I enjoyed that solo piece very much, brother.
Thank you very much.
I was inclined to sing a solo myself.
I said to a friend of mine, do
you think I ought to have my voice
cultivated?
Well he said, yes, but for pity's sake,
when you do, bury it deep.
So I don't think I'm going to sing
for you this morning, but we'll read the
scriptures together.
That's so nice to have this time of
fellowship.
We're getting a bit thinner in numbers day
by day, which is understandable for two reasons.
One, it's the end of the season, and
two, I'm here.
People come up to me and say, I'm
going tomorrow, and then somebody else says, and
I'm leaving in the morning.
Terribly encouraging.
Nice to see you.
Delighted to have your fellowship.
Don't any of you run away this week
now?
You know, my friend Geoffrey Bull of Tibet
was allowed during the time of his solitary
confinement occasionally to walk on the roof of
the fort in which he was imprisoned in
a cell down below ground.
And he said once he saw a Christian
from the rooftop of this fort, and he
was holding his baby in the distance it
was.
And he said, I didn't think he could
see me, but just in case I raised
my hand slightly and waved it, and to
my utter joy and delight he waved back.
And he says, the attention of the guard
had not been attracted during the waving ceremony.
And away from a brother, Geoffrey added, away
from a brother in Christ in such circumstances
as that was a veritable feast of fellowship.
Now you've had a tremendous feast of fellowship
here in the last three months.
But nothing to be compared what that must
have meant to him.
A brother in Christ giving a little wave
in the distance after being confined for so
long.
Well now I trust that the Lord will
bless us this morning again and draw us
to himself through the reading of his word.
Mark chapter three.
You will see from the sheet that you
had on the Lord's Day If you want
another copy, there's several outside in the foyer
of the chapel.
You will see that this morning's message is
the Jesus yesterday and Jesus today.
We've already briefly gone into chapter one and
chapter two.
We'll read just parts of chapter three this
morning.
And he entered again into the synagogue with
the Lord Jesus and there was a man
which had a withered hand and they watched
him, Jesus, whether he would heal him on
the Sabbath day, that they might accuse him.
He said unto the man which had the
withered hand, Stand forth, that is in the
midst.
And he said unto them, Is it lawful
to do good on the Sabbath days or
to do evil, to save life or to
kill?
That they held their peace.
When he looked round about on them with
anger, being grieved for the hardness of their
hearts, he said unto the man, Stretch forth
thine hand.
And he stretched it out and his hand
was restored whole as the other.
Verse nine, and he spake to his disciples
that a small ship should wait on him.
Verse ten, they pressed upon him for to
touch him as many as had plagued.
He healed many.
Verse eleven, the unclean spirits when they saw
him fell down before him and cried saying,
Thou art the Son of God.
And verse thirteen, he got up into a
mountain and calleth unto him whom he would.
And they came unto him and he ordained
twelve that they should be with him, that
he might send them forth to preach and
to have power, to heal sicknesses and to
cast out demons.
So may the Lord bless to us these
verses from his holy word.
Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and
forever.
Hebrews thirteen and verse eight.
And when I was looking into Mark's gospel
I was impressed with the fact that all
that the Lord Jesus did in those days
he's still doing today.
For the Lord Jesus ascended on high and
gave gifts unto men for the fulfilment of
his own purposes in the world.
And not only did he give them individual
gifts of varying kinds to be exercised in
the local church, in and from it, but
he gave them a very, very special gift
so that this might be perfected through them.
His own ministry through them.
And that was, of course, his own Holy
Spirit.
He said, it is good for you that
I am going away because if I don't
go away the Holy Spirit will not come
unto you.
Now you see, he said, I'm with you,
you see, and the Holy Spirit will be
with you.
But he'll be more than that to you.
He'll be in you.
I can't be in you in that sense,
but he is a spirit and he will
be in you.
Not only so, he said, he will be
with you all.
I'm here in one place at one time
bodily, although of course we believe in the
omniscience of Christ.
Some brethren these days don't believe in that
which is rather unfortunate.
The omnipresence of Christ as well as an
omniscience.
But he was only bodily in one place
at one time, but it is the Holy
Spirit, you see, he'll be with you all
wherever you are.
And not only so, but I'm only with
you temporally, but he will be with you
forever.
