This morning, I'd like for you
to turn with me to the Gospel of Luke. The Gospel of Luke chapter
13. Luke chapter 13, and I want to
start our reading in verse 10. And he, speaking of Christ, 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. What an amazing story in just
three verses of scripture. Oftentimes, and I've said this
in the gospel narratives of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the physical
infirmities that our Lord healed in certain individuals have a
direct connection to our spiritual infirmities. I recently mentioned
in an article for the Bulletin, and I believe mentioned it also
in a recent message, that I see my spiritual condition and the
physical conditions of those that the Lord Jesus healed in
the Gospel narratives. For example, I see myself clearly
in blind Bartimaeus, the beggar who begged by the wayside. I can see my spiritual condition
there blind, a blind beggar. And I can see myself in that
certain lame, impotent man that lay at the pool of Bethesda.
And the Lord inquired of him and he said, there was a superstition
that an angel came down and moved the water and the first one to
get in that water would be healed. He said, I had no man to put
me in the water. This man was lame. I see myself
there. I'm lame before God Almighty
spiritually. I can't work, I can't do anything
that would merit God's favor. Why, I can even go as far to
say that I'm that dead man that Christ raised at the city gate
of Nain. His mother there lost the only
son she had. Already had had the services
and were on their way to the grave site. Can you picture it
in your mind's eye and the Lord Jesus just touched the casket
And the young man arose, that's me, dead in trespasses and sin. I'm that man that the Lord healed
who was full of leprosy. I'm full of sin. I'm that man
with the withered hand who can do nothing for himself. I'm that
woman with the issue of blood and we all have that disease
and it's called sin. I'm that deaf and dumb man that
threw himself into the fire and deep waters and I'm that possessed
man that lived among the tombs. Can you see yourself spiritually
in these Folks, I know that those of you that know Christ can.
And this morning, again, we find a woman with a physical condition
that very well describes our spiritual condition before God
granted us mercy. Her outward appearance of bent
and bowed over. in our physical body clearly
represents my crooked, bent, and carnal mind of enmity. Her
posture defines a clear picture, I believe, of my crooked heart,
which is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things. And
it's always bent towards satisfying my body of flesh and doing things
my way. Just imagine for a moment if
today we could truly see each other physically as we are spiritually. before Christ and without Christ,
before God without Christ. If we could see the inward as
well as the outward, we would most definitely see some deplorable,
horrific things this day. We'd see a whole church of dead
people sitting looking with glassy eyes of death. Oh, there'd be
a stench, a smell that none of us could tolerate or stomach.
Why, even those who have Christ are said to be of little faith
and the sight of them wouldn't be altogether lovely. I can assure
you of that. Here we see a blind man and there
one maimed. We see another one twisted with
some deformity. There's one in the back that
has full leprosy and then there's another up front with oozing,
putrefying sores that hadn't been closed up or mollified or
medicated with ointment. If we could see inwardly what
we see outwardly. You see, spiritual deformity,
like physical deformity or infirmity, assumes many forms, shapes, looks,
and each one's painful to look upon. And I won't try to sketch
or draw any further any detail to the haught, lame, blind, and
impotent folk who are assembled this morning spiritually. They're
like all that multitude that lay at the pool of Bethesda. Sorry in bad shape. Hard to look
upon. And surely if our flesh, dear
friends, is shaped like our souls without Christ, this church building
this morning would be better turned into a hospital for the
most incurable diseases. And I'm going to tell you something.
We wouldn't only want to flee from the one that's sitting next
to us or behind us or in front of us, but we'd wish to run from
ourselves. And like this poor woman, in
our story, condition often goes unnoticed. For years, men would
say things to me like, David, you're a good man. They used
to just crawl all over me knowing what I am before God Almighty.
And I know what they meant. They meant it as a compliment.
