So, Mark chapter 3, and we will
read from verse 1. And he entered again into the
synagogue, and there was a man there which had a withered hand. And they watched him, whether
he would heal him on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse him. And he saith unto the man which
had the withered hand, Stand forth, And he saith unto them,
Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days, or to do evil,
to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace. And
when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved
for the hardness of their hearts, He saith unto the man, Stretch
forth thine hand. And he stretched it out, and
his hand was restored, whole as the other. And the Pharisees
went forth and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against
him, how they might destroy him. But Jesus withdrew himself with
his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee
followed him, and from Judea, and from Jerusalem, and from
Idumea, and from beyond Jordan, and they about Tyre and Sidon,
a great multitude. when they had heard what great
things he did came unto him. And he spake to his disciples
that a small ship should wait on him because of the multitude,
lest they should throng him. For he had healed many in so
much that they pressed upon him for to touch him, as many as
had plagues. And unclean spirits, when they
saw him, fell down before him and cried, saying, Thou art the
Son of God. and he straightly charged them
that they should not make him known. Amen. May God bless to
us this reading from his word. There is a great value in reading
these passages from the Gospel that tell us about the life and
the ministry and the words of the Lord Jesus Christ and just
to see that the freshness and liveliness that they convey to
us. You know, when we think about
literature and we think about the great literature that has
graced the world as far as the powers of men are concerned,
And yet here we have the simplicity of the gospel written down for
us, really in not flowery language or impressive language, but language
with an urgency and language with a potency, language that
can enter into our hearts. And it is a joy to be able to
read these passages together from the living word of God and
see the power that is vested in these words. And of course,
when we read in Mark, then we are reading the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We are reading Mark's account
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we know that there
are other accounts of that story, particularly Matthew and Luke.
We call these the Synoptic Gospels because there is a blending together,
a harmony in these accounts with respect to the ministry and the
words and the miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ. And these
synoptic gospels, or Matthew, Mark, and Luke, because John
is not included within them because it's slightly different in the
way in which it is structured and in the examples and the ministry
and the message that it conveys, though it is all about the Lord
Jesus Christ, of course. But these three particularly,
they tell the same story largely. They give the same account largely. and yet from slightly different
vantage points. And so Matthew, Mark and Luke,
by the power of the Holy Spirit and inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
here confirm and there enlarge upon and enrich us with the account
of the Lord Jesus Christ's ministry and his works. And I mention
that because all three of the synoptic writers relate this
miracle that we are reading about this evening. All three add a
little bit of detail here and there that combine to enhance
what is a very significant incident in the ministry of the Saviour. And while we don't know exactly
where this took place, it may well have been in Capernaum,
although that's not specified. It certainly seems to be relatively
close to the sea because that's where the Lord resorted to towards
the end of the verses that we read together. I think verse
seven tells us that. Here we're given by these three
writers three fine perspectives. on this one miracle. And one might wonder then why
we might seek another perspective on this miracle, but I thought
that I might at least this evening begin looking at this great work
of mercy through the eyes of the man that was healed. Now he obviously is not the writer
and yet he was present of course and he was intimately involved
in what transpired here this day. And I thought that there
might be a usefulness in drawing our attention to the healed man
principally because he is a picture of you and me. He is a picture
of us in the way in which the Lord deals with him, the needs
that he has, and often it is a good place to begin when we
think about ourselves, if not physically then at least spiritually,
in the same position as these to whom the Lord was merciful
in his dealings throughout his ministry. in a position of those
