In our studies in the first chapter
of the Gospel of Mark, we arrive today at verses 40 to 45. This is the healing of a leper. I read these verses to you. A leper came to him, that is
to say to Jesus, and he knelt down and said to him in a pleading
tone, If you want it, you can make me pure. Moved by compassion, he extended
his hand, touched it, and said, I want it, be pure. Immediately the leper left him,
and he was purified. Jesus sent him back to the field
with severe recommendations, and said to him, keep yourself
from saying anything to anyone. but go and show the sacrificers
and offer for your purification what Moses has prescribed, so
that it may serve as a testimony to them. But this man, having
gone, began to openly publish the thing and to disclose it,
so that Jesus could no longer enter publicly into a city. He
was standing outside, in deserted places, and no one came to him
from anywhere. The first thing to note, before
even looking at this story, is that in the Bible, the leper
is often an image of sin. This does not mean that the patient
himself, the leper, was a greater sinner than the others, and this
does not mean either that those who suffer from this terrible
disease today are greater sinners than the others, certainly not.
but in the time of the Lord it was an extremely serious illness
for which there was no cure. It is the same with sin. The sinner, whether he likes
it or not, is contaminated by this spiritual illness that is
sin. And not only that, he can contaminate
others. How many young people have been
contaminated by the sin of their parents? By looking at the attitude
of their parents, their way of living, their way of ignoring
the law of God, these young people have followed their example and
have been contaminated by this way of living of their parents.
Am I speaking today to parents who are guilty in this regard?
You have lived Your life, as if God did not exist, and you
are surprised by what your children live in the same way today, and
perhaps some of you regret it now. Oh, sin is serious, and
we can very easily contaminate others with our own sin. But like the leper, The one who
is contaminated with sin is cut off from communion with God,
as the leper was cut off from communion with people in the
temple, because he no longer had the right to go to the temple
to offer sacrifices. Sin cuts off our communion with
God. It is like a wall that separates
us from God. But how many people are not aware
of this? In this, sin is not like the
leper of old, for at least the leper was aware of his state,
whereas there are people today who live contaminated with sin,
but who are not aware of it, and when we tell them, they do
not believe it. Are you like that? Oh, how serious
sin is! And we all need to be healed
of this disease, which is sin. like the leper who came to Jesus
and needed to be healed of his illness. Let us now look at how
this man was healed. First of all, we see that he
addressed Jesus Christ alone. He could have, perhaps, addressed
the priest at the temple. Perhaps he had already done so.
He could perhaps have addressed one of the disciples of the Lord
Jesus. Perhaps he had tried, but it
was in vain, for he was always affected by his illness. And
in our story, he addresses Jesus alone, for he alone has the power
to heal him. It is the same for the sinner. Maybe you have tried the religion,
whatever it is, whether it is Protestant, Catholic, Buddhist,
Muslim or others, it does not matter. It is not the religion
alone that can heal you of your illness, which is sin. It is not a priest or a pastor
who can give you the forgiveness of your sins. It comes from Jesus
alone. That is why I exhort you, do
as the leper does, address Jesus Christ, ask Him to forgive you,
to purify you. Then we see that this man comes
in humility, because in verse 40 of the passage that we read
earlier, we see that he throws himself on his knees. This is
an indispensable condition to have the healing of the sickness
of sin. Do not come with your own justice,
as if you had something to present to God, some remedy yourself. You have none. You are condemned. Come and kneel before the Lord
Jesus. Ask Him to forgive you in His
grace, and grace is something we do not deserve. If we deserved
it, it would be a salary, but grace cannot be deserved. So, repentant sinners, come and
kneel before the Lord, who alone can forgive you. Then we see
that this man recognized that Jesus owed him nothing. He was not obliged to heal him,
because we always read in verse 40 of this first chapter of the
Gospel of Mark that the leper speaks to Jesus in a supplicatory
tone and says to him, if you want, you can make me pure. He
did not come to the Lord Jesus, to demand healing, because he
knew that Jesus was not obliged to heal him. But if he did, it
would be in his grace. This is how we must come as sinners
to the Lord Jesus, recognizing that we have no right to come
before him, that we are guilty and that God would be just if
He left us in our sin and if He condemned us eternally. But
we must come, like this man, in a begging tone, to ask Him
to forgive us. And we also look, always at verse
40, that this man was convinced that Jesus could purify him,
because he said to him, if you want it, You can make me pure. Today, the Lord can also heal
those who are affected by the disease of sin, that is to say,
all of us. He can do it. But there is a
difference now. We no longer have to come and
tell him, if you want to, because he said that everything that
comes to me, I will not put outside. He also said, If we confess our
sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to purify us
from all iniquity. And the Bible clearly tells us
that the confession in question in this verse is to God Himself. I invite you today to come to
the Lord Jesus, confess your sins to Him, and ask Him to heal
you, to forgive you. And we have this assurance that
He will do it. There is no maybe. There is no
if you want. We know that He wants it. We know that He will do it. Because He promised it. And the promise of God is sure
and certain. Come today. We are always very
happy to receive letters from our listeners. If you have a
problem, Or if you think that we can help you, write to us
and we will be very happy to answer you. Here is the address
to which you must write. Echo of the truth Mailbox 505
71322 Chalon-sur-Saône It's written C-H-A-L-O-N, France. I repeat this address. Echo of
the truth, mailbox 505, 71322, Chalon-sur-Saône, France. Compagnie des ailes, Jésus-Sauve
aujourd'hui. Jusque-part de la défaite, Jésus-Sauve
aujourd'hui. Que la paix de notre monde, ouvre
la salle de parole. Jesus chants.