Matthew 8, verses 1 through 4,
and the title of the message tonight, An Unclean Leper and
a Willing Savior. An Unclean Leper and a Willing
Savior. Matthew 8, verse 1 says, And
when He was come down from the mount, 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, 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 priests, and offer the gift that Moses commanded for
a testimony unto them." Now here we have a very familiar passage
of Scripture, a very familiar history to every one of us here
about how this leper came to the Lord Jesus Christ for healing. How he followed along with the
multitude after they had come down from the mountain. and how
he had come before the Lord and worshipped Him and said, Lord,
if You will, You can make me whole. And the Lord Jesus, out
of great compassion, reached out His hand and touched him
and said, I will be thou clean. I will. And immediately the leprosy
departed from this man, and He said, go and show yourself for
a testimony to the Jews. Go and show them that I'm the
one that did this for you. You go and show them so that
they might be clear that I am one that obeys the law. And now,
this Scripture, this familiar passage of Scripture, we know
is like all Scriptures, given by inspiration of God and is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness. We know that these miracles are
not here just to fill space. God never fills space in His
book. Everything in this book, every
sentence, every chapter, every verse speaks only of Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. This is no different. This miracle,
as all miracles of Jesus Christ, it not only proves His power
to physically heal. That's not all this is saying. What this is telling us also
is His power to forgive sins. So every time you look at a miracle
of the Lord Jesus Christ in your study, I want you to see that
that is the message of the gospel is contained in the type of this
miracle, in the miracle itself. Go over to Matthew chapter 9.
Jesus Himself says this. In Matthew chapter 9, look at
verses 2. We have before us this man the
sick of the palsy. And if you remember how they
brought this man before the Lord Jesus Christ, And in verse 2,
they laid that bed before Him, and the Lord Jesus said something
that's very strange. I'm sure that everyone there
expected Him to say to get up. But He didn't, did He? What did
He say? He said, Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee. And now certain of the scribes,
they began to murmur. They began to complain about
this. This man blasphemeth. In other places it says, only
God can forgive sins. Who is this man? And Jesus said,
why think evil in your hearts? He said, let me ask you a question.
Which is easier? Is it easier to say, thy sins
be forgiven thee, or to get up and walk? That's a rhetorical
question because we know it's easy to say, Thy sins be forgiven
thee. Why? You can't see that, can
you? We can't see that. But we can see, get up and walk. And Jesus said, But that you
may know that the Son of Man hath power to forgive sins, He
saith to him, the sick of the palsy, Arise, take up thy bed,
and go to thy house." These miracles here testify to us not only the
power of Christ to heal, but also the power of Christ to forgive
sins. To save sinners. And so it is
with the healing of this leper in our text. And tonight, I want
us to see this in three simple divisions. I want us to see the
leper, I want us to see the Savior, and then I want us to see the
commandment. There are three things here in this text. The
leper, the Savior, and the commandment. First of all, the leper. Behold,
there came a leper. Now, this plague of leprosy was
looked on by the law not as a disease or sickness, but as a curse. You see, when
a man contracted leprosy, he was not commanded to go to the
doctors. He was commanded to go to the
priest. Why? Because this was a spiritual
matter. This was a spiritual matter.
This was a curse, a plague. And when that man was thought
to have leprosy, the priest would take him out, and he'd set him
apart for seven days. And at the end of that seven
days, he would inspect that little wound, and if it started to spread,
there were certain actions that the priest was commanded to perform
by law. There are three things that the
priest was commanded to do. And if you want to study the
law of the leper, and I think you should, because I think there
are a lot of other things there that I don't have time to bring
out, but the law of the leper is in Leviticus 13 and 14. But
the first thing the priest must do, according to the law, was
he must declare that man unclean. He must declare that man unclean
or defiled. Defiled. And it didn't matter
who it was. See, this is the thing about
the law. It really doesn't care what status you have in the world,
does it? Moses' sister, when she had leprosy,
was she not cast out of the camp? Absolutely. Was she not declared
unclean? Absolutely. You think about that
servant of Elisha. The servant of Elisha, he got
leprosy and he was declared unclean. King Uzziah, a man of God, and
yet he had leprosy and the law was no different for him as it
was for the servant. Unclean. Unclean. The law demanded that the man
be declared unclean. Second of all, the man must be
stripped. Leviticus 13.45 says, "...And
the leper in whom the plague is in the clothes shall be rent,
and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his lips,
and he shall cry, unclean, unclean." Because he was unclean, everything
he touched was unclean. When a man is defiled by this
plague of leprosy, everything he touches is unclean. Even his clothes. There's even
a law what to do with his clothes. Can you imagine that? There's
a law that said you should inspect his clothes. And if his clothes
have the plague on them, then you should burn them. You should
burn them. And number three, the law demanded
