You know this world is full of preachers, but just a few were chosen. Stay tuned for Treasured Heritage, a preaching program spotlighting those servants who have gone on to glory. Isaiah 5417 says, this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. And now, Treasured Heritage. Take up thy bed and walk. And he took up his bed and walked. Took up his bed and walked. Immediately the man was made whole. Took up his bed and walked. When Jesus, he said, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And when he went up to Jerusalem, he didn't go up to the temple. He didn't go up to the first church. When Jesus went up to Jerusalem, he went down by the sheep marks. There was a pool, a bathing place in Jerusalem known as the Pool. And there were around that pool a great multitude of sick people. For they said that at a certain time of season an angel would go down and trouble the water. And the first one stepping in after the troubling of the water was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. And when Jesus went up to Jerusalem, he went down by the sheep market. How like Jesus that was to always be found where he was needed. Have you ever noticed that motley multitude around that pool that day, the sick and the afflicted? Some were blind, some were lame, some were withered, but they were all alike sick. They weren't all sick alike, but they were all alike sick. And that's the picture, I think that's the most marvelous picture of the condition of a lost world. All are unsaved and all are sinners. They haven't all sinned alike, but they've all alike sinned. They've all alike sinned. And I think that's the picture of the unsaved world. Not all sinned alike, but all alike have sinned. How easy it would have been for that lame man to have said to the blind man, you need a physician. And for the blind man to say to the lame man, you need a physician. But when you come back to it, he said, all we like sheep have gone astray, and turned everyone to his own way. It's very easy for the moral man to say to the drunkard, you need a physician. Or for the pure to say to the impure, you need a physician. But let me tell you, when you come back to all of it, my friend, High or low, rich or poor, ignorant or educated, drunk or sober, moral or immoral, we all alike need a position. We all alike need a Savior. There was one man there that day that had been there for 38 years, an afflicted cripple, dreamy eyes fixed upon waters that he could never reach, hopelessness and despondency written all over his face. Jesus walked up into the crowd and there to heal a man after 38 years of manifiction. You say, Dr. Lakin, what does that mean to you? It means to me that Jesus is able to save the lowest of the low, the vilest of the vile, the most sinful of the sinful. Jesus is able to save. Some of you listening to me today, you say, Dr. Lakin, you do not know my sin. Thank God I know my Savior. And he is able to say, some are listening to me today with habits. You say, I can't break. You've got burdens that you can't bear, problems that you can't solve. I'm telling you of a problem solver, a burden bearer, and a sin forgiver. That's what I'm talking to you about. A man came in to me one day and said, he was drinking and he said, Oh, I need something. I said, well, why don't you quit? And he said, I'm too weak. I said, then you need a power. And that power, I know what it is. That power is in a person. And you can have that power by accepting that person. Because to as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to those that believe on his name. I don't care how far you've gone, I don't care how wicked you've become, Jesus works just as powerfully today as he ever did. You say, but sin has taken me so low and bound me so tightly. Thank God the devil never forged the chain with his own hand in the hottest hell. But what Jesus, the Son of God with a nail-scarred hand, can break that chain and set you free. For He breaks the power of cancelled sin and sets the prisoner free. That's what I've known for these 60 years. And God help me that I never forget it. Amen. He is able. He is able. You remember when Jesus went up on the Mount of Transfiguration, and he took with him Peter, James, and John. They were on the advisory committee. Took them up there, and they began to talk. And after a while, Jesus' garments were as white as a fuller's soap could whiten them. And Peter had to say something. I like Peter, and when I get to heaven, I'm going to look him up. For we've been so much alike, I think we can have fellowship. He might go to sleep every now and then, but brother, when he woke up, business picked up in town, let me tell you. And I'd just about as soon have a fellow around my church that would sort of fall over the wagon now and then, and then when he sobered up, go to work and do something. Instead of having a bunch of sitting around, wouldn't do anything, drunk or sober, that's what I'm talking about. And when Peter spoke up and said, Peter spoke up and said, let's build three tabernacles, this is a good place to be. When I was pastor of the Cato Tabernacle, I said, he never tried to finance one, or he wouldn't have wanted three, let me tell you that. He said, let's build three tabernacles, one for me, one for Moses, one for Elias. This is a good place to be. And Jesus said, no, this is a good place to be, but we mustn't remain here. This is a good place to be, we mustn't remain here. Why? Because down at the foot of the mountain there is a man with a problem child. There is a man with a problem child, and it's all right to have this mountaintop experience, but we need to take the experience back to the valley. That's what we need. Take the experience back to the valley. Listen to me, my friends. It's all right to get in to build our big churches, and get behind stained glass windows and mahogany pews with brilliant preachers. and marvelous choirs. It's all right for that. And so here we are. Now come and find us. But they didn't come to find you. Why? Because God never commanded the unsaved man to come to church. But he commanded the church to go out after him. And you'll never have a church going people until you have a people's going church. He said it's time to come down into the valley. And we have forgotten the highway of Jehedge crowd. He said, go out yonder in the highways and the hedges and compel people to come in. I never go around or go by a church and I see a bunch of buses sitting out there. I said, thank God they're after the little ones. They're after many of them that no one cares about. I heard this lady as she spoke here this morning and I thought what, what consecration, what love it would take. to love people like that and win people like that, and what love it must take and compassion it must take for a man like Dr. Falwell to love people. Amen. Going out after them, they came back down into the valley, and they came up into the crowd, and there they were, and that man with those dreamy eyes fixed upon waters he couldn't reach, and I think he looked at Jesus, and when he looked at Jesus, I think