Turn with me, if you will, to
John, Chapter 5. The book of John, Chapter 5.
In John, Chapter 5, Verse 1 begins, After this, there was a feast
of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. After this, After
what? After what Brother William read.
You know, the second miracle, we all know the first miracle
the Lord did, he changed water into wine. But I didn't realize
that the second miracle that our Lord performed was here in
John 4, where this man's son, and notice that he was a noble
man. This man was a man of some power
or authority. And this man's son was sick.
And he came to where our Lord was in Jerusalem and besought
him to come down to Capernaum. He said, Ere lest my child die. And who among us wouldn't if
we had a child who we could see was about to die, and we heard
there was a man who could perform a miracle and save that child,
wouldn't go to him. and say, come down where I am.
Come make my child well, lest he die. And of course, our Lord
didn't have to go there. He didn't have to go there at
all. He merely spoke and the child was healed. And this pictures,
when God speaks the gospel, we know we're all sick, don't we?
We're all sick children. And if the Lord but speaks to
us, if he just speaks the gospel to us, it's possible we'll be
saved. We'll hear and we'll have life.
And if you look at verse two, then it says, let me reread verse
one. It says, after this, after that
miracle, there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to
Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem by
the sheep market or the sheep gate, a pool, which is called
in the Hebrew tongues, Bethesda, having five porches. Now think
just a minute about what the purpose of a sheep market is.
And they had these different gates in Jerusalem. And there
was one specifically to bring the sheep into the city. And
it's obvious what they were brought there for. Some of them were
brought there to be sheared. Others were brought in there
to be slaughtered. And still others were brought
in there to be bought and sold. And to the world, especially
the religious world, you know what God's sheep are? They're nothing for any other
purpose than to be sheared. You watch that on TV. You see
that shearing being done? Send us your money. We'll fix
you up. Or some are plain slaughtered.
They're just taken into bankruptcy. And others are bought and sold.
That's the only purpose to this religious world that God's sheep
serve. But, you know, God's sheep, as we'll see, were
brought into this sheep market in this pool. And I want us to
understand, first of all, this pool, we hear pool and we think
spa. We think of that beautiful, the
bottom of that pool painted blue so that the water looks so good.
And let me tell you, this was not a spa where they brought
this in. realized for a minute that what
the purpose of this place was, was where sheep were herded through
one gate and then brought to this pool for a drink of water
before they went on to be bought and sold, slaughtered, or sheared.
And there was nobody at the door
to wipe the feet of these sheep. They were bringing in with them
all the filth and the dirt that they walked through. You know
something about farm animals? They don't raise their hand and
go, I need to do my business. It doesn't matter if they're
outside, they do business outside. If they're inside, they do their
business inside. Do we realize what the floor
of this place must have been like? I mean, I don't know how
many hundreds or thousands of sheep trample through this place
every day. But do you get the picture that the floor of this
place was not a clean place? And that's exactly the same shape.
Christ always finds his people in a filthy place. Sinners by
nature are unclean. And sinners need repentance.
Notice the name of this place, though, is called Bethesda. Bethesda. And that has two meanings. One
is it's a place of flowing water. And secondly, it's a house of
mercy. So that the sheep were brought to that place. You know
what God does? He always brings his people to the water. And
who's the water of life? The Lord Jesus Christ. He brings
them to that. He also brings them to the place
where there's mercy to be found. And, you know, He doesn't bring us to be sheared,
slaughtered, or sold, but rather to be bought. And you know what
the price is? For one final time, the Lord
Jesus Christ buys us with the precious blood. God sent his
son to shed his blood as the purchase price for all his sheep. But notice that there's five
porches. There's not one, there's not
two, there's five. You say, that's a lot of porches.
