Just take your Bibles and turn
with me to Luke I'm gonna just go ahead and do it the way I
determined to do it begin with Luke chapter 5 Luke chapter 5 And the title of this message
is the furtherance of the gospel the furtherance of of the gospel
or the gospel spread. Now, notice in verse 12, we see
again the healing of this leprous man. This great display of Christ's
deity in cleansing the leper. And we know this to be a picture,
a picture of salvation of sinners. It says, And it came to pass,
when he was in a certain city, behold, a man full of leprosy,
who, seeing Jesus, fell on his face, and besought him, saying,
Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. Now remember,
leprosy was not considered to be a sickness or illness, but
rather a curse, a curse of God. When Miriam usurped the authority
of Moses, she was struck with leprosy. When Uzziah usurped
the authority of the priest when he tried to enter in to that
first part of the tabernacle to offer incense, he was struck
with leprosy. It was a curse of God. And you
remember when Naaman came and he sought to be healed and got
that letter from the king of Syria. When the king of Israel
received the letter, he said, Am I God that I can kill and
make a man alive to recover this man from leprosy? This was common
knowledge that leprosy was a curse and not an illness that could
only be remedied by God. So leprosy, a man who was lepers,
was as a dead man. He was cast out of the city,
stripped of all he owned, cast out from the worship of God and
the embrace of kin. Can you imagine such a thing
as being cast away from all men, all worship? This was the state,
the constant life of the leper, to be cast out. to be unclean. And even so, this was meant by
God to be a picture of our natural state. For we are all born spiritual
lepers. We are all born dead in sins. We are cast out from the presence
of God, unclean and unacceptable. And if a man try to come to God
by nature, by natural reasons, well, God should accept me because
I am this person or I did this, then you will be cast out from
the presence of God. He will not accept you or your
worship. Nor are we worthy of His covenant
promises of His people. Therefore, all the elect of God
and only the elect of God, listen, only the elect of God are true
lepers. Only the elect of God are true
leprous people. Only true lepers need cleansing. Only true lepers are in need
of reconciliation to God. Only true lepers desire to receive
the covenant promises of God's people. Only true lepers. I thought of this this morning.
If a man had a cure, say a benevolent man, a rich man who had no need
of money. He was so wealthy he had no need
to make any more money and he decided to search for a cure
for cancer and he found it. He found a cure for cancer. And
he was going to distribute this to only those who had cancer. Now that would just be logical,
wouldn't it? He wouldn't give this to anyone who didn't have
cancer. And so he gives this out for
free to everyone who has it. Now, we who wouldn't have cancer,
we'd say, well, that's good. Well that's good for this person
and that's good for that person. Why? Because we didn't have cancer.
We wouldn't have any need of it. And you know the only people
be mad about it were the people that were employed by the cancer
research facilities and all those people that make money off of
this. They would be upset. They would be, they have some
skin in the game and they don't want, they wouldn't want that
to be distributed for free. Isn't that much like the gospel?
See, the gospel is only for sinners. True, absolute, helpless sinners. Now, if you're not one of those,
the gospel is not for you. If you've got something, if you've
got some goodness of your own, then the gospel is not for you. It is only for those who cannot
help themselves, those who have leprosy. Only for true lepers. And you know who gets mad at
that? The religious people. The one who make money off of
this, of religion. You see, if it's free, then what
good is all their help? Salvation's free! It's free! It's offered by Christ! It is
free! It is freely given to all who
have need of salvation. Freely given. You see, false
religion, they only heal God's people slightly. They only put
a band-aid on it. So why? So you come back. They
want you to come back. They need you to come back. And
so this is what is necessary. All false lepers who have the
scab, who have a spot or a sore of their conscience, you remember
that the priest put those people away seven days. And if it was
not leprosy, what happened? It went away. It went away. Even so it is with false confessors
of sin. Their conscience may be pricked.
