Whenever the Lord Jesus Christ
came down, the Son of God, and took the body that God had made,
that He might come forth as a man, the righteous servant of God.
When He came forth to do that which his children could not
do for ourselves. When he came forth to satisfy
God, to completely fulfill the law of God on our behalf, to
put away the sin of his people by the sacrifice of himself,
to be that true eternal rest of his people. When He came forth,
our Lord was constantly faced by sinners who believed themselves to be
righteous. Sinners who believed themselves
to have no need of Christ, to know what God said, to understand
the Word of God so that they had no need of Him whatsoever. He was opposed constantly at
every turn. And yet when he walked this earth,
the enemies of our Lord Jesus Christ never once hindered the
Lord Jesus Christ from fulfilling the will of his father, glorifying
his father, and doing good unto those who were truly needy. They never once hindered him
from doing so. This is what I want us to get
tonight. Brethren, believe the Lord Jesus
Christ. Trust him. And heed his word. Walk in this world according
to his word. Follow his steps. Follow his
example. In doing so, we will find, just
like he's promised, we will find that he's faithful to bless us
and to provide everything that we need. Our text shows us an
example of this in Mark 3, verses 1 through 8. I read this to you,
and I'm going to take it verse by verse now. The title of our
subject is Healing for the Withered. In Mark 3, verse 1, it says,
He entered again into the synagogue. The first thing we see here Is
our Lord Jesus Christ doing exactly what He has promised He will
do? He entered again into the synagogue. That word, again,
is very important. He entered again into the synagogue. Every time He went into the synagogue,
He received opposition from men. every time, but he went again
into the synagogue. He went again. The Lord has promised
to meet with his people in the place where he has recorded his
name. This is what he said in Exodus
20, 24. He said, in all the places where I record my name, I will
come unto thee and I will bless thee. as surely as the Spirit
of God dwells in the regenerated believer, as surely as the Spirit
of God dwells in the believer, so that the believer is himself
the temple of the living God. Even so, the Spirit of our God,
Christ himself, walks in the midst of the churches that he's
assembled, where he's placed his name, where he dwells. He
walks in the midst. Paul said this to the Philippians,
it's God which worketh in you. That's not just simply in us
individually, though it is in us individually, but it's in
us as the body he has assembled also. It's God which worketh
in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. It's not
the synagogue or the church building or the firehouse that is the,
that's not the church of God. The church of God is his people. And wherever he's gathered his
people, whether it be in a place like this or whether it be out
on a riverside like it was where Lydia was gathered with those
he had assembled, That's where the Lord's dwelling. That's where
He is. You're the temple of God, Paul
said, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. And God has promised,
this is what the Lord Jesus Christ, God our Savior, promised when
He was here. He said, where two or three are
gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them. What
do we say to that? If you had a place that you knew
the Lord had promised to meet you, that you knew he said for
sure in his word he'd meet with you. Wouldn't you go there? Wouldn't you be there? This is
what Paul said in Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10. This is the encouragement
the believer has. Hebrews 10. This is where our
hearts are. Hebrews 10.23. Let us hold fast
the profession of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful
that promised. And let us consider one another
to provoke unto love and to good works. not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting
one another, and so much the more, as you see the day approaching."
More. That's the first thing we see.
He went again into the synagogue. Now, in this synagogue, in the
place there where he had put his name, we see two kinds of
people there. Look at verse, back in our text,
Mark 3, 1. And there was a man there which had a withered hand,
and they watched the Lord. The they there are the Pharisees
who were there. There was a man there that had
a withered hand, and then there was some there watching the Lord
whether he would heal that man with the withered hand on the
Sabbath day that they might accuse him. Now there are two kinds
of people anywhere the Lord has assembled and gathered his sheep. The man here with the withered
hand represents the truly needy sinner. That's whatever man he
is by nature. We're truly withered. The apostle
Isaiah, the prophet said, the whole head is sick and the whole
heart is faint. from the top of the head to the
sole of the foot. There's no soundness in it. We
need to have life put in us, and that life that's put in us
is Christ the Lord, the Spirit of God dwelling in his people.
Now, here's a man who's truly a needy sinner. He's disabled
from working out a living for his salvation. He's got a withered
hand. And truly, the meaning is here,
this man's whole arm is withered. His whole arm is withered. So
he's a withered man. Withered man. Mark chapter 3.
