The prophets of the Old Testament
declared that when Messiah appeared on the scene to deliver his people,
the blind would be made to see, the lame would be made to walk,
the deaf would be made to hear, and the dumb would be made to
speak. And when our Lord Jesus walked
on this earth, he constantly performed such wonders, such
miracles, as confirmed and testified openly to his claims as the Messiah,
the Son of God, the deliverer of his people, our Redeemer and
our Savior. And his purpose in performing
these miracles was to make this claim evident so that none could
deny it. Nobody could do the things this
man did, except this man be the Christ of God. But they were
also intended to be types of his mercy and of his grace toward
us. When our Lord healed the ailments
of men's bodies, he was showing that he has power to cure the
maladies of our souls. When he raised the dead, he was
showing us that he who is the resurrection and the life has
power to give spiritual, eternal life to those who are dead in
trespasses and in sins. when he multiplied the loaves
and fishes, when he gathered the fish into the empty nets
of his disciples who had toiled all night, when he caused the
coin to be found in the fish's mouth with which his disciples
were to pay tribute to Caesar, our Lord declared that he is
able and will provide all our needs while we walk on this earth,
and all our needs for eternity. Our Lord Jesus, when he spoke
peace to the troubled of sea, when he walked across the water
to his disciples, was teaching us that he who rules the world
rules the storms of our lives, and when our souls are troubled,
he will at his time come and comfort his own. So whenever
you read the miracles performed by Christ, The believing heart
ought to always see in these miracles a message of mercy.
Our Lord, by leaving us the record of these things, is saying to
us, as I have worked wondrous things upon the earth in the
days of my flesh, I will work even more wondrous things for
you in the days of my exaltation. Tonight I want us to look at
one notable miracle of our Lord in Luke chapter 13. Here we have the story of a poor woman
who had been bowed with the spirit of infirmity for eighteen years. And the Lord Jesus met her in
the place where you're sitting right now, in the house of God. And by his word, he met her needs. Oh, sweet hope. Sweet hope. Verse 10. 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,
stooped, dwarfed, bent at the waist, twisted, bowed together,
and could by no wise or 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 then 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 water him? And ought not this woman, being
a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen
years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?' And when
he said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed. and all the people rejoiced for
all the glorious things that were done by him. As our Lord
Jesus met this poor woman in the synagogue and raised her
up from her long, painful infirmity, so he now meets sinners in the
assembly of his saints and raises up those who are bowed down and
bound by his almighty grace. I want us to look at this woman
tonight and see in her an example of what Christ can do for our
souls. Look first at the description
here given of her condition. In verse 11, we are told that
this woman had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed
together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And verse 16,
we're told that she was one whom Satan had bound these 18 years. On the Sabbath day, our Savior
could always be found in the synagogue or in the temple, teaching,
preaching, explaining the word of God. He was in his element
when he was in the house of God. Most happy when he was teaching
men and women the things of God. In order to confirm the doctrine
he taught, and to illustrate that doctrine, the Lord performed
miracles of mercy. Here is one of the most remarkable. There is no case like this one
recorded anywhere else. The nearest thing is that woman
who had an issue of blood for twelve years. Therefore, Luke
calls us to pause here and behold, behold, there was a woman who
had a spirit of infirmity. We're told precisely what it
was, just that she was bowed together, that her condition
was caused by Satan, that she was bowed together for eighteen
years and she could not lift herself up. Now, I tried to look
at this and I don't want to speculate, but I'm pretty certain that this
woman's infirmity was both outward, physical, and inward, spiritual
and emotional. The fact is, it's next to impossible
to be in constant pain for a long time and not let it get you. It's just next to impossible.
I've known a few, but it's just next to impossible. I have an
engrossed providence, and it may change tomorrow. I'm not
speaking with arrogance. I have a pretty good mental disposition
for things. Pretty strong constitution mentally.
