Was Blind, but Now I See

Thank you, Mrs. Prater. That was a very pretty song, of course, with wonderful spiritual meaning. And good morning, brethren. Like Mr. Klohrer, I feel like I should say hello and introduce myself. It's been a while since I've been here. I didn't think about it until before, because I'd missed two Sabbaths, or I was away two Sabbaths for summer camp at Camp Kautubik, and then the following Sabbaths, I was scheduled to speak in the afternoon.

And then, last Sabbath, I was with my family down in Florida. Darris McNeely and I were scheduled to do an ABC sampler in the Orlando congregation. And we were thrilled to be there and had a wonderful reception. The brethren there were very warm and friendly. We had about 130 brethren there for the Sabbath, which included not only many people from Orlando, but various other congregations where people were from.

And then we had about 75-80 on Sunday, when they said they were originally expecting about 50. So it was very nice to have a big crowd. And you might guess that in Florida, it was warm.

I think the temperatures got up to about 100. We've got that thermostat in our thermometer in the dashboard of the car, and we say, well, it's almost 100, then it'd be up to 100, then it'd drop down. But we came back home expecting it to be a little cooler. And it was a little cooler. But we're enduring, and we'll remember this come February, especially if we have a blizzard or something like that, and we'll have pleasant memories of the heat.

Well, I wanted to start off with a question. This might seem a little unusual, but it's actually leading to something. I wonder, does anybody here like to listen to bagpipe music? Several of you do. I notice most of you aren't raising your hands.

I realize that for most people, it's an acquired taste, and many people never acquire it.

Now, I have Scotch-Irish ancestry, and so I enjoy listening to the pipe somewhat. I don't know if it's the ancestry, or maybe it was from the summers that I was able to serve at SEP Scotland. I'd like to think, if you spend enough time on the Bonnie-Bonnie banks of Loch Lomond, almost anyone could start to feel Scottish inside.

But honestly, there are only a few songs that sound very good on bagpipes. Even I'll admit that. The first one that comes to mind for me is Scotland the Brave, which I've known that tune long before I knew what it was. It's one that goes, nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah. Nobody's smiling, so I'll pass on.

The other one that almost everybody does like to hear on bagpipes is the song Amazing Grace. And I see you nodding. That one you think of, especially, I love the technique where sometimes they have the single piper, you know, and it's... and then a whole chorus of pipes comes in, and you hear the drones, and then they all start playing, and it just fills the room with sound. Matter of fact, I've been outdoors, and if you haven't been around pipers, you might not have realized that they're loud. One of those years I was at camp, we were having a special anniversary, and Mr. Suckling hired some pipers, and they brought three. And we had a tent that was as big as this whole room, maybe a little bigger. But when all three of them started to play at once, you couldn't stay inside the tent and not cover your ears. That's how loud it was. If you imagine that reverberating sound playing that beautiful melody, and you might even remember a bit of the lyrics, one of the most famous lines of that song says, I once was lost, but now I'm found. Twas blind, but now I see. It's a song about a man finding religion. It was written by Englishman John Newton in the 1700s. He was a man who, for most of his life, was not religious. Matter of fact, he was involved in the slave trade in his earlier years. But later, he got involved with Christianity as he knew it and became a minister. Today, I don't want to focus on the song or its origins so much, but on that particular metaphor, I was blind, but now I see. Newton didn't mean that he had lacked the actual ability to see with his eyes. What he meant, as I expect almost everybody grasps immediately, is that he had been spiritually blind. And then he was not. He hadn't understood the concepts of Christianity, and then he was able to do so. And I'm saying this from his perspective, not saying that he had the full understanding that we have. But I want to explore that metaphor a little bit today, because I recently went through an experience that, for me, made it far more meaningful than it had ever been before. Because this last winter and coming into the spring, I found myself losing my ability to see. And I don't mean that I was getting confused or that I was losing understanding of the Scripture. I mean, my eyes had a physical problem, and I was facing the terrifying prospect that I might be going blind.

Now, you might guess, because I keep looking at my notes, that that didn't happen. I can see, just to put aside the suspense. And I do want to say clearly, before I proceed, that nothing that I say is meant to make light of those who are blind. I don't mean to demean or minimize what they are able to do. Matter of fact, if nothing else, I've got far greater appreciation than ever at people who are able to adapt and function and have happy lives and function without the ability to see.

So I didn't go through that, but what happened was I developed cataracts in both of my eyes. Now, I'm sure there are a number of you in the room who have had cataracts, I'm guessing. And many of you perhaps have them now and are developing. And for most people, there's a process of visiting a doctor and learning the condition, and then deciding when is it time for surgery? Do I need the surgery? How is it going to progress? So you might say, well, what's so terrifying about that?

