Well, morning and welcome to
our continuing Bible study in the book of Luke, Gospel According
to Luke. We're in chapter 13 today and
we'll be looking at verse 10 through 17. Last week we had
the lesson on the parable of the fig tree. the importance of that, and now
we're, as he was there teaching in the synagogue, it tells us
in Luke chapter 13, verse 10, we'll read these few verses here
and then we'll leap into our lesson. In Luke 13, 10, Jesus
was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman
which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed
together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus
saw her, he called her to him, and said, Woman, thou art loosed
from thine infirmity." And that's the title of our message today,
Thou Art Loosed. What a great message from the
Lord to hear, thou art loosed. In verse 13, And he laid his
hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified
God. And the ruler of the synagogue
answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the
Sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in
which men ought to work, and them therefore come and be healed,
not on the Sabbath day. And the LORD answered him, and
said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath
loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away
to watering? And ought not this woman, being
a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound low these eighteen
years, be loose from this bond on the Sabbath day? And when
he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed.
And all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that
were done by him." Boy, what a tremendous description here
of what's taking place. And some things that we could
consider as we look at this, The greater context here is in
regard to the purpose of Christ and being here to accomplish
the redemption of the church. That was why He was here, not
just to do things and do miracles and whatnot. His purpose was
the redemption of the church, and He was about doing that.
And as He went on His way, He was accomplishing that, and
it's important for us to kind of, in the broad context here,
to remember that all the people that we learn about in the Scriptures,
everything that was going on was in connection to the redemption
of the church. We turn to Acts 4, verses 27
and 28 for a reminder of that. where it's written, for of a
truth against thy holy child Jesus whom thou has anointed
both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people
of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand
and thy counsel determined before to be done. So nothing is random,
nothing is by accident, everything is according to God's purpose
and this woman was there with this malady by God's purpose. He was there in this synagogue
teaching on the Sabbath day and in a few of our other lessons
we looked at some of the things that he might have been teaching
where they handed him the role in Luke chapter 4, and he read
from Isaiah, and he said, this day, this scripture fulfilled
in your ears. And, you know, teaching on the
Sabbath day, he might have even been teaching them what the Sabbath
was really about. And, you know, we kind of covered
that as we looked through Hebrews chapter 4, the end of chapter
3 and chapter 4, where it talks about entering into the Lord's
rest, and we'll look at that here in a bit. But here this
woman has an infirmity 18 years, bowed down by the impact of the
infirmity, and she's there by God's purpose. I thought it was
interesting that she was going to, even in her condition, she
was going to the synagogue. going to where she supposedly
would have expected help. And yet, up until this day, there
wasn't any help. But today, by God's ordaining,
there was help. And how many these days go to
a religious establishment and they seek relief and get none. And not only that, they're not
directed to the one who can provide relief. There was Christ right
there, and the rulers of the synagogue didn't say, you need
to talk to Him. You need to get alone with Him.
He can take care of your problem. And no, that was the opposite. Their reaction was the opposite.
And you know, when a person goes to a house of God or they tune
in to hear us via sermon audio or Zoom or whatever, they have
a right to expect to hear about God. about the One who saves
His people from their sins. They have a right to hear about
Him only who can help. Because there's salvation in
none other. Salvation belongs to Him. You know, in a couple of lessons
back, we read a passage from Matthew 23, verse 13, where it's
one of those times when the Lord was pronouncing, woe on the scribes
and the Pharisees. And He says, woe unto you scribes
and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pretend to be religious,
but you just worship me with your
lips, but not with your heart. He says, you shut up the kingdom
of heaven against men. and you don't go in yourselves,
and you don't suffer them that are entering to go in. You're
a block. You're a hindrance. And what
an awful proclamation against those that are in that position,
even in this very day. People would go to a place where
they might expect to hear the gospel, and yet they'll hear
some social argument or some political diatribe or many things,
none of which have to do with the gospel. And none of those
things help. The only thing that makes any
impact on anything is the gospel. And that's what God uses. God chose by the foolishness
of preaching. And and not from well, here's
a list of stuff you should do and here's a list of stuff that
you shouldn't do or here's some political events that are going
on in the world that that should make you afraid or all those kind of things that
there's probably endless sermons going on today about Ukraine
and those kind of things. But you know, it's the gospel
of Jesus Christ coming down to save his people from their sins.
That's what makes a difference. And so it's the responsibility
of those tasked to feed the sheep and to declare the gospel, to
tell out in clear terms the almighty God who alone can and does save
his people. You know, Yvonne and I were traveling
the other day and we, I couldn't remember just where it was, but
it came to me this morning that we were driving through downtown
and there was a fellow that frequents the post office downtown and
he's down there hours and hours and hours every week holding
up various signs about end times and this and that. And he held
up a sign the other day that said, God is limited by sin. I just, I couldn't believe my eyes.
