Once again, we have a wonderful privilege to be able to open up the Word of God. And I would like for you to do that right now by turning to Mark's gospel, chapter three. And we find ourselves now in the first six verses as we continue to look at every word that Mark has written, week by week, let me read this passage to you. And I'm doing so under the heading, "Sabbath Controversies and the Trifles of Legalism."

Mark Three, beginning in verse one. "Jesus entered again into a synagogue; and a man was there whose hand was withered. They were watching Him to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. He said to the man with the withered hand, 'Get up and come forward!' And He said to them, 'Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?' But they kept silent. After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' And he stretched it out. And his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him."

One of Satan's most successful strategies of deception is to create false narratives with respect to religion, and politics. And typically, they go hand in hand; a false narrative that purports to somehow honor God, and help society become a better place in which to live. And of course, these deceptions are foundational to totalitarianism. Believe X, and you will be better off, put us in power. And of course, the ones that are always better off are the oligarchs, and those that serve with them. While this was true of apostate Judaism, in the first century, the scribes and the Pharisees had concocted all of these ridiculous laws for the people to obey; extra biblical restrictions and traditions and demanded the Jews to obey them with the idea that if you do these things, you will honor God and you will merit salvation and we will all have a much more wonderful society. And of course, the people believed them. So when Jesus comes along with his message of salvation by grace, through belief in Him, which completely upset their whole system, they were absolutely appalled and they rejected his gospel. This reminds me of Second Corinthians four where we read how Satan veils the gospel to those who are perishing, how the god of this world blinds the minds of unbelievers so that they might not see the light of the gospel in the glory of Christ. You know, the strategy is not new. And I want you to be aware of this before we look closely at the text. I mean this was the same strategy that Satan has used down through history.

For example, this was true with Nazism. In the 1930s, Protestant churches in Germany, tried to stay neutral towards Hitler's National Socialism that was supposedly going to honor God and better society. That was what he promised. And most of the German Protestants believed the Nazi propaganda poster from 1933, where if you were to see it, you'd see Luther's picture superimposed over a swastika, and underneath it read Hitler's fight and Luther's teaching are the best defense for the German people. They bought the lie. Nothing could have been further from the truth. And the result was the death of not only 6 million Jews, but countless others in World War Two. The same thing with Shintoism with the Japanese or World War Two, a religious system, mystical system that worshipped ancestors. And this belief was so powerful that it inspired their soldiers to make banzai suicide attack, banzai high means fierce and reckless, banzai suicide attacks as an act of religious service. Satan has deceived millions, if not billions, with the lies of Islam, the Sunni extremists that Jihadists, the suicide bombers, millions will die for a lie. Marxism communism that sweeping across our country, the same type of thing.

In his international best-selling book "The Madness of Crowds, Gender, Race and Identity," Douglas Murray says this, in that book, he investigates the great derangement of woke culture, and the rise of identity politics, especially as they relate to quote, "the Marxist foundations of wokeness the impact of technology and how in an increasingly online culture, we must learn relearn the ability to forgive." End quote. And he does this partially in contrast to the famous 1911 socialist poster entitled, quote, "Industrial Workers of the World," and supposedly it depicted what was called the "pyramid of the capitalist system." And in light of that Murray rightfully says this, "That today, a version of this old image has made its way to the center of the social justice ideology. Just one of the things that suggests the Marxist foundations of this new system, is the fact that capitalism is still at the top of the pyramid of oppression and exploitation. But the other top tiers of this hierarchy pyramid, are inhabited by different types of people. At the top today of the hierarchy are people who are white, male and heterosexual. They do not need to be rich, but matters are made worse if they are beneath these tyrannical male overlords are all the minorities, most notably the gays, anyone who isn't white people who are women, and also people who are trans. These individuals are kept down oppressed, sidelined and otherwise made insignificant by the white patriarchal, heterosexual system." He goes on to say, "Just as Marxism was meant to free the laborer and share the wealth around so, in this new version of an old claim, the power of the patriarchal white males must be taken away and shared around more fairly with the relevant minority groups." End quote.

