Turn your Bibles over to Matthew's
Gospel, if you will, chapter 9. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 9.
I have been looking forward to
being here. and worshiping with you. Looking forward to the sweet
fellowship that I know that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I've been looking forward to spend some time with your pastor
and his wife. I've got a special place in my
heart for those two. when I lost my first wife to
cancer a couple of years ago now. It was an icy day in February,
and these two showed up to my wife's funeral. And I don't think
I could have preached that Sunday. That was on a Saturday. And I
asked your pastor, do you think you could stay over and preach
for us? He hadn't planned on staying over. He had to make
some phone calls. But he stayed and he preached. And he preached to me. You were a prophet that day.
God sent a prophet to me that day. And he preached on, just
wait. You'll see. I'm eternally indebted
to you. Forever indebted to you, my friend,
for that. In Matthew's Gospel, if you want
to turn there with me, this is the parallel passage that Brother
John read to us, this incident that took place in our Lord's
life when He was here. And it's somewhat shorter, but
it's different. Let me just read a portion in
verse 18 of Matthew chapter 9. While he spake these things unto
them, behold, there came a certain ruler and worshipped him, saying,
My daughter is even now dead, but come and lay thy hand upon
her, and she shall live. And Jesus arose and followed
him, and so did his disciples. the King James Version of the
Bible. I love it because of its accuracy.
I love it because of its beauty. I love it because of its dependability. It's spoken to me, to my heart,
to my spirit. It's instructed me. It's comforted
me. And I just won't give it up for
anything. I'm not a King James only. There's
good versions out there. One of the things I've noticed
about some of the other versions, seemingly they try to be, I guess,
consistent. As you read through the gospel,
if one writer says something, the other writer doesn't, then
they think we need to change one of these writers. You know,
make them consistent. Matthew is just a little different. He gives us more information
about this incident that took place. Mark says that Jesus went
with Jairus. And Matthew observed something
that startled him, that brought out this behold in him. And it was this, Jesus not only
went with him, But Matthew noticed that Jesus was following him. And for years now, probably for
two decades, when I think of this, it amazes me. The eternal
Son of God comes into this world, takes to Himself our humanity,
the Lord of glory, the Son of God incarnate. And he's following
a man. I thought how condescending that
is. How amazing that is. He follows this man and every
step the man takes, there is the Lord Jesus on his heels. Every street he turns down, the
Lord turns and follows him. Every path that he takes, there
the Lord is following him. Following this man. And he follows
him all the way to this man's home This man opens the door
for him. He lets the Lord in and he goes
in and he wakes his daughter up out of death. But I thought,
how amazing. Don't you think that's somewhat
amazing? We never read about this in any place else in the
Gospels. It never happened before. Sometimes the Lord would heal
somebody. He'd give blind Barnabas his
sight and blind Barnabas followed him in the way. Everybody followed
Him. But this time, and this time
He follows this man. Now condescending. And there's
some advantages to us to have the Lord Jesus Christ following
us. And I want to tell you what they
are in just a few minutes. But I want you to be patient
with me and let's look at this man who came to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And first of all, in Mark's Gospel,
he tells us something Matthew doesn't. But this Jairus was
a ruler of the synagogue. This man who came to the Lord
Jesus Christ, bowed down at His feet to worship Him, was a ruler
of the synagogue. Now why do I emphasize that? Because these rulers hated the
Lord Jesus. They hated the Son of God. You
remember that occasion where the Lord was in one of the synagogues
and this lady that was there was bowed down? Satan had bowed
her together 18 long years. She couldn't in any wise lift
up herself. And the Lord cast the devil out
of her and straightened her up. She went from looking directly
at her feet to being straight as iron. And the ruler of that synagogue
was filled with indignation. He was so angry with Christ that
he said to the people, there's six days that men ought to work. And come here on one of those
days and be healed, but today's the Sabbath day. Don't you dare
let this happen again." That's what he was saying. And Christ
looked at that man and said, you hypocrite. You'll go home, you'll get your
ox out of the stall, and you'll lead that ox down to water. And
you're telling me I should not give this woman, a daughter of
Abraham, this mercy because it's the Sabbath day. What a hypocrite
you are. He was a ruler of the synagogue. It was the rulers of the synagogue
that stood before Pilate when Pilate said, I'm going to release
him and let him go. It was the rulers who cried out,
crucify him. Give us Barabbas instead of this
man. It was the rulers of the synagogue
when our Lord was hanging on the cross in His suffering and
agony and dying. It was these rulers who said,
if you be the Christ, the chosen of God, come down from the cross
and we'll believe you. These rulers hated our Lord,
but the biggest indictment that could ever be brought against
them, the indictment of guilt they brought against themselves.
