your Bibles with me this morning,
if you will, to Luke chapter 13, Luke chapter 13. And we're
certainly glad to see Herman. Just very, you know, he misses
a service. You know, something's up. He's
in the hospital for four or five days. Says he feels good. So
thankful. So thankful. And Shirley's redoing
the directory. And there's the directories out
there on the table. And if your address has changed,
your phone number's changed, or anything else changed, go
out there and make sure you got to put it on there. And please
do that. And dinner after church, hope
everybody stays. All right, Luke 13, let's start
reading in verse 10. And he 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 unto her, Woman, thou
art loosed from thine infirmity. 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,
and not on the Sabbath. The Lord then answered him, and
said, Thou hypocrite, doeth not each one of you on the Sabbath
lose 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. Luke 13 and we'll talk about
this woman that was crooked and the Lord made her straight. It
says in verse 10 that our Lord Jesus Christ was teaching in
one of the synagogues on the Sabbath day. The Sabbath day
for the Jews was from Friday night, Friday evening at six
o'clock until six o'clock Saturday evening. And they were to do
nothing on the Sabbath day. And here he was teaching in the
synagogue on the Sabbath day. Boy, it would have been wonderful
to have been sitting in that congregation that day to hear
our Lord Jesus Christ up teaching. And as the psalmist said, grace,
grace poured forth from his lips. Whenever our Lord Jesus Christ
was teaching and preaching, oh, grace poured forth from his lips. And our Lord Jesus, when he taught
and when he was speaking, he spoke with authority. They are
astounded that he had such authority. The scribes and Pharisees and
the Jews, they didn't have that authority. But when our Lord
Jesus Christ spoke, He spoke with authority. And yet, when
He was dealing with the weak and the infirm and the lost,
He always dealt with them not only with authority, but also
with great compassion. Our Lord Jesus Christ How many
times does it say in the Gospels that He being filled with compassion? And that word compassion means
that He could actually enter into whatever you are going through. We can have compassions towards
someone, but we can't actually enter in to what they're doing.
Our Lord could do that. And it was on the Sabbath. Our
Lord always went to worship wherever He is at on the appointed day. He always went. He went to honor
God. He went to hear the scriptures
read if he didn't read them. Or he went to preach or went
to do some work while he was there. But he always went on
the appointed time to the appointed place to worship, to worship.
And there was in this congregation of people, when our Lord Jesus
Christ was there, a woman, a woman, which had a spirit of infirmity
18 years as it was bowed together. And when she talked about bowed
together, she was bowed over at the waist, completely bowed
over at the waist, like this right here. That's the way she
was. She had to look like that. She couldn't even lift her head.
And she was in a very, very awful way. And there was this woman
in this congregation. She's probably very small. And
of course, she bent over, and you wouldn't see her if there
was a crowd around, being the way she was. but she wasn't probably
very noticeable because of her size. But the scripture says
in verse 12, and when Jesus saw her, our Lord Jesus Christ sees
people that none of the rest of us see. And he knows what
to do with people when he sees them. And you know, when our
Lord Jesus Christ, how many times has said he saw her or he saw
them move with compassion toward them? Well, he saw her as he
saw you, as he saw you, as he looking at you, as he got his
eye on you. Jesus is he looking out and said
looking at you and said what kind of condition you're in now
the miracles and our Lord performed a miracle this day the miracle
that our Lord Jesus Christ are Performed they're just pictures
every single one of them are just pictures of the greater
miracle of Him saving a soul, of loving a soul, loosing a soul,
saving His sheep. Every single miracle He did,
even in the Old Testament, they were pictures of what our Lord
Jesus Christ does for a soul in saving a soul, saving His
sheep, performing a miracle for them. And if we just see the
miracles, and there's a lot of people that do. The Pentecostals
and the Charismatic, all they're interested in is the miracles.
And they want to work miracles. And they talk about how God works
miracles. When you see a miracle in the
scriptures, they actually happen. But they were pictures to tell
us about a spiritual, something spiritual need that we have.
