Radio Broadcast Monday 05/22/2023

Classic Christianity – The Book of John P46 (05-22-23)

Jesus Wants to Open up the Eyes of the Blind and Make Blind Those That Think They Can See

~ The self righteous person manifests itself in numerous ways today. Many get angry as hornets when you tell them that trying to obey the law will not save them, nor is God pleased with their self efforts. Others think that they are better than someone else, because they never physically murdered anyone, or committed adultery. But God is looking at the heart. Additionally, the child of God who abides in the Holy Spirit will face all types of name calling under the sun. As you learn more about the truth of this world, and see the lies all around us, people will call you crazy, or kick you out of their fellowship group because they will consider you very strange. Do not be surprised that the self righteous think themselves better than they ought, for that also happened when Jesus walked on earth himself. There is only one type of righteousness that is important to God, and that is the righteousness of Jesus himself. So judge yourself, are you standing in your self righteousness, or the Righteousness of God that comes by faith in Jesus Christ?

~ And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.^{John 9:39}

~ “The self righteous, we’re calling Jesus everything under the sun, including demon possessed, not because he healed somebody, but because he healed them on the Sabbath, which was contrary to their Hebrew law. Now, again, it wasn’t contrary to the law of God. But it was contrary to their interpretations that they have made in regard to what the law said. And what the law said is that you cannot work on the Sabbath. So from an evening on Friday night till the evening on Saturday is the Sabbath and you cannot do any kind of work. And so you have to say, well, what is work then, and we came up with some 600, and some different laws around the Sabbath. And of course, one of them is you cannot work on the Sabbath. I told you last week that one of the laws was that you cannot spit on the ground on the Sabbath, because spitting on the ground would make mud and that would be construed as work. So if you’re going to spit, you’re going to have to do it on a rock. Well, Jesus didn’t spit on a rock, he spit on the ground. And you could heard his disciples saying why don’t you wait till tomorrow, this guy has been blind a long time. But he did that in order to show the hypocrisy of religion. And so on the Sabbath, He spit on the ground, made mud with his own hands, put it on the eyes of the blind man told him to go wash his eyes, which also was against their law to go do that. And all of a sudden, the man was blind and now he could see. The Pharisees had no interest at all, in the fact, in the mercy of the fact that this man was totally blind. And now he could see was no rejoicing. And that truth, there should be phenomenal rejoicing in that truth. But there wasn’t. All they could see in that event was a Jesus spit on the Sabbath. That’s the only thing that they can see was a to them a violation of their law. And because of this, he was called demon possessed. And he was literally being thought of as being killed. And so the man when they quizzed him, they quiz the parents, they said, Well, we know one thing for sure He is our son, who healed him, we don’t know. They went back and quiz the mind who the man who had been made whole. And he said, I don’t know who it was that did this. All I know, that is once I was blind, and now I can see that I do know. And then we’re told about in the story prior to what we’re going to get into in verse 31, here that, that they said to him, You are steeped in sin at birth, how dare you lecturing us? And they threw the man out of their company.” ~ Bob George

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Announcer 0:12
Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George Bob’s clear, timeless teachings on the complete forgiveness and unconditional love of Jesus Christ will transform your life as you learn about God’s amazing grace. Let’s join Bob as he teaches us from God’s Word.

