Eyes to See

God has blessed us with psalms which lead us in knowing how we can pray to God honestly and openly. One of the most powerful psalms begins this way. How long, O Lord, will you forget me? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? The beautiful thing of the psalm is that God is teaching us that we can go to God openly and honestly, talking to him with our troubles and how we even are impatient, how we can cry out to God in the midst of our anxiety, our suffering and our sickness. This is a helpful model for us because we all have difficulties. We all have sickness. We will all face great sorrow and we all have difficulty waiting. on the Lord. What the psalmist will teach us is the same thing our lesson is today from John 9. God cares for us. God is watching over us. God has a plan that he will bring about through our suffering. We must wait for him. We must look for his light so that we can see what he is doing in our midst. Our message this morning can be summarized as this. Our darkness and love for our sin keeps us from seeing the light and the love of God. Our darkness and love for our sin keeps us from seeing the light and the love of God. We'll be looking at John chapter nine this morning, you can turn in the Pew Bible to page 895 if you don't have a Bible, and please take that with you if you would like it. If we're reading the story, I want us to see that a theme we're going to be looking at is actually one of the primary themes of the entire Gospel of John and is the theme of seeing. And really, this goes all the way back to Exodus. Moses asked, can I can I see your glory? I said, no. You can't. You can see the reflection of my glory, but you cannot see my face. And then in John 118, the end of the prologue. No one has ever seen God, but the only begotten son of God, who was from the father's side, he has made him known. That's the beauty of God's gospel, that we would see God in Jesus Christ. We see this very clearly in John, chapter 14, verses eight and nine, when a disciple asked Jesus, show us a father. He says, when you see me, you see the father. We can go further in chapter 20. You can turn there, John, chapter 20, as the disciples are anxious and they're wondering what has happened to our Savior. Verse 18, Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord and that he has said these things to her. Then look at chapter 20 beginning. In verse 19, on the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, Peace be with you. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you as the father has sent me, even so I am sending you. And we had said this. He breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven. If you withhold forgiveness for anyone, it is withheld. Now, Thomas, one of the twelve called the twin was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him we have seen the Lord. But he said to them, unless I see in his hands and the marks of the nails and place my finger in the marks of the nails and place my hand onto his side, I will never believe. Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here and see my hands. Put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe. Thomas answered him, My Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen yet have believed. Well, we see here one example of seeing leading to faith, and that's because Thomas has been called. Thomas has been given eyes now to believe and see Jesus Christ. The sight that John wants us to have is not the sight of seeing the physical wounds. It's seeing God's face. It's a seeing that is really believing. Seeing Jesus Christ and knowing who he is, seeing the plan of God and knowing that the father had loved us even while we were rebels. He has sent his son to die for us. And now he is. We are waiting with the Holy Spirit until he returns. If you look to John, chapter nine. We will see this theme of seeing it throughout the book, it's the main focus of chapter nine, as it is a motif or a theme throughout the entire gospel of John. We have three primary characters. There's Jesus. The blind man who became seeing and the Pharisees, so those are your three primary characters, Jesus, the blind man, the Pharisees, the secondary characters are the disciples. The neighbors and the blind man's parents. And the tension is all going to be focused on the fact that Jesus heals this blind man on the Sabbath, what puts all the focus on him and who he is. After the healing, we have five conversations, the blind man and his neighbors, the blind man and the Pharisees, the blind man's parents and the Pharisees, the blind man and the Pharisees take two, and then the blind man and Jesus. Here, Chapter 9 of the Gospel of John. As Jesus passed by, he saw a man blind from birth, and his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered them, it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. He anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, which means sent. So he went and washed and came back seeing. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, is this not the man who used to sit and beg? Some said it is he, others said no, but he is like him. He kept saying, I am the man. So they said to him, then how were your eyes opened? He answered, the man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed and received my sight. They said to him, where is he? He said, I do not know. They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. And that was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes, so 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 is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath. But others said, how can a man who was a sinner do such signs? And there was a division among them. So they said again to the blind man, who do you say? What do you say about him since he has opened your eyes? He said he is 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 sight and asked him, 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 to be the 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 is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know, that 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? And they revived him, saying, You are his disciples, but we are 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 worshipper 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 blonde. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. They answered him, you were born in utter sin and would you 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. It is he who is speaking to you. He said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. Jesus said, For judgment I come, I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, Are we also blind? Jesus said to them, If you are blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you say we see your guilt remains. Will you pray with me? We thank you, Father. That you have not left us in our blind state. not knowing who you are and who we are. You as a just and loving God and we as sinners rebelled against you. We thank you for your word that shows us our sin and our need for you and how you are everything we need. Help us, Lord. Shine light in our midst. May your Holy Spirit blow through every heart sitting here. Teach us your word. Help us, Lord, to see our sin and the guilt we have and the hope that we only have in Christ. In Jesus name we pray, Amen. As we begin our story, our key word jumps off the page right at the beginning. Jesus was passing by and he saw a man born blind. The setting, he's passing by, this is still in the Feast of Booths, he's probably still in Jerusalem. And here he comes by and he sees a man born blind, and the blind in this day and age, they would have been considered cursed. The question of the disciples is a good question. Who sinned? This man or his parents? They would have seen some kind of a disability like this, as if it were caused by sin. They would always look to the disability and the suffering and assume, like Job's friends, somebody must have done something wrong. So they asked the question that dominated the philosophy of the time. Who sinned? Now, this, if you were listening, you heard the word see constantly. Did you also notice a lot of people keep asking questions and they don't get the answer they want. So they keep asking questions that this story is marked with questions. And here they ask the question. It's a good question. However, Jesus is going to make it clear you're asking the wrong question. It was not that this man sinned to his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. This man is blind for the glory of God. That's radical. It is no way radical to think that a sin or a sickness or an ailment was caused by sin. It's radical to hear God uses our weakness. God uses our disability. God uses what the world thinks is wrong with us for his glory. We look at verses four and five, we must work. Notice how Jesus is incorporating the disciples into what he is doing. We must work. We must work the works of him who sent me while it's still day. Night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. He is the one who's shining light. The point being, everybody's actually blind. Everybody is actually living in darkness. And it's only when you see the light of Jesus Christ that you were given eyes to see God. The miracle beginning in verse six, he spits in the ground and makes mud and tells the man to go wash. Now, there could be some symbolism here. It's not it's not jumping off the pages. It's absolutely evident. But it could be that he uses the dust because we were made from dust. He uses the dirt of the earth as part of the healing process. He tells them to go wash because there's going to be a renewal. There's a washing away of the old and a giving of the new. What we see is Jesus does the activity. He's the one who spits and makes the mud and applies it. He anoints him. And he gives the man one command. Go wash. What does the man do? He goes and washes. He's obedient. And notice this section, the setting. Jesus saw a man blind from birth. He came back seeing. Jesus, when he sets his eyes on what's wrong with us, he sets his will to fix what's wrong with us. He sees a man who is blind. That man came back seeing. Jesus is the one who heals. Our next scene, the blind man who's a beggar, the neighbors come out. They kind of recognize him. He obviously looks a little different. He now can see. He's walking differently. He's carrying himself differently. Notice the confusion. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar, is this not the man who used to sit and beg? Some said, yes, it's him. And others said, no, it's someone like him. Now, I wonder if they're going to say it's someone like him, because as they passed every day, this cursed beggar, they never really looked at his face. They never paid him any attention, so they could say it looks like him, you know, they all kind of look alike, these folks that we don't pay any attention to. So here we see the town, they're wondering, what is this? Is this him? He looks like him. Notice what he says. I'm the man. Can't you see? I'm the one you saw every day. And now I have eyes. Why can't you see this? John is full of great irony. Look at me. I can now see. So they ask him. They appear to be convinced this is the man. And so the next question is, if this is the guy who was blind, how were your eyes opened? Well, the man they called Jesus, he made mud, he anointed my eyes, and he said to me, go wash, and I obeyed, and now I see. Well, where is he? I don't know, because he told me to go and I went. And you also see, every time Jesus does something, especially on the Sabbath, he disappears. He quickly makes himself disappear, because the contrast, the discussion here, is going to build up the story. Well, the crowd, the neighbors, his neighbors, the folks who have lived with him all their lives. They're not convinced that