The name of the message today
is a leper cleansed. Luke chapter 5 starting in verse
12. And it came to pass. We'll stop
there for a second. This is not by chance. This is
a divine appointment. It's a divine appointment. It
came to pass because it was appointed by God. And it came to pass when
he was in a certain city. And this is speaking of our King.
Behold, a man full of leprosy, who seeing Jesus, fell on his
face and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst
make me clean. And he put forth his hand and
touched him, saying, I will. Be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed
from him, And he charged him to tell no man, but go and show
thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing according as
Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them. But so much the more
went there a fame abroad to him, and great multitudes came together
to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities. And
he withdrew himself into the wilderness and prayed. Oh, what
mercy we see here before us. What mercy. What mercy that the Lord shows
to one of his sheep. And it came to pass. For every believer, There's a
time when it came to pass in our lives. Here in our text we see the Lord
Jesus Christ acting toward one of His helpless, this helpless,
hopeless leper. And it's a picture of how He
deals with His lost sheep. This leper is a picture of one of God's elect being saved
and cleansed. Oh, it's a marvelous, marvelous
portion of Scripture. Because we are hopeless, aren't
we? In ourselves. When God shows us what we are,
we're hopeless, helpless sinners. And we desperately, desperately
need Christ. This leper, he had no hope other
than Christ. And so it is with every believer. In Christ is life. He is life to the sinner who
is dead in trespasses and sins. We come into this world alive
physically, right? But spiritually dead. Bankrupt. Until the Lord Jesus Christ saves
us. We're quickened by the Holy Spirit
of God. Regenerated and made alive in
Christ. And there's life in the words
of Christ. It is the Spirit that quickeneth.
The flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. Life. And there's life in His touch,
isn't there? Turn with me if you would to
Luke chapter 8. There's life in a touch from Christ. Luke
chapter 8, starting in verse 43. This is a picture of the woman
with an issue of blood. And a woman having an issue of
blood 12 years which had spent all her living upon physicians.
Neither could be healed of any. She spent all, so much money. Do we not by our works try to
heal ourselves and find out that we're bankrupt? Come behind him and touch. Can
you imagine? She just wants to touch the hem
of his garment. Come behind him and touch the
border of his garment. And immediately, just like that,
her issue of blood was danced. And Jesus said, who touched me? Now he knew. He knew. When all denied Peter
and And they that were with him said, Master of the multitude,
throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And Jesus said, Somebody hath
touched me. For I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. There's
life in the touch. There's life in the touch. And
when the woman saw that she was not hit, she came trembling.
Trembling before Christ, right? And fallen down before him. She
declared unto him before all the people for what cause she
had touched him and how she was healed immediately. And he said
unto her, now he didn't chastise her. He didn't chase her. Look
what he says. And he said unto her, daughter,
be of good comfort. Be of good comfort. Thy faith
hath made thee whole. Go in peace. What mercy. What mercy. And in our text, the Lord gives
life to a leper? In Leviticus, it says this. Leviticus
13. If you want to turn there, you
can. I'll read some scripture from
there. Leviticus 13, verses 45 to 47. In the leper in whom the
plague is, his clothes shall be rent. and his head bare, and
he shall put a covering upon his lip and shall cry, Unclean! Unclean! So wherever that leper
travels, he has to say, Unclean! Wherever he goes. Look at verse 46. And all the
days wherein the place shall be in, he shall be defiled. Leprosy in the Bible is a picture
of sin. He is unclean, and he shall dwell
alone without the camp. He's to dwell outside the camp. Without the camp shall his habitation
be the garments, even the garments that he wears. Also that the
plague of leprosy is in, whether it be a woolen garment or a linen
garment. So the leper, the leper, beloved,
is defiled from head to toe, to his feet. Well, so are we by sin. So are we. Let's go back to our
text in Luke, chapter five, verse 12, and it came to pass when
he was in a certain city, behold, a man and notice is full of leprosy. Full of leprosy. And think of
this, this leper was unclean before the Lord, right? He was
unclean before the Lord. He was unclean before the law,
what we just looked at in Leviticus. He's unclean before that. He's
unclean to himself. He knew he was unclean and everything
he wore was unclean. And he was unclean before the
people, too. He had to cry out, unclean, unclean. He couldn't
dwell amongst them even. And think on this. He was absolutely
unable to change his condition in any way. He had no ability to change his
condition. He could not undo his state before
the Lord. He's a leper. He's full of leprosy. He could not undo his state before
the law. Again, he's full of leprosy. He could do nothing on his own
to change the state that he was in. He could not undo his uncleanness,
and he could not undo his state before the people. And think, in order for him to
get to where he was, he had to cry out, unclean, unclean. And think of this, we are unable
to change ourselves. We are unable to change our state before the Lord. A lot of folks think they can.