Bob George 0:28
Well, let’s turn together to the ninth chapter of the book of John, as we finished up last week. We had just finished the story in the account of the Gospel of John where Jesus had healed the blind man. The self righteous, we’re calling Jesus everything under the sun, including demon possessed, not because he healed somebody, but because he healed them on the Sabbath, which was contrary to their Hebrew law. Now, again, it wasn’t contrary to the law of God. But it was contrary to their interpretations that they have made in regard to what the law said. And what the law said is that you cannot work on the Sabbath. So from an evening on Friday night till the evening on Saturday is the Sabbath and you cannot do any kind of work. And so you have to say, well, what is work then, and we came up with some 600, and some different laws around the Sabbath. And of course, one of them is you cannot work on the Sabbath. I told you last week that one of the laws was that you cannot spit on the ground on the Sabbath, because spitting on the ground would make mud and that would be construed as work. So if you’re going to spit, you’re going to have to do it on a rock. Well, Jesus didn’t spit on a rock, he spit on the ground. And you could heard his disciples saying why don’t you wait till tomorrow, this guy has been blind a long time. But he did that in order to show the hypocrisy of religion. And so on the Sabbath, He spit on the ground, made mud with his own hands, put it on the eyes of the blind man told him to go wash his eyes, which also was against their law to go do that. And all of a sudden, the man was blind and now he could see. The Pharisees had no interest at all, in the fact, in the mercy of the fact that this man was totally blind. And now he could see was no rejoicing. And that truth, there should be phenomenal rejoicing in that truth. But there wasn’t. All they could see in that event was a Jesus spit on the Sabbath. That’s the only thing that they can see was a to them a violation of their law. And because of this, he was called demon possessed. And he was literally being thought of as being killed. And so the man when they quizzed him, they quiz the parents, they said, Well, we know one thing for sure He is our son, who healed him, we don’t know. They went back and quiz the mind who the man who had been made whole. And he said, I don’t know who it was that did this. All I know, that is once I was blind, and now I can see that I do know. And then we’re told about in the story prior to what we’re going to get into in verse 31, here that, that they said to him, You are steeped in sin at birth, how dare you lecturing us? And they threw the man out of their company.

Now we pick up in verse 31. We know that God does not listen to sinners. And this was the answer to this man who had just been told by the leaders by the Pharisees and the leaders, that he was full of sin, and that the man who healed him was a sinner. And he was saying, we know that God does not listen to sinners, he listens to godly man who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a mind of a man born blind. No one’s ever heard of this. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. How are you calling him a sinner? When he performed a miracle that we’ve never seen before of a man who has totally blind from birth, suddenly being able to see? And that again, they replied, You were steeped in sin at birth how dare you to lecture us. In other words, they could not come up with an answer to that. So what they do is to attack people for attacking the credibility. It’s like saying, Who are you to question to me, I have a doctor’s degree? Or who are you to question me, I went to seminary? And I’d say that that’s all the more reason to question you. But they threw him out. Now Jesus heard that they had thrown this man out. And when he found him, he asked him this question, do you believe in the Son of Man? And the man answered, who is he, sir, tell me so that I may believe in Him. And Jesus said, You have now seen him. In fact, he is the one speaking to you. And the man at that moment said, Lord, I believe and he worshipped him, he had been responsible, he had been the recipient of a miracle of God, being blind from birth, and suddenly being able to see with his eyes. And when Jesus identified himself as who had done this, he worshipped Him. Now, the people who saw him do this, saw the results of this didn’t worship him.

There’s two kinds of people in this world today, you have the self righteous, and you have people who are indwelt, with God’s righteousness, and those attitudes are manifested basically, in the Scripture by two different occasions. On one occasion, the man looking at a sinner saying, Thank God, and I am not a sinner like them. That’s self righteousness. If you and I ever approach another person’s fault with an attitude that says, Thank God, I’m not like those slobs. Thank God, I’m not like them. You’re full of self righteousness. On the other hand, the other one is, there for the grace of God, go I. That’s a man who has a humble heart. That’s a man who’s ready for the gospel. The other one is not ready for the gospel. You got two attitudes that will tell you immediately where you are in this whole realm of Christian experience. When you see a person sin is your attitude. There for the grace of God go is a man steeped in drug addiction. They’re for the grace of God go I, that could have happened to me. You see a person caught in any kind of a sin there for the grace of God. Go I. In other words, it’s an attitude that says and agrees with what the Bible says that there’s no sin in the world that you and I are incapable of committing. There are some sins that I look at and think, I think it’d be hard. But I cannot sit back and say, I could never do that. Because we don’t know what we could do and what we couldn’t do, do we. And many of us get very much surprised as we go through life, what we’re really capable of doing that we never thought in a million years that we would ever do, and yet have done. And you see examples of that. You see examples. And you hear examples of that of men who are grew up in a pastor’s home, they grew up knowing the Lord and ended up killing their husband. I know people like that. I know people like that where that happened. I know the father and mother of people where that happened where the daughter, a sweet human being, as you’d ever want to know. But today sitting in jail for killing her husband. Do you think she would ever have thought that she was capable of doing such a thing? Never in a million years. And so you and I have got to realize that what God said is true, there is not a sin imaginable, that you and I could not be put in a situation of committing. And therefore when we see sin, if our attitude is like that of Christ Jesus, it’s going to be there for the grace of God go I. Is a heart of compassion, a heart of, of sympathy, of compassion. The very opposite of that at that heart is the heart that we just saw in this illustration. And it said, Thank God, I’m not a sinner like them. That’s an attitude of self righteousness. You want to know, Are you self righteous or not? What’s your attitude? When you look at sin? There for the grace of God go I, or thank God that I’m not like that one. Which is it? And we have to analyze ourselves and it says that does it not in the Scripture, test yourself into faith to see where we’re going, because folks, that kind of stuff can slip into you can’t it? And you may come to the Lord and brother, you’ve done all kinds of things and you’re very grateful for the forgiveness that God has executed on on your behalf. And you’re really grateful for that. And boy, in those early days, you say about anything there for the grace of God go I goes up in there. But then you start getting more intelligent and more into the word and then we get more righteous and we stopped doing more things. And then the attitude begins to shift to the attitude of thank God, I’m not like them, a sinner.

