I invite your attention back
to Mark chapter 5. The title of my message this
morning is Divine Interruption. Divine Interruption. This book is a book about salvation.
That's what it's about. It's about salvation of God's
people through the blood and the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that story, if you read it
from Genesis all the way through to the end of the book, that
report of the salvation of sinners, is the story of divine interruption. If you read the epistles of Paul
especially, you'll find that after Paul sets forth the condition
of man, and it's no happy report that he sets forth the condition
of man, and it's all this violence. At the end of that report, he
starts another report with the word but. But God. Because it is God who saves sinners. And every saved sinner rejoices
in the fact that God interrupted his life and his career that
was going headlong toward eternal perdition. God but it in. God
changed things. God stopped you on your road. And every sinner is thankful
for that. Sometimes in this book it is pictured, the salvation
of sinners is pictured with what seems to be an interruption of
the Lord Himself. When our Lord would be hid from
the Pharisees because He was sick of all their religion, Scripture
says he could not be hid from that Syrophoenician woman. She
found him. She asserts that every sinner
who really needs Christ will find Christ. And the disciples saw her finding
him as an interruption. In fact, they tried to run her
off and say, tell her to shut up. Tell her to leave. Blind
Bartimaeus. He cried, Jesus, thou son of
David, have mercy on me. And the record is that Christ
stopped in his tracks. He stopped in his tracks. We
have here in this passage of Scripture two miracles. And miracles are a physical representation
of some spiritual aspect of the lost sinner's condition. This
woman's healing was not her salvation, but it pictured her salvation.
It was a physical healing. She would later on, at the appointed
time, according to the months that God had given her, die.
So it was with Jarius. So it was with the disciples.
So it was with Jesus Christ at the appointed time. He died,
for he had a certain amount of months to live as a human being
on this earth. But they picture our spiritual
condition. This woman was dying from what
issued from her. That's our problem. Jairus's
daughter was dead as we are in trespasses and sin. When our
Lord healed blind people is because they could not see. They could
not see. They were blind to the gospel,
blind to who Christ is. When He healed the deaf, it's
because they could not hear. When He healed the lame, it's
because they were impotent and unable to do anything. When He
healed the mad and the maniac, He healed all those who are born
into this world, who by their nature are possessed of demons,
because they believe not the Son of God that has come into
this world. This woman's story, if you're
familiar with this, and I've preached from it several times,
is a story within a story. It's a story within a story.
Her story is a providential parenthesis or an interruption inside the
story of Jarius and his dying daughter. It's an interjection,
if you will. Jairus's daughter is sick unto
death, and he has come to beg of the master. That's the words
that's used. Verse 22 says, And behold, there
cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue. This wasn't just nobody. This was a somebody. Jairus by
name. And when he saw Christ, he fell
at his feet and besought him greatly. He begged him. He besought him greatly, saying,
My little daughter lieth at the point of death, and if you'll
just come, if you'll just come and touch her, I know that she
will live again. In Matthew 9's account of this
incident, it says that he came to him and fell down and worshipped
him, saying, My daughter is sick and dying. if you'll come. Could it be that begging and
worshipping are akin? Yes, they are. Every true worshipper
of a God is a beggar at the door of sovereign mercy. In all probability,
the fame of our Lord and His power to heal was the topic of
the day in this region. He had just healed the demon-possessed
man of Gadara, and that was quite a feat. Religion had tried it,
the law had tried it, the people had tried it, and so he was still
running wild among the tombs cutting himself. But our Lord
had healed the man. And this amazing feat had increased
and excited his appeal to the multitudes. People followed him
around. And he departed, it says in verse
20, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things he had done.