they need to know, is this man clean? Is he unclean? How do we make what to make of this this miracle? So they're the one thing that they know to do. They don't take him to the hospital. They take him to the religious leaders. They take him to the Pharisees. Now, notice verse 13. Again, the Holy Spirit leading John in his wording is is so significant. They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Well, that's a mouthful, but that is the most hopeful description. He was blind. Now it sees. Now he sees. So there's a transition here. The neighbors, they need answers. They take them to the Pharisees. The tension really builds. They're kind of standing in wonder. They're standing in awe. But the tension builds in verse 14. It was the Sabbath. Jesus really seems to go out of his way and have a habit of doing miracles on the Sabbath. And this really drives the Pharisees crazy because they rule the Sabbath. They have lots of rules and regulations on the Sabbath, and Jesus keeps going out of his way to push their traditions, their rules. Look at verse 15. The Pharisees, they ask him how he received his sight. Well, it's a three-step process. He put mud on my eyes, I washed and now I see. It is fairly simple and clear. Notice verse 16. It's an important transition in the story. The questions stop being about the man born blind. At this point, they transition because they have to be convinced this is the man who was blind. They have to be convinced that he now sees. And so they start questioning someone else. It's Jesus. This man, speaking of Jesus, he cannot be from God, for he does not keep our Sabbath rules and regulations. But others said, but wait, if you're going to call him a sinner, how can he do such a thing? I mean, right here before us is a man who was blind. Now he sees we need to be a little careful. So you see, there's a division between in the midst of the Pharisees. Now, key here. The Pharisees are clinging to their rules and regulations. They're clinging to what they have established as their bar to help them feel like they're righteous. This is where they go wrong. They have misunderstood the law. They have misunderstood who God is. They have misunderstood who they are. They are not going to be able to call upon Jesus as the righteous Son of God who declares sinners righteous because they already assume something that keeps them from that. And it's that they are righteous. Now, there's even something a little funnier here. They can't figure it out. There's the vision here among the Pharisees, those who are supposed to be leading all of Israel with the clear sight of God and the clear sight of the law, and they turn to the blind man to ask him who this man is. John has intentionally said they turn to the blind man, not the man who once was blind, but the man who would have been under a curse. What do you say about him since he's up in your eyes? He's a prophet. This is one of the three key offices that we see of Jesus in the New Testament. He's a prophet. He's the one who reveals God fully and completely and perfectly. He's the priest, as we just sang. He's the one who gives an atoning sacrifice that satisfies the wrath of God. And he's a king. He's the one bringing about the perfect, righteous kingdom of God. He is the one who speaks the truth. The Pharisees are supposed to be the teachers. Jesus is the prophet. He's the one who is really teaching the truth. Well, what you do when you don't like the first piece of advice, when you when you've tried to analyze and come up with an answer and you didn't get the answer you wanted, you go ask somebody else. The Pharisees, they're not satisfied. So look at verse 18, they now ask the man's parents and notice they've got to go back. The Jews did not believe that he had been blind. and had received his sight. So, they went and asked his parents. They have to get rid of this miracle because this miracle will lead to necessary conclusions that they cannot accept. So, they go and they ask his parents, and they ask them two questions. Is this your son who was born blind? How does he now see? Now, the parents, they answer the one question, yes. We know this is our son. We know he was born blind, but that's as far as we're going to go. They really throw their son under the bus here. You see in this great inspired commentary in verse 22 in the parentheses, John lets us know something. So why they're not going to defend their beloved son who was blind and now sees. They know that this was their son who was blind and now sees. They're fearful of being cast out by the Pharisees. Out of fear of man, they deny their son. Ask him. He's of age. So, the Pharisees, again, got nowhere, except for the fact that they really can't deny that this man was blind and now he sees. So, verse 24. Our next theme. Bring him back. 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. Now, that sounds really pious. Give glory to God. And anytime you hear someone using religious language, hear how they qualify it. Just a warning here, because they want to pretend that they're the ones glorifying God, but they're denying God's own son. They're denying the one who is righteous and can remove their sin. First, twenty five, look at his answer, unlike the man who was healed in chapter five, this blind man's sharp. He's quick on his feet. He answers, I believe, by the power of God, these Pharisees who are putting him through an unnecessary inquisition. He answered. One thing I do know, I was blind, now I see. I cannot speak to this man, and if he's a sinner, yet. But the one thing I do know, I'm blind, now I see. That's the thing before you. That's what you have to deal with. Here's the fact. I was blind. I now see. So we have to figure out who is this Jesus, because he's the one who gave me sight. The Pharisee asked him again, what did he do? How did he open your eyes? He's already told them once, apply, wash, see. The man gets bold, the blind, the formerly blind