To The Glory Of God

Well, good morning. It was read here this morning by Brother John when Paul was told by Jesus to open their eyes. I don't know if you were thinking ahead to the story today, the blind man in John chapter nine, but to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light.

Do you know when people are blind, one of the problems of blindness is there are sensors in the eye that cannot receive light. And that's how we see, we have sensors that receive light. And the natural eye, how it is made, teaches spiritual lessons that people that are unwilling to receive spiritual light are blind in the same way that we're not able to see natural light that leaves us in our blindness.

And so the Lord desires to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God. I was thinking, I was sitting there about the passage, and I think we'll get to it in John a little bit later on, but Jesus said, greater works than these. What I've done, greater works.

You know, we're gonna read here today or we're gonna study a little bit about Jesus and how he healed a blind man. That's a wonderful thing. I know a lot of you say, why can't we see great miracles? Why can't we see, you know, the healing of the blind and the raising of the dead and all of the things that Jesus saw? And Jesus said, you know, the things that I do, you're gonna do it in greater things.

And what is greater than, I mean, if you guys, all of you'd be amazed if we had a blind person here and he came forward and I laid my hands on him and some of you brothers prayed over him. He said, I see, you know, all of you'd be so excited. Or if we had a casket up here and somebody was dead and one of you brothers came up and prayed over that dead person, that dead person rose up from the casket like it was in Jesus' day.

You'd say, I tell you what, the power of God is here. I think we would. But, you know, when Jesus said greater works you'll do than what I did, really isn't it a much greater thing, truthfully, that somebody sit here this morning and they're lost or maybe they're in bondage and their eyes are darkened and they cannot see and God would open their eyes through the preaching of the word and someone would come and say, I see that I have believed a lie all my life and that I wanna come to the truth and I want my eyes to be open and spiritually speaking someone's eyes are open.

Isn't that a much greater thing than you to get your natural sight for about another 50 or 60 years and then die? Wouldn't you rather have spiritual sight for eternity? Or maybe some people here today who are dead in trespasses and sins. I mean, you're dead. And you'd love to see someone raised out of a casket.

God has something bigger he'd like to see and that's you being made alive in Christ and being raised from the dead. So that's what we're really shooting for, greater works. We raise you from the dead here and God does some great thing.

I mean, it's probably all through the papers. The church here at Martinsburg, they raised someone from the dead. Front page, Mount Vernon News.

Probably would get to the Cleveland Plain dealer. But God has a bigger, bigger concern and that is that if you're dead spiritually, he wants to raise you today from the dead. Well, we're gonna look here at John chapter nine this morning, starting off with a story that takes up the whole chapter in John chapter nine all the way.

41 verses will probably be a few weeks on this one. I'm just going to address the miracle of the healing of the blind man here in verses one through seven. But after this healing, the rest of the chapter is different reactions to it.

The first reaction was from the neighbors and we're not gonna talk about how they reacted. Then the Pharisees reacted. Then the parents of this man reacted.

And then finally the blind man reacted. So there's a lot of reaction to what's happening here in this healing of the blind man. And so I'd like to teach you some lessons here from chapter nine.

I'm gonna read down from verse one all the way down through verse number seven and bring out some applications for us in our life. I was blessed this morning. I think some of you read the sermon ahead of time and weave your introductions into the message, which I appreciate that.

So everybody's on the same page. Let's start reading in verse number one of chapter nine. And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.

And I'm assuming this man, they knew him. He was probably in the area all of his life. They knew that he was blind from his birth.

Verse two, his disciples asked him saying, master, who did sin? This man or his parents that he was born blind. Obviously he didn't sin if he was born blind, it was his fault. Unless you could sin in the womb.

Jesus answered neither hath this man sin nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day, the night cometh when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

When he had thus spoken, he sat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay and said unto him, go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation sent. He went his way therefore and washed and came seeing. Well, this blind man is a picture, a symbolic picture of something that is bigger obviously, and you probably know this bigger than physical blindness, but there is a spiritual application here.