That's the demoniac dire. He went out and told everybody
what God had done for him. And when Jesus was passing over
again by the ship and to the other side, much people gathered
as he was nigh unto the sea. There's a whole crowd. gathered
around him. Now they had pretty much asked
him to leave Gadara, because he had hurt their commerce. They
had a really fine herd of pigs there, and they were selling
swine, which Jewish people weren't supposed to do, but they was
doing it anyway. And he had them all run down into the sea and
commit hogicide, I guess you'd call it, or suicide, whatever
you would call it. He put them down in the sea and
ruined their commerce, and so they asked him to depart out
of their coast, and so he did, but many followed him. An important
truth is set forth in the contrast and comparison of the demoniac
of Gadara and this ruler of the synagogue named Jairus. He was
a ruler of the Jews, much like Nicodemus, a man of renown, a
man important to the religious community. And there was a great
divide between this demoniac who lived among the graves and
this man who lived in the synagogue. There was a divide in social
and moral status between these two men. But the fact is that
great need Great need is a societal equalizer, isn't it? And it supersedes
status. I watched the results of that
tornado after it had torn through Joplin, Missouri. And I didn't
see Joplin beforehand. I'm sure there were some fine
houses in Joplin. It's a million dollar, two million
dollar home, just like there were folks living in a trailer.
And when that tornado came through, all everybody had, rich and poor,
was need. They were equalized, immediately
equalized. In truth, status, no matter what
it is, is a vapor. It's a blip on the radar of human
existence. One day, not too far hence, everyone
here in this room will be exactly the same. We may talk about differences
now, but we're all going to be the same. The prince and the
pauper will both occupy a small plot of designated real estate And we'll both be nothing more
than putrefaction personified. That's what we'll be. That's
all we'll be. Look around you. Some have a higher education
than others. Some have more money than others.
Some have better personalities than others. It's all going to
be the same. It's all going to be the same. The same societal distinction
exists between this man Jairus a ruler of a synagogue, and a
nameless, poverty-stricken, diseased woman. They're the same. Society would look at them different,
but they're the same. One was an accepted religious
man, the other was an outcast, but they're the same. Great need
in time and tide of dire circumstance makes every man a beggar at mercy's
door. Every man. If your need is great,
You'll find yourself at mercy's door. And if you're not at mercy's
door, probably because you don't think you need much. Our Lord
had begun His journey to cherish us out, but was interrupted in
His progress by this woman with an issue of blood. Now since
our God is a God of order and a God of purpose and purposes
all things and does all things according to the good pleasure
of His own will, this interruption was a necessity for somebody.
It was actually a necessity for Jarius. It was a poignant pause
of predestinated providential purpose. During this brief divinely
intended and purposed interlude, the time taken to heal this woman,
Jairus' daughter, changed from extreme infirmity to complete
mortality. When Jairus heard the news that
his daughter was dead, I'm a father, I'm a father, and I have no doubt
that somewhere in his human mind and his heart, he blamed this
interruption for her death. I would. He was headed for my
house to heal my daughter. And this woman interrupted the
whole shooting match. He stopped his progress. And
now, while he's talking to this woman about her faith healing
her, a man comes and tells me, Don't
worry about it anymore. Your daughter's already dead.
She's already dead. She's kind of like Martha. He
is. Our Lord was told that Lazarus
was sick. And he sat around for a few days.
Didn't he? He just sat around. They kept
saying, Lazarus is sick. Martha's calling for you. Mary's
calling for you. Lazarus is sick. He just sat
there. He said, oh, don't worry. His sickness is not unto death.
His sickness is not unto death. And finally he died. And four
days after he died, Martha come to the Lord Jesus Christ. She
said, if you'd just been here, my brother would not have died.
He said, don't worry about it. He's going to live again. Oh,
I know he'll live in the resurrection. That's not what I'm talking about.
I am the resurrection and life. He that believeth on me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And he raised Lazarus from the
grave. Now the words in this passage of Scripture used in
this passage are words designed to address a real comparative
connection of the two females in this report. There are two. There's a woman
with an issue of blood. That's had an issue for 12 years.
