Would you turn to Matthew Chapter
8? This is Matthew's account of what Scott just read. Matthew
Chapter 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. wonder how long it had been since
that man had been touched. He was a leper. And he hadn't
experienced anything like this in many years. As a matter of
fact, Mark's account says Jesus moved with compassion, reached
forth 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, Behold,
There Came a Leper. Why was this leper cleansed? Turn with me for a moment to
Luke chapter four. Not all lepers were cleansed. Verse 16. And he came to Nazareth, where
he had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into
the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read.
And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written, the Spirit of the Lord. This is from Isaiah 61. The Spirit
of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of the
sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And without doubt,
he's talking about the year of Jubilee when he preaches the
acceptable year of the Lord. What a year that was, every 50
years. If you're in debt, your debt
was canceled. If you were a slave, you were
set free. Whatever you lost was restored
to you. And the land was given a year's
rest. You were given a year's vacation.
Now, can you imagine how a slave felt when he heard that silver
trumpet of jubilee? Now, there's two reactions. There were some people who had
got upset. They owe me money, and it's gone.
And there were some people who were happy, the ones who were
in debt. Now, I think this is interesting, though. Do you know
that we do not have one example of Jubilee ever being celebrated
in the Old Testament. It was a command, it was glorious,
but I guarantee you the people that had money owed to them,
they made sure it didn't take place. And the Lord is telling
us at this time, I am the year of Jubilee. This is the fulfillment
of Jubilee. Verse 22, he closed the book
and he gave it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of
all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. Can you
imagine? I bet you could have heard a
pin drop. He makes this announcement about himself. And everybody
says, he grew up here. We know his mom and dad. They
just watched him. And he began, verse 21, to say
unto them, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. I am the year of jubilee. And
all bear him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded
out of his mouth. And they said, is not this Joseph's
son? And he said unto them, you'll surely say unto me this proverb,
physician, heal thyself. Whatsoever we've heard done in
Capernaum, do also here in thy country. And he said, here's
his response to them. Verily I say unto you, no prophet
is accepted in his own country. But I tell you the truth. Many
widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven
was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was
throughout all the land. But unto none of them was Elijah
sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, a Gentile, unto a woman
that was a widow. All these widows were passed
by and only one saved. And look what it says in verse
27. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet,
and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. God passed by every one of them
and saved only Naaman the Syrian. Verse 28, now he's making a statement
regarding the absolute sovereignty of God and salvation in him.
That's exactly what he's talking about. Verse 28, and all they
in the synagogue when they heard these things were filled with
wrath, and rose up and thrust him out of the city and led him
into the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they
might cast him down headlong. They wanted to kill him over
this. They were so upset. But he passing through the midst
of them went his way. So we see from that passage of
scripture, not every leper is cleansed. There were many lepers
in Israel during the time of Elisha. And God passed by every
one of them. and sent his prophet to one leper
in Syria. Why was this leper cleansed? Look back in verse 28 of chapter
7. Now I want you to remember, chapter divisions are man-made. The reason they're chapter divisions
is because men put them there. They're not inspired by the Holy
Spirit. I'm thankful for them. It'd be hard to find the passage
of Scripture without a chapter, wouldn't it? Turn to Isaiah,
it's somewhere in there. Where? We need these chapter
divisions, but remember they're man-made. And this chapter division
makes us think that this is separate from what was previously said.
So let's forget this chapter division. Look in verse 28. And it came to pass when Jesus
had ended these savings. Now this is talking about the
Sermon on the Mount, the greatest sermon ever preached. And it
came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were
astonished at his doctrine. For he taught them as one having
authority. Not like the scribes. I love
that slamming scribes preaching. They didn't have any authority. What they said didn't recommend
itself as the very truth of God. But the people were astonished
when they heard him because what he said recommended itself as
the very truth of God. Now I've heard preachers try
to work up authority, haven't you? Listen to this! As if, if they yell, that'll
make it more authoritative. That doesn't work. I can't imagine
the Lord ranting and raving and screaming all the time when he
was preaching. I mean, sometimes he lifted up his voice. But the
authority is not in the speech, the way you present the truth
in a strong and authoritative manner. What authority means
is it recommends itself as nothing less than the truth of God. You
know, in Matthew chapters 5 through 7, the Sermon on the Mount, six
times, The Lord said, you've heard it being said of them of
old. And he quotes an Old Testament
scripture. He said, but I say unto you. Now here's authority. I'm the only one who can give
the true meaning. You've heard it said, but I say
unto you. 15 times in this passage of scripture,
in the Sermon on the Mount, he said, I say unto you. Isn't that powerful? When the
Lord speaks, He speaks with absolute authority. And the reason He
spake as one having authority is because He is the one who
has all authority. He really does. You know, He's
got a monopoly on authority. He's got a monopoly on power.
