Well, good morning. Good to see
all your smiling faces again this morning. If you don't happen
to have a bulletin, in a few moments you're going to need
one to sing the call to worship. I want everybody to sing out
loud. This is my favorite call to worship, so I want to hear
everybody sing it. So if you don't have a bulletin, raise your hand
and Jonathan will give you one. All right, I expect everybody
to be singing. All right. Elder Eric Floyd is going to
come and read scripture and lead us in prayer to begin our worship
service this morning. As a note to our congregation,
Brother Eric will be preaching here Wednesday night. Lord willing,
in the morning, Janet and I are going to go away for a few days
of R&R and Eric has graciously agreed to preach in my absence.
So that's what we'll have here Wednesday. So Eric, you come
and read scripture for us. Let's open our Bibles to Ephesians
1. We begin reading in verse 1 of Ephesians
1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God, to the saints, which are at Ephesus, and to
the faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace be to you and peace from
God, our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us, blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love. Having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to
the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the blood, in
whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins according to the riches of his grace. wherein he hath
abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known
unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure
which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the
fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in
Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even
in him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being
predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all
things after the counsel of his own will, that we should be to
the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ, in whom ye
also trusted after ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of
your salvation. in whom also that you believed,
you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the
earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of the purchased
possession, unto the praise of His glory. Let's end our meeting. Our God and Father in heaven,
Lord, we thank You for this day. Lord, we thank You for these
days You've given us, this time that You've blessed us together
with. Lord, to gather together as a
people. Lord, to hear the preaching of
Your Gospel. Lord, how we thank You for Your
Word. How we thank You for the Gospel. How we thank You for
the Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord, we pray that as in
days past, you've been with us, that Lord, here again this day,
we ask one more time that you would bless us with your presence. Lord, these men whom you've brought
our way, Lord, uphold them by your Spirit. Lord, enable them
to boldly declare the truth of your gospel. Lord, to tell us
more of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, how we Again, thank you
for your many blessings. How we thank you for your gospel,
Lord, that you would be pleased, Lord, to save sinners. Lord, bless us to know Christ.
Bless us to rest in Him and trust in Him for all things. Lord,
for our congregation, we pray for those of our number who are
in a time of trouble, in a time of difficulty, Lord, we pray
for these many young ones. Lord, how we thank you for these
little ones. Lord, how we desire that you protect them and keep
them in this world. But Lord, chiefly, that you'd
be merciful to them, that you'd save their souls. Lord, for those
who'll be traveling today, we pray your hand upon them. Lord,
that you'd give them a safe return home. Lord, how we thank You
for this time of fellowship, this time of rejoicing, this
time of worshiping You. Lord, again, bless us with Your
presence. Be with us here this morning. Lord, set aside the thoughts
and cares of this world. Lord, let us see Christ. In His name we pray and give
Thee thanks. You will turn to page two in
your bulletin and stand as we sing the call to worship to the
tune of How Far My Foundation. With harps and with viols there
stands a great throne in the presence of Jesus and sings this
new song to Him who hath loved us and washed the mercy Unto
Him be the glory forever, Amen. All these once were sinners,
be piled in His sight, Now arrayed in pure garments, their voices
unite. Him who hath loved us and washed
us from sin, unto Him be the glory forever, Amen. He maketh the rebel a priest
and a king, He hath bought us and taught us this new song to
sing. To Him who hath loved us and
washed us from sin unto Him be the glory. How helpless and hopeless we
sinners have been. If He had not loved us and washed
us from sin, To Him who hath loved us and washed us from sin,
Unto Him be the glory, forever amen. Aloud in his presence our voices
shall ring so that others believing this new song shall sing. To Him who hath loved us and
washed us from sin, unto Him be the glory forever. Amen. Thank you. Be seated. Good surprise, I got my piano
player back. I was glad to see her. All right,
let's turn to, what'd I say, 256? Should be it as well. That's one of our favorites around
here. When peace like a river attendeth
my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll, Whatever my lot,
Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul It is
well, it is well with my soul Though Satan should buffet, though
trials should come, let this blessed assurance that Christ hath regarded my
helpless estate and hath shed his own blood for my soul. It is well with my soul It is
well, it is well with my soul. I sing of the bliss of this glorious
thought. I sing not in part, but the whole. His mail to the cross, and I
bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
all my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. And Lord, haste the day when
my face shall be sighed, The clouds be rolled back as a scroll,
The trump shall resound And the Lord shall descend, even so in
His well-being. It is well with my soul It is
well, it is well With my soul Let's sing that chorus again.
