John chapter 12. The prophets spake of the burden
of the Word of the Lord, and I certainly feel burdened in
bringing this message. I pray that the Lord will be
pleased to bless it to us. Look in verse 39 of John chapter
12. Therefore, they could not believe. I've entitled this message, They
Could Not Believe. They lacked the ability to believe. They were powerless to believe. It was not possible for them
to believe. That's what the word means. They
could not. They lacked the ability to believe
now. Notice in verse 39, it says,
therefore. They could not believe. Well, what has been said? Look
up in verse 37. But though he had done. So many. miracles before them,
yet they believe not on him. Now what this tells me about
their unbelief, about those who could not believe, there was
no excuse for their unbelief. Here was a man that they saw
who had made water. or taken water and turned it
into wine. He demonstrated before them creative
power. He brought bread into existence
that was not there before. He healed the sick without the
use of means. And they saw this. They saw it. They were eyewitnesses to this.
He controlled the weather. on at least three different occasions
he raised the dead and he did this publicly he did this where
people saw him and yet they did not believe when you do not believe now listen
to me very carefully everybody in this room when you do not
believe you choose to not believe let me repeat that when you do
not believe it's because you choose to not believe it's not
like you want to believe but the evidence keeps you from it
you don't want to believe if you do not believe there's some
sinful motive behind unbelief now there was no excuse for these
people's unbelief The Lord demonstrated these miracles that clearly said,
this is God. Only God can do the things that
he does. Only God can raise the dead. No man can do that. Only
God can create. He brought matter into existence
that was not there before. Only God can heal the sick without
the use of means. Only God can control the weather.
He gave abundant proof that He Himself is God. He's the God-man,
yet they did not believe. They chose to not believe because
the evidence pointed to the fact that He is who He said He was. So anybody that doesn't believe
If right now you're in this room and you do not believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, it's because you do not want to believe there's
some simple motive behind it. Look in John chapter 11 verse
47. Then gathered the chief priests
and the Pharisees a council and said, what do we? For this man
doeth many miracles. We can't deny. He does these
things. We see it. We can't deny it. But if we let
him do us alone, all men will believe on him and the Romans
will come and take away both our place and our nation. We'll
lose our jobs out of this. We'll lose our position in society
out of this. Everybody's gonna start believing
on him. So you see, they saw these things, but they did not
believe because they did not want to believe. Now go back
to John chapter 12. I'm looking forward to the next
three messages out of this passage of scripture because John chapter
12 verses 37 through 50 is a parenthetical statement. It is a parenthesis
between the close of the Lord's public ministry and His last
message to His disciples. Public ministry had closed in
verse 36 of John chapter 12 when he said, while you have the light,
believe in the light that you might be the children of the
light. These things fake Jesus and departed and did hide himself
from them. What a solemn thought, isn't
it? The Lord hid himself. And this is the close of our
Lord's public ministry. And then in John chapter 13,
we have our Lord's last sermon to His disciples. But in John
chapter 12, verses 30 through 7 through 50, we have this parentheses,
as it were, where John is giving an explanation to the unbelief
of those people who heard the Lord Jesus preach and they saw
His miracle. He's giving an explanation to it. I trust the Lord will bless this
to us, but the only explanation for verse 37, but though he had
done so many miracles before them, yet they believe not on
him. The only explanation to that is wickedness. That's it. Maliciousness, pure willful obstinance. If I do not believe, it's willful
obstinance. It's wicked. I can't blame. Well,
God didn't elect me. Christ died, didn't die for me.
And I want to believe, but I can't because God didn't. You can't
say that. You can't say that if you don't believe it's because
you don't want to believe. That's why you don't believe.
