Okay, now, we're turning to Luke
chapter 5, verse 12, 13, and 14. 12, 13, and 14 of Luke chapter
5. This is a very, very familiar
story to most of you about this man who was completely consumed
with this vile disease of leprosy, and he came to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, why did he do that? Well,
he was a man full of sin, a man full of sickness, and he knew
the Lord Jesus Christ being the great physician. He had heard
that He had healed others, and he's thinking in his heart, well, why not me? I have great need. Verse 12, Luke 5, It came to
pass, when he, that is the Lord Jesus, was in a certain city,
behold, behold, A man full of leprosy who seeing Jesus. Now he saw him more than just
as a mere man. I believe he was given faith
to see him as God his Savior. Fell on his face, besought him,
begged him, saying, Lord. He didn't call him Master. He called him Lord. Matthew said
he worshipped him. If thou wilt, you can make me
clean. And the one who has all power over all things, devils
and diseases, the Lord Jesus Christ put forth his hand and
he touched this unclean sinner. Now this man was covered with
sores from head to toe, saying, I will, I will. salvation by His will, be thou
clean." And immediately, leprosy departed from him. Now I'm entitling the message
from this well-known story of this vile leper who is made completely
whole by the word and will of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now here's
the title, Seeking Mercy where mercy is found. Seeking mercy
where mercy is found, or we could give it this title as well, How
to Approach the Lord Jesus Christ, How to Approach the Lord Jesus
Christ and Receive Mercy. Now, are you a sinner in need
of mercy? I am. I need His mercy every
day. Now, I don't know a great deal
about leprosy. I tried to read up on it a little
bit. But of all the diseases which
can afflict the body, our body, leprosy appears to be one of
the most severe, especially in that day. It affects and it attacks
every part of the whole person at one time. It brings infectious
sores to the skin, which brings out decay and rottenness and
smelling, terrible smelling sores. It brings corruption into the
blood, rottenness into the bones. Someone called it a living death. And in that day, no medicine
could stop it or check it. Remember they used to have leper
colonies. They would isolate people who
had this disease because if you came in contact with it, by air
or by touch, it was infectious to others. Now, I'm sure that
the Lord has blessed the people in medicine today to study and
to come up with a cure for this disease. But in this day, this
man, I'm sure, sought out many physicians and was only worse
until he heard about the physician The Lord Jesus Christ. And He
came that day and was made whole. The Lord of glory speaks a word
in great power according to His will, reaches out and touches
this vile, diseased man, and this poor man is immediately,
immediately, he is made whole. His disease disappeared. As it says down here in verse
13, and immediately the leprosy departed. Where did it go? Where did it go? Now this story
is given to us in Matthew chapter 8 verse 1 through 4 and we studied
that many times, and again it's given to us in Mark chapter 1
verse 40 through verse 44, and here again in Luke chapter 5
verse 12 through verse 15. Now I don't know if it's of a
great importance how many times a certain thing is in the Word
of the Lord, but it's in His book recorded by three different
men, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Matthew was an apostle, Mark
was a disciple, Luke was a physician, a Gentile, but they all believed
the gospel and were used of God. All of this is given to show
us that salvation is of the Lord. All of this is a glorious picture
of the salvation of sinners by the will of the Lord. by the
word of the Lord and by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. In
fact, You read through the Gospel, then you'll see the Lord Jesus
Christ healing many people. In fact, all those physical healings
the Lord performed all picture the way of salvation through
Him by His mercy, by His grace, His love, and His power. Look
right back in chapter 40, Luke chapter 4 verse 40. When the
sun was setting, and all they that had sickness with divers'
diseases brought them unto Him, He laid His hands on every one
of them, and He healed them." What kind of divers' diseases
did they have? Well, let's see if we can find
out. Turn back to Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11 and look
at verse 3. John sent some of his followers
unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 3 of Matthew 11. Are thou
he that should come? Are you the Messiah? Or are we
to look for another? The Lord Jesus answered and said
unto them, You go show John again those things which you do here
and see. Now listen to this. The blind
received their sight, the lame 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
in me. And you can spiritualize every
one of those diseases. By nature we are blind. He gives
us sight. By nature we are lame. He makes
us to walk by faith. We are by nature lepers and He
cleanses us. By nature we are deaf and dead. He gives us ears to hear and
raises up Us from the dead. You see, all these things, all
those physical healings, all point to the spiritual healings
that we receive in Christ through the gospel. You remember back
in Luke chapter 4, verse 18. Turn over there. The Spirit of
the Lord is upon me because He anointed me to preach the gospel
to the poor. He sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the gospel to the poor. The reason the Lord Jesus Christ
came was to seek and to save the lost, and to be a blessing
to His covenant people through that covenant blood sacrifice."