I want to hear the alto. They're just singing beautiful
today. All right, let's do it again. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. In the valley of deep despair
Forsaken, no one to care. Why would God come down to me? Wretched, blind in agony. Why would he consider me? reach down his hand and set me
free he did it all to rescue me he did it all he did it all
for his glory Amazing Grace will be my theme
O praise the Lamb for Calvary He sets the guilty sinner free
He even saved a wretch like me I once was blind But now I see
one side of Him And I believed He did it all to rescue me He
did it all, He did it all for His glory Now my heart condemns me not. The shepherd his sheep has sought,
He gave me power to call his name, And he cleansed me from
all shame. Oh, I will ever sing his praise,
For He has raised me from the grave. It was for me His life
He gave. He did it all, He did it all
for His glory. Amazing grace will be my theme. Oh, praise the Lamb for Calvary. He sets the guilty sinner free. Heathens sing. a wretch like me I once was blind
but now I see one side of him and I believed he did it all
to rescue me he did it all he did it all for his cool Well, if you're here Friday evening,
you may remember I kind of joked a little bit that that I love
my buddy, Clay Curtis, so much. I want him to preach first so
he can enjoy all the other messages. By no means does that not mean
I don't love our two speakers this morning. It's no accident
that I waited and asked them to speak on Sunday because I
love you so much. I love their preaching so much. I'm sorry. This is what I know about these
two men. They're some of the plainest preachers I know. And that's the greatest compliment
that you can give a preacher. Maybe after this weekend, if
you're a little bit tired and your mind's a little weary, these
men preach so plainly, so plainly, you'll understand what they say.
And I hope the Spirit will give you faith to believe it, but
you're going to understand what they say. And that's why I saved
them to Sunday, the best for last. So our first speaker. Pastor Chris Cunningham, the
College Grove Grace Church, conveniently located in College Grove, Tennessee,
is going to come preach for us. Chris, we're delighted that you're
here. You come preach the message that God's given you. I'm thankful
to be included in this. Isn't it wonderful to be included
in what the Lord has done this weekend? We sang that call to
worship a while ago, and I believe I know why that's Frank's favorite
call to worship. Listen to the verse of scripture
that was quoted in that song as we sang it. Unto him that
loved us and washed us from our sins in
his own blood. Unto him be glory. Forever and ever. Mark chapter 3 this morning,
and I want to thank Frank for asking me. As you're turning
there to Mark chapter 3, I want to thank him for asking us to
come and thank you to this church for so much work that was put
into making this the wonderful weekend that it was. The Lord
has really blessed us and He used you to do it. I'm thankful
for that. I'm thankful for God. Precious
friends that brought us here and have come to such an encouragement
to me. I'm thankful for my family, my
daughters and my wife. Happy Mother's Day. I know some
wonderful godly mothers and there's nothing more precious in this world a gift from God.
Mark chapter 3. And he entered again into the
synagogue. And there was a man which had
a withered hand. And they watched him. He entered
into the synagogue. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
And they watched him. They watched the Lord Jesus.
Whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day. That they might
accuse him. You know, the Lord did many of
his miracles on the Sabbath day, and he knew that that infuriated
the Pharisees. But you know why he did them
on the Sabbath day? To infuriate the Pharisees. To expose their false, self-righteous
religion. But he did it for another reason.
The Sabbath comes from when the Lord created the heavens and
the earth when he created this universe, he rested on the seventh
day. I have to rest a lot when I'm
doing any kind of work, mental or physical, I have to rest quite
a bit because I get tired. God don't get tired. You know
why he rested? Because he was done. And when
he saves a sinner, which is what is pictured in these miracles
that he performs, When He saves you, it's all over but the resting.
It's done. He saves you completely, fully.
