Well, good morning everyone.
If you would, open your Bibles with me to Mark chapter five. Mark the fifth chapter. Before we begin, let's bow before
our Lord together. Our Father, we come into your
courts this morning with thanksgiving and praises to your precious
name. Father, how thankful we are that
you have enabled us by thy Spirit to come together and to worship
you. And Father, I pray this morning
that that is what you would give us in this hour and in the next
hour, that you give us a time of true heart worship, that you
would enable us to, by faith, see our Lord Jesus Christ high
and lifted up, and enable us to follow his feet in worship.
with hearts that are broken over our sin, that are broken over
our rebellion, broken over who and what we are. But Father,
also thankful and rejoicing in Christ Jesus, that in him we've
been made complete, accepted in thy presence, accepted in
the beloved. Father, how thankful we are.
And I pray you bless us as we look into your word. I pray you
bless our children's classes. Father, bless our teachers, and
how I pray mercy for our young ones, that Father, you would
be pleased to use this time to plant the seeds of faith in our
heart, that they might be taught the scriptures, and we could
one day say of them, as we say of young Timothy, that from a
child, they've known the holy scriptures, which are able to
make them wise unto salvation. And Father, we pray a special
blessing for those that you've brought in the time of trouble
and trial. Father, we pray you'd heal and
that you would comfort. We pray you'd give a special
portion of your presence to comfort their hearts until such time
as you're pleased to deliver them from the valley. And Father,
all these things we ask and we give thanks in that name which
is above every name, the name of Christ our Savior. I've titled our lesson this morning,
Be Not Afraid, Only Believe. This is a sweet story of a sweet
interaction between the Savior and a sinner who particularly
needed him. Our Lord told Jairus, be not
afraid, only believe. That reminded me of the chorus
we sing, only believe. All things are possible, only
believe. And this is the commandment to
you and me. Only believe. Don't do anything
to help the Lord get the job done. Don't add your works to
it. Don't add your morality to it.
Don't add your religious ceremony to it. Only believe. Only believe
Christ. You know, the Lord didn't tell
you, Iris, believe and do your best. He didn't say, now, Jairus,
you need to believe, you need to join the right church, and
you gotta make sure you're doing all these right ceremonies. The
Savior told him, only believe. Don't do anything else. Only
believe. Because salvation is by faith
alone, by grace alone, so only believe. But now, I believe this
is a good question for us to ask ourselves. The Lord said,
only believe. Believe what? What are we to
believe? Are we to believe, well, you
know, you hear people say this on TV all the time, there's been
some tragedy, well, God's got a plan and I believe it's just
all gonna turn out all right. Well, I mean, is it? I mean,
I don't know. Are we to believe that everything
will be okay as long as our faith is strong enough? Are we to believe
everything's gonna be okay as long as we, you know, act right
and you know, moral enough? No. We're to believe Christ only. Only believe. And we're to only
believe the Lord Jesus Christ as he's been pleased to reveal
himself in this book. So I got four points I'd like
to give you on only believe. The first one is this. Only believe
Christ. But now you remember that faith's
gonna be tried. So you keep believing Christ.
The story with our Lord's interaction with Jairus begins in Mark 5
verse 22. 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. Now Jairus came to our Lord out of desperation. I mean,
he's a leader of the synagogue, one of the rulers of the synagogue.
If he comes to this man, Jesus, there's a price to be paid by
this man. But he's desperate. He comes
to the Lord because he's desperate. This is his little daughter that's
lying at the point of death. Luke tells us it's his only daughter. And Jairus was afraid she was
already dead. She was so sick, he was afraid
she died already. And he's so desperate to see
that little daughter healthy and raised again, to have her
to hold and to hug and to raise and to love on. He's so desperate. He comes to the Lord. He only
came to the Lord when all other hope was lost. And I'm not being
too hard on Jairus because you and me, the only time we ever
come to the Lord for salvation is when all other hope is lost.
When we see everything else that we've been trying to do fails,
only then, when everything else fails, only then will we go to
Christ for salvation. That's what Jairus did. He came
to Christ because all other hope was gone. And immediately, The
Lord said, I'll come heal your little daughter. I'll come, just
immediately. Oh, Jairus was so thrilled and
so relieved because if the Lord's coming to his house, his daughter's
gonna be healed. Now he knew that. And on their
way to Jairus' house, they meet a certain woman. The woman we
looked at last week with the issue of blood. And the Lord
stopped, he took some time with this woman. And I just know this. Jairus was in a hurry. He was
in a hurry because he had an urgent need. An urgent need for
his little daughter to be healed. And it didn't seem to him like
he had a second to spare. We need to be going, you know.
But the Lord stopped. He stopped to heal this poor
woman. Now I'm just sure of this. human
nature being what it is, knowing how we are, Jay Iris was not
thrilled about this delay. He really would have just assumed
that they kind of kept up a pretty good pace and walked to his house
to heal his little daughter. But to his credit, he didn't
say a word. He didn't say a word. Now this
is a trial. I mean, this is a hard trial.
But boy, to his credit, Jay Iris kept his mouth shut. That's a
lesson I wish I could learn, don't you? Let's just keep our
mouth shut. There was no one else Jairus
could trust. So he just kept trusting Christ.
And even though Jairus was doing what he was supposed to do, he
came to the Lord, he begged for mercy. The Lord said, I'll go
heal her. The Lord has this delay. Jairus
doesn't mouth off. Jairus doesn't question the Lord.
He's doing what he's supposed to be doing, isn't he? Jairus
hadn't done anything wrong here in this trial. But the trial
got worse anyway. Look down here at verse 35. And
while it yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue's
house certain which said, thy daughter's dead. Why troublest
thou the master any further? Don't, don't, don't trouble him.
There's no more hope. There's no more reason for him
to come to your house. Your daughter is dead. And as soon as Jesus
heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the
synagogue, be not afraid, only believe. See, now the situation's
even worse. His little daughter is dead.
I mean, what can you do? Now she's dead. But the Lord
tells Jairus, don't be afraid, only believe. Only believe. In the original Greek, these
words mean don't be put to flight. Don't retreat. And you entrust
this to only me. Don't you try to help out. Don't
you try to find some remedy here. You entrust this to only me. Don't retreat from that. Now
those are such comforting words, and that's sweet words from the
master to this poor man. Don't be afraid, only believe. Now that had to comfort Jairus'
heart, but you know, they still had to walk to his house. I mean,
I don't know how long that took. Again, just speaking as a father,
I think I know how fathers would feel about this. It seemed like
it took a long time. You see, the Lord did not immediately
tell Jairus what he was gonna do. He didn't say, don't be afraid,
because I'm gonna raise your daughter from the dead. He said,
be not afraid, only believe. Only believe. And this is the
thing about trials. One of the things that make trials
so hard to endure is we're not delivered immediately. Never
are we delivered from a trial immediately. We have to keep
trusting Christ. We have to keep only believing.
even though nothing seems to be happening. You know, not only
are we not delivered from a trial immediately, almost never, now
there are times, but almost never are our prayers answered immediately,
are they? Almost never. We have to keep
only believing. Because the Lord's gonna teach
us some patience in this thing. and whatever it is that we're
gonna go through, he's gonna teach us some patience in this
to learn to wait on the Lord. Wait, I say, on the Lord, David
said. And you know, not only does the
Lord not answer our prayers immediately, usually he doesn't. There have
been times I have prayed and almost immediately there's been
an answer. But I can remember them because they're so rare.
But also, our Lord never answers our prayers in the way we think
he will. Look at Ephesians chapter three. You know, we think we've
got some great solution to our problem. We pray and ask the
Lord to do it. And you know, the Lord's got something even
better he's gonna do. And we just have to wait on him.
Look at Ephesians chapter three, verse 20. Now unto him that is able to
do exceeding abundantly Above all that we ask or think. You
know, we think we've thought of the best solution, the most
high solution. Our Lord is able to exceeding
abundantly above that. According to the power that work
within us. Unto Him be glory in the church by Jesus Christ
throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. The Lord always does
something better than we could have thought of. So He gets all
the glory. All right, only believe. Keep
believing because faith is gonna be tried. Here's the second thing. Only believe. Even when we don't
understand what our God's doing. Verse 37. 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 saith unto them, why make
ye this ado, and weep? The damsel's not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.
They laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all
out, he taketh the father and mother of the damsel, and them
that were with him in earthen, where the damsel was lying. Now you know all this is very
confusing to Jairus, don't you? The Lord comes into the house
and there's a bunch of mourners there. They're weeping and wailing
greatly. And the Lord asked him, why are
you making this a do? Why are you weeping? Why are
you mourning? And everybody had to think, of
course we're weeping. Of course we're mourning. Of
course we are. A 12 year old girl has just died. She's the only daughter in the
family. She's probably a shameless daddy's
girl. Probably. This girl is the apple of her
parent's eye. And she just died. And the family
is weeping. Their friends are weeping and
mourning with them. Of course they are. They're few
things that I can think of more sad, more heartbreaking than
this. I can't think of a worse trial for a parent to endure.
The death of their child. And Jay Iris just didn't understand.
He did not understand why would the Lord tell these folks not
to do what just comes naturally to us, to weep and mourn when
a little child has died. He didn't understand. Then the
Lord said, the girl's not dead. She's just sleeping. Now, everybody
knew life had left this little girl's body. They knew it. Her
heart wasn't beating anymore. She wasn't breathing anymore.
She's dead. Her body's dead. And they just
laughed the Lord to scorn. But not Jairus. Not Jairus. He kept his mouth shut. Maybe
things went through his head, but outwardly he did not say
a single word. He kept his mouth shut and didn't
question the Lord. Now again, this is a good lesson
we do well to learn to not question our Lord about what He's doing.
You know, truth be told, we cannot fully understand everything the
Lord's doing with the circumstances that happen in our life. The
ripple effects and what goes out, you know, and what all the
Lord, you know, we might see a little bit of what the Lord's
accomplishing, but what is accomplished from those ripple effects that
just go out and out and out, you know, we can't understand
what the Lord's doing there. We just can't understand. Now,
if we know we can't understand, I mean, we know that. Everybody can agree with that,
right? We don't understand. Well, then let's not question
what we don't understand. Let's not question the Lord when
we don't have the ability to understand even if He did tell
us. But here's something we can remember. Whatever it is that
the Lord is doing, I promise you this, He's not doing something
bad. No, sir. He's not doing something
bad. He's not doing something evil.
Look over a few pages at Mark chapter seven. The Lord had just healed a deaf
man who'd had a speech impediment. And the Lord healed him. In verse
37, those people that saw this miracle of the healing were beyond
measure astonished, saying, he hath done all things well. He maketh both the deaf to hear
and the dumb to speak, he hath done all things well. That's true of everything the
Lord's ever done. That's true, the Lord has done
all things well before the Lord ever does anything for us, while
the Lord's doing something for us, and after the Lord's done
something for us. He's done all things well. The Lord has done all things
well, even if he doesn't give me what I asked for, even if
he doesn't give me what I think I need, if the Lord performs,
if he does not perform a miracle for me, he's still done all things
well. Abraham knew that. Look at Genesis
chapter 18. Everything our God does is right just because he
does it. This is when Abraham begins interceding
for Sodom. Genesis 18, verse 23. And Abraham drew near and said,
will thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Perventure there
be 50 righteous within the city. Will thou also destroy and not
spare the place for the 50 righteous that are therein? That be far
from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the
wicked. And that the righteous should be as the wicked, that
be far from thee Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? Yes, he will. Always he does
what is right. Now, I don't have to understand
that, do you? I don't have to understand that what the Lord
is doing is right. You see, we're not required to
understand. This is what we're required to
do, only believe. So only believe even when you
don't understand what the Lord's doing. All right, here's the third thing.
And it seems so obvious, but it's something that's such a
blessing to me. Only believe because the situation is hopeless. Don't only believe even when
the situation is hopeless. Only believe because the situation
is hopeless. This messenger came from Jairus'
house and said, your daughter's dead. Why troublest thou the
master any further? The situation's hopeless. Jairus'
worst fears have come true. His little daughter has died. You know, she was sick. While
she was sick, he thought he had some hope for her, but now she
died. And the situation is hopeless. You know, logic tells us somebody
who's sick, they can get better, right? But when somebody's dead,
all hope of life is lost. I mean, and who can blame Jay
Iris for thinking, well, all hope's lost now. You know, she's
dead. I don't have any hope of her
being raised back to life again. I mean, we've never seen anybody
raised back to life again, have we? When one of our loved ones
dies, we have no hope left for them to have any more physical
life. That's why we bury him. If we thought they could come
back to life, we wouldn't bury him. We bury him because we know
there's no more hope. All fleshly hope is lost for
poor old Jay Iris. But you know what? That is the
very best time to only believe. Only believe because the situation
is hopeless. We only believe because that's
all we can do. is just believe Christ. I can't
do anything to help the situation, to affect the situation, to make
anything happen, but our God has the power to do it. So only
believe. You know why the reason is that
the Lord brings us so low? He brings his people so low so
that all hope in our flesh is gone. All hope in our flesh or
somebody else's flesh. When all other hope is gone,
what happens to us? We're forced to only believe. We're forced to, because the
Lord has made it plain to you, there's nothing you can do. He
shuts you up so all you can do is believe on Christ. Now that's a tough experience,
when the Lord comes to us in the preaching of the gospel and
makes us see, I'm spiritually dead. I'm spiritually dead. Here's what I deserve. I deserve
for God to cast me into hell. I've never done anything to please
God. I can't do anything to please God. I'm dead and I can't do
anything to give myself life. I'm hopeless. That's a painful
experience, isn't it? But you know what? We have to
be dead before we can begin life. God has to bring us low before
he can lift us up. As long as I think that spiritually
speaking, well, I'm just sick. I mean, you know, I don't do
everything right, but I'm not as bad as somebody else, you know.
As long as I just think I'm spiritually sick, I could have some hope
of recovery. I could have some hope of, you
know, of getting better. But when I'm dead, all hope is
gone. And I have to be spiritually
dead before I can ever be given life in Christ. So I must trust
Christ only. Now you think about that. When
the Lord came to Ezekiel and told him to go preach, where
did he send him? He didn't send the prophet to
the home for the aged and disabled veterans, did he? He didn't send
the prophet to the battlefield immediately after the battle
had ended and there were fresh wounds and people maybe had just
died just a few minutes ago. The Lord sent the prophet to
a valley that was full of dry, dead bones. They'd been dead
a long time. I mean, if you thought, well,
there's hope that this body can be brought back to death because
it's dead, but you know, it's still warm and still, you know,
these are dry, dead bones, bones scattered everywhere. There's
no flesh left in them. They're bleached dry, they're
dead. Nobody would ever dream there could be life for those
bones. but the deadness of the bones
is what gave them hope for life. You've got to be dead before
the Lord gives you life. Christ has to come save sinners
by giving those dead sinners life. So only believe, only trust
in. If your situation is hopeless,
you're a dead sinner, you just know at any moment God could
cast me into hell. and he'd be right for doing it.
I know that's terrifying and I'm sorry, but it's good. It's good when the Lord brings
you to that place. Are you hopeless? Only believe. Only believe because the situation
is hopeless. That's what faith does. Then
here's the fourth thing. Only believe because Christ is
the resurrection and the life. In verse 41, he took the damsel
by the hand and said unto her, Talitha cumi, which is being
interpreted, damsel I say unto thee, arise. And straightway
the damsel arose 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 the Lord Jesus
came, and took this girl by the hand. And boy, if you don't see
in this story that this is the sovereign of heaven and earth,
this is the sovereign over life and death. He came to her and
took her by the hand and said, I say unto thee, arise. Not just, you know, somebody
else. I like how the Lord, when he
talks to the Pharisees a lot of time, he said, well, you say
this and your traditions say this, but I say unto thee, This
is the one who has power and authority. He has a power over
life and death. I say unto thee arise. Now only
believe. Only believe Christ because he
has the power to do his will. He has the power to give life
to dead sinners. To you, to me, to our children,
to our loved ones, to our neighbors, to our community. He has the
power, only believe. because he has the power to give
life. This man has the power to put
away the sin of his people. He puts sin away. Where there
is no sin, there can't be any death. He has the power to put
sin away. He has the power to give faith
so that we can only believe. And I'll tell you this, I know
when you and me will come running to Christ, when he says unto
us, I say unto thee, I say unto thee, come to me. See this is
a picture of the irresistible call of the Spirit. The call
of the Holy Spirit is irresistible because of the power of the one
calling you. The power, he has the power to
make us willing to come when he says come. Now I'll tell you
another reason why the call of the Holy Spirit is irresistible.
Because when the Holy Spirit takes the gospel preached, he
takes the word that's preached, and he shows you Christ in it.
That's the work of the Holy Spirit, is to reveal Christ to us. When
the beauty and the glory of Christ is revealed to our hearts, you
can't keep somebody from coming to Christ. You can't keep them
away. They're gonna come running. The Lord had the power the irresistible
power to give this girl life. When he said, I say unto thee
arise, could she stay laying there? No, she couldn't. She had to arise. He gave her
real life. This was real. This girl got
up as soon as she arose and she walked. Only living people walk. Only healthy people walk. You
know, when Christ commands that he gives his people spiritual
life, his people walk. They walk with Christ. They walk
following Christ. The only people who can walk
and follow Christ are people who've been given spiritual life.
Our God comes to us and says, I say unto thee arise. And we
immediately walk following Christ, walk in his steps. And then the
Lord commanded to give her meat. Now, the only people who can
eat are living, healthy people. When the Lord gives His people
spiritual life, He commands that they be given something deep.
And they're given something deep that's suitable for them. The
children's bread. Now, the only people who can
eat Christ and be nourished, spiritually nourished by hearing
the gospel, are people that the Lord has made spiritually alive. I love how the Lord, He tells
us, only believe. He's going to take care of His
people from eternity to eternity. Not just from cradle to the grave.
From eternity to eternity. He'll keep His people. He'll
do everything that's required for His people. Only believe. When the Lord gives one of His
children faith in Christ, you know what else He does? He gives
them something to eat. He gives them a place where they
can be fed through the preaching of the gospel. That's what the
Lord's given you and me to do to our community, to our families,
to our loved ones, to anybody who'll come. This is what the
Lord's given us the responsibility to do. Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. Well, just preach
Christ. Don't do anything. Try to get
somebody to make a decision. Don't try to make things happen. Don't,
you know, do things to try to make the crowd, you know, grow.
If we do that, we're just going to try to bunch of goats, not
sheep. Just preach Christ. And only believe. Only believe
he'll make it effectual to his people. All right. Well, that'll
be a blessing to you.