It's wonderful to be here with all of you today.
It's good to see the presence of all that have come to be with
us. And we have a great crowd here
for which we're thankful. It's good to see all the
Osbournes. We got Osbournes everywhere.
It's like old times. It's good stuff that visitors
from the community with us. And we're so thankful for your
presence also. And I hope that we have some
things to consider that would be encouraging and edifying to you
in some way. Just to kind of set up what
we're going to talk about this morning.
I just finished with you a year and a half series on the
greatest sermon ever preached. It was the Lord's masterpiece
preached so long ago in Matthew 5-6 and seven.
It was the greatest sermon ever preached because Jesus dealt
with relevant issues. He brought about new
authoritative law and things that they had never heard
before. He taught about life.
He taught about having the proper relationship with God and
he taught about having the proper relationship with each
other, even with our enemies, and he taught us about actions
and he taught us about behavior. Big stuff.
When the Lord finished his masterpiece, and this is the
last sermon that I preached here, he got down to the very
end and this is what he said in his conclusion.
He said he that hears these sayings of mine and does them is
like a wise man that builds his house on the rock.
And the rains descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew,
but the house stood because it was founded on a rock.
On the other hand, he said he who hears these sayings of mine
and does not do them, I will liken him and do a foolish man
that builds on the sand. Same storms coming his way, by
the way, same rain, same floods, same wind, but because it wasn't
built on the proper foundation. And that is the rock.
And the Rock You remember, is the word of God.
That is the rock that we lay the foundation for our spiritual
lives and our spiritual existence.
If our life is not founded on that rock, then we are the
unwise or foolish man that builds on the sand.
And when the storms of life comes, it will not hold up and
you will crumble from a spiritual perspective and even
in life, that's the way that it is.
And by the way, just to kind of add something, you remember the
word foolish. There is not a strong enough
word in our English vernacular today as it was in its origins.
The word comes from the word morose.
It's where we get the English word moron.
Jesus was saying if you hear these things in mind that you do
not do them. You're like a moron that builds
his house on the sand. We don't want to be that guy,
right? So let me just say this about
building on the rock and we are moving on.
Don't ever let it be that you base a religious position or you
form a religious practice on somebody's opinion, whether it's
your opinion or the opinion of someone else.
If you, if you found or you build a, a spiritual foundation
on somebody's opinion, you are building on the shifting sand.
All right, Jesus said all that stuff.
And Matthew records this. He said when the Lord finished,
the people were astounded or astonished at His teaching
because He taught them as one having authority and not as one
of the scribes. Then we come to Matthew chapter
8, and Jesus continues His work among the people, and He does it
with miracles to confirm His authority and His teaching.
And here we come. Here's the first miracle.
When he had come down from the mountain, great multitudes
followed Him. I want to talk about the
multitudes for just a moment. I don't know how many people
were in this group of people that's called multitudes, but a
lot a mass number of people. If you look up with the
definition of multitude, it's a lot of people.
Let me just say this, I think there's three kinds of people
that were in that multitude. And I think those same three
kinds of people exist today. Number one, there were those
that were really genuine and really sincere.
And I think there's a lot of people today that followed Jesus
because they're genuine, they're sincere, and they follow Jesus
because of what he taught and because of who he is.
And that's great. And I hope that everybody here
and under the sound of my voice today falls into the category
that you're here because you are genuine and you are sincere.
But #2 there's a second kind of person that I think was in that
crowd and that were those that were curious.
You know, I'm going to say something.
You know, that phrase. Curiosity killed the cat.
OK, sometimes curiosity is a bad thing.
But curiosity with religion as that is the origins or the basis
or the foundation or the beginning of why you come to
Jesus. That isn't necessarily a bad
thing. There's a lot of people that are
curious. Here's the problem.
Don't stay curious, Get convicted at some point in time,
it can't just be about curiosity or I'll kind of see how it goes.
You got to get convicted. So no doubt there were people
that were genuine and sincere. No doubt there were those that
were curious. Hopefully they turned into
conviction in their life. Hopefully that was the case.
