115. Winter Sermons - Brett Martin

Welcome to the For Freedom Podcast. This podcast exists to bring the freedom of the gospel for everyday Christians with everyday issues. Now here are your hosts, James Seyfried and Brett Martin. You know, I can't speak for the wives. I can only speak for the husbands. But me personally, I have this little issue that I have a problem admitting when I'm wrong. Now I know you husbands don't experience that with your husbands. Your wives don't experience that with your husbands. But I sometimes have a problem admitting when I'm wrong. We need to stop and ask for directions. No we don't, I know the way. And then you gotta stop and ask for directions. You say, man, I need to go to the doctor. This is wrong. You say, well, all they'll tell you is this, this, and this. I'm going anyway. So you go and then, what'd they tell you? This, this, and this. Exactly what you said. You were right. So I have this issue. I have this issue where I have a hard time admitting when I'm wrong. And I have to work really hard at admitting my mistakes. This is a daily struggle with me. Oh, praise the Lord. Right. So I have this issue. But here's the thing. When you really boil it down, we all, as humans, we all have troubles admitting when we're wrong. We all have trouble admitting when we need help. It's one of the main categories of sin. The pride of life. We all have this pride in us. And we have a hard time asking for help. Let me tell you about one person who knew how to give help. Emily's father, Eddie Winter, was a great man. And the thing is that earlier in his life, he battled alcoholism. And this alcoholism in his life, it almost ruined his life. It almost ruined his family. He was thrown in jail because of it. God in life-altering fights over this sin of alcoholism in his life. And it was through the power of Christ and it was through the AA program that he turned his life around. Emily's dad was a contractor. And he got to the point where he would only hire men from halfway houses. Because he knew how hard it was for them to get a job. And he wanted to invest in them. He wanted to invest in their recovery. He was a great speaker. His testimony was very powerful. He would travel all over and speak and give his testimony at different places. I remember when I was in college, he would come to me and ask me to get the kids in my children's church to draw pictures, to encourage, to give to those and encourage those who are fighting addiction. Now, in the 12-step program, what's the first step? Admitting you have a problem. And I looked it up and actually it says, admit that you are powerless over your problem. That's the most important step. That's the first step because it's the most important one. I would like to say to you this morning that a lot of you walked in that door this morning with problems. You've got problems. Some of you have physical problems. Some of you have emotional problems. Some of you have spiritual problems. But we've all got problems. Now, we've got problems at home. We've got problems at work. We've got problems at school. You've got problems in your family that you've been dealing with. Some of you are fighting questions in your life that you don't know the answer to. And it's causing problems. Some of you walked in that door this morning. Well, all of you walked through that door this morning with a sin problem. We all walked in there with a sin problem. But some of us have a besetting sin that is plaguing our lives. And we can't get victory over it. We've got a problem. I dare say in a crowd this size, some of you this morning are lost. Some of you this morning, you don't know God. You're lost. And you know it. You have not decided to put your faith totally in Christ and give yourself wholly to him. You have yet to believe the gospel and make Jesus your Lord. Some of you in here today, that's your problem. So what I want to do this morning is I want to direct your attention to someone in scripture who was powerless over their problem. This guy was powerless. He had no control over his problem. And it was Jesus that helped him with this problem. In John 9, we're going to go through the whole chapter today. And we're going to talk about a blind man. This blind man was totally dependent on others because he could not see. He had a problem he could not fix, a problem he did not know the answer to, and he needed help from the only one who could give it. And that is Jesus. I want to show you this morning how all of us suffer from blindness and how we can let and how we can allow Jesus to fix our blindness. In this chapter, I'm going to give you four groups of people. And I'm going to explain how all four groups of people in this chapter are blind. And then at the end, I'm going to give you one statement, three words to fix the blindness of all the groups of people. It's every group of blind people have the same cure. It's the same cure for each and every one of them. So I'm going to give you that at the end. Now, here's the thing about John chapter nine. I don't know if you know this or not, but here's the interesting thing about John chapter nine. In John chapter nine, everybody