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Pastor Mike will be speaking on Darkness to Light part 2 . He will be in John 9:35-41
If you would admit your blindness, you would see the truth and you would walk away from your sinfulness. If you would see that you’re a blind person, God would grant you grace. He would grant you forgiveness.
He would grant these beautiful things in your life. Welcome to Hope Worth Having. This is Pastor Mike Sanders and you are listening to the radio program of the Hope Worth Having ministry. We are honored that you would come and join us and tune in with us today.
We’re looking forward to what God has for us. We are going to be back in the Gospel of John, chapter 9, verse 35 through 41. And today we’re going to be continuing our study on From Darkness to Light.
And we know we are going to be sharing the path of faith. The path of faith always begins by admitting our blindness. It’s not easy to admit that we’re spiritually blind, but this is exactly what God is calling us to do.
So I hope as we look into the scriptures that you and I can come to a full understanding of what it means to go from darkness to light and have faith in Jesus Christ. And what we must see is the Savior’s initiating work, not only in our life, but his initiating work in the life of others.
And it is God who first pursues us. And long before I pursued God, he pursued me. And what this ought to bring me to is a point of humbleness, a point of humility, a point where I am certainly filled with great gratitude, that God would seek me, that God would pursue me, that he would draw me to salvation.
Why? Because I am unworthy, because I am not deserving, but yet God in his great great love and mercy and grace has pursued me. Jesus said in John 6 verse 65. Therefore said I unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given unto him by my father.
We did not initiate God’s providential love by our actions, by our thoughts, by our character. There was nothing in us that was lovely that God said I am going to pursue them. But we were very unlovely in our selfishness and sinfulness that Christ left the portals of heaven and he came down the stairways of heaven and he was born into a sinful world and Jesus Christ walked and lived a sinless life qualifying him to be on the cross for our sins and on that cross he bore your sins and my sins.
the third day he rose again and for 40 days he walked on the earth teaching his disciples preparing them for the launching of the mighty church that the gates of hell shall not prevail and then he ascended into heaven and my friends why did he do it because he loves you for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life Jesus makes an interesting statement in John 9 verse 39 he said for judgment I came into this world that they would see not might see and that they would see might be made blind what a startling statement one that causes us to think and wrestle with what did Jesus mean when he said this he said that he came he came into this world sent from the father to come into this world and Jesus says that he comes for judgment that he came in this world to bring judgment for judgment I came his purpose was never to condemn but rather to say when Jesus makes this statement he does not contradict what he has already said and taught us in Luke 19 10 for the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost his initiating love his pursuant of you is why he came but the Bible reminds us in John 3 17 that God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him what does Jesus mean on one hand he says I didn’t come to condemn the world but I came to seek and to save that was lost I didn’t come to condemn the world,
I came that people might be saved. I came so that people might know me and have eternal life and believe in me. But yet Jesus says to all that can hear Him in verse 39, for judgment I am come. What is He saying?
Jesus is teaching us that the gospel of Christ has an effect upon all who hear it. The gospel has an effect upon all who hear it, meaning this. Christ has not come to condemn you, but Christ has come that you must decide.
Will you believe or reject Him? And in your response, you have brought your own judgment upon you. For if you believe in Christ, He has already absorbed your judgment on the cross. And you are now standing before God, pure, righteous, because of what Christ did for you.
But if you reject Him and do not believe in Him, then you definitely are judged. You bear your own judgment. You must face the consequence of your sins. You must face the judgment that awaits all those who will not believe in Jesus Christ.
The apostle Paul put it this way, to maybe help clarify what Christ said in 2 Corinthians 2, verse 15 and 16. For we are the aroma of Christ to God, among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.
Meaning that as a messenger of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Paul says, we are putting out the fragrance of Christ, the fragrance of the gospel, and it is going to all people. It is going to every individual.
It is going to those who are being saved and those who are perishing, those who refuse to believe. Listen, he explains it to one, a fragrance from death to death. To the other, a fragrance from life to life.
Who is sufficient for these things? What Paul is saying is that as the aroma of Christ is spread throughout the world, to those who believe, they go from physical life to spiritual life. To those who reject, they go from physical death to spiritual death.
