I titled this message, Christ's Willingness to Save. His Willingness to Save. We saw his power to save. He saved that demonic man. And
here we see his willingness to save. What would power be without willingness? His power
to save me really would not do me any good. if he's not willing
to save me. And that's what I want you to
keep in mind as we go through this. Last week I want you to
keep in mind his power to save. And today I want you to keep
in mind his willingness to forgive. And tomorrow when you need forgiveness,
today when you need forgiveness, just remember he's willing to
forgive. However much you need forgiveness,
let me put it this way, however much you desire forgiveness,
He's more willing to forgive than you and I are ever desirous
to have it. He delights, the Scripture says,
to show mercy. As much as I desire His mercy,
His delight to show it is infinitely greater. Infinitely greater. You ever feel like you do something
wrong and you ask somebody to forgive you for it and you do
it wrong again and you think, man, I'm going to wear it out. I'm going to wear it
out. You know, our Lord told the disciples,
if your brother sinned against you seven times in a day, do
what? Forgive him. Shall he do less? He's showing
us not only how we ought to be willing to forgive, but his willingness
to forgive. We sinned against him Really, there's a part of me
that continually sins against Him. And He continually forgives. And forgives. And forgives. That's
what I want you to keep in mind. That leper said, Lord, if Thou
wilt. He knew he had the power to do
it. He knew he could do it. He said, Lord, if You will, You
can make me clean. You can make me clean. Throughout the Word of God, we
not only see His power to save, but we see His willingness to
save. That is demonstrated, especially throughout the Gospel. You go
over to Psalm 107. They get in trouble, He would
deliver them. They get in trouble, He would deliver them. They get
in trouble, He didn't save. No, that's the last time. I've
had enough. No, He delivered them. He never turned away, ever, never,
ever did He turn away a needy sinner. Never. Anyone who came for mercy, for
forgiveness, for true healing, He saved. He healed. He forgave. Every time. Every time. Now, the first thing we see here
in verses 21 through 24, we see Jairus, I think that's how you
pronounce his name. If not, it will be for right
now. But anyway, he's the ruler of the synagogue. And when he
saw the Lord there in verse 22, he fell at his feet. This man sensed his helplessness. He knew he could do nothing about
what he needed at that hour. I could feel, I mean, I could
feel this man's pain. I can feel it. I know a little
bit about it. I know something about it. He
said, my daughter is about to die. And he besought him greatly,
saying, my little daughter lies at the point of death. I beg thee, come and lay thy
hand on her that she may be healed and she shall live. Lord, if
you, if you. If you'll just come, lay your
hand on her, everything will be all right. That man believed
that he could do it, that he was able to do it. And look what
our Lord did in verse 24. And Jesus went with him. He went with him at his request. He got up from where he was.
He was speaking to a lot of people there that were close to the
sea, a multitude had gathered around him. And this one man
came in and interrupted. I have no doubt he interrupted
what was going on, because you see here in verse 21, when Jesus
was passed over again by ship to the other side, much people
gathered under him, and he was nigh unto the sea, and here they
are, this throng is around him. But this man's desperate. I would
to God I could find some desperate sinners. Just find somebody desperate
to be saved. Lord, if you don't save me, I'm
going to perish. If you don't save me, I'm going to perish.
This man was desperate. My daughter's going to die. He's
going to die if you don't do something. And he got in there
to where he was. And the Lord listened to him.
You've got all this throng going on. You've got all this clamor
going on. And the Lord, he's got to listen. He's got the God
of heaven and earth eager. Would you like to have that?"
He's got his ear, he's got his attention. And he said, my daughter's
going to die. If you'll come and touch her,
she'll live. And he gets up and he goes with him. He doesn't
say, well, you know, hold on here. No, he gets right up and
goes with him. Willing to do it. At the request
of this man, he's willing to go and save this man's daughter. No physician. No physician was
ever so willing to save. None. And on his way, on his
way there, there's a woman with an issue of blood. She's had
it for 12 long years. That's a long time to be sick,
isn't it? Long time to be sick. And not
only did she have an issue of blood, but she had a law problem.
