Praise the Lord. I bring you greetings today. It's a blessing to be here. It's a blessing to see you. If you'll open your Bible with me, please, to John chapter 5. Is our sound okay back there? Alright. John chapter 5. And let's stand one more time, please. John 5. And we'll look at verse 1. John 5. And verse 1. After this, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. And these lay a great multitude of impudent folk of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water. Whosoever then first, after the troubling of the water, stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? The impudent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool. But while I am coming, another steppeth down before me, Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked. And on the same day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the Sabbath day. Is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed? He answered them, he that made me whole, the same said unto me, take up thy bed and walk. Then asked they him, what man is that which said unto thee, take up thy bed and walk? And he that was healed wist not who it was, for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place. Afterward, Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee. The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus which had made him whole. And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the Sabbath day. But Jesus answered them, my father worketh hitherto and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he had not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his father, making himself equal with God. Praise the Lord. Now let's pray. Father, we do thank you for this day. Lord, we will never be able to explore every word and truth through these verses. And Lord, I hope to not spend time on some common thoughts and maybe even some common cliches or euphemisms that come out of this story, but to narrow ourselves down to specific truths with the gospel itself and the lack of discernment and the condition of those around the pool. Lord, we thank You for Your grace and Your mercy. We thank You that You indeed have chosen by Yourself and for Yourself. We thank You that You have given us Your Word that we can indeed read, we can indeed pray, we can indeed come to You for discernment and wisdom, we can apply to our life. Father, please now we ask for your grace upon this service in Jesus' name. Amen. Go ahead and be seated. Well, in the thought of all of those that we've heard of the multitude that's around the pool, lost man is dead. Lost man is dead to the things of God. In his flesh, man is attracted to or is interested in people. He's interested in places or activities that appeal to his flesh. It doesn't take many hours or days on social media to see that they know how to market what we're attracted to. I learned an interesting thing I did not know that apparently they It's not you so much, it's what goes on through your household. When you visit other people's homes and use your own social media accounts, and suddenly you see things that the people that live in the house are buying and are attracted to and shop for. In his flesh, man is attracted to these things. People, places, activities that appeal to his flesh. Worship services, or as we would call church meetings, are not to be wholly designed to appeal to the flesh, or even to the emotional makeup of lost men. It's important that we recognize the danger, whether it be preaching to people, pastoring or ministering to people, or even parenting, to indulge felt needs, as we would call them. If we preach only to felt needs, we will deny scripture, deny law, we'll deny cause and effect. We'll deny really the sovereignty of God and how His providence works in men. If we go after felt needs, we'll design our services simply for the emotional needs of people. or the so-called psychological makeup that is so precarious. If we parent to indulge needs or felt needs, often we become just the buddy and never the parent. I'm glad that God is our father and treats us as such. In recent days, I spoke to pastors and said although we do not attempt to make lost men uncomfortable in our services, we cannot just seek to make lost men comfortable in our services, in all we say and do and how we conduct our music. If we seek to worship in spirit and in truth, we cannot possibly appeal to the tastes or desires of lost men. As you may hear later this afternoon, when Jonah went to Nineveh, it was not with a plan of some type of church growth psychology or seminar. or polls, or questionnaires, but to bring the Word of God. Jesus' life and His earthly ministry shows us time and time again that lost men come seeking bread, come seeking comfort, come seeking healing, but time and time again, even during the earthly ministry of Christ, did not come seeking Christ the King, Christ the Messiah, Christ the Sovereign. They wanted the Christ that would do something for them temporarily. He came for the fishes, he said. The miracles were important signs of his Messiahship to the Jews. It was not the ultimate or the culmination of their faith. That would be the person of Christ. Ultimately, lost man's needs and deeds must be set aside as they see Jesus for who he is and see themselves for who they are. We have those that would join our body and with our churches. And in the many, many years and years being able to be involved in the local church, Some will come in the doors with the word involvement on their lips. With an agenda of leadership instead of servanthood. Because lost men have certain needs and desires that they want fulfilled within their flesh. Rather than just seeking to please Christ with the talents and abilities they may have. So then we see it's no longer about daily bread. We'll see it's no longer about just water from a plenteous source like a woman at the well. No longer about just eternal life, heaven and hell. But a fear