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Greg Elmquist

Coming to Christ

Mark 1:40-45
Greg Elmquist September, 6 2015 Audio
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Sermon Transcript

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I know a lot of you have left
your Bibles here on purpose, so they'll be here when you get
here. If you can't find yours, it's on that table on the back.
I think they all got picked up this week and stacked up back
there, so that's where it is. All right.
Good morning. Again, Hebrews chapter 4, verse
3, let me just read it. For we which have believed do
enter into his rest. We enter into his rest through
faith. For he saith, I have sworn in
my wrath that they shall enter into my rest, although the works
were finished before the foundation of the world. Christ is the lamb
slain before the foundation of the world. All the works of grace,
all the works of salvation. When God purposes something,
it's done. It's just done. It may still have to be carried
out in time, but if God's purposed it, it's already accomplished.
And that's what the Lord accomplished our salvation. When God Almighty
entered in to the covenant of grace, Before time ever began,
God's people were saved. Tom's going to come lead us in
the hymn on the back of our bulletin. Let's stand together. His be the victor's name, who
fought the fight alone. Triumphant saints, no honor claim,
their conquest was his own. By weakness and defeat, he won
the reed and crown, trod all the foes beneath his feet by
being trodded down. He hell and hell laid low, Made
sin he sin o'erthrew, Bowed to the grave, destroyed it so, And
death by dying slew. What though the accuser roar
of ills that I have done, I know them well and thousands more. Jehovah findeth none. Bless, bless the conqueror slain,
slain by divine decree. Who lived, who died, who lives
again? For thee, my soul, for thee. Please be seated. Turn with me, if you will, to
1 John, I've been thinking upon this
verse for some time now, and I realize that when we say, verse
1, This was the summary in just
a couple of verses of John chapter 17 of what the Lord's Prayer
was. He's summed it all up in just two verses. And then as
I was sitting back there this morning, I realized that in these
two verses the Lord has summed up the sum total of the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, because this is what He's done
here. Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God. Therefore, the world knoweth
us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we know
when he shall appear, We shall be like him, for we shall see
him as he is. And like it says in the other
scriptures, as he is, so are we in this world. And every man
that hath this hope in him, Christ in you is the hope of glory.
Purify himself, even as he is pure, already in heaven. And this, my finite understanding,
I can't wrap my mind around this, but it's beautiful as we come
here to lift up the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's,
by his grace, that's what we will do. Let us pray. Holy and
gracious Father, as we have heard, Lord, we come before you as sinners. in need of your grace
and your mercy, in need of our souls to be renewed again, to
be replenished. We just ask now, Lord, that as
we come together again, that you would give our brother grace
to speak the words that lift up a person of our Lord Jesus
Christ and give us grace to hear that truly we might go away as
the Ethiopian eunuch did, rejoicing that we have heard this. We ask
these things in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Let's all stand together once
again. We're going to sing hymn number 13 from your Hymns of
Grace handout. There should be some of these
in the pew right in front of you in the slot there. Number
13, soul be still my heart. Let's all stand together. Upon my great and sovereign God,
I cast my soul and breast. My Father's hand controls the
world, and what he does is best. So be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth,
and power combine to make thee blessed. In raging storms and
fiery trials, He keeps me from all harm. He walks with me and
holds me in His everlasting arms. So be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth,
and power combine to make thee blessed. My God with skill infallible
and great designs of grace, with power and love that never fail,
shall order all my ways. So be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth,
and power combine to make thee blessed. My life's most finite
circumstance is ordered by my God, who promised that in all
things He will ever do me good. So be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth,
and power combine to make thee blessed. Please be seated. To be blessed to rest. That's
what we just sang. Oh Lord bless us to rest. The Rite of Hebrews said that
labor to enter into his rest. And it's labor. It's a labor
not to labor. It's a labor to find Christ to
be all in our salvation. We could say that the summary
of every gospel message and the summary of God's Word is come
to Christ. Come to Christ. That's the message. The Spirit and the Bride, Revelation
22, right at the very end of God's Word, the Spirit and the
Bride say what? Come. Come. In Mark chapter one,
the Lord gives us an illustration in the healing of a leper, what
it means to come to Christ. Now, some of you were like me,
deceived by false prophets in thinking that coming to Christ
was something that you settled once and for all. I did that,
and you nailed it down, you had an experience, you walked an
aisle, you prayed a prayer, you made a decision, whatever it
was, you felt a feeling. And so, we got that out of the
way now, let's move on to bigger and better things. There are
no bigger and better things. We preach now, we know, that
we preach the same message to believers that we preach to unbelievers.
