Brothers, it's good to be back with you today. Thank you for praying for your elders. Delighted both to be here in the building with you all and looking forward to getting back into the gospel according to John. So if you would take your copy of the scriptures and turn with me to John 9. We look to finish up the chapter today in John 9 beginning in verse 35. It's been a few weeks since we've been here and you know that we've been looking at this narrative of our Lord Jesus healing this blind man who was at the temple and he came by and he put some spittle and clay together and told him to go wash and he gets healed. And then there's this conversation back and forth with some Pharisees that didn't end too well for him. And this now brings us to where we are now in the narrative to verse 35, so I'm going to read from there to verse 41. Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and when he had found him, he said to him, Do you believe in the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him? And Jesus said to him, You have both seen him, and it is he who is talking with you. Then he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. And Jesus said, For judgment I have come into the world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind. And then some of the Pharisees who were with him heard these words and said to him, Are we blind also? Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would have no sin. But now you say we see, therefore, your sin remains. This is the word of our God. Let us go to him again in prayer together. Our Father, we thank you again for the privilege of having your word expounded to us and having it ministered to us. We know, Lord, that apart from the Holy Spirit, for this will be an exercise in futility, may it not be, our God, we ask you to hear our prayer. We ask in faith, we ask in Jesus' name on his merits that you would give ears to hear all in this building today. We might be encouraged in the way and that, Lord, those who have still not come across the river as it were, Lord, to embrace the Lord Jesus, that this would be that day. We commit this time together in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, you know this, brethren, but God has given all of us in here five senses. We can see with our eyes, we can hear with our ears, we can smell with our nostrils, we can taste with our tongues, we can touch with our hands. And I don't know how heightened all of those senses were before Adam and Eve fell into sin, but it must have been absolutely amazing. I want to imagine that Eve could smell a rose from 50 feet away. And to think that perhaps even Adam could see an ant crawl up a tree from the same distance. The taste and the smells of the Garden of Eden must have been incredible, something we have never experienced. And brethren, before Adam and Eve sinned, their senses were not only heightened in order to experience the greatness of God's new and glorious and great creation, But with those very same senses, they were able to experience the very manifestation of God Himself. after they sinned, but before God pronounced judgment to them." In Genesis 3a, we read these words, and they, that's Adam and Eve, heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. They could feel the coolness, they could see, they could hear the sound of the Lord. Now, I don't fully comprehend this reality, but ever long or how long Adam and Eve lived in their sinless state, they were able to behold their creator through their physical senses. It was probably what we call a doctrine, a theophany of some sort, where God manifested himself in physical form, which allowed Adam and Eve to behold and to commune with the eternal God of heaven and earth. But after they sinned, and God passed His judgment, and they were kicked out of the Garden of Eden, something terrible took place. All five senses that in some glorious and magnificent way were formerly able to behold and to commune with the infinite, eternal, and glorious God were all cut off. From that point forward, man by nature, though still innately able to know the existence of God, But now apart from the miracle of regeneration, mankind not only no longer can commune and fellowship with God, they don't want to. All five senses of fallen children of Adam are only and continuously now bent only toward earthly and carnal desires. It is a testimony of Romans 3.11. There's now none who understands. None. There's none who seeks after God. In fact, and even worse than this, Ephesians 2, 1 tells us that they are, and we are without Christ, spiritually dead in trespasses and sin. And it actually gets worse than that, that all the children of Adam now, brethren, are by nature children of God's holy and unbearable wrath, and they know it not. And so since the days of Adam and Eve's sin, every child of Adam has been at the mercy of God for him to reveal himself to them through the miracle of the new birth, a miracle that restores to some measure the spiritual senses which were previously dead, all dead, because of sin. Now, they are not fully restored until the new heavens and the new earth, but the Bible is clear, isn't it? That regenerate Christians, regenerate people, believers, true believers now can with the eye of faith behold the glory of the Lord, even in the fallen bodies in which they exist. When Jacob was converted and he was wrestling with God, we're told there in Genesis 32, 30, he says, I have seen God face to face and my life is preserved. A true Christian is now able to hear the voice of their shepherd. The truly born-again person can now taste and see that the Lord is good. True believers can now smell the fragrance of Christ which is diffused through His people, through His gospel. It is an