In his sermon, 'Do Not Harden Your Hearts,' Jason Dohm discusses the biblical concept of hardening one's heart against God's works, drawing parallels between the wilderness rebellion in Psalm 95 and the Pharisees' reaction to Jesus' miracles. The sermon explores the story of Jesus healing a man born blind, emphasizing the Pharisees' hard-heartedness and their reluctance to acknowledge Jesus' divine authority, even when faced with irrefutable evidence. Dohm highlights the theological implications of God's sovereignty, likening Him to a potter with complete rights over the clay, and stresses the importance of submitting to God's wisdom, especially during hardships. The sermon critiques the Pharisees' misunderstanding of the Sabbath, arguing that Jesus was not altering the biblical law but correcting a misinterpretation. Through the story of the healed blind man and his parents, Dohm illustrates the destructive power of the fear of man and the importance of standing firm in faith. The sermon concludes with a call to embrace the reproach of Christ and to recognize the profound transformation that comes from spiritual healing, urging believers to remain steadfast in their faith despite societal pressures.

The title of the sermon this morning is, Do Not Harden Your Hearts. It's a phrase that I'm taking directly out of Psalm 95. Listen to Psalm 95 verses 8 and 9. Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, when your fathers tested me, they tried me, though they saw my work." This is exactly what is happening in the text. It's almost a repeat of what was happening in the wilderness when the people who had seen the works of God, they passed through the Red Sea on dry ground, are testing God and not believing in God even though they had seen His works.

They hardened their hearts against what their eyes were telling them. And this is what we have in our text. That's why the title of the sermon is, Do Not Harden Your Heart. This text stands as a monument against the hardening of our hearts against the evidence that Jesus really can save you from your sins. Chapter 9 is going to be in just three sermons, which is a small number compared to other chapters.

Last week we were introduced to the man who was born blind, and His disciples asked this question, whose sin? Was it this man's sin or his parents' sin that caused him to be blind, even from birth? Jesus explained that it wasn't the sin of the man, it wasn't the sin of his parents, but it was that the works of God would be put on display in his life. It's astounding. God thinks that as your Maker, He has the rights to dispose of you in whatever way seems wise to Him.

Can you believe that? But for all of us, the Bible would have us make peace with that being true. God is wise. At the end, when we know all the things at the end that we don't know now, it will be abundantly proven that God was wise in how He disposed of our lives and how He decided all the hardships that we encounter in this life, we'll see that it was wise of God to put all those things in our lives. He's actually claiming the rights of the potter over the clay.

And claiming the right to make anything out of his own clay that he desires. And we should be glad because He does it with perfect wisdom. If we were put in charge of all these things, we would mess it up. God's not messing it up. God's bringing everything to a glorious conclusion.

We should yield ourselves to even the hardships that he brings into our lives. This week we have the hardness of the Pharisees. It's almost hard to believe how hard-hearted they are against something. They should be leading the having of a party. A man who's lived into adulthood, blind and reduced to being a beggar because he can't work to support himself, has been healed.

His life has been completely changed and transformed. Rather than rejoice and leading the people of God in the rejoicing, they are picking away at this and trying to invalidate what Jesus has done and to heap scorn on him because of the malice in their hearts. Such hardness we see in our text this week. And then next week we'll conclude the chapter with Jesus calling this man that he's healed from blindness to faith. And it's a wonderful text.

I can't wait to get there. As we go to the text, let's ask the Lord to help us. God, you know us. You know what's in our hearts. You know that we have a predisposition to wag our fingers at the Pharisees, all the while having hardness in our own hearts.

So God, we come to this text and we simply pray that you would have mercy on us. That you would come and deal with us, not build us up in self-righteousness as if the Pharisees have something in our hearts that we've never experienced, but that you would put your finger on the hardness in our own hearts so that we could be free from it. Don't let us be hard-hearted towards you, towards your work in our lives, towards the salvation that you so graciously offer in your Son Jesus. Let us be so tender-hearted and yielded to all that you desire to do in us and through us. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

As usual, I'd like to break the text into pieces. The first piece will be verses 13-17. So follow along as I read John 9 verses 13 through 17. They brought him who formerly was blind to the Pharisees. Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes.

Then the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight. He said to them, He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see. Therefore some of the Pharisees said, This man is not from God, because he does not keep the Sabbath. Others said, How can a man who is a sinner do such signs? And there was a division among them.

