Turn back to Mark chapter 5. Mark chapter 5. As I said, there was a lot of
titles that came to my mind as I read this and as I sat down
and started to write these notes. I think I erased about three
different titles. I've got two written on my notes
here. The one I decided to go with
is Christ or Death. I have also written here The
Great Physician Makes House Calls. He makes a house call. Another
title I have was Down and Out. These people were down and out.
Everyone whom God saves is down and out. And the one Mike sang, he touched
me. He touched me. Oh, we could just
bring a sermon on titles out of this chapter. But our Lord, the Great Physician, is known
by His work. I went to an eye doctor here
a couple weeks ago, and hanging on his wall were
his credentials, where he had went to school and all that. And I'm glad. I'm glad he's hanging,
I had him there where I could read him. I'm glad he went to
school. I'm glad he studied. If he's
going to do eye examinations and work on eyes, he needs to
study a long time. But our Lord's person is all the credentials He needs.
Who He is is all the credentials. He is the living God. This is
God. We are blessed as we go through
Matthew, and you read through the Gospels, to see that this
man, Jesus Christ, is the living God. Do you want to know who
God is, what He's like? Study him. He's God. He's God. His deity is his credentials.
Now, while he was preaching in Matthew's house, you'll remember
he was in Matthew's house. Matthew invited him to his house
and his friends and all those other publicans and sinners,
and that's when the Pharisees said, why, Edith, you'll master
with publicans and sinners? He's there. teaching, preaching
to them, and this ruler of the synagogue comes barging in. The desperate case. Desperate
case. He comes barging into that house,
and he lets the Lord know. He comes to the right person,
doesn't he? He comes to the right one. And he comes barging in
there and lets him know. that he's got a desperate situation
on his hands. He can't do anything about it.
No one else can do anything about it. His daughter, it says over
Matthew, his daughter's dead. Luke says she's at the point
of death. And here, before they get to the house, they come out
and say she's dead. She's dead. Now here's a man
who has some importance about him. He's a ruler of the synagogue. He was over the services. He
conducted the services. He appointed those who were going
to read the scriptures. This man had the power and the
authority to scourge, had scourgings done. He had the power and the
authority to excommunicate people from the synagogue. But this
man, being a ruler of the synagogue, I have no doubt had heard the
Lord speak. He heard him preach before. He believed. He believed that
the Lord could save his daughter. He believed that the Lord could
give her life, that he could raise her from the dead. He had
heard him, and then he came to him. There are four things here
I want to point out about this man. First of all, he came to
the Lord Jesus Christ as a beggar. He did not come into that room,
that house, as the ruler of the synagogue. He came there as a
beggar, as a beggar. Everyone whom God saves comes
as beggars, mercy beggars. I don't care if it's King David.
David said this, I am poor and needy. This is the king. This is God's chosen king. And
he said, I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Mercy beggars. And He comes to our Lord and
He asks Him for mercy upon His daughter. And then secondly,
when He came, He came with the spirit of worship. He came with the spirit of worship.
It says over Mark that He fell down at His feet. He came brokenhearted. He came with the spirit of worship.
He did not come with the spirit that I'm somebody and I need
your attention. He came with this spirit, a broken heart and
a contrite spirit. I need your help. And he fell
at his feet, this ruler of the synagogue fell at his feet before
everybody and acknowledged his need of him. Lord, I need you. I need your help. And then thirdly,
he prayed to him. He prayed to him. He said, help
me. My daughter is dead. My daughter
is dead. I need your help. If you would
come and lay your hands on her, she'll be made whole. She'll
live again. I know that. Oh, what confidence. You know,
that's what faith is. Faith is nothing but absolute
confidence in God. He can do just as he said he
would. So he came and he prayed. This man didn't mumble or jumble
around. He asked for what he needed. Well, if we could just simply
ask, Lord's mercy. Lord, forgive me. Lord, pardon
me. Lord, help me. Just ask. And that's what he
did. He asked for what he needed. And then he believed. He believed. He came. He worshipped. He prayed and he believed. He believed. He came believing. I don't think this man came at
all with any doubt about the Lord's ability or willingness
to do this. He came believing. He knew one
that could meet his need. He knew one and he came believing. He believed the Lord could give
life to the dead. I tell you what, it takes God
to enable man to believe that this one, the Lord Jesus Christ,
can give life from the dead. We're not talking about just
giving some medicine here. We are talking about raising someone
that has died and he believed he could do it. That's what faith
is. Faith takes God at His word.
