Okay, open with me back to Mark
chapter 1. Mark chapter 1, we've been going
through this chapter here, and our Lord preached in a synagogue,
and after He finished preaching in that synagogue, He came down
to Simon's house, Peter's house. And he healed Peter's mother,
his mother-in-law. And verse 32 says, at even when
the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased
and them that were possessed with devils. And all the city
was gathered together at the door. The whole city came to
Peter's house. And the reason is because, word
got out, there's a man down there who is healing people of their
diseases. He's healing of their sicknesses. And that's very appealing to
people. You know that? Very appealing. Health, wealth, and happiness?
Who wouldn't want that? If I had a choice between sickness
or health, I'd take health. Absolute poverty or a comfortable
living, I take comfort. Just sadness or happy, I take
that. Who wouldn't want that? All things
are of our Lord. Everything is of our Lord. What do we have that we have
not received? Our health is of the Lord. It
really is. Our money is of the Lord. Our
happiness, it's of the Lord. We give Him all the glory for
those things. But if that's all He gives to
us, if that's all He gives us, a
little bit of health, a little wealth, and a little happiness,
we are of all men going to be most miserable. Look back at
Matthew chapter 9. Matthew 9 verse 1 says, and our Lord entered into a ship
and passed over and came into his own city. And behold, they
brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed And
Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy, Son,
be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee. There it is. There it is. The greatest mercy
God could show a sinner. Thy sins be forgiven thee. That's a work that is done on
the heart. It's done on the inside and it
can't be openly seen at first. And that's usually how our Lord
operates on His children. He does not always give the lesser
grace, the physical healing, but He always gives that greater
grace, that spiritual healing. Thy sins be forgiven. They usually
him withholding that, that lesser grace, that healing, that's the
means he uses to forever rid his people of their sin. That's
the means he uses to just take them on forever. Drop the sin
forever. Verse two and behold, they brought
to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed and Jesus seeing
their faith said unto the sick of the palsy, son, be of good
cheer. Thy sins be forgiven thee. And
behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, this
man blasphemeth. They didn't say it out loud.
They were just standing there and I can see them with their
arms crossed and a smirk on their face, looking at him thinking, this man blasphemeth. Verse four, Jesus, knowing their
thoughts said, wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For whether
is easier to say, thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, arise
and walk. Now we have a loved one that
we've been praying for, Brother Gary Perkins. We've been praying
for him. We have been continually bringing
him before the Lord, just like these men did. They climbed up
on a roof and they ripped it open. And they let a loved one
down, they brought him before the Lord. And I went and saw
our brother, and he's laying there in a bed, he's on a ventilator.
And I was reading this, thinking about his family, thinking about
us, his brothers and sisters, which would we rather, if it
had to be one or the other? And usually that's the way it
is, one or the other. Even if our Lord does send a
physical healing, something else is behind it. At some point,
it's going to be one or the other. Which would we rather? Would
we rather God to say to our loved one right now, arise and walk? Or would we rather God look straight
into his soul and say, thy sins be forgiven thee? Which would
we rather? Which would his family rather?
Which would he rather? Thy sins be forgiven thee. It's
the greatest mercy God could show a sinner. The greatest mercy. Back to Mark chapter 1. Verse 32 says, And at even when
the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased
and them that were possessed with devils. And all the city
was gathered together at the door. And he healed many that
were sick of diverse diseases and cast out many devils and
suffered not the devils to speak because they knew him. I love
our Lord's sovereignty. I love it. His sovereignty and
his majesty. I love knowing that every knee
must bow to him. I love knowing that. Every tongue
must confess He is Lord. He is. Every time He cast out
an evil spirit, that spirit had to confess it. Every single time. He had to. Look back at verse
23. There was in their synagogue
a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, saying, Let
us alone. What have we to do with thee,
thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us?
