Well, turn with me in your Bibles to John chapter 9. John chapter 9, as we consider this miracle of the healing of the man born blind. The miracles recorded in John’s gospel were chosen by John to reveal the spiritual truths that they tell us. There are only seven miracles that John chooses to mention in his gospel account.

You remember, we’ve covered many of them already. In chapter two, we saw Jesus turning the water into wine. And then in chapter four, he heals the official’s son. And then in the beginning of chapter five, we see the man at the pool of Bethesda that he healed. Chapter six, we saw the feeding of the 5,000, and then shortly after that, the walking on the water. And now, here in chapter nine, the sixth miracle is giving sight to this man who was born blind. The seventh, of course, is the raising of Lazarus from the dead.

And those are the seven miracles that John chooses to focus on in his account of the gospel. Many more could have been included, of course. The other Gospels do include many, many more healings and miracles that Jesus does. But John specifically says that these things were written so that those who read about them would believe that Jesus is the Christ. the Son of God. So in John’s mind, these miracles are particularly significant for that reason. These miracles show us that very thing, that he is the Christ and the Son of God, and they are significant precisely because of who they reveal him to be. In these miracles, we see many things. Jesus is the one who can restore health. He can provide for our needs. And he can even save people who do not even desire to be saved. Especially here in these later miracles.

We’ve learned of our terribly lost condition illustrated by the miracles Jesus performs. And we’ve learned of God’s undeserving choice of sinners for salvation. And the irresistible nature of God’s grace. And this is especially true in this sixth miracle of giving sight to the man who had been born blind. Jesus, the one who is the light of the world, would provide physical light to this man who had lived his entire life in darkness. This healing, this miracle, is a living illustration for us. It reveals Jesus’s ministry, his role as the light of the world, shining into the darkness.

Last time we focused on the first five verses of chapter nine where Jesus fleeing from the temple as they are trying to kill him again, he sees a man who had been blind from birth. Immediately his disciples begin to ask about the cause of this blindness. And so Jesus turns the question around and he directs them from the cause of the blindness to God’s purpose in it.

He says there in verse three, neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this was so that the works of God might be manifested in him. And the reason why Jesus does this is to show that causes are not ultimately the explanation of things. God is not a responder. God does not respond to the causes of things in life. Our God is a purposer. He purposes these things to happen. When God ordains that something happens, He’s not responding to our human causes. He purposes all that happens and he is using it for his glory.

And what we see in our text today is how he does that. Jesus reveals the purpose in this man’s suffering so that he can reveal who he is. What we see in this text is this miraculous healing. that Jesus performs for the blind man, and I want to consider three elements in this text. We’ll cover verses 6 through 12, and we’ll start with this man born blind. And then secondly, we’ll focus on the healing. But thirdly and most importantly, I want us to consider the man they called Jesus, as the blind man refers to him. So we’ll see the man born blind, the healing, and the man called Jesus. Allow me to read our text for us this morning, John chapter 9, verses 6 through 12. This is the word of the Lord.

When he had said this, he spat on the ground. made clay of the saliva and rubbed the clay on his eyes and said to him, go, wash in the pool of Siloam, which is translated scent. So he went away and washed and came back seeing. Therefore the neighbors and those who previously saw him as a beggar were saying, is not this the one who used to sit and beg? Others were saying, this is he. Still others were saying, no, but he’s like him. He kept saying, I am the one.

So they were saying to him, how then were your eyes opened? He answered, the man who was called Jesus made clay and rubbed my eyes and said to me, go to Siloam and wash. So when I went away and washed, I received sight. And they said to him, where is he? He said, I do not know.

The first thing I want to consider this morning is what we have already considered, is that is the man born blind. We were introduced to him earlier in verse one, where it says, as Jesus passed by, he saw the man blind from birth. And as we have already considered, he is really in a desperate state.

He is born blind. He’s never seen. And so, as an adult now, he is reduced to being a beggar. There was no other lot in life for the blind at this time. Later on, we learn more about the man, and we see that he hangs on to and defends who Jesus is, this man who healed him. But here, for now, We simply see that he is no more than a beggar on the street who cannot see anything. He couldn’t see Jesus. Jesus could see him, but he could not see Jesus, even when Jesus stood directly in front of him, looking down on him as he sat there begging.

