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The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
John chapter 5 tonight. It was a close one this morning,
Pastor said. John chapter 1 And we were just
a few chapters shy of being in this almost the same place
tonight, but that would have been OK anyway.
And so we'll find our place in the 5th chapter of the Gospel
according to John. It's been a good day in the
Lord's house. It's good to have some visitors
here tonight with the Liberty Baptist Church.
And so you are honored guests as of course.
And so here we are back in the Word of God, John chapter 5.
Well, the theme of the gospel according to John is that Jesus
is God and he is to be believed on for salvation.
Jesus is God and he is to be believed on for salvation.
Also in this gospel, Jesus proves his deity through the
power of his Word and through his miracles.
So through the power of His word and through the affirmation of
His miracles, it all goes and comes together to prove that He
in fact is God. And also, of course, as we would
find not just throughout Scripture and throughout the
immediate Gospels here, but we would also find a very strong
theme in John that salvation is offered to all people.
It's offered to the Jews, it's offered to the Gentiles, it's
offered to the Greeks, the Pharisees, the rich, the young,
the old, the poor, the gospel Jesus Christ is for all people.
So in this message tonight from our verses, we will see how
Christ pursued the soul of a man whose body he had used to affirm
his deity. Not only do we see that he's
going to heal a man physically, but that Christ will follow up
with that man in pursuit of his soul.
And so I, perhaps some of you watched the Red Sox today, and I
heard that they won five to three.
And I knew that, right, they were 5 to 3.
And so let's go ahead for another moment and think about
the game of baseball. And I want you to visualize the
pitcher preparing to pitch the ball.
He and the catcher are working together, and the catcher throws
him a couple of sign suggestions, and they find one
that they agree upon. And so the pitcher, he steadies
himself, he locks in on his target.
He takes a breath. He begins his wind up.
Then he brings his right arm through and he pitches the ball
into the third baseline dugout. What happened there?
Well, the pitcher released the ball much too early and he
missed the goal entirely. Pulled a Fauci, we'd say.
Some of you will catch that later.
No pun intended. We'd say that he didn't follow
through, correct? The pitcher did not follow
through with the routine, with the process, with the pitch, and
so therefore the ball totally missed the plate and missed the
catcher's miss Mitt. You know, we missed the goal.
As ambassadors for Christ in the world, when we don't follow up
and we don't follow through with the souls of people God has
providentially placed in our path to reach for Christ.
So often we don't follow up. We don't follow through with the
souls that God has placed right in our path.
And so I want to preach a message tonight from John
chapter 5, verses one through 16 called follow up and follow
through. Follow up and follow through.
So if you're physically able to stand, let's stand for the
reading of the Word of God and our text tonight is verses one
through 16. Follow up and follow through.
The Bible says that after this there was a feast of the Jews,
and Jesus went up to now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep
market, a pool which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda
had five porches. In these lay a great multitude
of impotent folk of blind halt, weird 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, then first after the troubling of the water
stepped in, was made whole of whatsoever disease he had,
whatsoever physical disease that He had, if I may clarify.
And a certain man was there which had an infirmity 38 years,
when Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long
time. In that case, or in that
situation, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?
The impotent man answered him, Sir, I, I have no man, when the
water is troubled to to put me into the pool.
But while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.
Jesus saith unto him with his words.
He saith, Rise, take up thy bed and walk.
The man didn't need to go into the pool.
I just took the word of Jesus to heal him, and immediately, verse
9 And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed,
and walked, and on the same day catch this church.
On the same day was the Sabbath, was the Sabbath.
The Jews therefore said unto him, That was cured, It is the
Sabbath day. It is not lawful for thee to
carry thy bed. He answered them, He that made
me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed and walk.
So it wasn't me who told me to do this.
It it was it was somebody else who told me to do this.
Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, take
up thy bed and walk? Who is he?
What kind of authority does this man have?
Name him. And he that was healed with not
who it was, he didn't know who it was for Jesus had conveyed
himself away. A multitude being in that place.
And verse 14 is our key verse tonight.
Verse 14. Afterward Jesus findeth him in
the temple and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole sin
no more, lest the worst thing come unto thee.
