In the end of chapter 2, our
Lord said, The Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath. He's Lord of everything else
and also of the Sabbath. There's nothing he's not Lord
over. That's why, you know, he didn't just say I'm Lord of the
Sabbath. I'm Lord also of the Sabbath. I'm Lord over all of
it. There's nothing that is not put under his feet. Nothing. To the believer, that's comforting. To the unbeliever, that's terrifying,
if they know what it means. But to the believer, that's comforting.
That there is absolutely nothing that exists that is not under
the power and the authority of Jesus Christ. And we see this
as we go through the gospel, how many different diseases,
how many different problems and troubles and demon possession
that he encounters and heals. We never find any place in the
Word of God where he's baffled, where it doesn't work. You know,
we can get sick and take certain medicines and it's just not working.
You know, I had a bronchitis last November. It took me until
March to get over it. Something wasn't working. But every time
he said to a demon, get out, he went out. Every time he healed
someone, they were healed. You know, when he healed the
lame man, he did not get up and limp home. He got up, took his
bed, stood on his shoulder and walked off in complete health
like he was a young kid. That's how complete the salvation
of our Lord is. When we stand before God, we
will stand there holy, undefiled, unblameable in His sight. That's the way we'll stand there.
No blemish, no limping, nothing but perfection. Nothing but perfection. The Son of Man is Lord also of
the Sabbath. Now in chapter 3, It begins with
him demonstrating his power and his lordship once again. He ends
chapter two there by saying he's Lord of the Sabbath and then
he turns around and he demonstrates his power to do as he will, when he will,
with whom he will. He demonstrates it. I tell you this, the Lord Jesus
Christ is Lord whether we like it or not, whether men like it
or not. Truth is truth, whether we believe
it or not. What's believing it got to do
with being true or not? Truth is truth, whether I believe
it or not. You and I better get in line, the right line, the
right one. Now, the Pharisees, once again,
were there to oppose him for doing good. They opposed him
for being him. They couldn't stand him. They
were nitpicking at everything. They went to the service that
morning to see if they could find something. They knew he'd
be there. The Scripture says, as his custom
was, he always went to the synagogue. Every Sabbath, his custom was
to go to what they called the house of God, that which represented,
which God established. He was there. He was there. And they went there with malice
in their hearts. Oh, I pray we didn't come here
like that. Only by grace, only by grace do we not come here
like that. Really. They went there with malice in
their hearts. to see if they could find something that they
might accuse him and destroy him. You see that at the end
of verse 6? How they might destroy him who
came to save. He said, I did not come to destroy
men's lives. I came to save. That's why I
came. You're already destroyed. You're
already a mess. Already a mess. I came to save. But they came
there that morning to figure out how they might destroy him.
Plot and plan and pick at and accuse. That's the false religion
Frank spoke of this morning. That's what it does. You know,
the religious world wants to save us from drinking and drugs
and so we'd be a good neighbor. That's
all they want. They want somebody to break into
their house. So if we can get them religious,
we can probably put a stop to that. But I tell you this, they
don't want you saved for the glory of God. They did not want
Christ healing that man that morning because he would be getting
the glory, not them. He would be getting the attention,
not them. See, they wanted attention that
morning. It's like, look at me, listen to me. Him saving this man? He's getting
the glory. He's getting the attention. All
the attention and attraction is upon Him. Well, that's the
way it's supposed to be. Give unto Him, the Scripture
says, the glory due unto His name. And they were trying to take
it away. When the Lord entered the synagogue, He was always
Always about his father's business. When he woke up in the morning,
the first thing that he would do was set about his father's
business. The first thing he'd do. Always
about his father's business. Always doing good. Always doing
good. Healing, saving. He did nothing
bad. Everything he did was good. And
you know why? Because he's God. And God is
what? Good. I used to say that prayer
when I was in elementary school. God is great. God is good. I
said that every morning. They wouldn't say it and I'd
choke them to death. We said that every morning. Well, we
said it before lunch. I remember being in Ms. Lambert's
class. God is great. God is good. Well,
he is. He is. And he still is. And he always will be that way.
And he was there to do good. He was there about his father's
business. And that ought to teach us how important it is to attend
the worship service where Christ is. If Christ is here, if he's here
in our presence, if he's among us, Something good is going to
happen. You're going to be blessed. Your hearts are going to be lifted.