And there's a girl, 12-year-old girl, who has died. These two
females are universally representative of all of us. These two women. Now, I know that all humanity
is viewed and judged in the first or the last Adam, according to
Romans chapter 5. They're judged in Adam or in
Christ. But the maladies of these two
females picture our condition, the condition of all men and
women in nature as to their standing before a thrice holy God. Why are these two women our representatives
of humanity? How do they represent you and
me? Both of their conditions are the result of a curse. Both
of their conditions are curses from God. Both of them. This one had an issue of blood
for 12 years. She had been in constant state
of menses for a dozen years. My mother, when I was a young
boy, used to send me to the store to get things I didn't want to
get. And she would say, The curse has come. That's what she called
it. I didn't know what she was talking
about. She was talking Bible, but I didn't know what she was
talking about. Her situation, her condition
was not only sad, she was anemic. Twelve years she had been bleeding,
and her life was but a continuous hemorrhagic existence. That's
all she had. But because of her menses, she
was cursed. She was cursed. Look back at
Leviticus chapter 15. That's why she represents you
and me. We're cursed. We're cursed because we sin against
God. We're cursed because we transgress God's law. We're cursed
because of what issues from us. What comes out of us? Leviticus 15 and verse 25, it
says, 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. 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 in the uncleanness of 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, 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 turtle doves, or
two young pigeons, and bring them to the priest at the door
of the tabernacle of the congregation. And the priest shall offer one
for a sin offering, where she confesses her sin, and one for
a burnt offering, where the representative takes care of the sin. And the
priest shall make atonement for her before the Lord for the issue
of her uncleanness. She's cursed. She can't come
into the camp. Her condition was such that she
was excluded from the camp. She was for that period of time
a pariah. This woman's had this issue for
12 years. 12 years. She's considered unclean and
could not be received back into the camp until a blood atonement
was made by a priest for her. And while she had her issue,
however long it lasted, she was cursed. That's a picture of us. This is the state of humanity
before God. It is what comes out of us, from
out of our heart, that defiles us. I know religion likes to
put it in a box or a bottle or a computer or a drug. But it's not what you take into
your body that defiles you, it's what comes out of your heart.
That's what our Lord told His disciples in Mark chapter 7,
out of the body proceed with blasphemies and murders and thieves. Out of the heart. Out of the
heart. The problem men have is a heart
problem. Their heart is diseased and desperately
wicked before God, and they themselves can't even know it. Because of
what he is, because of what man is, he is cursed and cannot please
God while he is yet in this flesh, this body of death. He cannot
be received among the brethren unless and until blood propitiation
is made by the great high priest for him. There has to be an atonement.
She pictures us as cursed. Without the shedding of blood,
Scripture declares there is no remission of sin. Not just any
blood will do either. Back in the Old Testament, you
had doves, and turtle doves, and rams, and sheep, and bullocks.
But none of that ever took away sin, so that didn't stop the
problem. Even on the Day of Atonement,
only put off sin for a year. This woman had shed much blood.
Being cursed, she could do nothing for herself. She is reduced to
the state of a beggar. Scripture said she had spent
all she had, everything she had. She was dead broke. What does
that mean? Well, if you ain't got nothing,
that means you're totally and wholly dependent on the benefaction
of someone outside yourself. That's what a beggar is. Now,
we have panhandlers in the United States, and most of them are
conmen and crooks. But if you go to other countries,
I've been to countries where men and women, all they have,
All they have is what somebody puts in their outstretched hand. That's it. Totally dependent
upon a benefactor. It's also clear that the best
and the wisest of Adam's race, even though they tried, could
not aid her in her distress, but only served to make her situation
worse. That's what it says in verse 26. She's not better, but
worse for all she tried. So she was a worker. She was
a trier. She tried everything. She wanted
to get better. Her desire was to get better.
She wanted to be done with this. There were physicians that worked
on her, but they were like the physicians that were with Job. They were physicians of no value
and liars. She probably went to religion,
but religion couldn't help her. She probably went to works. Works
couldn't help her. She probably went to the law.