That's right, because there was a lot of people, we'll see, in
this place. God in Christ is the place of
water. He's the place of life. And there's
plenty of room in Christ. No one will ever be able to say,
well, I didn't come to the Lord Jesus Christ because I just didn't
think there was room for me there. That won't be the case. But look
here at verse three, it says, in these five porches, lay a
great multitude of impotent folks in John chapter 5 verse 3. In
these lay a great multitude of impotent folk. I want us to turn
over to, hold this because we're coming right back, but turn over
to Colossians 2. And I want us to realize that there was a great
multitude of these people there. This place was packed. You say
five porches, that's a lot of room. It barely held all the
ones who wanted in this place. And we'll find out why in just
a minute. But there was not just a multitude,
not just a lot of people. There was a great multitude. This place was thronged. You
ever been in a place that was thronged where you just couldn't,
everywhere you moved, somebody else was moving, and Jocelyn,
you know, right? This place was packed. And we'll find out why
in just a minute. But you say, well, How did Christ
get into place? Well, he came through the sheep
gate. And there was a people just thronging him. They wanted
to see the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore, he was just moved
along through the path where the sheep went. He was just jostled
along through there. And you say, well, was there
room for him to get in there? That's a good question. But the
better question is, how did he get in us? How did the Lord Jesus
Christ ever get in us? And how is there room? We hear
there's a number of God's sheep, a number that no man can number.
How are we all going to get in Christ? Our pastor says it all
the time. He says, you need to be in Christ.
We need to be in Christ. Well, how's there room in there?
Let me show you the answer to that in Colossians 2. Have you
got it? Verse 9 says, For in him, that's in the Lord Jesus
Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now what
that's saying is that in this body that the Lord Jesus Christ
took on, you know how much room there is in him? The whole of
God fits in that man. Now that's pretty amazing, isn't
it? In one man, one body, all the
fullness of the Godhead resides there. You suppose there's room,
if there's room for God, you suppose there's room for you
and me? Is there room for just one more? Through the ages, how
many has He redeemed? How many has God taken by His
Spirit and put in the Lord Jesus Christ? You suppose there's room
for just one more, two more, a few more? There's plenty of
room in Him. But look just back on the same
page at Colossians 1, verse 19, read what it says. For it pleased
the Father that in Christ should all fullness dwell. And having
made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile
all things unto him, by him I say, whether they be things in earth
or things in heaven, and you that were sometimes alienating
enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and
unreprovable and unblameable in his sight. Do we see the picture
here? The Lord Jesus Christ was swept
into this room where there was a throng, there was a mob there.
And he could, you know, physically, he got through. Well, what did
he come for there? Who was in these five porches?
Go back to our text, John chapter five, and look at what it says
who was in there. In verse three, in these five
porches lay a great multitude of impotent folk, blind, halt,
withered, waiting for the moving of the water. Who was in there?
The word I want you to see here that's really important. You
see the word folk there? I looked that up. You know what
that word is? This folk here, it means as a
boy, who's been sold into slavery and is often beaten with impunity. It means a girl who is made a
slave and a servant and abused. Anybody here identify with that?
This place was full of just folk. Now, that makes me think about
the Lord did save, was it the Queen of England who said, my
favorite letter is M, And somebody said, why? And she said, because
in the Bible, it says, not many noble, not many rich. And thank
God for him, because if it weren't for him, it'd say not any. And
she said, and I'm a noble, and I want to be in Christ. So there
was, right before this, the second miracle, there was a noble, and
God saved his son, didn't he? Redeemed him. So thank God for
that. That's great. But anybody here
noble? Anybody here? We're just fabulously
rich. And we're just folk, aren't we?
We're just folk. And we're described here. We've
been abused and mistreated. We've mistreated and abused ourselves
in sin. But that's who Christ came to
see here. He came to a place that was just thronging with
folk. And what about them? It says
they're impotent. First of all, that means they're feeble. They're
diseased. It means they're strengthless.
These folks had serious problems. Some of them were blind. That
means they can't see. They can't see at all. Others
were halt. That means they were crippled
and either couldn't walk or barely could walk, their arms didn't
work, or they were withered. They were shrunken up to where
they couldn't just, you've seen that, haven't you? Doesn't it
break your heart? As a fellow walks up and down the streets,
there's two fellows now. One that's got, that can, It
limps hugely and there's another one now that had, I had a cousin
that had muscular dystrophy as a child and bless her heart how
she walked all withered up and you know what, that's who was
there, who was there. The nobles didn't come there,
the healthy didn't come there, just those that are sick with
sin. And that's who comes to Christ and that's what this place
is. This place is a porch in Bethesda
full of sick folk. And we've come for healing from
no one that can help us. Now, what were they doing? This,
I hope I can make a point here. You wanna know what they were
doing there? It says in verse three, they were waiting, waiting. They waited. Y'all getting tired of waiting
on my next line? We're not very good at waiting,
are we? But I tell you what, if there was ever anyone worth
waiting for, it's the Lord Jesus Christ. Just beg that he will
come where we are someday, somehow. Pray that for your children.
