Okay, let's go back to the Gospel
of Mark. Chapter 5. This story is recorded
three times in Scripture. It's very good, very vital. Two stories that we read, they're
intertwined, you notice. They both go together. It doesn't
happen very often in Scripture, but I think you'll see why. This
man with the sick and dying daughter, and the woman with the issue
of blood. And you know I'm certain that
both those persons are present here this morning. The Lord was on His way back
from healing someone, a demon possessed fellow. And it's a
blessing to think that every move he made, every step he took,
everywhere he went, was for the purpose of saving his people.
But the stories are intertwined. The story of a man with a dying
daughter and a woman with an issue of blood. Now, can the
Lord do both at the same time? Can the Lord take care of both
of these at the same time? Can he take care of my issue
and save my? Son or daughter as well? Yes,
he can and he does. He sure does. Well, it says in
verse 21, when Jesus passed over again by ship on the other side,
much people gathered unto him. Many people. Everywhere the Lord
went, there was a throng of people. Verse 24 says they thronged him. They crowded him. It was just
a huge crowd. of people, everywhere that Christ
went. And this is always the case. And it's so today. Most of the
time, huge crowds of people are merely the curious onlookers,
miracle seekers. Our Lord He said that several
times. To the crowd of people that were
looking to Jesus the healer, he turned to them and said, you
follow me because you've got your bellies filled or because
you want to see some fantastic things happen. And that describes
religion today. And our Lord did not commit himself
to those large crowds of people. No, no. There were not mass salvations
while he walked this planet. But here and there, one or two
here and there, In the midst of this throng, though, in the
midst of this huge crowd of persons, of people, there were two really
needy people. Two really needy people, and
both of them got their needs met. Verse 22 tells us about
a fellow named Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, Jairus by name. It says, When he saw the Lord
Jesus walking, he says, when he saw him, he fell at his feet. Now here comes this man, needy. He has a great and desperate
need. When he saw the Lord Jesus, when he saw him coming, this
man came to him and he fell down at his feet. And this is so Frequent in Scripture,
that whenever someone really sees who Christ is, when someone
really sees the Lord Jesus Christ, the sovereign King of glory,
not just a man, not just a healer, but who He is, the King of glory,
that's what Psalm 24 says. Who is this? It's the King of
glory. And this is the way you approach
Jesus Christ of Scripture. This is how everyone approached
Him then who had their real needs met. And how everyone must approach
Him now. The Lord Jesus. That's His title. That's His office. That's who
He is. The King of kings and Lord of lords. You don't come
asking favors before you worship Him. This is vital. That leper came down from the
mountain and it says, Worshipped Him before he asked Him anything. This is that fear of the Lord.
Reverence and respect and worship of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. Before you get anything from the Lord, you must worship
Him as the Lord. He's deserving of it. Well, he
came, he saw Christ. If you see him, it says when
he saw him, When he saw Him, if you see the true Christ of
Scripture, I mean the true Jesus Christ of Scripture as He is,
holy, sovereign Lord, can do with you as He pleases. He doesn't
have to do anything. When you see Him as that sovereign
Lord and His mercy and grace is His prerogative, He doesn't
have to give it to you. You don't deserve it. When you
see that and come to Him, you see Him as your only hope. And
no one else can help you. You come to Him. You see Him
as He is. You will fall at His feet as
a beggar like this man. You will. And if you do that,
everyone who has come to Him like that, every single person
who has fallen at His feet, every needy sinner has come away with
their needs met. Yes, sir, every one of them.
The Lord never turned away one. He's rich in mercy unto all them
that call on Him, in grace and in truth. Well, He came, verse 23. Now,
I'm not going to try to imitate the way He said this,
but can you imagine how He cried unto the Lord? It says, He besought
Him greatly, verse 23. That means He was crying. He was begging. He was pleading. Wasn't he? His daughter is dying.