Why? Because every one of us are in
need of coming to Christ all the time. There's nothing more
to do. There's no better gospel. There's no better message. Coming
to Christ. Peter put it like this when he
said, to whom coming. We're always coming. as to a
lively stone, always coming to Christ. So this message is not,
if you've never come to Christ, I mean the Christ that is. There's
lots of Jesus's in the world, there's lots of gospels, and
there's lots of messages that men have devised, but there's
one Christ, there's one gospel. If you've never come to Christ,
I pray that the Lord will be pleased to bring you to himself. Lord, cause me to come, and I'll
come. Bid me to come unto thee, Lord. Speak to my heart. Open
the eyes of my understanding. I pray it'll be a glorious day
for you as a newcomer to Christ. For those of you that have come
to Christ, I pray that the Lord will renew your spirit and give
you rest once again in coming to Christ. There's four questions
I want to answer from this text. Why do we come? To whom do we come? How do we come? And what do we say when we come? Why do we come? Why would you
have a need to come to Christ? And the short answer of that
is because you're sick. Whether you know it or not, you've
got a soul sickness that only Christ can heal. It's called
sin. Like me, and like every other
child of Adam, you are a sinner. Unable unable to do anything
that will be satisfactory to the keeping of God's law. Here
it is, look at verse 40 in Mark chapter 1. Why do we come? We come because we are afflicted
with leprosy. How oftentimes God uses in his
word this disease of leprosy to illustrate our sin problem. And how clearly it does illustrate
the sin problem. Leprosy, as I understand it,
is a disease of the blood. Oftentimes it is inherited and
it remains dormant in a person's body for a long time before it
ever manifests itself. That's unlike sin. Sin manifests
itself as soon as we come out of the womb. But it is a disease
of the blood. We've inherited it from our father
Adam. When Adam fell, all of us fell
with him. And we come into this world with
a issue of blood. We come into this world with
a disease, just like leprosy. Just like leprosy, this disease
of sin, here it is, look at verse 40. And there came a leper unto
him. We're gonna find in this one
verse the answer to these four questions. Why do we come? We come because we're a leper.
To whom do we come? We come to Christ. How do we
come? We come worshiping Him, kneeling
down. What do we say? Oh Lord, I know you can if you
will. The first question that has to
be answered is are you afflicted with the contagious disease of
leprosy? Leprosy attacks the nervous system
so that it leaves one without feelings. Isn't that the way
sin is? Leprosy, in the scriptures, was
incurable. Apart from a miracle of God's
grace, there was no way for you to get rid of this disease. And
so it is with the disease of our sin. The Lord doesn't cure
it by His blood. We have no hope of standing sinless
before God unless we be found in him. Leprosy left those who were afflicted
with it unable to worship. They were considered unclean.
They were put outside the camp and they were not allowed to
come in and worship God because they were unclean. And that's
where sin leaves us. This disease of leprosy has made
us unable to come into the presence of God. Lord, if you don't put
away my sin, if you don't cover it with the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, if you don't give me a righteousness outside of
myself, there is no way that I can worship God. Leprosy ultimately deformed the
person into a grotesque form of a person. Isn't that what
sin does for us? This problem that we have with
sin has to be revealed by God. He has to show us. Otherwise,
we will conclude that our sin problem is nothing more than
a behavioral problem, and there are times when we sin, and there
are times when we don't sin. The only way that we can see
ourselves as a sinner is if God the Holy Spirit makes us to be
a sinner. Sin is not just a behavioral
problem. Oh, it manifests itself in behavior. No doubt about that. But it's what we are by nature.
It's what we are by nature. We're vile. Job justified himself before
God thinking that he didn't deserve the things that were happening
to him. Lord, let me present my case before you and I'll show
you that I'm innocent. This is not right. And then after
the Lord spoke, after the Lord said to Job, who is this that
darkens my counsel without knowledge? Job, brace yourself like a man.
