Good evening. Hi, Delphus. Joey's out sick tonight, so we
have the box. Let's open tonight's service
with hymn number 62. Let's all stand together. 62,
crown him with many crowns. crowned him with many crowns,
the Lamb upon His throne. Hark how the heavenly anthem
drowns all music but its own. Awake, my soul, and sing of Him
who died for thee, and hail Him as thy matchless King through
all eternity. Crown Him the Lord of love, Behold
His hands and side. Rich wounds yet visible above,
in beauty glorified. No angel in the sky can fully
bear that sight. But downward bends his wandering
eye, that mystery soul. Who rose victorious to the strife
for those he came? ? For He's now we sing ? Who died
and rose on high ? Who died eternal life to bring ? And lives that
death may die ? Crown Him the Lord of heaven ? One with the
Father, God ? One with the Spirit through Him given ? ? From yonder
glorious throne ? ? To Thee be endless praise ? ? For Thou for
us has died ? ? Be Thou, O Lord, through endless days ? ? Adored
and magnified Please be seated. We're going to be reading from
Psalm 46. If you'd like to open your Bibles
there with me, Psalm 46. As I was singing, we were singing
that hymn. I was thinking what a delight
it is in the believer's heart to crown our Lord as Lord. We don't make him Lord. He is
Lord, but we rejoice in worshiping him as Lord. And I hope the Lord will enable us
to do that tonight. Psalm 46, God is our refuge. He's our hiding place and he's
our strength. That verse we looked at Sunday
morning where David said he encouraged himself in the Lord. That word
encouraged, you remember we saw really meant strengthened himself.
And I was thinking about Isaiah 40 verse 31 where the Lord said
that they that wait upon the Lord, they that trust him, that
believe on him shall renew their strength. And that word renew
means to exchange. We exchange our strength for
his strength. His strength is made perfect in our weakness.
When we were yet without strength, Christ died for the ungodly.
We have no strength. All of our strength is found
in him. All of our righteousness, all the hope of our salvation,
all of our joy, and all of our faith is found in Christ. God
is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. How near he is. Scripture says he's near unto
us as our lips. We call upon him and he's near. Therefore we will not fear. though
the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into
the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof roar and be
troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah, there is a river, the
streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place
of the tabernacles of the Most High. It's that river that John
saw in the New Jerusalem that was clear as crystal flowing
from the throne of God. And we know that river is Christ
and we drink from that river freely. God is in the midst of
her. She shall not be moved. God shall
help her. And that right early. The heathen
raged and the kingdoms were moved and he uttered his voice and
the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us.
The God of Jacob is our refuge, Selah. These hymns, these psalms
are songs. They were put to music and sang. And the word Selah, from what
I understand is a musical rest. It means rest, and it's a pause
in the music. And so we pause to reflect on
what the Lord has just told us. Come, behold the works of the
Lord, what desolations he has made in the earth. He maketh
wars to cease unto the ends of the earth. He breaketh the bow
and cutteth the spear asunder. He burneth the chariots in the
fire. He took away all our weapons,
beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning forks
and took away all the enmity that we had by nature against
him. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us.
The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. Jennifer is in Jacksonville at
Mayo right now and she has her fourth treatment in the morning,
so if the Lord enables us to remember her, appreciate y'all's
prayers. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, we have no strength, we have no ability to put away our sin, to satisfy
your righteousness, to justify ourselves before the We have
no strength to believe on Thee. We have no strength to rejoice and worship Thee. Lord, we need to exchange what
we commonly rely upon as our strength, which is weakness for
Thy strength. And we pray, Lord, in this hour
that you'd be pleased to reveal your glory through your word,
reveal Christ to our hearts, show us his strength in defeating
Satan, conquering death, putting away our sin, establishing our
righteousness. Lord, that your wonderful works
would be made known to our hearts and that we would find ourselves
comforted and rejoicing and resting in the glorious person of thy
dear son. Lord, we say with the leper that
will be looking at tonight. We know that thou canst if thou
will. Lord, we pray that you'd be pleased
to lay your hand of strength and healing on Jennifer and that
you would use these treatments to enable her, strengthen her and heal her.
