[0:00] The Lord's help, let's turn back to Mark and chapter 5, and we'll read verse 34 again.
[0:17] Mark 5 and verse 34. And Jesus said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease.
[0:35] Now, assurance of faith is something that many of the Lord's people actually struggle with.
[0:47] By assurance of faith, I mean quite simply that sure knowledge that we have come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that sure knowledge that we have been saved.
[0:59] And perhaps for those who are unconverted, that can be quite surprising to hear. But it is actually possible for people to come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and actually to doubt whether they've been saved or not.
[1:16] Now, Christians here, we know all about that. But to the unbeliever, that can sometimes be quite surprising. It's possible to be saved, to have saving faith, and yet to doubt your salvation.
[1:28] Now, it's not that these people doubt God, and it's not that these people doubt the Lord Jesus Christ, or indeed the portion of the Lord Jesus Christ, or indeed the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[1:41] They don't doubt any of these things. What they doubt is themselves. People who struggle with assurance. It's themselves they doubt. And it's primarily their own faith that they doubt.
[1:52] They feel in themselves as though their faith perhaps isn't good enough, or their faith isn't strong enough, in order for them to know that they themselves are saved.
[2:04] And I suspect that this is something that many of us in here have gone through at some point or another, perhaps even tonight. There are those in our midst who are struggling with this, struggling to lay hold of and to grasp this assurance, assurance of their faith, assurance of their salvation in the Lord.
[2:29] It's a strange thing. You know, you can hear the gospel, and you can be struck by the gospel. You can be very much convicted under the preaching of the gospel, so much so that you fall on your knees, fall before the Lord, and ask the Lord to save you.
[2:50] You come bearing all, asking Him to save you, and it's like you're emptying yourself before the Lord. And then afterwards, you expect something. Afterwards, you expect to see something, perhaps something clear, perhaps something obvious, to tell you that you're a believer.
[3:10] You're waiting for that. And generally speaking, not all the time, but generally speaking, that doesn't happen. Now, some people, they do get something very outward and very clear and very obvious.
[3:22] But generally, if we petitioned everyone here and took a vote, probably most of us, that's not been our experience. We've not had this clear and outward sign the very moment that we commit our lives to the Lord Jesus Christ.
[3:37] And when that doesn't happen, people feel like asking this question, Well, have I come? Have I come to saving faith or not?
[3:47] They lack this assurance of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. And very often, people won't take a step to profess their faith unless they can somehow lay hold of this thing which we call assurance.
[4:04] And that's very common in our own culture and in our own context. So, in our own culture, the order of things is very much assurance first. We lay hold of assurance and then once we have that assurance, then we will go on to profess our faith to others.
[4:25] But in this narrative that I want to look at this evening, we actually have it the other way around. It's the opposite of what we're used to. Here, we're going to see a woman who actually professes her faith.
[4:39] She tells others about what the Lord has done in her life. And after coming forward, after stepping forward out of this crowd towards Jesus, after doing that, then she receives this assurance.
[4:54] Then she receives that wonderful token from the Lord. So, thinking about those themes of faith and assurance, what I wanted to look at tonight is this narrative about the healing of the woman with, as it's more commonly referred to, the woman with the issue of blood.
[5:14] And we see that in verse 25 to 34. So, that's really going to be the section that I want to focus on this evening. Now, you'll notice from my reading that this narrative is actually sandwiched between another narrative either side of it.
[5:32] You have the narrative of the healing or, I suppose you could say, the resurrection of Jairus' daughter. That narrative sandwiches this one. And that's something that Mark often does.
[5:43] He often connects two narratives together. And sometimes, like here, he actually sandwiches them together. And he does that because we're to take them very much as a unit. We're to take them together.
[5:55] He's teaching us something as we're taking those two narratives as a unit. And we can see that there is indeed a connection here between the two narratives.
[6:07] Notice the girl. How old is that girl? That girl that is six, Jairus' daughter. She is 12 years old. And the woman with the issue of blood, with this blood issue, how long has she had that issue of blood?
