Christ's virtue for perishing sinners

[0:00] I'm going to try to speak from a very short clause in the 45th verse of the 8th chapter in the Gospel by Luke.

[0:15] Luke's Gospel, chapter 8, the opening words of verse 45, and Jesus said, Who touched me?

[0:26] And Jesus said, Who touched me? The narrative we've read together, you will remember the disciples subjected and all denied Peter, and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee, and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?

[0:52] And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me, for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. When the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately.

[1:23] And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort. Thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace.

[1:35] Now we're here as a congregation, and we realize that in that sense we reflect in a certain measure the situation prevailing when this dear woman, with the issue of blood, was feeling to be at the end of everything.

[1:58] She'd sought help from many earthly quarters. She'd been to many physicians. She'd expended her capital. She spent all that she had.

[2:12] She was, as I say, at the end of her resources. And she didn't know what lay before her, but that which seemed imminent death.

[2:25] Her plague was still ebbing away the vital blood of life in her veins.

[2:36] And it seemed that she was soon to pass. And she obviously, by the testimony she bore before the Lord and all the people that were there present around him, she gave testimony about what was her cause of coming to the Lord.

[3:06] when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling and falling down before him, she declared unto him, before all the people. for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately.

[3:30] The Lord gave this dear woman faith that was singular, that was singular, apparently, in the crowd that thronged him, and even the disciples that were there present, who questioned the remark of the Lord when he raised the words of the text, who touched me?

[3:57] the disciples, so objected, as it were, to the words that he spoke, that they raised what a strange remark to fall from the lips of the Lord.

[4:17] But, my friends, what a telling remark fell from the lips of the Lord because one woman in the crowd was identified as a woman possessed of God-given faith that enabled her, though she was at the end of all human resources, there was still one door open to her.

[4:38] And that was the door of mercy. That was the door of the all-sufficiency of the Most High. And in her, as it were, crawling almost to the feet of Jesus, she touched the hem of his garment.

[4:58] And when she touched the hem of his garment, the Lord said, virtue flowed out of him, which proved an absolute remedy to a long-standing and death-threatening malady.

[5:17] Now, let us look at this a bit closer, as the Lord may help me. And I would say, in opening my sermon, that this narrative in regard to the woman is recorded in three Gospels.

[5:34] And I'm going to read the places where, because I can't trust my memory now. I'm getting old, and I find a few notes sometimes very helpful.

[5:47] Now, Matthew chapter 9, verses 20 to 22, Mark 5, verses 25 to 34, and here in Luke chapter 8, we have this recorded, as we've read together, in verses 43 to 48.

[6:08] Now, there's no vain repetition in Scripture. The Holy Spirit ordained in the inspiration of the Bible that this narrative should have record by three of the penmen here, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

[6:29] And they all, as it were, record that which they saw and realized and the Lord, by His Spirit, has left upon record this miraculous deliverance from the gate of death to the gift and possession of an assurance regarding life eternal.

[7:01] What a wonderful thing, isn't it? A woman perishing under the sentence of death through sin is brought from that extremity to the very gate of heaven in the assurance of the Spirit as the Lord said to her daughter, go in peace, go in peace, by faith, has made thee whole.

[7:27] But now, what an extremity this dear woman was in, wasn't she? You know, we're very ready to turn to human resources.

[7:46] And in that sense, if we see them rightly, we view that the talents of men upon the earth, men and women upon the earth, sanctified by God, can be very, very useful, helpful, and made a deliverance to us.

[8:05] Oh, my friends, do we look upon doctors and nurses in possession of certain qualifications that enable us to receive help in certain conditions?

[8:19] or do we rise in our hearts assessment to a higher plane and say, it's of the mercy of God that there are doctors upon the earth with skill and knowledge to attend to various conditions into which we're brought in our journey here below.

[8:42] What a wonderful thing it is when we're taken into hospital and perhaps even at the point of death with little hope of ever returning home.

[8:55] Yes, there are those there with the affection and loyalty to their service. They minister and the ministry is blessed of God and made a means of recovery to many souls.

[9:13] my friends, we don't judge rightly when we credit things of the flesh to those that are possessed of these various qualities and abilities.

[9:30] Look, every good and every perfect gift cometh down from above from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning and those that serve God serve us according to the will of God and it's rightly that we should give God the glory for the benefits that we receive through their instrumentality.

[10:01] Now this dear woman, she'd got to the end and she found no help forthcoming from the means of the medical people as she spent her money to acquire their recommendations and possible cures.

[10:23] And it's a solemn place. The Bible talks of the ends of the earth and some of the critics of Scripture ridicule the earth is round.

[10:35] How stupid to record in the word of God a condition that relates to the ends of the earth. My friends, I know there is a place that is at the ends of the earth.

[10:47] When you come to such a condition and position that there's no help, vain is the help of man and you can see no possibility of deliverance.

[11:00] I say you feel to be at the ends of the earth and especially if your conscience registers that your life has been so far from what it should have been.

[11:12] When sin hangs heavy on the soul and the end seems to be drawing near, I say we need the physician from on high to come and minister as the Lord himself did minister to the need of this dear woman.

[11:34] Now, I'm going to say this, and I hope you'll see it in the right context. There's no condition that prevails for which the Lord himself cannot kill.

[11:56] If his will. If his will. All diseases are subject to the Lord. his will and his purposes.

[12:09] In one place it is recorded he delivered or he cured all that were sick and all that were diseased in a certain place.

[12:25] He had the power to do it. He is God over all. He's king of kings. He rules. He reigns and the things that take place are all within his purpose and his will.

[12:43] Well, now, it was no haphazard meeting with this woman and the Lord Jesus. One of the gospels says this, when she heard of Jesus, when she heard of Jesus, I love those words, you know, they're a tonic to me as a preacher.

[13:05] They're like wine to my spirit. When she heard of Jesus, it set her going. Oh, what a wonderful thing.

[13:17] When a poor soul feeling to be at the end of everything, is brought into the knowledge of the sufficiency, the all sufficiency, of Jesus Christ.

[13:31] When she heard of Jesus, that's why in our ministry, we want to talk so much of Jesus because in hope that there'll be some in the congregation that will hear with not just the natural ear, but the inner ear.

[13:51] And the Lord says, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And my friends, it seems as though there's a wonderful declaration of God's will.

[14:04] Those that attend to what is spoken find the benefit of the Lord, using this means of grace to the help and comfort of many souls.

[14:20] When she heard of Jesus, has there ever been a time when you've been in a place of worship and you may say the same thing is spoken, that has been spoken in your ears many times previously, but it's had no effect on you initially.

[14:46] But now your circumstances have developed in such a way that when the minister speaks of Jesus, there's an inward response in your very soul.

[15:01] You come to realize your condition is not as hopeless as you feel it to be. Your condition, though helpless in yourself, and although all earthly means are helpless in themselves, yet the Lord himself can use those means, as he did in this woman's case, to bring her not only to a healing of the body, but the assurance of heaven in her soul.

[15:35] Daughter, go in peace, thy faith hath made thee whole. And you know that dear woman with something thousands of years on the road since she was on the earth, but she's still enjoying that peace.

[15:51] She's still enjoying that peace. She had a taste of it when the Lord spoke, but she's drinking it to the full now in the habitation of peace in glory when trials and troubles and temptations and fears are no longer the experience of any.

[16:11] They're all in the basking in the sunshine of the Son of Righteousness in the presence of God in glory.

[16:24] And now this dear woman, she had a need, and she had, it was of such an extremity that she could see no future by any earthly means.

[16:37] And she was brought into the position where she heard of Jesus, where she heard of Jesus. If there is a soul here in this congregation this morning who feels to be the end of everything and without hope because you can't see a possibility of you getting into heaven because of the strength of the law and the testimony of your own conscience before God, you feel your condition to be hopeless and you're helpless.

[17:23] Remember, my friends, the Lord Jesus is a helper of the helpless. The Lord Jesus brings his people down to himself that they've got no other possibility of deliverance only through Jesus Christ.

[17:45] Christ. It's a wonderful thing. It's a wonderful thing. You know, only the Lord's people come there. Only the people of God know what it is to be shut into Christ.

[17:59] No help in self I find, though oft I've sought it well, the native treasure of my mind is sin and death and hell. And if you're in that experience of the publican in the temple, far more experimentally realized than the situation of the Pharisee who had so much asset associated with him as to be proud of his condition.

[18:26] Oh, the Lord empties whom he fills. He kills whom he makes it alive. He wounds whom he heals. My friends, there's the negative side of Christian experience.

[18:42] We're brought to nothing. We're brought to the end. We're brought to a condition of terrible ruin and helplessness and hopelessness.

[18:54] We're in a perishing state, but there's a Savior who's able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him.

[19:06] Oh, there are many, many souls in heaven now who knew what it was to come where this dear woman came when she was at the end of everything.

[19:20] No hope. And they hear of Jesus. They hear of Jesus. And they seek at his feet to find his promised blessings.

