Good evening, everybody. Turn
to Matthew 8 for me. Matthew 8. Before we begin, I
have a couple of questions I'd like to pose to you all. I'll
wait until you all get to the chapter. Here's the first question. Is Jesus Christ alone able to
save you? If he wants to, is he able to
save you with no help from you? Now, looking around this room,
I would say that the answer, resoundingly, will be yes. Absolutely
he is. He's the Lord. Now let me ask
you another question. Is he willing to save you? Is he pleased to save you? Anybody get a little lump in
their throat when I ask that question? Anybody maybe think in the back
of their mind? I hope so. We don't struggle much with the
first question, do we? We're all very confident in his ability
to save. Sometimes we get hung up on this
thing of his willingness, don't we? Why? Because we know we don't
have any claims on God. He doesn't owe us anything. If
he's not pleased to save us, if he's pleased just to pass
us by and leave us to ourselves, we are just getting exactly what
we deserve. That's right, isn't it? So is it right to even ask this
question? Can we even know the answer? If you're anything like
me, you have to know the answer to this question. You're not
going to have any peace until you do. And I think I found another
man who had a similar concern. His story is found here in Matthew
chapter 8. This is a leper that came to Christ for cleansing.
I want to read his story, and as I'm reading it, if you would,
pay special attention to his statement, because that statement
is what we're going to consider here this evening. So Matthew
chapter 8, pick up in verse 1. When he was come down from the
mountain, a great multitude followed him. And behold, there came a
leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst
make me clean. 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, See thou
tell no man, but go thy way, show thyself to the priest, and
offer the gift that Moses commanded for a testimony unto them. Hear this leper's statement,
Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. This is a very
concise statement, isn't it? This leper said a whole lot with
just a few words. And contained in this one statement, I see
four implied statements. Four things this leper implied
through this one statement. I'm going to read them off and
see if you guys see them too. Here's the first implied statement.
I'm unclean and I'm unable to cleanse myself. Now think about
it. Only a man who is unclean would
seek cleansing and he would only seek it from a third party if
he was unable to do it himself. This first implied statement.
I'm unclean and I'm unable to cleanse myself. Here's the second
one. You, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are able to
make me clean. This man didn't go to a doctor.
He didn't go to a priest. He came to the one whom he knew
could make him clean, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the
second implied statement. You're able to make me clean. Here's
the third implied statement. You're under no obligation to
do it. This man said, Lord, if that wilt, not since that wilt,
not because that wilt, if that wilt. He wasn't presumptuous
in any way. This man knew he had no claims on God. The fourth
implied statement, his will trumps my will. If thou wilt. This man knew that the Lord was
sovereign. He knew that he couldn't do anything to manipulate the
Lord into doing what he wanted him to do. He knew that the decision
to cleanse lay solely with the Lord. Now we know how this story
ends. The Lord looked at this man,
at this leper, and said, I will. Be thou clean. And I want to
look at this man's statement. I want to consider these four
implied statements. And I pray the Lord will give
us the grace to understand exactly what this leper meant. And I
think after looking at it, if we're taught what this leper
meant, if we can truly say from our hearts, Lord, if thou wilt,
you can make me clean, I think what you'll find is not only
is he willing to make you clean, he's already made you clean.
Now, if you were to turn to Matthew 23. The first implied statement,
I'm unclean and I cannot cleanse myself. Now, this man had leprosy. Leprosy, and here's what you
need to know about leprosy. There's absolutely no cure for it. There
is no remedy for leprosy. As a leper, you contaminate everything
you touch. You lay on the couch, they had to burn it. You drank
from a cup, they had to break it. You had to dwell outside
the camp, and any time anyone came near you, you had to cover
your mouth and shout, unclean, unclean to the top of your lungs,
because if anyone came near you, you would contaminate them as
well. They would then be unclean. As a leper, you were the very
source of all uncleanness. But what does that mean to you
and me? Matthew 23, and look at verse
25. This is the Lord speaking to
the Pharisees. He says, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,
For you make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter,
but within they are full of extortion and excess. That blind Pharisee,
cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the
outside of them may be clean also." In these verses of Scripture,
our entire being is compared to a cup. A cup. And I thought
of this story. It's a personal story. And maybe
you can put everything in the right light. So when Macy was
a baby, it was about four years ago, everywhere she went, she
had to have a cup of milk with her. Went to the grocery store,
went to church, everywhere she had a cup of milk. We decided
we were going to go on vacation. And so we're going to hop on
a plane, we're going to go down to Florida for a whole week.