He will abide with you forever.
So he said, it's a good thing that
I'm going away, the Holy Spirit will come
and be with you and abide with you
forever.
Now Christ is on the throne and in
his present session, as the present work of
Christ is called in theological terms, in his
present session he is not only our advocate
with the Father and our intercessor with God,
but he is the church builder.
He said, I will build my church.
And this is his work today in the
world through his Holy Spirit.
And the Lord Jesus, it struck me as
I read this portion, is just the same
today as yesterday.
Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and
forever.
He is still blessing those who come to
him.
He is still touching with power those who
believe on him.
He is still saving by his grace those
who trust in him.
He is still calling some to serve him.
He is just the same.
God's immutability is a wonderful doctrine in the
Word.
Thou art the same and thy years shall
not fail.
The immutability of our Saviour, his unchangeableness is
a very great comfort to God's people, especially
these days.
When sinners to the Saviour came, the weary
ones found rest.
He pardoned and he healed them all.
Each one who came was blessed.
O bring to him your load of sin
and come without delay, for the one who
welcomes sinners then is just the same today.
Now there's such a lot in this portion,
I'm probably going to emphasise the first idea
and the others will just have to leave
those, I'm afraid, at this time.
But notice, first of all in the first
few verses, the Lord Jesus is restoring this
man with a withered hand and this man
becomes useful in society once more.
And the Lord Jesus still restores those who
obey him.
Then secondly, in verse nine, he wanted to
use a small ship.
He's just the same today.
He still wants to use small things and
small people to do a mighty job for
him.
God is looking and Christ is looking for
men who are small enough or who are
big enough to be small enough to be
used by him in a big way.
And there were with him, we read in
another part, other little ships.
Lord, we are those other little ships.
Then thirdly, in verse ten, they came and
touched him and they were healed of their
plagues and he still saves those who touch
him in faith.
Then verses eleven and twelve, notice that he
often confronted unclean spirits and they fell down
and confessed him to be the son of
God and he exorcised them.
And he still has power today over the
unseen world of evil spirits and people today
in many parts of the world, even now
in civilised countries like America and Britain.
Evil spirits are being exorcised by the power
of the living Christ and people are being
delivered.
And then fifthly, in verse thirteen, he called
unto him whom he would.
And the Lord is still calling to himself
a servant to serve him.
These were twelve typical men here, no two
were alike, quite a cross-section of mankind
so to speak, all very imperfect in certain
ways, yet with one exception.
Please note there was a place for each
in the fellowship and in the service of
Christ.
In his sovereignty he called them and in
their free will they responded to his call.
Please notice that Judas was not forced irresistibly
to be faithful to Christ and he was
unfaithful.
We must always take the sovereignty of Christ
along with the responsibility of man for all
the way through the scriptures the two are
inseparable.
So you notice that he called them to
him, that they might be with him.
This of course was their special training to
be with him.
And in all our training of young men
and women, young men particularly for the service
of Christ in Britain and in the Bahamas
and Bermuda wherever the Lord shall take us,
we seek to emphasise the spiritual side of
the training, not just only the academic theology
and the academic homiletical ministry, but the spiritual
side, the spiritual emphasis, applying the word to
the heart, preparing in a spiritual way for
a spiritual service.
And we are called to the highest service
and it is a spiritual preparation we need
and the important preparation is to be with
him.
So he still calls men to be with
him, that they might go out and serve
him.
Their appointment with Christ involves communion with him,
companionship with him, and a commission from him.
Now sixthly, in verse 14, he ordained twelve
of them that they should be with him
that he might send them forth to preach.
Now the Lord Jesus still ordains men to
preach.
Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today.
And the top priority in the ministry of
Christ is preaching.
Practically all the gifts of the Spirit given
to the individual members of the church are
preaching and teaching gifts.
And that verse in John's epistle, second epistle,
has been greatly misunderstood.
You have me that no man should teach
you.
It doesn't mean to say that we haven't
got to listen to preachers and teachers at
all or have Sunday school teachers.
The idea is there in the context that
the Holy Spirit is in you and you
have the omniscient, all-knowing Holy Spirit in
your heart.
And in times of crisis and when you
are brought before councils to give an answer
for your faith in Christ, you have no
me that any man should teach you.
