Um, We started that
tradition, our men's meeting, we had 34 men Friday night and
uh, I decided to carry
on that tradition of reading a psalm and then singing that psalm.
And uh, it, it fit very
well with what the speaker had to say.
So as long as the meeting is here, we're
gonna, we're gonna continue.
To do that.
Have your Bibles, turn with me to John chapter 9.
And verse 13.
If
you can remember last time we were in John, we covered the 1st 12 verses
of the ninth chapter, and it was the
account of Jesus healing, the
man born blind.
And I want to start out before we get going with something
Stacy brought to me.
And Stacy, you could correct me at any point if I get some of this wrong.
Remember, we talked about
the question of why did Jesus use
the spittle and the clay to
heal the man born blind's eyes.
And there were a number of
theories I gave you.
Some of them were kind of silly, if you remember, but MacArthur's
contention was the scripture doesn't tell us, so we just don't know.
Well, Stacy came upon a guy who
has the best theory that I've ever heard.
And it just sounds just like Jesus.
And let me give you a little ramp up to it.
For example, in his talk that he was giving.
He said, he talked about the added loss that
the Pharisees had added to God's word that they all
had to follow by.
And one of the laws, for example, was that
when Messiah came, Messiah
would be able to heal Jews
who had leprosy, correct, Stacy?
And so Jesus very specifically,
when he went on and healed 10 lepers at
once, knowing that, what did he do?
He sent those 10 lepers straight to the chief
priest to let them know.
Hey, I'm Messiah.
Same thing with the demoniac in their in their rules.
They said that the Messiah would be able to cast a
demon out of a man who couldn't speak, who was dumb.
And Jesus did that, right, to prove he was Messiah.
Well, guess what?
In there, over 600 and something
laws and they even added more to that.
Uh, there is a law in there.
Now, if I'm remembering this correctly, Stacy,
that if you were going to try to heal
someone, you couldn't put spittle,
your own spittle as a source of healing.
So Jesus said, watch this.
And he spit on the ground on purpose.
I love that theory more than any theory
I've ever, is that not just like Jesus?
That's just like Jesus right there.
So, I'm liking that guy she listened to right there.
All right, let's get on with it because what
the rest of this chapter here in chapter 9.
Remember, the whole 9th chapter takes up this issue with the man born blind.
What the rest of this chapter is going to
deal with, uh, here is what happens
after the healing takes place.
Remember, we looked at the actual account last week.
Now, you know this.
That God himself calls all
people to believe, to
repent and believe the gospel is not a suggestion, right?
It's a command, to believe in his son or
perish, but as we know, look around in your family.
Look around in your workplace, look around in your day to day.
The majority of people do
not repent and believe.
And the vast majority of people
did not, when
God's son was here, on this earth,
walking in their midst.
So as I've said before, many times.
John's gospel is
designed to bring men
and women to belief in his son.
But it is at the
same time for us, and the church for all history.
literally a chronicle of
unbelief at the same time.
And so far, we've seen unbelief
in a number of forms like, remember, the
confused, uh, unbelief of Nicodemus
at first, in chapter 3, and remember,
the fickle crowd, that was only
looking for a meal after he fed them the next day after.
I mean, even the unbelief at 1st of
the brothers of Jesus that we've looked at.
But but what stands out?
As we've been studying this great gospel amongst
the different forms of unbelief is the willful, hard-hearted,
truth, rejecting, unbelief of
the scribes, the Pharisees,
the rulers,
the rulers now.
Of the religious nation of Israel,
and in studying this gospel of John.
We really can put
together a theology of unbelief.
And in this ninth chapter in particular, we are going
to get some serious insight into
the character of willful,
obstinate, stubborn unbelief.
Now, we've gone through what happened in the 1st 12 verses.
Let me summarize it.
Jesus meets this man born blind at the temple gates.
He puts the spit and dirt together.
Now we know maybe why we, I hope that's what it is when we get to heaven.
And he puts mud on
the man's eyes and he says, hey, go
wash in the pool of Siloam, he does it.
And wonder of wonders, he comes back, singing.
It's an incredible...