Well, in my case, it was dramatic because they developed very unexpectedly and quite rapidly. I learned from my ophthalmologist, actually, after I'd had the first surgery, that although it's uncommon, it's not at all unheard of for someone in my age group to get cataracts. Actually, I had surgery done over at the Cincinnati Eye Institute, which is a pretty big operation. How many of you have been there? I'm just curious. A number of you have been in and out.

So you know the big building with the parking lots, and it seems like hundreds of people every day are in and out. One of the ophthalmologists told me that they have a person in my age group about once a week. So that's not a large percentage. But he told me that when someone in their 40s or 50s gets cataracts, they usually do develop very quickly. Whereas, when you're older, they tend to develop slowly over years. Well, that's reassuring to me now, but I didn't always have that knowledge. Matter of fact, the first doctor that I saw treated me for dry eyes. Not totally because he was ignorant.

I thought that was the problem. And I went to see him, and he said, Oh yeah, I think you've got the beginnings of cataracts. Probably on a scale of 1 to 10, you're at about a point 5. Now, I should have pushed the matter a little more because I remember describing it to friends at that time.

I said, Well, when I close my left eye and look through my right, it looks like I'm looking through a sheer veil or cheesecloth. That's probably not normal. And that quickly progressed to where everything looked like someone had smeared some Vaseline in my eye.

And I don't know if you've ever had anybody do that, but it doesn't allow you to see very well. The left eye could still see better, but it was following the same course. And then I did one thing that doctors always tell you not to do. I visited WebMD, typed in these symptoms, and discovered there are any number of different types of corneal dystrophies, some of which seemed like they might match my symptoms. And I learned if I had something like that, a corneal transplant was the only thing that had a hope of curing it, and that's even not a sure thing.

So I decided to get a second opinion. I went to see another ophthalmologist, and he examined me very thoroughly. And I didn't tell him to look for dry eyes. I said, Look to see what's going on, why I can't see. And of course, he dilated my pupils and examined very carefully with that special microscope in the super bright light. And he told me, I especially asked him about a type of syndrome called Fuchs disease. It's spelled F-U-C-H-S. And he said, No, you don't have Fuchs.

He didn't say it in a mean way. He said, Definitely not. He said, Your corneas are healthy. Your retinas are fine. It's plain and simple. You have cataracts, and you need surgery.

Fortunately, nowadays, cataract surgery has become routine. I see some of you nodding. It's a fairly quick outpatient procedure. As those of you who have done it know, you spend much more time waiting and getting prepped than you do in the operating room. It's relatively painless. They give you some medicine to make you relaxed. And you lay there, and your eye is totally numb. What I do remember seeing is these bright colors. I've told several people, I've never taken LSD, but I might guess it looks kind of like that. And when it's done, I can see. Wow! Do I ever appreciate it? It's just an amazing thing. But during the time that I feared I was going blind. And as I said before, I saw that second doctor. My vision kept getting worse. I didn't know how bad it might get. I didn't know if there was a cure. You have time to think and wonder. And even after I found out what the problem was, there was time to wait. Because the doctor who diagnosed me said, I'm not a surgeon. I'm going to refer you to a surgeon. So there's some weeks to get to him. I was hoping he'd schedule me for the next day, which is kind of funny, looking back. Because he scheduled me for about a month later, which is really fast for things like that. So I had plenty of time to think, what spiritual lessons might I be learning through this? There must be some. First thing I thought of was those characters that we read of in the Bible who were dim of sight. I gained a great appreciation for Isaac. When he told Esau, I don't know how much longer I'm going to live. Go out and hunt some venison so I can give you a blessing. And a short time later, his son walks in the door and says, I've got it. He said, who are you? I'm your son Esau. Are you sure? You sound like Jacob. But he really wasn't sure, and now I know why. As a matter of fact, I remember sitting in this very room when we were having ABC classes. Sometimes I'd come in and sit in the back, and the man, a presenter, was up here teaching. And if I looked through that one eye, I'd say, good thing I can hear the voice, because I couldn't tell who it was otherwise. So that's one lesson I learned. I'm guessing I'm going to be discovering lessons that I either should have learned or did learn for years to come. And early on, I thought, there's got to be a good sermon in this. What's the point of going blind if you can't at least get a sermon out of it? And I'll admit, I started using that line, what's the point of going blind if you can't do this or that? If you can't have an excuse for being late. I started using that after I knew it would get better. But at first, the obvious analogy, I thought, well, that's enough for a sermonette. Maybe I could stretch it to a split sermon. Especially if you take ten minutes for your introduction, like I'm doing today. But then, I gave it some deeper thought. I started realizing there are some other lessons in that analogy or metaphor that I might not have thought of right off the bat. So if you'll bear with me, I would like to explore those some today. But let's start with the obvious analogy. The Apostle Paul used it a couple of places. And let's turn to 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 4 to see exactly where that comes out. By the way, I got my vision corrected, but it's for distance, so I'm not going to be rid of these for a long time.