aroma of life to those who are being saved and an aroma of death to those who are perishing. Under the covenant of works, no one could touch the mountain of Sinai. But under the new covenant of grace, we can now come to touch Mount Zion. That's what you're doing here now. And so brethren, with the Bible's use of our senses being metaphors to spiritual realities, they are actually, at the end of the day, more than just metaphors. The physical and the spiritual become connected. It may be inexplicable, it may be mysterious, but they are connected. And I think, brethren, I believe that the narrative before us here in John 9 allows us to see this truth. For here we have a man who was born physically blind from birth. He has received a miracle of sight. However, he not only sees the Lord Jesus now with the eyes that are in his head, he's now going to see the Lord Jesus with the eyes of his soul. And it was totally and completely an act of God's sovereign mercy. The Lord came up to him. He didn't seek the Lord. The Lord chose him from among all of the invalids there at the temple to give him sight through and through. But the story of the blind man here in John 9 is not just one of a revelation of how God gives spiritual sight to the blind, it is also, brethren, a revelation of how many in this fallen world will perish in their spiritual blindness. It is a narrative that highlights the great comparison of those who can truly spiritually see by the grace of God and those who are still blind who yet though think they see. There may be some, and indeed probably are, some in here this morning. You might even be the member of a church here, of the church. You think, you see, but are you really able to spiritually behold the Lord? And all of this is placed here before us, brethren, for introspection, for everyone in here who understands this story, this narrative, this passage is calling out to all of us, which one am I? Can I really see Jesus as my Lord and my God, or do I only see Jesus as a mere man? Do I refuse to bow down to Him? And so the outline is simple this morning. We have two examples. The first is in verses 35 to 8, the example of one who has true vision, true sight. Verses 40 to 41, we have the example of those who think they can see but remain blind. And right in the middle of both these examples in verse 39, in the middle of the text, we see the one who shines light upon both of them so that we might see today which one is which. And so first, we have the example of one who's been given true vision, true sight. Brethren, this blind man has been on quite a roller coaster since he first began to come into the narrative at the beginning of John 9. It began out of nowhere with the man mixing some spittle with clay and putting it upon his eyes. I don't even know if he saw it coming. It must have been a startling experience for him. And then he was told by this man, he didn't know it all, to go and wash it all off in the pool of Siloam. It was the first time the poor blind man had ever heard the words of life. He obeyed and he went and he watched, and for the first time in his entire life, he could see. Imagine how elated this man must have been to see the skies for the very first time, to see the faces of all the people around him. It would have been amazing enough had he been given sight to just see black and white, but he could see, no doubt, in living color. It wasn't that he was just filled with joy because he could see. What you see is you look through the narrative and he understood that he owed his ability to see to the one who said to him, go and wash. He wasn't one who just, oh, I got my sight and just took off and he never could let go. He was pressed, he was pushed because of the conversations with the Pharisees about who was this one who did it. And so with these words of our Lord, go wash in the pool, the seed of faith was planted. Then the seed begins to come alive in the shell as this blind man goes from calling Jesus the man in verse 11 to calling him a prophet in verse 19. And then comes, brethren, the full birth of spiritual sight as he has a living encounter with Christ himself. And the man goes from knowing him as just a man to a prophet, and now with the eye of faith being fully open, he sees Jesus Christ as God. And as the text says, he worshiped him. But before the man has that amazing encounter, we know from last time that he went from the joys of being able to see to the sorrows of being excommunicated from the synagogue. And if you hear and heard that sermon, you remember that that's not like what happens in churches today. People can leave and go to a church, become a member and leave, and there are no consequences. It's sad, but that's such an evangelicalism today in our own country. That wasn't true in that day in the first century. To be kicked out of the synagogue was a very big deal and there were some high, very high consequences to it. And so from the greatest moment of joy, which all of them should have been celebrating with him, all of a sudden now has turned to a brief time of sorrow. But then his sorrow turns right back again to joy when Christ finds out that the world has rejected him. Verse 35, Jesus heard that they had cast him out and when he had found him, he said to him, do you believe in the Son of God? The man was rejoicing at his newfound sight with no one to rejoice with him. Brethren, what good is it and what good was it for him to be able to see others when no one wants to see you? But then the voice of the miracle worker returned and because the blind man had defended this one who had given him sight to the Pharisees, Christ comes back and rewards his faith. J.C. Ryle, quoting a man named Birkett, said, oh, happy man, he, having lost the synagogue, had