Well, good morning. If you care
to open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 9, that's where our lesson
will be from this morning. Matthew chapter 9. Before we begin, let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven,
holy and reverent is your matchless name. We bow before your throne
of grace this morning. I'm thankful that in our Lord
Jesus Christ, we can come before a throne of grace. Not your throne
of holy justice, but your throne of grace. Father, I pray that
this morning that you would enable us to learn more of Christ our
Savior. That you might enable us to worship
you in spirit and in truth. And that, Father, you might speak
to the hearts of your people through your Word. and enable
us to lay hold upon, to believe and rest in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Give us faith, saving faith to believe Christ our Savior. Father, I pray that you would
be with me in this hour, that you would enable me to rightly
divide the word of truth and that you enable me by your spirit
to preach the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and give all who
are gathered here this morning a hearing ear and a heart that
would receive and believe your word. What we pray for ourselves,
Father, we pray for our children's classes that you'd bless our
teachers, that you'd give them a word from thee, that you'd
bless our children. Father, how we beg mercy for
our children. We know they've received the
nature of their fathers. And Father, I pray you'd be pleased
to show mercy to these reveal to them who and what they are,
that you'd take your word as it's been taught to them and
use it to reveal Christ and cause them to run to him, to find in
him everything that they need. This is our prayer, Father, for
all of our loved ones who know not thee, that you'd reveal yourself
to them in mercy and grace. Father, at this time, we pray
for our country, that you would give our leaders much wisdom,
that you would would protect our servicemen and women who
are in harm's way, enable them to protect the freedoms that
you have so freely given to this country. Father, again, in this
hour and in this day, we pray you would reveal more of your
glory to us. Get glory to your name through
the preaching of your word this morning. It's in the precious
name of our Lord Jesus Christ that we pray and ask these blessings. I've titled our lesson this morning,
Only Believe. I took my title from Mark's account
of this story of the Lord going to Jairus' house. Mark says that
the Lord told Jairus, be not afraid, only believe, only believe. There's a chorus we sing, only
believe, only believe. All things are possible, only
believe. The commandment to us is to 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 way to help get
God's promise done. That's what Abraham and Sarah
did when he went into Haggai and had Hagar and had Ishmael. That's not only believe. That's
what happens when we try to help the Lord get the job done. The
commandment is only Believe. The Lord didn't tell Jairus,
now believe and do your best. Believe and let's hurry to your
house. He didn't say believe and join the right church or
believe and do all the right ceremonies. The Savior said only
believe. Only believe. Salvation is by
faith alone. Through grace alone. So only
believe. That's the commandment. Alright,
here's a question. Only believe what? Only believe
what? You know, are we to believe,
well, you know, everything's going to be okay for some mysterious,
unknown reason. Everything's going to be okay.
Are we to believe that everything will be okay if our faith is
strong enough? Are we to believe everything
will be okay as long as we, you know, act right and follow the
Lord's way? No, that's not what scripture says, is it? The commandment
is only believe Christ. Only believe Christ. And we're
not to believe the Jesus of our imagination. There is another
Jesus. That's what the apostle Paul
told us. There is another Jesus. So we're not to believe the Jesus
of our imagination. We're not to believe any Jesus
we hear preached because there could be another one. We're to
only believe the Lord Jesus Christ as he's been pleased to reveal
himself in this book. If it's not in his book, don't
believe it. Don't believe it. Concerning
the salvation of your soul, don't believe it. And I want to give
you four points this morning. I pray we'll press upon our hearts
to only believe Christ. Number one is this. Believing
Christ only does not mean that we have to have perfect faith
in order to be saved. Saving faith is not perfect faith. It's not faith that never wavers.
It's not faith that never doubts. Saving faith is faith in Christ.