Well, of course, this satanic ideology is as deadly as it is false. Its seduction is rooted in almost a universal appeal, a social agreement that we all want everybody to be treated fairly right? I mean, who's not going to be opposed to social justice? Anyone that's opposed to that is somehow labeled a bigot, a racist or worse, and biblical Christianity is therefore placed squarely in the crosshairs of this satanic system. Yet most Christians are oblivious to the danger. Like the proverbial frog in the kettle, many Christians just smile and whistle Jesus loves you as the water heats up. Well, my point with this is apostate Judaism, that whole system was a satanic tool of deception, that was rampant in Jesus day. It produced groupthink, what's sometimes called mass formation by sociologists and psychologists and in groupthink no one is allowed to challenge anything, no dissenting thoughts. No one can even question the absurdities, that’s how it was in the first century. That's how it was with Nazism, and on down the line even with what we have today. But we see Satan using the same strategies to deceive people under the banner of social justice in the cult of wokeism. No one is allowed to challenge it, even question it, question the morality the delusions or whatever. And sadly, worldly people-pleasing evangelicals are falling prey to these abominations. It reminds me of what Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 5:31, "The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule on their own authority and my people love it! So but what will you do at the end of it?" In other words, what are you going to say when judgment comes? Of course, what the world wants us to do is to keep quiet, but that's meaningless to me. I hope it is to you. I fear God far more than I fear, man. All right? And we need to know the truth. So let's see how Jesus handled similar deceptions in his day. Those deceptions that confronted him through Satan's emissaries who were the Pharisees. This is fascinating history, by the way, and it's very instructive for us today, I'd like to look at this text under three headings, we're going to see the providential setting. Secondly, the divine showdown and then finally, the furious reaction. And dear friends, this is yet another opportunity that we have to behold the glory of our Savior in His incarnation, how much more glorious will it be when we stand in the presence of his person, blameless with great joy?

Now, very important historical context, let's keep in mind what it was like to be a Jew, under Roman bondage, and that's what was going on, in those days. The Jewish people were longing for their Messiah to come, they were longing for the kingdom to be established. And that anticipation was at a fever pitch when Jesus came, and his arrival, of course, was prophesied throughout the Old Testament, even way back, then what Moses said in Genesis 49:10, "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples." In that text, the scepter symbolizes the monarchy that will be Judah's inheritance. And 640 years after that prophecy, Judah's national prominence and kingship emerged, including the dynasties of King David, and Solomon. And we know that God made a covenant with David in Second Samuel seven, promising that the Messiah would be his greater son, that of another nature and establish His throne forever. And this is exactly what was prophesied there in Genesis 49:10. The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor the ruler, staff from between his feet between his feet was a euphemism for sexual parts, referring to sexual potency that will produce his descendants. And this is going to happen until Shiloh comes, Shiloh being a cryptic gram or a code, representing the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. And throughout the Old Testament, there are many such prophecies of the Messiah. And the Jewish people were aware of these things, especially the Pharisees, the scholars of Israel, Daniel 9:24, through 27.

Remember we studied that the prophecy of the 70 weeks of judgment, which gives precise dates of when the Messiah the Prince would appear. Isaiah nine six through seven, "For a child will be born to us a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace, there will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness. From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this." The Jewish people were passionate to see this accomplished when Jesus came. Even at the end of the Old Testament, the Prophet Malachi said in chapter three and verse one, speaking, the Lord speaking through him, "Behold, I am going to send my messenger, and he will clear the way before me and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, Behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts." So the people of Israel were looking for their Messiah, but they had been blinded by Satan through a false religious system, Apostate Judaism, and it had a grip on them.

And so what happened? Well, they rejected Him, because when he came, he didn't meet their pre-conceived ideas of what they wanted in a Messiah. They wanted somebody to conquer Rome, not conquer sin, they couldn't see that a cross must precede a crown. They couldn't understand that he alone could make them fit citizens for His coming Kingdom. So as the apostle John explains in John 1:11, "He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him." Of course, this was depicted in other passages. For example, Luke 19, remember the parable of a certain nobleman who went to a foreign country to receive for Himself a kingdom and to return. And in verse 14 of Luke 19, we read, "but his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him saying, 'We do not want this man to reign over us.'" Sowhen Jesus comes along, the people are absolutely blinded by their own hearts. And they were double blinded by Satan's diabolical scheme of apostate Judaism and all of the rules and traditions that gave them a false sense of self-righteousness, because legalism always gives you the illusion of spirituality, but it's hollow.