Now, back to Luke chapter 5, verse 12, and this familiar phrase
all through the Scripture, and it came to pass when? When? When did it come to pass? Did
it just happen? Was it fate or luck or bad luck
or good luck or no luck at all? Behold, it came to pass. That
is, this leper who was full of leprosy came to the Lord Jesus
Christ. It came to pass by the sovereign
Providence of God, didn't it? It came to pass because God ordained
this meeting between the Savior and the sinner way back in the
eternal councils when God decreed this meeting to take place. It was what we read of in Ezekiel
16, that it was a time of love when God crossed the path of
one of His elect made him a new creature, spread his covering
upon him, and he did so in love." Now my point being this, salvation
is no mere chance meeting. You didn't just one day accidentally
bump into the gospel. The gospel of God concerning
Christ. The gospel of God came to you
on purpose because God saves sinners by His purpose and His
grace given us in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the
world. But notice, this poor vile sinner, diseased sinner,
came to the Lord Jesus Christ when He was in this certain city,
and behold, he came, this man, that he was, and he was, notice
these words, full of leprosy. Full of leprosy. The Lord Jesus
Christ did not turn this man away, but rather this man was
completely made whole. I believe he received not only
physical healing, But I believe it reached right down to the
very depths of his heart and his soul and he was made a new
creature in Christ Jesus. Physically he was healed and
spiritually he was healed as well. Now this teaches us how
to approach the Lord. This man approached the Lord
when he was full of sin, full of leprosy. This teaches us how
to approach the Lord. Don't try to clean yourself up
and then come. Come as you are. Guilty, vile,
helpless, come as a beggar. That's what this man did. He
besought him, Lord, if you will. Don't clean yourself up. Can
you do it? Well, clean yourself up and then
come to the Lord. Forget it. It's impossible. All of our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags in God's sight. Come as you are. Full of sin. Full of leprosy. This physical
disease of leprosy fitly represents our spiritual condition before
God, doesn't it? This sinful plague of our nature
before God. It infects every part of our
nature. Our whole head is sick. Our whole
heart is faint from the sole of our foot to the top of our
head. You see, we're full of leprosy. We are full of sin. You say, well, sin is what we
do. No, sin is what we are. What we do is a result of what
we are. There is none righteous, no,
not one. As this man was full of leprosy,
he was also full of sin, and it describes what we are in our
sinful nature, full of sin. And it affects all of us, all
that we are. Now listen to these scriptures. It affects our heart, our heart. What does the scripture say about
our heart? Jeremiah 17, 9. The heart is deceitful above
all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it? What about our
will? You see, this sinful nature that
we have not only affects our heart, it affects our will. Our
will is perverse and wicked. Our Lord said, you will not come
to me that you might have life. It affects our affections. We
love darkness rather than light. It affects our thoughts. You
remember Genesis 6? The Lord said, every imagination
of the thoughts of our heart are only evil continually. You
see, this disease of leprosy, our sin, our depravity affects
all that we are. Our heart, our will, our affection,
our thoughts are all wrong. Our minds, the carnal mind is
enmity against God. Our understanding, by nature
our understanding is darkened. The carnal mind receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God because they are foolishest unto
him. You see this? Leprosy of sin, it affects and
infects and affects our whole being. Have you ever thought
about yourself in these terms? About being a sinful man. Just how sinful we are before
God. You see, the Lord said, all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. Does that include
you? Yes, it does. Remember from the
words of Peter last week in Luke chapter 5 verse 8, when he said,
Simon Peter saw the Lord, and he fell down before the Lord, saying, Depart
from me, O Lord, I am a sinful man. Can you come in there? Can you
identify with Peter? I'm a sinful man, or as Paul
the Apostle said, O wretched man that I am not used to be. If you've considered yourself
in the true light of God's Word, and you identify with and believe
that about yourself, not what you believe about someone else.
Yeah, he's a depraved sinner, What about you? What about me?