And so the morning that we're supposed to leave on the plane,
we wake up late for some whatever reason, we're rushed. And so
we throw all the luggage in the truck, get Macy, get her a cup
of milk, which she always has to have, and we race out to the
airport. And I park the truck in the parking structure at the
airport. And it's the middle of summer, it's 90 degrees. And
we grab all the luggage, we grab Macy, we run inside, and we actually
catch the flight, but we leave one thing behind in the truck,
and it's that cup of milk. And there it sat for the entire
week, baking in that truck. And so we get back after a whole
week, and I open the front door to that truck, and this odor
comes barreling out. I mean, it's horrible. And I
know exactly what it is. It's sour milk. And I can see
the cup. It's sitting in her seat back there. And so I get
the cup, and I unscrew the lid, and I look at it. And what was
milk is now this warm, disgusting cottage cheese-like substance.
It's disgusting. It's one of the most revolting
things I've ever seen. Stunk up the whole car. Here's the
point. What if I took that cup? And I simply washed the outside
of that cup and never washed the inside and poured water inside
that cup and went to take a drink. How would that water taste? It
would be disgusting, wouldn't it? That water would be filthy
and it would be polluted because the inside of that cup was still
defiled. So everything that came out of
that cup was going to be defiled as well. You could put all the
good, clean water you wanted in that cup and when it came
back out, it was going to be polluted because its originating
source was polluted. And this is our problem. This
is our chief problem. We have a wicked, evil, natural
heart. Our cup, the interior of our cup, is corrupt and it's
wicked and it's polluted. So everything that comes out
of that cup is polluted as well. Every action, every thought,
every affection, everything we love, every intention, every
motivation, the natural will, it's all evil because of that
originating source. that cup. And here's the worst
part. We can't do anything to clean
up the interior of the cup. We can't stop the evil imaginations
of the thoughts of our heart, no more than we can make an atonement
for our sins or work out a personal righteousness. It's absolutely
impossible for us. To put this in the appropriate
context, let me ask you just a few questions. And just sit
there and answer them honestly. Just do yourself quietly and
answer them Here's the first question. Let's say you have
a friend. Something good happens to that friend. When you're happy
for someone else, is there also not a part of you that's envious
of them as well? Answer that question honestly.
When you give thanks for what you have, is there not also a
part of you that's jealous for what you don't? Who is it that you love? Do you
love those who hate you or do you love those who love you in
return? You love those who love you in return. Even our love
is selfish. And that's what the Lord was
chastising these Pharisees for. These men were very diligent
to keep the laws, to keep the customs, to honor the feasts.
As far as men go, they had probably made a better outward showing
of cleaning up the outside of the cup than anyone ever has.
But what they refused, what they would not acknowledge, was that
the inside of the cup was evil. And so everything that came out
of that cup was going to be evil as well. So let me ask the question. How's
your cup? How have you done trying to clean
it up? The real question we're asking
here is, is he willing to cleanse me? Well, this is the first characteristic
of one whom the Lord is willing to cleanse. One who is absolutely
unclean and unable to cleanse himself. Now, if you would, turn
to Hebrews 7. The second implied statement,
he is able to cleanse me. Hebrews 7, look at verse 25. Wherefore he is able also to
save them to the uttermost that come to God by him, seeing he
ever liveth to make intercession for them. Now this is very encouraging,
isn't it? When I was reading this verse
of scripture, there's one word that I got hung up on, and I thought
about it for days, got hung up on it. It's the word by. What
does it mean to come to God by him? How does a sinner come to
God by him? I want to know. I want to come.
How is that possible? What is that? What does that
mean? I looked up this word by in the concordance. When you
look at the root word, it's translated several different ways. in the
New Testament, but two ways it was translated meant a lot to
me, and I want to share them with you. These are the two translations,
through and in. You can interject either one
of those words in the place of by, and it does no damage to
the text. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost
that come to God in him, through him. It does no damage to the
text. And I want to look at those two
translations and see what we can learn from this. Turn to Ephesians
2 and look at verse 18. What does it mean to come to
God through Him? Ephesians 2, 18, for through
Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. The word
through actually speaks of a point of access, a way in. Now, when I came inside the church
this evening, I came in through the back door. That's how I came
in, through that back door. And that is actually one of seven
different doors that will actually get you inside this building.
