Luke's Gospel, Chapter 8. I would
encourage you all to turn your Bibles there and read my text
with me. I borrowed this text from Brother
Baker. He taught on this last Sunday,
the parallel passage to this, and I called him and asked him
if he would mind loaning me his text, and I got the text and
the title from him. So we'll read it together this
morning in Luke chapter 8 and beginning in verse 41. Let's look beginning in verse
40. Let's go ahead and go back to
verse 40. And it came to pass that when He was returned, He
just came over the Sea of Galilee, the people gladly received Him,
for they were all waiting for Him. 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
unto his house. For he had only one daughter,
about twelve years of age, and she lay a dying. But as he went,
the people thorned him. And a woman, having an issue
of blood twelve 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. It stopped. She was bleeding.
And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they
that were with him said, Master, the multitude thoned thee, and
pressed thee, and saith thou, Who touched me? And Jesus said,
Somebody hath touched me, for I perceive that power, virtue,
hath 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. While he yet spake, there came
one from the ruler of the synagogue's house, saying to him, Thy daughter
is dead, trouble not the master. But when Jesus heard it, he answered
him, saying, Fear not, believe only, and she shall be made whole. And when he came into the house,
he suffered no man to go in, except Peter, and James, and
John, and the father and the mother of the maidens. And all
wept, and bewailed her. But he said, Weep not, she is
not dead, but she sleeps. And they laughed him to scorn,
knowing that she was dead. And he put them all out, and
took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise. And her spirit came again, and
she arose straightway, and he commanded to give her meat, food. And her parents were astonished,
but he charged them that they should tell no man what was done. And this is a very interesting
story and a very true story. It's a miracle. As we go through
this passage just for a few minutes this morning, we'll see several
miracles take place here. You know what a miracle is. A
miracle is something that nobody can do but God. It's something
contrary to nature, something out of the ordinary, beyond human
possibility. Man can't perform it. And you
see several miracles here in this passage. But I just want
to begin here in verse 40 and verse 42. And Luke says you're
a ruler of the synagogue. came to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now these fellows, if you know anything about what their position
was in the synagogue, I guess today we'd probably call them
the chief of police. They ran the program, they made
sure the program was proper, made sure it was performed, and
they kept the law in order. Sometimes they ministered, sometimes
they ministered to the minister. But they were very important
people, these rulers of the synagogue. And these rulers hated the Lord
Jesus Christ. They hated Him. They were extremely
orthodox. And they were the rulers in the
synagogue, and when the Lord Jesus Christ came into the synagogue,
He took over. He came in and He started teaching
and every eye was upon Him. He taught the people with authority.
And He healed people. And all the attention was upon
Him. Well, these rulers of the synagogue,
they were jealous. So they had to sit and listen
and do nothing while everybody listened to this Jesus of Nazareth,
this carpenter's son. And boy, they despised Him. I
want you to look, and let me give you an example of that in
this very book. Hold your text there, but look
over in the 13th chapter of Luke's Gospel. We have a good example
of this in Luke's Gospel chapter 13. And look in verse 10. Luke's Gospel chapter 13 in verse
10. And he was teaching in one of
the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman
which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and she was bowed
together, bent over. Some people said that she was
so bent over that she was looking straight down at the ground.
Eighteen years this woman was bent over that way. Can you imagine
the pain she was in? The spine? the headaches that
this woman had, and she could in no wise lift or raise herself
up. And when Jesus saw her, he called
her to him and said unto her, Woman, you are loosed from your
infirmity. And he laid his hands on her
and immediately she was made straight and glorified God. Oh God, I thank you. Man, I was
in awful condition. How long has it been since I
looked up and seen the sun? How long has it been since I
looked somebody in the eyes? Now I'm straight, I thank you,
oh God, I thank you. And verse 14, And the ruler of
the synagogue answered with wrath, anger, indignation, and said,
look at this, there are six days that men should come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day. He
was so angry with the Lord Jesus Christ and so hated Him. He said,
ìDonít you let me catch anybody coming in here wanting to be
healed anymore on the Sabbath day.î And look how the Lord Jesus
answered this ruler. Verse 15, ìAnd the Lord answered
him and said, ìYou hypocrite, do not each one of you on the
Sabbath loose his ox and his ass from the stall and lead them
down to the creek to water them?î And ought not this woman, being
a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound low these eighteen
years, be loosed from his bond on the Sabbath day? And when
he hath said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed,
they were embarrassed, and they were angry." Do you remember what was said about
these rulers? when the Pharisees had sent officers
to take Christ. Remember, they said, we want
you to go arrest Him and bring Him here. And the officers went.
And they waited until He finished preaching. Well, they never heard
anybody speak like that. So they didn't arrest Him. They
came back to the Pharisees and they said, why didn't you bring
Him? They said, we never heard anybody preach like this. He's
not preaching like you fellows are. You guys just ramble on
and say nothing. He's saying something. And we
were afraid to lay hands on him. And those Pharisees said, listen,
have any of the rulers believed on him? Boy, they bragged about
that. That wasn't an indictment, was
it? Do you know any of the rulers of the synagogue that's believed
on him? No. But I know one. There's one. All of them may have hated him,
but there's one because we read about him, don't we? He came
here on the coast of the Sea of Galilee where a large group
of people were gathered together and He falls down right at the
feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and begins to plead with Him
to come into His house and heal His daughter who is dying. No,
most of them didn't believe but there's one. Isn't that a miracle?
That's a miracle in itself, isn't it? Here's a man who despised
the Lord Jesus Christ. He despised Him. He had to despise
Him. And don't you imagine that when
this ruler of the synagogue was up performing his duties and
he saw Jesus of Nazareth come in the door, he thought, oh my
God, not again. Here He comes again. I hate Him. But now what happens? Buddy,
now He comes running and He's broken. He's been humbled. And he comes and falls at the
feet of Jesus of Nazareth. And he says, Lord, come to my
house. I tell you, God knows how to break a man, doesn't He?
He knows how to separate a man from his evil companions and
his colleagues that hate the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
a miracle in itself. When a man comes to Jesus Christ,
I don't care if he's a nobody or a ruler of the synagogue,
when a man comes and falls at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ
and says, Lord, I need you, that's a miracle. That's a miracle. That's why Luke said, Behold!
Would you look at that? Would you look at that? I say
that every time I see anybody come to Christ. Would you look
at that? I say that when I came. And you know why that's a miracle?
Nobody can do that except God the Father. Why did this ruler
come? God was calling him. God was
drawing. That's a miracle, isn't it? That's
something that's done outside the realm of human possibilities. It's not natural for a sinful
man to come to the Savior and bow to worship and express the
need. And he said, Lord, come to my
house. Come to my heart. Come to my house. And then verse
43 through verse 48, I read to you, you got sidetracked there.
Something awful happened. It was good for this poor woman,
but I tell you, poor Jairus, can you imagine him thinking
as the Lord was taking all of this time talking to this woman,
this woman talking, he's thinking all this time, Lord, my daughter's
dying. Could you hurry this up? My daughter's
dying. She's going to die. And lo and
behold, boy, that's what happened. There in verse 49, while he yet
spake, there comes one from the ruler of the synagogue's house,
saying unto him, Thy daughter is dead. Why trouble the master
any more? Thy daughter is dead. And can
you imagine the alarm that seized his heart? You could see it in his eyes,
couldn't you? You could see the fear. You could
see the anxiety in this man's eyes. You can see it in his countenance. Imagine how suddenly his countenance
fell. He had a little hope, but now
his daughter's dead. Hopeless. And look at his lips
as they begin to quiver. Tears run down his eyes. And
boy, he's just ready to be overwhelmed with all kinds of emotion and
just collapse on the ground and go to whaling. My daughter's
dead. I've lost her forever. Twelve
years old. And he's overwhelmed with fear
and anxiety. All of us have seen this happen,
haven't we? Wanda, I bet she could tell us
several examples, working where she works, of people that have
lost a dear loved one so dear to them. And they were overwhelmed
with fear, sorrow, their hearts were broken. We've all seen people
that were so overwhelmed with anxiety, you couldn't comfort
them. They had to go on medication.
And still, after a while, they had to face the inevitable, their
loss. And how do you comfort people
like that? You listen to them. You let them talk. But boy, I
tell you what, there is some losses that will devastate you.
And that devastated this poor man here, this dad that had one
daughter, 12 years old. You know, if he had lost her
when she was a month old, it would have been much easier.
Now he's gotten attached to her. Now he's seen her develop into
a young lady. And he loves her dearly. And
now she's gone. And he's broken and he's fearful.
What can be done about this? Well, here's the second miracle
we see. Here's the remedy the Lord Jesus
Christ gave to this man here in our text in verse 50. In verse
50, look at it. Here's the remedy for his fear.
and devastating feelings. Fear not, believe only, and she
shall be made whole. I love the version that says,
Do not fear, just keep on believing. Do not fear, just keep on trusting. Stop being afraid and just keep
on believing. Here's another miracle, brothers
and sisters, and here's what the Lord Jesus is telling us. Faith will reach the deepest
recess of our hearts, our troubled spirits, and calm us. True trust will dispel our tormenting
fears. Don't be afraid, just believe
only. Why? That will massage, that
will calm, that will dispel our fears. I don't know how in the
world that happens, but I know it does. I know it does. This is the amazing thing about
faith. Faith can reach the deep emotions
of our hearts and calm them. Trust can soothe a troubled spirit. Believe only. And don't be afraid. You know, this is one of the
most common statements in all the Bible. And most of the time,
almost all the time, it's concerning God's children. Two little words
you'll find so common in the Old Testament and the New Testament.
Fear not. Fear not. Let me just read you
just four or five of them. This is Isaiah 4110. Fear not. I am with you. Be not dismayed,
I am thy God. I will strengthen you, I will
help you, I will uphold you with the right hand of my strength. You can go there and read the
context and see why they were afraid. But they were afraid.
Listen to Luke chapter 12 and verse 31. Fear not, little flock. It's the Father's good pleasure
to give you the kingdom. Why were they afraid there? Maybe
they weren't going to receive the kingdom. Maybe because they
were a little flock. Fear not, little flock. Listen
to Matthew 10, 28. Fear not them which kill the
body and have no more that they can do. Don't fear people. Don't fear man because he's able
to kill your body. Listen to Luke 12, 7. Your Father
who clothes the lilies who feeds the ravens will clothe you and
feed you. O ye of little faith, fear not. You are of much more valuable
than sparrows and the lilies of the field. And you remember
when the Lord Jesus' birth was announced by the angels? We bring
you good tidings of great joy. What's the first thing the angel
said to those shepherds? Fear not. It seems like the characteristic
of God's children is to have these fears. I'm not saying they're
right, because most of the time He says, don't fear, so they
must be wrong. But there's something about God's
little children that they're often afraid. And why is that? I think one thing it is because
God has touched them. He's humbled them. They're not
arrogant anymore. They realize their weakness,
sir, you just found out. Child of weakness. That's what
we feel, isn't it? And sometimes we're afraid. Lord,
if you forsake me, I'm in trouble. Lord, if you let man have his
way with me, I'm in trouble. Lord, don't leave me to myself,
I'm in trouble. And so we have all of these fears.
And there's but one thing that can calm the fear of ourselves. Believe only. Believe only. I tell you, fear is one of the
most gripping things, is it not? Because it seems to come out
of the deep recesses of our soul. We have these other shallow emotions
that we can deal with, but boy, fear comes out of the deep part
of our soul. And you can't control that, can
you? It'll keep you awake all day and worry you all night. Keep you awake all night. You
can't rid yourself of this fear. But the Lord Jesus gives us the
remedy. Believe only. Trust only. But listen. And this is so important. This is so critical this morning.
Believe what? Believe who? We hear people today
talking about faith. We hear politicians. We hear
movie stars. Everybody's talking about faith. And most people's
bragging how much faith they have. Boy, if it wasn't for my
faith, I'd have never made it through that. You hear people
say that? If my faith hadn't been as strong as it was, I'd
have never got through that. My faith, my faith, my faith.
Well, listen. Faith is never in itself. Faith
never looks to itself. Faith has to have an object to
look to. And who is that? That's the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He's the object of faith. And even when you read the Scripture,
have faith in God, it's accepted that this is the meaning. Have
faith in God through Christ. We believe in God through Christ,
don't we? No man can come to the Father.
No man can believe in God, savingly, except it's through Christ. So
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the object of our faith. You remember, John, I think it's
chapter 9, when the Lord healed a man that was born blind. And
he went to the synagogue and they questioned him, who gave
you your sight and so on. And he told them, Jesus of Nazareth.
And they put him out of the synagogue. Jesus found him, and the Lord
said to him, Do you believe in the Son of God? And he said,
Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And he said,
I that speak unto you am he. And he believed and worshipped
him. The object of faith is Jesus
Christ, the Son of God. Let me give you another example.
In Acts chapter 8, remember when the eunuch had left Jerusalem
and was going back to Ethiopia. And Philip, the servant of the
Lord, went up into the chariot and read to him from Isaiah chapter
53. And the man didn't understand who this
was he was talking about. He was wounded for our transgression.
He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him when his stripes were healed. And he said to Philip,
who is that? Is that the prophet talking about
himself or somebody else? Who is this? And Philip began
there and preached unto him, Jesus. This is Jesus. This is the Son of God, the sacrifice
for our sins. And then they came to a big puddle
of water, and he said, Philip, why can't I be baptized? And
he said, if you believe with all your heart, you can be. And what did he say he believed?
I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And Philip said,
that's saving faith. Christ is the object of saving
faith. And he took him down and he baptized
him and sent him on his way. Faith has to have an object,
doesn't it? So when the Lord Jesus Christ
was saying to this ruler of the synagogue, believe only, what
was he saying? Believe me. Believe me only. Do you believe me? Lord, I believe
you. I know who you are. You're the
Son of God. My Lord, that's why I came and fell down to worship
you. That's why I asked you to come to my house. I know that
you're Jesus, the Son of God. You're the Messiah. Faith has to have an object,
doesn't it? I'll tell you the second thing about faith. It
has to have a foundation to stand upon. Faith in what the person
says. what He promises. Believe only. Who said that? The Son of God
said that. What was the promise He gave?
And she shall be made whole. That's the promise. That's the
foundation. Faith is in the promise. Believe me that she shall be
made whole. Do you believe it? Do you believe
she shall be made of? Lord, I believe what you say.
Believe it then and your fear will be dispelled. Believe it
and stop fearing. This seems to be the order of
true faith. How can we rest upon what He
says if we don't first believe in Him who said it? The reason
people put no stock in the Word of God They put no stock in God. The reason people do not believe
the words of Jesus Christ, they don't believe Him. If we believe
in Him, I tell you, that makes what He says amazing, doesn't
it? That makes what He says believable
when we believe Him. There was two blind men sitting
on the highway side one time begging in Matthew chapter 9.
Blind men, couldn't see. And they heard that Jesus of
Nazareth was passing by. They began to cry out, Lord have
mercy on us. Lord Jesus, Thou Son of David,
have mercy upon us. And he just walked on. Went in
the house and set out. And they filled their way to
the porch and got up on the porch post and filled it for the door
and went in the door and still crying, Jesus of Nazareth, have
mercy upon us. And he was sitting over there
in the corner and he said, what do you want from me? What do you
want me to do for you? Why are you crying after me like
this? They said, Lord, that we might receive our signs. And
he asked them this question, do you believe I'm able to do
this? We are going to pull some faith
out of their hearts now. Do you believe that I am able? Who do you believe I am? Who
do you believe I am? They called Him Lord. Do you
believe that I am able to do this? And they said, Yes, Lord.
Yes, Lord, we believe that you are able. According to your faith,
so be it unto you. And their eyes was immediately
opened, and they went on their way. Listen to this passage. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him
in whom they have not believed? Why don't men call on the Lord
Jesus Christ? They don't believe Him. They
don't believe Him. But as soon as you believe He
is who He says He is, then you'll start calling because you'll
believe He's able to save you. God appeared to Abraham and He
said, Abraham, I'm going to make you a father of many nations.
I'm going to give you a son. And 25 years later, Abraham was
100 years old and Sarah was 90. And everybody thought, might
as well give up now. You've been telling us you're
going to have a son. Your wife, she's past age now. You're dead. And here's what the Bible says.
Against hope. Believed in hope. that he might
become the father of many nations, and being not weak in faith,
he considered not his own body now dead, nor yet the deadness
of Sarah's womb, he staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief, being fully persuaded that what he had promised he
was able to perform. And therefore it was imputed
to him for righteousness. And therefore Abraham staggered
not through fear and anxiety of unbelief. Fear keeps us in
bondage, doesn't it? It keeps you in bondage. It has
torment. What's the only thing that will
dispel a man's heart fear? Faith only. If it's in Christ,
the Son of God, if it's in His Word, what He tells you, Him
being believed, His Word being believed, that will dispel the
deep emotional fear and bondage of the soul. Now that's a wonderful
thing. That's a miracle. That's miraculous. I've experienced
it, haven't you? I experienced it when I first
came to the Lord, burdened with my sin. I've experienced it so
many times in my own life and experiences where I've been in
great fear and torment and uncertainty. And I came to the Lord and took
Him at His Word, and it dispelled the deep anxiousness of my soul. Nothing else would, but faith
in Him did. Faith in His Word did. I love this rendering of verse
50, Fear not, only believe. One version said this, Do not
fear, just keep on trusting. I like that, don't you? Another
one says, Stop being afraid, just keep on believing. And the
Amplified says, Do not be seized with alarm, only keep on believing. Now why do I lack this rendering?
Stop being afraid, just keep on trusting. Well, we don't know
how long it was between the time the Lord promised
this to the time He actually fulfilled the promise. We don't
know how far away from Jairus' home he was. Maybe it took three
or four miles. And he says, Fear not, believe
only, and she shall be made whole. When, Lord? A couple of hours
from now. When we get to your house. So
he's going to realize, boy, it's not just believing one time.
I'm going to have to keep on believing. I've got to keep on
believing. The only way to keep this fear
from returning to my heart is just keep on believing. Keep
on believing. Don't be afraid. Just keep on
believing. Believe only. Just keep on trusting. Boy, that's important, isn't
it? You see, fear will take every opportunity it can to return
to our hearts and grip us again. We think, man, we've conquered
it. We've conquered it for good. And then we go on according to
our feelings, our signs or something. And what happens? Fear comes
knocking. Fear comes knocking. And doubt
goes to the door and lets him in. I love what one fellow said. He said, fear knocked at the
door and faith answered. And who do you think was there?
Fear knocked at the door Faith answered. Who was there? Anybody
know? Nobody. Nobody was there. If doubt had
answered, fear had been there. But when faith answers the door,
there's nobody there. Let faith answer the door. Don't
be afraid. Just keep on Believe Him. And why did the Lord Jesus stress
this in our text to this poor man? Fear not, believe only.
Because the promise that He made him was exceeding great and precious
to this poor man's heart. You talk about a great promise.
You talk about a miracle. Fear not. Believe only. And she shall be made whole. The girl was dead. They said
she was dead, and she was dead. When the Lord said she's only
sleeping, He didn't mean she wasn't dead. Death to Him is
just to sleep. But she was dead. But the Promiser
said, She shall be made whole. And man, what a promise that
was. Listen, heart faith doesn't deal with minute things. Heart
faith deals with major things. Mysterious things. Miraculous
things. Faith deals with things outside
the realm of human possibility. Was it possible that this girl
who had died should be made whole? Was it possible that her spirit
who had already left her body could be called back again? With
man, that's not possible. That's been tried. That's not
possible. But you know something, with
God all things are possible. And that's the realm faith deals
in, isn't it? That's why faith is such a miraculous
thing, a gift of God. It only can enter in this heavenly
realm. Why faith only? Nothing else
can enter into this realm of impossibility. The angel came to Mary in Luke
chapter 1 and said, Mary, you're going to have a son. You're going
to call his name Jesus. She said, how's that going to
be possible? I don't know a man. I've never
known a man. And you're telling me I'm going
to have a child? How's this possible? And what did that angel say to
her? With God, all things are possible. And what did she say?
Lord, be it unto me, even as you said, I believe you. I believe
you. Faith deals with miraculous things, wonderful things, mysterious
things. You've got faith. Do you truly believe? Boy, it's brought you into some
realms that's impossible with man. You live in a realm, a heavenly
realm, that you could have never got into and you could have never
stayed into and you can't even understand except by believing
it. How could this man lay hold of
this promise? She shall be made whole. Believe it. That's the
only way he could lay hold of it. The Lord Jesus one night sent
his apostles across the Sea of Galilee and a storm came up and
the Lord Jesus went to them walking on the water. Remember that?
Walking on the water. I've seen a commercial the other
day and they're advertising something and they said you can go here
to this resort and you can watch this man walk on the water. But
then you could see about an inch underneath the water and he had
this big walkway. He was walking across on the
water. Our Lord was walking on the water. And it scared the
apostles to death. They thought they'd seen a spirit.
And he said, It's me. Don't be afraid. It's I. And
Peter said, Lord, if it be you, bid me come to you on the water.
And the Lord said, Come on. Come on out here with me. And
Peter got down out of the ship and was walking on the water
to go to Christ. Now, ain't that a miracle? You
try it. Try that sometime. Not today
and the next few months, but try it when it gets warmer. Get
your little boat and go out to the reservoir and step out of
it and try to walk on the water. That's a miracle, wouldn't it?
But you know something, brothers and sisters, it's no more of
a miracle for Peter to walk on the water, going to Christ, than
it is for you to come to Christ and walk with Him in your life. Enoch walked with God. How did he do that? By faith. By faith, Enoch walked with God. That's a miracle. And the only
way to do it is by faith. The just shall live. The just
shall walk. How? By faith. And bud, if you're
walking with God this morning, that's a miracle. That's just
the biggest miracle is Peter getting out of that boat and
going to the Lord Jesus Christ. And he began to look around and
saw the waves. Boy, they were coming at him.
White capping up over his head. And the wind was boisterous and
blowing the mist into his face, burning his cheeks. That wouldn't
have stopped him from walking on the water. But he began to
go down. And you know why? Fear come knocking
at the door and doubt opened. That was his whole problem. The
Lord Jesus said to him, Peter, oh you of little faith, why did
you doubt? He got his eye off the Lord and
began to look at the way. And his heart was filled with
doubt. And the fears returned and he began to sink. The only
way you can walk with the Lord is by faith. By faith only. I'm telling you what, you start
trusting your feelings. You start looking around you
to see how things are going. Look back to see how you've been
doing. I'm telling you, you'll sink. The only way to walk to
the Lord and walk with Him is by believing only. That's it,
isn't it? That's the miracle. Believe only. The wind is going to get boisterous.
The waves are going to get high. You can just count on it. You
know something about that, don't you Dave? You know something
about the wind, buddy? You know something about the
waves taking your feet up and under you? It's coming, believer. It's coming to every child of
God. In this world you shall have tribulation. I wish I could
see a group of people, the Lord would save them and just bless
them every day and they'd feel great, no troubles, and take
them on to glory. That's not been my experience.
My experience is to experience some deep waters. Hasn't yours? tribulation, trials. Boy, this
will break your heart. And they had but one way to walk,
and that's by believing only. Nebuchadnezzar, that great king,
had set up his image out in the desert, and everybody gathered
out there to worship that image. And he put him a fiery furnace
out there. And said, listen, if you don't fall down to this
image I've made and worship it, we're going to stick you in this
furnace. There was three guys there that said, we're not going
to bow. We're not going to bow to your image. And the king became
in a rage. And they brought those Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego up to the king. And boy, I tell you, can
you imagine standing there before an angry king? the mightiest
man at that time on the face of the earth. He kept who he
would alive and killed who he would. And he, the Bible says,
his countenance was changed towards those three men. He spoke in
anger. He said, I'm going to give you
one more chance. I don't usually do this, but I'm going to give
you one more chance. When you hear the music playing, if you
don't bow, I'm throwing you in the furnace. I am throwing you
in the furnace. And he raised his voice and shook
his fist. And Shadrach stood up and said,
Listen, O king, we're not careful to answer you about this matter.
We will not bow to your image. If God is pleased, He can deliver
us from this furnace, and He will deliver us from you. We
will not bow to your idol. He threw them in the furnace.
The furnace was so hot, it slew the men who threw them in there.
They were walking around in there. There was no ropes on them. But
the flame hadn't heard him. He said, get them out of there.
Let's find out what's going on. And here's what he said. Here's
what he said. God has sent his angel and delivered
his servants who trusted in him. They trusted in him when I told
them to bow. They trusted in him when I threatened
them. They trusted in Him when they
threw Him in the furnace. They kept on trusting. And they
stopped fearing. And I'm telling you, when the
waves are high, when the fire's hot, the only way to dispel the
fears of your heart is just to keep on trusting Him. Trusting His promises. Standing
on the promises that cannot fail. When the storming doubts and
fears assail, by the living Word of God I shall prevail, standing
on the promises of God. That's the place to stand, isn't
it? Standing on the promises of God. Do not fear. Keep on trusting. Charles Spurgeon, one Sunday
morning, went to the tabernacle and he preached on Isaiah 56
verse 3, What time I am afraid, I will trust in the Lord. He
came back that afternoon and he says, I've got a better text.
And he preached the message from Isaiah 12. I will trust and not
be afraid. That is a better text, isn't
it? How is it that we can dispel
our fear I don't want to live in torment and fear to you. Fear
has torment. It will bring you into bondage.
The only way then to dispel your fear is to trust the Lord Jesus
Christ. In God I have put my trust. I will not fear what flesh can
do to me. The Lord is on my side. I will
not fear what can man do to me. Let your conversation be without
covetousness. Be content with such things as
you had. For the Lord hath said, I will
never leave you or forsake you. Therefore we may boldly say,
the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. I'm going to
trust and not be afraid." Fear not. Only believe. A couple of more things right
quickly and I'll let you go. And I think this applies to this
man, Jairus, when he said, Fear not. He surely had to mean this. Believe that I'm with you. Fear not. Only believe that I
am with you. And why do I say that? Well,
in Luke's gospel, the parallel passage, it said that Jairus
came to the Lord and then the Lord said, I'll follow you back
to your house. He was following Jairus back
home. You think, especially after these
men came and said, Jairus, she's dead, don't bother her anymore.
You think he had some difficulty believing then that Christ was
still following him? Don't be afraid, I'm still with
you. Don't be afraid, I'm still following you. Don't be afraid,
I'm going home with you. Don't be afraid, My presence
is with you. When the Lord comes into your
heart, He'll never leave you. Do you know that? But do you
always know He's there? And isn't that one of your fears?
Is He with me? Well, if I could just know He's
with me. You know the Bible says He abides in our heart by faith. That doesn't mean if you fall
in unbelief that He's going to leave your heart. If you believe
not, He abides faithful. He can't deny Himself. But if
you and I are going to live in the joy and the strength of His
presence, we're going to have to live believing Him. Moses was leading the children
of Israel through the land of slime pits and enemies where
there was no water and no food. And Moses was praying to the
Lord one day, and he said, Lord, if your presence don't go with
us, please don't lead us up. The way is too tough. It's too
hard. If your presence don't go with
us, don't lead us up. I think that may have been what
the man said when he said, Lord, I need your presence. Every waking
hour, What but your grace can spoil the tempter's snower? What can deliver us from temptations
and evils? The Lord's presence. I will be with you. For how long? Even to the end. Forever. Forever. Can we believe
that? The joy of the Lord is His presence. And His presence is full of joy.
When you get in trouble, when you feel lonely, when you begin
to get depressed and fearful, believe in your heart, He's still
with me. He's still with me. He's promised.
I'm with you. I'm with you. Can you see Jairus
looking back about every five steps? Is he there? But you know
the Lord was in a crowd. Maybe he couldn't see it, but
he was there, wasn't he? One last point is this. You may
be here this morning. You may be living under this
awful spirit of bondage, this fear. Some people are. There's people that live here,
lost people, that live under this awful spirit of bondage.
They're almost daily afraid. They seem like they've been awakened
to their need, but they don't know what to do. They're afraid of facing God
in their sins. I ain't able to face God. What if He charges
me with my sin? I can't die. I'm not able to
die. What if God speaks to me today
and says, come up here. Give account of yourself. I ain't
willing to do that. I'm not able to do that. I'm
going to die. What about eternity? And they
live under this awful spirit of bondage. If you're here and
you're like that this morning, what are you going to do about
that? What have you been trying to do about it? Well, I know
what some people say and I know what they think because I was
there. I was there for years. And you know what I said? I'm
going to do better. I'm going to get my act together.
I'm going to get my life straightened out. I'm going to quit my lying.
I'm going to quit my sinning. And then, I ain't going to fear
anymore. How many of you have tried that?
Did it work? No. Oh, you may have deceived yourself
a bit, but the fear came right back, didn't it? That old gnawing
fear. Listen, you can't save yourself. You can't make yourself
acceptable to God. A perfect sacrifice for sin has
already been offered. the soul and body of God's dear
Son upon a bloody tree outside the old city walls of Jerusalem.
A perfect sacrifice. Sin's debt has been paid and
the payment has been accepted of heaven. And God turns to you and He turns
to me and here's what He says, Believe only and fear not. Stop your trying. Stop deceiving
yourself. Stop talking about do, do, do. And say, believe only. With the heart, man believes
unto righteousness. And with the mouth, confession
is made unto salvation. You can't be saved by doing.
You can only be saved by believing in Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
who bore sin upon Calvary's tree. That's the only way to have this
spirit dispelled. Is it not? I want to be baptized. Have you believed yet? I want
to join the church. Have you believed yet? If you
believe with all your heart, and I'm just saying this morning,
dear soul, if you're one of those people that's been trying to
save yourself, been trying to relieve your fears, Yourself? It's hopeless. Right now where
you sit, in your spirit of bondage, look out of yourself to Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, and believe on Him, and see if that don't
dispel your fear. And I know what I'm telling you,
that you can't do it apart from grace. That's another miracle,
isn't it? That's another miracle. Let's pray.