One of the most popular stories
of grace and deliverance found in all the scriptures is the
story of the woman with the issue of blood. It's recorded in three
of the four gospel narratives, Matthew chapter 9, Mark chapter
5, and also in Luke chapter 8. So we know even from that that
it's a very important story. concerning salvation. This poor,
blood-diseased woman is a picture and a type of every man and woman,
naturally speaking, that has or will ever live. What do we
know about her? Well, the same things that God
reveals to his people about themselves. Let's begin In Matthew's account,
chapter 9, if you would turn there first with me. Matthew
chapter 9, we'll begin in verse 20. You know, I was thinking again
as I was reading over this narrative that all the diseases, the sicknesses,
the infirmities that are recorded in the New Testament in some
way or another, picture our spiritual condition before the Lord. And
Christ's healing of those is a beautiful picture of His saving
us by His grace. Now in verse 20 here we read,
Matthew chapter 9, And behold, a woman which was diseased with
an issue of blood twelve years, came behind Him and touched. the hem of his garment. Now from this single verse, we
immediately see some things about this poor soul who very well
pictures us. First, she was diseased. So are we. Diseased with sin. Her disease was an issue of her
blood. So is ours. She had been sick
for a long time, 12 years. You and I have been sick for
a long time. How long? All our lives. Born
sick. Born dying in trespasses and
sin. She'd been sick for a long time.
Fourthly, she came to the Lord Jesus and touched Him. And friends,
you and I are gonna have to have a touch from the Savior in order
to be restored. Mark's account tells us a bit
more. Mark tells us that she suffered many things of many
positions. She had tried all their remedies. She tried everything that they
told her to do. You can go back a couple hundred
years, even in this nation, and find some very primitive treatments
for various diseases. Can you imagine what it was like
over 2,000 years ago? Can you imagine the terrible
tasting medicines they must have given her to consume? And then you think of all these
other crazy methods like bleeding, where they would actually extract
your blood and hoping that they would remove the impurities and
diseases within. Well, this woman was already
bleeding to death. That was the last thing she needed
for them to do was to take more blood Can you imagine the medical rollercoaster
that this woman was on? We get some of it in our day,
but my, she had suffered many things of many positions. One would give her hope and then
another would discourage her. One would tell her that they
could cure and another would say, there's no hope for you. She suffered many things of many
positions, and not only had she suffered with her disease, she
had to suffer with these witch doctors. I remember, I believe it was
Jack Shanks that preached a message one time called the Doctors of
Doom, and that's what they were. One would prescribe one treatment,
another would prescribe another, and she suffered until she ran
out of money. Then none could or would help
her. She spent all that she had, we're
told, and was nothing bettered, but grew worse. That's a picture of us. Luke
tells us something else. Not only had she suffered many
things, not only had she seen many doctors, not only had she
spent every dime that she had, not only was she numb to better
but grew worse, she neither could be healed of any. I don't know
that I ever noticed that before. She neither could be healed of
any. There was no earthly doctor that
could help her. How hopeless that must be. You
know, when we get sick, we're looking for a specialist. We're
looking for someone who specializes in whatever disease we have.
But there was not any that could help her. No earthly doctor. She had a blood disease that
no man, no doctor could cure. Not but one man, and that being
the God-man. That's the same with us. We have
a disease, the disease of sin, that no man can cure. And let
me add, we can't cure it ourselves either. None but the God-man. None but the great physician. I see a picture here of what's
happening today. Men and women are sick in sin. They're diseased. They have a
heart problem. They have a blood disease called
sin, and they're being deceived, and they're spending all they
have, and they're growing worse. Why couldn't these physicians
help her? Well, first, they didn't understand
her disease. Her disease was an inward affliction. They didn't know anything about
it. They prescribed for her outward remedies. But she had an inward
disease. If the disease of sin was only
outward, perhaps what they prescribed would have helped her. But her
disease was inward. And so was ours. Religion and
their preachers and teachers, they can't help folks today because
they don't understand what's wrong with them. It's not outward conduct that
needs to be changed. I'll never forget this. I've
told you this many times. I'm gonna tell you again, you
knew that, didn't you? But when I was young and in Sunday
school, I remember a sign they had there that said, the way
to heaven, turn right and go straight. Well, sorry, I can't
do that. I can't turn right and I can't
go straight. It's not outward conduct that
needs to be changed. It's not an outward direction
that needs to be improved upon. Our hearts need to be changed. I don't just need stents and
open up the blood flow. I need a new heart. We need a
new birth. We need a new creation. We need
a new nature. We need a new heart. We need
something done within. Outward ointments on my head
won't touch my heart. And I'm telling you folks, walking
an aisle, joining a church, saying a prayer, getting in the baptistry,
putting your name on a roll, becoming a member, won't create in you or me a new
heart and a new spirit. All the remedies that these doctors
of doom prescribed, this poor lady, they didn't even come close
to her real problem. It only gave her false hope,
and it only crushed her in the end. That's what's happened to
a lot of folks today. They're being misled. And all this brought her to an end
with them, and she ran out of money. Now here in Matthew chapter
20 and verse 21, We see that she set her affection to one
called the Great Physician. Look what she says. She said,
within herself, if I may but touch his garment, I shall be
whole. I entitled this message, Fully
Persuaded. Because this woman was. She was
fully persuaded that if she but touched the hem of Christ's garment,
she would be made whole. But could she? May she touch
Him? Would she be allowed to touch
Him? Would she be able to get to Him to touch Him? Notice that she didn't say this
out loud. It says that she said it within
herself. Do you ever do that? You don't
say the words audibly and outwardly. You think them within your heart.
You say them to yourself. I even say that I do that all
the time. I said within myself or I said
in my head, you know. And I was thinking often a silent
doubt eats right through to the heart. Sometimes it helps just
to say the words. I have recently read a story
about the nation of Sparta, which was one of the smallest but most
powerful populations in all of ancient Greece. And they, as
you might know, brought up mighty warriors to protect their small
country. The young boys in their society
were put through grueling tests and challenges in their training
to transform them into the greatest of warriors. And these young
men were often starved of food so that they would have to rely
on foraging and hunting or even stealing to survive. And in this
society, death always came before dishonor. It was understood among
them that it was better to suffer pain and silence, even death
if need be, rather than suffer the indignity of betrayal. And
to discourage dissent and encourage recruits to think this way, there
was a story that was told among them of the Spartan and the fox. And the story goes and begins
with a group of young recruits, about seven years old, that's
how young they started training these young men, as a game conspired
together to steal a fox that belonged to a man as a pet. Now, I don't know about having
a fox as a pet, because a fox is a wild animal by nature. But when the owners of the fox
came looking for the fox, the boys coerced one in their group,
one of the boys, to hide the fox under his tunic. And that's
what he did. But trapped inside his cloak,
the panicked fox quickly turned savage, as wild beasts do, and
he began digging away at the boy's flesh in a desperate attempt
to free himself. And the boy, however, didn't
flinch. Not wanting to give the game
away, when questioned by the fox owners over the animal's
disappearance, the boy remained silent and steadfast, though
he was in great pain. And after the entire affair calmed
down and was over, the fox's owners departed and continued
their search. Only then did the boy drop to
the ground, with the bloody fox falling from his tunic and escaping
into the forest, and realizing that their fellow recruit was
now dying, the other boys asked him, why not just tell the truth?
Surely it'd have been better to let the fox go and face the
punishment than to let the fox maul him to death. But the boy
replied, not so. It's better to die without yielding
to the pain rather than being detected through weakness to
gain a life to be lived in disgrace. In other words, he was saying,
it's better to die than to expose your own weakness. And this is
how these Spartans were trained and taught. Many people today
carry inward doubts without sharing them, and they eat away at them
until they die. But hear me on this, the enlightened
child of God is not so. It's not so. You see, this poor
woman may have kept her doubts and her weaknesses within herself. She may not have said them audibly
for anyone to hear, but she did go. And she did do what she felt
necessary, regardless of what it revealed about her weaknesses. You see, dear sinner, if God
reveals to you your weakness, you've got to recognize it and
own it, because it will be our need that causes us to come to
Christ. We've said that so many times,
need. Do you need help? You'll never need a great physician. You'll never need a savior until
you see that you do. She came and she touched the
hem of Christ's garment. And the scripture says, was made
whole. You know, I remember once in
grade school, I had the desperate need to go to the restroom. And I raised my hand. I said,
Ms. Forks, can I go to the restroom? And I think she was determined
to teach me a lesson in grammar. I'll never forget her response.
She said, you can, but you may not. And I was confused. And can I go? In desperation,
I asked. She said, you can go, but you
may not. And I pleaded for her to tell
me what she meant. Could I go or couldn't I? You
know, that's kind of like pivoting. And she elaborated and she said,
well, you have the ability to go. You can stand up from your
seat, can you not? And I nodded my head and she
said, you can walk to the restroom, can you not? And I'm like, yeah.
