Let's be turning to Luke chapter
8. Luke chapter 8, our Lord had
just been in the land of the Gadarenes and he was now crossed
back over into Galilee. And we read in verse 40, and
it came to pass that when Jesus was returned, the people gladly
received him, for they were all waiting for him." The first time
I read this verse a few weeks ago, I couldn't help but read
it in a very prophetic manner, meaning that In this, we see the joy and rejoicing
of God's people in the day when our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
returns again, when he comes back to save his people, to raise
up our bodies from the grave. And what follows this verse in
the text of the rest of this chapter, chapter 8, is a witness
of what our Lord does in saving his people graciously through
the accomplished redemption of our Lord upon the cross. And this is pictured in the healing
of this woman with an issue of blood. And then he goes on to
raise a young damsel from the dead. And that's a picture of
when our Lord comes again, returns again, and raises up those new
believers, those born-again believers, that he's saved by his accomplished
redemption, he raises them from the dead to forever be with the
Lord and to enter in that marriage feast of our Lord. And so that's
the 10,000 foot view of what's pictured here. That's a picture
of the gospel in grand view there. So what I want to do this morning
is look at this relationship of these two women, because in
every gospel that this is spoken of, these two are put together
in this exact same way. These two women are spoken of
together in the same way, whether you're looking at Matthew, Mark,
and Luke. And so together what I'm saying
is there's a picture, there's a full picture of salvation that
is being declared here to us in the Lord Jesus Christ of what
he does for every one of his children. So Christ returns to
Galilee and verse 41, behold, there came a man named Jairus. that 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. And I take that to mean he had
one child, one child, and it was this daughter. And she was
about 12 years of age, and she lay a dying. Mark tells us that
she was at the point of death. Matthew records the father saying,
my daughter is even now dead. And what that means is he's saying,
she is at the point of death. She might even be dead by the
time we get back to the house. Lord, and yet at that point,
he heard someone said, the master's back, the master's back, and
he left his dying daughter in hope and ran to Christ to beg
him, please, Lord, come and save my daughter who's going to die
at any moment here. Time is of the essence. But something
else is demanding the attention of our Lord. Something else is
demanding his attention at the same time. Verse 4, at the end
of verse 42, we're told that as Christ went, the people thronged
him. Our Lord agreed to go with this
man, and here's this crowd of people. are coming all around
him and bumping into him and slowing him down. They're happy,
they're excited to see him as well. These are those people
in verse 40 that gladly received him for they were all waiting
for him. And as he made his way through
the press of this people were told, verse 43, that 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 staunched." Meaning that this problematic,
flow of blood that could not be healed or dried up or stopped,
it stopped. It was staunched. She stopped
bleeding. She was healed immediately on
touching Christ's garment. A very obvious question is about
to be brought to our attention by our Lord. Verse 45, Jesus
said, who touched me? Who touched me? And when all
denied, he looks around. Did you touch me? No. Did you
touch me? No. And when everyone denied
Peter, and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude
thronged thee, and pressed thee, and sayest thou who touched me? But our Lord raises a good point
that we might just go right on past and not even consider, not
even think about. What's different about this woman's
touch than all the other people that were thronging him and pressing
against him and touching him? What's so different that he noticed
this touch? Well, this touch was done in
faith. God given spirit brought faith. There's life there in that crowd. Christ knows it. There's life.