That is the effect of the gospel upon every heart. This is what Jesus is saying, that there is no neutrality with the gospel. That with your response to the gospel, there is, my friends, either a judgment upon you that you must bear.
or a judgment in which Christ has already born on your behalf. For Jesus reminds us in Matthew 12 .30, he that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. Here is the point friends, there is no in between with Jesus.
To make no decision this morning for Christ is to make a decision. It is to say I will not believe, I will not trust, and I have said it to you before that the same sun that melts the ice is the same sun that hardens the clay.
It is not the sun’s fault, it is the response of the element’s fault. And it is to you this morning that as Christ has proclaimed that he is the light of the world and willing to take all who believe in him from darkness to light, It is your response that determines whether the judgment of God has fallen on Christ on your behalf or whether the judgment of God will fall upon you.
And that, my friends, is what Jesus means. I want you to take your Bible and just back up a little in John chapter 3. For John has already given us the foundation of the understanding of the coming of Christ in John chapter 3 and verse 19.
Jesus, again, trying to help people understand how people respond to this initiating love of God, this pursuant of God coming to you and bringing salvation and declaring it unto all the nations and all the people, including yourself, the Bible says in John 3 .19, and this is the condemnation that light is coming to the world.
And men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light and neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved, but he that doeth truth comes to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought or originate from God.
That is, that God has brought them forth in his heart. My friends, it’s one or the other. That’s where we stand. His love initiates towards us salvation. And this is how we have spiritual sight. The second point I want you to understand is that spiritual sight requires us to respond in faith.
Spiritual sight requires us to respond in faith. We go back to verse 36. The Bible tells us that Jesus said to the man in verse 35. Do you believe that I’m the son of God some translations say the son of man the point being is that?
Do you believe I’m from heaven? Do you believe that I’m the one that was sent from God the Father on? behalf of mankind to bring redemption forgiveness and salvation and The blind man who could now see said he answered and said who is he Lord?
that I might believe on him and Jesus said unto him thou has both seen him and it is he that talks with you Tim that’s talking to you right now Jesus declares himself to be the son of God the son of man Claire declares himself to be the one Who is to bring salvation and?
Look at the man’s response Lord I believe and he worshipped Lord, I believe His heart was completely open. His heart was completely open to the revelation that Christ is God, and Christ brings forgiveness, and Christ brings salvation.
Was He a theologian? No. Did He understand all the dynamics of salvation? No. But He just believed in His heart. As we taught you last week, He was a man who said, look, this is all I know. There’s only one thing I know.
I know that I was blind, but now I see. That’s what I know. And God took that and built upon it, and helped this man to have spiritual sight, but it requires each of us to have spiritual sight, to respond in faith, and that our heart must be open to the Lord Jesus Christ.
If our heart is resistant, if our heart builds a wall, if our heart is defiant and rebellious, then we will not see. Oh, we’ll see, but we won’t see. Meaning, we will not see spiritually. There is a path of faith that we find that this man was on, and I want you to see it this morning, because it is the path of faith for all of us, and I want to remind you, as we will show you, the contrast, man who believes,
and the Pharisees who will not believe. What is this path of faith? Number one, it is to admit your blindness. It is to admit your blindness. I want to remind you, church, that you cannot change what you will not acknowledge.
You cannot change what you will not acknowledge as long as you live in denial in your life about whatever behavior, whatever addictions you have, whatever challenges you have, whatever problems you have, you cannot change what you…
you will not acknowledge, and that is true in your spiritual life. There’ll be no change in your spiritual life. You will not see what God has for you. You will not go deeper with God. You will not be blessed with insight from God until you acknowledge your blindness.
This man had to acknowledge his blindness. Again, he is not ashamed to say that he was blind. He wasn’t ashamed to say, hey, I cannot see. He understood that he had to recognize this. This man is a picture of each one of us.