They said to the blind man again, What do you say about him, because he opened your eyes? He said, He is a prophet. Here in these verses, the Pharisees question the healed man. So if you're taking notes on the handout and you're filling in blanks, The blank is question. The Pharisees question the healed man.

We have sort of the beginning of an inquisition here. It begins in verse 13. They brought him who formerly was blind to the Pharisees. Now, it's not perfectly clear who the they is and why they would bring this man who has been healed to the Pharisees. The they is probably the people that we are introduced to in verse 8, which were his neighbors and the people who recognized him as being the blind beggar.

They know for sure now, based on his own testimony, that this is the man, This is their neighbor, who they have probably known for many years as a blind beggar. Something astounding has been done, so they bring him to the Pharisees. The Pharisees in this text are clearly leaders who have an official capacity. Some of the commentators say that this is the Sanhedrin or the ruling council. They are in Jerusalem So it could be the Sanhedrin, but we don't know for sure.

In any event, we know that they have an official capacity. We learned that in the last verse of our text, verse 34, when they cast him out of the synagogue. They could only do that if they were in an official capacity. So these are Pharisees, these are leaders who are serving in an official capacity and so these people who have witnessed that a great astounding miracle has been done bring him to the leaders, the Jewish leaders for an assessment. Remember our introduction to Nicodemus in chapter 3 verse 1.

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. So Nicodemus came to Jesus by night and Jesus said some wonderful things to him. But we learned in chapter 3 verse 1 that Nicodemus was a Pharisee and that he was a ruler of the Jews. So the men who the neighbors of this man brought to the Pharisees. These are men like Nicodemus.

They're Pharisees and they're leaders of the Jews serving in official capacity. Verse 14, we get the problem. It was the Sabbath. Jesus is in trouble for healing on the Sabbath again. A reminder, they've already been here.

In chapter 5, Jesus was in Jerusalem at a feast, and he encountered the man who had been a cripple for 38 years and he healed him at the pool of Bethesda. And then he was questioned about it because he healed on the Sabbath, just like our text. And Jesus says, I'm only doing what my Father sent me to do. And then in chapter 5, verse 18, we read this. Chapter 5, verse 18, therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath but he also said that God was his Father making himself equal with God.

So in chapter 5 we encountered one thing that made the Jewish leaders want to kill Jesus and another thing that made them really really want to kill Jesus the thing that made the Jews want them to kill Jesus was that he healed on the Sabbath. The thing that made them want to really, really kill Jesus was that He made himself equal with God by calling himself God's Son. Both of those elements are here. Assuming you buy the argument that the beginning of chapter 9 follows right on the heels of chapter 8 in the timeline, I'm satisfied by that. If you buy that argument, you have both of those elements here.

Jesus equating himself with God by calling God his Father and the healing on the Sabbath. Of course, this is all built on an underlying assumption. What is that assumption? That they are right about their understanding of the Sabbath and that Jesus is wrong about his understanding of the Sabbath so that he is actually breaking the Sabbath. If that underlining assumption is false, then all of their malice is based on nothing at all.

Here's what J.C. Ryle says, I really appreciate this. J.C. Ryle says, These would-be wise men completely mistook the intention of the Sabbath. They did not see that it was made for man and meant for the good of man's body, mind, and soul.

It was a day to be set apart from others, no doubt, and to be carefully sanctified and kept holy. But its sanctification was never intended to prevent works of necessity and acts of mercy. The setting apart of the Sabbath to be a holy day, a special day set apart for the worship of God and the rest of his people was never meant to prevent works of necessity and acts of mercy. Do you get that? Now, when you read the modern commentators on this, many of them say in these texts where Jesus is in trouble for healing on the Sabbath, He is changing the Bible's view on the Sabbath.

To which I would say, no, no, no, a thousand times no. He's not changing the Bible's view of the Sabbath at all. He's freeing the Jews from a wrong interpretation of the Sabbath. It's not that in the Old Testament under the Mosaic law it would have ever been inappropriate for one day, for one second of one day, to heal on the Sabbath. In fact, I think an argument can be made with a right view of the Sabbath that there is no better day to heal.

There is no more fitting day for a man born blind to receive His sight than on the Lord's Day. God is taking command of His creation and waging war against the effects of sin in the world. What day would you want that done on, if not on the Lord's Day? Jesus is not changing the Sabbath by healing on the Sabbath. He is proving that acts of necessity and works of mercy were always right to be done on the Sabbath.

