Healing the Leper

Matthew 8:1-4

Matthew 8:1-4, When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. ² And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” 3 Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4 And Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” Matthew Chapters ⁸ -12 is very critical to the understanding of the life of Christ and the message of Matthew. Matthew Chapter 1: Genealogy. That attested to the legal qualifications of the Messiah. Matthew Chapter 2: Birth, and the fulfilment of prophecy attested to the prophetic qualifications of the Messiah.

Matthew Chapter 3: Baptism of Jesus Christ attested to the divine approval of His messiahship. Matthew Chapter 4: Temptation attested to His spiritual qualifications to be the Messiah. Matthew Chapters 5-7: Sermon on the Mount. His theological qualifications to be the Messiah.

Matthew Chapter 8-9: The miracles, the most essential qualification of all, the proof that He is God. Matthew records a series of miracles performed by Jesus Christ. There are countless thousands of miracles that are done.

Matthew singles out 9 miracles as examples of the power of Jesus Christ in Chapter 8 and 9. They are really His credentials as the Messiah. They are those signs which point convincingly to His deity. Only God can do the things that He does.

Miracles were God’s way of attesting to the deity of His Son. They are creative miracles.

They manifest power that is only defined by the essence of God. They are things that man could never do. They are supernatural. Now this approach of giving credentials to the Messiah through miracles is not only Matthew’s approach but is also John’s approach.

Apostle John in his Gospel he singles out 7 Miracles to show they are the signs to Heaven though the Messiah. Matthew 8 and 9 we find that is exactly Matthew’s purpose as well. These are the credentials of the King. This is the proof that He is divine.

It comes at a very strategic point in the gospel of Matthew. Jesus has just delivered a amazing sermon in Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7. Jesus has told them that their,

• teaching is wrong,
• living is wrong,
• attitude is wrong,
• everything they stand is wrong,

• everything they believe is wrong, and
• hope for is wrong.

Jesus never bothered to quote any rabbis or any of their well- known sources. He just repeatedly says, “This is the truth.” Jesus repeatedly said, “You have heard it, but I say.” He kept saying that.

Matthew 7:28-29, And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, 29 for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

How did the scribes do? They quoted other rabbis. Jesus overturned their entire religious system. He stripped them naked. He unmasked them as the spiritual phonies that they were. A first century Jew would say this.

Who is this saying these things?

By what authority does He speak?

Why should we listen to this?

Why should we believe this? What gives Him the right to say these things and to affirm that they are true?

Matthew chapters 8 and 9 is the answer to that question. Jesus is God! Matthew is saying in chapter 8 and 9 that He is God. Matthew is showing beyond a shadow of doubt that Jesus is God.

How do you know He is God? Because only God can create.

• Two chapters,
• Nine Miracles,

Jesus creates situations, circumstances that do not exist, even physical limbs and we see God at work. It presents the answer to the question, “By what authority does He say this?”

The first three miracles

Jesus cleanses leper – Matthew 8:1-4 Jesus Heals Centurion servant- Matthew 8:5-10 Jesus heals Peter Mother-in-Law- Matthew 8:14-15

The second three miracles

Jesus calming the sea – Matthew 8:18-27 Jesus delivers two demon possessed men- Matthew 8:28-34 Jesus heals Paralytic- Matthew 9:1-8

The Third three miracles

Jesus restores the life a child – Matthew 9:18-26 Jesus Heals Two blind men- Matthew 9:27-29 Jesus heals mute- Matthew 9:32-34 Certain observations from the miracles of Jesus in these 2

chapters

• a) Meeting the physical need.

Begins at the lowest level of human need, the physical. Life is more than physical, but Jesus is also sympathetic about the physical. The miracles of Jesus were not only miracles that dealt with spiritual things; or that dealt with comfort, or riches, or circumstances, or providence. They touched man at the lowest level of need, the physical.

He goes to the depths of human disease.

• b) Meeting the Spiritual needs.

Second three miracles Jesus deals more with the spiritual.

• c) Defeating the enemy

The third set of miracles, Jesus touches on the ultimate enemy of man, death itself. Jesus raises the dead. The sad part is that after the miracles in chapters 8 and 9, after the preaching that occurs following that, the Jews conclude in chapter 12 that Jesus is of the devil.

