Matthew chapter 8 this morning,
and we'll look at the first four verses in Matthew chapter 8. When he was come down from the
mountain, great multitudes followed him. He spake with all authority
and all power in the Sermon on the Mount. And behold, there
came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if you will, You
can make me clean. And the Lord was willing because
he put forth his hand and he touched him and he spoke a word. He touched him and he spoke a
word saying, I will. I will. It's not I will if you
will. It's not I will if you take the
first step. It's not I will if you start cleaning up yourself
or cleaning up your act. No, I will be thou clean. And immediately, his leprosy was gone. Immediately,
his leprosy was cleansed. Now, I tried to come up with
a title, and I've settled on this, The Leper and the Lord. The Leper and the Lord. Or we
could say, The Sinner and the Savior. The leper and the Lord, the sinner
and the Savior. Now we learn in these few verses
some very important lessons about the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
absolute sovereign Lord over all things. This leper addressed
him as Lord. He worshipped him as Lord. Now
remember in our study in the book of Revelation, John not
once but twice fell down before an angelic being and was rebuked. Don't worship me, I'm just your
fellow servant. Worship God. When this leper
came and worshipped the Lord Jesus Christ, he was not rebuked
because he is God Almighty. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
absolute sovereign God, and that's the only God that there is, the
absolute sovereign Lord over all things. And we usually talk
about he's sovereign in creation. He made all things by the word
of his power. What we behold in creation was
not something of evolution. Darwin's theory was just a theory. God created all things by the
word of His power. We don't have a theory, we have
a God who creates all things. He's sovereign in creation, He's
sovereign in providence. That means things that unfold
in time, God has decreed from all eternity. Of Him and through
Him and to Him are all things. what comes to pass in the fullness
of time, God brings forth because He from eternity decreed the
future. How does God, when people talk
about His foreknowledge, And people often say, well, God looks
down through the telescope of time to see what man would do.
That's not biblical theology. That's not biblical foreknowledge. God knows all things because
God has decreed all things. From the beginning of him and
through him and to him are all things to whom be glory both
now and forever. A lot of people have a problem
with God being sovereign in creation, and God even sovereign to some
extent. They will allow God in providence. But here's where
the rubber meets the road, and here's where rebels buck and
goats butt. But, they say, God is also sovereign
in salvation. Is that right? God is sovereign
in salvation. And I mean by that, God will
have mercy on whom He will have mercy. God had, from the beginning,
chosen a people unto salvation and predestinated those people
to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't
ever be afraid of the word election. God elected a people unto salvation.
The Bible word, it's in the Bible 26 times. Elected, election,
and elect. Elect, the elect. And don't ever
be afraid of the word predestination. It's in the Bible four times.
And it's always being predestinated to be conformed to the image
of Christ. Now, we see that in this story. As the multitudes
followed the Lord, one sinner sought mercy in Christ. We learn some very important
lessons. The Lord, first of all, is the
one who afflicted this man with this dreadful disease of leprosy. David prayed. David said, Lord,
in your faithfulness, you have afflicted me. Why did this one
man have leprosy and the multitude that followed the Lord didn't?
The Lord was pleased to send affliction and sickness to this
poor sinner. In those days, leprosy was a
terminal, incurable disease. All the law could do would say,
unclean, unclean. And the law of God instructed
that leper, when he went out in public, he was to cover his
mouth. And you're unclean, unclean, unclean. Don't come near to me. Well, the law couldn't help him,
could it? The law never made him clean. The law cannot justify.
The Lord, who is the One, is the One who by His good and sovereign
providence arranged this meeting, arranged this occasion when the
leper met the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you think their meeting was
accidental? This leper just didn't bump into
the Lord Jesus Christ. This meeting was decreed from
all eternity and in time it came to pass. And it's no accident
that you bumped into the Gospel. God crossed your path on purpose
with the Gospel and taught you the Gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the one who wrought the miracle, worked the miracle of healing
upon this helpless man who was seeking mercy. We know the Scriptures
teach us that all healing is of the Lord. Now, I'm thankful
we have good doctors, and I'm thankful we have right medicines,
and I'm thankful these different things and these means that God
has given us, but all healing is of the Lord. Is that right,
doctor? He'll say that too. All those things happen to us,
all those things happen in this story to teach us how God saves
sinners. The leper is a picture of us
smitten with the dreadful disease of sin and receiving mercy by
His sovereign will. And all these miracles that we're
going to see in this chapter and the next Two chapters are
all teaching us how God saves sinners by His grace. The blind,
the lame, the sick, all those that He healed by His mighty
power and His healing, all by the sovereign purpose of God.
