Turn back now to John chapter
5. One of the significant things
I noted in reading these verses, chapter 5 verse 1, look at it
carefully, each word. As Jay said the other night,
singing a song, learn to savor each word. After this, there
was a feast. Jesus was there. After this there
was a feast of the Jews and the Lord Jesus Christ went to the
feast. Now we're not sure what feast
this was. Some say it was the Passover
and they give these reasons that the Lord, in order to live here
three and a half years on this earth, had to attend so many
Passovers, and they say this was a Passover feast, and others
disagree. Some say it was the Pentecost,
some say it was the Feast of the Tabernacles, some say it
was a Feast of Dedication. There's really nothing to show
us what feast it actually was. But I don't think that's the
important thing here. I think this is the important
thing, and see if you can catch it. There was a feast of the
Jews. There was a feast of the Jews
and the Lord Jesus was there. He went to it. Now here's what
the Spirit of God is calling our attention to. These feasts,
these ceremonies, which came from the Old Testament were given
to Israel through Moses. These feasts were appointed by
God. There was a feast of the Passover.
You remember when Israel was in Egypt? And God said, I'm coming
through at midnight and the firstborn in every home will die except
where the blood's on the door. And he said, Israel, you keep
this feast as a memorial every year. Now this feast was still
going on. You see, Christ is our Passover,
but Christ has not died yet. Christ has not gone to the cross.
So being born a Jew He was circumcised when he was eight days old. His
mother went through the order of purification for Jewish women. He was taken to the temple when
he was certain ages, as Jewish boys were always taken to the
temple at that particular time. And the Lord God ordained these
feasts, every one of them. They were ceremonies, they were
feasts that were to be observed, and the Lord Jesus Christ honored
them as long as they lasted. That's right, turn to Luke 4.
Our Lord honored these feasts as long as they lasted. In Luke
chapter 4 we have the account of his returning to his hometown
Nazareth for the first time after his fame had spread throughout
the region. You remember he came back to
Nazareth? I want you to look, if you will, at verse 16. And
he came to Nazareth where he'd been brought up. And as his custom
was, you see that? As his custom was, he went to
the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. He kept the Sabbath day. He kept
the feast. And that's what the Holy Spirit's
pointing out here. First of all, there was a feast
of the Jews, and the Lord Jesus was there. Our Lord Jesus Christ
was fulfilling all righteousness. You see, the Lord Jesus was made
of a woman and was made under the law. He was made under every
law. Not only the moral law, but the ceremonial law. Not only
the ceremonial law, but the civil law. Not only the civil law,
but the law of the home. He was subject to all those laws.
Now, the priest, and here's what somebody will come at us with,
the priest and the officers of the temple were very unworthy
persons. very unworthy persons. But that
didn't prevent our Lord from honoring the temple and from
honoring the synagogue and from honoring the ordinances and feasts
of the synagogue and of the temple and those feasts appointed by
the Lord. And I say that the benefits which
we receive from worship, baptism, the Lord's table, the preaching
of the word, And listen to me now, does not depend on the character
of those who frequent the place or even officiate. Have you ever
heard people say, well, I don't go down there to church because
there's so many hypocrites there. Boy, you think how many hypocrites
were in that synagogue where my Lord went every Sabbath day.
Well, I don't like to preach it. I want you to think who was
in charge where he went. Some of those fellas, Charlie,
were crooks. They had made the house of God into a den of thieves. Our Lord said that. But brethren,
let me say this, and I'm not advocating at all the support
of false doctrine. I couldn't sit and listen to
it either. I'm not asking that. I'm not even suggesting that.
Our Lord never did that. Our Lord never supported false
doctrine or false preaching, but God's to be worshipped. There
are certain holy things on this earth that are associated with
the Lord God in a specific way, in a special way of identification.
I'm not a, I don't hold to what we call a strict Christian Sabbath. I believe every day is the Lord's
day for that matter, but I believe the Lord's day, the first day
of the week, the people of God come together to worship. They
come together to fellowship. They come together to encourage
and exhort and to edify one another. It's known as the Lord's Day.
