Father, we pray that you would
bring us to your Son, that we might be made perfectly whole.
We might be enabled, Lord, to believe Him as these who were
brought look to Christ. And Lord, we pray that you would
teach us that this is the very Word of God. Our souls and our
lives depend upon our Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to trust Him
and to rejoice in your salvation and find peace and rest and comfort
looking to Him. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. So, a very simple text of scripture. Now I want to actually read another
one in a minute here, but I've entitled this message, Made Perfectly
Whole, right from that last verse. They were made perfectly whole.
Jesus had sent his disciples across the sea to the land of
Gennesaret. We had that in our last sermon.
John Gill said this about Gennesaret. He said, I didn't know this,
but Gennesaret apparently was a land known for its gardens
and delicious fruits. And so John Gill noted that our
journey as believers in Christ through this world is compared
to crossing the storm-troubled sea. and then receiving our inheritance
in heaven, our eternal salvation, and glory with Christ. That's like coming into a garden,
a land of promise. And I like that comparison. I
would never have seen it, because I didn't know what the significance
of that city was. But one day Christ will return
from heaven, and with the saints who have died and gone before,
and now with the Lord with their souls in glory." Do you know
that that's the way it is for those who die in the Lord? That
their souls immediately go to be with the Lord. These are called in Scripture
the dead in Christ, because they're in Christ even though their bodies
are now dead. But He will bring, when the Lord
returns from heaven, which is the next event on the calendar
of history in God's purpose, is that He will bring those who
have died in their souls. He'll bring them with Him. And
then when he comes, he's going to shout. It says there's going
to be a voice of the archangel and the last trump will sound. And the bodies of those with
whom the Lord comes will first be raised and they will be joined
with their bodies in their souls. And then those who are alive
when the Lord comes will be caught up in the air. They'll be changed
in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. Think about that.
There's not going to be a big, long process for us to receive
our bodies resurrected from the grave and made perfectly whole. It'll be in a moment in the twinkling
of an eye, faster than you can blink your eye. And they will
there, there with those others who have come from glory, who
have died before, they will there and then be with the Lord forever.
And you can read about this in 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians
chapter 4. But that is an introduction here
in this text. Jesus came to Gennesaret. And
the men of that place learned of His coming. It says in verse
35, when they had knowledge, the men of that place had knowledge
of Him, they sent out into all that country round about and
brought to Him all that were diseased. The people of that
place were sinners. Gennesaret. But in Luke chapter
5, these people in this place, when Jesus came the first time,
it's recorded in Scripture here, they actually pressed to hear
the Gospel. So they were glad to have the
Lord Jesus come, unlike some of the cities He came to. And
so these men sent, this shows how glad they were to have Him
come and the gospel to be there. As soon as they heard that He
was there, they sent all around that country and they brought
out everyone who was diseased. It's quite an event to go gather
up the diseased. And you can't just tell them
to come, you have to bring them in. So you can see the love of
these people, not only for the gospel and the Lord, but for
the people they knew who they wanted to have hear Him. And it says here that in verse
36, they besought him. The word besought means to beg.
They begged Jesus that these who were diseased might only
touch the hem of his garment, the fringe of his robe. They
had a high regard for Christ. They didn't presume to say, can
we just smother you? They just wanted to touch the
hem of your garment. And so the scripture says that
as many as touched were made perfectly whole. And that's really
what we want to look at today, this matter of being made perfectly
whole. It turns out this is the second
account in the New Testament where someone touched the hem
of Jesus' garment and was made whole. And I want to look at
this other one with you. It's recorded in three of the
Gospels. We'll look at the one in Mark,
chapter 5. You want to turn to Mark chapter
5, beginning at verse 25. There's a woman here who comes
to Jesus and touches the hem of His garment. I'll read this
with you. It says in verse 25, "...and
a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,
and had suffered many things of many physicians, And had spent
all that she had, and was nothing better, but rather grew worse,
when she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and
touched his garment. For she said, If I may touch
but his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain
of her blood was dried up. And she felt in her body that
she was healed of that plague. And Jesus, immediately knowing
in Himself that virtue had gone out of Him, turned Him about
in the press and said, Who touched My clothes? And His disciples
said to Him, You see the multitude thronging Thee, and sayest Thou,
Who touched Me? And He looked around about to
see her that had done this thing. He knew who it was, but He was
looking to see where she was. But the woman, fearing and trembling,
knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before Him,
and told Him all the truth, truth about herself and her coming
and all the things that she had done to get there and the history.
