All right, if you will, turn
with me to Mark chapter five. I know I could have went on for
several Sundays on those first 20 verses. There's so much taught
there, but it's not my goal to try to exhaust these inexhaustible truths. I just wanna go through here
and get you familiar more than anything with the Word of God
and some of the things that it teaches. This morning we're gonna
look at verses 25 through 34. In verses 21 through the end
of the chapter, our Lord performs two very notable miracles. He heals a woman who'd been to
all kinds of physicians. She spent everything she had
going to physicians for a cure, and she wound up worse than she
was before she went. And the Lord took care of that,
and then he raises Jairus' daughter. This was the one who was over
the house of God there in that particular place. But the Lord willing, I want
us to look at both of these miracles, but this morning we'll just concentrate
on the woman with the issue of blood. And I have several things
that I want you to see as we consider this great miracle of
Christ. First of all, I want you to see
what was going on in her life before she came to Christ. We are creatures subject to time. God has created us that way.
The angels have been around from the beginning. They're not subject
to time. But we are. We are. And our lives go on. They go
on before We were converted. They go on after we're converted. And then once we give up the
ghost in this life, once we lay down this body in this life,
then we take on immortality. Or at least we experience it.
We experience it. So I want you to see what was
going on in this woman's life. She had an issue of blood. And
I don't know, when I was young, I didn't understand what they
were talking about. They were talking about a bloody issue.
Not only did this loss of blood rob her of strength
and make her weak, but these things were devastating for a
Jewish woman because so long as this was going on, she was
considered to be unclean. She couldn't partake in worship.
She couldn't be touched. She was to be kept separate. She wasn't even to be around
people. She was unclean. And her disease not only affected
her, but it threatened those around her. It had more to do
than just her. It had to do with those around
her. And according to scripture, she
had this bloody issue for 12 years. 12 years. And during this time,
verse 26, she'd suffered many things of many positions. I think that word suffered tells
a lot. It tells a lot. She suffered
many things. of many physicians and had spent
all that she had and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse. She was worse off at the end
of the time than she was at the beginning. Now if I look at her
problem in a spiritual light, and that's what these things
are written and preserved for, that we might see these things
in their proper light. And if I look at her problem
in a spiritual light, I can see my own condition before God.
I can see a fallen nature, a brokenness within that causes a continuous
issue of uncleanness. Barnard used to say, it'll leak
out on you. And that's what he's talking
about. This uncleanness of our nature comes out. It's continuous. It flows out of the heart. Proceed,
the Lord said. Didn't say it was bottled up
there and from time to time it got loose. It said out of the
heart, proceed. Murderers and adulterers and
fornications and all of these things. That comes forth from
the heart. And like this woman, I see myself
going to many physicians. Physicians here, Christ said
he was the physician. They that behold need not the
physician, but they that are sick, he's the physician. And
if I look at it in that light, in that spiritual light that
I just mentioned to you, then I understand that these physicians
are preachers, they're ministers, they're churches. Now I look back on myself, going
to many physicians, many who said they were physicians, many
that said they were ministers, preachers, ambassadors of Christ. Many who said that they would
be able to help me. We can help you, but we can't
help you out there, you have to be in here. Okay? And sitting under their ministry,
I was nothing bettered like the woman, but rather grew worse.
Self-righteousness and self-reform is worse than these other things. I don't know if you know that
or not. It's worse. Well, at least they're going
to church. That's not a step up. That could be a step down. Self-righteous religion is always
sure to worsen your condition. And when she'd finally come to
her wit's end, realized that what she needed they couldn't
give her. What they were giving her was
making her worse. And when she'd come to her wit's
end, she comes to Christ. Now the second thing I want you
to see here is that the expectations of Christ Now listen to what
I'm saying. What do you expect when you come
to Christ? That's what I'm talking about.
