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He's about to preach for us about this chapter in John chapter 99. Thank you. We love you, Jesus. Amen. Alright, we're here in John chapter 9. We'll cover the whole chapter here tonight. In the name of the sermon, it's John 9, the healing of a blind man. And so we're going to look at four different points here today. We'll go through all the verses. And first I want you to look at verse number 1 in John chapter 9 where Bob reads, And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sin nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. And so the first point I want you to look on here tonight is this, is not to look down on others. And so I want you to look at verse number 34. Notice how it says in verse 34, They answered and said unto them, Thou wast altogether born in sin, and dost thou teach us? and they cast him out. So in verse number 34, the Pharisees are looking down on him. But in the first three verses of this chapter, it's not the Pharisees, it's the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now obviously there were some false brethren amongst the disciples, but by and large those people were safe being. And they are looking down at someone for being blind. Now that's a pretty foolish thing to look down on someone. And they look down on them simply because he's blind. Now I want you to turn to James chapter 2, James 2. Now let me just say this, that unfortunately these disciples, they're showing how stupid they are. Think about this statement. They said, Who did sin? This man or his parents that he was born blind. Think about if Brother Dustin was born blind. Would it really make sense to say that he had sinned and that's why he was born blind? I mean what kind of sin could you do in the womb? God could strike you with blindness. I mean what a stupid statement. I mean this guy must have been committed to some sin and that's why he was born blind. It's like that just shows sometimes you need to stop and think about what you're actually saying. Because this isn't the Bible for all eternity. This is probably the dumbest statement that's ever been made in the history of the world. This guy sinned and that's why he was born blind. Now it's foolish to think that his parents were sinners themselves and they don't even know who this person is. Now obviously it's possible that if you commit some major sin, it's possible God could strike you with some ailment. But look, we should not assume that if somebody is struck down with being poor or struck down with some illness that they committed some sin. Now in our own personal lives we need to judge ourselves. If all of a sudden tomorrow I have some big accident, I need to look at my life and really examine is there something I've done that would cause God to strike me down with this illness or something like that. But looking at other people is always the wrong thing to do. Now James 2, let's look at a couple of examples of this. James 2 verses 1 through 4, one thing we often look down on people for is simply because they are poor. James 2 verse 1, My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of glory with respect of persons? Further, come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring and goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in a vile raiment, and yet respect to him that weareth the gate clothing. And say unto him, Sit down here in a good place, and say to the poor, Stand now there, or sit here under my footstool, are ye not the impartial of yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts? And see the Bible talks about how if somebody would come in amongst us, and they were a rich person, and we would just kind of pull out the red carpet for them, and say, look man, here's your chair, we reserved it for you, is there anything we can do for you? But then some poor person comes off the street, and we just kind of ignore them, and just say, hey, you can sit there on the floor. Sorry, it's kind of crowded here. That's the sort of attitude, but honestly, people can have that sort of attitude. And it's a foolish attitude for us as believers to look down on someone simply for being poor. You say, why is that foolish? Because a poor person can read the Bible just like a rich person can read the Bible. A poor person can go soul-witting just like a rich person can go soul-witting. A poor person can pray every single morning just like a rich person can pray every single morning. Look, the truth is, at our church, there are some people that have been blessed financially, and they do pretty well in their lives. Now, we shouldn't look down on them for being rich, but at the same time, we should look down on people for being poor. Now, the question, though, is, what do most churches do, though? Because honestly, no church would ever look here, and somebody comes in and say, hey, just sit on the floor. They wouldn't go to that extreme. But you know what some churches will do? They will intentionally not preach stuff that would offend a rich person. Why? Because they want their money. They would look at somebody who's rich and say, you know, we're going to be very friendly to this person. If somebody rich comes in here, and there's some sin that it's obvious that they're guilty of, and I just change my sermon because I don't want to offend that person, that's called being partial and judging and caring more about a rich person than a poor person. That's the wrong attitude to have. We should never look down on somebody simply because they're poor. Look, you know, we used to go so many years apart, there are a lot of homeless people in that park. But you know, those people can get saved just like a rich person can get saved. And we should look down on them simply for being poor. Now turn to James 5. Especially if somebody's blind. I mean, just looking at somebody who's blind, and just your first thought is, man, this guy must have committed some wicked sin. Or his parents committed some wicked sin. That's a pretty bad attitude to have. The first thought that comes to your mind is just, man, he must have committed some sin. And honestly, it's one thing to think something, it's another thing to say it. That's pretty bad. We shouldn't even think a thought like that. I mean, the thought of foolishness is sin. But to actually audibly say it to the Lord Jesus Christ, I mean, you made yourself look like a fool. And it's in the Bible for all eternity to look at it. James 5, verses 13 through 15. Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any married? Let him sing songs. Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up. And notice this next part. And if he hath committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. See, the Bible says, if he's committed sins, it is possible that if somebody is really struck with real sickness, they might have committed some sin where God's judging them. That's very possible. But notice how it says, if he hath committed sins. There's no guarantee that he's committed sins. Obviously, we know Job is a great example, but it's not just one man in the Bible that's an example. That's the best example in the Bible, but there are a lot of examples of people who look. You know what? They weren't doing very well physically, but they weren't involved in some major sin. And so, look, you know what? If somebody, you know, tomorrow, ends up getting in some sort of accident and they're on their deathbed, it doesn't mean that they committed adultery. It doesn't mean they committed fornication. It doesn't mean that they're a drunker. It doesn't mean they did something terrible. We don't know why it's happening. And if it's in our personal lives, yes, we should look at ourselves and figure out, is there something I've done? But if it doesn't relate to us, we shouldn't have that sort of attitude. We should give the benefit of the doubt and assume they haven't done something terrible. Look, at our church, we're going to have people that get sick all the time. And our church isn't huge, but it's big enough that every single week, probably, somebody's going to be sick. And does that mean every single week, somebody's involved in some major sin? No, it's just people get sick. That's just the way it is in life. Okay, now turn back to John chapter 9. John chapter 9. John chapter 9. And so in John chapter 9, what they're doing is they're looking down on someone. And look, that is never the attitude we should have to just automatically look down on someone. We're happy if anybody visits our church. Now, obviously, that's not a replicate, but anyone who visits our church, even if they have some sort of illness, they're handicapped, whatever, hey, we want them to come to this church. And you know what? Honestly, anyone can provide something for the Lord. Anyone can do something and serve the Lord. You know, one other way, though, I know we could look down on someone is we could look down on someone for being from another culture. Now, we're a small church now, and outside of myself, I'm the only one who's not from the Philippines. But honestly, as our church grows, I'm expecting the problem of some people that do come from other countries that are part of our church. And just because they're from another country, we shouldn't look down on them simply for that. I'll tell you what, in America, it is a real problem, because America has this pride about them that if you're from America, you're better than the rest of the world. That's the way it is in America. Now, they won't say that, but if you've ever watched Fox News and those news shows, that's what they think. People think that if they're from America, they're better than the rest of the world. That's a really stupid and foolish attitude to have. You know, somebody can serve the Lord no matter what country they're from. They can read the Bible. They can pray. They can serve God. We shouldn't look down on people just because they're different or they have some sort of sickness or ailment. And that's what the disciples are doing. This guy's born blind, and they immediately just look down on him. See, the reaction of the Lord Jesus Christ is, hey, I want to heal this guy. The reaction of the disciples is, man, this guy committed some major sin. Let's just amorphy this guy. What a really stupid and foolish attitude to have. And I know this verse number four says, the next point we're going to look at is this, that physical healing and spiritual healing are not necessarily the same thing. Verse four, I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the life of the world. When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind men with the clay, and said unto him, go wash the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation sin. He went his way, therefore, and washed and came seeing. So in verses four through seven, the Lord Jesus Christ physically heals this person. This man was blind, and now he's able to see. This is one of the great miracles of the Bible. This man was born blind, okay, and now he's able to see. Now one mistake we sometimes make as Christians is when we see somebody physically healed, we assume they spiritually got saved at that moment. That is not always the case. Go down to verse number 35, we're going to see it. It's not the case with this guy. Verse number 35, Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and when he had found him, he said unto him, dost thou believe in the Son of God? He answered and said, who is he, Lord, that I might believe on? I mean, is there any question that before verse 36, this man is not saved? He's not saved. He doesn't know who the Son of God is, okay? There's no question at this time he is not saved. He's like, who is he, Lord? Obviously, he's not saved. You must understand who the Son of God is to be saved. Verse 37, and Jesus said unto him, thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. He said, Lord, I believe, and he worshiped him. So in verse number 38, he realizes who the Lord is, and he gets saved. He believes, okay? But in verses four through seven, this man is an unsaved person. He did not get saved at that moment. You see, a lot of times people get confused between spiritually being saved or spiritually being healed and physically being saved or physically being healed. You know, sometimes we preach the gospel to people, and if there's been someone who almost died, they almost died in a hospital, you say, do you know for sure you're going to heaven? They say, yes, I do. And they say, you ask them why? And they'll say, well, because the Lord healed them. And they'll say, you know, going to the Bible story, I was in an accident when I was 22 years old, and I was on my deathbed. They didn't think I was going to make it, and I got out of that. And it's like, so why again aren't you going to heaven? And they use themselves being physically healed or physically spared, and they assume they're going to heaven. I've heard that story many times. And you know what's sad about it is those people are usually extremely prideful in the fact that they were healed. And they really think that they're better than other people. Sometimes they even try to talk down to you afterwards as if they have some close relationship with God because they almost died. Now sometimes these people that almost died, they almost died because of their own stupidity. They were drunk driving, they almost died, and then they tell you their story about how they made it out of there. It's like, yeah, God's just really looking down on you. You're drunk and driving, you crashed into a wall, you almost died, and so yeah, you're going to heaven because of that. I mean, what a ridiculous, ridiculous statement to make. But honestly, a lot of times people get confused with this physical salvation and the spiritual salvation. Now turn to Matthew 24, Matthew 24. There's a lot of great examples in the Bible. Now Nicodemus was a man who couldn't distinguish between physical salvation and physically being born again and spiritually being born again. And oftentimes in the Bible, you'll see that we use physical examples to explain the spiritual. False religions will often play off people's emotions and they use these things like these vents, these physical signs, so to speak, and people think they're going to heaven because of those things. Now, unfortunately, Baptists also have a lot of trouble distinguishing between the physical and the spiritual. Notice what it says in Matthew 24, verse 9. Now in verse number 9, what are we talking about when it says kill you? We're talking about physically being killed, right? It's not talking about your spirit being killed. People are going to kill you, they kill your body, okay? That's what it's