I want to take a passage of scripture
out of the Bible in the book of Luke today, the book of Luke
out of the Bible. When I look at the Bible, I find
it is speaking about an almighty God that is all-powerful, and
an ancient king said this about him. He ruleth in the armies
of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
his hand or hold his hand or make him so he can't do what
he plans on doing. I like what I read about that
God. In the purpose of God to save
a people from their sins, he sent his only begotten son to
this earth. We know him as the Lord Jesus
Christ. He has always been God in eternity
past. He was God while he was here.
He is God at this time at the right hand of the Father. But
for a season, he came and took upon flesh like we have. And
we know him as Emmanuel. That's what the Bible calls him,
Emmanuel. Emmanuel being interpreted means
God with us. So we had God in the midst on
this earth for 33 and a half years. And that God, the Lord
Jesus, everywhere he went on this earth, it was a pre-planned
event. He never went anywhere by chance. He always went everywhere on
purpose. Every step he took. He never
had to back up and say, what am I doing here? He always knew
exactly what he was doing. He always knew exactly who he
was going to meet. And he always knew exactly the
outcome of that meeting. Sometimes he was met with derision,
but he still was there for that meeting. And sometimes he was
met with great plea for mercy. have mercy upon me. And he always
was able to give that mercy. Well, here in the book of Luke
chapter eight, there is an account of a lady that had a terrible
disease. The Bible tells us, I'm just
going to go over here to Luke chapter eight and read three
or four verses out of the New Testament. Now, this is the Lord
Jesus Christ. He has an appointment. I like people who keep their
appointments, don't you? I like to read about a God that
keeps his appointments. Now, he didn't write it down
in a book and say, I'm gonna be here at a certain time, but
we find as we follow his ministry, that he was everywhere, everywhere
he went, he was always there exactly at the appointed time. And he never went anywhere without
a purpose in it. So in the book of Luke chapter
eight, And there in verse 43, the scripture says, now he's
on a mission right now. He's going somewhere right now.
And a lady comes in on his journey. Now she is there by divine appointment. The Bible tells me about God
that he doeth all things after the counsel of his own will.
He's the one that is in charge. He's the one that is leading.
He's the one that is directing. And so right here, we're introduced
to a lady in Luke 8, verse 43. It says here, as he's traveling,
a woman having an issue of blood 12 years, which had spent all
her living upon physicians, neither could be healed by any. No doubt,
to begin with, she was probably quite a rich lady. And over the
process of 12 years, she spent everything that she had hoping
to get better. And one of the books of the New
Testament, one of the gospels says, and she was none the better. She was even worse, so she lost
all of her finances, she lost her health, and she is right
now in a path to meet the only person on the face of the earth
that could do something for her. Now, I look at that as she spent
all her money on physicians, as we so often in religion, we
get involved in religion, we're trying to make ourselves better,
but we never get the job done. Religion will never clean us
up. Religion will never give us hope. There's only one that
can give us hope, and that is the Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only Savior that can
save his people from their sins. And that's what he promised to
do. So he is just going like this and she's just going like
this on the road. And at the right moment, he intersects
with her. And you know what, being all
knowing, he already knows all about her problems. He doesn't
have to be told that she is sick. He doesn't have to be told that
she's had an issue of blood for 12 years. He doesn't have to
be told that she has spent every bit of her money on trying to
get better. He already knows all of that.
He is almighty God with all knowledge. And he knows that he is going
to meet this woman exactly at the right time. Now to many people,
he is on a road to help a girl who is the daughter of a man
by the name of Jairus. This is just kind of interjected
in that whole account, but this is so important. Someone had
told this lady something about this man, the Lord Jesus. Now
that's the only way we'll ever follow Christ is we have to be
told about him. We're not just gonna discover
it on our own. We can't discover Christ on our
own. The word of God, we must hear
the pure, true word of God. And then God does something with
that. Well, let's just follow this
out a little bit. It tells us here that this woman had an issue
of blood. She spent her living on physicians and could be healed
of any, nobody could do anything. And she came to him. Now that's
the most important him in all the Bible, H-I-M. I like to look
at it with a capital H. She came to Him, the Almighty,
the Lord, Jesus Christ, the Savior. Someone had told her that this
one, this Jesus of Nazareth, this one had the power to do
what she could not get done by doctors. He had the power to
do what could not be done by religion. They couldn't do enough. And so it says she came to him
and touched the border of his garment and immediately her issue
of blood stopped. She had to be drawn to this. She didn't come to this conclusion
on her own. Someone told her about this man. Someone told
her about the Lord. Someone told her about Jesus.
