POOLS

^[p. 475] POOLS

2 Samuel 2:12 - 16; John 5:1 - 9; John 9:1 - 7

These scriptures are read because they each refer to a pool. The Scriptures afford a wonderful variety of material for the use of those who preach the gospel, and I believe these pools are mentioned, among other things, as furnishing such material.

The first pool refers to sports, and therefore can only be used in a negative way, or by way of contrast. The word “sport” is used; Abner had that in mind.

The second pool, Bethesda, refers to “mercy”, as the name signifies; but, as the direct allusion is to an angelic visit “at a certain season”, the idea of mercy is a very limited thought here.

The third pool, Siloam, the meaning of which we are given by the Spirit of God, signifies ‘sent’, that is, obedient; for without obedience the gospel testimony must be ineffective. It is announced for the obedience of faith among all nations. So that the pool of Siloam will be serviceable to stress this thought of obedience.

Now sport has a great place in the world. It is usually regarded as harmless but the devil intends it to be very harmful, if not to physical damage certainly to soul damage. It is a department of the world, as there are others. The newspapers devote a considerable space to it; the universities and all the schools have a great place for it in thought and action. In fact it is in the human mind and heart from the very outset, and the idea comes into evidence in the youngest child. And although it may seem harmless, the enemy of our souls uses this idea of sport to occupy the young to their spiritual damage. I am speaking now more particularly for the young people here, because although you are here now, you may be here under compulsion; you may have come under protest, in your mind at least. Perhaps you would rather be on the cricket field; that thought ^[p. 476] is of the devil. If it is operating in your mind now, it is just to prevent you listening to what is being said. For the devil has come here tonight, you know, and especially in young people who are occupied with such things as sports. He would not come here in a spiritual man or woman, a person who judges himself would not be any medium in which the devil could draw near. But if there are those here who are occupied with these matters of sport the devil has a means of getting into this meeting through you.

Jehovah raised the question with the devil as to Job, and He asked the devil what he thought of him, whether he had considered him. He says, ‘I have considered him’. He has considered every child here, especially if you belong to christian parents; he has lost your parents, but he has not lost you; and he is here to keep you from believing what is said. He would occupy you with the football or cricket match that is to be played tomorrow, for he is adept at that sort of thing. He is always on that cricket field, although he is not so much afraid of your being there as when you go to the meeting, or when you are listening to your father in the morning reading. That is when he is afraid of you, and he is here that he may blind your eyes, for he is the god of this world who blinds the eyes of those who do not believe, that the radiancy of the glad tidings of the glory of the Christ should not shine for you. Thank God it has shone for most of us, but it has not shone for you, and Satan is exercising himself to keep it from shining unto you, and he will flood your mind with these things. I know well enough what I am saying, because the youthful mind is given to these things.

Well, here are two military leaders, and they are met here at the pool of Gibeon; and Abner proposes sport. He is one of the leaders of God’s people; and one has known brethren who do that, too. Here are these twelve men on either side of this pool, twelve of the servants of Saul and twelve of the servants of David ^[p. 477] occupied in this game, this sport. Think of them! It seems to me that the Spirit of God presents sport here in its most dreadful form. Is there no possibility of hate entering into a game of football, for instance? It is possible. It was operating on either side of this pool. Perhaps on the side of Saul’s servants more than on the side of the servants of David, but they are both in it. Think of this picture drawn for us by the Spirit of God. It is to appeal to the youth in this room as to these matters. How dreadful is the possible end in view; the very spirit of the world enters into it, hateful and hating one another. The very worst feelings are aroused, not only on the cricket field or football field, but in the pugilistic sports, wrestling and all such things. Young people are gradually drawn into these things which the devil uses to shut out the glory of Christ. Other features are used, of course, for other people, but this feature of sport is used for youth, so that their eyes should be blinded to the glory of God in the face of Jesus, the radiancy of the glad tidings of the glory of Christ. That is the business of the devil as the god of this world, and he is working on these lines; working outside in the millions into whose hearts the thought of the gospel has not entered once today. He has them. But in this meeting he is occupied with you, that the radiancy of the glad tidings of the glory of Christ should not shine for you. You will be left out in the outer darkness for ever, and there will be no sports in the lake of fire. Do not be infidel about the lake of fire; to do so is to be infidel in regard to God and to Christ and to the work of atonement.

