Good morning, everyone. Welcome here to our morning service at Calvary Baptist Church of Trujillo. And once again, welcome to those faithfully interviewed us via internet all over the world. Welcome. Please open your emails to number 204. 204. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Number 204. O soul, are you weary and troubled? O light in the darkness, you see There's light for a walk at the sea ♪ More abundant and free ♪ Turn your eyes upon Jesus ♪ Look full in his wonderful face ♪ And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of His glory and grace Through death into life everlasting He passed and we follow Him there Over us sin no more hath to make ♪ Whose we are ♪ ♪ Turn your eyes upon Jesus ♪ ♪ Look full in his wonderful face ♪ ♪ And the things of earth will grow strength within you ♪ In the light of his glory and grace His words shall not fail you, he promised Believe him and all will be well Then go to a world that is dying His perfect salvation to take. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful And the things of earth will grow strengthly deep In the light of His glory and grace Our Heavenly Father, we are thankful this morning that we can turn our eyes upon Thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We can know the forgiveness of sin that is available through His shed blood. We're thankful that He's not on a cross somewhere today or in a grave somewhere, but that He's seated on Thy right hand, interceding for us, that we have the privilege of coming into Thy presence in His name. We're thankful for the forgiveness of sin that we can know, the peace that we can have in our hearts. Thankful that we can gather together here in this place that has provided us a place to meet. Thankful that we can be a light in this community and across the world. Pray that we'd be faithful to Thee in preaching the truth and helping people to know Thy peace and blessing. Thankful for those that join us via internet, those that are not able to attend a good church, we pray for them. We pray for the Christians in China, North Korea, in Venezuela, and in other places that are restricting the opportunity to meet together, we pray for those Christians that they would be faithful and encouraged in Thee and be able to see others come to know Thy peace and blessing as well. We continue to pray for the situation in Nigeria, pray that Thy will be done there, that the Christians there would be faithful to Thee and be able to help others to know Thy peace as well. We do pray for our own country that our country would wake up and see the danger that we are inviting in. We have had such great opportunities in this country and we are destroying that. We're thankful for thy mercy and grace toward us in spite of the ignorance of our leaders. Help those of us that are Christians that we would be faithful in praying for our leaders but also speaking up and seeking to help people to know Thy peace and blessing in these last days. We continue to pray for the situation in the Philippines with the typhoons there, pray for safety, pray for salvation of many, for those that are saved, that they be encouraged in Thee in spite of the storms and honor Thee in their lives. So bless our time together here this morning. May Thy will be accomplished. Pray for Brother Carlson. Thy will be done in his life and in his family and in that church that they would desire truth and that thy will be done. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thank you. On over to 445. 445. No, Not One. Number 445. ♪ There's not a friend like a holy Jesus ♪ No, not one, no, not one None else could heal all our soul's diseases. No, not one. No, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There's not a friend like a holy Jesus. No, not one. No, not one. No friend like him is so high and holy. No, not one. No, not one. And yet no friend is so meek and lowly. No, not one. No, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There's not a friend like the Holy Jesus. No, not one. No, not one. There's not an hour that He is not near us. No, not one. No, not one. No night so dark, but His love can't tear us. No, not one. No, not one Jesus knows all about our struggles He will guide till the day is done There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus No, not one No, not one Did ever since find his friend forsake him? No, not one, no, not one. Or sinner find that he would not take him? No, not one, no, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus. No, not one. No, not one. To answer a gift like the Savior given? No, not one. No, not one. Will He refuse us a home in heaven? No, not one. And over to 495. 495, The Unsearchable Riches of Christ. Number 495. O the unsearchable riches of Christ Wealth that can never be told Riches exhaustless of mercy and grace Precious, more precious than gold Precious, more precious Well, that can never be told. O the unsearchable riches of Christ, Precious, more precious than gold. O the unsearchable riches of Christ, Who shall their greatness declare? Precious, more precious, wealth that can never be O'er the answers of all riches of Christ Precious, more precious than gold O'er the answers of all riches of Christ Freely, how freely they flow Making the songs of the faithful and true Happy wherever they go Precious, more precious Wealth that can never be told All the answers of all riches of Christ Precious, more precious than gold All the answers of all riches of Christ Who would have gladly endured Trials, affliction, and curses on earth Praises like this to secure Precious, more precious Well, that can never be told. Reaches of Christ, precious, more precious than gold. Take your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 13. Luke chapter 13, we're going to be reading there verses 10 through 17 of that chapter. Stand please for the reading of God's word, Luke chapter 13, beginning at verse 10. 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. In 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 them away to watering? 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 had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed, and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful this morning that we have Thy Word, thankful again for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and His willingness to come to this earth and teach the truth, not changing the Word of God, but teaching the truth, exposing the false teachers, and helping those who were interested to see what the truth really was. We're thankful that we have these things recorded for us, that today we can know the truth. We don't have to be crippled by false teachers. We don't have to be in bondage to sin. We can be set free. And we're thankful for that liberty that we have in Christ, a liberty that allows us to serve Thee faithfully and to glorify Thy name. As we look at these verses, we pray that thy will would be accomplished, that we would allow thee to direct us, and that we would want to honor thee in our thoughts and in our words. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. The message this morning is Jesus Christ delivers from bondage. The Bible tells us that God created man in his own image. And man has the ability to think and to reason. He also has a desire to worship God. Man was created to worship God. That was part of God's plan for man. The problem is that it wasn't long after God created man that man decided to disobey God and decided to worship his own ideas rather than God. thought he was wiser than God. And so we have in the Bible the recognition, the exposure of sin in Adam and in his descendants. And different sins are listed, but all of them separate us from God. And so we have also in the Bible the truth given to us the way to fix that problem. The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent. That is the answer to man's sin dilemma. We can be forgiven, we can be saved, and we can know God's peace. We have in our text, we have the illustration of a woman that has an infirmity for 18 years, and there's no one that can help her. I believe that what Jesus is using this as is a picture here of how that, as it says in verse 16, she was bound by Satan. Every lost sinner is bound by Satan. Most people don't realize how crippled they are, but the reality is that only the Lord Jesus Christ can set us free from that bondage. And that bondage is a spiritual bondage, not physical. There are, God still is able to heal today, but we do not believe that if we are saved and walking right with God, we should not be sick. That's heresy. We can pray for healing, and God does do that at times, but God also uses doctors at times, and sometimes what we have can't be fixed. But our life is only here for a short time, and we have an eternity that we can have in heaven if we know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. So the first thing that we want to notice in this passage is the utter bondage of sin. And we notice there, first of all, in verse 10, it tells us that Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. Now, the synagogues God did not ordain the synagogue in the first place. He had the tabernacle, which was in a central location in the wilderness, wherever the people were. They could all see that tabernacle and they could all move towards that tabernacle to bring their offerings and sacrifices. In the days of King Solomon, that tabernacle was replaced with the temple. The temple was in Jerusalem, Jerusalem is built on a hill, and so the nation of Israel was told to go to that place several times in the year, and that's where they were to bring their sacrifices. Synagogues, I did some research on that, and it seems that the synagogues were developed when the southern part of Israel, Judah, was taken into captivity in Babylon. There were people, Jews of that time, that still wanted to worship God, not all of them properly, but they still wanted to worship God or a God. But the temple was destroyed and they were in exile. The Jewish rule, from what I understand, is if there are 10 adult males in any town or city, they have the right to put up a synagogue. Synagogues were places where they could come together to discuss the word of God, to teach the word of God. They could not bring their sacrifices there. That was to be done at the temple. But God was not opposed to the synagogues. We see that in our text. But they were not the original design. It was something that the people could use for convenience. Instead of traveling to Jerusalem, they could teach the Word of God and study it there. Now the synagogues also became a place of debate. And they were placed, many of them were corrupted because they were controlled by, just as this one was, controlled by ungodly individuals. And so Jesus, when he went to the synagogue, he did not allow the structure of the synagogue to interfere with what he was supposed to do, what he came to this earth to do. So he was teaching in the synagogue on this particular Sabbath. And in this synagogue was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity 18 years and was bowed over or bowed together and couldn't in no wise lift up herself. And I was thinking as I read that, that when we were living in Alberta and Spirit River, there was a man there I think he came from Yugoslavia, if I remember right, but he was an older man. And when he would walk, his hands were almost touching the ground. He was bent over, that's how he walked. And so I befriended that man who was interested in what was going on, how he got to that condition. And he said that in his home country, because of the poor nature of that country, They didn't have an animal to pull the plow, and so he was the one that pulled the plow. And he ruined his back doing that. And so he had the muscles in his back would not allow him to stand straight. So he would walk down the sidewalk, and if he found a short tree or something, he would hang on to that tree to straighten himself up, and then he would walk again. But as soon as he let go of the tree, he went down almost on all fours. So that's how he lived his life. I had a few good talks with that man. As far as I know, he never got saved, but he was given that opportunity. But there are people in our world today that are bound spiritually, many people, all of us at one time, bound spiritually and not even aware of it. And that's the worst problem. This woman, she had a problem. She knew she had a problem. It was evident to anyone who was looking that she had a problem. But there was no one there that could help her. And that is the worst of the problem. When you have something that you need help with and there's no one to help you. And spiritually speaking, that is the situation in our world. It was interesting to me to read about The effect of the killing of the ostriches in BC on the people that were there. And they said that because of that event taking place and people, of course, were out of balance in their view of these ostriches. But they said that they should have had mental health workers there when those guns were going off. They figure they shot about 100 rounds, 1,000 rounds, sorry, to kill 400 birds. So they were not very good shots, the people that were doing the shooting. But they said that afterwards that there are many of those who observed that who will need assistance now because the mental shock was so great upon them. Now that's an out of balance view of animals. What was done there was wrong, but not wrong because they killed animals per se, but because of why they killed them. But when the world, when people are lost, they don't have any stability. They have no anchor. They cannot deal with things no matter how shocking they are. They can't handle them. They can't deal with them. And that's a problem. This woman in our text, she had a spirit of infirmity. Now in this particular case, it's identified as a spirit of infirmity. It's identified in verse 16 as Satan hath bound her. Now that doesn't mean that every person that gets sick today, every person that has a problem, physical problem today, that they're bound literally by Satan. We know that all sickness is the result of the fall. And so we get sick because of the fall of man. So we have different issues that we face. And some of those sicknesses will take our lives. Some of them we can overcome. And we should work at trying to be as healthy as we can be, but understanding that in this world, we are going to have to deal with sicknesses. Right now, I read in the news that they are concerned. Of course, again, this is all hype, trying to scare people, but they're concerned that there's a strain of the flu coming this winter that they don't have a vaccine to deal with. Well, I say it's good that they don't have a vaccine to deal with it. We don't need them. You see, God designed our bodies that we can learn how to fight off a lot of sickness by eating properly. And if we do get sick, we build an immunity. But when you take these shots, you destroy that system. You no longer have that immunity, your body now depends on outward intervention. And that's not the way God designed us. But the problem is that we have a medical system that wants to play God. That's the problem. And that's not a good thing. And again, it's something where Christians need to wake up. We need to understand that we need to trust God far more than my generation did when we were younger. We were very ignorant. And we just took what the world was telling us and we did that in some areas where we shouldn't have. We weren't thinking very straight. But God has opened my eyes to see some of that and to try to help people. Again, everybody has to make up their own mind what they're going to do. But we need to understand that the government, sadly, is not looking out for your best interest. That's the reality. So if you want to get counsel on anything, the wise place to get your counsel is from a good church, from the word of God. That's where you're gonna get good counsel from. And you can consult a doctor, but you always need to stop and think, okay, now is this really good for me? And I know for myself, that with my heart issues, I was in the hospital during the Wuhan virus thing. And the first time during that thing that I had to go to the hospital, they wanted to test me for the Wuhan virus. And I said, no, you're not testing me. And they said, well, we'll have to see about that. And so the nurse left my room. And a while later, she came back and she said, OK, we won't test you, but you're going to be in quarantine. You can't leave your room. And they had the door closed, and any time that a doctor or nurse came in, they were all gowned up and everything like a bunch of idiots, but that's what they did. But I survived that. The next time I had to go in, again, they were going to do it, and I told my wife before I went in, I said, if they're going to insist on it, I'm coming home. I'm not going to be tested because the tests are not accurate, first of all, and they can do damage to you just as much as anything else. And again, I didn't have to be. But I had to put up with that stuff for the few times that I was in during that whole period. But again, how do we come to these decisions, these positions? Well, we have to do a little bit of thinking. And we have a Bible. And as we learned in Sunday school, we have the Holy Spirit who indwells us. And so even though the Bible says nothing about the Wuhan virus, there are principles that we can gain from the Bible that can help us to understand what and how to respond to different situations. And there's no reason to go fishing. If I'm not sick, don't try to tell me I'm sick. My body will tell me if I'm sick. Yours will too. And so we don't need something stuck way up into our nose to try and figure out if we've got some kind of a virus which it can't tell us anyway. And if you, again, if you pay attention to what's going on in the world, we know that that machine that they used for the testing was never designed to test for a living virus. So we know these things. We just have to use the brain that God gives us. This woman, again, going back to our text, had a problem that there was no human help for. And so she is in Jesus midst here with this problem that she has. The second thing that we see here is that Jesus Christ saw the need. Now, other people likely observed this woman. They saw what she was like, but they didn't really see the need. And there's a difference between observing something that's going on and actually seeing the need. And when you actually see the need, if you're saved, God gives you a compassion for that need. Now, you can't always help with the need, but you take a different approach. And so in this passage, it says in verse 12, when Jesus saw her, he called her to him. He called her to him. Jesus had time to address the various needs that people had. He still has that time today. God is still interested in you and I in every aspect of our lives. And he wants to help us. And so Jesus saw her and he called her to him. and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. What good news? Thou art loosed from thine infirmity. The reality is that when a person comes to God for salvation, they are loosed from their infirmity. They are set free from the bondage of sin. That's the real lesson here in this passage as we will see as we carry on. And that is something we have learned about that here. Often I write about it in the devotionals as well. The New Evangelical crowd is full of lies. And they tell us that you cannot be loosed from your infirmity. You can't necessarily overcome the pull for that nicotine and the other poison that is in a cigarette. You can't necessarily overcome the pull of the poison that is in alcohol, or pornography, or cursing, or many other things. They tell you you're not necessarily going to win over these things. That's not what the Bible teaches. That is one of the things, to me, I say that salvation is a miracle. And when a person is saved, the Spirit of God enters into that person, and it is amazing what God can do in a person's life when they get saved, when they get saved according to the Bible. It's amazing. This woman here is a picture of that. Jesus saw her. He called to her and he proclaimed to her and he said, woman thou art loosed from thine infirmity. She didn't need to go to a doctor. She didn't need to have surgery. They didn't put her in traction. He simply spoke the word and she was healed. Now, if we take the charismatic position, we take this to the nth degree and we say, well, there are people today who have that power and they can speak over a person and they are healed. Well, the sad reality is the people that claim to be able to do that are deceivers. Are there people that are so-called healed by some of them? Yes. But what do we need to remember from the Bible again? We need to remember that the devil comes across as an angel of light. We need to understand that there is a day coming when God is going to give humanity a strong delusion that they're going to believe a lie. I believe that right now there are people, and God is allowing this as well now, people that are believing a lie, and there are people, Satan has certain power. God has given him certain power and he is a deceiver. And there are people that are being distracted from the truth by Satan's actions and by people who are submitting themselves to serving him instead of God. We need to be aware of that. We need to take our belief system from the word of God. And so in verse 13, it tells us, he laid his hands on her and immediately she was made straight and glorified God. That's the response that anyone that has been helped by God will have. This woman glorified God, not just with her presence, but I believe according to the text that with her words, she glorified God. She made it known that this was God that had healed her. And Jesus Christ is God. So this woman was in the right place at the right time. And that's important for us as well. I was listening to a preacher this week talking about using the Old Testament tabernacle and how that the candlestick was in the midst of the tabernacle. The candlestick was not out in the community amongst the Jews. It wasn't in somebody's house. It was in the tabernacle. And if the people wanted to benefit from that candlestick, they had to be at the tabernacle. And the illustration that the preacher was using is that Jesus Christ, the New Testament, he is that candlestick. The Book of Revelation tells us that. And where is Jesus Christ? Yes, he's everywhere, but where is he when he says, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. So on the Lord's day, where should God's people be? They should be where that candlestick is, and that's in the house of God. That's not out on the tractor. That's not in the mall. That's not at the golf course. That's in the house of God. And I thought that was a good illustration that that's something that we need to understand as Christians, that on the Lord's day, you see, it's one thing to witness to someone and say, I want to tell you about Jesus Christ. You need him as your savior. And you might tell that person, he's done this for me and that for me and so on, but the Lord's day comes along and you decide that you're gonna do just like he does and you're not gonna go to church. How do you present to your neighbor then that God is important to you, that he actually means something to you, that he is precious to you, and that you're going to give him his rightful place in your heart? And so there are ways that you and I can demonstrate the fact that Jesus Christ is all to me. He is all I need, the songwriter says. He is all I need, all, all I need. And it's true. And we need to show that in our lives. We can live our lives by glorifying God. We can do that. And God helps us to be able to do that. This woman came to where Jesus was. She was at the synagogue. That's what she could do. It doesn't tell us here how much faith she had in God. It tells us that she was there. It tells us that Jesus saw her, that Jesus called her to himself, that she came to him and that he spoke to her and then he acted as well. He laid his hands on her and immediately she was made straight and glorified God. That's a blessing. that this woman received here because she was willing to be where God wanted her to be and willing to listen to Jesus' call to her to come to him. The third thing we see is justifying truth. The response that we see here in this passage to this great miracle is quite something. In verse 14 it says, and the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation. You would think that he would be leading the people and saying, look what has just happened here. This is great news. But he misunderstood, maybe intentionally, we don't know, but he misunderstood the purpose of the Sabbath. And so he's indignant at what has happened here. He's upset. He doesn't like it. And so he tells the people, there are six days in which men ought to work. And that's true. But who's doing the work here? Jesus. There are six days in which men ought to work, and in them, therefore, come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day. So this ruler of the synagogue did not understand the purpose of the Sabbath. The Sabbath, again, we must understand today is not the Christian Sabbath. We need to understand that. This is the first day of the week. This is the Lord's Day. This is the day that Christians gather together because Jesus rose on the first day of the week. But it's not the Christian Sabbath. The Sabbath, the Old Testament makes it very clear, was for the Jews. And God gave them rules as to how they were to keep the Sabbath. But the Sabbath was never designed by God to cripple them. It was designed to be a day of rest, a day when they could stop their busyness and they could rest in God. They could be taught the law of God and they could learn how to live more dependent upon Him. and find that he could meet their needs. They didn't have to concern themselves. I've got crop out in the ground and I've got this to do and that to do. The Sabbath day, they could shut that all down, set it aside, and they could rest in God. We need to learn that as well, that we can rest in God. But we don't have the Sabbath day to do that in. We can take, you can take any day off you want. But I believe, personally, that the Lord's Day is a day when we come together in church. It's a day when we should be able to fellowship with other believers. We shouldn't need to concern ourselves with the mundane daily tasks that we have as well on one day of the week. I believe that's good for our bodies to be able to take that day off. But it's not a law, it's because of the love of God that's in our hearts. And we want to help our neighbor and others to see the blessing that there is in trusting in God. So the ruler here, he doesn't understand the purpose of the Sabbath. So he's scolding the people in the presence of Jesus Christ, the one who just healed this woman. The ruler is gonna take over here. This is his synagogue. He's not going to allow even Jesus to come in and interfere in his mind with the way that he thinks that the synagogue should be run and the way the Sabbath should be handled. Verse 15, the Lord then answered him. It's interesting here that Jesus here is identified as the Lord, and he is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is really the ruler of the synagogue, not this man. He's not identified, but it's the Lord who is the ruler. And he said, thou hypocrite. So Jesus Christ, again, shows us that there's no point in beating around the bush. When something needs to be corrected, when something needs to be clarified, let's speak English. Let's speak plainly. Let's let people know what's going on. And so Jesus identifies the problem. The problem here is that we have a hypocrite that's running the synagogue. He's the man that's in charge. What is a hypocrite? A hypocrite is someone who says he believes something and does something the exact opposite. When you look at Hollywood, Hollywood is full of hypocrites. Why? Because a hypocrite is an actor. It's someone who pretends to be something that he's not. So it's not just Hollywood that's got hypocrites, but that's what a hypocrite is. So this man, Jesus exposes him. as a hypocrite, and he says, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall and lead him away to watering? So Jesus here points out the fallacy, the hypocrisy of what this ruler is saying. And in that time, they oftentimes would have their animals tied. And so Sunday or Saturday, which is Sabbath, they still need to be watered. They need to be fed. And if they're in a stall, how are they going to be fed? If you want to keep that animal healthy, you're not going to keep water and food away from that animal for one day a week. And God did not intend for the people to do that. And so Jesus points out that every Sabbath they would take their ox or their ass and they would lead it to the water. They didn't just let it go and let it go by itself, they led it to the water. And they allowed it to drink until it was done and then they had to lead it back to where they had it tied. And there was no problem. This ruler of the synagogue saw no problem with that. But he saw a problem with Jesus healing a woman on the Sabbath. This man needed his eyes opened, his spiritual eyes opened. He needed to realize what he was really thinking, how he really had developed his philosophy. So in verse 16, 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. So this woman, Jesus says, is worthy of more than your ox and your ass. This woman, a daughter of Abraham, she's a Jew, bound by Satan 18 years, She's been bowed over, can't stand up. Shouldn't she be loosed even if it's a Sabbath day? Isn't that worth something? And it was on the Sabbath that Jesus was in the synagogue. He may not have been there the day before or the day after, but he was there that day. And she was there that day. And she had a need that day, just as she had for 18 years. Shouldn't she be set free? And the obvious answer is, of course she should. She was worthy of being healed. Why? Because she was a human being. But Jesus made a point of it here in this text, that she was a daughter of Abraham. Now, I'm assuming, I don't know, but there's nothing in the text to say otherwise, but we know that the Bible tells us that not all of the seed of Abraham were Israelites. They were not all believers in God. I'm assuming that this woman, because she's at the synagogue, that she's a believer in God. She's not like the Pharisees. She's someone who believes in God. And so Jesus here saw her, saw her need, and he addresses the need that she has. And so he loosed her from this bondage that she was under on the Sabbath day. In Galatians chapter three, verses 13 and 14, we read there, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. So this woman here, a daughter of Abraham, was set free by the blessing of Abraham. Of course, Jesus Christ, being of the seed of Abraham, promised by God, the savior of mankind, in the right place here, and she being there, was blessed by him. Now, verse 17, it says, and when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed. That's good. Doesn't say they repented, but at least they were listening. They realized what they were believing was wrong. Now, we know we have the rest of the Gospels. We know that the Pharisees did not repent en masse and get saved because of the many times that Jesus exposed them. But we see here that they were ashamed. And that's a good start. And again, As we live out our lives, we have opportunities as well to expose the heresies that are so abundant around us. And if we're willing to speak the truth, we can slow down. And that's really what happened here. We can slow down the effects of the lies in our world, where we live. We're not necessarily gonna stop it because it didn't stop with this, but we can slow it down. We can help people to stop and just think for a little bit of what they're actually believing. And it says there, and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him. So while these opposers were ashamed, there was greater opportunity for the people to rejoice. The Bible says, all we like sheep have gone astray. Most people, you look around you, most people today are willing to be led. Even those who claim that they're their own man, their own person, they're willing to be led. Look at the fads that are going on in the music world or wherever and then observe how people dress and how many times they have to copy what some popular person is doing. They're not as independent as they want to make you believe they are. But you see when these so-called leaders that we have in our world, when they are slowed down a little bit by the truth, then the many sheep that are following them, they get a second look at truth. They get an opportunity to see the truth. And it tells us here that all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him. Jesus pushed back against the adversaries and gave the common people the opportunity to express what they knew to be right and true without intimidation for a period. And we see as we follow the life of Christ in the gospels that many times Jesus gave the people that opportunity. And it wasn't until in the book of Acts that we see the real benefit of that, because in the Gospels we find that the same crowds that cried out, Hosanna, blessed be he that cometh in the name of David, I believe it is something to that effect, at the Palm Sunday, We see that same crowd crying out, crucify him, crucify him. But in the book of Acts, we see large numbers of people actually getting saved. And so we see here the effect that Jesus has, even in the midst of opposition, how that he is able to silence the opposition, and he is able to give the people the opportunity to take a clearer look at things the way that we need to do today as well. We have the word of God. The word of God is truth. And as we believe the word of God, and as we speak the word of God, we can slow down the push of the adversaries. We're not gonna stop them. The odd person gets saved that are bent on opposing, the odd one gets saved, but many of them don't. But we can slow it down and we can help other people to see the benefit that there is in knowing the true God. And in that, God is able to work through that to help some of those people as well to come to believe in him and to know his peace and blessing in their heart. So it's important for us today, those of us that are saved, to be careful to identify with the Lord, to be willing to act in compassion and love towards others, to see their need and to seek to help them to meet that need and not to be intimidated by those who don't want the truth to be spoken, that don't want people to know the way of real peace. Our world is crippled by fear. crippled by a lack of vision. The Bible says without a vision, the people perish. Our world is crippled because it has no vision. It has no foundation. And so those of us that are saved, we have opportunity to help people to see that there is hope. There is a blessing. So as I mentioned earlier, those people who are living in shock right now because of what happened in BC this week, there is hope for them. They're not going to bring those birds back, but there is hope for them in spite of the fact that our health officials are intent on trying to cripple us. There's hope. And that hope is found in knowing the Lord Jesus Christ and being set free from the bondage that the devil wants to have us stay in. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's where we start, but we don't have to stay there. We can be set free. And that freedom is found in knowing the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who spoke the word here, laid his hands on this woman and she was healed. Fully healed. It wasn't a time that she had to spend in getting healed. She was healed immediately. Those who get saved today are set free from the bondage of sin immediately. That doesn't mean, as I mentioned earlier, that the smoker won't have the craving for cigarettes. We know a man in Alberta, he's probably dead by now, but he was an evangelist when I was a pastor there and we had him in our church. And he, before he got saved, had been a chain smoker for 40 years. And he talks about when he got saved and how that God convinced him at the time that he got saved that smoking was sin, was wrong. And so he quit smoking that day. But he still had the craving and he talks about how that he had that craving and back then you could still smoke in restaurants and places like that. And so he had that craving and so he would walk into a restaurant and people would be smoking and he would be, that craving would just have such a hold on him. And he said how that one time he went into a restaurant and again, that craving was there. And he went into the washroom and he got down in the stall on his knees and he just cried out to God, when am I going to have victory over this craving? And God took it away right there. Now that wasn't the day after he got saved or the day of his salvation, but over time, but he had made a commitment with God that he was not going to go back into sin. And God gave him the power to stay away from the cigarette, but that day he gave him the power that that no longer bothered him. So you see, when a person gets saved, we have a different mindset because we have a different heart. And we understand things better once we are saved than before we were saved. But that doesn't mean that the enticement to that sin isn't there for some time, especially when it's a drug like cigarettes. But as a Christian, again, we make up our mind as a Christian. Not by law-keeping, but as a Christian, because we want to glorify God, because His love is in us, we make up our mind, I'm not gonna continue to do that. I know that is sin, I'm stopping that. I know for myself, before I got saved, I wanted to fit in with the world. And the people that I hung around with, they swore a lot, so I learned how to swear. But God knew that when I got saved, what kind of a testimony would I be if I'd be walking around cursing and swearing? And he took that away from me. Because what kind of a testimony would I be? And I didn't want to swear anymore, and I didn't try to swear anymore. I was a different person. And God does that for his children. He helps us to be a light. He helps the world to see the power of God if we will let him do that. Just as he did for this woman, and just as these people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him. That's what our world needs to see today. They need to have a reason for rejoicing, not because they went to a football game or a baseball game. They need to have something real to rejoice in. And the only thing real that's worth rejoicing in is knowing the peace of God in your heart. And those of us that are saved, we should be rejoicing in the Lord. And we should be seeking to help others to be able to do the same. We need that desperately in our world today, in our neighborhoods. May God help us, those that are saved, that we are seeking to be that clear light to our neighbors and to others that can help them. The timing is in God's hands. We can't force anyone to be saved. But we can live in such a way that we can show them there is a better way. And by God's grace, some of them will turn to him. If you're listening today and you're not saved, That's again, that's the place you need to start. You'll never find true peace and happiness in anything the world has to offer. There's nothing out there that can be a substitute for God's salvation, nothing. You need to understand that. You need to see that. And listen to what the Holy Spirit of God is doing in your heart right now. He's showing you that you're a lost sinner. He's showing you of God's righteousness and He's showing you of a judgment to come. You know, you know in your heart that if you were to die today, you're not going to heaven. You're going to hell. You know that. But you can change that by turning to God and asking Him to forgive you and to save you. And He'll give you eternal life. He'll give you a peace that you're looking for but you can't find in the world. but God will give that to you because he loves you and he wants you to know his peace. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we're thankful this morning that we have thy word. Thankful for this account and for the power of the Lord Jesus Christ to deal with this infirmity, but also the power of the Lord Jesus Christ to deal with sin, to take away that power of Satan to keep this woman bound, and to set her free. The opportunity that was given to the people to be able to see the glory of God through this event, and the fact that these opposers, these adversaries were ashamed. They were stopped for a little bit. They were given opportunity to reconsider their hardened position. We're thankful that we have the same God today. still wanting to set the captive free, still wanting to give people another opportunity to reconsider the position they have taken. I pray that thou wouldst help us, those that are saved, that we would grow in our boldness for thee, willing to speak up, willing to help our neighbors, our friends, coworkers, and others, to help them to see there is a better way, and that they could know Thy peace as well. We pray that Thy will be accomplished in this place and through the ministry of this place, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.