that can see is blind. And everybody that is blind can see. Jesus loves his paradoxes. Okay. But that's how this chapter plays out. So before we get to John chapter nine, Jesus is near Jerusalem. It's the time of the feast of the tabernacles. It's time that everybody goes to Jerusalem and they build tabernacles. They build dwellings outside to represent their time wandering through the wilderness and God taking care of them. Jesus is brothers who don't believe him, who will not believe him until after he's resurrected from the dead. Two of his brothers will write letters in our new Testament, but his brothers say to Jesus, Jesus, why don't you go up to the feast? If you're the Messiah and if you're the son of God, and if you're, if you're everything you say, why don't you go up to the feast and just show everybody your power? And Jesus says, no, I'm not going to go to the feast. So the brothers leave. Now, Jesus doesn't go to the first part where they build the booths in the wilderness, but he goes to the second part where they have the ceremony in the temple. The priests are in the temple. They walk down the pilgrim road. I'll show you that tonight to the pool of Salome. I'll show you that tonight. And they get water and they bring it back up to the temple. And as they're, they're, they're, they're letting this water out and sprinkling this water around the temple. Jesus uses this moment to say that if anyone is thirsty, let him come and drink from me and out of them will flow springs of living water. You love how Jesus puts this together. It's like, you're having faith in this water. I've got better water. They use that opportunity to try to trip Jesus up and they bring Jesus an adulterous woman and throw this woman at the feet of Jesus. Jesus deals with that and famous famously says he who is without sin cast the first stone. They leave one by one, starting with the oldest down to the youngest. The woman looks up. Jesus says, woman, where is thine accusers? She says, they're gone. He says, neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. Jesus deals with that. And then he starts back teaching and he says, I am the light of the world. Now a story is about to take place that proves that Jesus is the light of the world. When Jesus said, I am the light of the world. They wanted to stone him. And I can tell you, and I said this last week, no wonder they, that no wonder stoning people was a capital offense because there's, there's rocks everywhere in Israel. So they picked up stones to stone Jesus. And so he walked out and he's not in a hurry. By the way, he walks out of the temple and he walks down the exit steps of the temple. I'll show you those steps tonight at slideshow. So as he's walking down these steps, beggars would come out. See, there was steps to go in the temple and there were exit steps. Okay. The beggars wouldn't wait at the entrance steps. Our tour guide, Amir told us that they would wait at the exits. They wouldn't wait at the entrance steps. They would wait at the exit steps because these people there in there, they're, they're coming from the temple. They're religious. They, they tug on the heartstrings and, and that's how they would beg. John chapter nine, verse one, as he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. Now that's significant. That immediately tells us two things. Number one, it tells us the seriousness of this guy's disease. Nowhere else in the gospel, it says that a couple of times in acts, but nowhere else in the gospels, does it say that someone is blind from birth, that they have this condition from birth. So this is a serious disease. And since he's had it from birth, that means everybody knows about it. Everybody knows this guy's condition. Everybody knows that this guy is blind. Now, if you've been going to church for any length of time, you know, the second thing, the second thing that immediately stands out to us, when it says he was blind from birth, it immediately connects me and you to it. Cause me and you as well have suffered since birth. We have suffered from the sin of disease since birth. Me and you have been afflicted. We were born spiritually dead. We were born spiritually bind. There is none righteous. No, not one for all of sin and come short of the glory of God. For we are all dead in our sins and trespasses. And Satan wants to keep us that way. But Jesus passed by, but Jesus passed by. I want to tell you today, the blind man wasn't looking for Jesus. Jesus was looking for the blind man. Isn't that awesome? Isn't that great? I want to tell you today. I want to let you know when you were saved, you weren't looking for Jesus. Jesus was looking for you. The Bible says in John chapter six, verse 44, No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day. All right. What does that drawing? What does that drawing look like? It's conviction. The Holy Spirit sends conviction on you to tell you that you were lost and gives you a desire for God. You don't have desire for God on your own. You only have that desire because God gives you that desire. What it looks like is someone knocking at your door with a gospel track. What it looks like is you go into