Transcript

The best thing about those songs is that they are true. True. We don’t just sing about something we’ve theorized about but something we’ve experienced. We believe in experiential religion. There is a new birth you should experience, not just know about in your head.

My wife sent me a text this week and I forget the reference, I should know it, it’s a very familiar text where the Old Testament speaks of there being a going in the tops of the mulberry trees. When you hear “a going,” you can translate that “marching” in the top of the mulberry trees, prepare yourself for battle. It’s figurative language, if you will, of the Spirit of God preparing to do something special. A unique opportunity is opening up; a unique power is yours and it’s a time to lay aside lesser things. It’s a time to put aside the sins that so easily beset you and say, “I’m not picking that one up this week. I’m going to set my heart apart and my energies apart, my mind apart, my finances apart. I’m going to focus on this unique opportunity.” I’m not so sure I’m not sensing there’s a going in the tops of the mulberry trees. I’m not so sure I’m not sensing that God is saying to Grace Life Church, “Again, this year your conference is coming up. You have a rare opportunity to have an impact for my glory. Take advantage. Gird up your loins. Lay down lesser things. Set aside the sin that so easily besets you. And let’s get our hearts set on this thing and our faces set like flint.” There is nothing wrong in enjoying the common graces of God in the world as long as we see God is the center of them but there’s a time to put aside other things and focus on more important things. So, let’s do that as we head toward our conference. I believe there is a going in the tops of the mulberry trees.

Luke 13 this morning. We come to Luke 13 beginning in verse 10 and we’ll go down through verse 17. As our Lord now has changed places, he’s been in a long discourse teaching some powerful, penetrating things as he’s trying to guide his apostles and any and all who will hear to a more spiritual understanding of what his mission is, that he’s not just here to give you your best life now. He’s not just here to heal your diseases and feed you if you’re hungry. In compassion he does many of those things, but he’s here to go to a cross and die for his children’s sins and redeem for himself a people who will know him and be with him and glorify him forever and ever.

Now he’s changed. He’s in a different setting now and it’s the Sabbath day. Let’s look at it together, Luke 13:10, “10 And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And there was a woman who for eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent double, and could not straighten up at all. 12 When Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her, ‘Woman, you are freed from your sickness.’ 13 And He laid His hands on her; and immediately she was made erect again and began glorifying God. 14 But the synagogue official, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, began saying to the crowd in response, ‘There are six days in which work should be done; so come during them and get healed, and not on the Sabbath day.’ 15 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? 16 And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years, should she not have been released from this bond on the Sabbath day?’ 17 As He said this, all His opponents were being humiliated; and the entire crowd was rejoicing over all the glorious things being done by Him.”

This text gives us, I think, two powerful spiritual parallels and it gives us also a preview of what’s coming in our Lord’s ministry, coming from this particular perspective of 2,000 years ago but also coming from where we stand today. You see, when Jesus was born, the truth train, God’s train of truth, was put in the station and then he began his ministry at roughly the age of 30, the train departs the station and begins slowly and strongly moving through the earth. Everywhere the truth train went, it plowed a straight path. It brought righteousness to bear at every stop. In righteousness he cleansed and forgave the guilty and the sinner and in righteousness he exposed, humiliated and condemned his enemies. Bob Dylan wrote a song after his conversion called “Slow Train Coming” and that’s exactly what I see in my mind as I picture Jesus now in his earthly ministry, not running to and fro but just steadily going through village after village, area after area, bringing the strong unmovable force of truth to bear on planet earth and he just keeps on moving on, moving on in righteousness, forgiving sinners and in righteousness exposing, humiliating and condemning the proud.

Now, here we have our Lord in verse 10, if you will, look at it there, he’s in one of the synagogues the text says and it’s on the Sabbath. Now, I think it’s important for us to note and a good side note and lesson for us that Jesus was faithful to the gathering of God’s people. He’s here in the synagogue on the Sabbath day. Now, certainly he was there to bring reform and reformation because the synagogue had become polluted with worldliness and ungodliness and the rules and laws and teachings of men instead of the law of God. Nevertheless, he faithfully attended and taught on the Sabbath. This was the Apostle Paul’s approach also and that shows us that we ought to be faithful to our gathering of the congregation of God and we ought to be there as they were, the Apostle Paul and the Lord Jesus, to try to bring truth to bear but stay at it until the Sabbath, the synagogue or the church will not bear the truth any longer.

