Or if you take your Bibles and
turn back with me to Luke chapter 5. Luke chapter 5. And then I'm going to go ahead
and have you turn to Leviticus chapter 13. Leviticus chapter
13. I've entitled this message, Only
true lepers are cleansed. Only true lepers are cleansed. Now look at this in verse 12
of chapter 5, it says, And it came to pass, when he was in
a certain city, behold, a man full of leprosy. This man was
full of leprosy. From the top of his head to the
bottom of his feet, he was full of leprosy. This man was an outcast. This man had no ability to worship
God. He was cast out from his family. And then he sees Jesus and he
falls on his face and he besought Him, saying, Lord, if Thou wilt,
Thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth His hand
and touched him. You understand that according
to the law, that would defile someone else. If you or I were
to touch this man, according to the law, we would be defiled.
But you see, the one touching cannot be defiled. He touches
this man for a purpose. He touched him. Put forth his hand and touched
him saying, I will. Be thou clean, and notice the
power. And immediately the leprosy departed
from him, and he charged him to tell no man, but go show himself
to the priest, and offer for a cleansing according to Moses'
command. See, Christ was still a man under
the law. And he was commanding him to
obey the law of Moses, which was to go show yourself to the
priest. Now why would he do that? For a testimony. testimony unto
them. And of course, if they did that
cleansing ceremony, which is in Leviticus 14, He would be
testifying of His death, of His blood, because those offerings
all pictured Him who cleanses leprosy, the leprosy of sin. And He said, don't tell anybody,
but what happened? And so much more the fame went
abroad of Him The great multitudes came together to hear and to
be healed of him, of their infirmities." Now, in this account, the Holy
Spirit says forth the history of this certain man of a certain
village. I always like when the Scripture
says that. It don't matter. It don't matter. Certain man, he was full of leprosy. This man was unclean. He was
outcast from his family, his friends, and the worship of God.
Jesus, He's passing by and this man sees Him. He's obviously
heard of Him. He's heard what He could do,
and He falls on His face. And in faith, He declares this,
LORD. Now you get that. He was a man.
Christ was a man, and this man saw another man walking by. But he knew this man was someone
special. This man was Lord. And he said,
Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. And as always, Jesus
answering the cry of the needy, He always in mercy and healing
the sick, delivering the captive, recovering of the sight to the
blind, because that's why He came. He came to do these things. And even now, Jesus, seeing this
man's need and healing plea, He puts forth His hand and in
deity, in power, He cleanses him. I will. Don't you think
those words sounded good to the man who was a leper? I will. If you will, I will. Be thou
cleansed. And immediately he was cleansed.
Without delay, this man's leprosy was totally healed. And Jesus,
still honoring the law, tells him to go and show Himself so
that by performing those ceremonies again, He's testifying of His
coming, of His dying. But this man's joy, his heart
was so full that he couldn't keep it a secret. And matter
of fact, if he didn't say anything, just his presence alone would
warrant questions. This man who was full of leprosy
comes back home and his family sees him and he's clean. He's
pure. His heart full of joy. He testifies
of what happened. Well this man, Jesus, He willed
that I be clean and I was clean. That was His testimony. The result
of this was the great multitude then began to follow Him. Now
this miracle that Jesus performed was indeed a great benefit to
that man. This leper who had spent all
that time under this plague was now healed. It was a great benefit
to him. But what and how does this benefit
us? Why would the Holy Spirit put
this particular man in Holy Scripture for us to read? Now we might
say, well, wow, that's a great miracle. So Jesus can perform
miracles. Well, of course He can. He's
performed miracles ever since sin came into this world. He's
been performing miracles. So that's something that we can
know about Him, but there is much more here. Every time Christ
performs a miracle, it is for us a picture of how He saves
sinners. Every miracle is a gospel message,
an outward manifestation of something that Christ does inwardly toward
His people. The wonders that Jesus did on
earth were given to be a picture of the Gospel. A Gospel message
to each one. Now the first thing I want you
to see is this leprosy. What in the world is this leprosy? Leprosy always in Scripture is
a picture of sin. The malady of leprosy is really
the malady of sin. Now, leprosy was not only a real
disease, a real plague, it was used of God to testify of the
greater and deeper malady, the more harmful malady and disease,
which is sin. Leprosy, you see, the physical
leprosy can only consume the flesh. That's all it can do.
