Automated Transcript:
<inaudible><inaudible> Testing one, two, testing one, two. Turn me up just a little bit. Okay. We are here. We are in acts chapter nine, Acts chapter nine. It is so good to see your face. It’s good to have Janet back with us. I was getting in my way. All right, let’s begin with a word of prayer,
our gracious father in heaven. We come before you grateful for this day that you’ve given to us grateful for this life that you have granted to us to be able to serve you, to be able to gather together, to study your word and know that we have the ability to do so in peace and without persecution, we are mindful of those throughout the world who do not have that opportunity.
This night, we pray that they might have peace, that they might have freedom to be able to worship you as you have commanded us to do we pray for all those who are away from us because of COVID. And for other reasons, those who are ill, those who are struggling with, with injuries or difficulties or health, we pray that they might be able to recover fully.
We pray for our nation and its leaders that they might make choices, which promote peace and the spreading of the gospel throughout your world. We pray that you will be with us as we go through this study, may the things that we say, be in accordance with your will. And may we learn the lessons from the events of acts chapter nine, that you would have us to learn all this.
We pray in Jesus name, amen, and acts chapter nine. We find perhaps one of the most well-known accounts of a conversion in all scripture, and as with many things that are well known, the fact that it is well-known does not mean that it’s well understood. It does not mean that it’s understood properly just because it’s well known. And so hopefully all of us here have a firm grasp of,
of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. But if not, hopefully by the End of class, we’ll have a good grasp on the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. We begin in chapter nine and in verse one, then solve breathing, still breathing, threats, and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest. What, what is it that occurred back in chapter eight,
verses one through two or verse one through three, then That is what did we read about? All right, Steve, Even his stone in the end of chapter seven And then chapter eight, what starts happening to the church in Jerusalem? Okay. Chapter eight, verse one. Now Saul was consenting to his death at that time, a great persecution arose against the church,
which was at Jerusalem. And they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Sumeria, except the apostles. So the, they that were scattered the church, the Christians. All right. So, So as a result of the persecution that is happening as a result of the actions of the leadership of the Jews in persecuting, the Christians, the Christians begin to spread out.
Now you remember acts chapter one, Jesus said you will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem. And where else Judea. Well, right now They’re pretty much all clustered in Jerusalem. So now they start spread out even more. He’s in Jerusalem. Judea, where else? So Marriott. Now, if you were to go back into chapter chapter six, Is it No,
it’s, it’s the end of chapter eight, sorry. I’m I’m thinking of something else. Chapter eight, you find Phillip going into some area and then Peter and John will come down to some area as well. And we’ll give the gifts of the Holy spirit to those who are converted in some area. So chapter two, through about chapter seven, you pretty much have the church in Jerusalem and a little bit in Judea.
Then as the persecution begins, they begin to leave Jerusalem. And as that persecution begins, as they begin to spread out. One of the first things we read about is the church in Samaria, but Jesus said you will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and Judea and Sumeria and The outermost part of the world. So that Apps where we’re picking up in chapter nine,
chapter nine is stage Four Jerusalem stage one, Judea stage two summary and stage three, the rest of the world, stage four. So Paul, or excuse me, Saul still as, as Luke gives a calendar of it, he’s told you Saul was, was a wrecking havoc of the church, chapter eight, verse three, as for Saul, he made havoc of the church entering every house,
dragging off men and women committing them to prison. What do we know about Saul of Tarsus and his background This time? Okay. He was a student of, one of the teachers of the law, Emilio, who was also part of the Sanhedrin. He was part of the 70. What else do we know? Well, he, he was from,
I don’t think he was from the right TRIBE to be a priest, but, but to be on the, on the sane, Hedron most likely for sure. He was an up and coming. He, he, he was one of the young guys that everybody fought now. That’s, that’s a Jew right there that that’s, that’s gonna, he’s going somewhere.
