[0:00] Good evening and a warm welcome to our service this evening. It's good to see a good number and from various churches as well and we welcome you warmly in the name of the Lord Jesus.
[0:14] Just one or two intimations. I want to say that tomorrow the service will be at 12 noon and that will be an English service, well bilingual, an English service with a Gaelic Sam and a Gaelic prayer and that service at 12 noon will be led by the Reverend John Myrtle, Joro Davidson, who's with us this evening and tomorrow evening there will be a prayer meeting at 6pm that will be led by the elders and then an informal fellowship here in the community centre at half past seven and during that fellowship Joanne McKinnon from over in Clure will be sharing her testimony and also Gordon MacLeod will be sharing his testimony and there will be a time of informal fellowship and tea and coffee and we'll sing God's praise. So that's tomorrow and on the Lord's Day the services will be at 11am and that will be led by the
[1:16] Reverend James McKeever and 6pm which will be led by the Reverend John Myrtle, Joro Davidson. After that there will be a fellowship here in the community centre and both ministers will share something of their testimony with us so we look forward to that. Also to say that this evening after this service the manse will be open, there will be an informal fellowship and you're all invited to come and join together with us for that time of fellowship and tea and coffee. These I think are all the intimations saved to once again welcome Joro with us this evening.
[1:55] It's good to have you and your family with us over these days and we pray God's blessing again on you this evening as his blessing was upon you yesterday. So Joro our hand over to you.
[2:07] Thank you very much David and thank you for the warm welcome. It's lovely to be with you here this weekend. It's good and there is no better place to be than in the house of God to share in fellowship and to share in the worship.
[2:23] And we're going to begin our worship this evening by singing to God's praise in Psalm 147. Psalm 147. Psalm 147.
[2:38] And we will sing the verses Mark 1 to 7. Praise ye the Lord for it is good. Praise to our God to sing. For it is pleasant and to praise it is a comely thing.
[2:50] And then verses 6 and 7. The Lord lifts up the meek and casts the wicked to the ground. Sing to the Lord and beautiful thanks on how his praises sound.
[3:01] So to God's praise and God's glory we'll sing Psalm 147. Praise ye the Lord for it is good.
[3:21] Praise to our God to sing. Praise to our God to sing. For it is pleasant and to praise it is a comely thing.
[3:46] Praise to our God to His elementary school. Praise to our Lord to護った Christ. Terence or on The Gud The Gud Hafthor When His face of Israel Does gather into one Those that are broken in their hearts A fevered in their minds He healeth up their painful wounds
[4:51] In heaven He abides He curbs the number of the stars He gives them every one It is the Lord that all prepared His best conception young The Lord lifts up the meek and cast The wicked to the ground
[5:54] Sing to the Lord And give Him thanks All life is fixed and sound Let us all unite our hearts in prayer Let us all come for God Eternal and ever-blessed God of glory We have come together here this evening To praise Your great and Your holy name And Lord as we come here into Your house This evening we come Lord with reverence Within our hearts As we bow our heads in unison As we come before that throne of grace Oh Lord Lord You are the creator And You are the sustainer of all things
[6:55] Even the very breast that we breathe Is a gift from You Father You have formed us You have moulded us You have created us And gracious Lord You know us intimately And You know us better Than we know ourselves As the Apostle Paul said Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom And knowledge of God How unsearchable are His judgment And how unscrutable are His ways Who has known the mind of the Lord Gracious Lord we come before You As Your creatures this day But Lord we come before You this day With a great joy within our hearts A great joy within our hearts Because You have opened up And chalked out a way of salvation for us Lord we have fallen so far short of Your glory And yet Oh Lord in the incarnation of Your glorious Son The Lord Jesus Christ We see God in the flesh come
[7:57] And to seek and to save that which was lost Lord each and every one of us are as sheep That have gone astray to the right and to the left But You have sought out Your people Your wonderful glorious Holy Spirit At work convicting and converting We thank You for the finished cross work Of the Lord Jesus where He cried out Father forgive them For they know not what they do Gracious Lord we bow our heads in adoration this evening And Father we pray that You would hear The unspoken prayers of the hearts of Your people Here this evening Gracious Lord we thank You for the resurrection Also of the Son of God Which gives us hope Oh Lord Lord You have prepared a place For a people who are holy and besetting
[8:58] And Father we thank You for that road of sanctification That You place Your people on Lord Your word tells us Dear friends Now that we are children of God What we shall be has not yet been made known But we know that when Christ appears We shall be like Him For we shall see Him as He is Father we thank You for the glory of the Gospel And we thank You O Lord That the preaching of the Gospel Is Your means to the salvation of sinners And You are seeking out sinners Even here this evening O Lord Father we ask From the very depths of our hearts this evening That You indeed would be at work In our midst here Father may we know And sense that nearness of Your presence
