Luke chapter 14. I want to take
a look this morning at verse 1 down through verse 6 of Luke
chapter 14. I'm taking the title for the
message from what is said in verse 4. The Lord again put this
self-righteous crowd to silence. They held their peace. They could
not answer Him. And then the Lord did something
amazing. This man who was in His presence,
who was very diseased and dying, the Lord Jesus Christ took him,
that is, He lay hold upon him. I just can imagine reaching out
with his hands, reaching out with his arms, and He healed him. And then He
set him free. What amazing grace! The Lord Jesus took this diseased,
dying man and completely healed him and completely made him whole. He went back to his house. This
man, we don't even have his name. It's just a man that was a certain
man. Of course, this man was chosen
of God, blessed of God from all eternity. The Lord completely
healed him and made him whole. Again, like on many other occasions,
the Lord did this on the Sabbath day. We read in Scripture, He
is the Lord of the Sabbath. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that's what He does in heaven, earth, sea, and all deep places. So I'm taking the title, it's
kind of a lengthy title, from verse 4, He took him, He healed
him, and He let him go. This is our testimony. This is
the testimony of every believer. This is the exact thing the Lord
does. Every sinner who He wisely saves
on purpose, whom He is pleased to save and justify in Christ
by His amazing, mighty grace, we can all say, He did it. Salvation is of the Lord. This
is the personal testimony of every sinner saved by the Lord's
grace. And we could read through many
testimonies where Paul says, I am what I am by the grace of
God. Again, the Apostle Paul, in his
last letter, as he sits on death row, waiting for his head to
be removed, he said, Timothy, don't be ashamed of the gospel
of God. For God has saved us and called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace, given us in the Lord Jesus Christ before
the foundation of the world." Now, this is every believer's
testimony. It's not what I've done. It's
not what I think. It's not what I'm going to do.
Salvation is His doing. This is the Lord's doing and
it's marvelous in our eyes. Now, when I was a little boy
growing up, I grew up out in the Rocky Mountains and I grew
up in a very religious family. I grew up in what is called Mormonism. Mormonism. You've all heard about
the Mormons and the Mormon missionaries. In that religion, they have every
month, they have a special meeting called a fast and testimony meeting. And in that meeting, they pass
around a microphone, and everybody is encouraged, even the young
ones are encouraged to stand up, and people do it today in
religious circles, they have a testimony time. You're supposed
to stand up and give your testimony, your personal testimony as to
your hope of salvation. Now, I guess I did that as a
young boy. I don't really remember much
about it, but I remember hearing others give their personal testimony. Two things, those self-righteous
religious people who are lost, their religion is false, but
they always say these two things. Here's their testimony. Their
testimony is that Jesus Christ Excuse me, their testimony is
that the church of Jesus Christ, called Mormonism, the church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, called Mormonism, they
say that that is the true church. In other words, if you're really
saved, you have to be in that church. That's what they always
say. This church is the true church.
Talking about the Mormon church. The second thing I always say
is this. They always say this, we believe that Joseph Smith
is a true prophet of God. And that he speaks for God. And
that the Book of Mormon is another testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, a week ago Wednesday, I
had a knock on the door. And I looked out there and here
were two young men. It was that Wednesday when the
weather was real warm. They were in short-sleeved shirts,
white shirts with a black tag button on their collar, on their
shirt. Well, I took one look at them
and I knew right away who they were. They were Mormon missionaries. And I thought, well, what am
I going to do? I could have went out there and
rudely sent them away, but I felt compelled to tell
them the gospel that they have never heard. They grew up just
the way I grew up, hearing that salvation depended upon what
you do. So I went out there and I tried
to tell them about salvation of the grace of God. I told them
who I was, where I was from, what I'm doing now, that I'm
a gospel preacher. I denounced their prophet as
a false prophet. I denounced their church as a
false church. I said that salvation is not
in any church, salvation is in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. He that hath the Son hath life.
