All right, if you'll take your
Bibles and turn with me to Luke chapter 8. Luke chapter 8. We'll be looking at verses 41
down through the end of this chapter, verse 56. Luke chapter 8 and verse 41. And here in these two passages,
the passage of Scripture, We have two miracles of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We have the miracle of the healing
of Jairus' daughter who was dead. And we have the healing of the
woman with the issue of blood. Now both of these two histories,
both of these two miracles are one story. I know that many times
we use one or the other because of our time to be able to focus
on them, and I will, this evening, be looking at the miracle of
Jairus' daughter, for the most part. But these two miracles
are intertwined because they happened at the same time, during
the same course of events. Now look at verse 41. And behold,
there came a man named Jarius, and he was a ruler of the synagogue.
And he fell down at the feet, Jesus' feet, and besought him
that he would come into his house. For he had one only daughter,
about twelve years of age, and she lay dying. But as he went,
the people thronged him. A woman, having an issue of blood
twelve years, which has 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 was dried
up. And Jesus said, Who touched me?
When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master,
the multitude thronged thee, and press thee, and sayest thou,
Who touched me? And Jesus said, Somebody hath
touched me, for I perceive virtue is gone out of me. And when the
woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and fell
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, go in peace. While he yet spake, there cometh
one from the ruler of the synagogue's house, saying to him, Thy daughter
is dead. Trouble not the master. But when
Jesus heard it, he answered him, saying, Fear not, believe only,
and she shall be made whole. And when he came into the house,
he suffered no man to go in save Peter and James and John and
the father and mother of the maiden. And all wept and bewailed
her, but he said, Weep not, she is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn,
knowing that she was dead. And he put them out. took her
by the hand and called, saying, Maid, arise. And her spirit came
again, and she rose straightway, and he commanded, Give her meat. And her parents were astonished,
but he charged them that they should tell no man what was done."
The title of the message this evening is A divine delay. A divine delay. What we have here, first of all,
in our text, is an urgent case. An urgent case. The Lord Jesus
Christ being rejected of those Gadareans, He had come back across
the sea, and the Scripture says He was received of these people,
and that it It came to pass here that this man Jairus heard that
Jesus was in his city. And he was a ruler of the synagogue,
a very important fellow. He was a ruler of the people
of that city. He was their preacher, a man
of great report, great respect. But here we see this great man
brought down to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, begging Him,
concerning his only daughter, his only beloved child who lay
dying. This was an urgent case. I'm sure Jairus, when he heard
of Jesus' power, I'm sure he prayed for Jesus to come and
heal his daughter. I'm sure he prayed to God, Lord,
would you let this man come so that he might heal my only beloved
daughter? For she was at the point of death.
And I'm sure Jairus was filled with hope when he heard that
Jesus had landed on the shore. That Jesus had come. And this
man of the Jew, this ruler of the Jews here, came to Jesus.
And he was filled with hope. And he runs to this man. And
he falls down at the feet of the Christ. And he begs Him.
He says, please come into my house. Please come and heal my
daughter. It's urgent. She's dying right
now. She's laying in the bed and she's
at the point of death. She's only 12 years old. She's
my only baby. Would you please come and heal
her? This was a matter of urgency.
Time was of the essence. I'm sure Jarius before had searched
for many cures for his child, just like this woman who was
taken with the issue of blood. She spent all her living on doctors. Do you not suppose that this
wealthy man has spent a great multitude on his daughter, trying
to have her cured from her illness? And he came to Jesus by faith,
trusting that he was able to heal her. Just as he was going
to heal this woman with the issue of blood, Jairus before believed
that this man was able. But she was now at the point
of death, and the only hope of saving her life was that Jesus
would come quickly. Quickly. Do you not think that Jarius,
when the Lord Jesus agreed to go, do you not think he was excited? Do you not think he was filled
with hope? Yes, he was filled with hope.