Now, I might say that they were even triple blinded because of groupthink. And that's what happens with people if everybody thinks something, well, it must be true. So let's all fight for that. And that's the idiocy that we see happening in America today. From the COVID, experimental vaccine lock down and mask cult to the woke critical race theory, Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ, w x, y, z cult. I mean, it just goes on and on, the prosperity cult in the realm of quasi evangelical Christianity, to the abortion cult of the feminazis. I mean, people just believe these things. And anybody that voices that dissent, is castigated, all voices of dissent must be silenced. Why? Because it undermines the authority of the godless elitists. This is what was happening in the first century, just like it's happening today. This is why the media today and our public-school teachers and university educators are so important to the Democratic Party, because they need that to spread this propaganda to indoctrinate our children and attack their critics. As some of you might say, Are you saying that the Democratic Party are like the Pharisees? Absolutely I'm saying that, along with many Republicans, any false religious system that is opposed to God, is somehow alike? Think of the many ways the liberal progressives here in the United States are like the ancient Pharisees. I made a little list in my own mind.

First of all, their ideological presuppositions are antithetical to the Word of God. They hate Christ and true Christians. They lack genuine compassion and humility. They require an ignorant and permanent underclass to stay in power. They are ingeniously divisive; they're obsessed with power and control. They believe they are the social and religious redeemers of society. They think they're smarter than everyone else. They're filled with deceit, they're corrupted, they're hypocritical, they're consumed with hate and violence. They're even committed to killing unwanted babies. I can't think of anything lower than that. They violate existing laws and use every trick possible to legislate new laws to advance their agenda, and they will use any means necessary to silence Christians and advance their godless ideology. This reminds me of Jesus indictment of the Pharisees in John eight that could be applied to many woke politicians today, by the way, it's not just Democrats, a lot of Republicans I mean it this is this is across the board for the most part. There John said this. Or Jesus said this in John 844, You are of your father, the devil. And that's what I would say to the Pharisees and that's what I would say to the Democrats. That's what I would say to all of these people who are pushing our country towards these wicked ideologies, "You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies."

Now, the big difference, the Pharisees didn't have a fake news media to help them follow Jesus around and distort what he had to say. And so they dispatch their own people, their own Pharisees and scribes to follow Jesus. And of course, their main contention against Jesus was his claim to deity that was like over the top to them. And they were convinced that the people would agree with them. So that's where they're going to attack him, despite all of the miracles that he performed, don't even look at that. He said he was God, can't have that. And this is what we see playing out once again here in Mark's historical narrative. Concerning the Sabbath controversies in the trifles of legalism, let's look first of all now, at the providential setting. Providence means that God is orchestrating things to accomplish his purposes, even though we might not be able to see them. You are here today because God has orchestrated that in your life. Okay? Well, this probably happened now the next week after his dust up with the Pharisees over his disciples eating grain on the Sabbath, you read about that remember last week in Mark 2:23, through the end of the chapter.

Remember, Jesus humiliated them, and he called himself Lord of the Sabbath, so that he could just deliberately shine the glory of the light of the gospel, right in the dark dungeon of their deceived hearts. So let's notice what happens here in verse one. "Jesus entered again into a synagogue, and a man was there whose hand was withered." " Wither,” the Greek term "xeraino" it means to become dried up, that which is dead, that which is useless. So his right hand was, by the way, we know it was his right hand, because Luke tells us it was his right hand, okay? In Luke six, six, so his right hand was shriveled up, it was dead, it was it was useless. It was a useless appendage, all of the muscles, all of the ligaments, all of the nerves and tendons, was in a total state of atrophy. Now tradition tells us that he was a stonemason that could no longer work and became a beggar to survive. I don't know if that's true or not. That's probably just conjecture. We can't be certain and it really doesn't matter. But if that was the case, and even if he wasn't a stonemason, the fact that he couldn't use his right hand since most people were right-handed, he would have had a hard time making a living. So this is a very difficult situation for this man. But in the providence of God, he is there. Now there is no indication in any of the gospels that he came there for healing. Perhaps, I think that there's a good chance that the Pharisees found him and brought him there. I can't say for sure. But one thing we can say for sure is this was a divine appointment. All right, God is up to something him here. Now, no doubt the synagogue was packed out. The size of synagogues in those days, they would have fit maybe 100-150 people pretty much max. And there were probably people hanging out listening on the outside. Everybody wanted to hear Jesus partially and mainly because he spoke the word of God with authority in Matthew 7:29. "He was teaching them as one having authority and not as their scribes." What they were used to hearing from their pulpits where we're rambling pontifications and quoting of other rabbis and...