The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus which had
made him whole. And therefore did the Jews
persecute Jesus. This was the beginning of public
healings and miracles and persecution as well.
And sought to slay him because he had done these things on the
Sabbath day. On the Sabbath day you could be
seated. Thank you so much for standing
again the title, Follow up and follow through.
Let's pray. God, thank you for those who
have gathered in this place tonight, church members and
visitors alike. We thank you for the songs we
could sing to your glory and the fellowship we can have.
Lord, I pray now you'd bless this time around Your word.
God, I pray that your people would open their hearts now to
how it will be that you want to speak to them for it's in the
name of Christ. I do pray this.
Amen. We would see in verses one
through 9 that Christ had an agenda.
He was on a mission, as He always was.
In fact, He came here to earth on a mission with an agenda,
with a purpose in mind. So first of all, tonight Christ
had an agenda to come heal a man who was obviously diseased.
This man and people around him knew this man has a problem,
this man has a disease. This man is impotent.
So Christ entered into Jerusalem at the sheep gate during a feast
time and on the Sabbath. He didn't come with the
intention to observe the feast necessarily, not that we know
of. Nor did He come necessarily to
honor the Sabbath if it meant that He had to do the will of
the Father. And as we know, the Sabbath was
the traditional time of rest. There was to be no excuse for
anyone to do anything burdensome, not even carrying a
bundle of sticks, not even carrying maybe even their
sleeping bag. Christ entered into Jerusalem,
the Bible tells us, through the entrance of the sheep gate, the
entrance wherein shepherds would bring their sheep to be examined
and presented for the atoning sacrifice.
But additionally, the the Sheep gate was within close proximity
to the Lord's intended destination, and that being the
Pool of Bethesda. The pool of Bethesda was within
walking distance from the Sheep gate.
The Hebrew word Bethesda literally, literally means an
outpouring of God's mercy, an outpouring of God's mercy.
And apparently there was a pool of it.
There's a pool of God's mercy. The pool was where the Lord God
had ordered an Angel to stir up the waters.
And whoever was able to get into the pool, the Bible tells us
here, immediately was healed of any physical disease by the
mercy of God. This is not to be confused with
the salvation of souls. No one was necessarily born
again because they got into the pool of Bethesda.
That would be God's grace. But the pool was a place where
God showed mercy on people's physical ailments.
And it was at this pool where Christ came seeking a man
looking for a man who had been diseased with an infirmity for
38 years. Might have some 38 year olds
here tonight, but he wasn't necessarily 38 years old.
But his disease was, and he could never make it into the
pool in time for healing. So therefore, Christ found him
laying by the pool, waiting, and likely likely at his weakest and
most discouraged moment in his entire life.
He's at the pool of Bethesda. He knows that if he could just
get into that water, as he has seen happen for everyone who
steps out of that pool, especially if they were first,
they would be completely cleansed of their physical
disease. And he's discouraged.
He cannot get in for the life of him.
So when Christ approached this man, he did not know.
This man did not know who Jesus was.
He wasn't even looking for Jesus.
This man did not know it was the Messiah speaking face to face
with him. Therefore, when, when, when
asked by Christ if he desired to be made whole, it didn't even
occur to this man that this man who maybe had a few other of his
disciples with him, that he could heal him.
And so when Jesus asked him in verse 6, wilt thou be made
whole? In verse 7, the man does not
say, Lord, if thou wilt, he doesn't say if you are willing.
Yes, I believe he doesn't say any of that.
Perhaps he thinks that Jesus is maybe offering to carry him to
the pool when the Angel stirred up the water.
And so one of the primary themes of the gospel according to John
is Christ affirming his deity through the power of him simply
speaking his word, Not needing a pool, not necessarily even
needing the mud that at times he had taken up from the earth and
spat upon it and put upon people's eyes, but all it took
was his word. There were other times in the
gospel where Jesus would be looking at somebody asking him
to heal maybe their daughter, and he didn't even have to go be
that person's daughter. He healed them at the power of
His will. But the Bible says, as we heard
this morning in John, the very first book, very first chapter
of John, the book in which we're in tonight, in verse one in the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word
was God. Jesus throughout this book of
the Bible is affirming His authority just by people placing
faith in His Word and by Him speaking His Word.
