The Healing of the Crippled Woman

[0:00] There is a rumbling, I don't know how much of it is going to develop, but I would hope that it would just blow things wide open. And that is somebody, and I have no idea who it is, came up with an idea and started a kind of miniature campaign that we trust will just grow and blossom and really turn into something significant.

[0:22] And that is the John 316 program, and it is being launched for wide exposure on 316, which of course will be March the 16th, third month and the 16th day.

[0:40] I don't know to what extent this will catch on, but it does have some possibilities. And the idea is to inundate the airwaves and the neighborhoods and the social media and everything else with John 316.

[0:57] And the hope is that a number of people, if for no other reason than curiosity, will expose themselves to that and whatever it involves. And explanations of John 316, the value of it, the promise of it, can be bannered about all over the country.

[1:14] And who knows what the results might be, because you know as well as I do, the country is in severe need of some kind of moral spiritual injection that can change the trajectory that we are now on.

[1:32] Because what it is now on is very negative, very precipitous, and I see nothing good in it. I do not know it is entirely possible that the string has run out for the U.S. of A.

[1:49] God knows we've had our chances. We've had our opportunities. This thing with the assault on life that began in 1973 is 50 years old.

[2:05] It is unconscionable that we are a supposed developed, educated nation that has seen fit to deny life to more than 50 million babies.

[2:20] No one can fault God if he brings down the curtain on the U.S. of A. And we can't say we didn't have it coming, because we do.

[2:33] So the John 3.16 thing, in my estimation, is nothing more than one desperate plea for a genuine heaven-sent revival to see things really get turned around.

[2:48] And if there is not sufficient spiritual input in connection with the crisis that we are facing, we're toast. That's all there is to it.

[2:59] And like I said, we'll have no complaint, because we've had more than enough time to get things right, and we just haven't done it.

[3:11] And I think the church as a whole, and I'm talking about the Catholic representation and the Protestant representation and the Independence representation, we have not carried the ball very well.

[3:29] Simple as that. And we've got no one to blame but ourselves. So let's pray right now regarding that, shall we? Our Father, we are grateful for this time that we can share and meet together.

[3:42] Thank you for being at the center of it. We know that hearts of believers throughout the country are saddened because we see the plight of our nation, and we see items being at risk that we once thought would never come to that.

[3:58] But we are trying to face the reality of what is happening, and we recognize that there is a nefarious movement that is orchestrated by the adversary that is designed to not only bring this nation down but to impose a kind of globalism upon the entire planet.

[4:19] And we see that as an object of prophecy. We know that it's coming. We know that certain things have held it off to this point, and we don't know what you might be pleased to do in the future, but we appeal to you as a very needy people and as a people who recognize that there is nothing we can do to affect this change.

[4:40] But we do want to be available, and we do want to be used in any way that you see fit. So deliver us from the flesh and its ideas and its power, and enable us to appeal to you on the basis of what you've already accomplished for us, and we appeal to you as a small element of this great nation who has some spiritual values.

[5:05] And our prayer is that those of kindred spirit will be awakened throughout this land and go to you in prayer and beseech you on behalf of this nation for one more reprove.

[5:20] Thank you for your ability to do that. We're not claiming that we deserve it. We're asking for mercy and for an extension of your grace on behalf of this nation.

[5:31] Thank you for the presence of each one here this morning, and once again for the truth that you've made available to us through your word, the blessing, the fellowship, the camaraderie that we enjoy, and the food to be served.

[5:46] We give our day to you in Christ's name. Amen. We are continuing our examination of the miracles of our Lord, and I don't mind telling you.

[5:57] It saddens me sometimes as I look at the content between these miracles and how good it is, and yet we have to be somewhat disciplined and not allow ourselves to go there, even though I'm tempted sometimes.

[6:14] But we'll just try to stick with the miracles like we have been, and in that case I would ask you to learn with me from Luke's Gospel, chapter 13, which happens to be the only miracle of the four, I mean the only gospel of the four that includes this particular miracle, and it is Jesus healing a crippled woman.

[6:37] We do not know exactly what the nature of her being crippled was other than the fact that she was really bent and stooped over, and I have seen some people like that, and I'm sure you have too.

[6:50] I do well remember a couple of men that I've known over the years, didn't know them well, but knew them in passing, and when they stood, they stood like this, and when they walked, they walked like this and looked up like that.

