Well, good morning again. Turn
if you would to John chapter 5. Once again, on behalf of me and
Jamie, we just want to say how thankful we are to be here with
you today. John chapter 5, and while you're
turning there, I want to ask you a question. Have you all
ever considered the hatred, the hatred, that the Pharisees had
for our Lord Jesus Christ? You ever consider that hatred?
They did hate him, didn't they? You read of many places in the
scripture where these self-righteous Jews, they attempted to discredit
our Lord. They thought they were smarter
than him. They thought that they could entangle him in some sort of lie. They
went around speaking lies about him. They would tell men that
he was Satan himself. When all that failed, when all
these attempts to discredit him had failed, what'd they do? They
sought his death. That's hatred. So where did that
all begin? How did that all start? I'll
tell you, it started right here in this story in John chapter
5 at the Pool of Bethesda. That's where it all started.
I want to read this story to you. I want to make a few comments
on some of the verses just to set things up and I just have
a few points that were a blessing to me and I pray the Lord making
them a blessing to you today as well. So you pick up in John
5 verse 1. It says, and after this there was a feast of the
Jews. And Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which
is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. Now this word Bethesda, it means
house of mercy or house of kindness. And to give you a visual of what
you would have seen there, if you can imagine a pool of water,
likely a fountain, down near ground level. And then coming
away from this pool in every direction would have been porches,
just steps. coming away from in every direction
amphitheater style. And there would have been some
sort of a covering, a ceiling of some sort, a roof that would
shade the multitude from the hot sun. And this sheep market
that's referred to here, this is likely the sheep gate we read
of in Nehemiah where the sacrificial animals are herded into the temple
for sacrifice. And so we have a house of mercy
and it's positioned next to the sheep. So look down at verse
three. It says, in these lay a great
multitude of impotent folk. of blind, halt, withered, waiting
for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain
season in the pool and troubled the water. Whosoever then, first
after the troubling of the water stepped in, was made whole of
whatsoever disease he had." Now, envision this for a second. We
don't know when this season was. Could have been once a day, once
a week, once a month, once a year, once every five years, we just
don't know. But what we do know is that in a particular season,
an angel would come down and he would trouble these waters,
this pool. He would give those waters a healing virtue. And
whoever stepped first into this pool, whichever man got into
that pool first, he was made absolutely whole, completely
cured of whatever disease he had. Now if you think about this
for a section, what a commotion this must have caused. Figure
the angels come down, the water's troubled, and all of a sudden,
everybody wants to be the first one in the pool. Men are fighting
with each other, trying to hold each other back, trying to be
the first one in. Men who can walk, who aren't crippled, they're
just trying to thrust themselves into the pool. Imagine mothers
with sick babies, sick babies, and they're just tossing them
off the porches, all in hopes that they will be the first ones
splashing this pool and they will be made whole of their disease. And I thought about this from
the outside looking in. This was probably a very pitiful thing
to watch. It's a very sad thing to watch. And so if you would
pick up in verse five, it says, and a certain man was there,
which had an infirmity 30 and eight years. And when Jesus saw
him lie and knew that he had been now a long time in that
case, he saith 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. The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured,
It is the Sabbath day. It is not lawful for thee to
carry thy bed. He answered them, he that made me whole, the same
said unto me, take up thy bed and walk. Now notice for a moment
these Pharisees. Here we have probably the best
known man at Bethesda's Pool. He had been crippled for 38 years. And now he is up and he is walking
and he is carrying his bed. A miracle has clearly taken place
here. But these Pharisees, they're
not rejoicing for this man. They're not happy for him. They're
not joyful for him. They're skeptical. They're skeptical of the means
by which this man has been made whole. And by virtue, they are
skeptical of the great physician himself. So look down at verse
12. Then asked they him, what man
is that which said unto thee, take up thy bed and walk? And
he that was healed wist not who it was, for Jesus had conveyed
himself away, a multitude being in that place. Now make note
of that. This man was made whole, and initially he had no idea
who it was who had made him whole. Down to verse 14. Afterward Jesus
findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art
made whole. Sin no more, lest a worse thing
come unto thee. 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 had done these things on the Sabbath day. So why did these
Pharisees hate our Lord? Why did they seek to kill him? Where did it all start? It started
right here, right here, where our Lord made a man whole on
the Sabbath day. See, these religious Jews, these
self-righteous Jews, these Pharisees, they believed in do and live. They said, well, we get circumcised,
and we keep the laws, and we keep the feasts, and we honor
the Sabbath, and in return for that, we're given eternal life.
