All right, well, good morning, everyone. Hey, you know what, honestly, it is so good to see you guys. I was thinking this morning, when we just gathered together to worship, how beautiful it is to come together in unity and lift our voices and just worship God. I'm absolutely thrilled to be here to share with you today the Word of God, and I wanna give everyone a warm welcome.
We got some visitors, it's great to see you, and I'm sure that there's probably people that are tuning in online, and it's great to have you with us today. So I wanna share with you today a story from the Gospel of John chapter five. So if you have your Bible, it'd just be great if you could turn to this as we read in John chapter five. So today I wanna share a, what I've called a heartwarming story of the outpouring of mercy of God on a helpless man, the outpouring of mercy from God on a helpless man, John chapter five, okay, no problem.
So as I read through the Gospels, I am fascinated with the way that the Lord Jesus draws alongside of humanity and engages with people. And we're gonna see that in this story. Think about this for a moment before we read this. He is the sovereign Lord of the universe.
He is the eternal one who actually humbled himself and stepped into humanity and became a man. And that one, Lord of the universe, actually came to visit our world. You know, the Bible says that he bore our griefs and he carried our sorrows. That's what it says in Isaiah 53.
He bore our griefs and he carried our sorrows. And as we look at this one today, the Lord Jesus, I just want you to think about how he heals and he satisfies our hearts. By his death and resurrection, the Lord Jesus has given us eternal hope. And so think about that as we read this story in John chapter five, verse one.
After this, there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, a pool in the air make called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. I'm reading from the ESV, your Bible might say, porches, ESV says, there are five roofed colonnades. And in these lay a multitude of invalids, the blind, the lame and the paralyzed.
And one man was there who had been an invalid for 38 years. And when Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he sent unto him, do you want to be healed? The sick man answered him and said, sir, I have no one. I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred.
And while I am going, another steps down before me. And Jesus said to him, get up, take up your bed and walk. And at once the man was healed. And he took up his bed and walked.
Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said unto the man who had been healed, it is the Sabbath. It's not lawful for you to take up your bed. He answered them, the man who healed me, that man said to me, take up your bed and walk.
They asked him, who's the man who said this to you? Take up your bed and walk. Now the man that had been healed did not know who it was. For Jesus had withdrawn, and there was a crowd in that place.
Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said unto him, so you are well, sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you. And the man went his way and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, my father is working until now, and I am working.
This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own father, making himself equal with the father. I think that's a heartwarming story about the outpouring of mercy that the Lord Jesus had. Are we not able to get the slides? Oh, okay, no problem, we'll catch up with the slides when they come.
Let me set the setting for this story. A lot of you have asked me to share some of my pictures when I went to Israel last year. So I just had collected just a couple, a very, very small amount, just to kind of show you a little bit of the setting of this story. So great, we're up and running now.
I want to take you today to the old city of Jerusalem. Now, this is a picture on the screen of what was the sheep gate. And if you look at this little map here to the right, I think most of you would know that the old city of Jerusalem had multiple gates all around the walls. And it's divided today into four quarters.
So in the northeast corner, it's really called the Muslim quarter, you'll see the pool of Bethesda. And it's just north of the Temple Mount. So this gives you a little bit of a setting of where exactly this location was. You know how I was amazed at today?
When you go there and you visit this location, there is actually the old ruins of this very pool. And I was so fascinated by this. I literally spent almost the whole day at this place reading John chapter five because I was so thrilled. If you just go to the next slide, this is what the old city looks like today.
So this picture was taken in April of last year. This is 2019, Old City, Jerusalem. And you can see to your left, the women that are sitting there outside the gate and they're selling their vegetables and their wares and there's a multitude of people and they're just coming and going. And this gate right here is the lion gate.
And it is just outside and really close beside this pool that is called Bethesda. If you go to the next slide, this is what I really would like you to see. This is what the pool of Bethesda looks like today. And archeology has uncovered the ruins of this amazing historical place.
