Tonight we will be observing
the Lord's table together. And what a blessing that is,
where the Lord said, this do in remembrance of me. And also, we're going to have
the preacher's class next Saturday, and it'll be a little bit before
the pig roast at the Williams. I'm looking forward to that. I've entitled this message, Behold,
there came a leper. When was the last time you ran
into a leper? I dare say that most of us, maybe all of us,
have never seen a leper. I know I haven't, never met anyone
with leprosy, but in the scripture, it was the most dreaded disease,
leprosy. It's given to typify sin, And
it was incurable. It's cured easily today, but
not then. It was the most dreaded disease. And we read in this passage of
scripture of a leper that came to Christ and worshiped him,
and he was cleansed. Now, the question that I want
to deal with was why was this leper cleansed? There were a
whole lot of lepers who were not cleansed. Turn with me for
a moment to Luke chapter four, hold your finger there in Matthew
eight, verse 27. And many lepers were in Israel
in the time of Elisha the prophet. There were a lot of lepers there.
And none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. Now what the Lord is saying in
no uncertain terms is there were a whole lot of lepers in Israel
during the time of Elisha. And Elisha didn't come to one
of them. Not one of them were cleansed. They were all left in their leprosy.
And Elisha was sent to a Gentile leper named Naaman. Verse 28, and all they in the
synagogue, when they heard these things, what? They heard about the sovereignty
of God, how he passed by many lepers and came to this one leper. Now, what was their response?
And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things,
were filled with wrath. and rose up and thrust him out
of the city and led him under the brow of the hill where on
their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.
That's how upset they got with this. They wanted to murder Christ
about this statement. Now, why was this leper cleansed? Well, let's start in Matthew
chapter seven, verse 28. And it came to pass when Jesus
had ended these sayings. Now, this is talking about the
conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount. No doubt, there's never been
a greater message preached. I love the way he begins the
Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the poor in spirit. What a way to begin. And I want
to be one of those people, don't you? Poor. having nothing to
recommend myself to God. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Theirs is the kingdom of God. And in this message, it came
to pass when Jesus ended these sayings that people were astonished
at his doctrine. They'd never heard anything like
this. They were dumbfounded. They were astonished for he taught
them as one Having authority. Not like the scribes. I love
that slam on the scribes, the religious leaders. Not like the
scribes. He taught them as one having
authority. Now this thing of authority,
what does it mean? You know, I've heard preachers
try to drum up authority. Speak loud! Make sure people
see the authority of what you're... That didn't work. That didn't
work. You don't have to scream to have
authority. That's not what authority is
in the first place. He spake as one having authority. Now, what that means is that
everything he said recommended itself as the word of God. When you heard it, if you had
ears to hear, you knew this is God speaking. This is not man. This is not man's invention.
This didn't come from human intellect and understanding. This is the
very word of God. He didn't have to scream. He
didn't have to yell. What he said recommended itself
as the word of God. I love to hear somebody speak
with authority, don't you? It's not that the authority is
in a man. The authority is in what is said. Now, in this Sermon on the Mount,
six times, the Lord says, you've heard that it's been said of
them of old. And he quotes a scripture from
the Old Testament. You've heard that hath been said
of them of old. And then he replies with, but
I say unto you, I'm the one who has the authority
to interpret scripture. Nobody else does. What I say
is the truth. Not what the scribes say, not
what the religious leaders say. What I say, I say, unto you."
And oh, when he says that, every believer bows to what he says. He spake as one having authority. Fifteen times in the Sermon on
the Mount, he says, I say unto you. And that's enough to end
all controversy, isn't it? I say unto you. I don't care
what the scribes say. I don't care what religion says.
I don't care what preachers say. What does he say? That is all
that counts. He spake as one having authority. And the reason he spake as one
having authority is because he has authority. What he says is not to be questioned
because of who he is. Now, somebody may have trouble
with that. Well, I need an explanation. Well, you got trouble then. If
he says it, That settles it. It's absolute truth because of
who he is. He spake as one having authority. The word authority means the
right to do what one wills. He said, can I not do what I
will with my own? Yes, he can. He said, all power,
and that's the same word authority, all power. is given to me in
heaven and in earth. That means he has a monopoly
on authority. All power is given. Thou hast
given him power, authority over all flesh. Everybody in this
room and everybody outside of this room, all flesh. Thou hast
given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given him. He said that you may know
how that the Son of Man hath power, hath authority on earth
to forgive sins. That's the authority he has.
