To begin the message, let's go to God in prayer again. I do ask your prayers for me as I desire to preach this message to you. We had just finished that last portion in Matthew chapter 7. I read Matthew chapter 8 in the beginning of this leper. It's also found in this Gospel of Luke. I've been thinking about this for a little while, this message.

Ask God's mercy upon him. Ask God's mercy upon him. I don't know about you, but I identify with this man. This leper. I've never had physical leprosy, but I promise you I identify with him. In a greater capacity than just a physical malady. And I know that you believers, you understand this. And the experience of this man physically was the experience of our lives spiritually. I hope God would be gracious to show this. Wouldn't it be great if God would convince men of their sin?

You ain't got a need, you ain't ever going to come. No need, you won't ever come to Christ. May God convince men of their need. Show them their need. Then show them Christ, because that's what He did for me, and that's what He did for you that believe. Pray this message go out in power of His Spirit. Pray for those that are sick. Our Lord knows the maladies that we face, the difficulties we face, And I want us to understand that what our maladies are, we must understand it's not accidental.

The Lord did it. He didn't miss it. It's not overlooked. It's intentional. It's intentional. And I know for His people, it will work together for our good. This is where faith is tried, isn't it? This is where faith is tested to see for ourselves if it is real. If it is not real, it'll vanish. It'll go away and so will we. But true faith can't go anywhere else.

I found that to be true over and over So tempted to go somewhere else, so tempted. And yet I find this, where else am I gonna go? Lord, to whom shall I go? I got no place to go. And I like that text, it says, about the Lord being our foundation. He that believeth shall not make haste. We ain't gonna, I don't wanna go anywhere else, do you? I don't wanna put my foot half on and half off. I'm sold out to it. I have no other hope.

But according to God's word, I've got a good hope. A firm hope. Not based in time or based on merit. A hope based on grace and mercy. based on the blood of Christ and the righteousness of Christ. I got a good hope. You on Christ? You got a good hope. Regardless of what takes place, you got a good hope.

Pray for those churches without pastors. Pray for the men that preach the gospel wherever they are. We live in such a religious age. but an age devoid of any understanding of who God is and who His Son is. So consumed with self, joy, self-preservation, self-worth. May God give us the grace to continue to preach Christ. You understand what we do is a grace. What we have here is a grace. We didn't earn anything of this. We didn't do any, I didn't do anything to cultivate this. And I'm not gonna be able to do anything to keep it. May God keep us doing this same thing until he comes and brings us to himself.

This is what we should be found doing. So pray for that. Ask God's grace on him. Let's go to him in prayer. Gracious Father, so thankful. You are gracious. Your word declares, let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. How wonderful to the ears of the sinner who is plenteous in sin and in need of plenteous redemption.

We give praise and thanks for the person of our Savior, for His deity as humanity, for His righteousness and for His blood, for His resurrection and ascension, for his salvation that he has wrought by himself. We give praise for thy spirit who has sent the word into our hearts, whereby we cry unto thee, Abba, Father. You have made us sons. By divine decree, by the purchase of blood, And by the resurrection of the Holy Spirit and the giving of faith you have made us heirs. For this we give you praise and honor and glory of which you alone are worthy. Help us today to magnify the work through the preaching of the gospel. that the word would not fall on hard and cold hearts, not thorny ground hearts or stony hearts, but Father, that you would prepare the soul, that you would open the ground of the heart and pour in the seed and give life. This alone is done by your sovereign will and power. can't merit it, can't earn it. By grace, give us the grace that we should plead for it and find it in Christ. Forgive us our sins. Set our minds upon Christ even now. We ask these things in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, for his sake. Amen.

Luke chapter 5. I entitled this message, The Marks and Healing of True Lepers. True Lepers. Our text will begin in verse 12 of Luke 5, And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold, a man full of leprosy, who seeing Jesus, fell on his face and besought him, saying, Lord, if you will, thou canst make me clean." Now here we have an instance where the Lord had entered into a city and a surprising event This was no ordinary circumstance. A man who was full of leprosy. This man didn't have a leprosy under his sleeve or in his trousers. He didn't have it hidden. He was full. He could not be hid.