So the next thing the diseased man knows is that Christ tells
him to in verse 8. He tells him, rise up, take up
thy bed and walk. The man is entirely healed of
his disease. I mean from, from from the top
of his head to the bottom of his feet.
He's entirely healed of his disease.
For the first time in 38 years, the man is experiencing life
without his debilitating, miserable disease.
For the first time in 38 years, he stands up and picks up his
bed, carries it, and walks away as free as a bird.
The man walks away from Jesus, and Jesus, likewise, he also
walks away himself. The man is no longer physically
burdened. He's no longer physically
burdened by the disease, and he has a happiness he hasn't
experienced probably since he was a toddler.
He's free. He can go where he wants, He can
do what he wants. He can make decisions.
It's just like someone getting a driver's license for the first
time. They're free.
They can do whatever they would like to do.
He was healed, but hold on, it was the Sabbath.
Didn't Christ know this man wasn't supposed to be carrying
his bed, considered a burden by the culture's religious elite?
Didn't the Word of God know better than to not only let this
man carry his bed, but he told the man to hunch over, pick up
his bed, carry it, and walk? It was the Sabbath.
He wasn't supposed to be doing anything burdensome.
So I want us to see secondly tonight that the culture of the
day could not stop Christ from being glorified as God.
The culture could not stop Christ from doing the will of
the Father and that was to be glorified as God.
What is to notice again, verses 10 through 13, Bible says, so
this man picks up his bed and he walks away on the Sabbath
carrying this bed. The Jews, verse 10, the Jews
therefore said unto him, that was cured.
It is the Sabbath day. It's not lawful for thee to
carry thy bed. He answered them, he that made
me hold the same said unto me, the he this some other man told
me, take up thy bed and walk. Then asked a him, What man is
that which said unto thee, take up thy bed and walk?
In verse 13, he, he pretty much says, well, honestly, I, I don't
know, I don't remember what he looked like.
I, I was on the ground and, and, and he, and he was speaking to
me. And by the time I got up, he, he
walked away. So the culture of the day could
not stop Christ from being glorified as God.
But yes, it's true, Christ defied cultural norms not to
cause a stir. I wanted to catch that tonight.
His intent was not necessarily to cause a stir among the
religious elite and cause a distraction, but primarily to do
2 other things in particular. Number one, first of all, Christ
was endeavoring to expose the hearts of the Pharisees.
As we learned this morning, He was shedding light on the true
nature of the hearts of the Pharisees.
The Pharisees were more concerned that the man carried
his bed then they were glad he no longer carried the burden of
a debilitating disease. They were more bothered that the
man carried his sleeping bag. Then they were glad that this
man everybody knew for 38 years had a disease.
And here he is walking. They don't even show an inkling
of rejoicing with Him, of being happy for Him or or celebrating
with him. No, they were more concerned
about the law than they were concerning themselves with
loving and being happy for people.
And so first of all, Christ is in is exposing the hearts of the
Pharisees, but secondly, He is affirming His deity and thus His
authority as God, that by His spoken word He could heal
people's diseases. You see, God was at, is was and
is at work in the world with the agenda of reproving the world of
sin, of exposing the sin of people by his word and with His
Spirit. And the very reason why the Word
of God is doing that and why the Holy Spirit is working in the
world to do that is not just to leave the people in conviction
and leave people in guilt, but so the light can be shed up upon
them and they can realize that they are in fact sinners and
that they have need of a Savior. And so Christ was endeavoring,
he was rebuking the Pharisees, but he was also evangelizing the
Pharisees. The work of the Word exposes the
true nature of the heart of man. And that's why we we read it.
That's why we teach it. That's why we preach it, not at
times to make you feel bad, but so you can address problems and
follow the Lord Jesus Christ, right.
And so God is proving time and again that he alone has the
power to do wonders in people's lives.
But in addition, church to to Christ, exposing the heart of
the Pharisees. And secondly, in addition to
this, He was affirming His deity.
