I'm really happy the introduction
wasn't any longer than it was. We went over to hear Brother
Rich at Danville and a lot of the musicians playing. And the
one fellow that was emceeing, he introduced the one group of
people that was ready to play a song and he went on and he
went on and he went on. Brother Coffee, Brother Bob,
looked over at me and said something to the effect, you know, he said,
if that song was any good, it wouldn't need such a long introduction.
And he says the reason the guy just keeps on and on because
the song, the musical instrument can't stand on its own. So, Todd,
thank you, Todd, for not just going on and on. It's a joy. It's a joy. This
has been a very good weekend for me. I needed it. And I appreciate
the pastor. I appreciate Len. It's so easy
to stay with them. Easy to be around you folks.
I just had a good weekend. I'm going to be looking at a
very familiar passage from Matthew chapter 8. It's familiar to me
and I know it's familiar with you because the first time I
ever heard this passage preached from, the parallel passage in
Mark chapter 1, your pastor preached from it. Concerning the leper
coming to the Lord Jesus Christ, and I want us to look in Matthew
chapter 8 and let's begin in verse 1. When he was come down from the
mountain, great multitudes 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 and said, I will be thou clean. And immediately
his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said unto him, See
thou tell no man, go thy way to the priest, go thy way, show
thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded
for a testimony unto them. I love these incidents that happened
when our Lord was here. And the reason I like him, I
think of this, Brother Todd preached this morning, I heard him on
TV. He preached on David sending and fetching Mephibosheth to
come. And before he ever got around
to explaining and applying that, I was just sitting there thinking
about, boy, this is the way a sinner is brought to Christ. But the
difference in that passage We could look at that passage really,
as you dealt with it, as a type. As a type. But you know, really,
this is not a type. When we see this leper coming
to the Lord Jesus Christ, we call it this sometime, a type.
But really, this is reality. This man really came to the Lord
Jesus Christ. He was full of leprosy, in his
last stages of leprosy. He had heard obviously that the
Lord Jesus was the Son of God. He was the Messiah. He comes
here contrary to what he should have according to the law. He
bows and he kneels before the Lord of glory and says, Lord,
if you will, you can make me clean. And the Lord immediately
Healed him. Reached his hand and touched
this leprous man. And then said, I will be thou
clean. And immediately he was clean.
And the Lord said something amazing to him. I thought, Lord, why
would you put a man under that unbearable burden? He says, don't
you tell anybody what I did for you. And he went and spread abroad.
It said He blazed the road, the story. And everybody marveled. And it got so bad the Lord Jesus
couldn't even go to certain places to preach because of the crowds.
That's the story about this leper coming to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I want you to look at this story with me this morning. And the first thing I want to
really begin here in verse 1, when He was come down from the
mountain. And I think we have to go back
to chapter 7 just to realize who this was. It said there in
chapter 7 verse 29, He taught them as one having great authority. This was the Sermon on the Mount,
of course. He opened His mouth and He preached to them there,
and it so went home to their hearts. They said, boy, He's
nothing like the scribes. When He teaches, He has authority. There's power. They're like Peter
who said, these words are spirit in their life. But who was this
that taught with authority? Well, He identifies Himself.
Look in verse 21 of chapter 7. Not everyone that saith unto
Me, Lord, Lord. In verse 22. Many will say to men that day,
Lord, Lord. He says, I'm Lord now. And I'll
be Lord in that day. This is the Lord of glory. Well,
no wonder he taught with authority. You call me Lord and you call
me Master. And you say, well, that's exactly
who I am. But look what he says here also
in verse 23. And then will I profess unto
them in that day, the great day of the judgment, I never knew
you. Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity. Here is one who
holds the destiny of men in his hands. No man will come and sit
down on his right hand, except he says first, Come, ye blessed
of my Father. And no man will depart and go
off into eternal ruin, except he first says, Depart, He holds the destiny of men in
His hand. Who is this? This is the Son
of God. This is God in our humanity. And the scripture says here,
He came down from the mountain. That reminds me of another mountain.
This first time we read about a mountain in the New Testament.
