I'm reading from the Gospel of
Mark, chapter 3, this morning, if you want to follow along.
Mark, chapter 3. And there are several things
to be seen here, several contrasts. In the midst of the merciless,
there is mercy. In the midst of the graceless,
there is grace. In the midst of religion, there
is regeneration. In the midst of those who are
self-righteous, there is salvation. Here in Mark chapter 3, verse
1, it says, He entered again into the synagogue. Speaking
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is none other than the very God
of very God, God Almighty, the Lord, Malachi wrote, Whom you
seek shall suddenly come to his temple. Now this was God, and
he entered his house, God's house. And it's only God's house if
he is there. We can have all the ceremonies,
all the symbols, all the externals, all the people, but only if God
is present is it God's house. It says there was a man there
which had a withered hand. There was a man there. Whether
or not he always went to the synagogue, we do not know. But he was there this day, and
thank God he was there. He was purposed to be there by
God, predestined to be there by God, ordered by God before
the world began to be in the synagogue this day. This was
the day of his salvation. A man with a withered hand. He
was born crippled. His hand was useless, unable
to do what he would with it. It was a hindrance to him, rather,
and no help to anyone. And that's the way we are born
spiritually. We are born crippled spiritually,
with withered hands, withered feet, unable to walk by faith,
unable to walk in paths of righteousness. We have stony hearts. We're born dead in trespasses
and sin. We cannot help ourselves. We
have eyes that cannot see, cannot see God, cannot see ourselves,
cannot see the truth. Ears that will not hear, cannot
hear. Hearts that are hard, deceitful,
desperately wicked. Who can help us? the only one,
the same one who was this man's help this day. And this man was
in the right place. He was in God's house, the ordained
place of worship, the means of worship, the hearing of God's
Word, the reading of God's Word. Christ said, Where two or three
are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them. If
someone is going to have their withered heart healed, It will
be under the sound of the gospel in God's house. But the watchers
were there. God was there in his house this
day, but the watchers and accusers were there. It says, verse 2,
And they watched him, whether he would heal the man on the
Sabbath day, that they might accuse him. In God's house, you'll
find both. You'll find sinners. and you'll
find the self-righteous. You'll find sheep, and you'll
find goats. You'll find seekers, and you'll
find watchers. You'll find those in need of
mercy, those that accuse themselves, and those that accuse others.
I often preach, I have preached to watchers, those who are merely
spectators. and not needy, not poor and needy
like this fellow, needing a miracle, but watchers, trying to catch
you at a word. Accusers, those who only find
fault with what you say. Those who only find fault will
never find mercy. And as I said, there's mercy
here. even in the midst of mercilessness. Mercy in the person of God's
Son. See, all the goodness, mercy,
grace, help, and joy is found in one place, the Lord Jesus
Christ. In verse 3 it says, He said unto
the man, They were watching him that they might accuse him, but
he came to deal with this man. He saith unto the man which had
the withered hand, Stand forth. Arise, Christ says. Stand up
in the midst. Our Lord, as always, initiated
this. You see, he chose this man to
heal him. He approached this man. He looked
on this man. This was one of those whom he
had foreknown and foreordained. This man, he commanded this man,
stand forth, he said. He didn't ask him. He told him,
arise, stand forth in the midst. When our Lord says, come to his
people, that's a command, not a mere invitation. When the master
calls, he said, I call my sheep, they know my voice and they come.