Unbelief is wickedness. That's all you can call it. It's
not, well, I want to believe so bad, but I just can't because
I'm not elect and Christ didn't die for me. No, no, that never
happened. Anybody that wants to believe
does believe. I'm sure of that. These people, the only way that
you can give an account for their unbelief is pure maliciousness
and wickedness. Now look at verse 38. It says, though he'd done so
many miracles before them, yet they believe not on him that,
verse 38, that the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled,
which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report into whom
is the arm of the Lord revealed. Now, Isaiah, is a gospel preacher. And no one prophesied of the
work of Christ more clearly than the prophet Isaiah. He was the
one who foretold that Christ would be born of a virgin. He's
the one who said, unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,
and the government shall be upon his shoulders. He shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace. Nobody preached the gospel more
clearly than the prophet Isaiah. Turn with me for a moment to
Isaiah 53. And this is what John quotes
at this time, Isaiah 53. Isaiah says in verse 1, Who hath
believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? The Lord Jesus Christ, God's
power unto salvation. You know, Isaiah is saying it
doesn't seem like anybody believes. It just doesn't seem like any,
he's moaning, he's groaning, he's burdened by this. Who has
believed our report? He wanted folks to believe, but
it didn't seem like anybody believed. Now look what he says next, verse
2. For he, the Lord Jesus Christ, shall grow up before him, God
the Father, as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground,
he hath no form. nor comeliness. You know, if
you would have seen the Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh, there
wouldn't be anything about him that you would have been impressed
with. No form nor comeliness. You wouldn't have given him a
second thought. You know what's amazing is he walked through this planet. People didn't have a clue, this
is God. But they couldn't see. They couldn't see. Let's go on
reading. He hath no form nor comeliness,
and when we shall see him, there's no beauty that we should desire
him. He is despised and rejected of
men. A man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from him, he
was despised, and we esteemed him not. Now, it takes remarkable
wickedness to see no beauty in Jesus Christ, doesn't it? He's
altogether lovely. What depravity to despise, reject,
hide from, and not esteem Him. And yet, that's what God holds
all men to be guilty of, to reject His Son, to not esteem Christ. What is there to not esteem?
What is there to not be impressed with? And yet men turn thumbs
down on the Lord Jesus Christ. Everybody does. You know, Scott
Richardson made this statement, and I say this cautiously. I
don't say cautiously. I say he was talking about man
in his fallen state, man in his natural state, in his hatred
to the Lord Jesus Christ, in his hatred to God, in his love
for sin. He said, man in his fallen state isn't worth a warm
pitcher of spit. That's shocking, isn't it? Is
it true? Is it true? Man in his fallen
state, man in his enmity toward the Lord Jesus Christ and his
refusal to believe the gospel. Men hate God. Now, they don't hate the God
of their imagination. They don't hate the God that they feel comfortable
with. They don't hate the God they can control, keep in their
back pocket and kind of like a genie, whenever they get in
trouble, they can rub their lamp and he'll come back and help
them and get them out of the... But I'm talking about the God
of the Bible. Men hate the God of the Bible. We esteemed him
not. Now, back in John chapter 12,
verse 39. Therefore, they could not believe. They lacked the ability to believe. It was not possible for them
to believe. They couldn't believe because
they were so evil. Because they could not believe, they would
not believe. Because they would not believe, they could not believe.
And because they could not believe, they would not believe. I mean,
you see, it just goes back and forth, back and forth. The reason
men cannot believe is because they will not believe. Wickedness. The reason men will not believe
is because they cannot believe. Just as Isaiah said. You see, inability is not an
excuse. It's an aggravation of guilt.
If somebody said, I lack the ability to keep from murdering
people. It's my nature. I just can't help it. I've got
to do it. It's just in my blood. I've got
to do it. Should we say, well, since he lacks the ability, we
ought not hold him responsible. I mean, let him go. I mean, good
grief, it'd be wrong to hold him responsible to do something
that he lacks the ability to do. Let's go ahead and let him
sit. No, we put that fellow in jail, don't we? We put him to
death. Inability does not in any way negate responsibility. Everybody in this room is responsible
to believe the truth. Everybody ought to believe the
truth. Young people, you children, you're
waiting for something to happen. You are held responsible by God
to believe the truth. You ought to. Everybody ought
to believe the truth. And to not believe the truth,
you willfully don't believe it. That's what is going on. Now,
if you're not a believer, it's not because God didn't elect
you. It's not because Christ didn't die for you. You can't
blame the sovereignty of God. It's not like you want to believe
but lack the ability. If you do not believe, it's because
you do not want to believe. And in your heart, you hate Jesus
Christ. Can you believe that? It's so. Inability does not negate responsibility. Now let's go back to our text
in John chapter 12. Therefore they could not believe
because that Isaiah said again. Now he quotes that passage of
scripture we opened this service with. And like I said, this is
the verse of scripture that's quoted from the Old Testament
more than any other verse. It's quoted six times in the
New Testament. And hear what John says. He says,
Isaiah said again, He, God, hath blinded their eyes, and hardened
their heart, that they should not see with their eyes, nor
understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should
heal them. Now these things said Isaiah when he saw his glory,
and he spake of him. Now this is what is called in
the scripture judicial blindness. What do I mean by that? Well, because they would not
believe, God said, all right, have it your way. Now that's what God says. If
you don't want to believe on my son, I'll let you not believe
on my son. And he removes his hand and all
God has got to do. Now, listen, all God has got
to do is remove his hand from me or you. And we'll be so hard
that we can't see, that we can't believe, that we can't understand,
that we can't turn. All God's got to do is leave
you alone. And it says God blinded him.
