3195. Christ Frees From Infirmities

A Sermon Published On Thursday, April 28, 1910.

And, behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years, and was bent over, and could in no way raise herself up. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity. And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.” {Lu 13:11-13}

For other sermons on this text:

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1426, “Lifting Up of the Bent Down, The” 1417}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2891, “Sabbath Miracle, A” 2892}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3195, “Christ Frees From Infirmities” 3196}

   Exposition on Lu 13:10-23 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3537, “Definite Challenge for Definite Prayer, A” 3539 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Lu 13:11-35 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2857, “God’s Goodness Leading to Repentance” 2858 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Lu 13:1-22 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2547, “Return! Return!” 2548 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Lu 13:6-30 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2308, “Ten Wrong Kinds of Hearers” 2309 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Lu 4:33-36 6:6-11 13:10-17 14:1-6 Joh 5:1-9 9:1-14 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2568, “Sabbath Work” 2569 @@ "Exposition"}

   {See Spurgeon_SermonTexts "Lu 13:12"}

   {See Spurgeon_SermonTexts "Lu 13:13"}

1. Our text begins with a “behold,”—“behold, there was a woman,” and, as it was often remarked by the Puritan writers, whenever we see the word “behold” in Scripture, we are to regard it as a nota bene, as a mark in the margin calling our particular attention to what follows. Where Christ worked wonders we should have attentive eyes and ears. When Jesus is dispensing blessings, whether to ourselves or to others, we should never be in a state of indifference.

2. I shall use this miracle as a type, as it were, for doubtless the miracles of Christ were so intended. Our Lord was declared to be “a prophet mighty in deed and word.” He was to be a prophet like Moses, and he is the only one who was like Moses in these two respects. Many prophets followed Moses who were mighty in “word”—such as Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and Isaiah, but then they were not “mighty in deed.” Many, on the other hand, were “mighty in deed”—like Elijah and Elisha, but they were not “mighty in word.” Our Lord was mighty in both respects, and a prophet in both respects, “a prophet mighty in deed and word.” I take it, therefore, that his miraculous deeds are parts of his prophecies. They are the illustrations of his great life-sermon. The words which fell from his lips are as the text and the letter of the book, but the miracles are the pictures from which our childlike minds may often learn more than from the words themselves. So we shall use the picture before us now, and may the Holy Spirit give us instruction!

3. I. In the first place, THIS WOMAN, BOWED DOWN WITH A SPIRIT OF INFIRMITY, TYPIFIES TO US THE CONDITION OF VERY MANY.

4. There are very many whom we have seen, and some of whom are listening to these words,—(oh, that the same miracle might be performed in them as in her!) people who are depressed in spirit, who cannot look up to heaven, and rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ, people who have a hope, a good hope, too, but not a strong one, a hope which enables them to hold on, as the men did in Paul’s shipwreck, when on boards and broken pieces of the ship they came safely to land, but not a hope which gives them an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. They are saved, like this woman, who was a true daughter of Abraham, notwithstanding all her infirmities; who was truly of the promised seed, notwithstanding that she could not raise herself up; so these are genuine Christians, truly saved, and yet constantly subject to infirmity.

5. In some, it takes this form. They believe in Christ, and rest on the precious blood, yet they are afraid sometimes that they have sinned the unpardonable sin. Though their better and more reasonable selves will do battle against the delusion, still they hug it to their hearts. Since the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is a sin which is to death, and that when a man has committed it his spirit dies, and that repentance, the desire to be saved, and all good emotions cease to be when that dreadful spiritual death occurs, I say that they can so reason with themselves in their better moments, and see that their fear is a delusion, but immediately they fall back again into that dreadful slough. They do not see signs of grace, but they think they see signs of reprobation.

6. I have met many,—I may say that I meet such people every week,—who are afraid that they are hypocrites. When I encounter people troubled with this fear, I cannot help smiling at them; for, if they really were hypocrites, they would not be afraid of it, and their fear of presumption argues very strongly that they are not living in it.