Physical leprosy could not touch the soul. You remember that Miriam,
Moses' sister, she was a believer. Her soul was pure and yet she
had the malady of leprosy cast on her when she made those statements
against Moses. So leprosy physically has no
bearing on the soul. But consider how much greater
sin is, because sin not only destroys the soul, it also can
destroy the body. Sin is the greater malady. And so important is this picture
of leprosy that God Himself devotes two chapters in Leviticus. two chapters in the book of Leviticus,
his law concerning this matter of leprosy. And as again, this
matter of leprosy is a picture of sin. Now, I want you to see
a few things about leprosy. Go back to Leviticus chapter
13 and look at this. Leviticus chapter 13, I want
you to see I believe I got four things. If I don't write at the
beginning, I don't necessarily know how many I got. I sometimes
forget. I think there's four, but we'll
go through each one of them. First of all, I want you to see
that only the high priest was to evaluate and determine whether
someone was a true leper. In other words, this disease,
they did not send them to a doctor. When you had leprosy, you didn't
go to a doctor, you didn't seek a surgeon, you didn't seek medication. Leprosy in scripture was always
a plague from God. When you got leprosy, you were
condemned. You had done something against
God and you were being punished. You were being punished. And
so, but only the priest could evaluate, only the priest could
examine. Therefore, the Holy Ghost, I
want you to see this, it is the Holy Ghost who must convince
you of sin. It's the Holy Spirit who examines
us and convinces us, shows us that we, by nature, are lepers. He's the only one. Now I can
tell you you are a sinner. I can tell you according to the
Scriptures that from the sole of your foot to the head there
is no soundness in you. I can tell you. I've told you
that multiple times. I can't really convict you of
that. If I convict you, you'll go out
feeling guilty and in about a couple of days you'll forget about it.
But if the Holy Spirit examines your soul and finds leprosy,
He will not let you forget. He is the one that convinces
of sin. And so you can read that. He says that in verse 2. He says,
He shall be brought to Aaron and the priests, and one of his
sons the priest. And the priest shall look upon
the plague that is in the skin of the flesh. I want you to see this also.
There was no earthly cure for physical leprosy. There was no
earthly cure. If anyone was cured of the plague
of leprosy, it was always a divine act. It was always an act of
God. So no amount of medication, no amount of salve,
of any doctor's prescription could cure this disease. Only
the priest could tell you if you had it, and if you got it,
there was no cure, earthly cure. And I want you to know this,
with this malady of sin, there is no earthly cure. No amount
of religion No amount of ceremonies, no amount of will and determination
can cure a man of the malady of sin. Nothing you can do. In this country, we always have
this determination. We think there's always something
you can do. I think we despise to hear that. If we go to a business
and we get them to do something, they say, That just can't be
done. What are we going to do? We're going to find somebody
else. Because we know somehow that can get done. Well, in this
instance, there is nothing you can do. You cannot cure yourself. Just as this leper could not
cure himself, you cannot cure yourself of the malady of sin. No matter what you do, no matter
how sincere you are, no matter the effort you put into it, you
cannot cure this disease. Now we saw this, if you were
to look in 2 Kings, you remember Naaman the leper, right? Naaman
the leper. He was a mighty warrior. He was a valiant man. In all
eyes of earthly people, he was a good man. And the king of Syria
loved him so much that when Naaman heard that there was a prophet
in Israel that could cure leprosy, he said, send me. So the king
wrote him a letter and sent him to the king of Israel. And that
king, he read that letter. And the king, he said this in
2 Kings, he says, Am I God? Am I God? To kill and make alive
that this man does sin unto me to recover this man from leprosy?
That's not what he really sent him for. He sent him to the prophet.
The prophet knew God could cure him. And you understand, it was
God alone that could... Listen to me, the only cure for
your sin is God. That's it. God will, He can,
cleanse you of your leprosy. If He will, He can. And so only God can cleanse a
sinner. Only God can pardon iniquity
and forgive transgression. And see this man, this leper,
a picture of the sinner, just as this man He had a real need
of healing. Even so, listen, real sinners
have a real need of healing. If you know you are a spiritual
leper, you know this, I need cleansing. I need healing, else
I die. Now, if this man were not a leper,
Surely he would have no need of Christ. Isn't that right?
If there was some other cure, don't you think he would have
found it by now? He would have no need of Christ. Listen, if
you have no need of Christ this morning, I want you to understand,
you are not in your eyes a leper. In your eyes, you're clean. You
don't have a need. Therefore you will not come to
Christ unless you see your need. Unless you see your need. So
then this morning I pray by the word of God that God himself
would examine every heart and convict every leper of their
need. Now in Leviticus 13 I want you
to see What constitutes a leper? When the priests did the examination,
they were very specific things they had to look for. And without
these things, there was no leprosy. There was no leprosy. Again,
this morning, only lepers need to be cleansed. Only lepers need
Christ. So if you are not a leper, then
this isn't for you. This message is for lepers. This
message is for sinners. First of all, true leprosy was
always deeper than the skin. Look at this in verse 3. And
the priest shall look upon the plague of the skin that is in
the flesh, and when the hair of the plague is turned white,
and the plague in the sight be deeper than the skin of his flesh,
it is a plague of leprosy. The priest would take this person
who had some rising, some scab, some blemish, it would pop up,
a little blister. It would be manifest in different
ways, but it would come up and he would have to take it to the
priest and they would examine. They'd separate this man and
put him away for seven days. And this spot of leprosy, if
it went away, it was not leprosy. Right? If it just, you got a
scab one day, hey, look at this. I think I have leprosy. And the
priest will say, okay, we'll go over here for seven days and
then we'll come back and we'll look at it again. Seven days
later, come back, oh, that's just a scab. And it goes away. Well, you're not a leper. Gone.
You're clean. Gone. Even so with a man. Listen. Some men may feel guilt. They may have their conscience
pricked. They may have some sickness or
some malady of the flesh that causes them to fear. And for
a time they may think, oh, I might be a sinner. Well, put him away
for a little while and see what happens. If he put him away for
seven days, you know what? And he, oh, well, nothing there. Nothing there. He's not a leper. And by and by, he forgets his
malady and the whole actions of religion go away. Now, I've seen this. I have seen
men, grown men, come into my office at times pouring tears. Oh, they're so wicked. They're
so vile. They're so sinful. Oh, I'm going
to die. I'm going to go to hell. They're
so afraid. Two or three weeks later, where
are they? You know what happened? Oh, that
was just a scab. That's just a scab. It's not deeper than
the skin. Malady is only skin deep. But
a true leper feels and knows his sin is much deeper than the
doctors of religion can cure. A true sinner knows that his
sin runs into the very recesses of his soul. That being a sinner
is not what he does or even how he feels. A real sinner understands
that he himself is sin by nature. That's all we are. That's all
we can do. You see, my sin runs much deeper
than the flesh. Therefore, there is no fleshly
cure for my sin. Sin is rooted in our hearts so
that all we do, all we touch becomes defiled. You know, it's
in the law of a leper where to touch something, it's defiled.
He's sitting in that chair, that chair had to be burned. He had
a touch of clothes and those clothes turned a certain color,
they got to be burned. They'll be destroyed. Why? It's
defiled. You understand, whatever a leper
does is defiled. Whatever a sinner does is defiled. No matter how sincere he might
be in his religion, he cannot cure himself. Now, if your malady
can be cured by religion, it's because you're not a leper. You're
not a leper. Second thing about lepers. The
hair must be turned white. Look at that in verse 3. And
the hair of the plague be turned white. That is all that comes from leprosy
is death. In other words, you have this
spot, right? It comes up and you know it's
deep. It's deep. You can see it. It
can't be flicked away like a scab. It runs deep in the skin. And
what's going to happen is there's a white hair going to come out
of it. In other words, it killed it. It's a dead hair. And so what comes out of the
sinner is nothing but death. Nothing but death. The corruption
of sin always breeds death. When sin is finished, you know
it always produces death. So all we do that comes from
our heart comes from a dead heart. A dead nature. All our works are dead, all our
religion is vain, and all the fruits of our deeds in the sight
of God are corrupt. You remember what God says about
man when he looked upon the earth in Noah's time? He said this,
that every imagination of the thought of his heart was only
evil continued. And so God convicts one of sin. He is convicted that he is dead. Are you this morning, does your
malady run deeper than the skin? Does this malady of sin, is it
rooted in your spiritually dead nature? Do you know that? When God convicts a man, David
said, when thou with rebukes dost correct a man for iniquity,
thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth. Has your beauty consumed away? I'll tell you, a leprous man
was a very ugly man. You know, that stuff, it just
destroys the whole of your flesh. It mars your face and your hands. It corrodes every beauty. That's
what a true leper knows. My sin runs deeper than the flesh.