But as the Lord continued to teach in the synagogues and later the Apostle Paul and other apostles, they discovered that these synagogues, these fellowships of supposedly Jewish believers, were far too far gone. They had become man-centered and unbiblical in doctrine and they would not receive or respond to the truth. John 9:22 tells us, “His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews,” here it is, “for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.” Isn’t that amazing. Here are the Jews who would tell you the centerpiece of their doctrine and their belief was to look for and receive the coming Messiah and he comes and they throw him out and anyone who follows him. Isn’t that interesting? John 16:2, Jesus said, “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.”

So, Jesus said: you’ll go to the assembly of God’s people, supposedly God’s people, and you’ll find that they’re going to throw you out and, he said, they’re even going to believe that if they can destroy you, they’ll be doing faithful service for the Lord God. I thought how some things never change. It’s true in every generation. Listen, in most evangelical and Baptist churches today, if you bring the truth of Christ to bear in those congregations they will throw you out. I’m tell you, that’s the truth. Or, at least, it will be a very difficult season as we’re trying to help pastors go through that difficult season of reform. And so, nothing has really changed.

So, here Jesus is in the synagogue and we’re going to see that he does a wonderful and good thing and then there’s a lot of trouble as the synagogue leader stirs up the crowd the best he can and has an indignant attitude toward the Lord Jesus Christ here in the house of God. Now, the Lord is one who is known in his earthly ministry and it continues today, as one who lifts up the broken and one who brings down the proud. He lifts up the broken and he brings down the proud. Now, Jesus is ministering in the synagogue on this day and if he had this way in this synagogue, the people would be liberated from the authoritarian control of the synagogue officials and he would lead them to find true and personal peace and joy through a relationship with himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. This synagogue official does not love the people. He loves himself and he hates the true Christ and that’s why he’s indignant at what Jesus has done.

Now, let’s look at these two major things the Lord does on this day. First of all, 1. He is the Lord who lifts up the broken. What an encouragement we get from his compassion and his mercy that he shows to this dear lady. It says in verse 11, “And there was a woman who for eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent double, and could not straighten up at all.” Now, this is a tragic and miserable condition this lady finds herself in. Can you imagine for 18 years, the text says “because of the spirit,” I don’t know all that that means. It could maybe just mean that, of course, Satan is behind all the infirmities that are in the realm of mankind and really in the universe but I don’t know. The text just tells us that she’s been in this horrid and horrible, miserable condition for 18 years and in her is a very visible ailment. The Bible says she is bent over double kind of like a safety pin. She has to walk around and she probably has to stop and stoop down to look up and see who is around her. Her posture is a real picture of the misery and the infirmity that she finds in her life.

The text elaborates and says she “could not straighten up at all.” Now, you can’t help but when you think about this woman’s physical condition to see that we have to see in our hearts and minds a spiritual parallel. God made man in his own image. God made man upright in both body and soul but sin has broken man and sin has cast man down. Now, some of you in here are young. You know, I remember, I was young at one time and when you’re young you feel strong, you have energy, you can feel invincible. My goodness, sometimes you think you’re bullet-proof but if you could see yourself truly as God sees you, you would see yourself as a helpless, weak, bent over, broken down, cast down sinner before a holy and true God.

Sin and Satan brings men down and casts them down, Christ raises them up. Notice what it says in verse 12, here this broken, bent over like a safety pin, miserable lady in verse 12, “When Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her, ‘Woman, you are freed from your sickness.’” Jesus saw her. The eyes of mercy finds the sinner in misery. Oh, our precious Lord. Then he calls her over. I think it’s interesting to note that she did not call to him, he first called to her. That’s the picture of effectual grace. John 15:16, Jesus speaking to his disciples said, “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.” You did not choose me but I chose you. Effectual means that something accomplishes the purpose for which it was intended to accomplish. Now, none of us are fully effectual. We try to do things but we never do things perfectly and fully, at least in the ultimate sense. But God is God and when God does something, he’s effectual. In other words, he accomplishes exactly what he sets out to perform and this is a picture of effectual grace, how God takes the initiative to come after his own children and bring them all the way through to repentance and faith, that is regeneration and in progressive sanctification and then one day glorification. Here we have this dear broken down lady who has not been able to look up and see those even around her. More than likely she couldn’t for many, many years. She probably didn’t even know that a unique and different man was in the synagogue on that day, a man named Jesus. But when Jesus sees her, he calls out to her and offers her relief.