[9:59] Lord we are weak We are feeble And we have been ruined by sin But yet O Lord We have that mediator Between God and man The man Christ Jesus And Lord it's always in His name That we pray Amen If you would turn with me please To Mission Praise Number 1126 Mission Praise 1126 It's a hymn Everyone we're all familiar with Mission Praise 1126 When I survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of Glory died My riches gain I count but loss
[11:00] And poor content On all of my pride And verse 4 Where the whole realm of nature Mine Want were an offering far too small Love so amazing So divine Demands my soul My life My all Mission Praise 1126 To God's Praise I invite you To turn and open your Bibles Please to the Gospel of Mark Mark's Gospel And at Chapter 1 Mark Chapter 1 Mark 1 Mark 1
[12:03] And at verse 21 And this is the Word of God And they went unto Capernaum And immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue And was teaching And they were astonished at his teaching For he taught them as one who had authority And not as the scribes And immediately there was in their synagogue A man with an unclean spirit And he cried out What have you to do with us Jesus of Nazareth Have you come to destroy us I know who you are The Holy One of God But Jesus rebuked him Saying be silent And come out of him And the unclean spirit Convulsing him And crying out with a loud voice Came out of him And they were all amazed So that they questioned Among themselves Saying what is this A new teaching with authority Commands even the unclean spirits And they obey him
[13:05] And at once his fame Spread everywhere Throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee And immediately he left the synagogue And entered the house of Simon And Andrew with James and John Now Simon's mother-in-law Lay ill with a fever And immediately they told him about her And he came and took her by the hand And lifted her up And the fever left her And she began to serve them That evening at sundown They brought to him All who were sick All who were oppressed by demons And the whole city And the whole city was gathered together At the door And he healed many Who were sick with various diseases And cast out many demons And he would not permit the demons to speak Because they knew him And rising very early in the morning While it was still dark He departed And went out to a desolate place And there he prayed And Simon and those who were with him
[14:05] Searched for him And they found him And said to him Everyone is looking for you And he said to them Let us go on to the next towns That I may preach there also For that is why I came out And he went throughout all Galilee Preaching in their synagogues And casting out demons And a leper came to him Imploring him And kneeling Said to him If you will You can make me clean And moved with pity He stretched out his hand And touched him And said to him I will be clean And immediately the leprosy left him And he was made clean And Jesus sternly charged him And sent him away at once And said to him See that you say nothing to anyone But go show yourself to the priest And offer for your cleansing What Moses commanded For a proof to them But he went out And began to talk freely about it
[15:05] And to spread the news So that Jesus could no longer Openly enter a town But was out in desolate places And people were coming to him From every quarter Amen And may the Lord bless that Reading of the good Bold and inerrant word We're going to continue To sing to God's praise This time we're going to sing In Psalm 51 Psalm 51 Psalm 51 From verse 1 Down to the verse Mark 7 After thy loving kindness Lord have mercy upon me For thy compassions Great blot out All mine iniquity And these wonderful words In verse 7 Do thou with wiceps Sprinkle me I shall be cleansed so Yea wash thou me
[16:07] And then I shall Be whiter than the snow Psalm 51 To God's praise and glory After thy loving kindness Lord have mercy upon me For thy compassion For thy compassion Great blot out All mine iniquity Be cleansed from sin And truly washed From my iniquity
[17:10] For my compassion I shall sky The dawn of glass My sanity OTHER That when to sing, to assembles, in just apres of which He gives, Before thy end in liberty
[18:12] Was born the world within Thy mother also be on sea And guiltiness of sin Behold the wind the inward parts With good delight in art Thy wisdom done Shall make me know Within the maiden heart To the rest of the kingdom
[19:21] I shall be blessed soul Yeh, oh, show me And then I shall be whiter than the storm Before we look at God's word, we unite our hearts again in a word of prayer. Let us bow our heads in prayer.
[20:01] Eternal God, as we bow our heads once again And our prayers, we come before you, Lord And we pray that in the study of your word this evening we may be led to you And Father, we come before you this evening And we bring before you our prayers of intercession As we pray for those who are less fortunate than we are ourselves Even in this community here, Lord, we pray for those who are unwell We pray, Lord, for the housebound who cannot be with us this evening We ask your special favour and your blessing upon them And gracious Lord, we remember the residents once again of Harris House and the staff also And Father, we pray and we just thank you for Harris House and all the folk up there And we pray for your special blessing upon them Gracious Lord, we pray that you would continue to bless this community here in Harris And Father, that you would continue to extend your kingdom
[21:03] That you would bring more people to saving faith and a saving knowledge of you We pray, Lord, for all the churches in Harris here And all the preachers who preach the word of God And we ask, oh Lord, that you would continue to be with them and bless them And Heavenly Father, we pray also for our young people We pray for our children and our grandchildren And in some cases even great-grandchildren And Lord, even although some may be scattered far and wide We ask your favour and your blessing and your protecting hand to be upon them And gracious Lord, we just pray that as we gather here this evening That we would have here from you, from your word We thank you for this word that you have preserved for us for generations, Lord The pure word of God that is flawless Like silver we find in a furnace of clay Purified seven times We thank you for the gospel of free grace that is offered to all