The people out yonder in the world, Cecil, they know this
is the Lord's Day. And they expect the people of
God to worship on the Lord's Day. Just like our Lord Jesus
Christ, it was the Sabbath day, the seventh day, and as his custom
was, he went to the temple. Now the folks officiating there,
he didn't, I'm sure, think too much of as far as their theology
was concerned. He wasn't particularly fond of
their way of life either. He told them there were whited
sepulchres, but he wasn't worshiping them. He went to worship his
father. He identified. You see what I'm
saying? Our Lord. Now, the first place, our Lord
did all this to fulfill all righteousness. That is the first and primary
thing I'm saying to you. The Lord Jesus Christ kept the
feast. The Lord Jesus Christ observed
the Sabbath. The Lord Jesus Christ was circumcised. The Lord Jesus Christ was obedient
in all things to the law to fulfill for us a perfect righteousness
which we do not have and which we cannot produce. But our Master
was always identified with the things of God, the holy things
of God. He was always identified with
them, and it would serve you well, and serve me well, and
serve those to whom we are witnesses, if we were faithful to the things
which men know as the things of God. the things of God in
an identification in a faithfulness. All right, I must move on, but
it says in verse 2, first of all, verse 1 says there was a
feast. There was a feast, and this is significant. But secondly,
in verse 2, it says there was a pool. There was a pool. There is that Jerusalem. There
is, he said. Now notice this. John doesn't
say it is reported or it is said. He says there is. Now there is
at Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool which is called in the
Hebrew tongue Bethesda. That's the only time that word's
mentioned in the Bible. The only time. It means house
of pity. It means house of mercy. House of mercy or house of kindness. And there's a pool having five
porches. These porches were something
with a roof over them and walls to them and open around the pool. There were five porches opened
around the pool. And on these porches, protected
from the weather and protected from the burning oriental sun,
it says lay a great multitude, a multitude, a great multitude
of impotent, powerless people without strength, people who
are diseased. You could walk through there
and see them. They're so pitiful, blind people, lame people, withered,
paralytic, just lying everywhere, pitiful people begging in rags
and dirt and they didn't have the programs we have now. They
didn't have the care we have now. They were just pitiful people
lying about everywhere on these fire porches waiting, waiting. Spurgeon preached on this one
time and he called it the hospital of waiters. the hospital of waiters. He said, you can't imagine, people
were all over the porches and the steps and the pool was in
the center here. And they were lying there waiting,
waiting. They were there every day keeping
up the vigil, waiting. Wait, what are they waiting on?
Well, it says in the next verse, for an angel went down at a certain
season. It doesn't say it was always
at the same time of the year, just at a certain season. Or
they would all wait till that time of the year came and they'd
rush and there'd be a mad fight or something down there to get
closest to the pool so you could fall in first. But he says an
angel went down at a certain season into the pool. Now, you'd
be amazed if you'd read the commentaries on the way they try to explain
this. Just, it's amazing. They all have a different idea.
Everyone tried to discredit the fact that it happened this way.
But some of them say that this pool was near where they slaughtered
sheep and the blood, Bob, ran down and the blood would hit
that hot water and it would bubble up, you know, and folks would
think it was an angel. Just all kind of things, you
know. Now, you say, what are you going to do with it, preacher?
And I'll tell you, I found a preacher of many years ago who just expressed
it just like I wish I could. But it says here in this verse,
an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled
the water. Whosoever then first, after the
troubling of the water, stepped in, he was made whole of whatever
disease he had. What do you think, preacher?
How do you explain this verse? May I quote Bishop J.C. Ryle? I think he's one of the greatest
writers on the book of John that we have, and this satisfies me. He says, my friend, There are
hundreds of ideas and views about this verse of scripture, but
the simplest view and the one which involves the fewest difficulties
is to take the passage just like you find it, just like you find
it, and interpret it just like you find it as an actual fact. That's what it says. That's what
it says. a standing miracle which occurred
at a certain season. Now he says there are angels.
We know that, don't we, John? There are angels. And we know
that angels have come to this earth. And angels have come here
to carry out God's mission and God's work and God's design. So there's nothing here to cause
any believer to stumble. There's nothing here to cause
any believer to doubt. Just leave it like it is. And
I think that's the best way. Just leave it like it is. Here
these people were just lying around everywhere on these porches
and steps and inclines and everywhere for they knew that at a certain
season that an angel came down and troubled the water and the
first person into the water. Can you imagine the scene? They
were all, they all watched so carefully. They had their eyes
on that water, waiting for the angel, waiting for the angel.
As Spurgeon said, the hospital of waiters, lame and blind and
haught and impotent, waiting just to see that water move.
