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[0:00] Well, this morning will be a little bit different. We're still going to continue with the miracles of our Lord and His healing ministry, and we'll be looking at the man who was suffering from dropsy. But I want to give you a little bit more background than that, so that when we come to that, you will be able to better appreciate it, and it will be in Luke 14. But what I would like to call to your attention first off is the background material that will be necessary for looking at this, and that will require us to look at Luke chapter 11, beginning with verse 37.

[0:43] And then we'll be in chapter 14 a little later. Luke chapter 11, and beginning with verse 37. And preparatory for our session this morning, be reminded that our Lord had, almost from the beginning, had an ongoing kind of conflict with the religious establishment of Israel, that I have personally labeled the deep state of Israel. These were the scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the guys who had all of the religious clout and authority in the land of Israel.

[1:24] Now, that might not be too significant in a lot of nations, but when you consider that Israel was a nation that was born out of and into Judaism, that makes religion and spiritual things a very top-flight item in the whole country. The only thing in which they were excelled, of course, was the political. In that, they had zero clout because all of the politics was vested in Rome and the Roman army that was occupying Israel at this time. So they would give the Jews a certain amount of latitude in regard to religious things, and they would even consult with the Jewish leaders as to how best to govern the people politically. And they were kind of, they were in cahoots, one with another. But the Romans didn't trust the Jewish leadership, and the Jewish leadership didn't trust the Romans. But they still had a certain amount of ability to work together. And the religious establishment was under the authority of the Romans, and they knew that if they couldn't keep the people in mind religiously, then Rome would keep them in mind militarily. So they were always kind of walking on eggs. One of the things that needs to be considered as we look at this healing miracle of our Lord is a situation that developed a lot earlier. Actually, what we're talking about now is about really close to three years into our Lord's ministry, and the extent of it is only going to be about three and a half years, perhaps at the most. So what we are now talking about is our Lord being in Perea, and we'll look a little later when he goes over, crosses over Jordan, gets into Judea, and then the account will be given where they will come to him and tell him that Lazarus is sick, and he goes and raises Lazarus, and so on. And then he's getting very, very close to the cross, and he will be spending the last time then in Jerusalem. But for now, he's on the other side of the Jordan River.

[3:43] He's east of the Jordan River in an area called Perea, and he is going to be engaging once again the scribes and the Pharisees in what is nothing more than a set-up job. They have put this situation in place so that they will have occasion to try and trap Jesus to catch him in some infraction of the law. So what they're looking for is, aha, we've got you now. And of course, the subject of the Sabbath is going to come up repeatedly, and we'll see how that comes up again. But actually, the problem with the scribes and Pharisees started right from the get-go. And by that I mean, when John the Baptist came on the scene, as is recorded in all of the Gospels, and began preaching this absolutely electrifying message, a message that Israel had been waiting to hear for 4,000 years. And this man is saying, repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And if you want to know the origin of that, just look at the last book in the Old Testament, and the prophecy of Malachi. And Malachi predicts the ministry and the person of John the Baptist and of Jesus, and identifies, doesn't call him by name, but it calls him the voice, and identifies him as the one who will introduce the Messiah to Israel. And that, of course, is exactly what John did. However, when John was baptizing and preaching that message, many of the common folks from all around Judea were electrified by that message. They came out, they listened to the message, they were baptized at John. John's message was, listen, the kingdom of heaven that God has promised just right around the corner. And you people are not in any spiritual condition to receive it.

[5:44] You need to clean up your act, straighten up your lives, and bring forth fruits that are meat for repentance. And many of them did. And they were being baptized to demonstrate the sincerity of their repentance. But we're also told that when the scribes and the Pharisees came to John for baptism, John refused to baptize them. And he said, you generation of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meat for repentance. And he read them out for their hypocrisy. And it was pretty obvious the way they conducted their lives and the way they treated the people. They were class A hypocrites. Now granted, there were some decent Pharisees, some guys who did have it pretty much together. And we'll see that Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea were a couple of them and some of the others. So not all of the Pharisees were bad guys.

[6:41] Some of them were pretty much plugged in, but most of them were very legalistic and out of it. And the text tells us, I think it's in Luke, that the scribes and the Pharisees received not the counsel of God against themselves, not being baptized of John.