And we all have spiritual needs. And that's what he's, just like
Lazarus. Lazarus been dead four days. And they went and told
the Lord Jesus Christ, said, Mary and Martha sent word to
him, he whom thou lovest is sick. Well, our Lord Jesus waited four
days, four days before he went over there. Knowing that that
man had done been buried, Dunbin had a stone put over his grave,
but our Lord Jesus Christ went there to show what it's like
no matter how corrupt and how stinking and how awful a condition
a man is, no matter how much somebody else may say, Lord,
you love him. But when he gets corrupt, our
Lord Jesus just spoke and called his name and the dead came forth
wrapped in grave clothes. And that's to show us that our
Lord Jesus Christ is the only one that can call us from the
death, the death of our trespasses and sins. Nobody else can. I
can't. You can't call yourself. You
don't have the ability to do anything Godward. God's got to
do everything for you. And oh, and what about blind
Bartimaeus sitting by the wayside begging? That's what we were.
It had old rags on. We was blind. We had nothing
to give. If we get anything, we got to
ask somebody else for it, especially from God. And oh my, what do
you want, Bartimaeus? I will see. All right. Lord,
that's why we say, Lord, we want to see. We want to see you. We want to see your grace. We
want to see your power. We want to see your love. We
want to see your mercy. We want to see your salvation.
We want to see you do something for somebody that cannot do anything
for themselves. And then what about the time,
our Lord, all these miracles, just the pictures of what God
does for sinners. That bread and fish that He multiplied. was to show men and women that
He was the true bread which came down from heaven. They found
our Lord Jesus after He had fed about 5,000 people with five
loaves of bread and two fish and He fed all them people. And
they came back on the other side of the sea and they come and
they found Him. And you know what our Lord said
to them? He said, you seek Me because of the miracles. Not
because of the miracles, but you seek me because you're hungry
and I fed you with bread and I fed you with, and I fed you.
And he said, listen, don't you labor for that meat that perishes.
Labor for that bread that comes down from heaven. So you see
everything that our Lord Jesus did. And our Lord was saying
that life is not in meat and drink, but in me, in me. And oh, what about the impotent
man at Bethesda? laying there, laying there. Couldn't
get up. Somebody carried him over there
and he'd wait for the moving of the water. And he, before
he'd get ready to start crawling in there, somebody else get in
before him and it's over. Our Lord just walked by him one
day and looked at him laying there and he says, there's impotent
people everywhere. They're all there to get that
pool of water in Bethesda. And they looked down and he looked
down and he says, will you be made whole? He said, I have no
man to put me in that water. That's the first thing he thought,
the only place he could be made whole is getting in that water.
He said, sir, I have nobody to put me in that water. Our Lord
Jesus Christ said, that water ain't gonna do nothing for you.
But I say, rise up and take your bed and walk. To show us, beloved,
how impotent we are. Everything that our Lord did,
he did for people who could not do anything for themselves. And
he saw this woman. And he saw this woman. And oh,
here was this woman. You remember over at, I believe
it's Luke, Luke 9, I believe, maybe, that he was in a great
crowd and a woman rushed, pushed through and touched the hem of
his garment. He said, somebody has touched me because virtues
went out of me. Well, here it was a woman. That's
what it says. And behold, in verse 11, there
was a woman which had an infirmity and was bowed together and could
in no wise lift up. Oh my, she was crooked. That's
what she was. She was crooked. I've seen people,
you know, that goes bowed over. Carter Brown, he goes bowed over
bad. I mean, you know, he just, he's
been like that for years, walks like this here. But have you
ever seen him? She was bowed completely over
and she couldn't lift herself up. When she walks, all she can
see is the ground. She was in bad, bad condition. And here, I'll tell you something.
She wasn't like that when she was born. She wasn't like that
when she was born. She wasn't like that as a child.
And the Lord here said that she had an infirmity 18 years. So
whatever this was, it happened to her 18 years earlier. Whatever
her condition was, it happened 18 years before this time. And
our Lord said the saint had bound her, that's who had done it,
for 18 years. And he called it a spirit of
infirmity, said, you're infirmity. And oh my Lord, how our Lord
Jesus Christ, how he takes our infirmities upon himself. He
can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. And he was
touched with the feelings of this woman's infirmity. and she
was bowed down toward the earth, and she couldn't look up. She
couldn't even look up to see the Lord Jesus Christ. She couldn't
even see Him. She was down like this here,
and she just, you know, and she couldn't even see Him. And oh,
she was bowed down to the earth and couldn't look. And this is
what Satan has done to the whole human race, got us looking at
the earth. We're earthy. We look at the
earth. We look at the things of time and sense. We became
crooked. We became crooked toward God.
