The Hospital of Waiters Visited with the Gospel

DELIVERED BY

C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Jesus said unto him, Rise, take up your bed, and walk." John 5:8.

IT was the Sabbath! Where would Jesus spend that day and how? He would
not spend it, we are quite sure, in any unhallowed manner or in any
trifling sort. What would He do? He would do good, for it is lawful to
do good on the Sabbath. Where would He do good? He knew that there was
one sight in Jerusalem which was particularly painful–the sight of a
number of poor persons, blind, lame and crippled, who were lying round
a pool of water, waiting for a blessing which seldom came. He thought
He would go and do good there, for there good was most needed. Would to
God that all Christ's servants felt that the most urgent necessity has
the greatest claim upon them–that where there is the most need, there
they ought to exercise the most kindness–and that no way of spending
the Sabbath could be better than that of bearing the Gospel of
Salvation to those who are most in need of it.

But it was a feast day as well. It was a great festival of the Jews and
Jesus had come up to Jerusalem to keep the feast. Where will He feast?
Has someone asked Him to his house? There were Mary and Martha and
Lazarus down at Bethany. Would they ask Him? Sometimes even Pharisees
and Publicans would open their houses and make a banquet for Him. Where
would He go? Was it a singular choice for Him to say to Himself, "My
feast shall be kept among the blind and the crippled and the lame"? No,
it was not singular, for He had said to one who had invited Him to his
house, "When you make a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the
blind: and you shall be blessed; for they cannot recompense you: for
you shall be recompensed at the resurrection of the just."

What He urged others to do, He would be sure to do Himself. It was just
like He to say, "I shall spend My feast in an hospital. I will use this
day, sacred both to joy and rest, by going where the sick lie thickly
clustered together, for to Me to be merciful is to be glad–to bless
men is to find rest for My heart." Christ never feasts more joyfully
than when He is doing good to others. And the greater the act of His
liberality–the higher the deed of power which is worked by His
love–the more is His blessed Nature filled with rest and joy. See you,
then, the Savior going down to the pool of Be-thesda, determining that
in the spot where sorrow and disease reigned supreme, He would exercise
His mercy and overcome evil.

I shall ask you to go with me, and with the Savior, down to
Bethesda'spool. I shall call it THE HOSPITAL OF WAITERS. While we are
there we shall notice that Jesus Christ fixes His eyes upon the most
helpless person among that waiting company. And then, thirdly, we shall
have to note with joy how our Lord dealt with the man after a Gospel
fashion.

I. First of all, I said we would go down to the POOL OF BETHESDA with
its five porches, which I have called the hospital of the waiters–for
all those people who were there were doing one thing–they were
waiting. They were waiting for the moving of the waters. There was
nothing else they could do. They were lying sick, with anxious eyes
gazing upon the little pool, hoping to see it bubble up–to see a
widening circle coming upon its placid surface–waiting to plunge in
immediately, for whoever plunged in first would receive a miracle–one
and no more.

Said I not truly that it was an hospital of waiters? Too easily may we
find a large company of waiters now-a-days. I wish it were not so, but
great numbers are always waiting. I think I know enough to fill all the
five porches. Some are waiting for a more convenient season and they
have a notion, perhaps, that this more convenient season will come to
them on a sick bed. Possibly, they even think, upon a dying bed. It is
a great mistake! They have heard the Gospel and they believe it to be
free though they have not accepted it. They go to a place of worship,
continually, and they say to themselves, "We hope that one of these
days we shall be able to lay hold of Christ, and shall be healed of the
disease of sin, but not now."

How many years have you been waiting, some of you, for the convenient
season–five, six, eight, ten, twenty? I know some who have been
waiting 20 or more years! I remember speaking to them about their souls
and they said, then, that

they did not intend to neglect the matter. They were waiting and the
time had not quite come. They did not exactly explain what stood in the
way, but it was a something that was to be gone in a few months–maybe
even weeks. But it has not gone and they are still waiting! And I fear
that they will wait until the Judgment Day will come and find them
unsaved! They always reckon upon a good tomorrow, but tomorrow is a day
which you will not find in the almanac–it is found nowhere but in the
fool's calendar.