But #3 what about this one? Those that were after some kind
of material gain, in other words, something that they could
get or gain from it. I'm going to tell you something
that is not Christianity. I know that there's a lot of
people that are looking for something that they can get when
they come to Jesus. In other words, I like my life
exactly the way that it is, but I want to add a little Jesus to
it because there's something that I want to get from it.
And Christianity is all about what you give and not what you
get. What do we get?
Oh, we get great stuff. We get a promise of heaven.
We get spiritual blessings in Christ.
That's not the sermon here. We get a lot of great stuff.
But the motive is this. We come to Jesus out of service
to him, and that's what the motive is, not because we're
looking to gain something materially.
Let me give you a Bible example. When Jesus fed the 5000, there
were also great multitudes of people there that day too, and
they had a little bit of money. I think it says 200 denarii and
they said 200 denarii is not enough money to feed all these
people. And Andrew says, well there's a
lad, I don't know how close he was, but there's a lad over here
and he's got 5 barley loaves and two small fishes.
Now by the way, a barley loaf, it's not a big old loaf of
bread. Barley loaves were small.
You could pretty much say it like this.
He had five crackers and two little sardines, OK.
And the and Jesus the Master fed 5000 people with five of those
little barley loaves and two small fishes.
And by the way, that fish, and GAIL can tell you this.
She was there. In fact, you talked to me about
that one day. But in the Sea of Galilee, the
kind of fish in the Sea of Galilee were skinny little fish
that looked like sardines. In fact, that's what they had.
That's what this boy had. He had 5 barley loaves and two
small fishes and Jesus feeds 5000.
Then notice what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 6.
And by the way, GAIL wasn't there back on that day.
She was there on a trip later on in life.
Just thought I'd throw that in. In John 6 and 26, Jesus answered
them and said most assuredly, I say to you, you seek me, not
because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and
were filled. And I think that's a lot of
people today looking for something that they can get or
gain. But you know what, later on in
this chapter, Matthew chapter 8, verses 18 through 22, Jesus says
and teaches the principle that Christianity and following Jesus
is a very expensive process. It's an expensive endeavor.
In fact, you may have any, you may even have to give up the
basic necessities or the comforts that you enjoy in life.
All right, verse 2 and behold, a leper came.
You know, it's kind of ironic here.
No sooner that Jesus had finished preaching some of the
beauties of God's word, on the scene comes a despised, rejected
man, somebody that's been ostracized and cast out, an
outcast. And he comes in his feet and he
comes to Jesus in humble adoration.
In fact, Luke says the man is full of leprosy and it comes to
Jesus imploring him, which means an earnest or desperate appeal.
He comes to Jesus with an earnest and desperate appeal.
Now it's hard to know exactly the extent of the man's leprosy.
You know why? Because in Leviticus chapter 13,
Leviticus chapter 13 describes the word leprosy to describe
various forms of different skin ailments.
I don't know how deep this guy had with leprosy.
I don't know. To that extent it really doesn't
matter. All we do know is the Greek word
lapos means scaly, describing one of the 1st and most obvious
characteristics of the disease. OK, now I did a little research
and many scholars say that the disease that this man had in
Matthew is probably similar or probably the modern disease that
is called today Hansen's disease.
Maybe you know all about Hansen's disease.
I never even heard of it, but Hansen's disease was the term.
Hansen's disease came from a man by the name of AG Hansen, and in
1874 he discovered the microbes causing the ailment, according
to Mr. Fowler. Fowler went on to say about this
disease. Hansen's disease is contagious
and it's spread by direct contact.
However, recent studies confirm it may also be passed on to
others when inhaled through the air.
This information may explain why Levitical law required a leper
to cover his mouth. By the way, let me give you a
Bible for that. Picture this in Leviticus 13 and
45. This is if you were a leper.
The leper on whom the sore is his clothes shall be torn and
his head bare, and he shall cover his mustache and cry,
unclean, unclean. Can you imagine that running up
and down the street, covering your mouth, screaming out
unclean, unclean so people would stay away?
That's what the guy had. This disease, by the way,
appears to have originated in Egypt so long ago.
In fact, it's a very common disease, or was a very common
disease in Egypt. And because of the climate and
the temperature and all that, it was actually conducive to
aggravate the disease. So I read when a person was
suspected of having leprosy, he was taken to the priest under
the old Law of Moses for inspection, and if the leprosy
was detected, he was pronounced unclean on the spot.