The law couldn't help her. She probably heard people say,
well, just do your best, but that couldn't help her. She probably
heard people say, well, if you'll help yourself, God will help
you. That couldn't help her. She had spent all she had and had
nothing left. And likewise, Jairus's daughter
is a universal picture of humanity. She was dying, and she was dead. She was dying and she was dead.
This is both the physical and spiritual state of men before
God. Man is dead in trespasses and sin. What does that mean?
It means exactly that. D-E-A-D. The word is necros.
Necros. It means dead. Dottie Bell used
to say, plumb dead or graveyard dead. That's how dead we are.
We're completely dead. Death is the curse that we inherited
from our father Adam. The Lord said, In the day you
shall eat of that fruit, you shall surely die. And the words
there are, Dying you shall die. Dying you shall die. Dying goes
on for a while. till he gets old. But he died
that day spiritually and plunges the whole human race into a state
of spiritual death. What does that mean? That simply
means, well I don't feel dead, I don't look dead, I'm walking
around, how do you say I'm dead? You cannot on any level or in
any way as you are born into this world understand, receive,
perceive, grasp anything spiritual. You can't. Don't say you can't
learn the Bible, as some people say, from giver to giver. But
that's not going to do you any good. You don't understand what
this book means. If God hasn't given you spiritual
understanding, you're dead to it. And it's dead to you. That's
why Paul said to Galatians, we preach to dead men. We preach
to dead men. And unless God gives you life,
you'll stay dead. Because you can't undo your death.
We all know that. That's why we take our dead ones
and put them in graves somewhere. We can't undo what's happened
to them. It's over. It's over. We're dead. Death is the curse. Death reveals a total inability
and impotency to do anything. It's the curse inherited by the
imputed sin of Adam. By one man's sin, death entered
the world. Death entered the world. Death
is the curse of the law. He that is under the law is cursed,
it says in Galatians chapter 3 and verse 10. It stands to
reason that a dead person is beyond the help of humanity.
And yet, we have invented ways that we can get dead people to
act like live people. Religion is kind of like a mortician.
It really is. Religion without Christ is kind
of like a mortician. It dresses people up. It makes
them look like they're alive when they're actually dead. That's
what a mortician does. We go by, I know I've said it
a thousand times myself, walk beside a coffin and say, well,
don't they look good? They don't look good. They look
dead. I'm just trying to be nice. But the mortician's job is to
make religions the same way. The religion is to take people
who don't know Christ and make them look like they know Christ.
That's the devil's business. That's what he does. Nothing
short of a miracle of grace will suffice to unclench the iron
grip of this body of death. Nothing short of a miracle. The
only way death is undone is by the death of an effectual substitute.
That's what it says in Hebrews 2.14. By the death of an effectual
substitute. By the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He, by death, put an end to death. And that substitute
is the Lamb of God. Jesus Christ, the Savior. And as our Lord moved towards
Jairus' house, pressed by the crowd, this sad, sick, cursed
woman, it is recorded that she reached out and touched the hem
of the garment, or touched his clothes, as it says here in Matthew
5. Or Mark 5. Why did she do that? She believed. She believed. It says that she
did. She believed. For she said in verse 28, this
is to herself, If I may but touch His clothes, I shall be whole. I shall be whole. This is faith. Our Lord said it was. This is
faith. Reaching out and touching Christ. Her faith was born as all faith
is born. She was not born with it, for
all men have not faith. Faith is a gift of God. It's
not of works, lest any man should boast. What does it mean, gift?
That means it's given. If you don't get it, it ain't
a gift. Not an offer. If you don't get it, it ain't
a gift. A gift comes from the word give. That's what its root word is.
