John 5, we preach Christ. We really do, don't we? This book is all about our Lord
Jesus Christ, and this is how you know the preacher sent by
God, all the prophets bore witness of him, all the apostles were
apostles or messengers of Jesus Christ. He was their message.
So are all true pastors and teachers and those who speak, those who
preach. We really do, because Christ
is all. And this is one way you know
if you're his bride, because the wife who loves the husband
never gets tired of hearing about and talking about the husband. He's her life. And that she is
His. He lived for her and died for
her. So we really do. And message after message after
message we cry. This is another wonderful story
of Him whose name is wonderful. We've looked at this so many
times, but may we see it as if for the first time. In the beginning,
verse 1, it says, after these things. Now, God's Word It's
just amazing. After these things, I love thinking
about how our Lord went about doing good. It's what they said
up in England, what they preached. Every day, every hour of every
day, every waking hour, He was always walking somewhere to do
somebody some good. He even had compassion on the
unjust, unbelievers. Send him mercies over all his
work. And our Lord went about doing good. He was always walking
about. He was always headed in the direction
of saving one of his lost sheep. That's what he said. I've come
to seek and to save that which was lost. All that the Father
gave him. They're all lost and he's got
to find them. And he will. He does. After this, after he
walked a long way, remember he was wearied with his journey,
he must need to go through some area. And it was a long walk
to get there. He goes to the uttermost parts
of the earth to save. He's able to save and he goes
to the uttermost parts to find his lost sheep. Some of them
have wandered far off. How far off were you? How deep
down did he reach for you in the pit? And he went a long ways
to sit on a whale in the middle of the day to wait on this one.
Show mercy. How old was he? He mercifully stayed two days,
and he saved many people in that town of half-breeds that nobody
wanted anything to do with. But that's who he came to save.
And then on the third day, he walked back to Galilee. Back
to Galilee. Down, remember, he came down
to Cana, below sea level, to raise a man's dying son. One
dying boy. What a merciful Lord. All right,
and it now says, after this. Now who's he going after? A poor,
helpless beggar lied on his bed. What a merciful Lord. Look at
verse 2. It says, After these things,
Jesus went... Oh, I'm sorry. I got the wrong text. Chapter
6 begins, After this... I was looking at chapter 6. Same message. After this. Alright, verse 1. Chapter 5. You know, you could just put
your finger down anywhere. It'd be the same. It's all about
Him. Where He went, who He saved.
His power. After this, there was a feast
of the Jews. And Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now, there is that Jerusalem by the sheep market, a pool,
which is called in the Hebrew tongue, Bethesda. having five
porches, and in these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, blind,
half-withered, waiting for the movement of the water. And the
story has it that an angel went down at a certain season into
the pool and troubled the water, and whoever first got in the
troubled water was made whole of whatever disease he had. You
know, the church, I've never thought of it in this way, but
it is. Jerusalem, the church is called
New Jerusalem. It's a house of mercy. It's where
the Lord Jesus Christ will be found. where the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ is preached, that fountain flowing for sin
and uncleanness. That's where you're going to
hear it. That's where you're going to see him. That's where
he's going to speak to you. And so, you know, the church, what
a blessed place this is to be. If you're impotent, this truly
is a hospital for sinners, isn't it? Now, he must need to go through
Samaria. And he must needs go to Jerusalem
because there's a man there that he has loved and he had chosen
before the world began. And he's in a bad way. And the Lord, like that forlorn
woman at the well, he's come to save her, him. And he must,
so he must, you know. He said, O the sheep I have which
are not of this foal, them also I must bring. And he does. He looks. He finds them. Scripture says in John 10, when
he finds them. Not if. It's not if. It's when. He finds them where
he puts them. Like the woman at the well. Jackie
is up a tree. And this man is laying on his
porch. Now, Brother Chapman, I listened to Brother John Chapman.
on my way, I met him Monday. We met halfway and spent a long
time together. And I knew I was going to preach
on this, and I listened to him. He's one of my favorite preachers.
And I told him, John, I wish I could just play it over the
speaker, the loud speaker for everybody here. So I might quote
him a few times then. But he said, I never considered
it. He said Christ must go to this
feast at Jerusalem. He must attend every feast as
our great high priest. after the order of Melchizedek.
