John Chapter 9:19-34

We're all born in sin.

We all are born with stuff and backgrounds and past and all this stuff. We're born in sin. But the question is, are you going to die in your sin?

Because when you reject Jesus, that's what you're choosing. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David Magee. David is the senior pastor of The Bridge in Carnersville, North Carolina, teaching verse by verse through John chapter nine. Today's teaching is, Lord, I believe.

Here's D.A. Brown, one of David Magee's associate pastors, here to help us out in the studio. Hey, Bob, I'm grateful to be here today.

I'm excited about this program, excited about this teaching in John chapter nine. Hey, did you know that Jesus is actually looking for the outcast? He's seeking those who don't know Him. You mean He's not just looking for the religious people? Bob, there's a lot of people who are hurting right now. There's a lot of people who don't know God.

And they need Him. So let's jump right in to David Magee's teaching, Lord, I believe. So John chapter nine, verse 19.

Now, this is interesting to me because now they're pulling the parents in. And what they're trying to do is trying to get to the place where they discredit the miracle. Now, it's interesting, they're not arguing about the fact that this blind man was healed.

They're just arguing about the details. And you know what? Jesus said, I am the light of the world. Do you understand what He meant by that? He didn't even say, I am the light of all the Christians. He said, I am the light of the world. Do you understand that people around you are dying without knowing Jesus?

People around you are lost and wanting to know what you may know this morning already. And we think of darkness and this guy was blind. He couldn't see. Can you imagine? And of course, they do these things where somebody will put a blindfold on for a day or an hour or something and imagine that. But can you imagine it being completely dark?

This is the way most of the world lives. They can't see. The reason they're stumbling around is they don't have the light and they don't know any better. People don't want to be in the darkness. They want to experience the light.

And guess what? You're a carrier of the light. You can share with them the light and the love of the Lord and bring them out of darkness into the light.

And what an awesome opportunity we have to do that. In verse 21, 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. Now, I understand the religious leadership is pulling these parents up in front of them and grilling them. And these religious leaders have the authority to say, you know what, you're excommunicated.

You can't come to the temple anymore. There's a trap here. There's a danger here. But you know what the real danger is? The real danger is not that they're going to answer the question honestly. The real danger is that they might miss an opportunity to get to know Jesus.

That's the real danger here. Verse 22 explains more about this. His parents said these things because they feared the Jews. For the Jews had already agreed already that if anyone confessed that he was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. Nowadays, if somebody gets disfellowshipped from one church, all they got to do is go right down the road, there's another church. And they can join that church and go to that church. That was not the case here.

There was only one temple in Jerusalem. When you got disfellowshipped, you were done. Now, they have two types of disfellowshipped.

One was 30 days and one was you're done. And at that point, all your social interaction was over. See, because all the markets were near the temple and once people saw you as unclean, you didn't have an opportunity to gain that back. And so not only did it affect your worship, but it affected your entire social life and probably your business life.

So it's a pretty serious thing. But again, the real danger here is that they're going to miss an opportunity to get to know Jesus. What they're doing, what the Pharisees are doing here is they're engaging in logics and engaging in an argument.

And, you know, in college, they kind of teach you how to argue. And so they're engaging in this logic by putting forth the major premise, the minor premise, and then the conclusion. But the problem is they're blind and they don't want to see this. But even them, they're willing to admit something that, number one, the man was born blind.

The man was born blind. Number two, the man had been healed. And number three, Jesus was involved. The man was born blind, the man was healed and Jesus was involved.

And you know what's interesting? They were willing to admit something that today's religious leaders won't admit. See, because some people think Jesus Christ doesn't do miracles anymore and didn't do them back then. Oh, Jesus Christ still does miracles.

And even His opposition was in agreement that something had happened that day. Let me ask you a question. If your life has been changed by Jesus Christ, raise your hand.

Look around the room. You see all the miracles that are in this room? Because a changed life is a miracle.

Thank you. It is a miracle. If you want to see miracles, man, this room is filled with them. But they were afraid of men. In Proverbs chapter 29 verse 25 says, Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but to trust the Lord means safety. Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but to trust the Lord means safety. Yes, these parents were in danger of being put out of the synagogue. But again, the bigger danger is that they wouldn't miss an opportunity to get to know Jesus.

And look at all the people and all the players in this chapter. The blind man, his friends, the Pharisees, the parents, they all had a decision to make about Jesus. They had to make a decision about Jesus.

