Matthew chapter fourteen. Start here at verse thirty-four. And when they were gone over,
they came into the land of Now this is where our Lord Jesus
came walking to them on the water. And when Simon Peter said, Lord,
if it's you, tell me to come to you, and he did. And then
he began to sink in the waves, and he cried out, for the Lord
saved me. And our Lord saved him. And they
worshiped him because he was indeed the Son of God. And then
when they would come over this lake, They came into the land
of Gennesaret, and when the men of that place had knowledge of
him, they sent out into all that country round about, and brought
unto him all that were diseased, and besought him that they might
only touch the hem of his garment, and as many as were touched were
made perfectly whole." You know the gospel. One thing
that's wonderful about it is that no matter where you look,
It's the gospel. You just rearrange it, find it
in different places in the scriptures. You start at one place, maybe
one time, another place, another time. But what's so wonderful
about the gospel is it never changes. And wherever you look,
you find it. And the gospel is the only thing
that God uses to save sinners in this world. The gospel is
the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. And
the gospel is what God uses to strengthen and encourage and
comfort and teach and instruct His people. Now, we can't even
as believers understand the scriptures unless God is pleased to enlighten
our understanding. You know, our Lord Jesus, when
He had His disciples with Him, when He was getting ready for
His resurrection, and He was on the Emmaus Road with them,
and He went into that house after the Emmaus Road, and He said,
the Scripture said, if He opened their understanding, they might
understand the things written in the Scriptures concerning
Himself. So we're shut up to the fact
that Christ must open our understanding. And I hope that God will be pleased
to open some understandings here today. But here's some things
that we see in the whole scriptures about Christ, but here's the
gospel. It says there in verse 35, when
the men of that place had a knowledge of Him, that's the first thing
about the gospel. You've got to have a knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation begins with the knowledge
of Him. You cannot be saved without knowing
Christ. I was going through this outline
with Mary yesterday afternoon on the porch, and I said, do
you know how many people are trusting an unknown Christ today,
an unknown Jesus? Somebody just tells them Jesus
loves them, gets them to come to the front, and they accept
Him. But they don't know nothing about Him. You say, who is He?
What did He do? Why did He do it? Where is He
now? But salvation begins with the knowledge of Him. Now look
over in Matthew 16 with me for just a moment. In verse 13. Salvation begins with the knowledge
of Him. And if men don't know Him, don't
know a person, trust a person, they don't even know what salvation
is. But look what it says in verse 13 of Matthew 16. It's
a revelation of Him. And when Jesus came into the
coast of Caesarea Philippi, He asked his disciples, saying,
who do men say that I the Son of Man am? He said, I know they're
talking about me. I know they're talking about
what I do and where I come from and how I got here and what I'm
doing. So what do they say about me? And they said, well, Lord,
some of them say that you're John the Baptist. See, John the
Baptist had his head cut off. They say, well, it's John the
Baptist. Others say it's Elijah. Others say it's Jeremiah, one
of the prophets. He said, all right, that's what
they say about you. Now you tell me what you say
about me. What do you say about me? You've heard what all they
say. What do you say? And Simon Peter
answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the son of the living
God. And I, Lord, answered. and said
unto him, Go, Simon, Simon, son of Jonah, how blessed you are.
Flesh and blood hath not revealed that unto you. You know what
flesh and blood reveals? John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah,
one of the other prophets. But flesh and blood hath not
revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. He made him to know who the Lord
Jesus Christ was and who the Lord Jesus is. You remember when
our Lord Jesus says that no man can come unto me except the Father
which hath sent me. Draw him. And the scripture says
many went back and walked no more with him. And he turned
to the twelve and he said, Will you also go away? And Simon Peter
again said unto him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You're the Son of the living
God. You're the Christ. And to whom shall we go? You
have the words of everlasting life. You have the words of eternal
life. And let me show you something
else. Now, you keep Matthew 14 and look with me in Acts chapter
8 with me just a moment. We're talking about knowing Christ.
Want to know Christ. I want to know Him. I want to
be found in Him. I want to Well, you know, I want
to worship him, adore him, bow to him, and I want to be saved. And look what he said here in
Acts 8, verse 26. And the angel of the Lord spake
unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south, unto the
way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is in Egypt.
And he arose, and went, and behold, a man of Ethiopia, and union
of great authority under Candacy, queen of the Ethiopians, who
had the charge of all her treasure and had come to Jerusalem to
worship." This man had come hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
miles to worship. And he was on his way back, and
he was sitting in his chair, and he realized there the prophet.
Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near and join thyself to this
chair. And Philip ran there and heard
him reading, and the man evidently was reading out loud. And he
heard him read the prophet Isaiah. And he said unto him, Do you
understand what you're reading? And he said, How can I, except
some man should guide me? That's what God calls preachers
for. People say that, well, I don't need to go to church. I don't
need to have a preacher. I can do it myself. No, you can't. Why would God call a preacher?
Why would God send his son? Why would God have prophets if
he didn't intend for people to sit and listen to him and to
hear the gospel? If you ever hear the gospel,
you're going to hear it through the lips of a man. And God's going to
go where his people are and he's going to get the message to them.
And look what he says. How can I accept some man should
guide me? And he desired Philip, come up
here and sit down with me. And the place of the scripture
which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter, and like a lamb done before his shearers, so open
he not his mouth. And his humiliation and his judgment
was taken away, and who shall declare his generation? From
his life was taken off the earth. That's Isaiah 53. And the eunuch
answered, Philip, and said, I pray thee, who is this prophet talking
about? Is he talking about himself or
some other man? He said, I know this prophet's
talking about somebody, talking about a man when he talks about
a lamb being led to the slaughter. When he talks about his humiliation
and his judgment being taken away from him. That no man would
stand up and declare that they knew this man. Nobody would be
reckoned that I hid their faces from him. And then Philip opened
his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto
him, Who? Jesus. And as they went on their
way, and they came unto a certain water, and the eunuch said, See,
here's water. What doth hinder me to be baptized?
And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. With the heart men believes unto
righteousness, with the mouth confessions made unto their salvation.
And he answered and said, I believe, now listen to this, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That he was God come
down and he was God's Son in this world. And he commended
that scoptic chariot right now. And he went down into the water,
both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. When did he
do that? When he heard about the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that's what you gotta do,
beloved. And I'll tell you back over in our text, a man must
be convinced of the reality of Christ. The reality of Christ. I believed in Jesus as somebody
all my life, but I didn't know the reality of Him. Didn't know
the power of Him. I didn't know the glory of Him.
Didn't know the majesty of Him. Didn't know that He was the only
Savior. And a man must be convinced of the reality of Christ. That's
why they said, is not this the carpenter's son? They wasn't
convinced. They said, well, you know, I
don't care what you say about him. I don't care what he's doing.
We know his mother and his father, and this is just the carpenter's
son. And this Pharisee said to him
in John 10 one time, said, if thou be the Christ, just come
on around and tell us. Tell us plainly. You know what
our Lord said to him? I've told you, I've told you,
and I've told you, and I've told you, but you don't believe. You
don't believe. You know why you don't believe?
Because you're not of my sheep. You know, he said, I told you
who I am. And, O beloved, saving faith is founded upon a knowledge
and understanding of who the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot
trust an unknown or an unrevealed Christ. The scripture said in
Romans 10, 14, How shall they, you know, whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, how shall they
call on Him in whom they have not believed? They call on somebody
you don't believe. How shall they believe in Him
of whom they have not heard? How are you going to believe
in somebody you've never heard? And how are you going to hear
about that person instead of somebody tell you about Him?
Ain't that what the Scripture said? So I say you can't trust
another. Who is Jesus Christ? I'm going
to tell you right now. He is God. He was God manifest
in the flesh. He was the Word that made flesh
and sent to dwell among us, and we beheld His glory as the glory
that only begot another Father, full of grace and full of truth.
That man that walked on this earth, that people say that,
you know, all you've got to do is accept Him and let Him into
your heart, and He wants to save you, but He's not able? That's
like saying that God is not able to save you. And He was God. He is God, even now. What did
He do? Thou shalt call His name Jesus.
That word Jesus means Savior. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall, not try to, not hope to, not make an effort at
it, but He shall save His people from their sins. And I have to
ask why Paul said, you know, this is a faithful Sagan worthy
of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into this world to
save sinners. And Paul said, guess why? I'm
the chief. I'm the chief. And why did he
do it? Why did Christ come here as God? God manifests in the flesh. Why
did he come here to save us from our sins? That God might be just. Now, this is what I'm going to
tell you right here. This is the gospel as close as you'll
get to it. God is a God who will not acquit
the wicked and will not clear the guilty. He can't do it. He
can't do it. So what has to happen is that
somebody, when God comes to judge you for your sin and break your
face in for your sin, if you don't have a substitute, somebody
to take your sin, somebody to bear your guilt, somebody to
bear your iniquities, then God will punish you eternally for
what you've done. So the only way in the world
God can be just and justify sinners is for him to take his people's
sins, and this is what Philip, priest of that unity, could God
take his people's, he was that lamb that was led to the slaughter.