[19:41] Well, now, I just want to look at the situation comparatively. what a difference there was between the crowd that thronged and this one woman and this one woman.

[19:59] We might say that the disciples, especially Peter at this point, was possessed of salvation according to the decree of God, but faith doesn't seem to be exercised in Peter and his fellow disciples to raise the question, who touched me?

[20:25] My friends, there's an experience of coming into personal contact with Christ that is living religion. It's living religion.

[20:40] Peter at that particular point seems to have forgotten failed to remember, as it were, the situation relating to his own soul.

[20:53] Sometimes we can misjudge others by, as it were, failing to remember where we were, what we were, when the Lord was made known to us, and the power and grace of his person and his work was made over to us and lifted our souls from the gate of hell to the gate of heaven.

[21:14] who touched me? Who touched me? Oh, my friends, do you know what a touch?

[21:30] Personal contact with the Lord Jesus Christ. She heard of him. She made her way to him. She fell at his feet.

[21:43] feet. She didn't rise any higher than her natural level, but she stretched forth that hand of faith, and that face says, if I can but touch the hem of his clothes, I shall be made whole.

[22:03] love. Oh, what a wonderful thing is personal contact in response to true faith as the Lord himself blesses the coming sinner.

[22:23] sinner. Well, now, who touched me? Who touched me? Crowds of people.

[22:35] Not an unreasonable comment. Master, the multitude throng and press thee, and sayest thou, who touched me?

[22:45] That was a very correct response in that sense, until the true situation was made known to him by the Lord.

[22:58] And Jesus said, somebody hath touched me, for I perceived that virtue is gone out of me. There was a stretching forth of the hand of the woman, and through that contact, virtue flowed into the dear woman, which healed her of her disease, and delivered her from the awful fear and imminence of the termination of her life at that particular point.

[23:37] What a turning of her captivity, wasn't it? What a deliverance from those besetting fears, those agonizing arrows that come into our conscience from time to time.

[23:55] Do you think the Lord would ever have chosen you to salvation when you've been guilty of this, you've been guilty of that, you've been guilty of the other, and there's a terrible catalogue to your condemnation, and you can't see through the black cloud of condemnation, however a holy God can show mercy to you, well, my friends, his name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins, their sins, the worst disease that ever impregnated any person, the worst of diseases is the malady of sin, and Jesus Christ is anointed and sent of God as a prince and a saviour to give repentance to his children and the remission of their sins, forgiveness, forgiveness, and this woman, she received forgiveness, daughter, go in peace, thy faith hath made thee whole, what a complete picture it is, a poor perishing sinner, conscious that life is ebbing out and she's got nothing to look to for help at all, and she is in the very threshold of despondency, and she hears of

[25:32] Jesus, she hears of Jesus, and that sets her going in the right direction, doesn't it, and she's, I think it's with almost the last ounce of strength she had, she stretched out the arm of faith to the hem of the garments of a precious Jesus, and the contact was powerful, the contact was all sufficient, he knew virtue had flowed out of him, she was healed, and she knew it in herself that she was clear of that play, oh what a wonderful thing, is personal contact in the exercise of faith with an absolute saviour, and I say absolute saviour, for the precious blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin, there's no person ever half benefited, half cured, no, it's the

[26:40] Lord works in the school of perfection, and he brings peace and assurance into the heart of his people, well, now, when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, repentance, repentance, oh, it was a terrible cause, a terrible cause, that brought her to touch him, you know, in a sense, those that are taught of the spirit, and led into the constructive experience of true godly repentance,

[27:48] I emphasize that, it's not just saying, well, I'm sorry that I did this wrong and I did sorry, to look at yourself, as it were, in the mirror of divine truth and say, actually, I see myself, from the crown of my head to the sole of my foot, nothing but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, I've got nothing to commend myself to a holy god at all, I see every reason in myself for god to say to me, depart, ye into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil's veins, there's only one thing that brings any hope into the soul of a true spirit-taught person and that is to see their salvation wholly, absolutely and completely in the hands of Jesus Christ, there's only one who can say and there's only one who does save and there's only one who will continue to save until the whole church of the blood-bought body of

[29:03] Christ is washed completely from the filth of sin and presented faultless before the throne of God, a holy God, forever and forever.

[29:20] No help in self I find, though I've sought it well. Oh, my friends, what a, what a absolute failure is an attempt to find anything in yourself to commend yourself to God.

[29:39] if you're busy in that sphere, oh, I'm better than other people, I always go to chapel. Yes, I'm committed to read the Bible, and I do read it, and I'm committed to pray night and morning, to recognize the Lord in that sense as the King of the universe, and so forth, and you've got a practical, natural inclination to religious practices.

