The Man Made Whole
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
Every footstep of the Lord Jesus Christ was one of mercy and of grace. The beautiful thing about Christ's healing and helping hand is, that He made no distinctions in those whom He helped.
One feature of both miracle and parable is the far-reaching spiritual significance that they convey. In the healings of the body, there are direct suggestions as to the methods of Christ in healing the soul.
No miracle of healing conveys a more beautiful picture of the need of the sinner, and of God's plan of salvation, than does the one which we are to study today. Of this much we are sure, the healing of the body in the life of Christ was always subservient to the healing of the soul.
In the life of Peter, he met the lame man at the beautiful gate of the Temple. When he had healed him, the people all came out wanting to honor him for the healing, and to discuss the healing, and to magnify the healing. Peter at once turned their minds away from the healing to the salvation from sin, which is in Christ Jesus, saying, "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other Name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."
Whatever may be said of the healing of the body, it is only a transient blessing, circumscribed in its beneficence to the earth-life of the one healed. On the other hand the healing of the soul (salvation) has the promise of this life, and also of that which is to come.
Healing, in answer to the prayer of faith, is a gracious benefaction, but salvation is a thousandfold more gracious.
To which then should we, as believers, give the greater importance, and where should we put the stress of our testimony? Shall we emphasize that part of Christ's ministry which has to do with the mortal body, a body destined to decay and death; or, shall we place the emphasis on the life and its salvation that eternal life, which is the gift of God unto all who believe?
Let us feel perfect freedom in using the healing of the body, as typical of the healing of the soul. "The great Physician now is near,
The sympathizing Jesus;
He speaks the drooping heart to cheer,
Oh, hear the voice of Jesus.
All glory to the risen Lamb!
I now believe in Jesus;
I love the blessed Saviour's Name,
I love the Name of Jesus."
I. THE NEEDY MULTITUDE (John 3:3)
The day of Christ was not different from any other day since sin entered into the world, and death by sin. There have always been a multitude of sick folk, because death has passed upon all men, in that all have sinned.
Not only this but there have always been a multitude of soul-sick folk. In fact, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is not one upon the earth who has not sinned; nor has there ever been one, with the exception of Jesus Christ, who sinned not. God describes the human heart as deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. He says from the head to the feet there are wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, which have neither been bound up nor mollified with ointment.
All are sick, yet, all are not equally sick. In our Scripture, we read of the blind, the halt, and the withered. The Book of Romans tells us "there is no difference: for all have sinned." This by no means suggests that all are equally sinful. Some have gone much farther into the ways of wickedness than others. There were three whom Christ raised from the dead. The one was the daughter of Jairus, just dead, and beautiful in death; another was the son of the widow of Nain, two days dead, and being buried; the last was Lazarus, four days dead, and of him they said, "Behold, he stinketh." Each of the three was dead, but the effects of death were not the same on any of the three.
If we were to compare the miseries of the blind, and of the halt, and of the withered, we might think of one as bad, another as worse, and another as worst; however, neither the one or the other is to be desired. When we compare the sins of sinners, we may classify them the same way. However, our classification may not be such as God would approve. We would doubtless place the publican and the harlot at the bottom of the list, whereas, Christ said, "The publicans and the harlots go into the Kingdom of God before you." However, again, we desire to be neither "publican," nor "harlot," nor "Pharisee."
For one thing we thank God there is salvation for all. Every sinner may find salvation in the Blood.
"Come, every soul by sin oppressed,
There's mercy with the Lord;
And He will surely give you rest
By trusting in His Word.
Only trust Him! only trust Him!
Only trust Him now!
He will save you! He will save you!
He will save you now!
For Jesus shed His precious Blood
Rich blessings to bestow;
Plunge now into the crimson flood
That washes white as snow."
II. SICK AND SAD IN THE HOUSE OF LOVING-KINDNESS (John 5:2)
The pool was called Bethesda the house of love and kindness, yet many sick and impotent folk were there. So it has always been.
