Alright, Mark chapter 3. The title of the lesson this morning
is The Sovereign Servant. Now Mark, the writer of this
gospel, is John Mark, Barnabas' nephew. You recognize that name,
you remember the story where the Apostle Paul and Barnabas
ended up splitting over John Mark. Barnabas wanted John Mark
to go with them on a mission trip and Paul said he's not ready
to go and they ended up part in company. But as John Mark
grew in grace, later on, things were mended between the Apostle
Paul and John Mark. Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy
chapter 4, you bring John Mark with you when you come, because
he's profitable to me in the ministry. And that's who wrote
this gospel. And in his gospel, Mark presents
Christ to us as God's servant. Last week, we saw Matthew present
Christ to us as the king. Mark presents us this week the
same person, the king, as the servant. Now it's interesting,
Mark does not tell us anything about the birth of Christ. He
jumps right in at the start of the Savior's ministry, where
he's serving as God's servant. That's where he begins, in our
Lord's earthly ministry. And it seems like that without
stopping to take a breath, Mark just goes through the earthly
ministry of the Savior, just quickly moving from one event
to the next one, giving us the details of all these events. He gives us more details about
the miracles that the Lord performed in the other gospel, because
those are the works of the servant. This is what Mark is writing
to tell us of. But now God's servant is no mere servant. God's
servant is the sovereign servant. It's true, God's son became a
man and he became a man to be God's servant. He came to accomplish
the job the father gave him to do as a servant. But when God's
son became a man, he remained God. He was still God. So God's
servant is the sovereign servant. In Mark chapter three, Mark gives
us a good illustration of this truth. And my first point is
this, God's servant is meek and lowly. but now he's suffering
and he has a holy anger against sin because he's God. He has
a holy anger against sin. Look here at verse one of Mark
chapter three. And he entered again into the synagogue and
there was a man there which had a withered hand and they watched
him, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day that they
might accuse him. And he sayeth unto the man which
had the withered hand, stand forth. And he sayeth 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. And
when he had looked round 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. Now, you know, in every
interaction, as you read through the gospels and you see this,
every interaction our Lord had with people, He was the one always
in control, wasn't he? He was the one controlling and
directing the events because he's sovereign. And the Pharisees
on this Sabbath day were watching to see, and I think they probably
brought this man with the withered hand, you know, probably kind
of tried to get him within view of the Savior so the Savior would
see him. They didn't know. This sovereign Savior, you knew
right where he was all along. He didn't have to be in his line
of vision to see him. He knew where he was. But they were watching to see,
will this man Jesus heal this one, this man on Sabbath day?
In verse 3, the Lord told that man with the withered hand, stand
forth. Come right out here in the middle where everybody can
see you. Now, you know, that doesn't sound like the kind of
servant we are familiar with. Jan and I, for several years,
have been watching this show, Downton Abbey. It's over. I don't
know what we're going to do now, and it's over. But boy, those
servants, now they never told anybody what's what. They just
stood off on the side, and they did what they were told. They
would hardly even give their opinion when asked. And the Lord,
God's servant, told this man, you come out here in the middle.
Stand out here where everybody can see you. A servant in the house would
never tell a guest what to do. But this servant does, because
he's sovereign. And our Lord's the one controlling
the conversation. He's the one controlling everybody's
thoughts, So everybody's attention is focused where it needs to
be. I said, what is servant supposed to do? Servant's supposed to
stand there quietly over against the wall until you need something.
But not this servant, because he's softened. And then the Lord
asked them, this is a very important question. Is it right to do good
on the Sabbath day? You're supposed to do no work
on the Sabbath day. Is it right to do good on the Sabbath day?
Or should you do nothing? Should you just rest and not
do any work and allow somebody to suffer? Pretty good question,
isn't it? Is it right on the Sabbath day
to do nothing? Not to relieve anybody's pain
or suffering just so you can be doctrinally straight? Is that
right? Is that the purpose of the Sabbath
day? Is that why God gave the Sabbath day? So you could do
nothing to help the needy? Is it right? to work, to do a
work, to save life on the Sabbath day, or should you do nothing
and let somebody die just because it's Saturday? Is that why God
gave the Sabbath? Now, Pharisees were smart enough
to realize they'd been trapped again. So they just didn't say
anything. And verse five tells us God's
servant looked on them with anger, with anger. Now, usually a servant
would never be allowed to show anger at a guest in his master's
house. But this servant is the son of
God. This servant is the son and he's
sovereign over all these things. You know, it just irritates me.