of God bringing us into the love of Christ. Ultimately, a nice doctor could have a clean, bright hospital. You could have a delivery room that looks like a home. Even a favorite food for the patient. But none of these things would be the issue. The issue is whether or not the child can be birthed there. Does he offer help there? Now in our text, by the time we arrive to John chapter 5, If you read John, you'll see we have people following or seeking out Jesus because of his miracles. But Jesus comes seeking in John 5. And in John 5, verse 1, it says, After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Perhaps the feast of Pentecost. Many different ideas there. Perhaps it was Pentecost. But Jesus goes up to Jerusalem. Now they're at Jerusalem by the sheep market, a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue, Bethesda, having five porches. Bethesda, mercy. The picture of the Gospel is one of mercy, as we'll see illustrated in the narrative. Only Christ, in only Christ, can the sinner find mercy. People are looking for some type of mercy. They're looking for help. They're looking for help on the street corner. They're looking for help at the government offices. They're looking for help everywhere someone seems to offer help. It is only in Christ that we will find mercy, true grace. And then by His expression through His people, through His churches. In verse 3, he said, in these lay a great multitude. A great multitude means a great multitude of impudent folk, blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. Whether it be Calvin or Matthew Henry or many others, they take this entire story at face value. A.W. Pink mentions in this text that he says, let every reader see here, he says, let every reader see here a portrait of what he or she is by nature. The picture is not flattering, we know, he says. No, it is drawn by one who searcheth the innermost recesses of the human heart and is presented here to humble us. The natural man is impudent, without strength. This sums up in a single word his condition before God. Altogether helpless, unable to do a single thing for himself. then follows an amplification of this impudency given in three, the number of full manifestation. He says he is blind. This explains the lethargic indifference of the great multitude today, sporting on the very brink of the pit, because unable to see the frightful peril that menaces them, making merry as they hasten down the broad road. because incompetent to discern the eternal destruction which awaits them at the bottom of it. Yes, blind indeed is the natural man. The way of the wicked is as darkness. They know not at what they stumble. Halt! Lame! Crippled! Unable to walk! How inevitably this follows the other! How can one who is spiritually blind walk the narrow way that leadeth into life? Mine eye affecteth mine heart. He says, withered, blind eyes, crippled feet, paralyzed hands, unable to see, unable to walk, unable to work. How striking is the order here. Consider them inversely. A man cannot perform good works unless he is walking with God. And he will not begin to walk with God until the eyes of his heart have been opened to see his need for Christ. This is the divine order. And it never varies. Eyes open. Illuminated truth. God, so long as the eyes are blind, the feet will be halt, and the hands withered. He said, waiting for the moving of the water. Surely this is not hard to interpret. The pool was the object in which the great multitude placed all their hopes. So this is, I believe, a great discernment. That the pool was the object in which the great multitude placed all their hopes. They were waiting for its waters to be troubled, but they waited in vain. The one invalid who was single out from the crowd had been there, it says, a long time, and little had it availed him. Is it not thus with the ordinances of the religious world? How many there are, a great multitude indeed, which place their faith in the waters of baptism, or in the mass, or in some extreme unction. In a long time all such will have to wait before the deep need of their soul will be met. For an angel went down to a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water. Whosoever then first after troubling the water steppeth in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. We see the race of men, blind, halt. Once again, we look at our text and we want to look at it for what we said face value. There's an interesting term here that talks about the moving of the waters, which is not the same as the troubling of the waters. The idea of moving of the waters is a, what you would understand to be, moving the waters around. But when we think of troubling of the waters, it's a whole different word being used here. It's trouble by an inward commotion. It's not just some agitation. You see the spiritual connotation right away. For a man to be brought to Christ, there must be an inward troubling. There must be some inward distress brought to that man. to show him his need for Christ. In verse 4, he says, for an angel went down at a certain season. But he looked there at the bottom of the verse, he says, he stepped in and was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. The emphasis here is on the physical. The emphasis here is on the physical. This is why this man had come. This is why everyone had come. As the man explains to Jesus, he's again, he's with the physical. All we had to do if we came and we stepped down, we're made whole with these diseases. Verse 5, and a certain man was there which had infirmity thirty and eight years. It is an interesting fact that the children of Israel were indeed lacking. The nation of Israel is indeed at this point in a terrible state without God. And we see about the same amount of time as they wandered in the wilderness, dry, decrepit, halt, blind. We see this man sitting by the side of the pool. Many people had needs. Many people, and the word multitude being used, many