[7:05] And of course they had a severe problem in the spine, and more often than not that is due to arthritis. But it is rheumatoid arthritis, which is very, very much different from the kind of arthritis that most of us have that comes with age, and it has to do with the calcium buildup in the joints and so on, and it makes you kind of stiff and sore in the joints.

[7:35] And that's typical of the age, but rheumatoid arthritis is a whole different thing. It's very crippling. And many of you I know from grace especially remember one of our key elders for a number of years, Ron Keplinger.

[7:52] Ron suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, and he was not to the place where he was stooped over like that, but Ron and Mary had four sons, and I remember him telling me that he was really grateful for four sons because there were a number of times in the morning when it took two or three of them to get him out of bed physically and on his feet.

[8:25] And then it would take a while before he could take a step or two and start walking. And Ron went through all kinds of treatment and therapy and experts and everything, and I remember the last thing that he was on, I think, that did help him, gold shots.

[8:41] And I said, gold shots? You mean gold G-O-L-D shots? He said, yeah, that's what they call a gold shot. I have no idea what the composition, how it got its name.

[8:54] I'm sure they were not injecting liquid gold into him, but at the same time, that was the official medical definition of it. They were gold shots, gold injections. And I still don't have any idea what it was, but I do know that it was somewhat helpful, and it was designed for severe cases.

[9:11] And then I must tell you about this. Maybe I've already shared this with you because it does kind of tie in with our miracle thing. There was a fellow by the name of Tony, and he was a patient at the time, not a patient, actually he was a resident at the time of what was called and operated as the Clark County Home.

[9:33] I think it was out on Lower Valley Pike, and it was also called the Old Folks Home, and some called it the Poor House. And as I recall, I can't remember at that time, I can't remember at that time of a single nursing home in Springfield other than perhaps the Masonic Home and maybe one other, but now you know we've got nursing homes all over the place.

[10:04] I mean, they've just multiplied. Anyway, Tony was a patient or a resident there and had been there for a number of years, and he had a delightful personality even though it was very difficult to understand his speech because his disease affected his speech as well, but he always had a smile on his face.

[10:23] Tony was so crippled and so distorted from rheumatoid arthritis that he laid with his bottom half from his waist down on the bed and the rest from his waist up torso hanging over the side of the bed so that his head almost touched the floor.

[10:52] It was one of the most pathetic sights you ever saw. And yet, he had a disposition about him that was remarkable, and every Sunday we went there, I was a student at Cedarville University at the time, then it was Cedarville College, and every Sunday afternoon, the students were assigned what was called a practical works assignment, and we would go out to nursing homes and just about any place where we could minister and share the gospel, and we would go there every Sunday afternoon, and I happened to be the leader of the group, and there was about six or eight of us students, boys and girls, and we would sing a few hymns and take turns.

[11:37] The guys would preach for maybe 10 or 15 minutes, something like that, and I well remember Tony, and I know that he knew the Lord, and he's gone on to be with the Lord many years ago, but that was a priceless memory, and his body was so distorted and so twisted, it's just amazing what disease can do to a body, and I think it's something similar to what this poor woman was suffering.

[12:02] Don? Marvin, when I was a field rep for Social Security, I went in this area, I think it was in Sydney's County, and I had a young man about in his early 20s, and when I went in the house to take a disability claim, he was in the bed, and his legs were touching his back.

[12:21] Yeah. He was that bad. Yeah. It's just like a pretzel almost, and you just can't imagine that the structure of the human body could be capable of that kind of contortion, but that's the severity of the disease, and of course it's incurable, and all they could do is try to make him as comfortable as possible, but Tony always had a smile, and every Sunday he always requested the same song, and we would sing it together, My Jesus, I love Thee.

[12:57] Fond memories of Tony. Look forward to seeing one day, and when we do, he won't be twisted and contorted like that. Let us go, if we may, to Luke chapter 13.

[13:13] Luke chapter 13, and we'll begin reading with verse 10. We do not get beyond the very first sentence before something pops up of significance.

[13:27] It says, And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath day. You almost get the impression, although I don't think he had that kind of a disposition, but you almost get the impression that Jesus was looking to pick a fight, because it always turned out that way, and this needs to be clarified at the outset, because I think it's very important.

[13:53] No one who ever walked the earth ever kept the law of Moses perfectly, except Jesus.

[14:05] He did. He never, on any occasion, violated the Sabbath as it was given in the law of Moses.

[14:17] But what he did do, that repeatedly got him in trouble, he consistently violated the Pharisaical misinterpretation of the Sabbath.

[14:30] And they had gotten to the place where they were actually operating under the idea that man was made for the Sabbath.

[14:42] Jesus said, No! Man was not made for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for man. And they completely reversed it with their nitpicking details that caused all kinds of confusion and inconvenience and conflict and everything else.

[15:01] And our Lord is simply trying to straighten the issue out, not only by exercising compassion upon those who were in need of healing, but also offering a teaching element for those who had an ear to hear.

[15:15] And that's what we've got here. So let us look at it, if we may. He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath day. And behold, a woman which had a spirit of infirmity 18 years, and she was bowed together, bowed together.

[15:37] She was just almost in double, all stooped over, and I've already shown you what that must have been like. And all she could do was walk like this. And you may have seen people like this.

[15:48] And when they look at you, they have to do this to look up. It's a very pathetic sight. And there is absolutely no way in the world that that woman's back could be realigned and straightened out so that she could stand upright.

[16:03] Now today, with the modern miracles of surgery and what they are able to do with metal and screws and rods and things that they can put into people, that condition has still not been satisfactorily addressed, but it has been greatly improved so that at least some people have benefited from that kind of surgery.

[16:26] And we all know people who've had spinal surgery and the fusion of bones and things like that. And it's amazing what they're able to do today, but nobody, no surgeon could do for anyone what Jesus did for this poor woman.

[16:46] And we are told that she had been that way for 18 years. It does not give her age. It's entirely possible that this is something that came on perhaps in puberty or early childhood or early adulthood and over the years it just kept increasing and finally she gets to the place where she just almost doubled over and probably walks with great difficulty.

[17:12] It's just called a spirit of infirmity and she could in no wise lift herself up. And when Jesus saw her, he called her.

[17:23] And said to her, Woman, thou art loose from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands upon her and immediately she was made straight and glorified God.

[17:46] Just can't imagine what a scene like this would have involved. This is the synagogue, the Jewish synagogue. Everybody who is there is usually everybody who is there every Sabbath.

[18:02] Starts Friday evening after sunset. They have their Sabbath meal and they go to the synagogue and then they have a time of prayers and a time of the psalms and preaching and so on that the leader of the synagogue or the rabbi presents.

[18:17] And all of these people, you may be sure, knew each other. This is a neighborhood thing. They're all acquainted and they all function with each other all week long as neighbors and friends and relatives and then they come to the synagogue on Friday evening.

[18:33] So it's a probably what would have started out to be a ho-hum kind of meeting. but nothing can be ho-hum when Jesus is present because things are going to change radically and that was the case here.

[18:51] And he saw that woman maybe when she came in he spotted her and her condition was so obvious and he called to her. She probably recognized him, knew that he was going to be there, word had gotten out and she comes over toward him and as he looks at her I don't know exactly where he put his hands.

[19:15] My guess is my guess is he very likely just put his hands one on each shoulder and said, woman you are loose from your infirmity.

[19:28] and this woman who had not stood erect for 18 years stood up and there's no indication that she stood up with pain.

[19:44] I think she stood up with complete confidence and no pain. She had not felt like that for 18 years.

[19:55] Matter of fact, if that condition was brought on for 18 years you can be sure that it was building before 18 years.

[20:07] It was affecting her and impacting her and it had only gotten to this severe condition for the last 18 years. I just can't imagine the expression on that dear woman's face.

[20:22] What she must have what she must have felt how she must have looked how surprised she must have been and Jesus did this publicly.

[20:34] Everybody's looking on. Everybody's wondering. Here's Jesus. Here's this wolf. What's he going to do? Some were probably thinking well he won't do anything because this is the Sabbath and to heal on the Sabbath is the equivalent of practicing medicine and that's work.

[20:56] You can't do that on the Sabbath and if Jesus does that he's violating the Sabbath and proving that there's no way he could be the Messiah because the Messiah would never violate the law of Moses.

[21:08] This is their distorted kind of reasoning. And have I not told you many times that one of the most I guess we would call it a deleterious effect of the fall a negative effect of the fall negative fallout of the fall is that when Adam and Eve fell they fell in their entirety.

[21:30] Got to understand fellas they fell mentally as well as physically. This doesn't mean they were reduced to stupid it just means that their thinking skills their reasoning apparatus that enabled them to process information and reach accurate conclusions that too fell.

[21:57] That was damaged. And it causes people to think and exercise logic in a skewed way.

[22:08] and the result of that if you want an extreme result an extreme result is like the psalmist said the fool has said in his heart there is no God.

[22:21] That's a good example right there of skewed logic when you look at the heavens the handiwork of God and everything that he's made you look at that and if you're looking at it with skewed logic and a warped intellect you'll say something like nobody made that it's always been there it's just eternal.

[22:46] That's an example of skewed logic in action. It causes people to get information but as they process the information it gets all distorted and they come to a wrong conclusion and wrong conclusions result in wrong actions because we tend to do on the basis of what we understand and think and then often the end result is terrible.

[23:14] And by the way don't you understand that this is exactly what's happened to the world and this is why the world is as it is today? The proverb says there is a way that seems right to a man.

[23:30] Proverbs 16 25 there is a way that seems right to a man but the end thereof is the way of death. Why does it seem right?

[23:43] Well because if you're exercising skewed logic and faulty reasoning it will seem right but it's really wrong. That's the danger.

[23:55] That's why we cannot trust our intellect and by the way among other reasons a principal reason that God gave us his word is so that we can bring our skewed logic and faulty reasoning to the word of God and get it corrected.

[24:17] Thy word is truth. You can take it to the bank. Our word may or may not be true and we need an ability to assess it.

[24:30] How do you evaluate what is true? How do you evaluate fact from opinions? Someone has said everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

[24:44] That's part of being a free moral agent. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but no one is entitled to their own facts. Big difference.

[24:55] Huge difference. Our own opinion may correspond with the facts so that we're right on track and when you become a believer in Jesus Christ you have the spirit of God indwelling you you then have and it's not automatic it's not automatic one reason it's not automatic is because we still have an old nature but you have the ability you have the ability to appeal to the only expert and that is what God has provided in his word get the real scoop from that and order your life and your future based on that and when you do you are simply tracking after God and his thoughts as opposed to yours and mine and everybody else's so it's an amazing thing it's a beautiful thing and we're all cursed with that because we all still have an old nature an old fallen nature and that's the old Adam and that's the one that tends to lead us astray and why we have to continually appeal to the Lord what Joe the best offense is a good defense you keep

[26:03] Christ Jesus this book in your life practicing these things you won't do the other offense stay with this all the time and you will not allow the other to enter Paul said we walk in the spirit we will not fulfill the desires of the flesh the desires of the flesh what are they and your flesh is your old Adamic nature the desire of the flesh is what appeals to the flesh to our senses and it may be it may be sex that causes a married man to go astray there is the desire of the flesh that the pride of life the lust of the eyes the pride of life all of these things appeal to the old nature and our only defense against them and by the way fellows none of us none of us including yours truly none of us is a match for the adversary if you think you can outsmart

[27:21] Satan you got another thing coming he's got brains that we've never imagined and had change left over and that's another reason why we need input from the word of God because it is the only panacea this is why Jesus when he was tempted in the 40 days each time Satan came at him whether it was fall down and worship me or whatever each time Jesus gave the response it is written thou shalt love the Lord thy God on him only shalt thou serve and so on and each time Jesus responded to the temptation of Satan with the word of God and that's precisely what we are supposed to do we are supposed to allow it to govern our life to set our agenda to establish our values to determine our walk all of these things are contained in the word of God and they're just waiting there to be absorbed by us and frankly guys this is why we're here this is what we're doing right now this is what this Bible class is all about this is supposed to be what church is all about did it ever occur to you that church is not really for unbelievers they're welcome because they'll be exposed to the word of God but the church was never designed for ain'ts it was designed for saints not ain'ts and what saints are supposed to do is be fed the word of God and get the principles of divine truth into their soul so that they can go out and do the work of ministry that's why he gave some apostles and prophets and teachers for the work of the ministry for the equipping of the saints you are the saints we all need to be equipped outfitted given what we need so that when we go out of here we've got a message for the world boy nothing absolutely nothing well let's get on with this shall we alright