found heaven. He became an outcast to the world, but he was embraced by the one who created the world. What compassion here, brethren, that once again manifests our blessed Savior, fulfilling the words of Psalm 2710, when my father and my mother forsake me, the Lord will care for me. As we get older and older in this life, some of us know this now very keenly, we start to lose a lot of people to death. The longer you live, the less family and friends you have in this world. And for many, when you become a Christian, you can lose even some of them and they might as well be dead because they don't want to be around you and you never see them much anymore. But when a sinner owns Christ as his Lord and Savior, that man or that woman will never ever be alone again in this life. or the one to come. They will always have a friend that sticks closer than a brother. But it begins with owning and confessing Christ as your Lord and your God. And that is what this man does here. Christ comes to him and asks, do you believe in the Son of God? The phrase, perhaps, I think, is more accurately rendered, the Son of Man. If you have the New American Standard, the ESV, that's how it's rendered. This was our Lord's favorite name for himself. It was the most common one he would use, and it is because it is a reference to Daniel 7 of the promise of the Messiah to his people. He was the one who came before the ancient of days, and he was given an everlasting kingdom and glory and a dominion. It was the most prominent hope in the minds of all the Jews in that day, and it still is for Orthodox Jews today. It was the one prophecy above all other prophecies that the Lord God would send a Messiah to free and to rescue his people. And so when Jesus asked this man, do you believe in the Son of Man, what he heard, what that man heard was, do you believe that I'm more than just a man? Do you believe that I'm more than just a prophet? Do you believe that I am the one who came before the Ancient of Days? Do you believe I am God's promised one?" And it was those, brethren, listen, who believed that the Messiah would also be God in the flesh that had saving faith in the Old Testament and now even in the New. They should have known it. For Isaiah said, unto us, a son is given, and his name should be called, what? Mighty God. Why didn't they see it? They didn't want to see it. They didn't want to see it. So this man, not fully knowing who Jesus was, himself was at this moment, was pregnant with faith to believe and then says to Him, who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him? That's probable that the word, Lord, here could be translated, sir. Sometimes it is translated that way. It might be in some of your Bibles. I think the NIV translates it, sir. But then the full revelation of Christ is given to this formerly poor and helpless man. Jesus replies to him, you have both seen him and it is he who's talking with you. Wow. Same experience as the woman at the well, wasn't it? Through the use of his physical senses, the man saw and heard Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, the Son of God. And what he saw and what he heard was full of spiritual life. He came spiritually alive. He'd been not only blind his whole life physically, but he had been spiritually dead and blind his whole life. He was given, as it were, brethren, the keys to go back into Eden and commune with God as no unregenerate sinner could ever do. And so his response is in verse 38. Jesus responds in verse 38, or verse 38, then he said, Lord, I believe, and he worshiped him. The blind man is held out to all of us, brethren, as an example of saving faith. He's an example of God's work of regeneration taking place. And here it is in this place to encourage you have met the Lord already, to call upon Him, to give you spiritual eyes to see if you've not met Him yet. This is what it's here for. Your eyes have not been opened. Some of them, they're not open. This is the glorious living example of someone who's been given true vision, true sight. He not only can see Jesus as truly a man, But by the grace and the mercy of God, he sees him now as Yahweh. And so, therefore, the text says he worships him. The word worship here literally means to bow or to fall down prostrate before. It's an action of showing everyone around you that you are a mere creature and unworthy to even look up upon the son of glory. To worship is to bow down in reverence to the one who holds the very next breath in his hand. We take it for granted to bow and to humble adoration and thankfulness to the God who just gave you sight. You can see millions and billions of souls around the world are still blind, but you see, brother. You see, sister. You should never get over that. But you do, and so do I. But that's why we keep preaching. We revive it again in our hearts. This is here for us to see your need of Christ. There's so much going on here, brethren, that we cannot see on the page itself. Jesus is receiving worship. This is the very thing we're told He said that the Father was seeking, and the Father is receiving it. John told us at the beginning what this man would experience who was healed. John 1.14, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father. The man is trembling but joyful. He's standing before God himself. Oh, what a picture here, brethren, of every single one of you in here today who know the Lord by faith. You're worshiping him now. In your heart, you're thankful for this salvation. The old, old story never gets weary with you. It's fresh and new. Every Lord's Day is the Word of God is preached to you and opened up. John is showing us many here, brethren, of the elements that are involved with those who receive true spiritual sight. One of