I want to read a story from the
Word of God. This is recorded in the book
of Mark. It's recorded in the book of
Luke. I'll be reading from Luke, the eighth chapter. We'll begin,
I believe, with verse 42. Luke, chapter eight. 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,
immediately, her issue of blood stopped. And Jesus said, Who
touched me? Who touched me? When everyone
denied, Peter said to him, Master, the multitude throng thee, and
the people push against thee. And you say, who touched me?
And the master said, somebody. Somebody touched me. Somebody
touched me. For I perceive that power, virtue,
is gone forth from me. Somebody touched me. And my friend,
I want this sermon, this sermon that I'm going to preach today,
I want it to be a special blessing to you. I've prepared this sermon
for myself and for you. It's not just another sermon.
God help us not to get into a rut of just preaching sermons and
you hearing sermons and really not hearing them at all. But
let's pray that we might have a good word from God. Wouldn't
that be something? When is a sermon a blessing?
Have you ever thought about that? When is a sermon a blessing? Well, I believe there are five
marks of a sermon that is a blessing. Number one, it's got to come
from the messenger's heart to the hero's heart. Now, that has
got to be so if the sermon's going to be a blessing. And I'll
tell you this, this message truly, sincerely comes from my heart
to your heart. I can identify with this woman,
and I hope you can. And then secondly, when is a
message a blessing when it's obviously true to the Word of
God. And this story I've read to you,
I've read directly from the Word of God. I'm going to be preaching,
thus saith the Lord. So a message will be a blessing
when it's obviously true to the Scriptures. And then thirdly,
when that message is heard, and somebody says, well, I heard
this preacher. Did you really hear him? Did you really listen
with interest? Did you understand what he's
saying? I'm going to make this as plain
as I can make it, and I trust as interesting as I can. Actually,
all Scripture ought to be interesting to us. Do we find God's Word
uninteresting? Interesting. Our Lord said, who
touched me? The disciples said, well, graciousness
is around you, and everybody's pressing you, and you say, who
touched me? He said, somebody did. Somebody touched me. I perceive
powers gone out of me. I'm interested in what's going
on here. And then fourthly, when the message meets a particular
need of both messenger and hearer, I'm not preaching down to you.
I'm trying to, together, search the Scriptures and find the way
of redemption. Let's see if we can find the
way of life. This word meets our need, for
we're in need of mercy, just like this woman. We're in need
of grace. Mercy, grace to help in time
of need. Mercy to help in time of need.
And I'll tell you when a sermon is a blessing. In the fifth place,
when it leaves the hearer rejoicing in the Lord. Not in himself,
but in the Lord. When it leaves him rejoicing
in the Lord and determined to seek God's mercy. Now that message
is a blessing. It's not a blessing. It's not
a blessing. if it only serves to harden men
in their positions, and in their prejudice, and in their pride,
and in their vain philosophy. But now here's a woman who had
been ill, seriously ill, for twelve long years. And she'd
spent everything she had. Evidently she had some savings,
evidently she had an income, evidently she had something,
but she'd spent everything she had. on recommended cures, on
physicians and doctors, and she wasn't one bit better. In fact,
she only grew worse, slowly, slowly dying. Mark says she heard
of Christ. She heard of Christ. And she
said, if I can get to Him, and if I can touch, touch even His
garment, I'll be made whole. Well, she heard that Christ was
in this particular place at a particular time, and this woman who was
so seriously ill, the very life bleeding from her, she came behind
Him, and evidently crawling on the ground, she made her way
to Christ and reached out and touched Him. The Scripture says
the border, or hem of His garment, and just like that, immediately,
immediately, her blood flow stopped, and she was made well. And our
master stopped, and he said, who touched me? Who touched me? And the disciple said, well,
Lord, everybody's brushed up against you and thronged and
pressed you, and you ask who touched me? He said, somebody.
Somebody touched me. Somebody touched me. No name?
She never is named. Did you notice that? We never
find out who this is. Nobody ever knows who this is.
We can't even speculate. No name, no distinction. That's
all that's said about it. That's what she's called a somebody. Just a somebody. Somebody touched
me. Somebody touched me. And power
and virtue and healing went forth from me. I'll tell you this.
I know this to be true. I don't have a doubt about this.
The Lord God Almighty is going to show mercy to somebody just
like He did to that somebody. That's right. He said, I will
be merciful. God will, He will be just, He will be righteous,
He will be holy, but thank God, He will be merciful. He's going
to show mercy to somebody. He's called, He's plenteous in
mercy, because He delights to show mercy. He's going to be
merciful to somebody. I want to be that somebody. Do
you? I want to be that somebody. Tell
you something else. He came into the world to save
somebody. That's right. Jesus Christ did
not come in vain. He shall not fail. He has a people. I'm going to tell you something.
Heaven will be populated with a people just like Christ. Somebody's
going to glory. Somebody's going to hear the
trumpet, and somebody's going to rise, and somebody's going
to see His blessed face, and somebody's going to be made like
Him, and somebody's going to be a joint heir with Him. I want
to be that somebody. Somebody. Somebody. No nation. Special influence. Just somebody.
And I'll tell you this, the Holy Spirit is going to regenerate
and call somebody. His mission in this world is
to call out a people for God's name. And He's going to do it.
He's going to call them out. Somebody is going to be raised
from the grave. Somebody is going to ascend to
life eternal. Somebody is going to be made
like Christ. Somebody is going to enjoy heaven's
glory. Somebody. I want to be that somebody. I feel like the Apostle Paul
who said, Oh, that I may win Christ. Let's don't get so taken
up with world vision and world missions and world this, that
and the other that we neglect our own vineyard. I want to win
Christ and be found in Him. I want to know Him and the power
of His resurrection. The Apostle Paul was no selfish
man. He was a man who had compassion
upon the multitude and a burden for sinners, but he said, if
by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
That's what this woman said, if I can just Get to Christ. I'll be made whole." I want you
to look at this story again. Maybe, maybe, just maybe, God
will do for us today what He did for Mrs. Somebody. Wouldn't
that be a blessing? Wouldn't that be something? This
Somebody came to Christ a cripple and walked away made whole. This
Somebody came to Christ diseased and dying and went away living
and pure. This somebody came to Christ
unclean and went away righteous in Him." Somebody touched me. All right, let's look at the
story. About three or four things. First of all, I know this. This
somebody had been sick a long time. Twelve years, it says. Twelve years. Now, that's a long
time to be sick. That's a long time to be sick,
isn't it? But let me tell you something. You and I have been
sick a lot longer than that. We've been sick a lot longer.
Our sickness is older than hers. Hers was only a physical illness.
Ours is a spiritual illness. That's right. We were born sick. I know this is offensive. I know
many people don't like it. I know many preachers don't preach
it. But the Word of God declares this. Now you listen to me. I'll
tell you the truth. This somebody had been sick a
long time, and this somebody has been a sinner a long time.
It says in Psalm 51, 5, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, in
sin my mother conceived me. Born in sin? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Born in sin. Sin is not just
an act, it's a principle. Sin is not just an action, it's
a nature, and we're born with that nature. You don't have to
teach children to be selfish. You don't have to teach them
to hate. You don't have to teach them to steal. You don't have
to teach them any of these things. They're born knowing these things.
They're born with this desire and this inclination within them. That's what it says in Psalm
58, 3. The wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray
as soon as they're born. As soon as they're born, speaking
lies. But now, wait a minute. Like
one old preacher used to say, Get a hold of the beach there,
we're going to jump a creek. Our sickness goes back further
than that. You mean further back than my
birth? That's right. Mankind's sickness
goes back further than our birth. We are born from a race that
was already fallen when we were born. And it goes back even further
than our birth, for it says in Adam, we all died. That's what it says. in Adam,
by one man's disobedience, Romans 5, 12, by one man's disobedience,
our father Adam, our representative, sin entered the world, and death
by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for all sinned. When Adam sinned, death, disease,
sin passed upon all men. Sin and death is a disease of
all men. That's what scripture teaches.
It's not just an outward deformity. It's an inward principle of evil.
We have a principle of evil. We don't love our neighbors ourselves.
We don't love God with all our hearts. We love ourselves. We're
selfish, sinful, corrupt. That's right. Our motives are
evil. It's an inward corruption. We are flesh. And flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God. We're guilty. What the law
saith, it saith to every one under the law, that every mouth
may be stopped, and all the world become guilty, guilty before
God. This somebody here had been sick
twelve years. We've been sick a lot longer
than that. Our disease goes back to our
birth. Our disease goes all the way back to our fallen Adam.
And my friend, listen to me. I'm going to tell you the truth.
I cannot convince you of sin. Now, it'd be easier for me to
convince you of certain things that you've done that are evil. That wouldn't be a problem at
all. But I can't convince you of the source of your evil, of
the root of your evil. I cannot convince you why you
did these things, why it's so much easier to do wrong than
right, why it's so much easier to hate than to love, why it's
so much easier to sin than it is to live holy. I can't convince
you of that. Only God can do it, the Holy
Spirit. But I'll tell you what the Word says. It's the principle,
the nature of sin that's born within us. That's the root. That's
the source. And that's what God sees. God
does not look on the outward countenance. He looks on the
heart. Keep your heart out of any of the issues of life. It's
not what goes in a man's mouth that defiles him. That's what
most preachers would have you believe. They would have you
believe you clean up the outward man, that everything's all right,
but the Scripture doesn't say that. The Scripture says you
can clean up the outside and the inside still be like a grave
full of dead men's bones. You can clean up the outside
of the cup and the inside be full of corruption and excess.
