I want us to begin reading in
Matthew chapter 9 and verse 18. I want to call your attention
this morning to an incident that took place in our Lord's life,
and it's very amazing because it's something that never happened
before. I want to tell you something this morning that never happened
before. It hadn't happened before, and as far as we know, it never
happened since. We find this in this passage, this incident
that took place when this man came to the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's begin reading here in verse
18. And while he spake these things
unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped
him, saying, My daughter is even now dead. Come and lay thy hand
upon her, and she shall live. And Jesus arose and fathered
him, and so did his disciples. And behold, a woman, which was
diseased with an issue of blood, twelve years, came behind him,
and touched the hem of his garment. For she 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, thy faith has made thee whole. And the woman was made
whole from that hour. And when Jesus came into the
ruler's house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise,
He said unto them, Give place, for the maid is not dead, but
sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.
But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her
by the hand, and the maid arose. And the fame thereof went abroad
unto all that land." Now here's something in this passage that
never took place before. And you and I often read in the
scriptures that men followed Jesus. Everybody we read about
in the scriptures, all of them followed Jesus. Now let me show
you that. Look back here in chapter 4.
Just let me give you one example out of a host of them. Look back
in chapter 4 and look here in verse 18. Everybody was following
the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew 4 verse 18, And Jesus,
walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon Colpeter
and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they
were fishers. And he said unto them, Follow
me, and I will make you fishers of men. And straightway they
left their nets, and they followed him. And look in verse 21, and
going on from hence, he saw two other brethren, James the son
of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their
father, mending their nets. And he called them, and immediately
they left their ship and the father, and they followed him.
And then in verse 23 and verse 24 we read about the Lord healing
all manner of disease and sicknesses and casting out devils. And in
verse 25, And there followed him great multitudes of people
from Galilee, and from Decapolis of Jerusalem, and Judea, and
from the old Jordan. Everybody was following him.
But our text in verse 18 and verse 19 has this amazing statement. Look back in verse 19 in chapter
9 of Matthew again. Look at this. This is amazing. And Jesus arose and followed
him. Isn't that amazing? I laugh every
time I read that. It's amazing to me. Here the
eternal Son of God has came down from heaven, never ceased to
be what He was before He came, in our likeness, and here we
see Him following a mere man. Every street this man went down,
the Lord was right behind him. When he turned down a path, the
Lord was right behind him. Isn't that condescending that
the Son of God would come to this world and follow a man that
never happened before? You just never read it ever happened
before or sinned. And that's what I want to look
at this morning But first I want us to look at this man whom the
Lord Jesus Christ thought. Let's consider this passage together
here this morning. Luke and Mark tells us his name. Matthew never mentions his name,
but Mark and Luke tells us what his name was and tells us what
his occupation was. We find that his name was Jairus,
and he was a ruler of one of these synagogues. A ruler of
the synagogue. And we're told here something
about how they felt. Look here how Matthew felt about
when he saw this man come to the Lord Jesus, and Mark expresses
the very same thing, and Luke expresses the same amazement.
He says here in verse 18, While he spake these things unto them,
behold, there came a certain ruler." Behold! That's an expression of amazement. When I read this word, I often
say, Tommy, we say down south, would you look at that? Would
you look at that? They were amazed at this. They
stood back and said, would you look at this? Why were they amazed
at that? because of who this man was. You remember the rulers of these
synagogues. I tell you, they hated the Lord
Jesus Christ. You remember one day while he
was, while our master was preaching in one of these synagogues, there
was a woman that was there that had been bound together for 18
years. The devil had bound her together
and she was stooped. She couldn't look nobody in the
eye. The last 18 years, this woman had never looked anybody
in the face. She was bent double. And the Lord looked at her and
said, Woman, you're loose from your infirmities. And immediately
she stood up straight. And you know what the ruler of
that synagogue said? He said, There are six days that
you are to come here and be healed. Don't you come here on the Sabbath
day to be healed. He said that because he was envious.
