The man with the withered hand. Now this is the last of five
consecutive confrontations that the Lord had with the Pharisees.
If you look in the book of Mark, they happened one after another.
And this happened early in the Lord's public ministry. It happened
before the calling of the 12th. And this last one created this
response, verse six, and the Pharisees went forth and straightway
took counsel with the Herodians again, how they might destroy
him. Now that's how they might kill
him. That's what they wanted to do. They wanted to put him
out of business. They had had it. Luke's account says they were
filled with madness. Now who are the Pharisees? Who
were the Pharisees? They occupy a prominent place
in all four gospel narratives. A lot of the four gospels are
the dialogue between Christ and the Pharisees. And God used a
former Pharisee to expound the gospel more clearly than anyone
else. Who were these Pharisees? They're
not mentioned in the Old Testament. It's something that happened
between the Testaments, between Malachi and Matthew. The Pharisees
were a group that came out of what was called the Maccabean
Rebellion. It took place between 160 and
167 BC, 160 to 167 years before the time of Christ. And they were rebelling because
they were angered at how that the Romans and the Greeks were
trying to influence their culture, their Jewish culture, and take
it away. So they had a big revolt, which is called the Maccabean
Rebellion. And they wanted to make Jewish
ways everybody's ways and make them stronger. And they were
very strong on the scripture. The word means separated one. That tells us what the Pharisee
believed. Separated one. He believed something
he did separated him from other men. Now, before I go on, I have
to say the religion of the Pharisee is my religion and your religion
by nature. God raised this up in order to
teach us this, in order to get the thinking of the Pharisee. Turn with me for a moment to
Luke chapter 18. Verse nine, and he spake this
parable, unto certain which trusted in themselves, that they were
righteous. And the necessary consequence
of that kind of thinking, they despised. They looked down upon
others. They felt morally superior. And their righteousness was all
based on them comparing themselves with somebody else. You know,
you can always find out somebody that you think you're a little
bit better than they did. Well, the Pharisees were certainly that. Now let's
go on reading. Verse 10. Two men went up into the temple
to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. Now, you know as well as I know
that the Pharisee would have been the most righteous person
alive, so they thought. And who was the publican? He
was the most sinful person. He was the person who was employed
by the Roman government to fleece people of taxes. They would pay
what they owed Rome and take more off the top to enrich themselves. And they were the most despised
people. So the Lord gave the highest
and the lowest person, the Pharisee and the publican. Two men went
up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other
a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself. That, I love it every time I
read that. He prayed thus with himself.
Lord's not gonna let us think that that prayer was getting
to the Lord. Oh, he heard what was being said, but he wasn't
praying to the Lord. He prayed thus with himself. God, I thank thee. I'm not giving myself the credit
for this. I'm far too humble of a man to do that. I thank
thee. that I am not as other men are. Notice he doesn't thank
him for his grace, for mercy, for the forgiveness of sins.
He thanks him for how he perceives that he is. I am not like other
men are. He goes on to speak of other
men. They're extortioners. They're
unjust, they're adulterers. I'm not like them, I'm not guilty
of those sins, and I'm giving you the credit. I thank you that
I'm not as other men are, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give
tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar
off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but
smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, thee,
sinner. I tell you. Now that is so powerful
when the Lord says this. I say it to you. I tell you. There's the authority of it.
I tell you. This man went down to his house
justified rather than the other for everyone that exalts himself
shall be abased and he that humbles himself shall be exalted. Now, these men represent the
two representative men. Everybody in this room and everybody
outside of this room. is one of these two people. You're
either a Pharisee, you think something you do separates you
from other men, and you find hope in that, and you look down
on others. Or you are the publican, crying,
God be merciful to me, the sinner. Only two kinds of people. You
and I are one of those two people. This is such a significant parable. And this is, there's not a more
important parable than all the word of God, because the Lord
says this man went down to his house justified and he uses the
rest of the scriptures to explain what that means. Now, the Lord raised up the Pharisees. by his providence so the New
Testament could be written. It was him controlling this,
this horrible group of people and rebellion, and then they
end up developing this religion called Phariseeism. And remember,
Paul was the biggest one of them all, and the Lord saved him and
used him to expound the gospel, the Pharisee. Now, they had to
begin They had begun to criticize the
Lord after we had these five consecutive confrontations with
the Lord. The first one was there at the
first part of Mark chapter two, where they said, this man's saying
something that only God can say, and he's saying he can do something
only God can do, forgive sin. Only God can do that. Well, they
were right about that. They were right about that. This
is God speaking, the God man, the Lord Jesus Christ. The second
accusation they made against the Lord is your master eats
with publicans and sinners. He seems to not have a problem
with immorality. He's bordering on being an antinomian
doing something like that. Oh, they were upset with that.