Probably he sensed that someone was there, but he didn’t know who was there. or what he looked like. He certainly didn’t realize what his presence meant. In fact, when you think about it, this man probably didn’t even really value sight in the first place, at least not correctly. He’d been blind from birth. He had no idea what it was even like to see. If he’d lived with good sight for 30 or 40 years and then a tragic accident had blinded him, then he would be mourning the loss of his sight. But he doesn’t even know what sight is like. So he really didn’t even know what he was missing. You don’t know what you have till it’s gone, right? Well, he didn’t even know what he didn’t have. I mean, surely he knew something was missing. Surely he had been told of his disability.

But how could he really have a value of sight if he’s never seen? And notice, he’s not asking or praying for healing or praying for his sight. At least we’re not told that. He was a beggar, but he wasn’t begging for his sight. His condition was hopeless. He was born blind. Nobody had ever received sight when they were born blind. So why would he ask for something that everyone knows can’t happen? And this blind man certainly did not expect this miracle that was about to happen by the hands of Jesus.

But remember, all of that being true, This episode of The Blind Man, while it is a true story, it is a story that Jesus uses to illustrate our spiritual condition. Later in verse 39, this is revealed. Jesus says, for judgment I came into this world so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. At the end of this chapter, Jesus specifically says, this illustrates something. This illustrates the reason why I came.

Because we are the blind man. We don’t even know what spiritual sight is before we have it. This is why many unbelievers have absolutely no concept what the life in Christ is like. And when you explain the gospel to them, they look at you like you’re crazy. They think what you’re doing is crazy. They think the way that you live is crazy. Why would you do that? Why would you not do the things that we enjoy doing? Why would you give up your Sunday every week to go to church? Why on earth would anybody do that? And they don’t value the things that a Christian values. Because they don’t know the value of something they don’t have.

And neither did you or I before Christ. Before Jesus Christ stood before us and opened the eyes that we didn’t even know were shut. Maybe that’s you today. You cannot see spiritual truths. Maybe you’ve heard the gospel preached. Maybe you’ve read the Bible yourself. But you can’t understand what it says. And you can’t see Jesus. And you can’t see what the fuss is all about with all of this. That is where we all were at one point. Before Christ, you don’t even value what it is that you’re missing. If you’ve never understood spiritual truth, you have no sense of what they are, and so you cannot value them.

You’re lost, and you’re blind, and your condition is hopeless, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. like the man who had been born blind. At some point, maybe for you even this morning, but at some point, you were in the right place to meet Jesus. You may not have planned it that way, but Jesus saw you. You couldn’t see him. But he saw you, and that is the state of this blind man, without sight, without any hope, and without any knowledge of what he’s missing.

And so after pointing out the purpose for this blind man’s suffering, like we saw last week, Jesus says in verse five, while I am in the world, I am the light of the world, and having said this, we come to verse six, which begins the healing. Verse six continues, when he had said this, that he is the light of the world, he spat on the ground. He made clay of the saliva and rubbed the clay on his eyes and said to him, go, wash in the pool of Siloam, which is translated scent. So he went away and washed and came back seen. So having finished his discussion with the disciples, Jesus spits on the ground in front of this blind man.

And yes, this was as uncouth as you think it is. Spit and really any form of bodily fluid was seen as unclean and defiling. Think of all the laws that are there for the purpose of washing because of bodily fluid. bodily fluid, including, as the King James puts it, spittle, was gross.

You know what the Greek word for spit or saliva or spittle, this word we’re talking about, you know what the Greek word is? It’s an onomatopoeia, meaning it sounds like what it is. The Greek word is patousma. That’s spit. That’s the Greek word for spit. So he patousma-ed on the ground in front of this blind man. Yeah, it’s gross. But Jesus spit and he made clay out of his spit. And he applied this clay to the blind man’s eyes.

Makes you wonder what’s going through the mind of this blind man. He’s sitting there, as he always is, blind, people passing by, can’t see what’s happening, All of a sudden, this group of men stop, and they’re talking about the reason why this guy’s born blind. Like, don’t mind me, I’m just sitting here, and I can still hear you talking about me. And then he hears a man spit.

