Let us turn in our Bibles today
to the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel according to Mark, Chapter 3. Going to be looking at the first
six verses in this chapter, Mark Chapter 3. And he entered again into the
synagogue, and there was a man there which had a withered hand.
And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath
day, that they might accuse him. And he saith unto the man which
had the withered hand, Stand forth. And he saith unto them,
Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life or to kill, but
they held their peace. And when he had looked round
about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their
hearts, he saith unto the man, stretch forth thine hand. And
he stretched it out, and his hand was restored whole as the
other. And the Pharisees went forth
and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him,
how they might destroy him. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and
verse 24, the apostle Paul said, this is true of all who are saved,
that Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. And he
is speaking there, of course, of Christ as the one mediator
between God and man, the Savior of sinners. And I mention that
verse because as we look at this passage today, I want us to see
the wisdom and the power of Christ in this place. Now there are
two things that I want to mention from the Gospel of Matthew, one
from the Gospel of Matthew, one from the Gospel of Luke. Parallel
passages. But two things that Mark does
not tell us here in this passage. Luke tells us that it was this
man's right hand. Keep that in mind. It was this
man's right hand that was withered. And Matthew tells us that these
people who watched him, notice here in our text in verse two,
and they watched him, Matthew tells us that they ask him a
question first of all. These were Pharisees. They were
the religious leaders in that place at that time. But they
asked the Lord a question first. Mark doesn't record that. But
I have three parts to the message. First, the question of those
that watched him. The question that is not recorded
here in Mark, but it is in Matthew. The question was, is it lawful
to heal on the Sabbath days? Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath
days? Two things. What did the scribes
and the Pharisees teach on this subject of healing on the Sabbath
days? Now, understand what did they
teach on healing. Not on a person being healed,
but upon healing a person on the Sabbath day. I'll give you
one example. This example was given by John
Gill. They taught, Now remember, the
Pharisees, they had the law of God, but they had their traditions,
their commandments of men, the Lord called them. And they expounded
the law, and they explained the law, and their traditions had
more weight and more hold upon them than the truth of the law
of God. One of the things that they taught,
according to John Gill, is if a man had an ailment in his throat,
that's a Sabbath day, he couldn't gargle oil. Oil was
one of their main medicine, oil and wine. We read that the Good
Samaritan, remember, to help the healing of that man who was
wounded cast into the ditch, he poured in oil and wine. So
oil would be a treatment for a sore throat. Like you might
get up in the morning and have a sore throat and you might get
some warm water and put some salt in there and gargle it.
Now, according to their traditions, you couldn't gargle it. You couldn't
gargle oil. That would be working. That would
be breaking the Sabbath. But now, if you just took some
oil and swallowed it, and you were healed, that would be okay. You see how they had taken the
word of God, the commandments of God, and by their traditions,
they had set apart, or they had done away with the teaching of
the law. You were not, the Sabbath day
was to be a day of rest. You were not supposed to work.
So gargling would be working. You couldn't do that on a Sabbath
day. But you could take the oil, which
you would have gargled, and just swallow it. And if you were healed,
well, that was okay. That was okay. Now, there were
some exceptions in their commandments or in their teachings. And I
found this one to be very interesting. Suppose a man was bitten by a
mad dog on the Sabbath. You see, mad dogs, they don't
recognize it's a Sabbath. And they might bite you any day
of the week. And suppose a mad dog were to
bite a person on the Sabbath, and the Sabbath their teaching
was you're to do no healing on the Sabbath. Well, they had an
exception with a mad dog. And what I found interesting
was the treatment for being bitten by a mad dog was to eat the liver
of a hog. What kind of treatment was that?
