If you will open your Bibles
once again to Luke chapter 13. I want to read again these verses
beginning with verse 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 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. The Lord then 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 watering? And ought not this woman, being
a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo these 18 years
be loose from this bond on the Sabbath day. And when he had
said these things, all his adversaries were shamed, and all the people
rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him. Many children's stories began
with words something like this, once upon a time in a faraway
land lived so and so. Well, I want to begin the message
this morning by saying once upon a Sabbath day in a faraway land,
the Lord Jesus Christ was teaching in this synagogue. This is not
a fable. Those stories for children are
make-believe. They're fables. But this is not
one of those. This is an historical fact. This took place one day in the
life of the Lord Jesus Christ. It took place on a Sabbath day. And that's the title of the message,
Once Upon a Sabbath. First, once upon a Sabbath, the
Lord Jesus was teaching in a synagogue. What is a synagogue? Or what
was a synagogue, I should say? These were places of worship
that came into being during the time the nation of Israel was
in captivity. They were 70 years in Babylonian
captivity. They were taken out of their
land, the land of Palestine, and taken into Babylon. And they
were scattered over Babylon. And these places of worship were
raised up. And there were many of them in
Jerusalem. When our Lord was here at this
particular time, there was many in Jerusalem. We're not told
if he was in a synagogue in Galilee or in Judah. But these synagogues
were places where the Jews would gather. They were not the temple,
of course. There was one temple, but there
were many of these synagogues, and the service would always
begin the same way. They would say the words there
in Deuteronomy chapter six, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is
one God, and thou shalt love him with all thy heart and with
all thy mind. and with all thy might. In Luke chapter four, we are
told that the Lord Jesus Christ, his custom was to be in the synagogue
on a Sabbath day. That's the way he had been raised.
As he lived in the home of Mary, his mother, and Joseph, her husband,
they carried him to the synagogue, and that was his custom. And
I tell you, if you want to raise children who attend the worship
services, then you need to bring them to the worship services.
You need to bring them to hear the word of God. That's the way
the Lord Jesus Christ was raised. Mary brought him, and Joseph,
they brought him to the synagogue. And as his custom was, he never
outgrew that custom. That was his custom. His habit,
if you please. You know, there's some bad habits
that we, most of us have, but thank God there's some good habits.
And one good habit, one good custom is to be in the house
of the Lord when God's people gather to worship Him. That's
a good habit. That's a good custom. Now, they were gathered together
to hear the word of the Lord. And we see the Lord Jesus Christ
here was teaching. Now, you and I know that Jesus
Christ is a mediator. He's the one mediator between
God and man. You might say, why did we need
a mediator? We needed a mediator because,
first of all, the holiness of God. the purity, the absolute
holiness of God and the sinfulness of man. You see, before Adam
sinned in the garden, there was no need for a mediator. God,
Adam's creator, could walk with him in the cool of the afternoon
and they could fellowship. But just as soon as Adam disobeyed
God and you and I come into this world, And we inherit the sin
of Adam. It's called original sin. And we don't become sinners by
sinning. We sin because we are born sinners. Adam was the only man who ever
became a sinner by sinning. The rest of us, we've inherited
the sin of Adam. He was our representative, our
head. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
comes into this world, and he's a perfect mediator. Why? Because he's God, absolute holiness,
and yet he's man, both in one person, the God-man, the one
and only mediator between God and man. And in this capacity
as a mediator, he has three offices. He's our prophet. He's our priest. And he's our king. And I think
sometimes maybe I'll speak for myself. I speak more about him
as a priest than I do as a prophet. But he was all three. As a priest,
he was to offer a sacrifice. He didn't offer a lamb with sacrifice and offering When
he came into this world, he said God was not pleased. But he had
prepared him a body. In other words, a priest has
to have an offering. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
bring a bullock. He didn't bring a lamb. He didn't
shed the blood of an animal. No, he gave himself. He gave
himself as a sacrifice. Hebrews 7 and verse 27 says,
this he did once when he offered up himself. He offered himself
as that one sacrifice which satisfies God for the sins of his people. Then he is a king also. And we know that the work of