The Holy Spirit himself shall reveal to you
what to say and declare to you the
will of God personally at that time.
I believe that is the context of that.
But it doesn't mean that we haven't got
to listen to the teaching of the Word
or go to Bible schools or come to
conferences and listen to God's servants preaching and
teaching the Word.
Because all the gifts are preaching and teaching
gifts given to the church for the up
-building of our faith.
Now I said that he still ordains men
to preach and of course it is the
Saviour who ordains men to preach.
Now in the New Testament you do get
the idea of the laying on of hands
in relation to ordination to preach.
But that is often misunderstood as well.
And by the laying on of the hands
of the presbytery, said the Apostle Paul writing
to the young men, the gift was given
thee.
Now the presbytery is just a company of
elders.
Evidently what the elders did, probably in a
public meeting, they laid their hands upon this
young man to confirm and outwardly testify that
they themselves believed that this young man had
been set apart by the Holy Ghost for
this special ministry that was given to him.
Now this isn't done very often in brethren
circles.
It is sometimes.
A friend of mine who was a great
missionary to Bolivia, one of my students, Bill
Cotton, he married an American girl so he
must be a very wise servant of the
Lord.
He came to me in the college chapel
one day and said, excuse me sir, but
will you, when you have the farewell meeting
for me in the chapel here, will you
please lay your hands upon me?
I said, well it's very stricture so I
must do it.
And apparently the elders did it in the
New Testament and I was an elder so
I did it.
And at that special request.
Well now the point is we are not
ordaining anybody.
The laying on of hands is an outward
expression of faith that we believe God has
set apart this man by the Holy Spirit
for this ministry.
Baptism is just an outward expression of what
has already happened in the life of the
individual who is being immersed.
And anointing with oil in James 5 is
an outward expression that we believe it is
the will of God that this brother or
sister should be healed.
So apart from the laying on of hands,
the Lord Jesus Christ still does ordain men
to preach.
He ordains them.
He sets them aside for the special ministry
to which he is calling them.
And one of the Lord's servants put it
this way, Christ the Son of God hath
sent me through the midnight lands mine the
mighty ordination of the pierced hand.
And of course when you know you are
ordained and called and guided by God you
can sing in the prison although the going
is tough like Paul and Silas did in
Acts chapter 16.
Assuredly gathering they said a little while before,
assuredly gathering the Lord had called us to
preach the gospel to them in Philippi in
Macedonia.
Were they assured now?
They were.
It was the ordination of the pierced hand.
It was the call of the Holy Spirit.
It was the manifest power of God in
the salvation of Lydia and the girl with
the evil spirit.
And now in the prison they sang praises
to God and the power of God was
manifested not only in the earthquake but in
the conversion of the jailer and his family.
Thank God he still ordains men to preach.
And seventhly, now don't think I'm finishing yet.
And seventhly and lastly he still gives them
power.
This is verse 15.
He ordained them that they might go and
preach and to have power.
He still gives power to those who go
forth at his command and in his will.
Now I want to emphasise preaching just for
a moment.
You I understand have very, very good preachers
here at Park of the Palm.
When I look through the list and see
myself at the bottom, I say thank God
they put me at the bottom of the
list.
And then I, with fear and trembling, I
come and preach after this great, long list
of outstanding preachers.
But I notice that some of these are
well known as preachers.
You see, there is a trend today, especially
in my country, to stand up and read
a lecture or read a sermon.
Now that's not preaching.
It's nice to have an ordered address.
But you can give an address on a
secular subject to all set out and so
on perfectly and beautifully.
But if you are preaching in the New
Testament sense of the word, delivering the sermon,
you not only have your theme and your
outline, but you have places where the Holy
Spirit can come in and say something through
you to the blessing of the people there.
And this is a very important New Testament
idea.
A New Testament prophet is a man who
doesn't foretell the future, but tells forth the
word of God as has been revealed to
him in the meeting, revealed to him what
the spiritual need is of the people there
present.
And he gets up under the direction and
guidance of the Holy Spirit and gives the
people what has been given to him during
the meeting.
And so the spiritual need of the people
is met and God's people are exhorted and
comforted.
And people who come in they say, God
is with you of a truth.
Why?