And so you see those kinds of attitudes are you prepared? And were you prepared in your life for the gospel, and you wouldn’t be sitting here in Christ if you weren’t. But you were not prepared for the gospel with an attitude of thank God, I’m not like them a sinner. You were prepared for the gospel when you said, Lord Jesus, like Paul, I’m the worst of the sinners. And I need salvation. That’s what prepared you for the gospel. And so you see two attitudes. In this illustration, you see a man who was born physically blind, who now can see physically, who was also born spiritually blind, who, when confronted with truth, could see spiritually. In comparison to men who thought they could see, but when they saw they couldn’t see. And there’s the difference in the two. And Jesus said to them, judgment, for judgment, I’ve come into the world, so it’s the blind would see, and those who see will become blind. If you now you look at this, folks, and you see how many kinds of salvation are presented out in the world today, by people who think they can see, but are blind?

In my particular case, I never really heard of salvation. I’m, I’m very serious about that. I sat in church for 36 years of my life, in high school, from grade school through high school, I doubt if I ever missed hardly a Sunday unless I was sick. I was always in church, I was always in the church choirs. I was always in the basement playing basketball. I was always in the church setting. All through my young life was always in the church setting. The YMCA was right across from the church. I never went to the YMCA I went to the church, that’s where all the kids went to play, irritated the guy that head of the YMCA hated them. But that’s where I grew up. But I never heard the gospel. Never did I hear that I was lost. I never heard that. I’m very serious. I never heard, saved, saved from what? You know, what do you mean saved? Never heard those words. Never entered into my mind whether I was lost or saved. It was just a thing to do a place to go. Go to church on Sunday, do your thing. And that carried on into adulthood. And Amy and I got married, we had children. And we took our kids to church. And we picked them up too. And it was the same thing, no meaning to it at all. You said they’re in my particular case that they’re thinking about my business while the sermon was going on, donated my dollar very generously, and went home. And that was the end of it. It never entered my mind there was anything hypocritical about my life, didn’t hit enter my mind that I could go out and get blasted on the weekend and go to church on Sunday. I saw nothing inconsistent about that at all.