The words are used interchangeably. Power and authority, the same
Greek word. He said all power. is given unto me." He said, Thou
hast given Him, speaking of what the Father did for Him, Thou
hast given Him power over all flesh that He should give eternal
life to as many as Thou hast given Him. He said that you may
know that the Son of Man hath power, hath authority on earth
to forgive sinners. If I say to you, your sins are
forgiven, what does that mean? Nothing. I can't pronounce you
forgiven. But if he says, your sins are
forgiven, you know what? They are. They are. That's the authority
he has. My eternal destiny and your eternal
destiny is in his hands. He has all authority. When Pilate said, speakest thou
not to me, knowest thou not that I have power, I have authority,
same word, to crucify you, and I have power to release you.
And I loved the way the Lord replied to him. Thou couldst
have no power at all over me, except it be given thee from
above. He's letting Pilate know You're a pawn in my hand. You
don't have any authority. I have all authority. Even when
he was dying on the cross, he had all authority. Remember when
they came to arrest him? And he said, Whom seek ye? And
they said, Jesus is Nazareth. He said, I am. And what happened? Irresistible power knocked them
backwards, and they were made to fall to the ground. And I
bet they were scared to death when they got up again. And he
said, Whom seek ye? I bet they said, Jesus of Nazareth. They were scared to death at
this time because he was letting them know, you're not in control
of this situation. I am. I mean, think about his
last words from the cross. Death could not take him until
he gave it permission. Father, into thy hands, I commend
my spirit. He's the only one to ever say
something like that. It's okay for death to take me now. I'm
giving it Now that's the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. Both Herod and Pontius Pilate
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together
to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. Now this is our Redeemer. He
spake as one having authority and not like the scribes. I love
that slang on the scribes, not like the scribes. Now, remember,
as I said initially, this chapter division is man-made and this
passage of scripture. Excuse me. I need to keep moving
my Bible, sorry. I think I'm finished with that
paper anyway. Thank you. This passage regarding
this leper is given to teach us about his authority. That's the purpose of this passage
of Scripture. It's to teach us about the authority,
the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's demonstrated into
this leper coming to Him. Now after this statement, He
talked of Him as one having authority, not as the scribes. Verse 1 of
chapter 8, when He was come down from the mountain, great multitudes
followed Him and behold, there came a leper and worshipped him. Now the Bible devotes a whole
lot of time to this disease of leprosy. As a matter of fact,
if you look in Leviticus chapters 13 and 14, two very lengthy chapters
are given to describe the leper who was cleansed and who was
not cleansed, how the priest would announce them clean and
so on. And leprosy in the Bible is a type of sin. That's why
it's given. The leper is the sinner. It was a horrible disease. It
came from within you. You usually felt no pain from
it. You couldn't feel the symptoms.
You could see them, but you couldn't feel them. It would end up killing
you. And it was humanly incurable. Leprosy, what a horrible thing
it would be to be a leper. The leper was not allowed in
the camp. He lived outside the camp in a leper colony, and he
was made to cry if anybody came close to him. Unclean! Unclean! Stay away from me! You don't
want to have anything to do with me! He knew he could contaminate
somebody. If all they had to do was get
around him and touch him, they would be contaminated by this
filthy disease. Anything he touched was considered
unclean. If he touched a bed, it was unclean.
If he touched a wall, it was unclean. It would be burned down.
Such is the sinner. Anything he does and everything
he does is unclean. If I do it, that makes it unclean. Do you believe that about yourself? You know, the scripture that
I think of in the book of Proverbs, the plowing of the wicked is
sin. Now, if there's something that
seems wholesome, it's plowing. I mean, get out and plow. Maybe
you're trying to get food for poor people to help them, so
you go out and plow the ground in order to grow crops and help
people. Scripture says the plowing of
the wicked is sin. If I do it, that makes it sin. That's leprosy. you touch is
unclean. And in that passage that Scott
read in Luke chapter 5, we read where this man who came to Christ
was full of leprosy. That's of great significance.
We're going to come back to that in a moment. But he was full
of leprosy. This man who came to Christ at
that time, he didn't have one square inch of healthy flesh.
