I want to ask you then to turn with me to Mark chapter 5. Scripture lesson today will come from Mark chapter 5. We'll be reading verses 25 through 34. Mark chapter 5, 25 through 34. Familiar place in Scripture? If you've been in church very long at all, you've no doubt heard this story before, this account of this woman with this sickness and this disease. She came and found the healing that she found in the Lord. Without anything further this morning, we just want to read the passage and pray that the Lord would guide our thoughts and our words as we speak to you today. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for 12 years and who had suffered much under many physicians and had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came out behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, If I touch even his garments, I will be made well. And immediately the flow of blood dried up. And she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, who touched my garments? And his disciples said to him, you see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, who touched me? And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in, fear and trembling, and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease. As we said, a familiar passage of scripture. A familiar story to be told. No telling how many thousands and thousands and thousands of times this passage of scripture has been preached on throughout the centuries since it was written down. And I can imagine the story that must have been told, these details not known when the woman first came and touched Jesus, just a stranger. And then I can imagine them gathered around a table, perhaps, as she tells the rest of her story of, I've been fighting with this disease for so long. unsuccessfully and went through her story and told them about all that she had gone through and how that she found healing in Christ. And I can imagine the joy that must have been at the telling of that story originally in its first place. And I hope today that there is some joy to be experienced as well in the retelling of this story. You see, the gospel message doesn't really grow old to those who know it well. to those who understand it. It's been many years ago that I was saved. Many years ago now, and the years just continually seemingly to fly by, and yet I do remember that day very clearly, and that day never gets old. It never is a day that I think, well, I've told that story too many times. It's a story that never grows old, as the song says. The gospel is no less wonderful today for the retelling of it many times. However many times that you might hear it, it will be a story worth hearing. However many times you might share it with others, it will be a story worth sharing with others. About how you, if you know the Lord, how you came to know Him, how He gave you peace. how He gave you assurance and a joy that passes all understanding, and how it roots you today and establishes you in your life, no matter the struggles that come, no matter the difficulties that come along the way, there is ever this anchor of hope that is lodged in our hearts because we know the Lord. And this woman gives us a wonderful picture, a wonderful picture of what it looks like for somebody to come to the Lord. When somebody wants to know, what does it take to be saved? How is one saved? This woman gives us one of many pictures in scripture of how that is done and the faith that drew her to Christ. And we want to look at that today, but not only does it give us a picture, It also provides for us a mirror to see ourselves, to understand more about ourselves, to have more self-awareness. If there is something missing today in the lives of most all of us, I think it comes down to that, a self-awareness, an awareness of who we really are. what we really are. Because we're not merely transient creatures that had some mysterious beginning, and then in some years, however long it might be, we come to some mysterious end, and then it's all over. We are creatures created in the image of our God. And He gave us life. He intended for us to know Him. to find Him, to live with Him here and in eternity in heaven. That's what God intends, and we've spoken about that of late, very specifically, of what God wants for us, what He wants from us, what we want from Him and what we want for Him. This lady gives us something of a mirror to ourselves, though. because every one of us is in a very similar condition as this woman. She had this issue of blood, this constant bleeding. She was slowly bleeding to death. Eventually, this disease was going to take her life. This flowing of blood that could not be stopped. Every one of us is in a similar condition today. Though we may not be bleeding, we're all bleeding time. Time is flowing through all of us. And time is flowing and it continually flows. It flows in one direction. It has moved in one direction from the moment God created it. And it is a creation of God. this thing that we measure with our watches and with the clock on the wall, this thing called time had a beginning. There was the first second of time. when God called it into existence, a mature creation, as we've even been talking about and studying together of late, a fully formed world and universe that God called into existence. And then one second later, time began its march to the last second. the final second that will tick off of any clock. When the Lord returns and comes and restores all that He died for on the cross, and we then reign with Him forever, there will be no need of time, because time will no longer bind us. But like this woman Time is slowly bleeding away from all of us, and like this woman, there seemed to be nothing that anyone could do to stop it, no matter where she went, no matter what she