In 1963, the Gaithers wrote these
words, shackled by a heavy burden, need the load of guilt and shame. Then the hand of Jesus touched
me, and now I am no longer the same. He touched me, oh, he touched
me, and oh, the joy that floods my soul. Something happened,
something wonderful happened. And now I know he touched me
and made me whole. Since I met this blessed Savior,
Since he cleansed and made me whole, I will never cease to
praise him. I'll shout it while eternity
rolls. He touched me. Oh, he touched
me. And oh, the joy that floods my
soul. Something happened. And now I
know he touched me and made me whole. The leper said, To Jesus, I know you can if you
want to. Jesus, here in Mark chapter one,
comes down from the mountainside, having been engaged in special
prayer and communion with his father. He's charged with power. which
he had received from communion with the Father. And now we may
expect miracles and wonders. And that's exactly what took
place. After coming down off the mount,
he began to preach in the synagogue. Strange, isn't it? When I read Jesus went into the
synagogue and preached, I think I would like to go into several
churches and preach. And the scripture says this,
and the scripture says this, and cast out devils. And I said this week, as I renewed
these passages in the synagogue, You don't expect devils to be
in church, but maybe so. Devils were made to flee and
fear when Jesus spoke, verse 39 says. And as he was preaching
out of the synagogues in Galilee, there comes to him an extraordinary
kind of guy, a leper, a man who was condemned to live apart from
the rest of men so that he would not spread his disease. He comes
and take note, he kneels before Jesus. and expresses his confident faith
in him that he can make him whole. Oh, that that would happen today. Oh, may we see again today the
glorious Son of Man in his power to save. He's a greater Savior
than you are a sinner. Don't you know the Lord Jesus
has all power in heaven and earth right now? He has all power. He is charged with divine energy
to bless all who come to him for healing. And he has promised
this, him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. I just double dog dare you this
morning to come to Jesus Christ and you will find salvation and
life. Oh, today in this house, in this
service, that some great wonder of His power and grace would
be seen, that lepers who are here today would come to know
Him as Lord and Savior. You see, I was thinking about
this. In order to see this, we must
have someone here for His power to work upon. I wonder if we
do have someone here today like this leper. Is there a leper
in the house? Then surely there is one in this
place that he may prove his omnipotent power. You. Now, I'm not talking to those
of you good people who are here today, those of you self-righteous
folks who are here today. There is, and you yield no space
for him to work. You that are whole do not need
a physician. Today, I'm looking for those
who give opportunity for Him to display His miraculous grace. It'll take the power of God and
the grace of God to save a leper like you. Is there someone like
that today here in this place? I'm talking to you who feel yourselves
possessed with devils, evil spirits, You're the worst of the worst.
You're leprous with sin. You feel yourself lost and full
of evil. You feel yourself self-condemned. You condemn yourself. You're here today that the works
of God may be manifest in you. What a wonder it would be for
God to save a heroin addict like you. an adulterous person like
you, or those of you who have been so churchy all your life. And instead of claiming the blood
of Christ and the person of Christ, you claim your own works and
your own churchanity. It'll take the power of a mighty
Christ to change a leper like you. This is one of my favorite
stories in scripture. I can't tell you how many times,
and some of you here have heard me speak from this passage. I
just want to dissect it a bit. You're not going to maybe see
all of the pieces, and you're going to say, I think pastor
may have contradicted himself a little bit, but let's see.
It's just the glory of the gospel. Here it is. And there came a
leper to him. I want to tell you this, first
of all, anytime anybody comes to Christ, it's because they
are being drawn by a power beyond themselves. Amen. Isaiah 65, 1, I am sought of
them that ask not for me. That verse makes absolutely no
sense. I am sought of them that ask
not for me. I am found of them that sought me not. Every time I read the scripture
or quote that particular scripture, I scratch my head and then I
go like this. That is so true. Somebody said, I have found the
Lord. Understand this very clearly.
