Actually need to start in verse
22. And behold, there cometh one
of the rulers of the synagogue to arise 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. 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 in the
way, and thronged him. And a certain woman, which had
an issue of blood twelve years, and had suffered many things
of many positions, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing
bettered, but rather grew worse. When she had heard of Jesus,
she came in the press behind, and touched his garment. For
she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.
For in a straight way 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 that in himself that virtue had gone
out of him, turned him about in the press and said, Who touched
my clothes? And his disciples said unto him,
Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and saithst thou, Who touched
me? And he looked round about to
see her that had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling,
knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him,
and told him all the truth. And he said unto her, Daughter,
thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace, and be whole of
thy flesh." Now, over in Luke, let's read this version, because
I'm going to quote from both of them, starting in verse 43. Luke 8, verse 43. And a woman, having an issue
of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon
physicians neither could be healed of any, came behind him and touched
the border of his garment, and immediately her issue of blood
stank. And Jesus said, When all denied,
Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude
thronged thee and pressed thee, and sayest thou who touched me?
And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me, for I perceive that
virtue is gone out of me. And when the woman saw that she
was not healed, she came trembling and falling down before him.
She declared unto him before all the people for what cause
she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately. And
he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort, thy faith hath
made thee whole. Go in peace." Our Lord Jesus went about doing good. Everywhere
he went, he went about doing good, killing all that were oppressed
of the devil, But he asked a question when he was on his way to Jairus'
daughter's house. Now, in this chapter alone, chapter
8 of Luke and chapter 5 of Mark, he's done cast out a legion of
devils. He asked a man who was possessed with the devils, what's
your name? He said, legion, because we are many. Cast them into a
herd of swine, a herd of pigs. And then Jairus came to him and
says, My little daughter, my little girl, she's lying sick
at the point of death. But if you'll come and just lay
your hands on her, she'll just be whole like that. Well, our
Lord started towards Jairus' house, following Jairus in the
way. And while he was going, a great
big crowd just started following him and pushing him. Strong with
a great big crowd. I mean, they're just pressing
him all the time. And he's on the way to Ross's
house, and my Lord is going with him. And on the way, a woman
touches him. And he said in Mark, in Luke,
she said, Somebody has touched me. Who touched me? And he said,
Somebody has. He didn't make any difference.
He said, Somebody's touched me. And our Lord knows when somebody
touches Him in a way that salvation comes from Him. And this woman, when she touched
the Lord Jesus, she was changed just like that. And I tell you
what, He heals and virtue flows out of Him, healing virtue of
this poor, sick, helpless woman. And imagine now how this encouraged
her to rise while He's on His way to the house. If He'd done
that to this woman, And all she'd done was just reach out and text
him. Oh my, well I don't have any worries about my daughter.
Everything's going to be well, going to be well. But I want
to know, and that's what he'd done. He gave Geras a handful
on purpose as he was going. And so listen, let me tell you
some things about this woman. And I'll tell you, this is the
condition. You know that, I'll say this at the outset. She's
got a blood disease, and only the blood of Christ can heal
a blood disease. It takes blood to heal blood. But look at her disease in verse
25. And a certain woman had an issue
of blood which she had had for twelve years. In another place,
it says that she had spent all that she had on her living. She
had this awful, awful issue of blood. And she had spent all
of her living But she had an issue of blood. And under the
law, her life is slowly ebbing away. You see, the life of the
flesh is in the blood. And all they can do is take your
blood, and they can tell so much about you. And because of this
issue of blood, when you go to the law, and under the law, when
a woman had an issue of blood like this, every place she sat
had to be cleaned. Nobody could touch her. When
she set out somewhere in public, it had to be clean. She was an
unclean woman according to the law. The law couldn't have just
pronounced her unclean and could not cleanse her. And not only
that, but she was weak because of this condition, so weak because
of this condition. She had no ability to do anything
for herself. That's how weak she became. You
know, she'd lost blood for 12 years. And life was slowly ebbing
out of her. She's weak because of this condition.
She's unclean. The law itself in the Levitical
priesthood, everybody says she's unclean. God says she's unclean.