Because they say, you've been speaking right to
my heart.
Somebody must have told the preacher about me.
Well of course somebody did.
It was the Holy Spirit who told the
preacher to get up and give that message.
Now this is New Testament prophecy.
This is the preacher in the assembly proclaiming
the word of God as he is led
by the Holy Spirit at the time.
Now brethren used to major on this years
ago.
They don't anymore you know.
And it's a great pity.
And because there is not the liberty of
the Holy Spirit, because there is not the
guidance of the Holy Spirit in amnesty, he
ordained them to preach.
And the New Testament emphasis on preaching is
very great.
And it's a very spiritual order to preach
the word.
And something is done.
And the power of the Lord is manifested
to save and to bless.
And he ordained them to preach.
And he gave them power.
This is why we teach homiletics in our
Bible school work.
Because the exhortation is preach the word.
And three things are necessary if you are
going to preach the word.
You must know the word to preach it.
That's why we teach theology.
You must know how to preach the word
in the New Testament sense too.
Not your newfangled modern idea of lecture making.
You must learn how to preach.
That's where homiletics comes in.
That's the science, the art of sermon construction
and delivery.
But that must not be taken to an
unscriptural extreme.
Because if we are going to preach the
word effectively, we must not only know the
word to preach it, know how to preach
it, but we must know in our experience
the fullness of the Holy Spirit that we
might preach it in his power.
And that's why we must be very careful
to teach our young men to give an
opportunity for the Holy Spirit to come in
his service.
And say something to the people that should
meet their spiritual need.
When I'm going to in the last little
while, they never tell me when to finish,
you know.
And it's a great joy to me, a
great sorrow to the audience.
But for the last little while we are
together this morning, I want us to go
back to the beginning of the chapter.
Because we're not able to spend time.
I wasn't going to spend that time, it
just came out while I was reading it
just now.
On those other six points.
But the first one is the one I
want to emphasise this morning.
Because he still restores those who obey him.
As the man with the withered hand stood
forth, then brought out into the light his
withered hand and it and he were restored
and it and he were made whole by
the power of the Saviour that day.
So in verse one, the Lord Jesus entered
into the synagogue.
Lots of people have met the Lord in
the place of meeting, of worship.
You remember Joseph and Mary went
back after journeying without him when he was
a boy and found him in the temple,
in the midst.
Now that speaks to me of salvation.
If you ever find Christ as your Saviour,
you'll find him in the midst.
Not only in the midst of his people,
but in the midst on the cross.
There they crucified him on either side one
and Jesus in the midst.
And then you remember there was Thomas in
the upper room.
There they were gathered together and there they
were praying and Jesus came and stood in
the midst.
And this speaks to me of inspiration.
Their faith in Christ was inspired and their
love to him as well.
Especially Thomas who said, My Lord and my
God.
And in this case, this man met the
Lord in the synagogue and this speaks of
restoration.
So I'm very glad to see you here
this morning because you see the Lord is
here and although we meet one another and
fellowship like this is good.
As I am sharp and as I am
so, the countenance of a man his fellow.
Pleased to see one another.
But the great blessing of a meeting like
this is that we meet the Lord.
There am I in the midst of them.
Forfeit not the assembling of yourselves together therefore
because the Lord is there in the midst.
And so there was a man there who
had a withered hand but the Lord was
there and met him at the point of
his need.
So much the more therefore as you see
the day approaching forsake not the assembling of
yourselves together.
They found the Lord in the place of
worship.
Now look at this man for a moment.
These are the ideas this morning.
I'm going to put the last thing first.
The inevitable results of the man's affliction a
withered hand.
And then we'll suggest the indirect reasons for
his affliction.
And finally the invincible one who cured his
affliction and brought him restoration.
First of all then the inevitable results of
his affliction.
He was unable to serve his master.
He was unfit for real service.
He had unfortunate problems at home and there
was an unsatisfactory consecration.
I'll tell you what I mean as we
go on.
The first result of his affliction was this
that he was unable to serve his master.
Probably this man at Capernaum was a fisherman.
Now I've been in this synagogue.
Maybe you have too.
The ruins of it trodden upon the flagstones
that maybe the saviour trod upon.
They told us they were the same ones
but you never know.