But boy, when you've been in pain for a while, it gets tough. It gets tough. And this woman
was bowed together outwardly. Her body twisted outwardly. But no question in my mind she
was bowed together inwardly as well. And certainly the picture
that is given here is of those who are bowed inwardly more than
those who are bowed outwardly. This woman had been coming to
the house of God every Sabbath day. And she'd been coming in
this condition. I don't know when it happened,
whether it happened after she had been there for a while, whether
it happened while she lived in this area, or whether she came
into this area in this condition. But no doubt those who first
saw her bent over, stumped, twisted,
shuffling her feet, making her way up the steps, coming into
the synagogue. were shocked and looked at her.
After a while, they got to know her and they talked to her a
little bit about it. But now it's been eighteen years. Eighteen
years. And she was unnoticed. Nobody
paid any attention to this cripple anymore. Nobody paid any attention
to this twisted, deformed body anymore. She came in her dwarfed
condition into the synagogue and the crowded synagogue, she
just She kind of mixed into the crowd and nobody noticed her.
But the Son of God saw her, and had compassion on her, and called
her, and healed her. And she is here held up as an
example of what he does for his own. Let's look at her two ways,
and both are legitimate. This woman's condition is a picture
of every lost sinner. She was bowed together. Man was made upright, but now
you're bowed, broken, nothing like what you once were. We fell
in our father Adam, and sin has brought us down lower than we
can imagine. She was in this horrible condition
for a long, long time. In Adam, we died. That's where
this thing started. We look at the things around
us and all the perversity and depravity and corruption and
war and strife and hardness and clamoring among men. We read our history and the history
of the human race from the Garden of Eden down here to March 16,
2003. is a history marked by the slime
of the serpent, and the path just gets broader and the slime
thicker the closer to now you get. She'd been in this condition
a long time, and that's the condition man's been in for a long time.
You who are without Christ, you came into this world bowed together,
and it's just getting worse all the time. And we're told specifically
their misery was Satan's work. And we, in our society, like to ascribe
all such things to Satan. And in this society, in this
religious world, men ascribe these things to Satan, saying,
or implying at least, and many times saying, that these bad
things or the devil's work, the good thing. When she's raised
up, that's God's work. When she is happy, that's God's
work. Well, there's no question that
Satan wreaks havoc in the lives of men. Satan came wanting to
devour Job as he wants to devour you. Satan brought misery after
misery after misery to Job and his family, and then brought
more misery with his worthless friends. Satan is indeed the
fiend of hell who opposes our souls. But don't ever imagine
for a second that that fiend of hell can roar or wiggle without
the decree of God Almighty. Satan opposed the woman, but
that by which Satan would destroy us, hear me children of God,
that by which Satan would destroy us, God Almighty uses only to
improve and to bless and to save us. She was bowed of Satan, but
oh, blessed bowing! Because she is bowed, she's in
need, and the Son of God comes to meet her need. And she could
in no wise lift herself up. And that's the condition. You
go without Christ or end right now. I plead with you and I plead
with God for you. I preach to you and I call on
you to arise and come to Christ. But I am fully aware that you
cannot lift yourself up. You cannot change your condition. Oh, but the sinner is responsible
to come to Christ. Yes, he is. But he still can't. He still can't. Unless the Lord
calls him and lays his hand on him and brings him. Can the Ethiopian
change his skin? Are the leopard his spots? So
then can you who are accustomed to doing evil begin to do good?
But this woman, she was a prisoner. But she was a prisoner who had
reason for hope. Go back through the book of Luke
and read up to this point. and see the miracles that are
described. I sat down with him again this afternoon. In Luke
chapter 5, there was a leper who came and fell down. The Lord
raised him up clean. There was a paralyzed man whom
the Lord caused to stand and walk as he was brought by his
friends into the presence of the Master. Unclean multitudes
healed by him. The centurion's servant healed
just by his word. The Lord Jesus saw that centurion
and said, I've never seen such faith as this. He said, go your
way. Your servant's all right. And before he got the words out
of his mouth, his friends came and said, everything's all right.
Let's settle aside. Our Lord Jesus met a woman. coming out of the city of Nain,
a widow in a funeral procession. They were taking a boy out to
bury him, and he stopped the funeral procession and raised
the dead. There was a demon-possessed woman in Luke chapter 8 who was
named Mary Magdalene, out of whom the Lord cast seven devils.
