You turn back to Luke chapter
eight. Tonight, we're going to observe
the Lord's table together. I've entitled this message. Believe
only. Now I started to entitle this
message, no ifs, ands, or buts. And that would go with that statement,
believe only. Luke chapter eight, verse 41. And behold, there came a man
named Jairus and he was a ruler of the synagogue and he fell
down. at Jesus' feet and besought him that he would
come into his house. For he had one only daughter,
about 12 years of age, and she lay a dying. Jairus means God enlightens, and it's my prayer that God will
enlighten us this morning as to what it means to believe only. No ifs, ands, and buts, but to
believe only. The hardest thing in the world
to do is to trust Christ alone. Do you know that? It's actually
impossible unless the Lord God enables us to. It takes omnipotence
to make a man to do nothing and believe only. I pray that I might be one of
those people this morning that believes only. Now, Jairus comes and he falls
down at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Matthew's account
of this same thing says he worshiped him. Before anything else took
place, he worshiped him. He was desperate. This was his
only daughter, 12 years old. She was at the point of death,
but this issue had to be settled first. Worship. You don't worship for hope of
what he'll do for you or fear of what you'll lose if you do
not. You worship Jesus Christ for
who he is without respect to what he does for you. And somebody
says, that's impossible. No, it's not. This issue of worship
must first be settled. You worship him for who he is
without respect to what he does or does not do for you. Now,
let me show you this in the scripture. Turn to Matthew 15. Hold your
finger there. Very familiar passage of scripture.
Verse 21. Then Jesus went thence and departed
into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan. She was not an Israelite. She
was not a Jew. She was a Gentile. Mark's account
tells us she was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by nation. She was not an Israelite. That's very important. She was
a Gentile. Behold, a woman of Canaan came
out of the same coast and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy
on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil. Now, she came for something,
didn't she? She came into his presence because of something
she wanted. Her daughter was vexed with the devil and she
wanted her daughter healed. What a great need she had. And
she came to the Lord the right way. He's the Lord. He's the
son of David. She came for the right thing.
Mercy. Verse 23, but he answered her not a word. He ignored her. And his disciples came and besought
him saying, send her away for she crieth after us. But he answered
and said, I am not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house
of Israel. Now she comes as a Gentile. And
he says, I've only come for the Jews. I've only come for the
lost sheep of the house of Israel. She was not one of those people.
She was a Gentile. Now, what did she do? What was
her response? Verse 24, verse 25. Then came she and worshiped him. She didn't turn around and leave.
She didn't give up. She didn't know whether he'd
do anything for her. And as a matter of fact, he said, I've only come
for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. I didn't come for
people like you. Then came she and worshiped him. When did she worship? When he
said, I've only come for a particular people. And she was not one of
those people. She was a woman of Canaan. Gentile,
then came she and worshiped him. Now, here's the point. If he
said to me or to you, I did not come to save you. If he said that, would he still be worthy of worship? If he sent you to hell, would
he still be worthy of worship? Now this is an issue that must
be settled. God will not do anything for
you. If this issue is not settled, he is to be worshiped for who
he is without respect. to what he does or does not do
for you. He's the Lord and he is worthy
of all worship. You know, this is, I just know
so much that this is true. You'll only worship him in whom
you have no power over at all. He's absolutely sovereign. And
you can't control him. Now, if you had power over him,
if you have some ability to get him to respond to you, you won't
worship him, but you'll only worship him who is an absolute
sovereign who does as he will. And this must be settled. Verse 42. where he had only one daughter,
about 12 years of age, and she lay dying. Now, when I read of
this man in Luke 8, verses 41 and 42, I also see a defect in
his faith. He said, I want you to come and
heal her. I want you to come and lay your hands on her. I
want you to move from one place to another so she can be healed.
Now, you see a defect in her faith, don't you? You remember
when the Roman centurions, he sent somebody to ask the Lord
to heal a servant. He didn't even feel like he was
worthy to come. And the Lord said, I'll come and heal him.
And the man said, you don't have to do that. All you have to do
is speak the word and my servant shall be healed. I understand
authority. I have one servant, I say to him, go, he goes to
another, come, he comes. I say to one, do this. And he
does it. All you got to do is speak it. All you got to do is
will it. And it takes place. This man
had a defect in his faith, but aren't you thankful that the
Lord saves people with defects in their faith? I dare say, there's
a lot of people here this morning that have defects in their faith.
You know, it's not. perfect faith that saves in the
sense that none of us have it. I love thinking about this week,
the weakest faith in the world saved just as surely as the greatest
faith in the world with no difference. You know why? Because it's not
the faith that saves. It's the object of the faith that saves
the Lord Jesus Christ. She had a defect interface, but
the Lord, or he had a defect in his faith, but the Lord goes
with him toward daughter, his daughter. Now let's, verse 42,
but as he went, the people thronged him. And then we're given something
that took place during this. This is while he was on his way
to the home of Jairus to heal his daughter. While this was
going on, this is what we considered last week. And a woman having
an issue of blood 12 years, which had spent all her living upon
physicians, neither could be healed of any, came behind him
and touched the border of his garment. And immediately her
issue of blood stanched. She was healed completely. And
Jesus said, who touched me? When all denied Peter and they
that were with him said, master, the multitude throng thee and
press thee. There's all kinds of people touching
you. And sayest thou who touched me? And Jesus said, somebody
had touched me. For I perceive that virtue has
gone out of me. And when the woman saw that she
was not hid, she came trembling and falling down before him.
She declared unto him before all the people for what cause
she had touched him and how she was healed immediately. And he
said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort. Thy faith hath
made thee whole. Go in peace. Now, what do you
think Jairus thought as he observed that? He thought he healed her. He can heal my daughter. He was
filled with optimism and happiness. He healed her. This is what's
going to happen with my daughter. He was so happy. My little 12
year old, he's going to come and he's going to lay his hand
on her and heal her and she'll be completely healed just like
this woman was. She was, he was so excited. Verse
49, while he at speck, there cometh one from the ruler of
the synagogue's house saying to him, Thy daughter is dead. Trouble not the master. Too late
now. Thy daughter is dead. Now, can you imagine how this
deflated all of his hope? He'd been feeling so optimistic,
so excited, thinking that the Lord was going to come and heal
his daughter. And now he hears, your daughter is dead. It's too
late. And I cannot think of anything
more painful than that. Losing your child. And this was
his only child, little 12 year old girl. Can you imagine what
pain he must have felt? No hope. It's too late for her
to be healed. She's dead. Verse 50, but, I love the buts in the scripture,
but when Jesus heard, he answered him saying, fear
not, believe only and she shall be healed. Now I want us to notice
the absence of three words, if, and, and but. You've all heard
that phrase, no ifs, ands, or buts. Well, there's no ifs, ands,
or buts here. Now, what do I mean by that?
Well, what if he would have said, fear not, If you can believe,
if you can muster up the faith, if you can just believe that
I'm able to do this and allow me to work, then she'll be healed. That's pretty much the message
of man's religion. God wants to heal you. God wants
to save you. God's making salvation available,
but it's up to you. If you can believe, if you can
muster up the faith, Then she shall be healed. Now understand
this. If any part of salvation is dependent
upon me doing anything, salvation is by works. And someone who preaches that
message, preaches a message of salvation by works. Ephesians
2 verses 8 and 9 says, For by grace are ye saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves, that faith, it's not of yourselves,
not of works. Now you hear what he says? Not
of works, lest any man should boast. He didn't say if you can do anything.
Second word that's not with this is and believe only and believe
only and quit sinning, believe only and get your life straightened
out, believe only and fill in the blank, whatever it is, believe
only and something will take place is a negation of believe
only, isn't it? He said, believe only, believe
only, and she shall be healed. No buts, no exceptions to this. Not believe only, but if this
takes place, it won't work. No, no, no ifs, no ands, no buts. Here's the message of the scripture.
Believe only, and thy daughter shall be made whole. Now, what was he to believe? When the Lord says to him, believe
only, not believe and, but believe only. What was he to believe?
He was to believe May God give me the grace and you give the
grace to believe the same thing that this man was to believe.
That Christ Jesus had the power to make her alive. She was dead. Believe only that if I will it,
she shall be made alive. Christ could raise her from the
dead. Now, what can a dead man bring to the table in this thing
of salvation? Well, there is something he can bring. You know
what it is? Death. Death. He can bring that. Death. But as far as any ability to
save himself or any ability to give himself life, how much ability
does a dead man have? None. You've seen a dead person. They have no life, no ability. If someone is dead, there's only
one source of hope that they can have to be revived. And that
is God. Do you believe that Christ is
able to give a dead sinner life? Now it's very important. Somebody
says, what do you mean by dead sinner? Well, do you remember in the
garden of Eden? When God said to Adam and Eve, in the day you
eat thereof, you shall surely die. That very day. Now, when
they ate of the fruit, did they die that day? Yes. Not physically. But they did die spiritually. And that's what a spiritually
dead person is. He's someone who does not have
spiritual life. He's dead. Now you take a dead
person. A dead person can't see. Show
him a beautiful picture. He doesn't have any appreciation
of it. Show him one that's no good. He can't see that one either.
He can't smell. Give him something to smell.
It means nothing to him. Maybe it stinks. You smell it. Doesn't
smell bad to him. It smells wonderful to you. Doesn't
smell wonderful to him because he's dead. He can't feel. Put an ice cube against him.
He doesn't flinch. Stick him with a lighted match. It does
nothing to him. He can't feel. He can't hear. Play beautiful music to him.
It means nothing to him. He can't taste. Take the best
food you can think of, stick it in his mouth. No appreciation.
He's dead. Now a spiritually dead man is
unable to perform the functions of spiritual life. He can't hear
the gospel. He's unable to. He can't taste
and see that the Lord is gracious. He can't feel the greatness of
God's grace or the awe and majesty of his person. He can't smell
the sweet savor of the gospel. He's dead. Now, a dead sinner
cannot save themselves. Now listen, if you're without
Christ right now, if you're without Christ, you are dead in trespasses
and sins. You cannot save yourself. If
God doesn't do something for you right now, you will go to
hell. And I want to say that with a broken heart too. I'm
not saying that callously. I sure hope I'm not. If God doesn't
do something for you, you will go to hell. But thank God, He
is able to save dead sinners. To believe only is to take away
all ifs, ands, and buts. Have you ever believed only?
Not believed and, not believed if, not believed but, believed
only. Now let me show you some scriptures
that have this word only in it. I'm gonna I'm gonna quote this
one to you. You can look it up if you want. It's one we look at
probably once a week. Genesis chapter six verse five
where it says, and God saw that the wickedness of man was great
in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart
was only get that only evil continually. Would that be you? Would that be me? When God saw
men, he saw every imagination of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil continually. Now believe that about yourself.
It's the truth. You are only evil nonstop. Same is true about me. That's
what we are in and of ourself. In Psalm 51, verse four, David
said against thee, thee only have I sinned and done this evil
in thy sight that thou mightest be justified when you speak and
clear when you judge. Now, wait a minute, David. I
think Uriah might have something to say about that. I mean, you
did murder him, didn't you? I think Bathsheba might have
something to say about that. You did commit adultery with
her and brought much sorrow into her life. What is this thing
about saying against thee and thee only have I sinned and done
this evil in thy sight? What's this all about? Well,
it's that you might be justified when you speak and clear when
you judge. There are only two kinds of people
in this world. There's folks who judge God and there's folks
who justify God. There are people who sit in judgment
on God and say, well, I don't agree with that. Or I don't think
that's right. Or I don't think that's fair
with regard to all the things regarding how he saves sinners.
Well, I don't agree with that. Well, and then there's others.
There's others who justify Him in whatever He does. Whatever He does is right, just,
holy, and true. Now, if you believe that you're
one of those people who are described in that first verse of Scripture
I quoted, only evil continually, You're going to say that whatever
God does with you or anybody else is just and right. He's clear when he judges and
he's justified when he speaks. And then Matthew chapter 17,
let's go ahead and turn there. I'd like you, I want to read
this whole passage of scripture. And after six days, Jesus taketh
Peter, James, and John, his brother, and bringeth them into a high
mountain apart, and was transfigured before them. And his face did
shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And,
behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elijah talking with
them. Then answered Peter and said unto Jesus, Lord, it's good
for us to be here. If thou wilt, let us make here
three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for
Elijah. While he had spake, behold, a
bright cloud overshadowed them. And behold, a voice out of the
cloud which said, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well
pleased. Hear ye him. And when the disciples
heard it, they fell on their face and were sore afraid. And
Jesus came and touched them and said, arise and be not afraid. And when they had lifted up their
eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only. Now I love those two words,
Jesus only. I have one reason for being saved. Jesus only. Not Jesus and. Jesus only. When from the dust of death I
rise to take my mansions in the skies, even then shall this be
all my plea that Jesus lived and died for me. I have one reason
for salvation. I don't need another reason.
