You're listening to Heed the Word with our pastor and teacher, Ken Davis. Pastor Ken is the senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Southwest Metro in Burleson, Texas. Please join us as we study the Gospel of Luke, verse by verse.

There are things in your life that you struggle with, and that maybe you have been struggling with for a really long time. And you think to yourself, why, as a Christian, am I still struggling with this thing, whatever it is? Maybe it's an illness, maybe it's a habit, maybe it's an attitude, maybe it's a circumstance in your life, maybe it's outright sin. And you don't understand why, as a believer, you're still struggling with this thing.

The Gospel of Luke is the third account in the Gospels of the life and teachings of our Savior, Jesus Christ. As believers, there are few studies that will benefit us more spiritually than studying the life and teachings of the Master. Have you ever felt defeated, like you have no power, no victory over the troubles or sin in your life? Do you constantly struggle with the same issues over and over again? If you answered yes to any of these questions, there is hope. Our Heavenly Father is not only there to show us why we're struggling, but He's also faithful to deliver us from that sin. Don't forget to stay with us after today's message to hear more information about He the Word, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, please open your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 13, verse 10, as we join Pastor Ken.

Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. I realize that's not very much to read before we jump right in, but it's important to recognize where Jesus was and what he was doing. Jesus was in one of the synagogues. Well, what was the synagogue? Our understanding of it would be kind of like he was in church. The synagogue was not the temple, the temple was in Jerusalem. But in the various cities of Israel, there would be synagogues or places of worship, places where the Jewish people would go on the Sabbath and where there would be the reading of the scriptures and the teaching of God's word, where they would come together to receive the word of the Lord. Isn't that pretty much what we do here, right? We come together and we have fellowship with one another and we study the word of God together, and that's what was taking place. And it was Jesus' practice to participate in the services at the local synagogue where he was on the Sabbath day. We saw this happen back in Luke chapter 4 as well. Let's go back there. Luke chapter 4, verse 16. So he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And as his custom was, well, what does that mean? As his custom was, if something is your custom, it means that you do it regularly. It's a habit, it's something that you do regularly, right? So as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, and then he began to read. We're going to read what he read here in a moment, but it was his practice, it was his habit, it was his custom to be in fellowship, to be in the place of worship. On Sabbath, where would you find Jesus? You would find him in the synagogue. And as followers of Christ, on the Lord's day, where should we be found? In fellowship with one another. We should be found in the Lord's house. And now what is the Lord's house? Is it this building? No. Guys, if we met in a park, that would still be the Lord's house, because where we are, that's where the Spirit of the Lord is. The Bible says that where two or more of you are gathered together in my name, I'm there in the midst of you. And so it was Jesus' practice to be there, and this is where he was. And again, on this previous Sabbath, he opened the scroll and he began to read. And what was it he read? It's what I like to call Jesus' mission statement. You know? This is what he came to do, he says here in verse 18 the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Then he closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on him, and he began to say to them, Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. You see, in his earthly ministry, this is what Jesus did. This is what he did day in and day out. Everywhere he went, he went about healing the sick, opening blind eyes, setting at liberty those who had been held captive. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, the scripture said, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel, that is, to proclaim the good news, the truth of God's word to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. I love the fact that his healing is not just of a physical nature, but that he heals our broken hearts, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. That was Jesus' message. That is what he shared with them as he was in the synagogue that day. And as we turn back here to Luke chapter 13, we see that here again he's in the synagogue, and here again he's standing up to teach. Now, are we told here in Luke 13 what it is he's teaching? No, we're not. Could it have been the same thing that he was teaching in Luke chapter 4? I'm sure that it could have been. I'm sure that there was a similarity in the message. The one thing that we do know is this he was proclaiming the gospel. He was proclaiming the gospel. And so here he is. He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath, and behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. But when Jesus saw her, he called her to him. Can I tell you something? Which of us could that statement not be made about? We, at various times in our lives, have been bound, it would seem, by a spirit of infirmity. Now, I think this is meant very literally. This woman was literally bound with a spirit of infirmity. She was bent double and she could in no way straighten herself up. She was captive. She was in bondage and she couldn't get herself free. She had been in bondage not just for a little while, but for eighteen years. Could you imagine that? Some people don't have to imagine what it's like to be sick for 18 years. Some people spend their entire lives that way. But here's this woman. She's bent double one of the worst cases of physical ailments recorded in the scriptures. And she can't even straighten up for 18 years. And here she is coming to the synagogue, coming into the place where the word of God was present. She didn't let her infirmity keep her from being in fellowship and hearing God's word. She didn't let the fact that for 18 years she had probably been praying that God would heal her make her bitter simply because he hadn't done it yet. What makes this woman's case even more interesting and even more sad, really, is the fact that this was not a normal illness. This was an illness that was caused by a spirit of infirmity. There was a demonic presence that had afflicted this woman. But when Jesus saw her, he called her to him and he said, Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity. And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight and glorified God. When Jesus said, You are loosed from your infirmity, he did something very peculiar. He used a word that at no other point in time in the New Testament is ever used in the case of healing. He said, You are loosed from your infirmity. Now Jesus did a lot of healing, and there are many, many miracles that he performed that are recorded in the scriptures, but not one time did he ever say that someone was loosed from an infirmity or from a disease or from a sickness, except in this particular place. Now the word loose there is apoluyo, and it means to free fully or to set at liberty. He was saying that you are freed fully from your infirmity. You are set at liberty from your infirmity. The idea here is this there are diseases that are the result of demonic activity. But there are also diseases that are not the result of demonic activity. People have a tendency sometimes to find a demon under every rock and to blame every single problem that exists, every ailment that they have on a demon. And that's just not the case. We live in a world that is corrupted by sin, and as a result, there is disease present in this world. And we have to accept and understand the fact that sometimes we're sick because we live on this planet. But we also need to recognize that sometimes there is illness and disease, and it is because of demonic presence. And we need to be discerning about what we're dealing with when we're looking at these things. And it is always appropriate for us to pray that the Lord would bring healing and to set at liberty and to set free. But I wanted to draw that verse out just to make that distinction that here is a woman, unlike most of the other people whom we've read about when Jesus healed them, whose sickness was a direct result of satanic attack. And she's not alone. Now you might say, well, wait a minute, is this woman a believer? And if she is a believer, then how could her sickness be caused by a demon? Because if we're believers, then we're free from that, right? We're not going to be bound by Satan. Well, that's an interesting question. I will tell you that where the Spirit of God dwells, Satan cannot exist. He cannot live there. A believer, someone who is born again, cannot be demon-possessed. But the Bible doesn't say that this woman was demon-possessed. It says that she was afflicted, right? Paul was afflicted. Let's read about him. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. I'm going to start in verse 2. Paul writes, I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago, whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows. Such a one was caught up to the third heaven. And I know such a man, whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know. God knows how he was caught up into paradise, and heard inexpressible words, which is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such a one I will boast, yet of myself I will not boast, except in my infirmities. For though I might desire to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will speak the truth, but I refrain lest anyone should think of me above what he sees me to be or hears from me. And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations. No, let me back up. The man that Paul's talking about here is himself. He's speaking of himself in the third person, not wanting to draw too much attention or glory to himself. And he's saying, Look, there are things I can't even tell you about that I saw. He says, and I'm not going to boast in myself, but about this guy, man, I'll boast about this experience, but not in myself. And he's saying, I want you to understand something. Verse 7, and lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelation, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Paul understood that the thorn in the flesh that he struggled with was a messenger of Satan that had been sent to buffet him. That's not pleasant. This thorn in the flesh is often thought of as perhaps some disease or ailment that Paul had. And he prayed three times that the Lord would remove it, and yet God didn't remove it, but said to him, My grace is sufficient for you. Said to him, My strength is made perfect in your weakness. And so Paul said, You know what? If I've got to suffer with this in order that the strength of God may be revealed in me, then I take pleasure in my infirmities. I'm grateful for them. When we struggle and when we have things that we suffer through, if through our suffering God is glorified in our lives, then praise God for our suffering. How hard is that to do? That's difficult. But here was Paul, a man who none of us would question as to whether or not he was a believer, who was persecuted, who was buffeted by a demonic spirit, a messenger of Satan. So can someone who is a believer be under demonic attack? Absolutely, they can. And that was the case with this woman. Jesus himself refers to her as a daughter of Abraham in the coming passages. This was a woman who I believe knew the Lord. And yet she had been bound by Satan for 18 years. That is a terrible thing. And it moved the heart of Jesus. He called her to him and he said to her, Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity. And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight and glorified God. Now there are a couple of interesting things about her situation that I want to talk about very briefly. First of all, she was struggling with something that she had struggled with for a very long time. And yet she was in bondage. There are things in your life that you struggle with, and that maybe you have been struggling with for a really long time. And you think to yourself, why, as a Christian, am I still struggling with this thing, whatever it is? Maybe it's an illness, maybe it's a habit, maybe it's an attitude, maybe it's a circumstance in your life, maybe it's outright sin. And you don't understand why, as a believer, you're still struggling with this thing. You've tried again and again and again to turn away from this sin, whatever it might be in your life. And yet you seem unable to find any freedom. And it frustrates you. You go out and you do something and you feel guilty, you feel so guilty, you just know that what you did was wrong. And so you pray and you ask God to forgive you. And you know that as the Bible tells us, that if we confess our sins to God, that He's faithful and just to forgive us for our sins, so you know that because you confessed it, you know you're forgiven and you feel free and you're like, thank you, God, for forgiving me. And yet, a week later, there you are again in the same situation. And this behavior becomes so repetitive in your life that there comes a point in time where you're starting out on this road and you know you're about to go do this thing you ought not to do, and you know it's sin, and you know you're gonna feel bad afterward, and you know you're gonna repent afterward, and you say to yourself, God's gonna forgive me anyway. So I might as well go ahead and do it. Because no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to resist. Oscar