Turn with me this morning to
Mark chapter one. Mark chapter one, we'll be looking
at verses 39 through 45. When we left off in last week's study,
our Lord was instructing his disciples concerning the immediate
and present will of God. talking to them about the will
of God concerning his office as Jehovah's Servant, which in
this particular time was being manifested as a preacher. And in keeping with the context
of these verses, that's what he's talking about. He's talking
about his office and duties as a preacher, as an ambassador
of God. And he tells them, he said, let
us go into the next towns that I may preach there also, for
therefore came I forth. That's in Mark 1 verse 38. One of the reasons why the father
sent his son into this world is to preach to men and women. Now when we think of Christ,
we think of His work as a substitute, bearing our sins and His own
body on the tree. When we think of Christ, we think
of His representative work, us being in union with Him, and
He and us being one in one person, obeying the law, keeping that
law which we could never keep, fulfilling all the types and
all the scriptures concerning Him. But here he tells us that another
reason why the Father sent him into this world is to preach
to men. He is called in the scripture,
his name is called the Word of God. His name in the beginning
was the Word. Christ is the language in which
God will manifest himself to men. He is the truth. He is the word. That's his name. He is the word. And here he comes
and he's preaching himself. He's declaring himself to men. And he tells them, therefore
came I forth. So the Lord of glory put such
a value on the preaching of the gospel that he included it in
the life and the life's work of our Savior. I find that to
be about as high a recommendation of preaching that you can get.
His son was a preacher. In Mark chapter one, verse 39,
it says, and he preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee
and cast out devils. Now I want you to consider what
he says in this verse. because this is the sure and
effectual end to gospel preaching as it goes forth in the spirit
of power and life-giving light. It casts out demons. We don't like to think of ourselves
as being possessed by demons, do we? But that's what it says. It says you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins. wherein in time past you
walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air. You walked under his influence.
You walked under his reign. You weren't aware of it. You
thought you were walking under your own dictates, but you weren't.
You were walking under his. You thought you were exercising
your free will, but you weren't. You were exercising a will biased
by Satan and satanic religion. I want you to hear what I'm telling
you. I tell you this all the time and I'm gonna tell you again,
I'm gonna keep on telling you by the grace of God. Religion,
worldly religion. I'm not talking about true religion,
I'm talking about worldly religion. Preaching which sets forth the
will and works of men. When you listen to them, and
that's what they're talking about. They're talking about man's will,
man's glory in this thing. It's all up to you. Can you even
imagine God resting all his works of eternity in a man, let alone
a fallen man? Preaching which sets forth the
will and works of men. Preaching which appeals to men
to make it effectual. Preaching that ultimately glorifies
man. Preaching that celebrates man. At the heart of all their celebrations
is man. We used to have on special days,
special days, The oldest woman and the youngest woman. The oldest
man and the youngest man. People with the most kids, people
with the least kids. It's a celebration of man, that's
all it is. It celebrates man. And preaching that ultimately
glorifies man. It celebrates man, it talks about
man, it's preaching appeals to the rudimentary principles, that
is the basic principles of man. Worldly religion, free will works
religion, legalism. What is legalism? That's anything
that sets forth the idea that you can gain God's favor by keeping
his law. That's legalism. Self-promoting, self-absorbed,
self-centered religion, worldly religion, that which finds its
place in the preeminent places, finds its place in the White
House, finds itself in gubernatorial elections and all of these things,
that which finds its place in the preeminent places, is approved
and admired by all men. Worldly religion. That's what
I'm talking about. Worldly religion. And it's nothing
in this world short of demonic influence. Now I'm going to keep
on telling you that until you listen. That's what it is. Don't put any value on it. Understand
what it is and don't give it an inch. Don't give it any thought. Don't give it any priority. Don't
say, oh, man, I better not say anything against that. What will
they think if I say something against it? Who cares? It's against
God. What do I care if you get upset? Isn't that what Peter, they said,
now you can't say these things. Don't do these things. We're
charging you. Don't you do these things. He said, well we can't
but tell what we have seen and know. It's nothing short of demonic
influence. It possesses the minds and hearts
of deceived men. Let's say you were dealing with
mathematics. And the teacher has to lay a
foundation for mathematics. That's why you start way back
in grade school and you start back in the day when we were
there, we weren't allowed to use calculators or anything like
that. They didn't have them. And we had to learn all the basics. We had to learn the fundamentals,
our multiplication tables and division and all of these things.