[22:06] We thank you for our Lord and Saviour who died for us We thank you for his grace and we thank you for his love And Lord, we just pray that we would know more of him Lord, continue to bless this congregation also And Father, we just pause now as we gather our thoughts And we just ask, oh Lord, for clarity of thought and clarity of mind For the preacher and for the hearer of the light We ask for liberty in the gospel And we ask for a sense of togetherness We ask and we pray, oh Lord, that we would love one another In the way that the Lord Jesus Christ loves us You have promised never to leave us nor to forsake us And we lay hold of that promise and every other covenant promise Contained in the scriptures Lord, go before us, we pray this evening For we ask it in Jesus' name Amen So we're going to look this evening
[23:19] At Mark chapter 1 and verse 40 You will turn back with me to it please And I think I'll just read that few verses there again Jesus cleansing a leper Mark chapter 1 and verse 40 And a leper came to him, imploding him and kneeling said to him If you will, you can make me clean Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him I will be clean And immediately the leprosy left him and he was made clean And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once and said to him See that you say nothing to anyone but go show yourself to the priest And offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded for a proof to them But he went out and began to talk freely about it and spread the news So that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town But was out in desolate places and the people were coming to him from every corner
[24:20] Now it's interesting to note as we look at this text here About the cleansing of the leper That just immediately before it at verse 35 We see what the Lord Jesus does before he meets the leper Look at verse 35 with me And rising very early in the morning while it was still dark He departed and went out to a desolate place And there he prayed That is key for us in understanding the text Of the cleansing of the leper And it would be very easy for us to skip over verse 35 there We may think to ourselves it's minor It's only talking about the Lord Jesus going out to be by himself and to pray But nothing could be further from the truth There is a great lesson for us in Jesus doing that
[25:21] You know Mark here in the first chapter He has just shown us a day in the life of the Lord Jesus As he sets out on his ministry As we saw last night We looked at verses 21 onwards And we saw that Jesus going into the synagogue there With his teaching The people were so amazed at his teaching They said he teaches us one who has authority Because he gave them the pure word of God He went in with the gospel of free grace And he blew their minds He preached with clarity He preached with passion He preached with simplicity And he preached as one who cared for them As one who cared And as we saw last night Suffice to say We see a strong reaction From a demon Inside a man
[26:21] Sitting in the synagogue See this violent exorcism And we see all the people stunned In the synagogue And if that is not enough Jesus and the disciples They head off to Peter's house And Peter's mother-in-law is ill He heals Peter's mother-in-law Takes her by the hand With grace and mercy And lifts her up to wellness again You see that In the first chapter also And in the first chapter there It says he heals many Verses 29 to 34 And for the folk And for the Lord Jesus himself It has been Sunday This Sabbath day in Capernaum So the next day What does Jesus do?
[27:18] He gets up early in the morning To pour out his heart To God After everything that had happened The day before He gets up early The next day And he pours out his heart To his father And rising early in the morning While it was still dark When everyone else Was still in bed The Lord Jesus You think you'd be tired After the day before?
[27:46] Yes He departed Went out to a desolate place And there he prayed And we may say to ourselves That's not very remarkable But it is It is Why And what is exactly Is the Lord Jesus doing As he goes out To this desolate place?
[28:09] You see what Mark The evangelist Is doing here He is showing us That in order for Jesus' Outward ministry That is the exorcisms The healing And the preaching Of the gospel In order for that Outward ministry To take place An inward ministry Must be taking place Within his own heart He heads off Before sunrise To talk to his father There is a lesson there Isn't there For us Any of us Who are involved In any Christian ministry At all There is an absolute Vital lesson there For us Everything We do As God's people Is dependent Upon Us Pouring out
[29:10] Our hearts To God And yet So very often It is the very least Thing we do Our lives Are busy There is so much Going on But we must not Neglect The inward part Of our own Spiritual lives As well We must guard The vineyard Of our own Hearts Nobody else Is going to do it For us We must guard Our hearts And take prayer Very seriously What is prayer It is to ask With one's heart Pouring out We pour out Everything To God You see our Lord Here The Lord Jesus Here He needed
[30:10] Empowering To continue In his own Watch He needed Empowering For the healings For the exorcisms For his preaching For everything He did You see Everything That the Lord Jesus Is doing Here In the first Chapter Of Mark's Gospel All these Wonderful things They are not Done in Isolation You see You see There are Two other Persons Involved Here There is God the Father And there Is God The Holy Spirit At work In the Life And the Ministry Of Jesus We have Already seen The Father And the Spirit At work Already In the First Chapter We see With Jesus' Baptism And we see Also with the Subsequent Wilderness Experience He went out He was driven Driven by His Father