People are starving, in a world filled with bounty; blind, in a land of marvelous vistas; half-clad, in the midst of the cattle on a thousand hills, where the fields are ripe with waving cotton.
Sinners are lost, in a world where God has written grace and salvation on every turn of the road. Sinners are bound, with the great Deliverer standing near. Sinners are dying for food and of thirst, with the bread of life and the water of life hard by their side.
It is bad enough to go down under the waters and drown with no help in sight, but it is worse to go down with a life buoy in easy reach of the hand.
It is terrible to die from some dread disease, with the physician far beyond one's reach; it is inexcusable to die, with the physician and a sure remedy at hand.
When the sinner remembers that God is not willing that any should perish; when he considers that Christ died for all, and that "whosoever will" may come, he cannot but realize that he is sitting, sick of sin, in the house of loving-kindness and of tender mercy.
He who has received the invitation, "Come for the feast is now ready"; and has heard the call, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden," if he will not come, can blame no one but himself if he dies in sin.
"Come home, come home,
There is room and to spare,
And a warm welcome there,
Oh, prodigal child, come home!"
The sense of lost opportunity, will, in hell, cause the deepest wail of many. They will know that it need not so have been. They will know that they are lost, when they might have been found; damned, when they might have been saved. All who die out of Christ, die as the fool dieth, because they might have been saved, had they only stepped inside the open gate of the city of refuge. Christ has said, "I am the Door; by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved."
III. SICK, IN THE PRESENCE OF THE SAVIOUR (John 5:1)
There is a little verse which runs something like this:
"O blind, blind, blind, amid the blaze of noon!
Irrecoverably blind, total eclipse,
Without one ray of light."
That is what comes to our mind, as we see the multitude of sick folk dying in the very presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, the One able to heal all manner of diseases.
When Jesus entered Jerusalem, He soon sought out the pool of Bethesda. He went in, and walked among the stricken souls that thronged the water's side. He was there, and the people wanted healing; yet none of them looked to Him.
Even when the man, thirty-eight years sick, was healed, the multitude of others sought Him not. They never spoke one word of welcome to the Great I AM, they never asked His help, nor pleaded their need.
You say they did not know His power, nor realize His willingness to help. Perhaps so, at the first. However they still asked not, when they saw Him deliver the sickest of their group.
However, we will not be too hard on the folk of Bethesda, when we consider the millions now dying, with Christ at the very door. If they are hungry, He is the Bread of Life; if they are thirsty, He is the Water from which drinking, they shall never thirst again. To the blind, He is Eyes; to the lame and halt, He is Strength of limb; to the poor, He is Plenty; to the sick, He is Health; to the dying, He is Life for evermore.
Let us learn our lesson Jesus went to the place where the sick man lay; have we gone to the dwellings of the lost and the dying? Jesus went to the multitude that welcomed Him not; let us go to the ones who need us, not only to those who want us. Jesus went with blessing, and not with cursing; with the helping hand, and not with the tight closed fist: let us go as He went, as heralders of life, and light, and love.
'"Lord, Thou hast here Thy ninety and nine;
Are they not enough for Thee?
But the Shepherd made answer: 'This of Mine
Has wandered away from Me;
And altho' the road be rough and steep,
I go to the desert to find My sheep.'
But none of the ransomed ever knew
How deep were the waters crossed
Nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through
Ere He found His sheep that was lost.
Out in the desert He heard its cry,
Sick and helpless, and ready to die.
But all through the mountains, thunder-riven,
And up from the rocky steep,
There arose a glad cry to the gate of Heaven,
'Rejoice! I have found My sheep!'
And the angels echoed around the throne,
'Rejoice, for the Lord brings back His own!'"
IV. THE GREATEST SINNER NOT TOO SICK FOR THE SAVIOUR (John 5:4)
Just why Christ picked out the man who for thirty-eight years had lain sick, we may not perfectly know. Perhaps Christ saw in him, among them all, the one of greatest need; perhaps He saw in him the one, and the only one ready to exercise faith. In any event there are some truths that grip us:
1. Christ does not cast off the vilest of the vile. Paul could look back upon his past and say, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." It is still a faithful saying "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow."