those elements is that a blind sinner, this particular blind sinner comes to... Jesus comes to him. And if you're in here today and you can see, it's because Jesus first came to you. In his providence, he came...you couldn't...you were blind, you didn't know where he was. You were deaf, you could not hear him come to you. This man was made spiritually to see because Jesus Christ came to him. Jesus Christ is God's final revelation to man. He is the only revelation now to man. The answers to heaven and earth, the answers to death and life are found only in him now. This is it. God has placed this revelation of Jesus Christ not in your imaginations, not in mine, not in inspirational speakers, not in horoscopes of fortune cookies. God has placed the revelation of Jesus Christ in His Word. That's it. You want to find God. You want to find out what you're going to do after you die, and you will die. You're going to have to find out through Christ. He's God's revelation to you. He's not going to give it to you anywhere else, and that's found in the Word of God. If any man or woman is to be cured of their spiritual blindness, they must encounter Jesus Christ through the revealed and inspired Word of God. Second element that shows us that someone's been given spiritual eyes to see is true repentance. That's interesting here, brethren. In this man's particular case, God's goodness is what led him there. We don't really see him weeping over any sins, do we? From the very beginning, his focus was as much, if not more, on the one who was willing to heal him as the miracle itself. Here's the man. He's the one who told me to go wash, and I went and I washed, and now I can see. And because I can see, he must be a prophet. And by verse 27, he's already confessing that he wants to be one of his disciples because he's mocking the Pharisees. Do you want to be one of his disciples also? We didn't say anything about it last time, but that's insinuating I want to be his disciple. And it all began because Jesus, out of sheer mercy and goodness, was willing to heal such a sinner as he knew he was. Truly did Paul rightly say that the goodness of the Lord leads us to repent. He was overwhelmed. that Christ would come to him, that he would walk around the noble, he would walk around the rich, he would walk around the Pharisees and the Sadducees and this poor sinner in that culture with nobody would give the time of day to. He loved on me. He gave mercy to me. And this brought him to repentance and faith. A third element that shows us someone who's been given true vision, true sight, is that he had a strong break with the world, didn't he? The man was tested by his friends and by his parents even, and by his so-called pastors down at the church, synagogue. Once he took up sides with Jesus, He had to break with the others. And he saw quicker than most brethren that there's no hope and no lasting peace with those in this world or those who trust in the things of this world, those who remain blind. He was once willing to have fellowship with anybody who would give him a coin down by the temple. But now that he can spiritually see through fellowship is with Christ and Christ alone and with those who also can see Christ. It's not with the world anymore. Come out from among them and be you separate, saith the Lord, and I will be a father to you." And so verses 35 to 38 are given to us, brethren, to show us an example of someone who's been truly given sight. But now we turn to verse 40 and 41, and we see a shining example of someone, what it looks like, those who are still living in spiritual blindness. Let's look at it. Then some of the Pharisees who were with him heard these words," we'll go back to that in a minute, verse 39, but verse 40, and he said to him, "'Are we blind also?' Jesus said to them, "'If you were blind, you would have no sin, but now you say we see, therefore your sin remains.'" And some of the commentaries I read are not in agreement on this, on whether or not the Pharisees were standing right there when that man bowed and worshiped Jesus. Because of these Pharisees and their nature, they would have never put up with that. Some say that this was a different time, a little bit of time has gone in between. Well, whether that's true or not, I don't know, to be honest with you. Either way, they heard the word of Jesus in verse 39. This is what provokes them, verse 39, Jesus said, For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind." Now, these Pharisees clearly understood that Jesus was insinuating that they were the ones who were really blind. It's interesting here, brethren, because this may be the only time the Pharisees are able to actually have some sense of a spiritual component to their understanding of things. I believe they understood his words to mean this, that not that they were literally physically blind, but like this man in the temple, they understood Jesus to be saying what he was saying in an accusatory way. In other words, you're accusing us, Jesus, of being social outcasts like this blind man. You're accusing us, Jesus, of being an irreligious man like this blind man. They didn't think Jesus was insinuating that these Pharisees were physically, literally blind, but religiously blind. They got that much. They got that much. They believed Jesus was calling them, saying to them that they're the poor outcasts, true ones. And this is why they couldn't bear it. And so in a very mocking tone, are we blind also? We who are the pastors, the religious, the ones who are righteous and who really know God, you don't even know God. Certainly this blind man doesn't. Calvin comments that the also here is very emphatic, meaning they were thinking to themselves that everyone else compared to them are