Matthew chapter 8, please. Here
in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 8, after preaching the Gospel
and the Sermon on the Mount, we're told in verse 1, when He,
the Lord Jesus, was come down from the mountain, great multitudes
followed Him. And here in chapter 8, our Lord
cleanses this leper in verses 1-3. He heals the centurion's
servant, In verses 5 through 11, he heals Peter's mother-in-law,
in verses 14 and 15. Heals many others, the scripture
says, in verses 14. In verses 23 to 27, he stills
the storm. Peace be still, he said, and
the winds calmed and the storm went. And the disciples said,
who is this man that even the winds and the storms obey him?
Well, He's God. He's God. And then in verses
28 through 31, He delivers the demoniac, the Gadara. And I was
thinking as I skimmed through this chapter, what proof that
is that the Lord's words are always confirmed by His works. It's the same today. The words
of our Lord continue to work with signs following. Speaking
to the disciples of Christ, Mark 16, verse 20 tells us, and they
went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and
confirming the Word that they preached with signs following. And then the writer says, Amen.
So be it. That's the way it is. When the
Gospel is preached, there's always some that are blind who see. When the gospel is preached,
there are some whom God gives ears to hear. There are some
that are lame that walk. There are some whose hearts are
replaced. And there are some who are dead
that are quickened, made alive. And all these things occur in
the spiritual realm, representing the conversion of the chosen
by the preaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You see, that's
the only message that saves. God became a man. God came to
earth in the flesh. And He died in the room instead
of sinners to put their sin away that they might have eternal
life. That's the message of the Gospel. That's the message of
the Bible. And that's the only message that
saves. That's why the child of God is
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it's the power of
God unto salvation to everyone, not to the whole world, but to
everyone that believe it. Salvation is given to everyone
that believes and trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't ever
lose sight of that. It's to the Jew first and also
to the Greek, Romans 1.16. And this morning with the time
that we have allotted, I want you to consider this leper. We often refer to him in our
studies and pretty much everyone is well acquainted with his story.
My title for this message is Behold, There Came a Leper. You know, that's amazing in and
of itself. Lepers, according to the law
of God, were forbidden to come near people. Wherever they went,
they must cry aloud, unclean, unclean. And this poor man knew
that in and of himself, that's exactly what he was. He was unclean. He knew that his case was a terrible
one, for according to Luke's gospel narrative, In his account,
this man was full of leprosy. He was in the end stages of leprosy,
the final stages of the disease. By now, his skin was foul and
had a stench to it. By now, very likely, his fingers
were gone. Most probable that all his teeth
were missing and his hair completely fallen out. He was just a mass
of moving death. But we read, behold, there came
a leper. Isn't that amazing? In spite of all this, he came
to Christ. I pray that today some leper
might come to Christ. How amazing is the thought. One
who was forbidden to come, came. God is angry with the wicked
every day, and a vile sinner cannot approach a thrice holy
God. Leprosy in the Scriptures is
viewed as God's appointed pitcher of sin. First, like sin, it was
at first unnoticeable. So it is with sin. Though unnoticeable,
leprosy brought certain death. For in the wages of sin, death. The soul that sins, dies. Secondly, leprosy began within
before it revealed itself outwardly. So it is with sin. Sin is an
inward corruption that rapidly spreads to the outside and the
outward effect of sin has an inward cause. Paul wrote, I know
that in me, dwelleth no good thing. Romans 7, 18. For from within, out of the heart
of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil
eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness, all these evil things come from
within and defile the man. Hold your place here in Matthew
chapter 8, and look back or look over to Matthew chapter 23 with
me. Matthew chapter 23, beginning in verse 25. Matthew 23, 25. The Lord Jesus speaks to the
scribes and the Pharisees in verse 25. He says, woe unto you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you may clean the outside
of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion
and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse
first that which is within the cup and the platter, that the
outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites, for you're likened to whited sepulchres,
beautiful tombstones and graves, which indeed appear beautiful
outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and of all
uncleanness. Even so, ye also outwardly appear
righteous unto men, but within you're full of hypocrisy and
iniquity." Now our problem, our disease of sin is an inward one. We're full of extortion and excess,
full of death and uncleanness, full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
Leprosy was a living death. So was sin. So was sin. It was a source of misery. It
was a disease of defilement. And it is a qualified picture
of sin. Thirdly, leprosy begins with
little or no pain. Sin is so subtle that at first
we seem to be unconscious of sin. It's no wonder that the
book of Hebrews calls sin the deceitfulness of sin. Sin is
deceitfully subtle. Because of the fast decay of
the leper's condition, the diseased one quickly became aware of his
leprosy and his uncleanness. But it's not until the Spirit
of God convicts a sinner and saves a sinner that they are
made conscious conscious of sin's crippling work. Fourthly, leprosy
rapidly spread. The study of leprosy reveals
that though it begins with small spots and discoloration of the
sin, that it rapidly increases in size until the whole body
is affected. And is it not the same with sin?
