Title: The Testimony
Text: Matthew 8: 1-4
Date: June 21, 2019
Place: Fourth Friday
Fellowship, SGBC, NJ
Matthew 8: 1: When he
was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. 2: And, behold, there came a leper and
worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. 3: And Jesus put forth his hand, and
touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was
cleansed. 4: And Jesus saith unto him,
See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the
gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.
We have been learning about how God gives faith through
the preaching of the gospel. So this
time I want to show you an example of faith.
The Lord Jesus had just finished preaching what is commonly called his “sermon
on the mount.” Since “faith cometh by
hearing and hearing by the word of God” it is fitting that this example of
faith comes as soon as he finished preaching the gospel. Since God gives faith by the miracle of regeneration
and God gives Christ’s righteousness by the miracle of imputation through faith,
it is also fitting that this example is connected with our Lord performing a great
physical miracle.
Proposition: This leper came to the Lord because he believed Christ
could heal him if the Lord would. The physical
miracle the Lord worked is a picture of the spiritual miracle the Lord works in
each of his people by his grace when he regenerates us and imputes Christ’s
righteousness to us through faith.
NONE TOO SINFUL
Matthew 8: 1: When he
was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. 2: And, behold,
there came a leper…
Christ will not
reject any sinner because you are too sinful.
No sinner is too sinful to come to Christ through faith. Christ will receive you no matter how sin-sick
you may be. This man is a picture of that. He had what was the greatest, most dreaded disease
of that time, leprosy. Leprosy is a
great picture of sin.
At that time, leprosy was incurable—unless
God healed them, a person usually died a long, slow, lingering death. Sin is incurable—no man can cure
himself of sin. We are born spiritually
dead, having no understanding of God and no desire to seek a true understanding. Instead, we hate the true God. Sin is what makes you want to do what you are
told not to do. Nobody had to teach you
to sin—you were born knowing how to sin.
I am trying to bring it home to you just how real our sin is. Sin is why we stink without deodorant. Sin causes physical sickness, disease, aging/wrinkles,
and finally death. Unless, we die some
immediate death, our physical body suffers a long, slow, lingering death from
sins just like the leper.
Leprosy was a
spreading disease—it spread over a
persons’ body, slowly eating them up. It
causes disfigurement of the skin and bones.
It causes twisting of the limbs/curling fingers (a claw hand) and thickening
of the outer ear. The nose
collapses. Tumors develop all over the
skin. Sin is a spreading disease. God said through Isaiah, “the whole head
is sick, and the whole heart faint. 6: From the sole of the foot even
unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and
putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither
mollified with ointment” (Is 1: 5-6).
Leprosy is a hardening disease—it destroys nerve endings so a person loses all ability
to sense pain. As we grow older, we
become hardened in sin so that what little sense of sin we had when younger, we
lose as we grow older. For example, sins
that pricked your conscience when you were 5 years old did not phase you at
10. Sins you recognized at 10 seem like nothing
to you at 20. Scripture speaks of
sinners who grow older “having their conscience seared with a hot iron” (1
Tim 4:2). The conscience becomes like
a burn on the skin after it hardens into a callous. God speaks of sinners “who being past
feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness
with greediness” (Eph 4:19). There
are many aged sinners, and younger sinners, who are just that way—past feeling,
given over to sin.
Lepers made everyone
and everything they touched unclean—so
does a sinner! When God told the children
of Israel to make an altar, he said, “
And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn
stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it” (Ex 20:25). A work we do may be good. It may help someone. But in the eyes of God our sin pollutes it. Our motive of the heart is sinful. Therefore, God will not accept it. No sinner can work out our own righteousness
to save ourselves.
Under the law, a
leper must be legally cast out and separated from the general population—sin has legally separated every sinner from God. God said, “But your iniquities have
separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you,
that he will not hear” (Is 59:2) God’s
holy justice says “the soul that sinneth, it must die” (Eze 18: 4). We must die not only
physical death. Every sinner must die
under the just condemnation of God. We
either must die under God’s wrath in a substitute or in ourselves. But all shall die under the just wrath of God
for our sins.