Thirty-four plus years ago, I got in my automobile in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee and began traveling back to Middle Tennessee State University. It was a cold night in February. I wasn’t searching for anybody, I just knew I was miserable and I turned on the radio and a Presbyterian preacher shared the gospel of Jesus Christ and God invaded that 72 Cutlass Oldsmobile that night and transformed my heart. I was not looking for him but he saw me. That’s the kind of God he is. You can’t help but see a parallel of grace for the sinner in this story.

Now, he goes on and he tells the woman, “Woman, you are freed from your sickness,” this is verse 12. So, Jesus gives this woman a word of healing. What a tiding this is for the sick and captive soul bound by Satan and in this malady for 18 long years. Jesus shows us once again in this narrative that he’s Lord over the devil and he’s Lord over disease. Who was it, John Owen, that says that the devil is God’s devil and what he meant by that was that the devil can do nothing but what God allows. The devil is not out here working and the Lord is over here wringing his hands trying to think of, “How am I going to stop the old serpent this time?” No, God knows everything that’s going on and even Satan’s work is completely under his providence and certainly his authority.

So, Jesus cast out the demon, cast out the sickness and this woman is healed. He speaks and that which binds her falls off. This miracle of her body, once again, is another parable for what he can do for the sinful soul. This woman came to church that day for the good of her soul and she found healing for her body.

Look at verse 13, if you will, the first part, “And He laid His hands on her; and immediately she was made erect again and began glorifying God.” His hands touched her and immediately she is healed and she stood upright. I think that’s something for us to remember and that is: divine miraculous power needs no mediator or channel, God can just reach down and do it. And I think that’s where we see a lot of error in the professing Christian church today. There is way too much emphasis on spiritual gurus and spiritual leaders and pastors and evangelists who tell people, “If you’ll rub this oil on you…If you have this miracle water…If you’ll take this clothe…If you’ll receive this prayer…If you quote after me,” and so much of that seems to smack of what we hear from the pagan world, in witchcraft and the occult where you have mantras and incantations and if you do it all right, then you get the power. God does not need to flow through any being or any channel. God can just reach down and heal and change and perform whatever miracle he chooses.

You say, “Pastor, is God still miraculously healing people?” I’m convinced he is but I cannot tell you in providence when he will, how often he will and for whom he will. I do not even know all of his purposes but there is certainly nothing wrong with humbling yourself and saying, “Oh dear God, if it glorify your name and please you, I ask you and believe you to heal this sickness in my life.” And he may just do that. But be careful, though the Bible speaks of elders praying for the sick and we do that here and we’re glad to do that any time you have a troubled spirit or a broken heart or a physical ailment in your life and you’d like some of the elders to pray for you, we are humbled and blessed to do that for you but we cannot guarantee healing because we’re there. God does the healing. In his way. For his purposes. And for his glory.

Well, the Bible says here and, again, what a powerful spiritual parallel this is: Jesus touches her, the miracle occurs, she stands upright and the Bible says that immediately she stands erect. Immediately she goes from being bent over like a safety pin and standing erect and upright before everybody that’s there. What a picture this is. Likewise, the sinner who believes on Jesus Christ, listen to me, is immediately upright before God. Did you hear me? Spiritually, those who believe on Christ immediately gain the standing of the justification before the holy God. That’s what we mean by salvation by grace through faith. Listen to Romans 4:2-5, “For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God,” it was faith, “and it was credited to him as righteousness.’ Now to the one who works,” listen, “his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.”

