Tatham, Ernest: A Cure For The Incurable ~ Mark 5

I can turn, if you will, again this morning to the Gospel by Mark chapter five. You've noticed perhaps already from the bulletin that the subject is rather unusual. It's titled A Cure for the Incurable. Now that does sound like a paradox, and paradox it is. But the paragraph that has been read to us already by Paul indicates and justifies the subject, a cure for the incurable. May I read it again? It's a delightful story, beginning with verse twenty five of Mark chapter five. Mark five twenty five. and a certain woman which had an issue of blood twelve years and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse when she heard of Jesus. When she heard of Jesus, came in the press behind and touched his garments, for she said, if I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue or power had gone out of him, turned about him in the press and said, who touched my clothes? His disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing, but the woman, bless her heart, the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him and told him all the truth. He said unto her, Daughter, thy faith has made thee whole, go in peace and be whole of thy plague. You know, the gospel proves its power by what it does. This is true, of course, of many of the mighty forces of the Creator. Take, for example, the sun. The sun doesn't argue its power. The sun simply throws off its coat and goes to work. If you don't believe it, go outside from this lovely air conditioned auditorium out into the heat of this June morning. This is true of the wind. The hurricane doesn't argue its power, it demonstrates its power, very often with disastrous consequences. The heaving of the tides, the might, the incalculable might of the tides as they lift and as they lower. What tremendous, inscrutable power. Power. These are some of the mighty forces, the output of the power of our great creator God. The same is true in this New Testament message called the Gospel of the Grace of God. It demonstrates its power in the transformed lives of millions of our society. Here's a man who is a slave to drink. Here's a woman who was the slave of pride and feminine vanity. Here's a man who is a slave to vile language. Here's someone else who was obsessed and under the control of covetousness. Their lives have somehow undergone a strange, mysterious transformation. The power of alcohol has been broken in that life. The power of guilt has been somehow strangely snapped in the life of that addict. The language that was once a torrent, uh, a torrent of, of, of, of verbal guilt has been so cleaned up that one would hardly recognize the same mouth from the same person, and we say, how come? Well, this is the demonstration of the miracle-working gospel of God's grace. We've seen it operate in the lives of multitudes, in our own little span of life. There isn't a Christian in the audience this morning, but one who has, uh, has seen that strange, mysterious working in his or her own life. Now, it is inscrutable. We cannot, my friends, test it in a laboratory test tube. It's not subject to a certain scientific formula any more than human life is. And yet, we know it's there. Now, in the story this morning, we have a simple parable of the spiritual in the area of the physical. What happened in the life of this woman in the physical area is an example, an illustration of what God does in the area of the moral and the spiritual. Now, I want you to think with me very simply this morning of four things: the case, the crowd, the cure, and the confession. Four simple themes. The case. Here was a woman who was in a desperate situation physically, and she came as she was and where she was to the Son of God. And because of her contact with him, a contact by faith, a contact with him, the great dynamo of power, something happened in her life, and she was instantly delivered from her physical plague. I don't know how she heard of Jesus. I just don't know, unless, unless she heard the testimony of the cured demoniac. Those of you who love your New Testament will recognize that the fifth chapter of Mark's gospel stands out as a sort of a, uh, a matterhorn amidst the range of mighty, mighty chapters in the gospel of Mark. I say the fifth chapter stands out as a preeminent peak. In the fifth chapter of Mark's gospel, we have the Lord's power demonstrated over, number one, demons, number two, disease, and number three, death. A beautiful study, which I would commend to you Bible lovers this morning. The Lord's power over demons, that was seen in his deliverance of the demoniac. You'll have to read the first twenty verses or so in order to get the details. And then that's followed by the Lord's complete supremacy over disease. That's the story we've just read. And then thirdly, his supremacy over death when he called back from death Jairus's daughter. Our Lord is supreme in complete control over all of these areas from which man's worst enemies spring. Now, when the Lord cured the demoniac, it says in verse twenty, he departed and began to publish in Decapolis. By