You and I are
sinners! In fact, we have no idea how
sinful we really are. And we have no idea
how holy God is and how much holy God hates sinners. That’s right God hates sin but he also
hates the sinner. My freshman
year of college English we read the sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry
God by Jonathan Edwards. He was a
preacher and president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton). In his sermon he said, “God hates sinners.” Everyone in the class objected, “No, God
hates sin but God loves the sinner.” I
said, “The bible says God hates sinners.”
So the teacher divided the class between those who agreed that God hates
the sinner and those who did not. I was
the only one on the side who said it was in the bible. So the next say I brought my bible to class
and showed them the following scriptures.
Psalm 5:5: The foolish
shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
Psalm 10:3: For the wicked
boasteth of his heart’s desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD
abhorreth.
Psalm 11: 5…the wicked
and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.
Proverbs 6: 16 These six doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are
an abomination unto him: 17: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed
innocent blood, 18: An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be
swift in running to mischief, 19: A false witness that speaketh lies,
and he that soweth discord among brethren.
God hates sinners
because God is holy and can have nothing to do with a sinner.
Job 15: 15…the
heavens are not clean in his sight. 16: How much more abominable and filthy is
man, which drinketh iniquity like water?
But never imagine you
are too sinful to come to Christ, meaning, never think Christ will not receive
you due to your sins. God chose a people
and sent his only begotten Son into this world to heal us of our sins so that
God can receive us. The Son of God
became a Man like his people so he could bare the sins of his people in his own
body on the tree. Doing so Christ brought
honor to God’s holy justice. His people
died in him under the law. He put away
our sins and made us the righteousness of God in him. Now holy God can receive his people because
we are as righteous and holy as God in Christ.
But be sure to get this.
God will only receive us through faith in his Son. We must have Christ’s righteousness which God
gives to a sinner freely through faith in Christ. But never imagine that Christ will reject you
because you are too sinful.
ONLY A SINNER
Matthew 8: 2: And, behold,
there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst
make me clean.
We must come to
Christ confessing we are nothing but sin. When a sinner possesses true faith he comes to
Christ believing Christ is able to heal him of his sin. We will see how a confession of sin is
included in faith. But here are five
things included in coming to Christ in true faith.
Not ashamed—one, when a sinner believes on Christ, he is not ashamed
to confess Christ before the multitudes.
Our text says there were “great multitudes” following Christ. Still, the leper stepped out of the crowd to
confess his need of Christ. This leper was
not ashamed to confess Christ before men.
He came to Christ right there in
front of them all, “For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him
shall not be ashamed” (Rom 10: 11). When
you truly behold Christ, when you truly see how righteous and good and merciful
Christ is, then you will not be ashamed that your sin-loving, God-hating friends
know it. But Christ said, “Whosoever
therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful
generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the
glory of his Father with the holy angels” (Mk 8:38).
Broken and contrite—two, to come to Christ is to come humbled and broken in spirit. He came “and worshipped him.” It means this leper bowed down at Christ’s
feet. We are haughty, arrogant, proud
sinners by nature. But the word of God
is a hammer that breaks the hard heart. The
Spirit of God gives a contrite heart willing to bow down at Christ’s feet like a
submissive child before his father. The apostle Paul said as a sinner hears the
gospel of Christ preached and the Spirit of God blesses it to his heart, “Thus
are the secrets of his heart made manifest” (1 Cor 14: 25). They are made manifest to himself. John Gill said, “the Spirit of God…shows
[him] the lusts [of his heart]…filling the conscience with a sense of guilt,
and a consciousness of deserved punishment; so that the person looks upon
himself as particularly spoken to, and as if the person speaking had knowledge
of all that was within him, and adapted his [sermon] on purpose to him, and delivered
it for his sake alone; concluding, that there is, and must be, something more
than human in it.” Then Paul said, “and
so falling down on his face he will worship God”. In his heart, he will bow down like this
leper did physically. And concerning that
preacher and that church which God used to preach the gospel to him, that man
will “report that God is in you of a truth” (1 Cor 14: 25). It means he will report to others that
God is using your church and your preacher to call out his people. But did you see? When God reveals the secrets of his own heart
to him, the sinner will own his sin and thus fall down on his face and will
worship God. A willingness to bow to God
comes from a broken and contrite heart which is given when the sinner beholds
how sinful he is. While men are
running about trying to make great sacrifices to work their way to heaven, they
have no idea, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a
contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Ps 51: 17).