That's what we believe. And they hated our Lord because
the message he preached and the actions he took defied their
self-righteous religion. The Lord told these men in no
uncertain terms that no man can do No man can come up with a
good work, that all men are by nature dead in sins. He told
them that he was the Christ. And if any man was going to be
saved, it was going to be by him. And when these men perceived
that they were in the hands of a sovereign God that could do
with them whatever he wanted, that's when they said, we're
not going to have this man to rule over us. We're going to
kill him. So this is where it started.
In this story of Bethesda, it's a very interesting story. It's
very intriguing. And in this story, I see four major things,
and I want to bring them out to you. I pray it'll be a blessing to
you. First, I see a picture of the depravity of all men by nature. Second, I see a warning. Third,
I would like to examine this man whom the Lord made whole
physically. And lastly, I'd like to take
a look at what it looks like when the Lord makes a man whole
spiritually. What's involved there? What does
that look like? So look back at verse 3, if you would, in
John 5. Verse 3 speaks of the multitude. The multitude of people that
are at Bethesda's pool. Now this is a very pitiful bunch of people,
is it not? They were a very sick bunch of people. These men had
absolutely no hope of curing themselves. They wouldn't have
been at Bethesda's pool if they could have. And there are four
words used here to describe these people physically. And I can't
help but notice that these four words that are used to describe
these men physically, they are excellent words that can be used
to describe every man by nature spiritually. And the first word
is impotent. Impotent. What does it mean to
be impotent? It means to be unable. Absolutely
unable, without strength, and without power. And understand
there's no trivial thing that impotence is listed first in
this list of words. It's listed there because it
is our broadest category. I'll give you an example of that.
I have a daughter. She's five years old. And if I wanted to
use the most general term I knew to describe her, I would say
she's human. She's human. That's the most general term
I know. And then under that umbrella of human, I can give you more
detailed information. I can tell you that she's female.
She's Caucasian. She has strawberry blonde hair,
so on and so forth. That's why impotence, though, is listed
as the first word here is because it is all-encompassing considering
the state of the natural man. By nature, we are spiritually
unable, spiritually without strength, spiritually without power. The
next three words there are then used to describe in what ways
we are unable, that we are without power. And the first word is
blind. Blind doesn't mean to be blind. It means you can't
see. By nature, men are unable to
see who God is. I can't see him in his holiness.
I can't see him in his righteousness, in his power, in his mercy, in
his grace. The natural man cannot see God
for who he is. By contrast, the natural man
cannot see himself for who he is. We cannot see our sinfulness. We cannot see our wretchedness.
