One of the many names by which
the Lord God reveals himself in the scriptures, by which he
endears himself to his people, is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord that
healeth thee. The children of Israel were brought
by the hand of God out of the land of Egypt by a stretched
out hand and a mighty arm He brought them from the house of
bondage. He had performed the mighty miracle by causing the
Red Sea to open before them. He brought them across the Red
Sea and then by closing the sea miraculously, he drowned Pharaoh
and his armies behind them and he led them through the wilderness
of Shur. For three days, they wandered
about in Shur with nothing to drink. They had no water. Can you imagine how they must
have suffered as those three days came? Day after day, no
water. The sand scalding their feet. The sun beating on their heads
and no water. Their cattle beginning to die
for lack of water. their children's tongues swollen
because they had no water. And then suddenly on the third
day, they came to a place where there was a plentiful fountain
of water called Mara. Oh, you can just imagine how
excited they must have been with what delight they ran to the
waters of Mara. They could just taste the cool
water. They could feel it running down
their throats. And when they got to Mara, the
waters were bitter and they couldn't drink them. They turned on Moses. That's
not really true. They turned on God. Moses just
represented him. And they began to curse Moses. They began to berate Moses severely,
despising him because he brought them out of Egypt to these bitter
waters of Mara. And Moses turned to the Lord
and he he cried to the Lord God and God showed him a tree. And
he took that tree and cast the tree into the waters and the
bitter waters were made sweets. And the Lord said, now see here,
by the cross of Calvary, by the sacrifice of my darling son,
my name is Jehovah Raphael. I am the Lord that healeth thee. And with his stripes, we are
healed. Turn to John chapter 5. Jehovah Raffi has come. The Lord
that healeth thee has come in human flesh to a place in Jerusalem
called Bethesda. This place called the Pool of
Bethesda. The word Bethesda means house
of mercy or house of grace. Jehovah Raffi, the Lord, our
healer, came here to perform a great miracle of grace, a memorable
act of mercy by which he displays his saving power, grace, and
goodness to chosen sinners. He comes to this place at Bethesda
and causes one who was 38 years impotent. 38 years impotent. to take up his bed and walk away
rejoicing. The title of my message this
morning is The Angel That Troubles the Water. Whenever I read this
story, I like to pause and read it real carefully. I'm like Moses
when he saw the bush burning and heard God speak out of the
bush. He said, I'll turn aside now
and see this great sight. May God the Holy Spirit give
us eyes now to see the things he teaches us here. I call your
attention to six things. First, I want to spend a good
bit of time talking to you about the pool itself. The first thing
that demands our attention is this pool described here for
us in this one place in Scripture. The Lord Jesus came to Jerusalem
and Some suggest that this feast of the Jews that's described
here is the feast of Passover. Others say, no, it's the feast
of tabernacles. Others say, no, it's the feast
of Pentecost. It doesn't really matter. And
the reason I say it doesn't matter is because God didn't tell us
which one it was. If it had mattered, he would
have told us which feast it was. But our Lord Jesus, in order
to fulfill the law as our substitute, in order to satisfy all things
revealed in the law, all things typified in the law, and all
the requirements of the law, as our representative went up
to Jerusalem three times every year as a man, so that he might
fulfill the law and there keep the feast which the Lord God
commanded the children of Israel to keep. But at this feast in
Jerusalem, There was a place called the Sheep Gate. It's called
in our text the Sheep Market. This place called the Sheep Gate
is mentioned by Nehemiah. It was sanctified by Nehemiah
and it was mentioned as a place of significance in Jeremiah chapter
31. At the end of that chapter, I
found it interesting, At the end of that chapter that describes
in greatest detail the covenant of God's grace and his acts of
mercy, Jeremiah mentions this very same sheet gate. This sheep
gate had beside it, as it was just on the other side of the
brook Kidron, where our Lord Jesus would cross over on his
way to Calvary. That same brook that David crossed
as he fled from his son Absalom. Just on the other side of that
is a place called the Pool of Bethesda. The Pool of Bethesda. Here at Bethesda, men would come
and bring their sick and lay them on these five large porches. I'm not certain. I just picture
in my mind these porches around Bethesda were probably covered
