I love that hymn, don't you? I love that last verse, mystic sweet
communion with those whose rest is won, those who have entered
into perfect peace and rest. You know what they would all
tell us right now? They would all tell us right
now. Those who have risen from the dead, raised. They tell us
what Christ said when He rose from the grave. Peace. Fear not. That's what they all
tell us. It's all good. We know now. It's the only way
to believe. What we do now. Luke 13, Luke chapter 13. This is a story of a bowed woman
who bowed down, could not in any way raise herself up, straighten
herself up. And the Lord making her straight.
I've just told the whole story. I've just told you the gospel.
Verse 10, every verse is significant, every line, every phrase goes
together. Verse 10, he was teaching in
one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was
a woman there. Our Lord was always, every Sabbath,
you know where he'd find him? Do you know where you'd find
him? Every single time that God's people met together in any place,
a synagogue, in every village, in every town where he went,
he was there. Still he is. He promised to be. Then and now, in every church
house, every town where his people, his sheep gather, he's there
speaking, comforting, healing those that can't straighten themselves
out, broken. It says in verse 11, Behold,
there was a woman. Behold, whenever Scripture says
behold, it means stop now, think about this. Stop and look at
this. There was a bowed or bowed woman,
it says in verse 11, spirit of infirmity she had 18 years. For 18 years she was bowed down
or bent over. Together, it means she was so
bent over that completely, it is all together she's completely
bent over, could not straighten herself. She was there. And for 18 years, 18 years, she
was there. This is obviously a very poor,
needy woman. She couldn't work a job. She
couldn't take care of herself. do anything. Somebody had to
take care of her. She's poor and needy. So obviously she's
a truly seeking woman. If anybody had an excuse for
not being there this day, it'd have been her, wouldn't it? She's
so bent over she can't hardly walk. But behold, she's there. What if she hadn't been there? She's a seeker. Though afflicted,
she's afflicted. That's why she came. That's why
she's there. Look at Luke 18. Go to Luke 18. 18 years. I have reason to believe
she'd been coming to the synagogue, to the sanctuary, all the time. Like the woman with the issue
of blood. But here in Luke 18, The Lord told the story of an
importunate widow who kept coming, who kept coming, who kept coming,
who kept coming. And look at verse 7, our Lord
says, Shall not God avenge his own elect? Shall he not do something
for them, which cry unto him day and night, though he bear
long with them? He doesn't seem to answer them.
I tell you, he will avenge them speedily. It's not going to be
long now. Nevertheless, now look at these solemn words. When the
Son of Man cometh, when Christ comes back to this earth, shall
he find faith on the earth? Will he find somebody like this
who keeps coming, who keeps coming, and won't quit coming until he
does something for them? Will he find that? That's what
our Lord said. When Jesus Christ comes back
to the earth, is He going to find somebody that will not,
cannot stay away? That's going to come and seek
until they find. Going to come and sit, going
to come bowed down, broken, no matter, until He heals them.
Will He? Most He will find as they are
now. at home, or out playing. Look across the page at chapter
17, look at verse 26. How many times did we read this?
As in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son
of Man, they did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were
given in marriage, like now. Still going on, no matter what.
until the day Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and
destroyed them all." Read on. Likewise, as it was in the days
of Lot, that is Sodom, and that's where we live, isn't it? They
did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they
builded. The same day that Lot went out of Sodom, when the Lord
took Lot out, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and
destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the
day when the Son of Man is revealed. But He will find His people. He'll find His people, like this
woman, gathered, worshiping Him, waiting on their Lord. And so He came to this place. Like old Bartimaeus, he had Bartimaeus
waiting out there by the wayside. He'd been out there for years.
That was his day, wasn't it? The Lord had them put him there.
Had them put him there, because it's the day Christ's going to
come by. He had Ozakius up a tree on purpose, because it's the
day that Christ's going to come to his house. And he had this
woman come to the synagogue this day. This is her day. time of
love. You're going to find her. And
he came to this place. As I said, what if the woman hadn't been
there? What about the man at the Pool of Bethesda? They brought him, laid him there.