They said, have any of the rulers ever believed on him? Yes. You can't find but one, but thank
God there's one. Here was a ruler of the synagogue
who came to the Lord Jesus Christ, who believed on the Lord Jesus
Christ. God makes exceptions, doesn't
he? There may not be many rich men
saved in our Lord's day, but Joseph of Arimathea was the exception. You don't find many self-righteous
men. The Lord invaded them and awoken
them and saved them, but Saul of Tarsus was one of them. You don't find many deathbed
repentances that you've got much confidence in. I don't, but we
know of one. Today, you'll be with me in paradise. Don't find many children, young
children, that the Lord reveals Hisself to. But He did to young
Samuel. Aren't you glad He makes exceptions? And that's what brought out this
behold. Matthew says it. And Mark says
it. And Luke says it. All three accounts. Would you look at that? We've
never seen this before. This is amazing. Here comes a
ruler to our Lord. And they were amazed at it. Let
me ask you this. Are you amazed that you came
to Him? When you think, and when you
grow, and as you grow in grace and knowledge, you learn more
of your miserable, sinful self. Of your utter inability to still
come to Him, except He draws you. And you learn more of His
independence, His freedom, His sovereignty, His holiness, His
justice. Aren't you amazed that you've
come to Him? We ought to be amazed every time
we come to Him. This Behold ought to come from
my heart. Every time I look to Him, every
time I come to Him in prayer, I ought to say, Behold, what
have I done? I was raised in a free will Baptist
church, but they had some truth there. But what truth they had,
I hated it. They sang Amazing Grace, but
I wasn't interested in it. The greatest burden of my heart
was on Sunday when I had to go listen to a man read the Bible
and sing a song about the Lord. And I can hardly believe it now
that I believe Him. I can hardly believe it that
I love Him. I can hardly believe it that
I enjoy Him. Don't that bring out a behold
from your heart? Me? I have come to Him? Oh, it's amazing, isn't it? I
hope we never get over it, brothers and sisters. I don't see many
people coming to Christ. And are they to you? But when I do, it's amazing to
me. Behold! Behold! The old songwriter says, When
I think, when I think, That God, His Son not sparing, Send Him
to die, I scarce can take it in. Do you ever think of that? Do you ever meditate on that? God sending His beloved Son to
die? Does that amaze you? That on
the cross, my burden gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away
my sin. Do you think about that? Is that
amazing to you? Does it bring out this song?
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee, how great you are! How great you are! Aren't you
amazed that you've come to Him? That you're still coming to Him?
Behold! Behold! Not only did this man
come to the Lord Jesus Christ, but the way he came to Christ.
I think Brother John emphasized this as he read Mark's account.
When he saw the Lord, he fell down at his feet. I imagine all three of these
men who were there, Matthew, with her and the other apostles,
if all of them had written this account, they'd have been like
Matthew. They'd have just, behold, he's coming. Behold, he's kneeling.
Behold, he's worshiping. Behold, behold, behold. But how
this man came, he was so dignified. This was a ruler of the synagogue. He sat up here where everybody
could see him. He kept the order. He was a noble
man. Dressed to the hilt. Proper. And what does he do when he sees
the Lord? Down on His knees in the dirt. He's not ashamed at all. He goes
down on the ground in the sight of this whole multitude on His
face before the Lord of Glory. That's amazing, isn't it? He
wasn't embarrassed. This man never got on his knees,
probably before in his life, until he saw the Lord. And down
he goes. Down he goes. And the Bible says
he besought Him. He besought Him greatly. He begged him, he began to beg
him. And the word I think is he kept
begging him. He just wouldn't hardly shut
up long enough for the Lord to say, I'll go with you. He just
kept begging and begging and begging. He didn't come up and whisper
to the Lord in his ear and say, would you do me a favor? He didn't
get the Lord by the arm and said, would you come with me? I've
got something I want to ask you to do. He didn't take him off
by the side of the congregation, the multitude. No. He goes right
down at his feet and he begins to beg the Lord. He didn't care if people heard him. Maybe he said, you people know
who I am. You know what my occupation is.
