As you read through the gospel
narratives, those being Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you will
discover that those who were welcomed by the Savior, who met
their need, whatever their need was, for which they drew near
to Him, Those people, they always came with the right attitude,
the right way. Last Lord's Day, we considered
out of Luke chapter 7 the woman who was a sinner, and she came
to the right one who could help her. And the scripture says she
was at his feet. She drew near to Him to worship. Do you have a spiritual need
this morning? Even if you have a physical need,
you've got to draw near to the Savior the right way with the
right attitude at His feet. In Luke chapter 8, we find at
his feet is the right place for a new convert. There was this
man and he was very unruly. In fact, nobody could take care
of him or handle him. He was just a maniac, as it were. The scripture says he was full
of devils. spent most of his days in the
cemetery and ran around without clothes on, cut himself. All the men of the city, they
tried to bind it, even with chains. But he would break the chains
as soon as they put them on him. He was just a wild man. The Lord Jesus made his way across
the sea of Tiberias specifically to meet the needs of that man. The Savior saw him and cast out
the devils out of him. And the devils said, send us
into the pigs. And so the Savior sent the devils
that he cast out over into all the swine. They ran off a very
steep hill into the ocean. They all died. People of the
city there heard what happened. They came out to look and see
what's going on here, what's happened to our livelihood. And
they found that man in his, the scripture says, in his right
mind, and he had clothes on, and he's sitting at the feet
of Jesus. That's the right place for a
new convert, isn't it? In fact, that's the right place
for a very mature convert. You see, this man felt and knew
in his own heart, the one who healed him of this awful malady
of being demon-possessed, if he could just sit at his feet,
that's a place of safety. And no devil can get him there,
as no demon can bother him there. I tell you, children of God,
stay at the feet of the Lord Jesus. There's no harm can come
to you there. He's an able Savior and He is
our Protector as well as our God. In Luke 8, we find a man
by the name of Jarius. He was a ruler of the synagogue.
His daughter was very sick. He came to the Savior. Fell at
His feet. Fell at His feet. That's the
right position for somebody who's asking something of the Lord.
How many petitions do you ask every day? We do, don't we? Where shall we address those
petitions? Or to whom? Well, to the Lord
of glory. Well, how shall we draw near
to Him to ask Him? Bow at His feet. You come as
the servant that you are. You're coming to the Master.
I tell you, at His feet, that's the place to learn spiritual
truth. Our Lord was visiting with Martha
and Mary in their home. Lazarus, I'm sure, was there.
And Martha's busy like you ladies are when you have company over.
You're getting all the food ready and you're doing this and that
and you're occupied so much. And she looked in and there in
the family room or wherever the Savior was, there was Mary. Guess
where she was? Sitting at the Savior's feet. And Martha said, I wish you'd
get Mary to help me. The Savior said, she's chosen
the best thing to do. Are you interested in learning
the Scriptures? Learning about our Lord? Here's a place to learn from
Him at His feet. when you draw near to the Savior
to hear His Word, just lay aside all your preconceived ideas. I wish more people would come
ready to hear and not ready to be critical and say, well, he
didn't cross that T just right. He didn't dot that I just exactly
like he ought to. Listen, all who speak to you
from the pulpit, all who preach the Word of God, we're just fallible
men. But I'll tell you, the one we
set forth, he's infallible. And he's gracious. And he's merciful. He's ready to save. Scripture
says He's plenteous in mercy to all who call upon Him. That brings me to my message
this morning here in Matthew 8. The healing of the leper. He came to the Savior and He
fell down in worship. He fell down at the Savior's
feet. Matthew records this. Matthew 8. I'll read the verses
in a minute. So did Mark. Mark 1. 40-42. And also Luke recorded
this. Luke 5. 12-16. They're very brief
portions of Scripture and I would advise you when you get home
to read all three of them. Because, you know, if God says
something once, well, that's enough. That means it's important. If He hadn't written it, it wouldn't
be needful for us to read it. But if something is set forth
in the Word of God three times, we'd be wise to pay attention. Pay attention. Let me read these
first four verses to you here in Matthew 8. Are you there?
