I'm going to go ahead and get
started here. If you would turn with me to Luke 6. Luke 6. If you want to follow
along. Luke 6 and verses 6 through 11. I can't get my pages apart. Luke 6, verse 6 through 11. And
it came to pass also on another Sabbath that he entered into
the synagogue and talked. And there was a man whose right
hand was withered, and the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether
he would heal on the Sabbath day, that they might find an
accusation against him. But he knew their thoughts and
said to the man which had the withered hand, rise up and stand
forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth.
Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing, is it lawful
on the Sabbath days to do good or to do evil, to save life or
to destroy it? And looking round about upon
them all, he said unto the man, stretch forth thy hand. And he
did so, and his hand was restored, whole as the other. And they
were filled with madness, and communed one with another what
they might do to Jesus. As we read through scripture
in the New Testament, we read all the time where it says Christ
went to the synagogue to teach. Jesus Christ came down to men
where we are to proclaim the glories of himself. It says in
Matthew 12, 9, it says, and when he was departed thence, he went
into their synagogue. This is the Lord of glory whom
the scripture says in Acts 17, 24, God that made the world and
all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth,
dwelleth not in temples made with hands. The place which they
called a place of worship is where he went to teach them himself
and teach them of himself. We have the Lord of glory going
to teach fallen sinful man the teachings of the Almighty God.
You would think that everyone would be eager to listen and
to hear what Jesus Christ had to say. Today, Jesus Christ is
not walking on this earth as he did then. What we have today
is his word. We have the word of God, most
of us anyway, the word of God right in our hand. What better
place to find out what God says than in his word? Those words
spoken of God that he intended for us to hear. What better place to hear his
word than a place who has men sent of God that proclaim what
he has said? This is what pleased God, the
foolishness of preaching. What we have is not everything
about him or everything he did, because the scripture tells us
that there would not be enough books to contain everything that
could be said about him. John 21, 25 says, and there are
also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they
should be written every one, I suppose that even the world
itself could not contain the books that should be written.
Amen. The Holy Spirit summarized his
words, if you will, and even in summary, we still cannot take
it all in, in all of its glory. Our finite minds cannot hold
it all. Of course, any of God's word
must be revealed to an individual before they will truly see what
it's saying. I can just imagine what that
day will be like. When we will see him as he is,
and we will confess just as the Queen of Sheba did, the half
was not told us. But this is not what I want to
talk about specifically. Going through this account, I
want to look at the following things. One, the deception of
man. Two, Jesus Christ knows all things. And three, the one whom God intends
to make whole. One, the deception of man. These
men, if you read the accounts, it's almost like they made this
happen so that they could have reason to blame God. I almost
wonder if they brought this man with a withered hand into the
synagogues themselves just to try to set up Jesus Christ. It
doesn't say that, I don't know that, but I just imagine that.
We should be able to. We have the same old wicked evil
heart which is intent on evil such as this. But it says in
one of these accounts that they ask him, it only says this in
one of the books, in Matthew 12, 10, it says, and behold,
there was a man which had his hand withered. And they ask him,
saying, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days? Some might
think this is an innocent enough question, right? They're just
asking him if it's lawful to do this certain thing. But we
can see right away in this account that it was not just an innocent
question because it says that they might accuse him. They wanted
to accuse the Lord of glory. God will cause even the wrath
of man to praise him. What we see here is wrath against
God. They hated Jesus Christ so much
that they were out to catch him in some wrongdoing. This is God
we are talking about. Jesus Christ is God. Men still
do this today. They may not think this is what
they are doing, and they may not talk like this is what they
are doing, but because they cannot physically see and speak to Christ,
they talk with believers, and they say things like, but I know
who you are. You've done this and you've done
that, and you're going to tell me that I need to follow this
man? They try to trip you up in your words. This they accomplish
sometimes, but they do not and will not accomplish this with
Jesus Christ. They meant all this for evil,
but God meant it for good. Matthew 12, 11 and 12 says, and
he said unto them, what man shall there be among you that shall
have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day,
will he not lay hold on it and lift it out? How much then is
a man better than a sheep? Wherefore is it lawful to do
well on the Sabbath days? Then in Mark three and four,
this is the same account here in this, These books, three and
four, it says, and he saith unto them, is it lawful to do good
on the Sabbath days or to do evil? To save life or to kill? But they held their peace. This
tells us here that Christ was going to do well. He was going
to do good. He was going to save life. Even
though everything they were doing was pure evil and hatred against
him. In one account, it says they
watched him. They asked him this question,
and then they watched the Lord of glory, Mark 3, 2. And they
watched him, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day,
that they might accuse him. They watched him to see if he
would do good on the Sabbath, so that they could accuse him.
Jesus Christ always did good. He was about his father's business,
which is the salvation of sinners. But this is not all they did.