We cannot perceive our poverty in righteousness. We are spiritually
blind. Next word there is halt. Halt. This word speaks of an inability
to walk correctly. And I was thinking about this,
this thing of walking. In Genesis 17.1, it says, the Lord's talking
to Abraham and he says, Abraham, walk before me and be thou perfect. Now make no mistake, the Lord
demands a perfect walk of obedience in his holy law. But we, all
men by nature, we are unable to walk. We are unable to keep
the law. But understand this. Our inability
to keep the law does not cancel out our responsibility to keep
the law. I'd offer you this. For an occupation,
what I do for a living, I'm a police officer. And so, by virtue, I
have an interest in laws. And I'm not talking about the
Ten Commandments or the deck of law. I'm talking about the
laws that men create. I find it interesting that men
have come together and have created a charter of rules and regulations
that govern a man's actions while he's in this world. And we do
not allow a man's inability to keep the law to negate his responsibility. I'll give you this example. Let's
say a man is a serial killer, and he has killed many innocent
people. And he's caught. He's caught red-handed, and he's
brought before the court, and he stands before the judge. He
says, Judge, you got me. I did it. I killed all those
people I didn't in cold blood. But here's the thing. Ever since
the day I was born, I have had this overwhelming compulsion
to kill. I've tried to stop. I just can't. Kill I must. I can do no other. Does anyone
here think that we should let that man go free? No? No, not if we have any sense
of justice. But yet, when the natural man looks at God's holy
law and he sees he can't keep it, he says the law is too strict.
God's too holy. And he finds fault with the law.
He finds fault with the Lord. Instead of finding fault where
he should. That is with myself. With ourself. We're blind, we're
halt. And the last word is withered.
Withered. Now this physical ailment, it
pertains mainly to the hands and the arms. It's where the
moisture or the life, it leaves the limb. And the limb becomes
useless. It becomes unprofitable. For
a moment, what do the hands do? They work, don't they? They work. And this is our case by nature.
We are unable to produce good works. We are spiritually withered,
impotent, blind, halt, and withered. And so the question that arises,
why? Why are we in this case? Turn to Ephesians 2 and look
at verse 1. When you read this, it was such
a blessing to me because it fits so well. It's great. I just want
you to hear how Paul refers to the church at Ephesus. Why are
we like this? Why are we impotent and blind and halt and wither?
Ephesians 2.1 says, and you hath he quickened, who were what?
Dead in trespasses and sins. Why are we impotent? Why are
we without strength? without power, it's because we
are born in this world spiritually dead. Now, let's ask the obvious
question, what can a dead man do? Can a dead man do anything
to bring himself back to life? Can he rebirth himself? Can a
dead man believe the gospel? Can a dead man hear the gospel?
Can a dead man repent of his sins? Can he muster faith? Say, no, no, you surely can't.
A dead man is dead. Folks, that's our case by nature.
We are impotent folk who are spiritually dead. So the question
then is how? How did this all come to be?
Why are we in this case? Turn to Romans 5, verse 12. Romans 5 verse 12 says, Wherefore,
as by one man, sin entered the world, and death by sin. And
so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. So
who is this one man by whom sin entered the world? Who is this?
This is our first father Adam of Eden. You all know the story.
The Lord placed Adam in the garden. He said, Adam, everything has
been provided for you. You can eat of every fruit of every tree
in this garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, that one tree. The day you eat thereof, you shall surely
die." And what did Adam do? He ate the fruit. He disobeyed
God. And when he did, he died. He didn't die physically, not
immediately. He died spiritually. Adam lost his innocent nature,
and he took on a sinful, evil nature that was incapable of
anything but sin. And so someone asked, Okay, well, I see how
Adam ended up with that spiritually dead nature. I understand that.
Why do I have it? Why do you have it? Turn, if
you would, to 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15, and look at verses
20 through 22. To answer that question, why you and I have
this spiritually dead nature, we must first see how God deals
with men. 1st Corinthians 15 20 through
22 says and now Christ hath risen out of the dead the firstfruits
of those sleeping he became since through man is the death also
through man is arising again of the dead for even as an Adam
all die so also in the Christ also be made alive so how does
God deal with men well according to scripture is through two representatives
the first one is our first father Adam wherein all die And the
second one is the Lord Jesus Christ, where in all, speaking
of his elect people, shall be made alive. Now understand this,
just as every believer, we talked about this at Sunday school,
just as every believer has always shared an eternal union with
the Lord Jesus Christ, every man born in this world shares
a union with our first father, Adam. He is our federal head.