He's not lost, you are. And so it is a wonder that this
leprous man came to him. I wonder today, is there a desire
in your heart, leprous person, to come to Christ? If there is,
the preacher knows this and some of the rest of us here know this,
it's because God has already done a work in you and is inviting
you to come and to hurry. Come to Christ just as you are
without one plea. Says he came to Christ beseeching
him. There's so many passages in the
Word of God where sinners come beseeching Him. Another great
example is the Syrophoenician woman who kept bugging the Lord. Have mercy! Have mercy! And those self-righteous disciples
said, Lord, send her away. She's a Gentile dog. But you
know, she couldn't be discouraged. The Lord finally said, it's not
right for me to give the children's bread to a dog. And she said,
yes, Lord, I am a dog, but the puppy dogs get the crumbs that
fall from the master's table. Oh, if we could find a sinner
like that here today, who was determined to get to Christ. Little puppies get the crumbs.
Are you here today a leper? And while I'm preaching, if you
can stand it no longer, if sitting there you cannot do that any
longer, and you must come and confess Christ, just come ahead. I'll ignore you till I get through
preaching, and then we'll say, here is a leper that has come
to Jesus Christ. We're not going to sing 30 stanzas
as just as I am. The Spirit and the bride say,
come now and let him that is a thirst, come now. I long for
the day to be in the church house where men and women, boys and
girls are interrupting my message with faith in Jesus Christ. Wouldn't
it be a glorious thing? It's very noticeable too that
this leper, when he came to Christ, beseeching him, kneeling down
to him, he knelt down. He knelt down. Saul of Tarsus,
you remember his story on the Damascus Road. He didn't sign
the decision card. He didn't step over the line.
That self-righteous Pharisee, that bloodthirsty dog, out to
kill Christians with papers in his hand on the Damascus road,
got knocked on his duff, so to speak, by a sovereign Savior
and cried out. His first cry was not, where's
the card? I'm giving my heart to Jesus.
This is what he said. This is just what he said. Lord! In other words, whoever knocked
me off my high horse is boss man. I believe this with all
my heart, and I know this is controversial, but I believe
the Lordship of Jesus Christ's salvation needs to be proclaimed
today. He doesn't first become your Savior. He first becomes
your Lord. He first does a mighty work on
the inside of you called regeneration, called the new birth, called
being born of the Spirit of God. And now you desire to drink of
the water of life and to eat the bread of life and can take
no glory for yourself. He knelt down and he said unto
him, if thou wilt, isn't that strange in the ears of most church
people? If you want to, you leper here today, You have
no claim on God. I know this is going to sound
a little hard, but if you're a hearer today, if the Spirit
of God has done something in your heart, you may be the chief
of sinners here today, but he will show you this. He owes you
nothing. I hear people say all the time,
I just want God to give me what I deserve. No, you don't. No,
you don't. If thou wilt, if you want to,
If you want to, thou canst make me whole. This is the way we
come to Christ. This is the way the sinner comes
to Christ. If you want to, not with a big
wad of juicy fruit gum in your mouth, I'm gonna give Jesus a
chance. You know, I've sowed most of
my wild oats, and now I'm going to give God a chance. No, that's
not the way men who have been worked on by the Spirit of God
come to Christ. They come broken. They come as
sinners in need of this, the blood of Jesus Christ, to make
them white as snow. And they know it. Oh, the realization
of the sovereignty of God is so marvelous. when you began
to realize that He could have passed you right by. Why, our
old hymns teach that truth. Pass me not, O gentle Savior,
while on others Thou art calling. Over here! Do not pass me by. The truth is, you, my sinner
friend, are on death row. And as I preach the gospel, which
is the power of God unto salvation, you're there in your cell on
death row, and King Jesus is passing by. And the key to your
cell is swinging at his thigh. He can save you or damn you and
still be God Almighty, sovereign and gracious. He's God all by
himself. And when you begin to see that,
that God has saved you in spite of you, that God has had mercy
on you, that God has been so good to you, then you cry out,
