Let us turn again to Mark chapter
1. Mark chapter 1. I ended my message
last time with verses 38 and 39, in which the Lord Jesus Christ
told four of his disciples that they must go into other towns,
that is, other towns in Galilee, as well as he had preached in
Capernaum, he must preach in those other places as well. I want us to look back to verses
14 and 15 and see again what it was that the Lord Jesus Christ
came preaching. Notice in verse 14, and notice
it was after John was put into prison that the Lord Jesus Christ
began preaching. He began his public ministry
of preaching. And let's see, now after John
was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel
of the kingdom of God and saying, the time is fulfilled and the
kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ told Nicodemus
a religious Jew, a Pharisee, that a man must be born again
in order to see or to enter in to the kingdom of God, the kingdom
of heaven. Now, the Jewish leaders, the
Jewish leaders, teachers of that day and before, had taught that
the people of God should expect a Messiah who would set up an
earthly Jewish kingdom. The kingdom of God, the gospel
that our Lord Jesus Christ preached is a spiritual kingdom. It is a spiritual kingdom. They had been taught to look
for a material kingdom. The Messiah to set up his throne
in Jerusalem and the nation of Israel all of a sudden to be
head over all the other nations. The Lord Jesus Christ said, my
kingdom is not of this world. The Lord Jesus Christ said, The
kingdom of God is within you. The apostle Paul, he defined,
and this is a inspired definition of the kingdom of God. Many people
today are mistaken and deceived and believing and looking forward
to some future Jewish kingdom. The kingdom of God, as the Apostle
Paul said in Romans, the kingdom of God is not meat and drink. When David was anointed king,
they came together and they ate and they drank. And David, he
gave out meat, a good portion of meat to all the people and
a loaf of bread and a flagon of wine. That's when that kingdom
was established with David, the throne of David. But Paul says
the kingdom of God is not made and drank, but it is rather righteousness,
righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. This is the
kingdom of God and this is the message, the gospel of the kingdom
of God. is what the Lord Jesus Christ
was preaching. I want you to hold your places
here, of course, but look over into Acts, the very last chapter
of Acts, the last historical fact that we know about the apostle
Paul. and inspired historical fact
in Acts chapter 28 and verses 30 and 31, the very last two
verses of Acts. And Paul dwelt two whole years
in his own hired house and received all that came in unto him. Now notice what was Paul preaching? Well, let me remind you that
Paul in first Corinthians said the Jews seek a sign, the Greeks
seek wisdom, but we preach Christ. And then in the next chapter
of I Corinthians he said, for I determined not to know anything
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's the gospel. The gospel is what Paul was preaching. The kingdom of God. Notice that
in verse 28. Preaching the kingdom of God
and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ
with all confidence, no man forbidding him. So back in our text now,
I felt it good to remind us that when the Lord Jesus Christ told
his four disciples, we must go into other cities and preach
to them that we'd be reminded of what he was preaching. He
was preaching the gospel. He was preaching the kingdom
of heaven, the kingdom of God is at hand. He came preaching
the gospel. That's what he was preaching.
That's what he went forth preaching. Now, in the passage we're looking
at this morning, we're not told where. Josephus, the Jewish historian,
he told of how many, more than 100 villages and towns were in
Galilee, but we don't know for certain how many there were,
and we certainly do not know where this took place, this that
we're reading about this morning. While preaching the gospel, in
Galilee at some place at one time, the leper was cleansed. And that's the passage of scripture
we're looking at today. Verse number 40. And there came
a leper to him, beseeching him and kneeling down to him and
saying unto him, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.' Jesus
moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and
saith unto him, I will be thou clean. And as soon as he had
spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was
cleansed. And he straightly charged him,
and forthwith sent him away, and saith unto him, See thou
say nothing to any man, but go thy way, show thyself to the
priest, and offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded,
for a testimony unto them. But he went out, and began to
publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter, insomuch that
Jesus could no more openly enter into the city, but was without
in desert places, and they came to him from every quarter. I have three points to my message
today. First, the leper, verse 40. And there came a leper to him. What does that mean? What does
it mean when we read, there came a leper to him? Does being called
a leper signify his nationality? Like we might say, there came
to him a Jew. Or there came to him a European. Or there came to him an African. Or there came to him a North
American. Is that what this means? Of course
not. We know that's not what it means.