There was a gathering in Luke 8, whom the Lord came and set
free and called to be his disciple. There was Jairus' daughter, whom
the Lord was pleased to raise from the dead. This woman was
the issue of blood in the 8th chapter of Luke. As many were
told in chapter 9, as had need of healing, were healed. And
then there was that man with a demon-possessed child. He came
and said, Here's my child, my son. He's fetched to the devil. And the devil tears him, folds
him out. He's wild! Because he's bound
by Satan. And the Lord Jesus healed him.
And I suspect this gal heard about it. I just got a hunch
she had heard about these things. And she reasoned within herself.
If this man, Jesus of Nazareth, is indeed the Messiah, if he
is indeed the Christ, if ever he will come to me, he can do
for me what nobody else can, and what I can't do for myself,
he can lift me up. And this woman came to the house
of God, and she met the Master. But her condition is also a picture
of God's children, often in this world, bowed down in their souls,
bowed down in their hearts. And I'm very confident with this
because this woman was a believer. I'm sure she was a believer for
these reasons. Our Lord Jesus says plainly that
she is a daughter of Abraham. More than that, when our Lord
spoke to this woman and healed her body of the plague, the vexation,
the infirmity she had, whatever it was, there was one thing he
didn't say to her that he said to everyone else whom he healed
as he raised them up personally. He never said to her, your sins
are forgiven you. She had already been forgiven
of her sins, but she was still bowed down. Oh, how many of God's
people are like her, bowed together, afflicted and bound by Satan,
having a spirit of infirmity that lasts a long time. Satan didn't possess her, no. He doesn't possess any of God's,
but he bound her, and he afflicted her, and he tormented her. She
had lost the natural beauty and brightness that used to sparkle
in her eyes. Now she would bow together. I've
told you many times about A man who had a tremendous impression
on me the first time I ever met him. And the longer I knew him,
the more I was impressed by Brother Robert Cox. I haven't heard where
he is. He was one of my professors.
One of the few that was worth anything at all. And he was worth
a ton. But when he was 26 years old,
he was a tall, strapping, strong man. When I met him, he was shorter
than my wife. twisted, his body mangled with
arthritis. He couldn't smile without pain.
He'd step down off the curb. I watched him many times, just
wince with pain when he stepped off the curb. Oh, a delightful
man, but you could see pain in every motion, pain in every movement,
pain in every gesture. Now for 18 years, this woman
had walked with her face bowed to the ground. It's been eighteen
years since she'd lifted up her eyes and seen the sun. Eighteen
years since she'd walked out in a clear night and lifted up
her eyes to the heavens and saw sparkling stars. Eighteen years
since she had looked up at a bird singing in the trees and just
listened for a while. She was bowed down with the spirit
of infirmity. I suspect some of you know what
that is. It's been a long, long time since
you've been able to enter into sweet communion with God, since
you've beheld the face of the Savior, since you've enjoyed
the peace and joy and comfort of faith in your inmost soul
you pine and long for that blessed, blessed happiness which comes
with the sweet manifestation of Christ with you. One of the
hymn writers put it this way, Where is the blessedness, I do,
when first I saw the Lord? Where is the sweet refreshing
view of Jesus in His Word? What blissful hours I did enjoy,
how sweet their memory still, but they left an aching void
the world can never fill. She was bowed down, and being
bowed down, she was bowed toward herself, bowed toward that which
is sure to distress. Isn't it amazing? by some unexplainable mystery. I can't begin to fathom it, and
I don't pretend to know anything at all about what people go through
with depression and such as that. But isn't it amazing that depression
breeds depression? Gloom breeds gloom. Grief multiplies
grief. A melancholy sphere is legion
in number. And the more you are bowed down
to look to yourself, the more bowed down you get. I tell folks all the time, quit
looking in the wrong place. But once you're bowed, until
he lifts you up, you're not going to look anywhere else. You'll
never find peace, never find joy, never find assurance looking
in yourself, looking toward yourself, look out of yourself. Oh God
give you grace to quit living for yourself, for your joy, for
your pleasure, looking in, but rather look out and up to Christ
and you'll find peace and joy and reason to rejoice. You know
our Savior never wants, never once admonishes us to look at
ourselves. Never once. He said, look unto
me. Look unto me. Look unto me and be saved. All
the ends of the earth were told to look away from ourselves.
In Hebrews chapter 12 as we're admonished to run this race,
Paul says, we've got a great cloud of witnesses. Watch them.
They're watching you. But why let a bear hit your clothes
when you've got friends you can look at? Why let your troubles
when you've got blessings you can look at? And more than that,
looking unto Jesus to often finish up our faith. Now, I'll tell
you this, and I can't fast it up. Any religion that has you
looking to yourself is not of God. I had a fellow sitting Out
on the stoop out there by the garage one day, he came by here.
He had been in one of these Reformed churches. Ever since he professed
faith in Christ, he spoke about his pastor. He said, oh, the pastor is so good. He said,
I go to church every service, and I come away just beat down,
beat down, just beat down. And he said it two or three times.
And I finally turned over to Isaiah 40. Actually, I didn't
have the Bible with me. I was just talking to him. I quoted Isaiah 40 verse
1. I said, does that sound like comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith the Lord? He looked at me like a carriage
looking at a new gate. He didn't have any idea what
I was talking about. I said, the purpose of gospel preaching
is not to beat you down looking at yourself. The purpose of gospel
preaching is to cause you to look away to Christ. Look away
to Him. The gospel business, look to
Him. This poor woman was bowed and she could in no wise lift
up herself. I can picture a friend, maybe
a family member, maybe a church member in the synagogue, saying,
now honey, you're just going to have to quit being stooped
over like that. If you don't straighten up and start walking
right, you're going to be stooped the rest of your life. Smart folks
can give good advice, kids. But she couldn't lift herself
up. What do you think she could do? She was bound by Satan. When Satan binds, she binds. She was bound to herself. And
all the advice in the world couldn't lift her up. So much then for
man's exercising his free will. And worst of all, She had been
bowed down for 18 years. Isn't it amazing how time flies
when you're having a good time? And when you're enjoying yourself,
where'd time go? Those cats playin' good ball,
you do without sleepin'? Been three hours? Where'd it
go? Where'd it go? Happy years move rapidly. But 18 years of misery, 18 years of pain, 18 years of being
bowed down, I can't imagine it. 18 long years, Mr. Spurgeon said. Each year dragging twelve miserable
months behind it. Each month pulling four heavy
weeks. Each week loaded with seven gloomy
days. Each day loaded down with twenty-four
grueling, painful, lonely hours. What? Grief. For eighteen years
he'd been in this shape. But watch this. That chain that it took Satan
18 years to forge, the Son of God broke in an instant. And all the while she was bowed
and bound, she was still a child of Abraham. Who knows God's ways, God's purpose,
God's mind? Not me. not me. I see my friends going through such heartache.
I watched some of you go through such trouble. And if I could, Ron, I'd break
the chain right now. I would. I'd set him free right
now. Right now. I've watched some
of God's people suffer horribly, painful, long months in dying. And I think, why? Why? I've watched some of God's people
Suffer months and months and months and months and years and
years and years from one source of difficulty or another. Why? I don't know. But Merle Height,
they're gods. And he does what's best for his
children. You do what's best for yours,
don't you? Best you can. Best you can. And we can't do
much good. Matter of fact, most of the time
we think we're doing good. We're not doing much good. But
our Father always does what's good for his children, even in
the midst of long pain, misery, and bitterness. And watch what
she did. in verses 10 and 11, 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.
This poor woman, bowed together as she was, bowed in body and bowed in spirit. Where was she? Well, I'll be if I stay at home
and listen to tapes, or stay at home and watch cartoons, or
stay at home and lick my wounds. Well, I just don't feel like
coming. I'll tell you what, if there was ever anybody who had
reason to stay at home, she did. But come Saturday morning, she'd
shuffle her feet around the house, do the best she could to clean
up, put on the best she had. and go to the house of God. And here she met the Lord Jesus. And she heard His word. She met
with His people. He taught her. And she found
mercy. She'd been coming like this for
18 years. Eighteen years she'd come in
and hear somebody read from the law, fold it up, start to expound
it. And she'd go out in the same
condition she was, bound down, bound. Next week here she'd come
again. She had to leave early so she
could get there. She'd make her way in and she'd
hear somebody read the law, fold it up, put it away and start
to expound it. Shuffle them out the door and found her way back
home. Next week, same thing. Same condition. But this time, this time she
came to the house of God and somebody was there who had never
been there for her before. The Lord Jesus was there. And
somebody spoke who had never spoken to her before, the Son
of God. He read the Word, but when he
read the Word, he read the Word. He preached, but when he preached,
he preached to her. And the Lord Jesus healed her. And she walked out just as straight
and tall as she had ever been in her life. Completely whole. How did he cure her? Look at
it, verses 12 and 13. He saw her. Hear me, my brother, my sister,
he sees you. He sees. He saw her long before
she saw him. He had his eye fixed on her.
He saw her, and when he saw her, he had compassion on her. At
this certain moment, he called. Now this is what it says, he
called to him. I know folks, they argue about
whether the gospel is a command or an invitation. I've got a
hunch, Lindsay, that when the Lord called her, he didn't say,
Woman, come here, or I'll get you. He looked at poor woman
with a tender heart and he said, honey, come here. Come here. She came to him. Came to him
just as she was, weary and worn and sad. And he spoke to her. He spoke a word to her before
he did anything else. Look what he said. Thou art loosed
from thine infirmities. What? She's still barbarian. She's still bent over. But he
says, you're loosed from your infirmities. You see, grace comes
long before we experience it. And then the Lord Jesus laid
his hands on her. Oh, Son of God, come tonight.
And may your nail-pierced, tender, omnipotent, almighty hands of
grace on every needy soul." He touched me. And then, immediately, she was
made straight. And she glorified God. Then something happened. No sooner was she made whole.
Now remember, this gal hadn't done anything. She didn't thank
anybody except give praise to God. That's all. Oh, I was glad they said to me
today, let's go to the house of the Lord. Thank you. Thank
you. How can I praise you? I've been
like this, and I never thought I'd ever see the Son again. Thank
you. Thank you. God be praised. And there's a fellow sitting
over there, the ruler of the synagogue. He was the head bishop. I mean, he was the top dog among
the dogs. He said, honey, there's six days
you could be healed. Not on the Sabbath day, this
is our holy day. Legal, self-righteous religion
is hard, haughty, hypocritical. Our Lord Then comes to this woman's defense
and comfort, sir. In verse 15, first he silenced
her accusers. He looked that fellow in the
face with all the crowd looking on. And he said, Have you got
an ox at the house? Are you going to go home this
afternoon, take him out of his crib and lead him out to get
some water? You got a jackass over there
in the barn? You're going to go home and take him out and
give him some water? On the Sabbath day? And this woman, who's a child of
Abraham, you'd leave in her misery because it's the Sabbath day?
You hypocrite. And then the Lord assured her
of her acceptance in verse 16. He said, this woman whom Satan
has bound these 18 years, she's the daughter of Abraham. Not
you, you hypocrite, her. Not you, you proud, haughty,
arrogant, religious, vile, rich, her! She's the daughter of Abraham. And he allowed her. This poor
woman. This poor woman who couldn't
do anything. This poor woman who never hoped to be able to so
much as reach her hand on a shelf. He allowed this poor, wretched
soul to bow down in his providence and now lifted up by his grace
to be an instrument of good to many for the glory of God. Verse 17, all the people glorified
God for what He'd done for her. Now listen to me. When our Lord
gets done, when our Lord gets done, And
we look back on our years of infirmity and weakness and pain
and sorrow going through this valley of weeping. We will look
back on these days forever. And the Lord will cause all his
enemies to be ashamed forever. And he will cause all his people,
including you and I, to glorify God forever because of the wondrous
works he has done. Amen.