In addition to all of this, to exposing their hearts, Christ
showed on this day that there is no law against love.
There is no law against love. It was His Word that taught them
to observe the Sabbath day. We understand that.
But He demonstrated once again on this day that the law of His
love Trump's all the law. Listen to Galatians chapter 5
and 22 and 23. But the fruit of the Spirit is
Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law.
And then in Galatians chapter 6 and verse 2 says, Bear ye one
another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
And that's exactly what Christ did.
He bore this, this man's burden. Yeah, relieved him of his
physical burden. And this is that which the
Pharisees were upset with, was that this man was loved.
But it is never wrong to love. It's never wrong to love
biblically. In fact, Christ the Word was the
spiritual rest that all the Pharisees needed.
Christ, the Word of God gave the Sabbath day, but it was to
reveal that He truly was. The rest that He needed in
Christ demonstrated His love toward the man at the pool of
Bethesda and granted to him some more physical rest.
In fact, a perfect love for God wouldn't need the law.
Let me say that again. A perfect, sinless love wouldn't
need the law. If Adam perfectly loved God in
the Garden of Eden and therefore obeyed God, there would not have
to be a law, because man is in love with God and therefore in
love with people. OK, so the Pharisees never
appreciated. They never appreciated what
Christ did for others, but especially if they disrupted or
contradicted their cultural norms.
In fact, once the man who was healed was finally able to
identify after verse 14, that it was Jesus who healed him, the
Pharisees demonstrated a measure of persecution toward Jesus and
really, for the first time, Jesus of Nazareth.
The Christ began to face serious opposition from those without.
They didn't rejoice with the healed man.
They didn't respond with worship and appreciation to Jesus.
They were angry that the man carried his bed.
So I think we understand this, the mood of the Pharisees, and
we understand what Christ did for this diseased man.
He did a wonderful thing for that man that day, 38 years
impotent, laying at the pool of Bethesda, not knowing if he was
going to survive, not knowing if he'd ever be free, if he'd ever
get into that pool. And Jesus did a wonderful thing
in his life. But what about this now healed
man's relationship with Christ? Did Christ pursue this man any
further than just healing him? Did Christ only want to heal him
to show the Pharisees the true nature of their heart while
showing them the true nature of His deity?
Was Christ only? Was Christ only interested in
giving him mere physical relief, or was Christ interested in much
more than that for this man? Could Christ go beyond physical
healing? Could Christ reach below the
surface and touch this man in a way other than the physical way
of of healing his body? Was Christ interested in much
more than that for this man? Did Christ follow up and follow
through with the man who was now healed?
Did Christ track this man down? Did did Christ go and find this
man and find where he was and follow up with him and and go
with him from the position that he started in and try to take
him further as a person? I want us to think this tonight.
What can be said of an unsaved person who experiences mercy
from God in the midst of their difficult life?
What can be said of an unsaved person who experiences a mercy
from God upon their physical life, who experiences a mercy
from God, maybe upon their emotions or their situation?
The Bible says that God lets it rain on the just and the unjust.
He gave the pool of Bethesda where perhaps unbelieving,
unconverted people could just get in there and experience
healing. What can be said of those
people? What can be said of this man who
was, as far as we know, very clearly, it's made known to us
He was healed physically. What can be said of an unsaved
person who experiences this mercy from God?
It isn't made clear in verse 14 that which we'll read in a
moment, that this man was ever born again, but it was made
clear that he was physically healed.
But unsaved people experience a mercy from God.
They recover from a near death experience.
They're in the hospital, they're on their backside.
There's a surgery that helps them, there's a medicine that
helps and they they pull through, they come through and
they walk out of the hospital. Maybe they're unsaved and they
lose a child, maybe a miscarriage of something of that
nature and are are greatly comforted by friends and family
and some of which might be Christians themselves, their
friends or their family. They're comforted.
They are invited and visit a Bible believing church and are
drawn back to take in such a positive environment to
experience temporary relief from their difficult life.
What can be said of these people?
Is God satisfied with their physical recovery?