We became crooked toward the things of God. And we're bound. Paul told this, he says, a man
of God ought to be gentle, apt to teach, In meekness toward
those that oppose themselves, whom Satan takes captive at his
own will. And this woman here, she, here
she is. And this is what happened to
all of us. We don't, you know, when it talks
about fraud in the book of Proverbs, that means perverse. It means
crooked. And every member of the human race outside of Christ
is crooked. They're perverse. In fact, old
Barnard used to say, a man who won't trust Christ is insane.
What kind of man wants to perish? What kind of man wants to miss
Christ? What kind of man wants to go to hell? What kind of person
wants to be thrown out into outer darkness? And always bow toward
the earth. Our minds and our wills and our
affections and our emotions and our understanding is toward this
earth. Toward the things of what this
earth has to provide for us. Oh my, all of our will, everything. And I'll tell you, if God don't,
if the Lord Jesus Christ don't look on us, oh, we're in trouble. And not only that, but she crooked,
but she is helpless. What did you say? She could in
no way lift up herself. Couldn't even lift up. She couldn't
lift up. I'm sure people told her, I'm
sure her family said, straighten up. Go see a doctor. I'm sure
said that happened to her. She couldn't lift herself up.
She couldn't do it. She couldn't straighten up. That's
what they say. I'm going to straighten up my
life one of these days. Ain't that much straightening
in the world. The very fact that you think that you can straighten
it up, anybody thinks that they can straighten it up, shows you
just how crooked their thinking is. Ain't that right? And oh,
beloved, she is old. And here she was bound by Satan.
Now this doesn't mean she was possessed for 18 years by the
devil. It said he was bound. And you
know, she couldn't loosen herself. She couldn't save herself. She
couldn't set herself free. And then like this ruler of the
synagogue said in verse 14, he said, you know, you ought to
six days, you ought to work, and then the seventh come and
be healed, but not on the Sabbath day. Our Lord said, listen, you
know what? Don't every one of you all, if
you got an ass or an ox and you got him in a stall, don't you
take it out and take it over and get it watered and let it
water and let it get some to drink and don't you feed it?
And that's what he's saying here, said, listen, you worried about
your ox and you worry about your ass, but you don't care about
this woman and her condition. And oh, she was as bound as much
as anything in a stall. And if she gets out of that stall,
somebody's got to let her down. And if she gets set free, somebody
else got to do it for her. Oh, I'm telling you, no doubt
she tried to lift herself up. I'm sure she tried to lift herself
up. I'm sure she would lay in bed
and say, oh, listen, maybe tomorrow morning I'll get up and I'll
be able to straighten up. And here she was, she was in
the synagogue. She wasn't one of these people
didn't think about God. She wasn't one of these people
that she went. She was going just like our Lord
Jesus Christ. She went to the meeting house.
And oh my, no telling how many people would say, oh, I wish
you could straighten up. I wish you could straighten up.
But she could. And she was anxious. She was
anxious for something to happen to her. She didn't want to stay
in that condition in herself. No, no. She was in the synagogue
on the Sabbath day. And oh, look what it said. He
was teaching in the synagogues and one of the synagogues on
the Sabbath day. Don't even tell us which one. Don't tell us this
woman's name. It don't make no difference what
her name is. The Lord knew her name. He said, I know my sheep. He knew who she was. He knew
where she was. She knew what she was. And he
knew what it would take to do something to set her free. And
here she was. She often went to the house of
prayer. And you know how hard it would be for somebody to walk?
They didn't have no car, no bus, no bicycle, no walker. And she'd
get up out of her house and leave her house. And I don't know how
far she lived from the synagogue, but I know how hard it would
be for her to walk. How hard it would be on her body.
