Through the years, I have enjoyed
hearing believers tell how the Lord was pleased to reveal himself
to them. I like to ask people, how did
the Lord reveal himself to you? How did he cross your path? How did he reveal the gospel
to your heart? When did you come to love him? I like to hear people tell. their
encounter with the living God. And I realized this. I realized
that all do not have the same experience. Not by any means. All do not walk the same road.
All are not saved in the same age bracket. Sam came to a pig
picking and heard the gospel. So you never know. In Acts chapter 16, three different
people came to know Christ, met the Savior, three different people,
in a strange way. They all heard the same preacher,
the Apostle Paul. But one of them was a business
woman, with a thyrotyroid. Evidently her husband was dead
because she was taking care of the family business and she came
to Philippi. She didn't know Christ. Had never
heard the gospel. But she went to worship with
some ladies. They were some women that were
meeting together down by the river bank. Philippi was a military
city. They didn't have a synagogue.
You had to have so many people in order to have a synagogue
at that time. So these women met down by the river. And the
apostle Paul came down there. He heard about them meeting for
prayer. And he came down there and he
preached to them. He preached to those 12 or 13
women. And Lydia, the scripture says,
Lydia heard Paul. God opened her heart. She believed
the gospel and she and her family were baptized. Quietly, peacefully,
she heard the gospel and believed it. But there was another woman
in the same town, a woman with a mental problem, a real mental
problem. She was possessed with demons.
And the apostle Paul and Silas were walking down the road And
this woman followed them. And she began to scream and yell. And she said, these are the servants
of the Most High God who show us the way of salvation. She
kept saying that. And Paul turned and rebuked the
evil spirit to come out of her and she fell on the ground, broken. And the Lord saved her, this
demon-possessed girl. But they put Paul in prison.
Paul and Silas, they put them in prison over that because this
woman, she was a way that they made their living, prophesying
and soothsaying and fortune-telling and all that sort of thing. So
they put Paul in prison. And they beat him. And it was
at midnight. And God sent an earthquake and
opened the prison doors. And the jailer, he wasn't under
conviction. He was asleep. He was over, somebody
said that he was listening to them sing hymns. No, he wasn't
either. He put them in chains, beat them,
and went to sleep. And the Lord sent an earthquake
and shook the hinges off the doors of those cells. And the jailer, he was afraid
the prisoner had escaped and he was going to kill himself.
He drew his sword and was going to kill himself because he knew
if those fellas were gone, they'd blame him. And Paul hollered
and said, don't do that. Do yourself no harm. We're all
here. And he called for a light. dark, and he sprang in, and there
they stood. Chains all fallen off, fetters
all off, and old Paul's back bleeding, and he fell down in
front of Paul, and he cried, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And he took them out of that
jail, took them to his house, washed their stripes, gave them
food, and then preached the gospel to them. And the Lord saved him. Now, see that's three people,
all under different experiences and circumstances. But all three
heard the same preacher, and were converted by the same gospel,
and received the same Lord Jesus Christ. However, what I'm trying
to say is this, while they have different experiences, Ours is
a common salvation. Salvation is always, doesn't
matter whether you're a Lydia from Tharatara, it doesn't matter
whether you're a demon-possessed girl with a mental problem, or
whether you're a hardened, cruel jailer. It takes the grace of
God to save. God has to break the heart, open
the heart, and reveal Christ to you. It's a common salvation.
And it's a common faith. What does the scripture say?
One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, one Father, one hope. And we're a common family. We're
all children of God. Children of God. And then all
of these children of God have common tribes. We have trials
that are common to everybody who believes. Now, coming to
my third point. I must tell you, there are some
vital things. There are some vital things which
everybody whom God saves, experience. There are some vital things that
everybody experiences, everybody who believes Christ, who loves
Christ, who receives Christ, who has eternal life. They all
have this same experience. Now, here are four things. And
I want you to remember, if you want to, jot them down. But listen
to old Brother May here. I'm telling you, I've been preaching
this gospel a long time, and the Lord's been pleased to use
it. Now, listen to this. First of all, everybody whom
God saves, they have a genuine fear of God. That's right. The very beginning of wisdom
is what? Fear the Lord. Fear the Lord. A man who doesn't fear God is
a fool. That's right. David says, come
my children, come my children, I teach you what? The fear of
God. The fear of God. True worship
at one time, true worship was known as the fear of the Lord.
One who feared God. One who loved God, but who feared
God. And that thief on the cross,
what's the first thing he said to his friend? Remember? Dost
thou not fear God? Don't you fear God? And so that's
the first thing that every believer is stricken with a real sincere
fear of God. I fear God. Yes, I do. I love
God. I believe I do. But I do know
I fear Him. I do. Here's the second thing.
There's a genuine fear of God. Secondly, there's a sincere sense
of our own sin. Now, I'm not just talking about
believing the doctrine of total depravity. About everybody believes
that. I'm talking about a real, sincere,
personal experience with your own sin. My sins. My sins. My sins. Turn to Psalm
51. Psalm 51. Let's see what David says here
about his sins. He's not talking about the doctrine
of total depravity. He's talking about David's sins. Psalm 51. Listen to him here. Psalm 51. Start with verse 1.
Here it is. Listen. have mercy upon me, O
God, according to Thy lovingkindness, according to Thy multitude of
Thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions, wash me throughly
from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin. I'm talking about
a real, personal, sincere knowledge guilt of sin. My sin. My sin. Verse 3, I acknowledge my transgressions. My sin is ever before me. Against thee and thee only have
we all sinned. No, I sinned. Against thee and
thee only. I've done this evil in thy sight,
that you might be justified when you speak and clear when you
judge. A man who's convinced of sin,
or woman, must be convinced that he's the sinner. Oh, I know everybody's
a sinner. No, that's not what we're talking
about. We're talking about us. Us. If I've never been lost,
I've never been found. If I've ever been guilty before
God, I've never been forgiven. If I've never been broken, stripped
naked, I've never been clothed. Isn't that right? I remember
70 years ago, I was 11 years old,
11 years old. It was right in the middle of
the depression. We were pretty poor. I used to walk to school,
you know, live way out in the country. And on the way home
from school one day, I stopped by Mrs. Hicks' 10 cent store.
I still remember this. When I learned, I was a sinner.
I stopped by Miss Hick's 10 cent store and I picked up a baseball. I took it home with me, a brand
new beautiful white baseball. I love baseball. And I was out
in the yard throwing it up in the air, catching it, and my
mother came out. And she said, where'd you get
the baseball? I said, I found it. You know,
oh, what a web we weave when we start to deceive. It gets
worse, it gets deeper. I found it. Where did you find
it? I found it in Miss Hickston's store. She said, where? I said, on the
floor. Just keep on and on and on. She
said, well, did you steal it? I said, no, I found it. I didn't
figure they wanted it. I just saw it, picked it up and
took it home with me. She said, take it back. I said,
what? Take it back. You know, stealing
is bad, but admitting it, that's tough. But we've got to do it. I did. Stealing is bad. It's faithful. But admitting
it, it's got to be. Got to confess my sin. Got to
admit it. It's a real... You've read about
this. He was made sin for us that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him. All right, here's
the third thing. There's a genuine fear of God.
There's a sincere sense of my own sin before God. And thirdly,
there's a realization. There's a realization I cannot
do anything about it. I cannot atone for my sins. I
can't put them away. I can't make God forget them.
I can't pray like they're not there. I can't do anything about
it. Sin's pretty hard to put away.
Pretty hard to put away. Sure is. Only one way it can
be put away. That's by the blood of Christ.
By the blood of the Redeemer. That's how sin is put away. Oh,
David Brainerd. David Brainerd said he found
out four things. He said, I found out there's
a righteousness I don't have. I found out there's a law I cannot
keep. I found out there's a faith that
I cannot produce. And I found out there's a judgment
before which I've got to stand unless God puts away my sin. All whom the Lord is pleased
to save, they believe the Scriptures. They receive Christ. They confess
their sins before God, and they confess Christ before men. If
thou shalt confess with thy mouth, Jesus to be Lord. If thou shalt
confess with thy mouth, thy mouth, Jesus Christ to be Lord, King
of kings and Lord of lords. and believe in thine heart that
he died on that cross because he had to die in order to be
raised. Believe in your heart that God raised him. Believe
in your heart that he died for our sins and that God raised
him and took him to glory. Thou shalt be saved. It doesn't
matter whether you're a Philippian jailer or whether you're a demoniac
girl or whether you're a successful business woman. When Philip preached
to that eunuch the gospel of Christ, and that eunuch said
to him, here's water, what does hinder me from being baptized?
And Philip said what? If you believe. If you believe. He didn't say if you come before
the church, if you go before the elders, if you do this, that,
and the other. If you believe with all your
heart, You may. And he said, I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. Philip said, let's go have a
baptism. That's right. All right. Here's
my story. Now Mark, turn to Mark 5. I want
to show you something here as the Lord gives me some liberty.
Here's my title of this message. An intruder is welcomed. What's an intruder? Somebody
comes in unexpected. Didn't look for them. But they
came in. And they were welcome. Now watch
this. First of all, look at Mark 5. Mark 5 verse 21. Now watch this. Mark 5 verse 21. And when Jesus
was passed over again by ship to the other side, much people
gathered unto him, and he was nigh unto the sea." He was on
the seashore. And, behold, there cometh one
of the rulers of the synagogue. This man was a Jew, a ruler of
the synagogue. Jairus was his name. And when
he saw the Lord Jesus, he fell at his feet. And he besought
him greatly, saying, My little daughter lies at the point of
death. I pray thee, and lay thy hands on her, that she may be
healed, and she shall live." And Jesus went with him. Our Lord went with. Where was
Jesus Christ going? To Jairus' house to lay hands
on this little girl and to heal her. And much people followed
them and thronged him. Now that's the Lord. That's who
we're talking about. Now here, let me introduce you to someone
else. There's a woman Verse 25, And a certain woman, and a certain
woman which had an issue of blood twelve years, and she suffered
many things of many physicians, and she spent everything she
had, and she was not any better, but just grew worse and worse. What have we here? We have a
woman. Nobody knows her name. You know, women back in those
days, they were a little less than servants, actually. A little
less than servants. And nobody knows her name, just
a certain woman. There's no history of her written
anywhere. She's not mentioned anywhere else, is she? She was
very ill. She'd been sick for twelve years.
She'd gone to see all these physicians and they couldn't do anything
for her. She spent everything she had and she was no better.
But she heard of Christ. She heard of Christ and came
to Him. Now I want to compare something
for you here. Our Lord Jesus Christ, that's who we're talking
about now, the Savior. And then I want to talk about
a man called Nicodemus and this woman who was a sinner. Let's
compare John 3 and John 4. You're familiar with it. Now,
first of all, you've got John 3. And it says there's a man
called Nicodemus. He's got a name. She doesn't.
She doesn't even have a name. Nicodemus. But this woman, just
a certain woman. Secondly, he was a ruler. A powerful
man. Well known. He was a well-known
man. He was a ruler of the Jews. This
woman, no reputation. None at all. Nicodemus had a
lot of education. He was a member of the Sanhedrin,
the highest Jewish court. This woman drew water. She went
to the well to draw water. Nicodemus wouldn't anymore do
anything like that. Saved his life. Nicodemus was
a law keeper. This woman was a sinner. And
Jesus Christ gave Nicodemus an assignment that he couldn't
fulfill. Jesus Christ gave Nicodemus a
work he couldn't perform. Jesus said to him, you gotta
be born again. Impossible. This woman No name,
uneducated, no reputation, draws water, a sinner. Our Lord looked
at her. He loves sinners. He delights
to show mercy. He looked at her and said, if
you knew who it is talking to you, you'd ask me and I'd give
you living water. He never offered that to Nicodemus.
He never did. He was too proud, too arrogant,
just too proud. But this woman was a sinner.
And our Lord looked at her and said, you know who it is that's
talking to you. You'd ask me, I'd give you living
water. And she did. She did. She was an intruder, but she
intruded. Let's see about her experience. Look at verse 26, 27. All right, verse 26, And when
she heard of Jesus, came in the press behind him, and touched
his garment. For she said, If I may but touch
his clothes. That's faith. If I may touch his clothes, I
shall be healed. Now notice this experience. First
of all, the Lord did not call her by name. He called Zacchaeus. He said, Zacchaeus, come down. The Lord did not send for her
as he did Bartimaeus. He called him and said, tell
him to come to me. The Lord did not even look her
way. He was on his way to Gerasi's
house. He didn't look back. She came
behind him. She slept up behind him. She
heard that Christ Jesus could heal and she slept up behind
him and reached out and touched his garment and made home. Actually, what was the contact
between Christ and this woman? If it had not been her illness,
she wouldn't have touched him. If it had not been for her illness
and trouble, she would never have known he was in town. If
it had not been for her sickness and trouble, she never would
have come to him. But that's why she came. She
needed him. She had a problem that only he
could solve. The only contact between this
woman and Jesus Christ is her need. That's right. Somebody
said this, a sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made
it so. Learn this lesson. It wasn't
her strength that brought her to Christ. It was her weakness.
It wasn't her beauty that brought her to Christ. It was her ugliness. It wasn't her riches that brought
her to Christ. She had spent all. It was her
poverty. I came to Jesus as I was, weary,
worn, and sad, and I found in Him a resting place. He's made me glad. And He'll
do that for anybody who's a sinner. And I'm not so foolish as to
try to appear to be before God what I'm not. Don't, don't, don't
try that. Just be who you are. Don't try
to be who you aren't. I'm not so foolish as to try
to appear before God to be what I'm not. I am a sinner. I'm not so foolish as to think
He needs me, but I need Him. I'm not so foolish as to think
He would suffer any loss if I perished forever, but I would. I would. And I'll tell you this. Listen to me now. I don't plan
to sit around and wait on some personal experience. I don't
plan to sit around and wait for some unusual sign or voice speaking. I'm going to reach out and touch
the Lord as He passes by. That's what she was an intruder.
Our Lord Jesus Christ landed, got out of that ship, and walked
up, and this man came up to him, Geras and said, My little girl
is sick unto death. Come and heal her. Come and heal
her. And Jesus Christ, our Lord, followed
him. And as he was following this
man going to Geras' house, this woman came behind him and reached
out and touched him. Because she said, If I could
just touch him, I'll be made whole. I'll be made whole. We sing that
old chorus. Reach out and touch the Lord
as he passes by. You'll find he's not too busy
to hear your heart's cry. He's passing by this moment.
Your what? Need. Your need. Sin, that's
our need. Forgiveness. Healing. Salvation. Righteousness. as He passes by, touch Him, touch
Him. Now, somebody said this one time,
I wrote this down, Christ was on His way to the house of Geras,
but she reached out, and He made her whole. Christ was passing
one day through Jericho, and Bartimaeus cried out and was
made whole. Christ was dying on a cross,
surrounded by all of his enemies. But a thief cried out and said,
Lord, remember me. And he did. That's what I'm urging
in these last days of my preaching the gospel. I'm trying to urge
people, lay hold on Christ. Reach out, touch the Lord, cast
yourself upon him. Here's a powerful lesson for
everyone to read, right here. Now turn with me back to our
text of Mark 5. It says here, verse 28, listen. And she said, if I may touch
but his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain
of her blood was dried up, she felt in her body that she was
healed of that plague. And the Lord Jesus immediately,
immediately, knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him,
turned him about in the press and said, who touched my clothes? Who touched my clothes? And his
disciples said to him, Lord, you see the multitude pronging
you and you say, 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, in her, not just
to her, in her, she came and fell down before him and told
him all the truth. And he said to her, Daughter,
thy faith hath made thee whole. go in peace and behold of this
plague. Why does the Lord Jesus Christ
so freely and so fully and so willingly receive and love and
redeem sinners? Why? I'll tell you why. That's
His chief glory. That's His chief glory. You know,
you sit there, and I'm standing here preaching, we sit there
and talk about this salvation. That's His greatest glory, to
save sinners. That's why He came into the world,
to save sinners. He didn't come into the world
to debate with us, and argue with us, and quarrel with us,
and try to get us to do something. He came to save us. So why not
receive Him? That old blind man did. He said,
I believe, help my unbelief. Give me faith. Grace and mercy
is his chief glory. Moses, one day, came there to
the tent meeting. And he asked the Lord three requests. Three requests. He said, Lord, show me your glory. First he
said, show me the way. If you go not with us, don't
let us go. Show me the way. Show me the way. And he said,
Lord, show me your glory. And what did the Lord say? Turn
with me to Exodus chapter 33. Exodus 33. Exodus 33. Verse 13. I pray thee if I found
grace in thy sight, show me the way. Then down here in verse
15, he said, if you don't go with us, don't take us hence.