They feel either the scab of guilt. They are brought into
sore conviction of their sin. And so in fear, what do they
do? They flee to the church. They flee to religion. And say,
what must I do? And some well-intentioned fool says, it'll be okay. It's all
right. Some well-intentioned parent
says to their dying child, don't worry. It's all right. God loves
you. Jesus died for you. Some foolish preacher says to
them, well, be baptized. Walk down the church aisle. Repeat
after me. The sinner's prayer. Take the Lord's table. Confess
to some man. Speak with a counselor. This
is their remedy. And by and by, these false professors,
their guilt seems to fade away, their conscience seems to clear
up, and they return to the vomit of their sin. Those may endure for a while. Some who come in are false professors.
They come in and they grit their teeth to hear the gospel. I've
seen it. I've seen men try to sit under the sound of the gospel
and I mean it is a painful experience to sit and have to listen to
this gospel again and again and again so they can only take it
for so long and then they got to go. They just can't stay. Some people tip their hat, pay
their seat rent, and in a while, as long as it doesn't interfere
with their pleasures, their family, or their amusements, they'll
stay. But not so with a true leper.
Not so with the leper of this text. I tell you, this man would
not be sent away. This man would not be given anything
but healing. There is nothing that he desired,
nothing he could do or desire more than to be healed of his
leprosy. So it is with a true sinner.
A true sinner desires nothing greater than to be healed of
his sin, to be reconciled to God, to be accepted of God. When a man has true sin, he's
like that woman that the Lord You know, she had come to Him
in begging for her daughter's life. And the Lord says, is it
Me to give the children's bread to dogs? I tell you this, she
would not be turned away by the disciples nor even by the Lord's
rebuke. What did she say? Truth. You
said truth. I am a dog. But even the dogs
receive the crumbs from the Master's table and He says, great is thy
faith. That's great faith. One who will not be turned away.
And I'll tell you this, a true sinner won't be turned away.
If I perish, I must perish at the feet of Christ seeking mercy. That's the heart of a true sinner
in need. And when God comes to a true
sinner in conviction, He surely exposes our guilt. That it cannot be cured by vain
repetition of prayers. It cannot be cured by our coming
down a church aisle. It cannot be cured by physical
water. It cannot be cured by any mortal
man. Our leprosy cannot be cured by
counselors, by psychologists, by doctors of medicine, not by
any slick-suited preacher. There is no cure in this world
save one. And that's the one the leper
in our text comes to. He's seeing Jesus fell on his
face and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make
me clean. Therefore, we must come to Christ. Even as the leper comes, so must
we come to the Lord of heaven and earth, who is God manifest
in the flesh. And how shall we come? How shall
we come to Christ? Shall you come demanding of Christ? Shall you come demanding of Him
a cure for your sin? No! Lord, if Thou wilt... This man understood something
of sovereignty. He understood something of deity. He came bowing to Christ, saying,
Lord, if You will, You can. as one cursed, seeking God's
mercy. But how shall we come, seeing
we have truly offended? The leper comes as unworthy,
in seeking mercy and not merit. Listen, if you're ever going
to be cured of sin, you must come in that way. Absolute free mercy and no merit
in yourself. You must come seeking free mercy. If we are ever to be allowed
into the presence of God, if we are ever to worship God and
enjoy the gifts and benefits of the elect, we must come as
a true leper. We must come to Jesus Christ
suing for sovereign mercy. Lord, if you will, you can. Make
me whole. Listen, if you cannot be cleansed
by any other means, you will come to Christ. If you've
got someplace else to go, you'll go. That's just how there is
to it. Until God brings you to the end
of yourself, you'll never come to Christ. But when God brings
you to the end of yourself, you will only go to Christ. You will
only go to Christ. And listen, then you are welcome. This man was not rebuked. This man was not rejected. This
man was welcomed in the presence of Jesus Christ. And I tell you,
every true sinner is welcomed. Welcomed, he said, I will. He put forth his hand and touched
it, saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately, Immediately,
the leprosy departed from him. See, Jesus is the only Savior
for real lepers. He's the only Savior because
He is the only God-man mediator, the only one who has offered
Himself for sin. He is the only God-man mediator
who has come into the world to represent the elect of God, to
provide righteousness and atonement for sin. And see the result of
what He has done. See what Christ has done as a
man. Go to Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9. Read with
me what He's done. I'll show you what He's done.
