I told you this before, as we're
going through the book of Luke, you want to be conscientious
of the privilege of observing God in the flesh, in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our elder was talking about how
God has given us one another as gifts. And that really is
true. And when we pass away from this
life, we have an opportunity to reflect upon how unique every
life is. And if you have come to know
someone and have been able to share with them their gift, and
they share with you your gift, when they leave, there's an absence
there, isn't it? There's something you miss. But
also you have an opportunity, as I get to do funerals and going
home services, to remind people to cherish the memories of those
experiences, to cherish the memories of those experiences because
that's what God gives us the experience for, to cherish the
memories. Now, if we can benefit from the
life of brothers and sisters and loved ones that we care about
and know down here, who may be redeemed sinners or maybe not,
and yet God has been able to bless us with their life, how
much more so God's mercy to manifest himself to us in the person of
Jesus and to give us the Lord Jesus for some 30 odd years that
we might be able to enjoy his life and the gift of his life
to us and the unique blessings of his personal life to us. He's gone now, so much of what
we do with the Lord Jesus Christ is also by way of memory, is
it not? Memory. Much of our gospel is
a memorial gospel. Today we will observe the Lord's
table and we call it a memorial of his death. And so we derive
from a person's life all that they have shared with us by which
we can be edified and encouraged and built up. And so as we get
into our subject today, I thought about how God manifested himself
in the flesh and he grew up. We don't know much about his
early days because he was hid from us until the time of his
showing, as Luke says in the gospel of Luke, but our Lord
was a carpenter. He was a blue-collar worker like
most of us now we have a few White-collar fellas in the house
and some of y'all with you know PhDs and things of that nature
So your nails never really had dirt underneath unless you grew
up in the south in the country and stuff like that But one of
the privileges that we derived from the fact that our Lord was
a carpenter is that he was a real man now I like that part personally
and Because today it's hard to find real men. And the battle
that you and I are fighting politically today is that we're trying to
destroy real men, aren't we? And I think history has proven
that the effeminate church, going all the way back to the pre-Renaissance
days, has tried to depict our master as less than a carpenter. But we don't buy that, do we?
Do you know a carpenter is a rough looking fellow? And he got guns,
you know? And so I can imagine our Lord
hanging out with his other workers as some laid the foundation of
homes and some built the frame and others were working on the
drywall and the mud and the mortar and he's dealing with the wood
aspect of it, framing and things of that nature. Who knows to
what extent he became a carpenter, but I can imagine the joy that
people had hanging around with our master, couldn't you? And
I'm reminded of what the Proverbs says in Proverbs chapter eight.
And that is the Lord Jesus. He was his father's pleasure.
The father loved him some son. And this was an eternity past
way, way, way, way back before you could even think about anything. The father and the son were enjoying
each other. And you know what the scripture
tells us in Proverbs, the son of man, delight to dwell with
men. And I want you to take that now
because what that means is if the Lord Jesus was hanging out
with us here in the 21st century, you would be surprised at some
of the places he would be kicking it. We already found out that he
loves worship. You're gonna find him on church
on Sunday. He loved his father's house.
He loved the house of prayer. He loved preaching and teaching
and witnessing and hanging out with the saints. And in church,
when Jesus shows up, things happen, don't they? Told you that. You're not gonna read in the
scriptures where church is ordinary where the Lord shows up. But
today, they done already had service. Service is over with,
and they headed home. And some of the Pharisees say,
Lord Jesus, our master, Such-and-such Pharisee is Having a dinner up
the road. Would you mind joining us or
who knows? He may have gotten the invitation
several days earlier But just like me if you ask me over to
eat and you got the right food, I'm coming Okay, I'm coming especially
on the Sabbath after I didn't preach I've been worked up about
a good 600 calories burn I'm ready to turn that back into
some protein and and enjoy fellowship with the brethren. We've done
this for years after worship. We get together, talk, eat and
talk. And today our Lord is doing that.
That's the context in which our lesson will be derived. He loved
hanging out with the brethren, just chopping it up. But can
you imagine the Lord Jesus already knowing that when he is invited
to someone's house, to enjoy a meal or a feast, he is always
dealing with enemies who are watching everything he says. Do you know people like that?
Oh, I got to go over such and such. Who's gonna be there? Who's
gonna be there? Because there are people that
you always are concerned got something on you, or want something
on you, or looking for something on you. And that can make it
really difficult. I have actually said, nah, I
got other stuff to do. I don't think I want to come
over today. But that's because I'm not the Lord Jesus. Our Lord
Jesus goes over to this Pharisee's house because he's invited according
to verse one of chapter 14. And there are a number of lessons
we want to derive from our account today. And the title of our message
is A Dinner Date with God. I want you to think about that
now next time you have a banquet or a feast, a dinner date with
God. Chapter 14, verse one tells us that as he was invited to
the feast, it came to pass as he went into the house of one
of the chief Pharisees to eat on the Sabbath day, they watched
him. They watched him. That's the
first point in our outline. They watched him. They watched
him. Now, wouldn't you be uncomfortable
with people just watching you? You know, you at people house
trying to enjoy meal in conversation, you know in the back you'll hear
somebody watching you Now the verb here is a very powerful
verb because it's used in the book of Acts and it's a term
that means to guard or to century or to post it means to actually
capture and to hold fast and the idea is this they were watching
him as if he was a prisoner about to escape and They were watching
everything he said They were careful to listen to his words
because they wanted to catch him in some type of theological
error wherewith they could condemn him. Now, think about that. Now, these are the Pharisees.