And if you look at these pictures, you can see the remains of the pillars and the porches and the colonnades. And you can see over here to the right and to the left, the remains of what was two pools. And so what I learned when I was in Jerusalem is that in four BC, here the great made two pools in this place, near the sheep gate. And the northern pool was actually full of fresh water and it was for cleansing.
But there was this large southern pool that was fed by a natural spring. And that natural spring had fed a lot of deep, red mineral water that was warm and soothing. And it was really believed by many in that day that this natural spring was a healing agent. It was medicinal in quality.
And so at that place, they had built these large decks that had surrounded these two pools. And over that large deck, it was covered by five porches. And if you look at the ESV, it says that they are roofed colonnades. So if you can imagine a large pool up here and a large pool here and all the way around the perimeter of these two pools is this deck.
And it's covered with these five colonnades, these arches that overshadowed all these people. And I was just fascinated to realize that the word Bethesda, it literally means outpouring of mercy, house of mercy outpouring of mercy. So legend has it, and I really don't know if this is true enough, but legend has it that at certain seasons, they believed an angel came down and stirred the waters. And as these waters were stirred, they believed that the first person into that pool after the waters were stirred was gonna be healed from whatever ailments they had.
And people literally sat around these decks for months and years, hoping, waiting for some type of miracle of healing. And so what's amazing about this is at this house of mercy lay multitudes beside this, we'll call it this mysterious water, waiting, hoping to be healed of their ailments. There was the blind there, there was the lame, there was the paralyzed. Could we say the marginalized of society?
And their families had just kind of left them there and normally people didn't even visit this place. There was a one man there, we're not giving his name, but he was there and he lay on this mat for 38 years. Could you just stop for a second picture, imagine what this would have been like for this man who lay on this mat paralyzed and helpless, alone and desperate for 38 years. Verse six says that Jesus knew his condition.
You know, John MacArthur points out in his study Bible that the original word there implies that Jesus had a supernatural knowledge of this man. He knew how long he'd been there, he knew his ailments, he knew his attitude, he knew everything about this man. Jesus saw, Jesus knew, Jesus came and Jesus healed. Okay, just go to the next slide for one second.
Right alongside of this, the end cap of this pool is this inscription that's there today. You could see it when you go and visit. And it's a verse that is from John chapter five that the Lord Jesus said unto this man, rise, take up your bed and walk. And I just, as I think about this heartwarming story, I imagine what that moment must have been like for this man who was there for 38 years.
If you just go to the next slide, I wanna speak today on the house of outpouring mercy. And you know, when I see this man and I see the setting and I see this picture, I just say, what a spiritual picture. What an allegory of the world that we live in today. We read this morning at our worship meeting, you may read Romans chapter five and verse six.
What a fitting summary of the entire world that we live in. When we were without strength. At the right time Christ died on behalf of the ungodly. And here's all of these weak, helpless, lame, blind, paralyzed people in this desperate condition.
And the Lord Jesus, he knew, he saw, he came and he healed. You know, Jesus went that day with a purpose. He went right to the pool of Bethesda and he walked up to a man that he knew everything about him and he healed him. This is the main reason that Jesus Christ came into the world to show mercy to humanity and not just physical healing.
That's in so many ways surface. The deep rooted condition of mankind is their sinful, spiritually lost condition. And that is exactly why the Lord Jesus came into the world. It says that he came to seek and to save those who are lost.
What a picture. So I wanna speak today about a universal condition that I believe the entire Bible testifies to. And you know, I'll be honest with you, maybe this is so vivid to me and maybe some of my other brothers and sisters that go out in the street because when you walk up and down the street today and you try to engage with humanity, you just see the lost, desperate, spiritual condition of this world. And when I read this passage, I just thought what it must have been like for the Lord Jesus to come into our world and to walk up to people and see the brokenness, the paralyzed condition of our sin and what sin has wrought in this world.
You know, many people today do not realize their spiritual condition. Let me rephrase that. Most people today have no idea of their spiritual condition. You walk up to somebody and you give them a track and they say, oh, I don't need that.
