That's his favorite. Particularly that third
verse is what he liked. He said, I can still hear that
Irish voice of his that said, that blood shall never lose its
power till all the ransomed church of God, be saved, to sin no more."
Well, he is now, isn't he? I believe that last verse, too,
is on 1 Thessalonians 2, when this poor list'ning stammering
tongue lies silent in the grave. And in a nobler, sweeter song,
I'll sing thy power to save. That's the confession of every
believer. All right, Luke chapter 8. Luke chapter 8. Once again, here's another story
of the Lord performing a miracle, but it's the story of a greater
miracle. much greater. The story of how
God saves every sinner. Every sinner is saved just like
this. Just like the man who was demon-possessed. Just like Jairus' daughter who
was dead. Every sinner is saved like this
woman here. Now our Lord attracted a large
crowd everywhere he went. Everywhere he went there were
literally hundreds, maybe thousands around him, and mostly it was
due to his miracles, wasn't it? One time he said that after he
fed them sometime later, he said, You follow me because you've
got your belly filled. And another time he renounced
all these miracle seekers by saying, an evil and adulterous
generation seeks after a sign. And boy, that sure does apply
to our generation, doesn't it? More than any other generation.
You know, nearly every so-called revival meeting, you mark it,
you look at it. Nearly every so-called revival
meeting or special service that you'll see announced today, you'll
see it said, Spirit-filled, anointed, preaching, miracle, healing,
revival. Why do they say that? That's what people are looking
for. great crowd or multitude of people
of miracle seekers. It was one woman. One woman who
was just needy. She needed something and needed
it bad. A real need. Look at verse 43
now of Luke chapter 8. It says a woman having an issue
of blood twelve years. and had spent all her living
upon physicians, and none of them could be healed of any of
them. This woman was probably in her
forties or fifties. She had suffered with severely
irregular monthly cycles, which left her constantly in physical
pain. You ladies could imagine constantly
tired and unable to function soundly or function normally. Her very last blood was literally flowing out of
her all the time. Anemic, tired, worn down, in
pain, hurting emotionally, you know, you know what that make
you feel like emotionally. She was she was. Spent and she
had spent all her living that say all her savings. On positions,
she she everybody, every so-called expert she heard of. I'm sure
there were claims of healing. And she went to know you met
you know how bogus and how. Absurd where the healing methods
back then is bleeding people and leeches and you name it you
know. Not far removed from witchcraft.
Well she'd spent she went everywhere she could find somebody give
her some help and she spent all of her savings all of her life
savings were gone and she still had no relief for herself and
over in March of the five of the other which is another this
this story recorded three times. Matthew, Mark and Luke and in
in Mark's gospel chapter five, it says that she suffered suffered
many things. Many other words, they they didn't
help her at all. It says she was no better. In
fact, she was worse. It's what Mark said, she suffered
at the hands of these so-called healers and and didn't get any
better. In fact, she got worse. And so here's this woman who
was desperately ill for as long as she could remember. Twelve
years. You know, if you're sick for
five years, that's all you can hardly remember the rest of your rest of your good days. What
about 10 years? What about 12 years of being
sick? Well, as long as she could remember,
she had been desperately ill, and she'd sought out everyone
she heard of who might possibly help her until she was bankrupt. Now get the picture here. This
woman now is not only still sick and ill and hurting and in pain
and suffering, she's worse, and she's broke now. Now she's broke. And this is a picture of every
single sinner that God saves. Every one of them. They're going
to reach this point. Desperate. Every single sinner
who's spiritually dead and dying because they have an issue of
blood. That is. Here's the issue with
man. Here's the issue. Sin. David said it in Psalm 38, didn't
he, John? He said, My loins are filled
with a loathsome disease. It's in my blood. You know where
we got this sin, disease we have? We inherited it. It's in our
blood. We got it from Adam, didn't we? We all came from Adam. We all
came from Adam, and that's the reason we're born sinners. It's
in our blood. The issue is an issue of blood.