That was their conclusion. So, in many ways, this becomes the heart of Matthew’s message. Christ does everything possible to manifest His deity, and they conclude exactly the opposite. In chapter 13, He turns from the Jews toward the establishment of a Gentile church.

This is a monumental section of Scripture. First three miracles overview.

• i) Meeting human lowest need.

Jesus is dealing with that low level of human need, which shows us not only the power of Christ, but the sympathy of Christ. This shows us His compassion.

• In the first case, the leper says to Him, “If You will, You can make me clean.”
• In the second case, the friends of the centurion say, “The servant is in the house, sick of paralysis,” and He says, “I will come.”
• In the third case, according to what Luke adds in the parallel passage, the friends of the family of Peter say to Jesus, “You know, his mother-in-law is sick, and it sure would be wonderful if You could go over there and take care of her.”

In all three cases, He responds to the appeal of the heart of people.

ii) Choses on His own will

In every case, Jesus acts on His own will. Though He is sympathetic, and deeply compassionate, He is also sovereign. In each case, He acts on His own will.

First, “I will. Be thou clean.” Second, “I will come down and heal him.” Third, “He reached His hand and touched her, and the fever left.”

iii) Touches people

Each of these miracles, Jesus touches someone who, in the terms of the understanding of the Pharisees and the Jews, was at the lowest level of human existence. First case, a leper, the scum of the earth. Second case, a Gentile.

Third case, a woman. In just that alone Jesus devastates the Jewish pride, the Pharisees’ pride. Jesus really puts His emphasis on the humble, meek, and the outcast. Do you know that the first person He ever revealed His messiahship?

It was a harlot in Samaria. She was not even a Jew!

So, from the very start, Jesus makes it clear that He is going to establish His authority by miracle power. But He’s also going to show His sympathy for those who are hurting at the lowest level of human need. He is compassionately going to respond to the cries of those who have those needs and yet, He is going to act sovereignly as the Lord that He is.

In this section, His power is awesome!

• He cleanses a leper,
• heals a servant,
• raises up a woman,
• controls the sea,
• casts out demons,
• makes the blind to see,
• makes crippled people walk,
• makes dumb people speak,
• heals every single sickness that’s brought to Him.

Incredible display of power. Matthew Chapter 8 begins where chapter 4 left off. The sermon is stuck in the middle.

Matthew 4:23-25, And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the

people. 24 Then His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon- possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them. 25 Great multitudes followed Him—from Galilee, and from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.

He went up in a mountain, preached a sermon, came down, and started it all over again. Thousands, uncounted numbers of healings and He healed all who came to Him. Let us look at Matthew 8:1-4.

Matthew 8:1-4, When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. ² And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” ³ Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. ⁴ And Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” V1, “When He was come down from the mountain.”

What mountain? The mountain where He had just been teaching the sermon, near the village of Capernaum. “Great multitudes followed Him.”

Why? Wasn’t because they loved Him. Wasn’t because they adored Him. Wasn’t because they believed in Him. It was because they were curious. Because they had never heard anybody speak with such authority. They had never seen anybody who could go around healing people.

He attracted a huge crowd. Matthew creates a faithful audience for the healing miracles.

Matthew 8:18, And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side.

Matthew 9:8, Now when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled and glorified God, who had given such power to men.

Matthew 9:23, When Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd wailing,

Matthew 9:25, But when the crowd was put outside, He went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose.

Matthew 9:33, And when the demon was cast out, the mute spoke. And the multitudes marvelled, saying, “It was never seen like this in Israel!”

The multitude of the crowds shows the popularity of Jesus’ teaching and makes Jesus the focal point of the following story. V 2, And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”

Now what’s interesting is lepers don’t approach. This one did. Do you know anything about leprosy, or what a leper is in the Bible? It’s from the Greek word lepros, which comes from the root word lepis, which means scale or scaly.

A horrible disease found its way into the children of Israel’s life. This disease has been found in at least one mummy that’s been uncovered in Egypt, and it’s manifest on the physical body because of the mummification that this person did have leprosy.

