Good to see you here this morning.
You will take your Bibles and turn with me to Matthew chapter
12. Matthew chapter 12, we'll be looking at verses 9 through
14 this morning. Matthew chapter 12, verses 9
through 14. The title of the message this morning
is Grace to the Withered Soul. Grace to the Withered Soul. And the Lord Jesus Christ, after
revealing Himself to be the Lord of the Sabbath, in verse 8 He
says, For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath day. The fulfillment of the Sabbath
rest is Jesus Christ. He is the Sabbath of rest to
everyone who believes on Him. Everyone who comes to Him, laden
and heavy laden, in the previous chapter, He says, I will give
you rest. And here He proclaims to these
Pharisees that He is the Lord of the Sabbath, and also He exposes
the hypocrisy of the Pharisees' traditions which added things
to the Sabbath that opposed rest. Friends, anything added to the
gospel is in opposition to rest. It's in opposition to rest. And
it brings more burdens than rest. They did not understand that
God's desire for mercy was in opposition to their cold
offering of Levitical service were of no value to the souls
of man. They thought they had value,
didn't they? They thought they were doing a good service to
men. They thought they were doing well by obeying, trying to obey
the law for their salvation and to teach men to obey the law
for their salvation. They thought they were doing
well. But friends, they had no value to the souls of men. Rather,
only burdens to men did they give. Jesus Christ is God's Sabbath
for sinners, and in Him alone is peace with God. The Son of
God, infinitely loved of the Father, was sent of God by mercy. And all who believe in Him can
find rest and peace for their souls. But He not only declared His
right to be Lord of the Sabbath. It's one thing to declare something,
isn't it? It's another thing to prove it all together. Christ
not only left them with His authority and His Word, which should have
been enough. It should have been enough to say, look, I'm Lord
of the Sabbath. And they should have said, yes sir. They should
have bowed down and worshipped Him. But in mercy, in grace,
He would not only tell them He was Lord of the Sabbath, but
He would prove He was Lord of the Sabbath. He proved it by
healing this man with the withered hand. He said to the man with
the withered hand, stretch forth thine hand. And when he stretched
it forth, it was whole like the other. He healed this man out
of mercy. These Pharisees, these very religious
men, were zealous for their traditions. They were self-righteous and
thought much of their works. But this did not produce a heart
of mercy, but rather a hard heart to the needs of men. That's all legalistic works religion
can produce is a cold, hard heart. That's it. It can do nothing
else. It cannot produce mercy. All
legalistic works religion will never cause men to show mercy
to others. It will cause them to look down
on others as self-righteous in their duty. It will cause them
to make a show in front of others. But it will not change the heart
of men. Legal religion only yields pride,
not humility. I've used this illustration before,
but if I were to preach a series on relationships, I would be
preaching a series on divorce or some trouble that you're going
through. And I would preach, and I'd take
it from the Scriptures, and I'd start preaching about your needs,
your physical needs. Say it was marriage, and then
you and your wife, you were having trouble, and all of a sudden,
this thing, you hear the message, and all of a sudden, everything's
working out now. Oh, your marriage is so great! And what's the first
thing you'll do? Well, you know what? So-and-so
needs this. You see, you no longer need it
anymore. But so-and-so needs it. What do you just do? You
just look down on somebody because you're all fixed. You're better. And that's the same way it is.
When you preach legalistic works religion and you get to the pinnacle
to where you think you're doing well, the first thing you do
is you look down on someone else. No. That's self-righteousness. That's not humility. It promotes only pride and arrogancy. But as we shall see, Jesus was
so far in the opposite direction in this matter of mercy and humility
as in opposition to this false works religion of the Pharisees. He was against the legalistic
pride of self-righteousness. When the self-righteous, proud
legalists tried to find a cause to accuse Him of breaking their
traditions, they unknowingly were used of God to show mercy. Show a picture of mercy in Christ
in this man with a withered hand. They didn't know what they were
doing. They were trying to accuse him. They said, hey, look at
this man over here. Is it legal for you to heal this
man? And against their traditions,
their tradition says you weren't supposed to apply any medicine
to heal on the Sabbath day. That was their tradition. And
they were unknowingly, unwittingly used of God by providence. And
make no mistake about it, we should not be discouraged by
what evil men do, because God uses them for the furtherance
of His gospel always, always, always, always. Did I not say
always? Always uses them for the furtherance
of His gospel, and they do nothing without His sovereign permission.