And here, how dreadful, are these twenty-four men, skilled in strength, for it is called the field of strong men. One of them is as swift on foot as a young roe; where is his equal today? I mention him because he is a characteristic man in this matter.

As I said, all I have to say about this pool is negative with a view to warning young people as to these things,

^[p. 478] that the enemy of God and of youth is using them to shut out from your heart and mind the light of the glory of Christ as your Saviour; He gave Himself a ransom for all, everyone, all the athletes, all the boxers, all the jockeys, all these sportsmen are included in that. God’s mind is towards them all, as towards the most respectable church-goer in this city. Christ is the one Mediator between God and men, every one of them.

Now I pass on to John 5. This pool is only slightly removed from the pool of Gibeon as to its application in type. Indeed Gibeon became later the great high place; shewing that the sports of the world are not far away from the religious high places of the world. Where dances are held in the week the gospel may be preached on the Sunday. Thank God it is preached, in measure. Some soul may get saved, and if nobody is saved it is still on the principle of mercy. A dear brother was telling me that when he was converted he was in soul trouble and went to a minister of the protestant church and told him that he was in soul trouble. ‘Well’, he said, ‘have you not seen my curate? I have no time for these things’. Yet that man, who had no time for a convicted soul, was on the football field the next day. I am not accusing anybody, I am only indicating to you the relation between these high places and the cricket field or football field.

So what marks this pool of Bethesda is not foreign to the current religious world. Who of us who is conversant with these things is not thankful that there is such a thing as a house of mercy, even if there is only one soul converted in a year? But it is not characteristic of the place. Not like the day of Pentecost when three thousand accepted the word in one preaching. That is mercy. I suppose that was in the open air. How one would like to have heard that Galilean accent of Peter’s resounding through the streets of Jerusalem telling “that God has made him, this Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). What power there ^[p. 479] was in those words! Persons quite a long way off may have got blessing. They may not even have stood to listen. But they say, “What shall we do?” (verse 37). They were convicted. How different to this place, visited just “at a certain season” by an angel, and then, although you are the worst case in the place, if you had nobody to put you in the pool, you had to stay in your affliction for another season. How meagre is the thought of mercy in this place. If there is anybody here seeking help for his soul, it is worth considering where you go to get it.

The Lord Jesus finds this man, He knows about him. How suggestive and affecting it is that the Lord knew about that man. He knew how long he had been there and that he had had that affliction for thirty-eight years. It is one of the most touching things in John that He knows persons before they get blessing. Nathanael is an example of that; “Before that Philip called thee, I saw thee” (John 1:48). Someone here may have no interest in sports at all. He may be just someone who likes to be quiet, sitting down or lying down reading a novel instead of going in for sports. You are no better off in reading your novel; indeed you are worse off. But how touching it is when you come to a meeting like this, and the Lord says to you, ‘When you were lying in your room reading that novel, I saw you. I saw you before you were asked to come to this meeting’. The Lord would impress everybody here with His perfect knowledge of your way. I do not suggest that Nathanael was doing anything out of the way, but what did he say? “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” He was unbelieving under his fig tree. But the evangelist says “Come and see”; and he came. If anyone is here at such bidding tonight the Lord is intensely interested in you. You have come to hear about Him, and He is here ready to save you. It may be His voice is heard in your soul even now.

