There was a leper that was beseeching him and kneeling
down to him and saying unto him, if thou wilt, thou can make me
clean. And as Joe has read in your hearing
already, the Lord said, I will. And then the Lord said to him, in verse 44, don't say anything
to anybody about what has happened. And verse 45 says, but he went
out and began to publish it much. And to blaze, the old King James
version says, to blaze abroad the matter in so much that Jesus
could no more openly enter into the city, but was without in
desert places, and they came to him from every quarter. And
they came to him from every quarter. I wonder, maybe this morning, huh? Something like this could happen
here. Such a power of the Spirit of
God in regeneration. Such sovereignty of God in seeking
you out and breaking the chains of your bondage, whatever it
is, and setting you free. And you couldn't keep your mouth
shut about it. Years ago, a man and his wife
came to our house there in Garrett County, Kentucky, and Pam and
I, it was about four in the morning, and this man had been attending
our services and had never openly acknowledged Jesus Christ. He
was a pretty tough character. But that night, the Lord broke
his chains, or early that morning, He ran all over my yard like
a crazy man. I got, he did it. He did it. He did it. Wouldn't that be something if
he did it today? You know he's able to do it. Jeremiah, the weeping prophet
said, Lord, you're like a man turned to stone. You're a stranger
in our land. I have often repeated Jeremiah's
words. In fact, I did yesterday. And
I said to myself upon hearing of Pete's overdose and death,
Lord, will this awful wound ever be healed? Now, 75,001 have died this year. P. DeLuzo O'Deed. I've lived long enough to see
in this one family his father, Died. His mother, I preached
her funeral. Pete's twin, I preached her funeral. And I don't know what funeral
arrangements will be made for Pete, but I do know this, there
is a bomb in Gilead. one who is able to set the captor
free, one who's able to save to the uttermost. There is a
great physician. I know the world is saying that
addiction is a disease. Well, if it is, I know a physician
that can fix it. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. There are no wounds that our
God cannot heal. Now with regard to the scripture
that's been read this morning, it's difficult for us to imagine
the awful, the awfulness of this disease of leprosy. It drains its victims of strength. It caused constant terrible pain. The skin would discolor throughout
the body. and pink and brown modules would
appear, only to ulcerate, emitting a foul discharge. The voice would
become hoarse, the breath wheezy. The head would contort, causing
the person to appear almost inhuman. Toward the end of life, the nerve
fibers would become infected causing a lack of sensation and
eventually fingers and toes would fall off. The leper was a mass of ugly,
stinking flesh. As the leper approached other
human beings, he was to tear his clothes and cry, unclean,
unclean. He didn't even have the right
to speak to other human beings. Leopards would live outside the
city walls in shanties made of cardboard. People would throw
their garbage over the walls and the leopards would pick through
it for morsels of food. And finally, they would die. in loneliness
and despair. But I have some good news for
all you lepers today. Jesus is one who touches the
untouchables. Is that good news? Well, it ought to be good news
to everyone in here because you're untouchable, totally depraved
and without hope in yourself. But there's one who is able.
I want to talk to you about that. In desperation, this leper cries
out, if you're willing, you can make me clean. Isn't that something? If you
want to. acknowledging the sovereignty
of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the Lord can save you
or damn you and still be the Lord of glory. I hear people
say all the time, I just want what I deserve. And I always
say, don't worry about it, honey, if that's all you want, you can
count on getting that. As for me, I don't want what
I deserve. Note it was not the leper's will,
but that of the master. This whole thing of sinners being
made clean is in the will of the master. It is not of him
that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth
mercy. The clay is in the potter's hand, if thou wilt. You don't have to. Oh, that I
could see that happening in America today. a group of men and women
who were saying to the Lord, Lord, you don't have to, but
if you want to, and if you will, you can make me whole. Oh, that
I would see that this morning, even while I'm preaching, wouldn't
it be something if you would cry out, Lord, I know you can
make me whole. I know, Lord, you can make me
clean if thou wilt. You don't owe me anything. Oh,
this is an entitlement generation. Our country spent $120 trillion
since 1964 attempting to give enough money to people who feel
like they deserve for the government to take care of them. We call
it entitlement. There's nobody here that's entitled
to anything. Amen. I know if you want to, you can.