That's why I said only believe Christ. Now, Matthew chapter
9, verse 18. While he spake these things unto
them, behold, there came a certain ruler and worshipped him, saying,
My daughter is even now dead, but come and lay thy hand upon
her and she shall live. And Jesus arose and followed
him, and so did his disciples. Now we know Jairus had faith
in Christ. We know that because of what
he did. He came to Christ. He is a ruler
of the synagogue. Now you've got to remember who
the rulers of the synagogue are. They're the scribes and the Pharisees
who hated the Lord Jesus Christ. They were opposed to salvation
by grace. They were opposed to salvation
that did not include man's works. They were opposed to doing away
with the law and establishing grace. They were opposed to that
because if he did away with all those things, he did away with
all the prestige that they worked so hard to build up. But this
religious ruler, he humbled himself and he came to the Lord and he
worshipped him. He worshipped him. Jairus made
himself no better than that leper, no better than the Syrophoenician
woman who came and worshipped the Lord Jesus. They came and
worshiped the Lord because they were helpless before him. They
came before him begging him. They didn't worship him because
he did something for them. They came worshiping him because
they were helpless. Now that is the only God we'll
ever worship. The one who's sovereign, the
one he, we can't get him to do anything. We can't influence
him to do anything. He's sovereign. He does as he
will. That's the only God will ever
worship. God is sovereign over us and
true worship acknowledges I am completely dependent upon God
to save me. God can have mercy on me or he
can damn me. It's his choice and either way
he'll be right. He'll be right because he does it. So worshiping
him is being at his feet, waiting on him, waiting on him to do
his will. Now Jairus has faith. He came
and worshiped the Lord. And he believes that the Lord
Jesus can heal his little daughter. He believes that. He believes
the Lord's the only one who can heal her. He has faith, doesn't
he? But now his faith's not perfect. He wants the Lord to come where
his daughter is and touch her. It's like the Lord has to be
so close that he can touch his daughter before she would be
healed. And a ruler of the Jews should
have known better, shouldn't he? Look back a page at Matthew
chapter eight. You would think that this ruler
of the Jews should have known at least as much as a Roman centurion. This Roman centurion wasn't raised
steeped in the scriptures like this ruler of the Jews was. You
would think he'd known as much as Roman does. Matthew eight
verse five. And when Jesus was entered into
Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion beseeching him and
saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home, sick of the palsy, grievously
tormented. And Jesus said unto him, I'll
come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I'm
not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof, but speak
the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I'm a man
under authority, having soldiers under me. I understand the authority
of a word. I say to this man, go, and he
goeth. And to another, come, and he cometh. And to my servant,
do this, and he doeth it. And when Jesus heard it, he marveled. and said to them that followed,
Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith. No,
not in Israel. Now, I know no one has perfect
faith, but the Lord himself called the faith of this centurion.
Great faith is great faith that believed in the power of the
word of God. He knew that all the Lord had
to do was speak the word, just will it. His servant would be
healed. He didn't have to go touch him.
And he said, Not only do you not have to go touch him, I'm
not worthy that you'd even come under my roof. This man knows
something about who the Lord is. He said, I'm not worthy that
you come under my roof and all you've got to do is will it.
And my servant will be healed. Jairus didn't believe that strongly,
did he? No, he didn't have perfect faith at all. He thought the
Lord would have to be within arm's reach of his daughter to
heal her. He thought that the Lord's power
was limited. so that he had to be near her
to heal her. That's not perfect faith. Yet
the Lord immediately went with him to go heal his daughter.
Immediately. Our faith does not have to be
perfect faith in order for us to be saved. Now, you know that
I am not excusing weak faith. There's never an excuse for weak
faith. Because our faith, saving faith,
is in Christ. He's got all power. He is God. He's got all power. So our faith
should never waver, should never be weak. But still yet, our faith
is often weak. I say often all the time. But
our faith does not have to be perfect faith in order to be
saved. Salvation doesn't come from the
perfection of our faith. Salvation comes from the perfection
of the object of our faith. It's faith in Christ who is perfect.
Now there is no salvation apart from faith in Christ. If you
would be saved, you must believe Christ. But it's not faith that
saves. You've got to remember that.
It's Christ who saves. And if we would be saved, we
must believe Christ only. Christ only without anything
we do added to it. All right, number two, here's
a good reason to only believe. only believe Christ because he
delights to show mercy. Verse 20, And behold, a woman
which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years came behind
him and touched the hem of his garment. And he said within herself,
If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. But Jesus turned
him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good
comfort by faith that made thee whole. And the woman was made
whole from that hour. Now, we won't go into this woman
with the issue of blood. We dealt with her last week and
the Lord's interaction with her last week. But I read that account,
the story again, to show us that we should only believe Christ
because he delights to show mercy. He delights in it. On his way
to show mercy to Jairus, he stopped and had mercy on another poor
sinner, on this poor woman. Now that is a wonderful reason
for sinners like you and me to only believe Christ. He delights
to show the thing we need the most, mercy. He delights in it. But now think about Jairus and
the Lord's going to his house to heal his little daughter.
Oh, this girl is precious to him. Oh, she's precious. And
I just can't help but think He had to be so frustrated that
the Lord would stop and he would delay and spend time healing
this woman and talking to this woman. Jairus does not have time
to waste. But he also had reason to be
encouraged, didn't he? He had reason to be encouraged.