There's a living soul in that crowd and our Lord noticed it. There were many people happy
to see Christ return. There were many people pressing
to be near him, to touch him, to express their needs, to let
him know, Lord, this happened. Lord, could you do that? Lord,
I need this. Lord, I need that. But only one
person that day touched him in faith, and our Lord knew it. He knew it. He knows life. He is life. He gave that life
to that woman. And in reply to what Peter said,
verse 46, Jesus said, somebody hath touched me. Someone's touched
me with purpose. A living hand touched me. A living
soul touched me. For I perceive that virtue is
gone out of me. Now, that word virtue is most
often translated in the New Testament as power. I think 77 times it's
translated power, and only three or four times it's translated
virtue. But it's speaking of power. Paul
said in 1 Corinthians 1 18, for the preaching of the cross is
to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it
is the power of God. This is the dynamite of God. The dunamis is, I think, the
Greek word. The dunamis of God, the dynamite
power of God. This is what God does. Christ
said, I perceive that dunamis has gone out from me. Power of
God. Resurrection, glorious power
of God. That power that He gives when
He gives life and salvation to a dead sinner. When He raises
them from the dead and gives life, spiritual life, to a dead
sinner. And so Christ knows, my God,
my Father has given life to someone here in this crowd and I want
to speak to her. I want to speak to her. God's
power changed this woman. She was given faith by Christ
to reach out, to hear He's come, to go after Him, and to come
behind Him, and just touch Him. If I can just touch the hem of
His garment. And according as she believed,
it was done unto her. And that's what our Lord shows
us here multiple times in Luke. Jairus said, Lord, if you would
just come under my roof, would you come to my house? She said,
if I can just but touch the hem of his garment. The centurion
said, Lord, I don't even need you to come under my roof. Just
say the word, and it'll be done. And what the Lord's showing us
there, because we get really fixated on how a thing's supposed
to be done. And the Lord's saying, your experiences
will differ from one another. And the measure of faith that
the Lord gives may differ from one another. However, all of
God's people, don't get caught up in what the Lord lays on your
heart. making you to know. But what
he's saying is, your faith, if it's of God-wrought faith, if
it's of the Spirit of God, you're all going to believe and know
that I need the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Savior. He's the salvation
of God, whom the Father has sent. And he fixes our hope and our
desire, our need in Christ. And so don't get caught up in,
The experiences, they may differ to some degree in the measure
of faith, but you can be sure this, our faith is going to be
fixed in the Lord Jesus Christ. And according as you believe,
the Lord will do it because he gave it and he blesses his people
as it pleases him. And so God made a glorious distinction
here. And Christ says, I need to speak
with her. I want to find her. I want to
know who she is and talk to her. Verse 47, 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 so I think what's most revealing
here is that when God saves a people, his salvation shall not be hidden. He will not hide his salvation
from his people. And so the flesh has, you know,
this flesh has many fears. This flesh that we have has many
fears about what others think. And if left to our flesh, we're
likely to feel ashamed. of Christ, right? If the Lord
leaves us to ourselves, we'll feel ashamed or embarrassed or
afraid to come into the light of the hope that the Lord has
given to us. And the salvation experienced
by us, we're afraid, right? Because we either think, well,
they're going to know then that I'm a sinner. That was probably
a very strong concern for people at this time. They're going to
know I'm a sinner. They're going to know that I'm
weak. I'm admitting that I need Christ, that I cannot save myself. Others, they know that this world
despises and hates Christ. And so they don't want to come
into the light and be honest with others about who they are
and the hope that they have in Christ. But if we're Christ's,
we see here from this we're not going to be hit he's going to
draw us into the light and to confess before the world that
Jesus is our Savior that he's our Lord our Savior our God our
all we're going to confess him publicly just as this woman did
verse 48 and he said unto her daughter Be of good comfort. Thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace. And so there's something
very sweet here. To those that Christ draws to
publicly confess Him, He will publicly confess them before
all. You that are not ashamed of Christ,
Christ is not ashamed of you. And He'll confess you. No matter
the filth and the sin and the dirt and the vile that we come
to the Lord with, He's not ashamed of His child, of those that believe
Him and confess their need of Him. And so it's a comfort for
us to know that what the Lord does in bringing us out publicly
to the light is to make us to know that I am His and He is
mine. And he affirms that through it,
even through all the sufferings, through all the pushback, through
all the words that this world casts against you for confessing