Here he was, the Lord had come at just the right time. And now
he was coming and he said, hey, come heal my daughter, please
come into my house, heal my baby. And Jesus says, okay, let's go. Everything seemed to be going
well. Everything seemed to be going just like he prayed. What joy must have filled his
heart to think that his little his little girl was going to
live. This was a very urgent matter
which required the power that only Jesus, the son of God, can
give. But this case that's before us
is not just a history. It's not just a history of an
urgent case. This truly happened. This man was truly distraught. I cannot imagine having my child
Leah dying. And the only hope was this man
standing in front of me to heal her. But yet he had faith to
believe that Jesus was able. But this case here was not only
a true history, but a picture for us, a type. The Lord Jesus
Christ did not do these miracles only to prove His power, but
to give us examples, to give us pictures and types of salvation. This case is a picture of every
sinner who by God's grace is made to see his need of salvation. The sinner is Jairus and his
precious daughter is the soul of the sinner. What is more precious
to a man than his soul? Jesus said, what will you give
in exchange for your soul? There's nothing more precious
than your soul because your soul is not mortal, it's immortal. It's going to continue on long
after this body has been corrupted and in the grave. A man who is lost does not know the
sickness of his sin. But when the Holy Spirit begins
a work of grace, the man is made to see that his soul is at the
point of death, and unless God comes, unless God comes and does
a work of grace, He knows this, His soul must perish under divine
justice. This is the beginning of grace.
This is the beginning of mercy, is that God revealed to us our
need. And our need is an urgent need. The need of a lost sinner is
an urgent matter because they stand upon the precipice of eternity
overlooking the flames of hell at any moment ready to slide
off into eternity. Therefore, the Holy Spirit in
divine providence at the appointed time sends the gospel message
to the ears of a hopeless man. The message is the same. Jesus
has come to seek and to save that which is lost. This is a
message for someone who has an urgent matter regarding their
soul. This is a message for sinners who are in need of life, who
lay dying, spiritually dying, wrecked with sin. 1 Timothy 1.15, it says, this is
a faithful saying and worthy of your acceptation, of everyone's
acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners,
of whom I am chief. That's a faithful saying. That's
worthy of everyone's acceptance. This is the purpose of Christ,
to save sinners. To save sinners. If you remember
when the Pharisees confronted Him about being the friend of
sinners, Jesus said, They that are whole need not a physician,
but they that are sick. Is that not easy to understand?
Very simple. You don't go to the doctor unless
you're sick. If you're well, you don't go to the doctor. He said, I came not to call the
righteous but sinners to repentance. Are you sick with sin? Are you sick with sin? Is your
case urgent? Do you know that God will punish
your sins if you die without God's forgiveness that's only
found in Jesus Christ? This is an urgent matter. This
is an urgent case. You know why God is not pleased
with the death of the wicked? Because the wicked's death will
never in eternity satisfy the justice of God. Never. They will continually suffer
the wrath of God forever because they can never satisfy God's
justice. Never. Sinner, is this your case? Is this urgent to you? Come to Christ, for He has promised
to heal everyone that comes to God by Him. This is the good
news of the Gospel, that He has promised to heal everyone who
comes to God by Him, through faith in Him. He promises. to heal the sin-sick soul. I tell every sinner to come and
fall down like Jairus at the feet of Jesus and beg Him for
the life of your soul. And if you come to Christ, you
must come as you are. You must forget about your position,
about your worthiness, forget about your efforts, forget about
what you think you know, and fall down at His feet and believe
only on Him. Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,
weak and wounded, Sick and sore. Jesus, ready, stands to save
you. Full of pity, joined with power. This is what Jairus did. He said,
Behold, there was 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. May God, by His grace, give sinners
such a heart to repent and believe on Him. Can you imagine this
man who was all dressed up in his robes? This guy was a wealthy
man. He was a powerful man. And I
know this, that nothing else in this world mattered to him
but his daughter. And I know this, when a sinner
is convicted of sin, nothing else matters but the salvation
of his soul. And he comes to Christ seeking
mercy. Mercy. Second of all, I want
us to not only see that we have a sinner coming, but we also
have a divine delay. Everything seemed to be going
in Jairus' direction. Everything seemed to be well.
But look at the last part of verse 42. But as he went, there he is,
there's the willingness. You see the Savior moving in
the direction of his house. He's starting down the road.
Oh boy, it's going to happen. He's coming to heal my daughter.
It's going to be wonderful. As he went, the people thronged
him. Have you ever tried to get somewhere
urgently? Because every time I try to get
somewhere urgently, it's a traffic jam. I could be on a road any
day of the week and traffic moves so smoothly, but when I'm in
a hurry, it seems as though everybody else is not. Delays. Delays. As he went, the people thronged
him. As soon as Jesus manifested His
willingness to heal the child of Jairus, the multitude came
in pressing and His progress slowed to a crawl. Slowed down. I'm sure and I suppose that those
eyes of Jairus that were filled with tears of joy, all of a sudden
were in amazement. Lord, how could this be? How could this be? I'm sure his
eyes of hope began to grow dim. I'm sure he was very disheartened. His daughter needed Christ now,
and yet somehow, for some reason, the Lord was hindered in his
progress. toward the house. And not only were the people
slowing his progress, but if you'll look at the Lord Jesus
Christ, can you imagine how this question sounded to Jairus? The
Lord Jesus Christ said, who touched me? He's being hit and pressed
by everybody around him. People reaching out and touching
him and trying to grab ahold of him. And he stops. What was a slow process came
to a screeching halt. And Jesus said, Who touched me?
I'm not moving until someone confesses, Who touched me? Imagine the amazement of this
guy. Look! My daughter's dying and you're
asking that silly question? Who touched me? Really? Everyone's touching you. Peter
is the one that obviously said it. Peter was the boldest of
them all. And he said, Look! What do you
mean? Who touched you? The crowd throng
you. They press in on you. And you
ask, Who touched me? We don't understand. We don't
understand. He did this because there was
a woman who had an urgent need as well. There was another woman
who had an urgent need as well. This woman had spent 12 years. As long as his little girl had
been alive, this woman had spent 12 years in suffering. 12 years
she was laying out dying. 12 years! And so she reached in, not thinking
anyone would notice, not thinking anyone would take notice of her
touching just the hem of His garment. If I crawl on the ground
and touch the hem of His garment, I can walk away whole and no
one would know the difference. But when she did, the Lord stopped
in His tracks. When sinners know their need
of Christ, that their sin is great, they are desirous for
healing now. This woman was just as desirous
to be healed as Jairus was of his daughter. Friends, God... Listen very carefully. God is in no rush. As we can see clearly, He was
able to heal them both. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
going to be rushed. Jesus was sent to save all of
His people from their sins, and each of them at their appointed
time. at their appointed time. I remember
a preacher's son. He was away from his family,
college, and he was convicted of his This young man was so
convicted of his sin that he was very anxious because he knew
that if he was to die, he was really aware that if he was to
die at any moment, that he would be ushered into hell forever,
and he was afraid, he was scared, and he called his dad, and his
dad knowing, as a father should, that they may not talk to their
children about this. Because we have such a desire
to save our children. We have a desire that our children
be saved. Usually we just try to give them comfort that's not
there. So he wisely said, well, there's a pastor close to you.
I'm going to give you his number and you call him. And he did.
He called this pastor. By the divine providence of God,
the pastor was not there. And so he had to wait until Sunday. There he was on Friday, scared
to death. And he had to wait till Sunday
to hear the message. For two days this young man dwelt
in great fear. He had an urgent case and yet
God delayed him for two days before he heard the gospel and
believed. God's delays. We must understand
this, that God's delays are always according to His divine providential
will. Sinner, is your need urgent?
Are you dying? Well, I tell you this, the news
is far worse than that. Jairus just thought the news
couldn't get any worse. There he was, he had hope, his
daughter's dying, he has an urgent case, he finally gets to the
Lord, the Lord agrees to go, the crowd slows him down, then
all of a sudden he stops asking, who touched me? Then he talks
to this woman a little while, and now then as he's going, he
turns, and a man comes and says something very disheartening,
while he yet spake, verse 49, There cometh one from the ruler
of the synagogue's house saying to him, Thy daughter is dead. Trouble not the master. When a man is made to see that
his soul is dying, There's a reason the Lord delays, because He's
not got a full picture yet. Your soul is not dying, it's
dead. A man must come to see that his
soul is not have a glimmer of hope left in it, but that his
soul is completely and utterly dead in trespasses and sins.
The case of a lost sinner is urgent, but it's not only urgent,
it's hopeless. Hopeless. At this word, I'm sure all hope
left Jairus' thoughts. I'm sure his soul fell into full
despair that his daughter was no longer dying, she was dead. Then comes, in a timely manner,
the word of the Lord Jesus. A word of hope to dead sinners. Look at His word in verse 50.
When Jesus heard it, He answered him saying, Fear not, believe
only, and she shall be made whole. The delay of Christ was on purpose
so that the type might be fully displayed. If you remember, that's what
happened, the same thing happened to Lazarus, did it not? Isn't
that what happened to Lazarus? The Lord and His disciples, they
said, Lazarus is sick. And they meal around over here
a little while. They don't go to him immediately.
And he says, our friend Lazarus is dead. And then they go to
him and Martha says, if thou wouldest been here, then my brother
wouldn't have died. That would have been true. Is
that not a true statement? The Lord loved Lazarus. And truly,
if he had been there, he would have healed him. But he did this
for the glory of God. He said, I did it for your sakes.
For the glory of God might be revealed. Because he didn't have
any intention of healing Lazarus. He had an intention of raising
Lazarus from the dead. And it's the same is true of
this little girl. The Lord Jesus had no intention
of healing her. He had an intention of raising
her from the dead. That was his purpose. Friends,
sinners don't need just a band-aid on their soul. They need life. They need life. Dead sinners
needs a resurrection from the dead. The elect of God are by
nature as dead as those dry bones in Ezekiel 37. You remember Ezekiel
when he came out to that valley of dry bones? Those soldiers
had been dead for many years. Their bones had been cooked in
the sun. There was no water in those bones. There was no life in those bones. And he said, preach to these
bones. Well, that's what preachers do.
Preachers preach to dead men. Is anyone going to live? Lord,
thou knowest. Only the Lord knows if anyone
will live or not. The Lord knows. And what happened
when he preached to those bones? The Lord gave them life. Look
over this. I want you to see the confession.
Notice, I want you to see the confession of those raised multitudes
of soldiers. Those that the Lord raised from
the dead over in Ezekiel 37. Because this is my confession.
If you've been raised from the dead, this is your confession. Ezekiel 37, and look at verse So I prophesied as He commanded
me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood
up upon their feet an exceeding great army. Then He said unto
me, this is God, Son of Man, these bones are the whole house
of Israel. This is My elect people. Behold, they say." Now, this
is the bones. These are the ones that were
raised from the dead. What do we say? Our bones are
dried. Our hope is lost. We are cut
off for our parts, for our sins. Therefore prophesy and say unto
them, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, O my people, I will open
your graves and cause you to come out of your graves, and
bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am
the Lord when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought
you up out of your graves, and shall put My Spirit in you, and
you shall live, and I shall place you in your own land. Then you
shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed
it, thus saith the Lord. That's my confession. I'm a dried
up bone, nothing else. I'm cut off because of my sin
and need salvation that comes from God. And God says, I will open your
graves and you'll know that I'm the Lord. Do you know that? Do you know that Christ is the
Lord? If you do, you confess where
you came from, you know what you are by nature, you know what
Christ has done for you, He's raised you from the dead. Oh sinner, let not conscience
make you linger, nor of fitness fondly dream, all the fitness
He requires to fill your need of Him. Sinner, listen not to
the voice of your conscience, but listen to the Word of God.
Fear not, believe only. Fear not, believe only. Jesus is the resurrection and
the life. Jesus is the resurrection and
the life. He that believeth in me, the
Lord said, he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet
shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Believest thou this? Yes. Yes, I believe. I believe. And as every elect child of God,
Jairus did not cease to believe, but he continued on. Even after
this news came to him, he continued on. Is that not what we did,
who are raised from the dead? When we heard of our condition,
did that drive us away? You know, that's what most people
in religious circles, they don't like to teach the message of
of depravity or the deadness of soul because they think that'll
drive people away. Friends, that drives none of
God's elect away. Matter of fact, it continues
to press on. We continue to strive because
we know this, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. Where else we gonna go? You know
what I did when I found out my soul was dead? I continued to
come until they gave me life. And I believe that's what happens
to every elect sinner, that they'll sit there until God gives them
life. They're like that woman who would not be turned away,
was a Gentile. The Lord said, is it me to give
the children's bread to a dog like you? and turns around to
leave her, and she says, Truth, Lord, I am a dog. But even the
dogs received the crumbs from the Master. She would not be
turned away. And what did He say to her? Great
is thy faith. How did He know her faith was
so great? Because He gave it to her. It was His. And He gave it to her. It was
great faith. And great faith will never be
turned away. Never be turned away. The sinner will be quickened
to life. He must be under the sound of
the Gospel. It must be by the hearing of
God's Word by God's man. And when a man learns this, he won't quit. If the Spirit of God is truly
involved in his salvation, he won't quit listening until God
gives him life. He won't. We can see that in
Jairus that even after these men told him, he said, don't
bother the master anymore. Don't do that. He's dead. Your
daughter's dead. Leave him alone. Go away. No
hope for you. And what did the Lord say? There's
hope for you. Which one did he believe? He
believed Jesus. He believed the word of the Lord
Jesus Christ and he continued on. If a man has need of life, he will continue
until the Lord gives it. No matter the delay, no matter
how long it takes, they won't quit. I've seen this. I've experienced
this. False faith will not continue,
but true faith will endure. Faith in Christ's Word will endure. And Jairus is dead. Look at this
in verse 51. And when he came to the house,
he suffered. No man saved Peter, James, and
John, and the father muttered the maiden, and all wept and
bewailed her. And he said, Weep not. She is
not dead, but sleepeth. And what did they begin to do?
