John Lesson 28

Introduction

Pleasant good day to you and welcome to Let the Bible Speak. Why don’t you get your New Testament and open with me to the John to John, the ninth chapter, where we’re going to be reading today one of the great signs that Jesus worked when he healed a man who had been born blind. In fact, John chapter 9 and verse 32 says, Never before had such a feat been done. Never before had anyone who had been born blind been made able to see.

But it’s a rare thing even today. But in the time of Jesus Christ, such medical science was not yet known. It had to be a miracle if one was born blind and later could see. And as we read in John chapter 9, we see the reaction of the rulers who did not want to accept Jesus as the Christ. They really wanted to reject the fact of this miracle, and tried to find some way to get around it, but they could not. And it’s interesting as we’ll see the reaction of this man’s parents, but then finally of the man himself, who believed that Jesus is the Christ. It is an important study. I hope that you have your Bibles open. We’ve been studying through the Gospel of John verse by verse.

We believe that’s the best way to study the Bible. And we pointed out that in context of the whole book, that that uh the signs that are recorded in the Gospel of John have a distinct purpose, as stated really in John chapter 20, that there are many other signs Jesus did than are recorded in this book. There are seven that are recorded up through John chapter twenty. And he said, These signs are written that ye might believe, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And that believing you might have life through his name. That’s the purpose these are written. And we pointed out that there are different signs, different kinds of signs, the first miracle being where he turned the water to wine, and then there are other signs, of course, where he fed the five thousand, signs where he walked on the water.

1. Who Did Sin, This Man or His Parents?

But in this one we find a different type or kind of miracle than any of the others. Jesus did not always work one type of miracle. But rather he showed he had power in many different areas. And each of these miracles had to be testimony that God was with him. Or even as Nicodemus said back in John chapter three and verse two, no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. That’s the purpose. They were as signs to prove that Jesus is the Christ. Now if you read with me, John chapter nine verses one through five, as Jesus and as Jesus passed by he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him saying Master who did sin this man or his parents that he was born blind.

Jesus answered Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. The disciples asked Jesus a question that that has been asked myriads of times. Whenever there’s some sort of tragedy or maybe an affliction of a child, the question is often raised who sinned? Did did this child sin? Or did his parents sin? There have been times where I’ve been in the presence of of a family that has suffered some kind of of sorrow. Maybe a child is has died by some accident or or perhaps even some some injury has been brought about, or maybe some loss of property, or some great disappointment.

And many times the question is asked, I wonder if God is punishing me for some sin I’ve done. Or a parent may ask the question, I wonder if the child has sinned and is suffering as a consequence, or is it that we as his parents have we sinned? And is God punishing us? And there are those who have really berated themselves, thinking that every tragedy in life is a direct result of sin. But such is a wrong view of how God deals with us today. All sins shall be punished. But not all sins are going to be punished directly here and now. But there will come a time at judgment day in eternity, that every sin and every transgression shall be brought to the justice of God.

But but just because there may be some tragedy in life does not mean that you or your child has suffered or done some direct sin for which they’re being punished. In fact, this is the best answer to that question. For Jesus responded that it was not that this child’s blindness was not the direct result of sin. In fact, sometimes the atheist likes to raise the question, you know, if uh why how could a good God let uh anyone be afflicted? How could he let a poor innocent child be born blind or born deaf? I believe the answer to that atheist question is also found in this text. Let’s observe first of all the reality. That when you look at tragedies in life, they come to both unrighteous as well as righteous people.

That that one would really be confused if you try to draw a straight line and always determine that tragedies are a direct result of sin or not of sin. It just doesn’t work that way. In fact, there are some times where where tragedies are the result of maybe some simple law of nature. Maybe a child is born blind because of uh of genetic inheritance uh of their parents, or maybe crippled because of some malady that that came through the law of nature. It might be that sometimes tragedy is the result of human frailty. A person may have an accident, he slips and falls and breaks an arm or causes some worse injury. But it’s his own fault. Even the righteous can can have accidents. You might walk out in the line of traffic and be run over, and and it isn’t that God made you do that, for God does not hold us like puppets at the end of a string.

We have choice in the way we live. And so there may be troubles or tragedies that are the result of inheritance or genetic uh problems or law of nature being disobeyed. It might well be that it is the result of something that one has done wrong. If if you’re drunk and and you drive a car and you have a wreck, you you’re paying for what you’ve done in one sense, but what you’ve done is is caused your mind to be altered so that you had no control of the cars while the accident occurred. Sometimes we we look at life and have to say that that even children bear the consequence of wrongs that their parents have done. It may be that venereal disease that the parents uh uh have uh contracted has caused the child to have blindness.