he said, there's somebody that loves me. I have often wished I might reproduce the compassionate look and the tender tone of the Savior when he stood there that day and that man said, there's someone that cares for me. There's someone that knows about me. And then Jesus said, wilt thou be made whole? Wilt thou be made whole? He said, will I? Why do you think I'm here? What do you think I'm doing here if you don't think I want to be made whole? When he said that, Jesus said, Arise, take up thy bed, and walk. He said, I want to be made whole, but there is no man to put me into the pool. But while I am stepping down, another steppeth down before me. There's no man to put me into the pool. And when that man said that, he confessed three things. That's necessary for a man to confess if he ever gets saved. Number one, he confessed his desire to be helped. He said, that's why I'm here. That's why I'm here. He said, do you know the reason people do not get anything when they come to church? They didn't come to get anything. They didn't come with any expectancy. I wonder when you came to church today, did you say, I'm going to have a blessing today? I am going to have a blessing today, and I will not let go until I have a blessing. Oh, I'll tell you, my friend, We used to talk about, fifty years ago, when I was a boy, we used to talk about getting blessed at church. Old Aunt Mary Thompson would walk down the aisle and shout her bonnet off. Old Brother Belcher would pray the heavens down, and they'd shout. Never talked about getting out on time. There wasn't any time. Amen? I like to get close to a fella that's getting a blessing, don't you? When Brother Cup runs over, Brother Saucer gets some. Let me show you something. Then he said, there is no man. He confessed his desire to be held. The reason you didn't get saved last Sunday and the reason you won't get saved today is because you didn't come to get saved. The night I got saved, I went as determined to get saved as anything I've ever done in my life. I went with a purpose. Let me give you this other. You said, I went with a purpose. He said, but there is no man. He confessed his inability to save himself. I can't get in by myself and there's no man to put me into the pool. You'll have to come to the place before you ever get saved. You'll have to come to the place where you say, nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling. Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling. There's nothing that you can do. You're as unable to save yourself as Lazarus was unable to come out of a tomb because you were dead in trespasses and sins. Second, he confessed he was looking to the wrong source for help. He said, there is no man to put me into the pool. No man. He was looking for what some man could do for him. Beloved, listen to me. If you're looking at what some man could do through some ordinance of something, if you're looking at what some man can do, no, it's not that. And Jesus said to him, rise. Rise? How can I? That's the call to faith. Been easy for Jesus to have healed him and then told him to get up. That wouldn't have taken any courage. He said, rise. He said, you make the effort, I'll do the rest. You make the effort and I'll do the rest. Rise. Oh beloved, listen. I remember when I got saved. I was working in a timber job, staying in a little log shanty in the head of the holler, driving four mules. I got sick and had to come home a few days, and my mother said, do you know they're having a revival up at the forks of the creek? And I said, well, I believe I'll go up tonight. I got better. I think I'll go up and get saved and make a Methodist bishop. She said, you can make whatever you want to, just so you get saved. Amen. I had a good evangelist friend, he's a Presbyterian, Dr. Boney Bulgen, one of the old timers, born in North Carolina, an old primitive mother, and he said his mother never got over the fact that he became a Presbyterian. Lived in California every summer, I'd go back to my home to visit my mother. The time I walked in the little home, she started on me about being a Presbyterian. And one day I said to her mother, suppose Jesus would come and tell you he wasn't a Baptist, what would you think about it? She said, I'd know it wasn't him. Let me tell you something. Oh, if you're looking to watch some fella, there's as much saving power in this pair of hands as any pair of hands on God's earth. I can take these hands and put them on your head. I can confirm you. I can immerse you. I can write your name on a church record. I can give you the communion. But I can't make a Christian out of you. They that are born again are born, not of the will of the flesh or the will of man, but of God. It's not something I do for God. It's something God does for me. It's not something I help God do. It's something God does independently of me." He said, And he arose. When he did that, Jesus said, take up your cot. Take up your cot. Why? Because you're not going to need it anymore. He wanted, Jesus wanted him to know he was fixed up for keeps. He said, you're not going to need it anymore. Cross the bridge. Burn the bridge behind you and put your soul on the homestretch for God. When you get saved, my friend, take up your cot. Don't leave your old cot around where it's handy to go back and lie down on after you've taken a few people's steps. Take up your cot. Don't go back to that. Don't go back on there with the rock and roll. Don't go back to the tavern. Don't go back on there with that crowd. Amen? When you get saved, take up your cot and be different. That's what I'm telling you. When you get saved. When you get saved. And after that, he said, Jesus, He said about him, he said, and immediately the man was made whole. He took up his cot. And immediately he was made whole. Now two things I want you to notice. One is, he was made whole. He wasn't just started on the road to recovery, just a little bit improved, but thank God he was made every width whole from the top of his head to the sole of his feet. He became a new creature in Christ Jesus. Old things pass away and behold, all things become new. And the other thing about it was this, he was made whole immediately. Salvation is not a process, it's a miracle. If it were a process, it would take a lifetime to perfect it. But a miracle! I've seen people come into my meeting drunk and go out sober. And go out sober. In the twinkling of an eye, you're made a child of God, listen to me. And he began to walk and follow Jesus. When you get saved, then walk. You exercise those limbs, or you'll have to go back to Bethesda again. Amen? My religion is kind of like a bicycle. I've got to keep pedaling or get off one or the other. And when you get saved, begin to walk. Find your place in the church. Tithe your income when you begin to walk in the light as He is in the light. And you'll have fellowship, one with another, in the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son. Cleanse us from all sin. We appreciate you listening to Treasured Heritage. Tune in at the same time every weekday to hear God's Word.