And then slowly they built it up. But so what if somebody had
lied to you about all of these other things? Do you think you'd
be able to make an equation come out right at the
end? No. No, it would be wrong. Be wrong. And I used to hate
those word problems they give us, you know, had to do with
miles per gallon and how far it was and all of these things
that I just, it just blow my mind. I just couldn't deal with
it. Well, you know, if the basis of it's not right, you're not
going to come out with a right conclusion. And this is what's
going on in false religion. They lay a false basis. So this
is how they influence the mind. It's not some magical thing that
influences your mind. It's just junk. It's error. And they fill your mind with
it. And so that's how you begin to think about things. and you
come out with wrong conclusions. It possesses the minds and hearts
of deceived men and women, causes them to love darkness rather
than light. Now there's two places in the
scripture I was looking at this morning, I'll just briefly touch
on it and I'll move on. But in Acts 17.22, there's two
places in the scriptures where you find the word superstitious
and superstition. Superstition means religious. Superstition means religion. Look it up in your Strong's Concordance.
The basis of that word when they translated it was taken from
two different words and one of them had to do with demonic possession. So if you were superstitious,
it was because of demonic possession. Are you with me? You understand
what I'm saying? Well, and Paul uses it in that very context
where it appears both times in the scriptures. In Acts 17, you
recall the story, he was in Athens, Greece. And Athens was known
for all of its philosophers and they had all these statues and
all of these things that they worshipped and he went out to
Mars Hill, they invited him out there to speak. And he was passing
through the city and he saw all these devotions to these gods
and all of these things and philosophers that they treated like gods.
And when he stood up to speak, he said, I perceive that you're
all too superstitious. You're too worldly religious. That's what he was telling them.
And then there's another place over in Acts 25 and verse 19. where Paul was brought up before
the king and they were questioning him and the Jews were making
accusations against him. And there, he uses the word superstition
for their religion. Demonic possession was in their way of thinking.
It was in their very religion. And he said, I've not done any
of the things that they accused me of. Are you with me? You understand
what I'm talking about? When I'm talking about worldly
religion, I'm talking about a religion of demonic influence. It's a religion of lies. It's
a religion of false accusations, false ideas, ignorance of God. And it causes men to think in
a wrong way and arrive at wrong conclusions. People who don't
even study the Bible never studied it. If I was to quote something
out of Ruth, well, I guess so. I don't know. I've never read
the Book of Ruth. You understand what I'm saying? And people who don't know anything
about that, just like that, you make a statement and they say,
oh, that can't be. That's not according to the Bible.
Well, how would you know? You never read it. Why do you think that way? Because
your head is filled full of satanic lies. Influence. Satan works in religion and religion
works in the minds and hearts of men. And the way it gains
entrance is through people that you love. And the way it got
into them was from people they loved. And the way it got into
them was from people they loved. And it passes down, generation,
generation, generation. You dare not say anything about
old grandma. If the shoe fits grandma, it
fits grandma. That's just the way it is. Now
I know you don't remember, but we had a whole family left here
over that very thing. The Lord said to the Pharisees
of old in John 8 verse 44, he said, ye are of your father the
devil, and the lusts of your father, the desires of your father,
you will do. That's what you're doing. You're
not serving God. You're serving the devil. So
to preach the gospel and the power of God's spirit is to cast
out devils in one sense. It's to cast out devils. It is
to expose them for what they are and the objects of their
powerful spells. He preached in their synagogues
throughout all Galilee and cast out devils. Mark 1 verse 40. And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, kneeling down
to him. and saying unto him, if thou
wilt, thou can make me clean. You can make me clean. What a picture of chosen sinners.