And the Lord said, I will. I wonder if there's somebody
here today that in desperateness, in your desperate, in desperate
need, Lord, I'm not whole, but I know if you want to, you can. There's hope there. Have you
lost all hope? There's hope in this, that our
God is sovereign. Salvation is in the wills and
shalls of God. John 6, 37 says, all that the
Father giveth me shall come to me, shall come to me. That's where salvation is, in
the certainty of God, in the will of God, in the purpose of
God, in the plan of God. shall come to me, and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise turn thumbs down." I don't think
that's King James, I will no wise cast out, I will no wise
cast out. Can you venture on Christ today?
I'm not sure. You can be sure of this. The
only thing to be uncertain about is yourself. You can be sure
of this. He's able to take your chains
off and set you free. Amen. Are you alcoholic? He can set
you free. Amen. Somebody ought to say,
praise God. If he can't, you're in a mess. Are you a crack addict? Are you
a heroin addict? Are you a credit card addict?
Are you a churchy addict? A religious addict? He's able
to set you free from that. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me. Draw him, and I will raise him
up at the last day. I just don't know if I'm gonna
make it or not. No, you're not. But he's able
to work in you and to do exceedingly abundantly above all that you
ask or think. God's able to do that. I hope
you believe that today. There's something else to notice
here. Not only did Jesus say, I will, but Jesus touched this
man. How insane is that? All gory and stinky and with
leprosy. And Jesus reached out and touched
him. You know he could have healed
a man without touching him. You do know that. He didn't have
to touch him. Anybody here need a touch? Anybody
here want Him to say more to you than I will, but to actually
reach out and touch you? The Savior wanted to identify
Himself with this poor unhappy soul. This leper needed not only
healing, but significance. I know you're here. If you are
a crack addict, heroin addict, alcoholic or whatever, I know
you don't feel significant. I know there's things happened
in your life. You see, you don't drink simply for the fun of getting
drunk. You don't shoot up simply for
the joy. There's something deeper inside. Some kind of leprosy. that desperately
needs a miracle. People are always saying to me,
do you believe in miracles? Do I believe in miracles? I is
one. Everything about this place is
a miracle. I'm willing. and he touched him,
be cleaned. This church must learn that all
around us are hurting people, emotionally starved people. You're
probably sitting by one of the untouchables today. Hillary Clinton had it right,
there's a bunch of deplorables out there. Saved by the grace of God. Amen. They may not appear to
be untouchable. They may be very attractive.
But many people do feel untouchable inside. They're starving for
acceptance and love. And only the message of grace
can give that. Well, why do you preach grace?
Why don't you preach against drinking and smoking and pornography? And why don't you preach against?
Oh, no, I'm going to tell you something. Only the grace of
God can reach where you are. It's going to take the unmerited
favor of God. Starving for acceptance. Doris
Vinestone, in her book, entitled, No Place to Cry, says this about
her young life. I was not allowed to sit on my
mother's lap. When my younger sister, who was
much prettier than I, came to my mother, she would pick her
up, and I was pushed away like an unwanted dog. At that early
age of six, I knew the pain of rejection. The pain of having
no one to give me a loving touch. I grew to understand the power
of touch. I crave the love that could be
communicated through a tender hug or a touch on the arm. An
appropriate loving touch says I love you and I care. Gary Smalley describes the long-lasting
influence of a single loving caress in the life of Marilyn
Monroe. She was conceived out of wedlock,
and in her early years, she was shuffled from one foster home
to another. She was asked, after becoming
a sex goddess, did you ever feel loved by the foster families
with whom you lived? Once, Marilyn said, when I was
about seven or eight, the woman I was living with was putting
on makeup, and I was watching her. She was in a happy mood,
so she reached over and patted my cheeks with her rouge puff. For that moment, I felt loved
by her. Though the touch lasted but a
few seconds, the memory of it still brought tears to Marilyn
Monroe's eyes. How about you? You here starve
to death to know your love? Only God knows the number of
young women who have fallen into sexual promiscuity because they
were starved for affection. Many a girl has testified that
immorality was simply the price she had to pay to be held, and
in the words of one, to mean something to someone. Someone has said, if we could
know the kind of physical contact a child receives, we could predict
the future emotional health of the child. Let me remind you
that though you missed out with your earthly parents, the grace
of God, the Heavenly Father, can reverse the deprivation of
your childhood. Who am I preaching to today?
I'm talking to somebody. Somebody I'm talking to today.
