Turn with me in your Bibles,
please, to Luke chapter 13, the Gospel of Luke chapter 13. While you're turning there, let
me just make mention of a couple of things. Next Sunday, Mother's
Day Sunday, the pastor and Shirley want us to meet with them after
the service at their house for a dinner. They'll supply the
meat, we supply everything else in our presence, and just have
an enjoyable time in the afternoon. There'll be no evening service
next Sunday. Also, we'd like to do a little
something for Donnie and Shirley and their new house, almost like
new beginnings in a place like that. The pastor has asked several
people if they would sell their pressure washer. We'd like to
just go ahead and get him one. And with your help, we can do
that. It's sort of a housewarming gift,
but that kind of leaves Shirley out unless she gets out there
and pressure washes too. But if we get enough in, and
I think we probably will, if we get enough in, we'll just
give her the cash that's left over and she can buy whatever
she wants for the house. How's that sound? What we'll
do is the next two or three services here, keep it in mind, and if
you designate a gift, give it to Brad, and Brad will hold it
for us, and we'll make sure that they get those things. Now he's
been wanting a pressure washer so much, I may have to tell Shirley,
Don't let him buy one this way. Find some way to keep him from
it. So I may have to tell that much about it. But anyways, keep
those things in mind if you would. The Gospel of Luke chapter 13,
we're gonna begin with verse 10. We'll read down through verse
17. And he, the Lord Jesus, was teaching
in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath, which according to chapter
four is one of his customs. His custom was that he would
be in those synagogues and teaching and preaching. Verse 11, and
behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity 18
years and bowed together and could in no wise lift up herself. That's where I will be getting
my topic, my title this morning. She could not lift herself, neither
can we. There is no way a man can lift
himself up to God. You can take all the bootstraps
you want, might yank on them, but you'll never lift yourself
up to God. Verse 12, And when Jesus saw
her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art
loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her,
and immediately she was made straight, and looked the Lord Jesus right
in the eye. For the first time she could
lift herself, and for the first time when the Lord had lifted
her up, she looked to Him. 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, in them therefore come and be healed,
and not on the Sabbath day. The Lord then answered him and
said, 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, lo, 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. Let's pray. Our Father, we come to you in
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, our Redeemer, our
Intercessor sitting at the right hand of God for us. the one who shed his blood for
us. For we, for us sinners, we did not deserve it. And as
the songwriter put it, how can it be that you would love a sinner
like me? But you did. And you loved us
with an everlasting love. From all eternity, before this
world was made, before the foundation of the world, you were the Lamb
of God that taketh away the sin of the world. And then coming
into the world, they called your name Jesus, for you shall save
your people from their sin. Oh, how thankful we are. We're
thankful, Lord, for the promise that you made that where two
or three are gathered, you'd be there in the midst. And by
faith, we see you here with us this morning. And as your custom
was to go to the synagogue, we pray, Father, that you would
look out among us, see the sons and daughters of Abraham, some
that don't know that they are, Oh, Father, we pray this morning
that you would reveal yourself to them through the Word of God,
through the preaching of the Word of God. Lord, I want more than anything
to glorify your name this morning. That's why we came here, to praise
and honor our God, and then to be a blessing to your people
through the truth of the Gospel. We pray, Father, for your blessings
upon our pastors and Shirley as they travel back from Iowa. We pray that you would keep them
safe, bring them back to us safely. And we pray, Father, that we
might honor, glorify, and praise your name this morning in our
service. There are folk of our church
who are hurting, physically, financially, whatever. Lord,
be a compass, be a strength. You are our compass. You are
our strength. And the joy of the Lord is our
strength this morning. Bless us, we pray, in Jesus'
name. Amen. Turn with me again please to
the Gospel of Luke chapter 13. I do trust this will be a blessing
to you as it was to me in my study and learning anew, afresh,
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. He went to a synagogue. And there he was teaching, preaching. Always there was the reading
of the Word of God. I don't know if you've ever been
to a modern-day synagogue. I had the privilege many, many