And yet he comes in the city where the Lord was. The Lord was in a certain city. And this man came in the city. Now what's so surprising about this is that the law forbid this man to be there. When a man was pronounced unclean of leprosy, he was to live outside of the city. He was not to come in contact with people on purpose, but as he was to walk through, if a man were to pass him, he were to cover his lips and cry out, unclean, unclean, so the other person could walk around and not come near him. But as we notice this man, he does not do that.

Why? I'm going to tell you something. This man had a very urgent need. He had a need. And He saw that there was only one person who could supply that need. He needed healing and He saw Jesus. And He came to Him because He was the only one who could heal. He knew that. And so He comes to Him for healing.

Now, according to the Holy Scriptures, leprosy, this is a wonderful miracle. Nobody denies this. Wonderful, isn't it? This man had leprosy. He was dying. He came to the Lord because he trusted in his power. And he bows to him and he said, Lord, if you will, you can make me whole. And Jesus reached out, touched him, and he healed him. What a wonderful story that is, if that were all it was. But we know that miracles in Scripture are pictures and types of something Truly spiritual. This is talking about a spiritual healing.

This man had a disease of leprosy. Now in scripture, leprosy is always a picture of sin. Leprosy is a horrible disease. It was a flesh-eating disease that spread throughout the whole body. It meant certain death. Anyone that had this, it was certain death. Leprosy in Scripture, though it was a horrible malady, we know this, God intended it to picture a greater sickness, sin. Sin is the greatest sickness. Why? Because all other sicknesses come from that. Sin is the greatest. You know why it's greater than this malady? Because physical leprosy can only destroy the body. Sin, the leprosy of sin, destroys not only the body, but the soul. It destroys the whole man.

Our Lord says in Isaiah 64, we are all as an unclean thing. An unclean thing. A leprous man, when he had to cry out, he cried what? Unclean. This is what we are. We are all by nature unclean. We are born unclean. This is the malady passed down from our father Adam.

And as we see by this man, there is only one remedy. We're going to see this, that there is only one remedy for the leper. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ. The only remedy for your sin is Jesus Christ. There is no other remedy. Religion's no remedy. Doing good is no remedy. Your sincerity is no remedy. The only remedy for sin is Jesus Christ.

He's the only one that can. That's what this man said, isn't it? If you will, listen, that's the only hang up here, is your will. I know you can. Without a doubt, this man knew that he was capable. And what did he rest in? He rested in this man's mercy. And we know this, he healed him. There's only one place for healing.

Now, regarding leprosy, if you go back to Leviticus chapter 13, go back to Leviticus chapter 13, and in this chapter you read the law of the leper. The law of the leper. And when a man was, he looked, he found something on his skin. He was required to go to the priest. He was required to go to the priest. Why not a doctor? He was required to go to the priest because leprosy was a curse. of God, not just a physical sickness, it was a curse of God. And so he would go to the priest and listen.

The only thing the priest could do is examine him and determine whether he is a true leper or it's just a scab, just something he could scrape off. And the priest then could only determine this. What you're going to find in this text is, you find this, the priest could not cleanse him.

It can only inspect. Now, this tells me something about the law. The law can't help you. The law can't cleanse you of sin. All the law can do is inspect you. That's all it can do. It can inspect you. And so it is with leprosy, spiritual leprosy, the law can only expect.

And listen, leprosy was a curse. And we remember when Miriam and Aaron railed against Moses, they said, Hey, what you taking all this on yourself? We, we can, we can take a part too. And remember what God did to Miriam? He gave her leprosy. It was a curse. When Uzziah the king went into the tabernacle, which was not his place, he went in where the priests were to go, and though he was a good man, he went in and God struck him with leprosy. Leprosy was a curse of God. Listen, so is sin. Sin is part of the curse. It's the cause of the curse, isn't it? Because we are full of sin, We, like the leper, are cut off from God's favor. When the law inspected a man, he took that man, he shaved all of his hair, He stripped him of all of his clothes and burned him. If the leprosy was in the clothes, he burned his clothes.