Don't you beg God to, we'll wait. We'll wait. By his
grace, we'll wait. But it's not our nature to wait.
But they were waiting. And after they waited, again
hold this and turn to Genesis 1. They were waiting for the
moving of the water. We do realize that water moves. The snow in the mountains, it
melts and then it starts moving down the mountain. And it joins
a creek and a stream and a river and eventually goes to the sea.
It's always moving. If you look at the ocean, it
just rises and falls, it moves. You can take a pan of water when
you get home and fill it up and let it sit there and just put
your finger in it and it moves, it ripples out. You paddle on
a stream or a lake, it's perfectly still and your waves will go
all the way to the shore. It moves. Water can be moved.
And they were waiting for the moving of the water. And read
verse four with me. Let me read it to you. You hold
Genesis 1 there and let me read verse 4 to you. It says, they
were waiting for the moving of the water for an angel went down
at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water,
moved the water. And whosoever then first after
the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever
disease they had. Now, remember these folks back
then didn't have the New Testament to see what was recorded there. But they did have some scripture. And look at the very first words
in God's word that he gave them that enabled them to maybe understand
what was happening at this pool of Bethesda. Chapter 1 of Genesis
1 says, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
The earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the
face of the deep. Sounds like me. Anybody else
hear themselves in that void, empty, dark? full of sin. The earth was a dark and void
place, and Abbas was on the face of the deep, and then listen
to this, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
God came. He didn't have to come here.
He didn't have to make man and put him here. He chose to. There was a purpose in it. Every
time Think about this, every time a wave rises and falls,
every stone that water rolls over, every time you fill a glass
with water and it moves, God is having mercy on somebody.
He is bringing the water of life to his people. It says, God said,
let there be light, and there was light, and God saw the light,
that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness.
He sent his son, Jesus Christ, the light of the world, into
the world, to redeem his people. Now, go back to John 4, where
it says there, John 5, verse 4, it says, an angel went down.
Now, God in the scriptures often manifested his presence through
angels. And sometimes, if you study this
out, you'll find that the angel was Christ himself. Sometimes
he actually came himself. He didn't send an angel on an
errand. He came himself. Other times the spirit of God
came without any physical being seen or something. And then sometimes
there were these angels, actual angelic beings. And I don't know
much about them except that they're in the scriptures. But one of
these came and we're not told who it was. That's not the important
point. The important point was that
in the midst of all these sick, horribly sick people, God came
down. He came down and manifested himself
in the presence. Christ came down as a babe born
to a woman and became a man. And the reason was that man's
sin must be put away by a man, only a man. could die for the
sins of men. God always makes his presence
known to his people. And you say, well, the rippling
of the water isn't much of a sign. Well, it was if you were the
first one in the pool. It was a sign. If you knew that's what
was going to happen, you were watching for that water. And,
you know, sometimes he comes and people just, most folks don't
even, aren't even aware. How many people in Jerusalem
didn't even know this was going on? You remember the Apostle
Paul was riding down the road, he didn't have a clue. And all
of a sudden, the voice of God came and put him on his face. And you know what everybody around
Paul heard? He said, it thundered, didn't it? Paul heard the voice
of God. God has to give us eyes to see
that the moving of the water is how he's saying, I'm coming,
I'm coming. And that's what's happening here. You know, sheep herders were
going through that gate all the time. They were herding those
sheep through there. And I suppose some of the sheep got a drink
and some just kept on going. And when they first came in there,
maybe the water was perfectly still. And the angel came and
rippled it. And most of those sheep herders
probably thought, well, there must be a breeze in here, a draft
or something. And maybe it's an earthquake.