Mark chapter 3. Well, there's also Pharisees
there. And in these Pharisees, we not
only see the hatred of the unregenerate heart, we not only see the hatred
of the sinner whose heart is all withered. You know what a
plant looks like that's withered. There's no life in it. It's withered. It's drawn up to nothing. Well,
here in the Pharisees, we see not only an example of the unregenerate
heart, but we see the ignorance And we see the self-righteousness
of the natural heart. Look at verse 2. They watched
the Lord, whether He would heal this man on the Sabbath day. The Sabbath day was only a day
to these men. That's all it was. It was a day
to these men. The law was just in the letter. And that's all the law is to
a man that doesn't have spiritual discernment. It's just a letter.
If a man sees things in the scripture that we think we can keep and
we think we can do and we think we can observe, men will do them
and keep them and observe them and think they can come to God
that way. That's what these men, that's who they represent. That's
what these men thought. Christ Jesus the Lord is the
believer's Sabbath. He is the believer's Sabbath.
He is the Lord of the Sabbath. He's the Lord who gave the day.
He's the Lord who instituted that law. And He is the believer's
rest. The Lord God rested after He
made the heavens and the earth because there was absolutely
nothing else for Him to do. He rested. He didn't immediately
give the law of Sabbath. He didn't give it immediately.
Look back up at Mark 2, 27. The Lord said unto them, this
was on another occasion, He said the Sabbath was made for man
and not man for the Sabbath. Man wasn't made to observe a
Sabbath. He wasn't made for a day. The
Sabbath was made for a man, therefore the Son of Man is Lord also of
the Sabbath. Whenever the Lord made the heavens
and the earth, and it says He hallowed that day, we don't find
anywhere in Scripture until the Lord gave the law on Mount Sinai
and told sinners to observe a day. to hallow a day. We don't find
any record of God giving a Sabbath day to be observed from then
until he gave that law at Sinai. And yet, Enoch walked with God
and had this testimony that he pleased God, but he didn't have
a Sabbath day to observe. Noah was called a preacher of
righteousness, but he didn't have a Sabbath day to observe.
Abraham didn't have, it was 430 years, some odd years later before
God gave that law. He didn't have a Sabbath day
to observe, but he had this testimony. He believed God. You know, every
one of those, all the saints prior to that, by the Spirit
of God working in their heart, by God Himself working in their
heart, entered into the rest of complete and total forgiveness,
of complete and thorough completion in Christ, so that there was
nothing for them to do. That's what the Sabbath typified.
The Lord gave the Sabbath for the same reason He gave the temple,
for the same reason He gave the ceremonies, and the high priest,
and all of those things. He gave those just for the same
reason he gave the Sabbath, and it was to show, to teach his
children that our rest, complete and thorough rest, is in Christ
Jesus the Lord. It is in Christ Jesus the Lord.
He gave the Sabbath for man, to teach us this. And when he
gave it, what did it mean for man when he gave it? All those
years had gone by, men were doing everything and they were yoking
one another and binding one another and he gave a day, days, many
days, he gave days that all servants could just rest and all beasts
could just rest. And that's what we enter into
by the grace of God is rest. This is what he said, come unto
me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you
rest. I will give you rest. Hebrew writer said in Hebrews
4.9, there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
For because he that's entered into his rest, he also hath ceased
from his own works as God did from his. That's what we do when
we enter into Christ. We stop working and we rest. But if we don't have life in
our heart and Christ hasn't come into the heart and given us faith
to believe Him, You know what we'll do? You know what men will
do? We'll do exactly what these Pharisees did. We will take the
law and understand it only in the letter, and instead of having
love for one another, which is the fulfillment of the law, we'll
watch whether somebody will break that Sabbath day, break that
Sabbath day, that we might accuse him, accuse him. That's what
religion without the love of God in the heart, without the
new man being created within by God, that's what it is. It's
accusing or excusing, that's what it is. Did that stop the
Lord though from doing the will of God the Father? Did that stop
him from following the Lord and from honoring God the Father
and doing that which was good for his people? It didn't hinder
him one iota, did it? He went right back into the temple
again and preached the gospel to them. Remember this, no believer
can do anything to satisfy a Pharisee. You can't do anything to satisfy
a Pharisee. You can pipe and a Pharisee won't
dance. You can mourn and a Pharisee
won't lament. The Lord said in Psalm 69, when
I wept, that was to my reproach. That was to my reproach. John
came, he wasn't eating, he wasn't drinking, and they say, he hath
a devil, the Lord said. And the Lord said, the Son of
Man came eating and drinking, and they say, behold, a man gluttonous
and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. So what is a believer to do?
