I've entitled this message, The
Remedy for Inability. The Remedy for Inability. The passage of scripture I just
read is the third of the seven miracles that Christ performed
in the book of John. And the book of John is actually
all centered around those seven miracles. Water made wine was
the first miracle. The healing of the nobleman's
son, where we're taught what faith is, the second miracle. The miracle I just read, then
there's the creating of food, teaches that salvation is a creation. And then him walking on the water,
it lets us know that this is beyond man's ability in any way. And then him giving sight to
one that was born blind. Salvation is being given your
sight. And then Him raising Lazarus from the dead. Salvation is a
resurrection from the dead. And then the healing of this
man who had been lame for 38 years. What a miracle. And look what
the Jews' response to this miracle was in verse 16. And therefore did the Jews persecute
Jesus and sought to slay him. Now that's strong. They wanted
him dead because he had done these things on the Sabbath day,
the day when you're not supposed to work. I love verse 17. We're going
to consider this soon. The Lord's answer to their objection. My father worketh hitherto. He's
working here on the Sabbath day. I am too. Now, their anger had begun in
John chapter 2 when the Lord made a whip. And he drove those manning changers
out of the temple. And they were mad. They said,
who gives you the right to do this? Who do you think you are? And so now when he performs this
miracle on what they considered the day they shouldn't be working,
they sought to slay him. Now, there are other times in
the Gospel of John when they sought to slay Him, but His hour
was not yet come. Now, when His hour was come,
He was nailed to a cross. The Scripture says, according
to the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God. They nailed
him to a cross because God purposed for him to be nailed to that
cross and this was all according to God's purpose. I love to remind
myself and you of this. The universe was created for
the cross. And you and I, our eternal destiny
is determined by the cross. And how God views you right now,
how God views me right now, can be seen in how I view Christ
and His cross. Verse 1 of John chapter 5, after
this there was a feast of the Jews. And Jesus went up to Jerusalem
in obedience to the command. Now, there were four feasts that
every male in Israel was commanded to go to Jerusalem to observe. We're not real sure which one
this was, but I think it's very interesting that John calls it
a feast of the Jews. You see, it had degenerated to
the point where John wouldn't call it the feast that God ordered,
but they had degenerated it into a feast of the Jews. But the Lord went up to Jerusalem
in obedience to God's command. Verse 2, now there is a Jerusalem
by the sheep market, the place where sacrificial animals were
sold. a pool which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda,
having five porches. I think it's interesting there
are many hospitals that have been named after this, a place
of healing. You've heard of Bethesda Hospital. There are orphanages that have
been named Bethesda, House of Mercy. This is a very famous
because of this term, Bethesda. In this edifice, there was kind
of an amphitheater with a pool down in the middle, and there
were five tiers with sick people laying in them. Let's read verse
three. In these, these five tiers lay
a great multitude of impotent folk, powerless folk, blind,
halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. Powerless. What does that say to you? Powerless. Three descriptions of these powerless
people, blind, halt, and withered. waiting for something to happen.
Waiting. Verse four, four, an angel went
down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water. The water would be moving by
the angel, paddling his hand in it, I don't know. Whosoever
then first, after the troubling of the water, stepped in, was
made whole of whatsoever disease he had." Now think of this. You
have all these sick people waiting for this certain season, whenever
it was, when an angel would come down and trouble the water. You know, there's been a lot
of debate about this, whether it really happened. Well, I think
the only safe thing is to say it happened just as it said it
did. An angel came down into the pool and troubled the water.
And whoever got in first, they were made whole of whatsoever
disease they had. I mean, if you were blind, if
you were, whatever your condition was, if you got in first, notice the person that had the
most ability to get in was the one that was made whole. There
were some people, if they didn't have somebody put them in, they
wouldn't be made whole. They were in trouble. But here we
have this scene of these people waiting for the troubling of
the water. And then we read in verse five
of a certain man. Now let's think about these people
waiting before we consider this certain man. What we have here
is a picture of human nature. a picture of my nature, a picture
of your nature. Now, somebody may think, well,
what do you mean by the word nature? Well, the nature is the
way you're born. The inherent features of what
you were born with, your character. You were not born a blank slate.
