Pastor Robert Morris – Sight – More Than Words

all right so we're in a series called more than words talking about the Bible and this week I want to talk about site spiritual site site next last weekend I talked about symbols dude how many were you here last weekend and that did I rock your world a little bit so okay yes yes okay so this we're gonna do the same thing just just just take a little bit further this weekend and that is to talk about site now if you won't turn to mark chapter 8 I'll get over to mark chapter 8 in a little while but let me just say something that happened when I first begin to see spiritual types and shadows and symbols and things like that in the word I can remember I went in a church and the pastor was a part of a theological thought persuasion that believed that the gifts have passed away and that God does it heal today and things like that but he was beginning to see some things in Scripture and he invited me for that purpose to kind of help his church along that path so I wasn't out of order and preaching thing he was wanting me to and one night he said to me are during the day before the night he said would you preach on healing tonight physical healing and I know God still heals today and there again some people think God doesn't heal today but he does heal today and so because God is the same yesterday today and forever so she yeah yeah it's uh I mean one verse Hebrews 13:8 will blow that doctor in a way or it's not doctrine it's a Dogma it will blow that away because if jesus healed when he was on this earth he still heals today he couldn't stop healing you know so anyway so he said would you preach on healing and so I was looking at all these scriptures I had gathered in my Bible one time I showed you Matt the Bible I had when I first got saved and in the front of it I had just had scripture after scripture after scripture after scripture and I just filled up the pages with it this is a newer Bible I even in the back it has maps and I didn't know what the maps were for you know back then I didn't I had no clue so I pasted in scripture over the maps because I thought well I'd the maps the scripture help me you know so so I went to the scriptures that I had on healing and I thought these are so good and it really doesn't matter what I say about he like it matters what the Bible says so I think I'll just read scripture tonight during the service so I just got up and began to read this starting at Exodus 26 that I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians for I am Jehovah Rapha the Lord who heals you now I just started reading scriptures and I we even went all just all through the New Testament where it says that they brought many sick people to him and Jesus laid his hands on every one of them and healed them all and I just kept saying that but the word all kept popping up but it was the Bible I wasn't just adding it to it it was the Bible and so anyway the next day at lunch when I met the pastor I think he might have gotten chewed out you know by some of his members or something but he was upset and so he said to me I need to talk to you and so I said okay and he said do you believe that God heals all diseases now I think what he was saying was do you believe everyone's gonna be healed and obviously everyone's not going to be healed everyone's not gonna be saved we understand that I preached I've preached very balanced messages on healing if you want to go back to listen pastor Jimmy Evans one of our senior pastors just preached this spring a very balanced message on healing so we believe a balanced message on eeling but his question was do you believe God heals all diseases and so immediately I just thought of Psalm 103 verse 3 that says that God heals all diseases by the way it says that he forgives all the NIC WA T's do you believe that part of the verse you better or you're in trouble so one it says who forgives all your iniquities who heals all your diseases so he asks me do you believe God heals all diseases so I said well Psalm 103 verse 3 says that he heals all your diseases and he said yeah but do you believe he heals all of them and so I said well Psalm 103 verse 3 says that he heals all your diseases he said yeah but do you believe he heals all of them now let me just remind you of something I never even told him if I believed it I never even said well I believe I never even said that which I do but I never even said that I simply quoted a scripture I want you to think about this if someone quotes a scripture to you and you get mad you have a problem you have grown up in some systematic theology thought that has caused you to disbelieve God's Word so he said yeah but you believe heals all of them kind of like that to me and I said well Psalm 103 and he said to me you're close-minded Oh No you're closed month yeah so my point is I then I just I actually opened my Bible to Psalm 103 verse 3 and I said to him I said but look look look I said look right here look look who heals all your diseases this is what he did he went like this he said I just don't see it now what he meant was I don't agree with that but what an interesting choice of words he looks right at it and he says I don't see that I want to