Lately went to something I've I would try to forget I went to several tent revivals one time and, and I mean, it's kind of that stuff is kind of like a religious version of World Wrestling. I mean, everybody knows it's fake, but it's entertaining, and you kind of hope that those things are really going to happen. And I remember seeing this guy and the preacher did the chicken walk you ever seen that, where, you know, they move their head, and they snap their foot and they can make their pant cuffs snap. I don't know how he did that, but you could literally hear it. And so he would snap his cuff and strut around, moving like a chicken sweating and shouting and crying and going...all that type of stuff. Like I told you, I'm trying not to think about that. But sometimes these things just come to my mind while I'm preaching. Believe me, Jesus did not do that. Okay? I doubt if the scribes did either. And Luke 19:48. Luke says that "all the people were hanging on to every word He said." Isn't it fascinating? I mean, the preaching of the Word of God is absolutely captivating, even to unbelievers. They may think you're a knuckle dragging Neanderthal, but they're fascinated with what you have to say. And the reason for that is because they are suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. They know it's true. That's why the wrath of God is revealed against them. As we read in Romans 1:18. People will, as Paul said, "turn away their ears from the truth and turn aside unto myths." But they will hear it. And that's why it's important for us to preach it. Because the word of God will do one of two things, it will either harden or soften the heart. That's God's deal, not mine, not yours, we just sow the seed. So we read here that a man was there whose hand was withered. Then it says, "They were watching Him," referring to the Pharisees, "to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him." That's why I think he was probably a plant, they probably brought him in there. And, you know, most people by this time were healed in the area. I mean, you just we know that 1000s were healed. There's like hardly any disease in Palestine at that time.

Well, this comes to secondly, the divine showdown, verse three, "He said to the man with the withered hand, 'Get up and come forward!'" So he was somewhere in the audience and he motions for him to come forward. In Luke six, Luke, gives us a little more insight of what was going on. It says, "But Jesus knew what they were thinking." I love that. He knew what they were thinking. "And He said to the man with a withered hand, 'Get up and come forward!' and he got up and came forward.

By the way, I've got to stop here for a moment. Isn't it amazing that our God is omniscient, that he knows absolutely everything. Right now he knows what you're thinking and what I'm thinking and he always does. I mean, ponder this for a moment. Psalm 33, beginning of verse 13, we read "The Lord looks from heaven. He sees all the sons of men from His dwelling place. He looks out on all of the inhabitants of the earth. He who fashions the hearts of them all, He who understands all their works." Don't think you can hide from God. David described how God knew that minutest details of his life in Psalm 139, one through six that we read earlier, Psalm 147, the Lord is praised as the one who heals the brokenhearted. In verse four we read that He is the one" who counts the number of the stars, he gives names to all of them. Great is the Lord and abundant in strength. His understanding is infinite." Proverbs 521, there is nothing man can think or do that escapes his notice. It says, "For the ways of a man or before the eyes of the Lord, and He watches all his paths." Indeed, according to Proverbs 15, three, "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, watching the evil and the good." Isaiah 14, verse 28, says, "His understanding is inscrutable." Hebrews 4:13, "There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." First John 3:19 says, "He knows everything." So the Lord knew what these Pharisees were up to. And if they were living in our day, they would have their cell phones out there videoing everything, now they're gonna see oh, man, he's calling him up, we gotta get it on. Let's watch. Let's see what he's going to do here, because we're going to trap him for violating the Sabbath because he's going to heal this guy on the Sabbath, which is a violation punishable by death. That's what these guys were thinking. But rather than avoiding the potential conflict, even though Jesus knew what they were up to, he deliberately provokes it. He's going to heal this guy on the Sabbath.