What kind of a nincompoop thing was that to say? God is limited
by sin. Well, that is not, he is not
limited by sin. If he was, we're all in real
serious trouble here. So, but you know what? It's just impossible to comprehend
the preposterous nature of that message, but people like that
can only tell what they know. If they don't know the gospel,
they can't declare that. If he knew the gospel, he'd be
holding up a different sign. But, you know, I don't know where
he attends to worship, but who would enter there to hear about
someone who could do nothing about the problem of sin because
they're limited? Who would do that? I mean, what
sense would that make? That woman would not go to the
synagogue if she hadn't had some kind of a hope that maybe something
could be done. And of course, the condition
that she was in, it's a metaphor for the condition that we're
all in. We're all bowed down by the weight of sin. We're all
in that malady. You know, saying that God is
limited and He can't do anything, it's just, it's horrendous. And
such language, it promotes a false idea that if God is limited because
of sin, then really it's kind of up to you to remedy that somehow. before you can come to Him for
salvation. You need to stop doing whatever
you're doing. I remember a couple of lessons
ago, we had the case of the blind man. And the disciples said,
well, who did sin? This man or his parents that
he was born blind? So they had their natural view
of things was in a prior life this guy had sinned because he
was born blind so he had to have committed some sin before he
was born in order who did sin this man or his parents that
he was born blind and or his parents committed some kind of
heinous sin and that was their punishment that they had a blind
child but the lord says neither this man nor his parents sinned
not generally speaking, but they didn't commit a sin that was
attributed to this malady. He said this man is here because
so that the work of God can be manifest. He's here for a purpose
of God Almighty at this very point in time to intersect with
the one who could help him, the one that And we all have that
picture of that spiritual blindness that that typifies and how he
erased that. He put the clay on his eyes,
spit on the dirt, and made some clay and put it on the guy's
eyes. And then he said, now go wash in the pool of Siloam. And
he came away seeing. And then he glorified God because
of what was done. saying that God is limited, because
that's just not found in the Bible. It is just not, and what
is found in the Bible is God who's not limited by anything,
because it says he is almighty. He is the Lord God Almighty,
and you know, he's the God that applies 100% of his unlimited
attributes and unlimited abilities to save His people from their
sins, and He is 100% successful in that endeavor. He is not limited.
Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. That's
what the Bible says. So, you know, there's a scripture
in Isaiah chapter 59. We could just read this one verse
there in Isaiah 59. It says, the Lord's hand is not
shortened that it cannot save. And that is the exact opposite
of what that fellow's sign said. Neither is his ear heavy that
it cannot hear. And you know, recently our pastor brought our
attention recently to the gospel record of John in chapter 6.
And in that context of that block of scripture in John chapter
6, many people, there was multitudes that heard and saw, they heard
Christ talk, they heard Him tell about why he was there, and they
saw what he did, all the miracles that he produced. But most of the time we find
it was not mixed with faith in all those who heard and saw. In John chapter 6, after he did
all those miracles, and then he brought a bit of biblical
truth, many turned and walked no more with him. That's John
6, 6, 6, that number. He said, well, that's a hard
saying. We don't like that sovereignty issue one bit. And they turned
and left. And then he turned to the disciples,
and they said, well, are you going to go too? They said, well,
you have the words of life and you're not going anywhere and
how wonderful that is. But many saw and heard, but not
being mixed with faith, it had no impact on them other than
it was maybe somewhat entertaining to see what he did and hear the
latest. They could talk about it at the
water cooler the next day at work. Oh, did you hear all the
things that Jesus did? That was crazy. He said, I'm the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, but he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But
I said unto you that you have seen me and believe not. Isn't
that interesting? He said, you've seen me and yet
you don't believe. They would not. and could not
see or believe, and consequently they would not or could not come
to Him. Because He said, Come unto Me
with all ye that are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest. All the Father giveth Me though
shall come to Me. That makes the difference right
there. And him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out
from the rest of that in John chapter 6 verse 37. And what
a difference that makes. And you know, he came to save
sinners. He's not limited. He wrote to
Timothy and he said, this is a faithful saying, worthy of
all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, of whom I am chief." That was his view of
himself. I'm the chief sinner. And he,
I'm sure, just ate on him all the time. He'd say, you know,
I persecuted the church, and I hauled away many in change
to be brutalized and sometimes even killed. And he says, but
I did it in ignorance, but you know, it doesn't help much. But
God used it according to his purpose to save much people alive. And so he has all power. You know, he's not limited. In
Matthew 28, 18 says, all power is given unto me. All power.
