of Jesus Christ. All right, let's open our Bibles
now to the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 1. Gospel of Mark. Chapter 1. Mark, Chapter 1. Let's
read. Let's go ahead and read the whole
text. Verses 39 through 45. Mark, Chapter
1. Verses 39 the end of the chapter. And he,
the Lord, preached in their synagogue throughout all Galilee, and cast
out devils. And there came a leper to him,
beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto
him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me And Jesus moved with compassion,
put forth his hand, and touched them, and saith unto him, I will
be thou cleansed. And as soon as the Lord had spoken,
immediately, immediately the leprosy departed from the man,
and he was cleansed. And he straightly, the Lord straightly
charged the man forthwith sent him away, and saith 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 the man went out
and began to publish it much, and the blaze abroad the matter,
insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into that city
that was without desert places, and they obtained Him from everywhere. Our Lord healed many
lepers throughout the Gospels, many lepers. Leprosy was a very common disease
back then. There was no cure for it. It
was a very dreadful disease. It was nearly always, nearly
always fatal. Nearly always fatal. And though leprosy is rare to
that, you won't hear of very many cases that they thought
that they had all been eradicated. There are a few cases, but very
rare today. Yet, every one of us are born with a type of leprosy. And it's not nearly always fatal.
It is always fatal. Every one of us are born lepers,
and we live in a leper colony. I'm talking about sin. Sin is just like leprosy. We're
going to see that in a moment. Just like leprosy. All right,
leprosy started very, it was a very subtle disease. It started like, well, like any
disease. It starts in the bloodstream. It's hidden from view. Leprosy,
someone could have it and you not know it until much later. And after a while, if that person
does have leprosy, it will begin to show up. It will show up in
small ways at first. There will be just a little spot
of blemish on the skin. And that will work out into even
worse until, and then worse and worse until finally, a person
that is too, the disease is too hideous to really describe. It really is. Literally, the
flesh rots. So you actually literally become
a rotten person. Really. So you just absolutely
decay away and die. Scripture says we are conceived
in sin. We are born sinners. In Adam,
we are born sinners. We are born with every seed of
sin within us. Though it does not show itself
at first in a small child, it is there. They are dead and trespassed
in sin. The seed of sin, like hate, malice,
anger, envy, jealousy, selfishness, pride, being unthankful to God,
not wanting God, lust, malice, passivity. It's all right there
in that little grandbaby of yours, you may ask. It's right there.
It just hasn't showed itself yet. It won't take long. You don't have to teach. You
won't have to teach that newborn baby. Someday you won't have
to teach it to lie. It will do that naturally. It
will cry for no reason. Its doctor won't be with it.
It won't be hungry. It just is not happy. And it
will start crying. Until the time that it can talk
and then it will burst its rebellion against its parents. Then it
will lie and it will lie well. You have to teach it not to lie. You have to teach it to tell
the truth. You have to teach it not to get
angry. You have to teach it not to strike
out. You have to teach it not to be hateful and so forth. These things come naturally.
Don't prepare us. Sin comes naturally. It's our
nature. David wrote this, I came forth from the womb speaking
lies. David said that. You know it's such. Sin comes masculine. And if it
goes unchecked, if something's not done about it, sin will break
out all over the person until that person is a rotten
sinner. That's what God's promise is
to the body. No goodness, no sound of anything in their blood. Now, what's it
going to take? What's it going to take to give
an old rotten dead sinner life to heal them of this rotten disease?