Then he was to take a linen cloth, wrap himself in it, and he was cast out. He was never allowed to go back to the worship of God. He was not allowed with the people of God. He was an outcast from his family, from his friends, from his house, from everything. He was separated. This is what sin has done from us. It has separated us from God. That's what sin did. When we were born, we were born separate from God.

Why is it so natural for us to not want to hear the gospel? I mean, man, you know, when I was young, I didn't want to hear the gospel. Now, why is that? We want to hear a lot of stupid things. You can get our attention with just about anything except this. Why? Because of sin. Because, listen to me, we hate God. It's not like, ah, we're indifferent to God. No, you hate God. That's what we are. And because of this, we are totally separated from God. We are unclean.

Now, I understand this, that this is true of all men. Yet we know this, that not all men understand it. Not all men know it or believe it. But there is one group of people that know it experience it and believe it concerning this malady of sin. And that's God's elect. Everyone of God's elect is going to be made aware of their true nature. That I am the leper. I am the leper. Now in Leviticus 13 we see the difference between the true leper and one who is just an imitator.

You see, when one has a scab, or a boil, or an inflammation in the skin, but somehow it goes away, or somehow he can scrape it off, you get a little scab on it, and you just pick at it. You know, it itches, it gets a little inflamed, you pick at it, and then in a few days, where is it? It's gone.

What could you determine that not leprosy? It's not leprosy, just on the surface there. Some men are sinners on the surface. Some men may feel the wound of sin rising up in them, they feel the conscience stirring, they feel guilty about something they did. And then a few days later, what happened? Scrape it off, it's gone.

That man is not a true leper. Now, I want to give you four marks according to the Word of God concerning a true leper. And why is this important? Because only a man who is full of leprosy is ever going to seek Christ. Nobody outside of a true leper, a true sinner, will seek Christ.

First of all, according to this, the plague must be deeper than the skin. Look at that in Leviticus 13 and verse 3. He says, And the priest shall look upon the plague in the skin of the flesh. And when the hair of the plague is turned white, and the plague is in the sight deeper than the skin of the flesh, it is leprosy. It is leprosy.

When a man is examined concerning sin, is your sin deeper than just the skin? Can your sin be made better by something you do on the outside? Some men, they get a guilt of conscience and they feel some kind of need. Sometimes their flesh rises up and they feel some kind of conscience toward God or heaven or hell.

Some accident happens. I've had this happen. Seen this many times where you have people who are sick. They're really sick. And then they're starting to contemplate death. And then they start getting real worried about it. And then they get religious for a little while. And then once they're healed, what happens? They go right back to where they began.

What is that? That's just on the surface. That's seeing on the surface. You just scrape that off after a little while. But listen to me. When a man is truly convicted of sin, it's not something he can scrape off. Why? Because it is much deeper than surface sin. You see, once a man is convicted of sin, he knows this, that the root of it is in his very soul. That sin is not just what he does, it's who he is. Leprosy was not something this man had. He himself was a leper. Even so, when God the Spirit convinces us of sin, we are not just sinners, we are in ourselves sin. When God convicts a man of this, you can't scrape it off. You can't move it. You can't get rid of it. You try. I know you do. I did. Tried to get rid of it as fast as I possibly could. The more I scraped, the more I what? The more I found. The deeper it went, the deeper it got. So a true leper is deeper than the skin.