Christ. How could you believe that? That's
silly. That's nonsense. This world will try to make you
feel like a fool, and yet Christ will comfort you. As we see here,
he'll add his word. He'll bless you to know that,
wait a minute, I'm Christ's, and he's mine forever. And so
he'll add to his people to comfort them. I remember. There was a
man, this is I guess not a good story, but there was a young
man that a friend of mine was telling me about that he was
declaring the gospel to him. One day the light went on in
this young man and he heard what was being said and he rejoiced
and delighted and he went home and he was living with his grandparents
and he told his grandmother and grandfather and he was all excited
and the grandfather just squashed it. Just said, don't you know
that's just fairy tales used to help people to keep people
good and in line. And it just sucked the life right
on out of that guy. Now, of course, he never had
the spirit of God. He never knew God because that
was it. That was like the seed that falls
on the rock. And it was persecuted and dried
up in the heat of the sun. And maybe sometimes we're worried
that we're going to be so persecuted, I don't want to come into the
light. But if you're the Lord, you're going to come into the
light and you're going to see that if you're Christ, you're rooted
in Christ. Now, let's find that out now,
right? That's what the Lord's saying. I'd rather know it now
that I'm the Lord's or not his, that I may beg him for grace
and mercy. Lord, make me, please save me. And so don't be afraid to confess
Christ because he confesses you. All right? Whosoever therefore
shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before
my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before
men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. And so if men hate you or make
fun of you, understand the Lord's going to make you to know you
have a better hope. Don't lash out back at them in the way they've
treated you, but you have a better hope. And he makes his child
to know that we have the inheritance of the saints in life. We're
his. The true and living God has called
me a sinner and saved me. who knew nothing. So the Hebrew
writer says, let us go forth, therefore, unto him without the
camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we no continuing
city, but we seek one to come. And so live like that, brethren.
Be encouraged here what we see with this woman. Now, I want
to point out that these two women are clearly tied together. We
see it in Luke, we see it in Matthew, we see it in Mark. And it seems that this tying
together was done about 12 years earlier. 12 years earlier in
the gracious purpose of Almighty God. He knit these two together
as one. to declare to us, to show us,
to reveal to us the gospel. Jairus's daughter was about 12
years of age. And this woman had an issue of
blood 12 years. Now, two things about this. First,
There's times when tragedy befalls us. Some difficulty, some hardship
that just hits us and strikes us and brings us low, and we
don't know why. Why, Lord, did this happen? Why
did this happen to me? What did I do, Lord, that you
had to come down so hard on me in that way? And we don't know
and we run to and fro trying to figure things out. But the
reality is the gospel gives us many persons like this. And we
always take it as God's beating me, he's punishing me, he's whooping
me. No, no, not necessarily. Because there's a lot of blessed
souls that have borne burdens for a long time. This woman,
over a decade. In chapter 13 coming up, there's
a woman who was burdened for 18 years, almost two decades. In John chapter 5, there's a
fellow that bore that sickness for 38 years. He bore it without
any relief, without any help, almost four decades. And so sometimes
the Lord lays his people under a heavy or grievous burden to
this flesh for a purpose that we don't always know. But Paul
says in 2 Corinthians 1, he said, blessed be God who comforted
us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them
which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves
are comforted God and so the Lord does sometimes choose people
one out of many to suffer long that they might in some day ahead
that they don't know minister comfort to another in need of
comforting and they might have a word through their experience
and how God has provided for them that they might comfort
another but that comfort that they've been comforted by. Peter says it this way, ye are
a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and holy nation,
a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him
who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. We're
called of God. We're formed of God. We're his
creatures. We're his people. And He's formed
each of us for His purposes, not our purposes, but His purposes. And through those experiences
and difficulties where He's proving to us and revealing to us, making
us to see that faith which he's given to us, to the glory, praise,
and honor of his name, he does this. And he gives it out, just
like he gives faith severally, he also gives the weaknesses
and the infirmities to his people that show forth the praises of
him. Because there's others with your
infirmity as well that are not praising him. But he's showing,
I've done this for you. And I'm going to bring forth
the praises and glory of my name through you. And this life is
but a vapor. And it's all over very quickly.
And so the Lord does it as it pleases him. So in that sense
now, of the trial of this woman for 12 years, when this young
woman was conceived, She was struck with this infirmity and
bore this thing. Now, you think of the trial now
of patience of this young damsel's father and what he's going through
when Christ paused and started looking around asking, who touched
me? Times of the essence. Tick tock.
Tick tock. My daughter might be dead by
the time we get to the house. And this seemingly useless detail
where Christ stops and asks, who touched me? Who touched me? Who was it? I need to know. And
as far as the father's concerned, what are we doing here? Let's
get home. We need to get home. My daughter
is at the point of death, Lord. And yet this woman, around that
same time, she's been bearing it for 12 years. 12 years from
the time that little girl was conceived in her mother's womb,
this woman's issue of blood started somewhere right around that time. And Mark tells us of that woman,
Mark 526, that she had suffered many things of many physicians
and had spent all that she had and was nothing bettered, but
rather grew worse. And so she labored for 12 years. And the picture is, just like
we see in the world today, many labor for years and years, some
five years, some 12 years, some 18, some 38 years, going about
in religion, from religion to religion, from denomination to
denomination, hoping to find some physician behind some pulpit
that can heal her. And she spends, and labors, and
gives, and sacrifices, and she's nothing the better for it. Because
this physician says, well, do this, and the Lord will bless
you. Why don't you stop doing that,
and why don't you start doing this, and God will heal you?
And, oh, you're troubled with sin? Well, don't believe that.
That's just the devil. Why don't you do this, and you'll
feel better? And all these physicians behind
these pulpits around the country and the world are just false
physicians, worthless physicians, physicians that cannot save and
cannot provide any relief or comfort to the people of God. But what did the Lord do here?
The Lord blessed this woman by giving her, in the day of grace,
faith. Faith to believe Christ. It wasn't about what she was
doing or not doing, what she started or what she stopped,
through the mere touch of his garment by faith. Just that little
thing. Something nobody would have ever
thought, that Christ could just save his child by faith, them
just stopping and trusting, Lord, save me. Heal me, Lord. Comfort me in my trouble. And so the Lord gave her rest
to know that all her salvation is Christ and Christ alone. And that's all that he's done
for every one of his children. to rest yes we have fears and
doubts and various things attacking us and we're troubled by our
sin just like everyone else but he gives us rest in Christ to
know Lord you're right you're just I am a sinner but Lord I
have nothing but hope in Christ that just as you said you've
given the son to save me and to deliver me, to put away my
sins, Lord, I believe. That's all I can do. I don't
have anything else but Him, and He's a good hope. He's the good
hope. He's your salvation, Lord, and
I believe you. So even though I'm hit and pummeled
and beaten and tried with various troubles and flaming darts from
the enemy, Lord, Please just give me that peace and rest and
hope in Christ Because that's what you say in your word, and
that's all I have Is that hope that faith that you give to your
people? And so she's she's being brought
to know this and the father here of this young damsel He was tried
just a little longer while the Lord was was saving this old
sinner, this woman here, while he was providing for her, and
I'm sure it seemed like hours, and he was wondering, surely
my daughter must be dead now, while he's talking to this lady
over here, and, verse 49, while Jesus yet spake, there cometh
one from the ruler of the synagogue's house saying to him, thy daughter
is dead. trouble not the master and you
know in that moment every confidence he had maybe she'll just hang
on till we get there maybe if i can just get christ to the
house in time we can save her and yet with that news everything
that man was hoping and entrusting and had confidence in that wasn't
christ just hang on honey i've almost got him there honey And
it was taken away. All hope that he had in the flesh
was now gone. All hope that he had in the flesh
was finally dried up and gone. And the Lord spoke to him. In
that time, when Jesus heard it, he answered, saying, fear not,
believe only. That's it. That's salvation. Believe only and she shall be
made whole. Sinner, there's nothing you can
do to save yourself. And the Lord has, you that are
still looking and hoping for some relief, of your trouble
and the things that you do or say or don't do or don't say
or where you go, the Lord says it's all worthless. You spent
years trusting in yourself, trying and spending and laboring, but
now he says believe only. Trust Christ. Trust the Lord. This is his word. You that believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved. That's the Lord's word to his
people. To you that are sinners, struggling, tempted, and tried,
weary, broken, ruined by the fall, believe only on the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is the salvation of God for
sinners. He's everything, brethren. That's
what this father was being brought to see. He's everything. And
when Jesus came into the house, he suffered or allowed no man
to go in save Peter, James, and John, and the father and mother
of the maiden. Now in the house, there was people.
He just stopped all the crowd from coming in and brought five
in only. And inside the house, all wept. and bewailed her. But Christ said, weep not. She
is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn,
knowing that she was dead." Now, that's actually a picture of
man's reaction to the good news, right? Mocking. What? You're
telling me that's how God saves freely, sovereignly, that he
can raise sinners dead in trespasses and sins to life? And that's
salvation? Free grace? That's nonsense. You need the law. Except ye be
circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. You've got to keep the law and
the Ten Commandments, and you've got to repent, and you've got
to stop that, and start this, and do this here, and be just
like us. Then you can be saved. And the
Lord's saying, believe only. Trust me. And so they didn't
want to hear it. They judged themselves unworthy
of eternal life. And verse 54 says, He put them
all out. Out you go. Get out of here. And took her by the hand and
called, saying, Maid, arise. And her spirit came again, and
she arose straightway, and he commanded to give her meat. And her parents were astonished,
but he charged them that they should tell no man what was done."
Now, though I struggle to explain it as clearly as I just know
it in my heart, these two women, the old and the new, They're
one. It's a picture of what Christ
first accomplishes in his people through his accomplished redemption.
The salvation he brings to us and freeing us from years of
struggle and dead letter religion and in works and trying to save
ourselves. He saves his people. He gives them life. And that's
what he did. He healed this woman with the
issue of blood. We have an issue of blood. In
Adam, we've inherited a sin nature that proves that we have every
day. We're sinners. We're sinners,
just like Adam. And our Lord, through his blood,
redemption has delivered us. And he assures us through his
word that, daughter, your faith has saved thee. That faith that
I've given to you It's put away. You're healed. You're mine. I've
revealed that you're mine through faith, which I've given to you.
And then he comes to this new child, this young maid, who's
now physically dead. It's a picture that after the
Lord brings salvation to us, we are new creatures. But there's
coming a day when we too shall lay down these bodies in the
grave, return to the dust, It's going to happen for every one
of us. We're going to be laid in the
dust. But in the day of resurrection, he shall return, and he shall
call to each one of his people, saying, arise. He'll call to
his people, and we shall rise from the dead, just as he raises
this maiden from the dead. Every one of you that believe
him, Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow,
and then Christ will come and raise you from the dead. And
our Lord says in John 5, marvel not at this, for the hour is
coming in the which all that are in the grave shall hear his
voice and shall come forth, they that have done good, unto the
resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the
resurrection of damnation. So all that believe Christ is
able to save them, they do show. All that believe only, they show
these are sons and daughters of the Most High God. That's
what he gives to every one of his children, believe only in
Christ. And God has healed them with
his own blood, redemption. And all whom Christ redeemed,
He shall come again. Though he, right now, he's tarrying
because he's calling in those that are yet in the old man whom
he's redeemed. He's tarrying. He hasn't come
again yet because he's calling in many like this woman who had
an issue of blood for 12 years. That's why he tarries. But there
will come a day when the last sheep is brought in, and he shall
return and raise us up from the dead. And all who come from the
graves and are raised again to forever be with the Lord, he
commands, give them to eat. Bring them to the marriage supper
of the lamb, which I've prepared for my bride. before the foundation
of the world. And it's a picture, it's a picture
of the whole thing, of how the Lord raises us from spiritual
death, giving us his spirit, making us to see and know Christ,
and it's a picture of our resurrection from the grave as well. And so
it's all just a beautiful picture of what our Lord does to save
his people from their sins. And I pray that you that, like
this woman, struggle and are troubled, that the Lord give
you comfort and make you to hear his word. Believe only, believe
only on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Amen.