Would you turn back to Luke chapter
5? While you're turning there, the tornado that hit in Henryville,
Indiana, there were several members of the church at Redeemer Baptist
in Louisville that attend there that were affected. They had
some trailers torn up, and one person lost their car, and all
they had was liability insurance. So anything that we can do to
help those saints in Louisville, Let's do it, and just mark your
check to help them. That's a very difficult time
for them. Luke chapter 5. I've entitled
this message, Touching the Untouchable. Touching the Untouchable. In verse 12, we read, and it
came to pass. That is a phrase that's in the
scripture over and over again. It came to pass. God purposed
it. And it came to pass. It came to pass that you and
I are here this morning. God purposed it. and it came
to pass. There's one reason you and I
are here. God purposed it and it came to
pass. And it came to pass when he was
in a certain city, behold, and this is another word that is
found in the scripture quite often, behold. And if God, the Holy Spirit says,
behold, Don't you reckon we ought to pay very careful attention
to what is being said? Behold. A man. 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. Real fears. And real troubles. He was a man. With trials and
afflictions. A man. Man that's born of woman
is born to trouble. The scripture says the sparks
fly upward. This was a man. But he was a very special man.
What was special about him. Well, the scripture points out
he was full of leprosy. He was completely covered with
leprosy. Special? What's special about
that? That seems like a disaster. Well,
I hope you and I will understand by the end of this message, this
was a special man, a man full of leprosy. Now, leprosy in the
Bible is used to typify sin. It is a disease of the flesh. Now, how does the Bible represent
the flesh? That's fallen human nature. Leprosy was a disease of the
flesh. And it began with a lack of pigment
and numbness. it made it to where you couldn't
feel. You became numb. Nodules would then grow and ulcerate. The bones and the internal organs
would then be affected by those growing nodules. Lesions would
appear on the face and gangrene sets in, in those parts of the
flesh that are affected. What a horrible disease of the
flesh. Now, the flesh is used to describe
fallen human nature. They that are in the flesh, Paul
said, cannot please God. Paul said, I know that in me,
that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing." Now, the leper
had no provisions for worship. They were shut out of the camp.
Turn with me to Leviticus chapter 13, verse 44. This is what is written of the
leper. He is a leprous man. Leviticus 13, verse 44. 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. All the days wherein the plague
shall be in him, he shall be defiled. He's unclean. He shall dwell alone. Without the camp shall his habitation
be. The plight of the leper, utterly
unclean. There was no sacrifice for the
leper. He was not allowed to participate in worship. He was
set outside of the camp. But our text tells us that this
man was full of leprosy. Everywhere you looked, you wouldn't
find one healthy part of his flesh. Nothing but wounds and
bruises and putrefying sores. This man was hideous looking.
Every part of his flesh was covered with this leprosy, which represents
sin. Now stay there in Leviticus chapter
13, verse 12. And if a leprosy break out abroad
in the skin, Leviticus 13, verse 12. And if a leprosy break out
abroad in the skin, leprosy cover all the skin of him that hath
the plague. Like this man, remember he was full of leprosy. He was
completely covered with leprosy. If 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, then shall the priest consider and behold,
if the leprosy hath covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce
him clean. that hath the plague. Now do
you hear that? When that man was completely
covered with leprosy, the priest would pronounce him clean. It is all turned white, he's
clean, but when raw flesh, that word raw is quick or living,
healthy flesh. When raw flesh appeareth in him,
he shall be unclean. Now, remember I said this leper
was a very special man, a very blessed man, because he was full
of leprosy. Now, notice back to our text
in Luke chapter 5, verse 12. 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. Now the word seeing here is not
the word that describes a physical sight. It could just as easily
be said, who perceiving Jesus. who understanding Jesus, who
seeing who he really was, not just a physical sight, but he
had a spiritual sight of who the Lord Jesus Christ really
is. Now, I know he did because he
did what everybody who ever sees him does. He fell on his face. That's what folks do who see
the Lord Jesus Christ. They fall on their face. But did you know it is only the
sinful, it is only those who are full of leprosy that can
see Him. Now if I do not see myself right
now, present tense, full of sin full of leprosy there's only
one reason it's because I have not seen him because if I see
him I will see myself as full of leprosy and if I believe that
That would not describe me that I at least have some power. At
least I can, if I want to choose to get better, I can let God
save me. I can accept Christ. I can, I
can turn things around. If I believe that about myself,
all I've proved by that is I've never seen the Lord Jesus Christ
because everyone without exception who has seen him will see themselves
as full of leprosy. Would you turn with me a moment
to Joshua chapter 5? Joshua chapter 5. We're going
to look at someone who saw the Lord. Verse 13 of Joshua chapter 5,
And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted
up his eyes, and looked, and behold, there stood a man over
against him, with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went
unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, neither, nay. But as the captain of the host
of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to
the earth. Just like that leopard did. And
did worship. And said unto him, What saith
my Lord unto his servant? He's not asking whose side are
you on. Not now. He's not worried about
if the Lord's on his side. He wants to know if he's on the
Lord's side. That's what he wants to know.