Can you imagine? You've done it. Some of you have
done it with sick or dying relatives. Some of you have done it. Now, this is talking about spiritual,
though. Spiritually speaking, this whole story is a story of
salvation. And all of our children, unless
the Lord does something for them, are going to die in their sin. Right? If the Lord allows them
to go on and grow up without any interest in Christ and the
gospel, they're going to die in their sin, like us, had He
not had mercy upon us. And everyone in here who has
an unbelieving child, be it daughter or son, has cried out greatly
unto the Lord, Lord, if you don't touch and lay hold on my son
or my daughter, They're going to die. Isn't that right? That's the pressing need, is
it not? We're all going to die of something physically. But
oh, God forbid, may God have mercy upon us that we die not
in sin and unbelief. That's the pressing need of all
of us. That's why this story happened. He said, He said in verse 23,
Besought him greatly. My little daughter lies at the
point of death. I pray thee, Lord, help her.
Would you come and lay hands on her that she may be healed
and she'll live? She's not going to live. He's
not going to live unless you lay hold on him. I've done it. I can't do anything. I've tried. Would you please do something
for him or her? Unless you do, she's a goner.
He's a goner. Anybody in here like Jairus?
Well, the Lord went with him. Verse 24, Jesus went with him.
And much people followed him and thronged him. Now Jairus
thought, oh, this is wonderful. Jairus thought the Lord is going
to do something. At that point, it looked like
the Lord was going to move to his house and do something for
his dying daughter. And he was hopeful. He had some
hope there. He thought, oh, this is wonderful. The Lord's going to spare my
daughter. But he got sidetracked. It seemed that he got sidetracked. And you know, I've seen and talked
to some of you about your children. There have been times early on
it looked like the Lord was doing something for them, and you had
great hope for them, and it seemed to be an interest there. Not
just young people, husbands, wives, parents, anybody that
showed some interest, and you were hopeful, maybe the Lord's
done something, doing something for them. And then time goes
by and it looks like maybe he didn't. Is that right? You need gyruses
in you. Looks like he got sidetracked.
And Jairus probably was distraught. Jairus was probably just by the,
you know, the Lord got sidetracked and they pulled him to the side
and he got lost in the crowd and Jairus became frantic and
distraught. Oh no, he's not coming, he's
not going to do anything. My daughter's going to, she's
going to die. He's not going to do anything.
Now, Jairus, you don't know that. You don't know. But you see,
the Lord has more pressing issues to attend to. Are you with me? Who's ever with me, cough back.
The Lord has a more pressing issue at hand. Someone else's
case is more pressing and vital It's a pressing issue. Now, let
me tell you a couple of things about this. Our Lord, it seemed
like he was going with Jairus, but he didn't. Now, the Lord
doesn't have to. Number one, he doesn't have to
have mercy on us or our children. Does he? No. We have no rights,
we have no priorities with God. Because we call it doesn't mean
he has to. Huh? I know for a fact that my parents
have... You know, I have a brother who's in his fifties now. Do
you think my parents have been asking the Lord to do something
for him? Do you think they'd quit asking? But does the Lord have to? No. It was mercy and grace. He had
mercy on me. And my sister. My other brother. Mercy. Just pure mercy. None
of us deserved it, right? So we have no rights or priorities
with God. And the Lord seemed to bypass
Jairus and his daughter. He's got someone else to attend
to. He's got to do something for somebody else. Now, could
we rejoice in that? Could we rejoice if the Lord
had mercy on somebody else's daughter or son as opposed to
ours? Could we? There were several. Several in this congregation
whom the Lord dealt with long before he dealt with my daughter.
Honestly, I rejoiced as much as if it had been her. And you
know what? It was her! It's up to him, isn't it? It's
all according to his purpose, his will. Could we be happy if
the Lord dealt in mercy and grace to someone else besides mine,
me, and mine? He went to deal with this poor
woman's issue. This woman had been around a
long time. She'd suffered a lot longer. It was a more pressing
issue, was it not? She was closer to the grave. She really was. This child's
going to live a lot longer. Well, look at it. Verse 25. Now
it says, a certain woman, a certain woman. Scripture says this so much. A certain man, a certain woman. Now, there are no accidents with
the Lord, and no chance meetings here. Nowhere in this book is
there a chance meeting. Everything has been purposed
by God Almighty. That's because He is God. The Lord is God, and He has purposed
the whole thing. No chance meetings here. A certain woman, Scripture says,
for whom he did foreknow, he did predestinate. Whom he predestinated,
he called. Whom he called, he justified.
