Once again, it is indeed a privilege
to be with you. And I only have one thing to
share, and that's the word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. I was 35 years old before the
Lord put someone in my way that knew something about the gospel.
I had gone through the form of religion, but I'd never heard
the gospel. And when the Lord allowed me
to hear it, he saved me by his grace. And I have a privilege
of sharing some of that. I'm going to take for my lesson
today, my message today out of the book of Luke. Most of the
time that we've been together, we've been looking at some of
the miracles that the Lord did during his personal ministry.
And we've been looking at them through the eyes of the gospel.
And we see that as the Lord performed miracles, he's doing a physical
act, but he's showing us what he does for us spiritually too.
We looked at a man that had leprosy and how he healed him. And I've
never been around a leper, but I know from the Bible that it
is a terrible disease. But the Lord healed him by the
word of his power. And leprosy so often in the scriptures
is spoken of as a type of sin, a picture of sin. And it is only
the Lord can deal with our sin. And we looked at a lady that
had an issue of blood and she'd spent 38 years with that issue. And she'd gone to many doctors
and nobody could help her, but she came and someone had told
her about a man by the name of Jesus. And she understood that
if she reached out and if she could just touch the hem of his
garment, she would be healed. Well, the Lord was in the right
place with her at the right time and she touched him. And he said
thy faith hath made thee whole and she didn't have that issue
of blood anymore. We studied about a man that was born blind
and he tried to get down into some water that he said if He
could get down there when the angel stirred the water, the
pool of Siloam, that if he got in first, he'd be healed. Well,
he just couldn't make it because he was lame and he just was unable
and the Lord went there and without any of that stuff, he healed
that man of his problem. Well, today we wanna look at
another person that the Lord dealt with and it's in the book
of Luke and in chapter 13 and we find a picture again of what
the Lord does for his people, how he saves them, and he demonstrates
that by a woman that is all bent over. Now, when I was in high
school, I had a teacher by the name of Mr. Sunnyvale, and I
like Mr. Sunnyvale. He was the auto shop
teacher, he was the metal shop teacher, and he's my drafting
teacher. And my wife and I went to visit him years after I graduated
and he couldn't stand up straight. And he sat down and it was very
interesting, but he was all stooped over. He just could not straighten
up. Now, I don't know why, but that's the way it was. Well,
in the scriptures that we're looking at today, it tells us
that Jesus, he was in a synagogue, one of the synagogues on the
Sabbath day. and he was teaching in there.
Now, when the Lord was teaching, he is the only one that had the
right to talk about himself. He is the Savior, and he was
there teaching about himself. We find in another place that
there was a man that was from Ethiopia, and he was out in the
desert, and he had been up to Jerusalem for religious services.
and he's reading the book of Isaiah, and the Lord sent him
a man that knew something, knew the gospel. And this man came
up to him and says, do you understand what you're reading? And he said,
how can I, lest some man show me? So Philip got up there in
that chariot with him and began at the same place and preached
unto him Jesus. Now that's our message. It's
the message of the Savior, the Lord Jesus, His very name, when
he was born, his name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save
his people from their sins. So he's the savior of sinners.
Well, he is in the synagogue in his teaching, and all the
Bible teaches about him. And it says, behold, there was
a woman that had a spirit of infirmity 18 years. And this is her infirmity, and
was bowed together and could no wise lift up herself. So she was, you know, I don't
know what it'd be like. I hope I don't get there. But
here was a lady for 18 years that everywhere she went, she
was all bent over. And she wasn't in a position
that she could raise herself. And she spent this for 18 different
years. Terrible affliction. But she's
in the right place at the right time. Now the Bible tells us
that God created man upright, could stand erect, and he sought
many devices. If we go back to the book of
Genesis, we find out that God told Adam that he could eat of
the fruit of the garden, all the fruit he wanted, anywhere
he wanted, except for one tree. and Adam went and ate of that
one tree. Now his wife ate of it too, but
nothing happened. There was no darkness, there
was no fall, but as soon as she handed it to her husband at his
request, and he ate that fruit, he disobeyed Almighty God and
his eyes were opened and he realized that things were not like they
once were. And it's a picture of being all bent over. It's
a picture of us spiritually being that way. By nature, we have
no good thoughts towards God, and we don't have any righteousness. You know, in order for us to
go to heaven, we have to have three things happen to us. Number
one, we must have sin dealt with. We are sinners by nature, practice,
and choice, and we must have that dealt with. And God's the
only one that can deal with it. We must have righteousness. We
must have righteousness. And there's only one that can
impute righteousness to us. The Bible tells us that our righteousness
by nature is as filthy rags. So we need someone else's righteousness
and God gives us his righteousness. And the third thing we need is
we have to have a spiritual being. We must have a spiritual being.