tried, no matter how many experts, no matter how many physicians, no matter how many people she went to, no matter how many places she traveled to, no matter what she did, the bleeding continued. And the same is true for time. It just continues to move inexorably in one direction. It is like a river and the older that you get, the seemingly the faster that river becomes and it rushes you down and you look back and you see times previously in your life that you're thankful for. And even at times, perhaps in weakness, we say, I wish I could go back to that place and that time. But you never can. The currents of time are way too strong. It is carrying you inexorably to the last moment of your life here, like this woman's issue of blood. This disease, this sickness that afflicted her, this woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years, as it's said, and if If we had a title today, it would simply be Bleeding Time. But for 12 years, she suffered with this sickness, as we said, slowly bleeding to death. One day, ultimately, she knew this disease was going to take her life. And so, like anyone, she began to seek and to look for all of the remedies that she could find Sought for 12 years. Not only, by the way, was this woman afflicted physically with this disease, as horrible as that must have been, this made her a social outcast. Anyone that would have touched this woman in the eyes of the Jewish law would have been unclean. So she would have been rejected. She would have been experiencing, ever been experiencing physical pain and then been rejected and found no comfort from people, but pushed away and how that made it even worse. And this woman, these, this 12 years of life must have been a terrible challenge. Nothing she could do to stop the bleeding. Every day, every moment of the day, as it continued to go, as her life continued to move forward, that constant reminder, that ever-present reminder that I'm still unwell. There's still something wrong with me. And like this woman, Many people today are living their lives and there's something in them they know they're not well. There's something that they're missing. There's something they don't have peace with God. They don't have purpose in this life. And time continues to bleed away, moment by moment, day by day. It continues to move forward. And this woman suffered this way for 12 years, a social outcast, physically unwell, knowing she is headed for her end and for her time on this side of eternity to come to an end. But you know, one thing that sticks out to me today is that she never gave up. 12 years. I don't know about you. That's a long time to deal with a sickness like this. And I wonder about my own ability to continue, or whether you just at some point give up. This is the way it is. This is the way it's going to be. There's nothing I can do to change it. I'm just going to give up. I hope and I pray that there is nobody here today who might be bleeding time, who knows that there's something missing that has not been saved. I pray that you do not ever give up. That you take from this woman an encouragement to continue to seek the cure and ultimately, of course, to seek the cure in Christ, the only place you'll find it. This woman for 12 years never gave up. And some people would say, well, of course she wouldn't give up. No one wants to die. No one wants to give up. No one would ever do that. And I would say to you today, oh no, there are many who suffer to such an extreme that they'd rather just give up. to end the suffering, to end the fear, to end the pain, to end the being an outcast, to just end it all. This woman never gave up, and I earnestly ask you, if you don't know the Lord, that you too never give up. You continue to seek the cure. Now this woman, as it said in verse 26, had suffered much under many physicians. Which, for the first time, I really looked at that and thought, as I prepared to come this morning, that's an interesting way for that to have been phrased. Physicians are supposed to make things better. But it seems like every physician she went to, it said she suffered with them. That her suffering increased. Her suffering was added, and she suffered much under many physicians. Those who were supposed to give her a cure, or at least some kind of a reprieve from this sickness and this disease. These people were supposed to be able to help. They only made the suffering worse. And as a mirror to humanity today, to you, And to me, as this mirror that's held up to us as time continues to flow away from us. And as you realize, maybe even in that heart that God has created and He's placed in there, this understanding that you're more than just the chemicals that make up this physical body. You're more than just the brain. You're this whole creation of God. You know that inwardly, but you don't know Him personally. You've not submitted to Him. You've not bowed to Him. You've not placed your faith in Him. And so, you are suffering as well. And every cure you try outside of Christ, not only does it not heal you, it makes it worse. It makes it worse. suffered much under many physicians, and it says that she spent all that she had. So now her sickness has led her into abject poverty. This woman has no social support because she's an outcast. She's got physical disease and affliction that bothers and troubles her every day. and she doesn't have a penny in the bank. She's broke. Know who this sounds like? Somebody who's ready to meet the Lord. Somebody who's ready to come to Him and acknowledge and admit and understand that they have nothing left. I think one of the greatest problems and challenges that we have today is that we simply have so much physically. We have so many riches we've been provided for in such a great way in our nation. And I know that the