It's good to walk in the steps of
the master but it's better still to have
a confrontation with him when you're in spiritual
need and needing respiration.
If this man in need that day was
a fisherman well I've noticed on the Sea
of Galilee that fishermen are forever using their
hands more than anything else all day long.
They have to throw out the nets and
then they have to draw them in and
they have to sort out the fish and
then they have to put them in boxes
and they do everything with their hands and
now that he's got a withered hand he's
unable to serve his master to whoever was
the owner of that boat in which he
served.
One of the results therefore of this affliction
was that his service was no use anymore.
I think we have to realise too that
we are called not only to be saved
but we are called to serve.
And if there is something in our lives
which is not of the Lord we shall
never be able to be any use to
our master until we find restoration from him.
Not only so but he was unfit for
real fellowship.
You can't shake hands if your right hand
is with it you know.
It's a very, very difficult thing to do.
I have a friend in Britain who is
the leading brother that's not a very helpful
phrase but he is anyway one of the
leading brothers in the London area in the
St Albans Assembly, O.C. Hartridge.
We call him O.C. for short.
O.C. is a great servant of the
Lord and he does a lot but he
can't shake hands with you.
And shaking hands in Britain of course is
a sign of real fellowship.
Phillips in his translation at the end of,
right at the end, the very end of
2nd Corinthians where it says, to greet all
the brethren with a holy kiss, he puts
it this way, shake hands with everybody all
around or something like that.
A heartily handshake for everybody all around.
Well that's very modern and up to date.
But my friend O.C. can't shake hands
because his right hand is all with it
like this.
He tries to drive his car you know
but he mostly does it with his left
hand.
Occasionally if he wants to put his left
hand out he's going round the corner, he
just hooks this withered hand over the steering
wheel and does this, does something with his
left hand.
But of course it is a hindrance you
see.
And when there is need of spiritual restoration
the hindrance is manifest to all and sundry.
And this man found that he couldn't shake
hands.
So similarly spiritual unfitness often ruins Christian fellowship.
I mean to say how can you be
in heart fellowship with another brother when there's
something wrong between you and the Lord and
he's in touch with God.
No doubt in this man's case there'd be
unfortunate problems at home.
There would be poverty.
He's not able to do his fishing or
whatever was his job.
Now he had no weekly or monthly income
and poverty comes to his home in that
little cottage by the lake of Galilee.
Maybe they have to give up the cottage
now and go and live in a cave.
There are many caves around that area.
And of course it's quite true in the
spiritual sense that spiritual poverty will come to
our homes when one parent has a withered
hand in the spiritual sense.
If there's something blocking and hindering our spiritual
lives even one of us has a parent
then the whole family will suffer.
Spiritual poverty came to his home unfortunately because
of his withered hand.
And I said also forcefully it'd be unsatisfactory
consecration.
I say that because in the Pentateuch when
it's talking about consecration it says, If any
man therefore is willing to consecrate his service
this day unto the Lord and the word
literally from the Hebrew the word there is
for consecrate fill his hand.
The idea is to fill your hands full
as an offering to the Lord in consecration.
And if a man has a withered hand
how can he fill it full for the
Lord?
And of course spiritual affliction spoils Christian consecration
every time.
However there's one thing I must say here
that as a young fellow I tried to
consecrate myself to the Lord and it just
wouldn't work.
And I found as I've been going around
the world that quite a lot of young
Christians very sincere, anxious to be consecrated to
the Lord.
And they try to consecrate their own holy
selves to Christ and it doesn't work.
Maybe you've found that out, I did many
a time.
But I realised in more recent years it's
very, very important to get out of the
captivity of Romans 7 into the conquering of
Romans 8 by the Spirit before you can
get to the consecration of Romans 12 verses
1 and 2.
It's no good taking Romans 12 out of
the scriptural order and the divine pattern of
things.
We must first of all know that we
have been crucified with Christ baptised into his
death.
In the divine reckoning we are one with
Christ in his death.
We must enter into this in experience reckoning
ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin and
alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Enjoy the blessings of liberation and victory by
the Spirit, not by selfly effort, fleshly effort.
By the Spirit as in Romans 8 before
we can get to the consecration of Romans
12.
Because the word there is I beseech you
brethren by the mercies of God that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable
unto God.
Now your body is not a living sacrifice
if you are not living by the light
of Christ and his Spirit in you.
You cannot consecrate something unholy to God.
It won't go.
Living, holy and acceptable if you are out
of the will of the Lord there can
never be actual consecration in your Christian experience.
You know those three chapters 9, 10 and
11 in Romans are in parenthesis.
They are historical and prophetical in relation to
the Jews.
So you go straight on from Romans 6,
7, 8 to chapter 12 and this is
the great confirmation of the whole teaching of
our union with Christ in his death and
his life.
Entering into it by an exercise of faith
day by day we can thereby consecrate our
bodies to Christ and it will go, it
will work and God's power will be manifest
through our ministry and our Christian life.
Well after the inevitable results of his affliction
we ought to look at the indirect reasons
for his affliction.
Why was this man going around with a
withered hand?
You say well I would imagine brother that
he was afflicted that way because his hand
had never grown since he was born.
Well maybe you are right.
Sometimes we do find this is true.
Certain parts of the body don't develop with
the rest of the body.
And I have a friend in another country
who has two baby feet.
He is a grown man and his feet
are about that big.
And they have never grown.
And when this happens of course it makes
the parents very sad.
And when it doesn't happen when the growth
is not manifest it makes the parents very
very sad indeed.
No growth of certain parts of the body
since birth.
Maybe that's why he had a withered hand.
He just hadn't grown.
Or perhaps grown so far and withered up.
You know lots of Christians are like that.
And that's why they are spiritually impotent today.
Because since their new birth through faith in
Christ they haven't developed.
They haven't read the Scriptures daily.
They haven't sought to understand the doctrines of
the Word.
And they haven't placed themselves at the Lord's
disposal in His holy service.
There's been no manifestation of spiritual growth.
And the Scripture plainly says so walk go
on step by step in newness of life
and they just haven't done that.
And that's why their right hand so to
speak as it were in the spiritual sense
is withered.
Now we are born again of the incorruptible
seed of the Word of God.
And that's wonderful to experience the new birth
through the Living Word.
But we are day by day to grow
in grace and in the knowledge of the
Lord Jesus Christ by living on the life
-giving Word which is life-sustaining as well.
Only that which is living is life-giving
and only that which is living is life
-sustaining.
And the Word of God is for us
to grow thereby.
And we are to feed on the Scriptures
of truth and on the Saviour Himself through
direct communion and personal day by day communion
with Him.
Or else we shan't develop and we shall
have a withered hand.
The Lord Jesus is the bread of life
sent down from Heaven as we listen to
His voice in the Word and commune with
Him.
We are feeding spiritually and developing spiritually and
growing thereby.
Will you say perhaps it was that His
right hand had never grown?
Perhaps you're right.
Somebody else says, well brother, I think perhaps
it was because He had a stoppage one
day in the flow of the life blood
through His arm and His right hand became
withered.
Well it would, wouldn't it?
Maybe your guess is right.
I think it was going on wonderfully until
one day for some reason there was a
stoppage in the flow of the life blood
from His heart through His arm to His
hand.
There was a stoppage and His right hand
became withered.
This is often the case in the spiritual
realm.
You know very well as I do that
occasions come when the life of Jesus by
His Spirit in us is blocked.
The Lord Jesus has given His Spirit to
indwell us, to flow through us in every
department of our lives, every avenue of our
being.
An explanation of the fullness of the Holy
Spirit is this, the absolute and direct control
of the Holy Spirit who is indwelling in
every, His control in every part of our
being.
His control.
You cannot have more of the Spirit, but
the Holy Spirit can have more of you
and more control.
Is He controlling your feet and your eyes
and your tongue and your hands?
Is He in you altogether and completely controlling?
That is the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
And when the Spirit of Christ is blocked
and there is a stoppage in the life
flow of the life of the Son of
God by His Spirit, then my right hand
in a spiritual sense will become withered.
The flesh you see is a terrible thing,
it will stop anything.
Self-confidence will stop the Lord Jesus working
because no flesh of glory in His presence.
Self-devotion is the sort of thing that
God will leave us to to show how
vain it is.
Self-importance is so obnoxious to the nostrils
of the Holy God.
And self-love and self-pity and self
-reliance will block the flow of the life
of Jesus through us.
For we as Christians have to depend upon
Him and Him alone because Christ is made
unto us all that we need, wisdom and
righteousness and sanctification and redemption and Christ is
our life.
Self-sufficiency, self-satisfaction, just plain selfishness or
self-will, anything to do with the old
nature will block the flow of the new
nature.
For you are partakers of the divine nature.
You are partakers of the Holy Ghost.
You are partakers of Christ.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ.
The Spirit of the Father and the Son
and He is in us.
And if there's anything stopping His life flowing
through us then our right hand is going
to be with us.
And we'll be no good to the Master.
When you say perhaps it wasn't that.
It wasn't that it hadn't grown since He
was born or there's stoppage in the life
of flow or the flow of the life
blood through His arm to His hand.
You say I know what it was.
I expect this man hadn't used his hand
for some reason.
Perhaps some form of penitence like the Kafirs
in India, these holy men.
They show how holy they are by raising
their right hand up in the air and
they keep there for weeks and months.
And when they eventually take it down they
find it's useless and sort of half withered.
You say He probably hadn't used His hand
so it gradually became useless and withered.
Of course God gives us hands to use
them.
God gives us feet to use.
God gives us a tongue to use.
We have been made for His pleasure, for
His glory we were and are creative.
But more than that as I say in
another connection, God has given to us gifts
to be used.
God has given to us His Holy Spirit
to be used if I can say that
reverently.
So that it can be not I but
Christ and His Spirit in me and through
me.
And if I'm not using what God has
given to me then the gift will become
useless as it were my right hand will
become withered.
I was speaking to the students in the
Bahamas only the other day about this.
Or was it in the assembly at Shirley
Heights I forget now.
But saying that God has given to everyone
of us a gift.
What is yours?
Have you found out?
What's your special gift?
There are sixteen gifts altogether.
Sixteen!
And there is no scripture to suggest that
any of them have been taken away.
I know some brethren say so but you
can't find it in the word.
I challenge you.
But I will tell you this that God
doesn't use all the gifts all the time.
Only when He will.
And there's government in the church.
Over this weekend in this church you've seen
the benefit of the gifts of government in
the church.
Helps in the church.
We have some marvellous helps in this church
I understand.
Look at that beautiful meal they've prepared for
you now.
Do it for the Lord's sake and for
the glory of His name in this assembly.
And of course there are all kinds of
gifts in the church.
Some say there are, some of them are
foundational gifts.
You can't say that.
In Ephesians where it talks about on the
foundation of the apostles and prophets they say,
there you are that's a foundational gift, apostles
and prophets.
It doesn't say they are foundational gifts.
Because in the same verse it says Jesus
Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone He was
not just foundational only and has been removed.
He's still in the glory building the church
through His Holy Spirit and through the gifts
that He Himself has given unto men.
Let us make sure we know what gift
God has given to us and develop that
by the enabling of His Spirit and use
that and ask God to give us opportunities
to exercise the gift that He has given
to us in His church.
Maybe His right hand wasn't used and that's
why it became withered.
You'll be no use to God if you
don't use the gift that He's given to
you.
Now don't try and use somebody else's gift
or be jealous of somebody else's particular ability.
I don't mean natural ability, I mean spiritual
gift.
You remember once God's servant, the prophet said
to his servant, he said, go and take
my rod and put it on the face
of the boy and see if you can
bring him back to life.
And nothing happened.
It's no good.
You can't do that, prophet of the Lord.
You must use your own gift yourself.
And when he came then the power of
God was manifested and new life was seen.
You can't use somebody else's gift or spiritual
talent.
You must use what God has given to
you.
Find out what it is and put it
at his disposal.
Well now fourthly, it may be that, well
once somebody said his hand had never grown
since birth, like some of us, since our
spiritual birth, not very much.
Somebody said there was stoppage in the flow
of the life blood.
Well perhaps that was true.
They just suggested that it wasn't used.
That's why it became withered.
Well I'm going to make a suggestion now
if you'll allow me.
We'll look upon those as yours.
This one is mine.
I'm going to suggest that one day while
he was working he was suddenly, suddenly overcome
by great pain and right down his right
side he was paralysed and he dropped his
tools.