upon whom the Lord's goodness and grace have been bestowed. For surely that is what we desire
for ourselves. And is it not then good that
we might see ourselves united with these blessed individuals
who received the Lord's miraculous word and power in their own lives? And perhaps if we can see ourselves
in the place of these individuals, then we might also be able to
say by faith, thank you, Lord, for blessing him and her. Thank you, Lord, for blessing
me also. So I want to just think a little
bit about this gentleman that we encounter in Mark chapter
3. And what I've done this evening
is, once again, not taking, as it were, the narrative of the
story, but trying to draw out certain aspects of the context
and the message and the lessons that we have in these few short
verses. The first thing that I wanted
to draw our attention to with respect to this man is that he
found himself on this Sabbath day in the synagogue and I've
named this point, the first point, the place of hope. He found himself
in a place of hope. Now I've said we don't know necessarily
that it's Capernaum, it may be or it may be a synagogue in one
of the towns or villages close by and perhaps this man knew
that Jesus would be present that day in the synagogue and he attended
in the hope of getting healed, that he knew that the Lord had
used his power, his miraculous power, in order to heal others
and had the hope of sharing in those miracles. Or perhaps he
was a regular attender at this synagogue and he was surprised
to see the Lord there that day and surprised at all the extra
visitors that had come in to his synagogue that Sabbath morning. Either way, what is important
is that he was in the right place at that time. He was in that
place of hope because he was where the Lord Jesus Christ was. He was in the place of hope because
he was in the company of the Lord Jesus Christ. And how privileged that man was
that morning, that Sabbath morning, to be in the presence of Jesus.
He wasn't privileged to look at. Indeed, if we were to look
at him, we might say to ourselves, my, what a poor soul that man
is. We would look at him and we would
see that he had a twisted arm. We would see that he had a withered
hand. We would see that the muscles
and the sinews of that hand were all dried up and that it was
bent and contorted. And we would perhaps say how
sad that that man is in such a state and in such a condition. And we might wonder how he made
his living. We might wonder how he was able
to go about his business. And yet, though he was not privileged
to look at, How privileged he was that God the Holy Spirit
had brought him that day into the presence of the Lord Jesus
Christ and had brought the Lord Jesus Christ to him. If God the
Holy Spirit brings us to Christ, if God the Holy Spirit brings
us under the sound of the gospel, in this day and age when there
is so much false teaching, when there are so many false prophets,
for God the Holy Spirit to bring us to that place of knowing our
need, feeling our sin, desiring forgiveness that only the Lord
Jesus Christ can give, then we are most privileged in all this
world. And if God the Father should
bring you and me to the cross of His dear Son, if God the Father
should bring us to the shed blood of Jesus Christ, if God the Father
should bring us to behold the Lamb of God, His dearly beloved
Son, and see in Him His own love extended to us, then that will
be a place of hope indeed. Christ graces a place with his
presence and it is good to be in the presence of the Lord Jesus
Christ. So the first point I want to
make is that here was a man in a place of hope because he had
the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ with him. The second thing
that we might draw to our attention is that he had a paralysed hand,
and that is emblematic of weakness. As we thought, as we in our mind's
eye looked upon him, there was a man who knew something of inability,
a man who knew something of need, who was doubtless. always looking
for help on one matter or another. This was a place of hope for
a man with a paralysed hand because he had a need and he was in the
presence of someone who could help. That withered hand, it's
an interesting word that is used to describe it, withered. Normally,
when we are talking about withered, we think about a leaf or a piece
of vegetation that has lost its life and dried up, and it becomes
really quite useless, and this man's hand was in that state. It was immobile, and there was
nothing that he could do about it. As I was thinking about that
situation, it reminded me of something that I had to think
about a number of years ago, and I'll leave it with you as
a thought. Have you ever tried to get dressed
in the morning just using one hand? I think empathy is rather a lost
quality these days because here we find a man who had this need
and yet how hard it is for us to enter into the needs that
others have. I am so glad that the Lord Jesus