The wise man lives today. What his hand finds to do, he does at once
with all his might. Today is God's time and whenever we are saved it
will be our time. But, alas, many lie waiting till their joints
stiffen, their eyes fail, their ears are heavy and their hearts more
and more insensible. O you simple ones, will it be so, forever? Will
you wait till you are cast into Hell? On a second porch, a crowd of
waiters are waiting for dreams and visions. You, perhaps, think these
are very few, but they are not so few as you imagine. And they have a
notion that perhaps one of these nights they will have such a vivid
dream of judgment that they will wake up alarmed–or such a bright
vision of Heaven that they will wake up fascinated by it!

They have been reading in somebody's biography that he saw something in
the air, or heard a voice, or had a text of Scripture "laid home to
him" (as it is called). They are waiting, I say, till the same signs
and wonders shall happen to them. I bear them witness that they are
very anxious to have this thing happen. But their mistake is that they
want it, or expect it to happen at all, and lie there by the Pool of
Bethesda waiting, and waiting, and waiting, as though they cannot
believe God, but they can believe in a dream–they cannot confide in
the teaching of Holy Scripture, but they can believe in a voice which
they imagine to be sounding in their ears, though it might be the chirp
of a bird, or might be nothing at

all.

They could trust their imagination, but they cannot trust the Word of
God as it is written in the Inspired Volume! They want something over
and above the sure Word of Testimony. The witness of God is not enough
for them. They demand the witness of fancy, or the witness of
feeling–and they are waiting on the porch by the pool till that comes.
What is this but an insulting unbelief? Is not the Lord to be believed
until a sign or a wonder shall corroborate His Testimony? Such waiting
provokes the Most High!

A third porch full of people will be found waiting for a sort of
compulsion. They have heard that those who come to Christ are drawn by
the Spirit of God. They believe the Doctrines of Grace and I am glad
they do, for they are true. But they misconstrue those doctrines. They
suppose the Spirit of God makes men do this or that altogether against
their wills, by exercising force. Their notion seems to be that men are
taken to Heaven by their ears, or dragged by force and, because we
speak of cords of love and bands of a man, they pick out the imagery
and mistranslate it.

Now, believe me, the Spirit of God never acts by the human heart as you
and I might act by a box of which we have lost the key. He does not
wrench it and break it open. According to the laws of our nature, He
acts with men as men. He draws with cords, but they are cords of
love–with bands, but they are bands of a man. It is by enlightening
the judgment that He influences the will. He leads us to see things in
a different light by the instruction which He gives us and by that
clearer light He influences the understanding and the heart. The things
we love, we see to be evil, and we hate them. And the things we once
hated, we see to be good, and we choose them.

These persons fancy that they will be made to repent whether they will
or not–made to believe in Jesus Christ whether they will or not! But
it is not so that the Holy Spirit acts. Let me warn you of the great
sin and of putting the Holy Spirit into contrast or rivalry with Jesus
Christ. Now, the Gospel is, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you
shall be saved." But for you to say, "I am waiting for the Holy
Spirit," is to set up Jesus in a kind of opposition with the Holy
Spirit–whereas the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit agree in
One–no, They are One, and the testimony of Jesus is the testimony of
the Holy Spirit! And when the Holy Spirit works in men, He works with
the things of Christ, not with any new things. He takes of the things
of Christ and shows them unto us.