These are the lawyers. These are the scribes. These
are the theologians. And here you are eating meals
with them, and they are waiting for you to say something contrary
to what they believe. That would make it hard, wouldn't
it? It'd make it hard to hang out with them. And yet our Lord
does it. He stays. He sits. He's fully aware that
they are looking for ways to catch him. They are seeking our
master's demise. They are trying to trap him.
And Luke's gospel and Mark's gospel says that they not only
did it this time, but everywhere he went, they were watching him. Everywhere our master went, they
were looking to catch him. He knew they were watching him.
But you know what? He didn't have one Concerned
with what they were doing How come? Well because he knew that
his father was watching him See when your father's watching you
it don't matter who else is watching you He knew that his father was
watching over him So that the fact that these Pharisees and
rulers were watching him did not deter him from his purpose. I See, the Bible is clear that
if the Lord watches the house, then the house is watched. That
if the Lord is looking over your needs and over your affairs,
do you know not one evil thing can harm you? And on this occasion,
like many of the other occasions, they sought to catch the Lord
in his words. But as David said in Psalm 27,
when my enemies came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled
and they fell. Today you will see that once
again. The stumbling, bumbling, blind leaders of the church trying
to catch the Lord of glory only to fall flat on their faces. Our Lord knew that would happen,
didn't he? But he went anyway. Now, I want you to mark this.
Now, in all sincerity, I know he enjoyed hanging out with these
men. Even some of these Pharisees, we must admit when we do a careful
development of the Scripture, some of these Pharisees were
saved. Some of these Pharisees loved Jesus. Some of these, like
Nicodemus, And a whole group of these Pharisees, they loved
them from Jesus. And we've learned now that faith has a lot of curves
to it. Faith is not a straight line
that is, as it were, just without any variables. There were men
who loved Christ, but they also feared these dagger-carrying
theologians too. So they would not confess Him
openly. So our Lord knew that mix was
in the house. He knew that there were men in there who understood
that he was the true Messiah, that he was the master, that
he was telling the truth. He also knew that his enemies
were there. You got to be strong in the Lord
to take on a dinner date where you're going to hang out with
the very people that's going to kill you. You got to be strong in
the Lord. You got to know the master's
will You got to believe the book all things work together for
good to them that love God, right? Nothing can happen apart from
the will of God all things work after the counsel of his own
will you got to believe? What the proverb says that there's
no counsel nor knowledge nor wisdom against the Lord You got
to be able to believe that man devises his way, but God directs
his steps You got to believe that God made all things for
himself. Yeah, even the wicked for the day of evil You gotta
believe that no weapon formed against you shall prosper because
God shall cause you to triumph when you are walking in God's
way You gotta believe that to go into those snake pits like
that but you also have to know that in spite of their Attempts
to destroy him and discredit him and malign him and to set
him up as a malefactor That you have a greater purpose when you
enter into the midst of people You have to know this, which
brings us to point number two in our outline. When a need becomes
a test, when a need becomes a test, they are all walking around the
house. There's a group of these devils
looking at our master. People are now starting to place
themselves since the food is prepared. And there's a fellow
over about 15 feet away from Jesus Southwest at a direct shot
at our master because they placed him there and they've got our
master now sitting here and our master having observed everybody
else notices this fella verse 2 and Behold, there was a certain
man. Do you see that phrase a certain
man? That's how Luke uses it doesn't
matter who he was There was a certain man. In other words, this man
was there for certain He wasn't there on accident He was there
on purpose. God brought Him there. God put
Him there. God placed Him there. And see,
when you and I are walking with an understanding that our priority
is to see the glory of God in whatever we do, we better start
looking for those certain people, that certain person, that purposed
individual. Our Lord did that wherever He
went. He looked for the purposed one,
for the certain one, for the predestined one. for the determined
one. He didn't merely get caught up
in the ambience, in the atmosphere of the event that he was invited
to. He didn't do like a lot of us
do. We gravitate toward the people that are attracted to us. Can
I talk to you a little bit? And you get myopic, very myopic,
and you fail to see that over to the left of you or over to
the right of you is a need. Is a need. But our master came
to this dinner looking for the need. It was the reason for which
he overcame what might have been even any remote reticence to
not go because of the dagger-holding theologians. He had a greater
purpose in view. He was looking for the need.
Watch this, saints. The needs of sinners outweighs
the opposition of our foes. The needs of sinners outweighs
the opposition of our foes. You probably can't get with that
because you're not an evangelist or a missionary, but our missionary
brothers and sisters knows that that axiom is true, that they
are often led into situations of extreme danger, but the need
outweighs the danger. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And it only becomes an opportunity to manifest whether or not we
are trusting God in the call to reach men and women with the
gospel of Jesus Christ. Luke says that he sat over against
this individual and marked this. And behold, there was a certain
man before him which had the drop seat. And Jesus answering,
having seen this man, answered unto the lawyers and Pharisees
saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? Now, why
did he say that? Because he knew that this was
a test. Because he knew that these Pharisees
had sent that man there. Because he knew that his father,
once again, was about to be glorified. And he said, we might as well
get down to the real issues here. I know what's in your heart.
I know what's in... You know how you know what people are
actually thinking? That you know they don't like you. That you
know they got something against you. And you're trying to be
cordial, and nice, and quaint. But sometimes it's like, hey
look, let's just put all the dumb stuff aside. What you thinking
now? Now, I want you to understand
that the way our Lord poses the term, is it lawful to do the
right thing on the Sabbath day, is what our Lord had been saying
to the same rulers again and again and again and again and
again every Sabbath day. This ain't the first time this
question was raised. We saw this just a week or two
ago with the woman, right? That was bent over. Is it lawful
to lose her on the Sabbath? He did this before with a man
with a withered arm. In Luke 6, we're going to see
that in a moment. It appears that everywhere Christ goes,
there are controversial things that emerge because he has enemies
and people have needs. Are you hearing me? This is remarkable.
This proposition is remarkable, and I want you to think this
through. How dark is the world that because light has come into
the world and men love darkness, they hate the light with a passion. How dark is the world when men
have needs to be delivered from their sin, to be set free from
their bondage, to be healed of their diseases, to be brought
to a saving knowledge of the glory of God in Christ. And they
do, don't they? The whole world needs to be brought
to a saving knowledge of Christ, don't they? The whole world needs
to be healed, doesn't it? The whole world needs to be set
free from the captivity and bondage and damning nature of sin. Do
you believe that? What kind of dark world do we
have that would oppose the people of God who want to see men and
women set free? How blind must you be? How hardened in your heart must
you be to hate liberation, hate freedom, hate healing? So much
so that you follow the liberator everywhere he goes and try to
stop him. You got to be dealing with some
darkness, don't you? You've got to be dealing with some darkness
now watch this our master knew this Their hatred for christ
was at a fevered pitch even on this day Who knows they might
have just came from a church service where he healed several
people and they were already mad at him Here he come over
to the dinner and uh, the rest of the pharisees didn't even
know he was going to show up Here he goes. But again, they did
know because they planted the man And our master is responding
to them. And this is why The point that
we have in front of us is so critical. When a need becomes
a test, we have a setup. When a need becomes a test, we
have a setup. Our Lord responds to this test
by prioritizing the need. When the need becomes a test,
our Lord recognizes that they are tempting Him, tempting Him
as they tempted Him many times before. But our Lord says, I'm
going to actually not only address the temptation, but I'm going
to address it by meeting the need. How sad it is when men
are so blinded by their own agendas that they fail to see that the
needs are far more important. We can get it mixed up, can't
we? Watch this now. Religious folk can get it mixed
up. See, what we're dealing with
is a theological argument versus a real spiritual need. Here's
the theological argument again before we unpack this. The theological
argument is how are we to act on Sunday? What are we supposed
to do when it comes to church? What are the parameters? What
are the protocol? What is the order? How are we
to behave? What are the priorities? What
are the things that should be resonating in our heart as the
people of God on Sunday? And their day was Saturday. What
was most important? making sure we get the church
exactly on time, sitting in our seats and going through the form
and making sure we sing the doxology until... Or whatever other silly, superficial,
ethereal, temporary rules and regulations men will make up
to put on a form of godliness. rather than the substance of
godliness. Are you hearing me? The Pharisees
were more righteous than any man. They were more holy than
any man. No one questioned the holiness
of the Pharisees. No one questioned their orthodoxy. No one questioned their ability
to defend Scripture. But they were deceived. It was
form over substance, and when form met substance, substance
always won. See, this is the battle here.
What are we to do on the Sabbath day? Well, you and I know if
we're legitimate people of God and we're born of the Spirit,
we're going to worship on the Sabbath day, aren't we? We're
going to worship God. We're going to hear the gospel. In fact,
we're going to have a dinner date every Sunday with God, aren't
we? We're going to have a dinner
date. But now, is it all right when we have this dinner date
with God for God to show up and things to get shaken up. Is it
all right for us to worship together even in the midst of people whose
priorities are wrong? Is that all right? It's all right
so long as Christ shows up. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
It has to be. Listen to me, saints. Our Lord
put up with it. He went the holy day with people
who didn't love God. In fact, they hated God. He went
the holy day with people who didn't love him. In fact, they
hated him. He went the holy day with people who were so self-righteous
they couldn't wait to stand before God and say, we did this and
we did that and we did the other thing in your name, only to be
told, I never knew you. He put up with that. He put up
with that because the need was greater than the task I'm trying
to help you to understand the privilege of seeing God in the
flesh because you know people will say I don't like your church
because there's a couple two or three people in your church
that I don't get along with well You don't understand that for
some of them you the same way And they still come to church
will pass out come because they're there to have a dinner date with
God. Listen, they're there to see
the Lord Jesus show up. You know what they ask when you
say, are you going to dinner date on Sunday? Are you going
to church? They're saying to themselves, definitely. I'm looking
for the Lord Jesus because if he shows up, I'm going to see
his glory. I'm going, his glory is going to be manifested and
I'm not going to be paying attention to the legalist and the self-righteous
and the work mongers and the people that that pay attention
to little protocols. I need to see the glory of God
and I've been taught Christ loves to worship. Are you hearing me? Yeah. And so our Lord Jesus put
up with that and you and I can put up with that too. You know,
there's a day coming when we ain't going to have no devils
in the worship service. Hallelujah. But not today. We're getting ready to have a
symbol of the feast and banquet in the Lord's table, aren't we? And some devil's going to eat. Because it's only a symbol and
not the substance. See, the substance is for the
real people of God. God is teaching you and I that
we have to be patient. We have to be tolerant. God is
working out his will even in the midst of all of this. But
what kind of man was this carpenter who had corns on his hand and
14 and 15 inch guns? I swear he did not have 11 inch
guns. They had to be 14, 15 inch. Picking
up hammers back in those days, they had big old Flintstone hammers.