He was impotent. They laid him there. What if
he hadn't been there? What if he said, I'm not coming there. Too many
sick people. I mean, really. I'm not going
there. That's why he came there. If anyone could have made an
excuse not to be here, this woman could have. She's not looking for an excuse
not to be there. She's looking for a way to get
there. I need to go there. My soul thirsteth
for thee, we read, as in a dry and a thirsty land, as I've seen
thee in the sanctuary. I'm going to come. I've heard
that sinners hear from you. Psalm 133 reads this way. Let me read it to you. It says,
How good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in
unity. It's like the precious ointment. Upon the head, Christ,
the Spirit of God anoints Christ the head and it runs down to
the beard, Aaron's beard, the garments, skirts. That's us.
Like the dew of Hermon, refreshing dew of Hermon. It's the dew that
descended upon the mountains of Zion. The mountains of Zion,
that's his church. There the Lord commanded the
blessing. He commanded the blessing. There's
my daughter. Bring her. This day I'm going
to bless her. I'm going to raise her up. There
hath he commanded the blessing. What is it? Life forevermore. No, she's not going to die. She's
going to live. Hmm. I'll be there, Christ said. Gather, come, gather. Forsake
not the assembly of ourselves together. Christ said, I'll be
there. I'll bless the true seeker. I'll bless that sacrifice. Well, our Lord one time told
the disciples Well, after he rose, he told his disciples,
go into Galilee. Go into Galilee and I'm going
to meet you there. Go there. I'll meet you there. And they
did. All of them but Thomas. And Thomas thought he was lost.
He thought Christ was still dead. The world was hopeless to Thomas.
And they tried to tell him, but he wasn't there. When Christ
came, what's the first thing Christ did when he went in the
door? Gave them all peace. Thomas wasn't there. He didn't
have any peace. But God. Brought him back, didn't
He? Old Thomas. And the Lord said,
first thing He said, Thomas, reach hither your finger and
touch my side. You see this scar here? I died
on the cross that you might live. Nothing and nobody is going to
touch you, Thomas. Here's your head number. I came
down here to live for you and to die for you, and now you'll
never die, Thomas. There's a scar to prove it. I'm
alive, Thomas, and you're living. You'll never die, Thomas. Reach
your hand and touch my side. This is proof. Look at these
hands. You see these hands? You see these scars on my hand,
Thomas? That's your name written on the palms of my hand. I got
you on my breastplate. I got you on my shoulders. I've
been carrying you ever since the day you were born, Thomas.
I'll never let you down. I'll be with you to the ends
of the world. Thomas, look, your scars to prove it. Touch my hand."
He hit his knees. My Lord and my God. You know where you found Thomas
the next Sabbath day? Right there where his people
were. You can't move him now. See,
I wasn't there before when I was full of doubt and fear. Boy,
but when Christ spoke to my heart, I was there and not now. This
is better than life. Behold, a woman. A woman. A weaker
vessel. A woman's called a weaker vessel.
I don't think there's any women's livers in here. Mind this, but
a woman's called a weaker vessel. All of God's people, they're
His bride, they're His wife, the Lamb's wife. They're weak,
they're helpless. Weak! Without Him, they can do
nothing. Kept! Women don't like to be
called a kept woman. I do. I do. You're looking at a weak, helpless,
forlorn, I am so glad I'm kept by his power. Aren't you? This was a woman. It says she
had a spirit, verse, where am I? Luke 17, Luke 13. It says in verse 11, she had
a spirit of infirmity, 18 years. A spirit. Down in verse 16, it
says Satan had bound her, 18 years. See that? Do you know our Lord cast out
devils more than any other miracle He performed? There's a reason
for that. There's a reason for that. Because
you know, everything, every sickness, affliction or whatever, spiritually
anyway, could be called a spirit of infirmity, blind. All men
and women are blind by nature. Why? The God of this world has
blinded their mind. How does he blind them? With
all the glitter and gold of the world. Look at this. Look at this. It blinds people's
eyes to the truth. Because the things that are seen
are temporal. The things that are unseen are eternal. The things
that Satan tempts us with is all a lie. It's all deception. Things that Christ says are absolute
truth. The deaf. Satan stops people's
ears. There's nothing he wants more
than to keep you from hearing what you're hearing right now.
