What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my pardon this I seek, Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing this I plead,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. That makes me white as snow No
other fount I know Nothing but the blood of Jesus Nothing can
force it at all Nothing but the blood of Jesus Not a foot of Jesus. How precious is the
flow that makes me white as snow. Thou art the fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. How precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. Thank you, Gary. Love that hymn. Hi, everybody. Looking forward
to this being over, but this is what we have. I miss everybody,
and I'm anxious for looking forward to that time where we can meet
once again, church by very definition. is a gathering of an assembly
of people. And so we're still thankful that
the Lord allows us to do this. My text is found in Mark chapter
5, verse 36. And as soon as Jesus heard the
word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue,
be not afraid, only believe. In Luke's account it says believe
only. I've entitled this message only
believe and believe only. Let's pray together. Our merciful and gracious Heavenly
Father, we come into Your presence in Christ's name, and we're so
thankful that You're on the throne, ruling and reigning. We're so
thankful that You control everything and everybody and every event.
We're so thankful that You are who You are, that You're sovereign
and gracious and holy and independent and immutable. We thank You for
all Your most excellent attributes Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that you enable each of us to believe only and to only believe. Lord, that's above the strength
and energy of this flesh. But we ask that you would enable
us by your grace to believe only and to only believe. We confess
our sins. We pray for forgiveness and cleansing
for Christ's sake. We pray for the world at this
time. We pray that your will would
be done, that you would use the coronavirus for your glory and
our good, and that you give our leaders wisdom in what to do.
We ask that you would order our steps in your word and let no
iniquity have dominion over us. In Christ's blessed name we pray,
amen. Now this is the story about Jairus. Jairus' name means enlightened
and indeed he was enlightened because of the way he came to
Christ. He saw there was no saving power
or efficacy in his own religion and he came to Christ for the
healing of his little girl. Now let's 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, he fell at his feet. Now that's the posture of worship.
He had some idea as to who the Lord really was. And what a blessing that is to
know who he really is. Not many people do. Jairus did. And we read in verse 23, And
he besought him greatly. He was in dead earnest about
this, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death. I pray thee, come and lay thy
hands on her, that she may be healed. Now he was coming to
the Lord Jesus about his little daughter that he loved so much. We know from Luke's account that
she was 12 years of age. And we're going to read in this
story something that you'll never read about in newspapers or you'll
never read over the Internet. It's about somebody who was dead
being raised from the dead. Now, I realize that there are
people who have been on operating tables and said they looked down,
they rose up out of their body and looked down. But I'll be
honest with you, I don't believe it. I think they were just dreaming.
I met somebody once who said, I've been dead four times. And
I said, oh, I didn't even know how to respond. This is not one
of those things that can't be verified. These are people who
were really dead. The Lord may have raised more
from the dead than these three people, but we read of a young
man in a funeral procession. He was in his coffin, and the
Lord raised him from the dead. And then we read of Lazarus.
Most of you are familiar with that story. He had been dead
four days. And he'd gone through the process
of decay, and his body had began to stink. And the Lord raised
him from the dead. And this little maid, perhaps
still warm, but she had just died. And the Lord is going to
give her life. was at the point of death. That
means there wasn't any hope of her recovery. They were just
waiting for her to die. They didn't have any hopes that
she could be healed by natural causes. She was at the point
of death. And somehow, Jairus knew something
about the Lord Jesus Christ. We can see where he bowed before
him, hit the dirt at his feet, and asked the Lord to do this
thing. But he demonstrated a weakness
in his faith. Notice what he says. He said,
my little daughter lieth at the point of death. I pray thee,
come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed and she
shall live. Now, we know from Matthew, in
Matthew chapter 8, that there was a man that the Lord said
he had the greatest faith in Israel. And we read regarding
this man in verse five, and when Jesus was entered into Capernaum,
there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him and saying, Lord,
my servant lieth at home, sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will
come and heal him. The centurion answered and said,
Lord, I am not worthy that thou should come under my roof. But
speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. You don't need
to move to where my servant's at. You don't need to lay your
hands on my servant. All you have to do is will it.
Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. And he goes on to say, for I'm
a man under authority. I understand authority. Having
soldiers unto me, I say to this man, go, and he goeth. And to
another, come, and he cometh. And to my servant, do this, and
he doeth it. And I know that if you give commandment,
it's going to take place. That's what he's saying. I understand
authority, and I understand you have all authority. All you have
to do is speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. When Jesus heard it, He marveled
and said to them that followed, verily I say to you, I've not
found some great faith? No, not in Israel. Now, any weakness in faith is
due to too low a view of Christ. And I dare say every one of us
have too low a view of Christ compared to what it ought to
be. And I know if you know Him, you know you do not see enough
of His greatness. You believe His greatness, but
you know you don't esteem Him as highly as He deserves to be
esteemed. Now, the higher we see Him, the
greater will be our faith. And this man saw the Lord so
highly. He wasn't like Jairus who said,
you need to come. and lay your hands on her, and
then she'll be healed, he knew all he had to do was will it,
because he's nobody less than God incarnate. But this man,
Jairus, while he had defects in his faith, you and I do too,
so does every natural man, he did believe in the certainty
of the success of Christ. He said, you lay your hands on
her, she shall be healed, and she shall live. He had the same
faith as that thief. You remember the thief. He said,
Lord, remember me when you come in your kingdom. You can't fail. You must be successful. You're
not going to stay on that cross, nor are you going to stay dead,
but you're going to be raised from the dead. You're going to
come back as a mighty, conquering king. He had no thought of the
Lord possibly being unsuccessful. Oh, remember me when you come
into your kingdom. If you just remember me, it'll
all be well for my soul. Now, I know this about true faith. It always believes His ability. Now our faith is not as strong
as it ought to be. None of us esteem Christ as highly
as we ought to esteem Him, which is a shame, but it's part of
being human, not seeing as we're going to one day see. But Paul
still said this in 2 Timothy 1.12, I know whom I have believed,
and I am persuaded. And He is able to keep that which
I've committed to Him against that day. Now if you believe
in a Christ who can intend for something to happen and it not
happen. If you believe in Christ, who
can die for somebody and want them to be saved, and they end
up not being saved, the Christ you believe in is a failure.
In reality, you don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, nor
do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, when you believe
Him, you believe He is incapable of failure. Jairus believed this. He said, if you lay your hands
on her, she shall be healed. I love what the Lord said to
those two blind men. Believe ye that I am able to
do this? Yea, Lord. That's what all faith has in
common. All faith. The weakest faith,
the strongest faith, they all believe in the certainty of the
success of the Lord Jesus Christ. I think of the leper. Lord, if
you will, you can. Make me clean. He had no doubt
about the Lord's ability to do it. Now, because of the weakness
of his faith, he wasn't real sure about the Lord's willingness
to do it. He saw it himself. He thought, why would he do that
for me? But he believed he could. If you will, you can make me
clean. So we read in verse 24. Verse
23, I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may
be healed, and she shall live. You cannot fail in this thing.
And Jesus went with him, and much people followed him and
thronged him. You can imagine this procession
of people following the Lord, wanting to see him heal this
little girl. Many people were pressing against
him. He had a great crowd at this time. And then we have this
story within a story. We considered this briefly last
week. A certain woman, one of God's
elect, He always saves certain individuals. Which had an issue
of blood 12 years. Now this little girl that
the Lord was going to come and raise from the dead was 12 years
old. This woman had an issue of blood
for 12 years. Now there were 12 apostles, there
were 12 patriarchs, The foundation of Jerusalem has 12 foundations. 12 has something to do with the
covenant of grace. There's a reason for this number
12. But this woman had this issue
of blood, 12 years. She had this menstrual disease.