2 Corinthians 4 and verse 4 is a common memory scripture. Now, he starts with verse 4, as our Gospel is veiled to those who are perishing, "...whose minds the God of this age..." That's a veiled way of referring to Satan the devil. "...but the God of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them." Here we see that truth is compared to light. And that's not a stretch. Jesus said of himself, "...I am the light of the world." That reference is in John 8, 12. I'm not going to turn there. But for those who don't see the truth of God's Word, they're in darkness. Or we might say they're blind, spiritually blind. Satan is very eager to put people in that condition. Ephesians 4, 18 is the companion scripture to 2 Corinthians 4, 4. Ephesians 4, 18, Paul said, "...having their understanding darkened..." And he's talking about basically the rest of the world who aren't in God's Church. "...having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that's in them, because of the hardening of their heart..." Now, I just read that in New King James. The original said, "...because of the blindness of their heart." And that's a ready analogy or metaphor. I'll read one more in 1 John 2, 11. I'm actually not going to have us jumping all over, as I often do in various scriptures, but I will turn to a few. I read John 2, 11. He says, "...he who hates his brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and does not know where he's going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes." This describes one not being led by God's Spirit, and makes that metaphor. It's like you're in the dark. Your eyes are blinded. Fortunately, we know that when God calls someone and imparts the Holy Spirit, we describe it as having one's eyes opened. We sometimes say, your mind opens. There's different ways of phrasing it. And we look forward to the time when Christ is going to come back to this earth, as He promised He would, and put Satan away. If Satan is readily blinding the world, Jesus Christ, we know, promises that He's going to take away that blindness. When Christ returns, and that angel with a chain binds Satan, and puts him in that pit for a thousand years, everyone's eyes will be spiritually opened. That gives additional meaning to some of the Old Testament prophecies that we so much enjoy reading as we think about the millennium, such as Isaiah, chapter 35, Isaiah 35 and verse 5. I'll just read a couple from Isaiah. Again, I'm pointing out, as I said, the most obvious, easy analogy, and one that we shouldn't miss. And actually, I'd say, there's not much danger of missing, because it seems to come automatically. It's become a part of our way of thinking. But consider this. In Isaiah 35 and verse 5, this is what we call a millennial prophecy. What's going to happen after Christ returns? Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped, and the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing. No doubt, when Christ returns, there will be literal healing. I've read this passage of Scripture at a number of funerals of people who suffered severe infirmities. And we believe, in the resurrection, when Christ restores them to life, they won't have those infirmities. If they had difficulty walking, they'll be able to leap like a deer. If they were dim of sight, or blind, or deaf, they'll have their faculties restored. But there is the double meaning in this, that those who live their whole life spiritually blind, and spiritually deaf, not able to understand what God's word says, they'll be healed spiritually.

All who were raised from the grave will no longer have the God of this world blinding their minds. They'll be able to see clearly. That's an exciting thing.

We see that, if you turn a few pages earlier to Isaiah 9, Isaiah 9 and verse 2, that double meaning is made clear. Or actually, I would say here, it's really just the single meaning, but it's the same metaphor. Isaiah 9 and verse 2, Isaiah wrote, The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined. That should sound familiar, because it's quoted in Matthew 4 and verse 16. It's quoted there to show that Jesus Christ began His ministry there in Galilee. He began teaching people the truth. His ministry then was a preliminary fulfillment. Christ came and began shining a great light. Now, that doesn't mean He had a brand new halogen, military-grade flashlight that He was shining around on people, or that He fired up a generator so people would have light. No, of course we know it means He was speaking the truth. He was teaching people. That was true in that day and age, although only a few had their eyes opened. How much more in the millennium when Christ comes, and for everyone, there is going to be a great light?

Again, as I said, this metaphor is so common that it hardly needs any explanation. In fact, as I started thinking about it, the metaphor of sight has permeated our language. That's something that became clear to me while I was suffering vision loss, and I tended to think about it. I prayed about it a lot. You can't imagine how many times I prayed to God saying, Please, clear this up. Let me see.