vacation Bible school and praise the Lord for vacation Bible school. I'm getting ready for this year. We getting pumped up, ready to go. You went to vacation Bible school when you were a child and someone gave you the gospel. That's what this looks like. The Holy Spirit told you that you were lost. Now you still made a choice. You chose him, but God's the one that gave you that desire. No one comes to Jesus unless the father calls them first. You did not seek him out. Bless God. When you were lost, he left the 99 to come get you. He came. He chose you. He sought after you. So the blind, so the blind man is not only physically blind, but he starts out spiritually blind. Now in verse two, we get to the first group of people and we're going to call this group blind by ignorance, blind by ignorance. Now, when I say ignorance, that's not derogatory. All ignorance means is a lack of knowledge. Anybody ever seen a coal miner's daughter? When do you try to get low red? That's how he says it. Low red to go up on stage. And he, and she, he calls her stupid. And she explains the difference between stupid and ignorant. All ignorant means is just a lack of knowledge. Let's look at verse two. And his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind? In a Jew's mind, suffering is a direct result of sin. So if you were an extraordinary sufferer, what that must mean is you are an extraordinary sinner. But here's the thing. They know this guy has been blind since he was born. How in the world could he have sinned then to cause his blindness? I'll tell you how. The Jewish Pharisees taught that babies could sin in the womb. It's as ridiculous as it sounds, but that is what they believed. So that is why they asked the question. And by the way, they didn't say, Jesus, can you help this person? They just said, who sinned? I guess they thought he deserved his blindness. He deserves whatever happens to him. So he says, who sinned? This man or his parents, this group is blind. These disciples, they are blind. Because they're focused on unanswerable questions. They're blind because they're focused on unanswerable questions. They are reducing this guy instead of seeing his need and helping him and praying for him and reaching out to him and giving him something where he can eat tonight. They reduce him to a debate on philosophy because obviously he must deserve what happened to him. You see, this is how the Jews made sense of the problem of evil. The problem of evil has plagued man and plagued philosophers for thousands of years. For thousands of years, philosophers and man has asked the question, why is there evil in the world? Today, we ask those same questions. Why do kids get cancer? Why are people kidnapped and held against their will? I heard a story about a young lady that was kidnapped and held against her will for 24 years. Raped regularly. Prayed every day that God would release her. For 24 years. Now you tell me why God allows that to happen. These are the questions that people ask. These are the questions that people ask me. Why do people get murdered? And here, why is someone born blind? There are two answers to that question. One answer is an apologetic answer. You know what apologetics is. It's someone who debates on stuff, philosophize. There's an apologetic answer. And then there's a pastoral answer. Two answers. Now I could stand up here. And I could give you an apologetic answer to the question. Why is there evil in the world? I could stand up here. And I've debated on whether I should do this or not. I can stand up here. And I can give you a well thought out, articulate answer about free will and evil. And it can sound really smart. I can stand up here and I can tell you about how we live in a fallen world. But most people would just turn that around to. Well, if God knows everything, why did he put the tree in the garden in the first place? You see, all apologetics, you're not going to change. Apologetics is good, but it doesn't change that many people's opinion. All you really get in is this kind of circular argument. Okay. So I'm not going to give you the apologetic answer. If you want that, see me after church. But here's the thing. If you're the one that's suffering, then that answer, that apologetic answer will do you zero good. It won't help you. Not one bit. So I'm not going to give you the apologetic answer. I'm going to give you the pastoral answer. And here it is. The answer to the question of why evil exists. Here's the pastoral answer. Get your pens ready. I don't know. That's the answer. Some of you threw your hands up. I don't know why God allows suffering. I don't know why he allows evil to exist. And let me tell you, this is the answer that Jesus gave. We'll get to that in just a second. But let me tell you what I, I don't know why or how, but let me tell you what I do know. I know that my God has the ability to take something evil and turn it into good. I know that. I know that God has the ability from evil and from those things, from suffering. He has the ability to take that and turn it into some good. You know, for all, for, you know, all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. Maybe not