Not at all. You were born with a nature.
You have some of the nature of your parents. You know, it's
amazing sometimes to see kids the way they walk, just like
their parents do. You can see the similarities.
But this is, especially speaking of the nature of your first father,
Adam, that you were born with. You were born with his nature. And that nature is an evil nature. You were born evil. You were
born bad. You believe that? Born bad. And it's described as impotent,
powerless, without ability. And there are three words that
are used to describe this impotence, blind, HALT AND WITHER. Now, what this
is a reference to is what has been known as, and I'm going
to get into this blind halt and wither in just a moment, but
perhaps you've heard these terms describing what happened to man
as a result of Adam's fall. Remember God said, In the day
you eat thereof, you'll surely die. Well, he did die that very
day. He didn't die physically, his
soul didn't die, but he died spiritually. He no longer had
a spirit. Dead in trespasses and sins. And what this describes is what
is called total depravity and total inability. Now, let me
give these terms, total depravity. I hope nobody says, well, I believe
that doctrine and I hope everybody in here believes I'm totally
depraved. I'm the one. But what total depravity means,
it doesn't mean that you're an ax murderer or you're a bank
robber. It means every one of your faculties, as a result of
Adam's fall, is under the dominion of sin. Your mind, your heart,
your will. Somebody says, do you believe
free will? No, no. Your nature controls your will.
You got a bad nature. And that's what's gonna control
every decision you make. Yes, you do what you wanna do,
You can't say the devil made me do it, you did what you wanna
do. But total depravity means every aspect of our nature. Our conscience, somebody says
the conscience is still good, no it's not. No part of you or
me is free from sin. Total depravity, total inability
goes with it because what can a dead man do? What can a dead
man do? He can't do anything. You can't
do anything to save yourself. You can't believe. You can't
repeat. You see no beauty in Christ. Totally depraved. There's nothing
you can do to save yourself. If God leaves me and you to ourselves,
we will not be saved. Now, three descriptions he gives. First, blind. Blind. Me and you can't see who God
really is. We can't see who we really are.
We can't really see salvation. Oh, we have the terms, but we're
clueless as to, we're born into this world, clueless as to who
God is, who we are, or how he saves sinners by his grace. Clueless,
blind, lame. We can't walk. We can't walk
in God's commandments. Withered. Dried up without the
moisture of life. Dead in trespasses and sins. Here we have this scene of our
Lord walking into this amphitheater. And I can hear moans and sighs
going on with these people, and they're just waiting. That's
significant, waiting. Waiting to get better. Waiting
for something to happen. waiting for some kind of improvement
so somehow maybe they can get into the water, waiting. This
is the natural man, this may be you. You're waiting to get
better. Then you'll come waiting to do
something, waiting, waiting. Verse five, and a certain man
was there, which had an infirmity, 38 years. Now there was the great multitudes
and there was this certain man. Now this illustrates the absolute
sovereignty of God in salvation. There was a great multitude and
there was a certain man. Now Christ could have saved everybody
in there, couldn't he? but he saved a certain man. Now somebody's thinking, why
didn't he save everybody? Quit thinking that way, that's
not the point. And when we think that way, all
we're doing is being critical of God. All of a sudden we become
God's judge. I think God ought to do this,
I think God ought to do that. Y'all quit thinking that way,
you're wrong. He's good, you're bad, don't forget that. Any judgment
we make of God is a wrong judgment. Don't think, why didn't he save
everybody? He did save this certain man. I wanna be one of them,
don't you? I wanna get in on this. I wanna
be one of these certain men that he is pleased to make himself
known to. There was a certain man that
was there which had an infirmity 38 years. 38 years ago, it was
1985. In my life, Aubrey hadn't even
been born yet. She was born in 1986. You think of all the time
that has been spent during those 38 years of this miserable condition. Look down in 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. So much of us
are thinking, does that mean if I say it again, some kind
of horrible disease is going to come upon me? That's not the
point. The point is, this is brought
out to let us know that this man's sin was all his fault. My sin is all my fault. I can't
blame God's sovereignty. I can't blame Adam. My sin is
all my fault. This man had this infirmity for
38 years that paralyzed him. We don't know what it was, but
the only reason we have this detail is to let us know this
man's sin was his fault. Your sin's your fault. My sin's
my fault. And let me also say this, it's
only when my sin's all my fault. then I'm gonna ask God for mercy.