Remember when I told you what it is, what kind of miracle it is?
It's a creative miracle.
This man has new eyes.
And as we come to verse 13.
The Pharisees enter into the picture once again.
And they are going to Investigate
this miracle.
And you know, it's important for us.
to study and dig into
this kind of chronicle of unbelief,
because as you're well aware, As we,
as Christian people now in 2026, try to be faithful
to our responsibility to present the gospel to
people, most of the time, and
you, you think about this.
Most of the time, we are
going to be confronted with unbelief.
When we present the gospel.
Most of the time that most
of the people that we give the gospel too are
going to reject it, whether they're just complete unbelievers,
whether they're in a false system of faith, they're going to reject
God's gospel.
And today we're actually going to cover, you're not going to believe this.
We are actually going to cover from versus 13 to 34.
That's a pretty good clip for me.
But we can do that when it's narrative.
Because this doesn't require a lot of explanation.
The verses are very straightforward.
My favorite type of preaching is narrative preaching, by the way, if you didn't know that.
And while we do, we're going to pull out of this
text, the characteristics of unbelief, and
what it's really going to do is prepare us for things that
you and I can face whenever we
present the gospel.
So I want you to think about it in that way.
Also, we're going to see this
great divide between Christianity and
Judaism that exist.
Between the church, and the synagogue.
This is where that starts to come out.
The Jews affirmed Moses,
the believers affirm Christ, and that division
has existed.
Ever since then and right up to this very day.
It's even in our news right now.
But the main lesson that we have here
is about unbelief.
We're going to see how unbelief makes
conclusions before it makes examinations.
It's predisposed to its own viewpoint.
We're going to see how unbelief establishes false standards.
We're going to see how unbelief
always demands more and more evidence.
There is an
irrationality in unbelief.
Unbelief does biased research.
It can look at facts.
And come to the complete wrong conclusion.
Unbeliev unbelief is self-centered.
Unbelief is egocentric.
And so we're going to use some words as
our headings and points to break this text down.
First of all, unbelief is hostile.
Hostile, if you're from North Baton
Rouge, but we'll stick with hostile.
In the big picture,
Unbelief
is really, think about it.
It is a very aggressive attitude to take.
Now, let me tell you why I say that.
When you don't believe the gospel.
And you won't have anything to do with Jesus.
That really is a
hostile position towards your maker.
Why?
Because he makes the rules.
He sent Jesus.
This is his world.
It's his heaven.
He is in charge,
whether you like it or not, or whether you believe it
or not, and if you choose not to
believe him, you are in a state
of hostility towards your maker.
It doesn't matter whether you believe it or not doesn't change
the reality.
This is why unbelievers, persecute
Christians.
Religious, religious,
unbelievers.
were primarily responsible for crucifying Jesus.
Unbelievers, persecuted,
and martyred almost all
of the apostles.
It's unbelievers today that
massacre Christians all over our world.
I just got an email this morning that, uh, the
murder of Christians in India has ramped up.
Again, and that's where,
you remember, Brother Ed told us a story.
He was preaching in that church where the week before they found the pastor
hanging from the rafters.
For sure.
The Pharisees were aggressively
hostile towards Jesus, they think about what we've
learned so far in this tech, in the gospel of John.
They've already decided and
declared that he is insane and
that he is demon possessed, right?
And we're going to see that hostility
borne out here in our text for today.
So let's start with it.
Look on the screen or in your Bible.
They brought to the Pharisees,
the man who was formally blind.
Now, the they
who brought him are the neighbors of
verse 8 that we looked at last time.
They knew this man.
This blind man.
And remember, what
we looked at last time, they're going back and forth.
Baby, no, man, can't be him.
He's been there for 30 years every day blind and begging.
It just looks like him.
It just really can't be him.
So they're, they,
they wind up bringing him to the Pharisees.
And there are a number of possibilities as to why.
They bring him to the Pharisees.
The Pharisees or the leaders, right?
So maybe they just wanted to, them to sign off.
how did this happen, right?
Maybe the people wanted a, a
theological explanation because this really
is, is so, Amazing.
