If you'd like to turn with me
to Luke chapter 8. Luke chapter 8. And we'll be
reading from this. And it came to pass that when
Jesus was returned, the people gladly received him, for they
were all waiting for him. And behold, there came a man
named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue, and he fell
down at Jesus' feet, and besought him that he would come into his
house. For he had only one daughter, about twelve years of age, and
she lay a-dying. But as he went, the people thronged
him. And a woman, having an issue
of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon
physicians, neither could be healed of any, came behind him
and touched the border of his garment. and immediately her
issue of blood stanched. And Jesus said, Who touched me?
When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master,
the multitude thronged thee, impressed thee, and sayest thou,
Who touched me? And Jesus said, Somebody hath
touched me, for I perceive that virtue hath gone out of me. And
when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling and
falling down before him. She declared unto him before
all the people for what cause she had touched him and how she
was healed immediately. And he said unto her, daughter,
be of good comfort. Thy faith hath made thee whole. So we have in this passage in
Luke chapter 8, one man named Jairus and another
who's unnamed. And they're both recorded in
this passage of scripture, both to serve, to illustrate the glory
of God and the salvation of sinners. But today I want to focus our
attention for a little while on our Lord's encounter with
this woman. This woman with an issue of blood. And so I have
a title for my message, which is One Needy Sinner. One Needy
Sinner. For context, our Lord Jesus had
just returned in a ship back from the land of the Gadarenes.
He'd gone across the sea to a man who was overtaken by devils,
and it was just a wonderful account. Such was the strength of the
man that he would break the chains and the bonds that held him.
And he roamed the mountains and ran amongst the tombs, naked
and crying and cutting himself with stones, beyond the help
of anyone, it would seem, except for our Lord Jesus. The Lord
spoke to him, the Lord spoke to him, and with a single command,
that man is made perfectly well. And I trust you admire the calmness
and composure of our Lord in every circumstance. He found
himself in the story ending with that scene of the people coming
to see what had happened to that man. And what did they find? They found him sitting and clothed
in his right mind, sitting and clothed in his right mind at
the feet of the Lord Jesus. And that's my prayer for us,
that we would find ourselves seated and clothed, seated, resting
in his finished work, clothed with his righteousness, and that
we would find ourselves in our right mind, knowing and believing
in the Lord Jesus Christ for all our salvation. The Lord Jesus
has returned and the people were there waiting for him. His fame
had gone out into the land and a great crowd pressed about him.
Could you imagine that crowd, the noise of that crowd, the
bustle, hustle and bustle of that crowd, jostling for a place
and it seemed that situation would be something best avoided. But we know that the Lord has
come there at the perfect time, don't we? The perfect time. He's
come there not only to make his way to the house of Jairus, but
he's come there to meet with this woman. this woman in need. This woman had no idea that she
had an appointment with the Lord and the Saviour appears to be
passing by her by chance. But we know better, don't we?
Every believing sinner has an appointment with the Lord. And
our appointment is always at the time of his choosing. We
don't make the appointment. He makes the appointment And
he arranges all the circumstances of our life, all the circumstances
of the lives of the children of God, in every minute detail,
to bring us to that appointment. He draws his people. He must
draw his people. And they would not come if he
did not draw his people. We read in John 6, don't we,
no man can come to me, no man can come to me except the Father
draw him, which has sent me draw him. And this is the message,
sorry, this is the mission of our Lord. This is the mission
of our Lord. That is the work the Father gave
him to do. In Luke 19, we read, for the
Son of Man has come to seek and save that which is lost. Last
week, Angus mentioned how the Lord, when he was 12 years of
age, accompanied his parents to Jerusalem, to the festival
of the Passover, and his parents were making their way back home.
And they'd been about a day into the journey, and they realized
that the Lord wasn't with them, and so they went back and searched
for him in Jerusalem. And after three days, they found
him. They found him sitting in the temple amongst the doctors
and amongst the teachers. and amongst the religious leaders.