Whom he justified, he glorified. Whoever God loves, he will in
time meet them in salvation and deal with their issue. A certain
woman with an issue of blood for twelve years. She had a, now physically speaking,
what her problem was, was she had a severe monthly cycles is what
it was. And she was bleeding for 12 years
uncontrollably. And she, it left her anemic,
weak, and sickly. Literally her life's blood was
flowing out of her. Literally. She slowly died. Because she
has this issue. It's in her blood. You see, it's
on the inside. It's a blood disorder. And she's
dying from it. And unless the Lord does something,
she's going to die because of that. Now, that's all of us. That's all of us. The issue is
within us. The issue is not without us.
And the issue is not physical. The issue is a blood disorder,
all right. It's sin that's in us that courses
through our veins and our person. We can't stop the flow of it,
sin. We can't stop thinking it. We
can't stop doing it. We can't stop being tempted by
it. We can't stop it. Unless the
Lord does something for us, we're going to die because of it and
in it. It's going to kill us, and then
God's going to judge us for it. The issue with all of us in here
is not our marriage, is not our job, is not the bad circumstances. Those are not the issues. The
issues are within us. The issue is within us. Here it is. It's unbelief. This is the sin of all, the great
sin of all. Unbelief. It's a God not thanked.
It's a life lived without giving God a thought. It's a life lived without God
being sought after, seeking Him, without God being worshipped.
It says, The God in whose hands thy breath is, thou hast not
glorified. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God, giving Him the glory. It's a God not glorified,
it's an unsought God. And people have issues, they
have a lot of issues, and basically all the problem comes from that
issue. You know that? All our troubles
stem from that. He said, seek ye first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be
added to you. It doesn't mean you won't be without trouble,
but the blessings of God are upon his people. God blesses
those who bless him. Our Lord said this several times,
there is no peace for the wicked, none. God's not going to allow
them to have peace, people that don't acknowledge him. They'll
go a lifetime without giving him a thought. They're not going
to have peace in this world. They're not going to have a peaceful
marriage, not going to have peace in the home and in the job and
in the world. They're going to be full of turmoil
and anxiety and trouble and this and that and the other. God's
not going to allow them to have peace. A person they can think
of, like this woman, trying to get some, and they can't find
it. If the Lord doesn't do something,
of course, we'll not find it. Verse 26 now, it says, This woman
had an issue of blood twelve years, a long time, and had suffered
many things of many physicians, many so-called physicians. Now,
these fellows back then, physicians, boy. Well, they were just quacks,
is what they were. They were just guessing, weren't
they? You used the term position very
loosely, didn't you, back then? They tried anything. Tried anything. She went to many positions, and
it says she suffered many things. She suffered at their hands.
They didn't help her one bit. She suffered from them. Many positions. Jeremiah 8 says, the Lord says,
the people, the daughter of Jerusalem, they have healed the daughter
of my people slightly. They haven't really cried, peace,
peace, when there is no peace. What it is, like religion today,
is a drug, it's an opiate, that no one's dealing with the issue. And they're drugging people with
feelings, and this and that and the other, where everybody's
feeling real good and have glossed over, the morphine of religion has
killed the pain and all that. And they got to keep coming back
for a shot, a fix of this happiness and this peace that they had
promised. Suffered many things. She spent
a lifetime, spent herself searching for a cure and went to everybody
she could find and nobody could help her. But it says she was
not better, she was worse. She was worse. I'll never forget
when I first heard Brother Jack Shanks preach from this. It sounds clever, but it's so
true. It's so true. He said this woman,
like so many people, go looking for peace in religion, and they'll
go to somebody like Mr. easy-believism. Oh, preach your
easy-believism. If you just believe, just believe,
just believe, all your troubles will be over. Well, I believe
the truth. I believe, I mean, I believe
that you believe Jesus died and buried. Yeah, I believe that.
Then you're saved. Oh, okay. Good. Not saved. This is somebody who God has
one of his own, they won't find any peace there. Now, this is
one of the Lord's own here. And she went looking wherever
she could, and a fellow like that came to her. You just believe
the facts? You believe that? Yeah. Then
you say, oh, okay. That doesn't give any peace.
She'd go to a fellow named Mr. B.A. Churchmember. Or Dr. Joyner Church. If you'll
just join our church, it'll be all right. Get you active. Get
you active. Join the women's breakfast club.
Join this, join that. Singles club, doubles club, triples
club. Join all these clubs and get
active and all. You'll feel wonderful. If it's
one of God's own, that's not enough. It's not enough. It won't
bring inner peace. They've got this sin bugging
her. This issue in the blood. All that outward activity can't
do anything about the inward issue. They go to a fellow named U.B.
Baptize. Oh, Dr. U.B. Baptize, if you'll
just do that. And he's from the, what's their
names? They call themselves Church of
Christ and all that. That's it. That's the whole key.
Baptism over intergenerational. If we just get you in that pool,
everything will be all right. She got in the pool. It lasted
a little while. Everybody told her, but it didn't
last very long. Got this issue. Go to a fellow named, if you
quit that, oh doctor, if you quit that, if you just quit that,
there must be some sin in your life. So if you just quit that,
stop this, stop that. So she did. And it lasted a little
while. But it didn't give her a cure.
And on and on you could go with that, couldn't you? All in all,
many, no better, just worse. A lot of people get religion
and they become self-righteous. They make a profession. They
do everything the preacher told them to do. They tell them they're
saved. And they go a lifetime trusting
that little baptism they did back then, that little decision
they made. And they're worse. It's worse. It's been better.
They've never done that. Because that's hard to get that
out of people's heads and minds. But that doesn't save you. Self-righteousness. It's hard to deal with. It's
not too hard for the Lord, definitely. It's not too hard for the Lord. My sister, now, is a good example
of this. My sister grew up under the truth,
under the gospel, in a church like this. And she never went
astray like I did. Like the prodigal son, she stayed
at home and she would tell you this. She believed the truth
and she thought that she was a pretty good person. She never
got in all the meanness that I did. Well, at least nobody found out
about it. She thought she was alright.
And it was hard for a man to convince her that she's a sinner.
Needs the same mercy and grace that her forlorn brother does. But the Lord convinced her. She
came as the same needy sinner that this prodigal did. Feeling
worse. Feeling worse. Ah, boy. You know, there's nobody more
miserable than someone that's religious and lost. Nobody more miserable. My dad,
I think, said most people have just enough religion to make
them miserable and everybody else around them miserable. Because
they can't even have fun. They can't even enjoy themselves.
It's sinful. They're not better, they're worse. Like this woman. Well, all she had was nothing
better, but rather grew worse. In verse 27, when she heard of
Jesus. When she heard of the Lord Jesus
Christ, she heard from somebody, there is help for the helpless. There is hope for the helpless.
There is a cure for the incurable. But there's only one. And he was coming through. She
heard. That day he was coming through.
She heard. The commotion of, who is it?
They said Jesus of Nazareth's coming through. Who? Jesus of
Nazareth. The Christ, the Messiah, the
Healer, the Lord? Yes, He's coming. Today was the
day of her salvation. She's not going to put this off.
She's needy. Poor and needy. She heard of
Him. Somebody told her about Him to
begin with. She wouldn't have come She wouldn't
have called on him whom she had not heard, would she? That's
what Romans 10, that we didn't get to, says. She wouldn't have
called on him whom she didn't believe could heal her, and she
wouldn't have believed in him whom she had not heard, and she
wouldn't have heard if somebody hadn't told her who he was. Somebody
would tell her about it. Faith cometh by hearing. Hearing
by the word of God. This is the word, which is by
the gospel. preached unto you. Now, she'd been told by all these
other fellas what she needed to do. Everybody she went to,
every quack she went to told her, well, this is your whole
problem. You need to... Everyone she went to gave her
some different cure, but it was basically the same thing. Here's
what you need to do. You need to do this. You need
to try this. You need to try that. You need to quit this.
You need to quit that. You need to go over here, go over there, visit
the Holy Land. You need to go there, get on your knees, just
do all this. Do, do, do, do, do. And you'll be healed. Everybody
told her to do something. But somebody, by the grace of
God, said, you just need to call on the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. You just need to look to Christ,
the healer of those with issues of blood. You used to come to Him. Come
to Him. Somebody told her she just needed
Christ. And this is what I'm telling
you, all you ladies out there with issues. Jesus Christ is
all you need. This one preacher won't tell
you to do anything except trust Christ. Trust Christ. Look to Him. Rest
in Him. Look to Him. Christ is all the
religion you need. When you see that, if you ever
see that, see your sin issue and see Christ as the only hope,
you'll come to Him. Verse 27 and 28. Well, she heard
of Him and she came in the press behind. Verse 28, she said to
herself, she said this within herself, self-confession, if
I may but touch His clothes, I may touch, but his clothes
I shall behold." And so she came in the press. It didn't matter
how many people were there. She's a weak, sickly, poor-looking
woman, frail. She's probably embarrassed about
her appearance. Gaunt-looking death. Embarrassed to be there, but
she had to. Feeling unworthy perhaps, maybe
she was thinking, I know she was thinking, the great master
doesn't need me, and he doesn't have to do anything for me, but
I sure need him. She probably thought in her mind,
I know she did, I've thought this, the Lord doesn't need me. Oh, you reckon he'd do something
for me, huh? I'm not worthy to be seen and
heard. She came behind, you see that? I'm not worthy to be up front
like that publican in the temple who wasn't like, not like the
Pharisee who stood up front and bagged on himself and loved to
be heard for his much speaking, but the publican stood back in
the back afar off and just all he could do was beat on his chest
and all he could pray was God be merciful to be the sinner. The man up front wasn't heard.
The man back was. He came to Christ, but he stayed
in the back. She came behind in the press. This is a pressing issue. You
know that? This is a pressing issue. It's
not just a sermon I'm preaching this morning. This is a pressing
issue for someone. For all of us, we've all got
this issue, and if we've not yet come to Christ, It's a pressing issue. Paul said,
I press for the mark for the prize of the high calling of
God in Christ Jesus. He said, I'm not alive yet. There's
not one person in here in glory yet. It's a pressing issue today. Is that not right? To whom coming? Brother Kelly, we don't come
Once, and then that's it. Now, we keep coming, because
we're sinners daily. We come with this issue daily. Lord, have mercy on me. If you
don't save me, I'll be buried. This issue is killing me. It's a pressing issue. Our Lord said from the time of
John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of God suffereth violence,
and the violence, the press. take it by force. So she came in the press, and
it says she reached out. She was crawling, a big crowd
of people. She's down on the ground, crawling
through this crowd of people, and she reached out. Now, how
does she know whose feet's whose? She knows. The Lord directed
her to the right feet. He had the most beautiful feet
there. You get it? Romans 10 says, "...how
beautiful are the feet of them that publish the gospel." The
gospel personified. The mercy of God was in a pair
of feet walking this earth. He said, "...behold, my hands
and my feet." She knew. She came crawling up
and found those blessed feet, which would soon be nailed to
the cross for her sins. Found those blessed feet. And
that robe that he wore, that seamless robe, he wore a seamless
robe. It wasn't a stitch in it. It'd been knitted, hand-knitted,
mended by somebody. Hand-knitted, it wasn't a seam
anywhere. It wasn't sewn together, pieced together. You ever thought
about that? A perfect, spotless, seamless
robe. That's why they didn't rip it
and divide it between themselves. Somebody knitted that robe for
him out of lamb's wool, and he wore it. What is that? She said, if I can just touch
his robe, if I can just get a touch of that robe, that seamless robe,
I'll be healed. The hem of his garment, the hem,
the bottom portion, you know what that garment is, don't you?
That robe. It says the king's daughter,
Psalm 45, is it John? The king's daughter is all glorious
in her apparel. She's wearing something wrought
of gold. The king himself spun it. The
king himself knitted it and made it with his own hand. It's that
robe of righteousness which Christ alone wears and which will cover
our issue. That's a little sermon within
a sermon. And all who see their need of
Christ and his righteousness, they get it. Just touch the hem. It's big enough to cover us all,
people. Just touch the hem. Well, it
says that she reached out, but we used to sing, well, we do,
we still sing that chorus, don't we? Reach out and touch the Lord
as he's passing by. You'll find he's not too busy to hear your
heart's cry. He's passing by this moment,
your needs. your needs to supply. So reach
out and touch the Lord while he passes by. I just sung that for the first
time in my life, I think. That's a great hymn, isn't it?
Simple child's verse. Oh, it's a great—isn't that a
great hymn? That illustrates what this is all about. He's not too busy, because she
reached out. One person in this whole crowd
who really had a need, a pressing issue, a need, came to him for
mercy and grace and reached out, and look at this, straightway,
verse 29, the fountain of her blood was dried up. Immediately. Dried up. Sin's gone. One look, one touch, John. One
word of faith. Help. Sin's gone. There's sins and iniquities I'll
remember no more. Look unto me, all ye that look unto me, be ye saved. One
just a look. Immediately. Sin's gone. The fountain of her blood dried
up. And she felt, look at this, verse
29, listen, stay with me, please stay with me, this is important.
She felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. She felt in her body. Now, she
reached out first. She touched him first. And then she fell. Do you get it? Salvation is not
in a feeling. Don't wait for a feeling. Don't
wait for a feeling. I wish the Lord would do that for
someone. Rests. A woman came up to a preacher
we all know and torn up and distraught and hearing message after message
after message of feeling our own sinfulness and believing
what he said and just to never find any. And he said, here's
your problem, honey. Rest. Just look to Christ now
and rest. Now that he's shown you what
you are and your need is, believe him. Rest in him. Trust him. Look to him. Rest! Come unto
me, all ye that labor and heavy laden, come from the heart, come
with a desire, come, but don't move a muscle, but come, and
I'll give you rest. Look unto me and be ye saved."
All the ends of the earth. So she reached out first, and
then she felt. Then she felt it. You get the
picture here? So now, don't wait on a feeling.
Don't wait until you feel good about yourself. Let me ask one
of you old folks. And Henry, I always pick on you.
I'm not going to pick on you anymore. Barbara is 70 years
old now. Barbara, do you feel better about
yourself now than you did 20 or 30 years ago when you first
started hearing the gospel? Do you feel better about yourself?
Feel worse! You know more now, you've got
more light now, and knowledge increases, and sorrow increases. The more light you get, the more
darkness you encounter. The more you read of God's Word,
the more you see of yourself like a mirror. You don't feel better about yourself.
What if you waited until you felt better about yourself? You'd
never come. This is not for good people.
This woman didn't come because she was a good person. She came
because she had an issue. A dying issue. Don't wait on
a feeling. Don't wait until you feel good
about yourself. Well, don't wait until you know enough. Well,
I don't know enough. I wait until I know more. The preacher told me I
need to know more, being a theologian. No. That old fellow said, I'm
just a poor sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my
all in all. That's all you need to know.
Yes sir, that's all you needed. Don't wait until you've repented
enough. There was a preacher down in, well, up north somewhere
who was always making people feel bad all the time, feel bad
all the time, but you hadn't repented enough, you hadn't repented
enough, repented enough. That's all he ever preached,
was repentant. He never told anybody to look
to Christ and you'd find rest. We've never repented enough.
Till the day we die, we'll never have repented enough. We've got
a lot to repent of. Don't wait till you believe strong
enough. People are waiting for this. Well, if I can just believe
a little stronger, one day, one day will come. I believe, I believe.
I've got to hurry. The next day, it's gone. I don't believe like
I did yesterday. Don't wait till then. You'll
never believe enough. It's not in our feelings. It's
in Christ, just looking to Christ. She reached out and touched him,
and then she felt. She came to Christ, and then she felt. Then
she felt it within herself. I believe the Lord has done something
for me. It says that Jesus immediately,
knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, this woman
was saved. Now, here is the thing. This
woman was saved not because she came, not because she reached
out, not because she touched him. Ultimately, she's saved
because virtue went out of the Lord Jesus Christ to her. She
was saved by virtue of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every
sinner is saved not because of their faith. That is the result
of God's purpose and will for them to come. They're saved by
virtue of the blood of Jesus Christ, by virtue of the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. That's why they're saved. Virtue
went out of him into her. Power, that's what that meant.
The working of his mighty power dried up that blood. It wasn't
her touch. It was his virtue. Ah boy, and he says he turned
him about in the press, and he said, Who touched my clothes?
You know, the Lord demands of every sinner that comes to Him
that they make a public confession of Him. That's not how you first
come. You come privately, you come
behind Him, you come lowly, meek and lowly, but then He demands,
if He's done something for you, you've got to turn before Him
and everybody. Who touched me? Who have I done
something for? Would somebody tell me who I've
done something for? Well, you know, the crowd, the
disciples were even confused, weren't they? Wait, Lord, they
said in verse 31, Lord, look at the multitude throwing you. Everybody's touching you. No,
sir, they're not. They're crowding around me, they're
hollering, and everybody's doing this and that and the other,
and all this commotion going on, but somebody touched me. Really touched me. Stopped it. He'll find he's not too busy.
He didn't stop for that maddening crowd, but he stopped still. Says when old Blind Bartimaeus
cried out, he stood still. Somebody touched me. Who is it? Tell me. Verse 32, he looked
round about to see her. He knew who it was. That's why
she touched him. The foundation of God standeth
sure, because the Lord knoweth them that are his. A certain
by the sovereign, certain mercy of grace and grace of God. I've
got to holler this, people. You will let me do it. By the
sovereign mercy and grace and predestined purpose and will
of God, this certain woman, after twelve long years, Christ came
by and he said, Here I come. He called her privately to her
heart, and she said, If I can get to her. And she came, and
he looked at her. Who touched me? Nobody said anything,
and he looked at her. He knew who touched her. That's
why she did it. He looked at her. He turned about
to see her. That's salvation. Barbara's salvation
is for the Lord to turn. He bypassed his name and looks
at you. He looks at you. And the woman, fearing and trembling.
Now, she's legal. Oh, she's going to jump and shout
and swing on a chandelier, and she's going to praise Jesus.
Oh, no, she's still humble, broken. The fear of the Lord is still
within her, fear and trembling. So she came up, verse 33, knowing
what was done in her, came and did what? Fell down, like old Jairus. Fell down and told him everything. Confessed it all. Over in Luke's
Gospel, chapter 8, it says, Before everyone. Confessed? I've got
to read it to you. It says, She came trembling,
falling down before him, declared unto him before all the people
why she was there. Before all the people declared
it. He that beluded, and is baptized. shall be saved. Baptism is that
public confession here in Trimble. And you come to him, you come
to Christ, you don't come to a man, don't come to me and confess
your sins. No, sir. You come to Christ and
confess your sins. He's the great high priest. He's
the only one that can put them away and do anything about them.
You confess all to him. Come to him. Oh, boy. And look at this, I love this,
oh I love this, verse 34, He said unto her, Daughter, daughter. Now, every girl in here has got a
daddy whom you love. That's a special
relationship, isn't it? Isn't it, Hannah? You love your
daddy? Oh, he loves you. Every time
he calls me, he says, you take care of my baby now. Marvin,
she's twenty-something, twenty-eight, something like that. Married.
Married. Marvin, she had a baby. Oh, no,
she's my baby. And there's another one. Babies,
he says now. my daughter." Daughter? This
is the God of our Father. This is the Lord himself saying
to another daughter of Abraham. Daughter? What an endearing term,
huh? Daughter? Daughter? You know what? Every Mary Magdalene,
every Ruth, every Rahab is a daughter of the King. You know, they're prodigal daughters.
They're prodigal daughters, aren't they, Teresa? Just like prodigal
sons. Who's saying, you reckon dad
will have, the father will have mercy upon them? Yeah, he has
on daughters, too. He says, Go in peace, daughter,
go in peace. Thy faith that made thee whole,
the object of her faith. That's what faith is. Faith is
not a thing. It's trust in a person. She came to the right person.
Thy faith hath made thee whole. The one you're looking to hath
made you whole. Go in peace and be whole of thy blood. Did she
get sick again? Did she ever get sick again?
Sure she did. She's human. He took care of that issue, that
pressing issue, that dying issue. And this pressing issue with
us is sin, and that's what the Lord takes care of. That's what
he puts away. We're going to die of something.
We'll have issues. But that issue is taken care
of. We'll not die from that. We'll
not die from that. Well, go in peace. And we have
peace through believing. Well, no, wait a minute, that's
not her member, that's somebody else. Verse 35, while he was speaking,
he just spoke peace to this woman. While he spoke, the most horrible
thing that this man feared happened. Jairus. While he yet spoke, somebody
came and said, your daughter is dead, don't trouble the master
any further. And Jairus said, I knew it. I knew it if he didn't come right
then. I waited too long. The Lord waited
too long. No hope now. She's dead. As long as the Lord lives, there's
hope. Would you listen to me, Jairus
or Jairusina? As long as there's breath in
this body and the gospel is being preached and the Lord's mercy
is near every morning, there's hope. And here's what the Lord
told her. Be not afraid, He said under
the rule of the synagogue, verse 36, only believe. Now, God's word is his power,
is it not? Those of you who have felt this
power, the word, the gospel, you know it's his power. I went
for years without any effect upon me. That's all I know to do is tell
you my story. That prodigal, what made me come to myself?
Like the prodigal, it says he was in the hog pen. And if left
there, he'd have died. But it says he came to himself
and thought about the Father, and came to the Father, and the
Father put the robe on him, and the ring, and the fatted calf,
and all of that. What made him come to himself,
Deborah? Huh? After all that time, why did
he just all of a sudden come to himself? He'd heard that message
as a boy! The Word of God is called a seed. Nobody knows when God plants
that seed. Huh? I distinctly remember things
coming up within me that I'd heard as a boy, troubling me,
grieving me myself. As long as there's breath in
a body, there's hope. There's hope, belief, the gospel's
the power of God. Perhaps that gospel's sown in
the prodigal. There were many just like me
from the church we came from, many. Perhaps that gospel seed
was sown early on. He'll come to himself. There's
hope. There ain't Jairus' in here.
There's a bunch of them. He said, So he suffered no man
to follow him. This is good. He suffered nobody
to follow him, save Peter, James, and John, the brother of Janah.
He's going to do something. These three men are going to
be a witness of it. Parents also. He's going to do something for
this girl, and he included these three men with him. The Lord
acknowledges his true preachers, and the Lord will acknowledge them before his people.
The Lord will make it known who his true preachers are. Yes,
he will. And they are men that he has
called with the gospel. That's how you know them. And
he takes them with him to witness this, be a part of this. And
verse 38, they came as a great tumult, weeping He came in, verse
39, why are you weeping? What make you this ado and weep?
The damsel's not dead, but sleeping. There it is again, Nancy. God's
people, no child of His that believes ever dies. He said that. None of them. They sleep. Sleep. He never said they were
dead. And they laughed Him to scorn. They didn't understand.
He put them all out. You see, He puts out everybody.
his disciples, those whom he's raising from the dead, cast them
aside. And them that were with him and
entered in where the damsel was lying, he took the damsel by
the hand and he laid a hold on her after what seemed like he
wasn't going to do anything, finally. It seemed like a long
time to him, Ron, the gyrus. He thought, Lord, I thought she'd
never do anything. It may have been just hours,
it may have been days, but he thought not going to do anything. Sorrow, weeping, endures for
a night, all night long. Huh? That sun arises, joy comes
in the morning. And it says, He took her by the
hand and said, Talitha kuma, which is being interpreted, damns
will I say unto thee arise. And that's, you know, he's the
only one that can and must speak And straightway, immediately,
the damsel arose and walked. So do all those whom God saves
by his grace, they walk by faith. They walk with him. And she was
of twelve years of age, and they were astonished with great astonishment.
Whatever the Lord does, it's astonishing. It's amazing when
the Lord does it. And he charged them, look at
this, he charged them. Who? His disciples. The parents,
he charged them that no man should know it, and commanded them,
he said, now, she's alive. Now, he said, here's what I want
you to do. This young girl's alive. What are you to do for her? He didn't say where they
gave you. He didn't say, find a little bonnet around her head. Bind her down. Tie her up. Like that coat. Brother Kelly, Lucy. Here's what she did. Give her
something to eat. Feed her. She's alive now. She'll respond. Just feed her. Watch her grow. Watch her live. Let the binder down. She's bound
to me from now on. The only thing that will bind
her to me is when she sees I raised her from the dead. And those disciples saw it, and
they realized it's the only thing that works, isn't it? Word of
the Lord, power of the Lord. We'll do what He said. Feed them.
Feed them. Woman with an issue, and I gyrus
in here this morning. Number 252. Number 252 in the
Green Hymnal. In the Green Hymnal. Not the first and the last verse.
2.52.