He’s gonna be somebody. Okay. So he sits under the most well-known teacher.<inaudible> he? He is a, a up and comer as far as the view of those around him. And then some of this, by the way, we don’t learn about here in the book of acts. We learned about it. When Paul writes about himself later on in life,
when he defends his apostleship in second Corinthians, we read some about his life. When we read over in Galatians about his life, we, we get some more there. And when Paul rehearses all of these things, as he’s standing on trial, we learn about some of these things that were going on before this time. But he was present when Stephen was stoned,
what was his role in that action? All right. Now, if you want your throwing arm nice and loose, you got to take that out or code off. And so they took their outer garments off and laid them at the feet of a man whose name was So the Picture you get there is his youth. He’s not one of the elder people among this group of Jewish leaders.
He’s one of, if not the youngest among them. So at the time of Stephen’s death, he’s probably quite young, maybe late twenties, early thirties at most probably men, perhaps even younger than that. But as you see the advancement and one of the things we don’t have, you know, we, we have the scriptures broken up into chapters and they weren’t originally,
but we also don’t have date stamps on a lot of this stuff. You know, Luke doesn’t say, and in 80, 47, This happened. So, So as a result of that, one of the things that we have to remind ourselves is time has transpired this isn’t a year after Jesus died. This is a number of years. And some have suggested perhaps even 10 years or more after Jesus died.
That we’re all the way in chapter nine. Okay. So if the apostles Were young men and usually a disciple was younger than the master. So if that were generally true than the majority of the apostles would have been younger than Christ, if that was the case Christ died, when he was 33, based upon the best information that we have, which would have made his apostles that,
that older, younger, most Likely, which If we’re another four or five years down the road before the stoning of Stephen, which is very powerful<inaudible> than it is the case. And likely the case that Paul is younger than all of them. Okay. Because he’s still in his, By indication his youth at the time, Steven is stoned and the apostles at this point,
probably 35, 36, you know, whatever, if, if we’re four or five or six years after the death of Christ, they wouldn’t have been considered youths. At that point, they would have been considered full grown men. Okay. So the likelihood is Paul is younger than the majority. If not all of the rest of you Apostles just a little tidbit that’s worth thinking about as,
as you think about the attitudes, About the perspective, once Saul witnesses, the killing of Steven. And once he witnesses his teachers, his leaders, his, his leadership of his nation begin wrecking havoc in the church. He goes in full force. He goes in as a young man, typically does just full boar pedal to the metal. I’m going to deal with this problem of these insurrectionists among the Jews.
I’m going to deal with these traders, these blasts femur, Who called themselves after Jesus’s name now, what was it that the Jews Claimed Jesus did when they took him to pilot? What did they say? He should die? Because he was guilty of Last with me. So Well, if their accusation against Jesus and their reason for putting them in him to death is blasphemy.
Then anyone who says I’m a disciple of Jesus is a Last Famer. Under the old Testament law, the penalty of blaspheming was Death. So as far as Saul is concerned, Not only do the religious leaders and his teachers and everyone around him consider these people to be Blast Famers, but he’s read the law. He knows the penalty. He is one of these Jews that would have opened up Deuteronomy chapter 13,
where Moses tells Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 13, if someone from among your nation comes in and begins telling you to go away after another God, to leave Jehovah and serve another God, then if he’s your brother or your son or your sister or, or, or, or your parent, it doesn’t matter how close relationship he is or that person is. You turn him over to the people to be Boned because they’re leading you away from God.
