Numbers, chapter fifteen, starting with verse thirty-eight. Numbers, chapter fifteen, starting with verse thirty-eight. The Bible says, speaking to the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribbon of blue. And it shall be unto you for a fringe that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and that you seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you used to go to whoring, that you may remember and do all my commandments and be holy unto your God. I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord your God. Now turn with me over to Mark, chapter five. Mark, chapter five. Starting with verse twenty five. Mark chapter five and verse twenty-five. And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, when she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind and touched his garment. For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press and said, Who touched my clothes? And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest a multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what was done to her, came and fell down before him and told him all the truth. And he said unto her daughter, Thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace, and be whole of thy plague. You'll find in Matthew's gospel, instead of saying garments, it actually says the hem of his garment. And then in Luke it says the borders of his garment. And they all mean the same thing. But tonight we want to preach for the next few moments on the hem of his garment. The hem of his garment. The Jews are very symbolic people, as you all know. They're very symbolic in their dress as well as in their diet. And we see in Numbers chapter 15, one of the earliest examples in the Bible of how God put upon their clothes a certain emblem or a certain mark of remembrance that they may look upon those fringes of blue that I read to you in your hearing tonight, that every time that they looked upon those, they would remember the commandments of the Lord and they would remember what God had done for them. Now, the fringes were tried to study these things. And from what I can understand, they were down at the bottom of their garments and they would take a blue cord and wrap them up. They would take seven white strands and then one blue strand and wrap them up to make the borders of their garments. Now, that has adapted into what we know now as the prayer shawl. And I actually have a prayer shawl with me tonight. This is my father's and he got it over in Israel and Calvary has one also. But let me show you tonight. What this thing looks like, it's very beautiful, as you can tell, and has Hebrew. This is a prayer that they pray in Hebrew before they go and actually pray in their prayer closet. A lot of people say, well, what is the prayer closet? Well, I'm going to show you. This is the prayer closet right here. When they would get on their face before God, they would cover themselves and pray that would separate them from the world. Now you say, Brian, what is these borders and what are these fringes that you're talking about on each corner on all four corners of the garments? They would have what this is, this translate fringe or border or him. This is actually the him of the garment. So when they will look upon this thing, they would see seven white strands and one blue strand, and every time that they looked upon this thing, they remembered what God had done for them. A few things, just real quick, what I want to try to, what they had to remember. They remembered, first of all, that they were released from bondage. Every time that they were in the wilderness, every time that they looked upon their fringe, they remembered that God had brought them out of the land of Pharaoh, that Pharaoh had him bound and tied and wasn't going to release him, but the hand of God moved on their behalf, and they were released from the bondage that sin had upon us. And may we put fringes in our garments tonight, and borders upon our garments, that we may remember every time we look at a mark in our life, that God released us from the bondage of sin. Amen? Also, they need to remember they were redeemed through the blood. They need to remember that time when the Lord passed by and he said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Every time they looked upon that fringe, they remember that they were redeemed by the blood of Christ. and that mommies have their sons because they put the blood upon the door. And may we never, ever forget in our life that we are redeemed by only one thing. It's not corruptible things as silver and gold, as 1 Peter tells us, but it is the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without spot and without blemish. And I'm going to preach the blood until the day I die. This is the bloody book. It's the King James. And it will stand forever, the blood of Christ's will. Even though fundamental heretics and fools will try to denounce the blood of Christ, even if it takes me to separate myself from my own family, I will stand for the blood. Because the blood saved me, the blood saved me, and the blood saved you. You cannot have redemption without the blood. And also, it reminded them that God revealed himself in the barren times. Every time they looked upon that, they remembered what God had done for them. They remember when they needed food, God sent manna. Whenever they needed water, He sent it out of a rock. Whenever they needed direction, God sent a cloud by day and a pillar by night. Every time they looked upon that, they said, God is so good! Thank you so much, God, for revealing Yourself whenever we needed You. And may we never forget that in the dry times and in the barren times, whenever we have to reach down to the bottom of the barrel, that we just reach into the top of the Lord's. Amen? That He always provides for us in the dry times. So Jesus and Mark, we find the Bible says that, she said, if I could just touch the hem of his garment. Jesus was no exception to doing what Jews did. He was a Jew. He did what the Jews did, and he would have wore one of these types of garments. So the thing I showed you tonight, the hem, the border, the fringe, this is actually what she touched. So that brings a whole new aspect of what this story tells us, doesn't it? Seven white strands and one blue strand. So the first thing she touched when she touched the hem of his garment is purity. White always means purity in the Bible. The number