Well, they stood there for a while, and they were polite for a while,
but after a while, they got a little bit upset when I said several
things, true things, about their false god, about their false
prophet. For a long, they couldn't wait
to get off my front porch. One young man, his name is Robert,
stuck out his hand and this is what he said to me. He said,
I'm sorry you lost your testimony. And I said, well I did lose any
false testimony I did have, but now I have a true testimony. Salvation is of the Lord. Now
that's our testimony. He took He healed us, and He sets us
free. He sets us free. Now, it's quite
interesting. About a day or so ago, I was
coming out my road here, and here came those two Mormon missionaries
again. It was a colder day, and they
had their overcoat on. And I stopped and rolled down
my window. I said to them, you boys don't give up, do you? I
said, have you got any recruits yet? Oh, no. No, no. We've been talking to a few people,
though. I came back over here and did
some work, and I wanted to go back and hunt them boys up and
put them in my pickup truck and haul them somewhere and drop
them off, but get them out of my neighborhood. They don't have
any good news. Anytime someone comes to you
and tells you that salvation depends upon you, upon us, mark
it down, they're false prophets. We can say with Paul, I am what
I am by the grace of God. By the grace of God. Now, let's
go back in our story here to Luke chapter 14. Look at verse
1, And it came to pass, as he went into the house, of one of
the chief Pharisees. Now this is the sovereign, almighty
Lord and God. Everywhere he goes is the creed
of God. Everywhere he goes, he goes on
purpose. And he went into the house of
this man who is the chief self-righteous man in that religion, the chief
Pharisees. And he went there to eat bread.
to break bread on the Sabbath day, and they watched Him. Now, why did the Lord Jesus go
there? We know everywhere He went, He
went on purpose. He went there that He might expose
their false religion, their false righteousness, and that He might
demonstrate one more time that salvation is all of His doing.
But notice what it says there in the last part of verse 1, They watched him. They watched
him. We know this came to pass by
the sovereign purpose of God. The only reason the Pharisees
and the Sadducees and these lawyers invited him to their house on
the Sabbath day, they weren't interested in his person, they
weren't interested in his doctrine, they were interested in setting
a trap for him. It says there they watched him. They watched him so as to accuse
him of sin. They watched him as to find fault
with him, as they did on other occasions. If you hold your place
here and find the reference that is given here in Luke 20, it
says they even sent spies to spy on him. Luke 20 verse 19, the chief priests
and the scribes at the same hour sought to lay hands on him, and
they feared the people, for they perceived that he had spoken
this parable against them, and they watched him and sent forth
spies which should feign themselves. They were hypocrites. They pretended
to be just men that they might take hold of his word, that so
they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor.
And they asked him, saying, Master, we know thou sayest and teachest
rightly, neither accept thou the person of any, but teachest
the way of God truly. And then they asked him this
question, so as to trick him. Is it lawful to pay your taxes?"
And the Lord said, whose picture is on that money, rendered of
Caesar those things which are Caesar's. Now, back to Luke 14
verse 2, And behold, there was a certain man before him which
had this disease called dropsy. He had congestive heart failure
or kidney failure that caused his body to retain fluid and
he was terribly swollen. He was on his last dying breath. And he is in the presence of
the Lord. Now, we know this meeting was
all set up by the Lord's good and sovereign Providence, but
the Pharisees brought this dying man into their house to see what
the Lord would do on the Sabbath day. Remember, the Lord had healed
many on the Sabbath day, demonstrating that He is Lord of the Sabbath. If you hold your place there
and find Luke 6, Luke chapter 6, remember the man who had the
withered hand? In Luke chapter 6 verse 5, the
Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath. And it came to pass
on another Sabbath that he entered into the synagogue and taught.
And there was a man whose right hand was withered. And the scribes
and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the Sabbath
day, that they might find an excuse against him or accusation
against him. But he knew their thoughts, and
said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, stand
forth in the mist. And he arose and stood forth.
And the Lord said unto them, I will ask you one thing. Is
it lawful on the Sabbath day to do good or to do evil, to
save life or to destroy? And looking round about upon
them all, he said to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And
he did so. And his hand was restored whole as the other. And they
were filled with madness and communed one to another. What
might we do with this man? It says over in Mark that they
went out and held a council how they might destroy this man.