Second of all, the hair must be white. Look at that in verse 3 again. He said, and when the hair in the plague is turned white. Why is that important? Well, hair is a sign of glory, beauty. Women wear their hair and it's a sign of their beauty. It is. It's associated with beauty. But when a man is found to be a sinner, all that comes out of him is like a dead white hair. All of our glory is dead. All of our works become dead. It's true what the Lord said about a corrupt tree, isn't it? If you have a corrupt tree, what kind of fruit are you going to get? Corrupt fruit. You can't expect good fruit from a bad tree. Even so with ourselves, because sin is in the core of our being, the only thing that can come out is death. That's it. You found that true of yourself? that sin is deeper than the skin and everything that comes out of it is dead.

Third mark of a leper is this, it spreads. It spreads. The leprosy cannot be contained. Here it is in verse 5 and he says, from the seventh day, and behold, if the plague that is in the sight be at a stay, and the plague spread not in the skin, then the priest shall shut him up seven more days, the priest shall look on him again the seventh day, and behold, if the plague be somewhat dark, and the plague spread not in the skin, the priest shall pronounce him clean." In other words, this disease spreads.

When a man is convicted of his sin, he knows this, he can't contain it. You try to contain your sin? Can you? Men try to contain their sins. Can you by will and determination keep your lusts at bay? Can you by law, creed, Church ordinance, keep your flesh and make yourself holy before God. Listen to me, if you can, you're not a true leper. A true leper understands this, that sin is not just isolated, it's covered me from head to foot. So when you see Isaiah chapter 1 and verse Six, I think it is.

He says, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot is nothing but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. What did he say? Nothing but leprosy. A true leper understands that leprosy is spread throughout the whole body. One person wrote, sin is no part-time visitor. that comes and goes. He is a perpetual burden, a body of death about our necks, a weight and burden that causes only grief and sorrow. Sin to the leper is no part-time guest but one of the family. Sin dwells in the house and one cannot put it out. He haunts every room, lies in every bed, and nestles in every corner of the old man. Sin cannot be contained. Have you found that true about yourself? You cannot contain this malady. And fourthly, and this is vitally important, leprosy must be felt. It must be felt.

Now verses 12 and 13, we have the case of a man who breaks out with leprosy from head to foot. He has all the other marks of leprosy. He sees it's deeper than the flesh. He sees that the hair has grown white. He sees that it's now spread from the top of his head to the bottom of his foot. And the priest examines him again. And yet there is one thing lacking here. It is not tender. It is not tender. Look at this in verse 10. Let's see. Verse 12.

He said, The leprosy shall break abroad in the skin, and leprosy cover all the skin of him that hath the plague in his head to his foot, wheresoever the priest looketh. The priest shall consider and behold, if the leprosy hath covered all the flesh, he hath pronounced him clean of the plague. It is turned white, he is clean, but when the raw flesh appeareth in him, he shall be unclean." You see, what's the difference between this guy and the rest that were sent away? This guy, he had it all the way top of his head and bottom of his feet. And why was he sent away like the others? Why was he pronounced clean? just like the others.

Because of this, it wasn't true. True leprosy has to be felt. If one is a true sinner. Now, there are many who understand the doctrine of leprosy. They'll confess. From the top of my head to the bottom of my foot is nothing but sin. I'm a sinner. I confess.

But it's not really felt. How many know the doctrine of total depravity, but yet know nothing of depravity. When one becomes, is made aware of his leprosy, there's nothing you can do to stop from feeling its raw effects on your heart. We feel the pain of sin. We feel the grief of sin. We feel the sorrow of sin. And without this, we'd never come.

Isn't that right? If it's just partial leprosy, if you've got one of these marks, but none of the others, if you've got three of these marks and none of the others, you're not really a leper. Therefore, salvation becomes something partial, something cooperative. between you and Jesus. But when you are a true leper and you're full of leprosy, you come to Christ like this man comes.

You come with no merit. You come with no ability. And you recognize all the ability rests in you. All of it. So this morning I say this, are you a true leper? Is it deeper than the skin? Is your sin really At the core, is every work that produces from you nothing but death? Has it spread from all over every corner of your soul and body? Is sin raw to your conscience and heart? Is it painful?