He must do everything that's required of him as our great
high priest, that the law requires. God gave all these feasts and
these ordinances and all these things for the priests to do. Well, they weren't doing it now,
were they? It was in a mess. But our Lord
came, the great and faithful high priest, to offer things
to God, to do what was required. I have the great praise. I praise
that he must go to this state. I thought that was good. Now, here comes the great shepherd.
It says that there's a sheep market. The text, the margin
says gate. You notice it's in italics. I
like the word gate better. And it says he He came, and I
believe he walked through this gate, the door of the sheep,
don't you, to get to this pool. I believe he purposely walked
through this door of this temple, because it says in John 10, he
said, He that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the
sheep. And to him the porter opened
it. and the sheep hear his voice. This man is one of his sheep
and he's going to call him. He's going to hear his voice.
So I believe he went through this sheep gate or this door. Straight is the gate, narrow
is the way. What way is that? Christ only. He's the door of
the sheep. He's the way. And there was a
pool. Now this pool, called Bethesda,
this pool was a place where they actually dipped dirty sheep. and clean dirty sheep. Because
then they would take them into the temple, which was nearby,
and it sacrificed them. Well, they weren't doing that
anymore. You know? That's how bad things had gotten
in Jerusalem. The Passover was the Jews' Passover.
It was supposed to be the Lord's Passover. They weren't killing
sheep, were they, John? I don't see any evidence that
they were killing any sheep. Well, here comes the lamb. God's
lamb. And so he's going to be the sacrificial
lamb and come offer up his own precious blood outside the camp. So the great shepherd comes.
He comes through the door. He is the door. And he walks
on these porches. Verse 3, it says, In these porches
lay a great multitude of impotent folk, blind, halt, withered,
waiting for the moving of the water. Impotent, though. Now, impotent
means, potent means power. And impotent means no power,
doesn't it? And what a picture this is of
mankind. that every man and woman and
young person by nature were powerless to do anything. We have no power
at all. Our Lord looked at Pilate, the
most powerful man on earth at the time, one of them. And he
said, don't you know I have power to crucify you? Our Lord said,
you have no power over me at all, except it be given to you
from above. Man is impotent, powerless to
save himself, powerless to do anything. He can't do anything
for himself. But thanks be unto God, the Lord
God omnipotent. Reigneth. You see? We don't believe
in a Jesus who wants to save you and can't unless you let
him. No, no, no, no. We believe that we were powerless,
impotent. So we must have an omnipotent
Lord to save us. He must come save us. We're powerless. It says in verse 3, they were
blind haught. There's no comma there. They
were both blind and they were lame. That's us in it by nature. That was us. Blind. They were, these people were
both blind and they couldn't walk. That's powerless. Can't
see, can't move. You know, modern religion, if
you'll take the first step, Jesus will meet you. No, these people
couldn't take one step. This man couldn't take one step.
He was hoping someone would come along and put him in the pool.
That's me, isn't it? That's all of us. Oh, thank God,
the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. All power, he says, given unto
me in heaven and earth. He said, as thou hast given him
power over all flesh, that he might, should give eternal life
to as many as, what? as thou hast given him. All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. How? They're powerless.
They're going to come. He's going to give them feet
to walk on. Now, these five porches, you
know, it's just speculation what they... I read all kind of things,
but I kind of think it alludes to the five books of
the law. Well, that would fit, wouldn't it? All these people
are lying around on these five porches, and they're powerless.
The law can't give life, can it? The law can't save, and they
can't keep it. They're powerless to keep it.
Well, here he comes walking on these porches, walking through
these porches. He's all-powerful. He kept the
law. Well, they're blind-holed. They
can't see. They can't walk. They won't walk. You've heard this all the time,
but see, this just gives us great assurance that
the Lord has truly saved us. Because Christ said, you will
not come unto me that you might have life. Well, I did come to
him. I do come to him. I keep coming to him. I'm here
tonight hoping that he'll meet with me. Why? Because He gave
me the will to do so. He gave me the power. He gave
me the faith to walk, to come to Him. You? You wouldn't be
here if He hadn't. That'll give you some comfort,
shouldn't it? You're here because you want
to be. And you're here because God gave you the will to be.
