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Series Code: BOL
Program Code: BOL000664S
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00:01 (Breath of Life Theme Music)
00:06 Sermon #B664 - Open Your Eyes 00:20 and so today we invite you to take your bibles and go with us 00:24 and turn with us to John chapter 9. We're going to begin reading with verse number 1. 00:31 Even after I read this text I get excited and I want to shout, “Hallelujah!” 00:38 and so though, I'm in the church by myself. 00:40 I'll shout, “Hallelujah!” by myself as we read this word of scripture, 00:45 but you do the same as you're in your homes today. 00:47 John chapter 9:1 the word of God says, “And as Jesus passed by, 00:53 he saw a man which was blind from his birth.” 00:58 Verse number 2, “and his disciples asked him saying, ‘Master, who did sin? 01:05 This man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 01:11 Verse number 3, “Jesus answered, ‘Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents, 01:16 but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. 01:21 I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day, 01:26 the night cometh when no man can work. 01:30 As long as I am in the world I am the light of the world.” 01:34 Verse number 6, “When he thus had spoken, 01:37 he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle 01:43 and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, 01:48 and he said unto him ‘Go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is my interpretation sent.' 01:57 He went his way there for and washed and came seeing.” 02:01 Now I want you to skip down to verse 18 after the sermon, read the entire chapter, 02:05 but for the sake of the time skip down to verse number 18. 02:10 The word of God says, “But the Jews did not believe concerning him that he had been blind 02:17 and received his sight until they called the parents of him that had received his sight. 02:24 They asked him saying, ‘Is this your son, 02:29 who you say was born blind how then does he now see?' 02:35 His parents answered them and said, ‘We know that this is our son 02:41 and that he was born blind. But by what means he now seeyeth, 02:47 we know not or who hath opened his eyes, we know not. 02:50 He is of age, ask him. He shall speak for himself.'” 02:58 These words spake his parents 03:00 because they fear the Jews for the Jews had agreed already that if any man did confess 03:05 that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. 03:10 Therefore, said his parents, “He is of age. Ask him.” 03:14 “Then again called they the man that was blind and said unto him, ‘Give God the praise. 03:22 We know that this man is a sinner.'” Man in my favorite text in this scripture. 03:28 “He answered and said, ‘Whether he be a sinner or not, I know not, 03:35 but one thing I do know that whereas I was blind, 03:42 but now I see.'” Skip down to verse 39, and Jesus said, “For judgment, 03:47 I am coming to this world that they which see not might see 03:52 and they that which see might be made blind.” 03:55 And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words and said unto him, 03:59 “Are we blind also?” 04:03 Verse 41 Jesus said unto them, “If ye were blind, ye should have no sin. 04:09 But now ye say ‘We see.' Therefore your sin remaineth.” 04:18 Today I want to challenge you on the subject, open your eyes. 04:25 Father, bless us now as we preach your word. 04:27 God, I asked for the power of your Holy Spirit to go through the television airwaves 04:32 and the internet airwaves and Lord speak to your people wherever they might be right now 04:37 across this globe, God speak and we promise we will listen. 04:40 Now hide me behind your cross, forgive me of my sins 04:43 and Lord again I ask that when the appeal time comes even though we worship virtually 04:48 may your people respond. 04:50 Today we pray, forgive us for our sins in the name of Jesus, Amen. 04:56 Open your eyes. Now you would have thought that this man being healed would have triggered 05:06 great celebration. You would have thought that all of his friends 05:11 and neighbors would appreciate it. Would have appreciated what God had done in his life, 05:19 but instead of cheering and celebrating with him, 05:22 this miracle of healing calls a great outburst of hatred against the blind man and against 05:30 Jesus. Now, this shouldn't be strange to any of us 05:34 because as I have learned firsthand in my life, 05:37 the greatest moments in your life can often produce the greatest moments of envy 05:41 and jealousy in somebody else's life, but then I've learned also, the opposite is true. 05:48 When things don't go well for you some people rejoice in your failures, 05:53 rejoice in your defeats and rejoice in your disappointments. 