2. Christ is able to save all those who trust Him.
"None are excluded thence, but those
Who do themselves exclude;
Welcome the learned and polite,
The ignorant and rude."
No man dare plead that he is too far gone, too deep in sin for the Saviour's power. Christ saved the man of Gadara, the woman who had seven demons, the publican named Matthew, the fisherman named Peter, the persecutor named Saul, and Christ can save you.
3. Christ stood outside the man's will. The Lord Jesus said unto the man, "Wilt thou be made whole?" The Lord holds sacred the "will," the "desire" of every son of Adam. To Jerusalem He said, "How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" Christ seemed to say, "I would"; ye "would not:" I "could not."
We may truly say to every lost sinner:
"God is now willing, in Christ reconciled,
Willing to save you and make you His child:"
That, however, does not mean that every lost sinner will be saved. Hear the last line of the song: "God is now willing, are you?"
"Behold, His hands extended now,
The dews of night are on His brow;
He knocks, He calls, He waiteth still:
Oh, come to Him, 'whoever will!'
In simple faith His Word believe,
And His abundant grace receive;
No love like His the heart can fill;
Oh, come to Him, 'whoever will!'"
V. A CONFESSION OF GREAT NEED (John 5:7)
1. Unable to help himself. The impotent man could not help himself. He tried hard, and tried time and again; yet, each time he met the same discouraging result, some one else slipped into the pool ahead of him.
This was one great setback, which was, in fact, in the man's favor. As long as we think we can save ourselves, we are unwilling to come to Christ for salvation.
There are many, very many, who are not yet to the end of their own row. They are looking to their own deeds and trusting in their own worth. Some think that, within themselves, is the Divine spark of redemption that needs but to be fanned upon, in order that it may blaze up into eternal life.
There are others, many others, who are still trying to paddle their own canoe over the rapids of their sins, and into the harbor of eternal life. They think they can buy their way into Glory, by doing many wonderful works. They "build the tombs of the Prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous"; they pay tithes of mint, and anise, and cummin; they make long prayers; they compass sea and land to make a proselyte; they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, and thus they hope to merit a full salvation.
Alas, alas, how long will men be deceived! No man can save himself.
2. None other could help him. Discovering his own helplessness, the impotent man began to search around for a friend to place him in the waters. How illuminating the words, "Sir, I have no man, * * to put me into the pool."
Man cannot save man. The sinner cannot save the sinner. The drowning cannot rescue the drowning. Each man has sins of his own with which to deal. Even saved sinners cannot save unsaved sinners. All that any of us can do, is to say, "Why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?" We can only point the lost to the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world. We can only preach Christ.
"Not saved are we by trying,
From self can come no aid;
'Tis on the blood relying,
Once for our ransom paid.
'Tis looking unto Jesus,
The holy One and just:
'Tis His great work that saves us
It is not Try, but Trust!
'Twas vain for Israel bitten
By serpents, on their way,
To look to their own doing,
That awful plague to stay;
The only means for healing,
When humbled in the dust,
Was of the Lord's revealing
It was not Try, but Trust!
No deeds of ours are needed
To make Christ's merit more;
No frames of mind, or feelings,
Can add to His great store;
'Tis simply to receive Him,
The holy One and just;
'Tis only to believe Him
It is not Try, but Trust!"
VI. THE TEST OF FAITH, OR COMMANDING THE IMPOSSIBLE (John 5:8)
To the man who had lain sick for thirty-eight years, Christ said, "Rise." To the man who had been carried, Christ said, "Take up thy bed." To the man who could not walk, Christ said, "Walk."
Christ told the man with the withered hand, to hold out his hand; He told the lepers to go to the priests and show themselves that they might be pronounced clean and healed; He told a dead man wrapped in his death clothes to come forth.