He hated the Lord Jesus. And you remember what the Lord
said to him? You hypocrite. You hypocrite. He said, I saw
you this morning when you went out and got your ox and you put
the halter on him and led him down to water him on the Sabbath
day. I'll watch you tonight when you
get your donkey out of the stall and put a holler on him and go
down and try to make him drink water. And you're telling me
that you can do that on the Sabbath day and it's not lawful for me
to heal this child of Abraham on the Sabbath. You hypocrite,
you. But you know why he said that? He hated the Son of God. These rulers of these synagogues
hated the Son of God. You remember when they came before
Pilate and they brought the Master before Pilate? You remember who
it was that accused him of being a perverter? They said, this
man's a false prophet. He's leading the nation astray.
It was the rulers of these synagogues. And when Pilate said, I'm going
to let him go, it was these rulers that said, crucify him. Crucify
Him. When He hung on the cross, these
rulers said, if you be the Christ, if you be the chosen of God,
then come down from the cross and save yourself. And I guess one of the greatest
indictments that was ever brought against these rulers was brought
against by the Pharisees who said, have any of the rulers
ever believed on Him? Thank God they have. Here's one
that did. And that's what was amazing to
them. Here was a ruler of the synagogue, and he came here to
worship the Son of God. And they said, would you look
at that. I'm glad the Lord makes exceptions,
aren't you? Has any of the rulers of this
knoll? Not many of them, but thank God
there's one who has. The Lord didn't save many of
these self-righteous Pharisees, but He saved Nicodemus. He saved
Saul of Tarsus. There ain't many people saved
on deathbed repentance. But thank God there was a thief
that was, wasn't there? The Lord always makes exceptions. And when He does, He brings out
this behold. And don't He bring out a behold
when you remember that He saved you? Aren't you amazed, Tommy,
that He saved you? I can't get over that, can you?
Every time I come to Him, it amazes me. To be here among you
this morning and love to be here. Love the things of the Lord.
Love to sit and hear His Word taught. I'm amazed that I can
enter into that. I'm amazed that I've come to
Him. Knowing who He is. How high He is. How wonderful
He is. Knowing who I am. Knowing our
inability that we can't come unless He brings us. And to think
that I've come. That you've come. Don't you say,
Oh, I'm amazed at myself. I am. I'm amazed at myself. Paul never could get over it,
could he? Old Charles Wesley never could get over it. Bless
his heart. Died he for me who caused his pain? Me who him to
death pursued, amazed in love. How can it be that thou, my God,
has died for me? Behold! Behold! Oh, he makes
exceptions. And you and I feel like he made
exceptions when he saved us. and give us an interest in Him.
Behold! Behold! Something else we see about this
man here, not only the amazing thing that he came because of
who he was, it amazed these writers. But something else here, the
way that he came was amazing. Now you have to remember who
this guy was. He was a ruler of the synagogue,
and you could tell them. They didn't have to come up to
you and say, I'm a ruler of the synagogue. When you saw them, you knew who
they were. They were dressed out. They were docked out. They
were robed out. Oh, they were docked up in this
beautiful, clean garments. When you walked into the synagogue,
right in the back, you could tell where they were standing.
You could tell what they looked like. They were something else.
They were something else. But here comes this man, and
Mark and Luke tells us that when he saw Jesus, he fell down at
His feet. Can you imagine that? Here's
a man that's knocked up in these beautiful garments, and right
there he is down in the dirt at Jesus' feet. Ain't that amazing? That's how he came. And Matthew
and Mark tells us here, especially Mark and Luke tells us, that
he besought Him greatly. In other words, he became a beggar.
He didn't go up to the Lord Jesus and whisper in His ear and say,
Could I have a word with you on the side? He didn't do like
Nicodemus, come of the night and seek Him out because he was
ashamed. He ran right up to Him and cried out, and begin to bag
him before all this multitude. Ain't that amazing? He said,
you people know who I am. You know who I am. You know who
my friends are. You know what my occupation is.