people, great multitude, great need. But one is singled out. I remind you that when Jesus came to Jericho, He said, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. And you can read the account over and over again. And outside of blind men, outside the city, we don't see recorded any other man, rather than Zacchaeus, that actually believed on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. But he said, I've come to seek and to save that which is lost. Even he said, just the one, and this one is singled out. Verse six, when Jesus saw him lie and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, wilt thou be made whole? Light had come to the darkness. Jesus had come, been born in Bethlehem, where the people sat in darkness and they saw a great light. Christ had come to this nation that was in darkness of tradition and demonic activity, demonic mentality, corrupt religion. Light had come to the darkness in the midst of a powerful religious machine. Remember, the church ran everything. And the closer you got to the temple was closer to ground zero. And I've likened it to the mafia, the House of Annas and Caiaphas. They made their money. They had their exploitation. They would have been guilty of recall charges today, racketeering the way they did things. It would eventually culminate with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And when they brought the guards in, they didn't want to know what the guards had to say. They said, we want to tell you what you're going to say. Never doubting that it was true that Christ had actually risen from the grave. No. Light had come to the darkness in the midst of a powerful religious machine, and this man around the multitude sat in darkness. There was a pastor I've mentioned here recently, some time ago here when I spoke, that was trying to leave bad theology he had been taught behind, and he wanted the truth. And he asked some very simple questions concerning the Gospel. They were simple enough, but they were also difficult in that the questions would lead to more questions, which would lead to what we believe to be the doctrine of grace, and how God deals with man through his sovereignty, and man's depravity, and all these things. And I knew that the time was too short. And I knew that I didn't want him to get mad and not let me get to the airport in the morning. But I did answer him some simple questions. And the main thing I told him was this. When you decide what a dead man can do, then everything else will make sense. And a few other things. But that was the main thought. And with very little Communication. And without him really seeking books or even internet preaching and things, I thought maybe he'd go looking scouring. But with prayer and the Scripture, the year would go by. And he told the church, Brother Abbott told me, when I understand what a dead man can do, everything else would make sense. In just recent days, he has preached the Gospel explained to his people that the people they claimed to be heroes and folks that held a terrible false gospel were enemies of the cross. He embraced these doctrines that we hold so dear concerning grace and sovereignty of God, how he deals with man. Where did it start? He had to understand that man was dead, and lost, and sitting by the pool, but had absolutely no help, and was trusting in that machine. See, we must concern ourselves more about Christ, not the machine. But these people, they wanted the factory, they wanted the machine, they wanted the program. There was a procedure here to be healed. And that's what men are so concerned about. There has to be some way for everything to work. The light had come, but the darkness had not comprehended it. The Bible tells us in 1 John that the whole world lieth in wickedness. But here we are in Bethesda. Mercy, grace, the only hope. Were it not for God's sovereign grace, all of the sons of Adam would lay down and die. Salvation came to Bethesda because God had mercy upon whom He would have mercy. And among the multitude, God came to one. There's nothing in Scripture that sets this man apart from anyone else. We don't see the man crying out to the Lord before Jesus walked up. He was just as blind as all the other people that were blind. But notice Jesus' question. Will thou be made whole? The man's focus was on the machinery. The man's focus was on the method. It was on how things were supposed to work. We must have the Gospel and Law Proclamation. And all other programs and rituals and traditions or whatever it is we've figured out in our mind of how it's supposed to be, second or none. When we speak to lost people about Christ, normally the questions are something like this. Do I have to do this? Will I have to go here? Those aren't the right questions. The question is, who are you in the sight of a holy God? This man was wondering about being drug over to the water. This man was wondering about how he was going to get in. This man was wondering about the right timing. Well, I have to have the timing just right. It has to just go a certain way. His eye was fixed on man and not God. Now, to the Christian, I would say, we are guilty of the same. Often wondering, waiting for some troubling of the water. Well, if someone does this, then I'll do this. I'll know I'll be able to serve the Lord if someone else, and if I can read something, and if someone ever publishes this, then I can... We need to wait on the Word from the Lord, not looking for man to give us some authorization to move a foot. In our text, chapter 5, verse 7, says, the impudent man answered Him, Sir, I have no man when the water is troubled to put me into the pool. While I am coming, another steppeth down before Him. And you've heard perhaps preached of many times, God uses human instruments. Preaching of the Word of God, the discipling of the nations, Using Scripture and giving Scriptural truth to lost people in different sentences. Verse 8, Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. Again, we have a passage from Mr. Pink. He said how sadly true to life He said, when the great physician said, wilt thou be made whole, the poor sufferer did not promptly answer, yea, Lord, undertake for me. And not thus does the sinner act when first brought face to face with Christ. The impudent man failed to realize that Christ could cure him by a word. He supposed he must get to the pool. The poor man had more faith in means than he had in the Lord at this point. And two, he was looking to humankind for help. Again, we would exclaim how true to life. Moreover, he thought that he had to do something. While I am coming, he said, How this uncovers the heart of the natural man. How pathetic are the closing words of this verse. What a heartless world we live in. Human nature is full of selfishness. Christ is the only unfailing friend of the friendless. Jesus saith unto him, Rise. Take up thy bed and walk. If the Savior waited until there was in the sinner some due appreciation of his person, none would ever be saved. But the sufferer had made no cry for mercy. And when Christ inquired if he were willing to be made whole, there was no faith evidence. But in sovereign grace, the Son of God pronounced the life-giving word. Yet it was a word that addressed the human responsibility of the subject. Careful analysis of the command of Christ reveals three things. First, there must be implicit confidence in His word. Rise was a preemptory command. There must be a hearty recognition of His authority and immediate response to His orders. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. It's something more than a gracious invitation. It is a command. Second, take up thy bed. A cotton pallet easily rolled up. There was to be no thought of failure, no provision made for relapse. How many there are who take a few feeble steps and then return to their beds. The last state of such is worse than the first. If there is faith in the person of Christ, if there is a submission to His authority, then the new life within will find an outlet without. And we shall no longer be a burden to others, but be able to shoulder our burdens, sharing our yoke with Christ. Third, and he said, and walk. I like that word coming here. It is as though the Savior said, you were unable to walk into the water. You could not walk in order to be cured. But now that you are made whole, walk. There are duties to be faced of which we have had no previous experience, and we must proceed to discharge them in faith. And in that faith, in which He bids us do them, will be found the strength needed for their performance. He said, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. Get your eyes off the physical. Get your eyes off your own ability. Get your eyes off your own psychology and your own philosophy of how this is supposed to work and stop thinking about all the things you've read about religion and just trust My Word. Not tradition or rituals. Not methods. Not some strange substitution. Not some philosophy. Nothing can compete with Christ. In verse 10, the Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, it is a Sabbath day. It is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. They're talking about the bed. Who cares about the bed? What about the transformation that just took place? Instead of talking about the bed, what about the transformation? He who was crippled, he who was blind, he who was halted, he who could not help himself. And we're talking about the bed. Who was the man that gave you back your sight. Well, I don't know. Where is he from? Well, let's talk to your parents. Let's talk to him. Let's just concentrate on, I was blind and now I see. That's the miracle. The miracle in that he could not move and now he has been quickened, made alive together with Christ and they're asking about the bed. They cared more about the pigs. What a miracle! A man that lived in the tombs. A man that cut himself and cried and lived like a wild beast. His clothing and his right mind. The transforming power of Christ, but we're worried more about the pigs. Leave our coasts. You're costing us money. It might cost money. I wonder how much money our government would lose if we actually had biblical laws that governed cultural wickedness. How many organizations would go broke about the government feeding coffers, different organizations like Planned Parenthood and others. Forget about the bed and the pigs. Forget about how it took place and where it took place and how it happened. Remember, someone's testimony is not necessarily the Gospel. Let's look at the fruit of the Gospel in their life. Verse 11, He answered them, He that made Me whole. The same said unto Me, up thy bed and walk. Then asked they him, what man is that which said unto thee, take up thy bed and walk? And he that was healed wished not who it was. For Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place. And we don't know what he was, maybe he was dealing with other people. But in verse 14, Jesus comes back. You notice again, who is seeking whom here. Afterward, Jesus findeth him in the temple and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole, sin no more. That's the worst thing come upon thee. Jesus sought him. The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus which had made him whole. And again, the danger of believing every single person that makes the statement, I'm looking for Jesus, I'm looking for Christ. I think they're really, we don't know what they're looking for until they're confronted with Christ. Have you ever gone somewhere looking for something and when you got there realized that's not it? You saw the sale. You saw the ad. You heard all about it. You saved the clippings. You saw the internet page. And when you got it, you said, oh, is that it? That's not for me. Oftentimes, you go in, and when you finally see the object, it looks small and cheap. And you said, oh, that's it. I think we'll