Isaiah 57:15: For
thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy;
I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and
humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of
the contrite ones.
Isaiah 66:2…to this
man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and
trembleth at my word.
Sovereign—three, to come to Christ is to come owning Christ to be your
sovereign Lord who can do with you as he will—“Lord, if thou wilt.” When God fills the heart with faith the sinner
stops bragging about his own will and starts saying, “not my will, but thine,
be done” (Lu 22:42). Sinners are not
saved by our will. We are saved by God’s
will!
Romans 9: 15: For he saith to Moses, I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have
compassion. 16: So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of
him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Persuaded of Christ’s
ability—four, to come to Christ
is to come believing Christ is able to save—“Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst…” In Matthew 9, two blind men came to
Christ begging mercy. “Jesus saith
unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord.
Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you (Mt 9:28-29). Does any sinner here believe Christ is
able to save? Abraham “staggered not
at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also
to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness” (Ro 4:20-22). True faith says, “I know whom I have
believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed
unto him against that day” (2 Ti 1:12).
Confession of sin—five, here is our point.
Faith comes to Christ confessing I am a sinner—"Lord, if thou
wilt, thou canst make me clean.” This
leper confessed he was unclean. He
confessed he was leprous in need of cleansing.
That is a picture of a sinner who confesses himself to be only sin, with
no ability to do anything but sin. The
problem is never that we are too sinful.
Our problem is that we must come confessing that all we are is sin! The great problem is that most think they are
too good to come to Christ! (Mt
9: 9-13)
MERCY GIVEN
Matthew 8: 3: And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched
him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
If you come to Christ
as this leper came then you will find what this leper found. No one would dare touch a leper for fear of
being made unclean themselves. But not
the great Physician—"Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him” The reason we come to Christ this way is
because Christ has entered into us and made us one with him. That is what this touch represents. It represents the oneness between Christ and
the child of grace that Christ creates anew by a vital union with himself.
Sinner, if you come
to Christ not ashamed of him, with a broken and contrite spirit, owning Christ
to have the sovereign right to do with you as he will, believing Christ is able
to save you and confessing yourself to be a sinner then Christ will make you
whole immediately.
1
John 1: 8: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the
truth is not in us. 9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. [the
blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin]
THE TESTIMONY
Matthew 8: 4: And
Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the
priest, and offer the gift [the offering for
atonement] that Moses [the law] commanded, for a testimony unto them.
Then you will be a
testimony to poor, lost sinners. Christ
made this leper a testimony. Of
what?
At the time the leper
came to him, the law had not yet been fulfilled by Christ on the cross. But that law of the leper was the law of God
telling what was to be done the day the leper was cleansed (Lev 14). This was the day this leper was cleansed.
The law commanded
that on the day a leper was cleansed the priest was to offer gifts. The priest typified Christ our High
Priest. The gifts were sacrifices to God
to make atonement on behalf of the leper.
Christ laid down his life as the sacrifice to put away our sins and make
atonement to God on behalf of his leprous elect people. Then according
to the law, the priest was to apply oil and blood to the leper to ceremonially
cleanse him. Christ applied the oil of
the Holy Spirit to us, sanctifying us and cleansing us personally within. That law was still in effect until Christ
went to the cross and put an end to it. After
Christ cried it is finished, he was the end of that law. The veil in the temple rent in two declaring
the law had been fulfilled by Christ. It
was no more in effect. So since the law
was not yet fulfilled by Christ at the time that Christ healed this leper,
Christ sent him to do as the law commanded.
Still, Christ had
made this leper the testimony to them (and to us) that Christ is the one the law
declared. Christ alone made atonement
for his sinful people. And Christ alone cleanses
his people from our leprosy of sin within by sanctifying us with his own
blood. All who believe on Christ are a
testimony made by Christ himself, “Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared
to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with
the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of
the heart” (2 Cor 3:3). We are a
testimony declaring “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every
one that believeth” (Rom 10: 4).
Sinner come to Christ
believing on him today and you will be the testimony of Christ! May God be willing to speak to you today!
Amen!