And if you'll notice, back in Romans 5.12, you don't have to
turn back there, I'll quote it to you. The scripture said, death passed
upon all men for that all have sinned. It does not say that
Adam's sin was in some way ceremoniously laid to my charge. It says all
have sinned. And so someone may say then,
they may ask the question, you know, Aaron, I don't know this
Adam. I've never met this guy before. And I certainly don't
think it's fair that I suffer the burden of his disobedience.
Okay, for a moment, my answer to that would be this. For a
moment, forget the past. Forget the past. Focus solely on the
present. Do you and I not presently sin? Do we not presently commit evil
acts and think evil thoughts, and our affections are evil,
and we have evil intentions and evil motives? Is that not presently
our case? That's the case with me. To be
honest, that's the case with me presently. And where is Adam? My friends, Adam has been dead
for thousands of years, maybe more. He has not been here. He's
not been around to force us into sinning against God. We have
done that just fine on our own. So another man may say, well,
what about the Lord? Could the Lord have prevented
the fall of Adam if he wanted to? Absolutely he could have. So a man says, well, it's his
fault. It must be the Lord's fault. If he could have prevented
it, he should have prevented the fall of Adam. That's what got
us in this mess in the first place. It's his fault. I would say this. This is a very dangerous line
of thinking, and it will get you absolutely nowhere. And the
Scripture actually has a response to this line of thinking. Turn
to Romans 9 for a moment. Romans 9, look at verse 20. says, Nay, but O man, who art
thou that replyest against God? Shall a thing formed say to him
that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? What right do we
have to dictate to the Lord how He purposes His creation? None. We are the thing formed. Now, my friends, we can go no
further in this message until we have nailed down this point.
I pray the Lord would give us the grace to see this this day,
and it's this. It's that my sin, the reason
for my spiritual death, is all my fault. There is no room to
blame Adam. There is no room to blame the
holiness and the sovereignty of the Lord. My sin is all my
fault. So that's the first point is
the depravity of all men by nature. And second, I told you I saw
a warning in here, a warning. Somebody says, well, I see that.
I see that. Yeah, I am totally depraved. I get that. Well, what
am I supposed to do? Let's first look at what we are
not to do. Look back at verse three in John five. I want you
to see this. In verse three, there is a word,
it's a verb that's used to describe what this multitude at Bethesda
is doing. And this verb is waiting. It's
waiting. Now understand, there is a sense
in which waiting is a good thing. There is waiting on the Lord.
And I think that speaks mainly to times of trial and tribulation.
It's where, despite our present circumstances, we trust that
everything is by His hand. Everything He does is right,
and it's right because He does it. Everything He does is for
His glory and for our good, and we trust Him. We trust Him. Even
if He slays me, I trust Him. There's waiting for his return.
It's where we start to see this world for what it is. We're just
passing through. It's really a dead thing. And our scope starts
to narrow. And we don't find our joy here
anymore. We long for the day. We wait for the day when we will
see the Lord Jesus Christ face to face. when we will be perfectly
conformed to his image, when we will share a perfect communion
with him. It's good waiting. It's good
waiting. But the word waiting, as it's used here in our text,
this is not waiting in a positive sense. This is waiting in a negative
sense. This is the waiting in unbelief.
And this is my fear for all of us, my fear for me, fear for
all of us, that we would perceive our need of salvation. But something
will cause us to wait. We would wait and we would not
come to Christ. We would not believe on Him. We would not
trust Him solely as our only hope of acceptance before God
the Father. And so I thought about it. I
thought, why might a man think he needs to wait? What thoughts
might be out there? What fears might be out there? And the first thing I thought
was, perhaps a man believes that he has no right to come to the
Lord Jesus Christ. He has no right to believe him.
He has no right to trust him. That he will be rejected if he
comes. Ever thought that way? I'd like to say that I used to
think that way. This old fear still comes up.
