Last week we looked at Christ,
our Sabbath rest. And so this week I want to continue
that theme in our Bible class. And I want to ask this question.
Why does Christ, our Sabbath rest, infuriate
Pharisees? Why does Christ, our Sabbath
rest, infuriate Pharisees? That's the question I want to
answer. Why Pharisees reject the Sabbath? And that's what they do. They
reject the true Sabbath, Christ, our Sabbath. Well, here's the
short answer. By Christ accomplishing all the
necessary work and giving His people true rest in Him, He manifests
the Pharisees' confidence in their works to be utter vanity. By Christ doing all the works
to make His people totally saved, to be all to His people, so that
there is no more works for His people to do to be saved. Christ
makes the Pharisees' will works to be vanity. Now, last week
our first point was how that Christ is our Sabbath rest because
He calls us to Himself and gives us rest. Now this week we see
an illustration of it as Christ heals a lame man. Now this is
a physical healing, but we're going to look at this, and you
can see a picture here, an illustration of what Christ does spiritually
for His people. Look at John 5.1. It says, After
this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now one reason Christ went to
this feast is because He was made under the law. He came to
fulfill the law. He is the one of whom the whole
law spoke. He is pictured in every festival
that God ordained. Every true festival that God
ordained, it pictures Christ in His work. And He's the high
priest, He's the lamb, He's the mercy seat, and all that was
pictured in the Old Covenant. So Christ goes to this feast
because He's fulfilling everything that's written in the scriptures
and all the law. He is the righteousness of the
moral law. He is the righteousness of the
moral law for His people. He is the one who works justice
for His people in the earth as our ruler over His kingdom. and He's the fulfillment of all
the Law and the Prophets. That's why we read last week,
Paul said in Colossians 2, let no man therefore judge you in
meat or drink or in respect of a holy day or of the new moon
or of the Sabbath, which are a shadow of things to come, but
the Body, the One who fulfilled it all and what it all spoke
about is Christ. It's Him. Now another reason
He went there was to heal this man. And He went there to heal
this man on the Sabbath day. It's not by accident that He
did this on the day He did it. He knew. He did it in the most
public place and He did it on the Sabbath day. And in this
we see how He heals His people. It says here John 5, There is
at 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, of blind, haught, withered,
waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down
at certain season into the pool and troubled the water. And whosoever
then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made
whole of whatsoever disease he had. And it says, And a certain
man was there which had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus
saw him lie and knew that he had been there a long time in
that case, he said unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? The
impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water
is troubled, to put me into the pool. But while I am coming,
another steppeth down before me. Jesus saith unto him, Rise,
take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made
whole, and took up his bed, and walked, and on the same day was
the Sabbath. Now, that's how Christ comes
to His people. When He comes to one of His,
that He's redeemed, He comes to us. We don't come to Him.
This man couldn't come to Him. He couldn't walk. and you and
I can't come to Christ. Spiritually, we're handicapped. We can't come to Him. We're impotent
spiritually. And Christ finds us in our religious
feast and our superstition just like He found that man. And Christ
finds His child worse off than He found that man. He finds us
spiritually dead. Spiritually impotent. Spiritually
incapable. We were unable to come to Christ
to help us and heal us just like this man wasn't able to go over
and get in that pool. That's why the Scripture says,
you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and in sins. He quickened you. He gave you
life. See, we're at His mercy. That's
the purpose of this. We're at God's mercy. We can't
be dictating the terms. We've got to come to God and
ask mercy. If you come asking mercy, you'll get it. He'll give
you mercy. Because He's brought you there.
He's made you whole to come and ask Him. And you'll get it. And
now look, when Christ gives the command, He gives the command
through His gospel. And that's how He does it. You'll
hear this word preached. You're not going to hear Christ
speak audibly. But if you believe, if you begin to believe on Him,
He's given the command. And when He gives the command,
immediately He makes His child whole. He said to that man, Rise,
take up thy bed and walk. And immediately the man was made
whole. just from Christ's Word. That's
showing you the importance of the Word of this Gospel, the
Word of the Gospel that's preached, the Word of Christ to make that
Gospel effectual, and how powerful He is to speak and make His people
whole immediately. And it says there, that man didn't
have any power in himself, but Christ spoke and immediately
he was whole. And when he was made whole, you
know what he did? The first thing he did when he was made whole?