for your good, but for the good. He can see into the future. And I can't, he knows what's over that hill. And I don't. So listen, he, he can look ahead in time. He knows what I don't know. He can see things that I can't see. So he can bring good from it. Now let's look at Jesus's answer in verse three. Jesus answered, it was neither that this man sin nor his parents, but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him. Jesus said, he is suffering. So the works of God could be displayed in him. He didn't tell us how. He didn't tell us how God was going to bring good from suffering. He didn't tell us how God was going to bring good from evil. He didn't tell us how the works of God are going to be displayed. He just told us that they will be. Because that's all we need to know. You know, something else about suffering. You know what suffering does in your life. When you suffer in your life, guess what that gives you? It gives you a degree in suffering. You take a master class in suffering. So now you can take that degree and go help somebody else. If you're suffering from the effects of alcoholism in your life and you get victory over that, you can go to somebody who's suffering from the same thing and you can offer them a hand and offer them a help. That's what her daddy did. If you're suffering a loss in your life, you can go to somebody else that's suffering loss and you can help that person. Verse four, which brings me to verse four and five. We must work the works of him who sent me as long as it is day. The night is coming when no one can work and I am, while I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Jesus makes it clear we are here to help. We are not here for debate on philosophy. Now you talk about it all day long, but when it comes time to help somebody, stop debating and start helping. It's time to help someone. It's time to get our hands dirty. Christian men, you can get hung up on stuff that we don't know, on stuff we'll never know the answer to, or we can get busy helping somebody. We can get busy believing in the gospel. You can stop from getting saved because there are answers you can't answer and that's keeping you from getting saved and you don't understand the problem of evil. So you're not going to give into this gospel. But what you need to know is don't give up what you do know for what you don't know. Don't give up what you do know for what you don't know. The night is coming and when the night comes, you won't be able to get saved anymore. The night is coming when you won't have an opportunity to believe in the gospel anymore. The night is coming when you won't be able to go to church anymore. The night is coming when you won't be able to sing anymore. The night is coming when you won't be able to worship God anymore. The night is coming when you won't be able to help people anymore. So do the works of God now because the night's coming. And don't give up what you do know because of what you don't know. Don't be that cynical skeptic that misses out on everything because you can't make sense of it. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. This book will never make sense to you. I'll never forget there was an old preacher named Bob Buchanan Central Baptist Church Baton Rouge, Louisiana. And I heard him say something when I was young that is stuck with me all it'll be with me till the day I go to heaven. This book is not a sense book. If you're looking for this book to make sense it'll never make sense. This is a faith book. It's not supposed to make sense to me and you. We're supposed to believe it and have faith in it. It's not a sense book. It's a faith book. So don't give up what you do know because of stuff you don't know. Number two. The second group of people. We might be here a while. Y'all get ready. I'm just getting warmed up. Number two. The second group. They're blinded by unbelief. They're blinded by unbelief. Verse six. When he had said this he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and applied the clay to his eyes and said to him go wash in the pool of Siloam. I got pictures of that tonight. Which is translated sent. And he went away and washed and came back seeing. Now, why did Jesus heal this man this way? He could have said the word. He could have went shazam and he'd have been healed. Why did he do it this way? Many people have brought up many reasons why they think that Jesus did this. We're made of dirt. Jesus is using the raw materials. I've read all that in the commentaries. But you know, there's only one objection to the clay brought up in scripture. And that is by the Pharisees. Because needing was breaking the Sabbath. Did you know they don't want you to take a bath on the Sabbath? Ooh, I'm glad we take a shower for Sunday. But you know why? And it's not because taking a bath is breaking the Sabbath. When you get in the bathtub if water splashes out and a drip of water hits the ground and moves across the ground and moves dust as it glides across the ground that's considered plowing. And that's work. Serious as a heart attack. That's what they believe. They didn't want you to spit on the ground for the same reason. Because if the