And when they found him, they scolded him. They scolded him. But what was his answer to his
parents? He said, do you not know that I must be about my
father's business? Do you not know this? And so
as we read through these amazing accounts, graciously recorded
for us, we always see that our Lord Jesus Christ is always about
his Father's business, tending to his people, drawing his people
to him, and teaching his people. The Lord Jesus Christ was always
about his father's business. Every word that he uttered, every
place and every circumstance that he found himself in, all
his earthly ministry was about his father's business. And ever
moving to that one end, that one end being the cross, where
he would finish his father's work, Redeeming his people by
the sacrifice of himself. So we see in verse 41. Verse 41, the Lord Jesus had
this desperate request from Jairus concerning his daughter, who
was lying dying, and so the Lord Jesus is making his way to his
house. But there is a great press of people about him, surrounding
him, and this crowd is delaying his progress at every step. And
now there's another interruption which further delays him along
the way and while he was yet speaking to Joris. We see in
verse 43, a woman having an issue of blood, 12 years, which had
spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any,
came behind him and touched the border of his garment, and immediately
her issue of blood stanched. That is, it was stopped, immediately
stopped. And Jesus said, who touched me? Who touched me? In Mark's account
we read that the Lord turned about in the press. He stopped
and he turned about. He laid eyes on this woman. It would surely, it would seem
a matter of more urgency to go to Jairus's house, to attend
Jairus's daughter. But we need to remember that
nothing is an emergency for our Lord. There is no circumstance
that can alter his will, nothing at all. There's no event that
can thwart his purpose. There are no obstacles for our
Lord. His purpose is never hindered. Delays and interruptions are
unwelcome things in our life, but to the Lord they all serve
to glorify Him, and there are no obstacles for Him. His purpose
is never hindered. We know well how the Lord delayed,
don't we, in going to Lazarus. And that's a wonderful example
of the infallible purpose of our Lord. He declared, His sickness
is not under death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of
God might be glorified. And in the same way, the raising
of Jairus' daughter would be for the glory of God, that the
Son of God might be glorified. So all these events just simply
testified to the fact, the simple fact, that this one, this is
the one whom the prophets spoke of. This is the Messiah. You
recall John the Baptist had sent his disciples to ask the Lord
that question of him. Art thou he that should come?
Art thou he that should come? And the Lord said to John, what
things you have said and heard, how that the blind see, that
lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised. The dead are raised to the poor
the gospel is preached. The Gospel is preached. This
is how the Lord Jesus is being about his Father's business.
This crowd about him will not hinder his work, even though
they followed him closely, so closely that the Lord could hardly
make his way. So closely. Many were there perhaps
out of curiosity. Many perhaps were there to see
some sort of miraculous sign. But there was one in that crowd,
there was one in that crowd that was different from the rest.
One needy sinner, one desperate needy sinner. In Matthew's account
we read that she said within herself, if I may but touch his
garment, I shall be whole. But in order to understand this
woman's circumstance, we need to understand something of this
poor woman's affliction. We go back to the Levitical law. Levitical law, this woman's condition
of blood, deems her to be unclean in society. Unclean. Ceremonially
unclean and socially unclean. You can read about these laws
in Leviticus 15 where the Lord declares all manner of discharges
from the body as unclean, for men as well as women. Not only
is she herself unclean, there is a long list of things declared
unclean if she so much as touches them. Her bed, her clothes, other
people. And if another person touches
something that she's touched in that time of uncleanness,
they too become unclean and need to go about a ritual of cleaning
themselves. And so according to the law,
the Levitical law, this woman shouldn't even be seen in the
streets. Leviticus 15.25 says, if a woman
has an issue of blood many days, many days, 12 years for this
woman, 12 years. If a woman have an issue of 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." Put
simply, the problem for this woman, there was no time for
her separation. There was no opportunity for
cleansing. She was perpetually bleeding. She had a perpetual issue with
this. Twelve years she'd been forbidden
to go anywhere in public. Twelve years she'd been forbidden
to go to the synagogue. And we need to remember that
the synagogue in those days was not simply a place of religious
teaching. It was not simply a place for
religious assembly. The synagogue was more like the