man. I've told you already. You do not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples? Now, I can start to appreciate him a little bit. He's a bit of a contrarian here, isn't he? He's putting his finger right in their sinful hearts. He's attacking their pride. Are you going to become his disciples too? They reviled him. You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. You see here that problem again. They're believing that they have knowledge of God's law. They've obeyed God's law, and that makes them children of Moses. They believe that the law is the way of righteousness. They have not understood the most basic principle that God teaches throughout the Old Testament, that the law is there to help us see we need grace. The law is there to reveal to us that we have hearts that covet, that we have hearts that murder, that we are guilty and we need a savior to die for us. They're contrasting Moses and Jesus, and Jesus already said in chapter five, if you believe Moses, you'll believe me because he spoke of me. Moses gave the promises. Jesus is a fulfillment. They don't get it because they've misunderstood God's word. Most importantly, misunderstood themselves. They look at the law and they start checking boxes for what they've done. Rather look at the law and let the Spirit of God show them how far they are from righteousness. They're putting an unnecessary dividing line between Jesus and Moses. Now, verse 29, if you've been with us, you're going to hear a motif that's been with us throughout the last few chapters. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from. Right? They've tried to pretend he's a Samaritan. They've tried to pretend he's not from Bethlehem. They don't know where he comes from, and Jesus made it very clear. The only thing you need to know is that I come from God the Father. That is where my authority stands. Verse 30. A man who was blond, speaking to the religious elite, the rulers of the town. You guys amaze me. Are you serious? This is what you're going to keep arguing. This is absolutely incredible. I was blind. I now see. You have to see the logical conclusion of what's happening here. He's calling out their foolishness as absolutely amazing foolishness. You know where it comes from, and yet you see my eyes, they're open. Look at verse 31. He tells him what he knows, I was once blind, now I see. Now he moves into the verse 31, what he assumes is shared knowledge. We know God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshipper 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. His argument is very clear. It's very logically clear. No one who is a sinner can heal the blind. This man heals the blind. Therefore, this man is not what you say he is. He's not a sinner. There's something unique. He has done something unique. Therefore, he is unique. You have to stop denying the most obvious logical conclusion. If no sinner can heal the blind, and this man healed the blind, he's not a sinner. He's different. He's set apart. Now, remember what Jesus said way back in verse 3. His blindness was not because of his sin or his parents' sin. His blindness was to display the work of God. His blindness is to make much of God. That is the purpose for which he is blind. And now here he is in the midst of his neighbors, in the midst of the religious elite. He's making much of God's son. He's helping them to see or helping them where they should see Jesus is the son of God who is righteous and he can heal the blind. The Pharisees, they therefore cast him out. Notice what's at stake for this man. He's been an outcast his entire life. He's been despised his entire life. He's been ignored and avoided his entire life and here within minutes, within maybe hours. He's now forced to decide, am I going to be an outcast again? The one thing he knows is he was blind and now he sees. And that is a price worth paying because that miracle has changed his life. Look at verse 35. The next chapter is Jesus, the good shepherd. Listen to what a good shepherd does. Jesus heard they had cast him out. And he found him. That shepherd who healed is the shepherd who cares, is the shepherd who loves him, and is a shepherd that goes and finds him. The shepherd is caring for this man. He heard he'd been cast out, so he goes and finds him to give him that new citizenship. Do you believe in the Son of Man, Jesus asked. He answered him, Who is he that I may believe? Jesus said, You have seen him. It is he who is speaking to me. He believed and he worshipped. The amazing thing that this blind man has to get through is not that he has to decide if he's going to be an outcast again. He's been physically blind his entire life and what he realizes once he gets his physical sight back is that everybody around him has been blind as well. No one can see who Jesus is. He has been given the unique blessing of seeing the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, the God who saves sinners and the God who heals. Everybody else, his neighbors, the Pharisees, his parents. They're blind. They're spiritually blind, they're living in darkness, they cannot see the light that's shining right there in their midst. But he has been approached by God Almighty. and being given eyes to see the Savior. He worships Him. Notice how this particular section of the story ends. It continues. Jesus said, For judgment I came into this world that those who do not see may see and those who see may become blind. Some of the Pharisees near Him heard these things and said to Him, Are we also blind? Jesus said to them, If you're blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you say we see your guilt remains. Now, Jesus is teaching. He continues to talk to the man. And there's a few Pharisees in earshot. I came to judge. He came to bring sight to the unseeing. But those who claim to see those who believe they have a righteousness of their own, they're going to remain in their blindness. Jesus has come to shine