this morning to the book of Matthew.
My subject today is how can a sinner approach the Lord in order to
obtain mercy? Now that's an interesting subject
and I think it concerns everyone listening to this program today.
How can a sinner approach the Lord in order to obtain mercy? And I'm reading from the book
of Matthew in the eighth chapter verses 1 through 3. Will you
open your Bible and follow along with me as I read the scripture?
It says in Matthew 8, verse 1, when he was come down from the
mountain, we're talking about the Lord Jesus Christ now, our
Savior and our Lord. When he was come down from the
mountain, great multitudes followed him, and behold, there came a
leper. He was a man diseased and dying. a man who had leprosy, and he
worshipped him. And he said, Lord, if you will,
you can make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand
and touched him, saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately
his leprosy was cleansed. Now, I'm not sure that the number
of times that a truth appears in the scripture has anything
to do with the importance of it. But this particular incident
appears in God's Word three times. Matthew records it, Mark records
it, and Luke records it. So I believe it's important for
our edification. Our Lord came down from the mountain,
and great multitudes of people followed him, and behold, look
with attention, a leper came and fell down and worshipped
him, and he cried, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. Now I'd say this, the manner
in which this man, this needy creature, this diseased person,
the manner in which he approached the Master is an example to be
followed by everyone who would seek his grace and seek his mercy. For example, if you're a lost
person, you're listening to this program today and your sins are
very heavy upon your heart. And your sins are very heavy
upon your conscience. And you can say, as the Master
said, I am weary and heavy laden. I am weary with sin. I am burdened
down with my conscience, with my past, and yea, with my present.
I want my sins to be pardoned. I want God to have mercy and
grace upon my soul. Then I would say this is the
way to approach Christ. Just like this man came. Come
to Christ as he came. He needed help. He needed cleansing,
as you need cleansing. And he came to the Master and
he was cleansed. So we're going to look at the
way in which he came. For example, suppose you're a
believer and you're going through a great trial and great affliction. You feel that the hand of God
is heavy upon you, like Job. Like many of these men and women
of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, the hand of God,
the hand of trial and the hand of affliction. is heavy upon
you, and some of you out there are going through a great trial,
and you need comfort, and you need strength, and you need God's
grace. Like the Apostle Paul, who had
the thorn in the flesh, and came three times to the Lord seeking
relief, and had God say to him, my grace is sufficient. But he
received an audience, he had communion with God, and he received
an answer, and you want an answer, and you want grace and help.
Well, how shall you approach Christ? I would say approach
Christ as this man approached the Lord Jesus Christ. Suppose
you're a sick person. Our God heals. We know that.
All healing is of the Lord. He said, I'm the Lord who healeth
all thy diseases. And you're bowed down with some
infirmity, with some great sickness, and you want healing. How shall
you approach the Lord? There's healing in his wings.
There's power in the Lord. His arm is not heavy that he
cannot save. His ear is not heavy that he
cannot hear, how shall you approach the Lord? I would say as this
man approached the Lord. And we're going to look at that
in a few moments. How did he come to Christ in order to obtain
mercy? Suppose you're an unsettled,
unsure person in regard to your interest in Christ. You're just
not certain of your eternal well-being. You're just not certain of your
relationship with Christ. You're filled with doubts and
fears. Like John Newton, who wrote Amazing Grace, how sweet
the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but
now I'm found. I was blind, but now I do see. He's the same man who wrote this
song, "'Tis a point I long to know, and oft it gives me anxious
thought. Do I love the Lord or no? Am
I his or am I not?" And you're going through that same time
of doubt and fear, and you need to come to the Lord. in a sweet
communion and fellowship. How do you approach the Lord?
Well, let me say this. All things are in Christ. That's
what you've got to decide, first of all. What is the source of
your health? What is the source of grace? All things are in Christ. God has vested everything in
Christ, not in the church, not in the law, not even in the Bible,
but in Christ. He is able, not only willing
to meet your need, for he's plenteous in mercy. He delights to show
mercy. But our God is able. Listen to
some of these scriptures. He's able to perform all that
he promised. The Lord hath said, I'll never
leave thee, nor forsake thee, so that I can boldly say, the
Lord is my helper. I will not fear what man can
do. He's able to perform all that he promised. Listen to this
scripture. He's able to save to the uttermost
them that come to God by him. How about this scripture? He
is able to keep that which I've committed to him against that
day. Or this one? He is able to keep
you from falling and present you faultless before his presence
with exceeding glory and exceeding joy. How about this one? He is
able to raise our vile bodies and make them just like his glorious
body. So Christ is the source of help.