spit hits the ground and stays still that's fine. But if the spit hits the ground and rolls on the ground and moves dust and dirt as it rolls it's considered plowing. So definitely kneading dough or kneading clay is breaking the Sabbath. Now the pool of Siloam was built by Hezekiah. Okay? There's there's a source of water outside Jerusalem called the springs of Gihon. Guess what I got? Picture of it. And then there's a tunnel that Hezekiah built from the springs of Gihon to the pool of Siloam. I got pictures of the tunnel too. And it fills the pool of Siloam. Okay? So that this is so that the water source could be inside the city and the tunnels underground you know so that in a siege they don't have to go out of the city for the water. Now look this took faith on the part of this blind man because this would seem like a fool's errand. I'm going to spit in some dirt and rub it in your eye and go down there and wash it out and that's going to heal you. Sounds like a fool's errand but this this blind man he had faith. Verse 8 Therefore the neighbors and those who previously saw him as a beggar were saying is not this one who used to sit and beg. Others were saying this is he. Still others were saying no but he is like him. He kept saying I am the one. So they were saying to him how then are your eyes open? He answered the man who was called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me go to Siloam and wash so I went away and washed and I received sight and they said to him where is he? He said I do not know. They looked at this blind man and said it can't be real. It can't be real. There's no way. They would rather believe this is a case of mistaken identity than believe that this man's life was changed. A blind beggar was all this guy would ever be. That's how they've known him the whole life. He'll never be anything other than a blind beggar. Four times in this story people are asking how. How, how, how, how, how. They should have been asking who because you get the who before you get the how. Now, my uncle Pat who I'm named after he runs a dirt business in Macomb. My name is Brett Patrick Martin. I was named after my uncle Pat was my daddy's party buddy. Man, they would go and party and be wild and hop the bars and, and he was my daddy's party buddy and they would go to the bars. Okay. One day my uncle probably in his late fifties by this time is at a pool party looks in the pool and sees his grandson lying at the bottom of the pool. Three years old. Mikey had been down there for several minutes and nobody noticed. My uncle Pat jumped in the pool pulled Mikey out of the pool never performed CPR in his life never did mouth to mouth resuscitation and the only thing he knew was what he found out from TV. He did mouth to mouth resuscitation on Mikey saved Mikey's life. That next Sunday he was in church he got saved that Sunday to this day he's a deacon in church and he goes every Sunday. My daddy could not understand why my uncle Pat didn't want to go bar hopping with him anymore. He didn't understand it. He didn't get it. He would say to me man I don't know what happened to Pat. He's in a cult over there. Alright. I don't know what happened to him. Okay. When you get saved people won't believe the change in you. They won't believe the change that takes place. It'll seem like you're a brand new person. Jesus can make you a new creature. You may not think that Jesus can forgive you but he can. You may not think that Jesus can save you but he can. He can redeem you. He can give you purpose. He can give you joy. He can give you hope. In Psalm 78 it says that the children of Israel limited God. Now you read the Psalm and how did they limit God? They limited God because of their unbelief. As long as you believe that God can't forgive you he can't forgive you. As long as you believe he can't save you he can't save you. As long as you believe that he can't change you he can't change you. As long as you believe that he can't give you the victory he can't give you the victory because your unbelief limits God. Number three next group of people are blinded by legalism. I also call it legally blind. They are blinded by legalism. Verse 13. They brought to the Pharisees, the man who was formerly blind. Now it was the Sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay, see how it mentioned that and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees were also asking him again, how he received his sight. And he said to them, he applied clay to my eyes and I washed and I see. Therefore, some of the Pharisees were saying, this man is not from God because he does not keep the Sabbath. But others were saying, how can a man who was a sinner perform such signs? And there was a division among them. So they said to the blind man again, what do you say about him since he opened your eyes? And he said, he is a prophet. Now you notice that the Pharisees first reaction wasn't to say, praise the Lord. He's healed. It's a miracle. It wasn't to congratulate the man. It wasn't to lift him up. The first thing they thought on their mind was, oh, that guy broke the Sabbath. That guy, not that this guy's healed from his blindness. That guy