We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 290, 290 in the hard back
teminal. Let's all stand together again. Be still, my soul, the Lord is
on thy side. Bear patiently the cross of grief
or pain. Leave to thy God to order and
provide. In every change, ye faithful
will remain. Be still, my soul, thy best,
thy heavenly friend. Through thorny ways, leads to
a joy Be still, my soul, thy God doth
undertake To guide the future as He has the past. Thy hope, thy confidence let
nothing All now mysterious shall be bright
at last. Be still, my soul, the waves
and winds still know His voice who ruled them while He dwelt
below. Be still, my soul, the hour is
hastening on, When we shall be forever with the Lord. When disappointment, grief, and
fear are gone. Sorrow forgot, love's purest
joys restored. Be still, my soul, when change
and tears are past. All safe and blessed, we shall
meet at last. Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles to Mark
chapter 1. Mark chapter 1. We've been looking at the miracles
recorded in the gospels that our Lord performed. And I think this is the fifth one. This miracle speaks so much hope
to a helpless leper. And And the hope is that it is our
leprosy that qualifies us for heaven, for salvation, not for
heaven, but for salvation. And we'll begin reading in verse
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. And 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 and 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 he 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." What could give a spiritual leper
more hope than to know that it is his disease that qualifies
him for salvation? This miracle is so glorious and
so hopeful for those whom the Lord has made to be a sinner
because clearly that's what leprosy represents in the Bible. an incurable disease, apart from
a miracle of God. Once afflicted with leprosy,
we have antibiotics now that are able to control it, but then
there wasn't, there was nothing. And so it is with our sin. Apart from a miracle of God's
grace, apart from Him having compassion on us, and speaking
to us and touching us and making us clean, we will die lepers. Leprosy was
not only a death sentence in that it was incurable but it
was a life of pain, it was a life of social separation, it was
a lonely life. So many things about leprosy
that picture our separation from God and the pain that we bring
upon ourselves. From what I understand about
leprosy, we see the grotesque wounds of leprosy. From what
I understand, it's not the leprosy that's causing that. It's the
fact that the leprosy kills the nerve endings, particularly in
your hands and in your extremities and in your face. And so we touch
something sharp, we pull away. We touch something hot, we pull
away. But if you had no nerve endings, you would go about injuring
yourself and not know it. And isn't that the way sin is? Self-destructive and the grotesque
results of the fact that we have no sensitivity to the things
of God left to ourselves. What a picture of our sinful
condition outside of Christ we are. Leprosy, also from what
I understand, is a bacterial infection in the blood. And we
have an issue of blood. We've inherited this bacteria.
from our father Adam and it courses through our veins and the Lord
Jesus is the only one whose blood is untainted and perfect and
sinless before God and how we need we need his blood as a covering
for our sin, that no amount of sacrifice on our part will be
sufficient because our blood is unclean. Here's the picture. Leprosy is contagious and so
is sin. We catch it from one another,
we infect one another with it, we offend one another, we tempt
one another, and And here we are, a bunch of lepers
in need of the Lord to cleanse us. Now the Lord's gonna send this
leper back to the priest to be inspected and to be pronounced
clean. And there were sacrifices that
had to be made. We'll get to that in a moment.
But I want you to turn with me to Leviticus chapter 13. because
there's two verses in Leviticus 13 I want us to look at that
apart from the understanding of the gospel, this would make
no sense. If a man was suspected of having
leprosy because of wounds in his body, and the manifestation
of the leprosy was seen in his flesh, he had to go to a priest
and the Lord gives a long detailed description of what the priest
was to look for in determining whether or not this man was clean
or unclean, whether it was just a boil or some sort of skin disease
or whether it was leprosy. And in chapter 13 of Leviticus,
there are two verses that stand out where the Lord says to the
priest in verse 12, and if a leprosy break out abroad in the skin
and the leprosy cover all the skin of him that hath the plague
from his head even to his foot, Wherever so ever the priest looketh,
this man stripped naked and the priest is inspecting his body
and he cannot find a square inch of clean flesh on this man's
body. He's leprous from head to toe. Then the priest shall consider
and behold, if the leprosy have covered all his skin, He, the
priest, shall pronounce him, the leper, clean that hath the
plague. It is all turned white. He is
clean. People look at that. I've had
somebody ask me, how can that be? It doesn't make sense. It wouldn't make sense to a sinner,
doesn't it? From the top of our head to the
soles of our feet. Isaiah tells us in Isaiah chapter
1 that we are wounds and open sores and there's no clean flesh
on us. What is the Lord teaching us
here? What is he telling us? What is he revealing to us? That
a sinner has no righteousness of their own. That everything
about them is sinful. That every thought is sinful. Every imagination of the heart
is only evil, and that continually. Paul said, in me, that is, in
my flesh dwelleth no good thing. No good thing. Men look at sin
as just a behavioral problem. They look
at it as something, you know, the things that they're ashamed.