I want you to bear down with me on that phrase “he who justifies the ungodly.” Here’s what he means: you do nothing to reform yourself, you do nothing to change your heart. You don’t have any time to change your life or change your habits as far as humanity can see, nothing has changed, nothing has been worked on, nothing has been performed, nothing has been transformed but the moment you believe, God justifies the ungodly. God says, “You ungodly one, now because of the merits of my precious Son, now you stand before me just in the very righteousness my Son has.” What a picture this is. The woman immediately, Jesus sees her, Jesus calls to her, Jesus touches her, immediately she’s upright. Listen to me: when the Spirit of God calls to you, when the Spirit of God speaks to you, the Spirit of God touches you and repentance toward God and faith in Christ rises in your heart, you stand immediately justified before a holy God. You’re still the wretch that you were but you stand justified. Now, listen to me, you will continue with a progressive sanctification, that is a changing life but justification is the instant of faith before God. What a picture this is, I believe, of the spiritual truth of immediate justification. We reject the Roman Catholic doctrine and others who teach that justification has something of human merit, works or performance in it. The text says, let me read it again, Romans 4:5, “But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.”

Well, this poor woman, 18 years afflicted by this spirit in a terrible physical infirmity, bent over double, now stands upright. Now, you know what’s happening next, it’s revival time now. It’s glory time now. You know, I as much as any pastor abhor fleshly emotionalisms in churches. I see some of this stuff and it just grieves where they just get lathered up and they just get excited and it’s no more God-centered than nothing but I’m telling you, it blesses my heart to see a saint of God raising her hands toward heaven and praise God for his goodness and joy in the great things he’s done for us with an understanding that it’s all about God and we’re the recipients in grace.

Verse 13 says she began glorifying God. She began glorifying God. You see, what happens, Jesus came from heaven, he lived on this earth for about 30 years and then he began his earthly ministry and when he began his earthly ministry, he brought to bear on earth something of the glories of heaven. By the way, there is no sickness in heaven. There is no disease in heaven. There is no hunger in heaven. So, just for a splash of the season, he brings to bear in a magnanimous way on planet earth, the great blessings of heaven. And this woman got in and she was just one of thousands upon thousands who got in on the great blessings of the healings and the glories of heaven. And this woman is beside herself for joy. She’s beside herself for joy. Can you comprehend what great joy must have been hers at that moment? Now, just for a moment think about fill heaven with millions of folks filled with that joy. Oh, some of you have been like statutes for so long in church. I swear you’re going to be embarrassed when you get to heaven. No, you won’t. Whatever pride, whatever is holding you back is going to be let loose from you and you’re going to see yourself and you’re going to see him. Look, when you begin in glory, now listen to me, when you begin to take in with the perfected mind and perfected emotions, the power, the wisdom and the beauty of Jesus Christ, joy will overwhelm you for eternity. This woman is just filled with joy.

Now, let me just summarize the ministry of Jesus and note the spiritual parallels here: he saw her. We were not looking for him but he saw us. He felt compassion for her. He looked down on our miserable condition, he looked at us and said, “There is nothing in them that’s attractive to me. There is nothing in them that’s desirable to me. I’m just choosing by the magnanimity of my own character to have favor on them. I want to have compassion on them. Everything in righteous justice says I should crush them for eternity but I am choosing in the greatness of my love to love the most unlovely.” He looked at her, he had compassion for her, he called her. Which of you hired your own gospel preacher to come and help save your soul? Listen, God calls the preachers. God sends the preachers. God empowers the preachers and through the preaching of the gospel, he calls you to himself. He saw you. He felt compassion. He came and called to you. Then he touched you. A cleansing touch. A regenerating touch. Paul calls it being quickened from the dead. Jesus called it being born from above or born again. He touched you and a new life came in and immediately you began to feel the weight of your sin and a faith in Christ. Justification sealed forever from that moment. And then we go our way singing the songs of Zion and glorying in our Savior until we get home to glorification.

Well, Jesus lifts up the broken but the text doesn’t end there, the narrative continues on: 2. Jesus brings down the proud. He brings down the proud. Now, let me say something about the Jewish religious authorities because we’re going to be talking about this synagogue official, likely a Pharisee, of the sect of the Pharisees of the Jews. From the balance of New Testament teaching, we could say three clear things about the majority. There were some exceptions but about the majority of the religious authorities of this day: 1. they lived for the praise of the people. They wanted to wear their robes; they wanted to be seen as esteemed and dignified and they wanted the people to be humbled down before them, they wanted to be praised by the people. Secondly, they wanted a profit from the people. It was exposed in many ways in the New Testament and the Jewish religious authorities even had a way to justify stealing their parents’ inheritance or their wealth. They just were a vile bunch. They wanted praise from the people, they wanted profit from the people and they wanted to maintain power over the people.