Everywhere you saw was filled with ulcers and it was just a
repulsive sight. The man was full completely covered
with leprosy. Can you imagine how this man
must have felt? He was in the last stages of leprosy. And he
was completely covered so that there was nothing about him but
leprosy. Now, notice what it says in verse
2. And behold, there came a leper,
full of leprosy according to the Luke's account, And what's
the first thing that's said about this man? He worshiped him. Now this is the issue that's
going to be met before any other issue. Christ Jesus is the object
of divine worship. Now at this time, the leper didn't
know whether or not the Lord would cleanse him. He came asking
him to. He didn't know if he would, but
he knew that Christ Jesus is the object of divine worship. He came and he worshiped him. This must be settled before anything
else, worship. Now, this leper didn't know whether
or not Christ would Heal him, did he? He said, Lord, if you
will, you can. He knew that if he was willing,
he had the ability. He didn't know if he'd do it
yet. But the Lord Jesus Christ is to be worshipped. He is the object of worship. And you believe he's to be worshipped
whether he does anything for you or not. What if he passed
you by? What if he left you in your leprosy?
What if he lets you go to hell? You'd be getting exactly what
you deserve, and he is still worthy of worship. He's the Lord. He's to be worshiped. You know,
you'll only worship a sovereign. Did you know that? You'll only
worship a sovereign. It's impossible to worship and
bleed free will. They exclude each other. You'll
only worship one when you're in his hands. You can't manipulate
him. You're in his hands, and whatever
he does with you is right. And you know that, and you believe
that. The first thing that has to be said is worship. This leper came and worshiped
him. Now look what he said. And behold, there came a leper
and worshiped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, Thou canst make
me clean. Lord. Lord. Have you ever heard of
the Lordship controversy? It ain't a controversy. He's
the Lord. And the leper knew this. This
is something that everybody who knows him recognizes. He's the
Lord. He's worthy of divine worship. He came and worshipped Him. The
other account says He fell on His face. He fell on His knees
and worshipped Him. Lord! You know, I've heard preachers
make the statement, won't you make Jesus the Lord of your life? What arrogant presumption. He
is the Lord of your life. Whether you acknowledge it or
not, whether you realize it or not, He is your Lord and you're
in His hands. And the only reason for our existence
is His glory. We will glorify His grace or
we will glorify His justice. Whatever the case, we're going
to glorify Him. That's our only reason for existence. And this leper understood that.
He came and worshiped him saying, Lord. Now, when we talk about
the Lordship of Christ, when the scripture uses this word
Lord, it means he's the Lord of creation. He spanked the universe
into existence as an act of his will. That's what's meant by
his Lordship. He's the Lord of providence. That means everything
that happens in time. Everything that happens, everything
that happens here this morning, everything that happens outside
here, everything that happens, even the thoughts that are going
through your mind right now, He's the Lord of those. He's
in control of those. He's the Lord of Providence.
And most especially, He's the Lord of salvation. What's that
mean? That means my eternal destiny
and your eternal destiny is in His hands. Whether or not me or you will
be saved is up to Him. Now somebody says, well, there's
nothing I can do. You've taken away all my hope. There's nothing I can do to be
saved if that's the case. Right. Right. You've heard what's
being said. If you really believe that, that's
when you're going to start crying for mercy. When you see there's
absolutely nothing you can do to be saved, and there's nothing
you can do to get Him to save you, That's when you know what
I need is mercy. Have mercy on me. And I also
tell you this, there's never been a sinner in the history
of the world who ever truly cried for mercy that he said no to.
Did you know that? What a blessing it is to be enabled
to cry for mercy because wherever there's a sinner needing mercy,
there's a Savior dispensing mercy. Before there was ever a sinner,
there was a Savior. He's the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. But this leper didn't know all
this at this time. He just knew if the Lord willed
it, he could make him clean because he is the Lord. And notice what he says, Lord,
if you will. And notice the way he came to
it. And if I come to the Lord, I'm going to have to come the
same way. If you will, you can make me
clean. Now, what if this leper would
have said, Lord, I will that you make me clean. What insubordination, what presumption,
what arrogance for a leper to tell the Lord, here's what I'm
telling you to do. I will that you make me clean. That's kind
of like coming up, somebody says, I'm going to let you forgive
me. Oh, OK. It's your duty to forgive me.
Oh, no. That's in my hands. It's up to
me as to whether or not I forgive you. And that's the same thing
with this leper. He came into the Lord's presence saying, Lord,
if you will, it's all up to you. If you will, you can make me
clean. Now, what this leper understood
was the supremacy of his will. All he has to do is will it. And he comes to pass. You believe
that about the Lord Jesus Christ. You believe in the supremacy
of his will. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. Now, the Roman centurion understood
this. Look at the next story. And I
think everything in Matthew 8 and 9 is a demonstration of his authority. But look in verse 5 of Matthew
chapter 8. And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there
came unto him Centurion beseeching him, saying, Lord, my servant
lieth at home, sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And notice,
he doesn't tell the Lord what to do at this time. He doesn't
say, heal him. He just lets him know the case.