But he says, I'm in trouble. I'm in great need, and this Jesus
of Nazareth is the only one that can help me. So down he went,
right at his feet, and began to cry out. He wasn't ashamed,
was he? Is that the way you and I come
to the Lord? And we come to Him just like this man comes. I profess
before you today, dear brothers and sisters, the same thing I
profess in my closet to my God. The same thing that we profess
to this world. In and of ourselves, we are hopeless
sinners. We are nothing. We are less than
nothing. We are unprofitable. And our
only hope, and our only life, and our only living, is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm not ashamed of that,
are you? We come just like this man. Oh, there was a time we
thought we were something, but didn't we? We thought we were
just as important as this ruler thought himself important. But
we found ourselves in trouble just like he did. And finally,
after the Lord had wrung our conscience out, down we went
at His feet and said, Lord, I need you. I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble. I didn't care who saved me. That's
the point I reached. I didn't care. I was in trouble. Oh, Lord, I'm in trouble. Save
me. I'm in trouble. And notice something else here
about this ruler, this synagogue, and why he came. I looked at
this and I thought, this is just one aspect of his coming, but
this is one of the reasons he came. And this was amazing. As
I read this, notice why he came. He was distraught about his daughter.
My daughter, he said. Luke says he had only one daughter. And Mark says, the man says,
my little daughter, live at the point of death. She's not dead,
but she's dying. Boy, you can feel this in his
voice, can't you? My little daughter. It's my little
daughter. This is why he came to the Lord.
Why was Jairus so concerned about death now? I doubt he had been this concerned
about death before, was he? Josh, why are you concerned about
death now? How often have you heard about
death? You never were concerned about it before. All your friends
are dying. You read in the paper you hear
that others your age are dying. You never give it a second thought.
How many times have you been told it's appointed unto you
to die? You never give that a second thought. Why are you so concerned
about death now? It's my little daughter. It's
my little daughter. Boy, I tell you, God can use
any means. Tommy, he's pleased to teach
his people. And he can teach us some valuable lessons with
our children, can he? It's my daughter. There's a man
who came to the Lord Jesus one time. And his little son had
this devil. And often he says he takes him
and casts him into the fire. Somebody has to be with him all
the time. This devil just took control of him and he casts him
in the fire. If somebody ain't starting to pull him out, he'd
burn him up. We can't let him get around the pool of water.
He throws him in the water to drown him. And he came to the
Lord Jesus, this dad did, and he said, Oh Lord, if you could
do anything, help us. We're in trouble. Help us. The
devil has got in my child. Oh man, why are you so concerned
about the devil now? You flirted with him all your
life. You walked with him when concerned about it then. Why
are you so concerned about the devil now? He's in my child.
I see what he's done to my child. I tell you, God can teach you
a scheme. He can bring it home to our hearts. Boy, He can teach
us a lesson. How many of you can testify from
your own experience how God's taught you with your children?
You remember what David did when he fell into that awful sin of
adultery and murder when he slew Uriah? And the Lord told him,
said, David, the sword's never going to depart from your house.
I'm going to raise up an enemy right in your midst. You know
who it was? He was his own son. His own son. And boy, there came
a day when Absalom, David's son, was killed and David stood over
his grave. And he said, Oh, Absalom, were
it to God, I'd have died in your stead. You know what he was thinking?
This is all my fault. This is all my fault. Well, God can teach us a lesson.
Here's a ruler of the synagogue that no doubt had hated the Son
of God. probably told men not to listen
to it. But here he is now, and he's
at the feet of the Savior, worshiping Him, and one of the means that
the Lord has used to get him there. I know this is just one
aspect of it, but it is an aspect. God used this man's daughter
to afflict him and bring him to the Lord. He can use any means
he's pleased. There was a lady one time, Charles
Spurgeon told about that spent a lot of time praying for her
rebellious son and went out and got drunk and lived in his lust.