The third accusation or confrontation with the Lord was about his disciples.
He said, your disciples are not dedicated like the Pharisees
and like the disciples of John. Why? The disciples of the Pharisees,
they fast often. How did anybody figure out that
they fasted often? I'm sure they told everybody. And they made
much prayers. I'm sure that it was public prayer
too, where everybody could see. And, but they show so much dedication. Your disciples don't do any of
that. And then the fourth confrontation was over the Sabbath. You break
the Sabbath. They demonstrated, they didn't
even know what the Sabbath meant. They made a work out of not working.
We saw that last week. And then this healing of the
paralytic man or the, with the withered hand on the Sabbath
day. I turn back to Mark chapter three. And he, the Lord Jesus Christ,
entered again into the synagogue. And there was a man there which
had a withered hand. Now that means literally dried
up. Dried up, drawn up, paralytic. And it was impossible for him
to stretch it out. It was drawn up and there wasn't
anything he could do about it. Luke's account tells us that
it was his right hand that was drawn up. Now what's that represent?
Power. He had no power. He had no spiritual ability. Drawn up. Now this withered hand
represents the natural man. Dried up, withered. His heart
dried up. It doesn't respond as it should.
The Lord said, no man can come to me except the Father which
has sent me, draw him. Romans 3, beginning in verse
10 says, there's none righteous, no, not one. There's none that
understands. There's none that seeketh after
God. Not one person ever seeks God. They are all gone out of the
way. They've together become an unprofitable. There's none
that doeth good. No, not one. That's this withered
hand, this withered right hand. The carnal mind, enmity against
God, it's not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can
be. It lacks the ability. So then,
they that are in the flesh, with this withered hand, cannot please
God. Now, there was nothing that this
man could do to change the condition of his hand. It was withered,
it was dried up, and I suppose he was born that way. Verse two, and they watched him. The Pharisees watched him. They were always watching him.
trying to find something they could criticize, trying to find
something they could find fault with. They were watching him.
We saw last week, they were out in the cornfield watching him.
What were they doing in the cornfield? Watching him. That's why they
were there. They wanted to find some fault with him. They watched
him, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day. You know,
I love the way the Lord always, most of his miracles were done
on what day? The Sabbath day. He knew exactly what he was doing,
and he had a purpose in doing it. But these men were watching
him on the Sabbath day, that they might bring an accusation
against him. And I want you to think about how hard hearted
these men were. They didn't care anything about
this man with a withered hand. All they wanted to do was find fault
and accuse the Lord Jesus Christ. They wanted him to be seen as
a lawbreaker and them as law keepers. And they had no understanding
of the law of God. They had no understanding of
the Sabbath day. Turn with me for a moment to Luke chapter
13. This is something that's similar. Luke chapter 13. Verse
10. And he was teaching in one of
the synagogues, when? On the Sabbath, on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman
which had a spirit of infirmity 18 years and was bowed together
and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her,
he called her to him and said unto her, woman, thou art loosed
from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her,
and immediately she was made straight and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue
answered with indignation, because the Jesus had healed on the Sabbath
day. And he said unto the people, there are six days in which men
ought to work, in them therefore come and be healed, but not on
the Sabbath day. The Lord then answered him and
said, hypocrite, There's no other way to answer
that than that, is there? Hypocrite. Doth not each one
of you on the Sabbath day loose his ox or his ass from the stall
and lead him away to watering? They always did that on the Sabbath
day. And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham,
whom Satan hath bound low these 18 years, be loose from his bond
on the Sabbath day? And when he'd said these things,
all his adversaries were ashamed. You know, this is so ridiculous
on the very surface, isn't it? Him coming in and healing this
woman who'd been in this misery for 18 years and then finding
fault with the Lord and saying, you're breaking the Sabbath day. Back to our text in Mark 3. We know from verse five that
this response of the Pharisees angered the Lord. Look in verse
five. And we looked round on them with anger, being grieved
for the hardness of their hearts. He saith unto the man, stretch
forth thy hand. He didn't, he didn't have this indifference
about this. He was angry. But John, turn with me for a
moment to Matthew chapter 12. I want us to see something in
Matthew's account that's not in the other two accounts in
Mark or Luke. Verse 10, and behold, there was
a man which had his hand withered, and they asked him, saying, is
it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days that they might accuse him?