years ago to go to one just to see what it was like. Very interesting. Didn't want to go back, but interesting. They read from a scroll in Isaiah. They sang psalms, and most of
it was in Hebrew, so I didn't understand a thing I was hearing
or whatever. And then the rabbi got up and
did some kind of explanation of what was being read. Well,
Nehemiah started that many, many, many years ago when they were
just coming back to the land, and Nehemiah brought the word
of God out, And the people stood from early morning till noon,
listening to the reading of the word. And then from noon to another
portion of time, the leaders got up and gave the
sense of the word, gave them the understanding. And so that's
what they did in the synagogue. They sang the Psalms, the Psalms
of David, the Psalms about our Lord, and they praised though
maybe not as a true daughter or son of
Abraham, they praised the one true God. And they may not have
understood exactly what was going on because many of those in the
synagogue didn't want to have anything to do with our Lord
Jesus Christ. But by God's providence, God's providence, All things
work together for good to them that love God, to them that are
called according to his purpose. There at the synagogue was one
lady. We don't have her name. There
must have been many at that synagogue, but there's one that's singled
out. It wasn't the richest person
that was there who may have given great tithes and offerings to
the synagogue. It wasn't the prestigious that
was there that our Lord looked upon, though there may have been
some prestigious Jews who were in that congregation. But it
was one lady who had an infirmity of 18 years, and she was bowed
down so that she could not lift herself. There was no way that
she could. 18 years she had been coming
to that synagogue. 18 years she came to do what
the others were doing. at the synagogue to hear the
reading of scripture and someone give the sins, the singing of
the Psalms of David. For 18 years she had been coming
and she could not lift herself. The only thing she could look
at was the ground. I don't know how far she was
bent over, but she was bent over enough that she could not lift
herself. and our Lord saw her. He fixed His eyes on her. He fixed His love and His grace
and His mercy on one individual. Oh, that God, our Savior, the
Spirit of God, would come through the midst of us and fix His eyes
His love and His mercy on an individual here who is either
a daughter or a son of Abraham. We'll talk about this as we go
on. But there's something I wanted you to notice before we get right
into the text. Something I wanted you to notice
here. The word believe, believe. of faith, that word is not even used in
this story. Did you notice that? Many times,
as with a blind man, do you believe that I can do this? And they
say, yeah Lord, we believe. The leper, do you believe that
I can take care of this? Well, yes, Lord, I believe. There's
not once a mention of that in the story. And the point I'm
making is this. This was done through the faith
of Christ. Galatians 2.20. I am crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. I live by the faith of the Son
of God who gave himself for me and died for me. Now, I'm not saying faith is
not used in this story. I'm saying faith is not mentioned
and for the reason that it's the faith of Christ. He saw. He looked on. He saw what was going on. He was the one who makes willing
in the day of his power. Faith is given in exercise when
we are brought to the end of ourselves. I don't know if you
remember I think it was three of our conferences ago, Brother
Greg Elmquist preached on faith. And when he preached on faith,
I'm going to give you his explanations here. They're not mine, but they're
good. He said, faith is what comes
to us when we are brought to the end of ourselves. We have no way to go. No place
to go. We have only one person. It was predetermined here by
the Lord Jesus Christ. When we're brought to the end
of ourselves. Then. We can trust him. It's an emptying of cells. Faith
is the gift of God. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Faith is the gift of God. I'm sure faith is in this story, but it's not mentioned. You see, He gets all the glory. He gets all the glory. He should
get all the glory. The Lord says, believe, so I
believed. The Lord says, seek my face,
so I sought his face. The Lord says, come unto me,
so I came to him. The Lord says, follow me, so
I followed him. The Lord delights in mercy, and
oh Lord, be merciful to me today. I need his mercy. The Lord said,
I loved you with an everlasting love. So I love him. The scripture says for us to
give glory to our Lord Jesus Christ. So I glorify him. And he is the only one worth
any glory that can be given. He's the only one. who can give
us faith, and He's the only one who... By the way, once we get
that faith, it can't be lost. We just keep on believing. We
can't help ourselves. We just believe the truth, because
the truth makes us free. We believe the Son, because the
Son makes us free. We believe. We trust. and we
just keep on trusting. Every day, His, uh, compassions
fail not. They're renewed every morning.
