“Do You Believe…?” (Part 1 of 3)

In the Gospel of John, in chapter 9, we read about religious leaders who interrogated a man who had been blind from birth. They wanted to know what he had to say about his newfound sight.

And when he answered them, how did those religious leaders respond? Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg examines the simple faith and logical explanation of a man who professed, I was once blind and now I can see. Our message is called, Do You Believe? I invite you to turn with me to John chapter 9. Now, we're going to read the section in chapter 9 just at one point, and then we're going to pray together.

Verse 35, Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, Do you believe in the Son of Man? Father, we pray that with our Bibles open and our hearts we trust, seeking and sensitive to your truth, that the Spirit of God will be our teacher, so that both in speaking and in hearing, in understanding and in believing and in living out the gospel, that we might be enabled in everything by you, the living God. We cast ourselves completely dependent upon you in this time. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, we come in this morning for the fourth time to the ninth chapter of John's Gospel. And last time, we noted the formalism of the Pharisees, and we considered the fear of the parents. It actually says right there in verse 22, his parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews. The Jews were such an intimidating presence that the man's parents had determined they would fudge the question that was addressed to them, and at the same time they would pass the buck. And they said, Why don't you ask our son, the one who had been born blind and now can see?

Why don't you ask him? Verse 23, he is of age. We come now to our third word, which we managed unsuccessfully to reach last time, and that word is faith. Faith. When we use the word faith, many things come to mind. Some of us may think that faith in the New Testament is akin to going to the hairdressers, whereby you sit in a chair and you entrust your head and your hair to somebody that you may have met or may never have met. And there is a measure of faith involved in that.

You take your money to the bank, and you give it to them in good faith that they will actually do what they said, look after it, and give it back to you—at least the same amount, if not a wee bit more. Or you go to the pharmacist, you ask for your prescription, they fill the prescription, they put it in a little plastic bag, and you take it home to your bathroom. And I wonder if, like me, you ever think about that just before you pop the first one. You say to yourself, what if they gave me Mr. Simpson's prescription? And I don't know who Mr. Simpson is, nor do you.

I invented him. But what if his prescription could kill me? I'm putting a tremendous amount of faith in that pharmacist, that he or she was having a good day, paying very careful attention, and making sure that the right pills went in the right little plastic bucket. Well in some senses that is true, concerning faith in Jesus, but only in some senses. Because what the Bible says about faith is this—that it is by grace, through faith, that we are saved, and this is not our own doing, it is the gift of God. So that the very faith that a man or woman exercises in the person of the Lord Jesus is not something that they look inside and find for themselves and by themselves, but it is actually a gift from God enabling blind people to see and those who do not believe to begin to believe. And John, of all the Gospels, is very, very clear that nobody lives in a middle ground between believing and unbelieving.

John chapter 3 and verse 36, you needn't turn to it, reads as follows, whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son or doesn't believe in the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him. These are very solemn words, and they're very important words, and I mention them now because it sets the context for what we go on to consider. This man is, once again, in verse 24, summoned before these religious leaders.

And their process of intimidation continues. "'Give glory to God,' they said. We know this man is a sinner." Now, it may be that that phrase, give glory to God, is, as the margin suggests, a solemn charge to tell the truth, which is likely. But it may also be that what they're arguing is, you should give glory to God, not to this Jesus of Nazareth, whoever he is and wherever he comes from. Give the glory to God, don't give the glory to him.

Either way, they are seeking to drive this man away from his conviction. The reason that they didn't want any glory to be given to Jesus was because, by their own testimony, they knew Jesus to be an open sinner. You just need to turn back one page to chapter 8, and I'll show you why that is true. Jesus, in a quite remarkable statement, tells them that although they think themselves to be very secure as children of Abraham, they're really children of the devil, because the devil is a liar, and they tell lies too. And then in verse 45 of John 8, he says, Yet because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me. Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?

If I'm telling the truth, why don't you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God. And the Jews answered him, Aren't we right in saying that you're a Samaritan and demon-possessed? That's their response to Jesus. And it is in light of that that they challenge this sign, that they challenge this miracle, and they challenge the testimony of this particular individual. But if they thought they could intimidate him, they are discovering that they actually can't, that this man has a little bit of metal to him, and he is able to respond very clearly.

A second time they summoned him. We know this man is a sinner, they said. And then look at his reply in verse 25.

Whether he's a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know, I was blind, but now I see. In other words, what he really says to them is, I don't know about what you know, but I do know what I know, and what I know is that I was once blind, but now I can see. I mean, you seem to, he says, have all these kind of inferences and all these assertions and all these observations about Jesus, and I'm listening to what you're saying, but I'm standing before you as a testimony to the fact of what has happened. I was a blind man, but now I can see.

Well, that kind of irrefutable evidence is hard to face. And recognizing it, in verse 26, the Pharisees retreat to the questions that they'd been asking previously. What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? If you look back up to verse 15, that's exactly what they had asked him before.

The Pharisees had also asked him how he had received his sight. Now they're back asking the same question. Now, it may be that this is indicative of their interrogation style. If you like detective programs—and I must confess, I don't watch any of the contemporary ones, I have no interest in them—but if you give me some old ones, I can go back there with you.