The hearts that need lifting are going to be lifted. There
will be something good come out of this. How important it is to be where
the Lord Jesus Christ is. And then we see here that this
man is here, and I'll talk about him in a minute, but this is
no accidental meeting. I tell you, somebody might think
they stumbled into the service, but that's no accident. There's
no accidental meetings with God. Everything God does, he does
on purpose. Everyone whom God saves, he saves on purpose. Everyone
who hears the gospel, they hear it on purpose. And that man's there. I don't
know why he's there. This may be something he did on a regular
basis. I have a suspicion that those Pharisees probably got
him to come there knowing that they could get him, that the
Lord would probably heal him, and then they could, gotcha.
Maybe, maybe not. I don't know. I kind of have
suspicions that they may have got him to come there that morning
in order to have a reason to accuse him. But he's there. He's there. It's no accident. There was a
man there that had a withered hand, a useless hand, a hand
that had somehow, I don't know if it had been mangled or something,
an accident happened or what, but this man's hand was withered
up to the point that he couldn't use it. He couldn't lift it. He couldn't do anything. It was
useless. He could have cut it off and
not missed it. It was useless. This is a good picture of us
by nature, withered and useless to God. Don't think that someone who
has talent would be real useful in the ministry. Forget it. Forget it. That's not so. We need to understand something
here. God does not save men and women because of any talent that
he sees in them or that he can use. That's where, you know,
I think a lot of these churches out there, you know, they pick
these Sunday school teachers and stuff by their talent. You
know, they think, well, they just handle young kids real well.
Well, what's that? Do they know the truth? You know, it's not, it's not
trying to mesh two people together, it's just like I had Frank or
Mike, I had Mike teaching in Eric's place this morning. And
I'll tell you why I had him teaching in his place. It's not because
I, and I believe this, but it's not because I believe that Mike
had handled children. I believe Mike knows the gospel.
I've talked to him, I've talked to him many times over the years.
And I believe he can communicate what he knows about the gospel
to those kids. And that's the whole basis of anybody ever standing
up in the Word of God. Are they gifted to do it? Do
they have the ability and the gift to communicate the gospel? I don't care. It wouldn't matter
if he's the greatest orator in the world, orator in the world,
whatever you want to call it in the world. You can tell I'm
not. But they need to sit down and
shut up if they don't have anything to say. You know, this sword
is sharp. It cuts both ways. You don't
want it in the wrong hands. You don't want it in the wrong
hands. A.D. Mews said this, God has to kill
our natural talent in order to use us. In order to use us, God has to
kill us. He has to lay it in the dust. And you have to realize,
and I realized this years ago. And I still realize it. But I
realized years ago, when I was in that preacher school, after
being in there several months, I can't preach. What am I doing
here? And I still feel like that. I
mean, I'm not trying to make some kind of show. But I understand
this. God gives gifts and talents.
Now, if you have it, you have it. But I realized I could not
do it. I could not do it unless he enabled
me to do it. Unless he enabled me to do it. God is not impressed with our
abilities. Yeah, we may impress each other,
but God's not impressed. Christ was not impressed with
those Pharisees. He was angered, and it says,
greed. Everybody else in there was impressed
with them. Everybody else thought, oh, here's the Pharisees. Our Lord was angered and grieved
at them. Compassion, mercy, grace is for
the helpless. God helps those who help themselves.
He helps those who have absolutely no hope. He gives sight to those who are
blind, life to those who are dead. That's what he does. This man also is a picture of
sovereign mercy. He didn't ask the Lord to save
him. He did not ask the Lord to heal him. The Lord just poured
him full. He told me, he said, you stand
full. And that man just, he did what he was told to do. He was
under the power of our Lord. That's right, if he ever sends
an effectual call to you, you'll do it. You'll do it. But he's a pitcher of sovereign
mercy. God saves whom he will, when
he will, where he will. He saves whom He will. And whom
He will, it says what? He hardens. He leaves them alone. You have no interest at all?
The Lord may just leave you like that. He's sovereign. And He's going to be glorified
whether you and I are saved or not. When he sends men to hell, he'll
have just as much glory as when he saves sinners and brings them
to heaven. One is to the praise and glory
of his justice. The other is to the praise and
glory of his grace. God will be glorified. He will be glorified. And then we get inside of this
religious world, verse 2. And they watched him. You know,
it says over at the latter part of the Gospels. And sitting down,
they watched him there. Waiting to see what was going
to happen. Remember, he said, I thirst. They said, hold on. Let's see
if Elijah comes. We just might get to see something.
This might get exciting. That's what they wanted to see.
They wanted to see if Elijah would come and give him a drink.
