Gooding, David: 5 - Salvation—Further Discussion

Well, that's good to see, uh, the discussion. I don't know that I myself have any answer, eh, so I'm interested to hear your contributions. Eh, yes, as William was saying, it would appear, wouldn't it, that there is a sequence, uh, through the stories. Uh, do you see, let me just make a little bit of room, uh, and it is there, I think, the major problem lies. The first one was salvation from death. Uh, to see, one man was dying and the other was dead. There was the centurion's servant and the widow of Nain's son. As a, a group, a twin story, the second one is introduced, and it came to pass soon afterwards. A twin story, one man dying and the other dead, eh, and uh, uh, the dead man was the only son of his mother. Uh, if you look at the twin, they put two sides to the story. The centurion, very capable army officer, uh, quite wealthy by current standards, able to do many good works, uh, had even built a synagogue, and the cost of that is sizable, isn't it? It was on the ground of those many works and those merits that his friends, uh, claimed, uh, this salvation for the servant from, uh, Jesus. The widow, by contrast, and Luke is especially interested in widows. He has more widows in his gospel than any other gospel writer. He's in widows. Uh, having lost her husband, uh, now her only son, she had lost him and no means of support in life. You'll see, she couldn't have presumably build synagogues or anything else. Whether you have many works or no works, at this level, salvation i- is a gift, and we notice that the actual story tells you that's not us applying it, it's the actual story telling you that, because it raises this question. The friends came and said, he's worthy that you should do this, look what he's done, and the man said, I'm not worthy, I don't even count myself worthy, you, uh, for you even to come under my roof, speak only the word, and our Lord replied, I've not found so much faith. And in the second story, uh, when he raised the young man, he gave him back to his mother. And we noticed the very similarity of phrasing in Ephesians two. And the point of that was that if you look at Ephesians two, where it discusses salvation, by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. The, uh, actual strand of salvation that Paul is talking about in Ephesians two is as follows: you were dead in trespasses and in sins, and God has quickened you and made you alive, in other words. So Ephesians two is talking about a salvation from death. Now, this was salvation from physical death, but if you look at Ephesians two, it isn't talking about salvation from physical death, is it? It's talking about salvation from spiritual death. And it's number one uh, in the list here. We made the point yesterday that many of the miracles of Christ, the physical miracles of Christ, become, uh, even in the Gospels themselves, signs and pictures of a higher level. So the blind man that got his sight is used in John nine as a picture of the fact that we're spiritually blind and Christ can give us spiritual sight. The bread, when our Lord, uh, multiplied the bread and fed the crowds, was physical bread, but it becomes a picture of our Lord as the spiritual bread. Christ saving men from dying and from death at the physical level becomes a picture, therefore, of salvation from death at the spiritual level. And then we notice that this one is the first in Luke's, uh, collection. Now, it is true that in some sense it is the first, if you look at the other gospels, because it happened at that time, it was the first in the series of miracles that our Lord did. But it becomes significant here that if you're talking about salvation, then the first thing an unregenerate person needs from salvation, by definition, is life. And so isn't it. If folks are dead, you won't get very far forward in salvation unless you can get them alive, what? Yeah? It's no accident that this one is first in the process. So if we were to, uh, make our list, uh, you'll see, give ourselves room here. This is, uh, the gift of spiritual life, if at the higher level, yes. And it's, why is it number one? Well, it's number one because that's what you do desperately need. That's, it's life that people need. They're dead in trespasses and in sins. Other things they need, forgiveness, they need all sorts of things, but life is the number one. Yeah? And then we notice that the Gaius's daughter down here, Jairus's daughter, uh, was salvation from death. And we ask ourselves, is that therefore giving the same lesson as this? The widow of Nain's son, he was dead. Jairus's daughter was dead. If you were preaching on it, or whatever you do, taking your Bible class or whatnot, and you preached a jolly good sermon on this one and made the point that, uh, folks are dead in trespasses and in sins. This is the diagnosis, ladies and gentlemen, if you listen to scripture. What's wrong with mankind in general, and, uh, uh, uh, you see? Uh, well, is it that is it they've got difficult mothers-in-law or or impossible grannies or what have you, or it's hereditary, or they were abused as children, or what's wrong with them? Well, there are ten thousand of ones things wrong with them, but God's di- diagnosis is the absolute basic thing that's wrong with them. They're dead. And here's the diagnosis. The very stories are pointing to a diagnosis, aren't they? And what Christ can do about it, he can give us spiritual life, and the terms are, and the very stories tell you that. Well, having preached a marvelous sermon on that and been congratulated by the congregation, uh, uh, why, perhaps even led somebody to the Lord, you come to the last one. What is... Oh. Will this be ditto repeato? Jairus' daughter was dead, and Christ can give you life. How do you get that? By being born again. Is that what Jairus' daughter is saying? Is that the story? Well, no. It is salvation from dead, de- from death. They came and said, your daughter is already dead, trouble not the master. But Christ turned around and said, only believe and she shall be saved. Salvation from death. What is this different from this? Well, this one isn't an illustration of