She said, and you know where the restroom is, don't you? And
I said, yes, I do. She said, you've got the God-given
ability to use the restroom once you get there. Do you not? Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. I can
go. So can I go? And she said, yes, you can. But
you may not. In other words, you don't have
my permission. You have the ability, but not
the permission. You can go, but you may not.
But with our salvation, see, it's just the opposite. We cannot
go to Christ that we might have life. The Lord Himself said that.
You cannot come to me that you might have life. We don't have
the ability. We don't have the will. He said, you will not come
to me that you might have life. We don't have the ability to
go. We don't have the willingness to go. We cannot stand. We cannot
walk. We have no knowledge as to where
to go. We don't know where eternal life
is even found. But we may come. We can't come,
but we may come. Just the opposite. So I suppose
that the question above all questions is, how do we receive the life
and the ability to go to Christ? Well, this poor soul knew. She knew because she'd already
been given life. How? Well, let's look to Mark's
account. Turn over to Mark chapter five
with me. Mark chapter five, verse 25,
if you would. Mark chapter five. Verse 25. And a certain woman, which had
an issue of blood twelve years, and had suffered many things
of many positions, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing
bettered, but rather grew worse. Now look at verse 27. When she
had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind and
touched his garment. This woman heard of Jesus. This obviously wasn't the first
time. She had heard some things about
him. She knew that if she touched him, she would be made whole. She heard and she believed what
she heard. She knew that he had the super
abounding power to heal her. God had revealed to her who this
great physician was. What had she heard? She'd heard
about all the great things that he had done. Possibly she'd heard
how he had cleansed a man with leprosy. that he had healed a
paralytic that was let down from the roof in front of him. Maybe
someone had told her about the Lord healing a man with a withered
hand. Possibly she heard about the
dead man that the Lord made alive at Nain's Gate. These are all
things that had transpired before she came to the Lord. Maybe word
had circulated about this man's ability to calm the storms and
to obey the wind, that the winds and the sea would obey him, I
should say. Maybe she'd heard that. Maybe
she heard about that man that had a legion of devils that this
man bid to go into a herd of pigs. But one thing's for sure,
she was so full, she was so fully persuaded, so full of God-given
faith that she believed that even his clothes, even his clothes
were so saturated with his power and his mercy and his grace that
his garments could heal her if she could but touch them. Now
that's faith. She must have thought, how could
any doubt this man called Jesus Christ? After all, I've heard
all these things that he's done. It's proven. And those who believe
not make his father out to be a liar. How can we not believe
him? She had doubts in herself, but
she didn't have any doubts in him. That's just pretty much
the opposite today. Folks have doubts in God, but
they don't have any doubts in themselves. And that's why they
believe that they themselves can do something to be saved. She didn't know if she could
make it to Christ. Her condition brought with her
some doubt. Doubt in her, but not in Him. And no doubt that the throng
of people created a great obstacle for her. The crowd was a barrier,
it was a stumbling block, it was a hindrance for her, but
it didn't stop her. If she could but touch Him, and
not Him, but just His clothes, she would be made whole. You
see, He can save to the uttermost. He's able to save to the uttermost
those who come to God by Him. She had to get to Him. I've got
to get to Him, she said. If I do, I'll be made whole.
Well, I've spent all that I had on doctors. I've grown worse.
There's nowhere else for me to go. This woman didn't just feel bad.
She was seriously ill. She was deathly sick. She was
dying. You know, many today forsake
the sinning of themselves together over a hangnail. And it's not a lack of interest,
it's a lack of need. But this woman had great need.
Do you? Do you see this morning that
you have great need? Mark tells us that when she heard
of Jesus, she came in the press behind. That's important. And touched His garment. You
see the crowd is moving forward. She's not coming toward the Lord
to where He's going to meet her on the way to where He's going. No, she's coming from behind
Him. She's coming through the crowd,
and it was a throng of people. And more than likely, she's crawling. Well, why do you say that, David? Well, she's out to touch the
hem of his garment that is found low to the ground. She has to
get through this crowd. She's got to get to the Lord
as he's moving forward. And that took a great effort. And more than likely, she's crawling. Can you imagine? Can you picture
this? All these people moving at a pretty hurried pace, following
the Lord, and she's back behind them, and she's bent over at
best, possibly crawling, and she's trying to get through that
crowd to get to Him. We live in a day where folks
want to walk across the street to hear the Gospel. But this
woman did. And we're told that straightway,
the fountain, the flowing, the hemorrhaging of her blood was
dried up. You know what that means? It
means she got to Him. She made her way through that
crowd. She got to Him and she touched the hem of His garment. She made up that ground. She
caught up to Him. She touched His garment's hem.
She was healed of her plague, the Scripture said. She would
not be denied. She came empty-handed. How do
I know she'd spent all? She didn't have anything yet.
She had nothing left to bring. And when she touched the Lord, the
Lord asked, Who touched me? He said, I perceive that power
has gone out of me. And it had. It had gone out of
Him into her. You see, religion gets this backwards. They want to do something to
receive life, regeneration, and redemption. Someone who's dead
in sin can't do anything. Remember? They have no ability. They have no life. They cannot. This woman heard the gospel.
She heard about Christ. This woman knew she had a problem.
This woman knew she had a need. She knew that only one could
meet that need and she came to the only one that could help
her. You're in Mark chapter five, look at verse 30. And Jesus immediately
knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, he turned
about in the press and he said, who touched my clothes? And his
disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging
thee, and sayest thou who touched me? Are you kidding? Everybody's
touched you. Now listen, the Lord knew who
had touched him. He had sold purpose before the
foundation of the world. He knew who touched him. He didn't
ask for his own safety. He asked that the cure might
be known to others. He didn't ask in order to get
worldly applause. He asked for the manifestation
of his own glory. He asked for the strengthening
of Jairus' faith. You remember? Jairus, he's on
his way to Jairus' house when all this happened. He had a little
girl laying at home dying. And he asked who touched him
for Jairus' sake too. Verse 32, and he looked round
about to see her that had done this thing. But the woman, fearing
and trembling, knowing what was done in her. She knew immediately
she had been healed. She came and she fell down before
him and told him all the truth, the truth concerning herself.
She told him about all her suffering. She said, Lord, I've suffered
for 12 years with this. She told him about her struggling
with doctors. I've seen every doctor there
is to see. None could help me. I grew worse. I spent every dime I had and
now nobody will help me. She told him about all her struggling
with the pain. She told him all the truth, everything. And look what he says, verse
34. And he said unto her, daughter, Wow, don't you imagine that was
precious to her ears? Daughter, thy faith hath made
thee whole. It was her trusting and believing,
her faith in Christ that made her whole. That word means sound
and well. And that's what the Lord Himself
said. As we know, without faith it's impossible to please God.
You see, he that cometh to God must believe that he is, that
he is what? That he's God. must believe that
He is. The child of God must believe
that God is God. The one who is given faith believes
that God rewards them that diligently seek Him. But how does He reward
them? Are we gonna get a bigger crown
and glory? Some folks have done so much
stuff that they're gonna have a crown and glory that they're
gonna need a neck brace to hold it up. And does this mean that
you're going to have a little bigger mansion in glory? I heard
someone tell someone one time before that he believed that
this person would be saved, but he's going to live in a little
cabin on the other side of glory instead of in a mansion where
he's going to be living. And this fellow, I tell you,
it was Brother Winford that said it. You know this story. He said, well, in heaven will
I have Christ? And he said, oh yeah. He said,
that's all that matters to me. I don't care if it's a cabin
or a mansion. If I've got Christ, I've got
it all. My, my. With believing, with
the faith that God gives in and by and through Christ alone is our reward. Grace and faith
are God's gifts to the chosen sinner. That's our reward. Christ is our reward. These are those that God determined
to give mercy and grace before they were ever born. The scripture
says before they've done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand. Let's once again
quickly break down Paul's words to the church at Ephesus in Ephesians
2, verses 8 and 9. You know the verses well. You
don't have to turn there. How are sinners saved? Paul said,
by grace. How are you saved? By grace through faith. Did the
grace and the faith originate with us? No. It's not of yourselves,
he said. It's the gift of God. It's not
in, by, or through any work of ours. If it was, we would boast. Not by works lest any man should
boast, because that's what we'll do if we had something to do
with it. For we, those who are saved, are His workmanship. We are created in Christ Jesus
unto good works. It's not our good works that
save us, it's Him saving us that brings about our good works.
Unto good works. Our good works didn't save us.
Our faith didn't save us. Our good works and faith are
the result of God's grace and work in us. God ordained that
we should believe and trust and rest in Christ's finished work.
Now let me ask you, are you? If God had not ordained and given
us grace and faith, we would never have been saved. The faith
that we have is not of ourselves. It's the gift of God. Grace is not anything we earn.