You know who my friends are. But I'm in trouble. My heart
is broken. I've come to the end of myself.
And nobody can help me but this man standing here before me,
the Lord of Glory. And bud, when you reach that
point, you're not ashamed anymore. You're not ashamed anymore. Something else about this man,
I thought this was very interesting. This is only one aspect of his
coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. I know that. But why did he come? Why was
he there in this condition bowing before the Lord and worshiping
Him? Well, he tells us here, doesn't
he? He had a little daughter and it was his only daughter. She was 12 years old. And this
is what he said, my little daughter, my little daughter. Can't you see the tears running
out of his eyes? Can't you feel it in his voice? My little Daughter, she's at the point of death. She's dying and now she may be
dead. It's my little daughter. Come and help us. Lay hands on
my little daughter and she shall live. Why are you so concerned about
death now? Why has it got to you now, Jairus? How many times were you told
it's appointed unto men once they die? You just brushed it
off. Your attitude towards death is
you just don't care. You're going to live forever.
What has brought you to be so concerned about death now? It's my daughter. My daughter. Death's got its
hold on my daughter. Death is going to take my daughter
from me. Is there anybody that can deliver
from death? I tell you, there's something,
brothers and sisters, about our God. He can use any means and
all means that He's pleased to use. And sometimes He often uses
the sickness of a family member, the death of a child, the death
of a spouse to teach us some serious truths. Remember the man who had the
little boy? And the devils would take him
and when he went by a pond of water, he had to get a hold of
him and hold him tight because he'd run and jump in that pond
of water trying to drown himself. If somebody was burning a brush
pile, he had to keep a close eye on him because he'd run and
jump in the brush pile. The devils were in this child
and they were trying to destroy him. And this man come to the
Lord Jesus and said, Help my child. The devils are trying
to kill him. I wonder if he ever was concerned
about devils before. I wonder if he didn't flirt around
with them before. Joke about them before. The devil
made me do it. Ha, ha, ha. He wasn't joking
now, was he? Because he saw devils are not
my friends. Devils are not your friends.
Devils are your enemies. They'd kill all of us if they
could. And the Lord used these demons in that man's child to
teach him, these demons are not your friends. Well, the Lord
can do that, Kenny. He can sure do that. Several
years ago, I was reading a story about a young man. and went astray so bad from what
his dad and mom had taught him. Would come home drunk, swearing,
worried his mother sick, his dad had died. One night he came
home, trying to be quiet so his mother wouldn't be awakened.
He came in the house and he heard her praying. And he went to the
Lord and listened to see what his mother was saying. And he
said his mother said, Lord, if you don't save my son, when I
stand before you in the judgment, I will bear witness against him. His dad told him, I've told him
about you. He's a rebel against you. Save
him or I will bear witness against him. And that man said, my heart
was broken. to think that my mother would
stand before God and bear witness against me broke my heart. How many times has God used family
members to bring us to think serious about our souls, serious
about eternity, serious about the Son of God? It happens so
often, doesn't it? I preached not long ago on what
we learn from the death of a child. And boy, David learned some things
from the death of his childhood. What brought Jairus to the Lord
Jesus Christ? One aspect was this. My daughter
is dying, and it's brought me to think serious about it myself. We see something else about this
man's coming to the Lord Jesus Christ and we see the true nature
of worship, don't we? What is the true nature of worship? He arises out of a need for our
Lord Jesus Christ. There came a ruler and worshipped
him saying, my daughter is even now dead. Why did he come? Why did He fall on His face?
