Our Lord Jesus Christ went about
doing good. Our Lord gave sight to the blind. He caused the deaf to hear. He
caused the lame to walk and the dead to live. He performed many miracles. He
healed the withered hand. He straightened up the crippled
back. But I'm confident, I'm as certain of this as I'm standing
here and I have the Word of God before me, I'm sure of this,
that He did not perform these miracles only to give temporary
relief to eyes that would one day see no more. I just know
that he did. He healed many blind people.
And those very people whom he healed, some of them a few years
later, a few months later, those eyes were again in darkness,
in the grave. And I know he didn't perform
these miracles only to temporarily open ears that would one day
hear no more. or to straighten legs that will
one day walk no more, or to give life to bodies that would one
day go back to the dust. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
come down here, and the main thrust of his ministry was not
to give temporary relief. Now, these miracles, first of
all, were proof of his power. Nicodemus said, no man could
do what you do except God be with him. These miracles were
also proof of his sovereignty. Like, for example, this man said
to him, my daughter's sick, but you don't need to come to my
house. You just speak the word here, and my daughter will be
made whole. Because he said, I'm a man with
authority. I say to this man, go, and he
goes, and to this man, come, and he comes. And I know you
have authority over diseases and germs. He probably didn't
know a lot about germs, but he knows the Lord has power over
diseases, and you can say to this disease, go, and it'll go,
and so forth. So his miracles were proof of
his sovereignty and then proof of his deity. Now, for a moment,
turn to Luke 7. Luke chapter 7. Now please understand
what I'm saying. And if we're not careful, we'll
become so involved with the flesh that we'll miss eternal health
and eternal life. You'll become so involved with,
oh, I wish I could see. Good. I wish God healed my eyes.
Well, suppose he does. One day you won't see. I wish
I could hear. I wish I could hear as well as
some of you do. But I can't. And one day these
ears won't hear at all. Somebody says, well, I wish God
would give me a few more years on this old sin, curse, God-hating,
lawless, cruel, sinful world. Why? Why? To die is gain. It's to go to be with the Lord. But I'll tell you one thing.
I'd like to have eyes to see his glory from now on. I'd like
to have ears to hear him speak in his glory, redemptive glory,
eternally. I'd like to have a new body,
wouldn't you? And if you're not careful, we
become so burdened down and so involved with this body and this
material world that we'll forget eternal health and eternal life.
But nevertheless, our Lord's miracles which he performed were
proof of his deity. Look at Luke 7, verse 19. And John called unto him two
of his disciples and sent them to the Lord Jesus and said, Are
you he that should come, or do we look for another? All right,
how's he going to answer that? Are you the Messiah, are you the
Christ, or do we look for another? Well, he could have sent word
to John, didn't you see the Holy Spirit descend? Didn't you hear
the voice of God speak? Didn't God tell you these things?
Oh, but that's not what he said. Verse 22, well verse 21, in the
same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues and so
forth, many that were blind, he gave sight. Then verse 22,
Jesus answering unto these two men said, Go your way and tell
John what things you've seen and heard. how the blind see,
the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised
to the poor, the gospel is preached, and blessed is he whosoever shall
not be offended in me." So the miracles of our Lord were proof
of His power, proof of His sovereignty, proof of His deity, but primarily,
primarily, these miracles, when our Lord gave sight to the blind,
what the Lord is showing, He's showing a picture. of how the
spiritually blind are made to see. When our Lord causes deaf
ears to hear, he's showing a picture, a type, of how spiritually deaf
men are made to hear God. And then when our Lord raises
the dead, he's showing how that the dead are raised to life.
You who are dead in sin hath thee quickened. Turn to Luke
4, Luke chapter 4. And when he went down to Nazareth,
Luke 4, 16, Luke 4, 16, he came to Nazareth
where he had been brought up. And as his custom was, he went
into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read.
And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me. Now, this was a Messianic prophecy.
