It is a blessing to be here and to sing with you, to pray with you, to read the Word of God with you, and now even to bring the Word of God to you. I appreciate the relationship that our churches have had over these many years. Let's go ahead and begin in chapter 5 of John, beginning in verse 1 to verse 17. After this, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there in Jerusalem, by the Sheep Gate, a pool in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five-roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, Do you want to be healed? The sick man answered him, Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred, and while I am going another steps down before me. Jesus said to him, Get up, take up your bed, and walk. And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. Some of the Jews said to the man who had been healed, It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed. But he answered them, the man who healed me, that man said to me, take up your bed and walk. They asked him, who is the man who said to you, take up your bed and walk? Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, and there was a crowd in the place. Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, see, you are well. Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you. The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, my father is working until now, and I am working. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, you are a sovereign and a holy God. And Father, we admit that we are a people who fall short of your glory. We are a people who are born into sin. We are born completely helpless. We are born a people who are unable even on our best days to do anything that is righteous or worthwhile. Father, we thank you that we have Christ and we have Christ who has accomplished through his life and his death and his resurrection. And through the work of the Word and through the work of the Spirit has brought about regeneration in the life of his people. That you have brought us from being in a state of spiritual death to being in a state of spiritual life. We thank you even still that that is not the extent. You continue to walk with us as you will continue to walk with us through out all of eternity. For you have promised that you will never forsake us. You will never abandon us. You continue to strengthen us and build us up throughout our lives on this Earth. Conforming us to the image of your son through the work of the word and through the work of the spirit. We thank you for this, for we fully recognize we are not worthy of any of this. We are not deserving of any of this. And we fully admit that you do all that you do. For your own glory and for your own purpose. In a covenantal relationship that we have with you. We thank you for this, your God. Pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. This pool that we read of here in John Chapter 5 is A pool that it is believed was fed by various aquifers and they would begin to flow at various times in the year. So it wasn't a consistent flowing and that's why the man makes statements like, well, when the water begins to move, I cannot make my way into the pool. I do want to make a note here because this is a passage that has a very well-known textual variant And if you're reading, if you're not reading the ESV, you would have recognized that there's a verse four, and I didn't read that verse four. I believe the ESV is correct in not putting this directly into the text. Most likely what happens is that someone is making some kind of comments, and then those comments on the text begin to make their way into the text. But that verse that I did not read says this. For an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water, Whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted. Texturally isn't our only problem with this verse. This is also theologically problematic, I would argue. The idea of an angel of the Lord coming down at particular seasons and stirring the water so that whoever makes it into the pool first is healed is not something that's supported by anything else that we have in Scripture. The story itself sounds incredibly superstitious in my opinion. Something that you would hear perhaps in the Roman Catholic Church in some of the superstition that they have proposed over the years. It does not sound like the work of God or the work that the angels of the Lord are doing. And it's basically a story where the fittest invalid or the invalid who has the strongest and fastest friends is the one who is going to be healed. But this man here believes that if he can make it into the water at a certain time that he is going to be healed. But I want to make this comment on this passage. And I want us to think of this from the perspective of this man, this man who is blind, this man who is crippled and doesn't move around Very well. We don't know to what degree he even understood what was going on around him. The aquifer would begin to flow and people would begin to make their way into the pool. Most likely people were speaking of some kind of healing properties that existed within the water. It's not uncommon for people to talk about particular springs having health benefits in some way. And if he's blind, He might not even realize that all of the people going into this pool aren't even like him. So he's not moving around very well. He's not understanding what's being said very well. He's likely not understanding what is even happening. But what we do know about this passage is that this man needed something greater than spring water from an aquifer to help him. I believe that's the greater theological truth that we see within this text. See, this man needed something greater in order that he would gain his sight. In order that he would