Faith believes. It truly believes that God can
give life. It truly believes that God can
forgive. It truly believes that sins can be put away. That's
what it is. It just believes God. It believes
God's able. He's able to do it. That's what
He said to those blind men over there in Matthew. He said to
those two blind men, they asked the Lord for their sight and
He said, Believe ye that I'm able to do this. Do you believe
I'm able to give you your sight, what you are asking for? Do you
believe I'm able to save you from sin? Do you really believe
I'm able to do that? I'll tell you what, if we do,
we won't add anything to it. If you really believe it, you'll
never add anything to it. When you start to add stuff to
it, it's evident you don't believe it. You don't believe it. But He came. He came, he worshiped,
he prayed, he believed. And you know what happened? The
Lord arose. Here he is preaching to this
house full of people. And this man comes in and it's
like he steps down from the pulpit and says, now I'm going to do
the work. I've sent out my word, now I'm going to go and heal.
He steps down and he follows. He followed him. I thought of
what David said, Mercy shall follow me all the days of my
life. That's the first verse that popped into my head when
I read it. He followed him. Mercy and grace
is following this sinner. It's following him home. And
the Lord went where he was. He went where this man lived
and he went where he was needed. The position What good is a physician
if he goes where he's not needed? Avoiding sick people. What kind
of physician would avoid sick people? But this physician went
where he was needed. He went to give life or the readiness
of Christ to show mercy to sinners. Look over in Psalm 86. His readiness to save, His readiness
to forgive, His readiness to bestow mercy. In Psalm 86 verse
5, For thou, Lord, art good and ready to forgive. Ready. You know, He's ready to
forgive and He has to prepare us to be ready to receive it. That's what the Holy Spirit does.
He prepares us to be ready to receive forgiveness, to receive
forgiveness. He has to bring us to the place
to where we want it, need it, crave it, have to have it, or
else I die. He's ready to forgive, and plenteous
in mercy unto all them, every one of them that call upon Thee with His readiness to forgive.
Now, while he was on his way there, while he was following this man
home, the ruler of the synagogue, he was following him home, there
was someone else that needed him. Someone else needed him. A woman, it says, a woman, doesn't
give her name. Her name is not important. There's
one name that's really important here. Really. There's one name that's important
in this service this morning. It's the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the name that's important.
Her name's not important. My name's not important. His
name is. His name. This woman came to
Him with an issue of blood. She'd had it for twelve years.
And she came behind Him. Following Him. Trying to get
to Him. saying within herself, if I can
but touch. And really, what she's saying,
one of the writers says she kept saying within herself, she kept
saying this, if I can but touch, if I can but touch the hand of
His God. And she just kept saying that. See, that's faith. Faith
is the confidence. If I can just get to Him, if
I can just get to Him, I'll be made whole. This thing will be
taken care of. Oh, if I can just get to Him. This sin problem will be taken
care of. I can just get to him. Now this woman had an issue of
blood. The law says she was unclean. How would you like to go around
with that attached to your name? Unclean. Just say your name and
then say unclean after. Just remove your last name. Let's
say John Unclean, or Frank Unclean, Gary Unclean. How would you like
to have that attached to your name? But that's the way she
was known, Unclean. She had this blood issue. And
the law says she's Unclean. And this blood issue she had
was draining away her life. It was draining away her life.
Slowly, she was slowly dying. That's just the way we are, aren't
we? I'm not slowly living, I'm slowly dying in this flesh I'm
talking about. Fifty-two years old. I'm closer
to the grave now than I was fifty-two years ago. This body's a lot
older looking now than it was fifty-two years ago. I went over
to a family outing we had last night. My mom and dad and some
of the aunts and uncles were in there. And they were just
going on and on and on about how much I look like dad now.
