Back to Luke, the sixth chapter.
The title of my message today is The Withered Hand. The Withered
Hand. This passage begins with the
words, On another Sabbath. On another Sabbath. Now the Sabbath
is a Jewish day. It's the seventh day of the week. It is Saturday, not Sunday. Sunday's
the first day of the week. Sunday is not the new Sabbath.
Sunday's the first day of the week. It's called the Lord's
Day because that's the day, historically, it's said that our Lord rose
from the grave, the day that the apostles began to meet and
the churches met on the first day of the week. The word Sabbath
simply means rest. That's all it means. After the
Lord had created the heavens and the earth in six days, on
the seventh day he rested. He didn't rest because he was
tired. He didn't rest because he was weary. He didn't rest
because he had done his part and he was waiting somebody else
to do theirs. He rested because the job was done. It was a finished
thing. And in that rehearsal of that
in Genesis chapter 1, you'll find that on the seventh day
it didn't speak of the morning and the evening as it did on
the first six days. It didn't speak of that at all.
because that pictured the salvation of the sinners, whose sun and
light is Jesus Christ in the new creation. And there is no
morning and evening for him, it's all daytime, for he walks
in the light of the Lord God. It says here, on another Sabbath. The reason it says that is because
this chapter begins on another Sabbath, one before this one. Some, I was reading a commentary
and I was just really tickled about how much time they spent
on this phrase, trying to figure out whether it was the Pentecost
or whether it was the Feast of the Tabernacles or this or that.
There are eight Sabbaths in Scripture. eight individual Sabbaths, or
feast days as it's called. And the one thing that's absolutely
stated in every case of every Sabbath mentioned in the Old
Testament, you check this out in Leviticus chapter 25, every
Sabbath has this one rule. There shall be no servile work
made. Why? Because the Sabbath says
the work is done. Now we rest in what God has accomplished
for us. So the Sabbath had taken on a
whole new meaning for the Jewish people. Abraham never kept the
Sabbath. Moses didn't keep it until it
was commanded in the law. None of those men before Sinai
ever kept the Sabbath. They simply probably just rested
on Saturday. But the Sabbath became a law
on Sinai, and it became very strict. It became strict because
God would teach us about how Christ finished the work of salvation.
Therefore, it says you don't build a fire on the Sabbath.
You don't pick up a stick on the Sabbath. You don't do any
servile work on the Sabbath. Because if you do, you're saying
the work's not finished. You are somehow involved in the
new creation. You are somehow involved in your
own salvation. God says don't do that. But the
Jews had taken this to be a place where they could judge and accuse
and aggravate people concerning this day of the week. And so
they watched people very carefully in this situation. So this chapter
begins with the disciples on the Sabbath day picking and shucking
and eating corn. And the Lord catching a great
deal of grief from the Pharisees and the scribes because of it
for allowing them to do that. But the Lord shut them up with
the record of David, who on the Sabbath day, when he was starving,
ate the showbread in the holy place, which was only for the
priests. And not only did he eat the showbread, he gave it
to his men to eat also. So he didn't break the Sabbath.
They knew that. So he shut them up. That's the
way our Lord, when they would ask a question, he'd ask them
a question, you know. He asked them, when they were
talking about the commandments and all that, he said, well,
let me ask you a question. Who is the Messiah? And they said, well, he's David's
son. And he said, well, why does David
call him Lord in Psalm 110? He's David's Lord and David's
son? And it simply said, they durst
not ask him any more questions, because they didn't have an answer
for that. So our Lord shut him up with the truth. And in our
text, this says it's another Sabbath. I got to thinking about
that, so I started looking up the word Sabbath in the New Testament.