If a man rejects the Gospel which says, "Believe and live," he rejects
the Holy Spirit who will not bring any other Gospel, but leaves him
shut up to believe in Jesus or to die in his sins. You must have
Christ, or perish! And if you refuse to obey His Gospel Word, neither
will God the Father nor God the Spirit interpose to deliver you. Jesus
Christ has the Spirit to bear witness of Him and when He comes, He
convinces men of sin because they believe not on Christ! And then He
leads them, not to trust in some work over and above the work of Jesus,
but to rest simply and alone on the Atonement which Christ has
furnished. Woe to those who linger anywhere short of this!

A fourth porch is attractive to many people, especially at this
peculiar time. They are waiting for a revival. We have heard glad
tidings, in which we rejoice, of great revivals in different parts of
England, Scotland and Ireland. And there are some who say, "Oh, if a
revival would come here, I would be converted." Or it runs thus, "If
the two honored servants of God were to come here and hold services,
then, surely, we would be converted." They look to men and excitements.
I thank God for every genuine revival and, whenever He works, I rejoice
in it. But for any man to suppose that the Gospel command is suspended
for a time until a revival comes, is to suppose a lie!

The Gospel says, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you." So said
Peter on the day of Pentecost. Or, in other words, "Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." The Gospel call is, "Today, if
you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts." It does not say,
"Wait, wait, wait till times of refreshing! Wait till a revival." I am
inclined to think that even if a revival should come, persons who are
now making it an excuse for delay would be in a very unlikely state to
get a blessing from it. Or if they thought they got a blessing it
would, in all probability, be a mistake, for they could be depending
upon men, or upon fleshly excitement, and not looking away to Jesus
Christ, who is as able to save them now as He will be in a revival! And
He is just as able to save them by my voice, now, or by no voice at
all, as He would be by any other man, however useful he may have been.
I fear there are many waiting on that porch.

Many are waiting on the porch of expected impressions. They want an
impression and they wish the minister to preach a very alarming sermon.
They want him to be very warm-hearted and earnest, as he ought to be,
but they want him to fix them–to shoot the arrow into their flesh,
that they may be pierced in the heart–for this they are waiting! They
come here every Sunday. They have been touched a great deal and
rendered very uneasy. They have felt as if they could hardly sit
through the sermon, but they have managed to do it–and they have
managed to wait–and wait. When shall I reach you? In what way am I to
preach?

Surely, if I knew in what way I could bring you to Jesus, it would be
my delight to follow it! But I cannot preach any other Gospel than the
one I preach! And I cannot do it more plainly. Neither do I think I can
do it more earnestly, for I desire the salvation of sinners with my
whole soul. Many may preach it better, but none more from the heart. If
you are looking for me to do something more, you will look in vain, for
I have nothing better to bring. I have pointed you to a Savior's
flowing wounds and bid you look to Him and live. If you will not accept
His salvation, then I have no other hope to set before you. If you will
not trust my Lord, not even an angel from Heaven, if he should come,
could give you any other hope. If men will not hear the Gospel which I
have preached, neither could they be converted though one rose from the
dead.

Thus I have shown you five porches of waiters. I will tell you why I am
sure they are wrong in waiting. I will set before you their theory.
Those people were waiting because an angel would come and stir the
water–and whoever stepped in first would get healed. That was their
idea. They were not looking to Jesus, any of them! Had they not heard
that Jesus was healing the sick? Had they never heard of the woman who
came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment and had the issue
of blood stopped? Had they never heard of a nobleman's son who was on
the point of dying, and was made to live? Had they never heard of all
this? I do not know, but certain it is they never tried to get to
Jesus, nor did they cry to Him.

They trusted wholly to the pool and the angel, and the stirring of the
water. Ah, I think had they been wise, they would have said, "This is
uncertain and only happens now and then. But Jesus says, 'Him that
comes to Me I will in no wise cast out,' and He is able to save to the
uttermost them that come unto God by Him. Had we not better crawl as
best we can to those dear feet and look up into His face and say, 'You,
Son of David, have mercy upon us'"? And so there is the theory–the
opposition theory to the Gospel! I want to smash it to pieces, if God
the Holy Spirit will help me–the waiting theory, the theory of looking
for something, but not looking to Christ and to Him alone!

