Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyvert. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nyvert. I'm reading from Mark chapter
five, verse 36. As soon as Jesus heard the word
that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, be
not afraid, only believe. Now when Luke gives his account
of this, he says, believe only. I've entitled this message, Only
Believe and Believe Only. I pray that God will give us
the grace to enter into what it means to only believe and
to believe only. Now, this is the story of Jairus,
a ruler of the synagogue. We begin reading in verse 22 of Mark chapter 5. And behold,
there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus, by
name. And when he saw him, the Lord
Jesus, he fell at his feet. Now, the name of Jairus is enlightened. And indeed, this man was enlightened. He saw that there wasn't any
saving power in his religion. And he proves furthermore that
he was enlightened by the fact that he fell at the feet of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the posture of worship. Now, the story we're
getting ready to hear of is not something you'd ever read in
a newspaper or hear on the internet. It's about someone being dead
and being raised from the dead. Now, I realize that there are
a lot of people who give stories of being dead and seeing themselves
over the operating table. I don't know about that. I think
it was probably a dream. I met one woman once that said
she'd been dead four times. Oh, I didn't even know how to
respond to her. But here we have someone that
is actually raised from the dead by the Lord Jesus. They were
dead Their body had already started going through the process of
decay. It happens instantly when you die. And the Lord raised
her from the dead. Now this is one of three people
the Lord raised from the dead, as far as what we have recorded.
We have the young man in the funeral procession, already in
a coffin, and the Lord told him to arise. We have Lazarus, who'd
been in the grave four days. And the process of decay had
advanced so much that he was stinking. And the Lord raised
him from the dead. And here we have this little
girl, the daughter of Jairus, that he raised from the dead.
In verse 23, it says regarding this man, when he fell at the
feet of the Lord, he had some idea of who he was. And it besought
him greatly, saying, my little daughter lieth at the point of
death. She's not going to get better
if you don't do something for her. She's at the verge of death. Now, he loved his little daughter.
She was 12 years old, his only child, and he was greatly distraught
at the thought of her dying. So he comes and falls at the
feet of the Lord Jesus Christ with this request, my little
daughter lies at the point of death. And then he says, I pray
thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed
and she shall live. Now, let me point out a couple
of things about this man's faith. First of all, it had defects. He said, come, you make this
move, lay your hands on my daughter, and she shall be healed." Now,
if you remember the man of Matthew chapter 8, that the Lord said
he's got the greatest faith in Israel that he'd ever seen. When
this man came about his servant, and the Lord said, I'll come
and heal him, and the Lord said, And the man said to the Lord,
I'm not worthy for you to come under my roof. Speak the word
only, and my servant shall be healed. All you have to do is
will it. You don't have to come under my roof. You don't have
to make some kind of move. Speak the word only. And then
he said, I understand authority. I'm a man under authority. I
say to one, go. And he goes. Another come. He
comes. Another do this. And he does it. I understand
authority. And I understand that you have
complete, absolute authority. That means he knew he was God,
the God-man. How did he know? Well, the same
way anybody else knows, revelation. He knew this was the God-man
who had all authority. And that's when the Lord said,
I say unto you, I have not found so great a faith, no, not in
Israel. Now, this man's faith was not
that strong, or it had some defects in it. I dare say anybody that
has true saving faith would have to know that their faith is weak
compared to what it ought to be. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ
is such that you cannot see Him high enough. And everybody who
knows Him, they know that they don't see Him as high as He is.
I know I don't see Him as high as He is. I can't. And this man
didn't view Christ as highly as he should have, But the second
thing I see about his faith is he knew the Lord was incapable
of failure. Notice what he says, verse 23,
come and lay thy hands on her that she may be healed and she
shall live. He knew beyond the shadow of
a doubt that if Christ touched her and laid his hand on her,
she would most surely be healed. Now, everybody that has faith
believes in the certainty of the success of Christ in whatever
he does. Anyone who knows him knows that
he cannot fail. I think of the thief on the cross.