They watched him. There was never a time that someone
was not watching him. They set a watch on him. They
were watching him constantly. You know, when Pilate brought
him out and he did all that examination, he said, I find no fault in him. And all this watching, trying
to trap him, trying to trick him, trip him up, they couldn't
do it. Not one time. Not one time. They could trick me up before
I get out this front door. But they could not trip him up in
any way, shape or form. He's God. God. But they watched
him trying, trying to trick him up. Our Lord said, the servant is
not above his master. We are always being watched.
Always being watched. Always somebody trying to pick.
That's why the scripture says, provide all things honest. before all men. Because they're
just picking. They're just waiting to pick
at you. Just waiting to stab at you. Just like they did our
Lord. How they treated Him is exactly
how they treat us. Exactly how they'll treat His
people. And watched Him. And they watched Him whether
He would... Now listen to this. He. He. Save somebody on a Sabbath day, on the day
of rest. That man finally had rest. You
know, when our Lord healed these people on the Sabbath day, they
finally had rest from their trouble, their problems, whatever it was
they had, their infirmities. They really had rest. And that's
what it was all about. Rest. It's not just keeping a
day. They expected him to do good.
They expected this. You know, we ought to expect
God to save sinners, shouldn't we? They expected him to do something
here. We shouldn't be surprised if
someone confesses Christ. We ought to expect it. If Christ
is being preached, we ought to expect it. That's what Christ died for,
to save sinners. I want you to notice here, this
jumped out at me, how ignorant false religion is. How much effort,
how much work, how much work goes into saying, stand forth. They were not supposed to work
or do anything on a Sabbath day. They could go to the house of
God there, but how much work goes into a command? There's no work in a command.
He just says to the man, stand forth. He stands forth. He says, reach forth your hand.
And he reaches it forth. No work in that. That's grace.
There's no work there at all. It's all grace. It's all mercy. No work in it. The only reason they watched
him was to accuse him. Not to worship. They'd be sad to come to the
place of worship not to worship. They did not go there to worship.
They did not go there to listen to Him. They did not go there
to learn of Him. They went there to accuse. To
accuse. Big difference. Big difference
between law and grace, isn't there? The law accuses. The state police sit on 64 up
there. You know what they're sitting
there for? To watch you. Watch you. As soon as you see
them, you take your foot off the gas, don't you? You don't
wave. I don't wave at them. You wave
at them? They'd probably think you're
a smart aleck and come after you if you waved at them. No, you
take your foot off the gas, because that's the law. And the law has
the power to chase me down and give me my correct punishment,
whether I like it or not. It doesn't matter. Big difference between watching
it choose from the state of Stanford. I know it's a Sabbath day, but
I'm Lord of the Sabbath. I have power to do this day what I will
do." We can set aside just keeping the day and you just come here. Big difference between law and
grace. The law watches us and accuses
us and condemns us, but grace brings us to Him. Notice here in verse 3. He knew what they were there
for. He knew they were there to accuse him. He knew they were
there. He felt the hatred. Don't you think he didn't feel
that hatred? You ever been around somebody that doesn't like you
and you know they don't like you? When you run a business, believe me,
you work several men, you experience this. You know they don't like
you. And it makes the atmosphere uncomfortable. It just kind of
destroys the atmosphere. But our Lord's there. He knows
the heart of these men. He knows they hate Him. He knows
what's in their hearts. He said to the man with the withered
hand, stand firm. I mean, He knows these guys hate
Him. But He's going to do it right in their midst, right in
their face. Right in their face. Here's what
I want us to understand, and especially us who preach. Christ
was never intimidated by the hatred of men over the message.
Never. He was not intimidated. That's
his house. He came to his own house that
he established. If they don't like it, they can
get out. He's not getting out. That's his. He established it
just like when he went in and ran the money changers out. He was not intimidated by their
hatred at all. He never altered his message. He knew when he talked about
Naaman, that Syrians, about God, there's many lepers in Israel,
but God only saved that one. He knew that he was going to
get mad. Remember one place the disciple said, don't you know
you offended the Pharisees? Hey, they were born offended.
They were born mad, they live mad, they died mad, and they're
still mad. That's the Pharisees. That's self-righteousness, that's
false religion, that's natural man. They'll always be offended. What
are you going to do? How many times are you going to change the message? It's like
changing that temperature over there. How many times are you
going to do that to suit everybody in here? I get more grief over that stupid thermometer
over there than I do anything here. I do. I get more grief
over that. I told Wayne to put a lockbox
on it. I said, you put a lockbox on
that thing and lock it, and if anybody's got a problem with
it, let them come to me, and I'll give them some grief. I'll
give them my grief. But the point is, how many times
are you going to change the message? If you change it a little bit,
you don't have a message. You don't have the gospel at all.
You've got to lie. And God's not going to save anybody
by a lie. And then verse four here. We
have a good question. We have a good question. You
see, He knows their hearts. He knows their hearts. And He's
going to take a dagger and stab them right here. This is the
difference here of good and evil. Life and death. That's the difference. That's what's going on here.
That's what's going on. He saith unto them, Is it lawful
to do good on the Sabbath days? or to do evil, to save life or
to kill it. You know, if they had a sheep
or an ox that fell in the ditch, do you know they'd get it out
on the Sabbath day? If one of those Pharisees, he
says that over another gospel, if they had a sheep or an ox
that fell in the ditch, they would get that one out because
it's a pocketbook. That's a pocketbook, but they'd
get, well, how much more It's a man worth. How much more is
human life worth over an animal? You can see why the Lord said
you gag it and dance and you swallow camels. That's human
nature. That's just us by nature. Our
own conscience tells us it's better to do good than evil. It's better to save a life Our own conscience tells us that,
doesn't it? They knew that because it says
after that they what? They held their peace. They held
their peace. That's how you shut up a lie.
What's the truth? What's the truth? What he's doing here in verse
4, he's reading the Pharisees heart to them. You're here to
do evil. I'm here to do good. You're here
to kill life. I'm here to save it. And he let them be their own
judge. And they couldn't answer a word. They couldn't answer a word.
And they held their peace. And it says in verse 5, when
he had looked round about on them with anger, Yes, he got angry. God is angry
with the wicked every day. He hateth. Scripture says he hateth the
workers of iniquity, not just hates iniquity. He hates the
workers of it. I've heard it said God loves
the sinner, but he hates his sin. Where do you think sin comes
from? It's not how you're floating in the air. You take us out of
here and we don't have sin. I know what they're trying to
say by that, but he hates the workers of iniquity. As David said over in the psalm,
I hate them with a perfect hatred. God's hatred of the workers of
iniquity is a perfect hatred. There's no sin in it. And he was grieved. He was grieved
at the hardness, the blindness of their hearts. Of all people
standing in that room that should have known the truth were those
guys who were reading the Word all the time. They claimed to
be leaders, spiritual leaders, religious leaders. They claimed
to be the ones who were supposed to know it. And they were blind. And if the blind lead the blind,
they both fall in the ditch. That's the end result of it.
They both wind up in hell. He said, you've come to sea and
land to make one proselyte, and when you've made him a proselyte,
you've made him twofold the children of hell. They pretended to represent God, yet they acted like devils. He
said one time, you're of your father the devil. You know, if somebody's going
to represent me, I want somebody to represent me. Not represent
their own agenda. I want them to represent me. They were supposed to represent
God. They were the religious leaders. But they were totally
opposite. They were totally opposite. They
represent, Satan's what they represent, that's the one they
represented. You're of your father the devil, and the works of your
father you will do. And what were they doing? Trying
to keep him from getting the glory that's due to his name. Saving that sinner. Saving that
man. But our Lord saves in spite of all opposition, of their anger,
Aren't you glad that the Lord saved you in spite of you? I'm glad He saved me in spite
of me. Someone said that God saved me
against my will with my purpose. 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." Man's
hand is withered. He's not been able to do that.
I thought of Cosetta. I thought of her. When I'd shake
her hand, she can't get that arm up. But the Lord said, stretch
it forth. How'd that happen? I've been
to doctors all over the place. With the command comes the power
to do it. and the right to do it. The right to do it. He stretched forth his hand and
it was as whole as the other. Our Lord's salvation is complete.
It's complete. It's not half done, mostly done. It's all done. It's finished. It's finished. Verse 6, and I'll close here.
Verse 6, And the Pharisees went forth and straightway took counsel
with the Herodians against him, that they might destroy him. Verse 6 shows us how evil men
are by nature. You would think we'd just be
overjoyed that the Lord healed a man. Make him whole. Release him from his infirmity
and instead you get mad. That is a real picture of human
nature. A real picture of human nature.
There is more evil done in the name of God than anything else
by false religion. They hijack the name of God and
then throw all their falsehood and lies and traditions out there
and then call it of God. Christ is of God. His salvation
is of God. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
redemption is of God. All that we need to stand in
His presence is of God. The rest of it is like that filthy
rag you have I killed those kids this morning. That old dirty
rag. God does not want any of that. God does not have any of
that.