These people attached great importance to the place. They stayed at the
pool of Bethesda. There was the place. If ever they got any good, they
would get it there. And so I find waiters often attach great importance
to the place of worship– they expect to find salvation only there. Do
you not know that Jesus can save your souls tomorrow morning in the
tankard, quite as well as next Sunday in the Tabernacle? Do you not
know that Jesus is just as much a Savior on a Saturday as on a Sunday?
Do you not know that when you are walking in the streets, in Cheapside
or in the Borough, if you breathe a prayer to Him, He is just as mighty
to save you as He would be if you were on your knees, or at home, or
sitting here and listening to the Gospel?

He is wherever there is a heart that needs Him! Wherever there is an
eye that desires to look to Him with the glance of faith, there is
Jesus! There are no pools of Bethesda now–no places set apart to
monopolize the dispensation of Divine Mercy–

"Where ever we seek Him, He is found, And everyplace is hallowed
ground."

Oh, get to Him, then, in these pews, for this is a place where He is!
And if you were lying on your sick beds, I would tell you He was there!
And if you were at a carpenter's bench driving the plane, or out in the
fields driving the plow, I would have nothing more to say to you but
this, "The Word is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart, that
if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe
in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be
saved." This theory that we are to wait at the pool of ordinances is
antichrist's Gospel! Christ's Gospel is, "Believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ and you shall be saved."

Then they say that they are to wait for signs and wonders. Those who
waited at Bethesda waited for an angel. I do not know whether they ever
did see an angel, or whether the water was stirred mysteriously by an
invisible wing. But they waited for an angel–a mystery. People like a
mystery, but the craving is evil, for albeit that the Gospel is, in one
respect, the mystery of godliness, yet as far as you sinners are
concerned, it is the plainest thing in all the world! It is this,
"Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." He has God
set forth to be a Propitiation for sin. The blood of Jesus is a
substitutionary offering to God's Justice, instead of our death. And
whoever trusts Christ to stand instead of him and so accepts Christ to
be his Substitute, is a saved man!

Priests try to make a mystery out of everything, now-a-days, and this
is that word which is written upon the forehead of the whore of
Babylon, according to the Book of Revelation–"Mystery, Mother of
Harlots!" Her mass is a mystery and her ceremonies are all mysteries!
The Latin tongue is used to make the service a mystery! The priest,
himself, is a mystery! Baptism is a mystery. Now, in the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, the essential Truth of God is as plain as a pikestaff.
Legible only by the light they give, stand the soul-quickening
words–"Believe and live." A man who is almost an idiot may understand
this! Trust Christ! Accept Christ to be your Substitute before God and
you are saved on the spot–saved in an instant! But no, they wait for a
mystery! They pine for a mystery. They even suppose that the Holy
Spirit, Himself, is to come upon them to confuse the Gospel, whereas,
what He does is to make the Gospel yet more plain to us! And when He
comes, He tears the mystery away, removes the scales from our eyes, and
makes us see that it is a simple matter to receive Jesus and become the
sons of God!

Again, these waiters who attach so much importance to place and are
waiting for mysteries, appear to be waiting, also, for an influence
which is intermittent. It was only at a certain season that the angel
stirred the pool. So they seem to fancy that there are certain times
and seasons when Christ is willing to receive sinners–and occasional
intervals when they may hope to find salvation. Whereas the mercy of my
God is not like the pool of Bethesda, stirred now and then! It is a
well of water always springing up and whoever believes in Jesus,
whether it is 16 minutes to eight, or whether it is eight o'clock,
shall find that Christ is ready to receive sinners.