This disease then, of course, as the children of Israel were in the land of Egypt, was transmitted to them. When they came into the Promised Land, they carried this disease with them.

Now it was a problem, because of the horror of the disease itself. God built in many laws to the life of Israel to protect them from plagues and things, gave them laws to deal with leprosy, so they would not contract this disease.

Now modern-day leprosy is only communicable to less than ten percent of the people. In our day today cannot get leprosy, even if you got all the bacilli in you, because it’s just the way we were made today. We don’t know whether the disease then was more communicable.

There is a statement made in Luke 4:27 that there were many lepers in Israel, of whom only Naaman was cleansed. So, it may have been highly communicable then when it’s less communicable today. God wanting to protect them, gave them a very clear direction as to how to treat it.

Leviticus 13:1-8, And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: 2 “When a man has on the skin of his body a swelling, a scab, or a bright spot, and it becomes on the skin of his body like a leprous sore, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons the priests. 3 The priest shall examine the sore on the skin of the body; and if the hair on the sore has turned white, and the sore appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is a leprous sore. Then the priest shall

examine him, and pronounce him unclean. 4 But if the bright spot is white on the skin of his body, and does not appear to be deeper than the skin, and its hair has not turned white, then the priest shall isolate the one who has the sore seven days. 5 And the priest shall examine him on the seventh day; and indeed if the sore appears to be as it was, and the sore has not spread on the skin, then the priest shall isolate him another seven days. 6 Then the priest shall examine him again on the seventh day; and indeed if the sore has faded, and the sore has not spread on the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean; it is only a scab, and he shall wash his clothes and be clean. 7 But if the scab should at all spread over the skin, after he has been seen by the priest for his cleansing, he shall be seen by the priest again. 8 And if the priest sees that the scab has indeed spread on the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is leprosy. 9 “When the leprous sore is on a person, then he shall be brought to the priest. 10 And the priest shall examine him; and indeed if the swelling on the skin is white, and it has turned the hair white, and there is a spot of raw flesh in the swelling, 11 it is an old leprosy on the skin of his body. The priest shall pronounce him unclean, and shall not isolate him, for he is unclean.

This chapter can be broken down into nine sections.

1. Diagnosis of skin eruptions (vv. 1-8)

2. Diagnosis of raw, inflamed flesh (vv. 9-17)

3. Diagnosis of boils (vv. 18-23)

4. Diagnosis of burns (vv. 24-28)

5. Diagnosis of scales in the scalp or in the beard (vv. 29-

37)

6. Diagnosis of fresh (white) skin (“clean skin disease,”

according to Wenham) (vv. 38-39)

7. Diagnosis of skin complications associated with

baldness (vv. 40-44)

8. The prescription for “treating” leprosy (vv. 45-46)

9. Diagnosis and prescription for mould, fungi (mildew)

found in clothing (vv. 47-59) What do you with this person?

Leviticus 13:45-46, “Now 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!’ 46 He shall be unclean. All the days he has the sore he shall be unclean. He is unclean, and he shall dwell alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.

They found that people have contracted leprosy when they have both touched the same object, that the bacillus can exist on the same object. He spends the rest of his life going around with all his face covered, saying, “Unclean! Unclean!”

He must make an announcement everywhere he goes. So nobody will get near him.

The Talmud

You can’t get any closer than six feet to a leper If the wind blowing, then 150 feet is the limit. There were sixty-one defilements in Judaism. Number one defilement, a dead body. Number two, a leper. Didn’t go near him. Didn’t touch him.

Now serious leprosy is a terrible disease. The first thing that leprosy does, it attacks the nervous system and immediately anesthetizes the limbs. When they lose all their feeling, they literally rub their extremities off.

For example, a man who has leprosy has ill-fitting shoes, and because he can’t feel that they are ill-fitting at all, they rub his toes off.

A woman who works with her hands finds that she rubs her fingers off, because she has no sensitivity to what’s happening to her hands. They rub their faces the same way. Leprosy further attacks the bone marrow. It infects then the blood supply. The bones begin to shrivel. As the bones shrivel, they draw the skin and the tissue in so that they appear to have fingers like claws and feet like claws that do the same thing.