Which, by the way, as he did intentionally with other people on other Sabbath's according to the Gospel accounts, Matthew gives us some more insight into what went on here. Matthew 12, beginning of verse 10, "And a man was there whose hand was withered. And they question questioned Jesus," by the way, this would have meant that they interrupt, "Excuse me, excuse me, Jesus, excuse me. We've got a question." And here's what Matthew says they asked, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?" Matthew says, they asked "so that they might accuse Him." And He said to them, 'What man is there among you, who has a sheep and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep. So then it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.'" Now, Mark records a bit shorter version. Again, now the man has come forward, I'm sure you could have heard a pin drop. It had to have been tense. Pharisees are licking their chops here, because they they're just certain they are going to get Jesus. But Mark says in verse four, "And Jesus said to them," by the way, they must have all been kind of huddled together in a place of prominence. But he's going to answer their question. He says, "Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?" But they kept silent. Of course they did.

By the way, can I give you a little aside here, folks, don't ever debate God. People do this all the time, you may not like what he says, you may not understand it. You may not like what he does. But whatever it is, it is holy, it is good, it is totally righteous, and you wouldn't be able to understand it, nor would I, if he were to explain it to us. Whenever we try to debate God, we betray our own arrogance and our own stupidity. People do this all the time they twist scripture, you see this especially, in the whole doctrine of unconditional election. In fact, that's what Arminianism is. It's a twisting of Scripture to somehow make what God does and what he says fit into our theological framework of understanding. Remember what Paul said about that, and all other issues similar to in Romans nine, he says, "So then God has mercy on whom He desires and He hardens whom He desires." And then anticipating the push back, "You will say to me, then, 'Why does he still find fault? For who resists His will?'" In other words, that's not fair. I mean, that puts God in complete control over a person's salvation. What about his free will? I mean, man doesn't have a chance if God's in charge. Paul says "On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, Whydid you make me like this,' Will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use, and another for common use?" My friend, there is nothing in the universe dumber than a clay pot. That's the point. And there is nothing in the universe smarter than God. You know, we're like, our children. You know how our kids they start becoming omniscient, what around four, maybe five? You know? I mean, certainly by 13. I mean, it's, it's all over, right? And we listen to them, we love them. And we hear their logic and it's built on the wrong presuppositions, and it's leading them in the wrong direction. And we're thinking, Oh, my, they're too ignorant to know they're ignorant.

But, you know, that's part of our deceitful heart, isn't it? It's part of our depravity. We think we know when we don't, well, these Pharisee vehicle clay pots, we're about to be exposed and humiliated. And by the way, I put myself in that category. I've been there myself on a number ofoccasions, okay? So they asked Jesus, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?" As Matthew said, Jesus replies, '"Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath to save a life or to kill him again?" Now mind you, Jesus is arguing from the lesser to the greater which was a typical rabbinical way of arguing of debating, but my goodness, he's now caught them in their own trap. And they knew it. I mean, they have to be saying to themselves at this point, "oh, my, I mean, there's only one answer, obviously, it's to do good. It's to save a life. And we, we can't say it's better to harm or to kill. I mean, obviously man is more valuable than a sheep. I mean, if if we say that, that, that it's okay to, you know, to do harm and to kill then we come across as not having any compassion especially towards this poor man. So we can't say that. But if we answer the other way that Jesus is going to be exonerated, and we're going to have to agree with him, and then we will violate our own Sabbath restrictions. And it will make us look like fools. Oh, my goodness, he's, he's caught us in our own trap." So what do they do? They kept silent. And you can understand why.

By the way, this is what happens when religious leaders or politicians or anybody for that matter, strays away from the Word of God and comes up with their own ideas, their own rules, their own regulations, their own traditions, and then treat them as if somehow that is moral that that is of God. Now remember, the Sabbath was never intended to be oppressive. It was never intended to be a burden to the people. It was intended to be a day of worship a day of rest for Israel. You see it in the fourth commandment. But the self-righteous Pharisees imposed all oftheir manmade rules and traditions. I remember last week, I went through a lot of them, and they're laughably ridiculous and absurd. But they came up with all of these things, and it became a burden for the people. And the Sabbath became a spectacle for the Pharisees to flaunt their perceived spirituality, and to keep people under their authority and to keep them giving money.