a king is to reign, to rule. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
king of kings and Lord of lords. He's on the throne today. Now,
this may sound strange to some people, but it is according to
the Word of God. He is at the Father's right hand,
having all power, all authority given unto Him, and He reigns. He rules over all creation. The God-man does. He's on the throne today. We
wouldn't have it any other way, would we? We're thankful that
our King reigns. And as the writer of Ecclesiastes
said, and he was a king, a man, but he said, in the words of
a king, there's power. And we see it here in just a
few minutes. In the words of this king, there's
power, power over all things, even demons and sicknesses and
infirmities like this woman suffered from. And he's a prophet. He is the prophet. Not a prophet,
he is the prophet. Moses prophesied of him when
he told the nation of Israel. God, through Moses, said, I will
raise them up a prophet from among their brethren. That means
he was going to be an Israelite, a Jew. Our Savior, our prophet
was a Jew. He was born of a Jewish woman,
Mary. Yes. I will raise them up a prophet
from among their brethren like unto thee, that is like unto
Moses. And I will put my words in his
mouth. God said, I'll put my words in
his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command
him. Notice that all. We're not looking
for another revelation, a further revelation. Why? Because He's
the Alpha and Omega, the Amen. God has spoken through Him and
by Him. We're not looking for someone
else to come along and tell us that they've got a message from
God that is contrary to the Word of God, the written Word of God. No, no. And it shall come to pass that
whosoever will not hearken unto my words, which he shall speak
in my name, I will require it of him. In other words, you listen
to the Lord Jesus Christ, or you're going to meet God in judgment
one day, and he's going to require it of you. In that prophecy,
God said, I will put my words in his mouth He shall speak unto
them all that I shall command him. You know, that was part
of our Lord's humiliation. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. I said part of his humiliation
was he did not speak any words other than what his father commanded
him and his father gave him to do. His life was a life of submission. In John 7 and verse 16, he said,
my doctrine is not mine, but him that sent me. Doctrine, teaching,
truth. My doctrine is not mine, but
him, that is God, who sent me. Men reject the teaching of the
Lord Jesus Christ. They need to recognize they're
rejecting God's teaching, God's doctrine. John 14 in verse 24,
he said, the words which you hear is not mine, but the father's
which sent me. So his obedience even included
speaking the very words which the father gave him to speak.
Grace, one of the Psalms says, grace is poured into his lips. You remember at one point the
Pharisees sent the temple police to arrest the Lord Jesus. bring
him into their presence. They didn't like what he was
teaching. And the guards came back without him. And they said,
where is he? Never a man spoke like this man. We didn't arrest him. We didn't
take him by force. Why? Never a man spoke like this
man. In John 17, in this prayer, in
verse eight, he said, I have given unto them the words which
thou gavest me. So the Lord Jesus Christ as a
mediator, he's priest, our priest, if you know him, he's our great
high priest, and by his one sacrifice, he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified, that is, all of his people. He's our king,
he reigns and rules in our hearts, and he is our prophet. The first
message, recorded message I should say, that the Lord Jesus Christ
preached after his baptism is found in Luke chapter four. He
was baptized and then he was out in the wilderness for 40
days, tempted of Satan, and then he made his way back to Nazareth,
the city in which he had lived, and he went into the synagogue.
And this is an example for all preachers. How did he preach? Here it is, very clear and very
plain. What did he do? He took the word
of God and he read his text. He read from Isaiah. And then
he explained the text. Today, this scripture is fulfilled
in your presence. And then he gave examples. And
those examples were, of course, of God's sovereign grace. He
preached the fact that there was, in the days of Elijah, many
widows in Israel. And there was a famine in the
land, and people were starving. And God sent his prophet, not
to any widow of Israel, but to a Gentile woman. And she was
provided for, for three years. And then he said there were many
lepers in Israel in the days of Elisha. We don't read of any
leper being healed or cleansed, I should say, in the days of
Elisha, except one, Naaman, who was a Gentile. And then what happened? Then
they tried to kill him. They tried to kill him because
they understood exactly what he was saying. And God is sovereign
in dispensing his grace. He said, I will have mercy upon
whom I will have mercy. We know this is what the word
of God teaches. And yet men hate this doctrine. They hate this truth. Man wants
to be on the throne. He wants to be calling the shots.
But whether we like it or not, I do like it. I know you do too.
God's sovereign and in control and rules over all things. Second, once upon a Sabbath,
there was a certain woman in the same synagogue, verse 11. 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. It might appear to us that if
anyone ever had an excuse to stay at home and not attend worship
service, there's one who had a good excuse. 18 years she'd been bent over,
been bowed over, afflicted by Satan. But she didn't look for
an excuse. She was in the synagogue on the
Sabbath day, and the Lord Jesus Christ was in that same synagogue
that day. Her condition, as described,
it serves you and I as a picture of all men without Christ. It serves as a picture of you
today if you are without Christ. Her condition was of longstanding. 18 years. And you say, well,
that's not all that long. It is if you're bent over. If
you're bent like she was bent, that's a long time. But your
sinful condition is of a long standing. It's as old as you are. From
the very moment of your conception in your mother's womb. You came
into this world, as the psalmist said, shapen in iniquity, and
in sin did my mother conceive me. Her problem, her condition was
of longstanding. Second, her condition was that
she was bowed together. You know the fact that she was
bowed and bent down looking toward the ground. When God created man and all
the creatures that he created there in the first week of creation,
the animals were created in such a form that they looked down.
They faced down to the earth, but not man, not man. He was created to look up, to
look up. And by his very creation, he
was to understand that He was a subject as the animals were
subject to him and God gave man's authority over all of his creation. But as these animals were subject
to Adam, Adam was created in such a way that he would look
up and know that he had a ruler also. He had one to whom he was
subject and that subject of course was God. He was to look up to
His God and He was to glorify Him. That's the reason God created
you. That's the reason He created
me. That's the reason all men are created, for His own glory. You say, does the Bible say that?
Let me see if I can find this. Look over here in Revelation
chapter 4. Sure it does. The last verse here of chapter
4 of Revelation, these beings in heaven worshiping the Lord. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive
glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things. What does all things mean? It
means all things. All things. There was nothing
that God hasn't created, nothing that is that He didn't create. Thou hast created all things,
and for thy pleasure they are and were created. For God's pleasure,
for God's glory, Adam was created like that to look up. But once
he sinned, once he disobeyed God, he naturally looked down
like the animals. And this is a problem. This is
a problem with lost men and women. If you're here today without
Christ, this is your problem. You're looking for the things
in this world to satisfy you. You're looking down, and your
soul will never be satisfied by the things of this world.
If it's riches, if it's fame, no matter what it is, you may
achieve those things, but you will not satisfy your soul, your
spiritual being. Why? Because only God can satisfy
you. Only God can help you. Once he's
in, he naturally looked down to this world for his chief delight. And he tries, men try to satisfy
their soul with natural things, carnal things, physical things,
but their soul is spiritual. Now what's the problem with that
man our Lord spoke of in Luke chapter 16? Some people say his
name was Dives. He died and lifted up his eyes
in hell. He had everything, evidently,
this world could give. He had the best clothes. He had
the most sumptuous banquet every day in his house. And the poor
beggar, Lazarus, was laid out at his gates, and the dogs did
lick his sores. Now, people would say, well,
surely then the rich man, he's the one who was blessed. Really? Really? The poor man, he was
obviously cursed. Really? What happened when they
left this world? He was in hell, in torment. Lazarus, the man who had been
a beggar in this world, where was he? He was in Abraham's
bosom. He was in glory. Amen. And notice her condition. Number
one, it was longstanding, I said. Number two, It was so that she
was bowed down looking to the earth. And number three, she
could in no wise lift up herself. She could not heal herself. And
you can't save yourself. You just can't do it. And neither
can anyone else. Someone said, well, I believe
in the power of positive thinking. Well, I'm a positive person. But I'm telling you, all the
positive thinking in the world would not allow this woman to
lift up herself. No, it just wouldn't work. Others
say, well, I believe in a free will. Every man has a free will. Well, how did her free will help
her? She's bound. She cannot lift
up herself. She cannot save herself. She
is hopelessly doomed to die in that condition unless someone
does something for her. Who is that someone? That's Christ,
isn't it? That's my third point. Once upon a Sabbath, the Lord
Jesus was found of someone who sought him not. She wasn't seeking
the Lord that day. The Lord Jesus, if you read this
with me, he was first in everything that is recorded. Now the Jews,
they divided the men from the women. So in this synagogue,
the man, the Lord Jesus, they'd be in one, maybe one side and
all the women over here. But notice what it said. The
Lord saw her. Doesn't say she saw him. The
Lord saw her. The Lord called her, woman. She didn't call him. She didn't
say, Lord, have mercy on me. No. And he spoke the words of healing
to her. Be loosed of thine infirmity. And he laid his hands upon her. Woman, thou art loosed from thine
infirmity. And notice immediately, immediately
she was made straight. Have you ever just stopped to
think what happens immediately, immediately when a person believes
in the Lord Jesus Christ? When a person turns to the Lord
Jesus Christ in faith, immediately this woman glorified God. What does that mean? Well, immediately,
when a person trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ, look what the Apostle
Paul tells us happens. Colossians chapter one, immediately. In Colossians one, beginning
in verse 12, he said, giving thanks unto the Father, which
hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness,
and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom
we have redemption. through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sins. You see, immediately, just like
when the Lord spoke to this woman, immediately she was made straight. When a sinner believes and trusts
in the Lord Jesus Christ, immediately that person is translated from
the kingdom of darkness. Who's the prince of darkness?
Satan is, and all men. are under his authority when
we come into this world. But immediately, when a person
trusts in Christ, they're translated into the kingdom of God's dear
Son. Immediately, they're made meat
for heaven. Verse 14, giving thanks unto the Father
which hath made us meat. to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light. And we have a wonderful example
of that, don't we? Of that man who believed in Christ,
who was being crucified at the same time. Immediately, he was
translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of
God's dear son. Immediately, he was made meat. Today, thou shalt be with me
in paradise. And immediately, a person has
all their sins forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ. And immediately, this woman began
to glorify God. She began to glorify God. And
that's what happens when a person is saved. They want to live for
the glory of God. Their life is changed. Before,
it's all about self. It's all about me. When a person
is truly born of the Spirit of God, we begin to want to glorify
God, to live for Him, for His glory. And then the last thing, fourth,
once upon a Sabbath, the Lord Jesus exposed a man for what
he really was, what he really was. He was a leader of the synagogue. That meant he had some place
of authority and preeminence and people looked up to him. He was a ruler of the synagogue.
But the Lord Jesus exposed him immediately for what he really
was, thou hypocrite. Thou hypocrite. What did he do? Well, he spoke as though this
healing was nothing. He wasn't all that great. It wasn't to him. Because he
wasn't bowed over. Wasn't all that great. Listen,
there's six days when men ought to work. And we observe the Sabbath
day around here. I'm talking like the ruler of
this synagogue. We're very strict. We only walk
so far on a Sabbath day. We wouldn't dare light a fire
in our house on the Sabbath day. All these rules and regulations
that Moses gave to the nation of Israel about the Sabbath was
for that particular people in that particular place. And yet
we have people today who still think they're going to keep the
Sabbath. So they come together on a Saturday,
and that is the Sabbath. Sunday's not the Sabbath. No. Sunday is the Lord's Day, according
to the Word of God. And the people in the New Testament,
they gathered together on the Lord's Day. John was in the Spirit
on the Lord's Day on the Isle of Patmos. We're very strict around here. If you want to get healed, just
like just like healing took place there every day. Come any other
day, but don't do any work on the Sabbath day. Thou hypocrite. Which one of you? You've got
a calf or an ox or a donkey at home in the stall, and it's the
Sabbath day, and that Animal needs some water, and you know
he needs some water, and it'd be cruel not to give him some
water. So what do you do? You loose
him and take him to the water trough. You work. You do work. And here you say that this woman
who'd been bowed down for 18 years with this infirmity, that
she shouldn't be healed on the Sabbath day. You hypocrite. And let me close with that last
line there in verse 17. And all the people, all the people
rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him. Oh, we should be a rejoicing
people, shouldn't we? Not for what we've done, but
for what he's done. And he's done these things. They're
finished. The work's finished. Believe
and be saved. Believe and rejoice. Believe and have your sins forgiven. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Once upon a Sabbath day. That
was a wonderful day, wasn't it? It was for that woman and for
the people that were there in the synagogue that day. What
must it have been to have been in a synagogue when the Lord
Jesus Christ was there, when He was teaching? May the Lord
bless His word to all of us today.