[31:10] It's his Father He drove Him out Into the Wilderness For that Testing He needed Empowering From his Father You see What is a Play here is That this Glorious This Amazing This Wonderful Trinitarian God That we Worship All three Persons Are involved In your Salvation And in Mine All at Work In our Spiritual Lives But the Primary Practical Emphasis Is simply This If Jesus Needed to Pray How much More do We need To pray And we Must understand This Before we Look at Christ's
[32:10] Next Miracle Jesus He has Poured out His heart To God To his Father And now He is Ready For the Day Ahead He is Ready To go Out And to Face Whatever Opposition Comes his Way In his Work And all That he Has to Do He is Empowered He has Asked his Father To strengthen Him For that Day We must Do the Same Every Day We open Our eyes And we Say Lord Empower Us Help Us We Need You Lord Today As Individuals As Families As Churches As Communities Lord We Need You Not Just When We Come To Church On Sunday But Every Day Every Day Stanley Jones Calls Prayer A Time Time Exposure To God John Bunyan Says Pray
[33:11] Often Pray Often For Prayer Is Prayer Will To God It Is A Scourge For Satan Satan Hates God People Praying Satan Hates It When We Go On Our Knees And We Open Out Our Hearts To God Because He Knows That In Prayer We Are Shielded We Are Shielded Pray Often For Prayer Is A Shield To The Soul Isn't That Wonderful Isn't It Just Pray Often It Is A Shield To The Soul And We Must Not Let The Devil Get A Chink In Our Arm In Our Souls We Must Pray It It's A Sacrifice To God And It's A Scourge To Satan Because Satan Is A lot More Powerful Than You Are A More Powerful Than Me Prayer Prayer Prayer Prayer
[34:11] Prayer And Let You Know This There Is One Thing That Jesus Never Had To Pray For He Never Had To Pray For For For For Sin He Was The Spotless Lamb Of God But We On The Other Hand In Our Prayer We Must Ask The Lord Continually For The For For Sin Sin Bunyan Also Says Prayer Will Make A Man Cease From Sin Or Sin Will Entice A Man From Prayer Isn't That True I'm Going To Repeat That That Is True That Is True Prayer Will Make A Man Or A Woman Cease From Sin Or Sin Will Entice A Man From Prayer No Prayer No Work Jesus Here Is Ready For Another Day But
[35:12] Also In Our Text Here We See Others Who Are Starting Their Day As The Sun Comes Up There Are Others Starting Their Day And There Are Others Here Who Seek Out Jesus For All The Wrong Reasons So The Second Thing I Want To Say Tonight Is We Must Seek Jesus For The Right Reasons Look At Verses 36 To 39 And Simon And Those Who Were With Him Searched For Him And They Found Him And Said To Everyone Is Looking For You And He Said To Them Let Us Go On To The Next Towns That I May Preach There Also For That Is Why I Came Out And He Went Throughout All Galilee Preaching In Their Synagogues And Casting Out Demons It's Quite A Regular Occurrence As You Read The Gospels Where Jesus Is Interrupted In His Prayers Or In His Work And It's Often The Case That Jesus Is Interrupted By Those You Are Closest To Him He
[36:18] Is Interrupted Here By His Disciples Luke And His Account Of What's Going On Here Says Not Only Was Peter And The Four Disciples Searching For Jesus But The People Searched The People Were Searching For Him They Woken Up Where Is The Miracle Worker Where Is The One Who Did The Exorcism Yesterday Where Is He Gone And They Went Out And They Searched Out Jesus Those Who Were With Him Peter Searched For In Verse 36 And When You Look At The Nuance Of The Text You See That They Searched With A Zeal They Searched With An Enthusiasm And It Is Interesting To Note That Often In Mark's Gospel When You See The People Searching For Jesus Or Even The Disciples As In This Case Here When You See The People Searching For Jesus Or When You See The Disciples Searching For Jesus It Is Not In A Positive Way
[37:19] Mark Shows Us It's Negative They They They Are Seeking Jesus But For The Wrong Reasons You See They Are Seeking Jesus Here In An Attempt To Control Them That Is What They Are Trying To Do That Is The Nuance Of The Text Everyone Is Looking For You Jesus Peter Says To Them In Other Words Peter Is Mildly Rebuking Jesus Here Everyone Is Looking For You What Are You Doing Going Off On Your Own There To Pray Everybody In This Town Is Looking For You And In Essence They Are Saying Jesus Things Are Going Great After Yesterday What A Day We Had Yesterday The Exorcism And The Healings And All Of These Wonderful Things We Want More Of That Jesus We Want More Of That Let's Get Back And Capitalize
[38:20] In Town Exactly What Was Happening Yesterday You Do All These Healings And Exorcisms And Everything Will Be Hunky Dory And Fine Let's Capitalize On Let's Capitalize On Jesus And What Is Our Lord's Response He He Is Not Interested He Is Not Interested You See They Are Seeking Jesus For All The Wrong Reasons And The Lord Jesus Has Nothing To Do With It They Are Tracking Down Jesus For Their Own Ends Jesus Says No Let's Go On To The Next Town That I May Preach There Also For That Is Why I Came Out Peter Three Times As We Know In Mark's Gospel He Unwittingly Attempts To Prevent The Lord Jesus From Doing
[39:20] His Work Doesn't He He's Interrupting In Prayer Here And The Most Infamous Of All For Poor Peter Is In Chapter 8 Verse 31 Where Peter Even Tries To Prevent Jesus Going To The Cross We All Know That Text Don't We You're Not Going To Cross Jesus What Does Jesus Say Get Behind Me Satan He Says For You Are Not Setting Your Mind On The Things Of God But On The Things Of Man And Likewise This Crowd And Even His Own Disciples Here Are Seeking Out Jesus For The Wrong Reasons You See They Have Their Own Agenda They Have Their Own Agenda They Couldn't Care Less For The Agenda Of The Lord Jesus No They
[40:21] Want To See More Healing They Want To See More Exorcisms It's Exciting They Don't Want To Pray They Don't Want To Get Up Early And Head Off For Prayer No You Know Could Jesus Have Called A Prayer Meeting At Five O'clock In The Morning When He Went Off Could He Have Called A Prayer Meeting And Said Let's Go And Pray No The Disciples Would Not Have Been Interested They Couldn't Even Pray And Get Semen Couldn't Even Pray In Get Semen Why Would They Join The Lord In Prayer Here And Do You Know What This Is This Is A Picture Of Our Natural State This Is A Picture Of What We Are Like Without Jesus You
[41:23] Know The Disciples Here And All The People Searching For Him They Would Happily Turn Jesus Mission Into A Circus And The Lord Jesus Has Nothing To Do With Their Suggestion Even The Leper Later On Is Told Not To Say Anything Time Had Not Come It Forbids Even All The Demons From Revealing His Real Identity To Stop It Turning Into A Circus You See The Lord Jesus Here He Is Surrounded By All These People And Yet They Do Not Know What His Real Mission Is Yet But They Will They Will Come To An Understanding Of Why He Is There Jesus Tells His Mission Later In Chapter 10 Verse 45 To Give His Life
[42:24] As A Ransom For Many How Is Jesus Mission Jesus Knows Their Hearts Knows Your Heart And He Knows My Heart Too We Are To Seek Jesus For The White Reasons Not The Wrong Ones Jesus Desires Prayer From His People Jesus Desires Commitment From His People Jesus Desires Faith And Faithfulness From His People Not A Sence Jesus Desires From Us Not Just Occasional Enthusiasm But He Desires Whole Heartedness We
[43:24] Are To Do Not Just What Suits Us What Suits Him That Should Be Our Agenda As God's People What Glorifies Jesus That Should Be Our Alternate Aim And Each And Every Day We Must Wake Up And We Must Examine Our Hearts And Say To Ourselves Am I Committed To Him Have I Got His Cause In My Heart Do I Belong To Jesus Do I Have The Cause Of His Church His People In My Heart As Well Am I Committed Am I Willing To Serve Him We Must Make Sure We Are Seeking Jesus For The Right Reasons How do We Know We
[44:26] Go Back To Our First Point Have You Asked Have Have Have You Played Lord Am I Committed Lord If I'm Not Committed Will You Make Me Committed As Christians We are To Possess The Message Yes But The Message Is To Possess Us Jesus Is To Be Everything In Our Lives He Is To Be The Alpha And He Is To Be The Omega He Is To Be The Center Part Of Our Lives Jesus Would Have Nothing To Do With Peter's Suggestion And The People's Suggestion He Was Having None Of It He Says No Let Us Go On To The Next Town There's More Simmers
[45:26] Down In That Next Town Who Need To Hear The Gospel That Is Why I Have Come That I May Preach There Also For That Is Why I Came Out You See Jesus Had An Appointment Elsewhere Peter And The People Didn't Know But He Knew You See The Preaching As We Heard Last Night The Preaching Of The Gospel Was Of The Greatest Importance To Jesus As Exciting As All The Healings And The Exorcisms And Everything Else Is And Wonderful The Preaching Of The Gospel Was Primary To Jesus And The Preaching Of The Gospel And The Listening Of The Gospel And The Accepting Of The Gospel And The Believing Of The Gospel And The Committing Ourselves To That Gospel Should Be Primary For Us To Seek Jesus For The Right Reasons Ask
[46:27] Him And When We Do And In Doing So We Will Recognize The Pervasiveness Of Sin And We Will See The Seriousness Of Sin In Our Own Lives You See What We Have Next Here With This Leper This Pure Man Who Is A Leper In A Certain Way It's A Parable Concerning Sin And A Leper Came To Him Imploring Him And Kneeling Said To Him If You Will You Can Make Me Clean Verse 40 You Can Make Me Clean Josephus Was A First Century Historian And He Wrote A Lot Of Stuff But Very Valuable For Us To Understand What First
[47:27] Century Israel Was Like And He Describes Those Who Are Afflicted With Leprosy As In No Way Differing From A Corpse He Says Rabbis Of Jesus' Day They Called Them The Living Dead The Living Dead And Yet Leprosy In The First Century Here It Was A Very Common Disease But It Was Associated With Sin And It Was Associated With Superstition And Fear You Did No Want To Catch Leprosy And Yet Leprosy Was Nothing New You Can Go All The Way Back In Your Bibles To Leviticus Chapter 13 And Leviticus Chapter 14 And You Will See Much To Do About Leprosy There And Read All About The Disease There And It Reads Like An Ancient
[48:28] Manual On Dermatology And Anyone Unfortunate Enough To Contact This Disease They Had To Leave Everything Behind Everything Behind And They Had To Live Outside The Camp And Even In The Lord Jesus Day There Were Huts Outside All The Towns Where The Leprosh Lived Walking Dead The Living Dead The Walking Dead There They Are They Lost Everything You See Leprosy Was Not Just A Nihil It Was A Sentence It Really Was Leprosh Were Not Allowed Within A Certain Distance Of Other People And You Know This Already They Had To Shout Unclean I Am Unclean I Am Unclean Stay Away From Me I Am Unclean All Day Long If They Went Near Anybody It
[49:28] Was A Sentence And You Can Picture This Man This Poor Man And He's Possibly Walking And He's Seeing His Family Seeing His Wife Possibly And His Children Possibly I Don't Know Whether He's My We Don't Know But Possibly Hypothetically He Can't Go Near Him He Can't Even Go Near The One He Loves He Has To Shout At Them I Am Uncone Please Don't Come Near Me Disowned Ostracized Marginalized Nothing But A Stain On Society Such Was The Connotations Associated With The Disease Of Leprosy
[50:29] Leprosy Today Is Hansen's Disease Isn't It The Man Who Diagnosed Its Cause And What It Actually Is A Rotting Infection As Was Thought It's Not A Rotting Infection It's As If The Body's Warning System Of Pain Is Destroyed And You Can Put Your Hand In A Fire And Not Feel It And As I Was Preparing This I Looked Into Leprosy I Was Quite Interested And Somebody Said It's Like An An An An An An An An Pain Hit Your Hand And You Don't Feel It You Don't Feel It I Read About A Doctor Called Dr.