And then, all of a sudden, he feels this warm, wet, spit mud being applied to his eyes. Yeah, this is a true story. You can’t make this up. This is how it happened. And despite how gross and unclean saliva was, this wasn’t the first time Jesus did this. Jesus uses saliva a few times in his healings. In Mark chapter seven, listen to this one. Mark chapter seven, starting in verse 32, He heals a man who’s deaf and has a speech impediment.

Mark 7.32 begins, they brought to him one who was deaf and spoke with difficulty, and they pleaded with him to lay his hands on him. So Jesus took him aside from the crowd by himself.

He put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting, he touched his tongue. Can you imagine? It continues, and looking up to heaven with a sigh, he said, that is, be opened. And his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was removed, and he began speaking plainly.

Sometimes Jesus’ healing methods were a little unorthodox. It may not be what you expect. But again, in the next chapter of Mark, Mark chapter 8, he heals another blind man. It says in verse 23, taking the blind man by the hand, he brought him out of the village and after spitting on his eyes and laying his hands on him, he was asking him, do you see anything? And he looked up and was saying, I see men for I see them like trees walking around. Then he laid his hands on him again and he looked intently and was restored and began to see everything clearly.

So Jesus wasn’t shy about using his spit to heal people. But only here does he make clay out of his spit. And there’s some different theories as to why he does this. Especially early on in the church, they would connect this miracle to Genesis 2-7, where God formed the man out of the dust of the earth. And so this may signify that this is a creative miracle by Jesus, using the dust of the ground to create sight for this man who had no vision at all. But really, we don’t know why.

Jesus chose to heal this way, but he did. He chose to heal this man by making mud with his spit and rubbing it on his eyes. But even though we don’t know why he does it this way, there are some clear things to note about the way that Jesus healed people, especially in regard to so-called healers today. As Dr. John MacArthur points out, there are at least six major differences between Jesus’ healing ministry and what is claimed as healing ministry today. First, Jesus healed with only a word or a touch.

We see this throughout the healing miracles recorded in the Gospels, but there were no chants. There were no repeat after me’s. There were no first do this and then expect a healing. There were no prayer cloths. There were no if you have enough faith, then you will be healed.

Jesus healed by his own power. He just did it. Yes, there were different methods in which he did it, but he did it. And not only that, secondly, Jesus healed instantly. Unlike many of the modern supposed faith healers, none of his healings were progressive or gradual. They didn’t just start to feel better and eventually they became healed. There was no question that these were genuine miracles. These were not natural recoveries over time.

And thirdly, Jesus healed completely. For example, when he healed Peter’s mother-in-law in Luke 4, verse 39 says, immediately she stood up and began waiting on them. And when Jesus heals the paralytic in Mark 2, the man got up and immediately picked up his mat and went out before everyone. The immediate result of Jesus’ healings was healing. The blind saw, the lame walked, the lepers were cleansed, the deaf heard. All had been completely restored to physical wellness immediately.

Fourth, Jesus healed everyone who came to him. This is a big difference. between Jesus’ healing ministry and what is claimed as healing ministry today. Unlike false faith healers today, he didn’t let anyone leave disappointed. He didn’t leave any unhealed people in the wake of his shows and productions after they leave town.

One of my classmates in my doctorate was Kosti Hinn. He’d become a friend of mine. He’s the nephew of Benny Hinn, one of these supposed false faith healers today. Benny Hinn goes around the world and has enormous shows and productions. Kosti tells the story of one of the shows that began to open his eyes to what a fraud all of this was. They were in India.

One of the biggest shows they ever put on. They supposed it was getting close to a million people who had come to this massive venue. They couldn’t even fit them inside. They were packing the streets all around. And he said they were bringing all of their disabled and disfigured and lame and blind and sick so that this man of God supposedly could heal them. But they were filtering those who were coming. And the worst of them were sent backstage. Meanwhile, the approved ones were allowed on the stage to be healed. But when they left town, they left masses of people in their disabilities, in their hurt, in their sickness.

But we read in Luke chapter four, verse 40, While the Son was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to Him, and laying His hands on each one of them, He was healing them. Jesus healed them all. He didn’t leave any behind, and He actually healed them, not the approved ones. He healed them, all of them. It’s been said by many, even historians, that most disease and disability was banished from Jerusalem at the time of Jesus’ ministry. There’s this weird blip in history where all of these people are no longer sick and lame and blind and deaf. Just an anomaly, I guess. And fifthly, Jesus healed real physical diseases and disabilities. Again, a big difference.

