Let's all stand together. Art thou weary, art thou languid,
art thou sore distressed? Come to me, saith one, and coming
be at rest. Hath he marks to lead me to him,
if he be my guide? In his feet and hands are wound
prints, and his side. Is there die a deathless mark
that his brow adorns? of very surety, but of thorns. If I still hold closely to him,
what hath he at last? Sorrow vanquished, labor ended,
Jordan passed. If I ask him to receive me, will
he say me nay? Not till earth and not till heaven
pass away. Finding, following, keeping,
struggling, is he sure to bless? Saints, apostles, prophets, martyrs,
answer yes. Please be seated. Let's turn in our Bibles together
to 1 Samuel chapter 30. I've been thinking a lot about need
lately. And there's a story here where
David and his men had a need. And it came to pass, verse one,
when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day that
the Amalekites had invaded the south and Ziklag and smitten
Ziklag and burned it with fire and had taken the women captive
that were therein. They slew not any, either great
or small, but carried them away and went on their way. So David
and his men came to the city and behold, it was burned with
fire and their wives and their sons and their daughters were
taken captive. Then David and the people that
were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had
no more power to weep. Cried their hearts out. You ever been there? David's two wives were taken
captive. Ahinoam, the Jezreelite, and Abigail, the wife of Nabal,
the Carmelite. And David was greatly distressed,
for the people spake of stoning him, because the souls of all
the people were grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters,
but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God." And David said to Abiathar the
priest, Ahimelech son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought hither the
ephod to David. And David inquired at the Lord,
saying, shall I pursue after this troop, shall I overtake
them? And he answered him, pursue,
or thou shalt surely overtake them. And without fail, recover
all. Skip over to verse 16. And when
he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad upon
all the earth, eating and drinking and dancing because of all the
great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines
and out of the land of Judah. David and his 300 men find the
Amalekites reveling in their victory. In verse 17, David smote
them from twilight evening into evening of the next day. And
there escaped not a man of them, say 400 young men, which rode
upon camels and fled. And David recovered all that
the Amalekites had carried away. And David rescued his two wives. And there was nothing lacking
to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, Neither
spoil or anything that they had taken to them. David recovered
all. David recovered all. Oh, how we need the son of David
to recover for us all that's been lost as a result of our
sin. The Amalekites, a picture of
our flesh, they haunted the children of
Israel the entire time they were in the wilderness. And David got the victory. I'd like to ask you all to pray
for our daughter, Jennifer. She's over in Tampa today, having
tests for possible another surgery on her liver. And she has some
more tests tomorrow and then meet with a doctor sometime in
the next week or so to make a decision about what to do. So, covet your
prayers. Thank you for them. Let's pray
together. Oh, our merciful Heavenly Father,
how thankful we are to have King David sitting upon his throne,
ruling and reigning over all the enemies of God, over all
our enemies, and how through his death on Calvary's cross,
he got the victory and recovered everything. His wives were saved. His children were brought back
to him. How we pray that the Lord Jesus
Christ, the son of David, would be lifted up tonight. That we
would be encouraged in him. to know that all that sin has
taken away and all that sin continues to ravage in our flesh in this
world is recovered perfectly, made whole, made complete in
the sacrifice that our dear Savior made on Calvary's cross. Lord, encourage our hearts as
we wait on you. Father, we pray for Robert and
for Hugo as they prepare to preach here on Sunday and ask Lord that
you would give them gospel messages that would be an encouragement
to sinners. Pray for myself, Lord, that we
would be able to give some encouragement to the church in Spring Lake
and Lord for Rupert and Betty and for the brethren there, that
you would minister mercy and grace to them in their time of
need. And Father, we do pray for Jennifer. We ask, Lord, if there be any
way that you could spare her from another surgery, that you
would be pleased to do that. Pray for your mercy. Pray for
your grace. Pray for wisdom, Lord, for the
doctors, and pray for peace for our hearts as we wait on you.