7. Then this infirmity will take another form. If you drive them from the other errors, they say they are afraid that they are self-deluded. This is a very proper fear when it leads to self-examination, and comes to an end; but it becomes a very improper fear when it perpetually destroys our joy, prevents our saying, “Abba, Father,” with an unfaltering tongue, and keeps us at a distance from the precious Saviour, who would have us come very near to him, and be most familiar with his brotherly heart.

8. Supposing this difficulty should be dealt with, still there are tens of thousands who are very much in doubt concerning their election. “What if they should not be elect?” they say. This, of course, results from ignorance; for, if they read the Word, they would soon discover that all those who believe in Christ may be certain of their election, faith being the public mark of God’s privately-chosen people. If you make your calling sure, you have made your election sure. If you know yourself now to be a lover of God, resting on the great propitiation which he has presented for sin, then you may know that this is a work of grace in your soul. God never accomplished a work of grace where he had not made an election of grace. That fear, therefore, may be easily driven away, and yet thousands are in bondage to it.

9. Others are afflicted with the daily fear that they shall not persevere. They say, “After all our professions and prayers, we fear we shall yet be castaways.” The apostle Paul was not afflicted with this fear. He strove lest this fear should ever come near him. He lived with holy diligence so that he might always be in a state of blessed assurance, lest, after having preached to others, he himself should be a castaway; but he could say, “I know that my Redeemer lives,” even as Job could, and he could also say, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep what I have committed to him against that day.” Still, tens of thousands are subject perpetually to that form of bondage. In fact, they cannot reach the full assurance of faith. They have scarcely even the glimmer of assurance. They do trust; they trust as the tax collector did, “standing afar off”; but they have never yet come with John to lean their heads on the bosom of the Saviour. They are his disciples and his servants, but they can scarcely understand how he can call them his friends, and permit them to enjoy close communion with himself.

10. Now, beloved, this woman who was bowed down like this was very much like these people for the following reasons:—

11. Her infirmity much marred her beauty. The beauty and dignity of the human form is to walk erect, to look the sun in the face, and gaze into the heavens. This woman could do nothing of the kind. She was, no doubt, very conscious of this, and shrank from the public gaze. So unbelief, doubt, mistrust, suspicion,—these direful infirmities to which some are subject, spoil their spiritual beauty. They have the grace of humility. In this respect, they very often excel others; but the other graces, the noble graces of faith and holy confidence and courage, they cannot display these. The beauty of their character is marred.

12. Moreover, this woman had her enjoyment spoiled. It must have been a sad thing for her to go around the world bent over. She could not gaze on the beauties of nature as others could, and all her motions must have been, if not painful, yet certainly extremely inconvenient. Such is the case with the doubting, unbelieving soul under infirmity. He can do very little. Prayer is a painful groaning out of his soul. When he sings, it is usually in a deep bass. His harp hangs on the willows. He feels that he is in Babylon, and cannot sing the songs of Zion.

13. This woman, too, must have been very unfit for active service. She could perform very few of household duties, and that only with pain; and as for public acts of mercy, she could take very small part in them, being subject to this constant infirmity. And so it is with you who are “Much-Afraids” or “Fearings,” you who have troubled spirits; you cannot lead the vanguard in the day of battle. You can scarcely tell others about the Saviour’s preciousness. You cannot expect to be great reapers in the Master’s harvest. You have to stay by the baggage while others go out to fight. There is a special law which David made of old concerning those who stayed there, so you do get a blessing, but you miss the higher blessing of noble activity and Christian service.

14. So I might enlarge and show the likeness more clearly, but I think you can draw the picture for yourselves. You see the woman come into the synagogue, and your pity is at once aroused. But if you love the souls of men, and God has made you to be tender as a nursing-mother over others, you will pity even more many of the true seed of Abraham who are bent over with infirmity.