And there's nothing for you to do but rest in Him. You can't
add anything or take away from Him. And that's the reason He
did that. But this man was there with the
withered hand, and he said unto the man which had the withered
hand, stand forth. I imagine he wasn't a fellow
that was used to being the center of attention. With a withered
hand, he was deformed and probably was, like we are, ashamed of
things like that. And the Lord said, come forth
and stand in the midst. He said it that way and another.
This story is in Matthew and Luke also, and we'll refer to
those. But he said, stand forth. And
he said unto them, the Pharisees, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days
or to do evil, to save life or to kill. And you know what he's
saying there? If I don't save this man, he's
a goner. If you're saving or killing,
he is. But they held their peace. And
when he had looked round about on them with anger, If the Lord
looks at you and it makes him mad, you're
in trouble. You're in big trouble. You're
in a bad place. And these self-righteous Pharisees that were proud of
their keeping of the Sabbath and their law-keeping and their
self-righteousness, but had no mercy, no compassion, being sinners
themselves, had no compassion on a sinner. The Lord was angry
with them. And when He had looked around
about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their
hearts, He saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out, and
his hand was restored whole as the other. We've seen in the
Scriptures, I'm sure you've seen, that the hand represents ability
to work, to perform, to accomplish. It says in Ecclesiastes 9.10,
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might.
It's you doing it, but the hand is what represents your ability
to get that done. It says in Isaiah 59.1, Behold,
the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save. There's nothing wrong with God's
hand. It's not withered. This man had a withered hand,
picturing his inability to perform, to work, to accomplish what he
needed to do. But God's hand's not like that.
There's something wrong with our hand, and that's what's pictured
here. Not only are we unable to do what we purpose to do,
but we cannot do what God requires of us. We can't perform. We can't
measure up. But the good news, the gospel
is that God's hand's not short. If he wants to save you, he'll
save you. If he wants to save everybody in this building this
morning, everybody in this building is going to be saved. He does
as he pleases in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth, and none can stay his hand or even question him. Say unto him, what are you doing?
And this poor man was unable to work like other men. He would
not have been hired like those in the parable of the laborers
that our Lord told you, remember? when our Lord went out and He
hired early in the morning, He hired some laborers and He agreed
with them for a penny. And then He went out a little
later and hired some more laborers and they came and worked for
Him, agreed with them for a penny. And then some more came later.
And then about the middle of the day, He went back and there
were still some men there that nobody had hired. And you know
why. You know how that works. A group
of Laborers will gather together somewhere at a known place in
the morning, and people that need some work done will go out
there and they'll say, I need somebody that can do electrical work.
And somebody will say, I've been doing that. I've got experience.
Come on with me. You're going to go work for me
today. And somebody will say, well, I need a carpenter. Somebody
will say, I'm good at that. But these fellows, after all
that was done, they were still standing around. You know why? Because they were worthless.
They couldn't do anything. Nobody wanted them. But our Lord
did. Our Lord did. And you know, it
never says that he ever agreed with them for anything. He didn't agree with them for
a penny. They just trusted him. He could have said, well, you
know, you didn't really do much. You know, you don't really deserve
anything and sent him away. But he didn't. He paid him a
full wage. and gave them preferential treatment. He said, bring them
first, and I'm going to pay them first. And the ones that had
been hired early, they had a problem with that. We've borne the heat
of the day. That's how a religious man thinks
about serving the Lord. Look what we've done. We deserve
something for that. These other fellas, they were
just, nobody wanted them but the Lord. And they trusted him
to do what was right. He said, whatever's right, I'll
give it to you. Whatever's right. If this man would have been one
of those ones that nobody wanted, he couldn't do anything. He may not have even showed up
for that. If there was some small task
that he was able to perform, he wouldn't have expected to
receive the same pay as other men. But here's the spiritual
lesson in our text. Our Lord requires perfect obedience
to his law. He requires that we perform in
thought, word and deed to perfection. And we're deformed. We're unable
to do it. We're withered up. We're shriveled
up. We can't get it done. Man was created perfect in the
beginning, no flaw, no handicap, no deficiency, able to walk upright
and sinless before God. But man, before God, was accepted
and blessed on the condition of performance, on the condition
of perfect obedience. As long as Adam and Eve enjoyed
all of God's paradise and obeyed God in abstaining from that one
forbidden fruit, then all was well. But man fell, man sinned
and fell. And man is still responsible
before God for perfect obedience. That hadn't changed. We're going
to have to stand before God perfect. Unto Him that is able to keep
us from falling and to present us faultless before the presence
of His glory with exceeding joy. Unto Him be glory both right
now. I like the way Paul said that,
don't you? Let's glorify right now for that. And from now on
forever. But we're depraved, deformed, unable
to perform. Think again about all the ways
that the scriptures describe us in these miracles that our
Lord performed in the Gospels. He healed men of blindness. He opened blind eyes. That's
because except a man be born again from above by the power
of God, by Christ, You can't see the kingdom of God. You can't
know him. You can't see. He would heal
the lame. Why? Because our walk before
God is a picture of our status, our standing before God, our
walk before God. We can't walk before God. We're
lame on both our feet like Mephibosheth. He's going to have to fetch us
and sit us down at his table or we're goners. incurably diseased, deformed,
that man at the pool of Bethesda. The Lord came where he was and
said, would you be made whole? And he didn't even say yes. He
began to say, nobody will take me down to the pool so that I
can be. The Lord healed him anyway. You're
not going to say yes till he heals you. Having an impediment in our speech,
when somebody hates God, what they say reveals it, doesn't
it? That proceeds from the heart. Demon-possessed by nature, we're
captive by the devil at his will, held captive. Having an issue
of blood, mad men, you know it's insane not to believe God. It's utter insanity. He raised
the dead, we're dead in trespasses and sins and so many other. But God heals us in all of these
ways and all of it is a picture of what he does for us when he
saves our soul. He reveals it. We can see God.
We can see who he is. We can see what we are. We can
see how God can be just and justify a wretch like me. God is able
to save us. His hand is not shortened, but
our hand is withered. What the law could not do and
that it was weak through my flesh, God sent his son to do. In the
likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in
his flesh for me. It's a heart problem. Our will
is our problem. We have a mouth that's perfectly
capable of honoring God, but what comes out of our mouth proceeds
from our heart. And you're not going to honor
God with your heart. You have a heart that hates him. We have hands that might otherwise
serve him, but we're withering in our heart, in our soul. So
our hand. Scripture says we do evil with
both hands earnestly. That's what we are by nature.
Christ said, you will not come to me that you might have life.
1 Corinthians 2.14, the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, because
they're foolishness to him, neither can he know them. It's nonsense
to the unbeliever, to those that don't know God, it's foolishness
to them. And even if it wasn't, they couldn't. They don't have
the ability, neither can. He know them because they are
spiritually discerned and we are spiritually dead. We're creatures
of flesh only. And so we're unable to perceive
spiritual things by nature. That's why Christ said to his
disciples, when they asked him who then can be saved, he said,
with men, it's impossible. It's not going to happen. But with God. With God, all things
are possible. God's hand is not shortened,
that he cannot say. We can't even reach out to him,
but he reaches down, way down for us. He said in John 6, 44,
no man can come to me except the father which hath sent me
draw him and I will. You won't, but I will. Raise him up at the last day. He can do something about our
problem, but we can't. That's what's being emphasized
in this particular miracle, our inability to do anything for
God. These preachers and I, we don't
come here to try to get you to do something for God. Our God's
great. But we're here to see that just
maybe God will do something for us. We can't come to him. Why? Because
you're lame like Mephibosheth on both your feet. Can't see
the kingdom of God because you're blind like Bartimaeus. Can't
come into the presence of him that's holy because you're a
leper. You're vile. Unacceptable. Like the man in
Matthew chapter eight, you cannot perform what God requires because
we have a withered hand. With you, it's impossible. But
our Lord Jesus Christ is able and willing to save, to heal,
to restore. And he does it with his word,
doesn't he? Stretch forth thine hand. His word is a word of power.
And it's a word of mercy to sinners. The Lord Jesus Christ is able
to heal. How is he able to heal? Because
he's the mighty God. That's how. He's the one that
created that hand. He's the one that withered it.
He's the one that shrunk it up. He's the one that restored it. Isaiah prophesied, unto us a
child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government,
all dominion, shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall
be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, that's who saved
me, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. The Lord Jesus
Christ said in Matthew 9, 6, I have power on earth to forgive. Have you ever thought about that?
He said to that man, his friends brought him and they couldn't
get in the house. And so they broke through the
roof and lowered him down to the feet of the Savior. And the
Lord said that he was he was paralyzed. He was laying there
on a couch, couldn't do anything. And the Lord said to him, and
they might have expected him to say, rise, you know, rise
and walk, because he had done that before. He didn't say that. He said, your sins are forgiven
you. Your sins are forgiven. And of course, they accused him
of blasphemy. Nobody can forgive sins but God.
What are you, why are you saying that? And he said, well, what's
easier for me to say rise and take up that bed and walk or
to say your sins be forgiven you? But I said what I did that
you might know this. I have authority. I have the
ability and I have the authority to say your sins are gone and
they are. You ever think about that? When
you're praying for your children, do you ever think about that?
That's who we're praying to. Isn't that wonderful? Aren't you glad it's not up to
them? Oh, I'm thankful I don't have to
preach a God that's done all he can do. And now you've got
to do something. He's able because he's the mighty
God, but also he's able because he's the spotless lamb. He's the sinless savior of sinners. He's the righteousness of sinners,
the righteousness of God, in which we can stand before God
and be accepted. So not only because of his power
is he able, but because of his worth, because of the preciousness
of his blood, when he made his soul an offering for sin, it
was enough. Because of his excellence, because
of his glory, he's able to save. But how can he? He's God, he can do as he pleases,
but how can he forgive my sins, how can He heal my soul's disease
and still be God? If the holy, righteous, perfect,
just God just arbitrarily forgives sins, doesn't He cease to be
just and holy? But God doesn't forgive
my sin arbitrarily, that is, just on a whim, without any righteous
basis upon which to do so. How then? Our Lord is able to
heal. He has power, but it's right
for Him to do it. Listen to what He said in Isaiah
53.5. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. That's how he can do it because
he took all of my sin and made me the righteousness
of God in him. All of my sin, my transgressions,
my iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him and
there was a definite and inevitable result with his stripes were
healed. I think somebody said it already
this week, if the Lord Jesus Christ died for you, you're saved. That's what salvation is. He
didn't make it possible. He didn't make it available.
He saved somebody when he died. And so now, that answers the
question. How can He save a wretch like
me and still be God? Not only with His mighty power
are we healed, but we're healed with His stripes. As the perfect
spotless lamb, he bore the wrath of God in my place. And the justice of God is completely
satisfied in the punishment of my sins, my sins. He was wounded for our transgressions
because my sin was laid on him and he suffered and died in my
place. And when he did, he healed me. And now when He says, Thy sins
be forgiven thee, He says it on that basis. He's already paid
for them. He's already washed them away
with His precious blood. It's more than just a best effort
or good wishes or I hope, you know, or here's another shot. You know, that's what most people
think the gospel is. It's God just giving you another shot
to do the right thing. It didn't work out in the garden. It didn't
work out that time. You know, and you know, he came
unto his own and his own received him. No, that didn't work out.
But you got one more chance to do the right thing for God. You
reckon God's that naive? He thinks you're going to do
the right thing this time? He's already accomplished my
redemption. And so he says to me, your sins are gone. I know
that they are. And I know why. I know how, by
His grace. He's able to be just and justify
me. And so when He speaks to me in
the gospel in power, it's done. It's done. He saved me on the
Sabbath day. I don't know what day of the
week it was. It doesn't matter. But you know
what day it was? It was time to rest. It was rest
day for me. It was all over but the rest. And the power with which he speaks,
when he says, stretch forth thine hand, that's the one that said,
let there be light. And there was light. But wait
a minute, Lord, you hadn't even created the sun yet. He don't
need a sun yet. Didn't need it anyway You ever
notice that in creation? He said let there be light and
there was and then he created a son after that Because of who it is that speaks
there's light And you know what Paul said about that God? Who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness? God who in the beginning said
let there be light and there was light and He did that in
my heart. He shined in my heart. And you
know why he did that? To give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God. Well, where was that? In the
face of his son. In the face of Jesus Christ. So here's a word of power. Stretch
forth thine hand and that which cannot happen Oh, this man was born with a
withered hand. We're born with our problem,
aren't we? We're born in trespasses and sins and sin. David said,
did my mother conceive me? Our problem is not just what
we do. We do what we do because of what
we are. And you know, this man was identified by that. You know
what he was? Well, maybe he was a banker.
