And once again, turn your Bibles
to Luke chapter five, and we'll be right around that verse 12. So in preparing for this week,
I was looking actually through some of Joe's old sermons, and
that's where some of this came from. And I've always loved this piece
of scripture. I preached from it before. I think it is such
a plain picture of the gospel and the good news of Jesus Christ.
So once again, I'm gonna quick read verse 12 and 13 of Luke
5. While Jesus was in one of the
towns, a man came along who was covered in leprosy. When he saw
Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him,
Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Jesus reached
out his hand and touched the man. I am willing, he said. Be
clean. And immediately, the leprosy
left him. The miracles of our Lord, of
which there were a lot, served three functions. And this is
not what I'm gonna be focusing on the entire time, but this
helps set up what we get to. So the miracles of our Lord have
three functions for us. The first, where they identified
him as the one sent from God in a fulfillment in the scriptures. If you actually turn back to
Luke 4, verse 14, they hand Jesus, as he's getting
ready to preach, In Galilee, he's getting ready to teach at
one of the synagogues, they hand him a scroll from Isaiah and
he reads it and it says, the spirit of the Lord is on me because
he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has
sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of
sight for the blind. to release the oppressed, to
proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Then he rolled up the
scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone
in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began saying to
them, today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." In
that scripture, and also in all of these miracles, It is identifying
him as the one, the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God. The
Lord was in his hometown of Nazareth and again he read this and said,
today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. It identified
him as the one sent from God. And that's also one of the functions
of miracles that Christ did was to identify him to those people
that he is the one sent from God. Secondly, our Lord's miracles
serve to authenticate his message. Now from our perspective, from
the perspective of God's people who have been given sight to
know who he is, we would never question what the Lord says.
But to the people surrounding him in these days, we would never
think, well, we would never question the Lord. We would say it is
the Lord who said these things, so whatever he says is true.
But there was nothing about Jesus looking at him back in those
days that would lead anyone to consider him anything more than
a teacher or one with a unique message. So God empowered him
to have miraculous works, which a person could not do apart from
God. He himself said this in John
10, verse 37. He said, if I am not doing the
works of my Father, then do not believe me. But if I do them,
even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you
may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am
in the Father. Even if you don't believe in
me, Look at what I'm doing, and it shows you that I am sent from
God. This confirmation of his message
was even given to his disciples. On the night of his betrayal,
he said to them, believe me that I am in the Father and the Father
is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
And then the third function for these miracles, such as the one
we looked at earlier where he heals the man of leprosy, but
there's a third reason for this miracle. That is, we find patterns
in these miracles that illustrate the gospel, that show us over
and over what we need to be shown, what we need to hear, what we
need to see, the good news of Christ and Him crucified, what
that means for His people. how he healed people shows us
how he saves people. His ability to calm the seas,
cast out demons, even raise the dead, all give us pictures of
the gospel, windows in our natural world that we can see and peer
into the spiritual world. And this, here in Luke 5.12 through
14, he gives us a very good example of the Lord's good news in the
healing of this leper. The leprosy in this picture,
or in this story, is a picture of sin. It's a disease. It's the disease of sin, of which
we are all sick, even more so of which we are all dead. We are all suffering this disease
of sin. There are three important gospel
principles illustrated in this man's healing, and each of them
starts with the letter C. The leper was covered, he was
cleansed, and then he was cleared. So we'll start with covered.
The first point that is illustrated is that the Lord saves none other
than those who perceives themselves as nothing other than sin. As
this leper was covered with leprosy, so the one who comes to Christ
is covered in sin. In order to understand the Bible's
use of the word leprosy, we must understand that it is covered
more than what our modern use of the word leprosy applies to.