We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's all stand. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly. While the nearer waters roll,
While the tempest still is high, Hide me, O my Savior, hide, Till
the storm of life is past, Safe into the haven guide, O receive
my soul at last. Other refuge have I none, hangs
my helpless soul on Thee. Thee I'll leave me not alone,
still support and comfort me. All my trust on Thee is stayed,
All my help from Thee I bring, Cover my defenseless head With
the shadow of Thy wing. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in Thee I find. Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind. Just and holy is I am all unrighteousness. False and full of sin I am. Thou art full of truth and grace. Plenteous grace with Thee is
found, Grace to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams
abound, Make and keep me pure within. Thou of life, the fountain art,
freely let me take of thee. Spring thou up within my heart,
rise to all eternity. Please be seated. We really are strangers in this
world, aren't we? This world is not our home. What hope, what comfort, what
grace the Lord gives us when he reminds us of the place that
he has prepared for us. Let not your heart be troubled. If you'd like to turn with me
in your Bibles, we're going to be looking at a very familiar
story from Mark chapter 5. I've titled this message, She
Had a Need. She had a need. I mentioned Sunday
that the word commitment is nowhere to be found in the Word of God.
We commit ourselves to those things that we have a need for. We have a need for our marriages
to do well. We'll be committed to those marriages. We have a need for our children
to be raised up under the gospel. We'll commit ourselves to them. And whatever we have a need for,
we will commit ourselves to that need. And if we have a need,
for a savior. The Lord has made us to be sinners. We've got no place else to go.
We will commit the care of our souls to Christ. And that's my
hope. My hope is that the spirit of
God will cause us to have a need. And that we will have no place
to go but the Lord Jesus Christ. And we'll commit everything to
him. Just put everything in His hands, knowing that He careth
for us. She had a need. She's nameless
in the Word of God. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell
us the story. Mark gives us a little more detail
than Matthew and Luke, so I've chosen this gospel writer to
look at the woman with the issue of blood. And I'd like to introduce
this message by saying that her name was certain. A certain woman. I like that word. You know, this
is not just a general call. I need a certain call made to
my heart. I need to know that I'm a certain
man. And the Lord has done a certain
work for me. Scripture speaks of a certain
day, and it speaks of certain peace. There's gonna be a day,
it's certain. It's already set on God's calendar,
and it's certain gonna happen on that day. And those certain
men and certain women that found themselves as sinners, needing
Christ, will have certain peace on that day. And as God's pleased
to enable them, they'll have certain peace now, waiting and
watching for that day with hope, with faith, encouragement. Scripture says, 1 Corinthians
chapter 4 verse 11, there is no certain dwelling place here. There's no certain dwelling place
here. You know, we make our plans, we have our homes, we have our
places, our families, our, you know, our things, but they're
not certain. There's no certain place here. In Acts chapter 17 verse 34 the
scripture says, certain men clave unto him and believed. The Apostle Paul preaching Christ.
Certain men. Not everybody, but certain men
did. A certain woman, the scripture
says, whose name was Lydia, was meeting in Philippi, praying. Seeking the Lord the Lord had
put that in her heart to do that and was preparing her for the
visit that Paul the Apostle would come and give to her and Then
the scripture says the Lord opened the heart of Lydia and she believed
oh I want to be certain don't you I want to be a certain person. I don't want to be just part
of the the general public, and I want to be certain that I'm
one of God's certain men. Lord, I believe the gospel, but
sometimes I don't know if it's for me. Well, you keep seeking
God until you know it's for you. Don't stop. Don't quit. You know, I mentioned Sunday,
what good is a salvation if we have no assurance? Well, that's
really not a good way to put it, because if we're saved, it
is good, whether we're sure or not. But what peace is there,
what hope, what comfort, what joy is there in a salvation that
we're not certain of? Lord, don't let me stop pursuing
you until I'm certain. I wanna be sure. I want to have
the comfort, I want to have a work of grace done in me like this
woman had done. She felt that something had been
done in her body when the Lord healed her. Paul said, when God,
who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace,
revealed Christ in me. In me, not to me, but in me.
I need for the Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed in me, so that
I can say with our brother Paul, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in
me. There was a certain man out of
all those folks that were at the pool of Bethesda waiting
for the angel to come and stir the water. There was a certain
man that had had an infirmity 32 years and the Lord Jesus Christ
singled that certain man out. What would you have me to do
for you? Lord, I've got no man. I've got
no man to help me. When the water stirred, there's
nobody to help me get into the water. Well, the only man that could
help him was there. That poor widow that gave her
two mites, scripture just refers to her as a certain poor widow. I want my name to be certain,
don't you? Here it is. Look at verse 25
in Mark chapter 5. And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood.