the way, Decapolis was the region of the ten cities. That's what the word Decapolis means, by the way, Ten cities. He departed and began to publish in the ten cities how great things Jesus had done for him. And all men did marvel. They all knew this man. They all knew something of his violent past. And now, because of the miracle that had been wrought in him, the man was sane and balanced and so ordered that everybody looked at him in astonishment, and he told them how he had received this change, and it says all men did marvel. This woman may, well may, have heard his testimony. I don't know. At least she heard it from someone. Let's settle for that. And she came as she was. Now, let's look at the case. This woman was diseased. This woman was degraded, and this woman was disappointed. She was diseased. She had been in the grip of that incurable hemorrhage for no fewer than twelve long years. For twelve long years, she had covered it, but nevertheless, it was there. Twelve years of bitter frustration, twelve years of disappointment, twelve years of effort. Despite all of her efforts, the disease was there. This disease is a picture of sin. It was a discharge. It was a, a disease that was of the constitution. It wasn't, my friend, something that was merely external, like some little, eh, external deformity or blemish. It was something that was constitutional. It was part of her, and this is one of the many pictures in the New Testament of sin. Do you know that sin, my friends, is not a mere skin eruption? Sin is a constitutional disease. Sin is something that we were born with. Sin is that nature that we received from our grandfather Adam, and which manifests itself, which erupts in so many, many violent ways. It may be, my friends, it may be by the output of a sarcastic cutting remark. It may be by the, by the overspilling of bad language. It may be, my friends, by the putting forth of the hand to steal and to con money that doesn't belong to it. It may be, my friends, it may be by the indulgence of something that is going to, that we know is contrary to the word of God and contrary to our own well-being, but we do it because of the lust of our own heart. See it, see it. Someone has said the worst of all diseases is light compared with sin, on every part it seizes, but rages most within. Disrupting, madness, cancer, and fever all combined, and no one but the believer released from it confined. Sin is an incurable disease. I believe, my friends, we're living in days when sin is glamorized, when sin is so camouflaged that it poses as a friend instead of a foe. It comes to us in all the silks and patterns of respectability. It waltzes up to us with a bland smile and says, come, be my friend, I shall not harm you. And the victim realizes nothing concerning the hidden dagger under the silk and the satin that is going to plunge into his very heart. Sin is a deadly assassin. Sin is a deadly disease. Sin is a wolf and not a sheep. Sin is a rattlesnake, my friends, and not a plaything. Sin is that which is so utterly intolerable to a holy God. Sin, my friends, is that policeman, that sheriff that finally lays his hand upon his victim and hurls him into the penitentiary forever. Sin. Let's face up to it. You and I have that disease. The Bible everywhere warns against it. But there was something else about the woman who was degraded. Now, if you read the fifteenth chapter of Le- Leviticus sometime, you'll find that she was ostracized from society, that she could not mingle with ordinary folk, that she was isolated, that her disease, her malady put her at a distance from respectability. Sin does the same thing. Sin, my friends, will isolate you finally from God. It is written, there shall enter into that city of which we've been singing in our opening hymn, there shall enter into it nothing that defileth, neither worketh abomination or maketh alive. Your sins have separated between you and your God. This is illustrated in Adam. God put Adam and Eve out of his presence, and the last verse of Genesis chapter three reads like this, pathetic words indeed, so he drove out the man. He drove out the man. God was inside, man was outside. God was holy, man was unholy. That breach, that great moral chasm came into effect. It still is true today. This woman's disease put her at a distance. She was degraded. But then third, she was disappointed. You say, how come? Well, listen to the text. It said she suffered many things of many physicians and had spent all that she had. I suppose that some of them were like our, some of our modern physicians. The only relief they can give you is the relief of the, of your money, and they give it that relief that they give nothing else. This woman, for twelve years, had gone to all the physicians. She had gone down the roster. She had gone to every doctor and every specialist and every psychiatrist, and she had tried every cure that had been suggested to her. I don't think that that is overstating the case in the light of verse twenty six. She suffered many things of many physicians, and it spent all that she had, and was nothing