I do want to turn to Mark 5,
if you would turn to Mark 5. And I want to read verses 21
through 36. And when Jesus was passed over
again by ship unto the other side, much people gathered unto
him. And he 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
may live. And Jesus went with him, and much people followed
him, and thronged 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
better, 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 a 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
behold of thy plague. All men, all of us have ailments. We all have to deal with that.
Even reprobates and God's people alike have to deal with that.
But there are some elements that only God's people go through
and have to experience. And this is given by God. I mean, have you ever been in
a crowd? Everybody else is doing whatever
they're doing, but you know, there's something wrong with
me. I've got a problem. Don't know what anybody else
is doing, but I've got a problem. This was this woman. And it's
like Job said in Job 19.10. He hath destroyed me on every
side, and I am gone, and mine hope hath he removed like a tree. What is this place? It's a place
of total despair. A place where you think you're
going to die right there, then and there in your sin. And if
somebody doesn't do something for you, you'll be gone forever. You're not really paying attention
about what everybody else is doing. You know yourself to be
the sinner, whether anyone else is or not. But you're consuming
knowing that you're at the end of your ropes, and with no hope
other than just possibly, you might be able to lay hold of
Jesus Christ, to touch Him, or to be touched by Him, and be
healed. I'm just going to talk about,
and briefly I believe, talk about the issue, the results of men's
attempts, the hearing of faith, which is the starting of knowing
the real cure, and the real cure. I first want to talk about the
uncleanness of this woman in this passage. And this is giving
us a picture of all men by nature. And when I say men, I mean men
and women. This is a picture of us by nature.
This is a word picture of a believer being brought to Christ. This
is what the law says in Leviticus 15.25 about this woman. Now, I don't know for sure if
this woman was a Jewish woman. I don't think it even actually
says. But it says he went into his own country. But this is
what Leviticus 15.25 says, and it says, And if a woman hath
an issue of blood in her blood many days out of the time of
her separation, or if it run beyond the time of her separation,
all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the
days of her separation. She shall be unclean. She had this issue twelve years,
and that is a long time to have an issue. I can't imagine what
I would do in 12 years of having an issue like that. But it's
a long time. And she has some kind of loss
of blood. If this continues, she's going
to die. At least that's what she feels
like. And I don't think that she was wrong in thinking that. She was very weak, certainly
very poor. But not only that, she was condemned
as being unclean by the law. No other man was able to stop
this. And although they tried, for a price evidently, because
it said she spent all she had, so it was no help unless she
had money to do it. Since she spent all she had,
she had no options left. It says she spent all that she
had. I figure she thought she was
going to die by loss of blood, or starvation or something else
because she had an issue and she had no cure for it. Oh, what
a picture it is of us by nature. In this account, this is a believer
by nature. We are dead while we walk. The
law has condemned us to death. We have no cure. No one else
has a cure. We have nothing to pay for our
salvation. All we have is our own blood,
which the law says makes us unclean. Everything we have tried has
just caused us pain and suffering so that we are worse than when
we first started. What was initially done by this
woman and who did she turn to? These physicians are like this
world's religion today. They want to tell you to confess
your sins before them so they can use this for leverage to
gain some kind of advantage. Not carrying one iota about the
salvation of your soul or the truth as it is in the face of
Jesus Christ. There's a good reason for this.
They don't know the truth as it is in the face of Jesus Christ.
They give you a false hope All you have to do is come to the
front and say the sinner's prayers, what they say, things like that,
or God's done all He can do, now it's up to you. This may
have been where this woman was at one time, I don't know. But
when a sinner prays to God, it's not just about the words that
they're saying. We can all repeat words. It's
about the attitude that they have when they say them. What
do they think of themselves and what do they think of God? It's
a state of mind. It's an acknowledging to God
that you are nothing, yea, less than nothing. Just saying words
will do you no good. All it will do is, in the religious
world, gain them a following. The ones feeding you these lies,
they sin or praise, acknowledge what they are and who God is.