be able to move about in the way that he was designed to move about. There's even something greater there. Something greater in this story than just a blind man who is crippled, who desires to be healed, and then is healed by the Lord. I believe there is a picture of us all. This picture of us all in our natural state. All of us who are in need of the Lord to work upon us from the outside in and to bring about a resulting change within us. Not on account of any of the schemes of men. Not on account of the wisdom of Man, not even on account of anything within the creation, but rather on account of a sovereign work of God through the hand of God. So there's three points I want us to pull out of this passage. The first is, I believe we have a picture of humanity's natural state. Humanity naturally in a state of spiritual inability, not able to act, not able to help himself. Secondly, we see humanity's only hope. Humanity's only hope is not within himself. It's not about humanity reaching deep within to use the tools that he has been given by the Creator to change, but rather it requires the Creator to work from the outside in to cause a change within that man. That is his hope. And thirdly, we see humanity's great Change. That there is a very distinct change that exists between natural man and spiritually made alive man. There is a change that occurs within man from God working outside in and that results in the way the man behaves on the outside. So first we see humanity's natural state that sinful man is helpless on his own. John chapter 5 and verse 3, in these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, and paralyzed. This man has a total inability to do anything for himself so far as his healing goes. All of his efforts are in no way helping him. All of the efforts that he has tried to make over the years are not changing his circumstances. Now I want you to know that You live within a culture that speaks very highly of humanity at times. And there are times within our history in Western civilization when we've spoken even higher of humanity than we do even now. Naturalistic humanism throughout the beginning of the 20th century had grown in people began to see these great technological achievements that people were bringing about. And they were seeing the results of the Industrial Revolution from the 19th century. And they were beginning to correlate this and put this in with writings from people such as Charles Darwin. They were teaching that men were basically just animals, were just creatures who had begun to evolve more than some of the others. And men began to look around And they began to think, well, we are beginning to make these great changes. If we continue to go on in the way that we are, we will bring about a great society. We will bring about a great utopia within our time period if we just continue in this evolution. There was a great, great hope for humanity in the early parts of the 20th century. They believed that through their collective efforts, by all pulling together, they could bring about this This new world order, as some of them would speak of, this new position in history which had not existed previously. But what happened? Where is this great collective hope in the way it was at that time? This great hope had even begun to make its way into the liberal Protestant church. ministers during the early 20th century began to even preach from the pulpit about the greatness of humanity and about all that people could accomplish through their collective efforts. And there began to be a greater and greater, less emphasis upon theology and less emphasis upon the work of God and the life of a sinner through Jesus Christ. And it began to focus more on the collective positive work of humanity that was being used many times synonymously with the gospel. And many times they would even argue that those that are not even in Christ, those that do not even hold to the gospel, were under this fold of the children of God, the people of God that were working together for the gospel, though they did not even know what the gospel was. They did not even believe upon the gospel. So what happened? What happened to begin to break this apart? What happened to begin to cause severances within these various liberal denominations? It was crushed by these two great world wars. Something that the religion that these people held to had no way of handling. There was not a foundation sufficient within these religions to handle what was happening at that time period. How is it that the West, with all of its culture, and even a country like Germany, with all of its science and its great history in Protestantism, could end up, could have such great wealth, and all of this could result in such great tragedy, that there could be such great bloodshed that was flowing out from these great technological achievements. It was almost as though as man began to become more technologically evolved, he began to use that technological ability to find greater and greater ways to cause bloodshed. It was No answer for this in naturalistic humanism. There was no answer for this in the liberal denominations of Protestantism. But there is an answer for this within the scriptures. And the problem is simple. The problem with man is on the inside of man. The problem is not on the outside of man. It is not solved by dealing with the outside of the cup. That is more similar to rearranging the chairs on the Titanic. It is absolutely useless in solving the real problem. See, this new religion had a truth of man, but it missed the truth that the Scriptures taught that man is naturally born in sin. See, man's problem when he begins to serve an idol, when he begins to create a false religion, is that he makes himself out to be God, and he tries to do what only God