so so so Charlene. Good morning everyone here at Old Providence Church in person and live streaming. I hope this is working. A few announcements worth highlighting this morning before we kick off our worship service. Patrick as you know is out of town on a retreat with many of our youth and hopefully they're enjoying the pleasures of Myrtle Beach and so there will be no youth group tonight. for those of you who are still here, not at Myrtle Beach. No youth group tonight. Patrick and kids, if you're watching us, a special good morning to you as well. Hopefully Patrick and Carrie and Christie aren't presently experiencing what Mark Twain once wrote, let me get this right, that he observed for adolescents, when a boy turns 13, put him in a barrel and feed him through the knot hole. When he turns 16, plug up the knot hole. Genuinely, we trust you're having a terrific time. All right, so it's now August, August 1st, happy August. So that means it's time to be thinking about the end of summer, the beginning of autumn. Starting on September 8th, that's the Wednesday after Labor Day, we'll be holding a weekly Wednesday evening Bible study right here in the sanctuary. I'm honored that Patrick in the session has asked me to lead that. And here's a teaser, a bit of a trailer for it. This season we'll be looking at, drum roll please, covenant theology, covenant theology. Now before you think that that's a dry topic and you yawn, let me assure you that it will be anything other than mundane, academic-only theological doctrine. On the contrary, it will be chock full of dramatic goodness. We'll be looking at covenant theology because that's how God enters into relationship with his people, with us. And his gracious covenants tell us about who he is and who we are. And also, not least of all, if you're a member of Old Providence ARP, which most of you are, you've already professed that you believe in these covenants. I occasionally admit to myself that I and we are leaky people. We forget. So this is a good opportunity for us to remember what it is we believe and to increase, to expand our understanding of the Bible. One more point on that. I expect that our Wednesday evening studies will be scripturally meaty, but there's going to be plenty of side dishes and desserts also. And that's metaphorically speaking. I'm not bringing food. No food. So there's absolutely something for everybody. Did I miss anything announcement-wise, Patsy, anything worth mentioning this morning? I'll leave the rest of the announcements for the bulletin and for the slides that were up here before these. And let's begin our worship service. Charlene, would you pray for me, please? so so so so so so From Psalm 36. Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens. Your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God. Your judgments are like the great deep. Man and beast, you save, O Lord. How precious is your steadfast love, O God. The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house and you give them drink from the river of your delights. for with you is the fountain of life. In your light do we see light. Let's pray to this God, our God, the only true divine. Our heavenly Father, how thankful we are for the truth of your word, that light by which we see everything rightly. Be with us this hour as we worship you. Clear our minds to understand and help us to grasp the meaning of your word as it applies specially to each one of us here this morning. Guard our hearts from the evil one who would love to confuse us and turn us away from you. And please, please be with me, a mere man who confesses his reliance on you for even the most basic of things. Be with me as I share your message. But may it be your spirit who effectively delivers your word to our waiting hearts. We pray these things in the name of our Lord Jesus, who taught us to pray by saying, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. The Apostles' Creed, I welcome you to join with me and with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ as we confess the Apostles' Creed aloud together. I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. Thank you. Please remain seated as we continue to worship our Lord together with hymn number 379 in your red hymnals. Come thou fount of every blessing. And while you're looking that up, as a brief reminder, The term Ebenezer, which you'll be singing about in verse two, it comes from the Old Testament's 1 Samuel 7, verse 12. It means stone of help. Literally, it was a stone that Samuel erected as a reminder to Israel that God had protected them as he led them to victory against the Philistines. So when you raise your Ebenezer, as we're about to sing, so to speak, you're remembering that God, our Heavenly Father, has assisted you. He actually has delivered you. Come thou fount of every blessing. me To the Father of every blessing, to the Lord whose name I praise, to the mercy that I seize, ♪ Your songs now as praise ♪ ♪ These praise to the Lord be sung again ♪ ♪ Sung by weary hearts above ♪ ♪ Praise the power which doth bind ♪ ♪ And the power to change the world ♪ You have raised high heaven and earth, Filled her by the life of our God. When I was old, now I am well, you. For to praise Thou, we have learned, that Thou didst our God send to me. Let thy praise now I have heard, and I'm longing unto Thee. wonder, wonder, Lord, I feel it, wonder in your power. Inside my heart you may be sealing, sealing all my worst