really the blind ones, but no way, no way were they blind. Are we blind also? There's a lot of people in churches, brethren, members as well, reformed, non-reformed, denominations all over, who think they can see, but they are not seeing. Then Jesus answers them with a statement that just further emphatically proves that these people, these guys, these Pharisees were still spiritually blind. He says to them, if you were blind, you would have no sin, but now you say we see, therefore your sin remains. There are all kinds of interpretations and explanations to what Jesus meant by these words. They have fascinated me my entire Christian life. But here is my own personal take from just following the flow of the context of the passage. The words of Jesus saying, if you were blind, meaning this, brethren, that if you understood the depth of your own wickedness, if you understood how much you deserve the wrath of Almighty God and your sins against Him, you would be like this blind man standing here before you. And if you had been like him and recognized that you are helpless and that you are a hopeless state apart from a visitation of God's mercy and grace, then just perhaps, if you knew that about yourself, you'd have been looking for the Messiah. If you believed this about yourself, perhaps you'd be looking for a savior. And perhaps once you found him, your needy and wretched souls would have been saved. And had they been saved, you would have no sin. But because you say to yourself and you think to yourself that you don't need God's mercy. You don't need God to come to you. You can go to God anytime you want. You can do whatever you want. You can believe what you want. Therefore, no miracle comes to you. If you don't believe you need a miracle of salvation, you'll never receive one. Jesus Christ, the Son of Man who came to seek and to save sinners, Because you think that you can see God and get to God on your own, this therefore means that you will perish in your sin. Your sin remain." Oh, how terrible the pride of Adam's sin upon us all. It pervades us still as saved people, but it pervades the unregenerate man and woman. excuse me, I used to say often, and you've heard me say this through the years, that even as Christians now, we cannot even fathom the depth of remaining pride in each and every one of us. But I see now, I should have said more about that. I see now that the real issue, brethren, isn't how deep it might be, but we just don't hate it enough. We don't hate our own pride enough. We're never more like the devil when we have pride in our heart. And sadly, the unsaved never hate their own pride. As the old saying goes, none are so blind as those who refuse to see. Well, that's just as there are elements for the person who is spiritually seeing, now we have some elements of those who are truly blind. The first one is very clear, isn't it? It's a rejection of Jesus Christ as truly man and truly God, a rejection. Because if you really believed Jesus was God, you would believe you're going to stand before him and give an account. Though these Pharisees believed Jesus was indeed a man, they could not bring themselves to believe he was, at the same time, truly God. This was the ultimate stumbling block for the Jews. And even to this very day, Orthodox Jews believe in the coming of a Messiah, but they disbelieve he's going to be coming as a great man, but not God. That's why they'll never see him except in judgment. If you would know you have been given the miracle of spiritual sight, then you must confess Christ is Lord, sovereign over you. Romans 10, isn't it? If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall be saved. The way you can spot a spiritually blind man and a spiritually blind woman is they have no Lord telling them what to do. They have no Lord telling them how to live. They just pick and choose. They may give lip service and they may attend the synagogue and act like the true people of God, like the Pharisees, but they will not bow to Jesus, to his commandments. His priorities are not theirs, and so they reject him as God. Second element that reveals someone is spiritually still blind is that they don't worship Jesus. It's obvious to follow that, isn't it? These Pharisees took the Old Testament teachings and they twisted them into whatever they wanted to believe, and they created doctrines to suit their own carnal desires. Thus, at the end of the day, the truly blind worship no one but themselves. Are we blind also? Meaning, we aren't blind. We're the ones who are confident in our created truth. These men aren't much different from people we've beginning to hear a lot in these days in which you and I live. The truth is just what you choose for it to be. And if you believe it, it's your truth. It may not be mine. If you believe something to be true, then it's true for you whether it's actually truth in reality or not. This is the world we live in, brethren. It's crazy. Even going beyond common sense, but that's what spiritual blindness does, doesn't it? It's all just a product of spiritual blindness, direct result of the fall of Adam and original sin, that they cannot see because they do not want to see. But the sermon and the word here is preached to break through, to break through that darkness and to show you, you're here without Christ, you need a miracle. You need Christ to come to you and open up your heart and your eyes that you may see. Now, brethren, I could go on here, but for time's sake, I want to show you, last of all, the ultimate reason we can distinguish between those who've been given true sight and those who remain blind. And it is the presence and the reality of Jesus Christ Himself. Again, notice verse 39. This is in the middle of the two examples. For