[29:33] Jesus said woman thou art loosed from thine infirmity laid his hands upon her and immediately she was made straight and glorified God and Jesus didn't say now go out and see if you can schedule an appointment with a good physical therapist no this woman didn't need anything and by the way I take it that this is probably one more case where as the scripture writer had said earlier that those who were healed of Jesus were made every whit whole from stem to stern stem to stern that woman got a makeover I tell you when Jesus got through with her she had never been so healthy in her entire life any other malady that she had that was out of line or out of place I suspect was healed just like that and this woman had a new body she would have been the envy of every other woman in that synagogue when Jesus got through with her my oh my and the ruler of the synagogue being moved with indignation how dare he who does he think he is well tell you who he is he's the lord of the sabbath you any idea what that means the lord of the sabbath also means he was the creator of the sabbath he's the one who determined that the sabbath would be for man not man for the sabbath and that's just the skewed logic and reasoning we'll put the cart before the horse every time you ask almost any person that you meet you ask almost any of them what do you have to do to get to heaven and their skewed logic and warp reasoning will tell you well you you have to be better than I am ha ha ha you have to do good things and you have to believe of course they don't know what to believe but you have to believe you have to believe whatever it is you have to believe and you have to be good and you have to not you have to keep the ten commandments that's what you have to do you have to keep the you get all kinds of flaky reasons from people because they are reasoning and thinking with a warped logic and so did you before Christ came into your life and gave you the truth because what we proclaim as truth to the

[32:20] Greeks that's that's the intellectual that's crazy you mean to tell me that a man who died on a cross 2000 years ago is supposed to be the savior of the world come on give me a break that's that's crazy and the word in the Greek is it's moronic you got to be a moron to believe that and to the Jews Paul said this is in first Corinthians one Paul says to the Jews it's a stumbling block it means it's an obstacle it means Christ as the Messiah of Israel is an obstacle to Israel he is an embarrassment and the Jews reflected that when Pilate put on the cross Jesus king of the Jews and they went to Pilate and said oh don't don't put that down right that can you at least write he said he was king of the

[33:30] Jews we know he wasn't really king you see what Pilate was getting in a dig to the Jews this is your king that's what he was saying this is your king ha ha ha and to the Jews that's a rock of offense it is an embarrassment to suggest that the messiah of Israel is on a Roman cross how revolting how disgusting that's the way they looked upon it and that's the way many Jews still do and why do they look at it that way because they're functioning with faulty logic and skewed reason just like all the rest of us my oh my the ruler of a move with indignation because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath and the references Exodus 20 verses 8 through 11 talk about the Sabbath and then are repeated in Deuteronomy 5 verses 12 through 15 Jesus this ruler of the synagogue answered and said to the multitude

[34:33] I'm sure that he just stepped up in front of the congregation after Jesus had healed his you know he wasn't this is this is hard for me to process but there's no indication I don't want to read into the white spaces something that isn't there but it appears from the text that this man was not awed he was not dumbstruck by this he was indignant what's going on there didn't this man know this woman I would almost bet the farm that he knew this woman probably known her for years and instead of going up to her and give her a hug and say call her by name and say this is wonderful

[35:39] I've never seen you stand up like this this is wonderful and she's crying and how many others in the congregation must be crying tears of joy they've just seen something that can't happen but it did and all this guy can say he didn't be doing this on the Sabbath Dennis he should have been praising God for the miracle but happened instead he said he can't do that I don't want to stop it how could he not how could he not and you know from an earlier time and we pointed out before I don't know exactly where it is but I know we can find it if we need to earlier on it became very very apparent that the establishment can we call it the Jewish deep the establishment was on the lookout trying to find some way to neutralize

[36:47] Jesus to dull his effect and his popularity to counter him and every time they did verbal battle with him just like this time he always made them look like a fool and he didn't try to make anybody look like a fool it's just that when the truth confronts stupidity it makes the recipient of stupidity look like a fool and that's exactly what happened you would not find a kinder more compassionate person than our Lord and at the same time he had a purpose about him that would not suffer fools gladly and the truth sometimes hurts and Jesus didn't try to make the truth so that it wouldn't hurt he made the truth so that it would do what the truth does when it exposes truth truth exposes error somebody's ego is going to be damaged somebody is going to be made to look bad not because they are deliberately trying to make them look bad but because that's what the truth does when it confronts error and you stand the real thing alongside the phony and all the flaws of the phony show up and the truth shines brilliantly and that's exactly what we've got just another case of it so this man is taking him the task because six days in which men ought to work and them therefore come and be healed and not on the day of the