It means that there came to him a man who was identified by this
disease. There came to him a leper. There came to him a man who was
identified by this one particular disease. Now in the days of Christ,
when he was here in the flesh, as today, there are many, many
different kinds of diseases that are afflictions of men, all brought
into God's creation by sin. We recognize that. But the disease
of leprosy was somewhat different. Because in the law that God gave
to Moses at Mount Sinai, that old covenant law, leprosy was
singled out as a picture of moral uncleanness. In other words,
leprosy was a type of sin. It was incurable. As far as medicine
was concerned in that day, it was an incurable disease. It was singular. We never read
a diabetic came to him. We never read a cancer patient
came to him. But a leper, this disease, what
I'm pointing out is this disease was different from every other
disease in the law that God gave unto the nation of Israel, because
it was a type, it was a picture of sin, moral uncleanness. It was incurable. And we know
that it caused separation. When a man or woman, for that
matter, had leprosy, when they were diagnosed with leprosy,
and who diagnosed them? The priests did. In the law, and there's two chapters
in Leviticus, two long chapters I might say, Leviticus chapter
13 and 14, which deal with the subject of leprosy. A man wasn't,
if he thought he had leprosy, he wasn't sent to a doctor, he
was sent to a priest. And the priest would determine
if it were leprosy or not with which he was afflicted. He was
sent to a priest. The disease was incurable. It caused separation. If the
priest said, yes, that's leprosy, or maybe he said, I'm not sure.
I'm not sure if that's leprosy, but just to be on the safe side,
just to obey the word of God, get out of the camp, separate
yourself and come back. And I think it was seven days.
And we'll look again. We'll make a determination then.
And when a man was determined to have leprosy, he was put out
of the camp. He was separated from his family,
separated from his friends, and more than that, my friends, he
was separated from the congregation of the Lord. He was separated
from the place that God had ordained for men to come together to worship
him, that is, in the tabernacle. He was put out. He was separated. It rendered a person not sick. The priest didn't say, you're
sick. He said, you're unclean. You're unclean. It's leprosy. You're unclean. What a picture. What a type. of sin is leprosy. When you stop and think about
it, you say this man was identified by his disease. A leper came
to him. We too are identified. All men
are identified by sin. We all are sinners. We're identified. by sin. We are sinners. Just as leprosy was incurable,
so sin is incurable to man's remedies. Men have thought that
education would solve the problem, and so men have been educated. And thank God for education,
right? But education doesn't solve the
sin problem. Evolution. Men have been taught
that evolution, that's the remedy. That's gonna do the job. As men
continue to evolve, we will get better and better and the world
will get better and better. Oh no, that doesn't solve the
problem. Just as leprosy was incurable
to men of that day, So sin is an incurable disease. And sin separates. It separates. Separates man from God. Your
iniquities, the scripture says, have separated you from God. Just as soon as Adam and Eve
disobeyed God, what happened? God drove them out of the garden. He told them. Told Adam, when
you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in dying thou
shalt die. And he was put out. I remember reading many years
ago of a class of young children. And they had taught on that. chapter, I believe, and they
assigned the little children to draw a picture of what they
had learned. And this one little girl, she
drove a picture of a car and a person in the car, several
people in the car, and the teacher was bewildered. And she said,
what? How did you get that? Because
he drove them out. He drove them out of the garden.
Oh, no. Sin separates. It separated men
from God. And let me say this too, sin
makes us unclean before God. We could go into more detail
and describe leprosy, the sickness of leprosy, the disease. It's
an awful disease. Actually, the body begins to
just rot, if I could use that term, just rot off. the nose,
fingers, the toes, very awful, awful disease. If we could see sin like God
sees it, how awful, how very awful is
sin in the sight of a holy God. Thou art of pure eyes than to
behold iniquity. Now let's look at the second
thing. When I think about sin as incurable,
I think about the words of Job. He said, if I wash myself with
snow water, evidently snow, water, The snow turned to water, men
were of the opinion, that's the cleanest, that's the purest water.