He is the source of comfort. He is the source of all grace.
and he is the source of all mercy. It is all in him. Of God Christ
is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
And to the guilty, he says, Thy sins be forgiven thee. And to
the lame, he says, Take up thy bed and walk. To the hungry,
the gracious invitation, Come and dine. All things are prepared,
all things are ready, come and dine. To the weary, he says,
I'll give you rest. And to the thirsty, everyone
that thirsteth, come to the water. Come without money or price and
buy milk and wine. To the lonely, he says, I'm with
you always, even to the end of the earth. To the poor, our Lord
says, all things are yours. All things are yours. All things
are in Christ and Christ is yours. To the orphan, he says, I go
to my father and to your father. And to the captive he says, if
the sun shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. To
the blind, look and live. To the helpless, my grace is
sufficient. And to the dead, come forth. As he stood before the grave
of Lazarus on that morning and said, Lazarus, come forth. And
he who had been dead for four days walked out of the tomb.
And one day all that are in the grave shall hear the voice of
the Son of God and shall come forth. David wrote in Psalm 103,
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,
who forgiveth all thy sins, who healeth all thy diseases, who
redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with lovingkindness
and tender mercies, who satisfieth thy mouth with good things. My friends, all things are in
Christ, everything that the sinner needs. here and throughout eternity
is found in the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. The scripture says,
In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you
are complete in him. All right, preacher, I'm sure
of that. Everything's in Christ, the beloved, eternal, infinite,
unchangeable Son of God, of whom the prophet wrote, he's the same
yesterday, today, and forever. But how do I, a sinner, approach
the living Lord. I want you to talk to me in plain
language. I want you to talk to me in the
language of this day. I want you to tell me, and I
don't want to put on a show, and I don't want to be a hypocrite,
and I don't want to talk the stereotype language of religion. I want you to tell me how a poor
sinner can approach a full Savior, how an empty sinner can approach
a full Savior and be received. and find mercy and grace to help
in time of need. All right, there are five words
in this text. Do you remember the text? Let's look at it again.
In Matthew 8, verse 1 through 3, it says, Behold, there came
a leper, and fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if you will,
you can make me clean. And our Lord said, as he put
forth his hand and touched him, I will be thou clean. I see five how to approach the
Lord in order to obtain mercy. Number one, the man worshipped. Do you see that word? Worshipped. This man fell down and worshipped
the Lord. He kneeled and worshipped the
Lord. My friends, God is to be worshipped. I don't care who you are, and
I care not what your problem, not what your condition, I care
not your age, your race, or your persuasion. God Almighty is to
be worshipped. is to be worshiped by all creation
and by all creatures. The last verse in the book of
Psalms says this, Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. And all the way through the Old
Testament, these words are written, O come, let us worship God. Let us bow down before the Lord
our Maker. The Lord is in his holy temple.
Let all the earth worship him. The first thing, if you're coming
to God for anything, For comfort, mercy, grace, salvation, forgiveness,
renewal, rejoicing, whatever, the place where you start is
to worship God. To recognize he's worthy to be
worshipped. He's worthy to be prayed. He's
worthy to be held in awe and fear and reverence. The scripture
says, holy and reverent is his name. Let all the earth stand
before him. in awe and in fear. David said,
come, my children, I'll teach you how you ought to fear the
Lord. The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. I'm
not talking about a slavish fear. I'm talking about reverence and
awe and worship to adore the Lord our God. When Abraham was
told by God to take his only son Isaac and sacrifice him on
Mount Moriah as a sin offering unto the Lord God, This man,
Abraham, made that trip. It was a three-day trip. And
for three days, Abraham journeyed toward that mountain with his
only son, Isaac, the son of his love. And when he neared the
mountain, the scripture says, he looked up and saw the place.