How did her faith come? Verse 27 says, when she had heard
of Jesus. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God. Turn over to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. Paul lays
it out as clearly as can be laid out. Now it says, Whosoever call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Verse 13. That's what
this woman did. She didn't do it audibly. But
with faith she reached out. She crawled through a crowd of
people. Now remember, she's not welcome in this crowd. She's
not supposed to be in this camp. With her issue, she's supposed
to be outside the camp or either in her house until this blood
issue is stanched or taken care of. But she presses. Verse 13
applies to her. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, then Paul asks several
questions that teach us how this transpires. Does a person just
out of the blue call upon the name of the Lord? No, it never
happens apart from the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, from
the preached Word. How then shall they call on Him
in whom they've not believed? So you've got to believe on Him
before you call on Him. That's just what it says. Not
only that, it says this, and how shall they believe on Him
whom they have not heard? You've got to hear of Him. That
is, you've got to hear the Gospel before you can believe on Him. And how shall they hear without
a preacher? It's not going to happen. You're not going to believe
and you're not going to call until you hear it from one whom
God has sent to tell you the truth about the Gospel. Now,
He doesn't use great men. He uses the worst of men. Less
than the least of saints is what Paul said. The chief of sinners
is what Paul said of himself. That's the kind of men he uses.
He don't use doctors and brilliant people. He uses people who are
just common everyday people. Like Peter, who was a fisherman.
Or Matthew, who was a tax collector. These men didn't have letters.
I got a fellow come to my door yesterday from a big church in
Matthews, North Carolina, outside of Charlotte. And he said, I
want to come worship with you tomorrow. I said, well, we'd
be delighted to have you. He says, what kind of ministries do you have? Well, of course,
I don't really know what that means, because we just have one.
So I said, well, we preach the gospel, and we support men around
the world who preach the gospel. That's what we do. And when I
said that, he got a funny look on his face. He didn't read right.
He was like that when he handed me his card. And he left. He's not here this morning. But
he handed me his card. So I got online last night because
he's got a website for himself where he's a blogger. And he's
got a website for his church. They've got plenty of ministries.
They've got ministries to the young, ministries to the old,
ministries to the married, ministries to the divorced, ministries to
the single. They've just got ministries all over the place.
But I looked and looked and looked, and in about four pages of literature,
I found Jesus Christ's name mentioned twice What is the ministry of the Church
of the Living God? It's one, to preach the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's it. That's the ministry. What about counseling? He's the
counselor, isn't he? He's the counselor. What about
pastoring? The word pastor means preacher,
teacher. That's what his job is to do. That's what his job
is to do. I know he's turned into some
of this little guy who just lives in hospitals and stuff, kind
of like Snoopy hanging over his doghouse like a vulture waiting
for people to die, but that's his job is this. Here's what
I want to do for you, for you, for you. I want to do this for
you. I'd like to get you ready to
die, because that's what you're going to do. I'd like to spend
my life, and I have thus far, hopefully, getting you ready
to die. Because that's what we're all
going to do. And apart from that, I don't have another ministry.
And the only way I can get you ready to die is to tell you what
Jesus Christ has done for His people. That's the only way that's
going to happen. How shall they hear without a
preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? It's
God who sends out preachers. And it says, and it's written
from Isaiah chapter 52 and verse 7, how beautiful are the feet
of them that preach the gospel of peace. And I know some preachers
are going to stand up and kick his foot out and say, I've got
pretty feet. That's stupid. What that means is the sound
of someone coming. When you're in great need and
you're without hope, the sound of someone coming is beautiful. Don't you know this woman who
had heard of Christ? When that mob started approaching,
the sound. She knew, I've got to get in
that crowd. He's in there somewhere. The sound. To bring glad tidings
of good things, Isaiah 52, verse 7 says, to publish salvation,
to publish peace, to say good tidings of good things, saying
unto God's people, Thy God reigneth. That is what it is to preach
the gospel. This woman heard of Jesus Christ. And she touched
the Lord. She touched His garments. In
touching the Lord, she was immediately cured. Faith is a gift of God. It's a gift of God. She believed
because God had given her faith to do so. And He did it through
what she heard. In this blessed action, we see
the providence of God. Her sickness and her cure were
ordained of God. And this all took place before
the eyes of another needy, helpless sinner. who had really got some
bad news to rise. He needed this incident to occur
on Jesus' road to his house. He needed this incident to occur
at this time because of what he was about to hear. Our Lord
said to the woman, Thy faith has made thee holy. And while
the words were in his mouth, They said, Jairus, don't bother the
master anymore. Your daughter's dead. It's over.