The Lord Jesus Christ, Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 11, it says, being come an high priest. Now, what's a high priest? That's
one who mediates between God and men. That's the one who offers
the sacrifice so that the people should be accepted. Christ becomes
the high priest of good things to come, a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood
He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. Going to go down to verse 22. And almost all things are by
the law purged with blood. And this is very important. Without
shedding of blood is no remission. You see that? There's no remission
of sin. There's no remission of leprosy. There's no remission of our guilt
except by blood sacrifice. It was therefore necessary that
the pattern of things in heaven should be purified with these,
but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into
the holy place made with hands, which are figures of the true,
but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God
for us. Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high
priest entered into the holy place, every year with blood
of others. For then must he have suffered
since the foundation of the world, but now once. Once in the end
of the world, He hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself." You see, those Old Testament things were only a
picture, a figure of Him. They went in there yearly. They
sacrificed daily. And those things never took away
sin, because they only pictured Him who was to come once and
take away sin. And I tell you, by the sacrifice
of Himself, He has taken away sin forever. He has removed it
by the sacrifice of Himself. He, as our High Priest, brought
His own blood into the presence of God. And God says, accepted. That sacrifice is accepted. No
other sacrifice is accepted. One sacrifice. Once. Once. This man Jesus, our High Priest,
offered Himself once. And in verse 10 of chapter 10,
it says this, by the witch will. Jesus said, I came to do thy
will, O God. And He said, by the witch will,
by God's will, we are sanctified, we are made holy through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ. Well, how often did Christ
offer Himself? Once. You know, when you do something
once, and you only have to do it once, that means it's perfect. I don't ever do anything once.
If I do something once, I've got to fix whatever it is I did
once. But Christ entering in once hath
put away sin forever. He has sanctified those who come
to Him, and He says He is willing. How important is that? Because
He's able. You may be able to do something,
but you may not be willing to do it. But Christ displays this
to the lepers. I am not only able, I'm willing. Willing. If thou wilt, thou canst
make me whole. I will be thou clean. I will. Can you see yourself? Can you see yourself here? This
is what the Scripture is here for. It's not here just to show
us Jesus could do miracles. It's here to show us ourselves.
I see myself here. I see myself. I see my own condition. And I come believing. I come
bowing down. I come seeking only to be cleansed
by Him. And you know what I've found?
I've found cleansing. I've found cleansing. And now
then, what is the result of this miracle? Look on with me. Go back to your text. In verse 14, Jesus said this,
After the leprosy was gone, He, see, charged him to tell no man,
But go, and show thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing,
according to Moses' commandment, for a testimony unto them. A testimony unto them. The Lord Jesus Christ, according
to the scripture, was not to lift up his voice or have his
voice be heard in the streets. In other words, he was never
to point men or try to exalt himself. Christ came in humiliation,
in humbleness. Therefore, he tells this man,
he says, look, you don't need to spread this fame, you don't
need to try to go around and tell people. First thing you
need to do is you need to go and show thyself to the priest.
In other words, to testify that this was a legitimate miracle.
He must go to the priests. Anyone could have spread a rumor
and said they were healed of Christ. But Jesus said that in
obedience to the law, you must go to the priests and show yourselves
for a testimony unto them. Now, what is this word to us? Everyone who is cleansed of leprosy
desires this. to show ourselves as a testimony
of Jesus Christ's power and glory. Is this not our desire? Matter
of fact, is that not why we're here? To testify of Christ? To identify with Christ? I remember that story and it
won't ever escape me. An elderly believer in the church,
he was losing his hearing. And pretty soon, he could only
hear if you kind of yelled in his ear. Couldn't hear the message,
but he still came. He was always faithful to the
services. And the preacher's curiosity
got a hold of him. He yelled in his ear, Brother,
why do you come? You can't hear the message. And the older man thought, and
he said this to the preacher, I come to be identified. with God's people and His message. I'll tell you why we're here.
