I'd like you to turn with me
to that portion we read this morning, that amazing chapter
mark, chapter one. I'm sure we all have favorite
chapters. I once discussed this with friends
and colleagues in the chapels, and of course there is the view
that we should have all the scriptures, and of course that's the correct
view, but the Lord in His mercy brings special parts of it, especially
to us, perhaps parts that the Lord used for your salvation,
and the Lord used Romans 10 in my salvation. The pastor was
reading and speaking from it not too long ago, and to me it
meant an awful lot, and I'm sure we've got particular psalms,
particular passages, and the Lord has blessed them to us.
And this is a wonderful chapter, and we were saying a bit about
it, discussing it before the service, There's so much in here
I'm going to have to rein myself in a little bit because I've
preached various sermons from this chapter in time. The thing we have to bear in
mind when we come to the Gospels is people do criticize the Gospels.
You read some books and they play them off against each other.
This is where I'm coming from. God has given us his word in
this form. He's given us four, not one,
but four accounts that agree of the life and times of Christ,
and that is what God has ordained, and I believe that the Spirit
of God infills each and every one of them. They are part of
the Word of God, and we need all of them. And yes, there are
different truths contained in different Gospels. People demean,
I've read where people do mean the Gospel of Mark. They say,
oh, it's a bit measly and shorter than the others. I want to say,
it's a wonderful Gospel. This chapter is wonderful. To
think that people want that not to be in their Bible even. They
say, oh, it's what Peter dictated to Mark. No, we don't know that. We have some understanding that
Mark was there as a witness of Christ. So there are things we
don't know. But this we do know. It's a very
powerful book. And the longest, actually not
by chapters, but the longest of course is Luke. There's an
awful lot of information in Luke's Gospel, isn't there? 2nd August,
Matthew, then you've got John, then you've got Mark. But each
of them has things unique. And if we didn't have them, we
would miss them. And there are unique things in
here. But the other thing about this, it's a very powerful chapter.
There's a great dynamism in this chapter. We'll try and say something
of it. what we have to bear in mind. It's difficult for us today.
We are very familiar with the Word of God. Some of us have
had it from a child. We've got young ones in here
this morning, which is good, and I trust they can understand
some of the things that we say. When I was young in the ministry,
we used to read the scripture. I used to play this game, guessing
what verse he was going to speak on. And when we get older, I
put my hand up and confess. I still do it a bit. And we will
come to that very shortly and see if you where I'm going to
be. There are many verses I could
be in. We have to put ourselves into the first century. I'm not
suggesting you get in a time machine, but we've got to read
this. Imagine when this was first written
and you were a disciple and they pass it to you, And you lived
in those days, maybe you were a person living in the Roman
world, you never heard of Jesus. And somebody says, read this,
Mark's Gospel, one of the earliest, read this, it's one of the earliest
parts of scripture, read this account about this man Jesus. And you've got to, you are in
the Roman and Greek world, you know about a panoply of gods. If you were a Jew, there is the
one and only God. You believe that because you
are of Israel, you are of Abraham's seed by the flesh, you have some
kind of hope, eternal hope, a city yet to come. It may be vague,
but you are, like if you meet Jewish friends today, you know
that whatever their views on religion, they never lose that
I'm of the faith. I've worked for Jewish people
and they never lose that. It's very important to them that
they are Jews, like a Muslim. They are creators. If you are
born as a Muslim, it's like a race. You can never lose it. That's
why in some countries, if somebody says, I'm no longer a Muslim,
I'm a Christian, they say that is impossible. They say that
is a blasphemy. And you know if you're in Iran
and countries, they may well execute. Because you have denied,
you have blasphemed against Muhammad and Allah by saying you're not
a Muslim. And I'm not saying that's how the Jews see things.
But they live in a world where you've got to see the perception.
Like Paul deals with it doesn't in his epistles very well. You've
got to see the world as they saw it. And they saw the Jewish
world. And we are very favoured here.
As I often say, we've had Mr. Sand, we've had the former wonderful
teaching of Mr. Macronola. We've had such wonderful
teaching. And we go to other places and
we notice and we miss it. What did they have? They had
the scribes. They're the Pharisees, the doctors
of the law. What did they teach them? You've
got to do this. You've got to tithe, mint, and
come in. That was their teaching. You've
got to go to the temple. You've got to make these offerings.
