Those are good choruses. Please for the Lord to come meet
with us. His spirit to sweep over our
soul. Hallelujah means praise you the
Lord. Turn with me now if you would
to Matthew chapter 8. Matthew chapter eight, and let's
read the first four verses here. When he was come down from the
mountain, great multitudes followed him. And behold, there came a
leper and worshiped 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 said 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. This is a very precious story
and moment in the scripture. This is a very precious moment.
I've always loved envisioning this whole scene, just thinking
about the whole scene that happened here. Our Lord, when he finished
his sermon on the Mount, he finished delivering his message. He came
down from the mountain and it says, great multitudes followed
him. Great multitudes of people. He
was in this crowd of a great multitude. But this account is
concerning one man. One man. That's what I love about
when you think of this incident. This is an incident
of a great, huge crowd of people. But when you read this, it's
one-on-one. It's just two people, one on
one, one at a time. That's how God deals with each
one of his people. He deals with them one at a time,
one at a time, even in his dealings from the cross. And I truly love
the thought of this. even in his dealings from the
cross, even though he was dealing with a number that no man could
number. As our Lord hung on the cross,
he hung there in the shame and the sin of his individual people. All of the sin was laid on him. He bore all of this sin, but
it was not just just a concoction of everybody's sin. It wasn't
just a pool of sin. It was my sin. He dealt with
God. He said, for Gabe Stoniker, why
have you forsaken me? Like we read about this morning,
last week, Lord, Lord. He said, why have you forsaken
me? And you think about what he said,
I'm gonna say to many in that day, that's what he should have
said to me. And for Gabe Stoniker, he cried,
why have you forsaken me? And then, go down the list, for
each one of his people, individually, he cried, why have you forsaken
me? The substitution of each one of his people, even though
it was a number no man could number, it was still one-on-one. That's amazing. That is amazing. One at a time. That's how he
deals with his people. That's what this account shows
us. Our Lord's intimate, individual dealings with each one of his
people. That's what makes this just so
precious to me. The Lord, there came a point
in time when the Lord dealt with me. There came a point in my
life where the Lord got ahold of me and awoke me. And I stopped just going through
the world. And he said to my soul, I am. He didn't speak out loud and
I didn't have a big, you know, people talk about. I'm telling
you though, he got a hold of me. And he said, I am. That's how I need the Lord to
deal with me. This is how I need the Lord to
deal with me. In my flesh, I'm no different
than this leper. The way that he dealt with this
leper, And if we know anything about
leprosy, the disease of leprosy, many people now don't. We only
know of it because we hear the stories from the scripture. But
oh, what a horrible disease. What a rotting, decaying disease. But the same way the Lord dealt
with this leper, that's how I need for him to deal with me because
I'm in the same boat with this leper. In my flesh, I'm in the
same boat. Verse one, when he was come down
from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. Verse two says,
and behold, there came a leper. That's a wonderful line. And
behold, and behold, there came a man who was infected with a
horrible disease. A decaying flesh rotting disease,
one that made him to be an outcast. It was a disease that caused
him to know what he was. And when the Lord reveals sin
to a person. People think they know what sin
is. Well, I know the Ten Commandments and, you know, you're not supposed
to murder and you're not supposed to... Oh, when God reveals sin,
when the Lord shows one of his own his leprosy, when God reveals
sin, this man knew what he was. This man knew what there's so
many people who don't know what they are before God. This man
knew what he was. This was a disease that caused
everybody else to know what he was. This couldn't be here. This could not be it. And that's
what God's people say before God. What I am can't be hidden. This just can't be here. Now, along with bearing this
horrible disease, we have to acknowledge the fact that this
man was a sinner. He was a sinner. We know that
he was a sinner, number one, because he was born in Adam. By one man, sin entered the world,
Adam in the garden of Eden. By one man, sin entered the world
and death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men for that all have sinned. So we know he was a center number
one, because he was a son of Adam. Number two, we know he
was a center because he bore this horrible disease where there
is no sin. There is spotless perfection.
There is no sickness. There are no sniffles, no aches,
no pains, no coughs. None of that. None of that. Where
there is no sin, there's no death. None whatsoever. Nothing that
can bring death. Where sin does not exist, nothing
that can bring death exists. Hebrews 7 says to be separate
from sin is to be undefiled. Undefiled. So we know this man
was a sinner because he was a son of Adam like the rest of us. We know he was a sinner because
he bore in his flesh a loathsome disease. And we know he was a sinner because
of what he was doing right here. What he was doing right here,
even in what seemed to be good. Okay. This seems to be good. Even in what seemed to be good.