And I found some things to be true. The Lord here heals a man
with a withered hand on the Sabbath. But if you look at the times
our Lord healed men and women, there seems to be a pattern,
almost always on the Sabbath. He heals on the Sabbath. more than any other time. This
is not only a pattern, but it's likewise a scenario. When he
healed on the Sabbath, the Pharisees and the scribes were there watching
him every time. Check it out. Every time he healed
on the Sabbath, the Pharisees and the scribes were sitting
there watching him do it, and they were watching him so they could
catch him in something so that they could accuse him. It never
worked, but they kept on trying. You know, that's the definition
of insanity. Keep doing the same thing over
and over again, expecting a different result. And they did that. Over
and over again, they did. But they never caught him in
anything. But they wanted to, and that's why they did it. They were watching him and they
were not watching him to see the wonder of his power, the
glory of his miracles that he performed. They were watching
him that they might accuse him and catch him breaking the law
and find a reason to put him out of business and get rid of
him altogether because that's what they wanted to do. He was
disturbing their calm. Their religion was set, everybody
was not happy, but everybody was religious, and they were
controlling people's lives and telling them how to live and
putting burdens on them and so forth, and they were minding
and everything was going, and here comes a man, who every time they
talked about the law, told them what they thought they knew about
the law, they didn't know at all. He looked at that adulterous
generation, and that's what he called this Pharisee, an adulterous
generation. He said, you've read in the law
you shall not commit adultery. He said, but what it's really
saying is if you have lust in your heart, you've already committed
adultery. You're gifted, already. Thou shalt not steal. But you've
already, thou shalt not commit, but you're already a murderer.
You don't become a murderer when you shoot somebody. You shoot
somebody because you're a murderer. You kill somebody because you're
a murderer. That's why you do it. That's the source of it. These men who watched him didn't
keep the law, didn't know what the law said, so every time they
accused him in this situation, he would take the Bible, the
Word of God, and show them that they didn't understand what they
were talking about. But I ask this question, why did the Lord
so often heal on the Sabbath? Why was it a day? Well, it might
be what men call coincidence. Men call things like this coincidence.
The Lord was often in the temple or the synagogue on the Sabbath. And because the infirm and the
helpless knew that God healed men, they frequented the Sabbath
or the synagogue on the Sabbath. They hung around. We find that
throughout. At the Gate Beautiful, the man was outside the temple
waiting to get alms. We find men at the Pool of Bethesda
waiting for the water to stir. We find when the Lord, that men
who are in need come And they showed up on the Sabbath, and
so did the Lord Jesus Christ. There was generally a lot of
folks in need that hung around there to get something from the
religious men, alms or help or possibly even healing, not from
the religious men, but from God. And another possibility is the
Lord did what he did to raise the ire of the Pharisees, to
make them angry, a kind of in-your-face thing. because they held the
Sabbath in such high esteem, much higher than the Lord did
in the Word of God. Knowing that he would get resistance,
knowing that he would get resistance, he did it because of that. That's
a possibility. Another possibility is that our
Lord healed on the Sabbath because it was a time when he knew that
it was a teaching moment. The teaching moment that men
who thought they knew the meaning of the law must be shown that
they did not know it and give them some kind of reason for
the things that went on. And these are all plausible explanations,
but none of them are the reason. None of them are the reason.
The reason is the sovereignty of God. The reason is the sovereignty
of God. That's important to understand.
The sick and the withered were sick and withered by the hand
of God. That's why they were sick and
withered. That's seen over and over again in Scripture, just
as Lazarus was sick. When Martha said, if you should
have been here, you're sick. Well, God said he's sick for
the glory of God. And he's going to die for the
glory of God. Because I'm going to raise him up. I'm going to
raise him up. The blind man in John chapter
nine. The Lord specifically says he's
blind for the glory of God. He's blind that God might be
glorified. In raising him up from the dead,
the blind causes the blind to see. And in each and every scenario
where this took place was to teach some aspect of the utter
ruin of man and that only God could be the remedy in the situation. This is what happened here. The
Pharisees may have invited this man to temple that day. They
may have said, we want you to be here because Jesus is going
to be here. And we're pretty sure he's going
to heal you because it says they were sitting there wondering
if he would heal this man. So they were aware that this
man was in there that day and that he had a withered hand. The whole need, not a physician,
we know that, but them that are sick. them that are sick. Likewise,
the truth must be taught that religion, the religion of works
and free will of men, can do nothing for the truly sick. That
is stated in every case. Likewise, these healings were
generally done on the Sabbath to reveal the salvation, that
salvation was finished on the day that the Lord rested from
His work. Likewise, the Pharisees must be present. They must be
there. They must be present and filled with religious indignation
because Christ is that stone that the builders refused whom
God has made the head of the corner. This is all according
to God's purpose and all according to His plan. So it is no accident that this
came together. This is no moment of serendipity
that these players are present and accounted for on this day.
They were called to this meeting. The omnipotent hand of the sovereign
predestinating Lord and His great sovereign will had gathered them
for to do what before ordained had been before ordained to be
done. On another Sabbath. On another Sabbath. And on this
Sabbath, as always, the Lord entered the synagogue and taught.