And that's our next life lesson. Everyone has a decision to make about Jesus. Everyone has a decision to make about Jesus. It's interesting, often in a worship service, we get to the end of the service and we'll do it this morning. If you're here this morning and don't know Jesus, I want to introduce you to Jesus.

I want you to pray a prayer with me to receive the forgiveness of your sins. But what happens in so many services is we turn that decision only to those who don't yet believe in Jesus. To be honest, I think that's a mistake.

Because you know what? We all have decisions to make about Jesus. I'm not talking about getting born again, again, again, again, again, again. What I'm talking about is every day you wake up, you decide who's in charge of your life.

You can't say, well, 30 years ago, I decided to follow Jesus and since then I really hadn't made a major decision about it. Something's wrong. Something's wrong. Because you know, every day I wake up, somehow during the evening, you know what happens? Okay, this is going to be weird for just a second, but go with me. Let's say this is a throne.

Well, there's big gold painted, anyway, sorry. Let's say this is a throne. You know what happens every night, every day? You know, I get up and guess who's back on the throne?

I am. I've placed myself at the center of my life, deciding for me what I want and what I want to do. And it's me, me, me, me, me. And every day I have to say, no, that's not your place. Go, that's God's place in my heart and in my life. God sits on the throne of my heart and in my life. And of course, you know, the flesh, the self-centered nature, go, oh, I'm so sorry, I came in the wrong chair.

I'll move now. No, the flesh goes kicking and screaming sometimes, doesn't it? You thought that was just you, huh? That's not just you.

That's all of us. We need to make a decision for the Lord every day, a daily decision to follow Jesus. Verse 23, therefore, his parents said, he is of age.

Ask him. That's a pretty good out, I guess. 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. Now, it's kind of an interesting way to have a trial, isn't it?

I mean, that is what's going on here. They're trying Jesus. And they're starting the procedures with these guys going, we know that this man's a sinner. Now let's hear the case. It's the beginning of a railroad that will not cease until Jesus is hanging on the cross.

And why? Because they were so blinded that they didn't want to see. Verse 25, 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. Oh, man, what a verse. Isn't that a, you know, and this guy wasn't going to be wrong. He wasn't going to be ruffled. He wasn't going to get into weird theology. He just said, you know what, I was blind, now I can see. And if we can keep our testimony simple like this, it's kind of hard to argue with it, isn't it? And doesn't Jesus know how to pick them? I mean, he picked this blind man. Oh, I'm going to heal him.

He's good to go. He's not going to back down when he's standing in front of the Sanhedrin. And that man, in one sentence, gave us something that has inspired people for 2,000 years and inspired one of the greatest hymns ever written, Amazing Grace, from one sentence testimony.

It's an amazing thing, isn't it? And keep in mind this, too, that he was giving the glory to God, if you will. He didn't sit here and go, wow, well, you know, what happened is this guy, he wiped really potent mud on my eyes, and praise be the mud.

You know, he didn't do that. And we're glad, because then we'd have like the first church of mud right down the street or something, and they would spit on people and wipe mud on them every time they came in. And why y'all do that? We've always done it like that. God uses all kinds of things to heal people. Understand that. We've had people healed just sitting in here on a Sunday morning service.

No big flamboyant hoopla. God just touched them. God has done an awesome work in my life. And again, part of my testimony, I was born a deaf mute. I was born 95% deaf, and my tongue was attached to my gums. I went through nine different operations, and I still couldn't speak. I could hear at that point, and then had to go through four years of speech therapy before I could hear and before I could speak. When I got ready to go to elementary school, I still couldn't speak. They thought maybe I was mentally retarded or something.

And it ended up, because I hadn't been able to hear, that I hadn't developed my speech. Now, I've told people that before, and I've had people actually go, well, did God heal you or did somebody else do it? What do you mean did God heal me? Well, did God heal you?

Did you have surgeries? God uses all kinds of things to heal all kinds of people. He used surgeries. He used a speech therapist to heal me. To me, that's no less miraculous than an instant supernatural healing. God uses people. He uses medication.

He uses doctors, and he still heals people supernaturally as well. So don't put God in a box with all those things. Again, be ready with that one-sentence testimony.

1 Peter chapter 3, verse 15 says, instead you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if you are asked about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it. Always be ready to explain it. If you haven't prepared yourself with scripture, get a few key scriptures to have ready and maybe memorize them. Now, don't wait till you've got the whole book memorized, because again, you'll never share.

