in our Bibles to Luke chapter
13. Luke chapter 13 and reading verses
10 through 17. And he was teaching in one of
the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, There was a woman
which had a spirit of infirmity 18 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 day. And the Lord then answered him
and said, thou hypocrite, Doth not each one of you on the Sabbath
loose his ox or ass from the stall and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being
a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these 18 years
be loosed 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. Looking at these verses this
morning, I'm going to divide my message into four parts. We'll
look at the four people who are mentioned here. First, the woman. The woman. And I have four things
I want to point out about this woman. First, as we read in verse
11, she was bowed together. She was bowed together. Now,
she was not born bowed together, but her infirmity when she had
suffered, our Lord said for 18 years, had caused her posture
to be completely changed. She was bowed together. And this
reminded me that in creation, we know that God created all
things that are. In creation, God created the
animals so that they look down, they look toward the earth. And
when they die, their spirits return to the ground, not man. When God created man, he created
him to look up, to look up toward heaven, to look up to realize
that his happiness and his well-being would always be in his relationship
to God. And when he died, when man died,
he would not, his spirit would not return to the earth, but
it would return to God. Scripture says, for there is
appointed unto men once to die, but after this, the judgment.
And just as soon as a person dies physically, when we leave
this world, we go into judgment. And a person is translated into
the presence of God, as the Apostle Paul said, if he is a child of
God, be with Christ, which is far better, or as the man in
our Lord's parable in Luke chapter 16, when he died, then the judgment,
and in hell, he lift up his eyes, being in torments. This woman was not born this
way. Sin. had caused man to experience
this idea that now we no longer look towards heaven for enjoyment
and peace, but man naturally, when we come into this world,
we look toward the ground like the animals and somehow expect
that the things of this world will bring contentment. Things
of this world will make a person happy. And you see people, you
know people. They run here and they run there.
They're always looking for something. They're never content. Why? Because they're seeking contentment. They're seeking peace and happiness
from the things of this world which they cannot give. Man has
a soul. We're all born like that man
our Lord spoke about in Luke chapter 12, whose farm produced
a great harvest one year. And so he said, this is what
I'll do. I'll tear down my barns and build
bigger barns. And I will say, soul, he would
speak to his soul and say, thou has much goods laid up for many
years. Take thine ease, eat, drink,
and be merry. What I'm saying here this morning
as we read about this woman, this is a picture of all men
as we come into this world. She wasn't born like this, bowed
down. She wasn't born like that. And
man wasn't created sinful, we know that. We were created in
the image of God, the moral image of God, holy, righteous, upright,
but sin has entered into God's creation. And now we're all in
this world bowed down. Just as soon as sin entered into
Adam, his mind was blinded. And that's the way people are
apart from Christ. A blinded mind. We can't see
our need. We can't see ourselves. Not only
is the mind blinded in the lost, and this is the way all of us
are or were when we came into this world. Our minds were blinded
to the truth, to the gospel. But we also have a will. that is set against God in slavery,
if you were, to our nature, our sinful nature. And our emotions
are no longer toward God, no longer in love with our creator,
but in love with ourselves. Her posture was changed after
she was born. And man's condition, his nature
has been changed from what he was created in the beginning. The second thing we read about
this woman, you see that in verse 11. Behold, there was a woman
which had a spirit of infirmity 18 years and was bowed together. The second thing in that same
verse, verse 11, she could in no wise lift up herself. She couldn't no wise lift up
herself. Or maybe she just needed to try
harder. Maybe she was just lazy. She just needed to give
it another shot. Her best shot. Oh no. I'm sure she had tried that.
As far as she was concerned, and listen, as far as the doctors
were concerned, she was a hopeless case. She was bowed down, bowed
together, and she couldn't help herself. And the doctors, no
doubt she had tried them. And like the woman who had the
issue of blood, spent all her living on the doctors and was
none the better. So this woman, she could in no
wise lift up herself. Maybe she just needed to hear
a greater appeal, a greater appeal to help herself, to lift up herself
by her own bootstraps. No, she would die, this woman
would die bowed together unless the Lord did something for her. Now that's just all there is
to it. The same is true of lost men and women. You come into
this world alienated from God, estranged from God, and unless
God does something for us, we'll die that way. Salvation, when we say salvation,
is of God and salvation is by grace. I hope we really understand
what grace is. It is help for the undeserving,
the ill-deserving, the hell-deserving. This woman was in a hopeless
situation and she could in no wise lift up herself. And what
a picture she is of all men because of sin. This woman needed someone
to do something for her that she couldn't do for herself.