This is why All those years later, when Paul is standing on trial, Paul will say, I have lived in good conscience before God to this De Paul, how can you, Would you say you’ve lived in good conscious before God to this day you were killing people because he, in his understanding of what the disciples of Christ were Believing Them to be blast femurs,
believing them to be false teachers, believing them to be people who were leading the Israelite nation away from Jehovah. He was doing the will Of God bringing all of this to mind, to point out the danger of faults teachers, because had his teachers not been hypocrites, had his teachers not. Then those who had denied the law to achieve their own Hands,
then he would never have attacked the church. Oh, absolutely. I mean it remember it’s Camellia who says, isn’t not better. That one die than then the whole nation should perish. That’s his teacher who says that. Right? So, so Gmail is very much a mixed bag. You know, he, you, you, you see this, this idea of Gmail as,
as we get just very small glimpses of him and he is well-known, he’s renowned. He’s not the extremist that some of them are, but at the same time, he’s also not standing up saying we’ve seen the miracles. We know he’s from God. Therefore he’s not Nicodemus. He’s somewhere between Nicodemus, who won’t leave the Sanhedrin and follow Christ, but knows who Christ is and believes that Christ is the son of God.
He’s somewhere between that. And the, the others who just want him want Christ debt. Okay. He’s somewhere in the middle. All right. So Paul Saul comes up under this leadership, sees these things happen to Stephen witnesses. This considers this to be the, the authorization necessary to start persecuting the church full bore and will do so and begins that persecution in Jerusalem.
Then we read verse one. He is still breathing threats and murders against the disciples of the Lord. He went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. As Saul looks at the situation as is chapter eight,
begins in the church starts dispersing. So to his targets, there there’s, there’s fewer of them in Jerusalem. As matter of fact, almost all of them are gone from Jerusalem. The only ones left were the apostles, but for whatever reason, they’re, they’re not making much headway getting to them yet. And so Saul goes, you know what? They’re going everywhere.
I’m going to follow them. So he wants the high priest to give him letters, to be able to go to Damascus. And if he finds any of these Christians in Damascus, to be able to arrest them, to be able to bring the persecution to Damascus. Now, Damascus is not a Jewish city. It’s a Gentile city. Okay. It has Jewish Jews in it.
It has a synagogue in it, but Damascus is, is in Syria. It’s not in, it’s not in Israel. So he’s seeking permission and authority to go outside of Israel to carry on this persecution. But in order to accomplish that, you need the authority of the high priest. And you also need something else. You, two degree, you need the authority of Rome,
but you also need some, some soldiers. And the high priest had soldiers. The temple guard was really the only soldiers that the Israelites were allowed to maintain. And so the likelihood is that these who come along with Saul are part of the Jewish temple guard, not likely Roman centurions, okay? Because the high priest wouldn’t have had authority over any Roman centurions.
Now, Herod might have as, as the King set up by by Rome, but the high priest would not have. Okay. So he sends them on their way. He sends him with letters and authority. As he journeyed, he came near Damascus and suddenly a light shown around him from heaven. This is not natural sunlight. I imagine they were journeying during the day.
Most likely. I mean, that’s when you would journey, generally at that point in time, this is not natural. And all of them immediately realized this is not natural. Okay? So this light shines from heaven. Then he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? An obvious miraculous event is going on,
or at least a non natural event. So let me use that term in the sense of miraculous, super natural. This light is not ordinary. A voice out of nowhere is not ordinary, but the question Saul, and just in case he misses it the first time Saul. Again, I don’t want you to have any mistake on who it is. I’m talking to Saul,
Saul, why are you doing this a few times in their lives? My children been doing something when a parent has walked in the room and immediately the question is Why It’s that moment where you go, if you knew, Ooh, what you shouldn’t be doing, you would know this, isn’t it. And that’s, That’s the tone of voice I hear in my head.
When I imagine this question, sorry, Saul, why are you persecuting me now? Certainly Christ could have said, why are you persecuting the church? But he didn’t. And there’s An important point there. What you do too. The church you do to Christ what though, Who are even inside the body of Christ, if they choose to attack and devour and consume one another through,
through backbiting and murmuring and gossip and deceitfulness and lies. If they do that to themselves, what are they doing? Who are they doing? They’re doing it. It’s Christ. Yeah. Ever seen somebody take a hammer in one hand and hold a nail with the other and hit the wrong name. And you know, it’s not just the little finger that has the reaction.