The flesh profiteth nothing. We must be born again. So those
three things must happen for us to enjoy and appreciate and
be in the presence of God. And it's much like this lady
that's all bent over. She can't help herself. She's
going to be dependent upon someone else. Well, Jesus saw her. Now that's the wonderful thing
about looking at the Bible. How often the Lord is in the
exact right place at the right time. Now why is he that way? Because he plans it that way.
I wish I could be in the right place all the time at the right
time. But the Lord was. He was in the right place always
at the right time. He tells us with regard to visiting
with a woman from Canaan that he must needs go through Samaria. Now that was a place that most
Jews would never venture, but he had to go there because there
was one of his lost children there at a well and he gave her
salvation. So this lady is in the right
place at the right time. She's in the presence of Jesus.
And it says, and when Jesus saw her, he called her to him. Now he's the only one that has
the power of drawing us and calling us. He makes us willing in the
day of his power. We don't have the ability of
coming to him. He has the ability of drawing
us to him. So when Jesus saw her, he called
her to him and said, woman, Thou art loosed from thine infirmity. Now she didn't do anything to
get that. She didn't do anything. She didn't pray about it. She
didn't bow down. She didn't come to him. He did
it every bit for her. Now Jonah, Jonah was a man that
had an experience that I don't want to have, but I like reading
about it. Jonah was swallowed by a great fish. In the New Testament,
it's called a whale, but the meaning of it is a great fish.
He was swallowed by a great fish, and in that belly of that great
fish, he was shown this truth, salvation is of the Lord. That's where all our salvation
is. It's contained in him and him alone. So Jesus saw her,
he called her to him, she came, He calls his people out of this
world to himself. She has an infirmity that she
can't do anything about. She has a problem. Before I heard
the gospel, I had a terrible problem. I had a sinful nature
that was against and opposed to God. Even though I was pastoring
a church, I didn't know the first thing about God. I heard the
gospel of a savior that actually saves people and a redeemer that
actually redeems people. All through my religious experience
that God was trying to do something, but we find out from the Bible,
God never tried to do anything. God has always accomplished his
purpose. When he wants to do something,
he does it. He doesn't try to do anything. So it tells us here
that Jesus saw her. She was a woman that had a spirit
of infirmity, 18 years. And no wise could do anything
for herself, couldn't lift herself up. And when Jesus saw her, he
called her to him and said unto her, woman thou art loose from
thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her
and immediately she was made straight. Now that's what the
Lord does for us spiritually. He makes us straight or right. He lifts us back up spiritually. Now we may not have any physical
infirmities, but we certainly have problems spiritually. We
have problems, the Bible says that we're dead in trespasses
and sin, and we need to be raised from the spirits, from the dead.
So he immediately raised her up, she was immediately made
straight, and the next thing she did is something that every
believer will do, and glorified God. She knew exactly who had
taken care of her problem. and she glorified the Lord Jesus. She recognized him as more than
just the son or daughter of Mary, son of Mary and Joseph. She recognized him as God. He
is the only one that could do that. Now, the religious people
said, you shouldn't do that on the Sabbath day. You know, he
knew what the Sabbath was and he knew what he was doing. But
he demonstrates to us that he saves his people where he sees
them, where he finds them, and he saves them by himself without
anybody's help, even though it's going to disturb some people
that are religious. The ruler of the synagogue answered
with indignation. You would think for a moment
that they would be happy about this lady that's been bothering
them for 18 years about having something happen during it. Please
help me. Please help me. And when something
happens, they are indignant about it. Well, that's religion. Christianity says we will rejoice
with her. She was raised immediately, made
straight, and she glorified God. That's what real salvation is. It is a time when God works a
work in us, and we have the privilege of glorifying him like we never
understood in our life. In the book of Jeremiah, Chapter
two, I just wanted to read a couple of verses and we'll be through.
And I do thank you so much for your attendance today. Jeremiah
chapter two and verse 12 and 13. Now he said this about Israel.
In Jeremiah chapter two, verse 12 and 13. Be astonished, O ye heavens,
at this, and be horribly afraid, Be you very desolate, saith the
Lord, for my people." Now he's talking about Israel. He's talking
about national Israel, and he says, my people. Now he did everything
he could for them. He fed them, led them, gave them
water from the rock, manna from heaven, healed them, brought
them through 40 years of wandering without wearing out their clothes
or their shoes. And it says, these people that I helped so
much, because they had the same heart they started with, had
no interest in me. He said, for my people have committed
two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain
of living waters, and hewn them out broken cisterns that can
hold no water. So here we have a comparison.
We have a lady that has all been over, no help, nobody could help
her, nobody could straighten her back, and the Lord heals
her, and now she knows where real water is, that's in Christ,
and then we have another group saying, you know, I have these
cisterns, this religion, but it can't hold any water, and
it cannot honor God. So there's where we are. We have
two places. In Christ or out of Christ. Serving
God or not serving God. Or being raised in newness of
life or being in our old life. We'll stop there and I'd like
to sing one more song before we go and that's number 60.