This man was blind from his birth and that's the condition of humanity. All of us are born into this world. The Bible says we are born into sin.

We are born spiritually blind and it doesn't take long, you mothers know and you fathers know to realize that children are born in this world and they have a depraved and a fallen nature. Psalm 58 says this, the wicked are estranged from the womb. From the womb, they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.

You don't have to teach little children how to lie. As a matter of fact, infants learn how to lie. They fuss and they whimper and they cry.

They're not hurt, but they know that if they give this impression that you'll come and minister unto them and they learn from the very beginning how to be liars. They go forth from the womb, speaking lies. So this man here is a picture of humanity.

He shows us that we are born into sin, that we are sinners from birth and that we need the Lord Jesus to do something about our situation. It's called in the Bible depravity or it's called, many people call it depravity or total depravity. It's something we all need to come to grips with.

It doesn't matter whether we grew up in a religious home or a drug house or wherever we grew up in the jungles of Africa. All of us were born into this world depraved. We have a depravity about us and that depravity needs to be corrected.

It needs to be healed. Martin Luther once said this, that he was afraid of his own heart more than he was afraid of all the popes and cardinals in the Catholic church. He was afraid of his own depravity and that depravity is through and through all of us.

Some of you ladies know what this is like. You know, we go and like in our own efforts, Brother David was mentioning, we try to clean the house and we put everything away and dust everything and sweep the floor and we look at it and we stand back and we admire it and we're standing by that window, and the sun shines in the window and as we look at the sunbeams, we see all of this dust floating in the air. And we realize that it's not even possible for me to cleanse this place entirely.

It's out of my reach. Yes, you can cleanse it in such a way as people look at it and say, oh, you've got a clean house. But there is a depravity about us.

Bible says in Romans chapter three, there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. Here is a blind man. He has no opportunity, he has no privilege to be able to see, to follow and to seek after the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is blind, just like each one of us, born into this world spiritually blind. None of us, if left to ourselves, none of us would seek after God. I don't know about this blind man.

If Jesus doesn't come and approach him, whether this blind man would ever come and approach the Lord Jesus, but it says Jesus passed by and saw him and went to him in his condition. Verse two says, his disciples asked him, and here's a question that humanity oftentimes will ask, master, who did sin, this man or his parents that he was born blind? Now this condition, according to Jesus, was not due to some generational issue, his father or maybe his grandfather, but it's due to the fall of humanity. It's due to one man.

It's due to Adam. The Bible says for by one man, sin entered into the world and death by sin. You know why we have blindness? You know why we have sickness? You know why we have paralyzed limbs? Because of the fall of Adam and Eve.

But these disciples understood that sometimes, you know, bad things happen to bad people. And you know, the Bible teaches us that. They asked the question, Lord, this man is blind.

Who sinned to cause his blindness? That's what they're thinking. Bad things must happen to bad people. Now there is some truth to that.

And I think you've all experienced that in life. The way of the transgressor is hard. Young people, you choose to live a wicked life.

I'll tell you what, you're gonna have a lot of bad things happen to you. Matter of fact, the scripture says in one of the commandments, if you honor your mother and father and respect them, God says, I'll give you a long life. If you disrespect them, and if you violate their commandments, you're going to have God against you, and you're going to have a shortened life.

That's one of the commandments. It's a promise. But the way of the transgressor is hard.

The prodigal son found out that when he leaves his father's house and goes out and wants to live for himself, selfish living will always lead you down a hard and difficult path. Prodigal son found that out. He ended up eating the husk that the swine do eat.

And it's just built into this system. You reap what you sow. You cannot sow wickedness.

You cannot sow godliness. You cannot sow hatred and bitterness and anger and reap good things from it. And so these disciples look at this man, and they say, Lord, what about this man? He's a blind man.

Did he sin or did his parents? Well, there are times when sin brings trouble. Ananias and Sapphira are good examples of that. Deceivers, they were deceiving.

