September 8, 2013
SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST
CHURCH
LOCATION
Rocky Hill Firehouse, 2nd
Floor
150 Washington Street
Rocky Hill, New Jersey, 08553
Clay Curtis, pastor
Telephone: 615-513-4464
Schedule of Services
Sunday 10: 15 AM Bible Class
Sunday 11:00 AM Morning Service
Thursday 7: 30 PM Midweek Service
Order of service, announcements, nursery schedule, etc.,
are in attachment. All articles in the
bulletin are by the pastor unless otherwise noted.
THE HEALING TOUCH
Mark 5: 21-43
We see two touches in this text, one by the Lord touching the daughter,
the other by the woman with the issue of blood touching Christ. We will look at
these two touches as the work of grace wrought in one sinner for it is by
Christ touching us that we are made clean so we can touch Christ in faith.
The Sickness
The total depravity of all human beings by Adam’s transgression is manifest
by the fact that we all get sick and die. (Rom 5: 12) Notice the connection of
the “twelve years.” (Mk 5: 25, 42) The
same year Jairus daughter was conceived, the woman received the issue of blood.
The woman had the issue of blood twelve years and the daughter was twelve years
old when she died. What does that
picture about sinners spiritually? At
the time we were conceived, we received an issue of blood, spiritual death,
from our father Adam in our nature and soon we shall die physically (Ps 51: 5) The
woman with the issue of blood had been to many physicians but none healed her;
she had spent all she had (Mr 5: 26) There is but one Great Physician who
can heal us of sin. We cannot pay for Christ to heal us.
Grace is free; grace is a gift; grace is not of works lest any man should
boast. After all she tried the woman
grew worse. Religion
without Christ does not make us better, it makes us worse.
Christ First Touches Us
It was only by the touch of Christ that Jairus’ daughter was healed and
made alive. She could not come to the
Lord Jesus for she was dead; Christ had to come to her. (Mk 5: 23) We cannot come to Christ because we are
spiritually dead; we must have Christ lay his hands on us first. (Jn 3: 3; Mk
5: 41-42) There is another reason, God’s
law forbids unclean sinners from touching Christ. The law requires that all with an issue of
blood be separated until purified. (Lev 15)
Concerning the offerings which pictured Christ, the Lord said, “every one
that toucheth them shall be holy.” (Lev 6: 18, 27) It is not that the priest would be made holy by touching the sacrifice.
But they must be holy before touching the sacrifice. In addition, the law of
the issue of blood declared this woman ceremonially unclean so that she must
remain separated from all people until cleansed.
Yet, the
purpose of that law was to bring chosen sinners to the end of that law. And that is exactly where the woman with the
issue of blood was coming, to Christ the end of the law. But if only a clean person could touch
another clean person by law, how then could the woman with the issue of
blood touch Christ?
The reason
she could come freely and be accepted of Christ is because Christ fulfilled the
law by bearing the sin of his people on the cross. Notice, how fully Christ fulfilled the law—the
unclean by law hid his face likewise Christ hid his face from us when he was
made sin for us (Lev 13: 45; see margin of Is 53: 3; Mt 27: 45). She could touch Christ because Christ
cleansed her before as yet she touched him. It is only those who have been made holy by God’s work of
grace that can and will touch Christ through faith. God must sanctify, cleanse, and wash
us by the Spirit of regeneration in the blood of Christ by the washing of water
by the word before we can, or will, touch Christ in faith. Oh, that we could enter into how fully
Christ fulfilled the law in every aspect, how fully Christ’s redeemed are
washed clean by the Holy Spirit in regeneration so that by the sanctifying work
of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, the believer laying
hold of Christ by faith manifests that God has already made us holy to be accepted.
The Touch of the Believer
When Christ has touched us and washed us in his blood by the Spirit of
regeneration and the washing of water by the word, straightway we arise and walk
like Jairus’ daughter and come to Christ like the woman with the issue of blood
did, “When she had heard of Jesus.” Some
of you have heard of Jesus with the natural hear, but you have not heard
spiritually. Most in that crowd saw him with the natural eye and heard him with
the natural ear, but they had not seen nor heard spiritually. But if the Master touches you, Paul said,
“When the commandment came, sin revived and I died.” Then we see that we have an issue of blood
which only Christ can heal. Then she, “came
in the press behind, and touched his garment. For she said, If I may touch but
his clothes, I shall be whole.” She
believed that he could make her whole; she believed that ONLY he could make her
whole. Do you see your need? Do what she did. She would not let anything stop her from
reaching out and touching him. Believe
on Christ and thou shalt be saved.
The Virtue (Mark 5: 29-30)
As far as our
experiencing the healing grace of God, we know it only after we touch him in
faith, believing on him. She touched him, “And straightway the fountain of her
blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that
plague.” The virtue that went out of him
into her is Christ’s power and grace whereby he makes us to know all our sins
are forgiven, that we have been washed and are clean. She felt in her body that
she was healed of that plague. When a sinner touches Christ by faith, he sends
forth the power of his grace and makes us to know in the heart that he has
given us the forgiveness of sin, spiritual joy, peace, comfort and acceptance
with God in the Beloved. It is perceived as real as when a person is cured of
bodily disorder. The virtue going out of him does not diminish him in any
regard any more than the sun’s rays diminish the sun. (Jn 1: 16)
The
Secrecy of the Touch
Someone might
say, “But I did not see Christ touch the woman with the issue of blood
first?” When he gave life to the damsel we read, “He suffered no man to follow
him save Peter, and James, and John the brother of James.” “But when he had put
them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that
were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying. (Mk 5: 38, 40) This
life giving touch of the Savior is a secret work performed in the heart of his
child by Christ entering in in Spirit.
Likewise, at
first, when the woman with the issue of blood touched Christ no man knew it but
Christ. He said, “Who touched me?” But Christ knew who touched him because he
had already touched her to give her that faith. He turned and looked right at
her. (Mk 5: 32)
Faith which
Christ gives us in the heart begins as a secret work between Christ and his
dear child. But Christ draws it forth
into a public confession. (Mk 5: 33) Even
then the confession is to Christ alone, “the woman fearing and trembling,
knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all
the truth.” Who do you think she came
speaking of? Christ only! (Gal 2: 20)
Oneness
by Christ
As the woman
with the issue of blood was speaking, Christ commended her for her faith. Christ gave it, yet Christ praised her for
it. It is because Christ makes his child one with him so that what he has done
we have done.
Also, Christ makes us one with brethren. The daughter was raised from the
dead on the same day the woman with the issue of blood was healed. Can’t
you picture their sweet fellowship as they rehearsed to each other, Christ,
who raised their life from destruction and healed all their diseases!