Why did He worship out of awful, awful need of our Savior? When we first come to the Lord,
ain't that what brings us to it? A need. Come unto Me, all you that labor
and are heavy laden. And I'll give you rest. Boy,
you come to Him and your conscience is heavy, isn't it? Your conscience
is afflicted. It's guilty. And you come to
Him because you need Him. He healed those who had need
of being healed. And He gives us rest for our
souls. But that don't stop our coming,
does it? We just keep coming. And why
do we keep coming? Because we still need Him. I
have a plaque Gil and Clarence Ford gave me decades ago. Just
five little words on it, but I keep it sitting up on the shelf
right in front of me. And I bet you five or six times
a day, I look up at that plaque. Every hour, I need thee. Coming to the Lord Jesus Christ
is not a one-time deal. We come, and we come, and we
come because we need Him. I thank everybody, probably every
congregation, maybe excepting yours. Yours is young. You're
going to face this. I've got a handful, and maybe
there's a handful here at this congregation, and the pastor
worries himself sick over them. And let me tell you why. They'll read the scriptures if
they don't have anything else to do. They'll pray if it's convenient. Maybe they'll come to the public
worship of God unless some little something interferes to stop
them. And the poor pastor is wringing
his heart out thinking It's my fault. If I was a better preacher,
they'd be faithful. If they had a better pastor,
if they had a different pastor, those folks would be faithful.
Until he finally begins to look at it objectively and then he
realizes, no, I'm a preacher of the gospel. Their problem
is not me. Their problem is they do not
have a need. They are not hungry. They are
not thirsting for the Lord Jesus Christ. Nobody cares what the
plate looks like if you're hungry. David said, Lord, have mercy
on me. Condescend to me. Hear me, for
I am poor and needy. He was an old king when he said
that. He come to the Lord Jesus when he was a little man, a little
boy. And now he's an old man and he's
still got a need for the Lord. David, when do you think you're
ever going to rid yourself of that need? When will you ever
be satisfied? He said, when I awake with your
likeness. Oh, brothers and sisters, don't
you need Him? You can't live without Him, can
you? You need His pity. You need fresh strength from
His grace. You need fresh views of His love
for you. You need to know that He's with
you. You need Him. Why did Jairus
come? He needed Him. He needed Him. And nobody else could meet that
awful need. of the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice this about this man. Notice
what confidence this man had in the Lord. He said, My daughter
is at the point of death, but come and lay your hands on her
and she shall live. Man, that's confidence, isn't
it? The Lord had opened this man's
heart. God, the Holy Spirit, had opened this man's heart. And he realized when he saw the
Lord, this is no ordinary man. This is not just a great prophet.
This is the Lord of life. This is the Lord of power. If
He'll just come to my house and lay His hand on my daughter,
she will live. That's confidence, isn't it?
That's faith. That's not presumption. That's
faith that honored the Lord. You know something? I thought
of this and I think this is so. He can't turn that away. He can't
take such confidence and say no. He won't disappoint a faith
like that. It's not presumption, brothers
and sisters, to believe God. He that cometh to God must believe
that He is. That He is what? That He is who
He says He is in His Bible. And that He is a rewarder of
those who diligently seek Him. I believe as long as this world
stands, Christ will have His church in this world. I believe
that with all my heart. And I believe when He comes to
an individual and He begins a good work of grace in their heart,
He'll never stop it until He has them with Him in heaven.
I believe that. That's the confidence I have
in Him. Am I wrong to say that? Absolutely
not. It's the truth, isn't it? And
I believe this evening. I thought of this on the way
over here. It really encouraged me. I thought about it tonight
as I was getting ready to preach. We gather and begin to sing.
I believe this, brothers and sisters, with all my heart. Where
two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in their
midst. I believe the Son of God, by
the Holy Spirit, is in our midst tonight. I believe he's here,
I believe he's working, and I believe he can work and nobody can hinder
him. Do you believe that? You just come and lay hands on
my daughter and she shall live. You, my people, gather together. You who believe my gospel, you
who love me and believe me, gather yourselves, assemble yourselves,
and I promise you, I will be in your midst. If somebody somewhere
or another could have convinced me that Jesus Christ, by the
Holy Spirit, would not be here tonight, I'd have stayed in Indiana.
But I'm here because He's here. Do you believe that? Every time
you gather, dear child of God, every time you gather with His
people, He's there. I don't know what the Lord's
going to do. I don't know what He's going to do tonight. I don't
know what He's going to do in the morning or Sunday morning. I
have no idea. He ain't spoken, told me a thing.
But I know He's here. And I know He's working. And
I know He'll do what pleases Him. I believe that, don't you? I believe that. And this is the man that was
following the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was following this
man. This is the man that he was following. Let me give you
four things right quickly. The advantages we have to have
in Christ our Lord to follow us. Let me say first of all like
this. Jairus was going home to a dead daughter. What would he have been like
if he had walked in that door and closed it behind him? You talk about a sad countenance. He would have joined the many
mourners, ready to go in a funeral procession to the cemetery to
bury his daughter. But the Lord followed him home. I keep on laughing when I think
of this. He comes up to the door and he
opens the door and he walks in and he steps aside. And who is
that following him? That's Jesus of Nazareth, the
Lord of Glory. And the man has a smile on his
face. And he looks at his wife and
she notices there's a glean in his eye. And it's because the
Lord is following him there. I read the other day, talking
to someone about trying to define success. Here's success. If Jesus Christ is following
you, that's success. Have you ever went to visit a
dear soul, a dear friend, or a lost person in the hospital
or nursing home? You wanted to talk to them, but
you didn't know what in the world you were going to say to them.
You didn't know how many people were going to be there. You didn't
know if they were going to be asleep or if they were going
to be able to talk to you. And you're just filled with anxiety
about it all. And what is the cry of your heart
on the way there? Lord, be with me. Lord, go with
me. Lord, give me the words to say.
Lord, give me a song to whisper to them. And what happens? He follows you there. You open your mouth to speak,
and lo and behold, it's like He's standing behind you, speaking
through you. Sometimes I've went to the pulpit,
a lot of times I've went to the pulpit, and I didn't have anything
hardly to say, and I had no power to say it with. But I've stepped
in the pulpit in my utter weakness, and to my great amazement, and
to the joy of the congregation, the Lord Jesus followed me there. I told Cindy and Stephen, I said,
they used to think Paul lacked me. He must not even lack me.
Being the only preacher, he's invited over here. If you get
up and make a mess, or you miss it, well, John's coming after
you. He'll straighten it all out.
Ain't nobody follow me tonight. One is following me. And if he
follows you, brothers and sisters, everything will be well. Everything
will be well. He followed this man. There was an old pastor I read
about years ago somewhere in England or Wales. And it came
time for him to preach. And the deacon looked over at
one of the other fellows and said, Where's the pastor? I don't
know. It's time to preach. Go find
him. And he went back to the study. And he was in there praying. And the man come back and told
the deacons, I found him. He said, is he coming? He said,
I didn't bother him. He said, what's he doing? He
said, he's praying. What's he doing? He said, all
I know, I heard him say, Lord, I went into that pool pit the
last time without you. It's a pleasant place to be if
He follows you here, and it's hell if He don't. Ain't it? Oh, it's to our advantage, brothers
and sisters, the Lord Jesus Christ follow you. Secondly, think of this this
way. Two is better than one, Solomon
said. It's good To have a dear, faithful,
wise friend to walk with, isn't it? If you fall, He'll help you
up. If you get lost in the way, He'll
help you to find the way. If you need some company, He's
there to talk to. Two is better than one. And what
a better friend to have following you than the Lord Jesus Christ. You reckon maybe Jairus got just
a little bit anxious? I think he did. I think probably
he began to despair. They got interrupted on the way
there to heal his daughter. This woman came out of nowhere
and touched the Lord's garment and her blood dried up. She was
bleeding. And the Lord looked around and
said, who touched me? Nobody would admit it. Everybody
was touching him, but she really touched him. And finally, when
she couldn't be hid, finally she came and knelt there and
told him all the truth. All the truth. I wonder if she
began to name some names of those physicians. I went to a physician,
do better. He made me worse. I went to this position, self-righteousness,
He made me worse. I went to this other position,
good will and free will, and He really made me worse. And
now I'm dying. And she just kept on and on and
on and told him all the truth. And here stands poor Jairus. Oh, lady, could you please hear
us? Would you please hurry? Don't name any more names. Just
let him go. My daughter's dying. Please,
please, please. Don't you think he got anxious?
And here come a man and said, don't bother the master anymore.
She's gone. Just come on back with me and
let's go get the funeral over with. Comfort your wife. And
boy, you can just see his heart ready to sink, can't you? And
the Lord came up from behind him and whispered in his ear,
Don't be afraid. Just believe. She'll be made
of. But listen, it wasn't that simple. There was a huge crowd there.
This woman may have still been talking. There was all kinds
of noise. And the Lord was behind him,
remember. So when he came and whispered,
he wasn't for sure if he heard. Did I hear that? Did he just
say, don't be afraid? I want you to hold this passage
of Scripture, but look here in Isaiah chapter 30. I will give
you just a few more minutes. Look in Isaiah chapter 30. And
look in verse 20. Isaiah chapter 30 and verse 20. Isaiah chapter 30 and verse 20. And though the Lord give you
bread of adversity and the water of affliction, He shall not Yet
shall thy teachers not be removed into the corner anymore, but
thine eyes shall see thy teacher, and thine ears shall hear a word
behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it when you
turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left." Isn't
that amazing? That's exactly what happened
to this man. The Lord came up from behind
them and whispered, Don't despair. Just keep on believing and she'll
be made whole. How many times, brothers and
sisters, have you been ready to get yourself in a lot of trouble
and you heard a still, small voice? And that still, small
voice guided you away from that trouble. You could hardly recognize
it, but there it was. How many times have you felt
like circumstances had overwhelmed you? You were in the fire. You
were in the river and you felt like you couldn't breathe. You
were so heavy. And you heard this Word. It was
a still, small voice. Don't despair. Just believe. Believe me. We should, we should, brothers
and sisters, pray one of our prayers every morning should
be this, Lord speak to me and give me ears to hear. He speaks so softly. My sheep
hear my voice. And it's always from this written
Word. When He speaks to you sometime
and you're impressed to go pray, go pray. When you're impressed
to read, go read. Listen for His voice. He'll never steer you wrong.
He'll never steer you wrong. He'll guide you with His eye
and with His hand and with His voice. and He'll guide you all
the way to the Father's house. The third thing about the advantage
of having the Lord Jesus to follow us is this. Don't you imagine, and maybe
think of it this way, if Jairus had a valuable painting
of his dear daughter, had only one daughter. Can you imagine
someone drawing a beautiful picture of his daughter and he's got
it in a beautiful frame and his little daughter has been so sick
and he's been looking at it and tears run down his eyes. And
he thinks to himself, somebody says, this Jesus of Nazareth,
he's not too far from here. Go see what he can do. And he
tucks this picture with him. I'll take this picture. This
is my little daughter. And I'll show him this picture.
This is my little daughter. Would you come and heal my little
daughter? But in his haste, while the Lord
is following him, he drops the picture. He drops the painting. And he goes on a ways and suddenly
he realizes, my valuable painting. I've lost it. Where is it? Then the thought comes to him,
oh, it's back yonder somewhere and it's been trampled in the
mud and tore up. I've lost this picture of my
beautiful daughter. And when he says to himself,
I'm going to turn and go back, as soon as he turns, what does
he see? Here's the Lord with his picture.
I've got your picture. I saw you draw it. I saw you
drop it. I picked it up. Here it is. Did
you ever lose anything? In your haste? In your neglect? Did you ever lose any assurance? Did you ever lose your peace
of your conscience? You get all disturbed and mad. Somebody crosses your path. You
lose your joy in the Lord. Lose your will. Did you ever lose anything? And
boy, you begin to recognize it. Oh my, where did I lose it? Where
fell it? What am I going to do? I've lost
it. Probably never find it. And you
turn around to go back and look. And who's standing there? Is
it profitable for the Lord to follow us? And when you see Him,
there's your peace. When you see Him, He's got your
joy. He's got your confidence. Cindy was in her stand downstairs,
and last night we were going to bed, and I saw her lay her
phone down. And if I don't pick it up, when
we get to bed, she has to get up and go back and get it. I
saw her lay it down, and I just retched and got it, and I was
following her. Just before she went in the door, she said, Oh!
I said, I've got it. Oh brothers and sisters, it's profitable for the Lord
Jesus Christ to follow us. We're apt to lose some precious
things and He's there to pick them up. Fourthly, two more, it's profitable when Christ follows
us because He follows us to right our wrongs, to pick up our pieces,
to clean up our messes that we made. When we went to Iraq, the first
Iraqi war, we were bombing Baghdad. They were fleeing out of Baghdad,
and they were going towards Jordan on that road out of Baghdad.
And they were fleeing in tanks, trucks, bicycles. I had suitcases
full of clothes, and they showed that, and you talk about a mess. Cars burning, fuel burning, bodies
mingled, clothes scattered everywhere. It was nothing but a mess. And
I saw that, and the thought hit me. That's the way my life has
been. My life is just a mess. Do you ever think that way? How many hearts have I broken?
How many people have I offended? How much wrong have I done to
the Lord's cause? And it thrills me to think that
the Son of God is following me. to clean up my messes. Oh, Jairus in a haste, wanting
people to get out of his way. He was so anxious, shoved a poor
man and didn't even realize it. And the Lord Jesus comes and
helps the poor old man out of the ditch and says, forgive my
friend. He's in trouble. Forgive him. There's the advantage, brothers
and sisters. of the Lord Jesus following us. It's very condescending
on his part, isn't it? But it's very safe for you. David
said, surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me. The Lord who
is good shall follow me. The Lord who is mercy shall follow
me. And I tell you one thing, when
we come down to Pilate, our dying head, and we leave this world,
I want somebody following me then. If there's any trouble there
on my hills, I want Him to be between me and the trouble. If
there's any sin trying to follow me out of this world, I want
Him to be there to forgive it, to wash it. And lastly, can you imagine how
this must have affected Jairus' walk. Just to know that the Lord Jesus
was following him. Some man is there with him and
he says, Jairus, I know you're in a hurry and just up ahead
is that shortcut that men you have taken so many times from
here to your house. It's through that swamp. It's
a little muddy. And it smells awful, but it's
a shortcut. What does Jairus think? I'm not
taking my boy through that swamp. He turns and he sees him back
there and he looks at his holy feet. And he realizes how good
he is to follow me. I am not taking him through that
swamp. I'm staying on the path. Maybe another man said, I know
you guys are tired and it's getting a little late in the day and
there's a Pharisee's house just a mile up the road and he rents
these buggies and you can rent a little buggy off of him with
a little donkey that you won't have to walk to your house. And
if you'll just make a contribution to the Pharisees' trite society,
He'll let you have it for a high price. I'm not renting a buggy off of
a Pharisee. Those Pharisees hate my Lord.
They blaspheme my Lord. They call Him a Samaritan. They
say He has a devil. I'm not subjecting my Lord to
that just to make the way easier. Can you imagine? Maybe somebody
else comes and says, I know you guys are really thirsty, and
there's this place up here, this pub, this nightclub, and boy, they've got some good
stuff in there to drink. But those men are vile, filthy mouth
people. If you've got any pearls on them,
and you drop them, they'll trample them under your feet. They cuss
God all the time and they don't fear God and they don't have
any regard for man. And Jairus looks behind him and
he says, that's my Holy Lord. I'm not taking him in there to
hear his name blasphemed. I'm not subjecting him to that. I'm just saying, brothers and
sisters, when we're conscious, that He is with us. And especially
that He's following us in condescending mercy. It will change our attitude. It will secure our walk in this
world. If you love Him, if you value
His presence, if you're like Moses, Lord, if you don't go
with us, don't lead me up here. How shall I know that I and this
people are your people, except your presence go with us? So
shall we be what? Separated. Separated. Oh, it makes you careful, doesn't
it? If you know Jesus Christ is following you. Oh Lord, you've gone ahead of
us. We know You're our forerunner. You've entered heaven on our
behalf. You've took possession for us. We know that You're around
us. You're in camp around us to keep
us safe and guard us. Lord, just do one thing more. Follow us. Follow us, Lord, for Your glory
and for our good. Thank you.