This is our Lord giving forth Old Testament scripture that
identifies the Messiah, the Christ. And he said, the Spirit of the
Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel
to the poor. An average person will take that
and say, well, we're supposed to go to the ghettos and preach.
We aren't. We're supposed to go to the down and out and preach.
We are. The gospel's for the poor. Rather than we all poor,
poor in spirit, Old Arthur Pink said, here's the kind of poor
we are. Spiritually, we have nothing, know nothing, and can
do nothing. We're poor. We're bankrupt spiritually. That's the poor he's talking
about. Now, our Lord went to the poor. He went to the down
and out. He identified himself with the
lowly. But that's simply a picture of identifying himself with the
outcast spiritually. There's nobody lower than we
are spiritually. They say, we're poor. That's
what he's talking about. He sent me to heal the brokenhearted.
Well, everybody's going to have a brokenhearted sometime. You
lose your husband or wife, it'll break your heart. You lose a
child, it'll break your heart. Somebody's crippled in your family,
it'll break your heart. Some of you have been through
heartbreaking experiences. But now, wait a minute. There
are a lot of people who've been through heartbreaking experiences
physically. emotionally, whose hearts have
never been broken spiritually. Now, God is known to them of
a broken heart, but not just because you're sad. Isn't that
right, Walter? It's not just because you're sad. Everybody's
sad sometimes. In fact, we're all sad. And if
you want to see even sadder people, cross the ocean and see people
who have nothing. They're sad. But brethren, he
sent me to heal, preach the gospel to the poor in spirit, those
who are bankrupt toward God, those who are down and out where
God is concerned, those who have nothing spiritually. He sent
me to heal the brokenhearted. God is known to them of a broken
heart, broken over my sin. Broken because I've sinned against
God. Broken because my sins have separated
me from God. A contrite spirit broken and
made contrite by the work of God's Spirit. God will never
raise a man until he's broken him. That's right. He'll never
exalt a man until he's brought him down. He'll never cover a
man until he's stripped him. He'll never save a man until
he's been brought down, down, down. And that's what he's talking
about, looking to preach deliverance to the captives, to the captives. That's not freeing the communists. Rather, that's freeing sinful
prisoners, prisoners of the law, prisoners of our bound wills,
prisoners of Satan. He said, I've come to preach
deliverance to those who've been captured by sin. We're slaves
of sin till Christ sets us free. And that's what he's talking
about. All this is figurative language, you see. It's a picture.
Recovery of sight to the blind. They said, Lord, why do you preach
to the crowd in parables? He said, because they, having
eyes, cannot see. They cannot see. What is it men
cannot see? They cannot see God in His holiness. Isaiah didn't see that, and he
is a preacher. One day God revealed His holiness
to him. Job didn't see it, and Job was
one of the most moral, righteous men on the earth. But one day
he said, I've heard of God, now I see God. Wherefore I hate myself. Men do not see God's power and
glory and sovereignty and holiness. They do not see their sins. No,
sir, they do not. There's not one person out of
a thousand who has any understanding of what sin is. We know what
wrongdoing is. We know what failure is. We know
what mistakes and errors, but we haven't, like the old fellow
said, come within spitting distance of commencing to begin to find
out what sin is. Because when you find out what
sin is, you repent toward God. And you cry for mercy. We don't
see it. We don't see Christ the Substitute,
Christ the Redeemer, Christ the Savior, Christ in his effectual
work. We don't see it. And Christ said,
I came to recover sight to the blind. Christ said they have
ears, but they don't hear. They have hearts, but they don't
understand. They have eyes, but they don't see. But he's come
to give us eyes and to set at liberty them that are bruised.