I was thinking about this this morning as I was doing my final edits
of this sermon and I really don't think I have words
strong enough to really describe.
How shocking it must have been.
The only thing I could think of.
I love Stevie Wonder.
My family loves Stevie Wonder.
I been listening to Stevie Wonder since I was long as I can remember.
You ever seen Stevie Wonder with his glasses on?
I mean, you can see that
this man's eyes are dead.
You've seen blind people born from birth to dead eyes, right?
Well, you can imagine.
Every day, this man
begging at the gate, they could see, I don't think they
had any glasses down at the Circle K back there in Judaism of the 1st century, right?
They could see his eyes.
And then all of a sudden,
He's looking at them.
With alive eyes.
They knew this man had
been blind all his life.
So, I mean, you think about these neighbors and these crowded people, no,
it's just bewildering to them.
The blind man himself even
says later, no one has ever even heard.
of anyone ever being healed
of being born blind.
Do you know there is not one single healing
of a blind man in the whole Old Testament?
Of course, that's home purpose, right?
This is unheard of.
Also, the Pharisees had
been running, you know, the demon possessed
insane spin machine against Jesus amongst
the people, and they had even come to the place where
anybody who confessed Jesus as Messiah,
would be put out of the synagogue.
As we go see that in verse 22 in just a minute.
So there was fear.
that spread amongst the people.
And I'm sure they wanted to figure out, okay, well wait a minute, though.
Wait a minute.
How did this Jesus
that the Pharisees have been continuously
deriding every single day?
How could what they're saying
about this man match up with
him healing this man who's clearly born blind.
Beyond this, they
knew that Jesus had broken the Sabbath.
Look at verse 14.
Now.
It was a Sabbath on the day when
Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes.
They knew that healing was not allowed on the Sabbath.
For them, now, you understand?
That meant medical healing.
Right?
Nobody had ever done a miracle healing ever.
Right, in their lifetimes, and so,
but their rules were so crazy.
If somebody was sick
on the Sabbath, you couldn't do anything to make them bet.
I mean, they could just be violently ill, and you just, Sabbath, stand back.
You gotta take it.
But if somebody was dying on
the Sabbath, they had a rule.
You could prevent them from dying, but you just couldn't make
them well if it was if they were sick.
Just insane.
Legalism is nuts, okay?
And then verse 14 mentions
how Jesus used the clay.
As we talked about earlier.
Well, that would be classified as work.
He picked up the clay with the spittle.
That's work.
So, in their eyes, in all
of their eyes, Jesus had violated the Sabbath.
Now, for sure, with some of these folks here
in this group, that was the major issue.
What do we do about this violation of the Sabbath?
Let's go to the Pharisees.
So that would be an issue with some of
them for certain.
So they bring them in in verse 15, look at it.
Then the Pharisees also
were asking him again how he received
his sight, and it says again there because
the neighbors had asked him 1st back there in verse 10.
So again, he has to answer this question.
This time from the Pharisees.
About how he had received his sight.
Look next in verse 15.
And he said to them.
He applied clay to my eyes.
I washed.
And I see.
Very simple,
very straightforward.
I mean, what else could the man say?
Other than that?
That's all he knew.
And the Pharisees were
not going to take the word of the neighbors or even that
they had known this man all of his life, they
wanted to hear it straight from him.
And he tells.
the truth.
Verse 16.
Therefore, some of the Pharisees were saying, this man is
not from God, because he does not keep the Sabbath.
Now think about this.
This is supposed to
be an investigation.
Which
means, the conclusion of the investigation
is supposed to come where?
At the end.
This here is
the conclusion before the investigation.
Notice they say, this man.
They hate Jesus so much, they won't even call him Jesus.
They call him this man.
And we see them do that repeatedly in John.
They don't want to mention his name, but they've already made a conclusion.
And their conclusion is this.
This man is not
from God, can't be because
he doesn't keep the Sabbath.
Here's how they reason.
All people who are from God, keep the Sabbath.
Jesus doesn't keep the Sabbath, conclusion,
Jesus is not from God.
That's their thinking.