Every day, we keep on trusting in Him. Two or three things I want us
to see from this passage itself. In verse 11, it says, And behold,
there was a woman which had in spirit of infirmity 18 years
and was bound together and could in no wise lift up herself. I want you to notice the inability
of this woman. She could not do a thing for
herself. She'd been like this 18 years.
Everybody had seen her like this for 18 years. She had probably
been coming to this synagogue for 18 years. 18 years. Can you imagine an infirmity
like that for 18 years? Time and time and time. The only thing you could look
at was the floor or the earth beneath your feet. 18 years, she could not lift
herself. She was without strength. That's
what the word infirmity means. She was without strength. And when we were yet without
strength, Christ died for the ungodly. Amen. That's the strength
I need. That's the strength men and women
need as they think about standing and facing a sovereign, holy,
perfect God. Well, we're weak. We're weak
in the flesh. There's nothing we can do for
ourselves. There's no way to save ourselves. Mom and Dad can't
do it. I can't do it. Friends can't
do it. Only God can cause a man or a woman to
be born again. Only God can produce a new nature
within you. We can't do it ourselves. Why,
from head to foot, from the sole of the feet even to the head,
there is no soundness in us but wounds and bruises and putrefying
sores, the Scripture says. That's the picture of us. This
infirm woman is a picture of us. She had no ability to help
herself. We have to come to that place. If you think that you have somewhat
to offer God, let me just tell you, you don't. We start at the bottom, we stay
at the bottom. He starts at the top, and He
stays at the top. All glory then goes to Him. 18 years, all our lives, from
birth till now, the only hope we ever had is Jesus Christ,
the Lord. We're bound together. We're stooped
over. All we can see is the ground
underneath us. All we can see is the earth.
We're of the earth, earthy. She could no wise lift herself. God demands perfection. God demands holiness. Be ye perfect, our Lord Jesus
said, for I am perfect. Quoted several times from the
Old Testament, be ye holy, for I am holy. God demands righteousness. And none of us have any of that. Until, until we trust in the
Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation He accomplished. Then He makes
us perfect. Then He makes us holy. Then He
makes us righteous. At this point, all my righteousness
are filled to the brim. But all His are perfect and holy.
And if we stand in Him, we are the same, perfect and holy. You see, Paul says in Romans
chapter 3, there's none righteous, no, not one. There's none that
doeth good. There's none that understandeth.
There's none that seeketh after God. I believe I'll take God
and His Word. None of us do. Until He reveals Himself. To
whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Until He reveals Himself. And
we see Him. But that's not even this story
here. Oh, it's part of it. He saw her. He saw her. He looked upon her. She was bowed together. As a
matter of fact, down in verse 16, it says, And ought not this
woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound low these
eighteen years? Satan bound. We're bound by the
God of this age, the principalities of this world. But you know what? Our Lord Jesus
spoiled the principalities and powers. He triumphed over them,
the scripture says. The last Adam could not be defeated. but he defeated the powers that
be. Satan may bind and blind, but
our Lord can loose and bring sight. That's how wonderful he
is. Now the kicker is in verse 16,
a daughter of Abraham, a daughter of Abraham. Only the Lord could
have known this. Hey, that whole synagogue was
full of Jews. But there was one that he said
was a daughter of Abraham. There was a difference. That whole synagogue, full of
Jews, but one, a daughter of Abraham. Only the Lord could
know this. Only the Lord knows who they
are and how they're bound by Satan, by sin, by their inability. And they shall hear His voice. He not only saw her, He spoke
to her. He said something to her. Our only hope is in the Lord.
and that's outside of ourselves. Nothing we have can cause us
to hope. All that he has is hope. Abraham's seed. If ye be Christ,
Paul said, then ye be Abraham's seed. Not all those who are Jews
are actual Jews. Only those have been born again. Now some are not. Our Lord Jesus
said to some of the religious leader, if you were Abraham's
children, you would believe me. And later on in that same chapter,
he said, you're of your father, the devil. What a wonderful picture of grace
is given to us here. First of all, we see the inability
of this woman. Pictures our inability before
our God. But I want you to see something
else here. Someone else here. The incomparable Christ. The
incomparable Christ. He looked at her. He spoke to
her. He laid his hands on her. He
touched her. And immediately she was loosed
and stood upright. And immediately she looked her
Savior in the face. She had the rare privilege that
they had of seeing our Lord Jesus by sight. We see Him today by faith, but
then faith is gonna be turned aside, isn't it? One of these
days we're gonna see Him face to face and forever be with our
Lord. He came to this infirm woman. He came into the world to seek
and to save that which was lost. He came to this infirm woman.
