We're looking in Mark chapter
five. We're looking in verse 20. And
I'll read that to the end of the chapter there. And he departed
and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done
for him. And all men did marvel. Now this
was the one whom he had cast out the devils. And when Jesus
was passed over again by ship to the other side, much people
gathered unto him and was nine to 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. And a certain woman,
which had an issue of blood 12 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? And his disciples said unto him,
Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest 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 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
any further? As soon as Jesus heard 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 seeth
the tumult, 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
the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and
entereth in where the damsel was lying. And he took the damsel
by the hand and he said unto her, Talitha kume, which is being
interpreted, damsel, I say unto thee, arise. And straightway
the damsel rose and walked, for she was of the age of 12 years. And they were astonished with
great astonishment. And he charged them straightly
that no man should know it and commanded that something should
be given her to eat. Now, to say that this is quite a momentous
chapter would be an understatement, would it not? Even as the Lord cast the devils
out of the man there in Gadara on one side of the lake, He needed
to go back to the other side of the lake where he'd already
been. Now, you know, the Lord never does things exactly like
you think he should or that he ought to. You know, we always
have it in our mind, well now this would really be better if
this was this way. You know, when something's not
going like we think that it ought to be going, We're having some
issue with a computer or a car or some scenario in life where
things are not, is not working out just like we want it to.
And we're thinking in our mind, you know, this would be a lot
better if this wasn't happening like this. And we sometimes even
begin to ask the Lord, Lord, why are you doing this? Like
this. Be so much simpler if it went
like this. But you see, the Lord does things
according to the good pleasure of his will. He got in a boat
and he went all the way across the Sea of Galilee to one side
to cast the devils out of this man who was in Gadara. Then he got back in the same
boat and he went back across the lake because there were some
other people over there on the other side of the lake that belonged
to him. And he had an appointment with them, an appointment he
would keep. And he would bring to pass such
things as he was pleased to do. Now there are some who believe
that all these things just happen by chance. The Lord just happened
to go across the Sea of Galilee, and just so happened that he
came up on this man that was full of these devils, and he
took, you know, he helped the man out. And then just on a happenstance,
he went back across the sea to the other side, and lo and behold,
a woman was in the pathway where he was going, and she was healed. Now, I guess in some ways men
take some comfort in such thinking as that. But the truth of the
matter is that the Lord marks out things to occur according
to how he would have them occur. Now that's a comforting thought.
to those who've been given faith to trust Him. It is a disconcerting
thought to those who have more confidence in themselves than
they do in the Lord. See, some people would rather
be left to their own devices than they had to the Lord. The
Lord said, I'll show mercy to whom I will show mercy and whom
I will out harden. Now, That doesn't sit well with
the natural man. Men don't like that because they
like to think that they have it within their own power to
seek the Lord whenever they get ready. But the fact of the matter
is that no man will seek the Lord until the Lord begins to
draw him unto himself. And that's strictly according
to his prerogative and not yours, not mine. I can't influence the
Lord, neither can you. Lot of men think they can. They
think they can make the Lord change his mind. The Lord doesn't
change his mind. He changes not. He's the same
yesterday, today, and forever. And so we're shut up, dear brethren,
to the mercy of Almighty God. Now that's a comforting thought,
again, to the man who's been given faith to trust Him. It
is a very disconcerting thought to the man who has not. Because
to think that the Lord is the one who shows mercy to whom he
wills, that can be a frightening thing, is it not? To consider,
well, maybe he might not show mercy to me. And all of us, I'm
sure, have heard from time to time the hymn by Fanny Crosby,
Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior, while on others our calling,
Do Not Pass Me By. May the Lord give us a mind to
call upon him. Now, the Lord told this man whom he cast the
devils out of, or he told him to go and tell the other people,
which he did. And as we get to the end of this
chapter, We see that he told those that were present there
when he healed the young woman, or the young lady, and brought
her back from death, that he told them not to tell anybody.
Now why did he do that? Because it pleased him. See,
he has a purpose in all the things that he does. Whether you understand
it or I understand it or not, it doesn't make any difference.
That's immaterial. See a lot of people think they've
got to figure God out. Well, I'm going to tell you this.