That's our issue. When a disease gets into the
blood, it affects every part of the
body. Life is in the blood. But spiritually
speaking, death is in the blood. And you and I inherited our father
Adam's blood. The reason the Lord Jesus Christ
had to be born of a virgin is because He couldn't have the
blood of Adam. He had to be holy and harmless and undefiled and
separate from sinners. He couldn't know anything about
infected blood. And He didn't. God put the sins of his people
on him, on Calvary's cross, his blood was still uninfected. It was. That's the mystery of
what happened on Calvary's cross, that when the Lord Jesus Christ
shed his precious blood to cleanse us of our sins, it had to be
without sin. He had no issue of blood. He
was charged with, He was imputed with, He bore in His body our
sins and felt the full shame of them. Beyond any guilt or
any shame that you and I have ever even come close to. I mean,
we get ashamed and embarrassed when we think about, you know,
something that we've done or something we've thought or something
we've said. The Lord Jesus Christ bore, and we're not, even then,
we're not really, we're not really embarrassed to the point that
we should be, are we? Yet he felt the full shame, the
full embarrassment, the full agony of sin, all sin. And yet his blood was never infected. Couldn't be. Had to be perfect
blood. When I see that blood, not when
I see the sacrifice of your blood, but when I see his blood, then
I'll pass by you. It's the only, the only thing
that washes away our sin is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
because he's the only man who never had an issue of blood.
Never. I'm so thankful. You and I are
like this certain woman, aren't we? We've got an issue of blood.
And it affects every part of us. It's just like the blood courses
through your body and feeds every cell of your body. It's not a
cell in your body that's not fed by blood. And so it is with our With our
fleshly condition, it's all infected with an issue. We've got issues,
don't we? Look at verse 26. Twelve years,
that's a number of completeness. And that's what we are, completely
sinful. Paul said the law is holy, but he said, I am carnal, sold
under sin. Everything about me is sinful.
You know, people think of sin only as a behavioral problem.
They think, well, you know, I've sinned here, I've sinned there.
We're complete 12 years. That's complete. That's the full
number There's 12 tribes in Israel and and that's the fullness of
this is all of God's people represented here And this is all of us represented
here an issue of blood that affects everything about us every thought
every motive Every action, every word we speak, we can't speak
a perfect word, we can't have a perfect thought, we can't...
Oh, but we need one that is perfect, and we have one that's perfect.
And when we see, that's why I said when God makes us to be a sinner,
And we're not just feeling guilty about some bad thing we did,
we've come to conclude by the grace of God that everything
about us is sinful. And if God gives me what I deserve,
I'm going to hell. It's not the shame of my sin,
it's the penalty of my sin. The penalty of my sin. I need
to be delivered from the penalty of sin. This life is short. It's coming to an end quickly.
The older I get, the more amazed I am of how little people think
about death. They just live their lives as
if, well, you know, we'll think about that later. We'll take
care of that. And they will suffer until the last moments of their
breath before they're confronted with it. I'm dying. What a blessing it is. to die
daily. To wake up every morning realizing
I'm another day closer to death. It's not going to be long. It's not going to be long. Thank
God it's not going to be long. What hope, what joy knowing that
we've got one who never had an issue of blood standing in our
stead before God. Presenting his precious blood
as a covering for our sin and God's pleased with him and God's
satisfied What hope? Lord give me what you gave to
this woman. She had a need I Look at verse
26. She suffered many things of many
physicians Turn to me to Jeremiah chapter
5 You understand that this is spiritual, this isn't a physical
malady. I have no sure word from God's
Word. We pray, we ask God for His mercy,
we ask Him to heal us. When we're sick, we call the
elders in the churches together and we plead for them to plead
for us. Particularly when it's our children.
