Stick to His Plan

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, radio friends. How in the world are you? Well, I’m seated as usual before the microphones here with the big old Otari tape recorder going. We’re looking at the ninth chapter of John. And we talked about the reaction that people have to you. Some people will say, “Who is He?” Others will say, “This is a facade.” Others will be offended. They’ll say, “You’re different, you’re not keeping our rules of lifestyle.” But you can say, “I know who I am. I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” He said, “I am He.” “One thing I know that whereas I was blind, now I see.” I want to comment just for a moment on the reaction of the leaders, the Pharisees. Now, they were the fundamentalists of their day. They were so strict about everything that they had forgotten that God is a God of love and compassion. They were so busy keeping rules that they forgot about people. That’s entirely possible, and it happens in our day more than once, I’m sure.

They ask him how he had received his sight. Now, remember, verse 14 of John 9 says, “It was the Sabbath day when Jesus opened his eyes.” So, He had done this miracle of healing on the Sabbath day. And by their rules, by the rules of the Pharisees, if you engaged as a physician in healing someone, or helping to heal someone, you were doing work, you were working as a physician, so you were breaking the Sabbath day, according to their rules. So they ask him how he received his sight. He said, “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed and do see.” So then they said, “This man is not of God because he keepeth not the Sabbath day.” Others said, “Well, how can a man that is a sinner do such miracles?” And there was a division among them, that is, among the leaders, the Pharisees.

So they had to go back and ask again, “What do you say, that he opened your eyes?” He said, “He’s a prophet.” Well, they didn’t believe him. And so they called his parents, they said, “Is this your son who ye say was born blind? How then doth he now see?” Well, his parents were afraid. It says, “They feared.” Because it had already been agreed that if anybody confessed that Jesus was Christ, he was gonna be thrown out of the Synagogue. So they were afraid. He said, “We know that this is our son, and we know he was born blind, but by what means he now sees, we know not or who hath opened his eyes, we know not. He is of age. Ask him. He shall speak for himself”. These words spake his parents because they feared.

Then again, they called the blind man and said, “Give God the praise, we know this man is a sinner.” And he gave this famous answer, John 9:25, he answered and said, “Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not. One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see”. Now, they ask him, “What did He do, how did He open them?” A small thought here, unbelief cannot rest until it is organized in opposition to God. They already had had their detailed answer. They already had heard how it happened, but now they have to ask again, why? They can’t let the subject drop until they’ve done something against the one whom they were rejecting. At the end of this conversation, it said, “‘Thou wast altogether born in sin, and dost thou teach us?’ And they cast him out.” They were saying, you were blind because you’re a sinner. You were born in sins. Same old story, we took that up at the beginning of the study of John 9. The old myth that everybody that’s bad suffers, and the good don’t suffer. Well, yes, they do.

You cannot say because someone has troubles and trials and sufferings, that he or she is a bad person. But they were saying it, “You were born in sin, and are you gonna teach us?” And they cast him out of the synagogue. “Get on outta here.” Excommunicated him, in other words. Unbelief cannot rest until it has done something, organized itself in opposition to God. I learned that principle from my good friend David Morkan years ago. Unbelief cannot rest until it is organized in opposition to God. You become the victim of an unbelieving heart and spirit, and you’re gonna find yourself constantly working, constantly opposing, constantly striving to do something. Show me a college or a university professor that is busy trying to tear down the faith of people, and there are such folk, unfortunately, I’ll show you a person who in all likelihood has been brought up as a Christian, but somewhere along the line turned his back on God. And now he has to be organized in opposition. It’s the way it is.

So, the thought that comes out of all of that is, keep your heart tender toward the Lord Jesus. Trust Him, trust Him, yield to Him, surrender to Him. Let God’s will be done in your life so that you’ll always be on the side of being able to believe God’s promises and receive His wonderful work in your life. “They did not believe,” it says. “They did not believe concerning him.” And so all of this other brou-ha-ha that ensued was the result of it. Now, in verse 35, it said, “Jesus heard that they had cast him out.” I don’t know how long this took, whether it was a few minutes or a few hours, it doesn’t say. But the word got around, “They threw that man out of the synagogue because you healed him on the Sabbath day.” Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and it said, “And when He had found him, He said… ” Let me stop here long enough to remind you that our Savior goes looking for you, He cares enough about you to go looking for you, and your job is to open your heart to Him and let Him into your life at the moment of need.

Somebody so despondent, so discouraged, even now while I’m talking, and you say, “Cook, you don’t understand. You have a happy life, you don’t have any troubles.” Oh, is that so? Well, anyhow, I won’t tell you mine. But you’re saying, “It’s all right for you to talk, it’s all right for you to talk, but you don’t know what I’m going through, you don’t know how my heart is breaking, you don’t know of the impossible nature of the situation I live in.” And of course, that’s true, beloved, I can’t know because I don’t live in your skin. You know, and God knows, and Jesus is out looking for people who have been as this man was, cast out. They’re on the outside looking in. And you’re feeling bad about it. Something has happened in your life or in your family or in your body, and you’re face to face with some rough times. I want you to know, Jesus hasn’t forgotten you. He’s out looking for you, and He’s saying as He said, quoting Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door,” that’s the door of your life, “I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me.” He says, “You invite me in, and I’ll be your guest, and then I’ll turn around, and I’ll be the host.” And that’s wonderful when you’re a guest of the Lord Jesus in your own life.

You know anything about that, beloved? When you’re going through the wringer, you’re going through situations that seem horrendous and impossible, and you invite the Lord Jesus by faith to take control, all of a sudden, you end up being His guest in the palace of faith, and everything’s all right because Jesus is in control. Our Savior went looking for this man, who was on the outside looking in. And when He had found him, He said, “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” He answered and said, “Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?” And Jesus said unto him, “Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with thee.” And he said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshipped Him. “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” “Lord,” he said, “I believe.” That, it seems to me, is the logical result of anything that God does in your life. What God does in your life should lead you to acknowledge Jesus Christ as your Lord. Anything other than that, evidently, is not of God’s planning. Things that happen in your life may be very enjoyable, wonderful, marvelous, spectacular, thrilling, you could use any of those modifiers, but if they don’t lead you to acknowledge Jesus as your Lord and to worship and to love Him, then, friend, it’s not something that God planned.

Let me give you, then, this operating principle for your life. Some of you young people, you will say, “Well, how can you tell what’s right and what isn’t?” Keep a weather eye out for the things that lead you away from worship and away from dedication. Keep a very sharp watch over things that may be pleasant, but at the same time, they lead you away from worship and dedication to your Lord Jesus. No, you don’t have to be religious all the time, I’m not saying that. What I am saying is what God plans in your life will lead you to let Jesus be your Lord and your all in all. That’s what really counts. Pretty good idea, wouldn’t you say? He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshipped Him. 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.” Here’s a little aphorism that on first glance seems to be contradictory. What He actually was saying was, “People that are willing for me to help them, I wanna help them, but people who are self-sufficient, can’t get any help.”

Walter Kallenbach, the blind evangelist, used to say so often, I’ve heard him say numbers of times in years past, “If you want to be different, Jesus can help you. But if you don’t want to be different, nobody can help you.” That’s true, “that they which see not might see.” If you want Jesus to help you today, He will. “They which see.” If you’re self-sufficient, and you say, “I’m okay,” then you’re not gonna get any help from the Savior. He came to save sinners. Well, this has been the ninth chapter of the Gospel of John. I’ve enjoyed it, I hope you have too.

Dear Father, today, help us to obey Thee. Help us to make the Lord Jesus the center of our lives. I ask in His name, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!