All this woman did was crawl up behind the Lord and reach
up and touch the hem of his garment. She was immediately healed. Now Jairus, he's got to be filled
with such hope. such confidence, he'd seen the
Lord heal somebody. He'd seen it with his own eyes.
If this woman touched the hem of the Lord's garment, just think
what's going to happen when the Lord lays his hand on his daughter.
She's going to be healed. He had no doubt about it. Now
look over at Mark chapter five. Mark gives us some information
here that Matthew does not give us. When Jairus' hopes were lifted
up, he's so encouraged. Suddenly, the bottom dropped
out of everything and his world came crashing down around his
ears. And that brings me to the third
point. Only believe. Only believe Christ because the
situation is hopeless. Now, you notice I didn't say
only believe Christ when the situation is hopeless. I said
only believe Christ because the situation is hopeless. Mark five,
verse thirty five. 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? Jairus's worst fears had come
true. His daughter had died. Well, now we got another matter
altogether. Before she was just sick. Now she's dead. And dead is a whole lot worse
than being sick, even grievously ill. Your logic tells us the
sick can get better. I mean, there's at least hope
that the sick could get better. But once somebody's dead, all
hope's lost. And who can blame Jairus if he
thought all hope's lost? Who can blame these for saying,
come from his house and say, don't trouble the master any
further. There's no more hope. There's no reason for him to
come. Your daughter's dead. I mean, who can really blame
them for thinking that? Have you ever seen a dead person
raised back to life? They hadn't. I haven't. I mean,
when our loved ones die, we lose all hope of them regaining life,
don't we? That's why we bury them. There's
no hope of them coming back to life. Well, now he's got this
word, your daughter's dead. All hope in the flesh is gone. All hope seems to be lost. And
that is the very moment that the Lord told Jairus, when all
hope is lost, situation hopeless, only believe. Verse 36. As soon as Jesus heard the word
that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, be
not afraid, only believe. Don't be afraid. Only believe. You see, you can't only believe
what you've seen. Now it's not seeing is believing,
is it? Not scripturally. Not spiritually, not in salvation.
In salvation, hearing is believing. And you can't just believe what
you've seen. You can't just believe what you can prove. I can't prove
anything that I believe about salvation. I can't prove anything
that I believe other than this is what the scriptures say. I
can't. You can't prove it. I can't only believe what I can
understand, because what about God can you understand? Really,
anything? We can't only believe, we can
only understand. Only believe Christ. When the
situation is hopeless, all we can do is believe Christ. And that's the very reason that
the Lord so often brings his people so low. We're all hoping
the flesh is gone. All hoping our flesh or anybody
else's flesh. That's why he brings us so low
to that point, so that we're forced to only believe, only
believe Christ. You see, we have to see ourselves
as spiritually dead before we can be saved. We've got to be
dead before we can be given life. We got to be stripped naked before
we can be clothed. We've got to be made hungry before
we can eat. We got to be made thirsty before we can drink.
I've got to be dead, spiritually dead before I can be saved. Because
as long as I'm just sick, I got some hope of recovery. I think,
well, I mean, I'm pretty sick, but there's some strength here
in me. As long as I'm sick, I'll never be saved. But if I'm dead
and all hope is gone, now I'm a candidate for God's grace.
I got to be dead. See, all hope is gone when you're
dead because dead people can't do anything. They can't hear. They can't feel. They can't come
to Christ. They can't decide to do anything.
They can't decide to take the first step. They're dead. They
can't do anything. And if I'm spiritually dead,
I can't do anything. So the only hope I have of life
is Christ. Only believe. He must give me
life or I'll stay dead. See, I've been forced to. I must
only believe on Christ. And when we preach the gospel,
I'll tell you what we're doing. We're looking for dead sinners.
That's who I'm looking for. I preach the gospel. sinners. I know what you're thinking,
right? Why look for dead sinners? Dead
sinners can't hear. They can't hear the gospel. A
dead sinner can't believe Christ. You're absolutely right. They
can't. But dead people, the people who have no hope, they are the
only people who will ever hear the gospel and believe it. They're
the only ones, dead people. The Lord sent his prophet Ezekiel
to preach. Remember how I sent him out to
preach? He didn't send Ezekiel out to the home of the sick and
disabled veterans, did he? That's not where he sent him.
He didn't send the prophet to the battlefield. Immediately
after the battle, where all those soldiers lay wounded and dying,
that's not where he sent him. He sent the prophet to a valley
that was full of dry, dead bones. He waited, they've been dead
a long time. I mean, there's no hope. These
bones, they've been picked clean by the birds and the animals,
the flesh, whatever flesh the animals didn't get decayed, the
bones are falling apart, they're turning back to dust. It's a
valley full of dried, dead bones. There's no hope in this valley,
is there? But the deadness of the bones, that's what gave the
dead hope. That's the only thing that gave
them hope of life. Christ came to save sinners,
dead sinners, and He came to save them by giving them life.