How can you be limited if you have all power? So back to our
text in Luke chapter 13 here regarding this woman that's bowed
down. She's just stooped over and can't
look up. And boy, what a picture. What
a picture of us in our natural condition in sin. She had no
ability. to raise up. She had no ability
to raise up from this infirmity. Said she could in no wise lift
up herself. And that's how we are by nature
before the Lord has mercy on us. We can't lift up ourselves
from there in Luke 13, 11. You know, we find here that the next thing that
we read is Jesus saw her, saw her as His. He calls her a daughter
of Abraham there in verse 16. He saw her and called her to
Him. And you know, that's what we
find, how He works things. She was a daughter of Abraham,
but not just by natural lineage. We've covered that topic many
times. He said, God is able to raise
up stones unto Abraham here. And Paul said, just because you're
Abraham's seed doesn't count for anything. It's the seed of
the promise. That's what counts. In Romans
9 and 6, he says, not as though the word of God had taken none
effect, for they are not all Israel, which are of Israel.
Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all
children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is,
they which are the children of the flesh. These are not the
children of God, but the children of promise are accounted for
the seed." And her issue, you know, I just have a mental picture
of him teaching in the synagogue, and he sees this, one of his
elect, one of his sheep, one of his church bowed down by this
malady. And he looks at her and says,
she's mine. I'm going to fix her. Her plight was obvious, a physical
malady, which really was just a metaphor for the underlying
problem of sin. And, you know, maybe to the world
it just seemed like bad luck or another case of who did sin,
this woman or her parents. And, you know, in religion often
the focus is on the cause and the remedy that they prescribe
is to the physical and not to the spiritual need. Well, if
you wouldn't go out playing cards or going to the movie show or
the dance hall or something, you wouldn't be in that condition.
Stop doing that and you'll be okay. Stop your social problems
and then maybe that'll help your spiritual. It's quite the opposite
way around. If you take care of the spiritual
issues, then the rest of the things resolve themselves. It's
what we find. The Lord said, come unto me all
ye that are heavy. They're labor and heavy laden,
and I'll give you rest. And you know, it was that Sabbath
day, the day of rest. that He was teaching. And here
we have a situation where He's teaching not only in word, but
in deed. He's doing the very thing that
He was there for. He goes to them. He goes to this
synagogue, and this woman is there. And you know, we find
often in the Scriptures there that that he goes to them. Sometimes he goes to them on
the shore, like that maniac from Gedare, and sometimes in the
workplace, like Levi the Publican. He went way out of his way to
go over to this tax booth on a main road where Levi worked
and taxed people coming into the area. He taxed them for the Romans.
And one time he went to the tree and looked up and said, Zacchaeus,
You come down. I must abide at your house today. So sometimes He goes to us on
the road like those ones in Emmaus. And He comes to us. And when He did, He took care
of our problem. He said, Woman, thou art loosed.
Hallelujah. When the Lord does that for His
people, they just say, oh, thank God. And that's what she did.
You know, it says she glorified God. When He cured her and she
was able to raise up and see who it was that looked Him in
the face and that did that for her, she glorified God. And that's what we do. In Psalm
107, verse 1 and 2, it says, Oh, give thanks unto the Lord,
for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever. Let the redeemed
of the Lord say so. Isn't that just what she did?
I think Brother Mike did a sermon, a message on that. Let the redeemed
of the Lord say so. It's available there on Sermon
Audio. And that's what he said. If the Lord has done a work in
your life, then say so. Well, here's what I did. I do all these things, all these
rules I've kept from my youth up. What else do I need to do? But when we're redeemed of the
Lord, we say, He did it all. He took care of it. Thank you,
God. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so, whom He hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy. And
further on down there in that chapter, 107 verse 20, He said,
He sent His word and healed them. and delivered them from their
destructions. And anybody that's had that happen
to them knows just what that means. They're just so thankful. They just give Him the praise
and the glory for taking care of their issue. In our normal condition, we just
wouldn't go there. Well, I can handle this on my
own. I can take care of my own problems. You know, in this woman, in her
former condition, she couldn't look up. And now she can and
did look up and saw who made her whole. And we look at this
in the broader context here, I wanted to look at, too, the
purpose of healing on the Sabbath. You know, the Lord knew that
that was going to just put these religious folks over the edge.
But that had to happen. They were gathered together for
to do what the Lord God Almighty determined before to be done.
And they didn't need much encouragement. Every time he did something,
they saw their power dwindling away. And they saw their base eroding away. And it was just, they didn't like
it. They were losing control. And
that meant more to them than the Word of God being declared
and published. And the view of this act by the religious
leaders was a hypocritical view, the Lord calls it. Hypocrite,
an actor, you know, one that says one thing and does another.
And they were there for worship, They were in a house of God for
worship. And they appointed someone each Sabbath to read the scroll, read the scripture.
