There you go. Put that on you. Thank you. You're right, Donnie. I'm very
thankful to be here. And we have had very good fellowship. And I want to thank Stan and
Marlene for doing so much to help get us here. And I'm really
glad to be here. If you want to turn with me in
the book of Luke tonight, I want to bring the first part of a
two-part message from the book of Luke, chapter eight. I've entitled this message, God's
sermon to the unclean. God's sermon to the unclean.
We know it's the Lord's sermon because he wrote it in scripture.
And we know it's his sermon to the unclean because it concerns
a woman who was defined in scripture as being unclean. And that concerns
us all. Luke chapter 8 and verse, I'm
going to read the last part of verse 42. It says, as Jesus went,
or as he went, the people thronged him. And you can imagine what
that was like. He was walking to heal Jairus's
daughter. And there were so many people
around him that there wasn't enough room hardly to get between
them. And they were walking essentially on top of each other, bumping
into one another, touching one another. They were all around
him. They wanted to be with him. And
these were simple people. They were not religious people.
They were needy people. And because they were so needy,
they didn't concern themselves about a lot of formality I don't
think any of them were dressed as nicely as we are. Probably
a lot of them had just gotten off work or were there for the
day. I know that if my children and
I were there when Jesus was there, by God's grace, I would have
had them there then. And so we see the picture here
of Jesus going to heal this man's daughter, Jairus, and the people
crowding around him. And verse 43, I wanna read through
this with you. And a woman having an issue of
blood 12 years. An issue means a flow of blood. 12 years, which had spent all her
living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any. Came
behind him and touched the border of his garment and immediately,
Her issue of blood staunched, it stopped. And Jesus said, who
touched me? When all denied, Peter and they
that were with him said, master, the multitude thronged thee and
pressed thee. And sayest thou who touched me?
Clearly a lot of people had touched him. And Jesus said, somebody has
touched me. One of them had touched him in
a different way. For I perceive that virtue has
gone out of me. And when the woman saw that she
was not hid, because the Lord was turned around now, he was
heading in one direction and he stopped and turned around
to see who touched him. And I don't know about you, but
that would have made me shrink back in the crowd. because she
didn't come openly, she came secretly. And so she saw that
she was not hid and she came trembling and falling down before
him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause
she had touched him and how she was healed immediately. So she
said, this is what happened. And he said to her, daughter,
be of good comfort. Be of good cheer, be of good
comfort. Thy faith hath made thee whole,
go in peace. And that's the text of the scripture
I want to consider with you tonight and tomorrow also. As I said, I've entitled this
message, God's Sermon to the Unclean. Now scripture records
here this sermon of this woman and it says that she had an issue
of blood. And I know my wife and I have
talked about this before. It didn't seem fair that what
comes naturally would in the Bible, in the Old Testament,
be considered unclean. Does it? And that's the way we
look at things oftentimes when we read scripture. It seems more
harsh than I would have expected. But God's law says that when
a woman had her monthly cycle, that during that time she was
unclean in the eyes of the law. This was God's law. And that
if she sat on something or she laid on something, that whoever
happened to sit on that or lay on that also was unclean. If
they touched it, they were unclean. If the cycle ended in the normal
time, then she was fine. She would wash and she would
be okay. But if it lasted longer, then something else had to happen.