What is a believer to do? Don't turn to that self-righteous
man in ourselves. He's there in our old flesh.
Don't, don't, don't heed Him. Don't turn to Him. Put Him off. Put Him off. And also, continue
trusting the Lord and don't let anybody else turn you from the
Lord Jesus Christ. Nobody. Look over at Colossians. Colossians chapter 3. Paul was dealing with the fact
in Colossians that men were turning men to observe days. And this
is what he said. Chapter 3. If you're risen with
Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits
on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things
above, not on things of the earth, for you're dead and your life
is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory. Mortify, therefore, your members
which are upon the earth. Yours. yours, not another's,
your. Mortify therefore your members
which are upon the earth." What is it in our members that we're
to mortify? Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate
affection, evil concupiscence, covetousness, which is idolatry. For which things sake the wrath
of God cometh on the children of disobedience. Ephesians 2
says that's children of unbelief. And to which ye also walked some
time when you lived in them. But now ye also put off all these,
anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your
mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that you've put off the
old man with his deeds, and have put on the new, which is renewed
in knowledge after the image of him that created him. Where
there's neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free. You see, it's not, it's
not, outward form that makes a man a child of God. This is Christ is all and in
all. That's what makes the difference
in the believer. So he says here, look at verse
12, put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, vows
of mercies. kindness, humbleness of mind,
meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, forgiving one another.
If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you,
so also do ye. And above all these things put
on charity, which is the bond of perfectness, and let the peace
of God rule in your hearts, to the which also you're called
in one body, and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with
grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever you do in word
or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks
to God and the Father by him. Isn't that a much, that's so
much better than watching one another and accusing one another
and trying to bring each other under a yoke, which Peter said,
Peter was under that yoke at one time and he said, neither
we nor our fathers were able to bear that. Neither. So, that's where the believer
stands. Our feet are set upon a rock. They're set in stone. Christ
our Lord. So we saw first the Lord doing
what He promised, assembling with His people, coming where
His people are. Secondly, we see there's two kinds of people
where He comes. There's the truly needy, those
that are withered in need of His healing, and there are those
who want to yoke and bind and accuse. But now watch what the
Lord does. This is the third thing. We see
an example here of what the Lord does through the gospel. Luke
tells us that when the Lord entered in, He taught. He taught. He
entered in and He is the gospel Himself. And He entered in and
He preached the gospel. And you have to remember now,
they saw what we see when we hear a man preaching. They saw
a man preaching. And until God enters in the heart
and gives life, that's all we'll see is a man and hear a man.
But look at this, what the Lord did. He singled out this one
man and He spoke directly to him. Look at verse 3. He saith
unto the man which had the withered hand, Stand forth. Now I want
you to get the picture of this. Get the picture of this. The
Pharisees had asked the Lord. They had openly asked the Lord.
They said to him whether, they wanted to know whether or not
it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath day. They asked that
question. You can read it in another, one
of the other Gospels. They asked the Lord that question
openly. And the Lord taught, the scripture
says. The Lord is, He was addressing
this problem directly. He was addressing it head on.
And He was preaching to them, teaching in the synagogue. And
as He teaches this, and as He's declaring this, the Pharisees
sitting there and they're watching Him that they might accuse Him.
And they're, all of this is sitting there open and known to everybody
that's sitting there. And the Lord's words are going
forth to everybody there. And all of a sudden, the Lord
singles out this one man in that crowd, and he says, you stand
forth. Stand up. Stand up. And you put yourself in the place
of that man. He's sitting there in the midst
of all these folks who were trying to accuse the Lord and find something
to entangle Him in His words with and sitting there and saying
by what they had questioned Him about that they don't believe
it's lawful to do this. That's what they taught that
it wasn't lawful to heal or do good to anybody on a Sabbath
day. And now the Lord tells this man to stand up, to stand forth?
You know what, when you're watched by somebody who's self-righteous
and they're watching you, that That just troubles our heart. That just makes everything trouble.
