Bro Bill Sunday Morning 6/19/11

Bro Bill Sunday Morning 6/19/11

Joh 5:1  After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Joh 5:2  Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.

Joh 5:3  In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.

Joh 5:4  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.

Joh 5:5  And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.

Joh 5:6  When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?

Joh 5:7  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.

Joh 5:8  Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.

Joh 5:9  And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.

I want to tell you a little about this man.  We’re all different; some have a personality that doesn’t look at details.  I like to look at details.  I look at the people in the Bible as people that are just like us and think like us.  They had joys and sorrows just like us.  They weren’t super people, but ordinary people just like us. 

This man was in a hopeless condition.  He’d been this way for 38 years.  He was there; he wanted help.  He’d been that way for most of his life.  It doesn’t say when he’d gotten this affliction.  But he may not have remembered how to walk anymore.  It appeared he was in a hopeless condition. 

Verse 6:  Jesus saw him and knew that he’d been a long time in that situation.  It may be that his legs were atrophied, shriveled and just bone with some skin on it.  Jesus could tell that he’d been a long time in that condition.  This man could not have had a normal life. 

He could have been in a scenario where his wife left him.  His family could have forsaken him.  He told Jesus that no one was there to help him. 

Humanly thinking he was at the wrong place to get the help that he needed.  The chances of him getting in the water before someone else were pretty slim.  According to this recording, there was only healing for one when the water was troubled so this man was in a sad case. 

This man probably even tried in himself to get to the water.  He couldn’t walk, but in his earlier years, he probably tried to work his legs.  If something happened to me and there was even this much hope of recovery, I’d try to get crutches and try to walk so I could be normal again.  I liken this to a man that is afflicted with sin.  I know what it is like to be in sin and trying to be right but failing in myself. 

There are others that have similar testimonies.   Trying to not be a drunk, I drank this weekend, I’m going to try to not do it again next weekend.  They try to have a normal life; they want to be a good dad and yet failing.  They want to be a good citizen, or a good son or daughter and are failing, unable to do it in themselves. 

This man felt the affects of being in that condition for such a long time, from lack of movement the effects on the body.  In people’s faces, you can see the affects of living a hard life. 

His thought was, “I don’t have anyone to help me.”  In a sense he was in the wrong place to get help.  It was hopeless.  People in general go to the wrong place to try to be healed from sin.  They try to get help from man and never getting really cured.  All man can do is just give a patch, a temporary or partial fix.

Jesus passed by. 

This impotent man was lacking in power, strength, vigor, and helpless.  People in sin might think they have it all together, but they don’t they are incapable of self-restraint, ungovernable.  When I was in high school, I had strength, yet when it came to God, before I got saved, I was helpless.  I couldn’t keep from doing that which was wrong.  No matter the level of bodily strength that I had, I couldn’t keep from doing sin.  I couldn’t do that.

Isa 1:5  Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

Isa 1:6  From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

The head is sick!  People in sin, their thinking is sick; it is messed up.  When you have the answer for them to a normal and a good life, to have God as your friend and your protector, to have the saints as your friends and they keep looking elsewhere for a fix that will not satisfy.  Their head is sick.

From the sole of the foot to the head, there is no soundness in it. 

Eph 2:12  That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

Without God, you have no hope of making heaven your home.  You could be a good person and you can endeavor to give money in the offering plate and go through what ever forms of charity, but unless you repent, you have no hope of making heaven your home.  This salvation is not of works.  The only way to make it to heaven is to repent and go God’s way. 

Thank God we’re redeemed.  We’ve given our lives to God.

Joh 8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

You might think that you have things under control.  The Bible says, “The lust of your father you will do.”  I had to do what the devil wanted me to do before I got saved.  I had some physical strength but I couldn’t keep from doing that which is wrong. 

You may say, “What am I searching for?  I’ve done everything that I know to do.”  You’ve left out some key ingredient.  You’ve been making a cake and forgot the sugar.  You forgot that sweet thing.  You forgot Jesus.

Rom 5:6  For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

We were without strength.  When you’re young, you think that you are 10 feet tall and made out of steel.   You’re just flesh and blood like everyone else.

They were waiting for the moving of the water in Bethesda, the moving of the water happened only at a certain season and only one could get help.

This moving of the water is open right now, it is for everyone to get their needs met.

2Co 6:1  We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.

2Co 6:2  (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)

The door is opened now. 

Isa 55:6  Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:

Isa 55:7  Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

Isa 55:8  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

Isa 55:9  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

The time to seek God is when he may be found.  The time to seek God is when He’s talking to your heart.  If you don’t know if God is talking to you, let me give you a little help.  When you have the thought, “You know you need to get ready to go, you need to be ready to meet God.”  You may not even realize that it is the Spirit of God, but when he comes and says, “You’re not where I want you to be spiritually.”  That is the Spirit of God drawing upon your heart.  You need to act when He is drawing on your heart. 