And of course, you've got to venerate us. You see, a priest
in the street, you have to be very, almost bow to them. They are the people. They've
got the word of God. Particularly the Levitical priests,
they are up there. And you aren't really anybody.
And their view of religion was not a great one, was it? God
was going to speak. God has spoken. They had the
prophets. The scribes and the Pharisees, they should have been
opening up the word they had and saying, this is what Isaiah
says. This is the hope that you should be looking for. There
were some, we know, had that hope. But what did the ordinary
people have? We don't know. I think my understanding is that
many were illiterate, not all. I believe that many of the disciples,
if not all of them, were probably literate people. They probably
had some education. It's maybe not what we're taught.
The fishermen were probably running quite a successful business.
And I've no question that perhaps the likes of Peter were people
who were literate. We don't know. But you've got
to put yourself, as it were, as one of the ordinary people.
And God had spoken in the past by the prophets. And they probably
weren't hearing and being taught those things. But in these last
days, as Paul says in Hebrews, he speaks, by his Son, who is
the heir of all things, by whom all things were made, and without
him nothing that is made was made. And he was God. He was that express image of
God. So God speaks. He hadn't spoken prophetically.
This is the thing that came to me. for over 400 years, and I
think the last prophet, there are some, you could read books
that debate this, but I think the last prophet was, again,
for me it was a great encouragement, I'm preparing this, and Henry's
in Malachi, at the Bible study, and saying, there, this is the
last word, God has spoken, you know, there's, he's coming, there's
one coming, Malachi reminds people of the, the coming of the Lord,
who can abide his coming? This is Graham, so I should say
Graham, on Thursday, wasn't it? Verse five of chapter four of
Malachi, this is where I'm, this morning, we've read it. He says,
behold, I send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of
the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Who is that prophetic?
We know that. That's John. What did Johnny
look like, Elijah? He wore camel skins. yet locusts
and honey we see the word of God is true and then he says
I send Elijah and he's going to turn the hearts of the people
for that great day the day cometh that great day and he says but
you that fear my name shall the son of righteousness arise with
healing in his wings and the son of righteousness comes we
read in that Mark 1 and there's healing in his words in his acts
and you shall go forth. And that's the word of God. Isn't
it wonderful? You can't take any one book out. You can read
the great men of the Bible. There's some doubts. People often
quote Martin Luther and say, oh, he had a doubt about the
pistol of James, called it a storybook. There are others like Calvin
who didn't like Revelation very much. But you see, as those men
got older, and you read them carefully, they changed their
mind on that. They don't necessarily quote
what they wrote when they were young. we need all the word of
God now our verse this morning God willing is verse 41 in this
great chapter where was the man with leprosy
and we read Jesus was moved with compassion and when we think
about our Lord we must think of compassion and love we can't
think of Christ in any other way we are terrible sinners and
the revelation of God is to reveal the Son and there's the leper
and he puts forth his hand and touched him and saith unto him
I will be thou clean and this pulls together much of what we
want to read in this great chapter it's a Trinitarian chapter people
say don't believe in the Trinity you get the JW's and the Mormons
and all these people come around your door and you take them here
and Jesus comes to be baptised of John in the Jordan I'm a Baptist
and we all understand the Baptist position, but we read he's baptized
of John in the Jordan and straightway coming up out of the water. What does that mean? Does that
mean anything other than he was in the water, came up out of
the water? I don't, I mean, I don't have
any problems with our position. I'm not really, I'm talking about
the doctrine of baptism, but it's here, isn't it? and the
Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him. He saw something, some
form of the Spirit. And then from heaven there came
a voice saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. What could be more Trinitarian
than this passage? There is the Son. There is the
Spirit alighting upon him. There is God speaking from heaven. Isn't it a wonderful And it's
all there in the Word of God. If you know where to look, you
can't hide this wonderful, wonderful truth. And it's a prophetic explosion. We read the words there of verse
3. The voice of one crying in the
wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his path straight.