So this is what our Lord, in his purpose mainly, in this thing
of healing. So let's go to Mark 5, and let
me point out a few things about this story here in Mark 5 that
I read to you. But you keep that in mind. And
when our Lord heals, and Christ, our Lord heals today. He's the
physician. He healed Hezekiah. He healed
Epaphroditus. You go through the scripture
and find where he healed, but you find where some he didn't
heal. Each of us have got to die one day, all flesh is grass,
and it's appointed unto men once to die. The thing for us to do
is do something about our relationship with God, ask the Lord to be
merciful to our souls, whether we die at 30 or 40 or 50 or 60
or 70 or 80. Let's die in faith in the Lord. That's the hope. But here in
Matthew 5, now let's look at this beginning with verse 25. It says, And a certain woman
which had an issue of blood. Now the first thing I note about
this is this. This is not a parable. This is
not a parable. This is a true account. This
is a true account of how a needy sinner came to Christ and was
made hope. This is not a parable, and he
says a certain woman, a certain woman, a woman who actually existed,
an occasion that actually took place, something that actually
happened, a certain woman. Now notice this, he says a woman.
I'm going to try not to be offensive here, but this is something that
needs to be said. It needs to be said loud and
clear. I want you to listen to me. Why does the Lord use a woman
in this message? This is a message of the way
that sinners are brought to Christ, that sinners are saved, that
corrupt, defiled sinners are made whole and are washed and
cleansed. Why does the Lord use a woman?
So often he does. Go back through the scripture
and you find Rahab the harlot, you find Ruth the Moabitess,
you find the woman at the well, you find Mary Magdalene out of
whom he cast seven devils, you find the woman who is found in
adultery, you find All of these women, the Lord here when he's
illustrating how God washes and cleanses and saves the defiled
sinners, he said a woman. Now could it be, now listen to
me, could it be that the Lord uses a woman here and so frequently? In fact, I went somewhere to
a meeting one time and I brought four messages on how God saves
a sinner. And when I came to the end of
the meeting, a man came to me and he said, do you realize that
every one of your messages, the main character was a woman? I
hadn't noticed that before. But our Lord deals with this
woman. Now could it be, now listen to
me, could it be that most men know they're sinners and most
women have such a hard time realizing it? Now listen to me. Could it
be that women are held morally in such high esteem that our
Lord Jesus Christ takes that which we esteem so highly and
shows us what it really is? Let me show you a couple of scriptures. Turn to Luke, if you will, Luke
chapter 16. Now, you think that's not true? You listen to me before I read
this scripture. What do we talk about? Mother,
home, and apple pie. Mother's almost up there with
God. Almost up there with God. One preacher down here in Ashland
put her up there with God. He put on his bulletin board,
I saw this with my own eyes. Drove by two or three times to
see if I wasn't seeing things. God couldn't be everywhere, so
he made Mother. And then we have songs like this,
Tell Mother I'll Be There. Everybody else says tell daddy
I'll be there Listen to that my mother's Bible my mother's
worn and faded book, huh? That's right. Listen to me Shake
hands with mother again. I Want to be standing at mother's
grave? Who is the substitute that they
put in the place of Christ Mary a woman? the virgin Down in Mexico. They worship the Virgin Mary
Highly esteemed. Highly esteemed. And what we've
got to see is this. I love my mother, and I'm grateful
for my mother, but now just because you're a female, you've given
birth to children, and you've slaved and worked and And being
in the home and taking care of the affectionate part of the
home and the kindness part of the home and supplying for your
children, washing and ironing and caring for them and all that,
you're still a defiled daughter of Adam. And in the sight of God, you're
no better than the harlot down in the red light district in
the sight of God. Now, I'm telling you the truth.
That's absolutely so. You listen to Luke 16. Now watch
this, verse 15. He said unto them, Ye are they
which justify yourselves before men. But God knows your heart. God knows your heart. God does
business with the heart. And that which is highly esteemed
among men. What's most highly esteemed among
men? Motherhood. Motherhood. The mother in the home. The mother
in the place. highly esteemed among men, is
an abomination to God. That's flesh. Now with flesh,
and this is the thing I'm trying to point out. Another scripture,
Luke 18. Luke 18, watch this, verse 9.