You acknowledge that you have offended the holy God and have
nothing in your hands to bring. All she had was not enough. This
world would try to talk you into thinking that you have the means
to make yourself better. But they do this because they
have your person in admiration because of advantage. These are
the words that Jude speaks of in Jude 1 and verse 11. We read
this in Jude in a couple of places. And then it says in verse 16
of Jude 1, and their mouth speaketh great
swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because
of advantage." And then 2 Timothy 4 and verse 3, it says this,
"'For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,
but after their own lush shall they heap to themselves teachers
having itching ears. But for the child of God who
is being called of God, this never works, you're worse off
than when you first started. She suffered many things. They
did things to her over and over, causing her many and often pain
and suffering. These physicians took everything
she had, and it did not make her any better. In fact, she
was worse off than when she first started, verse 26, and had suffered
many things of many physicians and spent all that she had, and
it was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse. We are unwilling
to come to God by nature. But because of our sinful nature,
we will follow them that are higher than us. But God, we think,
he will make you willing in the day of his power. You cannot
do it on your own. The ability has to come from
him. What this woman was like was she was willing to use whatever
she had to heal herself by looking to the world's physician so much
so that she was willing to give it all up. By nature we are dead
in trespasses and sins. Romans 5 and verse 12 says, Wherefore,
as by one man's sin entered into the world, and death by sin,
and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. But then God, if He is pleased
to give you life, what does the Scripture say about that? It says in John 1 verse 13, it
says, Then the gospel coming to you in power of His Spirit.
Something happened here in this passage. What happened? She heard. I remember a time when I first
heard. I was by myself recalling the
Word of God that was proclaimed to me previously. And He saved
me that day and He's continuing to save me every single day after
that. And it has to be of Him. And what does this kind of hearing
do to you? It gives you hope. This was not just any hearing
because this hearing directs you to a person. Who did she
hear of? Jesus Christ, verse 27. When
she had heard of Jesus, came in the press, behind, and touched
his garment. She had heard this man, Jesus
Christ, could save her. She knew the miracles he was
doing and may have even heard others talking of him. She knew
he was the only man with virtue, or that is, the ability to save
her. And why do I say that? First
of all, because Christ said, I perceive that virtue has gone
out of me. What is that virtue in this passage?
That word means force or ability, miraculous power. But Christ
said this, so how can I say that she knew that he had virtue? How did she know this? In verse
28. It says, For she said, If I may
touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. She knew that if she
could just touch the hem of his garment, she would be made whole. That word whole there means to
save, deliver, or protect. She knew she would be saved just
by touching the hem of his garment. She touched Him because He had
already touched her by the hearing of Him by faith. And she was
given the ability through Christ to be healed when she touched
Him. The healing had to come through Jesus Christ. By the
power of His Spirit, she knew that she would be saved if she
could just come into contact with Jesus Christ. But this is
the amazing thing in verse 24. And Jesus went with them, and
much people followed him and thronged him. There was a lot
of people just kind of bumping up against Jesus Christ at that
time. Did virtue go out of him when
everyone else bumped up against him? He has been touched all over
the place, so much that his disciples even questioned, how can you
say who touched me? There's people hitting you all
over the place. Christ did not acknowledge these
others as having touched him. Only the one that had heard of
him by the hearing of faith. It is also amazing to me that
it says here in Mark that Christ said, Who touched my clothes?
She touched the fringe of his garment and Christ knew he had
been touched by a sinner in the middle of a mob. Now concerning
faith. This was a special touch, a touch
done in faith. That is what we are told in this
passage in verse 34. But Scripture tells us all men
have not faith. I know a lot of people talk about
faith. There is a faith that is not
the faith of God. And this faith is called a dead
faith because faith without works is dead. That's what James says.