Turn a couple pages and find Matthew 11, look at verse 4.
Matthew 11 verse 4, Go and show again those things which you
do here and see. The blind receive their sight,
and that's us by nature. We're blind. The lame are made
to walk. Lepers are cleansed. The deaf
hear. The dead are raised up. The poor
have the gospel preached to them. Blessed is he whosoever shall
not be offended to me. And all those things are type
and pictures of God showing mercy to such as we are. His miracles
demonstrate to us how God saves sinners. We also learn and understand
that salvation is for sinners. Salvation is of the Lord. If you look just across the page
in Matthew 9, when it says in verse 9, Jesus passed from thence,
and he saw a man named Matthew sitting at receipt of customs.
And he said unto him, Matthew was a publican. Matthew was a
writer of these words, and he was made an apostle. And the
Lord said to him, follow me. And he rose up and followed him.
And it came to pass that Jesus said, meet in the house Behold,
many publicans and sinners, friends of Matthew, came and sat down
with him and the disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it,
they said unto the disciples, Why eateth your master with publicans
and sinners? And when Jesus heard that, he
said unto them, They that behold need not a physician, but those
who are sick. You go learn what that means.
I will have mercy and not sacrifice. I'm not come to call the righteous.
He came to call sinners to repent. Now, look at Matthew 8 verse
1. When the Lord was come down from
the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. When the Lord had
finished His great sermon on the mountaintop, Great multitudes
followed him because, as it says there, they were astonished.
Remember in verse 28 of Matthew 7, when he ended the saying,
the people were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them
as one having authority. They were astonished at his doctrine,
his teaching how God saves sinners. He taught them with all authority.
He taught them with all power. All authority and all power.
You remember again, look over in chapter 9, when those four
friends brought that paralyzed man to the Lord Jesus Christ,
behold, a certain scribe said unto them within himself, this
man's last name, because he said in Matthew 9, Verse 2, Behold,
they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed.
And Jesus, seeing their face, said unto the sick of the palsy,
Son, bid good cheer, thy sins be forgiven. And behold, certain
of the scribes and Pharisees said within themselves, This
man is a blasphemer. And Jesus, knowing their thoughts,
said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts, for whether it
is easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Arise
and walk, but that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power
on earth to forgive sin, he said to the sick of the palsy, this
paralyzed man, Take up your bed and walk, and go into your own
house. He has all power to forgive sin
because He paid our sin debt. Now look at verse 2, and behold. That word behold means to stop
and take a good look at this. Stop and consider. Stop and consider
this a minute. Behold, there came a leper, and he worshipped him. saying,
Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. Now, think about this. If this man, according to the
law of the Levitical priesthood in Leviticals 13 and 14, when
this man was going through this cry out, this unclean leper,
when he's going through this cry out, he was to cover himself
and cry out, unclean, unclean, unclean. And yet this man, unclean,
and maybe everybody scattered, I can just imagine everybody
just scattered away, and he's heading right for the Lord Jesus
Christ. And Mark and Luke both tell us
that this man came and kneeled to the Lord, fell on his face,
and then he worshipped Him. He worshipped Him, and he said,
Lord, if You will, You can make me clean. This man was full of
leprosy. His disease was terminal, he
was helpless, he was dying, and he was in great need. Great need. Turn over to another reference
in Luke chapter 5. We had this when we studied through
the book of Luke. You remember in Luke chapter
5, verse 12, we have a little more information that's given
to us, and it's important information. Verse 12 of Luke 5, it came to
pass, when he was in a certain city, behold, a man full of leprosy,
full of leprosy, who, seeing Jesus, fell on his face and besought
him, saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. And the
Lord put forth his hand and tucked him, saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy departed
from him. So he fell down. Mark says he
kneeled. And then Luke said he fell on
his face. This is how we are to seek the
Lord. We come to the Lord Jesus Christ
right now, as you are, in all your guilt, full of sin, full
of sinfulness, and we come to the Lord Jesus Christ just like
this man did, as we really are, as sinners before God. And this
is an encouraging thing, if we can come that way, because this
is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, the Lord
Jesus Christ came to save lepers, those who are full of leprosy.