Well, God makes you to be a sinner. You know that you are nothing
but sin. Here we are. And when the priest, our high
priest, looks at us and he sees that there's no clean flesh,
that it's all turned leprous, then he turns it white and says,
you're clean. Oh, there's our hope. We looked last Wednesday night
at what Peter said when the Lord performed that miracle of the
great drought of fish and Peter fell at the Lord's feet and said,
depart from me for I am a what? Sinful. Sinful. I like that term. I like that
word. It's a little more descriptive,
I think, than just sinner. A sinner can, you know, a person
could think of a sinner as well, you know, I have some sin. But to be sinful, is to be leprous
from head to toe. And those are the ones that the
Lord shows mercy toward. What a blessing. How can it be? Well, we're never going to be
a sinful man until we're like Peter in his presence. He must
reveal to us something of his glory. some glimpses of his holiness,
the one who is holy and undefiled and separate from sinners, the
one that is higher than the heavens. And every time he's pleased to
make himself known, the one to whom he makes himself known,
come to this conclusion, I'm sinful. At top of my head, bottom
of my feet, there's no sound flesh in me. There's nothing
in me like him. Isaiah saw that when he saw the
Lord high and lifted up. And he said, woe is me. Daniel
saw that when Daniel saw the Lord. Daniel said this, he said,
my comeliness. And that word comeliness can
be beauty and it can be strength. And so Daniel, when he sees the
Lord, he said, my comeliness has turned into corruption. I am a grotesque leper in the
presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. I have nothing but sin. I have nothing to offer him.
I have no ground on which to stand. I have nothing to provide
as the hope of my salvation or the atonement for my sins or
my justification before God. I'm completely dependent upon
him. He doesn't have mercy upon me,
I'll be without hope. It's a blessing, a great miracle
of grace to be made a leper. All men we know are lepers. But
another thing I learned about leprosy is that you can be infected
with the bacteria in your blood and it can take anywhere from
1 to 20 years to manifest itself if you don't have any symptoms.
And I thought, well, that's the way I was. I had the leprosy
in my blood and the Lord had to cause it to break out. He
had to reveal the the disease to me in order for
me to know that I had it. And how many people walking around
this world have never had that happened. And they're lepers,
they don't know it. It is a great blessing. So there's
his condition and there's our condition. If we're going to be saved, we
must begin as a leper. Now the second thing we see in
this story is the posture that this leper takes in coming before the Lord. And there's a posture of worship. Worship is, the word worship
means to kiss the hand. It's a complete dependence and
love for one's master. It's a submission of one's life
to the Lord for him to do whatsoever he wills. The leper says, Lord,
I know you can if you will. We can't demand anything. To worship is to put oneself at
the complete mercy of another. And that's what lepers do when
they come before the Lord. They don't say with the religious
world, I know you want to save me. I know you came into this
world to cleanse lepers and here I am one and I'm gonna let you
cleanse me. How blasphemous is that? But
that is exactly what the free will gospel says. That's exactly
what men believe, that God loves everybody and wants to save everybody
and he wants to save you, but his hands are tied until we invite
him or let him have his way or make him Lord. That is so blasphemous,
so dishonoring to the Lord. This leper says, Lord, I know
that you can. No bargaining, no bartering with
the Lord. He beseeches him as a God. He's beseeching the Lord as a
God who delights in showing mercy. My only hope is that you will
delight in showing mercy toward me. And we have a promise from
God that he does delight in showing mercy, that he's full of mercy. And kneeling down, notice in
verse four, kneeling down before him. There's his posture. He's bowing before the Lord Jesus
Christ as his sovereign. Lord, my life is in your hands.
