Jesus. After I've had my morning tea,
I'd like to come back and I want us to look at the glory of God
in the Lord Jesus Christ as He is portrayed for us on the cross of Calvary. We just wanted to have simple
things taught us and proclaimed to us about the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's a verse in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and it says, For he
hath made him sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him. Our God, as has been
read to us in Hebrews, our God has a throne. Our God has a throne. And the scepter of that throne
is a scepter of righteousness. How God sits on a throne and
it's a righteous throne. And one of the glories of the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is the glory of substitution. That on the cross, the Lord Jesus
Christ took all of the sins of all of God's people and they
were put on Him and He owned them according to the scriptures
as His own sins. And we are robed in the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a great transfer. There's
a great transfer. There's a great substitution.
Our God is a sovereign, successful Saviour. When you read those
verses in Hebrews, how can you imagine that God would try and
fail? that somehow on the cross of
Calvary he would attempt to save everyone and fail. How can God fail and still be
God? If God fails, someone is bigger
and more powerful than God Almighty. And there isn't anyone. He sits
on the throne of this universe. But the glory of substitution
is pictured in so many ways in the scripture. When I was in
India I spent five years teaching Mark's Gospel over and over again. In the early days of our church
we preached through Colossians and then we preached through
Mark's Gospel. One of the glorious pictures of it. I want us to
contemplate what it is for us to come to God in Mark chapter
1. So turn with me in Mark chapter
1. And the Lord Jesus not only declares what he does, but in
his miracles, he then gives us a picture of it, a picture of
substitution, a picture of him bearing sins and a picture of
him giving perfect holiness, the very holiness of God to his
people. In Mark chapter 1 verse 40, and
it's repeated in Matthew and Luke, you can look them up at
some other time at your leisure, but I just want to read this
story and we want to look at it. And the question is, how
do you come to the Lord Jesus Christ? What happens? Well firstly the Lord Jesus Christ
came in Mark 1 verse 9. He came. He came and He came
to this world and He came to this world on a mission. He came
to this world to do a work that God had prepared for Him to do.
He came as a glorious Saviour. He came. But then in verse 40,
and there came a leper to Him. beseeching him and kneeling down
to him and saying unto him, if thou wilt, if you will, and in
Luke's gospel, Matthew, it says, Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. Cleansing is something that God
does. God alone creates. He alone makes. We play around with the things
he's made, but he alone makes. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. Verse 41, 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 the Lord straightly charged
him, and forthwith sent him away, and saith unto him, See that
thou sayest nothing to any man, but go thy way, show thyself
to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing. And that cleansing
is the same word that's used in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3
about purifying from our sins. Offer for thy cleansing those
things which Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them. This is to be a testimony unto
the religious leaders. This is a testimony to the people
who are going to put the Lord Jesus Christ to death in three
and a half years time. But, sometimes you just love
the disobedience of people. 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 at without
in desert places. And they came to him from every
quarter. As we begin this new year, for
those who find themselves cleansed by a word spoken and by a touch
of a saviour who is moved with compassion, wouldn't it be wonderful
if the Lord let us publish it much? Wouldn't it be wonderful
if the Lord let us blaze this abroad? So how do you come? You come
as a leper. Now leprosy in the scriptures
is a picture of sin. Always in the word of God it's
a picture of what sin is. We lived in India, as you know,
for five years and there were lepers all over the place there
and it was just awful to see. the lingering effects of that
disease. It's very, very easily cured these days, but in those
days it wasn't cured at all. And there was a man that I passed
every morning on the way to school, he's called Ramesh, and there
he was with his little rug in front of him and his little begging
bowl there, and he had nearly all the fingers missing off one
of his hands. I think he had an ear missing, and a bit of
his nose missing, and the bottom of one of his legs missing. But
leprosy is a picture of sin. You can't do anything about it in
those days. There was no cure, and that's
what sin is. There is no cure for sin apart
from the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. No one else can help
you. In fact, everyone who saw a leper
stayed as far away from a leper as you possibly could, and no
one ever wanted to touch a leper. How do you come? You're unable
to help yourself. No one else can help you, and
you're in desperate need of a saviour doing everything for you. What
a glorious picture of what it is to come. And he came beseeching
him. It means he was calling him to
his side to comfort him. Imagine what it was like in that
world just to be an outcast from all of society. to be an outcast
from worship, to be shunned and feared of everyone that saw you,
to have to go about whenever you met people crying out, unclean,
unclean, and the only people you could have any fellowship
with at all were other lepers who were equally desperate as
you were. God's people come. You come as
a leper. You come as a sinner and you
come crying out to Him, calling out to Him. And one of the reasons
I went to India is just over there, just 20 meters away, 30
years ago, my brother-in-law had committed suicide under horrible,
horrible circumstances. And then my neighbor, who's just
the next house down there, committed suicide, leaving five little
children and then two other people who are in the hands of this
extraordinarily evil young doctor. died as well and so we were just,
I was just surrounded by the tragedy of life and the tragedy
of these people going out of this world in the most appalling
circumstances and trying to sort of care for people who were beyond
being able to be comforted really. It was so awful. Five little
children down in that house down there. And I remember the weight
of it. After the second suicide, it
just bore upon me and I probably for the first time in my life,
I beseeched the Lord. I said, Lord, and I didn't know
who he was properly, but I knew something of the fact that I
was like this leper, I had nowhere else to go. And I pleaded with
God, I thought, just do anything to stop this tragedy going any
further and do anything you possibly can to stop this evil coming
to my family and to me. And it's like all of us who come,
the leper came and beseeched the Lord and he didn't know what
he was going to do. So we come to our God. The question is how do you come?
You come as a leper. You come beseeching. And he came
kneeling down. In Matthew's account it says
that he worshipped him. Our God is worthy of worship. If I'm a leper, and I'm not healed
by him. Such is the glory of our God.
He's worthy of worship, isn't he? This man Cain is your God. The God of the Bible is so majestic
and so magnificent, we've just read about him in Hebrews chapter
1, that he's worthy of all worship no matter what he does. Everything
he does is right, always right. And there were multitudes of
lepers who weren't healed in that day, and God was right.
And this leper was healed, and God is to be glorified in that.
He kneeled down to him, and I just love what he says. Your will, Lord, if you will. I could will up and down all day
long for the rest of my days and my will can't do anything.
I can't cure a common cold, my will can't change anything that
happens in the circumstances of my life. People talk about
free will don't they? Free to do what? Free to do what? free to upset the absolute sovereignty
of God free to offend the majesty of God free to do what Lord if
you will that's the cry of all of us who come to him isn't it
Lord if you will if you will you can make me clean Lord if
you will you can make me filthy. I'm a sinner. I'm coming, I'm begging, I'm
bowing to who you are, and I'm declaring that if your will is
done and you are willing and you are pleased, you can make
me clean. You can't. You don't help me
to clean myself up. You make me clean. How clean?
We just read about it in Hebrews chapter 1, didn't we? white as
snow, perfectly clean. This is how you come. You come. And verse 41 is just a glorious
picture of our God, isn't it? This is the God that we have
come to worship. This is a God that we adore. Lepers adore this God. Bowing
people adore this God. Recognising who he is, people
adore this God. Listen to it. He's moved with
compassion. What moves God Almighty? Begging lepers move God Almighty. Bowing lepers move God Almighty. And listen to what he does, and
this is just the most glorious picture of substitution. He put
forth his hand and he touched him. What happens, according to the
law of God, when you touch a leper? You can read about it in Leviticus
chapter 12 and 13. It's the most extraordinary chapters in all
of the scripture. They are just amazing chapters. It's worth,
at your leisure, going home and reading. If you touch him under
the law of God, you are defiled, unclean. And what happened when
the Lord Jesus Christ moved with compassion, he put forth his
hand and he touched him? the leprosy has gone. That's
what salvation is, isn't it? It's the Lord Jesus Christ being
moved with compassion and coming into this world of sin and sinners
and putting forth his hand and touching him and touching us. I just do love what Hebrews 4
says. The Lord Jesus Christ is touched
He's moved with sympathy. He's touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. And I want you to be on record,
and we say it often, that there is not a single case in the Book
of God of someone coming to God like this and not coming away
perfectly cleansed. He's touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. He's able, Hebrews 2.18 is amazing,
because he suffered being tempted. He is able to succor them that
are tempted. It means that he is able to run
to the cry of them. One of the wonderful things about
those who have beseeched the Lord is that you never stop beseeching
him. I beseech him every day. I beseech
him every morning, and I beseech him particularly on these mornings
when we gather together. Lord, if you will, you can make
us clean. If you will, you can reveal the
glory of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. You can reveal the glory
of what happened on the cross. Where did the leprosy go? The
leprosy is a picture of sin. Where did the sin go? He bore our sins in his own body
on the tree. and he bore them away such that
for the children of God they do not exist. That's what God says about them.