It sure is. And so is salvation. We inherited a blood disorder,
and I like to liken this sin thing to spiritual AIDS. Now
that's, people know what that is, don't they? Acquired immune
deficiency syndrome. Well, we're immune all right,
immune to good. Immune to God. We acquired it
from Adam, our father. And the scripture said, now this
is what the scripture says about man. He's full of sin. It says from
the sole of his feet to the top of his head, there's no soundness
in him. None. He's tainted. Everything he is
and does is tainted. If you go back and read in Leviticus
of the woman, you know, there are men and women with issues
of blood. In Leviticus 14, there's a story
of, I believe it's chapter 14. But it talks about men and women
and men with issues of love. Each of them, if they had an
issue of love, they were bleeding profusely. That everything they
did was unclean. Everything they touched was unclean.
Everybody and everything about, around them was unclean. And
the remedy was the same for both of them. They had to go to the
priest who would offer up a sacrifice of blood on their behalf, and
they would be made clean. So there are women and men, spiritually,
but there's no human remedy. Like this woman's disease, there's
no human remedy. She sought human means, didn't
she? She sought out the aid of people,
persons. doctors. But this is an age today,
and I always think that in this spiritual age, all
people have it. All persons have it, but don't
know it. Some don't know it. You know,
the statistics say today that millions and millions of people
the world over have AIDS, the physical AIDS. and don't know. Well, spiritual aids all. And most don't know it. I sure don't. But some by God's
grace. Now the first step in healing
is knowing you've got a disease. That's the first step in healing
is knowing you've got a problem. You've got sin. That's the first
step in salvation. This is a faithful saying. He
quoted and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the
world to save whom? Well, several times he said,
Now, I didn't come to call the righteous. I didn't come to call
the religious. I didn't come to call those who
clean up their lives. I didn't come to call those who
do their best for God. I didn't come to call any of
them. I came to call sinners. I came to save the unrighteous.
This is a faithful saving. Christ died for the poor, not
the good, not the good man, not a righteous man, but for the
ungodly. That's the only thing that will
heal them. So a man or a woman or a young
person is not... I was talking about this Wednesday
night. A man or a woman or a young person is not going to come to
Christ. until they see they're a sinner before God. Merit might have mistakes, or
have some faults, but I mean no goodness, no goodness in them
at all. See, this woman was spent. She
was down, and all her health was gone, and all her money was
gone. You know, people, persons that get in the back, you know,
quite often God, when he begins to work on someone, they seek
help in the wrong places. I believe some of you were in
religion before and made truly seeking. I talked to some of Here's the thing about it is
that God won't leave a person there. God doesn't teach a person
there, nor does God leave a person there. The first step is God makes a
person miserable to themselves and where they are, and quite
often they go to different places and seek out the help of different
persons, different so-called I remember years ago, Brother
Jack Shanks preaching a message on this, and I remember just
like yesterday on 13th Street at a Bible conference. That old,
big, tall Texan, you know, and that's slow and raw, and he talked
about different doctors that people would go see. Well, I
called him up, you know, to ask him the name of those doctors.
I remember it. He couldn't think of it. He said,
My mind's gone, Paul. That's exactly it. That's about
how slow he said it. My mind's gone, Paul. I can't remember. I'm sorry. Well, I thought of a few, though.
People, you know, they try religion. And they'll go to Dr. Easy-Believism. They'll go somewhere and the
person will tell them, you just believe Jesus. You just believe
on Jesus all your troubles are. Just believe. OK. Now, you know,
they're going to follow in Roman's road. Easy-Believism. Here's
Roman's road. You're a sinner, aren't you?
Well, yeah. God loves you. You know that,
don't you? Well, if you say so. And Jesus died for sin. You believe
that? You believe Jesus lived and died and and buried and rose
again. You believe that? Sure. Well,
he came to a safe center. You believe that, don't you?
