Mark chapter 1, let's begin reading
at verse 40. Six verses, but so full of instruction. May God be pleased to teach us
today. Mark 1 and 40, And there came
a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and
saying unto him, The hymn, of course, is our Lord Jesus Christ.
If thou wilt, if you will, you can make me clean. And Jesus
moved with compassion, put forth his hand and touched him. And
at the same time as he touched him, he said, I will be thou
clean. And as soon as he had spoken,
Immediately, the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.
And he straightly charged him, and forthwith sent him away,
and said unto him, See thou say nothing to any man, but go thy
way, show thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing those
things which Moses commanded for a testimony unto them. The priest, according to God's
law, had pronounced this leper unclean, and the priest would,
after a sacrifice, pronounce him clean. Christ said he came
not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. Verse 45, but the
leopard didn't do it. He was so full of joy, He just
went out and began to publish it much and to blaze abroad the
matter in so much that Jesus could no more openly enter into
the city but was without in desert places and they came unto him
from every quarter. You've heard me say before that
our His parables, of course, were
his spoken lessons, but his miracles were his acted lessons. They
illustrate and enforce the truths that he spoke, especially that
which he spoke more about, especially about salvation. Did you ever
think, or what would you think, if I told you this morning, you
could learn a whole lot from this leper? Go to school with
the leper and you can learn a whole lot. Necessary lessons, important
lessons, blessed, blessed truths. The title of my message is the
Lord and the leper. I've been sort of in between
deciding what to title the message. I thought perhaps another case
for the great physician. However, the Lord and the leper,
this man's case was a desperate case. The record of this leper
coming to our Lord is also recorded in Mark chapter, or rather, Matthew
chapter 8 and Luke chapter 5. In those places, this story is
introduced with the words, behold, behold, there came a leper to
him. And Luke tells us this man was
full of leprosy. He was in the last stages of
leprosy. He was dying. One man who lived
for many years in that land, who saw the disease of leprosy
firsthand, wrote these words. He said, the hair falls out.
Those who suffer from this disease, the fingernails loosen and drop
off. So do the joints of the fingers
and toes. One by one, joint by joint, they
just rot away, drop off. Shrink up and fall away. The
gums are absorbed and the teeth are gone. The nose, the eyes,
the tongue are slowly consumed. Leprosy was a horrible, lingering
death. And in addition to that, If that
weren't bad enough, in addition to that, the priest, under God's
law, when you can read about this in Leviticus chapter 13,
according to the law, the priest looking upon this leper and determining
that indeed he did have leprosy, pronounced the man unclean. He was in the category of those
things unclean by the law of God. And being so, he was required
to leave his family, leave his wife, his children, and to dwell
without the camp, to dwell alone. I suppose if he had any company
at all, it would be other lepers. Otherwise, he was compelled to
go without the camp, He was pronounced an outcast. He was pronounced
unclean. And if anyone would approach
him from a distance not realizing he was a leper, he was required
to cry out and warn that person, unclean, unclean. What a desperate case. But leprosy,
leprosy is a picture and a type of sin. In Adam, we're told,
all die. We're all born in the state of
the sin, the disease of leprosy, or rather sin. And it leaves
us all in desperate cases. Nothing we could do for ourselves
could cure us. Nothing anybody else could do
could cure us. And the law, the law, some folks
think they can be justified by the law. The scripture says not
so. I hope you know that God's law,
holy, just, good, yes, no question about that, but it was never
intended. It was never given for the purpose
of taking away sin. It could never produce justification. The reason the law was given,
we're told over and over again, is to show us our guilt, to show
us our helplessness. This is what the law did with
the leper. Pronounced him unclean, but that's all it could do. It
could condemn him, but it could give him no cure. It could offer
him no relief. It could just tell him, leave,
leave, dwell without the camp. Paul said, by the law is the
knowledge of sin. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh living be justified. The law, Paul said in Galatians
3, is useful in this sense alone. The law was our schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ. That's the use of the law. To
expose our guilt. that every mouth may be stopped
and every man become guilty before God. The law reveals what I am,
pronounces me guilty, but it can do nothing, nothing to relieve
my guilt. To that, we must look to someone
else. I wonder, anyone likes that here? Anyone like that here, and know
it, know it, have been made to feel it. God's law has done its
work, has entered into your heart, exposed your sin. Before that,
a man thinks his problem is solely what he does. outwardly. And that indeed is a problem.