In fact, some believe that this disease actually referred to
as leprosy was not necessarily like modern leprosy. It actually
says that probably in your Bible if you look at the bottom of
the page. So we cannot be certain that it was leprosy, but it was
a skin disease. It was visible and it fully covered
him. We do know what the law says
about such diseases and why Luke makes the point of saying this
man was covered with it. If you look back in Leviticus,
Leviticus 13, and verse 12, it says, if the disease,
and this is very unique, it's almost strange, but it's very
important. If the disease breaks out all
over his skin, So far as the priest can see it, it covers
all of the skin of the infected person from head to foot. The
priest is to examine him, and if the disease has covered his
whole body, he shall be pronounced that person clean. Since it has all turned white,
he is clean. But whenever raw flesh appears
on him, he will be unclean. So you must be fully covered
in sin to be perceived as clean. but if you are partially covered,
you are unclean. The only way for a person to
be declared clean under the law is to be either completely healed
or completely covered in this disease. There was nothing to
be done for the person whose skin was only partially covered
with the disease. He was unclean and could not
be made clean by anything anyone could do. This may sound strange,
but it teaches us an important point of the gospel. The only
ones who can be declared clean are those who have no, either
completely clean, clear of that disease, or those who are covered
completely with that disease. Now nearly everyone in the world
sees themselves as partially good and partially bad, a mixture. This is true if we are using
man's standard for good and bad. And on that level, it is wise
to maximize your good. If we're looking at our standards,
the way we live in this life, we want to do good things rather
than bad things. But spiritually, to see yourself
as a mixture of good and bad is deadly. in the sight of God. It is deadly. Yet this is what most do. Many
go so far as to think that God's judgment will be some sort of
weighing of good and bad deeds. And if a person's good deeds
outweigh their bad, God will bless them with a place in heaven.
But when it comes to sin and righteousness, God recognizes
only two conditions. Because really, there are only
two conditions. Perfectly clean or fully sinful. You may be asking, is he saying
that God's standard of judgment, according to God's standard of
judgment, there's no difference between a murderer and a heroic
rescuer? Is there no difference between
an abortionist and someone who protests it? Is there no difference
between Hitler and those he killed? That's actually what I'm saying,
but it doesn't matter what I say. Turn to Romans chapter three,
verse 22. The scripture says it. And it
doesn't so much say that one is as good as the other. It's
quite the opposite. It says that all are unclean. Romans 3, verse 22. It says, This righteousness from
God comes through faith in Jesus Christ and all who believe. There
is no difference. All have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God. So we're not saying the murderer
is as good as the hero. We're saying the hero is no better
than the murderer. We all belong in the dirt. There is no mixture of good and
bad in us. In the day of judgment, And we
talked about this a little bit last week, Oliver and I and Katie
and May, actually. In the day of judgment, there
shall be some who come to the Lord as murderers, liars, I'm not gonna go through them
all, but awful people that we would consider awful. and they
will come to the Lord and say, Lord, and he will say, I never
knew you, depart from me, and it'll make sense to us, right?
We'll look at that and go, yep, those people, he probably never
knew them. But in that same time, there
will be people that come to him that were preachers and doctors
and people that we would look at Assume wonderful things about
and they will come to the Lord says in the Bible They will come
to the Lord and he will say depart from me. I never knew you Because
that's what all of us deserve outside of Christ And they and many who watch that
scene will be stunned But had we listened to the Lord, had
they listened to the Lord while on earth, they would have known
that with Him it is either all good or all bad. It is either
Christ or everyone else. But because they would not acknowledge
their all badness and sought His favor in what tiny scraps
of goodness they thought they had, They appeared before Him
claiming to be part good and part bad. There is neither grace
nor remedy for those people. Because there is no good in those
people, in any people. We are all covered in this disease
of sin. We are born into it. And we constantly and consistently
add to it every moment of every day. In reality, there is only
perfectly clean and fully covered. There really is no in between,
even though the majority of the world feels that's what they
are, it doesn't exist. The only difference is that God's
people have been shown that they are fully covered in sin. The rest simply cannot see that
without the spirit of God opening their eyes. and there is only
one that was perfectly clean. Only one. He was the Son of God. Christ Jesus, His perfection,
His perfect righteousness is given to His people through His
death on the cross. Their sins are cleansed, and
again, they are fully covered. but this time they are not covered
by sin, they are not covered by this disease, they are covered
by the righteousness of Christ, fully covered. Now this man, the leper, was
fully covered with his skin disease and as such, he came before the
Lord and found a willing savior. He did not come to the Lord thinking
that Christ owed him anything. God owes us nothing. We only
have earned judgment. That's all we deserve. Without
the sacrifice and righteousness of Christ, we should be terrified
to approach God. Because we have only earned death. And also this man did not argue
for the power of his own will in the matter. He did not come
to the Lord acting as though he had earned something by coming
there. The leper didn't come to the
Lord and say, I have come all this way. Look at the faith I
have in you. Look at me and I came all this
way, you know, I'm pretty good. I mean, I obviously have really
strong faith in you for come this far and to come and ask
you. That's not how he approached God. That's not how we should
approach God. Our faith is not our own. Our faith is a gift
from God. Our faith is worthless without God. And then he also came as someone
with nowhere else to go, convinced that the power of Christ was
enough. Jesus was his only hope. This
leper's only hope was Christ. His faith extended as far as
what he had heard, that Jesus had the power to heal him. That's all he knew, and he believed
it. He hadn't read scriptures. He
hadn't gone through seminary. He hadn't, you know, we don't
know anything about this guy. But he had heard that Christ
had the power to save him, and he believed it, so he came to
him. And that's the same for all of
us. He simply acknowledged Christ's ability and Christ's full right
to reject or heal him. Even in the way he asked, he
said, I know you're capable if you are willing. And that's up
to Christ. The only way for a person to
be declared clean under the law was to be healed of the disease
or be covered with it completely. We certainly aren't healed. We
certainly aren't clean. And I feel like everyone in the
world really knows that. In fact, the opposite is true.
We are all fully covered in this disease, every one of us. Every
man that has ever lived has been fully covered in the disease
of sin. which is why we come to Christ, our only hope to be
cleansed. And his answer? Yes. Immediate yes. Our Lord revealed his heart as
it is toward everyone covered with the leprosy of sin. He said,
I am willing, be clean. And immediately the man was cleansed. There was no additional work
needed on the leprous part. He did not have to go to the
river to wash the sores. He didn't have to go to the temple
to say some certain prayers. He didn't have to recite anything.
He came to the Lord and said, Lord, if you are willing, you
can make me clean. And the Lord said, I am willing, you are clean,
and he was. Such is the gospel of Christ. We are covered in sin, no hope
on our own. We come to him and say, Lord,
if you are willing, you are able, save me. He reached out his hand
and says, I am willing, be clean, and immediately, in the eyes
of God, your sins are gone. It is miraculous. I just skipped to the end. Now, to the cleansed part. Our Lord,
again, revealed his heart by saying, I am willing to be clean,
and immediately he was. No additional work was needed.
He didn't need to go to the temple. He was already exactly where
all cleansing and healing originate. He was with Christ. and the will and power of Christ
is all it takes for you. All you have to go on. Matter
of fact, we have so much more now than this leper did. Like,
we can actually read this. We have the Bible, we have the
word of God. We can read this specific event about this specific
leper. He had nothing like that. So
we are so blessed to have that. and to have that
we could learn that his power to cleanse anyone, he has the
will to cleanse only those that are utterly covered in sin and
those that come to him as their only hope. We have the word of
God to tell us that. Then the Lord commanded him to
offer the required sacrifices of the law for his cleansing. Now even though the will and
power of Christ are all that is necessary to make a person
clean, the sins from which a person cleansed must still be atoned
for, must still be paid. So it's not just as simple as
God saying, you know what, I forgive my people. Those sins still have to be paid
for. We can't do it. We would pay for eternity. So
our sins, in order to be fully cleansed, need to be accounted
for. And that, of course, is done
in the sacrifice of our Lord, in Him crucified on the cross. Christ has died, and on that
basis, we may say that all for whom Christ made the sacrifice
are legally cleared from all their sins. But what was done in the court
of heaven must also be experienced on earth. That which will be
done in heaven must also be done here on earth. Actually, according
to the law, man covered in this disease was clean, was considered
clean. And offered a sacrifice to make
it official, was free to live among his brethren, appear at
the temple, even though he still had that disease back then. But
because he was fully covered, he was considered clean. The
problem in that is the man still had the disease. God's salvation
goes beyond a mere declaration that one is clean. He doesn't
just say you're clean like the old law said about the man that
was fully clevered. He actually takes away the disease. He clears our record of every
crime against God. and he clears our persons of
the disease which made us commit them. He begins this with the new birth,
when by the touch of the Holy Spirit, our spirits are made
whole, utterly cleansed of their foul leprosy. But of course,
do we not still feel the leprous inclinations, feel sin within
us? Do we not long to be cleansed
from the sin that we experience every day? Our Lord could have
actually said to this man, what do you need from me? According
to the law, you're covered with leprosy, so you're clean. Go and offer the required sacrifice.
But the leper would say, oh wretched leper that I am, who shall deliver
me from this body of leprosy? And the Lord would say, I will
be clean. We need Christ. Everyone actually needs Christ.
We are not fully clean, that is obvious. It says in Romans
3.23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
And we are not partially covered by this disease of sin, we are
fully covered by this disease of sin. There is nothing clean
about us. We are sinful to our very nature,
to our core. From conception we are prone
to wander and prone to sin. And there is one, only one who
was fully clean and he was sent here by his father to save his
people from their disease. From the disease which they are
fully covered. He set aside His rightful place above all things
and sacrificed His own life. He was forsaken by God His Father,
punished in our place for every sin ever committed by every one
of His people. And His people, through the unspeakable
grace of God, are shown that Christ is their only hope. Just as the leper was shown that
Christ was his only hope at being cleansed of his disease, if only
he were willing. Turn to John 6.37. All that the Father gives me
will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never drive
away. For I have come down from heaven
not to do my will, but to do the will of Him who sent me,
and this is the will of Him who sent me, that I shall lose none
of all that he has given me, but raise them up on that last
day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the
Son and believes in him shall have eternal life. We are covered in this disease
of sin, and just like the leper, we have nothing to boast in when
we come to Christ. But just like the leper, we know
that we have no hope apart from him. But we also have the confidence
in these words. My Father's will is that everyone
who looks to the Son, everyone who looks to Christ and believes
in him shall have eternal life, shall be cleansed of their disease. Everyone. He never says no. Just like the leper, we come
to Christ. Just like it says, when he saw
Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him,
Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. It says in Romans, everyone who
calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Jesus reached
out his hand. Anyone who calls on him will
be saved. Anyone who calls on him will
receive this response. Anyone who comes to him as their
only hope will hear him say, I am willing,
he said, be clean. And immediately, his leprosy
had left him. Immediately, the disease of sin
in the sight of God would be gone. As much as we still feel our
sin in our flesh and in our nature, it is gone in the eyes of God. It's hard for us to understand
that because it's always in front of us. David wrote that in the
psalm. He talks about my sin is always
in front of me. And Joe talked about that all
the time too, and I mean, I think we all understand that. It's
always in front of us, it's always in us, can't escape it. But if you believe in Christ,
the judge of sin, God, the only opinion of you that matters,
sees you as as clean as Christ himself. And someday we'll understand
that a lot better when we finally get to not see this too and not
feel it and not have it in front of us. So as much as we still feel it,
in the eyes of God, our sin is gone, paid for by the blood of
Christ. It says in Hebrews, I will forgive their wickedness and
I will remember their sins no more. So, you are the leper. We all are. We are all covered. We have nothing good to show.
There is no mixture of good and bad. We have nothing to offer,
nothing to boast in. So run to Christ. Look to him alone. Put zero trust
in anything good you think you have to offer. You have nothing
good. You are fully covered, but thankfully,
we have a savior that is not only fully capable to save sinners,
it's why he came. Come to him just as the leper
did. Say, Lord, I know you can. If only you are willing, save
me. And everyone that calls on the
name of the Lord will be saved. Nothing else is needed. Christ's
power and will are more than sufficient to save the vilest
of sinners, and we all deserve that title. Save me, and the beautiful, glorious,
free, no-strings-attached answer from a loving Savior will be,
I am willing, be clean. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we thank you so much
for your gospel. We thank you so much for your
blood. We thank you for everything you
are. Because you are everything. Thank you for showing your people
that we are not, we are nothing without you. But help us to not focus on that.
Help us to focus on you and the unending hope and unending mercy
and love and grace and faithfulness that we can lean on and look
to and trust and rest in. Help us to rest in you, Lord.
Help us to rest in the work that you've completed. Take away our
worries. Help us to put them on you. Unfurrow
our brows. Help us to trust and rest in
everything you are. And we pray this in Jesus' name,
amen. You can take out your hymnals. And turn to number 705.