And some old British ones particularly, but that's just my problem. But I always enjoyed the situation where the person who was accused was taken into the white-walled room with the single table and two chairs—one for the detective and one for the accused. And then the detective would run through the questions. The man would answer the questions, the detective would stand up, walk out the door, close it, and leave the man there. Next scene, the detective returns, sits down in the chair, asks the exact same questions all over again, gets up, walks out the door, slams the door, comes back. Next time he says, Would you like a cigarette?

And the guy said, Yes, please. So he takes the cigarette, lights it up, asks him the exact same questions all over again. You say to yourself, What's up with this detective? Has he run out of questions?

No. What he's doing is, he is repeatedly going through the same stuff in the hope that somewhere along the line he will be able to identify an inconsistency in the man's response and thereby be able to get leverage so as to further convict him. That may well be that that's what they're doing—that they're hoping that if they keep asking him to say the same thing over again, his account of what took place will actually contradict itself. Or it may be—and I think this is more likely—that the reason they ask these two questions again in verse 26 is because they've run out of steam. They have just run out of steam. There's no air left in their balloon. There is nothing left for them to say. They are confronted by this incontrovertible evidence.

And standing on the side of truth, the man in verse 27 takes the offensive. We've already been through all of this, he says. I've told you this already.

You didn't listen the first time. I can't believe you want me to tell you again, unless, of course, you want to become his disciples as well. Notice, incidentally, the progression in this man's thinking. Back in verse 11, when they had asked him how his eyes were opened, he said, The man they call Jesus. The man they call Jesus. In verse 17, as they press him, he says of Jesus, He is a prophet.

Here in verse 27, he recognizes that Jesus is of such a stature that there are those who would become his disciples and his followers. But now, the argument or the interrogation—I don't think it's fair to call it a conversation. It was much more than that, but it has now reached the tipping point. And the man has forced his accusers to play their hand. They're going to have to show what they have in their hand. They've played the poker game of this dialogue for long enough. He's calling it, Show me what you've got. And what have they got?

Nothing. And so they do what always happens when the weakness of an individual's argument becomes obvious. They resort to insults. When you no longer have anything else that you can say to substantiate your claim, the chances are you're going to say something like, You're ugly, and your mother dresses you funny. And at that point, the person that you are arguing with knows he or she has got you, because you now have nothing to say that is logical or progressive or challenging, and all you've got left is to start slinging insults around.

And that's exactly what they did. Verse 28's graphic says that they threw their insults at him. They threw their insults at him, claiming again the high ground of their theological background. We are the disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses. But as for this fellow, this person that you're on about, we don't even know where he comes from.

We haven't got a clue. Well, of course, that wasn't actually true. Because Jesus had already been involved in a dialogue with them.

You can turn back one page again, and I'll point it out to you. In the conversation where they're challenging the testimony of Jesus, Jesus says to them, verse 23 of John 8, "'You are from below, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be.

You will indeed die in your sins.' "'Who are you?' they asked. "'Just what I've been claiming all along,' Jesus replied." So there was some ironic sense in which they didn't know where he was from, but there was another very realistic sense in which they did know. And it was the very things that he said concerning his origins that offended them.

And they refused to accept what he said. Leon Morris, whose commentary on John is arguably one of the finest, observes in the response of the man in verse 30 here—the man answered. He says, "'The man's chain of reasoning is pretty good for someone who'd been a beggar all his life, and presumably a stranger to academic and forensic argument.'" And it is quite remarkable, isn't it?

This man has got some gristle to him, doesn't he? This man has got truth on his side. This man is not in any doubt at all as to what has taken place for him. And so, look at how he answers in verse 30. I'll paraphrase it for him. What he says to them is, "'I find this truly remarkable.

Your unbelief in face of the evidence is more of a miracle than my cure.'" And he jumps on the back of that, and he uses their same form of argumentation, pointing out, "'We know that God doesn't listen to sinners.'" Now, don't let that unsettle you if you are aware of the fact that you don't know God and you're aware of your sin.

That's why it's very, very important always to understand the Bible in the context in which it is set. What is being said here is not that the thief on the cross didn't have a hope in the world of ever getting to heaven because he was a sinner hanging on a cross next to Jesus, and he asked him, "'Lord, will you remember me when you come into your kingdom?'" Did Jesus listen to the sinner? Of course he did. Did Jesus listen to Zacchaeus and his cries for change? Yes, he did. Did Jesus listen to the woman taking an adultery?

Yes, he did. Well, what is being said here? What is being said here can be best understood, and I'll only give you one cross-reference.

I could weigh you down with them, but I won't. Psalm 66 and verse 18. "'If I had cherished sin in my heart, the LORD would not have listened.'" The verse does not say, "'If I had sin in my heart, God wouldn't hear me.'"

No. "'If I had cherished sin in my heart, if I was committed to my sin, then God wouldn't listen to me.'" He says, "'We know that's true. God does not listen to the impenitent.'" He hears the cries of the penitent, but he does not listen to those who are willful in their unbelief and in their sin. Secondly, he does listen to the godly man who does his will. It's a kind of Matthew 6.33 statement.