But maybe a few key scriptures, and always be ready. The King James says in 3.15, and be ready always to give an answer to every man and ask you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. See, you don't need all the answers to share with people. You have the answer. The answer is Jesus.

All the other answers flow out from him. And be ready to share how he changed your life. And they're wanting to know, verse 26, how. Then they said to him again, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?

That's interesting. They're asking how. You know what they should be asking? Who. It's the same letters, how and who.

An H, an O, and a W, but different order. They should be asking who. And you know what? That's what we should address. Who, Jesus.

The how, man, we can discuss that all day long and get in a bunch of arguments. But who, Jesus. Jesus. And it's sad that they're missing this. They're missing this.

And guys, you know what? If you're going through something in your life right now, focus on Jesus. Because here's what happens to believers and Christians.

They hit a tough spot, a tough patch. And then what do they do? They turn their eyes from Jesus and they start to focus on their problem. That has never worked in my life. And it's rare that I've ever seen it work in anybody else's. I've seen people focus on being set free from drugs or alcohol and never achieve that freedom.

They really want it. And I've seen people focus on Jesus who are set free like that. I've seen people who go to all sorts of seminars, all sorts of counseling about their marriage.

Never seems to improve it. They focus about Jesus. Their marriage is better. If you need healing in your life, healing in your marriage, if you need to be set free or something, focus on Jesus. Jesus said, seek ye first the kingdom of God. And all these things will be added to you. That's not an oversimplification.

That is how it works. Focus on Jesus and watch what happens in your life. You're listening to Pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge.

He'll be right back with more in just a moment. But I want to remind you of the free resources available to you on crossthebridge.com. There's a team of hundreds of people that will pray for somebody to be saved. You have a loved one that needs to know Jesus as Savior. You need people to pray for him.

You need someone to present God's word to him. Every day we're presenting God's word to him here on Cross the Bridge with Pastor David McGee. We can pray for them as well just by simply going to crossthebridge.com and click on the pray for the lost button. All you need to do is put in the first names of the people you love that need to know Jesus as Savior. Click on submit and immediately hundreds of people will begin praying for your lost loved ones. And what an awesome way to bring your loved ones to Jesus. Here's a word from Associate Pastor D.A.

Brown. Hey, Bob, we want to take a minute to pray for our listeners in these cities in Georgia, Warner Robins and Woodstock, and also these cities in Hawaii. Hilo, Honolulu, Kalua, and Kaleo. Lord, we thank you for these cities and we thank you for the people living in these cities that we get to pray for right now. We pray that you would encourage them in your word, that you would encourage them to get plugged into a Bible teaching, Bible believing church. Lord, if some are sick, we pray that you please heal them.

God, we pray that you would give them wisdom how they can be a blessing to their neighbor for you. And Lord, we pray for the pastors in those areas, that you would give them wisdom and discernment and help them to not grow weary and doing good. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen, thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Verse 27, he answered them and said, 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? Again, Jesus knows how to pick them, doesn't he?

This guy's, boy, he's nothing if he's not spunky. He's tickled, he can see, he was blind. He's psyched about being, he can see, praise God.

And you know what's sad? He's healed, this guy's never seen before in his life. He's given his sight. What's some of the first stuff he's seeing? These angry Pharisees, these angry people beating him over the head with religion instead of going, wow, that's awesome.

That's awesome that you can see now. I mean, this guy hadn't seen anything ever in his life. He could be wandering around looking trees, looking at sky, looking at, and praising God, but what's happening is he's getting grilled by these people. You realize some times we do that with new believers? We get in their face and we're angry instead of going, wow, praise God, you can see now. Praise God. Verse 28, then they reviled him and said, you are his disciple, but we are Moses' disciple.

Wow. Talk about missing it. What they're saying is you're following Jesus, but we're following Moses.

Do you understand the offer that was on the table at this point? It's for them to follow Jesus and to be forgiven of their sins. But what are they doing? Oh, we're following Moses. We're obeying the law. We're gonna earn this thing. And before you throw stones at them, understand something.

Man, this is what's going on in the world today. I've seen exit polls where they filmed people coming out of church and they'd say, hey, you know, are you hoping to go to heaven? Oh yeah, yeah. Well, why do you hope that you're going to heaven? Well, you know, because I'm basically a good person. I've just come out of church here.

I'm good. I've kept most of the 10 commandments today, you know? And somehow we've gotten the twisted notion that we earn this thing. Nothing could be further from the truth. Some people think that the 10 commandments is steps to earn your way to salvation. No, actually, it's a schoolmaster to show you you can't earn it. So paraphrase the words of Paul.