And just soon as it moved, they began to, they began to clamor,
and somebody grabbed up her baby, and somebody grabbed up her mother,
and some son grabbed his father, and they began to try to work
their way to the water, and someone, someone got in. And everybody
else fell back exhausted. Well, we'll wait till next time.
We'll wait till next time. But here's the sad thing. These
people were all around here waiting for the angel, waiting for the
troubling of the water, waiting for the angel, and the angel's
master was walking right among them. The angel's master. They were waiting for the angel,
and the angel's master was walking right in their midst. My friends,
salvation, deliverance, healing, is not in a place, it's in a
person. Salvation is not in a feeling,
it's in faith. Are the people today who are
waiting, poor, blind, lame, withered, miserable sinners, who are waiting
for something, as Barnard used to say, waiting for the lightning
to strike Like these poor, impotent folks around that pool, they're
waiting with Felix for a convenient season. Oh, I'm going to deal
with this matter of salvation, Preacher, but I'm waiting for
a convenient time. So did Felix. Or perhaps they're
waiting, as someone said, for a revival. I believe that God's
going to send a revival, and at that time I believe my heart
will be stirred, and I'll be refreshed, and I'll be revived,
and I'll be brought to Christ, and I'll be healed. Or perhaps
they're waiting for an experience. Someone told them about an experience
that he had, and they'd like very much to have that kind of
experience. Or perhaps they're waiting for
a sign. Well, preacher, I've made professions
before, but they've proved to be false. And I'll tell you,
next time I make a profession, I'll tell you this, it's going
to be genuine. And you're just going to sit
and wait, and wait, and wait. Have you not heard of the woman
with the issue? Twelve years, she'd spent all
that she had, was no better, and she called in the press of
people in the multitude, and she said, if I can touch him,
I'll be made whole. Are you waiting on the angel
or are you seeking the Lord? Are you waiting for the troubling
of the water? Are you waiting for a convenient
season? Are you waiting for an experience?
Are you waiting for a sign? Are you waiting for a feeling?
Are you waiting for a special time or season? Don't you see
that the salvation is in him and he's here? Now is accepted
time. Today is the day of salvation.
Have you not heard of Bartimaeus? What's the commotion? Jesus of
Nazareth is passing by. Jesus, have mercy on me! And
he would not be still. Have you not heard of the thief?
He didn't have time to wait. He couldn't wait. He cried out
for mercy. Wait no more. Reach out to Christ. Reach out to Christ. I see this
scene here, all these folks sitting on these porches, and they all
wanted to be well, they all wanted to be healed, they all wanted
to be relieved of their distress, but they were sitting there waiting
for something, and standing right in the midst of them was the
one who could right then heal them completely. Well, that brings me to verse
5. Look at verse 5, and a certain man was there. And a certain
man was there. A certain man. He'd been sick
38 years, and Christ saw him and knew him. And he said to
him, wilt thou be made whole? Our Lord made a choice. Our Lord
made a choice. Here they all were, all in need.
All broken and impotent and withered and halt and lame. And here's
the one standing in the mist who can help them. Yet they're
all sitting there not looking to him, but looking to the water,
waiting on the water to move, waiting on the angel to come.
Now they won't cry out to him, they won't seek him. He said,
you will not come to me that you might have life. They won't
pay any attention to him, but they choose to wait beside the
pool. As men today choose to wait beside
their traditions and wait beside the law and wait by experience
and wait by the hand of some preacher. So our Lord in his
grace and mercy walked among them and went over here and made
a choice. I have no quarrel with his choice,
do you? There's none that seek God, God
seeks one. You have not chosen me, then
I'll choose you. You will not come to me, then
I'll come to you. Our Lord saw him, it says here.
Our Lord saw him and knew him. He saw me ruined in the fall,
yet loved me notwithstanding all. This man had no eyes for
Christ, but Christ had eyes for him. This man did not know our
Lord, but our Lord knew him. And our Lord looked upon him
in mercy and compassion, and his love was directed toward
this feeble creature. And he walked up to him and he
said this, Will thou be made whole? Will thou be made whole? That seems like a strange question,
doesn't it? Will thou be made whole? Would he be at the pool? waiting for the troubling of
the water if he didn't want to be made whole? Would he be at
this pool? Would he be here day in and day
out for all these years if he did not want to be made whole?
And yet I know, I know that our Lord doesn't use idle words.