talk to you about spiritual blindness and spiritual sight because it takes spiritual eyes to understand this book and you can be spiritually blind to this book so let me tell you some things about sight ok spiritual sight here's number one spiritual blindness steals our understanding spiritual blindness steals our understanding in other words you will not understand the Bible if you're spiritually blind and then the next point I'm going to tell you what calls the spiritual blindness now remember last week I went through had several people say that was phenomenal when you talked about exegesis and several couple of people said to me I had never even heard the word exegesis but mainly what we focused on last weekend was allegorical exegesis and it's the same thing when we're talking about spiritual sight what what is the allegory what is the meaning behind the story or the meaning behind the verse alright but let me show you this spiritual blindness that the Bible talks about a lot a lot all right I'll get to mark chapter eight a long time from now so okay Isaiah 42 verse 18 here you deaf and look you blind that you may see now can we stop just for moaning I do not want to be sensitive or insensitive or anyone has a psych problem or a hearing problem but here's what he just said hey all you deaf people listen to me and all you blind people look up here that's what we just read that in the Bible so obviously he is not talking about physical deafness or physical blinds would you agree man this is this is simple here you deaf and look you blind that you may see who is blind but my servant or deaf as my messenger whom I see who is blind as he who is perfect now we're gonna talk about what causes blindness but that right there gives you a little bit of a hint let me just get a little bit ahead of myself if you think that you're already there then you're blind if you think you already know everything this book has to offer you are blind okay so who is blind but he who is perfect and blind is the Lord surfing watch seeing many things but you do not observe opening the eyes the ears but he does not hear I say a43 verse 8 bring out the blind people who have eyes and the Deaf who have ears again I'm just giving you the verses you go back and read the context he is talking about spiritual blindness and spiritual deafness not physical blindness or physical deafness Jeremiah 5:21 hear this now foolish people without understanding let me just remind you that my point is blindness steals our understanding you'll never be able to understand the Bible if you're spiritually blind to it here this now foolish people without understanding who have eyes and see not and who have ears adhere not Ezekiel 12 verse 2 son of man you dwelled in the midst of a rebellious house that also causes spiritual blindness rebellion which has eyes to see but does not see and ears to hear but does not hear for they are a rebellious house Zephaniah 117th I will bring disaster upon this people and they shall won't like blind men because they have sinned against the Lord another cause of spiritual blindness walking announced in Matthew 13 now here Jesus quotes from the Old Testament and watch how he ties spiritual blindness into a lack of understanding Matthew 13 verse 14 and indium the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled which says hearing you will hear and shall not understand see you will see and not perceive for the hearts of this people have grown dull their ears are hard of hearing their eyes they have closed now watch lest they should see with their eyes please watch this progression and hear with their ears less they should understand with their hearts and turn so that I should heal him please watch that jesus said they they have to be able to see with their eyes and hear with your spiritual eyes inis so that they can understand that God's Word so that they can turn so that I can heal them please hear me please please please the reason many people are not spiritually healed is because they don't turn from their sin the reason they don't turn from their sin is because they don't understand what it's doing to them the reason they don't understand what it's doing to them is because they're spiritually blind and deaf did you all see that are you sure you saw that because that was that was better than you response just think about what Jesus said he said they they can't see and they can't hear therefore they can't understand therefore they can't turn therefore I can't no you just can't understand what being spiritually blind will cause in your life it causes you to remain physically mentally spiritually and emotionally sick it's God's Word that changes people it's not my illustrations it's not my applications it's God's Word this is what I put so much scripture in my messages because God's Word is the only thing that will heal you it's the only thing that will heal you he sent His Word and Gildan I quoted the scripture there and you were clapping but it's Psalm 107 verse 20 he sent His Word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions it's his word so so there's a spiritual blindness it's called now let me just say this this this blindness it's possible even in the natural to be looking at something you're not seeing for instance I mean we're telling spiritual blindness let me just ask you a question just ever campus and and why don't you just go and raise your hands and if you don't then we're gonna we have a freedom ministry for you for lying but have you ever read a chapter in the Bible and after reading that chapter you had no idea what you just read can I just see okay all right that happens because this is a spiritual book it's a spiritual book or you had your mind somewhere else okay all right so so it happens in the spiritual it happens in the natural it you can be looking right at someone and not see them is that true because your mind is somewhere else and what's funny to me is when it happens in church and and you know you're looking around and you see someone and they're looking right at you and so you go and wait and they go like this and you think what what's his problem well I didn't do anything him he didn't even leave at me and what's amazing is though you're mad at him for three weeks then you know okay so you can look at something and not see it now let me explain something about this alright I love the difference since God made between men and women I love him except for one and that is it women are smarter I don't like that difference but my wife can see things that are not there I promise you I will go on my own my closet and week she has my clothes arranged you know suits shirts pants so I can find things otherwise I couldn't find anything I used to be when I would travel and I had I was traveling during revivals and she wouldn't be able to travel with me she put letters in my coats and numbers on my pants and shirt literally I mean it was like you know she'd say she'd asked me on the phone what did you wear tonight I'd say b4 it was like bingo you know so okay so as a matter of fact should I want to tell this when we were young when we were small church it's just Thomas and Mary Beth then about four other people at the church so but Debbie was out of town one weekend I came to church and Mary Beth looked at me and said Stephanie out of town [Applause] so I can't pick out my own clothes okay so but I'll go in my closet and I'm looking for my blue shirt and I know what's going to happen I know it's there but I can't see it but Debbie will sit so I will go through every shirt every shirt ever shirt and I go in the other room sugar I know it's there I know it is I'm so sorry that I have to ask you to get up but I can't find my blue shirt and now on the inside what I'm thinking is this time I have her I've got it cuz I went to her twice I got to this time here's what she does she walks in like this she says it's right there that's right there and then she's walking out one time and then she turns around and she says you have eyes but you can't see and I thought no your voodoo woman that's what you are you you that's food that's what that is and I remember I said at one time she tried she said what you saying I said you wonder woman that's what much okay all right so there spiritual blindness okay here's number two tried causes spiritual blindness we talked about rebellion we talked about the continued seeing the only reason you would continue to sin is because you're an arrogant person that's the only reason and I've been there too the only reason we would continuous him it's because of pride it's the only reason the only reason of we'd have a rebellious or it's because of pride pride is a through okay so jesus heals a blind man in John chapter nine he's blind from birth no one had ever healed a man blind from birth you can read it since it says since the beginning of time it's never been heard of a man heal was healed blind from birth he heals this man blind from birth and the Pharisees get mad about it isn't that amazing that is shocking you know in some of some churches I used to be a part of a church like yes I don't mean this wrong I used to I grew up in a church like this there every Wednesday night we had prayer meeting remember that okay we prayed for the people who are in the hospital okay what we found out what I found out later was that was okay but if an e/m got healed we were in trouble the denomination we were in trouble if people got healed you're in trouble so it's okay to pray for him okay so this van gets healed and the Pharisees were mad mad at him God that he got healed and so they said who did this so he says I love you Jesus I think God named Jesus so they track Jesus down now I want you to watch what Jesus says in John chapter 9 verse 39 jesus said for judgment I've come into this world now watch closely they see so much spiritual sight that those who do not see may see and that those who see may be made blind and then some of the Pharisees who were with him heard these words and said to him are we blind also jesus said bingo ELISA when he said he's so much spiritual psyche remember this is a spiritual book if you were blind listed what he says you would have no sin but now or the word here could be translated since but since you say we see therefore your sin remains okay let me tell you again how spiritual this is Jesus said I came to this world that those who are spiritually blind