fast. Matthew chapter 12, be looking
mainly at verses 9 through verse 14. The scripture says, And when
he was departed thence, he went into their synagogue. And behold,
there was a man which had a hand withered. And they asked him,
saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? that they
might accuse him. And he said unto them, What man
shall there be among you that have one sheep, and if he fall
into a pit on the sabbath day will not lay hold on it and lift
it out? How much then is a man better
than a sheep? Wherefore, it is lawful to do
well on the sabbath day. And he said to the man, Stretch
forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth, and
it was restored whole like the other. Then the Pharisees went
out and held counsel against him, how they might destroy him.
I entitled this message, Hope for the Withered Soul. Hope for
the Withered Soul. And Lord Jesus Christ in this
chapter, in this chapter he reveals himself to be the Lord of the
Sabbath. He said that in verse 8, For
the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. I admire the providence
of Christ in arranging this. It was no accident He was walking
through that wheat field on the Sabbath day. It was no accident
that His disciples were in hunger at that particular moment and
grabbed that wheat and Luke said they rubbed it in their hands
and that was That was the sin against the tradition that they
were talking about. Not that they ate it, but that they rubbed
their hands to get the corn or wheat out. And I want you to
notice how the Pharisees were watching them. I mean, can you
imagine following them through a grain field, watching them
at every move, trying to find something that they could accuse
them of? Imagine if somebody walked around
behind you like that. They wouldn't take long to figure
something wrong with you. But that's what they found. And Jesus Christ, He said this,
I'm Lord of the Sabbath. What He was saying is this, I
am the fulfillment of the Sabbath. In fact, in the previous chapter,
that's the cry that He made. He said, Come unto Me, all you
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you, what? Rest. He said, I'm rest. If there's
any sinner who needs rest, rest from his guilt, rest from his
shame, rests from the justice and the wrath of God pursuing
him. Christ said, I'm the one, I'm
rest. Come unto me and find rest. So he tells them, I'm the fulfillment
of the Sabbath. If you were to go to Hebrews
chapter 4, the apostle says this in verse 4, For he spake in a
certain place of the seventh day on this wise. And God did
rest The seventh day from all His works. Now why did God, how
did God rest? He stopped creating. That's what
He did. He created for six days. And on the seventh day He ceased
to create. Why? It was done. There was no more things needed
to be created. Now why did He do it that way? Because Christ, he was picturing
Christ. And the apostle says this in
verse 10. For he that is entered into his
rest. Now he's talking about Christ.
He who is entered into his rest. He satisfied the law of God,
the justice of God. He saved his people from their
sins. And what did he do right after that? He's done salvation like God's
creation. God was finished creating. Christ
was finished saving. He saved them. His work was done. He entered into His rest. He
also sees from His own works as God did from His. So Christ
is showing them, I'm the Sabbath. I'm the Sabbath. And also, He exposes the hypocrisy
of their vain traditions. The vain traditions of men. And what were these traditions?
They were additions. God's law stated clearly that
they were to rest upon the Sabbath. They would do no work. And so
what did they do? They said, well, what is work?
And then they said, okay, well work is this, and work is this,
and work is this, but work is not this. And they had started
making rules of what work means. If they just took it at its,
if they just rest it. If you need to eat, eat. If you
need to pick corn, pick corn. It's not working, you gotta eat. Now listen, I've read some of
these rules and they're just outlandishly Horrible. If a man had a sore throat, he
could not gargle with oil, but he could swallow it. If he could swallow it, and if
it just so happened to heal his sore throat, so be it. But if
he intended to heal his throat by gargling, he was disobeying
the Sabbath. Just like these disciples, they
put their hands and they just picked this corn and they rubbed
it together. And they said, oh, you broke
the law. No, he broke their traditions.
He didn't break the law, they broke the tradition. And so he's
going to expose their hypocrisy. And their hypocrisy was that
they didn't understand. They didn't understand God's
word. They didn't understand the purpose
of that Sabbath day law. They didn't understand He said
that to him. He said, If you had known what
it means. If you had known what the scripture
means. This one right here. Listen to this scripture. This
is in Hosea 6 and verse 6 if you want to read that later.
But it says, I will have mercy. See what God's purpose is? God's
purpose is what? Mercy. And not sacrifice. I don't want your works. They're
no good. But I want to show you mercy.
I will show you mercy. Now if you understood that, Jesus
said, you wouldn't condemn these fellows. You wouldn't condemn
those that are guiltless. They didn't understand that God
desired mercy. And the cruel, cold offerings
of the Levitical sacrifices were of no value to the souls of men. They didn't understand that.
They didn't see these sacrifices and these Sabbaths as they were
intended to point them to Christ. That's what they were intended
to do. The Sabbath was standing in front of them. Had they believed
Him, they would have rested from all their traditions and vain
laws. They wouldn't have need of sacrifices
anymore. He was the sacrifice. He said
one's better than the temple standing right here. All their vain sacrifices had
no value to meet the need of the souls of men. They did not
see their offerings in Sabbath, only spoke of Christ. Jesus is
the Sabbath for sinners come unto me. Not coming to a creed, is it?
Not coming to a denomination or another man? to mediate between
you and God. He said, come directly to me.
If you want to be saved, listen, come to Christ. Come to him. Do you need rest? You see, the
Sabbath is for people who need rest. Those who are labor and
heavy laden. You heavy laden? He said, come
to me and you'll find a Sabbath, an eternal Sabbath, a never-ending
Sabbath. Christ is a Sabbath for sinners
and Him alone is peace with God. For the Son of God was infinitely
loved of the Father. He was sent of God as an act
of mercy. And all who believe on Him will
find rest. Rest from laboring. Religion
is a labor, friends. Works religion is a never-ending
constant labor. And it only increases. It only increases. It never finds
rest. We have therefore no need then
of the observance of the Sabbath. Because Jesus has fulfilled it.
A lot of people talk about Sabbath worship. They say, well you need
to obey the Sabbath. Well, I am. Christ is my Sabbath. It's no longer a day, it's a
person. The day represented the person. And the person has come. Do you
offer sacrifices anymore? Why don't you offer sacrifices?
If you want to obey the Sabbath, why don't you offer sacrifices?
Oh, well that's done. How can one be done and the other
not? How can you pick and choose which law you would obey and
which one you would forbear? The law is the law, I don't care
which part of it, so there is no more Sabbath days. No more need for that. Christ
is our rest. But He not only declared His
right to be Lord of the Sabbath, but listen, He proved it. He
just didn't say it. Our Lord proved He was Lord of
the Sabbath. How'd He do it? By healing this
man on the Sabbath day. He proved it. proves His mercy
in healing this man. In spite of their objections,
in spite of what those wicked men thought, our Lord had a purpose
in this. And I tell you the purpose. It
is not only to declare Him Lord of the Sabbath, but this man
was healed because of it. The Lord determined to heal this
man long before they made an objection. That was his purpose
all along, was to show mercy to this man. And these Pharisees,
these very religious, zealous men, they were zealous for their
traditions, they were self-righteous and they thought much of their
religious works, they were zealous in obeying the law, especially
the traditions. But their zeal, if you'll notice
their attitude, their zeal did not gender mercy. It did not produce mercy. They would have rather had this
man not been healed so as to obey their vain traditions. It gendered self-righteousness
and hard-heartedness. All legalistic religion does.
All legalistic religion genders It produces a heart not of compassion. It causes men to look down upon
others. If you have a church that is
trying to obey a certain set of rules, and you have a person
in the church that obeys them rules and he's really good, and
you've got some people down here like me, we just can't reach
that high. What are you going to do? That
person's going to look down on us. They're going to look down
and they're going to say, Look at that poor guy struggling.
They call that compassion. Like they're so high above us
and they just want to help us up to their level. That reminds you of anybody?
That Pharisee. Oh, I thank you God that I give
tithes of all that I have. Oh, I thank you. I fast twice
in the week. And I'm not like that man over
there, that publican. I thank you. Do we not all have that heart
of self-righteousness? We do. Our Lord here exposes this in
them. It doesn't show compassion. It
doesn't show mercy. Over in Colossians, I believe
chapter two, In verse 20, the apostle says, Wherefore, if we
be dead with Christ from the rudiments
of the world, why, as though living in the world, are you
subject to ordinances? Touch not, taste not, handle
not, which are all to perish with the using. After the commandments
and doctrines of men, which things indeed have a show of wisdom
in will worship and humility? and neglecting the body, but not any honor or the satisfying
of the flesh. In other words, these are just
a show. Religion puts on a show. That's it. It's all it can do. It doesn't have a heart of real
mercy. Now listen, if I were to preach
Legalism if I were to preach obedience to the law if I were
to preach That man is is really somehow has some goodness in
him And I need to teach you how to be good, and I start doing
instructional messages on how to This place be full Why because
we're all Self-righteous by nature that kind of thing is appealing
to the flesh, but Paul said it's just it's not real humility It's
false humility. Those kind of people want others
just to be moral as they are. They say, well, look, I'm moral
and I just want everybody else to be as moral as me. But as we shall see, Jesus Christ,
listen, He was the righteousness of God. If you want to talk about
a righteous man, the righteous man was standing in front of
them. The righteous man. And he was totally opposite of
them. These self-righteous men desired
no mercy, but a righteous man desires mercy. A righteous man,
a really righteous man, shows humility. He was against their
self-righteous pride. And in verse 10 he says, And
behold, there was a man that had a withered hand. And they
asked him, saying, Is it lawful on the Sabbath day that they
might accuse him? Now listen, I wondered, I don't
know. I think they set him up. I think
they brought that man with the withered hand in there just so
they can find reason to accuse him. They were using that man. They were using him. They didn't
ask for information. Every time the Pharisees asked
Jesus something, I want you to understand, they think they got
him both ways. If he shows mercy, they say, ah, you disobeyed the
Sabbath. And if he doesn't heal him, they
say, ah, you're not a merciful man. See, they think they have
him both ways. They set this man up there and
they asked that question, is it lawful to heal on a Sabbath
day? Now Jesus knew that these were the first ever PETA executives. These men loved animals more
than they had any compassion on men. You remember those animal
rights people, boy, they'd rather you die to save a dog. They would. They'd rather you be beat than
the dog. They loved their sheep. Why?
Because their sheep did something for them, provided their wool,
provided their money, They love their sheep. Jesus knew this. And so He says to them, what
man be there among you? You got one sheep. If he fall
into a pit on the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it and
lift it out? Now is that not, will you not be merciful to that
sheep? That sheep wallowing in that pit, dying on its back,
would you leave it there because it's the Sabbath day? I can imagine
that some of those guys had mud on their shoes that morning because
they had probably pulled out a sheep that morning. Whether
they did it that morning or some other morning, I'll tell you,
they did it. He knew they did it. On the Sabbath, they pulled
that sheep out. And he said, look, isn't a man
better than a sheep? Of course he is. Here was a man
suffering. This man, It wasn't just his
hand. The language here is not just
about a hand. It's really his right arm. The
whole right arm of this man was dried up. He could not move it. He could not work. He could not
provide for himself nor his family. And these men had no compassion
on him. They would have rather him never
be healed to prove their point. and no love. They would have took out their
sheep, but they wouldn't let this man be. This man, he could
not provide for himself. He was suffering. Friends, there
were no social things like welfare in that day. If you didn't work,
you didn't eat. And if your family starved, they
just starved. This man He had no means to help
himself. Yet Jesus, in humility, showed
his power and authority. And listen, he said, now that's
important. Jesus didn't take this man's
hand and rub it. Or he didn't take any medicine
and put it on there. He really didn't break any of
their traditions by saying this. He just said it. He said, stretch
forth thine hand. And listen, immediately it was
made just like the other. Now, Sherry's got her knee, right? She got her knee replaced, right?
And then, you know, is it like the other one yet? No. You got to work up. You got to
go to therapy. You got to build it up. Immediately,
his right hand was just as strong as it left. Immediately. It made him whole. And this act
of great mercy. Do you think that man was happy?
Do you think that man cared what the Pharisees thought? Do you not suppose he wept and
rejoiced that Christ made him whole? You bet he did. He more likely praised Christ. But this act of mercy, I want
you to see it was not just for this man. It's for you. Jesus
did all of this for us. He left it for us. Why? What does this mean to us? I
know what it meant to Him. What does it mean to us? This
again, His miracles were not just showing off. His miracles
were not just intended for that one person He healed. It was
intended to show His salvation. That's all He did. Every miracle
you can preach is salvation of Christ. First of all, what is
this withered man? Who is he to us? He is a picture
of our nature. He is a picture of our nature.
His withered arm is a picture of our nature. We by nature in
our hearts are withered. Just as that a hand of His was
immovable, That hand to Him was useless. It could not grasp. It could not work. It could not
earn a living. Neither can our nature earn our
salvation. Our nature could never lay hold
on Christ. It's withered. It's dead. We
can say all we want to, and the scriptures are good. Whosoever
believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. Isn't that true?
That's just true. You know what the problem is?
You're withered. You're withered. Your nature
is dead. It's drawn up. It's useless to
save you. It's been said that faith is
the empty hand that receives the bread, but friend, that hand
is crippled. Nature, by nature, our hand is
crippled so that it cannot and will not receive Christ. Our
Lord said no man can. Come unto me. Now who in the
world can't understand that? Anybody not understand that?
No man can. Come unto me. Now you would just have to really
be hard pressed to try to twist that, wouldn't you? except the
Father which hath sent me draw him. This man could not grasp. This man's hand could not move. It could not stretch forth until
it had power from God. And neither can you receive Christ
except God give you life. The natural man receiveth not
the things God, for their foolishness unto him, neither can he know
them, because he's spiritually judged. He's withered. Even so, our hand of faith is
drawn up immobile, unable to receive the gospel. Our hearts
are hard and closed. And our fists are closed to God,
saying, I will not have this man to rule over me. Yet like this man, everyone that
God will save, everyone that God will save, there is an appointed
time where he gives them life. There's always an appointed time
for the elect. God said this, I know my thoughts
of you. I know my thoughts towards you.
What was Christ's thoughts toward this man? Did he not know then? Was this accidental healing?
No, this was appointed healing. I know my thoughts toward you,
thoughts of peace and not of evil. This man is a picture of
all of the elect. God's thoughts toward us are
of peace and not of evil. And at the appointed time of
grace, He issues forth a command, live. We came into that building or
wherever we heard the gospel that day, we were dead. We're
like this man. This man, he went in withered,
and I'll tell you this, he expected to go out the same, didn't he? When I heard the gospel that
day, I came in expecting that I would go out the same. And then he said to me, live,
stretch forth thy hand, and receive me. It was not an
invitation, it was a command. And with that command came power
to receive him. As many as received him, to them
gave he the right to become the sons of God. Have you received
him? Has the empty hand of faith received
the bread of life? What is the cause? What is the
root cause of that stretching forth of the hand? It is the
will and power of God. Scripture says that they that
received him were born not of the flesh, not of the will of
man, not of the will of flesh, but of God. That's how you received him.
It's God gave you the power. And you did. Did you receive
him? How gladly did you how glad this
man stretched forth his hand? How gladly was it? He said, no. No. So I choose not to. As like Lazarus refusing to come
forward. Lazarus was dead and he said, come forth. What else
could he do? When Christ said to you, believe,
what else could you do? What else could you do? You couldn't
do nothing but believe. Why you? Why you? Why not the countless thousands
around you? Mercy. Christ towards you. Grace. Grace. He said, stretch
forth thine hand. It was appointed. Secondly, this
is the manifestation of this grace, of its healing. This man came to this appointed
place, didn't he? This place of worship. If someone's
going to be healed, where does he have to go? He has to go where
Christ is. Now, whether this man was brought there by the
Pharisees or whether he came on his own, I don't know. Really,
I don't. But it really doesn't matter, does it? When God saves
a sinner, he'll always bring him to the place where he is.
And where's Christ? Where does he say he's going
to be manifest? Where two or three are gathered together in
my name, there I am in the midst of them. Is there anyone who
needs healing? Any sinner need healing? Where
should you go? You should go where He is. You
should go where His Word is preached. This is the means by which God
saves sinners. What men call foolishness. What men put toward the back. They say, well, if I ain't got
nothing else to do, then I'll go. Why? They don't have a need. They're
not withered. Only sinners have a need. And
sinners, if you have a need, you should come where Christ
is. Christ. Come to Christ. And when you
come here, don't come to me. I ain't got no power to stretch
forth your hand. Don't go to anyone else. Go to
Christ. Hear Him. I'm preaching of Him. I want you to hear of Him and
His mercy. Scripture says but God who is
rich in mercy this man had plans, but not God had other plans for
this man better plans and So he did with us. He met us at
the appointed time and he healed us According to his mercy God
who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved
us And then when he said to us, believe, what's the evidence
that he said that? How do you know he said that
to you? How do you know he gave you power? How do you know he
saved you? The only evidence of that is
what? Faith. Faith is the stretching forth
of the hand. The evidence that this man was
healed was that his hands stretched forth. The evidence that the
sinner is saved is that his faith stretches forth. He believes
on Christ. He trusts in Christ and abandons
everything else. He lays his soul completely on
the person and the work of Christ and no merits of will or flesh
enter in. Christ is all. Christ is all. Everyone that is found of Christ,
listen, we weren't seeking Christ, but he was seeking you. He was
seeking us. Because his thoughts were of
peace to bring us to an expected end. No, Paul was not seeking
Christ, was he? Matter of fact, he was trying
to kill the church. Who was seeking who? God sought
him. God found him. And listen, friends,
God saved him. And that's our experience, isn't
it? We who believe, we who understand the withered nature of our soul,
we know this, I could not have believed had he not met me, had
he not spoke to me. And when he did, there was nothing
else I could do but believe and trust in him. We knew this, that there was
none righteous, no, not one. There was none that seeketh after
God, but he sought us. He found us. Therefore, all salvation
is by grace. This healing of this man was
by an act of grace. There's nothing written about
the merit of this man. What could he have done to move
Christ to save him? Friends, he was not the only
man in the world with a withered hand. It was grace. It was grace that
found him at the appointed place. He was expecting the same old,
same old. But he was surprised. He was
surprised. That's our experience, isn't
it? We came in expecting not to have anything. We heard that
message of God, Christ. We've heard it a thousand times
over. Came in the church the same way. Never thought it would
be that day. And that day came. We thought we'd go out the same,
but we didn't. We were surprised by grace. Grace
is always a surprise. Grace is always a surprise. We
were surprised by grace when Christ came and saved us. We came in withered and dead
and cold and dry and clenched against God, but we left with
a heart melted by the love of God. We left with a new heart. We left with the Holy Spirit.
We left open to receive Christ continually,
trusting only in His blood and righteousness. Believer in Christ, let us then
praise our God for his grace. To him alone be glory for all
our salvation. Consider the God of all grace.
It was God that saved us. Why don't we say that? What do
we mean God saved us? We mean that all of the persons
of the Godhead, all of the will and the power and the purpose
and the counsels of God was that He should save us. The Father
chose us. The Son redeemed us. The Spirit called us. And today you are still reaching
for Christ. You are still believing in Christ.
Why? Because the Spirit of God is
keeping you. That's why. Salvation is of the
Lord. I want you to see this go to
first Corinthians, first Corinthians. In Chapter one. First Corinthians, Chapter one
reveals to us the means of God carrying out this grace. This grace of salvation. The means of carrying this out,
of course, is the preaching of the gospel. It pleased God by
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Why?
Why has God chosen preaching? To men, it's the most worthless
means. I was a teacher for a long time, and we were always taught
this in college, that auditory learning is the worst means of
communication, of teaching. Visual tactile those kind of
things if you want to learn something that hands-on usually is the
best God says What you call wisdom? I'm gonna call foolishness and
I'm gonna take the most foolish way that men think and I want
to make that the means by which I save men preaching preaching
Why does he do that? Verse 29 says that no flesh should
glory. There's no glorying in the preacher. There's no glorying in the preacher's
message. It's not my ability to speak. It's not my ability to write.
It's not my ability to communicate these things to you. It's not your ability to receive
these things. It's all of God. Every bit of
this is of God. God saves. He uses preaching
that no flesh should glow in His presence. Man by nature tries
to reserve some glory for himself. That salvation is somehow a joint
effort. It's not. It's not a joint effort. They say, well, you can either
get salvation and keep salvation by something you do. Friends,
that's what the Pharisees thought. Not what Scripture teaches. Therefore,
any who try to add things to Christ. Isn't that what the Pharisees
were doing, adding? They were adding to the law. They couldn't
obey the law as it was, so what do they do? They make loopholes.
They add to it so that they can somehow manage to obey it, at
least in the eyes of men. You add anything to Christ, now
listen to me, this is important. If you add anything to Christ,
Christ will profit you nothing. I don't care who you are, Paul
said. I don't care who you are. I don't care if you're a preacher.
I don't care if you're a deacon. I don't care how long you've
been in the church. I don't care how many good works you've done,
how many people you've helped. Listen, if you add one thing
to Christ, Christ shall profit you nothing. This is true of any work of law
or religion, act or free will. Christ will profit you nothing.
Salvation is by grace and grace alone. Look at verse 30. This
is the message of hope to the withered soul. This is the gospel
message. But of him are you in Christ
Jesus. Who in the world put you in union
with Christ Jesus? Who puts you in union with Christ?
Now you listen, faith is necessary. Faith is a manifestation of our
union with Christ. Faith does not put you in union
with Christ. Faith is the evidence that you
are in union with Christ. God put you in union with Christ. Before the world began, God put
us in union with His Son. According as He had chosen us
in Christ, before the foundation of the world, for this purpose,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him, in love, having
predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ. God put us in union with Christ. Now what's so special about that?
Because God made Him to be something. God purposed that He be something
who of God is made unto us. Now listen, He was already these
things. Christ was already wisdom. He
was already the redemption. He was already these things.
Listen, but God made Him to be these things for us. Those He
put in Christ. What? Wisdom. Wisdom. What is the wisdom of God? It's
Christ. He's the wisdom of God. How God
can be just and justify the ungodly. You understand the answer to
that, you've got wisdom. It's Christ. It's a substitutionary
work of Christ. He has made unto Him us wisdom. Do you know that wisdom? How
do you know that wisdom? Because He commanded you to know
that wisdom. He made Christ that wisdom for
you, and He gave you that wisdom. Secondly, and righteousness. Christ is all our righteousness. We're withered because we have
no righteousness. When God saves us, what does
He give us? He gives us righteousness. Where'd that come from? Well,
it came from Christ. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. That's how this righteousness
was made. It was made by Christ. And it
is that righteousness He gives to the withered soul. He gives
us knowledge of God, knowledge of our sin, knowledge of Christ.
of our need. He gives us faith to receive.
That's wisdom, is it? To believe on Christ in that
wisdom? That's just wise. We made Christ to be our wisdom
and our righteousness. You got any righteousness this
morning? Where's it come from? Whose is it? Where'd you get
it? I got it from him. He made it. He gave it to me. He gave it
to me. Righteousness, sanctification. Oh, here's where the rub in religion
is, isn't it? God made him to be what? Our
wisdom, our righteousness, and our sanctification. Wait a second,
don't I need to do something? No. You need to do anything for
that wisdom? Did you do anything for that
righteousness? Well, the same is true about sanctification.
He is made to be our holiness. sanctification we were set apart
in him he set us apart in time by giving us life and righteousness
and faith and a holy nature he sanctified it and listen if you
continue to be sanctified by by obeying and believing in Christ
who gives you that he did he's my sanctification not a cooperative
effort here friend and he is my redemption What
is this? He bear my sin in his own body on the tree. Scripture says he redeemed us
from the curse of the law. As it is written, cursed is everyone
that hangeth on a tree. He redeemed us from the curse
of the law by being made a curse for us. He was made a curse. And the justice of God was completely
poured out on him. God made him to be our redemption. He bought. Isn't this something
the believer, you are not your own. We are not our own. Listen, if the Son shall set
you free, you shall be free indeed. Free from what? The wrath of
God, the justice of God, free from the power of sin, the penalty
of sin, and one day the presence of sin. But I'll tell you this,
I don't want to be free from Him. I'm bound to Him. I'm bound to Him. He is my wisdom,
my righteousness, my sanctification, and my redemption. He is all
my salvation, that according as it is written, he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. And now, we that have been made
whole, we're like this man. Our nature was withered, and
here comes the Sabbath of rest. and he gives us life, he gives
us faith. Now what do you do with that
hand? Scripture says we lay hold of
the hope set before us. We lay hold. This morning, I lay hold of Christ. He's all my hope. He's all my
salvation. You know what? He gave me the
strength to lay hold. I was withered. And I know this,
how often does a soul feel withered? You know what, He's still the
refreshing Savior. How often does He refresh the
wearied, withered soul? He is our rest. And I'll tell
you this, if we're weary and withered, it's our own fault.
Isn't it? Isn't He our rest? Labor, therefore,
to what? Enter in to His rest. Putting
off the old man and his deeds. Putting off and putting on Christ
constantly. That's why you got that strength.
That's why I gave you strength in that arm. So that you will
believe, that you constantly believe. Christ is the hope for
the withered soul. I pray God will bless us. This
stand be dismissed in prayer.