I invite you to turn back with
me this morning to John chapter 5, verses 24 and 25. And while you're turning, let
me just set the situation that was going
on that preceded what our Lord had said. There was a man who
was carried down on some kind of a makeshift stretcher. The
Lord referred to it as his bed because he was bedridden. That's
what he was on. He wasn't able to walk. It appears
in the text as though he could crawl or move a little bit because
he said, while I was coming, others would go in ahead of me. And so Here he is and he's down
at this pool and at certain seasons, I don't know if it was several
times a year or what it was, an angel sent of God would come
down and trouble those waters and the first one to enter that
pool after the troubling of the water would be made whole. Now, I don't know. I think I
may have said in the past that this man had been down at that
pool for all these years. It doesn't say that in the text.
It just says that he had this disease for all those years. But it does appear from his conversation
that he'd been there before, and probably many times. And
the reason I say that, because what other hope did he have? Now, the man in our text whom
the Holy Ghost identifies simply by calling him a certain man. Now, we're told there was a multitude
of men on these five porches, just you can imagine, just a
multitude of people. Christ was able just in a minute
or two to disappear out of his sight. He didn't even know who
he was that it healed him. But there was a certain man that
our Lord came to see. Isn't that something, how multitudes
come in and over the years they'll come in and go out, come in and
go out. But then there'll be that certain
man and God won't let him go out. God'll do something for
him. He'd seen the effect of this
angelic troubling of the waters He witnessed many times the healing
of others, but he himself had no one to help. And then on a
certain day, the Savior saw him in his misery and knowing his
case completely. You know, we don't think about
that at the time when we sought the Lord, I like what he says
about the prodigal son, the father saw him a great way off. He knew
this man's case inside out. This man had been given to him
before the foundation of the world. He knew everything and
had arranged everything that came to pass in this man's life.
And on this certain day, he saw him in his misery and knowing
his case, he said unto him, would you be made whole? To me, there were just two answers,
yes or no. But he didn't pick either one
of them. Because in his mind, unless he went into those troubled
waters, he couldn't be healed. He didn't know that the troubling
of the waters was just a figure of him who stood before him.
This was Christ. This was the Son of God, the
Son of Man. And he said, I've got no man
to put me in the pool when the waters are troubled. But while
I'm coming, another steppeth down before me. And I can almost
imagine this paralyzed man trying to crawl or roll or scoot himself
into the water, and others jumping over top of him got there first. How pitiful is the sinner in
his depravity. Oh, he's so pitiful, he don't
know. I tell you, the longer you're in this, once God opened
your eyes, you don't get better, you get worse. It's not for a
few years until you begin to really see just how pitiful you
are before God. And even with the light, let
alone when you were in darkness, but now with all this light, My soul, how pitiful are we,
even in the light of God, to do these things. But the Savior didn't tell him,
I'll take you down to the water. He said, take up your bed and
walk. And immediately the man was made
whole. How long did it take him? Immediately. You know that's just how fast
we're saved. We grow in grace and knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We mature, but God saves you
instantly. Instantly. He was made whole immediately,
and he took up his bed and walked. And the Lord did this on the
Sabbath. Now here is a notable miracle, this man whom they'd
known. Everybody knew him. And they knew how sick he was,
and they knew that he'd been paralyzed for 38 years. And this man comes along and
tells him take up his bed and walk, and he takes up his bed
and walks, and he's cured, and he didn't go into the water,
and nobody put him into the water. You would think everybody there
would rejoice and immediately give God the praise, wouldn't
you? No, that's not how religion works. Religion saw this as a violation
of the law, a violation of what they believed to be true religion. And that's the way it is. God's
grace saves a man. He's saved 100% by grace. He's saved immediately. Immediately,
just like this man. God saves him. Gives him eyes
to see and ears to hear. But religion comes back and totally
misses the miracle, totally misses the divine hand in this whole
thing and said, you know it ain't lawful for you to carry your
bed on the Sabbath. You think that fella carried
one wit if it was the Sabbath? He said, the guy that healed
me told me to take up this bed. And he said, who told you that?
Well, he said, I don't know. I don't know who he was. So the
Lord revealed himself to him. And the Lord knew what those
men thought in their heart. He knew the fallacy of false
religion. He knew all about legalism and
all of those things and how those things were an abomination before
God. And I think that's what prompted
him to say this. They said, you violated the Sabbath
day. And he said, well, my father
worketh hitherto. They had a meltdown when he told
them that. They had a meltdown. Oh, they
said, he not only defiled our Sabbath, but now he says his
father is God, making himself equal with God. And he said,
well, I'm the God man. I can't do anything except what
my father shows me to do. And that's what I do. That's
what I do. And he has me to do it. to establish
his sovereign right to do it. And you're going to honor the
son exactly as you honor the father. My friend, let me tell you something.