I want to meet this fear though with a scripture. Turn to John
6 verse 37. Let's answer this fear right
now. John 6 verse 37. says, all that the father giveth
me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. My dear friends, we should never
doubt our Lord's willingness to save a sinner. The more wretched
the sinner, the more willing the Savior to save. Now we looked
at this morning. The Lord says in his word, I
came not to call the righteous. If you're a righteous man, If
you are righteous by your own estimate, if you believe that
you can muster something that the Lord could be pleased with,
that he could find acceptable in and of yourself, then make
no mistake, you will be rejected. I will be rejected. But a sinner,
a sinner will in no wise be cast out. I tell you what, that makes
me happy. It makes me happy because I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner and
we have every right to come. It's sinners he's came to save.
So then I thought, why else? Perhaps a man's waiting to get
better. He says, well, I need to get my life straightened out.
You know, I need to stop thinking this way. I need to stop committing
this sin. You know, I need to get these
things ironed out. And don't misunderstand me. I am an advocate
of getting your life straightened out. I don't want to sin anymore
either. I don't. I don't. But I'll offer you this,
and this is, for what it's worth, this is my experience. With every
day that passes, I do not find that I get any better. I find
that I only get worse. See, my sins are ever before
me, and if I were to wait until I was better to come to Christ,
beloved, I would never come. I would never come. And I think
of the song we sing, just as I am, without one plea, and what
is that plea? That thy blood was shed for me,
and that thou bidst me, you bidst me, come to thee, O Lamb of God,
I come, I come. Don't wait to get better. It's
not going to happen. It's not going to happen. Perhaps a man
waits to know more. He says, well, I need to get
my doctrine lined up. I need to get a better understanding
of the mechanics behind how the Lord saves a sinner. Well, once
again, I'll tell you this, from my experience, for what it's
worth, every scripture I read, every opportunity I get to witness
in some form, I find I know less and less. The gospel is more
vast. It's more broad. It's more deep.
It's more mysterious to me now and every day than it's ever
been. So a man says, well, what do
you have to know? What do you have to know? Are you a sinner?
Do you know that you're a sinner? Do you know that every imagination
of the thoughts of your heart is only evil continually? Do
you know that? Do you know that he is able to save even me, even
you? all by himself, your works and
my works completely excluded." You know that? Folks, you know
everything. You know everything. Come to
Christ. Believe on Him. Don't wait to know more. Perhaps a man waits for a feeling. He wants to sit and hear the
gospel preached. You want to have some sort of
warm sensation come over him. And I think of the song we sing,
though. Feelings come and feelings go, but feelings are deceiving.
Christ, the mighty maker, died. Not else is worth believing.
I'll tell you, you can ask Jamie. My feelings are all over the
place. One day I'm up, one day I'm down. But the Lord Jesus
Christ and his finished work, it is constant. It is completely
unchanging. Don't rely on your feelings.
And then finally, maybe a man waits for a miracle. He's waiting
for lightning to strike. He wants to be spoken to from
a burning bush, but what we must understand is that it's not often,
it's very rare, that the Lord brings any man to a saving knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ through extraordinary circumstances.
It is through the preaching of the gospel, the foolishness of
preaching, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Now I would ask
you this, have you heard? Have you heard? You come to Christ,
believe on Him and wait for nothing. It says, okay, if I'm not commanded
to wait, what do I do then? What am I to do? Turn to Matthew
11, 28. Y'all already know the answer, but I wanted to show
you from the scripture. What are we to do? Matthew 11, 28 says, come unto
me, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and
I will give you rest. What are we to do? Come unto
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Now this verse of scripture is
commonly referred to as the great invitation. And I understand
why it would be referred to like that, because it is so incredibly
inviting. It's so incredibly gracious, there's nothing harsh
about it. But I want us to see what this verse of scripture
is first and foremost, and that is a command. It is a command. And I was thinking of this thing
of commands ages ago. I was in the Marine Corps. And
while I was in the Marine Corps, I remembered any time you would
switch duty stations or you would switch job roles, you would change
bases, they would issue you orders. Orders. It was a document. It
was a document that told you everything you needed to do to
make that transition. And there was no doubt who those orders
were addressed to. It had your name in big, bold letters along
the top. And it told you everything you
needed to do. It told you where you were supposed to report to. It
told you what date and time you were supposed to be there. It
even told you what uniform you were supposed to be wearing when you showed
up. It told you everything. And make no mistake, this was
no invitation. This was a command. And the Corps
had the power to ensure that I obeyed the command. They could
cause me to do it. And it is no different with our
Lord. He issues us this gracious command, come unto me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. So someone says, how do I know
that my name is written in big, bold letters along the top? How
do I know that that command is addressed to me? Well, I would
ask this, do you fit the description of the one to whom it is addressed?