Always right to be done on the Sabbath. Always right to be done on the Sabbath. You want to align with the view of the Sabbath that is had by the Lord of the Sabbath. Jesus calls himself Lord of the Sabbath. You take his view and you say that's the right view.

We're getting his view in this text. Works of necessity and works of mercy have always been lawful on the Lord's Day and will always be lawful on the Lord's Day. The Pharisees now begin to question this man, how did you receive your sight? The man answers just Precisely what we saw in last week's text, he put clay on my eyes, I washed, I see. Now they begin to deliberate, a debate begins to happen among these Jewish rulers, these Pharisees and there's a division, they are not like minded about this.

Some of them say, this man cannot be from God because he does not keep the Sabbath. Again, they're exalting their view of what's good and right to be done on the Sabbath over Jesus' view. That's a huge mistake. Others say, rightly so, how could he do this if he was a sinner? Here's a question for you.

Can you heal the blind? Me neither. I can't heal the blind either. So for people who can't heal the blind to say that one who actually can heal the blind is not from God is very presumptuous. Agreed?

Very wrong to say that. So there are those even within these Jewish leaders who on balance are bent against Jesus and are waging war against Jesus and really really want to kill Him at this point in His life. There are those who can see the obvious, which is He can do things, good things, acts of acts of mercy that we should applaud that we can't do. Maybe we should slow down and really consider whether He is from God or not. This brings us to a point that we encounter over and over again in the New Testament and that point is this.

Jesus is a peacemaker between God and man. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can bring together a holy, perfect, just God and sinners like us. There is only one way to bridge that great chasm between a holy God who can't even look upon sin, and us who are touched by sin in every part. And that is the cleansing blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So He does bring together God and man, all who repent and believe the Gospel.

But often, often, often he brings division between people. How many times do you see that in the New Testament? How many times have you seen that in your own life, where he has brought peace between you and God. But that same thing that has reconciled you with a holy God, which is the reconciliation more than you need any other reconciliation in your life, that same reconciliation actually causes a fracture in some of your human relationships. Jesus said, Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth.

I did not come to bring peace but a sword. That's Matthew 10, verse 34. And then right after that verse he begins to explain how that might cause a meltdown in some of your closest family relationships. Did you know that? The Gospel might cause you to forfeit some of your close family relationships that you have cherished and even relied upon, but the gospel might cause division there because you've been reconciled to God but they're still in darkness.

You're in different kingdoms. So there's not the peace. You want the peace but there can't be peace because your king is the king of a different kingdom. And these are kingdoms at war. Paul said this, for first of all when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you.

So, Where we are in this verse so far, even within a church, this is Paul to the Corinthians, even within the Corinthian church, which is sort of a mess, that church, he's heard of their divisions, Paul says, and in part I believe it, for there must also be factions among you that those who are approved may be recognized among you. There are those who are reconciled with God and it divides from those who are not reconciled with God. This is the great dividing line on earth. It's not between Republicans and Democrats, or between Duke fans and UNC fans. It's between those who are reconciled with God and those who are the enemies of God.

The Bible doesn't give us a third category that is somehow in between. The Bible only gives us those two. It is one or the other. So your peace with God might actually set you at odds and divide you from human relationships, maybe even human relationships that you've cherished. We can tell from how the text reads that those who are saying that maybe they should slow down and consider Jesus again are the timid minority.

Listen again. How can a man who is a sinner do such signs? They pose it as a question instead of confidently declaring what the healed man will declare later on in the text that you can't do these things unless you are sent by God. And This timid minority is going to get steamrolled in our text by the bold majority that are against Jesus. Finally, they ask the man, what do you say about him?

He gave you sight, what do you say about Him? The man says, He is a prophet. At this point in the text all we can say about the man's declaration that Jesus is a prophet is that's a good start. Jesus hasn't really fully revealed his identity to this man. He will in next week's text.

But for the moment, the man at least recognizes that Jesus has been raised up by God to do wonderful miracles. And he's been the recipient of that. Moving along to the next section, beginning in 18 verses 18-23. Chapter 9 verses 18-23. But the Jews did not believe concerning him that he had been blind and received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight.

And they asked him, saying, Is this your son whom you say was born blind? How then does he now see? His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind. But by what means he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know. He is of age, ask him.

