, kneading. Well, what did Jesus do? He spit in the ground and He got some clay and He kneaded it together, you know, and made clay out of the spittle. That was a violation of the commandment of men, of the standard of the Jews.

Here's an interesting one. Painting your eyes or any application of makeup, even plucking hairs for a woman was prohibited on the Sabbath. And here Jesus put this salve on both eyes.

A third violation. And then the last one, the length of the travel of the Sabbath was only supposed to be 1,000 yards, roughly a Sabbath day's journey. And there's a good chance this man had to walk more than that distance to go over to the Pool of Siloam and wash and be clean.

So there were many things that this man violated regarding the commandments of men. And that made Jesus in their eye a sinner. And that's how they were perplexed.

Here we are being taught that if you violate these commandments of men, you're a sinner. Here comes Jesus. He is violating the commandments of men, and yet He is doing incredible miracles.

And so many people were confused. And there was division among them. It brought confusion to the people's hearts.

And one of the reasons why many rejected Jesus and His miracles was because He did not keep the Jewish standard. That's a tragedy. He was not one who was obedient to all the Jewish commandments and doctrines of men, and therefore they accused Him of being a sinner.

How can this man be of God if he violates the standard? You know, this is one of the dangers of a standard. It makes good men appear to be sinners. Even Jesus was a sinner according to their standard.

But the Bible testified He was a perfect man. Amen? And if you just take the commandments of God and you look at Jesus' life, He didn't violate a single one of them. Now I know some of you have come from a background and you've experienced some of this.

And I could replace things in here and you'd understand exactly what I mean. I trust. You could hear someone say, someone could go out and do a notable miracle, heal a blind man's eyes, and someone could say this, this man is a sinner because he drives an automobile.

And there's confusion. This man is a sinner because he has electric. This man is a sinner because he paints his house certain colors.

This man is a sinner because he wears certain kind of polo shirts. This man is a sinner because of all these standards and doctrines of men. When I was in the Baptist church, to wear a beard was to be a sinner.

I'd be a sinner. Actually, you couldn't get in our pulpit in the Baptist church with a beard. That was a standard of men.

I often thought about, well, how's Jesus going to preach here? But it made Jesus a sinner. Just like this. And so amongst Judaism, the Jewish children were trained in these things and it became difficult.

Think about this. Young people became difficult to accept Jesus even though He was doing great miracles because in your mind you were taught that Jesus was violating the standard. He's a sinner.

And that was a hindrance for many people to come to the Lord. You know, standards and those things, commandments of men, these are man's ideas. They are man's preferences.

And man is a fallible creature, amen? But the Word of God is infallible. The Bible says the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. This is God's Word.

It's perfect. Nothing needs to be added to it. Nothing needs to be taken away from it.

It is perfect. And so we have the critical ones, the Pharisees, and their criticism comes because Jesus is not keeping the standard. And therefore, they are not able to see Him for who He is.

You know, if they had just stuck to the Word of God and they had said all we are concerned about is the Word of God, they would have looked at Jesus and said, I see He's perfect. He's not a sinner. He's doing great miracles.

We ought to accept Him as the Messiah. Yeah, and they would have. But because of these doctrines of men, it brought confusion.

And it brings confusion today, by the way. Well, I'd like to look at this last group here, the parents, and talk about how they responded here. Look at verse 18.

Let's read about them again. But the Jews did not believe concerning Him that He had been blind and received His sight until they called the parents of Him that had received His sight. And they asked them, saying, Is this your Son who you say was born blind? How then doth He now see? His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our Son and He was born blind.

But by what means He now seeth, we know not. Now they're lying. Or who hath opened His eyes, we know not.

He is of age. Ask Him. He shall speak for Himself.

And here's how we know they were lying. Verse 22. These words spake His parents because they feared the Jews.

For the Jews had agreed already that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. Therefore said His parents, He is of age. Ask Him.

And now these parents were controlled. We got curious, critical, and now we want to look at this word controlled. These parents were being controlled by the fear of men.

A lot of people today are controlled by the fear of men. They were controlled by the Jewish leaders. The Jewish leaders had made an agreement that if anyone would confess that Christ is the Messiah, they would be excommunicated.

So that was a rule. That was a standard. You do not confess that Jesus Christ is the Messiah if you do.

And by the way, excommunication amongst the Jews was very serious. Some of you experienced some of those things. Their society was intertwined.

You lost your business. You lost your family. I mean, you lost sometimes your children.

You lost everything. So you know why these parents were very fearful. So it was not a sin to confess the Lord Jesus Christ before God, but it was a sin to confess Jesus Christ before men.

The Jewish people. And so these people were fearful. And they were held in check by fear.

You know, the Bible does not encourage us to fear men. Amen? It encourages us to fear who? Fear God. The Bible says the fear of man brings a snare.