God hardened their heart as an act of his justice. If you hear
the gospel and say, I won't have that. God says, okay, I'll let
you have it your way. I'll remove my hand from you.
I'll blind you and I'll harden you and you can go on in that
way. And that's God's judicial blindness. And that scares me to death.
I don't want that to happen to me. Listen to me. The very worst thing that
could happen to you is for God to leave you to your own free
will. That's the worst thing. Nothing could be worse. You know,
people talk about free will as if it's a good thing. Listen,
free will is what got us into the mess we're in. It's the biggest
problem we have. And if God doesn't do something
for me, if he just leaves me alone and leaves me to myself,
my heart will be hardened and God's the one that hardens it
too. It says, he'll blind me, he'll hard me. That's an act
of God's judicial blindness. Because they received not the
love of the truth, God gave them over. God sent them strong delusions
that they should believe a lie. We have so many scriptures like
that. They're scary, aren't they? He said, These things said Isaiah
when he saw his glory. Look in verse 41. These things
said Isaiah when he saw his glory and spake of him. Now, in true
faith, there's a seeing of the eyes, of the heart. There's a
softening of the heart. There's an understanding. There's
a turning. There's a conversion. There's
a healing. That's what happens in true faith.
That's what the Lord does. But where there's not true faith,
these things are not. These things said Isaiah when
he saw His glory and spake of Him. And this is what a preacher's
going to do if he ever sees the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's going to speak of Him. That's going to be his subject.
Now with that in mind, let's go over to Isaiah chapter 6.
I want to see what led Isaiah to make this statement. Isaiah
chapter 6, verse 1. Isaiah says, In the year that
King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord. Now there's great significance
to this. It was in the year that King
Uzziah died that Isaiah said, I saw the Lord. He'd never seen
him in this light before. Now what happened in the year
that King Uzziah died? Would you turn with me to second
Chronicles chapter 26 second Chronicles chapter 26 verse three. Sixteen years old was Uzziah
when he began to reign. And he reigned fifty and two
years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Jechaliah
of Jerusalem. And he did that which was right
in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father Amaziah
did. And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding
in the visions of God. And as long as he sought the
Lord, God made him to prosper. Now, this man reigned 52 years
and he was a king that God had blessed greatly. And if you go
on reading in this chapter, we read of all the things that God
blessed him to do. Oh, he was a successful king
as long as he did what the Lord told him to do. Now, let's pick
up reading in verse 15 of 2 Chronicles 26. And He made in Jerusalem
engines invented by cunning men to be on the towers and upon
the boards to shoot arrows and great stones withal. And His
name spread far abroad. He was known all over the world
for He was marvelously helped till He was strong. But when
He was strong, His heart was lifted up to His destruction. For he transgressed against the
Lord his God, and here's what he did. He went into the temple
of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense. Now who's
allowed to burn incense on the altar of incense? Who's allowed?
The priests. He said, I didn't have any business
doing this. What he was doing at this time, he was bypassing
the Lord Jesus Christ. He was saying, I can come on
my own. I can offer. I'm just as holy as those priests.
I'm just as pleasing to God as those priests. I can come on
my own. I'm going to offer this incense. So what took place as
a result? Verse 17. And Azariah, the priests went
in after him, and with him fourscore priests of the Lord, and they
were valiant men. And they withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto
him, It appertaineth not unto the Uzziah to burn incense unto
the Lord, but to the priests, the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated
to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for
thou hast trespassed, neither shall it be for thine honor from
the Lord God. Then Uzziah was wroth." Who are these fellows
to tell me what to do? Oh, he was mad. And he had a censer
in his hand to burn incense. And while he was wroth with the
priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the
priests in the house of the Lord from beside the incense altar.
And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked upon
him and behold, He was leprous in his forehead. He was doomed
for sure. And what'd they do? They thrust
him out from thence. Yea, himself hasted also to go
out because of the Lord had smitten him. And Uzziah died a leper. Uzziah died a leper. Now Isaiah
was impressed with Uzziah, and I understand that. You look at
the way the Lord had blessed him throughout this 52-year reign.
