I invite you in your scriptures to Luke chapter eight, where we took our scripture reading earlier in the service. Luke chapter eight, we're returning to our series on the miracles of our Lord Jesus as they're recorded in the gospel of Luke. And today we have an account that braids together two miracles. And so these would be the 11th and 12th miracles that Luke records right here at the halfway point of this progression through his miraculous works. This unit, of course, that was read in your hearing contains two accounts that are put together. It contains the record of Jesus healing a man, or healing a woman, that is, with an issue of blood, with a hemorrhage, and then raising up a 12-year-old girl who had died. Now one of the great benefits of going through the miracles in the way that we're doing this, and not just treating them in isolation, is that you can start to see connections that you would never see otherwise. And you see the deliberateness of the Holy Spirit in the way that he orders these things together. And so by way of introduction this morning, I thought it would be good for us just to think back to the last four miracles that we've talked about over the last month and a half or so, and to think about what the point of those four miracles is, because as we see that, I think that the point of this account and the blending together of these two miracles will really come into some sharp focus for us. So think back, first of all, to chapter seven and the centurion. And what we've had is we've had four miracles in a row, which all climaxed with the response to Jesus's authority. That really has been what these last four miracles have been about. How did these people respond to the authority of Jesus? So you think about the centurion back in chapter seven. How did he respond to Jesus' authority? Well, he acknowledged that Jesus did not even have to come to his house, and Jesus commended his great faith. That was his response. Well, the next account was the raising of the widow's son, the raising of the widow of Nain's son. How did she respond to Jesus' authority? Well, she didn't. The story isn't really about her. And actually it's interesting if you think about it. We have that resurrection account in the middle of chapter 7. And you would think that an account of some raising somebody from the dead would be a major point of emphasis. And yet we only have about five verses about it and nothing about the woman and how she responded, nothing about the future life of this young man. The whole point of that story seems to be to go right on into the next section. Because after that young man was raised from the dead, news about Jesus began to spread and it came to who? It came to John the Baptist. And what was John the Baptist's response to Jesus' authority? It was to doubt. It was to doubt. He's hearing about Jesus' miraculous works out there for other people, and he's wondering, well, when is he going to do it for me? Here I am sitting in prison, and he's not doing anything for me. And so he sends these messengers to Jesus. Now, isn't that surprising? I mean, think about the juxtaposition of those two accounts. The person that you would most expect to respond with great faith is responding with doubt. And the person that you would most expect to respond with doubt, a Gentile centurion, is responding with great faith. And the surprises don't end there, because the next account is Jesus calling his disciples to get into a boat and to row to the other side through the night, even though he well knows that a terrific storm is brewing that is going to threaten their very lives. And yet Jesus, in the midst of that storm, stands up and he calms the waves, he calms the sea and the wind, and what was the response of those disciples? They were amazed. And they said, what manner of man is this that even the winds and the waves obey him? And you would think that these men who had been with Jesus for months now and had seen countless miracles, that they wouldn't be surprised by anything at this point, and yet here they are marveling at the authority of Jesus. It goes to show that it's one thing for Jesus to do something for other people, and it's a very different thing when he starts doing it to you. The personal nature of that. And then we have that fourth account, which was two weeks ago, or two or three weeks ago, when we read of the Lord sending a mighty legion of demons out of that demoniac of Gadara. And we talked about how he granted the demons request that they would enter some swine and cause the herd of pigs to run headlong down to the ocean and kill off all those pigs, all that valuable herd, and then cause the whole village to be disrupted. And we talked about how the response of the villagers was to fear. To fear what it would cost to have a person like this as a part of my life. to fear what it would cost to submit to Jesus's authority. Again, surprising, right? You would think that these people, after they'd experienced the depravity and the wildness and the menacing presence of those demoniacs, remember Matthew says there were two of them, after they experienced all that, that they would have been overjoyed to have somebody like Jesus around to keep it from happening again. But no, they feared greatly and they drove Jesus from their