Maybe he was a lawyer. No, he was the man with a withered
hand. That's what he was. Our sin is
what we are. It's what identifies us. Until we're His. Well, we've
always been His. But then we know it one day,
don't we? What we do is just a symptom
of our problem. Just as this man, his inability
to work was a symptom of what he was. What our Lord commanded
this thing. Think about this. I don't want
to be long this morning. But think about this, our Lord
commanded this man to do the one thing that he could not do. The one thing. If the Lord had
said to him, I want you to swim the Sea of Galilee, He could
have trained for that. He could have strengthened his
other arm, you know, and his legs to make up for that withered
hand, and he would have got across that somehow. He could have done
it. If it meant the salvation of his soul, he could have done
it. But stretch forth thy hand? That's
the one thing that he could never do. With men, it's impossible. You
see, it's not difficult for you to come to Christ. It's impossible.
No man can. Well, how's it going to happen
then? Well, Paul said, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. For it's the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. to the Jew first
and also to the Greek. God in the gospel commands sinners
everywhere to repent and believe on him. Brother Todd brought
that out so clearly. He commands it, but you know
what? That's the one thing that you cannot possibly do. Religion will give you all kinds
of things to do and you'll do them. You'll do them to get to
heaven when you die. You wanna go to heaven when you
die? Well, you gotta tithe and you gotta read your Bible. You
gotta pray three times a day, whatever they say. They'll give
you all kinds of things to do. The Lord commands the one thing,
that it is impossible for you to believe on me. He that believeth on me is saved. But here's the glory of the gospel
now. With the command, he'll give
you the power to do it. He'll give you the faith that
does come, that does believe, that does lay hold of him, that
does fall in love with him. Repentance is God's gift. 2 Timothy 2.25. He commands sinners
everywhere to repent. Paul told Timothy, Lord, Timothy,
preach the gospel. Teach those that oppose themselves. Teach those that are their own
worst enemies. They oppose themselves, those
Pharisees. Here's the Lord Jesus Christ
preaching the gospel, preaching free grace from God to sinners. And you know what that did for
them? They looked for a way to discredit
it. You're your own worst enemy,
aren't we? They oppose themselves. Teach those that oppose themselves.
If God, peradventure, will grant them repentance, That's why we
preach, because God just might be merciful to somebody. I don't
know if he's going to save you or not. I don't know if he's
going to save your children or not. But if he does, I know how
he'll do it. By the preaching of his gospel,
by the preaching of Christ and him crucified. Teach them, Timothy. If peradventure, God will grant
them to repentance, to the acknowledgement of the truth. If God gives them
repentance and faith in him, you know what they're going to
do? They're going to say, that's the truth, the gospel. I can't do anything but God.
The Lord Jesus Christ is salvation. He has wrought salvation for
sinners like me. He's completed it. He came down
here and wrought salvation. And when he had done it, you
know what he said? It's done. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. accomplished, complete, free
salvation. You know, somebody said to me
one time in talking about the gospel and how God saves sinners,
talking about how you can't, you can't, you can't come to
Christ. You can't believe on Christ by nature. No man can
come unto me. This, this fellow said to me
one time, God would never give a sinner something to do that
they couldn't do. But you know what the truth of
that is? God doesn't ever tell you to do anything that you can
do. Not one thing. What are you going to do without
Him? What are you going to do? Are you going to worship Him
this morning without Him? If we worship Him this morning,
is that us doing something for Him or Him doing something for
us? The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. speaks in power to the sinner's
heart. You're coming with the command. Lazarus come forth. I believe
I said to the man when he said God's never given a sinner something
he couldn't do. I said, what about Lazarus come forth? What's Lazarus going to do? He's
dead. He's four days dead and stinky. Well, he came forth, didn't he? When God said so. When the gospel is preached,
that's what Paul's talking about. It's the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth. If you believe the gospel, it's
because God's power has saved you. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. You'll do all kind of religious
things, but you're not ever going to do that until the power of
God comes to you. It's the spirit that quickens,
the flesh profits absolutely nothing. And like in the case
of this poor man, God commands us, believe, to do the one thing.
If he said serve, witness, give, we'd do it. If he'd given you some great
thing to do, you know, that leper, his servant, if he'd given you
some great thing to do, you would have done it. But when God describes himself
as he is in his word, you can't believe him. You're not going
to believe that. You're not going to believe.
You're not going to bow to him. You're not going to see him as sovereign. You're
not going to see him as the only hope that you have for righteousness
and for a sin offering. Until he opens your eyes. But our Lord is plenteous in
mercy. The Lord asked, is it lawful
to heal on the Sabbath day that they might accuse him? He said
to this man, in Luke's version, he said, rise up and stand in
the midst. In Matthew 12, 11, listen to
this. He said unto them, what man shall
there be? This was his response when the
Pharisees were offended. You know, the disciples told
the Lord one day, don't you know the Pharisees were offended at
what you said? You remember what the Lord answered them? Every
plant which my heavenly father hath not planted shall be rooted
up. That blind leaders of the blind,
leave them alone. Leave them alone. In Matthew's version of
this story, when they were offended at him healing this man with
the withered hand on the Sabbath day, listen to what he said.
What man shall there be among you that shall have one sheep
if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day? Will he not lay
hold on it and lift it out? How much better is a man than
a sheep? Wherefore is it lawful then to
do well on the Sabbath days? Then saith he to the man, stretch
forth thy hand. And he stretched it forth and
it was restored whole like as the other. This passage is a picture of
his healing of our soul, as we've seen, and how will that be accomplished? Notice verse six back in chapter
three of Mark, I want you to see this, because this is the
way that the Lord accomplished making us whole. How is he going
to make us whole of our sins, deformity, our souls, disease
and inability to do anything for him? In verse six, it says
the Pharisees went forth and straightway took counsel with
the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him. That's how He made us whole,
by Him being destroyed. But it wasn't the Herodians that
did it. They took Him with wicked hands and slew Him. But it pleased
His Father to crush Him. When it says there in Isaiah
53, it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. That word bruise means to
crush. The Son of God was destroyed,
crushed for my sins. The Lord talks about sheep and
bringing one home. That's what He was doing there.
That's what He does when He saves us. He's bringing His sheep home
to Him. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone
to His own way. Well, how is He going to bring
us home? The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. So when you hear that story of
the parable of the hundred sheep and the ninety and nine and the
one goes astray and the Lord leaves the ninety and nine and
goes and finds that sheep, remember what it took to bring us home.
He had to bear our iniquity in his body on the tree and all
of the wrath of God was poured out upon him in order that he
might bring us home. And where's home? Him. Paul said to be absent from this
body is to be present with the Lord. Do you know what that word
present, have you ever looked that up? It means to be home. Present with the Lord. He brought us home. That parable,
you know, people argue, theologians like to argue about things, and
they argue about who those 99 were. You know what the question is
about those sheep? Which one were you? Which one were you? I can tell you which one I was. When the Lord brought me home,
and I see there what it took for Him to do that. All we like
sheep had gone astray, and the Lord hath... That's our part
in it right there. In salvation, we need it. Here's his part. The Lord hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all. The Lord of glory laid all of
our iniquity on his well-beloved, only begotten Son, and then crushed
him for it. and not us. That's how he brought us home.
He died the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God. Like that good Samaritan, he
came where I was and lifted me up and laid me on his shoulder
and brought me and paid my way and said if there's anything
else he owes, put it on my tab. And he brings that sheep home
rejoicing. You know why he went after that
sheep? Because he knows his sheep, they're not coming home any other
way. He brought us home and laid us
on his shoulder and came rejoicing and said rejoice with me. which was lost is found. That's why we're here. There is a visiting preacher Somehow it's gotten to be the
thing to do for pastors to get up and talk about what, you know,
and I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to mark anything.
All I'm going to say about this message is this. Amen and amen. That's outstanding. Thank you,
Chris. I'm so thankful.