Is it? It’s the entire body. You do it to one part, you do it to the whole, Paul, Why are you persecuting me? And he said, Who are you? Lord his user. The term Lord here is not an automatic recognition that this is Christ. The use of the term Lord here is master. It’s quite obvious if there’s a light shining down from heaven and a voice coming out of nowhere that you’re higher than I am,
but I don’t know who you are. Who are you? He says, then the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goats. What would have happened if Saul had been like the profits of bail in Elijah’s day, you remember For the profits of bail, who all came together and tried and tried and tried and tried to get bail to send down fire from heaven.
Did they succeed at, Did they say, Well, I guess we’re wrong bales. Not really, God, no. They didn’t deny that what they were. The one they thought was was God was God. As a matter of fact, when the fire came down from heaven on Alijah sacrifice, they still didn’t deny bail. What if Saul had been like one of them?
What if saw had been so hard-hearted and entrenched and indoctrinated and consumed by his false beliefs that even in the midst of a miraculous event from heaven before his very eyes, he still would deny that Jesus was the Christ. Let’s not Get to the point where we believe that there would not be people who would be that way. There were, there were people who witnessed Lazarus walking around and still wouldn’t believe that Jesus was the Christ.
Would the church still have, okay.<inaudible> what the church accomplished in the first century. Would the gospel still have been spread the way the gospel was spread in the first century without Saul of Tarsus. And I’m going to go with probably because one of the Things that you see here is God says, this is my guy. I’m going to use him.
When we get over to Anna Antonia, that’s going to be the, And the idea, but just Like the book of Esther, you remember what Mordecai says to Esther? If it’s not, you, You know, This, the Lord will deliver his people, but he won’t save you. You and your house are going to perish, but God’s going to take care of his.
There’s very introductory statement by Jesus is this. Your is hard for you to kick against the go. This is, do you wonder if perhaps Saul of Tarsus is traveling to Damascus and as he is trying to stamp out this, this and archi, this, this, this, the individ, these group of individuals who are turning against the law of Moses,
do you think perhaps he’s a little frustrated that he couldn’t have dealt with it when it was still in Jerusalem, and now he’s having to go to Damascus and now he’s chasing them down. I think maybe There’s an indication in Jesus’s statement of the mindset of Saul as he’s traveling, That it Looked doable when they were all in one place. It doesn’t look doable now because they’ve scattered everywhere.
When someone has a cancer, it’s all located in one central location. What can a surgeon do? And cut it out. What happens when it’s spread all throughout the body? You can’t, you can’t solve it the same way you might eventually win, but it’s a whole different battle. Saul went from having the Christians be a little tumor to being pervasive cancer throughout the body because they just spread everywhere.
So now absolutely I’ll I don’t, I don’t disagree at all that there was an effectiveness to solve that didn’t necessarily exist. And, and a point to be made that that had Saul not been used by God, the way he was. I don’t think God would have been out of, out of tools and out of options. But the church, the main problem you have at this point in time is the church is a Jewish church.
All these years later, Jesus has told them over and over and over while he was alive, that the Gentiles were going to be part of the kingdom and where they preaching to the Gentiles. No, it’s not till the next chapter after this, where Peter even begins preaching to a Gentile. Absolutely. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. That, that is,
that is certainly one of the lessons we see from, from Saul of Tarsus. That no matter what you’ve done in life in the past, not only can your sins be forgiven, but you can change your future. So all of this occurs, Jesus asked this question, verse six. So he trembling and I notice this word, astonished of all the answers he could have picked out to the question of who are you?
He one to come up with that one, trembling and astonished. He said, Lord, what do you want me to do? Then the Lord said To him, arise, go into the city. And you will be told what you do Must do. As soon as Saul realized who this was solved in a mailing go, well, I’ve heard all the preaching before.