If you think that you're going to figure God out, you're in
for a life of misery. Because he hadn't told us to
figure it out. He said, my thoughts are not your thoughts. As far
as the heavens are above the earth, so are my thoughts above
your thoughts. How prideful of man to think
that he can somehow define God. He's indefinable. He dwells in
the light to which no man can approach. He's immortal, he's
invisible. The only wise God. And so we
see here, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue,
Jairus by name. And when he saw him, he fell
at his feet. Now, think about this. The ruler
of the synagogue, likely a Pharisee. Doesn't say that he was, but
likely was. He was one of the upper men,
ruler of the synagogue. He came there, and here's this
Galilean, this one who's basically despised by the rank and file
of the hierarchy, the higher ups among the Jews, and he fell
at his feet. Now why did he fall at his feet?
He fell at his feet because he knew himself to be in dire need
of what the Lord had. And that's the state in which
a man who will call upon the Lord, whom the Lord will hear,
that's the only state in which he can come. It's just like that
publican who went up to the temple to pray. and he fell on his face
and he said, Oh God be merciful to me a sinner. The Lord hears the prayers of
such. And so Jairus fell at his feet and he besought him greatly
saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death. See when
somebody is At the point of death, there's
not a thing in the world that you or I can do about it, is
there? I mean, you can know that somebody's dying. Somebody that you love can have
a sickness or an illness, and you can stand by their bedside
and you can see them breathing the last breaths that they will
ever take. And you'd do anything you could
to give them one more breath, but you can't. Because you see,
he's the God of life and death. He said, I kill and I make alive. How the Lord do all these things.
And so, Jairus was given to understand that he was the one who could
deliver from death. My little daughter lieth at the
point of death, I pray thee, come and lay hands on her, that
she may be healed and she shall live. Now why was he able to say that?
Because he believed, not through the power of positive
thinking, but he believed in the one before whom he came and
fell down before. He didn't just go and say, well,
I believe she's gonna be all right. Now, you know, we hear
a lot of preaching today that's just, oh, just have a positive
attitude. You just, everything's gonna
be lovely. It's gonna be a wonderful day.
It's great. No, he didn't have that attitude.
But he believed that the one before whom he stood could solve
the very issue that he had and needed. And he cast himself at
his feet. And Jesus went with him. How
about that? Isn't that an amazing thing is
that the Lord went with this man. The Lord goes with his people. He said he called his sheep and
they come to him. And he calls them, he brings
them in and out and they find pasture. They belong to him,
his sheep. And Jesus went with him and much
people followed him and thronged him. This was a crushing crowd
that gathered around him. And a certain woman, now she was probably not the
only woman, in this crowd of people that had some medical
issue. I'm sure there was other people
there that had certain problems. Do you not expect in a large
crowd? I mean, there's, I'm sure if
we took a poll in here, we could all tell something, you know,
that we got going on is not just exactly like we'd like for it
to be. Maybe somebody was serious situation. But see, the scriptures
doesn't say just some random woman. It says
a certain woman. Just like at the well in Samaria,
how many women do you think came and filled their water pots?
that day that the Lord Jesus Christ must need to go through
Samaria and met the woman at the well. But you see there was
a certain woman that was at the well that day at a certain time. See, the Lord wasn't there an
hour before the woman got there nor was he expecting to be there
an hour after the woman left. He was there at the exact time
that the woman was there. Because that was the reason that
he went through Samaria. That he might meet with this
woman. And so it is that the Lord passed by this way. because he would meet with a
certain woman. This did not happen in a random
fashion. And a certain woman, which had
an issue of blood, had suffered many things of many physicians,
and had spent all she had. See, that's not a new phenomena,
is it? People have been paying doctors
all their life's money for years. So it's not a new thing, so quit
complaining about it. Now this woman, she wanted to
be healed, did she not? So she spent her money on doctors,
but none of them could do her any good. I've told you this
before, but I remember something that, I can't even call his name
right now. Lester Roloff said, a woman asked
him if he believed in divine healing. He said, didn't know
there was any other kind. Now, brethren, the Lord alone
is the one able to heal somebody. Now, he may use a doctor. He
may use a bottle of medicine. He may do a lot of things, but
if you are healed of any disease that is brought upon your body,
it'll be because the Lord healed you. She grew worse. And when she
had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind and reached out
her hand and touched his garment. Because she had said in her mind,
now where'd this thought come from, do you suppose? I mean,
here's this woman, she spent all her money on doctors, and
where did the thought come to her in her mind? Well, if I could
just touch his garment. I mean, she had spent, I don't
know how much money, she'd spent a bunch of money on doctors. Why did she think that if she
could just touch his garment, she'd be all right? Where did
that come from? I'll tell you where it came from.
It came from the Lord. It's what's called the gift of
faith. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves. It is the gift of God. If any man believes, it's because
God has given him faith to believe. Now does God just give men faith
to just believe stuff? Well, we're just gonna believe.
See, you hear a lot about believing. But dear brethren, believing
without an object to believe in is no faith at
all. It's just a hope so. See, she didn't just believe.
She believed that this man who was passing by could heal her. And she didn't expect to be healed
because she believed. She expected the one whom she
touched would heal her. Now see, that's what it is to
believe. It's not just to have some thought
in your mind. The devils believe, the scripture
says, and they tremble. They don't have faith, however.
There's a big difference in believing and having faith. Faith must
have an object. She said, if I can just touch
him, I'll be whole. And she reached out and touched
him, and immediately, straightway, the fountain of her blood was
dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of that
plague or affliction. She felt the power of God come
into her heart, to her mind, to her life, to her body. And
she knew that she was healed. And Jesus immediately, knowing
it himself, that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about
in the press and said, who touched my clothes? Do you think he didn't
know who touched his clothes? I mean, he went by this way because
there was a woman that was in that crowd that he was going
to heal. And so when he said, who touched
my clothes, why did he do that? To draw her out. See, the Lord would have his
people to confess that they believed. See, that's what's set before
us this morning, is to make a confession that we believe. That's what
the waters of baptism are. It's a confession of what we
believe. And so he said, who touched my
clothes? And his disciples said, come on. You got all these people pressing
in here and you want us to find out who it is that touched you.
They didn't know, did they? They didn't have any idea. See,
the Lord had healed this woman and they didn't know anything
about it. Now that wasn't new for these evangelist people,
evangelists, but they call themselves such. But they go around. I mean, if they can't make a
fanfare in some major issue out of healing somebody, they're
gonna waste their time. See, they didn't even know anything
happened. But the Lord did. Because he ordered it to occur. And he would have this woman
to confess that she believed. He already knew it because he's
the one who gave her faith. Who touched me? And he looked
around about to see her that had done this thing. Isn't that
amazing? Out of all these people, he looked
around and saw her. Before she ever said anything,
he saw her. But the woman, fearing and trembling,
she knew that the Lord knew. Now what happened to the Apostle
Paul on the road to Damascus? I mean in an instance he knew
that the Lord knew. What did he say? Who art thou
Lord? Because he knew in an instant
that the Lord knew. And knowing what was done in
her came and fell down before him and told him all the truth. Oh, is that not what the Lord
does in His people? Gives them a heart of repentance
that they might cast all their self before Him. He knows, just
like Brother Thomas read there this morning. If our heart condemns us, God
is greater than our heart. Dear brethren, the Lord received
His sinful men. He knows we're sinners. You're
not going to hide something from him. He knows what you are before
you came. He knew this woman had this issue
of blood. And she told him all the truth
and he said unto her daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole,
go in peace. Now what was her faith? Was the
Lord patting her on the back and said, you know, you did a
good job because you believed. No, He said, Thy faith hath made
thee whole. Well, what is it that made her
whole? It was the one whose garment she touched. It wasn't that she
touched or that she did something, but it was that the Lord was
the object which she was moved by faith
to reach out to. What a glorious thing, dear brethren.
Behold thy plague. And while he yet spake, there
came from the ruler of the synagogues how certain which said, thy daughter's
dead. No need to trouble the master
anymore. That's it. Throw up your hands. And soon as Jesus heard that,
He said to the ruler of the synagogue, be not afraid, only believe. Now, was he telling him to have
the power of positive thinking? Just believe? No, he said, you
came to me. You cast yourself at my feet. I told you that I would help
you. The same one that told you that
is I'm standing right here with you. Only believe. See, believe me. I'm the one
that has the power of life and death. How did this, I mean,
how foolish would it be in the natural mind of men to, when
someone's dead, that you're gonna go and see him raised from the
dead. Could he believe that? I mean,
could you believe that? I couldn't have believed it.
I mean, if the Lord said, I'm fixing to raise Lazarus from
the dead, if you'd have been there, you wouldn't have believed
it. You'd have gasped when he came
out. You'd have said, wow, I can't
believe this. Because it's impossible for men
to believe that, dear brethren. I don't care how strong, you
can't believe it. but you can believe the one who
said he would. See, I don't believe that one
of y'all can make it into the kingdom
of heaven. I don't believe one of you can. Because I know what
y'all are by nature, because you're just like me. And I know
I'll never make it by myself, but I'll tell you this, I believe
the one who said, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. I believe him, and I believe that he will not cast off those
that seek him with all their heart. Because he said, my sheep
hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me. And so he said, be not afraid. Why'd he tell him to be not afraid?
Because he was afraid. You don't have to tell somebody
not to be afraid unless they're afraid, do you? If you don't
have anything to be afraid of, you don't, but see, when the
Lord comes to us in our fear, be not afraid. And he suffered
no man to follow him except Peter, James, John, the brother of James.
He told them, y'all, you can't come. Well, that wasn't quite
right, was it? I mean, don't God give every
man a chance and all this stuff you hear, you know, all that? Though the Lord chooses whom
He will. He took Peter, James, and John.
and he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, saith
to them all, and them that wept and wailed greatly. There was
great sadness there. And when he was come in, he saith
unto them, why make ye this ado and weep? The damsel's not dead,
but sleepeth. Now remember, he told his disciples
about Lazarus. He said, Lazarus is dead. He told them he was dead. Now,
a couple of things here. One, he wanted them to be sure
they knew Lazarus was dead. Because he was going to perform
a miracle that could not be believed. And he was going to put it in
such a context of Lazarus being dead for four days that there
was no doubt that he didn't just go do some hocus pocus. give him mouth to mouth resuscitation
or something of that nature to bring him back to life. He was
dead. Now these people knew that this girl was dead. But you see he described to them
what death is for those whom he loves. It's but a sleep. Says she's not dead. Because
you see, those whom the Lord gives eternal life cannot die. Now this flesh, it most certainly, it's been
deteriorating ever since I was born. And if you look at all
these scratches and scars all over my hand, when I was a younger
man, I could have done what I did that gave me these scratches
and never even done anything. I just reached up in a fender
and was moving around and scratched myself a little bit and didn't
think anything about it when I pulled my out blood just running
all over the place. Why is that? Because I'm getting
older. Because my skin's thinner. Because
I'm deteriorating. And one day my heart will stop But the God who gave me life, my mother's womb, is the same one that rose from
the dead on the third day. And He's the same one that has
given me a promise that those who believe in Him
shall rise with Him. I can't believe it. But I believe Him. Sometimes I look at the graveyard
and I look at death and I can't believe that any of this stuff
is true. But I look at Him and I can't
believe He's not true. See, Peter said, Lord, to whom
shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. See, it's Christ is our faith. And that's the thing he's
teaching here. To them, he said, she's not dead,
she's just sleeping. Just like those that sleep will
the Lord bring with him when the Lord comes back. He's not
coming back for a bunch of dead folks. He's coming back for some
folks that's asleep. Because He said, I give you eternal
life and you shall never perish. See, when you cut off a tree,
you can cut a tree down, certain kinds of trees, and that thing
will sprout right back up from the stump and you can't hardly
kill it. But when a man dies, So even Job said, if a man dies,
shall he live again? Now the answer to the question
in the context of what he said there is no. He can't live again. And we can't believe how he could.
But you see, that's in the hands of the Lord. Because man doesn't
have the power to sprout up from the root. But the God who made
him and breathed into him life. And he became a living
soul. This same one can bring that body out of the
ground. He made it in the first place
and he could do it again. I don't know how. I can't even
believe it. I mean, I get thinking about
that sometimes. You think about somebody that got eaten by some
animal. And you know, that animal digested
him and then his remains are scattered to who knows where
and bugs came along and ate that. And you know, and you think it's
just preposterous. It is preposterous. The world
can't believe such a thing as that dumbest thing. I mean, that's
unscientific, not scientific at all. But you see, we don't
care because we believe him. Zams was not dead, they left
him to scorn. And what did he do? He put them
all out. But unbelief will always be cast
aside. Unbelievers shall not inherit
the kingdom of God. Can't do it. And so he put them
out. And he took the mother of the
damsel, them that were with him, and entered in where the damsel
was lying. And he took the damsel by the hand and said unto her,
Talithicumai, which is being interpreted, damsel, I say unto
thee, arise. Now how did that, you see, it's
not preposterous to say It's preposterous to us to think that
somebody could say that to Ed. I mean, I wouldn't ever go someplace
with Ed expecting he was gonna be able to tell this woman to
arise. I wouldn't have any confidence
at all in that. But see, I'm not called to just
believe that Ed's gonna raise this person from death. But you
see, if the Lord Jesus Christ If he says I'm gonna raise this
person from the dead, I'm gonna believe that. Why? Because I
believe him. And straightway she arose, straightway,
immediately. Wasn't any fanfare, just happened. She was the age of 12 years,
and they were astonished, with great astonishment. Why is that? Because such a thing can't happen.