He will speak for himself. His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that he was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore, his parents said, he is of age, ask him." Here in this section of the text, the Pharisees question the parents. So if you're filling in blanks on the handout, it's parents. The Pharisees question the parents.

The Pharisees don't even believe that this man even ever was blind. Now his neighbors, it's probably his neighbors who brought the man to the Pharisee, they've known him, they can testify this was a blind man. The man is saying of himself, I was born blind and I've been healed. But they will not believe that and so they call the parents to testify. And the Disbelief of the Pharisees comes through even in how they ask the question, is this your son who you say was born blind?

So you say. He was born blind. As if there's anyone else who should be an authority on that subject on planet Earth other than his parents. Well we learned that there is something big looming in the background. What's that?

Verse 22, the word is out. The leaders have already decided about Jesus. He's not the Christ. No one is going to be calling Him the Christ. And if anyone does declare that Jesus is the Messiah, they'll be put out of the synagogue.

So This is a foregone conclusion. This is what's looming in the background. It's not been spoken in the text yet, but you can feel the undercurrents of it. The Word is out. If you say that Jesus is the Messiah, you are going to be cast out from the midst of the professing people of God.

This is no small matter. The Nelson Study Bible says that at this time in Jewish history there were different levels of being cast out of the synagogue. One lasted 30 days, so it was time bound, but you weren't supposed to come within 6 foot of the person who had been cast out. So that would mean no contact at all. You wouldn't be touched by anyone in the people of God for 30 days.

Then there was a more severe level, which was undefined in time, and then there was the ultimate sort of penalty, which would be you were irrevocably cast out from the synagogue, meaning there was no way to ever come back in. In any event, it would be like we view excommunication plus plus plus. What are the pluses? The pluses would be you shouldn't work with or have this person working for you or do business with this person. So think of what Israel is.

Israel is not just the local church. The synagogue would function much like our local churches. In fact, if you look at the ESV study note on what it says about the synagogue, you find that the way they describe the synagogue at the time would be a lot like we view the local church. They gather on the Lord's Day in order to have the Scriptures read and taught and to pray and sing together. Most of the things that we are doing they would have been doing in the synagogue.

But this is also Israel. And so civil government is bound up in that. And community life is bound up in that in a way that our local churches are not. So this would really touch every part of your life if you were cast out of the synagogue. And wow, can you tell that his parents can feel what's at stake.

So these parents act accordingly. They say just the bare minimum. Yes, this is our son. We know that for sure. Yes, he was born blind.

We know that for sure. As to how he received his sight, you ask him. He is of age, he can speak for himself. There are two things I would like to notice about what we see in our text here. Number one, how powerful the fear of man is.

Never underestimate it. Search it out and weed it out in your hearts. Never underestimate how strong the fear of man is. Go on a search for the fear of man in your heart and root it out. It will give you nothing but heartache.

And never be governed by it. Make a pact with yourself now that you will not be ruled by the fear of man. Does that mean we should never take into consideration relational consequences? No, I don't think it means that. I just mean at the end of the day we can't be governed by relational consequences.

Sometimes principle must be served, even above and beyond any consequences that we have in any of our relationships. We cannot be governed by the fear of man. Listen to what Jesus says, and do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. That's Matthew 10, 28.

Jesus says what we know, which is that either you'll have this awe and reverence of God that masters the rest of your fears and disempowers the rest of your fears. Isn't that what you want? That's what I want. I want to be free from slavishly serving the rest of my fears. How do you do that?

Well you have a right awe of God that has his view of things ruling you. Because you know that he governs all things and he is able to destroy both soul and body and hell. So he is the one to be feared, let the chips fall where they may. Fear the Lord and let the chips fall where they may." So that's the first thing that should be noticed, how powerful the fear of man is. So powerful that the parents of a man who was blind from birth and has been healed won't say any more than the bare minimum of the healing of their son.

Secondly, how hardened against all the evidence the Pharisees are. What more do they want? They have the neighbors of the blind man testifying. They have the blind man testifying. They have the parents of the blind man testifying.

But they won't receive any of it. Their minds are made up. And now all of the evidence will have to be made to conform to the conclusion. Don't miss how astounding that is. Conclusions are supposed to be Conformed to the evidence right?

Look at the evidence you draw conclusion It's happening exactly in the opposite order here that they have the conclusion and so they're conforming They're shaping the evidence to it and saying this can't be real evidence because of the conclusion that we started with. Wrong, all wrong. Now we would wish that these parents would make a bold confession and say, this man the prophet Jesus healed our son. But the fact that they don't actually exposes the Pharisees. Have you thought about that?

Had they just come right out and boldly declared Jesus as the Christ, they healed our son and it's a sign of the Messiah from Isaiah and quoted verses from Isaiah that said the Messiah would give sight to the blind and said, this is our Messiah. Then the Pharisees wouldn't be nearly so exposed as they are here. But here, they come as witnesses that are clearly not decidedly in Jesus' corner. They are not champions of Jesus in any way. It's clear that they'd rather back away than to confess Jesus.

We've been seeing this in John, that resistance to the good news is not rational, it's spiritual. Resistance to the Good News is not evidence-based, rational resistance. Our faith at the end of the day isn't based just on the evidence, But our faith has nothing to fear from the evidence. Our faith is perfectly consistent with the evidence. Resistance to the good news parades as rational.

It puts itself forth as rational. But really it's just reversing things to attack the evidence based on a prior conclusion, just like what we see from the evidence. When people resist the Gospel, It's because they've decided that the gospel ought to be resisted. And so whatever the evidence is, no matter how much they know that their sinners need to be set free from their sins, they cannot accept the good news because of the conclusions that they've started with and are determined to defend. This spiritual resistance actually turns good news into bad news.

Isn't that what's happening in this text? Isn't that good news when somebody gets healed? Shouldn't we be happy about that? When the healing of a blind man is bad news to be defeated to you, you are on the wrong side of the line. When you find yourself digging in to cast scorn on the one who did such an act of mercy here, you should ask, What am I defending here?

They never stop to ask. The healing of a blind man is bad news to them. By the way, we're coming up on John chapter 11 where the raising of a dead man will be bad news. And they'll want to re-kill the dead man. Because he had the nerve to be raised from the dead, as if Jesus ever consulted Lazarus about his resurrection.

But his resurrection is such a threat in John chapter 11 that they want to kill Lazarus. Can you believe that? We see sort of the beginnings of that here. Now verses 24-27. Back to our text.

Verses 24-27. So they again called the man who was blind and said to him, Give God the glory. We know that this man is a sinner. He answered and said, whether he is a sinner or not, I do not know. One thing I know, that though I was blind, now I see.

Then they said to him again, What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes? He answered them, I told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples?

In this section the Pharisees question the healed man a second time. So if you're filling in blanks on the handout, it's second. The Pharisees question the healed man a second time. So if you're filling in blanks on the handout, it's second, the Pharisees question. The healed man a second time.

This is round two. They say, give God the glory. Now either, one, this means that They don't want the glory going to Jesus, so they are saying, okay you were healed but don't credit Jesus, give God the glory for this. The glory belongs to God. Or, it's from Joshua chapter 7 verse 19.

Listen to Joshua 7 verse 19. In which the people of God had been commanded to totally destroy the plunder from the people in the promised land. They weren't to keep anything back, but they were to destroy it. But Achan had kept some back secretly, and the people of God were being judged and losing battles because he had secretly kept back what God had told his people to destroy. And then Joshua comes to identify him and to question him and That's where Joshua 7 verse 19 is.

Now Joshua said to Achan, My son, I beg you, give glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession to him, and tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me." So in Joshua chapter 7, this phrase, give glory to God, appears as a type of oath where you're essentially calling upon God to witness the truthfulness of the statement. So the person tells the truth because they know that this has been done in the full side of God. So it would be the form of an oath. I tend to think it's that.

Either one actually fits the context just fine. You know that they didn't want Jesus to have the glory from this. So for them to shift glory away from Jesus as if Jesus wasn't God is fitting. But for them to actually put this man under oath, that makes a little more sense to me. Either way fits the context.

They are seeking validation for the judgment that they have rendered that Jesus is wicked. That's the starting conclusion that the evidence has to conform to. Jesus is wicked, so the glory for this doesn't belong with Jesus. Agree with us that that's true. That's what they're pressing for here, is validation for their own judgment and invalidating Jesus.

I love the simplicity and the force of the response. Look again at verse 25. He the formerly blind man answered and said, whether he is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know that though I was blind now I see." Such simplicity and such force in how he responds to them. He cuts through their objections which they won't be parted from anyway, right?