You have the sovereign right to do with me whatsoever you
will. I'm at your mercy and all I can
do is beseech thee." Confessing his complete dependence. Reminds me of that Syrophoenician
woman. Disciples said, Lord, send her
away. She's just a Gentile. She's pleading
with the Lord to help her with her daughter who's grieved with
an evil spirit. And then the Lord calls her a dog
and says, it's not right that I should give the children's
bread unto the dogs. And she said, truth, Lord, that's
what I am, I'm a dog. And then I love what the scripture
says. It says, and she worshiped him. She worshiped him. She did what this leper did.
She bowed down before the Lord Jesus Christ and she confessed
her dependence upon him. And she pleaded with him to just
let a few crumbs from the master's table fall down on the ground
for the dog to lick up. This is the hope that every believer
has because this is how we come. This is the posture that he puts
us in. He makes us to be dependent upon
him and he makes us to worship him. You know, I think about
those seraphim in Isaiah chapter six who are hovering over the
throne of God. They know nothing of sin. The
angels in heaven don't have any experience with sin. They're
not leprous. They are innocent. They're without sin. What are
they doing? They're worshiping the Lord.
And John in the Gospel of John tells us in chapter 12 that the
one that Isaiah saw back there in Isaiah chapter 6 was the Lord
Jesus Christ seated upon his throne. and they're hovering
over the throne of the Lord Jesus and crying, holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God of hosts. The seraphim are worshiping him.
If they're brought to that place of worship, how much more do
lepers need his mercy? And how much more worthy is he
of our worship? We're gonna be worshiping him
for all eternity. The saints in glory for all eternity
are going to be saying, worthy is the lamb to receive glory
and honor and praise. And what a blessing it is that
God would bring us. He would bring us to the end
of ourselves. He would cause us to see that
we have nothing, that we're sinful, that we're leprous, and that
he would shut us up to Christ and give us no place else to
go, that we might have a taste of worship here, longing for
that day when we are able to worship Him as we ought. Here
we are, beseeching Him, kneeling down before Him, asking for His
mercy, confessing our dependence upon Him, Notice in verse 41, and Jesus, that's the one that he came to.
Jehovah saves. He shall call his name Jesus
for he shall, he shall save his people from all their sins. And that's exactly what he did.
The sovereign, successful, Savior of sinners, our surety, the one
who accomplished our salvation all by himself. That's his name. And that's who the one, that's
who the leper came to. Turn with me to Genesis chapter
43. Genesis 43, I want us to look at a very familiar passage
here. Joseph's brothers have sold him
into slavery. Genesis chapter 43, you know
the story. There's a famine in Canaan and
Jacob has sent his sons down to Egypt, hearing that there's
bread in Egypt. Why is there bread in Egypt?