05:56 The bottom line is, everybody is not happy when you're blessed. 06:00 Everybody is not happy when you're successful. 06:04 In our vernacular today, we call this “hating.” 06:08 We often wonder expect rather that people around us would appreciate the 06:13 journey that we've gone through in order to get where we are 06:16 and that they would be glad for us. 06:19 But more often than not your best moments become the source of somebody else's envy, 06:25 jealousy and frustration, but I've learned in my life, “Don't hate the player, 06:30 hate the game and learn to be a cheerleader.” 06:33 As I often say, if God is blessing somebody else around you. 06:37 God must be in the neighborhood and it's just a matter of time 06:41 before God starts blessing you. The people are mad because God has healed the man. 06:49 Mad, because the man's life has been changed. Mad, 06:55 because the man's life has turned around. 06:59 So the disciples asked the man, “Who healed you? Where is he? You must have sinned.” 07:08 And they said this because you see the Jews believe that the sufferings of 07:12 people were divine punishment for sin. So they believe that this man, 07:16 this blind man had sinned, but the text says he was born blind. 07:24 So then how can he have sinned before he was born? Well, if you didn't sin, 07:29 your parents must have sinned because you were born blind. 07:33 So it had to be your parents. 07:35 They must have sinned and they base this assertion on what the law said in Exodus 20:5 07:41 when it says that, “The Lord visits the iniquity of the father's upon the children unto 07:46 the third and fourth generations of them that hate him.” 07:49 which means sometimes children suffer the consequences because of their parents' 07:55 wrongdoing. That's why I've got to live right for me and my children. 08:00 I wish I had a witness in this place. 08:03 But Jesus, he clears all of this up by saying that the man's blindness had nothing to 08:09 do with some sin in his life or some sin in his parents' life. 08:14 Nothing the man did brought this upon him. 08:17 Nothing the man's parents did brought this upon him. God was not punishing them. 08:21 God was not angry with them. God was not mad with them. 08:25 It's just sometimes, bad things happen to good people. 08:30 Sin is not always the direct cause for our suffering. 08:33 Job's life showed us that suffering is inflicted by Satan not God. 08:38 This Coronavirus pandemic that we're living in has been inflicted by Satan. 08:44 Remember, God didn't want Job to suffer. God doesn't want his people to suffer. 08:53 Jesus proves this fact with his answer to the disciples. 08:57 Jesus says, “Neither hath this man sinned. 09:01 Neither hath his parents sinned, 09:03 but that the works of God hallelujah might be made manifest in him.” 09:08 Jesus noticed, did not explain the cause of the man's affliction. 09:13 Jesus just told them what would be the results. 09:16 No one has sinned, but God is about to be glorified. 09:21 The man is about to be edified and the devil is about to be horrified. 09:26 In other words Jesus is saying, “Stop asking the wrong question. 09:30 Stop looking for somebody to blame. 09:33 Quit looking at the problem and look to the solution.” 09:37 Jesus Stoops down, spits on the ground, rubs the dirt and the spit together 09:47 and he makes mud, puts the mud on the man's eyes and then he tells the man, 09:54 “Now, go wash in the pool of Siloam.” 09:58 Now you ought to know by now that when Jesus gets ready to heal, 10:02 sometimes his methods are unorthodox. Sometimes, his methods are different. 10:09 You see Jesus, because he's God, could have spoken the word and said, 10:14 “I command you to see.” but he didn't do that. 10:17 Jesus could have laid his hands on the man and simply said, 10:21 “I command your eyes to open up.” but Jesus didn't do that. 10:25 When Jesus got ready to heal the man, he spat on the ground, made mud out of spit 10:32 and then told the man to go wash in the pool of Siloam. 10:37 Jesus heals the man not conventionally, not traditionally, 10:41 but he heals the man with spit and mud. 10:44 The people began to question, “Is the man really the same man who was born blind?” 10:51 So they asked, “How were your eyes opened?”, “Who opened your eyes?” 11:00 Now, remember, the blind man didn't know Jesus and at this moment in time, 11:06 he didn't even know Jesus was the Messiah. 11:10 Remember, the blind man had never seen Jesus─he was blind. 