oh, what a wonder that Jesus found me. Out in the darkness,
no light could I see. He put his great arm under and
wonder of wonders, hallelujah, he saved even me. Not only that, but you began
to proclaim to others of your friends, if he saved me, he can
save you. That's very, very true. Until
you see the mercy of God, you'll not be very merciful. I find
church people to be very hard on other folks. You know, we're
here in downtown Pontiac and they call us the other people. Those people. We're those people. Yes, we are. We are those people
who've been saved by the matchless free grace of God. And I love this. The Bible says,
and Jesus moved with compassion. Oh God, I want that same compassion
to preach to you the gospel from the pulpit. I look across this
congregation and I know there are those of you sitting as far
back as you can sit or up in the balcony, you didn't wanna
be here. Oh God, I love you. I wanna see
you come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. I looked this up, this word compassion,
Jesus moved with compassion in the old King James. And the Greek
dictionary says he was stirred in his entire manhood, a commotion
in all the inward parts, the heart and all the vitals of him
was in active movement. Have you ever seen anybody so
moved with compassion? You know, it looks like their
whole body is in some kind of movement. Oh, how Jesus loved
this leper. You know, he's a lover of lepers,
isn't he? He's a lover of lepers. He is
indeed. The strongest man in the universe. The Creator breaks down, moved
with a sacred passion for this poor leper. This is what we should
have too, by the way. the same compassion. You have
friends out there that are using. You have neighbors out there
who are, they'll be in some kind of church today, but the gospel
won't be preached. Do you have a desire? I pray
that God so gives this congregation a desire to see lost men and
women come to know Christ. It's a moving compassion. It's
a compelling compassion. I know this seems strange, but
I thought this, oh, that today some leper should have such power
over the divine son of God. You say, well, I don't understand
that. I know I don't either. But this
leper moved, Christ was moved with compassion. That's the power
the church has lost. That's the power the old songwriter
talked about when he said, there's power. There's power, power,
power, power, power, wonder working power in the blood of Jesus Christ. It's 11.48 and I'm almost through. Here's what the scripture says. He said, The Lord put forth his
hand and touched him. Now I find that odd. And yet
throughout scripture, you'll find the Lord doing that, touching
people. Oh, there's something in his
touch. We sometimes talk about the laying on of hands. Or what
about that lady with the issue of blood that touched the helm
of his garment? There's something about touching.
You know, I kind of make it my habit, especially when people
are hurting and I'm chatting with them and I take their hand,
I pat their hand. I do that on purpose because
there's something in a touch. I was reading several years ago,
you know, Marilyn Monroe in my day was the wild girly girl. on the movie screen, and someone
asked her, what is one of your most memorable moments in your
childhood? And she said something like this,
my mother never touched me, but one particular day, she was putting
on her makeup, and she reached over and patted my head. That
was Marilyn Monroe's most memorable childhood. He said, well, what
are you saying, Pastor? I'm saying there's something
in a touch. And I think what makes this touch even more glorious
was this was a leper, and this was the Son of God. Holy, holy,
holy. He's a friend of publicans and
sinners. He reached over and touched him,
and then he answered him. He answered his question. The
leper said, if you want to, you can make me whole. And we all
hold our breath here. When you go to Calvary and you
see the two thieves and the Son of God there, one of the thieves
had a change of heart. God did something. God wasn't
going to be left without a witness at Calvary. Those two thieves,
the gospels say, railed on him. And then after a few hours, something
happened to one of the thieves who had a complete change. and
said, we deserve what we're getting, but this man doesn't deserve
this. And then he turned to Jesus and
said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Oh,
Jesus is a king and I'm his subject. What a great thing. And here's
the drama of that. There must've been a few moments.