By the way, at the root of all these things, is money. If you can come up with a system to make people feel guilty, and get them to jump through hoops, which will include giving money, believe me, they're going to be people at the top who are going to be fabulously wealthy, and they're going to continue to impose those things upon naive and ignorant people. Roman Catholicism is a case in point, Mormonism another case in point. And so it goes. So, this is the motivation behind all of these man-made religious systems and of external works righteousness to find favor with God. And legalism always fuels pride. And it always clothes people in the garment of hypocrisy. And ultimately, it prevents people from obeying the most the foremost commandment, and that is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul with all your mind; not some external love.

And it will also prevent you from obeying the second commandment to love your neighbor as yourself. Of course, the Pharisees were the poster boys for all of this stuff. This kind of empty ritualism is why God brought judgment on Judah, the first time at the hands of the Assyrian some 700 years prior to this. No doubt Jesus was helping them to see that. Remember, Israel was supposed to be a channel of blessing to all of the nations. But instead they rebelled against God. And they started to worship Him with external empty formalism. That's what their worship became. It was a sin God equated in Isaiah, one with witchcraft and idolatry. In fact, he compared that kind of external hypocritical worship, to the wickedness of homosexuality in Sodom and Gomorrah, and Isaiah one nine, we see this in God's denunciation of what they were doing, recorded in Isaiah one, beginning with verse 11. These ritualistic acts that were apart from a heartfelt love for God and a desire to show compassion to people. He says this, Isaiah 1:11, "'What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?' Says the Lord. I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle, and I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats. When you come to appear before Me, Who requires a view this trampling of My courts? Bring your worthless offerings no longer, incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies--I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly, I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, they have become a burden to me. I'm weary of bearing them. So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you. Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.'"

You see, that's the stuff that flows from a genuine love of God. By the way, we must all guard ourselves from empty ritualism as well. It's easy in our culture for us to come here on Sunday morning, because that's what you do in the South. It's tradition. How many of you came here today, because you truly want to worship the Lord your God. And you truly want to hear from him, because you are passionate about becoming more like Christ, because you have a deep burden for the lost. Because you have a hunger for and thirsting for righteousness. Because you're mourning over your own sin and you want to see people saved. May I ask you do your friends really know that you're a Christian? Can they see that in you? Many times, I will ask people, when I get to know them. I like to come right up front and say, "So I'm curious. Are you a Christian?" And the first thing they will say is "Oh yes, I go to church someplace or I belong to a church someplace." Even though they may not have been for years. It's externalism. I mean folks, ask yourself the question "Do I really serve Christ by serving others?" I mean, sometimes it's just little things like helping those dear ladies in the kitchen, who have been there from nine o'clock in the morning and probably won't get through until three helping them clean up so they don't have to stay that long. Lots of times, it's the little things. What is your reputation among those who know you best? Well, they say, Oh, yes, that person knows and loves Christ because here's what I see in their life. Do you worship the Lord privately or only publicly? Do you love your spouse, your family? Your neighbors in ways that are truly sacrificial? Or are you just a Christian in name only? Well, the Pharisees were all sizzle and no steak, okay? They were as phony as a $3 bill. They were as fake as a woman pastor, and equally abhorrent to God. Notice what happens in verse five.   "After looking around at them with anger," I've got to stop there. This is righteous indignation, from the Most High God, can you imagine having him leaning to you and look into your eyes with anger? That's what he did. He looked at every one of them. What a penetrating gaze of divine holiness, laser light beam of the power and the holiness of God. "After looking around at them with anger," it also says "grieved at the hardness of heart."

So in other words, despite the righteous indignation, he had pity on them, knowing that there would be an utter annihilation of all of Jerusalem of the Temple, of many of them, in a few years and at AD70 when the Romans would come. He predicted this in Luke 19, for example, not to mention the torments of an eternal hell. By the way, this needs to be our attitude as well. I mean, there are people that are absolutely wicked in our culture, people that we know, we've got some in our family can't stand to be around them. We pray for them that Christ will save them. We love them for the sake of the gospel. You might ask, well, when do you stop trying to witness to these people? The answer is when their godlessness is so provoked, perverse, that they mock Christ and they ridicule Christ and just reject the gospel. That's when it's time to shake the dust off your feet and let God handle them. That's why Matthew seven six we read, "Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine or they will trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces." This is like what the Apostle Paul said to the hostile Jews in Acts 18 Six, "Your blood be upon your heads, I am clean. For now on I shall go to the Gentiles."

So back to verse five, "After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' And he stretched out his hand and his hand was restored." This is utterly astounding. I was thinking about this. I've had four hand surgeries to repair injuries. I've been hard on my body. Two of them worked. Two of them didn't. I was being groomed to be a concert pianist as a young man. And while I was studying the piano right before my senior recital, I had a finger that was torn up. And my parents found the greatest hand surgeon in the world in Scotland. And he did surgery on my little finger and it helped for a little while but it wasn't healing good. And eventually it went bad. About six or seven years later, they took me back to another hand surgeon and didn't work very good. So I can't play to this day, God had other plans. But I know a little bit about hands. I looked up the anatomy of the hand from Johns Hopkins.

Can I share just a little of this to you so that you get a sense of what happened here? "The hand is composed of many different bones, muscles and ligaments that allow for a large amount of movement and dexterity. There are three major types of bones in the hand itself including phalanges, the 14 bones that are found in the fingers of each hand and also on the toes of each foot. Each finger has three phalanges, the distal middle and proximal, the thumb only has two and then there's the metacarpal bones the five bones that compose the middle part of the hand and then the carpal bones, the eight bones that create the wrist. The two rows of carpal bones are connected to two bones on the arm, the ulna bone and the radius bone." Goes on to say numerous muscles, ligaments, tendons, and sheathes can be found within the hand. The muscles are the structures that can contract allowing movement of the bones in the hand. The ligaments are fibrous tissues that help bind together the joints in the hand, the sheets or tubular structures that surround part of the fingers. The tendons connect muscles in the arm or hand to the bone to allow movement. In addition, there are arteries, veins and nerves within the hand that provide blood flow and sensation to the hand and fingers." End quote.

And then beyond that, dear friends there are literally 1000s of parts that are connected to the brain millions of nerve cells that cause the hand to do what it does. In a word Jesus recreated all of that instantly. Perfectly and publicly. But this had absolutely zero impact on the Pharisees. How could that be? It didn't fit their agenda. You see, when people are committed to an agenda, they're blinded by Satan. They are deceived by their hearts. Truth means nothing to them.

Verse six, "The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him as to how they might destroy Him." No celebration, no falling down on your face before a living God. Instead, let's conspire with other people to see how we can kill him. This leads us to the final point here the furious reaction. Luke tells us in Luke 6:11, " "But they themselves were filled with rage and discussed together what they might do to Jesus." Unbelievable, isn't it? Now Roman law would not allow them to kill him, to do capital punishment. Plus, they could also see that the polls were trending in favor of the people and Jesus right? The people were looking more towards Jesus than to them. So they were afraid of the people. So they're furious. Now they have to do something. Their authority is being threatened, Jesus has made them look like fools. So Mark Three, six, they "went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against him, as to how they might destroy Him." Now, the Herodians were basically Jewish people that were politically involved with the Greco Roman authorities. And so, they were loyal to hate Herod, they were traitors to the Jews. And, and by the way, they thought the Pharisees were morons. But as the old saying, goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. So the Pharisees need to conspire with these other, with these Herodians, to somehow do away with Jesus. How sad to be so driven by your own agenda, that you cannot see, the obvious. Dear friends, this is the power of human depravity. This is the power of Satan to blind people, so that they can't see the obvious. Second Corinthians four four says, "The god of this world blinds the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."

I would close by asking just a couple of questions. Where are you so driven by your own ideologies and your own agenda, that you just can't see the truth? God knows, and you will have to answer to him some day. Where are you blinded by lies, and legalism to a point where you simply hate the truth when you hear it. Dear friends, all I can say is come to Jesus. I would plead with you come to Jesus. He is your only hope of salvation. He said, "I am the way I am the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but through me." Come to Jesus and you will see the truth. You will love the truth, the truth will set you free. And one day you will bask in the glory of the truth forever was the one who saved you by His grace. Let's pray together.

Father, thank You for the eternal truths of your word that are so compelling to us, when we humble ourselves before them, and I pray that each one will honestly evaluate his or her heart to ask the hard questions. And I pray that by the regenerating power of your Spirit, you will give them eyes to see the light of the glory of Christ. For it's in his name that I pray. Amen.