Take your Bibles and turn with
me to the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew chapter 8. Matthew chapter 8. Matthew 8 verses 1 to 4, when
he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him.
And behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord,
if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth
his hand and touched him, saying, I will. Be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was
cleansed. And Jesus saith unto him, see
thou tell no man. But go thy way, show thyself
to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded for
a testimony unto them. I'd like to speak for a few minutes
this morning on the subject of how must I approach God. If Almighty God has created a
need in a sinner. I'll tell you, that's by the
grace of God, that you need Him. Man by nature does it. The Lord, Scripture says, come
down from a mountain, been preaching in a A leper came to him. And that leper asked a question. Lord, if it be your will, you
can do something for me that I can't do for myself. You can
make me clean. In Mark's account of this, Scripture
says the leper came and kneeled before him. Kneeled down before
him. Luke 5 says, ìHe fell on his
face and besought him in desperate need.î Here was a sinner, a needy
sinner brought to the end of himself. And this sinner did the only
thing that he could do. He prostrated himself before
God. And that's the safest place he
could be. He was sick. He was sick. He had leprosy. What a blessing. What a blessing. Mr. Spurgeon said, one of the
greatest blessings is health. The only greater blessing is
sickness. man be brought to the end of
himself. This fellow didn't have a cold. He hadn't broken his finger.
He had something that was incurable. Humanly speaking, this man was
in trouble. But let's fly to the eternal
message of this. He was bad. He was bad. He was sick. But let's look at
the eternal message concerning this man's leprosy. What was
going to cause a man to cast himself upon the mercy of God? Need. Need. You know, it's real popular today
to just be religious, whatever need you might have concerning
business or something. It might be a good place to go
to church. But I'm talking about if a man or woman is found to
need Almighty God. He knew if he stayed where he
was, one thing's going to happen. I'm going to die. If Almighty God has given you
a heart Christ this morning. I'm so thankful. I'm so thankful
that God Almighty would show mercy. Let's just look for just
a second what happened. The scripture said when he was
come down, what was going to have to happen
before this man had any help? Almighty God was going to have
to come down. In the beginning was the Word.
The Word was with God. The Word was God. And God came
down. God Almighty came down, made
flesh. And here was a leper. Look at
this. Verse 2, Behold, Just stop for just a second.
Behold. Look at this. Muse on this. Take heart right here. Behold. There came a leper. Look, look,
look. Stop. Here came a leper. And this leper worshiped him. Now you talk about a miracle
of God's grace. How's that? I'm sure there's
a lot of lepers in that area. I mean we read a lot of leprosy
being prevalent. But here was one, the scripture
says, that came to the Lord. This meeting was ordained before
the foundation of the world. He didn't just happen to show
up. He just happened to be in the area. Oh no. When the Lord
was pleased, according to everlasting covenant of grace, He came down. Because, just like that woman
in Samaria. He must needs go through Samaria.
He must needs come down. It was a leper. There was a leper
going to be coming along the way right there and I'm going
to meet him. Right there. He came down. He said, this is
my meat. Do the will of Him that sent
me. And here comes a leper. And he worshipped, bowed, and
said, Lord, let me tell you the most wonderful
thought about this. All that the Father giveth me,
shall come to me. Him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out. Lord, no man can say that Jesus
is Lord by the Holy Ghost. Lord, if you will, if you will, I know you can,
but Lord, if you will, Lord, if you will, you can purify me.
you can cleanse me of this defilement. A sinner has a problem that nobody
but the Lord can fix. Lord, if you will, Lord, according
to your purpose, according to your pleasure, according to your
power, that's what I want. Verse 3 says, And Jesus put forth
his hand and touched him. That leper was an outcast. That leper was polluted and anybody
that touched him was polluted too. But this just wasn't anybody.
This is the Lord. This is one that bore the pollution
of his people he associated with and touched him. Nobody else
would come up and touch that leper. I touch him, I'll be unclean. The Lord was made sin. My friend, here's a picture of
salvation. What that leper was in body,
every man is by nature in his soul. crown of his head, I guarantee
you, there was nothing about that man you wouldn't touch.
Sole of his foot, crown of his head, putrefying sores, just
rotting, rotting. And the Lord touched him, that
loathsome pollution. Here's Almighty God, come down,
bore the guilt of his people. associated with him and made
them willing in the day of his power to come to him. And this is what he said, I will, I will, I will. And the scripture says immediately
his leprosy was cleansed. And then the Lord, verse four,
said unto him, See thou tell no man, but go thy way, and show
thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded
for a testimony unto them. Now in closing, I want you to
take your Bibles and turn with me to Leviticus 14. Let's see
what God has to say concerning this. Leviticus chapter 14. Verse 1,
verse 2, this will be the law of the leper. In the day of his
cleansing, he shall be brought unto the priest. The priest shall
go forth out of the camp. He couldn't come in. The priest
shall look, and behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in
the leper, then shall the priest command to take for him that
is to be cleansed two birds, alive and clean, cedarwood, scarlet,
and hyssop. And the priest shall command
that one of the birds be killed in a northern vessel over running
water. As for the living bird, he shall
take it, the cedar wood, scarlet, hyssop, dip them, and the living
bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running
water, he shall sprinkle over him that is to be cleansed from
the leprosy seven times, shall pronounce him clean, shall let
the living bird loose into an open field. The Lord said, and
this is what I want you to do. Don't you go anywhere else. You
go to the priest first. I've cleansed you. I want the
law to take a look at this. You show yourself to the priest. You let the law examine you.
You let the law see for itself That bird that was killed, there's
a picture of a glorious sacrifice of our Savior. Laid down his life for the sheep. He said, you take that blood
from that bird that was slain, you put it on this other bird. You let him take off and carry
it away. Did you hear what Jesus done
for me? My sins, they're all taken away.
Show yourself and you let the law look at you. And you know what the law is
going to say? No pollution. Clean. Justified. Free from the law. Oh, happy condition. Why? Jesus has died. There's remission. May the Lord bless these words
to our heart for Christ's sake. Amen.