Boy, what a joy to see old friends,
to see brethren I haven't seen in a long time. It's been too
long, and I'm thankful to be here and pray the Lord will bless
our time together as we attempt to worship Him. Brother Marvin
read this portion of Scripture in Luke 8. It's a very familiar
portion of Scripture to us. And I want to point out a word
to you. Did you notice in verse 46, our
Lord said, somebody, somebody had touched me. Somebody. Now, I'm getting old enough and I
think some of you all, I was shocked to find out how old some
of you are. The years do go by. Y'all are
in good health, many of you. As I have aged, I seem to encounter
more and more people who wonder, has the Lord saved me? Has He
saved me? And that's a good thing to want
to know. Has the Lord saved me? Has He saved you? The answer
to that question is vital and can be understood better if we
know the attributes of God. That will determine who he saves. Attributes are traits or characteristics. You all know them. You've been
taught them by Brother Scott and your pastor now. God's holy. He's absolutely holy. Everything
God does, says, or is must be holy. Now the question is, If
God's going to save me, can God save me and still be holy? Another attribute of God is He's
righteous. All His acts, all His ways are
right. He'll never be justly charged
with unrighteousness because it's against His character. And
the question is, can God save me and still be righteous? It doesn't matter what characteristic
of God we look at. Immutability, that's a big word
that means God doesn't change. And we have to understand, if
saving me requires Him to change in any way, shape, or form, it's
not going to happen. God's not going to change for
anyone. God never has changed and never
will. So, can God save me without changing? God is just. He will honor His
law. The soul that sinneth, it shall
surely die. So can God save me? Can He save
you and still be just? And this is the core and the
heart of the gospel. The only way God can possibly
save anybody and honor His character, we're all unholy. We're all unrighteous. What that must mean is that he's
got to find a way to honor his character if he's going to save
us at the same time. And this is the gospel. You know
how God does that? Everyone he saves, he makes just
as righteous as himself. Everybody he saves, he makes
just as holy as himself. And he doesn't change one thing
about himself. Oh, he changes us. You'll change those he's
going to save, and you'll do it and still be just, and the
justifier of the ungodly. You say, how does he do that?
Well, the Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, He became a man. That's
a miracle. God became a man, and yet He
stayed God. And that man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, He lived an entire life, 30 plus years. And he was righteous
and right the whole time. He was holy. He honored God's
law. He didn't change from the day
he was born until the day he died. But oh, when he died, there
was a change. You know what happened? He took
our place and he gave us his place. He was made sin so those
he chose to save could be righteous. He made Himself, He took His
perfect holiness and gave it to those He's going to save.
And He became what He did on that cross. And He lived in our
place and He died in our place. Now, so who's He going to save? Those who are in His Son. Now
that's the gospel, the quickest and the best I know to tell it.
But we're still back to the question, who's He going to save? Well,
I read here he's going to save somebody. It said somebody, doesn't
it? He said somebody touched me and
then he saved that woman. So he's going to save somebody.
And you see, this may sound too strong to you, but one of God's
attributes is love. Another is mercy. And he's not
going to change those. He must honor those attributes.
You know, the only way he can do that is to save somebody. You've got to save somebody.
He must save somebody. You say, wait a minute, that's
pretty strong. God must do something. Well,
over there in another place, it says, He must go through Samaria. Why do you have to do that? To
save that woman at the well. You see, He must. He must save
somebody or he couldn't honor his attributes of love and mercy. So he's going to save somebody.
And I'm right back where I started. Is that going to be me? Is that
going to be you? Will he save us? Well, let's
look at this woman and see if we can see some common characteristics
of those whom he will save. Did you notice the first thing
about this woman? Is she'd been sick a long time. Boy, 12 years. I mean about a day and a half
is enough for me. Rebecca says, I'd rather be sick
than you. It's not any fun to take care
of. After about three hours of being sick, I'm a mess. And I
apologize for it, but can you imagine being sick for 12 years?