[7:02] So they rejected John. They rejected John's message because he was this weird guy wearing weird clothing with a weird diet out in the desert preaching this message. And the Pharisees and the scribes say, we didn't authorize this guy. We didn't send him. He's not from our schools. He's not legitimate.

[7:24] And they rejected John. So if they rejected John and John introduces to the public the one whom he considers to be the Messiah, put two and two together. If they rejected John, what do you think they're going to do regarding the one that John introduced as the Messiah? They're going to reject him too because they were a package. You see, John the Baptist and Jesus the Messiah are not to be separated. They really go hand in hand and they are serving the same God for the same purpose. And we know how John's going to meet his ending by being executed and so on. But that's beside the point.

[8:11] So the stage is set. The die is cast for an ongoing kind of rivalry and difficulty existing between the religious establishment and Jesus. So let's take it now at, and we'll start at 1137 of Luke's gospel.

[8:32] When he had spoken, the Pharisee asked him to have lunch with him. And he went in and reclined at table. Now that's an interesting expression. I don't want to spend much time on it, but they did not come in and sit down at the table like we do with chairs. They reclined at table. The table is about a foot off the ground. If you've seen, if you've seen the way some of the Japanese dine with the low table like that, it's kind of like that really. It goes all the way back. It's only about a foot off the ground and there would be pillows placed around the outside. No chairs, no chairs. And the food would be placed on the table. And the people would actually lie down and prop themselves up with their elbows and their bodies stretched out behind them. And they were there at the table that way. And that was a common way that they ate. And if you've ever seen, and I know you've seen the picture of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, where they're all seated around the table, you know. Well, that's, that's, that's, he painted that picture based on the way people were seated at the table in his day in the 1500s in Europe when he painted the picture. Because it wasn't the way it was in the Bible. So when it talks about being reclined at table, you'll know what that means. And this, by the way, explains how, how, um, which one was it? I don't recall which apostle it was, but at the last table, we're told that he leaned on Jesus' bosom, put his head on Jesus' bosom. And that, yeah, I think it was John. And that's because he was seated right next to him, and it was really close. And it also explains how Jesus, with his body stretched out and his feet out behind him, how Mary Magdalene could come up behind him and wash his feet that were extended out behind him and dry his feet with her hair. That just gives you a little picture of the oriental difference in the way they dined as opposed to the day. And we're told in verse 38, when the Pharisees saw it, he was surprised that he, Jesus, had not first ceremonially washed before the meal. And their ceremonial washing was completely different from what we think. We think of, uh, you know, we've got a sink with running water, and we wash our hands and dry them off with a towel. Well, they, they would pass around a bowl, kind of like a finger bowl, and they would wash it, but you had to do it a certain way. You had to get your hands in this way, and you had to turn them over, then you had to go through this little mechanical ritual for the official way to wash your hands, which they believed was what God required, and yet it was something that they had simply imposed upon it, because these were the kind of people who were never satisfied with generally keeping or observing anything. They were the nitpickers, the details. They would tie the mint. The mint was little, very little pieces of mint.

[12:00] They would tie the mint and the anise, which was another herb, and the cumin, and they would separate them out very meticulously to make sure that they would tie, cross all the t's, dot all the i's, everything is perfect, and they went to such ridiculous extremes with minutiae that they ignore the greater things, and Jesus criticized them for that a number of times, and he said, you people, you, you strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. You major on minors, and you minor on majors, and that was the way they operated, and the one who was the most spiritual and the most religious was the one who was the most precise and the most detailed and the most all your ducks in a row and everything perfect, but inwardly, Jesus said, you're full of dead men's bones. You're just like one of those whited, we called them whited sepulchers, and the Jews would put up these these sepulchers and whitewash them, and what was inside of the sepulcher was a dead body, and it looked good on the outside, nice fresh coat paint of white sepulchre, but on the inside, dead men's bones, and he's characterizing these people who carried on their life that way, so they're looking for every occasion they can to make Jesus look bad, because if Jesus is right, then they're wrong.

[13:34] If Trump is right, then the other side's wrong. So the name of the game is, let's make Trump as wrong as he can be, so that it makes us look right.

[13:49] Nothing has changed, guys. This is human nature. This is the way it works, see. So here in Luke chapter 11, verse 39, the Lord said to him, Now you Pharisees, clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness.

