Turn with me to Mark chapter
6. Mark chapter 6. We're going to
be looking at verses 53 through the end of the chapter. is touching the Lord. Touching
the Lord. I've come over the years to fear
some things concerning the ministry that I've been called to. I fear complacency. Going through life not worried about this or worried
about that or not just complacent. Whatever will be, will be. That's
a feeling of contentment and self-satisfaction or smugness. Our Lord said, let him that thinketh
he standeth take heed lest he fall. And I fear pride. God the Holy Ghost inspired these
words to be written, a proud look goeth before the fall. You remember, I tell you, the
story, anytime I read that verse, I think about Nebuchadnezzar
And them fangers like this and standing up there looking over
that big hanging garden of Babylon is not this great Babylon that
I built, you know. A proud look goeth before the
fall. A fearful forgetfulness. In Peter's epistle he said, he
that lacketh these things, that is, Virtue and knowledge and
temperance and patience and godliness and brotherly kindness and charity. He said he's blind and he cannot
see afar off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old
sins. Forgetfulness. And I fear preaching my Lord
and Savior in a way that makes him untouchable. to sinners. He never sent away a needy sinner. You can't find me an example
where he sent away a needy sinner. Now he sent away some proud men. And he sent away some religious
men. And he said to some, leave them
alone. They're blind leaders of the blind, but he never sent
away a needy sinner. Every needy sinner that came
to him found help in times of need. And I want these words
always to ring clear in my ears. We have not a high priest which
cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He's touched
by it, he knows what it is. But was in all points tempted
like as we are yet without sin. And in this passage, our Lord
preserves this testimony concerning himself. It says, as many as
touched him were made whole. So let me give you three or four
things that I pray will help us to understand these verses. This is an account of Multitude
after multitude after multitude coming to him and laying their
sick in the roads and beside the roads and in the middle of
the road, hoping that he would pass by. And the first thing
that I want you to consider is this. The place. The place. The place where they
landed was called Genezareth. They passed over and came to
Genesaret. The name means the fertile garden
of the prince. Evidently, the prince of that
region had a garden there. It was watered by nearby Capernaum,
which had this huge spring. Some call it the Job Spring and
so on, but back in that day, it was called, the spring itself
was called Capernaum. and from which the city itself
took its name. So what's all that got to do
with anything? Well, in Genesis chapter two,
verse eight, it says the Lord God planted a garden. Do you ever think about that
when you read that or did you just read over it and say, well,
he's talking about the Garden of Eden and he's talking about
God planted a garden. Can you imagine? The Lord God planted a garden
eastward of Eden and there he put man whom he had formed. God has a garden in this earth. In John 15, our Lord tells his
disciples that his father is the husband man, the gardener. And he, that is Christ, is the
vine. God planted a garden in which
to put his vine. With the intention of, now there's
all kind of trees. Old scrubby trees, I'll tell
ya, I don't wanna, I got some folks from West Texas here, so
I wanna be careful, but every time when I drive over to Wichita
Falls, when I pass a certain distance, I'm sorry, but those
are just not trees. Those are bushes. Little scrubby
trees. And until you got in town, you
know where folks planted trees. But out in the country, it was
just brush, is what I would call it. Just brush. And there's,
in this fallen world, it's just a multitude. That's all we have
is brush. That's all we have is a bunch
of useless trees scrubby old natural trees, but the husband
man has purpose to graft in some branches from those trees into
the true vine. And miracle of miracles, when
he does, they produce fruit. Isn't that something? Our Lord has brought them to
this garden Garden of the prince. He's the prince. This is his
garden. And nearby was Capernaum with
that great spring that made it possible to have that garden.
But Christ is the spring also. He's not just the vine. But he's
the spring. He's the fountain. God said in
that day there should be a fountain open to the house of David and
to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness. This is the prince's garden and
he's come to graft in many branches for without him they're fit for
nothing except to burn is what he tells us in John 15. So teach this preacher, this
whole world is his garden, Russell. The whole world, this is his
garden. And just like our garden, it's
got tares in it, it has weed in it. He tells us in Matthew 13, concerning
the symbols that he used in his parable there, in verse 38, he
said, the field is the world. That's my garden. The field is
the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom,
that's mine elect. And the tares are the children
of the wicked one. So that first thing I see is
the place, it's significant. Wherever Christ went, this is
his garden. And he preserved them across
that sea, and when they stepped out onto that land, they stepped
right out into his garden. Right out into his garden. Second thing I want us to consider
is how they got there. It says in Mark 6, verse 53,
and when they had passed over, they came into the land of Genesaret
and drew to the shore. That's a mariners term and it's
used nowhere else in the Bible except right here. That word
grew. And generally in naval language
it has to do with the displacement of water. And perhaps it has Some meaning
there is that that ship that was nearly capsized and filled
full of water and going under out there, it drew to the shore.