He was not healing invisible, unprovable ailments like headaches or lower back pain or heart palpitations or whatever the common things that modern healers specialize in today. He was healing real things that could not be denied. He restored crippled legs. He healed a man with a withered hand. He healed a man with a crooked spine. He gave hearing to the deaf. And he healed the sight of the blind. A man born blind. He created sight. No physical problem. No ailment was beyond his ability to heal.

Again, Matthew chapter four, verse 23, Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. Lastly, sixth, unlike anybody today, Jesus could raise the dead. real dead people, long dead people. Like all of these healing ministries, Jesus’ healing of this blind man in this passage cannot be explained by anything other than his miraculous divine power. How is it that he could heal a man born blind? because the Messiah was coming to give sight to the blind. And that’s who he is. Even when he has to use unusual means, like spitting and making mud to do it. And again, I think this is an important story in the Bible to put yourself in their shoes. Imagine being there.

Imagine the looks that he’s getting from his disciples. as he spits on the ground and then starts rubbing the spit mud in the eyes of this man born blind. Not to mention the looks he’s getting from this blind man, although I guess he probably couldn’t give him looks, but the feeling that this blind man must have had. And then, Jesus says to this man born blind, who has never seen anything ever, go and wash in the pool of Siloam.” Again, this man was born blind. He cannot see. He can’t see the stranger who just spit in the mud and rubbed it on his eyes and then told him to go to the pool of Siloam and wash it off. He can’t see the pool of Siloam.

Or how to get there? Maybe it was very close by, we don’t know. Maybe somebody could help lead him there. Or maybe he could feel his way there, we’re not told. All we know is Jesus says, go and wash in the pool of Siloam. And then John tells us what Siloam means, which is significant. John translates the word for us, it means sent. And the name probably comes from the fact that the water is sent into this pool through a tunnel built by King Hezekiah in years past.

And it was the same pool that the priests filled the water jugs for the Feast of Tabernacles that just happened in John chapter seven. And there, when they were doing that, we remember in John chapter 7, verses 37 and 38, Jesus again shifts the focus from their tradition to himself. And he says, it says there in verse 37 of chapter 7, on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture said, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.

And God’s ultimate blessing was here in the form of Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, the one sent by Him. In this pool of Siloam’s name, we see it also in Isaiah’s prophecy, in Isaiah chapter eight, verse six, where the prophet says, these people, have rejected the gently flowing rivers of Shiloah or Siloam, just like their fathers rejected the gently flowing streams of salvation from God. So too, these Jews rejected the blessing of salvation sent in the form of the Son of God, standing before them. And Jesus uses this blind man to show these Jews their blindness, because unlike these Jews, this man, blind from birth, listened.

He listened to the command that Jesus gives him. In verse 7, it simply says, so he went away and washed and came back seeing. Sounds like John, doesn’t it? understating the miraculous. I mean, what an understatement. So he went and he came back seeing. Do you understand all that’s involved in that phrase?

He just went and he came back, and though he was born blind and could never see ever in his life, he came back seeing. Like when John said in John chapter six, Verse 19, they saw Jesus walking on the sea. No big deal. In the middle of a storm, Jesus is just walking on the sea. Yeah, he just did it. He just walked on the water. And here, so he went away and washed and came back seeing. He just did. He came back seeing.

He’s never seen a thing in his life He’s never seen even a little bit of light or shadows or anything. He was blind from birth. Complete darkness. Doesn’t know what anything looks like. There was no connection between his eyes and his brain. There was nothing there. He was born that way. And now, in an instant, he can see.

Can you even imagine what that was like? I can’t, I cannot imagine what it’s like to live your entire life to the point where you’re now a grown man, and all of a sudden you can see. I know what it’s like to take my glasses off and see a bunch of blurriness, and then I put it on and I can see more definition now, but that’s not what this was. To go from nothing, darkness, to sight for the first time ever.