Everybody thinks, everybody in false religion thinks that Jesus
is this poor, effeminate, weak man who just wouldn't do anything
to hurt a flea. He just loves everybody no matter
what they do. And if you think he's like what
they think, he's got to love everybody, you know, no matter
what they do, because he's the one begging people to accept
him on any terms. He's got no terms. Just please
accept me, you know, just be my friend. Anybody that preaches a Savior
remotely like that is preaching a false gospel. They're telling
a lie. They're preaching what Paul called
another Jesus. They're not preaching this man,
the Lord Jesus. Yes, his name is Jesus, but he's
the Lord Jesus. He's king of all. And he has
a holy anger against sin. Look in Psalm 2. You know, that
ought to frighten a sinner to death. He has a holy anger against
sin. And no one can withstand his
anger. Look at Psalm 2 verse 7. I will declare the decree. The
Lord has said unto me, thou art my son. This day have I begotten
thee. Ask of me, I should give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance. and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a
rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces
like a potter's vessel. Be wise now, therefore, O ye
kings. Be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord
with fear. Rejoice with trembling. Now absolutely
serve the Lord, but not do it in fear and reverence. Absolutely
rejoice in the Lord, but not do it with trembling, with reverence.
And look at verse 12. Kiss the son, lest he be angry
and you perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. You kiss the son, you bow, you
kiss his ring, lest his anger be kindled but a little and you
be destroyed from the earth. Now back in our text, what made
the Savior so angry? Why did he look on them with
such holy anger? Well, the answer is simple. It's
hypocrisy in religion. hypocrisy, nothing worse than
a religious hypocrite. On this day, there was supposed
to be a day of rest. On this day, you're supposed
to do no work. They'd come to the temple plotting how they
might kill the Lord Jesus. On this day, there's supposed
to be a day of worship. They came to the temple with
hatred in their heart. So what our Lord is asking is,
is that right? Is it right to work to show mercy
on the Sabbath day or should you do nothing and allow suffering?
Is it right to come to the house of God with a heart filled with
hate and just go through the motions of religion? Is God going
to be pleased with that? Well, of course not. Look at Matthew chapter 12. This
is Matthew's account of the same conversation. Yet to make matters
worse, not only would these Pharisees, they would do some work, but
to help themselves, not for the benefit of others. Matthew 12,
verse 10. And behold, there was a man which
had his hand withered, and they asked him, Matthew says, they
asked him, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days? And they
asked him this, that they might accuse him. 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, it is lawful to do
well on the Sabbath days. See, these men, they would do
work to save one of their sheep from dying. They would do work
on a Sabbath day to keep their wallet from suffering. but they
are so self-righteous. They're such religious hypocrites
that they would not allow anybody to do any work to relieve the
suffering of someone less fortunate than me. They'd help an animal
on the Sabbath day. They'd do work to help an animal
on the Sabbath day, but not a person. Now that's the depraved human
nature. How perverted, upside down is
that? And our Lord was angry. Look
at Luke chapter 13. This happened another time. He healed a woman on the Sabbath
day. And the Lord was angry. They do work to help a brute
beast, but not a man. Luke 13 verse 13. And he laid
his hands on her, this woman, and immediately she was made
straight and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue
answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the
Sabbath day. And listen to what he said unto the people. There
are six days in which men ought to work. In them, therefore,
come to be healed. And not on the Sabbath day. If
you're suffering, you need to be healed, don't come on the
Sabbath day to be healed. And the Lord answered and said
unto him, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath
loose his ox or his ass from the stall and lead him away to
watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham
whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years be loosed from
this bond on the Sabbath day? And when he said these things,
all his adversaries were ashamed, and all the people rejoiced for
all the glorious things which were done by him." See, the Lord
revealed the heart of the problem, didn't He? It's religious hypocrisy,
and it made Him angry. This servant has a holy anger
against sin. But second, this sovereign servant
also has pity on helpless sinners. He's angry with the religious
hypocrite. He's angry with the self-righteous,
but he is so kind and tender and merciful to sinners. This
man the Lord had healed was a man who could not work. He was disabled. You got to remember in that day,
there was no social security or anything like that. This man
was in bad shape. He couldn't work. His hand was
all withered up. It was just, it was drawn up
and he couldn't do anything with it. There was no blood flow going
to it. There's no life going into that
arm. His arm was dead. He couldn't work. And that's
such a good picture of the spiritual condition of everybody that the
Lord has mercy on. Before the Lord shows us mercy,
He's going to bring us to the place where we know I can't do
any work to please God. I can't do anything to please
Him. And when we learn that, that we can't do any work, then
we're finally a candidate for mercy. That's who the Lord shows
mercy to. When you're helpless and you
see you can't do anything, you can't do any work to help yourself,
you can't do any work to please God, then you're left with just
one hope. Your only hope is the Lord Jesus
Christ, this sovereign servant, who's merciful to sinners. He's
your only hope. The law can't help you, can it?
The Pharisees, they were the keepers and enforcers of the
law. They said the law can't help you. Don't come be healed
on the Sabbath day. That's not right. That's against the law.