But all of a sudden, Isaiah says, when I saw that even when Uzziah
tried to come into the presence of God without a priest, God
kills him. Now in the year that King Uzziah
died, When I saw how unapproachable God is, how holy God is, how
nobody can just come waltzing into his presence. I don't care
if they are a great king who had done many great things. They
can't come into God's presence. Now, in the year that King Uzziah
died, Isaiah said, I saw also the Lord high and lifted up,
sitting on a throne, not pacing back and forth, high and lifted
up, undisturbed by opposition, ruling from his throne in incontestable
sovereign splendor. And the scripture says his train,
that's the skirts of his garment, filled the temple. Verse two. Above it, the temple, the throne,
stood the seraphims, Each one had six wings. These are the
same creatures John speaks of in Revelation chapter 4. These
seraphims had six wings. With Twain, with two of his wings,
he covered his face. You see, God was so holy that
the seraphim could not look upon his face. They covered their
face. And with two, he covered his feet. Now this seraphim,
that means they were ashamed of their walk. They were ashamed
of their walk. They never sinned, but they had
the potential to. You know, the Scripture says
God charges His angels with folly. Well, what if they've never sinned?
Just even having the potential to sin makes God charge them
with folly. And these seraphims were ashamed of their walk before
God. Who wouldn't be? He's God! Who wouldn't be? And then with
two of their wings, the scripture says they did fly, always ready
to do the will of God. These seraphims, what are they? I don't know. I don't know. There's
so many different views of what these creatures, living creatures
represent. But I know that they were around
the throne and what were they crying? Love, love, love. Mercy, mercy, mercy. Grace, grace,
grace. No, they were crying, holy, holy,
holy. If the Lord God of hosts, the
whole earth is full of His glory. Holy is the Father. Holy is the
Son. Holy is the Spirit. The whole earth is filled with
his glory. Verse four, in the posts, even
the columns of the door moved at the voice of him that cried
and the house was filled with smoke. That lets us know that
there's so much we just do not see. Now look at Isaiah's response
after he saw the Lord. Then said I, woe is me. Now, if you read the fifth chapter
of Isaiah six times, you'll find where Isaiah said, woe to them. Woe to them that do this. Woe
to them that do that. And indeed, that's right. Woe
to them that do do those things that he speaks of in Isaiah chapter
5. But he just kept saying, Woe
to them. Woe to them. Woe to them. Let me tell you
something. Listen to this real carefully.
The Bible does not tell other people what to do. It only tells
you what to do. And do you hear that? Not woe to them, but woe is me. You know, I think it's almost
interesting. I've seen people come into this
assembly, and they're going to watch people to see how they
act. I had a fellow come up to me one time, and he said, well,
how do you, first thing he said to me was, how do you handle
church discipline? I said, why are you asking me that? He said,
well, what do you do when people sin? What do you do about it? And I'm thinking, what
are you worried about other people for? You're the problem, not
them. And that's true of everybody.
Woe, not woe unto them, but woe is me for I am undone, cut off,
destroyed, brought to silence. Look what he goes on to say.
He says in verse five, then said I, after he saw who the Lord
is, woe is me for I'm undone. I'm brought to silence. I'm cut
off because I'm a man of unclean lips. Because I have an unclean
heart, everything that comes out of my mouth is unclean. Everything
I say is unclean, everything. I'm a man of unclean lips, and
I dwell in the midst of the people of unclean lips. They're just
like me, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Now, it is only when he sees
the Lord that he sees that he is utterly sinful and cut off and undone. And if I don't see this about
myself, if I'm not saying, you know, it's easy to say woe unto
them. You know, I can spot out other people's sins pretty clearly.
Woe to them that do this. Woe to them that do that. Woe,
woe, right. It's true. It's one thing to believe and
to be able to articulate the doctrine of total depravity.
I believe in total depravity. It's quite another thing to believe
that you yourself are totally depraved. All the difference
in the world. Do you, do I really believe,
do I believe this about myself that I'm the chief of sinners?