They meant you seem to be a moral man. You seem to be a man of
value and integrity. But my condition, my true condition,
was unnoticed by others. And this woman, because of her
physical deformity of being bent over, she would have been one
of short stature. She was more than likely dwarfed
to half her original height. I can see her now. She wasn't
just like this. She was bent all the way over. All the way over. She'd been
lost standing in a crowd. wouldn't have been able to see
her. Her condition was unnoticed by many, for many could not see
her. You see, a person so bent down
as she was might have come in and gone out and not have been
noticed by anyone that was standing in the meeting place. And verse
11 tells us, and behold, there was a woman which had a spirit
of infirmity for 18 years. 18 years. 18 years might not seem
like a long time, but 18 years with a horrible affliction like
this, I would think would seem like an eternity. Fold over. And I was thinking about that
yesterday for over 30 years. I lived in a sad, deformed, spiritual
state of affliction. And the sad part is, I really
didn't even know it. But what if I had died? I'd have been lost, condemned
forever in hell. And though redeemed in Christ,
I now stand perfect before a thrice holy God." A child of God cannot
get over that fact. When God has shown them who and
what they are, and that in Christ they now stand holy. But, until He comes for me with
a glorified, sinless body, I'm still showing the signs of my
horrible affliction and infirmity of sin. Well, what do you mean? For one, I don't see too clearly.
I see through a glass darkly and dimly. I don't see real good
spiritually. I don't hear well. I don't hear
well. I hear the glorious gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ and usually before I could even write it
down, I've done and forgot it. I don't hear well. My mind's
not right. I don't walk right. I don't walk
like I should walk. I should be walking straight
and I'm all over the place. And I often lose my appetite
for good, healthy food. Does that at all describe you? I forget, as I said, quite often. And one thing that I forget that
I should never forget is that I forget my great physician,
the one who healed me. Day in and day out I have to
remind myself every single day what he's done for me, my great
physician, the one who healed me. And look at the last part
of verse 11. Speaking of this woman, it says,
and she was bowed together and could in no wise lift up herself. Now I'm sure she had once been
young, active, a beautiful young lady full of life and vigor,
but gradually over the years there crept over her an infirmity
that dragged her down. And she was bent and bowed more
and more towards herself and towards the earth as the years
passed on. Again, what a picture that is
of fallen men and women. Why, we're so crooked and bent
that we can only look down and within. They look within for
salvation by works of their own so-called righteousness. They
look within full of pride, for they've looked to themselves
as gods of their own imaginations. And sinful man can in no wise
lift him or herself up. Now that describes me. That describes
me. And the sad part is that I wouldn't
if I could, unless God divinely intervened
and bowed over, looking only to sin and self. This woman hadn't
seen the sun, S-U-N, for over 18 years. She had not been able
to raise up and look at the sun in 18 years. And there's some
of you that have not seen the sun S-O-N in all your years here
on earth. You know why? You're bowled over.
You can only look to yourself and to the ground down. The only
way she'd ever be able to see the sun, S-U-N, is the same way
that you and I are ever able to see the sun, S-O-N. And that
is by divine, sovereign intervention from God Almighty. The only way. The only way. And the plain truth
of both the physical and spiritual afflicted is they can in no wise
lift themselves up. If this woman could have, she
would have. I can assure you of that. Can you imagine having
to walk, live, everything you did, done in a bent over position? And yes, spiritually, that's
you and I. That's you and I, and we can't in no wise lift
ourselves up. We're all bent over as though
we're searching for a grave. And I just imagine that this
woman often must have felt like that that had been the best thing
for her, don't you? Eighteen years. Eighteen years. But, but, don't you love the
buts of Scripture? Hope is not lost. No, hope is
not lost. Christ can lift up those that
are bowed over and He can in no wise lift The sinner can no wise lift themselves
up unless he does the miracle Look at the next five glorious
words in verse 12 and when Jesus saw her oh Now there's some hope there's
some hope She was the very one that he was seeking and And we're
not here to think that he saw her in the same common way as
we see each other this morning. No, when he saw her, it was a
look of love, mercy, sovereign love, sovereign grace, sovereign
mercy. He read every line of her character.
He knew all her history, every thought of her heart, every desire
of her soul he knew. Nobody had to tell him that she'd
been bound this way for 18 years. He knew all about it. He knew
how she came to be bound, what she had suffered during that
time. And he knew that she had prayed. She had prayed for healing,
and yet this infirmity still pressed upon her. He knew all
these things. When we see each other, we put
on a smile, we put on our best behavior, and oftentimes we're
hurting and the other person doesn't know it. but a glance
from the Lord Jesus Christ. He read her history and understood
her case and He actually knew it before the foundation of the
world. He saw her and what meaning of grace and mercy there is in
a searching glance from Him. And what a blessed phrase that
is to the helpless. Have you ever been helpless?
Oh, what a blessed day when Christ saw me. Do you remember when
Christ saw you? It was a blessed day, wasn't
it? God showed me and gave me to my Lord before the foundation
of the world and He saw me. But then again in the fullness
of time, the appointed time of love, Christ the God-man again
saw me. And He knew me. He knew me. When Christ sees a man or a woman
in their desperate condition and He desires to show mercy,
let me tell you something, He will show mercy. He does anything
and everything that pleases Him. None can thwart His purpose. None can say unto Him, what are
you doing? None can stay at His hand. And He plainly declares
from this book, I will have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. I'll
have compassion on whom I'll have compassion. and whom I will,
I'll hardeneth." Why, he heard old Bartimaeus
cry. What caught those divine ears
that day? Well, I'm sure just the cry of
this begging blind beggar. But I'm sure there was one word
in specific that caught his ear. Mercy. Have mercy on me. And the scriptures say, the son
stood still and said, bring him unto me. That poor leper, oh, can you
see him making his way through the crowd? And his eyes are fixed
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, Lord, if you will,
thou can make me clean. And the Lord Jesus put forth
his hand. I love this story. And he touched him and he said,
I will. I will be thou clean. And immediately,
immediately the leprosy departed from him. Our Lord said in another place,
I'll have mercy and not sacrifice. He said, I'm not come to call
the righteous, I'm come to call sinners to repentance. Are you
a sinner? then this message is for you.
God has not come for sacrifice of works. The gospel is not about
what you can do for God. It's always been what God does
for sinners. Sacrifice from you is of no value
to God. There's only one thing of value
to God. The blood of His dear Son. What
do you think of Christ? What do you think of Him? And on this day, this day in
our story, I can't find anywhere here that this woman made a sound.
Our text simply says, and when Jesus saw her. You remember the
story in Luke 19 of little Zacchaeus. He was a man of small stature.
And he was, the Scripture says, chief among the publicans and
very rich. He was a rich man. And he sought
to see the Lord Jesus and who He was. And because of the crowd,
he couldn't get near Him because He was so small. And he ran and
he climbed up in that sycamore tree to see Him, the Scripture
says. for he was to pass by that way.
That was the chosen route that day. But it says when Jesus came
to the place, what? He looked up and saw him. It doesn't say that Zacchaeus
is going, hey, Jesus, here I am up here in this tree. You see
me? I'm Zacchaeus. I'm somebody. No, it says he
stopped and looked up and saw him. And he said to him, Zacchaeus,
you make haste and you come down for today, listen to this language,
I must, I must abide at your house. Zacchaeus didn't say a
word before Christ saw him, but I'm going to tell you what, he
said plenty after he did. You know what he said? He said,
Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I've taken
anything from any man by false accusation, I'm going to give
it back to him four times more. He must abide with Zacchaeus. For all that the Father gave
him, dear sinner, he would lose nothing. He must. He must need
to go through Samaria. We've looked at that many times.
Why? There were elect children of
God there. Therefore, he must go. He must
go. He is the only means of salvation. He's the only one who can save.
And so we see another blessed truth here. For when our Lord
saw this poor woman, our text says, and when Jesus saw her,
what? He called her to him. He called
her to Him. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called. Romans 8 verse 30. And whom He
called, them He also justified. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified. What shall we then say to these
things? Only one thing to say. If God
be for us, whom be against us? If Christ calls you, dear sinner,
by sovereign grace, it's because He predestinated you before the
foundation of the world. He set His affection on you in
love. And God the Father gave you to
Him, and He said, I'm going to redeem that sinner. I must need go through new caning.
I must need to go through Ashland. I must need to go through Kentucky,
Tennessee, wherever. I must need to go. And if He
calls you, you can count on the fact that He predestinated you,
and you can count on the fact that He's going to justify you.
Because that's what He says in His Word. Whom He predestinated,
then He also called. And He called for this woman.
And He said, Bring her to me. And you know what he did? He
healed her. He healed her. Verse 12, And
when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and he said unto
her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And when that
woman came, the great God-man said to her, You're loosed. You've
been bound for eighteen long years. You're loosed now. How
could that be true? Well, she was still bent over
as she was before. And what our Lord means here
when He says this, that the curse of Satan was taken off of her
and that the power which had made her bow over for these 18
long years, it was broken. And I know this woman believed
it in her inmost soul, even as Christ said it. And even though
at that very moment she was not at all different in appearance
from her former state, let me say this now, as some of you
who are God's dear people, may God give you power to believe
this morning that the end of your gloom has come. Oh, that
God might give you the power to believe that your years of
infirmity are over and that your time of doubt is ended. I pray
that God give you grace to know that this morning when that sun
arose first in the east, it was light that was ordained for you. This morning as I watch the sun
come up, as I do most Sunday mornings, I knew that it was
God who had once again sustained me for another day that I might
preach the gospel to you, that I might publish peace, give you
a message of hope, a message from the Lord. Come forth, ye
prisoners. Leap, ye captives, for Christ
comes to set you free today. Why do you tarry? Why do you
tarry? And verse 13, and he laid his
hands on her. Oh, what a gentle touch. And
immediately she was made straight and glorified God. This woman
suffered from a need of strength. And by putting His hands upon
her, I believe that the Lord just poured His life into her. You remember that woman with
the issue of blood? She said, if I could just touch
the hem of his garment. And she did. And he said, who
touched me? Virtues left me. Powers left
me. Life has left me. The warm stream of God's power
came into contact with her pain. She was bowed over and His power made her straight.
At that moment, she was eye to eye with her Lord and her Savior. It's been 18 years since she
was able to look one in the face, and the first one that she sees,
just like the blind man whom the Lord gave sight, the first
one she saw was her deliverer. Is that not the first person
we saw when God opened our blind eyes, when the Lord straightened
us up from our bent over condition? The deed of love, my friends,
is done and Christ had done it. And I'd say to you that are yet
lost, if you could just get away this morning from thinking about
yourself. There's no salvation in yourself. There's no comfort to look within.
And that goes for those of you that are saved. There's no comfort
and hope and encouragement to look within yourselves even after
God saves you, but especially before He does. Don't look down upon your cares. If His hands could be laid upon
you, dear friends, those dear pierced hands which bought you,
those mighty hands that rule heaven and earth on your behalf,
those blessed hands which are outstretched to plead for sinners,
not plead to sinners, plead for sinners. There's a difference.
Those dear hands which will press you to His chest and breast forever. If you could feel these by thinking
of Him, you'd soon recover. You would soon recover. It says,
immediately she was made straight. I got to thinking about that
word immediately. Matthew 8, 3, that fellow that
was full of leprosy, it says that immediately his leprosy
was cleansed. Those blind men that came to
the Lord in Matthew 20, it says, and immediately their eyes received
sight and they followed him. That Jairus' daughter, and he
came and took her by the hand and lifted her up and immediately
the fever left her and she ministered unto him. that fellow that they
dropped through the ceiling. Remember his friends? They couldn't
get him in because of the crowd at the door and couldn't get
by. And they got up on the ceiling and cut a hole in the ceiling
and dropped him down in front of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
the Lord said, I've not ever seen faith like that. What faith
those friends of His had. But it says, when the Lord spoke
healing to him, immediately he arose and he took up that bed.
You see, those that were lame had to carry a bed with them.
That was like Bartimaeus' begging robe. Remember when he went to
the Lord Jesus, he tossed away that robe? He didn't need it
anymore. And this man took up his bad foot away and went forth
before them all, insomuch that they were amazed and glorified
God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion. But he rose
immediately. The deaf and dumb man, his mouth
in Luke 1.64 was opened immediately and his tongue loosed and he
spake. And you know what he did? He praised God. That man got
up off his bed and he glorified God. That man whose tongue was
loosed, he praised and glorified God. That poor woman, as I say,
came behind him and touched the border of his garment. It says
immediately her issue of blood, gone immediately. You see, the result of Christ's
healing hand is always the same. First, it's immediate. And then
the next thing is found right there in verse 13, and I leave
this with you in closing. He laid his hands on her, and
immediately she was made straight, and what? Glorified God. Glorified God. All God's people
glorify Christ For the Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad." Now friends,
there's no disease that he cannot heal. And there's no sin that
he cannot forgive. Well, I take that back. There
is one. There's one sin that he cannot
forgive. And that sin is unbelief. Unbelief. He cannot and He will
not forgive you of unbelief in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the only sin that will send you to hell. You've never done anything
too bad that you can't be forgiven for. But if you, in rebellion,
say, I will not. I don't want any part of Him.
That will send you to hell. What do you think of God's Son? That's the most important question
that I could ever ask you. Well, may God cause you to trust
Him, believe Him, and bow to Him.