Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20051127.htm

JOHN: TRUSTING JESUS AS MESSIAH AND GOD
Part XXVII: Discerning Error By God-Planned Strife With The Errant
(John 9:1-39)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

(1) A lot of errant beliefs exist in people around us, even within Evangelical believers we know:

(a) The Torrington, Connecticut newspaper, The Register-Citizen ran a story in the November 9, 2005 issue entitled "Moral decline in America" where Associated Press religion writer, Richard N. Ostling, reported on David F. Wells recent book, Above All Earthly Pow'rs: Christ in a Postmodern World (Eerdmans). Wells is a professor at the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, "a key evangelical Protestant school" according to Ostling, and Wells there has criticized fellow Evangelicals of "compromise, trendiness and manipulation which ends up promoting worldly agendas, be they political, social ideological or personal, in place of biblical truth." Wells "predicts that supposedly orthodox evangelical churches are laying ground for the decline that more liberal mainline' Protestants have experienced in North America and Europe." (Ibid.)

(b) I appreciate Professor David Wells' book in light of my own experience: I have occasionally heard believers respond to a conviction by someone else, saying, "Well, that's his interpretation!" Such a statement implies that truth is defined by a consensus of opinion by the whole Church, not the conviction of any single believer on what he sees the Word of God as teaching him!

(2) Perhaps that's why we Christians at times wonder if WE are holding to errant beliefs! Church members in our own body have often spoken to me about an issue in their lives, saying, "I'm not sure WHAT should be my stand on this subject -- I'm not sure what is right and wrong, just where to draw the line!"



In view of the fact that WHAT is the TRUTH seems to be at times a confusingly INTANGIBLE and almost UNKNOWABLE thing among even US believers, CAN we CLEAR UP questions we have on issues of belief? IF so, HOW?!



(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )



Need: "Some Christians claim I can not be SURE of the truth as there are many interpretations' of the Bible! Well, IF I am NOT SURE of the truth on a given subject, or others think I am wrong, IS there a WAY to be SURE about God's truths? IF so, HOW?!"
  1. As we have often before noted, Christ's Revelation 3:14-22 message to the Laodicean Church applies to our Evangelical era, one where believers are said by Christ to be spiritually "wretched, pitiful, poor, BLIND and naked," Revelation 3:17 NIV (emphasis ours)!
  2. Now, we know from Revelation 3:18c NIV that such SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS to God's TRUTH MAY be OVERCOME if believers look to Christ to supply "salve to put on your eyes, so you can see"!
  3. To understand what this program INVOLVES in PRACTICAL terms, we note that the ONLY other time in Scripture that Christ put salve on the eyes of one for his SPIRITUAL sight was in John 9:1-39. We then view that event in light of Revelation 3:18 to discern how WE may gain ASSURANCE of GOD'S TRUE insight:
    1. When Jesus left the temple with His disciples, He saw a man who had been born blind sitting and begging for alms, John 8:59b-9:1, 8b.
    2. Jesus told His disciples that, as the "light of the world," He would work God's work with this man to manifest God's works, John 9:2-5.
    3. The result of Jesus' interaction with the man produced great spiritual insight, for after being healed by Jesus, he came to trust in Christ as the Son of God, receiving eternal life, Jn. 9:6-7, 35-38, 39 with 20:31.
    4. The MEANS Jesus used to PRODUCE such INSIGHT in this man was by applying SALVE to his eyes that IN TURN led him into CONFLICT with the Pharisees, a CONFLICT that EXPOSED their ERROR and GUIDED him unto GOD'S SALVATION TRUTH!
      1. To heal the man who had been born blind, Jesus made a salve out of dirt and saliva, smeared it over the blind man's eyes and sent him through Jerusalem to the Pool of Siloam over half a mile away to wash it off, John 9:6-7; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, ftn. to John 9:7; Map 11, "New Testament Jerusalem."
      2. The sight of a known lifelong blind man with mud smeared on his eyes haltingly traversing the length of the city would draw attention so that when he was healed, it would be commonly known!
      3. Since this event occurred on the Sabbath day when the religious leaders condemned the practice of healing (9:14-16a), Jesus was setting up a conflict between the Pharisees and the blind man!
      4. Sure enough, when the man was healed, the Pharisees tried to get him to discredit Jesus for healing him on the Sabbath, Jn. 9:15-17.
      5. When the Pharisees kept pressing the man to discredit Christ, the healed man discerned their error: he marveled at how they could doubt Jesus was from God when Christ had healed a man who was BORN blind, a deed never before accomplished, cf. John 9:29-33.
      6. For defending Jesus, the Pharisees excommunicated the man from the synagogue, John 9:34; Bible Knowledge Com., N. T., p. 308.
      7. Jesus later met the healed man and asked him if he believed on the Son of God, a term that referred to His deity, John 9:35.
      8. As the healed man had concluded Jesus was a prophet of God for having healed him back in John 9:17, he asked Jesus Who the Son of God was so that he might believe in Him, John 9:36.
      9. When Jesus claimed He Himself was that One, the healed man confessed his faith in Christ and worshipped Him as God, Jn. 9:38!
      10. Now, in the CONFLICT between the healed man and the Pharisees, his spiritual INSIGHT dramatically PROGRESSED: (a) in John 9:11, he called Jesus merely a MAN; (b) yet, in John 9:17, he called Jesus a PROPHET; (c) finally, in John 9:35-38, the healed man confessed Christ as the Son of God, and worshipped Him as GOD! He thus went from viewing Jesus as a MERE MAN to seeing Him as a PROPHET and finally as GOD!
      11. The salve Jesus put on the blind man's eyes led to his coming into conflict with the Pharisees, a conflict that led to his coming to discern the Pharisee's error and the saving truth about Christ!
Application: (1) May we believe in Christ as Savior from sin to receive eternal life, John 3:16. (2) If we wonder what is the TRUTH on an issue, (a) we merely need to ASK CHRIST for help, and (b) He will arrange for CONFLICTS to arise with those who hold to ERROR that will EASILY expose BOTH the ERROR AND the TRUTH that we might KNOW the TRUTH!