talking about in verse number 9. It talks about being delivered up and afflicted and killed. It's talking about physically being killed, verse 10. And then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure on to the end, the same shall be saved. Boy, how often have we heard Matthew 24, 13, quoted by heretics? They say, hey, if you endure on to the end, then you get saved. Yeah, there's a problem with that. The context is not spiritual salvation. The context is physical salvation. It's talking about people being delivered up and afflicted and killed. So I agree, if you endure on to the end, you're going to be saved. This is not talking about going to heaven. It's talking about physically being saved. You say, what exactly is that talking about? Well, in Matthew 24, it's not very hard to see when it talks about the persecution that's going to come during the end times, and it says immediately after the tribulation. That's when he's coming back. So if you physically endure through the tribulation, you will be saved. You will be raptured up to heaven, and you won't get killed. Look, in our room, we have a lot of people here, and let's say the end time starts in our lifetime. There's a good chance that some of us will be killed for the cause of Christ and will be martyrs, and there's a good chance that some of us will endure on to the end and be saved. But we're all going to be spiritually saved. All of us are saved here tonight. So look, when we die, we're going to go to heaven. It's not talking about spiritual salvation, but yet you'll have heretics that are these repentance of sins heretics or these Calvinists, and they'll say, well, if you're really saved, you're going to endure on to the end. It's like, do you not understand the context here? It's talking about physically being saved. It's like, maybe you need to rethink your end times theology and look at the context of what's being said here, because enduring on to the end, it has nothing to do with spiritual salvation. This phrase is in the Bible three times. All three times is in reference to the end times. Two times, it's very obvious, it's in reference to the end times. And then the other time, it's not a whole chapter about the end times, but he's kind of touching on it. In cross-referencing, we can see that what he's talking about is that if you endure through this tribulation, you will be saved. You will be raptured, and you won't be killed. Some people during the end times are not going to be killed. They're going to end up being raptured, but a lot of us are going to be killed for the cause of Christ. Oftentimes, Baptists, they struggle with this idea. I turned to 2 Corinthians 7. This was not in my notes, but I'm going to add it here tonight. A lot of times, people just struggle with the idea of the difference between physically being saved and spiritually. They don't understand there's a difference. Look, the Bible says, Paul the Apostle said that if you don't abide in the ship, you shall not be saved. Does that mean that we need to start building Noah's ark here? That's going to be a product. That's what we're going to spend our money on. Instead of going out soul-winning on Sundays, instead of going out soul-winning on Wednesdays and Saturdays, what we're going to do is we're going to spend our money and just spend our time building a little ship here, and then we're just going to hang out in the ship until we die. That way, we'll be saved and go to heaven. You're going to think every single time we're saved, the Bible is referring to spiritually being saved, and that's how stupid you are. Obviously, what Paul was saying is hey, you know what? There's a storm, and if you don't abide in this ship, you're going to drown and die. That's what he's saying. In Matthew 24, what is he talking about? He's not talking about spiritually being saved and going to heaven. He's talking about being raptured. He endured through that tribulation. Another example here is in 2nd Corinthians chapter 7. In chapter 9, the Bible reads. Let's go back to verse 3. So what Paul the Apostle was talking about is that in 1 Corinthians, Paul the Apostle wrote this epistle to them, and it's kind of the roughest epistle that he ever wrote. He's hammering down on their sin. Now look, it's never fun for anybody to preach hard against me. You have to understand that Paul the Apostle is one of the hardest preachers who ever lived. He preached the truth, and he didn't hold back. Look, it's not fun to preach against people's sins. There are some times that I preach against people's sins, and you know what? I don't enjoy doing it. I'd rather just preach about the love of Christ. I'd rather just preach on better topics. The thing is, we have sins in our life we have to deal with. The truth is, I preach sermons, and I can see how it affects people. That's why the Bible says you're not afraid of their faces, because sometimes you see people in the crowd, and they're either angry, or they're crying, or they're something. It can affect the way you're preaching. Now, other people don't notice, but look, I notice, and it does affect you when you're preaching. You're trying to avoid it, and it makes you want to change what you're preaching, but you should never change the message God has laid on you. Right. It doesn't matter if it ends up causing some sort of reaction for people, because maybe that's the reaction they need. Maybe they need to hear that. And look, that's the tough job of being the person preaching up here. Sometimes you're going to have that. And look, Paul the Apostle, he did not enjoy preaching against people's sins either. Nobody really enjoys just hammering on people's sins. Okay. Now, unfortunately, you know, we're all sinners, and that's what you have to do most of the time. But nobody actually enjoys that. Now, in verse number 9, the Bible reads, Now rejoice, not that you remain sorry, but that you're sorry to repentance. So Paul is happy that when he preached against them, they were sorry, and they ended up having repentance. Now, I want you to keep in mind, this is a church full of believers. Okay. These are saved people, and he preached against them. They got sorry, and then the Bible says that they repented. Okay. They turned from their sins. They got right with God. Now, repentance can mean the turn from your sins. It basically means to change or to turn. In this context, it is referring to them turning from their sins. Okay. I have no problem with saying repentance can mean the turn from your sins. Sometimes it does mean the turn from your sins. Sometimes it just means to change your mind about what you believe. Now, since this is referring to believers getting sorry and repenting, yes, they're turning from their sins. That's what's being said in 2 Corinthians 7, verse 9. Keep in mind, these people are already saved. For your mate's sorry after godly manner that he might receive damage by us is nothing. For godly sorrow working for repentance to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world will work it dead. Unsaved people, look at this verse, 2 Corinthians 7, verse 10. This is one of their big arguments to say you have to repent of your sins to be saved. I don't understand it because I don't find it confusing. We've got saved people repenting. Obviously, this has nothing to do with repenting of your sins to be saved. Seriously. The