You know, way back yonder when Miriam, she's had some negative
things, her and Abraham both had some negative things to say
about Moses. And she was a prophetess of God. And she made some negative statements
and God smote her with leprosy. And Aaron, the high priest, came
before God and he said, here's how he described that leprosy. Don't let her be as one that
is dead whose flesh is half consumed. Corrupted, rotten. Oh, don't
let her be like one of those. Forbidden to come into the fellowship
of the saints to worship. Forbidden to have any fellowship
with God's saints. Shut up outside the city. In another place, leprosy, the
one who has leprosy is called one dead while they live. It's a living death, rotting
from the inside out. What a picture of the sinner
as he is in this world. Now let me remind you this was
Jehovah's servant in his capacity as a preacher. He was not the
resurrected Christ yet. He was Jehovah's servant, a preacher. And God was confirming His ministry
through miracles and wonders and signs which God did by Him
in our midst, the same as He did by Paul and He did by Peter
and He did by these other ones, confirmed them the same way. It wasn't to the resurrected
Christ, the Lord of glory to which this man came, but to God's
preacher whose message was Himself. He was preaching the Christ. And I don't know how much this
leper knew, but I know a few things that he knew. He knew
he was a leper. He knew that. He was a leper. He could look at his arms and
his hands and that awful rag that he put over his mouth, and
if he'd come within eyeshot of anybody or hearing of anybody,
he had to start yelling out, unclean, unclean. He knew he
was a leper. He knew he was as good as dead.
He was a man rotten from the inside out, a man cursed of God,
forbidden to participate in any kind of worship, separated from God's people.
He knew he was a leper, and he knew that to go on untreated
was going to be fatal. He knew no physician could heal
him. He knew that much. He knew no
priest could make this curse go away. But there was one of
whom he had heard. One whose words were attended
by God Almighty. One that even the demons must
obey. You know, of all the things that
the disciples did when they were sent out to preach, do you know
the one thing that they come back absolutely astounded by? They come back and said, even
the demons are subject to our word. You see what I'm talking
about? This man knew that. He knew that. There was one man of whom he
heard whose words God attended, one that even the demons obeyed,
and this leper knew this, he had nothing to lose. Oh, I wish
I could get there across the center. What have you got to
lose, huh? What makes you hesitate? What
have you got to lose? You're a leper. You're rotting
from the inside out. What have you got to lose? If he went there and Jesus refused
to see him at all, he'd be no worse than he was. He was desperate, he was dying,
and he was a leper. The old hymn writer said, he
said, come humble sinner, in whose breast a thousand thoughts
revolve. Come with your guilt. and fear
oppressed, and make this last resolve. I'll go to Jesus. Though my sin like mountains
round me close, I know his courts. I know where he's at, and I'll
go where he's at. I know his courts. I'll enter
in, whatever may oppose. Don't you imagine that this leper
had people telling him, you're not allowed in here. What are
you doing? And watching them all just back
away from him. Leprosy was contagious. Man,
they didn't want any part of being around him. But he said, I know his courts.
I'll enter in whatever may oppose. I can but perish if I go. Huh? I am resolved to try, for
if I stay away, I know I shall forever die. Prostrate I lay before his throne,
and there my guilt confess. I'll tell him I'm a rich undone
without his sovereign grace. There came to him a leopard. Wasn't a man whose life drifted
off on a long road or who made a wrong decision or who stole
a watermelon out of Farmer Brown's patch. This was not a man with
some trivial problem. He was a leper. Now watch this chain of events. He came to Christ. He didn't come to the front.
He didn't come to the preachers. He didn't come to sign a pledge
card. He didn't come out and shake the deacon's hands. He didn't come up to a mourner's
bench and everybody gathered around him and prayed. He came
to Christ. He came to Christ. It was Christ's
fame that had spread abroad throughout all the region. It was His face
that people sought, His person that they wanted to find, His
words that they wanted to hear. He came to Christ, and then secondly,
Mark 140, he came beseeching him. What does that mean? That's an earnest request. If you haven't been there yet,
one of y'all gonna wanna go to the prom. Daddy's okay if I go
to the prom. Well, I don't know. Daddy, it's
the problem. But this was even more earnest
than that. This was an earnest request.
This had a meaning to beg, to beg, to implore. His situation and his demeanor
were desperate He poured out his heart before the Lord. And
then thirdly, he came kneeling down to the Savior. Is that important? It is if he's
Lord. He's Lord. He came kneeling down to the Savior, God's ambassador,
God's servant. Paul said to the Galatians, he
said, I bear you record. If it had been possible, you
would have plucked out your eyes and gave them to me when you
first heard the gospel. Scripture said, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. It is, if you're a leper, This was a needy sinner, a desperate
man who was about to go out and face eternity in his sins and
in this curse, and he came kneeling down to the Savior. How different
it is when the sinner knows his sins. How different he acts. You can't convince a worldly
man of anything, Russell. I'm telling you, I've done it.
I've sit there with an open Bible and went from scripture to scripture
to scripture to scripture and show them these things that they
were professing were lies. I could show them all of these
things in the scriptures and I'd sit there and try to reason
with them and go right in one ear and right out the other.