Now, listen to me: any preacher of works religion, the externalist I call them, they give you all these external rites and rituals, they give you these external rules and do’s and don’ts, any legalist works externalist preacher has power and authority over you, at least that’s what he wants. Because, you see, he can come up with the rules. He comes up with the ritual and that’s where the Roman church has dominated the world in so many ways. They keep the people under their thumb of authority. “You’ve got to do as we, the priest, instruct if you want to make it into heaven.” But that’s right the opposite of the gospel ministry. I want to preach a gospel whereby you are convinced you do not need Jeff Noblit. Christ is your all-in-all. He’s 100% of all that you need. But out of joy in him, you want to bless and have a good relationship with your gospel preacher but not out of a coercion to earn heaven but out of a joy because the gospel your pastor preached has saved your soul.

It’s a liberty message. It’s a victory message. It’s not about works. It’s not about legalism. It’s not about rite and ritual. It’s not about externalism. It’s the liberation of a sinful heart looking to Christ, being saved and saying, “That man and those ordinances and those religious rites and those rituals have nothing to do with my salvation. God saved me through his Son.” I want to free you from me but I want you to walk with me in further ministry. Is that not good? Oh my, I’m so glad I don’t have to carry you on my shoulders to heaven. I can’t carry me to heaven much less…what kind of proud, vile arrogance of the religious systems that teaches people that somehow, through the ministry of the priest and the sacraments of the church, that helps get them to God? Nothing could be more wrong than that.

Well, here’s this indignant synagogue official. He’s indignant because he loves himself. He’s indignant at this miracle Jesus performs because he loves taking advantage of the people for his own selfish gain. He wanted his synagogue to be about him. He’s indignant because he hated Jesus. Wherever Jesus shows up, he exposes evil and error and he liberates people from it and he senses in his spirit if Jesus keeps having his way, people aren’t going to be under him anymore. They’re going to feel like they don’t need him anymore which is exactly the truth. He should have been rejoicing in that. He should have been saying, “He must increase and I must decrease.”

So, this indignant, angry religious spiritual official in verse 14, begins saying to the crowd, right in the middle of the verse, “saying to the crowd.” In other words, this coward doesn’t address Jesus directly. He probably gets out of the hearing of Jesus because he’s afraid of him and he begins to condemn this miracle Jesus has performed on the Sabbath day. You know, it’s interesting: men generally condemn everything in those they hate. He can find nothing good in this wonderful compassion Jesus has done for this woman. This synagogue official is in the stronghold of self-consumed pride and as he saw this wonderful gracious miracle performed for this woman, it doesn’t help him, it just makes him harder and more calloused. He has no sympathy for this woman. Jesus’ ministry of compassion instead of edifying him only makes him more blind and more hard of heart.

Now, here’s what’s interesting: this synagogue official is going to use the Bible to try to destroy and discredit Jesus. Listen brothers and sisters, it’s a day for discernment. You need to know the difference between those that can use the Scriptures but there’s a little twist on it. A little twist on it. He’s going to use the Scriptures but he has it out of context and he’s twisting it. So, he has this biblical argument. He says, “Wait a minute now, the law does not allow you to work on the Sabbath so I’m going to subjectively interpret that for everyone. That is, you can’t heal on the Sabbath, that’s work.” So, he says to the crowd, “You’ve got six days to come and get you’re healing but on the Sabbath day, we’re not to be doing this work.” That’s his biblical argument. It reminds me of 2 Peter 3:16. Peter writes, “as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand,” now notice here, “which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.” Peter says about the Apostle Paul’s ministry, “People take his teachings and they distort it just like they do all the Bible.”