He can pronounce your sins forgiven, and they're forgiven. I didn't
read this this week, but Lynn read this. She told me about
it in Dear Abby. She reads Dear Abby. I guess that's a good thing,
I don't know. But somebody said in this letter
to Dear Abby, they said, I just have sins that I can't forgive
myself of. You know, that's one thing I
can't relate to very well because I don't have, I don't have much
problem forgiving my, but she could. And Dear Abby wrote her
and said, here's what you need to do. You need to find a priest
who can grant you absolution for your sins. If I told you your sins are forgiven,
would you have any confidence in that? I don't have the authority to
do something like that, but He does. He does. He can pronounce your sins all
forgiven. When Pilate said to Him, speakest
thou not to me? Don't you know that I have power,
I have authority to crucify you? And I have power to release you?
I would have loved to heard Him say, You have no power at all
over me, except it be given thee from above. He has all power
and all authority. I love it when they came to arrest
him. And he said, whom seek ye? They
said, Jesus of Nazareth. I am. Can you imagine the power
behind those words? I am. What'd they do? They fell
backwards. The Lord's letting them know.
You have no power at all over me. I'm in control of this. When
he says that to Pilate, you don't have any power. He said, he said,
Pilate, you're a pawn in my hand doing my will. He said all this
while he was going willingly to the cross. Now, this is our
Lord Jesus Christ. He has all authority. The early church said in Acts
4.27, both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and
the people of Israel were gathered together to do whatsoever thy
hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. Now that's
authority. He spake as one having authority. Now, I want us to remember in
the Bible, these chapter divisions are man-made. And I'm thankful
for them. I'd hate to say, this is somewhere
in Matthew, and Matthew's a pretty long book, and you all have to
start scurrying to look for what, I'm thankful for these chapter
divisions. But remember, they're man-made. Chapter eight is a
man-made division. And in this passage of Scripture,
we have an example, an illustration of the authority of Jesus Christ. Now that's what this is about,
the authority of Jesus Christ. May God give us grace to see
what's being said. He spake as one having authority,
not as the scribes. You know, I was, I was thinking
about the scribes. I was thinking about your average
preacher. They seem so, they don't have any authority. It's
just, it's obviously from man. It's not God's Word. It's so
weak, it's so contemptible, it's so unlike what the Bible says.
Not as the scribes, he spake as one had authority. Verse two,
or verse one, and when he was come down from the mount, after
preaching this great sermon, great multitudes followed him,
and behold, there came a leper. Now, leprosy in the Bible was
a horrible disease. You know, I was thinking back
in the 70s, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease in 1988. And the doctors thought, you
know, this is it's not that big a deal. It's pretty easily cured. And if you would have had it
back in the 70s before they had the chemotherapy that helped
it, it was almost a death sentence. Now, leprosy back then was it
was incurable. It was incurable. And it's devoted,
the scripture devotes so much time to this disease. You read
Leviticus chapters 13 and 14 is all dedicated to describing
the leper and what he was to do. And leprosy is given as a
type of sin. It begins on the inside. And it's humanly incurable. And actually, it's not very painful. Now sin can create a lot of pain,
you know that, but it was relatively painless, yet it ended up in
death. And the leper was not allowed
in the camp because he was so contagious. He lived outside
the camp in a leper colony and was made to cry unclean. If he would see somebody coming
toward him, he would have to cry out unclean as a warning. If you get around me, you'll
be infected by my loathsome disease. And he was made to dwell outside
the camp and anything that he touched was unclean. It had to
be burned. or it had to be washed. Anything
he touched was unclean. And that's the condition of the
sinner. Anything that has your name stamped
on it or my name stamped on it is unclean. God cannot accept it. It's sinful because you did it. I don't care what it is. If your
name's on it, if my name's on it, unclean. Such was the state of this leper. Now, this story is told in Matthew,
Mark, and Luke. And Luke's account tells us this
man was full of leprosy. That means every square inch
of his body was covered with this loathsome disease. What a sight that must have been
filled with nothing but the ulcers of leprosy. Couldn't stand to
look at him. So completely covered by leprosy. He was full of leprosy, but we're
going to come back to that. That's significant, but more
on that in a moment. But notice it says in verse two, and behold,
there came a leper, not a man with leprosy, but a
leper. Not a man who committed sins,
but a sinner. Same thing. Behold, there came
a leper. That's how he's described. He's
a leper. Behold, there came a leper, a
man completely covered with leprosy. And the scripture says he worshiped
him. Now here's the point. You listen
to this very carefully. This issue of worship is to be
settled first. And this leper did not know whether
or not the Lord would cure him, did he? He said, Lord, if you
will, it's up to you. It's not up to me. If you will,
you can make me clean. He didn't know whether or not
the Lord would cleanse him, But this was established first, He
came and worshipped Him. The Lord is to be worshipped
whether He does anything for you or not. Amen? The Lord is to be worshipped
because of who He is, whether or not He does anything. you. And you can't get past that point
until that is settled. Let me guarantee you, you will
not be cleansed until that is settled. He's the Lord and He
is to be worshiped for who He is and you will only worship. Listen to this real carefully.
