If you will, take your Bibles
and turn with me to Mark chapter 5. Mark chapter 5. I know we read that in Matthew
chapter 9. It is the same account as it
is in Mark chapter 5, only Mark gives a greater detail. Mark
and Luke give a greater detail of this account of the healing
of Jairus' daughter. Mark chapter 5. And it's verse 22 down through
verse 43, the end of the chapter, is the story that is given here.
The title of the message this morning is, Believe Only and
Only Believe. Believe Only and Only Believe. Now, in the history of Jairus'
daughter being raised from the dead, this is only one of three
instances where the Lord Jesus Christ raised a dead person to
life. One of only three. You know that
the resurrection of Lazarus was one of those. And the resurrection
of the son of the widow of Nain, and then this one. But in each
one of those accounts, I would have us notice that God gives
His motive, Jesus gives His motive as to why He raised these from
the dead. In Luke chapter 11, Jesus said
this to Lazarus' sister. He said, "...said not I unto
thee that thou wouldest believe, that thou shouldest see the glory
of God." You see, Lazarus didn't need to be raised from the dead
for Lazarus' sake. Lazarus was doing just fine.
Lazarus was enjoying the presence of God. But He raised Lazarus
from the dead so that the glory of God would be manifest. In
the instance of the son of the widow of Nain, in Luke chapter
7, it says, And the Lord saw her and had compassion. The reason
He raised this son of this widow was out of great compassion. He saw this woman and he saw
her grief. This was her only son. Her husband
was dead. She was alone and he had compassion. And he raised that young man
to life. And the third one here is of
the daughter of Jairus. He says in Mark 5.36, as soon
as Jairus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the
ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid. Here it is, only belief. It is because of faith, it is
because of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that He raised this
young girl from the dead. Now these miracles of Christ,
these miracles of Christ speak to us of a greater resurrection. And that is the resurrection
of a dead sinner to life and faith in Christ. The resurrection
of a dead sinner to life. Friends, all men are born dead
and dying. All men are born dead and dying. We're all born physically dying. When Adam was created, his body
was whole. His body was good. In other words,
if he had continued to obey God as long as he obeyed God, his
body would have existed without death. But as soon as he ate
of that fruit, his body began to decay. And as soon as sin
entered into the world, man began to be subject to death. Listen to me very carefully.
I want every one of you, young and old, to pay attention to
this. This is very important. Every one of you will die. Every one of you will die. That is a certain fact. This is not something that men
will escape. It is certain. God has determined,
God has set your appointed day. You all will die. I will die because of sin. But friends, there is something
far worse than a physical death. And that is a spiritual one. Just as certain as you're going
to die physically, friends, we were certain to die the moment
we entered into this world. You entered into this world dead. Spiritually. Dead. And you can't
escape it. Nobody escapes it. I didn't escape
it. My children did not escape it.
And friends, I will not escape it. I didn't escape it and you
didn't escape it. We're all born spiritually dead.
And we know that though our bodies die, our souls will exist far
beyond this mortal realm. And yet men by nature have little
interest in these matters. They avoid to talk about death
or eternity. They rush blindly along to death,
having no hope and only trusting in what they can see and do. Friends, men by nature have no
interest in these things, but yet death is coming and hell
is moving. Men wake up in the morning and
they have all kinds of hopes and dreams. Every one of you
have hopes and dreams of tomorrow. I have hopes and dreams of tomorrow.
I have things that I have planned, things that I want to accomplish,
things that I want to do, ambitions that I want to accomplish in
this life. Every one of us had. Do you not
suppose those 357 people, as of two days ago, as of last week,
do you not think that they woke up that morning expecting to
die? Do you not think that they have
heard of many storms coming through their town and suppose that this
was just another one? Do you not suppose that they
had plans for today? Of course they did. But in an
instant, God took them. God took their life, it was their
appointed time, and God says, your soul was required now. And I'll tell you, many of them
ushered out into eternity and met the justice of God and are
right now in hell. I know that some of them were
ushered into the presence of God. That's a hope that we have,
that some were. But I'll tell you, not all of
them were. Friends, God says that all are
dead and dying men. And God asked this question in
Ezekiel chapter 18. Flip over there to Ezekiel chapter
18. Ezekiel chapter 18 and verse
32. Ezekiel chapter 18 and verse
32. God says, cast away from you
all your transgression, whereby ye have transgressed, and make
you a new heart and a new spirit. For why will you die, O house
of Israel?" But friends, how can one who
is dead do these things? How is one who is guilty to cast
off his guilt to another? Isn't that what he said? He said,
cast your sins off from you. How then can one who is dead
do that? How can he rightly cast guilt
and blame to another? How can the dead make themselves
a new heart or a new spirit? The simple fact is, we can't. We can't. We cannot resurrect
ourselves, we cannot impute our sins to another, and we cannot
make ourselves a clean heart. But God still says this, why
will you die? Why would He say that? If we
can't do these things, why would He ask such a question of us
who are dead and dying? How can He possibly ask this
of us? God asks this of us and He says,
Sinner, why will you die? Because Christ can raise you
from the dead. Why will you die when my Son
could raise you from the dead? Why will you sinner stand before
God in the rags of his own filthy righteousness when God has sent
His Son to provide all the righteousness necessary? Why will you die?
Why will you die? Why will a sinner die with a
corrupt heart when God has promised to give a new heart and a new
life? Why will you die? How can these things be? How
can a sinner live and have righteousness and have a clean heart? Well, friends, just as Jesus
raised Lazarus from the dead, He raised him for His own glory,
didn't He? So God for His own glory has chosen a people that
He will save. God the Son, who has had compassion
on that widow of Nain, also says, I will have compassion on sinners. I will. And just as he raised
this daughter of Jairus, he did it because of faith. And friends, God says this, if
you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall live. You shall
live. Life and faith come together. They're never separated. We can
only see order and how things work together. We realize by
our reason and understanding that life must come first and
then by life we can have faith. But that's not true. Life and
faith come together at the same time. We must believe on Christ
and all who believe on Christ have their sins cast from them.
All who believe on Christ are given a new life so that they
might live. before God when they die. And so all those who believe
in Christ alone, only believe. Only believe. Only believe. And God will give you life. Now
this morning I want us to see the faith of this man Jairus.
and how he pictures everyone who only believes and believes
only in Christ. First of all, let's look at this
man. Go back to your text. Look at this man. In verse 22,
in Mark chapter 5, it says, And behold, there cometh one of the
rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name. And when he saw him,
he fell at his feet and besought him greatly, saying, My little
girl, my little daughter, lieth at the point of death. In Matthew's
Gospel, as we read earlier, it says, He came and what? Worshipped Him. He worshipped
Him. Friends, this man Jairus had
a need, didn't he? What was his need? His little
girl. His little girl was dying. This one who he treasured was
dying. You see, he didn't need assistance.
He didn't need money for an operation. What this man needed was a miracle
that only God could give. He needed someone to give his
daughter life. And so he came and worshipped
at Jesus' feet, begging for mercy. Even so, this is how every sinner
must come to Jesus Christ. If you're to only believe in
Christ, you must only believe by worshipping Him. By worshipping
Him only. We come with a great need. We
come seeing our sin against God. And we come seeing that we are
under the justice of God. I read this this week. I saw
this picture and it interested me. It's a man sitting at a table
and a sword was above his head. And he was down there eating
and didn't even notice the sword. So I read what happened. This
man, Dionysus, a tyrant king of Syracuse. This writer wanted
to flatter him. So he wrote an article, wrote
a paper that said that Dionysus is the happiest man alive. And so the king invited this
writer to his home, to his castle, his fortress. And he had this
feast spread out on this table. And he said to this writer, he
said, you come and sit here and you feast at my table in the
king's place. But what this man did not notice
is that the king had placed a sword above his head that was suspended
only by one horse's hair. And the man was eating and he
had no idea that the sword was above his head being held only
by a hair. Friends, when a sinner comes
to Christ, he sees the wrath of God is held only by the horse's
hair of his breath. He sees his need of forgiveness.
He sees his need of pardon. He sees he is under the sword
of God's justice and he has no appetite anymore for the things
at the table. The only concern now is the sword
above his head that is about to fall. He comes dead and hopeless
to deliver himself. And unless Christ gives him life,
he is without hope. Have you ever been there? Have
you ever been there? Religious people, I tell you,
they may believe many things about Jesus. But they see no need to believe
only on Him. They don't see any need. Pastor, you're wasting your breath
on me. I've got so many other things that are more important.
You're feasting at the table and have no idea that God's justice
is about to fall on your head. Otherwise, you would turn up
and beg for mercy. You would fall at His feet if
you had a need of forgiveness of sin. In order to worship Christ,
in order to believe on Christ, we must first recognize and worship
Him according to His person. You see, the work of Christ has
no effect without understanding the person of Christ. Oh, there's many people believe
a lot about His blood. They believe a lot about His
resurrection. They believe a lot about Him.
But they've not met Him. They've not come and bowed themselves
before Christ. When a man finds out who he is
and who God is, he'll come like this man did. He'll come in faith,
worshiping Him as God. He'll worship Christ as God. Paul said, I have believed, not
what I believe. Many people know what they believe.
Many of these children, they know what they believe. You recite
the catechism and they understand what the answer is. They know
what they believe, but they have no idea who they believe. They
don't have any idea because they've not seen Him. He's not manifested
Himself to them, but He has to me. He has to you who believe
only on Christ. He's manifested Himself to you.
And what was your response when He did? You came and worshipped. You worshipped Him. Our faith is in the person of
Christ only. Number two, I want us to notice
the compassion of Christ that was given to those who only believe. The compassion of Christ is given
only to those who believe only on Him. This man, Jairus, he
was begging for life. Now this man was a ruler. I want
you to understand that this man was a man of authority. He was
a man of wealth, a man of power. And yet, how did this wealthy
man, this powerful man, how did he come to Christ? He came on
his knees in humility. And if any man will ever come
to Christ, he must come in humility. Humility. He must come seeking mercy. But
I have good news for those in need of mercy. I have great news
and a great message for you if you need mercy. Because when this man came and
bowed down only to Christ, Christ had compassion. on Him. Christ had compassion. Look at
that in verse 24. And Jesus went with Him. Now is that not good news? Is
that not great news that He had compassion on Him? Religion tells
us that Jesus is obligated to give you life. That if you just
make a decision, Jesus is obligated to give you life. That if you
just perform certain things and ceremonies, that you're a shoe-in
for heaven. That's what religion teaches
us. False religion. Remember the Pharisee and the
Publican? How'd the Pharisee come? Lord, I thank you I'm not
like that fool. I'm not like that sinner. And
how'd the sinner come? Lord, have mercy on me. And guess
which one he had compassion on? The one that needed mercy. How arrogant of men to demand
of Christ life. We all must come as sinners begging
for mercy. My brother once told me this
and I have not spoken to him since. He said, I will not bow down. I said, we have nothing more
to talk about. I beg you, come and seek mercy. All who bow down, he'll have
mercy. He'll have compassion. But friends,
you come in pride and you'll go away empty. You'll go away
with none. I set before you the God-man,
Jesus Christ, and I say, behold Him. Look to Him. Worship Him. Come and bow down
and seek mercy from Him. And He'll have compassion on
your souls. Friends, He who has all power
is also the only one who has all compassion. Just as much
as He has might, He has compassion. That's how great His compassion
is. Is it not manifest to us how
compassionate that He is? Did He not come? If He was not
compassionate, friends, He would not have come. He would not have
provided a righteousness for us who believe on Him. He would
not have provided the death that He had died for our sins if He
did not have compassion. Greater love hath no man than
this, than a man lay down his life for his friend. Jairus came worshiping and begging,
and what did he find? Compassion. He went and followed
Him. Sinners come and seek mercy and
believe only on Christ, and you shall have compassion. All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to
me I will never cast out. That's a compassionate statement,
isn't it? Oh, those who come will receive
compassion, those who believe only on Christ. Number three,
those who believe only in Christ, their faith will be tried. Their
faith will be tried. Jairus believed in Christ, he
worshiped Christ, and he was walking with Christ. Can you
not imagine the joy of this man now? I mean, he has come, he's
begged for Christ's mercy, and Christ got up without a word
and said, let's go. I'll come. I'll come with you.
I'll heal her. I'll take care of it. And you
imagine that his tears that flowed from his eyes has now turned
to joy and smiling. You can't imagine that there
was a skip in his step as he went along his way seeking mercy
from Christ, and he found it. And now that his daughter was
going to get She was going to live. Oh, his heart was happy. His heart was joyful and leaping
inside of him. His baby girl was going to live
and not die. Is this not the experience of
everyone who comes seeking compassion? That's my experience. When I
came to Christ, He took my burden off of me and I felt light. I felt like the weight of the
world was off my shoulders. My sin was gone. Everything was
roses. Everything was joy. Oh, wonderful day. A day I'll
never forget. After I wandered in darkness
away, Jesus my Savior I met. Oh, what a tender, compassionate
friend! He met the need of my heart.
Shadows dispelling with joy, I am telling, He made all my
darkness depart. Heaven came down and glory filled
my soul. That's the experience of everyone
who comes to Christ. But I'll tell you this, no sooner
than the joy had hit our heart, did our faith begin to be tried.
Isn't that right? No sooner that the joy come into
our souls that our faith was tried. And this man, Jairus,
was no different. His faith was about to be tried. Now, in this account of Jairus,
we have something in the middle. We have the healing of this woman
with the issue of blood. And I know many people have separated
this. I've separated these two things.
But I've really come to see this last week that these two things
are together. These two events are together
for our good. These two histories show us of
the providence of God and the trial of faith. All was well with Jairus. He was on his way with Christ
and his daughter was to be healed. And all of a sudden, look at
verse 30, And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue
had gone out of him, he turned about in the press and said,
Who touched my clothes? This woman who had an issue of
blood, she had a need too. Just as much as Jairus had a
need, this woman had a need. She was dying and seeing herself
not worthy to even be noticed by the Savior. She comes in on
her hands and knees, crawling among the crowd, and she says,
if I could just reach out, if I could just touch His garment,
I know this within myself, I believe only on Him that if I just touch
His garment, I'll be made whole. And sure enough, she reaches
her hands out and touches the hem of his garment, and her issue
of blood immediately dries up, and she's made whole. But something
happened she didn't expect either. The Lord Jesus Christ stopped.
Now, Jairus didn't expect Him to stop, and neither did this
woman expect Him to stop. And He stopped, and for fear
she hid herself Can you imagine the confusion
of this question, who touched my clothes? The Lord Jesus Christ
was thronged with people. People were running into Him.
People were reaching out and trying to touch Him. There was
a multitude of people there. And He stopped. And He said,
alright, who touched me? And the disciples, well Lord,
what do you mean who touched you? They're all touching you.
I don't understand the question. Can you imagine the terror that
struck in Jairus' heart? The Lord stopped. Why are you stopping? Lord, why
are you stopping? My daughter, remember you had
promised to come. She needs help. Why are you stopping? What are you asking? Who touched
your clothes? What do you mean? Why would you ask such a question?
Do you not imagine that his joy turned to terror and fear? I'm sure he didn't understand
in the providence of God that the Lord must heal another. This woman had an issue of blood.
She suffered and grew worse. And God in providence determined
to meet her at this particular time, at this particular place. And while he's asking the question,
he sees her and he says, don't be afraid. Tell this woman, be
of good cheer. You've been made whole. And just
as soon as he said that, every fear that Jairus had came true. Look at verse 35. And while he
yet spake, there came a ruler from the synagogues which said,
Thy daughter is dead. Why troublest thou the master
any further? Jairus, it's too late. Can you imagine his heart fell
to the floor? His worst fears were now realized. Lord, why did you stop? We could
have made it. Had you not stopped, we could
have been there and she wouldn't have died. Why did you stop for
this woman? Couldn't you have healed her
later? Why did you do it now? I don't understand. And our friends, so it is many times
with our faith. We're walking along with Christ
and all of a sudden our progress stops. Many times we have need of Christ
and beseech Him, and He seems as though He would help us. It
seems as though we see the light at the end of our troubles. And
all of a sudden, darkness again. Trouble again. And worse than
the first. Instead of His aid, many times
we are hindered and feel and our fears become reality. We
cry like, Mary, Lord, had You been here, my brother had not
died. In our times of doubt, the enemy
then comes into our hearts and says, leave the Master alone.
Why are you troubling Christ? Why are you troubling Him? It's
too much. You've done too much this time.
There's no need in troubling the Master. It's too late for
you. Have you not heard that? Has
your conscience not spoken those things to your heart? Mine has. But let the words of our Lord
Jesus Christ be our comfort in the midst of our trials. Be not
afraid, only believe. Only believe. Jesus exhorts us
in our troubles to only believe in Him. Don't believe in law. Don't believe in your works.
Don't trust in what you can do. Believe only on Me. I heard a
man talking about this this morning. He said, do many of you hunger
and thirst after righteousness? And then he began to give a litany
of things that they should do in order to fill that hunger
and thirst. Oh no! Oh no! Friends, only believe! Only believe in Christ! He alone
can fill the hunger and thirst of righteousness. Only trust Him. And only trust
Him now. Only trust Him now. Friends,
faith and fear cannot exist together. Either you will fear or you will
believe. and to believe we must believe
only in Christ. That all circumstances that happen
to us are according to His will. Do you not think that He did
not determine both of these things to happen at the same time? Do
you not determine that He meant this for the comfort of this
woman and the suffering of Jairus at the same event, the same thing?
How many times does one event cause many different feelings
within our own hearts? God meant that for you. This
may be this message may be a comfort to you and some of you may not. I don't know. I don't know what
God has determined, but I know this. He's determined it. Whether
for our suffering or for our comfort. What are we to do in the presence
of suffering? Believe only and believe now. Don't put your trust in faith
you had ten minutes ago. Friends, there's no, it will
not sustain you in your troubles. Believe now on Christ and believe
only on Christ. This is how we started, isn't
it? This is how we're going to finish. Only believing Christ
now. And number four, all believers
in Christ, all those who believe only in Christ, are brought in,
and all unbelievers will be cast out. Look at verse 38. It says, When Jesus cometh into
the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and he seeth the turmoil,
and them that wept and wailed greatly, and when he was come
in, he saith to them, Why make ye ado and weep? The damsel is
not dead, but sleepeth." When Jesus came into this house,
they made great lamentation. They made a great noise. I tell
you, religion makes a great noise, doesn't it? Religion makes a
great noise. I'll tell you what, just, I believe
it was yesterday, the day before, there were millions of people
gathered outside of the Roman Vatican so some man could kiss
the blood of some other man. Religion makes a great noise. Jesus said, why are you making
all that noise? Why are you making all that noise? She's not dead,
she's asleep. Friends, Christ confessed this
little girl to be one of His own. One of His own. You see, this term, sleepeth,
is only given to those who have died in Christ. Only those who
are believers in Christ. When Lazarus, he said to his
disciples, Lazarus sleepeth! And they said, oh that's good,
Lord, I'm glad he's asleep. No, you misunderstood, he's dead.
He sleepeth. Jesus confessed this girl to
be sleeping and not dead. And they began to mock Him and
discourage Him. They mocked Him and laughed at
Him. Friends, I would only mention
this. Do you know that all three of those that God raised from
the dead, they were only those who were His? He would never
reprieve anyone who is not His from hell. All three of those
ones that He had raised from the dead are His. And this little
girl was no different. Religion scoffs at the gospel
of Jesus Christ. They laugh at the depravity of
man. They laugh at the election of God. They laugh at the effectual
redemption of Christ. They laugh at the irresistible
Spirit of God. They mock at the perseverance
and preservation of the saints. They mock these things. But let
not our hearts be troubled at their great lamentation and noise."
Don't let them bother you. Let them alone. Let them alone. Here's our joy, that all those
who believe only in Christ, He will gather to Himself. Look at this, and when they laughed
Him to scorn, but when He had put them out, He taketh the father
and mother and the damsel and those disciples in with Him.
You see what He did? He made a separation. I heard
this, I thought it was good. You know, Jesus is the only religious
leader that ever tried to divide men. He's the only one ever tried
to divide men. You see, God will always divide
His people from those that are lost. and He put them out and
He grabbed those that were His and brought them in to Himself. And so it will be in the last
days when the Lord Jesus Christ Himself will descend from heaven
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump
shall sound, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, and
we which are alive and remain shall be caught up in the air,
and so shall we ever be with the Lord." One day there will
be a great separation. There will be a separation. Those
who believe only, and only believe in Christ, will be taken in with
Him. And all unbelievers will be put
out. Do you believe in Christ only? If you do, you have a great hope.
Continue to believe in Christ only. He will gather you to Himself
and you will ever be with Him. And I tell you, if you don't
believe on Him, believe now. Don't wait. Don't wait till you're better.
You won't get better. Believe now. and all who believe
shall live." I know this because I live. I live. And I know this, I shall
forever live with Christ. I pray that God would add His
blessings to this, that you would be blessed and encouraged by
this. Jairus is an example of every
believer in Christ. He worshiped Christ. He sought
compassion from Christ and found it. His faith was tried and tested,
and he only believed, and he was brought in to be with Jesus. And the Lord raised that little
girl from the dead. Can you not imagine the joy of
that? How much greater is the joy of heaven? How much greater
is the joy of heaven? I pray that God bless this. Have
the men come forward to prepare the Lord's Supper.