Or it could be that that maybe even the drunkard’s child suffers uh much shame and embarrassment and and loss of of property and and and sense of respect because of what the father has lived on. But all these really are not God’s finger holding man at the end of a string and saying, look, this is going to be direct result of your sin or your father’s sin, etc. etc. In fact, when we look through the Bible, we’d have to just admit that there are some times where there were tragedy as a direct result of sin, and some times where they were not. For example, in Leviticus chapter 10, we have an illustration where God punishes sin. The sons of the first high priest, the sons of Aaron, their names were Nadab and Abahu.

They offered fire that God had not authorized. He had not commanded. Strange fire. And because of it, God struck them dead, consumed them with fire from heaven. There’s a great lesson there. That if we don’t obey the word of God, if we go beyond what he says and add to his word and change his ways, we can expect punishment. It may not be here and now like with Nadab and Abahu, but it shall come. But also in the Old Testament, in the story of 2 Chronicles chapter 26, verses 16 through 23, there’s a story of a king of Israel, Uzziah by name, who who offered incense, and he was not authorized. He was not a priest, and directly. God brought the disease of leprosy upon this man because he did things he should not do.

He’d paid for his sin. But on the other hand, we find in the Bible that there were some who suffered tragedy, and and it was not that God made it happen. The story of Job. You read that great book of Job, and you learn that it wasn’t God who brought the tragedy in Job’s life, it was Satan. In fact, it was Satan who was putting the test upon Job. And God allowed it, but God didn’t make it happen. Satan is the cause of all real tragedy and sorrow in this life. God doesn’t want any of it to happen to us. But in that story, the the one behind the tragedy upon Job, he lost all his cattle, seven sons and three daughters that uh killed in a storm, all of it happening in one day.

But Job didn’t sin against God. He didn’t say why God made this happen. In fact, Job’s words were, naked came out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. I live to serve the Lord. And no matter what tragedy may happen in life, don’t accuse God and blame him. In fact, even Jesus addressed this question in Luke chapter 13. And he talked about how that there were some who had died at the hands of called Galileans who had died at the hands of Pilate, the Roman governor. We don’t really know much more about it than what’s recorded in Luke 13. But Jesus in essence said, Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things?

I tell you, no. But except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. In other words, uh the they were not suffering, they did not uh suffer death because they were worse sinners than the rest. And then he goes on to say in verses four and five how that that uh of eighteen who had who had died in the fall of a tower of Saloon. But he said, they neither were they worse sinners than the rest. Tragedy struck, some were killed, but they were no worse than the rest. Jesus said the real point is unless you repent, you’ll perish. All of us can face the second death if we do not turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. But in this life, there may sometimes be tragedies and sometimes not, and you cannot judge.

2. That the Works of God Should Be Made Manifest

Here’s a righteous person because he doesn’t suffer tragedy, and here’s a wicked person because he does. That’s not the way to measure it. Not in the physical realm today. In fact, looking at John chapter 9, notice his response to the question. He said, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. Now you stop and think about that. What’s happening here? When Jesus heals this man born blind, we really see the perspective of God and his concern for man. That the works of God may be made manifest. First of all, by this is proof positive that Jesus Christ is a Son of God. God is with him. He’s able to heal a man born blind.

That’s proof from God of who Jesus is. So that magnifies Jesus. That’s one great benefit that is occurring out of this man being born blind. But another fact is that it shows God’s compassion. When the atheist asks, how could a good God let a child be born blind or born deaf or whatever? They fail to really see God in the right picture. God doesn’t cause the blindness and the deafness. He has allowed certain laws of nature to carry on this world. And he doesn’t reach down with his finger and touch each person in a specific way and causing blindness, etc. God wants us to have happiness and joy. That’s why he’s prepared heaven in the world yet to come. In Revelation 21 and 22, it’s pictured as a place where there’s no sorrow, no pain, there’s no death.