She had a problem with the law now. Go over in Leviticus chapter
15. In Leviticus chapter 15, let me
read something here to you. And if a woman have an issue
of 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." For twelve
years she lived like that. For 12 years, she lived under
this cloud of unclean. And you know, if anybody touched
her or touched where she sat on it, they were considered unclean.
And she had to deal with that for 12 years. And I'm sure by
this time, she's anemic. She's just anemic. She's sick.
She's weak. This woman is very frail. I mean,
just get this picture of her in her mind, just like what we
are by nature. Very weak, very frail. I noticed over Psalm 38,
David says, teach me how frail I am. I made a number of my days. Teach
me how frail I am. She's very frail. God has to
teach us how frail we are, doesn't he? Sometimes it takes 12 years.
Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it takes longer. I
tell you what, it'll take however long it takes for him to bring
us to himself. And it'll take whatever it takes
to bring us to himself, and it'll be worth it. It'll be worth every
step of the way. It'll be worth every pain. It'll
be worth every tear. It'll be worth it all when he
brings us to himself. Now, it says in verse 26, well,
it says in verse 25, it's a certain woman. Her name's not given,
and I think the reason her name's not given, first of all, is not
important. My name's not important. There's one name that's really
important here. That's that name that's above every name. That
name, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the name that's important.
It's his name. Let's not get caught up on this
person's name and that person's name. Let's get caught up on
his name. A certain woman. And I tell you
what, she sure was a certain woman. It was his daughter. It
was his daughter, and guess what? He saved his daughter on the
way. Well, Jairus came and said, my daughter's going to die. Well,
on his way, he saves another one of his daughters, this one
with the issue of blood. Now, since she suffered many
things, many things, I cannot express how we ought
to hate sin. We ought to absolutely hate and
despise sin, because everything I've had to suffer is because
of sin. Inwardly or outwardly, it's because
of sin. Sin has brought so much suffering
to this human race. It just grieves me to watch the
news at times, and I see the suffering. The suffering of children. The suffering of the human race. It's sad, isn't it? Sad isn't
even a good word for it. And all that's because of sin.
How we ought to hate sin. But it says she suffered many
things of many physicians. Most of them were just quacks.
Especially in that day, they were. Have you ever suffered
many things of many physicians before you found the right one
that could do something for you? I was talking to a friend of
mine a couple of weeks ago. He had taken his wife to the
Cleveland Clinic. They wanted to cut out a bottom
part of her lung. They said she had some kind of
lung disease. So they were going to cut out the bottom part of
her lung. And he said, no, you're not.
And so he kept looking. Well, you know, she ended up
having asthma. Asthma. Suffered. And he was telling
me all the medication that she was on and they're having to
bring her down off this medication now. It's so strong. Treating
her for something she didn't even have completely. Suffered
many things with many physicians. They had no cure for her. But
I'll tell you what, they took her money. There's two professions
that I have learned that can totally fail at and still yet
be rich. That's the medical profession
and the law profession. You can go to court and be innocent
and lose. And you still got to pay them
rascals the same amount of money. Still got to pay them. You can
be doctored and doctored and doctored and doctored. I'm not
against it, believe me. I'm not against it. But I'm just telling
you, you let me make a bad part out of the shop, I bet you I
don't get paid for it. I bet I don't. What'd I say?
You wouldn't pay me for it. Not at the mill, you wouldn't.
You'd say, you'd do that thing over. But they can just miss it. Still
got to pay them. She suffered many things of many
physicians. They took her money, but they
couldn't do her any good. And religion is the same way. Religion
is exactly the same way. They mistreat you and still take
your money. They still take you for what
they can get out of you. Religion has no cure. Religion
gives no peace, no real peace now. Religion gives no real hope. False hope, false refuge, false
peace. But those are like soap bubbles.
A little while, they pop and they're gone. And this woman spent all that
she had on these physicians. Old Job called his three friends,
he said, you are physicians of no value. No value. I've learned in about any profession,
in about any profession, you can shoot about 90 of them, 90%
of them, and you wouldn't miss a thing, would you? You wouldn't
miss a thing. There's only probably about 10%
in any profession that's really worth what they're doing. And here she spent all that she
had. What's life worth? She took her life savings, whatever
it was, whatever amount of money she had, whatever she could borrow,
or get off her family, she spent every dime of it. What's life
worth? Here's a more powerful question.