presence. They were afraid of what Jesus' authority would cost them. So here are four possible responses to Jesus' authority. Faith, doubt, amazement, fear. Which one will be your response when confronted with his authority today? Faith, doubt, astonishment, or fear? That's the very question the Spirit of God intends us to be asking ourselves when we reach this halfway point of the miracles of the Lord Jesus. And you see the passage we have before us, how it gives us a deliberate contrast of responses. That's how this passage opens. I had Mr. Russell begin reading in verse number 40, which is actually before the paragraph marking here of where this account begins. But it's to highlight how that Luke very deliberately puts two responses side by side. He wants us to be thinking about responses. I mean, compare verse 37 with verse 40. In verse 37, all those villagers besought him to depart from them, for they were taken with great fear. And he did, he went again to the ship and returned back. Now read verse 40. And it came to pass that when Jesus was returned, the people gladly received him, for they were all waiting for him. See the deliberate contrast of responses. And now we're confronted with this complex story. What's the point of this account? that begins in verse number 41 and goes all the way to the end of the chapter and contains these two miracles intertwined. What's the point? Well, Jesus himself is going to tell us the point. That's always a good rule of thumb. You always, if Jesus tells you the point, then that's the point. And he's gonna tell us the point when in the midst of this story, in the midst of the miracle, he says in verse 48, At the climax of the healing of the woman with the issue of blood, he says, daughter, be of good comfort. Thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace. Now here is something surprising. It doesn't probably strike you as surprising. But if you were reading this book for the very first time, this would have surprised you, because this is the very first time that Jesus has connected someone's deliverance to their faith. It's the first time he's made that connection. It's the first time that he has explicitly stated, because of faith, you were healed. And we've looked at 10 miracles already, and he's never made a statement like that. He's never made that kind of connection before. I mean, faith has been mentioned before. Remember that Jesus noted the faith of the four men who brought the paralytic man to him and lowered him from the roof. He saw their faith. And you remember that he commends the centurion's great faith. And you know how he questions the disciples' lack of faith in the midst of the storm. But there's never been this explicit connection that because of faith, you are healed. Now look in verse number 50. When Jesus heard it about the death of Jairus' daughter, he answered Jairus saying, fear not, believe only, and she shall be made whole. This is the first time that our Lord has explicitly called for someone's faith in order to perform a miracle. In fact, if you think about it, most of the miracles that we've seen have been done to people who were completely passive. and pretty much shocked by the Lord delivering them on that day. I mean, most of the time, he demanded nothing of them. He just heals them. I mean, think of the widow of Nain and the dead young man being carried out. There was no request. There was no mention of faith. Jesus just shows up and does it. Think about the demoniacs that he's healed. They weren't asking to be delivered, the demons were asking things, but not those people. Jesus has just done these things out of the blue for pretty much passive individuals. Well here, he is explicitly calling for faith. Believe and she will be made whole. So right here in the heart of the passage, What we have is this. What we have is not a passage that is about people's response to Jesus's authority, but it's about Jesus's response to people's faith. That's what this is about. And you see that when you start thinking about, wait a minute, this is the first time he's ever made these connections between the miracle and faith. Our Lord has demonstrated that he is authoritative in every realm up to this point. We've had 10 miracles, and he has shown himself to be the sovereign Lord of every realm you can think of. Sometimes people have feared being confronted with that kind of authority. Sometimes people have marveled, even his own followers marveled at this. Sometimes people like John the Baptist have doubted when confronted with that kind of authority. Now the Lord is demanding an end of all of those responses. No more doubt, no more astonishment, no more fear. From now on, it works this way. If you believe, you will be made whole. Because she believed, She was made whole. So I wanna preach to you this morning on the theme Christ's response to faith. Christ's response to faith. And remember, from what we saw two weeks ago, if you fear him, he may depart from you. But if you put your faith in him, Watch how he will respond in this account. Christ responds to faith. The passage has three scenes and we'll let those three scenes be our outline this morning as we work our way through this passage. And so first of all, we have the approach of Jairus in verses 41 and 42, the approach of