Verses 10 through 16. The Jews
therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the Sabbath
day. It is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. And he answered
them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up
thy bed, and walk. 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 conveyed himself away,
a multitude being in that place. He left that multitude. And afterward,
Jesus findeth him, the man, 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. Therefore did the Jews persecute
Jesus and sought to slay him because he had done these things
on the Sabbath day. Now all the stories in Scripture
of healing, and we've been through all of the Gospels, some of them
more than once. We've got the Gospel of Matthew
twice, and John, this is the second time, and I think we've
been through, I know we did, but we went through Luke twice,
and all the Gospels, and we've looked at all of the pictures
of all these stories of healing, of the Lord healing blind people
and death, people and the lame and raising the dead. And we've
clearly seen that these are pictures of salvation. That's why they're
there. They're real healings, actual
physical healing of people, but the reason they're written is
to the praise of the glory of His healing, saving, raising,
quickening grace. It's pictures of salvation, like
the blind receiving in their sights a picture of every blind
sinner, having their eyes open, every deaf unbeliever finally
hears the truth. And then every lame person who
cannot walk, cannot come to Christ, cannot walk by faith, is given
this gift of faith, and especially those that are dead in sin, he
raises. But these are true stories, actual
stories of healing. But most of the persons that
were healed were not necessarily saved. Their souls were not saved.
The Lord says it healed every person that had need of healing.
Every person that came to Him. He was so kind, so compassionate.
His tender mercy, the Scripture said, over all His work. And
if anybody is healed, the Lord heals them. Deuteronomy 32, over there. Deuteronomy
32. If anyone on this planet, for
that matter, is sick, The Lord sent it. And if anybody is healed,
the Lord heals them. Deuteronomy 32. Why does He do
that? To the praise of the glory of
His healing grace. Deuteronomy 32, look at verse
39. Deuteronomy 32. See now, that I, even I, am He. There is no God with me. People
think Satan makes you sick. No, that's not so. I kill, the
Lord says, and I make a life. I wound and I heal. Neither is there any that can
deliver out of my hand. In Isaiah 45, I'll go over there
very quickly. Most of you know these verses.
Everyone doesn't. But certainly some may be listening
right now over the Internet, may not know these verses. But
Isaiah 45, we're very blessed to know these things and believe
these things and rejoice in them. Isaiah 45, verse 5, I am the
Lord, meaning the sovereign ruler over and controller of all things.
There is none else. There's no one in any, has any
power except through me. There is no God beside me. I
girded thee, I clothed you, though thou hast not known me. That
they may know, from the rising of the sun, from the east and
from the west, there's none beside me. I am thee, Lord, and there
is none else. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. That's pretty plain, isn't it?
Now you know that he's not talking about he's the author of sin,
but nevertheless, it couldn't have entered this world had he
not allowed it for his purpose. And anything so-called evil or
bad, it's according to the Lord's purpose, or it wouldn't happen.
That's the Lord of the Scriptures. That's our God. So all who are
healed are healed by the Lord. What was the Jehovah-Rapha in
Exodus 15? That's his name, Jehovah-Rapha,
the Lord that healed them. The Lord that healed them. Yet
very few give God the glory if they're healed. Most glorify
the means. The Lord uses means. God uses
means. Thank the Lord that he has given
man a mind, a brilliant mind in the ways of this world. Scripture
says he put the world in their heart. Thankfully, it's for God's
people. But he's given some brilliant
minds, and they become physicians. But these are just the means.
They're not gods. They're just the means. And medication,
by the way, all medicines have some roots from roots. Herbs, don't they? Who made the
herbs? Well, the Lord did. These are
just the means. But people glorify the means,
don't they? They praise and thank doctors. You know, I give honor
to whom honor is due, but you glorify God first. You thank
the Lord first. One time there was a, I think
it was Asa, it was Asa, wasn't it, who sought doctors before
he sought the Lord, and so the Lord struck him down and didn't
heal him. But men and women give Glory
to doctors, to medications, to a person's strong will and constitution. This is horrible. It's blasphemous
when people say, well, he beat cancer. I detest that. I despise that. How much more
our Lord who healed that person. for a person to take credit and
glory in a healthy diet and regimen of exercise. And in Romans 1, I was going
to have you turn and read there, but it talks about that, that
men and women do not like to retain God in their knowledge.