And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves
that they were righteous. Do we? Do we? And go back to the text now.
I don't want to stay a long time on that, but our Lord said a
certain woman, a certain And every one of us, I'm telling
you this, there's no plateaus before God for sinners to rest
upon, some better than others. Everybody's not as wicked as
everybody else, comparatively speaking. There's some people
more wicked than others, but my friend, what I'm pointing
out to you in the Scripture verifies this. In God's sight, all have
sinned. In God's sight, we're on the
same plane, and that is as low as you can get. in the flesh,
well, it's no good thing. And Almighty God takes no notice
of any position we have in the flesh or position we have in
the world. He's no respecter of persons. Isn't that right, Walter? Of
persons. You're a sinner. And I tell you, if you miss this,
you're going to miss repentance, and if you miss repentance, you'll
miss faith, you'll miss faith, you'll miss Christ, miss Christ
going to hell. Nobody's mother ever goes to hell. Who ever heard
of a mother going to hell? This is what I'm saying, and
most mothers don't think they will go to hell. Most dear, sweet
ladies have always been bragged on and elevated and lifted up
and given the impression that because they're women they're
just naturally nicer than men. But it's not so, not according
to the Scripture. All have sinned, all are guilty,
all are defiled, all are needing mercy, everybody. And he says
a certain woman, now watch this, she had an issue of blood 12
years. She was sick, she was dying,
she was unclean. Turn to Leviticus, Leviticus
15. Now this is a picture of you
and me, Leviticus 15. This woman had an issue of blood
out of her certain days, and it lasted twelve years." Now,
I want you to listen to this. Leviticus 15, 25. This is a picture. Under the law, she was unclean.
And it's a picture of our uncleanness before God. It says in Leviticus
15, 25, if a woman have an issue of blood many days out of the
time of her separation, or if it run beyond the time of her
separation, all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall
be as the days of her separation. She shall be unclean. Every bed of whereon she lieth,
all the days of this hemorrhaging shall be unto her as the bed
of her separation. Whatsoever she sitteth upon,
she'll be unclean, unclean. She's unclean, all the way to
the end. And I tell you, every sinner
in the sight of God, male and female, is unclean. Who shall
stand in his presence? He that hath clean hands, a clean
heart, a clean mind, a clean soul. And this woman was unclean
twelve years, unclean. I wish we could see and learn
the condition of flesh. We're unclean. Turn to Romans
3, and let me let you look at this here, in Romans chapter
3. It says in Romans 3, verse 19,
Romans 3, 19. Now when you talk, and when we
talk about wrongdoing and sin, You here, you're not drunks,
you're not whoremongers, you're not gamblers, you're not blasphemers.
It's a good possibility nobody in this congregation has used
the word G.D. this week. God's name in vain. And we get to thinking we're
just elevated a little better than other folks. But it says
here in Romans 3 verse 19, we know that what the law says,
What things have the law sayeth, it sayeth to them who are under
the law, and that's every son of Adam, that's every subject
of the kingdom of God, that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world become guilty. Guilty where? Before God. That's where our guilt is, it's
before God. It's not before men, it's before
God. David said this in his penitent
prayer. He said, against thee have I
sinned, against thee have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight. And that's what he's saying here.
Here was a woman, somebody's mother, somebody's dear wife,
somebody's sister. Some woman brought up in the
strictness of Jewish religion and tradition and custom and
morally straight and legal and ceremonially straight, but she
was unclean. And I don't care how you're brought
up, you're unclean in God's sight. And I don't care what your religious
persuasion or what your moral values or what your principles,
in the sight of God, according to God's perfect law, right now
you're unclean. unclean. All right, look at the
next thing. And she'd suffered many things
of many physicians. Boy, she'd spent all she had
and she was not any better, just grew worse. She was looking for
help everywhere but where help was. And that's just the very
picture of this religious generation. We've got hundreds of religious
organizations. People are looking to them for
help. Catholicism and Protestantism and all these others, and in
that we have Baptist and Methodist and Presbyterian, we've got salvation
by baptism and salvation by sacraments and salvation by works and salvation
by morality and salvation by keeping laws and salvation by
doctrines and salvation under covenants and all these things.
Just like this woman, we're looking for cleansing, we're looking
for healing, we're looking for strength, we're looking for acceptance
with God, and we're looking everywhere but where it is. We can't correct our situation
and nobody else can on this earth. Turn to Jeremiah chapter 13. Our Lord Jesus Christ said to
his disciples, one of them said, well, who can be saved? Who can
be cleansed? Who can be forgiven? Who can
be pardoned? He said, with men it's impossible. They put you beneath the water
so many times and keep shoving the wafer and the wine in your
mouth and putting crosses on you and sprinkling water on you.
Press down the hour with your little baby a few days old and
let some preacher say some mumbo-jumbo and sweet things and all dressed
up, you know, but under that fine dress and laces, flesh! Unclean flesh! Defile flesh,
corrupt flesh, sinful flesh, and in the flesh no man can please
God. In the flesh dwelleth no good
thing. And you can go through all the
ceremonies and baptize folks, you know, and come up in the
organ crescendo, you know, in the spotlight, still rotten,
dead flesh. That's all it is. It's abomination
to God. We come down now to end the revival,
and our heads in the choir sink just as I am, and everybody bows
their head, and they raise their hand, and go through all these
motions, and then they come down now, pray the sinner's prayer,
and shake this preacher's hand, put their name on a card, join
the church, and teach Sunday school, and they're still flesh!
Rotten, defiled, corrupt, the prey, flesh! And God despises
it, and it won't enter the kingdom of God. Verse 23 of Jeremiah
13, can that black man change his skin? No, sir. Can that leopard
change his spots? No, sir. Then, when that leopard
can change his spots and when that black man can change his
skin, then may you also do good that are born accustomed to doing
evil. We think, but we don't think
on God. We love, but we don't love God. We're flesh, unclean,
unclean, impossible. Wait a minute, can that black
man's skin be changed? God can change it. Can the leprous spots be changed?
Oh, yeah. That which is impossible with
men is possible with God. All right? Watch this next line.
When she heard of Jesus, when she heard of Jesus. Somebody
told her about the Lord. Here was a woman, unclean, unclean,
unclean. She'd tried everything. She'd
gone everywhere, 12 long years, 12 long years, 144 long months. She'd about given up hope when
somebody told her about Christ. Do you realize the importance
of the mouth and the ear and the salvation of a sinner? Somebody
told her, she heard of Christ. It was just one way she could
have heard of him. Somebody said, have you heard of Christ? Could
I tell you My dear friend, you're so sick and you're dying and
you've been everywhere and you find no help and you're about
to give up, there's one who can make you whole. There's one who
can make you well. There's one who can give you
cleansing. There's one who can make your life over again. His
name is the Lord Jesus Christ. How shall he hear without a preacher?
He that heareth my word. Have you ever told anybody about
Christ? I heard an old, old story of
a Savior who came from glory, and I heard it from the lips
of a man. Some man who was faithful, some
man who cared, some man who was concerned, some man who believed. Some man himself who had been
made whole came and told me about Christ. And somebody told her. Somebody told her. And so it
says she came in the multitude in the crowd behind him, Behind
him, yes, yes, sir. She knew her place. She didn't
walk up in front of him and say, say, I heard you could make me
whole. This woman came crawling. She
came humbly. She knew her place. She knew
she was unclean. She knew she wasn't even supposed
to be in that crowd. Didn't belong in that crowd because
of her condition. Like a leper, she was supposed
to be separated. And she came crawling through
the crowd, humbly, in the dust, no fanfare, no crying out. She came as a lowly, unclean
creature. And she reached forth by faith
to touch his clothes. For she had said in her heart,
If I can but touch his clothes, I'll be made whole. If I may but touch his clothes,
He's the fountain of life, I must touch him. He's the water of
life, I must touch him. He's the bread of life, I must
touch him. No contact with a priest could
make her whole, no contact with a law could make her whole, no
contact with the disciples could make her whole, only contact
with Christ. And she came and reached out
and the Scripture says, look at it, and straightway and immediately
Instantly, the fountain of her blood was dried up. The uncleanness
was gone. He did it. He did it. She touched him. She touched
him. And immediately, and Brother,
let me tell you something, the work was done, and Walter, this
is what we were talking about yesterday, she felt it. Don't
ever, don't ever, I know salvation is not just, I know experience
is not salvation, but salvation is an experience. I know that
feelings, not salvation, but I know this, a man cannot touch
Christ by faith, come in contact with Christ by faith, and not
know it, and know it in reality. He's the Prince of Peace, and
where he reigns, peace reigns. He gives rest, and where he dwells,
rest is there. He's the fountain of life, and
where he dwells, life is there, joy is there, love is there.
The King of love does not live where love does not live. Let
me show you a verse over here in I John. I was looking at it
last night. I John chapter 4. I John chapter 3, I'm sorry.
I John chapter 3. I was reading this last night.
Listen to I John 3, 17. I'm saying where Christ dwells,
his attributes are evident. 1 John 3, verse 17, "...whoso
hath this world's goods," and you and I are blessed with this
world's goods, I've got this world's goods, "...and see his
brother have need," see a brother who needs something and we shut
up our barrels of compassion from him? This question is asked,
how dwelleth Christ in him? How dwelleth the love of God
in him? No, it can't be. Christ can't dwell there. Because
where Christ dwells, love dwells. Where love dwells, grace dwells. Where grace dwells, generosity
dwells. Where generosity dwells, kindness
dwells. See what I'm saying? That's what
I'm saying. So she felt it. She reached out
and touched him. She was made whole. It wasn't
just written there, well, you're clean now. She felt clean. It
wasn't just written, now, were you a child of God? She felt
she was a child of God. It wasn't just a legal transaction.
It wasn't just something positionally. Positionally, it was experimentally
too, as well as positionally. I've been sanctified positionally
in Christ. I can never grow or diminish
in sanctification legally and positionally before God. I'm
perfect in Christ. But I can grow in grace. I can
grow in experience, I can grow in love, I can grow in obedience,
I can grow in these things. See what I'm saying? She felt
it. She felt it. She was made whole and she felt
it. She felt it. Now then, let me
give you something. I don't have but a moment for
this, but I want to give you something I heard not long ago
and worked it over a little. Let's make this story a little
more personal. My disease, my uncleanness, is
very real to me. Like this woman, the source of
my trouble is inward. It's hidden from the eyes of
men. Nobody knew what was wrong with her. They just watched her
dying. They just watched her dwindling
away. They just watched her life fading, the color fading from
her face and the strength fading from her arm. They just stood
there and watched her die because what was wrong with her was not
obvious to anybody. And that's the way it is with
this thing called sin. The root of the matter lies inwardly.
The root of the matter lies inwardly. It's a nature. Sin is a nature.
You see the evidence of sin. My hair is coming out. It's turning
gray. People's teeth come out. They
get wrinkled. They get stooped. They get weak and infirm. You
see the results of sin, but you can't see sin. It's an inward
principle. I was born with it. I was born
with it. I was born with disease, spiritual
disease. Every faculty has been affected
by it. The Lord said, My throat is an
open sepulcher. My tongue uses deceit. The poison of snakes is under
my lips. My feet are swift to shed blood.