Leviticus 13 and one and two, and he was then ostracized
indefinitely. OK, under the old law of Moses
there were 61 defilements, 61 defilements under the old law.
In ancient Judaism, leprosy was number 2, second only to a dead
body when it came to defilements.
And we know about dead bodies right under the old Law of
Moses. By the way, if you want to touch
a dead body now, no big deal. Under the old Law of Moses, not
so fast. In fact, that's why, and you
remember this from my sermon a long time ago.
I'll be very brief, but that's why after the spring rains in
Jerusalem and everything was clean, they would whitewash the
tomb so that people, when they came into Jerusalem at
springtime for the Passover, didn't touch a grave.
You know why? If they touched a grave, if they
touched the bones of a dead person or they touched a dead
person himself, they were considered unclean.
And nobody wanted to be unclean during the Passover.
So death, obviously, or dead body.
Yeah, pretty big defilement under the Old Law.
Moses, Guess what? Leprosy #2 only number two or
second only to that. I so also noticed in the Talmud,
which is a collection of Jewish tradition and scripture, it said
this, that a Jewish person could not come within 6 feet of a
leper and if the wind was blowing, they couldn't come
within 100 feet. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm really
setting the stage here for a reason.
OK, One ancient rabbi wouldn't buy an egg on the street if a
leper had ever been there. That's how people thought about
it. That's the idea of how leprosy
was and how people reacted to it.
Notice what happens here, though.
This leper comes to Jesus knowing all the things that I
just said and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if you are
willing, you can make me clean. Even though the man was an
outcast, he recognizes the Lord's power and he believes the
Lord can help. And he's desperate.
And even though he's desperate, I'm going to ask you this.
Have you ever been desperate? Yeah, you have.
Have you ever gone to God in prayer because you were
desperate, because of some circumstance that was so bad or
so awful that you desperately came to God and all you wanted
was relief? Have you ever been sick?
Have you ever had a loved one that was sick?
And the sickness was unto death and you were desperate and you
prayed to God. This man was desperate.
This man had leprosy. He was desperate.
But you know what he says? He puts it all in the hands of
the Lord's will. I love this.
He said, Lord, if you are willing.
Now I'm not going to preach on God's will.
You've heard me preach that many times.
I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to say this.
Our mindset should always be that right there.
When you pray, you pray with the mindset or you pray with the
provision if it be your will. And what you're saying is you're
not trying to bend God's will toward you, you're trying to
bend your will toward God. And that's what our mindset
should be. You know why say one more thing
and I'm moving on. Here's the reason why, because
everything is God's will. Whether God makes it happen,
whether God allows it to happen, or whether God stops it from
happening, it's still God's will.
So we need to have the mindset or the attitude of the heart
that that leper had so long ago when he said, Lord, if you are
willing, OK, Some people question whether or not he knew
exactly the about the deity of Christ or the extent of the
deity of Christ. And I don't know why we got to
argue about that. And I don't know why
commentators are back and forth about that.
But let me tell you why some deduced that they that this man
probably didn't know the extent of the deity of Christ.
And here's why. The word worship, the word
worship today that we're doing right now means to kiss the hand
toward. That's exactly what we're doing.
We're coming together. And as Jesus said, we worship in
spirit and in truth, OK, that's what we do here.
And we are literally kissing the hand toward and God is the
object of our worship. We understand what that word
worship means. This word worship is a lesser
word. And because of that, it causes
people to think, well, the guy didn't really know about Jesus,
but think about it. The word actually means to give
obeisance or respect to somebody that is greater than you are.
That's what that word worship means in this passage.
What he's saying is the leper came and he recognized that
Jesus was greater than he was. So here's my point.
What's the big deal? He recognized that Jesus was
greater than any man. He recognized that Jesus was
greater than he was, and he recognized that Jesus had the
power to heal him if he so chose, if he was willing.
OK, why would we spend time talking about leprosy?
And why did I do that all the way up to this point?
Leprosy represents something, doesn't it?
Can you? Can you guess what it might be?
Leprosy is a symbol of something.