If you say so, well, then you're safe. Easy-believe-ism. Dr. Easy-believe-ism. And then they go see Dr. U. B. Baptized. Dr. U. B. Baptized. And he interned
under O. I. Will Duncan. Dr. I will don't say these two
fellows together you be baptized and I will don't they say now
if you get baptized and like we're talking about this is it
it deserves to be made fun of this is exactly what's going
on. If you just choose Jesus believe on Jesus and we'll get
you in that pool if we can just get you in that pool. Yes, all
is all you're OK. You're safe and sure for heavens
if you are there. And then they go see Dr. B.A.
Churchmember. Oh, B.A. Churchmember. Yeah,
he's in practice with Dr. Keep You Busy. B.A. Churchmember. Dr. Keep You Busy. Keep You Busy.
This is how they do it now. After they get you baptized,
and then, you know, the interest starts to rain a little bit,
they'll give you something to do. They'll make you a Sunday
school teacher. Well my marriage is our example that say Mary's
losing her interest you know she's real excited for a while
and now she's the chairman of the church in a while what we
do we don't make it make us a school teacher. And a keeper that keeper
here keep her busy keep you busy. To make you you know part of
the committee committee to that oversees the committees that
oversee all the committees. Oh, yeah. And then they go see
Dr. F. You quit that. If you just quit that, if you
just quit this and quit that, you'll be all right. You'll be
all right. Save and share for heaven is,
if you're already there, if you quit that, he's a cousin to T.
Overleaf. Oh, Mr. T. Overleaf. T. Overleaf. Then there's old Dr. U. Better
keep the law. Boy, he'll really help you out
now. You go see him and do everything he says, you're all right. And then they have to see old
Dr. Don't you backslide. They go see him. And, well, the
person, you know, this is, this is funny, and I'm not, really
I'm not trying to be clever. but kind of make fun. This is
exactly what happens in religion today. That's who people go see.
Some of y'all have done it. You've visited these hucksters,
haven't you? You seen them? You know some
of those fellas, Joe? Sure do. They're still in practice,
and they're making a good living. I mean, just like physicians,
they're rich. There's big money in religion. But the person who tries all
this, they're no better for it. They're worse. You know what? Unless God intends to save them,
they're worse than they were when they started, because then
they're self-righteous. Then they're self-righteous.
Then they've made a false profession of faith. Then they're trusting
in that baptism, or they're trusting in that decision they made for
Jesus. You say, well, yeah, I've got it written down right here. Well yeah, it says right here,
and I say no brother so-and-so who was a Baptist, he baptized
them. But they're worse, they're worse
off. And by some, by God's grace, I hope anyway, some by God's
grace, they have enough. They get enough of all that. I've used my father-in-law many
times as an example. He went to the largest place
in religious clubhouse in Ashland, Kentucky. The first Christian,
so-called Christian church in Ashland, Kentucky. Everybody
who was somebody went there. Doctors, lawyers, you name it.
Big, big place. And now this really happened.
And her daddy at the time was a hard-working bricklayer and
worked two full-time jobs. Worked at Armco Steel Mill during
the day and then laid brick for ten hours after that every day.
Needless to say, the Lord blessed his labors and he was quite prosperous. By the time he was twenty-three
years old he had a house paved in full. built it and paid in
full. No payments. Well, he was one
of the largest contributors at that place. And that fellow,
that so-called preacher from that place, he actually acknowledged that,
didn't he? That your dad was the biggest
giver there, and he didn't want to lose him. And one day, Ed
went to him and said, I don't know what I'm not hearing. He
just, you know, he just had it with all that mess, all that
religious mess. That's, that preacher standing
up there dressed like a woman and talking like one too, you
know, and begging people and obviously wanting their money,
you know, obviously wanting their money and trying to see how many
heads he could, how many he could run on Sunday, like cattle, you
know. How many you running? How many
you baptizing? Now, Ed saw through that. He
hadn't heard the gospel yet. He hadn't heard the truth yet,
but he saw through that stuff. Like you, Joe, you sat down one
day and said, it's got to be, and when you remember that mess
up there, you said, it's got to be something better than this.