And isn't that wise? We come into the Lord's presence,
and we spread our case before him. That's what this man did.
And Jesus said unto him, I'll come and heal him. The Centurion
answered and said, Lord, I'm not worthy that thou shouldst
come under my roof, but speak the word only, and my servant
shall be healed. You don't have to come. All you
have to do is will it, and it takes place. Verse nine, for
I'm a man under authority, having soldiers under me. I say to this
man, go, and he goes, and to another, come, and he comes,
and to my servant, do this, and he doeth it. I understand authority. And I know all you have to do
is will it, and it takes place. And look what the Lord said about
this man. Verse 10, when Jesus heard it, he marveled and said
to them that followed, verily I say unto you, I have not found
so great faith, no, not in Israel. The Lord called this great faith.
And what do we see about this man? He knew, I'm not even worthy
to come. I'm not worthy to have you come
to me. Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. He
understood authority. And that's what he understood
with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ, this leper. He comes
unto him and he says, Lord, if you will. It's all up to your
will. And I'm not sure that you're
willing. He didn't know the Lord very well at this time. All he
knew was that the Lord's will is supreme. He said, Lord, if
you will, you can. You have the ability to make
me clean. Look in Matthew chapter 9, verse
27. Then when Jesus departed then,
two blind men followed Him. Well, how do blind men follow?
They can't see. I'm sure they heard His voice.
And they followed by hearing His voice. Wherever He was, that's
where they were trying to rope their way to. I admire these
blind men, two blind men. I mean, they couldn't see a thing.
They were blind as bats. They heard His voice. And they
went in the direction of His voice. And when Jesus departed
this, two blind men followed Him, crying, saying, Thou Son
of David, have mercy on us. Now, mercy. Mercy. What is mercy? Well, mercy is where all your
sin is all your fault. You can't blame it on somebody
else. Your blindness is all your fault. You can't blame it on
somebody else. It's all your fault. And what you need is mercy. That's what these men need. People
talk about, we have to preach responsibility. Well, we do.
Your sin's your fault. My sin's my fault. We are responsible. And I'll tell you what, when
you see you're responsible for your sin, you know what you do? You
cry for mercy. That's what these men did. They
cried for mercy. Verse 28, And when he was coming
to the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus saith unto
them, Believe ye that I am able to do this. Do you believe that he's able
to save you? The whole emphasis is his ability. Do you believe that he is able
to save you? That's the issue. Do you believe
that I am able to do this? And look at the answer. Verse 28, they said unto him,
yea, Lord. We believe you're able. Then touched he their eyes, saying,
according to your faith, be it unto you. Paul said in 2 Timothy
1, 12, I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded that he is
able. That's what Paul was persuaded
about. I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've
committed to him against that day. And I love the way Paul
uses the language, that which I've committed to him. What have
you committed to Him, Paul? Everything. The entire salvation
of my soul. You know, you've only committed,
if you believe in salvation by works in any form to any degree,
you've never committed. You only commit when you're totally
dependent upon Him. That leper came and said, Lord,
if you will, I know it's up to your will, If you will, you can. You have the ability to make
me clean. Now this is what the leper needed.
He came for the right thing. I need to be made clean. To be made clean is like David
of old, wash me and I shall be, what? Clean. Create in me a clean
heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. To be clean
is to be justified. It's to be sinless. It's to be
without guilt. It's to stand perfectly clean
before God where God can't see anything but that which is pleasing
to Him. Now that's what this leper needed. This is what I
need. I don't need to be healthy. I
don't need to be wealthy. I don't need to be wise. But
I need to be made clean. I need to be clean before God. I can't, I'm filthy. I can't
clean myself and I need to be made clean. That's what this
letter was. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. Now, if I am somebody the Lord makes
clean, Number one, I'm gonna know I'm not clean. Number two,
I'm gonna know there's absolutely nothing I can do to make myself
clean. Number three, I'm gonna know
that he can make me clean by what, who he is and by what he
did. And number four, I'm gonna know
it's totally up to him as to whether or not I'm going to be
made clean. Now why was this leper cleansed?
Look what the Lord said to him in Matthew chapter 8 verse 3,
And Jesus put forth his hand and touched him, saying, I will.
