It is so good to see you. It's
good to be with you. I'm gonna ask you to take your
Bibles and turn back to that passage that we looked at last
time, John chapter five. John chapter five. I want to
look at a few more verses out of this passage. I, uh, I got up this morning trying
to go over these notes and I was looking at verse nine, John chapter
five and verse nine. And especially the last few words,
the last part of verse nine, it says in verse nine and immediately,
The man was made whole and took up his bed and walked, and on
the same day was the Sabbath. On the same day was the Sabbath. And I named this message this
morning that, those few words, the same day was the Sabbath. The merciful and compassionate
Lord Jesus had approached a man, an impotent man, and this man,
we're told, when we looked at these scriptures last time, had
waited 38 years by the pool of Bethesda,
and he had waited to be healed. That's what he was there for.
He had waited to be healed. He wanted to be healed from his
infirmity. 38 years he'd been going. And the scripture says that the
Lord, having seen this man, he said in verse 6, when the Lord
saw him lie, knew that he had been now long time. In that case, he saith unto him,
now listen to these words, wilt thou be made whole? Do you have a desire to be made
whole? 38 years he had been in that
place. Do you want to be healed? Do you want to? Now, you would
think that question had an obvious answer. You would think that's
a question that you don't have to think about. Do you want to
be made whole? And the answer to that question,
it really only has one of two answers. Yes or no. Do you want to be healed? But
I want you to listen to the man's answer in verse 7. The impotent
man answered, answered the Lord, answered him,
Sir, I have no man when the water is trouble to put me into the
pool. But while I am coming, another
steppeth down before me. The answer that this man gave
was not an answer to the Lord's question. The Lord asked him,
would you be made whole? Well, the problem, he said, is
that whenever I'm aware that the water's being troubled, or
I think it is, I don't have anybody to put me in. The answer reveals a heart of
every man, every woman born into Adam. It's not my fault. It's somebody else's
fault. I don't have anybody to put me
in. I'm in the wrong spot. It's not convenient for me right
now. I was tired. This is the answer to every man
born in Adam. My plight is not my fault. The question that the Lord asked
this man, will thou be made whole, is a question that's asked that
every person in this room today, you say, well, I'm not sick. Well, we're gonna go just a little
bit farther. Every man born in Adam is sick. We're all spiritually
sick. Now, here's my question to you
this morning. I've been coming here with you
now for a long time, 22 years, almost 22 years. And here's my question to all
of us. Do we want to be made whole?
Do we want to be healed? Do you want to? Do you? The question
asked is a question that every man, every woman, spiritually
speaking now, I know that this man had an infirmity, had it
for 38 years, he's been coming to this place Every time he thinks
that it's the right time, somebody beats him. I started going down,
but I couldn't get there in time. It just wasn't a good time. Here's
the question. Will you be made whole? And he gives that answer while
I'm coming down. Another man steps in before me,
and I'm not able to. The Lord is asking a question
that all of us are going to have to face, spiritually speaking. Will we be made whole? Will we
be made whole before God? Will you be made whole? I'm not
asking for excuses. I'm not asking for your unscriptural
answers. I want to know something. I want
to know this for me. Will I be made whole? Will the Lord do something for
me? This man gives the Lord the answer
that we're all guilty of. We've all got an excuse. Somebody always gets there before
I do. It's not a convenient time. It's
just not, you know, I've got things, mess and stuff to do. I've got other things that are
priorities to me. Will you be made whole? And the Lord says to this man
in verse 8. Oh, I thought this was so marvelously
wonderful. said to him in verse eight, rise,
take up thy bed, and walk. Now let me tell you what that
statement from the Lord set forth. Sovereign grace. In the midst
of this man's excuses, and all the reasons why he had not been
made whole, Thanks be unto God, he bypassed all of the reasons
that this man couldn't do it. I'm trying, I'm crawling as fast
as I can. I'm doing all that I can possibly
do. And the Lord says to this man in verse eight, rise, take
up thy bed, and walk. He didn't trust in this impotent
man to do what that impotent man couldn't do. The Lord didn't
trust in him. The Lord didn't wait on him.
Aren't you glad that the Lord didn't wait on me or you? If
he'd have waited on me, I can tell you for a fact, I wouldn't
have come. I wouldn't have come. I know
what man by nature says. waiting, the Lord is willing,
the Lord wants to, but thanks be unto God. In all the midst
of all of my excuses and reasons, that Almighty God would say to
me, say to this spiritually impotent sinner against Him, get up, rise up, take your bed, walk. Here the Lord is telling
this man to do what spiritually we cannot do. The Lord commanded
him, you do that which I command you to do. Men will say, well, I see in
the scriptures where it says that we're impotent, we can't
do, we can't do this. The man is helpless in himself,
he is. But to hear the Lord say, get
up, get up and walk. Walk before me, hear my voice. I thought I was, incapable of
hearing. Yeah, but the hearing ear, the
seeing eye is of the Lord. In this man's plight, we see
the Lord's pleased to call one of his own unto himself. Called him out of spiritual darkness.
I thought men were blind, but if God gives eyes, we see Come out, the scripture says
in 2 Corinthians 6, 17. Come out from among them and
be you separate, saith the Lord. The Lord told this man, take
up thy bed, rise, walk. And scripture says in verse nine,
immediately, this man, was made whole. This man had been waiting
38 years to do what he could not do. He couldn't even crawl
to where the water was being troubled. He couldn't, he couldn't,
nobody else would help him. Nobody else will help him. Before
I can get there, nobody's gonna be kind and considerate. Said,
no, you go ahead. You go ahead, I'll wait. No,
sir. Man by nature is selfish, self-centered. This man, I can't
get that. I don't have any hope. And the
Lord comes to this man and tells him, he said, I want you to get
up. And immediately, verse nine,
the man was made whole. and took up his bed and walked.
Same day was the Sabbath. Now here's where I wanted to
make a few statements on those verses before. But here's where
I wanna come for just a few minutes. And today, the scripture says
on that same day, the Lord told this man that for
38 years couldn't do anything. It was the Sabbath day. Now,
I began to look at this thing of the Sabbath day. Remember
the Sabbath day. Keep it holy. The Sabbath day. The day of the Lord. The Lord's
day. The Lord's day. That day in which
we see in type picture, figure, the day of liberty, the day of
peace, the day of comfort. It was the Sabbath day, the day
of rest. This man for 38 years had tried
to do what he couldn't do. And today was this, the Sabbath
day for him. It was the Sabbath. It was the
day of rest. He hadn't been able to get in
that pool for 38 years. And if God Almighty leaves me
to myself, it'll be another 38 years. And I still won't be in
the pool. The day of rest for this man
was today. It was the Sabbath day. The Sabbath day, the day of liberation,
the day of peace, the day of comfort. For that man, that man right there had been
in bondage for all of these years. And we know that the Lord is
telling this man to do something. I want you to pick up your bed.
I want you to walk because it's a Sabbath day for you. This is the Sabbath day for you,
the day of rest. I think how many years that the
Lord was in his infinite mercy, left me to walk in the bondage of my so-called
self-righteousness, thinking, you know, I've given my heart
to Jesus, I've walked You know, in the ways that I've been told
is the way to be liberated. Give your heart to Jesus. Come
down and confess your sins. And if things are not going well,
you can rededicate your life. You know, if you slip a little
bit, you can have a, you know, a rededication. Know how I comforted
myself. But there was a day in which
God was pleased to set this impotent, spiritually impotent sinner free. And it was in that day, in that
period. Somebody say, what day did the
Lord save you? I don't know. I don't know. I hear people say, well, it was
on this particular day and this, particular year and I remember
where I was, I've told people before. I'm sitting here and I'm talking
to you. Obviously, I was born. Obviously,
I was given life, physical life, because I'm talking to you. Yeah,
but what day were you conceived? That's what I want to know. I don't know. What difference
does it make? I'm sitting here right now, by
the grace of God, and I'm talking to you. Therefore, I know that
there was a day. I know that there was a day,
I've told you before, that I went from darkness to light. But I
can't tell you exactly. I've got a birth certificate.
