You want to turn over to Matthew
chapter 8 with me as my text this morning. To say it's a joy would be an
understatement to be here with you. I appreciate your pastor and his faithfulness. I'm glad
the Lord has made a way and arranged for him to have the time and
His providence to preach to you, to pastor for you, and not have
to work. I tried that and couldn't do
it, Frank. Just too tough, I couldn't. I admire those who can. Thank
God for them. I also appreciate the other preachers
here in your congregation. I told Frank, we've had Brother
Eric up to preach for us different times, and I told Frank, I said,
I'm not having him back because they're ready to run me off.
And they love Brother Eric. You don't want to lose him, do
you? They told me that one of the deacons came up, and I think
they had a couple of names they wanted to hear again. Eric was
the first one on the list. But they love him. And Brother
John, all preaching today. What a blessing to have preachers
in the congregation. I forgot this guy's name back
here. He's down preaching for Donny
the other day. Of course, you'd probably like it
when he's gone. He's a troublemaker, pray for him. Jackie, your husband, bless his
heart. I love him. But it's a joy. It's a joy when
you've got men like this in the congregation. Well, I want you
to look at Matthew chapter 8 with me this morning. And I don't
know if there's another incident in the life of our Lord, Brother
Dale, that I have considered like I've considered this leper.
I have looked at him from every angle, the way the Lord dealt
with him, the three different places he's mentioned in the
Gospels. And there's something about this leper coming to the
Lord Jesus that I've learned so much from him. from his coming
to Christ. And that's what I want you to
look at with me this morning about this leper who came to
the Lord Jesus. I want to read the first account
of it here in Matthew chapter 8 and get the context of his
coming to the Lord Jesus. Then I want you to turn over
with me just a little bit later to Mark's account of it in Mark
chapter 1. But let's just read the first
four verses together here. In verse 8, of Matthew. And when he came down from the
mountain, great multitudes followed him. And behold, there came a
leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou can
make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand
and touched him, saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately
his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said unto him, See
thou tell no man, but go thy way, show thyself to the priest,
and offer the gift that Moses commanded thee for testimony
unto them. When he was come down from the
mount." He was come down from the mount. Who is this? Who is
this? He came down from the mount. in chapter 7, something about
who this is that came down from this mountain. And in verse 29
of the last chapter, he was a teacher. He was a teacher. He taught them
as one having authority, and I love this, not as the scribes. The Holy Spirit put that in there
for a reason, didn't he? But he's a teacher. But he's
no common teacher. He taught them As one had an
authority, boy, when he spake, his word went forth with power,
with authority. You either got mad or you got
glad. You either said, this is a hard
saying, I can't hear it. Or you said, Lord, you have the
words of life, I can't leave you. But you could not listen
to this man and remain indifferent to his teaching. It was the words of the King,
and it went forth with power. He came down from this mountain.
But we're told more than that even. We're told here in chapter
7 also, and in verse 22, we're told something else about Him.
And this tells us why He spake with authority. Look in verse
22. Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, This is the Lord. This is the
Lord of glory who came down from this mountain. He's the Lord
of all the earth. You call me Lord and Master and
you say, well, that's who I am. I'm your Lord. The earth is the
Lord's and the fullness thereof. The world and they that dwell
therein, it belongs to this man who came down from this mountain.
He's the Lord. I'll tell you something else,
since he's the Lord. Notice verse 24. Notice verse 23. Look in verse 23. He says there
in verse 23, And will I then in that day? Many will profess
to me in that day, Have we not done this and that? And then
will I profess unto them, I never knew you? Look at this. Depart
from me, ye that work iniquity. Charles Spurgeon said this about
the Lord Jesus Christ. He says he holds the destiny
of all men in his hands. No man will come into heaven
and no man will go into hell but at the words of this man.