Came down from the tops of Lebanon into the land of Israel, into
the land of Canaan. But Job said, if I wash myself
with snow water and make my hands ever so clean. But you see, you can make your
hands clean, The problem's on the inside, isn't it? The heart. If I wash myself with snow water
and make my hands never so clean, yet thou shalt plunge me in the
ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor
me. Sin renders men unclean before
God. But before we look at Christ,
let's look at Mark, at what he tells us about this leper coming
to Christ. First, we read, and there came
a leper to him. He came to him. He broke through
the barriers. Now this was against, this was
against the Levitical law. You remember a leper, he had
to put his hand above his lip and cry out unclean when he came
close to anyone who was not a leper. But this man somehow, he broke
through the barriers. He had heard of Christ. I'm convinced of that. He had
heard of Christ. He had heard that He had healed
and restored others and cast out demons. And so He broke through
the barrier. He had to get to Him. It wasn't just getting to the
house if our Lord was in a house. It wasn't just getting in the
proximity of Him. No, He had to get to Him. to come to Him. That's the first
thing we are told. He came to Him. The second thing is He asked
of Him. He asked cleansing. Have you ever asked the Lord
to save you? Scripture says, for whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then
shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how
shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And
how shall they hear without a preacher?" This man had heard. This man
had heard and he came and he asked. He asked for cleansing. We saw the Lord Jesus Christ
was preaching, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, that old dispensation
of the law. The law is so different from
the gospel, isn't it? The gospel was pictured in that
law. There's no doubt about that.
But the law says, go. The gospel says, come. Come. Come unto me, all you that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The law says do. Go and do. The gospel says come. It's finished. The work's finished. It's finished. The third thing, he came to him,
he asked of him, and he worshipped him. The scripture says he came
kneeling. He kneeled down, worshipping
the Lord. And then the fourth thing, he
confessed the Lord's sovereign prerogative. He didn't doubt that the Lord
had the power He knew that. Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst,
thou canst. He believed he had the power,
but he submitted to his sovereign prerogative. Lord, if thou wilt,
thou canst make me clean. And immediately the scripture
says, the Lord Jesus Christ said, I wilt. be thou clean. Do you think this morning, stop
and think about this, do you think that any sinner, any sinner,
no matter how wicked, how sinful, how evil, what a depraved life
a person has lived or how good a life a person has lived, do
you believe that any sinner Has ever come to Christ like this
man came and found him not to be willing to save? A person tells you, well, I asked
the Lord to save me, but he didn't save me. That cannot be, my friends. Not if you come like this man. Not if a person comes like this
man. I will, be thou clean. Now, as
we look at the second point, the Christ. Let me point out
four things quickly here. Christ, the first thing, he was
moved with compassion. Now this word means to be moved
from within. If we were speaking today, we
would say his heart was moved. The Hebrews, they use the term
bowels, his bowels, his inward His n-words were moved, moved
to have pity. The Lord Jesus Christ was moved
from within, had compassion upon him. And then, secondly, Christ
touched him. Now he touched him with a touch
which, according to the Levitical law of leprosy, was a touch of
defilement. In the same way, as Charles Spurgeon
said, was Christ made to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. This touch, when
the Lord Jesus Christ touched this man, according to the Levitical
law, that was a touch of defilement. But when the Lord touched him,
it didn't change who he was. He was still the same holy son
of God. When he was made to be sin for
us, didn't change. He didn't become inherently sinful. Our sins, the Bible is very clear
that tell us that our sins were laid upon him. They were put
upon him. He was not somehow turned into
sin. Our sins were imputed unto him. But he himself became, he himself
continued that holy, harmless son of God, separate from sinners
that he always was. In him was no sin, he knew no
sin, he did no sin. And that has to be so for that
sacrifice to be accepted. His sacrifice, for His sacrifice,
His blood to be accepted and put away the sins of His people.
It had to be infinitely holy. The third thing, Christ was willing
to cleanse him. I will be thou clean. Isn't it wonderful this morning?
