Well, Lucy, you know me and him met in 1976. He even had hair back then. Came up to preach. I said, are
you nervous, Greg? And he said, always. Preaching
is the most difficult task I ever did in my life. I heard a story,
maybe you heard it three or four years ago. Someone set a church
building on fire. And they got it put out and began
to investigate and come to find out it was the assistant pastor
who set the church on fire. The pastor asked him to preach
that night and he just couldn't bring himself to do it. And he
actually set the church on fire. Preaching is a difficult task. I just, I flinch from it. I am so nervous, anxious. Charles Spurgeon, when he was
a young preacher, he got sick before he preached. Sometimes
he would get nauseated. And he asked his grandfather,
who also was a preacher, he said, how can I get rid of this awful
anxiety before I go to the pulpit? And he said, son, he'll get better
with experience. But you better hope you never
lose all of your anxiety. Because if you lose the seriousness
of preaching, you'll lose your power too. There's never been a preacher
worth this weight in salt, but he could say with the Apostle
Paul, I was with you in weakness, utterly weak and fear and in
much trembling. That's the way we feel, isn't
it? And if God don't hold us up and
preach us, there won't be any preaching. But you know what
I've learned after all of these years? If he gives a gift, he's
faithful to uphold it. And the weaker we feel ourselves
to be, the more he shows up to strengthen us and give us his
Holy Spirit to preach the gospel. I want to read some scripture
for you in Mark's gospel, chapter 5. Somewhat of a lengthy scripture,
but I want to read it about this experience our Lord had when he was here
upon this earth. And I want to begin reading in
Mark's Gospel chapter 5 and verse 21. Mark's Gospel chapter 5 and verse
21. When Jesus was passed over again
by ship unto the other side, much people gathered unto him,
and he was near nigh unto the sea. And behold, there cometh
one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name. And when he saw
him, he fell at his feet and besought him greatly, saying,
My little daughter lieth at the point of death. I pray thee,
come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed, and she
shall live.' And Jesus went with him, and much people followed
him and thronged him, pressed upon him. 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 bettered, 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? As disciples said
unto him, Thou seeth the multitude thorn in thee, and saith thou,
Who touched me? And he looked around about to
see her that had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling,
knowing what was done in her, came and fell before him, and
told him all the truth. And he said unto her, Daughter,
thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace, and behold thy plague. While he yet spake, there came
from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain which said, Thy
daughter is dead. Why troublest thou the master?
He knew the father. As soon as Jesus heard that word,
The word that was spoken he said unto the ruler of the synagogue,
be not afraid, only believe. And he suffered no man to follow
him save Peter and James and John, the brother of James. And
he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue and saith
the turmoil and them that wept and wailed greatly. And when
he was come in, he said unto them, Why make ye this ado, and
weep? The damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.
But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and
mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entered
in where the damsel was laying. And he took the damsel by the
hand, and said unto her, Tell them they coming, which is being
interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise. And straightway
the damsel arose and walked, for she was of the age of twelve
years. And they were astonished with
great astonishment. And he charged them straightway
that no man should know it, and commanded that something be given
her to eat." What a wonderful passage of scriptures. I know there's got to be a correlation
between this woman's sickness and Jairus' daughter. I just
don't know what it is. The same year that Jairus' daughter
was born was the same year that this woman began to bleed, and
she bled for seven long years, and Jairus' daughter lived for
12 years. and they both were healed the same day. I know there's
a correlation there, I just don't know what it is. I don't wish
to not to look at this in detail, but this passage suggests some
things to my mind that I wanted to share with you. And the first thing I want to
see this evening, is this. When you see this man coming
to the Lord Jesus, it's obvious that his heart is broken. I have
only one daughter and she's dying. Come and lay your hands on her.
If you don't, she's going to die. And here was a woman that
had tried for 12 years all of these physicians and she just
got worse and she probably herself was so weak and at the point
of death and She came to the Lord Jesus and touched him and
was healed But the first thing I want to look this evening.
It's sort of practical. I get practical I guess but I
want us to see The sickness that sin has brought
into this world. The older I get, the more I'm
afflicted with this body and its pain and its tardiness. And you probably feel the same
way, don't you? The pain, the heartache, The
dying that's come upon this world, and there's only one reason for
it, that's sin. You and I live in a generation
that wants to blame everybody for what they suffer. Most of them want to blame God.
If there is a God, why? I think probably we need to put
the blame where it belongs, and that's on sin. Why was this young
child dying? Sin. Why was this woman bleeding? Sin. What's caused all the suffering,
brothers and sisters, and all the heartache and all the tears
and all the pain? Is it not directly related to
sin? That judgment still stands true
today. When Adam and Eve had sinned
and God said to them, in sorrow, in sorrow, you shall eat your
bread. All the days of your life, you're
going to live in sorrow. And isn't one aspect of our sorrow
sickness? Well, I look at some of you,
and I haven't seen you for a while, some of you, and boy, you're
suffering sickness. And it ain't gonna get any better.
Job said, man that's born of woman is a few days and full
of troubles. And one of the troubles that
we face as we get older is this sickness. We're wearing out pain
and sorrow and tears, and it's all caused by sin. You feel that? Ain't it amazing
that we don't hate sin any more than we do? It's a cause of our heartaches.
It's a cause of the sorrow, much of the pain. It's caused by sin. God hasten the day then when
he will make all things new. Aren't you longing for that day
when there'll be no more curse? There'll be no more tears. There'll
be no more sorrow. There'll be no more pain. There'll
be no more sickness because there will be no more sin. His name shall be called Jesus
for he shall save his people from their sin. That's an ongoing
process, isn't it? He saved us from the guilt of
sin and thank God for it. He's washed our conscience. He's
purged our conscience. Sin doesn't reign over us as
it used to. But boy, it's still working in
us, isn't it? Lord, hasten the day, Lord Jesus,
hasten the day when you will completely save us from our sins. What will that be like? I tell
you, there'll be no more sickness. There'll be no more tears because
of sickness. No wonder the Bible closes this
way. Come Lord Jesus. Come and save
us. Come and save us from our sins. And I'm never going to be satisfied
and you're never going to be satisfied either until you're
completely saved from sin. And the man that says he's saved
from it already don't know himself and he don't know God. I'm thankful and it's so encouraging
that in the purpose of God, we're in heaven. In the purpose of
God, we're saved, but not in our experience. That's the first observation
I want you to look at in this. The second thing this suggests
to our mind is this. Doesn't it seem strange that
all of this multitude was following our Savior, and only one person
felt the need to touch Him? That's amazing, isn't it? His
apostles were here with Him. There was crowds present around
Him, and no doubt many was touching Him. They received no benefit
from him. Isn't it amazing? The only person
that received any benefit from him was this poor, dying, bleeding
woman who retched out and touched him, touched the hem of his garment. Isn't that amazing? I don't know, brothers and sisters,
why people follow the Lord Jesus Christ or why they profess to
follow Christ. I imagine there's many reasons
why they do. Greg told us about some that
followed him because they wanted their bellies full. People still
follow him for that reason, want a new car, want a good job. want to prosper financially. There's people that profess to
follow him for that reason. People, people come here just
like they do up home and down in Florida. They come here sometime
out of curiosity. They come here out of excitement.
They want some excitement to cheer them. They come looking
for a business deal. I don't know why All of these
people tomorrow, churches in Crossville, Tennessee, some big
ones are going to be so full they have to have two services. You'll have the choir will be
full of people singing. Some people will come probably
and partake of the Lord's Supper and eat the bread and drink the
wine. But I wonder how few tomorrow
as men gather, will receive any saving benefit from the Lord
Jesus Christ. Only one person touched him. Now, here's the good news in
that. I hope, and I know your pastor
hopes, and I know he's prayed to this end, that as we gather
in this conference, that will need the Lord Jesus
Christ more than we need our next breath. I come here to hear
the gospel. That's my life. That's words
of life for me. I need him. I got to have him. You feel that way? But if I don't feel that way,
and nobody else in this congregation feels that way, if there's just
one that feels that way, If you're here tonight and your spirit
is crushed within you, and your heart is wounded and bruised,
I tell you, you're welcome to reach out and touch the Savior because He's here. Is He not
here? If He's not here, then His promise
is not true. He's not only passing by, He
dwells here. He dwells here in you believers.
And if you're the only one here tonight, and you're like this
lady, I've got to have him. I'm dying without him. Then reach
out and touch him. Reach out and touch the Lord. If you can do that by this hand
of faith, and it's a hand that he'll have to give you. It ain't a hand that you were
born with or mustered up. It's a hand that He gives you,
a hand of faith that reaches and touches Him. If you're the
only one here that needs Him, that's enough. Reach out and
touch the Lord as He passes by. I try my best not to get emotional. It's difficult not to get emotional
about this, isn't it? Here's another observation. Here's
something that was suggested, probably to your mind as well
as mine. How foolish we are when we try other things to relieve
the needs of our soul instead of coming immediately and directly
to the Lord Jesus Christ. How foolish that is. Israel of old used to send down
to Assyria when they got in trouble. Can you send some soldiers up
to deliver us? They used to breed strong horses
so they could fight battles. make chariots out of iron, invent
machinery that threw rocks at their enemy, and they found out
they lost the battle every time. Every time. The Lord sent him a message by
his prophet, and here's what he said to them. Return unto
the Lord thy God, O Israel, for you have fallen by your iniquities. Take with you words and turn
to the Lord and say unto him, take away all iniquity. Receive
us graciously. And we'll do two things. If you'll save us by your grace.
You'll forgive all our iniquity. We'll do two things. We'll render
the calves of our lips. We'll give you all the praise.
We'll do that. And here's what we'll never do
again. Listen to this. We'll never say Assyria can save
us. We'll never say that again. We will not ride upon our strong
horses. Neither will we say again ever
to the works of our hands, you are our gods. For in thee, the
fatherless, the orphans finds mercy. And the Lord turns right
around and says to them, I will heal your backslidings and love
you freely. Why do we insist on going someplace
else instead of going directly to the only one that can heal
our soul's diseases? But that's the way we are. That's
the necessity of effectual calling. And it's not just calling one
time. It's calling us and calling us
and calling us and teaching us and bringing us. We're such vile
rebels that we're always going someplace else to our own shame and confusion.
How many positions of no value did this woman go to? Every one
she could find until she run out of them. And then she heard. She heard. And when she heard, she began
to seek. And she touched the hem of his
garment. She never went back to any of
those positions again. I told them my poem the other
day. I heard an interview by Jackie
Gleason. A guy was, some of you old enough to remember old Jackie
Gleason. I heard an interview he gave to a man, and he was
somewhat older. He wasn't in good health. And
the man asked him, said, Jackie, what's your greatest fear right
now? Do you have any fear? He said,
my greatest fear is this, dying and facing God. Well, my heart went out to him.
I thought, that's a good fear, Jackie Gleason. Let it drive
you into the arms of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what he did? He went
and made an agreement with the Catholic Church that the priest
would give him his last rites over his dead body. A position
of no value. That's what we do, is it not? If you've ever read Pilgrim's
Progress, you know when Christian got stuck in the slough of despondence,
like they never got out until a man came and helped him. And
then he went off down to the legalist house. Gave him a bunch
of stuff to do. Then he went off to Mount Sinai
and the mountain about fell on his head. Then finally he came
up and saw a man hanging on a tree. And as soon as he saw the man
hanging on a tree, his burden fell off and rolled down into
the sepulcher. And he said, I never saw it again. Charles Spurgeon asked an old
lady in his congregation, what do you think of Mr. Spurgeon?
She said, oh, I love Mr. Bunyan. She said, I love Mr.
Bunyan, but I wish, I wish, I wish that he had got Christian to
the man on the cross to begin with. If he'd have looked to begin
with, he had avoided the slew of despots. He wouldn't have
went to Mount Sinai. And brothers and sisters, I'm
saying this not to you. Somebody here may say, well,
I'm going home and pray and seek the Lord. Why would you want
to do that? If your heart is broken, if you're
guilty before him, reach out right now and touch him. See, you just put it off. People
put it off and make excuses. Reach out now by the hand of
faith and touch the hem of his garment. J.C. Rowell made a good statement
on this subject. And here's what he said. He said,
many a man has spent sorrowful years in search of peace with
God and has failed to find it. He has gone to earthly remedies
and obtained no relief. He has wearied himself in going
from place to place and from church to church and has felt,
after all, that he is nothing better, but he has grown worse.
But at last he has found rest for his soul, and where did he
find it? At last he found rest, and where
did he find it? Mr. Ryle said, the same place
this woman found rest for her soul. And he continued on and said
this. He has finally ceased from his own efforts. He has given
up looking to his own endeavors. and doings for his relief. He
has come to Christ himself as a humble, stripped, needy sinner
and committed himself to Christ's mercy. And at once the burden
has fallen off of his shoulders. Heaviness has turned to joy,
anxiety to peace. One touch of real faith can do
more for the soul than a hundred self-imposed afflictions. One look at Jesus is more efficacious
than years of sackcloths and ashes. May we never forget this
to our dying day. Personal application to Christ,
coming to the Lord Jesus Christ, reaching the empty hand of faith
out for His fullness, is the only remedy for what ails our
soul. That's true, isn't it? Seek ye first, not second, not last. Seek ye first the kingdom of
heaven and seek it first and foremost from the king. And whatever we do before that
is nothing but sin. Whatever we do until we look
to Christ, until we reach a hand of faith and touch Him, is nothing
but physicians of no value. And you'll only get worse. You'll
only get worse. It brings me to this. This suggests
something when the Lord Jesus said to this woman, thy faith
has made thee Don't you get weary hearing these
people talk about their faith. They talk about faith as if it's
their God. We have to be careful to rightly
divide these passages when it talks about the righteousness
of faith. Faith is not our righteousness. Faith connects us to Him who
is our righteous. It wasn't this woman's faith
that made her whole, it was the object of her faith that made
her whole. Christ Jesus made her whole. Virtue went out of
Him. When my first wife was so sick
and dying with cancer, we talked with the oncologist and And we
was talking to him about having peace, even though we was looking
death in the face. We have peace with God. We're
believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, well, some people
need faith to lean upon. Oh, I just wanted to go out in
the hall and scream. I'm not leaning on my faith.
I'm leaning on the object of my faith. My faith is not my
righteousness. Jesus Christ is my righteousness. And it wasn't faith that healed
this woman. It was the object of her faith.
That's the meaning of that, isn't it? Boy, if it wasn't for my
faith, I would have never made it through. I'm so thankful my
faith was strong and all of this stuff. Faith is absolutely necessary
because there's no other way to be connected with our God
except through faith. What a precious grace faith is. Love is a precious grace. It
won't make you whole. Repentance is a precious grace.
God has to grant it and give it, but repentance won't make
you whole. But faith is that empty hand
which has nothing to give, and it reaches out and touches the
Savior. That makes you whole. That's
why faith honors the Lord more than any other grace. Because
it brings our hearts to look away from ourselves to Jesus
Christ alone. Away from our failures, away
from our inabilities, away from our guilt. And it looks to him alone, his
grace to save us, his mercy. His blood to wash us. It's faith
in Him that brings the peace of God to a troubled mind. Faith
is the empty hand that receives everything when it can give nothing. Faith in Jesus, that's where
we begin, isn't it? We walk by faith, not by sight. We live by faith, and we'll die
in the faith, and our faith will end in sight. What a precious
gift faith is. I have no reservation this evening,
brothers and sisters, in telling anybody in this congregation
here tonight. If you can reach a hand of faith
out, I don't know what your need may be. You may need healing
in your soul. You may need your crushed heart
made whole. I don't know what you may need
tonight. But if you realize that only the Lord Jesus Christ can
heal your soul's diseases, I have no hesitation in telling you,
if you can reach out by the hand of faith and touch Him, you'll
be healed immediately. And you'll probably know about
it. She fell in herself, didn't she?
And you'll probably feel it in your conscience. He'll bear witness
to your spirit. You've touched me. You've touched
me. Oh, for more grace to believe
him. Lastly, I want you to think with me about this. Here
in verse 33 of our text, the Lord Jesus, she touched him and
he kept saying, who touched me? Who touched me? Who touched me? In verse 33, But the woman, fearing and trembling,
knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him,
and told him all the truth." Doesn't this suggest to our minds
that the Lord Jesus is going to bring us to confess the truth? He has no secret disciples. He brings his people to confess
the truth. I wish he'd have wrote some of
this down, what she told him. He told him all the truth. He
said, I went to that doctor over there and she probably gave his
name and his address. He didn't do me a bit of good.
He took all my money. And now I'm worse. She called
another doctor's name and another doctor's name. She told him all
the truth. I'm concerned about people who
profess that the Lord has saved them and come to find out they're
saved in some sort of a freewill works religion. Instead of confessing
it, they still own it. I'm sorry, I don't understand
that. I don't think a man has to be
a theologian either, Greg, to be saved. But Bud, you know who
saves you. You know you didn't save yourself. You'll be like me. I was baptized
twice before the Lord saved me. And you know something? When
He did save me, I confessed that to Him as sin. Lord, I was baptized
in water. What a sin I committed. That
was a physician of no value. I searched out people that I'd
done wrong and tried to make it right with them. What a sin
that was. I was trusting in him. Physician
of no value. We confess our sins now, boy.
We don't hide nothing from him, do we? Nothing. There's things I ain't gonna
tell you about my life, before and after conversion. I wouldn't
tell anybody. But when I come to Him, I spill
my guts. Lord, this is what I am. This
is what I've done. I'm not fit for you to even spit
in my direction. Oh, I'm amazed that you could
love something like me. I'm amazed that you could have
mercy on somebody like me. Why, oh, why, Lord, would you
even save a wretch like me? Don't you feel that way? She
told him all the truth. And you will, too, when he saves
you. One of the evidence that he has
saved you, you love the truth. You love the truth about yourself. You love the truth about yourself.
Aren't you glad you know yourself? I don't love what I am, but I'm
glad to know the truth about what I am. You know the truth about Him.
I love how Luke records this. In Luke chapter 8, this woman
confessed to Him for what reason she touched Him. She told Him why she came to
Him. He was dying and nobody else
could give her life but him. Nobody else could. She said,
Lord, I knew in my heart of hearts if I could touch you that there
was such grace in you and power to heal me that I would be healed. And I was as soon as I touched
you. That gospel that Greg just preached
to us, I have no problem with confessing. Lord, you chose me. Lord, you redeemed me. I did not put one sin away. My
effort in trying was sin. You put my sin away upon the
cross of Calvary. Lord, you call me affectionately. I would not come and I could
not come. You call me. And I'm telling
you what I've told the Lord this before, Lord, if you call everybody
like you call me, you'd save everybody. I confess that to
him. That's the truth. And he's kept me to this day.
Haven't obtained help of the Lord. He's kept me to this day.
And I am persuaded that for he's finished with me, he'll have
me in the father's house. That's the truth. And I want
him to know all the truth about me. That's my confession before
him. Who touched me, you thinking
you touched him, Caleb told us Didn't he? He knew who touched
him. He was going to drag a confession
out of her. He does that with you. Didn't
he do that with you? Yes. Thank you, dear sisters, for
such a meal this morning. Thank you, dear pastor, for inviting
me to speak. God bless you as a congregation.
I love you. I've known you for decades. And
I've loved preaching to you, but you'll probably see my face
no more. Probably no more. But I love you. God bless you,
Pastor. I'm not dying, I just can't travel
no more. If you see my face, you'll see
it in Springport, Indiana. You're welcome to come there. You will find he's not too busy
to hear your large cry. He's passing by this moment,
your needs to supply. Reach out and touch the Lord
as He goes by. Well, I am so thankful, so thankful
for the preaching. I told you I'd come here. I had
a great need when we started this meeting. And God is meeting
my needs. I'm grateful He meets me where
I am. I love you, brethren, and I really, really appreciate you.
We'll have another service in the morning. Brother Caleb Hickman's
going to preach, and Greg's going to preach. And thank you all,
singers, and all of you for doing that. We'll see you in the morning,
10 o'clock. Good night, and God bless you.