[6:24] Exactly the same amount of time. 12 years. It's no coincidence that the 12 years appears in both narratives here. As long as this little girl has been alive, this other woman has been struggling with this particular illness.
[6:40] So that very much suggests that all of this very much comes together in one unit. We're to take them together. We're to compare and contrast them. And that's why they're given in that way.
[6:53] But tonight, we only really have time to look at one half of these narratives. Or one of these narratives. And what I want to do really is just to focus on this narrative concerning the healing of this woman with the issue of blood.
[7:10] So we're going to focus on her, but we take it in the wider context of Jairus' daughter as well. So let's just focus on that for a few moments. So let's look at verse 25 to 34.
[7:22] So here, Jesus is already on his way to the house of Jairus. And they are in a considerable rush. And you can imagine that they're being quite a rush because Jairus' daughter is very ill.
[7:37] Very, very ill. She's at the point of dying. And of course, we know from the narrative that she's literally just about to die. So you can imagine there's a degree of rush and a degree of urgency here.
[7:49] But on the way, we have this remarkable delay. This remarkable encounter with this woman with the issue of blood.
[8:00] And it's remarkable because, well, it's remarkable for lots of reasons. But it's remarkable, first of all, because this woman ought not to have been there at all. She shouldn't have been there.
[8:11] She shouldn't have been near that crowd. She shouldn't have been there that day at all. Why do I say that? Why do I say she shouldn't have been there? Well, this is a woman with a severe menstrual condition.
[8:27] She is bleeding and she has been bleeding in this way for 12 years. And we actually have a bit of a background to that in the Levitical law code.
[8:38] Because according to Leviticus, and particularly in Leviticus chapter 15, that's a chapter where you have all these details and laws concerning bodily discharges, including blood.
[8:51] And in Leviticus 15, we find that if a woman had a condition like this, she was to be declared ritually unclean the whole time of her illness.
[9:02] So that means that this woman here, she has been ritually unclean for 12 years. That's a long time. It's a long time to be ritually unclean.
[9:14] What does it mean to be ritually unclean? What does that mean? Well, it means a number of things. But primarily, it means that this woman wouldn't have been allowed into the temple of God to worship.
[9:29] So for 12 years, as she is ritually unclean, that means she has no right of access to God. Because nothing unclean, nothing impure can come into the presence of God, into the temple of God.
[9:40] And because of that, this woman can't go near the temple. She has no access to God. And it's more than that, actually. It's not just that she can't get to the temple. She can't even, or she ought not to be mixing with others.
[9:54] Because if she touches anyone else, if she comes into contact with anyone else, they become ritually unclean as well. So this woman ought not to have been out in public.
[10:05] She ought not to have been interacting in this way with people. And she absolutely, most certainly, ought not to have been in a crowd like we see her here in this narrative.
[10:16] So you can imagine the tremendous sense of shame that this kind of condition would have caused. And I think that probably explains the approach of this woman here.
[10:29] You know, she goes in almost pretending to be invisible. She tries to sneak in. She tries to get her healing. And then she tries to sneak back out again. There's this sense of shame that you get from reading the narrative.
[10:43] You're aware of her shame. And it's as though you see her carrying this great burden of her shame. And it's almost as though when you picture her walking into the back of this crowd, her head is down.
[10:56] Her head is down. She doesn't want to make eye contact with anyone else. She doesn't want the attention of anybody else. Head down. She goes in to the back. Touches and then goes.
[11:08] Such is the extent of the shame that she carries because of this disease that she has. Now, in this passage here, this passage of the healing of this woman, we can actually see a spiritual parallel here.
[11:25] There's a spiritual parallel here with the healing of this woman and the healing that the sinner experiences when we come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
[11:37] There are very strong parallels here between the two. And what I want to do as we go through this narrative here, I want to try and lift out some of these spiritual parallels.
[11:49] Things that perhaps we experience ourselves. Because we are very much like this woman, aren't we? We're very much like her. We are all going through life carrying this weight and this burden of guilt and shame.
[12:06] Every one of us. Whether we're aware of it or not is another matter. But we are all going through life carrying this weight and this burden, this shame and this guilt. And it's not the shame of some kind of physical condition or some kind of mental condition.
[12:21] It's the shame of something spiritual. This weight that we carry on our backs is the shame and guilt of sin itself.
[12:32] That's what we carry. We're very like this woman. Very like her indeed. And as we go through, I'll try and lift out some of these parallels that we find with this woman and with ourselves.
[12:43] And we read there in verse 26 that this woman here, she has done everything humanly possible to try and cure her source of pain and suffering and shame.
[12:56] So, she's done everything possible. She has consulted many doctors. She has consulted many physicians to try and resolve this illness that she has.
[13:09] But has it helped? In all that she's done, has it helped her? Well, it hasn't helped her at all. In fact, if anything, it's only exasperated her suffering. Because we read there that she had suffered much under many physicians.
[13:24] Not just that she attended many physicians. She suffered much under many physicians. And she spent everything she has. She probably wasn't that well off in the first place.
[13:35] But she spent everything. Literally thrown everything at all these worldly means of trying to solve this disease. Trying to heal herself of this disease that she has.
[13:48] And it's not very difficult, is it, to make the spiritual connection there with ourselves. Because perhaps you feel an emptiness about your life.
[14:02] Perhaps you feel the weight of your guilt and your shame and your sinfulness. Perhaps you're very much aware of the weight of all these things. And much like this woman, perhaps you have tried to solve that problem using worldly means.
[14:20] And you will try going here, there and everywhere to try and get rid of this spiritual problem. That you have this darkness within your life. And you're going here, there and everywhere.
[14:30] And perhaps for some people, maybe you turn to various substances. Very common, isn't it? Very common. With the difficulty and the sorrows of our spiritual condition.
[14:43] When we feel darkness very close to us. It's easy to turn to substances. And sadly, many do. Even the Lord's people. Perhaps you go to drink or to drugs.
[14:56] Or perhaps some kind of unprescribed medication. Or pills or something. Something to try and help you. Something to try and alleviate this problem. But it doesn't alleviate your problem.
[15:08] It makes it worse. All it does is it drags us down. It drags us down into addiction. It drags us down into dependence. And rather than going to these things to make things better.
[15:21] They end up being much, much worse. Just like this woman experienced herself. Or maybe you try and turn to different forms of escapism.
[15:32] That's another one. That's a big one today. Different forms of escapism. We try and engross ourselves in, very often, different kinds of media. And that's one of the new problems we have today.
[15:45] Engross ourselves in these things to try and drown out whatever darkness, whichever spiritual difficulties we find ourselves in. And so we're incessantly listening to music, drowning out any other thoughts.
[15:58] We're incessantly coming to the internet or the telly or social media. All these things. Just immersing ourselves in these things. And somehow by immersing ourselves in these things, we hope that it will get rid of all our problems, all our spiritual difficulties, and all this darkness which looms over us.
[16:18] But of course, that doesn't work. That doesn't work at all. Because escaping is not the answer. Escaping is not the answer.
[16:29] Ignoring these spiritual problems. Ignoring that darkness within our very souls. That isn't going to help us at all. All it does is make things worse. And when we engross ourselves in these things of the world, we find that it just makes everything worse.
[16:44] Just like this woman experiences here. Spends everything. All she has at it. She's not any better. She's much worse. And we read that she's been trying all these worldly fixes for 12 years.
[16:58] It's a long time. But perhaps you have been trying to deal with your sin for much longer than that. Perhaps you've been trying to deal with your sin for a lot longer than 12 years. But no matter what you've tried, no matter where you go, you can't solve this problem of sin within you.
[17:15] See, you cannot find in this world a cure for that sin. It doesn't matter where you go. It doesn't matter who you turn to. In this world, there is absolutely no cure whatsoever.
[17:28] All it does is make things worse. And the longer you leave it, the more dominion sin tends to have over you. It's a strange thing that. Sin is a strange thing.
[17:39] When you're born, you're full of sin. Sin affects every part of you. But as you grow, sin also grows within you. And it's almost as though its dominion takes more and more of a hold of you.
[17:53] And the older you get, the harder it seems to fight against it. Sin is a horrible, horrible disease. But this woman here, here she is with her disease.
[18:05] Trying all these worldly means. But nothing at all is working. But then, in verse 27, this woman hears the greatest news of her life. She hears their reports about Jesus.
[18:19] So someone has told her about the Lord Jesus Christ. Someone has told her. And she hears about Jesus. She hears about his divine power.
[18:30] She hears about his ability to heal. And what does she do? She goes and she acts on it. And she goes towards Jesus. She seeks Jesus out. She comes to find this healing from her disease.
[18:46] You see, this is quite an amazing point here. This is a wonderful healing account. A marvelous account of someone being saved. But look at where it begins.
[18:57] It begins in the simplest of ways. It begins by somebody telling somebody else about Jesus. That's basic, isn't it? A wonderful account that begins with somebody telling somebody else about Jesus.
[19:13] And that is a reminder to us. As if we need a reminder. But it is a reminder to us. Of the importance of spreading the gospel. The importance of telling others about the Lord Jesus Christ.
[19:25] That's what someone did here with this woman. Now, I'm quite sure that this woman, she would have been very good at hiding her problem. I'm quite sure of that.
[19:36] Now, we don't actually read that. The passage doesn't say that she was good at hiding her problem. But I imagine that she would have become very good at it. Because when you think about it, she's had this for 12 years.
[19:46] 12 years. 12 years. 12 years of that shame. And at this point, she would have been very good at hiding it. Masking it. And there's a good chance that the person who actually told her about Jesus.
[19:58] It's a good chance that that person didn't even realize the dilemma and the problem that this woman actually had. And, you know, it's amazing how good people are at hiding their conditions.
[20:13] They're very good. People are very good at that. You'll be aware of that. And, yes, people are good at hiding physical and mental conditions. That's true. But I'm talking about the spiritual here.
[20:25] And people are very good at hiding their spiritual condition. We don't know what people around us are struggling with, spiritually speaking.
[20:36] You don't know. You just don't know. You have no idea of the convictions that some people are feeling. You don't know that. It's very often a mystery to us. The people who we think are being convicted, they might not be.
[20:49] And those who we think wouldn't give God the time of day, they are the very ones who quite often are convicted. It's amazing how people hide and bottle these things up.
[21:01] And that's why we must ensure that we spread the message of the gospel, the message of the Lord Jesus Christ to all. Everyone. Even people that you think maybe aren't so bothered about their sin.
[21:15] Even people who you maybe think don't care about these spiritual things. Because you just don't know what they're hiding. You don't know what spiritual conditions and spiritual things that they are struggling with.
[21:29] And perhaps what they need more than anything else is to hear the soothing balm of the gospel. The soothing balm of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, somebody tells this woman. Somebody tells her.
[21:41] Whether they knew or not that she had a problem, they tell her. They tell her. And she acts on it. So, she hears about Jesus. And hearing the gospel, that is of course important.
[21:54] But hearing alone is not enough. It's never enough just to hear. It's never enough just to hear. This woman doesn't just hear. She acts.
[22:05] She acts. She hears about Jesus and then she acts on it. She acts on it by seeking Jesus out. She puts her faith in him.
[22:17] And you see that. That faith in action. She shows her faith by actually seeking Jesus out. She is acting on it. You see, it's great to hear the gospel.
[22:28] And it's great that you come to the house of God to hear the gospel. But that isn't enough. It's not enough. It's not enough to stand in admiration of Christ. It's not enough to stand in admiration of the gospel and say, What a wonderful saviour.
[22:43] And what a wonderful gospel. You must come towards him. You hear about him. And then there's a response on your part. You must come. You must seek.
[22:53] You must fall on your knees. And ask him to save you. Some people wonder why they're not saved. They hear the gospel. They see the wonder of the gospel.
[23:05] They see the wonder of Christ. But they don't do anything about it. They don't think about actually getting up and going towards the saviour. That's what we need to do. We must seek the Lord Jesus Christ.
[23:17] And here this woman, she shows her faith by seeking out Jesus. And today, if you are seeking Jesus, if you are seeking out Jesus, then is that not a sign of faith?
[23:31] Is that not a sign of faith? That you are seeking him out? Because why on earth would you seek him out? Unless you believed in him. And unless you trusted that he would save you.
[23:42] You see, even the act of seeking itself, that is a mark of grace. It is a mark of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And in verse 28, she says to herself, after she seeks him, after she finds him, if I touch even his garments, I will be made well.
[24:04] Now this woman, she doesn't want to draw any attention to herself at all. None at all. She's been struggling with this condition for 12 years, and she just wants to go in there and straight back out again.
[24:16] No fuss. She's the kind of woman that would come into the church, and she would sit at the back, or sit upstairs, and she would come, and she would hear the gospel, and she would believe in the gospel, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and then she would just disappear.
[24:33] No fuss. No attention. None of that at all. And I wonder tonight if there are people in here just like that. You want to come in.
[24:44] You want to receive the gospel, receive salvation, and then just nip out. No fuss. No attention. Don't let anybody else know about it at all.
[24:55] Perhaps there is some in here just like that. Well, that's what this woman was like, and here in this statement in verse 28, she shows incredibly strong faith there.
[25:07] It's incredibly strong faith. She is convinced that the power of Christ is so great that all she needs to do is touch his garment, not have a conversation with him, not have any interaction necessarily with him.
[25:20] She sets a low bar in that sense. All I need to do is touch the garment. If I just touch the garment, that'll be enough. That's strong faith for you. And she shows very strong faith indeed.
[25:32] Now, at this particular time in history, people thought that the clothes of someone, someone's garments, actually somehow conveyed their power.
[25:45] It's kind of a very pagan way of thinking, but that's the kind of thoughts that people had in that day. Now, we don't know exactly what convinced this woman to touch the garment.
[25:57] Perhaps there was an element of the superstitious here. We don't know. But if that is the case, if there was an element of the superstitious here, then that shows us that you can have strong faith and still have immature faith.
[26:10] Because she has strong faith here. But if she is doing this in a superstitious sense, then it shows that it is an immature faith, an immature theology, an immature understanding of who Christ is.
[26:24] But perhaps this is much more than mere superstition. Maybe she sees something of Christ's true identity as God himself here.
[26:37] Maybe rather than this being someone with immature faith and an immature theology, perhaps this is actually someone with a very mature faith and a very mature theology. Perhaps she sees Christ as God himself, the Holy One of God.
[26:53] And as she comes, she comes approaching the Holy One, and if she but put her hand on the garment of the Holy One of God, that she herself would be made holy and that she would be cleansed of her illness.
[27:09] You see, remember, she wasn't allowed in the temple. She wasn't allowed access to God in the temple. That access to God there was barred. She wasn't allowed in.
[27:21] But here, she comes to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. It's quite remarkable. Direct access to the temple wasn't allowed for her.
[27:32] So, instead, she finds access to God, the Holy One, through the Lord Jesus Christ. And, of course, that's the same for ourselves as sinners as well, isn't it?
[27:44] That's the same for ourselves. As sinners, we have no access at all to God. We have no right of access. Our sin bars us from access into the presence of God.
[27:57] But that's the wonder of the gospel. Because the wonder of the gospel is that God didn't just wait for us somehow to ascend into the presence of God. God doesn't just wait there and watch mankind and wait until mankind does enough to enter into the holy presence of God.
[28:13] We would never get there if that was the case. The wonder of the gospel is that God comes down to us. Rather than us making our way into the temple, the temple comes down to us.
[28:25] God comes down in the Lord Jesus Christ and God meets us in Christ. He is the one who tabernacles amongst us. It is this picture of the temple of God coming towards man.
[28:39] Not man coming towards the temple, the temple coming towards man. The Lord Jesus Christ. He is the meeting place between God and man.
[28:52] And here, this woman, she can't go into the temple, but here on the streets, the temple very much comes to her in the Lord Jesus Christ.
[29:04] And she reaches out to touch even the hem of his garment or touch his garment in some way. And she does that. She reaches out and she touches the holy temple of God, the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
[29:20] And then in verse 29, we read that immediately, the flow of her blood was dried up or the fountain of her blood was dried up. The healing is instant, straight away.
[29:32] No delays at all. You see, the medicines that we use in the medical world, they can take some time to work. Sometimes they take hours.
[29:43] Sometimes they can take weeks and even months and perhaps even longer. It can take a long time to take effect. But the work of regeneration, this spiritual healing of the soul, which the sinner experiences when the spirit comes in and regenerates us, that is instantaneous.
[30:02] There is absolutely no delay in that at all. No delay. When you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are saved. You don't need to wait a few months. You don't need to wait a few years.
[30:13] You don't need to wait for a few other communion seasons. It's not how it works. When we put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are saved from that moment.
[30:25] New birth, regeneration, instantaneous. Now, it's worth qualifying that a wee bit and saying, sometimes it takes a while for us to become aware of that.
[30:36] It can take a while for us to become aware of this salvation. But that doesn't take away from the fact that the salvation itself is instantaneous. Just like that, one moment, you are in darkness and the next moment you are in the marvelous light of God.
[30:52] And this woman here, she's healed. And just as she's healed at that same time, Jesus is aware that power has gone out from him. He's aware that the hand of faith has been placed on him.
[31:04] And he stops. He stops in his tracks and he turns around and he asks that question. Who touched my garments? Who touched them?
[31:15] Now, to the disciples and to the crowd, this was a puzzling question. It didn't make any sense to them at all. Jesus, there's people all around you.
[31:27] They are thronging up against you. They are surrounding you in every direction. Touching you in every direction. And you're asking, who touched me? It didn't make any sense.
[31:38] It made no sense to them at all. But I'll tell you this, it made sense to one person. It made sense to one person. It was crystal clear to one person. The woman herself, this woman who has been healed, she knows that that question is directed very much at her.
[31:57] You see, sometimes when Christ speaks to us in his word, when he speaks to us through the preaching of his word, sometimes it can go over the heads of others.
[32:10] It can go right over the heads of others. They don't perhaps understand it. It doesn't strike a chord with them in any way. But it strikes a chord with you because when the Lord is directing something to you, you cannot miss it.
[32:22] You know it's for you. And even when you look around you and others are falling asleep and others aren't taking it in, it's going right over their heads, you know it's for you. You know it's directed at you.
[32:33] You're very much aware when that's the case. Even if others aren't, you very much are. And here, this woman, she knows. Even if the others don't see it, even if the others don't understand what's being said, she knows because it is very much directed towards her.
[32:51] And Jesus turns and he waits for this woman to make public what she hoped would remain private and secret. She thought she could slip away.
[33:03] She might even be halfway down the street. She thought she could slip away. But Jesus says, no, no. I want you to come forward and I want you to tell of what the Lord has done in your life.
[33:17] I want you to tell of how I have healed you. And Jesus here, he's effectively commanding this woman to come to him. That's effectively what this is.
[33:29] Now I know it's not actually a command. It's not an imperative. It's a question. But the way the question is phrased, it is very much almost like he's commanding this woman. I want you to come forward and I want you to tell what's happened to you.
[33:43] And she's got a choice then. She's got a choice. She can just ignore it and turn around and keep on going her way. She's been healed already, remember.
[33:54] The healing has already happened. And she could just walk away. She could turn around and live her life and be quite happy. I have no doubt. She doesn't do that. She doesn't walk away at all.
[34:08] What does she do? She, with fear and trembling, she comes forward. She comes forward. This woman who was wanting to be invisible, now all of a sudden everyone's looking at her.
[34:22] Everyone is watching her. She comes forward and she tells of what the Lord has done for her. She comes before Christ. She comes before this crowd as well and she explains and how hard that must have been for her.
[34:37] How hard that must have been to explain the whole truth, to explain her condition when she ought not even to have been amongst those people. How hard it must have been to tell, to tell the whole truth.
[34:55] And you know Jesus says the same thing to us today. He comes to us and he says if your faith is in me I want you to step out of the shadows.
[35:09] I want you to step out of the background. I don't want you just to believe in your hearts. I want you to confess and to confess with your mouths and to tell what the Lord has done in our lives.
[35:25] You know perhaps we are happy coming in here and sneaking in and hearing the word and receiving salvation and then disappearing. But Jesus says no, no, wait, wait, don't just disappear.
[35:40] I want you to come forward and I want you to tell and I want you to testify of your faith openly and that is hard. I don't deny it's not hard.
[35:52] It's very hard. It's hard for this woman and it's hard for us because by doing that we're admitting that we're weak. We're admitting that we can't save ourselves.
[36:04] We're admitting that we need someone else to save us and that's difficult for someone to admit and pride can get in the way there. Pride can come in and pride can actually stop us making that confession.
[36:16] Stop us making that profession. But Jesus says ignore your pride. I want you to come and make that step and let it be known what I have done for you.
[36:28] And as we gather this weekend for the Lord's supper perhaps the Lord is looking out to the crowd here and perhaps he is saying who touched me?
[36:41] Perhaps he is saying who laid this hand of faith on me? And if he's speaking to you in that message then what will you do?
[36:53] Will you come forward or will you turn around and remain invisible? Well what a reward this woman gets for her actions here.
[37:05] An incredible reward. Jesus says to her daughter your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease. She gets a word of assurance from the Lord that her faith has made her well.
[37:21] Not touching the garment that didn't make her well. Nothing else made her well. Her faith and she's told that your faith has made you well. If she had just slipped away if she had just disappeared she wouldn't have received that word of assurance.
[37:40] She wouldn't have received that word of confirmation from the Lord. Daughter your faith has made you well. She wouldn't have received it at all. But because she took that step because she came away from the background and came away from the shadows and made public what the Lord had done in her life now she has a fuller understanding of what happened to her and she has a stronger and more intimate relationship and fellowship with the very one who has saved her.
[38:15] You see she leaves with the peace of God that's what we read here go in peace Christ tells her she could have just gone away just healed but she goes away now because she came forward with much more than that she goes away healed and she goes away with assurance and she goes away with this peace from the Lord Jesus Christ and you know there are many believers perhaps even in here tonight who are still looking for that assurance and that peace of having their salvation as it were confirmed by Christ and sadly most people wait in the shadows for that assurance that's what they do they wait in the shadows and until they get that assurance they won't stand out and profess and confess their faith before others but here in this narrative we see it works the other way around this woman gets this peace she gets this assurance after she testifies of her faith in the
[39:22] Lord it's afterwards not before she makes that step she professes and she receives that incredible word of assurance from the Lord and what a blessing she would have missed out on if she just went home that day what a blessing she would have missed out on because she didn't just turn away and go because she went forward she receives a special token from the Lord a special token that assures her of her faith daughter your faith has made you well and that I have no doubt would have been something that woman would be able to grasp onto for a long time to come after that there would have been times in her Christian life like we all experience when the devil would throw all kinds of doubts at her and she would be able to go back to this moment where the Lord said daughter your faith has made you well she might even have struggled in her own faith at times going through trials and suffering and perhaps her faith might have been quite weak at times but again even in those times she could go back to this moment and remember what the
[40:28] Lord said to her daughter your faith has made you well it must have been a remarkable token for her a strength to her and all the difficulties that lay ahead and had she gone away she wouldn't have received that at all perhaps there are some in here tonight who like this woman you have faith in the Lord you have come to faith but you stand in the shadows you stand in the background awaiting this sign outward or whatever it might be of our assurance and only then will I come and only then will I profess faith but perhaps like the woman here the Lord is waiting for you to come forward and profess that faith and maybe only then you will receive that token of assurance may the Lord bless these thoughts to us we'll stand to pray