He doesn't keep all the ridiculous,
hair splitting, trifling little rules that they made up,
addition to the word of God on the Sabbath, but all
people from God would in their eyes.
So he's not from God.
So it's back.
That's how unbelief works.
Start with a conclusion, and then work your way backwards,
and however, there is a group within the Pharisees.
And they are
not so easily persuaded by this line of reasoning.
Look next at verse 16.
But others were saying, how
can a man who is a sinner, perform such signs?
And we assume the others here are other Pharisees
in the context of the text here, and they ask, how can
a man who is a sinner perform such signs and do this?
So, now this group had their own reasoning.
Only God can open blind eyes.
They were right about that.
Jesus opened the eyes of a blind man.
conclusion?
Jesus is from God.
So with group A, it's
the Sabbath issue.
With group B, it's the supernatural issue.
Group A is unmoved.
We don't know about group B, but we do know
what it says next at the end of verse 16,
Look at it.
And there was a division among them.
So, There's hope for group B.
But you know what happens?
They just fade out of the picture after this and we
don't hear from them again in this text.
But this kind of division was part
of what was happening with Jesus.
We saw this before back in chapter 7.
says there was a division among the people.
Later in chapters in, says there was a division.
Jesus brought division between people and guess what?
He still does.
He still does in families.
He still does in workplaces.
So we're gonna follow here.
The text and group A because
they take charge in the text.
And they are just hard hearted
unbelievers, and we just saw they made their conclusion.
They're hostile toward anything, anything that
comes up that offends or assaults their
conclusion, they're going to be hostile against.
Next in verses 1724, we're going to see
how unbelief will not bend.
How it cannot be convinced.
The blind man told them exactly
what had happened.
I was blind.
I was born blind.
Jesus came up to play on my eyes, told
me to go wash.
I did that.
Now I can see.
And he's think about this.
As he's answering them, okay?
He is literally looking at
them with brand new eyeballs in their face.
And there are
all kind of people around this man.
Again, who
had been around him for years, and they're affirming this
reality, which they can see.
But it is
the nature of determined,
willful, unbelief, that
wants more and more and more evidence,
and soon as they get it, they never want anything to do with it.
It's really a mad search,
really, to discredit.
It keeps probing,
not because it's seeking the truth.
But because it's seeking a justification
for the conclusion that it wants.
Now look next in verse 17.
So they said to the blind man again.
What do you say about him since
he opened your eyes?
Look what he says.
And he said, He is a prophet.
Now.
This is the blind man, beggar guy.
He had no authority at all.
He would, do you know he would have never one day in his life ever
been allowed in the synagogue?
Why?
Because remember, we talked about this in their view,
blindness was related to sinfulness.
So this man was cursed?
Remember, who's sinned, this man or his parents?
Anybody who had a disease or deformity or a disability was
cursed and they were never allowed to be a part of the synagogue.
The Pharisees wouldn't go near people like that.
They were outcasts.
That's why he's at the gate begging in the 1st place.
So here's a man who had
never been exposed to the synagogue.
He hasn't been taught like other people.
But he does have what's
so lacking in America today, the common sense enough to know.
Jesus did heal him and is in
fact, the prophet.
And that was being said,
going back to chapter 4, many people were saying in
chapter 4, he's a prophet.
Nicodemus knew early on, hey, no
man can do what you do unless they came from God.
I mean, but he couldn't, he was having trouble figuring all that out, but at least he knew that much.
And now this man, he believes, This
man healed my blindness.
He is a prophet from God.
And so he gives this very straightforward, sensible answer.
Which should have been the end of the investigation, to be honest with you.
But look next in verse 18.
The Jews then
did not believe it of him that he had been
blind and had received sight until they called the
parents of the very one who had received his sight.
Now, Remember, they've heard from the man.
The man is surrounded by all
these people who had known him since he was a little kid.
And all their collective
testimony together, and still, these leaders don't believe.
Because unbelief is immovable.
In itself.
It doesn't bend.
We experience this in our own lives, don't we?
Most of the people we present with
the truth will not accept it.
Narrow is the way and phew, there be that find it.