judgment I've come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind. Now, brethren, this is a difficult verse, is it not? If not handled carefully, one could come up with all sorts of things that might insinuate Jesus communicating something that I don't think he was communicating. One of those things would be a misunderstanding of the doctrine of double predestination. Because the Bible does clearly teach that the Lord God chooses who is to be saved and who is not to be saved, it is falsely acclaimed among some that there's some poor sinners out there somewhere who really love Jesus, who want to be saved, but Jesus won't let them. Jesus is forcing them to stay in their sin. He purposely damns them in their sin because He just didn't choose them. And so the words of thinking of some is that verse 39 has Jesus saying that, I have come to purposely condemn. I have purposely come to blind people from seeing their need of me that they might be saved. But as Jesus Christ has clearly said back in John 3 and verse 18, what, he who believes in him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is what? Condemned already. God doesn't do anything to make a sinner a sinner. They're born sinners, just like this man was born spiritually blind. And our sinners and in of themselves without any hope, not to mention, brethren, as we consider this doctrine, The very blasphemous idea that the holy God of the universe could have any dealings with making men sinful or purposely keeping them sinful is contrary to the revealed very nature of God himself. God is holy. He's of pure eyes, and they behold evil. And so, what is Jesus saying here in verse 39? I've come to bring judgment, but yet is it contrary to John 3.17, for God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but the world through him might be saved. How are we to think of these things? Did He come into the world for judgment or did He come into the world for salvation? Brethren, the meaning from our Lord is simply this, that His presence and His gospel will inevitably bring condemnation to those who refuse to believe it. Not that He will not further judge and condemn those who are the most hard-hearted against Him, as He has with the Pharisees. but that His very presence, His very gospel will make manifest all those who are indeed condemned already. F.F. Bruce in his commentary on John says this, he says, Jesus is not saying here that He's come to execute judgment via His first advent, but rather His presence and activity in the world themselves constitute a judgment as they compel men and women to declare themselves either for or against. And this happens every time we preach the Word of God in here every Lord's Day. every Lord's Day. You're being compelled through the truth being exclaimed and proclaimed from this pulpit. Are you for him or against him? Do you believe in him or are you rejecting him? In other words, who he is and what his gospel proclaims leaves all men with the inability to stay neutral. That's what he's saying. Jesus is the light of the world and his light will make manifest those who have been given eyes to see and those who are still left in their spiritual blindness. God doesn't make sinners blind for they are all born blind already. But this is all written to provoke all of us who are still living or anyone here is still living with unforgiven sin to see your need of a Savior, to not only save you from your sin, but your pride. And so at the end of the day, what do you say about yourself? Do you say that right now at this very moment you can see? Well, if you're truly able to see, then you really know what a great sinner you are apart from the grace of God. I wonder if you really believe that. And I think sometimes it might be harder for some of you dear brethren who grew up in church and you didn't live a lot of rambunctious, rebellious, evil, wicked life like some of us, like me. But nevertheless, apart from Christ, you're unrighteous, you're unholy. You see, it's one of those things that you can't just believe a doctrinal truth. Oh, I believe in original sin. Oh, what a great sinner I would be, wasn't... You have to experientially understand that in your own heart. What a foul, wicked, and evil man and woman you would be apart from Jesus Christ. and the miracle of the new birth. If you don't know that in your heart, you still can't see it. This is why Paul truly confessed that he was the chief of sinners. Do you really believe that you deserve, apart from God's mercy, do you really, in your own heart, ask yourself, don't look at the person next to you, but ask yourself, without God's grace, I deserve eternal damnation. I deserve to be put in the flames forever and ever. I deserve that. Believe that about yourself today. When Paul confessed that he was the chief of sinners, what did he mean? He didn't mean that he literally had sinned more than any other man. There were a lot more wicked men than Paul on that day and then still today. He makes this statement because he understood that he had within himself the ability, the depravity of truly being the chief of sinners. to be more wicked. He had the ability to be more wicked than any other one man on the face of the earth. This is the greatest need of anyone here today who's still unconverted, that the gospel that I'm preaching would so humble you, that you would be as this blind man and repent because of the very goodness of God. This holy God is willing to forgive you, every one of them. Every evil thought, every cuss word, every lustful, it's all washed. Go, here's the word of life, go to the pool of the cross and be clean. I know that Jesus is willing to save anyone in here today for this very reason, that he's allowed me to preach this sermon to you