All right, brethren, let's go
back there to Luke chapter 8. The Lord Jesus is eternal life. We saw this
the other day, and John said, this is the record that God has
given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that
hath the Son hath life. The Lord Jesus Christ is Righteousness. That's why he's eternal life. He is the holiness of his people.
That's why he's eternal life. He's the prophet, priest, and
king of his people. As the prophet, he can effectually
teach us, make us to understand, give us the wisdom, the mind
of Christ. As the priest, he has laid down
his life and reconciled us to God, and he's entered into the
holiest of holies, having obtained eternal redemption for his people.
And he ever lives to make intercession for us as our high priest. And
Christ is the king of his people. Everything that comes to pass,
coming to pass directly according to his power and his purpose.
He said, the God-man said, All power is given to me in heaven
and in earth. So our Lord Jesus is eternal
life. He's our righteousness, our holiness.
He's our prophet, our priest, and our king. He is everything
to his people. You that believe him, been taught
by him, you have nothing to worry about. You have the creator. who made you entirely new by
his grace and shall bring you home to him. Having Christ, you
have all. You have all. Now, we looked
at how the Lord healed the woman with the issue of blood, and
I kept thinking about this. And I listened to a message on
the way over to PA on Friday that blessed my heart. And I
just want to preach on this a little bit more. In verse 41, it says,
behold, there came a man named Jairus and he was a ruler of
the synagogue. That tells us right off the bat,
this is a miracle of God's grace. What we just read right there,
there came a man named Jairus. 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 one only daughter,
about 12 years of age, and she lay dying. This was a miracle
of God's grace. This right here, the man coming
and falling down at Christ's feet, this ruler of the synagogue.
Most of the rulers of the synagogue despised the Lord Jesus. They
despised the Lord Jesus. This man, Jairus, he would have
forbid that woman with the issue of blood from coming into the
synagogue because the law forbid it. They upheld the law and they
enforced the law. and they thought they were saved
by the law and they enforced the traditions of the people
and the Lord Jesus was a threat to them and for that reason they
despised him. The Pharisees' main concern was
that none of the rulers believed on Christ. Remember when the
soldiers came back and they said, have any of the rulers or of
the Pharisees believed on him? Look at Luke 13, this shows us
how, what the spirit of the rulers were. Luke 13, verse 10. He was teaching in one of the
synagogues on the Sabbath. Teaching in the synagogue on
the Sabbath, and behold there was a woman which had a spirit
of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together and could
in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called
her to him, and he said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from
thine infirmity. Look at the grace there. He just
saw her and called her to him and loosed her from it. She didn't
do nothing. And he laid his hands on her,
and immediately she was made straight and glorified God. And
the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation. because that
Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day, and he said to the people,
there's six days in which men ought to work, and in them, therefore,
come and be healed and not on the Sabbath day. The Lord then
answered him and said, thou hypocrite, did not each one of you on the
Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall and lead him away
to watering? This is what our Lord presents
to us as hypocrisy. He's claiming we're keeping the
law when we really don't keep the law. We don't keep the law. We might as well not pretend
we do. And that's what this man was making his boast of. And
the Lord said, On the Sabbath, do you not loose your ox, your
ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought
not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound
lo these eighteen years, be loose from this bond on the Sabbath
day? And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were
ashamed, and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that
were done by him." But that was the spirit of the rulers right
there toward Christ. They were among those who delivered
him to be crucified. And when he hung there on the
cross in the place of his people, bearing the wrath of God, this
was their spirit. The people stood beholding, and
the rulers also with them derided him, saying, he saved others,
let him save himself, if he be the Christ, chosen of God. These men were trusting in their
obedience to the law. They hated that Christ declared,
accept your righteousness, exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees. You shall in no wise enter the
kingdom of heaven. Brethren, when you hear that
spirit of those rulers, do you think of somebody else or do
you think of yourself? We were no different. Do you remember there being a
time when you read that where Christ said, except your righteousness
shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
you shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven. You read that
and you thought, well, that means I need to work harder than the
Pharisees, so I'll have that righteousness. That's not what
that means. That's not doing the will of
God. That means we'll stand before God and say, didn't we do many
wonderful works? We tried harder than the Pharisees
to earn a righteousness. You didn't do the will of God.
You didn't believe on God's righteousness. That's Christ. He's the righteousness
that exceeds. He's the righteousness that exceeds.
So it's a miracle of God's grace that this ruler Jairus came and
bowed down at the Lord's feet. Already we see this is God's
grace working. Because his spirit was no different
than those other folks by nature. And we see in this, you see your
calling brethren. When we see this Manjari, we
see our calling. We see one of our brethren. You
see your calling brethren. Not many wise men after the flesh. Not many mighty. Not many noble
are called. But there are some. He's one
of them. He's one of them. But we see
in Gerias what they all have in common. Whether they're mighty,
wise, or not, we see what everybody he calls has in common. Verse
41, Behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler
of the synagogue, and he fell down at Jesus' feet. That's what
all have in common who Christ called. The Lord brings the mighty
down to his feet. The Lord makes the wise ignorant.
The Lord makes the noble see themselves as paupers. He brings
us down. Where's the wise man? Where's
the prudent? then I will be found in God's church. Because he's
going to make his people see ourselves as nothing. Apostle
Paul was a ruler when he was Saul of Tarsus. What did he do
when the Lord interrupted him on the road to Damascus? He came
down in the dust. He came down in the dust. And
he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me
to do? I've seen folks come when the Lord worked in their heart
and just tears pouring out of their eyes and they just broken
hearted and contrite and the Lord brought them down to the
dust. But something else we see the
Lord works when he saves a sinner, he brings us to beg. He said there, Jairus besought
him that he would come into his house. He had one only daughter,
about 12 years of age, and she lay dying. Jairus had heard of
the Lord Jesus just like the woman with the issue of blood
had. That's why he came. He heard about him and heard
that he was able to heal, and he came. He believed he could
save his daughter. The gospel of our Lord Jesus
is the good news that Christ is able. He's the only one. He's the only one. That's what
made Abraham's work a work of faith. He believed God was able to raise
Isaac from the dead. That's why he offered him up.
He accounted that God was able to raise him up even from the
dead. From once also he received him
in a figure. Don't you know, now put yourself
in Jairus' shoes. Don't you know he was begging
the Lord to come to his house? His only daughter, 12 years old,
is dying. He's begging the Lord to come
to his house. The Lord used this man's sick
child to draw him to Christ and give him faith in the Lord. A few times during our Lord's
ministry, He did that. We find it several times where
the Lord used the sicknesses of family members or the need
of a family member to draw one of His elect to Him. Our Lord
still does this. He still works all these things
in the believer's life and in those He's calling. The sickness
and the troubles we face as God's saints, what do they do? What
do they do to you? They draw you to Christ. They
draw you to Christ. They draw you to Him and bring
you down to the dust and cause you to beg Him. Now the age of this daughter
is significant. It says in verse 42, she was
about 12 years of age and she lay dying. I preached on this
about, I guess around 2012, and I pointed this out. His daughter
was 12, and the woman that had the issue of blood had had it
12 years. The same year Jarius' daughter
was conceived, around the same time, this woman became sick with this issue of
blood. And here the daughter lay dying, and then later they
come and tell her the daughter's dead. What does that have to
do with a sinner spiritually? Well, at the time you and I were
conceived, we had an issue of blood. And we died. We were dead. Spiritually dead. And we came forth from our mother's
womb spiritually dead. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity
and sin did my mother conceive me. The moment we were conceived. We had an issue of blood. We
came into this world dead, defiled, and with time we'll die physically.
The Lord's not done anything to make your flesh live forever.
We're going to die physically because of sin. That's why we
get sick. The daughter couldn't come to
the Lord Jesus. She couldn't come to the Lord Jesus. She's
laying there sick, she's dying, she couldn't come. So the Father
came for her. Boy, that's a picture of Christ,
isn't it? Christ intercedes for us with the Father. He's our
everlasting Father, goes to God on our behalf. Just like Jairus
came on this girl's behalf. But this girl couldn't come to
the Lord, the Lord had to come to her. And the reason Jairus and this
woman with the issue of blood came to Christ is because Christ
first came to them. That's the reason you came to
Christ. Christ first came to you. When you come to Christ,
the reason is He's come to you first. Because we're dead. We're dead. This is part of how
we're brought down to the dust. This is part of how we're brought
down to see that no flesh or glory in his presence. He teaches
us what we are. Jesus said, Verily, verily, I
say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he can't see the
kingdom of God. We're just like this ruler by
nature. We despise the Lord Jesus by nature. We're just like this
daughter who was, and like this woman with the issue of blood.
We conceived in sin, we come forth dead in sin. We can't come
to Christ, we're dead and dying. That's our nature, that's where
we are. Now secondly, I want to ask you this question, and
this is what got on my mind and got me to thinking about this. Do you think there was sin and
unbelief mixed with Jairus' faith in the Lord Jesus? Think so? Let's see, verse 42 says, as
he went, the people thronged him. And then this woman with
the issue of blood came. Now we're not gonna look at this
again, but I want you to put yourself in Jairus' place. His
daughter's home dying. He's rushed to the Lord, fell
down before him, and he's begging the Lord, please come save my
daughter. And the Lord's on his way. He's going to his house. And the Lord stopped. Who touched me? And he calls
that woman to himself, and we don't know how long all this
took. He sat there and questioned her and got her to confess everything
the Lord had done for her. What would be in our heart if
that was our daughter? And the Lord stopped. You think Jeriah's heart was
for himself at that moment? You think his heart was for his
daughter at that moment. You think he was thinking in
his heart, just leave this woman alone. Come to my house. Then look at what happened. This
woman is rejoicing at the Lord's gracious word to her. She is
rejoicing. The Lord turns to her and He
says in verse 48, "...Daughter, be of good comfort. Thy faith
hath made thee whole. Go in peace." And don't you know
this lady, she is just at the mountaintop. She is rejoicing.
The Lord has healed her after 12 years of this issue of blood.
And while that is happening, While he gets spake, there comes
one from the ruler of the synagogue's house saying to him, thy daughter's
dead. Trouble not to master. Think there's any sin and unbelief
mixed with Gerias' faith. His heart had to be overcome
with that news. Had to be overcome with it. full of sin, full of fear, full
of sorrow, full of unbelief. Don't ever imagine that you have
to have great faith or perfect faith or sinless faith before
coming to the Lord Jesus. If you do, you will never come
to Christ because you will never possess that. But it does not stop Christ from
receiving his child. Christ didn't turn to him. Now
this man is full of his heart, full of unbelief. And you know
what it is. You know what it is. And I can
show you that it was. I'll show you it was. And it's sin. That's sin. The
Lord said, when the Spirit comes, He'll convince you of sin because
you believe not on Me. That's sin, not believing Christ.
But does the Lord turn to this man while he's broken and contrite
and he's just overwhelmed in sorrow and scold him for his
sin? No, Christ knew his heart. Christ
put a heart in him that believed Him. And he knew his heart. And he looks on the heart he's
given and listens to Christ's command. He turned to him when
he heard that news that his daughter had died. And the Lord answered
him and said, Fear not. Believe only. She shall be made
whole. Rather than that, we have a gracious,
compassionate, loving Redeemer. If we could see the hideousness
of sin and unbelief and what it is to Christ that was right
there in Jairus at that time. we would see what a loving, gracious,
compassionate Redeemer we have, to turn to Him and say, fear
not, believe only. Your daughter shall be made whole. You see, He took all the sin
of His people Our Lord Jesus really did take all the sin and
bear all the sin of his people, all the sin that Jairus is by
nature, all the sin that's in his flesh at that moment, all
the selfishness and everything that was coursing through him,
and just be honest about it. If that was your child, what
would you think? Your flesh would just be dominating
you. Christ took all of that away
from Jairus. He had insured a ship before
the world was made to pay everything Jairus owed to God's justice. And so he can look at Jairus
and say, fear not, believe only. Your daughter will be made whole. Our Savior is the mighty Savior,
brethren. You see, the only cure to our
fear and our unbelief when we're overcome by our flesh, the only
cure to it, the only cure to it whatsoever is Christ speaking
into your heart saying, fear not, believe only. We talk about faith being the
gift of God. That's how it's given. That's
how it's given. When you're just so overwhelmed
and overcome and see your sin and see your inability, and Christ
has brought you there to where you just, you couldn't possibly
come out of that. And he says to you, fear not,
only believe. That's when you believe. That's
when you believe. Now you want to boast about your
faith? I'm afraid you're trusting your faith. Because that right
there is how God's people believe. And we can't boast in it. Our
Savior is the mighty Savior. And don't miss this. He can save
others while He's saving you, child of God. He saved one of His own on the
way to save another one. He can save you while He's saving
others. He's a mighty Savior. He can
meet the need you have right now while he's meeting the need
of each one of his people at the same time. He said to her, daughter, be
of good comfort. Thy faith hath made thee whole.
Go in peace. And he turns around and there's
another one just on his face bawling his eyes out. The world
has come to an end. His 12-year-old child is dead.
And he turns to him and says, fear not. Believe only. Your
child will be made whole. That is a savior who can save
and give all his people what they need when they need it and
do it at the same time. That's what he does through the
preaching of the gospel. How many times have you had your
day planned and something interrupted your plans and you feel like
you've been sidetracked from what you had your heart set on
that you needed to do that day? Happens pretty often, don't it? or big plans you had in your
life and something just turns it all upside down. How many
times has the Lord sent his church to trial and we felt like this
is interrupting our serving the Lord. Our Lord's purpose is never frustrated.
What our Lord brings to pass in our life, whether it be just
in a day that we had planned and He interrupted it, or it
be something big in our lives, or it be something big in the
church, it was purposed from eternity by our Lord and brought
to pass at just the time He purposed it by our Lord. Why do we act like it wasn't?
Why do we act like it wasn't? Whatever it is, it's to teach
us something of His grace. That's what it's for. It's to
do what it did to Jairus. It's to make us come to Christ. It's to make us hit our face
at His feet, and it's to make us beg Him to save us. That never stops. That never
stops for a child of God. I guarantee you, if you, if you,
Lord lets you live and you're on your deathbed and you're a
little while before you're about to draw your last breath, that's
exactly what you're going to be doing right up to the last
hour. You're going to be at His feet, begging Him to save you. Remember me, Lord, when you come
into your kingdom. You see, He's always right on
time with his purpose too. This woman coming to him at this
time with this issue of blood was purposed from eternity for
it to happen right at that time. And it was needful for Jairus
as it was needful for that woman with the issue of blood. The
Lord is so multifaceted in his wisdom and how he's teaching
you and me. He needed Jairus to see him stop and deal with
this woman and save her and Jairus to hear them say that his daughter
had died because that was just as needful to teach Jairus as
it was to teach this woman with the issue of blood. And when the Lord interrupts
our plans, We will be troubled and we will
be cast down and everything in the world will go on in all our
unbelief until the Lord speaks and says, fear not, believe only,
and she shall be made whole. Whether that's what you need
for a loved one to be made whole, or whether it's some other problem,
this is what the Lord's going to do. He's going to teach you,
believe only. Fear not, believe only. The only cure for that
woman's issue of blood was Christ. There was no other cure for her.
It was Christ. He's a great physician. And there's
only one cure for our unbelief. It's Christ the faithful one.
Christ is the cure. He's the Bob of Gilead. He's
the cure. Abraham gave all those spoils
to the king of Sodom. He didn't take anything for himself,
just a little bit for his men. And as soon as the king of Sodom
walked off, Abraham is just troubled. He's in unbelief. And after these things, the word
of the Lord came to Abram in a vision saying, Fear not, Abram.
I am thy shield." Those spoils wasn't going to be your shield.
Those shields that you took from those enemy kings, all them shields
that they took that you just gave to that enemy king, those
weren't going to be your shield anyway, Abram. I'm your shield. And the money and the treasure
that you just gave away to them, that wasn't going to be your
reward anyway. I'm your reward, Abram. That's what the Lord told
him. You know what our health is?
Christ. He's your life. He's your life. We come to deep waters, and we
come to fiery trials, and we become so overcome with fear
and unbelief, and we can't change it any more than that woman could
heal herself of that issue of blood. We can't change it any more than
Jairus could heal his daughter. We can't change it any more than
Jairus could save himself out of that moment of just utter
unbelief when they came and said your daughter's dead. We've become so worried about
tomorrow. So worried about tomorrow. And
our Lord said this to me and you, you can't make one hair
white or black. He said, which of you, by taking
thought, can add one cubit to his stature? You know what I
think the Lord meant by that? None of us can add a cubit to
our stature. That cubit's what, 18 inches,
I think? I can't remember now, but 13, 14, 18. You know what
I think the Lord meant by that? All that anxious worry and where
you just get bent down and bent down and bent down and bent down,
you can't lift yourself one cubit up out of that. Of course you
can't make yourself an extra 14 to 18 inches tall. You can't
lift yourself up one cubit out of that ditch you're in. But then Christ speaks into the
heart and he says, fear not, I have redeemed you. I've called you by your name.
Was he able to redeem you? Was he able to call you? He said,
you're mine. When you pass through the waters,
I'll be with you. You're going to pass through
the waters. When you pass through them, I'll be with you. When
you go through the rivers, they won't overflow you. When you
walk through the fire, thou shalt not be burned. Neither shall
the flame candle upon you. You know what he's telling us? The waters and the rivers and
the fires that he's going to send us through, they're not
hurting us. Not hurting you in the least. Not in the least. I had somebody tell me that they
had a disease. This is a believer. And they
told me, God said, my life's a vapor. That's what my flesh
is. But God told me Christ is my
life. And his cancer can't hurt me. That's true. That is absolutely
true. Here's why none of that will
happen. I'm the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. Now I know, and I'm not, I'm
not making light of unbelief. I know if you're the one with
the disease or you're the one in the deep trial or you're the
one suffering, whatever it is, like I said, you can't, the Lord
said you can't add one cubit to your stature. And it's easy
to talk about putting away sin. It's easy to talk about just
believe and all that when you sit there and can't do it. And you're the one that's in
the suffering. That's tough. But I'm trying to encourage you
that when the Lord speaks to you, and this is how he's going
to speak to you through this gospel, when he speaks to you
and says, fear not, believe only, a miracle happens. A miracle
happens. Your issue dries up. Your unbelief
is replaced by faith. You're healed. You're healed. We don't give ourselves faith,
and we can't keep our faith strong, and sometimes we simply can't
even believe. That's just being truthful. It's
the faith of Christ who gives his redeemed faith. It's the faith of Christ who
gives him, gives his redeemed faith in him. It's the faith
of Christ that sustains faith in us. It's the faith of Christ
that restores faith in us when we're in unbelief. From faith
to faith. It's from Christ to you. The just shall live by his faith.
That's where the backup was taught by the Lord. The judge shall
live by his faith. That's what Paul said. I'm crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in
me. In the life I now live in the
flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. Same one that
loved me and gave himself for me. Christ is so able to give
faith. He's so able to give faith that
he made this man believe. When he did this, he made this
man believe that his dead daughter would live. You put yourself in that shoes
now, I mean this girl died and they just came and told her and
the Lord said, if you not only believe and that man believed
God, he believed God, he believed my daughter's going to live,
she's going to live. Believe only the Lord Jesus. And Mark records it, only believe.
Believe only the Lord Jesus and do nothing else but only believe
the Lord Jesus. What else could he do? What else
can you do? Who else could he turn to? Who
else can we turn to? Christ commanded them to do nothing
else, believe only. Believe the Lord. So that day,
some that day, they didn't believe Christ. And he didn't give them
faith to believe him. And they laughed him to scorn.
It says that verse 51, when he came to the house, he suffered
no man to go in, save Peter, James, and John, and the father
and the mother of the maiden. And all wept and bewildered,
but he said, Weep not, she's not dead, but sleepeth. And they
laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead. They laughed
him to scorn because they knew she was dead. Think about that. They believed Death was more
powerful than Christ. Christ is life. He conquered
sin, death, and hell for his people. Death has to flee away
when he commands it. He conquered sin and death for
his people. He made us the righteousness of God. As the Father raises
up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom
he will. But you notice here his grace
is particular, is distinguishing to his people. He gave his disciples
faith. He gave the woman with the issue
of blood faith. He gave Jairus faith. He may
have given his wife faith. I don't know. May have given
the daughter that he raised faith. But he put them others out. He didn't give them faith. He
don't have to give anybody faith. Doesn't that bring you down to
his feet and make you beg? But her spirit came again. He
said, May it arise and her spirit came again and she rose straight
away and he commanded to give her meat and her parents were
astonished and he charged them, don't tell anybody what I did.
He's going to reveal Himself when He's pleased. And He said,
don't spread this. Christ says to His child, fear
not, I've redeemed you. Do you believe God? Do you believe Christ? Did you
do it or did Christ do it? If you believe Him, He said,
I've redeemed you, now only believe. He said, I've called you by your
name, you're mine, believe only. When you pass through the waters,
I'll be with you. And through the rivers, they'll
not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you won't be
burned. It won't kindle upon you. Believe only. For I'm the Lord thy God, the
Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. Believe only. Fear not. Believe only. God make us do
it. Amen.