I invite you back to John chapter
5 and verses 39 and 40. This chapter in this book deals
with a great number of things and is often one of the big guns
used by religion to declare that free will is the truth. It's
not, but they use it. This verse that I just quoted
here in verse 40 has a proof that man has a free will. Man's
will is not free. It's subject to his nature and
to his mind and his heart and his desire and his affinity.
What he likes. A man not going to do what he
doesn't want to do and not will to do what he doesn't want to
do. He'll never do that. He might be forced to, but that's
duress. But if you read this chapter,
you'll find our Lord dealing as sternly and as roughly with
religious men as you could ever imagine. Now, He doesn't call
them snakes and vipers, but what He says about them is much more
telling. Now, if you read the Gospels,
the works of our Lord Jesus Christ. There are several things which
are continuous and constant throughout all the Gospels. Things that
are seen over and over again. They're just repetition, but
not vain repetition. In the Gospels, those who have
great needs, very great needs, needs that go beyond their own
ability to rectify, and to remedy those people we find coming to
the Lord Jesus Christ. Another thing you'll find is
that our Lord never turned one away. Everyone who came to Him
with great need was never turned away. And I can say to you without
hesitation, If you come to the Lord seeking mercy, you'll never
be turned away. You'll never be turned away.
You'll also find those who had great need who did not seek the
Lord Jesus Christ. There are those in there who
had great need that did not seek Him. And the reason was because
their malady was such that it prevented them They didn't know
about Him until they heard about Him, but they couldn't do anything
about it because they couldn't move. They were impotent folk. They were impotent folk. In those
cases, we find that Christ came to where they were in their impotency
and found them and met their need. And you will find that
after Christ came to these folks, that they in response came to
and followed Him for the rest of their lives. When our Lord
healed the unhealable, the hackles of religion always were raised. Religion didn't like Him doing
that. And there's a reason why religion
doesn't like the concept of free and sovereign grace that actually
heals the souls of men. The reason why religion doesn't
like it. The words he speaks in John chapter
5 and verse 39 and 40 are to those who want to kill him. They want to murder him because
he healed a man by the pool of Bethesda. And they want to kill
him for that. He actually healed a man. Now
that pool That pond or whatever it was, miraculously made some
people well. I believe the scriptures and
they say that that is so. It was a place for mercy. In fact, the name Bethesda means
a house of mercy. the house of mercy. It was however
a picture of the old covenant rather than the covenant of grace,
but it could only meet the need of those who could get into the
pool first immediately when the waters were stirred by the angel.
Only the one who got in there first, if there was 500 people
on the shore waiting for the waters to be stirred, only the
one who got in first would be healed the other 499 would not
be healed. They would just sit on the shore
and wait for the next time the waters were stirred. Now what
a truth this teaches to us. First of all, it teaches that
at Bethesda to get healed you had to be less afflicted than
the rest of the folks there. You couldn't be as bad off as
they were, yet at least you had to be also slightly afflicted.
slightly affected. The shores of that pool were
a kind of triage where the worst people didn't make it, the sickest
people didn't make it, and the ones who weren't quite as bad
off did all right. Kind of a triage. Secondly, it
teaches you that you had to be aware of the opportunity and
expedient in your obedience to the requirement, that is, to
get yourself into that pool when the angels stirred the waters,
that you had to do that. Thirdly, it teaches that if you
were unable to follow these procedures, you could enlist the assistance
of some benevolent folks to carry you to the healing waters. Though
considering that it was every man for himself, the truly helpless
probably remained helpless on the shore, while those who had
friends who could help them, or they had enough energy in
their body to get there, could be healed. Now, playing the picture
this paints of the old covenant, the covenant under which most
of religion operates this hour, religion has nothing for the
truly ruined. Religion has nothing for the
truly and completely impotent. Religion has nothing for those
who cannot in any way, shape or form, help themselves. Religion works well where people
are slightly sick. moderately infirm. They can be
healed and reformed because they are able to do something,
to act. They can get to the water by
their own power or can be hefted up on the shoulders of religion
if religion thinks their contribution seems vital enough to the organization
to warrant toting them to the water. What about the ruined, the dead
in trespasses and sin? What about those who lie on the
shore with absolutely no hope in themselves or in their friends
to get them into the water? What about the sad fellow who
can only look and watch as the partially wounded get help while
he's too far gone to do anything? I got a call from a young man
this last week. And he kept saying, I'm so ashamed
of my life. I'm so ashamed of my life. I
can't seem to see Christ. And I told him, well, just keep
looking. And stop looking at yourself. Because there's nothing
in you or about you that's ever going to give you peace. Even
as a child of God, there's nothing in me or about me that gives
me peace. All that gives me peace is sitting
at the right hand of the Father, ever willing to make intercession
for the saint. That's the only peace I have, is Jesus Christ
enthroned in glory. Religion has given up on this
man by the shore. He's a lost cause. He's gone
too far. There's no hope or help for him.
