Take your Bible and turn again to the sixth chapter of Luke. The depraved mind and the darkened heart that Paul talks about in Romans 1 are very disturbing. The capacity of what they have to conclude And then to act upon those conclusions is exceedingly disturbing. History and literature both show us how twisted and cruel such a mind and such a heart can be, and the way that they can Identify evil as good and good as evil and turn those things and twist those things. Shows up again and again. In literature, it shows up in Pilgrim's Progress. It shows up as Christian is looking to go through the narrow gate and he's being urged, just jump the fence. It's easier to go that way. It's less painful to go that way. Surely, this is good. History, it shows up as Nazis calling genocide purification. Communists calling mass murder reform and progress. Darkened hearts call good evil and evil good. They're blind to what truly beautiful and truly good, truly right. Braved minds, darkened hearts. They're here in the text this morning in Luke 6. And the very opposite is that in the text this morning in Luke chapter 6. You have one side and you have the other side presented before you. Read with me there in Luke chapter 6 verse 6. On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching. And there was a man there whose right hand was withered. The scribes and the Pharisees were watching him closely to see if he healed on the Sabbath so that they might find reason to accuse him. But he knew what they were thinking. And he said to the man with the withered hand, get up and come forward. And he got up and came forward. Jesus said to them, I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to destroy it? After looking around at them all, he said to him, stretch out your hand. And he did so, and his hand was restored. But they themselves were filled with rage and discussed together what they might do to Jesus. Luke is giving us a display of the authority of Jesus over the Sabbath. Last week, we heard him proclaim his authority over the Sabbath. This week, you're seeing it. This is a display that darkened hearts and depraved minds are unable to comprehend, determining what is evil is good and what is good is evil. But this is a display that believers look to and are able to behold the glory of Christ, the glory of Christ here in His authority, an authority that's expressing itself not in cruelty. or uncompassion, but in mercy. Mercy that has as its essence what you find in the very nature of God. Mercy here that's taking precedence over tradition and ceremony and ritual that refused to relieve suffering. You find here a compassion and mercy that is beautiful to Christ's people because they're able to see it. A compassion and mercy that hopefully is manifested in us as believers who are being conformed to His image. A compassion and mercy that hopefully all of us are proclaiming to a world of darkened hearts and depraved minds. This is a text that's teaching us Jesus has authority over the Sabbath. And that has a consequence to us. It ought to result in us rejoicing. It ought to result in us being able to see what's good and true and beautiful. It ought to result in us declaring to those darkened hearts and depraved minds. what is good and what is right. We can see as believers what is evil and determine that it is evil and what is good and determine that it is good. And we find this evil here in the first scene, verses 6 through 7. We'll call this the malice of the merciless, the malice of the merciless. A bit of context. Going back to verses 1 through 5, we need to be thinking about what took place in verses 1 through 5 because it relates to what's taking place here in verse 6. In verses 1 through 5, you'll remember the Pharisees have just confronted Jesus and His disciples because they were plucking heads of grain, they were rubbing them together in their hands, and they were eating those heads of grain. That brought to the forefront what the Sabbath had become. to the Jewish people in this day. It had become a day in which no work dominated. No work restricted everything. It led to all of these prohibitions that had morphed this day that was meant to be a day of rest into a day of rule-keeping, a day in which these self-appointed guardians of the Sabbath, the Pharisees here, had placed such a great importance on everything that people might do that they robbed people of resting in all that God had done and God had accomplished. In verses 3 through 5 there of chapter 6, you'll remember Jesus responded in two ways. He first responds by reminding them of what David did in 1 Samuel 21, where the needs of David and his men who were starving and hungry took precedence over the ceremonial law on the Sabbath. That provided a corrective to the Pharisees, teaching them from Scripture that God's design is for compassion and for mercy to supersede His desire for ritual and for ceremony. And it demonstrated the very thing that Jesus is going to teach here in this account, that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. Second, his response comes there in the last verse where he announces to the Pharisees who it is that actually possesses authority over the Sabbath. Is it those who have determined that