You've heard me say it a thousand times. Hear it again. You'll
only worship a sovereign. You will only worship one in
whose hands you are and he can do with you whatever he wants
to do and whatever he does is right. You'll only worship a
sovereign. Do you know you've never worshiped
him if you believe in free will? You've never worshipped Him if
your will can trump His. That means you have some control
over Him. That means you can keep His will from being done.
You might not have thought it out, but that's what it means.
You've never worshipped Him if you believe in free will. You'll
only worship an absolute sovereign whom you can't control. He's
not in your hands. You're in His hands. and he can
do with you whatever he is pleased to do. He's the Lord. Lord, if you will, he came first
and worshiped him. Behold, there came a leper and
worshiped him saying, Lord, Lord. Now, He is the Lord. What a name. What a title. It tells us who He is. I've read
and I've heard of what people call the Lordship controversy.
It ain't no controversy. He's the Lord. He's your Lord
whether you know it or not. Somebody says, I don't recognize
Him as Lord. He's still your Lord. He is the
Lord. And my and your only reason for
existence is His glory. We think about that. Mine and
your only reason for existence is His glory. We're going to
glorify Him. Maybe glorifying His justice. Maybe glorifying His grace. But
whatever the case may be, we're gonna glorify Him because He
is the Lord. And you know what? I love it
that way. He's the Lord of creation. He
spake the world into existence. All this universe is here because
He willed it. Somebody says, how did He do
that? I don't know, but He willed it. He willed it. He brought
the universe into existence merely as an act of His will. That demonstrates
something of His Lordship, doesn't it? He's the Lord of Providence. By Him, all things consist. By Him, all things are held together.
Everything that takes place is His will being done because He's
the Lord. He's the Lord of salvation. He
says, as the father raises the dead and quickens them, even
so the son quickens whom he will. Now that's who we're talking
about. We're talking about the one who spake as having authority.
He's the Lord. And the leper understood this.