And because God made you willing in the name of His power. Our
Lord says you will not come unto Him. Now they were standing right
beside Him when He said that. You know that? John 6, they were standing right
beside him and said, You will not come unto them. Well, we're
here. No. You didn't come to me. You haven't
come for me. That you needed me. You just want your belly full.
Or you want to see a miracle or something. Why do you come
here? Why did you come here? Because
He brought you. Why do you come here? You want
to hear Christ? Do you really? Well, bless your
heart. The Lord has blessed your heart.
Withered. Withered. You know how many scriptures
talk about us being withered? I love them. That's your man
who doesn't like to be called withered. But that's what the
scriptures say, all the way through the scriptures. In Psalm 90,
it says that all our days are like grass, or like a sleep. In the morning it flourishes,
and groweth up, and in the evening it is cut down and withered,
and we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath, and
our sins." That's us, isn't it? That's man.
Isaiah 40, listen to this. I'm trying to break in a new
Bible, and it's another one. But it says this in Isaiah 40.
I love this. Cry! The boy said, Cry. I said, What shall I cry? He
said, All flesh is grass, and all the goodness thereof is the
flower of the field. The grass withereth. Everything
about man is withering. The Spirit of God blowing upon
it. Surely the people is grass. The grass withereth. He said
it again. The flower faded, but the Word of the Lord shall stand
for ever." Who's that? That's Christ. And those that
stand in Him will stand with Him forever. Oh, we're withering,
aren't we? We're dying. Look at yourself
in the mirror. They were waiting, in our text,
they were waiting on the moving of the water. You know, if the
church, if Jerusalem stands for the church, and it does, And
the door, where Christ comes in, he said, Lo, I stand at the
door and knock. Talk to the church. And there's a pool, there's a
fountain flowing for sin and uncleanness. It's a house of
kindness. Bethesda would be a good name
for a church, you know that? Bethesda Grace Church. Spring Lake, Bethel. Bethel Baptist. What's that? House of God. That's
a good name. Bethesda. House of Kindness.
That's what it means. House of Mercy. five porches. And these lay a great multitude.
They were waiting for the moving of the water. These people were
waiting for the moving of the water. And oh, that the Spirit
of God would indeed move upon the face of these waters. You
know, that's how He began to create life in the beginning
in Genesis chapter 1. The Spirit of God moved on the
face of the water. And in the words that then God
spoke, let there be light. And He began to create life,
water, you know. Christ is water, the Word is
Christ, the water. Oh, that the Spirit of God would
indeed move upon the face of these waters and trouble the
waters. You know what, when God first
saves you, you know what He'll do to you? Trouble you. Put you
in trouble. When you read it before, no interest,
it didn't affect you, no. You read it, you hear it preached.
I remember as a young man having it preached to me, no effect.
I wasn't troubled by anything. But God. His great mercy and
goodness is to trouble you. Put you in trouble. You realize
I'm in trouble with God. I got trouble with sin. That's
when the Lord's first working on a fella, isn't it? When he
has trouble with himself. We didn't have any trouble with
ourselves before. Oh, that the Lord would trouble the waters
and put somebody in trouble and put them in the waters. Put them
in the pool. If He does that, we're going
to see the troubling of these waters. And wouldn't that just
be wonderful? That He'd stir up these waters
one more time. Somebody we have a burden. Waiting on the movement of water.
Now, these people were waiting on a miracle. That's all they
were waiting on. They weren't calling on God.
God's walking amongst them. He's there, and they don't know
Him. They're waiting on a miracle. And a lot of people are waiting on
so many things. People are waiting on their ship to come in. Waiting on to win the lottery,
you know? Something. Waiting on a miracle.
People in religion are waiting on a miracle. Listen to David. I wrote down several. Yeah. Yeah, here it is. Rather than
look them up in my new Bible, I can't. Here's what David said. Lead
me in thy truth, teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation.
On thee do I wait all the day. And he tells us, wait on the
Lord. Be of good courage. You'll strengthen thine heart.
Wait, I say, on the Lord. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently
for Him. Wait on the Lord. Keep His way. He shall exalt thee in the inherited
land. David, what are you waiting on?