This man was still breaking the law. Don't turn, but back in
numbers five, Leviticus 13, places like that. It tells us that all
lepers had to be put out of the camp away from the people. They were not allowed to be in
the presence of those who didn't have leprosy. By law, they were
not allowed. They had to steer clear of people.
They had to go to the other side of the road. If they passed someone,
they had to get out of the way and they had to cry out to them,
unclean, unclean by law. By law, they had to cry. Don't
come near me. I'm unclean. So just in the fact that this
leper came into the multitude, this leper came into the multitude
and he walked right up to the Lord Jesus Christ. In him just doing that, he was
a sinner against God. He was a law-breaking sinner
against God. But here's the glorious thing
that we can see in this. Here's the glorious thing. In
Christ, there is no condemnation from the law. None. That's wonderful, isn't it? In Christ, who is he that condemneth,
is Christ that died. And therefore in Christ, this
sinful, dying, rotting leper was allowed to walk right up
to him with boldness so that he could obtain mercy
and find grace to help in his time of need. That man needed
mercy and grace in his time of need. And this is how he came. Verse two says, and behold, There
came a leper and worshiped him. And that's what we've done tonight.
That's what we're doing tonight. We have come into this house
and gathered in his name to worship him. We've gathered around his
table. If the Lord tarries in about
10 or 15 minutes or however long it is, We're gonna observe the
Lord's table. We are doing this, we are gathering
around His table to worship Him, to worship Him for who He is
and what He's done for us. Mark's account says that this
leper came and kneeled. This says that behold, a leper
came. Mark's account takes it a little
bit farther, says that he came and kneeled, and he did, he came.
And then he kneeled. And Luke's account says he fell
all the way down on his face, begging and beseeching him. Saying, verse two says, behold, there came a leper and
worshiped him saying, Lord, oh, how important that word is. Oh, how important that word is.
People know who Jesus is. I love the name Jesus. Sweetest
name I know. But people know who Jesus is,
but one day the Lord is revealed to them. They say, Lord, Oh Lord. Sinners call him Lord, who have
him revealed to them. Lord, master, sovereign. That's what he was saying. He
came and bowed, fell flat on his face and cried, sovereign. He went on to say, if thou wilt,
thou canst make me clean. Lord, if you will, you can. That's how we ought to approach
him on everything, whatever the situation may be, from our salvation
to every little detail in our life. If you will, you can. This is in your hands. This is
in your ability to do it. I'm just at your mercy. I'm at
your mercy. This is my request, but Lord,
I acknowledge this is not in my will. This is by your will. This is
all according to your will. That right there was all according
to his will. That was all at his will. However it's gonna go, Lord,
you decide. This is your will. And that's what we very, very
humbly say to Him concerning our salvation. It is not our
will, it's thine be done. It's thine be done. This is gonna
go according to the will and the purpose of your heart in
the matter. Whatever you will, that's what's gonna happen. But Lord, if you will, you can. That's our acknowledgement to
Him in the salvation of our soul, the eternal salvation. Lord,
if you will, you can. If you have purpose to save me,
I'm gonna be saved. And the most glorious thing about
this story right here, this is, this is the, this is the amazement
of it. The most glorious thing about
the story of this leper and the most glorious thing about the
story of our own salvation is he said, I will be thou clean. I will. I will. What he was saying was you being
clean, you being made whole is the very will of my heart. That's
the very will and desire of my heart for you. In John 17, he
said, I will that they also whom thou has given me be with me
where I am. That's my will. In John 10, he
said, I will lay down my life of myself. No man will take it
from me. I will willingly lay it down
for my people. And what our Lord did for this
leper, this is what he did for all of his people on the cross
of Calvary. Verse three says, and Jesus put forth his hand
and touched him. He touched him. He touched him. He put forth his hand. How close
did this leper come up to him? So close that all he had to do
was put forth his hand and touch him. He touched him, a leper. Somebody will say, why did he
do that? He didn't have to do that. You
know, one man said, speak the word only and it'll be done.