Then the oozing that occurs, as well as the skin disease has its infection. All of that combined when you use those infected, atrophying fingers, results in rubbing them off – horrible thing. They literally lose their limbs.

It attacks the eyes and brings blindness. The teeth, and they fall out. It attacks the internal organs, so that sterility occurs. Frankly, it’s not that painful. It’s just the ugliest thing imaginable in the world. Starts with a white or pink patch on the brow, the ear, the nose, the chin, or the cheek. And then it begins to spread and becomes spongy, tumorous, bulbous, swellings all over the face. Then it becomes systemic; and that’s when it begins to come into the liver, and the bone marrow, the blood supply.

You lose your feeling, blindness.

A leprous man was declared to be ceremonially and socially "unclean". Leprosy has aptly been seen as an illustration of the curse of sin. In fact, some people in the Bible were even cursed by God with leprosy as a direct consequence of sin. Moses'sister Miriam, for example, was struck with leprosy because of her rebellion against God's authority through Moses.

Numbers 12:10, And when the cloud departed from above the tabernacle, suddenly Miriam became leprous, as white as snow. Then Aaron turned toward Miriam, and there she was, a leper.

The prophet Elisha's servant Gehazi was struck with leprosy because he sought to abuse Elisha's ministry in order to gain material wealth for himself.

2 Kings 5:27, Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and your descendants forever.” And he went out from his presence leprous, as white as snow. King Uzziah was struck with leprosy when he pridefully disobeyed God and sought to make an offering in the temple that was only right for the priests of God to make.

2 Chronicles 26:16-21, David was pronouncing a curse on evil Joab, and David said, “May his family never be without a leper.” That is the worst thing you could say about someone. And the disease had no cure.

2 Samuel 3:29, Let it rest on the head of Joab and on all his father’s house; and let there never fail to be in the house of Joab one who has a discharge or is a leper, who leans on a staff or falls by the sword, or who lacks bread.”

It wasn’t bad enough to be ugly beyond all imagination. To add to that, they were classified as ceremonially unclean. God had a purpose. Leprosy was the most graphic illustration of sin available to God.

• Sin defiles the whole body.
• Sin is ugly.
• Sin is loathsome.
• Sin is incurable.
• Sin is contaminating.
• Sin separates,
• Sin alienates, and
• Sin makes outcasts of men.

So, every leper not only lived with the stigma of his own disease, but he lived with having to be a walking illustration of sin; ceremonially unclean, wretched. One of the rabbis in the Talmud said, “When I see lepers, I throw stones at them, lest they come near me.”

One other rabbi said, “I would not so much as eat an egg that was purchased on a street where a leper had walked.”

• They hated them.
• They despised them.
• They feared them.

Isn’t it shocking that Jesus, presenting the credentials of His messiahship, begins with such a man, and ignores all the sick Pharisees in town? V 2, And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”

Lepers don’t approach and that’s forbidden. It was unthinkable! Social stigma. Old Testament law. The ceremony. You just didn’t do that. You just went around covered, mumbling, “Unclean! Unclean! Unclean!” So, no one would come near.

This is incredible. 1. He came with confidence. V 2, And behold, a leper came He didn’t crawl or sneak around, just came. I can imagine that crowd split fast. A man who senses so desperately his need that he really couldn’t care less what anybody thinks!

People like him would be so devastated socially that they wouldn’t show up in a crowd. He lost all sense of shame. He lost all sense of social stigma. He approached. He was focused on how deep his need was. Lepers were treated like dead men according to historians.

That wasn’t going to stop him. He may have been dead in everybody’s eyes, but he came. He came because he saw he had a very deep need. He wanted help more than he wanted to save his reputation.

2. He came with reverence

V 2, And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord We can’t say much about his body, but we can say a lot about his soul!

Pharisees

Outside: The Pharisees all dressed up, all their fancy garb, fancy robes, little hats they wore, the beard trimmed. Inside: wretched, rotten, dead men’s bones.

Leper

Outside: vile, and wretched, and filthy Inside: beautiful, reverent, worshiping. You know what I believe? I believe When he said, “Lord,” he wasn’t using it in the title sense of “sir.” Leper knew he was in the presence of God, else why would he have worshiped, proskuneō, fallen prostrate?