He said, what wait I for? My hope's in Him. My soul, and
then he tells himself, my soul, wait thou only upon God. My expectation
is from Him. That's what hope meant. And I
love this. Psalm 123. Behold, as the eyes
of servants look unto the hand of their master, as the eyes
of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress, so our eyes wait
upon the Lord our God until He have mercy upon us. I thought, wait, I say. Hallelujah. The greatest miracle
of all is salvation. Salvation. But these people are
looking for a miracle, hoping for a miracle, and they're waiting
on this water, and it really, you know, I can't explain this,
no one can, but it actually happened. Before the Word was completed,
and it actually happened. Well, look at verse 5. Well,
there was a certain man there, which had an infirmity of 38
years. A certain man. Salvation is so certain, isn't
it? So certain. It depends on a certain Savior
coming to do a certain work for certain people. And does He do
it? He most certainly does. And every
one of these people, nearly every one of them said a certain woman,
a certain man, a certain woman, a certain man. He just happens
to be there that day. His hap was to be there that
day. that his Redeemer was come walking
through him. In fact, old Boaz walking through the field. And
there's Ruth. Certain man. He had this infirmity
thirty-eight years. Now, we don't know how old he
was. He may have been born with it,
so he's thirty-eight years old. Perhaps it happened later in
life. It does. Some contract the Lord
gives diseases and crippling things to people later in life.
And the woman with the issue had an issue for 12 years. We
had this, how old was it, 38, 48, 68, my age? 60. How old are we, Margaret? No, you're older than me. Debra? 66. Okay, soon to be 67. He had this disease a long time. And infirmity, infirmity means
there's no soundness in it. Now you know where I'm going
to turn, don't you? You know, that's what the Scripture says
about all of us by nature in Isaiah chapter 1. And all the
way through the Scriptures it talks about man's unsoundness.
It says from the sole of the foot to the head there's no soundness
in it. Now, this man was unsound, and,
you know, until the Lord saves a man, he's unsound from the
sole of his feet. He can't walk by faith. His feet,
all his feet are good for is running to mischief. Running
from God, running to mischief, isn't it? His head doesn't work
right. He doesn't have a heart. His
heart is stone. But his head doesn't work right.
His thought, his mind is void of judgment. You know anybody
like that that's 40, 50, 60, 70 years old? Boy, we do. Someone we have a
burden for, he's lost his mind. He's lost his mind. Doesn't have
any sense whatsoever. And there's only one hope. We've talked to him. No one. can do Him any good,
but one person. Same with this man. And verse 6, isn't this salvation? When Jesus saw him lying there. When Jesus saw him lying there. Oh my, don't you love the story
in Ezekiel 16? where that child is cast out
in the field to the loathing of his person, and none eye pitied
him to have compassion upon her. It says, When I passed by thee
and saw thee, I saw you, polluted in your own blood, I said unto
thee. The Lord is going to speak to
this man. When thou was in thy blood, I said, Live! Yea, I said
unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live. And he went
on to say, when I passed by thee and looked upon thee, behold,
thy time was a time of love. Whose love? His love. Behold what manner of love the
Father would bestow upon us. If the Lord saved that man I
was talking about, What mercy? What love? Why would the Lord set his love
on such a vile person? That's what you ask about yourself. How can it be, we sing that song,
how can it be that thou, my God, would die for me? Love me. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called And
you remember, this is two preachers sitting there at the man's desk,
and one of them said, Did you hear the good news? The Lord
saved old, let's say, old Mike Anderson. Can you believe that?
The Lord saved old Mike Anderson. He said, I'll never despair of
anybody being saved if the Lord saved old Mike. And the preacher
said, the other fellow said, I've never despaired of Him saving
anyone when He saved me. Is that you? This was me, impotent, blind
hawk, withered. And when the Lord saw him, that
salvation is for the Lord to look upon us. When did he see
him? Look at verse 6. He knew he had been that way
a long time. So it's not the first time he's looking at it.
Sounds like he knew him a long time. Oh, he did. You know, I hate when people
misuse God's Word and they apply these scriptures to all mankind,
like in Jeremiah 1, before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee.