What's your life worth? The value just went up, didn't
it? Spend it all. Spend all of it. And she did. What's health worth? What is
it worth to have good health? You can't put a value on that.
You can't do it. This woman, to have her health,
she spent everything she had. And I'm telling you, this is
exactly the place that everyone whom God saves has to be brought
to. We have to try them all and find
out there's no good. We have to spend all that we've
got and find out there's no hope in any of it. And then we finally turn to Him. We finally turn to the One who
can save, the One who can forgive, the One who can give peace, the
One who can heal and deliver. Just like this woman, she had
to go through this. I'm sure after it was over with,
she was glad she went through it. Look what it did. It brought
her to Christ. God used it to bring her to the Master. And I'm sure after it was over
with, she looked back and she was thankful for what God used
to bring her. Christ only saves hopeless, helpless
sinners. I heard a man say, you've heard
this before. I heard a man just say on TV the other day, God
helps those who help themselves. A politician helps those who
help themselves. Well, that leaves me out. That
leaves me out. Because my case is such that
I can't help myself. Can you help yourself? Why did
you do it? You ask your kids, why did you
do that? I couldn't help it. That's probably the first time
they ever told the truth. I couldn't help it. That's why I did it. And it says in verse 26, she
was nothing better This woman was not one whit better, but
rather grew worse. She just kept getting worse and
worse and worse. Without Christ, we just get worse,
don't we? Religion doesn't make anybody
any better. It just disguises. It's like treating the symptoms. That's what they're trying to
do, just trying to treat the symptoms. Just trying to make the symptoms
go away, but the problem's still there. That's that sin, that's
that sin issue that we've got to deal with. Without Christ, we just grow
worse. All that man can do for me is just make me grow worse. But when she heard of Jesus,
we underline that. When she heard of Jesus, faith
cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. She heard
of all that this man had done. She heard of his miracles. She
heard of his person. She heard of his work. She heard
of him. And by the mysterious working
of God, the Holy Spirit, she honestly believed in her heart,
He can save me. He can save me. This one can
make me whole. How can you explain faith? You
come here, you hear the gospel, you sit, and then one day, one
day, you believe that the Lord can save you. I've seen people sit for years
and hear the gospel preached and just get up and go home,
come back, get up and go home, and then one day, one day, they
believe that the Lord can save them. How'd that happen? Did
I convince them? Did some preacher convince them? No. The Holy Spirit did that
marvelous work of grace in the soul, and they believed. And there she sits in her weakness,
unclean, and she believes that with all her heart, this one
can save me. And she does not let that crowd
keep her back. You see, nobody's supposed to
touch her. She's not supposed to touch anybody. They're going to be
unclean. She's like, well, somebody's going to have a problem because
I'm going to Him. She's not going to be kept back.
Her only hope, listen, her only hope is passing by. Passing by. And it's not going
to cost her a dime. She's going to have a dime left
anyway. When she heard of Jesus, Her
hearing of Christ was no accident. You're hearing of Christ this
morning. It's no accident. Some of you here this morning,
some of you believe and some of you believe not. I know that.
I know that. Some believe and some believe
not. It's no accident that you're sitting where you are. You are
hearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. His word is before you. That's
no accident. Who knows what he may do with
it? Who knows what he may do with it? And when she heard,
she believed he could save her. And hope sprang up in her heart
for the first time in a long time. This woman had hope. She had hope. So much so that she sprang up
and went after him. She went after him. And verse 27 says, she cometh
in the press behind. And when she heard of Jesus,
came in the press behind and touched his garment, she squeezed
her way through. And when it says the press, he
was crowded. I mean, it was crowded. It was
a crowd around him that you probably couldn't even hardly breathe.