hub of society. It was a community center where
many services were found. And she was forbidden to go there. She was one who was unclean,
isolated from society, and given her long illness, she was likely
bent over and anemic and sickly in appearance. But we also need
to understand that this woman's condition is a picture of us. It's a picture of us. A picture
of sinners. This body we have is a body of
corruption, and it's unclean before holy God. We are sinners
by nature, and the scriptures have much to say about our pitiful,
sinful condition. The scriptures in Job read, how
abominable and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like
water. Abominable and filthy, and drinketh
iniquity like water. We are creatures of sin. And because we are creatures
of sin, we have no idea how sinful we actually are. The natural
man cannot understand the things of God. He has no idea how offensive
his sin is before a holy God, and unless the Lord God mercifully
regenerates the sinner, that condition remains as it is. How
offensive is sin to a holy God? Well, we can consider the Lord
Jesus Christ in the garden before his crucifixion, sweating, as
it were, great drops of blood under the growing weight of the
sins of his people. And then the cross. then the
cross. That's where we see the true
reality of God's hatred against sin, of God's wrath against the
sins of his people. And that's where we see how God
must deal with sin. He must deal with sin. He can't
just sweep it under the carpet. Someone might ask, why doesn't
God just forgive us? Why doesn't he just forgive us?
The Lord tells us to forgive one another. Why can't he just
forgive us? Well, the answer to that question,
I believe, and I've been there before many times, is perfectly
answered in the book of Proverbs. If you just turn with me there
now just for a moment to Proverbs 17. Proverbs 17, verse 15. 1715, he that justifieth the wicked
and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination
to the Lord. He that justifieth the wicked.
In other words, he that declares that the wicked are actually
righteous. That's an abomination to the
Lord. Could you imagine if there was a grievous crime committed
in this town, and having been found guilty by the jury, without
doubt, the accused then stands before the judge, and the judge
is corrupt, and he says, not guilty, not guilty. Could you
imagine the outrage against that judge? And rightly so. The judge,
that judge is unjust. He that justifieth the wicked
is an abomination to the Lord. He that justifieth the wicked
and he that condemneth the just, he that condemneth the just.
In other words, he that condemns the innocent. If that person
was found guilty, sorry, was found not guilty, if that person
was found not guilty by the jury, But the judge declares guilty
and prescribes a punishment. That too is an abomination to
the Lord. God must punish sin. He must punish sin. Why? Because
God is just. God is righteous. God is holy. He is not corrupt. There is no
corruption in him. And the point we need to know
is that no sin will go unpunished. No sin. And this is why we love
passages such as Isaiah 53 and they are so precious to the children
of God. Isaiah 53 verse 5 says, He was
wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes
we are healed. Your sin and my sin will either
be punished in our bodies, or it will be punished in the substitute. And that's the Gospel message,
isn't it? Thank the Lord that God has provided
himself a substitute. God has provided himself a lamb. And we read the scripture which
says, God made him sin, who knew no sin that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. God made the Lord Jesus Christ
sin. And how seriously is that sin
treated? When the Lord God found that
sin upon his son, even his son was not spared. Our Lord Jesus
Christ was holy, harmless, and undefiled, completely without
sin. And had the Lord punished him
in that state, then such an act would be condemning the just.
But God made him sin. He made him sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. Back to our passage, there is
a detail we ought not overlook. This woman had been to every
doctor in town with no cure. These doctors are physicians
of no value. It's a spiritual picture. It's
a spiritual picture of people running here and there in false
religion, and they go anywhere they think that they'll find
relief, be it the church of legalism, be it the church of emotionalism
and experiences, be it the church of freewill works religion. They
consult these self-appointed physicians, these self-appointed
doctors standing behind pulpits when they should be consulting
the great physician. These men are not appointed by
God and they have no cure. They have no cure for this woman
and they have no cure for anyone. They don't have any cures for
the broken heart and they have no remedy for sin. But we know
full well that the Lord draws his people out. He will not fail
to do that. And this woman was drawn to the
Lord as a needy sinner, away from these physicians of no value. And how did this woman approach
the Lord Jesus? All these things are pictures
of how God saves sinners. I'm very interested in that.