Verse 15, and the captain of the Lord's hosts, the Lord Jesus
Christ, said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for
the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so. Now, if you're wondering if he's
on your side, It's because you haven't seen
him. And when you see who he is, there's only one response. Fall on your face and worship. If like Isaiah, you and I ever
see the Lord, we'll say with Isaiah, woe is me. I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean
lips. I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the king, the Lord
of hosts. He came to pass when he was in
a certain city. Behold, a man full of leprosy, who seeing Jesus
in his holiness as the son of David, he saw him as the Lord. He saw him the same way that
thief did. That thief hanging by our Lord, seeing him as a
bloody mess. He looked at that one who said
God had forsaken him and all of his disciples had forsaken
him. He looked at him and he said, Lord, Lord. Now, Lord means the one
who has power. The one who has control. The dictator. Jesus is Lord. And Jesus is sovereign. Is the exact same thing. Look
across the page to Luke chapter 7. This leper knew he was the Lord. Verse one. Now when he had ended
all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into
Capernaum, and a certain centurion servant, who was dear unto him,
was sick and ready to die. And when he heard of Jesus, he
sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he
would come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus,
they besought him instantly, saying that he was worthy for
whom he should do this. For he loveth our nation, and
he hath built us a synagogue. Then Jesus went with him, and
when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent
friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself, for
I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter unto my roof. Wherefore,
neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee. This man had
some idea who the Lord was and who he was, didn't he? When you
see this language. But say in a word, and my servant
shall be healed. For I also am a man set under
authority. I understand authority, having
under me soldiers. And I say unto one, go, and he
goes. And to another, come, and he comes. And to my servant,
do this, and he does it. I know that all you have to do
is will it. Say it, and it comes to pass,
because you're the Lord. You're the one who has all authority. And when Jesus heard these things,
he marveled at him and turned about him and said unto the people
that followed him, I say unto you, I've not found so great
a faith, no, not in Israel. And they that were sent returning
to the house found the servant whole that had been sick. Now back to Luke five, a man full of leprosy who Seeing
Jesus fell on his face. Matthew's account says at this
time he worshipped Him. And this man was full of leprosy,
full of sin, and the Lord had not yet done anything for him,
nor did he know whether or not the Lord would do anything for
him. But he fell on his face and he
worshiped. Now, any religion, any so-called
worship that is about personal gain or personal benefit is false. It's not real worship. Now, this man worshipped the
Lord. He fell on his face before the
Lord had done anything for him. Now, here's the point I want
to make from this. If the Lord does not do anything
for me, is he still to be worshipped? If the Lord passes me by and
makes me a monument of His infinite justice, to glorify His justice
and His holiness, and sends me to hell, is He still worthy of
divine worship? Yes, He is. This man fell on his face before
the sovereign of the universe, and he worshipped him. And he
worshipped him for who he was. Now, I've said this many times
before, and I'll say it again. You'll only worship a sovereign. One whom you have absolutely
no control over. That you're in His hands. He's
not in yours. You're in His hands. And He can
do with you whatever He's pleased to do. He is the Lord. I've heard preachers say, won't
you make Jesus the Lord of your life? God beat you to it. God
hath made this same Jesus whom you crucified. both Lord and
Christ. Now, let's go on reading. What did this man say as he lay
there on the ground, face to the ground? Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. Now, this man knew this. He was not clean. He was unclean. He knew that
about himself. Unclean. Unclean. Full of sin. As 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. That was his testimony
concerning himself. As Paul said, but sin that might
appear sin, working death in me by that which is in good,
that sin by the commandment might become exceeding, exceeding sinful. This man knew that he was unclean. Paul knew the same thing. He
said, I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. This man was unclean. Now before I go on, I have no
doubt that there's some listening to this right now and thinking
this is negative. This is just bringing people,
why are you talking this way? You want to know what sin really
looks like. I'm not asking you to look inside of your heart
and see the sin that's there. There's plenty there, but you're
not going to get a real accurate view because of you, because
of me. If you want to know what sin
really is, you look at the cross and there you see the son of
God nailed to a cross and having his father forsake him. Now there
is the end of sin. The Son of God had the sins of
His people counted to Him to where He became guilty of them.
And His Father forsook Him. And He bore all the wrath of
all the damned souls in hell. He experienced all of that on
the cross. Now that's what sin is. Don't
look at yourself. You look to the cross. And you'll
find out what sin really is. This man knew he was unclean
and he knew he could not make himself clean. Can the Ethiopian change his
skin or the leopard his spots? The answer to that question is
no. How then? Can you do good who
are accustomed to doing evil? Now here's God's testimony regarding
me and you. And if the Lord has taught you
anything about yourself, you know this, you are unclean and
you cannot make yourself clean. You cannot even come to Christ
unless He draws you. You realize that. No man can
come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him. But this man also knew that Christ
had the ability to make him clean. He knew that. He said, Lord,
you see, he knew who he was. He said, Lord, if you will, you
can make me clean without spot and without blemish. Turn with
me for a moment to Ephesians chapter five. 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 with the washing
of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a
glorious church. not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. Now that's what the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ does. This man knew he was unclean,
he knew he couldn't make himself clean, and he knew Christ could
because he knew who he was. Lord! Lord! If you will, you can make me
clean. And he knew it was entirely up
to the will of Christ. He said, if you will, if you
choose to do so, you can make me clean. Now, I realize that
for centuries, the 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. We're saying to him, what doest
thou? Can you imagine this lepers coming
up to the Lord saying, Lord, I will that you make me clean.
Can you even imagine that? There's only one who can say
to the Father, I will. The Lord said, Father, as equal
to the Father, I will, that they whom you've given me be with
me where I am, that they may behold my glory. If I believe in free will, and
you listen to me real carefully, If I believe in free will, I
believe man's will is sovereign over God's will, if I believe
in free will. And what do I mean by free will?
Free will is the belief that if you want to, you can decide
to let Christ save you. You can accept him as your personal
savior, that you have some control in this thing of salvation. Now,
what we do, I realize everything we do, we do freely. We're not
forced to do things, we do things because we want to do them. But
my will is controlled by an evil nature. And if I believe in free
will, if I believe, well, I can just will myself, I can decide
to be saved, if that's what I believe, I believe that my will is sovereign
over God's will. If God wills the salvation of
all men, But it's up to man's will as
to whether or not he'll be saved. What does the will of God have
to do with salvation? Nothing. Nothing. Doesn't have a thing
to do with it. Now, if we're going to approach
the master to obtain mercy, the prayer of our hearts and our
lips must be, Lord, If you will, you can make me clean. Are you praying that prayer right
now? Lord, if you will, I'm unclean. I can't make myself clean. You
can, and it's up to you. Lord, if you will, You can make
me clean. Now the only thing this leper
was not sure about was the Lord's willingness to make him clean.
Isn't that so? He was sure he was unclean. He
was sure he couldn't make himself clean. He was sure the Lord could. And he was sure it was all up
to the Lord as to whether or not he'd be clean. Now he was
sure, dead sure of those things. But here's what he wasn't too
sure about. whether the Lord would be willing to make him
clean. And you don't understand that.
I do, I understand that. You know that scripture in Romans
9, 13, where it says, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated? How many people have just got
stuck right there? How could God hate Esau? You know, I don't have any problem
with that at all. Because I can see why the Lord
would hate me. I understand that. All sense of entitlement is gone. I can see why the Lord would
hate me. I see it right now. Now remember
the Lord's hatred. It's not like human hatred. Human
hatred is so evil and so vindicative and the Lord's hatred has to
do with his justice and his righteousness. and his holiness and his hatred
of sin. And I can see why the Lord would
hate me. If he let me go to hell, Justin
Holy is his name. What I have such a hard time
getting hold of is how he could love Jacob. And even more so,
how he could love me. I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how he could love me, a sinner
condemned, unclean. Lord, if you're willing, and
I can understand why you wouldn't be, all sense of entitlement
vanishes when someone sees the Lord. Lord, if you will, You can make
me clean. Turn with me to Mark's account
of this in Mark chapter one. 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. And Jesus moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched
him. Now, when's the last time this
fella been touched? Would you touch him? I wouldn't. Why, he had to have a cloth over
his mouth and cry unclean. Nobody was even to have the air
he breathed. When was the last time he was touched? Oh, I can't
tell him how long it had been. But when He prayed this prayer,
this simple prayer. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. The scripture says the Lord was
moved with compassion toward this man. And he put forth his
hand and he touched him. How did that feel to that man
when the Lord of glory touched him? Let's go on reading. Verse
42. Verse 41, and Jesus moved with
compassion, put forth his hand and touched him, and saith unto
him, I will be thou clean. And as soon as he had spoken,
immediately the leprosy departed from him. And he was cleansed. Now notice
it says the leprosy departed from him. Where'd it go? Went somewhere. It departed from
him. I can tell you exactly where
it went. It went the same place where his sins went. who his own self bear our sins
in his own body on the tree. But turn with me to Matthew chapter
8. I brought this out on a Wednesday night a few weeks ago. I think this gives us some idea
of what was going on on the cross. Verse 16, and when the evening
was come, They brought unto him many that were possessed with
devils, and he cast out the spirits with his word and healed all
that were sick, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken
by Isaiah the prophet saying himself took our infirmities
and bear our sicknesses. Now we know he took our sins.
But here, when Matthew is quoting Isaiah, it says he took our sicknesses
and bear our infirmities. Now, the Lord touched him, and I don't
understand this, but that man's leprosy departed
from him and Christ bore it. And Christ's saving, healing
virtue came to him. And he was cleansed. That's how a leper is cleansed. His leprosy departed and he was
cleansed. Lord, if you will, You can make
me clean. I will. Everybody, without exception,
who prays this prayer from their heart, I don't mean just saying
the words, but I mean this is the desire of their heart, the
prayer of their lips. Lord, if you will, You can make
me clean. Everyone without exception who
prays this prayer has this answer. I will. Be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy departed
and he was cleansed. Remember by his stripes, We are
healed. Now turn back to Luke 5. Verse 14. Now after his leprosy departed from
him, and he charged him, the Lord spoke to that leper. He
charged him to tell no man, but go and show yourself to the priest. and offer for thy cleansing according
as Moses commanded for testimony unto them." Now, when the Lord
cleanses you, you know what you can do? You can go to the law. You can go to the holy law of
God and have nothing to fear because you've been cleansed. I can bring myself before God's
commandments, God's holy law, the priest, I've been cleansed. Nothing to fear. He said, you
go show yourself to the priest. And there were certain laws in
Leviticus 13 with regard to what the cleansed leper, the different
sacrifices and so on that he had to make. He said, you offer
those things for a testimony unto them that I did this. He
charged him to tell no man. Well, that'd be hard to keep
quiet about that, wouldn't it? I've been cleansed from my leprosy
by the will of Christ. Don't tell anybody." He charged
him to tell no man, but go and show yourself to the priest and
offer for thy cleansing according as Moses in the law commanded
for testimony unto them. Verse 15, but so much the more went there
a fame abroad of him. Turn to Mark's account again.
Mark 1. Verse 44, He saith unto him,
See thou say nothing to any man, but go thy way, show thyself
to the priests, and offer for thy cleansing those things which
Moses commanded for testimony unto them. But he went out, and
began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter. Was
he being disobedient to the Lord? I don't know. You know, I don't
know. I can't say whether he was or
not, because the Lord did say don't do it. But I put yourself
in this fellow's place. You reckon you'd go out and blaze
abroad the matter? You'd want every leper to know
where cleansing is, wouldn't you? He went out and began to
publish it much and to blaze abroad the matter in so much
that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city, but was
without in desert places. And they came to him from every
quarter. Well, I want to publish this
much and I want to blaze this abroad. The Lord Jesus Christ cleanses
those who are full of leprosy. And here's my prayer. Lord, if
you will, you can make me clean. And here's his answer. I will be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy departed
from him. It was gone. Let's pray together.