seven always means perfection. Purity of what, Brian? Well, purity of her sickness. The Bible says she had suffered many things of many physicians and she grew worse. Nothing made her better. The best thing ever happened to her, she ran out of money. The first thing she met Jesus, but the second best thing, she ran out of money. That's what drew her to Jesus. And that's what's going to happen to you. You're going to lose things dear to your heart in order for you to find Jesus. But she ran out of money. And here she is. Nothing made her better. And I got to studying about these These types of things, and I was wondering, what in the world did she do to try to make herself better? And I ran across a list of remedies that they would have done, and they probably still do it today with women with an issue of blood. There was actually 11 different types of remedies that she would have tried in order to be healed of her issue of blood. Now, I just have three of them tonight, but I got the most ridiculous ones that I could find because they were very ridiculous, all of these remedies. But let me just read three of them for you. One thing she could do was she could take three pints of Persian onions, boil them in wine, and then give her to drink. OK, if that didn't work, set her in a place where two roads meet. Let her hold a cup of wine in her right hand and let someone come up behind her and scare her. It's pretty ridiculous, isn't it? But she tried that. If that didn't work, dig seven ditches, burn some vines that are not yet four years old in those ditches. Let her take a cup of wine in her right hand, and then let them lead her from one ditch to the next, and then scare her. This was the remedies that they had. She tried each and every one of them. I believe she tried all eleven remedies that they had to offer, and nothing made her better. Now, you know when you get sick, everybody's a doctor, don't you? Everybody has a cure. Everybody knows your problem, so it's best just to not tell anybody what your problem is, because they have a cure for it. Chicken soup or something, right? So you can imagine her surprise, Ron, whenever some of them come up to her and said, hey, have you tried Jesus yet? Yeah. Now, wait a minute, I've tried everything. Is he a doctor? Well, I don't know if he's a doctor or not, but you know what? I couldn't walk a few days ago. And I was in a terrible condition. I had palsy. And I heard Jesus was in my town and I was laying on a bed. And I said, boys, you're going to have to get me to Jesus. And four of my friends took me up and carried me. And you know what? When we got to that house, it was crowded. Man, we couldn't get in. They were having an all-time camp meeting. And I said, hey, you've got to get me to Jesus. This is my last resort. You know what they did, man? They took me on top of the roof. And they tore that roof apart and lowered me right down in front of Jesus. And you know what? Jesus saw my faith and saw their faith, and He healed me. And not only did He heal me, He saved me. And I'm a new person now. Look at me. I can walk now. Oh, He said, take up your bed and walk. And I did just exactly what He did. Hey, He worked for me. You ought to try Him. That's just a coincidence, you might have said. Maybe somebody else in the crowd said, hey, wait a minute. I've tried that man, Jesus. You see this hand right here? Just a few days ago, it was all withered up, and I couldn't use it whatsoever. And Jesus saw my faith, and I came up to Him, and I had the faith enough to believe that He could heal me, and He touched my hand. And thank God I can use it now! He healed me. Oh, that's just coincidence. You see, she's skeptical. She's tried everything. She would have asked a lot of questions. Then maybe someone would come up to her and say, I know exactly what you're going through, man. See, I was unclean once, too. We had our own class of people. We couldn't go anywhere. We had to cry unclean, unclean everywhere we went. I had leper spots all over my body. I was going to die. And I heard about Jesus. And he passed by my way. And I cried with all my might. I said, Jesus, have mercy on me. And He said, go show yourself to the priest. I was the only one that came back and thanked Him. I don't know what's happening to them now, but you know what? Look at me now. I can touch you now. I'm perfectly healthy. I'm clean now. He worked for me. He ought to try. She said, well, that's three people. That's three people. I maybe ought to try. And she determined in her heart, she didn't need a cure anymore, she just needed a touch. Yeah, just a touch. So when she touched the hem of his garment, she touched purity of her sickness, but also she touched purity of her soul. The words, thy faith hath made thee whole. The word whole in the Greek means to be safe. So when she said, if I could just touch his garment, I shall be safe. How many white strands were there on the border? Seven. How many blue strands? One. So that adds up to eight. Good. You know what the number 8 means in the Bible? It means a new beginning. So when she touched the hem of his garment, Barry. You understand what I'm saying? When she reached out and touched the hem of his garment, she had a new beginning! Thank God. Purity of her soul. Not only did she touch purity, but she touched power. Power of what, Brian? Power of the fringe. You see, there was actually power in the clothes, whatever Jesus's clothes. Of course, there was power in him. He knew when the power went out of him. Tim, is that tied pretty weird to you? That's not a regular Boy Scout slipknot, is it? It's tied pretty weird. Go over here. These girls right here, they think they know it all right here. It's tied pretty weird, isn't it? It's not normal. Go over here just to get three witnesses here. Howard, he's a deacon here. It's tied pretty weird in here. You can see this tonight if you want to, but there's a reason why it was tied this way. There was five knots all the way down this thread, but there was one knot, seven wrappings, another knot, eight wrappings, another knot, eleven wrappings, another knot, and thirteen wrappings, and then the eight chords hung down. The first three wrappings equal to the number 26. Hebrew letters always have a numerical equivalent. You know what the letters that equal 26 are? YHWH. We knew that as Yahweh, which means the Lord. The number 13 equals the letters E, C, H, and D. I might not pronounce this right, but I think it's pronounced Echad, which means is one. I told you at the beginning that this was to put upon your friends so you can remember the commandments of the Lord, right? What did Jesus say the greatest commandment was? Mark, it tells us to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul. And he says in that chapter, the Lord is one. So you know what, Barry? When she touched the hem of his garment, not only did she touch the power of this fringe, but she touched God himself. She touched the Lord when she touched him. Isn't that amazing? We also see the power of faith. I told you she ran out of money, didn't I? God wasn't concerned about that anyway. No matter how much money you have. He wasn't concerned about her well-being, about her health. He was concerned about one thing, her faith. Her faith. God's not concerned about how many times you've been to church. God's not concerned about how many times you've been in a water hole. God's not concerned about how many times you've come to the altar. God's concerned about your faith. The power of faith. Look what the power of faith did. Every time someone had a miracle in their life, it was because of their faith. We can pray and we can pray and we can pray over people, but unless they have the faith, believing that God can heal them or save them, the work will not be done. So she exercised her power of faith and God performed the miracle. He said, because of your faith may be whole. I think of we got to really close friend of ours, Lois Royster. Barry knows a lot of you know her. Probably told you a bunch of her stories. One interesting story in her life involved our assistant pastor, Brother Tommy. Tommy was in the shower and the Lord spoke to him right in the shower and said, You've got to send Lois one hundred and fifty three dollars. One hundred and fifty three dollars. He put it off for a couple of weeks. He told his wife, Bernetta, about it and said, this is weird, $153. She said, well, can't we just round it up to $200? He said, no, I can't write the check. I got to write $153. Two weeks went by, Kevin. He wrote the check, sent it to Lois. It got there. She called him on the phone. And you know what Lois does when she calls you after a miracle has just been performed? Woo! You'll never know what that meant to me. I was just praying the other day. I needed $153 to pay a bill off, and they were going to come and turn off my electric. And I didn't need it until today. Just when I was running out of hope, I had the faith and believing that God could perform the miracle, I went out to the mailbox and there was the check that you sent me for $153. You tell me faith don't work. She drove home one night without windshield wipers and an ice storm came. No wipers, but the window was clear. Faith. A lot of people are lacking faith today, but without faith you can't please God. Not only did she touch purity and power, she touched a promise. According to Leviticus, this woman was considered unclean. I don't know if she realized this or not, but in order to be cleansed of an issue of blood, you had to go to the priest. I don't know if she realized this or not, but you ever thought that she tried all the physicians, but what she really needed was a priest. She did end up going to the priest, didn't she? And the great physician and the high priest, thank God. But everywhere she went, she had to cry unclean, unclean. Everything she set upon. was unclean. Everything that she touched was unclean. Everybody that touched her was unclean. She did not have a promise of a family, did she? Until she touched the hem of his garment. Why do you say that, Brian? Because he says to her, the woman, fearing, trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him and told him all the truth. And he said unto her, Daughter. Thy faith that may be home. Wonder how long it's been since she's been called that. Wonder how long it's been before she was able to be around people. Twelve solid years without talking to anybody, without being around anybody, with constant hemorrhaging in her life. And a man touches her and cleanses her and he now calls her daughter. I can picture him doing one of these numbers, Cal. He had this garment on. See, he had it around his shoulders. And I can see him going back and touching her, and he says, Thy faith hath made thee whole. And I can see her rejoicing and getting happy, because, hey, if you've been healed of something you've had for twelve years, you're going to jump and shout, amen? But I can see him grabbing her and hugging her and bring her in. You know what they say whenever somebody prays under the prayer shawl, it's symbolic of the wings of an eagle. So when Jesus brought her in, he was overshadowing her with his love. And she was riding on the wings of an eagle. Aren't you glad to be overshadowed by the love of God? And whenever we're afraid, whenever troubles come, whenever trials come, he can just take us and just bring us right in close to his breast and just cover us. Old Brother Clyde Perry says, I know sometimes it gets dark, but if you're a saint of God, he says, that's just God. That's just God holding you, holding the shadow of his love over you. And every time now and then he just peeks in and says, hey, you doing OK in there? And then when you're ready, he'll let you go. The promise of a family. Lastly, tonight, she had the promise of a future. What kind of a future? Well, seven white strands and one blue strand. Blue in the Bible always means heaven, Howard. She had the promise of a future in heaven. My, man. And I thought, man, that's great, Lord, but sure there's got to be something else. I started studying how they get blue, the blue dye. that they used to die garments. It comes from a mollusk, a sea snail. And this mollusk has a gland inside it. And they take this gland and they take it out of this mollusk and they squeeze it. And out of that gland comes a yellow mucus. And what they do is they put it in sunlight. The more cloudy of a day, the more purple it gets. A cloudless day, it turns blue. And you know what happens when it's a cloudless day? It matches the sky perfectly. So, guess what color they dyed? They dyed that blue cord on the garments. The sky blue. Can you imagine Cal when she touched that? Heaven heard it. She felt it. Everybody was rejoicing. She was finally unclean and she had a promise of a future with Jesus Christ when she touched the hem of his garment.