It’s a place where there’s no hunger, no thirst, a perfect place. That’s what God wants for us. In fact, not only as we look toward heaven, as we look back at the beginning. And the story in Genesis chapter 1 and 2, what is the condition of man? He’s given a perfect place in the garden of Eden to live. They are the tree of life. But God didn’t force man to serve him even then. Or he placed a tree of knowledge of good and evil. He warned him, and in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die. But God gave man a perfect beginning. Now, who brought death into the world? It was Satan, the great enemy of God. In Genesis chapter 3, it was Satan who came and tempted Eve, first of all.

And Satan it was who said, You shall not surely die. But we know from that story in the fall of man where sin came. It entered the world then, as Romans 5 and verse 12, by one man sinned into the world and death by sin. So then death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. It is at that point in the history of man that sorrow was brought into the world. By pain shall children be born. Genesis 3 and verse 16. By the sweat of the brow shall shall man bring forth of the ground and provide for his own. Man began troubles after his sin because of sin. But God’s wish for man is that there be a perfect place. That’s what he’s prepared for with heaven.

Even when Christ came to the world, he came to seek and to save the lost. When Jesus Christ came, he did heal many because he had compassion on them. Physically, Jesus cared for man. And many times the statement is made that he was moved with compassion or moved with pity. He raised the dead. He made the lame to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear. He had compassion on them. But Jesus was much more than just a super doctor. He was much more concerned than just with the physical being of man. There are those today who talk about miracles all the time, and to hear them preach, you’d think that’s the greatest emphasis they can give us upon some kind of physical healing. But that was really not the real mission for Christ.

The great purpose for the coming of Christ was not just to heal physically. He indeed wants us to have good physical bodies, and he had compassion on those who were in trouble, but the purpose of each of those miracles was to prove he’s the Son of God who came to take away sin. And that’s why in Hebrews 2, 14 and 15, for as much as the children are protectors of flesh and blood, he likewise himself partook of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. You see, Jesus Christ came that you might be saved and delivered. You want to see God’s point of view about troubles?

God wants them to be removed. Forgiveness of sins is the way. Forgiveness of sin is through Christ Jesus. And it might be in the flesh you’re going to have some pain and you’re going to have some trouble and sorrow, but it is meaningless when you really know beyond this is eternal life. Sometimes our troubles make manifest God to us. I tell you, sometimes the people who are the closest to God are the people who are bedridden. The people who are suffering and tragedy in their lives, they know who they turn to for strength. And in that sense, blindness and deafness and other troubles in this life turn into blessings for us. Because it gets our focus on who God is, who we are, the children of God, and where we’re going, a better home than this.

3. How Was the Blind Man Really Healed?

Don’t blame a good God because of certain tragedy in this world. Blame the devil. That’s where the tragedy comes from. We’re going to pause for just a moment. We’re going to come back and look at the question. How was this blind man really made to see? I’m reading in John chapter 9, verses 6 through 12. When he had thus spoken, he spat 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. The neighbors therefore, and they which before had seen him that was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged?

Some said, This is he. Others said he is like him. But he said, I am he. Therefore said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened? 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? And he said, I know not. The story here of how Jesus healed the lame uh the blind man is is a very interesting one, and yet one that we know could not be repeated today if if we were to think that power was simply in clay or in the pool of Siloam, we know better. What Jesus did was work a miracle.

And the miracle was by the power of God. This man was healed of his blindness. And as we’ve already pointed out, this was one of those great signs that testify who Jesus is. He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. But I believe there’s another lesson that we ought to glean from this text, and I’d like for you to consider with me, how was the blind man really healed? Well, we have to say it was by the power of God, wasn’t it? Was it the pool of Siloam? You’d say no. Was it the clay? You’d say no. It was by the power of God. But there’s also a lesson in that in the question of how are we healed spiritually? How can we be healed from our sin?

Jesus, the great physician, has come to seek and to save the lost, and and he has come bringing salvation. How is it that we’re healed? By the power of God, by grace are we saved. But don’t you realize the verse that also says by grace we’re saved, also says by grace through faith are we saved. And that not of self done that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. You look at this blind man and you recognize that he was healed by the grace of God, and it was not of himself, it was the gift of God. But that does not exclude obedience. And there’s a lesson for us today that if we are to be healed spiritually, we too must do something. As an act of faith, we must obey.

You see, Jesus made clay, anointed this man’s eyes, and told him to go do something. He went and washed in the pool of Siloam, and he was healed. It reminds us of a of a story in the Old Testament, similarly, that teaches us the need for obedience. It’s found in 2 Kings chapter 5. You may remember the story about Naaman, the man who was the captain of the host of the army of Syria, a great man, an honorable man. But he was afflicted with the disease of leprosy. There was a young maiden that had been taken captive from Israel, and she knew that there was a prophet of God. She knew about Elisha. And she told the man Naaman that she wished that he could go to Israel.