You will see that often, that He entered the synagogue and
taught. But a lot of times you won't see a biblical lesson you
do in Luke chapter 4 when he taught the Jews about who the
truly elect were, and who God truly blessed, and it had nothing
to do with being a Jew. But more often than not, it simply
says he went into the synagogue and taught. Now we know he taught
the Word of God, but rarely do you actually see an actual lesson
being taught. So we need not to enter into
Dejecta as what might have been his text that day or the theme
of his sermon. We have but to look at what happened
to see the lesson for the day. What he did was what he taught. What He told them was what He
taught that day. And that is always the same lesson.
It's the lesson you will learn and you will bow to as a human
being, as one of God's creatures on this earth. And this is the
lesson that will be learned. Jesus Christ is Lord. This is
what they learned that day. They learned that Jesus Christ
is Lord and that He alone has power and authority over all
things and all days and all people. Some will get it and others will
fight it, but getting it or fighting it won't change a thing. If you
get it, that doesn't make Christ Lord. If you hate it, that doesn't
make Christ Lord. Christ is Lord. Christ is Lord. He's Lord over all. And there
that day was a man with a withered hand. The right hand, it says,
the withered right hand. The right hand is put to the
power of salvation throughout Scripture. Look over at Job chapter
40 just for a moment. When Job began to assert his
righteousness and began to complain that he was indeed a fairly good
fellow, and you say, well, he shouldn't have done that. Sure
he shouldn't, but you ain't been what through he's been through. You get in enough pain and enough
sorrow, I guarantee you this, you're liable to question God
too. And you know how you're questioning?
You're questioning by trying to put forth what you've done as being a reason that you don't
deserve such things. Because that's the way we do
things. That's the way this poor, wretched human mind works. In
Job chapter 37, excuse me, Job chapter 40, verse 6,
our Lord confronts Job. He said, Well, you think that
because of your good works things ought to be well for you, things
ought to run well for you? He said, well, you're saying
that your good works are really what saves you. That's what you're
saying. So he says, this is what it's
going to take. This is what it's going to take. In Job chapter
40, verse 6, it says this, Then answered the Lord of Job out
of the whirlwind and said, Gird up thy loins. Now, like a man,
stand up. I've got something to tell you.
I'll demand of thee and declare thou unto me. I'm going to give
you a scenario here, and you're going to have to answer to this. Will thou disannul my judgment?
In other words, what I do, can you undo? If God said he saves
people by his grace, and his grace alone, by the shed blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you say that's not the way it
works, that it wasn't a successful salvation, that it was only an
effort to save you, and your will is what saves you, if you're
saying that, you're disannulling God's covenant. He said, will
you disannul my covenant? Men do that. Men try to do that.
But it doesn't change anything. God will save his people from
their sins. You can count them. You can count
on it. Will thou condemn me that thou
mayest be just? Will you look at what God does
in choosing his people unto eternal life, choosing them to salvation,
say that ain't fair? That ain't right? That's what men do, don't
they? But it doesn't change anything. God is right in loving Jacob
and hating Esau. It's a righteous thing that God
has done. Hast thou an arm like God? Can you save like God does?
Or canst thou thunder with a voice like Him? Can you, through your
word, change men's lives and hearts? Can you move and motivate
men through words only? Can you tear them down and strip
them of all their hope except for the Lord Jesus Christ? Well,
that's what you're going to have to do. You're talking about your
works taking care of your salvation. Deck thyself now with majesty,
because that's what it takes for those whom God has chosen,
he's also glorified. And excellency, he says this
to a man who's covered in boils, who's sitting by a fire, scraping
his boils with potsherds and utter pain and agony. He says,
now make yourself glorious, because that's what it's going to take
to save you. You're going to have to be glorified before Almighty
God. Array thyself with glory and
beauty, Cast abroad thy rage and thy wrath. Make sure your
enemies know who you are. Who you are. And behold, every
one of them is proud. And bring them down. Because
that's what it's going to take. Can you do that? Can you bring
down the proud men? You'll all get your face smacked
if you try. Bring down the proud and abase
them. Look on everyone that is proud and bring him low and tread
down the wicked in their place. You want to get rid of all the
wicked men of the earth? You got power to kill them? Can you
do it? No. You have to start with yourself. Hide them in the dust together
and bind their faces in secret where no man knows they exist.
