All right, if you would turn
in your Bibles again to Luke chapter eight. Luke chapter eight. Now, beginning
in verse 22 of this chapter, Luke records a series of four
miracles. Each one of them has an individual
lesson, but there is a common theme running through all of
them. In each of these miracles, Christ
does something that only he can do. He helps others who are utterly
unable to find help anywhere else. In the first miracle that we
see, the Lord and his disciples are in a boat crossing the Sea
of Galilee, I believe it was, and a storm came up. And the
disciples were sure that it would fill the boat with water, and they would sink and drown. And they called out to the Lord, essentially
saying, don't you care that we perish? And with a word, he rebuked the
wind and the sea, and everything went calm. When they reached land, they
were met by a man possessed by many demons. This man was in
a wretched state. He was helpless to rid himself
of these demons. Can you imagine what that'd be
like? I mean, To my knowledge, I've never been demon possessed.
But to know sanity in your mind and yet know
that you're acting insane, to be as it were inside your own
mind and know that someone else is running things. He couldn't get them out. No
one else was able to get them to leave. In fact, no one was
even able to restrain this man. They had shackled him, and he
broke the shackles. He lived in tombs. And the Lord, with calm assurance, told the demons to leave, and
they did. No holy water, no incantations, no effort it seems whatsoever. He's told, he said to the demon,
what is your name? And the demon could not help
but answer. And he said, we are legion. And they had asked him, are you
gonna send us into the abyss before the time? Can you send
us over to those pigs? These demons weren't fighting
the Lord, they were pleading with the Lord. And the Lord said,
okay, go into the pigs. And that didn't work out too
well for them either, because the pigs ran into the water and drowned,
so the demons ruined their own new home. Just a word. He said, leave, and they did. And then in this chapter, there's
a story of a woman who suffered with an issue of blood for 12
years, and had spent all her money on physicians in the quest
for relief. No doubt, some of these physicians
were quacks, people who were quite willing to take her money,
and they knew that Whatever they were going to do wouldn't work.
I mean, we have them today. We shouldn't think that, you
know, our generation is the first generation to have medical quacks.
But I'm sure that some of them were quite sincere. They wanted
to help her, but they were ignorant. They didn't know really what
her problem was, and they certainly did not know how to fix it. And
they did all they knew how to do. And it says that she was not
bettered but made worse by all that was done to her and for
her. And she came up behind our Lord
and touched the hem of his garment and immediately she was healed. He didn't even have to speak.
He didn't have to say a word. such as the power of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And then we have this story that
we read a few minutes ago, the story of Jairus, a ruler in the
local synagogue. And his daughter was sick and
near to death. Now as the father of a daughter,
I can well imagine the distress that this man was experiencing.
Among good men, there is an instinct to care for the women in their
lives. It's just pretty much part of
what it is to be a man. Our mothers first, and then our
wives, and I don't mean in order of importance, it's just our
mother's the first woman we knew. The first woman in our lives,
our mothers. our wives, our daughters. We have a general sense of responsibility
to provide for them and to protect them. And when we are unable to do
that, it is a blow not only to love, It's a blow to one's own manhood.
He feels like he's failed. And that's what this man felt
like. One that he cherished beyond counting. Who is as dear to him
as life itself. Still of that age when daughters
call their father's daddy and think that their dad can do anything
and he couldn't do anything. Brokenhearted at wit's end. So great is his distress that
we read in verse 41 that he, the ruler of the local synagogue,
fell at Jesus' feet and begged him to come quickly. and heal
his daughter. Now here's a man not accustomed
to begging, not accustomed to pleading. He's a ruler in the
synagogue. And in these small towns, that was a pretty important
position because the Jewish nation was very religious and their
religion and their society and their state were all blended
together, very much like our own town. Now, it's not as much
that way as it was when I moved here. But when I moved here,
I remember that they looked upon ministers as community leaders,
which I was not accustomed to. But here's the ruler of the synagogue,
in a small town. And he's used to people coming
to him. He's used to people asking him. And now he is found at the feet of a man who many already despised. a man who was preaching in various
synagogues, but often when he was done preaching, they ran
him out of town, including his own hometown. As the book of Isaiah says, he
was despised and rejected of men. And this man, Jairus, who
is highly esteemed and accepted by men, is now falling at the
feet of the one who is despised and rejected by men. He's desperate. It's desperation
that drives people to Christ. Nobody ever goes to him until
they're desperate. What do we mean by desperate? Well, of course,
it comes from the word despair. But desperate, basically indicates
that there is a very serious problem and there appears to
be no remedy. Everything that you've tried
has failed. Everything you have paid someone
else to try has failed. And that which you cherish is
about to be lost. And you get to the point you'd
do anything or go to anyone. if there was any chance that
there might be some kind of happy outcome worked out. Despair drove
this locally powerful and high man to fall at the feet of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who was lowly and despised, and he begs Him
When we come to the end of ourselves, and only when we come to the
end of ourselves will we go to Christ. Which means it would
be to our benefit if we would just stay at the end of ourselves.