can do. You see such blasphemy in some modern titles in so-called Christian writing. I was walking through the mall recently, and I saw a book written by Joel Osteen, and it said on the cover, The power of I AM. And it had I AM written in capital letters. The power of I AM. You know, when Jesus made a statement claiming before Abraham was I AM, they picked up stones to throw at him. But in this word of faith movement, they have this belief that we are all little gods. And this man here claiming to be a pastor is in this title applying a name of God to Himself and instructing others to do likewise. This was the air in naturalistic humanism, this atheistic religion that many times rules the academies within our country and pragmatically rules the various institutions. It's the default position that all of us go to within this modern Western culture. This belief that man can solve man's problems. Man can solve man's problems through man's effort, through man's diligence, because of the innate greatness within man. But it's not new. This isn't a new idea. Many times we like to look around and say, look at all these new things. It's not like it was before. But I would argue for you, to you, this is a very, very old idol that men have been worshiping. We see that in Genesis chapter 11 and verse 4. in the building of the Tower of Babel, where they said this, Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the earth. What was their desire? What was the purpose for which they were making this great structure? It was to make a name for themselves. And why were they doing this? It was for themselves. They believe that they could reach heaven through their own efforts. They believe because of their collective wisdom and their technological greatness that they could achieve what only God could give to them. This is natural man's great problem. And we could look at the structure of the Tower of Babel if we had the ability to see it. And we could look at it from an engineering standpoint and we could see this great tower and see it as a great engineering feat as you can see many structures that men build as something that is a great engineering feat and you could see how man at that time is bearing God's image through this great structure that he's created. You could look at it from an industrial standpoint. You could look at the organization and the mobilization of the workers and the resources and how they're using it in a very efficient way and you can see how God is bearing, man is bearing God's image and following through with the mandate that was given that he would subdue the earth that he was given. See, but that's not the story at this time. Man had sought to make himself out to be God that the people at Babel did their actions not for the purpose of glorifying God, but rather for the glory of man. It was not to make the name of God great, but rather to make The name of man. Great. And man continues to work in this way, continually seeking to create more and more idols. These are the effects of the fall. These are the consequences of man being born into a state of total depravity. See, it creates a total inability for man to do anything that is Right. Does this mean that men are as bad as they can be? Does it mean that all people are as evil as they possibly can be? No, it does not mean that. But it does mean that everything natural man does is tainted by his sinful nature. We see that in Romans 3, beginning in verse 10, where Paul writes, none is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. When he says no one, he means no one. He goes on in verse 23 to say that all sin and fall short of the glory of God. This is the fruit of their actions. What is it to fall short of the glory of God? It is to fall short of the righteous requirement of the law. That is why Christ had to be sent because As men, we have a total inability to accomplish anything that is righteous on our own. We have an inability to be a substitute for our sin. Why is it that man falls short of this glory of God? We need to understand the purpose for which we are made. In understanding this, it allows us to understand the seriousness of the fallenness of man. There was a time where humanity did not always fall short. You need to remember that men were made to be image bearers of God. That's the purpose for which they were created. And it is that you see the greatness of this falling short. We have this picture in this illustration of this man who is lying by the pool. You understand the greatness, the tragedy of this man's circumstance, lying there helpless because you know what that man should be. You know how that man should be living. You understand where it is he is falling short. He should be walking around. He should be going to work. He should be raising a family. All of these normal aspects of life, this man is falling short of these. This man does not have the opportunity to experience life as most other people do, and we see this. We see this rightly as something that is a great, great tragedy. We understand that this is something that is not the way it should be. I mean, sure, existing in a solitary spot for a long period of time is not a tragedy if that is how you were designed to exist. Which of you, if you were watching something on the Discovery Channel, and you saw a sea sponge in the ocean would look and say, what a tragedy that it just sits there for all of its time. It's not a tragedy at all. The sea sponge was designed to sit there. It was designed to filter the water in the ocean, and that's what they do. It's not a tragedy. The creature is acting in the exact way that it was designed to exist, but not so with this poor man. Not so with this poor man who has been lying there for 38 years. We see the ways in which his situation causes him to fall short. That's man's situation, spiritually. Man falls short of that which he should be, because he was designed to bear God's image, like the moon, like the moon reflecting the light of the sun. I'll tell you, there are some nights I have walked outside and under the light of the moon, it has been so bright that I could have opened up a book and freely read during that time. Does the moon produce its own light? No. No, it does not. It merely reflects the light of the sun. And that is what we are called to do. We do not even recognize the manifest ways that this has affected us. It is likely that we do not even have the capacity in our state at this point to understand the ways in which we do not bear the glory of God and the ways that we should. I believe we have a picture of that, which we had been preaching through Exodus at Grace Family Baptist, North Houston, and we had covered the text where Moses had come down from Sinai after seeing just a small glimpse of the glory of God, and his face shined with such radiance that the people had to cover it over. That is, I believe, just a glimpse. We don't even, I believe, have the capacity to understand the glory which we are supposed to be bearing. But that is the picture of the man that we have lying in this passage. The man lying on the side of the pool, blind and helpless, is a reflection of you in your natural state. You might say, This is offensive. Why would you speak of me this way? You know you're speaking of children that I have given birth to. You know you're speaking of my grandmother here that I love and I respect. But I speak this to you because this is what the scriptures say. To understand the solution that we need, we must understand our circumstance. We must understand our situation rightly. Want to know the good news, your friends, you need to know. The bad news. And Jesus asked this man this question. Do you want to be healed? Do you want to be healed? Seems like such a foolish question when you first read it. But it is a necessary question. It is a necessary question that we all must answer. Is that something that we desire? Is that something that you desire or do you enjoy your natural state? See, the sad truth about fallen human nature is that fallen humans don't always despise their natural state. That which is distorted, that which is damaged, they grow accustomed to enjoying and do not desire there to be a change. That's my question for you, though. Do you desire for there to be a change? Do you desire to turn from your sin. That is the first step in this solution. So we've seen this humanity's natural state. We've seen that given within this picture of this man who has been lying by this pool for so, so many years, hopeless in his current situation, unable in any way to help himself. It leads us to our second point, which is humanity's only hope. being in John chapter five in verse six through eight. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, do you want to be healed? The sick man answered him, sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred, and while I am going, another steps down before me. Jesus said to him, get up, take up your bed, and walk. We see here this man who is saved from his circumstance, from the situation that he is in, from a circumstance of absolute dire straits, saved by the absolute grace of God. Nothing that he had done had brought this to come about. There is nothing that he was doing that was causing himself to be healed. See, this is in contrast to naturalistic humanism, which we have been speaking of. Humanist hope is within himself, but the hope for humanity does not lie within humanity. There is a hope. There is a hope for humanity, but that hope does not lie within humanity because humanity is completely destitute in their natural state. Trusting in that which will not save is faulty because you're trusting in something to do what it can never do. You're trusting in something to do what it was not designed to do. Like this man who was trusting in getting into the pool. If only I could make it over here into this pool, then I would be healed. Making it into the pool would not have solved his problem. And despite all of his efforts, as he continued to work in these ways that he had set forth He was not successful. He was never successful in accomplishing his goal, which was to relieve himself of his blindness and to relieve himself of his crippledness. Had he made it into the pool, he still would have been blind. He still would have been crippled. He just would have been all wet. See, this is like what natural man does when he desires to save himself. He believes a lie. He believes a lie, he tells himself, if only I am good enough, if only I do sufficient things in this particular manner, I will accrue for myself a means whereby I can be justified. There's nothing, there's nothing any of us can do through our actions to overcome the consequences of the fall. There's nothing that any of us can do through our actions that will in any way forgive any of our sin. See, the truth is that within the natural state, the corruption within natural man even corrupts the good things that men do. As I said in the introduction, we are not as bad as any of us can be. But even the good things that we do, even the areas where you may do something that is heroic and that is good, the problem is that we are corrupted from within. It's not just about what we do on the outside. And so even our desires and our intentions are corrupted for that reason, because God looks at the whole man. Man looks at the outside, but God is looking at the heart of man. Now, this is a term that theologians call total inability. Man is unable to do anything for himself. He is helpless on his own because he is, as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 14, he is spiritually discerned. Paul writes, the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him. He is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. There is a corruption that exists within man that causes him to desire not that which is best for him, desire not that which he was designed to partake in. Paul writes also in Romans chapter eight, beginning in verse six, for to set the mind on the flesh is death. but to set the mind and the spirit as life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to its law. Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. This mind set on the flesh, this natural man is hostile toward God. He is opposed to God. He is opposed to that which is right, just as the man could not make it into the pool, he couldn't just get up and he couldn't just walk over there, neither can one who has a mindset upon the flesh. Look what the man says, he says, Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred, and while I am going, another goes on before me. See, this man's efforts alone were of no good for him. And there is nothing that he could do to help himself. And I further want you to recognize that he did not work in tandem here with Jesus in order to save himself, in order to fix himself. There are two religions really that exist in the world. There is a religion that says that man can solve his problem through his own efforts. Man can do particular actions or either other men can do actions for that man in order to solve his great problem. And then there is the religion of Christianity that says that man cannot solve his problem. He cannot deal with his sin. It is dealt with by Christ upon the cross. One of these examples where we see this very clearly laid out is in one of the passages in the Mormon text in Nephi 25 through 23, and I want you to listen to this, and I want you to think about how discomforting this is, how incredibly unsatisfying this is. It is, at least for me when I read it, and it says, for we labor diligently to write to persuade our children and also our brethren to believe in Christ and to be reconciled to God, for we know that it is by grace we are saved. but it doesn't stop there. The verse continues after all that we can do. We are saved by grace, they say, after doing all that we can do. Which of you would find comfort in a statement like that? Which of us could even declare that we have done all that we can do? All of us have fallen short even of that standard that we have done all that we can That is our great problem, that we cannot do all that we can do. See, we don't see Jesus in this passage just kind of giving the man a boost near the pool so he can roll himself in. This isn't a synergistic action. It isn't man and God working together in order to solve this man's problem. This man is healed through the work of Jesus alone. This man is saved. by the grace of God here from his situation because of the work of Jesus here. Sometimes people will give the illustration of salvation as, okay, you're someone and you are drowning and the Lord is throwing your life preserve and you need to merely reach out and grab it. That is not the picture that is given in scripture. The picture that is given in scripture is one that is spiritually dead. Something must work from within you. Paul writes of this in Ephesians 2, beginning in verse 8, it says, for by grace you have been saved through faith. This is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of work, so that no one may boast. Where is it that this man could walk along and brag about all that he had done in order to save himself after lying there for 38 years? I would argue there is nothing that this man could do. All he could do is stand up and walk in obedience to what the Lord had told him. Pick up your bed and go and walk. See, the Lord is giving this give. Even this faith that Paul speaks of in chapter two of Ephesians is something that is a gift of God. Jesus tells him here in this passage to do something that would be completely absurd if it wasn't the Lord Jesus Christ that was the one who was accomplishing all of this. Beginning in verse 8 of John 5, it says, Jesus said to him, get up, take up your bed and walk. And at once the man was healed. He took up his bed and he walked. One of the complaints sometimes that is given when you're talking to someone and you're discussing with them about the sovereignty of God is that God gives man a command that is completely absurd, something that he absolutely cannot do on his own. And that absolutely is true. God does command men to do things that they cannot do on their own. This is what Jesus does, tells him to do here. He tells him to get up and to pick up his bed and to walk. None of us would believe this man had the power in and of himself to perform that action. This is something that was accomplished through the work of Christ. He didn't have the ability to do it. But it's not absurd here because he did it. Jesus healed him and he was able to get up and he was able to walk. St. Augustine offended a man named Pelagius many years ago in a prayer that he gave and he said, Oh, Lord, command what you will and give what you command. And this man, Pelagius, got very, very offended. He said, How can you make such a prayer like this? How can you pray to the Lord to command what he will and also to give what he commands? Basically, Augustine was arguing that the Lord to command what he will, but also to give them the power to be obedient to the command. And this was something that Pelagius did not rightly understand because he did not rightly understand man's spiritual state. One of the most famous passages that is not in the Bible is the passage that says God helps those that help themselves. That is a passage which does not exist, but would be in great contrast to this passage and a great number of other passages. I mean, if that was the case, if God was going to just help those that help themselves, then this man would have continued to stay by the pool. It wouldn't have mattered what this man did. He would not have been able to help himself. He was completely unable to help himself. See, it's good for us to see as believers that Our hope is in God. Our hope is in what the Lord accomplishes. It's not within our own works. And even after our salvation, it's a continued trust upon the work of the Lord within us. Even then, it's not all about how we just pull ourselves together and accomplish things through our own efforts. We are saved by faith alone through a work of God, through the work of regeneration that the Lord does within us, changing us from being in a state of spiritual inability to being in a state of spiritual life. And there's no other hope, dear friends. There's no other hope apart from that. So we've seen humanity's natural state, the inability of this man lying by the pool to help himself. We've seen humanity's only hope. That is that the Lord would work upon you, that you would trust in the name of Jesus Christ alone and repent of your sins. And we see thirdly, humanity's great change. The great change that occurs in the life of the person who has been acted upon by the Lord. This man's behavior changed. The behavior of this man changed greatly once the Lord worked upon him. We see that in John 5 and verse 9. It says, and at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed, and he walked. He was a new person at this point. Things were completely different now. There's almost no comparison between his life previously and his life now. He was no longer blind. He was no longer crippled. He was no longer unable to see, unable to walk. no longer unable to experience the fullness of a human life? I mean, this goes without saying that his behavior is going to change. Would it not? Would it make any sense if he just continued to lay there by the pool as he had when he was crippled and blind after he was healed? One of the evidences that he is healed is that he picked up his bed and he began to walk. He no longer needed to leave lay around like that? Why would he continue to lay like that? I mean, if he hadn't, wouldn't you argue that he wasn't healed? This is an area of great confusion in evangelicalism. Many look at repentance as something that, well, maybe it will or maybe it will not follow regeneration. But I want to tell you The idea that repentance does not follow regeneration would be as absurd as believing that this man that was healed would continue to lie by the side of this pool for another 38 years. He is healed. He is healed. He is going to get up. Likewise. Likewise, someone who was born again, they are a new creation. They are going to be a new person. They are no longer going to be a slave to sin in the way that they were previously. Paul speaks of this in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17. He says, from now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh. We regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. And that is what results. That is the consequence of the spirit working in the life of the person through the word of God is there is a regeneration that happens and there is a change that happens in that person. I want to tell you of one situation that I remember as a very young child. And this was a man who was named Peewee. He was a shorter man, but he was a man that I saw the great effects of the spirit of God upon his life. And I remembered I was a very young child when I saw this occur. But I remember as a child and going to church, I saw the way this man behaved when he walked into church was very different from the way most other people acted who were walking around the building. His wife had become a Christian and she had begun to attend church and she had drug him along with her when he was off work on Sundays. And he was not happy about being in church. He was a very tough man, a very gruff man. And even when he was In church, he would speak very harshly. He would almost look as though he was ready to start a fight with anyone that was in the room. He spoke profanity continually, even in the church building. It was very, very incredible and very distinct from most of the other people that I saw in the church. But there was a change that happened in the life of this man. It was very, very stark. And as he sat under the preaching of the word, as he began to interact with others within the church, the Lord made a clear and obvious change upon the life of this dear man. It's an understatement just to say that he went from being a man who spoke profanity to being a man who was no longer speaking profanity. The man's whole demeanor changed. He went from being this man who was continually harsh and angry, looking as a man who was ready to punch you in the face if you looked at him in the wrong way, to being someone who was a very compassionate, soft, and a caring person, still a construction worker, still a tough man, still a man who would go in and put in a good 10 to 12 hours of work, but he no longer found his self-worth in his toughness. He no longer found his hope in his ability to show himself greater than others because he had been humbled. He had been humbled greatly by the Lord. The Lord had removed these insecurities which he had and he now had Christ in place of all this. I remember this as a child and seeing this great transition, seeing the stark contrast that existed in this man's life and it stuck with me for all of these years and I reflect on that when I think of the work of God in the life of a man and how the Lord will change someone. This was a man who was greatly, greatly changed. This is the work of regeneration. It is a work of God that changes people spiritually. Whereas a man who is lying, they're helpless, unable to do anything good or worthwhile. And then we are compared to that as in our natural state. But in spiritual life, in regeneration, we are compared to the man who is now standing and walking and carrying his bed, able to go and to live a life. The Lord healed this man so that he could walk. Catch this. There is a connection here. I would argue to regeneration. There is a connection here in this story to the work that the Lord does in the life of a person and the effects that it has upon that person and the purpose for which the Lord even acts upon that person. Mark this, Jesus healed this man so that he would walk. He commands him to walk. He was able now to pick up his bed. He was able now to walk and he was able now to act in ways that he could not previously. This is what happens to someone when the Lord works upon them. They will be saved, as the Scriptures state, unto good works. Many times we like to quote Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 to 9, and sometimes we will leave off verse 10. But I want to make this point, the very next verse It says, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. See, there is a purpose for your salvation here in this life as well, and that is that you would live a life of good works, that you would do good works that the Lord had prepared beforehand that you would walk in. The Lord has a long-term plan in regards to your Salvation. See, sometimes we get so self-focused. We get so self-centered in regards to our salvation that we make salvation just about going to heaven. We make it as though God's only purpose was to save us from the flames of hell. And true, that's a reason. That is a purpose for which the Lord saves people. But that is not the only, only reason. Sometimes we are missing this. Sometimes Christians have missed this. And something we need to recognize is that the scriptures are very clear. If there has not been a change in your life, if there is not, if you are not a person who has been affected by the work of the Lord and it's not demonstrating its effects in your life, then that can be evidence that you are not saved. Use this man as an example. If he continued to lie there, which who would argue that he had been healed? 1 John 2, beginning in verse 3, John writes this, and by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. Whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word in him, truly the love of God is perfected. By this, We may know that we are in him. Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. We are saved by faith, but we're not saved by a faith which is merely spoken through our lips. Martin Luther made this statement. He says, you're saved by faith alone, but you're not saved by a faith that is alone. Saving faith is granted to the sinner and it causes a transformation within that person. And it results in more than just words. James writes of this in James chapter 2. He says, can such a faith save a person? And he's talking about a false faith. He's talking about a faith that is merely spoken in words and having no real consequence upon their life. Now we need to be cautious here as well. We need to have a fence here, we need to be careful and see that just because someone is saved, it doesn't mean that they're going to live a life of perfection. You are not going to live a life of perfection. But likewise, we also need to see that just because a man is saved, it doesn't mean that he's going to follow all of the rules that men like to create. We need to be careful. This passage reminds us, we need to be cautious and careful about placing a burden upon someone which is greater than that which Christ has placed upon them." We see this happen in this passage in John 5 and verse 10. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, it is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to take up your bed. Now, I would argue for you to find such a passage in the Old Testament that says he was not allowed to carry his bed on the Sabbath day. But see this, dear friends, man's religion is never able to reach God's standard of sinless perfection. It is a bar that is too, too high. See, such a pitfall is something that we are so, so quick to fall into when we neglect the real work that God is doing, which is upon the inside. And it is not about all of the standards that are placed upon the outside. We must be cautious in this area. This is the sin of the Pharisees. See, they had created this guide and the interpretation to the law, and they believed that the traditions that they had were the standard whereby people were to be judged, but that is not the moral law of God that you have been saved from. That is not that which you are called to do. There may be aspects in which you follow things in particular within your family. There may be ways in which in your own life you may have particular ways of acting, but we must be cautious not to be projecting these things upon other people. It is creating a standard of our own and not God's when we begin to do this. I want you to be careful of this. Be very, very cautious in doing this. But we've seen within this passage the work that the Lord has done, the work that the Lord does upon all of us. We saw this natural state of humanity, a man who would be compared to a man who is lying here helpless, unable to act on his own, unable to help himself in any way. A man whose only hope was that one would act from the outside, that Jesus would act upon him, and that is the only hope that any of us have, is that the Lord would act upon us. But thirdly, we see the consequence of this, that there's going to be a real change that happens in the life of