there are all these rules to be put in place and to make the Sabbath so restrictive? Who Jesus tells us has authority is found there in verse 5. The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. He is announcing there in that moment to the Sabbath police that He possesses all power and privilege, all the rights of this divine institution that's rooted in Genesis 2 and Exodus 20, meaning that it is going to be Jesus who determines what is appropriate for the Sabbath. Jesus is the one who will interpret the Sabbath, and His interpretation and understanding of the Sabbath will supersede theirs, will supersede their restrictions. So his proclamation of authority that he's announcing there in those first five verses must have surely provoked what was already a strained relationship with these religious leaders because their type of Sabbath observance, as you'll remember, had become part of the national identity of the people. And it proclaimed, in essence then, that these religious leaders, these Pharisees, were the ones who had authority over the Sabbath. And in Jesus' reply, He is dismantling that completely, meaning then that He is showing us His glory here on this Sabbath. Why is verse 1 through 5 important as you approach verse 6? Well, because of how verse 6 begins. Look at it. On another Sabbath. You've gone from Sabbath to Sabbath. You've gone from a grain field on the Sabbath to a synagogue on the Sabbath. You've gone from Jesus on a Sabbath proclaiming His authority as Lord of the Sabbath to another Sabbath where He's going to demonstrate His authority for all of us to see. Look at verse 6. On another Sabbath, what is He doing now? He entered the synagogue and was teaching, and there was a man whose right hand was withered. So He's taken His position here in the synagogue, on the Sabbath, in this place of being a teacher, this place of authority, where all the eyes are looking there upon Him as He taught. And Luke is telling you he's not the only one there. He presents to you another man who's in the synagogue this day, a man who he says whose right hand was withered, exeros. It's an adjective describing his right hand. It means that this man's vital right hand is essentially useless. It conveys the sense that it's been dried up. So you can even be thinking it's paralyzed. He can't move it. He can't do anything with it. And because it is that way, it's been kind of pulled together. It has no strength in it. The muscles in his hand have deteriorated. It may have been because of disease. It may have been because he was injured for some reason. Whatever it is, this essential part of his body that's useful for day-to-day life has become useless. And you think about this man who's sitting there in the synagogue on this Sabbath. This would have been A cause of great suffering to him, particularly because of the world in which he lived, being the ancient world. That there would have been suffering that he's experiencing even beyond physical suffering that we think about. This would have impacted his work. He couldn't go work like everyone else. He couldn't worship. He couldn't care for himself. You think about this man in this condition and you wonder, could he dress himself like you dressed yourself this morning? Could he keep himself clean? Could he maintain his own hygiene? And then what sort of stigma comes with this? You think about the blind guy in John 9, and everyone amongst Jesus' disciples wondering, why is he blind? Why did this happen to him? What sort of stigma came with this man who couldn't use his hand? Did the people look at him and go, I wonder how he sins? Did he then even attempt to sort of hide his right hand so others couldn't see it? However much suffering this condition brought into his life, we need to note this, it didn't seem to be life-threatening. This doesn't mean that his life is on the line this moment. And you need to have that settled in your mind because that's what creates tension in this account. This is critical because it reveals where the tension exists and what's going to take place in this whole story. Why? Because the traditional rules prohibiting what a Jewish person could do on a Sabbath said this, whenever there is doubt whether a life is in danger, this overrides the Sabbath. Wherever there is doubt, whether life is in danger, this would override the Sabbath. Which means that if it's not clear whether or not someone's life is in danger in a situation that they're enduring, you didn't help that person because why? Again, that might be construed as work. Then you would be violating the Sabbath. You couldn't, as the Pharisees had even written, straighten a deformed body or set a broken limb on the Sabbath. Why? Because if you break your arm, your life is not at risk. And if you're going to put forth the effort to set the broken limb, then that would constitute work. It can wait a day. That would be a violation of the Sabbath. This is why then you have the scribes and the Pharisees doing what they're doing here in verse 7. Look at verse 7. The scribes and the Pharisees were watching him closely to see what? Is he going to heal this guy? to see if he healed on the Sabbath so they might find reason to accuse him." Those words there, watching