Let's suggest that he was a stonemason working
up the hillside from the lake of Galilee
in a little shed there carving some beautiful
pieces of work very, very useful to his
master and then he's taken ill.
These pains overcome him.
He says oh my head, my head and
he's paralysed down his right hand his mallet
drops down his right side, his mallet drops
out of his right hand and he goes
home.
He's in bed for a while and he's
no more use to his master.
He can't hold the mallet.
He can't chisel anymore.
Looks as though his stonemasons days are over
and as poverty comes into his home.
Now of course suddenly sometimes in our experiences
we get sudden spiritual pain overcome by sin
and temptation but failure is not final.
The Lord is here to restore as he
restored this man this day.
Because you see he had a good policy
in spite of his illness as soon as
he was able to get around he would
go as usual to the house of God
where the word of God was read.
He went to the synagogue and there he
met the Lord.
Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together and
the greatest blessing of it all is meeting
the Lord.
There am I in the midst of them.
Now the Lord saw him in his need.
The Lord knows exactly what our need is
this morning.
That's why we want and pray for his
Holy Spirit to meet our need as we
sit before him.
I might prepare the wrong sermon for you
but if God's Holy Spirit is guiding then
the blessing is for you because God knows
our every heart.
The Lord Jesus was there.
He knew this man.
He knew his need and he knew what
he'd got tucked inside his gown there or
his cloak there.
It was a withered hand.
The master in his omniscience knew it all
just as he knows your deepest, deepest need.
He said to the man stand forth and
he obeyed and there were crickets around and
having silenced them in a moment or two
he said to the man with the withered
hand stretch forth thine hand, bring it out
now outside, out of that cloak bring it
out into the light stretch forth thine hand
and he did and the moment he obeyed
the word of the Lord he was made
whole.
His hand was just perfect as the other
one.
And he went down to see his wife
when they got outside because she was another
department of the synagogue.
He said to her, look at that my
dear.
And I'm sure she kissed his hand.
And the next day being the first day
of the week he went down to his
old boss to the workshop.
He said, how about that?
And his boss gripped him by the hand
gave him a hearty handshake and he got
hold of the mallet and he stuck the
mallet in his hand.
He says, you've got your job back.
You'll be useful to me again.
And into his home joy and prosperity came.
Blessing into the home once more because now
he was useful to his master.
What a blessing meeting the Lord and finding
restoration obeying his word bringing that ugly thing
out into the light.
If we confess our sin he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sin and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Then going to the master and saying see
thou hast restored me.
He'll say right, go work today in my
vineyard my son and we shall be useful
to the master.
We cannot afford to have any ugly sin
any compromising thing any bit of worldliness any
bit of jealousy or envy in our souls
as Christians.
It will make our right hand withered and
make us useless to our master.
As I close let me give you the
third point just as I have it here
without comment.
The invincible one who cured his affliction and
brought restoration.
See the Lord manifested in the story so
much.
The Lord was at the meeting and the
Lord met the man at the point of
his need.
The Lord gave the command and his command
must always be obeyed.
The Lord silenced the critics and the Lord
wanted him to bring the hindrance out into
the light which he was willing so to
do.
And the Lord restored him and his home
and his business too.
And every department of our life shall feel
the blessing when we are spiritually restored and
no longer have withered hands and we are
useful to our master.
See the results of the fullness and the
absolute control of the Holy Spirit in the
verses that follow in Galatians chapter 5.
The blessings of the Christ life by his
spirit in the believer in his ordinary life
manifest in natural relationships between those at home
and those in his business as well as
the blessing in his own inner life.
God blessed to us his word this morning
and show to us that these days of
meeting are days of opportunity because the real
meeting is with him who is here not
only to save us by his grace and
inspire us by his presence but restore us
in his wonderful love.
I have loved you saith the Lord and
I will restore him and heal him.
Let us pray.
May this tactical word from the third chapter
of Mark be a blessing to us all
this morning.
Our Father we pray as we meet thy
dear son in this meeting and as we
bring it out into the light and as
we confess our need and as we come
to him for restoration in any way we
may need just that.
Accept of our thanks then for our fellowship
together and especially our fellowship with the Saviour
himself.
Make him real in our personal experiences and
make us real and effective in his service
for his name's sake.
Amen.