Because the Lord had revealed to Joseph the interpretation
of the dream that Pharaoh had. And they had spent seven years
storing up during the years of plenty. And now Joseph himself
has the keys to the storehouse. And if anyone wants anything,
they have to go to Joseph. Pharaoh says, go to Joseph, he's
the one. And so the sons, Joseph's brothers
don't know that Joseph's the prime minister of Egypt. And
they go down to get corn. Joseph sends them home and he
keeps Simeon. and tells them don't come back
without Benjamin. So they've used up all their
bread now. And they go to Jacob and say,
we've got to go back. We're gonna starve. And what
does Jacob say? Joseph is no more. He'd assumed
Joseph was dead. Simeon is not, he's gone. And
now you wanna take Benjamin? And Jacob, I'm sorry, Jacob says,
all these things are against me. But look what Judah. You
know, the interesting thing here is that Jacob's firstborn, Reuben,
says to his father, I'll be surety for him. And if I don't bring
Benjamin back, you can kill my sons. You know, he's willing to sacrifice
his children and Jacob knew Benjamin, knew Reuben, he knew that Reuben
would not be faithful in bringing Benjamin back. But now Judah,
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, the lion of the tribe of Judah
hath prevailed to open the book. And Judah now in verse eight
of Genesis chapter 43, and Judah said unto Israel, his father,
send the lad with me and we will arise and go that we may live
and not die, both we and thou and also our little ones and
I will be surety for him. I'm not going to put my children's
life, I'm going to put my life on the line. I'll be surety. You can be certain that everything
that's required to bring Benjamin home, I'll stand in his stead
and I'll provide everything necessary. That's what surety means. "'I will be surety for him, "'and
of my hand shalt thou require him. "'If I bring him not unto
thee and set him before thee, "'then let me bear the blame
forever.'" Now, this clearly is a word of prophecy. The Lord
Jesus speaking to his father, "'I will be surety for them,
"'and by my hand you shall require them. And if I don't bring them
home, if I don't bring Benjamin, all my Benjamins home to glory,
then I'll be to blame forever. Is there any possible way that
God the Father would be able to blame his son for all eternity
for not being successful in bringing home Benjamin? No way, no way. That's what the Lord Jesus did,
and that's what his name means, and that's who the leper now
goes to. He was the one, the only one
that could heal him, the only one that could make him clean,
the only one that could save him. Notice the heart of our
Lord revealed in this text. Go back with me to Mark 1. Verse 41, and Jesus moved with compassion. Oh, scripture says he's loved
his children with an everlasting love. There's never been a time
he didn't love them. Loved them as his own, loved
them unto the end. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that he loved us and gave his Son to be the propitiation
of our sins. Oh, what love the Father hath
bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Our love is so fickled and so
selfish. His is so perfect. He looked
at this leper, This grotesque leper, this man that most would
have diverted their eyes from and ignored and shunned and made
sure that they kept their distance from him, lest they catch his
disease and he has compassion on him. Oh, I need a savior that
will have compassion on me. A Savior that will remember that
I'm made from dust. A Savior that'll be merciful
toward me. I don't need a harsh taskmaster
like the law. I need a tender-hearted, merciful
Savior, a compassionate Savior. It was the lepers, it was the
harlots and the publicans and the sinners that were attracted
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Why were they attracted to him?
Because he had compassion on them. You're always attracted
to someone that you know has compassion on you, someone that
loves you, someone that always has your best interest at heart,
someone that understands and forgives you. You're attracted
to that person. Why weren't the Pharisees attracted
toward the Lord Jesus? Because he had no compassion
on them. He spoke harshly to them. He called them whitewashed
tombs. He called them hypocrites and
snakes and children of their father, the devil. He doesn't
speak to his people like that. He speaks to the self-righteous
like that, but he never speaks to lepers that way. He never
speaks to harlots that way. He never speaks to publicans
that way. He doesn't speak to sinners that way. He has compassion
in his heart toward sinners. The poor and the needy. He sees
them as sheep without a shepherd. Dumb, dirty, dependent sheep. And he takes his rod and he brings
them into his fold and he's moved. I love that. Verse 41, he was
moved. You know, We know a little bit
about that. When we see a loved one in trouble
and we're moved with compassion, he was moved. When the heart
of God is moved, it's moved infinitely more than ours is. And not only was he moved with
compassion, but he put forth his hand and touched him. No one else, this leper hasn't
been touched by another person ever since his leprosy was made
known, was manifested. He's been shunned by all men.
He'd been forced into exile. And now the Lord Jesus Christ
reaches forth and he touches him. Not only a symbol of compassion
and concern, but a symbol of transference. Here, the leprosy
of this leper was being transferred, if you will, to the Lord Jesus
Christ who would bear his leprosy when he went to the cross. And
in touching him and speaking to him, he was made clean. It's
almost that we see the scapegoat in Leviticus chapter 16, when
Aaron was instructed of Moses, put your hands on the scapegoat
and transfer the sins to that scapegoat. That scapegoat was
Christ. And have a fit man. And that
fit man was Christ. Take that scapegoat out into
the wilderness, into the land of forgetfulness. that he might
be, that I may be lost forever. I've removed your sin from you
as far as the East is from the West." Here's the touch. Here's
our Lord reaching out. How oftentimes we see the Lord
touching. He touches a corpse. No one would
touch a corpse. He touches a coffin. The widow
of Nain, he reaches up and touches a coffin. He touches blind people
and heals them. He touches the tongue of deaf
men. He transfers this power of healing
with a touch and it was the woman with the initial blood that touched
him. And he said, who touched me? Virtue has gone out from
me. She touched him in faith and
she was unclean, she wasn't to be She wasn't to be touched by
anyone. We see the seraphim taking the hot coals
from off the altar and touching the lips of Isaiah. In Isaiah
chapter six, when Isaiah said, I'm a man of unclean lips and
I live among a people of unclean lips, all my words are sinful. And the Lord takes a coal, a
hot coal and touches his lips and makes him clean. When Daniel
sees the Lord, he falls on his face as dead and the Lord reaches
out his hand and touches him, the angel of the Lord. That's
a Christ, that's a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus.
And John does the same thing in the book of Revelation. When
the Lord reveals himself in all of his magnificence and glory
to John, John, the scripture says, falls on his face as dead. And the Lord touches him and
says, fear not, fear not. When the disciples on the on
the mountain of transfiguration in Matthew chapter 17 when the
veil of our Lord's humanity was taken away and the radiance of
his deity shined forth. And the scripture says they fell
on their face in the dirt and the Lord touched them and said,
fear not, fear not. His touch is always a touch.
of comfort, it's always a touch of healing, it's always a touch
of compassion, it's always a tender touch. When Jacob wrestled with the
Lord that night in fear of his brother Esau, the Lord touched
him when he changed his name to Israel. And he touched him,
the scripture says, in the hollow of his thigh. And Jacob limped
the rest of his days, reminding him of that touch. That touch
not only was a touch of grace and mercy, it was a touch of
life. But it was a touch that revealed
to Jacob his weakness before God. and his complete dependence
always upon the Lord. And when the Lord touches us
now, he continually reminds us of our need to keep coming to
him. We never grow beyond this experience as a leper, asking
for his mercy, depending upon his compassion. Lord, I know
you can if you will, Lord, I can't demand anything from you. I can't
require anything. I can't obligate you to do anything.
I can't barter or bargain with you for anything. I'm at your
mercy. I worship you. And left to myself,
I'm still a leper. That's the Lord touching the
hollow of our thigh, causing us to limp all the rest of the
days of our lives. We spend our whole lives in this
world as sinners saved by grace. Notice that the Lord not only
touches him out of compassion, but he speaks to him. He said unto him, I will be clean. You know, no leper has ever come
to the Lord Jesus and said, Lord, I know that thou canst if thou
will. No leper has ever come to him
like that and been turned away. I will in no wise cast you out.
The ones he turns away are the ones that try to barter with
him. The ones that try to bring something to obligate him, those
he turns away. The self-righteous and the Pharisee,
he turns away. The religious who would say,
I know you want to save me, and I'm going to allow you to save
me, though he wouldn't speak to them. But everyone that comes
like this, we have the promise and the comfort of knowing that
our Lord says, I will be clean. I will be clean. What hope? Lazarus, come forth. Zacchaeus, come down. I must
go to the house today. Levi, follow me. And he immediately
got up and followed him. Oh, the voice of God. When God
speaks, his sheep hear his voice and they follow him. Be thou clean. Only God can forgive
sin. Only God can cleanse a leper.
He's the only one that can make us clean. And when he makes this
clean, notice what happens. And immediately the leprosy departed
from him and he was cleansed. Reminds me of Naaman. You remember
when Naaman the Syrian came down to Elijah and Elijah said, go
up and bathe yourself in the river Jordan seven times. And
Naaman was wrath and his servants convinced him to do it. And the
scripture says that when he came out of the river Jordan, he had
the skin of a little child, and that word little child means
a baby. He had baby skin. When the Lord forgives us of
our sin, he puts them all away. He doesn't leave any of them.
He separates them all from us. He remembers them no more. He
makes us perfect in Christ. Justified means to be without
sin. to be without sin. And though
our experience in the flesh is an experience with sin in our
bodies, we have a new man and a new nature that as he is, so
are we, baby skin. Perfect, no leprosy, not a spot
to be found. There's our hope. Perfectly clean. The Lord gives this leper a command to go back to the priest
and to perform that which was required by Moses as a testimony
to them. What was required by Moses? Very
quickly. Leviticus chapter 14, after the leper was cleaned in
chapter 13, he was to take two sparrows and take one sparrow
and kill it, shed its blood over running water in a basin, an
earthen basin. And then he was to take hyssop
and cedar wood and scarlet. and dip the live bird along with
the cedar wood, the hyssop and the scarlet in the basin of blood
and sprinkle it on the leper. And he was to be made clean.
And everything about that ceremony was a testimony of Christ. The
two birds The Lord Jesus is the bird that was slain on Calvary's
cross, and he is also the bird that came forth out of the grave
and was released free. Just like there was two in the
same chapter, well, a couple of chapters later in Leviticus,
there's the scapegoat that I've already mentioned, and there's
the goat that's made as a sin offering. Two goats, one was
to be killed, the other one was to be set free. The Lord Jesus
Christ fulfilled both of those things. He was put to death that
he with us might be made free. The cedar wood. Oh, it was cedars. The cedars of Lebanon are mentioned
in the Bible many times and they were majestic trees. You've seen pictures of them.
The Lebanese flag has picture of the cedar tree on it. And
they're famous all over the world. They're known for their beauty.
They're known for their strength. They're known for their fragrance.
They're known for the fact that they resist rot. And they were used in the building
of the tabernacle and the temple. And that cedar wood pictures
Christ, his beauty and his fragrance. And then the hyssop, the hyssop
from what I understand was an unassuming bush that was bitter
to the taste but sweet to the smell. And there we have a picture
of the Lord Jesus on the cross, the bitterness of his death,
that first bird, and then the sweetness of his life in the
deliverance by the miracle. All these things were testimony.
It was the hyssop that was to be dipped in blood and the blood
was to be put on the doors of the houses in Egypt when the
Lord said at the Passover. And we know what scarlet is.
The scarlet thread that hung from Rahab's window to show Joshua
and the spies that she was the one that was to be saved. It's
the blood of Christ. The veil that separated the holies
of holies was blue and scarlet and purple. And the deity and
the humanity of Christ coming together in the God-man So everything
in this ceremony pointed to Christ. And the Lord said, you go back
and you show the priest and go through that. I've come to fulfill
the law. And the law wasn't fulfilled
till he hung his head on Calvary's cross and said, it is finished.
In the meantime, the requirements of the law still stood. And the
Lord's using now this law to show who he is. in cleansing
and healing lepers. It's how we come, isn't it? We
continue to come. He continues to have mercy. And
he's never been without a witness. We testify. This leper was to
go back to the priest and say, it was Christ that did it. It
was he that all these things pointed to him. The Lord has
never been without a witness. He's always had a testimony.
He had the prophets in the Old Testament. He had the apostles. He's got his written word. He's
got his church. What do we testify? What do we
testify to? This is a faithful saying. Christ
Jesus came into the world to save lepers, sinners of whom
I am chief. and he's everything in my salvation.
I can obligate him and require him for nothing that we're dependent
upon his mercy. And he delights in showing mercy
towards sinners. That's the testimony. What a
comforting miracle this is to sinners. Tom. Number five in the spiral hymnal,
let's stand together. Come ye sinners poor and wretched,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus ready stands to save you,
Full of pity, joy, with power. He is able, He is able, He is
willing now no more. He is able, He is able, He is
willing now no more. Come, ye needy, come and welcome,
God's free bounty glorify. True belief and true repentance,
every grace that brings us nigh. Without money, without money,
Come to Jesus Christ and hide. Without money, without money,
Come to Jesus Christ and hide. Let not conscience make you languor,
Nor of fitness caught between. All the fitness he requireth
Is to have a need of him. This he gives you, this he gives
you, Tis the spirit This He gives you, this He gives you, is the
Spirit delivering thee. Come ye weary, heavy laden, bruised
and broken by the fall. If you tarry till you're better,
you will never come at all. Not the righteous, not the righteous,
sinner Jesus came to call. Not the righteous, not the righteous,
sinner Jesus came to call.