popular thing to say is to talk about how little we have. We have been given so much that we're trying and succeeding in trying to invent problems. This woman had problems. She had problems that she was striving to find the cure for ultimately in Christ, but she had spent all that she had. She's broke, she's sick with this disease that no one can cure, and she's an outcast. But she hears of Jesus. and then everything changes, or at least it begins to. It begins to change. That emptiness inside of your heart, it will begin to change when you hear about Jesus and truly hear and begin to turn your face and your heart and your mind toward him. all that was darkness and all that was hopelessness as you've reached the end of the line with all of those around you that could possibly help you and none of them could. But then you hear this report about Jesus. And I will tell you today of the report that I can give you about Jesus is that I was lost when I was 11 years old. And God convicted me through the preaching of the Scriptures, the preaching about Christ. And I bowed in repentance and faith, and I trusted Him, and He gave me peace, and He gave me life, life everlasting that will far surpass anything that this world can ever give you. I give you that report today, and I pray that it catches your ear. that it catches your attention, that the shiny objects of this world will no longer captivate your attention like this one thing, this report about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who through the Holy Spirit can come and meet with you and draw you to Himself. And all the gold that glitters, and all the diamonds that shine, they become dull to your eyes, and they become dull to your ears, and they become those things that you try to quiet and remove, so that you can hear this report about Jesus Christ. This One who can save you, who can deliver you from this inexorable bleeding of time. This moment, these moments that God gives for you to find Him as they continue to bleed away. But when you hear this report about Christ, I pray that you do what this woman did immediately. Go and find Him. Now, hearing was followed by seeking, as we've seen. Hearing started her on her road to healing, but it did not heal her. Just hearing of this report, hearing about Christ, is not enough. The hearing must be followed by seeking. It must be followed by searching. It must be followed by setting everything else aside and realizing and admitting, none of these things help me. And I can only imagine, wherever she dwelled, at whatever she carried with her, all the little things, no doubt that one physician after another had said, you need to use this. You need to try that. You need this kind of thing. And then all of, no doubt, the witch doctors the magicians and all the people that she might have gone to, with all these little trinkets, as she would gather them up and hope that maybe they would heal her. And after a time, it became obvious that they wouldn't. And as she set them down and went and sought Christ, I pray that's what you do as well. You set all those other solutions that you think are solutions, you'd set them down, and the hearing of the report about Christ would then drive your feet spiritually to seek Him. To seek this One that you've heard about, can heal, can give sight to the blind, is the Son of God. She did not delay. She did not delay in her coming. She sought Him when she heard the report. She came up behind Him here in the crowd. It also bears our note as well, I think, just to say that she also didn't ignore her problem. She didn't ignore it. She did not delay. She heard and she sought. And as she came up to him and touched his garments, because again, in her mind, as we read in verse 28, her mind was set like this. If I touch even his garments, I'll be made well. If I can just get close enough to touch even his garments, I will be made well. And in verse 29, we find out she indeed was. Immediately. Immediately. It wasn't a physician saying, go and perform these activities, go and take this concoction, and in two months time, your bleeding will be stopped. And no doubt she'd had run into people like that and had paid them money from her riches or whatever that she had and paid them for that. And then time goes by and none of it worked. That's not how Jesus works. He immediately heals. He immediately changes. He immediately makes her better, and that's what He does with all of us. Immediately, it says, the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed. She knew it. She knew it. The Greek here is to be experientially observed and known. To know it because you experienced it. Salvation is much the same. It is exactly the same, we should say. Something that you know. Just a knowledge, an awareness that God places in your heart that it's well with your soul. As I shared with my sister many years ago now, you'll know. She was asking, how do you know? When will you know? And how do you know? that you're a child of God. And I said, you will know when you seek him and the phone call that I got. I'm one of his. I know I'm fine. He told me I'm his. That's what you need to have is a message, an awareness, an assurance from God that you're his, that you believe him, that you trust him, that you've repented. And that he is forgiven. Immediately, this healing came. And then Jesus, as we know the story, perceives some virtue has gone out of him in his humanity. I believe this is speaking truthfully. He knew something had happened. I don't believe he's making up a scene. I don't believe he's being cute. Says, Who touched me? Somebody touched me. Somebody touched me with faith. And the disciples, of course, are saying, Lord, there's a throng of people. What are you talking about? And Jesus said, no, someone touched me. There were a