He doesn’t even know what Jesus looks like. He doesn’t even know what his parents look like. But now he can see. And why? Why is it that he can see? Well, firstly, because of the power of Jesus over his blindness. But secondly, what did he have to do to receive his sight? He had to obey. He had to obey the command of Jesus. As Jesus instructed, the blind man obediently went away and washed in the pool and came back seeing.

And remember, this is Jesus’s illustration of our spiritual condition. This man’s response to Jesus’ command illustrates the obedience that marks genuine saving faith. Jesus told this man, go wash in the pool of Siloam. For any one of us, that’s a simple command. Seven words. But for him, that’s impossible. But it was a test of his obedience. It required a response to the Lord Jesus Christ. And in the same way, the gospel comes to you as a simple command. Jesus tells us, Mark 1 15, repent and believe the gospel. Acts 16 31, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Jesus had performed his part. He made the mud, he put it on his eyes. What the blind man did with it from there was up to him. How was he going to respond? Now did the blind man give himself sight? No. But his obedience was the means through which he received his sight.

And our test of obedience is repent and believe the gospel. And without spiritual sight, that seems impossible. How could you believe that? That’s impossible. But whether or not you do believe it, whether or not you obey that command is determinative. In our blindness before Christ, this seems impossible. And Paul explains this in 1 Corinthians 1.

Starting in verse 21, he says, for since the wisdom of God through the world, the world through its wisdom did not come to know God. God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed, Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. To Jews, a stumbling block, and to Gentiles, foolishness. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. The gospel’s foolishness to the spiritually blind.

It’s impossible. You can’t believe that. That’s foolish. But it’s the power of God to salvation. Just believe. That is our test of obedience. Will you believe? Will you trust Jesus? That’s the obedience required of us. The gospel is a command to be obeyed. Repent and believe. Have you obeyed the gospel yet? If you have not yet obeyed the command to repent and believe, to obey the gospel, follow the blind man. If you have not yet believed in Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are blinder than he was.

Yes, he was truly blind, but as the Puritan John Trapp said, he obeyed Christ blindly. And because he did, he immediately received his sight. He received his physical sight and he started down the road on which he eventually would receive his spiritual sight and meet his healer and meet his Savior.

We see that in verse 35. Jesus heard they put him out. And after finding him, he said, do you believe in the son of man? And he answered and said, who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him? This man has never seen Jesus before, but he’s met him. Jesus said to him, you have both seen him and he’s the one talking with you. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. He healed him. He gave him his physical sight by giving him a command to obey. And he gave him spiritual sight by the exact same means. Do you believe? Do you believe in the Son of Man? Have you obeyed him yet? Have you believed in Him? If you do, He will give you the spiritual sight to see Him, as He did with this blind man. And next we see this man start down the road to his Savior, who he only knows as number three, the man called Jesus.

Picking up in verse eight. therefore the neighbors. And those who previously saw him as a beggar were saying, is this the one who used to sit and beg? Others were saying, this is he. Still others were saying, no, but he is like him. He kept saying, I am the one.

So they were saying to him, how then were your eyes opened? He answered, the man who is called Jesus made clay. He rubbed my eyes and said to me, go to Siloam and wash. So when I went away and washed, I received sight. And they said to him, where is he? He said, I do not know. So after he’s been healed by Jesus and just comes back seeing, the neighbors want to know what on earth is going on. So they asked him, hey, How were your eyes opened?

In fact, it was so unbelievable, they were not sure this was the same guy. They think it’s him, he’s dressed the same, but he seems different. There’s something different about you. I can’t put my finger on it. Did you get a haircut or something? It’s something different. It looks like him. Something’s different though. I’m not quite sure. Oh, he can see. Yeah, that’s what’s different.

How were your eyes opened, by the way?” The man replies, the man they call Jesus. made some mud and put it on my eyes and he told me to go to Siloam and wash. I went and washed and I could see. The man called Jesus. And they know exactly who he means. That man. And yes, Jesus was a man. But Jesus was also God. Quite obviously. He just created sight.

He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He is the Ancient of Days. He’s the Lord of Hosts. He’s the Savior. Jesus is all of those things. But He’s right. Jesus is a man. And that’s all He knows so far. That man they call Jesus. And that’s not a bad place for him to start. Because Jesus is a man.