And not only that, but she's miserable. She is absolutely
miserable. And I tell you what, if I could
find somebody, and that's the effect of sin. That's the effect
of sin. This woman's in the condition
she is. That's the way sin is. We got a disease that we inherited
from my father Adam. And that disease affects our
nature. You know, we pass on from one generation to the next
our disease. And Adam, he had this awful disease
when he rebelled against God called sin. And sin affects the
mind, it affects the will, it affects the understanding, it
affects our thoughts, it affects our actions, it affects everything
we do. And we do what we do because
we are what we are. Why does a person rebel against
God? Because he's born a rebel. Why does a person sin against
God? They're born in sin. Why does
anybody regard sin as nothing? Because they don't know how deceitful
it is. Why do people just laugh at sin
and make a mock at sin and ridicule people who talk about sin? It's
because the effects of sin is so blind to them that they don't
have a clue how awful sin is. And this effects of sin, and
I tell you the effects of sin is horrible. The effects of sin
is awful. It'll make people justify themselves
of everything that they could possibly do that's wrong. And
this woman, her blood issue and everything about her is the effects
of sin. She's weak because of sin. She
has a blood disease because of sin. She's unclean because of
sin. And I tell you what, there's
no remedy, no external remedy. The wisdom of men at his best
has never yet found a remedy for this thing called sin. And
she has had this sin that's been working on her and deceiving
her and bringing her to the end of herself. She's been dying
of this disease for 12 years because of the disease of the
blood. And oh, look, I want you to see
this over in Luke 8.43. You know, keep both these places
if you can. It said here that this woman had this issue of
blood. Twelve years, and look what she'd done. She spent all
of her living upon physicians and couldn't be healed of any
of them. Oh, she tried to save herself. She looked at her efforts. She'd done an incredible... She
spent all that she had. She spent everything that she
had. She knew she had an awful disease, and she was willing
to go down to her last penny. to her last dime to try to find
somebody that could heal her, somebody that could do something
for her. She wanted to get well. She went
to doctor, after doctor, after doctor, after doctor. She went
to this physician, that physician. The doctor said, for a hundred
dollars, I believe I can cure you. And another would come over
to her and says, well, you know, I know this natural remedy that'll
work just right. And I'll tell you what, I'll
send you to this specialist over here, and that specialist will
take care of it." See, she was lost. She had lost all, all pretense
of being good enough to heal herself. And she said, I'll just,
I'll just, oh, I'll do the best I can. I'll start praying. I'll
start attending church. She lost all pretense of being
good enough to save herself and heal her every issue of blood.
She had lost all sense of self-justification. Oh, I'm going to get better.
I'm going to get better. I'm going to get better. You just
wait and see. I'm going to get better. She could no longer sham
herself or sham anybody else. No kind of scheming anymore.
She was earnest enough. Oh, how earnest she was. But
her problem was, like everybody else, she went to the wrong source.
If you ever went to the wrong source to get something done,
and they couldn't get it done for you, you called the wrong
people. You went to the wrong place.
She is earnest enough. She went to the wrong source.
You see, her cure couldn't be purchased. You know, her cure,
you couldn't buy it with money. And I tell you what, beloved,
there is no way in the world a man can purchase his salvation.
He can't do it. And look what it says. It says
she couldn't be healed. She spent all of her living.
All of her living. And then look, you know, it says
she suffered many things of many positions. That's what it said
over in Luke. She suffered many things of many
positions. Let me tell you some of the doctors
she went to. She went to lots and lots of doctors. Old Job,
you know, he had three physicians who'd come visit him. And he
said, after it was all said and done, he said, you're all physicians
of no value. Let me tell you some doctors
that she went to that didn't do her any good. Oh, Dr. Sadducee, he's a fellow that
doesn't believe in the resurrection. He doesn't believe in the resurrection
at all. He believes it's the only life there is. And that's
what he told her when she went there. He said, well, honey,
listen. Enjoy yourself. You only live once. Don't be
so serious. You're only going to live once.
Just forget it, you know, just don't be so serious. Then she
went to old Dr. Legality, and he started telling
her, now this is what you need to do. You need to start praying,
you need to start living right, you need to quit all these bad
habits you've got. And his son, Civility, told her,
says, you know, you need to start being very, very moral, very
civil, and carry yourself in a wonderful way. And, oh, listen,
the old Dr. Legall, he gave her some things,
he gave her, he said, now listen, if you'll start dressing a certain
way, and if you'll quit wearing makeup, and quit wearing them
earrings, and quit watching television, and if you'll quit smoking, and
if you'll quit this sin, and that sin, and that other sin,
so you'll be healed just like that. And then here come old Dr. Ceremony.
She went to Dr. Ceremony. He said, listen, I
know just exactly what you need. I got some water here. I'll pour
this water over your head. And that'll fix you, you see.
I'll pour this water over your head, and that'll really fix
you up. And I tell you what, you come to me. You just keep
coming to me. You burn a few candles. Get on
your knees and start crawling through the church. You start
calling on the different saints. You start prostrating yourself and you
start flagellating yourself and beating yourself and tormenting
yourself. Then you go through these ceremonies
and you'll be all right. Let me give you this wafer. Let me give you this wine. Then
there's old Dr. Orthodoxy. He's a five-point
Calvinist. Oh, he is a five-point Calvinist.