Then down here in verse 18, he said, show me your glory. And
the Lord said this, I will make all my goodness pass before thee. I will proclaim the name of the
Lord before thee. I will be gracious. I will be
gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will show mercy. I will
on whom I show mercy. That's why He came. That's what
He came to do. Show mercy and grace. See if you can work on this a
minute. Now listen carefully. Christ
is not glorified in being merciful. That's His nature. He is merciful. He's not glorified in being who
He is. Christ's greater glory is showing
mercy to the undeserving. That's His glory. You see what I'm trying to say,
Tom? Christ's greater glory is not
just in being merciful. He's always been merciful. He's
merciful. He's a merciful God. But this
is greater glory. This is chief glory, showing
mercy to guilty people. Listen to this, number two. Christ
is not glorified because he loves the love of God. That's it. That's
his nature. He is love. God is love. He'll never be anything else
but love. But he's glorified in showing love to the guilty. Greater love hath no man than
this laid on his life for his praise. That's why he came, to
show love, to reveal it. Thirdly, Christ is not glorified
because he's gracious, because grace and truth flows from his
lips all the time. And that grace and mercy flows
from His lips to you and you and you and me. That's His greater
glory. You see what I'm trying to say?
When God acts in mercy toward a sinner through Christ, that's
His greater glory. That's His greater glory. And
then fourthly, Christ is not glorified in dying. He's the Lamb slain, the foundation
of the world. Christ is glorified in laying
down His life for His sheep. Laying down His life for His
sheep. Romans chapter 5. Listen to this. Romans chapter 5, verse 5. Verse 6, Romans 5, 6. For when
we were without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcity for a righteous
man will one die, yet for adventure for a good man some might even
dare to die. But God commended His love, His
grace, His mercy to us while we were sinners. Christ died
for us. That's just great Spurgeon said this in talking
about this scripture. He said, well, he was on his
way to Jairus's house. He may not be on his way to your
house. He might not even be on his way
to your town. But I know this, he's on his
way to eternal glory and I want to be there with him so when
he comes in his glory, so I'm going to reach out and touch
the Lord. while he passes by. Why not? Why not? That's why he came. Look to the
Lamb of God. Let the legalist go to Sania
with his laws. Let the Romanist go to the manger
and Mary. Let the ritualist go to Jordan's
river and the ordinances. Let the scholars go to their
creeds and catechism. Let the superstitious go to the
Holy Land. I'll go to Jesus. Though my sins
hath like a mountain raised, and I'll say to Him, I'm a wretch
undone without His sovereign grace. I can but perish if I
go. I'm resolved to try, for if I
stay away I'm going to die. And that's where we are. And
that's what happened here. Our Lord's passing by. He's the
only one that can do anything for anybody. He's passing by.
And this woman, oh, what a need she had. Dying. Dying. All but dead. Broke. Weary. She saw Him. She reached out and touched his
garment and he got the glory. Our Father, thank You for Your
Word. Thank You You gave us this beautiful
story about this woman that was unknown, unrecognized, uneducated,
but needful, lost and sinful. hungry and sick and dying. And
she touched the Savior. Lord, lay it on the heart of
everybody here with a need. But right now, reach out and touch the Lord.
Believe. Lord, I believe. I do believe. Help my heart believe. I know
that Christ is the only Savior. Salvation is the only hope we
have in Him. And His blood is the only thing
that will cleanse us. Jesus Christ is the way, the
truth, and the life. Give us the grace to walk therein.
I pray for Christ's sake. Amen.