I hate that. But that does speak of, first
of all, speaking to his prophet. Before I formed thee in the belly,
I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb,
I sanctified thee, and ordained thee a prophet." He's talking
to Jeremiah. That Jeremiah spoke to God's
people, all right? That's who it's for. In Jeremiah
31, he said, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Who's
that? God's people. God's elect. Therefore, see, this is the love
of God for His people. And everyone he loves, therefore,
he says, with loving kindness and mercy, love and mercy, I've
drawn thee. I've drawn thee. How? Chords
of a man. Chords of love. A scarlet chord. The Lord loved Rahab, didn't
He? How do you know? That scarlet
line was How long had that scarlet lion been in her house? Before
she knew it. Been there all along. And those
men finally showed her. There's your token. Right there. Been there all along. So, the
Lord saw him. And he said, he asked him a question. Verse 6. Will thou be made whole No, he's not saved. And some
of us heard a bad message about a man saying that you must be
willing to be healed. God's people are only willing
in a day of his power. That's not the question. Are
we willing? Is he willing? Okay. We know he's able. It all depends
on if it's according to his will. All right? He's stating something
to this man, and again, I like what Brother Chapman said about
this. He said, without being made whole. Brother Chapman said,
now there's a great responsibility in being made whole. Everything
changes. You can't lie there like that
anymore. You don't have to get up. You
don't have to walk. If you've got a family and people,
you don't have to serve them. You've got your responsibilities.
You don't have to... You just can't lie there. And
you know, to be saved, when the Lord saves a man, everything
changes. Old things pass away. Are you willing to give up your
old... Haunts and your old friends and your old, call it life, that
wasn't life at all, you're dead in sin. You willing to give that
up? You willing to leave that? You really want to be made whole? Old things pass away, old things
become new. Quit lying in sin, quit lying
in the world, and you follow Christ. Big responsibility to
follow Christ, isn't it? You leave everybody. You leave
everybody and everything to follow Christ. That's what it means
to be made whole. Christ is not half your Savior.
He's whole. He's not half your life. He's
all your life. Wilt thou be made whole? The Lord's going to make him
willing. He makes all His people willing. that we might have not seen we
had a man and I invited a young couple come service and they
did about the Tucson and I saw it on their face. You know, he's
a good old boy, and she's a good old girl. And everybody likes
them, and you know, they've got a job and a home and all that. And, you know, they thought they'd
just become a typical church service like anywhere else, where
everybody would just fall all over them, you know, and be so
happy to see them. Oh, we're glad you're here, and oh, we just
want to do everything for them, and let's have a spaghetti dinner
and, you know, and all this sort of thing. It's just like big,
big happy, happy, happy, happy. Do you believe in Jesus? Yeah,
we believe in Jehovah. Everything's just fine. But I saw on their
face, they saw very quickly, these people are serious. This man preaching, he's talking
about this being life or death. He's saying you can't have the
world and have Christ too. And they didn't come back. And
we won't save them. Don't want saving. Most people
don't need saving. And other people don't want saving.
If what their idea of being saved is, can't have fun anymore. I
can't. I like this world just fine,
thank you. That's what most people think. So God has to make a person willing,
doesn't He? God has to change a person's
heart and mind. He has to. The only one who can. And he must. He does. Old things
pass away. Old things become brand new.
Life. You have to be quick in who what?
Dead in what? Trespassing sins. Didn't know
it, but you lived for these things. And now, though we're still sinners,
yet we have no pleasure in going out. He's made us willing. Yeah, I want to be made whole.
Whole. Completely. Do you? They asked Spurgeon one time,
if you could have any wish, if God would grant you any wish,
what would it be? He said, that I might never sin
again. Is that you? Then the Lord's made you willing to
be whole. There's only one person who can
do it. Wholesome, holy, wholesome, without
sin. The man said, now here's the
first step in understanding. The impotent man said, Sir, I
have no man. I don't have anybody. The water's troubled to put me
in the pool. When I'm coming, another one steps down before
me. This is the first step in salvation,
is to realize I can't save myself. And no one else can. Right? No one else can. No man. I have no man. There's
no man. If you want a good study sometime,
well, you may want to study this. Go through and read where it
says, He saw that there was no man. No man. It says, Look, Lord,
look, I saw that there was no man in Isaiah. So He put on a
helmet of salvation, garments of salvation, and a breastplate.