Isn't that obvious? Isn't that obvious? And the same
is true of all men as we come into this world. We need someone
to do something for us that we cannot do for ourselves. And
what is that something? We've got a sin problem. We've
got a sin problem. And our problem is we have sinned
against God. And we need someone to do something
for us that we can't do for ourselves. We need someone who can satisfy
God on our behalf for our sins. We can't do it, no more than
this woman. She couldn't no wise lift up
herself. going on a pilgrimage. Sometimes
you'll read someone will think, well, I'll go on a pilgrimage
and I'll go to visit a shrine. And many people have been helped
by visiting that shrine. And I'll walk for miles. That won't help you. That won't
help you. And other people, They believe
that by fasting, by destroying the body, that will take care
of this problem. No, it won't. Martin Luther,
he tried that, didn't he? Many nights we read of his story
that he was picked up by other monks and carried to his cell.
Because he had so deprived his body with fasting and praying
and laying out in the cold, thinking that somehow, and lacerating
his back even, that somehow he was going to appease God, and
God then would have peace and be at peace with him. And he's
just one of millions, no doubt, who have tried the same thing.
Religion of works, somehow man thinks he's going to appease
God and pay for his sins. This woman could in no wise lift
up herself. It's only the blood of Christ. It's only the blood of Christ.
What do we mean by that? I mean by his sacrificial death. by his sacrificial death in the
place of his people, dying for sinners. And that's the reason
he came into this world, isn't it? This time of the year, many
people are thinking about his incarnation, but how few people
really understand why it is that he came into this world. Why
did he come? Well, he said he came to seek
and to save that which is lost. He came to save sinners. Paul
said it's a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. I like the way that reads, don't
you? This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. Do you accept this? Have you
accepted this? that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners. It's worthy that you accept this
faithful saying. Accept the truth of the gospel
of Jesus Christ. Only his sacrificial death will
save a sinner. And only the Lord doing something
for this woman would help her. She now, for 18 years, been bowed
together. And she would die that way if
the Lord did not do something for her. The third thing about this woman,
first, she was bowed together. Second, she couldn't otherwise
lift up herself. Third, she was in the synagogue
on the Sabbath. This is where the Jews, when
they came back out of Babylonian captivity, they began to build
these synagogues. You know, the law had commanded
the seventh day Sabbath, and that was to be a day of rest,
but not just to rest, but to worship God, to study his law,
to study his word, and to think about God. And that's where she
was on this Sabbath day. And if anyone could have had
an excuse not to be there, I believe it would have been this woman.
You know, some of the flimsy excuses that people make for
not attending worship service. I've been reading the life of
the autobiography of John Payton again, a missionary to the New
Hebrides. South Pacific Islands, and he
tells about his father, who was an elder in the church, the Free
Church of Scotland. He said he missed, as far as
he knew, in 40 years, he said, my father missed worship service
on Sunday morning three times. Now, they didn't have evening
services, obviously, and he worked to 10 o'clock at night, so if
they had weeknight services, he didn't attend those. But he
had services in his house. Three times, John Payton said,
I knew my father didn't make it to church. One time, he took
off and there was a snowstorm. And he had to return home. Another
time, he came home on his hands and knees because of the ice.