We're here to identify with Him who cleansed us. We're here to
testify to everyone around us that the gospel is preached here. That Christ is exalted here. That we worship Jesus Christ
and Him crucified, Jesus Christ and Him risen from the dead.
That's what we do, and our desire is to be a testimony You know
this? Believer, the Lord Jesus Christ
says of you that are cleansed, you are the light of the world. He does not say you will become
the light of the world. I know that's what men think,
that's what people think. They say, well, when I get better,
I'll be a light. No, you're a light now. No. When you're born again, you're
automatically a light. You're automatically a testimony.
You say, well, He didn't say, you will be a light when you
know more. How many people in believers especially say, well,
I'm just ashamed. I don't know much. What about
that man born blind? What did he say? He said, that
I don't know. I don't know. This I know. once
was blind, but now I see." Is that not simple enough? That
was a light and a testimony of those people so much they kicked
him out. He didn't know much. So not wait
till you know more. You're not a light. When you
become more sanctified, listen, you'll never be any more holy
than you are right now. You got that? If you're waiting
for a day to testify of Christ when you become more holy, that's
not going to happen. You right now have the righteousness
of God in you. Surely we do strive to put off
the old man. We do strive, and grace teaches
us to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.
And we do, by our good work, show forth the grace and mercy
of our Father in heaven. But I'll tell you this, you're
waiting to be more holy. It's flesh don't get more holy. It's
flesh don't get holy at all. It's flesh! And that spirit that
God has given you is just as holy as it will be in
the day when you are raised from the dead. When your spirit ascends
to glory. So, believers, we're not to wait
to testify of Christ. We testify of Christ now. We
are the light of the world. You that are born again, you
are the light. And you are a testimony of the
grace and power of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. You yourself
are a living example of His power and deity. Consider your faith. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. I tell you this, if you've not believed on Christ,
if you've not had faith in Christ, then you're none of His. So faith
is the rudiment, is the base grace. It must have faith. And faith and repentance and
all of this goes together in the new birth. But let's just
take faith for example. Do you think so lightly of your
faith? You think faith is easy to come
by? You think that anyone could have
faith? Scripture, the book, tells us that's not true. That faith
is a gift of God. It's a gift of grace. For by
grace you are saved through faith. And that faith is not of yourself. It, faith, is a gift of God,
not of works, lest any man should boast. Faith is a work of God. Jesus said, this is the work
of God. that you believe on Him whom
He has sent. That's the work of God. Don't
think little of your faith. Faith is the only evidence of
true life. Faith is the only evidence of
it. Therefore, we by our new life
and faith in Christ are a testimony of Christ. We are testimony to His perfect
sacrifice and of His resurrection and glorification. You see, the
fact that you have faith and repentance and forgiveness of
sin is evidence of Christ's resurrection. In Acts chapter 5, the Scripture
says, God hath highly exalted Him to be a Prince and a Savior
to give repentance. and forgiveness of sins. Do you
have those? Well then, that is a testimony
to the risen Lord Jesus Christ. The only reason you have that
is because He is risen from the dead. And He gives it. He gives
it to us. It is here in our text we see
the glory and deity of Christ in the healing of this leper,
even so is it displayed in us who are cleansed by his power. And the result is this, verse
15, But so much the more went fame abroad of him. And great multitudes came to
hear and be healed of him of their infirmities. What is to be the result of our
healing? It is to spread the fame of Christ. That's my desire. I want others
to know Him. I want others to see Him as I
see Him. I want others to see Him as the
Word of God reveals Him to be. And tell you this, just as sure
as his fame went in that day, his fame goes forth today. You see, his word goes out in
power. And this is the next thing I
want us to see is a lesson to all who preach the gospel. Verse
16. What did the Lord do when his
fame went abroad? Verse 16, He withdrew Himself
into the wilderness and prayed. Is that not completely opposite
of what we would do? If our fame went out, what would
we do? We would hold a rally. That's
what we would do. We would have something else.
We would try to promote ourselves even more. That's our nature.
