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 8. 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. Now, 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? 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 hearer'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. 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. Now, 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? This is interesting. Our Lord
said, who touched me? And the disciples said, well,
gracious, there's a multitude around you, and everybody's pressing
you, and you say, who touched me? He said, somebody did. Somebody
touched me. I perceive power has 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 12 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 because he's plenteous in mercy and 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 touched me. Somebody. No name, no distinction, no 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's 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. That I. 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, 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.
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 straying
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're 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. 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 everyone under the law that every mouth may
be stopped and all the world become guilty, guilty before
God. This somebody here had been sick
12 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 easy 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, my sins are 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 rag, 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 and it goes into my stomach and out
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 sin. 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's none of the name unto heaven given among
men whereby we must be saved. This somebody, been sick so long,
she looked everywhere. Nobody could help her. Just worse.
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, and he cometh by hearing, and hearing by the
word of truth. Please God with 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's he 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. Killer instead of curing her.
She didn't come to the front of the church. She didn't come
to the River Jordan. She came to him. You see what
I'm saying? And this is the thing that frightens
me about today's religion. It 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 and are 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 thirst, let him come to me. Don't you stop short of Christ,
because he's the fountain of life. He's the, all that my Father
giveth me, he said, 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,
or 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 disciples 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 says, 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 me. 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 pocket book, 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 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 sounds, Or may I, somebody, in him be found, dressed
in his righteousness alone, faultless, in Christ to stand before his
throne.