Notice leprosy is to the physical body what sin is to the
spiritual body. Let that soak in for just a
minute. In fact, as leprosy renders its
victims numb to pain as it eats the flesh and hideously
disfigures the body, that's leprosy.
Sin numbs the heart, gnaws the spirit, and destroys any
semblance of godliness. I want to say something here.
There's a difference between leprosy and sin, though, and
here it is. Leprosy comes to a victim
without his choice. Sin is all about choice.
I'm going to say it again. Sin is all about choice.
I'm going to do something now and I'm going to be very kind
and I'm going to do my best here because I'm going to step on
something that is above my pay grade.
And I'm going to tell you that in advance right now.
I know that there are people in our life, maybe you are, I have
no idea, that have been victimized at some point in your
life. And if somebody victimized you
in any way, shape or form, I'm saying shame on them for doing
that. And that's awful.
If somebody, a child for example, was victimized by a
horrible person, that is terrible.
And if somebody is victimized, this is the part that's above my
pay grade. They need to get the help that
they need in order to get through that.
By the way, I'm going to use a phrase here when people say you
got to get over it. That's the dumbest bit of advice
in the world, telling somebody to get over something.
You don't get over it, you get through it.
You handle it. You get through it.
You don't get over it. You just need to get over it.
Whatever, man. No, you get through it, you
handle it. Saying all that, please hear me.
Just because somebody at one time was a victim does not give
them the license to make sinful choices for the rest of their
life. It's like that book.
The title of the book is Bad Childhood, Good Life.
We are still. It doesn't take away from our
accountability and our responsibility in our life to
make better choices in the future.
And we don't have to let the fact that we once were a victim
define us for the rest of our life.
We can be better and we can move forward.
And by the way, may I just throw in from the human side, don't
let somebody that did something to you or you were once a victim
have that kind of power over you for the rest of your life.
Turn that loose. Who are they?
Don't give them that kind of power.
Don't give him that kind of power.
Leprosy hits a victim. Sin is a choice and that's the
difference between the two. This man comes to Jesus
recognizing Jesus was a greater than he was said you can do it
if you're willing. And then notice what does Jesus
do? He puts out his hand and he
touched him. Now, I think the Lord's response
here is both beautiful and significant.
I really do. You know why?
Because Jesus could have healed this man by speaking the words.
In fact, the next miracle, the healing of the centurion
servant, He did so verbally. Why didn't Jesus do that?
Jesus could have healed this man by speaking the words into
existence, but he doesn't. He stretches out his hand and He
touches him. In this case.
He couples his words of compassion with actions with an
outstretched hand and touches him.
OK, you might say, what's the big deal about that?
OK, to fully appreciate what the Lord actually did, you got to go
back to Leviticus chapter 5, verses 2 and three and find out
that anyone that touched something unclean, like a leper,
you became unclean yourself. Now Jesus was living under the
Law of Moses at the time that He healed this man.
So Jesus was always going in accord with the Law of Moses.
So what was he doing here? You would think he was breaking
the law of Moses by doing this, but not so fast.
Hang on, we'll get to that. He touches the man knowing that
Leviticus says if you do it, you're unclean.
And he also understood that if you touched a leper, it put you
under the inconvenience of having to go through legal
cleansing under the law of Moses too, with a priest.
So the question is this, why and how Jesus could touch this man
and still be true to the legislation of Moses?
First of all, understand this number one, Jesus was deity.
He is the Son of God #2 as the Son of God, He, along with God,
was the author of Mosaic law. They were the author of Mosaic
law. So therefore #3 his actions fall
within the divine prerogative of helping those who need healing.
In other words, kind of like when Jesus dealt with the
Sabbath, they helped. They hated how Jesus dealt with
the Sabbath. You know what Jesus said,
though, about that? I can do whatever I want on the
Sabbath because I'm Lord of the Sabbath.
I'm greater than the Sabbath. He also marked the transition
from the Sabbath day, which was a significant day under the old
law of Moses, which was the 7th day or Saturday, and the new
day. He brought that transition,
which is the first day of the week, which is Sunday.