They lost their life. Those in First Corinthians, even in the church, those who treated the Lord's Supper with disrespect, they ended up losing their life. And it is true that some of our issues, some of our heartaches, some of our suffering, some of our sicknesses are brought on by our own sinful lifestyle.

And so the Bible says the way of the transgressor is hard. And one of the things I learned many years ago in the ministry, I'd have people come to me and say, Brother Jerry, would you come and pray for me that I could be healed, anointed with oil? So I'd go through the process, anointed with oil, and we would pray for healing. Oftentimes they never got healed.

I got a little frustrated. And I was studying that passage there in James, and it hit me. It came to the realization that in the book of James, it says confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed.

And right in the context of praying for people and anointing them with oil and calling for the elders is this idea of confessing your faults one to another. In other words, there are many times that healing is restrained because the issue that is causing the sickness is not being addressed. And so there is a need to search the heart and confess your faults and then pray that you might be healed.

So oftentimes our lifestyles are leading us down a road that's bringing heartache and sickness and infirmity. Not always, but oftentimes. And I've given you examples.

We've seen testimonies from this pulpit of that very thing. But because we live in a fallen world, we suffer the consequences of that fallen world. And many times we have to suffer those consequences innocently.

And so just because someone has an infirmity or is paralyzed or is blind or is going through hardship does not mean that they are sinning or that they've done something awful to deserve this situation. The blind man here, Jesus says, neither has this man sinned nor his parents. It's not a matter of this man's sin, although at times it can be.

You know, innocent people go through heartache, don't they? I remember one innocent people that went through a lot of heartache. They put him on a cross. People mocked him, ridiculed him.

He died an awful death on the cross, innocent. That's a good example. You can't avoid that 16-year-old Christian girl, you know, that sweet girl driving down the road one day in some state in America.

And you've heard the story. She's doing the will of God. She loves her parents and she's doing everything right.

And as she drives down the road in her car, some drunk crosses the median and hits her straight on, head on. And she's killed in a minute. And people at the funeral ask, why, you know? Why? Why is this girl? I mean, if anybody, why does this girl have to die? Or this little six-year-old boy, you know, laying in a hospital bed and he's being eaten up by cancer.

And this six-year-old little boy, he's not done anything wrong. He's not been in drugs. He's not been in fornication.

He's not blessing God. And yet here's this little six-year-old boy suffering. Why? I get that question on campus as often.

Why do bad things happen to good people? Well, I will say this, the Bible says there is none good. No, not one. But bad things do happen to good people.

It goes right back to the first family. You think that your family has issues? Well, let's go back to the very first family. Bad things happening to good people.

Here is a young man, how old he is, I don't know, his name's Abel. He's obeying God. He's obeying his parents.

He's doing the right thing. And in the very first family, his brother slays him. Imagine, all your children slaying your own children.

That's the very first family, Adam and Eve. I'm sure Adam and Eve said, why? Why is this happening to us, Lord? Why did Cain do this to innocent Abel? So that's reality. So when I see people having issues, I first ask the question, maybe there is something here.

Maybe God is trying to bring to light some issues in their life. And He's brought heartache and difficulty and sickness into their life, into this person's life. But it's not always the case.

Sometimes it's just because you're living in a fallen world. Turn with me to Luke 13. I wanna read a story here.

Jesus talks about this very same thing. Luke 13, starting in verse number one. There were present at that season, some of them that told him of the Galileans.

Luke 13, verse one, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. This is awful thing. There were Galileans.

Maybe not Galileans here, but Pilate had mingled some people's blood. It killed them with their sacrifices. Awful.

And Jesus answering said of them, suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things. Do you go think? Do you people think that just because they suffered this horrifying death, that somehow God was showing these people are so wicked? Verse three, I tell you, no. No, that's not why it happened.

But except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. You think those people were sinners, that's why they suffered that? No, it's not true. I'll just tell you this.

You're all sinners. You all need to repent. I think it's another story.