And that's what I want you to consider. Let me look at this
with you in Leviticus chapter 15. In Leviticus, this is where this
law is laid out, chapter 15 and verse 25. This is the case where
the woman's cycle doesn't end on its normal schedule. And if a woman have an issue
of her blood many days out of the time of her separation, or
if it run beyond the time of her separation, all the days
of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her separation,
she shall be unclean." Okay, there's the simple statement
of the law, but it goes on. Every bed whereon she lieth,
all the days of her issue shall be unto her as the bed of her
separation and whatsoever she sitteth upon shall be unclean
as the uncleanness of her separation. And whosoever toucheth those
things shall be unclean and shall wash his clothes and bathe himself
in water and be unclean until the evening. But if she be cleansed
of her issue, in other words, if her flow stopped, Then she
shall number to herself seven days, and after that she shall
be clean. And on the eighth day, she shall
take unto her two turtles, or two turtle doves, or two young
pigeons, and bring them unto the priest to the door of the
tabernacle of the congregation. And notice verse 30, and the
priest shall offer the one for a sin offering and the other
for a burnt offering, and the priest shall make an atonement
for her before the Lord for the issue of her uncleanness." Now
that helps us understand much more than just what we read in
Luke chapter eight, doesn't it? She was unclean before God's
holy law. And she remained in that case
for 12 long years. During those 12 years, she tried
to get rid of her plague of uncleanness. It says in Luke chapter 8 that
she spent all that she had. She tried many physicians. And yet, that means, of course,
that she paid them. And she did all that they told
her to do. As you would, if a doctor tells you what to do, you're
gonna follow their instruction. But even though she tried everything
she could think of and everything she was told to do, her issue
remained. And in the eyes of God's law,
she remained unclean. Even after all of her effort
to do all that she was told, and spending everything she had
to get better, she only grew worse. And that is a desperation. That creates desperation, doesn't
it? And that's a very long time for 12 years. To be afflicted
for 12 years and to be called by God's law, unclean. her uncleanness before God made
her desperate. God gave that law. Have you ever
read the Bible and find that the Bible points out things that
you should be or should not be, and you find yourself described
by those more often? than anything else. Whatever
God says is true and whatever he requires of us is right. And
yet we don't conform to it. So it was God's law that called
her unclean. And so God has given us this account in scripture
of this woman. And so we know that scripture
shows how this unclean woman under God's law can be made clean. That's the thing here. She's
going to be made clean. So we also see that she's obviously
a sermon to the unclean about what God does to make us clean.
And so listen now, every day, waking up every day, 12 years,
what's she reminded of? I am a filth before God. What does it mean to be unclean
before God's law? It means to be unclean before
God. It means we are sinful. Obviously she was a sinner, but
she was sinful. In this sense, sin is an offense
to God. We get offended when people do
things wrong that we think are wrong. God is infinitely holy. Someone who is an offense to
God has offended God in all of his holiness. And so what great
mercy it is that God would give us this sermon. God who is holy,
who sees our uncleanness would give this sermon to us about
a woman who was unclean in his eyes and who was made clean.
That's an encouragement, isn't it? That's an encouragement. What it's saying here is that
God himself has taken up our case of our offense to him. He has made it his business.
As Thomas Goodwin said, he made it his chief business, his most
important business from all eternity to take this problem of our uncleanness,
our offense against him and make us clean. That's amazing to me. How would he do that? Well, we
know what scripture says. He reconciled us to himself by
what? The death of his son. Am I unclean? Have I offended
God? Do I need him to make me clean? If you only knew the half. If
I only knew the half, we don't, do we? It's easy to be cheerful. I talked to a person frequently
who asked me, what is wrong with me? I sin and I continue to sin. What is wrong with me? This is what's wrong with us.
We're unclean. The problem she had was an internal
problem. It wasn't just something superficial.
It was inside of her. But it was evident on the outside. And every day she woke up, she
realized that, not only am I not clean, but according to God's
design, I cannot bear life. Can't have any life with this
going on. It's just blood. All the time. We know this woman's
uncleanness meant that she was a sinner before God because we
just read in Leviticus that when this kind of an issue stopped,
she had to bring a sin offering and a burnt offering to the Lord
to make an atonement for her sin. for her uncleanness. It says uncleanness, but it was
for a sin offering. It was by a sin offering and
a burnt offering. So God required the sin offering. And what is
a sin offering? Well, a sin offering is a substitute
for the sinner to take away their sin by condemning that sacrifice. The sacrifice did not commit
the sin. The one sacrificed was innocent.
and it was a pure sacrifice, but that offering, that animal
had to be slain and then offered to God as a sin offering, bearing
the sin of the sinner and suffering that punishment of death. And
so the sinner's sin by the sin offering were lifted from the
sinner, transferred to the offering and put on the sin offering.
and made to belong to that offering and no longer belong to the sinner.