sorrow. Children's churches this morning, right, Patsy? Are you having children's church? All right, so now's the time for all of our children who are attending children's church to please be dismissed. Just a few of our little ones. Let's go before our God together in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us the ability to sing to you. It's our privilege to lift up our voices and our hearts in praise and thanksgiving. As we continue to worship you, please hear each one of us as we silently pray to you now. Our God, we've praised you this morning, but it falls far short of what you deserve. As the heavenly elders cast their crowns before the feet of the Lord, so we recognize and we admit to you that we're not worthy. We're not worthy of receiving your blessings, and we're not even worthy of having the privilege to worship you in spirit and in truth, except that your son has made us so. By Him, we are accounted as righteous before you and we can dwell in your presence, in your courts, because of your Son, Jesus. And so it's in Him and through Him, it's by your Son, Jesus, that we may come before you to acknowledge your greatness and your goodness, your perfect care, both in tenderness and in the rod of discipline. And so it's by your son, Jesus, that we are heard by you to confess our sins. And we're assured of your forgiveness. Yes, we're assured. We unburden ourselves with repentance and are confident in you to remove that burden. In this morning's Psalm, we read that you saved man and beast. Indeed. You've redeemed us from our corruption and restored us unto yourself. And you will rescue in creation, which will one day be made perfect as you reestablish your garden. But a better Eden, a better Eden in the eternal new earth where sin is no longer possible, where under the rule of the Messiah, there will be peace, where the wolf dwells and the lamb where the cow and the bear graze together, and where your church will not be oppressed by evil governments. We look forward to that. Yet Lord, in the meantime, we pray for our governmental leaders to follow your precepts, that they know you. Father, we here at Old Providence have enjoyed a very successful homecoming last week, and we thank you for the terrific weather, which we prayed for, and all the laborers who planned and worked to make it happen, especially the ladies. Their hospitality and food was remarkable, and it says so much about the hearts of your people, how they, how we selflessly give of ourselves. We thank you, Lord, we thank you for those who continue to work behind the scenes of Old Providence. There are many who serve us in your name. Our secretary, our maintenance workers and building cleaners, our landscapers and lawn caretakers. Those who bring in the beautiful flowers each week, including this morning, Lord, those who work with the youth and those who participate on the many needed committees. Some of them, frankly, not so desirable, but they work hard. Also our Sabbath day teachers and preschool leaders. Those right now in the nursery. Those who share their good singing voices with us and our musicians, those dedicated musicians who help our worship service. And Lord, those who visit the infirm and help with miscellaneous chores on short notice, often at an inconvenience. Lord, it's easy to work when people are watching, but we've plenty of solid members who care for us with their talents, without any fanfare or recognition. That's a blessing from you. That's your spirit working. There are an awful lot of calories and stresses that are expended every week to keep the wheels on this old Providence bus. But here we are, now, worshiping you in a fine facility and in relative comfort because of them. so we pray for a special blessing upon them. And Father, as Old Providence grows, we acknowledge that it's you who accomplishes that goodness, but there are inherent growing pains that we lift up to you now. Yeah, these are good problems to have, but they're made greater by the reality of COVID restrictions and traditions that we've been challenged with. Lord, as more people visit and join, some of us may not even know everyone as well as we used to. I count myself among that group. As we've had to adapt to multiple services and mass protocols, Lord's supper elements that are prepared by machine and online fellowship. These are disconcerting issues that disrupt our comfort zones and our expectations. They stretch our patience. And so we lay all of these odd things, these unusual things at your feet, and we ask that you help us to deal with them wisely and in love, of course in love, that we consider others more important than ourselves. And finally, we continue to lift up our ailing members and their families those who are in need of care, medical attention, maybe just company and conversation, encouragement, physical strength, financial support, maybe just transportation and whatever blessing, Lord, or need that you know about that we haven't mentioned. Thanks for returning Mr. Ritchie to us this morning. What a good blessing. You do heal, Lord. You pay attention to our prayers. So bring to our attention those who are struggling so that we may help them. Father, we pray all of these things in your son's name, the name above every name, that of Jesus the Christ. In the year 1543, a Catholic clergyman who was also a mathematician and an astronomer died. Just before this Polish man's death, one of his most notable works was