Jesus only. I love to think of the fact that
I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough
that Jesus died and that he died for me. Now understand this,
the reason I hate that teaching that says that Jesus Christ made
salvation available for everybody and that he can die for you and
you wind up in hell anyway. The reason I hate that is because
that's taking away the only hope I got. The only hope I have is
that Christ Jesus died for me. That's a positive message. If
he died for you, you must be saved. Well, what if he didn't
die for me? Well, what if he did? What if he did? Here's the issue. You don't need
to worry about whether or not he died for you. You need to
call upon him for mercy. I'm saying here to everybody,
don't worry about whether or not he died for you. You call
upon him for mercy. There's never been anybody that
called upon him for mercy that he turned away. If you come to
him, you will be received. That's the truth. But they saw
no man, save Jesus only. And then in Psalm 71, 16, David
said, I've made mention of thy righteousness, even thine only. I love that. Even thine only. It's easy to make mention of
his righteousness, even his only, if you believe his righteousness
is the only righteousness there is. Now, if you believe that,
you won't make mention of any other righteousness. You'll know
the only righteousness you have is the righteousness and merits
of Jesus Christ. His law-keeping is your righteousness
before God. Don't you love His righteousness
being your righteousness? I love His righteousness. That isn't old. Well, that becomes
more new, more powerful, more fresh, more glorious to me. I
love having His righteousness as my righteousness before God. And then our Lord said to Jairus,
believe only. Believe only. The only ground
I come to God on is that I'm a sinner. Now, let me repeat that. The
only ground that I come to God on is that I'm a sinner. And
Christ came to save sinners. He promised that. I'm one of
them. Save me. As nothing but a sinner,
trust Him only. No ifs, no ands, no buts. Trust Him only as all you need
to make you righteous. Believe nothing else is needed
to be added to him saying when he by himself purged our sins.
He sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high from henceforth
expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. Now, as I said, the hardest thing
in the world to do is nothing. And to trust Christ only. Believe only. Not believe and believe only,
and she shall be made whole. Now this is stating a fact. She
shall be made whole. Now back to our text in Luke
chapter eight, verse 51. Beloved believe only. Believe only. God's command to
you right now, everybody in this room, believe only. Simply trust who he is and what
he did as all that's needed to make you perfect in God's sight. Believe only don't let anything
else in there. Believe only. Verse 51. And when he came into the house,
he suffered no man to go in, save Peter and James and John
and the father and the mother of the maiden. And all wept and
bewailed her. They were making a scene. But
he said, weep not. She's not dead, but sleepeth.
And they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead. They made fun of him because
of what they knew. She was dead. But you know there
was something they didn't know. Who he was. Verse 54, I love this. He put them all out. I like the
way he did that. He put them all out. And he took
her by the hand. And I love to think this, this,
this little girl was dead, lifeless, limp hand. I don't think she'd
become stiff yet. I think she just died. And he
took her by the hand and he said, made a rise. You know something she couldn't
do. She could not arise. When he said, Maid, arise, she
had to. She couldn't say no. Lazarus,
come forth. He that was dead came forth. Now this is what is called almighty,
invincible, irresistible grace. And I love grace like this. That says to the dead sinner,
arise. And the dead sinner arises. Maid,
arise. her spirit came again and she
arose immediately straightway and he commanded to give her
meat." You see, when you're alive, you know what you need? Food. Dead people don't need food,
do they? But living people need food. And this has something
to do with the living person needing to hear the gospel. Give her food. Give her something
to eat. You know, I need to hear the
gospel. I need to hear the Lord preach
the gospel to me. I need to hear more than the
words of a man. I need the Lord to give me something
to eat. The only way my life is sustained
is by him giving me something to eat. Now that she's alive,
she can eat. And her parents were astonished,
but he charged them that they should tell no man what was done. Now this little girl was made
whole. Remember he said, believe only
and she shall be made whole. And that word made whole is the
same word that's generally translated saved. She shall be saved thoroughly. You're being made whole is because Christ made you whole.
And you know what you'll do if he has made you whole? You will
believe only. You will believe only. Now, I call upon everybody in
here. Believe only. Believe only. Me? Yeah, you. Believe only. And in believing only, you are
saved completely. You don't have the minimum, you
have the maximum and everything in between. It can't get any
better. Believe only. May God give us all grace to
do that. I'll tell you what. Somebody
says, well, but what about how to live? Oh, if you believe only,
you're going to know how to live. I'm not sure. I'm sure that if
you believe only you'll know how to live. You see, you only
have life in believing. Let's pray.