So only believe, only believe Christ. Don't just believe what
you can see with your eyes, because you can't see God, the Holy Spirit
move. You can't see Him. You can tell
once He's been there, but you can't see Him moving. You can't
see spiritual life. Don't believe just what you've
seen. Don't just believe what you've seen happen before. Don't
only believe when you've got a mountain of evidence. That's
what our brother Thomas is wanting, wasn't he? He's wanting a mountain
of evidence for he believed that the Lord had risen from the dead.
No, don't just believe what you've seen with your eyes and you've
seen a mountain of evidence. Only believe Christ. Only believe
Christ. And this faith to only believe
Christ does not come to us naturally. I'm not giving you a work to
do now. I'm not giving you, you've got to conjure up this faith
in yourself. Faith to only believe Christ is a gift of God. It's
a gift that God must give us. And it does not come naturally
to anybody. Look here at verse 37, Mark 5. 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 he
seeth the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly. They
were professional mourners, they were coming to mourn. And when
he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make you this to do
and weep? The damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed
him to scorn. But when he put them all out,
he taketh the father and mother of the damsel, and them that
were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying. Now
someone came and told Jairus, remember they said, Don't trouble
the master. Any further? And then he got there and he
said, this girl's not dead. She's only sleeping. And they
laughed him to scorn. They mocked him. They ridiculed
him. They made fun of him. Now they just called him the
master. The master of what? The master
of what? If the Lord is the master, then
he's master over life and death. He's master over salvation. He's
master over grace. He has the keys of death and
hell if he's the master. So that brings me to the fourth
point. Only believe Christ, the resurrection
and the life. He is our resurrection and he
is our life. Verse 41. And he took the damsel
by the hand and said unto her, Tillitha cumi, which is being
interpreted, damsel, I say unto thee arise. Straightway the damsel
arose and walked for she was of the age of 12 years and they
were astonished with a great astonishment. And he charged
them straightly that no man should know it. And he commanded that
something should be given her to eat. Now only believe Christ. He is the resurrection. The Lord
came and took this girl, she's dead, took her by the hand, and
he said, I say unto thee, arise. I say. Now only believe Christ
here. It all depends on who's speaking
in it. If somebody else said that, I'm
not so sure she would have risen. It all depends on the one who
has the power. And the Savior said, I say unto
thee, arise. She straightway rose. Now, this
is a picture of the irresistible call of God, the Holy Spirit.
When the Lord comes to you and he calls you, he's going to call
you to come to Christ. You may have never heard before.
You may have understood before. You never believed before. But
when the Lord comes to you and he calls you to Christ, the dead
are going to arise and they're going to come to Christ. You
can't stop them. Now, I know it is impossible
for this dead girl to arrive. It's impossible. But it's also
impossible for that girl to stay dead. If the Lord says unto her,
I said arise, it's impossible for her to stay dead because
of who's speaking, because who's giving the commandment. And God,
the Holy Spirit calls a sinner to come to Christ. It's impossible. for that sinner to stay in the
flesh. They must come to Christ. They will, because they're irresistibly
drawn to Christ. And they'll come willingly. The
Spirit of God doesn't give a commandment, you better do this or that. No,
they're going to come willingly. They'll be made willing in the
day of his power, and they're going to come. You know why?
Because they only believe. They only believe on Christ.
They can't stay away from him. See, this thing is salvation.
It all depends on who's doing the saving. Now, since Christ
is the Savior, only believe him. Only believe him. This girl had
life because Christ commanded her to have it. And if you and
I are going to have spiritual life, you know how we're going
to get it? Christ is going to command us to have it. And that's
when we'll have it. And if he does it, he's going
to do it through the preaching of his word. And if we're going
to have life, Christ, not only must he be our resurrection,
he must raise us from the dead. He must be our life. He must be our life. Now, our
Lord showed us an example of this matter of the resurrection.
Remember, he was talking to Martha outside the tomb of her brother
Lazarus. And Lazarus said, I know my brother will be raised again
last day. I know that. Martha had some
doctrine downright, didn't she? And our Lord told her, Martha,
it's a person. It's a person. Everything spiritual,
salvation, our resurrection, our righteousness, our life,
everything concerning our salvation is a person. What did the Savior
tell Martha? Martha, I am the resurrection
and the life, and he that what? Believeth. Believeth in me. Though he were dead, yet shall
he live. only believe, whosoever only
believes on Christ shall live because Christ is his resurrection.
And I'm convinced that's why the Lord waited to come to this
girl. He waited till she was dead, just like when they came,
they sent word to the Savior and said, he whom thou lovest
is sick. He stayed there two days and he didn't begin the
journey to Bethany until he had to tell his disciples, our friend
Lazarus is dead. He said, first he sleeps. He
says, Oh Lord, if he's sleeping, that's good. He's going to recover.
And Lord said, well, I got to tell you in your language, he's
dead. And now we're going, he waited
till Lazarus was dead to get there. And he waited for the
same reason to come to this girl until she was dead. So we would
learn his true power in salvation. This is what I said a minute
ago, in order for us to have spiritual life, we've got to
be dead first. And I know many of you are thinking,
well, I mean, we came that way. We came into this world spiritually
dead, didn't we? Yes, we did. Our problem is we
don't know it. That's our problem. We're dead. So we don't know we're dead.
I mean, we think our physical life is life. I think the fact
that I can decide to pick this glass up and set it down means
I can decide to accept Jesus or not accept Jesus. I mean,
we mistake physical things for spiritual things. We think, our
mamas tell us all our time growing up, oh, you're a good boy, you're
a good girl. We think that means God thinks we're good, yeah.
So what does God have to do before he saves? He's got to kill us.
It's the Lord who killeth and the Lord who maketh alive. He's
got to kill us and then he makes us alive. And the Lord waved
to this girl who was dead and he came and gave her life. I
say unto thee, arise. And when she rose, she had real
life. This is real life. Because what's
the first thing she did? She started walking around. She
started walking. Only living people can walk.
And when Christ commands and gives his people spiritual life,
I tell you what we're going to do. We're going to walk. We're
going to walk with Christ. We're going to walk following
Christ. The only people who can walk and follow Christ are people
who've been given faith in Christ. to walk after Him and follow
Him. They have spiritual life, so they can walk. And then the
Lord commanded she be given something to eat. Now the only people who
can eat are living, healthy people. And when the Lord commands, He
gives His people spiritual life, He commands that they be given
something to eat. And what do they eat? They eat
Christ, the living bread. They eat Christ, the children's
bread. Only living people can eat Christ. Only living people
can eat and be spiritually nourished by hearing the gospel of Christ
preached. No, that's people who Lord made spiritually alive.
They walk and they eat. So only believe, only believe
Christ. He is the resurrection and he's
the life. He's the reason we have life,
the resurrection, and he is our life. He's the reason we stay
alive. We stay alive by feeding on him. And if Christ has saved
us, we will only believe. Only believe Christ. That's how
you can tell if God saved you or not. If you only believe.
You see, there is an exclusivity. Exclusivity. I try to always
use small words. I couldn't find a small word
for that. Exclusivity. There's a singleness to this
thing of salvation. It's Christ only. Christ only. You remember the disciples up
there on the Mount of Transfiguration. Peter later wrote about it. He
said, oh, we've seen the things we've seen. Oh, my. I mean, you
think about that. John, how'd they know it was
Moses and Elijah? Somehow they knew, didn't they? They saw Moses
and Elijah come talk to the Lord. They saw the Lord's glory just
burst out of his body. He pulled back that curtain just
a little bit and the glory that shone forth, Oh, they saw his
glory. They saw him talking to the law
and the prophets about the death that he should accomplish. And
oh, Peter was so just impressed by that. He was just, all this
is so, this is such a blessing. He said, Lord, let's build three
tabernacles. Let's mark this occasion. Let's remember this
where you stood talking to Moses and Elijah. And boy, then God
thundered from heaven, didn't he? And then they just all looked
down and then they looked up and what did they see? They saw
Jesus only. When were those disciples blessed
on the Mount of Transfiguration? When they saw Jesus only. It
wasn't seeing Moses and Elijah. It was seeing Jesus only. That's when we're going to be
blessed. And you don't have to go to the Mount of Transfiguration
to have some great mystical experience like that to be able to be blessed
like that. Because what did Peter say about that very thing? He
said, you got something better than that. This is where he's
revealed. And we read this book and we
quit seeing laws and rules to live by, moral stories, you know,
that we might figure out how to win friends, influence people.
And we start seeing Jesus only, then we're going to be blessed.
You see him in this book. I know David believed only in
Christ. After everything that happened
in David's life, you know what David said? I will make mention
of thy righteousness even of thine only. It's the singleness,
the exclusivity of this, it's of thine only. And that's what
you and I'll do if the Lord enables us to believe only, only on our
Lord Jesus Christ. I pray he will. All right, I
hope the Lord will bless that to you.