This is Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 3 that we are reading here. And we know that some of these
verses, some of these are in that great oratorio, The Messiah
by Handel, that picks up so many of these wonderful Messianic
verses and prophecies, prepare you the way of the Lord, make
His path straight. Who is? Who is that Elijah to
come? Mark 1 tells you clearly, it
is John, be in no doubt, it is John. Isn't it wonderful? God
has spoken. We live in a world where many
of siren voices cry to us, and we do discuss amongst ourselves,
and we know that an awful lot of what they say to us is not
true, is it? It's nonsense, and if I say it's
nonsense, they say, oh, they don't like it, they think I'm
deranged, and I don't really understand all the propaganda
that comes to it, and it is propaganda, it's not science. I did a BSc,
but I was taught something of scientific methodology, but it
was economics as a science. But we seem to have abandoned
science, and that's why Paul talks about science, so-called,
doesn't he? Even in history. But we read,
people don't know this, this is Hebrews 1.1, God who at sundry
times and in divers ways at different times and different ways spoke
in times past. He has spoken. by the fathers
and the prophets people were in they could not be in any doubt
as the will of God but in these last days have in these last
days spoken unto us by his son God has spoken by his son how
can we be in any doubt about God the mind of God the will
of God and he has appointed him the heir of all things for whom
also he made the world to be in the brightness of his glory
this man this is the mystery of godliness and being the express
image, the exact likeness. I like the words, I'm sure that's
Tyndale, express image, isn't it wonderful, exact likeness
of his person. What is God like? Was it Philip who asked that?
And he said, have you not seen me? What God is like, we look
to Jesus. and he upholds all things by
the word of his power. And when he had by himself purchased
us and sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.
And this is what we read here in Matthew. God is, this is the
work God is doing. He's making himself known through
his son. Now we come to this poor man.
One of many, many who came to Jesus looking for a cleansing.
And he had that terrible illness, leprosy. Now I did have a I don't know a lot about the
illness, but it's really an illness of the skin. It's a disorder,
a terrible kind of infection and disorder of the nerves in
the tissues of the skin, and it does get beyond it. And what
it does over time, it brings about a numbness. And eventually you'll get a whiteness,
it causes a breakdown disorder in the blood vessels and eventually,
as you know, eventually you start to lose the flesh and people
have this in the face and they'll lose their nose. And it's often
in the hands, isn't it? It's a horrible, it's not very
infectious actually, but it is a very horrible disease. It's
very, very common in parts of the world. It's something like
a quarter of a million people a year in the world still get
infected with leprosy. Isn't that amazing? The Leprosy
Mission, I was reading data of. I had a friend, and I've spoken
on this before, who says you shouldn't be supporting the Leprosy
Mission. I was only mentioning the information that they gave
us. is we we bodies are one fearfully and wonderfully made i mean i'm
losing feeling in arms and legs but it doesn't but i've got good
blood vessels so i'm i'm sort of healthy it's in that respect
but it's we our bodies are most remarkable things but in england
we had it and people we had leper colonists and we used to have
say this is an infectious disease you can't really live with us
but us people lived closely didn't they in houses it wasn't the
hygiene and so on we have in our day we people live very differently
and so they were put in a separate or at least was several house
and we had leper colonies and people would take food to them
and they were and they would have to often wear a bell or
indicate they were coming And they weren't allowed in certain
places. And in Jesus' day they were out of the village. They
could certainly not come into the tabernacle or the temple
and they could not take part in worship. They were considered
unclean. Our pastors have preached on
this in the past. I'm just going to look at one or two bits in
the Leviticus and you can read a lot on this and it's not a
nice topic, is it? It's unpleasant. They talk about
how you identify the illness. The priest did it. They didn't
have a health service so you went to the priest and the priest
would decide whether you had it and whether you were clean.
Somebody had to do that and so it was a part of the mission
of the Levitical In fact, in former days in our country, there
were hospices and so on, where the monks and so on, people who
were destitute, in trouble, would go, or ill, and they would get
some succor. We had that aspect in our land
in the past. Now, if we go to Leviticus, and
I want to take you to chapter 13 and verse 9, we read that when the plague
of leprosy is in a man he should be brought to the priest and
if somebody here thought they had an illness they would go
to the doctor they have to go and they have to have it looked
at and all the rest of that chapter is all about how the leprosy
might break out it says or is it an old leprosy then the priests
will consider and behold the flesh and look at him and look
at it whether it's raw whether there's a white hair in it Or
is it just a boil? What is it? And is it just a
normal illness? Has it got a boil? Or what is
it? Is it hot? Does it look leprous? It's quite detailed, isn't it?
Under the law. There would be no doubt about
that illness. And is it a plague? And if it
is, of course, sadly they have to be set apart. Isn't it a hard thing? If you
believe, I must go to the temple, you read this in verse 46 all
the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled
he is unclean he shall dwell alone without outside the camp
shall his habitation be and we know from other scriptures that
leprosy is also used isn't it in the scripture as a spiritual
banner for sin We parallel the two things. We say sin is like
a leprosy. It's like an illness. It makes
you unclean. And you stay unclean until you're
delivered of that illness. And then not only delivered from
it, you are declared unclean. We'll come back to this point.
You are declared unclean. Very, very important that we
know that. And here we see our doctrine
today. Jesus is showing God as man in
the flesh. So it is the doctrine of the
deity, the doctrine of the third person. It is Christ, the son
of God. And we love that. And it's not
only that, we see his power, his deity. We need to be so clear
about that. And in this context, being the
son, we are seeing the son in his prophetic ministry. Very important. that Christ came
and we know that revelation of the deity of Christ, the mystery
of Godlessness, we see him as prophet, we see him as priest,
we see him as king, we know that in his priestly office, it's
a complex priestly office because he offers himself and we're not
going to go there today, I could be diverted to it, but offers
himself also, but we see his prophetic office, this is the
word of God, this is the living word of God, you've got to again
get back to the first century, God had not spoken since Malachi,
perhaps you knew something of Malachi, perhaps you had their
expectation, now comes the Messiah, God has spoken, now comes John,
this is Elijah, who was to come, I was saying to Joe, it's like
two massive nuclear explosions if I could use such language
spiritually. Can you see it? Silence, as it were, prophetically.
Not that the word isn't alive for those who read it. Then God
speaks. He doesn't just speak once, he
speaks twice. It couldn't be more powerful,
could it? It couldn't be more emphatic. God says, this is my
son. Doesn't he? He says, this is
my son. When he goes to that baptism,
the spirit comes onto him. my beloved I'm pleased with thee
and we know from the other gospels it says hear ye him we are without
excuse we must listen we must hear Christ we've got a desperate
need multitudes came but how many list we don't know and this
man came and I like what is said here he comes forth to Jesus
and kneels and that's recognizing him as a rabbi or something he
kneels before him and just comes to him like many perhaps just
came to him he knelt before him and said if thou wilt he sees
it has to be of Christ thou canst make me not well thou canst make
me clean Just know that I get so well to me. It's it's just
so important. It's just so Powerful and I in
my mind I can picture that poor man if you've seen leprous people
isn't it horrible? And in that society you just
uncle you out not just out of society. There's no care for
you really father than they would feed you You couldn't come to
worship God You couldn't come to the temple. You couldn't come
to the synagogue. I and that was like a double
condemnation that was a very very hard thing if today you
were told you couldn't come to church where that's an ordinary
church goer you might not lose uh much sleep to me that would
be a very i mean i hope to you i'd find it i'd find that very
oh yeah i could get the recording we do the recordings you can
hear them but to not come to the people of God, not to come
as we assemble, to know that when we gather, two or three,
God is with us. Do you believe that? I do. And
these poor people, this man, perhaps for many years, had been
withdrawn from them. He came to him. And I like what
we read about the Lord Jesus Christ here. This man speaks. It's a terrible thing to be unclean,
to be a sinner. Did he see him who he was? What
did Jesus do? He didn't just command and say,
be clean or be well or whatever. This I like, we're talking about
one person here and you find individuals right through the
Gospels. Yes, there were the crowds, but there were the individuals. And we take note, we read this,
Jesus was moved with compassion. Now, what's your heart like?
What's my heart like? We are surrounded by need. Is God in you? Has he moved you?
Do you have any idea what compassion is? Do you feel it? You feel
for others. We're all consumed with ourselves.