No, it's better than that. God was manifesting his presence.
in the ripple of that water. The sick knew better. The impotent,
the blind, the halt, the withered. You know who hears the Lord Jesus
Christ? When our pastor stands up and preaches the gospel, you
know who he hears? The folk. The folk that are occasionally
a noble or rich, but just the withered up sick folks. And that's
because they have a need. And it's been so since the first
day. Look at verse four again, it
says, for an angel went down at a certain season into the
pool and troubled the water and whosoever then first after the
troubling of the water stepped in is made whole of whatsoever
disease he had. Thank God he manifests himself
to men, to his sheep. It doesn't matter who we are
or whatever we've done. Did you ever have the feeling,
anybody here ever had the feeling I suspect you have. You know,
why would the Lord save me? I'm too wicked. You ever doubt
your own salvation? You get in, do something that's
just, you think, that's despicable. That's wicked. I shouldn't have
done that. God can't possibly have any interest in saving me.
Ever had that thought? Well, you know what? He's able to save whoever you
are. by whatever you've done. Let
me help you remember this verse forever. There's two words here,
I'll underline them. You see the word whosoever? Anybody
here a whosoever? We all are whosoevers, aren't
we? It doesn't matter, whosoever, you don't have to be rich, you
don't have to be famous, you don't have to be noble, you don't
have to be anything. You don't have to be highly educated. Whosoever
you are. And then look at the word down
below, whatsoever. Whosoever you are, no matter
what you've done, don't ever have the thought again, I'm too
wicked to be saved. You're just one of the folks.
We're just one of the folks. Whosoever you are and whatsoever
you've done. Whatsoever we've done. Christ
is able to save whosoever from the whatsoever. But it says that
a certain season. Now some think that this might
have been even once a day. Other old writers thought it
was once a week, once a month, once a year. It doesn't really
matter. Most think that it happened at
a totally unpredictable, undiscernible time. There was no, God's not
on the schedule to save his people. All right? He's going to do it
when he chooses, how he chooses, as he chooses. And if you look
back just a page to John 3, folks, God's folks don't always
know exactly. Don't let it trouble you if you
don't know. If you can't say, on January the 7th of 1985 or
whatever. If you can't say the when, because
the when is not the important thing, it's the who. But God's
folks don't always know exactly when the Lord troubled the water
for them. Some know pretty much, you know, it was right in this
meeting and that's all fine. But it's not important when as
it is who. Look at John 3 verse 5 which
says, Jesus answered, barely, barely, I say unto thee, except
a man be born of water and of spirit, he cannot enter into
the kingdom of God. What was happening in this pool?
The spirit of God was coming down and troubling the water.
If that happens, he's come to us. Verse six says, that which
is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the
spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee,
you must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
And now here's the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it cometh,
and whither it goes, so is every one that is born of his spirit.
Don't let it trouble you if you don't know when. That's not the
important fact. Just know that it did. I tell
you what, everybody who was in that place on one of those porches
when the water was troubled, and they were the first one in,
they don't care when, they know it happened. And they think,
God, he made me whole. I'm all well. God's folks know
that whenever it was, there are whosoever that got cured of their
whatsoever by the Lord Jesus Christ. Whenever it was is not
the issue. All God's people will know it
certainly did happen and who did it. All these folks knew
it was happening and wanted it to happen for them. How about
us folks? Do we want this to happen? Do
we want Christ to come where we are and do for us what we
can't do for ourselves? Well, what was the sign of the
angels coming? The pool water was troubled.
