All right, Luke chapter 5 beginning
with verse 12. While Jesus was in one of the
towns, a man came along who was covered with 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. Then Jesus ordered him, don't
tell anyone but go show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices
that Moses commanded for your cleansing as a testimony, testimony
to them. Now the miracles of our Lord
served at least three functions. First, they identified him as
the one sent from God in fulfillment of the scriptures. If you just
turn back one page to Luke chapter 4 and verse 14, Luke 4 verse
14, it says, Jesus returned to Galilee
in the power of the and news about him spread through the
whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues,
and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, where he
had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the
synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The
scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling
it, he found the place where it is written, 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, the 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 by saying to them, today this scripture
is fulfilled in your hearing. So our Lord's miracles were done
in fulfillment of what he, what Isaiah had written. And of course,
that's just one example. You look at all that our Lord
did, nearly everything that's recorded of him in the gospels,
you can find that it is fulfillment of some scripture in the Old
Testament. Secondly, our Lord's miracles
work to authenticate his message. Now, from our perspective, here
looking back on that whole situation. And having seen it all and been
given grace by God to believe it, from our perspective, we
would never think of questioning the Lord's Word, would we? For
us, it is, what does the Lord say? And once we know what the
Lord has said, that's the end of the debate. But there was nothing about our
Lord Jesus that would lead anyone to consider him any more than
another one of the rabbis of that day who went from place
to place preaching. Yes, his message was different,
but still, he did not look any different than anybody else.
So he himself said to them, to some who were having trouble
believing, If I'm not doing the works of my Father, then do not
believe me. But if I do them, even though
you don't believe me, by that he means if you just can't take
my word for it, believe the works, that you may know and understand
that the Father is in me and I am in the Father. Those people
actually weren't just having trouble believing. They were
fiercely opposed to him. He said, look, don't take just
my word for it. The Lord full well understood
that he did not look like what they were expecting. He certainly
did not carry himself or have a position in the world such
as a natural man would think the Son of God would have. And so they didn't believe him.
They were offended when he said he is the son of God. And he
said, look, don't just take my word for it. If you can't believe
just because I said it, believe the works. Who else can do what
I do? And you know something? He used
the same thing with his disciples. We might like to say, you know,
I don't need miracles to make me believe. Yeah, but it sure
make things easier, wouldn't it? I mean, let's face it. If we had been there and seen
the Lord do the works He did, we wouldn't have quite so much
trouble of our flesh saying, well, that can't be true. I realize
miracles by themselves will not give a man saving faith. But
for one who believes, they sure do kind of put the mouth on fleshly
unbelief. He said to them, believe that
I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on
account of the works themselves. That's what he told his disciples.
Because in the weakness of their flesh, they had difficulty. After all, they were following
a man who looked like they did, and they were following a man
who was scorned by the world, and they were venturing, if that's
the right word, venturing everything on him. That gets scary. In fact, it can get scary for
you and me, can't it? I've said it so many times, but
it's true. We are trusting our eternal souls to a message spoken
by a man we've never met, and the only thing we know about
him is what some other people we've never met wrote down about
him 2,000 years ago. And not only that, we're reading
a translation of it. None of us would invest $100
on that kind of testimony. But we have trusted our souls
to that testimony. So far as the flesh is concerned,
there's just no reason to believe what you and I believe. But Christ
was enabled to do works. God enabled Him. The Spirit of
the Lord was upon Him to do things. that no one else could do, so
that those who were listening to him and seeing what he did,
well, if they had any sense at all, they could make the connection.
Anyone who does that, such a one came from God. And then there's
a third reason for the miracles that our Lord did, and that is
that in each of the miracles he did, we find patterns that
illustrate the gospel. His miracles were not just to
confirm His message, not just to prove He's the one from the
Old Testament. They were done so that you and
I, when we read about them, even though we didn't see them happen,
even though we read about them, they are recorded in such a way
that we can see our salvation illustrated in them. Now, lots
of folks like to talk in terms of theology, and I tend to do
that. That's just the way I think.
Organize stuff into a system, make logical arguments and all
of that. And that has its place. Paul does a lot of that in the
book of Romans and the book of Galatians. We all, quote, do
theology. But you know what, at least for
me, when it really reaches down and grips your mind and gives
you a great deal of confidence and understanding, of what we
believe is when we see it. If in nothing else, we see it
in the stories written as we picture them in our mind. We
see it confirmed in everything our Lord did. You see, our Lord
is not only sovereignly gracious in the salvation of souls. Everything
He did followed that pattern. You'll see it in all of His works.
In fact, when he was there in Nazareth and read that scripture,
he said, this scripture is fulfilled. Now interestingly, he didn't
heal anybody that day. He didn't give sight to anybody.
He didn't release any of the oppressed, didn't do any of those
things outwardly that Isaiah mentioned. And yet it was fulfilled because
all of those things have a spiritual dimension, which he did. But
here's the point. You know why they got mad at
him? Because they got mad at him later when they were ready
to throw him over the hill, which was the way they often stoned
people. They were a little more merciful
than other cultures. And they'd throw you over a hill on a pile
of rocks and hope that'd kill you. So it was quick. And then
they'd just throw a bunch of stones on you for good measure.
But that's what they intended to do to him. Why? Because he
said to them that God bestows his blessing where he wants to,
without regard. to what anybody is in their natural
self. And you know, that made them
mad. Why? Because he said to them, I'm not going to do any
miracles here. Because I don't want to. I've
done miracles everywhere else, and you think I ought to do them
here because I'm a hometown boy. You think you have a claim on
me. I'm going to show you something. You don't. And that made him mad. But you
see, the patterns of sovereign grace, that is the mixture of
absolute authority and unexplainable kindness, meet together in our
Lord Jesus Christ and we find this wherever we look. Now we have a good example of
this pattern in this story here in Luke chapter 5. Have I read this? I can't even
remember now. Did I read this scripture yet? Luke chapter 5,
excuse me, Luke chapter 5, verse 12. While Jesus was in one of
the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. And
when he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged
him, Lord, if you're willing, you can make him clean. Now,
in this story, there are three things which are found in every
act of salvation. that the Lord Jesus Christ does.
Three principles that are always present. And every one of them,
as I've expressed them here, begin with the letter C. And
that's the words covered, cleansed, and cleared. And you'll see how
those three apply. And if the Lord gives you grace,
maybe you'll see how they apply in your own experience of the
Lord's salvation. Or if the Lord's being gracious
to you, He might reveal, you know something? This has never
been done for you. You've never been covered. You've
never been clean. You've never been clear. Maybe
that'll move you to do as this leper did and to bow before the
Lord and ask for his goodness. First of all, covered. Everyone
brought to the Lord is covered. It says here of this man that
he was covered with leprosy. Now, why would Luke make a point
of that? Why didn't he just say he had
leprosy? Because the fact of the matter
is, when it comes to having leprosy, it doesn't matter whether you're
covered or just having a little bit. It would have taken the
same level of miracle to cure it. Well, there was a very important
reason that Luke pointed out that this man was covered with
leprosy. Now, let's make an aside here
to understand what the Bible means when it uses the word leprosy.
It's not leprosy as you and I think of it in the modern age. What
is called leprosy in the modern age, it's official name I think
is Hansen's disease. It's a bacterial infection. And
it's a horrible disease. If it's not treated, taken care
of. But the disease is spoken of here, this word here, both
in the Greek and in the Hebrew where it's used, covers a whole
lot of skin problems. And the diseases that were covered
were not necessarily infectious. And those who were, quote, lepers,
and I'm just going to go ahead and use that word leper because
it makes it simpler than to say a whole host of skin diseases. But whoever had these various
forms of leprosy, they were separated from the people, not because
of a worry of infection, but simply because under that disease,
they were called unclean before the law. And as such, cut off
from the people of Israel. Now, I believe that In all actuality,
they could live in their homes and towns, but they could never
go to Jerusalem. They could never participate in the worship at
the temple. So far as the worship of God
was concerned, they were outcasts. And given the attitude of most
people in those old cultures, if you caught a disease like
that, they figured it was a judgment of God. So even though the law
did not require them to treat you as an outcast, most of them
were. because they figured God had
visited that on them as a judgment. But that was what leprosy was. Now, we do know, and if you'll
look over at Leviticus chapter 13, just hold your spot there
in Luke chapter 5 and turn over to Leviticus chapter 13. While we cannot be certain just
what kind of skin disease this man had, it's not important. Because the issue or the importance
is not over giving a proper diagnosis of the disease, it lies in that
word, covered. In Leviticus chapter 13, beginning
in verse 12, If the disease, and Leviticus 13 and 14 is dealing
with the diseases of the skin, traditionally called leprosy.
If the disease breaks out all over his skin, and so far as
the priest can see, it covers all 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
clean. Clean. Isn't that something else? You come to the priest, you got
an outbreak on your skin, it's just on your arm here. He looks
it over and there's a lot of other tests they have to do examining
the kind of disease it is and all that. But if he says it's
one of these diseases and it's only on a part of you, you are
unclean. And you know what? Here's the
remarkable thing. You are unclean and there is
no provision made for your cleansing. None whatsoever. So long as you
are a part leper, you are unclean in the sight of the law. But! If you come before the priest
and you have one of these diseases, but it is all the way from the
top of your head down to your foot, you're just covered in
it. The priest says, you're clean. And you can go out among the
people, you can go to the temple, or at this time it would have
been the tabernacle, you can participate in the sacrifices, you can participate
in the worship of the Lord, you are accepted in the assembly
of God's people if you, from the top of your head to the sole
of your feet, are covered in one of these diseases. You may
say, that's kind of odd. It just seems counterintuitive.
You'd think the more of it that a guy had, the more ostracized
he would be. No. There were only two kinds of
clean people in the Old Testament. Those who had no leprosy and
those who were covered in it. Everyone else was unclean and
there was no sacrifice that could be offered that could make them
clean Make them acceptable at the temple now you that have
heard me preach know where we're going with this Because we've
seen this pattern so many times haven't we and this leper comes
and he is completely covered with leprosy Our Lord is ready
to cleanse those covered in sin. No provision has been made for
those who are only partly sinful. They say, well, you preach that
everybody's covered with sin. Yeah, but not everybody knows
that. This man did not come to our
Lord Jesus and plead anything about himself. But how many people
come before the Lord and they say things like this, Lord, I
realize I've sinned, but I've done the best I can. I realize
that I'm really bowled over with this so-called besetting sin.
And I have this trouble, but you know, Lord, I never did this,
and I have gone to church. What are they telling the Lord?
They're telling Him that they're partly leprous. And you know
what the Lord's going to do? There is no provision for the
partly leprous. There is no provision, even if
it's just a teeny tiny spot. If that's all there is, no sacrifice,
no provision, no cleansing, unacceptable and unaccepted. Nearly everyone in the world
sees themselves as a mixture of good and bad. And you know
that's true if we're using man's standard for good and bad. And
on that level, you and I ought to do as much as we can to be
as good as we can and avoid as much of the bad as we can. We
should. You know, trying to be a decent person does not put
you in contradiction of the gospel
of grace. Quite the contrary, actually.
You say, well, I'm just a sinner. That's what you keep telling
me. I can't do anything but sin. There's no use me trying. Well,
yeah, there's some use in you trying. Your neighbor is going
to appreciate it a whole lot more if you rein in your sinful
tendency. The name of the Lord Jesus Christ
won't be disgraced by you nearly as much if you will restrain
the worst outbreaks of your sinful nature. We do the best we can
to be good. But brethren, if we take that attitude before God, If we come before God and try
to describe ourselves as, well, we got some bad things, but we
got some good things too. All we do is ensure our condemnation. That's all we do. We shut ourselves
out of the kingdom of God every time we talk about, well, you
know, there's good and bad in everyone. If we say that before
God, He's going to say, well, there's good and bad in you,
there's nothing here for you. When it comes to sin and righteousness,
God recognizes only two conditions, absolutely flawless or absolutely
sinful. Really, that's all God recognizes. You might be asking, is he saying
that using God's standard of judgment, there's no difference
between the murderer and the heroic man that saves from a
murderer? There is no difference between
the abortionist and the abortion protester. No difference between
the homosexual activist and the preacher that denounces their
conduct. No difference between Hitler
and the Jews that he slaughtered. That's exactly what I'm saying.
But you know something? It doesn't matter that I'm saying
it. Because it doesn't matter what
I say. It matters what God says. And look what he has said through
his apostle in Romans chapter 3. Looking at verse 22, the last
part of it. We got to look at the last part
of verse 22 because the verse division is kind of unfortunate
there. But Paul says this, and he is
comparing Jew and Gentile, and understand that, at least from
the Jewish viewpoint, there's no greater difference between
men than the difference between a Jew and a Gentile. That was
their attitude. So Paul is using the most distinctive
distinction between men when it comes to the issues of God.
He's taking that one thing that men are most prone to think will
give people favoring the sight of God, even to this day, they
say, well, you know, the Jews are God's favored people. Well,
Paul says at the end of verse 22, concerning Jews and Gentiles,
there is no difference. For all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God. No difference. And that means also that there's
no difference among men about anything that's natural to them. It doesn't matter what color
you are. God's not looking at your skin. He's looking at your
heart. It doesn't matter how much culture and sophistication
you have. Believe me, God is no more impressed
by the London Symphony Orchestra than he is by some primitive
back in the jungle banging on his drums and doing whatever
kind of music he does. Our culture and sophistication
doesn't mean anything to God. Our education, oh come on, give
me a break. God's not impressed with anything
about us, even though we become pretty impressed with ourselves,
don't we? No, there is no difference. None
at all. In the day of judgment, there
shall be some who come before the Lord as murderers, perverts,
and liars. We will see the likes of empire
builders who are slaughtered by the millions. We'll see some
of those mid-eastern butchers of our day who kill in the name
of their God. The abortionists, they'll be
brought to Him, thieves, the nasty burglar type, and the suit-and-tie
financiers who rob people of their money. All kinds of them.
We'll see them brought before the Lord, and the Lord shall
say to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.
And we're going to give our aim into what the Lord says in that
day, agree with His judgment, as such people are dragged away
to eternal punishment. But you know something? There
is nowhere in the Scripture that it says that's going to happen,
at least not in those words. You know what the Lord said is
going to happen? There shall be brought before Him those who
are dressed as reverend and doctor so-and-so. who are known for
their powerful sermons and even their miraculous works. There
will be those who are indeed revered and cherished by religious
people in the world. They will come before the Lord,
these who are highly esteemed among men. And they'll be surprised
at the look of disgust on the Lord's face, with the anger and
wrath that furrows His brow towards them. And they'll say to Him,
Lord, Lord, There's got to be some kind of mistake here. I
don't belong in this judgment. You see, didn't I preach in your
name? Don't you remember all those
sermons? They made a series of books out of them. I was published
in 15 different languages. Didn't you see that? And I cast
out demons. And I mean, I wasn't just a trickster.
I actually did the deed. And I worked many wonderful works
in your name. And here's the thing. Christ
never denied what they said. What do you think of that? Christ
did not say, no, no, no, no, that never happened. He never
said to them, your miracles were tricks. He never said the message
you preached was wrong. He simply said this, I never
knew you. Depart from me. You don't know the level of sobriety
that brings to me as a preacher of the gospel. Now, I have never
worked any miracles or cast out any demons that I'm aware of.
But I have preached in his name a long time. Yet I cannot take the least comfort
in that, that that has in any way distinguished me from any
other sinner on the earth and gained me favor with God. And
I hope that in that day, I will not be found among these people.
Lord, Lord, didn't I? I tell you, if your Lord, Lord
is followed up with something you did, You are in big trouble. Big, big trouble. Many who watch that scene will
be stunned. Had they listened to the Lord
while on earth, they would have known that with him it is all
good or all bad. But because they would not acknowledge
their all badness and sought his favor by what scraps of goodness
they could collect about themselves, and they appeared before him
claiming that goodness. There was neither grace nor remedy
for them. This man was covered with a skin
disease and as such he came before the Lord and found the Lord to
be a willing Savior. Now, one cannot help but be impressed
with the way this man approached the Lord. I like this, it says,
when he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground. You know
something? When people see the Lord Jesus
for who He is, that's what they do. That's why I have so little
confidence in those whose Confrontation, if that's the right word, or
their meeting with the Lord Jesus, has them coming away saying things
like, me and my friend Jesus, and Jesus is my friend, and Jesus
is my pal, and we're getting along good. This man saw Jesus
in the sight of Jesus, put him in the dust. It did the same
thing to John. The Apostle John, the beloved
Apostle John, when he saw the Lord Jesus in a vision there
on Mount Patmos, he said, I fell at his feet as a dead man. That's
why we don't go out preaching the gospel as though it's some
kind of take-it-or-leave-it offer. We're not going out there presenting
a plan of salvation as though it's some kind of, you know,
get-out-of-hell-free card. That's not what we're talking
about. When we preach the gospel, we are setting before men and
women the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if God gives
them eyes to see Him, they'll do just what this man did. If
not literally with their bodies, certainly in their heart, they
will fall down with their face to the ground. Why? Because that's
what all of us do in the presence of true greatness. We feel a
compulsion to bow before that which is that high above us.
He bowed before him. He did not come to him thinking
that the Lord owed him anything. All this day and age, here at
least in the United States, and I remember from clear back when
I was a kid, folks believe that God owes them salvation if they
want it. Isn't that something? How arrogant
can you be? That would be like going before
the judge. Even worse than that. say you
killed someone and say you killed a man and you how audacious would
it be for you to go to that man's wife and say I asked for your
forgiveness and now that I've asked for it you are required
to give it. You would think such a man was
well let's lock him up for a few more years for saying a thing
like that. And yet men think that God is obligated that way.
They have sinned against Him much worse than any simple murder. Everything they've done has been
tainted with selfishness and sin and God-hatred. And they
come before Him and they think that all they have to do is say,
well, I'm sorry about all that. You know, I'm just a man. I've
done the best I can do. And now you've got to forgive
me. This man said no such thing to the Lord. He did not say,
I've heard that you have healed others, so you have to be fair
and heal me too. He said no such thing. What humility this man demonstrated
in the very face of his greatest need. You think that, you know,
with him feeling such a need as he had, he would have brought
forth the most compelling argument he could. Actually, he did bring
the most compelling argument that could be brought to the
Lord. He did not argue for any power
of his own will in the matter. He came as someone with nowhere
else to go, convinced of the power of the Lord Jesus to cure
his disease. People say, you know, sometimes
folks come to Jesus as a last resort. You know something? That's
the only way anybody ever comes to him. He's the last resort.
Because men by nature will try anything. They'll go anywhere
for help other than the Lord Jesus. And it's not until they've
come into a situation from which they can't find help from anybody
else, then they come to the Lord Jesus. All right, he was covered. Now he's cleansed. The Lord revealed
his heart in this. This man said, If you're willing,
you can make me clean. He declared the Lord's power.
He was convinced of it. He knew the Lord Jesus could
make him clean. All that was necessary is that
the Lord be willing to do so. And the Lord showed his gracious
heart. He said, I am willing, be clean. And immediately the man was cleansed
of his disease. The will and power of Christ
is all it took for this man to be cleansed of his leprosy. And
brethren, all that will take for you to be cleansed from your
sin is the will and the power of the Lord Jesus. It's not waiting
on your will. It's not your will that's the
primary issue here, it's His will. The Lord cleansed him freely,
completely. He didn't say to this leper,
well, I'll cleanse you, but you got to promise me you don't run
with lepers after this. I mean, you're going to straighten
up your life now. You got this by hanging around
with other lepers. And I'll cleanse you if you'll
promise not to be around lepers anymore. He didn't say to this man, well,
how much money you give me? He didn't ask this man for anything.
The man said, you can if you're willing. The Lord said, I'm willing,
be clean. And immediately the leprosy left
him. He was covered with leprosy. He was cleansed of his leprosy.
Then he was cleared. Our Lord said to him in verse
14, don't tell anyone. But go show yourself to the priest
and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing
as a testimony to them. Now, this sounds kind of interesting. The Lord said to this man, be
clean. And he was cleansed. And now
he says, go offer a sacrifice for your cleansing. Well, there's
a good lesson for us in this. This man was cleansed. Of his
disease, he didn't have it anymore. but he still needed a legal clearing
before the law. And that's why I've called this
part clearing. What he had experienced through the sheer grace and mercy
of Christ must be legally accounted for at the temple. Here is a picture of how God
could justify Abraham back in antiquity. He could do so because there
would later be offered a sacrifice in his behalf that would justify
God in justifying Abraham. God said to Abraham, be clean. And Abraham was clean. But that
sin still got to be taken care of, the legal part of it, the
legal issue. If this man, he was clean of
disease, he didn't have it anymore, and yet if he is to be accepted
back into the assembly of God's people and be free to worship
there, there's got to be a sacrifice offered. And that was the way
it was written in the Old Testament. A fellow, if he had some leprosy,
but then it got healed, and he no longer had leprosy, well they
didn't just let him back in because he didn't have leprosy, he still
had to bring a sacrifice. And once he'd been examined,
you got no leprosy, here's the sacrifice, okay, everything's
in good order, you may come back in, you're one of us again, once
again. Now we stand on the other side
of this sacrifice. See, the sacrifice had not yet
been made, that is the spiritual sacrifice. You see, Christ has
died and on that basis we may say that all for whom Christ
has made that sacrifice are legally cleared from all their sins.
But what was done in the court of heaven must also be experienced
on earth. That will which is already accomplished
in heaven must also be accomplished here on earth. You see, a man,
according to the law, we've already read this, a man who is covered
in leprosy was already clean. Why did this man come to Christ
for cleansing? Remember, we read that. All this
man had to do, in all reality, he could have bypassed the Lord
Jesus Christ for his cleansing, because he could have gone to
the priest, and the priest would have looked at him, and he would
have said, you're covered. You're clean. Offer the sacrifice. You're back in. And everything
would have been fine. And you know something, for a
lot of people, that's salvation enough. They don't care whether
or not they have the disease as long as they're not cast out
because of it. A lot of folks don't mind being
sinners at all as long as they don't have to go to hell for
it. As long as they're not punished for it. They'd be happy to go
through eternity as wicked and as wretched as they presently
are. Not this man. This man was not
going to be satisfied with merely being declared clean in the eyes
of the law. He wanted actually to be free
of the disease that made him unclean in the first place. What does this mean for you and
me? It's this. If God has been gracious
to us, while we delight in the fact that through the sacrifice
of Christ, there is nothing, nothing to bar us from the full
possession of heaven's blessings, we're not satisfied with just
that. We no longer want to be what
we are. We confess that we're covered
in leprosy, but we don't want to be that way. You see, salvation
is not just from the punishment of sin, not just from the estrangement
that comes by sin. Salvation is to be freed from
sin. We who have been saved by the
grace of God in the sense that a sacrifice has been offered
on our behalf, We still feel those leprous inclinations in
us, don't we? And we long to be cleansed from
all of that. Our Lord could have said to this
man, what do you need from me? You're covered with leprosy,
so under the law, you're clean. Go off for the required sacrifices,
and you'll no longer be considered unclean. You will be restored
to the full rights of Jewish citizenship. The Lord could have
said that then, because it would have been true. But if the Lord
had said that to him, I'm sure the leper would have said, Oh,
wretched leper that I am, who shall deliver me from this body
of leprosy? I'm not just looking for a way
back in the temple. I don't want to be this anymore.
Oh, wretched leper that I am, who will deliver me? And we would
have heard our Lord said, I will be clean. Brethren, we ain't
clean yet, are we? We're clean in the spirit. The
Lord's already done half the work, if that's the way we want
to put it. He's cleaned us from that spiritual leprosy that hated
God from the heart, that sought to establish our own righteousness,
which is but filthy rag. We've been cleansed of that,
but all this flesh, still covered in leprosy, isn't it? But the
Lord says, I will, just not yet. We'll get there, brethren. The
day will come. when the Lord will say, I will
be clean. And I got to thinking about that.
All of us have a limited amount of time on this world. And all
of us look with a certain amount of fear as that date approaches. What if instead of looking at
that day as the day we quote die, We started looking at it
as the day when our Lord will say, be clean. And don't worry about the sacrifice
that's already been taken care of. Be clean, be utterly and
absolutely free from all that made you so miserable. The grace
of the Lord be added to that.