I started seeing the double meaning of several phrases I would use. As I just said, the meaning became clear. It became clear as a metaphor for not being able to focus on something clearly and then being able to see it. Now, the opposite might be to say, Well, my vision became clouded. Or, that's obscure to me. Meaning you can't think of it clearly. As part of my introduction, when I talked about the song, Amazing Grace, you might have noticed I said, I don't want to focus on the song. Does that mean I don't want to adjust a lens so that we can see the song? No, you knew exactly what I meant. I didn't even have to explain it. But I thought of that as I caught myself in prayer sometimes, because it's easy when you have an ailment to keep praying about that and thinking about that. Some of you have probably been there. And I remember asking God, Please help me to focus on something else. And I'd say, Focus. Yeah, see, please help my eyes to focus, and I'd be right back where I was.

But as I said, the analogy comes out in many ways. When we say, Oh yes, I see, we mean I understand. Or that really opened my eyes. When Adam and Eve took of that forbidden fruit, what does it say in Genesis 3.7? In case you don't have it memorized, I wrote it down. The eyes of them both were opened, and they knew they were naked. Now, they hadn't been blind before, but their understanding was opened.

A person who has a specific plan for the future has what? Vision. As in Proverbs 29.18, where there is no vision, the people perish. And if you want to go experience something for yourself, you go to see what it's like. And we could probably go on for quite a while, thinking of more figures of speech. As a matter of fact, I remember debating in my mind earlier, is figure a speech, an analogy, like in seeing a figure?

So even that comes in. The truth is, unless we're using very precise and sometimes even scientific language, it's hard to talk about thinking or understanding without using a metaphor that relates to sight. Indeed, our perception of the world and our place in it is very much guided by our sense of vision.

God made us to be visually oriented. And so that sense dominates others. And again, I don't mean any disrespect to those who are visually impaired. I think blind is the easier way. It's funny, I'm the one who usually says, let's not use six syllables to say something one will do. But I'm amazed at their ability to be able to cope.

Matter of fact, even when my vision was at its worst, I would sometimes say, okay, now I'm going to cover my eyes and see if I can walk through the house. And I said, whew, Frank, you're in no way near totally blind. And I'm glad I wasn't. Just being able to see outlines is a big help. And that says something about people that are in the world. I mentioned Adam and Eve taking of that forbidden fruit. That fruit was from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And we sometimes point out there is good in the world.

Many people are blinded, but not totally blind. They're able to perceive some good, but they can't see God's plan clearly. Still, as much as I've belabored it, this is about as much as I thought I could get out of that analogy at first. Enough maybe for a decent sermonette. But then I thought of something interesting that Aaron Dean told me as we were discussing this. If you notice going down the hall, his office and mine are right next to each other. And so we have a chance, you know, occasion to chat, bump into each other at times.

And he's often said things that are pretty wise without thinking particularly deep or planning to. And that drew my attention to some other lessons I think that can be learned. So if you'll bear with me for a little while longer, I'd like to explore some of them. And talk about some of the lessons that we could learn from a cataract patient. First, I should probably describe what it was that Mr. Dean said and why. Because I was a little surprised when, as I said, I got that second opinion, and the diagnosis was cataracts.

You need surgery. Usually when you say you need surgery, you go, oh, you know, nobody likes going under the knife and having surgery. So I expressed this to some people, and I was kind of surprised. Like, if you tell someone, oh, the doctor says I've got so much blockage and I'm going to have to have heart surgery, people say, oh, I'm so sorry, I'll pray that it goes well. And we mean that, and we appreciate it.

So there was one person in particular, and actually she's not here, but I'll use her name because I only mean it in a good way. Janet Treadway works in the mail office, and I told her, oh, I'm going to have to have cataract surgery. And her reaction was, that's wonderful! Oh, you're going to love it! And I'm, oh, okay, I'm glad to hear that.

I'm a little surprised. But I talked to several other people who'd been through it, and nobody presented a negative view. Nobody said, oh, it's terrible, it's awful, I'm sorry you have to do this. Most people said, oh, you're going to be glad you did it and ask for my doctor.