That's the way they were made clean before God. Realize that
God was the one who was offended. What is transgression? It's transgression of the law,
isn't it? And God's law is what God has
said. So when we sin, we sin against
God. God has to be appeased. has to be satisfied. So the offering
was made to God. Because that's the whole issue
here. The whole matter has to be dealt with, with God. And the woman couldn't offer
the sin offering herself. Did you notice? It had to be
done by the priest. She couldn't offer. She could
do nothing here. She was unclean. God had to designate
the sin offering. He had to accept it from the
priest. And you know who the priest is in scripture. Who is
the high priest of our confession? But the Lord Jesus Christ. What
did he do here? He offered the sin offering.
And what was that sin offering? Christ himself was offered for
us, right? He offered himself to God for
us. Not only that, not only is the
sin offering the substitute for the sinner with the sins of the
sinner offered to God by the high priest, which had to be
done for this woman, but a burnt offering had to be offered. And
what is that? That's an offering that's consumed
by the fire that the sinner deserves, isn't it? God's law required
those two things to make an atonement for the uncleanness of the woman
that was plagued by this. So we know that her case was
guilt before God, don't we? Guilt, that was it, guilt. Not only guilt, but corruption,
internal corruption. And what could she do about it?
She tried everything, everything. And everything everyone told
her to try, she had tried. And she had paid money to people
who were self-proclaimed doctors of sin. but she did not get any
better. In fact, she only got worse. What a desperate condition, huh?
Have you felt that? Have you felt some sense of that?
Do you ever feel that daily you get up and you find that there's
this remaining plague of uncleanness that you can do nothing about?
And you wonder, how can a wretched man or woman like me have hope? Isn't that what the apostle Paul
cried out? Oh, wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from
the body of this death? That's what her sin was. I mean,
her uncleanliness, this flow of blood, death. And what was
his answer? I thank God. He didn't stop there. I thank God through Jesus Christ,
our Lord. He's always the answer, isn't
he? And isn't that what she did? So do you know something about
that desperation that comes? God has a way of making us desperate. And you know what? This affliction
on her was an affliction not only of her body, but where did
it end up? Where was it most painful for her? Wasn't it in
her conscience? And isn't that the most tender
place where God can apply a chastising hand? You know how you want to
correct your children and you want to do it in a place where
you're not going to leave permanent damage, but you want them to
feel it. And so you select that tender place and you apply it
until they stop kicking you or screaming at you and they start
asking you for mercy. That's what God's chastening
hand does, and he touches the most tender place. Isn't that
our conscience? The apostle Judas had trouble
with his conscience after he realized what he had done. And
what did it do? He didn't have the answer of
Christ sprinkled blood on his conscience, so he took his life.
That's what guilt in our conscience does. It's so sensitive. And you know what the psalmist
David said in Psalm 32, when I kept silent, my bones waxed
old within me, thy hand was heavy upon me. So we feel it, don't
we? We want to get rid of it, but
we can't. And what do we do? Well, this
is what happened next. If you look back in Luke, Chapter
eight and verse 40, a little bit further on, it says, she
had spent all of her money on these things. It says, it doesn't
say it here, but in Mark's account, in Mark chapter five, I will
read that to you. I want you to see this. This
is an important piece of this. In Mark chapter five, let's see
if I can put my finger on this quickly. It says in verse 27 of Mark chapter
five, notice what happens next. After she had felt this for 12
years and she comes behind, it says, when she heard of Jesus,
you see that? Mark chapter 5, 27, when she
heard of Jesus, she came in the press behind and touched his
garment. So we see that there's this unfolding
of the process here. 12 years, every day, I'm unclean
before God, I can't do anything about it, I've wasted everything
I've had, tried everything I could possibly think of, done everything
everyone told me to do, and I'm still left with this burden of
guilt and corruption. And God Himself, in His law,
has described me. God Himself has made it seem
like there's no hope for me, by His Word. He has identified
me as an offender. Is there hope? So she heard of
Jesus. Isn't that what happens? We don't
know what to do. And we are completely guilty
and foul and filthy. And we can't rid ourselves of
this. But you see, there's this other
part of this is that her flow of blood is used in scripture
to describe something else. in Isaiah 64, six, remember what
that says there? Isaiah 64 and verse six, because
this is what this was all about in Isaiah. He's referring to
this. He says, we are all as an unclean
thing. That's us all. And all of our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags. That's what this woman
had. All every day. And we all do
fade as a leaf and our iniquities have, like the wind, have taken
us away. That's it. So you see that she
was left this way. She had done everything. That's
what we do. We try everything. And then she heard of Jesus.
