Hello and welcome again to our program. We're looking at Luke chapter 5. Have your Bible ready as we look at the lessons in the book of Luke. Luke chapter five, I'm reading in verse 12, it says, it came to pass when he, that is Jesus, was in a certain city, behold, a man full of leprosy who seeing Jesus fell on his face and besought him saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And he put forth his hand and touched him saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him. And he charged him to tell no man but go and show thyself to the priest and offer for thy cleansing according as Moses commanded for a testimony unto them. But so much the more went there a fame abroad of him and great multitudes came together to hear and to be healed of him of their infirmities. And he withdrew himself into the wilderness and prayed. Luke chapter 5 is an amazingly interesting storyline here of what happened. If you go back to our previous program, see what happened in the first 12 verses. But here it says that Jesus came to a certain city. Now I like when I'm studying the Bible to use a computer program, take phrases like that and put them in there and see how many times a certain city appears in the Bible. I found it kind of interesting that it is only here in Luke chapter 5 and verse 12 does that phrase appear, a certain city. Now, he was only there for one time as far as this man was concerned. He had one chance for this man to come to Christ and have his problems taken care of. What was his problem? Well, he was full. of leprosy. And he said, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus said, I will be thou clean. But he said, now go to the priest and tell the priest, you know, that you've been cleansed and in Levitical law was given to the Jews what they needed to do in the case of leprosy. I kind of wonder what the priest's response would be, there's a man, he said, well, how did this happen? Well, Jesus did it. Well, these priests, these Pharisees, they're the ones that are going to end up crucifying Jesus. Well, that priest, like us today, we have no choice but to choose, what will you do with Jesus? Neutral, you cannot be. One day your heart will be asking, what will he do with me? That priest will stand before God and give an account of how he responded that day. when this man came to him that had been cleansed by the Lord Jesus Christ of his leprosy. Well in verse 15 it says there went a fame abroad of him and great multitudes came. Now it says they came to hear and to be healed. Mostly, they came to be healed. And as we saw in our last broadcast, those that hear, the Bible says it's better to hear and then do something with it than just to listen and not do what we are... The phrase observed to do is found over and over again in the Bible. Well, verse 16 says that Jesus withdrew himself. went into the wilderness, and he prayed. When we get to verse 17, we find it says here, it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was present to heal them. Now here we have a phrase, a certain day. We saw back in verse 12, the phrase, a certain city. How many times does that phrase, a certain day, appear in the Bible? Only three times. In Luke chapter 5 and verse 17, it says, it came to pass on a certain day as he was teaching. Well, on that certain day, the Pharisees and the doctors of law were sitting there. They were listening to him, not for what they could learn, but to see if they could trap him. In Luke 8 and 22 it says, Now it came to pass on a certain day that he went into a ship with his disciples, and he said unto them, Let us go over to the other side of the lake. And they launched forth. Now that certain day was a day when the disciples were going to learn something about faith. At the beginning of the chapter, Jesus said they were going over to the other side. At the end of the chapter, they were at the other side. In the middle of the chapter, we'll find a storm came up. Jesus was asleep in the boat. The boat was filling up with water. They're all panicking saying, Don't you care that we perish? Jesus got up, rebuked the wind, calmed the storm, and then sharply rebuked those disciples. Well, the boat was going down, it was filled with water. Why was he so sharply rebuking these disciples? Well, because he said they were going to the other side, and they should never doubt in the storm what God has said in the sunshine. We have that phrase one more time in Hebrews 4 and verse number 7, and it says, again, he limiteth a certain day, saying, today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. And we like to give that verse to unsafe people and say, you better get safe. But really, he was speaking, again, to Christians whose hearts were hardened. And he said, now there's a certain day, if you aren't going to listen, you're going to, like the children of Israel, they wouldn't cross into the promised land. The promised land's not heaven, the promised land. They went over to Jordan, and it was a picture of the victorious Christian life. They wouldn't go in, so they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. That's what he's referring to. And he says now to the Christians, he says, there's a certain day, saying, today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart. Well, we get to verse 18 of this chapter, and we have an amazing story. It says, and behold, men brought in a bed, a man which was taken with a palsy, and they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before him, that is, before Christ. And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, They went up on the host up and led him down through the tiling with his coach in the midst before Jesus. What an interesting thing. First of all, it says here that there was four men that sought means to bring him in, and nothing was going to stop them from bringing their friend to Jesus. Well, they went up on the top of the house and they broke open the roof and they let him down. Now, this is probably Peter's house. It was there in Capernaum that this happened and his house was there. In any event, you can imagine the reaction of the people inside. There's a meeting going on. And if you look carefully through this, you'll find down in verse number 21, the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason when they saw what was happening here. And the ones that were on the inside were these ones that we mentioned earlier that had come from afar. We saw it back in chapter 5 and verse number 17. says that Jesus was teaching and the Pharisees and the doctors of law were sitting by and they were in the house listening to him. Well, he's kind of, I don't want to say wasting his time. Jesus never wasted his time. We're learning a lesson here that the scribes and the Pharisees weren't learning. They were there to trap him. But what a refreshing thing it must have been when Jesus saw them luring this man through the roof. not religious hypocrites that he was talking to inside the building. Well, we see here that Jesus is teaching in a house. The multitudes can't get in because of the crowd. The big-shot religious people are on the inside, the Pharisees and the doctors, verse 17. And in Mark 2 and 8, it says, certain of the scribes were sitting there, referring to this same story. Well, these four men, concerned for a friend, They go up the steps onto the flat roof that they had in those days, and they start busting up the roof, and as a result, they're busting up the meeting so that they can let down their friends before Jesus. Now, some of our meetings would do well to get busted up like this. Well, verse 20 says, when Jesus saw their faith, He said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. Oh dear, now the scribes and the Pharisees have what they're looking for. It says in verse number 21, the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, who is this that speaketh blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone? Now Jesus saw the faith of the men that brought this man to Jesus. Jesus knew the heart of the man on the couch as well. He saw their faith. What these religious hypocrites saw was an opportunity to trap the Lord. Who can forgive sins but God and God alone? Well, they're right about that. They just weren't right about the fact that they wouldn't admit that Jesus was the Son of God. Well, verse 22 says, but when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said unto them, Why reason ye in your hearts? Whether it is easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Rise up and walk. But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, he said unto the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, Arise and take up thy couch, and go into thine house. What a day that must have been when he got home. Well, immediately It says, he rose up before them, took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God. And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, we have seen strange things today. According to Vine's Dictionary in the New Testament, that word strange means contrary to the received opinion. Yeah, this is not the sort of meeting we thought we were going to have again. would do well to have some of our meetings broken up and have this kind of a meeting today in this age in which we're living. Well as we get down to verse number 27 we see the call of Levi who is name was changed to Matthew. He wrote the first book in the New Testament. And it says, after these things, Jesus went forth and saw a publican named Levi sitting at the receipt of custom. And he said unto him, follow me. And he left all, rose up, and followed him. And Levi made him a great feast in his own house. And there was a great company of publicans and others that sat down with them. Well, in our next program we're going to look at this man, Matthew. Be sure and tune in.