Christ came to save the unsavable. I am so glad that my precious
Saviour came to help the helpless, to seek the lost, to enable the
useless, to breathe new life into the sick and the dying and
the spiritually dead. You know, there is a lot of preaching
that goes on these days. And sometimes we have a name
for the different theology or doctrine that rests beneath that
preaching. And there are those who preach
from an Arminian perspective, or those who preach from a Fullerite
perspective. or Pelagianism, or Free Willism,
or Legalism. And there are many, many who
preach, and their preaching comes from a particular theological
perspective. And all of those that I have
quoted there call for action from those to whom their message
goes. but never can give any strength. And that's the difference between
the doctrine of sovereign grace and the preaching of free grace. Because that gospel comes with
the power to heal, comes with the power to convert, comes with
the power to alter, comes with a life-giving strength. which none of these other Gospels
do. They all rely upon the will and
the strength and the desire of the object rather than the power
of God to take and convert the individual. The Lord Jesus Christ
said to this man with the paralyzed hand, stand forth. Stretch forth
your hand. And the words of the Saviour
came with enabling grace. And that's the message of the
gospel. That's what makes the true gospel
good news. That the word comes not with
the eloquence of the preacher, not with the power of persuasiveness,
but with the regenerating, enabling, life-giving power of God the
Holy Spirit himself in that effectual call. And we send that gospel
out into the world with the prayer and the desire that God the Holy
Spirit will take it and apply it to the hearts and lives of
men and women, boys and girls, individual sinners. that they
might be called forth and that they might be enabled to receive
the gift of faith and the gift of grace and the gift of the
knowledge of the truth of salvation as it is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Here was a man that had a withered
hand. And this is a picture of the
withered soul in the sinner. And unless that salvation and
that gift of grace is brought with divine power, then the sinner
will always stay in his dead state. But if that message comes
with grace, then we will see, as we see in the pictures presented
to us here in this Gospel miracle, the Lord Jesus Christ himself
enabling, with that word of command, the dead to come to life. the withered to come to energy
and the needy to be satisfied with the blessings of his goodness. Religion that looks for man to
do something for grace and salvation has nothing to offer the man
with the withered hand. Now you might say to me, well,
he's got another hand, hasn't he? He may have a withered right
hand, but he's got a good left hand. Well then, if you would
say that to me today, I know what group you're standing with
in the synagogue that morning on the Sabbath. Let us be kind
to those who struggle for help in our society. Let us be aware
of those who have need amongst us. Let us be desirous to be
helpful to those who come with a spiritual emptiness in their
souls. Unless we get the knowledge of
Christ's grace in our souls and in our heads. We will never know
grace. And it is surely our desire that
those who are in need around about us will be confronted with
this gospel of truth, and that they will be given the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ to bring them into the experience of salvation
for themselves through the powerful work of regenerating mercy. Here was a man who was in a place
of hope because he was in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ
and he came into the presence of Christ with a paralysed hand.
He came in as a needy soul. But the other thing that we can
see from this man's perspective this morning is that he discerned
something else. He was also in a place of hostility. And there was great opposition
to the Lord Jesus Christ this morning, this Sabbath morning
in the synagogue. There were people there who were
condemning the Lord, who were critical and who were accusing
of him. Their presence that morning in
the synagogue was not to worship God, but to find fault in the
preacher, in the Lord Jesus. They had an external religion,
but their great question that morning when they looked upon
this man with the withered hand, when they saw his self-evident
need, was that would Jesus heal him on the Sabbath day? They
would endeavour to test the Lord Jesus Christ. They would try
the Lord Jesus Christ according to that framework of doctrinal
truth that they held to. And these men were preoccupied
with their system. They were preoccupied with their
ritual and their laws and their self-righteousness, and the hostility
that was felt that morning in the synagogue was palpable. Here
was a man with a withered hand, a man who was evidently in need,