But Christ did not do that. He withdrew Himself. I tell you, in times of church
history, we have seen such grace and power as when the Lord gives
revival. There have been great times of
revival in the church. There are times when He displays
His power and grace and many come... And I tell you, I pray
for that. You should pray for that. That
there should be times like that in our day. But have you ever
noticed that when his fame seems to be at its peak, it's then
that the Lord leaves. Every time in Scripture, if you
were to go to, I've got several illustrations here, I won't have
time to turn there, but in Mark chapter 1, Mark chapter 6, Luke
chapter 4, and John chapter 6, every time the Lord's fame grew,
He left. What happened when he fed the
5,000? What happened? He left. You see, they would
make him king, and he would not have it at all. You see, in times of revival,
what normally happens at its peak is that false religion swoops
in with the counterfeit. They swoop in and try to keep
the excitement alive by counterfeiting or imitating the true revival
with a false one. They start developing groups
and committees, they try to organize it. Listen, a revival is something
so fragile, so if a man put his hands to it, it's gone. If the Spirit ever comes in power
and many come, then we should thank God and leave it alone. Leave it alone. Not try to organize it or establish
it. But what then is the lesson for
preachers? When a gospel starts to be popular
in the world, when the fame of Christ seems to spread, and blend
in with the false church, surely we would be wise to do as our
Savior and withdraw ourselves from them, and give ourselves
to study and prayer." To give ourselves to study and prayer.
Let us withdraw ourselves constantly to prayer and study of God's
Word. We as preachers should be faithful to declare the gospel
of Christ and we should never change our message regardless
and never seek the fame or recognition of this world. That is not our
purpose. Our purpose is to preach Christ,
only Christ, always Christ. And our Lord did this to refresh
His soul. And he who preaches the Word
of God surely must receive His Word from God." That's what he
went to the wilderness to do, to receive His Word from God.
Now truly, Christ was in such a union with the Father that
He always communed with the Father. But I tell you this, we as believers
always commune with the Spirit. We have the Holy Spirit in union
with us. And I tell you, that's where
we are to receive our Word. And I'll tell you, Jesus used
the Word of God. That's where we should receive
our messages, the Word of God. You know, Christ used the Word
of God, didn't he? Christ used the Word of God.
Peter said, he said, I've seen great things. I saw the Lord
transfigured. But he said, I'll tell you a
more sure word of prophecy, the Scripture. It's a more sure word
than even visions and dreams. And so preachers of the Gospel,
Those God has gifted and given to the ministry, given for the
church or for the edification of the church, the maturing of
the saints until we all come into the unity of faith. And this maturing of the saints,
this calling of the saints, how does it come? It comes by the
same way we heard it the first time. Preaching the gospel. Preaching Christ. You know, Paul
desired the Colossians to be filled with all knowledge of
God's will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that
they should walk worthy. of the Lord unto all pleasing,
being fruitful to God in every good work." That's my prayer
for you. My prayer is that you be filled with the knowledge
of spiritual things, of Christ. But how is this conveyed to you?
It is conveyed in the same way it was to them, through the preaching
of the gospel. And if you are a true believer,
Paul said, you will continue rooted and grounded in what?
The same gospel. The gospel. You'll be rooted
and grounded in the gospel that you have heard preached. Therefore,
it is good for the church. It's good for you that I give
myself to this. I want you to really understand
that. It is good for you that I give myself to this ministry,
to this preaching, to study and to prayer. that I may be taught
of God and be given a word of God for your benefit. Therefore, we endure all things
for the elect's sake. We do this for the elect's sake.
We are sent of God to you by Christ, our Savior. I like this. Somebody told me this this week.
He said, a preacher, he said, you know what, Fred, I'm a man
of one thing. That's right. We're a man of
one thing. Preaching Christ. That's it. I've got one string on my guitar. One string. It makes one sound. And I pray it is clear and distinct
from every other sound around you. It is the sound of Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. You know why? Because
Christ is all. Christ is all. Christ is all. All in all. And notice this, the success.
