There Is A Remedy - Part II
|
Article continued from the October 2020 issue of The Evangelist.
“And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched. And Jesus said, Who touched me?” — Luke 8:43-45
And, the first thought in Veronica’s mind—she had evidently heard about Jesus, and heard much about Him. And she said to herself, “I’ve got to get to Him. He can heal me. I’ve suffered for twelve years, but He can heal me.” But she couldn’t get to Him; the crowds were too large. They were thronging to get to Him, hundreds and hundreds of people trying to get to Jesus, and so she gave it up after a few moments. She wanted to tell Him, “I’ve been sick for twelve years. I’ve been in pain; I’m in pain now. Would you heal me?” But she couldn’t get to Him. So she reasoned in her mind, she saw what they called a talith—a sash that went over the shoulder and it hung down to about the waist, and it had four blue tassels on it. Every man wore one like that, and it meant, with those blue tassels, “Your help comes from above.” Let me tell you, the Bible—your help comes from the Word of almighty God. Your help comes from the Lord. Your help comes from God. Your help comes from the Word of God. Your help comes from Jesus Christ. Your help comes from the Holy Spirit. Your help comes from the Lord. That’s America’s solution. That’s this world’s solution. Hallelujah to the Lamb.
And she saw those four tassels on the border of that talith, that garment that lay over His shoulder. It was not down at His feet, but over His shoulder. And she said, “If I can but touch Him. If I can touch that blue tassel.” Glory to God.
Oh reach out and touch the Lord as He goes by,
You’ll find He’s not too busy to hear your heart’s cry,
He’s passing by this moment, your needs to supply,
Reach out and touch the Lord as He goes by.
Now here’s a truth I want you to get: If He won’t touch you, you can touch Him. Glory to God. If circumstances or such—I won’t try to go into them because I don’t know all of them—but if He seemingly won’t touch you, you can touch Him. Millions have, glory to God. It doesn’t matter the circumstances, you can touch Him. You can touch Him. You can touch Him. You can touch Him. You understand what I’m saying? You can touch Him.
Veronica finally got through that crowd. Let me tell you this: touching the Lord is never easy. There will be obstacles. It would have been very easy for her to say, “It’s hopeless. I can’t get to Him.” Faith demands that we keep up, continue, and don’t stop. This woman was weak—she’s sick, she’s in pain, she’s hurting—but she pushed her way through to get to Him, and she did. She did.
Many of you reading this have gotten through to Him, and you’ve touched Him. You have touched Him. You’ve touched Him. The devil told you it was no use, but you reached out and touched the Lord. The devil said, “I’m going to kill you,” but notice he hasn’t done it because he can’t do it. He can’t do it. He can’t do it. If he could, he would have a long time ago, but you’re still here shouting the praises of almighty God, changed by the power of God, by the power of the Holy Ghost. He’s told you that you’re going to go broke. I don’t know how many times, I’ve laid on my face in the administration building not knowing how we would pay the bills the next week, the next day, and praying, “Lord you’ve got to do something.” And every single time, He would do something. We’re still here, and we’re touching most of this world by the power of almighty God.
The devil is telling some of you that your son, your daughter will never be saved. I was talking to a man some time back and he mentioned two of my cousins, not the ones that I’ve mentioned so many times, two others. They had one of the godliest mothers I’ve ever known or witnessed. She held those men up before God, and they lived as rotten, as degradating, as dastardly, as dark, and as damnable as a human being could live. And I hadn’t seen them in years, but I said to this man, “Well, I don’t know if they’re going to make it or not.” He looked at me and said, “I should have told you, both of them have gotten saved.” Well hallelujah!
The devil has said that you’re not going to get to Jesus, but you got to Him! You got to Him! Praise God, He’s never turned one away. It doesn’t matter if you’re black, brown, white, yellow, red—it doesn’t matter if you’re one-legged and one-eyed. Hallelujah! The devil will tell you any lie he can get you to believe.
No doubt the devil told Veronica, “You’ll never get to Him. You’re weak. You’ll never make it. There are hundreds trying to touch Him.” But she kept trying. She kept believing. And she touched that blue tassel, glory to God. And the Bible said, “Immediately.” Immediately. I believe she had an old-fashioned, Church of God, Holy Ghost fit. Praise God!