What a mercy that is. Like her, we try to make ourselves
clean. And what happens? What happens
when we try to make ourselves right before God? You go to church. Every day, like I did, and you
do what the preacher says, and then you go out and you're afraid
that you're gonna go to hell, because you know you are a sinner.
Or you do what the preacher says, and you realize that what the
preacher says a Christian is, you are not, because you find
in yourself all kinds of problems. and in their shameful problems.
This woman's condition was shameful. She did not want people to know
what she was doing. They would say, what are you?
You're an unclean person in God's law. They would have taken the
law out and used it as a weapon against her. She was ashamed
because could she help it? She couldn't do anything about
it. God had afflicted her. God had plagued her with this.
but that plague was representative of our condition, of our condition. You know what it says. And when
Solomon was praying, he says this in 1 Kings 8, in verse 38,
he says, what prayer and supplication so ever be made by any man or
by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague
of his own heart. and spread forth his hands toward
this house, then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and
do what? How would God address, how would
he answer the prayer of a man plagued in heart? He says, and
forgive, forgive. That is the word. That's the
word, isn't it? There is forgiveness with thee
that thou mayest be feared. Isaiah did the same thing when
he was sick in Isaiah 38. He said, I'll read that to you
also. Let me read this. These are such
beautiful words. I can't help but just take a
moment here to read them. He says, After the Lord had told
him what to do, he says, behold, for peace, Isaiah 38, 17, behold,
for peace, I had great bitterness because of the affliction of
this sickness, but thou hast in love to my soul delivered
it from the pit of corruption, for thou hast cast all my sins
behind thy back. That's the way God deals with
this affliction, this internal corruption. He casts our sins
behind his back. How? The sin offering, the burnt
offering offered by the high priest. And so we see that here. All right, so I want to consider
now that as she heard of Jesus, she came to Jesus, I want to
see what she did. What was she intent on doing
here? She said, if I may but, what? Touch the hem of his garment,
right? Isn't that what she said? Now,
I've often wondered what was the significance of that? What
was the significance of this? It was a great significance.
The Bible itself helps us immensely here. We wouldn't know the answer
to this unless the Lord himself told us. But she believed that
she could just touch his clothes, his garment, the border, just
the hem. and she would be made whole.
So she pressed through the crowd, probably getting bumped, pushing
through people, excuse me, nope, not even going to say excuse
me, I'm just going to go slithering through the crowd here, going
to slide through, bump through, do whatever I have to. She was
very intent on this, wasn't she? Earnest, insistent, wouldn't
take no for an answer. And so she gets in there, and
she touches his clothes. What happened? Right away, right
away, Right away, the problem was solved. She didn't have to
wait. She knew in herself that she
was made whole. Now in Numbers chapter 15, turn
to that if you would, please. Numbers chapter 15, this helped
me understand what this text of scripture means here in Luke
8. In Numbers chapter 15, he says
this in verse 37. Actually in verse 38, it says,
speak unto the children of Israel. This is God telling Moses what
to tell the children of Israel. He says, speak to the children
of Israel and bid them that they make fringes in the borders of
their garments throughout their generations and that they put
upon the fringe on the borders a ribbon of blue and it shall
be unto you for a fringe. Now notice this blue ribbon on
the fringe of their garment that you may look upon it and remember
all the commandments of the Lord and do them and that you seek
not after your own heart and your own eyes after which you
used to go a whoring that you may remember and do all my commandments
and notice and be holy unto your God. What was the border on the
garments for? Remember all the commandments
to do them that you may be holy. Now, why would God write that
in scripture since we know that no man has ever done that? Oh,
but wait, she came to Jesus to touch the hem of his garment. And she thought in herself, if
I can just touch his clothes, I'll be healed. I don't think
she understood the connection between the representative of
Jesus truth in touching his garments that we are able to see now.