You know what a snare is? It's a trap. These parents were in a trap. They couldn't move.

They were trapped. I cannot imagine. Put yourself in these parents' position.

I don't know what their relationship is with their son, but can you imagine his son being 20, 21 years old? He's been begging most of his adult life. His parents maybe are poor. They know their son.

One day their son comes to them and says, I can see. And the parents see that their son is healed and they want to rejoice. And no doubt the son is telling the parents this Jesus is the one that healed me.

And what a joy probably was in the parents' heart. Can you imagine your son being healed like that? And what joy. What a desire to glorify God and to tell others about this Jesus.

Right? What a desire. Praise God! Our son! His eyes are open! Son, who did it? Jesus. This Jesus.

I don't know who he is, but He's the one that healed me. People, Jesus healed my son! Can you believe this? Oh, they would have loved to have done that, right? But they said nothing for fear of the Jews that they would be cast out of the synagogue. Now one of the dangers that religious people face and we face is that oftentimes men take control of a congregation.

And as Peter says, they rule over a congregation. Instead of allowing the Lord Jesus to rule the congregation, men begin to rule the congregation. And as the Bible teaches, the fear of God is not taught towards the Lord Himself, but towards men.

And we'll see a verse here in just a minute that teaches that. Jesus said in the Great Commission, Go and teach them all things whatsoever I have commanded you. In other words, go out and teach people My commandments and teach them to fear Me.

Amen. Go out and fear God. We ought to take His commandments and we ought to obey them in love to Him.

There ought to be a desire and a relationship from Me to Him. And when I disobey those commandments, there ought to be a fear of God. That's a healthy fear.

But the Jews said we'll teach you our commandments and our standards. And therefore, you ought to fear us. We have the power, if you disobey our commandments, to excommunicate you.

And here's the problem here with these parents. They are bound under the fear of man. Now I can give you just a simple, absurd example this morning, but if I were to teach you about modesty in the Bible, teach you the principle of modesty as best as I could, and encourage you to obey the Lord and listen to His voice and follow His Word, and if you choose to violate His Word and live in an immodest way or dress in an immodest way, then God may bring chastisement.

And so teaching people to fear God. Or I could come here and say, as pastor of the church here, I'm going to establish a rule, and that rule is that every one of you needs to wear a pink dress, and I give you the pattern and how it's supposed to be laid out. There are no dresses that are to be worn, only pink dresses.

I see some of you are doing good here this morning. Well, now all of a sudden things are going to change because you know in your heart that God does not command a pink dress. Neither does God command the pattern that I have encouraged you or commanded you to wear.

And so your fear no longer is from God to you, but your fear is now towards Brother Jerry. Because if Brother Jerry sees me in a blue dress, he may cast me out of the church. If Brother Jerry sees me in a dress not according to the pattern that he's established, he has the power to cast me out of the church.

And so now my fear is not towards God, my fear is towards men. And you know what happens when you fear me? I can control you. I can control you.

Because all I have to do is say, if you don't do this, you're out. And that's exactly what happened here with these people. If you don't do what we say, you're out.

And in fear, they were held in a certain place. That's the danger of men taking control. I'd like you to turn back to Isaiah.

Isaiah mentions this in verse 29 of the book of Isaiah. Let's read there. Jesus actually takes this passage and brings it up to the New Testament.

I'm going to start in Isaiah 29, verse 9. Isaiah 29.9 Stay yourselves in wonder. Cry you out and cry. They are drunken, but not with wine.

They stagger, but not with strong drink. For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep and hath closed your eyes. The prophets and your rulers, the seers, hath He covered.

God's judgment upon the leadership and the vision of all has become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee. And he saith, I cannot, for it is sealed. I don't understand it.

And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee. And he saith, I am not learned. And notice verse 13.

The Lord quotes this verse in the New Testament Gospels. Wherefore, the Lord saith, forasmuch as this people draw near Me with their mouth and with their lips do honor Me, but have removed their heart far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the precepts of men. And that word precept is the word commandment.

Their fear toward Me is taught by the commandments of men. And God is judging the nation here. Verse 14, Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder, for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.

So God is judging the leadership here, the nation. And this is talking here about the New Testament age, certainly. Jesus refers to these verses when He talks about the Pharisees, but the Pharisees were in a slumber.

They were in a sleep. And God had put them into a sleep. They could not see.

Jesus said they were blind. They were blind to the truth. And in their blindness, they were giving out these commandments and standards and bringing people under the fear of man and moving people away from the fear of God.

And so the commandments of men when given are a sign. The Lord says this, that the hearts are moving away from God, not towards Him. Do you see that? When hearts move towards God, then the commandments of God are exalted, not the commandments of men.