[38:36] Sabbath it's hard to contemplate the level of blindness and animosity that must have been in the hearts of these people in a leadership position and do you know what they saw in part in part what they saw was Jesus was a serious competitor to their influence and their admiration and their exaltation that they had enjoyed when they would walk down the street and people would bow their head and say Rabbi Rabbi he was showing up all of that nonsense in John's gospel I think it's chapter 11 when the deep state is concerned about the influence of Jesus and they're saying they don't know how they're going to handle this and Caiaphas the high priest called a little conference and he got them together and he said don't you guys know anything haven't you thought this through don't you see what's happening here look if we don't short circuit this man more and more people are going to believe on him stupid people they don't know any better they'll be hoodwinked by

[39:58] Jesus and the crowd will build and Rome will get very uncomfortable with that and the text goes on to say and the Romans will come that is the Roman leadership will come and take away our place and our perks and our privileges and our benefits listen the Jewish deep state served served under the authority and permission of the Romans that occupied them they would allow the Jews to worship their religion have their services and their animal sacrifices and all the rest of it so long as they didn't get involved in politics because if you get involved in politics you've created another authority apart from Rome and we will not have that that was their fear and he went on to say doesn't it only make sense that it is expedient that one man suffer for the whole nation rather than the whole nation suffer that's what we're going to do that's what we need to do

[41:22] Jesus needs to be our sacrificial lamb to halt this thing and trust me he was not thinking of Jesus being the sacrificial lamb in the sense that John the Baptist was that's for sure the lamb that would take away the sins of the world he was simply thinking Jesus and his execution will take the heat off of us because the people the crowds will not be building Rome will not be threatened there won't be any possibility of a and the text goes on to say from that time on they decided Jesus has got to go the only question is how and when are we going to do it we can't arrest him when he's out with a crowd because the crowd would go crazy and there would be a riot right there because these stupid people don't know any better than to believe what

[42:29] Jesus does and says they're hoodwinked by he's a con man that's all he is that's the way he was presented so what we need to do is find some way that we can get Jesus into custody without causing a riot and you know the story as well as I do the most opportune time is to take him in the middle of the night when the whole city is sleeping when Jesus will be with his disciples in a place called the garden of Gethsemane and it will be Judas who will leave the last supper early and go out and find Caiaphas the high priest and say tonight your night I know where Jesus is and I know when he will be there and I will take you to him you can arrest him and have him in custody before the city even wakes up or knows what's going on and there won't be any problem and that's precisely what they did which is precisely what

[43:37] Jesus knew they were going to do because he had already said just before that father the hour has come and as he looked away you could see the flickering torches and lanterns in the night coming up the hill and the chief the police the police these weren't Romans these weren't Romans they weren't Roman soldiers these were police from the temple these were Jews and they were coming to arrest Jesus and when they got him in custody they of course took him to the Jewish priests Caiaphas I get Caiaphas and Annas mixed up one was one was the high priest and the other was the former high priest they were father-in-law and son-in-law what they were and by the way neither of them were legitimate high priests because they had been appointed by the

[44:42] Romans they weren't in the line of Levi where they would have been the natural high priest they were lackeys of the Romans and the Romans put them in charge and said now listen you high priest you keep your people in line you keep your Jewish people in line because if you don't you know we will and as long as you keep them in line and everything is copacete we'll get along just fine if they get out of line we're going to hold you responsible because you have the religious clout with them you can make them behave and that's the kind of situation that had developed so Jesus said the Lord answered him in verse 15 you hypocrites and I've told you before that Jesus wasn't into political correctness but he wasn't the truth and he called them what they were you hypocrites does not each one of you on the

[45:54] Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall and lead him away to watering they do well you know according to your definition that's work what are you doing you can't do that you can't lead that animal away that's work well yes but you see they could always make exceptions when it was convenient to do so but then they could ride herd on someone else when they made an exception that had not been approved by them this you know you know what they call this today it's called a double standard the liberals can get away with almost anything and you won't even read about it in the newspaper because they don't cover it and do you know why they don't because for the liberal element that kind of hypocritical behavior is standard operating procedure that's not news that's the way these people operate that's who and what they are they do that all the time that's not news at all but you let a conservative do the same thing oh it's the end of the world then they're ready to call out the whoever and it's front page news and splattered all over everywhere and they get all the mileage that they can out of it why because you don't expect that from the conservative element that makes it news they are going contrary to what they teach and preach but it's right at home with the liberal element because that's who and what they are that's not news at all that's standard operating procedure for them so keep that in mind the next time this double standard thing and you know what it's not going to get curbed these people are simply being what they are that's all they are just doing what comes natural

[47:55] Joe we saw this just recently in the news all the terrorism the burning of buildings the robbery going on and there was no call by the news or the liberals it was mostly peaceful mostly peaceful they called to do anything about all that terrorism all that shooting and killing and burning it was nothing to do didn't even make the news and the liberals in congress would not even publicly denounce it's amazing amazing why didn't they condemn it why because they were their people they were doing their thing and that's what they do that's what they do so keep that in mind the next time that double standard thing comes up that's the way it operates and there's nothing new about it it's always been this way this is humanity this is humanity in action you hypocrites does not each one of you on the sabbath lose his ox or his ass from the stall and lead him away to watering of course you do and ought not this woman being a daughter of Abraham which is another way of saying she's a

[49:04] Jewish woman whom Satan had bound lo these 18 years and I don't know if Jesus is using a common colloquialism here or if the adversary was personally involved with the affliction of this woman I suspect that the latter is the case but I don't know that and it may be that this whole situation with her even though it isn't identified as such might be the same kind of thing as the man born blind in John 9 who did send this man or his parents Jesus said neither this man nor his parents he was born blind for this time for this moment here and now so that he could heal him in your presence you may tell me that that man was allowed to be born blind and live all those years just for this moment that

[50:09] Jesus could heal him yep and I'll tell you what I'm convinced that the man who was born blind would not be complaining but that the works of God might be manifest in him and it doesn't say that that was the case with this woman with the infirmity but it may well have been and I do not know how or to what extent Satan was actually personally involved but I do know based on what we read in the book of Job that he has a great deal of latitude with humanity and I don't know to what extent that goes I don't know in the book of Job for instance God told Job I mean God told Satan you can have your way with him you can do anything but you cannot take his life

[51:10] I will not allow you to take his life but he took everything so much so and he impacted his health in such a way that Job probably would have preferred to die in fact his wife advised him don't you know when you've had enough curse God and die and get it over with because as a wife you can imagine she had to enter into her husband's suffering in a way that pained her as well it pained her to see him in pain and you know any marriage that's worth anything when one mate suffers the other suffers with him that's the in sickness and in health thing that just goes with the territory if the two have become one like they are supposed to when one suffers the other suffers and I have seen some cases in my 50 years of grace

[52:15] I've seen some cases where I suspected that the mate might have even suffered more than the one who had the affliction just because of their love for them and their connection to them and that's not terribly unusual that's love that has the staying power that God intended for it and he said these things as he said these things all his adversaries were put to shame now that is unusual too because we were talking earlier about the liberal element and what they're capable of and as far as I am concerned one of the greatest liabilities of the liberal is an inability to be shamed you can't shame these people you can't embarrass them and the reason you can't is because they do not operate with fixed moral standards they do not operate with moral what shall

[53:34] I say with absolute morality they operate with a fluctuating morality their morality and the estimation of it changes in accordance with what the need is because Christians and people with convictions about morals have a basis from which they got them we believe there is an overarching umbrella of righteousness that is called God and that conveys a moral certitude and it defines things that are right and things that are wrong but when you embrace moral relativism everything is in a flux state of change in other words in moral relativism you are fully free to move the goal posts to whatever you think morality is there's no standard no set standard you make your own standard this is why these people can't be embarrassed they are never embarrassed or ashamed of activities that they have already pre-approved how can they be ashamed of that they are not but for someone to engage in activities when there is a predetermined morality set by the ultimate authority there's every reason for shame and embarrassment and by the way that's what we're dealing with here because the

[55:18] Jews had that overarching umbrella and it was the Lord and the law of Moses and yet this man and he is ashamed and rightly so because Jesus called him on it so it's a very significant passage so as he said these things all his adversaries were put to shame and all the multitude the multitude supposed to be the dumb people that don't know anything you know and yet they are the ones who have more savvy than anybody else which is amazing they rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him they were the ones with the right response hey guys thanks for being here 3 2