could receive their sight do you remember what happened when Paul got saved and a nice prayed for him and what happened scales fell off his eyes think about that think about that scales tell us us so jesus said I came in this world that those who cannot see spiritually will be able to see and those of you who say that you can see without me you don't need me you'll just be made blind and the Pharisee said so you're saying we're blind and Jesus said oh yeah you're blind you're blind is batch that's what you are you're blind but here's another way he said if you would admit to me that you couldn't see without me listen he says you would have no sin in other words I would forgive your sin I would erase your seeing if you would just admit to me that you're blind without me I I'd take care I'd remove all your sin that I'm telling you this is an amazing verse this is a spiritual look and then he said but since you say that you can see without me your sin remains it's not advancing man this is spiritual okay so I want to show you a couple of scriptures that they have to be spiritual we have to allegorically exegete these scriptures we have to because they make no sense otherwise okay there are ones in Isaiah ones in Leviticus let me show you these and I say a four verse one it says and in that day seven women shall take hold of one man saying we will eat our own food and wear our own apparel only let us be called by your name to take away our reproach now look at me for a moment in that verse minister to you that's one of those verses that you read at night that you think I have no clue what that means okay but before you read your Bible listen to me please hear me every time before you read your Bible would you say lord I cannot understand this book unless you explain it to me I can't understand this thing without you if you do that it'll jump off the page edge okay so take symbols like we did last week it says seven women okay in the book of Revelation there are seven churches churches are called women in the Bible we're the Bride of Christ right those seven churches of asia minor minor represent theologically the endtime Church there's no doubt about it I don't have time to explain all of it to you okay here's what it says in that day the endtime Church will take hold of one man one man is Jesus Romans says one new man one man in that day the church will take hold of one man they will say we will eat our own food in other words we're going to teach our own Sunday School lessons and will wear our own apparel apparel always reforms with righteousness they say take the dirty clothes off and put new clothes own because he's righteous now I've removed his sin okay here's what they searched they're delirious what the Bible say in the end times the worldly church is gonna take hold of Jesus but they're gonna say to him we want to teach our own lessons and we want to have our own form of righteousness but let us be called by your name to take away our reproach I'm telling you this is a deeper book than you think it is okay let me show you one more Leviticus 26 verse 26 it says when I have cut off your supply of bread bread represents the Word of God 10 women so we'll talk about that that should tell you a little bit shall bake your bread in one oven and they shall bring back your bread by wait and you shall eat it and not be satisfied hey let's talk about in my opinion what this means allegorically he says in that day when you turn away from me Leviticus 26 is a lot like Deuteronomy 28 first 14 chapters of verse 28 Deuteronomy 28 or about the blessings if you obey this is what happens the next or about curses Eve additionally Leviticus 26 same way first 15 verses are about if you obey this what happens if you disobey this whatever so this is what happens when you turn away from God in chapter 26 verse 26 here's what he says he says when you turn away from me I'm gonna cut off your supply of bread I'm gonna cut it off and he said when I cut it off ten women that's churches listen listen here so let me just go and tell you what I think this means ten different churches are gonna prepare your bread in one oven but they're going to prepare your Sunday School lessons in one city one place and they'll bring it back to you and measure it out by weight they'll give you a little sunday-school book with two or three verses that ever week and you'll eat it and you'll not be satisfied I can remember a guy saying to me he said I got they said I'm a Sunday school teacher in the church and he said I went through every lesson I got the book for the whole year and there's an average of two to four verses every week and he said to me that's all the Bible we get and he said so I said the pastor would you mind if I like took a concordance and and added some verses to our lesson and he said the pastor said to him no that's enough versus that's enough ten different churches lots of churches they're going to prepare your Sunday School lessons in one place they're gonna bring them back and they'll measure it out to you by week hey you this week you get three verses make sure we can only get two actually here in four verses and you'll eat it and you'll not be satisfied you ever gone to church like