So the Lord often showed mercy and had compassion upon sinners
on the Sabbath day. You remember in Luke chapter
13, turn over there. You remember the woman who had
the infirmity for 18 years and was bowed together and could
not lift up herself? In Luke 13 verse 12, And the
Lord said to her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmities. 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 Jesus
had healed on the Sabbath day. And said unto the people, There
are six days in which men ought to work, and in them before in
them therefore come to be healed, not on the Sabbath day." And
the Lord said, you're just a bunch of hypocrites. You're just a
bunch of hypocrites. So the Lord, on purpose, healed
on the Sabbath day to show that He is the Lord of the Sabbath. Now look at verse 3, Luke 14,
And the Lord answered and spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees,
saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? The law of
God did allow for acts of mercy, acts of compassion, even so much
as if your ox or your ass had fallen into a pit, you did not
violate the Sabbath day if you pulled that animal out of the
pit. And they held their peace. And the Lord took this man, healed
this man, and let him go. The Lord of glory asked the Pharisees
and the scribes, is it lawful, right to heal someone? He knew
their wicked intentions, their sinful hearts. There's not a
word in my tongue. David said, but lo, O Lord, thou
knowest it altogether. And they could not answer him. It says in verse 4, they held
their peace. Verse 6, it said they could not
answer him again to these things. Now notice carefully the actions
of our blessed Redeemer, our blessed Savior. how merciful
the Lord of Glory is. He is indeed the able Savior. He's able to save them to the
uttermost that come to God by Him, saying, He ever liveth to
make intercession for them. He's an able Savior. He's a willing
Savior. He's a powerful Savior. He's
a great physician of sinners. Even though the Pharisees and
lawyers had evil intentions toward the Lord, He's always looking
out for the poor and needy. As David said, I am poor and
needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me. He's always looking
for opportunities by the Lord's good providence to reach out
and heal, to reach out in the reach of mercy. The Lord reached
out, took this man by the hand, embraced him, healed him, released
him to go home, like He told the wild Gadarene, remember in
Luke chapter 8 verse 39, go home and tell how great things the
Lord hath done for thee." Now we don't have the rest of this
man's story, but if you would have found this man the next
day and asked him, what happened to you? You were diseased and
dying and now you're whole and healthy, completely so. How did
that happen? What would he say? What would
be his testimony? I met the Lord of Glory, and
He took me, and He healed me, and He set me free." That's our
story. That's our story. Now, I want
to come back to this statement here. The Lord of Glory took
this dying, diseased man, and fully and mercifully healed him,
set him free. This is exactly the reason the
Lord came. You remember? Turn back to Luke
chapter 4. Luke chapter 4. When he came
to his hometown there in Nazareth, and when he took up the Word
of God and read from Isaiah 61, this is Luke 4 verse 18, The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. This is the reason the Lord of
glory came. He came to seek and to save that
which is lost. The Lord didn't come to call
the righteous. He came to call sinners to repentance. As the Apostle Paul said in his
testimony found in 1 Timothy chapter 1, This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation, that the Lord Jesus Christ came
to save sinners, of whom I am the chief one. Can't you put yourself there?
That's our testimony, is it not? That's our story, that's our
testimony. Every believer can say, the Lord
in mercy took me, the Lord in grace healed me, and the Lord
by His power has set us free. Now, let's look at those three
things. He took us. The Lord took us. And as I pointed out earlier,
that word actually means that He laid hold upon us. The Lord caught us. He captured
us. The Lord took us, the Lord chose
us in that eternal covenant of grace, and determined by his
eternal purpose to make us just like the Lord Jesus Christ. Had
not the Lord chosen us in eternal electing grace, we never would
have believed the gospel. Had He not took us in love in
that covenant of grace, we never would have loved Him. For He
loved us with an everlasting love, and with loving kindness
He does draw us unto Himself. We only love Him because He first
loved us. We only believe the gospel because
He took us to Himself in that covenant of grace and made us
one with Him. Therefore, as many as were ordained
to eternal life, they believe the gospel. We believe the gospel
only according to the working of His mighty power. Remember the Lord said in John
15, you didn't choose me. I chose you and ordained you
that you might bring forth fruit unto God. We call this the Bible
doctrine of election. Does this Word of God teach that
God chose a people and determined to make those chosen people just
like the Lord Jesus Christ? Absolutely so. We are bound to
give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God has from the beginning chosen you unto salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit, unto belief of the truth, whereunto he called
you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated, that the purpose of God, according to election, might
stand, not according to works, but according to God's own purpose
and grace, given us in Christ before the foundation of the
world." We've heard that before, haven't we? You see, God who
took the initiative here, God took us, He chose us, He calls
us, He saves us by His grace. And that's the only reason you
believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He took us, caught
us, loved us, made us one with Him. Now, the second thing is
this, and this too is our testimony. He healed us. Oh, I didn't know you were sick. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you were born
with a terminal disease called sin. That's our disease. We were born in sin, shaped in
iniquity. Like this diseased man, full
of dropsy, full of water, We were full of sin. Isaiah describes us this way,
From the sole of our foot, even to our head, there is no soundness
in us, but wounds, bruises, putrefying sores that have not been clothed,
have not been bound up, neither treated, mollified with ointment."
That's us. Like this man who was full of
water, full of disease, we're full of sin, shapen in iniquity. We're born in sin, shapen in
iniquity. As we've studied in Romans chapter
3, we are sinners, full of sin, with absolutely No righteousness. There is none righteous. No,
not one. How did we get that way? We were
born in sin. But the story goes back much
further than that, doesn't it? In Adam, all died. Wherefore, as by one
man sin entered into this world, and death by sin, so death passed
upon all men, for in him all have sinned." When he stood,
we stood in him. When Adam sinned, we sinned in
him. When he fell, we fell in him. Identified with Adam, when he
sinned, we sinned also in that representative man. But the good
news of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, He took our sins
to His own body on a tree, made them His own, and with His stripes
we are healed. I want you to turn back to the
book of Matthew. Hold your place there in Luke
14. Find Matthew chapter 8. And this
is a quotation that the Lord gives us here from Isaiah 53.
where it says, with his stripes we are healed. But look what
it says here in Matthew 8, verse 14. When Jesus was coming to
Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid and sick of the fever. And
he touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she arose
and ministered unto them. He touched her. He took her by
the hand, and the fever left. And when the evening was come,
they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils. And
he cast out the spirits with his word, and he healed all them
that were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken
by Isaiah the prophet, saying himself, took our infirmities
and bear our sicknesses. The only reason we have spiritual
health is because the Lord took all of our sinful diseases unto
Himself. The disease of our sin turned
to 1 Peter. I want you to see this. Turn
to 1 Peter chapter 2. We know the Lord Jesus Christ
personally had no sin, did no sin, and knew no sin, but God
laid on Him the sin of His covenant people. It says in 1 Peter 2,
verse 22, who did no sin, neither was guile
found in his mouth, who, when he was reviled, reviled not again,
when he suffered he threatened not, but committed himself to
him that judgeth righteously, who his own self bare our sins
in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins,
should live unto righteousness, live unto Christ, by whose stripes
you were healed." When were we healed? when He bare our sin
and His own body on the tree. For we were as sheep going astray,
but are now returning to the Shepherd and Bishop of our soul."
Now, stay right here in 1 Peter, find chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter
3, verse 18, For Christ also once suffered for sins, for the
unjust that He might bring us unto God, being put to death
in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." He suffered for
our sins and putting away our sins with His stripes, we are
healed. We know that He was manifested
to take away our sins, and in Him is no sin. That one verse we quote all the
time. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, God made Him to be sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. When He died, He died to put
away our sin. He appeared once in the end of
the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and with
His stripes we are healed. God committed His love toward
us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more than being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved
from wrath through Him. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanses us from all our sin. You see, it all gets back
to His person and His work. He took us He healed us. With His blood we're justified.
With His blood we are pardoned. And then thirdly, this is our
testimony, of every believer, He set us free. He set us free. He made us willing. servants
of the Lord of glory. He made us willing in the day
of His power. The Apostle Paul said, Stand
fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has set us free, and be
not entangled again with the yoke, the bondage of the law.
We are set free because the Lord has healed us and delivered us
from the penalty of sin. The wage of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Free from sin. in that the Lord Jesus Christ
puts our sin away, free from the curse of the law. He redeemed
us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. For sin shall not have dominion
over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace. And
thank God we have been made free from false religious bondage,
no longer going about to establish a righteousness of our own, but
resting in the Lord Jesus Christ, who has made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." Now, can you
identify with those three things? Can you say, this is my testimony?
He took me. He healed me. And He let me go. May the Lord be pleased to make
this our testimony. because our salvation is totally
of the Lord. You see, I was blind, and He
made me see. I was deaf, and He gave me ears
to hear Him. I was dead in sin, you have He
quickened who were dead in sin, trespassers. He made us alive.
I was sick, full of the terrible disease of sin, totally depraved,
without God, without hope, and without Christ. And He healed
us by His grace. I was empty without God, without
hope, and without Christ. And He has filled us in Himself. Filled with Christ. In Him dwells
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete
in Him. Complete in Him. Christ is all
and in all. In Him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead in a body, and you are made complete in Him."
He took us, He healed us, He set us free. Now, this is the
Lord's doing, is it not? We can say with David, this is
from Psalm 119 verse 23, this is the Lord's doing, and it's
marvelous in our eyes. It's marvelous in our eyes. This
salvation, this salvation that is of the Lord.