I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Matthew chapter
8. Matthew chapter 8. Matthew chapter 8. I'd like to
read the first four verses. Matthew 8. When He was come down from the
mountain, great multitudes followed Him. And behold, there came a
leper and worshipped Him, saying, Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst
make me clean. And Jesus put forth His hand
and touched him, saying, I will be Thou clean. and immediately
his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus saith unto him, See
thou tell no man, but go thy way, show thyself to the priest,
and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a testimony unto
them. I've entitled this message, How
Must I Approach God? Today, whatever your need, and we all have them, if you're
here today and you don't know the Lord, you have a need, you have a great
need. If you're here today and you're
sick, you have a great need. If you're here today and You
got trouble with the family, at work, whatever, whatever your
need. I've got some good news for you. The scripture has declared what
we must do to approach God. What a blessing that the Lord
would not be silent concerning this vital issue. The Scripture sets forth that
there was a day when the Lord was coming down from preaching
the Sermon on the Mount. That's what happened. 5, 6, and
7, three chapters of Matthew, Sermon on the Mount, three chapters. And right after he finished preaching
that message, he started to come down from the mountain. That's
where verse 8 picks up. And great multitudes followed
him. And as he was coming down, a
leper approached the Lord, and here's what the Scripture says
he did. He worshipped. Mark 1, this account right here
is recorded in Matthew, Mark and Luke. And you know, if it
says it one time in Scripture, that's enough. But if it says
it three times in Scripture, the Spirit of God has made a
point. We best listen. Here's what He did. This leper,
came before the Lord, and he did the only thing that he could
do. He worshipped. Mark 140's account says, kneeling
down to him. Luke's account, chapter 5 verse
12 says, fell on his face and besought him. Here was a man
that was brought to the end of himself. And he did what no man can do by nature. He prostrated himself before
the Lord and he worshipped. This is the safest place I can
be right here. I don't have any other hope. I don't have another
need. I need Him. And the scripture says that this
leper worshipped and this is what he
said. Now listen, let me tell you something. If you've ever been brought to
a point to where you need the Lord, You've prayed this prayer right
here. I wish I could tell you how many times, Neil, I've prayed
this prayer right here. There's some that have been made
by the grace of God to come to a point, and I'm going to tell
you something, this is the greatest blessing that you will ever see.
This is the greatest spot you'll ever find yourself in. It's where
you can, from the heart, say this, Lord, if you will, you can make me
clean. You can make me clean. Is this not the most beautiful
story of grace and mercy? Number one, to not leave this
sinner in a state of dying physically, and grace to give him what he
didn't have, health. The Lord put forth His hand and
touched him and said, I will. Be thou clean, and immediately
his leprosy was cleansed. That's a marvelous story. I want us to look past this temporal
to the eternal. Past the right now. This is over. It's gone as far as this man's
leprosy was concerned. But I want to tell you something.
The message this morning is forever. This is eternal. Here was a man
that was a leper. There was no known cure, humanly
speaking. This man's leprosy was a picture
of every man's problem born in Adam. Sin. This is our problem. We're sinners. Do you realize
the blessing of knowing that? Of knowing it. This man knew that there was
one end to his physical problem. He was going to die. He knew that if he stayed the
way he was, one result. What a blessing that the Lord
would reveal to a sinner his need of a Savior. This sinner right here that happened
to have leprosy was brought to the same conclusion that that
woman who had the issue of blood was brought to. She had gone
to many physicians She'd spent all of her money, and she wasn't
well. A sinner made to know his need
of Christ comes to this conclusion. If I can get to him. That woman said, if I can touch
but the hem of his garment, I'm going to be clean." She knew
that. This man right here came and
fell down and worshipped the Lord and said, Lord, if you will, what a blessing that the Lord
was there. What a blessing that this man
was made to behold Him. The Lord had come down from the
mountain. I know this. He had come down and been preaching. But oh, what a beautiful picture
of He who made Himself of no reputation and humbled Himself,
who came from the portals of glory, who was ever before the
Father, and according to His everlasting covenant of grace,
The Word, who is God, was made flesh. He came down for this reason,
to seek and to save sinners, just like that right there. A
man that's made to know his need of God. The Lord said concerning Him
coming down, My meat, My food, My sustenance is to do the will
of Him that sent Me. Here is the sent Savior doing
this one thing, finishing the work, saving His people, How
do I know that that sinner, right there, that leper, was an object
of God's mercy? How do I know that? Well, here's
what the Scripture says, verse 2, and behold, there came a leper. There was a lot of lepers. That's what the Lord said. There
was a lot of lepers in Israel. There was a lot of widows in
Israel. But this leper did something
that many lepers didn't do. He came to the Lord. That's a miracle. of God's grace. No man can come to me except
it were given unto him of my Father. People say, well, anybody
can come to the Lord, not according to the Scriptures. No man has the ability. No man
has the desire, Mike. Isn't that right? That's right. Why did this man come? You say, well, because he was
a leper. He came because the Lord made
him willing in the day of his power. There was a lot of lepers.
This leper came. What a mark! What a mark of an
object of God's mercy! All that the Father giveth me.
What are they going to do, Pat? They shall come. They shall come. They shall come. unto me, and
he that cometh to me," now listen to me, he said, I will in no
wise cast out. Here was a man that saw the plague
of his leprosy. He saw it. But what this man
pictures is every man that sees the plague of his heart and his
soul. Hold your place right there and
turn over to Romans 7. This man saw in his flesh what God's people are going to
see in their soul. Look at Romans 7, 23-24. another law in my members, warring
against the law of my mind, bringing me into captivity to the law
of sin, which is in my members, O wretched man that I am! Who
shall deliver me from the body of this death?" That sinner came
before the Lord and he worshipped. Here is another sign. He said,
1 Corinthians 12.3 says, No man
can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Men will
say, Oh, sure they can. All they have to do is say it.
That's not what he means. Here's what he means. No man
has the knowledge in his soul and confesses from the heart
that the Lord Jesus is the sovereign Lord of heaven and bows to Him
for life except God gives him a new heart. Oh, they say it
with their mouth, but the Lord says that many say with their
mouth, you know. They say, but their heart is
far from me. This leper came seeking God's
will. Here's another side. He worshipped.
He declared him to be the Lord. And this is what he said. Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst
make me clean. He knew the Lord could, but would he? Would he? This is what a believer wants. This is what I want. This is
what every believer made to see his need wants. I want God's
will. I want the Lord's will. And a believer truly does. He
truly wants the Lord's will. When our Lord taught his disciples,
that's what his disciples, the Lord taught us to pray, like
John taught his disciples to pray, and in that instructive
prayer he said, You pray this, thy kingdom come, thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. And verse 3 says, the Lord put
forth his hand and he touched him. That's not the sweetest thing
you've ever heard, the Lord touched him. And he said, I will. Be thou clean. Now let me just
share something with you. And I'm going to tell you this
from experience. Many of you can enter into what
I'm saying. You find yourself in dire straits
and you do pray and you do mean it. You mean it. If you will,
you can make me clean. And you see the hand of the Lord's
deliverance. And let me tell you the first
thing you're going to admit. I don't know how to be thankful as I
ought to. I don't know how to be. I wish I could. I wish I could thank the Lord
the way I should and I don't know how. The Lord touched him
and he said, I will. Those two words, I will, that
right there is the expression, hold your place and turn to Exodus
33 as I close. Exodus 33 verse 19. Those two
words are the expression of the glory of God. The glory of God. Moses had asked the Lord in Exodus
33, 18, he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And verse 19 says, and he said,
I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will, proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show
mercy." When we see these two words, I will, we behold the
glory of God. My friend, here is a beautiful
picture of salvation. What this man was in body, every
man born in Adam is in his soul. And if the Lord opens a man,
a woman's eyes to see their need of Him, they're blessed. By God's grace, this leper sought
healing and every sinner seeks spiritual healing from the only
one that can help him. He was convinced of the Lord's
ability and not his own. If this man could have helped
himself, he would have. Until the Lord shows a man what
he is, that man thinks he can't help himself. But a sinner needs a Savior. I need for God to have mercy
on my soul. Until a man sees himself as helpless,
he will not come to Christ. He will not. But by the grace of God, you
have a man or woman be made to see their condition as a rotten
sinner before God. And you're going to find a man
or a woman that's going to worship God, and going to cry out to
Him and say, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. I'm going to read this last verse,
and Lord willing, I'm going to preach on it. I saw something
this morning in this last verse, and I'd like to preach on this
particular passage, so I'm going to read the verse, and I'm going
to make a comment, and then I'm going to close. And Jesus saith
unto him, See thou tell no man, but go thy way, show thyself
to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded for
a testimony unto them." Why did the Lord tell him that? I'll tell you why. Our Lord said,
I didn't come to condemn the law, but to fulfill it. Our Lord
came to fulfill every jot and every tittle of the law in that
right meal. According to the law, when a
leper was healed, he was to immediately go to the priest, show himself
to the priest, and the priest would declare him clean. And
here our Lord, in fulfilling the law, tells that leper to
do that very thing. May the Lord Bless these words
to our heart and cause us to behold the glory of God in approaching
Him. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. Amen.