Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1977
“As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. When He had thus spoken, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, and said unto him, Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam (which is by interpretation, Sent). He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.” John 9:5, 6, 7.
OUR Savior had been dealing with the Jews and the Pharisees who had bitterly opposed and even taken up stones to cast at Him. He felt much more at home when He could fix His eyes upon poor necessitous beings and bless them with healing and salvation. It is the lot of some of us to be often in controversy with the carnal professors of the present day— and it is a great relief to us to get away from them and their stones—and find out individual sinners and preach to them, in the name of God, the Gospel which spiritually opens the eyes of the blind!
This morning there is one in the Tabernacle who cannot see Jesus, for he has no spiritual eyes, but I am convinced that my Master is now looking at him, searching him from head to foot and reading him with discerning eyes. He is considering what He will make of him, by-and-by, for He has the great and gracious intent that He will take this sinner, who is spiritually like the blind beggar, and enlighten him and give him to behold His Glory! I suppose that the blind beggar of the Temple hardly valued sight, for he had been blind from his birth. Those who have seen must greatly miss the light of day, but those who have never possessed sight at all can hardly have an idea of what that sense must be and, therefore, it cannot be so great a deprivation to them.
The person I am searching for at this time has no idea of the joy of true religion for he has no sense of spiritual life and light. He has never seen as yet and, therefore, he does not know his own misery in being blind. He has been blind from birth and, in all probability, he is content to be so, for he does not know the delight which waits upon Heaven-illumined eyes! Spiritual things to him are an unknown region, of which he has no conception. He is here, at this time, yet he is not looking for salvation, nor desiring it. But Jesus knows the value of sight! He knows the glories which heavenly light would bring home to the mind and He will not be narrowed in His action by human ignorance, but will dispense His bounty according to His own mind which is large as the boundless sea!
This beggar did not pray for sight. At least it is not recorded that he did so. He was a beggar—it was his trade to beg. But among all his petitions, he did not ask for sight. Yet Jesus gave him sight! Know you not that glorious declaration of Free Grace, “I am found of them that sought me not”? Is it not a wonderful thing that Jesus often comes to those who sought Him not? He comes all of a sudden to them in the Sovereignty of His infinite compassion and, before they have begun to pray for the blessing, He has bestowed it upon them! His free love precedes their desires for it! When they wake up to a consciousness of the value of salvation, they find themselves in possession of it—and so their first prayers are mingled with praises! I am persuaded that there are some before me now who are like the man born blind—they do
not know what they need. They are not yet aware of the value of the blessing and, consequently, they have not sought it. But today they are going to receive it!
There was this circumstance in favor of the blind beggar, that he was in the way where Jesus was likely to go, for he was at the Temple gate. My Friend, you, too, are on hopeful ground at this time, for you are found in the place where my Lord has often been and where He is very likely to come again! We have prayed Him into this House hundreds of times and we have done so this morning! He has been glorified in this Tabernacle and His friends have so welcomed Him that here He delights to come! Oh that as Jesus passes by, He may stand still and look on you with eyes of infinite mercy!
What was our Lord doing? Truth to tell, He was under a Divine compulsion. He said, “I must work the works of Him that sent Me.” He was looking out for material to work upon—material in which the works of God should be made manifest. Here was the very man, prepared for Christ as clay is prepared for the modeler. Let him receive his sight and all Jerusalem would see the work of the Lord! And even dwellers in far-off lands would hear of it! This blind beggar was the very person the Savior was looking for. My Master walks up and down these aisles and He finds a great many who can see, or who think they can. These He passes by, for, “the whole need not a physician.” But as He goes along He comes, at last, to a poor dark creature, hopelessly, helplessly blind from his birth—and He stops and says, “This is the man. There is room for a miracle here.” It is even so, O Lord! In those empty sockets, or in those withered eyeballs, there is space for healing power to exhibit itself! In that hard heart and stubborn will there is room for renewing Grace! The necessities of the sinner are the opportunities of the Savior and you, poor, guilty, lost and ruined sinner—you are the raw material for Christ’s Grace to work upon! You are the very man His forgiving love is looking for!