He really, he believed in Tulip. He didn't believe in daisies.
He believed in Tulip. He believed man's totally depraved,
but he didn't know nothing about sin. He believed unconditional election, but he didn't know nothing about
why you had to be unconditionally elected. He believed in limited
atonement. He believed in irresistible grace
and the perseverance of the saints. But he didn't have a clue what
took place in the garden. He couldn't tell you how God
could be just and justifiably ungodly. He couldn't tell you
how desperately wicked man was. He just said, I know they're
totally depraved. A fellow told me the other day about a man
who had done an awful, awful, awful deed, and said, boy, he
was one depraved individual. And I said, we're all that way.
The only reason why me and you or anybody else don't commit
some of the awfulest crimes and awful deeds that you can imagine
is because of the restraining grace of God. Don't ever think
for a minute that you wouldn't do anything that anybody else
hasn't done, and the only reason you haven't is because God has
restrained you. You wouldn't commit murder? Let
God put you in the right place at the right time. You wouldn't
commit adultery? Let David... David said, I won't
eat until you look on Bathsheba. You wouldn't lie? Let God put
you in the right position. I'm telling you what, there ain't
a thing in the world we wouldn't do if God don't restrain us and
keep us. But I tell you what, as long
as we believe the right thing, As long as we believe the right
thing. And then there's old Dr. Preparation.
Let me tell you about him. You know what he says? You need
to make yourself fit for Christ. You're not fit to come to Christ.
You need to make yourself better. You need to make yourself better.
Christ can't take you the way you are. You've got to clean
up your life. You've got to quit some of your
sins. You've got to prepare yourself for grace. You've got to prepare
yourself for salvation. You remember the old hymn writer
said this, he said, Oh, come you sinners, poor and needy,
weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus ran, he stands to save
you, full of pity, love and power. Come you sinners, weak and wounded
by the fall. All the fitness he requires is
to feel your need. That's all he requires. And the
reason why these people couldn't heal her disease is because they
didn't understand the disease. They did not, one of them, understood
what her problem was. And it says that she was nothing
bettered, nothing bettered, but got worse, got worse. That's what happened. Nothing
bettered, but she rather grew worse. That's what happens, you
know, whenever somebody starts trying to do it their way. Well, I know how to do it, preacher.
I know what I need to do to be saved. I know what I need to
do to get right with God. I know what I need to do. Well,
she knew what she needed to do, but she didn't get any better.
She just got worse and worse and worse. It's like it's like
that fella, you know, the devil's left him. And his house was swept,
cleaned, and garnished. Oh, listen, that's what happens.
You know, they join the church, and they look real good, and
they dress their stuff up, they garnish themselves, they give
them some crosses, they give them a Bible, and they go to
praying, and they garnish themselves up. And everybody says, boy,
they've really cleaned their life up. They've really turned
over a new leaf. They've really done good. And
all of a sudden, that seven devils went back in there. And the man was worse than he
was at the start. And I tell you, let me tell you
something. Don't go anywhere to do anything to better yourself because you can't do it. Now,
you can better yourself in this life. You can get you an education.
Better yourself here. You can better yourself in your
situations. But you can't better yourself
before God. Even us as believers. Does any
of you think you can make yourself better right now? Can you make yourself more acceptable
to God than you are right now? No, she was nothing bettered
but read the good road. She's now without hope. Worse
than ever before because now she's penniless. No doctors are
going to have her now because she ain't got no money. Her physicians
were of no value. And then old Dr. False Peace
comes along and he says, Oh, honey, listen, listen, you're
okay. You're really okay. You're really
all right. I've told you that you're healed.
All you've got to do is just claim it. I told you that I've
healed you. Just claim it. And then old Dr. Goodenough,
He said, Honey, you're good enough. Don't you worry about it. You're
as good as anybody else. Well, when ain't nobody no good,
that don't mean nothing. When he says there's none righteous,
no, not one. There's none good, no, not one.
Where does that leave everybody? And, oh, listen, there's old
Dr. Dubetter. And then Dr. joined the church.
Let's join the church. I'm going to join the church.
And they couldn't help either because they didn't know the
source of her disease. And look what she said over here
in Mark 5, verse 28. I hope you still got this. Look at her faith. Look at her
faith. Verse 28. For she said, If I
may but touch his clothes, I shall be healed. Hooker says in verse
27, when she had heard of Jesus. See, she had heard of the Master.
And you know, I'll tell you something, faith cometh by hearing, hearing
by the Word of God. Men got to know something about
Christ before they can trust Him. People got to know something
about the Lord Jesus Christ and His power and His grace and His
mercy. before they'll ever trust Him.
You know, Isaiah says this, all thy children shall be taught
of God. God taught this woman that that's the only place I
can go. God taught this woman some things. He taught her some
things about Christ. Taught her that the Lord Jesus
Christ had all the power to heal. The Lord Jesus Christ in Himself
had virtue. The Lord Jesus Christ in Himself
could do something for her. Her faith was so simple, and
yet it was so great. She's poor. We done showed you
that. She's poor. She has nothing to
give. She can't come up to the offering
box and drop something in. She expects no medicine from
him. She said, if I can go to him,
maybe he can give me something that'll help. No, no. She believes
this, that all I've got to do is touch His garment, touch His
clothes. That's all I've got to do, is
just touch His clothes. And if I can touch His clothes,
it will bring instant salvation, just that quick. Oh, when she saw the Lord Jesus
Christ and heard of Him and His power, She seemed right then
and there that her source and the center of her helplessness
was in that one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, she said, if
I can just touch his garment, just touch his garment. And now
I want you to look back over and look again. I'll tell you
what, I'm going to have you going back and forth. Now look at the results
of this touch, the results of this touch. and all beloved. And Jesus said, Who touched me?
When all denied. And Peter says, Master, the throne,
the throne presses against you. And you say, Who touched me?
And our Lord said, Somebody touched me. Are you somebody? Are you somebody? And don't say, well, I'm glad
it didn't say, Don touched me. Because there could have been
a whole bunch of Dons that touched him and I didn't. But it just
said somebody. Huh? For I perceive that virtue
is going out of me. Now watch what happens. And when the woman saw that she
was not healed. She came trembling and falling
down. We've declared unto her people. You see, she straightway
felt in her body that the fountain of her blood was dried up. She
felt in her body. And that's why she said over
in Mark, she said in verse 29, you don't have to look at it
again, the straightway when she touched him, straightway the
fountain of her blood was dried up and she felt in her body,
felt in her body that she was healed in that place. How can you tell if your faith
is real? How can you tell if your faith
is real? I tell you, her faith reached
out and touched the Lord Jesus Christ. And real faith always,
always goes to the same source. In fact, it has nowhere else
to go. You know when you'll trust Christ?
when you have absolutely no place else to go. When she run out
of money, when she run out of options, when she had lost all
hope in herself and all hope in everybody around her, when
she didn't have no place else to go, that's when she went to
Christ. And you know nobody will ever come to Christ till they
absolutely have no place else to go, as long as they go to
even to themselves. As long as they go to themselves
and look at themselves and say, you know, I just don't see myself
being that bad. I just don't see myself being
that much of a sinner. I just don't see myself, I don't
see why this preacher in the Bible makes so much about sin
and salvation and makes so much about disease and about Christ.
I don't see it. I don't understand it. Well,
I'll tell you what, if you get like this woman, and there ain't
no way in the world that you can get healed of this awful
disease called sin, and you ever find out you got it, you know
what you'll do? You'll go to Christ just like
a marten goes to its gorge. You ain't got no other thing.
And then it says that her cure was sudden. It says straightaway,
immediately, immediately, our Lord answers the cry. of faith
and trust when she pressed through there. And her cure was complete. The scripture says her blood
was dried up just like that. Dried up just like that. And she felt it in her body.
You see, his remedy goes to the root of the disease. It says
she's made perfectly whole. Perfectly whole. Completely whole. Absolutely whole. And I'll tell you something else
about her disease. She consciously enjoyed it, too. She felt in
her body. She enjoyed this cure. She enjoyed
this salvation. She enjoyed what God had done
for her. Her cure was consciously enjoyed. She felt. And I'll tell
you why she couldn't feel better until she was better. You can't
feel better about yourself until Christ makes you better. And,
oh, beloved, many was touching him, but only one touched him
by faith. Only one. All the people that
was touching him, only one touched him out of need. And that's why
I said, who touched me? Who touched me? And, oh, but
let me show you this back over in Luke 42, chapter 6, 8 again. Let me just look at this, and
then I'll... You know, When the Lord asked who touched
me, why did the Lord ask who touched me? He said, virtues
going out of me, healing virtues going out of me. Why did the
Lord ask who touched me? Don't you know that He knew who
it was that touched Him? He looked behind and told a woman,
in one place told her. You know, our Lord asked questions,
not for information, but to bring something out of you. He asked
Adam, who art thou? God knew where he was. He wanted
Adam to know where he was. And he asked this woman. So this
woman would confess publicly what Christ had done for her. He asked her this question, who
touched me? It wasn't because he didn't know.