And she was weak. She was anemic. She was sick. And verse 26 says, she had suffered
many things of many physicians. Now remember, Jairus is witnessing
this. He's in this procession with
Christ to go to his house and heal his daughter. And he's watching
what is taking place as this happens. And this woman who had
this issue of blood at 12 years had suffered many things of many
physicians. Now you can imagine the quackery
that took place in those days. It wasn't a very exact knowledge
of medicine, and I'm sure they gave her many things. This will
heal you. You take this, this will heal you. You start doing
that, that'll heal you. And the scripture says she suffered
many things of many physicians and spent all she had and was
nothing bettered, but rather grew worse. She suffered. Makes me think
of man's religion, what suffering, what emotional turmoil goes on
under work's religion. She suffered many things, and
secondly, she spent all she had. She was left bankrupt, and through
all these efforts, she grew nothing better, but rather grew worse. Well, here's where light comes. when she had heard of Jesus. Now we're not told what it was
she heard, but we know this. She drew this conclusion from
what she heard. When she heard of Jesus, she
came in the press behind and touched his garment. And we know from the other account
it was the hem of his garment at his feet. For she said, if
I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. Now once again, she believed
in the success of the Savior. If I touch His clothes, I shall
be whole. I shall be saved. I shall be healed. Can't fail. She knew if I come into contact
with Him, I must be whole. And that's the word for saved.
It's generally translated saved. If I can just come into contact
with Him, I shall be whole. Once again, faith believes in
the certainty of the success of the Savior. Faith believes
in the ability of the Savior. It was said of Abraham, he staggered
not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith,
giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that what God had promised,
he was able also to perform. This woman believed in the absolute
ability of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? No. He's all-powerful. Verse 29, in a straight way,
the fountain of her blood was dried up and she felt in her
body that she was healed of that plague. She knew as soon as she
touched Him, she was healed. And Jesus Immediately, knowing
in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about
in the press and said, who touched my clothes? Now, he knew who
touched them. You know that. But he's going to have this woman
confess. And verse 31, and his disciples
said unto him, thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and
sayest thou whom touch me? Why, everybody's touching you.
Well, not everybody touched him like this woman did. So look
what he goes on to say. And he looked round about to
see her that had done this thing. You see, he had felt power, virtue
leave him. It left him to heal this woman. It took his power and his omnipotence
to make this woman's disease go away. This was a true, miraculous
healing. She was completely healed immediately.
Something left him. and came into her, and something
left her and came into him. This is substitution. This picture
is what took place on Calvary's tree. Something left Christ,
His power, His virtue, His innocence before the law of God. When my
sin, when my disease left me and came into Him, His saving power, His righteousness
comes into me. And he felt that power leave.
And he said, who touched me? Oh, she was scared to death.
I think of what she must have felt like when their eyes made
contact and he looked around about to see her that had done
this thing, but the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was
done. I love that salvation, what has
been done. She knew what was done in her.
Christ in you, the hope of glory. She wouldn't have dared given
her free will the credit or some kind of decision that she made
the credit. She wouldn't have said, well,
at least I touched him. Others people did, and I did. And that's the
difference between me and them. I had the moral ability or the
will to touch him. And these other fellows, no,
nothing like that. She came fearing and trembling,
knowing what was done in her. She came and fell down before
him and told him all the truth. That's what faith does. It tells
all the truth. Error deals with parts of the
truth. Faith deals with all the truth,
and all the truth is that Christ is all. And then the Lord said
unto her in verse 34, and he said unto her, Daughter, thy
faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace and behold of thy
plague. Now, Jairus was watching this. This is the man that had his
daughter lying at the point of death and he came and begged
the Lord to come and heal her. And he was watching this. And
how encouraged he must have been at this time. He's going to come
and heal my daughter. Everything's going to be fine.
Just like I thought. And then we read in verse 35,
while he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue's
house, certain which said, my daughter is dead. Why troubles thou the master
any further? Now, can you imagine how all
hope sunk at this time? He was so hopeful, but now, All
hope is lost. His little daughter is dead. And I can't imagine all the things
that must have been going through his mind at this time, the despair,
the remorse, the grief, the mourning. Verse 36, As soon as Jesus heard
the word that was spoken, thy daughter is dead. As soon as
he heard that, He saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, be
not afraid, only believe. Only believe. Now that word only is so very
important. He didn't say believe and fill
in the blank, whatever it might be. He said only believe. Luke's account says, believe
only. Now, there's not a more important
truth or concept in all the Word of God than this. Believe only. Only believe. Now, we look only
to the Scriptures. Well, did so-and-so believe that
from the past? Who cares? Does the Scripture
teach it? Well, what about this denomination or that denomination?
Who cares? Does the scripture teach it?
Well, does this creed and this catechism and this confession
say, who cares? What say the scripture? We look
to the scripture only. And it is only from the scripture
that we find Christ only as everything in salvation. If you have him,
you have all. If you have everything but him,
you have nothing. He only is all in salvation. I have one reason for being saved.
Christ. Who He is and what He did and
where He is now. What He accomplished. That's
my only reason. My only hope is that Christ died
for me. From only the scriptures we get
grace only. Not grace and. Grace only. And from only the scriptures
In the message of Christ only, by his grace only, we get faith
only. Faith alone. Now this is the
only saving message. This is the only saving practice. Believe only. Now what is the significance
of this word only? Well, it's the difference between
life and death. It's the difference between heaven
and hell. It's the difference between grace
and works. It's the difference between law
and gospel. Now when that Philippian jailer
came to Paul, he asked, what a wonderful question. A question
we ought to all be asking. What must I do to be saved? What a question. What is necessary,
what must I do to be saved? Now before I give Paul's answer,
let me bring this out. He left out everything but what
he said. There's an absence of everything else but what he said. He said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. and thou shalt be saved. And he didn't add anything to
that. He didn't say believe and get your life straightened out.
He didn't say believe and stop your sinning. He didn't say believe
and become a better person. He didn't say believe and turn
from the world. He said believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved." You believe on the Lord. You
believe He's the Lord. He's the dictator. His will is
always done. You believe He's Jesus. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. You believe
He's the Christ. He's God's prophet. He's God's
priest. He's God's King. What a Savior! I'm believing
on Him as the Word of God to listen to what He says. I'm believing
Him as the priest to bring me into God's presence. I'm believing
Him as the King to cause me to do His will. Oh, I need Him in
all these offices. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. He didn't say anything else.
6 verse 29, some people asked this
question, what must we do that we might work the works of God? And the Lord replied, this is
the work of God. That you believe on Him whom
He hath sent. You believe God sent Him. You
believe He has the ability to do whatever God sent Him to do.
And you believe He did what God sent Him to do. This is the work of God that
you believe on Him whom He has sent. All your salvation is relying
on who He is and that He actually did what the Father sent Him
to do. He saved His people from their sins. Believe only. Now you believe only when you
have Christ only. All you have is Christ. You don't
have anything else. But when you have something other
than him, if you have Christ and, you are not believing only. Only believe. Verse 37, and he suffered no
man to follow him, save Peter and James and John the brother
of James. He didn't let the crowds come.
He didn't let the other disciples come. Quite often, the Lord only
allowed Peter and James and John to witness something. I think
of the Garden of Gethsemane, who were the three that were
with him at this time, Peter, James, and John. They were the
inner circle. Somebody says, did he have an
inner circle? Evidently. He loves all of his people equally.
I realize that. They're all saved the same way.
But Peter and James and John follow him. Verse 38, and he
cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue. and seeth the
tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly. You ever been
to a funeral where everybody's screaming and crying and wailing
and very loud and very emotional? And actually, during this time,
if they didn't have enough mourners, they would pay people to do this,
to make sure there would be enough mourners. And they were weeping
and wailing, and there was a tumult, the scripture says, a tumult
going on. And when he was come in, verse
39, he saith unto them, why make ye this ado? Why this tumult? And weep, the damsel is not dead,
but sleepeth. Now they knew better than this.
They knew she was dead. They didn't understand what he's
saying. And the scripture says, They laughed him to scorn. That
means with derision and disdain. They laughed him to scorn. Who
does he think he is to come in here and make a statement like
that? She's dead. We know he's dead. She's dead.
Everybody knows she's dead. They laughed him to scorn, but
when he had put them all out, I love the way the Lord did this.
He put them all out. And he taketh the father and
the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and
entereth in where the damsel was lying. And he took the damsel by the
hand and said unto her, Talitha cumi, which is being interpreted,
damsel, I say unto thee, arise. Talitha cumi. Now, this is Arabic. I don't know why he used that
language at this time, but he did. Talitha cumi. which being interpreted is, Dansel,
little girl, I say unto thee, arise. Now, when the Lord finished
the Sermon on the Mount, it was said that the people were astonished
at his doctrine, for he spake as one having authority and not
as the scribes. And 14 times in that great Sermon
on the Mount, he makes this statement, I say unto thee. You've heard
it said, I say unto thee. You've heard it said, and he
even quoted scripture, I say unto thee. Now the Lord is telling
us by that, is he's the only one who can let us know what
the scripture really means. If he doesn't open your understanding
to understand the scripture, you'll never understand it. And I love that I say unto thee. For instance, he said, you've
heard it said by them of old, thou shalt not commit adultery.
But I say unto thee, whosoever looketh after a woman to lust
after in his heart hath committed adultery with her already. You
see, he's the one who gives the true meaning. And he keeps saying
this, I say unto thee, I say unto thee, I say unto thee. What
power there is in him saying, I say unto thee. He never said,
thus saith the Lord. He said, I say unto thee. I love after the parable of the
Pharisee and the publican. He said, I tell you, I say unto
thee. Same word, same word used in
the original. I say unto thee, this man went down to his house
justified rather than the other. This self-condemned sinner crying,
God, be merciful to me, the sinner. I tell you, this man went down
to his house justified in God's sight. Justified. That means
he never sinned. He had no guilt. He stood perfect
before the law of God. I say unto thee, I tell you,
the one who speaks with all authority, I say unto thee, this man went
down to his house and justified rather than the other. Now he
says to this little damsel, damsel, I say unto thee, oh, what authority. This is he whose commands must
be obeyed. I say unto thee, take up thy
bed, rise up, get up, and walk. Now, this is what is known as
the call of invincible, irresistible grace. The hour is coming, and
now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God,
and they that hear shall live. I say unto thee, arise. Could
she have said no? No more than Lazarus could have
said no. when he said, Lazarus, come forth.
Lazarus couldn't say no. No. He that was dead came forth. This is the call of invincible,
irresistible grace. And verse 42, and straightway the damsel arose
and walked. For she was of the age of twelve
years, and they were astonished with great astonishment. did
what the Lord told her to do. She gave up, and the motion of
life, she walked. And they were astonished with
a great astonishment. But this is what happens when
the Lord gives a command. I think of Ephesians chapter
2, 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 we all had our conversation
in times past in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and we were by nature children
of wrath, even as others, 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, has quickened us
together with Christ. By grace are you saved. You were
dead. He gave you life. You were called
from the grave just like this woman was. And what is the evidence
of life? You believe the gospel. But don't
look for another evidence. This is the evidence of life.
You believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living
God, and all of your salvation is predicated on him being all
in your salvation. You look nowhere else. And he charged them straightly,
verse 43, he charged them straightly that no man should know it. You see, the Lord wasn't trying
to gain a following. Now, if I raised somebody from
the dead, or if the Lord would use me to raise somebody from
the dead, I'd want everybody to know about it. I'd want them
to know the Lord's using this man like this, and I'd be trying
to, well, this will mean more people listen to me. But the
Lord didn't come to try to gain a following. He came to save
His people from their sins. And that's exactly what He did. He charges him straightly that
no man should know it. He commanded that something should
be given her to eat. Life has to eat. Life has to
eat and feed on the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I
pray that's what me and you are doing, feeding upon him. Let's pray together. Lord, we thank you for your word.
We ask that you would give us the grace to believe only. deliver us from anything else
for the glory of thy name. And how we thank you for the
gospel that we're called upon to believe. How we thank you
for the ability of our savior, your son, to save us from our
sins. Lord, we pray that according
to your will, you would bring us back together soon to meet
as a congregation We thank you that you're on the
throne, in Christ's name we pray, amen.