Welcome to Doctrine for Life with Dr. Joel Beeky. Today we hear the first part of Dr. Beeky's sermon on Mark chapter 5 verses 25 to 34, the all-powerful physician healing an unclean woman. In this message we hear of how a woman with an ongoing medical condition was awakened to her need for Jesus Christ and drawn to trust in Jesus and seek him out. As you listen, may the Spirit give you ears to hear, awaken you to your need for Jesus, and draw you to seek him in faith as well. Notice Mark says, a certain woman. This woman's name isn't mentioned, unlike Jairus's. But Mark is implying something here. This woman was an outcast. We'll see that in a moment, both in church and in society because of her disease. She was, in the eyes of the world and the church, a nobody. No name is given to her, unlike Jairus, a prominent man. But there's a message in this. That certain woman, that unnamed woman, can be you. A certain man, a certain woman, a certain boy, maybe not noticed by those around you, but about to be greatly blessed by God. Now we read of this certain woman that she had an issue of blood. That simply means that there was within her some kind of internal flowing of blood. It may have been a menstrual problem, but it certainly was internal bleeding. We don't know exactly what it was like, but the implication is that she remained unclean for 12 years. This was a perpetual problem, something she couldn't lay aside. It produced physical, mental, emotional pain immensely, intensely in her life. She was in a bad way. She probably experienced things like abdominal swelling, chest pain, intense anxiety, profuse sweating, dizzying exhaustion. Perhaps her body even began to shut down at times. due to the significant blood loss. She suffered so much that our text twice refers to her suffering as a plague. And the Greek word here for plague actually literally means to be whipped and flogged or scourged. It was like a scourge was upon this woman. And there was no relief. No resolution, no remedy, not for lack of trying. She went to many physicians, the next verse says, and please do follow along with me tonight. It will be helpful, I think, if your Bibles are open. She suffered many things of many physicians. Verse 26, had spent all that she had. It was nothing bettered, but only grew worse. You know, sometimes when seniors get into a number of infirmities, they tell you as a pastor, it seems like my whole life is going to doctors. I go to this specialist and that one, and I just get done with that one, I've got to go to that one, and I'm taking all these pills, and it can be so draining, so overwhelming. This woman did all of that, as it were, but no doctor helped at all, but everything got worse. Now the Jews, you need to know, were quite famous for finding all kinds of cures with different herbs and bitter medicines they'd administer to people, but all of these things just made this woman the sicker. And maybe you can relate to that, too. Maybe you've had a health problem that just won't go away. and you're trying to get to the root of it. And one doctor says this, another one says that, and there seems to be no resolution, no future. And beyond that, this woman spent all her savings. She gave up everything she had and only got worse. Physical, emotional, mental, financial anguish was her daily portion. But also, and that's not so easily recognized on the surface of this story, but she also experienced spiritual anguish, big time. How so? Well, we need to go back to Leviticus 15, verse 19, where God says if a woman have an issue and her issue is in her flesh be blood, She shall be put apart. Put apart seven days, assuming that the issue of blood will be resolved. But this woman was put apart for 12 years. That means she was separated from the people of God, from the tabernacle, from the synagogue. We've experienced that for a few months with COVID. But this was a way of life for this woman, 12 years. She couldn't go up to the house of God. If she touched anyone, that person would become unclean. She was an outcast, not just in society, but in church. No one would want to be near her. She was ceremonially unclean. Now, why would God give a law like this in Leviticus 15? Well, there are many reasons, of course, regarding health issues that we don't know God's wisdom in every detail. But ultimately, of course, even though we don't look at a person in a lot of trouble and say, you must have sinned greatly, then we would become Job's friends. We have to be careful with that. Sometimes we do suffer directly as a result of a particular sin. But we do know that all suffering is ultimately traceable back to our deep fallen Adam. In reading this chapter, all these people, the demoniac, Jabez's daughter, and now this woman, this suffering ultimately is inseparable from sin. And in this case, you see, the Bible tells us that life is in the blood. And where there's a loss of blood, it implies the potential of death. And the wages of sin is death. So everything, you see, in terms of suffering, ultimately goes back to sin. Sin before the eyes of a holy and righteous God is unclean, is filthy, is abominable. Sin is anti-God. Isaiah says we are all