“DIVINE LIFE BY SPIRITUAL SIGHT”

I trust that you have taken ‘the opportunity’ to read ‘John 9’; please, turn to it now and keep your ‘Bibles’ open.

We have pointed out that with ‘the Sign’ of ‘the feeding of the five thousand’ ‘the Lord Jesus’ entered upon a ‘new phase’ of ‘His Ministry’, that is, upon ‘the phase of conflict’.  

There arose a ‘great deal of conflict’ out of that ‘work’, and from that time ‘He’ was in an ‘atmosphere of controversy’.  

When we come to this ‘incident’ we see how ‘the conflict’ is intensifying, and ‘the division’ is widening, and ‘the end of this incident’ is ‘complete division’.

‘The emphatic statement’ concerning this ‘man’ is: “And they cast him out”, and that made ‘the division’ complete. 
(verse 34). 

‘The two sides’ were becoming increasingly ‘distinct’ and ‘definite’.

On ‘the one side’ there was ‘Religion’, and over against that was ‘Spiritual Sight’.  

On ‘the one side’ there was ‘Tradition’, and on ‘the other side’ there was ‘Revelation’.  

On ‘the one side’ there was ‘the Historic System’, and on ‘the other side’ was ‘Spirituality’.  

On ‘the one side’ there were ‘disciples of Moses’ - you notice what they said in ‘verse 28’: “You are His disciple; but we are disciples of Moses” - and on ‘the other side’ there were ‘the disciples of Christ’. 

And these ‘two sides’ were getting further and further apart - ‘the distinction’ between these things were becoming more ‘manifest’.  

On ‘the one side’ Religion, Tradition, Historic System, ‘Moses’: on ‘the other’ Spiritual Sight, Revelation, a Spiritual State and ‘disciples of Christ’.  

The whole of this ‘conflict’ and ‘division’ focused upon one ‘thing’.  

‘John’ had opened his ‘Gospel’ with these words: “In Him was Life: and the Life was the Light of men” (John 1:4), and that was ‘the focal point’ of all this ‘controversy’: ‘Light’ through ‘Life’.  

And you see ‘the difference’ in ‘the prospect’ or ‘outlook’ of these ‘two sides’.  

So far as ‘the opposition’ was concerned ‘the situation’ had become quite ‘hopeless’.  

You have only to read ‘the whole of this story’ and you will see how ‘hopeless’ was ‘the Jewish situation’.  

‘The words’ at ‘the end of the chapter’ we have just read indicate that quite ‘clearly’.

‘The verdict’ of ‘the Lord Jesus’ upon that ‘whole side’ was:  “Your sin remains”. (verse 41) 

It is a ‘great thing’ to say that Religion, Tradition, Historic System, and ‘disciples of Moses’ create a ‘hopeless situation’, but that is not ‘my verdict’: it is ‘the verdict’ of ‘the Lord Jesus’. 

And you have only to read through these ‘chapters of controversy’ and come to that which we shall be considering  in ‘the next chapter’, and you will agree that that ‘whole situation’ was a ‘hopeless one’.  

On ‘the other side’ was this ‘man’, ‘the representative’ of ‘another class’.  

I trust that we all belong to this ‘man’s class’ - ‘the class’ which is able to say: “One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see”. (verse 25) 

Over against this ‘hopeless situation’ was this ‘wonderful hopefulness’.  

A ‘new hope’ had come into this ‘man’s life’, and he had come into a ‘new hope’.  

We were saying that ‘the whole conflict’ is focused upon this one ‘thing’: ‘Light’ through ‘Life’.

‘The Lord Jesus’ said that they were all ‘blind’, and to begin with there was no ‘difference’ between this ‘man’ and all ‘the others’.  

Of course, his was ‘physical blindness’, but it is quite evident that that was only a ‘Sign’ of ‘Spiritual Blindness’.  

All these ‘others’ were just as blind as he was in a ‘Spiritual way’.  

But ‘the thing’ which made ‘the difference’ between ‘hope’ and ‘hopelessness’ was just this: he knew he was blind and they did not, and ‘hope’ or ‘hopelessness’ turned upon that.  

There is no doubt about it - this ‘man’ knew he was ‘blind’:  “One thing I know,...whereas I was blind”.  

There was no ‘question’ about that.  

However, these ‘people’ were just as ‘blind’, but they did not ‘know it’.  

The ‘difference’ was this: that there was in this ‘man’ a terrible ‘natural limitation’ of which he was ‘conscious’.   

He knew all about ‘his limitation’. 