And so the parents here of this blind man were in fear. They were in fear that if they did not follow the rules of the church, they would be excommunicated. And that is not a healthy fear.

It is not a healthy fear. Excommunication occurs when you sin against God, not when you sin against the rules and standards of men. Let me ask you this.

Anytime you feel threatened with excommunication based upon man's rules, you need to understand that's not God's part. It's a good place for an amen there. Anytime you feel the fear of man and the fear of excommunication based upon the rules and standards of men, it's not a proper fear.

You know, when we excommunicate people, we ought to keep them before the Lord. They have sinned against the Lord, and here is the commandment. Here is where you've sinned against God.

It's very clear. Therefore, their sin is against Him. And they're excommunicated from Him and from His body.

And so these parents, they were being excommunicated or threatened with excommunication not because of any sin. They were confessing Jesus as Messiah as the One who healed their son. They were being excommunicated because they did not follow the commandments of the Pharisees who thought they were right.

And so the fear of man brings a snare. Go back here to John 6. These parents here of this poor blind man, he wasn't poor anymore. He was seeing.

But these parents were in a snare. They were in bondage. They feared lest they should be put out of the synagogue.

Do you know what fallen man likes to do? Fallen man is not in tune with his Creator. Fallen man who is not being led by the Comforter. They like to control.

Amen? Fallen man loves control. Fallen man likes to rule and to dominate people. You look at this all over the world.

Dictatorships. Countries always fall to dictatorships. Countries never fall to personal liberty.

They always fall to dictatorships. The fallen nature of man always wants to be ruled or always wants to rule others. You remember in the Old Testament when Samuel was trying to appeal to the Israelites to let God be their king? What did they ask for? Give us a man.

Give us Saul to rule over us. We want a king like the other nations. And Samuel said, you don't know what you're asking for.

This king is going to make you his slaves and his servants. Oh, give us a king. We want some man to rule over us.

Well, it was a mistake in the Old Testament. It's a mistake in the New Testament. It's the heart of God that He would rule every one of you.

That you'd get up in the morning and the Word of God and the Spirit of God would lord over you. And you would have nothing between you and Him. It's called you are a priest unto God.

There is no one between you and Him. And you're to function as a priest. You go directly to Him.

You don't have to go through a cardinal. You don't have to go through a bishop. You don't have to go through a pope.

You don't have to go through no one. You are a priest unto God. And any time that man sets someone up in the middle that you need to fear and you need to come under their authority, it's not being led of the Lord.

Elders are to be examples and not ruling over the flock. But fallen man loves to control. God is the only one worthy of being in control.

Amen? He is the one who ought to control. And as someone who tries to lead a congregation, I need to encourage you to be under His control. And I think we all can submit ourselves one to another and encourage each other in that.

Be under the Lord's control. Obey the Lord's commandments. You don't have to obey my commandments.

Only unless my commandments are the Lord's commandments. But we need to encourage each other to be under His fear and not the fear of man. Any time you fear men, there's something wrong there.

Any time you have a fear of man or someone controls you by fear, another human being, there's something wrong with that. There's something not right about that. Ultimately, our fear ought to be towards the Lord.

Towards Him. And so we can learn here from these parents. Verse 21 says, These were Zabakiah's parents because they feared the Jews.

Is that a good fear? That is a horizontal fear. That is fearing people at this level instead of fearing God. Now, if they feared God, they would have confessed Jesus Christ.

Because they had a fear of God. They didn't want to deny Him. And whatever it cost them, they would have confessed Him.

But the parents here were tragically being controlled by fear. And that's a very real thing for all of us. It's human nature.

We tend to be men pleasers. We tend to want to please people. And sometimes more than God.

And so we bow to people and we are controlled by fear. If I don't do this, they'll cast me out. If I don't do this, I'll be excommunicated from them.

Well, just get rid of all that fear. Amen? What you ought to do is fear God supremely. And not fear this way.

And not allow people to control you with that fear. So we have the neighbor's response. Curiosity.

We have the Pharisee's response. Criticism. We have these parents who are controlled by fear.

So Lord willing, we can learn from that. Learn some lessons. Let's close with a word of prayer.

And next time we'll finish up with this story of this blind man and his actual conversion to the Lord Jesus. Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word and for the instruction in it. Lord, I pray that we would be more wise to the flesh and to how we stumble and fall.

Lord, may the work of God that is done in us truly be that which brings amazement and curiosity in the world around us that they might ask us of the hope that lies within us. Lord, also we pray that none of us would be as the Pharisees controlling, ruling, manipulating through fear. May none of us here be bound up by fear.

The fear of men. But I pray for each one of us that we could be free and to actually only fear You. Go to Your Word.

And encourage one another in the fear of God. So we pray Your blessing upon these words. Now to our hearts, Lord, help us.

Help us to walk honorably before You. In Jesus' name, Amen.