Jairus. Let's pull out some characteristics of this man, and perhaps you'll see yourself in this man. First of all, we realize from verse 41 that this is a man of considerable spiritual maturity. We're told, behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue. So we're not dealing with someone of ranked unbelief, are we? We're dealing with someone who has considerable spiritual insight and maturity. The old, the synagogues of the Jews were ruled by a board of elders. And this man had been chosen and ordained to be one of those elders in the Capernaum synagogue. He was recognized among his fellows as a man of spiritual maturity. But this man had a desperate problem. And we're told all about it in verse number 42. He has only one daughter. She was about 12 years old and she was dying. You may be aware of the notorious apparent contradiction between Luke and Mark and then how Matthew puts this. When Matthew quotes the man, he has the man coming to Jesus and saying, my daughter is even now dead. And this has been brought up by people who try to do damage to scripture and they're skeptics of the Word of God. But it really shouldn't be any problem at all to any honest reader of the Gospels. When this man left his daughter, her life was ebbing away fast. and it has been some time that he has been separated from her as he looked for Jesus. And he has no idea whether she is dead or alive. He hopes that she is alive, but apparently he declared both as possibilities to Jesus as he talked to Jesus. He certainly is hoping her life is still in her, and he's insisting that the Lord arrive before it's too late, but he doesn't know. He doesn't know whether she's dead or alive. And so this man, we find third, believed in the authority of Jesus. He was a man of spiritual maturity, he has a desperate need, and he's a man of faith in the Lord. And he ought to be a man of faith. I mean, it says in verse number 41, he fell down at Jesus' feet, he besought him that he would come to his house, right? He went to Jesus, and he ought to be a man of faith. Because you have to remember, the very first miracle recorded in this gospel, that happened at this man's synagogue. Remember that day when that demoniac was there sitting as Jesus taught in the Capernaum synagogue, and it cries out, and the Lord rebukes the demon, casts him out. That happened at Jairus' synagogue. And in addition to that, the centurion in chapter seven is the one who had built that synagogue that he was an elder of. And in fact, you might recall how the centurion had dispatched elders of the Jews, synagogue elders, to go to Jesus. Maybe Jairus was one of those men dispatched by the centurion. If not that, at least he was fully aware of the miracle that was done in the healing of the centurion's servant. And so it's no wonder then that he comes and he expresses faith in the Lord that he falls down at his feet. And yet, we want to notice this fourthly. This man does not yet have the faith that that centurion had. His faith needs to be strengthened. Why do I say that? Why do I say that he doesn't yet have the faith the centurion had? Well, because the centurion, you recall, Jesus said had great faith because he was willing to have Jesus heal from a distance with no presence of Jesus at all involved in the healing. But this man is demanding the Lord's physical presence in his house. And Matthew and Mark tells us that he asked the Lord to come and lay hands on his daughter. So he is insisting that Jesus come to his house. So I just want to introduce that thought into your mind at this point, that this is a man of faith in the Lord, but that faith has not yet risen to the point of the centurion's faith, and that great faith that the Lord had commended back a chapter before. Now nevertheless, verse number four tells us, or just number 42 tells us, that the Lord responded to this man's request as he always does. with tenderness, with compassion, and he immediately goes with this man to his house. But then you get that phrase at the end of verse 42, and as he went, the people thronged him. Literally, it's the word for strangling something. Have you ever been in a desperate hurry? only to be stopped at a railroad crossing with 112 slow-moving freight cars. I grew up in the Midwest. The small town that I grew up in in high school only had one major road that you could drive from the whole distance of the road and not come across a railroad crossing. I don't know how many times I was late to work as a high school student because I was stopped at a railroad crossing and they were always going very slowly through town, approaching the train yard that we had in town. Well, this situation is way worse than that. I mean, this is awful. Jairus must have been frantic. Everything is bottlenecked. They're trying to make their way to his house, and they're hindered by all of these people just strangling the way, the thoroughfare. And then, unbelievably, Jesus just stops even attempting to make any progress, and he is looking around asking who touched him. And if you're an observant reader of this account, you just feel this panic rising up in you at this point. And you feel the panic that must have seized Jairus while Jesus is asking, who touched me? Who touched me? And so let's just leave Jairus there in that frantic state of panic