Now we're turning back to the
book of Luke, the eighth chapter. I've been in several Bible conferences
lately. I've been listening to other
preachers. And I've been not just taking
notes on their messages, but taking notes on other things
also. When is a sermon a blessing?
When can we say that a sermon is a blessing? We hear a lot
of sermons. I preach a lot of sermons. When is a sermon a blessing? Now, a sermon is more than words. You can have words, many words,
eloquent words, enticing words, persuasive words, correct words,
and still not have a good sermon, a blessing. Sermons are more
than doctrines. A lot of my brethren seem to
be of the opinion that if you're accurate in your doctrine, that
people ought to hear you, that they ought to enjoy hearing you,
that they ought to enjoy hearing you no matter how long you pray.
I find myself sometime in these Bible conferences sitting there
in the pew. Well, he's already been 15 minutes. I guess we'll have about 30 more
and we'll wind it up. If I think that, I'm sure you
do too. I find myself, my mind wandering away from what the
preachers say. Just not interested, to be honest
with you. I find my head growing weary,
my heart not being blessed. I asked several times lately
when I've been hearing preachers. He's not saying anything to me.
He's not meeting my need. He's talking about somebody's
need way back down to 2,000 years ago. And I'm not, the sermon's
not being applied to my heart. Well, now, when is a sermon a
blessing? When can you say that a sermon is a blessing? When
people don't want it to end so quickly. When their minds are
not weary and tired of it all. When they don't just sit through
the sermon because they're expected to. They sit there, you know,
with their eyes open, their minds closed. When is a sermon a blessing? I think when five things can
be said about the sermon. Five things. Number one, a sermon
is a blessing, number one, when it comes from the heart to the
heart. You can't tell what you don't
know. You can't preach what you haven't experienced. That's the
first requirement for a message, a sermon, for the preacher himself
to have experienced it, for the preacher himself to have entered
into what he's talking about, from my heart to your heart.
And secondly, a sermon is a blessing when it's heard with interest.
Now, there are ways to make sermons interesting. when it's not only
interesting, but understood. And if it's not understood, it's
not interesting. You see what I'm saying? Those
two things go together. If a sermon is not understood,
it's not interesting. If it's not interesting, generally,
it's not understood, because you can't hold the person's attention.
And thirdly, when is a sermon a blessing? When it is obviously,
obviously true to the Word of God. No sermon is going to bless
one of God's people unless it is true to the Scriptures, unless
it is taken from the Scriptures, unless it is true to the Scriptures,
unless it is glorifying to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the
Scriptures. When is a sermon a blessing? Fourthly, when it
meets the particular need of the congregation, both speaker
and hearer. When it meets your and my particular
need. I have some needs. and you have
some needs. And we're not talking about John
and James and Paul's needs. We're talking about our needs.
We're preaching to this generation. We're not talking about the people
who lived in Calvin's day and Luther's day. We're not even
fighting the battles that they fought. We're fighting the battles
of this day, the conflicts of our own hearts. There are people
sitting out there who need something from God's word tonight. There
are those here tonight with burdened hearts over guilt and sin. There
are those here tonight with burdened hearts, broken hearts over children,
wayward children. There are people here tonight
with trouble, broken hearts over conflict in their own life or
marriages. There are people here tonight
who are struggling with doubts and tears. Am I a child of God
or am I not a child of God? There are people here tonight
who are concerned about their future. There are people here
tonight who are lonely and depressed. There are people here tonight
who are concerned about their jobs and their incomes and all
these things. Everybody here, and I've got
to meet, from the Word of God, the particular need of individuals.
If I don't, the sermon's not a blessing. And in the fifth
place, when is a sermon a blessing? It's a blessing when it leaves
the hearer. rejoicing in the grace of God
and the hope of the gospel. When the person can stand up
at the end of the message and the close of the prayer and walk
out, his soul filled with joy and praise for Christ, his soul
filled with hope and confidence, comforted, edified, exhorted,
encouraged, strengthened, instructed in the things of Christ. When
they can walk away not trusting themselves but Him, not looking
to themselves but Him, and realizing that He will work all of this
out for His glory and our good. That's when a sermon's a blessing.
Well, this one denied. If it doesn't bless you, it's
like Brother Jay said, if it doesn't ring your bell, your
clapper's broke. Because I've measured this message tonight,
and brother, it fits every one of those things. First of all,
it's from my heart to your heart. It's from my heart to your heart.
I think I can say with the Apostle Paul, my earnest desire and prayer
to God for my people is that they might be saved. It's from
my heart to your heart. And I'll tell you this, I'm going
to make it plain. You're going to understand it.
A person may not believe it, he may not act on it, but he,
by the grace of God, is going to understand it. And thirdly,
it's true to the Scriptures. I'm going to read it right out
of God's Word. Right out of the Word of God. And I'm telling
you this, what our Lord did, He will do. You want to know
what Christ will do? Read what He did. You don't want
to know what Christ is going to do? Read what He's already
done. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. God never
changes. Our Lord never changes. Whatever He did, He'll do. And
what He did here for somebody, He'll do for me, this somebody.
I know that. It's obviously true to the Word
of God. And there are people here tonight, everybody here
tonight, who has the same need this woman had. Do you know,
actually, she wasn't, Charlie, supposed to be out in public,
according to Old Testament law. She was transgressing the law
when she came looking for Christ. in the condition she was in,
in this particular sickness, she was unclean according to
the Mosaic law, and she's supposed to be in hiding somewhere. But
she had such a need, such a crying need, such a desperate need,
she said, I'm going to get to Christ whatever I have to do,
whomever I'll be in, whatever trouble it causes, I'm going
to get to Christ, whatever it costs me. And then, brother,
let me tell you, she went away rejoicing. And I plan to go away
rejoicing tonight if I'm the only one that goes away rejoicing. Well, John Halston, he'll go
away rejoicing with me. He always rejoices. John's easy
to bless. He loves the word, right? We'll
go away rejoicing. All right, look at the text tonight,
Luke 8, 46. And Jesus said, somebody hath
touched me. Somebody, no distinction, no
name, just somebody. And all the way through here,
there's no name. There's no name that's given to this dear woman.
There's no distinction. There's none whatsoever. No identifying
characteristics or word. What's this? A somebody. She's
just a somebody. Now let me work on that a little
bit. First of all, I know this. The Lord God of glory is going
to show mercy to somebody. God's going to show mercy to
somebody. Our God, the Scripture says, has purpose to have a people
like His Son. He's going to show mercy to somebody.
He said to Moses, I will be gracious, I will be merciful. God delights
to show mercy. He's going to show mercy to somebody
out of every tribe, kindred, nation, and tongue unto Him.
My Lord is going to have a people that are like the stars of the
sky in number and like the sands of the seashore and the dust
of the earth in number. Somebody is going to be a recipient
of God's mercy. And then the Lord Jesus Christ
came into this world to save somebody. I know that. I know God's purpose to save
somebody, and I know the Lord Jesus Christ did not come to
this earth in vain. He came to seek and to save the
lost. He came to redeem sinners, Paul
said, of whom I'm cheap. Christ Jesus is going to save
somebody. He's going to give righteousness
and holiness and sanctification and redemption to somebody. And
then I know this, the Holy Spirit is going to effectually... I
know there's a general call, and I know there's a way in which
God reveals Himself to every human being, but the Holy Spirit
is going to effectually, invincibly, call somebody to Christ. He's going to convince of sin.