But they don't have the ability to change themselves. Only God
can change us. When the Lord comes to us, and
He draws us to Himself, and He takes away the stony heart which
is in us, and He gives us a new heart, a new nature, new desires, we're going to see later on,
He makes us clean. This is a wonderful picture.
Ezekiel says this, and I will give them one heart. Unity, unity in Christ, and I'll
put a new spirit within you, born again of the Holy Spirit,
regenerated. And I'll take the stony heart
of the flesh, Ezekiel 11, verses 19 and 20, Stony heart of their
flesh and will give them in heart of flesh That they may walk in
my statutes And keep mine ordinances And do them And they shall be
my people god says this they shall be my people. Oh, this
is wonderful a People who were not willing are made willing They shall be my people. And
I will be their God. Think of how you used to think
before the Lord saved you. I didn't trust in God then. I
trusted in my own doings. Now, as we looked at it, he's
my shield. He's my defense. He's my hope.
He's my high tower. He's my refuge. He's my salvation. Oh. We are unable to change our natural
state. We come into this world dead
and trespasses and sins with no interest in God. Carried about by the desires
of our flesh and the lusts of our flesh And we lack any ability
to change our state No man can come unto me come
to me except the father which has sent me Draw him and I'll
raise them up the last day. No man can come on their own
to God But God says I'll draw And you know if he draws you
he's going to bring you And this is our hope. But God,
who is rich in mercy, Ephesians chapter two, verse four, but
God, who is rich in mercy, mercy like he showed this leper. For
his great love, wherewith he loved us. From eternity, beloved. Even when we were dead in sins,
and we looked at that the other day, that's graveyard dead. You
can't have it, you can't do anything. You have no ability. Hath quickened us together with
Christ by grace, by grace, by grace are you saved. Oh, it's
marvelous. The wondrous grace of God in
Christ alone. and hath raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that
in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of
his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Several
commentators have said, and I've mentioned this before, that every
believer is a trophy of the grace of God in Christ. He might show the exceeding riches
of his grace. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. It's a
gift of God. If you're ever saved, it's a
gift of God. So no man has the power to come to God on his own,
by his own ability, or by, and it's not just by your own ability,
but it's even by your mind. We don't have the capacity to
come to God on our own. We must be made willing. We must
be. Think on what made this leper,
what made this leper want to come to Christ? What made him want to come up?
Only God. Only God. And he found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. He found grace in the eyes of
the Lord. And every believer, if you're saved, you've found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. Just as Noah found grace in the
eyes of the Lord. Oh, it's marvelous. And is this not a picture of
how we are drawn and how we come to the Lord? So this leper in no way could
come for cleansing on his own. He was helpless and hopeless.
And so poor needy sinners like ourselves have no way to come to God unless
the Lord Jesus Christ moves in our lives and draws us to himself. And he does it with love and
courts. He lovingly draws his people to himself. Remember what David said about
Mephibosheth? Go and fetch him. Go and fetch
him. Holy Spirit fetching grace. He
goes and fetches the Lord's people. There's a picture there of the
whole Trinity in action. Wherever the Lord Jesus Christ
was, the power of God was present. Look in Luke chapter 5 again,
just a few verses down in verse 17 from our text. And it came
to pass on a certain day as he was teaching that there were
Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by which were come
out of every town of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and the
power of the Lord was present to heal them. Oh, so let's look at this leper. Let's look at this leper who
came to Christ. It came to pass when he was in
a certain city, verse 12, behold, a man full of leprosy, who seeing
Jesus, fell on his face and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt,
thou can make me clean. So we've looked at the leprous
condition, right? He was a man fully leprous. This disease had
run its course. He was probably in the final
stages. He's full of leprosy, from head
to toe, full of leprosy. And like sin, this loathsome
disease works slowly, but the cause of it is deadly and irreversible. You can't stop it once it starts. They couldn't in this time. And
it starts out just as a little scab. And it slowly eats away features, fingers. Eventually it makes the person
unrecognizable. And it poisons the blood. It
so affects every facet of the body, it poisons the blood, so
the whole man is affected. It cannot be stopped. Now think
on the similarities between leprosy and sin. Sin affects the whole man, doesn't
it? Body, heart, and mind. It affects all aspects of our
being. So this man is absolutely full
of leprosy. Let's look at our next point.