October the 5th, 1949. That's a long time ago. October the 5th, that's what
they tell me. How do I know that it was that day? Don, I don't
know, but I can tell you one thing. I'm here. The Lord told this man, I want
you to rise, take up your bed, walk, and immediately There was
a day in which Almighty God revealed Himself to this sinner, and I heard things. What day
was it? It was the day that I heard.
I was born little, just an infant, and in time I grew. The same
thing, I grow in grace, and you do too, you that know Him. You
grow in grace. I don't know the process of God's
ways of men. But this man, by the grace of
God, heard the word of the Lord. And
it was the Sabbath day for him. The same was the Sabbath day. He was set forth as hearing the
Lord. The Lord told him, He said, I
want you to rise up. Pick up your bed. and walk. The Sabbath day in the Old Testament
was a picture, now listen, it was a picture of the finished
work of Christ. Remember the Sabbath to keep
it holy. Well that means I'm not gonna
do certain things on the Sabbath day and I'm gonna You know, I'm
not gonna, you know, I got some rules and regulations. I'm gonna
keep the Sabbath day holy. I'm gonna keep the Sabbath day
because it tells me to keep it holy. So I'm not gonna walk too
far. I'm not gonna do this or I'm
not gonna do that. I'm gonna keep it holy. Remember, there's
the word. Remember the Sabbath. Remember Christ who is the Sabbath. Remember Him. And when we come
together, we have the Lord's table. This was the eating of
the bread and the drinking of the cup, the wine. What did the
Lord tell His people? You do this in remembrance of
Me. You remember. You remember. And by the grace
of God, I've been given a heart to remember. Remember the Sabbath. That which set forth, like I
said in the Old Testament, that we have rest. Rest in the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Sabbath day always pointed
to our rest. Come unto me, all you that labor,
heavy laden, I will give you rest. Because if I don't have
rest in him, let me tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna
try to think back, was I sincere? Did I truly, truly give my heart
to the Lord? Is there anything that I've done?
I've never done anything right. The only hope I've got is that
God Almighty was pleased to show mercy to this spiritually impotent
sinner. We were singing these songs that
you, Gary, you picked out. That last one, it had two or
three verses in there. I kept reading and listening
to those words. It was talking about the Lord's faithfulness. I'll never leave you. I'll never
forsake you. And oh, I was just singing those
songs just then, and I was thinking, Lord, thank you for that. Thank
you for not leaving it to me. It was a Sabbath day. The Jews,
in verse 10, therefore said unto him that was cured, it's the
Sabbath day. It's not lawful for thee to carry
thy bed. And he answered, verse 11, he
answered them, here's what he said, he that made me whole,
the same said unto me, take up thy bed and walk. I know that the rules, regulations
that are imposed by men. I know that there's these restrictions
that's laid upon us. But here was his answer when
they accused him of breaking the law. He that made me whole
said to me, get up and walk. Brethren, The Lord knew full
well the opposition that this man was going to have for obeying
Him. But thanks be unto God, the Lord
has set us free. In this world, you're going to
be hated, you're going to be rejected, you're going to be
despised for believing me, for hearing the gospel of God's grace.
