Well, good morning again, and it's good to be with each of you here today. Also, looking at the camera, I'd like to welcome those that are watching via live stream. Trust your God will bless you even though you can't be here in person. So I want to ask all of you, have you had a good morning so far? Anything on your mind that would keep you from worshiping freely here today? When the men meet to pray on Sunday mornings prior to the service, that is one of the things we often pray for. Those who will be listening will be here and hearing God's word that you will glean much. I know oftentimes Sundays can be hard, especially getting children ready and out the door on time, or the days leading up to Sunday can sometimes be filled with turmoil and trials, making it difficult to really concentrate as you finally sit down to worship. My hope that even with the stresses that may be upon you, that each of us can fully focus on the scripture before us today. One thing that I would encourage you to do is to think about during the message at least one key takeaway. One thing that you can keep at the forefront of your mind as you enter this next week in the stress and busyness of life. So in light of today's message, I want to begin by having you think about your hands. In fact, I want you to take a moment and I want you to lift up your hand and I just want you to look at it. Okay, you can put it down. While most of us take our hands for granted, they are truly one of the most great marvels of God's creation. It may be evolutionists try to discredit creation, but they have hundreds of unanswered problems and questions when it comes to explaining the existence and complexity of the hand. For instance, did you know that there are 27 bones in the average hand, although many of you may have more than 27. That's not uncommon. Also, did you know that every single one of the bones is essential for the proper function? I know for those of you who have broken a bone in your hand or you've had that happen in the past, you can certainly attest that one little bone can really limit the use of your hand. Let me give you a few facts. If there were one less bone in each finger, you would lose at least 50% of its usefulness. There are three major nerves serving the hand, and the loss of any one of them would render the hand useless. Recently at work, the plumbing company that does most of our major repairs, one of the plumbers came into my office to ask about something, and he had his hand all bandaged up. And I said, what happened? Well, he was using one of those skill saws, sawing, and he had this hand behind it, and it kicked back, and it just cut right through his hand. After two surgeries and months of rehab, he can finally move his hand, but still not functional at all. More interesting facts, there are various tendons which connect each finger bone to the muscles that make the fingers move. And each finger bone has more than one muscle working for it in order to make it do what it does. Also, many of these muscles, I've got a minute of myself here, many of these muscles are such that the fingers and the bones work hand in hand, even up into the arm, not just in the hand itself. It's really pretty remarkable. Just consider your typical day. All of us use our hands thousands of times, whether it be bathing, getting dressed, making your bed, brushing your teeth, combing your hair, eating meals, writing school papers, operating your cell phone, typing on a computer, hammering a nail, cooking meals, doing the dishes, driving a car, playing a game, climbing a ladder, on and on and on. And how do we greet people on Sunday mornings? A handshake. Hands are one of the most important tools belonging to our human bodies, and they did not evolve by chance. They're all designed by our divine creator. I remember personally back in high school I was playing flag football and my opponent decided he wasn't going to get the flag so he tackled me and I landed on my wrist and broke my wrist. I could tell immediately because it was all bent and so after they set it and casted it, they casted my entire hand up over my elbow like this. It wasn't a pleasant experience as I couldn't really do anything with that hand at all. I say all this as a means of introduction so you can picture in your mind this account we're studying today of what was involved when Christ healed the man with the withered hand. It truly was a miraculous miracle. And yet there is much more to this story as it relates to the hard hearts of the legalistic Pharisees and their stringent interpretation of the rules pertaining to the Sabbath. And that's what I hope to cover this morning. So as you saw previously, my title this morning is Deformities of the Hand and Heart. So let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this passage. It's so applicable to our lives. Thank you for your holy word, Lord. As I said at the beginning, help each one of us to really glean something. that we can apply in our lives and take with us. I pray especially for those that are here that are lost, that you would open their hearts, that your word would have supreme power to do that. I just pray this in Jesus' name, amen. So first section is verses nine and 10. So follow along as I read. This is Matthew chapter 12, starting at verse nine. And when he was departed thence, he went into their synagogue. And behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, is it lawful to heal in the Sabbath days that they might accuse him? I call this first section the trap that was set. If you remember last week, Kent talked on these first eight verses where we learned that the Pharisees had condemned the disciples for picking and eating grain on the Sabbath, which was considered strictly forbidden by them. Why? Because doing so was labeled as work on a day when there was supposed to be rest from any forms of labor. However, Christ confronted the accusations of the