Jesus said.
That's just the reality.
So they have this.
Predisposed viewpoint.
They will not give up this notion that this man,
right here, Jesus is a sinner and he's
not from God, so they want to dig deeper.
They think,
There must be something about this
story we're just not getting, that we're not seeing yet.
Must be some kind of cover up here, some kind of lie.
So we got to get to the bottom of this.
So what do they do?
Let's call in the rents.
The parents.
verse 19.
And question them, saying, is this your son?
Who you say was born blind,
then how does he now
see?
So get the parents in there, and
they present them with two questions.
One, is this your son?
And number two, how did he gain his sight?
And remember, the miracle happened.
There were some people saying, no, no, no, no, no.
That's not the man.
It can't be him.
I mean, it just looks like the guy.
And so, maybe it's just mistaken identity,
so let's go get the parents.
They know who he is.
Verse 20.
The parents answered them
and said, We know that this is our son.
And that he
was born blind.
We know this is our son, and yes, he was born blind.
Case closed, strike the gavel because now he's
standing there, saying, so you should conclude,
right now, the man Jesus is from
God, right?
But the parents aren't done.
Verse 21.
But how he now sees.
We do not know.
Or who opened his eyes.
We do not know.
Ask him.
He is of age.
He will speak for himself.
Now, I'm sorry, how lame are these parents?
These are some lame parents, Jack.
They're lying.
They're lying to
cover for themselves.
Look at verse 22.
His parents said this.
Why did they say this because they were afraid of the Jews,
for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed him
to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.
There it is.
Count to cost?
Fail.
So the reason they said we
don't know is because they were afraid that if they said they did know that
it was Jesus, they'd get blown out of the synagogue.
They're lying.
to protect themselves.
They knew who did this.
I mean, think about it, man.
When they 1st got on the scene, then they saw their son with
a live eyes looking straight at them, you
don't think they had to have a conversation right there at that point with the son?
The man knew.
He said the man called Jesus made some clay.
Don't forget, don't forget this, man.
The name of Jesus was on the lips of every single
human being in Jerusalem in Israel.
I mean, he was viral before there was viral, without a computer.
right?
Everybody was talking about this.
We're right at the end of the 3 years.
There's only 6 months left to go before Calvary.
This is the talk of the town, this man.
And these parents knew firsthand.
What it meant to be thrown out of the synagogue.
Because their son had lived outside
the synagogue all his life.
They knew what the implications were to be cursed, to be an outcast.
Guess what?
They didn't want that.
And notice how the parents say, ask him.
He's of age.
You can't throw him out the synagogue.
He's not in the synagogue.
Go on, ask him.
I'm telling you, being thrown
out of a synagogue was a very big deal in Jewish society.
If you weren't in the synagogue, you might as well be a leper.
You were cut off from God, you were cut off
from the life of the nation, both socially and economically.
So they didn't want to get anywhere close to experiencing what
the sun had experienced since he couldn't be thrown out verse 23.
For this reason, the parent said, he
is of age, ask him, verse 24.
So a 2nd time.
They called the man who had been born who
had been blind and said to him.
Give glory to God.
We know this man is a sinner.
They just won't bend.
And they say, give glory to God.
Let me tell you where they got that from.
Look at it direct quote from Joshua 7
and verse 19.
Just a little backstory when the Israelites came into the land.
They were told to take nothing from the people, but oh, Achan
and his family, they stole all kind of stuff and buried it in their tent.
Joshua finds out, remember, and confronts
Aiken and says, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel,
and give praise to him, and tell me now what you have done.
So all the Jews, they knew that story very well.
That story says, God is glorified when
you tell the truth, and that's what they're saying right here to this bond
man when they say, give glory to God.
Tell us the truth.
They're not buying his testimony or the testimony
of the parents or of all the people who know him.
Folks, this is how.
Firm and immovable.
Their unbelief is.
They just concentrated on one thing.
This man can't be from God.
This man is assuming.
So, The
formerly blind man, Takes
up on the use of the word no, K-N-O-W.
And you have to like this guy.