It's not anything that we merit. And it's certainly not anything
that we deserve. What is it? It's a gift. It's
God's gift to us. Even when we were dead in sins,
God had quickened us, made us alive together with Christ by
grace. Are you saved? Not of works,
but by grace. How are we justified? How are
we made just and righteous? Freely. Not by works being justified
freely through the redemption that is where? In Christ Jesus. Romans 3.24. Now, I want you
to turn with me quickly to Luke chapter 8, the last gospel narrative
of this story. Verse 46. Luke chapter 8, verse 46. And Jesus said, Somebody hath
touched me. For I perceive that virtue is
gone out of me." Now, we're not given this woman's name. That
shouldn't surprise us. It's not about her. Well, it's
all about her, not really. No name, no distinction. She's
a somebody that is a nobody. That's what all of us are. Her
name's not significant. while she could be any one of
us. She's called somebody, so she's a real person. God in Christ
is going to show mercy. Now listen to me. He's going
to show mercy to somebody. That's why He came. He came into
the world to save sinners. He came to seek and to save that
which was lost. Somebody. Somebody's gonna be
saved. Some sinner's gonna be saved.
Some lost person's gonna be found. The Lord Jesus said, the Spirit
of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to preach the
gospel to the poor. He sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. So we see that these somebodies
are poor. These somebodies are brokenhearted.
These somebodies are captives. These somebodies are blind. These
somebodies are bruised. These somebodies are unacceptable. Christ came to preach the gospel
to them. He came to heal their broken
hearts. He came to deliver them from
their captivity. He came to recover their sight
to them. He came to soothe their bruises. He came to make them acceptable. God's going to be merciful to
somebody. God's going to be gracious to
somebody. I don't know who they are. You know, people say silly
things sometimes, like, well, if you believe in election, then
why don't you just preach to the elect? I would, but I don't
know who they are. God does. So we preach the gospel
to every creature, and God saves those that He chose. That's His
business, not mine. We plant, we water, God gives
the increase. I'm so glad that's God's business.
God gonna be merciful and gonna be gracious to somebody. I don't
know who they are, I don't know their name, but it's somebody
and they're a nobody. I know that they'll be thirsty.
The Spirit and the bride say, come, let him that is a thirst
come. I know they'll be thirsty. Whosoever
this somebody is, let him take of the water of life. How? Freely. Freely. I don't know who this
somebody is, but I know that they'll seek first the Kingdom
of God and His righteousness. I don't know who these somebodies
are, but I know that they'll have a great need for a great
physician. I know this because those who
are well have no need of a physician. But these somebodies, they have
a great need. She did. And what'd she get? What she needed. These somebodies
know that God will supply all their need according to His riches
and glory in Christ, by Christ Jesus. And that's why these somebodies
will come to Him no matter what it takes. Now, we're not told
this woman's name, but I can assure you that she was an example
to others. Well, how do you know that? Well,
later in Matthew chapter 14 were told in verse 34. And when they,
the Lord and his disciples were gone over, they came into the
land of Gennesaret. And when the men of that place
had knowledge of him, they sent out into all the country round
about and brought unto him all that were diseased. Now listen
to this. And besought him that they might only touch the hem
of his garment. and as many as touched him were
made perfectly whole." Don't you think that word had spread?
Did you hear about that woman who had that blood disease for
12 years and she just touched the hem of his garment and was
made whole? And everybody said, give me some of that hem of that
garment. Where is that hem of his garment?
It's attached to him. Later, in Mark chapter 6, verse
53, Mark tells us the same thing. When they passed over Him and
His disciples and drew to shore, when they would come out of the
ship, straightway they knew Him, and they ran through the whole
region round about and began to carry about in beds those
that were sick. Can you picture this? Multitudes
of people carrying sick folk in beds and on cots, like that
man they led down through the roof. And when they heard where
he was, whithersoever he entered into villages or cities or country,
they lay the sick in the streets and besought him that they might
touch, if it were, but the border of his garment. And as many as
touched him were made whole." I give you again the words of
this needy soul who said within herself, if I may touch His garment,
I shall be made whole. She said, I don't know if I can.
I don't know if I'll be allowed, but I'm going to do everything
that I possibly can to get to Jesus Christ and to be made whole. How about you? How about you? Do you have the same resolve?
Do you have the same determination? Well, I leave you with the words
of the Lord Jesus to her. Now, she feared being rebuked.
Remember what He said? Daughter, be of good cheer. She wasn't rebuked and turned
away. She was accepted and encouraged. He calls her daughter, meaning,
you're one of mine. He bids her good comfort. Hear me on this. If you want
to hear this, God is out to do you good. That's right. He's out to do you good. This
woman was fully persuaded. Are you? Are you? Like Abraham, we too can be fully
persuaded that what he promised, he is also able to perform. He's able and he's willing. How do I know? Because this book tells me that
he is faithful that promised.