But that was allowed. That was allowed. And then also
if a physician, suppose you were sick and you went to a doctor
and the physician said, we've got to do something today. It's
a Sabbath, it's a Sabbath, but he's going to die if we don't
do something today. Then in order to save life, they
said the danger, danger of life drives away the Sabbath. So you
see these men watched him and their question is, is it lawful? Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath
day? Thinking that to perform a work
of healing would be working. Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath
day? They watched him. Now, what was their intent? What
was the intent of these Pharisees who asked him that question,
who watched him? What was their intent in asking
this question? Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath
days? Well, it wasn't to learn. It
wasn't to learn from him. They were not asking him, although
he was the giver of the law as God, they were not asking him
the intent of the law, the truth of the law, but they were watching
him so that they might have therewith to accuse him. And this is just
one of the many examples as we read through the gospels of of
the Pharisees, the religious people, who did their best to
set a trap, to entrap the Lord Jesus Christ by various questions. You know, one of the better known
ones, maybe, is in John chapter 8. They brought a woman. The Lord was in the temple early
in the morning, teaching. And they brought a woman, they
said, was taken in adultery. It's interesting, they only brought
the woman. It takes two to commit adultery.
They only brought the woman. They didn't bring the man. But
they asked the Lord this question. Master, this woman was taken
in adultery. Now Moses in the law commanded
us that such should be stoned, but what sayest thou? They thought they had laid a
trap for him that no matter how he answered, they would have
therewith to accuse him. If he said stoner, if he had
answered stoner, that's what the law says, stoner. Well, stoning
was to put a person to death. And that was something the Jews
did not have the ability to do. Rome had taken that away from
them. You remember when the Lord was
brought before Pilate, when he was arrested in the garden, that
mock trial before the Pharisees, the priest, he was brought before
Pilate, and Pilate basically, he said, well, you take him and
judge him. Oh, they said, we can't do that. We can't do that
because in, in our law, he's done that, which is worthy of
death, but we can't put him to death. That had been taken away
from the Jews. So if the Lord, in this case,
this woman's taken in adultery, if he had answered the law says
stoner, if he had said, well, stoner, then they would have
said, well, they could accuse him to the civil authorities.
But if he had answered, don't stone her, then he would have
broken the law of Moses because the law said stone her. But do
we not see the wisdom, his wisdom, when he answered, he that is
without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And you know their response,
one by one. And it's interesting, isn't it,
that beginning with the oldest man there, they began to move
away. So much so that he said, woman,
where are thine accusers? Hath no man accused thee? No
man, Lord. Neither do I accuse thee. Go
and sin no more. And then another occasion was
when they said, is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar? And it was galling. Oh, it was
galling for the Jews to have to pay tribute taxes to a foreign
government. Is it lawful to do that? You
remember the Lord, how he answered that question. And it was the
same thing. If he said, no, it's not lawful,
then they could accuse him. to the civil authorities. If
he said, pay it, then he could be accused to the religious leaders. The Lord said, show me a coin.
I'm just paraphrasing. Show me a coin. Whose picture
is that? Is that Abraham Lincoln? He is
still on the penny, isn't he? Is that Abraham Lincoln? Is that
President Jackson? He's on the $20 bill. will render unto Caesar the things
that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's. You
see his wisdom, the wisdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, when they
would lay a trap, and this is what happened this day. It was
another trap. They watched him and asked him,
is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days? They thought that either
way he answered, yes or no, either way he answered, they would have
that with which they could accuse him. If he answers no, no, then
you see, he really doesn't have the power to heal this man. Either that or he doesn't have
any compassion. And if he answered yes, then
they would accuse him of breaking the Sabbath. of healing on the
Sabbath day, which they consider to be a work. I see in this the wisdom of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and I'm sure you do as well. That's what I
wanted us to see, the wisdom. By that first question, those
who watched him, these Pharisees, it tells us down in verse 6,
they were Pharisees. And they watched him, and they
asked him that question, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath
days? The second part of the message,
I want us to consider the question and response of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Notice his question, his question
unto them, verse number four. Is it lawful to do good on the
Sabbath days or to do evil? To save life or to kill? Well, you would think that'd
be an easy question to answer, wouldn't you? It's never lawful. It's never good to do evil. Never
good to do evil. The Apostle Paul was accused
of something like this, similar to this, I should say, in his
ministry when he preached and taught that where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. And they accused him of saying,
well, that's sin, that grace may abound. Know what the Apostle
Paul was teaching is that when a person sees himself, herself
as sinful. Grace abounds. We're saved by
grace. Saved by faith. Grace through
faith. We're not saved by our works.
And so they had the idea that Paul was teaching, well, let
us sin. If grace abounds where sin abounds, let us just sin
more. They turned the grace of God
into lasciviousness, and they accused Paul of teaching that. It's never lawful. Our Lord's
question was, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days or
to do evil? As I said, it's never lawful
to do evil. Here's this man with his withered
hand, and I have the power to heal him. Would that be good
or would that be evil for me to heal him? But they wouldn't answer. His response to their refusal
to answer, the scripture says here, they held their peace.
His response was anger. Anger, being grieved at the hardness
of their hearts. Remember, these were religious
men. These were religious leaders. And they were clearly ignorant
of God's law. I want to give you an example. If you turn back to Exodus chapter
23 with me, this is part of the law that God gave to the nation
of Israel. Just one verse here in Exodus
chapter 23. And verse 5, if thou see the ass of him that
hateth thee lying under his burden, and what is forbear to help him,
thou shalt surely help with him. Now in the law, God commanded
even if you saw an animal, here this ass is burdened down, weighted
down with his burden and has fallen down. And you come by
and you know the man who owns that donkey is your enemy. What are you going to do? What
does the law say? The law says you help him. You
help that donkey up. You take his burden off and help
lift him up. That was part of God's law. The
thought is, here's a man. Think of this. In this synagogue,
all these men gathered in there. Here's a man who has a withered
hand. And one of the Greek authorities
by the name of Bingle makes it clear that he wasn't born with
this withered hand. He had suffered an accident or
something like that. By the way, I say he makes it
clear by the construction here of the Greek that this had happened
to him. And one of the writers said this
man had been a plasterer. I don't know exactly what that
means. I assume he plastered walls.
Plastered walls. Well, I know this. If you plaster
walls, you need both hands. And if you're right-handed, you
sure need your right hand. Now, the Lord said if you see
a donkey under a load, burdened down and laying down, surely
help him up. Now here's a man who's lost the
ability to work, to earn a living for himself and his family. Is
it lawful to do evil or to do good on a Sabbath day? Don't
you have any compassion? Here's a man, your brother. Don't you have any compassion?
The scripture says, he looked upon them with anger, being grieved
for the hardness of their heart. Did you know that when we come
into this world, every one of us, we are born with a hard Heart. A heart of stone. And the longer
we live and the more we sin, the more obdurate this heart
becomes. That's one of the promises of
a new covenant. God will remove that heart, that
heart of stone, and give us a heart of flesh. upon which he writes
his law. We receive a new nature. These
men, religious, yes, and yet their heart was hard. You know
what breaks a hard heart? The word of God. The Lord said
in Jeremiah, is not my word like a hammer? What do they break rocks with,
a sledgehammer maybe? Is not my word like a hammer? Isn't it wonderful? By the power
of God, the Holy Spirit, when we hear the word, God's word,
and God, I'm talking about a lost man or a lost woman, God breaks
our heart and shows us our need, our need of Christ, our need
of salvation, of redemption. These men had a hard heart, and
it grieved the Lord. And yes, the scripture said,
with anger. Paul said, let not the sun go
down upon your anger. Be angry and sin not. And the
Lord Jesus Christ did have anger. Just as he had grief, he had
anger. He was a man. He did not sin
in showing anger, being grieved because of the hardness of their
hearts. Well, here's the third part of
the message. So first of all, we've looked at the question,
is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days? We've looked at the question
of these religious hypocrites. We've looked at the question
of the Lord Jesus Christ, is it good to do evil or good on
the Sabbath day? And now we see his response. He commands the Lord, the Lord
Jesus rather commands this man to do two things. First of all,
if you notice in verse three, he saith unto the man which hath
the withered hand, stand forth. Maybe he was sitting over there
in the corner. Maybe there's a lot of people
around him. Not everyone could see. So the Lord Jesus says,
stand forth. In Luke's gospel, it says, rise
up and stand forth in the midst. In other words, the Lord would
have him right in the midst of all the people who were in the
synagogue that day. And that would accomplish two
things. First of all, it It would accomplish that everyone would
have to see that this man's hand, yes, it was withered. And it
should have called forth compassion. It should have called forth compassion
on everyone in that synagogue. This man has a withered hand. Well, it didn't. It should have. It did for the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it would also serve, not only should it serve to cause
the people there to have compassion on this man, but it would show
this miracle was not some sleight of hand. This was not some chicanery
or anything like that. When the Lord heals this man,
no one in the synagogue that day, everyone saw him and no
one could deny. Yes. He had healed this man. The authenticity
of the miracle. The authenticity of the miracles
shows those people and shows you and I that yes, Jesus Christ
is the Son of God. He is the Son of God. These works
testify to who He is. And you cannot believe in someone
of whom you have not heard. And you cannot hear the gospel
unless you hear that Jesus Christ is the God-man. That the mystery
of godliness is that God came down into this world as a man. And these miracles that we read
about in the gospel show us, testify to us, yes, he is God. And then the second command,
first command was stand forth. Arise and stand in the midst. The second command was stretch
forth thine hand. How many times, think about this,
how many times do you think this man had tried to stretch forth
his hand? If he had suffered an accident,
let's say, maybe they bandaged his hand up, put it in a sling,
and as it started to get better, maybe bruise, the decoloration
was leaving or something like that. I'm sure he started trying
to work his fingers, don't you? Trying to work his fingers, his
hand. How many times every day, probably, first thing he did
in the morning when he woke up, tried to stretch forth his hand,
But he never could stretch forth his hand. But this day he did. This day he did. Why? How? Because along with the command
went the power. Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched forth his hand,
and it was well, it was healed, just like his other hand. So here we see, not only in that
first point, the wisdom, the way the Lord answered their question,
we see his wisdom, but now you see, we see his power. Along
with his command, his word of command went the power. You may
be here today and you may say, well, I've tried to believe in
Christ. I've tried to trust in Christ
for years. Stretch forth thy hand. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Quit trying to look for feelings
and signs and all of those things that the devil would use, the
flesh would use to distract you and today believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. You say, well can a man do that?
If he does, he can. If he does, he can. Now I want
you to turn to that verse in 1 Corinthians with me. I'm almost
finished with the message. 1 Corinthians chapter one. 1 Corinthians chapter one and verse
24. The apostle says, but unto them
which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of
God, and the wisdom of God. The opposite of wisdom is foolishness. That's the opposite of wisdom,
is foolishness. And this is what the Greeks thought
about this message of Christ, is foolish. It's foolish to think
that one man dying on a cross outside of the city of Jerusalem,
that he could pay the penalty for my sins. That's foolish. That's foolish unto them which
are called Christ the wisdom of God. We see how it is in Christ. Him becoming a man and in the
same nature that sin, that offended God, human nature. He came and
took human nature, sinless human nature into union with His deity. How it is that He satisfied God,
obeyed God perfectly so that God might be just, just Because
the sins of His people, the sins of those who believe in Him,
were laid upon Christ and He paid the debt for those people. Oh no, it's not foolish, it's
the power of God unto salvation. And the opposite of power is
weakness. And that's what the Jews thought.
The Greeks thought it was foolish, the Jews thought it was weakness. The power of God is the opposite
of weakness. He is the power of God. He's the wisdom of God to those
who are called. He honored God's law. And he did not stop when he came
into this world and all the work that he did, listen to me now.
This was a prophecy in the book of Daniel. One of the six things
it tells us there in Daniel chapter nine that he would do, he would
make an end of sin. He would make an end of sin. And I'm telling you this morning,
according to the word of God, that he accomplished that. He made an end of sin for everyone
that believes. That God will never remember
your sins again. That he has cast them as far
as the east is from the west. All who believe and trust in
him. Stretch forth on hand. If you've
never believed before this morning, I pray that God's mercy and grace
will allow you to do so even now. One old English preacher years
ago, we looked at that passage in the law where God had compassion
even on an animal. One old preacher said, when God
saves a sinner, even His dog will know it. Even his animals are going to
know it. Why? Because that hard heart has been
removed and he has a heart of flesh. I pray the Lord would bless this
message to all of us. Now before we sing our last hymn,
I've asked Brother Streeter, I know many of you are wondering
what's