[51:18] Brand And He Performed Surgery On Lepers Today And He Describes It As A Painless Hell So Here Is A Poor Man Here Full Of Lexy And He's Not Been Able To Feel To Touch For Years And To Understand The Situation And The Position That This Man Was In We Have To Go Back To The Old Testament To Understand To The Spiritual Universe Of The Old Testament Because In The Old Testament And Especially In Leviticus Everything Everything Everything Is Put In Categories Holy Common Everything Is Put In A Category Holy Or Common And We're Building The Tabernacle You Will See All The Descriptions There Another Category
[52:18] Was Clean Or Unclean And You Would Find Yourself In One Of These Categories And Everything Else Surrounding You Would Be Fitted Into One Of These Categories Two Separate Groups And The Thing Is You Cannot Be A Little Clean Or Sort Of Unclean You're One Or The Other As Far As The Old Testament Law Is Concerned Clean Is Acceptable Unclean Is Defiled And If You Are Defiled And Unclean You Are Pass Out Clean Is Normal Unclean Is Abnormal This Is The Categories That We Understand From
[53:18] The Old Testament You See The Clean Can't Clean Clean Clean But The Unclean Can Contaminate The Clean That Is Why The Unclean Such As This Man Here Have Separated They Have Cast Out Leper Cast Out You See This Is The World In Which Jesus Came To This Is The World In Which The Lord Jesus Interacted In And Did All His Ministry In Unclean Means Something Is Wrong With You You Don't Fit In You Are Kicked Out You Are Defiled You Have Either Done Something Or Somebody Has Done Something To You This Man Is Damaged Goods Damaged Goods Damaged Goods And
[54:18] I Mentioned Earlier That This Man's Condition Of Leprosy It Is A Parable Of Our Sin That's What It Is See Lepers Aren't Killed They Are Cleansed Sinners Aren't Healed They Are Cleansed You See The Spiritual Reality For All Of Us Is That We In Our Natural State Are Spiritual Leprosy This Is What This Image Is Made To Teach Us The Way The People Of Jesus Day Looked Upon Leprosy Is An Image Of How God Sees Sin Unclean The Whole Head Is Sick The Lord Said To Isaiah And The Whole Heart Faint From The
[55:18] Soul Of Their Feet Even To Their Head There Is No Soundness In It But Bruises And Sores And Raw Wounds It's Not My Words That's God's Words To The Prophet Isaiah Conserving The People Of Isaiah's Day You Can See That In The First Chapter Of Isaiah Such Is The Sight Of Sin To God And The Pervasiveness Of Sin According To God Habakkuk Says You Who Are Of Pure Eyes Than To See Evil And Cannot Look At Wrong And You Think That This Poor Lephyr Was A Sight We In Our Natural State Every Part Of Us Is Corrupt Our Minds Our Will Is And Calvin Called Total Depravity
[56:19] It's Not That We Can Be As Sinful As We Possibly Can Be But Every Single Part Of Our Faculty Is Contaminated With Sin And We Must Understand This And To See The Glory Of The Gospel To See The Glory Of The Gospel Now We Must Recognize The Perversiveness Of Sin In Our Own Lives It Is Not Healing We Need But Closing And This Poor Man Here He Knows What Is Wrong With Him And We Too Must Recognize Sin In Our Own Lives Too Because What God Does When He Works In A Man For A Woman Or A Boy Or A Girl And Comes Into The Heart She Is A Sin And There's Nothing We Can Do In Or Of Ourselves About Our Sin We Can't Do Anything God Humbles Our Hearts In This Process And
[57:22] He Makes Us Realize I Have Been A Fool For Not Turning To Christ I Have Been A Fool For Not Turning To Christ I Held A Story About Abraham Lincoln During The Civil War And Lincoln's Chief Of War Was A Man Called Stanton And Lincoln On His Own Without Consulting Stanton He Decided To Move Some Of His Army To Another Territory During The War Without Telling Stanton And Stanton Heard About It And Stanton He Rupted And He Says The Man Is A Fool What Is He Doing The President Is A Fool What Is He Doing And Word They're Back To Lincoln And You Know What His Response was If Stanton Says I Am A Fool And I Am A Fool But He Is Always Right And
[58:23] He Was Stanton Was Right God Brings Us To That Place And We Must Trust And Know That In Our Of Our There's Nothing We Can Do About Our Sin But Therein Comes The Light Of The Gospel That's The Bad News Now The Good News Therefore We Must Trust Christ To Have Compassion On Us Verses 40 To 41 And A Leopard Came To Him Imploring Him And Kneeling Said To Him If You Will You Can Make Me Clean Moved With Puddies He Stretched Out His Hand And Touched Him And Said To Him I Will Be Clean This Poor Man Came To Jesus Recognizing His Problem He Was Unclean He Was A Leopard He Was