Then will I confess, if you can do all this, then will I confess
to you that thine own right hand can save thee. That right hand
represents. Remember what our Lord said to
his disciples, if thy right hand cause thee to offend, cut it
off. Summarily deal with it. Cut it
off. Now is he talking about amputation? No, he's not talking
about amputation. He's talking about summarily discounting and
disowning all of you in the matter of salvation. That's your right
eye and your right hand. To see right and say. God's, when he looks on a person,
to save them, he saves them. You don't do that. This is the revelation about
this man as a representative of all men. This man's right
hand is withered. It's withered. His ability to
save himself is withered. Useless and impotent. He could
do nothing He could not grasp anything, He could not lay hold
of eternal life, and He was afflicted so by the grace of God for the
glory of God. He's this way because Christ
is going to heal him. And the whole need not a physician,
you've got to be somebody sick, you've got to be somebody in
need before Christ does anything for them. Our Lord said, This
is the gracious thing He does, He sealeth up the hand of every
man, that all men may know His work. And if he's going to save
you, the first thing he's going to do is he's going to wither
your right hand. That's what he's going to do. He's going
to wither your right hand. So, what do you got? I can't do nothing
with it. I can't do anything. I'm dead
and doomed. I can't help myself. What are
you going to do? You're going to turn to God. As long as you've
got something in you to turn to, you'll turn to it. But if
God closes up your hand, then you'll look at His works. His
works. And religion was watching. Religion
is always watching. It was watching in order to judge
the Lord and to find fault. That's what it said. And the
scribes and the Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on
the Sabbath day, that they might find an accusation against him. And this is always how it is.
I grew up in religion. I mean, I've been a religious,
I've been a Baptist before I was a baby. My booties were on a
Sunday school roll before I was born. We're not gonna do that
to Whitney. But I was. Some of you know what
I'm talking about. The cradle roll, they called
it. So I've always been in religion. And what I found in religion
was that everybody watched you. And everybody knew your business.
I know, I hear preachers talking today about going to see their
people all the time. I've never done that. Not that
I don't love you, I do love you, and when I'm invited to come
and see you, I come and see you. But I ain't going to show up
at your house, because it's your life. You know what? If I believe
you're a child of God, I believe you're going to be all right,
and I ain't got to check you out. I ain't got to check you out.
But that wasn't religious Pharisee. He had to check everybody out.
He had to watch. He had to watch. Religion refuses to bow to Christ's
lordship, and is always looking for a way to keep this man from
ruling over them. You see, Christ rules over his
people, and that galls religion. Because that means they have
one ruler, Christ is my king, and I don't have to listen to
you. Freedom is an awesome thing.
It's an awesome thing. They are well-worshippers, these
Pharisees, and it is their will that they worship. They believe
that their will has power over God, and they always watch in
order to accuse. And mark this well, they, listen
very carefully, they who watch men, they who watch men, do not
do so to applaud and encourage men. They do not do that. They do not do so to help people. If you watch people, you do it
to find fault and assign blame. That's just a fact. I don't care
if you're at the mall and watching people. Sit down in the middle,
watch them go by. I guarantee you form great accusatory
opinions of everybody that walks by. You women ever do that? You mean she come to the mall
dressed like that? Y'all don't do things like that.
I know, I forget, I was in the hospital one time in a real crowded
room. We're sitting in a waiting room. My Aunt Peggy was here.
My Aunt Peggy's just tough. And my grandmother, Fern, who
Peggy is like the mini-me of Fern. We're sitting there and
this woman came in. She was kind of a hefty gal.
She was wearing spandex. While I was sitting there, and
I watched them walk by, and I just looked over at Peggy and Grandma.
Boy, they was having her for dinner. That's why we watch people. That's
why religion watches people. They don't watch to help. They
watch to accuse. You mark that down. That's the
case. When I was growing up, we had
a thing called church watch care. A lot of people know about that.
When you get the right hand of fellowship, then they watch you
for six weeks. Well, what are they watching for? How good you are? Huh? Really? How well you fit in? What a fine, upstanding citizen
you are. What are they watching for? They're watching for you
to screw up. And they're counting on it. They're
counting on it. That figure, in six weeks, they'll
be able to get rid of you. They find a reason to exclude
men. That's why men watch men. They exclude them as to their
fitness to be a member of the group. I get things on Facebook
all the time. People tell me, you've been added
to the membership of a club. And I write them right back and
say, I don't want to be a membership of it. I mean, there's probably
some good clubs. Sovereign Grace Clubs and this
and that and the other. And I always tell them what that
old fat comedian told people. I can't remember his name. It
may have been Winston Churchill. But he said, I'll not be a member
of a club that would have me for a member. And that's true. Religion finds fault always.