a believer This may look different for many people. For some people, maybe like the gentleman that I mentioned, where there is this stark contrast immediately, and there's things that change, and he goes from being a man who's partaking in alcohol and getting drunk, and he walks away from it completely. And other people may be struggling for years. Others I have seen are even people who have grown up in Christian homes, and you could ask them, well, when did you become converted? And they would say, well, I don't know the exact time. And there's ways that the Lord works in the lives of different people, but it is always the Lord that is doing this work. But I want to end with a question that Jesus asks, and it's a question that I want all of us to ponder. And he says this in verse six, he says, do you want to be healed? Those of you that sit before me, those of you that have not trusted in Christ, is this something that you desire? Do you want to be made well? You might think, this is an obvious question. Who would not want to be made well? Why would Jesus need to ask this man if he wanted to be healed? But I want you to think of the life of a man who has been lying there for 38 years and how that man's life is going to change so quickly as soon as he is made well. There's gonna be real social problems that this man would have walked into. There's going to be, aspects of life where he has no idea how to act in particular circumstances and situations. Jesus likewise tells people to count the cost of being a disciple. He says that in Luke 14, beginning in verse 28. He says, for which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it. Otherwise, when he had laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, all who will see it will begin to mock him saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with 10,000 to meet the one who comes against him with 20,000? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. That is my question for you. Do you desire to walk away from your old life? Do you desire to turn in repentance towards Christ? That is the cost of following Christ. Or is this something that would be missed? Is this something that you would be looking back on and waning after and desiring after, reminiscing? Tell me this. Do you think this man, after he is healed, is walking about reminiscing all those years that he lay by the pool, those 38 years in which he was blind and crippled, unable to help himself, unable to heal himself, having to rely on so many others. What a great contrast that exists there. What does that say about natural man? What does that say about natural man that he is so corrupt that he desires to be a spiritual invalid more than he desires to have spiritual life. It's so, so sad that you have natural men that are not merely spiritually depraved, but they're reveling in it. They're desiring it. They're drinking it down. They're arguing with one another. There's many times in college where I would see young people arguing with one another over who had sinned more that past weekend. who had done more of this particular sin than someone else, or how their particular group had out sinned the other group. Now, I'm interpreting this in light of Scripture, arguing and boasting. Do you think this man would sit there and argue with someone next to him that he is more crippled than the one that is next to him and revel in this? There's something that really stuck out to me when I read the autobiography of Frederick Douglass. one of the saddest things that he had ever seen. And this Frederick Douglass, by the way, is a former slave who had gone on to serve in the Congress and was an abolitionist and a writer. And he says one of the saddest things that he remembers in his time after he was free was seeing two men who were slaves arguing with each other over who had a greater master. And they began to argue and argue to the point that they were almost willing to kill one another over who was the greater, greater master. See, that is a picture, I believe, of natural man reveling in his sin, celebrating the sin, bragging to others, creating songs and doing concerts, celebrating such things. But that's all going to change. that'll change when the Lord works upon the life of the man. When the Lord of heaven stoops down, condescends, and works upon the heart of a man, it leads him to see his sin, the depravity, and the realness of his situation. It is like Frederick Douglass there no longer being a slave and seeing the sadness of that situation of those two men they were arguing and almost fighting. That's the consequence of the work of the Lord. Oh dear friends, do you not desire? Do you not desire to be made whole? Do you not desire to be made well? Come to Jesus. Revel not in your sin. Revel not in your inability. Revel not as one who is spiritually lame, but come to Christ and be made whole. And then, dear friends, only then can you truly live. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you that we are not left in the state that we see this poor man was in within this passage, but we thank you that we have hope and we have hope in Christ, have hope through the work of God and what he accomplishes. I pray this would be something that we are trusting in. We would not be trusting in our own systems. We would not be trusting in our own pietism, our own legalism, but rather we would be trusting in Christ and His finished work. This should be something that influences us fully, something that causes us to act in ways that are distinct and different, something that leads us to continue to walk in this progressive sanctification as You work this upon us through the work of Your Word, the work of Your Spirit. And I pray this in the name of our precious Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.