Oh, there it is. Well, Ed went to him one day
and said, I don't know what I'm not hearing. He never heard. But he said to the man, he said,
I don't know what I'm not hearing, but I ain't hearing him here.
He said, and all he could think of was, I need to hear some hell's
fire or something. And that huckster, that hireling,
that's what they are, said to him, actually said to him, you
come back next Sunday and I'll do better. He did. He started crying in the middle
of the night. Don't leave Ed. Our church, I mean, our church
needs you. He did, he started crying and
said, come back next Sunday and I'll do better. Well, finally, you know, he'd
had enough. And one of the members of 13th
Street, who was in the construction business to Ed Stephens, who
knew Ed Ballard and said, Brother Ed, not Brother Ed, he said,
Ed, Once you come down to 13th Street, where I live, you're
going to hear the gospel there. Ed Stevens, not an eloquent man.
Rick, he's just, you know, just always been an instruction man. All he'd say to him was, you'll
hear the truth down here. Just come hear the gospel. That's
all he'd say to him, you know. So he did. And you know, he sat there and
heard for a while. And he said, he made the comment
later on to my pastor, he said, he said, you know, I didn't know
I hadn't heard anything yet. He said, I knew you were preaching
from, at least you were preaching from the Bible. I saw that you
were, what you said was from the Bible. He said, I knew, well
this is, I'm hearing something now. One Sunday morning, he heard. He heard what he didn't know
he hadn't heard. But he knew he wasn't hearing
it. But now he knew he heard it. What's that? Christ. The gospel. Sin. On the remedy
of man's desperate need. And he confessed him and came
to cry. Somebody told this woman about
Christ. That's what Mark says. When she heard, that's how she
knew to come to Him. Somebody told her about Christ.
Somebody told her that all these other things don't go to them.
They won't help you any. You can't get any relief down
there. There's only one place you're going to get any relief
from. You've got one need, and there's
only one who can do anything about it. The Lord Jesus Christ,
the Great Physician, the Healer of Souls, the Savior of Sinners,
and He'll heal with a word. Just a touch, you get to Him,
and the issue will be solved. Issue will be solved. And so it is with the Chief of
Sinners. Twelve years, twenty years. thirty years. We don't look at verse forty
four says so she came. How did she come? So she came
running down the front came running down the front of the aisle and
shaking and decided she's going to make a you know, hallelujah. For everybody in the street and
she came running down there. How'd she come? Why? There's only one reason you sneak
around behind. When you feel like, I'm not worthy.
I'm not worthy to see him face to face. I'm not worthy to be seen or
heard around here. But I tell you, I've got to get
to him. I've got to get to him. She came around behind him. And
so she reached out. She touched, look at it, verse
44, and just touched the border of his garment. Now, can you
picture this? Vast crowd, thousands of people
all around the crowd, just swarming him. No elbow room, so to speak. And he's walking, making his
way somewhere. And this woman, you know, the
little frail, skinny little woman, she's gone, her health is gone.
How's she going to build her way through this crowd? She can't.
How's she going to get there? I believe she's crawling. Boy, there's a seeker now. Say,
I'm seeking the Lord, preacher, but I ain't never found Him yet.
Oh, brother. Let's talk about seeker. We talk
about a seeker. Let's talk about that man who
they tore the roof off to get him to cry. Now, there's a seeker in there. Well, she came crawling through
that crowd. She reached that little bony
hand, that little bony arm, through all those legs and robes and
everything. How'd she know which robe was
which? That's what it says right here.