published. roughly translated on the revolutions of the heavenly spheres. Nicolaus Copernicus, he informed the world with scientific evidence that the sun was at the center of the universe. Since the first century, Aristotle and Ptolemy's theory of geocentricity had been widely accepted. That's the belief that the Earth was at the center of the universe and that every heavenly body revolved around our globe. Unfortunately, not many people noticed the discoveries of Copernicus. As this news was mainly limited to the scientific community, the ecclesiastical community, the Roman Catholic Church at the time, did not, excuse me, they did not pay very much attention to this discovery. But then a couple of things happened. As a counterpunch to the ongoing Protestant Reformation, which was in full swing, the Catholic Church held what's called the Council of Trent, sometimes referred to as the Counter-Reformation. This Council of Trent was a meeting of Catholic leadership to formally establish and communicate Catholicism's view on a number of significant issues, what they believed the Bible said. One of those declarations was that to check unbridled spirits, The Catholic Church said that no one may rely on his own judgment in matters of faith and morals regarding Christian doctrine or the scriptures. An individual was not allowed to apply his own understanding of the Bible and it was henceforth illegal to interpret scripture in a manner that was contrary to the views held by the Holy Mother Church, the Roman Catholic Church. It's amazing. In case you were wondering, we here at Old Providence Therapy Church do not believe that. We allow for responsible, not responsible, private interpretation, which requires people to learn how to get the author's meaning from the text instead of reading into it personal and nonsensical agendas back into the scriptures. Okay, so then about 50 years after Trent, an Italian physicist expanded upon Copernicus' findings, further verifying that the sun was at the center of the universe. But this time, the Roman Catholic Church took notice. as this view went against their declarations at the Council of Trent. The Catholic Church said that the Bible maintained that the earth was at the center of God's creation and that this man was applying a corrupted view contrary to the church's teaching. Now, before we solely indict the Catholics on this point, just know that Martin Luther, his protege, Philip Melanchthon, Our revered John Calvin and even the Puritan John Owen also believed this incorrect view. The Italian scientist, you may have already guessed, was Galileo. He said to his opponents, look, just look through the telescope and you'll see. Nevertheless, by formal inquisition, the pope ordered that this man, who would eventually become known as the father of modern astronomy, be charged with heresy, and that he, Galileo, not be allowed to hold to or teach this heliocentric belief, the belief that the sun's at the center of our universe and that all planetary bodies, including Earth, revolve around it. Of course, we know today that Galileo was spot on So in this morning's sermon, we'll take a look at belief, how we come to know what we know, and how we come to believe what God tells us, and then what we're gonna do with that. Last month, we looked at the first 14 verses of John 9, which told us about the healing of a man who was born blind. You'll recall that Jesus created some mud by mixing his spit with dirt and he rubbed it on the man's eyes. After telling the man then to go to the pool of Siloam and wash it off, the man did so and returned with his eyesight. The neighbors to whom he returned to share this miraculous news, they were intrigued. Some recognized the man as the one who had been blind and begging since birth, but others because Maybe because he was so transformed in his appearance or countenance, or perhaps just by sheer disbelief, these others were not convinced. In not being able to resolve the matter among themselves, they brought the man to a higher court of opinion, one that was trained in such matters of healing, the Pharisees. The group, this pharisaical group, they would surely know what to do with the healer, especially since this act of healing was performed on the Sabbath. So let's take a look at the rest of John 9 together, beginning at verse 15. But before we do that, a brief prayer. Holy God, we humbly ask you to illumine your word to us by the Holy Spirit so that we would rightly hear and understand and apply what the Lord is saying to us in these scriptures. In Jesus' name, amen. The word of God. So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, he put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see. Some of the Pharisees said, this man's not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath. But others said, how can a man who is a sinner do such things? And there was division among them. So they said again to the blind man, what do you say about him, since he's opened your eyes? And he said, he's a prophet. The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, is this your son who you say was born blind? How then does he now see? His parents answered, we know that this is our son and that he was born blind, but how he now sees, we do not know. nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him, he is of age, he will speak for himself. His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus as Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. Therefore, his parents said, he is of age, ask him. So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner. He answered, whether he's a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know, and though I was blind, now I see. They said to him, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? He answered them, I've told you already and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples? They reviled him, saying, you are his disciple, but we are the disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from. The man answered, why, this is an amazing thing. You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. They answered him, you were born in utter sin and you would teach us? And they cast him out. Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him, he said, do you believe in the Son of Man? He answered, and who is he, sir, that I may believe in him? Jesus said to him, you have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you. He said, Lord, I believe, and he worshiped him. Jesus said, for judgment I came into this world that those who do not see and those who see may become blind. Some of the Pharisees near him, they heard these things and said to him, are we also blind? Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you say we see, your guilt remains. May the Lord bless to us this morning this portion of his holy word. This morning, I want you to think about why you believe that Jesus is Lord, or perhaps why you don't believe that. Did you one day decide that you wanted to? or that it was the right thing to do? Did you come to this awareness on your own? This is not a rhetorical question, and I don't mean for this to be an academic exercise, but I do want you to consider what Jesus said in John 3, 3, that unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He can't. Jesus even implored that by prefacing it with, truly, truly. In Hebrew and Aramaic, repeating a term is our version of highlighting it or underscoring it. By beginning his statement with truly, truly, Jesus is emphatically saying, now, don't miss this. What I'm about to say next is really, really important. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. In other words, you're not going to heaven. In John 3.3, Jesus is telling us that we are spiritually dead, in need of spiritual life. Or another way of putting this is that it's impossible for you even to see your need for life because you are spiritually blind. So no, you didn't come to believe that Jesus is Lord on your own. In fact, you had nothing to do with it because you were dead and blind. Okay, admittedly, this is a bit of an eye chart. So if you can't see it, I hope you brought your Bibles. If not, maybe your spectacles. Verse 15, so the Pharisees again asked him how he received his sight. Having already explained this to the neighbors, it seems that the Pharisees, they now want to hear it for themselves, directly from the horse's mouth, so to speak. The man's answer is pretty straightforward. No embellishment, no colorful details that might confuse. This guy was a good witness. And he said to them, he put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see. Very good, anyone can follow this. Mud, washed, see, got it. But that's not what the Pharisees cared about, for they don't even address his testimony. They right away go to the Sabbath issue. They're after Jesus here, not this man. It's easy to look at this man born blind and latch onto him as a hero. And in a sense he is. He's faithful, he's simple, he's right. And he puts the villains, the Pharisees in this case, he puts them in their place with cheeky sarcasm. And so we like his wit and his spunk. Likewise, there's the opposite temptation to relegate the Pharisees to pure evil. But if we're honest with ourselves, I think we can all identify with them, at least a little bit. And that's important to recognize in ourselves and to root it out. Because even a little bit of pharisaical DNA, a little bit of hypocrisy, pride, boasting, gossip, hanging on to a grudge, A little bit of yeast leavens the whole loaf, Galatians 5.9 and 1 Corinthians 5.6, if you're taking notes. Ignoring this is akin to ignoring a few malignant cancer cells. Look, the Pharisees, they actually began their movement, or their profession, if I may call it that. They actually began it with genuine motives. Even the word Pharisee means separatist. Ring a bell? Holy? There's nothing wrong with that. It's actually a good thing to want to be distinct from the world. And while we don't know very much about their origin, we do know that the Pharisees strove to be pure. But as these things go, You've seen it. Organizations get layered with bureaucracy and with rules. They become more of a club, accepting only those who embrace their proclivities or their persnickities or their inner circle. The Pharisees, their once good desires, they became legal requirements that they lorded over others. And when those couldn't be achieved, as it's impossible to keep all of the law, they added traditions, which they could keep. overseen with snobbery and an attitude of religious elitism. One small chapter in their scroll of tradition was that the Pharisees had listed 39 things that they deemed illegal for a Jew to do on the Sabbath. One of these was kneading dough to make bread. It's very possible that they considered Jesus mixing spit and dust as having broken that Sabbath prohibition. And they piled these onto