And He said to her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole,
go in peace, and be whole of thy plague. So I want you to
think about that. That is the way that this is
recorded for us in the book of Mark. But this woman was very
pitiable, I call it. Pitiable means that she was someone
who deserves our pity. If I knew a woman who had been
sick 12 years like this, I would pity her, wouldn't you? I see
little children. saw a little girl in a wheelchair
just the other day and I just couldn't help but feel sorry
for her and her mother and her father. All the excitement that
she had to do what other kids were doing and she was limited
by her body. It made me feel for her, a sympathy. Anyway, this woman had a disease.
It was called an issue of blood. Turns out that that was a constant
flow of blood from her body. And this constant flow of blood
affected her in many ways, at least five. I want you to think
about these with me. First of all, in Leviticus, the
book of Leviticus, in chapter 15, verse 25 and following, it
made her, in the eyes of God, unclean. In the eyes of God's
law, God's own law said that this condition made her unclean. Now think about that. God's law identified her because
of her condition as unclean. The law identified her problem,
but the law did nothing to heal her problem. And there's some
pain in that, isn't there? It's one thing to understand
your problem. It's another thing to have something to do with
it. And the law is good at identifying what's wrong with us. But the
law can't do anything to help us. It only commands us what
to do. So the law pronounced her unclean and described what
she could not do because of it. She couldn't touch things. If
she did certain things, she had to clean those claws. And no one was allowed to touch
her. She wasn't allowed to touch anyone else. And this shows us
what uncleanness is. The law of God called her unclean. That means the law of God found
her guilty. In verse 29 of Mark 5, it says
she had a plague. A plague is something God brings
on us. The law actually prevented her
from touching anyone. And as I said, it identifies
my sin and it prevents me from coming to God as a sinner. The
law prevents me from coming to God. Someone who had this plague
would have to stay away until it was cleared up. And then they
had to offer their sacrifices. And you think about this, she
had this issue of blood for twelve years. Twelve in the Bible is
significant. Usually it means a fullness of
something that's happened. There were 12 tribes in Israel.
That was all of Israel. There were 12 foundations in
the book of Revelation. All these things show that 12
is a big, complete, full number. And she had endured this a long
time. Think about that as we go through
this. The long suffering this woman
had in her body, and because of it, what the law said. In
Leviticus 17.11 it says that the life of the flesh is in the
blood. An issue of blood means I have an internal issue. My
life is plagued by my own corruption of sin. The law convinces me
I'm guilty. It even convinces me in my conscience.
And the knowledge of my guilt and my corruption incline me
to stay away from God. from Christ. Only the gospel
lifts up Christ to sinners who are sin-plagued, who the law
says have no right to come to God. In Christ, sinners are given
that right, even that commandment. Second, the second thing her
blood did, it made her feel shame before herself, before others,
and before God. Her flow of blood brought shame
upon her before others. She didn't want anyone to know
that she had this disease. I don't blame her. It's one thing
to have an issue. It's another thing for the law
to say you have an issue, and then people know it. It turns
out if God frowns on a man, that we have this inclination to add
to their grief and suffering. That's a wickedness. Wicked men
add their own condemnation to the suffering soul. Isaiah 53
and verse 4 says, When the Lord Jesus was afflicted, we esteemed
Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Those who saw
Him said, Yeah, He's suffering, but it's because He deserves
it. Religion condemns men for their sins, but it provides no
solution from God. What is the law? The law is what
God requires of me. The law is what God says I must
do. That's what the law is, very
simply, isn't it? It's what God requires... me to do to be accepted
by Him. The law requires something from
me, and it condemns me for failing to do what it requires. There's
nothing wrong with the law. It just points out what I am,
in my nature. It offers no help to sinners.