wait. Isn't that the same with Christ? They've heard things about the Lord. And they realize, I can get some peace in this matter. Some financial peace. Some relationship peace. Maybe some healing. I have needs, so I want this Christ. And when they're confronted with the righteousness and the demands of Christ, they say, oh... That's not what I had in mind. So Jesus comes seeking Him. Jesus sought Him. Verse 15, the man departed and told the Jews, I have got an answer for you. It was Jesus which had made him whole. He understood. It all made sense to him now. Therefore, did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay Him because He had done these things on the Sabbath day? But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. This man was not seeking Jesus because of the miracles of the rumor now. This man who was dead in trespasses and sin and crippled in body and could not help himself, whose focus was on a better life and a human future with temporal dreams, his healing was not as important as his conversion. Jesus said, I'm working. When He says, occupy till I come, He says you need to go in business, you need to start enterprising, discipling the nations, doing everything within your power, your makeup, your skills, your gifts and abilities and talents and treasures now to represent Me to the nations, to the county, to the city, to the state. It's amazing. How we have such a high view of God's plan. But our plan is almost non-existent sometimes. He says, you go in business like I went in business. And I'm gonna be gone and now you'll be here working now in the kingdom now. Now we can be crippled. In other words, we can be not as strong as we'd like to be and have Christ. If we live a life of hardship, if we live a life of lack, as you travel and I travel and we go to places where we're reminded of those in our own country that don't have as much of the material things, for whatever reason, sin, Their own depravity hit hard by economic problem in that area, whatever it might be. We live a life of hardship and lack, but have Christ. We are still rich in Christ. What we forget is that many third world Christians, as we would call them, live as impudent folk near the waters of our prosperity, but with Christ they are rich, warm, filled, and whole, and often happier than Christians in this country, and have far less than we do. And so perhaps they're not as crippled as we thought. Perhaps that imposed humility upon them has made them have a different awareness of their circumstances and to be content. The truth is, perhaps someone here may be still sitting at the well, spiritually, in trespasses and sins, lying week after week by the living water. But you never heard the command to you specifically Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus. I don't know what those other men heard or what those other men heard. I don't know what the words meant to them. They heard sounds, they heard voices, but ultimately they did not hear the same command that God told Paul. Never heard the command to rise, take up thy bed and walk directed at you. It is the grace of God that brings man under the sound of the command of the gospel to rise and take up our bed and walk, to repent and believe the gospel and to trust Christ. But to the Christian, I say this. We were at the pool at some point in our life, young, middle age, old, and the command came and we obeyed the gospel of God. But we have to walk. We can't just stay by the pool. We can't just keep waiting for the machinery to do something for us. The Christian life isn't just a wheel that keeps spinning and we're hoping for something to either catch hold of us and take us along or to bring us some goodies that might fly off the wheel. We'll have to walk. We'll have to occupy. We'll have to do something now to tell those others who it was that made us whole. I'd like to know these men in the Scripture we hear, especially when they're not very old men, that get healed. Who couldn't work. Who couldn't use their artistic abilities. who couldn't use any leadership skills to like to know the Paul Harvey rest of the story, and how they served the Lord, how they ended up with a family, and how they served their family, and what God did in their life as they walked away from the pool. It's a responsibility. And though you might not be able to create certain skills that you are not given, you might not be able to think of certain things that just aren't for you to think about, but God has made you and he will use the talents and abilities he's put in you and the ability to grow the abilities for the sole purpose of serving him. And anything else would be to cripple yourself. and to lay by those waters and watch the machine go by and hoping someone else does something for you when really what you needed was Christ to lead you in the way you should go. Father, we take these simple thoughts. I like to preach longer. But that's all within the context of what we're doing today. There's so much we can say. The precursor that led Christ to Bethesda. The importance of someone to come and take the man by the hand by the pool. The corruptness of a church that was more concerned about their tradition and their machinery and they had blind eyes and deaf ears, having eyes they saw not, and they could not recognize the power of God in their midst. Or even the part of Jesus saying, I'm working for the Father. Let us take up that mantle. Let us take up that mantle We who one day rose and took up our beds didn't rest again until the work was complete. Lord, I ask You to use our time together today in whatever way You would see fit. Lord, we'd be obedient as You work in hearts and our minds that we would understand our need for Christ as a lost person or our center need for Christ in our daily walk as you guide and give us light to see your will for the creation that we are and the new creation that we can serve you. We ask these things in Jesus name, amen.