He is a picture of each one of us, that every one of us must come to that point in our life where we admit our sinfulness, that we admit our selfishness, that we admit our failures before God, and that until we come to grips with that, there can be no true.
spiritual sight in our life and let me say this to you that not only is it relating to me coming to Christ but it’s related to me growing in Christ and that even as a believer and follower of Christ you know what can put a lid on my life is pride is an unwillingness to say I have some flaws in my life that I need to work on I have some areas that I need to get better at I got some things that I need to acknowledge in my life you know why some marriages flourish and why some marriages fail because one or both are unwilling to admit the Bible says confess your faults one to another there is no confession going on that when they disagree it’s just constantly digging in deeper and stronger and whatever their position is and constantly debating and constantly arguing and constantly taking their side but how blessed is the man and woman whose heart is humble enough to say I am blind I did not see that I did not see that I want you to note this great contrast with the Pharisees because unlike this blind man they are unwilling we go back and look and we see in verse 40 some of the Pharisees which were with him they heard these words and said unto him are we aligned also now they did not say this in a sense like they were inquisitive but they said it like are you accusing us to be blind how dare you it’d be like us saying somebody come up to us and they say you know those people over there are liars and so you heard it and you say are you calling me a liar Like,
you’re not doing it because you’re really interested to know that you’re a liar, you’re doing it because you’re offended that someone has categorized you in a particular position or in a particular problem in your life, and so this is the response of the Pharisees.
Are you saying we’re blind? How dare you call us blind? Look at verse 41, Jesus said unto them, if you were blind, stop right there. Here’s what Jesus means. If you would admit you were blind, if you would be humble enough, remember, they’re not humble enough, they’re offended that he called them blind.
Instead of saying, Lord, I’m blind, I cannot see the truth of God and help me and forgive me for my blindness, they said, are you calling me? How dare you call me blind? Jesus said, if you were blind, you should have no sin.
You see, if you would admit your blindness, your sins would be forgiven. If you would admit your blindness, you would see the truth, and you would walk away from your sinfulness. If you would see that you’re a blind person, God would grant you grace.
He would grant you forgiveness. He would grant you righteousness. He would grant these beautiful things in your life. Jesus said it when he taught in the Beatitudes, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall what see God?
Not everybody sees God, you know that, right? Not everybody sees God. They don’t see God working in our world. They don’t see him working in their life, because their heart is so hardened. Their heart is so blind and defiant towards the things of God.
But Jesus said, if you were blind, you would have no sin, but now. But now, Jesus says, you say, we see, therefore your sin remains. They see, but they do not see, right? They see physically, but they are unwilling to admit that they do not see spiritually.
And they are highly offended that Jesus would do this, so they’re refusing to acknowledge their blindness results in the judgment of sin remaining upon their life. And I’m saying to all this morning, that when you refuse to admit your blindness, the judgment of sin remains on you.
And hear me, even as a believer, if you refuse to admit your blindness, because the Christian life is a life of repentance, it’s a life of confession, it is a life of acknowledging, it is a life of admitting, it is a life of humility, it is a life saying, Yes, Lord, O wretched man that I am, who can deliver me from this body of flesh?
And if you, even as a believer, refuse to admit, the consequences of sin remain upon you. And you will bear the brunt of that, because your pride will not allow you to see. The path of faith is not only to admit your blindness, but it is to believe in Christ.
Jesus asked the great question in verse 35. He says, do you believe on the Son of God? Do you believe on the Son of man? Spurgeon said, I am convinced that this question is the most important question that a man can ever have to answer.
Do you believe? And this man, his response was submissive. And because of his faith, it led to greater sight. He said, I believe. this man who was formally blind, this man who could not see, but now is open to admit that not only that because he can physically see, he is spiritually blind and he needs to see, he is now experiencing the grace of God in his life.
And I would say to all, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I would say to all, see Christ with the eyes of faith this morning. You may not understand all, you may not be the greatest theologian, and you may not have figured out all the great questions of life, but remember this, see Christ with the eyes of faith.
And finally, the path of faith is to confess him, confess Christ as Lord. Where we see the Bible says that he starts out saying, verse 36, he says, Lord, and it’s the idea of, sir, I want to know this answer to this question.
Who is he? Sir, who is he? Humble, respectful, submissive. But then we get down to verse 38 and he says, Lord, I believe the word Lord is no longer sir, but it’s keryoth. It’s the Greek word meaning that you are the savior.
You are God himself. He acknowledges him as Lord of his life. You’re the boss. To say that God is Lord is to say he’s in charge. He’s in charge of your life. It is the complete surrender, submission to God.
This is essential. Many people who say this, listen, I believe, I believe. And many young people grow up in a church and they say, I believe, I believe, but they never get here. They never confess Christ as Lord.