What slaughter? The slaughter of God's wrath,
the slaughter of God's judgment. And our sins, God took His people's
sins and charged them to His Son. Put them on the account
of His Son. And then when His Son died on
that cross, our sins were punished then and there, and so we're
no longer guilty. We're no longer wicked. Our sins
have been put away by the death and blood of Christ. And now
God can be just. So when we stand before Him,
He says, they're not guilty. I justify them. They have no
guilt, no sin, no iniquity. And that's it. And where is He now? I'll tell
you what, He's not down here. He's at the right hand of the
majesty on high, with all power and authority vested in Him.
The Lord Jesus Christ is not a myth. He's not a martyr. He's not a mystical figure from
history. He's not a hippie. He's not a
socialist. He's not somebody that's going
to stand and feed the poor. That wasn't his business. He
came into this world, first and foremost, to glorify God, his
Father. We don't have a social gospel.
People seem to think that the only reason the church exists
for somebody to take on the door and say, well, I need some money.
I don't want the gospel, I don't want the church, I don't want
to attend, I don't want to hear anything you've got to say, but
I want your money! I want your gifts! And preachers have cowed to people
like that. Jesus, our Lord, is not a social
worker. He's not an influence. He's not
an ideal. He's not an idealistic teacher.
He's not just an example, but he's a person who has all power
and authority vested in him in glory. And if you ever do business
with God, you're going to have to come to this man. You're going
to have to face this man. You're going to have to deal
with this man. Not some ideal that you've got in your mind.
It's not some influence that's trying to influence you. Not
somebody who just was a martyr back in history. And that's why
John says, we know that the Son of God has come, and give us
an understanding that we may know Him that is true, even Jesus
Christ, who is God. Oh, beloved, conviction. Conviction is something very
few people know anything about anymore. Conviction. Conviction of sin. Do anybody
here knows anything about conviction of sin? Knowing how you're convicted
of your sin? Conviction? You know, you'll
see somebody in a courtroom and they've done something. They
bring out the verdict. Guilty. Convicted. The jury says convicted. They
start weeping and crying. And they're sentenced to a life
in prison or sentenced to death or something like that. Well,
conviction. God convicts you of sin. And where is conviction? Where is it born of? It's born
of a knowledge of the law. Paul said, I didn't know what
sin was. I didn't know what it was. But then the law came to me and
said, you shall not covet. And then, beloved, sin began
to reign in me. Sin began to reign in me. And
I didn't know what sin was. And, beloved, conviction of sin.
God comes in the Holy Spirit, convinces you of your sinfulness
and your inability and your powerlessness and your hopelessness and makes
you understand that before Him you're full of wounds, bruises
and putrefying sores. And I tell you, if you've never
been convicted of sin, you've missed Christ. There ain't no
doubt about that. And repentance. You know what repentance is?
That's being sorry for your sin. Sorry for your sin. And you understand
that a repentance is a change, it's a turn. And when you repent,
you're going to turn from your sin to His righteousness. You're
going to turn from your lifelessness to His life. You're going to
turn from your conception of God to Him. You always thought
sin was something you did until you find out sin's what you are.
And it's turning, it's a change of mind. But oh, what a radical
change of mind it is. And I tell you, faith is born
of a knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Conviction. Then repentance,
a change of mind. You change your mind about yourself
and about sin and about Christ and about how God saves sinners.
And then look with me over here, John chapter 9. And faith is
born of a knowledge of Christ. You're convicted of your sin
and then, oh, how am I going to be saved? Oh, I've turned,
I've turned, I've turned, and then God gives you a sight, gives
you a view of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look what I said here
in John chapter 9, verse 35. This is the man that was born
blind, and our Lord healed his, gave him sight. And because they
gave him sight, and he acknowledged that Christ had done it, they
put him out of the synagogue. They wanted nothing to do with
him. And in verse 35, our Lord heard that they had cast him
out. And when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe
on the Son of God? He answered, Who is he, Lord?