And it came to pass when he was in a certain city, behold a man
full of leprosy, And I call this point Blessed Sight. Blessed
Sight. Who seeing Jesus. Seeing Jesus. Seeing, hearing,
knowing how blessed is the soul in this condition, full of leprosy. Us, full of sin. How blessed
is the soul to see Christ. See, we'll never come to Him
unless we see our need for Him. And He must reveal that to us.
He must reveal. This leper, think of this leper. Think of how filled with despair
this leper was before. And now, his eyes were full of
despair, and now he lights up seeing Jesus. See in Jesus. There's a new light in his eyes.
He's looking at Christ. And no doubt he had heard of
our Lord's miracles in his works. And he must have believed the
report because he was there. See in Jesus. And as I said,
this is not a chance meeting. This is a divine appointment
of God. Who see in Jesus, His sight is
turned into faith. Oh, what blessed sight. Here before us, we have a seeking Savior, right? That's one of His sheep. Came
here to seek and to save them who are lost. and a seeking sinner. One who normally would never
seek Him. Through seeing Jesus. And think on the contrast here
between this leper and Christ. One full of leprosy and one full
of power and compassion. one full of leprosy, and one
absolutely sinless. Which brings us to our next point. And it came to pass when he was
in a certain city, behold, a man full of leprosy, who seeing Jesus,
fell on his face. The position this leper takes
is he falls on his face before the Lord. And seeing The face of God always
makes us hide from Him. Hiding the face is actually an
outward expression of deep, inward conviction. Turn with me, if you would, to
Luke chapter 18. I know we're familiar with this, but this
is a perfect example of this. Luke chapter 18. And we know in Isaiah, right?
When Isaiah saw the face of the Lord, what did he do? He cried,
I'm a man undone. I'm a man undone. Look at this in Luke chapter
18, verse 10. Two men went up to the temple
to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a Republican. And here
the Pharisee's going to tell us how great he is. He's actually
telling God how great he thinks he is. Not how great he thinks
God is, but how great he thinks he is himself. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, God I thank Thee that I'm not as other men
are, extortioners, unjust, adulterous, or even as this publican over
there. I fast twice in a week. I give
tithes of all that I possess. This reminds me of the folks
in Matthew. We say, Lord, look at all we did. He says, depart from me, you
cursed. I never knew you. And here's the publican, a picture
of we sinners showing what we are. And the publican standing
off afar up would not lift up so much as his eyes into heaven,
but smote upon his breasts, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And then I love verse 14, I tell
you, this man went down to his house justified. Forgiven. Forgiven. rather than the other,
for everyone that exalts themselves shall be abased, and he that
humbles himself shall be exalted." And as I said, Isaiah, when Isaiah
saw the Lord, he said, woe is me. Woe is me. Job, bear with me if you would,
to Job 42. Job 42, verses 1-6. Then Job answered the Lord and
said, I know that Thou canst do everything, that no thought
can be withholden from Thee. Who is He that hideth counsel
without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that
I understood not things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Here
I beseech thee, and I will speak. I will demand of thee, and declare
thou unto me. I have heard of thee by the hearing
of the ear, but now mine eyes seeth thee. Wherefore, I abhor myself and
repent in dust and ashes. He makes his headquarters in
the dust. Old Scott Richardson used to say that, and I love
that statement. Believers make their headquarters in the dust.
That's what we do. After the Lord reveals Himself
to us, we are like that publican, we would most so much lift our
head up. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell
down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful
man, O Lord. Luke 5.8. So what does this leper do? Seeing Jesus, he fell on his
face. Which brings us to our next point.
In earnest prayer. In earnest prayer. And it came to pass, when he
was in a certain city, behold, a man full of leprosy, who seeing
Jesus, fell on his face, and beside him saying, Lord, if Thou
wilt. Thou canst make me clean. Lord, if it's your will. Is this not our prayer for our
loved ones too? Oh, Lord, if it's your will, please save them. If it's your will, Lord. This prayer reveals two things. A knowledge of the character
of Christ Jesus our Lord, who is God in the flesh. And this knowledge, he has faith
in the knowledge that he's been given, that Christ is Lord. Christ
has been revealed to this leper. Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst. You can do it, Lord, if you will
it. He knew to whom he was coming.