And you're going to get to like any more
and more here every time he speaks coming up.
Verse 25.
He then answered.
Whether he is a sinner,
I do not know.
One thing I do know.
That though I was blind.
Now I see.
You
want to talk about what we know.
And what we don't know, I
don't know about the accusation.
of Jesus being a sinner.
I tell you what I do know.
I was a bond man.
And now I'm looking straight at you.
And that's really as far as he can go.
It's just so clear, they have no interest in the truth.
Verse 26.
So they said to him, what did he do to you?
How did you open?
How did he open your eyes now thank
for just a minute?
That's a pretty significant
thing, because in that statement, they
just admitted that he was healed.
They just admitted that he was blind and his eyes were opened.
Look at it.
They say, what did he do to you and
how did he open your eyes and that takes us to the next point?
Unbelief, it's just irrational.
Right?
With absolute true facts,
if you come to the wrong conclusion, conclusion, you're irrational.
That's what unbelief is.
It's irrrational.
So they say, What did he do to you?
How did he open your eyes?
And let me tell you something, this guy,
This guy just keeps getting better, verse 27.
He answered them.
I told you already.
And you did not listen.
Why do you want to hear it again?
You do not want to become one of
his disciples too, do you?
I love that.
This is my man right here.
This man ain't no dummy.
This is an outcast
talking like this to the elite of Israel.
And there's no doubt at the same time as he's talking with the juice.
I want you to just think about this for a second.
The same time he's sitting there with
these Jews every single 2nd.
Never have been seen in his life.
Scenery is just overwhelming his senses
at the moment that he's saying this to the Jews.
There's a whole lot going on with this guy right here.
And he has to be just so full of
joy and confidence because he knows, he
knows he's just been healed by a man that has to be from God.
And next week we're going to see how he comes all the
way to salvation, but that's going to be next time.
So, so he really has absolutely no
problem.
It's complete confidence to hit them right back because he knows the truth.
That's what's so good about having the truth.
That's why I don't care.
You put me in Tiger Stadium, 100,000 people.
I'm not going to preach any differently there than I will right here
because I had the confidence that I have the truth.
So now they descend to
that 3rd level of contact, and I don't know if you remember,
we talked about this, verbal abuse.
That's next in the line of the debate, verse 28.
They reviled him.
And said, you are his disciple.
We are disciples of Moses.
And there's that breach that I talked about earlier.
Moses, and Christ, the
church, and the synagogue, Judaism,
and Christianity, still at odds,
this day, the only chosen people
of God in this world right now are people who
have repented of their sins, and placed their saving faith in Christ alone.
I don't care what their ethnicity is.
Verse 29.
We know that God has spoken to
Moses, but as for this man,
and there it is again, they will not even say his name because they
hate his guts so much.
As for this man, we do not know where, he is from.
Now they should have known.
It was so clear.
And listen, when they said we don't know where he's from,
they're not talking about what town he's from.
This is about, we don't know the origin of this man.
They were unwilling to say,
it's God, and since he did clearly
just so many 100s, literally
of supernatural things.
The only alternative that they had to say
about Jesus is, well, he has to be satanic.
Right?
The power has to come from Satan.
supernatural, clearly.
Character of unbelief.
And then verse 30.
My man here saves the best for last in the conversation.
And he hits directly
with these words next into the irrationality of all this.
Look at verse 30.
The man answered and said to them, well,
here is an amazing thing that you do
not know where he is from, and yet he opened my eyes.
The conclusion.
is so simple.
He created new eyes, for heaven's sake.
He has to be from heaven.
Breaking news, God
alone is the creator.
All that Satan has the power to do is
destroy and counterfeit and falsify,
only God can create.
Jesus created New eyes for me.
And you guys are telling me you don't know where he's from.
When unbelief
investigates a miracle, it comes up first with a conclusion,
even if it has to function in an
irrational way to get back to it.
And lastly, For today, we're gonna
see how unbelief is abusive.
Contemptuous.
And we see that play out next
in verses 31 to 34.
But 1st the man keeps talking.
And we continue to see
how really smart this guy is, verse 31.