If it's not all my fault, I need to be treated fairly. This is
not my fault, but if it's all my fault, here's what I need,
mercy, grace. Verse six, when Jesus saw him, lie in inability, unable to do
anything for himself. Oh, I love to think of Jesus
seeing him. Don't you? He saw one. He loved. He saw one. He foreknew. Oh, I want the Lord to see me
like that. Don't you? He saw this man in
his utter and complete inability, lie, couldn't get into the water. And he knew that he had been
now a long time in that case. The Lord knew. He saith unto
him, wilt thou be made whole? He didn't say to you, you want
to go to heaven. You want to go to heaven? Of
course I do. You want to go to hell? No, I don't want to go
to that place. That's not what the Lord asked him. Wilt thou,
are you willing to be made whole? Are you willing to be made? That's
the work of God, not you make yourself. Are you willing for
him to make you to be something you were not before? Whole. That's what he asked him. Are
you willing to be made whole? That's a very simple question. What if the Lord asks you that
question? You, forget about everybody else. Are you willing to be made? This is not something you do. It's something that's done for
you. Are you willing to be made whole? Now my only hope of being saved
is the Lord saving me. The Lord. Making me to be what
I was not. Whole. Complete. I think I have some understanding. Turn with me for a moment to
Matthew chapter eight. Hold your finger there. And turn
to Matthew chapter eight. Verse one. When he was come down from the
mountain, great multitudes follow him, and behold, there came a
leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst
make me clean. Now let me tell you something
this leper understood. He understood that the only way he'd be clean
was if the Lord made him clean. Do you have that understanding? He came and worshipped Him. And He worshipped Him before
He was made clean in His own experience. The point being,
He worshipped the Lord for who He was. The Lord is to be worshipped
whether He saves me and you or not. If He leaves you to yourself
and lets you go to hell, He's still worthy of worship. Do you believe that? He came and worshipped Him saying,
Lord. He knew He was the Lord. He knew
He was the controller. He knew He's the one whose will
must be done. He's the Lord. He came and worshipped
Him saying, Lord, if you will, He acknowledged His sovereign
will. This is not up to me, this is
up to you. If you will, you can. You have the ability. He acknowledged the Lord's ability
to make him clean. He came for the right thing.
Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. I can't make myself
clean, only you can do it. And Jesus put forth His hand
and touched him, saying, I will. Be thou clean. Now, back to our text. And when Jesus saw him lie, verse
6, and knew that he'd been now a long time in that case, in
that condition. He saith unto him, wilt thou
be made whole? Now, evidently, the man didn't
hear what he said, because look at his answer. The impotent man
answered and said, sir, I have no man when the water's troubled
to put me into the pool. But while I'm coming, another
steppeth down before me. This man did not hear what the
Lord was asking. This question could be answered
with a yes or no. Yes, I'm willing to be made whole. Or no, I'm not willing to be
made whole. That question could be answered
with a yes or a no. But that man did not hear what
the Lord said. I wonder how often that takes
place where the Lord says something plainly And we don't really hear
what's being said. We make it to be something else.
The Lord didn't ask him, are you able to get into the water?
He didn't ask him that at all. He said, are you willing to be
made whole? Are you willing to become what
you are not whole? Are you willing to be made what
you are not. The teaching of the first miracle
where the water was made wine. It was water. It was made wine. It was not water that looked
like wine. It was not water that smelled
like wine. It was not water that had the properties of wine. It was wine! Made to be what
it was not. And that's salvation. I'm made
to be what I'm not. The righteousness of God. Accepted
in God's sight. Made. Are you willing to be made
whole? But he didn't hear. He couldn't
hear just yet. He's still unable. Impotent. Now, do you remember
how I titled this message? The Remedy for Inability. Here it is. Jesus saith unto
him, rise, take up thy bed, and walk. You know what the remedy to inability
is? Omnipotence. Now your view of Jesus Christ
will correspond with your view of God, exactly. You know, if
you have a weak God, a God whose will is not always done, you've
got a weak Christ, non-existent. Christ, non-existent God. But
your view of Jesus Christ is going to be directly related
to your view of God. If you believe God is omnipotent,
you believe Jesus Christ is omnipotent. If you believe God is absolutely
sovereign, whose will must be done, you believe Jesus Christ's
will must be done. And when Jesus Christ says, rise,
take up your bed, and walk. You know what you do? You rise,
you take up your bed, and you walk. Now this commandment had
been given before. Turn back to Mark chapter 2, verse 1. And again he entered into Capernaum
after some days, and it was noise that he was in the house. And
straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there
was no room. to receive them, not so much
about the door. And he preached the word unto
them. I love to try to think of this, a room, probably not
as big as this room. I'm sure it wasn't, but it was
packed. It was somebody's house and nobody could even get in.
And there the Lord is preaching the word And they came unto him,
bringing one sick of the palsy, which was born of four. And when
they could not come nigh unto him, but the press, the crowd,
they uncovered the roof where he was. And when they'd broken
it up, they let down. The bed wherein the sick of the
palsy lay. Now picture this in your mind. The Lord's in there
preaching. Everybody's listening. Nobody else can get in. All of
a sudden, they look up, they hear something. Maybe stuff starts
falling. They're breaking up the ceiling. Right before everybody,
they lowered this man who was crippled down into the floor
before the Lord. Verse five. When Jesus saw their
faith, I think that's so significant. This man at this time didn't
have any faith, but they did. They knew the only one who could
do anything for their friend was the Lord Jesus Christ. They knew
that. Do you know that? When Jesus
saw their faith, he said to the sick of Paul, he said, son, thy
sins be forgiven thee. But there were certain of the
scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, why does this
man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
only? Right on. They were right about
that. And immediately when Jesus perceived
in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he saith unto
them, why reason ye these things in your hearts? Whether is it
easier to say to the sick of palsy, thy sins be forgiven thee,
or to say, arise, take up thy bed and walk? What's easier for
me to say to a man paralyzed? Your sins are forgiven. Or, rise,
take up your bed, and walk. It's a whole lot easier to say
sins are forgiven because who knows whether or not they really
are if I say it. But it'd be a whole lot more
to say, rise, take up your bed, and walk. but that you may know
that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins. That's the ultimate power, isn't
it? He saith to the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, arise,
take up thy bed, and go thy way into thy house. Same thing he
said to this man. Arise, take up your bed, and walk. Now this is the voice
of authority, this is the voice of omnipotence, The same voice
that would later say to Lazarus, Lazarus, come forth. Could Lazarus have said no? Of
course not. This is omnipotent speaking.
Lazarus, come forth. He that was dead came forth. And this man who didn't hear
what the Lord said at first, When the Lord said, rise, take
up your bed and walk, he heard them, didn't he? You see, with
the command of Christ comes the ability. If he says to me, rise,
I rise. Verse nine of our text in John
chapter five, and immediately You know, this
man had been in this state of paralysis for 38 years. And after
the Lord says, rise, take, he didn't, you know, just the way
get up. No, immediately he got up. I
mean, he was plum healed immediately. The man was made whole and took
up his bed and walked. Now notice the order. Number
one, he was made whole. Then he took up his bed. Not before he was made whole.
Then he walked. Now there is always an order
in God's salvation. He was made whole. That's God's
work. That's what the Lord did. He
made him whole. Here's a scripture that would
illustrate what I'm saying. Second Timothy one nine says,
he saved us. and He called us. What came first? He saved us. He saved us and He called us,
not according to our works, but according to His own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. Now, this man didn't even know
what the Lord said. Then the Lord said, You're made
whole, rise, walk. He was made whole, he got up
and he walked. He was made willing. The Lord
said, will thou be made whole? He didn't even know what he was
talking about. But when the Lord made him whole, he was made willing.
Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. And this is one of the glorious
things about the Lord. Only he can make somebody willing.
I can't make you willing. I can't make myself willing.
You know, you've heard that saying, you can bring a horse to water,
but you can't make it drink. Well, that's true with me and
you, but not with the Lord. He brings the horse to water
and he makes it drink. And that man was made willing. In the day of God's power, he
rose, took up his bed, and walked. And the same day was the Sabbath. And I think it's glorious how
the Lord picked the Sabbath day to work many of His miracles. And He knew exactly what would
happen as a result of this. These people get mad. And you
know, not only, you know, the fact that they got mad about
this is almost as amazing as the miracle itself. They see
this man that's been crippled for 38 years. now rising up,
taking his bed and walking. The Jews therefore said unto
him that was cured, it's the Sabbath day. It's not lawful
for thee to carry thy bed. This is against the rules. They
were more concerned about their understanding of rules than they
were the gospel. This is not right. You see, part
of their hope of their own salvation was in what they considered their
ability to keep the Sabbath. Now, they were blind. They'd
broken it. They didn't even know what it
meant. But they thought, if you carry anything, if you pick up
your bed and walk too many steps, you've broken the Sabbath. That
is so evil. That's all you can call it. Evil. They're rules. You're breaking
our rules. We got rules. You're breaking
them. That's the average fundamentalist
religious. You're breaking our rules. You see, if your hope is in your
rule-keeping and you see this man has no regard to that, it
means your rule-keeping doesn't even count. That's what they
saw. I love the way the man answered.
He answered them, he that made me whole. The same said unto
me, take up thy bed and walk. Here's our rule of action. He
told me to do it. I love what the Lord's mother
said to those people who were wanting wine. She said, whatsoever
he saith to you, do it. This fellow said, he told me
to do it. I did it. Blame him. Verse 12, then asked they him,
what man is this? Which said unto thee, take up
thy bed and walk. And he that was healed was not
who it was. For Jesus had conveyed himself
away, a multitude being in that place. Now, evidently the Lord
said to him, rise, take up your bed and walk. And he turned around
and got out of there. And God never knew what the Lord's name
was. Afterward, verse 14, Jesus findeth
him in the temple and saith unto him, behold, thou art made whole.
Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. Now there's a
lot of things that we can think of when we read that verse of
scripture. But like I said, the reason this is pointed out is
to let us know that our sin is our fault. My sin is my fault. And don't anybody think if somebody
gets some kind of disease or if they're paraplegic or quadriplegic,
what'd they do? Same thing you did. We're like
those fellows in John chapter nine. Master, that's the disciples,
who did sin, this man or his parents that he was born blind?
You ever thought about how stupid that is? I mean, that's us. That's us. But remember, the
Lord is pointing this out for the reason. Our sin is our fault. The man departed and told the
Jews that it was Jesus which had made him whole. Now this is our confession of
faith. The Lord Jesus Christ made me
whole. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead in a body and you are complete. Whole. Nothing lacking. in him. And therefore did the
Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay him because he'd done
these things on the Sabbath day. And through this event, we're
given, I think in John chapter five, in the rest of these verses,
we'll take several weeks to consider them, Christ's most complete
description of himself. And he begins with, you fellows
are upset with me healing somebody on the Sabbath day. Working,
my father's working. I am too. I and my father are
one. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for the
excellency and the glory of our Redeemer. And Lord, I ask in
Christ's name that you would say to each of us, your mate whole, rise, take up
your bed, and walk. In his name we pray.