This has already been tried. Parting them from the objections has already been tried and failed. So he just cuts through and passed that and he hangs simply on the facts. I was blind and now I see. Maybe you've heard this modern phrase, facts are stubborn things.

Facts are stubborn things. So he just brings them right back to the facts. How are they going to attack that? He used to be blind, and now I used to be blind, now I see, Deal with it. Deal with the facts.

Facts are stubborn things. What do the Pharisees do now? They ask the same old question all over again. They've already asked the man, he answered it, They asked his parents. They sent him back to him, confirming that he was their son and that he was born blind.

Now they ask him the same question, not even in a different way. At this point, at least as I read it, this man has had it. Now imagine If you had lived into adulthood blind, you'd never seen a sight. And now someone had taken pity on you, someone who was unlike anyone else in the history of the world, who could give your sight back to you, and he had given your sight back to you, and he had given your sight back to you, and now people are picking, picking, picking, picking away to heap scorn on the one who had healed you. How would you feel about that?

I think that shows you why this man would answer in this way. His parents might not be ready to defend Jesus, but this man who has been given his sight by Jesus is ready. And he shows himself up to the task. Listen again to verse 27. He answered, I told you already and you did not listen.

Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples? He is clearly irritated. I can only imagine that when He says, do you also want to be His disciples, this is nothing other than sarcasm. He is ready to have at them.

And he does. It's equivalent to saying the only logical explanation for your obsession with receiving my sight is that you want to be as disciples That's the only thing I can think of that would be logical Why would you would ask me the same question over and over and over again is that you want to follow Jesus? Unless of course There is only an illogical explanation. Okay, So he's really bringing them face to face with that. With that premise.

There's only one logical explanation to your obsession with what's happened. That's that you want to follow him. Otherwise, you're only left with illogical explanations, which is exactly right. There's only an illogical explanation for why they keep asking the same question over and over again and never accepting the answer. Finally, verses 28-34.

Then they reviled him and said, You are his disciple, but we are Moses' disciples. We know that God spoke to Moses. As for this fellow, we do not know where he is from. The man answered and said to them, Why, this is a marvelous thing that you do not know where he is from, yet he has opened my eyes. Now we know that God does not hear sinners, But 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 open the eyes of one who was born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing. They answered and said to Him, You were completely born in sins. And are You teaching us? And they cast Him out.

Here in this section, the Pharisees revile Him and then cast Him out. So if you're taking notes on the handout, filling in blanks, it's revile, cast. The Pharisees revile him and then cast him out. That's too much for the Pharisees. Being asked if they want to be Jesus' disciples, make them blow their tops.

We are not Jesus' disciples. We will never be Jesus' disciples. You are dumb enough to be Jesus' disciples, but not us. That is in essence what is being said here. We are Moses' disciples.

Oh yes, we love Moses. Can't stand Jesus, but love Moses. Jesus has already spoken to this attitude. I know Jesus is not face to face with them. But Jesus has already spoken directly to this attitude in John chapter 5.

Just flip back, I want to remind you of what we saw there. John chapter 5, the last verses of chapter 5. John chapter 5 verses 45 through 47. Jesus says, Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, Moses, in whom you trust." So here in chapter 5, they've been saying how much they love Moses.

And Jesus is essentially saying, no you don't. I don't have to accuse you. Moses, who you say you trust, will be the one who accuses you. Verse 46, for if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?

We see the same thing here in chapter 9. The point is, there is no use trying to drive a wedge between Moses and Jesus. There is no daylight between Moses and Jesus. I guess where Moses got his words from? He got them from Jesus.

Jesus is the Word. Every word of Moses recorded in scripture is a word given to him by the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no daylight between Moses and Jesus. There is no way to drive a wedge between Moses and Jesus. By the way, modern antinomians are still trying to do that today, acting like Moses is bad, the things that he was saying were bad, but loving Jesus.

There is no loving Jesus without embracing the things that Moses said. Moses spoke of Jesus. How do we know that? Because Jesus said Moses spoke of Jesus. Jesus is not interested in distancing himself from Moses.

When they say, as for this fellow, we do not know where he is from, The point of that is that they accept that Moses was commissioned by God, but they do not accept that Jesus was commissioned by God. They accept that Moses was sent by God to say those things, but they do not accept that Jesus was sent by God to say the things that He is saying and do the things that He is doing. Don't you love this response? Look again at verse 30. The man answered and said to them, Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where he is from, yet he has opened my eyes." And then he says the obvious, Jesus has done something so marvelous that no one has ever heard of an instance of this.