when there was no answer, because there was such great eternal
suffering there at Calvary as the Son of God died in our stead
and for our sins. And finally, Jesus said, today
thou shalt be with me in paradise. Oh, when you talk to Jesus and
he talks back, what a day that is. I hope you will ask him, Jesus said to this leper, I will. Can you imagine the thrill? And
I like this too, be thou clean. Do you know, some of you haven't,
some of you been clean for 30 days. Really, nobody in here has been
clean 30 days. Not this preacher, nobody, because
in my flesh dwells no good thing. But I understand this. When Jesus
says, Be clean, you are clean. If He declares you justified,
if He declares you clean, you are clean indeed. Your past,
your present is all taken care of. Your future, He paid the
debt in full. Be clean. Would you like to hear
that today from the Master? I'll tell you this, it's worth
a try. What should I do? Come to Jesus
just as you are. I don't know that He's ever turned
down anybody that came to Him. I don't think so. He said He
wouldn't. Him that cometh to me. What Him? Drug addict Him? Self-righteous Him? Whatever
him, adulterous him or her, come to Jesus just as you are. I've already quoted, the Spirit
and the bride say, come, right now. The Spirit and the bride
say, come on sinner. Say, well, I don't know whether
I'm elected. That's none of your business. Come to Jesus Christ
just as you are without one plea. You want to find out that you're
elected? Come to Jesus and trust Him as
your Lord and Savior and you'll find out, hey, this was a God
thing that happened to me. He loved me with an everlasting
love and saved me in time. And the scripture said, as soon
as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him
and he was cleansed. Isn't that something? Two men
went up to the temple to pray. One of them was a Pharisee who,
thank God, he was not as other men are. The other, a Republican. I didn't say Republican, I said
Publican. The other, a Publican who stood
afar off and wouldn't even look up, raise his head. He smote
himself up on the breast and said, God, be propitiatory. God, be my propitiation. God, be my reconciler. God, be
my atonement. God, be my Savior, my Redeemer. God, be everything to me. The Bible says this man went
down to his house justified. Didn't know anything about justification
and he went back home justified. Think about this. You could leave
here today knowing that God has brought down the gavel and he
has declared you not guilty today, tomorrow or forever. It's finished,
it's done, it's accomplished. You've been justified by God
Almighty on the basis of his son, Jesus Christ. I just wonder, if the Spirit
of God is here in such a way, and I do seriously believe this
and long for this day, that the Spirit of God will rest upon
our meetings in such a way that people are coming to Christ without
that long invitation. You say, well, aren't you going
to give an invitation? I've been preaching for 35 minutes
now. That is the invitation. What
are you waiting for? Come to Christ. Come to Christ,
my brother. You see the power of God? The power of
God. coming to Jesus Christ, trusting
Jesus Christ. I don't even know your name. I'm glad to see you, my friend. You know what he said? I'm a
leper. I don't have to know his name.
He knows his name. Amen. How awesome. Where are you, dear sister? Where
are you? Someone else? Trusting Jesus
Christ alone for the first time today? Amen. Amen. Amen. Well, a few more lepers. There's power in the gospel message. The Spirit of God moves. I'm so happy to see you all come
and confess faith in Jesus Christ. I wonder if there's some just
lousy, no-good-for-nothing religious person here. You've just been
goody-two-shoes all your life and claimed your own righteousness.
You claim your baptism. You got your little certificate
up somewhere at home. So when you began to doubting
that you're going to heaven, you can look at it. It's no good. I want to know, are you trusting
Christ and Him alone? You know what's happened today?
All of heaven went crazy. They went wild. You know, I do recognize your
faces, most of you. They say there is no answer to
the heroin epidemic. You have seen the answer today.
I'm so happy for you. faith in Christ. Now you're probably
going to leave here and you go back over to the center or up
to the Women's Center or you go over to Moreland or you just
go to the suburbs. You're going to start to have
these kind of thoughts. What did I do? That preacher must have tricked
me some way. You're going to have doubts.
Just remember this. His name is Jesus as a leper. You trusted Him and Him alone. As you have received Christ Jesus
the Lord, so walk ye every day. I was trusting Christ this morning
when I got up. I trust Christ when I left home
about 10.30. I trust Christ when I got here. I'm trusting Christ right now. I'll trust Christ when we're
dismissed. I'll trust Christ when I go home. I'm going to
trust Christ. I'm trusting Christ. My hope
is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
So when you begin to see your mess-ups, and you will stumble
because in your flesh dwells no good thing, but greater is
He that's in you than he that's in the world. You will overcome. All right. That's it. Stay right
here with me a minute. Would you be free from your burden
of sin? There's power in the blood.