But there's more. Just as his healing on the
Sabbath did not break the tenor of Mosaic commands of forbidding
to work, Jesus also did not place himself at risk by being
unclean by healing this leper. In both cases, as one scholar
said, the Mosaic laws were designed to help man and not
burden man. So Jesus cannot be defiled
because his mastery over uncleanness is so complete it's
impossible for it to be passed on to him.
And then notice what happens. Jesus says, I'm willing.
He touched him, and then immediately his leprosy was
cleansed. All right, this is
instantaneous. This is immediate.
I'm not trying to make fun. I'm really not.
And I, and I try hard not to be sarcastic, I really do.
But I saw a guy on TV not long ago that supposedly healed
somebody that had severe cerebral palsy.
And this little boy, this boy, I don't know, not a little boy,
but teenage boy was in a wheelchair and this so-called
faith healer came out and said that he healed him.
And the music started playing and the band was playing and
they were all excited. They said he's healed, he just
needs to go home and have a time of healing.
Come on, come on now. You know what happened with
Jesus. A real miracle.
An authentic miracle. Before everyone's eyes, this
leopard's skin was cleansed, his scales removed, his withered
limbs restored, his stench was gone, and his body was given a
new life. Done, done.
Deal. But you know what?
And just as quickly as Jesus cleanse that man, he's going to
do the same for those that are in sin too.
In fact, one scholar put it this way, no less a miracle is it
that the blood of the sinless Lamb of God purifies the souls
of those who cry out to Him? Isn't that great?
And that's instantaneous too. With a loving hand Jesus reaches
forth to us today. With a loving hand He's willing
and waiting to touch all that come in obedient faith to Him.
Jesus says, Come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly at heart.
And you shall find rest unto your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
That is our Lord standing ready to heal us of our sin, too.
And you know what? At the end of this lesson, we'll
talk about exactly how you do that.
But when that happens, and when that occurs, guess what?
All the sins of your life that happened before are gone as
instantaneously as this man's leprosy was gone.
Just like that. Wow.
Remember our foundation though can't be about an opinion.
It has to be on the Word of God. Notice what Jesus says in
Matthew 8 and verse 4 though. Then after Jesus performed this
miracle, he said to him, see that you tell no one.
OK, why did Jesus tell this man? Don't tell anybody.
Well, first of all, the command is not peculiar to this verse.
In fact, there's frequent, it's frequently seen in the Gospel
narratives. Question is why?
I mean, after all, Jesus was coming to bring the light of
himself to the world. And you know, while that's true,
do you know there's something else that's true too?
Timing is everything. It wasn't time.
If you look at the landscape of what was going on back in those
days, there was a lot of people that misunderstood the Messianic
Kingdom. Even the disciples misunderstood
it. They thought he was going to
come and establish an earthly Kingdom.
Now, here's the point. I think this is exactly why he
told this man, don't go tell anybody about what I just did to
you. And we're going to find out, by
the way, what the man actually did in a moment.
But Jesus said don't tell. I think the reason he said don't
tell is this. He didn't want people to think
that the Messiah was just about miracles and all about political
reform. I think that's exactly what he
was trying to do. I don't want people to follow me
at a political reform or because you think I'm going to establish
an earthly Kingdom, or because of the miracles that I'm
performing. I want you to follow me because
you have to understand what the nature of the messianic Kingdom
actually is. In fact, Fowler said it this
way, Galilee and Judea are particularly sensitive to any
messianic uprising and that Jesus wanted to instruct the
people about the kind of Messiah God has in mind before they
seize him and attempt to make his movement upfront for
deliverance from the yoke of Rome and Jewish expectation.
They believed in a Messiah. They just messed up on the kind
that they were going to get, and then they rejected the one that
they got. Wow, give you 1 little example.
I just can't let it go. I got to slip this in.
You heard me preach it in the last week in the life of Jesus
years ago when Jesus made his triumphal entry.
But I got to slip this in when they came in.
And the reason for this, by the way, when Jesus came in and made
his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, they said hosanna to
the highest. Remember that if you look up the
word hosanna, it means a word of praise or it's a word of joy.
So it appears that they're saying, yes, we're praising
Jesus and we're so happy about it.
But the word hosanna comes from the Hebrew word hoshaya na, and
it was very common. And hoshaya na actually means
save now we pray or give victory.
That's what they were saying. They misunderstood the Messianic
Kingdom. They were saying, give us
victory over what? Over Rome?
What else were they saying? Save Now we pray.
Save from what? They thought it was Rome not
realizing Jesus was there to save them from their sins.
And I think that's exactly why Jesus tells this guy, I just
healed you, but don't tell anybody.
It's not time. It's not time.
But then he says this, this is what you're going to do, though
He gave them specific commands. We're going to get back to the
tell no one in just a moment. But he says, go your way and
show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses
commanded. All right, Jesus obviously
delivering new law. He's still living under the old
law and he understands what that means.
And he also understands if you go to Leviticus chapter 14 and
and I can't read all 57 verses, I'm not going to bog you down on
57 verses, but I'm going to tell you something.
In Leviticus chapter 14, there's 57 verses that talk about what
you do with a leper or a leprous house for a ceremonial,
ceremonial cleansing of it. I'm just going to give you 9
real quick verses. Here we go.
You'll get the gist. Then the Lord spoke to Moses,
beginning in verse one, saying, this shall be the law of the
leper for the day of his cleansing.
He shall be brought to the priest, and the priest shall go
out of the camp, and the priest shall examine him.
And indeed, if the leprosy is healed in the leper, then the
priest shall command and take for him who is to be cleansed to
living in clean birds, cedar woods, scarlet and hyssop.
And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed
in an earthen vessel. By the way, an earthen vessel is
a clay pot. You're going to put it in a clay
pot and run it over with water. As for the living bird, he shall
take it and the cedar wood and the scarlet and the hyssop, and
dip them in the living bird, in the blood of the bird that was
killed over the running water. And he shall sprinkle it 7 times
on him who is to be cleansed from the leprosy, and shall
pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose in the
open field. He is to be cleansed who shall
wash his clothes, shave off his hair, and wash himself in water
that he may be clean. After that he shall come into
the camp and shall stay outside the tent seven days, but on the
7th day he shall shave off his hair off of his head and his
beard and his eyebrows. All his hair shall be shaved
off. He shall wash his clothes and
wash his body in water, and he shall be clean.
Man, aren't you glad we don't live under the Law of Moses?
Aren't you glad Jesus nailed all that to the cross?
And by the way, after verse 10, he just keeps continuing all the
way through verse 57. Quite a process.
Jesus said this. Don't tell anybody, but show
yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded.
Like I just read in the book of Leviticus.
Why? As a testimony to them?
As a testimony to them, while this man was to show himself to
the priest, the healing was for the benefit of them.
Who's them? Them are the priests at
Jerusalem who had not had the opportunity to witness first
hand the miracles of Jesus. So and by giving the healed man
this command, Jesus also sends a message that the Messiah who he
was, was not coming to destroy the law or the prophets.
Matthew chapter 5 and verse 17 on the great Sermon on the
Mount. Jesus said that very thing.
Do not think that I came to destroy the law of the prophets.
I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
Please get this The Bible is one story.
It's one story. You know who the story's about?
Who's the one character the Bible's about Jesus in the Old
Testament. The message is he's coming from
Matthew to Acts. The message is he's here from
Acts to Revelation. The message is he's coming
again. It's all one story and it's all
about Jesus. And Jesus says, I didn't come to
destroy the law of the prophets. I came to fulfill it.
And that's why he sent the man to the priest to offer the gift
that Moses commanded as a testimony to them.
OK, remember when I said Jesus said don't say don't tell
anybody? You want to know what really
happened? Now Jesus says don't tell
anybody. Notice what happened, however,
He went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread
the matter so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the city,
but was outside in deserted places and they came to him from
every direction. Here's stuff to consider.
The damage that we do when we repeat something that we're
asked not to. I'm going to tell you something.
This man could have justified his behavior by saying, I'm so
excited. I just got to tell people about
Jesus. That's not the point.
Jesus said don't tell. He said don't tell it.
I hope we all feel like this, but one of my pet peeves, So
what? Who am I?
Just saying, I'm a human too. Got all kinds of mistakes and
all kinds of flaws too. But one of my pet peeves is when
people are told something and asked not to repeat it, but they
just go ahead and do it anyway. Sometimes they do it by way of
gossip. And if you want to know again,
this is another old sermon. You've heard all this because
I've been here forever, you know.
But if you want to know whether you should repeat something, ask
yourself three questions. And I got this from a little
sister. One time I was preaching to hold
the meeting in the middle of Timbuktu, nowhere.
She walked up to me after service and she said, preacher.
I said, yes, ma'am, I'm going to tell you what my Mama taught me.
I said, great, let me have it. I want it.
She said. My Mama always said, if you want
to know whether you should repeat something or not, ask
yourself three questions. Question number one, is
repeating this going to help me? Question #2 Is repeating this
going to help the person I'm telling?
Question #3 is this If I tell it, is it going to help the
person I'm telling it about? If the answer to any one of
those questions is no, then please keep your mouth shut and
don't repeat it. But this was a good thing, you
would think. But Jesus says don't repeat it.
And because he repeated it, no notice what happened.
Jesus couldn't openly move among the city because the people were
drawn to him prematurely. In fact, you know what Luke
said? Luke said that Jesus departed
and he went into the wilderness and he prayed about the crisis.
And we learn a lot of stuff from this.
Don't we? Do what the Lord says, Don't do
what we think is best. And if the Lord says it, whether
we can wrap our mind around it or not, or whether we think it
makes sense, just do what the Lord says.
You know what Jesus said about that.
You're building on the rock when you do that and not the shifting
sand. In conclusion this morning, what
do we learn today in our study? We learned this from this
miracle. We learned that Jesus showed
mercy to a man who had an awful disease of leprosy and Jesus
cured him. The beauty of it is this.
In like manner, Jesus will also show mercy to those who come to
Him in obedient faith and cure them from that terrible disease
of sin that everyone has. What was the difference?
Remember, leprosy was a disease where the recipient was a
victim, but sin is a choice. It's a choice.
It always is, always has been, always will be.
The beauty of it is this. The one that healed this man is
Jesus and Jesus had not given the Commission to do it yet till
Matthew chapter 10. He had not given His disciples
about miracles to do that and give them the Commission or the
power to do it until Matthew chapter 10 beginning in verse
one. That means when Jesus performed
this miracle, He was the only one that could have done it.
In like manner, as we compare leprosy and sin, He's the only
one that could take away your sins.
Only Jesus. He's the only one.
The question is how, and that's our invitation.
Here's how you got to hear the word of God.
Romans 10/17. So faith comes by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. You have to believe with all
your heart. Hebrews 11 and 6.
Without faith it's impossible to please Him, for he who comes to
God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those
who diligently seek Him. But that also leads to a choice.
Here we are about choices. Again.
Got choose. I got to change my ways.
I got to change my life. I got to change my mind.
I got to change my direction. Simple.
Do it like that, right? Let's get that done.
You got to repent of your sins. Acts 17 to 30.
Truly these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands
all men everywhere to repent. Then we must be willing to
confess Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
Acts 837 And Philip said, if you believe with all your heart, you
may. And he answered and said, I
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
That's the great, that's the great confession that we all
make. All right, all of these steps
are leading toward or pointing toward the point of salvation.
But the point of salvation is baptism for the remission of
sins. Mark 1616.
Jesus said he who believes and is baptized will be saved, but
he who does not believe will be condemned.
Another passage first Peter 321 the like figure where to even
baptism death also now save us, not the putting away the filth
of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
It's baptism in water for the remission of sins that washes
our sins away. OK, what if you've done all
that? That's how Jesus takes your sins
away the first time. What if you've done all that and
maybe you've made some mistakes, Maybe you've drifted away?
James 5, beginning in verse 19. Brethren, if any among you
wander from the truth and someone turns him back, let him
know that he who turns a Sinner from the air of his way will
save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
How do you do it? First, John 1 and 9 confess our
sins. He's faithful and just to
forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
That's the Bible pattern for getting rid of your sin.
One final passage. And it's the passage that that
describes what we do when we have habitual struggles in our
life. Habitual sins.
James 516 Confess your trespasses to one another and
pray to one another. Pray for one another that may be
healed. The effective fervent prayer of
a righteous man avails much.