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Bob George 13:59
I remember things that get your attention in my particular life. I was down in San Diego with some mill representatives of a carpet company that I represented. And we were in this church in San Diego. And I was with these guys that were just been out the night before. Just drinkin all over the place. And I remember walking into that and saying these guys this kind of looks like the church I go to. And they said, you go to church? That was a response you and I was like, Well, of course don’t you? Are you kidding? It was like, What are you talking about? You go to church? And I said What’s wrong with these guys? With these guys? Not anything wrong with me. What’s wrong with these guys? I saw no inconsistency with that. I didn’t see anything unusual about that at all because church didn’t mean anything to me except a nice place to go. But you see in the church setting something had to be taught. And what was being taught was, I think, because I don’t think I was ever told. But I think what must have been taught is, if in your life, if you do more good works then you do bad, and if you’re a nice basic, you know, it’s always a basically a nice person. I don’t know what that means, basically. But basically, we’re all nice people, you’re going to be okay. And if someone would have asked me during that period of time, through all that lifestyle that I lead, are you going to go to heaven? My answer was, Yeah, sure, I’m basically a nice person. It never would have entered my mind that I was gonna go to hell never did it ever. In my mind, that would have been the farthest thing from my mind that Bob George is gonna go to hell. No matter how bad I got, I’m basically a good person grew up in a nice have family grew up a nice parents, basically a good person. Haven’t killed anybody. Don’t think I’ve stolen least recently. And all those other things, get rid of your mind. But that’s where I’m going. Now, folks, that is being taught by people who are blind as a bat, who think they can see. You got other people who say, if you join my church, you’re going to be saved. If you come into my church and are baptized in my waters by my pastor, you’re going to be saved. That’s all it takes. Those are people being taught by a blind person who thinks they can see. You can go into areas that the way that you get saved is go out on mission trips. And if you take mission trips and become a missionary this that’s going to do a John Wesley was one of those, where John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist religion, said he came to America, to minister to the Indians in hopes of saving his own soul. He was a pastor. He was educated, and was over here trying to work for his salvation. He went back and total frustration, got on the ship back to England in total utter frustration. And on his way back, the boat got in a terrific storm. And he was scared to death, petrified. And on the same boat with him were a group of what they call Moravian believers, Bible believing Christians. And they were sitting around singing songs. And he was thinking to himself, how can these probably idiots be sitting here singing songs about Jesus, when this boats about to go down, and I’m sitting here petrified as a minister? The storm calmed down and they arrived in England. And within a few weeks, he went to a place outside of London called Aldersgate. And there he heard one of these men reading from the premise of the book of Romans about justification by faith and faith alone. And he said, as they were reading, he suddenly realized that although he had been trying to do a lot for God, he had never accepted what God had done for him in the person of Christ Jesus. They said, all of a sudden, he trusted Christ, Jesus alone will for 100% sufficient for his salvation. And he said, his heart was strangely warmed. He was born again. And he went out and turned England upside down. When he finally understood it was not what he was doing for God but what God had done for him. Now that teaching that he was under prior to that was being taught by blind people, and he was blind thinking he could see. If he didn’t think he could see wouldn’t been over there trying to save others. And that’s what Jesus is talking about. Judgment has come to this world, whatever you think, is gonna save you apart from Christ Jesus, you’re blind.

You have people to think today that if you worship Allah, if you’re a Muslim, you’re gonna be saved, you couldn’t be more blind. Or if I joined a Catholic church, I’ll be saved, you couldn’t be more blind. Or if I joined the Baptist Church, you couldn’t be more blind. You’re not saved by joining a club. You’re saved only by God, no man can save you. So I asked a church of Christ person the other day who died for your sins? Jesus. Who was raised from the dead? Jesus. Who baptized you? Pastor. So if baptism is a part of salvation, then you’re saying, it’s a part Jesus and part pastor. It isn’t part Jesus and part pastor. It’s just Jesus. Jesus is a spiritual birth and nothing natural can commingle with spiritual. It’s all him and none of us. Now to believe otherwise, you’re blind according to the scripture. According to Jesus, you’re blind is a bat and you think you can see but You can’t see.

And so he said, I came into this world so that the blind will see. And those who see, will become blind. Some Pharisees who are with him heard him say this, and he asked, What Are we blind too? Like saying, Who do you think I’m talking to? And Jesus made a statement though, he said, If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin. In other words, if you were really blind, you wouldn’t be guilty. But you claim you can see, and then go in a different direction than me and your guilt remains on you. Your problem is that you’re blind, but you think you can see.