We are. But see, Jesus didn't need to
come. In the eternal Trinity, in the glories of eternal infinity,
they didn't need to do any of this. God had a people he wanted.
unto himself in all righteousness. So did Christ. Christ was prepared
to come. This is that eternal covenant of grace that he might
purchase us in all righteousness. Well, that's compassion. I mean,
it's impossible from a pulpit to even begin to describe how
the Son of God could have compassion. Have you got compassion? He didn't
just say, oh, here's another one. It's not well. I'll fix
this. You might have. I mean, sometimes
I watch I've seen in the past so-called healing evangelists
and then there's a myth there, isn't it? Where's the compassion?
And they say, but they've no assurance that anyone's going
to be healed. When Christ touches somebody,
they are healed. Not they might be, or you haven't
got. I've heard people being told, people with terrible illnesses
have been told by an evangelist, God has a gift of healing here
for you, but you haven't got faith to receive it. How can
you be so wicked? I've heard people say that. What
compassion did that man have? None. We got compassion. Jesus. All the compassion he
felt for that man, I can't describe it. He put forth his hand. He
was so moved. This is a leper. He put forth
his hand and he touched him. And the one thing you didn't
do as a Jew, you're a leper, you know and I know, was you
touched him. Why? Made you unclean. You became
unclean, really. and there were consequences and
you had to deal with that and we haven't got time to go all
through that but you knew you had to go away and be cleansed
and washed and all that sort of thing and it sometimes that's that's
wise isn't it you're thinking if you're in west africa yeah
sometimes you don't want to touch people if someone's got ebola
of course you don't touch them and you wear special equipment
because it's so infectious Probably if you just touch a person or
the clothing of a person with leprosy, you won't get leprosy.
You have to have a long exposure to it. But people wouldn't do
that because you were ceremonially unclean. Just one sin, just the
smallest possible sin you and I could conceive of, makes us
unclean before God. Anyone who still thinks of works
religion that they can please God by the way they live, by
the works they do, they give so much to the church, they attend
all the church services, they read the right books. I'm sorry,
that's nonsense. We, without Christ, we are as
this man. Our condition as sinners is like
being a leprous person. We are outside the camp. We can't
come to the holy things. We are unclean. But God has provided
us the Gospel. This is the Gospel. If this is
not the Gospel, I don't know what it is. God has spoken through
His Son. And this is what it is. People
have come. And we need to come. There's
a spiritual power. It's to save me. We're sinners. Cleanse me. Restore me. And there's many more words I
could use. I trust you're with me in the Gospel. that Jesus
was a man. I just want to read these words
in Hebrews 2. I'm sure you know them well.
Again, we're looking here. Our doctrine has to be on the
humanity of Christ, the deity of Christ, God in human flesh,
in our midst. God has spoken through his Son. We, therefore, without excuse,
are we listening? And I'm like Graham. I'm afraid
my fingers aren't as good as they were. we find in Hebrews
2 verse 16 for verily he Jesus took on him not on him the nature
of angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham the flesh
the human flesh the descent as it were of Abraham wherefore
in all things it be hoped him to be made like unto his brethren
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people that's
what he wants to do he wants to deal with our sins for in
that he himself have suffered being tempted or tested he is
able to succor them that are also tempted or tested we look
to Christ he is our hope he was in human flesh and thus when
we turn to Christ we have one understand us, our every weakness,
our every foible. Christ knows us and loves us. So we see the salvation here
in this. The man is immediately healed. He was cleansed. The man did
not do it. He didn't do it. One thing, one
work to make it clear. Anyone who thinks religion is
something you do, to make you right with God. We believe in
sovereign grace. We believe that God makes you
right with Him. It's God's work in Christ. It's
not our work. He reconciles us. These are the
great truths of Scripture. And we see this in this great
parallel here. I was going to talk briefly about
the sower. But you know the sower and the seed, they were one,
where there was nothing evident. The seed was on the path, the
bird snatched it. But two conditions, there seemed
to be some kind of growth. But it was a deception. But in
the fourth condition, the good ground, the good soil, the prepared
ground, there was low growth, there was life. And this is the
key, there was fruit. Jesus said, buy their fruit,
you shall know them. You tell me you're a believer,
where's your fruit? You ask me, if I'm a believer, where is my
prayer, where is the evidence? There's something there, again,
hearts, it's something known and felt, well yes, we may feel
something, but it has to be seen. It's a dynamic, I love that word,
it's a gospel in you, it's dynamic. So you wake up in the morning
and you want to live that day for God, for the Lord, you love