The law tells me I'm a sinner, and it tells me that God will
condemn me for my sin. And then adding to this, which
is already grief of mind enough, but men of religion do the same
thing. False religion does two things
to add grief to condemned sinners. First, they cast stones of condemnation
on a sinner. How could you be so bad? Isn't
that what we do naturally? How could you be so foul as to
have committed that wrong or to live in that lifestyle? And
second, this is what false religion does. They claim, religious people
claim, That what God requires, they've actually done themselves.
So you're even feeling worse now. Because not only do they
look down on you for being such a foul sinner. But it's your
fault and you should be able to get yourself out of it. Because
whatever God requires, they did it. Why can't you? How can someone
make such a claim to be able to keep what God says? All sorts
of ways. Men do this in all sorts of ways.
And maybe... Maybe they just give you a sense.
Maybe it's your own conscience. But maybe you just get a sense
when you're around people who are religious that they're just
more religious than you are. More spiritual. Or maybe they
say that God requires something less than what He actually requires
so they can say they've achieved that. That's what the Pharisees
did. They lived by their traditions. And so they make up things. They
make up requirements from God instead of just taking His law
as it is. But her sense of weakness in
this way left her feeling very afflicted. But this is what men do. They
do all sorts of things. You hear them. I remember as
a kid, you have to raise your hand. You have to come forward.
You have to do a list of things. They get you to looking at what
you have to do. Come to the front. Accept Jesus.
Stop doing this. Start doing that. And if you
don't keep these things going, then obviously you weren't ever
saved. You're not a Christian. And so you just become more and
more discouraged. because you get to looking at
yourself. And the law already shows you that you're bad, but
it's even worse when men say that they've lifted themselves
out of that pit. So they substitute the act of
believing for obedience to God's law. If you could just God is
going to accept your faith if you can just bring your faith
and believe Jesus. So bring that faith, and God
will treat your faith as if it's righteousness. That's what false
religion does. If you believe, then you'll be
saved. Therefore, you've got to come up with faith. God will
accept that. Since you can't keep the law,
He's reduced His requirements down to just believing. Just
believe. But that's not what faith is. That's a subtle lie. Faith does not fulfill God's
law. It's not a substitute, not the
faith that we bring, it's not a substitute for obedience to
God's law. God requires and will have perfect
obedience. He will have complete satisfaction
to his justice. You and I are unable to obey
or satisfy one thing. We're guilty and powerless to
do what is required. We're helpless and hopeless in
ourselves. Now that's the way the law leaves a man. But the
gospel points us to Christ. He alone kept the law. He alone
made satisfaction to God's justice. Sinners are told to look to Him
and see that. To see that He's everything God
requires. And that in so seeing, and so
looking, they find all their salvation accomplished in Him.
Anything but this is the devil's lie. Men, add grief to my sorrow. Because they only add grief to
my sorrow of God's rejection. Jesus experienced this in Psalm
69. He said this when he was afflicted
under God's justice. He said, they persecute him whom
thou hast smitten. They talk to the grief of those
whom thou hast wounded. We must never do that. We must
never do that. Psalm 69 is full of this kind
of lament. See verses 20 through 29. We
must never add grief to sinners who have fallen because of their
sin, but point them rather to Christ. Think about what will
happen if you attempt to condemn a sinner for their sin in God's
place. That's what evil men did to Christ.
That's what, when God chastised Him for their sins, they added
grief. But remember, God delights in
mercy. Who can tell if God will show
mercy on that sinner that we are adding condemnation to? Remember,
Jesus told His disciples, pray this way, we forgive us as we
forgive others. When Jesus hung on the cross,
the persecutors stood on the ground, and they looked up at
Him, and He said, He trusted in the Lord that He would save
Him. Let Him deliver Him now, since He trusted in Him. They
were acting, they were mockingly saying, He doesn't really trust
in God, or God doesn't really favor Him, otherwise He would
save Him. And so they were adding condemnation, man's condemnation,
which is never just, to what God had done. What if God brings
the condemnation that you bring on others onto yourself? Remember
what it says in Galatians 6, verses 1-2. This is an important
text of scripture for us to remember. And to ever keep in our eyes,
our eyes of our mind, he says in Galatians 6, Brethren, if
a man be overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual, restore
such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself lest thou
also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens,
and so fulfill the law of Christ. That's what Christ did, didn't
he? He bore our burdens. Remember how Job's friends proved
to be hypocrites by condemning him? The third way this woman's
issue of blood affected her is that it drained her of her strength
in life. Life is in the blood and her
flow of blood would have made her anemic. If you lose blood
you become very weak. So she had no power to walk in
life. We can only live to God if we
see Christ as everything in our salvation. And she couldn't do
that because she was under the condemnation of the law. The
fourth thing is that her womb was unable to bear life. She
couldn't have a baby because she never had a normal cycle.