Always. They watch, these Pharisees watched,
to put Jesus out of their lives and to assure that men met their
high standards. They watch in order to kill,
not to give life. They watch to slay, not to heal.
Our Lord describes them thusly, they trust in themselves that
they are righteous and despise others. But they're there. And they're there by divine appointment. They're supposed to be there.
So why did the Lord put them there? In 1 Corinthians 11, 19,
he says, for there must be also heresies among you that they
which are approved may be manifest among you. There must be heresies
among you. This helps me a lot when I think
of this. I stop getting mad at these clowns. People come up and say, I don't
believe what you preach. I say, well, it's about time you said
that. Look at my watch. You're right on time. Said that
right on time. Makes life easier that way. They're
there by divine appointment. And they thought themselves clever.
That their motives were secret. They were little espionage agents
from religion is what they were. In Luke chapter 20, verse 20,
here's how they're described. Now they didn't wear any robes
or badges and say we are the righteous police, they just everyday
guys, just men, that they might take hold of his words so that
they might deliver him under the power and authority of the
governor. They wanted to get this guy crucified so they sent
in spies to listen to everything he said. That's why they came,
that's why they came. Galatians chapter two verse four
said, they were sent in to spy out our liberty. to spy out our
freedom. Verse 8, declared that the Lord
knew their thoughts. Of course He did. It says this,
but He knew their thoughts and said to the man which had the
withered hen, rise up and stand forth in the midst that he arose
and stood forth. He knew that they were waiting for Him to
heal that man so they could accuse Him. So what has He done? He
heals that man. He knew their thoughts and He looked around
about and He says, stand up! You with the withered hand, stand
up and come to me. Come to me." Their thoughts were that he was
not the Lord. that he was of the devil, that he was mad, that
he was a transgressor of the law. They thought that man was
made for the Sabbath rather than the Sabbath being made for man.
They thought themselves lords of the Sabbath, but they were
not. Our Lord says in verse five, and he said unto them that the
Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath. What does that mean?
Everything goes on the Sabbath. Christ's in control of it. Christ
is in control of it. And to prove their folly, he
told the man with the withered hand to stand up. He called him,
he calls his sheep by name, and they follow. He tells the man
to rise up, and you, if he quickened, who are dead in trespasses and
sin. Then our Lord taught these law
professors that they do not know the law at all, and further,
that he was the lawgiver and the lawful filler, in verse nine.
Then said Jesus unto them, again he asked this question, I'll
ask you one thing, Pharisees, as I've told this man to get
up, and you know what I'm gonna do. You know what I'm going to
do, because that's what you want to accuse me of. You know what
I'm going to do, so here's the question I ask for you. Is it
lawful on the Sabbath day to do good, or to do evil? Is it lawful on the Sabbath day
to save life, or to destroy? Now in other places where this
is recorded, he uses a sheep and an ox. He says if your sheep falls in
a ditch on a Sabbath day, you're gonna leave him there till Sunday
before you do anything about it? Or if your ox falls in a
ditch, you're just gonna leave him there? Or is it okay for
you to take and get that thing out, save its life? Of course
it is, that only makes sense. But they didn't deal with sense,
because the law doesn't deal with sense. That's what people
have to understand. The Constitution of the United States doesn't
deal with feelings. The laws of this state, the laws
of the land, don't deal with feelings. We have a man here
upholds the law. He's a policeman, and his job
is to uphold the law. And when the law is broken, he
don't ask people how they feel about it. He puts handcuffs on
them and takes them to jail. Why? Because they've broken the
law. Laws aren't flexible. Now, in the next few years, because
I've seen some of this in the last few years, our Constitution
of the United States may be becoming a little more flexible, but it
won't be what it was meant to be. A law is a law. And so they can't be flexible
on this. They say, this is right or wrong. I don't see they got
a thing to do with it. You don't understand the law. You don't understand the Sabbath
thing. You don't understand it's about resting in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He proved their folly. They knew
the answer. He said, I'll ask you. And he
asked them, and they knew the answer. Right away, they couldn't
respond to it. They couldn't come up with an
answer to what he said, because they knew what the answer was.
Of course it's all right to save somebody's life. on a Sabbath
day. Of course, it's already alright
to heal somebody on a Sabbath. There's nothing wrong with that.