You walk up to a guy who's on the street literally begging for food and you wanna give him the track and he says, oh, I don't need that. I need something much more important than that. I need food or they'll say, I need a beer. I need something to satisfy me.
And it's so short term. It's so superficial. It's so bandaid. And the deepest, rudest issue of their lives is the condition of their soul, that spiritual poverty.
And that is exactly the reason the Lord Jesus came. Do you know that at the beginning of his public ministry? In Luke chapter four, verse 18, Jesus went into the synagogue in Nazareth where he had been raised and he took the scroll. And this is a public announcement for the purpose of why Jesus Christ came into the world.
This is what he said, reading from Isaiah 61. The spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has sent me to preach the gospel, to heal the brokenhearted, to deliver the captives, recovery of sight to the blind and to set at liberty, those who are bruised. That's exactly why the Lord Jesus came into the world.
Universal condition. We live in a world of people that are so affected by sin. Around this deck of pools, there was the sick and helpless, and they were longing to be free from their condition. A lot of people don't really see the effects of the corruption of sin in their lives.
You know that sin leaves every person spiritually ruined, paralyzed spiritually, helpless and broken. And if you go to Ephesians chapter two, you'll get a picture of it. Because the word of God says that when we were dead, in sins and trespasses, walking according to the course of this world, dominated by the spiritual darkness and broken and dead and empty, Christ Jesus came into the world and made us alive. And that is exactly the reason that the Lord Jesus came.
Did you notice as I read that there were five covered porches, five roofed colonnades? And if you just go back to that picture for a second, you'll see some of the broken pillars. Yeah, so you see right here? You'll see a broken pillar and over here to the left.
And you'll see the remains of this. My brother Warren is gonna love this. You know that a lot of writers say that these five covered porches, they speak of the law of God. They speak to us of the law.
And the law that overshadowed all this, this paralyzed, broken humanity, with all their sickness and all their disease, they are covered, overshadowed by these five porches that speak to us of the five books of Moses. You know what the law does? It just condemns us all. It really is the great equalizer, the law of God, what a picture of humanity, broken in their paralyzed, sick, spiritual condition, overshadowed by the law.
And the law can do nothing, nothing to help. In fact, the Bible says that the law just condemns and it kills. And Jesus came at that very moment to give life. One thing that I don't hear a lot of spoken from the pulpit today is a doctrine that I think runs through the entire Bible.
It is the doctrine of the total depravity of mankind. There is a universal condition. And you know what? The older I get and the more I know of my own heart and the more I see of my own brokenness, I can just totally equate with this doctrine that runs all through the Bible, the total depravity of mankind.
We are living in a world that has been so affected by sin. It's a universal condition that levels all mankind. Let me paint this picture for you. Begins in the Garden of Eden.
God made everything beautiful. It was good. And Satan in his pride comes along and tempts Eve. Eve is deceived.
She takes the fruit. She disobeys God. Sin enters into the world. Everything's broken.
Man is separated from God. And then she has this beautiful gorgeous little baby. And she says, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And he becomes a murderer.
And he's filled with rage and anger and jealousy. And jealousy becomes violence. And that violence results in murder. And then you go a little bit further in the Bible and you see, no one's day.
Where that massive corruption of sin has ruined the entire world. And all men are corrupt. And God says, I will destroy the world of the flood because of the corruption of the world. And so Noah emerges from that arc with eight souls and they start over again.
It doesn't take very long, does it? You get to Genesis 18 and you see Sodom and Gomorrah. And you think of the filth of immorality. And God again is gonna exercise judgment.
You go a little bit further. And you see eventually a nation that God raises up of Abraham. And that nation is taken out from Egypt. And then because of unbelief and rebellion and sin, they wander for 40 years until they all die.
And then there's the rejection of God and they want a king. And then you get generation after generation, after generation of all these kings and they're turning to idolatry. They have turned away from God. And so you get through the whole Bible, this picture of total depravity.