a man who was looking for help, but to them he was a tool. in order to be exploited for
their own ends. We're told that in that place
of hostility that these Pharisees watched the Lord Jesus Christ
to see what he would do. They were keen to see what the
Lord's reaction would be. Would he withhold from healing
this man because it was the Sabbath day and he was not supposed to
be doing such work upon the Sabbath day, which could be done any
other day. If he did withhold, then the
people would have been disappointed in the Lord. or would he breach
their laws and thereby find himself condemned under them and rebukable
by them? They watched him to see what
he would do. And as I was thinking about that
and the fact that they watched him, I realised that that phrase
is used with some frequency in the Gospels with respect to the
Lord Jesus Christ and particularly with respect to the Scribes and
Pharisees. And it's used to describe the
action of the Lord's enemies. Very often when he went into
a situation, we discover that there were those who were listening
to what the Lord was saying. There were those who were benefiting
from what the Lord was doing. But there were those who stood
on the edge. and watched him to see if they
could find occasion to accuse him and to see if there was anything
that he would say or do that they could tally up against him
in order to bring him deeper under their condemnation and
the opposition that he faced from them. Here is a group of
people who are watching the Lord Jesus Christ in order to snare
him and trap him and condemn him. This poor man in the synagogue
that morning, he needs help. But if the Lord does it today,
on the seventh day, say these Pharisees, say these legalists,
say these self-righteous men, Then we've got him. He'll be
trapped. They were in the synagogue on
the Sabbath day. Ostensibly, people would be there
to worship. But these men were not there
to worship God. Religious, ostentatious as they
might be, their hearts were cruel. Their desires were opposed to
the things of God. There was a hardness about their
souls and their spirits. And what we discover is that
throughout the Lord's ministry, these men watched Jesus. And that culminated at Calvary,
when the Lord Jesus Christ was hanging upon the cross. They
had watched him for three years and they never understood who
he was, what he was saying, or what he had accomplished. And
we're told in Matthew chapter 27 and verse 36 that at Calvary,
there on Calvary's hill at the foot of the cross, they sat down
and they watched him hanging there. You see, here were people
who were in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and his words
and his ministry and his power and his actions and his love
and his grace never once touched their hearts. What a terrible
thing it is, friends, to be sitting in the presence of the Lord and
never see him for who he is. This world is a place of hostility
towards the Lord Jesus Christ, and we should never imagine that
the world will in any way endeavour to glorify or honour Christ. Indeed, those doctrines that
I spoke of a little earlier are simply the manifestations of
the world and men's worldly wisdom entering into the church of Jesus
Christ with false teaching and taking the truth of the gospel
and massaging and manipulating and altering and changing it
in order to make it acceptable to the men and women of this
world. This world will always be a place of hostility to the
church of Jesus Christ and the person of Jesus Christ. And just
as these Pharisees watched Christ, so Satan watches. They watched as that withered
man stood forth that morning in the synagogue. They watched
as the Lord Jesus Christ told him to raise his hand. and they
watched perplexed at how the Lord Jesus was able to perform
such wonderful deeds. They watched not with admiration,
not with approval, not with respect. And they did not ever see Christ
as they ought to have done. And they will not see the church
as they might either. What do they see? What does this
hostile world see? It sees a poor people who despite
all of their trials, their problems, their discouragements, their
doubts, their weariness of soul, stand and still stand in the
evil day with their hand outstretched to the Lord. This poor man with
the withered hand is a beautiful picture of the church in the
midst of a hostile place. It's a lovely little verse that
I came across during the week from Joseph Hart, and he says
this with respect to the church and with respect to those poor
believers that Mr Berridge was talking about also. And here's
what Hart says of the Lord's people, the poor people, those
with the outstretched hand to the Lord. He says this. the poor
dependence on His grace that men disturbers call, by sinners
and by saints withstood, for these too bad, for these too
good, condemned or shunned by all. Another thing I want to show
you with respect to this scene that we have before us this evening
is that here were people. Now, I don't know whether you've
noticed so far, but I've been trying to use a little bit of
mnemonic here. We had a place of hope, we had
a paralysed hand, we had a place of hostility, and now we've got
a stony heart. Well, instead of stony, I've
said petrified. Here are people with petrified
hearts. And see what the Lord Jesus Christ
says of these people. He says, or it's said by Mark
of him, that he was grieved for the hardness of their hearts. The Bible elsewhere calls this
stony heart. It's referred to a couple of
times, especially in the book of Ezekiel. And that stoniness
or hardness of heart, that petrified heart, if you like, is the natural
state of man. There is a hardness, a coldness,
a resoluteness against the things of God. And it is out of that
stony heart, that hard heart, that emanates the hostility that
we have towards God in our natural condition. That hardness of heart, it comes
from the fall. It comes from that state into
which mankind was brought by that initial act of rebellion
by Adam. and the state in which he left
us as those who have been separated from God, who have no desire
after God, no ability to reach God. And once again, we are reminded
about the state of this withered arm, no desire after him, in
a state of total depravity by which men and women in their
stoniness and hardness are spiritually dead in their trespasses and
in their sins towards God. And we could go on a little bit
to speak about this petrified heart, but rather I want us to
look beyond that a little bit and see what the reaction of
the Saviour is to the attitude of those men with this hard,
stony heart. Mark says that he was grieved
for the hardness of their hearts, but he also, and he uniquely,
tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ was angry. Did you notice
that when we were reading it together? That the Lord Jesus
Christ was angry. Verse 5 says, And when he had
looked round about on them, that tells us that they had surrounded
the Lord, these men, and that there were many of them. And
he looked round about on them, and he looked round about upon
them with anger. That is a rare description of
the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospels. The Gospels, as far
as I can see, nowhere else tell us about the Lord's anger. Now we might construe that there
was a sense of righteous indignation, and we sometimes use that phrase
with respect to the wrath of God. But here Mark puts it simply. He says that the Lord Jesus Christ
looked around on these men with anger. Now we should note, and
it is worth saying, it is worth pointing out and emphasising,
that there was no sin in this anger. The Lord Jesus Christ
was sinless. The Lord Jesus Christ never personally
sinned or was in any way disobedient to the law of God or opposed
to his father in any way. He was conformable in all things
to a righteous, holy and perfect life. So there was no sin in
this anger and yet here it is. And it reminds us, does it not,
of the way in which the Lord God is spoken of with respect
to his holiness and the righteous anger that he has against sin. We're reminded, for example,
of Psalm 7 and verse 11, where the psalmist tells us that God
is angry with the wicked every day. And make no mistake, Sin
generates a response in the Holy God. He is angry with the wicked
every day, says the psalmist. attribution of anger to the Lord
Jesus Christ here on this occasion. It shows us a couple of different
things I think. The first one surely is this,
that while the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ reveals to
men and women, reveals to the world the love and the grace
and the mercy of God, and as the angels could say, peace and
goodwill towards men. It is also a harbinger of judgment. Be not deceived, God is not mocked. There is a day of accountability. There is a day of judgment. God
knows the wickedness and the sinfulness and the iniquity that
has been perpetrated by all men and women, boys and girls in
this world from the beginning of time until now. There is a
record. We sometimes talk about the books
being open, not that the Lord needs books to remind himself
of sin. He knows, but it is to emphasize
that God will hold us accountable for all the sin that we have
committed unless Grace finds a way of lifting that sin from
off our shoulders and laying it upon a substitute, that the
holiness of God might be honoured, but the love of God and the grace
of God finds satisfaction in another. And so we are taught
here in this insight into the reaction of the Lord that there
is an antipathy, there is an opposition, there is a judgment
that comes and will come upon sin. The Lord Jesus Christ told
us that he came to bring judgment, he came to bring separation,
he came to bring division. And while he may be slow to anger,
his anger once raised burns with a fierceness and a furiousness. Well might John the Baptist warn