He came home one night, Mr. Spurgeon said, and he heard his
mother pray. And he said, I heard my mother
say, Lord, if you don't save my son, then I'm going to be
a witness against him at the judgment. And that young man
said, I thought within my heart, would my loving, tender mother
stand and witness against me at the judgment? And he said,
that broke my heart. This broke my heart. And out
of that, he began to seek the Lord and was converted. The Lord
can take things in a family, and boy, he can teach us a valuable
lesson. This man come to the Lord, and one of the means the
Lord had to get him there was afflicting his daughter. Something else about this man,
and we see here this about him, and I'll get to the advantage
we have of the Lord Jesus following Judas, but I wanted to see this
man that he followed. And we see We see something here
about true worship in verse 18. We're told something about true
worship. I want to know what worship is. I want to go to the
Bible and find out what it means to worship. And we're given two
aspects of worship here in verse 18. And the first aspect of worship
is this. It's out of a need. My daughter
is at the point of death, but come and lay thy hand upon her. How often do you and I read the
Scriptures And we read a statement like this, he worshiped the Lord
saying, have mercy upon me. We're told that he worships and
then we're told the expression of his worship is out of a need.
There came a leopard to him and worshiped him saying, Lord, if
you will, you can make me clean. That's the first aspect of worship.
A need. A need. I remember years ago
when I was in another congregation, we got Brother Henry Mahan to
come up here and preach for us. Best message I ever heard him
preach, Tommy, in all my life. He preached his message first
and then read his text. He preached his message and this
was the title of his message. Why won't you come to Christ?
Why won't you come to Christ? Then he preached his message
and then he answered that question. You know what the answer was?
You don't need it. You don't need Him. Worship is
out of a need. Remember when you first came
to Him? You needed Him, didn't you? Out
of my bondage, out of my sorrow, out of my knife, into thy freedom,
gladness, and life, Jesus, I come to thee. Out of my poverty, into
thy wealth. Out of my sickness, into thy
health. Out of my sin, into yourself. Jesus, I come to thee. We need
Him. But you know something? We still
need Him. That's why I'm coming. Aren't
you? I still need Him. I tell you, I don't have the
guilt. It's not guilt that drives me
to Him now. That's what drove me to Him to
begin with. I don't have that terrible guilt that I had then. But I tell you, I feel a greater
need of Him this morning than I ever have, Tommy, in all my
life. I need the Lord Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters, this morning
as much as I've ever needed Him. That's why God's got a throne
of grace for us to come to, to obtain mercy and find grace to
help when in a time of need. I can't live without Him, can
you? I can't live without the Son of God. And I tell you, if
He met every need that you and I have, and we have many of them,
but if He met every need you and I have, there's one need,
there's one need we'll never get over. And you know what it
is? A need to worship Him. To worship Him. We often hear
that Psalm quoted, I was glad when they said unto me, let us
go up into the house of the Lord. But you know what the next verse
says? It's there where the tribes of Israel go up to give thanks
unto the name of the Lord. That's why David said, I was
glad, because they're going up to worship, a need to worship. And it's going to take all eternity
to satisfy that need. Way out in eternity we'll still
have a need to worship Him. That's what worship is, it's
out of a need. And there's something else about
worship, and it's this. Confidence. Look at what he said
in the last portion of verse 18. He had this need, come and
lay hands upon her. But look at his confidence. And
she shall live. He worshipped him second. If
you put your hands upon her, you just put your hands upon
her. You know what he was saying? He said, you're no ordinary man.
I know that. I know that. I know who you are. I've had my understanding open.
Oh, I used to be dead in sins. I used to have a darkened mind.
I've had my heart open. I know who you are. You're the
Son of God. You're God in our likeness. And
you're so full of merit, you're so full of power, if you just
lay your hand upon her, she shall live. Now, that's confidence,
ain't it? That's confidence. He worshipped him saying, she
shall live. You and I have come here this
morning, just a few of us. Ain't many of us when all of
us are here, is there? But you know something? We're not here
by accident. Our God's appointed us to be
here this morning. He's purposed us to be here.
And He said if we're two or three or gathered together in my name,
I am there in their midst. I believe that, don't you? As
long as there's a world, there's going to be a church in this
world. That like Abraham, they stagger
not at the promises of God through unbelief. They gather knowing
as we sing and as we preach and as we pray, God's purpose is
being fulfilled. His elect are being called. They're
being comforted. The church is being edified.