It floated right up to the shore where it's supposed to go. But in John's gospel, chapter
6 and verse 21, it said they willingly received him into the
ship and immediately the ship was at the land whether they
went. In Romans 10, 15, the apostle
writes, how shall they preach except they be sent? The vessel
drew to the shore. Who drew it? Who drew it there? Now there's no explaining the
providence of God, we just acknowledge it and take advantage of it and
thank God for it. That's all you can do with property. In John 6, 44, our Lord speaks
of the father drawing men and women to his son. He said, don't
murmur. No man can come unto me except
my father draw him. This word drew is a mysterious
force which works after the a counsel of God's own will. And it has
something to do with the gathering together of all things in his
Son, Ephesians 1.10. This word draw or drew is like
an invisible force. Now I can think of two or three
right off the bat. Gravity, suction, huh? You can't see it. You can just
see its effects. And magnetism. Mysterious, isn't it? Oh, I was
fascinated as a kid, first time I ever saw a magnet, I was just
fascinated. Put it on there one way and it
just, boom, and pull that piece over there and put it on the
other way and made it go away. I was enthralled with that. This invisible force, there was
an invisible force, there's an invisible force right now. Drawing
men to Christ all over this world. sending his preachers to them.
They're not doing this. I didn't accomplish this. I didn't
sit down and think all this out. This is God's providence. It's
his providence. And I tell you, all you can do
when providence has manifested itself is say amen. That's all
you can do. And when they walk out the door,
amen. When they come in the door, amen.
I don't know what else to do with you. and thank God for it. They'd been drawn by the Father. And then thirdly, what happened
when they got there? Mark 6, 54, and when they were
come out of the ship, straightway, they knew him. Now there's two kinds of knowledge
spoken of in the scripture. First of all, there's a knowledge
that comes from facts. Two plus two is four, four plus
four is eight. I ain't going no further. Brown cows eat green grass, give
white milk that makes yellow butter. Go figure. But that's
facts. Facts. And we're full of facts,
anyway. I don't care what's going on.
We get three or four of us together and everybody's getting their
input on what's going on. We're just full of facts. But there's a knowledge that
is particular. It's a knowledge only known by
an intimate relationship where two are joined together and form
one. And that's as close a picture
as I can draw for you with the natural. To know God is eternal
life. It's eternal life. It's to be
one with Him. It is to know His true character,
to see what no other eye can see. In John 17, verse 3, He said,
This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou sent. But here on the shores
of Gennesaret, they knew him by reputation. They knew him
because of eyewitnesses and by word of mouth. And he was known
by thousands as a miracle worker. Can you imagine going into Texarkana? Let's just say we're back in
horse and buggy days and a man walks into Texarkana And he just
starts healing people. I mean, people they knew. Blind
people. People been lame from their birth. Deaf and dumb. Paralyzed. Demon possessed. And every one
of them healed. Boy, it wouldn't take long for
his reputation to get around, would it? So he leaves Texarkana and he
goes toward the next little city out there. And man, by the time
he gets there, there's people lining the streets. They know
he's coming. They know he's coming. They knew him by reputation,
by eyewitness, and by word of mouth. And he was known by thousands
as the miracle worker and healer. But only a handful knew him as
Redeemer. So what's the significance of
all this? Well, Isaiah spoke of his coming to save, and he
said in chapter 35, verse 5, then, when he's come, then the
eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall
be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap
as a heart, and the tongue of the dumb sing, for in the wilderness
shall waters break out, and streams in the desert." This was a prophecy
of His coming. It was a confirmation of God,
of who He is, the healing of these men. And He was known everywhere,
straightway they knew Him. Not as Christ, not as Savior
and Lord. but as a compassionate healer,
teacher, and miracle worker. Now to some of these, some of
these that he now addresses, he said this. I say unto you
that you also have seen me. You've seen me. You've seen me
heal. You've seen me raise the dead.