salvation from the spiritual death. This one is an illustration of our eventual salvation from the sleep of physical death. Remember, we saw the Lord talking about she's not dead, but sleeps. It's the sleep of Of death. death. Yeah. So now, it's still an illustration because Jairus' daughter being raised from the dead, uh, wasn't given a glorified body like our Lord's resurrection body, was not given a body of glory like we shall have one day when the Lord comes. She presumably died again later on. So this was a revivification, like Lazarus who came out of the tomb. He didn't have a glorious body, did he, when Lazarus was raised out of the tomb? Didn't have a glorious body. Eh, as you notice the difference between his resurrection and our Lord's. When our Lord rose from the dead, nobody need to roll away the stone to let him out. When the angels rolled away the stone for the women, the body was already gone. And when our Lord rose from the dead, nobody need to help him to take the clothes off, the grave clothes off. Whereas with Lazarus, they had to roll away the stone, and when Lazarus came out, they had to take off the clothes. Poor old boy couldn't do it himself. It's difficult when you're round up like that, eh, you'll see. And uh, uh, uh, why? Because Lazarus' resurrection was a revivification. It wasn't the same thing as the resurrection of our Lord and our resurrection at the, uh, when the Lord comes. But Lazarus' resurrection was a sign of that bigger thing, and so was this one. And we noticed the difference between these two stories, that in this story, the man said to the Lord, you don't even need to come to my house, you don't, you can speak the word at a distance and give my servant life, you'll see. That is true at the spiritual level. Christ has not to come down from heaven to give a sinner new life and to regenerate somebody. He can speak the word, it's done by his word. But here, our Lord didn't do it at a distance. There's all the drama of the story. He was held up in the way, and Jairus was foaming out of the top of his head about this stupid woman that was holding things up, you'll see. And why didn't the Lord come more quickly? But the Lord didn't speak a word at a distance, either to save her from dying or to raise her from the dead. He had to come. And raising explicitly, he raised the question, she's not dead but sleeps. That is the last in the series, because this is a picture of the redemption of our bodies. Only believe and she shall be saved. If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him, for the Lord shall come. They'll say, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, trumpet shall sound. Right ho. They're not ditto repeato then, in the series. And that leads the, the question, as we were saying, of what all these others are. Uh, woman in Simon's house, woman in SH. We're not left to make it up, up our minds about it. It was a question of forgiveness. Yep. Question of forgiveness is not raised in those first two stories. This is salvation in the sense of forgiveness. And because of the nature of the sin, uh, Simon, I suppose you'd call him a respectable Pharisee, I don't know, but, uh, took the attitude of many. She wasn't welcome in decent society, not with her way of going on. But not until she could be forgiven. Could the chains that held her to a past manner of life be broken? Forgiveness, as you know, aphesis in Greek, one of the words for forgiveness, aphesis, means a release. The woman was released from the guilt of her past and able to be brought back into decent society, yeah? So that's forgiveness. With the storm at sea, the peril came from the physical powers. Our Lord demonstrated himself to be master of wind and wave. And of course, eventually in Christian life, and indeed in Christian service, we shall need to be brought to conviction that our Lord, who has saved us and forgiven us, is also Lord of creation. Aren't we? If you're going to be an Apostle Paul, and twice in your life be, uh, downed in the soup and holding onto a bit of old wood for two or three days in the Mediterranean, or on a, a boat that's going down, uh, uh, and in a storm for a couple of weeks, and all the perils of travel and the peril of disease, you'll need a tremendous conviction that the Lord you serve is in fact the Lord of creation. He controls wind and wave. That's not to say that no believer will ever drown. It is to say that no believer will ever drown because the Lord happened to be asleep. And if he lets us, if we drown, it's because he, in his sovereign will, allowed it. And neither death, nor life, nor principality, nor power, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. It's a magnificent message. There's no fairy tale. Comes the, uh, uh, base of our Christian faith. Oh, the old atheist doesn't mind if you privately comfort your soul when you go to bed, children do it with little stories read out of a book, and you like to read little stories out of the Bible to comfort you from ghosts and things that go bang in the night. Well, the scientist says, well, do carry on, my dear. In his heart, he despises it, of course. Doesn't believe there's anybody in charge of the universe. And his atheism lands him up in absolute hopelessness. Man is a prisoner in a w- a material world that ultimately is non-intelligent, no purpose, no, no, no plan, no nothing. And the end of life is just that. Life is, in the terms of the French philosophers, absurd. And therefore, this incident that proclaims our Lord and demonstrates him to be master of wind and wave is not some little story made up to comfort us. It's the reality, and nowadays ever more so, between your atheist interpretation of the universe and a Christian. But of course, it has practical things for the service of the Lord and for all Christian life. The demoniac... if you were diagnosing his need, well, he was like everybody else, dead in trespasses and in sins, and like everybody else, he needed forgiveness. Yes? We all need the whole lot, do we? But if you were dealing with a demoniac, you wouldn't perhaps have the first, the first thing you mentioned to him to say, you're dead in trespasses and sins, my