They also thought some things. I just find it kind of amazing
that the scripture tells us what men's thoughts are. It says in
verse eight in our text, but he knew their thoughts. Jesus Christ knows the thought
of man and he knows that the thoughts and imaginations of
the hearts of men are only evil continuals. Now we do not know
the specific thoughts of men, but we do know that all men by
nature have these kind of thoughts toward God. How do we know this? Because scripture tells us that
is what we are continually in the flesh. We drink up iniquity
like water. We should not be amazed if this
world does or says things about us when we give praise and honor
to Jesus Christ. They did it to him when he was
here. He is not here as he was then, so they will take it out
on his people. We, when we have done all that
we are commanded to do, we are to confess we are but unprofitable
servants. But the God we serve is not unprofitable. It is a blessing to suffer for
the name of Christ. Let the world ridicule or make
fun of us. We are a small and insignificant
bunch. But as has been said before,
our God is not small. Number two, Jesus Christ knows
all things. When we read this account, this
is true in a lot of things. We read in the synoptic gospels,
as they are called. That is, the books of Matthew,
Mark, and Luke. They have details on the same accounts. There are
a few that have some accounts that might not be in the others,
but most of them have most of the same accounts. So we can
read each of them to gain more insight into some of the accounts
by God's grace through his spirit. We can gain insight into what
God is telling us. We read, as I've already said,
he knew their thoughts. He knows exactly what and who
you are. If you be one of His, or if you
be an imposter, or if you be an outright rebel against Him,
He knows you and He knows your thoughts. You're not going to
trip up Jesus Christ. No matter how much you might
think you will trip up one of His, you will not stop His work. But the Lord knows our very thoughts
and intents, Mark 3, 5 says, and when he had looked round
about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their
hearts. Do you really want the Lord of
glory to be angry with you in this way? We read here our Lord
was angry. He knew how to be angry and sin
not. I'm not sure I know anything
about that. Even though we are told to do this, he was angry. He was angry with sin. He wasn't,
he didn't, I'm not saying he sinned, but he was angry with
the sin they had. But at the same time, merciful
to a sinner. Knowing that what he would do
was already done from the foundation of the world because he is the
lamb slain from the foundation of the world. It is him that
those whom he did this for stand forth in the crowd. They do not
care what other men will think of them. So this leads me to
my next point, number three. The one whom God intends to make
whole. And this person will have two,
A and B. A, his possible thoughts. And I want to say this outright
because it does not say that he thought this in this passage.
It doesn't say he had these thoughts. So this is just my opinion. But I can imagine that this man,
when Christ asked him to stretch forth his hand, he might have
had this thought. You're asking me to do the one
thing I cannot do. I remember hearing Chris Cunningham
preach a message on this account and he said, the man may have
thought, ask me to jump up and down or reach out with my left
hand toward him. I can do that. But you're asking
me to do the one thing I cannot do. My hand is withered. I imagine this withering probably
his hand having no muscle or anything like that that would
allow him to use it. He couldn't grasp anything, he
could not feel anything. His hand being this way, it was
basically useless. When I had my carpal tunnel surgery
and I had the cast on my hand, I found it quite difficult to
do things with just one hand. I'm so used to doing things with
both hands that I normally do with both hands. And I'd really take no thought
on doing those kind of things, but when I had that one hand
that was in a cast, it made it hard to do. Reading the meaning
of this word, it's possible that this man was caught in a fire
or something, because of the meaning of the word, it's derived
from a word that means to scorch. This man had a hand that was
scorched by fire. He could have thought, he is
asking me to do the one thing I cannot do. Does God in scripture
ask man to do things that he cannot do? All the time. The man at our grandmother's
funeral, as Walters told you about, he said, God is a gentleman. He does not make anyone do anything. Philippians 2.13 says, for it
is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good
pleasure. Now this is not just believers.
It's all mankind. God is sovereign. He will work
in men and women to do of his good pleasure, just as these
men did. Even though they meant it for
evil, God meant it for good. Their God may not do this, but
their God is likened to them. The God we serve is an absolute
sovereign God and he is a consuming fire. He will make us do what
we cannot do or we will not do it at all. What do we read in
Mark 10 in verse 27? And Jesus, looking upon them,
saith, with men it is impossible, but not with God, for with God
all things are possible. So that for which God asked man
to do, if he comes to them in grace, by his, that's God's power,
we will be able to do that which he asked us to do. I just want
to make a point. Why is it that we are not told
what this man thought? We know we are told what the
Pharisees thought. Pharisees are religious people. That's what the word means. You
can look that up yourself. Why is it that we are not told
what this man thought? Because we, even as they, we
have these same thoughts as many others do. We hate God just as
everyone else does. But there is one difference.
We have a withered hand. We have need of something that
no one else has need of. Our thoughts are combined with
thoughts of mercy. Now it does not say this man
asked for mercy or for help or that he asked for anything. But
is that not indicative or does that not sound like what God
says in his word? He says in Romans 10 20, but
Isaiah is very bold and saith, I was found of them that sought
me not. I was made manifest unto them
that ask not after me. When Jesus Christ comes to call
a man or a woman from their condition before God, they will do. So what were this man's actions? What did this man do? It does
tell us what he did. So let's look at those. B, his
actions, because. I want to point out that Jesus
Christ will not leave you on an island by yourself. In other
words, you're not going to come to Christ in secret. He will
make you confess him even in the midst of those who hate him. If you remember Walter and Joe
at New Zion, he made Walter and Joe stand forth in the midst
of those men. What does he tell this one who
he was looking upon to do him good? Rise up and stand forth
in the midst. What did this man do? He stood
forth in the midst. Christ tells us that my sheep
hear my voice, and they follow me, John 10, 27. It says, my
sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. Jesus
Christ does not do this to us to embarrass us. If you are embarrassed
of Jesus Christ, then you will not stand forth in the midst.
If Christ in grace and mercy tells you to do something, it
will not matter who you are around. You will stand forth. A sinner
in need will be glad to do what his Lord is telling him to do.
But know this, when Christ calls a sinner, he will not leave that
sinner standing in the midst by himself. Jesus Christ will
be right there with him as he was with this man. This is a
comforting thought. Colossians 127 says, to whom
God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this
mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of
glory. The world may think this to be
weird. Most know nothing of it at all. But to the believer,
it is a comfort knowing Christ is right there with them. Some
may think of this that is Christ in you as something that can
only happen at a certain place. He cannot even go up a flight
of stairs, Walter. You have to be right in the right
place at the right time. Well, this man was. If you believe
scripture, we read that God worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will. He says, where two or three are
gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
But those for whom he calls, they will stand forth as if there
is no one else but them there. They will, in the midst of all
those who hate him, they will stand forth with Christ, waiting
to see what he might do. But Christ does not do this for
evil. Christ does this for good. He
then tells the man, stretch forth your hand. We are not told that
he said or thought anything, not when standing forth or when
he was told to stretch forth his hand. All we are told is
that he did both. Those whom Jesus Christ does
something for will do, just as the master asked them to do. They will stand forth and they
will stretch forth their hand to Jesus Christ. Why? Because they can and they are
willing to do it. I read in Scripture Psalms 110.3,
it says, thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. I'm thankful that he causes me
to do things which I could not do in and of myself. But if he is willing that a fallen
sinful man reach forth his hand to himself, he will work that
in him so that he reaches forth his hand to him. In reaching
out to Christ, you will be made whole. John 6, 37, we read, all
that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh
to me I will in no wise cast out. As we went through this,
we see that this world, this flesh, will never want anything
to do with Jesus Christ. This flesh will try to deceive
you to try to set up your own righteousness before God. It
will not work. These men, once all was done,
what did they do? They went out to destroy Jesus
Christ. It makes this world go mad. I
mean, it makes them crazy against Jesus Christ. All the while,
they speak of love, L-U-V. but they will conspire with others
in this world to do away with Jesus Christ. Mark 3, 6 says,
and the Pharisees went forth and straightway took counsel
with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him. This
whole world today, and especially the religious world, wants to
raise mankind up and bring Christ down. They speak of man's love
for God and not that we love him because he first loved us.
But Jesus Christ knows all. He knows our hearts, and this
ought to cause us some serious thought about the matter. I can
remember the thoughts I had about Christ before. I thank God that
he does not remember that for me, because he has taken our
sins as far as the east is from the west. This being by the death
of Jesus Christ, they were not just hidden away, they were taken
away by him on that tree. Jesus Christ, if He is pleased
to come to you in grace, will cause you to stand forth, even
in the midst of those who hate Him. He will cause you to stretch
forth your hand to Him. This you will do if you hear
the Master's voice, and you will come to Him. He will become to
you your all in all. Just before this account, you
can read in these books where Jesus Christ tells us, He is
the Lord of the Sabbath. In fact, he is some men's Sabbath. That is, he is their rest. May
it be that Jesus Christ, the sovereign God, will cause you
to cross his path, him knowing you have no ability to do for
yourself what needs to be done, to fix your utterly depraved
and lost state. May there come that time where
the Lord of glory will come to you and say, stand forth and
stretch forth your hand. that hand that has worked absolute
evil against the God of glory. But God bethanked he came into
this world to save sinners. I pray that he might bring you
to himself. I cannot make you come. All I
can do is tell you about him. But if he is pleased, he will
tell you to stretch forth your hand to him. Those of us here
who have been here a while, may he continue to cause us to stretch
forth our hand to him. All things are done by him which
causes us to do toward him. Is Jesus Christ calling you to
stand forth in the midst? Do you have a withered hand,
knowing you cannot reach forth your hand? The scripture in our
text says right here his hand was withered. The right hand
is indicative of power. He had no power where it was
needed the most. We have no power where it is
needed the most, but we do have His power. If it be that He is
calling us to stand forth in the midst to stretch forth our
hand to Him, can you stretch forth your hand? Amen.