2019 years have passed by and religion,
in spite of the word of God and the appearance of Christ and
the message of Christ and the plain declaration of the gospel,
knows no more about God right now than they did when they met
that man at the pool. They're still enamored with their
ceremonies and their holy days and their religious dress and
their education and their garments and their names and their reputations. They're still engaged in enforcing
a law of which they're totally ignorant. They're still encompassing land
and sea to make proselytes like unto themselves who, when they're
made, are twofold more the child of hell than they that made them.
religion hadn't changed one bit. Seeing these ignorant, self-righteous
rebels, our Lord declares the purpose of his presence and work.
He tells us in no uncertain terms who he is and what he's doing
and in whose name he's doing it. Now this morning I want to
ask, and as best I can, answer three questions that are given
to us and declared in our text, which if you answer correctly
will tell you whether you're a religious proselyte or a true
disciple of Christ. The first question is this. Of
whom does our Lord speak as being the recipients of his promise
in this text? Did he say every man? No. Did he say if you do the best
you can? No. That's not how he described
them. He calls them the dead. The dead. The dead, he said, shall hear
the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. Now is this talking about those
who are buried out yonder in the cemetery? No. No, he talks about them if you
go on down there a little bit. He said there's a day coming
in which all that are in the graves is going to hear my voice. But the Lord said the hour is
coming and now is. Now is. And I don't care if you're
Cain, Adam's wicked son, or the last religious rebel who shall
die a natural death, there's gonna be a time when they're
gonna hear the voice of God and they're gonna come out of that
grave. Those that have done good, how
do we do good? In Christ, by the grace of God.
And those that have done evil, to a resurrection of damnation. All these things should be done
at the hearing of the voice of the Son of God at the last day. But these are not the dead to
which our Lord is referring or the hour of their hearing spoken
of in verses 24 and 25 here in John chapter five. This death
is a spiritual death. There's been a resurge. I watch a lot of TV sometimes
in the evenings after my day's gone, and there's been a resurge
of movies out of Hollywood about the walking dead. Zombies. Zombies. Every channel you go
on, there's something on there, some kind of zombie or some kind
of walking dead. They're dead, but they still
walk the earth in some kind of evil afterlife. And believe it
or not, this is perhaps closer to the truth than most are willing
to accept. The word of God tells us that
by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and
so death passed upon all men, for that all had sinned. When
Adam fell in the garden, the judgment of God was passed upon
all his posterity. This world hates that doctrine. Scripture says, by the offense
of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. But God
did not destroy all men. because he had purposed to save
a people out of those fallen sons for the glory of his great
name, and so the dead were allowed to exist in their bodies. You hearin' what I'm sayin'?
The dead were allowed to continue on in those sinful bodies and
natures and evil ways, and so are, in a way, a kind of living
dead, are they not? Paul said that we have before
proved both Jews and Gentiles, they're all under sin. None righteous. No, not one. None that understandeth. None that seeketh after God.
None good. All gone out of the way. Together
become unprofitable. Their throat is an open sepulcher. The poison of asp is under their
lips. Their mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness. Destruction and misery are in
their ways and there's no fear of God before their eyes. He's dead. What is it to be spiritually
dead? Well, Paul gives us a definition
of it as good as you'll find in the scriptures in Ephesians
chapter two, verses one through three. What is this death that
I'm talking about? The living dead, what is this? He says in verse one of Ephesians
chapter two, you have the quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sins. Wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world. I'm sorry for this, I just can't
hardly do it. You walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,
among whom also we all had our conversation, our social intercourse,
if you will, or behavior. And we had this in times past
in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others." That's what this living dead is. Now, among these living dead,
let's say God didn't restrain men at all, and he let them have
their way. Well, we'd have another day just
like Noah's day if he did that. But God, because he has a people
out here and a purpose out here, and it's a purpose of grace,
and it's an eternal purpose of grace, and he's going to call
out his elect out of this world, And when all of his elect are
called out of this world, he's gonna destroy this world. But
until then, God's constraining grace keeps men from being as
evil as they could be. And that's why we look at this
thing and we say, boy, that is a good man. No, he ain't. God just took away the occasions
for his sin from him. Boarded him up where he never
did do them. Gave him over to some self-righteous
ideas. And he went about paying his
bills and paying his taxes and going to church and he did all
these things and he glories in them. And we say of that man,
boy, if ever there was a godly woman, it's this man's grandma. Let me quote Romans three again.
There are none righteous and none good. That rich young ruler
came up to our Lord. This was a man schooled in the
Jewish religion. He run up to the Lord and he
said, good master. Boy, he just stopped him right
in his tracks. He said, why callest thou me
good? I'm none good but God. None good
but God. Oh, what are you saying, preacher?