Just touch immediately. Immediately. Issue. Gone. But issue. was gone. Dried up. Dried up. Blood staunched. Blood staunched
our sins, too, didn't it? Ah, boy. Come to Christ, sinner. How? You don't need to ask me
that question. You don't need to have any preacher
tell you how to come to Christ. You don't need to read a book
on how to. Just do it. Right. If you're sick enough,
you'll come. Yes, sir. And no preacher will
have to beg you to do it. I was telling somebody the other
day, I said, you know, I was telling you all. about a certain
individual in here, you know, who nobody laid hands on them. No choir ever sang that they
ever heard here. We never formed a quartet. Never
had a healing service. But, buddy, that person came
to cry. I never, he never came down, that person never came
down front either. I don't beg people or or even. I try not to urge people to be
baptized, because you'll talk a person into it. You can talk
a person into it. And they'll feel better after
it's done. But no, if somebody really comes
to Christ, you don't have to beg them. You don't have to ask
them. You don't have to tell them to be baptized. They'll
come to you. As a matter of fact, every person
I can think of that I've had the privilege of baptizing in
here has come to me asking me, will you please baptize me? That's the way the Lord does
that. They say if you don't have an
altar call, how are people going to get saved? That's precisely why we're going
to have an altar call. Because we ain't got an altar.
Right here, this ain't an altar. It's just an old wooden table.
Our altar's in heaven. Now, if you can get to Him. So you come to Christ, but you
don't move a muscle. You confess Christ. You come
to an altar, but it ain't a wooden one. It's a person. You confess
to him. Confess to him. Don't shake my
hand. You need to touch the master's
hand. Grab hold of you. That's it. My favorite, this is my favorite
story, Stan. This big crowd of people, elbow,
no elbow room, just a mass of humanity walking along, you know,
and this woman crawled up behind him and just touched his garment. Boy, there's a garment, just,
yeah, just his garment. That's all you need to touch,
his garment. You know what that garment is?
That's a righteousness of Christ. Ah boy, you just need the righteousness
of Christ to cover you. Well, she reached up to that
crowd and... The Lord of Glory stopped her. Who touched me? And it says here in verse forty-five,
when all of the night, I didn't, did you touch him? I didn't touch
him. Peter, old Peter, poor old Peter, he said, Master, now,
Master, The multitude, look at all these
people rubbing just all over you, around you, touching you,
laying hold, grabbing you and all that. Look at, pressing against
you and you, who touched you? And boy, what a picture this
is, you know, religion, just a mess of people. Jesus here,
Jesus there, Jesus everywhere. Everybody found Jesus, didn't
they? One or two here and there. Touched
him. I mean really. Touched him. Christ didn't answer his. He
just said, look at verse 46. He said, somebody has touched
me. I bet Peter shut his mouth then,
didn't he? Somebody hath touched me, for
I perceive virtue is gone out of me. Oh, boy, what
the picture of the gospel this is, huh? My, my. You know, what does it mean to
reach out? We sing that hymn, reach out
and touch the Lord. Lay hold of Christ by faith.
What does that mean? Well, like I said, it can't really
be explained, only experienced. Except I can say this much about
it. A real sinner, a needy, helpless sinner, who hears of mercy, who
hears of grace, who hears of gospel, that full, free, final,
unconditional, complete, eternal pardon, left clean. God, I would very much do the
same, just free, free. Oh, and I would bankrupt, helpless,
weak, no good getter's type. We'll say like David, like David
said about the glass sword. Boy, there's nothing like that.
Give it to me. That's what it means. That's
the gospel I've been looking for. Nothing like it. I haven't thought
of it anywhere. That's what I'm looking for.