And he says he can't remember them anymore. He can't remember
them because for the believing child of God, they do not exist. That's what it is for us to be
justified. Daisy and I were talking about
it earlier this morning. Our God is a just God, a holy
God, and the justifier of them that believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We, for all sorts of reasons,
live under the reign of a king. And if you have done something
terribly wicked and the king chooses to have mercy on you,
he can pardon you, can't he? So that you do not suffer the
punishment for sin. When God deals with the sin,
when God purges the sins of His people, the very sin itself is
gone. Justified people are those who
have never sinned, because all of the sins of all of the justified
people were laid on the Lord Jesus Christ, and He suffered
the infinite wrath of God for them, and they're gone. Love what verse 42 says. We gather
because our God is a speaking God, and we read his word because
our God is a speaking God. Listen to what he says. As soon
as he had spoken, as soon as the Lord Jesus Christ had spoken
those great words, I will be thou clean, immediately the leprosy
departed from him. Because the leprosy had gone
to the Lord Jesus Christ. He bore our sicknesses and sorrows. He bore them. And he was cleansed. How clean? Perfectly whole is
what he was. Perfectly whole. Perfectly sinless. Perfectly holy. Perfectly fit. very, very fit, not just fit,
but God's justice demands that he be go into the very presence
of God in heaven. I've quoted Colossians 1.22 so
many times. But in the body of his flesh
through death to present you. What's the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ? What did he come here to do? He came here to do his
father's will. He came here to die. But he came
here so that when he took his bride and took his bride with
him to Calvary and took his bride with him into the tomb and then
took his bride with him as he was raised to glory into heaven's
glory What's he going to do to his bride? He's going to present
his bride, listen to the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, holy
and unblameable and unapprovable in his sight. Whose sight matters? I have never seen myself holy
and there are plenty of people who find lots to blame about
me all the days of my life. And there are plenty of people
who reprove me, people who love me, and people who are close
to me who reprove me for what I'm doing. But there's only one
site that matters, brothers and sisters. The Lord Jesus Christ
speaks, and he speaks reality into existence, just as he spoke
in the beginning, and let there be light. Let there be this creation,
and there was. We have a glorious gospel to
proclaim of a successful saviour, a sovereign saviour, a substitutionary
saviour, a satisfied saviour, a sovereign glorious saviour. And I pray that this might be
the Lord's mercy upon us and those that we love around here. But he went out. If you go out
from hearing the Lord say you're clean, completely and utterly
clean, you'll publish it. That's what we're here to do,
isn't it? We're here to publish the glories of God. We're here
to publish what he did. What did the leper do? He just brought his sin to the
Lord Jesus Christ and he bowed and he called and the Lord moved. Don't you want the Lord to be
moved with compassion? The people that you love in this
world for yourself. I want the Lord to be moved with
compassion for me. I want the Lord to be moved with
compassion for us as a fellowship. I besought him, I beseeched him
30 years ago, and I love what Peter says, to whom coming. If you besought him, you'll be
beseeching him again and again and again. And God's children
have the glory of seeing him at work and publishing it. Blaze it abroad. May the Lord
open doors of utterance for we his children here. Blaze it abroad. Let's publish him. Let's proclaim
how glorious he is. Let's proclaim what he's done
for me. what he's done for us as a fellowship. What might he do this year? Well,
according to God, he only does wondrous things. That's what
he says. Will he do some wondrous things
this year? Everything he does is wondrous. Everything he does.
Okay, let's have a break and enjoy some fellowship. Thank
you.