When the Spirit of God comes to deal with you and you push Him away, you start callusing your ears and your heart to that voice that says, “Come, come and be saved.” 

When they get older, those that have resisted the voice of the Spirit of God get to the place where as the saying is, “They have one foot on a banana peel and one foot in the grave” and I’ve seen and you’ve seen the same thing, they are unconcerned about where they are going to spend eternity.  They have no awareness.   You try to talk to them and they have built layer and layer upon their conscience. 

You will be very sorry that you didn’t take heed to the voice of God in the Day of Judgment.  This is the day of salvation.  When all is done, whatever decision you have made on earth, you will have to live with.

Zec 13:1  In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.

This day is the fountain opened so you can be washed of your sins.  The way to get saved is to ask God to forgive you of your sins.  Come to your heavenly father that really loves you.  Jesus was willing to give of himself for you.  No one forced Him to go to the cross.  No one dragged him.  They led him.  He did it for the worst sinner that ever lived.  He did it for me.  He did it for you. 

I got saved when I was 16 years old.  I am ashamed of my past.  

Go to the altar with an attitude of, “Lord, I’m done with all I know is wrong, I’m ready to follow you and to do all that you show me is right.”  Then you’re in a place where you have God on your side.  You have God to help you with your decisions.  He’ll help you in your sorrows. 

It is God that helped me to get the job that I have.  I could have been in the crowbar hotel.  I could have ended up dead.  I humbled myself down just like you saints did and now I have God to help me and I have a family that cares about me in you saints.

Psa 107:8  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

Psa 107:9  For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.

Psa 107:10  Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron;

Psa 107:11  Because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the most High:

Psa 107:12  Therefore he brought down their heart with labour; they fell down, and there was none to help.

Psa 107:13  Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.

Your help will only be in God.

This man at the pool of Bethesda was in that state so long that it may have been that he saw no light at the end of the tunnel.  Through Jesus there was hope. 

Mat 19:25  When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?

Mat 19:26  But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.

You cannot do it in yourself.  With God all things are possible.

Joh 5:8  Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.

If you were in this man’s condition for 38 years and a total stranger came up to you and told you to take up your bed and walk what would you think? ( He didn’t know that it was Jesus.  Read verse 13.)  Can you imagine a total stranger coming up to you after you’ve been afflicted for 38 years and saying, “rise and take up your bed and walk?” 

He may have thought, “Who are you, you got to be kidding me, just pick up my bed and walk?  I’ve been in this condition for 38 years.”  This man took courage.  He tried.  He obeyed the command.

This is what we have to do when we’re out in sin.  Take courage.  Maybe what they say is right.  The Bible says to repent.  I’m going to take courage. 

He got up.  He was healed.

Psa 107:13  Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.

Psa 107:14  He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.

If you will cry out to God, He will break those bands that have you bound.  He will bring you out of darkness.

Psa 18:32  It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect.

He makes my way entire, without blemish, complete, without spot, undefiled, upright, and whole.  He makes it where you can be normal. 

Proverbs says that the way of man is strange.  This is the way it is.  Not in a disrespectful way, but you may see some men that look strange.  I don’t have any piercings or tattoos.  When the mortician gets a hold of me he’s going to say, “Hey Jo, this guy is normal.” 

I don’t have to be abusive to my wife.  I can have a normal life where I can be a blessing.  You don’t have to be so that when you come around a corner they say, “Here comes trouble.”  You don’t have to be that way anymore.

Jer 33:7  And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first.

Jer 33:8  And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me.

Mal 4:2  But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

Joh 5:9  And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.

Immediately the man was made whole.  Just in a matter of minutes you can be on the other side of the fence if you will meet the conditions.  This day you can be clear before God and be on your way to heaven.   Immediately the man was made whole. 

I remember before I got saved I was trying to get my life cleaned up and I failed.  After I gave my heart to God and repented for my sins, I came to the realization that, “Wow, I’m not doing anymore what I was doing.”  It is because I had someone to help me. 

When you repent, right then and there, God washes the slate clean; He forgives you and sets you on the right path.  You may not think that you do many things that are very bad; the little sin that you have, if it is disobedient to the Word of God, will send you to hell.  You need to have the attitude that you will walk with Him in all he will show.  When you meet the conditions, right then and there He gives you the strength to walk with Him. 

Bethesda means “House of kindness.”  That literal place is not there anymore.  The pool is not there anymore.  Whatever help that it could give was just for a season.  This house of kindness offered by Jesus today is here, the door is opened even this morning. 

If there is any here that would like to be saved, don’t just go through a form, don’t do it for anyone else, do it for yourself and God will give you strength to live for Him. 

There were halt, maimed, blind, needing healing at this pool.  This is not only for needs of healing the sick and afflicted as far as sin, this lesson could be used for whatever the need is. 

The people were all gathered around the pool waiting for that certain time.  You may think, “When conditions are just right, I’ll get that need taken care of.”  Whatever your need is, don’t wait for some troubling of the water or some special circumstance to get that need taken care of.  Begin immediately.