And letters were sent from the king of Syria to the king of Israel. The king of Israel himself was somewhat dismayed at first, but but to make the long story short, if you read 2 Kings 5, you know, eventually Naaman came to the house of Elijah. And Elisha sent his servant out and told him, Go wash in the in the river Jordan seven times. Go dip in the river Jordan seven times. Naaman was chagrined. Why said, I thought this man Elisha would at least come out and wave his hand over the place and do some great thing and call upon his Lord. And he’s just told me to go dip in the river Jordan seven times. Well, are not the rivers of Damascus better than even the river Jordan?

And he scoffed at it and went away. But he came to himself as his own servant began to talk to him about it, and he returned and he dipped in the river Jordan seven times, and he was cleansed of his leprosy. His flesh is clean and fresh as that of a little child. And we can raise the same question. Did the river Jordan cleanse him of his leprosy? Not really. Others have dipped in Jordan and not been cleansed of leprosy. It was by the power of God he was made clean. But what he had to do was what God instructed through his prophet Elisha. He had a dip in the river Jordan, not just five times, not six times, but he had to dip seven times, as God said.

4. There Must Be Obedience Involved

And so it is as we come to the will of God, we look at the Bible, the Word of God, we learn, we ask the question, what must I do to be saved? You hear today there are many preachers who say, Well, just believe, as though it’s just a mental acceptance. And there are so many people who have said, Well, I’ve I’ve heard about Jesus Christ, and you may be sitting at home even now, sort of with folded arms, saying, Yeah, I believe in Jesus Christ, but you’ve never done anything in obedience. You’ve never really openly confessed to Christ and let others know about your faith in the Christ and obey what God has said. Don’t fool yourself, my beloved. You’re not a saved person if you’re not willing to obey what the Lord said.

As in in Luke chapter 6, 42, Jesus said, Why call me Lord Lord and do not the things which I say? There must be obedience involved. And that’s an act of faith. There are those preachers today who sometimes say, Well, just pray the sinner’s prayer. I challenge you, where have you ever read that in the Bible? Pray the sinner’s prayer. Even in this text of John 9, verse 31, the scripture says that God heareth not sinners, in the sense that if you’re not willing to do what God said, He won’t hear what you say. There must be the attitude of heart that says, I’m willing to obey what God said. In a simple passage. Look at Romans chapter 6, where in verses 17 and 18, the scripture is speaking about the people who were Christians now at Rome.

But he said, God betank that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. See, they had obeyed from the heart. Now that’s that is faith involved. And whenever we’re doing what God said, it is not meritorious deeds, earning salvation. We could never earn salvation. We cannot save ourselves from sin any more than we can escape the skin that’s on our body. We’re not able to save ourselves. But when we obey by faith, it simply says, What does God say do? And we learn the form of doctrine God has delivered and what he’s commanded when we obey. We are acting by faith.

And by grace through faith are we saved. In this same passage of Romans 6, back in verses 3 through 5, he talks about the form of doctrine when men are saved from sin. He says, Know you not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death. That like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Never do you find the Word of God saying, just pray the sinner’s prayer and you’ll be healed. But it does say that as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Galatians 3 27. Or Peter on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 38, repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.

Conclusion

Ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. We urge you, my beloved, the form of doctrine. You need to hear the gospel that that tells us about the Christ. For faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God, Romans 10 and verse 17. Believe in the Christ, as in Mark 16 and verse 16, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Turn from your sin, repent, as in Acts 2.38, repent and be baptized, every one of you. Make up your mind, you’re going to live for the Christ. Confess your faith that Jesus Christ is the Lord, the Son of God. For with a heart man believeth unto righteousness. With the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. Romans 10 and 10. But be baptized to wash away your sins.

Acts 22, 16. Why tarryest thou rise and be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord? Oh, you won’t be saved by the water of baptism. You’ll be saved by the grace of God. But God working in you as you obey. Just like Naaman was cleansed of his leprosy by obedience, and this blind man was given sight by obedience, so you can be given spiritual healing by obedience. Until our next study, when we see further about this blind man and the reaction of the crowd, we bid that the grace and peace of our Lord be with you.