Now, that's a good question. And that's what I'm trying to
tell you. You cannot be saved without a
knowledge of Christ. You've got to have a knowledge
of Christ. You've got to, you know, and this fellow, God does
something for him. Look what he said. Dost thou
believe on the Son of God? He answered, Who is he, Lord,
that I might believe on him? If I knew who He is, I'd believe
Him. I'd trust Him. And thy Lord said
unto him, Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh
with thee. He said, you've seen Him and
you hear Him right now. Seen Him and hearing Him. Seen, hearing. Oh, my sheep,
hear my voice. Seen Him and hearing Him. Look
what He said now. And He said, Lord, I believe. And look what he did. And he
worshipped Him. Worshipped Him. Oh, beloved,
I know this much, that to know the Lord Jesus Christ is to trust
Him. To know Him is to trust Him.
So you seek in all your learning, learn Christ. In all your knowledge,
seek the knowledge of Christ. You know, I tell you, beloved,
learning Jesus, learning Jesus all these years after studying
and all these years after all these years of preaching. I still
see, I still think I know Him so little and trust Him so little.
But I do know Him and I do trust Him. I don't have nobody. Do you have anybody else you
can trust for your sin? Anybody else to trust to save
you? Anybody else that knows you? Anybody else that can give you
sight and give you hearing is like you've done this blind man.
And then look back over in our text, look what happened. Back
over in our text. And when the men of that place
had knowledge of him, there in verse 35. Everything you've ever thought
about Jesus Christ, apart from the gospel and apart from what
the Bible says about him, just throw it out the window. until
he makes himself known to you. And then look what it said here.
And then when the men of that place had knowledge of him, they
sent out into all that country round about, and brought unto
him all that were diseased. What did they do to this man?
When they had knowledge of him, they said, they went around and
got everybody there was that was diseased and brought them
to him. You see disease, they brought
the disease. Anybody that was diseased, they didn't bring.
Anybody that had something wrong with them, they didn't bring.
You see, beloved, God treats sin as a disease. That's why
He says, by His stripes we are healed. God treats sin as a disease. Now, man wasn't created with
this disease. God made man upright, but He
sought out many inventions. And this disease, it affects
all of our faculties, all of our emotions. It affects our
will. It affects our reason. It affects
our understanding. It affects our consciences. It
enables us whether to love or to hate, our loyalty. It affects
every part of our being that we have. It affects our conscience. It affects our whole ability
to think, reason. You know, if you have a compulsion,
you know what makes you get into that compulsion? Sin. When you have envy in your heart,
you know what causes that? That disease called sin. When you've resolved to do something
and you don't have the ability to carry out that resolution,
you know why you don't? Sin. Do you know why you find it hard
to read the Bible and understand it? Sin. Do you know why you
find the church so uninteresting? Sin. Do you know why you don't
like to be preached to? Sin. In effect, I'll tell you what, there
ain't a part inside your brain, inside your heart, inside your
soul, or outside your body that ain't affected by sin. Huh? And sin takes away all the power
from the soul. When we were yet without strength,
without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.
People talk about their strength. God will help me with my, you
know, with my weakness. I've got strength to do this,
but He'll help me in my weaknesses. We don't have those strengths.
Sin's so affected us, we don't have those strengths. Strength
to do what? Strength. Sin mocks us so bad,
we've lost the will to come to Christ. Our Lord said, you will
not come to me that you might have life. People talk about
inglory and their free will. Man cannot will to come to Christ. He don't have the power of that
will. And if he's ever got the power
of that will, it's God in the dead, his power that makes him
willing. And our Lord Jesus Christ says,
no man comes unto the Father but by me. And as it is written
in the prophets, they shall all be taught of God. And when God
teaches a man, what does he do? He says, then you'll come to
me. Men need to understand that it's affected their pride. It's
affected their concepts of themselves. He doesn't have the power or
the will yet to come to Christ, but he'll believe a lie at the
snap of a finger. And seeing this horrible, horrible
disease, it begins to increase in a man. And the longer you
go in it, the longer you continue in it, it will one day prove
fatal to you. It'll prove fatal to a man if
he continues in his sin and increases in it. One day, it'll prove fatal
to him. Terminal illness, that's what
you got. When they pronounce somebody with a terminal illness,
you know this disease is going to kill you. It's going to take
your life from you. It's going to take the strength
out of your body. It's going to take the strength
out of your soul. It's going to take the will to live out
of you. It's going to take everything
you've got. It's going to take your life from you. Well, that's
what sin is. It's a disease that if God don't
heal you of it, that it'll take you right down, and it'll do
fatal to you, and you'll go into eternity with this awful disease.