He was a man unlike anyone had ever seen. He was a man unlike any that this blind man had ever met before. The great expositor James Montgomery Boyce helpfully highlights the kind of man that Jesus was. He illustrates it by quoting from a guy who wrote a modern paraphrase of the Gospels and in so doing learned about Jesus. This was somewhat of an academic exercise for this man named J.B. Phillips. He came to find this man they call Jesus in the Gospels. Listen to how he describes this man that he met that was different than what he expected. I love this description of that man they call Jesus. This is what he says.

He says, this man could be moved with compassion and could be very gentle, but I could find no trace of the gentle Jesus meek and mild. He was quite terrifyingly tough. Not in a bulldog, Drummond, or James Bond sort of way, but by the sheer strength of a unified and utterly dedicated personality. He once at least walked unscathed through a murderous crowd. I have known a few, a very, very few men who could even do that. But then I find that this sheer strength was still his after hours of unspeakable agony in the garden of Gethsemane because those who were sent to arrest him fell back to the ground.

Jesus was a man of such stature and quality that he could remain in command of a situation even when the odds were heavily against him. That’s the man they call Jesus. The man who was fleeing for his life from the temple from a murderous crowd of Jews. And he took the time to stop. and see a man born blind. That is the man who healed him. And to this blind man, Jesus has suddenly become the most important man in the world.

That man they call Jesus. He didn’t know much about him. Never even seen him. Couldn’t tell you what he looked like. He only knew that he was the man called Jesus. He only knew that the man who was called Jesus made clay. He rubbed it in my eyes and he told me, go and wash. So I went away and I washed and I received my sight. That’s all he knew.

But Jesus had done more for this man than these neighbors have ever done. than his parents have ever done, than his supposed spiritual leaders would even do. But Jesus wasn’t done with this man yet. Jesus comes back to find him, as we see in verse 35. When he hears they’ve put him out and he comes back, finds the man and says, do you believe? Do you believe in the Son of Man? Jesus did a wonderful thing for this man. He gave him sight for the first time in his life. All the man had to do was obey him. And that was all an illustration of what was really happening to him. This account of Jesus healing the blind man beautifully illustrates the salvation process for each one of us.

When we are blinded by our sin, we have no ability to see or recognize or find Jesus. Romans 3.11 tells us there is none who understands, there is none who seeks after God.

How can we? We’re blind. We can’t seek after something we can’t see. Romans 8, 7 says, because the mind set on the flesh is at enmity towards God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not able to do so. We are utterly unable before Christ. The blind man would not have been healed if Jesus had not sought him out first. and showed him who he was through this miracle and through giving him spiritual sight to see him. And that’s how it is in our salvation. If God does not reach out to us first, we are sitting there blind.

We don’t know where to look. Because while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. Romans 5, 6. And as Jesus said a few chapters earlier in John 6, 44, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him and here he illustrates it. This is what I mean. No one can come to him unless God does it.

And just like the blind man who was only healed After he obeyed Jesus, after he did what he said and washed in the pool and came back seeing, sinners are only saved when they humbly believe. They obey the command of the gospel to believe in him. And if we do, we will receive our spiritual sight. And we will see the man called Jesus, the one who is sent from God for our salvation.

Do you believe in the Son of Man? Do you believe that he came and lived as a man? That he lived a perfect life of obedience for you? That he died in your place for your sins? Do you believe that He was raised again and sits at the right hand of the Father and one day is coming again for you?

If you believe that, it’s only because He gave you sight to see it and obey His command to repent and believe the gospel. And if you believe that, you will be saved. You will spend eternity with Him. So if you don’t yet believe, if you don’t yet believe in the Son of Man, Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, don’t leave here today without believing. Stand with me as we close in a word of prayer. Our God, we thank you. We thank you for showing us so clearly who we are without Christ. We are the blind man. We cannot see him. We cannot even search for him.

But because you loved us while we were still blind, dead in our sin, You sent Christ for us. And you found us and drew us to yourself. God, if there is anyone sitting here this morning who is blind. Who has not yet come to Jesus Christ, who has not yet obeyed the command to repent and believe in him. God, bring them to yourself. We know you can do it. because you have done it. God, we thank you for being a God who is gracious and merciful and a God that we can trust. Use us to continue to bring blind sinners to yourself. And we pray this in Jesus’ precious name, amen.