I know exactly what these guys teach. So, so I know exactly what I needed. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Paul says, Oh, okay. What would you have me to do? If a King confronts you and says, you’ve been fighting against me. And you know, based upon everything in this,
the circumstances surrounding you, that he can end your life Right there. David due to the man who came to him and said, aye, Killed Saul. David said, you signed your own death warrant. The King has done Declared to the individual. You Have been attacking me. Who are you? I’m Jesus of Nazareth. What would you have me to do?
Let us be clear That Paul was, or Saul was not saved at this time Moment, buddy believed at this moment, You don’t ask someone who you don’t believe to be alive anymore. What would you have me to do? As far As Saul was concerned, was Jesus of Nazareth alive anymore. It is now, and he’s not just alive, but he’s God.
So Then the Lord said to him, arise, go into the city. What city Damascus, where They’re approaching, they’re there near Damascus, go into the city and you will be told what you must do. And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no one will perhaps get into a discussion of, of really the what,
what did they hear? What did they know? What did they not know at another time? But that’s an interesting discussion. Then Saul Rose from the ground. And when his eyes were opened, he saw no one, but they led him by the hand and brought him into the maskus. And he was three days without sight and neither ate nor drank.
Now, there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Anna Niaz and to him, the Lord said in a vision and an niacin, and he said, here I am Lord. So the Lord said to him, arise and go to the street called straight and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus. For behold, he is praying.
Now, if the denominational world’s doctrine of salvation was true, then Paul’s already had his sins washed away. Paul sins Are gone. Why? Because he certainly Believed he knew Who Jesus was. He Knew. He certainly believed that he’s Lord. How do we know that he called him Lord? And he’s praying now if Baptist doctrines true, and all you need to do is believe in say a prayer.
Paul saved, which is Why, by the way, this is one of the most well known conversions in all of history. While at the same time being one of the least Understood because as far as most people are concerned, he saved right here. But I think Anna, this is going to disagree. Notice Lord said to him arise and go to the street called straight and inquire the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus.
For behold, he is praying and in a vision he is seen in a man named Anne and I is coming in and putting his hand on him so that he might receive his sight. Not only Does he believe, not Only is he praying, but he’s even seeing a vision from the Lord. So he must be saved, right? Verse 13, then Anna and I is answered.
Lord. I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who come and call who call on your name by the Lord, said to him, go for, he is a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before Gentiles Kings and the children of Israel for,
I will show him how many things he must suffer for my namesake and Anne and I is went his way and entered the house and laying his hands on him said, brother saw the Lord. Jesus, who appeared to you on the road. As you came, has sent me to you that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy spirit.
Well, see, he prayed. He believed he’d seen a vision from the Lord and an ISE walks in and calls him brother. So he must be saved. Right? One of the things that you find in scripture is sometimes it’s Not one passage that gives you all the Information turn over to acts chapter 16. And by the way, on Sunday, we’re finishing acts chapter nine.
Now that’s in the lesson plan anyway. Okay. So, all right. Acts chapter 16. I’m in the wrong passage. Hold on 26 acts chapter 26, the 26, 2219. Is it 22, 1960. All right, well I should have written it down. All right. Verse 12 of acts, chapter 22, then a certain Antonius Oh,
the vowel man. According to the law, having a good testimony with all the Jews who dwelt there came to me and stood and said to me, brother Saul. So we’re in agreement. He begins with brother, but I might point out this is two Jews in a Gentile town. So he says, brother, Saul, receive your sight. And at that same hour,
I looked up at him. Then he said, the God of our fathers has chosen you, that you should know his will. And see the, just one and hear the voice of his mouth for you will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. And now why are you waiting arise and be baptized to prove your a Christian arise and be baptized and wash away your sins.