I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. Had to confess
it. Chapter 3, verse 11 says, And
unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him and
cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God. They had to. This one's my favorite. You can
turn if you want. Luke chapter 4, verse 41 says, And devils also came out of many,
crying out and saying, Thou art Christ, the Son of God. And He
rebuking them, suffered them not to speak, for they knew He's
the Christ. They knew He was. They knew He
was. Every tongue is going to confess. But here's the thing I want to
say. For them, it's too late. It's too late. It's just too
late. Every knee must bow. But every
knee must bow in this flesh. Today is the day of salvation. Right now, today. Once this body
is laid down and the spirit goes back to God who gave it, if God
has not caused that soul to bow the knee to Christ, it's too
late. It's just too late. Seek Him while He may be found. Seek Him while He may be found.
Call on Him while He's near. Our Lord has told us, while He
may be found, while He's near. Kiss the Son lest He be angry.
He's a holy God who punishes sin. Well, many were able to
come to Him while He was on this earth. Many came right up to
God Almighty. And he gave them what they were
looking for. They wanted a physical healing. That's what they wanted.
And that's what so many people want today. They want a physical
healing. And he gave it to them. They
received their healing and then they went on their way. They
got it, and they went on their way. But how sad would it be
for, and I thought about those souls, all those, you think about
all those people who walked up to God, and they looked God in
the face, and he said, what will you that I should do unto you?
And they said, whatever they said. And then later, they went
back to meet that same God. They looked that same God in
the face. How sad would it be to find out He did not pay for
my sin. He did not heal me of my sin. Back over in Mark chapter 1 verse
34 says, He healed many that were sick of diverse diseases
and cast out many devils and suffered not the devils to speak
because they knew Him. And in the morning, rising up
a great while before day, He went out and departed into a
solitary place And there prayed. And Simon and they that were
with him followed after him. And when they had found him,
they said unto him, All men seek for thee. Now these men did not
come for themselves. But they all wanted something
out of him. Everybody's wanting something
out of you. Verse 38, And he said unto them, Let us go into
the next towns, that I may preach there also. For therefore came
I forth, and he preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee,
and cast out devils. How sad would it be to go stand
before God and find out He did not heal me of my sin. The fact of the matter is that
He doesn't have to. He just does not have to. He's God Almighty.
He does not have to show mercy to sinners. And every poor sinner that believes
He does, you know, Jesus Christ is at my beck and call. Oh, He'll
save me. He'll save me. I think about
different people I've known over the years, and that's what they
believe. I know they've told me. Oh, He'll save me. He has
to. Every soul who believes that
is in for a rude awakening, a very rude awakening. He does not have
to. There is only one way to approach
the holy God. There's only one way to approach
God. We just said these poor souls, they went back to God. But if God had not caused them
to bow the knee, it's going to be too late. They're going to
be cast out. There is only one way to approach
the Holy God for this spiritual healing that we all need. And
there's a leper in this story. There's a particular leper in
this story that we read about. God in mercy calls that leper
to find the way. I want to find the same way. I want to show you something.
Before we look at him, I want to show you something over in
2 Kings 1. Go with me over there to 2 Kings
1. Now we're going to look at Elijah. Again, he's God's man,
God's prophet, but this represents a sinner approaching God Almighty,
the holy God. 2 Kings 1 verse 1 says, then Moab
rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab. This country
Moab, these people Moab, they went to war with Israel. And
Ahaziah, he's the king of Israel, he did not fear God, he did not
worship God, he worshiped idols. Ahaziah fell down through a lattice
in his upper chamber, that was in Samaria, and was sick, and
he sent messengers and said unto them, Go inquire of Beelzebub,
the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover of this disease. Moab
came in and he went up and hid in the lattice and he fell through
that lattice and that fall caused him to become sick and he's on
the bed and he sent these messengers to go ask this idol Am I going
to recover from this? Verse 3, But the angel of the
Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers
of the king of Samaria, and say unto them, Is it not because
there is not a God in Israel that you go to inquire of Baalzebub,
the god of Ekron? Now therefore, thus saith the
Lord, Thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art
gone up, but shalt surely die. And Elijah departed. And when
the messengers turned back unto this king, he said unto them,
Why are you now turned back? And they said unto him, There
came a man up to meet us, and said unto us, Go turn again unto
the king that sent you, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord,
Is it not because there is not a God in Israel that thou sendest
to inquire of Beelzebub the god of Ekron? Therefore thou shalt
not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt
surely die. And he said unto them, What manner
of man was he which came up to meet you and told you these words?
And they answered him, He was a hairy man, and with a girdle
of leather about his loins. And he said, It's Elijah the
Tishbite. Then the king sent unto him a
captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to Elijah, and
behold, he sat on the top of a hill, And he spake unto him,
Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down. He's going to
tell him that this king who's on the bed is demanding to see
him. The king has said, Come down. Verse 10, And Elijah answered
and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let
fire come down from heaven and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from
heaven and consumed him and his fifty. Again also this king sent
unto Elijah another captain of fifty with his fifty, and he
answered and said unto him, O man of God, thus hath the king said,
Come down quickly. And Elijah answered and said
unto them, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven
and consume thee and thy fifty, and the fire of God came down
from heaven and consumed him and his fifty. And the king sent
again a captain of the third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty
went up and came and fell on his knees before Elijah and besought
him and said unto him, O man of God, I pray thee, let my life
and the life of these fifty thy servants, we're not servants
of that little king, these fifty thy servants be precious
in thy sight. Behold, there came fire down
from heaven and burned up the two captains of the former fifties
with their fifties. Therefore, let my life now be
precious in thy sight. And the angel of the Lord said
unto Elijah, Go down with him, be not afraid. And he arose and
went down with him unto the king. That's the only way to approach
a holy God. That's the only way to approach.
The good news is every soul who approaches that way will not
be turned away, will not suffer God's wrath, Every soul is going
to have the same response this man had. God allowed a leper
to approach that way. I am a sinner, you are a sinner,
and that's what leprosy represents, sin. The only hope that we have
of being forgiven and being accepted in the presence of God is if
we find mercy through Jesus Christ in His blood. And there's only
one way to approach Jesus Christ, the God of heaven. We must come
to Him, but there's one way. Begging for mercy through His
blood. Now let's look at this leper
through Matthew's point of view. Go with me over to Matthew chapter
8. Matthew chapter 8 verse 1 says,
When he was come down from the mountain, that's our Lord, great
multitudes followed him. And behold, there came a leper. Behold. That means gaze with
open eyes at something remarkable. There came a leper. Why is that
remarkable? The reason is because lepers
were not allowed to approach people. They were not allowed
to come up to anybody. Everybody looked and said, Behold,
there's a leper. Once a leper was pronounced by
the priest to have leprosy, he was not allowed to be with the
people anymore. Total outcast. He was more vile and more rotten
than any. Everything he touched was vile
and rotten and he could not be with the people. He either had
to be alone or he had to be with other lepers. When they walked
down the street, if they saw someone coming, they had to go
to the other side crying, unclean, unclean. Is that us? Unclean. So behold, gaze with wide open
eyes at something remarkable. There came a leper. Verse 1 says,
when our Lord was come down from the mountain, what was he doing
on that mountain? You know what he was doing on
that mountain? Matthew 5, 6, and 7 is a message. It's called
the Sermon on the Mount. Our Lord went up into a mountain
and he sat down with his disciples and he started preaching and
he said, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the meek,
blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness.
They're going to be filled. They're going to be filled. Throughout
that message, we hear our Lord say, you've heard that. To murder is against the law.
Thou shalt not kill, he said, I'm telling you that just to
hate in the heart is murder to God. And he said, you've heard
thou shalt not commit adultery? He said, I'm telling you just
to lust in the heart is adultery before God. What he did is, all
through that message, he exposed sin for what it really is. Every man is a sinner. And this leper, who would not
have been standing in that crowd, he wasn't allowed to, This leper would have been standing
over here to the side. He would have been standing afar
off, listening to all this. And as this leper heard our Lord
expose sin for what it really is, he listened to every word of
truth. I can see him just standing over there and all of his shame,
all of his guilt, I can see him not so much as lifting up his
eyes unto heaven, standing over there by himself, smiting on
his breast, crying, God be merciful to me. I'm a leper. I'm a leper. I could see that
man over there not just grieving over what he has done. That's
what man by nature does. He grieves over what he's done. But do you know what true sinners,
who God has revealed the truth about themselves to them, do
you know what they do? They grieve over what they are.
He wasn't just standing over there grieving over what he's
done. He's standing over there grieving because he knows, I'm
a leper. Through and through, 100%, I'm
a leper. It's what I am. He is something that he cannot
of his own accord stop being. But in God's mercy, in God's
providence, he brings this leper into earshot of God's promise
through the blood of his son. His hap was to walk up on a crowd
who is listening to the gospel. And as this leper is standing
there listening to the God of glory preach the gospel, he heard
the Lord say something in his message. It's in Matthew 7, verse
7. He heard the Lord say, Ask and
it shall be given you. I wonder if the Lord pointed
at him. The Lord knew His own. He knew who was His own and who
was not. I wonder if the Lord was over here preaching and preaching
and preaching and all of a sudden He said, ask and it shall be
given you. Seek and you will find. Knock,
it'll be open to you. Yes, you. So in Matthew chapter 8 verse
1 says, When our Lord was come down from the mountain, great
multitudes followed him, and behold, there came a leper and
worshipped him. Mark says he kneeled down. Luke
says he fell on his face and worshipped him. He was worshipping
even though he was a leper. He was still worshiping God. That's what true sinners in need
do. They worship God. No matter what, they worship
God. They obey His Word. They respond to His call. And
this is the heart that God put in him. This is what God caused
him to say. If any leper in here, if there
happens to be a leper in here, a sinner, Any sinner in here
this morning who is not just grieving over what he's done,
but is grieving over what he is, if he comes to Christ and
says the exact same thing in the exact same way, he's going
to have the exact same result as this leper. He said in verse
2, Lord Jehovah, God Almighty, Lord, if thou wilt. This is totally up to you. Completely
in your hands. Lord, my life is in your hands.
If thou wilt, thou canst. If you will, you can. Thou canst
make me clean. You know what the only thing
that can make you and I clean is? It's the blood of the Lamb. Cleansing, soul cleansing blood.
The only place that blood can be found is in the precious Lamb
of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. If you will, you can make me
clean. Verse 3, And Jesus put forth
his hand and touched him. He touched a leper. Nobody touches
a leper. Nobody. Lord, that's going to
put his leprosy on you. Don't you know, Lord, that if
you touch him, his leprosy will be transferred from him to you? Yes. I will. God's law must punish sin. That sin must be dealt with.
Our Lord said, lay it on me. He said, if you will, you can
make me clean. He put his hand on him and said,
lay it on me. Jesus put forth his hand and
touched him saying, I will be thou clean,
and immediately his leprosy was cleansed. I love this story because
I'm the leper. I'm the leper. He touched me
and made me whole. That's all of us, isn't it? That's
the only hope and the only plea and the only testimony that we
have is that He touched me and He made me whole. What does the
Lord's mercy and grace to us cause us to do? What does it
cause us to do? I'll close with Mark chapter
1. Go back to Mark chapter 1. This is what it causes a true
sinner, a true leper whom God has touched and cleansed and
healed. This is what they do. Verse 40,
Mark 1 verse 40, There came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling
down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst
make me clean. And Jesus moved with compassion,
put forth his hand, and touched him, and said unto him, I will
be thou clean. And as soon as he had spoken,
immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.
But he straightly charged him, and forthwith sent him away,
and said unto him, See thou say nothing to any man, but go thy
way, show thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing those
things which Moses commanded for a testimony unto them. But
he went out and began to publish it much." He just couldn't help
it. He couldn't not do it. He said
don't tell anybody. But he went out and began to
publish it much. and to blaze abroad the matter
insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city,
but was without in desert places, and they came to Him from every
quarter." He wanted everybody to know He touched me. Everybody. But you were a leper. Yeah. I was a leper. But my Lord has
done great things for me. That is the only reason I'm here
right now. That's the only thing I had to
say today. All I wanted to do was tell you
how great things the Lord had done for me and you. We rejoice in that. Lord, if
you will, you can make us all clean. Every one of us. Go to him with that. Every time
his answer will be, I will. I sure will. Be that claim. All right, let's stand together.