lot of people near him, a lot of people bumping into him, but being near Christ and bumping into Christ are not the same thing as touching Christ. Being around those who know him, it's not the same thing as knowing him. Jesus said to them who touched me, they didn't get it and he immediately knew that they didn't understand fully what he was saying and so he simply stopped asking and he started to look around. Who was it? This woman was there, and she came and touched Him, and she came because she desired to be healed by Him, to trust Him and to know Him. This woman was there to be healed. She was not there by idle curiosity. She was not there out of any sort of obligation. She was not there out of some sort of religious habit. She was there to meet Jesus, to touch Him. When the Lord convicts and draws you, I pray that you get laser focused like this woman did, and come with one thing on your mind and heart, if I can just touch Him and reach Him. This woman, knowing what had happened in verse 33 to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before Him. So Jesus was not only her healer, her physician, not only the one who took away this dread disease that had afflicted her for so long, not only was He that, He was now her Lord. And she bowed. in fear and trembling. And in the Greek, this is much more an awe and a reverent type of fear, not a phobic type of fear where it's afraid for oneself. It's a reverence and an awe for someone else. And she bows down before Him, falls before Him, and told Him the whole truth. Told Him everything. admitted to Him everything. I wonder sometimes if what stands in people's way of coming to the Lord is just an unwillingness to tell the Lord the whole truth, to try to touch up the sin in your life, to try to make yourself a little more presentable to try to make your life a little more like the typical Facebook post of the day. Everything's great, everything's fine, it's all good, and deep inside you know it's not. She comes and she bows before the Lord and tells Him the whole truth. Have you told the Lord the whole truth about you? He knows it already. What he's interested in is knowing whether you know it. Every teacher in a classroom knows the answers to the questions that he or she asks. She's not interested, or he's not, in the answer. He already knows it. He's interested in whether the student knows the answer. Jesus, when He asks us to tell Him our troubles, as we sang this morning, and as He asks us to come and to beg Him for forgiveness and to confess our sins, He's not asking us to do that because He's curious about them. He wants you to be ready and willing to come to Him and with the ugly, bare truth, just tell Him all of it. and then to throw yourself down in awe and reverence and reach out and touch Him. And that's what He says here in verse 34. He says to her daughter, so she goes, by the way, from a sick woman to a healed daughter. He says, daughter, your faith has made you well. Not her touch. It wasn't her touch that made her well. It wasn't her 12 years of striving to find a cure that made her well. It wasn't her sincere effort for many years to get better that made her well. It wasn't her travel to see Jesus that made her well. It wasn't her hearing about Jesus that made her well. It wasn't even that touch as she reached out and touched Him. That's not what made her well according to Jesus. It's not what you do outwardly that heals you, that brings you to a place where Jesus can and desires to save you. It's what is going on inside of you, where no one can see but you and Him. It's not what you do outwardly. It's not the physical bowing of your physical body, though that is a good practice to do. But that's not what heals you. That's not what saves you. It's not your reading of the Scriptures and hearing of the accounts. It's you coming to Jesus broken, having looked for solutions perhaps many other places and for many years. But then you come and you hear and you say, you know what? Jesus can heal me. You don't think she believed that? Seems pretty clear she did. If I just touch His garment, He'll make me whole. I'll be okay. It will be fine. Forever and for eternity. And this bleeding that I cannot stop, it will stop. And for you and me, this thing called time that rushes us towards judgment one day, For all practical purposes, when God saves us, He stops the clock. No more are we in danger of judgment. We are then made whole and secure. And life will go on and on and on with Him. Your faith has made you well. Not her touch. Not her exercises. money that she'd spent. None of those things accounted for anything except perhaps how it might have driven her to a place where she could finally place her trust in Christ and in nothing and no one else. In fact, in some ways, one of her greatest advantages was her disease. because she saw it and knew it and recognized it. One of the greatest disadvantages you have and the crowd has, they don't understand their sickness. They don't acknowledge it or recognize it. I wonder how many were in that crowd who needed healing but didn't receive it. bumping into Jesus, near to Jesus, talking with those who knew him, but did not come to Jesus with blinders on almost. If I could just touch his garment, if I could just get to Jesus, the good news of the gospel is that Jesus is here. He is near, and He will heal your broken heart. He will forgive your sin. You must come to Him like this woman did, and you'll find Him to be just what she found Him to be, a physician like no other, a Lord like no other, a King like no other, a friend like no other. We pray that this woman's experience will be an encouragement to all to seek the Lord until they know Him, until that healing is felt in themselves. If we could have a song, let's go ahead and have a song.