the heart, the mind, the conscience, the spirit, soul, and body are
equally poisoned by our spiritual leprosy called sin. Fifthly, leprosy is a loathsome,
detestable disease. As loathsome as it was to look
upon, can you imagine how much more loathsome it was to feel
it, to experience it, to have it? Leprosy is terrible in its
description, but what must it be like to endure this leprosy? The horribleness of it, and yet
as detestable as leprosy was, I'm telling you that it doesn't
even begin to compare to the loathsome repulsiveness of sin. Sixthly, leprosy brought forth
banishment. According to the Levitical law,
no leper was allowed to remain in the congregation of Israel.
According to Leviticus chapter 13, verse 46, he, the leper,
shall dwell alone. Without the camp shall his habitation
be. And does not sin cause alienation? Alienation from others, alienation
from God. Sin has alienated us from the
life of God through the ignorance that is in us. Having the understanding
darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, Ephesians
4.18. What alienation sin brings. Men by nature are ignorant of
the righteousness of God and they go about to establish their
own righteousness by endeavoring to cover their sin, to cover
their leprosy with the works of their own hands. But it'll
do no good. Only the work of Christ for the
sinner will bring nigh the sinner who was once far off and alienated
from God by their spiritual leprosy. And lastly, leprosy was naturally
incurable. In our Lord's day, it was a death
sentence. There was no human remedy for
leprosy. Today, leprosy is called Hansen's
disease. And it has some effective treatment.
But there again, as a pitcher of sin, in our Lord's day, it
was incurable, just as there are some diseases today that
there's no effective treatment for. But sin is naturally incurable. There's no human remedy for sin.
Apart from divine intervention from God, the disease of sin
brings forth death. So I said all that to say this,
this man was in bad shape. He was in a desperate situation. He was a walking dead man and
he knew it. But again, and behold, there
came a leper. He's not dead yet. He hadn't
yet died. There's still breath within his
lungs. There's still a beat within his heart. Behold, there came
a leper. That word behold means to see.
It means to observe and wonder. Observe and wonder. Here comes
a leper. It means thoroughly look and
observe, to survey, to look over, to stare, to contemplate, to
estimate the value of, to appraise in excess, to study and consider. What a wonder to observe this. Behold, there came a leper. Now, there's no doubt in my mind
that this leper had heard of Christ. We're not told, but no
doubt in my mind that he had. Because as a leper, he needed
one thing or he was going to die. And that's where he came,
Tom. He came to that one person who
could help him. He needed healing. He needed
life. He had to have heard that Christ was the one that could
heal him and give him life, or he would not have come to Christ.
He didn't have time to waste. He's in the final stages. He
had heard of Christ because he knew where to go to be healed.