He's impotent. He can't move and can't do a
thing. A work's religion is a mockery
to the truly lost, just as those roiling waters were a mockery
to this man's sickness. Let's read about him here in
the first part of chapter 5. After this there was a feast
of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there was at
Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which was called in the
Hebrew tongue Bethesda, and it had five porches, that is, pavilions. In these lay a great multitude
of impotent folk, blind and halted and withered, waiting for the
moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain
season into the pool and troubled the water. And whosoever then
first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made
whole of whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there
which had an infirmity thirty-eight years. to a certain man. And when Jesus
saw him and knew that he had been now a long time in that
case, He said unto him, Will thou be made whole? And the impotent
man answered, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled,
to put me in the pool. I can't get that. I can't be
made whole. And no hope for me. While I'm
coming or being brought down, another steppeth down before
me. There's always somebody that can make it and I can't. And
Jesus said unto him, Rise. Get up. Wait a minute, I've been
here 38 years. Get up. Rise. Take up thy bed and walk. And immediately the man was made
whole and took up his bed and walked. The same day was the
Sabbath. And the Jews therefore said unto
him that was cured, as he is walking away from the pool of
Bethesda, with his bedroll on his shoulder and a smile on his
face, and joy in his step, don't you know today is the Sabbath
day? And it is not lawful for you to carry
your bed. He answered and said, He that
made me whole, the same said, take up thy bed and walk. And
they asked him, what man is that which made thee whole and said,
take up thy bed and walk? And he later told them it was
Jesus. And they went on the hunt for Christ. Religion is useless to the impotent.
Religion is for the able-bodied or the soul that needs a little
tweaking to straighten his life out. But mercy came to the house
of mercy that day, not in the bubbling pool but in a sovereign
deluge of the water of life. The water of life washed over
the old ruined rich who could not move a muscle or lift a finger
to help himself and made him whole again. Rise, take up thy
bed and walk. After Christ came to him, he
healed him, he rolled up his bed and started walking home.
We just read religion catches him in collars What's the matter
with you? Don't you know it's Sunday? Of course, Sabbath was Saturday
and still is. Sunday's the first day of the
week. But it was a holy day to the Jews. It was the law. What are you doing carrying your
bed on the Sabbath? What follows is that religion
wants to get rid of the Lord Jesus Christ, if you read it.
Why? Because rules are rules, you
see. Rules are rules. And because
if religion can't help somebody, they ought to be beyond help
altogether. And that's what they believe.
And if this fellow, Jesus of Nazareth, was able to help this
helpless one, then he must be greater than they and their religion
and their rules and their regulations. And well, that would just be
anarchy. How are we going to live? If
we ain't got rules and regulations to run our show, by loving Christ and being thankful
for what He's done for us, your life will be different. These religionists simply refuse
to believe that He was who He said He was. Is this not the
Son of Joseph? Isn't that that gene? What good
can come out of Nazareth? And then our text, down here
in verses 39 and 40, our text, our Lord indicts these men, these
religious folks. Before we get specifically to
our text, it's important to note that the Lord has some mighty
telling things to say about these men, these good men. These upright men, these moral
men, these Bible-reading and Bible-thumping men, these Scripture-searching
folk, these law-keeping community icons. First, he tells them that they
not only do not know God, now that's something to say to them. I've never said that to anybody.
