March 5, 2023

“ALL WHO HAD DISEASES PRESSED AROUND HIM TO TOUCH HIM”
MARK 3:6-12

A light to the world;
ISAIAH 49:6
[God, the Father] says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

The imposing and intrusive crowd;
MARK 5:24, 31
And he went with him. And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him…And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’”

Jesus: the perfect Law-keeper;
MATTHEW 4:6–7
…and [Satan] to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

His path is our path;
1 JOHN 2:6
…whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

1 PETER 2:21
For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.

Trusting fully in the sovereignty of God, while exercising responsible faith.

Jesus trusted the sovereign control of His Father;
1 PETER 2:23
23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

Trusting fully in a sovereign God, while treating the grace of God with proper responsibility;
PHILIPPIANS 2:12–13
12 … work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

1 CORINTHIANS 15:10
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

MATTHEW 10:16
16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

LUKE 14:28–32
28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.

LUKE 16:8
8 The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.

A myriad of applications;



In what ways have you sinned by “putting God to the test”?
How can we discern between complete and total trust in a sovereign God and sinfully presuming upon the grace of a sovereign God?

The accurate proclamation by the demons;
EPHESIANS 1:3
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places…

A similar incident in Philippi;
ACTS 16:16–18
16As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. 17She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” 18And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.

While Christ can be “proclaimed” by anyone …
PHILIPPIANS 1:18
18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice…

…Only partakers of grace can be trustworthy, reliable, and anointed proclaimers of grace;
1 TIMOTHY 1:15–16
15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. 16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life…

ACTS 1:8
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

2 CORINTHIANS 1:4
4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

The difference between testimony and the gospel of salvation by grace;
JOHN 9:25
25 He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”

1 CORINTHIANS 15:3–4
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures…

The salvation grace of God is not a mere intellectual concept that can be reduced down to factual statements and sound reasoning.

Neither is salvation grace one’s subjective experience of God’s transforming power, or an expression of God’s preciousness to the redeemed sinner.

True and effective gospel proclamation involves an accurate rendering of the salvific work of God accomplished on the cross and the empty tomb, validated by the experience of the one who has received this grace.

1 PETER 3:15
15 …always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you…

Transformed lives validate the gospel;
PHILIPPIANS 1:27
Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ…

1 THESSALONIANS 1:5
5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.

A dire warning: Recipients of grace can also do great damage to the gospel message;
HEBREWS 6:4–6
4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.


Do you feel it easier to give to unbelievers a subjective testimony of God’s transformative power in your life, or His preciousness to you, while leaving unsaid the truths of; universal human sinfulness, penal substitution on the cross, victorious resurrection, and coming judgment?
Can sinners be regenerated without hearing and believing upon the “things of first importance” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)? How does Romans 10:14-15 help us to think well on this?

3/5/2023