true light. Not the defaults like the Pharisees claim to have the Pharisees claim to give. There's two main applications that I want us to think about this morning. First, I want us to think about sickness and suffering, and then I want us to think about our own self-righteousness. Our first main application. All sickness and suffering is an opportunity to glorify God. All sickness and suffering is an opportunity to glorify God. We shouldn't be amazed that Jesus healed this man. We should be amazed that Jesus used this man to glorify himself. We should be amazed that God uses us. And he just doesn't use us. He uses our weakness. That's the amazing thing about the gospel. It's the amazing thing about the God who has revealed himself in this world. He glorifies himself. and what the world considers wrong with us. He takes what's wrong with us and he makes much of himself through that. Now. This could be controversial and I'd love to talk to you about it afterwards, but it appears that God intended for this man to be blonde. It appears that God intended for this man to be blonde. Now, at first, my heart says, but Why would God make someone blind? He should give them sight because everybody deserves sight. And there you see there's a problem. In my own self-righteousness, I think these are the things I deserve from God and God should give them to me. The pot should never think that way to the one who formed him. God gives us good gifts. We come to expect them and believe we deserve them. When even our sight, our hearing, our ability to walk and talk and fellowship and love and know and think, these are all gifts from God. It appears that God intended this man's blindness, and it's very important to see this because he intended it for his glory. God is glorified in our weakness, in our suffering, in our disability, in our sickness. This is good news. Your suffering is never meaningless. There's nothing worse than being in the midst of suffering and you don't see an end to it. You don't see a purpose to it. If you're a Christian, you know that your suffering always has a good purpose because God uses all things for our good and his glory. I wish you knew something, too. As a blind man, his hearing probably became very good. So when you have one ailment, your other senses, they get stronger. God doesn't say, I want to use this man's acute hearing for my glory. I'm going to use his blindness. He takes what we think is wrong with us. He takes what the world says is our weakness, and he changes us. And he uses those things for his glory. We have to realize that our weaknesses are there to make much of God. We too often want our strengths to be used for God. And if all you want is your strengths to be used for God, you're not focusing on the glory of God, you're focusing on your glory and your strength. Yes, God has given good gifts and we need to be good stewards of those gifts, but God is magnified in his weakness. This is evident in the way the entire Bible lays out. Think about it. How did God bring victory over his greatest enemy? He lowers himself. God brings about victory over sin and death by first lowering himself to become a man. He sets aside his glory. He adds himself a dependency. The God who created bread and fish and animals and water. He made himself depend upon these things. The God who was glorious and able and mighty, he now is dependent upon the things he created. He now sits under the sun and the moon he put in place. He needs their light. He needs clothing to protect him from the elements he controls. And he eventually dies at the very hands he came to save. God's ways. Are not always or are better stated, why aren't our ways like God's ways? We look for power. We look for strength. When God's ways have always been meek. God's ways have always come to serve, to lay down his life for us. If he came to conquer by serving, by making little of himself, by dying. The cross is where we see this. We must realize that our weakness is where God will be most glorified. He uses our gifts for his glory, but it'll be his glory most evident in our weakness. This calls for humility and a confidence in the gospel. You have to have confidence in Jesus Christ and what he's done in order to say, I'm going to expose my weakness for the glory of God. You have to believe that this is how God saved you to ever say, I'm going to stop hiding my weakness. To glorify God. Because that's what we do. We believe the lie that we're supposed to be strong and fit. We're not supposed to have anything wrong with us. We all have something wrong with us. And we all hide it because we're afraid that someone's going to think less of us. When people think, when people see our weakness, they're going to think more of God. We reveal it correctly and in the gospel. If you're in the midst of suffering and sickness and worrying about sickness, know this. Your suffering does not have to be meaningless. You can make much of God in the midst of your sickness and your suffering. Suffering makes us partners with Jesus Christ on the cross. It allows us to participate in the suffering so that we can attain the resurrection. And when the midst of suffering is sickness, first seek God. Seek God and how he wants to use the weakness, how he wants to use the sickness. Also, Christian, know the promise, especially those who continue to get weaker and weaker, those who have chronic illness, hear the promises that all suffering will end. Romans 818, for I consider that the suffering of this present time. The sufferings of the present time are not worth comparing with the glory. That is to be revealed to us, Revelation 21, And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. God is going to put an end to suffering for those who believe in Jesus Christ. If you don't believe in Jesus Christ, your suffering will be intensified forever. Because when your sin comes into direct contact with the holy and just God, the wrath will consume you forever. The suffering is only worse and more intense and forever for those who continue to deny Christ. But you are here this morning and you can hear the truth that will relieve you of that suffering to come, that will free you from the wrath that is to come. And it is that you are a sinner. Jesus Christ came to die in the place of sinners, if you believe in him, your wrath that you would receive forever Put on him. It's taken away from you and he takes it on himself. So you are free. The wrath of God against your sins is no longer counted against you because it's counted against Jesus. This is the good news you must believe. If you're one of our older members, your body is continuing to grow frail, Trust God first as to how he can magnify himself. And I want to encourage you. Be obedient to the covenant we've made as a church. Let us participate in your joy and your sorrow. This is what the body of Christ is for, to care for those who cannot care for themselves. The Bible declares very clearly, care for the widow and the orphan. Don't be selfish with your suffering. Let us love you and participate in the joy that we can have in seeing God glorified in your suffering. Church, we have to be ready and eager to do so. Our final application, we must pray for sight to see Jesus and ourselves properly. Darkness really comes down to two main things. We don't see God correctly. We don't see ourselves. We have a misunderstanding of who God is and we have a misunderstanding of who we are. Christian, I first want to address your particular blindness. True and authentic believers can be in states of blindness. Now, at one level, we're all still blind. No one knows the true depth of their corruption. None of us are aware of how sinful we are. Only God knows how sinful we are. And as Christians, we're supposed to grow more and more aware of how sinful we are. But we'll never get how deep set our rebellion is. But the blindness I want to address is we can actually enter into a long state. And the state of blindness I'm referring to is caused by puffing ourselves up as if better than others. These are some of the ways we can puff ourselves up and interest in a blindness. We can boast as if our traditions are better. We can boast as if my favorite doctrine I get and no one else gets it or my favorite discipline I take more seriously than everyone else. I give more. I serve more. I know more. Sometimes even I know less. We all have idols we boast in, and when we begin to boast in what we have attained, Darkness sets in. Because we stop seeing how good God's grace is that saves us as sinners and gives us all those good gifts we boast as if they are our own invention. Christian, boast only in Christ. Boast only in what he's done in you and through you. Stop judging others. Seeing We need to realize that we're corrupt, we're perverse, and we're completely dependent upon God's grace. If you're not a Christian, I want to attack one particular argument you may have and that I need to see more evidence. Go back and look at the story. There's no amount of evidence or argument that I or anyone else could give you that's going to convince you that Jesus Christ is the Lord and Savior. If you're built up in your own heart that you're already righteous. That's what you need convincing of first. Are you angry? You're a murderer. Are you are you plagued within a snare with lust? Do you lie? Do you covet? These things make us guilty before God. And the problem with the Pharisees is that they looked at God's law and they checked off the boxes. Oh yeah, I've done this as if it's the measuring stick to be righteous, to do these things. Our problem is that we are our own law. We make up our own rules. Be true to thine own self. The problem we have as sinners is that we think we know what's righteous within ourselves. But what the Bible says is that we're corrupt. The Bible says that we're self-deceived. The Bible says we're ensnared. And what you need to do is recognize you've been leading a life of rebellion against God. He has come to conquer that rebellion by laying his life down for you. You need to see who God is. You need to see who you are. On the cross, you see God is just. because he has to judge sin. On the cross, you see that God is love because he sent his only son to die in the place of sinners. On the cross, we see how gross and disgusting and offensive our sin is and that Jesus had to come and die in our place so that we could be set free. As we conclude, let me read the rest of our psalm, which is Psalm 13. How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O Lord, my God, light up my eyes. Lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemies say I have prevailed over him, lest my foes rejoice because I have shaken. But I have trusted in your steadfast love. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me. In blindness, we call out to God. He gives us sight and then we proclaim his praise and how steadfast he has been in his love. Will you pray with me? Almighty God. We were blinded by our own sin. We did not have ears to hear your voice. We did not know your love. We had no taste for what you are. And your heaven's joys. Well, we pray that if someone does not know you, that your spirit will move in them now and give them life so that they would have eyes to see and ears to hear and they will profess with their mouth. You are their only savior and their only hope. Over those of us who continue to wrestle with the self-deception and the entangling of sin. Give us eyes to see the sin. Give us eyes to see how you have put around us, brothers and sisters, and your word of God and your Holy Spirit within us to free us. To live for your glory, help us to trust and have so much confidence in your truth that we allow our weaknesses and our sin to be revealed so that you may be made much of and glorified in our weakness and in our suffering and our sin. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.