better, but rather grew worse. It was a better, didn't it? She'd gone to every doctor. She had spent all her money, and the result was not improvement, but the opposite. I wonder, oh, I wonder if there might possibly be someone in our Sunday morning audience today who, realizing that he or she is not what she or he should be. You've gone perhaps to all kinds of religious doctors. You've tried this church, you've tried that religion, you've tried this theory, you've tried all kinds of modern psychiatry. You've gone to doctor this and doctor that and doctor the other. You've come away with your disease, nothing better, but rather worse. I've met folks like that. I've met people that have tried every doctor, every religious doctor available. They tried this religion, they tried that religion, they've dabbled in the other, they tried the other. Somehow or another, the disease persisted. The heart hunger was still there. No salvation, no security, no definite assurance, nothing better, but rather was worse. That's what this woman did. She tried everyone but Christ. And she came to him last. Now, the Lord knew that. When she came to him, the Lord knew that. He didn't react like perhaps some of us might have reacted and said, well, I see. You come to me as a last resort. Thank you, just the same. I'd rather not take your case under circumstances like that. Why didn't you come to me in the first place? Despite everything and everyone else. He didn't reprove her. He didn't, my friends, give her the slightest cloud of discouragement or disapproval. He welcomed her. Oh, didn't he say this in John chapter six? And this is for my encouragement and yours. Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out. He accepts the devil's cast away. He will take men and women, my friend, regardless of how derelict they may be, and how that they tried everyone but him. Him that cometh unto me, him that cometh unto me, him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out. I'll not put a no vacancy sign on my door. I'll not hang out a notice and say, sorry, but you're too late. I will, I'm interested. I love you. I died for you. I have the remedy that you've been seeking. Listen, have you spent? This woman spent ALL. That's what it said. ALL. She spent everything. She looked at her bank account, I suppose, at the end of those long twelve miserable, disappointing years, and she said, I have just so much left. I'll go to so and so as a last resort. Then she went and she signed her last check that exhausted and cleaned out her account. She came back with the same miserable, disappointing result. Money gone and her disease. Now she's absolutely bankrupt. She's at the end of her resources. Say, by the way, isn't it true of most of us that we don't come to the Savior until we try everyone and everything else? Isn't it true? As long as we have a little bank account, as long as we have a little spiritual reserve somewhere laid up, we say, well, I'll keep going until we get to the place of absolute destitution, and then we come to him. Listen, friends, listen. It is written, wherefore he also is able to say to the uttermost, then the commandment God by him. And someone has said, yes, and the uttermost should have a G in front of it. He's able to say to the guttermost as well as the uttermost, then the commandment God by him. This is true. This is true. All the grace, all the long suffering, all the inexhaustible resources that are to be found in our mighty Lord Jesus Christ. She spent everything she had before finally she came to Jesus. Have you spent everything? Are you at within corner? Then just come to Jesus and do what she did. Notice, friends, another thing about it. Notice the crowd. When this woman determined to come to Jesus, there was a big, big crowd around him. It says so. It calls it the press here. Now, this doesn't mean, of course, the journalistic press. It means the crowds were around him. The Lord had his popular years, didn't he? A- at this, at this time he was popular. They had heard about what he had done for that demoniac. He had heard that he handed out free meals, and this was a vidway. He not only fed the hungry, but he also cured the disease, and so the crowd was around the Lord. Now the devil might have said to this woman, now look, after all, after all, don't you think this is a little bit of, uh, uh, of nerve on your part? He's pretty busy, you know, and see the crowds that are around him? He wouldn't be interested in a case like yours. He's got bigger things to think about on- under circumstances like this. You better get to him when he's not so busy. And if you determined to come to Jesus Christ this morning and touch the hem of his garment and say, I'm going to get this thing settled. I know I'm a sinner. I know that he has salvation. I want that salvation for myself. My friend, if the clouds aren't there, the devil will see that they'll be there by the time you get near him. The fear of man bringeth a snare, that he that trusteth in the Lord shall be safe, it says in the book of Proverbs. Listen, my friend, there are all kinds of difficulties that the devil presents why men and women shouldn't come to Christ. If you come to Christ, people will laugh at you. If you take a stand for Christ, your neighbors will think you're nuts. Your friends will think they're a fanatic and a fool. You know, my friend, they never talk about fanatics in business. I meet men and women all the time that are absolute fanatics when it comes to business. They never miss a trick. They never miss a trick, but no one would ever laugh at them. In fact, the world compliments them and says, that man's a smart man. He's going places in the business world. Why he started so low, and now he's a way up. Look at him. A man is simply a fanatic, that's all he is. Well, we never call him a fanatic. We compliment him on his business acumen. The same is true, my friends, if a man gets enthusiastic over sports. He can shout his head off. He can travel the ends of the earth in sports. He can win, my friends, the Annapolis car race and risk his life, and we say, a smart guy, pin the medals on him. Look at what he's doing. All he is is a fanatic. All he is, my friends, he he's off on sports. He's hooked on sports, same as the other man, hooked on business or hooked on something else. But if a man gets enthusiastic about Jesus Christ, if a man or a woman gets enthusiastic about the gospel of Jesus Christ, he's a fanatic, he's a religious nut. He's, he's a little bit off religiously. Beware of her, beware of him. How is that? How do you explain that then? The devil will have all kinds of people and all kinds of excuses why you shouldn't come. This woman saw the crowd, but her disease, her need drove her, and she waded through the crowd, and she said, if I can only get to him. Supposing she'd said, well, he's pretty busy, but I'll settle for Peter. Ah, there's Peter, the first bishop of Rome. I've touched his garment. And she could have touched his garment. She could have touched Peter as many times as she wanted, and she'd have simply remained as she was. There's John, I'll try him, he's the apostle of love. Or there's, there's Philip, or there's Bartholomew, or some of these other disciples, some of these other apostles. So you see, my friends, how futile it would be. You can touch ecclesiastical dignitaries all you like. You can touch the church and great eminent leaders all you like. They cannot save you. They cannot cure you. There's only one that has the power, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. This woman said, if I can touch that, but his clothes, I shall be healed. Did she say that? Yes, she did. I- I may, I- I may feel a little better if I touch you. No, she didn't say that. She didn't say I may be better. She didn't say I hope I'll be better. She didn't say, well, I think there might be some improvement. It's worth a try anyhow. She didn't talk like that at all. What'd she say? Listen, if I may touch but his clothes, I shall behold. I like that. I shall behold. That's the language of faith. That's the language of faith. I shall behold. If I can touch him, I shall behold. I believe he's the one who's the great reservoir of all blessing, the dynamo of all power. I shall behold. Is that the language of your heart this morning? And you're saying there's only one Savior. If I can get to him, all will be well. She elbowed through the crowd. She pushed with the determination of an inborn urge and earnestness, and she said, if I can touch, I shall behold. And you know what she did? She reached out past Peter and past John and past the rest of them, and she touched the border of his garment. She touched his clothes. Instantly the contact was made. There was a transference of power. Something happened. Don't ask me to explain it. I can't explain it. It was like, my friend, pushing the plug into the live outlet in the wall. When that plug contacts the power, the contact is made. The electricity flows through the cord and does its work. Contact is the word. She touched. And instantly something happened. Something straightway, verse twenty nine, straightway, instantly, immediately, the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. Something happened when she made the contact with the Lord Jesus Christ. And then the Lord Jesus turned, and he said, who touched me? For he felt the power, it says power of virtue had gone out of him. So it was a two-way. She touched him, and from him there flowed that power. And the Lord turned and he said, who touched me? Peter, it says in the other gospels, not here, but it was Peter. We might expect that, you know. Peter turned and he said, Lord, what was that again you said? Who touched me, the Lord said. Why, Peter said, Lord, are you serious? Everybody's touching you. The crowds are thronging you, Lord, and you say, who touched me? The Lord in the text said, Peter, there's a touch and a touch. Everybody was touching the Lord. How many of them got blessed? Only one. Only one. You see, my friends, there are different kinds of touches. These people that touched the Lord got nothing at all, but the touch of faith brought the instant healing. At this very hour, this Sunday morning, there are hundreds of thousands, I would venture to say millions of people in church throughout this Eastern time zone. That's not an exaggerated statement. There are millions in church. They touch the Lord in that broad external sense. When the minister says, let us pray, they bow their heads in prayer. When someone says, let us read, we read the scriptures. When someone says, let us sing, we sing. We go through the motion. We touch the Lord in that physical, broad, external, but ineffectual way. You've been touching the Lord, some of you, all your life. You've been coming to Sunday school. You've been learning the choruses, you've been memorizing the scriptures. You can roll off the twenty third Psalm, a part of the Sermon on the Mount, and portions of John, and so on. You know these scriptures, you've known them all your life. You've touched the Lord in that sense, and yet you've never been saved. You've never had the healing of your soul's disease. You know what? This woman came with her desperate need, and it was a touch of faith. It was a different kind of a touch. And the moment she did, she received the results for which she had been seeking for twelve long years. Instantly she was healed. Now, the devil said to her, lady, you get home as fast as you can go. Now you've got what you want. Away you go, slip out of the crowd. No one will ever see you. Away you go. And the Lord said, as it were, I've got something more than I've already given you. I've got a further blessing for you. Who touched me? And then the woman, it says the woman trembling, shaking, fearing and trembling. She came, and it says she, she, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him. And it says in the other gospels, she fell down before them all, and she told all the truth. I like that. Not only the cure, but the confession as well. The Lord Jesus might have let her go and never have seen her again, but he said, as it were, I've got something better than that. I want to see you. I want you to tell me. And the woman came out before the whole crowd. She came out before the crowd, and they fell back and made way, and they looked at her, and it says she told them all the truth. She told them all the truth. She said, Lord, I've been looking for this for twelve years. I've been looking for twelve years for this, and I came, I heard about you, I believed you were the Son of God. I came and laid hold of you today. Lord, I'm back. I'm done. What did Jesus Christ say? I'll send my bill to you at the end of the month. No, he didn't. No, he didn't. Listen, friends, he looked at that woman and he said, daughter. I like that word, don't you? Daughter. Daughter. That's a word of relationship. She's now in the family of God. Daughter. Listen. Thy faith has made thee whole. Go in peace and behold of thy place. Now, he said, thy faith has made thee whole. Now, wait a minute, let's stop a minute. Was it her faith that cured her? Wasn't it Jesus that cured her? Both are true. Both are. It was the Lord Jesus who cured. But you know, faith was essential. Faith laid hold of him. I'm sick. I'm very sick. The doctor comes or the nurse comes and gives me medicine. I may take, hold out my hand and take the medicine, and I feel better. What was it that made me better? I say it was that hand. Boy, look at that hand. You know what that hand did? That hand. That hand took that medicine. Wonderful hand. Stupid. It wasn't the hand that made me better, it was the medicine that made me better. And yet the hand was necessary. You're going to eat your dinner in a few minutes. What's going to make you feel better and satisfy your appetite? The food. But it's the hand that takes the food that's necessary, and the mouth. This is faith. Faith is that which says, Lord, I'm, I'm just diseased and I'm lost. I'll take you to be my savior. I'll trust you, Lord Jesus, and you alone. I do believe that you died for me on the cross. I do believe that thou art the only Savior, and here and now this morning I'll take you to be my Savior and my Lord. She only touched the hem of his garment as to his side she stole amidst the crowd that gathered around him, and straightway she was whole. She came in fear and trembling before him. She knew her Lord had come. She felt that from him virtue had healed her. The mighty work was done. He turned with, daughter, be of good comfort. Thy faith hath made thee whole. And peace that passeth all understanding with gladness filled her soul. Oh, touch the hem of these garments, and thou too shalt be free. His saving power this very hour shall give new life to thee. And then confess it. That's what she did. She confessed it. I'm going to give you an opportunity this morning if you've touched the hem of his garment and trusted him as your savior, to come forward and confess it. Now, just let me say this, that coming forward will not make you a member of Palm Bible Chapel. It'll not put you on the roll of any church. It will not save you, but coming forward is an act of simple declaration that you have taken Christ as your Savior, and you're not ashamed to acknowledge it.