It's a command. Repent. Believe. Confess. When he gives that command to
his people, it's effectual. If the king ever personally commands
you, you will stand forth. Because where the word of a king
is, there's power. You will come. You will arise
and go. to him. Yes, thy people shall
be willing in the day of thy power. Christ said, All that
the Father giveth me shall come unto me. So he commanded this
man, Stand forth in the midst. Now this was an embarrassing
thing to this man. He's going to draw attention
to this man's withered An embarrassing thing to this man to stand forth
in front of all those people and acknowledge his shortcoming. An humbling thing. Stand up in
the middle of the crowd. Now before there is salvation,
before there is any salvation for a person, there is humility. Better to be humble before man. and exalted by Christ than exalted
by man and later to be humbled by the Lord Jesus Christ. Would
you rather keep your reputation before man and lose your reputation,
your life, before God? Our Lord said, He that loseth
his life will find it. He that findeth his life will
lose it. Just take all that you have," he said. Verse 4, Christ
said unto them, these watchers, He said unto these watchers and
these accusers, He said, Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath
days or to do evil? To save life or to kill? They held their peace. He said
to them, these watchers, These accusers, these religious, self-righteous,
they that were whole or thought they were, they that were whole
and had no need of the position, these merciless men, these graceless
men, these religious and self-righteous men. He said unto them. He accused them now. He's rebuking
them. Now, you know, we are either
an us of scripture over them. It's an us or them. God's people
or the world. Us or them. Peter makes this
distinction in his second epistle. He writes in 2 Peter 1, verse
3, according as God's divine power hath given unto us. Who's
the us? In verse 2 he says, unto you
through the knowledge of grace and peace be unto you through
the knowledge of God, those who, verse 1, have obtained like precious
faith with us, according as his divine power given unto us, verse
4, wherein by our giving unto us exceeding great and precious
promises. And he goes on throughout this
epistle to call them beloved And he says it four times. Some
four ignorant fools out there, believe like chapter three, verse
nine, speaking about all men. But he says, Beloved, Beloved,
this second epistle, Beloved, I write unto you. He goes on to say, Beloved, be not ignorant
of this one thing. The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise, as some men count slackness, but his longsuffering
to us." Word. Us. Not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance. Who? Not willing
that who should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Us. God's people. So us or them. You're either an us to usward,
long-suffering to usward, beloved." Well, he says to them over in
verse 4 of chapter 3 of Mark's Gospel unto them. Is it lawful?
Against their strict moral, legal, Sabbatarianism, he exposes their
self-righteousness. They were more concerned with
their religion than this man's salvation. Is it lawful to do
good or evil, save or kill? Certainly our Lord was alluding
to the fact that they, these Sabbatarians, they were doing
evil. They were murderers of men's
souls in the name of God, in the name of religion. Is it lawful to do good on the
Sabbath days or to do evil? To save life or to kill? Shortly
before this, the Lord went through the corn on the Sabbath day. And the Pharisees said, You can't
do that. Well, He just did, and so did
His disciples. Whose corn was it that He was
walking through? Well, Psalm 24 says, The earth
is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof. The world and the inhabitants
thereof all belongs to the Lord. Jesus Christ is Lord over all. Everything belongs to Him. He
went through His field of corn. You know, men, they write their
names on titles, deeds to property and so forth. They're just squatters. They're just squatters on God's
earth. But He went through the corn on His on him in his cornfield
on his day. And he said this three times. It's recorded in the scriptures.
Sabbath was not made for man, but man for the Sabbath. Therefore,
the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath. Plainly showing,
plainly telling these strict Sabbath day keepers that It's
his day, and he can do with it as he will, and so do his people. And he had his disciples pick
that corn and eat, and he gave the story of David over in 1
Samuel 21, those who were with him eating that hallowed bread. Lord of the Sabbath. He's Lord
over all. Now, he's alluding to the fact
that these Watchers and accusers were murderers of men's souls,
and they held their peace. They held their peace. As always,
self-righteous religionists who had no excuses, no answers to
the word of truth, they had nothing to say. Verse 5, "...when he
looked round about on them with anger, and were in grief for
the hardness and blindness of their hearts, he said unto the
man, Stretch forth thine hand." And he stretched it out. and
his hand was restored whole as the other. My, my, what this man could not
do, he did when Christ gave the command. He was totally unable
to do this. But salvation is of the Lord.
With man, it's impossible. Without him, we can do nothing.
But with Christ, we can do all things. He says, Come, we come. Stretch out your hand. We stretch
out our hands. Repent. We repent. Believe. We believe. Salvation
is of the Lord and His sovereign power. Oh, may He do that for
someone today is my prayer. Until next Sunday, may the Lord
bless His Word. Good day. Thank you.