But it's very interesting sometimes if you want to go back over to
Exodus chapter 19, and you read about another mountain. That
this same Lord, this same God, there is but one. This is God
that came down from this mountain. You know God came down upon another
mountain one time. And it was so different from
this mountain. And you read the account there
in Exodus chapter 19 and verse 20. You'll remember this well
if you've read that before. God had spoke to Moses. And he
says, Moses, I'm going to come down. I'm going to give this
people my law, my commandments. And I'm going to give them this
law in such a way I'm going to drive it home to their hearts. Something about my holiness.
Something about my character. I'm just and right in my judgment. And he said, I want you to be
sure to tell them to wash their clothes and wash their flesh.
The men not come near their wives, and their wives not come near
their husbands. I want you to set bounds around
this mountain, because I'm going to come down upon this mountain. And you come up in the third
day. And Moses went up, and boy, suddenly this dark cloud came
down upon this mountain. And then it began to lighten.
The thunders began to shake the breast of those who were there
at the foot of that mountain. Angels were running to and fro. There was a trumpet sounding
exceeding loud. And this huge mountain began
to shake. And we're told why. The Lord
God came down upon the mountain in fire. You and I have been told for
probably 200 years now or so, I guess, that Mount Sinai is
in Egypt. And I always believed that. You
turn over to the back of your Bibles and if your Bibles has
maps in it as mine has, it'll probably show that Mount Sinai
is in Egypt. If you follow the road that they
come out of Egypt, they never cross the Red Sea on the map
in our Bibles. But I was watching some documentaries.
They've really discovered where Mount Sinai is. Paul said himself,
it's in Saudi Arabia. It's in Arabia. And men have
gone in there now with their video cameras and cameras. Some
of them have put their life on the line because Saudi Arabia
don't want anybody to know what they themselves call the Mount
of God. And these men have gone in there
and the whole top of the mountain is black. The rocks are just
black as they can be, and when you break the rocks, they'll
just look normal inside, but it's black. The whole top of
that mountain is black. It's a cave about halfway up
it, and one man went in, and it showed him on his video cameras,
he turned around and looked up over the plain, and you could
almost see the children of Israel gathering there in this huge
plain. God came down upon that mountain, and it's black even
unto this day. And the Lord spoke to Moses,
and He says, Moses, get back down off of this mountain. If
any of those people down there break through, and they try to
peep, and see who I am, I'll kill them. I'll break forth upon
them, and they shall perish." And Moses said, Lord, they can't
come up here because we've got mounds set around. And those
pillars are still there today, if you've seen those videos.
Huge pillars. They can't get past those pillars.
And the Lord said, Get out of here. Get away! Get away! Get out of here lest
I consume those people! Moses ran back down and he found
the people. And you know what they've done?
They removed and stood afar off. They were scared to death. And not just them, but you know
what Holy Moses said? He said, that side of God upon
that mountain was so terrible that I exceedingly fear and quake. It scared him to death. And the people said, don't let
this God speak with us, or we'll die. You speak with us. You be a mediator between us
and Him, but if He speaks with us, we're going to die. He's
given us a fire, a law that we cannot keep. Oh, we thought we
could, until we heard Him speak it ourselves. Oh, what a mountain
that was. What's the difference between
that mountain and this mountain? I tell you, it's the same God.