"All things are ready, come unto the supper," is one of the Gospel
proclamations. Ready, and ready now, not sometimes, but at all
times–not now and then, not occasionally, on Sundays and high days and
revival days, but–"Today, if you will hear His voice." "Today is the
accepted time; today is the day of salvation." Therefore, because these
people think that there is a certain intermittent influence, they
believe that all they have to do is to wait for it in a very singular
way. Oh, if I were to be hanged tomorrow morning and I knew that an
application had been made for pardon, I would wait for the result–but
how do you think I would wait? Suppose I had no hope of Heaven and knew
I would be hanged tomorrow, but I had a bare hope that perhaps a pardon
might come, I would wait for it–but how would I wait?

Would I go to sleep tonight? Would I make a feast and make myself drunk
with the drunken? Oh no, my life, my life, my life is in jeopardy! I
cannot trifle! How do sailors on the wreck wait for the lifeboat? Are
they idle, do you think? No, they are straining their eyes with looking
and bursting themselves with their signals of distress, imploring help!
Do they go to sleep on the wreck and say, "If we are to be saved we
shall be saved. Let us go to sleep"? No, they are waiting, but if there
should come a rocket to the ship with a rope, they would be ready to
lay hold of it in a minute and wait no more! It is a lie, nine times
out of ten, when men say they are waiting for Christ, because they have
not that awful anxiety, that dolorous uneasiness of mind which goes
with true waiting. It is only a make-believe waiting, a mere excuse.
Whatever

sort of waiting it is, it is clean opposite to the Gospel which never
says a word about waiting, but which commands men to believe and live!

Besides, these people are waiting for an influence supposed to be very
limited. Only one person was healed at a time at Bethesda, and he was
the first who plunged in. And so when the waiters hear of anyone being
saved they think that he was in more favorable circumstances than
themselves, that he was placed in a better position for obtaining
salvation. They seem to be in the rear of the ranks and unable to get
to this wonderful pool of theirs. It is all a mistake! Jesus Christ is
as near to one seeker as another! If a man has been moral, the Gospel
says to him, "believe." If a man has been immoral, the Gospel cries to
him, "believe." If a man is a king, the Gospel commands him to
"believe." If he is a beggar, it bids him, also, "believe." If a man is
full of self-righteousness, the Gospel points him to Christ and tells
him to give up his righteousness. And if a man is full of vice and
rotten with sin, it points him to Christ and bids him give up his sin
and look to Jesus!

The footing upon which the Gospel addresses sinners is the same at all
times. It has neither less nor more to say to the child of the harlot
than to the child of the Christian matron. It presents the same pardon
to the great sinner and the little sinner, (if such there is), and
comes with the same rich blessing to the chief of sinners as it does to
the children of godly parents. Do not get false notions in your head.
The same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. Like faith
obtains a like blessing. There is a limit, for, "the Lord knows them
that are His," but in the preaching of the Gospel we are not bound by
the decree which is secret, but by our marching orders, "Go you into
all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature; he that believes
and is baptized shall be saved." He who bade me preach to every
creature did not bid me exempt one soul from my message!

Thus I have tried to show why so many wait and I will add but one thing
more on this point. Some of these people who are waiting put a good
deal of reliance on other people even as this poor man said, "I have no
one to put me in the pool." I have letters every week from persons in
distress of mind who ask me to pray for them, which I very cheerfully
do. But as a general rule, I say to them, "My dear Friends, I beseech
you do not try to quiet your mind by asking me to pray for you. That is
not your hope. 'Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be
saved,' whether prayed for or not." I try to get them away from all
reliance in anybody's prayers and to look to Jesus alone.

O, do not say, "I will ask my friends to pray for me, and then be
easy." You may say it if you like, but do not rest in that, I pray you!
Remember Jesus Christ is to be looked to–not the best people's
prayers! If you look to Jesus you shall have immediate salvation. But
if the whole Church of God were to go down on its knees at once and
stay there for the next 50 years praying for you, you would be damned
to a certainty if you did not believe in Jesus! If you pray for
yourself and look alone to Jesus, you shall most assuredly be saved! Is
not this enough about that dreary hospital full of waiters?

II. Now a few minutes on the second head. Jesus Christ has entered the
hospital and He looks about Him. And He picks out THE MOST HELPLESS MAN
IN THE WHOLE WORLD. I was pleased to notice on the bill of the services
at the theatres a line which says, "The poorest people are the most
welcome." That is a Gospel sentence. Even thus is it with Christ. He
always loves to give His mercy to those who need it most. There lay
that man and he did not think of Christ, but Christ stood and looked at
him. He did not know Jesus Christ, but Jesus Christ knew him and He
knew that he had been a long time in that condition.

He knew that he had been sick 38 years! He knew all that–and He knew
before the man told him–that he had often been disappointed and,
indeed, that poor wretch had been. He had often tried, as well as his
paralyzed body would enable him, to get into the water. But somebody,
even some blind man who had managed to get nearer the edge and had the
use of his limbs, plunged in first and came up with his eyes
open–while this poor nervous creature could not get into the water at
any time. He had seen a great many others cured and that had made the
disease more painful to him. But it had not encouraged him, but rather
made him the more sad. He was the most irresolute, soft kind of a man
that you ever met with.

Read the story of the man whose eyes were opened by Christ, who said,
"One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see." There is a
fine hard-headed fellow! He might have been a Scotchman! But this man
was all irresolution, shiftless, weak in mind. You know some such
people–perhaps you have such in your family. You cannot help them. If
you set them up in business they are sure to fail. Whatever they do, it
never succeeds. They are a poor, weak, childish sort of people who need
to be put in a basket and carried on somebody else's back all through
the world. There are people of this

sort as to religion–and this man was a type of them. He sorely longed
to be healed but he did not hardly say that, for when Jesus said to
him, "Will you be made whole?" he did not say "O Lord, I desire it with
all my heart," but he went on with a rambling story, saying, "I have no
man to put me into the water," and so on.

When our Lord did heal him, it you notice, he did not ask Christ His
name, and, when he found that out afterwards, he went like a stupid to
the Pharisees and told them directly who his Benefactor was, and so got
the Lord into trouble. There are still people about of this kind. They
scarcely know their own mind. They know they need to be saved, but they
hardly say as much as that. They are rightly impressed, but they get
impressed the other way almost as easily. They are irresolute and
unstable.

Now, my Lord and Master picked out this very man to be the subject of
His healing energy. To God belong wonders of Grace! Did Jesus not say,
Himself, "I thank You, O Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, because You
have hid these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them
unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight"? "God
has chosen the foolish things of the world to confuse the wise. And God
has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are
despised, has God chosen, yes, and things which are not, to bring to
nothing things that are." This poor, hapless, helpless paralyzed man–
almost as paralyzed in his brains as he was in his body–was pitied by
our gracious Lord!

Now who is the most helpless man in this place? Who is the most
helpless woman in this place? I know you are saying, some of you, "I am
afraid that is myself." I have good news for you! You are just the sort
my Lord loves to begin with! Do not be offended at the description but
be willing to take it home to yourself. Very probably, looking back
upon your past life, you are compelled to say, "Well, that is really
what I have been. I have plenty of wits about me in my business. I am
sharp enough there. But when it comes to religion I fear I am just that
kind of fool. I have no resolution. I have no fixed determination. I am
always being pulled by the ear by a temptation, or drawn the wrong way
by evil companions."

Now, my poor Friend, lie down before Jesus Christ in all your
helplessness, in all your stupidity–and pray the Lord to look upon
you. A Brother once said to me, "My dear Sir, I wish you would never
speak to anybody but sensible sinners." I said, "Well, I am very glad
to preach to sensible sinners when they come to hear me, but so many
stupid sinners come along with them that I am bound to preach to them,
as well." And I do. I put the Gospel to those that feel themselves to
be insensible and stupid in everything–and who write themselves down
among the fools. Jesus has come to seek and save poor lost, ruined,
dead sinners, and I pray Him to look on you at this time!

III. Now, the third point is HOW JESUS CHRIST DEALT WITH HIM. If Jesus
Christ had belonged to a certain class of ministers, He would have
said, "Right, my Man, you are lying at the pool of ordinances and there
you had better lie." He did not belong to that persuasion and,
therefore, He did not say anything of the sort! Neither did He say, as
some Brethren do, "My dear Friend, you should pray." Very proper advice
in some respects, you know, but Jesus did not give it–He knew better.
He did not say, "Now, you must begin to pray and wait before the Lord."
That is a very good thing to say to some people, but it is not the
Gospel for sinners. Jesus Christ did not say to His disciples, "Go you
into all the world, and tell people to pray." No. "Preach the Gospel to
every creature; he that believes and is baptized shall be saved."

Well, what did Jesus Christ do to him? He gave him a command. "Rise,
take up your bed, and walk." The words sounded like three thunderclaps.
"But he cannot! But he cannot! He is paralyzed, good Sir! He is
paralyzed!" Yes, but the Gospel is a command, for we read of some who
disobey the Gospel. Now, a man cannot disobey what is not a command! He
cannot be disobedient unless, first of all, there is a command. Jesus
Christ brought the Gospel blessing of healing to him as a command.
"Rise," He said, "take up your bed, and walk." It was a command which
implied faith, because the man could not rise and could not take up his
bed–and could not walk of himself. But if he believed in Jesus Christ,
he could rise and could take up his bed–and could walk! So it was
really a command to exercise faith in Jesus and to prove it by
practical works.

"But the man could not do it." That has nothing to do with it! The
power is not in the sinner, but in the command! He could not rise, but
Jesus Christ could make him do so. And when I, or any other minister of
the Lord Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit, address you, chosen
Sinner, and say to you, "Trust Jesus Christ," we do not do so because
we believe there is any strength in you, any more than there was in the
paralyzed man, but because we speak in the name of

Jesus of Nazareth who has sent us to say to you, "Rise up and walk." I
trust my Lord to send His power with the Gospel! I know right well that
I have no power of my own, but He that sent me will bless His own
message as He pleases. If you are to get salvation, you will get it by
believing in Jesus and rising, at once, out of the state in which you
now are! By His power, through the simple act of believing in Him, you
will be made whole!

The man believed in Jesus. That was all he did. Soft simpleton as he
was. Irresolute, and all that, he had enough sense, and God gave him
Grace enough to simply believe in Jesus. He resolved that he would try
his legs and to his sur-prise–oh, how astonished he must have
been–those poor legs worked! He stood and found he could stoop and,
rolling up his mattress, he took it up and walked away with it. What
joy went through his frame! You have been ill, but the Lord has
restored you and you have got up and found yourself able to walk! Was
it not a delight to you? I know the sensation well. What must it be to
be paralyzed 38 years? And then to be able to stoop and roll up a bed,
and put it on your back, and walk away! It must have been a delight to
feel new life leaping through his nerves and sinews and veins.

Now, if a sinner says, "Well, I never did try it before, but by the
Grace of God I will trust my soul in the hands of Jesus–

"I do believe, I will believe,

That Jesus died for me,

And on the Cross He shed His blood

For sin, to set me free,"

Sinner, you will rise up and walk directly. You will be surprised,
yourself, to find the mighty change which God is working in you by His
blessed Spirit through that simple act of faith! And you will go down
those Tabernacle steps hardly knowing where you are, singing for joy
because the Lord has taken you out of the hospital of waiters and put
you among the Believers! Has He not said, "Then shall the lame man leap
as an hart, for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams
in the desert"?

Jesus Christ treated this man in a Gospel way, for the way in which
faith came into that man is very remarkable. The man did not know Jesus
Christ–why was it he believed in Him? Why, it was this–he did not
know who He was, but he knew He was somebody very wonderful! There was
a look about Him, a majestic gleam about those eyes, a wonderful force
in the tone of that voice, a power in the lifting up of that finger
which was very different from what the man had ever seen before. He
knew not who He was and did not know His name–yet somehow confidence
was born in his soul! How much more, then, may faith come to you who
know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? You know that He died and
made a full Atonement for sin. You know that He has risen from the dead
and that He sits on the right hand of God, even the Father–that all
power is given unto Him in Heaven and in earth, and that–"He is able
to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever
lives to make intercession for them."

Do not say, "I will try and get faith." That is not the way. If I want
to believe a statement, how do I go to work? Why, I hear it and faith
comes by hearing. If I have any doubt about it, I hear it again and ask
to have it repeated to me more fully and, when I have heard it again,
conviction flashes upon me. So Jesus, in the Gospel, says, "Incline
your ear, and come unto Me: hear and your soul shall live; and I will
make an Everlasting Covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David."
"Hear Me. Believe Me"–this is, in brief, the Gospel which Jesus
preaches to men's hearts.

Now God gives His witness concerning Christ that He is His Son, for out
of Heaven He spoke and said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased." Will you not believe Him? The Spirit, the water and the blood
are always bearing witness, and these three agree in one. Believe Jesus
Christ! The evidence is strong, yield up your soul to it and you shall
find joy, peace and eternal life! The man's belief in Jesus, actively
proved by his rising, settled the matter! A very different case is that
from lying and waiting. Why, I should think this man, if he had wits
enough, would go back and say to others lying and waiting, "What? Still
lying and waiting? Why, I was lying and waiting for 38 years and I got,
by lying and waiting, nothing! Neither will you!"

Simple as he was, he would have said, "I will tell you what is better
than lying and waiting. There is a Man among us, even Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, and if we trust Him, He will heal us, for He heals all
manner of diseases. If you cannot go to Him, send a messenger to Him,
for He healed a nobleman's son many miles away. Only believe Him and
virtue will go out of Him, for it is not possible that any should trust
Him and not be healed." I think I should like to have been that man,
simpleton as I might have been, to have gone to tell those poor souls
who were lying and waiting, the difference between lying and waiting
and immediately believing!

I would put it in the simplest way I could, for I was, myself, waiting
when I was a child. I heard much preaching that led me to wait–and I
think I should have kept on waiting had I not heard that poor Primitive
Methodist Brother cry, "Look, young man, look now!" I did look, then
and there, and I found salvation on the spot–and I have never lost it.
I have nothing else to say to you, but, "There is life in a look at the
Crucified One," and every man that looks shall have it here, now and at
once. O, that many would look!

Do you understand it? Christ bore the wrath of God instead of those who
trust Him! Jesus Christ took the sins of all who trust Him and was
punished in the place of every Believer, so that God will not punish a
Believer because He has punished Christ for him! Christ died for the
man who believes in Him, so that it would be injustice on the part of
God to punish that man, for how shall He punish twice for the same
offense? Faith is the seal and evidence that you were redeemed 1,900
years ago upon the bloody tree of Calvary! And you are justified and
who shall lay anything to your charge?

"It is God that justifies you: who is he that condemns you? It is
Christ that died; yes, rather, that is risen again." This is the Gospel
of your salvation! "Oh, but I do not feel." Did I say anything about
feeling? You shall have feeling after you have faith. "But I am not
right." I do not care what you are or are not! Jesus says, "Verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that believes in Me has everlasting life."
"Oh, but–" Away with your "buts." Here is the Gospel–"Whoever will,
let him come and take of the Water of Life freely. The Spirit and the
bride say, 'Come.'" And what both the Spirit and the bride of Christ
say, surely I may say and do say! And may God bless the saying of it!
And may you accept it, you waiting ones! May you look, believe and
live, for Jesus' sake! Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–John 4:46; 5:1-16. HYMNS FROM
"OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"–538, 505, 516.