He came to save sinners, Paul said, of whom I am cheap. The
Lord Jesus Christ, when we were yet without strength, Christ
died for the ungodly. And then we read in Luke 19 that
He came to seek and to save the lost. He didn't come to call
good folks. He came to call sinners. Now,
think about this for a minute. I've never read, and I've been
reading and studying the Scripture well over 40 years, 40 years. I've never read on one occasion,
one time, when a sinner seeking mercy in Christ was turned away. Not one time. And we're going
to see examples of that in these next few chapters. Never was
a sinner turned away who was seeking mercy. Now, he had sharp
words for those self-justifying Pharisees. He called them snakes
and hypocrites. But he never turned away a mercy
beggar. He said, come to me, all you
laboring, heavy laden. I'll give you rest. Come boldly
to the throne of grace, he said. He's able to save to the uttermost
all that come to God by him. We've heard that before, haven't
we? saying he ever lived to make intercession for them. The publican
cried in the temple, Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner. And
the Lord said of that man who condemned himself, that man went
home to his house justified. The Pharisee who justified himself,
the Lord said that man went home condemned. So if you justify
yourself, you're condemned. If you condemn yourself, you're
justified. You know, I said that publicly
in a Mormon church at my dad's funeral, and I thought those
folks were going to throw up. I thought they were going to
die. I thought they were going to run me out of town on a rail,
and they wanted to. They wanted to put me in hell
just as fast as they could. But notice, while the multitude
followed the Lord, this leper came and fell on his face and
worshipped him. The Lord our God is to be worshipped.
Christ, as the Lord our God, is to be worshiped. He is God,
our Savior. Without controversy, great is
the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
The only place a sinner will truly worship is at the throne
of the absolute sovereign God. Job's a good example of that.
Job lost all his substance, lost all his riches, lost his health. God killed his ten children.
And he fell down on his face and worshiped God. Boy, I want
to do that. I want to do that. He said, naked
came I in, naked I'm going to leave. The Lord gives and the
Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. The center of heart faith is
worship. Worship the Lord Jesus Christ.
God-given faith is always looking. I put it this way. Faith is a
gift of God, right? God-given faith looks back to
the source of the giver. God-given faith doesn't look
in here. It doesn't look to the preacher. It doesn't look to
the church. It doesn't look to emotion. It doesn't look to baptism. God-given faith looks to Christ,
who is the author and finisher of our faith. You see that? Without
faith, it is impossible to please God. We worship the Lord Jesus
Christ as God. This leper came and acknowledged
he's God. And the Lord did not rebuke him
because he is God. Now notice what the leper said. There's what he did. He worshipped
the Lord and look what he said. He said, Lord, if you will, you can make me
clean. We know that salvation is by
the sovereign unchanging will grace and purpose of God, right?
We read it just a moment ago, not of him that willeth, nor
of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. So then he'll
have mercy on whom he will, and whom he will, he'll harden. He
worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. It's
God who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our work, but according to His own purpose and grace, given
us in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world. So He
came to him, and He worshipped him, and He worshipped him as
Lord. Lord. This man acknowledged and bowed
to his Lordship. That is where the Lord must bring
us when He convicts us of our sin, and shows us that salvation
is only in Christ, he must bring us to submission. To fall on
our face before God, kneel before him and confess, Lord, if you
saved me, thank you. If you damned me, that's exactly
what I deserve. Acknowledging the sovereignty
of God in salvation. Salvation is confession of our
sin. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth's not in us. If we confess our
sin, he's faithful and just to forgive our sin and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness. In salvation, we confess his
lordship. He's the absolute sovereign Lord
over all things. You remember what Peter said
to those on Pentecost? This same Jesus whom you crucified,
God hath made him both Lord and Christ. Paul writing in Romans
14 says, For to this end, to this purpose Christ died and
revived, that he might be Lord of the dead and the living. Remember
the thief on the cross? He made his confession. What
did he say? Remember? He said, Lord, remember me when
you come into your kingdom. You remember the Apostle Thomas
said to those other apostles who said, the Lord is risen.