today. These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing you may have life in his name. Well, brethren, as we close, what about you who already know the Lord? What do you have from this passage to aid you in your journey to glory this week? Well, this, brethren, first of all, don't forget that your present sight is very limited. It's very limited. Every believer sees what he or she needs to see to be saved, and you see what you need to see to grow in sanctification, but we don't see everything yet. We're not seeing so well as to be free from the presence of sin in our life and in our world. In other words, as the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13, 12, now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Here, we have trials and struggles and many sorrows because we don't see everything as we ought to see yet. We see Jesus by faith. We see glory by faith. We don't do this, though, brethren, apart from using our physical senses in this present world. We make use of them to increase the spiritual senses. I told you at the beginning, they're not disconnected from one another. Why would the Lord thus give you the Lord's Supper to physically hold that bread and that cup? Why would he give you corporate worship where the means of grace are here given to you, that you're exercising your eyes and your ears and you're engaged in the preaching of the Word of God and so God is speaking to you? His presence is here. Though the physical means of partaking of these things, Lord's Supper, public baptism, all these things require the use of your physical senses. But brethren, true believers, through the eye of faith, get to experience the true spiritual realities of these things now. If you're a Christian in here, your eyes have been opened, you can see the Lord of glory. You're not imagining some picture of Jesus somebody painted on a wall. But you imagine him, you can see him, you can hear the voice of your shepherd. This all brings the taste of heaven down to earth until one day, brethren, the whole world is engulfed with the glory of the Lord. Now, although our ability to see the glories of heaven and that and such are very limited at present, the hope of what we get to see and going to see one day in full glory is what keeps you as the children of God getting up on Monday morning and reading your Bible again and praying again and fighting against sin again. John says it best, 1 John 3, 2, now we are children of God, now. And it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He's revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him with glorified eyes, physical eyes. Brethren, one of the glories of the new heavens and the new earth is that all of our physical senses will not only be restored back as in the days of Adam before he sinned, we will get to see, smell, hear, taste, and touch things that Adam never dreamed of. And every one of those heavenly heightened senses and those glorified bodies are all going to point us to the Lord Jesus Christ. Dear brothers and sisters, if you've confessed truly that there was a time that you could not see, but now by God's grace, you can confess that you do see, then that day is promised to you. Then you will soon see it all. Your senses will be even more fully restored, as it were. I love what Paul says. You know this text. I'm almost done. He says, "'Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him.'" And an interesting verse 10, "'But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit.'" The Spirit has revealed some things to us. In this life, the Spirit has revealed to us the glories of God in magnificent ways. But, oh, as great as these are, as essential as they are now, these glories, brethren, are the mere edges of His ways until the day when our spiritual eyes will meet up with our glorified eyes and glory. And thus, we will behold the glory of Jesus Christ throughout all eternity in the new heavens and the new earth. This is our comfort, brethren. It's all going to get restored. This is the promise that God has given to you. And so what is your application? Well, the blind man gave us all the application today. Did you miss it? The application of the text, brethren, is worship. Are you worshiping your God privately, corporately, family? It's worship. Not just run into God in prayer and give Him your list of needs. He wants you to do that. But if you can see this morning, the application is that we worship. Brethren, as you get on our knees, if you can't get on your knees, then mentally get on your knees and worship. Give praise and glory to the God of heaven. Give Him thanks. Give Him worship. This, brethren, is what ought to motivate us to go more than just two minutes and get our checklist of devotion off the list. You want to know why it's so hard to spend more time alone with God? Because we're not worshiping. We were created to worship. The Father is seeking such to worship Him. And if you've been given eyes to see, that's why He gave them to you, to worship. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you. reminding us our great need of salvation through Christ our Lord to open our eyes, that we might behold the Lord of glory and worship Him. That we would not just go through the motions in our private or family or even here today, this morning, that it's so easy for our minds to wander and forget the glory and the grace and the goodness and the mercy. So God, help us to worship you, to give you thanks and praise, to sing to you. There's a new song in our hearts, Lord. May it come out and be manifested that you are good to us, Lord. May your goodness continue to lead us to repentance. We thank you, Father, for this time to open up your word. We give you praise for it all in Jesus' name. Amen. you