the people as though they were foundational requirements demanded by God, which of course they weren't. The Pharisees burdened the Jews. They forced them to micromanage every move they made, instilling fear and punishing violators with banishment from the synagogue. However, Even among these fastidious Pharisees, there was disagreement. They just couldn't fit Jesus into their legal mode of who they thought he should be. And the man born blind, he was not helping them get to a consensus. So they took a different path and they bring in the parents. This inquiry with the man's parents in verses 18 through 23, it tells us a few things worth noting. First of all, that the parents were afraid of the Pharisees. We don't have to infer that from the text as John tells us plainly that they feared being excommunicated. No doubt a punishment excommunication that would result in embarrassment, some social ostracizing, and probably some economic hardship for no one would want to be openly associated with these parents, either in worship or in business. The vast majority, by the way, of commentators on this particular text, they'll find fault with the parents. They'll find fault with the parents for not standing tall and professing who healed their son. And yes, they are guilty of cowardliness. but no one really knows how brave or cowardly they will be when faced with a decision in battle. Be it a physical battle or a spiritual one. Peter, the great leader of the apostles and author of part of our New Testament, even Peter was certain he would go to the ends of the earth to defend the name of Christ. But he not only fled from trained soldiers like a frightened animal in the heat of the moment, but then, After the adrenaline had subsided, he had time to think. Then he lied, numerous times, to an unarmed servant girl. Let me give you another example, a little more modern one. When Nikita Khrushchev took over the Soviet Union's leadership from the deceased dictator, Joseph Stalin, he gave a speech which was attended by Communist Party delegates and some media. It was Khrushchev's purpose to point out that a new regime was at the helm and that he wanted the Soviet Union to move on from the mass police state that Stalin had created. You should be aware that Stalin was responsible for more deaths than Hitler. He actually had over 23 million of his own citizens killed. And that Russia under his tyranny was brutal on all levels. As Khrushchev was listing the torture systems and the summary executions that had gone on for decades, someone shouted out from the crowd, well, if he was so bad, why didn't you just get rid of it? Khrushchev paused, and with the authority of the entire Soviet Union under his domain, asked back, who said that? There was deafening silence in the hall. So he repeated himself, this time demanding and at volume, who said that? After no one came forward, Khrushchev then said, well, now you understand why we didn't do anything. And so the parents of this previously blind man confirmed that he was their son and that he had been born blind. But yeah, they abstained from testifying that it was Jesus who healed him. How typical, even in our day. Any discourse on Jesus is divisive. But this shouldn't be a surprise to us. Consider Simeon in Luke 2 when he took the child Jesus in his arms on the occasion that Mary and Joseph brought him to dedication in the temple. Listen to what Simeon says about Jesus. This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, to be a sign that it will be spoken against so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And why is this? It's simple, because Jesus is exclusive. He does not celebrate salvific diversity. He's the only way, the only way to salvation. He rightly claims no one comes to the Father except through me, John 14, 6. And the great physician, as that great physician, he diagnoses the disease of the heart and declares the prognosis as terminal. Look, you may not have me back to preach after I say this next sentence, but this is coming from God. Jeremiah 17, nine. You are born rotten at the core in need of invasive cardio surgery. The heart is deceitful above all things. It's beyond cure. You are in need of spiritual heart resuscitation and only Jesus can provide it. Only Jesus. Look, that's not hyperbole. It's not even close to approaching exaggeration. You may have attractive externalism. You may look good to the community and have your family act together. Maybe your kids or your grandkids are just the best ever. Oh, and you're respected at the club or seen as a good man in the office or on the farm. But unless you're healed, on the inside, Jesus says you are a whitewashed tomb. You look good on the outside, but on the inside, you're dead, spiritually dead. Or put another way, blind to the truth. People, we need new eyes. We're all born blind. Is there somewhere else to someone else other than to Jesus where you can get this fixed? Listen to what Simon Peter acknowledged in John 6, 68. Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. I think we can appreciate by now that Jesus condemns externalism because it's pure hypocrisy. And the poster children for pretending to be something that you're not, that poster is the Pharisees. In verses 24 and 25, the Pharisees, they call this man back into the dock a second time, this time demanding that he provide testimony against Jesus. Give glory to God, they say. We know that this man, Jesus, is a sinner. Now with this, they've shown their true colors. No more are these Pharisees feigning to be interested in how this guy claimed to be healed. Their real agenda is to find fault with Jesus, and their gloves are now off. They want to hit with their bare knuckles. Firstly, they command, give glory to God. That command is a way of demanding that a person speak the truth. Using it in this way implies that the other person needs to confess some sin or some deception. Other examples of this are Joshua 7, 19 and 1 Samuel 6, 5. In modern speech, this would be like a judge telling the defendant, come on now, come, come, tell the truth. The religious leaders further disclose their prejudice by stating, we know this man, Jesus, is a sinner. This echoes their initial condemnation of him and the rejection of the miracle in verse 16, wherein they say that he's not from God. By intimating that the man and his parents are lying and claiming to know that Jesus is a lawbreaker, the Pharisees are trying to intimidate the formerly blind man into changing his story. Their verdict is already made. That verdict is that Jesus is guilty of sinning, and they want the man to corroborate their prejudice. It's kangaroo court. Look, this man is not a trained theologian. He's never read any books. He's not handing out impersonal tracts, and he doesn't have a 10-step systematic plan or a graphic showing how one gets saved. But his testimony is awesome. The man who was blind since birth responds to the Pharisees. Whether or not he's a sinner, I don't know. One thing I do know, I was blind, but now I see. He puts the condition of Jesus's legal status right back into the lap of the Pharisees. Whether or not Jesus broke your extra-biblical law, I don't know. If he sinned, that's up to you Pharisees, you scribes and teachers of the law to decide. But this I do know, because I've experienced it firsthand. I was blind, but now I see. That's an amazing testimony. But the Pharisees won't accept it. And then they proceed to hang themselves with more rope. They claim that Jesus' origins are unknown and that they are disciples of Moses. Yet Jesus told them previously in John 5 that they don't adhere to the law of Moses. And so their own profession of allegiance, it condemns them. John 5, verses 45 through 47. Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father, says Jesus. There is one who accuses you, Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? Look, it's the same thing that we have in the parable that Jesus tells of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16. Remember, the rich man dies and he goes to hell and he looks over and he can see Lazarus. He cries out, pleading that there would be some intervention in the lives of his brothers who are still on earth. And the response is, there's no point in anybody going to your brothers. Because if they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, then they're not even gonna listen to one who rises from the dead. But these Pharisees, if you haven't figured it out by now, I'll just say it, they are the ones who are blind. Their hearts are hardened, and they cannot, they cannot see the truth. And so they're fed up with the smart, alky man, and they kick him out. He's not been able to get them any further towards their goal of getting rid of Jesus. Verse 35, Jesus heard that they had thrown the man out. And when he found him, he asked, do you believe in the Son of Man? Now let's first note that Jesus found him. He didn't just happenstance bump into him, but instead Jesus, the great shepherd, was looking for his sheep. Spiritually blind people do not go around seeking God. He finds them. And then Jesus actually asks the big question. Do you believe in the Son of Man? That's a huge question, and one that's easier for someone in the Old Testament period to understand than perhaps many people today. How many times I ask in evangelism today, have you heard someone asking, do you believe in the Son of Man? Not many, probably zero. But remember that the Jews only had the Old Testament as their Bible, and that Old Testament pointed to Jesus, the coming Messiah. The synagogue and the culture of the Jews as God's chosen people was everything to their community. As such, even the most common Jew, they knew the scriptures, and they would have an understanding of that question. So let me unpack this a little bit more. Jesus' favorite reference to himself was as the Son of Man. Unfortunately, there's often a misunderstanding of what that title means. The Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses, two non-Christian cults, They'll say this proves Jesus was not divine. And so these cults hold that the union of the Trinity is a farce. They don't believe in the Trinity. But many Christians, even Christians will limit this title, Son of Man, to infer that Jesus was fully human, which is true, but it's not the entire story. When Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man, he's saying much more than declaring his human nature. We rightly confess in the Apostles' Creed, we did it this morning, that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, and many times he's also referred to as the Son of David. Both of these testify to his earthly genealogy. If you care to review those on your own later, you can get a good start with Romans 1.3, Matthew 20.1.9, and Mark 10.8. But more than the human nature of Jesus, the title Son of Man declares his divine nature, that he is