You can't earn your salvation. And we've gone through that thing. Well, you know, I mean, have you ever in your life lied about anything? Well, yeah, probably. If anybody said no, they just did. So don't, so have you ever stolen anything? Well, yeah. I mean, did you ever borrow a piece of paper you didn't give back? Probably.

Probably have tools maybe in your house right now. Don't belong to you. Have you ever used God's name inappropriately or taken joy in those who did? You ever hit yourself with a hammer and used God's name inappropriately? That's blasphemy.

Has God always been number one in your life? Probably not. That's idolatry.

So let's get the picture. You're a lying, thieving, blasphemous idolater and you're gonna earn your way to heaven? I'm sorry, that ain't gonna work.

That's not gonna work. I don't wanna be a disciple to Moses. I wanna be a disciple of Jesus. I wanna follow Jesus who says, you know what? You're so heavy laden, come to me.

I'll give you rest. You can't earn it. And as soon as you give up trying to earn it, I'll give it to you.

But while you think you can earn it, you'll never realize how desperate you are to have it. Romans 10 three says, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the righteousness of God. See, while you're claiming your own righteousness, you can't receive the righteousness of Jesus because you don't even think you need it.

How sad. John chapter five verse 45. Jesus said to them, do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father.

There is one who accuses you Moses and whom you trust. The 10 commandments accuse us and we stand guilty and we realize that we need Jesus. I mean, do you really wanna be judged according to your own righteousness?

I don't. I do not wanna be judged by my own righteousness. See guys, if we explain this to somebody that doesn't know Jesus, okay, here's the choices.

You stand before a holy and righteous God depending upon your own good works, your perfection, your righteousness or you can stand in front of him in the righteousness of his son. That's the decision. And when you reject and you deny Jesus, you're choosing this.

There's no gray area. I choose Jesus. I choose his righteousness and not mine because my righteousness is not good and they're wanting to follow Moses. Verse 29, 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. He's saying, you know what, you guys are supposed to be the spiritual leaders and you don't know who this guy is, healed a blind person.

You need to check him out and discover who he is. He continues, yet he has opened my eyes, verse 31. 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 and has not been unheard, it has been unheard of, sorry, of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind. And this man were not from God, he could do nothing. And they answered and said to him, you were completely born in sin and are you teaching us? And they cast him out.

Your attention, please. They accused this man of being born in his sin. They were right, this man was born in his sin.

And you know what else? They were born in sin. You and I are born in sin. But you know one thing that you could say for this man, the blind man, he will not die in his sins. But those who are rejecting, those who are denying, Jesus will die in their sins. And that's the difference.

That's the difference. We're all born in sin. We all are born with stuff and backgrounds and past and all this stuff. We're born in sin. But the question is, are you going to die in your sin? Because when you reject Jesus, that's what you're choosing. That's what you're choosing. Today, right now, you can choose not to die in your sins.

If you're here this morning, it's because God wants to communicate to you that he loves you and he wants to have a relationship with you. That's why you're here. And the question is, will you reject him and turn away?

Or will you accept him? Some of you may have been wandering. Some of you have lost your way.

It's time to come back home. And there's people in here this morning who have never heard what I shared. They thought it was their goodness that earned their way into heaven.

They thought, well, I gotta be so good for so long and then God, my good outweighs my bad. Then I can get into heaven. That's not the gospel. The good news is, right now, you can know the forgiveness of your sins by asking Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know, right now. I wanna lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him. Please, pray this prayer with me, out loud, right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me, that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned. I have sinned. And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things.

Please give me the power to live for you, all of my days. In Jesus' name, amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again.

Jesus said he would not turn anybody away who comes to him and he came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness, those who were sick, not the righteous. So congratulations, friend. You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. Or you can write to Cross the Bridge at P.O.

Box 12515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27117, and share how God is working in your life. As we're ending November, look on your calendar. Tomorrow's a very special day. But your calendar probably doesn't say on it Giving Tuesday, but that's what it is.

Giving Tuesday is a special day that's been created to help stir your hearts to give to things that are special to you. We hope that Cross the Bridge is special to you. We hope it's been a blessing in your life and continues to help build up your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and your confidence in the Word of God. Please go to crossthebridge.com, click on the Giving Tuesday button, and give as the Lord leads you.

Thank you so much. Well, DA, before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the Gospel of John.