It was a sure sign that a messenger of God was at hand. And many
women get troubled, get aware of sin when Christ comes to them,
his spirit comes. Listen, you know what false prophets
try to do? These guys on TV and stuff, they try to tell you everything's
okay. It's going to be all right, don't they? False prophets try
to calm you down, reassure you it'll be okay when it's not going
to be all right. If a loved one gets trouble,
don't us try to calm them down. Let them be troubled. That could
be the worst possible thing in the world we could do is get
them untroubled. If God untroubles them, that's one thing. He'll
save them. The worst possible thing is for us to try to salve
what God's troubling, try to calm it down. If God's spirit
calms, that's a permanent solution. If he troubles us and then settles
us down, troubles the water and then he calms it out again, that
means he's come, he's done what needs to be done and it's gonna
be all right. If we see that Christ took our trouble at Calvary,
that'll calm us down, but nothing else will. Now, in verse 4, you
saw that the first to step in, when that happened, can we imagine
how happy somebody was? There's a lot of people sick
right now. A lot of people got this and
that and the other thing. And obviously, there were some
people that were really sick. This list wasn't somebody had
a cold or somebody had the flu. Somebody was eating up with something.
Can we just imagine how happy? When the water was trouble and
somebody got in there first, you say, well, who? Somebody, one of the folks, one
of the folks. You know, that's a scriptural
term. Do we realize that God is going to save somebody, somebody? Why not you? Why not me? He's
going to save somebody. And the reason that's a scriptural
term is there was a woman who'd been sick for 12 years. with
an issue of blood. She's seen all the doctors, they
couldn't make her well. You know what she did? She got
down on her hands and knees in the filth of the road and crawled
through the mob, through all the other people, and got up
there and reached out and touched the hem of his garment, and the
Lord said, somebody, somebody touched me. You know who the
somebody was? One of his bodies, one of his
folks, and he made her whole. He made it all better. Well,
look at verse 5 with me. Turn back to John 4, verse 5. And a certain man was there which
had an infirmity 30 and 8 years. You say, how old was this man?
It doesn't say. Some thought he's 38. He was
born this way. That'd be like us, wouldn't it?
How sin sick are we? We were born that way. We've
been that way since the beginning. And if God doesn't change it,
we'll die that way. But then notice it says in verse
six that when Jesus saw him lie, laying there, and knew that he
had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, will
thou be made whole? Modern religion is asking the
wrong question. You know what they're asking,
folks? Would you be rich? Would you be famous? Would you
like to have a successful walk? Would you like to be happy? That's
the question they're asking. Our Lord said to this man, he
said, what did he say to him? He said, would you be made whole?
That implies there's something wrong with us. And there is,
folks. We're born in trespasses and
sin. Look what happened in this man's answer in verse 7. He said,
the impotent man answered him, sir, I have no man when the water
is troubled to put me into the pool. But while I'm coming, another
steppeth down before me. You say, well, of course he wanted
to be made whole. Who wouldn't? Somebody crippled up and can't
walk, can hardly move. They've been that way for 38
years. Of course he's worn out with
it. He's sick and tired of it. When the water was troubled,
let me tell you something. This man, I don't know how many
years he'd been there, how many days in a row he'd been there,
and how many times he'd seen the water troubled, and how many
somebodies he'd been saved. When that water was troubled,
you know what this man did? He started. He clawed and crawled
and begged God, get me there, get me, I wanna be in the pool. And somebody'd leap over and
go in the pool and be made all well. I cannot imagine the frustration
this man lived with day after day after day. And you know what
he came to find out? He wanted to be made whole. The
answer there, of course he wanted to be made whole. But you know what he realized?
What it would take to get in the pool, and that he couldn't
do it. By nature, it doesn't matter
how much we want to be whole. We can't do it. We can't get
there. It's like somebody nailed this
man's feet to the concrete. Didn't matter how much he clawed
and crawled and tried. What was his free will worth
to him now? It's ridiculous. Free will. Salvation from sin. What it takes,
we can't do it ourselves and we need a man who can do it for
us. Did you hear what he said? He
said, I have no man. I have no man. This is hard,
he had nobody to get him from where he was to where he needed
to be. This man was making every effort, imagine his effort, struggling
when the water moved. He flailed, grappled, crawled,
clawed, 38 years of his life to no avail. He said, while I'm
coming, I'm trying to come, I want to come, I'm coming, I'm trying,
he said, Somebody just steps over me every time. He says,
before me, he could not get where he wanted to be on his own. What
was this man's free will? Worthless. What are our efforts,
our good works? They're not worth anything, folks.