But it is, is it not your experience, that when the Lord delivers us
from some trouble and we are relieved, then we begin trusting
in ourselves again. Because there isn't any big problem
going on. We look at what's in front of
us, I can handle that. I can do that. And therefore, since our daily
bread seems to be something that we can take care of ourselves,
we don't pray as we were taught to pray. Give us this day our
daily bread. I know how to do that. And then our Lord has to teach
us again by bringing something into our lives that we can't
fix. We try and we try. And we worry
and we sweat and we fail. And finally, we come to the end
of ourselves once again and find ourselves at the feet of the
Lord Jesus Christ where we should have stayed. In truth, we have
not entered into faith until we have despaired of any hope
in ourselves. I once read this definition of
faith, and I think it's a really good one. Faith is believing
or trusting God to do what only God can do. Now, I understand that really
there's nothing that we can do apart from God's willingness
for it to be done. Even those things we think we
know how to handle, we wouldn't be able to handle them unless
God were enabling us to do it. But there are things which everyone
recognizes are beyond natural human power. And we have not
truly entered into believing God Until we have come to such
a situation, beyond us, beyond our powers, and beyond the powers
of anyone else we know, it's then that we begin to believe. And we can call that believing
faith, because we are trusting God to do what only God can do. But this man, as desperate as
he was, things actually got worse. When he went to the Lord, his
daughter was alive. And as the old saying is, where
there's life, there's hope. A person goes into the, maybe
he's in a really bad accident, And the EMTs go out there, and
he's alive. Okay, there's hope. They put
him on the stretcher, run him to the hospital, get him in the
emergency room. And I've never been in the emergency
room. I got to go by what they show
on TV. But they hook him up to things that beep and stuff like
that, you know. And of course, that's the way
for TV to tell you he's alive. And so where there's beeps, there's
hope, because that means there's life. He's still alive, his pulse
is bad, blood pressure's not, but he's still alive. But while he's pleading with
the Lord, someone comes and says to him, your daughter is dead. No use troubling the teacher
anymore. Where there's life, there's hope. This man has just been deprived
of hope. Now the reason he's been deprived
of hope, as much as he believed about the Lord Jesus Christ,
or at least hoped for in Christ, he had not yet dared to hope
that this man can give life. He'd never been put that far.
So far as I know, the Lord has not ever yet raised anybody from
the dead. So that news had not gone out
concerning him. And so whatever it was this man
expected of the Lord Jesus Christ, whatever he considered to be
the abilities of the Lord Jesus Christ, They didn't include raising
his daughter from the dead. He believed that Jesus could
heal her, but it did not enter his mind that Jesus could raise
her. And so in the midst of his pleading,
he has delivered a message that truly takes him to a point of
utter despair. And he thinks there's no one
who can help him. And he must bear this great grief,
which will be with him the rest of his life. In verse 50, and this is what,
this is the verse that I wanna focus on. Hearing this, Jesus
said to Jairus, don't be afraid, just believe. I find it interesting that this
man from Jairus' house ran up to him and said, your daughter
is dead, don't bother the teacher anymore. Actually, since his daughter
was dead, the Lord Jesus was the only one worth bothering. You think of it. Now I know that
this man who spoke to Jairus, he did not mean any insult to
the Lord by it. He didn't know the Lord. He probably heard much the same
things that Jairus had heard, that he was able to heal and
had done some remarkable miracles. But it hadn't entered his mind
that raising the dead was within the list of things that he could
do. Like many people, you know, you figure, okay, he's a professional,
he's a teacher. You know, you bother him when
there's something he can do, but you know, when there's, don't
just bother him with words if he's not gonna be able to do
anything about it. Don't trouble him, don't bother him. Let him
get on with his day. My friend, the more difficult
your situation, the more important it is that you bother the Lord
Jesus Christ. I like that, bother. I don't like bothering people.
That's why I'm reluctant to ask people to do things. I don't
want to bother them. I don't want to enter their life and
try to make it conform to what I want. It's kind of the way
I was raised. Don't bother people. Yet the
Lord, in as much as says, bother me, interject, get my attention. And when the Lord heard this
man say this, that is, heard him say, your
daughter is dead, don't bother the teacher anymore. The Lord
said to Jairus, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Only believe. Now, this was not a harsh word
to Jairus. He wasn't rebuking him. You know,
there was times when he rebuked his disciples for their unbelief. And well, he should have because
they had no excuse for it. They had seen him do many wondrous
things. He did kind of rebuke them in
the story here in this chapter. He rebuked the wind, the wind
quit, sea laid down, and he said, where is your faith? Well, they'd
seen him do lots of things. They should have said, Lord,
it's pretty bad out there. You think you could take care of
this for us? They shouldn't have been worried about it. They should
have known. They're in a boat with the Lord Jesus. They can't
sink. But they didn't. And he rebuked them. But Jairus
had not had these experiences. And the Lord speaks to him. And
this is the way I felt when I read this. The Lord spoke to him maybe
as an older brother would to a younger brother. An older brother
with more experience, more understanding. Your little brother's afraid.
He said, don't worry. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Look at Genesis chapter three,
verse eight. Where did our fear start? People are fearful. All different levels. People
suffer from it at various levels. But everybody's got a certain
amount of fear that is part and parcel of their lives. And in verse eight, Adam and
Eve have sinned now. They've eaten of the forbidden
tree. Verse eight, then the man and
his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in
the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord. The Lord God among the trees
of the garden. But the Lord called out to the
man, where are you? He answered, I heard you in the
garden. And I was afraid because I was
naked. So I hid. That's the first time
Adam had ever been afraid of anything. Until then, there had
never been anything to be afraid of. We find that the animals, they had no reason to be afraid
of the animals. If a lion will come walking through
the Garden of Eden, that wasn't gonna be any trouble to Adam
and Eve. The world then wasn't as it is now. And Adam had nothing to fear
from Eve and Eve had nothing to fear from Adam. There was
no violence within them. But most of all, they had nothing
to fear from God. That's an amazing thing to think
of. We're not accustomed to thinking that way. They had no reason
to be afraid when God would come in the cool of the evening and
walk in the garden and fellowship with them. But today, there's
fear. And there's fear because of sin.
Now, there are two kinds of fear of the Lord. There's the kind
of fear of the Lord that believers have. That means it's a reverence,
a proper regard for who he is and a suitable humility in his
presence and an implicit trust in his word and his way. Now, those who believe do not
have to be afraid. They fear the Lord in that sense
of reverence, but we don't have to be afraid of him. No one who
comes to God through Christ has to be afraid that God will destroy
them because he's made his promise quite clear. That's a safe path
to him. And those that come to him through
Christ shall not suffer any condemnation or punishment. But then there
is also that fear of the Lord experienced by the unbelieving,
the fear that arises from the knowledge that one has sinned,
and God, who is just, must punish sin. Now that's written on the
heart. Paul says that the law is written
upon the heart. And that's how it shows up in
this knowledge of sin, most of all in knowledge of sin in the
sight of God. And it's the foundation of all
our fears. Some people try to remove that
fear by denying that God exists. No God, no fear. For those who
take this route, their lack of fear generally lasts only to
the time as they approach their own death. And then that innate
knowledge that God puts within people rears its ugly head once
again, and they fear. Or if for some reason their non-belief
in God endures throughout all their natural lives, the moment
that natural life comes to an end, they find out what it is
to be afraid of God. It's appointed unto man once
to die, and after that, the judgment, and that involves facing God. You know, I've talked with a few atheists
online and they say, well, I don't believe there's a God. And I've
said, well, what's that got to do with anything? What we believe has nothing to
do with what's real. If I believe that you didn't
exist, would that mean you don't exist? Of course not. But they say, I don't believe
there's a God. And somehow or another, that
gives them a sense of peace that there is no God. Self-deceived,
but that deception will be removed. And then others deal with this
natural fear by becoming religious in the belief that whatever they
do in religion will fix the problem between them and God. This is
like the coverings that Adam and Eve made for themselves in
the garden. They work well. when the people
are busy in their efforts to make their clothes, it works
well when there's only other people to be around, but the
moment God enters the scene, those fig leaf aprons like Adam
and Eve made, we realize that they're not gonna do. That's what is meant by when
it says, This is the testimony that light has come into the
world, but men love darkness rather than light for their deeds
were evil. People said, yep, yeah, that
means people love evil. No, it says they love darkness
rather than the light of the gospel because their deeds were
evil. And what it's referring to is
those who thought their deeds were good. And they could maintain
that their deeds were good so long as they walked in darkness,
because nobody could see. But when Jesus Christ appears,
the light gets turned on and they're revealed for what they
are. They can no longer hide. And it's revealed their deeds
are evil. And the day will come, everyone,
everyone who's working to gain the blessing of God, everyone
who's trying to establish their own righteousness, they are walking
in darkness, but there will come a day when God will turn the
light on and they will be revealed for what they are. And so people can gather, they
can have their churches or whatever other form of religion they have.
And as long as it's just them, then the things they're doing
are good enough. As long as it's just people, we can hide our
sin from people. Can't hide it from God. And people have a pretty good
tolerance for sin, actually. You know, we're not holy like
God. He's a purer eyes and behold iniquity. Someday they'll stand
before God and all their sin, and then they'll know what it
is to be afraid. Now this man's fear could be traced back to
the fact that he was either an unbeliever, as many of the Jews
were in that day, or he was a very ill-informed believer. He still had operating within
his mind the thought that his deeds would earn him God's blessings. And now he's afraid because something
is happening. And he found out it's happened,
actually, she's dying. Something that goes against what
he'd been trusting in. This idea, if I do good, God
will give me good. If I behave right, then my children
will grow up healthy and wise. And I'll grow to a ripe old age.
And now his precious daughter has died. And if he's anything
like me, that brought in a flood of the knowledge of his own sin. Are you that way when something
goes wrong and you think about your sin? That's the first thing that
comes to my mind. Things not going the way I think
that they would go for the righteous, I start thinking, oh, what have
I done? And really, I don't have to ask what I've done, I already
know. Because when is there a time we haven't done something that
God could use as a justification to bring painful experiences
into our lives? We think about our sin and we
become afraid. We're like Adam. And we find out even though we
may be believers, in our flesh we're still unbelievers and we're
still making clothing out of fig leaves. But this man was confronted with
a problem he couldn't fix. And that brought his sin to his
mind. And I'm sure he's thinking this, I've brought this on my
daughter. My daughter died because of what
I've done. He was afraid. And our Lord of
whom it is written, he did not need that any man tell him anything
for he knew what was in a man. And he knew what this man was
thinking. And he said, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid, only
believe. The Lord addresses the root of
the problem, his unbelief. The Lord does not say to him
simply, stop being afraid. He told him how to stop being
afraid, believe. He didn't say now quit being
afraid, work harder and things will work out. He didn't say, don't be afraid,
I'll get you through this. He said, don't be afraid, only
believe and she will be healed. So often when our sin causes
us to become afraid of God, our first reaction is to consider
our sin. And then we try to answer that
by decreasing our sin, or we think we're decreasing our sin,
or increasing our religious activity, do something to make up for it.
But such efforts never relieve that kind of fear for very long.
Faith is the only thing that can remove guilt-based fear.
Look over at 1 John chapter four. 1 John 4, verse 18. 1 John 4, 18, there is no fear
in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to
do with punishment. The one who fears is not made
perfect in love. Now, you might say, well, that
doesn't say anything about faith in there. If faith is the only
thing that, you know, can remove guilt-based fear, why are you
talking about love here that casts out fear? Well, look back
at verse 16. And so we know and rely. Now that word is normally translated
believe. Now I think rely is a good translation
because that's what we do. We rely on the love of God, don't
we? I mean, if I could not have any
confidence in the fact that God loves me, what reason would I
have to hope for anything good from him? So we know and believe
or rely on the love that God has for us. Now, perfect love
casts out fear. And we know that love through
faith. And therefore, the more perfectly
we believe, and when I say perfect, I mean completely. The more completely
we believe, the more perfectly We apprehend the love of God,
and that love of God casts out all fear. But how can we know that God
loves us? If perfect love casts out fear,
how am I ever gonna know if God loves me? Well, look at verse
nine. This is how God showed demonstrated
His love among us. He sent His one and only Son
into the world that we might live through Him. Now love casts out fear. Love
is known through faith. But how can we know that God
loves us. I mean, those are, it's a good
doctrinal progression there. Faith precedes love, which casts
out fear. Fine. What makes me think God loves
me? He sent his Son to die for me. You say, how do you know
that? That's something the Spirit of
God's gotta tell you. I can't tell you. But here's how it works. The Lord Jesus Christ came and
he died as a substitute for God's chosen people. Of that there
is no question. But this gospel word goes out,
goes out by the hand of preachers, goes out in books, and it's explained
here in the New Testament. It goes out. And some people,
when they see Christ crucified, they perceive the love of God
for them. It's personal. The Spirit of
God gives them that faith, that ability to look on that scene
and say, He did that for me. Others hear that. They hear the
message of Christ and Him crucified, and they either think they don't
need it, Or they're not interested. Or they think, but it wasn't
for me. And therefore, they have no testimony
of the love of God within their hearts. And therefore, there's
nothing to drive out the fear that drives them into religious
frenzy. I can't, you know, this is the
reason why part of our gospel message does not consist of going
out and indiscriminately telling people God loves them. And that
for several reasons. First of all, we don't know. God, the Bible never says God
loves every individual. It specifically pointed out Esau
as someone he hated. So we can't tell them because
we don't know. Secondly, How can we tell them
and have them believe it if they cannot see it displayed in Christ
and Him crucified? So what do we do? If God shows
His love toward us by the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ
in behalf of His people, then we go out and declare that. And
the ones for whom that was an act of love will see the love
in it. They will know the love that
God had toward them because they'll look at that cross and believe
it and see their salvation in it. And the more they are able
to apprehend that, the more it casts out that unbelieving fear. We believe. He said, believe. Only believe. What do we believe?
Well, we believe in the character of God, but we believe some things
regarding the abilities and willingness of God as he's shown to us in
Christ Jesus. We believe that he is able. Hebrews
chapter seven, verse 25 says, he is able to save to the uttermost. those that come to God by Him. In Romans 4, verse 21, it describes
Abraham's faith this way. He believed that whatever God
promised, he was able to do. 2 Timothy 1, verse 12, Paul says, I'm persuaded
that he is able. to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. He is able. Jude, the 24th verse
says, now unto him who is able to keep you from falling. You
ever fear that you'll fall? Don't fear, only believe. I know
this, and I remember Don Fortner addressing this one time, and
he made a great statement. He said, everybody that can fall will
fall. You know, the ones that won't fall are the ones that
can't because God keeps them from falling. Only believe. He is able. I get afraid of a lot of things.
I get afraid as Sunday's coming up, you know, I'm thinking, what
am I gonna preach on? Am I gonna be able to find something that
people are gonna find enjoyable? And will they think I'm a good
preacher or this? All that stuff goes through my mind and the
Lord says, Don't be afraid, just believe. Just believe. Every week, just about, I go
through that process, you know. Thinking I gotta come up with
something out of me that will appeal to you so that you'll
keep coming. Lord said, don't be afraid, just
believe. I've sent you there to preach, stand up, you'll have
something to say. And he's proven that over and
over again. He is able and he is willing. In Luke chapter five,
a leper came to the Lord Jesus. And he said, if you are willing,
you can make me clean. And our Lord said, I'm willing,
be clean. Be clean. I appreciate that man and his
understanding of Christ. He realized salvation. His salvation
from leprosy did not depend on him being willing to be healed.
It depended on Christ being willing to heal him. And there's never
been anybody come to the Lord Jesus with that attitude and
heard him say, no, no, not willing, not willing. That's why we can preach the
gospel, and some people have thought we are free willers for
doing it, but we're not. We declare the willingness of
God to save. He is willing. In fact, I can
say this, He's more willing to save than people are willing
to be saved. Now, people are willing to go
to heaven, but that's not the same thing
as being saved. Heaven's just a wonderful place,
who wouldn't wanna go there? They're willing to do that. They're
not willing to go there the way God said to go. They're not willing
to abandon their own righteousness. They're not willing to trust
entirely upon the Lord Jesus Christ. They are not willing
to say, Lord, if you're willing, you can take me to your father's
house. They think they're doing God
a favor when they say, well, Jesus, I'm willing to go. Do you believe that you need
salvation? Are you afraid of God? Do you want to not be afraid
of God? And do you want to not be afraid
of God in a way that ain't gonna blow up in your face when you
die? Our Lord said, don't be afraid, only believe. Trust Him. Trust Him for who
He is, trust Him for what He's done in bearing the sins of His
people. Trust Him, and you will find
that He is willing and He is able, as it is written, He who
trusts in Him will never be put to shame. Well, may the Lord
bless His Word.