I know that he doesn't. I know that he doesn't. And I
looked at this thing for a long time. This seems like a strange
question for our Lord to ask. I know the Lord wasn't asking
for information. When he said, Cain, where is
your brother? He knew where Abel was, dead. When he said, Adam, where art
thou? He knew where Adam was. He came where he was. When he
said, Peter, do you love me? Peter said, you know I love you.
You know all things. And this seems so strange. Here
are all these lame, impotent folks waiting for the angel,
waiting for the troubling of the water. Here stands the master,
and he makes a choice. He came to one who was impotent
and lame, had no strength. But instead of he was the object
of his grace, he was the object of his choice, this was the man
our Lord came to. And yet he asked that man, He
said, Will you be made whole? Is this really what you want? Now listen to me. Is this really
what you want? Now remember this. This is what
our Lord is implying. A well man won't continue to
lie here among the lame and the impotent. Now remember, when
I make you whole, what it involves? Moving out. Come on now. Moving up. Secondly, a well man's
going to have to go to work. You've been lying here on this
cot 38 years. People have fed you. People have
clothed you. People have bathed you. People
have cared for you. Now you're going to have to care
for somebody else. You see what it involves? You really want
to be made whole. You sure you want to? All right, a well man's
going to lose the pity. Everybody comes by, they pity,
they have compassion. A sick man, who's gonna pick
on a sick man? You know, just let a fella get
sick and he's the best man in town. You ever notice that? Fella
gets real sick, he's lying in the hospital and folks come around,
oh bless his heart, he's so good and so kind. Who's gonna run
down a sick man but let him get well? And he's got a fight on
his hands. Fella won't hesitate to bop him
good. Fellow won't hesitate to say, pull your share of the load,
bud, you're just well as well. No, Brother Jay, you got a bad
back, have a seat, you know. But when the back gets well,
come on here, son. Come on, pull your weight. You
sure you want to be made whole? That's what our Lord's saying.
A well man will have to go to work. A well man gonna have to
go to war. Back in World War II, we had
deferred status. Fellow had a disease, he didn't
get drafted. But ever able-bodied, strong,
well man went to war and died some of them. Now our Lord looks
at him, you still want to be made whole? That's what he's
asking him. Will, will, you're willed, you
will to be made whole. And that's what I'm asking this
morning. I'm comparing this thing to redemption. Our Lord comes
among, and we're all born in sin. This man had been sick 38
years, and we've been sick longer than that. We've been sick 6,000
years. We've been in our degradation,
depravity, and rottenness, and impotence without hope, without
strength, without help, without God in this world. Lying, lying
by the pool of tradition, and lying by the pool of religion,
and lying by the pool of custom, and lying by the pool of the
law, waiting on a miracle. when standing right in our midst
is the one who can heal, the one who can save, the one who
can redeem, the one who can make us whole. And we won't seek him,
we won't come to him, we won't look to him, so he comes to us.
And he singles out one here and one there and one yonder, but
he always comes with this question. Will you be made whole? Will
you go to heaven? Oh yeah, anybody go to heaven.
Will you accept the part? Why, certainly I will. Will you escape hell? Well, certainly
I'll escape hell, but wait a minute now. Will you be made whole? Will you be made whole, holy? Will you be made a new creature?
Will you be made in Christ a whole man? And you know what that requires,
don't you? That requires ceasing to be the
object of pity and becoming a power for God, being used of the Lord,
ready to go to war, ready to fight the battle of faith, ready
to serve others, ready to lay down your life for Christ's sake.
Would you be made whole? Will you receive a right spirit
and a right attitude and a right heart and genuine compassion? Will you be made whole? I tell you, the type of religion
we got in this day is a religion of sentiment and emotion and
just plain old Just plain old foolishness. That's all there
is to it. In other words, the church is sort of this way, and
the preacher, he's supposed to court folks, you know, and he's
supposed to get along with them. He's supposed to scratch their
backs. He's supposed to carry them around on a silver... The only man that has to be carried
around on a stretcher is a sick man, not a well man. The only
people that have to be spoon-fed are sick people, not well people.