And then he said to the young men with him, he says, you fellows
stay here. The lad and I are going yonder
and worship. Here was a man filled with great
anguish, heavy-hearted. battling his doubts and fears,
not understanding the commandment of God, not understanding the
ways of God, not understanding this awesome task that was before
him. But in the face of all of this
great trial and affliction, and in the face of these doubts and
fears, Abraham had one thing on his mind. He said, this lad
and I are going yonder and worship God. Whatever God has for me,
he's worthy to be Whatever God intends for me, he's worthy to
be worshipped. Whatever God in his good providence
has brought into my life, he's worthy at all times to be worshipped. Job. Job was a man greatly afflicted. And here was Job as the messengers
came in and told him that he'd lost all his cattle and all of
his sheep and all of his oxen, that everything he owned had
been swept away, and yea, even his ten children had been slain
and lay dead. In the face of all this, the
scripture says Job did not charge God with foolishness, but the
scripture says he bowed down and worshiped. Do you see the
significance here? Our Lord came down from the mountain,
and here was a man in great need, in great anguish and pain, a
leper, beyond help, beyond human help, beyond his own help. And
the first thing he did, he didn't rush up to the Lord and say,
now you promised to I claim your healing." He went up to him and
kneeled down before him. And the scripture says he worshipped
him. Before he ever opened his mouth,
he worshipped the Lord. Before he ever made a petition,
he worshipped the Lord. Before he ever asked for anything,
he worshipped the Lord. And my friend, whatever you need,
here's where you start. You bow down and worship God. And whatever the Lord's pleased
to do with you or me, it'll be right. Shall not the judge of
the earth do right? God's too good to do wrong and
too wise to make a mistake, and there are to be no arguments
before the throne of God. It is to be like our Lord Jesus
Christ said, as he lifted his eyes to heaven, Father, I thank
thee, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things
from the wise and the prudent, and thou hast revealed them unto
babes. For even so, Father, it seemed good in thy sight. And
there's no argument or debate or discussion to be put forth
before the throne of God's grace. We're just to say, Lord, thy
will be done. We worship thee. Thou art God. Whatever happens, this man worshipped
the Lord. He worshipped the Lord in his
uncleanness. He worshipped the Lord in his
weakness. He worshipped the Lord in his
sickness. He worshipped the Lord in his
need. And I don't know what the future holds for you. I don't
know how to prepare you for the future. But I do know this. I
know who holds the future. It's in his hands. All things
in the future are in the hands of God. And the scripture says,
Let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus, who
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, yet made himself
of no reputation, and took on himself the form of a servant,
and became obedient even unto death. even the death of the
cross. Let this mind be in you. Bow
down before the Lord our God. He is to be worshipped. Mercy
is in his hands. Grace is in his hands. He says,
I will be merciful to whom I will be merciful. I will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious. So the first thing I would say
in answer to the question, how can a sinner, a needy, helpless
sinner, approach the Lord of glory in order to obtain help? or mercy or grace, I'd say start
here. Worship the Lord. Bow down and
worship the Lord. I heard somebody say one time,
all Christians ought to worship God. No, my friend, all men ought
to worship God. All men. God is worthy to be
worshipped. Let everything that hath breath
praise the Lord. Or I look at the second word
in the text. How can a sinner approach the
Lord in order to obtain mercy? The next word is the word Lord.
This man came and fell down, kneeled down at the feet of Christ
and worshiped him, and he said, Lord, he recognized the absolute
Lordship of Jesus Christ. The scripture says he died that
he might be Lord, both of the dead and the living. Christ is
supreme, absolute, unchangeable Lord of heaven and earth. He
said, all authority is given unto me in heaven and earth.
He said, I have all power over all flesh. Let me say this to
you. The Bible knows nothing about
a doormat named Jesus. It's not in there anywhere. The
Bible knows nothing about one who will be your Savior and will
not be your Lord. Christ is Lord. He said this
to his disciples, you call me Lord and you say well, for so
I am. He's Lord. And when Samuel, young
Samuel, who was called to be a servant of God, a prophet of
God, When young Samuel approached Eli to tell him about the judgment
of God upon his home and upon himself and upon his family,
God said he was going to kill Eli's sons because of their great
sin. When Samuel presented that truth
to Eli, what was Eli's reply? He said, it's the Lord. Let him
do what he will. It's God. Let him do what he
will. The thief on the cross. When
he saw Christ, even in his saddest state, even in his state of humiliation,
in his state of suffering, stripped naked before those people, dying
on that tree, seemingly helpless, his visage marred as no other
man, that thief recognized Christ's kingship and lordship. He said,
Lord, you're not going to stay dead. You're coming into a kingdom.
Remember me, Lord. Now, I'll tell you this, what
distresses me about today's religion, what distresses me about today's
fundamentalism, is the low esteem and the pitiful opinion that
they have of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is not a pitiful
Reformer. He is not a frustrated, defeated,
disillusioned, disappointed Reformer. He's Lord of Lords and King of
Kings. And when he died on that cross,
he uttered these words, it is finished. He finished what he
came to do, he accomplished what he was sent to do, and he will
not fail. What think ye of Christ? Thomas
said, My Lord and my God. The Apostle Paul cried, Lord,
what will you have me do? So that's the second thing. When
you approach Christ Jesus, you worship and you acknowledge his
sovereignty, his Lordship, his power and right to do with his
own what he will. God said, I am the potter, you
are the clay. The potter hath power over the
clay to make of the vessel a lump, whatever vessel he will. Now,
here's the third word, the word will. This man came to Christ,
worshipped him, and said, Lord, if you will, if you will. Now, I know the whole religious
world has been arguing and debating for centuries over the subject
of the will. They debate over man's will,
and free will, and whosoever will, and God's will, and all
the other things. But let me tell you this. This,
I'm quite certain of this. I have not one doubt in my mind
about it. I know whose will is going to be done. I know whose
will is going to be done. The Scripture says in Ephesians
chapter 1 verse 11, and you can go on arguing and debating and
quarreling and disputing all you want to, but I know whose
will is going to be done. In Ephesians 1.11 it says he
worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. Daniel 4 says he doeth according
to his will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants
of this earth. And you who pray the Lord's prayer
or the model prayer, our Father which art in heaven, what does
it say? Thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. His will shall be done. He worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will." Before our
Lord ascended back to the Father, he was talking to the disciples.