And he said unto them, And here we have a beautiful gospel type. What man shall there be among
you that shall have one sheep? And if it fall into a pit on
the Sabbath day, he'll not lay hold on it. Will he not lay hold
on it and lift it out? Of course he will. How much then
is a man better than a sheep. Wherefore is it lawful to do
well on the Sabbath days? Is it lawful to help someone? Now he gives us this scenario. I love the way he uses a sheep.
If a man's sheep fall into a pit. You see, the sheep are the sheep
of Christ. He's the great shepherd of the
sheep. And he lays down his life for
the sheep. Now if you're wondering, am I
a sheep? You know, there are sheep and
there are goats. And a sheep never becomes a goat.
A goat never becomes a sheep. They're sheep and they're goats.
You remember how the Lord at the end put the sheep on his
right hand and the goats on his left? Speaking of Judgment Day,
they're sheep and they're goats. Just like there are Pharisees
and Republicans. One of the two. There's always, there's the righteous
and there's the wicked. There's those who believe and
those who don't. Now, how can I know if I'm a sheep? Well,
the Lord said to the Pharisees, you believe not because you're
not of my sheep. And let me tell you something
sheep do. Sheep believe the gospel. They believe who Christ is. They believe what Christ accomplished. They believe he is even right
now at the right hand of the father ruling and reigning. They
believe the Lord said, my sheep hear my voice. Now, a sheep falls
into a pit. That speaks of the fall of every
sheep in Adam. When he fell, me and you fell
into the pit, the pit of death, the pit of sin, the pit of inability. There we are. And what can that
sheep do to get out of that pit? Nothing. But what does the man
do? And this is on the Sabbath day.
And this would not be breaking the Sabbath, but this typifies
the gospel. Look at the language. What man
shall there be among you that shall have one sheep and will
fall into a pit on the Sabbath day? Will he not lay hold on
it? Now that is not the word that's
generally translated lay hold. It's with strength, lay hold
on it. with strength, with might. It's
the word that's used to describe the might and the power and the
strength of God. He lays hold on it. Lord, lay hold on me. Lay hold
on me. Don't leave me to myself. Reach
down with almighty power and lay hold upon me. And what did
he do with that strength? It says, He lifted it out. Will He not lay hold on it and
lift it out? And that word lift is the same
word that's used with reference to Christ rising from the dead.
You see, by His strength, when He laid hold upon me, I was raised
when Christ was raised. And I was raised when He gave
me life by almighty power, the new birth. Now, in the midst
of this Confrontation, it gives us a beautiful, simple type of
the gospel. Now, anybody would do this for
their sheep on the Sabbath day. If you were trying to keep the
Sabbath and your sheep fell into a pit, you know what you'd do?
You'd get it out. And you wouldn't even dream that
that would be breaking the Sabbath. It shows how blind the Pharisees
were and how ridiculous they were. Now back to Mark chapter
three. Verse three, and he saith unto the man with
the withered hand, stand forth. Right in front of everybody.
And he saith unto them, the Pharisees with this man with the withered
hand standing in front of everybody. He saith unto them, is it lawful
to do good on the Sabbath days? Well, if they would have said
yes, what would that say about them? Everything that they were
doing was ridiculous. It was ludicrous. That's why
they didn't answer. Is it lawful to do evil? No. Is it lawful to save life on
the Sabbath day? Yes, obviously. Is it lawful
to kill or murder? No. These are questions that
could be answered with a yes or no, and any answer they gave
Yes or no was a condemnment. The Lord put them in a place
where they couldn't get out. So they held their peace. And when he looked round about
on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts. And I want you to think about
how hard their heart, they could care less about this man. All
they cared about was condemning Christ and justifying themselves. That's all they cared about.
They didn't care anything about this man. And the Lord looked
on them and he was angered because of the hardness, the blindness,
the callousness of their hearts. And he saith unto the man, stretch
forth thine hand. Now the Lord was calling upon
this man to do something that was impossible for him to do.
The man couldn't stretch forth his hand. It was dried up. It was withered. And I want us
to notice he didn't say, if you stretch forth your hand, I'll
heal you. Didn't say anything like that. This was not a suggestion. This
was a command. It was the command of almighty,
irresistible, invincible grace. Stretch forth thine hand. Now all they wanted to do was
accuse and criticize the Lord so they might make themselves
shine a little bit brighter and he's going to put them in their
place. Stretch forth thy hand. We learned something about gospel
preaching from this. First of all, gospel preaching
is not an offer. God's offering you salvation. God's offering
you the forgiveness of sins. If you'll just accept Christ,
it's up to your acceptance or rejection. God's offering. Now,
that scenario makes salvation dependent upon you. That's all
it does. That is salvation by work. Somebody
that preaches that way does not understand the gospel. He didn't
invite him to stretch forth his hand. He didn't offer to heal
him if he would except something, he said, by way of command, stretch
forth thy hand. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a command. And that's
calling upon you to do something you can't do. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Repent. I can't. Repent. You see, the
ability comes with his command. When he commands you to do something,
you can do it, and you will do it. I like what David said. He
said, when the Lord said to me, seek ye my face, my heart said,
thy face, O Lord, will I seek. Now this is a command, and this
is the way the gospel preaching works. God commands. It's not an offer. It's not up
for your acceptance or rejection. You know what the Lord did in
the first place? When the Lord offered himself up to God, that
wasn't for you, it was to God. It's not up for your acceptance
or rejection. He did this for God. The freewheeler says, God would
never command us to do what we can't do. We did here, didn't
we? The hard shell says, you can't
call upon dead sinners to believe. We did here. Yeah, you can. You
see, this is not, the voice much more powerful than the preacher
is working here. Stretch forth thine hand. Awake thou that sleepest, rise
from the dead, and Christ shall give you light. Now, question.
Do you have a withered hand? Dried up. Withered heart. unable to do anything. Christ says to you, stretch forth
thy hand right now. Don't wait for something to happen.
Stretch forth thine hand. He tells you to do what you cannot
do. Believe right now. Love right now. Continue in the
faith. I kind of think, when I was thinking
about this, of the gospel being in command, Moses lifting up
that serpent in the wilderness saying, look! Now, if somebody that was blind
as a bat, maybe without any eyeballs in his eye sockets, looked toward
that serpent, he was healed. stretch forth thy hand." I suppose
that he could have said, well, that's impossible. Or he might
have said, well, you're asking me to do something
I can't do. Or somebody else would have said, see, he can
do it. He wouldn't have told him to do it. Salvation is in
something we do. This man had a hand, a withered
hand, like you, a withered heart, like you, that could not respond. And when Christ said, stretch
forth thy hand, he stretched forth his hand. It's what's called
irresistible, invincible grace. When the man stretched forth
his hand, it was an act of faith, not of sight, but of faith. And
when I think of him stretching forth his hand, maybe, you know,
if I had a withered hand, I'd probably hide it under the sleeve
like that. I wouldn't want people looking
at it. But the Lord said, stretch it out. He was exposed before
the Lord, wasn't he? You could see that withered hand. And this was an act of obedience. This is what's called the obedience
of faith. Listen, when Christ tells you to believe, believe.
Obey what He says. What's not to believe? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And what took place upon Him
stretching forth His hand, which is faith? And His hand, look
in verse 5, His hand was restored whole as the other. Now, what
that's referring to is justification. You believe, and that's the evidence
that you have been restored whole as the other, perfect in God's
sight, right now, perfect in God's sight, without guilt, without
sin, nothing to feel guilty for, perfect in God's sight. whole
as the other. Now, this wholeness was immediate,
just like that. It was complete. It was perfect. Now, while it's true, without
him, we can do nothing. Paul said, through Christ, I
can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me. You can
stretch forth that Now, I want you to think about this statement.
Do you look at this man that stretched forth his hand and
say, man, what faith? You don't even think that, do
you? You think what power is in the command of Christ that
would cause this man to stretch forth his hand? Now, here is my response to this. Lord, command me. Command me
to stretch forth my hand. Please do it now. Don't leave
me to myself. I think of what Peter said. Lord,
bid me come to thee on the water. Lord, if it be thou, bid me. That doesn't mean invite. It
means command me to come to thee on the water. Turn me, and I'll
be turned. That's my response to this. The
Lord, when he commands, something happens, doesn't it? That man
stretched forth his hand. Lord, command me. Bid me come
to thee on the water. Now Luke's account tells us after
this, They were filled with madness, rage, fury. And they went out and made plans
to kill the Lord on this last confrontation. And are you filled
with madness over this or are you filled with gladness? Well,
I hope everybody in here is filled with gladness. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that you would say to each person here, stretch forth thy hand, because
Lord, we know if you speak, you never speak in vain. Whenever
you say stretch forth your hand, the withered hand is stretched
forth by your grace. Lord, speak to us. Command us to obey thy gospel. Give us the command of invincible,
irresistible grace. We ask that you would do this
for Christ's sake. In his name we pray. Amen.