Getting up every morning for 12 years and feeling bad, being
sick. So she'd been sick a long time. Anybody here been sick a long
time? Boy, I have. I found out I was born that way. I was born sick. Called sin sick. And it started with Adam. It started the day I was born.
And it's not going to change unless God changes me. I've been
sick a long time. Now, here's the question. How
sick are you? Turn over to Jeremiah 30. with
me and let me show you a scripture there. Just how sick are we?
Are we as sick as this woman was? I'll tell you about the sickness
of sin. It's not like a bad cold or the flu or the poison ivy
that's going to go away sooner or later. No, sin sick is a whole
lot worse than that. Have you got Jeremiah 30, verse
12? For thus saith the Lord, the
bruise we have It's incurable. The wound you have, it's grievous. It's grievous. That means it's
a bad, bad wound. It's not a slip with a kitchen
knife and you caught the edge of your finger here. Buddy, this
one, you took that blade right up onto your ribs and it went
right through your heart. My heart is wounded. terribly, grievously. And there's
nobody to plead your cause. There's no doctor can fix this
in this world. You can't run down to the clinic
here and get this taken care of. That thou mayest be bound
up. Thou hast no healing medicine. We're just like this woman. We've
been sick a long time. And folks, there's no cure in
this world for this sickness we have, this sin sickness. Look what happened next. She
found out there was no help anywhere. It says, did you notice as you
read this? I'm sure she'd tried the cure. I'm sure she had said,
all right, I got this problem. I'm going to get off of caffeine. And I'm going to quit taking
Advil because that makes you bleed worse. And I'm going to
try this, I'm going to try that. I'm sure she tried all the self-help
things she knew to do. And she was no better. And then
she went to the doctor. She actually went, it doesn't
say to the doctor, she went to all the physicians. Y'all ever
been sick, been to the doctor and said, well, I think we better
send you down to the specialist at the hospital. And you get
down there and he says, you know, I think we better send you across
the building to that other guy who knows even more than I know
about what... I tell you, she bounced around to all of them.
And you know what all of them did? They took her money and
she was no better. No, no. You know, there's no
cure in this world for sin sick. This disease we've got that we've
had all our life, we were born with, there's no cure in this
world. We're just like this woman. Nothing
can make it better. Turn a few pages over to Jeremiah
46. She had even tried the religious
doctors. I've seen this before, I know
you all have too. This folks got no use to come
here and hear the gospel. You've asked them before, but
I tell you what, they get a little sick. They get down to the doctor
and they find out, they hear the big C. They hear that word,
boy, and folks get religion in. They start watching those programs
on TV. They're not apt to want to come
here because your pastor is not going to stand up and put hands
on them and do all these things that the religious doctors of
the world do. But folks get sick, and then
they start getting serious about a cure. And look at Jeremiah
46, look at verse 11. Going up to Gilead. Gilead was
a place where they had this special balm that they drew out of trees
or something. And it was supposed to fix a
lot of things. It said, Go up unto Gilead, and
take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt. In vain shalt thou
use many medicines, for thou shalt not be cured. There's no
cure in this life, I'm sorry. It's a long sickness. You're
born with it. You're going to carry it to the
grave. And there's no cure in this world. No doctor can make
this any better. And men will do almost anything
before they'll come to Christ. He said, others come to you in
their own name, then you'll receive. But I come in my Father's name,
and you receive them not. Does anybody think that's any
different now? I don't recommend you watch it
on TV, but you ever watch these religious fellows? They call
people down front and touch them and say you're healed and all
this kind of thing. Folks will run and do that. But
your pastor stands up here and says the only cure there is is
Christ crucified. I don't want to hear that. I
don't want any part of that. No sirree. Well, the beginning of the cure,
back in our text, in Luke chapter 8, the beginning of the cure
is in verse 43 here. It says, she spent all she had. That's the beginning of the way
back, is spending all you got. Look at Isaiah 52 with me. Turn over there. For most folks, until the money
runs out, they're not much interested in
free grace. It binds us to the world, and
it takes bankruptcy before we're ready to... The proof of this is the extent
to which folks will go. I heard of a man who flew himself
to Argentina and spent every penny he had on a man there who
promised he could make him well. When his money was gone, he had
to take a train back all the way up through Mexico or what
have you, because his money was gone and he was no better. All
the promises of this world add up to that. Bankruptcy. Bankruptcy. Well, she got to that place.