Every day he lived he was made aware of it.  

He had to be led by the hand and put in the same place every day to beg for ‘his living’.  

The picture of this ‘man’ is of one who is every day aware of ‘his dependence’. 

Over against that were these ‘other people’, and they lived every day in their own sense of ‘self-sufficiency’.

‘Natural limitation’ and ‘natural self-sufficiency’ were in ‘conflict’.  

Just look at this ‘man’ again.  

‘The disciples’ asked a ‘mysterious question’, and we are not going to try to explain it: “Who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he should be born blind”? (John 9:2)

That only means they had ‘the idea’, which was a common one, of ‘the pre-existence of spirits’, and that people had a history before they came into this ‘world’.  

That may have been ‘pure superstition’, but we are not going to try to wrestle with that one, as it does not concern us very much.  

They asked ‘the Lord’ that ‘question’ and ‘He’ just disposed  of it: “Neither did this man sin, nor his parents”. (John 9:3)

All it amounts to is that ‘the man’ was born with a ‘handicap’, and, of course, that is ‘true’ of ‘everybody’. 

It is just as ‘true’ of us as it was of this ‘man’ - ‘the handicap’ with which we are all born is ‘Spiritual Blindness’. 

Whatever form ‘our handicap’ may take, it is meant to be an opportunity for ‘the Sovereignty of God’.  

Here it is ‘Spiritual Blindness’, but we all have ‘various kinds of handicaps’ with which we are born.  

Let me ask, what has been one of your greatest ‘problems in life’? 

Is it not that you feel yourself to be quite ‘unfit’ for that to which ‘the Lord’ calls you? 

You find that ‘the Lord’ makes ‘demands’ upon you and you are conscious that it is not in you to ‘meet’ them.  

You remember ‘Moses’.  

When ‘the Lord’ met ‘Moses’ and gave him the command to go into ‘Egypt’ for ‘the deliverance of Israel’, he tried to get out of it, and at last he resorted to ‘his handicap’.  

Perhaps he thought: ‘this will beat ‘the Lord’, anyway!’ 

He said: ‘I cannot speak’. - ‘this ‘job’ needs an ‘orator’, a man who can ‘preach’.’ - ‘I am not ‘the man for the job’.’ - ‘Lord’, You do not know what You are doing.’ 

And you can carry it on and on like that.  

‘The fact is, ‘Lord’, that I am just not fitted for ‘the thing’ for which You have called me’.  

What did ‘the Lord’ say to ‘Moses’? 

“Who made man’s mouth”? (Ex.4:11) - 

If ‘I’ made your mouth ‘I’ know what kind of a mouth ‘I’ made.  

And if ‘I’ made your mouth so that you cannot ‘speak’, that will provide all ‘the greater opportunity’ for ‘Me’ to do it through you. -

Have ‘I’ not taken ‘forty years’ to empty you of ‘your own ability’? - 

And all that ‘I’ may have ‘Glory’ and you have none!  

‘These people’ said: “We are disciples of Moses” - but how false to ‘Moses’ they were! 

Notice: they would have said: ‘we can do it’!  

No, they were not ‘true disciples of Moses’. 

You remember ‘Jeremiah’.   

‘The Lord’ called ‘Jeremiah’ and gave him a ‘great Commission’ to ‘Israel’ - and he did exactly ‘the same thing’ that ‘Moses’ had done.  

He tried to get out of it and ‘his argument’ was: “I cannot speak’: for I am a child”.  

‘The Lord’ said: “Say not, I am a child: for to whomsoever, I shall send you you shall go, and whatsoever I shall command you you shall speak”.  
(Jer.1:6,7)

These are examples of men born with a ‘handicap’ but providing ‘the Lord’ with a ‘great opportunity’ to show what ‘He’ can do.   

Now notice: if ‘the Lord’ requires of us that we should be ‘righteous’, we will at once say: “In me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing”. (Romans 7:18) 

And how often we turn to that side: ‘Oh, I am no good. - There is no good in me. - In this matter of ‘goodness’ I am perfectly ‘hopeless’.’ 

Well, ‘the Lord’ has given us quite a lot in ‘His Word’ about that.  

We have had ‘the Letter to the Romans’ for so long.  

“The Righteousness of God through Faith in Jesus Christ”.  (Rom 3:22) 

We know all about ‘the doctrine’, and yet so often we just come down under this ‘natural handicap’. 

I could go on speaking about many ‘handicaps’ with which we are ‘born’ - most of us do truly ‘know’ that we in ‘ourselves’ are not fit for the thing ‘the Lord’ requires of us.   