He saw the Lord nailed to a cross and he said, Lord, he knew exactly
who he was. Remember me when you come in
your kingdom. He knew the Lord wasn't going
to fail. He wasn't going to stay on that cross. He was going to
come down and come back as a mighty reigning king. And he says, remember
me when you come into your kingdom. He knew. what or who the Lord
Jesus Christ was, and that's why he could say something like
that. Now, if you believe on Christ,
if I believe on Christ, we believe in his saving ability. Well, somebody says, sure, I
believe in Christ's saving ability. Well, let me give you a test.
Do you believe that Jesus Christ can die for someone and they
end up in hell anyway? That's what most people preach.
Jesus Christ desires to save everybody. He shed his blood
for everybody, desiring for everybody to be saved. And yet some of
those people that he shed his blood for, they won't be saved. Well, if you believe that, you
believe Christ failed in His intentions. And that just doesn't
make sense. He's the Son of God. He can't
fail in His intentions. Everybody that He shed His precious
blood for must be saved. Now, somebody may think, well,
are you saying that He didn't shed His blood for everybody?
Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. He shed His blood for
the elect, those the Father gave Him, His sheep. The Scripture
is very clear on that. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. Now, I hate
that teaching that says that Jesus Christ could die for somebody
and they end up in hell anyway. Because if that's the case, I
know I'll end up in hell because the only hope I have is that
Christ died for me and accomplished my salvation. And if he can die
for somebody and they end up in hell anyway, he's not the
true Savior and it is a failure in his intentions. But if you
know who he is, you can't think of him that way. Paul said, I
know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I've committed to him against that day. You come and lay your hands on
her and she shall be healed. She shall live. Verse 24, and
Jesus went with him and much people followed him and thronged
him. Now, they knew that the Lord
was gonna go to heal this woman, or this little girl, rather,
that was at the point of death. They wanted to see. And they
were thronging him, and there were crowds around him. He had
healed many already, and they had many people touching him.
Now, within this story, we have another story, and Jairus was
a witness to this, and I'm sure this gave him much encouragement. When he saw it, I'm going to
read it and not make much comment on it because I preached on this
recently. We read in verse 25, and remember
Jairus, the ruler, when they're going back to his house to heal
his little girl and to bring her back, he is an eyewitness
to what took place. And Jesus went with him, and
much people followed him and thronged him, and a certain woman,
which had an issue of blood, 12 years. Now can you imagine how weak,
anemic, and worn out this woman was? And she had suffered many
things of many physicians, and had spent all she had and was
nothing bettered, but rather grew worse. Now you can imagine
the practice of medicine in that day. It certainly wasn't a science.
And there were many quacks and these quacks all told her what
she needed to do to get better. And she spent every dime she
had trying to follow their advice and she grew nothing better,
but rather grew worse when she'd heard of Jesus. She heard of his saving power,
of his ability. She heard of Jesus. She came
in the press behind and touched his garment for she said, if
I may but touch his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway,
immediately, 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. Now remember, Jairus
is witnessing all this. And Jesus, immediately knowing
in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about
in the presence and said, who touched my clothes? Now he knew who touched
his clothes, but this woman's gonna confess it. And his disciples
said unto him, thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and
sayest thou, who touched me? And he looked round about to
see her that had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling,
knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him
and told him all the truth. And he said unto her, Daughter,
thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace and be whole. of thy plague." Now remember
Jairus was watching this. He was an eyewitness to seeing
what this woman confessed and how she was healed simply by
touching his garment. He was an eyewitness to this,
and I'm sure at this time he was feeling pretty good. He's
gonna go and do the same thing for my little girl. Everything's
gonna be fine. And while he was thinking this,
verse 35, while he had spake, there came forth the ruler of
the synagogue's house, certain with said, thy daughter is dead. How did he feel when he heard
those words? Thy daughter is dead. Why troublest thou the Master
any further?" Now he went from being so encouraged to complete
despair. His little girl that he loved
so dearly was dead. There's no hope that she can
come back to life. She's dead. And that's when the
Lord gives this man, Jairus, these words, as soon as Jesus
heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the
synagogue, be not afraid, only believe. Be not afraid, only