men and women to flee from the wrath that is to come. The second
thing that I think is noticeable about the Lord's anger in this
situation is that it wasn't for a personal slight
against him, but rather it was at the heart experienced for
the man with the withered hand. The Lord Jesus Christ knows the
hearts of men. He knows the minds of men. He
knows the will of men. He knows that antipathy, that
opposition, that rebelliousness against him. That is the nature
of the fallen man. That is the disobedience. But
what generated that anger, that mourning, was that the Lord Jesus
Christ saw the attitude of those men against the neediness of
this poor individual. When kindness was called for,
when affection should have been the reaction to that man's need,
when care and opportunity to do good, to one where it was self-evidently
needed, These pompous judges had none and rather they hypocritically
spoke out for God and yet they had no love or kindness in their
hearts towards one of God's creatures that was evidently in need. They would rather exploit this
poor, needy individual and score cheap points against the Lord
Jesus. And for that, the Lord was angry,
not for himself, but for his little ones. And I think there's
a great lesson there. We've been thinking a little
bit about Peter's epistles recently, and there's a reference that
we have thought about with respect to the way in which false teachers,
false professors are described in that second epistle, especially
chapter two. And in 2 Peter 2, verse 17, we're
told there, these are wells without water, clouds that are carried
with a tempest. to whom the mist of darkness
is reserved forever. This is a picture of the barrenness
and the emptiness of this world against the Lord's people. There
is no desire to follow after the Lord, and there is only desire
to do harm to his church and people. This is the opposition
of sin. This is the nature of the fall.
This is the aggravated violence that comes upon the church of
Jesus Christ. And yet, here's what the Lord
says to his church and people. Here's what the Lord says to
his little ones. He says in Romans 12, 19, Dearly
beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath,
for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith
the Lord. And I think that what we see
in this episode and in this language written by Mark is the manifestation
and the evidence of the Lord Jesus Christ's promise, not only
to bring judgment, but to bring that judgment as vengeance upon
the heads of those that hurt and abuse his little ones. Vengeance is mine, saith the
Lord, I will repay. Well, here's another point. Continuing
on our PH theme. Here are the Pharisees and the
Herodians. And so in verse six, we find
that the Pharisees and the Herodians are in league together to slay
Jesus. The outcome of this incident,
the outcome of this miracle, was that the Lord Jesus Christ
healed that man on the Sabbath day there in the synagogue. and
it so angered and crossed these Pharisees and the Herodians that
they immediately got together in order to slay, to kill the
Lord. I just want to point out that
these two factions, these two factions in Jewish history, in
Jewish society, they didn't get on together. They hated each
other. They were always opposed to each
other, except when it came to the opposition against the Lord
Jesus Christ. Then they could work together.
And there is a sense in which also we might take another aspect
of these two groups and draw a little application. Because
here were the Pharisees, the epitome of religion as far as
the Jews were concerned. and the Herodians, who were more
of a political movement with a desire to uphold and maintain
the rule and reign of Herod, the Herods, the various kings
of Israel who, though they were but puppet kings of the Roman
Empire, yet maintained through this faction a certain rule and
power. So here were the Pharisees and
the Herodians. Here was religion and politics. And what we find is every time
religion and politics come together, every time the Pharisees and
the Herodians get together, the outcome is always corrupt. And it always ends up in trying
to slay the Lord Jesus Christ or the next best trying to slay
his people. The sword and the spirit will
never mix. They should never mix and we
should never endeavour to use the sword of the civil magistrate
in order to impose spirituality or indeed morality. in a Christian
sense upon individuals, for it never can be. We've seen the
evidence of history, whether we're looking at the examples
of scripture or we look at the history of the Christian church.
Always the Lord's people have been persecuted by a religious
faction employing the heavy hand of the civil government. It has
been thus ever and it will continue to be so. We will court the government
at our peril and we should not ever expect the government to
uphold or defend or maintain our right or the blessings that
we desire for ourselves in our Christian faith and ministry.