problem they have is, once again, they don't understand the difference between the physical and spiritual. When it says salvation, this has nothing to do with spiritually being saved nor to heaven because they're already saved. Right. Okay. And also, he's preaching to a church. He's not really necessarily just preaching to an individual. And so, look, you say, well, what exactly is it talking about? Well, look, if this church did not get right with God, the Lord would have removed their camps. Yeah. I mean, if a church just gets involved in sin, that church needs to repent from their sins and it will work salvation for them. Save that church from being destroyed. If our church quits going soul winning and gets soft on preaching on sin, this church is going to be destroyed. Okay. And there's a lot of churches out here in the Philippines that they still meet on Sundays. They still meet on Wednesdays. They still pray. They still have sermons. But honestly, that candlestick was removed a long time ago. And the Lord's not blessing that church. But even as an individual, if you say one in an individual manner, how does how does this work? Look, the preaching against sin, if you have godly sorrows, you actually have a change. See, the sorrow of the world worked at death. The sorrow of the world is King Saul. King Saul was always sorry that he was trying to kill David, but he never changed. The sorrow of the world worked at death. What happened to King Saul? Well, he was told by Samuel, you're going to die tomorrow. That's what he was told. And he did die. He ended up committing suicide because he was afraid he was going to be abused by the Philistines. And so guess what? The sorrow of the world worked at death. It ended up destroying and killing King Saul. But God will sorrow work through sins to salvation. What does that mean? It means that when you hear the preaching of the word of God and you have true godly sorrow and you turn from your sins and make changes in your life, it will save you. It could save you from physically being killed, but it will save you from destruction in your lives. If somebody is a drunk and they hear a sermon against drinking alcohol and they have godly sorrow and they turn from that, guess what? It's going to save their marriage. It's going to save their health. It's going to save their money because alcohol is really expensive. It's going to save them from being bad parents. It's going to save them from a lot. Godly sorrow does work for repentance to salvation. This has nothing to do with spiritual salvation. These guys are safe people. I don't understand how people I mean, I understand there are some tricky verses on repentance. This ain't one of them. These are safe people. I mean, how could you even argue that? Now, turn back to John 9. Turn back to John 9. And so, we say, well, how does this how does this work towards us that are believers? Because obviously in this room, none of us are confused about repentance and sins. It's not confusing us. We understand we don't believe in means. If you believe and you don't understand your sins, you'll receive everlasting life. It's not confusing to us. For us as believers, we could look at our lives and when things are going well in our lives, we could have this idea since things are physically going well in our lives, we must spiritually be doing well. We could look at our lives and say, you know what? I have a lot of money. I have a nice job. I have good health. Maybe God is not that upset that I'm committing for change. Maybe God is not that upset that I don't drink. Maybe God is not that upset that I drink a little bit. And we could look at our physical circumstances and we could think that God must be blessed in us. Now, I don't want to go too much into this because in a week and a half, I'm going to preach a fifth sermon on the Pentecostal agenda in the Prosperity Gospel. But you have to understand that when David committed the sin that she and her husband was killed, it took a long time for David to come to him because that baby was at the point of birth. That's nine months that a woman is pregnant. That's a long time period that's gone by. Not only that, he also repunished a couple of years later because of the fact that after Amnon raped his half-sister Hamar, it was a couple of years, the Bible says two years before Absalom ends up killing Amnon. That is still under the punishment that David is getting. This is like three years after he chose to commit those sins. So realize, if you live a sinful life right now, you know what, that punishment might come a year from now. It might come two years from now. And so it's a foolish thing to look at whether or not things are going well in your life to determine if you're right with God. Or determine what you should do. For other stuff, I've been reading the Bible, I've been going to this church for four and a half months and it just seems like my life is going downhill. Just because you're struggling in your personal life or with things physically, you have bad health or whatever, you're struggling financially, that doesn't mean that you're not right with God. We can't look at our physical circumstances to determine if we're spiritually right with God. And so us as believers, we can get confused on the physical and the spiritual. We need to realize that we just obey what God says, and we trust in Him to provide our needs. And we will have times where we struggle. We might have health concerns. We might have financial concerns. That's part of life. We have to just deal with it. That doesn't mean that we should quit going to this church because we're struggling. It doesn't mean I should quit reading the Bible because before I was reading the Bible, things were going great. It sounds like the book of Jeremiah where they say we'll do whatever the Lord says and then He tells them to get right with God and they said, well, you know, we were going to do it, but you know, when we used to sacrifice to the Queen of Heaven, things were going great in our lives. And since we quit sacrificing to the Queen of Heaven, things are going bad. We're going to start sacrificing the Queen of Heaven again. Which in modern day, you know, the Catholic Church, they say Mary is the Queen of Heaven. Even though the Queen of Heaven, the Bible is, yeah, that's a whole other sermon. They say, man, when we sacrifice to the Queen of Heaven, things are so great in our lives. And since we stopped, things are going bad. So guess what? I'm going to start sacrificing the Queen of Heaven. Look, you know, when I went to the Catholic Church, things were going so great. Man, I got saved and now I'm coming to church and so many of my life is falling apart. I'm just going to go back to the Catholic Church. Go ahead and try that strategy. That's called mixing up the physical with the spiritual. You can't look at your personal circumstances and allow that to affect your spiritual judgment on what you should or shouldn't do. Now we're back in John Chapter 9. And the third thing I want you to look at tonight is this, that the world tries to put you in fear. The world tries to put you in fear. Notice verse number 8. The neighbors therefore and they which before had seen him that he was blind, said, What is he that sat and begged? Some said this is he. Others said he's like him. But he said, I am he. Here's a man who was known