How did this woman approach the Lord Jesus? Look with me in verse
44. She came behind him. She came
behind him, as small and insignificant as possible. I find this time
and time again in the scriptures, that true faith is always accompanied
with humility. I love those words of John the
Baptist concerning the Lord Jesus. John the Baptist says, I'm not
worthy to unloose the latchet of his shoes. He must increase
and I must decrease. The scripture says, God resists
the proud but gives grace to the humble. And in Psalm 51 we
can read yet another verse which beautifully puts it. The sacrifices
of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou
wilt not despise. Of course, we can't be sorry
enough for our sins. This is why we look to our Lord
Jesus. This is why we look to our Lord Jesus. He was the one
who was broken in spirit. He was the one with a broken
and contrite heart having borne the sins of his people in his
body. God will not despise that. The Lord was gracious to this
woman. But she saved, and she saved
like every sinner is saved. Saved through grace, by grace,
through faith. She is saved by grace, through
faith. And with the faith granted her,
she said in herself, if I could just touch him, that would be
enough. That would be sufficient. And
with everything she could muster, she touched the border of his
garment and immediately she was healed. Immediately she was healed. And this is what happens when
omnipotent power touches the corruption of our flesh. It overcomes
that corruption in an instant. And we see that there is a work
of faith. There must be a work of faith. The scripture says,
whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Without faith, it's impossible,
impossible to please God. Faith in his sin-attaining blood,
faith in the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in
verse 45, Jesus said, who touched me? The disciple said, there's
a multitude here pressing upon you. How can you ask who touched
me? How can you ask? Such a silly question, Lord.
And in verse 46, Jesus says, someone had touched me for I
perceived that virtue is gone out of me. She touched the son
of God and his virtue flowed freely to her. And when the woman
saw, in verse 47, that she was not hid, she came trembling and
falling down before him. She was trembling. Her action
was found out. Remember, this woman has violated
the law of God, the Levitical law of God. Perhaps she thought
she might be punished for her disregard. But she came, and
she came knowingly, didn't she? She came knowingly as an unclean
person and touched a clean person. She touched the border of his
garment. And we know that according to
the law, even touching clothes makes that clothing unclean.
And it makes the one who wears it unclean. But we are speaking
of that one who taketh away the sin of the world, the Lamb of
God. The law couldn't help her. It
stood against her. And the law stands against all
of us, should we even try to perform any of it. But here she
is. She's looking to that one who
fulfilled the law. He fulfilled the law. In Matthew
5 we read, Don't think not that I am come to destroy the law
or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but
to fulfill. fulfil. For verily I say unto
you, till heaven and earth pass, not one jot or one tittle shall
in no wise pass from the Lord till all be fulfilled." Friends,
our Lord Jesus Christ is the King of Righteousness. He is
perfectly able and did so, performed all the works of the law perfectly
before God and before men. It's exactly what he did and
he did it on behalf of his people. I'm so glad that the Lord is
looking to the Lord Jesus Christ for all my obedience, for all
my righteousness, for all he requires. Who touched me? Did the Lord not know who touched
him? The Lord Jesus Christ is the omnipotent one. He knows
all things. He knew the hearts of men. And
yet he asked that question. Why did he ask that question?