Her disease prevented life in her womb. Her disease signified
that she could not bear fruit to God. That means there was
only spiritual death where there should have been life. But in
Romans chapter 6 it says, when we were the servants of sin,
we were unable to do righteousness. Because we had this fruit when
we were the servants of sin. We had this fruit and that fruit
had its end only in death. Romans chapter 6 verse 20 and
21 says, "...for when we were the servants of sin, you were
free from righteousness. What fruit had you then in those
things whereof you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is
death." We can only bear fruit to God if we've been first raised
to life with Christ. Faith bears fruit to God. And
if I see Christ as all, then I live, and I do bear fruit to
God. You see, because the fruit that
we bear begins with faith, and it always bears fruit in looking
to Christ. And the fifth thing that I wanted
to point out about this woman is that she tried many doctors,
but she got no help. She wasted all of her living
on quack doctors. Not only did God's law condemn
her and provide no help, But men couldn't help her either,
though they claimed that they could. And this is a strange
thing with men, in their pride. These men, in their cruelty,
saw this woman who had been afflicted for 12 years with this issue.
And they claimed to be able to help her, and they took her money.
And they left her without money and left her in her sickness.
This is what religion does. It takes from us, promises us
something, and delivers nothing. There's nothing more despicable
than men who seek to promote themselves under the guise of
helping ruined, lost souls. This is what happens in so many
churches today. Men stand up and they pretend
to be healers of men's souls, but they can't heal men's souls.
Men can only imagine I'm sorry, there's only one who
can help us. And if a man is serving the master,
then he's going to point men to Christ, the great physician.
If we do anything other than that, then we're inserting ourselves
into a process we have no business being in. It says in 2 Corinthians
4 verse 5 that we don't preach ourselves. We don't preach ourselves,
but we preach Jesus Christ the Lord. And we preach, we make
ourselves your servant for Jesus' sake. That's all. Remember John
the Baptist? That's what he did. Now, in Isaiah
chapter 1, verses 4 through 6, it says this. Isaiah chapter
1, verse 4, it says, God links spiritual wickedness to physical
sickness. He says, in fact, let's turn
to that, if you want to turn. This is such a significant verse
that shows us the association God makes between our wickedness
and sickness. He says in verse 4, Ah, sinful
nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children
that are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord.
They have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger. They're gone
away backward. Why should you be stricken anymore?
You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the
whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even
unto the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores that have not been closed, neither bound
up, neither mollified with ointment. What God is saying here is that
Israel had departed from Him, and He had chastised them, and
they had departed. And this had repeated so many
times, that from the very bottoms of their foot to the top of their
head, they had been beaten up in this chastisement so much,
that their wounds were open and not closed up, and putrefying. And it showed that their total
wickedness because of the evidence of this punishment, this chastisement
that God brought on them. But notice, God asks this question,
why should you be stricken anymore? You're already full of disease
from your sin. Further chastisement will do
you no good. Only one thing will help in such
a case. What is that one thing? The free
grace of God. Look at Isaiah 118. He says,
Isn't that a glorious promise? Sickness leaves us weakened and
saddened and we're unable to do what we once did or want to
do. We sympathize with others when
they're sick and we ought to. How sad it is if we can't sympathize
with others. And so this woman had been sick
a long time, suffering from it, distressed, discouraged, depressed,
even having lost hope. Think how long Israel suffered
under Egyptian bondage and how long it was between God's promise
to Eve in the garden and when Jesus finally came into the world.
This woman had suffered a long time. So I want to point out
here that this woman came behind him in the press. In Mark chapter
5, where we're looking at this, we're understanding how these
people were healed when they touched the hem of Jesus' garment.
It says, when she heard, in verse 27, when she heard of Jesus,
she came behind him in the press and she touched him. This is
coming to Christ with confidence and hope of faith. Within herself,
she said, if she could just touch His garments, she would be made
whole. She was so sure that Christ could heal her that she risked
being discovered. So she came in the crowd, and
she pressed in the crowd to touch Him, expecting to be healed. Can you imagine what that was
like? I mean, she was earnest getting to Christ, wasn't she?
Here she is in this place, people are pressing around. She risks
being discovered, but she's pushing to the crowd, trying to get to
Christ. And that's what our illness does
to us, the sickness of our souls. The affliction that God brings
us under by His law, that sense of guilt in our conscience and
discouragement because of it. What's a sinner to do? I've been
told to do all these things and I find no relief. I can't even
do them. And when I try to do them, I
flip it over and I see even worse sin in myself. And it just seems
so discouraging. So she made, by God's grace,
she made an earnest press in the crowd to get to Christ. Never
think that a man will help your soul or its sickness. As I was up there with Hurley
at Hurley's birthday party the other day, I couldn't help but
wish that somehow all these children and these people could hear the
gospel. But I couldn't really help them. I don't know their need in their
soul. Only Christ can help us, can't
He? He's the only one. And so never think that man can
do this. Only Christ can. Only look to
Christ. Never put your confidence in
men. It's so tempting to do this. We get in trouble, we say, I
need to talk to somebody about this. We call somebody, we look
at them, we go for a walk, we tell them our... But have we
really taken it to the Lord? Pour out your hearts to Him,
ye people. This is what the Lord wants us
to do. It says in Song of Solomon, chapter 3. In fact, look at this.
Song of Solomon. I might as well put this place
in your Bible for you to enjoy later. Song of Solomon, chapter
3. Listen to what the bride says to her husband, to the one she
loves. In verse 1 through 4. By night
on my bed I sought him. Who did she seek? Whom my soul
loveth. I sought him, but I found him
not." Song of Solomon chapter 3. I will rise now and go about
the city and the streets and in the broad ways. I will seek
him whom my soul loveth. I sought him, but I found him
not. The watchman that go about the city found me. To whom I
said, Saw ye whom my soul loveth? It was but a little that I passed
from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth. I held him and
would not let him go until I had brought him into my mother's
house and into the chamber of her that conceived me." The Lord
Jesus is the one our souls love, and this woman pressed. She came
behind. She was sick with her sin, and
she had only one she could get to. This is what God teaches
us. You need to get to Christ. She
didn't say a word. She didn't ask for help. Sometimes
you think about that. I don't even know how to pray.
She only knew that she needed to get to Christ. She could just
touch His garment. Without disclosing her inner
struggle, knowing that only He could help her, this is what
she did. And so she struggles on. You
know, it was God-given faith that brought her here, that enabled
her to lay hold on Christ. Jesus says to her in verse 34
that her act of touching Him was an act of faith. Your faith
has made you whole. Every sinner to whom God gives
faith comes to Christ. That's the way we know it's true
faith, is we look to Him only. Jesus says in John 6.37, "...all
that the Father giveth me shall come to me." And listen to these
comforting words, "...him that cometh to me." I will in no wise
cast out." Isn't that amazing? That all those men, all those
diseased people brought to Christ, Jesus didn't cast out one. Did
you ever find any that came to Jesus that He turned away? We'll
look at one in Matthew 15 in a couple weeks, or maybe next
week, I'm not sure. But He says, He promises us He
will not cast... Isn't that... The law says, you're
unclean, stay away, don't touch anything, you're guilty. And
it's in you, it's a plague. God's plagued you. But Christ
says, come to me and I will not cast you out. When we hear about
this woman, We may think, you may think like I did, if only
I could believe like her. If I could believe like her,
then even I could be saved. You ever think thoughts like
that? And in that thought, we do rightly see our own deficiency
of unbelief. But as we think this way, we
run a risk of making our unbelief a barrier that prevents Christ
from saving us and making us perfectly whole. No doubt unbelief
will do this, but let me encourage you to look away. Look to Christ
away from your unbelief for two reasons. First of all, the Lord
Jesus himself is the author of faith. He says in Hebrews 12,
2, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith. And faith,
it says in Acts 3.16, faith is by Him. So we have no reason
to see our unbelief as a barrier to Him saving us, do we? If faith
comes from Him, then we go to Him. And if faith is by Him,
then even you can believe, because it's not of you. I take great
comfort in that. And secondly, saving faith is
different than we think of it. We think of saving faith as some
kind of an action that we generate. But saving faith looks away from
all that it is not to all that Christ is. And I wish we could
get this burned into our conscience and soul, that everything we
need is in Christ. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6 says
that Him that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that
He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Here's a
woman. She diligently seeks Him. She
believes that if she can get to Christ, He will heal her.