How hard it would be on her to even get dressed. Maybe somebody,
I don't know. But I know this, that she went to the house of
prayer. She went up to the synagogue. And you know, it was embarrassing
for her to see people watch her walk. Painful for her to walk. It was embarrassing for her to
walk into the services, to walk in there and sit down. She may
had to stand up. I don't know. How would she sit
down and her boat over? She would boat over. I don't
know how she done it, but I know this, that when she was there,
when she was there, look what it says. And when Jesus saw her, that place had all kinds of people
in it, but he was looking at one person. He saw one person. He saw one soul. And why? Why? Because she was the one
in that place who had a need that day. She was the one in
there that had a need. Look over here in Luke 9. Look
in Luke 9 verse 11. You know, our Lord Jesus said,
He come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. They
that are whole don't need a doctor, but those that are sick. And
here's a sick woman and a great physician. The Lord Jesus Christ
only does business with sinners. I told them up there at Shirley's
father's funeral. If you're not a sinner, you don't
need Christ. But if you're a sinner like me,
you've got to have Christ. And I'm not talking about somebody
that's just standing wanting to do something. I'm talking
about somebody that's got all power in heaven and earth. Somebody
that's got the ability to do anything that needs to be done. Look what he said here in verse
11. And the people, when they knew it, knew Lord Jesus Christ
was there, they followed him. He's going out into the desert.
And he received them and spake unto them of the kingdom of God,
and watch this, and healed them that had need of healing. That's
the only people who've done anything. And I tell you, if you don't
have a need, he ain't gonna do a thing in the world for you.
It's only people who has a need. A need of having sin put away.
A need of cleansing. A need of salvation. A need of
a new heart. The need of a mind that's darkened
to be enlightened. A will. You got to have a will.
And if you ain't got the will, but you can't change your own
needs. And that's why He said He came. He healed those who
had need of healing. Oh my, the sicker a man is, the
more he needs a doctor. The sicker a man is, the more
he needs a doctor. And this woman was sick, sick,
sick, sick. You know, I thought about this.
Here's a perfect illustration of it. The sicker a man comes,
the more he needs a doctor. People God said that we all gonna
die. Lord said it's inevitable. And
we know it. We all say we know it. But when
we go to a doctor and the doctor gives us the bad news that we're
not gonna live for this length of time or that length of time
or something, we act like we're surprised. Now, it's painful.
I'm not saying it's not painful. I'm not saying it don't bother
you. I'm not saying that. But why would you be surprised
that God said it was going to go no matter what way it is?
But the thing is that if you go out into eternity without
Christ, you'll go out with whatever infirmity you had. If this woman,
if Christ hadn't saw her, she'd have perished in that condition.
And Ben, I'm telling you, I'm telling you with all my heart,
If you don't care for your soul, I care for it. If you don't care
about your relationship with Christ, I care about it. If you
don't know nothing about your need of Christ and never trust
Him, I know you got a need. I just pray He'll make you know
you got a need. You know, my family don't care about Christ,
but I care for them, and I care about Christ and their relationship
with Christ. But oh, listen, look what it
says, and the Lord Jesus Christ saw her, and watch what He said.
He called her. She's there somewhere in that
synagogue, and he saw her. He looked back and saw her. He
said, come up here. That's one time he called somebody
to the front of the church. He called her to the front. Come
here. Called her. Called her. He is up teaching. She's back
there. He said, come here. Come here.
And oh my, could you imagine how she felt walking all boat
over and everybody watching her? And oh, and you know what? There's
a lot of people there, but he saw her. You know why she was
there? Because Christ was there. You
know why Christ was there? Because she was there. it didn't say what he said he
was just in one of the synagogues but it's like that woman at the
well he must needs go through Samaritan this was the time that
he was to meet this woman this was the time this woman was supposed
to meet the master this was the time when a needy sinner and
a blessed Savior would meet right on time, right at the right place,
right in the right conditions, everything. I tell you what,
our Lord Jesus Christ saw her, said, come here, come up here.
Oh my, and the scripture said they were found of him who sought
him not. She just come to the service.
She didn't have, and listen, our Lord Jesus Christ saw one
of his elect, saw one of his sheep, saw one for whom he died,
saw one that was given to him in the covenant of grace. saw
one that he loved with an everlasting love and you know what he said
to her the first of all he sought her out he was uh he was on he
was doing the work of the father sent him to do he was fulfilling
it he was seeking the lost he is seeking the helpless he was
seeking people who couldn't do his sheep his elect and look
what he said to the woman in verse 12 woman don't make a bit
of difference what her name is you know how many People will
never know our name, and it won't make a bit of difference. Not
a bit of difference. Not a bit of difference. Somebody
new comes in here, and we'll introduce ourselves and say,
now, I'm Donnie Bell. What did you say your name was?