They do not glorify Him as God when all things are clearly seen. That they're without excuse,
but don't glorify Him as God, but worship and serve the creature,
that's man, more than the Creator who's blessed forever. Amen. And they didn't like to retain
God, so God gave them over. Turned them over to their so-called
wisdom, which is foolishness to Him. So any and all who are
healed, the Lord heals them, though they know it not. Though
they don't acknowledge Him. This man didn't know who healed
him. This man was sick for 38 years. He had an infirmity for
38 years. But this sickness was for the
glory of God. This sickness was for the glory
of God. He didn't know who did it. But look at verse 6. You
know who did it. And you know who healed you if
you've been healed. I've been saved. Verse 6, the
Lord saw him. He knew him a long time before
the man ever knew the Lord. He's going to know him. And he
said to him, he spoke to him, the Lord came to this man, the
Lord chose this man out of a multitude. There were a multitude of sick
folk, weren't there? All of them were impotent and halting and
lame, all of them. Every one of them were without
the strength, without the power to come None of them were calling
on the Lord. None of them. This man wasn't
either. I mean, then why is he healed? The Lord came to him. The Lord
chose him out of that multitude. You don't think he's grateful
for sovereign election? This man didn't know the Lord.
He's going to. Like the man in John 9, when we get to that,
we're going to see the blind man who was healed. They came
to him and said, who made you see? He said, well, I think it
was a man named Jesus. Well, who is he? I don't really
know, but I know he's going up. Look at verse 14, the Lord found
him in the temple. The Lord found him, didn't He? Came to him the first time and healed him with this physical
impotency. And then what happened here,
I believe, is the Lord has begun this work in him. And he hath
begun a good work, Scripture says, we'll finish it. The Lord came to him, chose him,
spoke to him, raised him up, and the first thing he did was
send trouble, send sickness, and then came and spoke to him.
And where did this man end up? He ended up in the temple. And
the Lord says, Rise up, take up your bed and walk. Well, where
did he go? Well, he went straight to the temple. What's he doing in the temple?
I believe he's calling on the Lord. I believe he's calling on the Lord.
I believe he's, for once in his life, he's maybe thanking God. And he's hearing the Word preached. They weren't sacrificing lambs
at this time, sadly to speak. But I think he's seeking the
Lord. For the first time ever, he came there, here. Now, the
first evidence of salvation in a person is the Lord raises them
like this man, and they begin to call, and they begin to seek.
Why? Because He first called them,
because He sought them. Don't you love that Isaiah 65,
is it? He says, I want to misquote it
this time, I did last time, I'm sought of them that ask not for
me. They weren't asking, but they're going to. He said, I
am found of them that sought me not. I said, behold me, behold me
unto a nation that was not called by my name. So first evidence
in salvation is a person begins to call. begins to seek the Lord,
begins to come hear the gospel, begins to come hear the Word
of God. Why do they do that? Because
they're chosen. Because they've been called. Because they've
been brought by an unseen hand, and now they've been given a
new heart and a new desire to come hear the Word of the Lord
and to seek the Lord. Or they wouldn't be there. Like
I said, I'm sure these people in the temple When they saw this
man walk in, they said, would you look who's coming in here? He's never been in here before.
It's been 38 years he hasn't been here. Look at him. He's
in here. And they said that about me. And they might have said
that about you. But the Lord, as we saw before,
earlier, that the Lord often sends trouble and sickness and
so forth, And for his people, it's not unto death, it's for
the glory of the Lord. Like he said of Lazarus, this
sickness is not unto death, but the glory of God. And Lazarus
got to where he was stinking. He was so dead that everybody's
going to know if this man's alive, it's because of Jesus Christ's
death. So the Lord saves great sinners to the praise of the
glory of His name. Grace. His electing grace. His
calling grace. His quickening grace. His bringing
grace. Alright? And often the Lord uses
sicknesses and troubles to bring someone to Himself. I've told
you this story. Maybe someone doesn't know it
and hasn't heard it before. I love it. There was a man in
the church in Ashland who died there. Faithful to the end. Years
before he began attending there, he was a major in the Air Force. He was a tall 6'3", scrapping
fellow, brilliant mind. He was an architect and an engineer
who helped in the design of air transport
planes and so forth. He was a brilliant mind, a major,
moving up in rank. And he would have been probably,
he was a lifer, and he would have been a general eventually.
He was that brilliant, that up and coming. The Lord struck him down with
multiple sclerosis. The Lord did. He had a wife and he had a young
daughter, a very young daughter, like two or three years old.
And the Lord struck him down, and it was a rapid digression
of that disease, and he became wheelchair-bound just almost
immediately, needing constant care after that. Of course, he
lost his job. They gave him some kind of job,
but his wife took their daughter and left him. This man is kind of like Job.
His wife took his only child and left him. He didn't see that
daughter for twenty-some years. But he was sitting alone in his little apartment in Canton,
Ohio, I believe it was, in a wheelchair. all along, turned on the TV set,
and a man named Henry Mayhem was preaching the gospel. And
he heard that. And he packed his bags and sold
everything and moved to Ashland, Kentucky. And the Lord saved
his soul. And he sat there in that wheelchair
until the day he died. And he told us, I'm thankful,
I thank the Lord, he said, that he gave me multiple sclerosis. Because if he hadn't, I would
have never known the Lord. I would have never heard the
gospel. Another story. A couple, you
know, I preached last Sunday on election. I'm going to touch
on it again today. You can't preach the gospel without
it. It's where it begins. God's sovereign choice unto salvation. There was a couple years ago
who lost their only child. Lost their only child. Those
of you who have lost a child, know the deep grief and sorrow
of that. This is only John. And in their
deep, deep, deep inexpressible grief and sorrow and trouble,
they turned on the TV. And again, there's a man named
Henry Mahan preaching. And he was preaching on election. And the Lord revealed Himself
to that couple and wrote him a letter saying that as much,
that we didn't know the Lord. And we believe we do now through
that message. Dad later on said, if I was going
to choose a message for these people to hear at the loss of
their only child, it wouldn't have been election. But it was. Because what that
reveals is, He's God. And if you belong to Him, it's
all good. It's all according to His purpose.
The purpose of God according to the election of grace. going to know the Lord. He's
one of His chosen. He sent this sickness for this
man to begin seeking the Lord, to come into the temple and all
that. But first, look at these Jews. Look at these Jews. They're everywhere. These Jews. That's who the Lord preached
in the midst of. The Jews. They're supposed to
be the elect. They thought they were. So you
can believe you're elect and not be one. They did. Verse 10, the Jews saw this man
who'd been lying in a bed for 38 years, and now he's cured. They said to him, it's the Sabbath
day. It's not lawful for thee to carry
thy bed. Now if that weren't so sad and
so evil, it'd be funny wouldn't it? Now who was the Jew? Read on,
verse 11. He answered them, he that made
me whole the same said unto me, take up thy bed and walk. Then
asked they him, what man is that which said unto thee, take up
thy bed and walk? He didn't know who it was. The
Lord left that multitude. So he came and saved one man.
He's going to reveal himself to one man. One man. One man. And he left. The Lord could have
healed all of them, couldn't he? He didn't. Well, these Jews,
now Jews were religious. The Jews represent everyone who
is religious. They had a fatalistic faith.
They believed, like I said, they believed they were elect, and
they believed they were elect no matter what. Like hyper-Calvinists,
like hard shells, you know, if you're elect, you're going to
be saved no matter what. If you're elect, you're going
to be saved, all right, but you're going to be saved through the
preaching of the gospel. Scripture's clear about that. You're going
to repent. You're going to be convicted of your sin. You're
going to call on the Lord. You're going to seek his faith.
And you're going to come, and you're going to confess him,
and the believer is baptized. That's what Scripture said. It
all goes together. But these Jews had this fatalistic
faith. They were good Sabbath-keeping
Jews, though. Sons of Abraham. We'd be sons
of Abraham. They were all proud of that. We're sons of Abraham.
We believe Moses. We keep the Ten Commandments.
That's what they thought. Anyone like that today? Oh, my. It's the same with most professing
Christians. Well, yeah, I'm a good Catholic. I was born a Catholic. Paul. Saul of Tarsus. Look at Philippians 3. Philippians
3 over there with me. Saul of Tarsus was one of these
Jews. In Philippians chapter 3. Saul
who the Lord changed into Paul. The word Paul means small. That's
fitting, isn't it? It sure is of Saul. He thought
he was somebody. Boy, the Lord reduced him to
a nothing. Same as He does with everybody. And Philippians 3,
Paul said, verse 4, though... Well, verse 3, we're the circumcision,
we're the true people of God, the true Jew. He said he's not
a Jew outwardly but inwardly. Because we worship God in spirit.
We rejoice in Christ Jesus. We worship the true and living
God, as God. We rejoice in Christ Jesus, that
is, He is all our salvation, all our righteousness, all our
sin payment, all. And we have no confidence in
the flesh, no confidence at all in the flesh, not in anything
we've ever done or ever will do, or anybody. And he goes on
to say, though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any
man, other man, think he has something he can trust in or
boast in or whatever, I'm more, I'm more than you. He said, I
was circumcised the eighth day, like a good Jew was, of the stock
of Israel, tribe of Benjamin. That was an elite tribe. A Hebrew
of Hebrews. My mama and daddy were Hebrews.
As touching the law, I was a Pharisee, a doctor. I studied the scriptures.
I knew the scriptures. I could quote the scriptures.
I taught the scriptures. I was a rabbi. Concerning zeal,
oh, no one more zealous than me. Remember when he said that
in Romans 10? I bear them record. They have
a zeal for God, but they don't know God. In verse 6, touching the righteousness
which is in the law blameless. I kept the law. Oh my. Later
on, Paul said, when I really found out the law, it killed
me. It slew me. I thought I knew
the law. I thought I was keeping the law.
I finally realized I didn't keep one. I couldn't keep one. I'm
a lawbreaker, the worst kind, thinking I was righteous through
my own righteousness. That's the worst kind. Read on. I thought I was blameless, but
what things were gained to me, all of that, it was loss for
Christ. Yea, doubtless, I can't count
all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. And I
count it but manure, garbage, refuge. He renounced all of his
past religion. He renounced it. He said, I didn't
know God. I didn't know the law. I didn't
know the Scriptures. I thought I did. I quoted. I
didn't know. I didn't know. Why? Because I didn't know God,
I didn't know myself, I didn't know Christ, I didn't know what
salvation was. And he renounced everything,
like some of you, like every person who was religious before
the Lord's sake. And he said, here's what I want,
I want to be found in Christ, not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith, not
in Christ. The faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith. Well, this man, let me go back
to the text. And this man, these Jews that
is, were strict, moral, Sabbath-keeping, or they seemed to be moral, they
weren't privately. Sabbath-keeping, and we have
so many today like that who don't know the Lord. And you cannot
tell a Christian by his cover. Did you hear that? You can't
tell a Christian by his cover unless that covering is Jesus
Christ. It's the robe of his righteousness.
Unless they say and show that I'm not righteous in myself,
of trusting Christ and Him alone. But these Jews, you know, and
they said, you can't carry your bed. It's a Sabbath day. It's
a Sabbath day. We have people like that. We
have a whole denomination called Seventh-day Adventists. That's
their whole religion. Their whole religion. You think
they're sane? No way. No way. It's just like these Jews trusting
the Sabbath. They believe that you have the
mark of the beast on you because you're meeting today. That's
what they believe. This is the mark of the beast.
You're meeting on Sunday. Did you know that? Look it up. But there are Southern Baptists
that hold this day as a Sabbath. There are Southern Baptists who
hold a Christian Sabbath. Look, he's cutting his grass
and it's Sunday. Huh! Here's a fellow who was
an out-and-out, no-good-in-the-gutter fellow, and the Lord by His sovereign
grace saved him, and he's rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
hearing the gospel and all that, and his grass is a foot high.
On Sunday, he works Monday through Saturday, and Sunday's the only
day he has when he gets out there and cuts his grass. He can't
be a Christian. He's cutting his grass. The Lord is angry with those
people. They're not concerned about people's
salvation. They're concerned with their tradition. They're
concerned with their law keeping. They're trying to make proselytes,
not seeking souls saved, trying to make proselytes to their religion. Not wanting people to know Christ,
but rather to be one of us. But our Lord knows this bed.
I've got to quit because this is the important part. The Lord
told him in the beginning, rise, take up thy bed, verse 6. He
was lying there in a bed for 38 years. Verse 8, the Lord said,
take up thy bed. Verse 9, he took up his bed and
walked. And verse 10, the Jews said,
it's not lawful to carry your bed. Verse 11, he said, well,
he, the one that Told me to take up my bed. In verse 12 they said,
who was it that said, take up your bed? Why so much said about
this bed? What's so important about this
bed? Six times you'd think the Lord
would keep mentioning this bed if there wasn't something here
for us to see. Take up your bed, that's the first thing He said.
Take up your bed and walk. This is how they're going to
know that I healed you. This is how they're going to
know that I came to you. Take up that bed, that thing
you were lying in for 38 years. Roll it up. And don't ever get
back in it. And you walk. Don't lie in that
bed. Pick it up. You're done with
that. There's so much here. A bed is
a place where you sleep, isn't it? What does the Scripture say
about many? They're sleeping, the sleep of
death. In religion, in a pew, you can go to hell sitting in
a pew, in one of these pews, unto the sound of the truth,
unto the sound of the life-giving Word. Yes, you can. Some are
asleep. Paul said that, let us not sleep
as others do sleep, the sleep of death. Awake! A bed is a place where you rest. You rest. When you go to rest
somewhere, you don't want to be disturbed. Don't bother me.
Don't make any noise. Don't talk too loud. Some of
our mates are kind of loud. When they're awake, you're going
to be awake. But when you're resting, you don't want anybody
to disturb you. Right? Don't disturb me. I'm
fine. I'm resting here. And you get
angry when somebody disturbs you. Peter said, I want to stir
you up, didn't he? Didn't Peter write that? I'm
writing this to stir you up. We're going to see in the next
message, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. If you do, you won't fall. You
won't sleep the sleep of death. Every message ought to stir us
up. We say we're supposed to rest
and cry. Yes, we are. But Paul, in that very chapter
in Philippians, said, I'm not there yet. Didn't he? He said, this one thing I do,
I press toward the mark of the high calling. So I haven't arrived. That's presumption. That's not faith. That's how you know. Rest, the
bed's a place of rest. People are resting in their profession. People are asleep in the pew
under the sound of the gospel. A bed is a place of comfort.
You're very comfortable, you're very satisfied. The Scripture's
over and over and over, and I just read myself in Jeremiah 9, it
says, call for the women. They're at ease. See, call for
those women that are at ease in Zion. Tell them to get up
and start weeping and calling on the Lord. Why? They got some
people who don't know Him. And time is short. Well, I know Him. That's all
that matters. That's what these Jews said. A bed is a place where you recline.
You're lazy. Isn't it? A bed is where you
lie down and feel lazy. Boy, David, one day in the middle
of the day, was lying on his bed. He wished he'd never done
that. Lazy. A bed is a place of security,
isn't it? A bed is a place of warmth, isn't
it? A place of warmth, of security.
Do not disturb me. I'm just fine. Our Lord, when He comes to the
preachers of the gospel, every time, every time, says, do not
rest. Do not be comfortable. Do not
take your satisfaction in. Do not be lazy. Do not take security
and warmth in your profession of faith, or even in your present
faith. Walk. Follow me. And people take, all of us are
guilty to a degree, we take some measure of comfort and security
in something or some place or someone, and cling to and hold
to and won't let go, like a security blanket. You don't still have
your little blanket, do you, Laura? Laura and Elizabeth had
a blanket she had from a childhood. It's like pulling teeth to get
away from her wasn't Stephen Merritt. Oh my, it was a rag.
That's a good illustration. She held on that thing until
it was a rag. That's what people do with their
baptism, with their church membership, and even a building. This is where my parents attended. It's not heritage. Paul said,
I'm a Hebrew Hebrew. It's not blood. We don't believe
because my dad believed. And we don't believe what our
dad believed, we believe what God says. It's not the place
you were raised. All of these things give everyone,
some people, a sense of comfort and security and makes them complacent
and lazy. Take up your bed. We haven't arrived yet. Walk.
Start walking. Walk with God. And this thing
of salvation is a particular and personal and powerful and
effectual call. The Lord came to this man in
verse 14. The Lord found him in the temple
and said unto him, Behold, my heart made whole. The Lord came
to him personally and spoke to him personally again. And now he knows who it is. And
look at what he said, sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon
them. And I want to close with this,
2 Peter, chapter 2, 2 Peter 2, because this is vital. And because the Lord told in
John 8, we're going to see that Brother Don Bell preach on that,
John 8, the woman caught in adultery. He told her the same thing. But
the Lord said to that man, He said, Behold, thou art made whole. Go and sin no more. Go and sin no more. Do you think
this man sinned? Well, sure it is, a sinner. But
do you think he went and laid back down in that bed that he
was wallowing in for 38 years? No, he did not. Like the woman
at the well. Do you think she went back and
kept living with that man she was living with and sinned? No,
she did not. The Lord told her not to go and
sin no more. That's the worst thing come upon
you. which gives evidence that you were never saved in the first
place. Look at 2 Peter 2, verse 20. If, after. Verse 19. Some promise people
liberty, and they themselves are the servants of corruption.
Paul, oh my. You know, these verses scare
me to death. They scare me to death when I
read them. And I tremble at them. And Paul one time said, I keep
my body in subjection, lest in preaching to others I myself
am a castaway. That's what I wanted. He said,
but they promise liberty, and they themselves are servants
of corruption, for of whom a man is overcome, the same he's brought
in bondage. The Lord sets people free, doesn't
He? If they're not free, they're
not free. But if after they've escaped
the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ, and that's what Peter wrote in the first
chapter, that we're partakers of the divine nature through
these precious promises. If after that they're again entangled
therein and overcome, there's the key, if they're overcome,
they're right back in it lying, in it while the latter end is
worse with them than the beginning. It is better for them not to
have known the way of righteousness than after they have known it
to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. It has happened
unto them according to Proverbs 26, the dogs turned to his own
vomiting again, the sow that was washed from her wallowing
in the mire. Because it brings such great
reproach Take up your bed. See, he that gives the command,
gives the power. He that gives the command, he's
able, he's willing, he gives the command. He also makes us
willing. and able, I can do all things
through Christ which strengthens me. This man took his bed up
and said, yeah, I'm through with this. This is how you know the
Lord saved this man. I'm through with this. I'm not
trusting this anymore. I'm not going back to that. Oh, may the Lord make it so.