You saying we preach to dead men? That's exactly what I'm
telling you. They're dead, spiritually dead. They're alive in their bodies.
They can think with their mind, but they can't think a spiritual
thought. They have emotions, but there's no love of God in
there. Our Lord said to those Pharisees who were, according
to the law, they were sinless. And he said to the Pharisees,
how did he say that? Well, I can't remember now, so
I'll just go on. They thought they were so righteous,
but there was none righteous. There's none righteous. All those
things I thought when I was a child was so pleasing to God, I found
out later on the word of God was an abomination to God. Boy,
I'd just cry. I just a young feller and I'd
come up to that altar and pray and I'd cry big alligator tears
and stuff. Boy, I thought what I was doing
was righteous before God. It was abomination. Abomination
before God. In time past, you walked according
to the course of this world, and not only according to the
way they walked, but according to the prince of the power of
the air. They said, God is our father. You go down here to any
church, you talk to their deacons and talk to their pastor, and
they'll tell you God is our father. That's exactly what the Jews
told Christ, and he said, if God was your father, you'd love
me, for I proceeded forth and came from God. God quickens dead men, dead in
trespasses and sins. Never going to get better. If
left to themselves, they're going to die in their sins. So the dead are the spiritually
dead, the fallen in Adam who are by nature children of wrath. And listen to what John says
here. Here's these false prophets.
Now, he said, you don't hear every spirit that comes to you,
and I'm gonna tell you how to tell the difference. I'm gonna
tell you who's sin of God and who ain't. He said, they are
of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world
heareth them. They talk to the world about
their righteousness, their self-righteousness, their good deeds. They talk to them about what
good people they are. They honor all the mothers on
Mother's Day. We used to do that in the church
I grew up in. I don't know why, but they never
did honor the fathers on Father's Day, but they always honored
the mothers. They speak of the world, and
those that are of the world, they hear. They hear them, they
rejoice in their message. They build churches with multitudes
in them. They talk about free will and
self-glory and work salvation and law righteousness and they
preach a progressive sanctification and evolutionary wisdom and a
universal love and mercy and grace of God. Which is, as far as I can tell,
and I've looked, it's not even mentioned in the Word of God.
And the world hears them and brags on them and follows them
right into hell. 1 John 4, 6, he said, we are of
God. He that knoweth God, heareth
us. He that's not of God, heareth not us. The dead are the spiritually
dead. They are by nature children of wrath. That's the condition
of every man born of Adam. And if left to himself, he'll
despise God's Christ. He'll persecute God's Christ.
And all those who are Christ's disciples, they despise them. They hate them. Don't want any
part of them. We'll allow you to exist if you'll
go off somewhere out of the mainstream. This is a hearing of the dead. And then secondly, let me ask
you this question. What is the promise declared
in our text? Do you say anything in here about
riches? Do you say anything in here about,
what do they call it, seed giving, plant the seed and you'll get
a bumper crop, Put in $10, you'll get $100. You didn't mention
that. What is the promise declared
in our text? Well, it gives us three things.
First of all, and this is the main thing, life. Life. Not this ungodly existence that
the world calls life, not this temporary wicked walking in the
vanity of our minds, being alienated from the life of God through
the darkness and ignorance that's in us, but eternal life, being
filled with the light and life of God, understanding the mysteries
of God, knowing the true character of God, knowing the mercy, love,
and grace of God. Life. But the life goes beyond just
a mindset. This life enables one. This life actually reigns in
the hearts of those who have it. God gives them a new nature within.
And this nature conquers the will, changes a man's directions,
enables him not just to know the inheritance of the saint,
but makes him meet to be partakers of it. Did you ever notice that
in Colossians 1? Paul thanked the Father, not
that they understood the inheritance of the saints, but that they
were made meet to be partakers with the enlightened saints. And every believer is born again. Peter writes, seeing you have
purified your souls and obeying the truth through the spirit
and the unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one
another with a pure heart perfectly, being born again. Born again. To as many as received
him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name, which were born. not of blood,
nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. Men having false professions
have tried for 2,000 years to deny or get around or somehow
explain away the new birth. And that's no marvel. Our Lord
tells us why. He said, except you be born again,
you cannot perceive the kingdom of God. They have no perception
of it, no way to know what it is or to identify it, except God give them this new
life. The promise of the text is life,
everlasting life, eternal life. And then the second promise in
the text is this, they shall not come into condemnation. A man called me yesterday, good
friends of the church here, come to visit, faithfully attend all
of our conferences and so on. And he said, you know, sometimes
my conscience, he said, just, it leaves me wondering if I even
know God. And I showed him a scripture
over in 1 John, He said, if your hearts accuse
you, talking about your conscience, God greater than your heart.