And they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead." Through all of this mocking and
laughing at this gospel message, that men are born dead in sins
and need the power of Jesus Christ to raise them from the dead,
men mock at this gospel. But I'll tell you this, a man
who needs life will not let that bother him. The souls of the elect are born dead, yet unto Christ they
are raised from the dead as easily as waking one from sleep." Is
that not easy? Well, it's kind of difficult
to wake kids from their sleep when they know they've got to
get up and do something. But if there's something fun, it's easy
to wake them up. You can wake them up. Wake someone
up, that's easy. If they're alive, it's easy to
wake them up. But Jesus Christ, He just took this little girl
by the hand, He said, May it rise. And she got up immediately. Do you think there was any anxiety
in the heart of the Lord during all this? Not a bit. Not a bit of anxiety. Nothing
took Him by surprise. Friends, God has His people. And at His appointed time, He
will raise His people from the dead. And it will not be complicated
for Him. It is not any hindrance. Nobody is a hindrance to Him
to raise His people from the dead. We see hindrances, don't
we? We see our family members who
are lost. We see that all these great obstacles
are in our way. We think that there is no hope
for them. They're too far gone. How in
the world is the Lord ever gonna get to them? Lord, we got an
urgent case here. Need to hurry up. Now, you won't rush the Master. But know this, if they're one
of His, they'll come. Regardless of what you do or
what you don't do, God's people will come. Because Jesus Christ will raise
them from the dead. Believers, we know this condition
of man's nature because we've experienced it. You that have been quickened
from the dead. A lot of times we feel hopeless
concerning our friends, our children. But know this, that all things
are possible with God. How hard was it for Him to save
you? He can just as easily save someone
else. And He will. He will save everyone who comes
to God by Him. Jesus said, The time is coming,
and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of God, and they
that hear shall live. Behold, the surety of this rests
in the person and work of Christ. Jesus alone is the blessed God,
man mediator, and He alone is the priest, the sacrifice, the
offering that is acceptable to God, and He alone calls His people
to life. He alone does this. How is it
that God can be just and forgive sinners? Only by the death of
the Son. Only by His resurrection from
the dead. God testified of His acceptance. Believe only in Him. Believe only in Him. Is that
not His message to you right now? Believe only. Is there anything else God requires
of you but to believe? And what is required of us, He
gives us. The faith you have is given. And the last thing I want to
talk to you about is a message to the risen. You who are risen,
this is still God's requirement to believe only on Christ. I
wrote this quote down. I thought it was very good. If
we would be saved, the Lord Jesus Christ says believe only. If
we would honor God, His commandment is believe only. If we would
see the Lord God work, He says, believe only. If we would see
the glory of God, we must believe only. If thou wouldest believe,
thou shouldest see the glory of God. In all our exercise of
faith, if the Lord seems to give us gracious answers to prayers, if He brings
us into trials, When our hearts appear cold and dead and our
spirits languish, let us remember Jairus and look still to our
blessed Savior. It is one thing to trust God
when everything is hopeful. It's altogether different to
trust God when everything appears hopeless. when we feel and know most our
impotence and depravity of our hearts, when we know the corruption
of our souls and feel utterly dead before Christ, it is a good
thing, for the scripture says, the sentence of death in ourselves,
that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the
dead. Do you see why We need the times of despair so that
we won't trust in ourselves. The dark times are necessary
so that we won't trust in ourselves, but that we would trust only
in Christ. Let us in such times believe
only in Christ and trust in God. who raises his people from the
dead. I pray that the Lord would bless
us. I don't know about you, but I
spend a lot of my time not understanding what's going on. You ever seen a dog chase his
tail? That's kind of how I feel. Hamster in the wheel. I'm running
and going nowhere. But according to God's divine
providence, he says, believe only. Trust in Christ. And all who believe have this
promise. It is well with our souls. May not be well with your body,
but it is well with your soul. Praise God for His grace, for
His kindness, and His mercy toward us who are
sinners to give us life. Pray that God will bless this
to you. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed and pray.