I'm gonna ask you a few questions. And for the next four chapters,
what does God do? He reveals himself to Job. Job, where were you when I did
this and when I did that? Job, you think you're calling
me into question? And God is revealing his sovereign
glory to Job. And when Job gets it, What's
the first thing out of Job's mouth? Behold. Oh, I see something I never saw
before. Behold, I am vile. I'm vile. I had heard of thee
by the hearing of my ear, but now mine eyes have seen thee,
and I repent in dust and ashes. God has to make you to be a sinner.
He has to make you to see. And the way he does that is by
revealing himself. That's why we preach Christ. It's not the law that makes us
to be a sinner. It's Christ that makes us to
be a sinner. Only when we see the Lord Jesus Christ in his
perfection are we able to say with the prophet Daniel, my comeliness
when I saw him was turned into corruption. In me, that is in
my flesh, Paul said, dwelleth no good thing. Oh, as a believer,
to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is
good? You see, this sin problem is not just something that we
have before we're regenerated, it's something we carry out through
the rest of our lives. How to perform that which is
good I find not. When I would do good, evil is
ever present with me. Lord, I can't produce anything
that measures up to your righteousness. I'm in need of an advocate. I'm
in need of a substitute. I'm in need of one who is righteous
to present himself on my behalf. Oh, and as Wayne just read, behold,
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, upon us,
that we should be called the sons of God. Oh, we need an advocate. We need one who God is pleased
with. One who is sinless. God made
him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. So that when the Lord Jesus Christ
hung on Calvary's cross as God's sacrifice, he bore in his body
all the sins of all of God's people and satisfied God's divine
justice once and for all. That's the only hope we have.
Christ is our righteousness. Lord, I'm a leper. I'm a leper. I'm sinful. I've got no righteousness. How, why do we come to Christ? If you're coming to Christ, people
come to God for lots of reasons. Sometimes the Lord uses a storm
in your life in order to show you what a sinner you are. But
if you're coming only to have that particular circumstance
calmed, and lots of folks do, you know, they'll just ring the
bell and, you know, God come help me. I need to be delivered
from this problem. When the problem goes away, your
need for God will go away. You have a problem. I have a
problem that will never go away. And if the Lord's pleased to
reveal it to you, you will always need a Savior. Always. Every minute of every day, you
will be in need of a Savior if God makes you a leper. If he makes you to be a sinner. Why do we come? Why do we come? We come because we need a Savior.
And we need a Savior because we're sinners. Second question, to whom do we
come? Now I emphasize that personal
pronoun whom, to whom do we come? Because we're not coming to a
doctrine. We're not coming to a denomination. We're not coming
to a church. We're not walking an aisle and
coming to an altar. We're not praying a prayer. We're
coming to a person. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. Look at our text. And
there came a leper, Just let your eyes look at that verse
real quick. You'll notice that the personal pronoun him and
thou are six times in one verse. And there came a leper to him,
beseeching him and kneeling down to him and saying unto him, if
thou wilt, thou can make me whole. Oh, what glory the emphasis God
gives on him. Coming to Christ. We're not coming to reform our
lives. We're not coming to just try to figure out a better way
to live a life or get better or all the reasons that people
come to religion. They get religion, they get Reformation,
they get some knowledge, they get some information, they get
some Bible, whatever. We're coming to a person. Come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. I will give
you rest. Learn of me, for my yoke is easy,
my burden is light. I'll give you rest. That's who
we come to. Lord, would you reveal yourself
to me? And if he does, You'll say with
Peter, Oh Lord, bid me to come unto thee. Lord, I need you. I need you every hour. I need
a Savior. I'm a sinner. I cannot afford
to stand before God without a Savior. I can't do it. I'll have nothing
to look forward to but the wrath and condemnation of a holy God
who can have nothing to do with me. His eyes are too pure to
look upon iniquity. And that's all we are, is a mass
of iniquity. And so what is the solution?
To be found in Him. not having my own righteousness
which is of the law, but that righteousness which is by the
faith of Jesus Christ. That's who I need. I need Him.