I tell you the truth of man who does not enter, he’s talking about the truth here, who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. There’s one way to get into the shape gate, he’s saying. And if you don’t go through the gate, and you climb over the fence, it means you’re trying to get in, with some other way than the way to get in. And he calls him a thief. And he calls him a robber. That’s like people trying to get into heaven, some other way than through the sheep gate. I’m gonna get there by my good works, you say you’re climbing over the fence, you’re a thief and a robber. I’m gonna get there by belonging to this church, you’re gonna you’re climbing over the fence. I’m gonna get there. But God, God chose me. It didn’t choose you, but he chose me. You’re climbing over the fence that you didn’t get in by going through the gate. God just dropped in there, because he likes you. Reformed theology. And so he says that you climb in by some other way as a thief and robber, the man who enters the gate is the shepherd of the sheep enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The watchman, he said, opens the gate for him and the sheep LISTEN to His voice. He calls his own sheep by name, and he leads them out. And when he is brought out all of his own, he goes ahead of them. And the sheep follow him because they know His voice. Folks in the sheep herding business, even to this day in Israel, and anyplace else, there is a guttural sound that the shepherd makes that is known only to his sheep, a certain guttural sound. And when he makes that sound, his sheep immediately recognize this is the voice of my shepherd. And they follow Him. They will never follow a stranger were told. In fact, they’ll run away from him because they do not recognize the stranger’s voice. You can have sheep herders out in a field, which you will see. And all of them have their own sheep. And then the one sheep herder will say, I’m gonna go over here make this guttural sound, and only his sheep will follow him. And the rest of them will not. My sheep, he said, hear my voice. And if you’re not hearing his voice, it’s because you’re not of his sheep. Now, Jesus talked about that last week, you got two fathers, you got the devil and you got God. And if you’re not belong to God, the Father, you belong to Satan. Nothing in between just the two, either you’re in Satan’s camp, or in God’s camp.

But this sheep is very interesting to me as to how this certain guttural sound can be made by a shepherd in the midst of 1000s of sheep, and his 100 will follow him right out of there, and not want to have the rest of them will go with him. It’s amazing, isn’t it? Jesus used this as a figure of speech, but they didn’t understand what he was telling them. And therefore, Jesus said, again, I tell you the truth. Now, here’s another one of the I ams I am the gate for the sheep. If you want to get into the sheep bin, there’s only one way to come in and that’s through me. Did he not say I am the Way and the Truth and the Life and no man will come to the Father except through Me, Jesus. And all who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, He said. All of this theology that you have heard as to how to be saved, or made by people who are jumping over the fence, they’re thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate and whoever enters through me will be saved. Very simple. If you enter through me, you will be saved. He will come in and go out and find pasture, and you can go out and intermix with the world. But when you hear the voice of God, you’re gonna know to follow him. Are you and I out in the world? Do we hear the voice of the world? Are you able to tell the difference between the voice of the world and the voice of God? Are we able to know the difference? You see, we get trapped in so many ways. Don’t we? The world is full of trapping us through error of discouraging us, to putting us down to making us feel like we’re second rate citizens. Isn’t that true? It’s what the world does. And we have to listen to the voice of God. If you’re discouraged sometimes, you have to listen to the voice of God. If you’re anxious about tomorrow, and we do get anxious, don’t we? You gotta listen to the voice of God. My sheep hear my voice. And a voice of God says Bob, don’t be anxious about anything. But in all things with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be known unto me. And when you do the peace of God that passes all understanding will quiet your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. That’s God’s voice. The world’s voice says worry about it. get discouraged over it. Do you know in depression as an example, is almost an epidemic proportions in the world today? And do you know that there is no such thing as being depressed apart from being full of self pity? Do you know that? Now, if we’ve ever been depressed, we don’t like to admit that. But there’s no such thing and the deeper you’re in self pity, the deeper your depression. And you let self pity continued going downward and downward and downward and you’re going to see your depression going downward and downward and downward down to the point where you are totally without hope. And when you get without hope you’re that far from suicide.

Thank you so much for tuning in to Classic Christianity, with Bob George. We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s program. We truly hope that today’s message has inspired you to walk a life of faith in the Lord, find more information online at shop.BobGeorge.net. There you’ll also find available CDs, DVDs, and bible studies available for purchase. It’s through your help that we are able to spread the good word of Jesus Christ. Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another and praise the Lord. Amen.