The lost are being warned. His word will not return to Him
void. I believe that. Don't you? We gather this morning, and we
have absolutely no confidence in ourselves, but we have all
the confidence in the world in him. We can say with a great
apostle, I'm confident of this very thing, that he which hath
begun a good work in me will perform it. I'm persuaded of
this. He's able to keep that which
I've committed to Him against that day. I am the resurrection
and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And whoever believes and lives
in me, he shall never die. Do you believe this? Lord, I
believe it with all my heart. I do believe it. And we worship. We worship. Do you believe the
gates of hell will ever prevail against this church? No, we don't
believe that, do we? They never will. Hell never will.
Why? Because He is the Lord of Glory. And our confidence is in Him.
And we bow down and worship Him. We need Him. All our confidence
is in Him. And that's the two aspects of
worship. And this was the man who came
to the dear and blessed Son of God to worship Him. Now, right quickly, and I won't
keep you very long, but I want to look at the advantages to
this dear man and the Lord Jesus Christ following him. Can you imagine what great encouragement
this was to this man to have the Son of God to follow him?
He was going back home where his daughter Lathai. He said
she's even dead. His meaning was she's at the
point of death. If you don't come here or she's going to die.
That's what he said. Can you imagine how encouraged he was
as he took off back towards his house and the Lord of life was
following him there. Don't you imagine he often looked
over his shoulder just to make sure he was still following him.
Knowing that when he got there and opened the door and he stood
aside, the Son of God would step in behind him and lay his hands
on her daughter and she shall live. Oh, what encouragement
that must have been. Can you imagine if the Son of
God hadn't been following him? Just another weeping voice, weeping
over a dead daughter. I tell you, brothers and sisters,
it's encouraging to know the Son of God is following you.
Have you ever thought about going and talking to someone? Maybe
some loved one's in the hospital. This has happened to me. I don't
know how often this happens to me. I'm anxious to go somewhere
or talk to somebody. It seems like every time I go
to prison, the thought that comes to me, the Lord's not over there.
You're wasting your time. You might go to the state of
the house. You'd be more proper. The Lord's not working over there.
He's not doing anything over there. I have had that thought
come into this pulpit too. It's not down there. You might
as well, you're spending your will. That's what the devil tries
to convince us of. And you know what a good answer
for it is. The Lord may not be doing anything over there. He
may not be. But if I go over there and he
follows me, he's going to be there when I get there. And if
he's there, no telling what may be accomplished. So I'll go. And if he follows me. I heard
Brother Henry Mayan tell him the other day on tape, he talked
about this old pastor over in England. His name escaped me.
I can't remember what it was. He was one of the more famous
preachers there. But Henry said, it came time
to preach and the congregation was there, gathered, and they
couldn't find the pastor. And one deacon told the other,
said, let's spread out here and find him. They're waiting on
him. So one went one way and the other went the other. And
they met back there in a minute, and the first one said, did you
find him? He said, I found him. He said, did you tell him the
congregation was waiting on him? He said, no, I didn't bother him.
He said, what's he doing? He said, he's praying. Well,
what's he saying? He said, well, I heard him say,
Lord, I went to that pulpit the last time without you. I felt
that way in June. Lord, I ain't going without you.
Go with me. If you don't follow me, I'm not going. Oh, the comfort
then there must be knowing that He's following you. Comfort and
confidence. And can you imagine this? Can
you imagine this? Can you imagine how comforting
it is To have a strong friend, an understanding friend, a wise
friend, to be a falling close behind you. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine what would happen
if Jairus and his anxiety had fainted? Have you ever seen anybody
faint? We used to have an assembly in
high school. And some of those girls, especially,
they'd get up there in front of the whole school to speak.