as an unclean thing. Spiritually, we're all like this woman. All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags before God. In a few chapters earlier, Isaiah says, So in one sense, we can all, I hope, identify with this woman. We are all unclean sinners. Jason Ryle comments on this beautifully, I think. He says this, if we truly understood this, we would hate our sin more. How incredible it is that we do not hate sin far more than we do. Sin is the cause of all the pain and all the disease in the world. God did not create man to be an ailing, suffering creature. It was sin and nothing but sin which brought in all the ills that flesh has suffered. It was sin to which we owe every racking pain, every loathsome infirmity, every humbling weakness, which our poor bodies are liable to. Let us ever keep this in mind. Let us hate sin with holy hatred. So this woman's in a desperate plight. She has no temple worship. She can't go to a place where the people of God gather, where the focus is on the blood of atonement, on peace and communion with the Lord. She's unclean, she's cut off from the blood of atonement and from communion. Temple doors are closed for 12 long years. And yet there's good news here. There's good news. This woman has the seed of saving faith planted in her, even though she lacks the assurance that she has it. I'll say more about that shortly, but we know immediately, don't we, when we read verse 34, that everything she does springs from faith because Jesus himself says to her, Thy faith has made thee whole. This is not just miraculous faith. This is a woman coming to Jesus who also has a seed of saving faith within her. And so though we don't know her name, the good news is that her name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. That's the most important thing. That's where our names really need to be. And yet she doesn't realize this yet. She can't believe salvation can be for her. She's regarded unclean on all sides, including herself. She can't believe she belongs to the people of God. She's a reject. And maybe some of you feel like this woman in that way as well. Even though you feel you need Christ, you just can't believe you're a child of God. You're jealous of God's people. And you say, I can't see a possibility for me to be healed and to be saved. My salvation would just be an incredible miracle. But you see, the whole point of this story and the whole point of this chapter with these three miraculous healings that Jesus does is to say, with Jesus, there is not only possibility. With Jesus, there is certainty. And when sinners turn to him, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, working it in their souls, when they turn to Him, He saves, He heals. This is who He is. This is His specialty. This is His delight. He draws sinners to Himself by His Spirit to glorify Him. And so this woman, you see, comes to this dead end. She comes to an end of herself, an end of her physicians, spiritually as well. Have you ever been there? Ever come to a dead end of your efforts to reform your life spiritually or your efforts to heal a disease spiritually? And you are in a loved one. You've tried everything. You've gone the full length. You've done everything possible. You've had all your resources dried up in order to make room for the precious and the all-sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ. You've come to a point, you said, I'm just a poor, unclean, unworthy sinner. All my righteousness is filthy rags. And all the physicians I've gone to haven't been able to help me. I've gone to physician prayer. I've gone to physician scripture reading. I've gone to physician of communion of saints. I've gone to the physician of church attendance. And it seems like nothing helps me. I've suffered many things sometimes. Even of some of these physicians who keep hounding me and saying, you've got to read more. You've got to pray more. You've got to do this more. You've got to repent more. I never have enough. I never have anything that can heal me. It's an endless struggle, you see, for this woman. It's an endless struggle for a sinner who relies on any physician but Jesus. But you see the amazing thing, the amazing thing is that all the physicians this woman heard about, and she went to them all, no one ever told her to go to Jesus. to one physician who can heal anything. No one directed her there. But I'm directing you there tonight, my friend, with your trials, with your sicknesses, with your spiritual needs, with your fountain of sin, with your heart remaining unhumbled and cold. Whatever you do, you must go to Jesus. Without Him, we can do nothing. And that's probably the major takeaway lesson I learned from COVID. I had three or four days of just tremendous darkness. I couldn't pray, I couldn't find Him, I couldn't, it was just, I was numb, spiritually numb. When I came out of that, by God's grace, I just realized more than ever, without Him, I can do nothing. There's no place to go without Jesus. But this woman's ears began to go open. She began to hear something. Wherever she went, she started hearing things about this man named Jesus. Look at verse 27. When she had heard of Jesus, she came in the press behind him. Isn't that beautiful? Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. She heard people talking about Jesus, about a man who raised people from the dead, about a man who healed the most bankrupt sinner, when she had heard, literally in the Greek it is, when she had heard the things of Jesus or the things concerning Jesus, the kinds of things that she did. She wanted to, no, not meet him. She was unworthy of meeting him. That was too much. But she wanted to just go and touch his clothes. And she thought, perhaps I will be healed. You see, she comes to the end of herself. She says, give me Jesus. Else I die, but she's too shy. She knows if she touches him, well, according to the laws of Moses, she'd make him unclean. She doesn't want to do that. She doesn't want to be a troublemaker. But she comes to Jesus by faith, trusting in him, hoping in him, as she hoped in no physician before. There's a man from Nazareth, she hears. And he heals and performs all kinds of miracles. He's cleansed lepers who was unclean. just like you and me by nature. He's forgiven sinners just like us. She hears about it, and she goes. You know, did you ever think about that? Just talking to people or being overheard by other people hearing you talk? God can use as a blessing. It appears, as far as we can read this text, unless there's other details we don't know, just hearing about Jesus from people. The Holy Spirit used to plant the seed of faith in her heart to go to Jesus. It reminds you, doesn't it, of the story of John Bunyan. We'll hear more about that Saturday evening if the Lord is willing, but Bunyan was a trying to resolve his spiritual turmoil, wasn't making much progress, until one day he heard a few God-fearing women talking. And they were talking about the Lord's work in their soul. And they were so encouraging, and despite their own wretched hearts, they were lifting up the name of Jesus. And Bunyan suddenly realized, these women have something I don't have. And he knew he needed it. You see, God blessed. that conversation to Bunyan's soul. I heard this morning, open your mouth for your children, but open your mouth for everyone beyond your children as well. And don't be afraid to pray in a restaurant. Oh, other people will see me. Oh, don't be afraid to pray aloud in a restaurant. Let other people hear. It doesn't matter. Who can tell? God might use it. God might use it. Let's get rid of our unbiblical bashfulness and be open about talking to people about the things we need. Who can tell whether God might not use it? Now, verse 28 says, literally in Greek, Not just she said, but she had been saying. It's in a certain tense, meaning that She didn't probably have the means to go right away as soon as she heard it, but she'd been saying that to herself, maybe to others as well around her. Ever since she heard about Him, I really need to go to Him. She had faith in the authority, the power, the dignity of Jesus. So she goes. And what a trip it was with this disposition of faith in her. You can just see her, can't you? Slowly elbowing her way through the crowd. She doesn't want to come face to face with Jesus. Her faith is very imperfect. She's got a little seed there. She's too bashful for that. She knows she might get in trouble. He might think it's against the law. So she has infirmities. She has fears. How will he receive her? Oh, the best thing to do, she thinks, is if I just come behind him and if I can get elbow my way all the way by his back. He will have four woolen tassels, which every Israelite was ordered to wear in the corners of his square outer robe. If I could just touch one of those, just touch one, he won't even know I'm touching him. He'll heal me. From everything I heard about him, that's what will happen. He'll heal me. She believes that. And then she said to herself, I can just sneak away again. And nobody will notice. He won't notice. Nobody will notice. I'll just be wonderfully healed. Well, what happens if Jesus sees her though and abrades her and says, woman, how do you dare? How do you dare to come here? How do you dare to transgress the laws of Moses? How do you dare to make me unclean? See all the fears she has? She has a lot of fears. That's what the Bible says. She came with fear and trembling. Verse 33, when she came face to face with Jesus. The woman, fearing and trembling. And yet she has to go. She has to go. There's no other physician. There's no other way. If I perish, I perish, she thinks, like Esther. But then I will perish at his feet. Now, exactly how do you go to Jesus, then? Well, the Puritans wrote a lot on that, and they combed the scriptures. And I'm going to give it to you in one sentence and just unpack it for a few minutes. And I think you'll see why. We come to Christ, they said. when we, number one, are drawn actively by faith to Christ. That's what this woman's experience is. She's being drawn actively by faith to Christ. She doesn't even realize, of course, that Christ knows her and is drawing her. She doesn't even realize that yet. That's number one. Number two, as he offers himself to sinners in the gospel, she heard about his willingness