I came through that door. But understand this, there are
only two doors that lead to the Father. Just two. I'll name them
all. The door of personal merit and
the door of Christ's merit. Those are the two doors that
lead to the Father. Now anyone who has any interest in the door
of personal merit, here's what's required. You must have lived
an absolutely sinless life. You must have kept the law, every
jot and tittle from the day of your conception all the way to
the day of your death. Every imagination of the thoughts
of your heart must be only holy, and that continually. Every work
must be righteous, every thought must be pure, every motivation
must be selfless, and your will must never be obstinate. That's
what's necessary to walk through that door of personal merit.
Anybody here walk through that door? Can anybody unlock that door?
I can't. That door is locked to all of
us. Every man that's born in this world, past, present, and
future, it's locked to all of us. It's locked. But some would
look for a third door, a door of compromise, a door that mingles
personal merit and Christ's merit. Men say foolish things like,
do your breast and Christ will do the rest. False religion is
do and live. Do something to make the work
of Christ effectual for you. They mingle, grace and works.
But understand this, it's either all grace or it's all works. Any attempt to come unto the
Father under the banner of compromise will put you in line at that
door of personal merit. And that door is locked to all
of us. But thank the Lord. This is the door of Christ's
merit. It's completely based on what he has done. And there
is only one prerequisite to enter in at this door, only one. You
must abandon all hopes of entering that door of personal merit.
For any sinner who finds that door of personal merit is slammed
shut in your face, locked, no chance of getting in, you're
given this gracious command, come unto me, all ye who labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. What does it mean
to come to God through him? We come to God by Him, which
is through Him. We come through Him, relying on Christ's merit
for our access to the Father. That's through. Now, the second
translation, in. Here in Hebrews 7, look at verse
1. What does it mean to come to
the Father in Him? We're actually given a beautiful example of
this here in Hebrews 7. Pick up at verse 1. For this
Melchizedek, King of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met
Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him.
To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being by interpretation
King of Righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which
is King of Peace. Without father, without mother,
without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of
life, but made like unto the Son of God, abided the priest
continually. Now consider how great this man
was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of his spoils.
Now look down at verse 9, and as I may so say, Levi also, who
receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham, for he was yet in
the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. Now to understand
the story, we have to understand who each character represents.
Now Melchizedek, and I understand that in all likelihood he is
a pre-incarnate version of the Lord Jesus Christ, I get that,
but for the purposes of this story, he's a picture of God
the Father. Abraham is the picture of Christ,
and Levi is the picture of the believer. I made three observations
about this story, and I want to share them with you. First,
let me ask this question. Could Levi get to Melchizedek
on his own? No. No, he couldn't. He was in
the loins of Abraham. He was absolutely powerless.
He could only go where Abraham brought him. And we know that
by nature we can't get to the Father on our own. It's absolutely
impossible. We can't enter in. But our hope
is that we are in Christ. So much so that when He goes
to the Father, He brings me with Him because I'm in Him. I can't
get there on my own, but He brings me. Second observation, when
Melchizedek looked at Abraham, could he see Levi? No. All Melchizedek could see
was Abraham, and Abraham was very pleasing to Melchizedek. And this is our hope, that we
are hid in Christ, so much so that when the Father looks at
us, he isn't really looking at us. All he sees is his darling
son, in whom he is well pleased. Third observation, when Abraham
received the blessing from Melchizedek, who else was blessed? It was
Levi. not because of anything he had
done or said or professed, simply because he was in Abraham. That's the only reason. Somebody
says, great, excellent, how do I get in Christ? How does that
happen? Well, here's the answer. The
Father has to put you there, and that before the foundation
of the world. And while I can't tell you how to get in Christ
anymore, I can tell you how to create a universe, rebuild a transmission,
or a number of other things I don't know how to do, I'll tell you
this, I'll give you a marker you can know right now if you're
in Christ. That marker is faith. Hebrews 11.1 says, faith is the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Well, here's my hope. I'm found
in Christ, and that's my only hope. And while I can't physically
see, that I am in Christ. My faith, the faith I've been
given, the fact that I'm looking to the Lord Jesus Christ alone
as my only hope of salvation, that's the evidence that I'm
in Christ. Now I would ask, are you looking to Him alone? I'm
not asking you how strong your faith is. We get faith in measure. Are you looking at Him alone
as your only hope of salvation? If you are, you've got faith,
and that is the evidence that you are in Christ. And I want
to say this right. And if you are in Christ, you're
coming to God by Him. And for those who are coming
to God by Him, He is able to save them to the uttermost. This is the second characteristic
of one whom the Lord is willing to cleanse, one who has confidence
in His ability. Now, if you would, turn to Genesis
3. The first implied statement,
I'm unclean and I'm unable to cleanse myself. The second, you
are able to cleanse me. And here's the third, you're
under no obligation to cleanse me. Now we spoke earlier about
our natural uncleanness and our inability to cleanse ourselves.
We spoke of our wicked hearts and our evil natures. But sometimes
I fear we liken our sinfulness to that of mischievous children,
as if our trespasses are just childhood shenanigans. but the
truth is much, much worse. The truth about you and me can
actually be best seen by the two chief offenses each of us
are guilty of. And I want to show you both of
them. The first one is found here in Genesis 3. Look down at verse
1. Now the serpent was more subtle than any other beast of the field
which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea,
hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden.
And the woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the
trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in
the midst of the garden, God has said you shall not eat of
it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. And the serpent
said unto the woman, you shall not surely die, for God doth
know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall
be opened. Don't miss this. And ye shall be as gods, knowing
good and evil. And when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes,
and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took the fruit
thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her,
and he did eat. Now what was the temptation that
worked so easily on Eve? Was it how delicious she thought
that fruit was going to be? No, it was this, and ye shall be
as gods. Satan was saying, right now you're
just the Lord's puppet. You're on his string, you're
just doing whatever He'd have you do. But if you eat this fruit,
you'll know the difference between good and evil. You'll be just
like God. You'll be a free entity. You'll
be your own God. That's what He was telling you.
Now let me show you someone else who made a similar statement.
Turn to Isaiah 14 and look at verse 12. Isaiah 14, verse 12. How art thou fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the
ground, which disweakened the nations? For thou hast said in
thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne
above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount
of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above
the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High. That was Satan's desire. And
this was our desire, and ye shall be as gods. And here's what's
scary, I can't tell any difference between what Satan wanted and
what we wanted. And understand this, if we would
have been in that garden, we would have done the exact same
thing and we would have wanted the exact same thing. There is no
difference in any man other than the difference that Christ makes.
And here's our first chief offense, the attempted overthrow of God
himself. Now if you're a king, and you
sit on your throne, and one of your servants attempted to usurp
your throne, to kick you off the throne and put himself in
your place, would you expect that king to have any mercy on
that servant? No, by all rights you would expect that king would
punish that servant, and the punishment for treason has always
been death. Why would we ever think that we're owed mercy?
But make no mistake, it gets much, much worse. Turn to Matthew
27, look at verse 24. Matthew 27, pick up in verse
24. Here's our second chief offense. It's what we're guilty of. When
Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult
was made, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude
saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person, see
you to it. Then answered all the people,
that's me and you too. Here's what we said. His blood
be on us. and on our children." And indeed
it is. Then released he Barabbas unto
them, and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be
crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into
the common hall and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers,
and they stripped him and put on him a scarlet robe. And when
they had plaited a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head and
a reed in his right hand, and they bowed the knee before him
and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews. And they spit
upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. And
after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him,
and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.
And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name,
him they compelled to bear his cross. And when they were come
unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say a place of a skull,
they gave him vinegar to drink, mingled with gold. And when he
had tasted thereof, he would not drink. And they crucified
him. and ported his garments, casting
lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet.
They ported my garments among them, and upon my vesture did
they cast lots. And sitting down, they watched
him there, and set up over his head, this accusation was written,
This is Jesus, the King of the Jews." And this is our second
great offense, the murder of God's only begotten Son. The
one time holiness walked on this earth, and the restraints were
removed. And we were allowed to do what
we wanted to do with holiness. We murdered him. And that holy
one happens to be the king's son. Now, those of you who have children,
I'd ask this question. What if somebody did this to
your child? What if somebody brutally murdered
your child like this? Would you feel obligated in any
way to be merciful to their murderers? And be honest with yourself. No. No, you wouldn't. Here's the truth about us. By
nature, we are God-haters, and our offenses are grave. We've
attempted to overthrow the king, and the blood of his only begotten
son is on our hands. Now tell me again about how he
owes us mercy. This is the third Characteristic
of one whom the Lord is willing to cleanse. Somebody who's got
no claims on God. Turn to Romans 9. The four implied statements.
I'm unclean and I'm unable to cleanse myself. He is able to
cleanse me. He's under no obligation to do
it. And here's the fourth implied statement. His will supersedes
all others. The leper said, if thou wilt,
you can make me clean. Now question, what is the will?
What is that? The will is simply what you want.
That's it. And if you combine a will with
the power to make your will come to pass, you end up with sovereignty.
That's what sovereignty is. Now I'd like to point out that
the most subtle form of false religion, the most subtle form
of salvation by works, would probably not have too many problems
with the previous things I've said. They would quickly say
they're sinners. They would express great confidence
in the Lord's ability to cleanse, and they wouldn't claim to have
any claims or mercy. They'd have no problem with it.
But this is where they'll get hung up, the will. The will. It's no secret that false religion
labors under the delusion of a free will, but what do they
mean by that? What do they mean by free will? What they mean
is personal sovereignty, where the will of man trumps the will
of God. And I'll give you an example. This is the best one.
The concept of universal redemption. goes something like this, God
loves you, Christ died for you, and he wants to save you, but
you have to do something to make his work effectual for you. You have to make a decision.
You have to do something. Now, if the doctrine of universal
redemption is true, who in this relationship between God and
man is a sovereign? Well, if God can love you and
Christ can die for you and you can end up in hell anyways because
you didn't make a decision or you didn't do something, then
it's the man, right? The man is the sovereign. The
man who's the one who's in control, he's the decision maker. He's
the sovereign in this relationship. But what's the truth? What does
the scripture have to say about it? Romans 9, look at verse 15. For he saith unto Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, will all you want, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy. For the scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, even for the same purpose have I raised thee up, that I
might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will
have mercy, and on whom he will he hardens." Now this first scripture
talks about Pharaoh, the Pharaoh from the Exodus. You all remember
the story of the Exodus. The Lord told Pharaoh, let my
people go, and Pharaoh would not let them go. And it records
in the scripture that Pharaoh hardened his heart, but it also
records on many occasions that the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart.
Pharaoh said, I'm the king. I sit on the throne of Egypt.
It's my will that's going to be done, and I'm not going to
let them go. What did the Lord do? He sent those 10 plagues
against Egypt. And they ended with the Passover,
where the Lord actually took Pharaoh's firstborn son. This
was all done to show Pharaoh that he had no power against
the God of Israel. Now someone may ask, if the Lord
is sovereign, if his will is always done, if his will trumps
all others, if he's the first cause behind everything, Why
would he allow Pharaoh to raise up against him in the first place?
Why would he allow Pharaoh to sit there and shake his fist
in his face? Why would he allow that? Verse 17 tells us, that
I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth. You see, the great attributes
of a warrior are only seen in battle. The great attributes
of a doctor are only seen when he heals. And the great attributes
of our Lord are only seen when He saves a people. This was all
for one purpose, one ultimate purpose, that the great attributes
of God would be known and that His name would be magnified. Now, here's the point. You and
I sit in the hands of a sovereign God, and He can do what He wants
with us. He can save us or He can damn
us, and He's right whatever He does. That's the truth. That
is the honest and goodness truth about it. There are two possible reactions
to this, just two. And I'll give you the first one.
This is the reaction of the unbeliever. Rejection and hatred. I will
not have this man to reign over me. Suit yourself. He still reigns over you. This is the second reaction.
This is the reaction of the believer, and this is the reaction of the
leper. Worship. You don't have to turn
back there, but our text says that the leper came worshipping
him, and he worshipped him before the Lord had ever told him what
he was going to do with him. How did he do that? He bowed
to this sovereign God with a fearful understanding that he was unclean
and he couldn't cleanse himself. The Lord was able to cleanse
him, but he was under no obligation to do it. So let me wrap this
thing up. The question we were asking here
tonight is, is he willing to save me? Is he willing to save
you? Let's run through it. Are you
unclean? And are you completely unable
to cleanse yourself? Is he able to cleanse you? You got any claims
on mercy? Any claims on God? Do you bow
to his sovereignty? Do you love his sovereignty,
or do you reject it? I'll tell you what, for any sinner here
tonight who's completely unclean and unable to cleanse himself,
anyone who has confidence in the Lord's ability to cleanse,
anyone who has no claims on God, just an evil servant, anyone
here who is face down in the dust before him, loving his sovereignty,
he looks at you the way he will look at that leper, and he says
the same thing. I will be that clean. I'll get down now. Appreciate it.