[59:23] Also A Sinner And The Leopard Came To Him Imploring Him And The Leopard Is Thinking In His Mind This Man This Jesus He Can Do Something For Me Nobody Else Can Do Anything For Me Only This Man Can Do Something For Me He Can Help Me And He Is Begging He Is Begging Jesus On His Knees He Is Humiliating Himself In Front Of A Great Crowd And He Doesn't Care His Heart Has Been Humble He Does Not Care He Is Audacious He Is Scandalous He Is On His Knees And He Is Crying Out To The Lord Jesus Help Me You Are The Only One
[60:23] Who Can Help Me How Much Did He Know About The Lord Jesus He Had He He About The Things He Was Doing We Don't Know But You See A Drowning Man Doesn't Need To Know Much About The Person Who Holds Out His Hand To Save Him Does He No You Grab That Arm No One Else Can Do Anything For You Grab It Jesus Is Moved With Pity You See This Is The First Time Probably In Many A Long Year Anyone Has Ever Even Listened To This Poor Man Jesus Listened To Him Do you Know what He's Doing He's Praying He's Praying He's Before The Son Of God On His Knees And He's Praying And
[61:24] Jesus Listen And Jesus Shows Compassion Moved With Pity The Lord Is Filled With Compassion For This Poor Man Who's In Front Of Him You Know When You Actually Read The Newance Of This Text When You Look At It It Actually It Conveys The Idea That The Compassion That Jesus Felt For This This Man He Felt It In His Stomach The Compassion Of The Lord Jesus Christ He Felt It In His Stomach Face To Face We Have The Lord Of Glory And We Have The Laper And The Lord Of Glory Feels Compassion In His Stomach For Him Incredible David
[62:25] McKenna Commentator Describes It Like This He Says It Was It Was Just Mind For Mind Hand For Hand It Wasn't Even Heart For Heart But It Was Stomach For Stomach Blood For Blood Gut For Gut Jesus Feels His Way Into His Laper's Knees Do You Know How It Feels When A Loved One Is Unwilled We All Kind Of Know What That Feels Like We Feel It In Our Stomach Don't We We Do This Is The Way The Lord Jesus Felt As He Had Compassion And Pretty Upon This Poor Sinner Leopard Sinner Also That Feeling Of Love And
[63:25] Compassion We Know It We Understand It Don't We We Feel It For Our Loved Ones Do You See Through This Text Which Is The Word Of God Do You See Here Tonight Through This Text Do You See The Force Of Christ's Love For Sinners I Hope So I Hope So You See The Lord Jesus Does More Than Understand Here Because Ultimately The Lord Jesus Would Feel The Full Weight Of All This Man's Shame Guilt Sin And Mine If We Trust And Believe In Him He Would Take It To The Cross Of Calgary Do
[64:25] You Trust Christ To Have Compassion On You Tonight Do You Or Are You An Exception Do You Trust Lord Jesus Christ To Have Compassion And Pity On You Tonight I Hope So Because There's Nowhere For Us To Go There's Nowhere Else For Us To Go You Know It's Sometimes Easier To Believe In Christ's Power Than His Compassion And His Love And His Mercy Love Sinners He Came For Sinners This Laper Must Have Said He's Done It For Others She Can Do It For Me If You Will You Can Make Me Clean We Would Say Here Tonight Since You Are Willing Lord Jesus
[65:26] We Know You Are Willing I Will Be Clean Wash Me Now Lord You Not Only Have The Power You Have The Love The Grace And The Compassion To Do So Wash Me Now Lord We Must Trust Christ To Have Compassion On Us Trust Him And In Turn Christ Will Say To You I Will And He Will Touch You He Stretched Out His Hand And Touched Him And Said I Will Be Clean You Know And If This Man's Leprosy Is A Picture Of Our Sin Then Jesus Touching Him Is A Picture Of The Incarnation What's The Incarnation It's When God Becomes Flesh And Comes Down Flesh And Blood
[66:26] But Yet Still God Spotless Beautiful Full Of Grace And Full Of Mercy He Touched He Came Down And He Touched And He Cleansed That's What The Lord Jesus Does When He Brings His People To Faith He Comes Down And Touches And He Cleanses No Flesh And No Touch No Cleansing No Forgiveness But He Became Flesh In Order To Touch Touch And This Poor Man Had Not Been Touched For A Very Very Very Long Time Kent
[67:27] Hughes Another Commentator Says That He Once Met A Man Who Was So Lonely That He Used To Go For A Haircut Once A Wink Just So Somebody Would Touch Him You Know When The Lord Jesus Touched This Man He Took Hold Of Him He Took Hold Of Him Jesus Took Hold Of Him And You Can Imagine The On Look A Shock This Man Has Got Leprosy Don't Touch Him But He Took Hold Of Him Out Of Love And Out Of Compassion Too Cold Of Him And Now In Their Eyes Jesus Was Ceremonially Unclean He Might Catch The Disease They Must