There's just one, is there not? Old Martin Luther used to say
this. He says, here's the difference in the absolute God that we see
upon Mount Sinai, and God as we see Him in Christ. The same
God, but a different side. On Mount Sinai we see a God that
you and I cannot stand before. He marks our iniquities and we
perish. But here we see a different side
of God. He comes down not only on the
mountain, but He comes down from the mountain. And when He does,
what happens? Multitudes. There's no fire. There's no quaking. There's no
people fleeing from Him. But the multitudes come to Him. And you know they feel so free
around Him. Nobody's full of dread. Nobody's
full of fear. And the difference is this. Here
is the Son of God in our humanity. He's not come to judge us. He's
not come to condemn us. He's not come to require all
of these things that you and I cannot attain to. But what's
He come to do? He's come to save us. He's come
to save us. He came down from the mountain. And you and I remember what He
was doing up there, don't we? He was teaching. But all the
gracious words that proceeded out of His mouth upon this mountain,
blessed are the poor in spirit. For theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, blessed are the meek,
for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst for righteousness, they shall be filled. Blessed
are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. And there was no
lightnings, there was no thunders, there was no threatenings. What's
the difference? A different side of God. Is it
not? God in our humanity. You know, when we have a sense
of who God is, we see something of His glory, we're apprehensive
about that. One of the things that we often
see, two little words, a little phrase that we often see, especially
in Luke and Matthew. When the Lord would send His
angels to give a message to some of those men, to Mary and some
of the others, one of the first things the angels said was, fear
not. Don't be afraid. Why are we afraid? Why are we
afraid of heaven? Why are we afraid of the upper
world? Well, we're natural people. We're fallen people. If we have
any sense of God in heaven and these holy elect angels, I'm
apprehensive about it. How would you like to be sitting
in your bedroom tonight, on your bed, and suddenly you looked
up and there was a holy angel? That would scare me to death. I don't relate to that world.
Do you? I'm a natural man. So our fears
has to be dispelled. God has to come to us in such
a way that he says to us, fear not. I've not come to do you
harm. I've not come commanding things
of you and putting you under burdens that you cannot bear.
Don't be afraid. Come and welcome. Draw near to
me. And how does God get us to do
that? He takes our humanity to himself. He becomes like us. He's born of a virgin. And He
comes to identify with us. And don't you this morning feel
very comfortable in His presence? The old psalm says, till God
in human flesh I see, my thoughts no comfort find. The holy, just,
and sacred three are terrorists to my mind. But if Emmanuel's
face appears, my hopes, my joys begin. His name forbids my slavish
fear, and His grace removes my sins. Oh, I don't want anything
to do with the God on Mount Sinai, but I love to draw near. to the
God who came down from this mountain. The Son of God in our humanity. And all these people came. They
began to follow Him. No threats whatsoever. But even
more than that, look at verse 2 in my text. And Matthew is amazed at it because
he uses this word in verse 2. And behold, there came a leopard. Look at that. There came a leper
to him, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst
make me clean. Why did Matthew, why does he
suggest to our minds by using this word, behold? Well, here
was a man who was full of leprosy. And all of us know the law concerning
leprosy. If you went to the priest, he
told you that you were a leper, you had leprosy. You weren't even allowed to go
back home. Some man led you outside of town
with some other lepers. He began to grab your clothes
and rip them up to make you look destitute as you would be in
a few days. You had to put a cloth over your
lip. If anybody come near you, you
were to cry unclean. I'm polluted. Don't come near
me. You weren't allowed back into
the gate of the city. You surely weren't allowed into
the temple. And this was the law. The first
time you may get a warning. That was mercy. But they had
the right to stone you to death. Society had to be protected. So Luke And Matthew looks at
this man coming to the Lord Jesus, and they said, behold, would
you look at this man, full of leprosy, and he's coming here
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, first of all, let's consider
this. How did he come? Well, he had to come contrary
to the law. No other way for him to come.
If he said, if he said, well the law says that I cannot approach
and that's what the law says, so I can't. If I approach unto
him, I'm taking my life into my own hands. And that's what
he did. Basically he said what the old
songwriter said, I can but perish if I go. And that could have
very well happened. I am resolved to try. If I stay
away, I know I shall forever die. So He comes, but He comes
contrary to the law of Moses. Doesn't that tell us something,
brothers and sisters, right off the bat? Isn't this the way that
you and I must come to Christ? Just like this man came, we must
come to Jesus Christ to be saved contrary to the law. What does the law say? This do,
and thou shalt live. Can you come on those terms?
Has your life upon this earth been perfect and complete? If not, you stand condemned.
I stand condemned. We're worthy of hell's heat.
We cannot come to the Lord Jesus Christ through the law. We must come contrary to the
law. Now what does that mean to come contrary to the law?