And they'll tell you your name. But this woman, it didn't make
no difference what her name was. Only thing that made any difference,
she had a need, and Christ was able to meet that need. That's
all that made any difference. And oh my, he said, woman, you're
loosed. It's like he told about that
donkey that had him tied up. Go over and tell him the master
wants him. And loose him and let him go. He knows his way
home. He's never been there, but he'll
find it. And oh woman, thou art loosed
from thine infirmity. Oh my, oh, and look what it says
down in verse 16. He just said unto her, woman,
you're loosed from your infirmity. Oh, Paul said he asked the Lord
three times to save him from his infirmity. He said, my grace
sufficient for you. But he has already converted.
There's this woman with her infirmity. And look what it says, and ought
not this woman being a daughter of Abraham. What did he mean? She's a daughter of Abraham.
She's Abraham's spiritual seed. You know, it's not he's a Jew
that's outwardly, but he's a Jew that's one inwardly. Circumcision
of the heart. And you know, there are people
who Abraham had two children, two sons, but only those, the
spiritual seed was the ones as Abraham. That's why our Lord
Jesus, when he told those Jews, he said, those Pharisees and
that, he said, Abraham rejoiced to see my day and sought and
was glad. They said, you're not even 50
years old. And what do you mean you Abraham? He said, before
Abraham was, I am. And I tell you what, God made
an Abraham, promised Abraham, I'm going to save your seed.
I'm going to save, your children are going to be like the stars
in the heavens. That's your heavenly people.
And they're going to be like the sand on the sea. That's the
earthly people. And here's one of them daughters
of Abraham. And she has to be set free. She
was a daughter of Abraham when she was bound. And 18 years later,
she still is a daughter of Abraham. And our Lord Jesus Christ came
to do something for her. And oh, look over here in Luke
19. It's like that woman at the well. Must needs go through Samaria. Look what it says here in Luke
19. I think it's Luke 19. Nope, that's not it. Let's see. Yeah, yeah, here we go. Here
we go, yeah. Oh, look what our Lord Jesus
Christ, in verse five. Jesus came to the place, and
He always at the right place. He came to the place and He looked
up and listened again. So of course, saw Him. Saw who? Zacchaeus. Make case, come down
today. Today. If you're willing to ask
me and talk real nice to me and beg me enough, I'll come to your
house. No, no. He said, today I must. I'm going
home with you and you're going to be glad I go home with you.
And what's this? And he made haste and came down
and received him joyfully. And oh my. But anyway, look what
it says down here in verse nine. This is what I was talking about.
And Jesus said unto him, this day is salvation come to this
house for so much as he also is a son of Abraham. He told the Jews. He said, you're
in bondage. If you know the truth, the truth
will set you free. And you know what they said? We're never in
bondage to anybody. Abraham is our father. And he
said, if you were Abraham's children, you know what you'd do? You'd
believe like Abraham believed. He said, you're your father,
the devil. So I'll tell you what. And he said, this is a son of
Abraham, a daughter of Abraham. And that's what I tell folks.
I'm a true, true Jew. I'm a spiritual son of Abraham. All ever Muslim claims to be
a son of Abraham. Every Jew claims to be a son
of Abraham. And some of them no doubt are,
the Jews. But I'm telling you, the only
people who are sons of Abraham is those people that God chose
in Christ before the foundation of the world. Circumcision to
the heart. And I tell you what, you know,
he said, I'm gonna, Abraham, I'm gonna bless you and make
you the father of nations. And oh my, I'm one of his, I'm
one of his descendants. Every one of the disciples that
the Lord Jesus called, every single one of them, was the son
of Abraham except Judas. And he was the son of perdition.
But oh listen, our Lord Jesus Christ, and then look what it
says in verse back over here in Luke 13. And then look what
our Lord Jesus did. And he laid his hands on her.
Oh, my. Oh, my. He laid his hands on
her. I guess when she walked up there,
you know, he reached out to her and laid his hands on her back.
