Okay, well, I want you to turn
again to Luke's Gospel, Chapter 5, this week. And I want to look
at the incident recorded in verses 12 to 15, where we see a leper
being healed. And you'll have noticed that
a couple of the hymns we've sung have made reference to leprosy,
because it has a lot to teach us. So Luke, Chapter 5, verses
12 to 15. As I said last week, Jesus came to preach the kingdom
of God. It says that in verse 43 of chapter
4 of Luke. He said unto them, I must preach
the kingdom of God to other cities also, for therefore am I sent. Why was he sent? To preach the
gospel, to preach the kingdom of God. And what is it to preach
the kingdom of God? It's to preach the salvation
for the citizens of God's kingdom. It's to preach salvation accomplished
on the basis of justice, divine justice, that would condemn us
by nature, divine justice satisfied. It's to preach free grace bestowed,
because God is sovereign in bestowing salvation. It's to preach sins
taken away, blotted out, for people that are conscious of
sin and of eternity and of the fact that nothing that defiles
shall enter therein to know that sins are taken away in the kingdom
of God that's a blessing indeed no wonder that hymn says it is
well with my soul It is well with my soul. Why is it well?
Because my sins are taken away. There's nothing that defiles,
that will prevent me from going to heaven when I die, when this
life is over. This is what it is to preach
the kingdom of God. He preached what he was coming
to do. He said, as we saw a couple of
weeks ago, in the synagogue in Nazareth, and he read out that
prophecy of Isaiah, and he said, this day is this scripture fulfilled
in your hearing, because he's saying, I am the one who came
to accomplish this. He's come for this purpose, to
preach the kingdom of God, because he has come to establish, to
assure, to confer salvation for the citizens of God's kingdom,
to take the sins of his people, to bear the penalty of the sins
of his people, to bestow, to impute the righteousness of God
to those people in place. You know, we quote it so often,
2 Corinthians 5.21, he made him who knew no sin to be sin for
us. He who was sinless to bear the
sins of his people. Why? That we, his people, might
be made the righteousness of God in him. Not the filthy rags
of our own righteousnesses, the righteousness of God in him.
His purpose was preaching God's word. What more did they need? What more indeed did they need?
In the 16th chapter of Luke and verse 31 there's the account
of Divers and Lazarus and the rich man in hell in the picture,
in the parable says, please go and send somebody to my brothers
that they might, you know, if one rises from the dead, then
they'll believe. They haven't believed in their
life so far because nothing miraculous has happened. But if one rises
from the dead, then surely they'll believe. And Jesus said, if they
hear not Moses and the prophets, the scriptures, neither will
they be persuaded that one rose from the dead. You know, you
look at those hard-hearted, unbelieving relatives all around us and you
say, what would make them believe? You say, well, let's go down
to the cemetery and if somebody rose from the dead, somebody
preached and the graves opened and somebody came, oh, then they'd
believe. And Jesus said, no, they wouldn't.
If they won't believe Moses and the prophets, if they won't believe
the scriptures, they won't believe even though someone rises from
the dead. So there's no need for any miracles
in the New Testament at all, is there? We've been looking
with Cliff at John chapter two at the first of miracles, but
there's no need for it because they don't need miracles because
if they don't believe the word of God, they won't believe anyway.
But here we see miraculous healing, the miraculous healing of a leper. Why was there miraculous healing? Why was water turned into wine? Why was the temple emptied by
one man, one ordinary-looking man, turned out? All of those
aggressive, strong temple guards and everything that went with
it, he turned it all out. That was a miracle. How was he
able to do that? Why this miracle of healing this
leper? Well, first of all, it was to fulfill Scripture, because
the Scripture had said that God is coming to save his people.
He's, comfort my people, because God is coming to save his people.
But when he comes, when the Messiah, when God in human flesh comes,
There will be miracles. Then shall the eyes of the blind
be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. John the Baptist,
a few chapters later, well, in Matthew chapter 11, a few chapters
later, John the Baptist sends his disciples to Jesus to say,
are you the one or do we look for another? And Jesus said,
go and tell John this. All the scripture's being fulfilled.
The deaf hear. The blind have their sight. The
lame walk. Miracles are being performed.
Miracles of authentication. It was to fulfill scripture.
And then, as I've said, it was to give divine authentication
to Christ's preaching. Just look a bit further on in
chapter 5, verses 23 and 24, where we have the account of
the man with the palsy, he was paralysed with palsy, and he
was on his bed, and his four friends brought him, and they
couldn't get near to Jesus in the house, and so they took some
tiles off the roof, and they let him down into the midst so
that he could be near Jesus. And he said, when he perceived
their faith, he said, son, your sins are forgiven you. He's talking
about the kingdom of God. He's talking about the forgiveness
of sins because that's what matters, isn't it? What does it matter
whether you're healed or not? It's whether your sins are forgiven
that matters. And they said, who's speaking
blasphemies? The scribes and the Pharisees,
they accused him of blasphemy. Who can forgive sins but God
alone? And Jesus perceived their thoughts
and the answering said to them, why are you reasoning like this
in your hearts? What is easier? To say your sins be forgiven
you? Or to say rise up and walk? Do you know how hard it is to
say your sins be forgiven you? If you did a straw poll of people,
they would say, well, it's so much easier to say your sins
be forgiven you than it is to cause somebody who is paralysed
to rise up and walk, wouldn't they? That's what you would naturally
think. Of course it's easier to say,
oh, your sins are forgiven you. That's an easy thing to do. Oh
no, it isn't. Oh no it isn't. Psalm 49 verse
7. What does that say? Let's have
a look at it. Psalm 49 verse 7. You see how the scripture
is the best commentary on the scripture? Psalm 49. Is it easy
to say your sins be forgiven you? Verse 7 of Psalm 49. He's talking about people, about
men and women in general. None of them can by any means
redeem his brother. You can't redeem me, I can't
redeem you, none of them can by any means redeem his brother,
nor give to God a ransom that is acceptable to God for him. None of them could give a ransom
to God for him, for the redemption, the purchase of their soul is
precious. and it ceaseth forever. In other
words, riches can't redeem a soul. The riches of man cannot redeem
a soul. Is it easier to say your sins
be forgiven you or to say rise up and walk? Of course it's so
much more difficult to say your sins be forgiven you. Who can
pay the price of a soul? Who can redeem a sinner? Who can pay the price to the
justice of God for a sinner? None of us can. none of us can. Of course it's so much harder
to say your sins are forgiven but, verse 24, that you may know
that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins How
do I know he has power on earth? When he said, Son, your sins
be forgiven, blasphemies if it wasn't true, that he, the only
one who could, was there saying, Son, your sins be forgiven, that
you may know that he has power on earth to forgive sins, he
says to the one on his bed, the one who's sick of the palsy,
paralyzed with the palsy, I say unto you, arise, take up thy
couch, and go into thine own house. And here's the words again,
and immediately, and immediately, he rose up before them and took
up that whereon he lay and departed to his own house, glorifying
God. That's another reason to give divine authentication to
Christ's preaching. to demonstrate Christ's power
and divinity in forgiving sins. This is the reason he came. People
get it wrong. The miracles were to authenticate
the message of the forgiveness of sins. That's the key thing.