He's going to reveal Christ to the heart. He's going to bring
that person to genuine faith in the Son of God. Somebody's
going to be a recipient of the Holy Spirit's powerful, regenerating,
awakening work. Somebody. I know that. And then I know this, at the
last day, somebody's going to be raised. to life eternal. Somebody is going to inherit
the kingdom. Somebody is going to hear Christ
say to them in that great day, come ye blessed here into the
kingdom prepared for you by my Father before the foundation
of the world. Now, I'd rejoice clear down to
the depths of my soul. I'd rejoice clear up to the utmost,
topmost hair in my head. I'd rejoice clear down to the
end of my fingernails if I could be one of those somebody, wouldn't
you? I don't know anything. I don't know anything God could
say. I don't know anything God could
give. I don't know anything I could experience. I don't know anything
in this whole world that I would rather have. than an interest,
a saving interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. To be a somebody
whom God chose, to be a somebody for whom Christ died, to be a
somebody whom the Holy Spirit hath enlightened and regenerated
and called, to be a somebody who has hope of the resurrection.
And I'll tell you this, I'd rejoice just about as much if one of
those somebodies could be sitting out here in this congregation.
Or if a whole lot of those somebodies. I'd rejoice, I believe, just
as much. Paul said, and I don't know whether
I can say this, I just don't think I can. I wish I could.
But Paul said, I could wish myself a curse from Christ for my brethren. I don't have that much grace.
I don't think I have that much love. I'd like to have, wouldn't
you? I just don't think I have that. Or like Moses who stood
between God and the people as God was judging them and they
were falling dead. And God said, move away Moses,
move away. I'll blot him out. And he said,
Lord, if you blot him out, blot me out of the book you've written. Well, I know you're kidding myself. I don't think I can say that.
Wish you could. But I can say this, I would rejoice
eternally if I could meet in the presence of the Lord Jesus
Christ some somebodies who were sitting in this congregation
week after week, month after month, year after year. But let's
go to the story. I know the only thing I know
to do is just tell the story. Let's get to the story here.
Somebody, there was a somebody who came to Christ. She came
a cripple and went away whole. That's right. She came a cripple
and went away whole. No distinction there, no name.
No special characteristics, just somebody. She came a cripple
and she went away whole. She came diseased and went away
pure. That's what he said. She came
unclean and went away spotlessly holy. W-H-O-L-E. Our faith hath made thee whole.
Well, let's look at this somebody. First of all, in verse 43. And there was a woman. There was a woman. Any woman. You. Any woman here. There was a woman. Having an
issue of blood. Twelve years. Now, this somebody
had been sick a long time. She had had this issue of blood
12 years, hemorrhaging for 12 years. That's a long time to
be sick, 12 long years. 12, 12-month periods, 12, 365-day
periods, this woman had been sick a long, long time. But I'll
tell you this, this somebody here had been sick longer than
that. And these somebodies out here have been sick longer than
that. Turn to Psalm 51. The disease that this woman had
came upon her twelve years prior to this time. But the disease
that I have came upon me at birth. And actually the disease that
I have in my heart is a disease that's been in my family since
my father Adam. It was just handed down from
father to son, from mother to daughter. In Psalm 51, the Scripture
says in verse 5, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity. In sin, in
sin did my mother conceive me. Look at Psalm 58. Psalm 58 verse
3, the wicked. The wicked are unclean, are estranged,
are diseased from the wounds. They go astray as soon as they're
born, speaking lies. Now this dear woman who came
to Christ had been sick a long time, but this somebody here
has been sick a lot longer than that. The Word of God teaches
that we were born in sin, we were shapen in iniquity. Our
sin is a principle and a nature that's in our heart, born with
us, imputed guilt, imparted guilt. Well, let's notice something
else about this somebody in verse 43. And this woman, having an
issue of blood twelve years, had spent all her living upon
physicians. Now watch this. It doesn't say
she wasn't healed. She wasn't, but it doesn't say
she wasn't. It says she couldn't be healed. They couldn't heal. There's nothing they could do.
Neither could be healed of any. She'd spent all she had upon
physicians, and none of them could heal her. Number one, they
didn't understand her disease. They didn't understand her disease.