I need an advocate with the Father. This leper came to Him. The Spirit and the bride say,
come, let him who is a thirst come. Whosoever will, let him
take the water of life. How do we come? Freely. Freely. Don't bring anything in your
hand. You got nothing. Nothing you can bring but your
sin. That's all we're able to bring. How do we come? How do we come? There came a leper to him, beseeching
him and kneeling down to him. Now, when Matthew records this
miracle, Matthew makes it very clear he worshiped him. How do
we come? We come in a posture of worship. We come like Mary, sitting at
his feet. listening for what he has to
say. We don't bring our words, we
don't bring our arguments, we don't bring our justifications.
We come as mercy-begging sinners, worshiping him. When that Syrophoenician woman
was accused of being a dog, what'd she say? Truth, Lord, and she
worshiped him. She worshiped him. That's how
you come. You come with a posture and a
spirit of worship. Scripture says that we are. And unless the God that you're
worshiping holds the destiny of your immortal soul in His
hand, and unless He has the right to do with it whatsoever He wills,
you're not worshiping. Oh, you can go through your religious
motions. You can put on your religious
clothes. You can act religious and talk religious, but you're
not worshiping God. You're bowing to an idol. There's only one God that's worthy
of worship, and that's the God that holds your soul in His hand. That's the God who has the right
to do with you whatsoever he wills. That's a God to beg for
mercy from. That's a God to bow to. That's
a God to, as that woman did, if we looked at Wednesday night,
she came into Simon's house and she washed our Lord's feet with
her tears and dried them with her hair. Oh, she anointed his
head. She broke open that alabaster
jar and she poured it on his head. We are the true circumcision
which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. What happens in religion is men
putting confidence in their flesh. They're putting confidence in
their works. They're putting confidence in their wills. They're
putting confidence in their ceremony. Whatever they go through, that's
where their confidence is. The true circumcision, worship
God in the power of the spirit. The Lord told that woman at the
well, God seeketh after those who worship him in spirit and
in truth. The only way to worship God is
according to the truth of the gospel. No other way to come. We come to him in the name and
on the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. We bow before him
just like this leper, kneeling at his feet and worshiping him. Mercy beggars rejoicing in Christ
Jesus. Oh Lord, would you have mercy
upon me? Blind Bartimaeus, he just cast
off his robe and fled to Christ and fell at his feet, didn't
he? Now, Bartimaeus, what would you have me to do? Oh, Lord,
that I might see. I know you can if you will. What do we say when we come to
God to worship? That's what we say. Now let me
tell you what most men will say when they come to their fictitious
imaginary God that they call Jesus. Here's what they say.
I know that you will to save me, but I also know that you
are unable to save me unless I let you. Now will they say
it just like that? Sometimes. Sometimes but you
listen to what they say and that's exactly what they're saying.
Oh God loves everybody God wants everybody to be saved. Oh poor
God. He's in the heavens. Just wringing his hands Just
wishing men would let him have his way. Oh Won't you let Jesus
come into your heart? And we're begging and manipulating
men to let poor little God have his way in our hearts It's a
lie from the pit of hell It's not true. If you come before
the God who is, you will say just the opposite. Lord, I know
you can. Would you be willing to save
a sinner like me? There's no question in my mind
about your ability to save me. But whether or not you would, Lord, that's your will. That's
your prerogative. That's your right. It's not my
choice. It's yours. Lord, would you save
me? Now, here's the good news. If God gives you the grace to
come like that, what can you expect from Him? What can you
expect from Him? If He gives you the grace to
come as a leper, to Christ, worshiping Him, and declaring that you know
He is able to save if He would be willing. What can you expect? It's right here in our text,
look. I can tell you on the authority
of God's Word that at verse 40, is your experience, so will be
verse 41. Oh, oh Lord, make verse 40 my
experience so that I can know something about your compassion
for sinners. And Jesus moved with compassion. I am here to tell you from God's
word that he delights in showing mercy to sinners. He doesn't approve of our sin.
He doesn't condone our sin. He doesn't underestimate our
sin. He remembers our frame that we
are made from the dust. And he meets sinners on the ground
of grace. He doesn't put us under the law.
He doesn't say, okay, You're a sinner. You've come to me.
