Mark chapter 1, and let's look
in verse 40. I think of all the miracles that
our Lord Jesus Christ did in the days of His flesh in healing
the sick. One of the most miraculous is
found here in my text. Apart from the raising of the
dead, I have learned more through the years from this particular
incident, I think, than any other miracle that our Lord performed. And I want us to look at this
this morning. I preached from this text. It's not this message,
but I preached from this text the other night at the nursing
home. And I want to come here and look
at it in a little different way with you this morning. So let's
read it. In verse 40 of Mark chapter 1, there came a leper
to him. Luke tells us this man was full
of leprosy. And that means something when
he describes him as being full of leprosy. And he was beseeching
him, begging him, and kneeling down on his knees to him, and
saying unto him, If you are willeth, if thou wilt, thou canst make
me clean. And Jesus moved with compassion,
with sympathy, with pity, with love, put forth his hand and
touched him. and said unto him, I am willing,
be thou clean. And as soon as he had spoken,
immediately, as soon, immediately, see how the Holy Spirit writes
this. There was no process that this man went through. The Holy
Spirit wants to make this perfectly clear, as soon, and then if that's
not enough, immediately, he said. without any hesitation or lapse
of time. The leprosy departed from him,
and he was cleansed. And he straightly charged him, and forthwith sent him away. And he said, See thou say nothing
to any man, but go your way, show yourself to the priest,
and offer for your cleansing those things which Moses commanded. for testimony unto them. But
he went out, and began to publish it much, and blaze abroad the
matter. He spread it, he reported it,
insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city,
but was without in desert places, and they came to him from every
quarter. The account of this, and I learned
this not too long ago, the account of this incident, where and when
it happened, is so surprising and amazing. If you read Matthew's account
of this in Matthew chapter 8, our Lord Jesus Christ was upon
the mount. where he preached the great sermon,
the Sermon on the Mount. All of you remember that. The
attitude, blessed of the poor, blessed of those who hunger and
thirst after righteousness. And he had preached that great
sermon from the mountain. And then he comes down from this
mountain, and this leper meets him and kneels down before Him,
and the Lord Jesus speaks to him, touches him, and makes him
clean, makes him whole. Now this is so important to remember
this, because it tells us something about God in our humanity. It tells us something about the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because when we compare this
scene with a scene that happened hundreds of years before this
on another mountain. You remember the mountain of
Sinai when the children of Israel had come out of Egypt, the land
of bondage, and God had called Moses up to Mount Sinai to give
him the wall. Remember that occasion? And remember
that God brought all of His angels down upon top of that mountain
And the mountain began to blaze with flames, and it began to
smoke, and there was darkness, and angels began to speak, and
the mountain began to shake. And the Lord told Moses, He said,
Gather all the children of Israel together, and have them to wash
their bodies and to wash their clothes. Make sure they're clean. Make sure they're separated.
They wanted Him to come near their wives, or the wives were
to come near their husbands. And they were to stand there
at the bottom of that mountain and listen to God as He spoke.
And there's where He gave us the law, the Ten Commandments. But the sight was so horrible. If a child touched the mountain,
you had to stone the child to death. They were so fearful when
God spoke to them. And He commanded them to be holy. He commanded them to be perfect. And it scared these people to
death. And even Moses said, so fearful
is this sign that it makes me exceedingly fear and quake. Now we come here to this mountain. And the Lord Jesus has been preaching,
and what He's been saying is not anything that would repulse
us. It's not anything that would
make us be afraid. He says things like this, Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for they shall see God. Blessed
are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, they shall
be filled. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be
comforted. He pronounces blessings upon
the people. And he comes down off of this
mountain, and who is the first one that he meets? He meets this
leper, this man who is vile. Shouldn't him have been in public?
And what does he do? He touches him. What does he
do? He speaks to him. Oh, brothers
and sisters, what this proves to us is that there is a vast
difference in the law as opposed to the gospel. The law was given
by Moses, but what does it do? It judges us. It shows us our
sins. It shows us our shortcomings.
It says, Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things which
are written in the book of the law to do them. And we can't
come to God through this law. We're afraid to come to Him because
we're condemned. We're cursed. We can't touch
Him. Oh, but God in our flesh God
in the person of His Son. God in Jesus Christ. What does
He do? He comes down from the mountain
and He touches us. Ain't that wonderful? We try
to reach God and touch Him, we die. But when God in Christ comes
down from the mountain, what does He do? Even to the most
violent, He touches us. He touches us. There on Mount
Sinai, God spoke, and all the people said, let not God speak
with us, or else we die. But what happens when God in
our humanity, God in Jesus Christ, speaks to us through the Gospel?