11:15 So when Jesus sent him to go wash in the pool of Siloam, the man was still blind, 11:19 so he didn't even know who Jesus was. 11:23 So he responds to the people, “Look, a man named Jesus spat on the ground, made mud, 11:35 put mud on my eyes. He then told me to go wash in the pool of Siloam 11:42 and when I got finished washing, I could see.” 11:46 but the people weren't satisfied with the man's answer. 11:48 So the people then took him to the Pharisees, the Pharisees then asked, 11:51 “How did you receive your sight?” The man tells him the same thing. 11:57 He says, “I said, a man named Jesus spat on the ground, made some mud, put mud on my eyes. 12:07 He then told me to go wash in the pool of Siloam and when I got finished, I could see.” 12:14 but the Pharisees, their problem is, they're mad that Jesus healed the man. 12:21 Why are they mad? Number one, they're mad because Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath. 12:25 And according to Jewish law, Jesus broke the Sabbath because he healed on the Sabbath. 12:29 But isn't it amazing how we will put policy over people? 12:33 How we will put the law over love and we put religion over relationship. 12:38 But then the Pharisees are also mad number two, 12:40 because Jesus didn't go to them first for the man's healing. 12:43 That he didn't ask them for permission to heal the man, 12:45 that they didn't take a vote to approve Jesus' method of healing. 12:49 You see people will get mad when they can't claim rights to your healing. 12:53 They get upset when they can't claim rights to your accomplishments or your successes. 12:57 If Jesus had sent the man to the Pharisees first, the Pharisees would have then said, 13:03 “We did it.” and it would have been all right for the man to have been healed. 13:07 But because the man got healed outside the system, outside the norm, 13:13 outside of tradition, the Pharisees had a problem. 13:18 Now, they are going to fight it because they can't accept that God did it. 13:25 But I believe somebody knows that God is Sovereign which means God can do what he wants, 13:32 when he wants, where is he wants, how he wants, 13:36 and he doesn't have to ask us for permission to do as he wants. 13:40 So, in verse number 19 of our text “The Pharisees asked the parents of the man. 13:46 ‘Is this your son, who you say was born blind, how then now does he see?'” 13:56 Verse 20, “His parents answered and said, 13:59 ‘We know this is our son and we know he was born blind, 14:04 but by what means he now see is we know not, how his eyes have been open. 14:09 We know not. He's of age, ask him. He can speak for himself.'” 14:18 This man's parents were afraid of being put out of the church, Lord have mercy. 14:23 And so they cover up the truth and ship responsibility to their son. 14:27 The Pharisees called the man one more time, “Who healed you? 14:31 You ought to be giving God the praise not this man whom you claim healed you. 14:37 The man you're speaking of is a sinner. 14:40 He broke religious law and he healed you on the Sabbath day.” 14:47 So then the blind man answers them in verse 25, “Look, my brother's, 14:54 I don't know if he's a sinner or not. I don't know where he was born. 15:01 I don't know where he came from. I don't know where he is right now. 15:08 I don't know his mother. I don't know his father. 15:11 I don't know if he's a doctor, a dentist, a lawyer, a teacher, or preacher, 15:16 but all I know is that I once was blind but now I see.” But the story doesn't end there. 15:25 Some preachers like to stop there and hoop there and then church is over, 15:28 but the story doesn't end at verse 25 the story ends at verse 41. 15:33 You see if you keep reading through the end of this chapter, 15:36 you will discover that verses 39 to 41 as we read earlier, 15:39 make it plain that there were two kinds of blind people in the text. 15:43 The first group that was the man, the first person was the man who was born blind 15:47 and Jesus made see. The second, 15:50 were the Pharisees who thought they were seeing when they were actually blind. 15:55 You see, it's one thing to be blind and know it 15:58 but it's another thing to be blind and not know it. 16:01 In the text, the Pharisees are spiritually blind, not physically blind, 16:07 but spiritually blind. They can't see what God is doing. 16:12 God has just performed a miracle, but they can't see it, 16:16 and when you're spiritually blind God came to be doing something right in the front of 16:21 your face and you still can't see it, but not only that, 16:27 when you're spiritually blind you can't see what you're doing. 