Listen, believer, Isn't it wonderful today? Wonderful! Doesn't it make your heart rejoice
today that Christ is not only an able Savior, but He's a willing
Savior. He's willing. He's willing. He's a just God and a Savior. And then fourth, Christ's cleansing
him was immediate. Here's that word again, immediately. As I mentioned several weeks
back, that's one of Mark's favorite words, is immediately. The scripture
says, the leprosy departed from him and he was clean. As soon as he had spoken, notice
immediately, verse 42, immediately the leprosy departed from him.
It was gone. He came to him a leper and the
Lord touched him and immediately the disease, the leprosy was
gone. Immediately, it was gone. He was clean. You never read of a leper being
healed. A leper was cleansed. That happened
immediately in this case. There's a hymn that I've heard
sung as a special. I had it on a CD recently. I love this hymn. He Touched Me. You familiar with
that hymn, He Touched Me? He goes like this, shackled by
heavy burden, neath a load of guilt and shame, then the hand
of Jesus touched me, and now I am no longer the same. 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. This man immediately, he could
have sung that hymn, couldn't he? He touched me. And even this
morning while we're sitting here, thinking about this, where is
he at? While eternity rolls, he's with
the Savior, isn't he? He's with the Savior, and he
hasn't stopped praising him, and he never will. One day, you
and I, by God's grace, we'll be there with him, and we'll
be singing the same praise. All the glory and all the praise
belongs unto him. Now, I want to close, I want
us to look at the charge in verses 43 and 45. The Lord Jesus Christ,
the charge that he gave this man. And he straightly charged
him and forthwith sent him away. Now I want you to notice the
charge here, verse 44. He saith unto him, see thou say
nothing to any man, But go thy way, show thyself to the priest,
and offer for thy cleansing. Hey! We just read he was cleansed. We just read immediately when
the Lord touched him he was clean. And he was. And he was. Now the Lord sends him to the
priest and offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded
for a testimony unto them. Now here's my point, that word
for. The Lord did not send this man
to the priest to be cleansed of his leprosy. He was already
clean. He was already clean. You see,
there was a ceremony, and let me just briefly run through it.
There were two birds, hyssop, cedar, and scarlet, and water. And one bird was slain, and his
blood was caught in the bowl with the water, running water.
The cedar and the scarlet was put in there and hyssop. And I assume with the hyssop,
the priest would take and he would sprinkle that leper who
was clean. He was already clean. He didn't
come to be cleansed. He was already clean. You didn't
go through this ceremony until the priest said, he's clean.
He's clean. Sprinkled him seven times, then
they dipped the live bird down into that mixture and set him
free. The Lord sent this man not to
be cleansed of his leprosy, he's already clean, but for a testimony
to them. And the reason I'm trying to
make this point, I want you to turn with me to Acts chapter
two, and I'll close. in Acts chapter 2 and verses 37 and 38. Well, let me read verse 37. Now, when they
heard this, that is, they heard the message of Peter and the
other 11 disciples, they were pricked in their heart and said
unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren,
What shall we do? This is the day of Pentecost.
Then Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized every one of
you in the name of Jesus Christ. Now notice, for the remission
of sins. And you shall receive the gift
of the Holy Ghost. Now, Peter's not saying by your
baptism, your sins are going to be remitted. No more than
the Lord Jesus Christ told this leopard that for that ceremony
he was going to be cleansed. These men were, their sins were
put away when they repented. Repent! That's what he said. And then be baptized for, as
a testimony, as an obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. This
is his command to be baptized. But some people have taken that
and they've said, well, you see, baptism, you have to be baptized
to have your sins put away. Well, if that's true, think about
all of those Old Testament saints. They were not baptized in the
name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, that
thief on the cross. And let me tell you something,
there's no telling how many people, we'll never know until eternity,
have looked to Christ in the very last moments of their life
and found mercy. Found mercy. They weren't baptized,
but they looked to Christ. Salvation is not in water. You see, men always want to put
something between the sinner and the Savior. some man, some
ordinance, some ceremony, whatever it might be. No, a person must
come to Him, must trust in Him, must do business with Him. If a person puts themselves between
you and the Savior, that's not gonna help you at all. Everyone
that is a help to a center will do the same thing. Look to Him
and be saved. Look to Him. Well, I pray the
Lord would bless this message to all of us. I want us to sing
this hymn, number 287, Like a River Glorious. I'm going to tell this group,
this is group A this morning, what I told