15. It appears, from our Saviour’s words, that this woman’s infirmity was coupled with Satanic influence. “Whom Satan has bound,” he said, “lo, these eighteen years.” We do not know how much Satan has to do with us. I do know that we often lay a great deal on his back which he does not deserve, and that we do a thousand evil things ourselves, and then ascribe them to him. Still, there are gracious souls who do walk in the paths of holiness, who do hate sin, who for all that sometimes cannot enjoy peace. We cannot blame them; we must believe that the Satanic spirit is at work, marring their joy, and spoiling their comfort. Dr. Watts says,—

   He worries whom he can’t devour

      With a malicious joy,—

and doubtless that is true. He knows he cannot destroy you because you are in Christ, and therefore, if the dog cannot bite, he will at least bark. Like Mercy, in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, you will often be alarmed by the evil ones, and all the more so because these evil ones know that, in a little while, you will be out of gun-shot of all the powers of hell, and beyond the hearing of all the bellowings of the fiends of the pit. Satan had much to do with this poor woman’s infirmity.

16. It appears, too, very clearly, from reading the passage, that the woman’s weakness was beyond all human skill. “She could in no way raise herself up,” which implies, I think, that she had tried all the ways within her reach and knowledge. “She could in no way.” Neither by those mechanical operations which have sometimes been found effective in such diseases, nor by those medicines which were much vaunted in that age, could she receive the slightest relief. She had done her best, and the physicians had done their worst, and yet, notwithstanding everything, she could by no means raise herself up: and, truly, there are many in this condition spiritually. Have you ever been, as a Christian pastor, utterly baffled in dealing with some cases of spiritual distress? Have you ever been driven to pray, feeling the blessedness of prayer all the more because you have proved the futility of your own efforts to comfort a sin-distressed, Satan-tossed spirit? That has often been my case. There has been the promise to handle the case, but the poor soul could not lay hold of it. There has been the cheering word which has been effective enough at other times, but it seemed to be a dead letter to this poor bondaged spirit. There has been the case in point, and the experience of someone else just like the case in hand, which we tried to tell with sympathy. We tried to work ourselves, as it were, into the position of the sufferer with whom we were dealing; but, still, for all that, we seemed to be speaking to the winds, and trying to comfort one who was so accustomed to sorrow that he felt that for him to cast off the sombre weeds {mourning clothes} would be a sin, and to cease to mourn would be presumption. Many a time has such a case come before us, and we have thought of this woman, and could only pray that the Master would put his hand on the person, for our hand and our voice were utterly powerless.

17. Poor soul, she had been a long time in this condition! Eighteen years! Eighteen years! Well, that is not very long if you are in health, and strength, and prosperity. How the years skip along as with wings to their heels! They are scarcely here before they are fled! But eighteen years of infirmity, pain, and constantly-increasing weakness! Eighteen years she dragged her chain until the iron entered into her soul. Eighteen years! Two long apprenticeships to sorrow until she had become the acquaintance of grief. Yes, and some such people, though prisoners of hope, are kept in bondage as long as that. Their disease is like an intermittent fever, which comes on sometimes, and then is relieved. They have times when they are at their worst,—the ebb-tide; and then they have their floods again. Now and then they have a glimpse of summer, and immediately the cold chilly winter comes on them quickly. Sometimes they half think they have escaped, and leap like the emancipated slave when his fetters are broken, but they have to go back very soon again to the shackles and the manacles, having no permanent relief, being still prisoners year after year. I know I am describing a case which is known to some of you, perhaps I am describing you yourself.

18. Yet for all this, this woman was a daughter of Abraham. The Lord Jesus knew her pedigree, and assured the ruler of the synagogue of it. She was one of the true seed of Israel notwithstanding all her failings. “Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, to be healed even on the Sabbath day?” demanded the Master. Yes, and you, poor anxious spirit, though your faith is only as a grain of mustard seed, yet, if you have a simple faith in Christ, you are safe. You, troubled and tossed one, though your bark seems ready to be swallowed up by the waves, if you have taken Jesus into the vessel, you shall come safely to the land. Poor heart, you may be brought very low, but you shall never be brought low enough to perish, for underneath you are the everlasting arms. Like Jonah, you may go to the bottoms of the mountains, and think that the earth with her bars is around you for ever, but you shall yet he brought up, and you shall sing Jonah’s song, “Salvation is of the Lord.” God does not cast off his people because of their dark moods and feelings. He does not love them because of their high enjoyments; neither will he reject them because of their deep depressions. Christian is dear; Father-Honest is dear; Valiant-for-Truth, too, is dear to the King of the pilgrims: but Ready-to-Halt, on his crutches, is equally dear, and Mr. Fearing and Miss Much-Afraid, though they may lie in Doubting Castle until they are almost starved, shall surely be brought out, for they are true pilgrims, and shall at length safely reach the Celestial City.