And actually I did. I saw the same doctor who's treated, I was trying to count, I came up with at least five members in the local congregation, I think including Mr. McLean, who was up here earlier. And it turned out everyone was talking about how wonderful their doctor is. And I wondered about that. You know, now, this fellow is pretty good, and I liked him. He's very professional, though. I shouldn't say, though. Nobody wants to have a surgeon who's not very professional. You don't want to have a guy who comes in dressed shabbily with dirt under his fingernails or anything like that. But he wasn't super friendly, he was down to business. He came into saw me, he examined me, he had a nurse here where he's looking in the scopes and he's giving numbers, and I thought, this guy knows what he's doing. And apparently he did. But I was amazed at how much people loved him. And then I was talking to Mr. Dean about this, and he said, well, of course people love their eye doctor. You go in, not being able to see, and you come out, and you can see. What's not to love? And as a matter of fact, he said, if you ever choose to go into medicine, eye doctor is one of the best, or at least eye surgeon. You know, they only work Monday through Friday, set their hours. But that's a wonderful thing. And that got me to thinking something about how we sometimes, not sometimes, how we usually do, and we should feel about God and about His laws. Because God, in a sense, is like our eye surgeon. If we're all spiritually blind, how does that condition change? God the Father calls us. He imparts the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ and that knowledge. And do we ever love Him for it? We don't want to lose sight of that. I thought of a scripture. It's in Psalm. If you'll turn to Psalm 119, verse 18, and think that describes a little bit about our feeling. Psalm 119 and verse 18. This is David writing, of course, to God, the one they knew as often described as, Lord, in scripture with all capital letters. David wrote, Open my eyes that I may see wondrous things from your law. When we can finally see the truth, don't we love it? Now, I have to be cautious because we have a room here where many of us have known the truth almost all of our lives, or perhaps all of it. So we didn't have that sudden opening of our vision and see it very clearly. But we also have some elderly members who you might think back to, wow, what an amazing thing. I remember a few years ago counseling with an older couple from central Kentucky. They were, I think, in their late 70s. And as we were going through the scriptures and doing baptismal counseling, I remember the man looking at me and saying, why didn't I understand this all my life?

It's been there all along, and he was amazed and happy, but he wished he'd seen it sooner.

Again, we sing the song, Oh, How Love I Thy Law, the wondrous things of God's law, as it says here in verse 18. Wondrous things from your law. And we love God, and we're thrilled about getting to know Him.

If you will, turn with me to John 9. We'll see part of a story of that.

John 9 is the story of Jesus Christ literally healing blindness and showing the happiness and the devotion that the man felt.

And I believe in the metaphor that applies the other way also.

We can only speculate. We don't know this man's name. Now, I was just about to say we don't know his name, and it occurred to me, does the scripture say his name? I don't think it tells us. Just that he was someone born blind from birth.

And the disciples said, is this guy sin or someone else? He was born blind so that God's works can be shown in him. And in verse 6, he said, oh, in verse 5, As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. I mentioned Christ called Himself that.

We had said these things. He spat on the ground and made some clay with a saliva, anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, and said to him, Go wash in the pool of Siloam. And so he went and washed and came back seeing.

As I said, it's sort of like when I went to see the doctor at CEI, I went in and I couldn't see, and I came back and I could. Well, things were a bit blurry at first, but it cleared up pretty quickly.

Jesus had worked a miracle, and everybody knew it. And the Pharisees were a little bit upset. They weren't happy with Jesus Christ at that time. And when they saw this miracle, they were trying to discredit it. They called in the fellow's parents. They called him in, trying to convince them that this wasn't such a great miracle. And down in verse 29, the Pharisee says, we know that God spoke to Moses as for this fellow.

We don't know where he's from. And the man who was healed answered and said to them, well, this is a marvelous thing. That you don't know where he's from, and yet he has opened my eyes. Now, we know that God does not hear sinners, but if anyone is a worshipper of God and does his will, he hears him. Since the world began, it's been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. They weren't happy at that. They said, you were just born in sin, and they just fellowshiped him. They said they cast him out.

The man was convinced that Jesus had to be from God. He had a devotion there. He opened my eyes. Now, Jesus has opened our eyes spiritually, and we should have the same feeling that this man had to him. Later, Christ found him. Let's continue reading in verse 35. Jesus heard they cast him out. When he found him, he said, do you believe in the Son of God? Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him? You've both seen him, and it's he who's talking to you.

He said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. He went through love to worship. And as I said, I think that's a good analogy. Jesus then turned back the metaphor. He said, for judgment, I've come into this world that those who do not see may see, and those who see may be made blind.

So he healed this fellow physically, but he made the point that many who could see physically were blind spiritually. He's the one that has control of both. Now I know what I was... There was something in here that, as I said, I've always found it a little entertaining. No, I can't.

I'm not seeing it in the chapter. There's one point where they have the fellow in their question, and they say, well, where is he now? I don't know. I always hear the unsaid, I don't know where he is. I was blind.

Like, last time I saw him, I couldn't see. The whole thing with the parents. But again, that analogy of, we love God for opening our eyes. That's just a wonderful thing, and we don't want to lose sight of that. Now, we can become accustomed to it. As I said, I went the first several days after my surgery going, wow, this is wonderful. And Mrs. Treadway warned me of that. She said she drives to work sometimes just looking. And I did that when we were coming to Sabbath services, and I said, hey, I can see leaves on the trees.

Now, how often have you been happy to see leaves on the trees? But it's a thrill. I didn't think that coming today. I sort of took it for granted. And I want to look at some other aspects of this analogy that might be instructive. So I've got caught up on that one, but I did notice that in obtaining clear vision from cataract surgery, that doesn't mean that afterwards the person will always see everything perfectly clearly.

Let me relate that or explain a bit. Following the surgery, to aid in the healing and reduce pain, a patient has to go use a series of medicated eye drops. Matter of fact, they give you a color-coded chart with a bubble to fill in each time you put in an eye drop. And this was for just one eye and another one for the other eye. And your medicine is color-coded to keep track of it.

So you have to go through all this. And each of these eye drops can have side effects. What's surprising is some of them have the side effect that they may temporarily cause blurry vision. That's what I got the surgery for in the first place. But that doesn't mean it's going to stay blurry. It might blur temporarily, but the main thing has been fixed. You're going to be able to see. But having one's vision temporarily get blurry, you could say that's like having it temporarily waver.

And we could turn that spiritually. Even though God has opened our eyes, it's possible for something to sort of get in our eye spiritually and cause some temporary blurriness. Make it become a little waver at first. If you'll turn with me to James 1, I'll show what I'm getting at with this.

James 1, beginning in verse 5. James 1. Now, I'm reading from the New King James, but I'll note the original has a wording that I like a little better for this. He says, If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting. No, King James says, With nothing wavering. For he who doubts, or he who wavers, is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. Let that man suppose he'll receive anything. The times when my vision temporarily blurred, often because of putting in this medicine, I had to be calm.

Frank, this doesn't mean you're back to where you were with the cataract. It's going to clear up. To be honest, that happens to all of us at times. I've noticed, especially this kind of weather, you're out working or something, have you had to drop a sweat, run down into your eye, and you have blankins. Everything's blurry momentarily, but it clears. Likewise, our spiritual vision could at times get just a little bit blurry, but we need to not lose faith.

We need to trust that God is going to make things clear again. The truth will still be the truth. It'll never stop. You might think, how can this temporary blurriness happen? Certain difficult trials can cause things like that. Things might become unclear a little bit. If you lose a loved one, you're suffering a terrible injury or sickness, and God isn't answering your prayers for healing immediately, that can make you start to see things a different way. It can make your vision seem a little blurry. Sometimes it happens if someone reads a passage of Scripture in a different light, or someone tries to convince you that it means something different than you've been taught, and your faith wavers ever momentarily.

Those are times when we need to trust our Heavenly Father. Not give too much credence to the temporary, blurry view of things. That's temporary. Have patience. Just like after I put in certain eye drops, and I might be blurry for a little bit, it'll clear. Blink a few times. When there's a severe trial, when someone's trying to make you look at a Scripture a different way, sometimes the answer is stop and blink a few times.

Focus on what you know to be true, and don't jump to any quick conclusions. Quick conclusions. Yes. Now, let me tell you about something else that I'd never heard of before I developed cataracts, and that's secondary cataracts. That surprised me. But perhaps I can explain it by explaining first what a cataract is. We use the term often. Doctors say they don't know exactly what causes a cataract, but it's a buildup in the lens of the eye. Every eyeball has a little lens inside that focuses light on your retina.

And sometimes proteins build up on it. Or I read some accounts saying that the same way our skin gives off dead cells and they slough off, well, your body can be replacing dead cells in the lens, but they have nowhere to go. And if enough of them build up, it blocks the vision. In cataract surgery, they make a small incision into your eyeball. Then they do what's called emulsifying the lens, which is a fancy word for saying they dissolve it and then they suck it out with a vacuum.

And then they put in a new artificial one, all within a matter of minutes. There's a clear capsule that holds that lens. They leave that intact and put the new lens in. And fortunately, you're like me, you're just seeing bright colored lights and you're relaxed and numb. But what happens is sometimes after this, similar symptoms start coming back and that clear capsule that holds the lens starts getting a clouding on it.

And you might say, what's going on? I'm getting blurry vision again. I'd like to think that once a person has gained clear vision, they would never stand for losing it again. But there is a danger, especially if that secondary cataract develops slowly over time. As I said, mine came on real quickly. As a matter of fact, the way I looked at it, last January, I had no thought of having eye problems. By April, I couldn't read the E on an eye chart. So that was a dramatic change. But if that developed slowly over a course of years, I might think, well, this is normal.

Or even fairly quickly, I might say, oh, the momentary clear vision was an abnormality. And as difficult as it is to imagine happening on a physical basis and just ignoring it and letting it go, could that happen spiritually?