And I'll tell you something, and if you could stop a terminal
illness, you'd stop it if you could. Stop it dead in its tracks
if you could. If prayer could stop it, prayer
would do it. If tears could stop it, tears
would do it. If money could stop it, money
would do it. If you had the will to stop it,
you'd stop it. But when a terminal illness comes,
I mean, there's nothing you can do. And that's the way it is. What can you do to stop this
disease, Colson? Can you will to stop it? Will
money do it? Will all the prayers you can
pray stop it? This disease, all the tears?
No, no. No. And I'll tell you what, and
here's the thing. These that were diseased, they
brought them to Christ. And if men don't come to Christ
with their disease, It'll continue with them and in them until it
brings forth them. I could not tell you. I could
stand here this morning and tell you several people that I went
and visited when they was dying. People asked me to come visit
them, to come talk to them. And they would say they didn't
want to pray. They'd live their life the way
they wanted to live it, and they're going to face eternity the way
they wanted to. My own mother was that way. I've got a brother that tells
me, just don't talk to me about it no more. The first time I
ever experienced this was right up here in Tumlin Medical Center
years and years and years ago. The guy's last name was Crawford.
They asked me to go talk to him. I went in there and talked to
him. You know what? The first word out of his mouth, blankety blank, blank,
blank, blank, get out of here. I don't want no preacher or nobody
else in here. And he went out and turned me like that. That's
how awful sin is. But if you got Christ and He's
healed you of your diseases, healed you of this awful disease
called sin, you're not terminally ill anymore.
It ain't going to kill you. It ain't going to kill you. It
ain't going to take your life from you. Because you know why? Christ
put it all away by the blood of His own self. By the blood
of His own self. Sin is a contagious. Now listen
to me about sin. I know some of you have never
heard this. Sin is a contagious disease. You know where you got
it from? From your mother, and your daddy,
and your grandma, and your grandpa. It goes all the way back to Adam. Wherefore, as by one man, sin
entered into this world, and then death by that one sin. And
I tell you what, we pass it on. You can't read it out. You can't
read it out. You say, well, the people, they
say, well, nowadays people say, well, you know, they have this,
they have this thing, you know, where they say, well, I want
to have a child, but I'm, I'm married women too, but I want
to, they'll go and they'll look at this kind of pen and that
and say, well, I want this, this brain power and all that. I don't
care how intelligent you are, you're still born with sin. I
don't care how dumb you are, you're still born with sin. It's
hereditary. Can't bring it out. And not only
is it hereditary, but it's universal. And it manifests itself just
almost as quick as a baby's born. It really does. You know, babies,
they learn real quick. The first word they learn about
their mommy and daddy, the first word they learn is no. They'll
scream bloody murder when they don't get their way. You ain't
like that, are you? And not only is it universal,
but it's incurable. absolutely incurable. And when
the apostle looked for a word to describe sin, you know what
he said about it? It's exceeding sinful. And I'll tell you what death
will do. It'll end all bodily pain. When a man leaves this
world, whatever pain he's in, it'll stop like that. But death
cannot cure this awful disease. It displays its power, its dominion,
and its reign in eternity. That's what our Lord said. He
that's filthy, let him be filthy still. He that's unjust, let
him be unjust still. And he that's righteous, let
him be righteous. Death will not change this disease. But
now wait a minute. Wait a minute. There's a remedy
for this disease. And then look back here in our
text. And these men knew it. And look what it says. They sent
out into all that country. and brought, brought unto him,
have brought him. There's a man over here that
can heal your disease. Who is he? Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, the Messiah, the Christ, God manifest in the flesh. And they said, they brought him,
said, your disease, come, come on, go with me, come go with
me. And I tell you what, if you'll come go with me right now, come
to me, go with me right now to the Lord Jesus Christ, you diseased,
come on, go with me! You diseased, come on, I'll bring
you! I'll bring you in my prayers,
I'll bring you in my desires, I'll bring you in the gospel,
I'll bring you with Christ there before you, come on! Come go with me. Look in Isaiah
53. This is, come go with me. Look
in Isaiah 53. Oh my, our Lord died for this
disease. Our Lord Jesus Christ says, they
that are whole don't need a doctor, but they that are sick, they
that are sick, that's who you go to a doctor. And the sicker
you are, the more you need the doctor. And, oh, beloved, and I say,
but they that are whole don't need a doctor. But he said, they
that are sick. And he said, that's what I come
to do. These people with this disease, I've not come to call
the righteous, they're the whole ones, but I come to call sinners,
the diseased, to myself, to Him. And look what he said here in
Isaiah 53, verse 4. Surely he hath borne our griefs,
carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted." Listen to it now. But he was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. And listen now, and with his
stripes we are healed. Oh, bless His holy name. Oh,
with His stripes. And then let me show you this.