So, in Jesus’ day, he had to come up against these false teachers and these false religious authorities who used the Bible all the time and so will you in the office, so will you in the factory, so will you in the neighborhood, so will you, young people, at school. You’ll come up against false doctrine, false positions and false teachers who use the Bible right and left. “Well Pastor, how are we going to know if someone is really called of God and used of God and is about the glory of God and is not this charlatan like this synagogue official trying to take advantage of people for his own selfish gain?” Well, first of all, pray for discernment. Secondly, T-I-M-E. Watch it for a season and the fruit and the character begins to come out as time goes on. You’ll find that the true teachers of God are those that God catches in their sin, those that God humbles over their sin, those that God keeps working on and keeps keeping in line. Ask the Apostle Peter. We talk about Peter a lot because he was always sticking his foot in his mouth and Jesus was always rebuking him. Well, Jesus was always rebuking him because he belonged to Jesus. Jesus was constantly getting him back on track. But those who don’t belong to the Lord, he doesn’t correct them. He let’s them go on in sin and go on in sin and go on in sin.

Well, Jesus brings this guy down. Look what he says in verse 15, “ But the Lord answered him and said, ‘You hypocrites.’” Let’s just stop there. Here you are, a bunch of hypocrites. Let me continue on because you need the context. He says, “does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the stall and lead him away to water him?” He says, “You have more compassion for your ox and your donkey on the Sabbath than this sister who is broken in this terrible malady.” By the way, the law did not forbid them from doing good things for their oxen on the Sabbath, it just says you can’t work your oxen on the Sabbath. So, they twisted things around, somehow justified that they could spend their energy to be a blessing to their beasts but a poor broken down woman who needed healing, well, you can’t do that on the Sabbath. That’s breaking the law. What a twisted perversion of the truth of God.

This synagogue leader is not genuinely concerned about the fulfillment of the law at all. He just wants to use the law for his own advantage. His espousing the law and quoting the law at this point is just all show. He hates the glory given to Christ. He hates the praise, the profit and the power that’s coming to Christ’s ministry because he’s losing it himself. Van Doren talks about this whole setting in his commentary and he makes a little simple statement. He says, “Divine revelation is meant to guide and not supersede common sense.” Divine revelation is meant to guide, not supersede common sense. Common sense would tell you if you can water your oxen on the Sabbath, you can heal a daughter of Abraham on the Sabbath, who is far more valuable than any oxen.

Look at verse 17, I’m hurrying on. “As He said this, all His opponents,” or his adversaries or enemies, “were being humiliated.” Notice it says “all.” The pure and holy Son of God quickly gained enemies as he ministered on the earth because he was the slow steady train of truth. I sat by one the other day. We sit by them around here often, don’t we? And that train, it wasn’t moving too fast but I thought to myself, “What could you put in front of that train to stop it?” And there was nothing I could think of. It’s just a slow steady unmovable, unthwartable, unswerving truth and that’s what Jesus is doing here. Here he comes: choo, choo, choo, choo, and it keeps going. The train of truth and when the truth climbs into error and sin and wickedness and exposes it…I don’t know if you’ve noticed but wicked people don’t like to be exposed, they get mad. They get mad. When the owner of Chick-Fil-A restaurants states publicly that he believes what the Bible teaches that marriage is a marriage of a man and a woman and that homosexuality is not the standard of God for marriage and then everybody comes unglued. Why? He just brought a little light of truth that did a little exposing of the wicked hearts of our age and they got mad and got angry. So, I got up the next morning and waited in line an hour and a half and bought me a Chick-Fil-A sandwich. I haven’t done it yet, but I’m going to buy me a Duck Dynasty t-shirt and I’ll wear it in the pulpit.

Like I said earlier, where are our preachers? Why do Mr. Cathy and Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty have to be the ones to call this world back to the truth? What’s wrong with our pulpits? I’ll tell you what’s wrong with them: they don’t want what’s happening to Jesus, all of his enemies. They don’t want enemies. They want it easy. No ruffling feathers. “I need some retirement income, man, I don’t need to be fired from my church.” That’s why we have the True Church Conference. There are some brothers out there trying, trying to do it right. We ought to give it our everything to keep them going, keeping on. Amen? I’m telling you, they’re blown away when they walk in here and they see so many people affirming what they believe because they’re kind of by themselves out there.

The text here says he’s got a lot of enemies. Notice what it says though, look at it again, I’m about done: “As He said this, all His opponents were being humiliated.” You see, the victory train of righteousness and the true Christ has left the station. He’s already begun slowly but solidly moving through the earth and exposing and humiliating all who oppose him. The truth which is Jesus either converts those to whom it comes in contact or it confounds and crushes them. There’s a slow train coming: choo, choo, choo. He came to the earth in these days: choo, choo, choo. And it’s coming again. Did you hear me? It’s coming again. Hebrews 10:13 says there is a time coming when his “enemies will be made a footstool for his feet.” Revelation 6:16 says that when he comes again, the wicked men of the earth “will cry to the mountains and the rocks to fall on us and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.”

So, Jesus publicly exposes and humiliates this religious ruler for being the fraud and the phony and being unbiblical and a twister of Scripture and one who loves himself and has no real compassion for the people of his church but I’m telling you this event, are you listening to your pastor? This event of Jesus exposing and humiliating his enemies is just a small preview of coming attractions. He’s coming again. When he comes again, he’ll not come as a tiny baby. When he comes again, he will not come as the carpenter’s meek son. When he comes again, he’ll not come as an obscure prophet from the region of Galilee. When he comes again, he’ll not come as the subject of Pilate’s court. When he comes again, he will not come to be arrested and handled by the hands of vile and sinful men. When he comes again, he will not be coming to be mocked and verbally abused. When he comes again, he’ll not come to be spit upon. When he comes again, he will not have his beard pulled out by the roots. When he comes again, he will not be whipped with a cat-o- nine tails, a scourge. When he comes again, he will not hang on a tree in humiliation between two thieves. When he comes again, he will not die a cruel and agonizing death at the order of Pilate and the religious authorities.

The Bible says he’s coming again and his eyes are going to be like a blaze of fire. The Bible says when he comes again, he’s got a sharp sickle in his hands to reap his harvest. The Bible says when he comes again, he’s coming in a garment of white and with a robe dipped in blood. The Bible says he’s coming again and he’s coming with all authority and all power given unto him. He’s coming again to plunge the righteous sceptre of heaven down into this earth and purge this world of sin and all wickedness. He’s coming again in pure and true justice to punish all evildoers and establish his kingdom.

You listen to me, there’s a slow train coming. All the abortionists out there killing little unborn babies, I’m telling you, he’s coming again to expose you and humiliate you. All the homosexuals. I’m not talking about the one repented and grieved over his sin, I’m talking about the one glorying and thumbing their nose and shaking their fist in the face of God, you listen to me: he’s coming again to expose and humiliate you. To the fornicator, you listen to me: he’s coming again to expose you and humiliate you. To the adulterer, I’m telling you, sir, I’m telling you, ma’am: he’s coming again to expose you and humiliate you. To the pornographer, destroying little girls’ lives, I’m telling you: he’s coming again to expose you and humiliate you. To the President of the United States, for every time and in every way you’ve espoused what’s violated the pure and holy and true word of God: he’s coming to expose you and humiliate you. To the Supreme Court of the United States for every time you passed a law that contradicted the holy edict of God: he’s coming to expose you and humiliate you. To the child molester: he’s coming to expose you and humiliate you. To the Islamic terrorists who in the name of Allah goes around killing and maiming and destroying, you’re not going to inherit a planet with your virgins, Christ will have to do with you: he will expose you and humble you.

And like this synagogue official on this day, for all the religious hypocrites who carry the title evangelical, Baptist, Assembly of God, Church of God, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic. Whoever you may be, clutching to the name of Jesus, quoting some Scripture, going through your motions but never having been born again: you must be born again, the Bible says. You must be born again. You must be born again. Not just put on some religion, not just going to church, not just doing some work, not just cleaning up your life. You must be born again. And everything will be clear when he comes back. Listen, just like happened to this synagogue official: he was exposed and humiliated and so will you be.

Choo…choo…choo…choo. There’s a slow train coming and he’s coming back and he will cut every path straight. He will lift up into everlasting life all of those who humble themselves about their wickedness and cling to Christ as their only Savior. And he will expose, humiliate and crush all of his enemies. Do you know what I say to that? Even so, come Lord Jesus. Even so, come Lord Jesus. Don’t you love the word of God? More accurate, more contemporary than this morning’s newspaper.

Let’s stand together in prayer.