You wouldn't think. But that's what Peter describes in the book of 2 Peter. 2 Peter 2 and verse 20, if you'll turn there with me. 2 Peter 2 and verse 20, Peter says, For if after they escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, you could say, if after they had their vision cleared up, says they are again entangled in them and overcome, or they start losing that vision, the latter end for them is worse than the beginning.

It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it to turn from the Holy Commandment delivered to them. Is this saying that it would have been better to have stayed blind in the first place than to have been given sight and then returned to blindness? That is what it seems to say. Now, in this analogy to cataract surgery, there's a gap. Because a person goes through that, starts off being able to see, their vision gets cloudy, and then they can see again.

And if a secondary cataract comes, they start losing it again. And one thing that does stand up, though, is a person has to choose to ignore that condition. Now, I was very happy to learn, when I learned that there's such a thing as secondary cataracts, that there's a treatment. And it's a much simpler treatment than for the original. They can zap it with a laser, and somehow it basically peels off part of that capsule so that it's not blocking your vision again. You find you have this, you go see the eye doctor, get an examination, he schedules the treatment, you're in the office, zap, zap, zap, you're out of the office.

I'm not sure how many zaps it is. I think Mr. McLean told me he went through it so he could describe it better than I could. And he got up here and he can see. The procedure is almost always completely effective, never has to be repeated. For a person that's losing sight of the truth, there is also a remedy. God can easily restore spiritual vision, and he's easier to get an appointment with than an ophthalmologist. But you do have to approach him. He's not going to come looking for you in a case like that.

We approach God by fasting and prayer, studying his word. But if we start getting a clouding in our spiritual vision, we can have God remove that. As easily as a secondary cataract can be removed. To me, it seems incomprehensible that a person could ever gain clear spiritual vision and then tolerate losing it. The good news for most people when they get a secondary cataract is they seek help, have the problem corrected.

And that fits with Christians. As I said, we can fall into something. All Christians make mistakes. Almost all of them realize it and repent. Notice here in 2 Peter 2 and verse 20, it doesn't say if after you escape the pollution of the world, and they again sin, the latter end is worse.

Now, because we all sin, it says if one escapes and then is entangled and overcome, then it's better not to have known Christ. I think entangled and overcome refers to going back to a life of sin and consciously choosing to stay there. And we often refer to that as the unpardonable sin, the sin not repented of by choice. That's like someone having vision but then choosing blindness.

It's not surprising to think that few would ever make that choice. Matter of fact, it's surprising to me that any ever would. The Bible seems to indicate that some will, some few.

Okay, secondary cataracts are pretty rare, and that stands for me to represent something spiritually that I believe will be even more rare. But I want to refer to one other phenomenon that's not... I guess it doesn't happen to most people, but it happens pretty regularly. And it happened to me, and I was a little concerned. Actually, after the first surgery, I had an appointment the next day so the doctor can look and see, hey, what's going on? Are you okay? And I said, hey, there's some decrease in my peripheral vision. It's like something's blocking my sight to the side to some degree. Well, actually, that's fairly common, because in truth, they make an incision in your eyeball. That still just blows me away that they do that. I'm reminded of... before God came down and confused the language as a babble when He said, they're going to be able to do anything. As I said, replacing the lens in your eye is pretty phenomenal. But this blockage of the peripheral vision, the doctor said, that's common. It's because there's inflammation. You had a cut, and it's slightly swollen. Actually, one of those color-coded eye drops is for that. It's to reduce inflammation. But even though the inflammation is very slight, it's right there on your eyeball, and it's near the pupil, so it's blocking your vision. So I keep doing this. I used to test it. When can I see it? You know, I want to get one of those things at the DMV where they say they tell you to speak up when you can see the flashing light.

Well, over time, for almost everybody, that swelling will eventually go down, and you'll be able to see on your periphery the same as ever. There's no danger. A person just needs to be patient. You'll see what's over there when you see it. And actually, you can see it sooner. You just have to do this. It's pretty easy. And thinking of my analogy, though, I thought you could make a comparison to something that sometimes happens to Christians.