Lesson: Like Jesus did with the man who had been born blind in John 9, by application of Revelation 3:18, WE TODAY can BECOME SURE of holding CORRECT beliefs if we TRUST in CHRIST: HE will ARRANGE for us to be brought into CONFLICT with those who hold to ERRANT beliefs, and that CONFLICT will EXPOSE their ERROR to US and cause us to DISCERN God's blessed TRUTH found in His Word!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 As you know, we at Nepaug Bible Church are not a part of "ECT," the "Evangelicals and Catholics Together" movement, for the Catholic Church teaches one is saved by faith plus practicing its sacraments like the mass and confirmation, and Galatians 1:8-9 calls us to part with those who hold to such an errant faith-plus-works gospel!

Well, as I long ago asked God for His Revelation 3:18 "eye salve" as more fully described in John 9, Christ has often ratified the TRUTH to such stands by way of conflicts with the errant (as follows):

(1) While attending a wedding reception over a year ago, I was assigned to sit at a table with a prominent area Evangelical pastor and a couple of his parishioners. When he heard I pastored an independent Church, in front of the others, he launched into an extensive critique for my failure to unite with other Evangelicals! However, as he did so, one of his parishioners, a new convert, twice voiced a complaint about her former Catholic Church for its failure to give her the Gospel! Both times she spoke, she glanced at her pastor, and then quickly stifled her words! He was "pro-ECT", so he had often squelched such criticism!

So, as you can imagine, the more he verbally critiqued me, the more committed than ever I became about not getting involved in "ECT", but even keeping away from him and other Evangelicals who curbed their own new converts from growing in God's Biblical truths!

(2) Then, after last Sunday's sermon, one of our members who has faced conflicts with his extended family who are Catholics, asked me, "Isn't the Catholic term, Mother of God' wrong?! In view of your sermon today on Christ's eternality, God has no beginning, so He has no mother!" Due to the liberty we have at Nepaug in our stand for the truth on Catholicism in avoiding "ECT" involvement, instead of repressing him like this other pastor had quenched his parishioner, I could affirm to his edification, "You're right! It IS an errant term!"

Later in my office, I read that the "Mother of God" term had begun at the 431 A. D. Church Council at Ephesus, and that the undue exaltation of Mary in Catholicism began with it! So, due to our stand on "ECT," I was led by God to confirm the KEY TRUTH about a key error in Catholicism for this man! (Boettner, Rom. Cath. , p. 133-137)

May we then look to God for His "eye salve" that He might arrange for conflicts arise that lead us to DISCERN the truth!