patios about the size of this auditorium and five of them all
around this pool where they would lay impotent people because at
a given season, an angel was sent from heaven to move or to
trouble. The word is to stir, to agitate
the waters. And the first person who got
in the water after the water was moved was healed of whatever
it was that ailed him. And here's where our Lord comes
to Bethesda, the pool of Bethesda, the pool, the water, of the house
of mercy, the water of the house of grace. This place Bethesda
obviously suggests a number of things. Some suggest that John
is simply giving us a Jewish superstition. I found it remarkable,
but then it wasn't so remarkable after all. The Jews The more meticulous
they became in the outward observance of religious ceremonies and traditions,
the more foolishly superstitious they became. They had long since
ignored the teaching of God's word. They had long since ignored
the message of Holy Scripture. They long since ignored the meaning
of what it was they were doing when they came to the house of
God. But they were very meticulous about observing their Sabbath
day and observing their own rituals and rites and the traditions
that were added to God's law. They were demanding concerning
those things. And the more demanding they got
about outward religion, the more ignorantly superstitious they
were. Reminds me a great deal of our own society. We've never
been more religious than we are now and more superstitious. When I was growing up, the folks
were fairly religious, most of them, but I never heard telephones
reading poems. You didn't see astrologers in
the paper. I know some of you folks read those things, pay
attention to that nonsense. It's called idolatry and witchcraft.
It's just superstition. These Jews had their superstitions. They foolishly imagined that
since the blood of their sacrifices had to eventually make its way
down to the waters of this pool of Bethesda, and the blood of
their sacrifices mixed with the water, their animal sacrifices,
the blood of those animals actually made the water in this pool of
Bethesda to have healing virtue. That was a foolish superstition.
And some idiots think that John is referring to this when he
writes this passage. Others say, no, no, John was
simply referring to something that was referring to a pool
in Bethesda or a pool in Jerusalem called Bethesda that was like
some of our wells, our fountains that have minerals and there's
certain healing qualities in them. And people went there and
they just imagined that they were healed. Well, the Spirit
of God speaks of it this way. He says, there was a pool there.
An angel moved the waters. And when the waters were troubled
by the angel, the first person in the water was healed. You
know what I take that to mean? I take that to mean that there
was a pool there. And when the angel moved the water on a certain
season, the first person in the water was healed. John is not
simply filling up space here. He's conveying an inspired God-given
message to our souls. And we don't need to look to
science or don't need to look to history to confirm the Word. The Word is its own confirmation. This is God's Word. This is God's
Word. What does the Pool of Bethesda
represent? I remind you again, it means house of mercy or house
of grace without question. It's symbolic of something connected
with mercy, the grace and the goodness of our God, that which
he bestows upon sinners when sinners are saved by his grace.
Perhaps it refers to God's appointed means of grace, the public ministry
of the word in the house of worship where we are now. The worship
of God and the preaching of the gospel in his house is the means
by which God has ordained the salvation of his elect. Let no
one misunderstand what I just said. The public assembly of
God's saints and the preaching of the gospel is the means God
has ordained for the salvation of his elect. We do not have
sacraments in the Church of God. Some years ago, I was going down
to Mexico and Brother Cody asked me if I would speak in the preacher's
school for the day with regard to the difference between ordinances
and sacraments when Skip and Sandy went down with us several
years ago. And he said the folks who translated Brother Mahan's
commentaries into Spanish translated the word ordinance, sacramenta,
And it's caused some disturbance here. And the translation wasn't
accidental. It was deliberate. Somebody translated
it deliberately that way. There's a vast difference between
a sacrament and an ordinance. Tonight, we will come together
and we will observe the Lord's table, eating the bread and drinking
the wine as we do every Sunday evening. And when we get done,
we will have eaten a little piece of bread and we will have drunk
a little glass of wine. It didn't become the body of
Christ and it didn't become the blood of Christ. And there's
no grace conferred by eating the bread and drinking the wine.