God, by pointing back to Daniel 7. In that chapter, Daniel has this vision in which he sees the Son of Man ascending to the throne of the Ancient of Days as a triumphant victor. And at that throne of the Ancient of Days, he's given the privilege of sharing his triumph with those who are called the saints of the Most High, his church. So in Jesus's mind, the picture of the Son of Man refers not just to his humanity, it refers also to his exaltation at the right hand of the Father, his glory. and then the expansion of his kingdom that will take place as he is exalted at the Father's right hand. So to be clear, Jesus is asking this man, whom he has healed in our text today, if this man believes in the coming Messiah, the divine king of whom Daniel foresaw in glory. What a great question. So what are we to do with this? Do we leave it to history and conclude that it's only applicable to a man born blind over 2,000 years ago? I hope you don't think that. I'm pretty sure you don't think that. Foremost, if you're not convinced that Jesus is Lord, or that you need him to be spiritually reborn, then this question is aimed this morning directly at you. To you. And you need to answer it. Ask him for that belief. Ask him to see. Repent of what you know to be sin and plead his forgiveness, for only he has the authority to grant it. He calls you. Come to me, he says. This is Jesus talking in Matthew 11. Come to me and I will give you rest. submit to his lordship, offer yourselves to Jesus, and live. For those of you who know the Lord's saving grace, you'll appreciate that this salvation was not of yourselves. You did nothing to heal yourself. It was the Lord himself who found you, who put mud on your eyes and softened your heart, who called you out of the grave and breathed life into your spirit. The simple testimony of this man before the Pharisees, it's one that regards his physical sight, but it nonetheless is a wonderful example of genuine evangelism. This man, this guy, he didn't know much, but what he did know, he shared. He just pointed to Jesus as his healer. He simply knew that he was healed. He knew who healed him, and he told those who asked him about it This morning's message opened with the historical story of a man who stuck to his beliefs, to that which he knew was real, his convictions in the face of authoritative pressures. Like Martin Luther before the Diet at Worms, whose Catholic authorities demanded that Luther recant his belief that scripture was the sole authority to bind a man's conscience, Galileo did not recant. Instead, he accepted the charge of heresy rather than deny the obvious truth that the sun is at the center of our universe. Our man born blind, he was saying the exact same thing. Look, look! I'm that man who was previously blind, just look! But that was when his externals were fixed. when his eyes became 20-20. But after his second encounter with Jesus, when his heart was fixed, he was no longer saying, look at me. Instead, he was worshiping Jesus. His life would forevermore point to the Lord. In a letter to his astronomer colleague, Galileo wrote to Kepler, that he had begged the naysayers, having freely and deliberately offered them the telescope a thousand times to simply look. But these philosophers, as Galileo called them, they've stopped their ears and they've shut their eyes to the light of truth. Sound familiar? Zechariah 7.11, but they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear. Good news means nothing without an appreciation of the bad news. The world must understand the bad news in order to want the good. Well, here it is, the bad news. All are condemned by their sin unto eternal damnation. Eternal damnation. But the good news, the gospel, is that Jesus offers atonement to those throughout the world, atonement for guilt and restoration to a relationship with God for eternity. This is the evangelical message that will lead people to see Jesus directed the Great Commission to his disciples before he was taken up to heaven. If you have been made alive in Christ, that charge equally applies to you. Matthew 28, 18 through 20a, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I commanded you. So how do you do this? Just live under his lordship. You read his word. You pray to him. and you go about your day to day, you let your life and lips point not to yourself, but to Jesus who removed your blindness and saved you. That's your calling. It's all of, it's all of our calling to look to Jesus and to point others to him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, A simple prayer, we are yours. Lord, we are yours in whom there is life. Cause us to go forth this day and upcoming week protected by your hand and blessed with your grace. We so need it. Make these words that we've heard from you this morning, your words live to us. in Jesus' name, amen. Our closing hymn this morning is number 303, 303 in the red hymnals, Be Thou My Vision. you. I am. you. I have heard the hill-tolling call, May I reach heaven's door to soar high and sigh? Alleluia! Amen. Our benediction this morning is to each other. Let's go in peace with the comfort of God, again, given through Moses to his brother Aaron, available to us in the book of Numbers chapter six, verses 24 through 26. The words are up on the screen. Let's please recite it aloud together to each other as a mutual parting blessing. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Indeed, amen. Lord, please go in peace.