Why? Because it'll keep you captive
to him, to the world, to man. But if you hear from the Son,
He'll make you free. He'll make you free. So free
that you think, I don't have to hear anything else. Death,
halt, lame, spirit of lameness, don't walk by faith, walk by
sight. That'll cripple you. You know
what? If you walk by sight, it'll cripple you. You can't walk by
faith. If you're looking around faith,
Faith is not sight, people. Faith is walking against what
you see. Faith is walking into the face
of what you think is death. That's faith. Abraham hoped against hope. He
took his only son up on that mountain to kill him. God said,
this is the son in whose seed I'll bless. Now take him and
kill him. That doesn't make sense. But he did it. in the face of
something that's not humanly reasonable. That's faith. Well,
look what's happening. Walk by faith. You can't walk on that water,
Peter. Simon, look at him. Now walk. He overcame it. So this woman was bowed, bowed,
bent over, stooped down, together. As I said, it meant she was completely
bent over and stooped, all together, completely, as if under a heavy
weight. I love Pilgrim's Progress. I
love that book. It begins this way. Pilgrim's
progress begins this way. He said, I looked and beheld
a man, a man that had a burden on his
back and a book in his hand. And if you see all of the depictions,
all of the pictures they've written, he's down like this. He's got
a book in his hand. He's got this weight on his back.
And an evangelist came to him. He said, you see that straight
gate, that narrow way? You go through that straight
gate and you'll see a cross. He said, when you get to that
cross and you look, that burden will fall off your back. You'll
straighten up. You'll straighten up. She was bowed, completely bent
over. She could not straighten up. She couldn't. Crooked. She couldn't
make herself straight. She's so crooked, she could not
make. She couldn't straighten up. Anybody? Anybody with such a burden on
your back you can't get rid of? Huh? 18 years. This significant
time period to me when I was 18 years old. When I was 18 years
old, the Lord threw me off of a building. and broke my back. And I was in the hospital for
a long time. And after that, I couldn't straighten up. But I didn't realize my real
problem. I didn't know how bowed down
I was. I did not know how low I had
come. I didn't know how near to condemnation
and wrath I was. I didn't know my real problem.
I was crooked all right, and I couldn't make myself straight.
I couldn't straighten out. But God, but God brought me where? To the synagogue. in a place where he was, where
a preacher he sent was, and I heard his voice. Straighten up. You know, my back still gets,
the older I get, right, Red? Straighten up. My back still
gets bowed. And if I get any older, I guess
I'm going to be bent over. But it's well with my soul. It's well with my soul. She could
in no wise, in no wise. You ever heard that word in the
scripture? In no wise. She could in no wise lift herself
up. Try as she may, she couldn't
straighten up. Oh my, we've got a burden for many. You do too. That are so broken
by sin and so bowed down and so bowed down so that they're
just groveling in this earth. No better than an animal on all
fours. Right? And what we say is, Oh Lord,
speak to them. With man, it's impossible. See,
she couldn't no wise straighten herself, lift herself up. With
man, it's impossible. But with God, all things Do you
know that she was so bowed down, the Lord was in that synagogue. She's so bowed down she couldn't
see Him. She's so bowed down she couldn't see Him. And I remember,
you know, I would come to hear the gospel at first and then
leave unaffected. And, you know, actually I couldn't
wait to get out. But the Lord was bringing me.