Absolutely not. You who confess Christ and believers
baptism, we baptize folks right here, bury them in water. And
when we bury them in water, do you know what's in that pool
back there? Water. It's not holy water, it's not
sanctified, it's just water. It's just water. I baptized in
real dirty water. I baptized in stagnant pools. I baptized in all kinds of water.
It's all just water. And it doesn't do anything for
the sinner. Absolutely nothing. It is merely
the confession of our Redeemer just as eating the bread and
drinking the wine is the remembrance of Him. It does not convey grace. That's what the papist and multitudes
of Protestants suggest with regard to the ordinances of the gospel.
By being baptized, by observing the Lord's Supper, we get grace. No. By these things, we confess
and acknowledge the grace God has given us. The means of grace,
the means by which God conveys grace to sinners, is the preaching
of the gospel. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the word of God. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. We are born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. That's the language of scripture,
Bob. That's exactly what the book says. Oh, do you mean then
that just preaching the gospel, God will save people? He does
by the power of his spirit. not by the power of the preacher,
not even merely by the power of the written word, but by the
power of his spirit, making the word to live within you, making
it to you the seed of life. But here in the house of God,
we proclaim God's free salvation. His free, sovereign, saving grace
in Jesus Christ the Lord. Here in the house of mercy, the
mercy of God in redemption, in regeneration, in forgiveness
is published to sinners everywhere. Now, whether the pool of Bethesda
refers to the place of divine worship or not, I really can't
say. But if you'll turn back to Zechariah
chapter 13, I'll show you for certain that it does refer to
this. Here is another fountain, a fountain that it most definitely
refers to when we see this pool of Bethesda, this pool of the
house of mercy. Zechariah chapter 13 verse 1.
In that day, there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David
and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. This fountain shall be opened
for sin and for uncleanness. The fountain that is open. in
this gospel day for sin and for uncleanness. The fountain by
which we are washed from our sins and made clean. The fountain
by which sinners are made whole by the Spirit of God is Jesus
Christ our Lord and our Redeemer. And the gospel we preach is the
gospel that proclaims this fountain open. The fountain that God has
opened for sinners so that sinners may be made clean. and whole
before him. It's not insignificant that the
Pool of Bethesda was by the Sheep Gate, called here the Sheep Market. The Sheep Gate had been sanctified
when the Temple was rebuilt in Nehemiah's day. The Sheep Gate
is mentioned as a place of significance in Jeremiah 31. Why is that? You can be sure of this. wherever
God has his sheep, wherever God has his sheep, he
will send his word to heal his sheep and he will cause his sheep
to plunge into this fountain by the word that's sent to heal
them and make them whole. Oh, what a wondrous display of
his mercy. It is written in Psalm 107 verse
20, he sent his word and healed them. How many times we have
experienced this, each of us ourselves personally, and as
an assembly, God opens doors of utterance for the gospel and
we just send it out. And sometimes, sometimes God
sends it out. And when God sends it out, he
sends it out for the healing of his people and he makes his
word effectual. One more thing. The spirit of
God tells us here that there were five porches, five large
covered porticoes that adjoined the pool of Bethesda and surrounded
this pool of Bethesda. John Gill suggested these five
porches may be intended to refer to the law of God. I like that. The law of God represented in
the five books of Moses, the Pentateuch as it's called. If
you would have mercy, you've got to be taken off the footing
of works and obedience to the law. and plunge wholly into the
fountain open for sin and for uncleanness. You must leave the
law and be made whole by Christ alone. Now this can't be stressed
sufficiently. Turn to Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5. Quit seeking righteousness of
any kind, at any time, by anything you do. Righteousness is to be
had by Christ alone, who is the end of the law. The Apostle Paul
tells us that we are not justified by the works of the law, for
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. He said,
I don't frustrate the grace of God. If righteousness comes by
the law, then Christ died for nothing. Verse one of chapter
five. Stand fast, therefore, in the
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. Stand fast in this
liberty. He's saying, don't let anybody
bring you back under the yoke of bondage. You've been set free
in Christ. You're free from all that's required
in the law because the law has been fulfilled for you. There's
no need for you to do anything by which to attain righteousness. Christ is our righteousness.
Do you understand that? There's no need to do anything
for the attainment of righteousness. Christ is our righteousness.
Well, Brother Don, Surely, we've got to do something that just
stands for reason. It may stand for reason, but
it's the reason of a fool. It's the reason of a fool. Christ
is our righteousness. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ hath made us free. Now, what does Paul mean here?
Be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Legality is
bondage. Somebody gets up and tells you
you must do. Now we know that you're saved by grace, but don't
let anybody tell you there's not something for you to do.
You're saved by grace, Mark Henson. If you're saved by grace, there's
nothing for you to do. Nothing. Well, you can't tell people that.
Let me try again. If you're saved by grace, there's
nothing for you to do. Nothing. Nothing. Well, you can't
tell people that. Let's see. Behold, I, Paul, say
unto you, that if you be circumcised, if you do something. He's not
just talking about circumcision. That's not a problem in our age.
That's not a problem. And he's certainly not saying
if you take your male children to the doctor when they're first
born, have them circumcised, they're lost forever. Certainly,
he's not talking about just circumcision. If you do something, pray, read
your Bible fast, become a witness or a missionary, go to church,
dress a certain way or don't dress a certain way, eat something
or don't eat something, drink something or don't drink something.
If you do something by which to win God's favor, keep God's
favor or improve your standing in God's favor, Christ shall
profit you how much? Nothing. Nothing. What do you say? I testify again
to every man that is circumcised, every man that attempts righteousness
for himself. He's a debtor to live in perfection. He's a debtor to do the whole
law. Christ is become zero to you, of no effect unto you. Whosoever of you are justified
by the law, you've missed the gospel altogether. You've fallen
from grace. All right, back here in our text,
look at verse 3. We see here the second thing,
an impotent multitude of people, a multitude waiting for the moving
of the water. What a vivid portrayal that is.
In these five porches lay a great multitude of impotent folk, a
blind hawk, withered. That's a pretty good picture
of you. You who are yet without life
before God, dead in trespasses and in sins. Man since the fall
of our father Adam, all men since the fall of our father Adam,
are impotent folk. Impotent. No strength. Impotent. No ability. Impotent. No capability. No possibility. Impotent. Impotent, folks. The impotent
being dead in trespasses and in sins are as impotent as any
who lie in the grave. The impotent man has neither
the power to redeem his own soul nor to regenerate himself. He
has no power to obey God, no power to make himself righteous,
no power even to will himself into a favorable position. He's
impotent. And the impotent folk are all
blind. Blind. They can't see. They can't see. The sooner you
learn that folks without Christ are blind, the better off you're
going to be. They're blind. You can't argue
them into God's kingdom, so quit trying. Quit trying. Witness
to them and leave it. Tell them the truth and leave
it. Bring them to hear the gospel and leave it. Don't try to get
folks to see who can't see. They're blind. They can't see sin. All they
can see is a glass of wine. They can't see sin. All they
can see is an act of adultery. They can't see sin. All they
can see is an act of sodomy. They can't see sin. All they
can see is murder. Well, aren't those things sin?
No, those are acts of sin. Sin, by best, is what you are.
The drunkenness and the sodomy and the murder, the incest and
the fornication and the adultery, those things are but the outward
display of that horrible evil that's in you by nature that
you try your best to keep covered up from everybody and from God. Well, that's not me. Impotent. Blind. You can't see. I don't expect
you to acknowledge what you are. You can't see. Can't see God. Don't have a clue who God is.
You just have a notion about your ideas what God ought to
be. And whatever you think God ought to be is what you make
God to be. Ignorant, blind folks. Don't have a clue what God's
salvation is. Blind. Blind. Until God gives you eyes
you can't see. Do you see the things I'm talking
about? Rex, if you see what you are, blessed are your eyes. For they see. Just that simple. Brother God,
I can't see things that way. That's what I said. You're blind.
Blind. Haunt. Haunt. That doesn't mean you got a bad
limp. That means you can't walk. Haunt. People by nature have no ability
to come to Christ. They've got to be brought to
Him. And you and I, even we who are born again by God's Spirit,
born of His grace, saved by His immaculate mercy,
when our hearts become so cold, indifferent, We're so quickly
turned aside from our God. Want as you may, you can't want
back. David said my moisture was turned
to the drought of summer. He said my bones waxed old through
my roaring. Because the fact is, The only
way we can ever be recovered when we fall. And the righteous
fall seven times in a day. But blessed be his name, the
Lord raiseth them up. And we are brought continually
back to our Savior. We ought to be reminded by every
time these hearts of ours are again wrapped around the Son
of God. This is God's work. This is God's
work. And withered. Dried up. Dried up. What a pitiful sight our Savior
must have beheld. Here's a multitude of people.
There's one whose arm is dried up. And there's one whose both
of his legs are dried up. There's obviously no moisture
left in those legs. There's no life left in them. They're just dried up. There's no moisture left inside, dried
up. The rich flowings of the moisture
of life are dried up from within. There they are. They've been
brought here and laid on these porches because somebody told
them. Somebody convinced them. Joe, buddy, I'm telling you,
I'm telling you, I've been where you are. I was impotent and blind
and hot and withered. And I found somebody to take
me down there, to lay me on the porch beside this pool called
Bethesda, the house of mercy. And now here I am made whole
because an angel came and visited the waters, put me in a pool. Here I am whole. All right. Let's look at this angel that
troubled the water. This Pool of Bethesda was a standing
miracle in Jerusalem. Do you remember what happened
with the close of Malachi's prophecy? God took away the spirit of prophecy. Larry, for 400 years, God didn't
send a preacher. For 400 years. The only preaching that was done
was by saved sinners who had experienced God's grace and told
other saved sinners about the grace they'd experienced. There
wasn't a preacher around. There wasn't a prophet around.
For 400 years, God didn't speak from heaven. But he established
certain things, and this Pula Bethesda seems to have been one
of them, by which he testified continually that he has not forsaken,
he's not cast off his people whom he foreknew. And this pool
of Bethesda was a standing miracle among the children of Israel.
Here, at given seasons, an angel from God came and moved the waters,
like the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the deep, breathed
upon the waters, and troubled the waters, agitated stirred
the waters. Call something to happen to the
waters in this pool of Bethesda. This angel of God is none other
than Christ Jesus our Lord. It is he, not the water, that
gives healing power. There's no healing power in the
water. Christ gave healing power to
the water. The angel that moved the water
calls the waters to have healing efficacy. And so it is with all
things in the worship of God. We preach the gospel and we call on sinners to trust the
Savior. We send the gospel out around
the world and we must give ourselves ardently to the work. Let no
one excuse laziness, calling it believing in God's sovereignty.
Let us ardently devote ourselves to the business of preaching
the gospel. Devote ourselves to the business
of making Christ known. I've been doing this now for 41 years. For 41 years. And I'm more convinced today
than I've ever been in my life. That no matter how ardently,
how zealously, how fervently we give ourselves to the work
of the ministry, our noblest, most zealous labors are less
than vanity, except the Lord move the water. I want to minister to you. Oh,
I want to minister to you. I want you to know God, my Savior,
I want you to know God's free grace in Christ. I want you every
time you come in this place to experience anew the power of
God and the salvation. And I can't. I can't. But if he will come and visit
us. This angel came at certain season. There was a specified time when
the angel came. Perhaps it was just once a year
at one of the feasts. Perhaps it was just three times
a year at these three feasts where all of Israel was to come
up to Jerusalem. Perhaps it was every Sabbath
day when the children of God were commanded to worship in
the house of God. This I know. There are certain
seasons appointed of God when Christ, the angel of the covenant,
visits his people and causes the water of the word to move
with power upon the hearts of man. There are appointed days
of mercy called the time of love. God Almighty has set a day for
you who are his. You may not know it yet, but
if you're His, He set a day for you. He set a day when He will
pursue you and call you by His grace called the time of love. And He will cause you in that
day to know the power of His saving grace by the outpouring
of His Spirit upon you. He will breathe into you the
water of life. He will breathe into you the
word of life. He will breathe into you the
spirit of life. He does that in this place, his
church called the house of mercy, the house of grace, where he
sends forth the water of life in the preaching of the gospel.
Now, let's look at this patient who was healed. I'll just call your attention
to four or five things here very briefly. Christ, the great physician,
the angel that troubles the water, came to Bethesda and he healed one man among many. This man was impotent. He had been that way for a long,
long time. For 38 years, Rod, the full age
of a man, he had been impotent. He had been impotent for so long
that he knew he was impotent. He was thoroughly convinced he
was impotent. You take a child born with some
kind of impotence. And the child doesn't know he's
impotent until he is of age to try to do what he sees another
doing. And now he finds out he's impotent.
He can't do it. This man had been impotent for
38 years, fully convinced of his impotence. But he was described
here as a certain man. Remember last week? Just for
certain ones. Just for a certain man. There
was an election made. An election, not the kind where
you go to the courthouse and vote. An election made by God. An election made from eternity.
This man was chosen of God. He was chosen and the reason
the Lord Jesus came down here to the sheep gate was to get
this sheep whom he had chosen. And this man being chosen of
God was called of God distinctly. The Lord Jesus said to the man,
Rise, take up thy bed and walk. Well, he can't do that. He's
impotent. He's impotent. Arise and live. It's high time now to awake out
of sleep. Awake out of sleep and God will give you life. That's
what the book says. Well, you can't do that. You're
impotent. Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved.
You can't do that. You can't do that. I know you
can't do that, but I command it anyhow. And as I call on you
to believe, It is my prayer that God, the Holy Spirit, will call
you to believe. And if he calls you to believe,
do you know what will happen? You'll find yourself believing.
You'll pick up your bed and walk away. Now, for you young people, the
word bed here is not referring to picking up a four post of
bed and carrying it around. It's talking about a mat. One
of the, just about the only real advantage I can think of in any
spiritual sense of being able to watch the stuff that goes
on in the Arab world. You see these fellows, they carry
their beds with them. They carry their prayer beds with them.
It's a little mat. They roll it out and stretch
out on it and do their prayer. That's exactly what we're talking
about here. Talking about a mat. Fellow carry it and lay it down
rather than laying on the bare ground or laying on the concrete. And
the Lord says to this impotent man, get up. Roll your bed up,
you won't need that anymore, and carry it with you. And you
know what the man did? He got up, rolled his bed up,
and carried it away. And the Jews saw him. What are you doing carrying your
bed on Sabbath day? Isn't that a strange thing to ask this fellow?
He's been, well, he's been laying around in front of them for 38
years, impotent. Honestly, I just can't imagine
being so calloused with religion that you see a fella who's been
laying around for 38 years. I mean, all the time you ever
saw him, he's laying down, his legs are dried up and curled
up under him. And all of a sudden you see that
fella, he's carrying his bed, walking around beside you. Man
of life, where'd you get your legs? Who did that? Where is that doctor? I want to know him. No. What
you doing carrying your bed? This is the Sabbath day. They were far more interested
in their religious customs, traditions, and legality, and in the maintenance
of their imaginary self-righteousness than they were in the healing
of this impotent man. The man said, I don't know. He
said, He said, the fellow who told me, the fellow who healed
me, who made me whole, he said, take up your bed and walk. So
I've been walking around with it ever since. That's what he
told me to do. Who told you to take up your bed and walk? Now
remember the fellow, he looked at me, he said, the fellow who
healed me, the one who made me whole, that ought to be, who
made you whole? I know some folks just like you.
Who made you whole? No. Who told you to take up your
bed and walk? This is the Sabbath day. And
when he finally told him who it was, when the Lord Jesus made
himself known to, they persecuted the Son of God because he had
done this on their Sabbath. Because he had healed this man. who now carries his bed on their
Sabbath day. All right, look at the day he
was healed. It was the Sabbath. Do you ever
notice how many things our Lord did in mercy on the Sabbath? His disciples gathered corn on
the Sabbath and the Pharisees started cussing They were upset
because his disciples were eating corn. They didn't even cook it.
They went to the field, got some raw corn, rubbed a little in
their hands, ate it while they're walking along. And the Pharisees
were indignant. And the Lord said, I want you
to know I'm the Lord of the Sabbath. And there was a fellow there
with a withered hand. And he said, let me tell you how these
men have learned to rub corn, stretch forth your hand, and
healed him. And it was a Sabbath day. There
was a woman with a spirit of infirmity for 18 years, and the
Lord healed her. And it was the Sabbath day, a
man who had the dropsy. The Lord Jesus came to him and
healed him, and it was the Sabbath day. John mentions another miracle
in John, chapter nine, a man who was born blind and the Lord
caused the blind man to see. And it was the Sabbath day. The
Sabbath day. Is the day Christ comes to you. The day he gives you rest from
your sin, and rest from guilt, and rest from labor, and rest
from a heavy heart, and rest from trouble. Now, look at our
text one more time. 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. I thought I'd
leave that off, and I thought, no, I better not do that, because
when I get to the door, somebody's going to ask me, what on earth
did the Lord mean when he said that in verse 14? What did he mean? You're made
whole now. Sin no more, lest a worse thing
come unto thee. Did the Lord Jesus mean to imply
that if he sinned, he might become impotent again? No. Did he mean
to suggest that saved sinners might lose their salvation if
they don't live right all the time? No. Or any time? No. Did the Savior here imply
that it's possible for saved sinners to live without sinning?
No. Well, what on earth is he saying? Read it like this. Cease from
sin, lest a worse thing come upon you. And turn to 1 Peter
chapter 4. I'll show you what he meant. There's a worse thing than physical
pain and physical sickness and physical disease of any kind. For God's people, something far
worse. Most of you are aware of this,
many of you I'm sure are not. Shortly after I had this heart
surgery a few months ago, coming out from recovery room just before
I left the, what do they call it, the intensive care unit, I had a horrible reaction to
medication. And I spent a week absolutely
insane. Absolutely without the capability
of any knowledge of my God. And the only thing I really knew
is I couldn't think straight. The only thing I really knew,
Shelby would talk to me and I'd respond and go right back into
things bothering me. I heard her say to somebody the
other day, I said to her so many times, Shelby, there's something
wrong. I don't know what to do. Except Rowan, I don't know what
to do. John, first Peter, chapter four, verse one. For as much
then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves
likewise with the same mind that Christ has suffered for us in
the flesh. For he that has suffered in the
flesh hath ceased from sin. Who's that talking about, Christ?
Yep. You? Yep. He said, we suffered
in the flesh with him. And he that suffered in the flesh
has ceased from sin. He said, now arm yourselves with
this mind, that you, that he no longer should live the rest
of his time in the flesh to the lust of men, but to the will
of God. Live to God. Live to God. lest a worse thing happen to
you. A worse thing? Oh, yes. Oh, yes. The Lord Jesus withdraws his
face from his own, hides his countenance, and causes the arrows
of the Almighty and the terrors of God to set in array against
you. And your bones wax old within
you. And your moisture is dried up. You wither. And there's nothing
you can do about it, Joe. No man can help you. No man can
help you. Except Christ himself come. and
make the water of his word to move with life in your soul again. Behold, thou art made whole. Cease from sin and live to the
will of God, lest a worse thing happen to you. I beseech you,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies
a living sacrifice holy, acceptable unto the Lord. Present yourself constantly before
God, through the merits of Christ,
constantly a living sacrifice, acceptable to God, and live in
the joy of faith in Christ Jesus the Lord. Amen.