the Lord. Well, I trust that you do. We don't always wake
up feeling well. I certainly don't. But I wake
up, I trust, wanting to live for the Lord and the power. How can we explain immediate
healing? There are books written, and I've heard it on the radio
recently. There have been programs, all the digital channels. They
try to explain how Jesus healed people. and they come up with
every stupid thing there was something in the minerals in
the soil and you know when he applied this thing of course
it was iron multitude came to Jesus and healed them all instantly
whatever they had it could have been cancer you know it's this
terrible leprosy you can't explain that you have to say you don't
believe the word of God that's what you're saying like they
try and explain away all the miracles that surrounded Moses. But even the priests of Egypt
said, didn't they eventually, I think it was with the lice,
they said, this is the finger of God. We come to the word of
God and we see this sort of chapter, this is the finger of God. God
is touching all of this situation. He's born again. Nicodemus came
to Jesus, he said, you must, John 3, you must, and I think
we know that account of John 3, because Nicodemus probably
relayed it to John. Thou must be born again, born
from above. We can't do that. How can a man
be born again? It's an act, a sovereign act
of God, often said that, that someone's a free will man or
a minion. They're essentially, they really
are Calvinistic. free grace because you're born
of God they have to ultimately come back to it is a sovereign
act of God now I want to say this I said it before there are
those who find this very controversial and in the word of God we read
that you you're either dead or you're alive there's only two
conditions people in the bible and there are many parallels
you're either lost or you're found you're either sheep or
a goat you're either in the kingdom of God or you're outside the
kingdom of God and we can go on you're either in darkness
you're in light there's no boundary between darkness and light and
as Peter says doesn't he in 1 Peter you're either in the people of
God those who were no people are now the people of God or
you are outside you're no people you're you're outside the things
of God there are only two conditions Now, by the grace of God, when
God moves upon us, we have to come to a realization of what
God the Spirit is doing in us. We have to be broken, as it were,
in spirit. We have to come to see the grace
and love of God. We have to come to see our sins. We have to repent
and turn to Him and be baptized and join the people of God. As
it were, from our point of view, there is a process, but there
are only two conditions. I was in Guernsey I remember
a passage, I think preaching a similar kind of message, and
I was questioned on this, and I'm saying, no, I'm sorry, if
you think there's a third condition, it worries me, in some strict
practice chapels, they think there's good standing, you know,
I come from the right family, I've been attending this chapel,
and so on, no, sorry. Only two conditions. I said to
the brother, here's the Word of God, you show me where I'm
wrong, because as far as I'm concerned, I only preach the
Word of God. If I don't preach the Word of
God, then someone, I'm sure, would point this out to me, where
my error is, and I would have to repent of that error. I'm
only telling you what the Word of God says. And there's a wonderful,
powerful verse, isn't there? Colossians chapter 1 and verse
13. That's where I taught this brother. I said, well, you just
come with me to this verse. If you're not happy with what
I'm saying, then I want you to go and look at this verse and
I want you to argue with the verse. Don't you argue with me, because
I can be wrong. But we read about the Father
who has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints.
God has prepared us and then says who have delivered us from
the power of darkness kingdom of satan and hath translated
us, he's taken us, picked us up as it were into the kingdom
of his dear son God's not God darling, he takes you out of
darkness kingdom of satan he does it and puts you in the kingdom
of light now we come to this man what was his condition well
Jesus says to him interesting isn't it he says he charges him
and says you've got to go to the priest because there's still
the law. Jesus had not fulfilled the law
had he at that point in his crucifixion fulfilled the law and now righteousness
is fulfilled and so this man he had to go to the priest be
declared cleansed and then he could come back to society just
think of that this cleansing what a wonderful powerful cleansing
But he needed to do that, and if you go to Leviticus, and I'm
not going to go through it, you read, there's set out there what
he had to do. I think it's in, I've got a note
here somewhere, it's in chapter 14. It tells you about how someone
is restored. Again, in detail, all sorts of
sacrifice, doves, and he had to bring a lamb as an offering,
and so on, to be, as it were, ceremonially cleansed back in
society. And of course, to come into the
people of God, to be a member of the church, you must be born
again. You want to come to the table,
people want to discuss with us, strict Baptist, they don't like
it. How can I come to your table? It's very easy. You could be
a member of the church. This isn't a sort of public thing,
like the Catholic church, where we dispense grace to people.
This is us coming together as a community. who love each other
just like the apostles on that when they first did this they
were in a closed room with Jesus we come together as the church
because we're born again we have a testimony we're baptized it's
not for everybody every other church that I know of has a rule
somewhere you know Church of England you've got to be a member
I was I was confirmed in the Church of England until I was
confirmed I could not go and take communion same with the
Church of Rome same with the Methodists they all got rules
they may break them but we are saying you must be able to give
and it recognizes the truth of God's word you see this man could
not come back into society and the temple until God had dealt
with him and we see here you know this is a great work of
God we need to be clean from sin it's that old man that's
an old nature within us and we often refer don't we to Romans
7 the battle that Paul felt, and the position we take is that
Paul felt that as a born again man, he saw that there was the
old man, the old nature, he would be a sinner in that sense, and
therefore would always need Christ as saviour till his death, but
there was the new man, there was this work of grace within
him, and there was this tension, and we should feel that, it's
a good thing, someone comes to me and says, I'm not sure about
religion, but I feel to be a terrible sinner, I would say to them,
that's a good thing, That's a good sign, because you and I meet
people, I've met many people, trying to sort the gospel, and
most people are fine, they're all right with God, everyone's
going to heaven, aren't they? I've never met anybody who's
not going there, if there's one, they're all going there. When
you meet somebody who says, I'm not certain, or I feel I'm a
sinner, and I don't feel fit to come and worship God, I feel
there's some hope for that person, Jesus sent him away, but he didn't
do that. Concerns me about this man, he did not obey Christ Jesus
wanted him to go quietly away Like somebody comes to you and
says I feel God is dealing with me You would send them to someone
like Pastor Sam, wouldn't you? You'd go quietly Like Nicodemus
at night I don't, I see, well I'm quite sensitive, I'm quite
favourable to Nicodemus What he did, he was a ruler of the
Jews but he came to Jesus What a dangerous thing And you read
later about Nicodemus Who was there wrapping the body of Christ
when he was taken from the cross? Who was there? Nicodemus. We should be in no doubt about
that man. He came to Jesus. We should send people to someone
like Mr. Sam and we trust quietly. You
taught them. Show them. That's what I would
love to do to more people. Show them the word of God. And there's a test here you see. The man was still actually unclean,
you know, until he went to the priest, he wasn't going to be
clean, really. Yes, he was going abroad, blazing,
trumpeting his healing, but he should have gone to the priest.
And so with us, you know, if God deals with us, you feel,
someone who's not a believer feels God has saved them, because
that so often happens. It's just we're in our home and
suddenly we feel the need to pray and God deals with us. You
go and see the minister, go and see the faithful pastor and you
tell him what God has done for you and thus a step starts where
you become starts to become a member of God's faithful church but
there's a test here you see of love and obedience this man did
not obey Christ this man the son of God has just brought a
wonderful healing has touched him which you should never do
ceremonially he's done all of that and the one thing It was
needful for him to go to the priest and he did not do it.
Now, are you obedient? Am I obedient? The word of God
will find every one of us out. It will test every one of us
out. Do we keep his word? We don't need to go to a priest
for a testimony, but we certainly should go to the pastor for help,
for counselling, for guidance. Often we don't. I can remember
Mr. Mattrell telling me, and Mr.
Sanderson, sometimes people have big not necessarily talking about
people in the church now but going back in time there were
people in the church who had big decisions to make and often
they would say I want to come and see you pastor and you'd
find they'd come to the pastor and they'd already made their
mind up and we shouldn't do that should we really we should go
and we should seek counsel and you will get good advice and
counsel I guarantee it and we don't have priests of course
in that way but we do have faithful men and We are brought into the
life of the Gospel. As we've just come to a close
now, there's an abundance in the Gospel. I've heard people
say, I don't want to be a Christian. What a miserable thing. Well,
you can only think they say that because they've met people with
a Christian profession who are miserable. And some people say
to me, you're often quite lively and can be amusing, carefully. Well, we've got such a great
gospel, why should I be miserable? Why should you be miserable?
The pastor preaches, doesn't he, on the happy man. Blessed
is the man. Are you happy? Are you blessed
of God? You should be. We should feel
good about the gospel. And there were those we know
save who did. And there was a wonderful change in their lives. But this
is a powerful chapter. Silence. They heard the scribes
and the Pharisees. Now the testament even of the
soldiers was never a man spake like this man. They couldn't
arrest him when they were sent. John chapter 10, not chapter 10 but
chapter 8 I think. They came to arrest Jesus. Never
a man spoke like this man. And they came to hear Jesus in
this chapter. And this is his prophetic ministry.
Remember Elijah? Remember Elijah? There were signs
that followed. They're very powerful ministries.
Look at the signs that accompanied Jesus. What does that tell you? This is more than a prophet. That's what they were told. Look
at the signs and wonders, Jesus, if you can't believe my words,
look at my works. What is our attitude to Him? Let me just say this in abundance,
let me just give you a couple of expressions, because that
should be our encouragement. We look for an abundance in the
Christian life, we should do. We do that by coming to Him,
don't we, and seeking Him, and walking with Him, and so many
other things that we can't go into. haven't time. Let me see
if I can find the right words. I'll start looking at the wrong
chapter, that's right. Titus chapter 3 verses 4 to 6. But after that the kindness and
love of God our Saviour towards man appeared. See the kindness
and love of God our Saviour towards mankind. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the
washing of regeneration the understanding leprosy to be made whole from
that is saying you had to wash we have the washing of regeneration
we have the renewing of the Holy Ghost which is shed on us abundantly
isn't that a wonderful word richly it says in the margin abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Saviour we don't have a tawdry gospel
something that's not very much, something that's not worth talking
about. If we truly experience it, it's a rich, it's abundant,
it's a wonderful thing. And coming from darkness to light,
isn't that what we're being taught? That's why we love these passages
of scripture. Yes, we do go back to them, but we must, mustn't
we, we must go back to them. We go back to the epistles of
the Ephesians, I go back there many times. It's such a powerful
part of the word of God, isn't it? And it says in chapter 2,
we often quote those verses 8 and 9, but verse 10, terribly important,
that we see there are works of righteousness. It's a dynamic,
something happens to us. Because when we're born again,
we are His workmanship. and there is also a new creation
we are created in Christ Jesus what God does in us and we are
unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should
walk in them people say I want a works religion no no I would
tell you've got to have what James was on about you've got
to have a works religion Because if there are no Christian works,
no life, no walking, then you haven't got it. There's nothing.
That's what James says. And it's a challenge to us. Yes,
there's a richness and there's abundance to us. And in, again,
in Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 20, we now come to an end. Now unto him that is able to
do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according
to the power that worketh in us. There's a power working in
us. Do you believe that? Do you feel it? God, do you pray
for it? And we said God is working, able
to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or
think. There's a dynamic. This chapter,
again, so powerful. God has spoken in these last
days by his son. There was a land with dead religion. We live in a land with dead religion.
And they had the scribes and the Pharisees who were misleading
them. And we have, you know, four churches misleading people. God sent for John, the forerunner. Then he sent for Christ. Can you see the power of that
and the impact of that on many people, the disciples and others?
And it's a word for us today. Can this word come to you? Can
it come to me? powerfully at our heart here
with this man. Can we see the compassion of
Jesus? Can we fill the need ourselves?
We want Christ to touch us. We want Christ to heal us of
sin. We want Christ to bring innocent life to us, to set us
free. The Son shall set you free, you
shall be free indeed. That's how we want to live. Jesus
said unto him, or that he will say to many in our day, I will
not be thou healed, be thou clean, be saved. Amen. We're going to
sing our last hymn now, and it's number 675, the tune is St. Matthew, and that is tune 271. And this is what believers can
do. Come boldly to a throne of grace,
you wretched sinners, come. Lay your load at Jesus' feet
and plead what He has done. Number 675.