But the reason he does these things outwardly is because of
what he is inside. A new heart is the need. We can take a lesson from this
leper. Can we not remember what I said
a moment ago? We can learn much from this man. This man teaches us this. And
oh, what a blessed lesson it is if God is pleased to teach
it to us. This man shows us how to approach
Christ in order to obtain mercy. Anybody interested in that? This
man shows us how to approach the Lord of glory and obtain
mercy. To hear these blessed words,
I will, I will. I don't find comfort if a preacher
tells me that. I had that happen. Preacher told
me I was saved. All the while, God's Holy Spirit
was saying, guilty, lost, lost, lost. The preacher said I was
saved. No, no comfort there until he speaks these words. He reaches down, his omnipotent
hand of grace. Out of the pit, the psalmist
said, have I cried unto thee. In the pit, in darkness, nobody
could reach me. Nobody could help me, brother,
Lord. No human arm could reach down
to where I was at. I mean, look down there, it's
only darkness. You couldn't even see me, I was
so engulfed in darkness. And I couldn't climb out. And I would still be there, except,
but, he reached down his hand for me. Out of the pit, he lifted
me up. sat me on a solid rock, and established
my goings, and put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise
unto our God. Would you pray for me as I attempt
to preach? I want to be understood, and
I want to preach as simply and as plainly as I can. Looking
again at verse 40, primarily there at verse 40. We learn from
this leper first. There came a leper to him. To him. We learn first of all
that he came to the right source. He came to him. You see this
picture, this miracle? You see the leper full of disease? full of, full as Luke said, of
leprosy. But he's come to him. This leper
came to the Lord Jesus Christ and then we look at the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's true. This man is full of
leprosy. He's an outcast and he's unclean.
But the Lord is full of grace. He's full of grace and truth.
The leper is the very picture of death. It's working in him. It's already claiming its victim.
But we see the Lord full of life. Full of life and virtue and power
and healing. Full of life. Martha, Martha, your brother's going to rise
again. Martha, whoever lives and believes in me, She'll never
die. Martha, do you believe this?
Do you believe this? We see the leper and only disease,
but looking at Christ, we see the cure. Like the woman with
the issue of blood, also in that category, pronounced by the law
of Moses as unclean, she said to herself, I've got to get to
him. Oh, that God would so work in
hearts of those who don't know Christ, such a determination
as that. I've got to get to Him. Like this leper, like the woman
with the issue of blood, I've got to get to Christ. Nothing
else matters. It doesn't matter. That's the
first thing. Indeed, nothing else avails anything
without Him. And I'm well aware that today
people are directed to altars, to decisions, to confessional
booths, to touch not, and taste not, and wear not, and go not,
and do this, and don't do that. But the scripture says, as we
read a moment ago from Isaiah 45, look unto me. Look unto Me. All those things are looking
to self, looking to works. God in mercy and grace says,
why do those things? Why pray unto a God that cannot
save? Look unto Me and be ye saved. Does it sound like God's unwilling
to show mercy? No. No. He says, look. Look unto
Me. And the result in every case
to every sinner that looks unto him, he says, and be ye saved. If you look, If this morning,
God enables you to look unto him, if God opens your eyes to
see him, the Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll be saved
just as this leopard was cleansed immediately. So will you be because
he's mighty to save. Look to self and you'll not be
saved. Dwell exclusively upon the disease
and you'll not be saved. Look to religious activity, the
same result. But if God, if God enables you
to behold the Lamb of God, if He opens your eyes, He does it
for this reason, that you might behold His Son. Remember what
He said in John chapter 6. He said, for this is the Father's
will that sent me. that all that seeth the Son and
believeth on him should have everlasting life, and I'll raise
him up again at the last day." I think this is the first time
that our Lord healed the leper. I don't think prior to this that
our Lord on earth, in looking at the four Gospels, he had done
other miracles. But I don't think he had, up
to this time, healed a leper. Don't have a record of it, as
I can tell. But this leper comes anyway. He hadn't seen the Lord perform
a miracle of healing leprosy anywhere else, but he comes anyway. He was an outcast. He was an
outcast. The law said, you're an outcast.
