Not that I did. Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Mattawar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. I'd like to read from Luke chapter
5. I've entitled this message, Touching
the Untouchable. In Luke chapter 5, beginning
in verse 12, we read, And it came to pass, when he was in
a certain city, Behold, a man full of leprosy. who, seeing Jesus, fell on his
face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt thou canst
make me clean. And he put forth his hand, and
touched him, saying, I will. Be thou clean." And immediately
his leprosy departed from him. I want us to consider every one
of those words. And it came to pass. Whatever
God purposes comes to pass. The fact that you are listening
to this right now is because God purposed it and it came to
pass. God is sovereign in all things
and controls all events. Whatever happens comes to pass. And it came to pass when he was
in a certain city, behold. Anytime the word of God says
behold, We ought to behold something unusual is getting ready to take
place, something that we ought to pay careful attention to. Behold a man like me and you. In many respects, we don't know
the details of this man's life, but he was a real man with real
hopes, real desires, real dreams and real fears. A man very much
like me and you, but he was a very special man. Let me show you
why. Behold, a man full of leprosy
came to him. That's what makes him special.
He was full of leprosy. Special, do you say? How could
that be special? It is special. Now, leprosy is
the word used for a disease of the flesh that the scripture
speaks of quite often. It testifies or it typifies sin. It begins with a lack of pigment. and numbness. Nodules then grow
and ulcerate. The bones and internal organs
are then affected. Lesions would appear on the face.
And what a horrible disease of the flesh this was. Parts of
you would rot off. Now, the flesh in the Scripture
represents human nature. They that are in the flesh cannot
please God. Paul said, I know that in me
that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. So, leprosy represents
sin, a disease of the flesh. And what a horrible disease it
was. The Bible gives no cure of this
disease unless God decided to cure you. There wasn't something
you could take that would make you better. It was a disease
of the flesh that would end up in death. And the leper had no
provision for worship. Let me read a passage of scripture
from Leviticus chapter 13 regarding the leper. Verse 44 says he's
a leprous man. Speaking of the leper, he is
unclean. The priest shall pronounce him
utterly unclean. His plague is in his head. And
the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent,
and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper
lip, and shall cry unclean, unclean. And the days wherein the plague
shall be in him, he shall be defiled. He is unclean, and shall
dwell alone without the camp, shall his habitation be." He
wasn't allowed in the camp. There was no sacrifice for the
man who had the leprosy. He was shut out. But notice when
it speaks of this leper in Luke chapter 5, it's pointed out that
this man was full of leprosy. Let me read a passage of scripture
in Leviticus chapter 13, verse 12. And did the 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? This man who's completely covered
with leprosy. There's not one square inch of
healthy flesh. Nothing but ulcers where the
leprosy was invading his body. Now if this man is covered everywhere,
then the priest shall consider and behold, if the leprosy hath
covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean. Now did
you hear that? When the leprosy covered all
of his flesh, He was pronounced by the priests to be clean. Now, let's go back to our text.
This man was full of leprosy. That's all that was there. Now,
in verse 12, it came to pass when he was in a certain city,
behold a man full of leprosy. Who, seeing Jesus, fell on his
face?" Now, this word, seeing, is not the word that generally
means physical sight. It means he perceived. He saw
clearly. He understood. He knew who the
Lord Jesus Christ was. And what proves that is his Subsequent
actions. He fell on his face, at his feet,
and worshipped. That lets us know that he knew
who the Lord Jesus Christ was, who seeing Jesus. Now, when someone sees Jesus,
they fall on their face every time. But did you know it's only
the sinful, it's only those who are full of leprosy that see
Him? Now, if I do not see myself in
this light, full of sin, to where that is all there is, if I believe
that I at least have the power to change my condition as an
act of my will, I can decide to let God do something for me,
some belief in free will and some idea that I have some kind
of control in salvation, All I prove by that is I've never
really seen Him. Because if you ever see who the
Lord Jesus Christ is, you'll see yourself for who and what
you are. You'll be like Isaiah. Let me
read a passage from Isaiah chapter 6. This is when Isaiah saw the
Lord. We read in Isaiah chapter 6 verse
1, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting
upon a throne high and lifted up. And his train filled the
temple. Above it stood the seraphims.