believe. Believe. Now there's not a more
important word than this word only. Only believe. Believe and would change the
meaning. Believe and do this. Believe
and do that. Only believe. Believe only. Now the hardest thing, as a matter
of fact, it's impossible unless God enables me and you to do
it. The hardest thing we face in life is to look to Christ
alone, to believe only, to only believe. And that's what the
Lord calls upon this man to do, only believe. Now this word only, Scriptures only. That's our only rule of faith
and practice. We look to the Bible alone. Somebody says, well,
what about the confessions and the creeds? No. Those are man-made
documents that really you'll end up paying more attention
to those than you do the Word of God, if you pay attention to
them at all. What about the catechisms and confessions? Those are man-made
doctrines. Well, what does this denomination
believe? Who cares? Well, did this famous
preacher from the past believe this? Who cares? This is the
Bible teaching. Scriptures only. That's all we care about. Scriptures
only. The Bible is the inspired Word
of God, and the only way we're going to believe something is
if the Scripture teaches it. Scriptures only. I love this
word, Christ only. Christ only is all of my salvation. All God looks to me for, He looks
only to His Son. All He requires of me, He looks
only to His Son. Jesus Christ is all in my salvation. He only is my salvation. He only is my standing before
God. Here's another word that must
have only. Grace only. Now, salvation by
grace means salvation is what God does. Not what God offers
to you or makes available to you. Salvation by grace is saving
grace. By grace ye are saved. He doesn't offer grace. He saves
by his grace. Grace only. If you have grace
and you've missed the gospel altogether, it can be grace and
works. Grace only. Grace alone. And faith only. Faith only. Only believe. Believe only. Now what's meant by this? Well,
when that Philippian jailer came into the presence of Paul and
Silas and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? I love Paul's
answer. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. He didn't say believe and. He
didn't say believe and get your life straightened out. He didn't
say believe and turn from your sins. He didn't say believe and
start living right. He didn't say anything like that.
Now I'm all for living right and by the grace of God turning
from my sins. But if you tell me to believe
and anything, I'm not hearing the believe at all. All I'm hearing
is what I need to do. to make things right with God,
what I need to contribute. And that's a complete denial
of what faith is in the first place. Believe only. Not believe
and. Only believe. Faith alone. You look to Christ
only as all in your salvation. That's what faith is. It's always
alone. It's not with anything else.
Somebody says, well, what about James 2, faith without works?
Are you saying that works are not important? I'm not saying
that at all, but I am saying believe only. And there will
be works that prove whether or not you really do believe only.
It's not like this thing of, well, I've got good works to
prove, I've got faith. No, that's a misunderstanding of James 2
altogether. Believe only. I love it in John
6, verse 29, when these men came to Christ and said, what must
we do that we might work the works of God? And the Lord answered,
this is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he hath
sent. And you know what comes after
that? A period. This is the work of God. that
you believe on Him whom He has sent. Now that means you believe
He was before the Father sent Him. He didn't just come into
existence when He was sent. He was before the Father sent
Him. That's talking about His eternal
sonship. He's the second person in the Trinity, the Son of God.
And you believe the Father sent Him. And you believe that He
did whatever it was the Father sent Him to do. This is the work
of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent." Well, what
was He sent to do? I've quoted this verse already
once, but let me quote it again. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. and you believe
in the absolute success of the Lord Jesus Christ. He cannot
fail in whatever his intentions are, or were, or whatever the
Father sent him to do. He failed, that is who he is. Now, as soon as Jesus heard the
word that was spoken, he saith to the ruler of the sinner, God,
be not afraid, only believe. And he suffered no man to follow
him, save Peter, and James, and John, the brother of James. And
he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth
the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly." Perhaps
you've been in a funeral like that, where people are wailing
and weeping. A tumult going on, great distress. And as a matter of fact, in this
day, if you didn't have enough mourners, they would hire mourners
to come and wail and mourn at a funeral. And perhaps that was
what was going on at this time. I don't know, but the scripture
describes it as a tumult, as an uproar. And when he was come
in, he saith unto them, why make ye this ado and weep? The damsel
is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. This was done by way of derision. They knew this little girl was
dead. And when he said this, they believed
he had no business saying anything like this. They treated him rudely.