Is God satisfied with their their comfort?
Is God satisfied that they found the environment of a church to
give them brief encouragement? Or is God using all of that for
a greater and deeper and spiritual end result?
Is God trying to humble them and draw them to themselves and
helping them to connect the dots that the God of the universe is
the one who gives life and takes away life?
He's the God who can humble and exalt.
He's the God who provides friends and lets it rain on
their farms when they have no faith in Him.
What is God endeavoring to do? Is He simply trying to make
their temporary life a little bit more enjoyable?
Is God trying to do a deeper work in someone's life?
Well, I believe that as we look at verse 14, we could say that
Christ absolutely is after more than just physical miracles and
and temporary physical blessings, although He gives
those, He's in pursuit of something deeper.
So notice verse 14. The Scripture says that
afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, where he was likely
giving thanks, as was the tradition when something like
this happened. And said unto him, Catch this,
Behold, thou art made whole sin no more, lest a worst thing come
unto thee. The word of God healed the
diseased man indeed, But why? So that he might choose a life
of fulfillment in following Christ.
He healed him, He healed him, he relieved him, He proved to him
that he was God. And he followed up with this
man, but not just to heal him, not just to relieve him of
temporary for temporary pleasure, but for this man to
now make a decision to follow Christ and find fulfillment in
him. Church.
Christ followed up with the now healed man in order to help him
realize what exactly transpired in his life.
Let's think of the term follow up.
Follow up. It means to pursue, encourage,
prioritize the continuation of something that has already been
started. It was up to that pitcher at the
beginning of the message to follow through with the process
that had already been started. And if that pitcher doesn't
follow up, that ball is being thrown into the dugout.
If it's going to miss its intended target, its purpose is
going to be totally avoided and averted.
So follow up after Christ used this man's life to expose the
hearts of the Pharisees and to affirm his deity.
Christ follows up with this man, finds him in the temple and
encourages him to connect the dots.
This man didn't know it was Jesus who healed him.
He may not have known a ton about Jesus, but here Jesus says
verse 14 says that Jesus found him, He looked for him.
He went out of his way to reconnect with this gentleman.
The man needed to behold that he had been made whole and
connected all and associated all with Jesus Christ.
The word behold means to mentally process and comprehend
what you see. Behold to realize whole that
thou thou has been made whole. Whole is completely and entirely
restored to a clean bill of health.
He needed to behold that Christ had made him physically whole.
The Lord further instructs in verse 14.
He instructs him to sin no more. Sin no more which had a twofold
meeting his previous disease. This man in particular, which is
not the case with every person who has had a disease and has a
disease today. But apparently this man in
particular was in his disease was brought upon because of his
own sin in the past and Christ knew that entering back into
that sin would bring the disease back in greater force.
He says sin no more lest a worse thing come upon thee and so
therefore Christ was inviting him to find fulfillment instead
by putting God in his rightful place in his heart that he might
sin no more I mean think about it church.
This man is is paralyzed, he's unable to just live his life and
live the life that he sees everyone else living.
And all of a sudden after 48 years he's healed, he's relieved
he has his his license to go and do what he pleases.
Do you not think if this man is not born again that he might
want to get involved with all matters of sin?
Hello. What would you do if you weren't
saved? What would you do Maybe if your
walk with God as a Christian is not that of someone who follows
through with following Jesus Christ and what would you do?
And so Christ knows all of this. He knows his whole back story.
He knows that he didn't just come to this man to use his body
as a platform to expose the hearts of the Pharisees.
And he wasn't just using this man to to prove his deity.
But no, he, he wanted something personal with this man.
He was after the soul in the heart of this man.
God never shows mercy to the unsaved without the end goal
being the salvation and transformation of their souls
because the primary desire of God is that unsaved souls repent
of sin by turning to faith in his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's always in pursuit of a relationship with every Sinner.
And he can use humbling circumstances, He can use
difficult circumstances to finally bring them to the point
where they're going to look up where they're going to begin
reciprocating God's search for them.
And they're going to be in searching for for God himself.