Look back to yourself. Are you convinced in your heart
that you're a sinner? If you have, you're blessed with
God. Because salvation is for sinners. Grace is for the ungodly. Grace is for the guilty. Mercy
is for the miserable. If you look right across the
page in Luke chapter 5 verse 31, The Pharisees were complaining
about a man named Matthew that the Lord saved. Matthew was a
notable sinner, a publican. And Luke chapter 5 verse 31,
They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are
sick. I cannot to call the righteous,
but... What does that say? Sinners! Sinners! To repentance. You see, the point is you'll
never seek salvation until you know your true condition before
God. By nature, born in sin, shapen
in iniquity. All I can think, say, and do
is sin before God. That's right. The wages of sin
is death. If God has ever taught you that
in your heart and convinced you of that in your heart, You won't
sit still, you'll seek mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
here's the second thing. This poor leper who's seeing
the Lord Jesus Christ, look what it says there, who's seeing the
Lord Jesus Christ, not just as Jesus of Nazareth, But he saw
him with eyes of faith, and he called him Lord, but he fell
on his face, begging the Lord for mercy." Now hold your place
here and find Matthew chapter 8. Matthew chapter 8. I want you to see this in Matthew
chapter 8 verse 1. When he's come down from the
mountains, great multitudes followed him. And behold, there came a
leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. Now turn to Mark chapter 1. And
the same story, Mark gives us a little more information in
Mark chapter 1. verse 40, "...there came a leper
to him, beseeching him, kneeling down to him, saying unto him,
If thou wilt, you can make me clean." So if you put all three
together, I get this picture. This man, full of leprosy, he
had to, when he walked out in public, he had to hold his hand
over his mouth and cry, Unclean! Unclean! Stay away from me! I'm an unclean man! But this
man, knowing his need, and seeing his need can be fully taken care
of in the Lord Jesus Christ, and seeing Him as the great Savior
of sinners, he dropped to his knees, he fell on his face, and
then he worshipped Him as the Lord. He came to this place by God's
appointment, by God's grace. It says in Matthew 8 that great
multitudes followed him. This man came to worship him. There is a difference. These
many people were just following this one who was famous. This
man came and worshipped the Lord. This poor man worshipped the
Lord Jesus Christ as God and he was not rebuked, was he? He said unto him, he worshipped
him and called him Lord. He's Lord indeed, is He not?
He's Lord of heaven and earth. Our blessed Lord is to be worshipped
because He is worthy of all worship. Our blessed Lord Jesus Christ
is to be worshipped because He is God. In Matthew 2, you remember
the wise men? They came that day and they said,
Where is He that is born King? We have come to worship Him. We read a moment ago in Hebrews
chapter 1 verse 6, Let all the angels of God worship Him. He saith, The Father saith unto
the Son, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. The Lord Jesus
Christ is be worshipped. You remember back in our study,
turn to John chapter 4. John chapter 4. Look at verse 23. John 4, 23.
The hour cometh and now is when true worshippers shall worship
the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to
worship Him. God is spirit. They that worship
Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. The Lord Jesus
Christ is a great I Am who is worthy of worship. When this
man fell at His feet, and owned him as the Lord, he was not rebuked
for worshipping him because he is God. And as God, he is to
be worshipped. When we come to the Lord Jesus
Christ for salvation, we must worship him and honour him and
confess him as what? Lord. He's the Lord Jesus Christ. Thomas fell at his feet and said,
my Lord and my God, whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved. The only place a sinner will
truly worship is at the throne of the almighty Lord our God. We've come here today to worship
the Lord our God. And it's only by His grace and
it came to pass. How did it come to pass? Why
are you here and not somewhere else? Do you ever think about
that? God's purpose, His grace, brought us here together, and
it came to pass by God's purpose. Now, here's the third thing I
want us to notice. Notice carefully the words of
this poor, diseased leper. He came to the Lord not demanding
healing, did he? Look what he says. Lord, if thou
wilt, you can make me clean. Notice carefully, he didn't come
and say, Lord, you make me clean right now. He didn't come demanding
healing, did he? He came begging for healing.
He came saying, Lord, if you will, you can. Lord, if you will, you have all
ability, you have all power. Lord, if you will, you're able
to heal me. This man took his place before the Lord our God
as a mercy beggar, submitting himself to the will of God in
the matter of his salvation, in the matter of his healing.