those that labor and are heavy laden. Have you labored in this
thing of trying to justify yourself before a holy God and you found
that you just can't? Are you heavy laden with everything
I've done and everything I've said and everything I've thought
and everything I've intended and all my sins and they built
up on your back like a great burden? Do you labor? Have you labored? Are you heavy
laden? My friends, if that fits you, if that fits your description,
then this command is to you. You are commanded to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. You are commanded to come to
Him. You are commanded to trust Him,
trust Him as your only hope of acceptance before God the Father.
This command is to you. And this is my favorite part
of this command. Because we talked about being spiritually dead,
we lack the ability to do that which is spiritual. This is my
favorite part of this command, is that with the command, it
comes the ability. I was reading and I came across
this, it was one of Spurgeon's old sermons, and he talked about
what it looked like when a sinner first came to Christ, what that
looked like. And what he wrote moved me in
such a way, I'm just going to read it to you verbatim because
he said it better than I ever could. So this is Spurgeon talking, he
said, this is what it looks like when a sinner first comes to
Christ. He said, so sometimes we think, how can I believe?
How can I hope? How can I follow Christ? Ah,
but let Christ get near us and he finds us with all that. We
do not come to Christ to bring our repentance, but to get repentance.
We do not come to him with a broken heart but for a broken heart.
We do not so much even come to him with faith as to come to
him for faith. Does this fit the description
of anyone here this morning? Is there anyone here who needs
to be given the ability to believe? Is there anyone here that has
to be given the ability to repent, to change your mind about who
God is and who you are, to take sides with him against yourself? Does anyone need to be given
the gift of faith, the ability to trust Christ? Is that anybody
here? That's me. I'll tell you, that's
me. I have to have those things. I have to be given those things.
Beloved, we know where we can find it. Come to the Lord Jesus
Christ and He finds us with all that. So we saw the depravity of all
men. We saw the warning. We are to wait for nothing. No
man is commanded to wait in unbelief. What's our call? Come to Christ.
Believe on Him. Wait for nothing. Now let's take
the time to look at this certain man. This certain man. This man
whom the Lord made whole. Look at John 5 verse 5. John 5 verse 5 says, and a certain
man was there which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. Now there's
a particular word that jumps off the page at me there, and
that word is certain. This was a particular man. He
was a special object of our Lord's affection. And I find this interesting,
and I want to say this right. How his story begins, the story
of how this man is made whole physically, how that story begins,
It begins in the exact same way that the story of how every sinner
is made whole spiritually. They begin in the exact same
way, and that is with God in his sovereignty making a choice. Now, if you examine the story,
what does the Lord do? He walks amongst five porches of impotent,
blind, halt, and withered men, and he stops at one. one particular
man, one certain man. What a picture of divine election. And so somebody says, well, hold
on a second. Back up now. Could the Lord have made every man
whole at Bethesda if he wanted to? Could he have cured every
man? It's the Lord. Of course he could have. And
he said, well, why didn't he? Why didn't he? Because he wasn't
pleased to. It wasn't according to his purpose. So somebody says,
well, that's unfair. That's absolutely unfair. If
the Lord could make every man cure every man at Bethesda, he
should have, right? It's unfair that he didn't cure
everybody. Show me in this passage of scripture,
if you don't mind, where any man begs the Lord to be made
whole and he refuses the request. He can't, because it's not there. It's not recorded anywhere in
this story. that any man besought the Lord
to be made whole and he said no. And so a man says well he
didn't reveal himself. He didn't reveal himself, he
should have told them. If he would have told them that he was able to make them
whole, surely they would have cried out. Surely they would
have besought him to be made whole. Consider the story. Our Lord
walked amongst five porches of unable, impotent, blind, halt,
and withered men in the midst of them. And he comes to this
one man, the one man that had been there longer than everybody
else. He had been crippled for 38 years. This man who had not
walked in 38 years. And he gave him a gracious command.
And with that command came the ability. And that crippled man
walked. And he did this in the midst
of this great multitude. He did much better than tell
these people. He could make them whole. He showed them. Now, after
seeing this, after seeing this great miracle take place, where
are their cries to be made whole? Where are they? They're not there. Now, I would ask you this question.
Is it wrong for the Lord to withhold from men what they do not want
in the first place? And the religious people of this
world, we're talking about election right now. The religious people
of this world, they hate this thing of election. They say it's
unfair. We talked about it in Sunday
school. It's unfair the Lord would pass by some and he would
save others. And they say it holds men off.
It holds men off. There's men who want to be saved
in election, this thing of election, it holds men off. It keeps men
from being saved who want to be saved. Consider the certain
man for a moment. Where are his cries to be made
whole? They're not there. It's not recorded
anywhere in the story that this man cried out to me made whole
by the Lord. No, our Lord came to him. He
came to him. And he healed that man and he
caused him to stand. He came to him. You know what
that shows me? It shows me that. Election this
thing of election. It does not hold off men. Who
want to be safe? It only includes men. brothers,
that would otherwise be damned. You see, that certain man, he
was just as content as everybody else to sit by that pool and
to die by that pool. But our Lord intervened. Our
Lord came to him, and he did something for him. How gracious
was that? So we've seen the depravity of
man. We've seen the warning against waiting. We've looked at the
picture of election we see in the story. And now, if you would,
let's consider what the Lord did for this man physically. And by contrast, see what the
Lord does for a man spiritually when he makes him whole. Look
down at verses 8 and 9 of John 5. Verse 8 and 9 says, 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 Sabbath. What did the Lord do for this
man? He made him whole. Now let's look at that for a
second, that term made whole. Let's look at the first word
there, made. Made is an interesting word. It implies the thing that
is made. It was not that thing until it
was created to be that thing. Now that's a tough concept, I
know, that's hard. Let me give you an example. You all remember
our Lord's first miracle in Cana of Galilee at the wedding feast.
Remember all the wedding patrons that drank all the wine. And
the Lord, he ordered six water vessels to be lined up before
him, filled to the very brim with water, couldn't hold another
drop. And the Lord acted upon those vessels, and that water
was made wine. It was water, and it was made
to be a new creation. It was made wine. And that's
the case for every believer. We are made to be what we were
not before. And then we have the word whole.
This word whole implies completeness, absolutely complete. What does
the scripture say about being complete? Colossians 2.10 says
we are complete in Him, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. But
in what ways? In what ways does that happen?
Turn to 1 Corinthians 1 verse 30. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 30 says,
But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto
us these four things, wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification,
and redemption. In Christ he is made unto us
these four things, and the first one is wisdom. Wisdom. I'll tell
you what, by nature I'm not wise. I'm not. I'm foolish and I'm
blind. But in Christ, I have some wisdom.
I have some sight. I actually see something of my
sinfulness, of my wretchedness, albeit I couldn't bear to know
the whole. I couldn't. I see something of
the goodness of our Lord Jesus Christ. I see something of it.
I understand, I have some understanding of how the Lord can be just,
and He can justify a sinner such as me. I have some wisdom, and
in Christ we have wisdom. And righteousness, by nature
I'm not righteous. I never kept one law one time,
not in my heart. But in Christ, every believer
is absolutely and utterly righteous. We talked about it in Sunday
school, how did that happen? When the Lord Jesus Christ came to
this earth, when he worked out a perfect righteousness, when
he obeyed his father in all things, and we kept the law every jot
and tittle, we were in him. And that righteousness he worked
out, that is our righteousness. So somebody says, I can't see
it. I can't see it. I look inside me. I can't see
it. No. No, neither can I. I can't see it. I know it by
faith. But I ask this, how righteous is the Lord Jesus Christ right
now? Beloved, that's how righteous we are. And we know that by faith,
not by sight. I understand that. Sanctification. To be sanctified is to take something
common and ordinary and make it holy. It speaks of regeneration. I'll tell you what, while every
believer, we will always have this old man, this old heart,
this old sinful nature till the day we die. It'll always be there
till the day we die. When the Lord saves a man, he
sends his spirit to move upon that man, and he gives him a
new heart. He gives him a new mind, and he gives him a new
spirit. We talked about this this morning. That heart is filled
with faith, love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Love for his people. And that spirit, that heart,
that's going to live on forever. A new creation. Then redemption. To be redeemed means to be purchased
or to be bought back. And for me to be made whole,
I had to be purchased. And it was a purchase of blood.
It was a transaction that took place on Calvary's tree between
the father and the son. It was to be made whole, the
Lord Jesus Christ had to be made my sin. He had to be punished
with a punishment that was reserved for me. And when he hung his
head and he said, it is finished, he purchased, he bought back
every elect child of God who were redeemed. And so look back at John 5 and
look at verse 6. I know I've kept you a while. In verse 6, the Lord asked this
man, this certain man, a question. And it's a question I want us
all to ask ourselves this morning, in our hearts. John 5 verse 6
says, When Jesus saw him lie and knew that he had been now
a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be
made whole? Wilt thou be made whole? Now,
let's understand what this question is asking. It's not asking, do
you want to go to heaven? I dare say if any man is given
the choice between heaven or hell and truly exposed to what they
actually are, he will choose heaven every time. That's not
what the question is. The question is, will you be
made whole? Or rather, will you be made whole
by the means by which the Lord makes a man whole? Will you be saved by free grace,
alone by Christ, alone by blood, alone, your works absolutely
excluded? Will you be saved by a God who
will have all the glory in your salvation for himself, and we
will simply just be trophies of his power? Is that what you want? Will you
be a debtor to grace? I was thinking about this thing,
and Henry Mahan talked about it. He said, you know, a poor man,
or I'm sorry, a sick man, he draws out a lot of pity. Not
much is expected from a sick man. But if the Lord makes you
whole, if he makes you whole, you're not going to be left to
sit idle. You're not going to be allowed to sit idle. You're going to be
put to work. You're going to be profitable to him in some
way. Is that what you want? Is that
what you want? And these are legitimate questions
because the multitude of Bethesda was not willing. They were unwilling.
And I'll be honest with you, if you leave out here today without
Christ, it is for one reason alone. It is because you are
unwilling. You don't want Christ. So somebody
says, you talking about a free will? Calling on me to exercise
my free will and make some sort of choice for God? No. No, that's
foolishness. There is no such thing as a free
will. A man's will is tied to his nature. And if the Lord leads
us to ourself, with nothing but this old simple man comes with
it and old sinful will and it is contrary to grace it is contrary
to God getting all the glory in our salvation and we're for
left in that state we won't want Christ we won't want anything
to do with not the real God and so if you are willing though
if you will be saved in this manner It's because you've been
made willing, made a new creation, and made willing. And that means
that you were elected before time began. It means that your
redemption, you were purchased on the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And you have a new heart. You're a new man. You're a new
creation. And so come to Christ, believe on him, and wait for
nothing. I'll stop there.