The Lord was working on me. And I didn't know it all that
time. I didn't know that the Lord was in that place. Like old Jacob,
you know, said, the Lord was here. I didn't know it. But one
day, like Jacob, he wrestled with me. One day, he laid hold
on me by the gospel. One day. And like this woman,
she was so bowed down, though, she couldn't see him, but he
was there. He was there. You know what her salvation was?
He saw her. He saw her. Look at verse 12.
He saw her. He looked on her. He looked on
her. He called her. Where? To himself. Come to me. Or he told someone, Simon, Simon. His disciples were all around
him always. He's preaching in the synagogue. He said, Simon.
And the Lord looked out there. There she is. There she is. I knew she'd be here. I brought
her. Simon. And she's all bowed down. Simon,
go get her. Go get her and bring her to me. Simon, go get her. I'm going
to speak to her. It's a crowd of people. How many
people were there? He said, I want her. And she
came. Oh, Lord, do that. Lord, would
you look upon my daughter? Lord, would you look upon my
mother? Would you look upon my spouse, my wife, my husband,
my son? Would you look on my son? Would
you call him by the gospel, the same gospel you called me? Lord,
would you call him to yourself? He's alienated. He's an enemy.
Lord, would you call him? Isn't that our prayer? Lord,
would you call my brother? Would you call him? He can't
straighten himself up. Well, I know that from experience. He did. He called her. And he
said, bring her to me. And he said unto her, look at
verse 12. He said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. He said unto her. He spoke to
her. First thing he did was loose
her. You're loosed. She's in a prison
house. Her own body, her own sins, her
own self. She's in a world held captive
by the God of this world. Loosen! Turn her loose! A ransom, in fact. Loosen her. Stronger than Satan has come,
you see. Satan held her bound, he said
there in verse 16. And a stronger than Satan had
come for his daughter. Would you not go after your daughter
if she's held bound, captive? Yes, you would if you could.
Christ does. Amen. A stronger than he and
a stronger than she had loosed his crooked daughter. Look at
verse 13. He laid his hands on her. He
didn't always do that, but sometimes he did. He touched her. He touched
her. I started to sing that song for
you. Shackled by a heavy burden, neath
a load of sin and shame, then the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ
touched me, and now I am no longer the same. He touched me. The Gospel. Through the gospel,
the preaching of the gospel. That's where he lays hold of
a wild ass's coat. He lays hold, the writer, and
he lays hold of a broken down woman and says, you're mine.
To straighten her up. I think he laid his hand on her
and put his hand on her back and just, lo and behold, behold,
look at that. It's crooked. I used to have
Mindy and Hannah walk on my back. You ever done that? Nothing would
feel, would straighten my back out unless they walked on it.
Well, unless the Lord speaks that lays hold of us through
the preaching of the gospel and touches us personally with his
gospel, we're going to be bowed down.
Lord, lay hold of my brother, my sister, my husband, my wife. Lay hold of her. Loosen her,
loosen him, make him straight, put him in the straight way,
put him in the narrow way, straighten him up. She said she could not straighten
herself, so the Lord did. The Lord did. He laid his hands
on her. And it says immediately, she was made straight. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
Scripture says, and thou shalt be saved. Whosoever shall call
on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Doesn't it say that?
You say, but I'm not saved. Well, have you called? I mean,
what does it mean to call on the name of the Lord? It means
to call on the Lord Jesus Christ. It means to call until He answers
you. Right? Brother Gabe preached a message
one time, what to do if you're lost. Hear it, okay? I think the first point was,
what do you do when you're lost? You holler. You call. If you're lost, you'll keep calling
until somebody comes find you. Call. Call. And he immediately,
she was made straight. And look at what happened. Verse
13. She glorified God. She glorified God. You know what
some said of me, Ricky, when the Lord began to deal with me? Well, your brother said, he was my crony, my partner in crime. And he said, when the Lord began
to deal with me, didn't deal with him. And he heard the same
gospel. The Lord deal with me. And he
said to me, it won't last. That's what he said, it won't
last. Here I am. Here I am, 40 years later. You see, I didn't straighten
my life up. I didn't have life. I didn't
have a life to straighten up. I was dead in trespassing sin. The Lord quickened me. The Lord loosened me from captivity. The Lord put me in the way, put
me in Himself straight. And so I give all the glory to
Him. I had nothing to do with it.