And he knew that Christ had all power. How did he know this? It's been revealed to him. Lord, if thou will, thou canst. You can do whatever you please,
Lord. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? No. Nothing. If He wills. And the other point that this
prayer reveals is the one desire of this leper. He wanted to be
made clean. Knew he couldn't clean himself. It came to pass, when he was
in a certain city, behold, a man full of leprosy, who seeing Jesus,
fell on his face, and beside him saying, Lord, if thou wilt,
thou canst make me clean. He confessed his need, didn't
he? He knew he needed to be clean. He knew he needed to be cleansed.
He knew he couldn't cleanse himself. But he had faith that the Savior
could cleanse him. Is it not so with us who are
full of sin? Lord, if you will, thou can make
me clean. I can't clean myself. I can't
make myself whole. I can't satisfy the law. So he confessed his need and
pleads for personal cleansing. But if we walk in the light as
he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another in the blood
of Jesus Christ, his son cleanses us from all sin. First John one seven. Our next point is a perfect salvation. A perfect salvation. Look at
verse 13. Our master puts forth his hand,
right? And he put forth his hand and
touched him, saying, I will. I will. Be thou clean. And immediately, immediately, this man's a leper. He's full of leprosy. And immediately, the leprosy
departed from him. Every miracle and every saved
sinner is linked to the I will of Christ. Everyone who's saved is saved
because the Lord's willed it. Because it's pleased him to make
us Whiter than snow To cleanse us from all our sin
And the lord jesus christ here brings life where there's death This man that leprosy will kill
him what the sin do to us the soul that sinneth it must die And this touch beloved think
of this This touch was an atoning touch. It was an atoning touch. Do you think anyone else would
have touched that leopard? No. Because just a touch and
you could get it. No one, that's why he had the
cry out, I'm clean, I'm clean, wherever he went. They wouldn't
touch him. Oh, think of this. The holiness
of God. Comes in contact with this leprous
man. In his awful defilement. Yet
Christ himself was not defiled. He remains perfect and pure. He is the God man, me dear. the
perfect, sinless, spotless Lamb of God. And Scripture declares,
For He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He who bore our
sins never sinned. Never. Yet He who knew no sin
was made sin for us. Our sins were imputed to Him.
And He pays the redemption price for the sins of all His elect. And we who are defiled Defiled sinners are made the
righteousness of God and Him. What a picture we have here before
us. Christ touched him and was not defiled by his sin. Was not defiled by his leprosy. Oh, the believer's sins are imputed
to Christ. He's the sinless, spotless Lamb
of God. Perfect. Look at these assuring words,
beloved. Oh, look at these assurance. I will be thou clean. With this touch from our master
comes his word of assurance. A touch from God in the flesh
makes this man whole. And we who are washed in the
precious blood of Christ can be assured by His Word that what
He speaks is done. And notice too, it's a complete
deliverance, isn't it? Just like salvation in Christ.
Look at this. And immediately, the leprosy
departed from him. Beloved, where did the leprosy
go? Where it would never bother that
leper again. Where did our sins go? to a place where God remembers
them no more. No more. Turn with me, if you
would, to Isaiah 38, 17, and put your finger in Isaiah 44,
22, and I'll read Micah 7, 19, which says, He will turn again. He will have
compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities
and Thou will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea
Brother John you were on the sea for many times in the ship
how deep that ocean is Oh Ah Look at Isaiah 38, 17. Behold,
for peace I had great bitterness, but thou hast in love to my soul
delivered it from the pit of corruption, for thou hast cast
all my sins behind thy back. Isaiah 38, 17. Where are the believer's sins? Look at Isaiah 44, 22. I have
blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, And as a
cloud, thy sins return unto me, for I have redeemed thee. Oh, this is a wonderful news. And
look in Luke 5, 14, back to our text. Remember earlier I said
this leper could not, he could not present himself before the
law either because the law condemned him, right? because he was full
of leprosy. And what does the law and justice,
we come before the law and justice of God in our sinfulness and
it condemns us, doesn't it? We have no hope. Look at verse 14, and he charged
them to tell no man, but go and show thyself to a priest and
offer for thy cleanse in accordance as Moses commanded for a testimony
unto them. So our king, Our master tells
this leper to go and present himself before the priest. Remember this, Christ didn't
come to set aside the law, right? But he came to fulfill the law. Why we might ask did our Lord
send him to the priest? The priest represents the law. He's not going to the priest
for cleansing. Turn with me if you would to Leviticus 14 again.