We have discovered that we were ‘born’ that way and it is not ‘in us naturally’.  

We shall stop here for ‘tonight’ and pick it up ‘next Sunday’, Lord willing! 

You will recall that ‘last Sunday’ we recognized that we are ‘born’ with ‘many handicaps’ - and that most of us do ‘truly know’ that we ‘in ourselves’, are not fit for the things ‘the Lord’ requires of us.

We have discovered that we have these ‘handicaps’ in ‘our nature’.  

Well, ‘the Lord Jesus’ has much ‘comfort’ for us in this ‘Sign’.  

This ‘man’ had a ‘terrible handicap’ - he was ‘born blind’.  

He had never seen and did not ‘know’ what it was to see.

He had to have everything ‘explained’ to him, having no ‘faculty’ of his own. 

And ‘the Lord Jesus’ said over against that: ‘this is just the greatest opportunity for ‘the Glory of God’.’  

Now look at this in ‘the training of disciples’.  

It will not be long - only a few days - before these ‘disciples’ discover that side of ‘the meaning’ of this ‘Sign’. 

‘Peter’ will say: ‘though all men forsake You, yet will I not forsake You. - I will go with You even unto death’.  

And it says: “Likewise also said all the disciples”. (Matt.26:35) - already, ‘we can do it’. - can you? 

Let us put it to ‘the test’ - and you know what happened when ‘the test’ was applied.

Those ‘two poor disciples’ on ‘the road to Emmaus’ give us a ‘very good idea’ of their disillusionment.  

Everything had gone from them, and all they could say was:  “We hoped that it was He Who should redeem Israel”. (Luke 24:21), meaning to say: ‘All our hopes are gone’. 

Listen, these ‘disciples’ were a very ‘sad picture’.  

And they had to discover their handicap - they had to be brought there.   

It was necessary that they made this ‘discovery’ that it was not ‘in them’ at all, but that ‘discovery’ was ‘the ground of subsequent Glory’.  

We have seen ‘the tremendous change’ in those ‘men’ on ‘the day of Pentecost’.  

‘Glory’ had just come down upon all their ‘handicap’ and ‘covered’ it.  

‘The Life of the Lord Jesus’ had provided ‘new capacities’. 

This mighty ‘Life in Christ’ had taken possession of them by ‘the Holy Spirit’, and they were ‘men’ who could do what they were never able to do before.  

All ‘the Spiritual blindness’ of those ‘three years’ had gone.

They were ‘men’ with their ‘Spiritual eyes’ wide open.  

Read what they said on ‘the day of Pentecost’...“Peter, standing up with the eleven”. (Acts 2:14) 

I do not know whether ‘the whole eleven’ were speaking at ‘the same time’.  

If not, ‘Peter’ was speaking for them all.  

And that ‘discourse’ is a ‘discourse’ of ‘wonderful Revelation’.  

They were now seeing what they had never seen before as to ‘the Lord Jesus’.  

Listen, if you would make an analysis of ‘Peter’s discourse’, you would be surprised to see how many subjects he touched upon.  

Indeed, ‘his eyes’ had been ‘opened’! 

Not only were ‘the disciples’ seeing, but they were able to do what they could never do before, and ‘the Life of the Lord Jesus’ had effected this.  

This is ‘the kind of training’ that ‘disciples’ need.  

‘The disciples of Christ’ are like this, but not ‘the disciples of Moses’.  

‘The disciples of Moses’ are under ‘the Law’ and have always to say ‘I cannot’.  

‘The true disciples of Christ’ can say: “I can  do all things through Him that strengthens me”. (Phil. 4:13) 

It is ‘the power of His Life’ within and means that we have ‘gifts’ and ‘abilities’ that we never have by ‘nature’.  

This is ‘the beginning of the Gospel’.  

I do not want anyone to think that this is something advanced in ‘the Christian life’.  

It is ‘the very beginning of everything’! 

‘The commission’ of ‘the Apostle Paul’ was in these terms.  

‘The Lord’ said: “Unto whom I send you, to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light”. (Acts 26:17,18) 

That is ‘the beginning of the Gospel’, and this ‘Sign’ ought to have been fulfilled in us right at ‘the beginning of our Christian life’.  

‘The very first thing’ that a true ‘Christian’ and ‘disciple’ ought to be able to say is: “I was blind, but now I see”.- ‘the Lord’ has opened my ‘Spiritual eyes’ and has removed my ‘natural handicap’.  

But while it is ‘the beginning’, it is only ‘the beginning’.  

Everyone has noticed ‘the progressive feature’ in this ‘man’s case’.  

They asked him: “Who opened your eyes?” 

In ‘verse 11’ he says: “The Man that is called Jesus”.  

That is a ‘very simple’ and ‘elementary beginning’.  

Later on they said: ‘What have you to say about Him’? 

In ‘verse 17’ he says: “He is a Prophet”.   

Now that is quite a long way on from a ‘man’.  
But in ‘the end’, when ‘Jesus’ met him - or shall I put it in ‘another way’, for this is what it really means - when ‘Jesus’ knew that they had cast him out and went to find him and said: “Do you believe on the Son of God”? 

He answered: “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe on Him”? (verse 36) 

‘The Lord Jesus’ replied: “He it is that speaks with you.  And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped Him”.  

Oh, listen, worshipping ‘Him’ as ‘God’ is a long way beyond calling ‘Him’ just a ‘man’.  

You see, this is all in this ‘Sign’: it is in ‘the meaning of things’.  

‘This Life’ which we receive ‘in Christ’ has a ‘simple beginning’, but it is a ‘progressive Life’, and ‘the progressive nature’ of that ‘Life’ is a fuller and fuller ‘discovery’ of ‘the Lord Jesus’.  

We “grow in Grace and in the Knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”. (2.Pet.3:18 - A.V.) 

We just detach ‘words’ like this and ‘separate’ them from their ‘context’. 

Of course, it is quite ‘true’, but where did those ‘words’ come from? 

Well, ‘Peter’ has told us - “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born-again unto a living hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”. (1.Pet.1:3)  

How shall we ‘grow in Grace and in Knowledge’? 

By ‘the Power of Resurrection Life’ in us.  

This ‘Life’ is a ‘Life of Spiritual Progress’.  

Now we must come back to where we started.  

Have you recognized ‘one thing’ that is so ‘important’? 

We have spoken of ‘the great division’, of how things were dividing into ‘two classes’ and that ‘division’ was because a ‘man’ had received ‘Spiritual illumination’.  

That is ‘the factor’ which always causes ‘the trouble’.  

Listen, we can divide ‘professing Christians’ into ‘two classes’.  

The ‘one class’ may believe all the Scriptures as being inspired by ‘God’; they may believe in ‘the Deity of Christ’ and all ‘the fundamentals of Christian religion’, - and they may still be people without ‘Spiritual Revelation’ - they may still be ‘unspiritual people’.  

Is that true? 

Yes, ‘the division’ there was just as distinct as between ‘believers’ and ‘unbelievers’.  

And if ‘the Lord’ really does open someone’s eyes and give them ‘Spiritual Revelation’ they are in for ‘trouble’ - and their ‘trouble’ will come from ‘the religious world’.  

Well, here were these ‘orthodox Jews’.  

They believed in ‘the Bible’ and in all that ‘the Bible’ taught so far as ‘the words’ were concerned.  

But when ‘one man’ in their midst received ‘Spiritual sight’ they cast him out.  

‘Spiritual Revelation’ always provokes ‘hostility’ - ‘tradition’ never does. 

‘Orthodox Religion’ never does cause ‘trouble’, but if you are a man or a woman ‘living’ in ‘the power of Resurrection Life’, with your eyes ‘wide open’, you will meet ‘trouble’, and, as I have said, that ‘trouble’ will come from ‘the religious people’.  

What are you going to do about it? 

Well, we have already pointed out that many of ‘the Lord’s disciples’ said: “This is a hard saying; who can hear it?” and “many of His disciples went back, and walked no more  with Him”. (John 6:60,66) 

This way of ‘Spiritual illumination’ is too hard.

We are not prepared to pay ‘the price’ for it.  

We are not going that ‘way’.  

And so ‘the Lord’ sifts out on this ‘one thing’, and ‘the true disciples’ are those who have really had their ‘eyes’ opened.  

‘The Lord’ make us ‘true disciples’! 

It is a costly way and it does provoke a ‘lot of opposition’, but it is a ‘very precious thing’ to have had our ‘eyes’ opened - just to be able to see because ‘the Lord’ has made us see. 

Those who have counted most for ‘the Lord’ have been ‘men’ and ‘women’ who have come to see with ‘Spiritual eyes’.   

So here in ‘the training of disciples’ is ‘the Sign’ of ‘the opened eyes’.  

May we be able to learn ‘the meaning’ of this ‘Sign’! 

Please read ‘John 10:40-11:57’ for ‘’the next time’.