And Jesus said, “Who touched Me?” Peter looked at Him with exasperation and said, “Lord, the multitudes are thronging You and pressing You and shoving up against You, and You ask, ‘Who touched Me?’ What do you mean?” Jesus said, “Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of Me.”
It cost God something to give us what we need, but thank God, He paid the price. It was paid at Calvary’s cross. That’s the only answer. That’s the remedy for this world.
Jesus said, “Somebody hath touched me,” and when she saw that she could not be hid—she was trying to hide, and I don’t blame her. You’ve got this big crowd, and you’ve got Jesus, and she didn’t know. She had sneaked up behind Him and touched that garment, she then tried to hide, she didn’t want anybody to see her, especially when Jesus stopped and said, “Who touched Me?” What would you have done?
Peter said, “The multitudes throng You and press You and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ What are you talking about?” He said, “Somebody touched Me who had faith. For virtue—power—has gone out of Me.” And when she saw that she was not hid, she came trembling and fell down before Him, and He said, “Lady, what’s happened to you?” She said, “Lord, I’ve been sick for twelve years, but I am healed now.” And you know what? At first the Scripture referred to her as “woman,” but now He calls her “daughter.” Daughter. And He said, “Your faith has made you whole.” See, she was not only healed, she was saved as well. Her life was changed spiritually as well—“Daughter, your faith has made you whole.” Faith. Believing God.
Have faith in God,
Have faith in God,
Have faith in God for the answer,
Have faith in God.
When I get to glory, I’m going to look her up and say I want you to tell me exactly how it happened. I know the Word of God tells me how, but I want to know what you thought.
Frances and I and Donnie were in Plainview, Texas, in a meeting about fifty odd years ago. The pastor was Don George. He said, “Brother Swaggart, I want to show you something.” I wondered what he was talking about. We went to a store, a grocery store, owned by Jimmy Dean—a great singer who had a program on television for quite some time. We went into the store and Don kept looking around and finally saw him, a young man, and he came over to where we were and Don introduced me to him.
About a year before, he had developed a disease that he had contracted in World War II that played on his nervous system to where finally, over a short period of time, the pain became so awful that even drugs would not deaden it. The military sent him a check for $300, which was then about the same as $3,000 I guess, or more, for his funeral. That’s how bad it was. Doctors had done everything they could do, but it was one of these diseases in the islands of the sea where he was in the armed forces that he had contracted some way. The doctors couldn’t do anything about it. Yes, they prayed for him untold numbers of times and this particular Sunday, he told his wife, “I want to go to church.” To try to get him dressed took over an hour and it would hurt so badly, he would scream as his arms would be raised to get his coat on. That’s how bad it was; he was dying.
She said, “You don’t want to undergo this type of pain.”
He said, “I’ve got to go to church this morning.”
“Why this morning?” she asked.
He said, “I’ve got to go this morning.”
He told me this, along with Don adding to it. They finally got him dressed, put him in the car and drove him up to the front door, and helped him out. They literally had to pack him as you would pack a sack of flour. They put him down on the pew, and the service began. Now the ways of God sometimes are not easy to find out. All of a sudden, as the choir was singing, if I remember it correctly, he felt it. And the Lord spoke to him and said, “Stand to your feet.” Hallelujah to the Lamb. “Stand to your feet.” He hadn’t stood to his feet unaided in months. He slowly stood to his feet, and the Spirit of God began to move, and the Spirit of the Lord spoke to him again and said, “Get out in the aisle and walk.” He hadn’t taken a step by himself in months, but he started walking down that aisle. And then the Lord said, “You’ve walked enough. Let’s run.” Praise God. Don told me that they opened the windows, the doors—people came from all over Plainview to watch him run because they knew him, they knew his circumstance, they knew his situation. And I saw him standing that day in the store; he didn’t have a thing wrong with him. He had gained back the weight he had lost, and he said, “Brother Swaggart, I run every service. I don’t disturb anybody, but the Lord has done so much for me, and I can’t help it. I have to run.”
We told this on our television program, A Study in the Word, and he and his family heard it. They heard Don relating the story, and we got word about a year ago that he had passed away, but if I remember correctly, he was ninety years old when he passed away.
Praise God, there is a remedy. There is no remedy in this world, but there is a remedy.
|
|