He put no demands upon the Lord. He made no bargains. This man
didn't say, now if you heal me, I'll serve you. He didn't drive
a bargain with the Lord, did he? He came submitting to the
will of the Lord, the sovereign will of the Lord, and said, Lord,
if you will, you can. He submitted. to his lordship,
bowed to the lordship, bowed to the will of the Lord. This
man knew he could not heal himself. He knew that, couldn't he? He
knew that, didn't he rather? This man knew he could not heal
himself by his will. Have you ever had a real severe
toothache? Some of you younger people have
never experienced this, but as you get older, the teeth break
down. The scripture calls them grinders. The grinders break
down, Ecclesiastes chapter 12. But have you ever had a real
throbbing toothache? I mean it goes through your whole
body. Well, have you ever cured a toothache
by your will? Well, I've got a free will. I'm
just going to will that tooth to stop throbbing. Try it next
time, see how far you get. You see, our will is not free.
You can't even stop a toothache, let alone raise a dead sinner
from the grave. This man knew he could not heal
himself by his will. He knew he was shut up to the
will of God. And in the matter of salvation,
we know that salvation is not by man's will whatsoever. It's not by man's will that any
sinner is saved, but rather it's by whose will? God's will, is
it not? Man's will, therefore we can
say, is not free. Is your will free? Let's see,
if you had an absolute free will, just walk outside and will yourself
to fly. Just sprout wings and fly. You say, that's ridiculous. Why
can't you fly? It's your nature to walk. The
point being made is this, our will is in bondage to our nature. Man's will is always self-ward
and downward, never God-ward and upward. Therefore, in the
realm of salvation, there is no such thing as man's free will. I remember one time when a pastor,
preacher, Bill Clark, from England was visiting Pastor Henry Mahan
in Ashland, Kentucky. And they were driving down the
road and they passed by this church. It said, Free Will Baptist
Church. And Brother Clark looked at Brother
Mahan and said, Boy, they advertise their heresy so boldly in this
day. And to promote man's will in
the realm of salvation is heresy. It's heresy. Salvation is by
God's will, not man's will. Now preacher, can you make good
on that? Well, you know I can. Turn to Isaiah 64. Isaiah 64. Isaiah 64. You see, salvation is always
by God's will. You find Isaiah 64, look at verse
6. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. That's
Romans chapter 9. James chapter 1 says, If his
own will beget he us with the word of truth. And in John chapter
1 says that we're born again, not according to the will of
flesh, nor according to the will of man, but we're born again
according to the will of God. He worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will. Now, Isaiah 64, look at verse
6, but we're always an unclean thing. There's that sinful nature
again. And all of our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. Man in his best state is altogether
vanity. And we all do fade as a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, have driven us away. We have no power to put away
our sin. And there is none, now watch
it, there is none that calleth upon thy name, there is none
that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee. for thou hast hid
thy face from us, and hast consumed us because of our iniquities.
But now, O Lord, thou art our Father, we are the clay, thou
our potter, and we are all the work of thy hand." Now what does
that teach us? That teaches us that salvation
is according to God's will, not our will. Salvation is always
determined by the Lord, depended upon the Lord Jesus Christ and
most certainly accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now take
this home with you, write it down. Man's will has no part
in salvation, none whatsoever. Christ has all ability and all
power to make our salvation a reality. Lord, if you will, you can. Make me clean. That word can
has to do with ability. Remember John chapter 6, no man
can come to me that he might have life. No man can come to
me except the Father which sent me draw him. No man has the ability. The Lord Jesus Christ has all
power and all ability to save His people to the uttermost.
Those that come to God by Him. There's the mercy beggar before
the throne of the sovereign, and he acknowledges his lordship,
he acknowledges his power to clean sinners, to save sinners. Now, what's going to happen?
Is this man going to go home a leper? He came seeking mercy. And verse 13, And the Lord put
forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will, I will, be thou
cleaned. And immediately the leprosy departed
from him." Now notice, the Lord's gracious actions and His words. Over there in Mark chapter 1
verse 41, don't turn, let me just read it to you again. It
says there, the Lord was moved with compassion upon this man. He was moved with compassion.