I won't take much longer. Back over in our text. Not only
did they bring Him. Oh, come on. I'm bringing you
right now in the gospel. I'm bringing you right now in
my desire. Bringing you right now by my will for you. Oh, I
will that you would to God that you would come. And then look
here. And then it says here that they
brought unto him all that were diseased. Look in verse 36. And
they besought him that they might only touch the hem of his garment. First thing I want you to know,
they brought unto him. They brought and then they besought
him. They've assaulted him, that they might only touch the hem
of the garment. He's the only one who can save. He's the only
one who can heal and seek him. It's not, you listen to me, it's
not your disease that keeps you from coming to Christ. Never
is a disease. It's the fact that you think
you're healthy, think you're good, think you're moral, think
you're righteous. You say, well, I haven't done
certain things. I've done some good things. But I tell you,
you're healthy. That's your problem. It's disease
come to him. Men are healthy in pride, they're
healthy in self-righteousness, they're healthy in religion,
they're healthy in their traditions. But beloved, they said if we
can only touch him, the hem of his garment, and what does this
garment represent? Touch the hem of his garment.
His robe of righteousness. His garment. Oh my, that garment,
that's that robe of righteousness he gives us. Makes us righteous
as the righteousness of God Himself. And with His spotless garments
on, I'm as holy as God's own Son. And you're talking about
a measuring stick of righteousness. I, Lord Jesus Christ, God's measuring
stick. You want to claim by being righteous
or you're righteous as Him? If you're not, then I'm as righteous
as Christ. I'm as righteous as God is. Because God made me the righteousness,
Christ the righteousness of God, isn't He? And Christ the righteousness
of God to me. And, O beloved, what's... And
this is God's measure stick. Self-righteousness is against
God, it's against His Son. And where is the hem of His garment
at? Where's the hem of it at? At
His feet. Right down at His feet. Right
down at His feet. And they come to His feet. They
come down. If you're going to get to the
hymn of His garment, you're going to come down. You're going to get
down. You're not going to come up there
and say, now listen, I might let you do something
for me. I might let you heal me if you
beg enough and plead enough. And cry enough, no, no. These
folks that were diseased, they came. And they had to get down
to get to the hem of that garment. Ain't that right? They had to
get down to get it. And that's what our Lord said,
except you come as a little child, and he that humbles himself shall
be exalted. And then it says here they besought
him. There was no bargaining here. No bargaining here. They just said, Lord, would you
let us? Would you let us? Can we touch
the hem of your garment? And then look what it says next.
And as many as touched him were made perfectly whole. As many as touched the hem of
that garment, immediately, as many as received him, to them
gave he the power to become the sons of God. To as many as the Lord hath given
him, he shall give eternal life to them. As many as were ordained
to eternal life, believe." You see, as many as is everything
or everybody who belongs to a certain group. And here it says, they
touched the hem of his... At first they were brought, they
had a knowledge of him. And when they had a knowledge
of him, they brought all the disease to him. And then they
asked him. No bargaining. And they said,
all we want to do is just touch the hem of your garment. You've
got to come down to do that. And as many as touched him. Are you one of them as many as?
Would you be one of them as many as today? Would you be in that,
that everything or everybody who belongs, would you belong
to that certain group who said, I'm going to come touch the hem
of his garment? And this says they were perfectly whole, perfectly
saved. perfectly saved, completely whole,
and no more sickness, no more disease. And the Scriptures tell
us you're complete in Him who is the head of all principalities
and powers. He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. Perfect salvation, complete salvation. When you touch Him, come to Him. Our Father, in the blessed name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord, we pray that you'd be pleased
to cause this gospel, this blessed message, to run well here today.
Cause it to have some power, some effectualness, some fruit.
Lord, we have no one else that can save a sinner but you. No
one else can give them sight but you. No one else can give
them hearing ears but you. No one else can make them understand
their disease. But, Lord, we know that we can...
Oh, God, there is disease among us. Save them by Your grace.
Oh, make them desire to come close to Him in Your garden.
And if they have Lord Jesus, let them do as that Ethiopian
eunuch. Here is water. What doeth hinder me? What doeth
hinder me? God, if you've done it for them,
bring them to that place. We ask it in our Lord Jesus'
name. Amen. Amen. More about Jesus, what I know. More of His saves and wonders
show. More of His love who died for
me.