But find a man that the Holy Spirit has convicted of sin,
who knows what he is. It's such a real knowledge in
the heart that he can smell his disease. He's experiencing his
sin. He knows what he is before God. And he knows how desperate the
situation is. Boy, you don't have to read every
verse in the Bible to him. He's so easy to talk to. He just kneels down in subjection
and he listens to you. Now Paul told the Thessalonians,
he said, I know your election of God, brethren, beloved of
the Lord. I know it. My gospel didn't come
unto you in word only. It didn't come in argument and
debate and me standing there just hitting you time after time
after time with stuff. No, it came in power and in the
Holy Ghost. And it came with much assurance.
And you become followers of us and the Lord. In other words,
You was in subjection. Take a proud man who don't know
his sins and preach to him this truth, a man's total depravity,
and what's he do? He swells up like a bullfrog.
That's what he does. He swells all up. I ain't guilty
of that. I never done that. Oh, but let
the Holy Spirit break him. Let him press those truths home
to his heart. He's a different man. Now you
can talk to him. Now you can talk to him. All of this man's reservations
fell away, all of his worries over what folks might think, all of his normal attitude and
conduct was overwhelmed by his need. And he beseeched the Lord, and
he knelt down before him, a gesture of his willing subjection. And
then fourthly, the sinner addresses the Savior. He didn't come, as preachers
have suggested, to name it and claim it. That's not how He came. He didn't come bragging on His
free will. He didn't come reminding the
Lord of all of His good deeds. No, sir. He came kneeling down
before the Lord, and He said to him, if you will, if you will,
My friend, I could preach to you for days on end and give
you all the details of the Savior's work, but here's salvation set
before you in three words. If you will. Isn't that where
it's at? That's where the if lies, isn't
it? It ain't on you, it's on Him. If you will, you can make
me clean. Now here's what I know about
the will of God. I know that God worketh all things
after the counsel of his own will. So if he's gonna do anything
for me, it's gonna have to be by his will. I know this, the
scripture said we were chosen and blessed in Christ, predestinated
under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. So if any of these things are
ever going to apply to me, it's going to have to be according
to the will of God. Daniel the prophet quoted old
King Nebuchadnezzar who was all swelled up with himself and stood
on that hill and said, is this not great Babylon that I built
by the might of my hand and by my own wisdom and my own talents,
I built all this? Here's what he said after God
let him eat grass for a while like a beast. He said he doeth according to
his will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. Who does? God does. I know that believers are born
again, not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, nor the will
of man, but of God. It's God's will that you be born.
And I know that Christ came to do the Father's will. In the
volume of the book, he said, it's written of me, I come to
do thy will, O God. Nothing's going to be done apart
from the will of God. Now, I don't know what this leper
knew, but he knew that this man, if he was willing, could make
him clean. And if he wasn't, he'd die in
his leprosy. Now, he knew that. He knew that. He knew that this man, if he
was willing, could make him clean. Not a scar, not a sore, not a
blemish, not a spot. Based on his will. Who this man
was, and what he come to do, and where he was intended to
go. This man could make him clean.
He could make him holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in his sight. if thou wilt." Now watch this,
Mark 141, and I'll hurry. Jesus moved with compassion,
put forth his hand, and touched him. And he said unto him, not everybody
in the congregation, he said to him, Here's the rest of the congregation
just sitting there looking all around. Not this man, he was prostrating.
His head was bowed. He was addressing the Lord personally. And the Lord said to him, not
every leper in the world, but to this leper, he touched him
and he said unto him, I will. And I tell you, every man who
comes as this man came and addresses our Lord as this man addressed
him and said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. He'll
say, I will. I will. To the rest, he had nothing
to say. But he had something to say that's
in there. You see, the will of the Father's
revealed in Christ. It's revealed in Christ. You
don't seek the Father's will and then come to Christ. You
come to Christ to find the Father's will. This is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone would see of the Son, and believeth
on him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up
at the last day. That's how you learn the Father's
will in this thing, you come to Christ. Oh, to hear him whisper to our
souls, I will. And then it says in verse 42,
as soon as he had spoken, immediately, the leprosy departed from him
and he was cleansed. That which had polluted his very
soul made him repulsive to men and God. That which was corrupting
him from the inside out was gone. It was washed away. Taken from
him, never to be remembered again. What a gift our Lord gives through
his son.