He had sledden down a hill. And a third time, he said, because
of cholera in the village. Four miles, he walked to the
village where he worshiped. There was cholera, and the funny
thing about that is, they actually sent a message out to him on
Saturday evening not to come because they didn't want him
to come and be exposed to the cholera. They knew he would be
there. But this woman, if anyone could
have had an excuse not to attend that day, it would have been
her. Bent double. Have you ever walked bent over? You know, you can't help but
have pity for people you see sometimes because of back trouble
or back surgery. I remember in Yucatan when we
lived there, seeing some men who had worked as young men building
those rock fences. And those rocks are heavy, aren't
they? And they had ruined their backs. And now when they were,
they weren't old like some of us here today, but they were
old for them. But their backs were just bent
over. This woman, they kept to their
hammock. They kept to their hammock. I
visited some like that years ago. She could have stayed home. But
you know what, if she'd stayed home, she'd miss the blessing,
right? Say, well, it's just a prayer
meeting. Yes, it's just a prayer meeting, but what if God blesses? What if God shows up? Yeah. The fourth thing about
this woman, she was a daughter of Abraham. Notice that in verse
16. Our Lord said, and ought not this woman being a daughter
of Abraham? Now, what did the Lord mean when
he said she was a daughter of Abraham? Now think about it,
all the people in that synagogue that day, for the most part,
and there were other women there, no doubt, they were all descendants
of Abraham. They were all Jews. But you know,
he said the same thing about Zacchaeus. When he called Zacchaeus
down out of that sycamore tree and went to his house, he said,
this day is salvation come to this house for he too is a son
of Abraham. What does he mean here? She's
a daughter of Abraham. Well, remember what Paul wrote
in Romans 9. He said, for they are not all
Israel, which are of Israel. Let that sink in. They're not
all Israel. which are of Israel." In other
words, not everyone that was born a Jew was a Jew. Not everyone
who was a lineal descendant of Abraham was a son of Abraham,
a daughter of Abraham. Who are these people? They're
Abraham's spiritual seed. They're God's elect. They're
Christ's sheep. He said, how did the Lord know
she was a daughter of Abraham? She was one of his sheep. He
said, I know my sheep. He knows each and every one of
his people. Well, there's four things about
this woman. She was bowed down. She could
not at all lift up herself. She was in the synagogue that
day, and she was a daughter of Abraham. Now let's move on to
the Lord Jesus, and let's consider these four things mentioned about
him. First of all, he was teaching. We read that in verse 13, or
verse 10, rather, and he was teaching in one of the synagogues, one of the offices of the Lord. Now he's a mediator, the one
mediator between God and man. If you talk to God, you're going
to go through Christ. If God talks to you, he's going
to speak to you in Christ. He's the one mediator between
himself, between God and man. But as a mediator, he has three
offices. And one of those offices is that
he is a prophet. The difference between a prophet
and a priest, I know you've probably heard this, but A prophet is
a man who comes from God to the people with a message. A priest
is a man who goes from the people to God with a sacrifice. The Lord Jesus Christ was a prophet. And here he is exercising that
office. We see him teaching. From the
time of his baptism, and we believe he was about 30 years of age,
From that time to his crucifixion, he exercised this office of a
prophet, teaching, and he was in synagogues. Sometimes he taught
outside, his Sermon on the Mount. Sometimes he taught from the
sea. He was in a ship, speaking to
those on land. Sometimes he taught in the temple
in Jerusalem. And many times we find that he
was teaching in synagogues. We don't know which synagogue
he was in at this time, but that's the first thing that we see about
him in this passage is he was teaching. You know, the psalmist
in prophecy said, grace is poured into thy lips. When he returned
to Nazareth after being baptized and after being tempted of Satan
in the wilderness for 40 days, he returned to Nazareth where
he'd been brought up, went into the synagogue, and they handed
him the role to read. He found the place where it was
written, the spirit of the Lord is upon me. And you know, when
he spoke, all the people said, What gracious words, what gracious
words. Can you imagine sitting in a
synagogue and the Lord Jesus being the preacher, the Lord
Jesus teaching? That's what he was doing this
day. He was teaching in the synagogue. You know, he was born under the
law. Paul said that he might redeem
us from the curse of the law. He was born under the law. In
other words, the law that God had given to the nation of Israel,
he had to keep. He had to keep that law. And
part of that law was the Sabbath was a day of worship, a day of
rest. And here we see him in the synagogue
on the Sabbath teaching the word of God. Why did he keep that
law? Well, you know, in Isaiah 42,
it begins like this. Behold, my servant, he came into
this world as a servant of Jehovah, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he
honored God's law. He made God's law honorable,
that scripture there tells us. He magnified the law. They say
the law is impossible for us to keep. Yes, it is. Absolutely. The law says thou shalt not lie.
And we lie, we've lied and we lie. He never did. The law said thou shalt worship
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and
with all thy mind. We haven't done that. He did.
He was born under the law. He was circumcised the eighth
day. Why? Because the law commanded that. He perfectly obeyed God's law,
establishing righteousness. And that righteousness becomes
your righteousness. It's my righteousness today.
By faith, when we trust in Him, His righteousness is imputed
to us, charged to our account. Therefore, we are declared just
before God, not by what we do, but through Him and what He has
done. The second thing about this woman,
about the Lord, He saw and called this woman in need. Verse 12. When Jesus saw her, he called,
he called her. She didn't call him. She didn't
call for his help. You know, there are many in the
gospel who were helped by the Lord in different ways. They
were two blind men and they called unto the Lord, Lord, help us,
have mercy on us, oh Lord, thou son of David. She didn't. She
didn't call upon him. Some were brought to the Lord,
like that man who brought his son to the Lord. And he said,
Lord, have mercy on my son. No one brought her to the Lord.
Some were commended to the Lord. Lord, he's worthy. No one commended her to the Lord. No one. No one brought her to
the Lord. No one commended her to the Lord. She herself did not ask. He called her. He saw her and
called this woman unasked. That reminds us of two wonderful
truths about him. First of all, his omniscience. He is God, manifest in the flesh. He knew all about this woman.
He knew how long she had been infirm. He knew everything about
her. He knows everything about you. Everything about me. That's a
comfort to God's children, isn't it? Everything. It may strike
fear into the heart of unbelievers, knowing that he knows everything
about you, every thought. Every thought that's ever crossed
your mind, the Lord knows. Every thought of unbelief, he knows. He knew this woman. Not only does this remind us
of his omniscience, but of his compassion. His compassion, especially,
he saw her. He called her. The third thing we see, he exercised
his sovereign power. Now I mentioned that one of the
offices of the mediator is a prophet, the other two, a priest, and
then he's a king. And Solomon, King Solomon, in
Ecclesiastes, he wrote these words. He said, where the word
of a king is, there's power. Solomon had a lot of power, no
doubt about it. But he didn't have power like
this king. No, no. His words were never
truer than what he wrote. Where the word of a king is,
there's power. Because here is King Jesus, King
of kings and Lord of lords. And when he spoke the word to
this woman, immediately she was loosed from Satan. He exercised his power. Satan is powerful. There's no
question about that. But he's not all powerful. He's
not all powerful. The Lord Jesus Christ is. Satan
loosed this woman from her infirmity. And that begs the question, does
Satan have the power? Does he have the ability to bring
physical infirmities upon people? Only with God's permission. Did
you hear what I said? Does he have that power? Well,
our Lord said here that he had brought this affliction on this
woman for 18 years she had suffered and the Lord commanded her to
be loosed. Does Satan have that authority?
Again, I say only with God's permission. We see that in the
book of Job, don't we? Job, Satan, was given permission
to take everything away from Job, his finances, his family,
everything but his health, and he couldn't touch his health
until God gave him permission. You say, why would God, a good
God that he is, amen? Absolutely. Why would a good
God, you hear people, atheists and unbelievers, why would a
good God permit evil? Why would a good God permit this
woman to be under Satan's power for 18 years? Look with me in John chapter
nine. We have the answer here, don't
we? John chapter nine. John chapter nine, beginning
with verse one. And as Jesus passed by, he saw
a man which was blind from his birth, born blind. His disciples asked him, saying,
Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born
blind? That's the way the Jews thought,
and that's the way most people, or a lot of people, think, you
know. It must have been something I did. God's punishing me for
my sins. You know, I'm so sad when I hear
a believer make a statement like that. Sickness comes in your
life, and you're a child of God, and you say, well, the Lord's
punishing me for my sin. No, listen. If you're a child of God, God
punished your sins in Christ 2,000 years ago. No. Why then was this man born blind? Well, notice how our Lord answered
that. Jesus answered, it wasn't his
parents, it wasn't him. Neither hath this man sin, nor
his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest
in him. We know in that case, the Lord
opened up that man's eyes for God's glory. That's the reason
the Lord would allow someone to be suffering physically, one
of his children, for his glory, for God's glory, for the greater
good. When you think about this woman,
18 years, that's a long time. That's a long time to be sick,
be suffering. But listen. Here's some old sinner. He'd been living a life of sin
for years and years, almost at the end of his life. God save an old sinner like this. Yeah, yeah. God save a young
sinner, a middle-aged sinner, an old sinner. I remember the
story. A man lived a life of sin. He ended up in a workhouse. You
know, we don't have those in this country, thank the Lord.
But back years ago, he ended up in a workhouse. He was old and very close to
dying. And his little granddaughter
would come and read the Bible to him. And he would lay in his bed and
she'd read the scriptures to him. And one day she was reading
in 1 John 1, the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us
from all sin. He said, what? Read that again. The blood of Jesus Christ, his
son, cleanseth us from all sin. What? Read that again. Put my finger on that place. on that scripture and read it
to me again." And my testimony, he said, is I'm leaving this
world believing in that truth, the blood of Jesus. An old sinner,
yes. He saved one, didn't he? Right
on the cross next to him, a few hours from eternity. Yes. God's thoughts are not our thoughts
and God's ways are not our ways. But we're confident in knowing
that God does all things well. And he let this woman be infirm
for 18 years for his glory. The works of God were manifested
here. Now the third thing, his adversaries,
we read here. Our Lord rebuked that. That was
the fourth thing. The Lord rebuked that ruler of
the synagogue. Thou hypocrite. Thou hypocrite. Man, no doubt, was filled with
envy and jealousy and pride, thinking, well, everybody's going
to respect him. And he healed that woman. He released that woman from her
infirmity. He's going to get all the praise,
all the glory. And he hides his sin, his envy,
by acting like he was really concerned about the Sabbath day,
about working on the Sabbath day. The Lord said, you hypocrite. You hypocrite. Our Lord, if you
read Matthew chapter 23 someday, you see our Lord, he pronounced
woes on the Pharisees and the religious people. Why? Because
they were so self-righteous. Self-righteous. Your self-righteousness
will end a person in hell. You need the righteousness of
Christ. But the third people here, his
adversaries, who would that mean? Well, it was the scribes and
the Pharisees who were there that day. They followed the Lord
around. If his ministry lasted three
years, he always had those scribes and Pharisees listening, trying
to catch him, trying to catch him in his speech. Either he
would say something against the law of Moses, or he would say
something against the law of Caesar. And they would have that
to accuse him. They brought a woman taken in
adultery to him in John chapter eight. They said, master, the
law says stoner. What do you say? Well, they were
right. The law did say stoner. That was a penalty for adultery
stoning. What do you say? Well, They knew
that if he said stoner, the Jews didn't have that power at this
time. Rome had taken that from them. He would then be offending the
civil authorities. And if he said, well, just don't
do anything, then he would have been offending the law. All we
see is wisdom, don't we? He that is without sin, let him cast the first stone.
You know that cleared that place out? From the oldest to the youngest,
they began to slip away. But that was his life, our Lord's
life, his ministry. Always watching, always trying
to catch him in something. Is it lawful to pay tribute to
Caesar? Well, show me a coin. He didn't
have one. He couldn't reach in his pocket
like most of us today and pull out some money. No, he didn't
have any money. He became poor. He who was rich
became poor that we might be made rich. Whose image is that
you see there? Well, it looks like Caesar to
me. Render to Caesar the things that are seized. Don't you love
the wisdom our Lord showed? Well, the third thing, the fourth
group of people here, all the people, it says in verse 17,
they rejoiced. When he said these things, all
his adversaries were ashamed, the scribes and Pharisees, but
all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were
done by him. That's usually the reaction when
the gospel is preached. The gospel is a savor of life
unto some and a savor of death unto others. Some people get
mad. Some people get glad. And I will
just ask you in finishing this morning, do you get glad when
you hear the gospel? When you hear the truth of substitution,
does that make your heart rejoice? When you hear that Christ died
in the stead of sinners, does that make you rejoice? That he's
willing to save all who come unto him, does that make you
rejoice? Well, some people rejoice. Our
Lord spoke this word to this woman and it happened immediately. And I think about his word on
the cross when he said, it is finished. It's finished. The work which
my father sent me to do is finished. I pray the Lord would speak to
someone here this morning