It's too late. Even the words of our Lord were
meant to encourage Jairus. Our Lord tenderly looked at the
woman who had touched him and caused virtue to go out of him.
He called her daughter. And if you'll read it, it's in
the uppercase. It's not a daughter. It's my daughter. In most cases, in the original
reading, it's the daughter of God. God's daughter. Daughter. Daughter. What's Jairus'
problem? My daughter is dying. And our
Lord looked at this woman who had been healed and said, Daughter.
Daughter, thy faith has made thee whole. Jairus had besought
the Lord, saying, My daughter is sick. And now one of Christ's
daughters has come to Him sick, and He heals her. Jairus has
besought Him. She was Christ's daughter because
He is the everlasting Father. She was the daughter of Abraham.
There's evidence in the fact that she believed on Christ.
Galatians chapter 3. All those who believe on Christ
are children of Abraham. Galatians chapter 3 and verse
26. And the remarkable words spoken to her by our Lord also
had design for Jerusalem. Thy faith hath made thee whole. Thy faith hath made thee whole.
Now that Christ cured this woman has never been in question, we
know. Virtue and power came from Him, flowed into her, and she
was cured immediately of her issue. Don't ever discount these
words of our Lord, no. Several years ago, a friend of
mine, I was preaching at a conference, and he had invited a preacher to preach. And that preacher
called him, and he said, I want you to know when I come up here,
I'm going to straighten these people out about this matter of believing
on Christ. Straighten them out. When the
Lord said, faith in Thy face has saved you, Thy face has made
you whole, we know that ain't true. Of course, my friend knew
it wasn't true anyway. It's true in one sense and not another.
My friend said to him, well, listen, if the Bible says it,
can I say it? He says, yeah. He said, well,
I'll just keep on saying it. You stay at home. You don't have to come.
You don't have to come pray. We know that Christ made her
whole. But we also know that He lauded
her faith. Now, He had given it to her,
and He lauded it. He lauded it. Not only did Jeriah
see this woman miraculously healed, but he heard the Master laud
her faith. These words are truly for her, because she has no illusion
as to how she was healed and the source of her faith. Verse
33, she knows what was done to her, is what it says. She knows
what was done to her. You see, faith pleases God, and
she who comes to God must believe that He is in the reward of them
that diligently seek Him. Your faith has made you whole.
That's what He said too. Faith in Christ honors Christ,
honors God, because it wholly rests in Christ. Scott Richard
said it puts the crown of accomplishment on the head of the king. That's
what faith does. What does faith really do? Faith
believes. Make it do anything else, you're
going to get yourself in trouble. And you're setting yourself up
for failure. As far as our experience of grace
goes, it's realized only in faith. Our Holy Spirit is of grace.
It's realized only in faith. We begin in faith, don't we?
God gives us faith, makes us alive, gives us faith to believe
the Gospel. We begin in faith. We live by faith and not by sight,
says the Scripture. We stand in faith. We walk by
faith. We have peace with God by faith. We overcome the world by faith. We see the glory of God by faith.
And faith is not possessed of power. That's where most people
err on this. They think that the Holy Spirit,
when it resides in a person, gives them faith. That gives
them some kind of power to achieve. There's no power in faith. There's
no power in faith. Faith is possessed of something
else altogether. Faith is possessed of confidence
and assurance in Christ. That's what faith is. It's confidence
and assurance in Christ. Some people have greater faith
than others, according to Scripture. Some people have little faith.
I think most of us fall into that category. But it ain't the
amount of faith or the greatness of faith, it's the fact of faith.