Here he comes up to Jesus, falls prostrate before Jesus, and says, “Lord.” We don’t know where he got his information, but there would have been enough going on in his area to know.

There had been healings upon healings. Maybe one of his friends had been healed. But he comes and he worships. Men prostrate themselves before kings and before God. His soul was turned toward God. He came to worship first because he understood the soul was more important than the body.

Before he sought anything for himself, he sought something for God. 3. He came with humility. V 2, “Lord, if You are willing, Humility.

• He didn’t demand anything.
• He didn’t speak his will as if Christ had to comply.
• He didn’t come and list the reasons why he had to be healed.
• He didn’t come and try to affirm his own worthiness.
• He didn’t bellyache because he got this disease, and a lot of others didn’t.
• He didn’t talk about his rights.
• He didn’t even talk about his desires.

He only said, “If You wanted, You could. I am not saying myself what You ought to do, because You are the Lord.” Today where people are told to demand healing out of God, to demand wholeness, to claim their healing. This man had no such thing to claim.

He worshiped first, never asked for anything, just said, “I know You could if You wanted to.” If Jesus did not heal him that day still, he would have gone away believing if he was a leper, or he wouldn’t have worshiped first, and he wouldn’t have left out any request on his own behalf. It manifests a pure heart.

4. He came with faith. V 2, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” The word in the Greek is Dunamai, dunamis. Power, dynamite. You are able. Luke always gives us the clinical analysis of everything because he was the doctor.

Luke 5:12, And it happened when He was in a certain city, that behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus; and he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Beloved, when a man says, “If You will, You can do it,” that is faith at its highest point, because it knows that God is able. Submits to God’s sovereignty. There are lots of people who believe. They say they believe He’s able, but they want to corner Him that He must do things. There are other people who question whether He can. A true faith says, “I know You can. I don’t know if You will.” That’s the highest level of faith.

• He came with confidence because he had a deep need.
• With reverence, because he saw God.
• With humility, because he realized that God was sovereign.
• With faith – he knew he could do it.

V 3, Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. But it could be added, “And the whole crowd gasped.”

You don’t touch lepers!

Leviticus 5:3, Or if he touches human uncleanness—whatever uncleanness with which a man may be defiled, and he is unaware of it—when he realizes it, then he shall be guilty. You are never permitted to touch the uncleanness of a man.

But you know what a leper probably needed more than anything in the whole wide world? Just to be touched by somebody who was clean. He touched him. He didn’t have to touch him. He could’ve gotten on a roof and said, “Be clean,” and the angels sang, and the earth shook, and thunder. No big dramatics.

I love the simplicity! One of the greatest proofs of the inspiration of the Bible is the lack of comment by the Bible writers. Immediately the leprosy was cleansed! All Jesus’ miracles were immediate.

• When we touch defilement, we get defiled.

• When He touches defilement, the defilement goes away.
• When we touch a disease, we get contaminated.
• When He touches a disease, it gets cleansed.

Those shrivelled up claws instantly becoming beautiful hands, as if the skin of a baby – the feet, the face! When Jesus touched him, he was clean immediately.

His power

• The forehead eaten away,
• The eyes with their absent brows and lashes,
• The scaly, bloody skin rubbed off,
• The nose and throat and eyes destroyed,
• The fingers and toes like claws and worn off.

Instantly, he is whole. V 4, And Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” What is the first test when Christ has invaded your life?

Obedience! Jesus says that you have been healed, now do these two things.

1. Do what Moses said to do? ‘Keep the law of God.’” Moses, in the Old Testament, had an amazing thing. When a leper was cleansed, he had to go to the temple.

Leviticus 14

You had to take two birds, and you had to kill one of them over running water. In addition, they take cedar, scarlet, and hyssop. You take them with the living bird, dip it in the blood of the dead bird, and then send the living bird to fly away.

It’s a picture of resurrection. Then you wash yourself and your clothes, shave yourself, seven days are allowed to pass, and you are re-examined. Then you shave your hair, your head, and your eyebrows. Sacrifices are then made consisting of two male lambs without blemish. One ewe lamb, three-tenths of a measure of fine flour mingled with oil, one other measure of oil. Then you had to touch all that on the tip of your right ear, right thumb, right big toe, mixed with blood.