And then thirdly, and there are no doubt more reasons than this,
but to underline and illustrate God's sovereignty in bestowing
his grace. This is not stuff that we can
just turn up and grab. This is in the prerogative of
God alone to bestow grace. You know we heard Jesus say in
the synagogue at Nazareth there were many lepers in Elisha's
day in Israel but to none of them was Elisha sent, none of
them except to Naaman the Syrian, a foreigner, least deserving
in their eyes God is sovereign, God is gracious. Read these verses
with me, verses 12 to 15 of Luke chapter 5. 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 besought him, saying,
Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And he put forth
his hand, Jesus did, and touched him, saying, I will, I want to,
if you want to, yes, I want to, I will, be thou clean, in a word. And here it is again, and immediately
the leprosy departed from him. and he, Jesus, charged him, the
man, the leper, 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 of him and great multitudes came together to hear
and to be healed by him of their infirmities. Leprosy in the Scriptures
is a picture of sin. Leprosy is a terrible disease. It affects the whole body. As
Isaiah chapter 1 verse 6 says, Isaiah chapter 1 uses leprosy
as a picture of sin, and it says, it's from the sole of the foot
even to the head. There is no soundness in it,
in the body, but wounds and bruises and putrefying smelly, horrible,
revolting, sores. They have not been closed, neither
bound up, nor mollified with ointment. Sin, like leprosy,
is a loathsome disease. This disease of leprosy, a loathsome,
foul-smelling disease, the gradual decay of the body. People with
leprosy that goes untreated Now there are antibiotics that treat
it, but it's not an easy treatment, it's a long, long-term treatment.
You need antibiotics for a year or more of a specific type to
cure leprosy. It's a bacterial infection, and
gradually it rots the limbs, the nails, the fingernails drop
off, the fingers, the skin decays away, the feet become ulcerated,
It's a terrible, terrible thing. The gradual decay of the flesh
is what leprosy causes. And as I say, it's incurable,
apart from antibiotics. And in this day, there were no
antibiotics, and it was incurable. And the results of it was social
isolation. You were an absolute persona
non grata in society if you had leprosy. You were not welcome.
You were to be kept to yourself and others with leprosy in a
colony, separate from everybody else. You were regarded as unclean
in every way, something that's filthy and defiled. You were
to be ostracized by society. You weren't allowed to go where
people gathered. A leper's here, quick, oh, get
away from him. almost feels like that on the
London Underground in a crowded tube train early in the morning
as has happened to me twice since I've been working where somebody
goes on there with some absolutely vile respiratory virus and sneezes
right in your face and coughs you don't want them there and
you can see everybody in the train is saying you should be
home in bed not here infecting all the rest of us well you can
imagine that ten times over people didn't want lepers around them
Stay away from me. Stay away from us. A loathsome
disease, but it's a picture of sin. And as leprosy, you can
imagine, if we brought in somebody in the full throes and advanced
stage of leprosy now, into this room, you and I would be revolted
by that sight. We would hate the smell of it.
We would hate the sight of it. It would be loathsome to us.
It's a picture of sin, and as leprosy appears to our eyes,
so much more does sin appear in the eyes of God. Thou art
of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Isaiah 59, 2 and 3,
But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and
your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. For
your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity,
your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness,
This man, this leper, knew his condition. He couldn't avoid
it. He lived with it every waking minute. He was acutely aware
that he was a leper, that he was in desperate need. So it
is with the sinner who's brought under the conviction of God.
A sinner who's brought under the conviction of God is not
thinking how much better I am than other men and women, that
God's bound to look favorably upon me because I'm a pretty
decent person and I do kind things for other people. No. When you're
brought under conviction of sin, you're acutely aware of what
it's like. You're acutely aware of the offense
it is to God, how offensive it is, how God must justly condemn
it. how he must be justified in that. God is right, God is holy, God
is pure. My only plea can be as David's
was, God be merciful to me. Blot out my sins. Wash me throughly,
Psalm 51, two and three, wash me throughly from mine iniquity.