But the power of a loving touch cannot be overstated. I've heard
Miss Pam. tell people in counseling that
human touches not only have spiritual and emotional benefits, but physical
benefits as well. A touch can increase the hemoglobin
of the body. Think about that. Touch allows
the tissues to receive more oxygen and lowers one's blood pressure. Isn't that something? A UCLA
study estimated that if married couples were to give each other
8 to 10 meaningful touches per day, they might live up to two
years longer. Oh, you're touching each other
now. I see you out there. Two years longer. Who are the untouchables in our
day? Several years ago, I wrote the
book For Known. I wrote it because over these
30 years, you've told me your story. I wrote about sexual abuse
in the church. You know, we often think that
sexual abuse is going on in the inner city, in the crack houses,
and I'm sure it is, but it's going on in the church house
too. And so this book is a true story
about So many of you who've told me your story. It's a story about
a young girl. She's just six, seven years old,
but her deacon father begins to abuse her. And it doesn't take very long
till she gets in a total mess and think there's no way for
her to be right with God or to make it to heaven. I won't tell
you all the story because I want you to read the book. But it's
an allegory. She stands in judgment before
God. One of the things that this church
must learn that we've been justified freely by the grace of God. That's
the message of the Bible. Many of you in here need time
before you can actually accept a loving touch from another human
being. Don't assume that these people
who have been sexually abused are going to welcome immediately
your touch. There's a lot of stuff inside.
And I know that the majority of this crowd today, the majority
sitting in this church today have been sexually abused. I don't know why it's getting
quiet in here. Maybe because of the seriousness of the statement
that I just made. Dori Vanstone in her book said,
I was the ugly one I was different, I was a burden to my mother.
I went to bed hungry often, but the emotional pain of rejection
was far worse than the pain of an empty stomach. Mom coming home at night would
hug Marie, my sister, and push me away like an unwanted dog.
She would often bring male companions home with her, then dress my
young sister and take the wall bed and pull it down and stuff
me inside it, then push it up again. There I would gasp for
air until I fell asleep in my tears. I had been conceived out
of wedlock. I was hated by my own mother,
abused in an orphanage and two foster homes. and eventually
disowned by my father. I heard the gospel when some
young people came to the orphanage at 13 years of age. And I remember
thinking, at last, I have a friend. At last, I am accepted. Life outside the orphanage got
worse. She left the orphanage and a
lady named Granny took her into their home. and life got worse
because Granny's husband would rape me time and time again.
The scars of hurtful experiences lodged in my heart. I wondered
whether God or anyone else could love me. Let me give you a great
gospel truth. You are not accepted or rejected
by God because of the best about you or the worst about you. We
are accepted in Jesus Christ alone, in him alone. Oh, that's good news. You need
not worry about what has happened to you with regards to your acceptance
with God. Because God accepts us in his
son who walked the Judean acres without sin. Went up on Calvary,
paid the debt in full, satisfied the just demands of God's law,
and cried out, it's finished, it's accomplished. You have no
sin before God. There is no condemnation, no
judgment to those that are in Christ Jesus. I'm getting happy
all by myself here. Ah, the love of God. She said,
God loved me when I was hated by my family. God loved me though
I was ugly. God loved me though robbed of
my virginity by evil men. Oh, loved in spite of my past. Loved though I was damaged good. Loved though hated, rejected
by humanity. You know what you call that?
The grace of God, the unmerited favor of God. I know some of you are sitting
here going like this, he's read my mail, he's read my mail. No, I just know this, it takes
the amazing grace of God to deliver us from these things. A touch, a touch, Jesus touched
this leper, him crying unclean. I know you're here today, leper.
I know you're here. I know you feel untouchable.
I know that all of those things that you've hidden deep down
and you think they're buried, they're like a cellar in your
house, and you go past the door all the time and act like the
cellar's not there. But those creeping, crawling
things in that cellar will not die, and they keep surfacing
to accuse you. I want to tell you, if the Son
set you free, you're free indeed. You're free indeed. You say, Pastor, strange message
today. Not really. You know, I've been
preaching 50 years or more, 55 years now. The church totally ignores the
things I'm talking about. Almost totally ignores it. Acts
like that the people who are in the church, nice suburbanite
folks, don't have these kinds of problems. I'm telling you,
we're at an epidemic stage in this country. And there is only
one spirit that can deal with the spirit of this age, and that's
the Holy Spirit of God in the claims of the gospel of Jesus
Christ. How about this? Not only people
who are sexually abused and physically abused, but what about divorcees?
Yeah, I'm talking about deep wounds now, right? For the church, most part says
you get a divorce, you're out. I mean, you can't teach Sunday
school. You see, I was raised in a Baptist church and we didn't
even call on divorcees to pray in public. Have we lost our mind? Have we
lost the message of the gospel? Do we really think that we are
that sanctified? Somebody's getting angry. I can
feel your anger. The rejection and uncleanliness
that is felt in divorce. You know why we have 50 houses?
Because people need a touch. Because people need a church.
because people need people, because people need a pastor, because
people need a loving family. That's what we're all about.
We're not about a 75-year-old rescue mission setting across
the street and a few flimsy little life skill programs. We're about
this great and awesome gospel of God's grace and deliverance. The rejection and uncleanliness
that is felt in divorce. A man whose wife decides she
needs to be free from marriage to find herself. Or a woman whose husband leaves
for another woman. Divorce is a tremendous blow
to one's personhood. One woman said that when she
came to church the Sunday after the divorce was final, she felt
like she had a capital D on her forehead. What ought to happen
when one member of the body is wounded, we all ought to rush
toward that wound to help it heal. I was preaching outside of Nashville,
Tennessee many years ago, and in that church was a Jewish lady
who said to me, over the past few days, I have grown to love
to hear you preach the message of grace, and I feel like I can
talk to you. And she said this to me in private. My mother tried to kill me. Hmm. That's in Franklin, Tennessee.
A Jewish lady who had come to know Christ. She aborted my brother
before me and my brother after me. And she told me she tried
to abort me. And then Mrs. Lux smiled. and said to me, but Jesus knew
me in my mother's womb. Here's what I want to say to
you. And I know I've spoken to many of you today and I see your
tears and I know you're hurting. I want you to be comforted today
in the claims of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yeah, you've made a mess and
so have I. There's nobody in here that doesn't have a mess.
And you've got those things deep down inside all packed in a little
suitcase. And you just carry them around.
All of your life you've been carrying them around. Let go and rest in Jesus Christ. My great responsibility. I thought of Doris's title of
her book, No Place to Cry. I wanna say to each of you, it's
all right to cry here. Cry all you wanna cry. And some
of us will get around and touch you, maybe hug you. We're here for one another in
the claims of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I guarantee you this,
as long as that cellar's door is not open. You know, every
person here who has been quickened, and you have confidence in Christ,
and you've come to Christ, what we ought to do is just open that
cellar door, go down into that cellar, and click the light on. I knew you were down here. Point
to those creepy, crawling things. But I want you to know that Jesus
has set me free, that there's no condemnation. In all your
accusations, Jesus has paid it all. The dead I owe sin had left
the crimson stain, but he washed it white as snow. Why do you
want to carry that around? It'll drive you to drink. It'll
drive you to shoot up. It'll drive you to smoke. It
will drive you to do certain things to ease the pain. You know, I can name at least five multi-millionaires
who are my friend, who have so many things hidden
in the cellar. and just use and use and use
all the money they have to ease their pain. They try to buy their
way out. They try to drive bigger cars,
bigger houses, and just all kinds of things. I told you the other
Wednesday night about Danny Davis's dad, Bill Davis. I'll tell it again for those
of you who are visiting with us. But I met Bill Davis in a
very strange way. I met him in a bank where I was
pouring coins into a coin counter and he came up behind me and
he was 80 years old. I love to tell the story because
it's so providential and so just like God and I hope it will help
those of you who are hiding. But unbeknownst to me, I had
no idea that day when I took that big blue five-gallon bucket
worth of change up to TCF Bank that I would meet Bill Davis.
Bill came up behind me with a little jar of coins like that, kind
of cleared his throat. I turned around and looked, and
I said, You know, I'll be through here in just a minute and you
can have it. Oh, he said, that's okay, take your time. So I went
back to pouring the coins in. Again, he cleared his throat.
I turned around and he said, could I ask you a personal question?
I said, well, sure. I'm expecting something big,
right? He says to me, where do you get
your hair cut? And I said to him, well, Pete's
cut my hair for 20 years. I'll get you the number after
I'm through here if you'd like it. He said, is that a charity?