Each one had six wings. With twain he covered his face.
With twain he covered his feet. And with twain he did fly. And one cried to another and
said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth
is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I, This is Isaiah speaking. I think it's very interesting.
If you go back into the first five chapters of Isaiah, five
or six times he says, Woe unto them. Woe unto them. Woe unto them that do this or
do that. But now look what he says after
he'd seen the Lord. Then said I, Woe is me, for I
am undone, because I'm a man of unclean lips. And I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen
the King, the Lord of hosts." Now, here's where we find out
what we are. Not by looking within, but when
we see who He is. Now, through seeing Jesus, said
of this leper, in His holiness as the Son of David, as the Lord,
he saw the same thing the thief did because he called Him Lord. Lord. If you will, you make me
clean. I think of the thief hanging
on the cross. He knew something concerning the Lord Jesus Christ
that nobody else did at that time. Everybody else was making
fun of him. Everybody else thought he was
a pathetic failure, that he was being crucified and helpless.
But when the thief looked at him, the thief knew he's the
Lord. Lord, remember me when You come
in Your Kingdom. You're not going to stay here.
You're going to come back reigning in Your Kingdom, O Lord. Lord
means dictator, the one who has absolute control. The thief knew
he was the Lord. This leper knew he was the Lord.
Oh, the Lordship of Christ. He's the Lord. That means he's
sovereign. That's the same thing. It means
his will is done. He's Lord of creation. He created
the universe. He's Lord of Providence. He controls
everything and everybody, and nothing happens without Him.
And most especially, He's the Lord of salvation. That means
salvation's in His hands. It's up to Him as to whether
or not you'll be saved. It's not up to you. It's up to Him. People
say, won't you accept Jesus? That's not the issue. Not will
you accept Jesus. Will He accept you? Will He do
something for you? He's the Lord. Now, let's read
what this man said. Lord, if You will, You can make
me clean. Now, in this man's experience,
he didn't know whether or not the Lord would make him clean,
but he still said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.
Now, he hadn't had the Lord do anything for him yet, as far
as his experience goes. In Matthew's account of this,
it says He came and worshipped Him. He worshipped Him for who
He was, and He had not yet done anything for Him. Now, if the
Lord passes me by, if the Lord does not have mercy on me, if
the Lord would say, let Him go, send Him to hell, no mercy for
that man, if the Lord did that to me, would He still be worthy
of worship? If He did that to you, would
He still be worthy of worship? Yes, because He's the Lord. Whatever happens to me or you,
He's the Lord, the Divine Being, God the Son. He is to be worshiped. And this leper understood that.
He said, Lord, if You will, You can make me clean. He fell on His face. Seeking
the Lord and that's what everybody who sees the Lord. That's what
they do. They fall on their face Lord. If you will, you can make
me clean." Now, this man knew that he was not clean. He was full of leprosy. He could look at himself and
see that he was not clean. He was filthy before God, not
only in his flesh, but in his spirit and in his soul, and he
knew that. He knew he was unclean. Like
Isaiah said, from the sole of the foot even to the head, there's
no soundness in it but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. This leper knew he was not clean
before God. Paul the Apostle said, I know
that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. Now, you see yourself that way. What I want you to do, if you
don't, don't look to yourself, don't look inside yourself, don't
start trying to compare yourself to somebody else. I want you,
by the grace of God, to look at the cross. You look at the
cross, you see that man hanging there who never sinned, and yet
the people delivered him up to be crucified. The cross tells
us what we would do if God removed His hand from us. Now, if God
left you to yourself, you and I, if He left me to myself, you
and I would be murderers of the Son of God. Somebody says, I
would never do anything like that. Well, you probably wouldn't
do anything that for the false Jesus that is being preached
in our day that wants things and can't have them and can't
make a move unless we let him. You might not do that, but I'm
talking about the Lord of glory. I'm talking about the one who's
in absolute control, the holy sovereign son of God, the one
in whose hands is salvation. He can save as he pleases or
he can pass you by that one. If left to ourselves, if God
removed His hand and left us to ourselves, we'd put Him out
of business. Now, if you want to know what
sin is, look at the cross. There's what men do when God
leaves them to themselves. Now, the fact of the matter is,
whether we see it or not, you and I are just like this leper.
unclean before God, and our cleansing will not come until we've seen
that we are unclean before God. This man knew that he was not
clean, and he also knew that he could not make himself clean. Can the Ethiopian change his
skin or the leopard his spots? Then may you do good who are
accustomed to doing evil. No, this man lacked the ability
to make himself clean. He lacked the ability to present
himself as clean before God. He was unclean and he couldn't
do anything to make himself clean. The Lord said in John chapter
6, verse 44, this is talking about man's inability. John 6,
44, the Lord said, No man can come to me. And did you hear
that? You and I lack the ability, because
of our uncleanness, because of our sinful, fallen nature, you
and I lack the ability to even come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He said, no man can come to Me, except the Father which is sent
Me draw him, and I'll raise him up at the last day. Now, you
and I, by nature, if God leaves us to ourself, will never come
to Christ, and we cannot come to Christ because of the sinfulness
of our nature. We can't come because we won't
come, and we will not come because we're unable to come. This man
knew that he could not cleanse himself. And the third thing
this man knew is he knew that Christ had the ability to make
him clean. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. You can make it so I'm perfectly
holy. You can make it so that I'm without
sin, without spot, without blemish. You can make me to where I am
clean. He believed the Lord was able
to do this. I'd like to read a passage of Scripture from Ephesians
chapter 5, beginning in verse 25. Paul says, Verse 25, Husbands, love your
wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for
it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it. There you go. With
the washing of the water by the Word, that He might present it,
this church that He's washed, to Himself, a glorious church,
not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it
should be holy and without blemish." Now this leper, he knew he was
ungly. He knew he couldn't make himself
clean. And he knew the Lord could. You see, he's the Lord. Is anything
too hard for the Lord? He knew the Lord could make him
clean. And he knew it was entirely up
to the will of Christ as to whether He'd be clean. He said, if you
will, if you choose, you can make me clean. Now, I realize
that for centuries this whole religious world has argued over
free will, man's will, whosoever will, and God's will. But I know
whose will is going to be done. He doeth. according to His will,
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
And none can stay His hand or say unto Him, What doest thou?
I know whose will is going to be done. Lord, if You will, You
can make me clean. Now, can you imagine this leper
saying to the Lord, Lord, I will that You make me clean. You don't
address the God of glory that way. The only one who can say
to God, I will, is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Father, I will,
that they whom You've given Me be with Me where I am, that they
may behold My glory. For Thou lovest Me from the foundation
of the world. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can
speak like that. A sinful man is not going to
say, I will that You do this, or I will that You do that. If I believe in what people call
free will, Now listen to me real carefully. Free will. That's
the notion that God loves everybody, Christ died for everybody, God
wants to save everybody. But it's up to man's will, his
decision, to accept what Christ did for him in order to make
it work. He can, God can love you, Christ
can die for you, God the Holy Spirit can call you, you might
end up in hell anyway if you don't, as an act of your free
will, decide to accept what He did for you. Now my dear friends,
there's not a drop of truth in that. That's the lie of the devil.
There's no truth in it and somebody preaches that, does not preach
the gospel, someone who believes that, does not believe the gospel. This leper didn't come like that.
He didn't say, I will that you do. If you will, you can make me
clean. Now, if we're going to approach
the Master to obtain mercy, the prayer of our heart and our lips
must be, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. Now, the only thing that this
leper was not very sure about was the Lord's willingness to
do it. He said, Lord, if you will, you
can make me clean. He wasn't real sure about the
Lord's willingness to make him clean. And, you know, I understand
that. I understand that. If you're
a sinner, all sense of entitlement is gone. And you just wonder
why the Lord didn't have anything to do with you anyway. You'd
be very much like Peter when Peter said, depart from me. I'm
a sinful man, O Lord. You don't want to have anything
to do with me. He wasn't real sure about the Lord's
willingness. You know that scripture in Romans 9.13, it's a quotation
from Malachi chapter 1, where God says, Jacob have I loved
and Esau have I hated. Remember that scripture? I remember
just this week, I saw someone with a t-shirt saying, God loves
you. And I wanted to ask him, did
he love Esau? We know he didn't. He said, Esau
have I hated, Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated. Now people
stress over that. How could God hate somebody?
Now if you know that you're a sinner, you understand why he could hate
you. You see, his hatred is not like human hatred. His hatred
is with regards to justice and righteousness, who he is. And
you can see why God would hate you and pass you by. What you're
amazed by is this thing of, Jacob have I loved? How could he love
me? When someone is unconverted, they get stuck on Esau have I
hated. Somebody, when the Lord does
something for them, what they're amazed by is Jacob have I loved. Now, this man just wasn't real
sure about Christ's willingness, and I understand that. Lord,
if you will, you can make me clean. Now, I would like to read
Mark's account of this. In Mark chapter 1, this is in
Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Then in Mark chapter 1, we read
beginning in verse 40, And there came a leper to him, beseeching
him and kneeling down to him and saying unto him, If thou
wilt, thou canst make me clean. Verse 41 says, And Jesus moved
with compassion. Now, do you hear that? When this
man came in his uncleanness, full of leprosy, knowing he couldn't
make himself clean, Knowing the Lord could. Knowing it was entirely
up to the will of Christ as to whether or not He would be clean.
And he prayed, Lord, if You will, You can make me clean. The Scripture
says the Lord was moved with compassion. Now let me tell you
this about the Lord. Anyone who comes to Him like
this, he's moved with compassion. You see, He delights in mercy
for sinners. If you're full of leprosy, if
you're full of sin, how did you get that way? He showed you. He made Himself known to you.
And the reason you now know that you're full of leprosy is because
He's going to have mercy on you because He saves everybody who's
full of leprosy. Now, if you have any goodness,
if you have any righteousness, if you have any merit, you cut
your own throat. He's not going to have mercy on that person
who thinks themselves to be good, who thinks they have some kind
of ability. He's not going to have anything to do with you.
He'll pass you by. But if you come like this leper did, He's
moved with compassion. And look what it says next. It
says, he put forth his hand and touched him. How long has it been since this
leper had been touched? Who knows? Years and years and
years. You wouldn't touch him. I wouldn't
touch him. We would be afraid of contracting
his disease. But the Lord moved with compassion,
reached forth His hand, and touched him, saying, I will. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. I will. This is what He says
to everyone who comes to Him just like that. Be thou clean. And look what it says took place.
Verse 42, And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy
departed from him. And he was cleansed. As soon
as the Lord said, I will, that leprosy left. Where'd it go?
Went to the same place my sins went. who his own self bear our
sins in his own body on the tree. He took my sin and my sorrow. He made it His very own. He bore
the burden to Calvary and suffered and died alone." That man's leprosy
went somewhere. It went to the Lord Jesus Christ,
which represents how a leper is cleansed, how a sinner is
cleansed. That sinner's sin is placed in Christ. Christ bore
it as the sinner's substitute, suffered and died under the wrath
of God as the sin-bearing substitute. satisfied God's justice, and
He gives His saving health, He gives His righteousness to everyone
He touches. You see, in this touch there
was a transfer that took place. My sin became His, and His righteousness
becomes mine. He touched him saying, I will
be thou cleansed, and immediately the man's leprosy was cleansed. He was made whole. And look what
happens next. Verse 43, And he straightly charged
him, and forthwith sent him away. And saith unto him, See that
ye say nothing to any man, but go thy way, show thyself to the
priest, and offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded
for a testimony unto them. This man can now go to the law,
and the law will pronounce him clean, because the Lord Jesus
Christ made him clean. Now, we have this message on
DVD and CD. If you call the church or write
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nyberg praying that
God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. That's our prayer.
If you request a copy of the sermon you have just heard, send
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