that I'm the worst man to ever live. Do I believe that about
myself? Now, I'll say I do. I know it. I'll say I believe
I'm chief sinners. I've said that a lot. But I wonder
how I'll react if you say, I agree with you. I think you are. You
know, I mean, we, I can say that, but you can't say it. No, no,
not at all. Do I believe that I am undone? that I am cut off. And that means
brought to silence. You have no more excuses, no
more objections. Whatever he says is just true
and right. Woe is me. Woe is me. I'm undone. There's no hope for
me. There's no hope that God would
look in favor on me. I used to say woe is them and
woe to them, no doubt. But now I'm saying woe is me. Look what it said next. Verse
6. Then, after this confession of Isaiah,
woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and
I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes
have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then, then, now Isaiah
is a candidate for mercy. Who needs mercy? Come on. Who needs mercy? People that
deserve to be damned. People who are cut off. People
who are undone. That's who needs mercy. Now Isaiah
is a candidate for mercy. Now he can hear the gospel. You
know you can only hear the gospel as a sinner. If you hear the gospel any other
way, it's not good news to you. I mean, you might even agree
with it. Yeah, I agree. The Bible teaches that. I see that. But
oh, when you hear the gospel as a sinner, somebody who deserves
to be damned, somebody who has absolutely nothing to recommend
themselves to God, now you're ready to hear. Then flew one
of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which
he'd taken with the tongs from off the altar. Now what's the
altar for? You know, people in religion, they have altars down
at the front. You kneel down at the altar and
pray the sinner's prayer and all that kind of stuff. There's
nothing like that in the Bible. What's an altar for? An altar's
got one purpose. What is it? Sacrifice. Sacrifice. The animal, the slain animal
was laying on the altar and burned. And it points to the Gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That altar has to do with the
cross. The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ dying on
that cross. That cross was His altar. He
was nailed to that altar. And He bled and He died as the
great sin-bearing substitute. That's what that altar burnt
under the wrath of God. But He consumed the wrath. Now
look what it says. Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he'd taken with
the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it on my mouth, the
place of my uncleanness. And those blistering lips that
said, woe unto them now become blistered lips. He laid it upon
my mouth and said, lo, this, this sacrifice, what the Lord
did on the cross, hath touched thy lips and thine iniquity is
taken away and thy sin is purged. Now there's the gospel. This
fella can hear this now. This sacrifice, what happened
on this altar? What did it do? What did our
Lord do? First, He took away my sin. I can't get enough of this. You
know, I feel bad all the time about
my sin, don't you? I mean, it's always there breathing
on my neck. But do you know, if Jesus Christ
died for me, it's taken away. It's taken away. He was manifested
to take away our sins. In Him is no sin. Your sin is
purged. That means canceled, atoned for,
covered, blotted out. I tell you what, if you're undone,
this comes as good news to you. Now, it doesn't come as good
news if you're not undone, but if you're undone like Isaiah was,
this is the gospel. Christ actually put away the
sins of those he died for. That's the gospel. Verse 8, And I heard the voice of the
Lord saying, Whom shall I send? Now, hold on. Whom shall I send? You know,
I've never heard of a prophet that applied for a job. I think
it's interesting how, you know, churches want to get them a new
pastor and fellows will send in resumes, apply for the job.
You know, my resume, here's what I did. Since when does a prophet
apply for a job? He said, whom shall I send? And I tell you what, everybody
he sends goes willingly. Look what it says next. I heard
the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will
go for us as a volunteer? Then said I, Here am I. Send me. Verse 9. Now here's that passage
that's quoted so often that John quotes. And he said. Go and tell this people. Hear
ye indeed. But understand not. See ye indeed,
but perceive not. Make the heart of this people
fat. and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes, lest they
should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand
with their heart and be converted and be healed. I'm going to take that just as
it says it. I don't apologize for the way the Lord says things.
He says, let him hear, but don't let him understand. Let him see,
but let him not perceive. Let their heart be fat so they
can hear. This is an activist judgment
against these people. He says, you don't believe, okay,
have it your way. You go in that direction and
he turns off the lights. Now listen to me. There is a
time when God turns off the lights. You reject the truth and God
says, okay, you have it your way. That's an activist judicial
blindness. Now that's not a very pleasant
message, is it? I mean, that's not the, you know,
compare this with the pop psychology preaching you hear in our day.
Can you imagine most preachers dealing with the passage of scripture
like this? I mean, they just wouldn't do it. I mean, it doesn't
mean anything to them. But this is the one that Isaiah was called
on to preach, and John uses this, and our Lord used this passage
of Scripture to explain. You know, one time the disciples
said, why do you speak to parables to them? Why don't you just make
things real clear like you do to us? He said, well, I'm doing
this as a judgment, that seeing they might see and not perceive,
and so on. He quoted this in the parable
of the sower. Now, Isaiah says in verse 11,
then said, I, Lord, how long, how long you want me to preach
this message? And he answered until the cities be wasted without
inhabitant and the houses without man and the land be utterly desolate
and the Lord hath removed men far away and there be a great
forsaking in the midst of the land. That's how long you preach
this message. You keep preaching it. But yet,
verse 13, this is the hope, but yet. in it, in this land where
there seems to be a great forsaking, shall be a tenth, a small number,
who will hear. And they shall return, they shall
convert, they shall understand, they shall see. And they shall
be eaten as a teal tree and as an oak whose substance is in
them when they cast their leaves. So shall the holy seed be So
shall, so the holy seed shall be in the substance thereof.