If Baptist doctrine is true, he didn’t have any sins left to wash away. The moment he believed and asked the Lord to save him. And he’s been praying three days without eating or drinking. The moment he believed in prayed, Jesus takes over and does everything from there except he doesn’t. And do you know, Paul knew that already because Paul didn’t ask,
what do I need to believe? Paul asked what must I do? And Jesus said, go to the city and out, send someone to tell you what you must do. Now. It happened when I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple that I was in a trance and saw him saying to me, make haste, go get out of Jerusalem quickly for,
they will not receive your testimony concerning me. Saul was converted, not on the road to Damascus, but in Damascus three days later, when someone showed up to tell him what he must do, all right, we are a pastime. So thank you for your attention. And we will conclude chapter nine on Wednesday on Sunday. I don’t know what day it is.<inaudible><inaudible> Good evening.
Welcome to the Collierville Wednesday night Bible study and devotional. It’s good to see each and everybody that’s here tonight. Really good. Like Erin said earlier to see Janet. So glad to see you back with us, have several announcements. So please let me go ahead and get through these bear with me. Remember our sick ed Richardson, Paul Barbara Diller, Joan Springer,
Donnie Flanagan, and Rodel Wilson. Please keep all them and your thoughts and prayers as they continue with their ongoing problems and difficulties. Dorothy Wilson is recovering from a heart attack and stent surgery. So please continue to pray for Dorothy Janie. Marlin will see a heart doctor, Friday reference or a fib issues don’t cause those aphid issues, unfortunately for Janie have come back.
So please continue to pray for Janie. A friend of the Springers the 13 year old son, Caleb Nelson is a, was in a horrible sledding accident. Sunday afternoon. He was taken to Lobonner hospital children’s hospital, where he remains in ICU has multiple injuries. And the worst part is he’s still unconscious. So he’s not regain consciousness yet. So please keep Caleb Nelson and your thoughts and prayers,
BJ and Tish Clark from over at the Memphis school of preaching, both have COVID-19. So please pray for them. And then Julie Adams, who is a friend of the leases is a 26 year old lady. She has an aggressive form of lung cancer and she had surgery today is in ICU at the hospital and in a lot of pain. And you know,
the worst thing is for her besides the fact that this disease and stuff, no one can be with her mother. Can’t go be with her, you know, because once she’s in ICU and then to the COVID-19 on top of it. So please pray for the entire Adams family. And especially for Julie on other announcements, Potter’s children’s home or Potter’s children’s home will be here tomorrow.
What time are they coming? Paula? Do we know yet? Nine? Okay, so they’re going to be here early. So if he had don’t already have anything here, you’d have to get up pretty early and get it here if you want them to pick it up tomorrow. But if not, there’ll be back again in six more months, I’m going to assume so,
but they will be here tomorrow to pick up all that stuff. And then we can get some more coin cans from them. Cause I know I need a new coin. Can mine has been full for quite a while. Tonight song leader would be Michael Dale. The devotional will be Erin Cozort and closing prayer will be Terry Sanderson. Thank you. If you could please Mark song number 943.
That’ll be the song number 943 nine four three. Once you have that Mark and we’ll be seeing song number 176. So four were led into devotion by brother Cozort number one 76. God, your only<inaudible> but you have<inaudible> to<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> crews<inaudible> and sacrifice<inaudible><inaudible> Oh, wash me.<inaudible> my Jesus Christ. I was so lost. I should have da,
but<inaudible><inaudible> and to be called<inaudible><inaudible> Oh,<inaudible> my Jesus Christ. Take your Bibles. If you will. And open them to John chapter nine, Don chapter nine, verse 28, we read, then they reviled him and said you are his disciple, but we are Moses’s disciples. We know that God spoke to Moses. As for this fellow,
we do not know where he is from the man answered. By the way, this man was one who was healed by Jesus. This one answers them and said, why this is a marvelous thing that you do not know where he is from yet. He has opened my eyes, the Jews, the Jewish leaders say to this man who was born blind we’re disciples of Moses.