Faith comes to Christ, not with, the person believing comes to
Christ, not with their faith, but to get faith. They come to
Him for everything. And that's the difference between
religion and the gospel. The gospel says to sinners, no,
religion says to sinners, if you do something, then you can
have what God offers. But the gospel says, Christ has
done everything. Be persuaded of it. Be persuaded.
Look to Him. Don't think of bringing your
faith. Remember what the man who had a son who had a demon,
Jesus said, if you can believe, All things are possible to him
that believeth. Isn't that what we hear when
we read the scripture? This is another requirement. I've got
to come up with the goods here. This faith, if I can just believe.
But he says, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Because
the one believing has been taught by God that I can't produce one
thing that God requires. And so we look to Christ and
we say, if Christ died for me, as we were just saying a moment
ago, then it's all well with my soul. So, I hope you see that
there's no barrier in you that He can't remove. Go to Him. Call upon Him. He that cometh
to me, Jesus said, I will in no wise cast out. Now, if you hear these words
and you're moved to go to Christ, then be encouraged. Faith is
God's gift. He gives it to you. So the next
thing we see here is that she touched the hem of his garment.
The hem of the garment is the fringe of the garment. And there's
actually a scripture in Numbers chapter 15 that describes what
the Israelites were to do. I want you to look at this. Numbers
chapter 15. I had never seen this scripture
before until I was looking at this about touching the hem of
his garment. There's a couple of places in
scripture where it talks about this, and I'm going to look at
this one first. Look at verse 38 of Numbers.
Numbers 15, verse 38. It says, "...speak unto the children
of Israel, God told Moses, and bid them that they make themselves
fringes, that they make them fringes in the borders of their
garments throughout their generations and that they put upon the fringe
of the border a ribbon of blue and it shall be unto you for
a fringe that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments
of the Lord and do them and that you seek not after your own heart
and your own eyes after which you used to go a whoring So what
is God saying here? He's saying that take your garments
at the very bottom and make a border and put a blue ribbon on that
border. That's the hem of your garment. It was to remind them
of all of God's commandments that they were to do in order
that they might be holy before God. That's what he says here,
verse 40, that you may remember and do all my commandments and
be holy unto your God. So they look at the border. They
know this reminds them of God's commandments, and they do those
commandments that they might be holy before God. The only
problem is that it didn't help. But remember what Jesus said
in Matthew 5.17, that He came not to destroy the law, but to
fulfill the law. Luke 24 and verse 27, He told
His disciples, "...all things must be fulfilled which were
written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the
Psalms concerning Me." And in Luke 4.44, He says, that all things in the Old Testament
and the Prophets were written about Him. So, what does this
mean? Well, remember what Jesus said
in His high priestly prayer in John 17, around verse 18, verse
19, He says, I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified
through the truth. Remember that? The Lord Jesus
sanctified Himself. How did He do that? Well, according
to this scripture here in Numbers chapter 15 verse 40, the way
that they were to be made holy was to keep the commandments,
to do all these commandments. And the border on their garment
reminded them that that's what they were doing, to keep those
commandments, to be holy. The Lord Jesus sanctified Himself,
He made Himself holy to God by His obedience in life and by
His obedience in suffering and death. And it was by His obedience
to the will of God that sanctified His people. So the border of
His garment, when the Lord Jesus was on the earth, the border
of His garment represented Him looking at that border and seeing
in that border all that was required of him to make himself and his
people holy before God. Hebrews 10.10 says, By the witch
will, the will of God, we are sanctified by the offering of
the body of Jesus Christ once for all time. This is the truth
that Jesus spoke of in John 17, 19, where he says, I sanctify
myself that they also might be sanctified. The truth is, is
that by His obedience in His life, in His sufferings, and
in His death, in offering Himself to God, He made His people holy
to God. And that's the truth that he
says sanctifies his people, that they might be sanctified by the
truth that he fulfilled and that he reveals to us. So we see that
the hem of Christ's garment signifies how he sanctified himself with
his people in his obedience in life and in death. Remember,
he didn't live for himself. He didn't die for himself. He
lived and died as surety for his people, as the one who would
own their obligations and ensure that all that God demanded of
them was met, even by substituting himself in their place. So that's
the first thing I see in scripture about the fringe of this garment.