Then the final examination. If the cure was real, you were given a certificate for your wall: “Ex-leper lives here.” This is what Jesus wanted to him do! To fulfil Leviticus 14!

Matthew 5:17-19, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfil. 18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. 19 Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus didn’t want the Pharisees and leaders of the Jewish religion to think for a moment that He was violating God’s Word. Why did Jesus tell him not to tell anybody for? Some people say, “He didn’t want to stir up a crowd following Him just as a miracle worker.” Possible, because it became difficult for Him to function.

Others say, “Because Jesus didn’t want the people to see Him as a power who could throw off Rome, and look at Him as a political leader like they did” In John when they tried to make Him a king to overthrow Rome? Others say, “Because this was the time of His humiliation, and He didn’t seek exaltation.”

May be truth in all of those. Best reason. You go down to the temple, and you go through this whole Mosaic thing. You got an eight-day examination. Offer yourself with your friends as a leper who’s been cleansed, and let them go through the whole shooting match, testing you.

When they are all done, they are going to conclude, ‘This leper is cleansed.’ Then you may say, ‘Would you like to know who did this? Jesus of Nazareth did this.’ Then they are trapped in their own conclusions. The priests will confirm that he’s clean, and they will discover it was Jesus. By their own testimony, examination, they will confirm the power of Christ.

It all hinges on the fact that he hurried to Jerusalem, and didn’t spread it around, or the word would get there first that Jesus did it; and then they wouldn’t be interested in examining Him.

Do you know what happened? The leper didn’t do that. He opened his mouth everywhere.

Mark 1:45, 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. He just got so excited, that he failed to obey. So, the story, in that sense, kind of sad that he didn’t do what he was told. Jesus was not only revealing His power over disease, but every one of them was an illustration of His power over Sin.

Conclusion.

This text is analogous to a conversion. Leprosy, ceremonial unclean is demonstration of sin.

• Sin is pervasive.

• Sin is ugly.
• Sin is loathsome.
• Sin is communicable.
• Sin is incurable.
• Sin makes you an outcast.

But the leper came with confidence.

Why? Because he got desperate enough over his leprosy. That’s how conversion happens. People don’t get saved unless they get desperate over the loathsomeness of the disease of sin. That is so missing in the evangelism of our time.

The man came. He lost all the social stigmas. He lost all the fear of being banished. He didn’t care about that anymore. He was overwhelmed with the loathsomeness of his disease. Coming to Christ is not getting on the bandwagon, it’s being wretched and knowing it.

Secondly, he came worshiping. True conversion occurs when desperate people come worshiping God; not seeking things for themselves, but seeking God’s glory, a recognition of His majesty, a sense of awe, Lordship.

“Lord it’s up to You.” True salvation demands that kind of wretchedness and that kind of affirmation in reverence of worshiping Him as Lord. Thirdly, he came humbly. True salvation doesn’t take the perspective of you doing God a favour. There’s no self-will, no self-centeredness, no sense of worthiness, no sense of value, no rights, no claims, no nothing. It’s the meek who inherit the kingdom.

Finally, he came with faith. He believed He could do it. And you can’t be saved without faith. There must be an overwhelming wretchedness in sin. There must be a worship of the lordship of Christ. There must be humility and faith. You will be touched and cleansed when you come on those terms.

The disease of sin is infinitely worse than the disease of leprosy? When you are saved, you know what the Lord says?

Do two things, will you?

Number one

Will you obey the law of God?

Number two

Let people discover for themselves that Christ changed your life, so it’s not just verbal.” It’s better for you to say nothing, and let the world see that Jesus changed your life by their own examination, than for you to shoot off your mouth and not be able to support it with the way you live.

Here was a guy running around, “Jesus changed my life. Look at me, I used to be a leper.” Someone says to him, “Why aren’t you down there and showing yourself to the priest?” A disobedient life in the midst of a testimony is meaningless.

The testimony is rendered invalid. Be obedient. Someday when I get to heaven, I am going to say to that guy because I believe he’s there now. I’m going to say, “How come you didn’t go to Jerusalem?”