Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Luke chapter seven and verse
50. In fact, the last three words
in verse 15. Go in peace. The whole verse reads, And He,
that is our Lord Jesus Christ, said to the woman, Thy faith
hath saved thee, go in peace. We have read in the portion this
evening of two women and both of them were told by the Lord
to go in peace. The first one, this woman here
that entered into the Pharisee's house and she comes with her
alabaster box of ointment and she then stands behind him weeping
as recorded in verse 38, began to wash his feet with tears and
did wipe them with the hairs of her head, then kissed his
feet and anointed them with the ointment. It's very obvious that
she saw in the Lord Jesus Christ one that was very precious to
her, more precious than this ointment, another account, similar
account, worth 300 pence, and yet this woman counted it worthy
to bestow upon Jesus of Nazareth. She saw in him what others did
not see in him. And this was shown by the great
affection and how humble she was before him. And it is when she did this that
the Pharisee has some objection to it because he knew that she
was a notorious sinner. And he thought, well, if the
Lord was really a prophet, He wouldn't allow this sinful woman
anywhere near him. It may be with us tonight. We come, we gather together in
the house of God or gather with us online. And we may feel so
full of sin and so full of evil, so unlike the people of God. And what a word to have before
us like this. Here is a person like this. Others in that room, they acknowledged
it so. Their thought was the Lord wouldn't
have anything to do with them. Maybe your thought is that the
Lord will have nothing to do with you. You can't come into
the house of God. You can't come with the people
of God. You can't be forgiven. You can't be blessed. You think
so much of your life, your sins, your past life, what you are. One of our hymns says, sinners
can say, and none but they, how precious is the Savior. Simon
was a Pharisee. He couldn't see his own sin.
He thought he was righteous. He thought he was godly. He thought
he was holy. He had no need of the Lord. He didn't show any affection
or any care over the Lord. But this woman did. And the Lord
highlighted this when he gave this Pharisee a little parable. When he spoke of two people that
were debtors, they owed money. One owed a lot, one owed a little.
Both were forgiven what they owed. And he asked this question,
who would love the most? The one that had been forgiven told that they did not need to
pay that amount, or the one that only had a little debt. And he rightly supposed that
to whom he forgave most. What a lesson in the gospel. There will be those that realize
they're the greatest sinners. that being forgiven they will
love the Lord more than those who don't have such sense of
that sinnership. We can think of it even in an
outward way. There may be those brought up,
and it's a great privilege to be brought up under the sound
of the truth. And there may be those that have
had godly parents, They've hardly erred from the right way, kept
outwardly, maybe done nothing to bring them into knowledge
of the authorities or even get into trouble at school. And the Lord has been pleased
to bless them. They remained in the house of
God and maybe brought to true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But then, There may be others
that have not been brought down by the sound of the truth, or
if they had, rebelled and gone away, gone to great lengths of
sin, taken their fill of the world and worldly company, and
maybe even in prison and in trouble with the authorities and everything
that could be wrong was wrong. And yet the Lord has blessed
them and given them to seek repentance and given them godly sorrow.
And he's brought them to love him and to receive mercy, forgiveness
and pardon through him. And how they love the Lord. How they look upon him so different. Why they have such a debt. They're
so mindful of all that they've done, all that they've said. The Lord Jesus Christ was given
the name of Jesus that he would save his people from their sins. And you know sin, where there
is sin, there is trouble. Where there's sin, there's death.
Where there's sin and that sin is not pardoned, there is trouble
of conscience. Where it is laid upon that soul,
there is a sentence of death within. There's a knowing that
we are not prepared to die, we're not able to die. We feel our
guilt, and there's no peace. The Word of God says there's
no peace, saith my soul to the wicked. And there is not. Separated from God, alienated
from God through wicked works, there is no peace. You know when
Jehu was raised up in the time of the kings to execute the judgment
of the Lord on the wicked house of Ahab, and when he came against
those kings in his chariot, They sent out and they asked, is there
peace? And he said, how can there be
peace? How can there be peace with all
the wickedness and all the evil that is being done in Israel
under those ungodly kings? In the days of the prophets.