Leave the camp. Go out. Dwell alone. But the Lord said, him that cometh
to me, come on, outcast. Come to me. I will in no wise
cast you out. I'll not cast you out. Isn't
that true, child of God? Isn't that so? Did you not find
it to be true? When you came to Him, as the
hymn writer said, with many fears, with many doubts, Oh, but by
grace, Lamb of God, I come, I come, I've got nowhere else to go.
I've got nowhere else to go. Multitudes followed our Lord
one time because He'd fed them. That's why they followed Him. They got hungry again. They wanted
to be fed. They crossed the sea and found
Him. And he said, you don't seek me because you really believe. You just want to be fed. No man
can truly come to me unless God draws him. I'm the bread of life
that came down from heaven. And they said, this is a hard
saying. We don't like it. We won't have this. So they turned
on the hills and walked away. And as the crowd departed, he
turned to his disciples and said, do you want to go too? Will you
also go away? You remember what Peter said?
No wonder our Lord said on another occasion, blessed art thou Simon
of Barjona. My father's done something for
you. Simon said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Who are we going
to go to? Thou alone has the words of eternal
life. If this were a picture, if this
were a painting, our Lord's encounter with this leper, I would put
beneath it these words, He's able to save to the uttermost
all that come unto God by Him. There's only one great physician. There's only one fountain filled
with blood. Only one. Drawn from Emmanuel's
veins. And as this leper pictures, sinners
plunge beneath that flood. Lose all. Lose all. I like the sound of that. Lose
all their guilty stains. There came a leper to him. Sinner
do likewise. Come to Christ. Come to Christ. Cast yourself down at his feet,
praying, if you will, you can make me clean. Learn, secondly,
how the leper came. How he came to Christ. What do
you mean? I mean this. He came exactly
as he was. He came as a leper. He didn't
try to cover up his leprosy. He didn't try to deny his leprosy. He didn't try to play it down
as though it wasn't as serious as it was. No. He came and he
fell down. He kneeled down. I believe it's
Luke says he fell on his face. He fell before the Lord Jesus
Christ just as he was as a leper. Paul said Christ
came into this world to save sinners. As sinners. He saved sinners as sinners. This is the very glory of the
gospel. This is what makes it the good
news that it is. Look in chapter 2 of Mark. Just
look across the page of Mark. Chapter 2, and this is exactly
what our Lord Himself said at verse 16. And when the scribes
and Pharisees saw him eating with publicans and sinners, they
said unto his disciples, how is it that he eateth and drinketh
with publicans and sinners? They would never do that. Well,
if they brushed elbows with the sinner, they'd go home and change
clothes. Verse 17, and when Jesus heard it, he said unto them,
the religious leaders, they that are whole have no need of the
physician. like you, like you Pharisees,
but they that are sick, like these sinners. I came not to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Paul said, I was
a blasphemer, an injurious, and a persecutor, but I obtained a mercy. And he
said, this is a faithful saying. After he said that, made that
confession of what he used to be, he said, but this is a faithful
saying. What Christ did for me proves
it, that he came into this world to save sinners. Thirdly, we read in verse 40,
he kneeled down to him, beseeching him and kneeling down to him,
beseeching. That is, he came pleading for
mercy. He came begging for mercy. Nothing else mattered. Nothing
else mattered. He came as a beggar to the throne
of grace. He came as a bankrupt sinner
with nothing to pay. Oh, I sure would like to meet
a sinner with nothing to pay. I'd like to meet a sinner with
nothing to pay. Oh, the gospel is good news to
sinners, to lost, needy beggars with nothing to pay. that are
nothing, and that have nothing, and can do nothing. I'd like
to meet a sinner crying from his heart, not playing church,
not putting on a false face of religion, but crying from his
heart, day and night. When he opens his eyes in the
morning, if he ever is able to close them at night, crying,
how can I be just with God? God's holy law has done its work. He's condemned. He's guilty. And He won't argue with you about
it. He knows He is. That's not the issue with Him.