19. II. But we must pass on to our second point, namely, that THE EXAMPLE OF THIS WOMAN IS INSTRUCTIVE TO ALL IN HER CONDITION.

20. Observe that she did not tamely yield to her infirmity without effort. The expression, “She could by no means lift up herself,”—an old Saxon form of saying, “She could in no way raise herself up,”—shows, as I have said before, that she had tried her best. I believe some of you might stand upright if you liked. I am quite certain that, in some cases, people get into the way of surrendering to depression, until at last they become powerless against it. Some stimulant is given them in the form of a sick husband, or a dying child, and they grow quite cheerful. Under some real trouble, they become patient; but when this real trouble is taken away, they begin manufacturing troubles of their own. They are never happy, I might almost say, except when they are miserable, and never cheerful except when they have something to cast them down. If they have a real trouble, they get strength to bear it; but, at other times, they are morbidly troubled in spirit. Now, let us imitate this woman, and shake off our doubts and our unbelief as much as possible. Let us strike up the hymn,—

   Begone, unbelief, my Saviour is near,

   And for my relief will surely appear;

   By prayer let me wrestle, and he will perform,

   With Christ in the vessel, I smile at the storm.

Let us say, with David, “Why are you cast down, oh my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him.” Do not so soon yield to the shafts of unbelief. Hold up the shield of faith, and say to your soul, “No, as the Lord lives, who is the rock of my salvation, my castle and my high tower, my weapon of defence and my glory, I will not yield to unbelief. Though he kills me, yet I will trust in him; and though all things go against me, yet I will sustain myself on the mighty God of Jacob, and I will not fear.” The woman, then, had done her best.

21. Note, next, that, although bent over, and therefore having an excellent excuse for staying at home, yet she was found at the synagogue. I believe she was always found there, from the fact that the length of time during which she had been sick was well known,—not merely known to Christ because of his Godhead, but known as a matter of common talk and common knowledge in the synagogue. Probably, during the entire eighteen years she had been an attendant there. “Ah!” she thought, “if I miss the blessing of health, yet I will not be absent from the place where God’s people meet together for worship. I have had sweet enjoyments in the singing of the Psalm, and in listening to the Word, and I will not be away when such grace is being dispensed.”

22. Oh mourners, never let Satan prevail on you to “forsake the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is.” If you cannot get comfort, still go to the sanctuary. It is the most likely place for you to get it. One of the sweet traits of character in mourners is that they love to go to the assemblies of God’s people. I knew one aged woman who had year after year been in this mournful state, and after trying long to comfort her, but in vain, I said to her, “Well, what do you go to the house of prayer for? Why do not you stay at home?” “Why, that is my only comfort!” she said. “I thought you told me you were a hypocrite,” I answered, “and that you had no right to the promises or any of the good things?” “Ah! but I could not stay away from the place where ‘my best friends, my kindred, dwell,’” she replied. “And do you read your Bible?” I asked her. “I suppose you have burned that.” “Burned my Bible!” she said in horror. “I would sooner be burned myself!” “But do you read it? You say there is nothing there for you; if you were to lay hold on the promises, it would be presumption; you are afraid to grasp any one of the good things of the covenant!” “Ah! but I could not do without reading my Bible; that is my daily bread; it is my constant food,” she responded. “But do you pray?” “Pray! Oh! yes; I shall die praying.” “But you told me that you had no faith at all, that you were not one of God’s people, that you were a deceiver, and I do not know what else besides.” “Yes, I am afraid sometimes that I am; I am afraid now that I am; but as long as I live I will pray.” All the marks of the child of God were in her private character, and could be seen in her walk and conversation, and yet she always was bent over, and could by no means raise herself up.

23. I remember a brother minister who was the means, in God’s hands, of comforting a woman when she lay dying in this plight. He said to her, “Well, Sarah, you tell me you do not love Christ at all; you are sure you do not?” “Yes, sir; I am sure I do not.” He went up to the window, and wrote on a piece of paper, “I do not love the Lord Jesus Christ.” “Now, Sarah,” he said, “just sign your name at the bottom of that.” “What is it, sir? I do not know what it is.” When she read it, she said, “No, I would rather be torn in pieces than I would put my name to such a thing as that!” “Well,” he said, “but if it is true, you may as well write it as say it,” and this was the means of convincing and persuading her that there really was love for Christ in her soul after all. But, in many cases, you cannot comfort these poor souls at all. They will still say that they are not the Lord’s people, yet they cling to the means of grace, and, eventually, we trust they will get deliverance.

24. Observe another thing, that, though we are not told it in so many words in the narrative, we may be sure it is true, when the Lord Jesus called her, she came at once. She was called, and there was no hesitation in her answer. Such speed as she could make in her poor, pitiable plight, she made. She did not say, as another said, “Lord, if you will, you can”; she did not doubt his will. Nor did she imitate another, and say, “If you can do anything.” She did not doubt his power. She said nothing, but we know what she felt. There is not a trace of unbelief; there is every sign of obedience here. Now, soul, when Christ calls you by his grace, hurry to run to him. When, under the preaching of the Lord, you feel as though the iceberg were beginning to melt, do not get away from the sunlight, and go back to the old winter gloom. “Make hay while the sun shines,” says the old proverb; take care that you do the same. When God gives you a little light, prize it. Thank him for it, and ask for more. If you have received starlight, ask for moonlight. When you have received moonlight, do not sit down and weep because it is only moonlight, but ask him for more, and he will give you sunlight, and when you have received that, be grateful, and he will give you even more. He will make your day to be as the light of seven days, and the days of your mourning shall be ended. Think much of little mercies since you deserve none. Do not throw away these pearls because they are not the largest that were ever found, but keep them, thank God for them, and then soon he will send you the best treasures from the jewel chest of his grace.

25. As soon as this woman was healed, she was in another respect an example for us, namely, that she glorified God. Her face did it. With what lustre was it lit up! Her whole gait did it. How erect she stood! And then I am sure her tongue did it. The woman might well be pardoned for speaking this once in the midst of the assembly. Restored as she was suddenly, she could not help telling the joy she felt within. The bells of her heart were ringing merry peals; she must give glory to God who had performed the cure. Some of you profess to have been cured, but have you given glory to God? Why, some of you profess to be Christians, and yet you have never come forward to affirm it! You have been afraid to unite yourselves with the Christian church. Your Master tells you to confess him. The mode of confession which he prescribes is that you be baptized in his name, and yet, though he has saved you, you stand back, and are disobedient. Take care! “That servant, who knew his lord’s will, and did not prepare himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.”

26. I was, this week, by the bedside of a dying man, an heir of heaven, washed in the precious blood of Jesus, I believe, and rejoicing in that fact too, but yet he could not help saying, “I ought, years ago, to have taken my stand with God’s people. You have often given me many hard blows in the Tabernacle, but never too hard. Tell the people, when you speak to them again, when they know anything is a duty, never to postpone it, for that word is true, ‘The servant who knew his lord’s will, and did not do it, shall be beaten with many stripes.’ I am not condemned, I am not cast away, for I am in Christ, I am resting on his precious blood, and I am saved, but, though saved, I am being chastened.” And he was severely chastened with many doubts and fears, and troubles of soul. If you are God’s child, any duty neglected will bring some chastisement on your soul. If you are not God’s child, you may do very much as you like, and your punishment will, perhaps, not happen to you until the next world. But if you are one of the King’s favourites, you must walk very tenderly, and very attentively, or else, as surely as you are dear to the heart of God; you shall feel the rod on you to chasten you, and to bring you back into the path of obedience.

27. This woman glorified God. Brothers and sisters, can we not do something more to glorify God than we have yet done? If we have done what seemed to be our duty on certain occasions, may there not be even more for us to do? There is very much land still to be possessed for King Jesus. This wicked city is given over to sin, and we are doing so little! Ah! some of you do what you can, but we who do what we can might do more if we had more strength with which to do it, and more strength is to be had for the asking. Oh, that we could enlarge our desires for the glory of King Jesus! Oh, to set him on a glorious, high throne, and to crown him with many crowns, to prostrate ourselves at his feet, and to bring others, too, to lie prostrate at his feet, that he might be King in Jeshurun, King of kings and Lord of lords, reigning in our souls for ever and ever! Imitate this woman. If you have been bent down, and yet restored to comfort, see that, like her, you immediately start glorifying God.

28. III. And this brings us to the last point,—THE WOMAN’S CURE IS VERY INSTRUCTIVE TO PEOPLE IN THE SAME CONDITION.

29. She went to the synagogue, but she did not get her cure only by going there. Means and ordinances are nothing in themselves. They are to be used, but they are only dry skin bottles, without water, unless there is something more than these. This woman met Christ in the synagogue, and then came the healing. May we, too, meet Jesus! That great encounter is possible here, or anywhere, for—

   Where’er we seek him, he is found,

   And every place is hallowed ground.

The great matter is to meet him; and if we meet him, we find all we need.

30. Now, observe the woman’s cure. In the first place, it was a complete cure. No part of the infirmity remained. She was not left a little crooked, but still much restored. No “she was made straight.” When Jesus heals, he does not heal by halves. His works of grace may have it said of each one of them, “It is finished.” Salvation is a finished work throughout.

31. In the next place, the woman’s cure was a perpetual and permanent one. She did not return, eventually, by a terrible relapse, to her former posture. Once made to walk upright, she remained so. When Jesus sheds abroad life, love, and joy in the soul, it is ours for a perpetual inheritance, and we may hold it until we die, nor lose it even then.

32. Notice, too, that the woman was healed immediately. That is a point which Luke takes care to mention. The cure did not take days, or weeks, or months, or years, as physicians’ cures do, but she was cured immediately. Here is encouragement for you who have been depressed for years. There is still a possibility that you may be perfectly and speedily restored. Yet may the dust be taken from your eyes; yet may your face be anointed with fresh oil; yet may you glow and glisten in the light of Jesus’ countenance, while you reflect the light that shines on you from him. It may happen tonight; at this moment! Gates may be taken from off their hinges, for the mighty Samson, whom we serve, can tear up Gaza’s gates, posts and bars and all, if he wishes, to set his captives free. If you are bound by all the fetters that self can forge, yet at one emancipating word from Christ, you shall be entirely free. Doubting Castle may be very strong, but he who comes to fight with Giant Despair is even stronger. He who has kept you beneath his power is mighty, but the All-Mighty is he who conquered at Bozrah, and who will conquer everywhere else when he comes out for the deliverance of his people. Take down your harps from the willows. Be encouraged. Jesus Christ frees the prisoners. He is the Lord, the Liberator. He comes to set the captives free, and to glorify himself in them.

33. I remind you of the thought with which we begun this third point, namely, that the woman’s restoration was accomplished by Jesus Christ, by his laying his hands on her. Many of his cures were accomplished in this way, by bringing his own body into contact with human infirmity. “He laid his hands on her.” Oh soul, Christ came in human flesh, and that contact with humanity is the source of all salvation! If you believe in Christ, he comes a second time into contact with you. Oh, that your soul might get a touch from him tonight! He is a man like yourself, though he is also “very God of very God.”

34. In order to save us, he suffered unutterable pangs. The whole weight of our sin was laid on him, until he was bruised as beneath the wheels of vengeance. Beneath the upper and the nether millstones of divine vengeance, the Saviour was ground like fine flour. God knows, and only God knows, what agonies he bore. All this was substitutionary for sinners. Do not let your sins, then, depress you. If you had no sin, you would not need a Saviour. Come, with your sin, and trust in him. Do not let your weakness distress you. If you had no weakness, you would not need a mighty Saviour. Come, and take hold on his strength, for all his strength is meant for the weak, the hopeless, and the helpless. Sitting on the dunghill of your sin, still trust in Jesus and you shall be lifted up to dwell among the princes of the blood-royal. There must be power to save in God when he becomes man to bleed and die. Nothing can be impossible for him who built the world, and who bears its pillars on his shoulders, and yet yields his hands to the nails and his heart to the spear. Nothing can be impossible for Emmanuel, God with us, when he smarts, and groans, and submits to the bloody sweat, and then empties out his heart’s blood so that he might redeem men from their iniquities.