And look here in Isaiah 52. Have you got verses 2 and 3?
Shake thyself. from the dust, arise and sit
down, O Jerusalem. Loose thyself from the bands
of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. For thus saith the Lord,
you sold yourselves for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without
money." You know what the price of being cured by the Lord Jesus
Christ is? Nothing. Being broke. Having nothing to bring, nothing
to give, nothing to do. Then you're qualified. Then you're
a candidate to be somebody that the Lord Jesus Christ is going
to save. Now notice the third thing. She'd been sick a long
time. Secondly, she found no cure. And then, I like this,
the account in the book of Mark of this same incidence, it says,
when she heard of Jesus, she came and depressed behind him
and touched him. And you know how she came? A
lot of folks, you have to sort of read between the lines. There
was a mob around him. All these people, the disciples,
when he questioned, somebody touched me, they said, well,
you know, everybody's touching you. They're rubbing up against
you and jostling or what have you. You know how she came? I'm
convinced. She got on her hands and knees
and crawled between the legs of all those people until she
finally got close enough to reach out and touch the Lord. Most
of us aren't willing to crawl, are we? No. Folks are willing to walk down
the aisle and shake the preacher's hand. Folks are willing to give
to build a new arm on the building or this and that and the other.
But how about getting down in the dirt? Kneel before Him. You notice you touched Him. And you know what a thirsty man will
do? He'll ask for a drink. You know what a dead man will
do? He'll hear Christ who has life. You know what a hungry
man will do? He'll ask for bread. You know
what this sick woman did? She came to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's what it's going to take. We have to realize we're
sick. We've been sick a long time from
the day we were born. We came forth from our mother's
womb, what? Speaking lies. From the top of
our head to the sole of our feet, we are full of putrefying swords. Did y'all ever notice that picture
on Brother Scott's wall in here? Do you know who that is on that
wall? That's a leper. That's a leper that a fellow
saw in Mexico and painted. And do you know what he was?
He was so eat up with leprosy he couldn't see. And he painted
it kindly. There's the knots and the gnarls. The first time I went to Mexico,
I saw a fellow on the corner begging, and I asked Walter Gruber,
I said, what's wrong with him? He said, he's a leper. And I
tell you what, people didn't want to touch him. They didn't
want to be near him. They didn't want anything to
do with him. And I tell you what, when we realize that's our case,
we're lepers. We're bankrupt. We're broke.
There's no help or hope for us. And then we'll cry out. We'll
do what this woman did. She came. She came to the Lord
Jesus Christ. And notice how she came. She
didn't wait for a convenient season. She didn't walk an aisle
or get cleaned up first or rededicate or quit her smoking or drinking
or whatever. Notice the word that says she came trembling. Trembling. Now, let me tell you
what that means when somebody trembles. It can be a sign of
old age, I realize I'm getting some of that now and it concerns
me, but trembling means that something we've beheld gives
us a sense of our complete and total inability and worthlessness
in the light of what we've beheld. If we ever see the Lord Jesus
Christ, you know what we'll do? We'll tremble. You say, have
you ever trembled, Bob? Oh, yeah. I've seen some things that make
me tremble on the outside. But seeing the Lord Jesus Christ
will make us tremble on the inside. You know, somebody who really
gets to trembling, I don't know if you can all see me or not,
but you know what happens? You may tremble up here or what
have you, but if you get to trembling down here, you know what'll happen?
Pretty soon you'll lose it and go down. And that's what happens
if we see the Lord Jesus Christ in all His glory, in His beauty
and His magnitude of His honor and majesty and wonderful. When we see that, we'll go down. We'll go down just like this
woman did. She didn't mind to go down. And turn to Acts chapter
16 with me. This is a common occurrence among
the somebodies that the Lord Jesus Christ will save. There
was a harlot who fell at his feet and bathed his feet with
tears. There was Mary, Martha's sister.
Where did she want to sit? At his feet. There was John on
the Isle of Patmos. You know what happened when the
Lord appeared to him there? He fell as a dead man. It's the scriptural
way to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's another example
of it in Acts 16 verse 29. This is when Paul and those fellows
were in the prison there and the earthquake came. And what
happened to verse 29? Then he called for a light and
sprang in and came trembling, trembling, he's trembling, and
he fell down before Paul and Silas and brought them out and
said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Now, that's a good
question, isn't it? If the Lord is going to save
somebody, what must I do to be saved? And look at the answer.
And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt
be saved. and all thy house." I tell you
what, he didn't have to go buy anything. He didn't have to do
anything but tremble, fall at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and believe on Him. So, this woman then noticed what
she did next. She acknowledged her sickness.
She acknowledged there was no cure. She acknowledged that she'd
heard of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then she came to him, trembling
and falling down, and then she touched him. She laid hold on
the Lord Jesus Christ. And after all the vain attempts
and difficult efforts that she'd made, she did the simplest, easiest,
freest thing she could. She reached out and touched the
Lord. The cure doesn't lie in the touch. It lies in the one whom she touched. Do we see the difference in that?
It's not that she did something, that she touched. How'd she do
that? We don't do anything without
the power and will of God coming to effect on us. She reached
out and touched the Lord. But it's not the touch, it's
who she touched. The power is not in the hand
that touches, but in the divine Savior who is touched. Faith
didn't cure her. The Lord Jesus Christ did. He's
the great physician. And the Lord's going to save
somebody. He's going to save somebody. Did you notice, I rejoice
greatly in this fact. Do you realize what He called
her after He saved her and revealed Himself to her? Look back in
the text, and I want you to see in Luke 8 what he called her. You see in verse 48, he said to her, daughter. Daughter. Now, let me ask you
all something. You've got a daughter, right?
You've got a daughter, right? I've got a daughter. Boy, she's
the apple of my eye, I've got to tell you. She's about the
sweetest thing I know. I can't think of a more affectionate
thing I'd want to call her. Daughter. That carries with it
honey, baby, sweetie, darling. It carries all those things with
it. Daughter. She's the one and only
daughter I have. When the Lord saves somebody,
you know what? You're the only daughter He's
got. You're the only son He has. You say, how can that be? How
can God save so many here? And you say, there's just like
one daughter? No, I tell you, there's only
one, the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you're in Him, you are
the son and daughter of God Almighty. And that's who he'll save. That's
who he'll save. Now, let me warn you about something. If you think, well turn over
to Acts 5, I want to show you this. If you think that there
was somebody, You know, I ran into this thing over here on
the wall. Brother Scott said, what's a preacher? A nobody who
tells everybody about somebody who can save anybody. I really
like that. I wish I'd known that far enough
in advance to use it tonight in a little different way. But
what a marvelous statement that is. And the problem is, by nature, you
know who we think we are? We think we're somebody. Let somebody insult you by saying,
you know, you're a nobody. You're just a nobody. Now, it
wouldn't insult you really, because you know that's true, don't you?
I mean, it used to bother me when people said ugly things
to me. And I've come to the place where I understand it's not as
bad as what they could be saying that was true. Most of the time,
it's better than what I am. But you can't think you're somebody.
You've got to think you're nobody. Look at Acts 5 of somebody who
thought they were a somebody. In Acts 5, verse 33, there was
a big brouhaha here. And these fellows were all upset
in verse 33. When they heard that, they were
cut to the heart and took counsel to slay these fellows, these
disciples of the Lord. Then stood there, up one of the
council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, who was a doctor of the law and
had a reputation among all the people, and commanded to put
the apostles forth a little space. He said, wait a minute, they
were going to kill these guys. And Gamaliel said to them, you
men of Israel, take heed to yourselves, what you intend to do is touching
these men. For before these days there rose
up a man named Theodos, boasting himself to be somebody. Y'all
see that? God's not saving this kind of
somebody. He said, "...he boasted himself to be somebody to whom
a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves, who were slain.
And all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered and brought to
nothing. And after this, there was a man who rose up, Judas
of Galilee, in the days of the taxing, and he drew away much
people after him. He also perished, and all, even
as many as obeyed him, were dispersed. And now I say unto you, refrain
from these men, and let them alone. For if this counsel or
this work be of men, it will come to nothing. But if it be
of God, you cannot overthrow it, lest happily you be found
even to fight against God." Now, let me tell you what we just
read there. Anybody who thinks they're somebody is going to
wind up being a nobody. And it's going to be in a bad
place. Going to wind up in a terrible place. But on the other hand,
anybody who thinks they're nobody, who will tremble and bow in the
presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, understanding I'm nobody. I've
nothing I can bring before God that He's going to be pleased
with. Not a thing I can do. I'm hopeless. I'm helpless. I'm
sick from my head to my toe. I can't help myself. I can't
save myself. I'm in trouble. Have been all
my life. All I can do is fall down at
the feet and beg the Lord Jesus Christ to have mercy on me. Reach out and touch the Lord
as He passes by. He's not too busy to show mercy. And you know what that nobody
does? You know what that nobody hears?
Daughter. Daughter. Son. He opens up his
arms and receives as many somebodies as come to him. Now, don't let
that surprise us. Simply believe it so. And one
of the real joys of this life. You say, how do I know if I'm
one of the somebodies? Brother Scott had a great answer
to that. You know what he said? He'd say, well, check back with
me in 20 or 30 years. And in a way, that was a pretty
good answer. Because a lot of folks claim
to be daughters and sons of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they'd
look up and they'd be gone. And that's too bad that nobody
rejoices in that. It's too bad. The other answer
that seemed really appropriate tonight is, how do you know if
you're one of the somebodies that the Lord Jesus Christ saved? Well, did you notice? Did you
notice what he did? This woman, she knew she'd been
healed. She knew it. Her blood stopped. You've been bleeding for 12 years.
When it stops, you know it. Okay? No false alarms there. It stops. You know it. And you know what? She was so self-conscious of
this, I'm convinced she was so overcome with joy at being healed,
finding out she wasn't sick anymore. That's what got people to find
out, we're not ten sick anymore. Christ took it away. But the
Lord, the reason He said, somebody touched me, And they said, well,
everybody's around you. He said, somebody touch me. You
know why I insisted? He doesn't have any secret disciples. This woman, she said, it was
me. It was me. I'm the somebody who's
a nobody that he saved, that he healed. You know how you know
if you're a somebody? The Lord has no secret disciples. You know what they do? They say,
Pastor, I want to be baptized. I want to be identified with
the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to follow Him in believer's
baptism. I want everybody to know that
my only hope is not that I cured myself or I saved myself or anything
else. My only hope is that when the
Lord Jesus Christ lived, I lived. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
marched up Calvary and nailed to that tree and died, I died. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
rose from the grave, I rose too. And I'm just living the rest
of this life waiting until I see Him face to face. And the way
we do that is we fill up a pool with water as He ordained, and
we go down in it, and as a picture of what Christ has done for us,
To be identified with Him, we die, we're buried, and we rise
to newness of life. And isn't it a joy to find out
we've got a sister? We think, I'm a son of God, and
I've got a sister now. I didn't know she was my sister,
and I'm so glad. I've got a new brother. Isn't that a joy? We all rejoice
every time this happens. Well, may the Lord bless His
Word.