But we've got no sure word from God that he's going to do that,
physically. But we do have, we do have the
assurance of the very Word of God. That he will heal us in
a way that's much, much, much more important. Take away our
issue of blood. Make us whole. heal us, save
our sin sick souls. So these physicians represent
false preachers is who they represent. You have your Bibles open to
Jeremiah. Look at Jeremiah chapter 5 verse 31. Verse 30 says, a horrible, a
wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land. That
doesn't mean wonderful good, it means that it's to be wondered
at. And only God's people Only God's
preachers hear what these false prophets say, and we wonder at
it, and we understand the horror of it, and the condition of the,
what doctor would you, I've talked to people all, just this week,
we talked to a couple folks that are anticipating surgeries, and
they're getting second opinions, and they're going to talk to
doctors, and one of the questions they ask is, how many of these
surgeries have you done? And what if you went to a doctor
and he told you, well, you know, I've done a thousand of them
and every single one of them, my patients died. Would you be
interested in that doctor? No. And yet, that's the condition
of these false prophets. Medical doctors take a Hippocratic
oath to do no harm. False preachers take a hypocritic
oath when they say peace, peace, when there is no peace. And they
lead people into thinking that things are well and they're dying
and they're losing all of their patients, every one of them. And it's a horrible thing. And
it's a thing that God's people just wonder at. Look at the condition
of all these physicians. Look at verse 31. The prophets
prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means, and
my people love to have it so, and what will you do in the end
thereof? No other profession has a higher
percentage of criminal negligence than preachers. And God has charged them. He's
charged them with malpractice. And they and all their patients
will suffer the full weight of His wrath. And we wonder at it. And we think,
oh God, give us the grace to try the spirits to know whether
they be of God. Don't let us be deceived. These
false prophets are so deceitful, and they say a lot of the things
that we'd say. And if it were possible, if it
were possible, even the elect would be deceived. It's not possible. Not possible. Look at verse 14
of chapter 6 in Jeremiah. They have healed also the hurt
of the daughter of my people slightly. They're prescribing
pain medicine to cancer patients. It's all they're doing. They're
putting band-aids on people that are dying. That's religion. And they're saying, peace, peace,
when there is no peace. They're hypocrites. Were they ashamed when they had
committed such abomination? Do these false prophets, do these
physicians do this in shame? No! No, they're not ashamed of
it at all. They're proud of what they're
doing. They're proud of their following. They're proud of their
message. They're proud of their God. They're
not ashamed. Nay, they are not at all ashamed.
Neither could they blush. Therefore they shall fall among
them that fall. At the time that I visit them,
they shall be cast down, saith the Lord. Now that's who this
woman with the issue of blood went to see. It seems like the Lord has allowed
many of his children, me included, and most of you, many of you,
to have experienced lots of different physicians before he graciously
takes you to the only physician that can heal. Go back with me to our text.
She had suffered many things of many physicians. I'm sure
that the first doctor she went to was Dr. Will Power. And his prescription to her was,
you know, just pray this prayer and really mean it. Commit yourself
to the Lord. You've got a free will. Just
accept Jesus. When Bartimaeus went to the Lord
for healing, remember, he cried out, Bartimaeus, a man in need.
Have mercy upon me, son of David. Shut up, Bartimaeus. Oh no, he
cried all the louder. He knew he had one opportunity.
The Lord was passing by and he may not ever come that way again.
And he wasn't gonna be quiet until the Lord heard his voice.
Be of good cheer, the master calleth thee. Bartimaeus, what
would you have for me to do for you? And Bartimaeus didn't say
that I might see. That's not what he said. Here's
what Bartimaeus said, that I might receive my sight. He didn't say, Lord, offer me
sight so that I can receive it. He said, Lord, what I need from
you is the ability to receive my sight from you. There's no
free will. Dr. free will, Dr. willpower is a false prophet. And all of his patients are dying.
And she had wasted everything she had on physicians and was
worse off now. Oh, I'm sure she prayed that
prayer. I'm sure that she committed herself to God. I'm sure that
she did all the things that Dr. Will Power told her to do and
she was worse off now than she was before because she still
had an issue of blood. And so then she went to Dr.. Work harder, and he told her
you know you're just not doing enough We need to We need to
let a little more blood out Boy, that's just what she needed in
it You know, you need to join this religious group, and you
need to get involved, and you need to join this committee,
and you need to be, you know, you need to go on mission trips,
and just work harder. Work harder. That's my prescription
for you. Ramp up your commitment. And she's worse off now. She
did all that. We're spiritually speaking now.
She went on mission trips. She ramped up her commitment.
And all she had to face was the Lord saying to her, depart from
me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. Dr. Will Power and Dr. Work Harder
gave her no comfort. And so she went to Dr. Moore, knowledge. And his prescription
was, you know, just go to seminary. Get an education. Learn some
theology. Get a vocabulary that other people
don't know what you're talking about. It'll impress folks. And
that knowledge will cure your issue of blood. Read the Puritans,
you know. Memorize more scripture. Just
doctor more knowledge will surely be able to cure you. Read the Greek and the Hebrew.
That'll fix your problem. Turn with me back to Jeremiah
chapter 8. Let me show you a passage here in Jeremiah chapter 8. Jeremiah chapter 8 verse 1. shall not be gathered nor be
buried, neither shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.
And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue
of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the
places, whether I have driven them, saith the Lord of hosts."
I've been there. I've dug up the bones of dead
theologians. You have too. We've read the
books. We've studied what Dr. Sounding
Brass and Dr. Tinkling Cymbal had to say. And
we put our hope in them. Dr. More Knowledge didn't help
us. Didn't help us at all. Not with
our issue of blood. It puffed up our knowledge. But it didn't take away our sin
problem. Herein is life eternal, that
they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent." Lord, don't let me be deceived with knowledge.
I want to know Christ. I have not yet apprehended that
which has apprehended me. But this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind, I press towards the prize of
the high calling in Christ Jesus, all that I might know Him. the
power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering. Lord, I need to know. I need
to know for certain that when you died on Calvary's cross,
I was in you. I need to know for certain that
when you rose from the grave, that you were the firstborn among
many brethren, and I'm one of them. I need to know that. That's my need. And knowledge
doesn't cut it. Knowledge doesn't get it for
me. I need to know in my heart, I need for you to do a work of
grace in me. And so she had been to Dr. Will
Power, and she had been to Dr. Work Harder, and she had been
to Dr. More Knowledge, and she was worse
off now than she was before. She had a little money left,
so she went to see Dr. Lawmonger. And he told her, he
said, just make the Bible your rule of life. Make the law your rule of life. Anything other than making Christ
your rule of life. Nothing wrong with making the
Bible the rule of life if you understand that the Bible is
a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ in the volume of the book
it is written of me. Christ is our rule of life. We
look to him, we follow after him, and we look through the
scriptures in order to discover him. Oh Lord, reveal yourself
to me in your word. Doctor, law monger doesn't help
me. All He does is make me worse
off. He puts me in a worse condition
than I was before. Because this issue of blood is
not going away and the law is not curing it. It might work
for some who have been able to convince themselves that they've
satisfied the demands of the law, but I can't convince myself
of that. The law still stands in judgment
of me. Every time I look to the law of God, it says guilty. Every
time I looked at any precept in God's Word and I consider
my obedience and my faithfulness, all I find is shame and guilt
and condemnation, I can't keep the law. Lord, I need one who
has kept the law for me. Dr. Will Power and Dr. Work Harder and Dr. More Knowledge,
Dr. Lawmonger have not helped me. Don't tell me touch not, taste
not, handle not. I've tried all of that and it
didn't cure my issue of blood. Don't give me the rules and regulations
of men to follow after. It gives me no comfort to my
soul. I've got a sin problem and it's
coursing through every fiber of my being. Every cell of my
body is infected by it. I've got an issue of blood. I
need a doctor that can heal me. And these false prophets are
doing me no good. I go to them and I'm worse now
than I was before. So she thought, well, maybe Dr.
Feelgood will be the physician that will help me out. And he'll
prescribe to me some pain medication and take away all the guilt and
shame of my sin and tell me how wonderful I am and how much God
loves me and has a wonderful plan for my life. And just tell
me, you know, bolster my self-esteem and help me to feel good about
myself. Don't tell me I'm a sinner. People
ask me, I remember a lady asked me one time, she said, are you
a positive preacher? And what she meant was, I like
listening to Dr. Feelgood. I like for preachers
to tell me how wonderful I am. I like for religious services
to be nothing more than mutual admiration societies where we
all build each other up and talk about how wonderful we are. And we all leave feeling good. Peace, peace, when there is no
peace. She was worse off in going to
these doctors than she was before. And Dr. Feelgood recommended
her to Dr. Think Positive. You know, just
get your thoughts in order. You know, you got stinking thinking.