And eventually God takes the nation of Israel and he removes them from the land and they go into Babylon for 70 years. And then they're brought back. And then you get to John chapter five. And in the day of the Lord Jesus, the religious leaders have turned away from God.
And you get religion without God. The scribes and the Pharisees are plotting the murder of God's only son. Total rejection of God. What do we have today?
Think about the world that we live in today. You know the world thinks, I mean, it doesn't take you very long. Just go out and try to share the gospel to people on the street, your neighbor, people you work with. Here's what the world thinks.
The world thinks very clearly. There is no truth. That's what they think. There's no absolute truth.
Oh, well, that's your truth. That's his opinion. There is no truth. The world says.
The world believes there's no God. There's no such a thing as morality. There's no direction. There's no fixed point of reference.
There's no compass. And you know what? We live in a world where the government sanctions such things. It's so sad.
There is the pursuit of pleasure in our world. And pleasure becomes perversion. And perversion actually becomes violence and violence results in murder. You take the whole scripture and it testifies of the total depravity of mankind.
God revealed to David in Psalm 53. I love this Psalm. God said to David, David write this down. Here's what David wrote.
The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. And God looks down from heaven to see, is there any that please God? Is there any that do good? No, read it.
They are all together become corrupt. That's what it says in Psalm 53. And then God reveals to Isaiah a picture of the nation. Isaiah chapter one, when an ugly picture is awful.
God says to Isaiah from the soul of the foot to the very top of the head, there is no soundness in the nation of Israel, but wounds, open wounds, bruises, sores, it's just an awful picture. That is the picture of sin. And then you get to Romans chapter three. And Paul says so clearly, are the Jews?
Are they better than the Gentiles? No, there's no difference. All have sinned. All fall short to the glory of God.
All have fallen short of God's standard. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Feet are swift to shed blood, destruction, and misery are in their way. Nobody wants to stop their mouth, but you get to Romans chapter three, and it says that every mouth will be stopped, and all the world will be guilty before God.
And so in this awful condition of humanity, in this world that we live in, such a vivid picture in John chapter five of what it looked like when Jesus came into the world. He came to love, he came to heal, and he came to forgive. And the only way he could do that was to give himself as the one and only sacrifice for our sins. The universal condition, just go back to the next slide there.
Keep going. So against this backdrop of this universal condition, I want to share with you today the unlimited power of God. Unlimited. You know that you could read an amazing picture in Luke chapter five of what it says about the Lord Jesus.
In Luke chapter five and verse 15 to 17, you read these words, there went a fame abroad of him. And great multitudes came unto him to hear him and to be healed. Verse 17 of that chapter it says, and as he moves through Galilee into every town, the power of the Lord was present to heal. That is an amazing statement.
The power of the Lord was present to heal. And so what happened? Jesus comes to Capernaum and they uncover the roof and the man is let down and he says to him, son, your sins are forgiven you. And you get to verse 24 and there's an outrage because you have religion without God and these men are saying, who is this a forgive sins?
And Jesus said that you may know, that you may know the son of man has power, power on earth. And I say unlimited power to forgive sins. You know that the scripture says, the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. What unto us who are saved?
It is the power of God. There's nothing like this message. This is the best message that could ever fall on human ears. Jesus Christ has power to forgive sins and he has come to heal the brokenness of our lives.
You know, when I was a young boy, I longed to be saved and I really didn't know how to be saved. And I couldn't figure out what I needed to do. I was raised in a Christian home. I heard the gospel all my life, but I wasn't saved.
I was 12 years old. And I just, I had a longing desire in my heart to be saved. And one day somebody pointed out this one verse to me, John 1 and 12, and it says this, he came unto his own and his own received him not. But to as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in his name.
I wanna tell you something today. Forget my message, forget this sermon. I wanna tell you something. There is power from the Lord Jesus Christ to change your life.