Listen tonight, Church, the message is that God relieves us
of sinful burdens, not for the sake of relief and public
attention, but for us to replace those burdens with Christ in his
rightful place. There was now a a vacuum.
There was a void now in this man's life.
There was something no longer holding him back.
And Christ was supposed to fill that vacuum.
He was supposed to fill that void lest that man get into
something else or another lifestyle that would take the
place of God and perhaps land him back in a worse place in
where Christ found him. God always shows mercy.
Catch this. He always shows mercy that He
might show grace even to the unsaved.
He shows mercy that He might show grace.
Mercy is God taking away what I do deserve, and grace is God
doing for me what I do not deserve.
So I believe that verse 14 yields to us the liberty to
apply what Christ was doing within the verse in several ways
regarding the principle of following up with people,
following through with the whole
process of discipleship, the whole process of the Great
Commission, the whole process of evangelism.
So let's look at that verse one more time.
Afterward Jesus verse 14. Afterward Jesus findeth him in
the temple and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole, sin
no more, lest a worst thing come unto thee.
Church, we need to follow up with the unsaved.
We know upon whose lives God has shown mercy.
You know people who have been in serious accidents.
They've been, they've recovered, they've been released, they've
dealt with serious sickness and issues in their life and they
recover and they come back into regular life.
They've been released from hospitals.
We need to rejoice with them that God has had mercy on their
life, but we need to learn, be reminded of this tonight.
Why did God who gives life, has the power to give life and the
power to take life? Allow them to recover, that they
might have the gospel of Christ declared to them again, But God
is long-suffering to us word, not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance.
The Bible teaches us in the book of Peter, we need to rejoice
with them that they're here and we know them all the time.
Oh yes, I know God. I was in the hospital and God
healed me. Of course I have faith in God.
And there comes a time where we need to look at those people
after we've rejoiced with them that God has had mercy on their
body and has allowed them to, to come back to healing.
We need to rejoice with them. But then we need to declare to
them the saving gospel of Christ.
We need to follow up. We need to be sensitive to the
fact that God has placed these people in our lives.
We need also to follow up with the unsaved we know who are
experiencing tragedy and crisis. We need to be there for them to
put the love of God in on display in their in our lives to
their lives. We need to show comfort to them
and and rejoice with them and show them the love of Christ and
and pray with them and and be a friend to them.
Why? So that we can then declare to
them the saving gospel of Christ.
We need to also follow up with all kinds of people.
The people who have visit us, visited us as a church, and have
been encouraged by God's presence among us, we need to
follow up with them. We need to go to where they are
as Jesus went to where this man was.
We need to go to where they are, show our interest and love for
them while they're perhaps in the building or in their very
homes. We we can't just be satisfied
that unsaved people have come and has have seen what the Lord
might be doing. We can't just be satisfied that
we've got random people to church.
We, we, we cannot be satisfied until we have at least declared
unto them the gospel of Jesus Christ and perhaps have seen
them converted from death unto life.
We're not just trying to fill this house with visitors.
We're trying to fill this house with visitors who have come to
Christ and have joined the church and are going to follow
through with their own discipleship by following Jesus.
Jesus was not just satisfied that this man was now healed and
the Pharisees had a stir and that he proved his deity and all
of that was necessary, but he came back to this man and showed
serious interest about his soul, because if he only healed a man
of his sickness, he has done the lesser of the two healings.
That's right, the spiritual or the physical.
And if you're here tonight and you're battling a physical
disease, but you were born again and you are saved, I want to
remind you tonight, maybe you're watching tonight because
something is keeping you home. If you're born again, you have
been healed of the greater sickness, the sickness of sin,
and there's coming a day where all of this disease and the
temptation to sin will all be banished.
But you have received the greater of the healings.
Christ was not just satisfied that He made very necessary
points on this Sabbath day. We need to follow up also.
Church with ourselves, with our born again selves upon your
faith and our faith in Christ. We were brought from death to
life by His grace. You have been forgiven by God
and restored into a relationship with God, and it's going to lead
to heaven. It's a guarantee.
But in the process of time, you have experienced increased
victory over sin and perhaps bad habits and addictions.
You must follow up with yourself.