Jeremiah, the faithful prophet of the Lord, had to contend with
false prophets that said to the people, peace, peace, when there
is no peace. Israel was walking contrary to
the Lord, doing all manner of abominations even worse than
the heathen around them, sacrificing their children to gods, causing
them to go through the fire. And yet these false prophets
said there was peace. They had no authority to say
that. They couldn't give peace. And
those that accepted of it or believed it, they were destroyed
when the armies of Assyria or the armies of Babylon came in
as God's servants to execute judgment upon them. Wherever there is sin, Wherever
there is death because of sin, there is not peace. There's not
peace in this poor world. Not a lasting peace, not eternal
peace. We seek for it, we think we've
obtained it, obtained it in one way or another way, and then
something comes and it mars in, and it takes it away. that this dear woman, the Lord
says to her, go in peace. Then we have the second woman
in chapter eight, and she has a infirmity, issue of blood for
12 years. She tried all that she could
to get healed of that without success and then she heard of
the Lord and she came through the press, through the great
crowd that was round about him, she came behind him in verse
44 of chapter eight, and touched the border of his garment, and
immediately her issue of bloodstains, the bleeding that she'd had all
those years, was healed. The Lord knew that someone had
touched him in a way that virtue had gone from him, somebody had
been healed. What a lesson that is. The Lord
knows those that he's healed. He knows those that he blesses. He's not ignorant of them. It won't be said of those that
are truly healed by the Lord when they appear in the presence
of God, depart from me, I never knew you. The Lord knows his
people and he knows those that he's blessed and he knows those
who he has healed and given peace, and those who he has suffered,
bled and died for on Calvary's tree. The kingdom of God standeth
sure having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are
his. And we read as well, the Lord
saying, no man can come unto me except the Father which hath
sent me draw him and I'll raise him up at the last day. This
woman was drawn, drawn to the Lord, drawn to touch him. She also, like the other, saw
that hope and that virtue and saw what was in the Lord Jesus
Christ that brought her to venture. We may ask ourselves, have we
been attracted and drawn unto the Lord? To her as well, and this is in
healing, he says, thy faith hath made thee whole go in peace. And we can be sure both of these,
dear woman. They went in peace. One with
the words spoken that her sins were forgiven and pardoned. And this one, no doubt the forgiveness
of sins bound up with it, but that her illness was healed and
go in peace. Go in peace. what a better thing
it would be for us. The Lord would speak this to
us. And whether it was that, like
them, that there they went on their
way and it was in peace, or whether it may be in a new pathway in
life and we're uncertain, we don't know, what to do and whether
to go or whether not. To be told by the Lord, go in
peace. To be given that help. You know
when Jacob saw the wagons and heard the tidings that his son
Joseph was still alive in Egypt, he went. He says, I'll go and
see him before I die. Of no doubt he was still, still
uncertain, still going but trembling there. And that very first night
the Lord appeared to him and blessed him and said, fear not
to go down into Egypt. I will be with thee. I will go
down with thee, I will bring thee up again. Well, he was brought
up again, he died, he was buried in Canaan, but his seed was brought
up again and to dwell in Canaan. It's a great thing in the pathway
of life, the changes and the places that we go, that upon
venturing, upon going, that we have this word, go in peace. And especially when we come to
make profession of his name, to go and speak to the house
of God, the people of God, about what God has done for our souls,
about how he has appeared for us and what the Lord is to us.