I ain't got the guts to do it, but the Lord had the guts to
do it. I've thought it, but I ain't said it. But our Lord said it. People sometimes say, well, you're
hard. I ain't as hard as the Lord was, not yet. I ain't as
narrow as He is. He says, you not only do not
know God, He also tells them that they never heard His voice,
never heard the voice of God. And this is not a small thing.
It is the primary reason they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ.
In verse 37, The Father Himself which sent Me hath borne witness
of Me. Ye have neither heard His voice
in any time, nor seen His image. The Father sent Me. You have
not heard His voice. Down in chapter 6, verse 45,
he says, It is written in the prophets, that is Isaiah 54,
verse 13 is where it is written, And they shall all, that is all
the children of God, shall be taught of God. Every man therefore
that hath heard and hath learned of the Father comes to me. Why
didn't they come to Christ? They had not heard of the Father
and learned of the Father. Because everybody that God teaches
comes to the Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly, He tells them that
the Word of God has never made it past their eyes. The words
they read are just a bunch of words to them. I've read the
Bible a lot of times. Well, I'm happy for you. If they
had learned the words they read, if those words abided in them
had reached their inner man, in their heart, they would have
come to Christ. And that's true of every case.
Show me a man that really believes this Bible. I'll show you a man
that's come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Show me a man that has
no interest in Christ. He can know this Bible backwards
and forwards. He doesn't know what this book
means. Our Lord said in verse 38, And
ye have not His word abiding in you, for whom He has sent
Him you believe not. If the Word was abiding in you,
you would believe, and you would come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
John chapter 8 and verse 47, he said this about the same group.
He that is of God heareth God's words, ye therefore hear them
not, because ye are not of God. If you're of God, you'll hear
God's Word. I don't hear them. Well, you're not of God. You're not of God. Thirdly, he tells this religious
brush, they have not God's love in them, or they don't love God.
Again, this is revealed because they obviously do not love Christ.
He says in the latter part of this verse, in verse 46 and 47,
For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me. For he
wrote of me, But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye
believe his words? Verse 42, he says, But I know
you. But I know you, that you have
not the love of God in you. You have not the love of God
in you. Over in chapter 8, verse 42, He says this, Jesus said,
If God were your Father, you would love Me. For I proceeded
forth and came from God, and neither came I Myself, but He
sent Me. If God was your Father, you would
love Me. Fourthly, these fellows did what
they did to be honored by each other. Like the Pharisees, he
spoke of in Matthew 23, they did what they did to be seen
of men. If you've got to do something,
if you've got to do something in a sort of that somebody will
know you're a Christian, you're a Pharisee. Because you cannot
prove you're a child of God by anything you do, because I'm
telling you, no matter what you do, no matter how many times
you attend church, no matter how much you give, no matter
how many times you pray, it can be duplicated by any jerk on
this earth. If you know Christ, you can't
prove it. You can't prove it. These fellas
did what they did to get the accolades and the applause of
their friends because it made them feel like they were special.
They didn't feel like they were special. They care nothing for
the honor of God. It's about self-aggrandizement,
about getting a pat on the back, or an honorable mention, or a
little badge to wear, or a little thing that churches give out
to folks who are special. They care nothing for the honor
of God, for the glory of God, which is the reason that they
are here on this earth to begin with, to honor and glorify God.
That is the primary reason that they do not come to the Lord
Jesus Christ. He says in verse 43, I am come in my Father's
name. You receive me not. If another shall come in his
own name, him you will receive. How can you believe which receive
honor one of another and seek not the honor that cometh from
God only? Do not think that I will accuse
you to the Father. There is one that accuses you,
even Moses, whom you trust. Fifthly, our Lord tells these
fellows that they don't believe what they read, and they don't
believe who they say they believe because they did not, and because
they did, if they did, they would come to Christ. Men talk about
the Bible, but just like I read in verses 45 through 47, if you
believe the Bible, you come to Christ. You're going to wind
up at the feet of the Savior if you believe the Bible. Now
you might believe a whole lot about it. You might be like that
proverbial sparrow on the telephone line. You have a good grip on
the line but have no idea of what the message is going through
the line. That's a lot of folks in religion this day. Now in
our text, our Lord indicts these men for their unwillingness to
come to Him on several levels. The primary thing addressed is
as a reason why they reject Christ is that they are unbelievers.
in the face of ample proof and evidence. Here in our text, our
Lord uses the Scriptures as the fourth witness that these religious
have rejected. They rejected the testimony of
John in verse 32 and 33. There is another that beareth
witness of me, and I know that the witness of me is true. Ye
sent unto John, and he beareth witness of the truth. But I receive
not my testimony from men, but these things I say, that ye might
be saved. He was a burning and a shining light, and ye were
willing for a season to rejoice in his light. But ye wouldn't
come to me. They rejected the testimony of
Christ's works. Verse 5. Verse 36 says, But I
have greater witness than that of John. For the works which
the Father has given me to finish, the same works that I do bear
witness of me, saith the Father. They didn't believe the works
that He did. They rejected the testimony of
Christ's works in verse 36. They rejected the testimony of
the Father in verse 37. The Father Himself which has
sent me hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard His
voice nor seen His shape. Finally, they rejected the testimony
of Scriptures. That's what it's talking about
in verse 39. Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you find
eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me. This is
what this book is about. It's about one person and the
work that he accomplished on Calvary Street from Genesis chapter
1 to Revelation 22. It's all about him, the Lord
Jesus Christ. They are they which testify of
Me. These rejected the testimony. How do we know? They didn't come
to Christ for life. That's what He said. In every
one of those other instances, He said, You didn't come to Me.
If you believed Moses, you'd have come to Me. If you believed
Abraham, you'd have come to Me. If God were your Father, you'd
have come to Me. If you believed the Scriptures,
you'd have come to Me. Our Lord also indicts them for
their thoughts. There's an old saying that they can't hang you
for your thoughts. Well, they, whoever they are,
might not be able to, But be assured, if your thoughts are
wrong about God's Son, He's going to hang you. The gallows is prepared
and your name's on it. Our Lord in the original says,
you do search the Scriptures, for in them, in that searching,
in that doing, you think you have eternal life. You think
you have eternal life. Now the Scriptures do declare
eternal life. They do. It is the Spirit that quickeneth
the fresh profit of nothing. My words. They are Spirit. And they are life, said our Lord
in John 6.63. They declare the promise of eternal
life. They possess the power of eternal
life. When we're standing up here,
we're just not flapping our gums. Something is taking place. Not
because we're doing it. We're nothing. We're not anything. Preacher's nothing. This is just
the place that God has placed him in the church just like the
place He's placed you in the church. No difference or no hierarchy. He's just a preacher. He just
tells it out. A fella called me recently from
California. He said, what's this thing about
preaching and teaching? I said, I don't understand some
preacher and some teacher. I said, well the early church
they were given those positions. I said, but a preacher, It's
not somebody that gets up and hollers and carries on and gets
people emotionally involved. A preacher is one who teaches
the Word of God. That's his job, that's his vocation,
that's his avocation, that's what he's been called to do,
and that's all he's been called to do. He must give account for your
souls to God, and the only way he can do that is to succinctly,
precisely, every time he gets in the pulpit, to prepare or
to preach the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the only way
he can do it. Our Lord says, you do search
the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life,
but they are they which testify of me. This book is the power
of God and the salvation to everyone that believes. That's what it
says. We preach Christ, the wisdom
and the power of God, 1 Corinthians 1, 22 and 24. This Word contains
the seed of life. You are born again, not of corruptible
seed, but incorruptible seed, even the Word of God, which liveth
and abideth for ever. And it is by this Word that the
Gospel is preached unto you, 1 Peter 1, verses 23-25. They contain this matter of regeneration,
this book, these words, somehow they regenerate man's souls through
the Spirit. Of His own will, He said in James
1.18, of His own will begat He us with the Word of truth. They proclaim the person of the
Scriptures. When it says over in Hebrews
chapter 4 about the Word being quick and powerful, it's sharper
than a two-edged sword. In Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12,
in verse 13 it says, and everything is disclosed in His sight. No separation between the written
and the living Word. What has the indictment been?