to sit down and beg. And you say, why? Well, being a blind person, you know, honestly, it's going to be hard to provide your needs. It's going to be next to impossible to provide your needs. It doesn't mean that he's lazy. He's blind. Now it says he's sitting down and begging and honestly, we're going to see later on that his parents seem to be pretty bad parents. We'll see that later on in the chapter. It's kind of like, it's like they're not taking care of their son. Now look, if my son was born blind, then my mindset would be that if we need to take care of him his entire life, we will do that. You know, if you're a parent and you have a child and they need your help to get by in life, I'm not talking about someone who's lazy and doesn't want to work. That wants to just live the house forever and never work and just mooch off mom and dad. When your son's born blind, it's going to be hard to provide your needs. It's going to be difficult. I'm not saying it's impossible, but in today's world, it's probably going to be a little bit easier, but it's going to be very difficult. And if my son was born where he had some sort of ailment and I'm in a position as a parent, I have to realize that maybe I should be responsible for taking care of him my whole life. He might always require our help. And that's the job of a parent. His parents don't seem to have this attitude. They don't really seem to love him that much. I'll show you why later on. In verse number 10, it says this, but he was known to be sitting down at banks. This was a guy who was known. They knew this guy that he was blind and he was always begging for food because he didn't have anything. Now, let me just go off on some tangent. Just a real quick tangent. Just a real quick rabbit trail. Back in Sacramento, and this is the difference between the Philippines and the United States. Anyone who's homeless in America is pretty much a lazy trucker. There's really no exception. Almost every single one. Because the government won't pay you not to work. They'll pay you and give you a house to live in. Now, you don't have a rich life, but you can live off a government who never worked a day in their life and care for their life. There was this guy who, I knew this guy because I saw him around town, and there's all these homeless people begging and asking for money in America, especially in kind of the California area where we were. This guy pretended to be blind in order to get more money. Because your natural reaction if you see a blind person is you feel bad for him. And I knew this guy wasn't blind because I had seen him walking around and he wasn't blind, but he's on the side of the highway like this, like, oh, you know, I'm blind. And it's like, talk about how wicked you could be to pretend to be blind in order to make money. This is just something for us to understand that, look, the truth is that I personally would not advise you to give money to homeless people. And you say, why wouldn't we give money to homeless people? Because of the fact that a lot of them are homeless, whether it's America or the Philippines. You don't know why they're homeless. It could be they're a drug addict. It could be they're a drunk and you're giving them enough money to go to the store and get drunk again. And see, we need to make sure in the Bible the pattern you see, and I'm actually going to be talking about this on Sunday, is that the local church will take care of its members and help them out if they fall in really rough times. Now, obviously all of us would love to have more money, but the church should be there to help out their members. And the reason why this makes sense is because of the fact a church knows who their members are. They've fellowshiped with them. They've gotten so many with them. They know if they're the real deal. The truth is that when you're at a church, many people will ask you for money that aren't at your church. The truth is, I don't know those people. How do I know if they're the real deal? That's the reality of it. An example of this is, somebody at a church a couple months ago, they came to this church and they had their story. Everybody has a story. At first you give a benefit of the doubt. You want to assume that they're telling the truth. But what happens is, when they're around, you prolong. Now if you realize, this guy's a liar. And that's why you don't give them money. You say, well, no, sorry. The offer's not there anymore. We're not giving you money. Why? Because when they're around, you can tell if they're the real deal. So this guy, that's just a long rabbit trail, but this guy though, you know, honestly, his parents aren't willing to take care of him. And in verse number 10 Bob reads, Therefore said they unto him, How are thine eyes open? He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and watched, and I went and watched, and I received sight. Then said they unto him, Where is he? He said, I know not. They brought to the Pharisees him that lived four times and was blind. And so he's being brought to the Pharisees. This is a big event in John chapter 9. This man was known, and so him being healed from blindness, people are aware about this, they're talking about it, they're spreading this, and so the Pharisees are upset. Now they would not have cared if he got healed from his blindness, except for the fact that everyone starts hearing about that. That's why they're getting upset. Look, in our church, nobody cares what we're preaching. The only reason why they care is because members of their church are listening to the sermons, and members of their church are thinking about leading their churches because then they wouldn't care what I preached. They wouldn't care if I got up here and declared myself the son of God. They could care less what I say. The reason why they care is because people at their churches are listening to the sermons. They know about what we're teaching. They know about the soul and what we're doing. And they're thinking, huh, I wonder why my church doesn't have a soul. That's the reason why they care what we do. The Pharisees care because of the fact that people are talking about it. Now I believe that they probably brought them to the Pharisees because the Pharisees were considered the religious leaders of their day. They're the respected ones. They're the ones who would be the authority to make decisions on what's right and what's wrong. People were trusting them. They respected them. Now look, in today's world of the Philippines, I can promise you I'm never going to be the person that they're going to trust with theological opinions. They're never going to come to me and say, Brother Matthew Stuckey, he's the person. Give us the decision in this case. They're not going to trust what I say. Because, honestly, the religious leaders are always backing you. Right. That's the way it works. The Pharisees that were the respected leaders, they're phonies. Think about the religious leaders in today's world of the Philippines. Obviously, in the Catholic Church, we've got 80% of our country that's fully behind them or whatever they say in Pope Francis. We also got in the Christian realm, you know, from CCF Peter, whatever his name, I don't remember his name. Peter Tan Cheek. Peter Tan Cheek. Look, Peter Tan Cheek, everybody respects him. Everybody loves him. Nobody would dare say anything against Peter Tan Cheek, right? Except for our church. That's the truth. They would look at him and say, Hey, you know, within the Christian realm, even when we first came here, someone told us, Hey, you should go to the church one time. And they didn't even, I don't even think they went to that church. They just trusted that church. We're all on the same team, this Billy Graham philosophy. And look, you know, he would never be like the Pharisees. We're never going to be once trusted with theological opinions. Verse number 14. And it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Then again, the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said to them, He put clay upon mine eyes and I wasp and do see. Now, most people would just be happy that he received his sight. And they're obsessed with finding out how did he do this. They say, why? Because they want to try to destroy this miracle. They don't care that he can actually see. They just care that this is being known about what Jesus did. Verse number 16. Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God because he keepeth not the Sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was division among them. Once again, we talk about the division caused by Jesus Christ pretty much everywhere he goes. Verse 17. They say unto the blind man again, What sayest thou of him that he hath opened thine eyes? He said, He is a prophet. But the Jews did not believe concerning him that he had been blind and received his sight until they called the parents again that had received his sight. So in this story, they're basically just refusing to believe that he was born blind and he can see. Now this is ridiculous. Because of the fact, he's not the only one saying that he was blind and now he can see. Everybody's saying that. We know this guy. He sat and begged and now he can see. Is there really just a thousand people lying about it? I mean that's ridiculous. Why would everybody lie? Or maybe this guy just pretended to be blind for 30 years. I mean isn't it stupid what they're saying? Everybody's saying, I know this guy. I've seen this guy begging. This guy was blind and now he can see. There's no denying. Obviously he was blind and now he can see. You could never get a whole town in on a prank like this. That wouldn't work. They refuse to believe it and then they call his parents. And then it says in verse 19, they ask him saying, is this your son? Who you say was born blind? How then doth he now see? His parents answered them and said, we know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But by what means he now seeeth, we know not. Or who hath opened his eyes, we know not. He is of age, ask him. He shall speak for himself. These words spake his parents because they feared the Jews. They agreed already that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. These are pretty bad parents. They're more worried that they're going to be put out of the synagogue. They're more worried about themselves than their son. Their son that's blind who has to beg on the street to get food. And then in this situation they say, ask him. Why? They don't want to get in trouble. These are pretty bad parents. This is all we know about these parents. But look, when you're a parent, you have a love for your child. I don't know what's wrong with these parents. And I don't think I've ever heard anyone preach against these parents, but I think they're worth preaching against. Because when you're a parent, you have a love for your child. Look, if this was a situation with my parents, my parents would be willing to die helping to defend them. Not these parents. They're willing to just throw their kids underneath the bus. There is something wrong with them for doing that. And the Bible is very clear. It's very clear that they fear the Jews is what it says in verse number 22. It's not like this is my opinion that, oh wow, maybe they should have responded differently. No, the Bible says the reason why they did this is they feared the Jews. That's the reason why they don't defend their son. They don't care what happens to their son. And it makes sense that they don't care about him because he's a blind person on the street begging to get food to survive. Why is he not at the house being supported by his parents? That's ridiculous. Now, you have to understand that in life, you're going to run into certain situations where not the Lord, but the devil tries to push you in a state of fear or enemies of God try to push you in a state of fear. All of us think that in those situations you will stand up and face the music. You have to understand those situations don't come a couple times in life, man. And in those situations you must respond in the right way. Because there's no duo. When we were protested in Sacramento, California the majority of our church stood there and were there and supported the church. There were some people who left the church though. And they all had their excuses for why they left. None of them gave the this reason, I'm afraid. I'm scared. Nobody told us that. There's some people that said that they didn't agree with the preaching or whatever. There were some people that were kind of new with the church, so maybe that's true with them. There's other people that didn't admit it. But honestly they were just afraid about their jobs. They're afraid they might get in trouble or might get mocked. But look, when those situations occur you must stand up. Now look, I don't anticipate our church being protested for at least years because the state it is in the Philippines is very open to preaching and what the truth is. And obviously there's certain cults we should probably be smart with when we say, but outside of that we're able to preach hard against them. We preach against the Catholic church and nothing happens. We go sober and there's no persecution. So look, if that situation ever occurs you have to stand up and defend what the truth is. And if you walk out you're not really walking out on me. You're walking out on everyone in the church. We're a team here. We're a family here. But you're walking out on the Lord if you're not willing to stand up in those situations. If you just flee and let everybody else deal with it then you're never really part of a team. When you're part of a team you're part of a church family. I'm not saying if I get up and preach some sort of heresy and I prove myself to be a devil, obviously you should just leave. When a pastor does that you just walk out the door. If you're at a church and then all of a sudden the pastor gets up and he starts preaching out yeah, just leave and never come back. But I'm saying if I preach something against the Sodomites, I preach something against the Catholic church and we get protested we get a little bit of persecution hey, you need to stand up to that persecution and not be worried about yourself on that day. Just be worried about defending the name of the Lord and the truth. And look, it is possible that could happen. It's very possible one day it could happen but we're not the churches that can stand up for the truth and have guts to who is in the truth and what is. We have to be the ones to do it. And this situation, his parents they get their opportunity to show how much they love their son and they don't seem to love him very much because they basically just let him respond for himself. And they should be shouldn't they be excited that their son can see? Look, if my son was born blind and then all of a sudden at the age of 25 he can see, I'd be rejoicing. I'd be excited for him. I'd hug him, I'd be happy. I'd be like, man, we're taking out for the most expensive dinner we can find we're going to celebrate, we're going to kill the fatty calf this is awesome, this is great. His parents are like, yeah, he can see who cares. He's like, we'll let our son answer in this situation. They don't care about their son at all. I think that's pretty obvious for the story. They don't care about him. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Verse number 23 Therefore said his parents, he is of age ask him. So they leave him to answer. Now I want you to understand something that even those parents don't really care about him that much. Obviously the Lord Jesus Christ cares about him. And you have to realize that sometimes people in life will fail us people we care about, people we love whether it's a family member, whether or not it's a friend, whether or not someone else is a church member. Sometimes people are going to fail you, but the Lord is never going to fail you. Amen. You need to remember that. No matter how hard life gets, no matter what happens to us remember that the Lord always cares for us. Now, let's look at verse number 24 let's go to the final point. And I want you to understand lastly that many people they choose not to believe simply because they can't understand it. Right. It doesn't logically make sense to them. Not two plus two equals four so it does not make sense to them. Verse number 24 Then again called they the man that was blind and said unto them, give God the praise, we know that this man is a sinner. He answered and said whether he be a sinner or no I know not. One thing I know that whereas I was blind now I see. So now they're trying to change their story because it's obvious he was blind and he can see. So now they're saying, well you know maybe it's just random. He just happened to try to heal you at the exact moment you got something. Isn't that ridiculous? I mean this guy was born blind. He's been blind for a really long time and now all of a sudden he can see. It's kind of ridiculous to say wow he was just a sinner it's random or whatever. It's like give God the praise. There's nothing to do with this guy. It's kind of like well he is giving God the praise. Jesus is God. Verse 26 Then said they to him again, what did he to be? How opened he thine eyes? He answered them, I have told you already and he did not hear. Wherefore would he hear it again? Would he also be his disciples? Now you have to understand that this man think if brother Dustin was born blind and I healed him. He would have a lot of allegiance towards me. He would really love me. If he had been blind his whole life and he had gotten his eyesight. Look we've all had good days when things went our way. But I don't think any of us can really raise our hand and say I've had a better moment in life when I went from being blind to being able to see. I've had a lot of good things happen in my life and I'm happy for the life I've had. But honestly that's a pretty monumental moment to go from being blind to being able to see. And so if I had healed somebody or if somebody healed me I would obviously love that person and care about that person. And look you know this guy probably before John chapter 9 he probably had positive things to say about the Pharisees. He probably looked at them as being these nice religious leaders that were just helping the community. But now all of a sudden it's just kind of like you're rebuking the guy who healed me. Obviously he's going to have allegiance toward the Lord Jesus Christ and not towards these Pharisees. And so he starts getting agitated with them and he starts kind of rebuking them and kind of mocking them and going back at them. And so verse 28 Then they reviled him and said, Thou and his disciples were we are Moses' disciples. We know that God spake unto Moses, Ask for his fellow and we know not from whence he is. The man answered and said unto him, Why here in this marvelous thing that you know not from whence he is and yet ye have open mind eyes. And so in this story basically they just can't understand it. How is it possible that he made you see? It doesn't make sense to them. Instead of just looking at the obvious that he was healed now he can see. They want to logically understand it. Now when it comes to false religions this is one of their big problems. They just can't understand it so they don't believe it. One of the big examples is with the Jehovah's Witnesses. Now if you talk to a Jehovah's Witness they do not believe that Jesus Christ is God. They don't believe in the Trinity like we do. And the biggest argument they have is well then how did Jesus pray to God? That's their biggest argument. How is it possible if he's God that he's praying to God? That's their argument. Basically what their argument is is I don't logically understand it so I don't believe it. They're not really pointing to verses that say Jesus is not God. They're just saying wait a minute how is it possible that he's praying to God if he is God? It doesn't make sense to them. That's why they don't believe it. It's not that they have any verse that they're using it just does not make sense to them. The problem with the Calvinists they just don't get it. They think they're really smart and they say well how can we have free will? It just doesn't make sense to them. The reason why they're Calvinists is that makes sense to them. I don't understand it. I don't know why you believe in a God like that but that makes sense to them and so they reject the truth because I mean there's so many verses that say whosoever believed in them. There's literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of verses that talk about our free will. And yet they don't believe it. Why? It just doesn't logically make sense to them. And so they refuse to believe it because it doesn't logically make sense. But when there was this whole oneness debacle a couple years ago what it really boiled down to is all these people that end up being heretics their big argument is does not make sense to them. That's the truth. One of them said the Trinity never fully made sense to them. It's not that the Bible doesn't teach it. It's just it doesn't make sense to me so I can't believe it. I must understand it like a math problem. The problem is the word of God is not math. You just have to believe in whether or not it makes sense to you or not. Let me give you an example of something that didn't make sense to me a long time ago. You know when I got saved and you know I started to go to church and stuff like that. If you had asked me at that time that what I wanted my wife to be one day I would have told you that I thought it would be best for me to marry a woman who would work and then we would save up money for several years and end up having a family. I would not have preached on homeschool when I first got saved. Now I was homeschooled but you know honestly you're in the world and the world deceives you and you don't realize and value what the Bible says and I didn't really know the Bible but at the time it wouldn't have logically made sense to me. It makes sense to me now though and see that's why you do what