I said, it is. He said, well, my wife, I found
her dead. She had a heart attack. I went
into the bedroom to go to bed myself and she had already died. He said, I have a lot of things
I'd like to give. Do you have thrift stores? I
said, we do. I'll give you the number and
you can call. They'll come over and pick your things up. He said,
that's good. I thought that'd be the last
I would see of Bill. A week later, I went in big boy
and this guy from across the way to have breakfast starts
hollering, hey pastor, is that you? There's Bill Davis. I said, will you come over and
sit with me for a minute? I said, I sure will. Went over,
sat with Bill. He looked right at me and he
goes, will you preach my funeral? I said, oh Bill, I'm so sorry.
He goes, what are you sorry about? I'm not dying. I just, I've been
a Catholic and haven't attended church for years and years and
years. And I got to thinking, since my wife died, I need somebody
to preach my funeral. I said, I will. He said, by the
way, do you play golf? I said, no, I am a horrible golfer. Oh, he said, that's great. He
said, I have no one to play golf with, and I'm horrible too. Could
we play golf on Thursday morning? You see the hand of God here?
Watch how God works. So we're on the golf course.
Bill, by this time, has become a major donor to the place across
the street, giving thousands of dollars to Grace Centers,
doing all kinds of things, buying us houses and giving us the deed
and just constantly doing stuff. We'd be out on the golf course
early on Thursday morning and he'd say to me, Right after I'd
do the WMUZ radio program that I do every morning, I'd do it
out there on the golf course and get off, and he'd go to me,
I'll match whatever you need there. I'll take care of that.
Then he would say something like, I'm a pretty good guy, Iron Man
Pastor. And I would say to him something like this, you are
a no good for nothing sinner. You are totally depraved. you're
not going to go to heaven by giving grace centers money. And
he'd smile and I'd smile. And we'd go on playing golf and
that went on for a long time. One day he called me, he was
up at Beaumont Hospital, watch the Providence guy. Called me
up there, I went up there and I said, went in his room, he
said, Pastor, I got some bad news, I have brain cancer. And
he said, they've given me about 30 days to live. And we talked a little bit, and
they said, but I want to tell you something. He said, you know
what you tell me on the golf course? And I thought, ooh, this
is a bad time maybe to... Anyway, I said, yeah, I know
what I told you, that you're a sinner in need of Savior. He
said, you know, my housekeeper, that I've had for 25 years, every
time she cleans my house, she tells me, I need a savior. And
he says, she came up here, and I just want you to know, pastor,
I'm trusting Christ. My only hope is God. And then he said to me, you know,
you promised to preach my funeral. He said, yes, I did. He said,
and you know I want it in that bar you got over there. For you visiting with us, this
was a bar. This was a nightclub, clutch
cargo for many, many years. And we had Bill's funeral where
I preached the gospel of God's grace right here. His son and
I was up there in the balcony. I'm trying to show you the grace
of God, how you, young lady, you may be here and all kinds
of mess has happened to you, but there's an unseen eye that
has been watching over you. So Danny and I are standing up
there looking down at Bill's body, and he said, Pastor, I
know you're looking for a name for your women and children's
shelter. What would it take to put my dad's name on there? He
gave me a million dollars standing right up there. A million dollars. Say, well, why are you telling
all that? Many of us have heard that story. Because way back
there in that corner somewhere, there's a young woman sitting
who has all kinds of mess. She's lost her virginity. She's
been abused by men. She's been sexually abused. And
there's a young man over here, totally lost. Doesn't know who
he is. Doesn't know what he's doing
here. So fearful, hurting so bad. I'm telling you, there is
hope in our God of complete Complete deliverance and I wonder
if the joy of the gospel through the power of the Spirit of God
Has come into your life today And and maybe you're sitting
there thinking something like this I Never thought I would
first of all be in here in a church I've used heroin for 15 years
I'm totally bound up by it, but somehow or another I this message
of the truth of God's grace and unmerited favor. I had lost all
hope, but today I see there is hope through faith in Christ. Some of you have been through
15, 16 programs, and you are none the
better. Think about it. Two men went
up to the temple to pray, One left justified. Today, you can leave here with
a lot of peace and a lot of joy. Stay focused on Christ, looking
to Him. I wonder today, if anybody's
been touched, say, well, You know, we don't do the invitation
system here like other places. We don't sing 40 stanzas as just
as I am and try to beg people down to the front because there's
no saving grace down here. But we have an act of Savior
and an act of Redeemer. And we have the hound of heaven.
who's bringing the truth home to poor sinners, the Spirit of
God. And I wonder if he spoke to you today. And you've learned
to rest today. You're actually resting in Christ. You may have used Friday. This is Sunday. This is a new
day. This is the power of God.