spit in the dirt and made a mud pie. That's what they were concerned with. What kind of people don't rejoice when somebody's healed of their blindness? The kind of people that prefer policies to people, the kind of people that prefer policies to people. They weren't concerned about the power of Christ. They were more concerned with their man-made rules and their man-made traditions. Jesus could have chose any other day to heal this man. He could have chose any other method to do it, but he wanted to maximize his offense against this man-made doctrine and these traditions. I may have told you this story before. I can't remember. You're about to hear it again. If I did, when I was growing up, we had a bus ministry. And when I worked at my home church as assistant pastor, we still ran the bus ministry. We went out on Sunday morning, pick up kids and bust them in. One of the other assistant pastors on staff for me was also a bus captain. His name was Josh Westmoreland. He pastors a church in North Carolina now. But I remember him telling me about this 14 year old, 14, 15 year old boy on his route. I think he was the brother of another writer or friend or something. And he'd been working on this kid, working on this kid, inviting this kid, trying to get this kid to come to church. Finally, one Sunday morning, he got the kid to come to church and I could see it in Josh's face, how excited he was. The kid came in church, sat down on the pew. And within just a few minutes, well known higher up. He wasn't a deacon, but it was a higher up man in the church came to this kid, snatched his hat off his head, hit him in the chest with it, said, boy, we don't wear hats in church and walked away. Now you asked me that kid ever come to church again. Never darkened the door. I had another friend who I grew up in school with. He'd grown up, he'd become a man. Something was, he hadn't been to church since he was a kid. There's a church nearby his house. This is the church he grew up in. It's nearby his house. So he decided, I'm gonna go to church one day. So he goes to church by himself and without his family. First time he'd been in church since he was a child. As a grown man, he comes in, he walks in a few pews, sits in the back near the aisle because he's concerned. He's, he's kind of, he's kind of self-conscious about the fact that he's in church. He's sitting there a few minutes and there's a tap on the shoulder and the tap on the shoulder, the person says, get up. You're in my seat. My friend did not, he got up. He did not say for the service and he never darkened the door of a church again for the rest of his life. To this day, he's yet to be back. He's still my friend. I still talk to him to this day. He still has not been back to church. When I was growing up, my pastor would stand behind the pulpit and he would, he would say rules like you can only use the King James Bible. The only Bible you can use can't have beards. Beards are rebellious. Women can't wear pants. Uh, don't go to the movie house. No one knows what you're watching and all this stuff. But my Bible says in Matthew 15, nine, but in vain, they do worship me teaching for doctrines, the commandments of men. You can pull every single member of the pulpit committee that called me to this church and on my resume and on my cover letter, it says the same thing. I do not teach preference driven theology. I'm not going to teach a preference as it's truth. Now let me stop there. There's nothing wrong with having a preference. I'm not saying that there's nothing. Preferences are fine. There's nothing wrong with having a preference until you start pushing that preference on other people as doctrine. Okay. Until you go around telling people, if you don't use this type of Bible, you're not right. If you only, you need to only listen to this type of rock music or you're not right. You can only dress this certain way or you're not right. My pastor would get up. I'm gonna get in trouble for this one. My pastor would get up and he would preach behind the pulpit. You need to wear the best you have the church. Now let me stop and say that. That's a wonderful philosophy. I'm not trying to be, it's a great, it's a great thing. It's a good personal preference philosophy to have. I mean, look, it's a good thing. There's nothing in the world wrong with it. Bless God. If you honor God that way, if you want to give God your best, praise the Lord. You honor God that way. If that's your conviction, the Bible says you should do it. If that's your conviction, but you can't show me a verse that says that. Now I can't show you a verse. So it's fine to have a preference as long as you don't push it as others, but you can have a preference. Now I can't show you a verse that says that man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh on the heart. Okay. Listen, as long as you're modest, I don't care what you wear to church because God don't care. Now I'm not going to get up here behind this pulpit and wear Bermuda shorts because you talk about blind about a white light. Okay. I walk across a runway in a pair of shorts and there'd be a plane crash. My legs are so white. So you don't want that. Nobody