And then they would all nod and agree. And yet they didn't believe
much of it. And not attracted to Christ by
this miracle. Isn't that amazing? You hear
this woman, 18 years she'd probably been coming to this synagogue,
and 18 years she was all hunched over, couldn't raise herself
up. And with a couple of words and
a touch, Jesus raised her up, healed her, and yet they didn't
say, Thank God for that. They didn't glorify God. They
said, you know what? If you want to be healed, you
should come on a work day. There's six days in the week.
Those are the days when it's legitimate to come here and be
healed. Not today. And what a hypocritical view
of that. And they were incensed by this
act being exercised on the Sabbath day. And their word was, come
and be healed on a regular work day, not the Sabbath. And I was reading that, and I thought,
well, the way they approach it, well, you can just come here
and be healed any old day you want, but not today. You know, the Lord said the Sabbath
was made for the men and not men for the Sabbath. They had
things kind of turned around. It just became a ceremonialized
ritual. And you're not allowed to do
any work on the Sabbath. You're not allowed to do anything.
You can't carry any load. You can't do anything of a work
nature. But they missed the spiritual
point of what that was signifying. And it was signifying, in Hebrews
it tells us, the rest that God entered into after the creation.
And it says, in six days He created everything, and on the seventh
day He rested. And in Hebrews it tells us about entering into
His rest. If you'd like to turn over there
to Hebrews chapter 4, We'll just read a bit of that. It tells us so much about that. You know, it starts at the point
where the people were taken out of Egypt and all those people that were in
the wilderness. And yet, the Scriptures say they
all died in the wilderness except just a couple because of unbelief. In Hebrews 4.1 it says, let us
therefore fear lest a promise being left of us of entering
into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it. For
unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them. As well
as those people in the wilderness, they had the gospel, they had
the cloud by day and the fire by night and the tabernacle and
all of the elements of that that declared the Lamb of God, all
those things, and yet the word preached did not profit them,
not being mixed with faith and them that heard it, not being
mixed with total reliance on Christ. It was just something
to do, it was just an assignment, it was just works. for the most
of them and says, for we which have believed do enter into rest. As he said, I've sworn in my
wrath if they shall enter into my rest. Although the works were
finished from the foundation of the world, he's the lamb slain
from before the foundation of the world. And he said, the Lord gave him
a people before the foundation of the world. For he spake in a certain place
of the seventh day on this wise, and God did rest the seventh
day from all his works. And in this place again, another
place where it's written in Scripture, if they shall enter into my rest,
seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein,
and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because
of unbelief, And again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David,
Today, after so long a time, as it is said, Today, if you
will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had
given them rest, then would he not afterwards have spoken of
another day. There remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God. For he that is entered into his
rest, anybody that's entered into God's rest, He also has
ceased from his own works as God did from his." And that's
what, in just a few sentences, he clears up all this Sabbath
craziness that it was just a picture of not trying to do your own
works for salvation. It's not of works lest man should
boast. It's not of him that willeth,
not of him that runneth. It's God that showeth mercy.
And so if we enter into the total reliance on Christ for salvation
and cease from our own works, we've entered into that Sabbath.
Rest as it's called here and and we've ceased from our own
works and When that's a hard thing to admit That's a hard. That's a hard thing to say. Well, I There's nothing I can do it's
up to God and And we trust him to accomplish that because he
is almighty and and and and he is 100% successful So this picture of him healing
on the Sabbath day, there was a dual purpose there. It emphasized
this message of entering into his rest. It emphasized that
he was there for a purpose. And it emphasized the natural
nature of those that were in charge. that they needed to be
at a point where they were going to have Him arrested, crucified,
and killed. And that's what it tells us in
Acts 2.23 and Acts 4, we just read. They were all there for
the purpose of delivering Him up to be the sacrifice for the
people that God gave Him in their place. So we have all these things
rolled into one one spot there in this scripture. Healing on the Sabbath day, healing
one of his own, she glorifying God because He did only what
He could do and the religion didn't help her much. They were
actually anti-help to her. Not only did they not help her,
they were opposed to the help that she could get. Boy, you
know, that's just one thing that we always say here is that the
gospel is the only thing that helps, and it's our job to promote
the gospel, to declare it out in clear terms that Christ died
for the ungodly. Even when we were yet sinners,
Christ died for the ungodly, and He came and dwelt among men
for that very purpose. And as this woman showed, He
just healed her in an instant, and she was made straight. Interesting
term there. She was not bent down in the
bondage of her malady. She was made straight, lifted
up out of the pit. So we'll stop there, and next
time we'll take up with our next block of Scripture in Luke chapter
13. And until next time, thank you
for your attention. To those out there in Sermon
Audio, thanks for tuning in. We'll talk to you later. Until next time, be free.