The only people that have to be babied are sick people, not
well people. But we've got in this generation,
you have to keep some kind of program going. Somebody asked
Jay up at one of the churches, he said, what do you all do for
your young people down there? He said, preach the gospel to
them, that's what we do for them. But you've got this bunch of
sick young people in this church generation, you've got to always
keep them with a pacifier of some sort or they'll quit on
you. And my friends, I tell you this,
I just believe that when Christ comes and said, will you be made
whole? Now if you're going to be made whole, you're going to
walk. And you're going to carry the load. And you're going to
go to battle. And you're going to bleed and
die if necessary. And you're going to carry the
yoke of Christ. You're going to plow in his field. You're
not going to lie over there like a sick person. Somebody waiting
on you hand and foot and pacifying you and rubbing your back and
feeding you and coddling you and babying you. You're well
now, walk! You see what I'm saying, Darvin?
You've been a pastor, you know what it's like. You're always
afraid you're going to offend somebody. You're always afraid
you're going to hurt somebody's feelings. You're always afraid
folks are going to quit. Sick people do, but not well
people. Well, people go to war, and that's
what Christ asked this man. Will you be made whole? Will
you be made whole? Whole! Able to stand alone. Whole! Able to endure the conflict. Whole! Able to fight a good warfare. Whole! Able to engage even the
principalities and powers and rulers of the darkness. Made
whole in Christ. Will you? Well, look at verse
7, the impotent man said, I don't have anybody to help me. No,
I can't do that job alone. I can't do it. I can't do it. And I don't know anybody that
can. I'm without help. I'm without hope. I'm without
strength. I don't, Lord, I have no power. I have no strength. I have no help. I have no one. I have no one. And brethren,
that's what I recognize. I recognize this takes a miracle.
Now you can get a fellow to join your church by just giving him
a few facts and he makes a decision, but this thing being made whole.
Here's a man, impotent, withered, lame, paralytic, 38 years. He's powerless. Say the water
is disturbed, he can't get to it. Say the water is disturbed,
he got nobody to help him to it. He's got no way to be made
whole. He'll lie there till the end of time, unless somebody
helps him. Well, Christ can. He's able. So he said in verse 8, and we
know his sufficiency. Our Lord can justify and redeem
and save and put away our sins and pardon and make us whole,
give us a new heart, new nature, new life, new principles, new
direction, new family, new hope, everything because of who he
is and what he did and where he is. He's able. But then watch this, the Lord
gave him a command, the Lord said to him, watch it, like three
claps of thunder, rise, take up your bed, and walk. But he can't. He can't. He's paralyzed. He has no power
to rise, no power to take up his bed, no power to walk. Yes,
he does too. He does now. He didn't have,
but he does now. He does now. Someone said this,
the gospel is a command, and what the Lord commands, the Lord
gives the strength to perform. Here's what our Lord was calling
out of him. He was calling on an act of faith.
He was calling on this man to exercise faith. Moses said to
Israel, here's Israel out there bitten with a fiery serpent,
sick, dying. Moses said to them as he lifted
up the brazen serpent, what'd he say? Look, look. That's why our Lord said to this
man, rise, take up your bed and walk. With the command comes
the power. With the command comes the strength.
Here's God speaking to Moses, Moses, The people are thirsty. Strike the rock. But Lord, there's
no water in rock. Everybody knows that. There's
water in that rock. And I'll tell you how to come
out when you hit it. There's water in that rock. That
rock's Christ. Well, God said to Israel, put
the blood on the door. But Lord, blood can't stop death.
Can't in this case, because the Lord said do it. You say, you mean to tell me
that all a person has to do is believe? That's what the Lord
said. But he has to believe. With the command. You say, I
can't believe. With the command comes the power.
This man, see the picture here. Our Lord walks among these sick
people. He singles out one. He chooses one. He elects one. He walks over to him and said,
you want to be whole? You really want to be whole?
more than anything in the world. I accept the cost of it. I accept the challenge of it.