Wilde once said that the only way to overcome temptation is to give into it. That's a false statement. It's a statement that leads to destruction, as his life would bear evidence. And here's the interesting thing. Verse 11. And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity 18 years and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. There are certain things in our lives that when we struggle with them, we realize that there is no way that we can raise ourselves up. We're bent over, we're crooked. You know the word perverted? You know what that really literally means? It means greatly twisted. What was this woman if not that? She was greatly twisted. And I find it interesting that when Jesus healed her, it says that she straightened up. So many of us want to straighten up before we come to Jesus, right? What we don't realize is that it's coming to Jesus that straightens us up. Jesus is the one who does it, not us. This woman could in no wise straighten herself up. Anybody have any experience with that? Wow. Wow, don't we? You know, as a pastor, when you teach every week, eventually you run out of stories of your own. And so you have to go find new stories, right? But one of the great things is if you continue teaching long enough, eventually enough new people come that even though you've told the story before, there are enough people who haven't heard it yet that it makes it worth telling it again. And I've kind of come to that place because you see, I I was in the same position as this woman. There was a time in my life as a believer when I struggled with a particular sin. Suffice it to say that the Greek word is pornea. Do all the grown-ups know what I'm talking about? Okay. There was this hidden little secret sin in my life that nobody, nobody knew about except for me. My wife didn't even know. I'd been a Christian for a couple of years now, and the Lord had really done work in a lot of the different areas of my life. But in this particular closet of my life, I'd kept him locked out of it. Now there were times that I would feel very, very guilty for my sin. And I would go to him and I would confess my sin before him, and I would ask him to forgive me, and I knew that he would. I believe fully that the Word of God is true, and that when we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. And yet I fell into that same pattern that I described a few moments ago, that it got to the point where I knew I was going to sin, I knew I was going to feel guilty, I knew I was going to repent, and so I would go out and sin deliberately, willfully, disobediently. Not like I stumbled and fell. No, I jumped. I presumed upon God's grace. And friend, that is a dangerous place to be. In time, my wife discovered what I was involved with and basically said, either that goes or I do. And so I said, Well, obviously, I love my wife more than this junk, right? Besides, I'm in control of this. I can let go of that anytime I want to. So, okay, I will quit for my wife. I can't tell you how fast I fell. It was pathetic, really. When I realized that I could not straighten myself up, that I could not walk away from this sin myself, then I got a little scared. And I said, wait a minute, I thought I was in control here, but this thing is in control. You know, Jesus said, You are a slave to he whom you serve. And the fact of the matter is, I was serving my own lasciviousness. I was serving Satan in that area of my life, and I hadn't even realized it. And what I didn't realize is that I was a slave to this habit, to this material. And so then I said, Whoa, whoa, this is not right. Now I've got to quit this stuff, not for my wife, but for myself. Because now I don't want this in my life anymore. And so I tried again and I failed again. In fact, I failed so miserably that I became discouraged in my failure. And I said to myself, It's no use even trying. I was at a point in my life where I was about to get out of the military in about three or four months, and we needed to save some money. So my wife was going to go home and live with family in California, and I was gonna stay with some friends. And I purposed in my heart that when she was gone, I was going to indulge myself in whatever way I desired, because I was tired of fighting. Well, we were about to drive cross-country from Virginia to California, and a friend of hers, whom she worked with at Chick-fil-A, invited us to a Bible study. And I figured, hey, I'm about to drive cross-country, kind of risky in some ways, and might as well get some brownie points with God. We'll go to the Bible study, no problem, right? Well, at the Bible study, they were studying in uh 2 Peter chapter 2, verse 20. For if after they have escaped the pollution of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome the latter, and is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them, according to the true proverb, a dog returns to his own vomit, and a sow having washed to her wallowing in the mire. That was their text that day. Now, keep in mind, I'm I'm sitting in the Bible study, they're going over the various scriptures, and I'm thinking to myself, oh yeah, that makes sense. Oh, hey, I understand that. And I was getting involved and I was answering some questions, and then they got to that verse. The dog has returned to his own vomit, and the pig that was washed to its wallowing in the mire, and that it would have been better for that person not to have known the way of salvation at all than to have known it and then turned from it. And for the first time in my life, I saw my sin the way God saw my sin.

For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened. That's chapter 11, verse 10 of the book we are currently studying here on Heed the Word, Luke. Luke's gospel account of the life of Jesus is an invaluable study that we know God will use in your life. We do thank you for joining us today. This has been another edition of Heed the Word with our pastor and teacher, Ken Davis. As you likely heard at the beginning of today's program, this message is available free of charge on our website. Simply log on to www.heedtheword.org. That's heedtheword.org. Once you're there, select the Listen Online page. There you'll find the Heed the Word Media Player. For your convenience, today's message is available in MP3 podcast and mobile formats. By far, the best way to stay current with all the latest teachings from Pastor Ken is to subscribe to the Heed the Word Podcast. So log on to HeedTheWord.org and continue studying with us today. If today's message has ministered to you and you live in the Burleson, Texas area, or will be passing through, we'd like to invite you to join us for worship. We meet each Sunday morning at 10.30 a.m. and Wednesday evenings at 7 p.m. You can log on to HeatheWord.org for driving directions and more information. So please stop by and visit us. Well, that's all the time we have for today. We encourage you to join us next time as Pastor Ken continues teaching through the Gospel of Luke on the next edition of Heathew.