They laughed at him. They laughed him to scorn, the
scripture says. But when he had put them all
out, I love thinking of the Lord doing this. He got them all out
of that room. You know, He didn't feel any
need to perform this miracle so they could see it. He's not
trying to prove anything. He came for the purpose of doing
what His Father sent Him to do, not trying to gain a following
or try to prove to somebody He could do what He said He could
do. No, He put them all out of the room. He wasn't going to
let them witness this miracle. But when he put them all out,
he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and then
they were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying.
And he took the damsel by the hand." This little dead maiden. He took the damsel by the hand
and saith unto her, Talitha cumi. That's Arabic. Talitha cumi. And Mark tells us what is meant
by that, which is being interpreted, damsel, I say unto thee, arise. Now I don't know of anything
more thrilling to think of than that. Damsel. One who's dead, I say to thee,
arise. Now that is exactly what I need
Him to say to me. Here I am dead in sins, wicked,
evil, unable to do anything for my own salvation, dead in sins. I need him to say to me, I say
unto thee, arise, arise from the dead. Now there's something
particularly powerful about him saying, I say unto thee. At the
end of the Sermon on the Mount, It says, and they were astonished
at his doctrine, after he preached this great sermon on the mount,
they were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one that
had authority, not as the scribes. And that authority is seen in
the, I say unto thee, the Lord never said, thus saith the Lord. As a prophet of old would say,
he said, I say unto thee. Now 14 times in the Sermon on
the Mount, he says, you've heard it been said by them of old,
and he would quote something from the scriptures, and then
he'd say, but I say unto thee. He is the only one who can tell
us the true meaning of the scriptures. I say unto thee, for instance,
you've heard it been said by them of old, thou shalt not commit
adultery, but I say unto thee, whosoever looketh at a woman
and lusts after in his heart hath committed adultery already,
he's the true interpreter of what that means. I'm sure that
there are people who could think, well, I've never committed adultery,
the physical act. Well, I'm glad you haven't, but
you sure enough have in your heart over and over and over
again. The Lord is telling us the true
meaning of the scripture, I say unto thee. And he looks at that
little dead girl, takes her by the hand and says, damsel, I
say unto thee, arise. That's no different than when
he was speaking to Lazarus. Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth. Now let me ask you a question.
When he said this to Lazarus, could Lazarus have said no? No. He must come forth when he said,
Lazarus, come forth. Could this little damsel have
said, well, I don't want to rise, no. She must do what he says
to do. You see, this is the call of
invincible, irresistible grace. It works like this. Ephesians
chapter 2 verse 1, and you hath he quickened who were dead in
trespasses and sins. Wherein in times past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation
in times past in the lusts of our flesh and the mind, and we
were by nature the children of wrath, even as others, just like
everybody else, but God. There's the difference, but God. who is rich in mercy for his
great love, wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in
sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace are you
saved. Now hear this little woman, little
damsel, little girl, 12 year old, already dead. Damsel, I say unto thee, arise. And what happened? And straightway
the damsel arose and walked, for she was of the age of 12
years. And they were astonished with a great astonishment. She
now has the motion of life. She is walking, walking by faith
and not by sight. Only believe. May God teach me
and you what that means. Only believe. Now we have this
message on DVD and CD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nyberg praying that
God will be pleased to make himself known to you. That's our prayer.
To receive a copy of the sermon you have just heard, send your
request to todd.nyberg at gmail.com. Or you may write or call the
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