And old Thomas said, I won't believe until I see the nail
prints in His hand. And the Lord Jesus Christ showed
up and said, look here. Look here. Remember what Thomas
said? My Lord and my God. Another good example of that
is Osala Tarsus, who hated the Lord Jesus Christ. He was such
a proud Pharisee. He hated the Gospel of God, hated
the Lord Jesus Christ, and hated those who worshipped the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's on his way, not satisfied
to persecute those people in Judea. He got special permission
from the hierarchy, the Sadducees and Pharisees and the scribes
to go all the way to Damascus. to arrest some Christians and
put them in prison and see them executed. And guess what happened?
He met the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember what Saul of Tarsus
said? Lord, what will you have me to do? Bow. Bow. And he bowed, didn't he?
God said, you're my chosen vessel to preach the gospel. And he
also, this leper, confessed the Lord's ability, didn't he? Lord,
if you will, you can. That's ability. You can. You can. He confessed the Lord's
ability to cleanse him from all sin. Lord, if you will, you can. And that's what saving faith
confesses, the Lord's ability. He's able to save to the uttermost
all that come to God by him. We're persuaded like Abraham
of old of all that God promised he is able to perform. Jude said
that he's able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless.
He is able. He's able to subdue all things
unto himself. He's able to do exceeding abundantly
above all we ask or think. The Apostle writes from prison,
I know whom I have believed and persuaded that he is able to
keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. Saving
faith confesses the Lord's ability to save. He has all power to
do so. We read in 1 Peter. to whose
own self bear our sins and his own body on the tree that we
being dead to sin should live under righteousness by whose
stripes we are healed. We're healed in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Everything God has for sinners
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing but a righteous holy
judgment apart from Jesus Christ and him crucified. are gods of
consuming fire, apart from Christ. He that believeth on his Son
hath life. He that believeth not, the wrath of God. The wrath
of God. There is no God else beside me,
the only just God and Savior. Therefore the Lord said, Look
unto me, and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth, I
am God, and there is no other. So there's worship. There's a
declaration of his sinfulness, of the Lord's ability. What's
going to happen? And the Lord put forth His hand
and touched him. This is the hand of Almighty
God. The hand of what you read in
Scripture, no one can stay His hand or say unto Him, Lord God,
Almighty, what doest thou? He reached forth His hand. You
know, you weren't supposed to touch a leper. They're unclean. And the Lord reached forth and
lay hold upon him. And that's what he does in mercy.
He lays hold of us. The Lord put forth his hand and
touched him and then he said, I will be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was
gone. Gone. The very hand that created
all things by the word of his power, the very hand of absolute
power and dominion reached forth and touched this unclean person. The very hand that were wounded
to put away our sin reached out and touched this leper. We're
going to see another example of that. Look just across the
page, across the column there in Matthew 8, look at verse 14.
When Jesus was coming to Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother
laid sick of a fever, you mean Peter was married? I thought
the Pope was supposed to marry. They say Peter was the first
Pope. Peter was married. This thing of celibacy is nonsense.
Peter, when he went into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother,
his mother-in-law, laid sick of the fever and he touched her
hand and the fever left And she arose and ministered unto them. Oh, the hand of the, touch of
the master's hand. What great power goes forth with
the touch of his hand. And he said here, I will, I will
be thou clean. I will be thou clean. Immediately his leprosy was gone.
With a word, the cure was done. We read in scripture where the
word of the king is, there's power. Who may say unto him,
what doest thou? He speaks with all power and
with all authority. We read in Psalm 33, he spake
and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast. Remember they said, never man
spake like that man. His word was with all authority
and with power. The word of God is quick and
powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. And the results were immediate. Immediate results were obvious.