It roots itself in a dead nature, so all I do is sin. The third
thing is this, that a true leper, the true nature of a leper is
that leprosy always spreads. Look at verse 8, Leviticus 13.
He says, And if the priests see that, behold, the scab spreadeth
in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is a leprosy. In other words,
listen, sin cannot be contained. Like leprosy, it cannot be isolated. True sinfulness spreads throughout
the whole of the man. You ever try to contain sin in
yourself? You ever try? Now listen, you could probably chain
yourself to a chair and keep your body from actually performing
the sin, but can you stop thinking about it? Can you contain it? No, you can't. Sin, like leprosy, cannot be
contained. See then the vanity of false
religion trying to contain sinful men. Why do you think their churches
are full of laws and bylaws and creeds? What are they trying
to do? They're trying to contain sin.
They're trying to corral it. You know, if we don't put laws
on people, surely they're going to get out? No. The more you
put a law on a man, the more he's going to get out. The more
sin is going to spread. Why? Because that's the nature
of the leprosy. The leprosy, it always spreads. So then can you, by striving,
contain sin? Can you, by your will or determination,
keep yourself from spreading sin? And I'll tell you this,
can you get better by obedience to the law? No. Just like leprosy,
sin, if you are a true leper, you know this for sure, that
this leprosy of sin has spread to your whole soul. Your whole
soul. And the fourth thing about leprosy
is this. It's raw. Painful. Look at this in verse 10. The
priest shall see him. And behold, if the rising be
white in the skin, and have turned the white hair, and there be
quick raw flesh in the rising. In other words, when leprosy
would eat the flesh, it would expose the muscle and the bone. It would be exceedingly painful. There's one thing about a true
leper, sin is painful. You feel the malady of your sin. If you are a true leper, you
know that sin is painful. You know this, that you, like
the lepers, have been outcast from the presence of God. Consider
this man in our text. You realize this, that this man,
he had everything taken from him. Everything. home, his family, his clothes. He was given an old linen or
woolen garment that he had to wear, and he had to cover his
face, and he had to go through the crowd if he was anywhere
near somebody, and he had to confess, unclean, unclean. He couldn't be touched by any
human being. He was cast out from the worship
of God. He couldn't worship God. He was
cast out from the presence of God and His people. This was
a painful malady, not only physically, emotionally. It was loneliness. And I'll tell you this, when
a man is convicted of sin, sin is no longer the joy that it
was. It's painful. It's painful. We are fearfully aware that we
cannot cure ourselves and except God cure us. There is no hope
for us. Is this soul plague? Have you experienced this plague? Do you feel the weight of guilt
of your sins? then see that there is no other
way to heal this except what happened to our friend in Luke
chapter 5. There is no cure except for one
that happened in our text. Go back to your text. Go back
to your text. Now, this is important. Are you
such a leper? Is your sin deeper than the skin?
Is all your works dead? Is it spreading? You that have
been saved, has your sin, that old nature, been contained? The
more I grow in grace, the more I know of that man's leprosy,
that old man. I know more of him. He is still
just as vile and corrupt as he ever was, even more so. Behold,
then, the only remedy for such lepers is Jesus. Look at this
man. And it came to pass, when in
a certain city, behold, a man full of leprosy, who seeing Jesus,
fell on his face, and besought him, saying, If thou wilt, thou
canst make me clean. This leper in Artax, seeing Jesus,
he fell down. He besought him as Lord, asking
for his mercy. If you will, you can. Now this man, no doubt, had heard
of Jesus' power. He had either witnessed it himself
or he had heard it from someone else, but he knew something about
this man, Jesus. And he comes to this man and
he falls down. He kneels to the power of this
one. He knew that this man alone,
if there was any hope for him, it had to be from this man. If
you are a leper in need of spiritual cleansing, if you are such a
poor creature, convinced of your leprosy, friends, I am telling
you, by the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, there is only
one cure. There is only one in all the
universe that can cure you. Only one. Jesus Christ, the Son
of God. I like this. Now, I believe Jude
said this, now unto him that is able to keep you from falling
and present you faultless before the presence of his glory with
exceeding joy. To the only God our Savior be
glory. Jude knew something about this
one. He knew he alone was able. He
was only able to save and he's able to keep. He's the only one. Now look at this leper, this
sinner, and behold now the Son of God who is declared to be
God, the Savior of sinners. Now do you have a need of Him?