I accept the conditions of it. I want to be whole. I want to
live. I want sin forgiven. I want to be pardoned. I want
life. I want to know God. Then rise, take up your bed and
walk. Now you go on lying there complaining of your inability,
but I'm going to do what he says who is life. And he says, Believe. He says, Believe. Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. I do believe, I will believe
that Jesus died for me, and on the cross he shed his blood from
sin to set me free. That man, the scripture says,
immediately. Look at verse 9. And immediately
the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked. Rise, take up your bed and walk. The voice of Christ, the voice
of the Lord, the voice of the King, the voice of him who forgiveth
thine iniquities and healeth thy diseases and satisfies thy
mouth with good things, he says rise and walk! And brethren,
I'm going to do it. I'm going to go online with a
pool. But I believe with my Lord's
command to believe on him comes the power to believe on him,
and comes the right to believe on him, and comes the responsibility
to believe on him. I tell you this, if that fellow
had never made a move, he'd still be lying there. He'd still be
lying there. I go on through the scripture,
and I don't see the Lord picking Noah up and putting him in the
ark. I hear the Lord saying, Noah, come into the ark. Now
I know God chose him, God taught him, God revealed to him the
flood, God enabled him and all that, but Noah walked into that
ark. And when I see Moses and those people in Egypt putting
the blood on the door, I see God ordained the way to be saved,
God ordained the people who would be saved and all these things,
but Jay, they put that blood on that door. It's an act of
faith. And this man here, our Lord says,
rise, get up, and walk. And he got up. He got up. There's authority in that voice.
There's power in that voice. The Lord didn't reach up and
grab him by the arm and pick him up. He said, you get up.
And that's what he says to you and me. You believe. Well, I'm
going to sit here and wait. I believe something's going to
happen. I believe it will. It did. I remember there's a
fellow, he sat and waited. Yeah, but 9,000 did too, and
they perished. Only one was made whole. They
waited, and they're still waiting. If thou shalt believe in thine
heart and confess with thy mouth Jesus to be Lord, thou shalt
be saved. Last of all, quickly, I like this word here in verse
9 immediately. Brother man, what are you calling
for? I'm calling for faith. I'm calling for an act of faith.
I'm calling for an evidence of faith. I'm calling for men and
women to cry out to God, to look to Christ, to believe on Christ,
to confess Christ, to follow Him in baptism, to identify yourself
with Christ. Because it says immediately,
this man was made whole immediately. Now I have a little trouble with
folks who teach that salvation is a long process. I know, now
watch out. I know we have been saved, we're
being saved, and our salvation nearer than what we believe.
I know that our entire life is a pursuit of God, no question
about that. And I know that we're coming
to Christ. We have come, we are coming,
and we will come to Christ. We have repented, we will repent,
and we are repenting, we shall repent. But my friends, the thief
on the cross, he looked to Christ, and he was saved. The 3,000 at
Pentecost, huh? They were saved and they baptized
them that day. And the jailer, he was saved,
Jay, that day and Paul baptized him. The Ethiopian eunuch on
a trip from Jerusalem to Ethiopia out in the middle of the desert
was saved and he was baptized and he went away rejoicing the
same afternoon. And this is what I'm saying,
the Lord's mercy. There's not a halfway point between
life and death. There's a time a man's dead and
there's a time he's alive. Life may be faint. Life may be
infantile. It may be in its early stages,
but it's life. It's life. It may be weak phased,
but it's life. It's life immediately. And so
I say this. Do you want cleansing? You want
cleansing? Don't go building a tub and filling
it. There's a fountain already filled with blood. Just plunge
in it. Huh? Just plunge in it. Do you want a garment? Do you
want a perfect, perfect snow-white garment of righteousness to cover
your nakedness? Don't go buying a needle and
thread. And don't go shopping for material. That garment's
already finished. Christ wrought it out by his
perfect obedience. And all you have to do is reach
out and take it. It's there. It's there. By faith, lay hold
upon Christ. You want life? You want life? Well, I'll tell you this. Our
Lord Jesus Christ said, Lazarus, come forth. And when he said,
Lazarus, come forth, Lazarus obeyed his Lord, he came forth. The command, with the command,
goes the power to obey. I can't explain that, I just
know it's so. I know it's so. I know all who
will be made whole, who hear the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ
to believe, if they'll believe, they'll be made whole. Our Father
used this word this morning for Thy glory. Oh, the lame, impotent,
blind, deaf condition of mankind, yet Christ walks among us like
He did that day out there on those porches. They didn't recognize
Him. They didn't know who He was.
They didn't see Him. Yet our Lord Jesus Christ in
mercy and compassion saw one, set his affections upon him,
knew his condition, and made him live. Oh, that we might live,
that we might hear the welcome voice of our Master arise, take
up your bed and walk, that we might by thy grace have the understanding
and the will to walk, to believe, to cling to Christ, to look to
him and him alone. Move in mercy, O Lord, among
us. Leave us not to ourselves, nor to our own understanding.
Awaken in us a desire to know Christ. In his blessed and precious
name we pray. Amen.