He's not going to the priest for cleansing. Christ tells him to go to the
priest who represented the law. And what does the law do for
this leper who's being made white as snow? He's not a leper anymore. It declares him clean, right?
But the law didn't make him clean, did it? Christ made him clean. Christ made him clean. The law has no demands on the
leper as it has no demands on the blood-washed believer in
Christ. The work of the Lord can stand
the minutest inspection The priest the law the prophets the world
and the devil The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses
his people from all their sins Leviticus chapter 14 verse 1
and the Lord speak unto Moses saying This shall be the law
the leper in the day of his cleansing. He shall be bought unto the priest
and And the priest shall go forth out of the camp, verse 3, and
the priest shall look and behold if the plague of leprosy be healed
in the leper. Then shall the priest command to take for him
that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean in cedar wood
and scarlet and hyssop. And the priest shall command
that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running
water. As for the living bird, he shall take it in the cedar
wood and the scarlet and the hyssop and shall dip them and
the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over
the running water, and he shall sprinkle upon him, that is to
be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce
him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open
field." All he can do is pronounce him clean. He doesn't make him
clean. Oh, beloved, we who are full of the leprosy of sin, if
you're a believer, you'd be made Heaven forgiven you all your
trespasses and sins. This is wonderful news for sinners
like me. All. How much of our sins forgiven? All. All. Free from the law. Law has no claim. Because it's been fulfilled in
Christ. It's not been set aside. It's
still there. But it finds its fulfillment
in Christ and Him alone. And look at verse 15 and 16 of
chapter 5 in Luke. And turn with me, if you would,
to Revelation 5. I'll read Luke 5, 15 and 16. But so much the
more went their fame abroad of him, and great multitudes came
together to hear and to be healed by him of their infirmities.
And he withdrew himself into the wilderness and prayed. No
matter how busy our Lord was, he took time in prayer. He took
time to be alone in prayer. And may the Lord teach us daily
to look to Christ for our needs, right? Not to look to ourselves,
but to look to Him. Look to Him. And maybe you want to listen
who does not know Christ. And our prayer is that may God
the Father draw you May the Holy Spirit draw you and show you your need for Him as He did for this leper and
as He did for those of us who are saved. We're saved sinners. And He is showing us who are
saved that we were like this leper. We come before Him and fall before
Him and say, Lord, if Thou will, Thou can make me clean. Come to the end of ourselves. And what do we do? We rejoice,
don't we? We rejoice. Think of how this leper, he must
have rejoiced. He was full of leprosy. He had
no hope. Same with the woman with the
issue of blood. She had no hope but to touch the hem of the garment
of Christ. Divine appointments. And in every
believer's life, there's a divine appointment. Remember the woman
at the well? I must needs go to Samaria. I must. One of my sheep's over
there. Not just one, it turned out there
was a whole bunch of them. Turn with me, if you would, to
Revelation chapter 5. We'll close with this. Oh, we rejoice that
all our sins are gone, washed in the precious blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And the law has no more demands
upon the believer. This is marvelous in Revelation
chapter 5. And they sang a new song. Revelation 5, 9, and they sang
a new song saying, Thou art worthy. And the reason they sang that
song is they were like that leper, right? Thou art worthy, Lord,
oh, you're worthy to receive all the glory, honor, and praise.
Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof,
for Thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by Thy blood. God redeemed
his people, Christ redeemed his people, God in the flesh, by
his own precious blood. Redeemed us to God by thy blood
and out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation. I love that.
Folks of all different nationalities, all different races, one in Christ. and has made us unto our God
kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld
and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne
and beasts and elders, and the number of them was ten thousand
times ten thousand and thousands of thousands. Oh, a number you
can't, never a number. Saying with a loud voice, worthy
is the Lamb. Do we not cry this? Oh Lord,
you're worthy. Because you redeemed me. You
made me clean. I couldn't clean myself. You
made me clean. You forgave me for all my trespasses
and sins. And you did it by shedding your
own precious blood on Calvary's cross. This is why Paul penned, not
by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to
his mercy he has saved us. Oh, it's marvelous. Worthy is
the lamb that was slain. And he died. He really died in
the room instead of sinners. To receive power and riches and
wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. One day
we'll be there. One day those who believe will
be there. We'll sing that song. Worthy is the lamb.