[14:10] You foolish ones, did not he who made the outside make the inside also? But give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you.

[14:25] But woe to you Pharisees, for you pay the tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God.

[14:39] But these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees! Woe is not a good word. It means calamity.

[14:53] It means disfavor. It means disaster. It means a pox upon you. This kind of thing is not a good thing. If you, anyone that Jesus pronounced woe on, they were in a bad shape or potentially so, and he says, You love the front seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the marketplaces.

[15:18] What was one of the reasons that they loved the front seats, the choice seats? Well, first of all, it gave them prestige because it indicated that they were important, and it put them in a place where they were more likely to be seen.

[15:34] And their view was, Who wouldn't want to see me? And they dressed in the finest garments and so on, and all that went along with it. These were egomaniacs.

[15:46] And their problem was, They were consumed with pride and arrogance. And it showed. It just kind of stuck out all over them. And they had no use for the common man.

[16:00] Woe to you, for you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it. And one of the lawyers, Now, a lawyer, in the biblical sense, a lawyer was simply someone who was considered to be an expert in the law of Moses, the religious laws.

[16:22] And these were the guys that they went to for their opinions, and they would give their rulings and so on. They were in the same class and the same category as the scribes and the Pharisees. And the lawyers said to him in reply, Teacher, when you say this, you insult us too.

[16:39] We are offended. And they were, of course. And Jesus said, Woe to you lawyers as well, for you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers.

[16:58] Woe to you, for you build the tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them. Consequently, you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers, because it was they who killed them, and you build their tombs.

[17:13] For this reason also, the wisdom of God said, I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill, and some they will persecute, in order that the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world may be charged against this generation.

[17:29] From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the house of God. Yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.

[17:40] Woe to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in, you hindered.

[17:53] And when he left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile, and to question him closely on many subjects.

[18:07] Here is where that nitpicking stuff comes out, and they're going to try to nail him any way and every way that they can, because if they can make him look bad, then he'll lose disfavor of the people, and so on.

[18:18] And it's, and verse 54 says, plotting against him, to catch him, in something, he might say. It's interesting to note, that every time Jesus did, some kind of verbal combat with these people, he was never asking for it.

[18:42] He was just speaking the truth. And when they came back, and the reason that they were threatened by him, of course, was due to his popularity. The common people, we're told, heard Jesus gladly.

[18:56] And this really rankled, the elite establishment, because people were turning away from them, their influence and authority, and returning to this, Galilean carpenter?

[19:07] You've got to be kidding me. They resented him, because he was taking away their pride, and their attention, and so on. So from the very beginning, there are going to be an ongoing battle between them, and of course we know that in the end, they will conspire with the scribes, the Pharisees, and so on, with Judas, and that's how they will take him, and ultimately bring him to the crucifixion, and the cross.

[19:30] Now let's go, if we may, to Luke chapter 13, and verse 10, because we've got a similar situation here, where Jesus is going to use some of the same analogy, because he's talking to the same kind of situation, only in a different audience.

[19:46] And in Luke 13, and verse 10, we are told that he was teaching in one of the synagogues, and here we go again, on the Sabbath, and behold, there was a woman, who for 18 years, had had a sickness caused by a spirit, she was bent double, could not straighten up at all, and when Jesus saw her, he called her over, and said to her, woman, woman, you are freed from your sickness.

[20:16] And he laid his hands upon her, and immediately, she was made erect again, and began glorifying God. This was our subject for our last session together, and I'm referring to it again here, because it contributes to what we'll be looking at a little bit later, and again, it's another conflict on the Sabbath, and we are told in verse 14, and the synagogue official, indignant, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, began saying to the multitude in response, there are six days in which work should be done, therefore, come during them and get healed, and not on the Sabbath day.

[20:59] But the Lord answered him and said, you hypocrites, does not each of you, on the Sabbath, untie his ox or his donkey from the stall, and lead him away to water him?

[21:16] Isn't that work? Well, in reality, it wasn't work, but it would have been work according to their definition, unless, of course, they are the ones who are doing it.

[21:31] Then it is permissible. You see, we've got a problem of a double standard. Have you ever heard of that before? Nothing has changed.