And that's so, but somebody says, why did he reach out and touch
him? He didn't have to do that. Oh yes, he did. Oh yes, he did. In order for
that leper to be clean, in order for this leper to be clean, our
Lord willingly had to touch the infirmities of his people. He
had to. Lepers had to be separated from
everybody. The reason they had to be separated
is because it was so contagious. Whoever touched a leper got the
leprosy. That's the reason. And Hebrews
chapter four says, our great high priest, Christ Jesus our
Lord, willingly touched the feeling of our infirmities. He willingly
touched them, took them, bore in his own body on the tree, everything that
we were in order to save us from our miserable end. I've told
you this story, it's such an amazing story, but a missionary from the early 1900s,
Paris Reedhead, he was a missionary to Africa. He told of a time
that he was in the jungle with some native men, Ethiopia, that's where he
was specifically, but he, was walking through the jungle with
some native men and they heard a faint voice crying, somebody
help me. And I can't imagine how weak
that voice was and desperate that voice was, somebody help
me. And these men followed the voice until they came up on this
man laying there in the jungle in the absolute last stages of
leprosy. Just the final, He went into
the detail of describing the rot, describing the flesh that
was there, the flesh that was not there, the utter, utter destruction
and decay and end of this man. Just a horrible sight. Those
men immediately knew there's nothing we can do for this man.
And he's just laying there in all of his utter destruction
and decay, crying, somebody help me. Oh, he said, my heart went
out to that man. And he said, as I looked at him
and stood there feeling so helpless, the thought went through my mind
that if somehow I could pick this man up, this rotting, falling
apart man up and press him to my body and put his skull of
a face on my face, and if I could take into my flesh all of his
disease and all of his rot and all of his suffering that he's
enduring. And if I could impart into that
man all of my life and all of my health, I would have some
understanding of what my Lord Jesus Christ did for me when
he bore my sins in his own body on the tree. That poor, miserable leper fell
down and worshiped the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, if you will,
you can help me. Somebody help me, please help
me. If you will, you can make me
clean. Verse three says, and Jesus put forth his hand and
touched him saying, I will. Be thou clean. And immediately
his leprosy was cleansed. Mark's account says, as soon
as he spoke the word, this says immediately, Mark's account says,
as soon as he spoke the word, his leprosy was departed. Our
Lord cried from the cross, it is finished. And as soon as he
spoke the word, it was done. It was done. Verse four says,
and Jesus said 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. Our Lord touched this leper. He spoke peace to this leper. And then he said that no longer
a leper. But he set that man free. Verse
four, he said, see thou tell no man, but go thy way. He touched him, he spoke peace
to him, and he set him free. And that's what Christ did for
us on the cross. He touched us. That's what he did on the cross.
He touched us. And he spoke peace to us. It
is finished. And then He set us free, legally,
rightly, even according to the law. The same law, the same law
that said, you cannot come into the presence. When Christ finished His work
for His sinful people, He said, you go to that same law and show
that law what I've done for you. And the same law, after seeing
the finished work of Christ, said, clean, spotless, whole,
welcome. Verse four, 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. In closing, let me show you what
that offering was, all right? He said, you go to the priest
and you give this offering. I believe this will be a real
blessing to you. Turn with me to Leviticus 14. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus. Leviticus 14, verse 1, it says, And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, This shall be the law of the
leper in the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought unto the
priest, and the priest shall go forth out of the camp, and
the priest shall look, and behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed
in the leper, then shall the priest command to take for him,
that is to be cleansed, two birds alive and clean, and cedarwood,
and scarlet and hyssop, and the priest shall command that one
of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water. Our Lord said, a body hath thou
prepared for me, an earthen vessel, clean, pure. Verse six, as for
the living bird, he shall take it and the cedar wood and the
scarlet and the hyssop and shall dip them and the living bird
in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water.
And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the
leprosy seven times and shall pronounce him clean and shall
let the living bird loose into the open field. One will die. His blood be on you. Let the other one fly away. That's
what Christ did for us. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
did for us when he sacrificed himself to set us free. In his blood, he touched us,
he spoke peace to us, and he set us free. And that's what
we're remembering. When we observe this table, that's
what we're remembering. We're remembering what he did
to touch us remove everything that was decaying us away from
us, and to speak peace to our hearts, saying, the judgment
is finished, the work is finished, you're clean, and to set us free. This is what it took to set us
free. And we're gonna remember that
in this, and we're gonna give Him thanks for that. In taking
this, we are saying, thank you, Lord, Lamb of God, for doing
that for us. Alright, Brother Dwight, you
come and read for us.