I can't do it myself. Cleanse me from my sin, for I
acknowledge my transgressions. And my sin is ever. before me,
like this man's leprosy was ever before him, my sin is ever before
me. And there's no hope of self-cure. You know there's great fads these
days, how to get yourself in shape, oh you need to go on an
exercise regime, oh you need to go on a particular diet. The
whole of society is obsessed with making itself live longer,
because every new survey comes out and says, oh, you know, if
you drink this much wine, you're shortening your life by this
much. If you smoke, if you do all of these things, if you eat
certain types of fats, if you eat certain types of meats, et
cetera, you are doing all of these things to shorten your
life, and you need to get on some new regime. There's no cure
for sin. There's no regime. There's no
regime of self-betterment, there's no turning over of new leaves
and resolutions that can make it any better. My sin is ever
before me, just like this leper was. But he saw Jesus. He heard that Jesus was there
ministering. What did he see? It says, a certain
man, behold a man full of leprosy, who seeing Jesus fell on his
face. A man full of leprosy. there
were crowds where Jesus was, this man must have been pretty
determined to be there. The crowds wouldn't have welcomed
him. He determined he was going there. And what did he see when
he looked at Jesus? He saw a man. I've told you many
times the scripture says there's nothing special in his outward
appearance to mark him out from the rest of mankind. But by Holy
Spirit revelation, he saw the promised Messiah. He knew that
the promised Messiah of the Scriptures was here, that this was him.
Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God. He was looking
here. Here is God come to redeem his people. Here is God in flesh
on a mission of mercy to sinners. This is what this man saw, and
that here was his only hope of cleansing. Whether he was really
seeking soul cleansing from sin, or just physical cleansing from
his leprosy, I don't know, we're not told. Perhaps a combination
of the two. But clearly the Holy Spirit reveals
something to him about this man Jesus. And he fell at Jesus'
feet in worship. You know you do that when you
see something with the eye of faith. It's not just with the
physical eye. You see something in the Lord
Jesus Christ with the eye of faith. And your reaction is like
Thomas when he saw him. My Lord and my God. And you bow
at his feet. And you know who he is. And you
know what he's come to do. He fell at his feet in worship.
Who was he worshipping? A man? No. God. In human flesh. It was God that he was worshipping.
He was bowing down before the presence of God. He saw the form
of a man with no comeliness that we should desire him. But to
his soul, the Holy Spirit revealed that he's in the presence of
the living God. And what must he do? Just bow down before his
presence in worship. Here is God. And being God, who
is your God? What is God like? Do you know
the God of the majority of religion is a pathetic being who is trying
to put right all sorts of things that are wrong. He's trying in
frustration to get people to believe him, but they won't.
He's trying in frustration to sort out world peace, and people
are just such belligerent people they won't ever do it, and if
only they would. This is the world's philosophy. It's religion,
it's politics. The God that this world believes
in, if they believe in any God, is a pathetic specimen. But the
God of Scripture is sovereign. He's omnipotent. He can do all
things. He can do all his holy will.
God is the one who speaks. You say, I don't believe that.
I'm telling you, God is the one who even now is speaking the
law of gravity and this earth is going around the sun in its
orbit. God even now is speaking the laws of the tight nuclear
forces and the weak nuclear, all of these things. He is speaking
these things now. He can do all things. He's the
one who is in control of everything. Look at everything around you.
It's only the eye that is so stubborn in its unbelief, in
its rejection of God that will not see, I'm just looking at
that rose and I'm just thinking happened by itself? God controls
all things all things, like the Psalmist said thinking of myself
I am fearfully and wonderfully made what a blessing to see that
when so many in their blindness don't see even that God is able
to do all things And this man came and fell at his feet and
knew that this was God, who can do all things. Nobody brought
him. In fact, we know that if anything,
he would have been resisted by the people. They didn't want
to touch leprosy. They didn't want to be anywhere
near him. He came on his own, where society didn't welcome
him. He wasn't invited to come. This is scripture. This is scripture
teaching us the way God deals with sinners. He didn't invite
him to come. He didn't say, anybody out there
that's got leprosy, just come to the front and you can have
healing and what's holding you back? You know, these charismatic
meetings that Cliff was talking about earlier, all of this nonsense. No, that's not the way that God
deals. This man wasn't invited. He wasn't offered healing. So
how did he come? What was it that brought him?
He'd heard of Jesus. He'd remembered the promises
of Scripture, I've no doubt. He'd remembered what I quoted
earlier, say to them that are of a fearful heart, Isaiah 35,
be strong, fear not, behold your God will come with vengeance.
God's coming. Even God with a recompense, He
will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall
be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the
lame man leap as an heart. Like a deer, you know, you see
those springboks on the wildlife programs? The lame man leaps
as an heart and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. The
tongue of the dumb shall sing. He probably remembered this,
Micah 7 verse 18. Who is a god like unto thee?
who delighteth in mercy. A God who is holy and can do
all things but a God who delights in mercy. And so this man came
to Jesus believing. He came believing. You are able. You are able. The only question
is, are you willing? That was it. Here, he said, is
my only hope. I must grasp the moment. What
can I lose? I'm a leper. I'm going to die
a leper. If he chooses not to bless me
with his mercy, I'm no worse off than I am now. But who knows? He might have mercy upon me.
Perhaps he will. He passed by many lepers in Israel. He'll have remembered this. He
passed by many lepers in Israel in Elisha's day, but he delights
in mercy and he was merciful to Naaman. And if he was merciful
to Naaman, why not to me? Who knows? he could be merciful
to me. Lord, he says, the issue is not
whether you can heal me, you're God, I have no doubt that you
can heal me, just a word, as that Roman centurion said, you
don't have to come, just a word, just a word, you're God. It's
not whether you can heal me, but whether you will want to
heal me. If you will, you can. There are
parallel accounts in Matthew and in Mark and in Mark chapter
1 verse 41 we read Jesus, and that's his human name, Jesus
Saviour, the man, Jesus was moved with compassion. Jesus, his human
heart, his pure, sinless human heart, went out to this leper.
He was moved with compassion. Verse 13, he reached down, he
put forth his hand, he touched him, he identified with him. He joined his flesh to his flesh,
he touched him as Christ came down to be one with us in the
likeness of sinful flesh, to go to the cross to satisfy the
justice of God. He identified with him and he
exercised his sovereign will and he said, I will, I want to. Be thou clean And immediately,
as Cliff was saying earlier, this was a genuine miracle. This was God altering the normal
laws that he controls in everything for his purposes at that time.
This was a miracle. He didn't gradually get better
from leprosy over several weeks because he'd happened to rub
against some naturally occurring antibiotic that had happened
to make him naturally better. It was an instant. Immediately. The leprosy departed from him.
He was as clean, his skin was like a baby's skin. It was just
brand new. He was able to heal him because
he was God. But he exercised his sovereign
will to do so. And this is God's glory. In Exodus
33 verse 18, Moses is meeting with God on the mountain and
he says, show me your glory and that will do. And God says, this
is my glory. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will
have compassion. And Romans 9.15 quotes it, I
will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. The glory of God is the sovereign
will of God in salvation. He's able to save from sin. Why was he able to save from
sin? Because he had paid redemption's
price. He has borne his people's sin. He has borne the penalty of the
law for them in their place. He has removed his people's sins
completely. First John chapter 1 and verse
7, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us, his people. from
all sin, all sin, past, present, future, my sin, oh the bliss
of this glorious thought, my sin, not in part but the whole
is nailed to his cross, and I bear it no more. He has opened in
the Lord Jesus Christ a fountain, Zechariah 13 verse 1, Old Testament,
he has opened a fountain to wash away sin and uncleanness. Therefore,
Hebrews 7.25, he is able to save, how far? To the uttermost. Them that come to God by him.
What about your leprosy? What about your leprosy and mine? I mean your sin, of course. I
mean your standing before God. I mean your condemnation before
God. I mean your accountability before God, for it's appointed
to man to die once and then the judgment. And you know, I've
said it so often, it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands
of the living God, for our God is a consuming fire. Our God
is, not was, our God is a consuming fire. And God is just, and God
is holy, and God cannot remain God and overlook sin. And there's
eternity, and nothing that defiles shall enter in there. What about
your leprosy? The way that a leper was ostracized
from society, the sinner is ostracized from the kingdom of heaven. There
must be cleansing. You must have a priest look at
you and declare you to be clean. Has the Holy Spirit shown you
your sickness from head to foot? Has he granted you repentance,
like he did to those Gentiles in the Acts of the Apostles,
granted that gift of repentance to justify God, to say, yes God,
you're just, to hate your sin, to abandon all hope of a cure
in yourself. Have you come to where Job came
to? Job? Have you considered my servant
Job? There's none like him, he eschews evil. Satan, go and see
what you can do with him. This is a good man. Ah, only
as men compare with men. Only as men, sinners, judge other
men. But Job, compared with the holiness
of God, says this at the end of the book, 42 verse 5 and 6.
Job says to God, So far I have heard a few things. I have heard
of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. Like this leper saw the Lord
Jesus Christ. He didn't just see an external
form, he saw who he was. Now mine eyes seeth thee. And
what did Job, this righteous man, what did Job think? Wherefore
I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. This leper came
on his own. Will you, if you haven't? Don't
be fatalistic. You know, if you will, Lord,
but you might not, therefore I'll just sit here and do nothing
today. No. This man saw Jesus passing that
day. Carpe diem. Grasp the day. Make
the most of the moment. Jesus is passing here today.
Grasp this moment. Trust his promise. He says, are
you laboring and heavy laden with sin? Come to me. and I will
give you rest. When? Tomorrow, I'll put it off.
No, today is the day of salvation. Come seeking mercy. We preach
sovereign grace. We preach particular redemption
for the elect of God alone in Christ alone because that's what
the scriptures teach. But the scriptures teach salvation
is not by personal merit but by free grace. And as the hymn
that we're going to sing shortly says, and if free grace, Why
not for me? Am I any worse a sinner than
anybody else? That doesn't matter, that's not the issue. And if
free grace, why not for me? So a final word. You'll notice,
and it happens often, that Jesus charged this man that was healed
to tell no man, but just go and show himself to the priest. And
you know, Most religious folks haven't got a clue what to make
of that. Why did Jesus tell people, don't
tell anybody about this? You know, in the case of the
man in the tombs on the other side of the Lake of Galilee,
he said to him, you know, he wanted to come with Jesus, and
Jesus said, no, just go home and tell them what the Lord's
done for you. But mostly, he says, don't make a fuss about
this. Don't tell, why did he do that? It's a very delicate
subject, but again it's all in the sovereignty of God. Why was
he told not to boast about what had happened to him? The fact
is, there's a time to remain silent about salvation and the
things of God. Ecclesiastes, there's a time
to speak and a time to be quiet. There's a time for every season
under heaven. There's a time to remain silent about salvation. For example, when people despise
it. Or if you're at work, you know you're paid to do your employer's
business when you're at work, you're not paid to be on a soapbox
preaching to people. No. And not when it hinders the
kingdom of God. We read in the account in Mark
chapter 1 verse 45 that this man didn't keep his mouth shut,
he went boasting about it all around what had happened. And
it says that Jesus could no more openly enter into that city his
boasting and bragging hindered the preaching of the Lord Jesus
of the kingdom of God because all the crowds were now flocking
to get their ailments fixed. That's what their priority was.
What does the scripture tell us to do? Be ready to give a
reason when asked by anybody. What's the reason for the hope
that's in you? But don't be constantly pushing your doctrine down people's
throats because It does not, as Paul says to Titus, it doesn't
adorn the doctrine of our God and Saviour in all things. But
do this, do go and commune with the priest. Who's our priest? The Lord Jesus Christ. Go and
commune with the priest. Confirm with him your cleansing
from your sin.