If you just think positive, just have some good thoughts. Just
think positive and that'll cure your problem. So I tried having
positive thoughts, but the negative thoughts of this issue of blood
overwhelmed all my attempts to have positive thoughts. And Dr. Think Positive didn't
help me at all. He told me to go to the characters
of the Bible and do character sketches and learn from the strengths
of their lives and learn from their weaknesses and make them
a pattern for your life and just think good about everything and
it'll all be well. Peace, peace. And there is no
peace. So having spent all that she
had in all these physicians, She thought, well, maybe Dr. Tradition will be the one. He's been helping folks a long
time. He's been around a long time.
Maybe if I just get immersed into the traditions of religion,
that that'll be sufficient. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
15. I've seen Fiddler on the Roof. Papa sings, tradition, tradition. Oh, it gives balance to life
and it gives everybody a place and everybody purpose. And so
they ask him, and so he poses the question, you ask me, where
does tradition come from? And he says, I'll tell you. And then he says, I don't know.
I don't know. I don't know where it came from.
It just is. It's always been there. Men love tradition. They love altar calls. They love
invitations. They love bylaws and constitutions. They love denominations. They
love stained glass windows. And tradition makes me feel better. I know I've got an issue of blood.
Look what the Lord had to say about tradition. Matthew chapter
15, verse one, then came to Jesus, scribes and Pharisees, which
were of Jerusalem saying, why do thy disciples transgress the
traditions of the elders? For they wash not their hands
when they eat bread. We've got a tradition here. You
got to keep this tradition. But he answered and said unto
them, why do you also transgress the commandments of God by your
tradition? Your traditions are not from
God, they're from man. And you've established them because
it helps people. My people, you remember what
we read over there in Jeremiah? My people love it to be so. They
love all these doctors. except for the certain ones who
know they've got an issue of blood, and they're not satisfied
with these physicians. For God commanded, saying, Honor
thy father and thy mother, verse 4. And he that curseth father and
mother, let him die the death. But you say, Whosoever shall
say to his father and his mother, It is a gift, Now here's how
wicked they had become in their traditions. They kept all their
wealth to themselves. And when their mother and father
were in need of help, they said to their mother and father, Oh,
it's not really mine. I've already given it to the
Lord. It belongs to Him. I'm using it. I'm enjoying it.
I'm not giving you any of it. But I can't give it away because
I've already committed it to God. By whatsoever thou mightest be
profited by me, and honor not thy father and thy mother, you
shall be free. Thus you have made the commandment
of God of non-effect by your traditions, you hypocrites. Now that's what the doctors of
religion are, hypocrites. And all their patients are dying. Every one of them. All these doctors. Doctor ceremony. Old men love
ceremony, don't they? Yeah, I was talking to somebody
recently, he said, well, I just like to go to the church when
nobody's there and just sit there because I feel so calm there
and I feel peace there and remind the smells and the ceremony and
everything that goes on. I can relate to that. I know
something about that. That's what I felt. When I was
a boy growing up in a Catholic church, the smoke and mirrors,
and the stained glass windows and the smells and the statues
and everything that went on. Oh, that was... In my heart of
hearts I knew I had an issue of blood, but you know, I got
a sense of peace, a temporary cure. Pain medicine is all it
was for a fatal disease. Doesn't matter if you go to Dr. Ceremony who prescribes the liturgy
and sacraments of high church or prescribes the ceremony of
baptism in the Lord's table in a low church. If you look to
Ceremony for the hope of your salvation, that doctor will leave
you worse off than you were to start with. There is a doctor that has gone
very popular lately. Doctor Entertainment. Just come and we'll have fast-paced,
high-voltage services with lots of music and lots of drama and
lots of good things happening. And we'll wrap up all these Dr.
feel-goods and Dr. work harder and Dr. willpower and Dr. ceremony and
Dr. tradition all wrapped, we'll
wrap it all up in one. Dr. Entertainment, they tell
us in this modern day of television and video games and instant messaging
that men's attention span is not very long and so you have
to grab it quick. You have to preach like television
commercials, you know, they're 15 seconds, get to the point.