They believed that the act, the practice of reading and the memorizing
of the Bible and copying it and endearing to live by its law
and to know its doctrine meant that they had eternal life. But it doesn't mean that. These
believed the Bible was the Bible. They might be like that old preacher
who said, I even believe when it says genuine leather on the
cover, I believe it's really leather. They believed the Bible
was the Word of God. You couldn't convince these fellows
that this Word didn't come from heaven. But they didn't believe
the message of the Bible. They didn't believe Christ. And
they did not seek eternal life at the place where the Bible
taught that eternal life is. Search the Scriptures, for in
them you think you find eternal life. They are they which testify
of me. The Scriptures testify that Jesus
Christ is life. And to have eternal life is to
come to Christ. You can get it nowhere else and
no other way. And part of the indictment is suggested in the
words that these would not come to Christ for life. Why? Because they thought they were
already alive. The intimation and the fact of
their chosen life reveal this. They had come to religion. They
had come to church. They had joined up. They had
come to hear John preach and just said that they had. There was a suggestion by omission
that they had even come to Christ. Many of them did, but not for
life. A lot of folks come to Christ
today to get healed, to get money, to get health, wealth, Lexus,
something. Men come to Christ for miracles,
for healing, for monetary gain. One fellow says it's really good
to join the church for business networking. They come for help
when they're in trouble. You get them in bad enough shape,
they'll come to church. I've seen them. We've had people come in
here, got in trouble with the law, got in trouble with drinking,
chewing, smoking, whatever they get in trouble with. They come
in here in all kinds of trouble, weeping and carrying on, and
as soon as the storm is over, they disappear. You know why? Because what's born in the storm
dies in the calm, and that's the way it'll always be. They come for religious experience.
Folks like religious experience, especially the ones they have
today. It's kind of like a rock concert. They start out slow and give
you some, and a little more, and a little more, and pretty
soon you're up and jumping around acting like a fool. Why? Because
it feels so damn good. That's the way they come to our
church to make you feel good. I hope I don't make you feel
good unless the gospel makes you feel good. I hope I make
you sad if the gospel makes you sad. That's what I want you to
be. I hope I get you mad if the gospel makes you mad. Finally, these words of our Lord
are an indictment to the will of these men. He said, You will
not come to me for life. Now our Lord, when addressing
the subject of the will, is not addressing the will as to ability
and power to perform. That's where most people mistake
the whole idea of the will. They think that the will has
power to perform what it wants. No, the will just wants. The
will desires, the will chooses, but power to perform doesn't
exist in humanity. It simply doesn't. This would
be a moot point because such a thing as power or ability cannot
be applied to man's will. Man's will is only his choice.
It only deals with direction or choice when it is merely a
revelation or a reflection of his nature and his heart and
his mind, what he wants. And if you ask somebody, what
do you mean by free will? That's what they'll tell you.
I believe man can do what he wants to. Why don't you? At least
he can want to. He can want to. Two prime examples
of the fact that the will has no power, Isaiah chapter 14,
when Satan wanted to, willed to take the throne of God. I
will be like the Most High. I will be exalted. I will take
that throne. I will rule this world. God said,
no you won't. And put him down in hell. Well,
didn't he want to? Yeah. Didn't he will to? Isn't
he Satan, the prince of the power of the air, who has more power
than any man will ever have? Well, he willed to. And he willed
to free that. He wanted it. That's what he
wanted. He didn't get it. Why? Because the will has no
power. It just wants. It just wants. Paul, the apostle in Romans chapter
7 said, what I would do, I do not. That which I would not do,
that I do. The will is present with me,
but the power to perform I find not. Here's the archangel Satan had
no ability to accomplish what he chooses. The redeemed sinner,
the saint has no power to perform what he chooses. Power must belong
somewhere else. It must be that it is not him
that willeth, nor him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
must be that he that is born, not of the will of man, not of
the will of the flesh, not of ancestry, but is born of God. The will is the choice and reveals
the inclination and the affinity and the affection, says only
that. The will's ability extends only
to that of choice. And men are willing to do many
things, but are not able to do them. If you don't believe me,
go to the bedside of those who are infirm and sick and dying.
They want to live. They have a will to live. They're willing to live, but
they die. Why? Because death is going to
tell us all something, that our will does not amount to a hill
of beans. Only God possesses ability to
perform what He desires and He does all His pleasure. He does
His will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth, and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, What doest
Thou? Our God is in the heaven. He hath done whatsoever He hath
pleased in heaven and earth and under the sea and all the deep
places. What an indictment this is. Religion loves everything
about the Bible except for what it teaches. With this clear declaration,
of Christ from Genesis to Revelation, that He is life, eternal life.
Men are not willing to come to Him for it. Why? They don't want
to. Therefore, they choose not to. They will choose a thousand ways
to die, and most of them religious ways. They'll go to hell from
a church pew with a Bible in their hand, spouting Scripture
verses along the way, singing, But they don't want Christ for
life. Because if they have Christ for
life, their life counts for nothing. Their character and conduct count
for nothing. Their will counts for nothing.
They will not come to Him because they have no inclination toward
Him, no affinity for Him, and no affection toward Him. Therefore,
they will not choose Him. You will not choose what you
do not want. You will not. Think about it. You will not
choose what you don't want. You may be forced to do what
you don't want. Or you may choose a thing that's hard on you to
reach what you really want. Like if you're sick and you want
to get better, and surgery is what you've got to have to get
better, you take that surgery even though it's very unpleasant,
and it ain't fun, and you really don't want to be cut, but you
want to be cut in order to be healed. So you take that in thing. Men's nature, their heart is
revealed. Their nature is religious sin.
Their love is for their life, not eternal life. They love themselves
and don't love the Lord Jesus Christ. But thanks be unto God,
I can say this with joy in my heart, all of God's people shall
come to Christ. All for whom Christ died shall
come to Christ. And they shall will to do it. And they shall choose to do it. Because God has jiggled their
willer and changed their heart and given them life in Jesus
Christ. Inclination toward Christ, affinity
for and affection toward Christ are the work of God. in a man's
heart. And the most natural thing for
one who has been blessed thusly is to be willing to come to Christ. To choose to come. To come. Our Lord said to a bunch of people
who didn't believe Him, the same people here. He was talking to
them in chapter 6. They said, We don't believe you're
the bread of life. We don't believe you're that bread come down from
heaven. We know who you are. And He looked at them that didn't
believe Him in John chapter 6, verse 37. He said, I know you don't believe on Me.
I know you won't come to Me. But all that the Father giveth
Me shall come to Me. And Him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not
to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And
this is my Father's will which is sent me, that all He's given
me, all of them, all He's given me, shall have eternal life. And
I'll raise them up again in the last day. They're all going to
come to Him. In Psalm 110, which speaks of David hearing a conversation
between the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father. And God the
Father says to the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm going to give you
the heathen for your inheritance. You'll rule them with a rod of
iron. You're going to be like the dew of the morning. Power
and strength and beauty. And you know what I'm going to
do for you? All your people shall be willing in the day of your
power. Where have you come? To whom
have you come? Have you come to religion? Have
you come to your life and your will and your way? Are you straightening
out the stuff? Are you getting it all straightened
out? So you can fly right? Is that what you're doing? Or
are you falling at the feet of the Savior? Saying, Thy will
be done, not mine. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name.