He came. Nobody could save Him. So He
came. No man. but the God man, no man. And this man said, Sir? He doesn't
really know him yet, does he? Sir? Like that old nobleman called
him Sir. He'll end up calling him Lord.
But, Sir? He said, what he said is, everybody
else will get in first. I want to get in, but Everybody's
going to get in before me. I'll just be dead last. Anybody here feel like everybody's
going to be saved but me? That's a good way to think about
it, because here's the rule. Here's God's rule. The last shall
be first. He that is least, greatest. This is God's rule. The worst,
made whole. That's the rule. That's God's
mercy and grace. Oh, so you're last, huh? You
can't get in first? Who else did he come to? Who
did the Lord come to? He walked by all these. Can Christ,
could God save anyone that He pleased to save? Could He? Could
Jesus Christ have saved anybody in those porches that He wanted
to? Could He? Could He have saved
all of them? Yes, He did. What did He do? Well, if that doesn't prove salvation
by sovereign mercy, sovereign love, sovereign grace, it's His
choice, isn't it? His choice. Passed by all of
these people. Has the Lord spoken to you? Who did He pass by that you know
in your family? Your sisters? Your brother? A
spouse? Huh? And He spoke to you. Why did He do that? You know,
you ought to be singing this song louder than anybody in here. But the first step is to realize,
I can't get in. I'm going to be lost. And I'm
just less than the least. I'm last. And the Lord said with a word.
That's all it takes is one word. You know that? All it takes is
for the Lord to speak one word. The word is His power. The gospel
is His power. Rise. Live. That's what He said to
that child in the field. Live. Look. Look. And Take up that bed and walk. I
like this. Devoted a whole message on this.
Take up your bed and walk. This man had been lying on this
bed for years. 38 years he'd been lying on this
bed. He was pretty comfortable. He
liked that bed. That was his security blanket. Oh, my, their
people have been resting, taking comfort in so many things for
so many years. Their morality, they're resting
in that. In the law, they think they're
keeping the law. Their experience, they had an experience when they
were young, you know, some kind of saving experience. They made
a profession of faith, you know, religion, Catholicism. I've never
missed a Mass. I've been to every Mass all my
life, and I just, I know I'm saying I'm resting right there
in that. Oh, my. He said, take up that bed. You
don't need that bed anymore. You don't need that bed anymore.
And walk. And our Lord, you know, delivers
us from all the things that we rest in and take comfort in and
trust in and makes us trust in Him and Him alone. And walk. Now look, you know where He went?
He went to the temple. That's interesting, isn't it?
Went straight to the temple. He doesn't really know Christ
yet. in this actual story. He doesn't really know him yet,
because they ask him, and I didn't want to dwell too long on these
Jews, they're just not worth dwelling on. But they said, they
saw him care. If it weren't so awful, it'd
be funny with him. And this is legalism. This is
legalism. They weren't concerned about
souls being saved. They weren't concerned about
the glory of God. They weren't concerned. The Son of God is
there. They're not interested in him.
What they're interested in is all their rules and regulations
and all that. And they said, you can't carry your bed on a
Saturday. What are you doing carrying your bed on a Saturday?
We don't carry our beds on a Saturday. And he, what man is it that said,
he said, he that made me whole said, take up your bed and walk.
You know, Christ, the Lord has made us free from
the law. He's made us free. We rest in
Him. We trust in Him alone. Who told you you could do that?
He did. Who told you you didn't have to do that? He did. You're
not keeping a Sabbath. No. He did. You see? Take up that bed. I don't need
that bed anymore. And walk. Walk by faith. He told me that.