God has given faith. And what does that faith do?
It trusts, relies upon, lays hold of, hangs on to for dear
life, the Son of God. Faith is possessed of confidence
and assurance in Christ and in Him alone. She had believed in
so many people, this woman had. and so many remedies. But when
she only believed Christ, she was healed. She was healed. Jairus' daughter, however, is
of a different case altogether. Now, this woman with issue represents
us in our sin, in our cursedness, because of what comes out of
us. But Jairus' daughter is altogether different. She cannot exercise
faith. She cannot believe. She's dead. We're cursed. And we're also
dead. Dead. Her recovery addresses
the power of Christ over our death. She is raised from the deathbed
of sin by omnipotent grace. However, because our Lord has
said these things to the woman with the issue of blood, He now
addresses Zeriah in the same manner. If a man dies, shall
he live again? That was one of the questions
that Job asked. The crowd ain't going to be on your side. We
know the disciples said, What's wrong? Somebody touched you?
Are you kidding me? And then when he came to the
house, they all laughed and mocked her and said, What are you talking
about? We know she's dead. We're just in there. She ain't
breathing. The crowd's not going to be with you on this. But think
of what Geriz has seen in her. Boy, has he been prepared for
this. He didn't know it. He was being prepared for what
comes next. What comes next. The defeat is
come with words that would cast down the heart of a father. Thy
daughter is dead. Thy daughter is dead. What's the response to the matter?
Be not afraid. Only believe. Only believe. He is much as saying, has not
faith been proved right in front of you? With this little woman
showing up here when I was on the way to your house. He said,
as much as I cured my daughter, I can cure your daughter. I can
cure your daughter. Only believe. This blessed providential
parenthesis has revealed to Jairus what faith can do and all it
ever does. Beliefs. It only believes. Now, over the
years, I've heard this as a plea. Only believe. Only believe. We
sing, only trust Him. Only trust Him. We ought to sing, only trust
Him. Believe. Because that's where
it comes down to. It's not a plea to just believe. It's a command to do nothing
else but believe. Only believe. Faith is not about
power. It's about confidence in Christ
based on His Word alone. Only believe. Well, you know,
we've got to do this, we've got to put faith to our prayers.
If you can put faith to your prayers, go ahead and walk. You don't need your prayers. Those are legalistic terminology
in religion that's going to get you to do something. Our Lord
said, your eyes? Why don't you go get the doctors,
get some smelling sauce, boil some water. Did He say any of
that? Only believe. That's it. Nothing else. Nothing
more. Only believe. The daughter's
cure is likewise truly revealing. She was made alive by the voice
of Christ. Christ said unto her, Talitha
kumai, which literally means, Arise, my little lamb, arise. Arise. John chapter 5 says the
day is coming and now is. When the dead shall hear the
voice of Christ and shall live and shall live Our Lord said
my sheep hear my voice my rise little lamb My sheep hear my
voice and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life
and no man is able to pluck them out of my hand My father which
gave to me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them
out of my father's hand This is the hard part Religion is
so easy It's easy. I know men gripe and grovel,
but they don't mind getting those badges and those stickers and
those logs and applause from the pulpit on the day in which
they're recognized and stood before the Lord Jesus Christ.
Religion is easy. It's just do something. Pray
and you'll be saved. Well, I guarantee you, if somebody
tells me that, I'm going to pray. But that's what they say. Pray
the sinner's prayer. Pray through. Walk down the aisle,
you'll be saved. Well, that's easy. I'd walk. Nothing to that. It's easy business.
Read your Bible. I can read my Bible. What about
this? All of your salvation, from start to finish, from beginning
to end, from A to Z, all of it is Christ alone. Believe. Only. Believe. Only. Can you stop there? That's what
Christ said to Gerard. Believe. Only. Don't do anything
else. Only believe. Nothing more, nothing
less, and nothing else. Father, bless us through our
understanding. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.