And it makes it distressing to the heart. How on earth would
a man, sitting there with a withered hand, who needs healing, he needs
to be healed, how, what would make that man stand up when the
Lord said, stand up? Right there in the midst of all
that stuff and all that. Just as the Lord was not turned
by these men, just as He was not turned but was established,
settled on His mission of mercy and wasn't turned by His enemies,
when the Lord speaks into the heart with boldness, He makes
that man have boldness and He makes him stand with the Lord
even in the midst of his enemies. That's what's called an effectual
particular call. It's quickening grace, which
gives life and faith and boldness to identify yourself with the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's the first thing the Lord
did. He does that through His Word. The call is sitting there. It's just like He was sitting
there teaching and preaching to everybody. Just like the Gospel
is going forth to everybody. But when the Lord speaks, He
singles out that one He's come to show mercy to, that one that
he's chosen before the world began, that one that he's redeemed
by his own blood. He comes and he speaks, and he
speaks it just that effectively in the heart, just like he stood
there that day and spoke directly to that man and said, you, stand
forth. He makes that man in our heart
hear his word. That's what he does through his
gospel. Here's something else he does through the gospel. Through
His Word, the Lord Jesus Christ silences those who would prevent
His child from approaching Him. Look at verse 4. And He saith
unto them... That man standing there now,
right there in the midst. And the Lord says to those Pharisees,
Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days? That's what they ask Him. That's
what they asked him. But he asked them something else
in addition to that. Or is it lawful to do evil? Is it lawful to save life? Or
is it lawful to kill? One of the other gospel writers
tells us, he said to them, if any one of you had an ox that
fell into a ditch on a Sabbath day, you'd go save that ox out
of that ditch. You'd go get him out of the ditch.
And he says to them, is it lawful to do good or to do evil, to
save life or to kill? And look at their reaction. But
they held their peace. They didn't say a word. Inside,
they were screaming like a wild bunch of wild men. But while he was talking, while
his word was going forth, their mouth was stopped. They had locked
jaw. They couldn't say a word. That's
what the Lord does. When the gospel is going forth
and He's speaking to His people like He was this man with the
withered hand, at the same time the gospel is causing one to
identify with Christ and giving him boldness to stand with Christ,
He's shutting the mouth of others by the same word, by the same
gospel. And it says, verse 5, And when He looked around about
on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts,
You see, the fulfillment of the law is love. Before this, prior
to this, and you can read it there in Mark 2 at the end, but
prior to this, the Lord was walking through a field with his disciples,
and they were hungry, and it was the Sabbath day. And they're
probably on their way to go like he did again and again on the
Sabbath day, to go to the synagogue, to go in. And they're hungry. And the Lord didn't forbid them
from plucking corn off the stalks and eating the corn. Another
time, and he gave them this example when the Pharisees accused him.
He said, remember what David did? David came with his men. He came to the temple where the
high priest was. And he said, I'm hungry, and
the men with me are hungry. And the high priest gave him
showbread, which was set apart and holy for nobody but the high
priest and the priest, the Levites, to eat. And David wasn't a Levite.
And those men with him wasn't a Levite. And David took that
bread and he gave it to those fellows that were with him to
eat it. And the Lord used that as an example. You know what
all that picture that David did? Christ is the rest. He's the
Sabbath rest. And Christ is the bread. And
we come to Christ our temple through faith, and we rest in
Him, and we feast on the bread from heaven. And Christ is the
high priest, who by His one offering, by His shed blood, has made all
those He died for, all those the Spirit of God gives life,
all those He gives faith to believe on Him, He's given all of them.
He's made us priests unto God. so that it's lawful for us to
rest in Him. It's lawful for us to eat the
bread from heaven. It's lawful for us to give this
bread to one another. It's lawful for us because Christ
is that high priest that does it. And He's the King, pictured
in David, who gives it to His people. All of it's a picture
of Christ. He's the one who does it all. And when the Lord He's speaking. Remember this.
Therefore, remember this, the Lord's the only one who can silence
the mouth of the enemy. He's the only one who can do
it. I'm going to give you a little heads up on what Lord Will and
I plan to preach on Sunday over in Isaiah 44. The Lord,
thy Redeemer, He that formed thee from the womb, He said,
I'm the Lord that makes all things, that stretcheth forth the heavens
alone, that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself. And he says
this, I'm the Lord that frustrateth all the signs and wonders of
the liars, and makes diviners mad, and turns wise men backwards,
and makes their knowledge foolish. He said, I'm the Lord that does
that. So we just, the same rest we have in Christ who's redeemed
us, we rest in Him to do that, don't we? To silence the mouth
of the enemy within our own flesh and in the enemy of those around
us. And here's something else He
does through that gospel. Look back at our text, Matthew 3.
When Christ speaks in power, He makes His child to do that
which is otherwise an absolute impossibility. Look at verse
5. He said unto the man, stretch
forth thine hand. This man has, he's got no life
in his hand. He can't stretch forth his hand.
He can't stretch forth, he can't stretch forth, he's got no strength
to stretch it forth. And the Lord commands him, stretch
it forth. Stretch forth your hand. Anybody here got any plants at
home that you haven't watered, and you haven't took care of
them, and they're just brown, and the leaves are falling off
of them, and if you just touch them, they just break right into,
because they got no moisture in them. They got no life in
them. Go home tonight and say, be green. Just be green. And just talk to them all you
want to, and say, oh, be green, be green, be green. Get up tomorrow
and do it. And the day after that and do
it. And see if they ever turn green. They'll just keep on being
dry. Keep on being brown and withered.
But whenever the Lord says stretch forth, look at the next word. And he stretched it out. He stretched
it out. His hand opened up. He stretched
forth his whole arm, his whole hand, and his hand was restored
whole as the other. When Christ speaks by His power,
He gives life where there was no life. He gives ears to hear
His words, just like He did this man. He gives faith to believe
on Him. And with that power and that
life and that strength and that faith comes the power with which
to do that, which otherwise is absolutely an impossibility for
a sinner to do. That's when God's made Christ
unto us power and wisdom. Listen to this, as long as something
else is our strength, whether it's ourselves, our law keeping,
whether it's things temporal, as long as something else is
our strength. then we'll find it absolutely
impossible to enter into the blessing that our Lord has promised. Absolutely impossible. As long
as our power lies in what we perceive we have the ability
to do by our strength, as long as our power lies in what we
perceive we have the ability to do by our strength, then we
can't do anything. We can't. All is reduced to complete
inability. But when our power is Christ,
and our wisdom is Christ, when our strength is Christ, our understanding
is Christ, when He speaks in the heart and He gives faith
to behold Him and believe the words that are coming from His
mouth, and they fill our hearts, and they're life in our hearts,
and they come into us, and they're like the water poured on that
green plant, on that dry plant, that makes it revive and come
alive. He says unto the man, stretch
forth thine hand, and he stretches it out, and his hands restored
whole as the other. Whatever it is that's withered,
whatever it is, just come to Christ. He doesn't cure halfway. His hand was restored completely
whole. There are no half cures with
Christ. No halfway cures with Christ.
at all. When He came forth and laid down
His life, the Scripture says concerning our sin, the sin of
every... You want to know who He died
for? All you got to do is consider what the Scripture says He accomplished
by it. Think about what He accomplished by it. He put away sin by the
sacrifice of Himself. That's what He accomplished.
When you think about justification, Those that Christ gives life,
they're justified by God. And it says that he justified
us from all things. Not a few things, all things.
Past, present, and future. When you think about adoption,
he doesn't halfway adopt, he fully adopts. The scripture says,
now are we the sons of God. And he doesn't halfway pardon,
it says, having forgiven you all trespasses. All trespasses. And when the Spirit of God enters
in, he doesn't halfway create a believer anew. That new man
that's created within is created in righteousness and true holiness
after the image of him, in knowledge after the image of him that created
him. That's so. So that in that inward man, as
James said, because his seed remaineth in you, you cannot
sin in that inward man. Though I outward man, all I do
is sin. Though in my flesh there's no
good thing. Though in my flesh dwells nothing
good. Christ in you is the hope of
glory. He's either in us fully or he's
not in us at all. And when he's in us, this is
what the believer knows. I can do all things through Christ
which strengtheneth me. What things? All things. By my
power, by my strength? No, by Christ which strengtheneth
me. He's my power and my strength.
Ain't that good news? You know, you think, well, I'd
believe that, I guess, if I could just see a man with a withered
hand like this and his hand being made whole. Look at that brother or sister
next to you. It's more of a miracle of His
grace than if He made a man's withered hand whole. That's so. Well, here's the last thing.
Two reactions to grace. Here's the first reaction. This
is what we're hearing. All salvation is of God. All
salvation is by His grace. Through His Word. Here's the
Word standing here. Declared as Himself. Here He
is. In this temple, right? That you see here in our text. And here His Word goes forth.
It didn't return to Him void, did it? It accomplished everything
that He He sent it to accomplish. He is that Word. Christ is that
Word. So here's the first reaction. Mark 3, 6. And the Pharisees
went forth and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against
him, how they might destroy him. Couldn't the Lord have done for
them what he did for this man with the withered hand? Couldn't
he have done for him what he does for sinners when he makes
some hole in the heart? He could have. He could have. But he didn't. He didn't. And left to themselves, are they
inexcusable? They're not inexcusable. They
still have the responsibility to do it. They know that. They
got a form of religion heaped up on them like all over. That's what they're so upset
about. They won't let go of that form of religion. Paul said this,
as times go by, he said, it's going to get worse and worse.
He told Titus that men will have, they'll heap to themselves teachers
having itching ears. I've worn hearing aids for a
while now. And hearing aids, especially
in the summertime, they make your ear itch. And I can assure
you this, there's not a worse itch than the ear itching. When
your ear is itching, you can't hear anything. When your ear
is itching, you will stop everything you are doing and scratch it.
You have to. You will. That's exactly what
a man will do who has an itching ear for somebody to tell him
that there's something in him whereby he can make himself perfect
before God and acceptable to God and do something in himself.
If that ear's scratching, if it's itching, he's gonna scratch
it. It can't help it. And he'll do so taking sides
with men that he otherwise has absolutely nothing in common
with, just like the Pharisees did the Herodians, against the
Lord of glory. A man who's trying to hang on
to his form, hang on to his religion, hang on to something he's done,
hang on to some hope he has in his own flesh, by his own deeds,
will hear the word of God go forth. And He will do everything
He can in His power. Look for some reason, some accusation
in God's people and where they're assembling together so that He
can justify His rebellion against God Almighty. That's exactly
what these men did. If they did it to the Lord Jesus
Christ, you can be certain the Lord said they'll do it to His
disciples. Certainly. Another verse says they were
filled with madness. That is madness, to leave the
Lord Jesus Christ and go join in with men just as much as they
tried to show how different these men tried to show how different
they were amongst all other men in the world. When they forsook
the Lord, they showed there was absolutely no difference between
them and the Herodians who they despised. No difference between
them whatsoever. You know what happened? The earth
opened up her mouth and swallowed them up. Swallowed them up. That's the first reaction. And
unless we're brought to bow to the feet of Christ, that'll be
the reaction. Here's the second one. This is the reaction made
by grace. Verse 7. But Jesus withdrew himself
with his disciples to the sea. He always protects his people.
And a great multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judea,
and from Jerusalem, and from Edomia, and from beyond Jordan. And they about Tyre and Sidon
a great multitude. That just about takes in every
class, every kind, every form of sinner and person you can put together. And they all, look at this, when
they had heard what great things He did, came unto Him. They came
unto Him. When they heard what great things
He did, they came unto Him. Two things happen when sinners
encounter the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Two things
happen. When the gospel goes forth with
boldness as never a man spake, that's what they said about Christ.
When he speaks, when his presence comes and men encounter his presence,
the self-righteous is infuriated and he departs and the needy
follow him in hope. Contact with the Lord Jesus Christ
is going to have some effect on a man. It either leaves men
better, or it leaves them worse. And no neutral ground, period.
Now, let's review what we've seen here, and we'll go home
remembering this. First of all, be where Christ
has promised to be. Be where he's promised. Assemble
with his people. I know this, if we've got a desperate
need, and Christ is all our need, We will. We will. Second thing
is never let any accusers, never let anybody turn you from the
Lord Jesus Christ. Don't let anybody cause you to
cease doing that which he says is good, what he says is right. He's able to protect you from
all your enemies. This is what we saw him do right
here. That's what he did. He silenced the mouth of his
enemies. He withdrew his disciples, protected them. That's exactly
what he does. Thirdly, trust the Lord to heal
that which is withered. You lack faith. The Lord's the
only one that can increase our faith. Do we lack wisdom? The Lord's the only one that
can make our wisdom cease to be our own and be Him. He's the only one that can make
us not lean to our own understanding, but look to Him. The only one
that can do that. The things that we go through
in this life with each other, Assembled here together as His
people. It's not necessarily so much about the actual physical
things themselves as much as they are about learning to trust
the Lord and rely entirely upon Him. That's what it's about.
That's what these things are about. He's going to draw His
children to Himself. He's going to make His children
rely entirely upon Him. Don't ever look to our withered
hands. Don't ever look to our withered hands. Look to His pierced
hands. and know by his pierced hands,
he gonna provide. He has. And this is the last
thing. If you've heard what great things
he's done, if you've heard what great things he's done, like
these multitudes who followed him in hope, believe on him,
trust him, and keep following him in hope. Isn't he our hope? Christ in you, the hope of glory. Thank you.