Walked up there, you know, she's all bowed over. I used to be
a woman. You remember Ellen Whitehouse?
how bowed over she was. She was, you know, she was that
way. Not that bad. But I could see
how the Lord Jesus called her. He took both hands. And you know
when it says that he took our diseases and healed and took
all of our infirmities upon himself? Here's the thing about it. He
could be touched by a leper and not get leprosy. He could be
touched by somebody, anybody, any disease whatsoever and he
wouldn't get it. So he took upon himself all our
diseases and all our infirmities and everything that's wrong with,
even took our sin upon himself and yet never became a sinner
himself. God made him to be sinned. God
said, you're going to be sinned. Now Lord Jesus Christ said, I
will. And He took our sin upon Himself,
and yet He is as holy as God when He is on that cross. Oh,
what mysteries, what wondrous things in the Word of God. And
I tell you, the Lord laid hands on them. The Lord Jesus Christ
comes into personal contact, personal contact with all whom
He saves. Either you'll touch Him or He'll
touch you. But anyway, it's that contact,
it's that touching one another. We sang that little chorus. Reach
out and touch the Lord as He passes by. He's not too busy
to hear your heart's cry. And you know all it takes to
touch the Lord Jesus Christ? From here to Him. And I tell
you what, and in touching Her, His life, His life, poured into
her, that power, that life, that glory, that strength, that ability
that's in Him. That's why He said that woman
that touched Him, He said, virtues going out of me. And oh my, in
touching her, our Lord poured His life into her. And what's
happening here is an act of love, a deed of love was going on here. And I tell you what, if any soul
is ever loosed, The Lord Jesus Christ must do the calling, and
the Lord Jesus Christ must do the touching. The preacher can't
do it. The church can't do it. Mom and
Daddy can't do it. Only Christ can do it. Only Christ
can do it. And I tell you, when we touch
Him, He touches us. You can't be touched by Christ
and not get life. And look what happened to her.
Verse 13, he lays hands on her and immediately she is made straight. Just like immediately. I can't
snap my fingers as fast as it happened. Immediately she straightened
up. That back that was so crooked
was straight. That person who couldn't lift
herself up, she's up now. Oh my. Here's the thing about
our Lord. You know, these healers and all
that kind of stuff, they'll say, listen, if you didn't get healed
because you didn't have faith enough, it don't say nothing
about her faith here. It just says about why Christ
did. You know, that's what happened here immediately. She got a full
salvation, a complete salvation, a perfect salvation. There's
not any degrees in healing. Either Christ heals you or he
don't. Either Christ saves you or he don't. Either you're cleansed
in the blood or you ain't. You got life or you don't. You're
a sheep or a goat and immediately this woman was made straight.
She was complete in Christ. in whom all the fullness of the
Godhead dwelt in bodily, and that made straight, made whole.
Oh, what a monument, what a monument of our Lord's blessed grace,
of our Lord's wonder-working power. I heard an old, old story,
how Savior came from glory, huh? Oh, He came all the way from
glory, and oh, He touches you, and oh, listen, He washes us
and loves us and washes us in His blood. And oh, listen to
what she did now. And this happened to everybody
that our Lord did something for. That woman who, look what it
says there. She was made straight and she
glorified God. To God be the glory, great things
He had done. And will you ever find out Bartimaeus
followed Jesus in the way. That woman at the well threw
her water pot away and said, come see a man. That Gadarean
maniac, when he was in his right mind, sitting at Christ's feet,
he was going to follow the Lord Jesus. The Lord said, go home,
tell your family what great things the Lord has done for you. But
every single one. Those lepers that were cleansed,
they went away glorifying God. oh my she was thankful oh and
that's no wonder david said bless the lord oh my soul bless his
holy name bless the lord oh my soul who healeth all thy diseases
and when she raised up and began to glorify god can you imagine
she used her whole body she just went like this oh bless god oh
Praise the Lord all my soul. Praise the Lord and all that's
within me. Bless his holy name who healeth
all thy diseases. She was using her whole body
to glorify God with. Oh, it's like being saved from
a long death and she couldn't help but glorify God. And why
should we expect the Lord Jesus Christ to do the same thing?
I do. I do expect him to do the same
thing. If I didn't expect the Lord Jesus
Christ to do what He says He's due, I wouldn't have no business
being here preaching. Preach with expectancy. I preach
with expectancy. And oh my, He'll do the same
thing for anybody in need. What was His reason for setting
this woman free? Tender, tender mercies. You know,
our Lord Jesus Christ, when He sees people in a bad, bad way,
He looks at them. And he looks at them and he sees
them, not like we see them, but like God sees, like the Lord
Jesus Christ sees. And a man, he'll even take care
of his animals, take care of his animals, see that they're
watered, see that they have food. So if a man would do that for
an animal, imagine what the Lord Jesus Christ would do for his
sheep, what he does for his elect, does for somebody in need, huh? Oh my. We won't let an animal
suffer, our Lord Jesus Christ, when he sees one of his people
suffer. Oh, what a blessed savior. He is a man troubled with the
feelings and touched with the feelings of our infirmities.
He is touched with this woman's infirmity. And she had a special
relationship with this woman. Nobody'd go and lose somebody
else's and get involved in somebody else's business. But our master,
our master, He comes, and I'm not going to go and open the
stall and let somebody else's horse out or cattle out or anything
else, unless they ask me to. But our master loses his own,
seeks his own sheep, lays them on his shoulder, goes through
the house till he finds that lost coin, and watch for that
prodigal to come home. Why? Having loved his own, which
were in the world, he loved them to the end. He bought them with
His blood. His Father gave them to Him.
And He loves them with an everlasting love. They are His, and He's
going to have them, and He's going to set them free. He's
going to set them free. The sons and daughters of Abraham,
just mark her down, they're going to be set free. Going to be set
free. And here's another reason our
Lord did this for this woman. He said, should not this woman
be loose from her infirmities? law whom satan has bound these
18 years he's got to overthrow the enemy he's got to let people
know that he's got he destroys he came into this world first
john 3a says to destroy the works of the devil and he came in here
this world to destroy and that satan had her bound and our lord
jesus christ said satan that she's not he's not she's not
yours she's mine He's mine. And he's like that strong man
armed. As long as the strong man's armed and his goods are
in peace, but when a stronger than him comes upon him and spoils
his goods, and that's what our Lord, he's that stronger man
armed. And he destroyed, he's just, you know, people talk about
how much power the devil has. I'm telling you something, I'm
no match for him. I'm not saying that, I'm no match
for him. I ain't gonna try to be no match for him. But our
Lord Jesus Christ has done whipped him and whipped him good. and
if there's anything ever happens to me and it's like Job and when
he went up to worship and I offer sacrifices for his son Satan
came and God asked him what are you doing God asked him he said
I'm running to and fro seeking whom I may devour and God said
have you ever considered my servant Job there's not a finer man not
a more perfect man not a more just man on the face of the earth
than Job he said ah listen he's just serving you because you've
blessed him Take away his blessings and he'll curse you to your face.
He said, have at him. That's what I'm telling you.
Satan can't do nothing unless he goes through God. And if he
gets turned loose on us, he's only going to be turned loose
for a while. Oh, listen, hitting, nook and hitting. He did this
because of her sorrowful, pitiful condition. Bound 18 years, 18
years, 18 long years. And that ruler of the synagogue,
he got indignant about this. Oh my, you got six days to come
and get healed. What if our master only worked
six days a week? What would we do? What if he
only worked six days a week and got up at a certain time and
quit at a certain time? What would that leave you and
me? But ah, the Lord neither slumbers or sleep. So go home
tonight and get a good night's rest because the Lord's not sleeping
and He ain't slumbering. You know what He's doing? He's
watching over you. He's protecting you and preserving
you. Ain't that right? Our blessed, blessed Savior.
Gracious God in heaven. How blessedly wonderful and gracious
are you to take this woman, to take sinners like herself, so
bound, so bound, so earthy and lucidness, setting us free, giving
us the truth, giving us your perfect salvation. And oh God,
bless the gospel today. Blessed to hearts, blessed to
minds, blessed to understanding. May it be an encouragement, may
it be an edifying, may it be a great blessing in the hands
of the Holy Spirit. For it's in his name I pray.
Amen.