I finally grew into it. Just kept going on and on about
how much they wanted to take a picture. Said, you need to
take a picture of Cole, me, and dad. She said, they're just twins
here. Everybody looks alike. It's what
you look like young and middle and older. Slowly dying. Slowly dying. And outside of
Christ, we will die. Eternally. Outside of Him, we
will. If we don't have Him. If we don't have Him. But this
woman had this issue of blood. It was draining away her life.
And she could not be cured. Oh, is this not a picture of
us? Can you not identify with this woman? It says that she
suffered many things of all these physicians, and she couldn't
be cured. They tried every hocus-pocus
thing. You know they tried everything
under the sun on her. Every herb, everything coming
and going, they tried on her. And she could not be cured. We cannot be cured of sin by
ourselves. You can take all the religion
in the world. I mean, just take all the religion
in the world. Take all the morality in the
world and it'll not cure sin. Only Christ can put it away.
Only Christ can heal the soul from sin. He's the only one.
She could not be cured. And she spent all her living,
all her money. What's your life worth? What
is your life worth? I guarantee you if you were going
to, if a doctor said you were going to die, now as a believer
you may not do this, but natural men will do this, they spend
all their living to live. They'll spend every dime they
got to live one more day. She spent all her living on these
physicians and Joe called his friends this, you are physicians
of no value. And these physicians, that she
went to were all physicians, proved to be physicians of no
value. They could not help her at all. They took her money. They didn't
give her a refund. They took her money, but she
rather, it says, grew worse. And that's what religion without
Christ does. It makes you to grow worse. Not better, worse. It straps you with bondage. It
straps you with needless fears. It straps you with a lot of things.
It doesn't set men free. It puts them under bondage. She
rather it grew worse. That's religion without Christ. It's just worse. It is just worse. None the better, but rather it
grew worse. Anything short of Christ, anything
short of having Him and knowing Him, anything is worse. It's worse. But look at her faith. In verse
27, when she had heard of Jesus, God sent the Gospels to that
woman. This woman sat around for 12
years. with this issue of blood, slowly dying. And then one day
she heard the good news. She heard the good news. She
heard of Jesus. He's all the good news we have
to tell. You take Christ out of it, we have no good news whatsoever.
No good news at all. If you take Him out of it, there's
no good news. And when she heard of Him, oh, you're talking about
having her spirits lifted. Talking about having her heart
lifted. She heard of someone that could
do something for her. That's one of the purposes of
preaching the gospel. Our first purpose is to glorify
God. But the second is that sinners
would hear of someone who can heal them of sin. Who can save
them from sin. And she heard of Him. God the Father brought this woman
into contact with the gospel. We never hear the gospel by accident.
You never hear it by accident. You don't accidentally meet Christ.
This looks like an incidental meeting, doesn't it? No, this
is a providential meeting. A providential meeting. It's
not just an incidental, accidental meeting. It's providential. While
he was on his way to Jairus' house, this woman heard She had
heard of him, and she had found out he was going this direction,
and she went after him. She went after him. God the Father brought this woman,
just like He does all His sheep, to the end of herself. He let
this go on for twelve years. He prepared her for twelve years
to meet the Master. For twelve years He prepared
her to meet her Savior. For 12 years, he prepared her
to need her Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He bursted every
hope that woman had. She tried this position and this
position, and someone would tell her of another position, so she'd
go try that position. Then someone would tell her of
an herb or something, she'd try that one. After 12 years, it
took 12 years to bring this woman to the place where she was absolutely
hopeless, spent all of her living broke. This woman was broke,
hopeless, helpless. I mean, it was just a pitiful
case. Now she's ready, now she's ready to meet the Master. Not until we are brought to the
point of absolute hopelessness, not until we are brought to the
point where we have spent and tried everything in religion
that we could try. Not until then do we find Christ, like you said
this morning, to be precious. He was precious to her. She found
somebody that could do something. But she heard of Him first. First
she heard of Him. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing
by the Word of God. She heard of his person. No doubt
this is the son of David. This is the Messiah. And she
believed it. She heard of his power. No doubt
she heard of miracles that he had been performing. She heard
of his grace and mercy. This man eateth with sinners.
This man eats with publicans and sinners. And no doubt she
thought, I can come into this one. This is a doctor that I
can talk to. This is a physician that will
listen to me. This is a physician that I can
touch, that I can get close to, that'll listen to me. When you
go to doctors, don't you like to have a doctor that listens
to you? I've had different doctors, and
I've had some just Not listen to you at all. And I've had some
just talk to me. It's like we were on the same
level. And what I felt comfortable with. And I like... I know one
doctor like that. I like him. I like him real well. And she heard of him, heard of
his person, heard of his power, heard of his grace, heard of
his mercy, and heard that this man received centers. She said,
that fits my bill. That fits my bill. She believed
that He could save her. That's what brings people to
Christ. That's what brings sinners to Christ. Their need and His
ability to save them. And when she heard the good news
of one who could heal her disease, what did she do? She came. Nobody had to coax her. Nobody
had to talk her into it. She came. She came to Him. She finally came to the one who
could do something for her. Both of you can just get rid
of all this rubbish. You can get rid of all this stuff,
the press. She came and said she came in
the press. If you can just get rid of the press and all that
stuff, just come to Him. Every sinner whom the Lord saved
must first be brought to Him. To Him. That's got to be brought
to Him. Christ will profit us nothing
until we lose hope in everything else. Have to. And she said within herself,
you see, that's where faith begins. It begins in the heart. It starts
in the heart. She said within herself, if I
can but touch His garment, if I can just get to His feet. You
know, she didn't try to reach up and touch Him. She just wanted
to get, she touched the lowest part of his garment down on the
hem. I can just see her down on her knees as he passes by.
Everybody else standing up thronging him and making a big to-do. Here's one down on her knees.
As he passes by, she reaches over and touches his garment.
She believed that much that I could just touch his garment. He's
the object, not the garment. Not the garment. He's the object.
He's the object of her faith. She reached out and she touched
him. She touched him. Touched his
heart. He touched her heart and she
touched his heart. Like the high priest who can be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities. She touched him alright. And this woman says here, came
in the press. came in the press and touched
the hem of his garment. Coming to Christ is not easy. Coming to Christ. I thought about
this last night. There's always a press in the way, isn't there?
There's sin, there's Satan, there's self, there's excuses. A press
of things are in the way of coming to Christ. But if you need Him,
I'm telling you the truth, if you need Him, A sinner needs
Him, you're going to come. You're going to come. I don't
care what's in the way. You are going to come, just like
she did. Regardless of the press, regardless
of the discouragement, you're going to come to Him. God's going
to see to it. Now, look at this woman, just
like Jairus. She heard. She heard. She believed. She came. She worshiped. She received. Same thing. Same
thing happens every time. Same thing. And what happened
here in verse 29? And straightway the fountain
of her blood was dried up. It stopped immediately. Salvation
is immediate. Immediate. It was dried up. Only Christ can do that. Only
Christ. He healed her completely. I'm
telling you, in Christ, we are healed completely. In Christ,
we stand before God right now, holy as we're ever going to be.
I know that I have a sinful nature in this flesh. I know that. We
all do. No matter how long I live, I'll
still have sin in this flesh, and I'll still have to contend
with it. But before God Almighty, in Christ, we're holy and righteous. That's the way we are. She was
made whole that very hour. She was made whole. And the Lord,
and Jesus said here in verse 30, and Jesus immediately knowing
in Himself that virtue had gone out of Him, that power had gone
out of Him. It was no surprise. He wasn't
surprised. It wasn't like something happened and He didn't know about
it. No, He's letting us know about it. Virtue went out, grace
went out of Him. Power went out of Him to save.
And he turned to look at her. He knew who touched him. He said,
who touched me? And the disciple said, well, there's a throng
of people here, and you are saying who touched me? We have a lot
to learn, don't we? No matter how long we are disciples,
we still have a lot to learn. We still say things that show
our ignorance. I said, well, there's a crowd
of people here, and you're saying who touched me? He said, somebody
touched me. I perceive virtues going up,
power to save, power to heal. That's gone out of me. That's
where it is. It's in him. He said, it's gone out of me.
And he turned to look where? At her. Don't you know, he didn't
turn and go like this and look around. He turned and he looked
her dead in the face. Right in the eye. I have no doubt
when he said, who touched me? He looked her right in the eye.
She knew she was not hid any longer. She couldn't just slip
off back into the crowd. The Lord has no secret disciples. He has no secret disciples. Who touched me? I'll tell you
who touched him, a needy sinner. A needy sinner. And you know
what happened? And she confessed here. Look
at verse 33. But the woman fearing and trembling. Oh, this is the heart of the
sinner. The woman fearing and trembling. Knowing what was done
in her. Do you know what the Lord's done
for you? Do you know what the Lord's done for you? That brings
fear and trembling. Not a slavish fear, but it brings
us fear of awe and respect of God's mercy and power. Knowing what was done in her,
that the Lord had saved her. She was healed. She came and fell down before
Him. Not the crowd, not the disciples.
She fell down at His feet and told Him all the truth. She confessed before Him and
that whole crowd. Why she came? Sinner. Just a sinner. A wretched
sinner. And confessed what had happened.
The Lord saved me. He healed me. I was blind, that
man said, but now I see. He healed her and she confessed
him. Now let's go back to the ruler
and let's finish this story. See, this kind of took us to
the side road, didn't it? Providence. Providence. Happens every day. The Lord came to the ruler's
house. And the servant came out and said, don't bother the master.
Do not bother the master now, because she's dead. Well, that's
every reason to bother him now. He's able to raise the dead.
It says in verse 35, thy daughter is dead. Why troublest thou the
master any further? And the Lord said, he heard him
and he spoke. And he said to the ruler of the
synagogue, don't be afraid. Fear not. How many times you
go through Isaiah does he say, fear not. Fear not. Don't be afraid. Listen, only
believe. We have a song like that. Only
believe. Just trust me. Just trust me. It's going to be all right. I'm
going to take care of this. I'm going to do away with this
death. I'm going to raise your daughter.
You just trust me. You ask me, now trust me. You
believe on me, trust me. And he suffered no man to follow
him save Peter, James, and John and the brother of James. And
then when he went into the house, he goes into the house. And there
are people in that house weeping and wailing and carrying on. They're just carrying on at this
man's house because his daughter is now dead. The announcement
has come out that she's dead. And you know how that would make
you feel if that happened. I know how that would make you
feel. But the Lord comes in and He says, She's not dead. And
they laugh Him to scorn. They mock Him. This crowd that's
there, they mock Him. So what does He do? He puts those
unbelievers out. And you know who He took into
the room with Him to see His glory and His power? Those who
believe. Those who believe. David said
in one place, I had fainted unless I had believed to see. You see, that's first. Faith
is first. If you're going to see God's
glory, enjoy anything of God's salvation, you're going to believe,
then see. David said, I had believed to
see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. I'd
fainted unless I believed to see it. And all those others
were walking and making fun, but those who believed, believed
Him. He said, you come in here with
me. You come in here with me. And they did. And look what they
saw. He says here in verse 41, He
took the damsel by the hand and said unto her, Talitha kumai,
which is being interpreted, damsel, I say unto thee, arise. I wrote out beside of that verse,
the power of His word, with the power of His word, goes the power
of His grace. With the power of His Word goes
the power of His grace. He said, I said, daughter arise.
Damsel arise. And you know what happened? She
arose. She got up, walked just as if
she had not been sick. And the Lord said, feed her.
That's like he said to Peter, feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. Our Lord has the power to save
from sin. He has the power to save from
death. And I'm talking about eternal
death. That's the death you want to be saved from. He has the
power to cleanse and to make us whole. I say to myself, and I say to
you, reach out and touch Him. Reach out and touch Him. When
the gospel is preached, reach out and touch Him as He passes
by. Okay, Mike.