IGNORE THE CAVILMessage by Brother Ronny Cham preached at
the SIB Metro Church English Service at 6.00 p.m. on 8th June 2008 Scripture: John 9:25 He answered and said, "Whether He is a
sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that
though I was blind, now I see." (NKJV) Let
me begin with the story in John Chapter 9.
Jesus passed by a place and saw a blind beggar man who was blind from
birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
Jesus answered, "Neither this man
nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.”
Then
He said something very important, i.e., “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while
it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the
light of the world." The sufferings in this world are Satan’s
work of darkness, let us not quibble over the issue of whose sin that he was
blind since birth. We just have to
know and believe that it is our Lord Jesus who has defeated the work of Satan,
and delivered us from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of the light. He is the light. Let
us return to the story in John Chapter 9.
After saying that, he did something extraordinary - He spat on the
ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man
with the clay and told him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. The man went and washed and immediately
he could see. Brothers
and sisters in Christ, the Bible tells us that when we hear the Word of the
Lord, do not harden our hearts. Be
obedient, not just as a hearer, but as a doer of His Word and we shall enter
into His rest. Many of us have
testified that we believe the Lord has called us to start this new work in SIB
Metro City Mall. I am delighted to
see that many of us have been faithful to His call and have been obedient to
His call. The people
who knew the blind beggar who now received sight were all very surprised and
lots of questions were asked as to whether he was once the blind beggar. The man said to them, “yes I am he.” They asked him, "How were your eyes
opened?" He answered and said, "A Man called Jesus made clay and
anointed my eyes and said to me, 'Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.' So I went
and washed, and I received sight." You
know, it is ever so often that when a brother or a sister stepped out in faith
to do something because he or she felt and perceived the Lord’s call to
do something, there will always be people asking, “Are you sure it was
Jesus who called you to do it?” “How to you know it was
Jesus?” “How did He tell you?” “Who are you that He
should call you to do such a thing?” It is
sad that religious people are not interested in the simplicity of faith we are
called to live in. Like in the
story of the blind beggar, they wanted to know “where is this
Jesus?” The blind beggar who received sight answered them simply,
“I don’t know.” Isn’t
this the case in our daily Christian life, by faith we
believe the Lord has called us to do certain work, whether it is the prompting
of the Holy Spirit or whether there was the audible voice of the Lord speaking
to us, we just know that it was the Lord who calls us to do it. We even have faith to believe that even
if we should be wrong, we still can believe that the Lord will direct us onto
the right path as we surrender ourselves in total obedience to Him. But if people are only interested to
know “how or when or what or where”, we simply don’t know. It is by faith we walk with Jesus. Let
us go back now to the story of the blind beggar again. You know we would have expected that
such a miracle as Christ had done upon the blind beggar would bring a definite
sense of awe and reverence to the Lord Jesus Christ, it would have settled his
reputation and silenced and shamed all those who opposed Him, but it had the
contrary effect; instead of being embraced as a prophet for the miracle, Jesus
was prosecuted as if He was a criminal.
The
word “cavil” means “to object for no good reason” or a
“carping criticism” which means a trivial and unreasonable
objection. These Pharisees knew that Jesus had done
the miracle on a Sabbath day. These
Pharisees was waiting to pound on Jesus for doing something which they
considered as unlawful and illegal.
They deliberately asked the blind beggar again as to how Jesus opened
his eyes. The man said, "He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I
see." Wow, the Pharisees thought, “here is the confession, here
is the solid evidence that Jesus had sinned against the law of Sabbath.” Sadly
speaking, we constantly heard of such accusation throughout Church history and
even until today. When certain
people or certain group of people in the Church would embark on doing something
which they believed was what the Lord had called them to do, they can often be branded
as “rebels” doing unlawful thing, unconstitutional; not according
to their order and so on. In
response to the simplicity of faith demonstrated by the blind beggar, the
Pharisees accused Jesus as a criminal, a sinner, He is not a man from God, how can a sinner, a devil do God’s work. The Pharisees have to stoop so low and
asked the blind beggar, “What do you say about Him because He opened your
eyes?" He said, "He is a
prophet." When
they knew that they cannot challenge the testimony of the blind beggar, they
got his parents to come and testify against the work of Christ. They asked the parents, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he
now see?" The parents, fearing
the Pharisees, instead of praising God and worshipping the Lord for what He had
done for their blind son, instead of standing up for Christ, they chickened out
and said, “we don’t know anything, ask him, he is a big boy”,
allow me to paraphrase their answer. I
likened these parents to those in the Church who refuses to stand up for one
another in the midst of trials.
These are the fearful and selfish ones. They saw the miracle God has done, they
knew it was the work of Jesus, but they caved in to opposition and the caviling
of the ungodly. They want to wash
their hands. They want to detach
themselves from, even their loved ones, their brothers and sisters in Christ. These
religious Pharisees were so insistent in their caviling, that they called the
blind beggar to come to them and asked him again, "Give God the glory! We
know that this Man is a sinner." “Give
God the glory”, that is, give us the truth. But they were not conducting
an investigation, they were not interested in the truth, their minds were
sealed. They had only wanted to break the man's testimony to discredit or
destroy the work of miracle of the Lord.
Brothers
and sisters in Christ, in this new work in SIB Metro City Mall, there are
challenges ahead of us and one of the greatest challenges is the caviling of
many roundabout us. I find comfort in the story of
this blind beggar and it is often the testimony of every converted sinner. He may not be able to meet the cavil of
the religious superpowers, he may not be able to tell how he was converted, he has only one safe ground, i.e., his own experience with
the Lord. All a converted sinner
can say is, "I was a sinner, but now love God; I was in darkness, but have
now been brought to the light of truth”, such confession had the weight
of simple truth behind it. He pays
no attention to their cavils, nor to their perversion of justice; but, in the
simplicity of his heart, he was ready to give them the
most substantial evidence, “I was blind, now I see.” Those
who are interested in caviling, they are perpetually shifting the real point of
inquiry. They do not inquire into the facts. They assume that a thing cannot be
true, and then argue as if that was a conceded point. The proper way in true religion
is first to inquire into the facts, and then account for them as we can. Brothers
and sisters in Christ, we are questioned, judged, condemned and hard pressed
from every side, but, no cavil or derision of men should deter us from our affirmation
of the great and mighty work of our Lord Jesus Christ in this Church. We are only in the third month of this new
work, let us hold our faith and confidence in the Lord, and affirm as the blind
beggar did, “I was blind, now I see.” Let us ignore the caviling and move on
in Him and building up His Body for His Glory. Ronny Cham |
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