He came and he worshiped him, saying, Lord. He knew he was the Lord. And notice what he says, Lord,
if you will, you can make me clean. If you will, you can make me
clean. Now, get this statement, if you
will. What if he would have said to
the Lord, I will that you make me clean. What arrogant presumption. What
insubordination. A sinner doesn't come into God's
presence speaking like that. I will that you do this or I
will that you do that. That's kind of like somebody
coming up to you and say, I will that you forgive me. Really? Sinners coming into God's presence,
deciding what they're gonna will Him to do. No, you don't come
into God's presence like that. You don't come saying, I will
anything. That's stricken from, it's not
of Him that willeth, nor of Him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy. We don't come into His presence
telling Him what we're willing. He came into the Lord's presence
in worship, acknowledging His Lordship, saying, Lord, you will,
you can make me clean. Do you know anything about that? Right now, you come into his
presence in worship, he's the Lord saying, if you will, it's
all up to you. If you will, you can make me
clean." Now I think what is interesting about this leper is he wasn't
sure about the Lord's willingness but he was sure about the Lord's
ability. If you will, he didn't know whether
or not he would do it, if you will, but here's one thing he
was dead sure of, if you will You can. You have the ability
to make me clean. Look in Matthew 9, verse 27. And when Jesus departed thence,
two blind men followed him, crying and saying, Thou Son of David,
have mercy on us. And when he was coming to the
house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus saith unto him,
Believe ye that I am able to do this. They said unto him, Yea, Lord,
I believe you're able. Then touched he their eyes, saying,
According to your faith, be it unto you. Now here is the issue. Do you believe he's able? Do you believe he's able to take
you with no contribution from you whatsoever and make you stand
perfect before God to where you don't need anything else? Do
you believe he's able to do that? Paul said, I know whom I have
believed and I'm persuaded he is able. He is able to keep that
which I've committed to him against that day. Now, if I said to you,
trust me, me. If I said to you, trust me and
I'll make sure all your sins are put away and it'll be well
with you on judgment day. Now just trust me. Trust what
I say. If you believe me, you'd be a fool. Wouldn't you? If you
put your trust in me to make sure that your sins were put
away and that you were accepted before God. But if he says, trust
me, He has the wisdom and the power
to make it come to pass because actually he has made it come
to pass. If he says, trust me. Oh, that's
an infinite difference between me saying, trust me. I mean,
think of who he is. He's the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. He stood as the surety for every
leper before time began. When he came, He came for His
people. When He kept the law, He kept
the law for His people. When He died, He died for His
people. When He was raised from the dead,
He was raised from the dead for His people as the sinner substitute.
Yes, He can. If you will, you can. Do you
believe that? Do you believe that Jesus Christ, as the one
worthy of worship, As the one who is sovereign in his will,
whatever he wills comes to pass, do you believe that he is able
to make you clean? And this is what this leper came
for. He said, if you will, nothing I can do to make myself
clean. There's nothing I can do to obligate you to make me
clean. It's all up to your sovereign
will. If you will, you can. You have
the ability to make me clean. Now, clean is clean. I don't
have any sin. I'm sinless. I'm spotless. I'm
without fault before the holy law of God. I'm perfectly righteous. That's what I need. I need to
be made clean. Oh, well, I need health. Well, I'm thankful for health,
but there's something I need a whole lot more than health.
Well, I need money to pay my bills. I'm thankful for money
to pay my bills, but there's something infinitely more important
than that. I need to be made clean before God. I can't stand
before God in judgment unless I'm made clean and spotless and
pure, perfect before God. That's what I need. And I know
I can't make myself clean. I know there's nothing I can
do to make him make me clean. I'm in his sovereign hand and
here is my cry, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. Now, I see from this that he's the Lord, that he's to be worshiped. that he has all ability to make
me clean if he so wills. And there's nothing I can do
to get him to do it, but he's still the Lord. And he's still
worthy of all worship. And that's gonna be settled before
anything else is. He's the Lord. He spake as one
having authority. He has all authority. And there's
two kinds of people in this world. There's people who love him having
all the authority, and there's people who don't like him having
all the authority. Now, if you're somebody who can't
save yourself, you love him having all authority because he can
do it. And if you're someone who thinks there's something
you can do to save yourself, you don't like him having the
authority because you think that might prevent you from saving
yourself. Two kinds of people, those who love his authority
and those who have no love for his authority. Now, why was this
leper cleansed? Remember I asked that at the
beginning of this message? There were a whole lot of lepers
who were not cleansed and the Lord did cleanse this man because
he said to him, I will. I will. What power there are
in those words, I will. Be thou clean. And immediately
his leprosy was cleansed. Well, why was this leper cleansed? I want to know that because I
want to know if I can be one of them just like this fellow
and be cleansed. Why was this leper cleansed? Well, we know
from this passage of Scripture, there's one reason why he was
cleansed. The will of Christ. I will. Be thou clean. And immediately
his leprosy was cleansed. But Luke gives us a detail that
Matthew and Mark do not give us, which is so very important. This man that came to Christ
was full of leprosy. When he came into Christ's presence,
every square inch of his body was filled with this loathsome
disease. Every square inch. What a hideous
sight this must have been when he came into God's presence.