The ceremonies of religion can't help you. The Pharisees, now
they enforced the ceremony. Their religion was all the ceremony,
just going through the motions. Ceremony can't help you, can
it? Here they were observing the ceremony, but they said,
don't you violate our ceremony by healing somebody, by showing
mercy on the Sabbath day. Here's how far they degenerated.
We've come to the temple to worship God, and it's wrong to show mercy. There's no hope for a helpless
sinner in the world. There's no hope for a helpless
sinner in the ceremony of religion. Well, I'm telling you there is
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's merciful to sinners. And
that brings me to my third point. There is life at the command
of the sovereign servant. Let's read verse five again,
Mark three. And we look round about on them
with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their heart.
He saith unto the man, stretch forth your hand. And he stretched
it out, and his hand was restored whole as the other. Now, when
our Lord told that man, stand out here in the middle where
everybody can see you. And then he said, stretch forth your hand. In that
instant, before that man stretched forth his hand, somebody had
to think, well, that's a silly thing to say, that the man, this
man stretched forth his hand. If he could stretch forth his
hand, he'd done it a long time ago, so he'd go get him a job.
It's impossible. Why are you telling him something
that's impossible? But what they learned was when the sovereign
gives a command, he also gives the ability to obey. The Lord
put life in that man's hand and he stretched it out. Of course
he stretched it out. God put life in it. This sovereign
servant put life in that hand and he stretched it out. Now
a sinner's dead. It's not just our arm is dead.
Our whole self is dead. Our nature is spiritually dead. We're born dead in Adam. We're
born dead in trespasses and sins. Yet God tells us to go preach
this gospel and command sinners to come to Christ that you might
have life. We're commanded of our Savior, go preach the gospel,
don't give an invitation, command sinners to come to Christ and
beg for forgiveness of their sin. But we're also told we don't
have any ability to come to God. You cannot come to me that you
might have life. You cannot come to Christ because
you will not come to Christ. You cannot come to Christ because
by nature you don't have the ability to come to Christ. You don't have the ability to
come because you're dead. We've been dead a long time. We died in Adam over 6,000 years
ago. And all that's left is a bunch
of dry bones. Just like those bones that filled
that valley, God brought Ezekiel to see. Now there's all those
bones, they'd been dead a long time. The animals had come and
eaten up the flesh and the flesh decayed and rotted away and bones
were scattered all over the place. They weren't all together. Wherever
the man died, now his bones are scattered all around that valley.
And God told Ezekiel, you preach to those bones. Oh goodness. Seems like a waste of time, doesn't
it? To cry to people who don't have ears? They're gone. It's not just like they're deaf. Their ears are gone. Why am I
preaching to them? And God told Ezekiel, Ezekiel,
you tell them to hear and you tell those bones to stand up.
Well, that seems like a waste of time. How are they going to
stand up? They can't hear. They can't stand up because they
don't have any ability. They're dead. But when God gave
the commandment, He gave the ability to obey. And those bones
did just exactly what God told them to do through Ezekiel. Of
course they stood up. God gave them life and they stood
up. He made them alive. And we preach
the gospel to dead sinners. I don't feel foolish at all telling
dead sinners to come to Christ. I don't feel foolish at all telling
blind sinners to look to Christ. I don't have any problem with
that. I know to the natural man it seems like a waste of time
to tell somebody to come when they can't come. But if you ever
hear more than my voice, if you ever hear more than a preacher's
voice, if you ever hear God say come, when He issues the command,
He'll give you the power to obey and you'll come. Of course you'll
come. When God gives life and faith
in the new birth, you come. Why wouldn't you come? God's
given you life, you'll come to Christ. And our problem is we're spiritually
dead, but throughout scripture, that is pictured with by many
different diseases. Well, I don't care what spiritual
disease you think it is you have, Christ, the sovereign serpent,
it will heal all of them. Look at verse seven in our text,
Matthew or Mark three, excuse me, Mark three. Well, look at
verse six, the Pharisees went forth and straightway they took
counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.
