I will, be thou clean

Sermon notes from Sunday 12 May 2019 pm

Mark 1 verses 40 – 45

This must have been an awful sight to see this man coming out of this leprous colony.  To see the hopelessness and helplessness he was in.  Witness him coming yet glorious to see him coming to Christ.  Luke tells us something of this man.  Luke was a medical doctor and he describes this man as “full of leprosy”.  No doubt it had got to an advance stage.  There was no remedy, he was a helpless case.  Luke also says in chapter 5 “a man full of leprosy who seeing Jesus.”  He began to cry out immediately he saw Jesus.

This man’s complaint.  He was full of leprosy.  Leprosy was an awful thing in the days of Jesus.  We can see some of the effects it had.  It not only affected the body but the clothes he wore.  It settled within the fibres he wore and made its home there.  The clothes had to be taken and burnt.  It would also affect the house in which he would live.  It would get into the plaster and the only remedy was to pull it down, strip it right back until the priest was content it was no longer there.  Imagine what it would be like for the neighbours seeing that house being demolished.  The consequences of leprosy.  Is it any wonder that the bible gives us such a picture of sin?  It came into the world through Adam and Eve.  God planted them in a beautiful garden.  They had everything they could want.  There was one tree they were not allowed to eat from.  Satan came into the garden and told Eve to look at that tree and see its fruit.  She was tempted to take of that fruit and give it to her husband.  From that day sin entered the world.  Sin gets into our lives, ruins our lives, gets into every thought, the mind and heart.  This man’s leprosy would affect his home, his life, his relationships.  He would have to leave his home, his village and make his way out into the colony.  There were boundaries set for him and his family.  He was not able to get out and his family were not able to visit him.  Think of lives ravished with sin, the consequences of sin.  Maybe you can say “I have never got to that stage”.  You are so near the kingdom but not there yet.  Perhaps you are a clean living person, a church going person but not saved.  Sin revealed itself in the young man we call the prodigal son.  He asked his father to give him his inheritance now.  It affected his home, his relationship with his father and older brother.  That young man’s sin got into his life and heart, his whole life.  Remember the young man who came to Jesus and was possessed of a legion of demons.  Those demons took him from his home, his father’s house, the love of his father and mother.  He was driven out into the wilderness and lived in the tombs.  He self-harmed constantly.  He was sold out to the power of the devil.  Then the Lord came across him one day.  He cast out the demons and the man fell at Jesus` feet.  He had changed for ever.  That is what the Lord does.  He changes us, makes us new creatures in Christ.  He takes the consequences of sin.

The man’s confession.  “If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.”  I’m sure the Lord didn`t have to see what was before him.  A man covered in leprosy.  He is in a real bad state.  The Lord doesn`t have to ask him what was wrong.  He waited for that confession.  The Lord knows each of us.  There is no fooling God.  He knows where we are spiritually speaking.  Nicodemus was told “except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of heaven.”  A very religious man, good living, had so many things going for him but he was not saved.  This man falls on his face, looks to Jesus and admits he is a leper.  The Lord is waiting for you to come with confession, to fall down before him and say “I have sinned.”  “If we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  This man was prepared to confess what he was.  It is sad we are not ready to do that, not prepared to own up to what we are, sinners in need of God’s salvation.  Each of us are lost in our sin, on our way to a lost and Christless eternity.  Thank God Jesus came into the world.  He is the only mediator between man and God.  “There is no other name give among men whereby we must be saved.”  Are you prepared to even do that?  What is your complaint tonight?  This man was a leper in need of cleansing.  We see our own unholy state, we confess our sin.  “If we say we have no sin we make God a liar.  If we confess our sin he is faithful and just and will forgive us from all unrighteousness.”  We think of the publican and Pharisee going up to the temple to pray.  The Pharisee said “I am glad I am not as other men.”  The Bible says “we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God.”  He said I give of my money, I live a holy life, I am a man of prayer.  He couldn`t see his own sinful state because he was blinded by the god of this world.  He looked down his nose at the publican, couldn`t lift his eyes to heaven.  The publican however smote his breast and said “Lord be merciful to me a sinner.”  He needed grace to change his position.  King David a sinner before God found no contentment or rest until he came to God. “I acknowledge my sin unto thee, I will confess my transgressions unto God.”  Achan in the Old Testament when he stole the Babylonish garment hid it in his tent.  He hid the action in his heart.  He might have hid the spoils but hid the action in his heart.  He was stubborn hearted.  He wouldn`t confess his sin.  Judas Iscariot confessed but he did it when it was too late.  Maybe the Lord is asking you to come and be saved tonight.  Don`t take another change to hear God`s word again.  Napolean in battle of Waterloo, if he had just gone a little bit further he would have won the day but he waited for his generals to bring extra resources and in that action he was defeated.  Maybe you have waited too long.

The confidence he comes with.  He did not come with any doubts in his heart.  He saw Jesus and that is what made the difference.  You might come and hear the message but you need to see Jesus.  This is where this man got to – beyond the disciples, the crowd around him.  He was so firmly fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ.  He came with every confidence in the one to whom he had come.  He is able to heal.  The Lord is able to save you tonight.  He can save to the uttermost all that come to him.  Hebrews “without faith it is impossible to please God because when we come to him we must believe he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”  The Lord will save your soul if you come to him.  Hebrews 12 lists a catalogue of people all putting their faith and trust in the Lord.  Would you add your name to that list?  He was not beyond the touch of Christ.  Many believe they are beyond what Christ can do for them.  Wrecked and ruined lives by sin.  This man was full of leprosy, had no hope but one touch from the hand of Christ he was renewed.  Christ can do that for you.  Maybe you are sitting and feel you don’t need a Saviour.  You are on your way to hell because of what you are and what you have done.  In John’s gospel when Jesus came to Martha Lazarus had been in the grave for so many days.  Jesus delayed his coming.  When Martha came to meet him he told her “I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live.”  He looked at Martha, challenged her “believest thou this?”  If you want to be saved the Lord looks into your life, your heart and your eyes and asks you the same question.  Can you believe it tonight?  He is asking you “do you believe, will you believe?”

The cleansing – verse 41 “and Jesus moved with compassion”.  Society rejected this man, turned their backs on him.  Jesus didn’t.  He had compassion and touched him.  No-one else would have touched him.  Jesus spoke to him.  No-one would give this man the time of day.  What love he had.  What grace he had.  What mercy he had.  He has that same love, grace and mercy just for you.  “I will be thou clean.”  As soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him.  He was cleansed.  Notice the word “immediately”.  By seeing Jesus the one who came into the world to take your sin, who died on the middle cross of Calvary, by seeing the one resurrected from the dead, seated at the Father’s right hand even now, the one who is coming again.  Your sin is your condition.  You come to the one who is able to cleanse you from all that sin.  Come and give him your heart tonight.  Come to Christ.