Not one person there, I'm talking about the people who are actually there, primary parties to the conversation that's happening, not one of them has ever heard of an instance of what they are witness to. A man born blind receiving his sight. And the man just says what is so obvious, he has to be from God if he is doing this thing that no one has ever heard of. He has to be from God. There are many, many places in the Old Testament that say that God ignores the prayers of the wicked.

Did you know that what the man says here is true? It reflects accurately Old Testament teaching that God ignores the prayers of the wicked. I want to give you two that I think best reflect what this man is actually saying. The first is Psalm 66 verse 18. The psalmist says, If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.

So the psalmist is actually saying it of himself. He's saying, if I nurture and cherish and cling to sin in my heart. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear. People who cherish and nurture and cling to sin in their hearts, they pray too. And God ignores them because they are clinging to things that he hates in their hearts.

The second is Proverbs 1, 28. Proverbs 1, 28. Proverbs 1, earlier in the chapter, develops the thought of someone who hears wisdom crying out over and over again. Hears the public appeals of wisdom to be wise and to repent. This is a person that has hardened themselves against that heart.

In Proverbs 1 verse 28 we read this, then they will call on me. Now this is wisdom speaking. Then they will call on me. Then they will call on wisdom, but I will not answer. In other words, after persistently pushing back the appeals of wisdom to be wise and repent, and hardening yourself against those appeals, over time, when you need it the most, it abandons you.

Now does this mean God doesn't hear prayers of repentance from unregenerate people? Of course not. Of course that's not what it was ever intended to mean. It means that if you regard iniquity in your heart, if you cling to it, you won't turn from it, you nurture it, You love it in your heart that God will ignore you even when you pray. People in that state often pray.

These Jews are supposed to be the wise ones, and yet this poor man who was a beggar yesterday destroys them. They're supposed to be the smartest guys in town. It's no ordinary town either. It's Jerusalem. It's the capital of the people of God, the people who have enjoyed a greater level of revelation from God than any other people ever.

They are the chosen people of God. They have been given the Word of God. They have supposedly given themselves to studying the wisdom of God, and yet they are laid low by this man who yesterday was a beggar. Paul speaks about this. You can turn to 1 Corinthians 1 if you want to.

1 Corinthians 1 I'll be reading 26-31. 1 Corinthians 1, 26-31. Paul writes, For you see your calling, brethren, That not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. Now think, Paul is writing to the Corinthian church. These were people who were just pagans.

Corinth was a hotbed of idolatry and paganism that wrapped in all kinds of false worship and sexual immorality into their religious worship. So that's who these people were not long ago. And Paul is saying, notice how God has passed over many wiser people, Many nobler people, many mightier people, and He plucked you out of all that sin. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.

And God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are mighty, and the base things of the world, and the things which are despised, God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God in righteousness, in sanctification and redemption, that as it is written, he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. Did you know that this is one of the ways that God reserves the glory to himself? He passes right over the top of smug, self-righteous, wise in their own eyes people, who passes right over them and plucks out of the mud. Blind beggars and people who are wrapped up in sexual immorality and paganism.

He passes over the smug, self-righteous, wise in their own eyes people, and reserves the glory of taking out of the mud people who were not wise, were not mighty, were not noble in their conditions. And he lays claim to them and he reserves the glory to himself. I know we all struggle with pride, and it should make us very afraid. If we're smug, God has a predisposition to pass over people who are smug. If we're self-righteous, God has a predisposition to pass over people who are smug.

If we are self-righteous, God has a predisposition to pass over people who are self-righteous. If we are wise in our own eyes, God has a predisposition to pass over people who are wise in their own eyes, to go after someone that we're looking down on. And in doing so, he reserves the glory to himself. He just gets it all for himself. You thought you would share it with him.

He doesn't share it. Only he is worthy of it. Though this man only has stated the obvious, they rage against what he has said. They say, you are completely born in sins and are you teaching us? They are pointing back to his former condition as a blind beggar, as an indication of a state before God.

In other words, we know you deserve that. They are just like the disciples at the beginning of the chapter. Whose sin? This man or his parents? You were completely born in sin.