that okay so I think there's a lot of things in here that that we need to understand all right here's nothing here so I got to say one more thing on spiritual blindness and illustration when I was younger I travel with James Robson James has seated down here on the front row James and Betty members of our church James Robison is one of our absence all the killers most of you see James and Betty on television you may not know James Robison used to do great big citywide Crusades like Billy Graham did and break all the conference records in cities you know the attendance records when he was doing that I was traveling with him as a young man and I would do school assemblies literally I used to public school assemblies and some of the largest high schools in America and they let me in and I would talk about drugs and alcohol and I used to myrrh and all and I couldn't say Jesus or God but I did say yes I said you know you got to be as wise as a serpent you know and so I used to say and and I'd get him right to the end where I'd say you know when I was in drugs and I couldn't get free and uh and I said and then I met a man who lived 2,000 years ago who's still alive today [Laughter] I didn't say Jesus I didn't say his name you know just you just thought it that's who I was talking about so when my fault you know so and then I would invite him to the Crusades and hundreds of kids would get saved every time and would change to preach so James started seeing things in the work and I went with him to Louisville Kentucky Southern Seminary is there and one of the professor's had been listening James talk about how we could be blind to the Bible and he thought I've been studying the Bible my whole life as a matter of fact he had taught New Testament theology New Testament theology for over twenty years thirteen of those years he taught the book of Mark thirteen years so he said to the Lord Lord I'm gonna go here James and he's talking about how we can read this book and are we still have spiritual blindness so if I have spiritual blindness will you show me will you show me a scripture that I've never seen so James gets up that night and decides to preach and one of the verses he uses is this mark 6 12 and 13 so they went out and preached that people should repent and they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them this professor came back to the green room after service I will never forget this he said James I've talked the book of Mark for 13 years verse by verse and I had never seen that verse in my life I've never seen that the disciples anointed people with oil and I've taught it verse by verse that's spiritual blindness all right so here's the last point Jesus opened blind eyes here's the good news Jesus opens blind nuts now mark chapter 8 told you I'd get there it says then he came to Bethsaida and they brought a blind man to him and they begged him to touch him so he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town led him out of the town because you remember best say there was one of in the evangelical triangle and it became one of the cursed cities and when he had spit on his eyes and put his hands on him he asked him he asked him he wanted him to say something he asked him if he saw anything and he looked up and he said I see men like trees walking then he put his hand I hope y'all just picked up right there spiritual symbols and spiritual sight I see men like trees walking then he put his hands on his eyes again and made him look up and he was restored and so everyone clearly okay so one night I preached a crusade I'm in a hotel room afterwards I turned the TV on there's a TV preacher own I thought I'd listen and he preached his passage and this is what he said he said you see even with Jesus it doesn't always work the first time I couldn't believe it I thought with God it doesn't always work the first time and so I thought well I know that's not right so I remember thinking Lord I'm gonna figure this out there's something else here there's something there's some reason he saw me and like trees and you put your hands on again so I read it I read other scriptures I read everything I could read three hours later I had no clue what it meant and it stayed all of a sudden seemed like the Lord was standing beside me just to standing not literally not naturally it just seemed like that you know and he said is that I felt like he just said to me what are you doing and I said well I'm trying to figure this out with no help from you I might add and he said to me do you think I know what that means I said well of course you know what it means he said won't you ask so I said okay what and before I could say what does this mean when I said well when I started or what like that he downloaded it on me just like that okay here's what the man said Jesus puts his hands on it Jesus the Son of God a creator and sustainer of the universe who spoke the worlds into existence put his hands on him and said what do you say he said I see men like trees walking think about the symbols in the Bible can I read you a few scriptures Psalm 1 verse 1 through 3 blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly nor stands in the path of sinners nor sits in the seat of the scornful his delight is in the law of the Lord in his law he meditates day and night he shall be like a tree planted by the water I saw men like trees Psalm 52 verse 8 but I am like a green olive tree in the house of the God Psalm 92 12 the righteous shall flourish like a palm tree jeremiah 17:7 and a blessed is the man who trusts the Lord whose hope is in the Lord for he shall be like a tree planted by the water isaiah 55:12 and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands that's fun about people you've never seen a bunch of oak trees clapping their hands that's people Matthew 7 verse 17 even so jesus said every good tree bears good fruit but a bad tree bears Frederick he's not teaching us to be arborist he is not teaching about trees he's teaching about people and Jesus called him trees are you following me I just got to read this I'm getting out of time but I'm gonna read it anyway Zechariah 4 verse 11 then ice answered and said what are these two olive trees at the right of the lampstand and at its left verse 14 so he said these are the two anointed ones these are the two witnesses in Revelation who stand beside the Lord of them over y'all okay so Zechariah saw trees he saw trees what are these two trees the angel said these are two men these are the two anointed ones these are the two witnesses in the intent are y'all following me so trees represent people in the Bible Jesus puts his hands on him and says what do you see he said I see men like trees so he put his hands on guinea restored everything for you here's how simple it is when he put his hands on him the first time he opened his spiritual eyes when he his hands holding the second tank he opened his natural eyes just like that and by the way you can't you can't just go on my opinion you might say well Robert really smart for figuring that out no the Bible has to define itself I told you hundreds of times so the Lord said to me back up just back up and watch what else okay so at the beginning of the chapter Jesus feeds four thousand one time he feeds five thousand one times four thousand and then right after he feeds the four thousand watch mark eight what spiritual blindness and spiritual deafness this is right before what we just read mark 8 verse 13 and he left them and getting into the boat again departed the other side watch now the disciples had forgotten to take bread and they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat then he charged them Jesus charged him saying take heed beware of the leaven the yeast the bread of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod watch this and they reasoned among themselves saying he's mad because we didn't bring any bread it's because we have no bread kocha we should bring more bread talk about spiritual blindness when Jesus said beware of the leaven of the Pharisees he wasn't talking about natural bread well it seems to all my teachings words right now watch I love this but Jesus being aware of it said to them oh man I just love this why do you reason because you have no bread do you not yet perceive nor understand is your heart still hardly watch having eyes but you do not see and having ears what you do not hear then listen what he says here I like this then do you not remember when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand how many baskets full of fragments did you tell you they said twelve also when I broke the seven for the four thousand how many large baskets full of fragments enjoy they said seven so he said it how is it you still not understand here's what he was saying fellas if I wanted bread I just whip us some up I I am NOT talking about bread [Applause] five loaves and I fed 5000 there's one loaf in this boat and 13 dues bread is not the problem I am NOT talking about bread I am talking about something in the spiritual realm but you have eyes but you can't see and you have ears but you can't hear and I'm telling you if you do not read this book with spiritual eyes you won't get one thing out of it and here's the problem if you don't read with spiritual eyes then you can understand it and if you can't understand it you will not turn from what is keeping you from getting healed this was a really really good sermon okay bow your heads and close your eyes we're all going to respond today though you can come down in a moment for prayer but I want everyone to pray just along every campus every affiliate Church I want me to pray I'm gonna pray too but I want you to repeat this prayer after me out loud seriously like you mean it I want you to pray this to God even though you're praying it after me okay whoever one of us let's repeat this to the Lord dear God I repent of my pride and I ask you to forgive me and I come to you as a child and I tell you I cannot understand your book without your help and I receive it now in Jesus name Amen amen and amen and amen

Channel: gatewaychurchtv

Views: 254,781

Rating: 4.8654227 out of 5

Keywords: gatewaypeople, Gateway, Gateway Church, Robert Morris, Pastor Robert, Savior, Dallas, Southlake, Texas, Jesus, Sermon, salvation, christ, Love, More Than Words, sight

Id: hiQ-RUKbIVE

Length: 39min 23sec (2363 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 17 2018