And he told Peter how he would die. He told Peter he would be
crucified upside down. And it upset the Apostle Peter.
And he turned and looked at John, the beloved disciple, and he
said, Well, Lord, what about this fellow? What's he going
to do? And the Lord Jesus said, Peter, if I will, let he tarry
till I come again. If I will, let he live on this
earth. Until I come back again, that's none of your business.
You do what I told you to do. And my friends, that's the scripture.
His will shall be done. Do you know what the essence
of sin is? Do you know the essence of sin?
Well, I know we talk about sin and all these outward things,
you know, but sin is a principle. Sin is an attitude. Sin is a
root within us. It's a nature. A man steals because
he's a thief. He doesn't become a thief when
he steals. He was a thief before he ever stole. The nature was
in him. The principle was in him. The root was there. A man's
not a murderer because he killed somebody. He killed somebody
because at heart he's a murderer. That's where sin is. The essence
of sin is this. I will. I'll do what I will. I have no regard for God's will.
I'll do what I will. That's what Satan said in Isaiah
14. He says, I will be like God. I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God. That's our trouble. Sin is a
nature. It's a root. I will. You know
the essence of holiness? It's God's will. The essence
of holiness is not walking around with a silly smile on your face.
The essence of holiness is not walking around with your hands
clasped, you know, and trying to look religious. The essence
of holiness is a principle in your heart that desires the will
of God to be done, whatever that will is. That's what our Lord
said in the Garden of Gethsemane. He said, Not my will, but thy
will be done. And this man said to Christ as
he knelt at his feet, Lord, if you will, if you will, you can
make me clean. It's not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. And
your salvation or comfort or healing is not in your hand or
anybody else's hands, it's in the Lord's hand. And that brings
me to the next word. He said, Lord, if thou wilt,
thou canst. You can. Why can't he? He can for three reasons. Our
Lord is able. This man saw his inability to
help himself or anybody else's ability to help him. He knew
that the people around him couldn't help him. He couldn't help himself.
He was without strength, without hope, without help. But he said,
Lord, you can do it. Now, why can Christ save a sinner?
Why can Christ forgive sin? Why can he put away sin? First,
because of who he is. He's God. The world was made
flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus Christ is God in human
flesh. who he is. God said, this is
my Son in whom I'm well pleased. He's not just a messenger from
heaven. He's the Lord from heaven. The second Adam is the Lord from
heaven. He's not just a religious martyr. Jesus Christ is the Lamb
of God. He is the sacrifice for sin.
And he can heal us because of who he is. He can save us because
of who he is. Secondly, he can save us and
heal us and help us because of where he is. You know where he
is? He's at the right hand of the
Father. That's the place of acceptance. That's the place of power. That's
the place of authority. He's on the right hand of God.
And thirdly, he can help us and cleanse us because of what he
did. He died for our sins. He died
for our sins. In other words, we have a righteousness.
It's not ours. We have a holiness. It's not
ours. We'd be the first to say with the Apostle Paul, I'm the
chief of sinners. I'm less than the least of all
the saints. In my flesh dwelleth no good thing, but Christ is
my righteousness. He obeyed the law in my stead,
in my place. He went to the cross and took
my guilt and shame and filth and death and died that I might
be reconciled to God." Now the fifth word, the man worshiped
the Lord. He recognized the sovereignty
and lordship of Christ. He recognized the will that his
cleansing was according to the will of God. And he recognized
that Christ could do it, not only was willing to do it, but
could do it because of who he was. And fifthly, he said, I
want to be clean. Now I know there are a lot of
people, what's my real need? I know there's a lot of emphasis
in religion today on God wants you to be rich. I don't need
to be rich. I think riches sometimes are
a great burden. I don't need to be popular, have
a lot of friends. I enjoy friends, but that's not
my need. I don't need fine clothes and big homes and fine cars.
I don't even need good health. But I do need my sins forgiven. I need to be clean. Who shall
stand in his presence, he that hath clean hands and a pure heart?
I need to be clean. And that's what this leper said.
He said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. He wasn't
interested in stylish clothes. He wasn't interested in wealth.
He wasn't even interested in food. He was interested in being
made clean. And that's what we've got to
be interested in, in being made clean. Our Lord said, I will
be thou clean.