Verse four, oh, are those 18 upon whom the tower in Siloam fell? 18 maybe innocent people. Can you imagine walking along someday in a tower, collapsing and falling on you and killing 18? It was probably news all over. And slew them.

Think you that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? Oh, God got them. You know, they were probably wicked people doing wicked things and God killed them. That's the way we oftentimes think.

Verse five, I'd tell you nay, no. But except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Well, we all need to repent.

And yes, sometimes bad things happen to good people. And that's just the way it is in this fallen world. So there's not always a link between suffering and personal sin.

And the greatest story in the Bible is a story of Job. You know, Job was a man who suffered greatly. But you know, we got to see behind the story, behind the curtain, you know, here is God and here is Satan trying to war over this young, this man, Job.

And Job's wife curses him. All these calamities happened to Job. Yet Job was being tested by the Lord.

And he was going to bring glory to God and put to shame the devil. Watch Job, my son. Watch him keep his integrity in the midst of all his suffering.

Sometimes God just tests us to see if we'll have grace and trust him in the midst of what seems to be, why does this happen to me? Job, Job would say, what have I done? And you know, even Job's friends come to him later on in the book of Job and say, it's all happening because you're a sinner, Job. You're a wicked man, Job, and God is exposing you. Job's like, of course, God clears everything up and he reproves those men.

But God has got a bigger purpose sometimes in suffering and that is to glorify himself. And it was mentioned here this morning, but go back to John chapter nine and let's keep reading because Jesus mentions it here in John chapter nine, verse number three. And Jesus answered, neither hath this man sin nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

Now here's an amazing truth for us. We can just tuck this away as we go through life. We can remember these words.

God wants to take this condition of fallen humanity and glorify himself through us by his mercy and his grace. God wants to take all of your infirmities. He wants to take all of your bondages.

He wants to take all of your blindness and your deadness and all the infirmity that comes from a fallen world. And he wants to glorify himself by delivering you from and by blessing and glorifying his name through it. And so I think we ought to look at these things a little differently.

Lord, I have a bondage. Lord, I have a weakness. Lord, I have an infirmity.

Lord, and I would pray this, Lord, this is your opportunity to glorify yourself in me. The glory that Jesus brought to God while on the earth was not that he created something perfect, but that he healed and redeemed something that was a mess. We call it redemption, amen? Now, brother John and I, we have this business, we call it redemption properties.

And I believe this with all my heart. You have a vacant piece of ground in the middle of a bad section or some of these places, maybe in the suburbs, you know, we buy these houses and they're the worst place on the lot. And brother Mike was working in one this last week.

They're pretty bad places. And oftentimes we'll come in there and fix them all up. And the people are all excited there.

They're all, they're blessing us. And I'll tell you what, if there was a vacant lot in some of these areas where we buy houses and we would go in and build a new house, I believe that we would get less glory and praise from the neighborhood as if we, the other option being, if we go into a rundown place that is a eyesore in the neighborhood and we redeem the place and make the place a beautiful place, that's where you get the glory. You know, people enjoy seeing that rundown place being redeemed.

And that's what the Lord is doing. He is taking our lives, all of our weakness, all of our infirmity, sin and sickness, demon possession, all of those things in human nature as an opportunity to glorify himself on the earth. This man in John nine, according to Jesus, is blind.

Here's why he's blind, fellas. Because God wants to glorify himself in his life. That the works of God could be manifest in him.

Why do you have infirmity today? Why do you have bondages? Why are you lost? Maybe some of you today, why are you here in those conditions? I'll tell you why. Everything is, brother Chris said it, for the glory of God. And what you need to do is allow God to glorify himself in your condition.

When you follow all the miracles of Jesus, you'll find that their purpose was to bring glory to God. You don't have to turn there. I'm not gonna ask you to turn.

I just like to read you just a couple of examples of what happened when Jesus did miracles. In Matthew 15, verse 29, and Jesus departed from thence and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee and went up into a mountain and sat down there. And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet.

And he healed them, insomuch that the multitude wondered when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to behold, the lame to walk, and the blind to see, and they glorified the God of Israel. Can you imagine this? Praise be to God. Look what's happening.

All glory be to God. You know, if those people didn't have those infirmities, there wouldn't be any reason to give glory to God. The very fact that they have the infirmities and that the Lord can deal with them and heal them brought glory to God.

You can go through and many miracles. I'm not going to read all of these, just a couple of them. Luke chapter five, verse 25, it says, and immediately this is the man who they let down through the roof.

You remember, they opened the roof up. This man was paralyzed. They let him down on the bed.

And immediately he rose up before them and took up that whereon he lay and departed to his own house, glorifying God. And they were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear. Now, if you were there, you had to get this guy come down to the roof and they let him down.

And Jesus says, because of your faith, rise up and walk. So this man gets up off his bed and he starts, praise God. He starts glorifying God.

And then he picks up his bed and he starts to walk off. And the people just watched this, praise God. They start glorifying God.

The Bible says, everything should be done to the glory of God. Let me ask you a question. Just make some application here.

Is there anything God can glorify himself in your life today? Maybe you're not even saved. You can be born again and God can glorify himself. You can start praising God.

And we'll, hey, if you're saved here today, we'll glorify God too. We'll just relive this miracle. You'll stand up, walk.

You'll see, you'll have life. You'll praise God and we'll praise God too. That'd be wonderful.

Maybe you're not feeling well, you're sick. Maybe you've got infirmity. Maybe you're in bondage to a certain sin.

God wants to glorify himself through your life. Well, I'm not gonna read all the examples, but there are many. There may be no greater glory to God than what he brings to himself through redeeming the condition of fallen humanity.

Is there anything in your life that needs redeemed? Can you not appeal to God? Here's a good way to appeal to God. Can you not appeal to God and submit yourself that he might glorify himself through you? Wouldn't that be a good appeal? To come to God on that basis. Not a selfish basis.

Lord, I want this because of my selfish ones, but no, Lord, would you do this for the glory of God? Well, we're in John, but flip over to John 17 once. I'm sorry I'm having to turn to so many verses here. John 17, Jesus made these same comments.

He's about ready to go to the cross here in John 17, verse one. These words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, father, the hour has come. That is the cross, glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee.

That was his heart. And he wasn't getting a new house or getting a new job. He's heading to a difficult situation.

And he knows that God can glorify him in this time of infirmity, in this time of suffering. Verse number four, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.

And now, oh father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. Hey, I don't know if you realize this, but here's a secret for you. If you will let God glorify himself through your life and just give it to him and let him glorify himself.

And by the way, if you give him your life and surrender, he'll glorify himself in it. I guarantee you. If you'll give him his life and surrender, he'll glorify.

And if he glorifies himself through you in the resurrection, he will glorify you. That's what it says. Jesus surrendered himself to glorify his father.

And Jesus was promised that when you are ascended up to the right hand, I will glorify you. And where is Jesus sitting today? He is sitting at the right hand of God. He has been given all glory.

Matthew 28 says, all glory and power is given unto me. You know why he was given all glory and power? Because in his life, he glorified God, his father. You say, I want a high position in the world to come.

Well, let God glorify himself in this lowly world of fallen humanity through you. The Lord is the example. If we live life and allow God to glorify himself through us, he will glorify us and exalt us in the world to come.

The last thing you want to do in this life is to live selfishly and glorify yourself. What do you think will happen when the judgment comes? If God never got any glory out of your life. Well, let's go back to John 9 and keep reading.

Can we not surrender ourselves and let God glorify? You see, I'm lost. Why don't you surrender and just say, Lord, I'm done. I want you to glorify yourself in me.

Lord, I'm sick. Lord, I'm in bondage. Lord, I'm troubled.

Can you not just allow God to take those things and glorify himself? Well, back to John 9, verse 4, Jesus goes on to say, 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.

Now, Jesus had an urgency here to work and to bring glory to God, to do the works that God had sent him to do because he knew his time was limited. And I believe the night here that he's talking about, the night comes when no man can work was referring to his death and his betrayal. Just a couple of chapters over.

You don't have to turn there. I want to read to you in John 13, verse 26. Jesus answered, he it is to whom I shall give a soft when I have dipped it.

And when he had dipped it, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the soft, Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, that thou doest do quickly.

Now, no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this about him or unto him. For some of them thought because Judas had the bag that Jesus had sent unto him, by those things that we have need of against the feast, or that he should give something to the poor. And here's this next verse, verse 30.

He then having received the soft, went out immediately. And it was night. The night is coming when no man can work.

And the Lord knew that I must work the works of him that sent me because night is coming. And I'm not going to be able to work anymore. You know, the night is coming on all of us, amen.

You know, we have an urgency. I need to give my life to the glory of God while I have an opportunity because the night is coming when no man can work, when no man can give up his life for the glory of God. The night is coming upon many of us when there will be a sickness, when we'll be confined to maybe a bed and we'll not have an opportunity to glorify God.

I remember preaching a revival meeting. In Cambridge, Ohio. We had a dear brother in our church.

His name was Daniel Troyer. Some of you might remember Daniel Troyer. He was the older man at the time, probably 70, 75.

He loved to serve God and glorify the Lord. I think it was on a Wednesday night. We were meeting there for a week.

And everybody came to the meeting. Daniel, he came at Monday night, Tuesday night. Everybody expected him there, he wasn't there.

Wednesday night, he thought maybe he was sick. So Thursday come, one, two, three o'clock in the afternoon, family member decided to go and check. He lived in a trailer at that time, I believe, to see where he was, if he's all right.

And walked into his house. He didn't respond to the door, walked into the house. He was there at the dining room table.

As I remember, his head down on the table. I think he was eating, his head was down. He had been there since I believe the night before.

He had sat down to eat supper, to go to the meeting, and he had a stroke. He was there, kind of paralyzed the whole night until that next day, until they found him. Took him rushing to the hospital.

And I was there with him at the hospital, but he had a stroke. And basically he was bound to a wheelchair and he never really regained his right mind. He could understand children's stories and things of that nature.

But the night comes sometimes when we can't work anymore. Sickness. We've been having a Bible study on Saturday morning about the second coming of Christ.

We've been talking about time of persecution, a great tribulation coming. There is a night coming when no man can work, when sometimes we're gonna be confined to a jail cell, but certainly the night is coming for each one of us with regards to death. And everybody's got a night coming when the work is gonna be finished.

And so we should have this attitude that Jesus had. Look at verse number four. I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day.

The night comes when no man can work. Jesus realized that he's running out of daylight. You know, ladies, when you're out there in the garden in the summer, it's getting nine, nine 30, and you got a lot of things you wanna get in, but the night is setting in, and you know you've only got so many more minutes, and finally the night passes, you can't see anything more, and you're finished.

You cannot work. So in life, there is a night coming for all of us. So the Lord says, I must work the works of him that sent me while it's day.

The night is coming. Richard Baxter is a famous Puritan. He said these words, I preach as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men.

The night is coming for me, for you, when no man can work. And so let us make sure we're working for the glory of God while we have an opportunity. Let's jump down here to verse number six.

When he had thus spoken, he sat on the ground, and he made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, and said unto him, go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation sent. He went his way therefore and washed, and came seeing. Well, there's a couple of lessons I'd like to learn or teach here just briefly from these two verses.

The first one I saw when I read those and pondered those two verses, how Jesus healed this individual. I think we can learn from is this, that my testimony of how the Lord has done things in my life is not the only way God does it. You know, sometimes we're proud people, and we get this idea that if God does something in my life, it ought to be the same in everybody else's life.

And so this blind man, I got healed by clay and spittle, and I had to go and wash in a pool of Siloam, and you're not really healed correctly unless you do it the same way that Jesus did it for me. Well, if you go and you find all the ways that Jesus healed blind people, he did it in many different ways. One time he healed a blind man by just spitting on his eyes, no pool.

No clay. He just, and he healed him. In Matthew chapter nine, he just touched someone's eyes.

No spitting, no clay, no pool. In Mark chapter 10, he just spoke. He didn't even touch anything.

He made no clay, no spittle, no pool, no touching, no nothing. He just spoke. Can you imagine all these blind people getting together and arguing about what's the best way to have this done? And all of them saying, well, he did it to me.

You know, this is how God does it because he did it this way to me. This is how God leads you, and if you don't follow the same course that I'm on, you're not on the right course. Can you imagine all the denominations that were established from these people? I call them, you have the poolites.

Those are the ones who believe that you can only be healed by washing in the pool. You have the clayites. You need clay.

You have to have clay. You have the spitites. And then you have the non-denominational type that just speak the word.

And you get all these people fighting. My doctrine is the right doctrine because that's the way the Lord did it to me. Folks, the way the Lord did it to you is not the way the Lord does it to everybody.

I was converted through a gospel tract. For me to think that the only way you can be converted is by reading a gospel tract is nonsense. Some of you had a soul when it leads you to Christ, but that's not the only way the Lord opens your eyes.

Some of you, it was a revival meeting. Some preacher led you to Christ through a revival meeting. Some of you were actually converted all by yourself.

So God opens the eyes, spirit of God, spiritually of the blind in many different ways. But there's one thing that's common in all of them. You know what the common thing is? What's that? He gets the glory, but something else is common is that Jesus is there and he speaks his word.

What do you say to this man? Go wash. In these accounts, he speaks to them and they respond by faith. To his word.

All of the healings were done by faith in the word. And so the Lord says here in verse seven, go wash in the pool of Siloam. And so let's not fuss and fight about, well, the Lord did it this way with me and has to be this way with you.

No, God does things a little differently. We need to leave some room. God brings people along different paths.

They don't have to come the same path you came. Well, the Lord taught me this truth the very first week I was saved. So he must teach everybody this truth the very first week they're saved.

No, he doesn't do it that way. Well, there's another lesson I'd like to bring out here from these two verses. Sometimes, and this is maybe a hard one for us to swallow, but sometimes the Lord uses physical means to connect a man to faith.

Sometimes the Lord uses physical means to connect a man to faith. Now, let me ask you this. Couldn't Jesus have just spoken to this blind man and he healed him? As a matter of fact, just speaking the word is a sign that the person has great faith.

You remember the centurion said to the Lord, just speak the word. I don't need anything. I don't even need to see the man healed, my servant.

Just speak the word and that's good for me. And the Lord says, wow, that is some great faith. But not everybody had that kind of faith.

They needed something material. They needed, Lord, you need to touch my daughter, Jairus said, you need to touch her. You gotta come, come on.

I gotta see you touch her. You remember that woman who came to Jesus? If I can but touch the hem of his garment, she needed to have something to touch and to feel. And so when the Lord made that spittle, that was an encouragement for this man to lay hold of faith.

What's he doing? He's putting something on my eyes. Oh, I know this is gonna work. I know it's gonna work.

I need to go wash? Okay, I'll go wash. How he found the pool of Siloam blind, I don't know. Maybe people let him there.

Something physical. Not everyone has so great a faith as to say, Lord, your word is sufficient. So the Lord here, he perceives that this man needs some sort of a physical means to connect to faith.

You know, some people need that right here. You know what happens? Oftentimes we grow up. I think Brother David's expressed this.

Some of you grew up and you're in a situation where that altar in a church, that's where you get saved, right? I need to go to the altar. You don't need to go to the altar. You can be saved sitting there in a pew.

Something special about the altar. But in some people's heart, I'm gonna go to the altar and I'm gonna pray. And when I get to the altar and pray, that's gonna be the moment that God is gonna meet me and I'm gonna get saved.

You know, and I don't wanna get into this whole subject because we don't have time this morning, but in Acts 19, it's an amazing statement that handkerchiefs, can you imagine? Were taken off of Paul's, I don't know if they touched him or something. And they went around and it says, I read the story, handkerchiefs were brought from Paul's body and people that got them, they touched them and they were healed. Handkerchiefs.

Why do you need a handkerchief? You know what a handkerchief did? So here you are, you're sick and someone walks in and says, Paul's healing people all over the place and this handkerchief was on Paul's body here. Faith rises up in the heart, right? Let me touch it. Paul healed.

And that handkerchief is used as a material connection. To faith and you see this throughout the Bible, Jesus oftentimes would connect people with a physical thing to stir their faith. Well, I'd like to give you another lesson here from these two verses, especially verse number seven, spiritual sight will always send us into the world.

Notice what it says in verse seven. He said unto them, go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation sent. He went his way therefore and washed and came seeing.

You know, Saul was on the road to Emmaus or not the road to Emmaus, the road to Damascus and he was blinded by the Lord for three days. Ananias came in and laid his hands on him and he said, now Saul, God is sending you to the Gentiles. And when Saul's eyes were open, he felt burdened to go and to be sent.

And that's what that pool here represents. When your eyes are open, son, from your blindness, I'm gonna send you into the world. When God opens our blind eyes and we see very clearly, a lot of you don't see clearly yet.

We're like that man who goes and washes in the pool and he comes up and he says, I see men as trees walking. I just don't see this thing clear yet. They go for a second dip.

By the way, I don't see things clearly either. So I put this on. Jesus, the great healer of blind eyes was sent by his father into the world to redeem fallen humanity.

Now all those whom he opens their eyes are sent into the same world with a ministry of reconciliation. And so after the resurrection, when Jesus appears and they see him in his glorified body, you know what he says to them? As my father has sent me, even so what? Send I you. I just wanna share one more thing from verse six and seven here.

And verse number six is all the Lord's work. If you read it, when he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, that's what the Lord did. He made clay of spittle, that's what the Lord did.

He anointed the eyes of the blind man with clay, that's what the Lord did. And then verse seven is what the man did. He went and washed, he obeyed the Lord and went and washed and came to see.

You know, that's a picture of salvation right there. You see what the Lord has done? He died on the cross for your sins. He was buried.

It's his work raised from the dead. And now he's asked you to respond to that. And instead of saying to you, go, now go and wash and you'll come see.

He says for you to respond to him, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. You can respond to him, what he has done for you by faith. Cry out to God, ask him to heal your blindness and save your soul.

You know, I don't think if after the Lord had spat on the ground, made the clay, anointed the eyes and said to this man, now go and wash. If this man would have not gone and washed, how many of you think he'd have ever been healed? After all the Lord did for him, spitting on the ground, making clay, anointing his eyes. He said, I'm not gonna go wash.

It's like Naaman, I'm not gonna do that. I'm not gonna go down to that river down there and wash the leper. And I think his little servant said, why not? What have you got to lose? And so the Lord can do all he's done.

He can die on a cross for your sins. He can be buried and raised again. And he can just say to you now by faith, come to me and call upon me and not do it.

I'm not gonna believe. I'm not gonna come and call upon the Lord. I'm not gonna ask him to save my soul.

And you won't be saved in spite of all he's done because you're not responding to him by faith. Well, the rest of this chapter has to do with how people responded to this miracle. And we'll talk about the many different responses.

And then at the end of the chapter, the blind man responds. He doesn't even know who Jesus is at this point. He's gonna find out here in the end of the chapter and his response will be much different than everybody else's response.

So we'll look at these things in the next couple of weeks. So let's close here this morning. Can you not see the importance of letting God glorify himself in your life? And is there anyone here today who is blind spiritually and you can see by faith? Well, let's ask the Lord to help us and maybe he can work miracles, maybe.

Well, he can if we have faith. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word.