Moses spoke from God. We know where Moses came from, but concerning this, this one who healed you, we don’t know where he came from. The man says, that’s sounding to me that you don’t know where he came from. And yet, you know, I was born blind and you know, I can see now verse 31. Now we know that God does not hear sinners.
What if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his, will he hears him since the world began? It has been unheard of that. Anyone opened the eyes of one who was born Blind. If this Man were not from God, God, he could do nothing. They answered and said to him, you work Completely born in sin. And are you teaching Nuts?
Their perspective concerning the man Who was born blind Was sick Or to the disciples perspective. Because the beginning of John chapter nine, the disciples see a man who’s born blind, miss man. And they say, who, who sinned? That he was born blind him or his parents. And Jesus said, neither, but That God might be glorified In him.
The Jews, His mindset was very much like a Calvinist Mindset that you’re Born into sin, but they actually at least had a little more reasonable stance on it. They just considered those born with physical maladies, from birth to be born in sin. Somebody had to ascend for that to have been done to them my much, the same way job’s friends thought that Joe must have said otherwise he wouldn’t be in the predicament that he was.
So the, the terrible situation was a sign that sin had occurred. Jesus said no. And yet These Jews, these Jewish leaders say, how could you be teaching us? Seeing as you were born In sin. And they cast them out. Jesus heard that they had cast him out. And when he had found him said, he said to him,
do you believe in the son of God, he answered and said, who is he? Lord that I may believe in Him. And Jesus Said to him, you have both seen him. And it is he who is talking with You. Then He, the man who was born blind said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. And yeah,
Jesus said for judgment, I’ve come into the world. That those who do not See Macy And that those who see Maybe made blind when we get to a point in our lives where We are so overcome With the thoughts and doctrines and beliefs taught by men, that we cannot pick up the word of God, read it, understand it and believe it simply big because it says it.
Then we become those who can see who have become blind. We’re not blind because we can’t open our eyes. We’re not blind to because we’re injured in some way. We’re blind because we have blinded ourselves to the truth. But for this man who never had a choice about whether or not he would see never had a choice about whether or not he’d get to see the sun shine or know what the color yellow looked like.
This man, his eyes being opened physically now lays his eyes on the one who not only opened his eyes physically, but opened his eyes spiritually. And this man could see, and having seen Christ believed, obeyed and worshiped him in accordance with the commandments of God. We need to examine our lives tonight to see whether or not we are blind. Do we open up God’s word and read it and come across a passage that tells us that what we’re doing in our lives,
isn’t what we ought to be doing. And we just go next page or do we open it up? I can come face to face with what James calls the mirror of the soul and look at ourselves in that mirror and not do what the foolish man does. Straightway walks away from the mirror, forgetting what he looked like. Do we instead look in the mirror of the soul,
examine us and ourselves in stark contrast with what we should be and say, I’m not going to stay the way I am. I have an unfortunate bit of news for you. When you get up in the morning and look in the mirror, there is only so much you can change and the more life goes on. The less you can change. That’s not true about your spiritual condition.
Your spiritual condition can be reshaped, remolded, born again, and washed in the blood of the lamb. If you have a need to be pure and white spiritually tonight, why not find out more? Why not learn more? Why not open your eyes and do something about what you see? Do you have need of the invitation it’s available now, as we stand in,
as we say<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> you<inaudible><inaudible> is, is<inaudible>. She is,<inaudible> Probably a father who art in heaven. We thank you for this time that we’ve had tonight to come together as your children to study that word, we pray that we can take these things to use an eye everyday lives, to help us to become strong with Christian.
We pray that you would be with those that have been mentioned tonight that are sick. Those that have lost loved Ron’s. We pray that you would continue to be with them. We pray that you would help all over us throughout the rest of this week. Become stronger. We thank you for Jesus was willing to die on the cross that we might have salvation and eternal life.
We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.