I want you to take your Bibles and look with me over in Romans
chapter 3 and Romans chapter 5. And I want you while you're
turning that way, if you want to, hold on to Mark chapter 1
because I want to come back to Mark chapter 1. But look in Romans
chapter 3 and verse 19. Look at this. Romans chapter
3 and verse 19. Here's the law. Here's what the
law says. Just as the law told this leper,
you better not approach unto anybody under no circumstances. Don't you approach to anybody. If you do, you take your life
into your own hands. Don't you approach into any healthy
man or you'll be killed. That's what the law says. Well,
look at what the law says to you and me. Look in verse 19
of Romans 3. We know that whatsoever things
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every
mouth, Bruce's mouth, Todd's mouth, your mouth, every mouth,
may be stopped. And all the world become guilty
before God. Therefore by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight. That's what I'm concerned about
and you're concerned about. Being accepted, being justified
in His sight. But by the law is the knowledge
of sin. God won't have anything to do
with you and me but to condemn us through the law. We're already
condemned. He'll just execute the judgment. We're guilty. Aren't you thankful? There's
another way apart from this law to be saved. Look at it in verse
21. But now, the righteousness of
God, the very way that He makes us righteous, It's called the
righteousness of God, and look at this, without the law. It's manifested in the gospel
of Jesus Christ. And it's being witnessed by the
law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is
by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.
For there is no difference, for we've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that is in Christ. Christ Jesus. One more passage,
look in chapter 5 and look here in verse 18. As by the offense of one, judgment
came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness
of one, the free gift came upon all men to justification of life. For by one man's disobedience,
Many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. You and I can be saved. We can
be justified before God without our obedience to the law of God. When Adam failed, He disobeyed
God and he failed in all his obedience from their own, mounted
to a hill of beans. And our obedience to the law
of God amounts to nothing but condemnation. We must be saved
contrary to the law of God. Well, let me rephrase that. I
didn't make that. That's not right. We must be
saved apart from the law. We can't be saved contrary. You
say, Bruce, what in the world are you talking about? We can't
be saved at the expense of justice. The law demands obedience. But here the Son of God has come
to this world in our humanity, and He's obeyed the law perfectly. And He's done it on the behalf
of every man and woman who will ever come and believe upon Him
for it. The law is honored. The law is
magnified in His death and in His life. And now, you and I
don't come and promise. You and I don't come because
we now think for the last day or two we've been good enough
and we've kept the law. We come contrary to our own obedience. We come to Him to be saved apart
from the law. I tell you, this is such good
news to me. I can't explain this. I've tried to preach and explain
it. I just feel so awful just trying to. But you know, all
through my teenage years, I tried to come to God through the law
of Moses. I thought, if I can just be good
enough. I know I'm doing these things
wrong, but if I can just get my act together, if I can straighten
up, I'll quit lying to my mother. And I've done some people wrong.
I'll go back and take what I've stolen. I'll go back and make
restitution. And I tell you what, all I felt,
all I felt was condemnation and guilt and the judgment of God. And then I began to see one day,
I thought, well, God has sent His Son. What's all that about?
He must surely have something to do with my salvation. So it's
my obedience plus His. That didn't work either. until
God brought me to the point, my miserable self-righteous soul
to the point. It's got nothing to do with your
obedience. It's got nothing to do with your
promises. It's His obedience. That's a righteousness that God
gives us that He will accept us in. If you've ever read John
Bunyan's Pilgrim Progress, where Pilgrim ran into to evangelist. Remember that an evangelist told
him you got to get through the wicked gate and see a man hanging
on a cross. And he sent him towards the wicked
gate. Well as he was going towards the wicked gate, it took him
too long to get there in my opinion. But he was going towards the
wicked gate and he ran into this man and his name was called the
wise man. Worldly wise man. And he sent
him over to the village of Morality to a man whose name was Legalist,
Mr. Legalist. And he said, while
I was going there to the town of Morality, I came underneath
this mountain. And he said, boy, lightning was
flashing, and the longer I walked, the mountain come over my head,
and I thought it was going to fall on me and crush me. And evangelists
come to him and said, what are you doing at this mountain? And
he said, this worldly wise man sent me. He said, did I not tell
you? that you had to go until you saw that man hanging on a
tree? This mountain can't relieve you.
It just condemns you. It shows you a side of God's
face that you cannot endure. And boy, he fled from that place
and went until he saw the man hanging on a tree and his burden
fell from his back and it rolled off in a sepulcher and he never
saw it again. We must be saved. in a different
manner than this law. We must be saved in a different
manner. I can tell you this, if you're
here today and you're lost, I can tell you this but you won't pay
attention to me. Stop trying to save yourself. Stop trying to save yourself.
It's foolish. Admit what you are. As horrible
and as humbling and as fearful as it is, admit what you are. Admit the awful perishing condition
that you're in and come to the very one this leper came to and
say with him, Lord, if you will, you can cleanse me. I don't come
with promises. Those days are over with. I broke
them all. I've got no claims on God. I'm a leper and I'm Persian. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. Come contrary to your own conscience. Come contrary to what people
tell you. Come. I don't feel like it. Who said
you did? Come to Christ. To be saved by Him alone. Oh, that's easy. That's the most
difficult thing I ever did. Not because it was difficult
on His part. Here was the problem. Here was
the problem. You've found that to be so, haven't
you? Here's the problem. I came to Jesus as I was, weary
and worn and sad. And I found in Him a resting
place, and He has made me glad. I come naked, and I found clothing
to cover my shame. I came to Him empty, and He filled
me. I came to Him filthy, and He
washed me. I came to Him dead, and He gave
me life. I came just as I was. And that's the lesson, first
of all, I see with this lamp. He came just like He was. And He had to come contrary to
the law. Look back in Mark with me. If
you held that, look back in Mark. Look in Mark. This is a parallel
passage. I love the way the Spirit of God stresses who this leper
came to. Look in Mark chapter 1 and look
here in verse 40 right quickly. A leper came to Him. And look
in verse 40 of Mark chapter 1. He tells us in verse 40 who came.
There came a leper. A leper. Wasn't supposed to come,
but he came anyway. It came contrary to the law.
A leper came. And look at this. It tells us here in verse 40
who he came to. And this is amazing. Six times
it says this. There came a leper to him. beseeching
Him, kneeling down to Him, saying to Him, if Thou wilt, Thou can
make me whole. If I wrote you one sentence and
I referred to myself six times, you would say, Bruce, that makes
no sense. But when the Holy Spirit comes
here and write who this leper came to six times, He says, Him,
Him, Him, Him. Why aren't men saved, brothers
and sisters? Let's just be honest about it. Why aren't men saved? I'll tell you why men aren't
saved. They will not come to Him. You will not come to me. I would give you life if you
would come, but you won't come to me. You'll come to others. You'll come to the baptistry.
You'll get you a bunch of doctrines in your head, but you won't come
to me. And you're the blessed Holy Spirit.
He emphasizes this six times in one sentence. Him. Come to
Him. I'm ready to perish. Then come
to Him. Come to Him. Oh, and he said, Lord, if you
will. Notice how he come. He come as ruined. He came as
dying. A leper. He came a bagger. He came beseeching. He came humbling
himself. The Bible says he knelt down.
He came submitted himself, if thou wilt. And he came this,
with this, knowing you've got power to cleanse me, if you will. That's the way he came. Some
people, we've heard these people that they would never deny the
power of God in salvation. Oh, you're saved by the power
of God. We'd never deny that. But you know what they do deny?
The will of God in salvation. Here's a man that acknowledged
both the power of the Lord and he acknowledged the will of the
Lord. First time I ever heard Todd
preach on this, I never will forget what he said. He said it's very important to
see what this leopard didn't say when he came. And he didn't
say, I've decided to come to Jesus. I have decided to receive my
healing. I've decided to receive Jesus
as my Savior and somewhere I'll make Him my Lord. You don't remember
saying that, but I remember that. I don't say this, and I hope
I don't offend anybody by saying this, but brothers and sisters,
beware of men like Billy Graham that call men forward in some
meeting. Beware of men that tells you
that you just exercise the power of your will and that saves you. Beware of men who believe that
you pray a sinner's prayer and that prayer saves you. Men will
never be saved until they're saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. Wouldn't this man, wouldn't he
have looked silly to come here and said, I've received my healing
and run off towards the temple? I'll tell you something else
you're going to receive too. You're going to receive some stones
on your head, man. You better get out of here. I
don't care what you've received. You're a leper. And you can deceive
yourself and get that in your head, but just a few days from
now, you're going to die. You're going to die. If thou wilt. This is what He said. Can you
imagine this? Here He comes. He casts Himself
down at the Lord's feet. And He looks up and He says,
If you will, Listen to this. Can you imagine
this? There went a silence over that
multitude. You could have heard a pin drop.
All you could hear was the pounding of people's hearts and breaths. Shhh. Listen. Shhh. What are they waiting for? What are they listening for?
They're waiting for something that can only be known by revelation. Whether I live or whether I die,
it's in your will. Can you imagine where this man
came to? That he said, It's out of my hands. It has
nothing to do with my will. If I'm healed of this leprosy
and I go on living a normal life, it's in Your will. If I die with this leprosy, it's
Your will. Can you imagine being come to
that place in your own salvation? What does the will of God have
to do with your salvation? Would you be angry with me this
morning if I told you He had absolutely everything to do with
it? No, you wouldn't be, because
you know, don't you? You know. We've been told today, we've
been told today, God loves you and we love you. And we all just
need to get together and agree and have a happy time. and go
on our way to heaven. We don't need to be afraid of
anything. And they're all going to hell
together. All going to hell together. How would you feel this morning
if you stood before the Lord of Glory and your salvation depended
wholly upon His will. Whether you were saved or whether
you were damned, would that scare you? You better bet this man was afraid. But that's what we're being told.
Oh, don't you be afraid of anything. Oh, my soul, if my salvation
stands in the will of the Lord of glory, I'm afraid. I want
to know that it's His will to save me. And until He makes me
to know that, I better be afraid. I better be afraid. The happiest
soul here this morning are you, dear people, who know that you
are saved according to the will of God. Lord, if you will, If you will. Don't you think this made this
man extremely happy when the Lord looked at him and said,
I will. I will. I was talking to Todd
about this this morning. Can you imagine what a predicament
this put the Lord Jesus Christ in? This is almost irresistible to
the Lord. When this man comes and says,
Lord, whether I live or die, it's according to your will.
Whatever you will. Man, how could the Lord Jesus
say, I ain't gonna do it and all, it's just not my will. That's
not His way, is it? That's not the God in our humanity
that's come to save us. Oh my goodness, every time we
go to Him, whatever predicament we're in, if we need to be saved
by Him, or if we need His guidance, we need His help, we need His
mercy, Lord, if you will, just put all the burden upon Him and
see what He does. Spurgeon asked an old lady in
his congregation, he said, Dear sister, what if the Lord just
deferred it to you, the day of your death, when you should die?
And she said, Well, I'll just refer it right back to Him. And
he said, What if He just referred it back to you? She said, Mr.
Spurgeon, I'll just refer it right back to Him. Lord, not
my will, but Thine be done. What a plea! And notice this, and I'm about
finished. I won't keep you much longer. But notice this. Notice
in Mark chapter 1 and verse 41. I love this. And Jesus moved with compassion,
put forth His hand, and touched him, and touched him. I've jotted down a few things.
There was a man that Gil knew or gleaned from his writings
who was an eyewitness of a man who was filled with leprosy.
He was in his dying days. And listen to what he said this
man looked like. He said, by now this man's nose had rotted
off and all that was there was two nose holes in his face. His tongue was black and ulcerated
and swollen. His face was blotted and shiny
and had hard knots. His knots were green at the bottom
and white at the top, huge ulcered ulcers had risen and bursted
only to feet off each other until finally his skin looked like
those of a fish scale. If you pulled his hair, it would
bring not only hair off, but the skin exposing the scalp. His ears and private parts had
rotted and fell off. His eyes were red and inflamed,
and they shined like that of a cat. His body temperature had
reached such a height that if he held a full apple in his hand
for one hour, it would be thoroughly cooked. And if his vein was cut,
instead of bleeding blood, it bled stinking pus." That's what
that man looked like. And the Son of God reached forth
His hand and He touched him. Why would He do that? That wasn't
what healed him. He wasn't healed until the Lord
spoke and said, I will be thou clean. Why did the Lord touch
this man? The Bible tells us why. He was
moved with compassion. Here was this man in his most
deplorable, wretched, miserable condition. And I can't begin
to imagine how he was suffering. Nobody would come near him. He
wasn't allowed near to anybody. And here was the Lord of Glory
that he stood before and he wretched his hand out and put it on his
stinking, leprous body. He touched him. because he was
filled with compassion. He was touched when he saw him. His heart went out to him, and
he couldn't help but reach out and touch him. Oh, brothers and
sisters, isn't this an awful world that we live in? Don't
sometimes you feel yourself like this leper? And you're so wretched,
you're so sinful, and you stink to your own self. And you don't
even want to get out of the house. You don't even want to be around
anybody. Unclean, unclean. And you wonder, is the Lord Jesus
Christ as repulsed with me as I am with myself? Is He ashamed
of me as I am of myself? And then what happens? Oh, he
comes to you in his compassion, in a song, or in a message, or
in a prayer, and he reaches out and he touches you. And he says
to you, oh my child, I can be touched with your infirmities.
I know where you're at. I know what you're feeling. I
care about you. And why shouldn't He, brothers
and sisters, touch us? He's not affected by it. He didn't get leprosy when He
touched this man. It doesn't affect the Lord Jesus
to come near us and to abide in our hearts and to comfort
us and to encourage us. It doesn't affect Him, but I'll
tell you it will affect. It'll affect us. This man was full of leprosy,
but when the Lord Jesus touched him, he wasn't infected, but
this man was cleansed. How could we live in this miserable
world of tears and trouble and heartaches and misery if we did
not know the Son of God loved us and that He cared for us? And no matter where we're at
on our job or whatever circumstances we face in our life, isn't it
wonderful to know that He cares? That's all that's gotten me through
the last two or three years. He cares. And oh, sometimes He
makes us to know it, doesn't He? He touches us. And this. I don't like to get
like this. I hate this when I get like this.
I can't see my nose and I'm sobbing and snotting. It's awful. But isn't this wonderful? And the man was cleansed and
then the Lord made that statement to him. Don't tell anybody, but
He said this, Go show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices. that Moses commanded to be offered.
If you read Leviticus chapter 14 sometime, you'll see what
the Master was referring to. Leprosy was an awful, awful disease. You had to be healed of God.
You'd never get over it. But if the Lord healed you, if
you were healed of leprosy, then you went to the priest and he
examined you. I mean, he stripped you naked. He shaved the hair off of your
head and he put you away a few days and he'd come back and he'd
shave it again. I want to make sure you don't have leprosy.
Then when he made sure you didn't have leprosy, then you offered
a sacrifice. The Lord Jesus sends this man
to the priest. He said, you go let him examine
you. Let him examine you. I tell you, when the Lord saves
a man, He can send him to the law. But not as a rule of life. To let him see, man, I find no
fault in this man. Did I just see him a while back,
and wasn't he a leper? What has happened to this man?
I didn't do anything for him. But here he is, and look at him. I've examined him thoroughly.
There's no leprosy in this man. I tell you brothers and sisters,
when the Lord saves us, when He clothes us, when He washes
us, He justifies us perfectly, we can face death, we can face
living, we'll face the judgment of God, we'll face eternity,
and no fault will be found in us. He doesn't put us on probation. He doesn't get a work started.
What most people are searching their end and their goal is to
be made perfect someday. That's where we start. The very instant the Lord saves
you, the law finds no fault in you. You're perfectly saved. Isn't that wonderful? Now that's
the story of the leper. And that's the way we come. And
the same thing happened to him happens to us. I will be clean. God bless you.