that he be cast outside the camp. Leviticus 13, 46, all the days
wherein the plague shall be in him, he shall be defiled, he
is unclean, he shall dwell alone with outside the camp of his
habitation. Now friends, do you suppose this
was a pleasant thing? Do you suppose for one minute
that this leper had a pleasant existence? There's one thing that I really
don't like and that's to be alone. This man had to be alone all
the days he had leprosy. He had to be cast out. The law
demanded him to be cast out. Cast out from his friends, from
his family, from his children. He was cast out to dwell alone
all the days of his life. But there's something worse than
this. This man was cast out from all the worship of God. You see,
when the temple, it was in the city, and he could not worship
God. He was cut off from all worship
of God. Now friends, this leper, this
leprosy, is nothing more to us than a picture of sin. That's what it is. This is why
God determined it to be a plague rather than a disease, so that
it might picture sin. And it does a perfect job of
that. This curse of God fell upon all
of Adam's race when Adam sinned. When Adam sinned, his soul became
cursed with leprosy. The leprosy of sin. And it started
out as one mark. One failure to obey God's law. God said, don't eat. And he ate. And it was a small infraction. But friends, do you realize that
if a man had a small bit of leprosy or a large amount of leprosy,
both of them were lepers? It mattered not if it was a spot
or it covered the whole body. It was leprosy. And friends,
sin covers us. Therefore, by one man, sin, leprosy,
entered into the world. And death by sin. So death passed
upon all men." What is leprosy? Is it not a disease of the flesh? Is it not a corruption of the
flesh? I don't know if you've ever seen
that. That is the most horrific thing. It just eats away and consumes
until the man's dead. But friends, we must realize
that all of us are lepers by nature. All of us. All men by nature are unclean. Is that not right? It's what
the Scriptures tell us. All men are born with this, under
the law of God, by nature unclean. We've all sinned against God's
law. We've all contracted this disease
of leprosy. And as I said, it doesn't matter
if it's one small spot or it covers the whole man. It doesn't
matter. It matters not if he's a great
sinner or a moral sinner. It doesn't matter if he's a religious
man or a vulgar man. All men by nature are unclean
in the eyes of God, just like a leper. All men are exposed
like this leper. You remember that the leper,
see, he had to be ripped of all of his clothes, and he had to
be stripped and exposed. Is this not what the law of God
does to every leper? Strips us of all our self-righteousness? Have we not all lied? Have we not all missed the mark
of God's holiness? None of us have loved God with
all of our hearts. None of us has loved our neighbor
as ourself. If any man will be honest with
himself when he comes in contact with this law, that law will
strip him and expose him to be imperfect. And because of this Leprosy,
all men are cast out by the law. Just as the leper was outcast,
so every man by nature is not able by nature to commune with
God. And don't get me wrong, the natural
man, the leper, is a religious man. The natural man is a religious
man. The natural man always will worship
a God. He will worship something or
someone. It's natural for us to be religious. Do you realize that an atheist
is religious? He is. Friends, he wants proof of the
existence of God, but he doesn't have any proof that there's not
a God. Does he? No. So what is he doing? He has set himself and his own
thoughts to be God. He said, I will be the master
of my own destiny. So what is he doing? He is worshipping
himself. He set himself up to be God.
And so all men set up to be something to be God. All men serve a God. They may go to church and read
a religious book. Yet because of the sin nature,
their plague of leprosy, they cannot. No man can know God unless
God revealed him himself. No man can know God, not by nature. Why? Because we're outcast. We're
cast out. God is a pure eyes and to behold
iniquity. That's what the scripture says. Who shall ascend into the hill
of the Lord? He that hath clean hands. Oops!
I just said we're all undone, we're unclean. How can we approach
before a holy God? You cannot in yourself. You cannot. Not by the law. The law casts
you out, casts me out. And I pray that God the Holy
Spirit allow this to sink deep into our hearts. To recognize
what we are by nature. Friends, this old man raises
his head constantly in pride. And in order to get him back
down where he belongs, we must understand who we really are. Lepers. by nature. That's who
we are. That's who this old man is, a
leper by nature. And friends, if any man will
seek to worship God by law or religious works, the Scripture
says in Psalm 16, 4, their sorrow shall be multiplied. Why? They hasten after another God. And friends, this man here before
us tonight, a leper, is a picture of every sinner. He's unclean,
he's exposed, and he's outcast. Next, I want us to see how this
leper came. That's who he was. Now, how did
he come? How did he come? Look at this. He came and worshipped Him. That's how he came. Let this
man be a lesson to all who find themselves in this condition,
to all who are exposed and unclean before God, cast out of His mercy. Let this be a lesson to us. Come
like this man before Christ and worship Him. Worship Him. He came in repentance. He came
seeking to be clean. He came with a heart of worship
to Jesus Christ. Now notice this. This man came
out of the crowd. There was a bunch of people there,
weren't there? The Scripture says a multitude followed him
down from the mountain. And behold, a leper. And behold,
a leper came and worshipped him. A leper came out of this crowd.