Verse 17, And it came to pass, in a certain day, as he was teaching,
there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which
were come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem,
and the power of the Lord was present to heal them." There's
no question what Christ taught. He preached the gospel. He preached
to poor sinners, to lame sinners, to imprisoned sinners. He preached
salvation for sinners. There's no doubt. Yet notice
who showed up. The Pharisees and doctors of
the law sitting by. Now, Jesus' message was only
to certain people. My message is only to certain
people. It's not for everyone. Everyone may hear it, but not
everyone is going to understand it or believe it. You see, my
message is to bankrupt sinners, to blind sinners, to lame sinners,
to captive sinners. But you see, these men didn't
see themselves as such sinners. These thought themselves worthy
of His presence, they were worthy to hear His word, and they thought
they were already accepted. Even so today in many churches,
the pews are full so that no one can get in. Matter of fact,
these guys, they filled this place so much that in the next
few verses you'll see these five guys trying to get in. They couldn't
even get in. They had to let this guy down
from the roof to put him before Christ. This place was full,
but it was full of people sitting by. Sitting by. Many churches are full of people
just sitting by. They hear the words, but they
themselves have no interest. But this is my confidence. And
this is the confidence of our Lord. This is the confidence
of every preacher. The gospel, no matter what, is successful. That's good news to me. This
gospel is always successful. Because the presence of the Lord,
the Lord was present to heal them. The power of the Lord was
there. And every time the gospel is
preached, the power of the Lord is here to heal sinners. To heal sinners. Paul said, this
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. What?
Preaching? To the world this is foolish,
but to us who believe, it is the power of God. And it's a wonderful thing to
know this, that every time the Word is preached, the power of
God is present to heal. Every time Christ is preached,
we say to sinners, to lepers, come, believe, and be healed. And I tell you, there's power
in that. There's power to heal the vilest of sinners. You see, but only fools sit by. Only fools sit by. If you will
not come, and you perish in your sins, listen, it will be your
own fault. you will have no one to blame
but yourself. Why? The power of the Lord is present
to heal everyone that comes. Now, I know this, God's sovereign.
I do. Scripture is bared out plainly.
God's chosen a people, Christ redeemed them, and only they
will come by the power of the Spirit. But I also know this,
that the Spirit and the bride say, and let him that is a thirst
come. And whosoever will, let him come
and take of the water of life freely. But if you do not come and take
freely, it will be your own fault. But
if you do come and take freely, you see, that will be God's.
work that will be God will receive
the glory for that not you therefore we who preach the gospel
must be faithful to labor surrender ourselves to receive it from
God to study in prayer for your benefit and for the furtherance
of this gospel and we have confidence as our Lord did, even though
these men came and they did not hear. Our Lord knew who would
come and who wouldn't. He knew these men were just sitting
by, that they didn't have any interest in this, but He also
knew there was a paralyzed man who was about to come. And you
see, He was there for that man. And I'll tell you, the church
is a good picture of those four men that brought Him. You see, they knew where the
power was and they brought Him, their friend, to Christ. And so for the furtherance of
the gospel, I preach the gospel. But friends, you should go out
and get your friends. You should go out and compel
them to come in and hear the gospel. You can't save them.
That's the Lord's business. But our business is to be light. And you know what? I'm going
to take away the suspension. We will be successful. It doesn't
matter if no one else comes in. We're successful. For we are
a saver of life unto life to some and a saver of death unto
death to others. But I'll tell you this, God's
Word is not going out void. Whatever you witness, it will
prosper. God sent it out for that purpose,
to give Himself glory, either to condemn a man or to save him. So in this, may God show us salvation
in the cleansing of the leper. The spreading forth of His fame
by His cleansed people. The necessity of preachers to
withdraw themselves and to prepare and preach the gospel to the
people, no matter who hears. And know this, the power of the
Lord is always present to heal. I pray that God would give us
such wisdom and understanding. His word is so full. You know what it's full of? It's
full of Christ. It's full from cover to cover
of Christ. May God give you such wisdom,
know it. I pray.