and shift our eyes over now to what it was that caused the procession to stop. And we see in this second scene that it's all about this woman and her issue of blood. And it begins in verse number 43. We find first of all about her problem. And a woman having an issue of blood 12 years, which had spent all of her living upon physicians, neither could be healed if any came behind him. And so, of course, her problem is that for the same length of time that Jairus's daughter has been alive, she has been hemorrhaging. She spent all of her living on physicians. She's exhausted all of her wealth trying to find a solution to this physical ailment. And verse 43 says that she's hopeless. There's no cure that she has found. She could not be healed of any, the text says. And so she approaches Jesus, but her approach is very unique, isn't it? No one has ever approached Jesus like this before. I mean, everyone else who's clamoring for Jesus' attention is wanting him to shift his eyes and to focus down on them. Or they want him to lay his hands on them and touch them. They want him to come to their house. This lady just wants to sneak up behind. and reach out and touch his garment, just the hem, just the tassels of his garment, that'll be enough. That's a unique approach, isn't it? And Matthew and Mark tell us what she's thinking. Luke doesn't tell us what she's thinking, but those gospel writers do. She's thinking that if she can just touch his garment, she would be healed. In other words, it's not accidental, it's very deliberate. It's planned. Her design is to do exactly what she did, and her belief was that if she could just touch his garment, her hopeless condition would be remedied. And the scripture says in verse 44, immediately the issue of blood staunched. Mark says she could feel it immediately. It was that dramatic. She knew right then and there that she had been completely healed. She could sense it in that moment. But Jesus knew. And in verse 45, Jesus says, who touched me. And everybody around him is denying this. And the apostles, they expressed their amazement. Why would you even ask this question? You know you've been jostled around and all these people strangling you. Why would you even ask a question like that? But the Lord says in verse 46, essentially that this is a different kind of touch. This wasn't something just getting jostled in a bottlenecked crowd. It was a unique touch. And he knew it because virtue is gone out of me. And that word virtue was just the word for power, just the normal Greek word for power, dunamis is the Greek word. And so he perceived that power had gone out of him. So the Lord demands in verse 47, he demands that the woman come and declare publicly the whole thing. And this is just what she did not want to do. She did not want to do this. The whole reason that she was reaching out to Jesus from behind was, well, let's think about that. Why was she making that unique approach? Why was she coming up from behind and not approaching him the normal way? Verses 47 and 48 give us two reasons it seems. Verse 47 tells us that she came trembling, falling down before him. So the first reason she approached that way from behind was because of fear. It's because of fear. Why was she so fearful? Well, one reason that every Jew would know, I mean, Luke doesn't tell us this, but every Jew would know this reason for fear is that hemorrhaging like this had left her ceremonially unclean, unfit to be out and be touching anybody. It was against the ceremonial code of Moses to be out and about in public at all in her condition. You can read all about it in Leviticus 15. In that one chapter, the word issue, the word issue here, is used 24 times. The first half of the chapter is men, second half of the chapter is women, and all of the defilement and uncleanness that you're left. You can't do this and you can't do that. Even if someone who has a hemorrhage like this spits on you, that person who received the spit is unclean. And so she knows that to face him head on or to ask him to touch her would be unclean. It would be illegal. It would be against the law. She knew that it would be wrong. So she came tremblingly like she did because in her conscience she feared that she had done something wrong. I mean, the whole approach was trying to be careful with regards to Leviticus 15, come up from behind, just touch his garment, and now when she's exposed, her conscience is fearing, maybe I have done something wrong. and that fear's compounded because now Jesus is asking to admit publicly what she had done and she probably fears not only the crowd and their approbation but she also fears that maybe since she has broken Leviticus 15 that she might have the hemorrhage come back to her. He might revoke the miracle or something. Nevertheless, she faces the Lord and she declares publicly the whole thing. And listen to the Lord's words in verse 48. Daughter, be of good comfort. Thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace. The thing that healed you was your faith. So that's the second thing that was the cause of her reproach. The first approach, the first cause of the approach was fear, but the second cause, the Lord Jesus tells us, it was her faith that made her approach like that. And that's the main reason for her approach. This woman believed that Christ was such a supernatural person and there's so much power connected to him that she can touch him anywhere, even his garment, and she will be healed. He doesn't have to look at her, he doesn't have to lay hands upon her, he doesn't have to go to her house, nothing of that. All she had to do was come into some kind of contact with even his garment. And she would be healed. And that's faith. Tremendous faith. And the Lord commends her faith. Be of good cheer, thy faith hath made thee whole. And the Lord explains this. to everybody there. He wants them to understand that there was nothing about this woman's approach that was magical or superstitious. She wasn't reaching out like people rub a rabbit's foot or something, trying to get some good luck charm. No, it was faith in Christ that was the cause of her healing. And so he declares openly that this woman was a believer. And for the first time, he makes explicit what has been implicit in the first 10 miracles. It's like he settled down in Galilee and he worked all these miracles, and many of them he was working without any kind of expression of great faith, and in some cases he was working miracles for people that didn't even ask for it and didn't even expect it, but now he speaks about it directly. Your faith, because of your faith, you are healed. Now, meanwhile, Jairus heard all that. Jairus was watching all that. So let's shift our eyes now off the woman and back over to Jairus. Remember, we left him standing there, frantic, panicking, ready to go. And he's been privy to all this. He's listened to all this. While this woman is speaking and while the Lord is speaking, Jairus is overhearing the whole thing. Do you think that strengthened his faith? Why do you think the Lord stopped the procession and dealt with that woman the way he did? He didn't have to do that. He could have just, the woman healed and just kept on walking. Wasn't it for Jairus? Didn't we already note that this man needed a stronger faith? He had faith, but it needed to grow. And so, don't you think that hearing that from that woman and hearing that from Jesus strengthened his faith? Wouldn't it strengthen your faith to experience something like that on your way? I mean, think about it. You've come and you've asked the Lord to lay his hands on your daughter. And here's this woman, and all she did was sneak up behind the Lord, touch his garment, and she was healed. And so wouldn't that strengthen your faith that when we actually get to my daughter's room and she's sick and she has that fever and she still has that cough, that when the Lord lays his hands on her, she's gonna be made whole too. His faith is rising, it's welling up. Well, I wanna tell you how the Lord works sometimes. Because no kidding. in the same 60 seconds that the Lord is ministering to this man and strengthening his faith, and he has welling up within him an expectation of the Lord working in that same 60 seconds, all his hopes were dashed. That's exactly what happened. Because you look at verse number 49, While he yet spake, there cometh one from the ruler of the synagogue's house saying to him, thy daughter is dead. Now I don't know what that feels like. And because of the Lord's gracious providence in the age in which we live, very few of you know what that feels like. But you know that until the last century or so, pretty much every couple knew what that felt like. How long has penicillin been available? How long have we ever had electricity to power all that equipment? How long has it been that paramedics could arrive at a place of emergency within five minutes and have more gear in the back of that truck than was available to the entire world a century before? The fact is that most people over 100 years ago lost not just one child, but many children in the course of their marriage. And we have, by the mercy of God, been placed in a century where death really is a pretty uncommon thing to us. Our trials are really small compared to those who have gone before us. You realize that, right? But I just want to stop the story right here. Just pause it right here. Right with Jairus standing there. With all those thoughts coursing through his mind. Because the fact is he doesn't know that the Lord is still going to go to his house and raise his daughter from the dead. All he knows is that he desperately wanted the Lord to get there before this happened and then it happened. I mean, think about the emotional rollercoaster that Jairus has been on in the last couple hours. He and his wife were standing over the bed of their dying 12-year-old daughter for maybe days on end. Through the night, they were talking. Should we go find some help? I don't know. I don't want to leave her. I don't want something to happen while I'm gone. Well, what are we going to do? Back and forth. They finally decided, maybe Jesus is in the area. Maybe I can go get him. I don't want to leave. OK, no, I'm going to go. OK, so Jairus goes. He goes out to search for Jesus. And to his great delight, Jesus is in the area. And after some time searching, he finds him. And not only does he find him, but he's able to get access to him in the thronging crowds. He's able to get to Jesus, get his request in. Jesus actually shifted his eyes right down on Jairus, listened to him, and Jesus was willing to go with him. Okay, what a relief. All right, let's go, let's go. Okay, so they're going, and now this crowd just throngs, just closes in on the thoroughfare, and everything gets strangled up. And then she just stops and looks around and asks, who touched him? And Jairus is looking at this little old woman and she's so slow to respond, come on, Jesus, let's go, let's go, let's go. But then those wonderful words, be of good cheer, be of good comfort, thy faith hath made me whole, go in peace. And Jairus is thinking, okay, all right, if she was comforted, And if she was made whole, and all it took was a touch from behind, sneaking up, okay, then my daughter's gonna be made whole. And my wife and I, we're gonna be comforted. Okay, this is gonna be okay. And as he turns around to proceed down the street, he sees a familiar face walking up from the direction of his house. And that face has a very somber look on his face. And he says, oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And the man walks up and tells him his daughter has died. And what do you do then? What do you do when you have had such an expectation of the Lord intervening, raised, raised by the very promises of God himself in the word? You've known his spirit assuring you and strengthening your faith and comforting you. He himself has been fueling this hope, and then the dreaded news comes. All through this ordeal, You know that God has ministered consolation to you, ministered his promises to you, he has raised your expectations so many times, but now this, this dreaded news. What's the Lord's calling in that moment? Well, look at verse number 50. When Jesus heard it, he answered him saying, fear not, Believe only. Can you trust Jesus in that moment? Does he know what he's doing? Has he ever failed you before? Are his promises still operative? Then fear not. Believe only. Now in Jairus' case, Jesus assures him that his daughter is going to be made whole. And that is interesting in verse 50, because that's the same exact word that was used up in verse 48, thy faith hath made thee whole. And so you see in the following verses, in verse 51, how he approaches Jairus' home and he only allows three of his disciples and the mother and the father into the room. And in verse 52, he makes a statement that's intended to console all of these bereaved people. He says, weep not, she's not dead, but sleepeth. Now pause there for a moment. That's a significant, significant statement. You see, we know the rest of the story. And so we assume that what he means is, she's dead right now, but I'm going to raise her from the dead, so actually she's sleeping. But that's not what he said. He said, she isn't dead, she is sleeping. And what if the story ended there? What if that was the consolation? If the story ended there, then it would be true, wouldn't it? She's not dead, she's sleeping. It's the same word used of Lazarus, the same word used of that striking account when Stephen is being stoned by a mob and then Luke just writes, and he fell asleep. There's a whole sermon in that word, isn't there? That believers in Jesus, when they die, they're not dead, they just fall asleep. Bodily, they're asleep. Their spirit is in the presence of the Lord. And what a consolation that word sleep is. But Jesus has laughed at this. He's laughed at for saying this in verse number 53. And so the Lord puts them all out. And it is interesting how the Lord usually responds to scoffers. You would think that for scoffers, he would give them more evidence. That is not what he does, is it? When Jesus encounters scoffers, then they're usually excluded from any more evidence. So the laughing scoffers are put out, and it's just Peter, James, and John and the parents that come into the room. And then in verse 54, this is really one of the most tender and gentle passages in all the Gospels. He took her by the hand. And then Mark tells us precisely what he said. Mark says he said, talathakumi. It's an Aramaic expression. Tala is the Hebrew word for lamb. Little lamb, arise. And she did. And Luke is the only gospel writer that tells us what exactly happened. See it in verse 55. Her spirit entered her body again. So what is death? But the separation of the soul and the body. And resurrection is the return of that spirit to that body. Her spirit came again and she arose straightway and he commanded to give her meat. That's the same thing he's gonna do after his resurrection, right? He's gonna eat something so that everybody knows this is not a spirit. This is flesh and blood. Give her something to eat. You'll see she really is back bodily. In the last verse of the chapter, you see how the account climaxes. Her parents are astonished. Literally, the word means to be moved out of your mind. It's actually a word that sometimes was used for insanity in the ancient world. They lost their minds in watching this, you could say. Her parents were astounded. Now, why is this account in the Bible? Why is this here? Well, certainly one of the reasons it is here is to confirm that this man, Jesus of Nazareth, is the Prince of Life. That he is the resurrection and the life. That as Paul says to Timothy, he abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. He that believeth on him has everlasting life, and though he were dead, yet shall he live. And if you believed in Jesus Christ this morning, death would lose its sting for you too. You would know what it is for the Lord Jesus to conquer death on your behalf, and you would be able to say with Paul, to die is gain. And when that day comes, when you do die, it'll be sleep. This passage is about Christ's response to faith. So how does he respond to faith in this passage? He tenderly assures all who believe that they will be made whole. Do you need to be made whole this morning? Do you feel broken this morning? Those who believe on Jesus, he tenderly assures that he will make them whole. Pray for grace to trust him more. Now at the heart of this account is the serious sickness and death of a 12-year-old girl. So I think it will be good for us to take a moment and for us to talk together and for me to speak a word to our young people. Because you do realize, young people, that death is no respecter of persons or age. That children die as well. And we have had, in the life of our congregation over the last couple years, examples of young people that have come very close to dying. What is your only hope in life and in death? Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you have an assurance down in your heart that your death would be gain for you? Or does your conscience rise up against you to condemn you and this dark cloud hangs over your spirit that things are not right between me and God? If you were called upon to play the part of Jairus's daughter, and there are still 12 year olds who do, Would you be asleep in Jesus? The important thing is for you to be sure that when you die physically, you, like this little girl, will be asleep in Jesus. It's just as important for you as it is for any of the adults here. Do you know the Lord? You've been in Sunday school, you've been sitting through sermons about the Lord Jesus, your parents have been praying for you for all of these years, and yet perhaps there's something amiss down in your spirit. It's high time for you to make sure of your relationship to Jesus Christ. Have you talked to him about this? Have you talked to him about the way you feel in a service like this when you're being spoken to directly? Have you talked to him about the way you feel when you're presented with the death of a child? Have you cast yourself on him? Have you come to him to be made whole? to be comforted, for Him to give you assurance, for Him to save you from your sins. Do you know the Lord yet? You know Him, talking to Him about these things. He's not just a fact to be agreed to. He's a person. to be talked to and to be shared with. Do you know Him? And you know, for us all, this account tells us that faith in the Lord Jesus Faith in his compassion, faith in his power is the only sure remedy for life's trials. You and I are going to be exposed to a thousand different painful things in this life. And you and I are going to stay constantly cast down in our souls unless we have a rich and growing faith in Christ. What you and I want, what we need is a cheerful, tranquil resignation to the Lord's will no matter what. to be resigned to his love and to his wisdom and have confidence about his mind, about everything, and to be content with the way that he orders every affair of our lives, that we would believe that he would never, ever do anything that's destructive to us. See, everything in this is happening deliberately. When Jesus paused on the road to Jairus' house and filled him with panic, Jesus was not doing that to hurt him. He was doing that to strengthen him. And when Jesus allowed his delay to cause his daughter to die, He wasn't doing that to destroy Jairus. He was doing that to strengthen Jairus, that he might show his glory to Jairus. And we have got to believe that God would do nothing to destroy us as his children, that he would do nothing to harm us. He would never harm you, child of God. He loves you. He's done everything for you. And what he's doing is he's deliberately, purposefully, successively, in an ordered plan that only he knows all the threads to, he's making you a finished product. When he finishes with you, In spite of all the delays and all the pains and all the heartaches and all the times when your soul was in a panic, when He finishes with you, you are going to be perfect. Believe it. He calls you to believe it. Believe Him. He's making you whole. through every circumstance of life. Christ responds with tender compassion to faith. Let us trust him more and submit with more yieldedness to all that he's doing in our lives. Let's pray together. Eternal God and our Father in heaven, we thank you for this account, for the revelation of the character of Jesus Christ that we read. We thank you that he is a friend of sinners. We thank you that he receives gently and sympathetically all who come trembling to him. We thank thee that it is even possible for children to come to him and to know forgiveness and the assurance of when they die they will sleep in Jesus. O Lord, we thank you and we pray that we would use this passage, that we would put it to use in our daily lives this week, that we would grow in our faith and in our submission, that we would grow in our estimation of the Lord Jesus and all his compassion and all of his power. Increase our faith, we pray in Christ's name, amen.