It just doesn't happen. I remember one time, a fellow
told this, a fellow in Lake City, he got convinced that the Lord
was gonna have him raise somebody from the dead, and he went and
laid on this person's grave for two days, praying that the Lord would raise
this person from the dead. Guess what? Nothing happened. Now, what if I'd have said, well,
you know, I believe in this guy. I think this guy's gonna do it. We're just gonna get together
and pray and believe. Nothing would happen. Because it's not in the belief. Now, you think a father don't
believe something to be true if he's willing to lay on a person's
grave for two days? I think he believed that, did
he not? I think he did, but his faith
was misplaced. Because he was believing he was
gonna do something. But you see, this man, Jairus,
believed Christ. He didn't, if you told Jairus,
he's gonna raise your daughter from the dead, in secret he would
have said, I don't know about this, it's gonna happen or not. But he believed Christ. And he charged them straightly
that no man should know it and commanded that something should
be given her to eat. Now, why'd he do that? Of course,
he wanted them to know that she was alive, that she was functioning. When the Lord Jesus met with
his disciples on the seashore, he ate with them. Why'd he do
that? I mean, you know, I've heard
people do all these theories about, well, you know, when we
get into, raised into immortal life and all this stuff. I don't
know about all of that. I don't know what form, function,
or whatever our bodies are going to be. I don't know. But I know this, that the Lord
Jesus Christ could not be discerned from a natural man as he walked
among men after his resurrection. And the scripture says, and then
this same Jesus whom you saw come in like Manasseh also shall
come again. Now the resurrected Christ, what
a glorious consideration. Now I don't know about all those
answers to those questions. You'll have to find that out
for yourself. But I believe him. and ever other than the question
today that's before us i don't care really what you believe
but the question is who do you believe? do you believe christ? he's the savior of sinners we come today do something that the Lord told
us to do as believers, which was to remember the Lord's death
until He comes again. And He gave us instruction that
we're to do that by eating bread and drinking fruit of the vine. We don't know exactly how we're
to do this. We can look at kind of historically
kind of determine probably what happened on the night that he
instituted the supper, but he didn't say you gotta do this
specifically like this. There's no ritual involved here.
Because just like our faith is Christ, So when we see this bread
and we see this wine, our faith is Christ. Because he said, remember
my death till I come again. And dear brethren, apart from
the death of Jesus Christ, we have no hope. We have nothing
to stand on. Paul said, God forbid that I
should glory save in the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ. And
so the Lord instituted this supper. And he told Paul, gave Paul some
instruction. He said, let a man examine himself. And so let him eat of that bread
and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh
unworthily eateth and drinketh to himself damnation. Now we've
talked about this numerous times. He didn't say, check and see
if you're worthy to take it. And if you find out you're not
worthy, don't take it. But he said, he that taketh it
unworthily. Now who are those that take it
worthily? Those who cast themselves at
the feet of Christ. And say, Lord, I don't have any
hope but you. You're my hope, my expectation.
You're that one in whom all of my hope is cast. And for a man
to take this offhandedly or without any due consideration of what
it is that Jesus Christ did when he hung on Calvary's cross, that's
to take this unworthily. It's not discerning the body
of Christ. It's to have no consideration for the body of Christ that the
Lord laid down his life in our behalf. And so let us eat this bread
and drink this cup. Let us come here, the Lord would
have us come. He made this supper for his children. Those that believe. Those that
look at this bread, which represents the body of Jesus Christ broken
for sinners. And this wine, which represents
the blood of Christ shed for the same. And we take these things
because we believe Him. Not because we believe in the
church or we believe in anything else, but because we believe
Him. He's the object here. May the Lord give us a mind to
receive these things as they are to be received.