He had heard of Christ because he knew how to come. For when
he came to the Lord, we're told that he worshipped Him. He had
heard of Christ because of what he said to him. He had heard
of Christ because he knew who he was. The leper knew that Jesus
Christ was Lord. He said, Lord, if thou wilt,
if you will, thou can make me clean. He knew that the Lord
Jesus Christ was capable of healing him. and in giving Him life,
and He knew that the Lord could do that if the Lord would do
that. Do you see that? Do you see that
the Lord can cure you if He will? He said, I know you can, but
will you? The enlightened sinner knows
that Christ can. Why? He can do anything. He can
do everything. And this is the manner in which
every sinner with the disease of sin and the need of a cure
must come. He came when He was commanded
not to. He came calling the Lord Jesus,
Lord. He came and He fell down and
He worshipped the Lord Jesus Christ and He acknowledged the
sovereignty of God and He said, I know you can, but will you? That's our example of how to
come to Christ, right here. This poor felon needed to be
healed. Do you see your need? This poor
creature must have mercy. Do you see that you must? This
poor diseased sinner desired life. Do you desire life everlasting? He needed cleansing. And behold,
there came a leper and he was cleansed. He was weary and heavy
laden of his disease. Are you? He was burdened over
his desperate condition. Are you? This poor man needed
help. How about you? He came to the
Lord Jesus with great hope. Is that why you've come today?
No one could bring him to Christ. He was too foul to be touched. Others gave Him up as hopeless. He was too far gone to be the
subject of hope. There was no hope for Him. Do
you know I had people say that about me? No hope for Him. Often a kind and friendly hand
would bring one to Christ who was blind. Well, there was a paralyzed man
in the Scripture that had four friends that took him up on a
rooftop, uncovered the roof, led him down to the ceiling on
his bed, because they couldn't walk. He couldn't come to Christ
Himself, so he had four friends that brought him. And the Lord
healed him. To those who could not be brought
or come to Christ, Christ went to them. But that's not the case
with this man. Maybe the words that Christ spoke
in the synagogue at Capernaum had reached his ears. The Lord
said there, many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elias,
the prophet, and none of them were cleansed except Naaman,
the Syrian. You remember Naaman? But I doubt
that would have been much encouragement to him, don't you? Out of all
the lepers there was, God, the Lord Jesus healed one? And he
wasn't even of the house of Israel. So I doubt that was much encouragement
to him. The priest had declared him to
be unclean. He was banished from being around
others. The hopeless are the very ones that Christ loves to
save. Did you hear me? Those that are
hopeless and helpless are the very ones that Christ Loves to
save. I can't find anywhere in the
New Testament Scriptures where our Lord had healed a leper up
to this point in time. The Lord had dealt with many
other diseases, but not one that was full of leprosy. Our Lord
had said to the lame, take up your bed and walk. Our Lord said
to the hungry, come and dine. Our Lord said to the lonely,
I'm with you always. Even unto the end of the earth.
To the poor, He said, all things are yours. To the weary, he said,
I'll give you rest. To the thirsty, he said, oh,
everyone that thirsted, come to the water. While to the orphan,
he said, I'll go to my father and to your father. To the captive,
he said, if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. To the blind, he said, look and
live. To the helpless, my grace is
sufficient for you. And to the dead, as he did Lazarus,
he said, come forth. And he that was dead came forth.
So this poor leper knew by divine revelation some things, the important
things. He knew that any hope he had
would be getting to Christ. Those words become more precious. Behold, there came a leper. Everything the sinner needs now
and throughout eternity is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. In
Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you
are complete in Him. This man found no particular
proof nor promise that the Lord would heal him. The Lord did
not say, Come unto Me, all ye lepers, and I'll heal you. Without
any verbal promise, this poor leper came and he said, Lord,
You can, if You will. You can make me clean. I need
to be clean. I'm dying. I'm in bad shape. But hear me when I tell you that
the promise of salvation is to sinners. To them, God says, let
the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts,
and let him return unto the Lord. And he will have mercy on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. That's your promise as
a loathsome sinner. That's God's promise to you.
Whosoever confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall find mercy. That's God's promise to a sinner.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. To him that cometh
to me, I'll in no wise cast out. You know, we've said this so
many times, and I continue to hear people say, oh, you believe
in election. Well, election shucks people
out of heaven. No, it does not. It does not. The doctrine of election should
never hinder you, for all who come to Christ are the elect.