Men will either be saved by him or damned by him. They'll either
hear, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom,
or depart from me, ye cursed." He's the Lord, isn't He? He's
the Lord. And the Bible says here in chapter
8 and verse 1 that He came down from the mountain. There was
another occasion where we read about a mountain. all the way
back in the Old Testament, Exodus chapter 19 and 20. Remember that
occasion? There was another mountain that
this same Lord came down upon. Remember that occasion when He
told Moses, you gather the children of Israel together and you have
them to wash their clothes? You have them to sanctify, separate
themselves from their wives, because I'm going to come down
upon this mountain, and I'm going to speak to them. And He came
down upon this mountain. There was fire. There were these
angels as lightning flashing. There was the sound of these
words. And the children of Israel said,
Don't let him speak to us anymore. Don't let us see this great fire
lest we die. You know that was the same Lord. He said there when he was speaking
to them, Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one Lord. Doesn't
it seem strange that this Jesus of Nazareth was the same God
who come down from this mountain, was the same God who come down
on the mountain of Mount Sinai? I saw a documentary a few, well,
it's been a year or so ago. They think they found Mount Sinai.
I don't know. They've got some pretty convincing
evidence. It's there in Saudi Arabia. But
a guy slipped in and got some video of it. They got where Elijah fled there to the
cave. A third all the way up on this
huge mountain that's black. It is still black today. And if that is the place, if
that's the place, that's where God came down and spoke to them. But they were so afraid, they
said, don't let Him speak to us anymore. It's all together different here,
wasn't it? It's altogether different here. What was the difference? It was the same God. This was
a different side of God, wasn't it? Back there was God in His
justice. God in His holiness. God showing
them His character. God showing them His hatred for
sin. It's God's good side, Luther
used to say. It's God in Christ. It's God
in His dear and blessed Son, not coming to threaten us, not
coming to demand of us, but stooping, condescending to save us. There is a side of God, brothers
and sisters, I'll be honest with you, I don't want to have anything
to do with. One thing about the Bible and why we need to read
it for ourselves is because as we read it, we see God from different
directions. We see different attributes.
We see different characters of God. Sometimes you see Him a
consuming fire. Sometimes you see Him in His
absolute holiness. Sometimes you look upon Him in
His justice. And then you say, Oh Lord, if
you should mark iniquity, I can't stand. Every transgression and
every disobedience, every thought of foolishness shall receive
a just recompense of reward. If I come before you in your
absolute holiness, you will consume me. I cannot face you like this. There is that aspect of God that
no man can approach into. And then we look at Him from
another direction. And there we see Him in Christ. There we see Him in His love.
There we see Him in His mercy and His goodness. And there is
when we can approach into Him. Because there we find Him as
our Savior in the humanity, in our humanity, God in our humanity. That's the difference, isn't
it? The Lord Jesus come down here from this mountain and He'd
been teaching to the people. But what had He been saying to
them? Blessed are the poor. For they shall see God. Oh, the
law is for the stout, isn't it? The law is for the righteous,
the strong. But here he comes down and he
says, blessed are you who have nothing. Blessed are you who
are so poor you can't afford anything. You're weak. You're unworthy. You're mournful. You're blessed. That's what he
was saying. And you know something? Nobody
felt threatened. Nobody felt repulsed. As a matter
of fact, when he came down, we're told here that the multitudes
congregated around him. What's the difference? It's this good side of God. It's
God and His Son. God and His Son. Someone said
this. Till God in human flesh I see,
My thoughts no comfort find, The holy just and sacred three
Are terrors to my mind. But if Emmanuel's face appear,
My hope, my joy begins, His name forbids my slavish fears, And
His grace removes my sin." That's why the multitudes congregated
around him. That's why they weren't repulsed.
That's why they weren't threatened. They felt like they could approach
Him through this God. And you can. You can. In Christ. In Christ. So He comes down from this mountain
and the multitudes come unto Him. And something wonderful
here happens. And Matthew calls our attention
to it by using this word, behold, in verse 2. Behold, would you
look at this, Matthew said, there came a leper and worshipped him. A few years ago, I was reading Dr. John Gale, and he knew so
much about Jewish history, and he wrote in detail an eyewitness
account of a man who was filled with leprosy. Luke said this
man was filled with leprosy. I condensed it down. I had the
whole account of it. But this was an eyewitness account
of what this man looked like when he came to the Lord Jesus.