You've seen me give the blind sight. You've heard me and you've
seen me, but he said, you believe not. You believe not. My friend, true knowledge begins
with facts. That's how it starts, with facts. How shall you believe on him
of whom you have not heard? Has to be a hearing, has to be
some facts put before people. Not word of mouth, not speculation,
not traditional concept, but facts established and taught
from the Word of God. And our Lord was without controversy
a great healer of men and women. And this healing of the sick
was for a threefold purpose. It was God's confirmation that
he was the Christ and it was a fulfillment, secondly, of the
scriptures. He fulfilled the scriptures.
And thirdly, it serves as a beautiful picture of how Christ saved sinners. You know, when we talk about
Christ saving sinners and these things being a picture, there's
no one illness that pictures sin. You take all the illnesses
and put them together And now you have a good picture of the
sinner. He's blind. He's deaf. Has no understanding. He's paralyzed in his nature.
He can't do anything. What can he do? He's dead in trespasses and sins. Put them all together. Now you
have a picture spiritually of the sinner. And His compassion, His mercy,
and His kindness is here displayed for all to see. I love the fact
that He manifested His mercy and His kindness and all of these
things to these people as He preached. As He preached. There wasn't a worthy man or
woman in that whole multitude But it didn't keep him from making
them hold at it. It sure didn't. And for the most
part, they only knew their malady, and they didn't know a whole
lot about that. All they really knew is that they were miserable
and suffering, and he could put an end to it. That's all you
need to know, isn't it? It sure is. And then lastly, look at what
really happened when he got there. Mark says in verse 55, they ran
through that whole region round about, and began to carry about
in beds those that were sick, and they brought him where he
was, or where they thought he would be. They brought him. And
whithersoever he entered into villages or cities or countries,
they laid the sick in the streets, and besot him that they might
touch, if it were, but the border of his garment. And as many as
touched him were made whole. And I can only imagine in that
day the pitiful picture that's here set before us of these needy
sinners. It's not the rich crowd you see
around election time gathering around their candidates. And it's not the jumping crowd
that you see at a sporting event. And it's not the intellectual
crowd that you see at graduation time. But the streets and the
roadways in these towns and villages were filled to capacity with
needy sinners. Now I say to you, where is the
needy sinner? Huh? Where is the needy sinner? I
don't think we have needy sinners here because I don't think men
really believe that what I'm doing this morning is the power
of God unto salvation. They've been buffaloed by Satan
into believing that they can be saved anytime they want to
and salvation's on the shelf and all you gotta do is reach
up and get it. They knew that this man alone
could do them good. And they brought everybody and
anybody that was sick and brought them out and laid them down,
tried to get them as close to where they thought he'd be walking
as they could get him. And all that man do, if he couldn't
talk, if he couldn't hear, if he couldn't do much, only move
one arm, all he had to do was reach out and touch that garment,
he'd be made whole. Where are these needy souls today? That whole region turned out
hoping to just touch the hem of his garden. I can't find a
single sinner. Can't find one. It wasn't the rich and intellectuals
and young potentials that lined the streets. It was desperate
sinners. That's what it was. And they
only knew two things. They knew their need. And they
knew he could make them whole. There's times when I was writing
this message out that I could almost hear. I just closed my
eyes and tried to imagine you could just almost hear them crying
out in the crowd, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. Have mercy on me. You can almost
see the leper falling down at his feet, crying, Lord, if you
will, you can make me whole. But I see even more. As I close
my eyes and try to visualize what was taking place here in
these streets, I see a great multitude carrying the stretchers
that bore them over there. And they're carrying them back
home because they don't need them anymore. I see men who were crippled leaping
and praising God. I hear lips singing whose voice
had never been heard. And on and on the procession
continued, city after city and village after village, and even
along the country roads. They were out in front of him
as they heard where he might go. And what about you and I? Do we know where he's going to
be? We know where we hope he's going
to be. We hope he's gonna be here in our midst. I hope we've
gathered here this morning in his name. There's none other
name under heaven that anybody's gonna be saved except that which
is Christ the Lord. I tell you, when the Lord pressed
that malady of heart on me, I took off where I knew or thought I
knew where he'd be. And that's where I planted myself
until the Lord come and done something for me. And that's
the only thing gonna do anybody any good. Only thing gonna do
them any good. All right, thank you.