Again, we might be very hesitant, very uncertain whether to venture
or not. But if the Lord was to say to
us, and may he say to any that may be with us this evening online,
in this path, go, go in peace. What a difference that will make. You know, when I first came over
to this land, when in the ministry, in the First Lord's Day, that
First Lord's Day, a short notice asked to preach here. First time
I ever preached in England was in this pulpit here. But then
at nine o'clock that morning, before venturing out here, I
had another call from Staplehurst. Can you come and preach to us
in the afternoon? I said to the deacon, I must
lay this before the Lord and I'll phone you back. And I put
the phone down and the words dropped into my heart. The words
actually of King Saul to David when he went against Goliath,
go and the Lord be with thee. And that is what I preach from. And that was used in, I believe,
in bringing John Rosier to go venture into the ministry. And
the Lord used it then to give me the text, to give him the
direction. And sometimes we need that. We need this word from the Lord. not only to go, but go in peace. All those tumults and fears and
troublings of mind and questionings, whether we're doing the right
thing or not, or whether we should go or not, when the Lord says
go in peace, then it is all stayed. When the Lord calmed the winds
and the raging of the water there in the boat, They ceased and there was a calm,
there was peace. What authority the Lord has. I believe some of us have known
that. When the waves of trouble and
certainty of questionings and fears, they've all been stilled
and all been brought to peace. Think of that beautiful word.
We've had it applied, we know what it means. Thou wilt keep
him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he
trusteth in thee. Well, I want to think then this
evening How did these women obtain this piece? Because in looking
at how they obtained it, then we shall be given lessons and
a pointer as to how we also may obtain this piece. And there's
three main things, and I'll name these points, and then we'll
go back and we'll have a look at them in more detail. The first
thing is this, that they, in their trouble, and it was trouble
that they both had, in their trouble, they went to Jesus. That was the first thing. The second thing is that they
both had faith given them. Before the words of our text
and before that spoken in verse 48 in chapter eight, it is faith,
thy faith hath made thee whole, and thy faith hath saved thee. Go in peace. The third was, their peace was
spoken to them by the Lord. By the Lord. He had authority
to do so. Let us look then at these points
a little more closely. Firstly, in their trouble they
went to Jesus. Does it matter really whom we
go to? You know the Roman Catholic Church
will teach that we may go to a priest or a man and that we
may confess our sins to him and that he will pronounce forgiveness
and peace. The Bible does not teach that. We are to come to the Lord Jesus
Christ, the saviour of sinners, not to sinners. Cease ye from
man whose breath is in his nostrils, wherewith shall he be accounted
off. We are to confess our sins before
the Lord. How clearly we have it in the
epistles of John, the first epistle. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness, and that confession is unto the Lord. How vital it is that whatever
our experience, whatever our religion, whatever our faith
is, if it is a true faith, If it is a true work of the Holy
Spirit of God, it will always lead to Christ, always lead to
Jesus. The Holy Spirit, our Lord said,
He shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you. Always
the effect of God's work is to draw a sinner to Christ. He says, and I, if I be lifted
up above the earth, would roar all men unto me. There's none
other name given among men whereby we must be saved. The great privilege
under the gospel is that we may go direct to the Lord, not through
man, not through a priest, not through any other means, but
direct in prayer to the Lord. Call upon me in the day of trouble,
I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. We seek unto
the Lord by prayer, we seek him in his word, we seek him in his
sanctuary, but we seek the Lord Jesus Christ. What is the house
to me if the master I cannot see? We desire that the Lord
will be there and these dear women They came to the Lord. They came directly to him, not
just in the house and someone else was close to the Lord. Both
of them, they were touching him, they were with him. They had to be brought nigh. There's
no use being an outer court worshipper. No use being one that has no
communication with our Lord Jesus Christ. Why was it so necessary that
they came to him? Because he had the power to give
peace, real peace, the authority. Why? Because he is the sinner's
substitute was to endure the wrath of God in himself on Calvary's
tree, to bear the sin of many, to take away their sins on Calvary's
tree. That is what he has done. God could not, we speak reverently,
he could not from his eternal throne and using his almighty
power, just speak peace to guilty, hell-deserving sinners. To be
able to speak peace to them, he must first endure the wrath
of God himself. He must first bear their sins
in his body on the tree. He must first make a way that
there can be peace, and that is only when the debt is settled. Our Lord spoke there of the parable
of those that owe little and those much. But when that debt
is just frankly forgiven, it is settled. There is justice
with the Lord. There is always justice. You
know, we don't like to see injustices in the world, do we? We might
get those that are held up before the courts have done something
Very wrong. But what if we heard that the
court had let them go free? So why did you let them go free?
Well, they spoke of some charity works that they'd done and they
had a good reference from their employer and so it didn't matter
that they'd injured this person or stolen these things because
all of these other good works, they'd make up for it. We wouldn't
think that was justice, would we? There's many that will say,
well, I'm a good person. I'm good to people. I'm not a
sinner. I'm not so bad at all. In effect,
they're saying, well, those things that are not perfect
in my life and all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God, that I'll make up those by some good things that I've
done. I don't need the Lord. I don't
need his precious blood. I don't need his salvation because
I can balance it with my own works. That will never ever stand
in the court of heaven. And that's why we need the Lord. That's why we need to come before
him. That he atone for all of our
sins. Blot them all out. Endure the
wrath of God for all of them, and so then has the authority
to speak peace to our souls. You know, if we owed a debt with
a firm, and we had a friend that said, I will go and I'll settle
your debt, and you were very worried about this, But if they
then went and they settled the debt and they paid your bills
and then came to you and said, now you don't need to worry at
all, here's the receipt, go in peace. You'd go in peace because
you saw the evidence, you'd realise the debt was paid. But if they
came and they said, look, I couldn't find them, but don't worry, just
go in peace anyway, you'd be really worried, wouldn't you?
because you'd think that debt was still on your account. Or
if they came back and there was no receipt, there was no evidence
of it whatsoever. But with the Lord Jesus Christ
we have an empty tomb, a risen Saviour, and the Lord's presence
in heaven and the promise of the Holy Spirit to send forth
his word and to bless the word and the accounts of the miracles
of the apostles and the blessing of the ministry of the apostles
is proof of our Lord's presence in heaven and the gift of the
Holy Spirit and the acceptance of his sacrifice atoning for
sin. It is vital that we come to the
only name given among men, whereby we must be saved. We're to have
the peace that these women had. This is the first thing. Our
aim, our desire should be Jesus only. And that we seek unto the
Lord, pray to him, call upon me, Call upon the Lord and seek
him in his word. The second thing is this. They
had faith given them. This was spoken to both these
accounts and it struck me when we read this portion this evening
The contrast between these two women and the disciples in the
boat. And faith is, in one aspect,
it is trusting, isn't it? Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. Without faith it is impossible
to please God. He that cometh to God must believe
that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
him. It is a trusting in his salvation,
a trusting in his word, a trusting in his power, a casting all upon
him. relying upon him. But the dear disciples, when
they were in the boat, they cried, they said, Master, Master, we
perish. In verse 24, chapter 8. Then
he arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water,
and they ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto
them, Where is your faith? Where is your faith? What a different
word to that spoken to the dear women. With them, he said to
them that it was because of their faith that they were healed. Thy faith hath made thee whole,
go in peace. Thy faith hath saved thee, go
in peace. It's spoken of as their. And
we're told in Hebrews 12, the Lord is the author and finisher
of our faith. By grace ye are saved through
faith, and that, that is faith, and that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God. God gives faith, sovereignly,
freely gives faith. And faith here was evidenced
in these two women in their venturing to the Lord Jesus Christ. In
all that they did, in their venturing to touch, in their venturing
to get near, to wash his feet, to anoint them, to be crying
before him. The effect of faith. It will
lead to the giver of faith. True faith, it supports the soul. Imagined faith, we've got to
support it. Now sometimes you see the dear
friends in the aged people's homes and it may have been deemed that
they need some help in walking and they're given a walking frame.
You know, I've seen some of those friends, and they walk along
and they carry the frame. And instead of it being a help,
it's a burden to them. They'd be better off without
it, rather than just carrying it. Then you see others, and
they're walking along and they're leaning hard upon that frame. They need it, the whole weight
is upon it. It supports them. They are not
supporting it. And where the Lord gives through
faith, then that will be that which brings us to the Lord. He'll bring forth those fruits
of a soul led to Christ. And faith will always, it will
trust in the Lord and in his holy word. Now those without
faith, they pick and choose what they hear of the word of God. They have their ideas of how
they can be saved or what God requires and what he loves and
what he doesn't love. But where we have true faith,
we'll read the word of God and we'll come to know what the Lord
loves and know what he hates and hear the word of God. and that will be our guide and
we'll trust in that. Faith is that which reads and
trusts and hangs upon the word of God. Thou says I will surely
do thee good. The whole gospel, the good news
of salvation is to be received by faith. Believe that God has
done what he has done. Believe that Christ has accomplished
what he has accomplished and believe that there is salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a way of escape. There
is hope for poor sinners. That is what faith does. It brings
one to venture, to venture upon the Lord. If I perish, I perish. But convinced of this, if ever
my poor soul be saved, the hymn writer says, tis Christ must
be the way. Another hymn, I could from all
things parted be, but never, never, Lord, from thee. Realizing
how valuable, how indispensable, how vital our Lord Jesus Christ
is. In the third place, their peace
was spoken to them by the Lord. They didn't just speak it into
their own soul. There was a time. There was a
time when they were weeping. There was a time when they were
pressing, venturing. But then there was a time that
they were hearing his voice. They were hearing him speaking
peace. That was spoken by the Lord,
the authority of heaven. Now, the Lord may, of course,
speak through his servants and our Lord is ascended into heaven
and his servants ascend forth to preach the word of God. He
that receiveth you, receiveth me. He that receiveth me, says
our Lord receiveth him that sent me. The Apostle Paul says of
the Thessalonians that ye receive the word as it is in truth the
word of God and not the word of man. When we preach we preach
the word, that is our commission, preach the word. And as the word
then is spoken and preached authoritatively declared in the ministry, God
uses that. He speaks that into the souls
of his people. conveying peace and comfort and
blessing through that word. We think of how it was with Hannah
in the days of Eli, when she came childless, begging of the
Lord that he would give a man child, promising that if he did,
she would lend him to the Lord forever. Eli first, or the days
of his life rather, Eli first mistook her for a woman that
was Drunken, her voice was not heard, her lips were just moving
in prayer. But when he understood, he said
this, he said, Lord, go in peace, go in peace. The Lord give thee
the petition that thou hast asked of him. And the Lord did. The
Lord gave Samuel, and later on she comes and she says, I am
the woman. For this child I prayed, and
God hath given me my petition that I asked of him. And we read
of her when she went away. She still was not pregnant, she
still had not got the child, but she had got what Eli said,
go in peace. And we read that she went away
and was no more sad. What a wonderful thing, we went
away from the house of God, from the word this evening, and we're
no more sad. come sad, started to hear sad,
and then went away, no more sad, no more sad. Peace conveyed through
the word, through the truth. The Holy Spirit applying the
word, and a conviction felt within that what you have heard is the
truth, it is the word of God, and there is peace in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We sung it in our first hymn,
didn't we? Beautiful hymn, peace by his
cross as Jesus made. May we know that peace spoken
into our hearts and may we go from the house of God this evening
with that peace. Peace through the precious blood
of the Lamb of God, trusting that he lived and died for us
and put away our sin and paid our debt, and bids us go in peace. You know, we think of the dear
disciples when they were persecuted. Being let go, they went to their
own company. The Lord speak peace and blessing
in your soul in this way. Your own company, my own company,
will be the people of God. He'll draw us to them. He'll
draw us to the house of God. He'll draw us to those that know
this same Jesus. We'll be followers of him and
followers of his dear people. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen.