I Was Blind but Now I See

Well, as you can see, the title of my sermon today is, I was blind, but now I see.

I can relate to that a little more this week as I'm trying to overcome a loss of blindness in my right eye that hopefully I will have, and it makes me appreciate being able to see. And what a blessing it is! Has anyone here ever been blinded for a day or two? Yes? Yes. What happened? Got hit in the head. Got hit in the head, and it blinded you?

Well, that can be a shaking experience as you find out just how much you use your eyes, and you take that for granted too many times as just something that's natural. But if you've ever had problems that way, you find that can be definitely a problem. Has anybody lost their hearing? Anybody lost their hearing for a day or two? You have? What happened?

Oh, so you still have loss of hearing in that one ear? One good ear. So you understand what a blessing it is to have both? I've, um, I couldn't speak. Anybody here ever have laryngitis so bad or a reason that you couldn't? Yes? What was it? It's not pleasant. I was going to tell you that usually comes from being married, but I won't say that because your wife is here. And I do want you to come back. But it is. I will even take talking as for granted. I bring this up because in my 58 and a half years, I have spent a measurable amount of time with three blind men in the past. Two were actually born blind, and one I got to know when he was in his 50s. He had been blind about 20 years or so. He was blinded in a car accident as his little Volkswagen Beetle went underneath a gas tanker truck in Louisiana, I think it was, or somewhere. And he was blinded. He had a couple of, how old, Eddie had already had a couple of children by that time, and dramatically changed his life. And you learn a lot by being with someone who is blind, as I actually drove someone to the feast and to pick them up every day and took them, and how they really have to compensate, and they really work at trying to live a normal life. But could any of us say that if we lost our sight, we lost all of our hearing, or we were mute, that we could have a normal life? I think most of us would agree. That's not what we would like. Deaf people, I have worked feasts of tabernacles a couple of times at the feast where we will have people signing. I've met with a lot of tone deaf people before, many of you have too. You probably sang with some, just as we were singing here. I know Mary goes deaf some days, but mostly it's because she's tired of listening to me, and I think that's called selective hearing.

But mute. I have never met a mute person. Has anyone here? You have met someone who's mute. How old were they? He was pretty grown. So did he communicate signing, or how did he do that? He knew signing was about four times as a kid. So I had to write, and he had to write. It was across the memory of the church, but you know. Yes. Had to be very challenging. Yeah, I've never met a mute person. I wish I had a few times, but you may have wished for a mute minister at times too, but thankfully you don't have one today.

Many of us have been afflicted with various things in our lives, handicaps or diseases or things that have come on. Well, it's interesting that I want to cover that today, because one incident that Jesus Christ was involved in was actually mentioned three times. It's actually in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, in Mark 3 and Luke 6. But I'd like you to turn, if you will, with me to Matthew 12. Matthew 12, if you will. I'm going to read from the New King James Version.

Matthew 12, actually verse 9. Here is the interesting story, which follows a Sabbath day in the life of Christ, and it starts out in the morning as his men were out, obviously, in the grain fields and actually just pulled some grain off of stock, rubbed it in their hands, and was eating it. And I don't know how, but obviously the Jewish teachers at the time, they were following him, obviously, outside the gates.

Don't know why they were worried, but they were, and they brought this up. Whoa, that is sin! Well, Christ gives them a very good lesson, and then he continues in verse 9 as they come in out of the fields and go into worship that day in Jerusalem. He said, Now, when he had departed from there in verse 9, he went into their synagogue.

And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand, and they asked him, saying, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, that they might accuse him? So they weren't really looking to find the answer that Christ, this wonderful teacher, could give them. They wanted to find something they could accuse him of. Then he said to them, What man is there among you who has one sheep?

And if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out of how much more value than is a man than a sheep? Therefore, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Then he said to the man, Stretch out your hand, and he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other.

Keyword there, restored as whole. He was now whole. He could now, in one way, worship as a whole man. Not one that might have to hold something. He couldn't hold anything. Even if he was older, he couldn't. If he had a cane or whatever, he just had use of one hand. Now he's whole. It made me sometimes wonder if that was involved in his worship. If he could now thank God on this Sabbath day, because obviously he was whole.

He was healed. I'd like you to go with me over to Mark. Another story. Mark 7. Mark 7 and verse 31, please. Mark 7 verse 31. And again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, he came through the midst of the region of the Decapolis, or the ten cities of the Sea of Galilee. Then they brought to him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged him to put his hand on him.

And he took him aside from the multitude and put his fingers in his ear, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then, looking up to heaven, he sighed and he said, Ephatra. Ephatra! That is, be opened. Be opened. And immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly. Then he commanded them that they should tell no one, but the more he commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, He has done all these things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.

That would take on great meaning, and wouldn't it be nice to have one, a healer like that today? Someone we could look to, someone who would go through there and hopefully be able to heal people. But it makes you wonder with the news stories and the press and the various things that are there today, if they wouldn't just be questioned. They wouldn't be questioned about, Oh, how are they doing? Is this a trick? Is this what? Is this some voodoo religion? How is this happening? So I wonder how that would be. Well, I'd like you to turn back to Matthew with me. Matthew 15. Matthew 15. And verses 29 through 31. Here we get a few verses that encapsulate what Jesus Christ was actually doing and the miracles. In verse 29, and Jesus departed there, skirted the sea of Galilee, and went up into the mountains and sat down there. Then great multitudes came to him, having with them most who were lame. They were blind. They were mute. They remained. And many other things. You know, and we sometimes look at many other things. What were those things? How bad was it? Almost anything wrong. Christ was there healing. And they laid them down at Jesus' feet, which obviously tells you what, some just could not even walk. They had to be carried. They were so sick. They were dying. Had to be laid at his feet, and he healed them. He healed them all. So the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the mane made whole. An interesting made whole. How about you? You got anything that you would want to be made whole? Jeff's got an ear. He would love to be made whole. Okay, I've got this eye that I'm blurred over here on this side. And I didn't have that three weeks ago. I would like to be made whole. I would like to have my eyesight back. Many of you, we have people here who are sick.

I'm sure Nora would like to get up out of her wheelchair. All these things. And this happened to Jesus Christ's time. And they said they were made whole, the lame walking in the blind scene, and they glorified the God of Israel. So with that said, I'd like to turn to our main scriptures today. I'd like you to turn to John 9. John 9, this incredible story where the title of the sermon is taken from. And in chapter 9 of John, verse 1, said, now as Jesus passed, He saw a man who was blind from birth.

I'm thankful that I was not born blind. But this man didn't know anything about sight. He had never seen, not one time, not one second, not one minute. What a blessing we have to be able to see. And his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents that he was born blind. Jesus answered and said, neither. This man nor his parents sinned. But that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of him who sent me while it is still day. For the night is coming when no one can work. He was in the last six months of his ministry at this time, in John 9. And then he says in verse 5, as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. And when he'd said these things, he spat on the ground and made clay with the salava. And he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. We might think, you know, somebody, I've got an eye problem, and Jeff goes, here, let's go out to the ground, take some of the dirt and spits on it and puts it on my eye. I don't think I'd be too excited about that.

And not many of you would either. This is different when you realize that it's given in detail here, which tells us, as most historians, the scriptures will tell us, that obviously he had not done it quite like this before. He had just spoken the words and someone was healed. He put his hands on their head, healed, and no one knew they were healed. But here, this was different.

So it teaches us something that's not in the rest of the scriptures.

In verse 7, and he said to him, Go, wash in the pulis alone.

So he went and he washed and he came back, seen. The interesting part is that where he actually told him this and where the pulis salaam was, was at the other end of the city of Jerusalem. It was a pretty far walk. For most of you, you could probably see it is actually walking out of here over to this new Taco Bell, almost a half a mile. It was from one part of the city to the other. It was not something that you would say, Wait a minute, you're going to make this blind man have to walk all that way. This blind man who had been blind by birth, and some have actually said, Well, wait a minute, it's a Sabbath here. Maybe he was begging for money. They didn't allow you to beg for money on the Sabbath in Jerusalem at that time. Beggars could, you know, they had, they came in worship, but they weren't there to sit there asking for alms. So this blind man, who everyone knew who had been blind since he was a child, and he was sitting there, usually, probably to collect, since alms are some way so he could at least eat, he was told by Christ to get up and go and wash your face at this pulis salaam. And when he did, he came back and he could see. What a miracle that must have been for him. I mean, it's one thing if you're a child, and a lot of times even at birth, there's some eye problems that are able to fix some of the optic nerves, they're able to fix corneas and so forth. And so a child that could, that has problems seen, all of a sudden, you can go on the internet. I actually did this on YouTube and saw where a child received its sight for the first time, and it was three or four years old, and you could see it just, and the parents, and now they were crying, and the child could finally see it. It's the miracle of sight, the miracle of good health. It's just something we take so for granted, until something happens to us, of course. But it says in verse 8, it says in verse 8, therefore the neighbors and those who previously had seen that he was blind said, is this not he who sat and begged? Some said, this is the one, others said, he is like him, but he said, I'm him, I am he, it's me. Verse 10, therefore they said to him, how were your eyes opened? He answered and said, a man, a man called Jesus, made clay and anointed my eyes, and said to me, go to the pool of Siloam, and wash. So I went and washed, and I received sight. They said to him, where is he? You just ask a man blind, who healed you when he was blind? Kind of a dumb question, right? Wait a minute, I was blind, this man told me to go down here. Oh, well, who is he? How am I to know? A really dumb question. And he says, I don't know.

They brought him, who formerly was blind, to the Pharisees. Now, it was a Sabbath, when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees asked him how he had received his sight. He said, he put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see. Therefore, some of the Pharisees says, this man is not from God, because he's not keeping the Sabbath. He was working, he was putting this clay together. He was laboring on the Sabbath. How could he do this? How could he do this? I have just thought in my own mind, as Christ knew this was going to happen, he knew what he was going to be doing. Did he actually think about the time that he knelt and picked up the ground and made man from the very dirt of the ground? And here, they're going to question him on taking some spit and healing a man. Amazing! Others said, well, how can a man who is a sinner do such signs? And there was a great division among them. And they said to the blind man, what do you say about him? Because he opened your eyes. He said, he is a prophet! But the Jews did not believe concerning him that he had been blind and received a sight until they called the parents of him and who had received a sight. And of course, they asked them, I'll jump to the story, they asked the parents, well, is he born blind? Yes, he was born blind. Well, how does he see? We don't know. We just know he sees. And they're saying, well, wait a minute, we need to ask you more questions. So they asked him again. And they finally said, hey, because the Pharisees were angry and thought if anybody said anything following Christ, they would kick them out and not be able to come to the synagogue. So they actually said, well, just ask him. He's a grown man. They already had. So verse 23, therefore, his parents said, he is of age. Ask him. So they, again, called the man who was blind and said to him, give glory to God. We know this man is a sinner. Now, that's an interesting statement because you would have to know a little bit of the Hebrew. And when this actually translated, what he said, give glory to God, is actually, was a Hebrew idiom actually taken from Joshua 7 verse 19, which means to confess your sins and repent. So see, were they wanting to say, give God the glory? Because hey, didn't say anything wrong with that. No, they were saying, then you must have repented of your sins. And that's how it happened. Because you were a sinner. Because see, they believed, as the disciples did, that the only way you have problems is, wait a minute, you brought on sins or your parents had sins. And so this was brought on to you because of a sinful life where they said, no, it's for His glory. How many people were healed just before, because of His glory? Just like he tells us today, if we have afflictions and God heals us, it's not us. It's not some minister who lays hands on you. It's not, you know, necessarily your prayer. It's your God that does it, as we heard in the sermon today about loyalty. I mean, God is the one that does that. We give Him that glory. And it's very, very important that we know where this comes from and not be like, oh, well, you must be a sinner. Verse 25, he answered and said, whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. But one thing I know, though I was blind, now I see.

I know that. I may not know much, but I know this one thing. I can see. I can see. How would you feel to be healed of blindness? Be one of the greatest things, right? How would you feel to be blind? I'm going to do some today. I ask that you patronize me today because I think it's very important, as I think some of these things are. I'd like to divide the room up today and the blind and the deaf. Okay? I'd like to divide this side up and ask you to be blind. Okay? I'm going to ask you to do this. If you have little children, you may want to be careful. As a matter of fact, I even tried to get some of these and was going to make many of these, but I didn't feel very good about it today. Being blind. I would like the people on the left, this side over here, I would like all of you to close your eyes completely.

Just a side. Close your eyes completely so you cannot see.

Now I would like you to stand up beside your chair, being blind and not being able to see. Can you just stand there, if you will? And I'd like you to walk towards the door and touch the side wall the best you can.

As our people on the right are getting to see just.

Can you see the camera?

Okay, most have made the wall. Thank you. Can you open your eyes and head back to your chairs? It's going to be a lot easier.

As you can see, you probably didn't end up where you thought you would end up.

Yes, I wanted either.

Oh, really? Wow. Wow. It's amazing.

Isn't that humbling, though, to just spend 20 seconds blinded and you find out what a miracle it was that Jesus Christ did that day and how that man must have felt?

Now I'm going to ask Jeff to help us here now on the right side, just as they got to see you wandering through and looking lost on the side. I'm going to ask the right side here.

I have a gift for you today. It is earplugs, not because of my sermon, though. Okay, hopefully you won't take that as this is how I need to listen to the rest of your message.

But there are a set of earplugs for each and every one of you on the right side. I would like you, as soon as he gets done, I'll explain this, I'd like you when he is finished and walks back up to the front, I'd like you to put those in your ears.

And don't push down too far, but I don't think you can. But I'd like you to experience what it is to be deaf or partially deaf. There is a purpose, there is a method to my madness here.

Okay, would you insert those in there?

And for the rest of us, I'd like us to go to John 9 and verse 30.

The man answered and said to them, Why is this a marvelous thing that you do not know where he is from? And yet he has opened my ears.

And we see later on that Jesus Christ healed, met him, and talked to him about these things.

And he gave praise and glory to God. Isn't it nice to be able to hear?

Because it's very frustrating working with people who are hard of hearing when you're trying to do something over the phone.

And can you imagine listening to life like this, and that's all you would be able to hear? If someone talks very low, if you have a hard of hearing, or you cannot hear, you're deaf, this is all you're going to get. It's going to be a strain. You're going to struggle.

Struggle to hear God's Word. And if you were blind, you would not be reading God's Word unless you knew Braille and you were taught. Okay, take your earplugs out.

And hopefully you were able to see. We were able to experience and see even the look on your face as your face was even trying to hear, or you were not in your regular state. You were not as, I would like to say, whole yet. Well, hopefully now with your eyes open and your ears open, you're whole, as this is what God was trying to do. I bring this point not because of the healing of the blind, physically blind, but we are truly blessed. Are we not physically? I think most of us in here can feel that way today. And spiritually, because you see, we have all been spiritually healed now. Your knowledge and your location right now and your understanding of God's Word, His Sabbath, and His instructions about the Sabbath shows that you are spiritually healed. You are spiritually made whole because of the understanding, not from one man, not from any books, but it came from God Himself who has called you, who has called us all and given us this knowledge. Like you go with me now, as I'll read from New Living Translation, because millions read this Bible and they cannot see it. Millions upon millions read this Bible and they do not understand God. They do not understand why we're here. They do not understand the Sabbath. They do not understand the Holy Days. Why? Why? Let's go. Let's go here. 2 Corinthians. You will go with me to 2 Corinthians 4. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 3 and verse 16. One of the last verses there, 2 Corinthians 3 and verse 16. But whenever someone turns the Lord, the veil is taken away. The veil. For the Lord is the Spirit and whereby the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. Now in verse chapter 4 and verse 3, if the good news we preach is hidden behind a veil, as he had been talking about this veil, it is hidden only from people who are perishing. They're not called of God at this time. Satan, who is the God of this world, has blinded, what does this say? Blinded the minds, not the eyes, brethren. He has blinded the minds. To where they thank you crazy people.

Miami hurricanes are playing and everybody's going to be there. And everybody's going out having a good time and you're in this building, worshipping on a day when not many people do that in a hotel. He has blinded, as it says, from the New Living Translation. Satan, who is the God of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don't believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the good news. They don't understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God. You see, we don't go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus is the Lord. And we ourselves are servants for Jesus' sake. For God said, let there be light in the darkness. And he has made this light shine in our hearts so that we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Christ. We have seen this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. Turn back with me to John 12, verse 40. John 12 and verse 40 actually is quoted from Isaiah. Brethren, we've been made whole.

Our minds have had the veil removed because God. God did it. We were blind, but now we see. Here it says in verse 40, I'll read from the New Living Translation, the Lord has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts so that their eyes cannot see and their hearts cannot understand. And they cannot turn to me and have me heal them. Why they like the world? They like the world more. God knows that, and he looks upon our hearts. What do we want? Do we want the world more, or do we want what he has here now and in the future?

Very important. I want to go back to John 3. John 3. John 3 and verse 19. Read from the New Living.

And the judgment is based on this fact. God's light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near, for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.

Brethren, the same light has lifted us out of darkness. It has lifted us out of blindness. We read the scriptures, we can understand them. And yet, people, I know because my father read scripture before and he never understood until God opened up his mind.

This light has come into us. This light is of Christ and has lifted us out of blindness. Spiritual blindness. We're no better. We're no better than anyone in the world. He says he chooses a week in the base. We're no better. We're just more blessed. And we must realize that blessing and how special it is. Like a kid being picked up out of an orphanage.

Is he any better or special? No. But he's precious to someone. They take him and he's more blessed. This is how the world, God has seven billion people. And he says, no. I want this one. And it's because of this, not because of this.

Brethren, there's a day in the future when the spiritual blindness over the entire world will be healed. It's actually talked about in Psalm 86 and verse 9. And it's also talked about in Revelation 15, but it talks about a time when all the nations, it says, all the nations you made will come and bow before you. They will praise your holy name. Everyone in the world will know him. What a wonderful world that will be.

And what a blessing it is that we can do that now. And we know why and we know how. Because we were blind, but now we see. I feel blessed. Feel very, very blessed that we have that opportunity. There is a verse. I believe it's in Matthew.

See if I go back here to the right place.

Jesus said, Christ in Matthew 11 and verse 4, Jesus said, Go back to John and tell him what you've seen, the blind sea, the lame walk, the lepers are cured and the deaf, the raised, and the good news is being preached.

Brethren, we have an opportunity to show that, to be that light as Jesus Christ was. We have that opportunity to show people. Show people exactly what God wants us to be, wants the world to be.

And one of the great things that happened, and many of you say, well, we study and we pray, and we remember Jesus Christ's high priestly prayer in John 17. And we remember in Matthew 6, as he teaches us, you know, as the disciples said, teach us how to pray, and he gave what is known as the Lord's Prayer. But there is a prayer that is especially unique to us, and it's overlooked so many times in the Bible. And I have to honestly say, I've overlooked it too many times, because it's about us, and it's about what this message is about today.

And it's in Matthew 11, and it's Jesus Christ's prayer, and it starts in Matthew 11 and verse 25.

And Jesus Christ is praying and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the prudent, and have revealed these to the babes. The babes. The New Living Translation says, at that time Jesus prayed this prayer, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever and for revealing them to the childless. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way. It pleased him to do it. This was God's way of doing it, and he has decided to bless us with that. Remember that prayer, as we will, this country, hopefully, will pray tomorrow, and this country will hopefully at least show God that there is still a chance that this desire of many to have a godly nation and to not be embarrassed by God's word, or that you follow God's word, or that you're some childlike creature that cannot make up your own decisions, but you need an ancient book to tell you. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way. There's no better way to do it. No better way than the way he does it, and he's called us.

He's called us out of darkness. He's called us to hear his word. He's called us to see his word, to read his word, to speak his word, and most of all, to live his word. That's why we've been called. She's sure sleeping, isn't she?

But remember one thing. Just like me, you were blind. But thank God. Now you see.