But I say that the Spirit of God gave her this faith because
this kind of faith only looks to Christ and is only given by
the Spirit of God. What does Scripture tell us that
the fruit of the Spirit is? In Galatians 5, verses 22 and
23, we read this. But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance, against such, there is no law. If God,
the Holy Spirit, gives you faith, you will reach out to Christ
when you hear of Him because you have been given faith. We
know this woman had faith because Christ said she did in verse
34. And He said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole.
Go in peace, and be whole of thy faith. The passage in Hebrews 12.12,
once God allowed it to sink in to me, it says that Christ is the author
and finisher. It says our faith there. You
can take that out. Christ is the author and finisher
of faith. Now, it is our faith because
He gives it to us. He is the author and the finisher
of faith. He trusted the covenant made
with the Father of what He would accomplish on that tree. Christ
started it and He perfected it. Faith is as old as God is because
He does not change and Christ is God. It is the very faith
that is given to us by the Spirit. That faith looks to who Christ
is and what He has done. and this is not something that
we work up. There was an initial time where I was in the same
place as this woman with an issue of blood. I did not have the
same physical ailment, but I did come to the end of my ropes.
Jesus Christ, by faith, allows me to experience this need again
and again. What does the scripture say?
When I am weak, then am I strong. How comforting it is to know
that all ability comes from Him, whatever it is. And to be reminded
that often is a comfort to me to be reminded of that. God's
Word tells us that God gives faith. Faith is the gift of God. Ephesians 2, 8-10 says, For by
grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For
we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained, that which we should walk in
them. Grace, salvation, faith is a
gift of God. It is not a gift that we accept
or reject. The Holy Spirit of God comes
to you, giving you life by his fruits, you hearing the gospel
sent to you, and you believe. When you have been brought to
this place, there is no other place to go. He sees to it that
he is the only place of safety. You will gladly run to him because
he has given it all to you to do this. He does this because
he is the only place where safety can be found. And if he did not
do this, you would never come. Now, faith did not die for you.
Christ did. But this faith by the power of
God allows us to see Christ and Him crucified. Faith brings this
salvation to me because it allows me to see Christ. In God's mind
we are saved because Christ was and is our substitute. Faith
allows us to enter into that salvation because it is the faith
of Christ. Now, just a little bit more on
this passage here. You notice here in the passage that he started
out going to help other people here in this passage. This Jairus
came to him about his daughter, and someone else had a need as
well, and Christ was going to help them. He has this crowd
surrounding him, bumping up against him back and forth, touching
him all over the place. I'm sure this woman, being very
weak, and the crowd around him seemed to be so great, but she
knew. I am so unclean. She has determined to get to
Christ only to touch the hem of His garment. She was going
to do this knowing she would be healed and then go on her
way without never having to say anything to anybody else. When
she heard of Jesus, it always begins this way for a sinner.
She heard of Christ knowing she was unclean. having nothing of
any value to offer that could make a difference and she had
already spent all that she had and was worse off than when she
started. The real cure, this Jesus who was seemingly totally
involved with helping everyone else was on this woman's mind
and she knew she had to get Him, knowing to touch Him, she could
be made whole. Christ meant for this to happen
just this way. He is never too busy that he
will not deal with a sinner in need. In fact, he purposes it
to be this way. There is no obstacle that God
cannot overcome if he is pleased to do so. None. Christ being
touched by a sinner will be recognized by Jesus Christ because he purposed
it to be so. Everything that went on in this
passage, Christ purposed everything You were saying earlier that
everything that happens, no matter if it's a baby dying, God purpose,
He's not surprised. This was no mere happenstance.
Jesus Christ meant for this to happen and for it to happen this
very way, and He knew all about this woman. A touch by a sinner
by faith will stop Christ in His tracks, and He will cause
you to confess all to the acknowledging of Him. Christ will not just
let you come to Him in secret without making it known and without
causing you to confess who you are to Him. She confessed it
right there to Christ, verses 32 and 33. 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 plight." God Almighty, in love, calls
us to come to Him and confess all the truth. We will bow down
to Him. We will bow down to Him, confessing
our sins to Him. Not a priest, not a preacher,
but Him. We will tell Him all the truth.
She confessed that she was unclean. She told him she tried everything
else that she could. And she confessed to him that
she had nowhere else to go and that she knew he had power to
make her clean. She confessed her utter ruin
and his utter ability. God purposed to send his son
to pay for his people's sins, and he did. He will in time send
you the gospel. i pray that you see christ today
i pray out what will refer my you know that uh... well i'm
glad you uh... brought that uh... message to
us and uh... yeah i was thinking there as
well speaking about this, and he asked
the question, who touched my clothes? He already knew, didn't
he? He wasn't asking because he wanted
to find out. He was asking so that she might
know that he knew. And Scripture says that he can
be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and this is an illustration of that in the
clearest of ways. He was touched. And he knew it
because, as the brother pointed out, he was jostled around. He was touched on every side,
but he was touched with her infirmity. And he's pleased to minister to his
children. those who stand in need. And
he is unmoved by those who do not need him, those that go about
their own way. And there were many that day
that did. But there was this one woman,
by the grace of God, who knew herself to be in need. Now, I
wanted one other thing I thought about. was the fact that this
woman had already exercised faith in time past and of course we
hear people talk about faith and uh... as though faith itself
was the important matter but she had faith in physicians did
you not? I mean you wouldn't go spend
your money on a doctor if you didn't think they could help
you I mean if you knew ahead of time that the doctor wasn't
going to do you a bit of good you would not go to him and spend
your money. But she believed in these physicians. But they did her no good. And
so it's not faith. But it is the faith of Christ. That is the faith which Christ
gives. It is that which is in Christ. Abraham believed God. And it
was counted to him for righteousness. He didn't just believe. of course
you know that's the human crowd they'll just believe and if you
you'll come for healing or whatever and you don't get healed it's
cause you just didn't believe enough but uh... faith apart from the proper object
is of no use whatsoever and so she by the grace of god she believed
that this man could heal now did she believe without any doubt
I don't know, probably not. You know, I've never met anybody
that didn't have doubts mixed with their faith and, you know,
fear and trembling. But she came, and she believed,
and she touched him of his garment. And then it was revealed to her
what this man really was. Until that time, though the lord
gave her faith to believe that he would until such time as he
healed her. She was really in the same situation
that she was before, was she not? But see the lord he purposes
these things to come to pass and when he gives a man faith
at that point in time to believe it's a miracle and it can't be
the same. Her life was never the same again
because of that. You know everything that the
Lord does in the lives of His people is not dramatic. Some
things are dramatic. This is an example of that. and
when the Lord brings a man from darkness to light, there is a
measure of drama in it. It might not be the same drama
as was with the Apostle Paul or with this woman, but if any
man be in Christ, behold, he is a new creation. Old things
are passed away. All things are become new according
to his purpose and power. we're of course going to have
uh... the lord's supper here in a minute but i i wanted to
uh... had one thing on my mind in the
psalm that we've been looking at psalm seventy eight this is
a passage of scripture that's often pointed to by those who
would seek to tell us that it's possible for men to derail the
purposes of God. And every time I read this passage
of scripture, I think of things that I've been told in times
past by men of that persuasion. And I have to, it just baffles
me when I read this uh... how that uh... a man can persist
in this if he read the whole psalm you know i mean he couldn't
but but here's here's the verse and i'm gonna read verse forty
and and uh... verse forty one and uh... forty
two as well it's psalm seventy eight says yea uh... how often
did they provoke him in the wilderness and grieve him in the desert
yea they turned back and tempted god and limited the holy one
of israel they remember not his hand on the day when he delivered
them from when you read that out on on
first reading as we consider how the word limited is used
uh... if a man is ignorant of who god
is then he could believe he could be convinced that that meant
somehow or other they put some restriction upon God. Of course
that's not what it means at all. And of course if you read the
psalm you know that it doesn't mean that. Because God is the
one that places limits. There's nobody that puts limits. He has set the bounds of our
habitation that we cannot pass. Those are the limits that God
sets. And I think about that in light of this virus deal is
going around and I guess some people look at my attitude and
consideration of it and they would call me to be cavalier.
And I am not cavalier about this at all. I'm very concerned about
it. And I certainly would not wish to get this disease nor
would I wish anybody else to get this disease. But I'm absolutely
convinced of this that no man woman, boy, girl, can ever contact
this disease and become sick with it, which is not according
to the absolute predestined purpose of Almighty God. I don't know
what His predestined purpose is, and I want to avoid it, just
like when I get in my truck, I put my seatbelt on when I drive
down the road. But I'm not trusting in that
seatbelt to keep me safe. because i know that all of the
world is going to do that and the days of our appointed the
unsponsored or pointed by him we cannot pay you can't live
a minute longer than the lord's ordained for you to live and
you can't die i mean it's not and so our trust is in the world
we're hopefully a joke said though he's right yet but i trust in
him And so, as we think about this, they
turned back, tempted, and limited the Holy God of Israel. That
is, in their mind, they said, well, He can only do so much. Because they said, you know,
here we are sure. He gave us manna from heaven,
as you read up there. He gave us this, but He can't
give us me. I mean, here we are eating this
angel's food every day, week after week, month after month,
and we're sick of it. I mean, if he was really God,
he'd give us some meat. So he gave them some meat. And
the script says they ate it until they vomited. And then he slew them. Now, the
Lord has his people. They are not all Israel, which
are of Israel. and there's an illustration of
that. And you see the wrath of God come down upon them, just
like when we read the letters to the churches in the book of
Revelation. And he brings down some pretty
strong judgments there. Now, are those whom he loved
with an everlasting love included in that? Those breathing his
out of threatenings and slaughters? only insofar as we are exhorted
by these things and we fear and tremble before him. You see,
the Lord gives exhortations that His people might turn, but He
will destroy the wicked, and He will bring to pass those things,
even as He did here. How often did they provoke Him
in the wilderness and grieve Him, yet they turned back and
tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel. It's the same
thing as when the Scripture says He did not many works there because
of their unbelief. Now it wasn't that He wanted
to do some works and they wouldn't let Him. But He just didn't do
them there because there was not men of faith there who would
receive these things. The Scripture says He must need
to go through Samaria. He went through Samaria. He must
need to go through Samaria because one of His sheep was going to
a well that day. And he had an appointment to
meet her and he must need to go through some area because
she was there. And he went to her. And she had
no idea. She had no idea when she got
up that morning that somebody was going to tell her everything
about her life and was going to bring her to a place of repentance.
She didn't have any idea. She didn't go to the well that
day seeking Him. He absolutely went to the well
that day seeking her. Oh, what a glorious thing. When
the Lord was on the way to Jairus' house, He went a certain way. Oh, what a glorious thing. What
a wondrous thing is the sovereign grace and mercy of our God, who
calls sinners. Bruised reed, will it not break?
Smoking flax, will it not quench? He said, All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. What a glorious thing. What a
wondrous Savior. And we come today to remember
the Lord's death till he comes. And he gave us this to do. And
you know I don't necessarily know there's a right and a wrong
way to do this. Some people seem to think there
is. But the Lord just said as often
as you eat this bread and drink this cup, he said through Paul,
you do it to show the Lord's death till he comes again. and
this is his table, not ours, not our bread, not our wine.
It belongs to him. And he says to his children,
not to the world, he says come and dine. He said this is my,
how do we know that? Because he said this is my blood
which is shed for you. And so let a man examine himself
and so let him eat of this bread and drink of this cup. Because
you see, when a man examines himself, if he's a man of faith,
he says, Lord, I don't have any hope but in that which you have
done in my back. And so to take this unworthily
is to take it without a regard to what Christ has done in behalf
of his people. So may the Lord give us a mind
today to remember his death till he comes again.