to save sinners. to heal the needy. There was an openness, an approachability about him, she heard. And you see, that offer, that offer of himself to sinners in the gospel, God uses to draw her as well. and then through the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, she doesn't realize much of that yet at all, you see, that the Holy Spirit is the efficient cause of our coming to Christ by connecting us with the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God as the Spirit applies that Word to our souls. That's actually going on inside this woman, even though she doesn't realize it. She hears about Jesus, and the Spirit is drawing her. to Him. So I'll put it back in one sentence again for you. We come to Christ when we are, number one, drawn actively by faith to Christ, number two, as He offers Himself to us in the gospel, and number three, through the power of the Holy Spirit. But the beauty of this, you see, is the Holy Spirit is as willing to do this as Christ is to draw sinners, as the Father is to elect sinners. The whole triune God is absolutely willing to save the lost and the needy and to bring sinners to faith. It's we who put up the hindrances. God is not the hindrance. Jesus is not the hindrance. Holy Spirit is not the hindrance. The Father's not the hindrance. We are the hindrances. We throw up roadblocks by nature, human impediments, the old divines used to call them. And what are they? Well, I'll give you eight of them very, very quickly here. Number one, neglecting the Christ of the Bible, imagining Christ to be different than what the Bible reveals him to be, as if he's kind of reluctant to save sinners or to reveal himself, as if he's a kind of hidden Christ keeps himself in the shadows. No, no, no. In Gethsemane, he walked out into the moonlight and said, whom seek ye? He's a Savior who loves to save sinners. He's approachable. This man received the sinners. Another impediment is false conversions, just thinking that because you've had an outward reformation, an outward change, that you're changed from within. Some people are just nominal Christians and they settle in for that, but their heart is not converted. And third, despair. Despair due to my sins. Some people say, if I could clean myself up and come to him somehow, but I've sinned too much and they keep themselves away. Why would God save me? But as we heard this morning, the best qualification to go to him is that we're sinners, not that we're righteous. The whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick. The fourth impediment is spiritual complacency. Life is going fairly well. Maybe I don't have too many trials. I didn't get COVID. I got my job. And you just presume on tomorrow, I'll seek for Jesus tomorrow or someday later. And meanwhile, just live on without Him. It's deadly. Five, despair due to backsliding. Some people refuse to come to Christ because they believe their backsliding has disqualified them. He says, return unto me, O Israel, my backsliding people, and I will have caused my anger not to fall upon you, for I am merciful, and I won't keep anger forever. He delights in mercy, Micah 7, 18 says. And number six, confusion about election, as if election is somehow our enemy instead of our friend. If there's no election, my friend, you'd never be saved, neither would I. God never intended election to be an obstacle, but an encouragement to come just as we are to this glorious Savior. Election is the friend of sinners. It means the door is open. Sinners can be saved because God is an electing God. Number seven, ignorance of the gospel call. Some people think that the gospel call to come to Jesus is somehow something that you can push away without consequences. Or something you just have to sit back and say, well, if the Lord works in me, he does. But yes, I hear the call. But no, no, no. The call is a command. It's not just an invitation. It's that. It's a warm invitation. But it's also a command to come to Jesus. No one has a right to remain unsaved. No one has a right to stay away from Jesus who's ever heard the gospel. In fact, that leads me to number eight, which is the crowning impediment of all, simply unbelief. It's the mother sin of all. A.W. Pink rightly said it when he said, in one sense, it's not sin that brings us to hell, but it's the unrepentant sin of unbelief that brings us to hell. Because if you repent and you come by faith to Jesus, He will forgive all your sins. Matthew Henry said unbelief is the great damning sin because it leaves us under the guilt of all our other sins. It's unbelief, you see, that will drag us to hell because we refuse to come to Jesus Christ. Thank you for listening to Doctrine for Life with Dr. Joel Beeke, a ministry of the Gospel Trumpet. Please consider supporting the broadcast of Doctrine for Life with your financial gifts. For more information on how to donate to this ministry, and to download free booklets or audio files of previous broadcasts, please visit our website at gospeltrumpet.net. That's gospeltrumpet.net. William Ames said, Theology is the doctrine of living to God. May God write the doctrines of the Bible upon your heart so that you may truly live.