And so these men, look at this in verse 9. 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 days, that they might accuse
him? Friends, Jesus' response here
is very simple. This is not complicated. He knew
their thoughts. He knew what they had done. And
no doubt, these men were guilty of breaking their own traditions
concerning their own animals. Look at this. He said unto them,
What man shall there be among you that shall have one sheep? And if he fall into a pit on
the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it and lift him out? How much then is a man better
than a sheep Wherefore it is lawful to do good, to do well
on the Sabbath days." Jesus probably understood these guys were the
founders of PETA, that pet organization that loves animals. I believe
these guys were it. They would rather have an animal
to live and let a human die. They would. They would take their
sheep and they would get that sheep out of a pit on a Sabbath
day, but here's a man who comes to the synagogue, comes to worship
God, comes and he's withered. And yet now then there's one
to heal, one standing there. Why would they not ask him, Lord,
would you not heal this man, please? He's in a pit. He can't
get out. His hand is withered. No. They wanted to accuse him. They wanted to accuse him. And Jesus said, stretch forth
thine hand. Jesus healed this poor man in
spite of the wicked efforts of the religious man. He showed
mercy. Believer in Christ, Go and do
likewise. Show mercy. If you've received
grace, why do you act like you haven't received it? Why do you think you had something
better than someone else? No. Mercy. Mercy. That's what we received. We should
give mercy, just like Christ did. It was an act of great mercy. Our Lord was not only manifesting
His power and authority to be the Lord of the Sabbath, but
He was also giving another picture of grace for us. in doing this. Isn't that wonderful? Do you
realize He thought of you and this day that we're talking about
this? Do you realize that He had thoughts of you and me today? Because He had this picture for
us this morning. This is a picture for us. He
not only did it to prove Himself to be the Christ, but He also
showed us once again His great mercy toward us in another picture. Another picture. This man who
had a withered hand, he is a picture of the withered nature of man. Depravity. Depravity. By nature, in our hearts, we
are withered as this hand, unwilling and unable to stretch it out
in faith to Christ. And one man once said that faith
is nothing more than an empty hand receiving. Well, guess what? Our hand is withered and we can't
even receive it. We can't. It's closed. It's closed to the Gospel, closed
to God, closed to Christ. It's withered up. It has no ability. This man could do no work with
his hand. It was worthless. It was useless to him. Even so, our hand of faith was
drawn up, immobile, unable to receive the gospel. Our hearts
were a hand withered. And what is a hand withered but
a fist? Isn't that it? If your hand is withered up,
what is it but a fist? Is that not what we did to God?
We shook our fist in His face and said, I will not have this
man to rule over me. Men by nature are haters of God. Oh, not me. Oh, I've always loved
God. That's too long. That's too long. Friends, we have a withered nature
that cannot love God. It's enmity against God. It's
not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can be. Why? It's
withered. It's withered up. It's useless. Yet when the appointed time of
grace came for us who believe, we know that it was the command
of Christ that opened and healed the withered hand. It was by
the mercy and grace of Christ alone that we could then stretch
forth our hand in faith and receive Christ. That's it. We could not. And He said, stretch forth thine
hand. And we said, okay. Okay. Do you imagine that this hand
would have not obeyed Christ? Do you imagine that man's withered
hand would have said, no, I like to be withered. No! He stretched it out. Power. With power comes ability. With
grace comes ability to believe. Without grace, there is no ability. Second of all, this manifests
that salvation is absolutely, completely and utterly of grace. This man was at the appointed
time of worship. He came to this synagogue. And
you know, this man, when he came in, I suspect that he thought
he would go out the same way he came in, didn't you? I bet
he woke up that morning, said, well, I've got to go to the synagogue. It's my duty. Oh, man, not again. Isn't that what you children
say? Oh, not again. I've got to go to church." Oh,
that's probably how this man went to church, I don't know,
but he was there. He was there at the appointed time, as he
was probably every Sabbath. This man probably had to go every
Sabbath. But you know what? He didn't expect something. Something
happened that Sabbath that changed this man's life forever. He went into the synagogue expecting
to leave the same way he went in, but God, who is rich in mercy,
had other plans of grace for him. God had other plans of mercy
for him. Plans to heal him. Plans to reveal
the power of Christ to him. Jeremiah 29, God says, I know
my thoughts of you. Thoughts to do you good and not
evil. God knows His thoughts for His
people. God's thoughts were to this man from eternity. Christ came to their synagogue. Why did He go to their synagogue? Because there was a man there.
There was someone He must meet. The same way with the woman at
the well. I must needs go through Samaria. Why? There was a woman
there. that I must meet. There's an
appointed time that she's going to be there, and I'm going to
be there, and I'm going to preach the gospel to her, and she's
going to be saved. Same with this withered man.
I said, there's a withered man there, God said. And he said,
I know my thoughts of him, that I'm going to show him mercy.
The man had no idea. The Pharisees had no idea. Christ
knew. Christ knew. And this man, This man was surprised by grace,
as was I and you." My friends were surprised. My
friends were surprised. Oh, they knew I was religious,
but they had no idea you've gone too far now. They were surprised. I was surprised. I was. And God had mercy on me. I was
expecting to go into church one way and go out the same way.
And I came out different. It was something different. God said, stretch forth thy withered
soul. And I stretched it forth. With
power comes ability. God says, men aren't seeking
Me. The Scripture says, there is
none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God. Now, you may be seeking
after a God of your own imagination, or you may be trying to learn
God by your academic means, or you might be trying to earn no
earthly wisdom or theology. But friends, you're not seeking
God if you're lost. You better pray God seeks you
and finds you. God's not lost. He don't need
to be found. You do. You do. Sinners need to be found of God.
And it's after they are found of God that they call on God,
that they beg God for mercy. It's after grace comes that a
sinner believes. We weren't seeking God, but praise
God, He knew He was seeking us. Therefore, salvation is all of
grace. All of grace. It was by the providence of God
to lead us to an appointed time and place, to where the gospel
was being preached, and expecting the same old thing, we were surprised
by grace. Surprised to leave the place
of worship different than we came in. Surprised now that we
have been justified, redeemed, sanctified, and honored in Christ. Righteous before God. We came in with a withered heart
and left with a whole soul, having affection for Christ, longing
for Christ. We didn't know everything about
Christ. We knew this, Christ was our only hope. Believers in Christ, let us praise
our God for His grace. To Him alone be glory for all
our salvation. The Father chose us, the Son
redeemed us, the Holy Spirit calls us and keeps us until we
see Him face to face. That's salvation complete, perfect. Go with me to 1 Corinthians now,
in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Glorious passage of Scripture.
In 1 Corinthians 1, Paul reveals to these people in Corinth, the
meaning or the means of conveying His grace to men comes only by
the preaching of the gospel. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Why? Look at verse 29. That no flesh should glory in
His presence. That's why. This is why God chose
the means. This is why God chose the means
of preaching, and of preaching the gospel only, the one gospel
of Jesus Christ. God chose that means to convey
His message of grace to us. Paul said, I am not ashamed of
the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth. To everyone that believeth. Man
by nature always tries to reserve some glory for himself. He just
does. I did. You did before God came
to save you. We all did. It's our nature. It's our nature. It's our nature
to be wicked, to strive for glory. We believe that salvation was
some joint effort. Between us and God. As though
God had to do something, but we had to do something as well.
We had to put in our two cents. Therefore, any who try to add
one thing to the offering of Christ or the gospel of Christ
makes the gospel void and empty." Paul said, if you be circumcised,
Christ shall profit you nothing. That is a strong statement. I
don't think sometimes we read over that, and I know you know
that text, but listen to that. You be circumcised. If you take
that one act and put it with Christ, He is of no profit to
your soul. Your soul is withered and dried
and legalist. It is a legalistic soul. It's
natural to be legalists. It's supernatural to believe
in grace. It's supernatural. And this is true of any works
or law added to Christ. It will profit no man's souls,
nothing. Salvation is by grace, by the
power of God alone, so that no flesh should glory in His presence. Verse 30, "...but of Him are ye in Christ Jesus." You
who believe, listen to me. But of God are you in Christ
Jesus." Of who? God. Who put us in Christ? God did. When did God put us in Christ? Before the foundation of the
world. Ephesians 1, verse 4, "...according
as He had chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world."
And it is by God that we are presently in Christ. And it will be by God's grace
that we continue to be in Christ. Who put us in Christ? God did.
Who in time calls us to Christ, God does. And who keeps us in
Christ, God does. Where are you? In Christ. What
are you doing? Nothing. I'm doing nothing to
earn this. I'm in Christ. And God put me
here. God put me here. Grace. Why? Were you better? No. I was
withered. I was withered. I was useless. I could bring nothing and add
nothing to God. Can you add something to God?
You got something God wants? I don't. I don't have anything God wants.
I had something God would punish. That's all I had. Sin. I didn't
have anything else. God put me in Christ. Who? Christ of God is made unto us. Not according to our works of
righteousness, it says in Titus, but according to His mercy. Christ is made of God unto us. Look at these things here. Wisdom. and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. Who made Christ these things
for us? God did. What do we have to do with any
of these things? Absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing. We earned
none of these things. None of these things. He made
Christ to be these things for us. Wisdom. How do you know how
it is that God is just and justifies the ungodly when this lost religious
world doesn't have any clue? How do you know that? Are you
smarter? No. God made Christ unto us wisdom. He told us. He revealed it to
us. He by His Spirit came inside
and opened our hearts to see, gave us eyes to see. The answer
to the question of the ages, how can sinners be justified? Let me ask you this, how can
the guilty be innocent? That's what it's asking. I'm
not talking about pretend guilt and I'm not talking about pretend
innocence. I'm talking about real guilt and real innocence. How is that possible? It's a
mystery, isn't it? It's a mystery. But I know in
Christ. You see, God hath made Him sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. How? He took my sins and put
them on Christ and took His righteousness and gave it to me. That's how.
How old is His righteousness? Eternal. Guess what? My righteousness
was eternal. Because it was His. Now it's
mine. My sins were mine. And they became
His. Who can do that? Only God. Only
God can make him that. And I know that because of God's
grace. I'm not smarter. I just know
it because of the Spirit of God that testifies within me. I know
that. He's our wisdom and He's made
such. Number two, He's our righteousness.
He's all our righteousness. Jesus took the seed of Abraham
made of a woman. Conceived by the Holy Ghost so
that He might be our righteousness. He became a servant of God to
honor and glorify God in obedience to His law. In our text it says
down in verse 18, Behold my servant. Jesus Christ was made the servant
of God. Why? To obtain righteousness
as a man. It was man that brought sin in. It must therefore be man that
brings in righteousness. That's what Paul discusses in
Romans chapter 5, how it is that he needed to come to bring in
righteousness. This miracle of healing, this
man proved that Jesus was the Messiah, that He was the Lord
of the Sabbath and Lord of all of the law of God. And being
found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and made himself
of no reputation." At this time, Christ could have made Himself
a name. Is that right? Did He not prove? His Word by His miracle. Could
He not have put the Pharisees in their place at this time and
exalted Himself? He could have. He had them right
where He wanted them. They were silenced. They couldn't
say anything against Him. What did He do? He made of Himself
no reputation. He left without saying a word
and left. Not exalting Himself. In order
to fulfill the righteousness of God, he said, I am come not
to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. And Jesus Christ has fulfilled
all the righteousness of God as a man. So then God made His
righteousness, the righteousness of God, by His faithfulness to
fulfill all the Scriptures. Even so, we are guilty sinners. Yet because God imputed our sins
to Christ, He imputed His righteousness to us, and God made Him our righteousness. Who did it? God did. God made
Him my righteousness. What can anyone say against that?
Can anyone say anything about my righteousness? Can you say
anything against my righteousness? No. Why? God gave it. God gave
it to me. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It was God that justifies. And when we believe, friends,
we didn't earn anything by our faith, did we? Our faith didn't
earn anything. Matter of fact, our faith was
given to us. But when we believe, what happened? We realized. that Christ was our righteousness.
That's all we did. We were just open to the understanding
of what God had already done for us. He had already made Christ
our righteousness. But at that time of faith, He
imputes that righteousness and imparts that righteousness to
us and gives us a new nature which is holy and righteous.
Friends, do we have a new nature because of anything we've done?
No. All by grace, God has made Him
our righteousness. God has made Him our sanctification. And this subject today is widely
refused, that God has made Him our sanctification. It is being
taught that we make our sanctification, that we sanctify ourselves. Sanctification is a process in
the Old Testament where something was made holy for the service
of God in a ceremonial sense. But in a spiritual sense, friends,
it was God that sanctified us. It is God that sanctifies us. And it shall be God who sanctifies
us. We didn't make our wisdom, we
didn't make our righteousness, we didn't make our redemption.
How then can we make our sanctification? No. Let me ask you this. Is there
such a thing as more holy? Is that possible? Can you by your works, or your
good works that we are ordained to, can we make ourselves more
acceptable to God? Absolutely not. We do those out
of love. We are already accepted. And I do these things because
I love Him, not to seek any favor from Him or reward from Him.
I do these things because I love Him. This is the law of love.
This is the yoke of Christ that's put upon us. But we don't sanctify
ourselves. Nowhere in Scripture does it
tell us we sanctify ourselves or make ourselves more holy.
Yes, it tells us that we are to do good works, but these works
add nothing to our sanctification. Why? For God hath made Him to
be our sanctification. How? Through the Holy Spirit
that sanctifies you. The Holy Spirit. Beloved, we
are bound to give thanks to God always for you. Brethren, beloved
of the Lord, for God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit. Let me ask you, whose
fruits are those? If you produce good fruits, whose
are they? Yours or the Spirit's? My Scripture
says the fruit of the Spirit. So any good work that we do,
it is of the Spirit Himself. God hath before ordained these
good works. And lastly, God has made Christ
our redemption. Christ Himself, who was sinless, became the sin bearer for us. Someone once said, well, I put
my sins under the blood. How can you do that? How do you
put your sins on Christ? How is that possible? You can't. You see, God put our sins on
Christ. God imputed them to Him. We didn't. And when He was seen
under the weight of our sin, God rejected Him of all mercies,
both physical and spiritual mercies. He turned His back on His Son.
And He bled and died for our sins. And when He finished the
work, When He finished the work, we were bought by His blood. Bought. Redeemed. Purchased. We're His. How is that? Only by grace. only by grace. For by grace you are saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it, faith, is a gift of God,
not of works, lest any man should boast. We are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained, that we should walk in them." Who does all that? God. We should give Him the glory
and praise, for He has taken our withered soul and He said,
stretch it forth. And we had power to believe,
power to receive, grace to love and mercy. Mercy. What's the impact of this
message on the young regenerate? They took counsel together to
kill him. Is that not a wonderful message
to a man with a withered soul? That God does everything. It is to me. But to a man who
has no idea of his own depravity, he says this, I hate that God
and I hate that message. Don't think the world is going
to treat you any different. They're not. Grace, grace, grace. All of grace. For God hath made Him to be our
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Praise God. Praise God. Let's stand. We'll
be dismissed in prayer.