The Scripture says when He was come down from the mountain from
preaching that great sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, great
multitudes followed Him and behold! And Matthew says, behold, and
also Luke says, behold. Lo! Look! Be amazed! This is something that is It
is virtually unheard of. A leper, a leper, who wasn't
supposed to draw near to anybody. He had most likely what today
is called Hansen's disease. It's what most of the authorities
believe. And I'll give you some, a little
insight into that disease in a little bit, but they weren't
supposed to come out among the public. In fact, and I thought
this was interesting, you know the space, a Jew could only get
within six feet of a leper. Maybe that's where the CDC got
their idea of six feet spacing, I don't know. But that's what
God said to the Jews. A leper couldn't get within six
feet unless you were downwind from the leper, then he had to
be 150 feet. But they weren't ever, they weren't
ever supposed to draw near to somebody any closer than six
feet. Their breath, even their breath
was so foul. and so full of odor that many
believe, and even today, scholars tell us that just breathing the
air that a leper breathed, you could get leprosy from it. So
you couldn't come within six feet of anybody. But this man
comes right up to the Savior. No wonder Matthew and Luke said,
Behold, This is shocking. This is daring. This is outrageous. This is just not done in society. But you know what? The Lord admitted
His presence at His feet. And I'll tell you what, He'll
admit your presence when you come to Him at His feet too. Well, let's keep on reading.
This leper, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying,
Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put
forth his hand and touched him, and the word touched, you know,
okay, I touched the pulpit. That's not the meaning of the
word. That's the meaning of the Word.
He touched him and held on to him. Aren't you thankful that the
Savior doesn't merely touch us? He just holds on to us. I found
that to be very sweet. He just holds on to this man.
Why, the man couldn't come within six feet of Him. And the Savior,
He reaches out and not only just touches him and takes His hand
away. That's probably what we'd do
just like that. But He just held on to him. Oh
God, I'm a sinful leper. Would You take hold of me and
don't let go? Don't let go. So He put forth
His hand and He touched him. He held on to him saying, I will. Be thou clean. And immediately, immediately, his leprosy was
cleansed. This healing didn't come in stages. It came all at once. And Jesus
saith unto him, See thou tell no man. But as we read in Mark and in
Luke, we find out he did. He just, he couldn't keep the
good news in. After all, people saw him, and
before he looked so awful, and now he's perfectly whole. And
they said, what in the world happened to you? Well, you know,
he had to tell who did it. And that spread the fame of the
Savior, but only as a miracle worker, not as the Savior. He said, go thy way, show thyself
to the priest and offer the gift, which was a sacrifice when he
got there to the priest, and then eight days later, another
sacrifice that Moses commanded, for it's a testimony unto them. I say to you, if you would come
to the Great Physician for the healing of your soul, for the
healing of your sinfulness, take a lesson. from this leper, how
he came to the Lord Jesus. Surely there's something here
that we all need to learn. I said that the Lord had finished
preaching His great Sermon on the Mount. And right at the end
of it, look at verse 28 of chapter 7. Okay, so we're just going to
back up a couple of verses. 28 of chapter 7, And it came
to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, so he ends his
sermon on the mount, the people were astonished at his doctrine,
at his teaching. For he taught them as one having
authority, and not as one scribes. The scribes, when they taught,
that to reinforce what they said, they'd go back and quote the
old rabbis, the traditions of the fathers, as this old writer
said, and they'd quote them. And that's how they propped up
their doctrinal content. It's like a lot of preachers,
they'll say something, they're always reading men of the past. It seems to give validity to
what they're saying. But sometimes, and I'm not saying
it's wrong to quote preachers of the past, But sometimes it
seems to me men refer to preachers of the olden times and they'll
quote them because that preacher who quotes them really doesn't
have a thorough understanding of what the Scripture says. And
that's the way it was with the scribes. They didn't have an
understanding of the Word of God, so in order to support their
arguments or their teaching, they'd quote the elders, the
traditions of the fathers. But our Lord Jesus, He didn't
do that. He only quoted the Word of God. Learn a valuable lesson right
here. It doesn't matter what the old
church fathers said. Their word is not gospel. Their
word is not infallible. It doesn't matter what the old
theologians of years ago said. I'll tell you what does matter. What God says. You reckon we
can learn something right here? Oh yeah. The Savior, He taught
with authority because He had a thorough understanding of the
Scriptures because all of those Scriptures were about Him, and
in fact, He, by His Spirit, inspired those writers to write the Word
of God. That's His Word. So as he would
teach, he would make reference to Old Testament passages of
Scripture. And as you read through Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John, you'll find that our Lord often did
that. He would quote Old Testament
passages of Scripture. He wouldn't refer to what Rabbi
so-and-so said. Or as the elders used to teach,
he'd say, this is what my father says. This is what the Holy Scripture
has to say. Our Lord was a commanding preacher. He knew the Word of God. He had
such a grasp on doctrine that He could set deep doctrine forth
to His hearers and yet speak in such a way that even the youngest
could at least understand the words that He spoke. and the people, they loved to
hear him preach. They didn't love the message
that he preached, but they loved to hear him preach because he
was such a preacher. It is said of Benjamin Franklin
that he enjoyed going to hear George Whitefield preach. And
as often as it was convenient for him, he would go hear George
Whitefield preach. And someone asked him, why do
you go hear George Whitefield preach? You don't believe what
he preaches. You're not excited by his message. You have no grasp of the things
of which he speaks. I don't understand why you bother
to go hear him. Because you don't believe those
things. He said, it's true, I don't believe
them, but He does. And I love to hear a man preach
who believes what he's preaching. And I'll tell you, listen to
the Lord's sermons. Listen to His words. He knew
what He was saying. He believed what He was saying.
And you listen to gospel preachers, and you'll discover through the
doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ, the reason we have
just one string on our guitar and we keep playing that one
string over and over again, it's for this reason. It's for this reason. That's
the message we love. That's the message God has given
to us. That's the message that exalts
our Lord. It's the message we need. It's
the message for the hour. So many people followed Him as
He came down the mountain. It's interesting, Matthew says
he came to Christ worshiping. If you're into word studies,
if you look up the original word, the word worship has the idea
of falling prostrate. In fact, we get our word prostrate
from the original word worship. And people would put their foreheads
down on the ground in the dirt. before somebody that was of greater
significance, greater rank than they were. So when we read here
in Matthew, He came and worshipped Him, we're to understand He fell
at the feet of the Lord Jesus and put His forehead on the ground. He has prostrated himself before
the Lord. You want anything from the Lord?
You prostrate yourself before Him. Not literally. Because in our society today,
you know, posture, when it comes to worship especially, posture,
it isn't really a big thing. If you want to pray kneeling,
that's fine. If you want to pray standing
up, that's fine. Posture doesn't matter. Not outward
posture, but inward posture does. I hope that our God causes you
now, has already caused you to fall prostrate at the feet of
the Lord of lords and the King of kings. Well, let me give you three words.
Let me add this. Matthew says he came worshiping.
Mark says he came kneeling. And Luke says he came to Jesus
and fell on his face. He's got the right attitude.
Do you want anything from the Lord of glory? You've got to
come with the right attitude. Don't come full of arrogance. He won't receive you. Oh, God,
break our pride. Six things doth God hate, yea,
seven are an abomination to Him, and the very first one, proud
look. What have you got to be proud
of? What do you have that God didn't give you? Say, yeah, but
I'm smarter than others. Who gave you your smarts? But
I've got a job that pays good money. Who gave you the intelligence
to get that job? And who worked in the hearts
of your employers to hire you? Who provides for you? Oh, that the Lord would do to
us what He did to Saul of Tarsus, knock us off our high horses.
We're an arrogant people. We think the whole world revolves
around us. We think we can do what we want
to do. Nancy was talking about somebody,
I guess in Hollywood, who's wearing a t-shirt, goes something like
this, it's my body, I'll do with it what I want to. No, it's not. That's not your body. And that
little infant inside of you, that's not your body for sure.
That's another body. It's just something to think
of. I tell you, we're His. And I
know we're not all His by grace, but we are all His by creation. and by His protection and preservation,
and He supplies the people who love Him, and He supplies the
needs of people who hate Him. Scripture says He sends the rain
upon the just and the unjust. Well, one first thing is helplessness. He's a helpless man. He's a leper. He can't do anything about it.
And I noticed this. Do you know that this is the
very first healing miracle that our Lord performed? And leprosy was the most dreaded
disease of all. Because leprosy would wind up
in death. And you can get on Google this
if you want to, Hansen's disease, H-A-N-S-E-N apostrophe S. And you can look up Hansen's
disease. Now today, 90 to 95% of the population,
we're immune from Hansen's disease. It originated evidently in Egypt. And it was a deadly disease.
If you were diagnosed with leprosy, you were like a walking dead
man. Your hair turned white. And then
it fell out. Your eyebrows fell out. Lost all the hair on your body.
You had little sores, raised scaly scabs all over your body. In fact, the word leprosy, the
original word means scaly. And you had them all over your
body. And not only outwardly, but inwardly. On all your organs. And as the
leprosy developed, you lost your nails, your fingernails,
and your toenails. Then you'd lose your fingers,
lose your toes, your ears, your eyes would be sunk back in your
head, have all these pustules all over your body, running sores,
foul breath. A Jew, according to the law of
God, could wear no head covering, but he had to have a covering
over his mouth, and if you started coming close to him, he had to
say, unclean, unclean, don't come near me. My breath is foul. It's obnoxious. It stinks. It slowly kills, just like sin. Sin, when it is finished, bringeth
forth death. I find it of great interest that
the very first healing miracle our Lord performed was to heal
a man of the worst disease known to man at that time, a disease
which pictures our sinful malady, leprosy. Listen to me. We're all spiritual lepers. We are living people physically,
but we are dying. We are dying. Leprosy, you see, like sin, is
an unclean disease. And leprosy, like sin, is an
incurable disease. And leprosy, just like sin, is
always the forerunner of death. Are you a needy sinner? Do you
need the great Physician? You're doomed without Him. You're
a walking dead man. I'm telling you, you're a walking
dead woman. You're a walking dead child.
unless the Great Physician steps in. You need His power to heal you,
His blood to wash you, His righteousness to hook you, to robe you, like
that man out of whom the Lord cast devils. He was robed. They found Him sitting at the
feet of Jesus. He had clothes on. That's the
righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. We're not naked anymore. We need His righteousness to
cover us. We need His grace to save us.
That's what we need. First word is helpless. Second
word, humility. He came and worshiped. His face
firmly on the ground in the dust before the king. He bowed down. As Luke said, he fell on his
face. He worshiped and he said, Lord!
He recognized who this man is. Oh, my friends, the only one
who can help us has got to be the Lord. He's got to be the
Lord over everything. And He is. King Jesus is the
Lord. He don't want to be your Lord.
He is your Lord. He was Lord forever. He came
into this world and lived and died for sinners in obedience
to the purpose of God to save. He laid down His life and then
He took that life again. He died for sin, the Scripture
said. Christ died for our sins, according
to the Scriptures. He died to save His people from
our leprosy. And He arose. He went back to
heaven. There's a man in heaven seated
at the right hand of God in a real body, and He is the Lord. Christ said to His disciples,
you call me Lord, and so I am. And so I am. Old Thomas fell
down at His feet. He said, my Lord and my God. Christ permitted worship. It's the right way to come to
Him. At His feet, humility. He bowed down before the Savior.
You know, the woman I talked about last week from Luke 7,
she kissed His feet. Judas, when he came out into
the garden to indicate to the Jewish leaders in that poorly
lit garden to indicate who his master was, he went up and kissed
him on the cheek. Somebody said, that's a man who
kissed the door to heaven and he went to hell. You going to kiss him on the
cheek or you going to kiss his feet? Oh God, bring me to the
feet of Christ Jesus. Psalm 2 verse 12. Kiss the son,
lest he be angry with thee, and you perish from the way when
his anger is kindled just a little. Just a little. Kiss his feet. Bow down, proud sinner. You have
no hope except in this one who is the Lord. Lord, if you will,
that's what he said. He didn't have any trouble with
sovereignty. He knew it's up to the Lord. Two things are evident
there. He believed the Lord could save
him, could heal him, could cure him if he would. If he would. Oh, here is humility. Oh God,
break my heart. Oh God, break your heart. He's the Lord. Here's humility. Here's a helpless
man who's made to be a humble man. Why don't you just confess
you know nothing of gospel salvation and grace by nature and just
humble yourself before the Word of God. It says salvation is
of the Lord. Got no hope except in Christ.
But the good news is Christ Jesus came to the world to save sinners.
That's why this is so significant. The very first miracle recorded
by the Spirit of God In the Word of God, where our Savior healed
a man, the very first healing was of a man who had a deadly
disease. This gives us hope. Healing for lepers. You say, I'm too bad. There's
no hope for me. I tell you what, there's hope
as long as you're breathing. And I say this to moms and dads,
to spouses who have unsaved children, unsaved husband or wife, mother
or father, whatever the case may be, don't give up the Lord's
able. You keep praying. You camp out
at his feet. Oh, that's the place to be. Humility. And the third word
real quick is healing. The Master spoke the word of
healing. I will be thou clean. What a word of
good news. You're well! And He looked in all those, His
scaly skin, Now his flesh is pure. And he
could open his eyes. Before, he just had slits for
eyes. Now he can... His nose had been
deteriorating, his ears as well, and now... I'm healed! That's what our Lord does to
poor sinners. He heals us by His grace. He
comes with healing in His wings. That's what we read. He heals
the brokenhearted. And Isaiah 53 says, by His stripes
we were healed. We were healed. This is the reward of faith.
It was immediate and it was thorough. And then the Lord said, go to
the priest. The law is going to examine you. Priest standing for the law of
God. Look at that man over. You look good, all for a sacrifice. Now come back and see me in eight
days. He came back in eight days. Doggone, his hair began to grow.
He's getting them eyebrows again. See the little hair coming up
on his arms. And the priest said, having examined
you according to the law of God, I pronounce you are cured. Offer
another sacrifice. And those sacrifices pictured
the way he was cleansed by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Would you obtain mercy from the
Lord? You come to Him like this man came. I say there's hope
for sinners. There's hope for sinners. I'm
one. And He has made me in the sight
of God everywhere whole. And though my sins were odious
to God, now I stink no longer. Oh, God says, I smell the fragrance
of the righteousness of my son. That's what the Lord does for
us. Well, get your psalm books. Let's sing a closing song. 326.