And all of them were reaching out and touching him, reaching
out and touching him. And not one of them there touched
him, reached out there and touched him, received anything from him. They touched him like they'd
touch a rock star that's passing through or something, or some
sport figure. That's what they saw. I mean,
that's the attitude they had, but not this one. that her Savior
was passing through. Her Savior. And she came in the
press behind and she touched His garment. As weak as she was,
she came. She came. For she said, it says
over, I think it's either Luke or Matthew, it says she said
within herself, and the meaning of that is she kept saying within
herself. See, that's what faith, that's
faith. Faith believes. If faith just keeps repeating,
I know it can save me. I know it can do it. I know if
I can just touch the hem of His garment, if I can just get to
Him, I know I'll be saved. I'll be saved from my sins. I
know that. I'll be saved from the wrath to come. I'll be saved
from myself. I'll be saved from God Himself.
I know I'll be saved if I can just get to Him. And she got
to him. She didn't realize this. Here's
something we can't see with the human eye. He's drawing her.
With cords of love, he's drawing her. She doesn't realize that. She doesn't realize that that
need that she has has a cord on it called love. And he's pulling
it. And here she's coming. And even
though his back's turned to her, he's watching her. He's watching
every step she's making. He's controlling that whole thing.
And as she squeezes through that crowd trying to get through there,
He's making a way for her to get through there. She doesn't
even realize it. She doesn't even realize it. He's making
a way for that little old weak woman to squeeze right through
that press. He's drawing her with cords of
love. She said, if I may touch his
clothes, I shall be made whole." She kept saying it in her heart,
if I make touches close, I'll be made whole. How precious is
faith? Someone said love can warm the
heart, hope can encourage us, but faith receives everything
from God. Faith receives it all. By faith
we live, by faith we walk, by faith we have peace with God,
by faith we have rest, And by faith, she squeezed through that
crowd. And she touched him. In verse 29, and straightway
the fountain of her blood was dried up. Stopped. Like that. He did what no other
physician could do. He absolutely healed her. And
she felt it in her body. She knew. She knew the Lord had
saved her. She knew it. You can't be saved
not knowing. I know people say, I don't feel
like I'm saved. It's not a feeling we get anyway.
If I went around with all my feelings, I'd be lost all the
time. But you know the Lord has changed
you. You know the Lord has made a
change. You know you love what you once hated and hate what
you once loved. You know the tenor of your life is after godliness. You know you love Christ. Peter
said, Lord, you know I love you. You know it. And she knew the
Lord saved her. Are we supposed to know that?
Absolutely. How can you give glory to His name? How can you
praise Him, thank Him for something you don't know? No, you know
it. You know the Lord saved you.
And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself Knowing in himself that virtue
had gone out of him, turned about in the press and said, who touched
my clothes? But he knew immediately that virtue, that saving power, his health. I don't know how
to explain this. His health went right into her. And he took her sickness. He
took our sicknesses and bore our sorrows. And that virtue went right into,
he said it went out of him. It went out of him. You know,
whatever's in you, I can assure you this, whatever's in you will
come out of you. Who you are will come out. And
virtue came out of him. He says it went out of him, right
to her. What a connection. His health went into her. And
he said, Who touched me? Who touched my clothes? Now think
about this. The disciples were right. The
disciples, they said to him, Sist thou the multitude throne?
And he said, Who touched me? Who touched my clothes? And she's
behind him. And she just reached up and touched
that. I can't even feel that. I can
feel it on my fingers, but I can't feel nobody touching the bottom
of my coat. She touched the bottom of his garment. He felt it. The virtue went out of him. He knew who touched him. One
person in that crowd touched him. A lot of them were thronging
him, but there was one that touched him. There was one whose heart
touched his heart, but he first touched her heart. There was one whose faith touched
him, because he gave her the faith to touch him. He knew that he's not going to
let her slip off into the crowd. And I can see why. For 12 years,
she's lived as an unclean woman. She didn't live that way. She
felt it. Think she didn't feel that? And
she didn't want to tell that crowd in front of that crowd,
say anything in front of that crowd. about her problem. You know, we don't want to confess
our sins, do we? We don't want to confess what
a wretch we are before everybody. Well, we are. And the Lord's
going to make us confess it. He's going to make us confess
Him. He looked around about to see her that had done this thing.