But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea and
a great multitude from Galilee followed him from Judea. Wonder
who followed him? People who needed him. And from
Jerusalem and from Idumea and from beyond Jordan, and they
about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude. When they had heard
what great things he did, they came unto him. And he spake to
his disciples, the small ship should wait on him because of
the multitude, lest they should throng him. Does he just want
to get away and go rest? Look at verse 10. He took the time, for he had
healed many, insomuch that they pressed upon him, for to touch
him as many as had plagues, and unclean spirits, when they saw
him, fell down before him and cried saying, thou art the son
of God. And he straightly charged them
that they should not make him known. He's telling those unclean
spirits, don't you make me known. My servants will do that. You
don't need to do that. The Lord took the time to heal
all those with diseases, all those pictures of our sin sicknesses,
being possessed by demons, all the, whatever illness it is you
think of, He healed him. What a miracle, what kindness,
what mercy. Yet men left to themselves are
so dead. All men in the flesh and all
that is, is just you haven't been born again. You're born
with the nature of Adam. Just like we read in verse six,
hate God. A man in his flesh by nature
hates the Lord Jesus Christ, even though he's so merciful
to sinners. Well, that brings me to my fourth point. You and
I are totally dependent on this sovereign servant to call us. Totally dependent. Man is dead. We can't do anything. We can't
hear, we can't come. We're dependent on this sovereign
servant to give us life. Man by nature, you and me by
nature, we hate God. hate Christ, will never choose
to come to Him, will never choose to bow to Him. So the only way,
our only hope, the only way we'll ever come to Him is if He calls
us in irresistible power. And thank God that's exactly
what He does for His people. Man would never choose God. Man
would never choose Christ. So God chose a people and called
them to Christ, brings them to Him. Look at verse 13. And he
goeth up into a mountain and calleth unto him whom he would. And they came unto him. Now who does Christ call unto
himself? Does he issue a general call and whoever wants to come? No, he calls his elect. Mark
says he called whom he would. He called whom he would. The
Lord only called to him those he chose to call. You see, it
was all up to Him. It's all up to Him whom He called,
whom He choose. Salvation is of the Lord. It's of the Lord. It began when
God the Father elected a people to salvation. The Son came and
He died to redeem those people. He shed His blood to wash them
from their sin. And the Holy Spirit will come
and in irresistible power, He will call those people. He'll
call the people the Father chose call the people the son died
for, he will call them to Christ in irresistible power. Those that the father chose and
the son redeemed, they must come to Christ. Must. The price has
been paid. So the Holy Spirit draws them
to Christ. And that's exactly what happened
in our text. The Lord called whom he would. And what did they
do? They came to Christ. They came. See, the call of Christ, it's
sovereign because He's a sovereign Savior. And His call is irresistible. Now don't think this, when we
talk about the irresistible call of grace, the irresistible call
of the Spirit, don't think it's like you're hanging for onto
the pew or the chair there for all you're worth and you're being
irresistibly, you know, drawn against you. No, that's not it.
The call of Christ is irresistible to His people. Because when God
gives you eyes to see Christ, to see Him as He is, to see your
need and to see who He is, you'll want to run to Christ. His beauty
makes Him irresistible to you. If you ever see Him, nobody will
be able to keep you away from Him because He's irresistible. When the Holy Spirit gives us
eyes to see, I've heard all my life Christ died for sinners.
But when I hear He died for my sin, I'm coming to Him. It's irresistible. When I hear
He died as my substitute, I can't help but run to Him. His sacrifice
makes Him irresistible to me. I need Him. Makes Him irresistible
to me. God saves His people. against
our will with our full consent. God saves his people against
our natural will, against our natural way of thinking. It's
opposed to everything in our nature. Yet God saves his people
with our full consent, with full agreement, full consent from
the new nature God gives us in the new birth. Now, if you have any desire,
if anybody here has any desire at all to come to Christ. I can
tell you why that is. It's because God elected you
and because Christ died for you. That's why. The only reason you
have any desire to come to Christ is God's given you life. You
wouldn't desire to come to Him if God didn't give you life.
Those are the people He calls to Christ. And I tell you, right
now where you sit, You come to Christ. This is something I tell our
children frequently. It was my experience growing
up under the sound of the gospel. I spent, I don't know how many
years trying to figure out, well, am I one of the elect? Is there
any way I can know? Because if I'm one of the elect, I'll come
to him. Nobody ever came to Christ because they found out they're
one of the elect. Every person who comes to Christ comes to
Him because they're a sinner and He's the Savior. They're
lost and undone and He's their only hope. Sinners come to Christ
because we're defiled with our sin and only His blood can cleanse
us from our sin. Sinners come to Christ begging
for mercy. They don't deserve it, but He's
the Sovereign. He's on the throne. He's merciful
to sinners. Could be he'll be merciful to
me, because I'm a sinner. And he commands us to come. My
right to come to Christ is not that I figured out I'm one of
the elect. My right to come to Christ is he commands sinners
to come to him. Then we come, begging for mercy.
And what we'll find out later on is, oh, I came because God
chose me from all of eternity. I came because God loved me from
all of eternity. I love Christ because He loved
me first. We'll find that out. God will show you. I've loved
you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn you. So thank God, His servant is
the sovereign servant who accomplished all these things for His people.
Their eternal salvation is not left up to chance. It's not left
up to their dead nature to decide to do something. He's gonna irresistibly
draw people, His people to Him and give them life in Christ
in this sovereign servant. All right, I hope the Lord will
bless that.