He greater than your heart. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. You know when you'll believe
you're justified? When you believe God justified
you. That's right. So long as you look within, hunting
for some evidence of justification, you're not going to find it. Confidence in justification is
the same as it is in everything else. It's in God. Who is he
that condemneth Christ died? These that God gives life shall
not come into condemnation. Oh, well, what about if they
backslide? That's what religion used to
tell us. Well, Paul said, if they draw back, he said, God
said, my soul shouldn't have no pleasure in them. But he said,
we're not of them that draw back to perdition. We draw back, but
we don't draw back to perdition. And then to listen to this, they
shall not come into condemnation. They're justly condemned in their
substitute and given the maximum sentence demanded by the law
and by the justice of God. And that being so, Paul tells
us there in Romans 8.1, there is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. To them who walk not after the
flesh, but after the spirit. And then the third thing, promise,
if you will, in our text is a passing from death unto life. And this
is the work of God who's delivered us from the power of darkness
and translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. There's a passing. You pass from death unto life. That's what our Lord said. All right, thirdly, what is the
condition or the means set forth in our text. We know who he's
talking to. He's talking to the dead. To
the dead. And we know what the promise
is. The promise is life everlasting. The promise is perfect justification. The promise is evidence of your
having passed from death unto life. Now, what's the condition? What's the main set forth in
our text? Well, he says in verse 24, he
that heareth my word. He that heareth my word. And
he says this in the next verse, the dead shall hear the voice
of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. Now wait a minute, preacher,
you're saying that in order to believe, we must hear the voice
of the Son of God. That's what I'm saying. That's what this text is saying. And if you wanna get right down
to it, I'm not saying it, Christ is. Now before you call the guys
in the white suits, let me show you some things. Over here in
John chapter 16, our Lord said this. He said, when he, the spirit
of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he shall
not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he
speak. He will receive of mine and show it unto you. The Holy
Spirit It's called in the scriptures, maybe you knew this, maybe you
didn't, he called the spirit of Christ. You know why? Because that's the language he
talks, he speaks. He speaks on behalf of Christ. He's not here to magnify himself,
please the father that in Christ, he's gonna have all preeminence. So when the spirit speaks, This
is hearing the voice of the Son of God. I'm so sorry. So much he is the messenger of
Christ that he's called the Spirit of Christ. And then here's another
thing, over here in Luke chapter 10 verse 16, our Lord was sending
out 70, 70 preachers, 70 ambassadors. And they're gonna go out into
all these towns, he said, whether he himself was going to go. He's
gonna send them out. These are his ambassadors. And here's what he said in verse
16, Luke chapter 10. He that heareth you, are you
listening? here with me. How are you going to hear the
voice of the Son of God through his ambassadors? How are you
going to hear them? Through the Holy Spirit of God
who accompanies them. Do you believe that? Do you believe that God would so
accompany and equip his ambassadors so as to speak on his behalf? That's what he says over in 2
Corinthians 5. We're his ambassadors. As though
God did beseech you by us. You really believe that God would
equip his ambassadors and accompany them in the power of his spirit
so as to speak on his behalf? Well, isn't that exactly what
Paul is declaring in 2 Corinthians 3, 5, saying that our sufficiency
is of God, who has made us able ministers
of Christ, not of the letter, but of the Spirit? He said, we're not sufficient
of ourselves. Think anything of ourselves. My soul, I can
preach from now to doomsday. Nothing's going to happen if
God doesn't accompany me. If I don't have his message,
his gospel, and the power of his spirit, nothing's gonna happen.
Nobody's gonna get fed, nobody's gonna get called. People think because grace preachers
are so dogmatic that they're conceited, they're overly confident. But that's not so, it's simply
that the spirit of Christ has given us an understanding and
to some degree the ability to teach it. I thought. I'm gonna
tell you something. If you know the truth about something,
I like what this old guy said in this movie one time. He said, once you've known the truth,
everything else is just cheap whiskey. That's all it is. Once you know the truth, it's
not hard to identify the lie. But God has to show you the truth.
He has to teach you the truth. And he told us that it pleased
him to save chosen sinners by the foolishness of preaching.
And he tells us in Romans 1 16 that the preaching of the gospel
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone They believe, not
to some, but to all. And then the Holy Ghost asked
this question. How you gonna hear without preaching?
How you gonna hear? The day is coming, our Lord said. And he's already demonstrated
that in the salvation of that paralyzed man. He's already demonstrated
this to them, but they didn't get it. They didn't hear it.
The day is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. They
that hear shall live. Thank you.