We are cleansed, aren't we? We live. He touched him, and
He spoke, and He said, I will be thou cleansed. Luther used
to tell us that God has two sides. You look at Him through the law,
through Mount Sinai, you'll see His holy side. You'll see His
just side. You'll see a God without mercy.
He threatens us because of our sins. He's uncompromising. He's unbending. But God in Christ,
when He comes down, We see His good side. What does He say here
in verse 41? Look at this. Jesus moved with
compassion and He touched him. Where do we see the goodness
of God, brothers and sisters? Where do we see the love of God?
Where do we see that unmerited favor of God? Unearned favor. Where do we see the tender mercies
of God? Where do we see saving strength
and forgiveness? We see it in Jesus Christ, our
Lord and our Savior. Those who want to face God in
themselves, those who want to approach unto God an absolute
God, they are welcome to do so. But I tell you this, When we
approach unto God outside Jesus Christ, our sins will be like
terrible mountains ready to fall on our heads. Mount Sinai is
a terrible place to go to approach unto God. But oh, if we'd see
the good side of God, if we'd see the smile of God, there's
a place to see that too. And that's in Jesus Christ, the
Son of God. God incarnate. And when we see
Him in Christ, we sing amazing love. How can it be that Thou,
my God, hast died for me? And then we can sing with that
dear songwriter. How can it be? Oh, how can it
be? Was ever grace so rich and free
from heights of joy to depths of woe? In loving kindness Thou
didst go from sin and shame to rescue me. Oh, love divine, how
can it be? We must look upon God in Christ. There is where we see the good
side of God. There is where He comes down
and He speaks to us in mercy. And He speaks to us in His great
love. This is my own personal testimony. But I have seen the good side
of God in Christ. All of my teenage years I saw
the bad side of God. I saw a frowning face until I
saw God in Christ, a saving God. And I came like this poor leper.
I felt so vile and I felt so unclean, but I knelt before Him
and He touched me and said, I will be thou clean.
Oh, we can learn. We can learn. When we see the
occasion that this miracle took place, it was at the bottom of
a mountain. We can see something else here
too. And Luke tells us that this man was full of leprosy. He was full of leprosy. And when
this leprosy reached a certain stage with a man, that's when
it was said he was said to be full of leprosy. You and I have
no experience probably with leprosy. We have none of it in this country
as far as I know. There's still some leprosy in
some nations, in third world countries especially. They're
not sure if it's the same type of leprosy, but it is a leprosy.
But John Gill gives a very interesting account of this leprosy from
an account that a man related when he saw a leper who was full
of leprosy. And I've just noted things mainly
about it in my mind. But he spoke of this man that
was full of leprosy and what happens when it reaches this
stage. And he says, the body begins
to decay, the nose begins to shrink, and the lobes of the
ear begins to swell, and the eyes turn blood red, and they
shine at night like a cat. And he said, as the leprosy spreads,
The nose falls off. And there's just two holes there
in the face. The tongue swells and turns black
and has awful ridges in it. And it too rots off. The ears
rot off and leave just two holes. There's these sores that fester
all over the body. And they run and then they dry
up only to re-fester. And they feed off themselves.