They're just not worth anything. He had no man to help him and
he couldn't do it himself. So look what the Lord said in
verse eight. Jesus said to him, rise. He just spoke to him. Rise,
take up thy bed, and walk. What do you suppose he did when
the Lord said that to him? He picked up that bed, stood
up, and he walked out of the place. He did just, if God ever
speaks to us, you know what we'll do? Exactly what he tells us
to. What happened to this man's lameness?
You know, I said the Lord takes our infirmities. He takes on
all our sicknesses, takes on our sin. This is a great picture.
What happened to this man's lameness? I said before, it's like his
feet were nailed in the concrete. You know where this man's lameness
went? The Lord Jesus Christ drug that cross up that hill and let
his feet be nailed to the cross. He was nailing this man's lameness
on himself. Is that a great picture of what
Christ did for us on the cross? At Calvary, they nailed his feet
to the tree for this man's infirmity. And whatsoever, whosoever among
you folks Has been done, Christ took care of it. Don't ever think
I'm too wicked. He was able to take this man's
problem on, wasn't he? And it had been 38 years long. He took
it, put it away at the cross and it's gone, never to be mentioned
again. And he made this man, I suppose this man walked more
perfectly than anybody that ever did. He came out of that place
with that bed, with a step in his get you up or giddy up in
his step or whatever. This man did what Christ commanded.
He took up his bed and walked. And look at verse nine. And immediately
the man was made whole and took up his bed and walked. And on
the same day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said unto
him, that was cured. It's a Sabbath day. It's not
lawful for thee to carry thy bed. Now it's just disgusting. Everybody, all these Jews knew
this man. Jerusalem wasn't that big. And
they all knew that there was a fella been laying over in the
pool of Bethesda. There'd been a lot of them come
through there, got healed when the water was troubled. This
fella's gone every day for 38 years or however long it was.
You know what they knew about him? He was a cripple. And then they look up and here
he comes carrying his bed down through them. And they, you know
what their first statement is? What are you doing carrying your
bed? Don't you know that's unlawful? Man, is that religion in our
day? They don't care who Christ is. They care about themselves.
All the things they could have said, look, Joseph is healed. He can walk. Tell us who did
this. This is amazing. No, they just
wanted to persecute him because he was doing something on the
Sabbath, breaking their rules. Verse 11 says, and he answered
them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, take up
thy bed and walk. They didn't ask who yet. Only
when he said, somebody did it for me. And then they asked him,
what man is this that said unto thee, take up thy bed and walk?
Did they want to worship him? Did they want to admire him?
Did they want to explain what he'd done? No. Look at verse
13. And he that was healed wist not
who it was. For Jesus had conveyed himself
away, a multitude being in that place, the mob, was sweeping
him through there and our Lord said, stand still, stop. And
he said to that man, would you be my dog? And you know what
happened. And then the mob swept him right
on out of the place. This man just did what Christ
said. He picked up his bed and walked. And for this purpose,
to expose the Jews for what their religion was worth. And at verse
14, after Jesus, find him in the temple. Now this is interesting.
Our Lord went looking for the man again. It wasn't enough that
he just made him whole. He was going to have this man
be with him where he was. He had to tell him who he was,
what he'd done, why he did it, and where he was now. And he
found him in the temple. I just wonder if the man, not
knowing what had happened, but went to the temple of God to
give thanks. God's people will do that. You
don't have to beg God's people to come hear the gospel preached
to give thanks to Christ. If he makes us well, if he makes
us whole, you know what we'll do? We'll be here Wednesday night,
we'll be here Sunday morning twice, we'll be here Sunday night,
we'll be here every chance we get. We want to give thanks for
what he's done for us because we couldn't do it for ourselves.
So verse 15, the man departed and told the Jews that it was
Jesus which had made him whole. And therefore did the Jews persecute
Jesus and sought to slay him because he'd done these things
on the Sabbath day. They didn't worship him for what
he'd done, they tried to kill him for it. You know what this man did though?