Who touched me? The Lord is bidding her to make
her confession, to make her public confession. Mark tells us that
she confessed, knowing what was done in her. And we read Romans
10, which says, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. We should
never be ashamed of confessing to the Lord. And we should never
be ashamed to identify ourselves with our master. Don't be ashamed of it, to confess
him publicly. Of course, this woman was known
of the Lord. This woman was known of the Lord
from before the foundation of the world. He was about his father's
business and he fixed his eyes on this woman. in these precious
moments, but the reality is that his eyes have always been upon
her and upon his people. And so we love, we love to say
and repeat those beautiful words in Jeremiah 31. Yea, I have loved
thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. He draws us, he draws us. And if he doesn't draw us, we
won't come. And so the Lord instills need in the hearts of his people
so that they need to come. They need to come. Why are you
here? Are you coming here for some
other reason or do you need to be here? I need to be here. I need to come to the Lord. He graciously removes self-reliance
on us so that we need him. perhaps by the hardships of this
life if that is what is required. Needy sinners need a saviour
and they need a saviour that can save and yet apart from the
arrival of Jairus in that crowd there was only one needy sinner
there, one needy sinner with nowhere else to go. and no one
else to turn to. She'd been to all those doctors,
she'd been to all those physicians with no value. And I find myself
repeating it all the time, but I love to dwell on this basic
truth, that the Lord Jesus Christ never turned away a needy sinner.
People wonder, I've heard people say, am I chosen? They ask the
question, am I chosen? Am I predestinated? The Lord Jesus Christ never turned
away a needy sinner. A better question is, are you
needy and do you need the Saviour? The theme of providence, the
theme of providence of God, the providence of God, to draw this
woman to himself. And so what is the providence
of God? Well, I wrote down a little definition
in preparation. The providence of God is the
sovereign, eternal, immutable, unalterable purpose of the Lord
our God to accomplish his will and purpose in time. everything
that comes to pass in time was purposed by our God in eternity. All his will is brought to pass
by his good and wise providence. And we know that wonderful verse,
Romans 8, 28, we know that all things work together for good
to them that love God. To them who are the cause I love his providence. I love
his purpose. This woman's issue of blood,
that was in the providence of God. Her issue of 12 years in
the providence of God. Bent over with that issue and
seeking relief. And that need, that desperation
brought her to the Saviour. She'd been to war. Finally she
was brought to the great physician. Having suffered at the hands
of many physicians, she was none better. And so her need of the
Saviour was even greater. It drove her to that appointment
with the Lord when he passed by and in the providence of our
God, this woman was brought to the Saviour, the very place. May the Lord give us grace to
not resent the troubles and the trials and the tribulations and
the griefs this world and this life brings to us. May we be
reminded that God's good provenance is always working for our eternal
good. And then the Lord says to this
woman in verse 48, daughter, be of good comfort. Thy faith
hath made thee whole. Go in peace. Go in peace. He called her daughter. He called her daughter. May we never doubt the love of
God as sons and daughters. Behold what manner of love the
Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons
of God. And the Lord declares to this
woman, thy faith hath made thee whole. Thy faith hath made thee
whole. The Lord commends her faith.
Commends her faith. But where did that faith come
from? Did she muster it up herself? We know better, don't we? The
faith of this woman had its origin in God. The faith that she had
was the faith that she was given. The scriptures plainly say that
faith is the gift of God. Friends, we have nothing to boast
in at all. Faith must never be considered a work of the creature. It is a gift of God. And yet
the master says, thy faith, thy faith, her faith, hath made thee
whole. Is it her faith? Indeed it is,
it is. When something's given to you,
it becomes yours. And when God gives you something,
it certainly becomes yours. The gifts and callings of God But this faith, above all else,
is saving faith. Saving faith. Saving faith is
resting in the glorious person and the finished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord says to this woman,
go in peace. Go in peace. Isaiah 26 says, Thou wilt keep
him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he
trusteth in Thee. Trusteth in Thee. The Lord Jesus
Christ is all our peace before God. He's all our peace. He is
our peace. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
peace. May these words be a blessing
to us today. Amen. Let's pray. Let's pray just before
we have communion. Heavenly Father, we do thank
you for the testimony of your word which shows us so clearly
the way of salvation, not by works that we can perform, not
by any righteousness of ours, but by His works and His righteousness
alone, cause us to see our great need, and of course, Lord, cause
us to see that He is able, able to save to the utmost. We thank
you for these elements that cause us to remember His finished work,
the finished work of our Saviour, and may we be caused to dwell
on Him as our Great Physician, our Great Shepherd, our Great
Substitute. We pray these things in Jesus'
name. Amen.