[21:43] You see, it all depends on whose ox is being gored. It is okay for me, but not for thee. And the only thing that really ought to disturb us is the gullible people who aren't even able to see through it.

[22:03] What are you going to do with them? My goodness. My goodness. Well, let's go on. And this woman, verse 16, a daughter of Abraham, as she is.

[22:15] Now, of course, she's not a literal daughter. She's many, many, you know, generations removed from Abraham. Abraham has been dead and gone for thousands of years. But she is a direct descendant.

[22:26] She's the daughter of Abraham, as is every Jew who, every Jew who is actually a Jew, is the son of Abraham, and the son of Isaac, and the son of Jacob, by virtue of his descendancy.

[22:38] So, we are told in verse 17 then, and as he said this, all his opponents were being humiliated. Well, all I can say is, they asked for it.

[22:57] Every time they had opportunity to criticize Jesus for something he said or something he did, they would weigh into him, and his defense was always based upon the spirit of Scripture, thus saith the Lord, and it always ended up with them having egg on their face.

[23:16] And each time that happens, their resentment and anger and animosity toward Jesus is going to grow, and it increases and increases, and finally they come to the place where they say, he's got to go.

[23:31] There isn't room in Israel for all of us. He's got to go. And they, of course, will put out the contract, and you know what will happen with Judas. So, we are told that his opponents were being humiliated, and the entire multitude was rejoicing over all the glorious things being done by him.

[23:52] And the more the people loved Jesus and responded to him, the more the scribes and Pharisees hated him. So, there's a contest going on here back and forth, and it is going to build and build and build until it will finally end in the death of the Messiah.

[24:10] Joe? And it built to the point, the final miracle, I think, was Lazarus raising from the dead that kicked it over, because the people were right then ready to set him up as a king.

[24:21] Right. And they had to stop that right now. We'll be at Lazarus in just a couple of weeks, so it's coming. And this is building, like Joe said, this is building up to it. All right, let us go now to, by the way, if you've got your map, just take a look at the very last one, number five, if you have your map, and I recommend that you kind of keep it with you if you can in your Bible.

[24:43] Number five, if you will look at the one on the bottom, you see the green area, Judea?

[25:00] Where Jesus is at the time we're speaking of now is east of that, and the red line that goes down the middle there, that's the Jordan River, and you see the area there that is kind of lavender?

[25:12] That's Perea. That's where he is now as we're talking here in Luke's Gospel. And before long, he will cross over the Jordan River from Perea and will go to Bethany.

[25:28] See Bethany? Down right next to the Dead Sea. Bethany is the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus. That's where Jesus will be going when he hears that Lazarus is sick, and he spends another four days deliberately.

[25:45] We'll talk about that later to get there. So that's the geography that we are talking about. And when he goes to Bethany, you'll see that Bethany is only about five or six miles from Jerusalem.

[26:01] And then Jerusalem, of course, is close to where the Mount of Olives is, and that's where he will have the Last Supper and so on. And then the crucifixion will take place there.

[26:13] So let's see now. Where are we? All right, let's go to our text now in Luke 14. This is all given to us by Luke. And in fact, he is the only one that is treating these particular issues.

[26:28] And it's interesting to note that Luke does communicate regarding a lot of the healing miracles, which is kind of interesting in light of the fact that Luke was a physician. And he gives more details when he describes patients and their problems and everything.

[26:43] He always gives more details about their illness than what the other writers do. And really, isn't that what you would expect from a physician, as Dr. Luke was? So we read in chapter 14 and verse 1, came about that when he went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, that they were watching him closely.

[27:09] I don't want to read into this something that isn't there, but I'm telling you that in light of what we've already considered and in light of the ongoing contest that always existed between Jesus and this establishment, this was nothing but a setup.

[27:27] It was an invitation that was extended to Jesus for what they looked upon as another opportunity, maybe this time we'll get him.

[27:38] So he, of course, is fully aware of their intent. And we read as the text goes on that they were watching him closely.

[27:49] Why? They were looking for an occasion, something to criticize. And there in front of him was a certain man suffering from dropsy.

[28:03] Now, I'm going to give you a wise man opinion, so take it for what it's worth. But I am convinced in my mind that this guy is a plant.

[28:13] He does have dropsy, and of course he'd love to be healed by it, but he is also a pawn. And the establishment is using him, and they're telling him, you sit right here where Jesus will not be able to miss you.

[28:31] Right here in plain sight. I think they probably even told him where to sit. This is all a setup deal. And we read in verse 3, Jesus answered and spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?

[28:54] Now, he's priming the pump a little bit, see? And they're thinking to themselves, Aha, he's falling for it. This is going to be good. We're going to nail him. But they kept silent.

[29:06] They're not going to commit. They're not going to say anything. Their idea is we're just going to be quiet and give him enough rope, and he will hang himself.

[29:20] And they kept silent, and Jesus took hold of him and healed him and sent him away. Quite interesting.

[29:32] Now, dropsy, we aren't given a good definition of it other than the fact that the idea is that it's an old ailment that is referred to as a buildup of excess fluid, particularly in the lower extremities, in the feet, and in the ankles, and the calves, where, and I don't know about the medical thing, my suspicion is it's probably got something to do with kidney problems that's not removing the liquid as it is supposed to, and it builds up, and gravity takes it down, and it settles in the lower extremities, in the feet, and I've seen people like this, and you probably have too, and their ankles may be six or eight inches across because of all of the retention of fluid there, and it is a deficiency with the organs that is not excreting the fluid as it should, and it just builds up and puddles there in the bottom of the legs and the feet, and that's probably the best description we can give of that today, and of course, people are on Lasix and things like that to take the fluid away from the body, but they didn't have that kind of a drug then.

[30:49] Jesus is going to heal this man, and by the way, whatever it was that caused the dropsy, if it was a kidney condition, he healed that too.

[31:01] This is just another case where Jesus didn't just treat the symptoms like a lot of doctors do today. You can always treat the symptoms.

[31:11] You can't always cure the problem, so the best thing you can do is treat the symptoms that come from the problem, but the symptoms are not the problem. The problem is the problem, and the symptoms is the result, but very often, that's very difficult to diagnose, and sometimes we end up just treating symptoms and not getting to the root cause of it, but Jesus, I'm sure, made this man every whit hole, and he uses the same example here that he used earlier regarding the woman who was healed, and he said in verse 5, which one of you shall have a son or an ox fall into a well and will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?

[31:58] And they could make no reply to this, because if any of them said, well, we wouldn't do that. We'd just leave him in the well.

[32:08] No, they knew they couldn't say that. That would make them really stupid and make them almost inhumane, but they're not going to give Jesus the satisfaction of saying, yes, we'd take him, we'd expend the labor, we'd work on the Sabbath, we'd call our neighbors over, we'd work, and we'd get him out.

[32:24] No, they're not going to say that either, so they just dummy up. Like when he tells them, is it lawful, they ask him, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?

[32:38] And they're thinking again, now we've got him. Now we've got him. Because they knew, and here's all these common people, and they're all paying taxes to Caesar, and they all resent it, and they all hate Caesar for it, but they know there's going to be a penalty if you don't pay your taxes.

[32:57] So they paid their taxes, and then they asked Jesus, is it lawful, speaking from a Jewish standpoint, the law of Moses, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

[33:10] And they're thinking, if he says yes, if he says yes, he's going to anger all the people, because they don't want to pay taxes to Caesar.

[33:21] And if he says no, then he's going to be in trouble with the Romans, because they will say, he is inciting a tax revolt, and doesn't want people to pay the tax.

[33:31] This is that old question like, you can't answer it rightly. It's like asking the guy, do you still beat your wife? Well, what's he going to say?

[33:44] Yes or no, he's wrong either way. So this is all set up. See, it's a lawful thing. And Jesus said, interesting question. Show me a coin.

[33:55] And they give him a coin, and he looks at it, and he holds it up, and he says, whose image is this? Whose picture is this on this coin? And they say, well, Caesar's.

[34:09] Jesus said, okay. Then you give to Caesar, what is Caesar's? Give to God, what is God's? And these guys go, and they just look like a bunch of ignoramuses.

[34:20] And what that's doing, is adding more and more to their anger, because they are being publicly embarrassed, and they are being shown up for what they really are.

[34:33] And you know, there's a lot of that going on today. If we knew, what people really were, and what they really want, and what their real agenda is, it would die overnight, but it's kept under secret, because they know that the exposure of it, the jig would be up.

[34:58] That's called deception, and the woods are full of it. It's everywhere. It's not a Republican problem. It's not a Democratic problem. It's a human problem.

[35:10] That's the way people work. And when people are coming, from a moral standpoint, that there is no fixed absolute, of morality, or right, or wrong, you make your own.

[35:26] You decide what's right or wrong. The end, the means, the end, the means, doesn't make any difference.

[35:37] You do whatever it takes to get to the objective. That's the way some people operate. And if you don't have moral absolutes with an overarching umbrella that establishes right and wrong, then each man does what is right in his own eyes.

[35:55] And he can move the goal post as many times as he needs to. Don? What you're saying reminds me, I saw the news yesterday, what's going on in Canada with those truckers.

[36:06] There are people, everybody's gathered down here, they want to go back to take masks off and all this sort of thing. Oh, yeah. The government just cannot tolerate this. Yeah. Call them everything in the world.

[36:17] Yeah. And yet they're just peaceful gathering. Yeah. Nobody's breaking in their windows. They can't hold on to this. Yeah, absolutely. It tickles me. It's like I said, it's a human problem.

[36:29] And it just, it's been, guys, it's been this way since Genesis 3. It's a human condition. So let's continue on. And let's see, verse 6 says, they could make no reply to it.

[36:46] And I'm sure that these guys, these guys just looked at each other as if to say, well, you got anything to say? Nobody's going to open their mouth because they know every time they do, they're besting.

[37:02] And I'll tell you why. Because every time they open their mouth, they're coming from a position of error. Every time Jesus opens his mouth, he's coming from a position of truth.

[37:15] And what you've got is a major clash. Bang! And they just, they're butting heads. And it's going on that way all through his ministry. He's putting up with this.

[37:26] It's a time of enormous stress and opposition. And it's coming from the top. But it is coming from the earthly top.

[37:38] What Jesus is providing is coming from the heavenly top. And that's why they are no match for it. Because error, error is never a match for truth.

[37:50] Someone has said that truth is just like a lion in a cage. All you have to do is let it out.

[38:02] And turn it loose. And it will take care of itself. The truth will out. Joe, what? Between verse 4 and 5, Jesus didn't give them a chance to say, to point out his guilt.

[38:14] Oh, you did this on the Sabbath. That's bad. Jesus didn't even give them a chance to say that. He knew what they were thinking. Oh, absolutely. Before they had a chance to spit it out, then he told them, he put them on, you know, in humility right away.

[38:26] I mean, right away he says, hey, if you do this, you'd help your son or something like that. And right away, they didn't have anything to say then. He didn't even give them a chance. Now, thank you.

[38:37] Now, as he goes on, he's going to reveal to them whether they're able to pick up on it is questionable. And it appears that they're not, but he's going to reveal to them what their real inner heart problem is.

[38:51] And it is ego. It is the flesh. It is self. Jesus is going right to the heart of the problem. And he began in verse 7 saying, he began speaking a parable to them.

[39:07] And I'm going to find it necessary to just briefly interrupt our study of the miracles a little bit. Because we'll have to inject a couple of parables that go along with the miracles and help to illustrate it in order to get the fullest and the best effect of it.

[39:25] And here is one case here. He began speaking a parable to the invited guests when he noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table saying to them.

[39:40] Now, the idea was, and you've got to keep this in mind, that there is a custom involved here that is a Mid-Eastern custom and it's completely different from ours. But in their custom, it was the guests of honor or the most important people that sat the closest to the host.

[39:58] And that was considered a place of prestige, of honor, of recognition, and so on. And we even use expressions like, well, like our Lord.

[40:13] Where did he go when he went back to heaven? He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

[40:25] He didn't sit down at the left hand. He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. That is considered the supreme place.

[40:38] Have you ever heard anybody talk about someone whose service that they valued greatly and they said, he's my left hand man. No. No. He's always, he's my right hand man.

[40:50] And that means the person of most importance to me. Person who makes the greatest contribution. My right hand man. And with all due respect to you lefties, most of us are right handed.

[41:05] And someone has said, you all remember Daryl Henderson? He was my best friend for about 40 years. He's with the Lord now. But I used to tease him about being left handed.

[41:17] And one day we were studying, studying some material about how fearfully and wonderfully made we are. And how it is the left side of your brain that controls everything on the right side of your body.

[41:36] And it is the right side of the brain that controls everything on the left side of your body. Now I don't know about you but I would think it would be just the opposite.

[41:47] I'd think the right side would control the right side. But it doesn't do that because there's a thing in between is the bridge called the corpus callosum and it sends signals back and forth from the right side to the left side but the women don't have that corpus callosum that joint that trail thing in between.

[42:06] This is another reason why women are different from men in the way they're wired. Not only the physical anatomy and the genitalia but mentally and we have to cycle information from one side of the brain to the other.

[42:23] We can't use our brain to think with both sides at the same time. They do. They do.

[42:33] They don't have that need to go back and forth. We have to go back that's why sometimes that's why sometimes when you're arguing with a woman you lost. You're no match for them.

[42:47] They've got both sides clicking at the same time and we're duh and we try to kick in the other side. But Joe? That probably explains why women can multitask where a man he can only concentrate on doing one thing at a time so to speak.

[43:02] That's you know you can't That's all involved. That's all it's all a distinction between female and male and by the way if you ignore that if you downplay that if you deny that like some are trying to do today and say there really is no difference that's complete nonsense there is a radical difference we well I'm not going to go there but you know what I mean as a man you know it's just and anyway Darrell was left-handed and and he says well he says I learned one thing about that study that we did about the brain and everything I said what's that and he says it's we left-handed people are the only ones in our right mind okay okay you South Paul have got something going for you after all all right well let's get back to the text here he says when you give say to the one who had invited him when you give a luncheon or a dinner do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors lest they also invite you in return and repayment come to you well is that why we do it

[44:26] Jesus said well yeah it probably is why you do it but it isn't what you should do what you should do he goes on to say when you give a reception verse 13 invite the poor the crippled the lame the blind what why would I invite them they can't do anything for me that's the whole point fellas we need to really focus on a very very important saying I don't know who said it first I don't know where I got it but it stuck with me and it's really important he said you can always tell the measure and the worth of a man by how he treats people who are not in a position to do anything for him do we only go the extra mile for those who are in a position to somehow repay us do we treat people a certain way because we expect to gain their gratitude because we did this for them then

[45:52] I'll be in a position and they'll be in a position to do something for me that's the ulterior motive and it's easy to do that without even realizing that you're doing it because the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked Jeremiah tells us chapter 17 verse 9 in other words we are capable very capable of conning ourselves we can sell ourselves a bill of goods nobody can deceive Marv Wiseman like Marv Wiseman that's scary but it's true this calls for self examination look at our motives because God is not only concerned with what we do he's concerned with why we do it do we do it out of the goodness and generosity and kindness of our heart or do we do it expecting there will be a payback on down the road otherwise

[47:03] I wouldn't do it you see what I'm talking about with the deception of the heart that's you know and fellas we're all born that way we're all children of Adam that's the way we operate and it is only the spirit of God that can overcome that self centered selfishness and that's the big problem with the scribes and the Pharisees it's ego these guys have an ego that is monstrous and egos and these people love the greetings in the marketplaces and they would stand on the street corner with all their robes and their phylacteries and their paraphernalia and somebody could go by and bow to them good morning rabbi good morning rabbi and they just ate that stuff up pitiful that's human nature that's the ego trip again my oh my and he will give a reception invite the poor the crippled the lame the blind and you will be blessed you know what the little saying comes out of this that doesn't even sound true at first but it is deeply true it is more blessed to give than to receive you would be surprised how many people flatly do not believe that they say oh that's religious garbage no truth in that fellas it is true right down to the heels of your feet it is more blessed to give than to receive and there are those among you who know very well what

[48:52]  I'm talking about because you've experienced that and well you will be blessed since they do not have the means to repay you for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous in other words what Jesus is saying here is God doesn't settle all his debts today you know but he settled his debts if there is anything that is owed you for your generosity or whatever the time will come when there will be payday someday and it will be payment from the one who really matters and it will be based on the attitude and the motivation of the heart in the giving as opposed to giving with the intent of receiving back again so it's a valuable principles here and once again thank you for your kind attentions