for walking after Christ. But here's what the Lord has
given us. He's given us some knowledge
and some understanding that He is our Sabbath. He's our rest. He's our rest. Don't you love that? Don't you
love it? Don't you love the freedom from
being able, somebody say, well, if you preach that, People are
going to do what they want to do. That's what we're doing. It's
what I want to do. I want to look to my Sabbath, and I'm going
to say unto him, Lord, as you said, that's the way it is for
me. I don't want to look to myself. This morning when we were getting
ready to come over here, I was thinking these things. I've got
a set of notes right here that I've kind of I scribbled down
and I thought, Lord, would you help me? Would you put this in
my heart? And let it not be just, you know,
I can read these set of notes to you. If you wanna come up
here and read them, you can do the same thing. I really think
they're scripturally sound. They're sound notes. But I'm
trying as hard as I can right now. not to look to my notes
for some comfort. I want to look to the Sabbath
himself. When they told him, you're breaking
the law. You're not walking like you should
be. I love this man's answer. Verse 11, he answered them, he
said, he that made me whole, the same said unto me, take up thy bed. and walk in him, walk after him, follow
after him, admit, I'm gonna go ahead and just admit to you, I can't keep myself, but I can
tell you there's one that's faithful. In conclusion, Went over these things again
and I looked at this and I thought, here's the bottom line. A certain
impotent man, that's what it said. That's who the Lord saw
that day. A certain man, or five, a certain
man was there, had an infirmity, 38 years. I've had an infirmity now for over 75
years. I'm incapable. I'm unable. A certain man, picture of all
of us chosen out of Adam's fallen race, and here's the beauty of
this, a certain man, verse six, when Jesus saw him lie and knew that he had been long
time in that case. How long do you think the Lord
has known our infirmity? How long do you think the Lord's
known the infirmity of his people? Long time. Longer than I've been
alive, longer than I've been in this world, He's known His
people from before the foundation of the world. Here's the beauty. The Lord saw this man. And here's what the Lord said. He said, verse 6, latter part,
He said unto him. Listen to this. The Lord said,
My sheep. hear my voice. I know them, and they follow
me. And when the Lord speaks to His
people, and they hear His voice, here's what He says to His people.
Wilt thou be made whole? He's not asking for information. Wilt thou be made whole? The
Lord's going to give this man that It's time to answer. But here's the beauty of it.
God's people are made willing in the day of God's power. Wilt
thou be made whole? And here's what a believer's
gonna say, by the grace of God. Lord, yes, and only you can make
me whole. Wilt thou be made whole? You
know why this building right here is not packed? To overcapacity. You wanna know why? Because left
to a man, woman's self, they don't wanna be made whole. They
don't want to. Wilt thou be made whole? Yeah. That command of life is given. God who gave him a heart, when
the Lord asked him, wilt you be made whole? He says, rise
and take up thy bed and walk. But I love this, verse 9, immediately
the man was made whole, took up his bed and walked. And the
same day was his day of liberty. The same day was the day of him
being set free. It was the Sabbath for him. It
was the Sabbath day. It was the day of freedom. It was the day of life, the Sabbath
day. And that man was immediately
confronted with opposition. I said a while ago, in this day,
you'll be hated of all men. But you know what a believer
is going to do? He's going to stay right there because the
Lord has given him a heart. He's kept by the power of God.
Through faith, through faith. How long will the Lord keep him?
He'll always keep him. The gift of God is without repentance. I was thinking about that when
I jotted this morning, jotted down a couple more things. John was on the Isle of Patmos. Revelation chapter one, verse
10. And here's what it says about John. He said, I was in the Spirit
on the Lord's day. I was in the Spirit on the Sabbath. If we have been brought to this
place and have been given a heart after Christ, the Lord has revealed
to us liberty the Sabbath day. not rules and regulations to
be kept, not trying to maintain my standing before God, the Lord
has said, it's finished. It's the Sabbath for you. It
was the Sabbath for this man. Lord, by your grace and by your
power, you are my Sabbath. Lord, thank you for crossing
my path. Thank you for keeping me Lord, when I see just a little
bit more every day of my frailty, my inability, thanks be unto
God, he said, I'll never leave you. That verse of scripture
has become more and more precious to me. I'll never leave you.
I'll never forsake you. Lord, don't forsake me. And by
God's grace, he won't.