wants that. But listen to me. Don't be so legalistic that you're blind to somebody else's need. Man-made rules are no reason to run people away from God. Number four, the last group of people are blind by choice. See verse 18. The Jews 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 received his sight and questioned them saying, is this your son who you say was born blind? Excuse me. Then how does he now see his parents answered them and said, we know not, we know that this is our son and that he was born blind, 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. His parents said 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. For this reason, his parents said he is of age. Ask him. You know, these parents are something else. These parents are something else. Okay. First of all, they're not doing a good job of parents. Their grown disabled son is out begging for food, which means when he came of age, they kicked him to the curb, but now their son is healed. They should be happy. They should proclaim it open. Our son was blind and now he sees Jesus is the reason why he sees, but instead they throw him under the bus. They were afraid to admit that he had been healed. Why? Because anybody that hinted that Jesus was the Christ would be excommunicated from the church, from the synagogue. Now that means more than them. Okay. Well, I'll just go to the church down the road. It means more than that. What it means is they would lose their social position. They would lose their friends. Their jobs could be in jeopardy. What they're really afraid of is upsetting the apple cart. You see, they had a nice, cushy, comfortable lifestyle. It worked for them. They didn't have to take care of their disabled son anymore. So that wasn't a burden. So they had a nice, comfortable, cushy lifestyle. So in order to stay comfortable, they turned a blind eye to what they know was the truth. They were afraid of upsetting their lifestyle. You know, blinders are good things for horses. I used to live in Chicago and it was not uncommon to see horse and buggies driving down the street. Also in New Orleans, you know, they take the tours and you see horses and buggies going down the street. And these horses would wear blinders many of the times. And that's because there's a lot of commotion going on. And a horse can even see a piece of paper flying in the peripheral vision. And, and even, and even that can, can mix the horse up and get the horse antsy and make the horse jumpy. So blinders are good for horses. Blinders are not good for humans. Turning a blind eye to what's really going on. A lot of you in here, you know, the truth, but you won't admit the truth. You won't admit you need Jesus because you know, you'll have to repent and you'll have to give up your sin. You'll be pressured to come to church every week, man. Who wants that kind of baggage? Who wants that kind of commitment? You'll have to give up lost friends. Oh, you can still be friendly towards them. But like my uncle Pat and my dad, you can't go sin with them anymore. You know the truth, but maybe there's a relationship you don't want to give up because you know, this Bible says you can't be unequally yoked together with an unbeliever. Maybe you're not a people person and being a part of a church means you'll have to be around people. Maybe you're afraid of what your spouse will say. Can you see what you're doing? Can you see all you're trying to do is protect your old life? It's all you're trying to do is hold on to your old life. Hold on to that comfortable thing. But my Bible says in Mark 8 35, for whosoever will save his life shall lose it. But whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospels, the same shall save it. Stop trying to protect your old life and let it go. It's not worth holding on to. Jesus has a better life for you. You will not save your life until you lose your old life. And I'll see you next time. Verse 24. So a second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, give glory to God. We know this man is a sinner. He answered whether he is a sinner. I do not know one thing. I do know. Though I was blind. Now I see. John Newton wrote his words and got his words for amazing grace from this text. A slave trader who is converted. Amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wrench like me. I once was lost, but now I'm fine was now I'm found was blind, but now I see. So they heard what this man said about Jesus and they excommunicated him. They put him out of the synagogue. Verse 35. Jesus heard that they had put him out and finding him. He said, do you believe in the son of man? He answered, who is he Lord that I may believe in him? Jesus said to him, you have both seen him and he is the one who's talking with you. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. And Jesus said for judgment, I came into this world so that those who do not see and those who see may become blind. I love this story. When this blind man met Jesus, Jesus was just a man. And then the next time they asked him about Jesus, he said, oh, he's a prophet. The next time he taught you, I want you to see how this guy grew. The next time he confesses that Jesus is a sinless one. The next time he said, he's a man sent from God. And then finally at the end, this, this man, he's not a blind man anymore. Now he's a seeing man. And the seeing man says, he is Lord. At the end of the story, this is the only guy in the chapter that's not blind. He's the only one that can see. In the last two verses of this chapter, Jesus gives the remedy. He gives the remedy. That's going to fix all the blindness. It fixes the blindness of every group. And the last two verses, let's read it. Verse 40. Those of the Pharisees who are with him heard, heard these things and said to him, we are not blind too. Are we? Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would have no sin. But since you say, we see your sin remains. Here's the fix. Here's the statement to fix all the blindness. Here's the cure. It's three words. Confess your blindness. That's the fix. That's how you fix it. You confess your blindness. Are you letting questions that you can't answer blinds you to God? Confess your blindness. Say, God, there are questions that I can't answer. I don't know why you do things the way you do them, but I do know that you can make good come from evil. And I confess that, you know, things I do not know. I confess it and leave it at your feet. Are you blinded by unbelief? Say to God, God, I don't believe you can forgive me. I don't believe you can change me, but help down my unbelief. I confess it that if your word says it, I believe it. I believe you can give me victory over sin. I'm done limiting you. I believe the gospel. I believe you can take me to heaven. Are you blinded by legalism today? Confess it. Say God for too long. I have let tradition and man-made rules keep me from helping people turn a blind eye to other people's needs. I've let legalism keep me from growing spiritually and I'm done putting policy over people. Are you blinded by choice today? Confess it and say, God, I haven't given my life to you yet because I'm afraid of what I'll have to give up. I'm afraid of how my life will change, but I'm not afraid anymore. I am not going to turn a blind eye to the truth anymore. And if we did that across this church, we'd be a part of a people whose eyes were opened. So many cynical people are turning their nose up to what's going on at the Asbury revival. Said, Oh, it's not real. Can't be real. There's, there's people praising God on universities across this nation and bless God. If any place needs to praise God, it's a university. Man, we need, if we did that across this church, our eyes would be open. Sinners would come down to this altar. They would believe in the gospel. They would get the baptism. Waters would be stirred. Revival would break out. People would be going to people and getting right and crying on each other. Soldiers, soldiers, young people would be given themselves to the ministry. Jesus said, while I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Well, guess what? Jesus is still in the world because he's in you. You are the light bearer of Jesus. And if he's not in you, he can be. Jesus is the light. Let that light shine today. Confess your blindness. Every head died, every eye closed. We're going to have an invitation. I don't know what you need today, but there's some blindness out there. Some of you in here, you're lost. You don't know that you're going to heaven. Never made that decision for Christ. Today is the day. Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day to get saved. Some of you in here today, you've got some, you've got some problems in your life. Something in your life is causing you to be blind, keeping you from growing, keeping you from helping, keeping you from moving forward. It's time to confess that. It's time to tell Jesus. It's time to leave it at Jesus's feet. Bless God. It's time to get a hold of God today. Man, if we were a church that would just get a hold of God, just lose ourselves and get a hold of him. Man, what kind of change that would make in our church and in our community? I'm going to pray. When I get done praying, we'll stand with our heads bowed and our eyes closed. The music will begin to play. And all I want you to do this morning, please do business with God. Dear gracious heavenly father. Thank you for today. Thank you for this word. Thank you for this word that you gave us, Lord. Thank you for this story. Thank you for your testimony on earth, Lord. Help us not to be blind anymore. God, the cures to confess it. Help us to confess our blindness today. In Jesus name, I pray. I found my new name. I found that good grace. I found that healing. And the tears fell down my face. When I found my beginning. That has no ending. I found that second chance. I found my best friend. I found my forgiveness. I found my happiness. I've been singing ever since. I found my freedom in you. Thanks for listening to the for freedom podcast. If you enjoyed our content, do us a favor by liking, subscribing, or sharing our podcast, whichever podcast platform you use. Be sure to join us next time for the for freedom podcast. I will see you next time for the will. . Thank you.

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