Now friends, all men need forgiveness. All men need forgiveness, don't
they? All men who have leprosy, they need to be cleansed, don't
they? Did not this multitude need to
be cleansed? And yet it was only one leper. Only one leper came out and worshipped
Him. Why is that? Why did this man
come out from the multitude? Because he had a need of healing. The others didn't. The others
had no need. They had no need. This man, he
had a need. He had a need to be cleansed.
If a man's not sick, he won't go to the doctor. And if a man
hath not leprosy, he will not come to Christ for healing. This
man had leprosy. He had a need to be healed, and
so he came to Jesus and worshipped Him. The rest of them tried to
cover themselves. Every man has leprosy, but every
man that sees even a fraction of his sin, what does he do?
He tries to cover it. He tries to cover it. And the
sad thing is he covers it with the very thing that condemns
him. He tries to cover it with law
and legalism. He tries to work and earn His
cleanliness before God. But the Scripture says, Therefore by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in His sight. This man was an outcast. This
man had a plague. He had a need. And so he came
to Christ. After hearing the authority of
Christ, he came and he said, I know something about this man.
This man has authority. This man has authority. This
man, he spake like no other man spake. This man must himself
be God. And that's what this man recognized.
He said, Lord, unto him. He recognized his deity. He recognized His deity and worshipped
Him. Friends, are there any lepers
in need of cleansing? Any exposed and cast out to sin? Then come to Christ seeking healing,
for He alone is God, and only God can heal the leprosy of sin. Remember when Naaman came to
that king? He wrote that letter and sent it to the king. And
the king began to be upset. He began to think that Naaman
wanted to war with him. And he said, Who am I? Am I God
that I can heal leprosy? You see, this man knew it took
God to heal leprosy. That leprosy just didn't go away.
It didn't go away on its own. It needed God. And so he came
to Jesus Christ and worshiped Him as God. And number three,
his understanding of this leper. He said this, look at our text.
He said, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. I want us to see
this man's understanding of his lack of merit. This man came
and he said, If you will. He recognized the deity of Christ
and understood that deity and sovereignty go hand in hand.
He knew he had no merit by which to bargain his healing. And neither does any sinner that
would come for healing before Christ. You must come without
merit. This man came without merit of
healing. But you know this sinner, even
though he didn't have merit, that didn't stop him, did it? He didn't wait till he was better.
He didn't wait till he was cleansed to come to Christ. He came to
Christ as he was. And He came quickly. He came
as soon as He could. He came to Christ. And I'll tell
you, if there's anybody that has leprosy of sin, come to Christ
now. Don't wait. Don't wait until
you're better. How many times I've heard that.
Said, well, I just got to get this right before I come. No,
no, don't come now. Come now. Don't wait. What does
that song say? If you tarry till you're better,
you will never come at all. No, come now. This one understood
he didn't have any merit, but he came anyway. Come now anyway. And also, this leper also believed
that Christ had the power. He said, if you will, you can.
He wasn't asking a question, he was making a statement. If
you will, you can. He rightly came to Christ alone. for healing. And all who come
to Christ alone come without delay, for He has the power. Not only is He willing, but He
has the power. He alone has the power. Come
to Christ. There's none other. This man didn't go to the priest.
He already went to them. What did they say? Get out. He said, this man is my only
hope. Scripture says, there is none of the name given among
men whereby we must be saved. And believer, I cannot read this
without recognizing and seeing myself in this text every time. Do I not still come to Christ
in the same way? Do I not still come? How many
times do we doubt that He will forgive us? How many times do
we come and we say, Lord, if You will forgive us? See, this
man, he didn't know everything, did he? He didn't know if Christ would
forgive him. Believer, we should know better. But yet we still
come this way. We still come doubting of His
forgiveness. And that's what I want to look
at next, the Savior. Look at the first response of the Savior.
Matthew 8.3, He put His hand out and He touched him. Now friends,
I want you to imagine for a moment, this man had not been touched
in years. It was against the law. Nobody
could touch him. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ,
He saw him. And the first thing He did was
reach out His hand. and touch His face. Can you imagine
the thrill of having someone touch you? But it wasn't just anybody that
touched Him. Not anybody could. Only Jesus Christ could touch
Him because He could not be tainted with His defilement. He was the
impeccable Christ, the holy, sinless Son of God. And He wretched
His hand out and He touched Him. And this also tells us that Christ
was identifying with this man. When Christ came down, what did
He come to do? He came to identify with us. He came to take on suffering.