And soon the body is just one scab. And Gil said you could
stick a needle in the skin, even to the bone. And he had become
so numb with these scabs that a person couldn't feel the piercing
of the needle. And his fingers decay and rot
off, and his toes rot off, and men's private parts decay and
rot off. And he said in the final stages
that the temperature of the body is so extreme that a ripe apple
put in one's hand for an hour would cook it as though it had
been in the sun for a week. That's the condition this man
was in when he came to the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a repulsive
sight. The hair begins to come out. And if you pulled on the hair
with any pressure at all, it pulled skin and all, exposing
the bare scalp. But not only did it reach the
outward where you could see and the decaying of the flesh and
the muscle, but Gil said if you tucked the blood from the person
and you strained it, it had huge white particles, flakes in the
blood. that was so dry that you could
pour vinegar upon these flakes and it would boil. This was the
condition of this man. This was the condition of a man
who was full of lepers. And Gil gives five things and
five ways in which this disease is likened unto sin. And this
is what makes This incident is such a beautiful picture of salvation,
because there is probably not another disease in the Scripture
that so pictures sin to us as the disease of leprosy. We read about blind man. That depicts the blindness of
our minds by nature. We read about the Lord healing
the cripple. That tells us of our inability
to come, except He draws. We read about the Lord raising
the dead, and that tells us that the Lord comes to us when we're
dead and trespasses and sins, and gives us life. But Gil gives
five ways in which leprosy is a picture of our sin. Listen
to these five things quickly. He says sin, like leprosy, is
very filthy. It's unclean. It's of a defiling
nature. When they found out that a man
had leprosy, they put him outside the community. And he had to
put a rag over his face, and he had to stay away from everybody. If anybody approached him to
him, he had to cry out, unclean, unclean. Don't approach him to
me. I'm filthy. And what does the
Bible say about our righteousnesses? what we do in and of ourselves. In Isaiah chapter 64 we read
this, We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. What is our sin like? Filthiness. It's like leprosy. And Gil said
this, Our sin, like leprosy, is very nauseous, It's very loathsome. It's a very loathsome thing. Our sin in God's sight. What
does it appear to him? It's a loathsome thing. And what
does it appear in our sight when the Lord opens our understanding
to see our sins as it really is? Here's what David said. When
the Lord let him see his sin as it really was, he said, my
wounds stink. and they are corrupt. My loins
are filled with a loathsome disease." What is sin? It's like this leprosy. If you could get a picture of
this man in your mind and then apply it to your sin and say,
that's how I appear before God in my sin. That's how I appear
to myself when I see myself. And thirdly, Gil says this about
this leprosy. Sin is leprosy in that it's spreading
by nature. When they went to the priest
to be examined to see if they had leprosy, one of the things
that made them to know it was leprosy, and not just a scab,
it had to spread. If they went one day and there
was a scab on a man's arm, and he went back a week later and
it was still just there upon the arm, contained to the arm,
he said it's not leprosy. Because leprosy began on a spot
on the body, and it spread all through the body. And that's
what sin does, isn't it? Where does sin begin? It begins
in the heart. Out of our hearts proceed evil
thoughts. Out of our heart proceed hatred. Out of our heart proceeds fornication,
and drunkenness, and lying, and false witness. All of these things
come from the heart. But they don't stay in the heart,
do they? They spread. They spread to our understanding. They spread to our thoughts.
They spread to our motives. They spread to our words and
our actions. They spread through our families.
They spread through society. And sin has spread all through
this world. Sin is a spreading thing, just
like leprosy. And Gil said this about sin,
this leprosy, that it was of a consuming nature. It just began in a spot to eat,
sort of like cancer in our day, only it was much, much worse.
And it begins to eat. Eat away at the flesh. until
it half-consumes a person, and they die. What does sin do? It begins to eat at us, doesn't
it? Until it eats our souls. It destroys our souls. It destroys
our bodies. That's what sin is. And Gil said
lastly, sin, like leprosy, is incurable by medicine. They had no cure for leprosy.
There's still no cure for the leprosy we have today. When you
thought you had leprosy in the Old Testament, even in the New
Testament, they didn't go to the doctor because they knew
the doctors had no medicine to cure them. They couldn't even
find any ease from their leprosy. There was no salve to rub upon
them. They went off and died. It was
incurable. This leprosy that had filled
this man and made him miserable is a picture
of what you and I see in ourselves when God opens our understanding. How do you feel this morning
about your sins? Is it not a filthy thing? Is it not a loathsome thing?
Is it not of a spread in nature? Is it not consuming you? Do you find any cure for it in
and of yourself? What a picture it is. But oh,
like this poor, miserable leper, there is a fountain. Thank God
for sin and uncleanliness. He says here in verse 40 and
verse 42, look at it again. Verse 41, Jesus moved with compassion. put forth his hand and touched
him and said, I will be thou clean. There's our remedy. A
touch of the Master's hand, His voice as we hear Him in the Gospel,
and immediately, as soon as He had spoken, this man was made
clean. Oh, there's healing from sin. Thank God for it. There's salvation
from sin. Yes, it's a spreading thing.
Yes, it's a corrupting thing. Yes, there's no cure in ourselves
for it. But thank God there is a cure.
There is a balm in Gilead, and it's Jesus Christ, our Lord and
our Savior. Peace, peace be to him that's
afar off, and peace be to him that's near, saith the Lord,
and I will heal him. Heal him of what? Sin. That incurable disease. Unto
you that fear my name shall the Son of Righteousness arise with
healing in His wings." Oh, the law does condemn us, doesn't
it? The law shows us this leprosy, just as the priest under the
law used to point it out to the man who had it. But Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, bless His holy name, what does He do? He speaks. and says, Be thou
clean. He opens to us this fountain
and it touches our conscience. And what does it do? It purges
us from sin to serve the living God. I forgot who it was. I think
it was Brother Mahan that told the story of a friend of his.
I think it was in Africa if I'm not mistaken. Him and another
friend were out hiking one day. He was a missionary. And he said
he heard this groaning coming from some place. And they began
to look for it. And they got close enough that
they could discern what the voice was saying. And it was saying,
Help me. Help me. Somebody help me. And the man
said he rounded a little patch of bushes and there sat a man
full of leprosy. And his sores were running and
smelling. He was so repulsive. And he was just laying there
dying, saying, help me, help me. And this missionary said
that he was so full of compassion for this man, though he never
could get close to him for fear that he'd contract the leprosy.
But he said, I wanted to take this poor, miserable man and
hold him close to me and hug him and let his disease come
into me and let my health go into him and heal him. But he
said, I could not. I could not. And they had to
leave him there to die. But brothers and sisters, Jesus
Christ did what they could not do. What did He do? He came down
from heaven. And He took our humanity. And
He had no sin. He was so full of merit. He was
so holy. But on the cross of Calvary,
what did He do? He took our loathsome disease
to Himself. He took our sins. He took our
iniquities. And He was so full of merit and
so full of worth that He put all of that away. And He gives
us His health. He gives us His life. He gives
us His holiness. He gives us His righteousness. Oh, He can do for us what we
or nobody else can do for Himself. Oh, dear soul, look out of your
misery this morning. Look away from your sin and see
Jesus in all His love, all His compassion, bearing it all in
His own body on Calvary's tree. And the minute you look, you'll
hear Him say it. Be thou clean. How does He touch us? He touches
us by our looking to Him. How do we touch Him? By our believing
on Him. And whenever you feel sin's corruption,
and it's spread in nature, oh, look again. And look again. And look again. I have been looking
for 35 years. And every time I look, I feel
His touch. I hear His voice. Be thou clean. I never tire of looking. He never
tires of speaking. I never tire of believing. And
He never tires of touching. Go to Him often, always, Lord,
if You will, You can make me clean. Day after day, go to Him. Oh, what a beautiful picture
of salvation. Thirdly, we learn something else
from this incident. Don't we learn of the true nature
of worship? Would you turn over with me to
Matthew's account of this? Over in Matthew chapter 8. We learn of the true nature of
worship. Look in Matthew chapter 8. This
is the way Matthew relates this incident to us. And then when
Matthew relates the incident to us, we find out two wonderful
things about worship. There's many aspects of worship.
We have two of them related to us here. Look at it in verse
2, Matthew chapter 8. Behold, there came a leper, and
worshiped him. How did he worship? Well, it's
what he said. It's what he was thinking in
his heart, and it's what he said. If thou wilt, thou canst make
me clean. It was said that he worshipped
by saying this. And you know the way he worshipped?
He worshipped by showing that he was utterly dependent upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. There was no healing any place
else. And he comes here and says, Lord,
if I'm to be healed, you must do it. And therefore he worships. How do you and I worship God
when we are utterly dependent upon Him for everything? When we know it in our hearts
and when we express it to Him in our conversation through our
lips. I mean everything. Everything. You're here this morning. Bless
your heart, you look so pretty. You're all cleaned up. You have
pretty clothes on, clean clothes. You ladies, your hair is so fixed
up and pretty. You men, you're so clean, handsome. And I'm looking at people who
got up this morning and got dressed. Got in your cars and you came
here. And every step you made, God
gave it to you. Every breath you took, every
heartbeat, God gave it to you. You have nothing but what He's
given you this morning. Your job, it's He that's gave
it to you. The family, the children, Everything
you have comes down from Him. And when we acknowledge, oh my
Father, everything that I have to eat and to wear, my house,
my job, my car, my family, everything that I have in this natural life,
I am utterly dependent upon you for it. And when we do that,
we worship. We worship. In all, when we come to the Lord
Jesus Christ, and we say, Lord Jesus, I am utterly dependent
upon You for my life eternal. You are my life. You are my living. You are my spiritual food. My
soul starves without You. My soul can't be quenched of
its thirst. but by your precious blood. You
are my hope. You are my heaven. You're my
God. You're my all and my all. I have nothing without you. And we worship that way. That Pharisee went up to the
temple and prayed. And he said, God, I thank You
that I'm not like other men are. You know what he was saying.
I don't need You. I've got this all made myself.
I don't need you. That's not worship, is it? Our
God and our Savior will have us utterly dependent upon Him
for everything, naturally and spiritually. And when we acknowledge
that, as this leopard did, we worship. We worship. And here's another
aspect of worship, and notice this. I love this. Lord, in verse
2. Look how He says this. Lord,
if you are willing. Lord, if you will. Ain't this
amazing? And here's another aspect of
worship. And notice this. I love this. Lord, in verse 2. Look how He says this. Lord,
if you are willing. Lord, if You will, ain't this
amazing? Lord, everything that I have
in this natural life, I am utterly dependent upon You for it. And when we do that, we worship.
We worship. In all, when we come to the Lord
Jesus Christ, and we say, Lord Jesus, I am utterly dependent
upon you for my life eternal. You are my life. You are my living. You are my spiritual food. My
soul starves without you. My soul can't be quenched of
its thirst but by your precious blood. You are my hope. You are my heaven. You're my
God. You're my all and my all. I have nothing without You. And we worship that way. That Pharisee went up to the
temple and prayed. And he said, God, I thank You
that I'm not like other men are. You know what he was saying.
I don't need You. I've got this all made myself.
I don't need You. That's not worship, is it? Our
God and our Savior will have us utterly dependent upon Him
for everything, naturally and spiritually. And when we acknowledge
that, as this leopard did, we worship. We worship. And here's another
aspect of worship. And notice this. I love this. The Lord in verse 2. Look how He says this. Lord,
if You are willing. Lord, if You will. Ain't this
amazing? The Lord gave it to you this
morning. Your job, it's He that gave it
to you. The family, the children, everything
you have comes down from Him. And when we acknowledge, oh,
my Father, Everything that I have to eat and to wear, my house,
my job, my car, my family, everything that I have in this natural life,
I am utterly dependent upon you for it. And when we do that,
we worship. We worship. In all, when we come to the Lord
Jesus Christ, and we say, Lord Jesus, I am utterly dependent
upon you for my life eternal. You are my life. You are my living. You are my spiritual food. My
soul starves without you. My soul can't be quenched of
its thirst but by your precious blood. You are my hope. You are my heaven. You're my
God. You're my all and my all. I have nothing without You. And we worship that way. That Pharisee went up to the
temple and prayed. And he said, God, I thank You
that I'm not like other men are. You know what he was saying.
I don't need You. I've got this all made myself.
I don't need you. That's not worship, is it? Our
God and our Savior will have us utterly dependent upon Him
for everything, naturally and spiritually. And when we acknowledge
that, as this leopard did, we worship. We worship. And here's another
aspect of worship. And notice this. I love this. Lord, in verse 2, look how He
says it. Lord, if You are willing. Lord, if You will. Ain't this
amazing? Lord, I am not enhanced of its
thirst, but by Your precious blood. You are my hope. You are my heaven. You're my
God. You're my all and my all. I have nothing without You. And we worship that way. That Pharisee went up to the
temple and prayed, and he said, God, I thank You that I'm not
like other men are. You know what he was saying,
I don't need You. I've got this all made myself.
I don't need You. That's not worship, is it? Our
God and our Savior will have us utterly dependent upon Him. For everything, naturally and
spiritually. And when we acknowledge that,
as this leopard did, we worship. We worship. And here's another
aspect of worship. And notice this. I love this. Lord, in verse 2. Look how He
says this. Lord, if You are willing. Lord, if You will. Ain't this
amazing? now, in our conversation, through
our lips. I mean everything. Everything. You're here this morning. Bless
your heart. You look so pretty. You're all cleaned up. You have
pretty clothes on, clean clothes. You ladies, your hair is so fixed
up and pretty. You men, you're so clean, handsome. And I'm looking at people who
got up this morning and got dressed, got in your cars and you came
here, and every step you made, God gave it to you. Every breath
you took, every heartbeat, God gave it to you. You have nothing
but what He's given you this morning. Your job, it's He that
gave it to you. The family, the children, everything
you have comes down from Him. And when we acknowledge, Oh my
Father, everything that I have to eat and to wear, my house,
my job, my car, my family, everything that I have in this natural life,
I am utterly dependent upon You for it. And when we do that,
we worship. We worship. In all, when we come to the Lord
Jesus Christ, and we say, Lord Jesus, I am utterly dependent
upon You for my life eternal. You are my life. You are my living. You are my spiritual food. My
soul starves without you.