He says, we know that God does
not hear sinners.
Now, that's an Old Testament principle, if I regard iniquity
in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.
That's what the Old Testament says.
This man knew his Old Testament.
God doesn't hear sinners, but look next.
But if anyone is God fearing and does his
will, he hears him, verse 32,
since the beginning of time.
It has never been heard that anyone
opened the eyes of a person born blind.
Like I said, there is no such thing at
all in the Old Testament about this.
This man knew his theology, he was a
reasonable man, he knew his Old Testament, verse
33, if this man were not from
God, he could do.
He couldn't do any miracles.
He's been doing
100s of them in front of your face.
For 3 years.
He couldn't do this if he weren't from God.
So this man, he's taken over the meat tank
here, the blind beggar man.
They used to be blind guy.
He's become a preacher.
He's pulling
from the Old Testament, and he's talking to the religious leaders of Israel.
Huh?
First, he's sarcastic, and
now he's very specific and clear minded and faithful to the Old Testament,
and even referring to the Old Testament principle that God
doesn't hear the prayer of sinners.
He's giving them an explanation of reality.
Sensible, reasonable, logical explanation.
And by the way, don't forget, he's got proof with alive eyes looking
right at him when he's doing it.
To which they respond with,
contempt.
And abuse.
Verse 34.
They answered him.
You were born entirely
in sins, and are you teaching
us?
And then they get physical, the last stage
that we talked about last time.
So they put him out.
They threw him out.
That's the ultimate end of unbelief investigating a miracle.
Can't deal with it.
And in our own lives.
How many people do you know that continue right
this very moment to live out their lives rejecting Christ?
Rejecting his gospel.
It's tough.
What do we do with that?
Reality, especially with our family members.
Well, big picture.
I want you to think way back to when we were in John 6.
How did Jesus handle that reality
in John 6?
This is where Jesus went.
No man can come.
Unless the Father who sent me draws him.
No one can come.
Ability, unless it is granted
by the Father.
And all that the Father gives,
and all that the Father grants will come to
Jesus, and he will raise every one of them
on the last day guaranteed.
Every one of them.
He loses not one.
The only way any person
who rejects Christ in his gospel can be delivered
from the captivity of the slave market
of unbelief is to be delivered by the
power of God.
And what can we do, folks?
It was responsibility land, plead.
Plead with God.
For your lost family members.
Plead with God for their souls.
Blead with God to be gracious.
Present the only gospel that exists, and
plead with God, to say because
the natural man does not understand this.
Things of the spirit of God, their foolishness to him,
because they're spiritually appraised, and
the natural man is spiritually dead.
And we hear it all the time.
What can a dead man do?
Stink.
See it.
We don't, we
don't go out into the world with the message of the gospel with any hope.
That, that, that we have the power in
our own selves and our own facts and our own ability,
no matter how eloquently we can present the gospel, to
shatter the, the, the blackness and
the darkness of own belief, with our own persuasion.
There's no way that we can possibly do it.
It didn't happen like that for you, did it?
It certainly didn't happen like that for me when we go out with the truth.
We present it as best we can, and
we plead with God to draw people out of
the bondage of unbelief effectually.
To himself.
And the story of the blind man is
the perfect illustration of this.
The man in his blindness represents
spiritual blindness, and Jesus
initiates, and Jesus heals,
and brings the man to perfect healing,
just like he does for us.
We weren't looking for Jesus.
He came looking.
Pray, Father heaven, we thank you for this.
Fantastic, wonderful story as always,
uh, in these gospels, how?
Great it is for us to kind of like get
in a time machine and just go back to these
accounts that actually happen.
This is not fiction.
This is an actual relating of actual
history in the life of the god man Jesus Christ.
And so I pray today, Lord, that it would deepen
our understanding.
Of all the truths that we've learned here today.
And as we go back out into our world.
Lord, that it would that it would motivate us
to live even more for your glory.
As always, I pray if there are any here who are still blind.
We plead with you, Lord, to
draw them to yourself.
Safe.
We pray that all we've done today.
Has been done in such a way as to bring you all
the glory.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.