You and I know nothing about leprosy today. But listen what
Dr. Gill said this man who saw a
man who was full of leprosy. And here's what he said about
it. His nose was rotted off and there were two holes in his face
where his nose was. His tongue was black and ulcerated
and swollen. His face was bloated and shiny. His body was filled with hard
knots, green at the bottom and white at the top. Huge ulcers
had risen and busted on his skin so many times that his flesh
was hard and looked like fish scales. If one pulled his hair,
it would bring forth hair and skin exposing a white scalp. His ears and private parts had
rotted away and fell. His eyes were red and inflamed
and shined like those of a cat. His body temperature was so high
that if held tightly, an apple in his hand would be thoroughly
cooked within one hour, and when cut, instead of bleeding blood,
would bleed a stinking pus." Can you imagine that? Can you
get in your mind, imagination, this leper, what he looked like? when he came to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Behold, there came to him a leper. This was the most dreaded disease
the Jewish nation had ever known because there was no cure for
it. If anybody was healed of this, it had to be God who healed
him. When you got it, you had to take
some precautions. You had to take some steps. The
priest shut you up for a few days. If the leprosy was spreading,
you had to take your garments and rip them up. You had to leave
your society. You had to leave your household.
You could not go into town. You could not go into the temple
to worship. You had to go out and live among
society of the lepers. You were a leper the rest of
your life until you died. You had to put a cloth over your
lip. If anyone approached him to you,
you had to raise your hands and say, unclean, unclean. That's the man who came to the
Lord Jesus Christ. If you broke this law, you were
subject to be stoned. Society had to be protected.
So when this man came to the Lord Jesus Christ, he came contrary
to the law. If he approached unto the Lord
Jesus as he did, he was subject to be dragged away and stoned. But he either had to come contrary
to the law, or he would die in his leprosy. Now, here's the
first lesson we learned, and you've already got it, Pastor.
When we come to the Lord Jesus Christ, how do we come? We come
just like this man. We come contrary to the law. I want you to turn to a couple
of places with me. I want you to turn over to Romans chapter
3 right quickly. Look in Romans chapter 3. He took his life in his hands
and he said, I either must go contrary to the law or I must
die. And when you and I come to the
Lord Jesus Christ, we come as guilty sinners. If we don't come
contrary to the law of God, then we die in our sins. And what I'm simply saying, dear
brothers and sisters, that we must be saved in a manner that
is contrary to the moral law of Moses. Not at the expense
of that law. But we must be saved contrary
to that law. We must be saved by a different
way. We must be saved apart from our
obedience to this law. I want you to look in Romans
chapter 3 and in Romans chapter 5. Look in Romans chapter 3,
a very familiar scripture to all of us. He says in verse 19, that whatsoever
things the law, the moral law, saith, it says to them who are
under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world
become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin." Look in verse 21, but now the righteousness
of God without the law, without our personal obedience to the
law, is manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets,
even the righteousness of God which comes to us by faith of
Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe. For there
is no difference. All of us have sinned and come
short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace
through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ." Look in chapter
5 and look in verse 18. Look at this. Therefore, as by the offense
of one, Judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so
by the righteousness of one, by the righteousness of one,
the free gift came upon all men to justification of life. For
as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by
the obedience of one, by one man's obedience shall many be
made righteous." You're saying, Bruce, you're telling us that
we must be saved wholly apart from our personal obedience? Absolutely. Absolutely. Isn't that foreign to the natural
man? He conjures up all kinds of thoughts in his mind when
he hears this. We're made sinners by one man's disobedience. We
must be made righteous wholly by the obedience of one man,
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's contrary to the law, isn't
it? The law forbids lepers to come, and it shuts the door against
sinners. But grace bids only the lepers
to come, and it shuts the door against law keepers. Lord, all of these things have
I kept from my youth up. Didn't you shut out of grace?
