are robed in this garment of
righteousness, then according to the Scriptures, the reason
this is your condition is because God sovereignly showed mercy
to you. He could have left us in darkness.
He could have left us in our deadness. He could have left
us in our ignorance. And we'd never known the difference. We could have just been occupied
tonight in false religion. We could be out in the world,
wrapped up in outward wickedness and ungodliness and a wretched
lifestyle. But no, we're right here. Loving this gospel. Love in Christ
Jesus. Believing Him to be God's own
Son. Fully relying on Him to save
us from all of our sins. Believing that in God's Son we're
accepted, as our brother read, we're accepted in the Beloved.
We believe He redeemed us, He reconciled us, He made us righteous. The reason we are indeed the
children of God is due to God's sovereign grace and mercy given
to us before the world began in Christ Jesus. We owe everything
to the Lord. And so in this first section
of John chapter 5, we see our Lord performing this miracle.
And it's evidence that He is God. Nobody else could do this
kind of miracle. And it's evidence that He is
the God who does according to His own will. Because He didn't
show mercy to everyone who was there that day. This first section
brings out man's depravity. We've already addressed the fact
that the Jews were very upset over the fact that this miracle
was done on the Sabbath day. You'll notice here in John chapter
5 and verse number 10, the Jews therefore said unto him that
was cured, it is the Sabbath day. It's not lawful for you
to carry your bed. And he answered them, he that
made me whole, he's the one who said to me, take up thy bed and
walk. And they asked him, what man
is it that said to you, take up your bed and walk? He that
was healed wist not who he was. Jesus had conveyed himself away,
a multitude being in that place. Verse 14, afterward Jesus findeth
him in the temple. He finds him. He came to seek and to save the
lost. He came to find the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. He's the good shepherd who came
to find his sheep. He's like the woman who lost
the coin. He came to find the coin. He's
the father who welcomed back the lost son. He said to me, this is the one
who said to him, take up thy bed and walk, and Jesus now finds
him. Oh, to be found of the Savior.
To be found of the Lord. He said, Jesus findeth him, verse
14 of the temple, and said unto him, behold, thou art made whole. And then he said, sin no more. That's the worst thing coming
to thee. And the man departed, and immediately he went to the
Jews and he told them, Jesus did this. Jesus made me whole. That's who did this for me. And
therefore did the Jews, what did they do? They persecuted
Jesus. They sought to slay Him. Because
He had done these things on the Sabbath day. What evidence of
man's depravity? You would think that such a miracle
would make the people to rejoice. Here's a poor old soul. For all of these years, he's
been so miserable. He's been waiting and waiting.
The water moves at certain times. The water was agitated. He wanted
to get into the water and he wanted to get healed, but nobody
could get him in fast enough. There was always somebody who'd
get into the water first. And your heart goes out to him
and all the rest of the people. Here they are, just a multitude,
a mass of people. They're suffering so much. They're
in so much agony. They're in so much pain. And this man is now walking. He's rejoicing. And he goes to
the temple to give thanks, we would assume. To bless the name
of God for having healed him. And you would think these Jewish
leaders, and we've already said this, where it says in verse
10, the Jews were to understand in John's gospel that he means
the Jewish leaders. He means those men that have
the authority in the synagogues and also in the temples. In the
temple. They should have rejoiced. You'd
think they'd be delighted. This poor old soul had been there
all this time and now he's walking around and he's already healed?
But no, they're very upset. What an evidence of man's depravity. Here is the Lord Jesus. Here
is God's own Son. Here is Emmanuel. These men,
they profess that they've been looking for the Messiah all of
these years. After all He's been spoken of
in the Old Testament. Every Old Testament writer predicted
the Messiah would come. Even Moses, way back in Genesis
chapter 3, he recorded the Word of the Lord that the seed of
the woman was coming. And ever since, all of the saints
in the Old Testament had been looking for the seed of the woman. And now this one appears on the
scene. And he has unusual, miraculous
powers. He has such authority. At His
Word, death leaves and life comes in. At His Word, the lame walk. At His Word, those who are blind,
they see. At His Word, those who are deaf,
they hear. At His Word, those who are demon-possessed
are freed of their demons. Well, surely these people rejoice! This is the Messiah! This is
the Son of David! Oh, hallelujah! Bless the name
of God! He is finally coming to this
world! No. That's not their reaction. They're filled with bitterness.
They're angry. You did this on the Sabbath day. You're a violator of the Sabbath. And that gave our Lord the opportunity
to preach a sermon. He uses their words as sort of
a springboard. He responds to them this way.
Look at verse 17. But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and
I work. My Father. Now, you can go through
the Old Testament and you'll never find that Abraham referred
to the Lord like that. Not Abraham. Not Moses. Not David. Not Daniel. No writer of Scripture ever refers
to the Lord this way. My Father. Only the Savior dared to speak
these words. And only the Savior, He's the
only one who could speak these words. And you notice in verse
18, Therefore the Jews, they sought the Moor to kill him,
because he had not only broken the Sabbath, but said also that
God was his Father, making himself equal with God. Now you understand
this, if that which they had spoken, if these words that they
had spoken, If the words that the blessed
Redeemer had spoken, let me get this out right. If those words
that He had spoken, My Father worketh hitherto and I work. If those words weren't correctly
understood by the Jews when they concluded that he was making
himself equal with God, he would have corrected them. He would
have corrected them. But when they drew this kind
of conclusion, he's making himself equal with God. They received
no correction because they were concluding correctly, he is equal
with God. If he's not equal with God, he
can't save anybody. He's got to be God in the flesh. And remember, he did this on
the Sabbath day. As you look through the New Testament,
you'll find our Lord performed several miracles on the Sabbath
day. On the Sabbath day. Six specific miracles are spoken
of in the gospel narratives as taking place on the Sabbath.
And each one of them teaches us a valuable lesson about salvation. I'll just make mention of these
in Luke chapter 4 verses 31 through 35. An evil spirit is cast out
of a man in a synagogue in Capernaum on the Sabbath day. From that
we must conclude that This evil one, Satan, must be bound. He
must be cast out. Because you see, he holds men
captive at his will. You're talking about something
that offends the natural man, is to tell them, you're under
the authority of Satan. Satan holds you captive at his
will. But he does. He does. Listen, I know that during the
New Testament times and in the Old Testament times, there was
much demonic activity. There's no question about that.
But are we to therefore conclude that since this is the New Testament
era, that there's no more demonic activity? There's still demonic
activity. Folks are still held by Satan. They're held by Satan at his
will. And only the will of God, only divine authority can break
that power Satan has over the natural man. It's going to take
somebody's will a whole lot more powerful than your will, or my
will, or anybody else's will before they'll come to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Satan's will has got to be broken. He's got to
be driven out. Dare I say this? We're all demon-possessed
by nature. We're possessed with the demon
of unbelief, the demon of blindness, the demon of death, the demon
of spiritual death. They've got to be driven out.
Who can do that? Only the sovereign Christ can
do that. This is much more than just,
all you've got to do is make a little decision for Jesus.
Just walk the aisle and answer yes to a few questions and you'll
be alright. No, no, that's not sufficient. That's not sufficient. The Lord
of glory, the arm of the Lord must be manifest in your heart
and drive Satan out. That's what He does. And if you're
a believer tonight, He drove him out of you. He said, get
out! I'm establishing my throne here. You've had this one long enough.
Now is the time for freedom, for liberation, and regeneration. And in that day of salvation,
it's when Satan is driven out by Christ. And then we enjoy
sweet freedom. That happened on the Sabbath
day. In Luke chapter 6 verses 6-10, there was a man who had
a withered right hand. The Lord Jesus restored it to reach out. We think of the
right hand as the hand of power. And I'll tell you, you'll never
take hold of the Lord until He heals your withered right hand.
You withered in the fall. You lost all ability in the fall. When the Lord restores you, you
reach out to take hold of the Lord, and the reason you take
hold of Him is because He's already taken hold of you. And it's not
your hold on Him that keeps you safe, it's His hold on you. But
I'll tell you what, you will hold on to Him. Isn't that right? You will hold on to Him. And
thirdly, in Luke chapter 13 verses 10 through 17, we read of a woman
with a crooked spine. She had been that way for 18
years and her crooked spine was made straight. In fact, in that
passage, I was reading it again today, the ruler of the synagogue
rebuked the Savior. And you know what he said? He
said, there are six days for men to work. In them come and
heal, but not on the Sabbath day. You can do all the healings
you want Sunday through Friday, but not on Saturday. Not on the
Sabbath day. And the Lord said, you hypocrite. He said, you lead your ox or
your ass down to the creek to get a drink of water on the Sabbath
day. But it's wrong for me to heal
a woman who's got a crooked spine. Let me tell you something. We're
born crooked spiritually. Oh, we're so crooked. We're so
perverse. He's got to straighten us out.
Have you ever, you know, on a doctrinal matter, have you ever gone to
talk to somebody and you think this way, I'm going to straighten
them out on this. And then you discover this, you
can't straighten anybody out. But I know who can. And I know
who does. Because he straightened us out.
Oh, we was crooked, weren't we? Spiritually perverted, that's
what it means. We weren't straight, we were
crooked. But He straightened us out. And then there was a man who
had the dropsy. Remember that fellow? That's
in Luke chapter 14. What does the word dropsy mean? It means gathering of water.
From which we would assume this man had what we would call congestive
heart failure. He had a heart trouble. And again
the Lord rebuked him. This was on the Sabbath day.
The Lord healed him. And again they rebuked him for
this healing on the Sabbath day. And he used the illustration
again of the ox and the ass. He said, if your ox or your ass
fall in the pit on the Sabbath day, won't you pull them out? Let me tell you something. Spiritually,
we've got heart trouble. That's our problem. We've got
heart trouble. The Lord said, it's not what
you're putting into your body that's defiling you. You've defiled
already. You think about those preachers
who... There was a famous Methodist preacher years ago. He went all
around the country. This was back in the late 1800s.
And his message was stop drinking, stop alcohol. The Lord said it's not what you're
putting into your body that defiles you. Now, we know drunkenness
is wrong. All things in moderation. But
it's not what you're putting into your body that's not the
problem. It's what's coming out. You got
a bad fountain. The source is bad. Got a bad
heart. That's the problem. That's the
problem. So if people change their ways,
change their habits, or as they say, I'm going to turn over a
new leaf, that doesn't really change anything
at all. Because you can't change your
heart. Can a leopard change his spots? Can an Ethiopian change his skin?
Neither can you change. You can't change. You can't change. The only one who can correct
the condition is this one who healed this man of the dropsy. And you know what he does? He
gives you a new heart. He says, I'll take away that
heart of stone, I'll give you a heart of flesh. That's a heart
of faith. That's what a new heart is. A
heart of faith. And there's this impotent man
here in John chapter 5. He's a certain man. He can't
get in the water. He can't get in the water. He
can't batter himself. He has no ability. That's us. There is a fountain filled with
blood, but I can't get in the fountain. I have no ability. All I got to do is just take
the plunge into the fountain. But I can't, I don't have the
ability. Because I can't move spiritually
because I'm dead in trespasses and sins. And you know what the Lord does?
He makes us whole. He'll say, Lord, wash me. Wash
me. And then one more, and all these
done on the Sabbath day in John chapter 9, the blind man's eyes
were open. We can't see. till He opens our
eyes. These were all done on the Sabbath
day. Now you know what? He could have
done these miracles on any other day, right? Well, sure. I mean, He could have done them
on Sunday, or Monday, or Tuesday, or Wednesday, or Thursday, or
Friday. But He chose the Sabbath day. Well, didn't he know this would
offend these people? Of course he knew this would
offend these people. But he did them anyway. He is an offense to people. His
gospel is offensive to people. But he is teaching them he is
the Lord of the Sabbath. You see, to them the Sabbath
was the Lord. That was like their God. They
were obeying the law. Salvation is not in obeying the
law. Salvation is in the Lord of the
Sabbath. That's where salvation is. This
is what He is teaching them. He said man wasn't made for the
Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for man.
And you've made it to be man's Lord. You've made a hardship
on men. Because what they did, they came
up with all kinds of laws and rules and regulations, and the
Sabbath was a burden to people. It's a day of rest. That's the
reason the Lord gave it to begin with. It was a day of rest. They sought to kill Him. And
then they sought to kill Him because He claimed He is equal
with God. He said, God is His Father. And
then our Lord begins to speak to them and He affirms His deity. First of all, He said the Son
is equal with the Father in His work, verse 17. He says, My Father worketh hitherto
and I work. Is creation attributed to the
Father? Yes, well it's also attributed
to the Son. What about divine providence? Providence, is that attributed
to the Father? Yes, providence is also attributed
to the Son. He does what He will. He controls
all things. Is salvation attributed to the
Father? So it's attributed to the Son. Our Lord sets forth the fact
that He is equal with the Father in His work. In His work. And then He is equal with the
Father, secondly, in His will and in His purpose. Look at verse
19. Then answered Jesus, and said
unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing
of himself, but what he seeth the Father do, for what things
soever he doeth, these also the Son doeth likewise." And that
which he's teaching here is that the Son of God doesn't do anything
independently of the Father. His will is in perfect alignment
with the Father. The Father's will is the Son's
will. And it's the Spirit's will as
well. This is so unlike us. Because
our wills are not in alignment with God's will. Our wills are
stubborn. Our wills are rebellious. Our
will has to be broken. But our Lord Jesus, His will
was in absolutely perfect agreement with the Father's will. He said,
Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. Thy will. He always sought the
Father's will. When He was just 12 years old,
He told Joseph and Mary, He said, Wish ye not that I must be about
my Father's business? He told His disciples back in
John chapter 4, He said, My meat is to do the will of Him that
sent Me and to finish His work. When He prayed in the garden
in anticipation of bearing the wrath of God, bearing the vengeance
of God in the stead of all of His sheep, He said there in the
garden, If it be Thy will, let this cup pass from Me. nevertheless
not my will, thy will be done." He can't ever do anything contrary
to the will and the purpose of the Father. And of course the
Father can never do anything contrary to the will and the
purpose of the Son. The Son will never do anything
by Himself, and the Father will never do anything by Himself.
Their wills are never individualistic, their wills are the same. Everything that our Lord Jesus
does is in pursuance of His covenant engagements as the surety of
His people. The Son is equal with the Father
in will and purpose. And then look at this in verse
number 20. The Son is equal with the Father
in knowledge. For the Father loveth the Son,
and showeth him all things that himself doeth, and he will show
him greater works than these that ye may marvel. If the Son
knows all things that the Father knows, he is one with the Father.
You see, as there is no lack of omnipotence in him, there
is no lack of omniscience in him either. We know no mere creature,
no mere person. is anywhere capable of knowing
the ways and the will of God. His ways are past finding out.
That's what it says in Romans chapter 11. We just see through
a glass darkly. There's so much we don't understand,
so much we don't know. But our Lord Jesus, He knows all
things. And nobody knows all things but
God. That means He's God. He's God. That's what this is saying. And
then look at verse 21. The Son is equal with the Father
in sovereign mercy and authority. Verse 21, For as the Father raiseth
up the dead and quickneth them, even so the Son quickneth whom
He will. Here our Lord Jesus Christ, He
lays claim to divine sovereignty. When He healed this lame man
here in the first part of John chapter 5, He didn't heal all
the impotent folk that were there that day. He singled out this
one certain man. He shows mercy to whom He will.
And whom He will, He hardens. And then look at verses 22 and
23. The Son is equal with the Father in His worthiness of honor. He says, verse 22, "...for the
Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the
Son, that all men, that all should honor the Son, even as they honor
the Father, he that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the
Father that sent him." The father is the one we might
most naturally expect to be the judge. After all, he's the one
that's been sinned against. He's the one who has been wronged.
He's the one whose claims have been denied. But the father's
committed all judgment to his son, that all men should honor
the son as they honor the father. This is the goal of God. That all men honor the Son. That's God's goal. And you're going to honor Him.
Everybody's going to honor Him one way or the other. Is that
right? Everybody is. We honor Him now
by believing Him. It's the most honorable thing
you can do to honor the Lord Jesus Christ, to believe Him,
to rest Him. Just relax yourself in the arms
of the Son of God. You want to honor Him? Believe
Him. Believe Him. He gets the honor
and our salvation because faith is a gift. For by grace you are
saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift
of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are
His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." Faith
is a gift. He gets all of the glory. He
is honored in our salvation. But somebody remains obstinate. willfully rebellious against
God's Son. They fight against this message
of salvation by grace alone, through Christ alone, by blood
and righteousness alone. You'll go to the judgment. You'll
honor the Son. He'll force you to honor Him.
You'll bend the knee to Him and you'll say, Jesus Christ is Lord. Then He'll cast you into hell. That all men honor the Son. And
if you don't honor the Son, you don't honor the Father who sent
Him. And then watch this. The Son
is equal with the Father in that He imparts life. Verses 24 through
26. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that heareth my word and believeth on Him that sent me hath everlasting
life. You already got it. In fact,
that's the reason you believe, because you already got life.
If you didn't have life, you wouldn't believe. And shall not
come into condemnation, why not? Because somebody else went into
the condemnation for you. Somebody else was condemned for
your sins. Christ your substitute. Well,
you passed from death into life. Notice what he says in verse
25, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and
now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God,
and they that hear shall live. There are some folks who are
hearing his voice today, his voice in regenerating grace.
And you know what happens? They that hear shall live. He speaks in that kind of power.
For it says, look at verse 26, for as the Father hath life in
Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself. He's got life in Himself. He
is life. He is life. He laid down that
life for us. Remember, He said this over in
John chapter 10. He said, I lay down my life that
I might take it again. He said, no man taketh it from
me, but I lay it down on myself. Lay down what? I lay down my
life. I have the power to lay it down.
I have the power to take it again. This commandment have I received
from my Father. You see, the life. of the Lord
Jesus Christ is not derived life like ours is. It's essential
life. Essential life. He is life. He said to not only Thomas, but
to all the disciples in John 14, I am the way, the truth and
the life. I am the life. He gives life
because He is life. He is life. And then, the son is equal with
the father in judicial power and authority. Let me give you
this, look at verse 27. And hath given him authority
to execute judgment also, because he is the son of man. Marvel
not at this, for the hour is coming in the
which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice. That other
resurrection he is talking about, that is a spiritual resurrection.
Back up there in verse 24. That is a spiritual resurrection. That is regeneration. That is
the new birth. Now he is talking about at second
coming, he is talking about the physical resurrection of dead
bodies. Marvel not at this, for the hour
is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear His
voice, and they shall come forth. They that have done good under
the resurrection of life. They that have done evil under
the resurrection of damnation. There are some good people and
there are some evil people. We are made good by grace in
Jesus Christ the Lord. And others are just left as they
are. Born evil, live in evil, die
evil. But some of us are born evil, but we're made good by the imputed
goodness and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're
good before God. Good before God. And for us, there will be a resurrection
of life. For others, It will be a resurrection
of damnation. And the judge will be God's own
Son, the Son of Man. All judgment has been turned
over to Him. And what is the standard for
that judgment? Righteousness. Righteousness. It doesn't matter how you compare
it with anybody else. That's not what the standard
is going to be. Are you better than your neighbor? Are you better
than the person next to you here in the building? Are you better
than most other people? No. You've got to measure up
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And the only way to measure up
to the Lord Jesus Christ is to be found in Him. Then you measure
up. Dressed in His righteousness
alone. The fault is to stand before
God's throne. Well, let's sing a closing song,
number 452, My Savior's Love. Sing of the Savior's love, number
452. Let's stand together.