There is power to forgive your sins. There is power to make you a new creation in Christ Jesus. Old things can be passed away and all things can become new. It's exactly what happened to this man who lay on this mat for 38 years.
In one day everything changed in this man's world. Why? Because he believed in Jesus. Can I ask you today?
Do you know him? Do you know him? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? He has amazing, unlimited power to forgive your sins, to heal your brokenness, and to give you purpose and meaning in life and a destiny in heaven forever.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will experience this power in your own life. He has unlimited power. I wanna speak to you a little bit about the undeniable drawing of the Holy Spirit. Does it surprise you that with the multitudes of people that were there on that deck that day, Jesus deliberately walked up to one man.
He didn't heal everybody that was there that day. He walked up to one man, and he looked him right in the eye. He knows everything about this man's condition, and he says, do you want to be healed? Could you imagine what that must have been like if you were that man?
Imagine what's running through his mind. Wow, do I want to be healed? You know that I believe the scripture teaches that there is an undeniable drawing of the Holy Spirit to individuals. I believe that the scripture teaches that God has purposes of grace for individuals.
And just in case you think that I think only certain individuals, I don't think that at all, but God is a personal God, and he has a personal interest in individuals. Here's what Jesus said. Please picture this. This is what Jesus said in John chapter 12 and verse 32.
He said one day, "'And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, "'I will draw all men unto me. "'I will draw all men unto me.'" Was Jesus lifted up on a cross? Absolutely he was. Undeniable, indisputable fact in history.
He says this, "'I will draw all men unto me.'" You know, I believe that the Spirit of God calls on every heart. That's quite a statement. I believe that God knocks on every single person's door. Not everyone answers.
Why? Because not everyone is willing to have a relationship with God. This one day, Jesus walks up to this individual man and he says, "'Do you want to be healed?'" Jesus is knocking on this man's door. The Spirit of God is drawing him.
Jesus knows supernaturally everything about this man's past, everything about him. Can I stop and ask you guys today? Have you ever heard God knocking on your door? Has the Spirit of God ever spoke to your conscience?
Has the Word of God ever gripped you in such a way that you know and you feel? God is calling me. Can I tell you today? God is still calling sinners.
He is calling prodigals to come. Come, come let us reason together, says the Lord, but your sins be a scarlet. They should be white as snow. That's amazing.
He has purposes of grace. And if you're here today and you've heard God knocking on your door, please don't turn away. You may not knock again. You may not have concerns about your soul again.
If God is calling you, respond. How do I know that God calls on every door? Well, Jesus said, if I be lifted up from the earth, I'll draw all men unto me. John chapter one and verse nine is a very clear verse.
It says this, Jesus Christ is the true light that enlightens every man. Does it really say that? It says that. Jesus Christ is the true light that enlightens every man that comes into the world.
That's an amazing statement. You know the Bible says in Job that God speaketh once, ye twice and man perceiveeth it not. And there are people that are living walking around today and they've heard the voice of God, but they haven't responded. Or they've said no, or they've shut God out.
They may not hear it again. This was the opportunity of this one man who'd been laying on this mat for 38 years. This is your day. Jesus walks up to him and he says, do you want to be healed?
Imagine what is going through this man. The very creator of the universe, God almighty is right in his midst and he's asking him a very personal, direct searching question. Do you wanna be healed? You know, we could equate that question today to this.
Do you wanna have your sins forgiven? Do you wanna be saved? Do you wanna have a right relationship with God? You can have it today because of the unlimited power of almighty God because of the undeniable drawing of the Holy Spirit.
The ultimate question is, do you want to be healed? Do you wanna be forgiven? I wonder what went through this guy's head. I'm gonna just digress here for a moment and just share with you my imagination.
Okay, so this guy's looking at Jesus. He doesn't know who he is. He doesn't even know that, you know, he's, he is the Messiah. And Jesus says to him, do you wanna be healed?
I'm sure that this man is saying, I've been like this for a long time. I've been here on this mat for 38 years. What do we have quick that, I had a lot of baggage in my life. I'm carrying a lot of stuff.
And then he's probably thinking, how can I live any differently? I've never known anything else. I've been on this mat for 38 years. And this man's asking me do I wanna be healed?
I don't know if I can live. You know what we experience when we connect with people about salvation? A lot of people will say, well, hey, dude, I'm a drug addict. Like I can't change.
I'm an alcoholic. I got, you know what? I got so much issues in my life. I mean, I'm in a messed up relationship.
I'm waiting to be convicted. I'm gonna do time. That's not the question. That is not the question.
You got no power to change your life. No, you don't. The power comes from God. That was a revelation to me at 12 years old.
I wanna be saved. I got no power to be saved. But to as many who believe on him, to them gave he the power. The power comes from God, not you.
The power comes from God. And it is released by faith. What are you gonna do? You gotta believe.
This guy could say, no, no, you know what, go away. I can't get up. I can't, I can't. This is crazy.
I've been here for 38 years. Jesus said to him, get up, take up your bed and walk. Okay. The ball is in buddy's court.
Jesus said, get up, take up your bed and walk out of here. Now that man could say, no, this is ludicrous. I can't do that. I'm in forget it could go away.
No. He believed. He exercised faith. He got up, rolled up his mat and walked out of there.
What do you think it was like for everybody else? They've been sitting there. Why did Jesus pick this guy? 38 years.
Why did any pick a guy who's been there for six months? Wow, living testimony. Everybody in that city would have known this man was in that condition for 38 years. And Jesus walked up to him and said, do you wanna be made well?
Get up, pick up your ball and walk out of here. And the man believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's my point. If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, everything changes from today on.
The past is gone. Your sin is forgiven. You are justified. You have a life, new life.
Life from the dead. You rise up and you walk with Jesus. It doesn't mean that your life is a bed of roses. And it doesn't mean that all your issues go away.
Hey, if you got addictions in your past, it doesn't mean that you're no longer gonna be tempted with those things. If you live in a life of brokenness, I mean, what you sow, you're gonna reap. You're still gonna experience these things, but you got new life and you got no strength and you got new power. And you have abundant life that God gives you.
That is amazing. From the universal condition of mankind to the unlimited power of God, the undeniable drawing of the Holy Spirit, but there is an ultimate question that God asks. And here's what he asks to every single person. Do you, do you want this?
So what it really is saying is, are you willing to accept mercy? Are you willing to accept mercy? You know, when God calls somebody, a number of things happen. First of all, you get convicted of your sin.
People don't like that. People do not like this. You get convicted of your sin. Because all of a sudden you are exposed to the righteous standard of God.
And that light shines on your conscience. And you realize, I've lusted, I've lied, I've taken God's name in vain, I've broken all of God's laws, I'm guilty. You're convicted. You know the very next thing that happens?
You repent. You surrender your life to God. God, I'm guilty. You're absolutely right.
I am a sinner. I have broken your law. Save me, oh God. And you know what happens at that moment?
There's a change of mind. There's a change of direction. There's a surrender to God. And you turn away from your sin because you hate it.
And you don't want it anymore. Could you imagine if that guy said, no, thank you very much, sir. I kind of like this, Matt. I've been here for a long time.
I like sitting here and I'm just gonna stay where I'm at. That's what people do. I know you're laughing. That's what people do.
When you go to give them a track, Warren, how many times do they say, no, thanks, I'm good. How many times do I say that? 60, 70, 80% of the time. No, I don't need that.
I'm good. That's like this guy on the mat for 38 years. No, that's okay, sir. Thanks, sir, but no, thanks.
I'm good. The ultimate question for humanity is, do you want to be healed? Do you want God's mercy? Do you want to take all the goodness of God?
Or are you gonna say, no, thanks. I'm gonna live without it. You know, I'm amazed that as I read through the gospel of John, the sovereignty of God. And there is no denying that God in his sovereignty has purposes of grace and elects and chooses.
It says that we have not chosen him, but he has chosen us. But you don't also amaze that. The free will of man. God gives us an individual choice.
And I don't really know where that all meets. The sovereignty of God and the free will of man, both of them are in the Bible. One day I'm gonna preach on the sovereignty of God and the free will of man. Because they are both in the Bible, but I don't think they ever intersect until this very moment happens.
In the sovereignty of God, you hear the call of God in your soul. And God says, John, you are a filthy sinner, you are wicked, you are helpless, you are ruined, you are weak, you have nothing that you can do, but I will save you. Do you wanna come to me? And I say, yes, Lord, I wanna come.
At that very moment, I am made alive. I experience the power of God. I'm changed. And I come into this new relationship with God because I come to God, I submit to God, and I accept God's salvation on God's terms.
That is an incredible moment. I gotta wrap this up. So my last point is this. After this happened, there was this unreasonable persecution.
The bondage of false religion comes in many forms. That is a true statement. The bondage of false religion comes in many forms. The Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to set us free.
Religion condemned this man. He looked at him and said, oh my goodness, what are you doing? You picked up your bed and you're walking out here. Excuse me, sir, this is the Sabbath.
You can't do that. And the man's like, what? The man who healed me told me to pick up my bed and walk. Who told you to pick up your bed and walk?
I don't even know his name. And then he finds out it's Jesus. So it goes, it's Jesus. Does it amaze you how many miracles the Lord Jesus did on the Sabbath day?
Just read through the gospels. One after another after another. The Lord Jesus is making a point. Religion without God is bondage.
You know, there's people today and they're just full of legality and they've lost their love and they have no freedom. Jesus Christ came into the world to give us freedom. And the very next thing that happens is they plot the murder of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have to put this man to death because he's not following our rules.
Wow. You know what's so scary about that? Is that there's people like that today. Did Jesus break the Sabbath?
No, he did not. Does the Sabbath, the same the Old Testament that you're not allowed to carry your bed? No, it doesn't say that. But these men who took the principles of God and created their own rules and their own applications and then they judged people for not following their applications.
This happens today. Follow Christ. Follow Christ. Not man made religion.
Follow Christ. Be free from your sin. Walk with the Lord Jesus. He's brought us into freedom.
He said, come onto me. All you that labor, heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Learn of me.
I am meek and lowly in heart and you'll find rest unto your souls. I believe that there are many principles in the Word of God and clear teaching that don't have explicit applications. I believe that that's true. If you read through the Bible, there are many teachings and many principles that don't have explicit applications.
Why is that? I think it's intentional by the Lord to allow for unity, culture, and diversity in the body of Christ. But we have people that say, if you don't follow our rules, then you can't be part of us. That's not of God.
If you follow the principles of the Word of God, and you follow Christ, and don't get caught up in man-made religion or unreasonable persecution, Paul devoted a whole chapter of the Bible to this. Romans 14, about issues of conscience. Where one person sees something this way, and one person sees something the other way. God has made it clear that we follow Christ, and we follow the clear teaching and the principles of the Word of God.
But we don't make up our own man-made rules and then judge other people by those rules. So I just hope that you've enjoyed this story. It's been thrilling to my soul as I see this man in the universal condition of all mankind, the unlimited power of God, the drawing of the Holy Spirit, and the ultimate question for every one of us is do I want to have this personal relationship with him and enjoy all the blessings of grace and freedom that Christ has given me. And I hope that every one of you will experience that today.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the Word of God. We thank you Lord for the scriptures, and most of all for the coming of the Lord Jesus. He came to love, to heal, and to forgive.
And we love him today because he has set us free from our sin. He's delivered us. And we just pray that you would encourage each one of us today as we walk out of here knowing that nothing in our circumstances and not even sin or transgression in our life will separate us from the love of God, but that we are kept by the power of God. And Lord, we thank you for this amazing truth and pray that you would encourage us and bless us this day, and bless the saints of God everywhere we pray as we give thanks to the name of the Lord Jesus.
Amen.