Someone told her that this man can do something nobody else
can. This man is able to take care
of problems. Now, the greatest problem we
have is one we're born with, and that's the problem with sin.
He is the only one that can take care of that problem. And here
we find this woman who has this issue of blood. I don't know,
nobody has come to the complete conclusion of exactly what she
had, but I don't want to be in her shoes. She had a terrible
malady. And she came and it tells us
here, she came to him and touched the border of his garment and
immediately her issue of blood was stopped. Now, how did she
know that this one, If she could just touch the hem of his garment,
how did she know that she would be healed of this? Somebody over
here told her. Somebody that maybe had the same
had an issue that had he had healed them We don't know exactly
but someone had to tell her to come down because there's somebody
that can deal with the problem you have You have a terrible
terrible malady and you've had it for 12 years and you're not
being healed by any human being But there is a man the God man
the Lord Jesus we have this one that is able to take care of
you and So, he touched her. Now, Jesus said, when he, when
Jesus speaks, I want to listen. Jesus said to her, or Jesus said,
who touched me? Now, some people will say, well,
see, he doesn't know everything. You know, he's asked that question
for our benefit. He's asked that question for
us. And he asked that question for that woman. You know, in
the Garden of Eden, so many years ago, after Adam and Eve had sinned
and they put some fig leaves together, sewed them together
and made themselves aprons of fig leaves and hid themselves
in the garden, God said, Adam, where art thou? It wasn't because
he didn't know where he was. He wanted Adam to know where
he was. This woman, The Lord says, who touched me?
He knew exactly who touched him, and he knows exactly that this
woman was healed as a result of it, but he wants for our benefit
to know that he is the one that did it. All right, it goes on.
When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, master,
the multitude, the throng. that throng thee and press thee,
and sayest thou, Who touched me?" Can you imagine a crowd
that's all around this very famous individual? He's healed a lot
of people. He's got a lot of notoriety.
A lot of people didn't follow him because they loved him. They
followed him hoping to get something out of him. He fed people. They
wanted to follow him because of the food. He provided for
them, they wanted to follow him for that, but there were a few
that followed him out of pure devotion to the King, to the
Lord. And Peter says, you know, the
crowd is so huge. You know, someone asked me if
I went down to the cherry festival parade. I did years ago. I didn't this time. The crowds. are so intense down there that
I just don't feel comfortable. And that's kind of how I feel
about the Lord Jesus and saying who touched me. And Peter says,
my goodness, look at the people that are around here. There's
hundreds and hundreds of people in this crowd and you're wanting
to know who touched you? Well, the scripture's going on,
it says, Jesus said, somebody has touched me for I perceive
that virtue or grace is gone out of me. He knew exactly what
had happened, but he wants us to know what happened. He knew
exactly what had happened, and he wants that woman to know what
had happened. She had extreme faith, God-given faith, to reach
out and touch the hem of his garment, and by that, she was
healed. Now, it wasn't the touch that
healed her, it was the Christ that healed her. It wasn't her
faith that healed her, it was the God of heaven that healed
her and gave her that life again. And it says here, virtue has
gone out. Now, when the woman saw that she was not hid, nobody
had pointed her out. Nobody said, there she is. Everybody
else is wondering, what's he talking about? How could he say
someone has touched me? She knew. The Lord is drawing
her to Him by His great authority and great power as God Almighty
drawing her to Him says, when the woman saw that she was not
hid, not hid from who? Not hid from Him, not hid from
Christ. She was hid from Peter. She was
hid from the rest of the crowd, but she was not hid from him.
She came trembling and falling down before him, and she declared
unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched
him and how she had been healed immediately. She explained what
happened. I did reach out. He healed me. The healing is not in me. It
wasn't me touching him. The healing is in him, the Lord. the great healer, the great physician.
And then he says here, daughter, now that's a term of endearment.
I have, my wife and I have two daughters. When I call them daughter,
that's a term of endearment. You know, this lady was not his
physical daughter, but by faith, She was a daughter of his. He had given her the new birth.
She had been born from him. It says here, daughter be of
good comfort. Now, she comes in great fear
and trepidation, but the Savior, as a result of this whole thing,
had nothing but peace be unto you. It said, Be of good comfort. Don't be afraid. Be of good comfort. What a blessing it is. I heard
this morning in our Bible class, the first thing that Jesus said
to his disciples after his resurrection, peace be unto you. What a blessing
it is that the God of heaven would say peace to us and say,
I have no conflict with you. I have no problem with you. All
of his children, his sons and daughters that he has born into
this world by faith, all of them are his relatives, if you please. He put his life on the line for
them, if you please. He died on the cross for them,
if you please. And so he is right to say, daughter. He said, daughter, be of good
comfort. Thy faith hath made thee whole.
Go in peace. Now there's no greater blessing
that the Lord can give anybody than to be at peace with God. And the scriptures tell us we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It's the only
place we can have peace. We'll never make it on our own.
But he has already made peace by the blood of the covenant.
So daughter, be of good comfort. Be of good comfort. Be of good
cheer. Don't fret. I've taken care of
the problem. I have given you faith. that
the Lord is the author. Now, we know what an author is. I don't know, anybody in here
ever written a book? I've thought about it. I'll never get it done.
But that's an author, to write down. And he's the finisher. He's the one that gives us faith
and he's the one that concludes it. He says, I'm the author and
finisher of your faith. So this lady that came to him,
and exercise what we see as faith. That faith had been given to
her. She reached out, touched, knowing full well that this is
the only one in the whole world that could take care of her problem.
And after she comes to him in confession, he says, daughter,
be of good comfort. Peace be unto you. It's settled. All issues are finished. You're
my daughter. Be of good comfort and go in
peace. peace. What a blessing it is
that God gives all of his children the privilege to go through this
life at peace with God. And so, this lady. One other verse I'd like to be
reminded of is found in the book of John chapter 4 and verse 4.
It just reminds me of this whole incident. It says, and he must
needs go through Samaria. Now, He had an appointment in
Samaria. It doesn't say that about this
lady, but I am convinced it could have been put right here in front
of this passage of scripture too, that he must go where he
was and do what he did because it had been purposed before the
foundation of the world. And he is the only savior that can actually save us. He is the only Redeemer that
can actually redeem us. He's the only one, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I think I said this last
week, his name, before he was born, his name was already given.
You shall call his name Jesus, because that means, his name
means, he shall save his people from their sins. and people can
go through the rest of their life in peace. The peace that
passeth all understanding. This wonderful incident that
took place here, someone had told her, she came and saw, and
by faith touched, God healed her, brought her to him, and
she left as a daughter and at peace. She found out she'd always
been a daughter. She'd just been a lost daughter.
Now she was a found one. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Gracious Father, we thank you so much for the opportunity that
you've given us to make these new friends. Lord, so often we
find that people are just friends we haven't met. We're thankful
that you've allowed us to meet them. Thankful, Lord, for the
good singing today. And we're thankful, Lord, for
your word. and for these incidents in the word that share with us
your great compassion for your people, your ability to deliver
us from all sin and to welcome each one of your children into
your presence and to go through this life at peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray, Lord, for your great
grace to be made known to us. You might cause us to reminisce,
to think, and to meditate upon you. And it's in Jesus' name
I pray, amen. Brother Mike, do you have a song
to close with? All right. We've got a book of them.