Are you such a leper? Then you're a leper like this man. Listen, when it says he's full of leprosy, This man had everything Leviticus 13 tells us he had. He was full of it. Are you cast out from God? Are you stripped and unclean? Then let us learn the only cure then is the Lord Jesus. Look back at your text. He says this man in a certain city, he was full of leprosy. He had all the marks. All the marks.

And notice what he did. who seeing Jesus fell on his face and besought him. In Matthew's gospel it says he fell on his face and worshipped him. You've got to understand that this was not a natural thing. Our Lord Jesus Christ could not be distinguished between any other man. You know that? I mean, he didn't run around, his face didn't shine, he didn't have a halo over his head. He wasn't a beautiful man, the scripture tells us. He wasn't attractive according to the attractiveness of the world. You couldn't tell any difference.

And yet you see one man running to another man and worshipping him. Now why is this? This man came recognizing Jesus as God. Now how do I know that? Besides that he called Him Lord? Besides that he worshipped Him? Listen, only God could cure leprosy and everybody knew it. Everybody knew only God could cure leprosy.

You remember in 2 Kings when Naaman the leper Remember, the Syrian kingdom had authority over the nation of Israel. They were more powerful. And so Naaman, who was a high commander of the Syrian army, he comes down with his leprosy and he talks to the king and he said, I hear there's a prophet here in Israel that can help me. And that king, he rid his clothes. And he said, what, do you want to seek war with me?

Only God could heal leprosy. Everybody knew that. So what I want you to understand is when this man full of leprosy came, he came recognizing that that man was God. The faith of this leper is the faith of every true leper. We come to Jesus Christ recognizing He alone is God in the flesh. God and man. Now why is this important?

Because it was by man that leprosy came. It was by man that sin came. And the only way this sin is going to be gone away with is by another representative man, and that's Jesus Christ. And so He came and He worshipped Him. Now, I told you how he should have come, right? The law demanded him to come crying unclean. But notice, notice the demeanor of our Lord at this. He doesn't rebuke him.

You see how accessible he is. You see that? This man's full of leprosy. Everybody's wondering, what in the world is he doing here? Why is he, why is he, why doesn't he distance himself from this man? This is why he came into the world. He came to save lepers. Sinners. And you see how accessible he is. He comes, he falls down, the Lord doesn't rebuke him or anything. This man's a sinner. And yet He doesn't rebuke him. In fact, Jesus listens to his cry.

Now this should encourage every true leper. This should give you hope that everyone that comes in this condition will be received. Matter of fact, God declares that in John 6, isn't it? He said, all that the Father giveth me, what are they going to do? They shall come to me. And this is his promise. And him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. I will never cast them out. He didn't cast this guy out. Why?

Because this is one he came to die for. This is one he came to save. And notice how he comes. He comes confessing. He confesses, first of all, he is Lord. He's Lord. He confessed He is Lord. If you're a leper, come confessing His deity. Bowing at His feet. Worshipping Him. This is the only way to be cured. This is the only way sin could be removed. Bowing down. This is not a cooperative effort.

He didn't come and say, Lord, you know what? I'll tell you. If you do this, then I'll do this for you. He didn't come bargaining, did He? When a leper comes, he don't have anything to bargain with. Do you have anything to bargain with? You think you can bargain with God?

You think, well, God, if you'll just do this for me, then I'll do this for you. You got nothing. Everything you have has been given to you. You have nothing to offer. This is how we must come, with nothing to offer. Lord, listen, if you will, you can. He trusted this man's ability to heal him. When we come to Christ, we must come believing that He is able, that He is able to cleanse us.

If you don't believe that, you'll never come. If you don't believe you're a leper, you'll never come. And if you believe that you're a leper, but you believe that you don't believe he has the power to do, then you're really not a true leper. Only true lepers believe this. He alone has the power to do it.

You see, I need a righteousness that I can't get. I can't make it. I can't make a righteousness acceptable to God. Therefore, I need him to make a righteousness for me. And so what do I believe? I believe he can. provide a righteousness I need. And I believe this, I need an offering that I can't make.

Remember, everything a leopard touches is unclean. So every offering that I make is unclean. Everything I sacrifice, you see people this last week putting these little ashes on their forehead and and they're sacrificing food for about 40 days or whatever.

Well, they don't sacrifice, they just sum foods, they sacrifice. And they think that makes them acceptable. Somehow now they're closer to God than they were before they put that stuff on their face and before they fasted. See, they're not real lepers. See, a real leper don't have anything to offer.

He comes recognizing this, that if I am going to be saved. Jesus has to do it all. It's not a cooperative effort. This man was not looking to cooperate. He had nothing to give. And he recognized Jesus alone can. And listen to this, he also bowed to the will of Jesus Christ.

When a leper comes before Jesus Christ, he knows this, the only hope for me is if he will save me. When the scriptures came to me, I had no trouble believing what I was by nature. I was a leper, without a doubt. When I came to Christ, I had no doubt of his ability to heal me. I had no doubt his blood was sufficient because God accepted it. I had no doubt his righteousness was sufficient because it was a righteousness made by God himself. The only trouble that really troubled me when I bowed before him is this, Willie.

He had no obligation to do it. Do you realize that? God had no obligation to do this. He would have been just as holy and righteous as if He passed this man up. One thing I have found in Scripture and Wells' experience is that there has never been a true leper that has come to Christ for mercy that didn't find it. Look what he found. If you will, you can.

Notice this, he put forth his hand and touched him saying, I will be thou clean. I want you to see the compassion of Christ to the leper. He touched him. And why is this important? Because it shows us how he cleanses us. If another man touch a leper, he himself would be contaminated, unclean. Now, the Lord Jesus could have done this. He could have just waved his hands and said, be clean and not touched it. Why touch it? Because this is how he makes us clean. He takes our leprosy on himself. He took our sin. Our sin didn't just get a pass. Our guilt, our treason against God did not just get a pass. But He took our sins and our sorrows and He made them His very own.

I think over in Matthew's Gospel, he tells us that this is a fulfillment of Scripture. When he healed him as well as the others, in Matthew chapter 8, I think, in verse 17, you see this after this was done and all the other healing was done, it says, that it might be fulfilled which is spoken by Isaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses. You see, my sin must have been paid in order for my leprosy to be healed. and He bore it in Himself on the cross and died for my sins. Isn't that what Paul says in Galatians 3? He was made a curse for us. Paul said He was made sin, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. So as we see Him touch him, we see how it is He is healing us.

And I want you to know this. His will. He said, I will. This was no accidental meeting, was it? It wasn't just happenstance. The Lord was going to this city for a very specific reason. For that man. Who really sought who in this situation? Who sought who? The Lord was seeking him. And he said this, I will. I will. This is the heart of Christ toward every leper who comes to Him. Bowing to His will, seeking His mercy. Do you need healing? You are, if you're a true leper, you need healing. Where's the cure? It's only found in Jesus. You won't find it anywhere else. You can't come to me. You can't come... You know what? In that priest thing, you know, When the priest saw that he had some type of leprosy, he would set him aside for seven days. You know why? What could the priest do? What can I do?

I can't do anything for you. If you have sin, I can't help you. The best thing for me to do is leave you alone with God. And when God convinces you of your sin, you'll go nowhere else but Christ. And when you go to Him, this is what you can expect. He'll touch you. and He'll heal you.

And the scripture says, immediately. Zechariah says there is a fountain open for sin and what? Uncleanness. The fountain is His blood. And everyone who believes on Him is made whole immediately. What is this? We are given a new nature, a new heart. Look at this last thing. Go back to your text. Look at this last thing.

Verse 14, and he charged him saying, tell no man, but go and show thyself to the priest and offer for thyself, for thy cleansing, according to Moses commandment for a testimony unto them. Why did he do that? Why did he send him? First of all, because he was still obeying the law. Our Lord was under the law and he was obeying the law. And that was the law. If a man were cleansed of leprosy, if he was pronounced to be unclean, and God miraculously cleansed him, then this man was to go to the priest. And now then, Leviticus 14 tells us what happens there, which is a ceremony, a ritual.

The priest were to take two birds, put them underwater, and the water was to be with cedar and scarlet. Both of these birds represent our Lord Jesus Christ. As you see birds come from the heavens, that's where he came from. You take two birds and you cleanse them, you wash them. What does it show you? The purity and righteousness of Jesus Christ. Cedar, meaning it's incorruptible. His righteousness was incorruptible. Scarlet, meaning He was sent to sacrifice Himself, to offer His blood.

And then you take one of those birds, they were to kill one of the birds and sprinkle the blood on the other. And then they let that bird go into the heavens. What a picture! Our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and brought His own blood into the presence of our God. as an offering for sin. And then you take that same blood and then you sprinkle it on the one that was cleansed. Isn't this what happened to us? Once we were cleansed, we were cleansed by what? The blood! The blood of Christ cleanses us from all our sin.

And not only that, listen, after that, He would be set aside another seven days just to make sure. and then after that he was to offer two lambs. Two lambs. Why two? Go to Isaiah chapter 40. Why two? Why not one? Our Lord Jesus Christ is a lamb, isn't he? Why two lambs? Because when God cleanses a leper from his sin, it's doubly good. He's doubly pure. Look at Isaiah chapter 40.

If I get to the right place. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith the Lord. Speak comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, warfare is accomplished. That her iniquity is pardoned. Now this is why. For she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins." You who know what it is to be a leper, you that have come to Christ, you that have found Him to be merciful, and gracious, you that have found his blood and righteousness to be sufficient to heal you of all your sins, yet you still have what? Sin.

You still have this old man who has not changed one bit. The joy is we have a new man who is absolutely, completely, 100% leprosy-free. And I know you're troubled by the old man, but this is my hope, is that the old man will never contaminate the new. Ever. Why? Because the Lord hath received double for all our sins.

And so when the Lord sent this man back to the priest, what was he doing? He sent him back to hear a gospel message. He sent him back to see how his leprosy was healed. He sent him to show him a picture of himself. And isn't this what we constantly need to be reminded of? That when God has healed us, He healed us completely. His blood has forever removed our sins from us. And so now then what? We are made acceptable. You know what this man did after he was healed? He went back to worshiping God. He was now allowed in the temple. He was allowed among the people of God.

Why? He was clean! And so are you. You have come to Christ, you're clean everywhere. We are made clean by the blood of Christ. I pray God will bless this to you. My heart's desire is that everyone would be made aware of who they really are. A leper. But only true lepers will come. And they come bowing, they come seeking mercy, and you know what they find? They always find mercy. For what? For a happy, healthy, wealthy life? Is that what you find? No. What do we find? Forgiveness for sin. I'm going to close with this.

Remember that man who was let down from the roof? His friends, he was sick with palsy, he was paralyzed, and they let him down, tore off that roof, and let him down in front of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what the first thing Christ said to him was?

Son, be of good cheer. Thy sin be forgiven. Now if the Lord stopped there, wouldn't he have everything? I know the Lord healed him physically. He did that so everybody else would know. He said, I'm gonna heal this guy physically just so you all know that I have the right and power to forgive this man.

But isn't that the greatest blessing for the leper? To be forgiven? So then no matter what takes place in this life, guess what? I have that. I'm clean, accepted by God. Why? Because he would. Because he touched me. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer. Our father dismisses with your blessings and mercies. Use your word as you please. Magnify the name of your son heal sinners according to your grace and forgive us our sins and cleanse us of our unrighteousness we pray in Jesus name.