He came to take on our griefs, to take on our pains as a man,
so that He might be a faithful high priest. And after doing
all of this, after coming into this world, becoming a man, obeying
God's law perfectly, Righteously. After taking and touching our
sins, taking our sins and putting on Himself. Our Savior died for
our sins. So that His people might have
a righteousness of God imputed to them. He had no sin. And yet He could still touch
the sinner. And Himself not be defiled. Friends,
our Savior is a loving Savior, a kind Savior. And not only is
He kind to touch the sinner, He is also willing to save. He said, I will, to this leper. Can you imagine the joy of this
leper at that time? He said, Lord, if You will. Just waiting for a no. Anticipating
a no. And He touched him and He said, Imagine the great joy of this
man. And no doubt there's a great joy when every sinner comes to
find that Jesus Christ is a willing Savior, a willing Savior. Friends, Christ is more willing
to save a wretched sinner than a sinner is to come. Christ is
more willing to save a sinner than a sinner is to come. He said, I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance. I didn't come to call the good
folks. Now, you good folks, you may
have to find somebody else to look to. But He came for us. He came for the wretches of society. He came for the dregs. He came
for the sinners. And He says to the sinner, I
will save you. And not only is He willing, He's powerful. That's one thing
to be willing, isn't it? It's altogether another to be
able. You can ask me to do something for you and I could be willing
all day long. But if I have no power, what
good is that? It's no value to you. If Christ
was just willing, but He had no power to save, what kind of
Christ would that be? It would be a worthless Christ. A worthless Savior. And yet,
that's what the world is exalting. That's what the world is lifting
up. A worthless Savior. Their Savior, their Jesus is
willing, yes, but He has no power. I told a woman on the phone,
I said, I feel sorry for a Jesus like that. That's a Jesus to
be pitied, not worshipped. But our Jesus is not like that.
Jesus said, I will be thou clean. And what happened? Immediately. Immediately he was
cleansed of his leprosy. You know, Christ didn't have
to tell him to go wash in Jordan seven times, did He? Like Naaman
the leper had to. No. Jesus is Jordan. He is the cleansing power of
God. And He has given power to save
all those that were given to Him. John 17, 2, "...Thou hast
given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life
to as many as Thou hast given Him." He said, "...I will be
Thou clean." And friends, any sinner that comes to Christ,
like this leper, who comes humble before Him with nothing, He will
find a most willing and powerful Savior to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. All of it. John says, but if
we walk in the light as He in the light, we have fellowship.
Ah, we're not cast out anymore. Why? Because we're cleansed,
he says, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanseth us. And that word is a continual
cleansing. He has cleansed. He is cleansing. And He shall cleanse us from
all our sins. Is this not a marvel? It is to
a leper who's been cleansed. It is to a leper who's been cleansed. It's a great marvel. Our Savior
is actually willing and powerful to save us from all our sins.
And lastly, the commandment of our Savior. Look at this in verse
4. He says, See thou tell no man, but go thy way and show
thyself to the priests and offer a gift that Moses commanded for
a testimony unto them. The first thing I see out of
this is, don't tell but show. Don't tell but show. This man
was commanded to go to the priest. Don't tell them, show them. Believer in Christ, it is easy
for us to tell men of the power and willingness of Christ, but
how often do we show them what Christ has done for us? You see,
it's easy to say, I'm a Christian. But friends, all true Christians
live and love to live in holy character. They love to have
a holy conversation, a holy lifestyle. I was talking with someone And she was telling me about
her faith in Christ. And yet all of her life there
was no evidence whatsoever that she had ever come to Christ. Friends, when God the Holy Spirit
cleanses us from all sin, there will be a difference. There will
be a difference. Don't you suppose that there
was a difference in this man? Do you not think that people
could see the difference? They should be able to see the
difference in us. Show them what great things God
has done for us. Number two, offer the gift. He
said, offer the gift of Moses. Well, Christ has already done
that. He is the gift that they were
to offer. He is the Lamb that has been
offered for sins. But we are commanded to offer
the gifts of praise and thanksgiving. We are commanded to offer the
gifts of praise and thanksgiving. Hebrews 13, 15 says, By Him,
therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise unto God. How often? Continually. Continually. Let me ask you this. How can
we murmur and give thanks at the same time? Is that possible?
No. It's not possible. It's not possible. Friends, let us offer the gift
of thanksgiving. No, we may not have all that
we think we should, but it really doesn't matter if we have Christ. We have everything. We have everything if we have
Christ. So let us offer the gift of thanksgiving
and thirdly, a testimony. Our lives should be a constant
testimony. This man, He didn't have to try
to be a testimony, did he? He just was. He walked around
and all he had to do was pull up his sleeve and he was a testimony. Cleansed. Who did that? He did. He just
pointed men to the man that healed him. I imagine He told other lepers
about this man, don't you? Even so should we tell other
sinners about the Savior. That's what He's commanded us
who have been cleansed to do. I pray that God will bless this
to our hearts. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer.