Title:
Healing of Dropsy
Text:
Luke 14: 1-14
Date:
January 10, 2013
Place:
SGBC, New Jersey
Luke 14: 1:
And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief
Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that “they watched him.”
Christ
is the one by whose obedience many shall be made righteous—by the obedience of
one. But the Pharisee’s looked to their
own obedience for acceptance with God.
Therefore they watched Christ.
A legal
spirit watches others. Sinners should
indeed look to Christ and Christ only—we should believe on Christ.
Isaiah 45: 22: Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the
ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.
Believers
are to lay aside the sin that besets us and run the race set before us…
Hebrews 12:2: Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher
of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
But
these men were swollen in pride, considering themselves wiser than others,
expecting God to receive them by their obedience, rather than the obedience of
Christ. So they watched the Lord for the reasons the swollen legalist watches
others: to find fault, to accuse, to condemn, to correct, to self-justify, to
gain a following, for filthy lucre, for the praise of men. But chiefly: to
exalt self as more holy than others, to be viewed by men as high and lifted up,
as masters and lords over men.
When a
sinner is swollen with pride and a legal spirit, there is no room for love and
mercy, only judgment and wrath, bitterness and divisions, rather than peace and
rest. And brethren, that is the way of
the old man of flesh that remains in us—you and I are Pharisee’s by nature—that
old man will be in us till the day we die.
So how
are we cured and continually cured of this swelling disease of pride, of
legalism and self-righteousness?
Title:
Healing of Dropsy
Luke 14: 2: And, behold, there was a certain
man before him which had the dropsy.
This
man was probably invited by the Pharisee in hopes that Christ would heal him
and the Pharisee could accuse Christ of breaking the law of the sabbath. Perhaps, he simply came in of his own
accord. But this we know: our Savior is
God. He is in control of all of this. We
see it in the disease this man had.
Dropsy
was a blood disorder, incurable by man.
Among the symptoms, it caused extreme swelling and inflating of the
body, due to an overabundance of water. Every word in the scriptures is
significant—here is a man with dropsy.
Christ
overruled the whole affair, so that the man with the dropsy had a sickness
which exemplified the very condition of the Pharisee’s—our condition, except
Christ heal us, abase us, and continually do so, teaching us in our hearts by
his grace.
Like as
this man’s blood was corrupt—our first man, our old man is corrupt. We were born with a blood disorder incurable
by any sinner. It is a disorder called
sin: dead in trespasses and in sins. Even after we are born of the Spirit,
Romans 8 says, “If the Spirit of Christ be in you, the body is dead because of
sin.”
Like as
this man was swollen with water—sin makes sinners swollen with pride of self, swollen
with vain idea we are good, inflated with pride of our wisdom, swollen by our
works, all of which is vain water.
So here
sits a man swollen like the Pharisee’s were swollen and inflated with their
pride and self-exaltation.
Proposition: I want us to see an example of how Christ alone abases
his child and makes us to rest in Christ. And as we see the Lord deal with the
Pharisee’s, try to think of the Lord dealing with the Pharisee that is in you
and me. Christ continually does this in those he saves—it is how we are
preserved and persevere in faith.
I. FIRST, CHRIST USES THE LAW TO SHUT OUR
MOUTHS
Luke 14: 3: And Jesus answering spake unto
the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day? 4:
And they held their peace.
Christ
knows our heart—“And Jesus answering.” They asked him nothing but he answered
their hearts.
Christ
always gets to the heart of the matter.
Christ
shuts the mouth of those he saves by making us to see that we do not understand
the law, and/or, that we are misusing the word of God. He said, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath
day?” Is it lawful to show mercy on the Sabbath day?
It was
their understanding and their proud tradition that it was not lawful, unless
absolutely necessary.
Luke 13:14: And the ruler of the synagogue answered with
indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto
the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore
come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day.
Yet,
the Sabbath day was all about mercy and rest in Christ. The Sabbath was made by God for man, not man
for the Sabbath. The Lord completely
provided all provision on the 6th day, so that on the 7th
day: a man, his servants, even his beasts were completely provided for by God
so that they were given rest from all their works.
The
Sabbath day pictured the day of grace when God makes his child to behold that
Christ is our Sabbath rest, in whom the works of salvation are finished. After
the 6 days of creation, God rested the seventh day because there was no more
work to be done. Christ came to where
his elect are in mercy. He finished the
work of redeeming his people and sat down because there remains nothing else to
be done for his people.
When
God makes Christ our Sabbath, we behold and believe that all provision is made,
so that the believer has sweet rest, free from the bondage of attempting to
establish our own righteousness, free from the worries of ever being forsaken
of God. We can spend all our lives
worshipping God. God has provided all. And Christ is All.
But the
Pharisee’s used this day, the word of God, not to declare mercy and rest given
by God, but they turned it into a work for righteousness. Instead freeing men
they bound men; instead of rest they taught works; instead humility, they exalted
self over others. They had completely misused the word of God.
Application: Before conversion, sinners don’t understand the word of
God. Sinners use the law
unlawfully—rather than shutting our mouths in guilt—sinners try to obtain life
by the law. Sinners even use the promises and precepts of the gospel the same
way, to bind men and exalt self, to make themselves acceptable to God. And brethren, after conversion, believers can
fall into the same legal spirit. The
word of God is not to be used to exalt self but to exalt Christ before sin-sick
sinners in need of his mercy and grace, as we wait on Christ to work obedience
in his people.
For
instance: the doctrine of election is to be used to declare that Christ is the
Elect of God. Christ was chosen by God
to save all those God elected unto salvation and gave to him before the
foundation of the world. Election is a
doctrine of the mercy and grace of God toward sinners who would have never
chosen God. It is to humble us, not to
make us proud.
The
doctrine of particular redemption, of limited atonement—is to teach the
successful, finished work which Christ accomplished for those given him of the
Father. It is to declare the good news that God is not trying, but has
reconciled his people to himself, even when were enemies in our minds by wicked
works, that God has provided himself a Lamb, that God is just and the justifier
of all who believe, that is not by works of righteousness we have done but by
the work which Christ has done that his people are redeemed from the curse of
the law and made the righteousness of God.
We
ought never compromise the truth of God but faithfully declare the truth. But
when we get caught up in vain questions and striving about the word of God, we
make ourselves the focus rather than Christ.
Illustration: You have found your friends or coworkers rejecting the truth
of the gospel and discovered by experience that it does no good to strive with
men.
Especially
within the church we are taught to avoid such strivings—they will eat as doth a
canker and overthrow the faith of some. I am not talking about the freewill, works
religionist, but you and I who have been called by God’s sovereign grace.
The
tabernacle, the furniture, the priest and the offerings all give us varied
glimpses of Christ’s person and of what he suffered and accomplished on the
cross. Seeing God used so many pictures
to foreshadow Christ, I can assure you not one of us has even scratched the
surface of what all was involved on Calvary’s tree when Christ laid down his
life and redeemed his people.
We need
each other. Christ our Head tempers the
members of his body together—he gives one a better understanding of one aspect,
another a better understanding of another—that Christ might teach us of the
glorious mystery of his person and work and unite us to each other. But how vain and swollen with pride I become
if I think I have all understanding and so that I do not need the other
member.
Illustration: Two fathers may desire to teach their children and both
may be correct in each one’s teaching. But if they fight all they teach the
children is how to fight and both end up swollen with pride. How easily we can use the word of God for self
rather than to exalt Christ! So we need Christ to take his word and shut our
mouths, just as he did in the first hour? To prick us and deflate us of our
vain pride, to show us we know nothing as we ought, that’s the picture we see
here—v4: And they held their peace.
Illustration: The argument.
II. WHEN CHRIST HAS WOUNDED US THEN CHRIST
ALONE HEALS US AND SETS US FREE.
And he took him,…When we are inflated in pride—we have the sinful dropsy—how
gracious is Christ to yet take us to himself.
His grace changes not. He took us
when he became Surety for his elect in the everlasting covenant. Christ took us
when he took all the sin of his people upon himself to suffer and die in our
place on Calvary’s cross. In time,
Christ took us when he called us to himself through the gospel through the
power of the Holy Spirit. He continues to take us, turning us from our vain
pride back to him that we might be partakers of his holiness.
And healed him,..It is the blood of Christ—the gospel of redemption
accomplished—wherewith the Spirit of God purges our conscious from dead works
to serve the true and living God—and continually cleanseth us of our sin…
1 John 1: 6 If we
say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not
the truth: 7: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have
fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us
from all sin.
He
cleasneth us by continually making us to see we have nothing in ourselves,
wherein to glory…
Isaiah 53: 5: But HE was wounded for our transgressions,
HE was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon HIM;
and with HIS stripes we are healed.
And he let him go. Just as
Christ freed us from the bondage of the curse of the law by being made a curse
for us, only Christ can free us from
the bondage of our sin-nature. Only
Christ can free us from the bondage of legalism when we fall into that awful
pit again and again.
John 8: 36: If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye
shall be free indeed.
III. BY REVEALING OUR PERSONAL NEED CHRIST
SILENCES THE ACCUSER WITHIN US.
Luke 14: 5: And answered them, saying, Which
of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway
pull him out on the sabbath day? 6: And they could not answer him again to
these things.
Christ
used something personal to these men and says if even a beast of your own
needed mercy, you would not object. You do with your own as you will. If you see even a beast of your own in need
you do as you will to save him. The man that had the dropsy had no objections
to this miracle of mercy on the Sabbath day? He was shut up to mercy. Mercy and grace was his only hope.
Can
Christ not do with his own as he will? The elect of God are the ones that are
as brute beasts fallen into the pit. But
by God’s electing grace, we are Christ’s beasts—we belong to Christ. So in
mercy, he came to his own, in our pit and straightway pulled us out and
continues to do so. When the Lord brings us to see we are the one, personally,
in need of mercy that is when the proud accuser within us is silenced.
Pride
and lack of need makes the old Pharisee swell up, accusing, and striving and
raising his objections, but when Christ shines his light and shows us we are
the ones in dire need of his grace, that is when the Pharisee in us is silenced
and the accuser is silenced and we cease objecting to mercy in Christ.
IV. CHRIST TEACHES US HUMILITY.
Luke 14: 7: And he put forth a parable to
those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms;
saying unto them, 8: When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit
not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of
him; 9: And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man
place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room.
Brethren,
we have been bidden by God to this feast of the gospel in his house. But Christ is the Guest of honor! Christ must
and will have all preeminence. So Christ teaches us to make ourselves the
least.
Luke 14: 10: But when thou art bidden, go and
sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say
unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence
of them that sit at meat with thee. 11: For whosoever exalteth himself shall be
abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
To be
greatest in the kingdom of God is to be the least—Christ made himself of no
reputation. He became obedient even to the death of the cross, wherefore God
also hath hightly exalted him. If by his
grace, he brings us down, to cast all care upon him, in due time—Christ shall “say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then
shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.” He
shall do so in the day of conversion, lifting us out of the present trial and in
the day of glory.
V. CHRIST TEACHES US TO TRULY LOVE AND TO LOVE
MERCY RATHER THAN JUDGMENT AND RESPECT OF PERSONS.
Luke 14: 12: Then said he also to him that
bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not…thy rich
neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee.
Christ
is not calling the righteous, not calling those who have any ability to
recompense again to him. We don’t want
to be found preaching to men: rich in their wisdom and works in this world, nor
to that old man in us who thinks himself rich and in need of nothing, to them
who can recompense again to us. Such men will surely recompense to you bragging
about how you made your point and everyone’s head is so swelled with pride they
can’t stand to be around each other. Look at the next few verses, this is who
Christ is calling.
Luke 14: 13: But when thou makest a feast,
call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:
God
loves helpless, poor, ruined sinners: The poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. This is what we are. This is who we are sent to proclaim the
gospel unto.
Luke 14: 14: And thou shalt be blessed; for
they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection
of the just.
If our
religion is for filthy lucre—to be recompensed by men, to be exalted by men, to
gain a following—we have missed the gospel entirely. Christ shall be recompensed at the
resurrection of the just when he shall be glorified for justifying each one of
his sheep. And each believer he has
called and brought low, to trust him, shall be recompensed when we behold Christ
glorified in that day and all his children saved by him alone.
When we are swollen in pride:
1)
Christ shuts our mouth with his word—we know nothing as we ought
2)
Christ takes us, heals us and sets us free
3)
Christ shuts the mouth of the accuser within us showing us it is us who needed
and to whom he gave his mercy then we delight in mercy
4)
Christ teaches us humility—to be great in the kingdom of God is to be least
5)
Christ teaches us to truly love—we are poor with nothing to recompense to him—love
as Christ has loved us. Read 1
Corinthians 13: 1: Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and
have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2: And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries,
and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove
mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 3: And though I bestow all my
goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have
not charity, it profiteth me nothing. 4: Charity suffereth long, and is
kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5:
Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked,
thinketh no evil; 6: Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 7:
Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all
things. 8: Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they
shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there
be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 9: For we know in part, and we prophesy
in part. 10: But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part
shall be done away. 11: When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as
a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish
things. 12: For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now
I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 13: And now
abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is
charity.
Amen!