He looked to see her. He wasn't looking for anybody
else in that crowd. He wasn't just going, who touched me? He looked right
dead at her. I had no doubt he looked her
right in the eye. And she knew it. She knew it. And the woman
fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her. There's
where true godly fear is. That's when it happens. When
God does something in you. When He does the work of grace
in you, you'll come with fear and trembling at His feet. And
she came and fell down before Him and told Him all the truth.
In another place, she confessed before all why she touched Him. And he said to her, daughter,
thy faith hath made thee whole. That's such a sweet sound, isn't
it, daughter? This is not just the son speaking to her, this
is the father speaking to her. Daughter, thy faith hath made
thee whole. Go in peace and be whole of thy plague. Well, what a day that was. She
walked away from there just as strong, As if she had never been
sick. Now, while he yet spake, there
came from the ruler of the synagogue, and I'll hurry through this.
I don't want to take too much time. While he was yet speaking
to her, there came from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain
which said, Thy daughter's dead. One's made happy and another
one's heart just fell to the floor. You know, she felt her body,
the Lord healed her. She went home rejoicing. And
that ruler's heart just fell, just absolutely crushed him.
Your daughter's dead. She's dead. By trouble shall
the master any further. Don't even bring him here. She's
dead. It's over with. As soon as Jesus heard the word
that was spoken, he said to the ruler of the synagogue, don't
be afraid. Don't you know he felt the pain in his heart? He
felt that fear. He felt what was going on in
his heart. He knew that. Don't be afraid. Only believe. Only believe. That was the hardest time to
believe, wasn't it? Your daughter's dead. No, he said, don't you be afraid.
You just trust me. That's what he's saying. Don't
you be afraid. You just trust me. You trust
me. And he suffered no man to follow
him, said Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. And he
cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the
tumult. And then that went, and wailed greatly. What a scene. And when he was come in, he said
to them, why make ye this ado? And we, the damsel was not dead,
but she sleepeth. That term is only used that I
know of in the scriptures concerning the believers, concerning them
that are his. They're asleep. She's not dead. She's asleep. Lazarus, he's not dead. He's
asleep. He's asleep. I thought about this, and I'm
not going to try to make something out of this, but I thought about
this this morning as I look at this, because I do believe that
infants and children I believe they're redeemed, and
I believe they're with the Lord. I do. I believe they are. And
here she is. She's my little daughter. She's
12 years old. Now, at my age now, I look at
a 12-year-old, I say, that's just a child. Just children. They're just children. And he
says, she's not dead. This little girl is not dead.
This child is not dead. She's asleep. That might be another
indication of where they are, those children. And they laughed him to scorn.
Laughed him. Well, all the laughers have got
to go out of the house. They got put out of the house.
You want to laugh him to scorn? You're going to be put out. And
they laughed him to scorn, but when he had put them all out,
Well, if they had just believed what they would have got to see.
He taketh the father, the mother, the damsel. And then they were with him.
And he entered in where the damsel was, was lying. And he took the
damsel by the hand. And he said unto her, Talitha
Kumai, which is being interpreted as Damsel, I say unto thee, Arise! Arise! And straightway the damsel
arose and walked. She was of the age of twelve
years. And they were astonished with great astonishment. I hope
we never get over the saving power of our God. I hope we never
get over how amazing it is when God saves a sinner. I hope we
never get over that. I hope we never get over the
fact that He saved us. It's amazing! Astonishing! It
ought to be more astonishing as we grow older. And he charged them strictly
that no man should know it, and commanded that something should
be given her to eat. That's what you do when someone
has life. If God's pleased to save a sinner
here this morning, you know what I'm to do? Give them something
to eat. Preach the gospel to them. And he charged them strictly
that no man should know it, and commanded that something should
be given her to eat. I hope you've been fed this morning. I pray the Lord has given us
something to eat this morning. But I want you to keep this in
mind. His willingness to save. He's willing to save. He's willing
to forgive. He's willing to heal us of all
our in all our diseases, spiritually. And physically, if it's for our
good, if it's for our good, He'll do it physically, too, in His
glory.