Keep sharing good news without ads.
Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/david-richards/man-at-bethesda/
John's Gospel, chapter 5. John chapter 5, we'll just read the opening verses. After this there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches and these lay a great multitude of impotent folk of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.
For 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 was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.
When Jesus saw him lie and knew he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Will thou be made whole? The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man when the water is troubled to put me into the pool, but while I am coming another steppeth down before me.
Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, took up his bed, and walked. And on the same day was the sabbath. Trust that God will bless his word as well as what we've already heard this evening.
As we go through the gospels we find many stories told about people who suffered from a variety of ailments. And each one of those is an illustration for us of the effects of sin. For example, the Lord Jesus healed a man that was born blind.
And what that reminds us of the fact is that the God of this world, namely Satan, has blinded the minds of them that believe not. We read of people that were healed of leprosy. And leprosy reminds us of the fact that sin defiles us.
It makes us unclean before God. There were three people that we read of that the Lord Jesus raised from the dead. And they illustrate for us the fact that you and I, when we were born, we were born in a state of spiritual death.
Paul says in Ephesians, you have he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. Here we have the story of a man who is described for us as the impotent man. That means he was without strength. And what that illustrates for you and me is the fact that while we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
That merely means that when we were totally incapable of doing anything to help ourselves, Christ did for us what we couldn't do for ourselves. He died for us upon the cross. Now this evening I'm not interested so much in the story that we read together.
I'm really just interested in the question that was asked by the Lord Jesus. Wilt thou be made whole? Now whether you're thinking of some kind of physical ailment, or whether you're thinking of man's spiritual state before God, there are four conditions that must be fulfilled before a person can be cured.
It doesn't matter whether it's a physical ailment or a spiritual ailment, there are four conditions that must be fulfilled before that person can be healed. Number one, the ailment must be properly diagnosed.
Right? You go to the doctor, maybe you have some pain in your chest, and the doctor examines you, takes out his stethoscope, checks your blood pressure, maybe even gives you an x-ray, and then he scratches his head and he says, I know you're sick.
You say, doctor, I already knew I was sick, but what is wrong with me? He says, I don't know. He can't do anything for you, can he? If he doesn't know what's wrong, he can't help you. Now when it comes to man's spiritual condition, has there been a correct diagnosis of man's problem?
The answer to that is most definitely yes. The word of God tells us what man's problem is. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now I used to think that that was saying all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God, but that's not what the statement is saying.
As far as the past is concerned, all have sinned. And as far as the present is concerned, all continue to come short of the glory of God. In other words, every one of us has failed in the past, and we continue to fail.
You and I are sinners. We didn't become sinners when we sinned. We sinned because we were sinners. Now many of you have probably heard me use this illustration. I've never heard a better one. If you've got a better one for me, please give it to me afterwards.
But I'm going to give it to you again. We have Christian friends in Kamloops, amongst the early ones we saw saved. And when they moved into their house, there were a number of fruit trees in the backyard.
Kamloops is a very fruit-bearing area. And amongst the fruit trees, there was a particular tree, and they were informed that it was a plum tree. But for the first 14 years of them living in this house, it never bore any fruit at all.
And then after 14 years, it produced large, soft apples. And then the next year, it died. Now I can understand that. You imagine the energy it must have taken for a plum tree to produce apples. It took so much energy that it actually killed the tree.
Is that good reasoning? Of course not. The answer is, it never was a plum tree, was it? Well, if it wasn't a plum tree, tell me, what kind of tree was it? Now don't jump too quickly. Because remember, for 14 years, all it produced was leaves.
And then suddenly, miraculously, it produced apples. So surely, for those 14 years, it was a leaf tree, and then it became an apple tree, and it produced apples. Is that good reasoning? Of course not.
It always was an apple tree, even though for 14 years, it never produced any apples. It didn't become an apple tree when it produced apples. It produced apples because it was an apple tree. The same for you and me.
We didn't become sinners when we sinned. We sinned because we had the nature of sin. We were born sinners. Well, how come we were born that way? Well, think of our illustration of the plum tree that became an apple tree.
How was it that that tree was an apple tree? Well, I don't know the history of that particular tree. But I know that it had a parent tree that was an apple tree. And the parent tree of that apple tree was an apple tree.
All the way back to the first apple tree. And so it was an apple tree because the first tree that it came from was an apple tree. How was it you and I were born sinners? I'm sorry, your mom and dad were sinners.
And their mom and dad were sinners. All the way back to our first parents, Adam and Eve. The difference between Adam and us is this. Adam became a sinner when he sinned. He wasn't created that way. He became a sinner when he sinned.
We sinned because we were sinners. You see, the very first son Adam had became a murderer. He murdered his own brother Abel. Sin had entered into the human family. As by one man, sin entered into the world and death as a consequence of sin.
So death has passed upon all men for that all have sinned. And one of the most convincing proofs of the fact that you have a fallen sinful nature is the fact that if you live long enough, as the Irishman said, you're going to die.
Okay, every one of us has to face death at some time or other. So that's why the problem exists. So first of all, the problem has to be correctly diagnosed. And God in his word has correctly diagnosed what the human problem is.
The next thing is the diagnosis must be accepted by the patient. What use is it for you to go to the best physician in the world and that physician to give you a correct diagnosis of what your problem is if you're not prepared to believe him?
You go to the doctor with your pain in the chest, and the doctor examines you, gives you an x-ray, and he says, I'm sorry, sir, but you have lung cancer. So you say to him, I want a second opinion. And you go to another doctor and he says, I'm sorry, sir, you have lung cancer.
So you want another opinion, you go to a third doctor and a fourth doctor until eventually you come to a doctor who says, no, you don't have lung cancer. You've just got a touch of indigestion. And so just go to the drug store and get some Tums.
A few weeks later, you die. Isn't it amazing how people can die of indigestion? Did the person die of indigestion? No. The problem was the person wouldn't accept the diagnosis. Tell me, dear friend here tonight, are you prepared to take God's side against yourself?
Are you prepared to say that God is right and I am wrong, that I am a sinner? Many, many years ago, when we lived in England, I knocked on the door of two old ladies. They were regular church goers. They never missed going to church.
I could not persuade them that they were sinners. People that didn't go to church, they were sinners, but we're not sinners. Certainly we're not sinners. I could not persuade them. Listen, if they died believing that they were not sinners, they're in hell today.
Isn't that sad? They were not prepared to believe God and accept God's diagnosis of their problem. Is there someone here tonight? Are you prepared to accept God's diagnosis of your problem? Willie Mullen of Ireland was a prominent Baptist preacher.
Before he was saved, he lived outside of a house for three and a half years, never saw the inside of a house. He was a tramp. He just attended one gospel meeting and a week later he was in a field planning a bank robbery when all of a sudden he felt as though God was there.
And this is what he said. He said, God, I know you're there and I know that I'm a sinner. And if you cast me down to hell, you're still right and I'm wrong. Would you be surprised if it was that very day that he came to know Christ as his savior?
He accepted God's diagnosis of the problem. You know, there are lots of people that will not go to the doctor because they don't want to find out the truth. They don't want to find out what problem they have.
But listen, if you refuse to go to the doctor, the problem's not going to go away just because you haven't heard what the doctor has to say. And if you're not prepared to accept God's diagnosis, it's not going to alter what the diagnosis and the prognosis is.
Remember, it's not a good prognosis. The Lord Jesus said, if ye die in your sins, whither I go, thither ye cannot come. That is, you'll never get to heaven if you don't accept God's diagnosis. And the alternative to heaven is just unthinkable, my friend.
You must accept God's diagnosis. So number one, there has to be a correct diagnosis of the problem. Number two, the diagnosis must be accepted by the patient. Number three, a cure has to be available.
So you go to the doctor with some problem and he analyzes you and he comes up with a correct diagnosis of your problem. And you're perfectly willing to accept the doctor's prognosis of what your problem is.
But then the doctor frowns and he says, but I'm sorry, sir, there is no known cure. Not much comfort, is it? To know what your problem is and be perfectly willing to accept that that is your problem if there's no cure available.
Now, as far as man's problem is concerned, is there a cure available? There most certainly is. You know, there's an expression in the world that says, one man's meat is another man's poison. And even when it comes to certain ailments, what will cure one person will not cure another person.
But I want you to understand tonight, God has but one cure for the human problem. And that one cure is adequate to meet the need of every living person in the world. Already you've heard quoted tonight, the words of John chapter three and verse 17, God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
Now, that verse does not mean that everybody is saved. But what it does mean is this. Such is the value of the work of Christ upon the cross that all can be saved. There isn't a person in this room tonight that cannot be saved because Christ has died for every single person.
Christ died for Adolf Hitler. Christ died for Saddam Hussein. And you think of the most wicked person you can imagine, the most wicked human being. And I can tell you this with absolute certainty, Christ died for that person.
Christ died for a whole guilty world. And such is the value of the blood that was shed that there is no living person capable of thinking that cannot be saved. And one more thing. There is nobody in the world that God does not want to save.
Is that clear? If you're not saved tonight, it's certainly not because Christ didn't die for you. And if you're not saved tonight, it's not because the work of Christ on the cross was not sufficient for you.
If you're not saved tonight, it's not because Christ doesn't want to save you. You must look within yourself for the reason for which you're not saved. That brings us to our fourth point. Number one, the ailment has to be properly diagnosed.
Number two, the diagnosis must be accepted by the patient. Number three, a cure must be available. Number four, the medicine must be applied. So you go to the doctor. He analyzes what your problem is, writes out a prescription for you.
You go along to the pharmacy and you get your pills from over the counter and you pay your bill and you go back to your house and you put it in a cabinet in the bathroom. Do you feel better? Well, if that won't work, why not just stick it under your pillow?
And maybe during the course of the night, it will seep through and you'll feel better in the morning. Has it done anything to help you? Absolutely not. The cure must be applied. Tell me, my friend, have you ever trusted Christ as your savior?
You've probably heard this one before too. D .L. Moody had a friend who was a soap manufacturer, but unfortunately he was an atheist. And one time the two of them were walking along the road and as they looked across the road, they saw a man who couldn't walk a straight line.
He was drunk. And Moody's friend said to him, I don't think much of your gospel. Moody said, why? He said, look at that man over there. It hasn't done him any good. Well, they just carried on walking.
Moody never said anything. They came across a little boy sitting in the gutter and he was filthy dirty. Moody stopped and looked at the boy, turned to his friend and said, I don't think much of your soap.
So what do you mean? Well, look at that little boy. It hasn't done him any good. The man said, oh, but be fair. You have to apply the soap. So Moody said, it's the same with the gospel. It's not enough that Christ has died for a whole guilty world.
You must apply the soap. You must personally receive Christ by faith as your savior. Have you ever done that? I wasn't saved as young as David. I wasn't brought up in a Christian home, but for some reason, I don't know why it is.
For some reason I was saved before David worked that one out. I was saved in September 1958 in the early hours of a Tuesday morning. It was in a radar compound on the Island of Cyprus as a young soldier.
I was on guard with a rifle slung across my shoulder and a live round up the bore. And I got down on my knees and there in that radar compound, I trusted Christ as my savior. What had happened? I did not know.
I knew something had happened. If someone said to me, oh, you were born again, were you? I probably would have said, oh, is that what it was? I wasn't brought up to hear the gospel. That's why I couldn't give you an exact date as to when I was saved.
And I certainly couldn't tell you the hour at which I was saved. Nobody ever told me you were supposed to remember it. But I tell you this much, I can remember the event as though it was yesterday. It's as fresh in my mind today as ever it was.
Back in 1998, I went over to Cyprus from Russia to visit my daughter. 1997. And while I was there, I went into Northern Cyprus. The island is divided. The Turks are in charge in the North and the Greeks in the South.
And there are United Nations troops in between keeping them apart. Things are quite different now, but still the barrier is still there. And I went through, showed my passport to the Greek customs people, then to the Turks.
And then I went through and a young Turkish man, a great tall young man who was my taxi driver, took me to Famagusta. You see, Famagusta is the nearest town to where I was saved. I wanted to see if I could find the spot where God saved me.
We went north of Famagusta and where the camp was, there were Turkish troops now, so we couldn't go inside. But what he did was he drove up to the Salamis forest and then turned towards the coast and then turned south.
And I think I saw the road that I often used to walk up coming from the MMG. I was probably within half a mile of where God saved me. That was a very moving experience for me. I never ever thought I would ever see Cyprus again, let alone be near the spot where God saved me.
Probably about a mile from where Paul had been when he was on the island of Cyprus. But you know, really, it doesn't matter where it is. It doesn't matter what time of day it was. It really doesn't matter whether John the Apostle was saved on that occasion or not.
It really doesn't matter whether Nicodemus was saved in John chapter 3. What really matters is that there is a moment in a person's life when they come to realize their need and personally, by faith, receive Christ as their Savior.
I've told you a little bit about how God saved me. If you were to come up to me afterwards, could you tell me, I'm not asking you to do this, but could you tell me how God saved you? Can you remember when it happened?
Is it as fresh to you today as the day it happened? Listen, for me, it was over 52 years ago. It's amazing how a person who's 39 and a bit could be saved 52 years. But I tell you, it was the happiest moment of my life to that point in time.
One person had described me as the most miserable person in the world. You see, for over 19 years, I wasn't saved. But I didn't smoke. I didn't drink. I didn't swear. I had been in the military for two years before I was saved.
But a curse word never crossed my lips. I never get, well, I gambled once. My dad's bank manager just pestered me until I played cards with him. And I won thruppence off him, three pennies. And I felt so guilty.
I gave it back to him. My father's aunt just pestered me until I had a little tot of rhubarb wine. The next time I tasted alcohol was the first time I remembered the Lord Jesus in the breaking of bread.
But I wasn't a Christian. I had all the negatives, but none of the positives. But I tell you, that moment when Christ came into my life, everything changed. You know, a lot of you have heard me talk about this, but I can remember coming from the MMG and walking up the hill, going through the regimental square and going down the hill the other way.
Over on the left were the sheds I worked in for over two years. Over on the right was the little hut that I lived in. Beyond that was the radar compound. And beyond that, the Mediterranean Sea. And I looked around.
I couldn't see a soul. So I presumed nobody could see me. So I jumped up in the air and I said, praise the Lord. And I still do it. I think I said that the other day. You see, he is not a disappointment.
Jesus is far more to me than in all my glowing daydreams I had fancied he could be. And the more I get to know him, so the more I find him true. And the more I long that others that you should be led to know him, too.
You can know him. You can not only be saved. You can be satisfied forever by knowing my savior as your savior. Remember, he's not dead. He's alive forevermore. And he's not just living in human hearts.
If you and I could take a trip to heaven today and if we could approach the throne, there's a man sitting on heaven's throne as real as this podium. The man Christ Jesus. And he's here tonight and he wants to save you.
He yearns to save you. So I'll ask you the question tonight. Will thou be made whole? I hope you will say to Christ tonight. Yes, I will be made whole. We'll sing number 92, please.