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness—doing of the right thing before God—and all these things will be added unto you. God does not listen to the cries of the impenitent, but he does listen to the cries of those who do his will. Thirdly, he says, no one has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind.

If this man were not from God, he couldn't do anything. Now, they knew that was the case, because even in the miraculous events that we have in the Old Testament, there is no record of any man opening the eyes of a man born blind. And so, with a simple logic, and yet with a compelling logic, the man beats them at their own game, turns the tables on them, and says, You know, you're the ones who've been starting off with a premise, We know this, therefore that. We know this, therefore that.

He says, Let's do the same thing. We know that God does not listen to the cries of the impenitent. We know that God does listen to those who do his will.

We know that there is no record of anybody having a man open a man's eyes. Therefore, he says—conclusion, deduction—if this man were not from God, he couldn't do anything. Now, let's pause there for just a moment, because there's a lesson here for each of us in speaking to people concerning faith in Jesus Christ.

We may think that the high point in John chapter 9 is arguably verse 25, where he says, I don't know about what you know, but I do know what I know, and that is, I know that I was once blind, but now I can see. Some of us, I think, have a real tendency to retreat to that kind of thing. Well, you can't argue me out of my experience. I know my experience, I know what happened to me, and our friends walk away from it and say, Idiot.

Because they would be able to say that they've had experiences of different things in different places and so on. Well, then, what are we going to do at that point, you see? Well, this man is convinced of his testimony. But when push comes to shove and the challenge reaches for him, he is able to step up and say, Well, let's just think about this for a moment. And why don't we think about this too?

And have you considered that? And do you agree that this, this, and this leads to the deduction that? So his faith was resting in the experience of what Christ had done for him to this point, and he was absolutely without any doubt concerning it.

But that wasn't the beginning and the end of his argument. Now, what we discover is that they feel the sting of this. And in verse 34, they do the only thing they've got left to do, and that is they throw him out. But you will notice they don't throw him out until they have given their own answer to the question with which the chapter began.

How did the chapter begin? Well, remember, with the disciples asking Jesus, Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? The Pharisees say, We know the answer to that question. The reason you were blind is because you were steeped in sin at birth. You are a miserable sinner.

That's what you are. How dare you lecture us? Don't you realize that we've gone to school for this? Don't you understand that we have the legacy, the historical background of Judaism on our side, and you, some upstart beggar from the streets here, thinks to come in and confront us? You see how the challenge of truth gets under the skin of those who know they don't know the very truth they are encountering? We are not to be surprised when our friends and neighbors want eventually to throw us out. Frankly, we ought to get thrown out a lot more than we do many of us.

And the reason we're not thrown out, the reason we're accepted, may be because we are more represented by the fear of the parents than we are represented in the faith of the man once blind. We're ready to fudge the questions. Well, I don't know about that. Oh, I'm not so sure about that.

Well, maybe you could ask someone else about that. Come on, have the courage of your convictions. How dare you lecture us? You're gone. And they threw him out. A powerful reminder from Alistair Begg that we need to be people who stand firm in our convictions. This is Truth for Life in a series called A Light in the Darkness. Alistair reminded us today that the very faith we have to believe in Jesus actually comes to us as a gift from God. At Truth for Life, we know God's Spirit can work in the hearts and minds of those who listen when God's Word is taught. And that's why we teach each day directly from the Bible so that God's Word can do God's work. When you support the ministry of Truth for Life, your giving brings Alistair's Bible teaching to men and women all around the world.

And to show our thanks for your gifts today, we'd love to send you a brand new hardback book that takes you into the very heart of who Christ is. Scripture records a lot about the lessons Jesus taught or the people he met, but we need to dig deeper into many of these stories to know the heart of Christ. What does he feel? What are his feelings toward us?

This is the topic of a book we're recommending called Gentle and Lowly. Those two words are how Jesus describes himself when he invites us to come to him. The author of this book combines the scriptures with the wisdom found in the writing of the Puritans to reveal the compassionate heart of Jesus. Jesus loved us enough to die on a cross for our sins, but how does he feel when we repeatedly make mistakes? Will he continue to extend grace and mercy to us in our daily struggle with sin?

This book Gentle and Lowly tackles all of these questions. If you're in need of encouragement to stay the course, this book will help you gain a renewed awareness of Jesus' love for you. You can request your copy of the book Gentle and Lowly when you give to Truth for Life. Visit truthforlife.org slash donate or click the book image you see in our mobile app or call 888-588-7884. And if it's your desire to read through the Bible in 2021, we want to recommend to you the Bible reading plan put together by Robert Murray M'Shane. It's available from Truth for Life. This scripture reading plan takes you through the Old Testament once during the year and through the New Testament and the book of Psalms twice over the course of the year. You can download a free copy of this Bible reading plan from our website or if you'd prefer a hard copy, you'll find it for just one dollar, visit truthforlife.org slash store. I'm Bob Lapine. Alistair continues his message titled Do You Believe, giving us a closer look at the unbelief of the Pharisees. Be sure to join us tomorrow. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.