The issue now is how can I obtain mercy? Oh, find me a beggar like
that with nothing to pay. And I'll tell him, look, look
and live. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
like he told that woman in the house of Simon the Pharisee. As she wiped his feet after washing
them with her tears, wiped them with the hairs of her head, and
Simon said, my soul, He said to himself, and this man claims
to be a prophet. Lester Simon said, this proves
it. This proves it. If he was a prophet,
if he knew anything, he'd know who this woman is. She's a sinner. He wouldn't allow her to touch
him. This is embarrassing. How'd she get into my house? And you know the story. You see this woman. You see this
woman. She's not like you. She's got nothing to pay. You
think you've paid the debt you owe to God by your works and
your legalism and you do this and do the other, but this woman
has nothing to pay. Therefore, I say unto you, her sins, Her sins are all forgiven
thee." How do you like that, Simon? And just in case he didn't
hear it, he turned from Simon and looked at the woman and said,
go in peace. Ignore him. Don't you be troubled by him.
You go in peace. You leave in peace. Your sins
are all forgiven you. Oh yes, that's what God does
for bankrupt sinners. And this leper said unto him,
said unto him, if you will, if you're willing, you can make
me clean. If, if you will. It seems the
leper realized that our Lord didn't have to do it. He wasn't
obligated to do it. It's not something he felt was
owed to him. That's why he said, if you will.
It's not of him that willeth, but of God that showeth mercy.
And the leper said, I'm begging for mercy. If you will, you can
make me clean. What is that I hear? If you will. If you will. Lord, will you? Will you? Can you imagine how
serious this man was? How his whole heart was in that
request. Nothing was so important. Do
you hear the chime of wedding bells? Will you have this man? Will
you take this woman? And our Lord, He says, oh, I
will. I will. Jesus, verse 41, moved
with compassion and put forth his hand. Anybody drawing near
to this leper looking upon him would be repulsed by him. His
very appearance. They would draw back in disgust. But not Christ. He reached out
his hand. he reached out his hand to touch
this cankerous, leprous man. I wonder how long it'd been since
anybody touched him. I wonder how long it'd been,
John, since he'd felt the touch, any compassion, any mercy whatsoever. But our Lord did more than that.
As he reached out to touch him, He said, I will. Oh, those wedding
bells are getting louder and louder, aren't they? I will. I will. What music that must
have been to this leopard's ears. I will. Be thou clean. Be thou clean. I hope you're
not just visualizing the leper in this miracle. I hope God's reminding you, brother
and sister in Christ, the condition you were in. And when you fell
down before him, begging, just absolutely begging. If you will,
you can make me clean. and the joy that flooded your
soul when he said, I will. I will. Be thou clean. That morning, that leper got
up this day and he was just about
as much dead as alive, a mass of corruption. His very existence
was a burden. wasn't any life. But before the
sun went down that day, he's free from any trace that he ever
had leprosy. Isn't that something? Our Lord
said, Paul, our Lord spoke through Paul, of course, by his Holy
Spirit, 1 Corinthians 6. Such were some of you, adulterers,
sinners, Such were some of you. And as such, you'll never inherit
the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But ye are washed, ye are cleansed,
ye are sanctified. Verse 42. And as soon as he had
spoken, immediately, immediately, the leprosy parted from him.
And he was cleansed. He was cleansed. Our Lord is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. He hasn't changed. He can't change. He doesn't need to change. And
he can do for you what he did for this leper right now. Right now. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. When our Lord told the
leper in verse 44 to go to the priest and offer those things
according to the law, You can read of that in Leviticus 14. A part of what that involved
was going to the priest and taking two birds. One bird was taken
by the priest and over an earthen vessel killed and his blood caught
in that earthen vessel. The other bird was still alive
and he would take the living bird and dip it into the blood. of that sacrificed bird and then
was told to take it out into the field and let it go. Let it go. Can't you just see
him flying through the air with that blood dripping off his wings?
And he's singing, redeemed. Redeemed. Redeemed by the blood
of the lamb. One hymn writer wrote this. Before
I quote it, let me say one more time in closing. If you can do
by God's grace what this leper did, you can experience the miracle
of God's grace in Christ. God make you to do it. Now, Lord,
to whom for help I call. Thy miracles repeat with pitying
eye behold me fall a leper at thy feet loathsome and foul and
self-abhorred. I sink beneath my sin, but if
thou will a gracious word from thine can make me clean. Amen. Amen. God bless you.