He wanted the one who touched him to come forth and own up
to him. The question was asked to bring her to acknowledge our
Lord's power and grace and blessing to her. Look what happens in
verse 47. Over in Luke it says she was
not hid. Well, she is hid to everybody
but the Lord Jesus Christ. And when the woman saw that she
was not hid, not hid. Now, she's standing in a crowd
of people. Great crowd around him. Remember this. Great crowd
around him. And then she stood out just like she was the only
one in the crowd. That's the way it is. You know
what? That's the thing about it. Always a crowd around him,
but only one person was here. And she wasn't here. Well, everybody
around her didn't have a clue who she was and what she did.
But our Lord Jesus Christ did. And when she was not here, look
what happens now. She came trembling and falling
down before Him. Oh, my. She came to worship. She came to fall down before
Him. And look what she said. Oh, I love this. She declared
unto Him before all the people for what cause she had touched
Him. That's what we call a testimony. She told him and everybody around
him, you know why I touched you? Because I had this horrible disease. I had this issue of blood for
12 years. I spent everything that I had.
I was poor. I was helpless. I was penniless.
I didn't have no place else to go. And I heard about you. I
heard about your power. I heard about your grace. I heard
about the blood. I heard about you. And I said,
if you can raise the dead, surely you can heal me of my disease. And she told him and everybody
that listened, And then she said how she was
healed immediately. She said, you know, just as quick
as I touched you, and I want everybody here to know, just
as quick as I tell you what I was, how sick I was, how desperate
of a condition I was, but as soon as I touched him, I was
healed immediately. She told everybody that was there
that would listen. And I tell you what, she believed
with the heart, and now she has to confess with her mouth. And
oh my, if you ever believe with your heart, You'll confess with
your mouth too. If you ever touch Christ, you'll
have to tell somebody. And look what our Lord, the assurance
that our Lord gave her. In verse 48. Here's Luke chapter
8. And He said, I'm your daughter.
Oh my daughter. You're my daughter. Be of good comfort. Thy faith hath made thee whole.
Go in peace. She said, if I can but touch
the hem of his garment, that's faith. I've got to go to him. Real, true faith always says,
I've got to go to him. Faith always looks outside itself
to somebody else. She didn't look to herself and
says, well, I'm going to try to touch him. I hope I can. But
no, no. Faith says, I've got to touch
him. I ain't got no place else to go. And make that what we
do today, even now, today. Do you not go to Him in faith?
Do you not look to Him in faith? Do you not always go outside
yourself and look to Him? And, oh, beloved, and she is
saved by faith, but He gave her assurance by His word. You know,
if she had gone away without this comforting word, without
this promise from the Lord Jesus Christ, She might have lived
in fear of this terrible disease coming back and returning any
time. Now she not only feels well, she felt well. She feels the disease is gone.
It is gone. And now she has her Lord's word
for it, that she's been made whole. She says, oh, your faith
has made you whole now. And it's called a plague, been
made whole of this plague. And I tell you, if God has done
something for you, and you know, shouldn't the scripture say,
she came and told him all the truth, declared before him and
all the people what, why she came, what had happened. And
that's what people don't want to do. They don't want to admit
why I need to come to Christ. Why do you need to come to Christ?
Do you need to come to Christ? Tell him the truth now about
yourself. Truth about yourself. Confess what He's done for you.
If He's done something for your mind, gave you peace of mind,
took away the darkness from your mind, illuminated your mind,
if He's done something for your heart, gave you peace of heart,
took away the sin from your heart, the condemnation and guilt from
your heart, if He's purged your conscience and take away the
guilt from your conscience, well then, tell it. Tell it. Tell it publicly, tell it privately.
And do like this woman, enjoy what Christ has done for you.
Enjoy what He's done. She enjoyed what Christ's done
for her. She tells it like that. Oh, I'll tell you what, I bet
that woman was so happy that day. She's still poor, but she's
healed. Still penniless, but she has
made hope. That's all that matters, getting
to Christ. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ our Lord, I bless you for your great, great mercies
today. I ask for the Word to be made profitable, effectual.
Lord, only you can make it alive, make it real, make it vital.
Only you can do in a sinner's heart what needs to be done.
And I pray, Lord Jesus, that you'd put it in someone's heart
to press through, to come to Christ, to be made whole of their
disease, be made whole from their sin. For their guilt is gone. Their faith is great comfort
from Christ. God grant it for his sake, I
pray. Amen. Amen.