The expectations of Christ transcends the limitations of ordinary men. Now you think about that, what
I'm saying. People do not look to Christ
because their expectations of him do not surpass their own. When they think about Christ,
when I thought about Christ in religion, I thought about, well,
he could help me, but only if I let him. Isn't that what they teach? Only
if I'm willing. You take the first step. Well,
that's a real deal for a dead man. People don't look to Christ because
their expectations of Him do not surpass the limitations of
men. He can't help me. Why? Because you set limitations on
Him equal to your own. True faith not only believes
God is, but that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
Him. They believe that as he is God, he is able to give them
what they cannot do for themselves. Well, I still don't understand
what you're saying, preacher. Well, let me give you some examples.
Bartimaeus would have never asked for his sight, except he believed
that that man was able to give it to him. Huh? He couldn't see. He'd been blind
long enough to know no doctor could make him see. No amount
of will, no amount of determination, no amount of want to could give
him his sight. There was one person who could
give him his sight, and he was standing right in front of him. The leper would have never said,
Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. except he knew that
the Lord could make him clean. And this woman with the issue
of blood would never have fought through the press except she
believed that touching him would make her whole. If I can just
touch his clothes, I'll be whole. Religion pays a pitiful homage
to the Lord Jesus, confessing him as their Savior, but limiting
his ability to know more than their own. And in most cases, weaker than their own, needing
their will, needing their works, needing their permission to act
on their behalf. The man or woman who will truly
come to Christ has a godly expectation How did he get it? He's got a godly expectation
and one that far exceeds the ability of any man. If I could just touch his clothes,
she said, I'd be whole. All right, here's the third thing
I want you to see. How do poor sinners acquire such
expectations? What made this woman, what made
this woman with the issue of blood, what made her determine
in her mind if she could just touch his clothes, she'd be made
whole? Nobody else could do her any
good. She spent everything she had on reputable physicians and
just got worse and worse and worse. Why was her expectation
so high about this man. Where did it come from? How did
she get this expectation? How was she so convinced of his
sufficiency? Well, it tells us right there
in verse 27, when she had heard of Jesus. That's how she got it. That's how she got it. She said,
who is that? Huh? Who? Why is everybody following
him? You don't know who that is? Oh,
let me tell you who that is. That's the prophesied redeemer. That's the one to whom all the
prophets gave witness. This is God come into the flesh. This is one who opens the eyes
of the blind. He raises the dead. He cleanses
the lepers. He causes the lame to walk. Well, sounds like there's nothing
he can't do. That's right. That's right. With God, all things are possible,
and this is God come into the flesh. When she'd heard of Jesus,
heard who he was. And my friend, it's just that
simple, faith cometh by hearing. He told that Gadarene Demoniac
that I talked to you about last week, he said, you can't come
with me, but you do this. You go back to your own city
and your own people, your own family, and you tell them what
great things the Lord did for you. He didn't tell them to go
back there and start teaching doctrine and start going through
all the points of Calvinism. He said, go back there and tell
them what the Lord did for you. That's what I want to know. Somebody
comes to me and starts fouting off about doctrine. I just want
them to stop for a minute. Now tell me what the Lord did
for you. What did he do for you? Did he raise you from the dead? Did he cleanse you from all your
uncleanness? Did He justify you in the sight
of God? Did He give you faith to believe? What did He do for you? Tell
me that. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. There's nothing and nobody to
compare to God. Everything about him is totally
different from anything in this world. There's nothing here to
look at and compare to God. He says this in Isaiah chapter
40, he said, to whom then will you liken me? I just told him
who he was. This is he who sitteth upon the
circle of the earth and all the inhabitants thereof are grasshoppers
before him. He stretches out the heavens
like a tent to dwell in. To whom then will you liken me? To whom shall I be equal, saith
the Holy One? The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only manifestation of God there is. That's the only way you can
know God is in him. This woman didn't need a man,
she needed God. The only way she could get to
God, the only way she could connect herself with God was to get to
this one who manifests God. This is God coming into the flesh. There are no cloud formations,
no apparitions, no visions. God is spirit. He said, no man
has seen God at any time. That's what the scripture says. But it also says, he that has
seen the Son has seen the Father. He's the manifestation of God.
John said, and we know that the Son of God hath come and given
us an understanding that we may know him that is true, that we're
in him that's true, even in his Son, Jesus Christ. Who is this man, Jesus of Nazareth? The word of God said he's the
brightness of the Father's glory. You wanna know something about
the glory of God? Study Christ. He's the brightness
of the Father's glory. He's the express image of his
person. What will God, let's just think
about this for a minute. What do we expect? If God were
to appear before you in a man, what would you expect of him?
You don't really know, do you? But we do if we study Christ,
because that's God come into the flesh. He is the express
image of his person. What will God do? He'll save
sinners. Huh? He'll robe us in a perfect
righteousness. What will God do? He'll order
all things for the good of His elect and for the glory of His
name. He's not only the brightness
of the Father's glory, but He's the express image of His person. This man led a harlot, I'm talking about one who everybody
knew what she was. But she was converted. God gave
her faith and she come and wept on his feet and dried them with
the hair of her head. Would God let us do that? He
did. He did. John laid his head on
his breast. You can't even fathom doing that,
can you? laying your head on the breast of God. Can a man
do that? He did. He did. John said, our eyes have seen
and our hands have handled of the world life, my soul. Paul said in Colossians 115,
he's the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.
I took some time on that and told you in one of the messages
that I preached to you that this image is what you think in your
head about God. And Christ is that image. We'll have right thoughts. He's
given us an understanding that we might know him that's true.
How did we get there? Twice in the scriptures he says
we have the mind of Christ. We have the mind of Christ. Oh, wretched man that I am, Paul
said, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank
God through the Lord Jesus Christ. So then he said, with the mind.
What mind? The mind of Christ. I serve the
law of God. Perfectly fulfilled it in Christ.
Perfectly honored and exalted it in Christ. We have the mind
of Christ. We have a right image, a right
thought, a right understanding of God and how we get it in Christ. And he himself said to those
Jews, they said, God is our father. He said, God's not your father.
He said, if God were your father, you'd love me for, now listen,
I proceeded forth and came from God. Paul said he's God over all,
blessed forever. But why did he come? What's he
doing in Galilee? What's he doing walking along
this seashore? What's he doing with all this
throng around him and the press and where he couldn't hardly
walk? To even speak to him, he had to get in a ship and push
off from the bank. What's he doing here? Well, he came down from heaven.
This is his own words. Not to do his will, but the will
of him that sent me. And this is the will of him that
sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing
but raise it up again at the last day. He came to save a people given
to him by God the Father. He came to seek and to find the
lost. He didn't come to try to save.
He didn't come to to make some kind of hope to motivate men
or to make opportunity for men to be saved, he came to save.
Go and call his name Jesus, Joshua, for he shall save his people
from their sin. He came as a representative man,
as a substitute, as a federal head. Just like Adam was our
federal head, Christ is the federal head of his people. God put his
chosen into an eternal covenant union with his son, made them
one, treated them as one. There's only one way to be accepted
of God, that's to be accepted in the blood. Well, how do we
do that? We're one with him. When he said to Christ, well
done, thy good and faithful servant. He's saying that to me. This man Jesus of Nazareth was
made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were
under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. His obedience
is our obedience. His death is our death. His resurrection
is our resurrection. He's the head of the body, the
church. And men labored to conceive of
a Christ who needs their help and needs their will and needs
their assistance, but not the Christ of God. He said he by
himself purged our sins. The Holy Ghost inspired Paul
to write those very words. By himself purged our sins. With his own blood, he, Not him
and somebody else. By his own blood, he entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. He alone satisfied the justice
of God. He alone established the righteousness
of God. He alone has accomplished the
salvation of his elect. Now all these, all these Men
with these false conceptions, these anti-Christ laborers, ministers,
whatever you want to call them, they all tried to give him a
special place of recognition with the prophets. Whom do men say that I am? Well,
some say you're a prophet. But his place is a place above