Now he says, there's going to be some people who believe and
the world might not see that they believe because they're
going to look like a, a tree that doesn't have any leaves.
It looks dead, but the holy seeds in it, the life of God is in
it and they will continue and they will convert and they will
hear. Now back to our text in John 12. Verse 41, These things said Isaiah when he saw His glory and he spake of Him. If anybody ever sees His glory,
they're only going to have one subject and there won't even
be anything else worth talking about. They will speak of Him. That's it. They won't have any
other subject. Somebody has another subject
because they've never seen His glory. These things said Isaiah
when he saw His glory and he spake of Him. Now I may not be
speaking as powerfully or eloquently as Isaiah but I'm speaking the
same message. He spake of Him. Jesus Christ is God. He's man. He's the God-man. He's ruling and reigning right
now. And you are in His hands and
He can do with you whatever He's pleased to do. He's the only
Savior of sinners. There is no other way of salvation.
He said, I am the way. He didn't say, I'll show you
the way. He said, I'm it. He said, I am the truth. Not I'll
teach you the truth, but I myself am the truth. He said, I am the
life. He didn't even say at this time,
I'll give you life. He said, I'm the life that comes before
the father. No man comes to the father, but by me. Now I'm speaking
of him. Now, if you and I are wise, here's
what we'll do. I know that God will make some
wise men and women this morning. If you and I are wise, we're
going to do exactly like that leper did. Uzziah was a leper. I don't know if he did what this
leper did, but I love the story of that leper who came to the
Lord in Matthew chapter eight. Let's turn there, Matthew chapter
eight. I want to read verses 28 and
29 of chapter 7 that kind of sets this up. And it came to
pass when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished
at his doctrine For he taught them as one having authority. The very things he said recommended
himself as God. This is the very Word of God.
He taught as one who had authority. And I love Matthew's slam on
the religious fellows, not like the scribes. He wasn't like them
at all. When he was come down from the
mountain, great multitudes followed him and behold, there came a
leper. And what did that leper do? Now
that leper represents human sin. That's what leprosy is in the
Bible. It typifies sin. This man, according to Luke's
account, was full of leprosy. That means he didn't have one
square inch of healthy flesh. I mean, he was plumb, covered,
overthrew with leprosy. Can you imagine how wretched
this must have been? Now, he comes full of leprosy. And what did he do? What's the
first thing I've said of him? He worshipped him. He worshipped the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, at this time, he didn't
know if Christ was going to heal him. But I want to ask you a question.
Is Christ Jesus, the Son of God, is He worthy of worship even
if He sends you to hell? Is He worthy to be worshipped
if He lets you drop into hell and doesn't give you mercy? Is
He still worthy of worship? May God give us grace to deal
with that honestly. He is to be worshipped for who
He is without any reference to what He does with me or you.
He's worthy to be worshipped because He's God. He's the mighty
creator. And this leper had some understanding
of who he was because he worshipped him. You only worship God. He
worshipped him. And what did he say? Lord. He knew who he was. He's the
Lord. He's the dictator. He's the one
who's in control. This leper understood this. He
came saying, Lord, what's he say next? I will that thou make me clean.
That sounds awful. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. My salvation is totally up to
you. If you will, it's up to you.
I can't make myself clean. Nobody can make me clean. I need
to be clean. Oh Lord, you're worthy to be
worshiped because of who you are. If you will, you can make
me clean. That's what I need. I need to
be clean. And if it's up, if you're willing, you can make
me clean. Can you come to the Lord like that right now? In your heart of hearts, can
you come just like this leopard did? Lord, if you will, you can
make me clean. What's verse three? And Jesus put forth his hand and touched him, saying, I will. Oh, I love the power of that.
I will. Be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was
cleansed. And if you come like this leopard
did, Lord, if I come like this leopard did, Lord, if you will,
you can make me clean. I'm going to hear the same thing
this leopard did. He says, I will. Be thou clean. Let's pray.