He came, God came in the flesh for His people. We call it the
incarnation. He lived a sinless life. He was the perfect sacrifice. He died in the stead of his own
people. His blood was shed for the remission
of their sins. He came to his own. And if the Lord is in the midst
of us here, Oh, we trust that He will see
you. He will speak to you. He will
lay His hand spiritually upon you. He'll touch you this morning. He saw her. Oh, Lord, look upon
me. Look thou upon me and be merciful
unto me, David said. Oh, Lord, speak to me and be
merciful to me. Oh, may I hear your voice. And you
know what? Paul said, faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the word of God. Are you hearing the word of God?
We're talking about the grace of God. We're talking about the
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. He laid his hands on her. Oh,
Lord, lay your hands on me. Oh, please. And you know, when he
lays his hand on us, when he touches us, he has to reach down. Because that's where we are.
Unable to help ourselves. And what's he do? He lifts us
right up. Lifts us up so that we can see
Him face to face. When He laid His hands on Him,
this incomparable Christ, how powerful, how mighty, how tender
He was to her. And immediately, Verse 13, and
immediately she was made straight. What a sight in a congregation. Immediately she was made straight
and she glorified God. By the way, this is the first
time she ever really glorified God. If this was the time when
she was born again, saved, Because if we're going to glorify God
and worship Him, we must worship Him in spirit and truth. And
she had something to worship Him about, didn't she? She was straightened up. She
was made upright. For it made Him to be sin for
us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Christ. That we might be made upright. before the Lord. Immediately she was made straight. Lift up your eyes unto the hills
from which cometh your help. Your help cometh from the Lord
which made heaven and earth. She lift up her eyes and could
see our Savior. We do this now by faith. God
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He touched her. Oh Lord, touch
me. Touch me today. The songwriter put it this way.
shackled by a heavy burden, neath the load of guilt and shame.
Then the hand of Jesus touched me, and now I am no longer the
same. Oh, He touched me, oh, He touched
me, and oh, the joy that floods my soul. Something happened,
and now I know. He touched me, and He made me
whole. When she rose up, she immediately
glorified God. All glory goes to Him. He that
glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. We glory in the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ. We glory not in the specific
piece of wood. We glory in the one who hangs
there for you and me. She glorified God by standing
upright. those righteousnesses that were
as filthy rags that we were and could know nothing about. Now
we have the righteousness of Jesus Christ and stand upright
and she is truly worshiping the Lord. There's the inability of the
woman. There's our incomparable Savior. In verse 14, There's
an indignant religious man, religious leader. 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. And not on a Sabbath day. He
had absolutely no regard for this woman. which makes you wonder
about whether he had any regard for anyone in the congregation
that was there, unless they were rich or prestigious, something
from which he could gain. He was a self-serving ruler.
He went by rules, regulations, and traditions. His church covenants
and laws and bylaws. Some of you have been there.