And think about that when you think about how this woman came
to Jesus and touched. She said, if I can just touch
his clothes. And she touched the border, the hem of his garment.
And she was immediately made whole. When God shows us what
Christ has done in His work to save His people, we're immediately
made whole. And that's what this touch is.
It's a touch of faith, isn't it? There's no getting there
by degrees. These people who touched the
hem of Christ's garment were made perfectly whole. Because
when we're made whole by Christ, it says later on in Hebrews 10.14
that by His one offering He has perfected forever them that are
sanctified. What an amazing verse of Scripture.
But then, I want to also point out another example in scripture,
and this one is quite endearing as well. There's a woman in the
Bible whose name was Ruth. Remember Ruth? I'm sure you do. She had a husband. His name,
I think, was Kilian. If I'm pronouncing it correctly.
And she was of the country of Moab. A country of people who
were actually identified by God as the enemies of God's people. The Moabites. And so, she was from that country. Well, the family of Naomi, and
Elimelech, and Chilion, and Maelon, they moved to this country in
Moab for a while because there was a famine in Bethlehem. So
they moved out. But while they're there, Maelon
and Chilion find these two wives. Maelon's wife, I think, was Orpah,
and Chilion's wife was Ruth. And while they're there, both
of these boys died after they were married. And her husband,
Naomi's husband, died too. And so they're in this foreign
land, in the land of Moabites, and Naomi is left, and she has
two daughters-in-law now. And so she tells them, you guys
go back, you girls go back to your people, go back to your
gods. The Lord has dealt very bitterly with me. Her name, Naomi,
means pleasant. But she said, the Lord, my name
should be Mara. It means bitter, merry, bitter.
So she said, you stay here, I'm going back to Bethlehem. And
you know the story, Ruth says, no, no. Orpah said, finally,
OK, I'll go. I'll go back to my people, to
my gods. But Ruth said, no, I'm going to stay with you. And she
said it so much so, she says, where you go, I will go. Wherever you go, I will go. Where
you lodge, I will lodge. Your people will be my people. And your God will be my God. And where you die, there will
I be buried." And so Ruth was devoted to her mother-in-law
for the Lord's sake. And Naomi brought her back with
her to Bethlehem, Judah. And while she was there, there
was a man there whose name was Boaz. And it turns out that Boaz
was related to Mahalon, and Kilion, and Elimelech. He was a near
kinsman. And in God's law, He said that
if a woman marry a man and they have no children, that her brother,
I mean his brother, should take his wife to himself and then
they should have children together. Well, it turns out that Ruth
was married to a near kinsman of Boaz. And so whenever she
comes back, Naomi sends her into the field, into Boaz's field. And she's there gleaning, that
means picking up whatever is left over after the harvesters
come through. And Boaz notices her. And he
deals kindly with her. And he says, don't glean here
where these others glean. You come over here. And he asks
his servants, he tells the servants, leave handfuls of purpose for
her. Handfuls of purpose. It's a beautiful
story of our salvation in Christ. Well, time goes by, Naomi tells
Ruth, now he's going into the threshing floor, the harvest
is over, going into the threshing floor. You watch what he does.
And after he has finished threshing, and he's had his wine, and he
lays down for the night, you go and you uncover his feet,
and you lay yourself down at his feet. Now this is a very
bold thing to do. This woman was... A woman, she's
in the threshing floor, these men are threshing and they get
done at the end of the day and Boaz takes his wine and he drinks
and he's done and it's night time. He lays down on a pile
of barley or wheat or whatever was there, the corn they harvested
and he gets a comfy place. He has his garment over him,
covers himself up for the night and here Ruth comes along after
he's laid down and she lifts his garment up to uncover his
feet and she lays down by his feet. And he wakes up in the
morning. He wakes up in the night, actually.