Same thing to put this on. Same one, same person. Unless
Christ comes to that person. They're going to die in those
days. They're going to die in those
days. Leopards back then. Leopards
back then were considered unclean. That is, they were contagious. They were very contagious. It
was a highly contagious disease. I mean, everything they touched,
they contaminated. Everything they came near. If
you want, for your own reading sometimes, go back and read the
book of Leviticus. It talks about lepers. Wherever they saw it, wherever
they touched, you had to either burn it or, well, you had to
burn it. It was highly contagious. Everything they touched, everything
they came near, everything they breathed on, they corrupted it
and brought that in the picture of us by nature. Everything we do is painted with
sin. Every word out of our mouth, every breath we take is full
of sin. Everything we touch We contaminate. Centers are unclean. Unclean. Isaiah. You know, lepers
back then, lepers, were required by law. They were required that
if for any reason they left, they generally were confined
to a leper colony. When it finally was revealed
that they had this full-blown leprosy, they banished them out
of the city, out of the camp. It's all that hurts outside the
camp. They shouldn't go be in there
with all those good clean clothes. Anyway, they were banished
outside the camp, and if for any reason they had to leave
that camp, whatever, they had to go around. If they were going
to be within earshot of one clean person, they had to holler, I'm
clean! I'm clean! put a rag over their mouth or
something, or had to put something over their mouth and holler,
I'm unclean, I'm unclean, don't get near me. He knows something. God Almighty, whenever He begins
to reveal Himself to an old leper, when He's going to clean the
leper, He reveals to them they're unclean. And they confessed it. Isaiah said it in Isaiah 6. He
said, I'm a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips. Paul, the apostle, said, or he's
the apostle, the fine man, yet he said, in my flesh dwelleth
no good man. If you want to turn,
Psalm 14. Lepers were required to say they
were unclean. Psalm 14. Now, this is not just
spiritual talk here. This is not just a man preaching
a sermon. This is true. We're all basically good people,
and God needs us, and wants us so badly, and there's just a
little bit of bad in us, and you'll turn, and you'll do something
about that. No, sir, that's not what the
Scripture says about man. Look at this. This is what God
says about mankind. Psalm 14, verses 2 and 3, The
Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see
if there were any that did understand. Understand what they were. Understand
who God is. And seek God. Read on. He said,
they are all gone aside. They are all together become
filthy. If you have a margin, what does
it say? Filthy. Stinking. But Isaiah 1, Isaiah chapter
1, if you want to turn there quickly, if not, just listen
as I read. Isaiah 1, verse 6, the Lord says
this, "...from the sole of the foot, even unto the head, there
is no soundness in it that is us, but wounds and bruises and
putrefying sore." That describes my perspective. about mankind. That's what God
sees. And we don't have to look very
far to see it. It's very, very obvious. You
go into the inner cities and down into these cesspools of
drugs and so forth like that. You'll see the restraining grace
of God removed from mankind. You'll see Him, the imagination
of His heart is He only, He only. You don't have to go that far.
You can look in your own heart. Those whom God has revealed,
they're left to do. You just have to look in. Like John Newton wrote in the
hymn, when I look within, all is vain and dark and vile. I don't think, I hope not. I
hope no one in here right now says, well, that's not me. I
hope not. I believe that everyone in here
at least will acknowledge him here. Yeah. Sin is less of sin,
I tell you. But some people won't. They won't
acknowledge that, do they? Huh? Some people won't. Well, I say this to those that
aren't lepers, I say Christ didn't come for you. Now, I don't mean
somebody used to be a leper. Christ didn't come. He said, I didn't come to call
the righteous. He said, I came to call sinners.
You know what kind of sinners He called? If you look at the
stories of the sinners that were attracted to the Lord, I think
they were sinners. There was no doubt in them the
whole time. That's what the Lord says, you
see. And if they aren't out and out, out and out, open gutters,
gutter crawling centers, well, they adopted. They know the Lord
knows what they're doing. It's not just them people. A lot of people generally will
acknowledge the whole gift of Jesus we have here. It's the difference from saying,
oh, I have been a senator anyway, and saying, I'm a, I'm no kid, I'm a. The well, our Lord said,
the well need not a physician. And this is the first work in
salvation. Listen, don't despair. There
may be somebody in here right now who absolutely feels their
wicked heart so much, and their own depravity, and their own
rotten, sinful flesh that plagues them all the day long. They smell
themselves. until they despaired of themselves.
And when I say about that, I say, good. I say, good. There was a man who came up to
a preacher years ago, came into his office, and he said to the
man, I don't know who the preacher was, but he said, oh, I'm a rotten
no good. And he just kept telling the
man what he'd been, what he'd done, what he was doing, and
all that. And it was all over. The man says, that all? The preacher says, that all? And
the fellow says, well, I'm glad to hear that. The preacher says,
I'm glad to hear that. Thank you. There is hope. Our Lord said, I didn't come
to cause righteous sin. This is the work of God in salvation.
This is what He does. And you know something? You never
lose sight. I mean, you keep doing your out-and-out
sinning and meanness and all that, although it will creep
up and come out every now and then, but that's not the intent
of your will and the direction of your life, yet it will come
out every now and then, just to make you, keep you knowing
that you're nothing but a leper. You won't come to Christ, because
there's only one person that can heal that person. Now, if
Lenny can heal a cold, take care of his mouth for me. Huh? A bruised knee? But boy, this,
David said, I've got this rottenness in my bones, didn't he? Psalm
38, John. He said, I find in me, I, I,
I, I, I, He was a doctor up in Ashland
years ago. He was my family physician. One day he got so tired of people
coming to see him about their rheumatism and their sprained
ankles and their little aches and pains and all that. They'd come and he'd spend 16
hours a day in the office. He used to make house calls too,
Brother Henry. I remember he'd come to our house. He came to my house and I had
tonsillitis and all that. Well, that's been a long time
coming. Good doctor. But he saw everybody coming and
going, you know. Finally, though, he got tired
of seeing all these minor illnesses. And he did this. He went out
into the waiting room. Here was for all these four or
six people. And he said this, out loud, he
said, uh, is there anybody in here really sick? I mean, really
sick, that you're gonna die if you don't see me. He said, as
soon as I see you, right now, call me. Just one time. If not, take two aspirin and
call me. That's the only people who need
sovereign grace, Jeanette. That's the only people. Not people
who just need a little help, who's going to do a lot for the
Lord, who's going to serve Him all the days of their life, and
they've got a few falsehoods. Jesus will take care of those.