All of these faculties of my being have been affected by this
root of evil. And it will effectually destroy
me. As this woman, she's just waiting to die. She had inside
a disease, something wrong. And it was taking her life. She
had this inward disease. You could see the results of
it, but you couldn't see the disease. And it was killing her.
And she was unclean. And you and I have an inward,
what makes you think what you think, sin. What makes you say
what you say? What makes you act like we act? What makes us like we are? It's
that principle, that root, that nature with which we're born.
And that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and it can't
be anything but flesh. It'll always be flesh. So I went
to many physicians, just like this woman. I did like everybody
else. I paid a visit to Dr. Law first. He's always the one we go to
first. He wasn't too friendly. There wasn't any mercy. There
wasn't any compassion, Joe, in his eyes. You won't find any
mercy in the law. He gave me a prescription. It
was several pages long. As I walked away, I read it.
His prescription says, you want to solve your problem, be holy
in mind and pure in mind. Don't think anything evil. Be
pure and holy in heart. Love, never hate, never doubt,
never fear, never get upset. Be holy in look, keep your eyes
only upward. Be holy and pure in word, never
speak anything but perfect truth, holiness, and kindness. Be pure
and holy in deed, only act as God would act. Be pure and holy
in past, present, and future. I thought, impossible, and I
just tore it up and threw it away. No use trying to be trying
to cure my disease that way. Well, I went to Dr. Ceremony.
He's always in to people who'll come see him, so he sprinkled
some water on my head, and he had me recite a prayer. And then
he lit a candle and burned it, and he made some different signs
like this. Then he suggested I memorize
an old catechism, and that I memorize a creed and a confession of faith.
And I did all these things, and I went through all these motions
and tried and tried, but I went away just as sick and troubled
and miserable and empty as when I came to him. And then I tried
Dr. Decision. He didn't help. Dr.
Reformation. He's got a big practice. And
then I tried doctor religious activities, softball and potluck
dinners and social activities and all these things and camps
and retreats. But these didn't do anything
for me. This made me more aware of my
inward rottenness and helplessness and hopelessness and inability
to please God. And finally I gave up. After
all these years of under the practice and quackery of Dr. Law and Dr. Ceremony and Dr.
Decision and Dr. Sectarian and Dr. Religion and
Dr. Reformation and Dr. Activity,
I finally said, well, what's the use? Everybody's going to
hell, I'll just go with them. That's what some people do, you
know? They get in church and they just spin their wheels for
10 or 12 years and then they just quit. They say, what's the
use? There's no use fooling with that stuff anymore. Well, a man
saw me one day and inquired of my state, and I told him my depression
and my guilt and my doubts and my lack of peace and joy and
my fear. And he said to me, he said, and
I told him I'd been to all these doctors. I'd tried everything.
It was no better, only worse. And he said, you need to get
in touch with Dr. Grace. And I said, who's Dr. Grace? Well, he said, he has
many names. He's called Wonderful. the Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
He's called Shallow, the Branch, the Lord Our Righteousness. He's
called the Shepherd, the Brother, the Friend, the Physician. He's
the Fast of Ten Thousand. He's the Bright and Morning Star.
He's everything. Just go to Him. He can make you
whole." Well, I went to see Dr. Grace, and he asked me why I'd
come. And so I began to talk to him.
I said, well, Dr. Grace, it's my mind. You see,
I have such awful thoughts. And he said, you've got heart
trouble. I said, no, no, it's not my heart. It's my mind. If
I could just get these thoughts out of my mind. And Dr. Grace, my eyes, you see, I've
got eye trouble. My eyes look where they ought
not look and enjoy looking on things they ought not. He said,
you've got heart trouble. I said, no, I ain't got heart trouble.
I've got eye trouble. I said, you see, it's my hands
and my feet. They walk forbidden paths. They
do things they shouldn't do. He said, you've got heart trouble.