And when he came into Christ's presence, he came into God's
presence. What did he look like? Now turn with me to Leviticus
chapter 13. Leviticus, the third book in
the Bible, Old Testament, Leviticus chapter 13. I want to begin reading in verse
nine. When the plague of leprosy is
in a man, and chapters 13 or 14 of this book is devoted to
leprosy, when the plague of leprosy is in a man, then he should be
brought unto the priest. And the priest shall see him,
And behold, if the rising be white in the skin, and it have
turned the hair white, and there be, that word quick is living. The word raw means healthy. If
there be living, healthy flesh in the rising, it's an old leprosy. old as he is in sin in the skin
of his flesh and the priest shall pronounce him unclean and he
shall shut him up for he's unclean if he has any healthy flesh he's
unclean. Verse 12 and if a leprosy break
out abroad in the skin and the leprosy cover all the skin of
him that hath the plague, from his head even to his foot, wheresoever
the priest looketh, then the priest shall consider, and behold,
if the leprosy hath covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce
him clean that hath the plague. It's all
turned white, he's clean, but when raw flesh, healthy flesh
appears in him, he shall be unclean. Now I suppose you'd have to call
this a paradox, whatever that is. If a leper came before the priest,
and let's say he only had one small almost undiscernable by
the eye. Piece of leprosy in him, just
a little bit. Send him back. He's unclean. Perhaps a leper would have come
with all kinds of sores and bad things, but he had maybe one
square inch of healthy flesh. Unclean. It's an old leprosy.
He's unclean. But when a leper came into the
priest's presence and was completely covered with leprosy. There wasn't anything there but
leprosy. The priest pronounced him clean. Now, if you come into Christ's
presence and you have anything about you that's healthy, any
good flesh, any quick flesh, any living. You may be bad, you
may have a lot of leprous parts, but you've got some good parts
too. Unclean. Back to the leper colony. But
if you come into Christ's presence completely covered with sin,
so that that is all that's there, clean. You come into Christ's presence
like that, and that's what he's going to pronounce you. Clean. Why was this leper cleansed?
Well, because of the will of Christ and because he was nothing
but leprosy. Now, if me or you are made clean
by God, this is going to be true. It's going to be because Christ
willed it. and it's gonna be because we are nothing but sin. Can you come into his presence
like that right now as nothing but sin? No, I can't. Sorry. Yes, that's me. You'll hear him
say to you, I will. Be thou clean. You see, there's never been a
sinner who came into his presence as nothing but sin that he turned
away. He says to every one of them,
I will be now clean. And I think it's very interesting
that in both Mark and Luke's account, it says the leprosy
departed from it. It left him. It was there and
all of a sudden it was gone. Where'd it go? I know where it
went. Who his own self bear our sins
in his own body on the tree. That's where it went. That leprosy,
that leprosy of sin that is in me left me and was made to meet
in him. And he put it away. And that's
why he can say to me, I will Be thou clean. Now back to Matthew
chapter eight. Verse four, verse three. And
Jesus put forth his hand and touched him. Wonder how long it had been since
that fellow had been touched. long time. Would you have touched
him? I wouldn't have. But the scripture
says in Mark's account, and Jesus moved with compassion. Anybody who comes to him like
this leopard did, he's going to be moved by compassion. And Jesus put forth his hand
and touched him saying, I will be thou clean and immediately
his leprosy was cleansed and Jesus saith unto him don't tell
anybody about this but go your way go your way and show yourself to the priest
and offer the gift that Moses commanded for testimony unto
them now what I think is glorious about this he sends him back
to the law to see if the law can find anything wrong with
him Show yourself to the priest. With his salvation, you're sent back to the law,
not to try to keep it, you know, as your rule of life, but the
law is going to look you over, just like the priest did. The
Ten Commandments, every commandment, every law of God is going to
look you over and say, he's clean. He's clean. Now, any salvation
that won't bear the look of the law and a declaration of cleanness
is no salvation. But His salvation does. Now,
what I want to do is I want to be just like this leper. I never
want to leave this. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. I want to hear him say to me,
I will be thou clean. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's blessed
name, the name that's above every name, that we might be graced and blessed
to see ourselves as full of sin. No healthy flesh anywhere. And that we might be enabled
by your grace to come to him who has all authority and worship
him and say, Lord, If you will, you can make us clean. And oh,
Lord, that we might hear from your very mouth, I will
be thou clean. Lord, let us hear those words,
how we thank you for the gospel. In Christ's name we pray, amen.
Duane, could you come lead us in closing in?