You've bowed before me. You're worshiping me. You've
declared my ability and your inability. So now get up and
here's what I'm going to have you do. Toe this line. Keep this
rule. Keep it. No. He meets us on the
grounds of grace and shows us his compassion. It is the love
of Christ that constraineth us. I don't want you to be threatened
with the law. I want you to be moved by grace. Where sin, you know what you
need for your sin? Somebody was telling me the other
day, he said, well, you know, so-and-so was saying they had this particular
sin, and here's what they told him to do to resist the temptations
for that sin. And they gave him some, you know,
some behavioral things to do. He said, when I sin, I need more
grace. Where sin abounds, grace, grace
does much more bound. The only thing that restrains
my evil heart is the grace of God, the love of Christ, the
compassion of a savior who remembers that I'm made of dust and has
mercy upon me. That's what breaks my heart.
If there's anything that makes me not want to sin, it's that. He, why is he so compassionate? Because he was made in the likeness
of sinful flesh. He was born of a woman. He was born under the law. He was tried and tempted in all
ways that we are. He knows what we're going through
because he experienced it to an infinitely higher degree than
you and I have ever known anything about it. We don't know anything about
the fullness of being tempted. Why? Because in our temptations
we cave to sin. Temptation in and of itself is
sinful. And he was tried and tempted
in all ways that we are, yet without sin, the full onslaught
of this fleshly world, and yet He lived a perfect life before
God. And I'm not suggesting he gritted his teeth and resisted
sin like you and I have to resist sin. No, he trusted God. He believed the Father. And then
when he went to Calvary's cross, he knew something about sin that
you and I have never known. We see just the tip of it, don't
we? He bore in His body all the sins
of all of God's people. When He cried, Father, if there
be any way this cup can pass from Me, let it be. Nevertheless,
not My will, but Thy will be done. It was the bitter dregs
of the wrath of the Father that for all of eternity He had never
experienced. But He knew that when He became
the sinner's substitute, When he knew, he knew when he became
the sin bearer on Calvary's cross and for those three hours that
the sky was darkened and he went into the grave, he knew that
he was going to be separated from the Father. We don't know
anything about that. We experience time, hours, days
without any real fellowship with God. He had never known anything
like that. the sword of God's justice was
thrust into the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ to satisfy,
to satisfy God's holy justice. He knew that he was going to
be forsaken of God. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Consequently, We have a high
priest who is able to be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. And so the Lord says, come to
the throne of grace that you might find help and grace in
your time of need. Oh Lord, I'm a needy sinner. I've got a savior who has compassion
on sinners. His compassions, they fail not.
You won't be met with anger. You won't be met with judgment. You won't be met with shame.
You won't be met with condemnation. You will be met with compassion. A Savior who is compassionate
toward his people, who's not ashamed to call them his brethren. And Jesus moved with compassion.
What can we expect? If verse 40 is true for us, if
you're a leper, a hopeless leper, coming before the Lord Jesus
Christ, beseeching him and worshiping him and declaring his ability
to save you and pleading that he would be willing to save you.
What can you expect? You can expect to him to meet
you on the grounds of grace and compassion. You can expect for
him to put forth his hand and touch you. He is not afraid to
touch lepers. Now leprosy was a very contagious
disease and it was a very dreaded disease. You had leprosy, you
had to stay away from everybody and if anybody ever came close
to you by accident, you had to holler out, unclean, unclean,
stay away and no one would come near to you. And here this leper
broke through the Mosaic law, if you will, and approached the
Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord, the Lord broke
through that law and reached out his hand and touched an unclean
leper. That's what you can expect. That's
what you can expect. You can expect him to reach forth
his hand and touch you. That's what I'm in need of. Oh,
I stand unclean before the law of God. I stand unclean. Lord, would you, would you reach
forth your hand? Would you touch me? Would you
be pleased to make me whole? Thirdly, You can expect one whose
word always accomplishes its purpose. It never returns back
to him void. Look what he said. He 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. When primeval darkness heard
The almighty say, let there be light. It was forced by the word
of God to flee and give way to divine glory. And there's no difference. Whatever
he says comes true. Whatever he says. If he commands the windows of
heaven to be opened, they'll be opened. If he commands the
showers of God's blessings to break forth, they'll break forth.
If he commands you to come, The warrant for us coming to Christ
is his command to come. Have you heard him say, come? Let him who has the ears to hear,
come. If God's given you ears, come,
just like you are. When God spoke, the Red Sea waters
divided and God's people walked across on dry ground. God spoke. When God spoke and the rod of
his justice smote the rock that followed the children of Israel
in the wilderness, water gushed forth. When God spoke and told
the manna to fall from heaven, it fell from heaven. Whatever
God says happens. His word is omnipotent. It's all-powerful. It's not contested. He's not threatened by anyone. When God said to Matthew, follow
me, Matthew got up from his money-changing table and followed Christ. Irresistible. That's the call of God. When
God speaks to you and to me, my sheep, they hear my voice
and they follow me. They don't have a choice. I know
you've heard me say this many times. I want to say it again. Contrary to what most folks believe,
coming to Christ is not a choice. It's not a choice. If you've
got a choice to come to Christ or not come to Christ, I promise
you, you won't come. You won't come. The only way
you'll come to Christ is if God shuts you up and leaves you no
other option. You will say, Lord, where can
we go? You alone have the words of eternal
life. We know and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. We've got no, you have shut us up to your
grace. You've made me to come unto you.
Turn me, the prophet said, and I shall be turned. Make me to
come unto you and I'll come. It's the only way you're gonna
come. You're not gonna come any other way. It's blasphemous. to tell men
that they can choose whether to let God have his way or not,
and that the salvation of their soul ultimately lies in their
hands. That's blasphemy. When the Lord stood in that graveyard
in Bethany with Mary and Martha grieving over the loss of their
brother, The Lord Jesus Christ said, remove the stone. Lord,
he's been in there four days. He stinketh. He's rotting flesh. Move the stone. Lazarus, come
forth. And what happened? What if the
Lord Jesus Christ would have stood in that graveyard and just
said, come forth? Every dead body in that graveyard
would have come alive. He said, Lazarus, it's a particular
call. Lazarus, come forth. And he came
right out of the tomb. Loose him and let him free. Isn't
that where we are? God speaks our names and calls
us out of a dead, Lazarus didn't have the power to come out of
that tomb any more than you've got a power to come to Christ.
The Lord had to speak an irresistible, omnipotent word that could not
be resisted. I will be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy left
him. Oh, do you believe that his words
that powerful? That he has the ability to command
the blind to see. He has the ability to command
the deaf to hear. He has the ability to command
the lame to walk and the halt to be made whole. He has the
power to do that. Lord, I know you can. I know
you lack no ability. You can do it. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
bowed his head on Calvary's cross and spoke these words, it is
finished. I told somebody that recently.
They said, well, he was just talking about his death on the cross. It was time for him to die, time
for him to give up the ghost. Oh, no. The debt for which every sinner
that I'm dying for owes God is paid in full. It's paid in full. That's what I need. Oh, Lord,
would you give me ears to hear those words? Would you give me
ears to hear you crying from the cross to the Father, it is
finished. Father, into thy hands I commend
my spirit. I've done the work that you sent
me to do. What did he come to do? You shall
call his name Jesus. Why? Because he shall save his
people. The death of Christ on Calvary's
cross, just like his words, are an accomplished work. He's never
spoken a word that wasn't fulfilled. Never. What can you expect? You can
expect the Lord Jesus Christ to be compassionate towards you
as a sinner. You can expect him to put forth
his hand and touch you and speak to you and make you whole. You
know what else you can expect? You can expect an irresistible
desire in your heart to want to testify to his grace. And as soon as he had spoken,
immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was clean, cleansed,
and he straightway charged him. Now the Lord tells this leper,
go to the priest, and make a straightway charge to him, and send 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. The
Lord Jesus Christ said, I did not come to do away with the
law, I came to fulfill the law. And so he told him to go back
to Jerusalem, to the temple, present himself to the priest,
go through the Levitical process of being declared clean and make
the necessary sacrifices. Why? Because I haven't died yet
on Calvary's cross. The law is still in place. The
ceremonial law, the civil law, all these laws are still necessary
to be fulfilled. I came to fulfill them, you fulfill
them. Once I die, then those laws are gonna be put away. But he went out and began to
publish it much. He could not keep his mouth shut.
Now don't interpret this as an act of disobedience. That's not
the message here. He had a work of grace done in
his heart and to his body, to his life. He couldn't keep his
mouth shut. He just couldn't keep it to himself. He had to
tell people. And that's what you can expect.
God does a work of grace in your, you're gonna have to tell somebody.
You're gonna have to tell God's people what God's done for you.
You're gonna have to profess Him in baptism. You're gonna
have to, you're gonna have to testify what the Lord has done for you.
You'll be like that woman at the well. She ran right back down into
Sycar. She said, come, meet a man who told me everything I ever
did. You'll be like Peter, James,
and John. who were brought before the Sanhedrin
in Acts chapter 4 and threatened by their lives. Now their Lord
had just been crucified and Peter, James, and John knew that these
men had the power to influence the Roman government to have
them crucified. And they told him, keep your mouth shut, don't
be preaching this gospel anymore. And what did Peter say? He said,
whether it be right to hearken unto you or unto God, you judge. But as for us, we've already
made our decision. We cannot but witness of those
things that we have seen and heard. And that'll be your experience. You're going to have to tell
somebody. You're going to tell God's people. You're going to tell
your family members. You're going to tell your friends. And it's
going to be a problem for you. All those who would follow Christ
Jesus will suffer persecution. It's going to stir up some trouble
that you've never had before. Why? Because those outside of
Christ hate Christ. They hate the gospel of God's
grace. They've not ever seen themselves
as lepers. They've not ever worshipped God.
And when we declare Him to be who He is, they are threatened.
Threatened by that message. and we'll seek to silence the
messenger. But you won't be able to keep
quiet. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we ask first that you would make
us to be lepers. We ask that you would cause us
to come to kneel down and to worship the Lord Jesus Christ,
to confess your ability to save us. We pray for the faith to
expect and to experience your compassion, your mercy, and your
grace. We ask, Lord, that you would
enable us to declare that work of grace for your glory. We do so even now as we receive
the bread and the wine of this table. For surely you've ordained
this table as a testimony that every child of God is able to
enter into, testifying of your grace, of the perfect righteousness
of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ and the bread and his
substitutionary death in the wine. We pray that as we receive
these things, that you would cause our hearts to rejoice in
Christ. For it's in his name we ask it.
Amen. And ask the men if they would
please come and distribute the wine and the bread. And you can
remain seated. We're going to sing number one
in the Saltback Temple. Tom's going to come lead us. See the table spread before you. See the feast of bread and wine. These are symbols of our Savior,
tokens of His love divine. Bread that's broken is his body,
crushed beneath the wrath of God. Wine poured out is a reminder
of our Savior's precious blood. Children of our God, remember
how he bought your soul and mine. In remembrance of our Savior,
eat the bread and drink the wine. Jesus came, the God incarnate,
to fulfill God's holy law. On the cross he made atonement
and retrieved us from the fall. Let us never forget the promise
Jesus made to come again. Soon he comes, our King, to call
us Home to glory, praise His name With this hope and expectation
We rejoice to keep this feast Celebrating our redemption Till
we lean on Jesus' breast Most of the Israelites had no idea
that that manna that God sent every day pictured Christ. Moses didn't
give you that bread, my father gave it to you. I am the bread
of life that came down from heaven. As bread sustains our physical
flesh, so the life of the Lord Jesus Christ is our life before
God. We take this in remembrance of
him. In the day in which you sin,
you shall surely die. Spiritual death is what happened
as a result of Adam's sin, and we all came into this world spiritually
dead. God says your life is in the
blood. We know that. You drain a person's blood, and
they're not going to be able to live. Like leprosy, we have an issue
of blood, don't we? But our Lord's blood wasn't inherited
from Adam. It was perfect blood. And when
he shed that blood on Calvary's cross, it satisfied the demands
of God's justice for the covering of our sins. We look to his death
as the hope of our salvation and do this in remembrance of
him. And all God's people said, amen,
amen. Let's stand together. I want
to ask brother Bert, if he would close our service with a word
of prayer, please. of your sovereign grace and the
person and work of thy dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. O Lord,
we ask that you would continue to intercede on our behalf that
we may keep coming, keep believing, keep worshipping. O Lord, Thank you for gathering us here
today. Thank you for your word. Thank you for blessing our hearts.
We ask now that you would make it a fact you will be with us
this week. For we ask it in Christ's name, to his glory. Amen. Okay.
Greg Elmquist
About Greg Elmquist
Greg Elmquist is the pastor of Grace Gospel Church in Orlando, Florida.
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