[30:24] My friends, you need more than that to get to heaven. You need what this woman had, a personal contact with him who is able to wash you from all your sin, and to clothe you in his righteousness, and to prepare you to stand before a holy God without the slightest measure of shame.

[30:56] Because the work of Christ in cleansing is absolutely perfect. What do we read here? She was made perfectly whole.

[31:09] Yes. None who have a personal contact with Christ in the exercise of faith that worketh by love will ever fall short in any situation in time or to eternity.

[31:30] Jesus is a perfect Savior. I'm going to use this expression with a goodly sense of personal experience. He's a perfect Savior of perfect sinners.

[31:47] You might say, well, you're not as bad as everybody. You've never committed murder. You've never been unfaithful to your wife.

[31:58] You've never done anything outlandish to rob and spoil your masters or your business associates.

[32:10] You're always upright and you're my friends. All the righteousness of man are sin stained. My best is stained and died with sin.

[32:23] My all is nothing but. What is the scriptural assessment of human, of fleshly righteousness? Filthy rags. Filthy rags.

[32:34] What a wonderful thing if we can say this with the hymn right. My rags are gone and I am dressed with garments dyed with blood. Now that's the assurance of being accepted at the end of life's journey into the very immediate presence of a holy God.

[33:00] Because sinners in heaven are looked upon as saved by Christ Jesus washed in his blood clothed with his meritorious righteousness.

[33:18] Perfect in his work for them here undertaken and prosecuted to perfection as the bearer of their sins and their transgressions.

[33:34] One who died as the sin bearer to save his people from the consequence of each and every one of their transgressions.

[33:47] comfort. It's a lovely thing that the Lord says to this dear woman, daughter, be of good comfort. Do you think comfort was a word she knew anything about?

[34:01] Whatever she did, wherever she went, while she was possessed of that threatening plague of the issue, she couldn't really be happy, could she?

[34:15] She couldn't find any perfect comfort in anything. She'd got this weakening infirmity that was bringing her gradually 12 full years to the gates of there.

[34:36] But my friends, listen now, be of good comfort. Be of good comfort. The Lord is a saviour. The Lord is a shepherd.

[34:51] The Lord has given all those great and precious promises that are yea and amen in Christ Jesus throughout the scriptures that she might be encouraged and she might be comforted.

[35:05] Sin shall not have dominion over you. Well, you say it seems to have had dominion. It shall not have dominion for you not under the law.

[35:17] You're under grace. You're under grace. And it's grace that saves. And this woman had a taste of the grace when the virtue flowed from the saviour into her very being.

[35:31] Oh, have you ever had a taste? Have you ever had a taste of that virtue? virtue? And what, and I must close, but what a wonderful thing is the virtue?

[35:43] You know, I looked this morning into my dictionary to see what the dictionary had to say about virtue.

[35:53] So, I've got a slip of paper somewhere with it on. moral uprightness.

[36:14] Moral uprightness. Virtue. The Lord Jesus Christ never communicates anything but purity.

[36:26] Purity. Moral uprightness. The Lord Jesus Christ is the very embodiment of moral uprightness. And everything that he communicates to his people is virtuous.

[36:41] It's strengthening. It's helpful. It's uplifting. Oh, how many fear-nots we have in Scripture that are possessed of the virtue that is in Christ.

[36:58] fear fear not little flock for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. If the Lord applies that by his spirit to your faith, you'll say I'm going to heaven when I die.

[37:14] I don't say you'll necessarily remain in that assurance but that assurance will come as the Lord's blessing through his grace, love and mercy enters your very soul in the personal communication such as this woman received at this time of contact with personal contact with the precious Christ.

[37:41] Now, I've said a lot and there's a lot more I could have said but I'm going to leave. The subject time is virtually gone.

[37:52] my friends, don't be satisfied with the shell of religion. Oh, what is the kernel of religion?

[38:04] And remember that life is in the kernel. The kernel of real religion is God-given faith in contact with the Lord Jesus Christ.

[38:18] Then we live. Then we live. it's not struggling along to maintain a profession. It's delighting in the Lord with a sanctified heart and a gracious humbling resolve to follow him whithersoever he may lead us.

[38:42] Now, I leave that remark at the end of my sermon and hope that amidst all the multitudes of thoughts that I've expressed to you, something may be blessed of God that could it please him as little measure of that virtue that is in him might raise you above your fears and manifold misgivings.

[39:11] why art thou cast down O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God.

[39:28] Amen. Amen.