Has all else failed? I know this. You're going to
try everything you can before you ever come to Him.
I like that woman who had the issue of blood. You know, she
spent all her living on those doctors, and then when she had
nothing else, only when she had nothing else, she came to Christ.
And that's how we are. It's just how it is. You're going
to try everything. Your flesh will try everything.
You know what God's going to do if He's going to save you?
He's going to make everything fail. Everything you try is going
to fail. And when it does, He'll bring
you to Himself. He'll bring you to Himself. And
you'll feel your need of Him. And when you feel your need of
Him, come to Him. To everyone that is outcast from
God, like this man. Everyone who needs cleansing.
Everyone who cannot cleanse himself. Come like this man to Christ. When you come, how should you
come? First of all, this man came in Humiliation. Look at
how this man came to Christ. When he seen Jesus, he fell on
his face and begged. There was no bargaining here. This man fell on his face. I like this, in all the Old Testament
scripture when Christ comes in this pre-incarnate state, you
know what the scripture says all the time? It says, and they
fell as dead at his feet. They fell as dead. It's like
the life went out of them and they just fell down. That's how
this man came. He fell down on his face. He worshipped Him. This is how
true sinners come to Christ. They come on their face. I'll ask you that. Have you come
on your face? Or have you come standing up to Christ and making
a bargain with Him? Well, you're not a leper. You
think you've got something to offer. Well, if you've got something
to offer, you'll never come and He'll never cure you. You'll
never be cleansed of your sin. But all who come to Him in this
way, they come as true lepers. Lord, they come like that publican.
Lord, be propitious unto me. Be merciful unto me. This man
would not so much lift up his eyes to heaven. He was not worthy
to lift up his eyes. This man, his face was down to
the ground. He was not worthy to look up
to it. He knew. He became unworthy. This man bowing
down In the presence of God, he said, Lord. He came to him
saying then this, that was God manifest in the flesh. As I've
told you before, only God can cure leprosy. This man, he came
to Jesus, he must be convinced that he was God. He must be convinced. Only God could do this. And so
He comes to him as God. Behold then, the holy, sinless
Son of God, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, who moves all
things after the counsel of His own will. Everything moves according to
His will. And yet we know this, the leper
in that state of deity could never come to Christ. If Christ
had not come down, that man could not have been healed. Same with
the true sinner. Had God not come down to us,
there would have been no cure. But Jesus Christ came in human
flesh. He came to save sinners. In 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and
verse 9 it says, You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ? Do you know
how gracious He was? He who was rich. I had to think about that a little
bit. How rich was He? Can you measure the infinite
riches of Christ seated upon the throne of God? before His
incarnation? Can you imagine the praise, the
constant, perpetual praise of angels constantly crying, Holy,
Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty! Can you imagine their surprise
when He stepped off of His throne, derobed Himself and came in flesh? He condescended to such a low
estate for this purpose, to save lepers. He came to cleanse this
man of his leprosy. Now you listen. He came to cleanse
this man of his leprosy. And when I was convicted of my
leprosy, I fell on my face and cried, Lord, because I know Him
to be God and man." Do you know that? Have you come to Him as
that? All lepers do. And we come to
Him because He came down to shed His blood so as to cleanse us. This is why He came. The only
remedy for this leprosy truly is the blood of Jesus Christ. And if you were to look at the
cleansing ceremony of the leper in chapter 14, you would see
it's full of blood. Full of blood. Why? Because blood is the remedy,
friends, of our leprosy. In that day there shall be a
fountain opened to the house of David, to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem. Listen, for sin, And for uncleanness,
now that has reference to leprosy. Unclean, remember that's what
they must cry unclean. So what was the blood shed for?
For uncleanness, for leprosy. So as we come to Him as God,
manifest in the flesh, we see His blood is the only cleansing
for our sins. Sin of necessity must be punished,
yet God desires and has willed to show mercy. Now this man came
and he bowed down and he said, Lord, if you will. Now listen,
he was seriously asking a question because he didn't know. I'm here to tell you that God
has openly displayed His willingness to cleanse lepers. Even before
this man came, if he would just read what God had said in His
covenant. He said, this is the covenant
that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my law into their
hearts and in their minds will I write them. And their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more. You see the will of
God? I will make you holy. I will to cleanse you of all
your sins. He said, put your law in his heart. Now that doesn't
mean that he's going to... Every man has the law of God
written in his heart, right? So that's not what he's talking
about. He said, I'm going to put a holy nature in you. One
that has already obeyed the law of God. That's what Paul tells
us in Romans chapter 8. There's therefore now no condemnation
of those who are in Christ Jesus. Why? What the law could not do
and it was weak to the flesh, God sending His Son in likeness
of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh that
the law of God might be fulfilled in us. And it is. If you've been
cleansed of Christ, listen, you've been cleansed and you've been
made holy. How? By the blood of Christ.
He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified by His one
offering. You see there, God laid at Calvary
all the iniquity of His people. That God made Christ to be sin
for us who knew no sin. You see, I like this. Christ
didn't have to touch this leopard, did He? Did He have to touch
it? Why did He touch it? He touched him for a type, a
picture. Now we know this, when Christ
touched Him, He was not contaminated. We understand that. What He did
was show us that He was to take our defilement. He was to take
our sins. He was to be made sin for us
who knew no sin, that we might be healed, that we might be the
righteousness of God in Him. So there is for sinners, for
leprosy, of cleansing because God has been forever satisfied
with Christ's offering. Are you then a leper in need
of cleansing this morning? Let me ask you this. Why do you
tarry? If you need cleansing, what are
you waiting Now listen, if you're not a true
leper, this doesn't have any meaning to you. If you are a
true sinner, what stops you from coming to Christ? The only thing
that stops you is this, you're not a true leper. If you were,
you would come. I like that hymn, till you're
better, but you will never come at all. This man came full of
leprosy. He didn't wait until he had a
little less leprosy. He came full of leprosy. Now
you listen. Come full of sin and you'll go away clean of sin. That's what this man found. Listen,
that's what I found. Isn't that what you found? You
that are lepers by nature, is that what you found when you
came and bowed yourself? How did you come then? You came
by faith. You see, he didn't wait for Christ
to cleanse him to come. He came full of leprosy. He came
in faith, trusting this man had the ability to cleanse him. Listen, if you don't come to
Christ, One, you don't believe you're a leper and two, or two,
you don't believe He can cleanse you. That's the only way you
can see it. You must come in faith. I don't
know what this man knew of Christ. I don't know how much he knew.
But I tell you this, he knew he was able. If you don't come to Christ,
most likely you don't believe He's able. You don't believe He's sufficient.
This is what religion does. Religion believes that Christ
has some part of this, but He's not quite sufficient. There's
something else that I have to add to His work. No, when you
come to Christ as a leper, you realize that He alone is able
to save you. And that's why you come to Him.
Because He alone can cleanse us of our leprosy. He alone can
cleanse us of our sin. And therefore, He said this,
if you will, you can. What was the sticking point?