him closely, that is one word in Greek and it's at the very front of the sentence. It means and carries the sense of this, to watch with malicious intent, to watch with the desire to do evil, to watch for the opportunity. Luke is describing for you a sinister act on their part. The Pharisees, in this sense as we can look at it, are working really hard on this Sabbath because they want to catch Jesus. They are waiting. They are watching for Jesus to act. To do what? To see if He healed on the Sabbath. If He heals someone on the Sabbath and their life doesn't depend on this act, then this is a clear Sabbath violation according to their tradition. What's their reason for doing this? Well, it's there in the text. What's their motive? So that they might find reason to accuse Him. Accuse is a legal, technical term here. This is why then they're scrutinizing everything that Jesus is doing on this Sabbath, because their singular mission is to bring charges against this man who has already claimed there in verse 5 to be Lord of the Sabbath. They have then turned the Sabbath into a trap in which they are seeking to catch the righteous man. Their depraved minds, their darkened hearts cannot even see what they're doing and comprehend their actions as wicked. The Old Testament identifies all this as wicked. Psalm 37 verse 32, the wicked spies upon the righteous and seeks to kill him. They are like those that David is talking about in Psalm 38 verse 12, who lay snares, who seek to injure, who threaten destruction, who devise treachery all day long. They are on the hunt on this Sabbath, and the person they are hunting is Jesus, and they're looking to finally capture Him. Would you just consider all that you see here in those first couple of verses? You who can see evil is evil and good for good." They are in the synagogue on the Sabbath in the presence of the Son of God who is teaching them here from the Word of God. They are also here in the presence of this man whose condition means that he is suffering. And their wicked intent that's coming from their hearts can only view all of this as an opportunity to bring charges against Jesus. They see a suffering man here as nothing more than than bait for a trap in which they hope to lay to catch and condemn Jesus. They have kept all of their Sabbath rules. They have kept all of their ceremony, all of their tradition. They would be convinced that they have maintained their righteousness. And yet on this day, their hearts are far from God. Why would they not usher that suffering man in the synagogue into the presence of the Lord of the Sabbath and beg Jesus in that moment, heal him? Please heal him. Please alleviate all of his suffering. Please release him from this condition that he's experiencing. Friend, the reason they don't do that is because the intent of the thoughts of their heart are only evil continually, and it has left them without compassion and mercy. Friend, the godless age in which we live may argue with you and try at length to convince you that their ideologies and their actions are founded upon compassion. They may even be convinced themselves that this is true, that what they are telling you is built upon compassion, that they are the very pinnacle of compassion and mercy. But evil is never compassionate. Wickedness is never compassionate. Evil will refuse to do what is good, and at the same time, call what leaves people suffering and increasing suffering good. The Pharisees thought here it would be good to keep suffering people from getting help on the Sabbath because the good of not working outweighed the good of helping the needy. They thought it was good to keep this man from finally being released of his condition because it was good to guard the Sabbath. The Pharisees thought it would be good to lay a trap and catch Jesus, the holy and righteous Son of God, because He was causing all sorts of problems for them. In doing all of this, what they were actually doing was exposing the depravity of their own hearts, hearts that hated good and loved evil. as we considered Wednesday night, Micah 3 verse 2. I think all of us, if you spend time in Scripture, look at the Pharisees and you go, ah, that's the legalist right there. And while that is true, friend, their legalism is actually an expression of the condition of their heart. These are those without love, without compassion, without mercy. This is cruel what they're doing. And Jesus is about to expose all of this in the synagogue. It is good for us to see the ugliness of evil and to recognize it for what it is, to expose evil. to pause here and to consider that the intents of the wicked heart are cruel and merciless, that they desire evil against what is good and right, whether they'll confess that or whether they'll realize that or not. That however it's packaged, they're not concerned about the needs of people, they're not concerned about truth, they're not concerned about righteousness, but they're only concerned about their unholy desires. This is the malice of the merciless. And this takes place in our world. These that promote something else and are pointing you away from the narrow gate and pointing you away from Jesus, in a sense, they are unconcerned about your spiritual condition. They are unconcerned that you are weighed down with sin and that you can't seem to do anything about it. They are unconcerned about true righteousness. They're unconcerned about eternity. They're unconcerned about God. Don't look at them and don't hear their arguments when they say that they are expressing something that is wrapped in compassion as actually being compassionate and caring and merciful for people. Evil is evil. Evil shows no compassion. Number two, we've seen evil is evil, now behold good. Number two, see the mercy of the mighty in verses 8 through 10. The mercy of the mighty. Look at verse 8, but he knew what they were thinking. None of this is a surprise to Jesus. This is like what you encountered all the way back there in Luke chapter 5 verse 22, where Jesus had just forgiven the sins of the paralytic that had been brought to Him. And we're told that the scribes and the Pharisees in verse 21 of chapter 5 were reasoning, who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone? And remember verse 22, Jesus asked why they were reasoning that in their hearts. How can Jesus know that? How can He know what they're reasoning in their hearts in Luke 5, and how can He know what they're thinking in Luke 6, verse 8? The answer is found in Scripture. 1 Chronicles 28, verse 9, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every intent of the thoughts. Psalm 44, verse 21, He knows the secrets of the heart. Psalm 139 verse 2 and verse 4, you understand my thoughts from afar even before there is a word on my tongue. Behold, O Lord, you know it all. You may think that you have a pretty good idea of what's going on in the minds of other people, maybe even your children, but there is only one who perfectly knows the secrets of the heart, the Lord God. Scripture says that over and over and over again. It's even there when we read that verse a moment ago that described his knowledge as without end, an infinite knowledge. So here, the wicked, they're not hiding anything from him. Do you see what Luke is giving you? He's giving you a golden nugget here. Again, he's giving you another indication of who this is in the synagogue this day who is teaching us. Jesus is truly God. He is God of God. And Jesus here not only knows that the wicked, what they're reasoning, but he also knows, would you know here, when the suffering are present, when the suffering and the needy are there before him. None of this escapes his notice. Verse 8, and he said to the man with the withered hand, he sees him. He said to the man with the withered hand, get up, come forward, and he got up and he came to him. The Lord of the Sabbath is speaking on the Sabbath. He sees this guy. He's commanding the suffering man in the synagogue, come unto me. He has him here come to the very front. Jesus is not going to try to hide what's going to take place here from the Pharisees. He wants them to see this. He wants everyone to see this. They may be thinking that they're hiding the evil intents of their heart from Jesus, Jesus is calling this guy, come here to the very front. He has no fear of these wicked men. He commands the man here to come. The man responds here to Jesus' call. Would you keep in mind this man, he doesn't have infinite knowledge. This man doesn't know what's going on here. He doesn't know what the Pharisees are thinking. He doesn't know what Jesus is about to do. He doesn't know the lesson that's about to be taught. He is simply acting in faith because the teacher has called him forward and he comes. The religious leaders could learn a lesson from this man. Sinners could learn a lesson from this man. This is the moment then where this teacher will teach everyone a critical lesson that he first frames in the form of a question here in verse 9. Jesus said to them, I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to destroy it? What's lawful on the Sabbath? What's right on the Sabbath? Those questions that he is asking there are a direct response to the unspoken motives from the hearts and minds of the Pharisees. They are a challenge to them. They are a direct assault on their wicked intent. They are brilliantly framed here by Jesus to expose their hearts and get to the heart of the matter. Is it lawful? You realize that's the second time that question has been asked in Luke 6. Is it lawful? What's the first time? Last week, look at verse 2 regarding the Sabbath. Who's asking the question? They're the questions being asked from the Pharisees to Jesus and his disciples. Hey, why do you do what is not lawful on the Sabbath? Why do you go out into that field? Why do you pick the grain? Why do you rub it together in your hands? Why are you eating it? Because you didn't prepare for the Sabbath accordingly. Why are you walking in this field on what might be constituted as a journey? Now Jesus lays hold of that question and He directs it towards the Pharisees and everyone that's present there. What conforms more to the Sabbath, doing good or doing harm? What reflects more of what's right on the Sabbath, to destroy a life or to save a life? Jesus is taking the thoughts of His opponents here and He's characterizing them in those terms of bringing harm, of destroying life. And He's characterizing His authoritative teaching on the Sabbath as that which is good, that which saves lives. You might be sitting there going, what gives Jesus such a right to say such a thing? Verse 5, he's the Lord of the Sabbath. He has the power, he has the authority over the Sabbath. Here's the lesson. It is right to do good on the Sabbath. It is lawful to save a life. There ought to be no tradition, no ritual, no ceremony made by man, no prohibition made by man that would prevent you from doing what's good, what's right, what helps people, what alleviates suffering. There ought to be nothing put into place that would even cause you to question whether that's right to do. You go, well, how can Jesus be so sure and clear about this? Well, go back to the Old Testament. Old Testament Scriptures were filled with this truth that we've returned to again and again as it has to do with Exodus 34 6, that God is compassionate and God is gracious and His people were to reflect that compassion and that grace and that mercy. Proverbs 11 verse 17, the merciful man does himself good but the cruel man does himself harm. Proverbs 14 verse 21, he who despises his neighbor's sins but happy is he who is gracious to the poor. Zechariah 7 verses 8 through 10, then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah saying this, Thus has the Lord of hosts said, dispense true justice and practice, what? Kindness and compassion, each to his brother, and do not oppress the widow or the orphan or the stranger or the poor, and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another. This is all a reflection coming from the God who reveals Himself to be compassionate and gracious in Exodus 34 verse 6. This is how His people are to be. The Sabbath had become a day that the religious leaders had crafted so that mercy and compassion might take a rest and go on vacation, but they were never meant to be absent from this day. When Jesus asked that question, is it lawful? He is highlighting what should have never gone missing from the Sabbath, doing good, saving a life, demonstrations of compassion and mercy. Brother and sister, as you think about what's going on here. I ask you, have mercy and compassion and love gone missing from your life in your attempts to apply truth to your life? Are they absent? Is mercy, is compassion absent in your rules and traditions that you observe? Do they take a back seat to everything else? As we see what's going on here, I just ask you to consider your heart, to characterize by what you see in Jesus here, mercy and compassion. This is whose image you're being conformed into. Is there mercy and compassion in the way that you talk to your wife, in the way that you talk to your kids, in the way that you talk to your parents, in the way that you talk to your neighbors, in the way that you think about other people within the church? Is there mercy and compassion that comes out of your speech when you interact with people online? Questions Jesus asks here emphasize the point. What's missing? And would you just note, as you're looking at that text, they all come here with the suffering man standing here at the front. He's called him forward, then he asks the question. Now this guy is going to be part of answering the question and demonstrating Jesus' authority, an authority that we're going to see is characterized by mercy, compassion, and love, even on the Sabbath. It is not going to take a vacation this Sabbath. Verse 10. After looking around at them, He said to them, "'Stretch out your hand,' and He did so, and His hand was restored." Can you imagine that moment, Jesus looking around the room and looking at each and every person that's in the room as they're waiting to see what He is going to do, and His gaze hits the Pharisees? And He knows what's in their heart. Nobody here escaped his notice, looking around at them all. He says the words, stretch out your hand. Some think that the man offers his hand to Jesus in that moment to have his hand healed. Others think that even the act of stretching out his hand is indicative of the healing occurring. How could he do that if his hand was paralyzed? Either way, His hand, we are told here, is restored. That word means in Greek, was brought back. It was made right. It was returned to its former condition, which meant Immediately, suffering had ended. In an act of compassion and mercy, immediately his suffering was over. He could work again. He could prepare food again. He could eat again. He could clean himself. He could dress himself. He could lift a glass to his mouth. He could shade his eyes from the sun. He could lift his hands in the synagogue when he went there to worship. His suffering is over, but even more. I mean, this means Jesus is telling the truth. The miracle that they've witnessed itself is a lesson. It's the witness that what Jesus is saying is true. It's an endorsement here of the teacher. It's proof that He is Lord of the Sabbath. It is proof that He has authority over the Sabbath. He's demonstrating it for you. In His authority, it is not like the authority of the Pharisees that was cruel and merciless. His authority is replete with mercy and compassion. Their repressive prohibitions that outweighed mercy and compassion here provides only a backdrop upon which the love and compassion and mercy and glory of Jesus shine forth on this Sabbath. Brothers and sisters, would you see what's going on here? You are not witnessing the Son of God violating the Sabbath. You're not witnessing him profane the Sabbath. He is not coming along here and abolishing the Sabbath, but he is doing what he does with the law. He is fulfilling the Sabbath as it was always intended to be fulfilled. He does not come along here in this moment and violate their prohibitions so that he disqualifies himself from being an all-sufficient sacrifice. Instead, what he is doing in this moment is He's proving Himself to be perfectly holy, perfectly righteous. He is proving Himself to all that can see it that He is the Lamb of God who has come to take away the sin of the world. He is proving He is Lord even here, not only over the day of rest, Genesis 2, but He is Lord over the image-bearing creature. He is the one who fashioned and who designed all 27 bones in the human hand. He is the one who fashioned and designed all 34 muscles that reveal His glorious design and how He created the man. He is the Lord who was there when that hand that He designed Himself took the fruit that He had forbidden it to take and brought it to the woman's mouth, and He was there when she took her hand and handed it to the man, and He brought it to his mouth, and sin was ushered into the world. He is the Lord who was there when Abraham stretched out his hand, taking the knife to slay his son, to demonstrate faith in the Lord God in Genesis 22. And it was His command that went forth to Abraham about his hand, Genesis 22, 12, to not stretch it out against the lad because the Lord would provide a substitute. He is the Lord who commanded Moses to put his hand into his garment in Exodus 4 verse 6, only to take it out and find it leprous, only to be told, put it back in again and take it out, and to see that this Lord is so powerful, this God is so majestic that He could immediately make it clean. And that all of this was to also show that He could use such a weak vessel like Moses to deliver His people from their enemies and prove Himself to the world that He is a gracious God. Well, we could go throughout Scripture and you could see something as ordinary as a human hand demonstrating that God is glorious over and over again, but you come here to Luke 6, verse 10, and this withered hand, afflicted because sin has entered creation and with it suffering and sorrow and wickedness and death, this hand is restored by its creator. in a demonstration of power and authority, proving Jesus is deity, proving He is merciful and compassionate, proving He is Lord of the Sabbath. Evil is not compassionate. But what you find here is that righteousness shows compassion. What you find here is that true holiness demonstrates mercy. Genuine goodness is characterized by compassion, mercy, and love. So it is right to do...it is right to do good on the Sabbath. It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. It is right to alleviate suffering on the Sabbath. And on this Sabbath, good has been done. Christian, as you look at this text, you should be able to easily recognize the distinction between what you see in Jesus and what you see there in the Pharisees. To one, the suffering man is mere meat to bait a trap and to incite the wickedness of their own heart. To the other, he's a man to be pitied who's suffering the effects of sin. To one, Jesus is a man threatening their traditions and man-made religious system. To the other, Jesus brings relief. He ends suffering. He restores what's broken. Psalms, Psalm 31 7 indicates that this is a reason that as believers we ought to rejoice. Psalmist writes, I will rejoice and be glad in your loving kindness because you have seen my affliction. Jesus isn't cruel. Jesus isn't heartless. He isn't merciless. He isn't unconcerned about suffering. He is merciful and He is mighty. He is a merciful Savior here who has looked upon the suffering and affliction of this man and He's mercifully and mightily released him from it. And even more, He's a merciful Savior who comes to release sinners from their bondage to sin. This takes us back to the world in which we live, does it not? Others will leave you there. Others will leave you suffering. Others will leave you to die in your sin and affliction, and they'll be content that you're doing so. They will be calling evil good and good evil. They will tell you there's no heaven. They will tell you there's no hell. They will tell you there's no forgiveness, there's no God, there's no justice beyond what you find on this earth. They might tell you that there is forgiveness, but it's found in your works, it's found in your doing good, which is always going to tinge your doing good based on you looking to save yourself. And cruelly, what they will leave you doing is waiting, waiting until it's too late. But not Jesus. He is merciful and he is merciful because he is God. Psalm 86 verse 14, but you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious. Psalm 103 verse 8, the Lord is compassionate and gracious. Isaiah 55 verse 7, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the Lord and he will have compassion on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon. His compassion and His mercy exceed everyone else's compassion and mercy. His is true, it's genuine. And it's demonstrated in His mercy, and His mercy is demonstrated in our salvation. Ephesians 2 verse 4, but God being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us even when we were dead and our transgressions made us alive together with Christ. Every baptism that comes up here before us, every testimony that you hear of how the Lord has transformed their life is a demonstration that He is indeed merciful. 