I said, no, no, I haven't got heart trouble. I've got tongue
trouble. I fall off the handle. I say
cruel things. I say hateful things. I gossip. I talk about people. I criticize
people. My tongue is just a terrible
tongue. He said, you've got heart trouble.
After I'd shut my mouth and exhausted every word of logic, I said,
What do you mean? He said, You need a new heart.
All your trouble with your mind and your eyes and your hands
and your feet and your tongue is because of your heart. He
said, It's not what a man puts in his mouth that defiles him,
it's what comes out of his heart. Out of the heart proceeds murders
and adulteries and evil thoughts. You need a heart transplant.
Turn to Ezekiel 11 for a moment, if you will. Ezekiel 11. He said,
now, what I'll do, he said, what I'll do in Ezekiel 11, verse
19, he said, what I'll do, I'll give you a new heart. Verse 19,
I'll give you one heart. I'll put a new spirit within
you. I'll take the stony heart out, the stony heart out of you
and give you a heart of flesh. My heart's a stony heart, I said.
Oh, yeah. In what way is my heart a stony
heart? Well, a stone is dead. A stone is dead. Flowers bloom
and trees bloom and trees yield fruit. Stones don't yield anything.
They're dead, dead, dead, lifeless. And your heart's dead. It's stony. And your heart's cold. A stone's
cold. Have you ever heard cold as a
stone cold dead? Dead, cold. Now, you can heat
a stone. You can bring a stone in here
and build a fire around it, the fire of enthusiasm and the fire
of doctrine, the fire of law and the fire of religion, and
heat that stone up. But take the fire away and the
stone will get cold again. Oh, my heart's so cold. There's
never been any fire within. It's all been without. You've
been getting warm off other people. You've been going around in enthusiasm
of religion and getting warm, but when you get out by yourself,
that old stone's cold, that old heart's dead. That's right, our
hearts are cold, our hearts are dead! And you can fire them up
by contact with religion and religious people and activity,
but get that stuff away, and they're dead and cold! Cold. That's what's wrong. And hard, oh, how hard they are. Oh, he said, you need a new heart,
and only I can give it to you. Only I can give it to you. Well,
I went into the operating room, and I looked around. There wasn't
anybody there. No doctors, no nurses, no aides, no anesthesiologists,
no nothing. And I said, where are your helpers?
He said, I work alone. I work alone. I said, shouldn't
you call in Dr. Love? He can't help me. No, he
can't help me. I work alone. Well, what about
Dr. Works? What about Dr. Ceremonies? Surely
they can come in and make some contribution. No, I work alone. I work alone. He walked the winepress
of God's wrath alone. He worked out my righteousness
alone. He went to the cross and died
alone. He was bared and rose again alone. And he ascended
and walked into the presence of God and the Holy of Holies
and put his bread on the mercy seat alone. I live because he lives. Dr.
Grace. Well, I said, what should I do?
He said, you can start by closing your mouth. That's the first thing. God will
never operate on a man until he shuts his mouth. No buts about
it, just shut your mouth. Let all the world become guilty,
and what? Every mouth stopped! As long
as you know something, you'll never learn anything. Then you can lie down. That's
where God finds his people, and that's where he operates on them,
at his feet. Mary was at his feet. Ruth was at the feet of
Boaz. The leper came and fell at his
feet. Lord, if you will, you can make me whole." Down at his
feet. And then you can trust me. Just
trust me. Paul said, I am persuaded he's
able to keep that which I've committed to him. And the hymn
writer put it this way, I'll go to Jesus, though my sins hath
like a mountain raised, I'll tell him I'm a wretch undone
without his sovereign grace. I can but perish if I go, but
I am resolved to try, for if I stay away, I know I must forever
die. Out to that gracious King approach,
whose scepter mercy gives, and if he will receive my touch,
then the sinner lives. But if I go and perish there,
when I, the Lord, have tried that were to perish, O, ban the
thought, as a sinner never doth. All who come to him go away made
whole.