We know that your condition, being born blind, says something about you. You were completely born in your sins. We know it was an indication of your state before God. Here's what's so ironic. They were right about him.

You know what? He was completely born in his sins. He was completely born in his sins. He was completely born in the natural state of mankind, which was with a nature that is bent towards God, bent towards self-loving and self-serving when we should love God our Maker and we should serve God. He has been so kind to the world.

He deserves our love and our service but we love us and we serve us. We really are born, completely born in sins. So they are right about Him, but they are wrong about themselves. And if they could receive what they think of Him and take it to themselves, they would run to Christ. They would, but they don't feel any of their own sins.

Here in the Pharisees we see a very common natural problem. What is that? Using prejudice against the source to dismiss the substance. That happens all the time. Let me say that again.

Using prejudice against the source. In other words, this man is testifying truth, But they can't hear it because yesterday he was a blind beggar. So they use that as an out. Ever caught yourself doing that? Someone saying something you don't like, even though it might be true, but you have been out because of the source.

Don't do that. Be careful. Be on guard against that. This text teaches us to be on guard that this is lingering in my heart. And It's lingering in your heart too.

The temptation to dismiss the substance of what is said because you've got a criticism about the source. Be careful. Two applications. I'm going to read two verses or two short sections. The first is Luke 19.

Listen to Luke 19, 41-44. Now as Jesus drew near, He saw the city, Jerusalem, and wept over it, saying, If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace, But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you, and close you in on every side, and level you and your children within you to the ground. And they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation. This is actually the triumphal entry.

Jesus is coming into Jerusalem to begin the last week of His life and He is weeping over the city because they did not know the day of their visitation. Jesus performed so many miracles in Jerusalem. The signs of the Messiah, of the promised Savior, were on display in the life of Jesus. His doctrine was perfectly consistent with the Old Testament, but they missed it. They hardened themselves against it.

Jesus knew the destruction that was coming upon them and he wept. Do not harden your hearts. I understand that any resistance that you detect in your own heart against the gospel is not rational resistance. It's not based on a lack in the evidence. It is spiritual resistance.

Do not miss the day of your visitation. Destruction is coming. The destruction of the wicked is coming. There is only one way to be parted from your sins. Your sins abide upon you until the blood of Jesus Christ washes you clean.

Secondly, from Hebrews chapter 13 verses 10 through 13. This is the very end of Hebrews. Hebrews 13 verses 10 through 13. We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. So the author of Hebrews is thinking about the priests who continue to offer offerings on the altar after Jesus has been crucified and raised from the dead.

And he's saying, We are partaking of offerings that those people who are wasting their time on continued offerings, they have no right to these. We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest are burned outside the camp. So again, the author of Hebrews is talking about the ceremonial sacrifices of the animals that have gone on for hundreds and thousands of years and the practice was sacrifice the animal but the leftover carcass you take outside the camp as unclean and you burn it. That's what's being referenced here.

Verse 12, therefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to him outside the camp bearing his reproach." The reason you would take the carcass outside the camp and burn the body outside the camp was because it was unclean and despicable. It had taken on the sins and must be burned outside the camp because of the reproach of it. And they are saying Jesus being taken outside Jerusalem to Golgotha and crucified outside the camp, was the fulfillment of all that symbolism. That He bore the reproach of our sins.

And so the author of Hebrews says, go to Him and bear His reproach. Take your place beside the sin bearer in bearing His reproach. Believer, never shrink back from bearing his reproach. It's been an advantage in our lifetime to be a Christian. That's changing quickly.

Do you feel it changing? I feel it changing. The advantages, The social community advantages to being a Christian are evaporating. There's going to be more reproach for identifying with Jesus. Go outside the gate to Him.

Bear His reproach. The parents, of course, their spiritual condition, we probably know, they're probably not believers. Of course they wouldn't bear his reproach. It's hard to be hard on his parents, but his parents wanted nothing to do with this. But this is a man who has received the grace of God, and he doesn't know exactly who Jesus is yet, he'll know next week in the text.

But he knows this, he was blind and now he sees, and he's willing to take upon himself the reproach of Jesus Christ we should do likewise. Have you received less than this blind man? If your sins have been forgiven, I say to you, no, you've received more than this blind man. God, thank you for this text. Thank you for teaching us.

I pray that you would bless it to us by keeping the truths before our eyes. Don't let us forget so easily. Help us to learn, love, embrace Your Word. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.