Let me also point out this with respect to the unholy alliance
between these two groups. This is still very early in the
Lord's ministry. So here from the very beginning
of the ministry of the Lord, these Pharisees and the Herodians,
and we might add together the Sadducees as well, because it
seems as if the Herodians and the Sadducees had perhaps some
connection. They sought the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That was their design. That was
the design of these self-righteous religionists and the political
overlords right from the start, was to take the Lord Jesus Christ
to the cross. That was Satan's purpose. And let me point this out also.
Here were men who were too holy to heal or do good on the Sabbath
day. but they were not so holy as
to prevent them conspiring together to slay the Son of God. No wonder the Lord Jesus Christ
was angry at these men. Here's the sixth and final point
just to wrap this up. We're told in the verses that
follow from verse seven through to verse 12 that there were many,
many people who followed after the Lord Jesus Christ. We're
told that the Lord went out at this stage. And so there's a
few final lessons just to wrap this up. But here we see that
there were plagues that were healed by the Lord Jesus Christ.
So let us just take these few verses and summarize them together
if we can. The first point is this, there
was no need for confrontation by the Lord at this time. The
time was not yet come when the Lord would face down his enemies,
when the Lord as it were would go up to Jerusalem in full knowledge
that this was the final confrontation. There were yet three years to
go, there was yet a ministry to perform, there was yet a church
to establish, there was yet a people to be gathered in, so the Lord
left the hostility of these Pharisees and these Herodians. Later, he
would face them down in Jerusalem, and the power of Rome would be
called to put him to death on the cross. But there is a beautiful
element here of the way in which the Lord began to gather his
people. And we're told that a great multitude
followed the Lord. Now, verse seven and verse eight
tell us where these people are from, and literally, It is from
all over Israel. And it is to the north. It is
to the south, way to the south of Jerusalem and Judea. That's
where that land of Idumea was. It was west of Jordan or beyond
Jordan, as it was called. Sorry, east of Jordan, beyond
Jordan, as it was called. It was from Judea. It was from
Jerusalem. The Lord gathered people because
of his great works. And that is a picture of how
the elect are gathered also. The Lord is gathering his people
day by day. As the church maintains its gospel
preaching, as the gospel goes forth in the hearts of men and
women, the Lord Jesus Christ is calling his people to himself.
And here is this plague that is healed. It is the plague of
sin, and it is healed by the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is
him only. It is only Christ who can heal
that plague of sin. The Pharisees couldn't do it
and they were envious because of it. The Herodians couldn't
do it nor the might of Rome. It was only Christ himself as
it always was and always will be. And what he did in the bodies
of these poor creatures whom he healed from the plagues that
beset their flesh. he did on the cross for men's
souls when he died there for his church and his people. He
bore our sins. He carried our sorrows. He became
the substitute for his people. He took their sins as his own
and he gave us that righteousness which we could never accomplish
or achieve by ourselves. The very righteousness of God. This is the work of Christ. This
is the gospel of grace. This is the fulfilment of the
great covenant plan of our Saviour to bring his people to himself
and to take his bride as his own. The unclean spirits, once
again we are told in these verses, they knew the Lord Jesus Christ. They knew him better than these
religious works mongers that beset the Lord with their high
and mighty attitude. But let us not be mistaken. Every knee will bow. to the supreme majesty and the
sovereign glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. It will either bow here
on earth like these evil spirits did, or it will bow in eternity
as God the Son takes the men and women of this world and separates
them from himself and casts them into hell. Just want to wrap
this sermon up, these few thoughts up, with some verses from the
Apostle John. We've spoken about Matthew, Mark,
and Luke this evening. Let's just complete our thoughts
with a few verses from John. Here's what he says. For this
purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works
of the devil. Whosoever shall confess that
Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things
have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son
of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that
ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. Amen. May we have grace also to declare,
Thou art the Son of God. And trusting in Him and believing
in Him, know what it is to have our sins forgiven by the precious
blood of the Saviour. Amen.