^[p. 480] And so the Lord came to this place of five porches. Some say, it does not matter what you are, we are all making for the same end. The devil likes a darkened mind like that; but there is only one door and that door is Jesus. He says “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10:9). There is only one door and only one way. So the Lord entered into this place, and He looked around and saw this man lying there; he had been like that for thirty-eight years. Think of the experiences of that man! He could write a book on it, the persons that he had seen come into those porches, and pass out of those porches; some by way of death, others were made well. What a story he could tell! Jesus knew all about it. He says to him, ‘You have been here a long time’, and the man told the Lord what had happened; and the Lord knew all about that too. He says to him, “Take up thy couch and walk”, and he did. The Lord would address some one here in the same way; because it is a question of power, but power governed by direction from Christ. The man did what the Lord told him. We can see the man going off with his couch, superior to his circumstances, but he is not a man that the Lord could trust. He went away knowing little or nothing of Jesus; he was satisfied with the blessing and forgot the Blesser. It is often so. And, as might be expected, he caused persecution to Jesus. He told the Jews about Him merely to satisfy their enquiries. They wanted some accusation against Christ, and they were ready to kill Him on account of this man’s report. I do not want to be among that class, I want to speak of Christ, not to those who are His enemies. I want to be wise and harmless; and yet never to lose an evangelical opportunity.

Now in chapter 9 we have the best pool of all. The name signifies ‘sent’. It is the realm of obedience; and it is only in this realm that the gospel is really set out and really believed. Here is this man, blind from his birth; and the Lord says, to clear him, “Neither ^[p. 481] hath this man sinned nor his parents”. This man is blind that the full thought of God might be set out in him. If I am converted I want to be material in which the full thought of God is set out, because every converted person is intended to be a testimony to the power of God as well as to the love of God. Lazarus is an example; we are not told that he said anything at all, but he was a testimony to the power of God, and many believed on Jesus because of him.

The Lord says a good deal about His own mission before he says anything to the man (verse 4), and in verse 5 He speaks as to the light: I am to be converted in the light; and then in verse 6 it says “Having said these things, he spat on the ground and made mud of the spittle”. It is a most touching scene. The word is also used for ointment; but the word here is translated ‘mud’ because it is a question of the humanity of Christ. He was a real Man. We have to be careful not to say anything derogatory about Jesus. It was the very essence of that Person, all that He was in Deity come into humanity; and that is to be as ointment on the eyes of the blind man. Now he is worse than before. His eyes are not opened by the ointment; but they would never be opened without it. The humanity of Christ would never save us in itself, there must be the death of Jesus. Now you see that man turning away. We do not know how far the pool of Siloam was, but he would look very peculiar. And we must accept that we are peculiar as we are getting light from God; the merely religious people will despise us. They would rather see a man as he used to be than with the mud on his eyes. How did this man find his way? He was more blind than ever. Do not raise any difficulties about that. He did not miss the pool, God would see to that. It is a matter of obedience, a most abhorrent thing to most young people, but that is the point. Jesus came to do the will of God, and He went the whole road involved in Siloam. And this man does not miss it. I do appeal to you, do not hesitate ^[p. 482] at all; this man went and came seeing. He tells the elders “Having gone and washed, I saw”. That is historical. When they asked him later, he tells them “I see”. If I am a subject of the work of God I can say, ‘Look at me, I am changed, I can see. I can name things now. I can name what belongs to God, and I can say I want that’.

One might say much more, this is the most interesting pool of all. In fact I do not know any pool more suggestive of the truth, because it is a question of being sent. It is the key word to the whole of John’s gospel, and the key to the Incarnation. Salvation must be on the principle of obedience, you cannot be converted to do your own will; that is what this man accepted, and he was a testimony to Christ until they cast him out. But Jesus found him, and He proceeds to propound greater things to him, for that is another of the key words in John, ‘greater things’. He says to him “Dost thou believe on the Son of God? ... he that speaks with thee is he”. How appealing that is, the Lord speaking with you. The man says, “I believe, Lord”, and he worshipped Him. That man is secured for the Son of God and for the service of God; he is already worshipping.