Those are big hammers. I'm trying to give you a more
alpha male picture of our savior. We've been fighting against this
whole femininity thing as we deal with the gospel and sexuality.
And I know the enemy knows how to misinform you by images. And y'all got a weak Jesus in
your mind that can't even pick up a cup of water, let alone
a hammer. Do you know what kind of strength
you got to have to hammer a thousand times a day above your shoulders? Yeah, our Lord was a real man.
And if he was not so physically pronounced in terms of his masculinity,
which I believe he was, there is no doubt that he was emotionally
and psychologically and spiritually as bold as a lion. It amazes
me. Here he is, he's hanging out
in the house with all of these unprincipled people. He's thankful
that the actual person that invited him over is someone that they
have somewhat of a relationship with. And he knows that they
have set this brother up as a test against him. And he takes this
as an opportunity to demonstrate to you and me that where it is
time to be bold, you must be bold. Because that's how light
penetrates darkness. See, our culture presently would
love for you to shrink away and not stand for the truth. When
they put you in a situation where you're running from the truth
will discredit you. He had no option. They set him
up. Are you hearing me? Had he run,
they'd have been able to affirm their lie about him. Remember
what we learned last week? The wicked flee when no man pursues. But the righteous are as what?
Bold as a lion. Our Lord turned to these rulers
and said, is it lawful to save a life or let it die on the Sabbath
day? What a question. And he challenged
him. Do you know what happened in
terms of the atmosphere of the room and all of the gaiety and
ambiance? It all stopped right there. You
know why? Because he brought everything
to light. Everybody's quiet now. Everybody's
pointing, looking towards the master. Our master is addressing
the dagger-holding theologians. And everybody's saying, whoa,
what is this about? Well, this is a long-standing
battle, ladies and gentlemen, that's been going on for a while,
and our Lord is about to teach. He's about to teach. And he's
doing this because it's essential as point number three says confronting
the lovers of bondage See the rulers of jesus day were lovers
of bondage They weren't lovers of freedom They were lovers of
bondage They loved to see men and women trapped in their sins
They love to see men and women bound by their iniquities. They love to see men and women
in the cords of their transgression. They loved it because it made
them feel better than them. Are you hearing me? That's how
self-righteousness works. Self-righteousness is only affirmed
when somebody is lower on the rung of struggle than you. It
makes you feel like you got a little bit more uh going on than they
do in reality. You're worse than them But the
self-righteous pharisee They love to see people in bondage
you and I we've been going through the gospel of matthew mark luke
and john and here at grace For 16 years now and you haven't
seen one time where pharisee has set anybody free Not one
time have you? One stitch of scripture text
that says the Pharisees labor to liberate a person that was
sick a person that was in bondage a person that was blind a person
that was lame a person that was Informed not one time now watch
this and they gather together gather every Sabbath day now
watch this If I'm a preacher of the gospel and my message
is a message of liberation and my message is supposed to have
power to set the captives free and yet people are staying in
their sins and staying in their bondage and staying in their
captivity, my heart is gonna be broke. I'm gonna be beside
myself with woe because I'm called to be a lover of the souls of
men. I should not be in this business of preaching if people
aren't liberated, coming in week in and week out, slaves to sin. And then somehow I'm comfortable
with it because I can lead them by some superficial rules and
regulations, knowing that they go away still in bondage, knowing
nothing about the liberty wherewith Christ has made them free. I'm
a lover of bondage. I'm a lover of sin. I'm a lover
of slaves. Stain and slavery. That's what
these men were. So our Lord confronted them.
That's our third point. Sometimes they have to be confronted
and have to be told that's what they are. These reprobate religious
rulers who profit off of people's misery. Isn't that true? Off their bondage, off their
weakness. It's confronted once again by the lion of the tribe
of Judah. Mark what we are dealing with
in verse two. A man who had the dropsy. Now this is again where the King
James Version could be more contemporarily drawn. It's an individual who
had water retention. You know when your vital organs
don't work right, your liver and your kidney? The body is
such a magnificent machine that when it works right, the water
levels are just right in your body. You're not dehydrated. You're not overly ridden with
fluids. There's a balance there. But
when your kidneys and your liver is not working right, you can
be overloaded with water. My brother is on dialysis three
times a week. He's my baby brother. He's nine
months younger than me or so. couple days he has to go through
that dialysis to purge his body of the excess water that builds
up over a 48 hour period of which if he doesn't do dialysis he
will die. Do you know how burdensome that
affliction is? Do you know how wearisome that
affliction is? Brother Mike, a brother Mike
Aguirre's mother was going through the same thing my brother is
going through now. And brother Mike and mom, and
I've been knowing her since I was 23, 24. She's a sort of surrogate
mom to me. They talked last week and mom
said, I'm tired. I'm tired. Have to go up there
every week and sometimes those knuckleheads don't get it right.
I was with my brother two weeks ago, working on some issues.
I said, how are you doing, Richard? He said, I'm all right, man.
I just get tired of this back and forth because you know, the
people in the medical industry don't care about you. I mean,
you might have a few people that love God and are saying, you
doctors and nurses, y'all supposed to be sympathetic, but we got
some monsters in the medical field. They don't care about
people. Am I telling the truth? And my
brother does not. He says, man, some days when
I go in and I have to enter into the clinic and I see this person
and that person, I call the head nurse and say, look, you hook
me up because I don't like these people. The man with the dropsy
was sick. He was afflicted, but don't you
know how good God is? This brother is about to get
a blessing today. The Lord invited him to the feast
by somebody else who was going to use him as an object lesson
to catch our Lord Jesus. And he's about to get healed.
Don't you think this brother is about to be happy? Happy to
be healed. This is what we call free sovereign
grace. He wasn't looking for it. He wasn't seeking. He wasn't
calling on it. God did it of his own free mercy. And that's what he did for you
and me too. in the midst of the goal of the enemy to use you
as a mockery, never intending to do anything to help heal you,
God is pleased to intervene, step in and turn the situation
around. There was one man that day that
walked away from that feast full, happy, ready to tell him, you
know what? God showed up at the feast today
and healed me of my afflictions. How wicked is our present generation
when men and women are in bondage and are in captivity, are in
sin, entrapped by all kinds of snares and gins, and we have
no regard for the sanctity of life, for the quality of life,
for the spirituality of the soul. for its need for God, for its
need for Christ, for the word of God, for restoration, for
redemption, for salvation, out of misguided and silly principles. To tell a dope fiend that he
can't be delivered today, an alcoholic, that he can't be delivered
today, the homosexual, that they can't be changed today, and then
to make it illegal is both foolish and damning. Are you hearing
me? And to make it illegal is both
foolish and damning. See, what I'm telling you is
this little microcosm of a scenario that we are reading is really
the world that you and I live in. Stay with me for a moment,
child of God. If you are a child of the living
God and God has deposited the gospel in your life and you know
the truth as it is in Christ, the very truth that liberated
you, You are obligated to tell men and women about that liberation
wherever you go. Am I telling the truth? And yet
their laws orchestrated to tell you, you can't tell men and women
that Christ sets them free. That's where we're at today.
I mean, that's where you and I are at today. And you and I
better take lessons from the master and ask the question,
is it better to save or to kill? Is it better to liberate or leave
people in bondage? It doesn't matter whether it's
Sunday or not. Our job is to proclaim the gospel
and let men and women know that Christ sets the captives free
and let the chips fall where they may. Are you hearing me? And I'm talking about on your
job, I'm talking about at school, I'm talking about every vocation,
every office, every station in life. You and I, just like our
master, are sent by God to tell men and women the truth. There's
somebody that's going to be liberated by what you say. And do you understand
why God does it? To get himself glory by the testimony
of those who've been liberated. That woman that was bent over,
she brought glory to God. This man with the dropsy shall
bring glory to God. Turn with me back in your Bible
to Luke chapter 6 and let's see God do it again. The reason why
we share the gospel is to help men and women understand that
the only way of escape and liberation and deliverance is through Christ. It's through Christ. Here's another
scenario. Verse six of chapter six. Are
you there? And here it goes again. Came to pass also on another
Sabbath that he entered into the synagogue and he taught and
there was a man whose right hand was withered. Now, you know,
our Lord could have disregarded him. It was just his right hand. It could have been somebody with
a hearing loss. Somebody with an inconspicuous tumor. Afflictions
are afflictions. It doesn't matter how small they
are. Do you know when you are troubled by afflictions, it just
alters your life? Am I telling the truth? And really
you want God to heal it, don't you? Listen, I'm such a wimp. When I get little headaches,
Oh Lord, please help me. I'm telling you the truth. My
hearing starts going back and forth on either side. Oh Lord,
don't let me go deaf. Please heal me. Y'all don't do
that, but I do. Whoa, that's just whoa lord.
Whoa. Did you feel that lord? Oh lord, don't let a brother
go cripple lord I'm telling you I call on the lord Because I
want to keep doing what the lord calls me to do. I like feeling
normal. Don't you? I'm simply saying
that god has to give us afflictions so that we can be sensitive to
people with affliction Since In all our afflictions,
he was afflicted. Are you hearing me? If I had
to make an argument, you know what I could say? The Lord wouldn't
have went over to this Pharisee's house except for the fact that
this brother with the dropsy was there. And our Lord came
to set the captives free. He probably could have passed
up on all this arguing he's about to do with these cats. But it
was one man there. that needed Christ and he would
do it. Christ would leave the regions
of glory, the bliss of perfection, the infinite impeccable glory
of the triune God and come to this hell ridden place for one
person who needed him. That's huge. And it ought to
advise us when it comes to our priorities. Am I telling the
truth? It ought to advise us when it
comes to our priorities. And so our Lord Jesus Christ
here again is faced with these dagger-holding theologians, verse
7, and the scribes and the Pharisees did what? Now, you know, you
got to have a mental problem when all you spend your time
doing is trying to catch the righteous in a lie. You got to be, you have to really
be clueless if all you're doing is watching to catch him. You need a job. You know what
I'm saying? You need a life. You do not have
a life. Oh, Jesus is over there. I'm
going over there so I can watch him. Let me say something. They're
doing that to the righteous all the time. Let's go over there
and catch them saying something contrary to our new legislation
so we can make him guilty. They watch us. False prophets
and false churches listen and watch me all the time, try to
catch me in a lie. Am I telling the truth? Oh yeah,
we know where you go. We know what he says. Hear it
all the time. Keep watching. It just means
you don't have a life. That's all that means. They watched. Now watch this. Verse eight,
are you there? I'm sorry. And they watched him,
verse seven, whether he would heal on the Sabbath, that they
might find an accusation against him. But he knew there was. Now see, I'm so glad I don't
know your thoughts. Aren't you glad you don't know
people's thoughts? Because see, the test is raised exponentially
when you know what people are really thinking. And this demonstrates
the divinity of our savior for him to actually know what people
are thinking and still interact with them. This demonstrates
his poise. It demonstrates his strength.
It demonstrates his discipline. It demonstrates his focus to
be able to stay on point and glorify his father when he knows
that the core of the being of the people that are in church
on this day, they hate him with a demonic hatred. I know you
don't believe that, but I'm getting ready to demonstrate it to you
here in a moment. So our Lord is among these jackals and these
howls and these lions and these bears. And he knows their thoughts. And he said to the man which
had the withered hand, rise up. Stand up. Today, you're going
to be a testimony for God's glory. Are you hearing me? The man with
the withered hand. The man nobody cared about no
one even had an answer for his withered hand But see these are
the days of messiah Messiah is going to glorify his father because
messiah is going to heal everything that needs healing But only remember
what we learn if god heals you if christ heals you you got to
pay him back You know what? That means you got to tell somebody
he healed you You gotta now be a testimony to the world that
Christ healed you. You don't get to hide your hand.
You gotta stand up. You gotta show yourself now.
Here, the most controversial man in the world is calling you
to stand with him in his controversy. Is it worth it? Is salvation
through the grace and work of Jesus Christ worth you standing
with Christ and suffering the controversy that Christ suffers
for his glory because he saved you? Can I get an answer? Is
it worth it standing with the controversial Savior in a lost
world because he has saved you by his glory and his grace? Is
it worth it? Is it worth it? See what I'm
getting at? See, you ain't going to get saved and hide. I'm sorry.
God ain't going to let you get saved and you go away. You got
to pay your dividend for the healing. Yes, you are. And you're going to make some
enemies too. You're going to make some enemies because once
you become the object of mercy, once you become the focus of
grace, once you become a vessel of mercy, now everybody that
hates freedom and liberty and mercy and grace is going to target
you too. Welcome to the club. Listen to
it. When he knew their thoughts,
he said to the man which had the withered hand, rise up, stand forth in
the mist. And he rose and stood for it.
Now, you know, this took faith. Can I tell you something? Because
this man didn't know what was about to happen. And he obeyed
the master. Verse 9. Then said Jesus unto
them, one thing will I ask you. See, he's asking the same question
over and over and over again. Is it lawful on the Sabbath days
to do good or to do evil, to save life or destroy it? Do you see it? Think about this. The question
is completely theoretical for you and me. Completely theoretical. Because you can't save nothing,
you can destroy some things, but you and I can't really save
or destroy. For the God-man Jesus Christ, this question was as
germane as the reason for which he came. Can I tell you why? Because he had the power to save. He had the power to heal. He
had the power to give life. Now watch this, saints. What
else would Jesus do with that power other than to do what he
was called to do? Heal that person. Am I making
some sense? He was obligated because he had
it in his power to do. It was no option for our master
to go, well, I'm not going to heal him today. I'm going to
let him continue in his affliction. I'm not going to lose him today.
I'm going to let him continue in their affliction. He came
to seek and save that which is lost. In other words, you know
what he was doing as he was appealing to the impotent rulers of the
church? He was saying two things. One
is, can you heal this man? Secondly, he was saying, if I
have the power to heal this man, Am I not obligated to heal him?
Are you guys hearing me? I want you to reason through
with me now. Because this was not just merely about miracle
shows. This was about the glory of God.
And this is about men and women who have the power to do good.
And when you have the power to do good, you are obligated to
do good. Are you hearing me? He was compelled
because he was in power. He was committed because he was
qualified. He couldn't but do it. It would
be a greater travesty on Christ's part to leave that man with her,
knowing that he was the only one in the world that had the
ability to heal him and wouldn't have done it. That man would
have been left to the misery of utter hopelessness if Christ
would have came into worship that day and chose not to heal
that man. Where would his healing have
come from? Somebody tell me. You see how obligated he was?
And then you can sense then, as we are working through this,
that as he appeals to the leaders of the church, he is really telling
the leaders of the church, I am Jehovah's slave. I am the Messiah. What I am doing, I am commissioned
to do. I can't help but heal. I must
heal. I must liberate. I must set the
captives free. Nobody else can do it. If you
could do it, I'd leave it to you. Am I making some sense as
we work this through? So he does this, and this is
quite insightful, as I meditate on my Savior's love for sinners,
and as I meditate on my Savior's boldness to impotent rulers,
he says, one thing will I ask you, Is it lawful to do any of
this on the sabbath and looking round about them all do you see
that? Can I tell you how he was looking?
with utter anger and disgust Not at all the people All the
rulers who were watching him with hatred trying to catch him
In some crime He looked at all of them and his heart was filled
with orgy, wrath, indignation, justice, vengeance. That was what was in his heart.
How do you know, Pastor? This is the corollary text to
Matthew chapter, Mark chapter three, where in Mark chapter
three, it says, and he looked on them all with anger. He was angry. at the rulers for
being pretenders of loving sinners. Angry. Before he would heal,
he would demonstrate his hatred of hypocrisy. If you don't have the qualifications,
don't put the jacket on. If you don't have the heart for
sinners, don't act like you are a liberator. and then to turn
around and want to oppose God's servant? Are you hearing me? Are you hearing me? See, he's
compelled by love. He's driven by his calling. He's
driven by the fact that these men are supposed to be the gatekeepers,
the liberators, the freedom fighters, the ones who have truth. and
they are just as comfortable with folks being blind in church?
Remember the blind man of John chapter 9? Can I talk to you?
I got 10 more minutes. Do you remember the blind man
of chapter 9? That boy was blind all his life. He never understood
the truth. He never heard the truth of the
gospel. He was blind until he was a grown
man. His mama didn't teach him the
truth. His daddy didn't teach him the truth. The rulers didn't
teach him the truth. You know why they didn't teach
him the truth? because they didn't have the truth. All they had
was church. The Pharisees had church. The
scribes had church. The synagogue leader had church.
They went through church week after week after week. And this
man stayed blind. Blind. Our master said, come
on, fellas, we got to go. I got to meet a fella whom the
Lord has ordained before the world began to open his eyes. That man wasn't seeking Christ.
Christ was seeking him. That man had been sitting in
the synagogue year after year after year, blind to the truth. This day, the glory of God manifests
itself to him. Do you know what happened? That
blind man got kicked out of church. See, that's what happens when
you come to the truth of the gospel. You're going to get kicked out
of your false church because they are lovers of bondage, lovers
of lies, lovers of error. Are you hearing me? Once your
eyes are open and you say, you know what, Pastor? Listen, I'm
looking at this and I'm seeing y'all do that. I'm reading this
and y'all saying that. I'm hearing this and y'all doing
that. And they're going to tell you,
you need to be blind again. Listen, you was all right. You
was all right. You was all right until God opened
your eyes. kicked him out of the church.
Mama and daddy, mama and daddy were culprits in his perpetual
blindness. Scared to say, son, I'm so glad
you see the glory of God in Christ. I'm so glad God has filled your
heart with a knowledge of the gospel. I'm so glad you can find
your way now. I'm so glad you met Christ. No,
they were too scared to get kicked out of the church. What happened
to your son? We don't know. We don't know. Don't ask us.
Ask him. And then do you know when they
asked that brother? You remember that? Say what? Who healed you? Why do you want to know who healed
me? You're going to believe on him if I tell you who he is?
You see the boldness that comes when truth penetrates your mind?
Will you believe on him too? And they kicked him out of the
synagogue. And the moment he was kicked out, Jesus hunted
him down. said follow me are you hearing me because he came
to give life and I'm here telling you according to Mark chapter
3 Christ was filled with indignation he was filled with wrath he was
filled with vengeance because these men on this day in this
synagogue were also filled with madness I want you to see it
in your text watch this are you there listen to what it says
verse 10 and looking around about upon them he said unto them stretch
forth your hand stretch your hand out and the man did it and
his hand was restored whole as the other a notable undeniable
miracle is performed in the presence of everybody do you see it now
watch this watch this and they were filled with what my goodness
y'all did that real well Do you know the literal word
there means they lost their minds? A-no-ay. No-ay or no-ay is the
Greek noun for mind. The A is a preposition. It's
like a negative. And what happened when Jesus
confronted them and exposed them and healed that man? The moment
that man was healed, they went crazy. Now you know you demon
possessed. You know you demon possessed
when God heals somebody and you lose your mind. Are you following
me. You know you're demon possessed.
And can you see how hypocritical religion can be. Are you standing
with me. Can you see how hypocritical
religion can be and how demonism can come up in the church and
put on a facade of righteousness and silhouette itself in your
body and in your mind and appear to be holy? But when Christ shows
up, you show your hatred of him, your venomous hatred of him.
They all lost their mind. That's crazy. And that's why
he was angry. Because they pretended to be
liberators. when they weren't. Go back to our text. Let me wrap
this up by dealing with the lesson that our Lord gave in Luke chapter
14. After he raised the question
to these rulers, we find in verse 4 of chapter 14, they held their
peace and he took the man and he healed him and he let him
go. Do you see that? You know what, fella? I know
you feeling so good you can just leave now. He went Happy running
jumping enjoying himself. He didn't even stay at the service.
He didn't even stay at the dinner I don't blame him and he answered
those that were around him saying now which of you Shall have an
ass or an ox falling into a pit and will not straightway pull
him out on the Sabbath See what our Lord is doing. He's still
pressing the issue Because they're still blinded by their hatred
and animosity of him still blind They watched the miracle take
place and are still blinded What kind of tenacity and love Christ
has for sinners to stay at the feast? He stayed at the feast
because he was in authority. He stayed at the feast because
he had his priorities right. He stayed at the feast because
now this miracle will serve as a lesson to teach us a gospel
truth. Now watch it. These are going
to be simple points. We'll be able to build on this
next week because the account continues. And they couldn't
answer him again to these things. And he put forth the parable
to those which were bitten. Now watch this, when he marked
how they chose out the cheap rooms. See how Luke puts it? Our Lord was watching when all
these guys were invited to church. And he watched how each one of
these theologians and pastors chose to come up to the front
of the church. You know how they do in church. and sit up front
like they special holy men. I told you, I don't do it. I
almost sit in the back when I come to your church. I got forced
to do it when I went on a family reunion with my wife this last
time. And I told her, I'm not going
to do it. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to sit up there
with him. She said, yes, you are. Because the whole bunch of them
was family, right? So I had to sit up there. You should have took a shot of
me. You would have seen. I was just
prune-faced and everything. Because it was a mess. Are you
hearing me? It was a mess. You know, man
is vain. He's vain. And he gets even more
vain in church. More vain. You know people are
so blinded in church that the church service from beginning
to end very frequently is never about Christ. Never. How can that be? How can you
be in a church service where it's about the women's meeting
and the men's meeting and it's about this and it's about pastor
appreciation day and it's about the other thing and you go the
whole service not talking about Christ. How do you do that? Give me a pillow, man. I want
to go to sleep. Wake me up when it's over with. When you come to church, you
come to church to hear about the king of glory, to behold
his beauty. to see His handiwork, to learn
a little bit more about your Master and your Savior, who He
is, what He does, why He does it, where He is now, so you can
grow in a greater likeness of Him since He's redeemed you by
His blood. You don't ever come to church
to talk about this, that, and the other thing. Never! Never. Never. Never. So, in our outline, a Christ-like
response to the gospel feast. Our Lord looks, watches all these
fellas, and here's what he says to them. When you are bidden
of any man to a wedding, do not sit down in the pulpit, on the
sides of the pulpit, in the big red chairs that look like you're
part of the Masonic group or the Illuminati. I just they look like that don't
they look like that I say the English didn't pull
the wool over you Americans eyes y'all sitting up there in those
big old chairs with those high backs on them like your royalty
you ain't nothing but a bunch of sinners you sitting up there
like royalty See, this is the hierarchical principle that goes
on in church where the leadership dominates the people. This is
the Balaam, the doctrine of the Nicolaitans that Jesus warned
about in Revelation 2, which he says, this thing I hate. Nicolaitan
doctrine means ruling over the people, ruling over the masses,
dominating the masses, rising up above the masses. It's crazy. And really, you know, I wouldn't
do it, but the Lutherans had it right. They had everything
else wrong, but they had this one right. They had a chair in
the back that nobody sat in because in their mind, they knew the
king of the house was invisible, seated in the chair, ordering
the service of the church. Nobody else sat in that chair.
You got that? They got everything else wrong,
so let's keep going. Our master says, When you are
bidden to a feast, do not take the highest seat, lest a more
honorable man than you be bidden of him. Do you see that? And
he that bade thee and him come to you and say, give this man
place, and you begin with shame to take the lowest room. And
when you are bidden, go and sit down in the lowest seat. Do you see what I'm saying, saints?
In the lowest seat, this is not about you, this is not about
me, this is not about your honor or your glory. When God calls
you to the gospel feast, in every church service where Christ is
exalted and the word is taught and the gospel is proclaimed
is a feast. Every church service is a spiritual
feast for your soul. And you have been invited by
the King of glory. The Lord of glory himself is
calling sinners to the feast. That's what worship is about.
And when you come, I suggest to you that you take our Lord's
words advisedly. Come in humility. Come in humbleness. Come in meekness. Come in lowliness. Don't come
in the pride and the arrogance and the assumption that you have
a right in a place in the church that has preeminence over anybody
else. Never come under the assumption
of your own righteousness. When you and I are bidded to
the feast of the gospel, recognize that the God of glory has called
undeserving sinners to come into his presence. It's enough for
Him to call us. Do you know not everybody's being
called to the gospel? Do you understand not everybody
hears the voice of the Son of God? Do you understand not everybody
is being taught the truth of the gospel? Do you understand
not everybody's hearing the glory of God in Christ? For you and
I to hear the voice of the Son of God and to be called to worship
should humble us. Lord, I thank you Thank you that
you allowed me to come and giving me grace to come to you come
in all humility You take the lowest seat you take your place
among those who are saying I'm just glad to be in the house
of the Lord Just glad to be in the house I'm under no illusions
that I am better than anyone else, more capable than anyone
else, more qualified than anyone else. I'm under no illusions
that God must call me. I'm under no illusions, watch
this now, that I'm adding anything to the church service. I like
your suit, I like your dress, the colors are great, but if
you wasn't here, watch this now, nobody would ultimately miss
you in glory. Will you hear me? It's for our
benefit that we are here. See, people get it all messed
up. It's for our benefit that we are here when the King of
Glory calls us. And here is the reason for which
you must know that. When God calls you to the feast
of the gospel, He's calling you to partake of the sacrifice of
Jesus Christ, the God-man that assumed a human nature. Do you
understand what that means? Can I tell you? When we come
humbly to the house of the Lord, we are reflecting the humility
of Christ. He left the palace of glory and
he humbled himself. And he humbled himself. And he
humbled himself. And he took the lowest seed.
Did he not? Our master is practicing what
he preaches. He took the lowest seed. He took the lowest seat
and he let all the rulers and all the false prophets and all
the false teachers Go in front of him only to have the master
of the house. Tell them you got to come down
You got to come down because there's one in the house who
took the lowest seat Who deserves the highest seat? Because when
he took the lowest seat he gave his life for sinners as a substitute
and surety. And he died on Calvary's tree
under the wrath of God. How low can you go? Are you hearing me? Under the
wrath of God, plunged in the depths of hell to scrape the
bottom of the abyss so that you and I would never taste death.
And then he rose again the third day so that he might call you
and I to the feast. Only when you come to the feast
of the gospel, come humbly thanking God for his grace. He's telling these rulers, you
better get this right because you ain't got but a few days
before I'm crucified. 37 years from now, this whole
thing's getting ready to be wiped out. He's letting them know the
right way to come. A dinner date with God. You and
I have that every week. dinner date with God. What a magnificent proposition.
Every week we get to have a dinner date with the God of glory. Ask God to make your soul hungry
two or three days beforehand so you can eat everything on
the plane and the dessert too. Amen.