The reason of this miracle of healing on this poor leopard
was found in the Lord Himself. The Lord had compassion on this
poor sinner. And we read in Romans 5, God
commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. But God who was rich in mercy
for His great love were with He loved us. You see, He had
compassion on us. He doesn't love us because we
love Him. We love Him because He first loved us. God who is
rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when
we were dead in sin, hath quickened us together with Christ. Herein
is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent
His Son to be the sacrifice for our sin. You see, the Lord had
compassion on this man. And the only reason that we have
salvation is because the Lord has loved us with an everlasting
love and has drawn us to Himself by His purpose and His grace. Notice the second thing that
happened here. The Lord Jesus Christ put forth His hand. Now we're talking about a hand
of a man. Just like this hand, but so much
more different. He was a real man, but this is
the hand of God. This is the hand of God that
reaches from the throne of God and touches His people. This was the touch of the Master's
hand. He put forth His hand and touched
Him. Notice. The Lord of Glory touched
the untouchable. There was no place on this man's
body that was not completely infected with this vile disease. Those who touched those who were
lepers were contaminated. And yet the Lord without hesitation
reaches forth and lays hold upon this man. You see, the Lord saves His people
by deliberate touch, by laying hold on them, by crossing their
path with the gospel. And again, this was not an accidental
meeting, was it? It came to pass because God ordained
it and brought it to pass in time, but rather on purpose. God saves every sinner He saves,
He saves on purpose. Listen to these two Scriptures.
2 Timothy 1.9, it's God who saved us. It's God who called us with
a holy calling, not according to our work, but according to
His own purpose and grace, given us in Christ before the foundation
of the world. Ephesians 1, in whom also we
have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according
to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel
of His own will. He had compassion on him, God
has loved His people with an everlasting love, and because
of that, He touches us. He touches our whole being, our
mind, our will, our thoughts, our heart, our affections. And then notice thirdly what
happens. He said, I will. Be thou clean. I will be thou clean. The Lord
spoke a word of mercy and it was done. I will. And immediately
the leprosy went out. Immediately the leprosy departed. I will be thou clean. You see,
where the word of the King is, there is power. He spake and
it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. The disease departed. The Lord said in Isaiah 46, I've
spoken it, I will bring it to pass, I've purposed it, I will
do it. He loved him, He touched him,
and He spoke a word of mercy unto him. That's exactly what
the Lord does for us, even now. Notice in closing verse 13, he
put forth his hand, he touched him saying, I will, be thou clean,
and immediately the leprosy departed from him. The cure was instantaneous. The cure was miraculous. Immediately the disease departed
from him. Someone said nature works gradually
and slowly. Almighty God works immediately. You hath he quickened who were
dead. Where did this leprosy go? Where
did it go when it departed from him? It said the leprosy departed
from him. Where did it go? I know where
it went. The Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary
took our sins, our diseases, our iniquities, our transgressions,
and gives us His blessed righteousness. That's where this disease went.
It went into the Lord Jesus Christ. He took our sin in His own body
on the tree. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered
the just for the unjust that He might bring us unto God. God
made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be
made to righteousness of God in Him. You see, we only have
cleansing from our sin because the Lord Jesus Christ in His
blood sacrificed put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
He took all of our diseases, all of our sicknesses, all the
sins of God's people, were laid on Christ. With His stripes,
we are healed. That's the good news of the Gospel.
The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all our
sin. Let us all do what this leper
did that day. Seek mercy where mercy is found. Seek forgiveness in whom forgiveness
is found. Forgiveness is found in Christ
in whom we have forgiveness of our sins through the riches of
his grace. Accepted in the beloved. I've
never read in scripture anywhere where the Lord Jesus Christ turned
away a mercy beggar. If you find it, you show me."
Now he dealt harshly with the Pharisees, with the self-righteous
who went about to establish a righteousness of their own. He said, you or
they would justify yourselves before men that God knows your
heart, that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in
the sight of God. But when sinners came to the
Lord Jesus Christ seeking mercy, seeking salvation, He had mercy
on them. That ought to encourage every
one of us to seek mercy. Our Lord said, boldly to the
throne of grace that you may obtain mercy. Find grace to help
in time of need. How do you come to the Lord Jesus
Christ? Come to Christ and don't move
a muscle. You see, coming to Christ is not something physical.
We come to Christ by faith, believing Him, looking unto Him, coming
unto Him. Let us never despair our condition
being too desperate, too vile, too guilty, too ungodly. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ
came to save sinners. He came to save lepers. This
is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that the Lord
Jesus Christ came to save sinners. Sinners! It says in Luke 19.10,
He came to seek and to save the lost. Now, think about this. If God saved this leper, if God
saved this guilty sinner, why not you? Why not you? Ask the Lord for mercy. Come
to him as a mercy beggar. He won't go away disappointed. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. May God help us to call.