Oh, I love the power of that. I will. Why was he cleansed? Because the Lord willed it. That's
the only reason. The Lord willed it. That's why
he was cleansed. The Lord willed it. But in Luke chapter 5 verse 12,
We read that this leper, and not every leper was like this,
this leper was full of leprosy. He didn't have any healthy flesh. Everywhere you looked, all over
this man's body, there was nothing but these cankerous sores. He was full of leprosy. Now turn back with me to Leviticus
chapter 13. Now Leviticus chapters 13 and
14 is all about leprosy. Let's pick up reading in verse
9 of Leviticus chapter 13. When the plague of leprosy is
in a man, then he shall be brought unto the priest. And the priest
shall see him And behold, if the rising be white in the skin,
and it have turned the hair white, and there be quick, raw flesh. Now what that means is quick. What's quick mean? Living. What
does raw mean? Healthy. If the priest looks
this leper over, and there's living, raw flesh in the rising,
It's an old leprosy. It's brought about from old time,
even from Adam. It's an old leprosy in the skin
of his flesh, and the priests shall pronounce him unclean. If he has any healthy flesh,
if he has any living flesh, he's unclean. If he has mostly healthy
flesh from one little spot that's almost indiscernible of leprosy,
he's unclean. If he has nothing but leprosy
except for one square inch of healthy flesh, he's unclean. Set him aside. He's unclean. Back to the leper colony. No
cleansing for this man. Look in verse 12. And if a leprosy break out abroad
in the skin, and the leprosy cover all the skin of him that
hath the plague, from his head even to his foot, wheresoever
the priest looketh, then the priest shall consider, and behold,
if the leprosy hath covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce
him clean. Now this is almost a paradox
to us, isn't it? Here a man comes in completely
covered with leprosy. And what does the priest pronounce
him? Clean. He can come back into the society
of Israel. He can leave the camp. He's now
fit to come back in with the children of God and participate
in worship. when he is completely covered
with leprosy. Now, you come into God's presence,
pretty good, but you got some problems. There's some leprosy
here. There's some sin. There's some disobedience. I
make mistakes. I've got faults. Go back to the leprosy camp.
You're unglued. You come into God's presence,
you're bad. You're bad. You've got a lot
of leprosy. It's covering almost all of you. And you've even got
one thing about you that could recommend you to God. One thing.
Even the power of free will, where if you're given an opportunity,
put in the right place, you can kind of turn things around. Back
to the leper colony. Unclean. You come into his presence
completely covered with sin, so that that's all you are. What's the pronouncement of the
priest? Clean. Clean. Now this man who came
into Christ's presence was full of leprosy, nothing but evil,
and he's pronounced clean. Now back to Matthew chapter eight. We know this man came to Christ
like that. Verse 3, And Jesus put forth
his hand and touched him, saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was
cleansed. It wasn't a gradual process.
Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And as a matter of fact, both
Mark's and Luke's accounts said his leprosy departed from him. It left Him. My sin, because of the will of
Christ, departed from me, and He bore it, and He put it away. It departed from me, and it went
to Him. He bore it, and He put it away. It departed from me. And look
what the Lord said to him, verse 4, And Jesus said unto him, See
thou tell no man, I think it's interesting that Mark's account
tells us, after the Lord said that, he went out and spread
a blaze. He ablazed the truth everywhere.
He told everybody he could find. Was this an act of disobedience?
I don't know. I don't know. I kind of don't
think it was. I think that he did what me and you would do
if the Lord will go out and spread a blaze, I think is the word
he used. He went and told everybody he could. But I think this is
interesting. After he was cleansed, the Lord
sent him back to the law to see if the law could find anything
wrong with him. And he couldn't. You know, when
the Lord saves you, he can bring you back to the law. And the
law can look you over, the Ten Commandments, and say, I'm completely
satisfied with that person. They need nothing. They are complete in me. Now that is what This leper experienced. He was completely covered with
leprosy. And that's the sinner completely
covered with sin. If that's you, if you've got
any goodness about you, anything that can recommend you, sit down.
You're unclean. Back to the leper call. God won't
have anything to do with you. I can't give you any hope. But
if you're completely covered with leprosy, completely covered
so that you don't have anything, what does the Lord do? He pronounces
you clean. Your leprosy departed from you
and he bore it in his own body on the tree and put it away.
And now he can send you back to God's holy law to see if God's
holy law has anything to say against you. And it says, I'm
completely satisfied. He's perfectly clean. Now that
all demonstrates the authority of Christ. What a glorious savior
he is. He spake as one having authority. Not like the scribes. That's
right. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that we might be just like this leper to come to you full of leprosy,
saying, If you will, you can make me clean. And oh, that we
would hear those words, I will be thou clean. Lord, we know that if by your
grace we come just like this leper did, we'll have the same answer as
him. In Christ's name we pray.