But what did she believe? She believed there was enough
virtue in Christ that whatever it took to cleanse her, she could
get by connecting with him, by touching him. And in another
place in the New Testament, it talks about Jesus touching people
and healing them. Have you noticed that? Sometimes
he touched them and they touched him. In this case, she touched
his garments. But in the case where he touched
them, it says this, in Matthew chapter eight, it says, and when in Matthew 8, 16, when
evening was come, they brought to him and many that were possessed
with devils and he cast out the spirits with his word and he
healed all that were sick, which he had done earlier by touching
them And it says that it might be fulfilled which was spoken
by Isaiah the prophet saying himself took our infirmities
and bear our sicknesses. So himself took them by touching
people and healing them. He was the son of God. He is
the son of God. Couldn't he just speak and make
these people well? Why was it that the Lord Jesus
I mean, what were all these healings? What was the basis of all these
healings? That's what it's talking about here in verse 17. He himself
took our infirmities and bear our sicknesses. And in Isaiah
53, it's talking about he was wounded for our transgressions
and bruised for our iniquities, chastised with the beatings our
sins deserved in his conscience and in his body, right? In other words, the son of God
in all of his power could not heal a sinner unless he took
their sins as the son of man. So she came to the son of man
who is son of God and touched the hem of his garments. And
the scripture is teaching us that represents a man who looks
upon his garments, who looks upon that ribbon of blue and
says, I remember all the commandments of the Lord to do them. And for
that, I am holy. Isn't that what Jesus said? For
them, I sanctify myself. And what was that? He did all
that God required to save his people from their sins by giving
himself in blood in answer to God's justice and in fulfillment
of his everlasting will, which fulfilled all of his law. And
when she touched his garments, It's showing that Christ, the
son of God, who was son of man, who gave himself for our sins
to God to make an atonement, is the very basis of our healing
of our sin sick souls. And when she understood that,
that if she just touched him, and scripture is teaching us
here, laying hold on Christ by faith and taking virtue on the
basis of his work alone, with no other want, but what God has
said in his word about him. That's what she heard. She heard
about this. Amazing, isn't it? Amazing. The son of God alone
in our nature fulfilled this law. And he came to heal us by
taking our sin sickness to himself and bearing it and feeling the
pain of it. He said to his disciples in Gethsemane,
my soul is very heavy, very heavy, so sorrowful, even unto death.
That's the way he did it. That's what he did. And she was
made perfectly whole. The hem of the garment reminded
Israel what God required them to do to be holy. And the hem
of Christ's garment signifies what he did. to fulfill all God
required of us, to make us holy. It required what? The apostle
Paul said it this way, the Son of God who loved me and gave
himself for me. He gave himself in blood, in
total, as the sin offering and the burnt offering, the high
priest offering himself, And I pray that if you, like me,
have some sense of your filth before God, before His law, your
inward corruptions, and your helplessness to do anything about
it, and even though you've tried everything possible to get rid
of your problems, what's wrong with me? What's wrong with me? There's only one who knows. We
don't even half appreciate what it took to wash our sins away,
do we? But when we are made whole, when we are able to see from
God's own Word that Christ is enough, all by Himself with no
help from me, then there's something that happens. We receive in our
conscience a healing, don't we? Now there is no condemnation
for us in Christ Jesus. Amen. If you need to go to the restroom,
you go on and we're going to have a