Pharisees very wisely by turning their attention to the real issue at hand, and that was Christ himself, for he was bringing forth a new kingdom contrary to the Pharisees' teaching. When Christ said in verse 8, He was basically saying that for the reason for freedom that he had to do, or he could do, as well as the freedom for those who followed him, that was found in who he himself was and the mercy he was demonstrating. Now where the grain field story we covered last week has the Pharisees merely confronting Christ with a criticism, here in today's account, we see the Pharisees now trying to destroy him. So as we begin in verse nine, we note that Christ had now departed from where he had been and had moved to the synagogue. And if you think about it, surely the Pharisees would have now thought to themselves, we're in our territory, my territory. were sure to win. And as Christ entered the synagogue, we also learn in verse 10 that there was in attendance that day a man with a withered or deformed hand who suddenly found himself the center of attention. For the Pharisees, it appeared to be a perfect situation to set a trap for Christ, to catch him red-handed in breaking the Sabbath rules. So with that in mind, they approached Jesus with a question. Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? Again, please don't miss the last portion of verse 10 as to why the question was even asked, that they might accuse him. Was this a sincere question? Not at all. They only ask in order to trap him, hoping His response would be contrary to their rules for the Sabbath. All they needed was for Christ to respond in the affirmative by saying yes, and he would be guilty according to their senseless understanding of the law. Just think about the question. If Christ would have simply said yes, then he would have positioned himself to be against rabbinical law in the eyes of the people. But if he said no, then he would have appeared unmerciful and uncaring. All this simply underscores the deep-seated cruelty of the Pharisees with respect to this poor crippled man. Their concern was not for him, nor were they interested at all in showing mercy. Their only pursuit was how they could use this needy man's disability to trap Christ and gain the advantage over him. But did Christ step into the trap? It reminded me of A mousetrap. I don't know if you've ever set a trap for a mouse. Set one in the garage thinking I'm going to get that little guy in the morning. I like how one commentator announced. He said, Christ didn't step into the trap. No. he sprung the trap. It was totally empty. For he responded to their yes or no question with a question of his own, which we'll cover in the next section. However, in this section, there's an application point I want you to consider. The trap the Pharisees set for Christ reminded me of how Satan loves to set traps for all of us to venture into. Some of the traps are small, like this one. Some of them are larger, like this one. I didn't bring, but I have some huge traps at home to trap certain types of animals. The question becomes, will we be lured in and enticed into the trap? Ephesians 6, 10 and 11 says, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor, God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Or James 4, 7, Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. One commentator said this about traps, there's always the matter of bait. The prophet Amos asked the question, does a bird fall into a trap on the ground when there is no bait in it? Of course not. The bait is critical to the success of the trap. And for each of us, there are different kinds of bait that most teasingly tempt us. The enticement of pride. or carnality, or envy, appetite, anger, or slothfulness, or lack of forgiveness, or lack of gratitude. The list goes on and on. This alluring bait is so tempting, yet bait is always a lie. A false advertisement, a foolish enticement that promises pleasure but delivers only disaster. Let me share with you a few traps that Satan loves to bait for us. The trap of circumstances. As the principle lies, Satan is very sneaky and he loves to take the focus off of what God has already promised and declared to us in his word, instead put the focus on our current circumstances. When hardships or trials come and we are so prone to fall into the trap of complaining or being discouraged or asking, well, why me, Lord? Or even questioning our own salvation. We need to recognize God as sovereign, and we can be certain that his promises are all true. The tomb is still empty. God is still on the throne. His words stand secure, and his promises never fail. As Hebrews 10.23 says, we need to hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised. Secondly, the trap of comparison. We live in a world of comparison, and Satan likes to quietly attempt to get us to establish our identity on what we can do, we can do, and how we measure up to others. Comparison causes us to question our intellect, our looks, looks. It's crazy, but that's exactly right. Our merit and our worth, all in light of those around us. And this particular trap often leads to other traps, like the trap of discontentment, or the trap of covetousness, or the trap of competition. 2 Corinthians 10 warns us, for we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves. But they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. Third trap, the trap of carnality. What is carnality? It's basically preoccupation with or indulgence in the flesh or the body and its passions and appetites. One Bible dictionary said it's the quality or state of being merely temporal or woolly, lack of spiritual vitality or maturity. Have you been trapped by carnality? Ask yourself, what consumes my time? Time is so important. Are you pursuing the things of the Lord or the pleasures of the world? 2 Timothy 3, this know also that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, and then that sentence, Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. How do you spend your time? Fourthly, the trap of companionship. Especially you young people. You've heard that phrase all your life, one bad apple spoils a bunch. That is so true when it comes to companionship. Satan loves to pair you with friendships that can absolutely be detrimental to your relationship and walk with Christ. So choose your friends wisely, as Proverbs 13, 20 says, he that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. So what happens if you fall into the trap? You took the bait, you were lured in. The trap slams shut, leaving you ashamed, humbled, defeated. At that very moment, you realize what you've done, and there's another trap that could come into play that Satan loves to do. That's the trap of condemnation. This is where Satan uses our personal failures and shortcomings to condemn us. He urges us to base our identity on what we have or have not accomplished, rather than what God says about us. He says, look at all you've messed up. Someone with sinful weaknesses like you can never be a Christian. Satan starts with what we did and tears down who we are. Yet the opposite, the Holy Spirit starts with who we are in Christ and forgives what we've done. We must remember that it is that marvelous, loving mercy of Christ and his death on the cross that can deliver us from our sin. It is the force of our Savior's grace, beautiful, limitless, victorious. For at the first shout or even whisper of one who is truly repentant, God is immediately at hand to rescue and forgive. Psalms 25, 15 describes how God plucks your feet out of the net. Psalm 31, 4 provides a similar word picture, but God pulling us out of the net which our enemies have secretly laid. Psalm 91.3 tells us that God delivers us from the snare of the trapper. And one of my favorites is Psalm 124.7. Our soul has escaped as a bird out of the snare of the trapper. The snare is broken and we have escaped. Whatever trap we have tripped, whatever net we have been entangled with, whatever deep pit we have needlessly fallen into, we always have a way of deliverance of the abundant mercy of Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works. My encouragement today is be wise, be careful, Be careful in your walk to avoid the traps of Satan at all cost. That's why Ephesians 15 says, we are to walk circumspectly, that means carefully, avoiding the traps, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Next section, verses 11 and 12. And he said unto them, what man shall there be among you that shall have one sheep? And if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore, it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days. I call this second section the truth that was taught. As mentioned earlier, often when Christ was asked a question, he responded by asking a question himself that would make the person asking the question look into the mirror and measure themselves against the higher principle of the matter. And that is exactly what he did in verse 11. What man among you that has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath day will not lay hold on it and lift it out? I thought of this and now I just think if your neighbor was building a big basement and he just got it all poured and then your silly dog fell down in the basement. So let me ask you, would you let him stay there all night? Of course not. He'd bark all night and wake you up and the neighbors. He wouldn't do that. You would get the dog out even if it was on Sunday. So to leave this poor sheep overnight in the pit would be just plain cruel and unmerciful. Thus the owner of the sheep would not even think twice about getting it out, even if it was on the Sabbath. So the question by Christ to the Pharisees, who were trying to trap Christ himself, would have surely been humbled by this truth, for they would have done the same thing if one of their sheep was in the pit. But then Christ asked the more probing second question in verse 12, how much more then is a man better than a sheep? Here he is flushing out the hypocrisy among the Pharisees by asking, surely you would be even more prone to rescue or heal this man with a withered hand on the Sabbath, right? By asking both of these questions, Christ taught the truth here in a very understandable and convicting way by granting or pointing to the importance of mercy over holding to legalism. The parallel account in Mark for this I want to read it, we find it in chapter three, and he saith unto them, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days or to do evil, to save life or kill? But they held their peace. In other words, they kept silent. They kept silent because if they answered the question with a logical response, surely it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath, then they couldn't accuse Christ. But if they answered in the negative, no, it is not lawful to do good on the Sabbath, then they would be implying that evil is of greater priority than good. So instead of trapping Christ, Christ trapped the Pharisees. Mark goes on to say in verse 5 that Christ looked on them with anger. He was grieved, grieved for the hardness of hearts. What was missing for the Pharisees? Mercy, for that was the truth being taught here. Here's another application point to consider. As I thought about this section and the aspect of mercy in my own life as shown to others around me, it made me realize how often I fall short myself, whether it be in my marriage, or my family, or my friends, or my coworkers. When I look at the Pharisees, it's easy to say, yes, these guys, they're big hypocrites. Where is their mercy? But honestly, if I ask myself, Brad, don't you also fail when it comes to showing mercy in your own life? I recently read of some practical ways to show mercy, reflecting on Christ and how he demonstrated mercy. And I wanna share these with you. Practical ways to show mercy. You would expect this one, extending forgiveness. Harboring grudges and bitterness leads nowhere, but being kind and tenderhearted, forgiving as Christ forgave, leads to unity and restoration. Ephesians 4.32, and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. responding gently in conflict. A soft answer always diffuses tension. Patience, calm words, and an understanding heart are wonderful means of showing mercy. Proverbs 15, one, a soft answer turns away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger. Three, practicing generosity. Practicing generosity, which means there's love. Galatians 6.2 exhorts us to carry one another's burdens, which means mercy involves action. a giving of ourselves, whether it be at time, resources, or even just a listening ear. We are to bear you one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ by loving one another. Number four, offering encouragement and comfort Second Corinthians 1, 3 and 4 speaks of God being the father of compassion, who comforts us so we can comfort others. Maybe sending a kind note, making a phone call, giving an encouraging word. That verse says, blessed be God, even the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforted us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them, which are in any tribulation, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted by God. This week I had two opportunities to show mercy. I'm in studying this. One, I did it. The other, I didn't. My cousin died a couple weeks ago, and I'm pretty close to my aunt. I didn't do anything. There wasn't a funeral. My sister's very involved in my aunt's life. She writes a note this week, a text, and says, My aunt, my cousin's mother, has been really surprised that I haven't written a note to her and the loss of her daughter. Oh, I could say, I've just been so busy. But that excuse, that's just really a lack of mercy on my part. I had that in my mind, but I never followed through. So the question I want to leave you with is, how are you showing mercy to others? Are you heeding the prompting? Or are you ignoring it? Whether it be your spouse, your children, your parents, your in-laws, your co-workers, or your own church family. Anything God has prompted you, hopefully you didn't say like me, I'm just too busy. Well, our last section is the last two verses, so let me read those, 13 and 14. Then saith he to the man, stretch forth thine hand, and he stretched it forth, and it was restored whole, like as the other. Then the Pharisees went out and held a council against him, how they might destroy him. I call this the transformation that was missed. So what did Christ do in verse 13? He said to the man, stretch forth thy hand. And as he stretched it forth, it was restored in whole, just like the other hand. The healing was immediate, it was complete, it was instantaneous. The hand was fully functional, as if it had never been weathered. And the response from the Pharisees was that, wow, that's wonderful, or praise God, or did you see what happened just before our eyes? No, that's probably what the man with a withered hand was saying. Wow, praise God, can you believe what happened? No, not the Pharisees. Their response was found in our last verse, verse 14. They went out, held a council as to how they might destroy him. Christ had just performed a great miracle, but they were offended that he broke the man-made rules for keeping the Sabbath. He had humiliated them. And not only had they missed the transformation and healing the deformity in this man's hand, but they had also missed the deformity lying in their own hearts. Romans 2, three through five says, And thinkest thou, O man, that judgest them which do these things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? No, but after thy hardness and impotent heart, treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. As we close this morning, I want to leave you with one more application as an analogy. In our account today, Christ immediately healed the man with a withered hand as he stretched it out to Christ. Would you expect anything less from our Savior? No. Sure it is when it comes to healing of the sinner when he or she stretches out and opens their heart in repentance and belief in the Lord. If a sinner reaches out their hand and their heart, God answers. Would you expect anything less from our Savior? Instantly, a new birth happens and a new creature is generated in Christ. I don't know where each of you stand here this morning, but you may be that one person with a deformed heart that is lost and spiritually dead. If you do nothing, you will die as a spiritual cripple and spend eternity in the lake of fire under God's judgment. But if you instead open up your heart and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you can be healed immediately, instantly. Don't be like the Pharisees and totally miss the transformation that you can have in Christ and only Christ. The consequences of rejecting him are disastrous. So let's pray. Father, thank you for this passage. Thank you for the comparison of Christ and the Pharisees. Lord, thank you for establishing this new kingdom for us. And thank you especially, Lord, for your mercy extended to us. Thank you for covering our sins on the cross. Thank you for forgiving us when we fail. Thank you for walking with us, Lord. We thank you for your word and the promises it holds. Just pray that you would work in each one here today. And I pray especially for those that are lost, who have missed the transformation, who've been blinded by the real truth. I pray, Lord, their heart would be stirred and they would desire to follow you. Lord, we thank you for little Emily and her desire to be baptized today, for following you. It's such a great example that she saw the truth. She stretched out her hand, she stretched out her heart, and you answered. So bless her, we pray, in Christ's name, amen.