They never say, Lord, you’re in charge of my life. life. You’re the boss of my life. Where you go, I will go. And what you say, I will do. I will follow you, Lord, to the ends of the earth. I will obey you.
You are my boss. You are in charge of my life. They are like the demons,” James said. They believe, and they do well. But so do the demons believe. And the demons believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the Son of Man, but they have never surrendered to Him.
They have never submitted to Him. There are many friends who walk around, and they believe. They got it up here in the head. There is a mental acknowledgment, but they have never surrendered in their heart to the Lord Jesus Christ.
They have never confessed Him. Jesus said this, so everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father. who is in heaven, if you’re ashamed of Christ, you say, well, I believe, but I just don’t want anybody to know about it, and I don’t want to certainly be different.
I want to fit into the world. I want to fit into my friends. I want to fit into the lifestyle that’s going on. I don’t want to stand out. Jesus said, if you’re ashamed of me, I’ll be ashamed of you. Are you ashamed of Jesus?
Is he the boss that you truly confessed him as Lord, not just verbally, but in your life? The third principle that I want you to note today is that spiritual sight results in worship to God. He worshiped him.
He worshiped him. The beautiful climax to the story. It’s not only a climax to the story of this man worshiping God and how God intervened and sought him and brought him to a full faith and understanding and growing him in spiritual insights.
But it’s a climax to the story of the contrast of those who will not believe. Because though he was rejected by religion, he was received by the Redeemer. And though there are those who might kick you out and not want you to be a part of their club or their organization because you don’t measure up, there is a savior who opens his arms wide open and he loves those who are willing to admit that they’re blind.
He receives those who acknowledge that they’re sick. Remember that Jesus said many times in the gospel that he did not come for those who are whole or healthy, but I came for those who are sick. What did Jesus mean?
That I gotta get sick? No, he’s talking about spiritually. Do you and are you willing to admit that you’re spiritually sick? That’s who Jesus came for. He came for the blind. He came for those in prison.
He came for those who cannot see, and those who cannot hear, and those who acknowledge it and admit it and say, Lord, here I am and my friends. What is the effect of those who confess before God their sinfulness and their selfishness?
It is worship to Him. Jesus is worthy to be worshiped. He deserves all our worship. Can God’s people say amen? But here’s what I want you to note. The passion of your heart. The love of your heart is an indication of whether you have passed from darkness to life.
The focus of your heart and the focus of your life is a manifestation, whether you have passed from darkness to life. You have truly put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Those who are blessed with spiritual sight do not have to be begged, pleaded, tricked into coming worship.
They just love Him. Can’t wait to get here. Look forward to being with God’s people and worshiping God. Every day their heart wakes up with a new song unto Jesus. They cannot wait to worship Him all the day long and they worship Him not only in song, but they worship Him in how they serve Him throughout the day.
They worship Him in everything that they do, even if it’s a minute detail that seems so monotonous and nobody cares and nobody’s watching, but I tell you those who love Jesus worship Him. Everything they do is for Him and it’s all about Him and it is a reflection of their heart.
They love God. Let us pray. Faith in Jesus Christ always leads to greater sight. Not everybody has a greater sight. Not everybody has a spiritual sight and it’s simply because they lack the faith, but I hope today that as God is speaking into your heart that you are drawn to Him that if you have never believed in Jesus Christ that this would be the beginning of you seeing Christ with the eye of faith and trusting Him as your Lord and Savior and putting your full faith in Him for your salvation.
The Bible says to us that whoever acknowledges the Lord before men, Jesus will acknowledge Him before the Father who is in heaven and that’s really what it’s all about. us confessing Christ. And so we have the great opportunity to do that by trusting in Jesus Christ today.
And I hope that you will do that. We want to remind you also that we thank you for your support. There are so many of you that stand with us and we appreciate all that you do. We need your prayer support.
We need your financial support. We’re able to broadcast on this station because so many of our Hopeworth having partners are standing with us. So I appreciate that and I want you to know that it is not overlooked and we’re excited that you could be with us.
This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope, worth. having.
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This devotion guide is designed especially for your use during your walk with Christ. The subjects for each week include devotions on faith, hope, love, generosity, and thanksgiving. I am convinced that your journey of faith will be a time of incredible spiritual growth. When we begin to pray, give, and sacrifice, we grow. T…