If you will. This is what natural man hates
about the gospel. Is that all salvation belongs
to God to give it or not. That there is nothing you can
do to manipulate deity to give you salvation. It is totally
according to His will. Christ had every right to say
no. Didn't He? Every right. Did He? Did He say, can you find
any place where a man comes as a sinner to Christ and He turns
him away? Can you find it? You can't. Because He is omnipotently
Merciful. Omnipotently merciful. He is
able to save. And listen to me. He is willing
to save only one group of people. Those that are full of leprosy. Full of leprosy. Are you full
of leprosy? Then come by faith because He
alone is able and He is willing. He is willing. You know, those
lepers, I always think of this when I think about a sinner and
he's contemplating and the Lord's working with him and he doesn't
know if Christ will save him or not. He knows he's not worthy
of it and he just doesn't know. I think of those lepers outside
that gate and everybody was starving in Jerusalem, right? No food
there. No food there. They were surrounded
by the Assyrian army, right? And these lepers, they get together
They start reasoning. They say, well, if we go in the
city, we'll die. If we stay here, we'll die. But listen, the Assyrians, they
got food, right? And if we go to them and we die,
what's the difference? Peradventure, they say. They
will save us a life. And you remember what happened,
the Lord had already sent those Assyrians. He sent His angel
through there and already sent them out. He healed them. You
know, and those lepers go around and they start looking and there's
nobody there. All this food. All this food. And they start
gourding themselves. They start eating and eating
and eating. And they get so full and they said, you know what,
maybe we should share this with everybody else. They said, we
can't keep it to ourselves. And so they go in the gate and
start telling everybody there's food out there and they just don't
believe them. What I'm telling you is there's
food out there. Christ is able and Christ is willing to save. Why won't you go? He's able and
He's willing. Now listen, if you come to Him
and He's not willing, what have you lost? You'll die anyway. What have you lost? Peradventure. Listen, I know it's more than
a purr-adventure. Because He says, I will. Come, you weary,
heavy laden, bruised and mangled by the fall. If you tarry till
you're better, you'll never come at all. Not the righteous, not
the righteous, sinners, Jesus came to call. And listen to what
He said. He touched him. I've often thought
about this. The man has not been touched.
However long he's had leprosy, no one has touched him. Can you
imagine living without touch? You know, they did the experiments,
cruel experiments with children. They'd put a child and they'd
just set him aside. Now, they'd feed him. They'd
put clothes on him. They'd change his diaper. They'd
take care of every need. They wouldn't touch him. He died. A man will die without touch. Can
you imagine the blessing of being touched? But not just being touched
by anybody. God Himself touched him. When a leper comes to Christ
and he feels the touch of omnipotent power, what a grace, what a mercy,
what love! He touched him and he said this,
I will be thou cleansed. Jesus said this, all that the
Father giveth Me, they shall come to Me. And him that cometh to Me, I
will in no wise cast out. Was there ever a chance this
man was going to be sent away? When you came to Christ, was
there ever any chance that you were going to be sent away? He came to that certain city
for that certain man full of leprosy. Even so it is with all
His people. He comes to them in power, He
touches them, and listen, when He touches, what happens? Look at your text again. He put
forth His hand and touched them, saying, I will, be thou clean.
And what? Immediately the leprosy departed
him. When Christ saves a man, his
sin is gone. His sin is gone. I know this. My sin was gone long before I
experienced it. In the mind and eye of God, this
man was as good as cured before he became a leper. And before
I became a sinner in experience, listen, my leprosy was already
removed. Christ bore my sins in His own
body on the tree long before I knew it. But I'm so thankful
that I experienced it. And every one of His people will
experience it. And notice what this man does.
He says, go tell the priest. And do according to the law of
Moses for a testimony unto who? Them. To those who are still
under the law. Listen. This man that healed
me, this man that cleansed me, those offerings and sacrifices,
picture how he cleanses me. He takes those birds and you
slit the bird's throat and you run it under running water. That
was the ceremony in Leviticus 14. You know what that speaks
of? His blood is like a flowing river that constantly cleanses. That blood pours out and is constantly
cleansing us, constantly making us clean. What a wonder this
is. Yes, we were immediately healed,
but I tell you this, we are constantly healed. Perpetually healed. Who
keeps you healed? How is it that that malady of
leprosy would never come back into the new nature? Because
of Christ keeping us clean. Now then, the question is this,
are you a true leper or a fake? Only true lepers are cleansed. Only true sinners need a Savior. Only true sinners come to Christ
pleading for mercy. And what does every true sinner
find at the feet of Christ? Mercy. Cleansing. If you are a true leper, come
now. Come now. I like this... I don't
even know where I put it. It was a poem. I think Joseph Hart wrote
it. A sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost hath made him
one. You know why a sinner is a sacred
thing? Because only sinners are saved. And when God convicts
you of your leprosy, listen, you'll come to Christ. And when
you come, He is not only able, He's willing. He's willing. I pray God will bless this to
you. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer.