Turn to Isaiah 66. I'm going
to read a couple of verses out of Isaiah. Now remember, there's
no midweek service coming up this week, and Don Fortner will
be with us Friday at 7, Saturday at 7, and Sunday morning. Isaiah 66, Thus saith the Lord,
The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you build
unto me? And where is the place of my
rest? For all those things hath mine hand made. And all those
things have been, saith the Lord. But to this man will I look."
And you'd think that would get our attention. He's going to
describe the man, the person, man or woman that he looks to,
gives attention to. But to this man will I look,
even to him that is poor, that's poor in spirit, and of a contrite
spirit, and trembles, trembleth at my word. Alright, Doug's going to lead
us in singing. Take your hymnals and turn to
page 10. Page 10. Oh God, our help in ages past. Let's stand and sing. O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come, our shelter from the stormy blasts,
and our eternal home. Under the shadow of Thy throne,
still may we dwell secure. Sufficient is Thy arm alone,
and our defense ensured. Before the hills in order stood,
our earth received her frame. From everlasting Thou art God
to endless years of stain. Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
bears all its sons away. Their life, forgotten as a dream,
dies at the opening day. O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come. Be thou our guide while life
shall last, and our eternal home. Then turn to page 318. Page 318. I need thee every hour. I need Thee every hour, most
gracious Lord. No tender voice like Thine can
be support. Every hour I need Thee, O blessing,
I sing, I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour, stay
thou nearby. Temptations lose their power,
When Thou art nigh. I need Thee, O I need Thee, Every
hour I need Thee. O bless me now, my Savior, I
come to Thee. I need Thee every hour, in joy
or pain. Come quickly and abide, for life
is vain. I need Thee, O I need Thee, every
hour I need Thee. I need Thee every hour, O Holy
One. O make me like Thee, Thou blessed
Son. I need Thee, O I need Thee, every
hour I need Thee. Be seated please. Turn to Matthew chapter 8. Title of the message, Christ, My Greatest Need. What is your greatest need? I look at all of you sitting
here. And all of us have different needs. But there's one need. There's one need that's greater
than all. I have one need that nothing can compare to. And that need is the Lord Jesus
Christ. I need Thee. We're just saying
it. I need Thee every hour. I need Thee every moment. You
know, I cannot even take my next breath Without Him? Can't do it? Our Lord, let's look at this.
This leper. Keep in mind that leprosy in
the Scriptures was a type of sin. And this is how every sinner
comes to Christ spiritually, we come like this leper. We have
the leprosy of sin. It's written over in Luke that
he was... This is recorded three times,
Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And it says that this man was
full of leprosy from head to toe. There was no place on His
body that was not leprosy. Now, we have never, I don't believe,
probably not anyone here, you might have, has seen the full
effect of leprosy. It's a putrefying sight. Now, our Lord has spoken the
truth on the Sermon on the Mount. And He spoke it with authority.
But now He's going to demonstrate His power to heal, to save with
authority. Nobody else could do anything
for this man. It was a hopeless, absolutely
hopeless situation. Remember that the miracles that
our Lord performed, they were proofs of His deity. that He's
God. But they were also examples to
us of spiritual healing, which is what I need the most. Christ
said in one place, it's better to enter into the kingdom of
God, halt, remain, cripple, than to be made whole and go straight
to hell. My greatest need is for Christ
to heal me Spiritually. To make me one again with God.
To deal with this sin issue that I was born with. I was born with
it. I did not become a sinner at
a certain age. I was born one. I was born one. Our Lord comes down from the
mount after preaching. After preaching the gospel of
grace. Love your enemies. Do good to them that despitefully
use you. Pray for them. Go the second
mile. After preaching the gospel of
grace, he now performs the work of grace on an outcast. It says in verse 2, Behold, give attention to this. This
leper is not supposed to be here. This leper is supposed to be
separated from everybody. This leper is not supposed to
approach Him. You know that even the shadow of a leper was not
allowed to be cast upon anyone, or they would be unclean. That's why he's saying here,
that's why the writer of Matthew is saying, behold, this is amazing. This is amazing. Be astonished. but also be encouraged at this.
A leper came to Christ and outcast a diseased man, a lonely man." Lonely man. Let me read something
to you out of numbers. I marked it this morning. Let
me find it here. In Numbers 5, let me read 1-4
to you. Listen to this. And the Lord
spake unto Moses, saying, Command the children of Israel, that
they put out of the camp every leper, and every one that hath
an issue, and whosoever is defiled by the dead, both male and female,
shall you put out without the camp." Put them out of town. They had what they called a leper
colony. Put them out. "...that they defile not their
camps whereof I dwell. And the children of Israel did
so, and put them out without the camp, as the Lord spake unto
Moses, so did the children of Israel. They had to dwell without
the camp. They had a lonely life. They were an outcast. The law,
even the law was against them. The law pronounced them unclean,
just as it pronounced me unclean by nature. He pronounced him
unclean. And here is a hopeless, helpless
man with a disease that there was no cure for. There was no
doctor in town that could do anything for this man. Like the
woman with the issue of blood. She had tried all the physicians
and was none the better, but rather grew worse. It says she
spent all her living trying to find a cure and there was not
any. Not any. We can find cures that
we have for certain diseases. But you know there's never been
one for sin? There's never been a cure for sin that we've come
up with. You can't. It's a nature. It's a nature. It's not a disease, it's a nature.
It's a principle of life in me. But here's a man who no one wanted
to be with. Put yourself in this man's place. No one would touch this man. They were afraid of being made
unclean, declared unclean by the law. I cannot imagine what it would be like not to
be able to feel or to touch another human being. I talked to a man
some time ago that had been in jail for a while. And he told
me, he said, the one thing I missed was the touch of another person. He said, I never realized that.
He said, that's the one thing I missed. This man could not
hug his children, if he had any, his wife, parents. He couldn't touch them. He couldn't
come close to them. He had to stand as an outcast.
He had to stand at a distance. He had to always live among the
unclean. That was his lot. Always had him to live among
the dead. You can't imagine the stench of that leper colony where
he was made to live. Can't imagine. But he comes to our Lord. Oh, this man was stripped of
all hope except one. The Scripture says this, He is
able, it says in Hebrews, speaking of Christ, He is able to save
unto the uttermost. I heard Henry say, unto the goodermost.
He's able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by Him,
seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them. He's able. There's one that is able to save. There's one that is able to cleanse. There's one that is able to present
me before God spotless, even though I was born with this leprosy
of sin, and it permeates my whole being. There's nothing that I
can do, ever have done, or ever will do that's not going to be
touched by sin. But there is one that can save
me. There's no case so hard that
the Lord Jesus Christ cannot heal. His power is not limited. You're going to see this. It's
not a matter of power. You know, whatever it is I'm going through,
whatever it is God's putting you through, His ability to deliver
is not a matter of His power. It's a matter of His will. It's a matter of His will. There's no stain. so deep that
He cannot wash it away. No stain. There's no sin that
I've ever committed or ever will commit that the blood of Jesus
Christ cannot completely wipe it away. In fact, if I'm His,
they're all gone now. Listen, the sins that I've not
even committed are gone. You say, well, I give you a license
to do what you want. I do what I want. Are you not
doing what you want? It's very hypocritical if we're not. You
know the gospel sets a man free to live like he wants? It does. It allows you to live for the
first time like you really want to live. And that's for Christ's
sake. And that's after Christ. That's
to follow after Him. If I could, I'd live without
sin. If I could, I would not sin again. But I have this confidence
that through the blood and the righteousness of Jesus Christ,
my sins are gone. Brethren, they're gone. That's
how I stand before God justified. There's nothing there to condemn
me. This poor leper, he sought the
Lord out, and I had no doubt that Probably he was standing
on the outskirts of that multitude that the Lord was speaking to
on the Sermon of the Mount and he heard Him. He heard Him speak. Maybe someone
told Him about Him. I just kind of feel like He heard
Him because He was there when He came down. He was waiting
on Him. He was waiting on Him. Faith
comes by hearing. And hearing by the Word of God. That's why it's so important.
what we're doing this morning. When you hear God's Word, when
God takes His Word and He speaks, and He speaks life, He commands
life, He commands the hearing ear. He said, I give the hearing
ear and the seeing eye. God said in Isaiah, I give that.
That's of Me. And it says there in the verse,
it says He worshipped Him. In Mark chapter 1 verse 40 it
says, kneeling down, you know sometimes, sometimes the position
of the body does indicate the position of the heart. And in
this case it did. This man was broken. He was broken. Kneeling down,
the leper knew his place before the Lord. He knew it was in the
dust. He knew where he belonged. You
know, that's one of the things that God must do in saving a
sinner is put him or her in their place. He must put us in our
place. And then notice here, he acknowledged
the Lord's sovereign right to heal him. He said in verse 2, And behold,
there came a leper and worshipped him. And Luke, it says, he fell
down before him. Mark it says he kneeled. And
here it just says they worshipped him. Worshipped him. Position of the heart. And look
what he said. Lord. He didn't come up to him and
say Jesus. He didn't call him by that name.
He called him Lord. He recognized his Lordship. He
recognized His sovereign right. And He recognized His position
as the subject. He said, Lord, if You will. You know, I don't want to make
such a... I don't want to make anything of my will. I've learned
this. It's God's will or no will. It's God's will or no will. Call us a free moral agent? Where'd
you get the moral part from? That don't fit. Where'd you get the agent part
from? I wouldn't hire you as an agent. You wouldn't hire me
as one. And we're sure not free. Don't pay your taxes. Just don't
pay your taxes and see how free you are. We have some freedoms. But who? Whom the Son sets free, He's
free indeed. And you'll realize that when
you die. When you die, you're going to realize completely what
freedom really is. What it really is. And then He
confessed His need of healing. He knew, listen, this man knew
it was Christ who died. I have Mike Bartram sing a song.
I've had him sing a song so many times. Give me Christ or else
I die. That's a beautiful song. He knew
it. Everyone whom God saved, they
know it's either Christ or dying. You know it. And he confessed
it. And he worshipped Him in his
heart. This came from his heart. This man, from his heart, he
bowed to him. From his heart, he said, Lord,
if you will, you can make me clean. This leper had to be stripped
of everything. God let this man, I have no doubt
this, God let this man contract this leprosy to bring him to
himself and to teach us a spiritual lesson that this is us by nature. He stripped him of everything
but his need of Christ. Brother, that's the best thing
God could ever do for me and you. I don't care, it doesn't
matter, if He literally takes everything from us, like He did
Job. At the end of that, Job said,
I abhor myself and sat called to ashes. By the hearing of the
ear, I've heard of thee. Everybody sitting here, you've
heard this time and time again, haven't you? But here's what
you and I want. But now, mine eye seeth thee. Now I see you. Most people do not need Jesus
Christ. They just need some benefits.
That's what they need. That's what a lot of these faith
healers are all about. So-called faith healers. It's all about
the benefits. It's nothing about the saving
of the soul. It's nothing about being made
one with God. It's about getting my leg fixed. I'll tell you what, if I had
a broken leg and that's what's bringing me to Christ, I'd let
it be broken. Whatever it takes to bring you to Christ, Let it
happen. Because this life is so short. It's so short. Even at its longest. My dad is 86, and he told me
here not too long ago, he said, talking about raising the kids,
growing up on the farm, he said, son, it just seems like it's
been a dream. He said, it's just like it's
been a dream. It's gone by that fast. The first thing the leper recognized
was the sovereign right of our Lord to save him if He will. This is totally different than
Jesus standing around wanting to save you if you'll let Him
in. This is totally different than Him saying, won't you accept
Me as your personal Savior? This false religion has sold
this world a bad bill of goods. They've got the Lord doing the
begging instead of us. They've got Him begging for sinners
to come to Him. He's not the beggar I am. He's
not the one in need I am. He's the Sovereign, not me. He's the Sovereign. Look over
in John chapter 5. This is where many religious
lost people get mad. When you put the sovereign rights
of God in the hands of Christ, to do as He will, with whom He
will, when He will. But this leper knew it. And every
sinner whom God saves, he knows it. But listen here. Let me find
it. In verse 21. For as the Father
raises up the dead, and quickeneth them, gives them life, even so
the Son quickeneth who He will. Salvation begins when a person,
a sinner, realizes that, listen now, He has no right to mercy. When I beg God for mercy, and
I ask God for mercy every day, asking for mercy on my family,
on my children, on you, but let me tell you something. I personally
don't have any right to mercy. If I had a right to it, it wouldn't
be mercy, it'd be a debt, wouldn't it? If God owed it to me, it's
a debt. If it's mercy, it's unmerited
favor. So I appeal to the unmerited favor of God on me, save me Lord,
if you will. And he's never, you'll never
find in the word of God, he never ever turned down a sinner that
ever came to him in need. Never. Now those who came and
said, show us a sign, you're not gonna get one. You're not
gonna get a sign. If you don't get one from him,
you might get one from Satan. But you don't get one from him.
Because God never tries to prove who He is. Ever. He declares who He is. And that's
what I'm doing right now. I'm declaring who He is. I'm
not trying to prove to anybody that God is. I'm not trying to
prove what Jesus Christ is. I'm just a herald. I'm just proclaiming
it. The work of salvation is in the
hands of the Holy Spirit. It's in His hands. This leper threw himself at the
mercy of the Lord. I suggest anybody here who needs
saving, who needs mercy, throw yourself at the mercy of Christ. He's never turned anyone away
that ever did. He threw himself at the Lord's
mercy. He's the only one that can save from sin. Nobody else
can do it. No priest, no ceremonies. You just go through all the hoopla
you want to. You're still going to come out just as bad as you
went in. But Christ can put it away. Christ can present me faultless
before the Father's throne. He can do that. Christ is God
incarnate. He's not a faith healer. He's
God. And you're going to see when
He saves, you're saved. You're saved. Now why did he come to Christ?
Why did this leper come to Christ? You know why? He believed. He believed he could do it. Christ
said to that blind man, you believe I'm able to do this? Those two
blind men, you believe I'm able? This leper believed without a
doubt, with all his heart, that Christ could save him, could
make him clean. that Christ could heal him. And
that's when a sinner will come to Jesus Christ. That's when
you and I will come to Christ, when we really believe He can
do it, and that He will do it. He that cometh to God must believe
that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently, not
half-heartedly, that diligently seek Him. God, someone said,
God saves sinners, not theologians. God's never saved a theologian.
Everyone He's ever saved has just been a dog of a sinner.
Everyone. Now what did our Lord do? If
that leper walked in this door, and the sight of Him, and the
smell of Him, I don't believe it'd be one of us would touch
Him. You know, when a leper walked
down the street, it was like the parting of the Red Sea. People
would just go like this. They wanted nothing to do with
that. Nothing. But what did our Lord do? The
law says, anyone that touches him or anything he touches is
unclean. If he had walked up to a Pharisee,
that Pharisee would have ran. It says here, he put forth his hand
and touched him. Brethren, there's power in a
touch from the crucified one. Power in a touch. The Lord's not afraid to touch
sinners. I'm so glad that He was not afraid
to reach down and pluck me out of the fire like a brand. That
He was not afraid to call me His friend. The Pharisee said, this man eateth
with publicans and sinners. People like me and you. They
charged him with that. The greatest charge ever. But
they didn't mean it that way. He put forth his hand, that dying flesh, that stinking
flesh, and he reached over and he just laid his hand on it and
touched it. He loves sinners. I know who
God loves. Sinners. I know for whom Christ
died. I know. Sinners. It says He died
for the ungodly. He didn't die for good people
because He said there's not any. That's what He said. I didn't
write the Bible. You want to get mad at Him, get
mad at Him. Like the children of Israel this morning wanting
to shoot Moses. Moses is just a leader. He's
just a messenger. That's all. I'm just a messenger.
I'm telling you what He said. If anyone touched that leper,
they were unclean, but our Lord feared not to touch him. You know, the Scripture says He took
our sicknesses into our infirmity. Our sins, multitude of sinners,
go back in number, was laid on Him. Everything, every rotten
thing about me, all that I am, was laid on Him. And He bore the punishment for it. He touched them. He never turned sinners away
who need Him. And notice here, He touched him,
but at the same time He touched him, He spoke to him. If God
ever speaks to us, you'll never be the same. I'm telling you,
you'll never be the same if God ever speaks to you. And He said, I will. It's My will that you be clean. I will be thou clean. The Scripture
says where the word of a king is, there's power. And when He
said, I will be thou clean, He was clean. He was clean. Power went forth with His spoken
word to heal that leper. And that leper standing there,
And all His putrefying flesh became just as clean and just
as pure and just as healthy as a newborn baby. Power went forth with His Word
to heal that leper. And that's what He says to everyone
whom He saves. Be thou clean. If He speaks the Word of the
Gospel in power to us, We'll be clean. You'll be clean. And
the result of him speaking and touching him, it says immediately,
immediately, his leprosy was cleansed. It was gone. Can you
imagine that man standing there, ate up, full of leprosy, and
then... Everything's normal. His flesh. His body. It's all made whole. and clean. I mean, there's no
way to express the joy of that man when that happened. It troubles me that I get so
cold. How time and sin can make you
so cold over what the Lord's done for you. That's astounding. that I stand before God clean,
and all my sins are gone, and yet I can be so dull. It's amazing. Immediately departed
from Him. That's why it says in Luke 5,
is departed from Him. Christ didn't put Him on probation.
We are not put on probation. Salvation is immediate, and it's
complete. Now, there is a sense, there's
a sense in which I have been saved, I'm being saved, and I
shall be saved. But as far as God's concerned,
this matter's over. This matter's over, it's complete.
There's nothing left to be done. Christ said it's finished. It's
finished. I'm not on probation. Christ
saves immediately. He saves us immediately from
sin. He was not only pronounced clean,
but this man was made clean. That leopard didn't ask to be
pronounced clean. I don't want the Lord just to
pronounce me clean, but to make me clean. Salvation is not Christ. saying you're clean. It's Christ
making you clean. Making you righteous. I'm not
just pronounced righteous. We are made the righteousness
of God in Him. And note what He tells him. And
I'll wind this up. He said, tell no man. Don't go out and proclaim
what just happened. Not right now. And the reason
being is He made Himself of no reputation. He wasn't trying
to get a following. He came to die. Jesus Christ
came into this world a first time not to try to get a huge
crowd and a following and straighten everybody up. He came to die. He didn't come to live. He came
to die. He came to put away sin. He came to give Himself as a
sacrifice for sin. That's why He came. He didn't try to get a following.
He came to die. And then He says to him here,
Show thyself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded
for a testimony unto them. Why did He say that? Why did
He tell him to go show yourself to the priest and offer a gift
that Moses commanded? Well, first of all, the law was
still in effect. He had not died yet. The law was still in effect.
Christ is not going to break the law. He always honored the law in
every way. And show yourself to the priest. In the Old Testament, back in
Leviticus, the priest would pronounce to
the leper, clean only after examination. And he had to strip down. The
leper had to take everything off and stand there stark naked
in front of that priest, and that priest would examine him
from head to toe. If there was a spot, I mean a
spot of leprosy in him, he was still unclean. If there's a spot,
I mean a spot, that you have to look at under a microscope
of sin still on me. The law says you're unclean. Doesn't that show you how effectual
the work of Christ is? Doesn't that show you how effectual
the cleansing of the blood is? There's not a spot or stain left.
It's gone. It's gone. And nothing that Christ does
in the saving of a sinner is contrary to the law. Brethren,
listen. You who believe God, we have
no fear. We have no fear of standing before
God's law, not to find acceptance, but to be examined because of
the work of Christ for me and in me. I have no fear of the
law examining me. He can turn me around, look on
me from head to toe. It's not going to find a spot. Scripture says you are complete
in Him. You're completely healed. You're completely clean. You're
completely accepted. You're complete. And then He
told him to offer the gift. Now listen, not as a reason for
the cleansing, not as a reason for it, but as a testimony. What's
the gift that you and I offer this morning? Praise and thanksgiving. And
that's it. It used to be blood. They used
to offer the blood. But Christ came and He put that
away. The gift that we offer this morning,
thank You, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank You, Lord, for making
me whole. Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. Let me read you this and I close. Christ is everything. He's everything
to the believer. He's everything. He's not part
of my life. He is my life. I don't have it. I read this the other day.
Some years ago, two boats were passing each other on the Mississippi. when an old gentleman said to
a passenger, as he pointed to the other boat, look yonder.
Look yonder is the captain. When asked for an explanation,
he said, years ago, we were going along like this, and I fell overboard,
and the captain rescued me. And since then, I just love to
point him out. I just love to point him out. And I can say to you this morning,
I hope I pointed him out. Because I just love to point
him out. And he rescued my son. All right, Doug, let's close
with a song.