But you see, to them, just to do anything meant that you had
broken the law. And they wanted to accuse Christ
of breaking the law, and He didn't break the law. He kept the law.
He fulfilled the law in every job, and did it. Then the Lord of the Sabbath
showed them the answer that killed their presumed authority. He
looked around. Not like this. Here they are. Ready. Hey, they got their guns
loaded. We're going to catch him. He's
going to do it. He's going to do it. Going to heal him. Going to heal him.
It's what we've been waiting for. Going to heal him. He looked around at him. I could
just see him looking around at him, looking in their eyes. They
were worn out. Looked in their eyes, and he
said to that man with the withered hand, straighten out that hand. looking
at him he said straighten out that hand I'm healing on the
Sabbath day on another Sabbath day I'm healing the Lord looked
at every one of the accusers the upright the legal eagles
and said to the man with the withered hand stretch forth thine
hand you know what he did? he stretched forth his hand You
see, when the Lord says, live, something has to live. When the
Lord says, stretch forth thine hand, you will not look at that
withered mass of useless flesh, bone, and sinew that marks and
displays your own impotence and say, well, I can't accept that
or I can reject it. Will you? Not if your hand's
with it. Now, if you ain't sick, and you
think you're well, and you think you've got a strong will and
a power and you'll get over things, I ain't got nothing for you today,
I'll be honest with you, got a thing for you. If you don't
believe you're ruined and undone and you don't see the wretchedness
of your own character, I ain't got nothing for you. I can't
say, stretch forth your hand, because you say, my hand's fine,
thank you. You can even say, well, Adam,
I reject that message because it don't apply to me. That's
what I'm telling you. It don't apply to you. The gospel don't
apply to everybody. It applies to God's people. It applies to
the needy, to the broken, to the ones with the withered hands,
the ones that are ruined, damned, doomed and dying. That's who
the gospel applies to. I can preach all day to people
who are not sick and they won't respond except in derision and
hatred for what I have to say. When our Lord was gathered about
with sinners, The Pharisees were astonished and said, don't you
realize, don't you master realize the kind of people he's dealing
with? It was a spectacle to them. And
our Lord heard their thoughts and he said, the whole, they
don't need a physician. People are sick. He said, I'm
going to show mercy. I'm not going to have your sacrifice.
I'm going to show mercy. You need to go home and learn
what that means. I say the same to you. If you
feel no need for Christ, you need to go home and learn what
that means. Pray God you will. But if you've got an old withered
hand, that old right hand, which represents your power and your
will and your strength, if it's withered and drawn up, And the
Lord says to you, straighten it out. Ain't gonna be no decision
in the matter. It's my hour of decision, bow,
low, neck. If your hand is with it, and
you're embarrassed by it, ashamed of it, can't do anything about
it, and the Lord says, stretch forth your hand, you know what
you're gonna do? You're gonna stretch forth your
hand. You say, well he can't. If God has commanded you to, you
have permission to. Just do what he says. When the
Lord commands you, you will do it. And the man stretched forth
his hand and no longer, his hand is no longer dead. It lives by
the power of the Lord's will. He was made whole at the word
of the Lord. You see, Jesus is Lord of the
Sabbath. He's Lord over all. And when
the truth is told, one can always expect the self-righteous religious
to react in a specific and ordained way. Verse 11, they were filled
with madness. They were filled with madness
and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus.
The other places said they communed with each other how they'd kill
him. how they'd kill him. That's always going to be the
response. Barnard said, when the gospel is preached, some
get mad, some get sad, and some get glad. The legalists will always get
mad, the needy will always get glad, and some folks will just
get sad. But note well the thoughts of
the self-righteous, because they speak of the religionists of
today. They wanted to know what would they do with Jesus. You ever heard anybody say anything
stupid like that from the pulpit? What will you do with Jesus?
There's a song in the hymn book, What Will You Do With Jesus?
You won't do nothing with him, but he'll do something with you.
He'll take you to heaven, or he'll put you in hell, but you
won't do nothing with him. This is the Pharisee, this is
the religionist who thinks that he can do something with God.
He thinks he can influence God, he can move God, he can change
God, he can tell God what to do. He can command God. This is religion, personified.
What I say unto you, you hand with it. You know he can't help
you see it? Christ has stretched forth that
hand. You gonna behold? You gonna behold? You know why?
He's the Lord of the Sabbath. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name. Amen.