the Bible says whether it makes sense or not. God's way is always the right way whether or not it makes sense to you. Now I look back and I think how foolish am I because the people that I was friends with before I was homeschooled in the next couple years they started fornicating when they were young teens. They started drinking when they were young teens. It's like what would have happened to me if I didn't start getting homeschooled? There's a very good chance I would have been just like them because the people you're around are probably what you're going to be. You say, brother Stockton I love soloing. You know one of the big reasons why you love soloing? Because you're at a church full of people that love soloing. That's the truth. I mean because you go to this church you're going to do more soloing than if you had no church. That's the reality. Why? Because we get together. We came here on Wednesday night. We were excited. There's actually seven of us including my son that go out and preach the gospel. We're excited for it. We had a great time. We rejoiced in the results. We're doing it as a team. It's exciting. It's easier. The people that you hang out with are going to be the people that you're like. Which is why people really shouldn't be close friends with people outside of the church. Your best friend should be people that love God, that are at the church because that's what you're going to be like. Going back to this oneness thing I'm talking about, the reason why people didn't believe it is just because it didn't make sense to them. There's a clear verse that says God was manifest in the flesh so Jesus is God. There's also clear verses that talk about how Jesus rang on the Father. There's clear verses that say for there are three that bear record in heaven. The Father, the Lord, and the Holy Ghost and these three are one. Look, you don't have to fully understand the belief. Let me tell you something I don't understand to this day. If you understand it you can tell me after the service. I don't understand where God came from. If somebody can explain that to me so it makes sense, I would love it because I do not understand where God came from. Now, whether or not you believe in God it doesn't really matter because you can't understand how the world began. It just doesn't logically make sense because we're created inside of time. Everything has a beginning, everything has an end. Does it make sense then for something that has no beginning and no end? No, it doesn't make sense. It doesn't make logical sense to me. Understanding the nature of God. Look, I don't fully comprehend it like a math problem. I believe Jesus was here and in Him well all the fullness of the Godhead God believed He was God in the flesh but I also believe that He was the Son of God and I also believe the Trinity in the beginning was the Word. Does it fully make sense to me like a math problem? No, it doesn't. But honestly, if I could fully understand the nature of God then it wouldn't really be God. Yeah, it doesn't fully make sense. You just remove what the Bible says. The problem with them in John chapter 9, obviously they're record based but they just don't understand it. How could He be blind and now against Him? Job is witness to do the same thing. How could He be frank on the problem? I'm sure INC would say the same sort of thing or on .com, .com, .com, all those religions. It doesn't make sense to them so they don't believe. Look, as us as believers, it doesn't matter if it makes sense to us. There is a way of seeing it right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death. If you just live your entire life based on what seems right to you and man's wisdom and logic, you're going to destroy your life. You've just got to go with what the Bible says. Now let's finish up the chapter. Verse 31, Now we know that God heareth not sinners, but if any man be a worshiper of God, who with his will had to heareth. Since the world began, was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind? If this man were not of God, he could do nothing. They actually said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sin, and dost thou teach us, and they cast him out. And so this guy is being cast out simply because he was healed. He was blind and now he can see and now they're mad at him. And this is the way the world works. They get mad at the messenger. They get mad at us. I mean we're not the Lord Jesus Christ, but they get mad at us because we're promoting the same message. Let me turn to John 9 myself because I don't actually have an acceptable verse in my notes. John 9 finish up here. Verse 35. The Bible reads Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believeth the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is he Lord that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and he it is that talketh with him. And he said, Lord I believe, and he worshipped him. And so he worships him, and throughout the Bible we see that Jesus accepts man's worship, which means he's God. Now obviously in today's world in this country people worship the Pope, and he accepts that worship, but the Bible says only the Lord Jesus Christ, only God should be worshipped, and this shows that he is God. Now one thing we could have talked about in John 9, this whole chapter we could have just talked about salvation because obviously the symbolism of a man that is blind and has absolutely no way to heal except through the Lord Jesus Christ we could have talked about that, that symbolism is there. But obviously the book of John is all about salvation, and I don't want to just talk about salvation every single week. You know, but there is that symbolism there that you could look at that only the Lord Jesus Christ could heal, and in our lives not even just after salvation, but only God can heal us from the problems in our lives as well, in the word of God and God himself. And Jesus said, for judgment I am coming to this world that they which see not might see that they which see might be made blind. And so in verse 39 he says those that do see I'm going to make blind. And there are people that are what we call walking dead men. And God is blind in their eyes, so they cannot believe. They could not believe. Verse 40, and some of the Pharisees which were with and heard these words and said to them, are we blind also? Jesus said to them if you are blind, you should have no sin, but now you say we see, therefore your sin remains. And so, John chapter 9 is a great chapter in the word of God. We see one of the most amazing stories in the Bible where this man is blind, and now he can see, and Jesus heals. Let's close the word prayer. I ask you to come out and be here in your house and ask you to help us to apply this sermon to our lives, God, and there's many things we can do from this chapter. It's one of the great miracles of the Bible, God. Help us to do our best not to ever look down on people that might join this church, whether they're poor, whether they're rich, no matter what their background is, God, and help us not to be like some of your disciples before. And obviously, if they can do that, we can at times be dealing with that as well, God. And ask you to just continue to bless this church and help us as we have our prayer time here. Same prayer, come in. Song number 24. Song number 24. And can it be that I should be?