   Oh come all ye in whom are fixed

   The deadly stains of sin!

Draw near to the Crucified. Let your souls contemplate Christ. Let your faith look to him. Let your love embrace him. Cast away all other confidences as mere vanities that will delude you. Away with them! Trust in nothing but the Lord Jesus Christ, his person, his work, his life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, his glorious pleading before the throne for sinners such as we are. Ah! when you come to die, you who are strong and you who are depressed will be very much alike in this matter, that you will have to come back where Wesley was when he said,—

   Jesus, lover of my soul,

   Let me to thy bosom fly!

   * * *

   Other refuge have I none;

   Hangs my helpless soul on thee.

Look to the wounds of Christ; they will heal your wounds. Look to the death of Christ, it will be the death of your doubts. Look to the life of Christ; it shall be the life of your hopes. Look to the glory of Christ; it shall be the glory of your souls here, and the glory of your souls for ever and ever.

35. May God add his blessing, and bring many of his bondaged ones out of prison! This shall be to his eternal praise. Amen.

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Lu 13:1-13}

1. There were present at that time some who told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.

This was a matter of common town talk, so of course they brought the news to Jesus. Notice how wisely he used this shameful incident. You and I too often hear the news of what is happening, but we learn nothing from it; our Saviour’s gracious mind turned everything to good account; he was like the bee that gathers honey from every flower.

2. And Jesus answering said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were sinners more than all the Galileans, because they suffered such things?

“Do you imagine that there was some extraordinary guilt which brought this judgment on them, and that those who were spared may be supposed to have been more innocent than they were?”

3. I tell you, no: but, unless you repent you shall all likewise perish.

There would happen to them also, because of their sin, a sudden and overwhelming calamity. When we read of the most dreadful things happening to men, we may conclude that something similar will happen to us if we are impenitent; if not in this world, yet in the to come.

4, 5. Or those eighteen, on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were sinners more than all men who lived in Jerusalem? I tell you, no; but, unless you repent, you shall all likewise perish.” {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 408, “Accidents, Not Punishments” 399} —the sermon carried through Africa by Dr. Livingstone, and marked by him, “Very good.”—D. L.

This was a foreshadowing of the overthrow of Jerusalem, and the razing of its walls and towers to the ground, which happened not long after; and even that overthrow of Jerusalem was only a rehearsal of the tremendous doom that shall happen to all who remain impenitent.

6. He also spoke this parable; “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and looking for fruit on it, and found none.

He had a right to look for fruit on the tree, for it was planted where fruit-bearing trees were growing, and where it shared in the general culture that was bestowed on all the trees in the vineyard.

7. Then he said to the dresser of the vineyard, ‘Behold, these three years I come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why does it encumber the ground?’

This was sound reasoning. “It yields nothing, though it draws the goodness out of the ground, and so injures those trees that are producing fruit; ‘cut it down; why does it encumber the ground?’”

8-9. And he answering said to him, ‘Lord, leave it alone this year also, until I shall dig around it, and fertilize it: and if it produces fruit, good: and if not, then after that you shall cut it down.’” {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 650, “Judgment Threatening but Mercy Sparing” 641} {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1451a, “This Year Also” 1442}

He asks for a respite, but only a limited one. “After that, you shall cut it down.” If, after the trial of another year, it shall still be fruitless, then even the pleader will not ask for any further respite.

10, 11. And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And, behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years, and was bent over, and could in no way raise herself up.

If she was there when Christ was speaking about the fruitless fig tree, I feel pretty certain that she said, “That must mean me; I am the fruitless fig tree”; but the Master did not mean her, he had other words and more cheering news for her.

12. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.”

Oh, what glad news this must have been to her! How it must have thrilled her whole body! As she learned that she was to be restored to an upright position, what delight must have filled her heart!

13. And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.

What expressions of fervent gratitude, what notes of glad exaltation came from that woman’s joyful lips! Surely, even cherubim and seraphim could not more heartily and earnestly praise God than she did when “she was made straight and glorified God.”