that. God has given to him, the scripture
said, a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every
knee shall bow. Of things in heaven, things in
earth, things under the earth, they're all gonna bow. And they're gonna confess him
to be Lord to the glory of God the Father. You're not gonna
call on him until you hear Who he is. Who he is. That's why I labor week after
week after week trying to point you to him, trying to tell you
who he is, how great he is, how strong he is, how sufficient
he is. He's everything. Christ is all. And in all that believe. He's
all. And I tell you, when you come
to your wits end like this woman was, that's what you need. You're not going to call on him
until you hear. And how are you going to hear,
the scripture said, without a preacher? When she heard of Jesus, then
she made all these determinations. And then fourthly, what happens
to a person when this hearing takes place? Their whole being
is set on Seeking Him. Their whole being, everything
about them, their mind, their heart, their whole being suddenly
changes. They've got all of these goals,
all these things going on in their life. In some way in God's providence,
He brings them to their wits end and they hear who Christ
is and all of a sudden, all of a sudden, He's given them a new
heart Buddy, everything in them, that's what it wants. That's
what it's after, that's its goal. That's its life goal for that
believer, is to get to him. I've got to get to him. I can
afford to lose this, but I can't lose this. I can't lose this. Lose all interest in everything
but him. Suddenly they see in him everything
that God has for sinners. He's not poor little Jesus boy
anymore. He's not that poor defeated reformer
who can only do what you let him do. He's not just a point
of debate and argument anymore. This man has everything the sinner
don't have and can never have apart from him. He's the end of the law for righteousness. By his accomplishing of the Father's
redemptive will, we're sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. Everything else loses its priority. Everything else takes a back
seat to him. All my efforts, all my desire,
all my strength is set on one goal. I must get to him. And this poor woman had no idea,
no ideas. of the Savior hearing her request. She was forbidden to even associate
with people in her condition. She had no expectations of stopping
him so that he could talk to her one-on-one. She had no expectations
of him recognizing her in any way. But she said, if I may touch
but his clothes, if I can just touch his clothes, I'll be made
whole. Verse 29, And straightway the
fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body
that she was healed of that plague. And Jesus, immediately knowing
in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about
in the press and said, Who touched me? Can you imagine, you ever
been to a football game where there's this many people who
couldn't walk? Couldn't even get out of the stands. That's
the way it was. It was a press. They were shoulder
to shoulder. And the disciple said, touched
you? Everybody's touching everybody. And he looked round about on
her that had done this thing. Isn't that funny how the Lord's
able to single you out? You know it too when He does.
You know it. Boy, it's just like He's standing
there looking right in your face. And that's what He did. He looked
round about on her that had done this thing, and the woman, fearing
and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down
before Him and told Him all the truth. Christ Himself, the God-man mediator,
the Holy One of Israel, is the only one who can cure what ails
us, and He does it by virtue of His person. Any cleansing, any salvation,
any righteousness, it all comes from His virtue, who He is. And even the apostles who were
given the gifts of healing, Peter healed that man in front of the
temple. And people just were in such awe that they came over
and fell down before them. And it appeared like they were
going to worship him. And he said, get up. We didn't do this of our own
power, now listen, or holiness. It wasn't my virtue that caused
that man to stretch forth his hand. It was the virtue of Christ. You see what I'm saying? And
it's not the minister. Ministers are needful. We're
gonna talk about that here in just a little bit. They're needful.
They're needful. But there's no virtue comes out
of me. I'm trying to tell you about him who is virtuous. He's all the virtue that's needed.
And he didn't ask him who touched him because he didn't know. Whenever God asked questions,
whenever Christ asked questions, it wasn't because he was ignorant
of the answer. He was gonna have her tell him. And I tell you this, when this
virtue flows into a person, they know it. I won't have to come down and
say, well, now here's what happens, you know, when you start to scrap.
No, you'll know it. You'll know it. If he does the
work in you, you'll know it. And when you know it, I'll know
it. I'll know it. All right, thank you.