You know what I'm talking about. Man, if you don't do it exactly
the way that bylaw says, you're in a heap of trouble. Because they don't care about
God's people. More than the first cause, they don't
even care about God. The accusation, you healed on
a Sabbath day. He quoted the scripture. And
the scripture was quoted correctly. And how did Jesus answer him? Verse 15, then the Lord then
answered him and said, hypocrite, thou hypocrite. This woman is at rest. She had an infirmity for 18 years. She's standing upright. She's
now at rest. She's like those that I called
to, come unto me and rest, and I will give you rest. Come unto
me and I will give you rest. You see, the word Sabbath means
rest. I've given this woman rest, and
you're going to complain about it? You're going to be indignant
about it? You don't even know what the Sabbath means! Hypocrite! When you read through the Gospels,
you find out that the Lord Jesus had not one good thing to say
to religious leaders. Isn't that interesting? He called
them snakes, vipers, hippocrates. He did not mince words with them
in John chapter 8. They were going by the letter
of the law. When Lazarus was brought forth
out of the tomb, the Lord said, take his grave clothes off of
him. The Lord has been removing those
grave clothes from me for years. For 40 some years, I preached
just what this leader of the synagogue preached. The letter
of the law. Do, do, do, do, don't, don't,
don't, don't, or else. And the or else is, if you don't
comply with what I think is right, or what our church thinks is
right, or what our Bible thinks is right, we'll just put you
out. But our Lord was going by the
Spirit of the Lord. And the Spirit of, by the way,
He's the Lord of the Sabbath. Isn't it? He's the Lord of the
Sabbath. And the Sabbath was made for
man, not man for the Sabbath, our Lord Jesus said. He was going by the spirit of
the law. Hold your place there. We'll
be coming back to Luke chapter 13, but I want you to turn to
2 Corinthians chapter 3. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. I want
to read several verses here from 2 Corinthians chapter 3 to show
what our Lord Jesus was meaning. We're talking about the gospel,
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, the spirit of the law,
and I'll show you that here. 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verse
6, the Lord Jesus who has also made
us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter,
but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the
Spirit giveth life." Look down at verse 8. How shall
not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? The word
rather can be translated more, more glorious. Verse 9. For the ministration of condemnation
be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness
exceed in glory. There's something far exceeding
in glory. Verse 10. For even that which
was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of
the glory that excelleth. There is an excelling glory. What is it? Chapter 4, verse
3, But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost,
and whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them
which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ,
who is the image of God, should shine unto them. Our Lord was talking about the
Spirit of the Law, and the Spirit of the Law is the glorious Gospel
of Jesus Christ. This woman was much more valuable
than animals. That's what our Lord was saying. In verse 15, back in Luke 13. Luke 13, verse 15. Then the Lord
answered and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the
Sabbath loose his ox or his hare from the stall and lead him away
to watering? You'll do something good for
your animals. You'll water your animals on
the Sabbath day. But then you talk about healing,
doing something good, something wonderful on the Sabbath. Well, it says in verse 17, And when he had said these things,
all his adversaries were ashamed. Can you just see those religious
leaders hanging their heads? Now, they don't hang their heads
around us. What are we? But around the Lord, when He
answers them, He answers with the Word of God. And that's why
at the end of the chapter it says, And all the people rejoiced
for all the glorious things that were done by Him. Here's inspired
praise. Inspired praise. Look what our
Lord has done! Look what He did for you! how
He looked to you. He saw you. He spoke to you. He laid His hands upon you. He
touched you. Look to Him. And when you look
at Him, you can't help but praise the Lord and honor the God of
salvation who accomplished salvation for us. Help but praise Him for
that Word that's forever settled in heaven that will never return
void. You can't help but praise Him
for the accomplished work that He did for us there on the cross
some 2,000 years ago. You can't help but praise Him
for Him going to ascending to His Father and sitting at the
right hand of God and interceding for His own. You can't help but
praise Him and thank Him and enjoy all the wonderful benefits
that He has given. You can't help but praise Him
for His majesty, for His might, for His holiness, for His sovereignty,
for all the glorious things that are done by Him. Oh, what a Savior! What a Savior! What shall I do to be saved?
Paul answered the Philippians, Jailer, believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved. He's seeking His own. That's
why He came. seeking to save that which was
lost. Is he looking for you? Is he seeking for you? Does he
see a son or daughter of Abraham in need in this place? One last passage and I close. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
61. Very familiar, Isaiah chapter
61 and verse 1. Mark quotes this and Luke. quotes this passage. Isaiah 61, verse 1. Our Lord said, the spirit of
the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to
preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind
up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and
the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord, the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all that mourn." That's why he's here. That's what he's saying. That's why he's looking. That's
why he wants to touch. to lay hands on. As He spoke, and He did. Heavenly
Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You, Lord, for Your
salvation that's been accomplished. The power of God unto salvation. O Lord, show us our inability Show us our incomparable Savior. Give us cause to glorify and
praise your name.