He obeyed Christ. He obeyed Him. Christ said, rise,
take up your bed and walk. And He did what Christ said,
even though it was the Sabbath day. And this man knew the law
of the Sabbath. The law of the Sabbath said that
he couldn't take up his bed and walk. He could not carry a burden
on the Sabbath day. But Christ told him, take up
your bed and walk, even though it was the Sabbath day. And he
obeyed Him. He obeyed Him. Do you see the
picture in that law? That law, God gave that law as
a mercy. He gave that law to give people
rest. The servants and the animals
and everybody in the house were to have rest on that day. and
couldn't carry any heavy burdens. That wasn't to be a law to whip
people with. That was a law that took the
burdens off of his people. And the picture here is this
man's burden wasn't taking up his little old pallet and walking
with it. That wasn't a burden for him
to carry. The burden was he was impotent for 38 years. And Christ
came to him and cured him and healed him of that burden and
took that burden off of him. And you know what kind of rest
that man had to know? I can walk now? That's rest. That's oppression that's taken
off of him because of that. And you and I are dead in our
sins and the picture of the Sabbath is Christ comes and He heals
you and He calls you to Him and He takes all the burden of your
sin off of you and all the burden of the curse and all the burden
of being cast out of God's presence and He brings you into fellowship
with God. And it is such rest to know I
am accepted of God. No sin can be laid to my charge
ever again. The law has nothing else to say
to me. And when He has done that work in your heart and He has
brought you there to Him, brethren, He makes you to know you are not under the law anymore.
And let me tell you something about not being under the law.
It is really not about what we want to do outwardly. It is really
not about that. Because if you look at a believer
and you looked at a Pharisee, they're both going to be doing
good works. Both of them are. What's the
difference in them? One of them is doing it from
a heart that's legal. The Pharisee is doing it from
a legal heart, trying to get acceptance with God and trying
to get a better reward in heaven than everybody else. He's a mercenary
in everything he's doing. He's trying to get God in debt
to him. His motive is corrupt. But in the heart of the believer,
there's a new motive. And it's because he desires Christ
to have all the glory for what Christ has done for him. And
he might not do the outward work as good as the Pharisee does
it, but God looks on the heart. And that Pharisee might be as
shiny outside and doing it as best as anybody ever did it,
and God looks on him and says, forsaken. He does not accept
it. He looks at this man over here that is stumbling and fumbling
and does not look to men to be doing anything right. And God
says, accept it. Accept it. It is the motive. That is what it is to not be
under the law. It is to have your heart changed, to know the
motive is grace and not law. That is the difference. But when
you find that out, then you know Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. And then Romans
6.14 says sin shall not have dominion over you because you
are not under the law, you are under grace. The law is not going
to condemn you because Christ has justified His child. And
your own sin nature is not going to make you be forced away from
Christ because Christ is going to keep you. Because you are
under grace and He is going to take care of you. He is going
to see to it that you are not dominated by sin anymore. Are
you going to still be a sinner? Yes. Would you ever be able to
look at yourself and come to God in yourself without Him?
No. But sin won't dominate you anymore
because Christ is going to see to it. I don't mean that you
are going to be able to keep the law perfectly. I mean He is not
going to allow you to fall under the curse and He is not going
to allow sin to make you cease believing and separate from your
brethren. He won't do that for His child.
And then he says over in Galatians 3.24, the law is our schoolmaster
until Christ. That we might be justified by
faith, but after that faith has come, we're no longer under the
schoolmaster. No longer under the law. Over
and over he said, if you be led of the Spirit, you're not under
the law. You get what Paul was saying
when he said, Christ has justified me and He gave me life within
that I might now live under God? Who was he living unto before?
The law. He was living unto the law before.
Wasn't that living unto God? No, sir. That's living unto yourself. But when Christ has taken that
middle wall out and made you be led of the Spirit directly,
now you're living unto God. And only God can do that. He
says, you become dead to the law by the body of Christ that
you should be married to another even to him who is raised from
the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God. Faith and
love and not looking to that faith or that love for acceptance. Faith and love which looks out
of you to Christ and forgives your brethren for Christ's sake,
that's a fruit Christ produces. You can't produce that. And he
says there, when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins which
were by the law, by our doing under the law and by the law
condemning us, it didn't bring forth anything but death. That's
all. But now He's delivered us from
the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that we should
serve in newness of spirit, not in the oldness of the letter.
Now I want to contrast that. Now we see a contrast in our
text. We see what Will Works focuses on. What do they major
on? What does a Will Worker, a Pharisee,
a legalist, what does he major on in their message? Verse 10,
John 5, 10, The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured,
It is the Sabbath day, it is not lawful for thee to carry
thy bag. Now do you see, brethren, how
hard-hearted legalism makes a man? Here's a man. First of all, here's
Christ Jesus the Lord in their midst. Here's God in human flesh
standing right before them. And they're more concerned with
a day. Here is Christ who just healed
a man who has been lame for 38 years. Miraculously healed this
man who has been lame for 38 years. And all they are focused
on is you carried your bed on the Sabbath day. No delight in Christ. No delight
in His works. No delight in Him giving rest.
This is the law giver who told this man, take up your bed and
walk. And yet these men turned right around and they would take
that law and oppress him with it. Pharisees delight in one thing.
They delight in their works. They delight in accusing and
condemning and whipping with the law. They delight in keeping
an outward form of obedience to the letter of the law. They
delight in exalting men of the past. in tradition, in creeds,
and in man-made covenants. That's what they delight in.
They don't delight in Christ. I'm going to show you that. Listen
to this man who Christ healed. This man right here, he understood
something. Let's look at this, verse 11.
He answered them, He that made me whole, verse 11, He that made
me whole, the same said unto me, take up thy bed and walk. This man knew whatever believer
knows. If this man had the authority
to speak and make me whole, this man had the authority to speak
and free me from that law. That's right. And he had the
authority. Christ has the authority to quicken
me and make me whole and therefore Christ has the authority to tell
me I'm free from the law. I'm under grace now. Christ is
the one who has authority to give me the righteousness that
He earned by His obedience. And therefore He has the authority
to tell me, the law will never say another word to you again.
Do you realize if you can't break the law in Christ and you have
fulfilled that law in Christ, that being dead to that law means
that law can't ever say a word to you again? But being righteous means the
law, what it does say is, well done. All the time. Forever. Because Christ fulfilled
it for us. That's rest, isn't it? That's
rest. He turns me to seek Him at His
right hand. He turns me to run the race set
before me looking to Him, the author and the finisher of my
faith. And He makes me cease looking to my obedience and makes
me look to His law. Now that's the rest He gives
to those He saved. But here's what infuriated the
Pharisees. And it still does today. Look
here in verse 16 now. Go down to verse 16. They found out His name was Jesus
and it says, Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought
to slay Him because He had done these things on the Sabbath day.
Now listen to me carefully. No believer that's been saved
by grace will ever say, he never will say, since we were saved
by grace, let's sin so that grace will abound. Let's run a headlong
into sin so we can show people how much God's grace pulls us
back. No sinner is going to tell you that. Nobody saved by grace
is going to tell you that. But there is something bad wrong
when you speak about Christ to somebody, a religious man, and
give him all the glory and declare he is everything in salvation. And that man chooses a day over
Christ. Something is as wrong as it was
with these Pharisees right here. Something is wrong with that.
Now thirdly, Christ alone right here is going to tell us why
Pharisees hate Christ our Sabbath. He is going to tell us right
here. The rest of this chapter I'm just going to sort of read
some things, but he gives you the reasons right here. First
of all, they hate Christ because His works declare He is God. That's the number one reason.
You know a natural heart. A natural heart can be very religious. You know, don't judge that a
man is born again because he is religious. These men that
were condemning Christ were ultra-religious. And they're dead as a hammer. And the carnal heart is enmity
against God, hates God. And that's what is wrong. And
Christ shows us that. Verse 17. Jesus answered them,
My Father works hitherto, and I work. He said, My Father works
on the Sabbath day, and so do I. And what He's saying by that
is, I'm Lord of the Sabbath. I'm the lawgiver. I'm God. And they knew what He meant.
Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because He
not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was His
Father, making Himself equal with God. Then answered Jesus
and said unto them, Verily, verily... He is going to say this many
times. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing
of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do. For what things
soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. He is saying,
Me and My Father are one. We are doing these works together.
on the Sabbath day. For the Father loveth the Son,
and showeth Him all things that Himself doeth, and He will show
Him greater works than these, that you may marvel. For as the
Father raises up the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the
Son quickeneth whom He will." He is saying, you think it is
something that I raised up this man on the Sabbath day? I am
going to make men spiritually whole on this day too. He is
that Sabbath rest. That's what He's declaring here.
For the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment
to the Son. That all men should honor their
son even as they honor the Father. And he that honors not the Son
honors not the Father which has sent him. Verily, verily, I say
unto you, He that heareth My word and believeth on Him that
sent Me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation,
but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto
you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear
the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.
For as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given the
Son to have life in Himself. And He has given Him authority
to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man." Look down
at verse 36. He says there, I have a greater witness than
that of John, for the works, the works which the Father has
given me to finish, the same works that I do bear witness
of me that the Father has sent me, that I am God. And you see,
God worked on every Sabbath. He did. He rested on the Sabbath
the seventh day. But He worked on that day. He
upheld the world by His power. And He provided for His people
and He governed the world and He protected His people. He was
working on that day. And Christ is here working and
God is in Christ working on the Sabbath day. And doing more than
just healing this man. He went about quickening His
people. And He said, I am quickening My people. I am judging My people. I am raising the dead. Spiritually,
I have all authority, he said. And here's what makes them so
angry. Those works that he does declares
he's God. I've heard some folks who claim
to preach the Gospel and love the Gospel that won't say Christ
is God. But this is what offends a Pharisee. His works, when we
declare he is the end of the law, that declares he's God.
And that offends men. His works offend them. Now look
at this. Here is another reason. They
hate Christ because as our gospel is preached, they hear Christ
declare all these things He is declaring here. Just as real
as Christ stood there and spoke face to face with them and said
these things. A Pharisee, a legalist, or anybody
trying to trust in himself, When he hears this gospel preached,
he hears Christ saying to him just what Christ said to these
Pharisees right here. And he hears it and it convicts
him and he hates it. Hates Christ. Watch. Christ declares
them lost. Verse 38. And you have not His
word abiding in you, for whom He hath sent Him you believe
not. Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal
life, and there they which testify of Me. And you will not come
to Me that you might have life." He just told them they were lost
and ignorant of the Scriptures. And that's what men hear. Have
you ever seen a man... I've had this happen. You preach
the gospel someplace, and there's somebody there that's religious,
he trusts the law, trusts his works, come up to you afterwards
and say, now if what you're telling me is true, you're saying I don't
believe the gospel. Have you ever had that happen? I'm not saying you don't believe
the gospel, but you just said it. Because what I'm telling
you is true. And that's what they hear Christ
say in this gospel. I'm lost. And unless God does
something for them, a man, he'll reject that and say, no, I'm
saved. You're the one that's lost. Look here, Pharisees hate
Christ because He declares through His gospel that Pharisees do
all their work simply to be seen of men. They hear this in the message.
When you preach and you declare that the works of men are vanity,
that aren't resting in Christ alone and any work to try to
earn a righteousness or holiness or to try to come to God to get
a greater reward or anything like that is all total, utter
vanity and against the Scriptures and anti-Christ. You tell men
that and they hear the message. They hear Christ declaring that
gospel. Then everything you do, you just do to be seen of men
because God doesn't have any pleasure in it. Look what he
said to him. Verse 41, I receive not honor
from men, but I know you that you have not the love of God
in you. I am come in my Father's name and you receive me not.
If another shall come in his own name, him you will receive. In other words, if here I come
doing works that nobody can do but God, Another man comes along
doing some works that only a man could do, you will think he is
just something else. He is the greatest thing since
sliced bread. But you reject Christ. How many times have you
heard of men that you try to tell them about the gospel and
they just reject it. Next thing you know somebody
comes along, some man comes along with some snake oil, a trick,
talking about prophecy or something crazy. And oh, you ought to listen
to this. This is something else right
here. This is mysterious. He thinks he is something. Listen. Another comes in His own name
and Him you will receive. How can you believe which receive
honor one of another and seek not the honor that comes from
God only? See that? That's what he's talking
about. Men like to honor other men, and they like to have honor
from other men. And that's what self-righteous
religion is all about. That's it, in a nutshell. Put
my name on a building, because I gave so much. Put my name on
a parking spot, because I gave so much. Put my name on a pew,
because I gave so much. Mention me somewhere in the message
about my birthday or my bruised toe. Something. Glory to man. Everything. Pharisees hate Christ
because as we preach Christ from the Law, the very one the Law
spoke about, Christ declares that the very Law that they think
they've kept will condemn them because they don't hear it. Do
you hear me now? I've heard men say, y'all spiritualize
the Scripture and I don't understand anything you're talking about
in the Law. And all you've done is preach Christ. You preach
an allegory that Paul allegorized and said, this is speaking of
Christ. And they don't understand it. Look at what Christ said. Here's the problem. Don't think,
verse 45, do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There's
one that accuses you, even Moses in whom you trust. Moses wrote
the first five books of the Bible and he said, you look in that
law and you think you've come to me by that law and obey that
law. And Moses was writing of me in
that law. Watch. For had you believed Moses,
you would have believed me. For he wrote of me. But if you
believe not his writings, how shall you believe my words? I'll say it again. As real as
Christ told them that to their face, Pharisees and legalists
and lost men hear this the same way when the gospel is preached. And they hate Christ for it.
Here is the thing. Have you ever declared Christ
to somebody? You gave Christ all the glory.
And when you get through talking to them, they choose the law
over Christ. Yeah, but I believe we got to
do our part. Yeah, but Moses said. Yeah, but you know, James
said faith without works is dead. Well, the believer is going to
do good works. But there is another motive altogether. Brethren,
the Pharisees did the same thing to Christ. They couldn't hear
the message Christ declared and they can't hear our message.
The Gospel is offensive to vainly religious men because it gives
Christ all the glory and gives man none. That's just it. That's it. I'm trying to help
you when you feel rejected by men and your friends and what
have you who are religious when you tell them about Christ and
what He's done. This is why. This is why. They can't help
it. They can't help it. Don't get
mad at them. But pray that God might be pleased
to do something for them. Because you were the same way
and I was the same way. The only one that made the difference
is God. We didn't make the difference. If He left us to ourselves, we'd
be still doing the same thing. But here's the amazing thing.
Everything Christ is to His people, complete, Rest is the exact thing
that infuriates the self-righteous, will-working Pharisee. Isn't it amazing that the very
thing, rest in Christ that makes us rejoice in Him, is the same
thing that makes the Pharisee hate Him? That's how opposite
we are. Grace and works will never ever
mix, brethren, ever. as it was in the day of Ishmael
and Isaac. He that was born after the flesh
persecuted him that was born after the Spirit. So it is today. So it is today. It was so with
you and me until God made you spiritual. I pray that I help. Alright, let's stand together
and we'll be dismissed. Father, thank You for this. Thank
You for Christ not only healing, but to do it in a way to teach
us something about why we are rejected for His name. Make us to understand Lord, make us to remember how offensive
this gospel was before we heard it. Make us to understand how it
takes you to work this in the heart. And Lord, we pray for
our friends and our family and our loved ones that are in works and trusting themselves
and simply not trusting on Christ for any reason. And Lord, we
ask you, give them faith. If you're pleased to do it, if
it's going to glorify you and it's what you determined from
the world before the world began, we ask you, Lord, in your time
that you'd call them out. and make them see what glorious
rest they have in Christ. Make them rest in You. Thank
You, Lord, for everything You've done and all the complete and
total satisfaction You brought in Christ. Thank You for making
us rest in Him. Forgive us, Lord, for ever looking
anywhere else. We ask You, Lord, keep us always
in Him. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.