You don't need a Savior. If the law can save you, you
don't need somebody else to render perfect obedience to it on your
behalf. It's only lepers that can come. It's only lawbreakers that can
approach unto the Savior. They that are whole need not
a physician, but they that are sick. Have you ever read Pilgrim's Progress?
You remember when Pilgrim had a burden on his back and the
evangelist told him to, you go through the wicked gate and don't
you stop until you see a man hanging on a tree. That's where
you'll lose your burden. But he ran into one worldly wise
man. Remember that? And he ran into
a worldly wise man and he sent him down to the village of Morality.
And in the village of Morality, he ran into one Mr. Legality,
and he sent him to Mount Sinai. And the pilgrim got there to
Mount Sinai, and he saw this mountain on fire, and he said,
It was ready to fall on my head. And the evangelist found him
and said, Listen, you're at the wrong mountain. You're at the
wrong mountain. The law can't do anything for
us, brothers and sisters, but shut us up. It condemns us. It curses us. Cursed is everyone
who continues not in all things written in the book of the law
to do them. So we have to be saved by an altogether different
means. We have to be saved by this other
man who rendered perfect obedience for all of those who believe
in him. Stop trying to save ourselves.
Isn't it difficult to do that? Stop trying to save ourselves
by our morality. Stop trying to deny our badness
and our fearful condition as awful as it is. Own it. Let's
just own it. As frightful as it is, let's
just own it. We're perishing lepers. And then
come to the Lord Jesus Christ just like this man did and say,
Lord, I'm a perishing leper. Have mercy upon me or I'm going
to die in my sins. I can't save myself. I can't
do anything to help you to save me. Let not conscience make you linger.
nor a fitness-friendly dream. All the fitness He requires is
to fill your need of Him. You know why men aren't saved.
You know why men die lost. They won't come to the Lord Jesus
Christ as this man did. That's the only reason. They
can blame God. They can blame the church. But
men will not come to Christ on His terms That He is the Savior
of poor, perishing sinners. Have you ever known anybody to
come like this leper and He turned them away? And He never will. He never will. But they've got
to come with a little bit of morality, you see. We've got
to come thinking there's something that I've got to do. I've got
to pray so hard. I've got to cry so much. I've
got to be baptized. I've got to attend the worship.
I've got to add my part. And here this man stood dying
in his leprosy, and that's the only way you and I can come,
perishing in our sins. Oh, gracious born, I wrote that
wonderful song. I heard the voice of Jesus say,
Behold, I freely give. The living water thirsty ones
stoop down and drink and live. But here's the problem with men.
They want everything free but this water of life. I want free
food. I want free housing. I want a
free car. I want a free phone. But this
water of life, I'll give something for it. I'll add so much to it.
And they just won't stoop down. and drank and lived. Look in Mark's account of this,
in Mark chapter 1, and look at his account. Look how this man
came. In Mark chapter 1, in verse 40, the Bible never ceases
to amaze us when it speaks of the Lord Jesus. If I wrote a
letter to you and used my name, either personally or a pronoun,
it would make no sense. The Holy Spirit just saturates
this book with His name. Six times here in verse 40, He
refers to our Lord. And look at this. There came
a leper to Him, beseeching Him, kneeling down to Him, saying
to Him, If thou will, thou can make me whole. Why does he do
this? He wants to emphasize that this
salvation, this healing, life is found in no place else but
this person. Well, you and I are learning
something about that, aren't we? We're learning it's not in the
system of theology. Salvation is not in the doctrine
of election, is it? It's not even in the doctrine
of God's sovereignty. We love that system of theology
we call Calvinism. But salvation is not in a system. Salvation is not in a doctrine.
Salvation is in a glorious person, the Son of God. And that's who
we must come to. It's to Him. He came to Him. And if you're saved, you came
to Him. You left your Calvinism behind.
You left your Arminianism behind and all the isms behind. He said,
I've got to get to the Savior. Him. And when we come, we come
just like this leopard. He came a bagger, didn't he?
He came beseeching Him. That's who he lifts up, the baggers
from the dunghill. Notice how he came humbling himself,
kneeling down to Him. submitting himself, if thou will,
and believing thou canst make me whole." That's the way he
came. I heard Todd Maverick years ago
preach on this, and I jotted one or two things down. I thought
it was very interesting. Todd said, this is what this
man didn't say. That's very important, isn't
it? I decided for Jesus. I accept Christ. I now receive
my healing. I receive Jesus as my Savior
and will someday receive Him as my Lord. I exercise the power
of my free will." Well, he could have said all
those things. But I assure you of this, when he went back into
the city and he said, I've accepted Christ as my Savior, he had still
been in his leprosy. better drug him from that temple
and stone him or put him back out with the rest of the lepers. We better be careful about these
Billy Graham's and these modern evangelists. You know it. I don't
mean to be critical and call names, but I tell you, brothers
and sisters, all this stuff, making a decision, this accepting
Christ, this free willism, Men are going down that route and
someday they're going to stand before God in judgment and find
out their hopes were built upon the sand. This man was not cleansed until
the Lord of glory cleansed him. A decision will not give a man
new life. It will not regenerate a man. He will not wash your conscience.
It takes a man to do that. This man. Christ the man. Notice this. I want to spend
just a minute on this. This is so important. Here in
verse 40. This little word. If thou wilt. If thou wilt. Thou can make me
whole. You can. The issue was not whether
you have the power. He said you've got the power.
Here's the issue with me. Here's what I'm confronting now.
Will you? Will you? If thou wilt. Can you hear the hush go over
that crowd? Can you imagine you could have heard a feather drop
and hit on the ground? Everybody gets silent. The little
boy is sitting on his father's neck. He squeezes his legs. Boy, nobody is breathing hard.
Everybody is listening. For what? For something that
can only be known by revelation? What is it? It's the will of
God. If you will, you can. Will He? Boy, this was serious
business, wasn't it? You remember what this man looked
like. You remember that he was full
of leprosy. He was a dying man. And now whether he lived or died,
he left it in the sovereign will of the Lord. Somebody said that
scared me to death. You think he wasn't concerned? We've got these teenagers going
around through the mall with no fear. But I tell you, I didn't
fear either until I saw my eternal destiny, until I saw my salvation
was out of my control, until I saw I'd ruined myself. I was
on my way to a devil's hell for all eternity. I was in over my
head. I was in trouble. And all my
willing and all my doing just sunk me deeper and deeper. And
when I saw that my salvation, if I was ever saved, it rested
in the will of this sovereign Lord. You talk about being concerned. What if I told you this morning?
That your sin has ruined you. And you've got yourself in such
a deplorable, dangerous situation that you can't get yourself out
of it. That you're in over your head. And you will not be saved. You cannot be saved. Except it's
the sovereign will of the Lord of glory. How would that make
you feel? But I tell you, the happiest
man in this world is the man that stood where this leper stood.
And he stood there trembling. He stood there waiting. What's
the verdict? What's the verdict? Will I be
saved by His will or will I be damned by my sins? What's the
verdict? And when the verdict comes, I
will. You're the happiest man between the eternities. Paul said He's made known unto
us the mystery of His will. And isn't it a mystery that He
willed to save you? And then you start seeing it
was His will that put your name in the book of life. It was His
will to choose you to salvation before you had a being. It was
His will to take your sins and make them His own. It's His will
to call you and save you. It's His will. You can face life
with that. You can face dying with that.
You can face judgment with that. It's His will to save you. I
will be thou clean. And look what the Lord does to
this man in verse 41. And Jesus moved with compassion,
put forth His hand, and touched him. You know, it wasn't that
touch that healed him. It was the Lord speaking to him.
Look what he said. And he said unto him, I will
be thou clean. And as soon as he had spoken,
immediately he was made clean. And that begs this question.
Why did he touch him then? Remember what this man looked
like. And he was so contagious. Why would he touch him? I don't know except for this
reason. Our Lord Jesus Christ is so full of compassion that
when He sees us in our deplorable state of misery, He is so full
of filling and love and tender mercies that He touches us. He so loves His people. Even
in their misery, He says, I can identify with you. I know and
I remember that you're dust. And I love you in spite of it. Oh, how many of you here this
morning? He's touched you with a song. He's touched you in prayer. He's touched you while you're
reading His Word. He's touched you while the pastor was preaching.
He's reached out and He's touched you in your misery. And He's lifted you up. And He's
worn your heart to Himself because you have a high priest that can
be touched with the feelings of your infirmities. And brothers
and sisters, why shouldn't He touch us? It doesn't corrupt
Him, does it? He touched this man full of leprosy,
but it had no negative effect upon him. Our sinfulness and
our misery has no effect upon Him. But when He touches us,
it sure affects us, doesn't it? Oh, what a compassionate
Lord we have that He would identify with us in our fallen state of
misery. And I think, brothers and sisters,
if we didn't have a high priest that could do it, I'd despair.
I would despair. Would you not despair? Or some
of the late nights when you're on your couch with your head
in your hands. You're concerned about your own
condition. You're concerned about the condition
of the others. The condition of the church.
And you just feel so low and so miserable. There's nothing
you can do about it. But there He is in some way or
another. He makes you to know that He
loves you. That He's concerned. And that
He cares. And that He can help. That He
can strengthen and comfort you. And He makes you to know it. And just knowing that will help
you to live on even though you are miserable. Bless this holy
name. One more thing in closing is
this. It's found here in verse 43 and verse 44. And the Lord charged him and
sent him away saying, See thou say nothing to any man. Lord,
what are you doing to this poor man? Oh, don't tell him, oh,
he can't do it. Don't do this to this man. Don't
charge him with such a command. Here he is dying in his leprosy
and you've touched him and his skin is like a little child.
Oh, the amazing miracle that's come over this man and then say,
don't tell anybody what I've done to you. Oh Lord, don't lay that upon
this man, because he can't obey that command. He just went out
and told everybody and you would too. But he sent him to the priest,
didn't he? Why did he do that? What does
that tell us? This man had already, according
to the law, the ceremonial law, been to the priest before. It
was the priest that shut him up and said, man, you've got
leprosy. And now you get out of society. And don't let, I'm
sorry I've got to do this. I'm sorry I've got to tell you
this. But if I catch you around in society, I'm going to have
you removed forcibly and maybe hurt or worse. That's what the
priest said to him. Now the Lord sends him right
back to that same priest. And here he comes back to this
same priest. And what does that priest tell
him? Come on in, buddies. Let me check you out. I remember
you. Yeah, I remember you." And he strips him and checks him. And he says, I can't find any
leprosy on you at all. Why, you're as clean as you can
be. Go out into society. Go home
to your family. Go to the temple to worship.
You're free. I have nothing against you. I can't bind you. And when the
Lord Jesus saves us, when He justifies us, when He forgives
us, when He makes us righteous by His own self, He sends us
to the law, not as a rule of life, but to let the law say,
I find no fault in this man. He is as righteous as I am. I've
never seen such a beautiful garment in all my life. I've never seen
such a clean conscience. I've got nothing against him.
Go your way. Fear God and love the brethren. That's what the law says. No,
we're not saved by the law, brothers and sisters. But we're not saved
at the expense of it. It's been fully satisfied. It's
happy. It's been honored. It's been
glorified. And you and I, as children of God, with His robe
upon us, can stand before this law, will stand in that day with
exceeding great joy, being presented perfect when this world is on
fire, will stand with joy in that day, clothed in the garments,
wrought out by another man, and given to us. And the law, or
the justice of God, or the wrath of God, or the judgment of God
will find nothing against us. Are you a leper? Are you a leper? Then come on to Christ. Do like
this man did. Just come on to Him. Get right
down to His feet and say what this man said. As fearful as
it was, Lord, if You will, You can make me whole. And I never
know anybody that came to Him like that, but he said, I don't
think I will. God help you to do it. Lord bless
you, dear brother. God bless you when you come to
preach. Thank you, Pastor.