Every day with these gospel realities, why that you sin no
more Christ. I let me say this, that Christ
is not just satisfied alone that people get saved.
He has commanded us to make disciples.
They need to be saved and then they need to obey this, their
Savior as their Lord. Why?
Because they'll find something else to be committed to and get
involved in and get distracted in.
One of the greatest things about the Kingdom of God and the local
Church of Jesus Christ is it distracts us from sin.
We keep our eyes on the agenda of the Lord Jesus Christ and it
distracts us from an alternative lifestyle, something else.
And Jesus was telling this man, Behold, you've been made whole
by me, sin no more lest a worse thing come upon you.
We need to follow up with ourselves.
We need to follow up with one another of these gospel
realities that we sin no more. We need to stay in the light.
We need to meditate upon the gospel and you say, well, I've
already received the gospel. The gospel is for the lust.
Why must I meditate upon the gospel so that I become good at
giving the gospel to lost people?
No, Romans chapter 6, Romans Chapter 7, we need to meditate
on the fact that God has given us new life and that there is
victory in Jesus and that we have been passed.
We've passed from death unto life and that we have the power
of God within our lives to have the victory over sin.
We need to meditate upon the gospel when when there is there
is issues happening in our family and we have a temptation
to be bitter. But the gospel teaches us that
we need to forgive and we need to forget and we need to move on
in newness of life. The gospel teaches us how to
have a healthy marriage, how to love another Sinner who is a
Sinner as yourself, to forgive and give unmerited undeserved
love. The gospel teaches us those
things. It doesn't just bring us to
salvation. It's it's a template for how to
live our life. We need to follow up with
ourselves. We need to follow up with one
another and be and remind one another of these truths.
Lastly, we need to follow up with newly saved members.
Newly saved members, we need to follow up with them why?
That they fully devote themselves to their Savior Jesus
Christ and the cause of His Church.
That they sin no more. But that is the goal.
Fruit. The will of God is fruit that we
would bear the evidence that Jesus is in us and we need to
follow up so that this is the case in their life as Jesus did.
The essence of the gospel is that it it took a mighty act of
God through his word Christ, to take our away, our sin and
reconcile us to himself. Not just for us to marvel.
Wow, this is great. I'm saved, so I'm going to
heaven. Yeah.
Oh, no, this is great. No, not just for us to marvel,
not for us to just become emotionally worked up and
religious. No, no, no, no, no.
But for us to love and devote our lives to following through
with Christ. But we will not experience
ourselves and others following through with Christ unless we
follow up with it. Because following through with
Jesus is contingent on following up with ourselves and those
among us. We have to take responsibility.
We have to recognize the people that God has providentially
placed in our path on the job, in your extended family, in the
marketplace, you have to see this.
If Jesus prayer was for us to see as he sees, he sees the
Father working, He listens to people, He listens to the Holy
Spirit and he goes to where he's LED to change people's lives.
It's no different for us. That's exactly what we're to do.
That's exactly what we're to do and we need to be listening.
You've got people in the workplace say, yeah, man, I just
two months ago, man, I should have died, man, I should have
died. But you know, the good Lord he
had, you know, he had mercy on me and you know, I said, well,
whatever, right? And I go on the that's your cue
to rejoice with them. And over time, God kept them
alive to hear the gospel. That's right.
Again, this is the way we need to think.
John 514. Mark it in your Bible.
John 514 Every head bowed, every eye closed.
Let's think about perhaps how the Word of God spoke to your
heart. Think of the people God, the
people God that God has providentially placed in your
life. God has given them a chance to
be spiritually healed. He's kept them here.
He's allowed people into your life who have heartache, who are
living miserable lives. They're always in a crisis and
you know them, and we're not supposed to just make sure we're
not bothered by them. There are boundaries to be to
in, lines to be drawn, and you need to protect yourself, but
you also need to balance that with love and discernment and
grace. Think of the many people who are
looking for God when they visit our assembly.
We need to get them the gospel of Christ.
Think of the brethren here. We need to be following through
with following Christ. He doesn't just want your soul,
He wants your body, your heart, your life, your all.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.