They'll make it the rest of the way. They don't need the gospel
of God's sovereign, redeeming grace. They don't need mercy. They don't need saving grace.
And they'll not find it. They'll not hear it, they won't
listen. All sinners do, lepers do. This
man had left the sand. And it wasn't a patch. It wasn't
a little fault. It was left the sand. There's
a story over in Leviticus 13 and 14. This is true. This is
true. Over in Leviticus 13, 14, it
describes the leper and what they're to do, how they're to
come to the high priest. Always in the picture, Christ,
who's a high priest, who alone can heal leprosy. And our Lord's words to Moses and Aaron were,
if somebody comes and they just have a little patch, A little
patch of unclean skin, tell them they're unclean. If they have
ninety-five percent good flesh and one little patch, tell them,
you've got leprosy. It's just a little patch there.
You've got leprosy. And you're going to die. If they have fifty percent bad
flesh and fifty percent good flesh, tell them, you're untrained. You're going to die. So it's
true, this is what our Lord says. If they have ninety-eight percent
rotten flesh and two percent good flesh, there's one little
good spot they can see on their flesh. Tell them, you're unclean.
You're going to die. You've got that percent. Tell
them that. You need to out-preach this one. If there's somebody that comes
to you, and if there's no soundness in their place, all of them,
they're covered, all of them. He said, the high priest, you
tell them, please, you. Now explain that. Would you explain that?
That's what he said. What is that? That's somebody who's a sinner. You've got to come to Christ as a sinner. In my place, there are no good
things. And nothing. Nothing. Don't you have anything to commend
your God? Nothing. I got plenty for you. I got a gospel for you. I got, there's a great high priest
full of money for you. No good, nothing. Nothing. What we've got today mostly are
a bunch of religious country clubs and playhouses entertaining
good Christian folks. Well, a bunch of religious clubhouses
entertaining good old Christian folk on their way to heaven. And no, the gospel is for rotten And this is what the Lord reveals
to every one of us, who is our rotten selves, and they're brought
to Christ. Verse 40, look in our text, Mark
chapter 1. Go back there quickly. Mark chapter
1, verse 40, and there came a leper. There came a leper. Somebody
says, well, he did come, didn't he? He did come with his own
three... Oh, no, he did not. That's calling Christ a liar.
Christ said, no man can come except the Father which has sent
me, Lord. Did he not say that? Yes, he did. No man can come. Not only can they not come, Christ
said in another place, you will not come unto them. Why won't
men come to Christ? They won't come. They don't want
to come to this Christ, this sovereign Christ. And they can't
come. They're dead in transgression. But this man come, yeah, and
so did I. But it was by God's sovereign
grace. It's just this man, this certain
leper, came to him. There came a leper, a bunch of
lepers. There was a bunch of lepers in
that place. Why did this man come and the
rest of them didn't? Aubrey didn't. Aubrey didn't like to even say
anything. He came. But he did come. Yes, he did. And it said, look
at this. This goes with our morning message that it says he came,
came to Christ, not to the disciples, not to the church, but he came
to Christ, beseeching him and kneeling down, beseeching him.
It would besought anyone, besought anything? Beseech? Seek, beseech? That means you're begging. When you beseech, We don't use
that word much anymore. But the word is, he begged, and
he was begging him. He was begging him. You know what it is to beg, don't
you? He was begging him. Pleading with him. That says he kneeled down. He
was kneeling under him. Over in Luke's gospel, it says,
well, he came down from the mountain after preaching. It says that
this man came up worshiping him. Man, this is how he first approached
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is how he came to the king. to the Lord Jesus Christ. He
came worshiping. He didn't say, well, there's
Jesus. Well, I'm a leper. Well, He heals all lepers, and
I'm going to come, and I'm going to claim my right to be healed
by this Jesus. No, sir. He came worshiping,
kneeling, begging. Do you hear the difference? Do you see the difference in
what they're preaching about? Preachers have a Jesus out there
begging them to do something. They have with Jesus a picture
of Him kneeling down. Have you seen these pictures?
Tim James calls it, uh, who is it? Wild Bill Hickok. This picture
they have of this Jesus kneeling down on a rock, you know, with
his hands up like that. Tim James says, that looks like
Wild Bill Hickok. He's holding those aces and eights,
and the guy shot him in the back. He's kneeling. The Lord Jesus
Christ is not kneeling. He is sitting on the right hand
of the majesty on high. He does not kneel. He does not
knock. He does not ask. He does not
plead or beg anybody to do anything. He doesn't walk anything. But
he's seated, willing, all things, working all things up to the
counsel of his own will. And none can stay his hand per
se unto him. You can't do that. He doeth according
to his will. And the armies of heaven among
the inhabitants of the earth, he is seated. And he is ensuring
that everything be done exactly like he says it. He doesn't ask,
he doesn't beg, he doesn't plead, he doesn't kneel. He's the king. He's the king of kings and lord
of lords. Beggars do the pleading. Beggars do the asking. Beggars
do the kneeling. Servants kneel. Kings sit. Servants worship. Kings listen
and decide what they're going to do. Oh, how different is our
gospel, is our God, than the one being preached to God. And on all levels, anybody who's
ever come to this cross and this gospel, they're the ones doing
the begging, they're the ones doing the kneeling, they're the
ones doing the asking, not the Lord Jesus Christ. I just enjoy talking about that,
exalting the Lord as He is, especially in a place like A man can't say it dogmatically
enough, or loud enough, or often enough. They're spewing out their
blasphemy today, and I am nauseated with it. And that pitiful Jesus they're preaching
can't save a flea. If you and I are saved, it's
going to be about sovereign king on a throne. And we're going
to do the asking of the devil. We're going to do the pleading.
We're going to do the worshiping. And we're going to fear him all the
days of our lives. And this is what he said. Now,
this is very simple. This story is very simple. Look
at it with me. Very simple. Verse 40. This is all his prayer. He didn't
make a long prayer. He did not—we're not heard for
our much speaking. We're not heard for our eloquent
speaking. Oh, Father, if you will, thou
wilt, I will. Go forth and live as thus we are. You know, we're
not heard for our English speaking, or much speaking, or our eloquent
speaking. Listen to his prayer. This is
the only thing he said to the Lord. Verse 40, If thou wilt,
thou canst make me full. Amen. That's all he said. That's all he needed. He didn't say, I need a new chariot.
Oh, he's running after her. What's he going to do with another
chariot? He didn't say, my job is ending, I knew it. He's got
everything he needs. If the Lord doesn't take care
of this, what's it matter? What's the rest of it matter?
What do you need, man? That's what he says to one of
these fellows when they call him, what's it? By the way, what
do you need? What is it you need? Whatever
you need is, that's what the Lord will provide. Didn't he say that, John? He
healed all them that had need of healing. What do you need?
Bartimaeus said, I'm blind. I need to see. See. This man's
a leper. What do you need? Cleaning. What do you need? I need a job. See? I need a hat. There you go. God, I've decided to let you. God, I've prayed through
and now you must. God will. Oh, my. Oh, my. All right, listen to what
happens. That's all it says right there. Will the Lord hear my short prayer? Verse 41, it says, from Lamentations through. You
know why we read those verses, verses 22 and 23, where it says,
It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. Now listen to me, listen, and
I'm not being hard here, talent. This fellow's a leper. The Lord
doesn't need this fellow. He doesn't need this fellow.
There's plenty more lepers where he came from. He doesn't need me. Yeah, but
you're the preacher. Put me on that. He couldn't make it. He had an ass one time preaching. He ain't good. He had an ass
preaching to a fellow one time talking about a mule. He still uses succulents. He doesn't need it. He doesn't need us. What's the
meaning of that? It's billions more just like
us. Men say that to people all the
time. God needs you. Well, where do you fill a year? But it's through the Lord's mercies
that we're not consumed, you see. Because His compassions,
they fail not. They're new every morning. Great
is Thy faithfulness. And this scripture, I love this
scripture. It's right there, where it is. It says here, the
Lord will have mercy on them that fear him. And upon them that hope it, he
delighteth in them that hope it. What? Delight. He's moved with compassion
for the mountaintop sinner. I made a guilty sinner. He's
moved with compassion. He's moved with compassion. He's moved with compassion for
a guilty, rotten sinner that comes to him. Now this man's healing was very, very quick. Well, they
had you and I Consider this one time, how often
Luke in his gospel, Mark in his gospel says, immediately. And
immediately. He did this. Immediately this happened. Immediately. Immediately. Don't go and lift
up that word. It'll stick out. It's everywhere. Immediately. Well, verse 41. Our Lord moved with compassion. The moving force in our salvation is not
our will. It's the mercy and the love and
the compassion of God for what we do. That's the moving
force. That needs to be said. callous, warm hand. His hand. That hand. I heard my pastor
preach. My pastor preached one time.
Yep. There in my living room. On the bench. And the Lord rose. They were
all full of unbelief and all that. And He says, first thing
you do, hand. He put that hand on his head. And on his heart, his chest. If that's your dad or somebody's
wife or husband or somebody that really loves you, loves dearly
and is hurting or whatever, they put their hand on you. And it says here, he touched
him, verse 41, and fled unto him. Now, this is all he said. All the man said was, if you
will, you can't make me. You know if there was a leper,
I mean a bonafide leper in here, his lordship ever such, and was
beseeching him with every fiber of their being, I mean if there was really a
seeking sinner in here this morning, and from their heart said to
him, and let Him actually lay hold
on you and say to you, I will be thou, and you will be. You're looking at one. And I wasn't, you know, wasn't
sleeping when the Lord re-sought me, and I wasn't interested in
studying when the Lord re-sought me. It says here, immediately. Again, verse 42, as soon as he
has spoken, immediately. But he was cleansed. He was healed.
Well, you know, it was a blessing to him. But he had
the same need you and I have had. Didn't we? Huh? The Lord
does heal our cancer or our whatever it is, I mean, we have, but we
still want to die or something. And we still have this real need. Sin. And whoever the Lord says this
to, Everywhere. Their sins are gone. Their sins are gone. And look
at this, and I'll quit. It says here in verse 43. And he straightly charged him,
and Fort Witt sent him away. He sent him away. And he said
unto him, Seethe, I say nothing to any man, but go thy way, show
thyself to the priest, offer for thy cleansing those things
which Moses commanded, for testimony unto them." I want you to bear
witness to the testimony to the Word of God through Moses. You go to high places. You go, and you offer to do what's
required of you as testimony to what God is saying. He believed
God was all that's living in the heart of everybody. Don't
go tell everybody about this. Go do what I tell you to do.
And he did. He went out. And he did that. I believe he
did go to the high priest and do that. What's all this saying? Why does our Lord tell us not
to tell anybody? Hmm? Well, say it in a way, first
of all, say it in a way. You know he's not telling the
man, don't glorify me. Don't bear witness to me. Don't tell everybody I'm a Chronicler. He's not telling that. He's telling
just the same. He's telling everybody. He believes
the same. What's he doing? He's testing this man. He's testing him. Don't
tell anybody. You understand what he's saying
there? What did I say to this morning?
Huh? I tried to discourage people.
Tried to discourage people. Oh, you know, you know. Buddy,
if you can't keep them quiet, then look,
God must have done something. If you can't keep them from... See, preachers aren't preachers. I said, I don't know who I've
baptized. I don't care. I didn't want to hear them baptize. But
boy, they came to him. I knew, I knew he confessed. I knew he believed. Yep. There he is. That's exactly what the Lord's
doing. He's testing him. Also, he's
telling him that you go to where God's people are. Where's that? In
Bethlehem. Here in the gospel. The same away, where we're descending,
where the Word of God is being preached, where the gospel is,
where God's people are. He doesn't want to be out there
on his own. He's one of God's chief men.
He's going to go where God's people are, and he's going to
bear record to them. The Word of God. How were you healed? There was
a miracle. Jesus healed me. I was out by
myself, and a lightning bolt came down. No sir. You go, you
sit on the sound of the gospel. That's what God ordained. That's
the word that God uses. God said, My word is what I use.
Not size, not vision, not miracles. This is a testimony to the word.
How will you say, I heard the gospel? In the church. Yes, there's
gospel of the prophets. Moses wrote it down as a testimony to God's
word. You see that? You see, the wisdom of our Lord Jesus. But I tell
you what, he couldn't keep quiet about it. Who saved him? The Lord Jesus. He must
be the man. Well, how did he save him? He touched him. He spoke to him.
He sweared to him. Well, surely now, you're not second to me,
is you? Oh, yes, I am. Who did it? Tell
me, who did it? The Lord did. Well, surely you were. You had
something else up. The Lord did. Let's sing, uh, There is a Fountain. It's written on the end of the
song, There is a Fountain. The letter is 223, 322. There
is a fountain, and it's filled with blood. Sinners lose all
their guilt and stand. Let's stand as we sing, 223.