Here's what I did. Here's what I did in my salvation. Here's what I did. I did the
sinning and He did the saving. That's what I did. My part in
salvation was I sinned. His was He saved. That's simple,
isn't it? That's old Simple Simon's, Christ
is all my salvation. He came to me. Now look at verse
14, let me close with this. It says, the ruler of the synagogue, some Pharisee, he said, with
indignation, because Jesus healed on the Sabbath day, he said this
to the people, he's such a coward, that he wouldn't speak to Christ,
but he said to the people. Can you hear him saying that?
See, that's what cowards do. They get over on the side, they
get out of earshot and all that, and they talk to other people.
Talk to you. He said that there are six days
in which men ought to work, and them therefore come be healed.
But not on the Sabbath. How hard can a person be? How wicked could a person be
that more concerned with a day or their traditions or whatever
than somebody's soul? That's mankind. That's religion
in a nutshell. More concerned with traditions
than poor, broken, burdened sinners than soul. More concerned with
money than soul. That's religion, isn't it? Religion is not a hospital for
sinners. The so-called church today is not a hospital for sinners.
It's a playhouse for Pharisees. That's what our Lord said. You're
a hypocrite. A hypocrite's an actor. You're just acting a part.
You're not here for the salvation of soul. You're here to play
a part. And I see right through it, Christ
said. Hypocrite. Now look at verse
15. He said, you're a hypocrite.
He said, do you not, each one of you, loose his ox or his ass
from a stall, lead him away to watering? Huh? Ought not this
woman, a daughter of Abraham, bound, Satan hath bound, lo,
eighteen years, be loose from this bond on the Sabbath day?
Huh? Shouldn't he? Ox and ass, he
brought up the ox and the ass. You ever heard that somewhere?
Isaiah 1 says, I brought up a people that erred against me, rebelled
against me, said the ox knows his owner, the ass knows his
master crib. My people don't know, they don't consider. Why?
Because they're all, from the sole of their feet to the top
of their head, there's no soundness in them. That's what he said. But he comes for some of this.
to loosen them from this ignorance, loosen them from this bond, loosen
them from Satan, loosen them from the law. There's a man that
came here from a reformed place here in town. And he came, and
he listened a while, and he came, and finally the Lord dealt with
it. Now, he had the doctrine. He believed the doctrines of
grace, so to speak, before he came here. And he was a part
of this reform place, and he came here and he sat and he listened,
and finally after a while, he confessed Christ in baptism.
And you know what he said to me? He said, I feel like I've been loosened. I feel free. I was so bound,
I didn't know where to go. Loosed from the Sabbath day. Loosed. Handwriting of ordinances
against us. Nailed at the cross. Put away. And verse 17 says, His adversaries
were ashamed. Oh, how they shall be. But all
the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done
by Him. Yes, religious hypocrites play
a part. They go about playing religion.
But God's people who are broken down and held in captivity and
bondage, and Christ comes and preaches the gospel and loosens
them. Boy, they're going to give all
glory to God. And they come to worship God
for loosening them and for saving them. And now, it says, she could
have no wise straighten up. Well, there's another verse of
scripture that Christ said, I give unto them eternal life, and they
shall never perish. He said that he that cometh to
me, all that the Father giveth to me shall come to me, and him
that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. I just happen to think, believe
that this woman now, what's she going to do now? She's going
to follow him the rest of her days. Like old Bartimaeus. Out of the way, now in the way.
What's the way? It's Christ. He followed him until he died.
Or something. Now he's with him. And glory
forever. So is she. Because Christ did
this work for her.