He told me to do that, man. And what man, they said, said,
take up your bed and walk? He said, he that was healed,
verse 13, wished not who it was, for Jesus had conveyed himself
away, a multitude being in that place. The crowd had gathered
around and saw this, and all miracles attract a great crowd,
and the Lord He knew what, remember when he said he knew what was
in man, he didn't commit to it. He got out of that. And he did
this so many times. And what a picture this is, how
the Lord will save you alone. He's going to speak to you alone,
personally. Not some big revival meeting,
you know. And so, in verse 14, and that
same thing happened in John 9, a blind man didn't know He didn't
know him. Verse 14, afterward Jesus found
him in a tent. And this is significant. Because
again, when you hear from Christ, you're going to hear through
the preaching of the gospel. You're going to be in his temple with
his people. This is grace before grace, you know? The Lord made
this man like the woman. Made her thirsty first. And then
Christ revealed Himself. Well, He made this man, he realized,
something's happened. Something wonderful's happened
to me. Someone did something for me and I don't know him.
But I'm going to go to the temple where God's people are and just
thank God or seek the Lord or something. So he did. And that's where the Lord came,
verse 14. He finds him in the temple and
said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole. Thou art made whole. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. When that woman caught in the
act of adultery, they brought her to Him. If they had known
who He was, they wouldn't have brought her to Him. They wanted
to stone her. Our Lord came to save her. Our
Lord had them bring her to Him, because He's the only one that
could forgive her sins. And our Lord, with a word, said,
Thy sins be forgiven. Woman, where art thou accusers?
Doth no man accuse thee? There is therefore now no condemnation.
No man, there's one of them, no man, Lord, neither do I. Go and say no more. Say that
again, right here. And I want you to turn with me
very quickly to Romans 6, in closing, Romans 6, okay? What
do you mean sin no more? We're sinners. Why would you,
why would you argue against the Lord? Why would you try to explain
that? Huh? What'd he say? Go and sin no more. Don't do
it. That woman at the well, do you
think she went back and lived in sin with that man anymore?
How can we? This is what Romans 6 says. See,
He made whole. He saves a whole man. We have
trouble with sin. We're tempted by it and sometimes
fall to it. We don't live in it. How can
we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Verse 2 of
Romans 6. How? Can't be done. Now, down
in verse 19, he says, I speak up to the matter of men because
of the infirmity of your flesh. There's an old man. That's where
he lies. That's where he lives. He's dead.
Waller's in. He loves that hog pen. There's
a new man. He hates it. That's what Paul's
talking about in Romans 7. New man. Old things have passed
away. All things become new. So the Lord is talking to this
new man and he says, You yielded your members' service to uncleanness,
to iniquity unto iniquity. Now yield your members' service
to righteousness unto holiness. See that? You were servants of
sin. You're free from righteousness. What fruit did you have in those
things whereof you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death.
But verse 22, now being made free from sin. God's people,
Christ saves the whole man. He makes us free from the penalty
of sin, death, and the power of sin. Brethren, one of the
most blessed verses in all the Bible to me is, and in light
of what Spurgeon wanted, Do you sin no more? One of the most
blessed verses in all the Bible for me is when Scripture says,
sin shall not have dominion over you. There was a time when it
did. Huh? Go and sin no more. That's what
John wrote. These things are right unto you
that you sin not. Because of the awful consequences
of it. You know the only thing that will keep us from sinning?
Christ's crucifixion. When we realize, when we keep
in mind what Christ had to endure because of that sin. Don't do
it. And our Lord said in closing,
let me just read this one also to you. It says in Psalm 85,
don't you love Psalm 85? But listen to this. And, you
know, our merciful Father in the Holy Spirit leads us in paths
of righteousness for His namesake. He won't let us wallow in sin. We fall, but He won't leave us
down. He'll pick us up and wash us again in the pool one more
time and set us right. And in Psalm 85 it says, I'll
hear what the Lord God will speak to me. He'll speak peace unto
His people through His saints. But don't let them turn again
to folly. Or it will happen like the proverb,
the dog gone back to his vomit. I don't want to do that. I don't
want. They said, that's what, many
people walked no more with him in John 6, didn't they? Walked
no more with him. This is hard. And he asked the
disciples, will you go with? Where? Who? I don't want to go
back. God's people want to follow Him
and they want to be just like Him. David said, I'll awake,
I'll be satisfied when I awake in thy righteousness and in thy
likeness. I'll behold thy face in righteousness
and will be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. I won't be
satisfied in death. Is that you? The Lord made you willing to
be whole, and He has said, you're whole. Now go and send Him for
His glory. Stand with me.