Cleanse first that which is within, and only God can do that, and
God will only do that when we recognize it and own it, confess
it, and ask for mercy. That's where the problem is.
David said, or ever before me. Job said, I hate myself. Isaiah
said, woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips. So
this somebody had been sick a long time, and this somebody and that
somebody I'm talking to has a sickness that sometimes we don't even
know about. It's inside. It's in the heart. It's in the bones. It's in the
bowels. It's in the nature. It's in the
innermost being. And it's a rottenness and an
evil and a corruption that was born there. And that's what God
sees and that's what God has to deal with. And all of our
outward actions are affected by that awful evil person we
are within. Got problems? Somebody has problems. All right, this somebody could
find no cure. This somebody looked everywhere.
She spent everything she had. She went here, she went there,
she tried everything anybody told her to try, and she couldn't
find a cure. Just couldn't find a cure. And
I'm telling you this, that evil of sin, that disease with which
we're born, that we inherited from our daddy Adam, it's incurable
by human works. It's incurable by human effort. It's incurable by human deeds. Now, you may look to yourself
and look to others for relief, just like this somebody did,
but you look in vain. The law can't heal you. God says,
but the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified. The works
of religion can't heal you, not by works of righteousness which
we've done, but according to His mercy hath He saved us. Actually,
our righteousnesses, our works of religion in God's sight, are
filthy rags, because they're imperfect. Now we can accept
deeds and words and acts that are imperfect because we're imperfect.
But God can't accept anything that's unlike Him. It's got to
be perfect. And whatever we bring to God,
praise, prayer, gifts, whatever, it's imperfect. And God's got
to refuse it. It's coming short of the glory
of God. And the works of religion can't help us. And the ordinances
of baptism and the Lord's Supper, these things can't cure this
inward disease. Water can wash my skin, but not
my heart. Not my heart. And I may put the
bread and wine in my mouth, it goes into my stomach and out
of my bowels, and it doesn't touch my nature. I've got to
have something that reaches deeper. I've got to have something that
goes deeper than the stain has gone. Deeper than the infection. The preacher can't do it, and
the priest can't do it. No use going to him. He can't
do anything about his own sins. Can't do anything about his own
nature. And then no dead saint can do it. I was talking to a
man recently down in Tennessee, and I said, do you believe in
Christ? He said, yeah, I believe in Saint Joe too. I said, who's
Saint Joe? He said, you know, Saint Joseph, Saint Jude, Saint
Luke. I said, they can't help you, they're dead. Christ lives. Neither is there salvation in
any other, for there is none other name unto heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved." This somebody had been
sick so long, she looked everywhere, and nobody could help her. Just
worse and worse and worse. Well, finally, listen. This somebody
heard of Jesus Christ. She heard. Mark recorded this
in Mark 5, verse 27, and he said, when she heard of Jesus, she
came. When she heard of Jesus, tell
me the story of Jesus. That's what I'm trying to do.
I'm not promoting a school, or promoting an organization, or
promoting a hospital, or promoting anything. I'm trying to promote
the gospel of the Son of God. I hear all these preachers talking
about the gospel, and hardly any of them preaching the gospel.
They're spending their time raising money to preach the gospel, which
they never preach. This woman heard of Christ, and
people are not going to hear of Christ until we start telling
them about Christ, preaching Christ. She would never have
come to Christ, believed on Christ, called upon Christ, or touched
Christ if she hadn't heard of Him. You can't believe on Him
of whom you haven't heard, and you can't call on Him in whom
you haven't believed. Somebody, this somebody heard
of Christ. Somebody told this somebody. about the Lord Jesus Christ.
His power, His grace, His glory, His goodness, they told her about
Christ. And she heard. Have you heard? Have you heard the story of Jesus? Have you heard the story? Tell
me the story, most precious, sweetest, that ever was heard. Oh, how important is the preaching
of the gospel. Of His own will begat he us with
the word of truth, that he cometh by hearing, hearing by the word
of truth, pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save
them to believe. Christ said to his disciples,
go and preach the gospel to every creature in whom you trusted. Paul said, after you heard the
gospel of your salvation, that gospel of God's grace and glory
and that gospel concerning his son, somebody heard of Christ. And what should you do fourthly?
This somebody came to him. Now you listen to me. I'm getting
at the heart of this thing now. Mark said, when she heard of
Jesus, she came in the crowd behind him and touched his garment. She heard of Christ and she came
to him. She didn't come to his apostles,
all dressed up in uniforms of religion. She didn't come to
his manger and buy some of the hay. She didn't come to his mother. She didn't come to his doctrines.
She didn't come to his church. She didn't come to his law. Can't
you just see her touching the law? The commandments, those
tables of stone that Moses brought down from the mountain. She goes
over and touches them. Kill her instead of curing her.
She didn't come to the front of the church. She didn't come
to the River Jordan. He came to Him. You see what
I'm saying? And this is the thing that frightens
me about today's religion. Scares me to death. Men are coming
for salvation to everything and everybody but Jesus Christ. And He's the fountain of life.
He's the source of mercy. He's the living Lord. He's the
Redeemer of His people. She heard And she didn't go to
a soul winner, or to the manger, or to his mother. She came to
him. She said, if I can touch him, I'll be made whole. People today are flocking to
the front and shaking hands. Now, what did you accomplish
by that? And people come to organizations, altars, and ordinances. They
come dry and go away wet. They come to decisions and doctrines
and creeds. They come to buildings and rallies
and holy days and holidays. Oh, if they could just see that
salvation is in a person. He said, come unto me. He couldn't
make it plainer if words mean anything. Come to the front,
and I'll give you rest. No, he said, come to me. All
ye that labor in a heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. He stood
that last day of the feast, that great day, and he said, hey,
wait a minute. Behold, if any man thirsts, let him come to
me." Don't you stop short of Christ, because He's the fountain
of life. All that my Father giveth me,
He says, shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. If the Son shall make you free,
you'll be free indeed. But the Son will have to do it.
because he's our prophet to reveal God, he's our priest to offer
that perfect, effectual sacrifice, and he's our king to reign over
us, and he is our righteousness to cover our nakedness, and he
is our sanctification to present us holy before God, and he is
our great mediator to pray for us, and you must come to him.
My friend, don't allow a man or a plan Don't allow a creed
or a ceremony to substitute for Jesus Christ. Now, here in closing,
the fifth thing. This somebody had been sick a
long time. And this somebody has been a
sinner a long time. And this somebody heard of Christ. She heard of Christ. When she
could find no relief and no help from no other source, she heard
of Christ. And she said, if I can get to
Him and touch Him, I'll be made whole." And my friends, she came
to Christ. She came to Christ. Now don't
miss that. That's the vital part of this
message. And it's the thing that frightens me about all religion,
fundamentalism, denominationalism, evangelism today, Hollywood-style
evangelism, when people are flocking to the front of the churches
and making decisions and making professions and counting noses
and counting baptisms and reporting great success. Did you come to
Christ, or did you come to a person, a man? Did you come to Christ,
or did you come to a mourner's bench? Or did you come to an
altar? Did you come to an ordinance? Did you come? This woman got
to Christ. And listen, it says, and she
touched him. She touched him. And immediately
she was made whole. And Christ stopped, and He said,
who touched me? And the disciple said, well,
Lord, there's a big crowd of people here, and they're all
pressing against you and thronging about you, and you ask, who touched
you? He said, somebody, somebody. Oh, somebody touched me. Somebody touched me. What made
her touch different? Have you thought about that?
What made her touch different from the others? Why did the
Master take note of her touch? Now, the disciples were telling
the truth. Many people had brushed against Him and shoved Him and
clamored about Him, but somebody touched Him. You want me to tell
you the difference? And it's the difference that saves. First
of all, her touch was a touch of faith. Those other people
were there out of curiosity. She was there because she believed.
They were there to see the show. They were there to be fed. They
were there to be healed. They were there to receive alms.
They were there to get a free handout. They were there to get
a meal. They were there to get the health
and wealth, you know. Empty your pocketbook, God will
fill it. They were there to get some kind of something else.
This woman believed Him. She believed Him. And our Lord
said, if you can believe, if you can believe, all things are
possible to them that believe. She believed. Hers was a touch
of faith. I'll tell you something else.
Hers was a touch of need. She needed Him. She needed Him. She needed Him. She was helpless
and hopeless and without strength. She needed Him. And when she
touched Him out of that desperate need, He said power went out
of Him into her. I'll tell you something else.
Hers was a touch of submission. All else had failed. He was her
only hope, and she knew it. And she came to Him in total
submission. She said, He is my only hope. He is my all. He is my objective. I must get to Christ. If I can
touch Him, I'll be made whole. I tell you this, in desperation,
in sincerity, in need, with faith, if you can lay hold on Christ,
if you can call upon Him out of your weakness, call upon His
strength. Out of your sin, call upon His
holiness. Out of your helplessness, call
on His ability. You'll be made whole. My hope,
my friend, is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and His
righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. His oath, His covenant,
His blood support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul
gives way, He is my only hope and stay. And when He shall come
with trumpet sound, oh may I, somebody, in him be found, dressed
in his righteousness alone, faultless, in Christ to stand before his
throne." Here are two messages on this cassette tape. The first
one to you is the Word of Life or Salvation Sent. And somebody
touch me for a donation of two dollars. That's what we have
to charge. It costs that to make them and send them. We'll send
you this tape with two messages. Until next Sunday, God bless
you.