Men aren't going to listen past that, so let's just keep them
entertained. Have you been to some of those
doctors? Verse 26, back in our text. "...and
had suffered many things of many physicians." And here's the key. Here's the key. She had spent
all that she had. She was penniless. She had nothing. Finally, she's poor and needy. She's got nothing left to spend
on doctors. She spent everything she's got. And that's the reason that the
Lord lets us visit these other doctors until we're broke. We've got nothing. And we're
dying. And then she heard of Jesus. What did she hear? She heard
that He was the Messiah, the Son of God. She heard that He
was able to heal her. And she believed what she heard.
And so she came in the press of the crowd. I can see her now. Now she's unclean. According
to the law, a woman with an issue of blood, everything she touches
is ceremonially unclean. She's not able to socialize,
she's not able to be in crowds, she's not able to worship. She
is unclean according to the law. Isn't that us? Everything we put our hand to
becomes unclean because we touched it. If you've got an issue of blood,
that's the condition you're in. You can't worship God. And everything
you touch is unclean. You can't have social interaction
with people. You're just a mess. You need Christ. She heard of
him. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
comes by the word of God. And she believed the stories
that she heard and she pressed through the crowd. And she said,
if I could but touch his clothes, I'll be made whole. I believe
it. Adam, where art thou? Lord, I'm ashamed. For I'm naked. Who told you that you're naked?
Did you eat of the tree that's in the midst of the garden? Lord, the woman that you gave
me, she gave it to me and I did eat. There we are. Trying to sow fig leaves together
to cover our nakedness. And God says, did you eat of
that tree? Robert, you ate of that tree?
You did, didn't you? You ate of it, didn't you? And
you're naked. And the only hope that you have
to cover your nakedness before God are the clothes of the Lord
Jesus Christ. If I could but touch His clothes, That's the robe of righteousness.
There's power in his clothes. And so she touched his clothes
and he said, who touched me? And look, here it is. Verse 27, and when she heard
that Jesus came and pressed behind and touched his garment, for
she said, if I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.
And straightway the fountain of blood was dried up, and she
felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. Oh Lord,
give me your spirit, and cause your spirit to work in my heart,
enabling me to cry, Abba, Father. Or don't let me be satisfied
with just learning some things about Christ, about the gospel,
and about God. I need to know that you've done
a work in me. In me. You say, well, I don't
know if he has. Well, keep pressing. Keep pressing. Keep asking. He said if you knock,
the door will be opened to you. You gotta keep knocking. If you
ask, it will be given to you. If you seek, you will find it.
Don't stop until you know something's been done in you. You've got Christ. You can call out on God and have
boldness to approach the throne of grace and find help and mercy
in your time of need. That word boldness means confidence.
Confidence. That's what I need. Lord, I need
confidence. Right now I'm fear and trembling.
She comes and she touches his garment thinking if I could just
touch his clothes. And the scripture says, and Jesus
immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him. Now you can look up that word. It's the word power. power when God puts one in need with
the issue of blood and he lets them spend all that they've got
on quacks and they're left with nothing but Christ and they come
in the press and they say I know he can heal me if I can just
touch his garment I know he can heal me Virtue will go out of him. Who touched my clothes, the Lord
said. And the disciples, I mean, here
he is pressed in a crowd, everybody's touching him. What do you mean,
who touched you, Lord? Oh, look what he says. Verse 31, his disciples said
unto him, thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou,
who touched me? And he looked about to see her
that had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling,
knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him,
and told him all the truth. No more excuses. No more justification. Oh Lord, it was me. Just tell him all the truth.
All the truth. Don't hold anything back. Tell him how sinful you are.
Tell him how needy you are. Tell him how dependent you are
on him. Tell him all the truth. Your faith has made you whole. She had a need. A lot of folks
in that crowd touching the Lord, but not like her, not like her. You and I will commit ourselves
to that which we have a need for. Commit your soul to Christ. Do
you have a need? Got an issue of blood? None of those other doctors can
help. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for your word and we ask, Lord, that you would make us to be
like this certain woman. and give us the certainty of
knowing that you've done a work in us. For we ask it in Christ's
name. Amen. Thank you.