And you'd see their eyes roll back in their head and their
cabins turn white and down they'd go. Faint. Somebody would have
to run up there with some water and bring them back to it. Fainting. If this dear man had fainted
out of his anxiety and worry, who would have been the first
one there to revive him? Have you ever fainted? You're fainted
in your mind. Who was it there that revived
you? Aren't you glad he's following
you? What if Jairus in his haste had fallen and hurt himself or
broken his leg? Who would have been the first
one there to pick him up? Have you ever fallen? And you
laid right there till the Lord Himself picked you up, didn't
you? Wouldn't it have been a blessing? Ain't it a comfort to know He's
following you? What if Jairus in his haste had
gotten lost? He'd gotten disoriented? Who
was there to say, Jairus, go left. You're going the wrong
way. Take the left. Take the left. He said, Bruce,
you're getting plumb silly. Am I? Am I? Is this scripture
or not? Look over here with me in Isaiah
chapter 30. Just hold the text there a minute.
Look over here in Isaiah chapter 30. This is such a comfort to know. I was there at home the other
night, and I tell you, something happened. It wasn't much. It wouldn't have bothered you
folks a lot, but it just got me down. And I just started moping
through the house. And I was walking through the
house moping along. And suddenly, out of nowhere, this word came
to me. Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you disquiet? Hope thou
in God. I'll yet praise Him who is to
help." And I thought, where did that come from? I didn't see
anybody. It just fell out of the air into
my heart. And up my soul went. You know,
that's the way the Lord speaks to His people. He speaks to them
through His Word, but they can't see Him. You just hear His voice. My sheep hear my voice. And here's
what He said, look here in Isaiah chapter 30. Look in verse 21.
And thy ears shall hear a word behind thee. See, you can't see
it. You can't see it. We don't see
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's behind us. That means you
don't discern it with a natural ear. When He speaks, it's discerned
with the spirit, with the conscience. It's behind thee, and this is
what it says. This is the way, walking in it,
when you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left. He guides us, doesn't He? He
directs our steps by speaking to us from behind us. And we've
got a perfect example of this here in this incident that took
place, and I read it to you. Mark tells us that when the Lord
was following Jairus to his house, this woman came with an issue
of blood. And it took all kinds of time, time of her pressing
her way through the crowd and the Lord stopping and speaking
to her. And here comes this man from
the ruler's house, and he says, Your daughter's dead. Don't trouble
the master anymore. You know, she's gone now. Let's
just get on with it and get through this and try to do the best we
can. Let's go prepare for the birth. Can you imagine when Jairus
heard that? How his heart sank. Your daughter's
dead. It's too late. It's too late. But you remember what the Lord
said? The Lord was right behind him, following him, and you remember
what he said? He eased up and spoke to Jairus
behind him, and he said, Fear not. Fear not. Only believe. Boy, you talk about
a confident word now. I'm telling you what, I think
I get down. You better come and say to your only little daughter,
it's too late. Let the Master go on and do something
else. Oh, my heart would have sunk. But to hear those words
behind me, fear not. Fear not. Only believe. Behind
you. Isn't it profitable to have the
Lord Jesus Christ following you? How many times, you didn't know
it at the time, but how many times can you look back on your
life, some decision you was ready to make, and you didn't make
it. But if you had made it, you would have been in a whole lot
of trouble. You wanted to turn to the left hand, but you turned
to the right. And looking back now, you see He was involved
in your decision. Guiding you. Guiding you. Something else. Something else. And this is amazing. I like this. What if this man Jairus, in his
haste, had lost something valuable to him? Maybe lost his watch. Lost his purse. Who would have been there to
find it for him? My wife. All you women. There's something
about women and their purses. I don't know why it is. But you
talk to a woman about her purse. If I get home some night late,
and I go where I know where my wife keeps her purse hanging,
and she's asleep in the bed, and I reach to get it, what are
you doing? There's something about a woman
and her purse. Isn't it so, Gail? You know right
where your purse is right now. Robin, you know right where your
purse is. Every woman knows right where her purse is. Did you ever
lose your purse? I remember one time I was in
Indianapolis Airport going to Montana. And I was ready to get
on the plane. We were sitting there ready to
board the plane. And I rushed back to get my wallet to get my ID out
of it. You can't get on a plane without your ID. And my wallet
was gone. I mean, my heart sank within
me. It just sank within me. I had all kinds of those bad
thoughts. Larry, somebody's pickpocketed me. And I thought, oh my, what
am I going to do? I can't get on the plane. I can't
even get back to the house. I can't make a phone call. I didn't have
a cell phone. And boy, I went trembling all the way back up
where I thought I might have left it. Went all the way back
up where they bring you into the airport and x-ray you and
take everything out of your pockets. I went back up and I asked that
guard. I said, buddy, I have lost my wallet. And he said,
are you Harold Crabtree? I said, yes. And he said, I've
got your wallet in my office in there. Oh man, I tell you. I said, buddy, I could kiss you.
You know what he said? Get out of here. Get out of here.
You know how you feel when you lose something. Have you ever
really lost anything that was real valuable to you? Have you
ever lost your assurance? Have you ever gotten a real hard
trial, difficult trial, a long dark valley and you lost your
assurance? Have you ever lost your peace?
Have you ever lost your patience? Your goodness? These graces,
these precious graces of the Spirit in our heart, they're
so delicate. And sometimes I tell you, we
can't all together lose them. But boy, I tell you sometimes,
we think we have, don't we? And just about the time you turn
around, you realize you've lost them, and you say, oh my soul,
where did I lose them? Where did I go to find them?
And you think, I'm going to have to turn around and tread mile
after mile, trying to find my valuables that I've lost. But
as soon as you turn around, who do you see? There the Lord Jesus
stands. And you know something? He's
got your valuables. As soon as you turn around, there He is.
And He has your assurance. He has your peace. He has your
joy. He has your goodness. And oh,
you embrace Him and you say, Oh, Lord Jesus. Blessed Lord
Jesus. I lost these things and how would
I have ever found them if you hadn't have been falling so close
behind me. Oh, isn't it profitable to have
the Son of God following us? He followed him in the way. How condescending. How condescending. And fourthly, think of this. Why would the Son of God follow
this man? Well, I know why he follows us.
To right our wrongs. To pick up the pieces that we've
broken. To clean up our messes that we've
made. I wonder sometimes in my imagination,
when Jairus saw the Lord Jesus following him, if he didn't just
take off in his pride, get out of my way! Look who's following
me! This never happened before! And
he shoved some poor old fellow off in the ditch and just goes
off. And here comes the dear Savior and says, you'll have
to forgive my friend. You'll have to forgive my friend. He's
sort of beside himself. Wayne Walker, Wayne Walker, a
pastor over in Annapolis, told me one day, he said, you know,
when the Lord first saves one of his people and he begins to
teach him, he ought to put him in a cage because he becomes
dangerous to himself and everybody around him. That's so ain't it? That's so ain't it? He begins
to teach us something and if he don't humble us with a teaching,
we get so lifted up. I tell you, I look back on my
Christian life at some harm, Tom, that I've done. Hearts that
I've broken. Things that I've done in my Christian
life, not my lost life, my Christian life. And I'm so ashamed of myself. I've told you all before, and
it just made such an impression on me, when we first went to
Iraq in 91, I think it was. and bombed Iraq, and those people
were trying to flee out of Baghdad over into Jordan. And that one
road was just cluttered with burned out vehicles and body
parts, tanks on fire. It was an absolute mess. And
I made this statement to somebody. You know, that reminds me of
my Christian life. I look back over my Christian
life, and all I see is a mess. You know that word, unprofitable?
When we come to the Lord and pray, He said, count yourselves
my unprofitable servants. You know what that word means?
Fit for nothing. Fit for nothing. And when I look
back over my Christian life, that's what I see. And I think when I get to the
end of the way, one of the greatest comforts that's going to be for
me, As I lay there and think back over my Christian life,
as some of the dumb, stupid, sinful things I've done and the
people I've hurt, it's going to be a source of great comfort
to me when I'm laying there in heaviness over it all to have
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself come to me and say, yes, you
made a mess, but I've been following you all the way to clean it all
up. Won't that be a comfort? Let
Your goodness, let Your mercy follow me. Oh, I know we follow
Him, but thank God He follows us. I'm looking for mercy, aren't
you? Everything I've ever done in my life, even what I've done
for His glory, I've seen such awful sin mixed with it, I'm
ashamed of myself. That dear old preacher, the famous
preacher, Gordon London, was dying. They let one of his friends
in to see him. And he stepped down to his bedside
and said, Brother, you're going to receive your reward. And he
looked up at him and said, Brother, I'm going to receive mercy. Mercy. That's what I want to follow
me. The Lord who is merciful follow me. Clean up my messes. Mend the hearts that I've broken.