1 Peter 1.3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope. We live in a cruel world that calls evil good and good evil, but there is a merciful Savior. You live in a society that tells you, It's good to encourage the sick and the elderly to die. It's good to put infants in the womb to death. It's good to mutilate your body in order to sculpt it into the gender that you so desire, that your corrupt heart desires. It's good to redefine marriage into what it was never intended to be, where you'll never find satisfaction, when there is no compassion or mercy in evil and wickedness. But in Jesus, there's mercy. In Jesus, there's grace. There's forgiveness in Jesus for great sins, forgiveness for cruel sins, forgiveness for sins against God Himself. Sinner, would you consider what you see here in Luke 6? Would you turn from your sins? Would you flee to the Savior who is rich in mercy, who according to His great mercy can cause you to be born again? The Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs would say that his great mercy is evident today in that you can hear the gospel being preached to you, that you can hear that salvation and forgiveness is found in Jesus Christ. Burroughs said it this way, it is a great mercy that you have the day of grace and salvation, that you are not now in hell. It is a greater mercy that you have the sound of the gospel yet in your ears and that you have the use of your reason. Meaning what? Today, you can respond to his mercy. You can implore him, please be merciful to me, a sinner. What does it look like to reject that mercy? Well, you have it there in verse 11. Verse 11, number 3, we'll call this the madness of the murderous. The madness of the murderous. What does it look like to reject His mercy? Verse 11, but they themselves were filled with rage and discussed together what they might do to Jesus. Filled with rage. One word, annoyus. It means this, mindless. It means without understanding. One lexicon says, such extreme anger as to suggest an incapacity to use one's mind. They were so mad at Him that they couldn't even think. They had become like ravenous animals. What they had witnessed resulted in them losing their minds. They had witnessed the glory of God in the synagogue. Jesus has not only proclaimed His authority over the Sabbath, but He's demonstrated it to them. He's not only taught them about the Sabbath, but He's proved His teaching. And He's beautifully shown mercy to this man and his suffering has ended. All of that's undeniable. And what is good and beautiful and right and true has infuriated here those with corrupt hearts and corrupt minds. What should their response have been? They should have grieved the ugliness that they see coming forth from their own heart here and repented from their evil motives, leading them to scrutinize Jesus and His words and His actions. They should have confessed in that moment, indeed, you are the Christ. You are the Son of God. They should have listened to every word that was coming from His mouth. They should have been in awe of Him. They should have come to Him and worshiped Him. They should have said, I'm suffering. I'm a sinner. Save me. Have mercy on me. What does a wicked heart instead do? A wicked heart does exactly what Psalm 2, verse 2 says. The rulers are taking counsel together against the Lord and His anointed. What did they do? Verse 11, they discussed together what they might do to Jesus. What did they discuss? Matthew 12, in its account of this, says, they, the Pharisees, went out and conspired against him as to how they might destroy him. How they might destroy him. Do you remember what he was teaching in verse 9? I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to destroy it? On this Sabbath, the corrupt hearts of these men not only wanted Jesus to not do good by healing this man, they discussed on this Sabbath how they might destroy Him. They were doing the very thing Jesus could see their depraved hearts doing. Their madness here brought them to this murderous intent that the crosshairs in this scene had been The crosshairs have been placed squarely upon Jesus by His enemies, and you're only in Luke chapter 6. How darkened is their mind? What you have here, the mercy and compassion that Jesus has shown on the Sabbath, it's incomprehensible to Him. They were never interested in virtue. They were not interested in relieving misery and affliction caused by sin. They are interested in keeping rules, rules that tied to their cherished tradition and their faulty interpretations of Scripture, rules that they cherished, and rules that have led them all the way to this point where they have rejected mercy, even divine mercy when it's in their presence. I can't help but just think about them in eternity. Think about those men in that synagogue in eternity. Think about them as they stand in judgment before the one that they spurned in this moment, even though they saw His grace. Will this day in that synagogue come into their minds in judgment? The day in which they saw the compassion of God on full display, the day in which it infuriated them, and that day they're going to know their failure to recognize what was truly good and truly life-giving. They will know what a great mercy that day was unto them and how that day, that day as they see all this, they are not now yet in hell. How in that day they beheld the beauty of the gospel, and the one who is reversing the effects of sin right there before them, how on that Sabbath, they were in the presence of the Son of God, and even how on that day, they couldn't even see the reality of their own miserable condition, and they couldn't see that before them was the one who could transform their life. Friend, if you come this morning, and you've been infuriated with Jesus your whole life, If the exclusivity of the gospel that he preaches fills you with rage... If the truth that salvation is by grace alone incites your indignation, if the gospel that exposes your heart and tells you that you will stand before a righteous judge causes you to hate Jesus all the more, if you consider your thoughts and heart toward Jesus and all you find is confusion and frustration and anger, and if when you have looked at Jesus and His teaching and only determined, well, this is what's intolerant, this is what's unmerciful, this is what is without compassion, if that's you, Friend, repent. Turn from that. Repent and plead that a merciful God might give you new eyes to see, might give you ears to hear what's true and good, might do away with your old withered heart and give you a new heart, a heart that can embrace and worship the Lord of the Sabbath who is compassionate and gracious. Friend, repent and flee to Jesus. Come to Him like a suffering man who has been called to come forward and come to Him and look to Him to heal you completely. Luke has given us all two ways. Two ways that we see laid out before us, two ways that we see us before us in the world each and every day. One, the merciless actions of the wicked who view suffering and the Savior as evil, who determine what is evil is good and what is good is evil. And the other way is the way of righteousness, who determines what is true compassion and mercy and demonstrates it for us, presenting us with what is beautiful and what is God-glorifying. Three takeaways, Christian. One, as I said before, rejoice. Psalm 31, verse 7, be glad and rejoice in His mercy. Two, would you consider what true compassion and mercy look like? Would you look at your own life and your own conclusions, your own thoughts, your own rules that you put in place for your own life and for others, maybe in your own house, would you consider if they have compassion and mercy in them? Would you also notice in the world around you where compassion and mercy are missing? Three, I would encourage you, Christian, to present what is truly beautiful to a world that's filled with corrupt minds and depraved hearts. That you would stand in this world and boldly proclaim what is beautiful and righteous and holy and good and loving, even when that world is telling you what is evil is good and what is good is evil. Would you point them towards the truth? Would you allow them to see what they can find nowhere else than Lord Jesus Christ? Father, thank you for Christ in the synagogue this day, showing us compassion and mercy that are greater than the rules and traditions that have been put in place to protect the Sabbath. Your compassion and your mercy upon us as believers and as a church is beyond our comprehension. Pray that we would recognize it, that we would see glimpses of it, that it would remind us of your goodness, even amidst our suffering, even when we are grieving, even when we're going through difficult situations that would seem hopeless, Father, remind us how good you have been to us. Let that cause in us a response of joy that as creatures we would rejoice at how you've saved us, how you're sanctifying us. Now we have certainty that you're going to complete that work in us. Give us boldness to proclaim these truths to a world that is absolutely confused because of the depravity of their minds as to what is truly beautiful. Let us point them to Scripture. Let us point them to Christ. Let it define compassion. Let Christ define mercy. Father, we pray for the hearts of the lost that are here this morning. Pray that if they have long hated Christ, they would see the foolishness where their sinful hearts have led them, that perhaps they would see it first in the Pharisees, but then they would see it in themselves. Pray that they would turn from their sins, turn from their hatred, turn from the ugliness of wickedness, and flee to Christ. Let them find in Him joy. Let them know that they will find in Him compassion and mercy. Let them know that they will find in Him grace. Father, grant unto them repentance. Give them faith to believe and be saved, we pray. In Christ's name, amen.