16:31 In the text, the Pharisees were unaware that with all their theological progress, 16:37 with all their debates about Sabbath laws and whether it was lawful to make a mud pack 16:42 and put it on a man's eyes for the purpose of making the man see, 16:45 with all their legal ramblings they still couldn't see that they were making this newly 16:50 healed man wonder about the nature of their healing. 16:53 They were so hung up on doctrines that they couldn't see 16:56 and they were blind to the fact that doctrines were hurting real people. 17:01 They were blind to the guilt that they were putting on this man for his healing that 17:05 Jesus had just made whole. They couldn't see it. 17:07 They were spiritually blind, spiritually blind! Blind to what God had done 17:12 and blind to what they were doing. Spiritual blindness is worse than physical blindness. 17:21 Now, allow me some room right now for some creativity 17:25 and some creative exegesis to this text and let me expand upon this concept of spiritual 17:31 blindness, which remember now is failing to see what God is doing and then number two, 17:38 failing to see what we're doing. 17:42 Now, many of us have been believers in Christ all of our lives. 17:47 We were born in the church, and if not, all of our lives a good portion of our lives. 17:53 Many of us have been church members for as long as we can remember. 17:59 We've done the church thing. We know the church. We know the church traditions. 18:06 We know the church rules. We know the church language. We know the church. 18:14 We're religious, we're spiritual, but are we also blind? 18:21 I mean, we know the law just like the Pharisees knew the law 18:24 but are we spiritually blind like the Pharisees? 18:27 I ask this question today 18:28 because it seems as if we don't know what's going on in our world today, 18:33 or we see what's going on, but we're blind to the spiritual implications, inferences 18:41 and insinuations of what we're seeing. 18:44 Now, blindness is defined as the state or condition of being unable to see. 18:50 Blindness is also defined as the lack of perception, lack of awareness, 18:55 or lack of judgment and I believe that right now there's a lack of spiritual 19:00 awareness going on right now and people can't spiritually see. 19:05 Their eyes are spiritually closed to what God is doing and what we are doing. 19:13 What am I talking about? News channels today, 19:16 the internet and social media are telling us and showing us that there is turmoil 19:25 and chaos in every part of the world right now. What we're witnessing my friends, 19:32 it's the groundwork being laid for the end of the world 19:36 and the coming of Jesus taking place right before our eyes. 19:40 God is showing us that he is about to come, that he's wrapping things up, 19:47 but sadly people can't see it. We can't see what God is doing 19:53 because we're spiritually blind. 19:56 The Pharisees were disciplined. They were trained. They were moral people. 20:03 They were clean people. They were holy people. They didn't touch certain things. 20:09 They didn't eat certain things. 20:12 They didn't go certain places. They kept the Sabbath holy. They kept the law. 20:21 And don't get it twisted. 20:23 There's nothing wrong with keeping the law as long as it's motivated by love. 20:29 It was Jesus who said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” 20:34 but the Pharisees were spiritually blind and spiritual blindness I told you, 20:40 is worse than physical blindness because physical blindness can be healed 20:45 but spiritual blindness resists healing. 20:50 Here, we have a blind beggar, seeing more clearly than the religious leaders. 20:57 So in verses 26 through 41, the Pharisees kept chastising the man, “Who healed you?”, 21:05 “How did he open your eyes?”, “How are you able to see?” 21:12 The man told them, “I keep telling you the same thing over and over and over again. 21:22 Maybe you want to be one of his followers?” 21:26 They say, “Oh no, we don't want to be followers of this man. 21:30 We're followers of Moses. We know God spoke through Moses, 21:36 but this man we don't even know where he came from.” but the man had had enough. 21:43 Because after the devil bothers you enough you say, “Guess what, I've had enough, 21:47 this far and this far, no further. I'm drawing a line in the sand.” 21:53 The man says in verse number 30, “You claim to know nothing about him, 21:58 but the fact is he opened my eyes.” In verse number 33 he says, 22:02 “If this man were not of God he wouldn't have been able to do that.” 22:07 So, I don't know where he came from. I don't know if he's a saint or a sinner. 22:15 I don't know what school he went to. I don't know if he went to Oakwood. 22:19 Andrews, A&M or to UAH all I know is I once was blind but now I see. 22:27 I don't know if he knows Donald Trump. I don't know if he knows Barack Obama. 22:32 I don't know if he knows Joe Biden. All I know is I once was blind but now I see. 22:39 I don't know what the church board said. 22:42 I don't know what the board of elders said, I don't know what the people said. 22:46 All I know is I once was blind but now I see. 22:50 I don't know where to coronavirus came from. 22:52 I don't know where covid-19 originated from. 22:56 I don't know if it was created in China. I don't know if it came from a laboratory. 23:00 I don't know if scientists produced it or conjured it up. 23:04 All I know is I once was blind, but now I see. I don't know if he's a saint or sinner. 23:14 I'm not here to debate how I got healed, when I got healed, 23:19 where I got healed, on what day I got healed. 23:22 All I know is, I once was blind but now I see. 23:31 So Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. 23:40 I once was lost but now I'm found, was blind but now I see. Open your eyes. 23:56 See what God is doing. See what you are doing. Don't be spiritually blind. 24:08 Jesus is coming, and friends of mine I don't care what the world says about him. 24:15 I don't care if people don't want to believe in him. 24:19 I don't care if they don't want to obey him but Jesus is coming. 24:26 I can't worry if people don't want to read his word. 24:29 I can't worry if people don't want to accept his word. 24:33 I can't worry if people don't want to follow his word. 24:36 God just called me to preach the word, but he's still coming. 24:40 Choose you this day whom you're gonna serve, but as for me and my house, 24:47 we will serve the Lord and I love him. I said, I love him. 24:53 I love me some Jesus and I won't take that back because he's been so good to me. 25:01 I refuse to be spiritually blind. I refuse to have my eyes shut. 25:08 I'm going to see what God is doing. I'm going to see what I'm doing. 25:13 And if what I'm doing is not in harmony with what God wants done. 25:17 I've got to make a change in my life. Jesus is coming. 25:22 So lift up your heads O ye gates. 25:25 I said, lift up your heads O ye gates and be ye lifted up 25:30 and the King of Glory shall come in. The angels asked, who is the King of Glory? 25:38 The Lord strong and mighty. Who is the King of Glory? 25:42 The Lord mighty in battle for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout 25:48 with the voice of the archangel the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first, 25:53 then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds 25:57 to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Open your eyes. 26:05 See what God is doing. See what you are doing. Amazing Grace, 26:16 how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. 26:24 Thank you very much for tuning in to this week's Breath of Life broadcast. 26:29 We hope and pray that you've been blessed by Dr. Byrd's inspirational message. 26:33 If you would like to hear this sermon in its entirety, 26:36 please feel free to visit us at www.breathoflife.tv. 26:42 Or, call us at (256) 929-6460. 26:47 [End] 26:54 [MUSIC] 26:58 Thank you very much for tuning into the ministry of Breath of Life Television. 27:02 We are grateful to you for your prayers, and your support. 27:06 Without you our television broadcast on a weekly basis, 27:10 our public evangelist campaigns, our mission initiative they just would not be possible, 27:16 so we say thank you. 27:18 With that in mind, we want to encourage and invite you 27:22 to join us with your charitable donation to Breath of Life. 27:26 Make your gift payable to Breath of Life by mail, 27:29 at Breath of Life PO BOX 5960, Huntsville, AL 35814. 27:34 Also, we now have a Cash App. So from your smartphone you can give at $BreathofLifeTV. 27:43 Give us all call the number is 256.929.6460 27:49 Or you can visit us online at www.breathoflife.tv 28:02 Dr. Byrd: Pain, loss, trama, 28:11 in life we experience these things. 28:14 My wife and I have a story, 28:17 we have a testimony of how we lost 28:22 our first born daughter in a horrific car accident. 28:29 We have this new sharing book, its en-titled “Gone.” 28:34 And, in it I want to share with you 28:37 how God has helped me, 28:40 how God has helped my wife, how God has helped us, 28:44 as we had to endure the fact that our first born daughter is gone. 28:57 www.breathoflife.tv |
Revised 2020-05-04