All things are possible to him that believeth. The blind, the halt, the maimed, believed, acted and were saved.
Faith is a blessed, living reality. James well said, "Shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works."
Faith apart from works is dead. A living faith is an active faith.
The impotent man saw in Christ the supplement of His need. With what joy must he have grasped the possibility of health and strength in his sick-worn body. With what abandonment did he thrust himself onto Christ.
This sick man may have heard of the miracles of the Lord Jesus, at least when thrust out upon his own naked faith in Christ, he did not waver.
The Book says, "According to your faith be it unto you."
Remember that faith does not work exclusively in the realm of physical healing; it is just as vital in salvation from sin; it is just as potent in the life of the believer in his prayer life, his life of service, and his obedience to the Divine commands.
"Faith is a living power from Heaven
Which grasps the promise God has given;
Securely fixed on Christ alone,
A trust that cannot be o'erthrown.
Faith finds in Christ whate'er we need
To save and strengthen, guide and feed;
Strong in His grace, its joys to share
His cross, in hope His crown to wear."
VII. THE IMMEDIACY OF SALVATION (John 5:9)
There are some who argue that it took long ages for God to create the world, and man long processes of evolution. For our part we believe the record that God spoke the Word, and it was done.
There are some who vainly imagine that it takes a long and wearisome struggle of the soul to pass from darkness into life. We believe in the instantaneous leap of saving faith, followed by an instantaneous new life in Christ Jesus.
At Pentecost, we read, "And the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls." These were saved upon Peter's preaching, and immediately baptized. There was no delay demanded for a prolonged siege of contrition, and for a prolonged process of conversion.
We remember how a dear fellow came to the altar as we gave the call, and professed conversion. He told us at once that he wanted to be baptized. We asked him if he came to the service with that intent. He said no. He had come a godless sinner, at the urge of his brother. Thus, within an hour, he was saved and baptized and went on his way rejoicing, like the eunuch of old.
He left, after his baptism for his home many miles away, and we never saw him again, until several years had passed. Then, in a distant city we ran across him, and learned that he was a true follower of Christ and an honored deacon in his church. His salvation was "sudden" but real and abiding.
Mark the words: "And immediately the man was made whole." He was not made better; or merely improved in his condition he was made whole. God does a real and lasting work in the lives of men.
"Oh, tender and sweet was the Master's voice
As He lovingly called to me:
'Come over the line! it is only a step
I am waiting, My child, for thee!'
'Over the line!' Hear the sweet refrain!
Angels are chanting the Heavenly strain.
'Over the line' why should I remain,
With a step between me and Jesus?
'But my sins are many, my faith is small:'
Lo! the answer came quick and clear:
'Thou needest not trust in thyself at all;
Step over the line: I am here!'"
AN ILLUSTRATION
THE MASTER'S LETTER
"James, I want you to come and see me at 6 o'clock, after you have left the works.
Yours faithfully."
Promptly at the time the young man waited on his master, who had written him the above letter. When he entered the room, after a pause the gentleman looked up from his desk, and inquired, "Do you wish to see me, James?"
Somewhat surprised, holding out the note he had received, he said, 'The letter, Sir, the letter you sent me."
"Oh! I see; you got my letter. You believe I wanted to see you, and when I sent you the message you came at once."
"Yes. Sir, surely; what else could I do?"
"Well, James, you did quite right to come. See, here is another letter for you; will you attend to that?" At the same time his master handed him a paper which he had written. James took hold of the paper, and read "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
As he read his lips quivered, his eyes filled with tears. Thrusting his hand into his pocket he grasped his large red handkerchief, with which he covered his face, and there stood, not knowing what to do. At length he said, "Am I just to believe in the same way that I believed your letter?"
"Just in the same way," was the reply.
"If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater" (1 John 5:9).
That night James saw it all, and went home a happy believer in his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He saw that he had to believe God and give Him the same credit and confidence that he would give to the word or message of any trustworthy or business man.