Luke 8:43-48 And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living on physicians, neither could be healed of any,… I. Consider, therefore, concerning this woman, WHAT SHE HAD DONE. She had been literally dying for twelve years. 1. She had resolved not to die if a cure could be had. She was evidently a woman of great determination and hopefulness. Insensibility has seized upon many, and a proud conceit: they are full of sin, and yet they talk of self-righteousness. No doubt some are held back from such action by the freezing power of despair. They have reached the conclusion that there is no hope for them. Alas l many have never come to this gracious resolution, because they cherish a vain hope, and are misled by an idle dream. They fancy that salvation will come to them without their seeking it. 2. Let us next note, that this woman, having made her resolve, adopted the likeliest means she could think of. Physicians are men set apart on purpose to deal with human maladies; therefore she went to the physicians. No doubt she met with some who boasted that they could heal her complaint at once. They began by saying, "You have tried So-and-so, but he is a mere quack; mine is a scientific remedy." Many pretenders to new revelations are abroad, but they are physicians of no value. 3. This woman, in the next place, having resolved not to die if cure could be had, and having adopted the likeliest means, persevered in the use of those means. Have you been to Doctor Ceremony? He is, at this time, the fashionable doctor. 4. But this woman not only thus tried the most likely means, and persevered in the use of them, but she also spent all her substance over it. Thus do men waste their thought, their care, their prayer, their agony, over that which is as nothing: they spend their money for that which is not bread. The price of wisdom is above rubies. If we had mines of gold, we might profitably barter them for the salvation of our souls. II. We have seen what the woman had done; now let us think of WHAT HAD COME OF IT. We are told that she had suffered many things of many physicians. 1. That was her sole reward for trusting and spending: she had not been relieved, much less healed; but she had suffered. She had endured much additional suffering through seeking a cure. Efforts after salvation made in your own strength act like the struggles of a drowning man, which sink the more surely. 2. There has been this peculiarly poignant pang about it all, that you are nothing bettered. 3. We read of this woman, that though she suffered much, she was nothing better, but rather grew worse. You are becoming more careless, more dubious than you once were. You have lost much of your former sensitiveness. You are doing certain things now that would have startled you years ago, and you are leaving certain matters undone which once you would have thought essential. 4. This is a sad, sad case l As a climax of it all, the heroine of our story had now spent all that she had. Welcome, brother! Now you are ready for Jesus. When all your own virtue has gone out of you, then shall you seek and find that virtue which goeth out of Him. III. This brings to our notice, in the third place, WHAT THIS WOMAN DID AT LAST. 1. Note well she resolved to trust in Jesus in sheer despair of doing anything else. 2. After all, this was the simplest and easiest thing that she could do. Touch Jesus. 3. Not only was this the simplest and easiest thing for the poor afflicted one, but certainly it was the freest and most gracious. There was not a penny to pay. 4. This was the quietest thing for her to do. She said nothing. She did not cry aloud like the blind men. 5. This is the only effectual thing. Touch Jesus, and salvation is yours at once. Simple as faith is, it is never-failing. IV. And now, poor convicted sinner I here comes the driving home of the nail. DO THOU AS THIS WOMAN DID. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Parallel Verses KJV: And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, |
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