And the physicians of religion today cannot heal us because
they do not understand our need. The law can't heal. All the law
can do is condemn. The church cannot heal. Many
people today feel like that they've been saved because they're church
members, been faithful to the church all their life. The ordinances
cannot heal. I may be baptized, I may observe
the Lord's table, I may go through all of the church rituals and
ceremonies, but they cannot heal. The preacher or priest cannot
heal. What did one of our girl's father
say to her? He said, Honey, I have the church
standing for me and the priest standing for me and Mary standing
for me. You have no one standing for
you. Well, I'll tell you this, I may have no one standing for
me, but it won't do any good for the priest or the pope or
the church or Mary to stand for me. They're all just human beings.
But I do have someone standing for me. That's Christ the Mediator.
Christ the Lord. But these things, what I'm saying,
even if I don't have anybody standing for me, these cannot
stand. These cannot help. These cannot
heal. They cannot heal. Repentance
and faith can't even heal. Only Christ can heal. Well, this
woman had been sick a long time. She had spent all she had and
was no better. These kids could not be healed
of any. Now look at the next. Let's turn to Mark 5. Here's
a better word about what she did next. In Mark chapter 5,
let's read verse 27. Now, Luke, there are two accounts
here, and we'll just put them both together. First of all,
this woman had been sick a long time. Here was a woman with an
incurable disease. Here was a woman who'd been sick
so long. She'd tried to find someone to help her and no one
could. No one could help her. No one could heal her. She'd
spent everything she had. She'd invested her time. She'd
invested effort. She'd tried all these different
things. all these different cures, she'd spent all of her money,
she'd given these physicians everything she had and they couldn't
help her. Now look at Mark 5, verse 26 says she grew worse. She grew worse. But it says in
verse 27, when she heard of Jesus, that's the first thing. Now I've
often said this, and I'd like to add something to it. When
does a person take their first step toward heaven? When does
a person take their first step toward salvation? It is not when
they believe on Christ. The man, the first step the man
takes toward heaven who is saved is this step right here. He realizes
he's lost. He comes to an understanding
that he's got troubles. There's something between him
and God. You see, the first step this woman took, who was healed
by Christ, was not when she touched Him, and not even when she came
to Him, and not even when she heard of Him, but the first step
was when she realized she had a disease that nobody could cure. Do you see what I'm saying? She realized she... Now, nobody's
coming to Christ as long as they can go to somebody else. Nobody's
going to flee to Christ as long as they can go to somebody else.
Christ said, let another come in his own name, him you will
receive. I come in my Father's name and you will not receive.
A man has got to be shut up by the law, shut up by personal
convictions, shut up by a broken heart, shut up to Christ before
he'll ever come to Christ. That's the first step. When you realize you need. I
got troubles. I got troubles. I wrote a little
tract. Brother Herman Pruitt holds jail
services down at the Greenup County Jail every Sunday. And
he asked me, he and Hap asked me to write a tract for these
men. You see, it's different. You can't give the same pill
to every sinner anymore than you can give the same pill to
every sick person. Our Lord didn't. He talked one way to Nicodemus.
He talked another way to the Samaritan woman. He talked another
way to the rich young ruler. All of them were saved by the
same grace, and the same love, and the same blood, and the same
Savior. But they had different problems. You see, the Samaritan
woman was a kind of a straight walker, a loose woman. Well,
Nicodemus wasn't a straight walker. He was a Pharisee. He was a church
member. He was a strict Sabbatarian,
and faster, and tighter, and all that. So he couldn't say
the same thing Nicodemus. He said, they're in the same mess.
They have the same guilt, the same need, but there's a different
message. and the rich young ruler. He
wasn't like Zacchaeus up the tree. Zacchaeus was a crook.
Zacchaeus was a conniving crook. The rich young ruler was anything
but that. He was a self-righteous lost
man, but he wasn't a crook. In fact, he took great pride
in his morality. He just don't give the same pill
to everybody. And this woman, first of all,
she came to realize she was a sinner. You see that? She was sick, diseased, helpless,
hopeless. And that's what we realize. First
of all, we come to the, like the prodigal son, sitting on
the side of the pigpen. He said, I'm in a mess. I'm in
a mess. There's nobody can help me. I'm
in trouble. I'm going to starve. I'm going
to perish. I'm in trouble. Well, what's
the second step? I'm in trouble. The second step
is this. It's verse 27. She heard of Jesus. She heard
of Jesus. Tell me the story of Jesus. Write on my heart every word.
Tell me the story most precious, sweetest that ever was heard.
She heard of Jesus. She didn't hear about the great
revival. She heard of Jesus. She didn't
hear about the church that bore His name. She heard of Jesus.
She didn't hear about the disciples who faithfully served Him, she
heard of Jesus. She didn't hear about the doctrines
surrounding Him, she heard of Christ. I turn my radio on at
night, I think sometimes about, here I am, I imagine this in
my mind, here I am a lost man. I'm unsaved. I don't know Christ,
I don't know God, I don't know the Bible, I don't know Jesus
Christ, I don't know anything. I'll turn this preacher on, I'll
see what he says. So he comes on and he says, welcome friends,
and he talks about we had 270 in Sunday school this morning,
and the Lord blessed us, and next Sunday we're going for 280,
and we want all of you to come and help us so we can reach this
number, and last week we had a revival, and we had 25 additions,
and this, that, and the other, all these things, and I sit there,
here I am going to hell, and what do I care about his Sunday
school? or his numbers, and here he gives away a picture, he gives
away a hymn book, we got such hymns as, Tell Mother I'll Be
There, and we got such hymns as, Where the Roses Never Fade,
and We'll Send This to You for Two Dollars and a Half, I say,
well he just wants my money, click, I turn him off. This woman
heard of Christ. She heard of Christ. She heard
of Christ. You can't call on Him in whom
you haven't believed, and you can't believe in Him of whom
you haven't heard, and you can't hear unless somebody thankfully
preaches Christ to you. Turn to Romans, if you will,
or rather James. Let's look at the book of James.
Now, I know this. I don't know a great deal about
the new birth. And nobody else does either.
No use reading a book on how to be born again. No use reading
that because I know this about the new birth. It's not of you,
it's of God. I know it's of God. We're born
of God. Not of the will of the flesh,
not of the will of man, but of God. I know secondly that the
Holy Spirit is the agent in the new birth. I know we're born
of the Spirit of God. And I know we're born to holiness
and godliness and faith and so forth, but I know this, the instrument
in the new birth, the seed, is the Word of God. Now you look
at James 1.18, of his own will, of his own will, that is, of
God's will, of God's own free will, beget he us, beget is to
conceive or to make a child or to bring forth one or to sire
a child, of his own free will, beget he us with the Word of
truth. with the word of truth. Not error, but truth. Turn to
1 Peter. Let me show you another verse.
1 Peter 1, verse 23. Now watch this. 1 Peter 1, verse 23. Being born
again. Being born again. First birth is flesh. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. The second birth's a spiritual birth, not of corruptible
seed. That word seed right there is
the same word in the fleshly birth. That's man's seed that
gives birth to a child. That's what that word is. Not
of corruptible semen is the word seed. Now watch it. Read on.
But we're born again of incorruptible seed by the word of God, which
liveth and abideth forever. If you don't hear the Word of
God, you're not going to be born again. You've got to hear of
Christ. Now here was a woman, been sick
a long time. And I've been sick in my sin
since birth. That's very simply stated, but
that's the way it is. I've been sick. And nobody can
help me. The church can't help me. The
ordinances can't help me. The law can't help me. And I've
come to this conclusion, no one can help me. No one here. And
then, By the grace of God, you hear some faithful preacher tell
you about Jesus Christ. He's God's gift. He's God's unspeakable
gift. He's God's righteousness. He's
God's sanctifier. He's God's justifier. He's God's
redeemer. He's everything we need. It's
all in Christ. She heard of Christ. Somebody
told her about the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, let's notice
the next thing. Mark, let's stay with Mark. Chapter
5, verse 27. When she heard of Him, when she
heard of Him, she came to Him. She came to Christ. She came,
it says here, she came in the press behind Him and touched
His garments. For she said, verse 28, If I
may but touch His clothes with His power, with His power, with
His ability, with His grace, He can heal me
if I just touch His clothes. I don't need, I don't need to
be one of His apostles. I don't need to be in His inner
circle. I don't need to be one of His
constant companions. I don't need that. All I need,
I know He's so great and so sufficient that all I need to do is to touch
his clothes, but I must touch him. I can't touch the Apostle
Peter and be saved by Christ. I can't come to the Apostle John
and be saved by Christ. I can't come to James and be
saved by Christ. I've got to come to Christ. And
my friends, I really believe that this is one of the greatest
eras in modern religion. I believe it's one of the greatest
eras of what we call the altar call. I really believe it's one
of the greatest errors that we're seeing on television in these
mass evangelistic campaigns. And that is people coming to
a preacher or to a soul winner or to the front to be saved.
Salvation's in Christ. Salvation's in Christ. And a
person can come to these things. He can come to the front, he
can come to the preacher, he can come to the soul winner,
he can get the books that you have and take them home with
him and do business with you and all of it and miss salvation.
This woman had it right. She heard of Christ and she said,
if I can get to Him, I'll be made whole. If I can but touch
His clothes. People are invited to the front,
they're invited to the fount. They're invited to the feast.
They're invited to all sorts of places with all sorts of propositions. But in order to be healed, I'm
telling you, you personally are going to have to make a personal
contact with the Lord Jesus Christ. And I know that. You may have
a godly wife who's very interested in the things of religion. But
I'm telling you, I'm warning you, Lot's wife had a godly husband,
and she went with him everywhere but to glory. That's right, isn't
it? She went with him everywhere
but to glory. Because you don't go to glory on anybody's coattails. You've got to get to Christ.
And you can come to me. You may have a preacher who loves
you and who preaches the gospel. You may sit and hear the gospel
every Sunday. Herod enjoyed hearing John the Baptist too, but he
perished. He never did know John's Savior. Felix enjoyed hearing Paul. In
fact, he promised to send for him again, and he promised to
come to the meeting next year, but he never came back. You can have friends who, you
may even have an office in the church and be very familiar with
religious things. Not come to Christ. This woman
had it right. Here was a woman at the bottom,
right at the bottom. Nowhere to go. No one to whom
she could turn. No one could help her. Incurable
by human means. She heard about one who could
heal. She was not satisfied to go to one of his representatives,
one of his disciples, or one of his camp meetings. She said,
I've got to touch him. I've got to touch him. I've got
to personally come to Christ as my prophet, to reveal God,
as my priest to atone, as my king to reign over me. Well,
brethren, what do you suggest? I suggest what this woman did,
verse 44 of Luke 8. Let's go back over to Luke, chapter
8. It says in verse 44, she came behind him and she reached out
and touched him. And immediately her issue of
blood stopped. Now it's obvious, perfectly obvious
that I can't reach out and touch Christ. And there's no use in
anybody getting a picture of Christ. This is what it had in
our literature one time several years ago. It had a picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ, the person they called Christ. And it was
in a child's book. in one of the primaries, or one
of them, and under the caption, under the picture the caption
read, have the children reach out and touch the Lord Jesus.
No, they didn't call Him Lord, they said touch Jesus. It will
make them feel close to Jesus. That's idolatry. You may as well
rub a rabbit's foot. You may as well squeeze a bunch
of beads. You may as well hang on to some kind of metal cross.
There's no way Christ... Paul said, though I knew him
in the flesh, I know him that way no more. Christ is seated
at the right hand of God. He's omnipresent. He's everywhere.
He's in His Word. He's among His people. He's in
the hearts of His people. He dwells in the bodies of His
people, spiritually. But what I've got to do, I've
got to touch Him. And that's a touch of need and
a touch of faith and a desperate touch. So what I say is this,
and this is what I recommend to all who will listen to me
preach. You hear the word that we've
tried to preach tonight. Now, only the Holy Spirit can
show a man he's a sinner. I can't do it. I know we can
show a person that they've done wrong. Everybody's got a sense
enough to know that. That he said things he ought
not say and done things he ought not do. But the desperate condition
of sin is something the Holy Spirit has to reveal. The desperate. Paul talked about sin. He said,
oh, the exceeding sinfulness of sin. He couldn't think of
anything awful enough to compare it to except itself. And we've got to get sin out
of touch not, taste not, and handle not. That's just the product
of sin, the result of sin. Sin is a nature. Sin is a nature
of rebellion. It's a nature of enmity against
God. It's a nature of uncleanness.
It's a nature of idolatry, which is covetousness. It's a nature
of malice and bigotry and prejudice. It's a nature of self-righteousness.
Sin is everything that God isn't. It's opposed to everything God
is. You see, sin is a principle in
the nature, in the heart. Flesh is all sin. God said, from
the sole of your feet to the top of your heads. It's not just
taking a drink. It's not just using profanity.
It's not just stealing something. It's not just committing adultery.
It's not just killing somebody. Sin is a principle. It's a nature. It permeates the whole being.
It's an uncleanness before God's holiness. It's darkness before
God's light. It's death before God's light. It's everything God's not. And
it's a helpless condition. It's a hopeless condition. Without
hope, without help, without God, without Christ, we're just totally
separated from God. And no one can help us. No one
can clean up the mess. No one can lift us out of the
cesspool, the mired faults and the dunghill, except God. And I hear of Christ. I'm persuaded
that He can heal, He can cure, He can make me whole, He can
cleanse me, He can atone for my guilt, that I've got to somehow,
by faith, lay hold on Him. All I know to do is I tell someone
here tonight, if there's someone in that condition, if you're
there and realize your helplessness and hopelessness and you need
the sinfulness of your sin, and that's, God's Spirit will have
to teach you that. But if you can by faith, like the publican
in the temple, what did he do? He wouldn't even lift his eyes
to heaven, but he smote on his breast, and he said, Lord, be
merciful to me, a sinner. Now Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ,
wasn't standing there beside him. It was a cry to Jehovah,
God is my Savior, for the blood to be propitiation on the mercy
seat for his sins. It was a cry from a knee, from
a heart, to God himself. Like Brother Scott said to me
the other day, people always saying, Brother Scott, remember
me. He said, I'm trying to forget you. But pray for me. No. No, you pray for yourself.
Brother, pray for him. No. No. The publican didn't come
to one of the stifles and say, pray for me. He prayed for himself. He called on the name of the
Lord. The thief on the cross, he called on the name of the
Lord. You see what I'm saying? Peter sinking beneath the water,
called on the name of the Lord. And whosoever shall call on the
name of the Lord shall be saved, for there is no difference between
the Jew and the Greek. The same Lord over all is rich
unto all that call upon Him." And you just keep calling. Old
Jacob wrapped his arms around the Lord and said, I won't let
you go, you bless me. I'm going to have a blessing.
I've got to have a blessing. That's this desperate woman here. Can you see her desperation?
Her desperation, she was broke, bankrupt, diseased, unclean,
nowhere to turn. No one to whom she could turn.
And somebody told her about the Lord. And she said, if I can
just, if I can just, and God doesn't call for great faith.
She said, I don't have to be one of the inner circles. I just
thought she was close. If I can just get in touch with
Him so as to touch His clothes. And let me tell you something,
she did, and she was made whole. Like that. She was made whole.
And I say this to you, let me ask you, there's somebody sitting
out there who says, well, preacher, you rang my bell. You described
my condition. You shut me up to faith in Christ.
And I want to be saved. Let me ask you, have you ever,
in that need and condition, I'm talking about whoever you are,
You may have been a church member for years, but you can be a church
member and be lost. Judas was, Simon Magus was, Ananias
of Ira were, Demas was. Have you ever fallen on your
face privately, personally before the Lord God and said, Lord,
all that you say of me is truth. I'm diseased and unclean and
wretched and miserable and naked and poor and blind. But I don't
want to be that way. And I've tried the church and
preachers and plans and recipes and shook hands and paid tithes
and gone to church till I'm sick of the old man. Lord, I want
to know you. I want salvation. I want Christ
to live in my heart. And Lord, whatever faith you'll
give me, I'm going to trust you. I'm going to look to you. I'm
going to commit it to Christ. Here's my soul, heart, mind, body, and
all of my being. I commit it to you. Have you
ever done that? Well, I believe that's what I'd
do. I believe that's what I'd do.
And then, then I'd tell folks about it. I believe you will.
Let me give you an illustration. I'll let you go. This is an old
one. This is one of my favorite illustrations. But there was
a wagon train moving west. Some of the things that the wagon
trains feared were they feared Indians, they feared flood, and
they feared Fire. Would you believe that? Fire.
Those prairies out there, some of those valleys were in grass
up to your waist. That old sage grass, that old
dry brown grass that when a fire hits it, it just sweeps through. That's how you think that, like,
oh, in California, there's homes burning up. There's people dying
in fire. There's animals dying in fire. Animals that can run
fast. And so there was a wagon train moving west many years
ago. They were going through this valley of that grass. And
the wagon master was leading the wagon train. Out in front
was a scout, way out there, two or three miles. He came riding
back. He told the wagon master, he said, this whole valley's
on fire, up yonder, the whole valley. We're caught between
two mountains. There's no river, just the grass.
And it's coming down through there. The wind's got it. And
I don't know what we're going to do. The wagon master says,
I know what we'll do. We'll burn us out of place. And so he had
them set fire here. And that fire moved this way
and burned out a huge place behind the wagon track. Just a huge
place of old blackened, burnt out ground. And then he brought
all the wagons and he put them in a circle on that burnt ground.
And here comes the fire. And he said, now everybody just
stay in the center here and we'll be all right. Because the way
that fire's burned once, it won't burn twice. And so they got in
around their wagons, you know, on that old black, ugly, burnt-out
ground, and here came that fire burning high with just the sparks
flying to him and the weeds and the smoke and the darkness, the
billows rolling, and the little boy was sitting in his daddy's
lap, shaking like a leaf. And his daddy looked at him and
said, What's wrong with you, boy? He said, Daddy, I'm scared. Clear
down to my toes, I'm scared. And his daddy said, Nothing to
be scared of. Well, why isn't there anything to be scared of?
He said, because we're on burnt ground, son. It's already burned
here, and where the fire's already burned, it can't burn again.
Well, let me tell you something. The fire of God's judgment's
coming this way. It's called in the Scripture
the fire of judgment, the flood of judgment, the overflowing
scourge of God's wrath. Ain't no place to flee. The mountains
won't protect you. The rivers of the valleys of
the church are nothing But I'll tell you what will. One day our
Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross, and for somebody he died. He took that fire. Our Lord Jesus
Christ took that wrath, that scourge. It was laid on him.
And all the fire of God's wrath was burned out on Christ. Just
burned out on Christ. Well, let me tell you something.
This sinner here has skedaddled to Christ. I'm on burnt ground. That's the only place I can stand.
And I know this, where the fire's burned once, it can't burn again.
Now, you don't have any better hope than that. And I'll tell
you this, I know a lot of folks that talk about a general redemption
and a general atonement and all that. Well, then you've got no
place to hide. If the fire can burn where it's
already burned, there's nobody got any safety or refuge. But
payment God's justice cannot twice demand. First at my bleeding
shirtless hand, and then again at mine.