The great miracle of his power was on full display. You remember he said that would
happen. You remember back, turn back
to Matthew chapter 4. Matthew chapter 4, verse 23,
it says, Jesus went about all Galilee, preaching the gospel
of the kingdom, healing all manner of sicknesses and all manner
of diseases among the people. And that's just exactly what
He did. Demonstrating that He is the Messiah, demonstrating
that He is the Christ, He healed all those that had need of healing,
didn't He? He never turned a mercy beggar
away. He healed all those that had
need, need of healing. The blind receive their sight,
the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the
dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them.
Blessed is he who's not offended in me. The Lord Jesus Christ
has all power, all authority to heal sinners. That's why He
came, that's why He died, to put away our sin, that He might
heal us. He took our infirmities and bear
our sicknesses, as it says in verse 17, and with His stripes
we are healed, from Isaiah 53. Now, in closing, let me give
you this. And the Lord said to this healed
man, now he's whole. I mean, he's completely healed
from top to bottom. From the top of his head to the
bottom. I mean, he had skin that was ulcerated and bleeding and
oozing and infection all over. He's got skin just like a newborn
baby. This man is clean, top to bottom. And the Lord said unto him, verse
4, See thou tell no man, You know, really, he didn't have
to. It was obvious what happened. But go your way, go thy way,
the way I send thee, and show yourself to the priest. Now,
this man had been to the priest before, according to the law.
He had to go to be declared clean or unclean. Show thyself to the
priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded thee for a testimony. What was his testimony? He healed
me. God had mercy on me in Christ.
Tell no man, but rather go and show the priest that you have
been healed, and then offer a gift of thanksgiving and a blood sacrifice
according to the law, not to be cleansed, but rather because
he had been cleansed, even in this. And everything the Lord
does and everything the Lord accomplished was to fulfill the
holy law of God. They were still under the law
of God. And you go and show yourself
to the priest that you've been healed, and you offer a gift
declaring that God hath healed him. Even the law of God must
declare this man clean from all this sin. When he went to that
priest, and that priest looked him over, he said, Brother, you're
clean. Get out of here. You're clean. Oh, offer a gift
of thanksgiving. Offer a gift of thanksgiving.
You see, the law could not shut him out as unclean. Before, when
he came to the leper and was leprous, they put him outside
the camp. The law could not shut him out
as unclean, but rather made whole, made complete in Christ. And
that's what we are. The same is true of every sinner
cleansed by the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. There
is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Him. Now, I'm sure the man did what
the Lord told him to do, being obedient to the command of God.
But I want to show you something else that Matthew doesn't tell
us. Turn to Mark chapter 1. Mark
chapter 1. And I'll let you go with this. Mark chapter 1. Look at verse
41. Mark 1, verse 41, and here we
see about this leper. This leper, came a leper to him,
verse 40 rather, beseeching him, kneeling down to him, saying
unto him, if you will, you can make me clean. And watch this,
the Lord was moved with compassion. He loved this man. He chose this
man unto salvation. And he put forth his hand, and
touched him, and said unto him, I will be thou clean. Verse 42,
As soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him,
and he was cleansed. Now read the next verse. Look
what happens here. Remember what the Lord told him?
Don't tell anybody. Go to the priest and you tell
him. He straightly charged him therewith, sent him away. And
said unto him, See thou say nothing to any man, but go thy way, and
show thyself to the priest, and offer thy cleansing, because
you have been cleansed, those things which Moses commanded,
for a testimony unto them. Look at verse 45. And he went
out, and began to publish it much. and to blaze abroad the
matter insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into the
city, but was without in the desert places, and they came
to him from every quarter." Now, I'm sure this man was obedient
and going to the priest. But think about this. What was
he doing on the way going down to see the priest? He was jumping
up and down. He was telling, I've been healed!
I've been healed! I know he did. He was rejoicing
in the Lord. He could not contain his joy. And he let others know how the
Lord had healed him. We're reading Psalm 66. Come
and hear all you that fear God. And I will declare what he had
done for my soul. Can we find this one scripture?
I'll let you go. Look at Psalm 103. If you don't
want to turn, let me just read it to you. Psalm 103. Blessed,
verse 1, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within
me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, forget
not all his benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth
all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction. who
crineth Thee with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfied
Thy mouth with good things, so that Thy youth is renewed like
the eagles. Bless the Lord, O my soul. I just imagine that man going
down to the priest's house, but he was