boy, you, you, you need new life, or it's forgiveness you need. It is other great problem. You see, his terrible, his own spirit overmastered and all his degradation with his legion of demons. And there too, the detail is magnificent. You'll see, we didn't get time yesterday to talk about detail, but just as the detail of this story, uh, is very apposite, you see. I keep stressing it, I didn't make up the detail. I didn't arbitrarily say that this story illustrates that salvation is by faith, through grace, it is the gift of God and not by works. I didn't make that up. That's not me. That is the story telling you that. And if you come to this demoniac, uh, the story will raise the question, how was he saved? Under the power of demonic spirits. How was he saved? And in the process, the Lord did a ma- lovely, delightful, but absolutely opposite thing. He said to the man, what is your name? Did he not? Yes. And particularly amongst the Semitic people, where names mean things, this is a very evocative question. The man didn't reply John or Thomas or whatever his name was, had been given him by his loving parents, his fond parents at birth. The name that represents all he is and his personality in particular. Asked, what is your name? He replied, Legion. Oh dear. There's a personality swamp. And in process of being pulled to pieces. Personality will perish if he's not saved under these forces. And you watch our Lord restoring a person's personality. That's a delightful thing that Christ does. And you can think about our drug addicts and our alcoholics and, and all these other folks, or people that have such outrageous tempers that it turns them into furious beasts, and underneath there's a human personality that's been pulled a- apart by sin, you'll see. What they need is not merely forgiveness, do they? They need, they need the deliverance of their personality, their person. What is your name, said he? And how, and then the details, well, I better not go into that anyway. And I said yesterday, we're not all demon possessed. The vast majority of men and women on the earth are not demon possessed. It's good to get these things in proportion, isn't it? What is true of every single person on earth is, according to Ephesians two once more, they walk according to the prince, power of the prince of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. It is a vast world out there. Said to a, it was in Czechoslovakia, of course, both before the walls came down and when the walls did come down. And when the walls came down, they were able to have visiting preachers stay in one place for a series of, of, of, of lectures, you see, whereas before you were only allowed one night in each place, you see, with permission for each individual place. They had to get it separately for wherever you were, and then give a report on what you said, you see, which they used to evangelize the communist officials. Anyway, the first time they were allowed, uh, when I was there, to to have me talk at length in one place, several sessions, they set the topics, and one of the first things I wanted to know about demon possession. I said to the dear folks, well, yes, I'll say what I can, but you know, one thing we need to guard against is getting things out of proportion. According to the Acts of the Apostles, thousand was s- saved, three thousand on the day of Pentecost, and a few more, so they came to five thousand a day or two afterwards. A tiny minority, if any, of those had been demon possessed, but they were all in the grip of Satan. The wide world, everybody outside of Christ is in the grip of Satan, in the power of darkness. We shouldn't forget that, should we? And, uh, we need to be delivered. And how are we delivered from the power of sin? I nearly said it's no good giving people forgiveness, that's this one. Unless you can also preach a gospel that can deliver people from the power of sin and the domination of sin. So these aren't, again, these aren't repeating, are they? They're not repeating the kind of salvation that they're illustrating. Different sides of salvation. This demoniac one is not preaching this question about the physical powers. This is the physical powers of the universe. This is a spiritual thing. You'll see. Deliverance then from the power of Satan, to turn open blind eyes and to turn them from Satan to God. You'll see. Then we observed yesterday that if you took Paul's great statement of salvation in the Epistles of the Romans, it would start with justification not by the works of the law, not by merit, but by faith. It is the gift. That's where Rom- Romans, so to speak, starts its e- exposition of salvation. Later on, it will tell you how we can be delivered from the power and domination and dominion of sin. Yes? You see, Romans three talked about this. Romans four talked about forgiveness. Yeah, anyway, right? So that left us with this good lady here, woman with a hemorrhage. And that's what, uh, Bill has been trying to, uh, ask you to see what you think. Now, collecting this is very important. It is a very valid observation because we are observing the detail, and the usefulness of that is that if we could decide what aspect of salvation this is, then the detail would become exceedingly important. Just like the detail here, when you see this is salvation from death, and it's an illustration of salva- uh, salvation from spiritual death, then the detail becomes important. On what condition do you get this new life? And when you see this is deliverance from the power of Satan and how the domin- domination of sin and Satan, how? The detail becomes interesting and important. Yeah? And when you see that this is the final one, because how else could it be but the final one, it talks about the coming of Christ to raise us from the sleep of death. Of course, it's the last one. Then the detail, look at that word for sleep. And the fact that he didn't do it at a distance, when here he did it at a distance, but not this one. That too becomes, uh, you'll see, that becomes, uh, um, uh, significant. And then the fact, all that lovely detail, what a gift, isn't it, for preachers? You know, it's good to preach your stories. Stories are a marvelous way of c- conveying profound truth, aren't they? But what a dramatic scene. There's a little girl in bed, you see, and uh, in the sleep of death, and Christ went to wake her from sleep. Tali Kumi said, get up, dear girly. And she sat up. And she rising up out of sleep, and who's that? And realizing that that's the Lord. Cool. And who's that chap with that beard? That was Peter, our apostle. And that's mum and dad. Cool. What a, what a an awakening it shall be, ladies and gentlemen, when the Lord comes and we wake up in his presence and... and say, well, that's old Abram. Goodness me, it looks like s- s- well, I didn't know Sarah looked like that, but um, mm. And his mum and dad? We hope. Mm. Beautiful then. Right, hope? So we come back to this one, with all the detail. What element of salvation was the question in that series? If we're right in our way of thinking, this one, though she's in danger of death, will be not repeating this, the first one, will it? And it won't be repeating the last one. And it won't be repeating even the demoniac. So what is it? There's only one left, it has to be the power of sin. Yes, in what sense? Well, in the sense of Christ has dealt with sin, um, delivered to the dominion of the law, dominion of death, Mhm. and so on, everything which he achieved in the cross. Mhm. We're still left, left with the Roman seven principle of sin within us. Uh-huh. Uh, with which we all struggle. Mhm. Um, when you look at that, the picture of it, initially there is salvation and forgiveness, at the end there is redemption, final redemption. Mm-hmm. And in the middle, there is Christ in relation to our lives. Yes. Physical lives, spiritual lives. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yes. Good. Yes, that's right. Uh, all in agreement? What about the, the daily consequences of sin? Yeah. The removal of the very presence of the thing that brings fear. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Where, let, let, let's hold on to those, uh, uh, i- i- insights, uh, uh, uh, and I ask, um, Raito, if you were doing, uh, putting Romans down by the side of this. This will be Romans three, and this will be Romans four. David describes the, the, the lightfulness of the man who's been forgiven, all the wonder of a chap who's been forgiven, yes? Um, Romans six and seven will talk about the domination of sin. This will be Romans eight, We, you know, our body's redeemed and nature delivered from the bondage of corruption. We're waiting for the redemption of our bodies when the Lord's coming. Does Romans eight know anything about this, separate from these others? Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The spirit of life in Christ. That might be an idea, wasn't it? From somebody who observed here that she touched, had to touch Jesus. And it was power gone out from me, said he. Didn't he? Isn't what he said? I perceive, uh, let's see. I know that power has gone out from me. That's right, yes. There's the power of Christ transmitted. She touched him, that the power of the blessed Lord Jesus might stream through her, yes? Now, sh- she touched the Lord. That wasn't quite the same thing, was it? Wasn't a case of there of the power of Christ coming out to her. She touched the Lord simply in gratitude for the fact that she had already been forgiven. But this woman touched the Lord, and it was that contact that brought the Lord's power streaming out through her, yes? It's a very interesting notion. Somebody else observed that, uh, uh, this was not simply a physical thing, because by its very nature she became ceremonially unclean, so she wouldn't be allowed in the synagogue. She would be cut off from a great deal of social, uh, uh, uh, intercourse because in Jewish thought she carried ceremonial uncleanness. And of course, in Jewish thought, uh, when she came up and touched Christ, she defiled him. Which is why, one of the reasons why it was important to get her to confess that she was now healed. Because our Lord supported Old Testament regulations, didn't he? So she was not only, uh, uh, very life ebbing away, but, uh, she was causing, uh, spiritual defilement, ceremonial defilement wherever she went. Mm-hmm. Um. Now the Bible does talk in else p- other places, doesn't it, that kind of defilement. Listen to Hebrews twelve: lest a root of bitterness spring up among you, and many be thereby... defiled, yes. Sometimes they erupt in the church, things that can defile the congregation of believers. A root of bitterness. Mm-hmm. I wonder, could one go further? Uh, the, the, if you're going to take Romans, the fir- phrase I would s- uh, uh, would choose, I think, is the one that uh, uh, tags on to the sentence you've mentioned, in that it was weak through the flesh, not in that it was weak through the devil, but then it was weak through the flesh. And now it here, the cure of that is that the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death, that principle that sin leads onwards to death, set me free from that. The law could never do it. A simple command could never do it. Why couldn't it? Not that there was anything wrong with the law, that's wrong with weakness of the flesh, yes? I wonder whether one can go further. You'll see. Uh, processes of the body that are normal and healthy and were meant for eventually the whole system of, uh, the reproduction of life had now gone out of hand and were killing the dear lady, absolutely tearing her life from her. There are other such processes in us, aren't there? Psychological processes as well as physical, but they are psychosomatic. That are processes that were meant, designed by the creator for life, that can get out of hand, and when they do, they tear us to pieces. Fear is one of them. Fear is a jolly good thing, isn't it? Invented by the creator, meant to protect us. Yes? You watch the little bird out on your bird tray there, eating the the nuts. He has one look to the right, one look to the left, eats a nut, looks round, uh, you'll say... in that sense he's full of fear. That's what protects the bird. That's not unhealthy, that's jolly good. We are meant to have fear. There are some folks who say that you, uh, you know, if you're a believer, you're not afraid of dying. Mm. I'd like to get those preachers who talk like that and put them in the middle of a twenty-acre field with a raging bull six yards behind them, coming at about forty miles an hour, and see whether they're afraid of dying or not. You see. I wouldn't think, you know, they, uh, nature would take over. They would run like they'd never run before and jump a five-bar gate over the other side, who never did jump an inch in their lives. Because fear would take over. That's mercy, isn't it? It was there, meant to be there to preserve us. When they got the other side of the gate, they'd nearly collapse, and their legs would go all jelly because, uh, the fear has started that all the physical mechanisms in the body has drained their energy, using it up at an enormous rate of knots. And now they get over in the dangerous pass, they nearly collapse because the energy is gone. Fear is good, but it can get out of hand, can't it? And lead to worry and all sorts of things that, instead of preserving us, destroy us. Anger is another one, isn't it? It's right that we get angry, but alas, our anger is often perverted and becomes bad temper and, uh, loss of control and can destroy us. It would be foolish, well, it would be a misdiagnosis, if that is so, it'd be a misdiagnosis to dis- to to to, uh, confuse that with the power of Satan. You find some dear soul that's worried, stiff, and can't sleep at night, and is insomniac, and is losing weight, and is worried and worried and worried and can't stop worrying, or has a phobia or something, eh, to say that's tearing them to pieces, and you tell them that's the devil, the shock of it will make the fear go ten thousand times worse. I have them come to see me and have to deal with them sometimes. But here is what is weakness through the flesh. Our whole makeup has been damaged, hasn't it, by sin. You see. And, uh, the Lord can. But others can't. Through the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, yes. Can come and deal with those things. Notice how these two are joined, just like this salvation, the centurion plus widow of Nain were a double story. The widow of Nain, it came to pass soon afterwards, and the widow of Nain. So here, uh, Jairus comes, and then the woman comes and interrupts, and so the two stories are welded together. Here it is, um, uh, the one man dying and the other dead, and the dead man was the only son of, uh, uh, of his mother. And here's a woman dying slowly by inches, and one dead, and the dead girl was the only daughter of her father. That's no accident, of course. It so happens. Well, yeah, but Luke pointed out to you. Yeah? I wouldn't be dogmatic about this, but that I know you, you pushed me to it. Uh, yesterday I confessed my ignorance, uh, Josie. Uh, today you pushed me, so this is how I would think about it, yeah? Mm-hmm. The only other thing I, I, I, perhaps it's worth my doing. May I, uh, wipe this off a minute? I may do that. We We started started just- yesterday discussing these things in a very simple way, um, looking at the word save and noticing how you get many instances of salvation, translated differently in your English versions, but all instances of salvation, different connotations of salvation, yes? And then we asked, were they all the same? No, they weren't. They were obviously different, and that set us on the clue of seeing, well, here, what a marvelous this is, a collection of stories by Luke illustrating all sorts of aspects of salvation. And now we notice that they are in order, you see. If you were preaching them, of course, you'd preach Jairus at last. Of course you'd preach at last, because this is a great goal. You see. Let's look at the detail. And just let me, uh, do a, a bit of a demonstration that the detail itself is, uh, carefully done and is significant. Let me put here centurion, centurion servant, plus widow of Nain's. Why do I put them together? Well, because of that phrase in chapter seven itself, and it came to pass soon afterwards. Mm-hmm. That's seven eleven. And because also, in our studying the individual examples of salvation, we found how those two stories go together. They're twin stories. The centurion with all his works, the widow without, and all her helplessness, you'll see. The subject of death. Uh, the centurion, it's not by merit or worth, it's not by works, it is through faith, deliberately said, I've not found so great faith. And the widow completing that he gave him to his mother. Widow of nine sons, yes. Then there comes, uh, uh, do see, in Luke seven, Um, eighteen onwards. The disciples of John told him of all these things, and John calling unto him two of his disciples, sent them to the Lord, saying, Art thou he that cometh, or wilt we for another? And our Lord gave answer, do you see? Verse twenty four? when the messengers of John were departed, they began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, what w- w- what went ye out into the wilderness to behold? Began to get at the consciences of the crowd, because initially they had gone out to John in their thousands and been baptized by him, but now those same very people who had welcomed the forerunner were rejecting the Lord Jesus. And our Lord gets at their consciences. You tell me, gentlemen, wait a minute. Mm. Believe, um, many of you, not so many months ago, thousands of you went out into the wilderness, didn't you? Didn't I hear that you went out into the wilderness? Well, yes, they did, of course, thousands of them. Ah. Tell me as a matter of interest, what did you go out into the wilderness to see? I think it was... you went out to see a reed blown with the wind, didn't you? Well, well, hardly. Who goes out into the wilderness to see reeds, thousands of them? I mean, oh no, of course not, you didn't. No, no, no, that's wrong. Well, what, what, what did you go out to see? You went out to see a man clothed in fine raiment, didn't you? Well, of course you didn't. They that wear fine raiment are in king's houses, yes. Well, you went out, didn't you? What was it that took you out into the wilderness? Well, they went out to, to, to, to see John the Baptist because they really believed he was the fulfillment of Isaiah forty. Well, what's gone wrong now then? If they went out to see John, and many of them were baptized by him, why didn't they accept Christ? It's getting at the crowd's conscience, you see. And then he goes on to talk about, you see, uh, what had happened. None greater than John, verse twenty nine: and all the people when they heard, and the publicans justified God being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected for themselves the counsel of God, being not baptized of him. Now this question of the baptism of John becomes now the centerpiece of our Lord's great long discussion with the crowd. Do you see? Some of them were baptized by John and were now rejecting Christ. Alas, others, uh, refused John and refused his baptism and rejected the counsel of God against themselves. You see. And arbitrary enough, they rejected John. They didn't like his preaching of the wrath of God. John was quite a loud preacher, you know, and in great stentorian turns, tones, he enjoined the people to flee from the wrath to come. And when some of the Pharisees came, uh, he spoke very bluntly, didn't he? Who's warned you to flee from a wrath to come, he said. Wow. Hm. I didn't like that kind of preaching. Funny thing was that when Jesus came, he didn't come hammering away at the wrath of God, so to speak. He preached the forgiveness of sins. Oh, he didn't like that either. Funny that, isn't it? You'll find the same syndrome nowadays. Some people don't like the preaching of the wrath of God. No, no. We like to preach the r- love of God. Oh, you do? Well, isn't the love of God so wonderful? You, so loving, sent his son, and he died for us that we might have eternal life and have forgiveness and be sure of it. And you say, my dear, are you sure of the forgiveness? Nobody can be sure of forgiveness. Oh. Well, God isn't all that loving then. No, we have to wait until the final judgment before we know. Really? You suppose God is so loving that he'll keep you waiting till the final judgment to know whether you are accepted with him or not? Well, he ain't all that loving then. Isn't that funny, that syndrome? That's what our Lord is pointing out to these folks. Anyway, that goes down, as you'll see, to verse, um, thirty five. And three woman in Simon's house, that fills the rest of seven. plus women from Galilee. Why tag them on? Because of the same phrase that came to pass soon afterwards. And then we saw in the, in our thinking about salvation, didn't we? Uh, that these women are part of the same story. Where there's been forgiveness, there is love. And the woman in Simon's house showed her love in personal devotion to the Lord, of the more emotional side of devotion. She wept and washed his feet with her tears. She anointed his feet with ointment. She wiped them with the hairs of her head. Personal devotion to the person of Christ. Yeah, but that would need to be supplemented, won't it? True gratitude for forgiveness will lead for love, but not just the emotional sense. Uh, these women who had been forgiven and delivered, uh, do you see? Uh, one of them at least from the palace of Herod showed their love and gratitude to Christ by sheer hard slog and work, followed him and his, his evangelistic campaigns at a discreet distance, and ministered to them, him and all the apostles, from their substance. It's not just emotion, is it? And, uh, so they go together. Now for The great thing on the parables of the kingdom. And the secrets, the mysteries. Are the kingdom, do see. Verse eight, verse nine. Yep. The parables, therefore, go on right down to, uh, verse twenty one. where he talks about his mother and his brothers, that is the family relationships and the effect of discipleship of Christ on family relationships. Now, if you come this side, five, storm on lake. And six, the demoniac. And seven, woman with hemorrhage. And eight, Jairus's daughter. These two, as we saw earlier, are, uh, they are twin story because Jairus comes and the Lord begins to go, and then the woman comes, but the woman has to be dealt with first, and then finally Jairus' daughter is raised. Now, if they are the basic contents, let me just point out that those stories have a lot of detail in common. I'll just point out the things that are in, some of the things that are in common. That would be for you to decide how many of them are significant. Look at story one. I have found not so great, I have not found, rather, I have not found so great faith. I also am a man under authority and say to this one, go, and he goes. I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. Anybody like to read the details to show I'm not making it up of the storm at sea? Comes in eight twenty two to twenty five. Yeah, read it, read it, please. And anybody that notices this isn't a game of snap, but anybody notices anything in this one that's similar to that one, uh, you know, so snap or whatever you like. This is NIV. Is it? Oh, I say. Yeah, well, we'll, we'll pardon you. One day Jesus said to his disciples, let's go over to the other side of the lake, so they get into a boat and set out. They sailed, as they sailed, he fell asleep. Squall came down on the lake so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. The disciples went and woke him, saying, Master, Master, we're going to drown. He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters. The storm subsided, and all was calm. Where is your faith? He asked his disciples. In fear and amazement, they asked one another, who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him. Anybody see any faint similarity between the wordage of this and that? The authority he had over the wind and the waves. Yeah. So he stopped. Who is this? Do you see? He commands. These two. Uh, do you see? And they obey. I say to this man, go, and he... Oh. Wherein did this man's faith lie? Look at this. I have not found so great. What does he say to the disciples? Yeah. Bit rough on the apostles, didn't it? I mean, wouldn't you be panic stricken if the little, little boat like they had on the lake and the water was coming over the gunnels and the boat was going down, wouldn't you have been a little bit scary? Do you think the rebuke was fair? Cap over here thinks it was, yes. In, in other words, that wasn't the problem, the waves in the rain weren't the problem. Yes, but I was saying, is it fair to blame them with lack of faith? What do you mean, lack of faith? Faith in what? Considering all the evidence they had previous to that was power. Yes. It's faith in who Christ was, isn't it? That is pointing the lesson, do you see? The detail is not just a irrelevant little circumstantial detail. The story's every word counts. Oh, to get a story in the Bible, you have to pay I don't know what. Uh, do you see? Every word counts, do you see? This is inspired scripture. And in the question, folks in life, and they're tossed with the storm of life, so to speak, and in desperate fear, and you say, have faith and be... Yeah, but wait a minute, faith in what? How do you churn up the faith? How do you get the faith? Well, the question of faith is faith in who Christ is. Yes? That is the point to be f- made, isn't it? It's not just arbitrary quality, uh, you know, I, uh, stiff, stiff upper lip, lip sty- staff, um, and and screwing myself up and determined to face it and not to give in. It's faith in who Jesus is. And when we come to die, ladies and gentlemen, and we can feel that's awful unfair sometimes, can't we? But the Lord may well yet lead us to think, and who gave you life in the first place, isn't it? Will he not control when the physical life is removed? That doesn't do away with our tears, and we're not blamed for our tears. Our Lord himself wept at Lazarus' grave, but ultimately, who is Jesus? And if he who gave us the life allows it to be taken, that challenge is not simply our animal courage. Yeah, we can weep, there's nothing wrong in weeping, but in the end it will come down to faith in who he is. Is he the master of every wave, drop of water, germ, virus? That's important, isn't it? And here, faith for salvation, faith for salvation in the initial sense, man being saved from physical death, a man being, uh, raised from physical death, and now the illustration at the spiritual level, you were dead in trespasses and sins, and you're saved by faith. What does faith mean? Somebody says, I have great faith that if I do the best I can, I shall be in heaven. I've got great faith. Is that what faith is? Well, this will say faith is in who Jesus is. It's a pointed issue, wasn't it? I found he said, I also am a man under authority, Lord, you don't need to come to my house. I'm not worthy anyway, but you don't even need to come because I am a man under authority, and uh, because I stand under His Majesty Caesar. When I say to a soldier, come, he comes. I say to another soldier, go, he goes, and certainly does. And if I say to someone, do this, he does it because I'm under authority, the authority of the emperor. Yes? And I can wield that authority. And he's saying to Christ, I perceive, Jesus, you're like that. All you need to do is to speak the word. Oh, it's magnificent, isn't it? Ah, because new life. The whole creation came into being when God spoke. Yes. And when the blessed Lord speaks, the man was healed. It's faith in Jesus then, not just I've got great confidence in this or that or the other. It's faith in Jesus and who Jesus is and the power of his word. And sometimes even in the, the, the, the most intimate matter of personal leading of a person to Christ, isn't it? It's a question of saying, ha, hmm, as a question, are you prepared to stake all on his word? Yeah. Well, let's come to this obvious one. The woman came behind. Is that what it says? Mm-hmm. Yeah. And Simon says, uh, uh, uh, he would have Have known. known who and what kind of woman touched him, for she is a sinner. Yes. And here, the woman, what did this woman do, according to the text? Yeah, what else did she do before she touched him? No, she came behind, yes, a woman came behind. Behind. And, uh, he said, who touched me? I perceive. Someone touched me. Mm-hmm. Now that, of course, is not just incidental things that happen to look alike. Uh, you see, uh, this woman came behind because in the way they would be seated, they would be seated around a low table, reclining, uh, on couches, and so our Lord would be reclining, his feet would be sticking out over the edge of the couch as he came up behind and, uh, uh, touched his feet, of course, and wept over them and dried them with her hair and anointed them, sticking out behind, do you see? Uh, this woman came up behind too, but that was very deliberately coming behind. They didn't want to be seen. Look at these two, obvious contrast. He would have known what kind of woman this is that touches him. Not he would have known that she is touching him. That's obvious, but he would have known what kind of a woman she is that touches him, that she is a sinner. This was, who touched me? I, I, oh yes, I know. Even in spite of all the folks gathered pressing around him, he knew this individual touch. Why? Because this was a special touch that made the contact that brought the power streaming from him to her. Yes? And there is this difference, isn't it? This was a question of, uh, uh, uh, immoral behavior. He was an immoral woman. This woman wasn't immoral. That wasn't the difficulty, was it? This is a physical difficulty that carried ceremonial uncleanness. Yes? This demoniac was, in that sense, antisocial. Goodness me, he was in a very big way. Lived in the tombs, highly antisocial and self-destructive, like Princess Di and all this, only worse, cutting himself and mutilating his own body. Terrible disorders. We have it amongst us still, of course. Uh, do see. This woman was not antisocial, but she had been cut off from the synagogue, couldn't go, and normal, uh, social intercourse either because of her condition. You see, they feared it defiled. So there are differences, yeah, as well as similarities. When it comes to expounding this, once more, the, the details will be important and part of your sermon. You won't have to make up a sermon if you preach these stories, not if you let, you follow all the details of Luke. They are the sermon. You don't need to make up a sermon. You Okay? see? How difficult it is, I know it from my own experience, that sometimes we start off with a story, say the woman in Simon's house, and instead of expounding all the details that Luke gives, we start bringing a lot of this, this is by faith, you know, and this is the gift of God, and this is, well, that is true. But to see what we're doing is mixing the stories a bit. You'll see. Better to keep to the detail of each story because it's appropriate, yeah? In Jewish culture, she was ceremonially on cerem- I can't even say the word. She was unclean. Yeah. From that point of view. Mm. She couldn't have touched other Jews. No, she would have made them unclean. So for her to touch Jesus Mm-hmm. demonstrated some assurance on her part, Yes. that he would not react to that. That's right. And of course, her fear of coming up behind a great rabbi and in front of all the crowd. If that had been an ordinary rabbi, he might well have cursed her when he found out why she did it. But why do you think he made her confess that? Want to get the ladies on this, wouldn't we? Was that a little bit unkind of the Lord to make that poor lady come out in front of everybody publicly and confess why she touched him? Why on earth did he do that? He didn't make this woman confess all her sins in front of the dinner party, did he? Why did he make her confess? One consequence of it was that he was establishing publicly that she was now clean. That's right, yes. Yes, yes, he was declaring her clean. That's a very good idea, you see. The priests would necessarily have, have said that she was unclean and banned her. He was now pronouncing her clean in front of everybody, so that was a very gracious thing for him to do. Yes? Is there any possibility that in trying to test Jesus, she touched others on the way, bumped into them and made them also unclean, Yes. showing that Mm. just as she had to come to Jesus for cleaning, Mm-hmm. the way that they would be Yes, yes, yes. Mm-hmm. Yes, surely. Surely. Mm-hmm. Do you think it in any way involves her relationship with Christ? What's the difference between coming up behind Jesus secretly and touching the hem of his garment and being made to come and face him. Like Romans ten and ten? Yes, if you're right, yes. You see, it was the idea in, uh, uh... Yeah, they are, yes. And thirdly, uh, uh, you see, it was a notion in Israel that if you got a very, very holy man, they had this notion of holy men that could produce cures. As you'll see, that was quite widespread in the time of Jesus, that holy men could produce cures, and all you needed was to touch a bit of his garment. Aha. And, uh, suppose the old boy died, well, now you've got a relic, and you touch that. It real. Is that faith? No, it is the fact, and she came, it was faith, wasn't it? He did believe, but faith not yet very advanced. See, if I but touch the hem of his garment, she said, I shall be healed. And there's a hymn to that effect, I believe. She only touched the hem of his garment, as though that's a jolly good way to do it, do you see? Well, she didn't go home only having touched the hem of his garment. It was important that our Lord indicated that this is not a matter of superstition. Jesus isn't an impersonal power that you can turn the tap on. This must be a personal relationship. And he made her come to him and face him. And from him he heard the great word, didn't she? From him personally. Not an impersonal thing. There's no magic in it. Not a question of relics or, or charms or whatnot. Religion so easily goes to that, doesn't it? But no, it mustn't be that. It's got to be personal relationship with the Lord. Though, of course, he does acknowledge her still imperfect faith when she come and came and touched his garment, immediately she was healed. But he wouldn't let her away with that, and he wasn't being unkind, was he? Now she'd faced the Lord himself over it. And of course, he knew her secrets. And he knew all her distress, and he'd known all about it all the way along. He had to hide it from everybody else. He needn't hide it from him, and he loved her just the same anyway. I wanted to establish a personal relationship with the dear lady. How lovely, isn't it? Jesus isn't a charm, you know. In the Acts of the Apostles, you'll read of, of certain Jewish exorcists at Ephesus who went around casting out demons and things. And one of them took it into his head to exorcise demons, saying, um, I command thee in, in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, you come out. The man in whom the demon was jumped on him. People think you can use the name of Jesus as kind of a charm. No, no. That's a personal relationship with the Lord. And that's lovely in the end, isn't it? Yeah. Jairus' daughter, secret of the kingdom. Yes, I say, I say, I say, behold. I'm now going to Corinthians, but I hold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, shall we? We shall all be changed. The mother and brothers, and the mother and father, the The restored restored family. family. Yeah. Just in looking at that one, there's a similarity between that and the centurion, because Jesus said there, you have not found great a faith, and he said, to whom your faith Mm, that's right. has healed you. Yes, that's right. So, and it was similar because the centurion said, don't, you don't need to come to my house, she felt that she just touched Mm. she didn't need to Need, that's right, yes. Make it assure. Yes, that's right, yes, that's right. Well, there is certainly. And that, as you observe, is is, um, a very important thing, isn't it? The relentless faith. By faith. Safely, lest they should believe and be saved. Parable of the... page of the parable of the sower that comes in here. Uh, these are they on the stony ground. The devil comes and takes it away, lest they should believe and be saved, says Luke. Yes. Faith. You say, um, faith. Only believe. That is a message in itself, isn't it? It's inspired anyway. Just like a snowflake is an absolute marvel o- of pattern. So the salvation of God is no accidental thing, you know. And here is theology, the doctrine of salvation, but put across in stories of actual incidents. That's the marvel of it, isn't it?