Because when we're first called, and Christ opens our eyes spiritually, what's in front of us? We see, wow! As I said, colors are vibrant, lines are crisp. But for pretty much all of us, there are some things on the periphery that aren't so clear. Questions we don't quite understand. And that's okay. But some people have trouble. Some people can't stand the not-seeing or not-understanding. And there's where I say we've got to accept knowing that there are some things that we don't know yet. Instead of spending so much time concentrating on the periphery that we stop looking at the clear truth right in front of us. I think that might be part of what Paul was referring to when he wrote to Titus. If you look at Titus 3 and verse 9, Titus 3.9, I had my Bible open here during the sermonette because it's right across from Philemon. But Titus 3.9, Paul tells Titus to tell the members of the church, avoid foolish disputes. You know, genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law, they're unprofitable and useless. Another way we've said this for years is stick to the trunk of the tree. If you get out there on the twigs, you're liable to get on a branch that won't support your weight and you'll fall and crash. And we could probably come up with things that people have started focusing on so much that they started losing track of the main truth in front of them. Often it's some particular thing about prophecy. I've got to figure out exactly what's going to happen, you know, what the two witnesses are going to be wearing and what they're going to eat for lunch or something like that. You know, sometimes it's other details. You know, where exactly were the twelve tribes apportioned their land when they came into Israel? And where were they be when Christ returns? And I'm going to draw up charts and diagrams and things like that. And we could come up with a lot of things. And I'll make the point, none of these are bad. I've profited greatly from people doing a lot of study to find answers to where the tribes settled and where they'll be. But if a person focuses on anything so much that they stop looking at what's right in front of them, the main trunk of the tree, we could say the two great commandments. What's the greatest command of the law? Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might. And then the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. Now, I'll mention another thing that could go bad with our periphery, and this is my last point. I've been watching the clock. Eventually, for most people, the periphery does come back into view. And for me, it's not like I can't see. I can see my hands. So I'm not that blind. If I go back, now I can't see them. There they are. There they are. Here they are. Here they're not.

But have you ever not seen something and then you do and you go, wow, I didn't know that was there? What else have I been missing? I better look at everything else again. There's the danger of focusing so much on the periphery that you ignore what's in front of you. There is a slight danger of, now I see something that I didn't see, I'd better re-examine and reinterpret everything else. And I think this is a slight danger, but that's why I put it last in my points.

But some people have discovered some new truth, supposedly, and then reinterpret everything else. I think that might be what Paul was getting at when he talked to Timothy, and 2 Timothy 4 will turn just a page over there.

You see that sometimes with people who appoint themselves teachers. I've discovered this and suddenly they're teaching almost everything differently.

Well, I'm in 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy 4.

Starting in verse 3, he says, "...the time will come when they won't endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears." I really wish he'd said, itching eyes. That would have fit my message much better. But he said, itching ears, they'll heap up teachers for themselves teachers, and they'll turn their ears, we might say, their eyes away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.

I said, now I see something, I want to talk about this. And I turned my eyes away from the truth. I mentioned those two great commandments. Or we could refer also when the young man came to Jesus and said, Good Master, what should I do to have eternal life? First of all, don't call me good, only the Father is good. But if you want to have life, follow the commandments. The commandments? What commandments? Well, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't lie, and love your neighbor as yourself. You know, the Ten Commandments. Do that and you'll live. It's not, figure out everything on the periphery. Hebrews 6, verses 1 and 2 also tells us some main things that we need to not lose sight of. I was debating whether to read that, but since I hear all of you already turning there, I'll go ahead and follow you. Hebrews 6, verse 1, therefore leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let's go on to perfection. So, focus on, you know, go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, of faith towards God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection from the dead, and of eternal judgment. Now, he's saying you don't have to go back and reinvent those. You don't have to spend all your time studying them, but they're good things to focus on now and then. And then go to going on to perfection. That's, I like to think of as the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. But never try to, you know, don't reexamine, don't try to change these things. It's not laying again the foundation. We don't have to go back and say, oh, now I see something new, so I'm going to redo the foundation. It's set. The truth will never change. And we need to keep a focus on that. We should never be distracted by peripheral matters, and we won't if we keep things clearly in sight. And that's what I'm striving to do. I stand here as one who was blind, but now I see. Well, really only sort of blind, and I'm very thankful for that. Thanks to the miracle of modern medical science, my vision was corrected. It's still in the process of evening out. Actually, that big chart I just finished a few days ago, I've taken all those drops. But most importantly, all of us were formally blind spiritually. As I said, depending on when you came into God's church depends on how blind you might have been. But even children like mine who have always come to church and known this, immaturity gives you some blindness to the truth, that you have to grow up to really see it clearly. God has miraculously granted us clear understanding of His plan, His purpose, and His way of life. Let's never lose sight of the truth that He's shown us. We can endure temporary setbacks, any loss of clarity that temporarily blurs our spiritual vision. And we can wait for things on the periphery to become clear. As I said, this is an analogy. We want to also remember something else that Paul wrote. I'll refer to this. It's in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 7 that he told us, We walk by faith, not by sight. And it could be saying we walk by our spiritual sight, not by our physical sight. And let's always maintain that walk.