Look at this with me if you want to turn to it in the book of
Ruth, chapter 3. I want you to see this beautiful
picture of what happened here. It's just before the first Samuel,
if you look for the book of Ruth, which I am doing right now. I
hope I remember. It's right? Book of Ruth, chapter
3. It says in verse 3, this is what
In fact, I'll start from verse 1. Then Naomi, her mother-in-law,
said to her, to Ruth, my daughter, Shall I not seek rest for thee,
that it may be well with thee? So, seeking rest means seeking
a place, an inheritance. And now, is not Boaz of our kindred,
with whose maidens thou wast? Behold, he winnoweth barley tonight
in the threshing floor. Wash thyself, therefore, and
anoint thee, and put thy raiment upon thee, and get thee down
to the floor. But make not thyself known unto
the man, until he shall have done eating and drinking. And
it shall be, when he lieth down, that thou shalt mark the place
where he shall lie, and thou shalt go in, and uncover his
feet, and lay thee down, and he will tell thee what thou shalt
do." Now, think about this. The Lord Jesus Christ laid down
His life for His people. His people come to Him according
to the gospel promises. And they come to the place where
He is laid down. In verse 5. And she went to her,
and she said to her, All that thou sayest to me I will do.
And she went down unto the floor, and did according to all that
her mother-in-law bade her. And when Boaz had eaten and drunk,
and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the
heap of corn. And she came softly, and uncovered
his feet, and laid her down. And it came to pass at midnight,
that the man was afraid, and turned himself, and behold, a
woman lay at his feet." Now you can imagine what he thought.
Who knows what happened? He had been drinking, maybe he
thought something bad had happened. Verse 9, and he said, Who art
thou? And she answered, I am Ruth,
thine handmaid. Spread therefore thy skirt, over
thine handmaid, for thou art a near kinsman." And he said, "'Blessed be thou
of the Lord, my daughter, for thou hast showed more kindness
in the latter end than at the beginning, inasmuch as thou followest
not young men, whether rich or poor.'" So Ruth understood what
Naomi had taught her. Her husband had died, and now
she goes into Boaz, who was older. She didn't follow after young
men. She didn't go back to her family. She didn't go back to
her gods. She stuck by Naomi. And she came to Boaz. And Boaz
had laid down for the night after he had finished his work. and
she had come to uncover his feet to lay down there with him because
she knew that he was a near kinsman to her and that he could actually
redeem her and marry her and raise up seed in the name of
her husband according to God's law. And this is what Boaz did. He welcomed her in this way.
It seems bold, and it was bold, but it was bold for any woman
to do this. But this is what the Lord Jesus
tells us to do. This woman pressed to Christ
in the crowd. She was unclean. The law prevented
her from coming and touching. But she was bold in this. She
came forward and she laid her hand on Christ's garment. And
as Ruth said here to Boaz, spread your skirt over your handmaid. Because this is our hope that
Christ as our Redeemer would cover us with His garments. And
we would be saved by Him alone. And if you see this, then you
can see the significance of what Christ has done here for us.
I'm sorry. I love this text of scripture. It says in 1 Corinthians 1.30
that God has made Christ unto us wisdom and righteousness,
sanctification and redemption. He's everything. There's nothing
that we need but what we have in Him. This is the meaning of
this parable, this historical parable. And I'm sure it's the
meaning of what Christ has done here. Isaiah 61.10 says, I will
greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God. For He hath clothed me with the
garments of salvation. He hath covered me. with the
robe of his righteousness. As a bridegroom decketh himself
with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels,
he's taken his robe, that robe that teaches what it takes to
sanctify sinners, and having fulfilled it all, having redeemed
us, he covers us with it. And we
stand before God, perfectly whole, healed of all of our sin sickness.
And this is the gospel. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for Christ. Thank you that sinners such as
we are can be healed by him. Thank you, Lord, for this salvation
that he has accomplished. He's worked it all out. Help
us to look to him and never look away. and help us to find in
him peace and joy and hope, even though in ourselves we're unclean
and the law prevents us from coming. But you have said, come
unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden. Thank you, Lord,
for your mercy. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.