Straighten out the things that I've messed up. He followed him
in the way. And one last thing, and I'll
let you go. Can you imagine how this affected this man's life? His walk and where he went. The
Lord Jesus following him. He gets up here and he thinks,
now there's a shortcut. But it's across the swamp, off
of Muddy through there. Now I could go across that swamp,
that's a shortcut. But he looks behind him and he
sees those holy feet, those clean feet. I ain't taking my master
through there. He goes on down the road and
there's an old nightclub and he knows what's going on in there.
All the filth and all the jokes. Boy, I could stop and get me
five or six. I could use something. I ain't taking my master in there. My master would be grieved to
hear what goes on. I ain't taking my master in there.
You know what will secure a wholesome life? You know what will secure
a Christian living, a gracious, loving living? Knowing that the
presence of the Lord is with you. That'll do it. That'll do
it. There's no sense of us getting
together here. We've said this so many times.
We could get together as well as anybody. We could write up
a bunch of rules for people to live by. Brother Henry was telling
us about years ago about that big church out in Texas. The
pastor said, I think we need to get the deacon and the deacon
committee together and make up these rules and let people know
where they can go and where they can't go, what they can wear
and what they can't wear, what they can say and what they can't
say. And they got all the rules wrote out and printed all up
and handed to the congregation. And then the pastor ran off with
a piano player. I remember when the one pastor
down in Louisiana, the world famous evangelist a few years
ago, preached against the awful sin of pornography, and he was
caught up in it himself. Remember that guy? Another one
of his buddies, a famous preacher, I saw him on TV. Bob, you remember
this. And he said, well, they wouldn't
have got in this if they'd have read my book. He said, I wrote
a book about all this, and if they'd just read my book and
listened to my book, they'd have never did all this. I wonder
if he realized that somebody wrote a book long before he wrote
a book. Here's all we need. It's all
we need. You take his word and his presence,
and it will secure your walk in this world. Do you believe
that? Let me show you a passage of scripture, and I'll close.
Look in Exodus chapter 33 with me. And I'll read this real close. His presence, the Lord's presence,
our knowledge of His presence, knowing that He's with us, I
tell you, that'll secure. We talk about separation. We
believe we ought to be separated. Well, I tell you, He'll be graciously
and lovingly separated if the Lord's presence goes with Him.
Now look here. Exodus chapter 33. Look in verse 12. Moses said unto the Lord, See?
Thou saith unto me, Bring up this people, thou hast not let
me know whom thou wilt send with me, yet thou hast said, I know
thee by name, thou hast found grace in my sight. Now therefore,
I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now
thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy
sight, and consider that this nation is thy people. And the
Lord said to Moses, My presence shall go with thee, and I will
give thee rest. And he said unto him, Moses said
unto the Lord, If your presence go not with me, don't carry me
up hence. For wherein shall it be known
here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight. Is
it not in that thou goest with us? And look at this. So shall
we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are
upon the face of the earth." I tell you, that's what will
make a man live wholesome and honest in love and in grace.
The Lord is with me. He's following me. He's following
me. May God bless His Word. Father in heaven, gracious and
tender Father, We thank you for accessing your presence through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, you've condescended, condescended
to do for us, to live for us, to suffer for us, to die for
us. Condescended to live in our heart. We're amazed. Condescended
to follow us, to have mercy upon us, to lead us and guide us and
follow us along. Oh, Lord, there's none like you.
There's none beside you. Please interpret your message
today. May it go home to our hearts to comfort us and teach
us. Keep us the remainder of this week. Lead us, Lord, and
keep us safe. Bless your children with your
presence. In Christ's precious name, amen.