Give it to me. Give it to me. Everybody and
everybody who comes to Christ Upon hearing the gospel, virtue goes after them. His virtue. Oh, this is wonderful. Righteousness. They're made righteous. I'm talking clean, as Joe, you
said it last Sunday, whiter than snow. had the blackest woman who ever
walked the streets with a word. Justified. Record gone. I mean gone. All
the past gone by virtue of Christ's righteousness. He swapped roads. He swapped
robes with us. He swapped righteousness with
us, Joe, didn't he? The sins are paid for by virtue
of his blood, not us doing anything. No, no, no. Their sins are paid
for by virtue of blood, his blood. All the ordinances, the handwriting
against them, every law that we've broken is blotted by virtue
of his cross. All the blessings of God for
all eternity, full inheritance with the saints in glory are
theirs. I mean the eleventh hour sinner,
the thief on the cross who never worked, witnessed, or anything
for Jesus. got paid the same thing as everybody else, by virtue
of him. Christ is virtue. Virtue goes out. And he knows
who touches him. You know that? He's not asking
this for information. Is it? He asked that man with
the demons, what's your name? He didn't even know who they
were. He knew who he was. Huh? He's not asking who touched
him for information. He's doing it to demand an answer
out of her. She's going to have to come clean. She's going to have to come. Now she's going to have to come
before everybody. didn't you? Huh? So he knows who touches
him because blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causes
to approach unto thee. And they've got to. Christ has
no secret disciples. Now, as I said, they don't come
down front, you know. They don't do that because they're
so embarrassed that they don't want to make a show or a scene
before everybody. But Christ said, Be baptized,
and they do. before everybody. And this woman here, it says
she came, verse forty-seven, when the woman saw that she was
not hid. Not hid. Oh, what a picture of
the gospel this verse is. You remember that demon-possessed
fellow? He wasn't here either. He hadn't had any clothes on. She's not here. Dine I, seeeth
me. Boy, that's when a sinner will
come to Christ, when they see him. He sees me. Nothing here. She came to be hidden. That's
what that psalm said back then, didn't it? I stretched forth
my hands. Oh, hide me, the psalmist said. I flee unto thee to hide." She was not hid. Uh-uh. And she
came. How'd she come? Trembling and
falling down before him. And she declared unto him. You
see, this is who we're confessing. We're confessing to him. We come
confessing our sins to a priest, all right, but it's not a little
man in a booth. It's the great high priest in
heaven. That's who we confess to. Not a man. We come to Christ
confessing. We come unto him, and she confessed
unto him, declared unto him, and she did it before all the
people. And that's what, like you said, that's what baptism
is. Before all the people. She, look at this. Here's her
confession. She declared unto him, before
all the people, for what cause she touched him. This is why
I came. Because I was damned. I was bankrupt. I tried everything. I was a goner. I'm a sinner. I'm guilty. Condemned before
God. This is why I'm coming to you.
Why I came to Christ. And it says, and how she confessed
and declared unto him, and before all the people, how she was healed. How she was healed. How? Well, Christ did. How were you healed, Lodi? Christ healed me. But wait a minute. This is my whole confession.
Christ. Joe, if you'd ask her, what's
your confession of faith? She said, she said, Christ. What
do you think about? What do you think about? I can't
even think right now. Soteriology. Christ. What about? What about ecclesiology? Whatever that means, it's Christ.
Christ is all, He's all my hope. She confessed before all why
she came and who it was that saved her. You don't know much,
do you? All I know is I'm nothing, I'm
an old sinner, nothing at all but Jesus Christ is my all in
all. That's all I know. Is that good enough? It's great
faith. It's great faith. Yes, it is.
Look at our Lord here. He said, He said, unhurt. And
He said this very rarely. He said, Daughter. Daughter. You know, there's only one person
in this room that I ever say that to. Right there. Daughter. Why? I'm her father. Christ called one woman in that
whole crowd, daughter. He must be her father. Daughter,
be of good comfort. By faith. Now understand, her
faith All it was, was Christ. Why'd you come? I don't know, because I was dead. However you say it, Christ did
it. By faith, that made thee whole. Go in peace now. Peace. Peace. Peace. For the rest of
your days, peace be unto you. Now let me ask you something. that this woman died. Later on. I can just about guarantee. She got sick. Either. Hardening of the arteries. Something
said. And she got sick. And Roberta,
she died. Vision. So let me ask you, which miracle
was the most important? Huh? Which one did she really
need? Which one lasted? The one thing
needful, he said. The one thing needful. In that
article, in the bulletin this morning, you know, He giveth
his beloved sleep. He giveth his beloved sleep.
You know, we believe in miracle healing. We do. We believe in
miracle healing. Some literally, physically, are
healed. But then others are really healed,
really healed, forever. just for coming to cry. I see. I come to cry. All right. Well, Joe, you got him to twenty