The glorious truth of the new birth does not bar you, for he
that believes is born again. Come and show yourself to the
healer. He will not turn you away. He
never has and He never will. There was nobody to persuade
this man to come. There was no one to cheer him
to come. There was no one to compel him to seek the Lord Jesus
Christ. He was only constrained by a
divine cord of love and mercy and grace. And this leper resolved
to come. And he found himself welcomed
when he did come, though he had been forbidden to do so. But
you and I, with our loathsome disease of sin, well, we've been
bidden to come. The Spirit and the Bride say,
come. Whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of
life freely. The call of grace is sent to
a broad audience. We're bidden to preach the gospel
to every creature. All in the hedges and all in
the highways and the byways are what? Compelled to come in. That's what we do in preaching. We preach to the lost, come to
Christ. He's never turned down one yet
that truly wanted their leprosy to be healed. This leper was bold in coming
to Christ. He didn't have anyone to bring
him. He didn't have anyone to encourage him. He had no right
to come. The law forbid him to come. But
he comes and he worships. That's how you got to come. God is to be worshipped. I don't
care who and I don't care what your problem is. I don't care
what your condition is. God is to be worshipped. It matters
not your age, your race, your persuasion. God Almighty is to
be worshipped. He's to be worshiped by all creation
and by all creatures. The last verse in the book of
Psalms says this, let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. All through the Old Testament,
these words are written. Oh, come, let us worship God. Let us bow down before the Lord,
our Maker. The Lord is in His holy temple.
Let all the earth worship Him. God's worthy to be praised. He's
worthy to be worshiped. He's worthy to be held in awe
and in fear and in reverence. Holy and revered. Revered is
His name. Let all the earth stand before
Him in awe and in fear. David said, come, my children,
I'll teach you how to fear the Lord. The beginning of wisdom
is what? The fear of the Lord. Whatever
God has for you and me, He's worthy to be worshipped. Now
again, this man was in great need. He was in great pain. This
man was beyond human help. This man could not help himself. If man can help himself, don't
you think this man would? This man didn't name it and claim
it. Before this man did anything, before this man said anything,
he bowed down and worshiped. Whatever you and I need, that's
where we need to start. Have you petitioned the Lord
to save a lost one? Did you worship Him before you
asked? Have you sought the Lord for
His healing? Will you worship Him regardless of His answer? Whatever the Lord is pleased
to do with you, whatever the Lord is pleased to do with me,
we must bow down and worship Him. He's worthy because of who
He is. Shall not the judge of the earth
do right? God is too good to do wrong. God is too wise to make a mistake.
Whatever the Lord does, The safe center says, for even so, Father,
it seemed good in your sight. It's all good. It's all good.
We should end every prayer, every request of God with these five
words, Lord, thy will be done. And give us the grace and the
mercy to accept and bow to you and worship whatever it may be. For the child of God, I know
this much, it's gonna be good. He works all things together
for the good of them that love him, who are they called according
to his purpose. In this man's uncleanness, he
worshiped the Lord. In this man's weakness, he worshiped
the Lord. In this man's sickness, he worshiped
the Lord. Like Job, this poor soul determined,
though he slay me, yet will I trust him. With God, all things are possible.
The leper declared with certainty, he can cleanse me if he will. And I heard someone say not long
ago that the leper doubted the Lord's willingness. He simply
stated a great truth. The Lord can cleanse me if He
will. It's not doubting the Lord's
willingness. The whole work depended on the Lord's will. Will we ever
learn that? If the Lord willed it, the leper
could be cleansed without his saying or doing anything. In
the work of salvation, preachers today insist upon the freedom
of the human will when it's due to the freedom of the divine
will of God. It's not if you will be saved,
it's will God save you. And He makes you willing in the
day of His power. But His willingness comes first. Made willing in the day of His
power. Is it going to be any plainer than that? Christ has
a right to save whom He will. Yes, He saves all who trust in
Him, yes. But that's not without His will
also. And I am so thankful. Oh, I tell
you, not as I ought to be, but I am so thankful that there's
not an instance in all the Scriptures of one who asks for healing that
our Lord said, I will not. Do you know of one, Gene? And then that brings me to the
last consideration, what the Lord said. The Lord said, I will. Be thou clean. And the scriptures say immediately
his leprosy was cleansed. There's no delay when the Lord
wills to do something. His grace and mercy and healing
is immediate. God's saving grace lies under
the control of His own sovereignty. He's no man's debtor. He can
do what He will with His own. It's most certain to all who
know Him. It's not of Him that will it,
nor of Him that run it, but it's of God that showeth mercy. If
you're saved, you know that. Well, we wheeled till we were
blue in the face. We ran to and fro, chasing every
wind of doctrine. That didn't save us. It's God that shows mercy. It's
God that initiates it. Those whom He foreknew, He predestinated,
He predetermined. Those whom He predestinated,
He called. Those whom He called, He justifies. He saves. And those whom He justifies,
He'll one day glorify. And when they see the Lord Jesus
Christ upon His return, they'll be just like Him. What about the man with leprosy?
He'll be just like Him. Just like Him. What about those
who are full of sin? They'll be just like Him. God has mercy on whom He'll have
mercy. Have you seen that to be so?
Well, it most certainly is. This man's hope lies in the will
of Christ, and there is no better place that it could lie. If Christ
is willing to save, He will save. And He is. And He makes you willing
to be saved. I think it was Brother Montgomery
that said, I've never seen anybody being dragged to heaven against
their will. Have you? No, He makes us willing. Oh, the bounty of the Lord's
own heart. A sinner is not saved by their
will, but by the will of the One who saves them. And when
this man said, if Thou will, he was saying, I leave my case
with You. Whatever you do, Lord, it's good.
He was saying, I'll leave it, it's all in your hands. He came alone, but He came alone
and He worshipped. He trusted in the ability and
in the will of Christ to cleanse him, and the Lord saw to it that
He didn't come in vain. Now that should be great encouragement
to one who's yet without Christ. If you come to Christ, it won't
be in vain. It won't be in vain. The Lord
regarded him with sympathy. Nobody pitied leprosies in this
day. They passed by as quickly as
they could. Here come a leper, oh my, they stepped it up. Crossed
the street. Went down the other side. Well, they were objects of sorrow
among men. They were viewed as an object
of God's wrath. Look at that leper, wonder what
he did. They were judged to be smitten of God. In Mark's account,
we read that Christ was moved with compassion over this man. Boy, I love that. Moved with
compassion. Who was? God was moved in compassion
over who? A leper like me. Moved with compassion. And this leper, he's at Christ's
feet, and the Lord has compassion on him. And He does to all who
come there. You know, at His feet, there's
no higher place. Look at verse 3 in our text.
And Jesus put forth His hand and touched him. He touched me. He touched me. If you sorrow
over your sin, Christ sorrows for you. If you loathe your sin,
He loathes it more than you. If you're miserable, He's moved
with compassion over your miserable estate. Now, Peter, James, and
John didn't touch him. Don't know that they would have.
He had no difficulty making his way to Christ because everyone
else, and remember, there was a multitude that followed the
Lord Jesus down from the mountain. Where were they now? They were
gone. There was a leper in the camp. No one but this leper and
the Lord Jesus. He didn't have to worry about
anybody else touching him. But now the Savior did. The Savior
touched him. And he said, I will. And the
I will of Christ drives away death and hell. And the I will
of Christ conquers disease. The I will of Christ, it removes
despair. And it floods with mercy. And the Lord's I will can put
away the leprosy of sin. And the I will of the Lord can
make you perfectly whole. And immediately, his leprosy
was cleansed. Behold! Marvel! study with great attention, there came a leper
and worshipped him. And he called Christ by His rightful
title, Lord. And he worshipped Him as such.
And he put all his trust in the will of God. And the Lord willed
to save him, and immediately he was healed. Beloved, this
is my story. Is this your story? To those
of you who are in Christ, it is. Diseased with the deadly
disease of sin. Do you see that this story is
about you? I came to Christ. There was no place else to go. No one else that would help me.
No one that would come with me. No one else could do for me what
Christ could do. He's the only one who could cleanse
me. Dear lost one is the only one who can save you. Will you
worship Him? Will you bow to Him as Lord?
Will you put your trust in His will, not your own? If you do, the answer is always
the same from Him. I will. I will. He always will. It's His pleasure to do so. It
pleased the Lord to make you His people. Dear poor, diseased, and lonely
one, as sure as the Lord lives, if you believe on Christ and
trust in Him to make you whole, He will. He will. May God be
pleased to do so.