He spent the rest of it, he didn't know who it was that did it for
him until the Lord revealed himself to him. And then he spent the
rest of his life telling anybody who would listen who Christ was,
what he'd done for him, and so will we. Religion rejoices not in what
God does. We're too busy being proud of
what we do. That's what religion is. Now,
let me give you this real quick. Over the years, this fella had
experienced some things, and we can only imagine his frustration
and heartache. There was a day when he probably
was there, and you know, the angel hadn't come, and he was
there, and he was just laying on his bed, and he got tired,
Got more tired and finally he just dozed off. And in a minute
there was a commotion. And he raises up and he sees
his friend Samuel here leaping into the pool and he's got no
arms, right? And he leaps in the pool and
comes out. He thinks, I went to sleep, I could have got there
this time maybe. And then there's another day,
he's there and You know, he hadn't been feeling well, and he thought,
tomorrow I'm gonna stay home. I can't do this anymore right
now, and he stayed home. The next day he came, and first
thing they told him was, Lord, trouble, the angel came yesterday.
And he thinks, I wasn't here, I missed it. Then there was the day, I don't
know who brought this fella, maybe his dad, his son, his brother. We endeavor to do that, don't
we? We want to bring anybody who'll come with us. We want
them here to hear the gospel, that they might be made whole.
I'm sure it got old sometimes. They didn't show up to bring
him. But then there was the day he got there, and he got there
early. And he was, he got the best spot. He was in the closest
place he could be to the pool and he thought, today I'm going
to make it. Today I'm going to make it. And
he's laying there and the water's trouble and he starts and he
gets to where he's almost able to go in and somebody else leaps
over him and goes in. And we'd like to think he's happy
for this fellow that he got in. Can we live the frustration this
man had? He could not find the way to
be made whole. He couldn't get there on his
own. And you say, well, you know, the only difference in this man
and us is the whosoever and the whatsoever. His whosoever was
he was a lame man for 38 years. His whatsoever is he couldn't
do anything. He was lame. What's our case? Whatever it is, sins caused it
and Christ was able to fix it. This poor man never got from
this place what he went for. You know where that place is
now? I looked it up. You know what Bethesda is now? Okay. There's no pool. There's no sheep gate. The cistern
is dry. It's just a pile of rubble. Salvation
is not in the place. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ
who comes to the place where we are. Our Lord had to come
to the place where this man was and caused him to see his real
problem. Now let me just, I'll end it
with this. You want to know what his real problem is? Look at
verse 7 of John 5. The impotent man answered him.
The Lord said, will you be made whole? And this impotent man
answered him, and sir, I have no man. When the water's troubled,
put me into the pool. His trouble was, the Lord has
a way of asking questions that expose what it is we need. And
the answer he gave was, I have no man. I have no man. Can we ask ourselves tonight,
do I have a man? Do I have a man? He needed a
man, that's obvious. Is it obvious to us that we need
a man? By nature, spiritually, we need a man to do for us what
we cannot do for ourselves. We can't save ourselves from
sin to righteousness any more than this man could save himself
from that stinking floor into that pool. He could not do it. The man Christ Jesus came to
do for this man what he's done for all his sheep. to do whatever
it is they needed for whosoever they are. And I'm gonna read
you something that a man wrote, he happened to be a noble man,
but he had been come to by the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm not
gonna have you turn, I'm just gonna read it to you. And I hope
this does for you what it did for me when I realized this.
This man wrote this, he said, the Lord, is my shepherd." He
said, I have a man and he's my shepherd. And he said, I shall
not want. He said, he, I have a man who
makes me to lie down in green pastures. He said, he, I have
a man who leads me beside what? Still waters. He troubled the
waters and he stilled them and that's where he leads me. He
I have a man who restored my soul. He, I have a man who leads
me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake, for his
own sake. He is the man that does this.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of shadow death, I fear
no evil, for thou, I have a man who's with me. Thy rod, whose
rod? I have a man that has a rod of
justice that's been satisfied. Thy rod and thy staff, I have
a man that's got a staff. He cares for me. He keeps me. He does for me what I need. They
comfort me. Thou, I have a man that prepares
a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Thou, I have a
man that anoints my head with oil that my cup runs over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the
house of the Lord, for I'll dwell, I have a man. I'm gonna dwell
in his house forever. Well, I hope that'll bless you.
Brother Dwight, closing hymn.