[68:27] Have Fought You See Jesus Wanted This Leopard To Feel His Compassion And His Love Not Just Hear It But To Feel It Jesus In Essence Is Saying I Am With You I Love You I Am Going To Go To A Cross For You Small Picture Of The Incarnation Yes He Took On Flesh He Became Sin For Us Thus To Make Us Pure And Holy What Does Paul Say In Second Corinthians You Know It Well For Our Sake He Made Him To Be Sin Who You Know Sin So That In Him We Might Become The Righteousness Of God That We Might Become Holy Unto The Lord For Our Sake He Made Jesus To Be Sin So That We Can Be Clean
[69:28] Do You See That It Is Extra Ordinary Jesus Jesus Would Soon Know What It Would Be Like To Be Abandoned Just Like This Leper He Is Trading Places With Him He Swapping With Him Because Soon Jesus Would Be Abandoned Soon Jesus Would Be Hated Soon Jesus Would Be Crucified Trading Places With Him Jesus In essence Is Saying I Am The One Who Is Going To Be Put Outside The Can Not To Live In A Hut But To Be Knilled To A Cross Trading Places And You Notice The Immediacy Of The Cure Of This Man It Was Sudden It Was Complete His Feet His Tall
[70:28] Stubs Suddenly He Becomes Whole Fingers Reappear His Feet And Now If He Saw His Family Down There He Can Say I Am Clean I Am Clean Not I Am Unclean Unclean You See When The Lord Jesus Christ Enters In And Touches The Heart Of A Sinner It Is Complete This Leopard Came From Unclean And He Bypassed Common And He Went All The Way To Home Because He Was Touched By Jesus The Blood Of Jesus Purifies From Every Sin Scripture Tell Us It's
[71:28] Not Half Salvation It's A Full Complete Salvation Not Half Clean But Fully Clean First Peter Tells Us Chapter 2 Verse 9 He's Talking About You And Me If Our Faith Is In Christ Listen To What Peter Says The Very Peter Who Tried To Interrupt Jesus Yeah Yeah Listen To What He Says Later He Says You Are A Chosen People Or A Chosen Race You Are A Royal Priest You Are A Holy Nation God's Very Own Possession That You May Proclaim The Excellencies Of Them Who Called You Out Of Darkness And Into The Marvellous Life What
[72:29] A Transformation From Uncleanness Isn't It Just Bypass Common And Go All The Way To Holy Because You Be Touched By Jesus You Belong To Jesus And If You Belong To Jesus You Are Holy In Exodus 28 If You Read Exodus 28 You Will See You Will See The Priests Been Clothed And Are On The High Priest Been Clothed And They're Given Sinus They Are Given Beautiful garments And On The High Priest Hat It Would Say Holy To The Lord
[73:29] And Because Jesus Is Our Great High Priest And He Died For Us And Gave Himself For Us On Your For He Says Holy To The Lord And The Man Is Ordered To Go And Show Himself To These Very Priests To Gain A Certificate Of Cleansing He Must Prove That He Is Cleansed And The Priests What Will They See They Will See Nothing But A Complete Transformation Because That Is What The Gospel Does When It Touches The Life Of A Sinna It's A Complete Transformation Habitual Sin Should Be Gone Does It Mean We're Never Going To Sin Again No Not At All You
[74:33] Know I Remember Myself When The Lord Touched My Own Life And We're Talking About Habitual Sin There's One Thing I Remember About My Old Life Was That My Language Was Cush And Terrible It Was Terrible But As The Lord Came Into My Heart Just Overnight Miracle Of Miracles The Language Changed Quite So The Lord Took That Away From Me All All The Bad Language Gone Gone Gone And As God's People As You And Me Sit At The Lord's Table God Willing On The Lord's Day Sunday The
[75:33] Lord Is Reminding You And Me That We Are Whole Unto The Lord Separate Still Sinners Absolutely But Belong To Jesus And As We Sit At The Table The Lord God Wants To Remind Us Of His Love And Of His Compassion For His People It's A Visible Representation Of The Gospel We Can Touch It We Can Taste It We Can See It And All Lifebush Are Welcome To That Table All Lepers Because That's What We Are In Our Natural State Lepers Sinners And
[76:34] Here This Evening God Is Inviting Me To Accept Of Christ And To Be Touched By Him I Often Have People Saying To Me Jodo One Or Two Have Said It To Me And It Sat With My Heart I'm Beyond Redemption And I Went Don't Be So Proud What Makes You So Different Why Are You An Exception There Is No Leper Beyond The Saving Work Of Jesus Christ Now No Matter How Great The Sin No Matter How Great The Sin Rabbi Duncan Is A Free Church Minister Of Old And The Story Is Told He's Doing A Communion Somewhere And He Was Quite A Firing Preacher Rabbi Duncan And As He Was
[77:34] Doing The Table And He Was Administered In The Table With His Elders There Was One Woman Who Just Would Not Come Forward And Do You Know What He Said Take It Woman It's For Sinner For The Righteous It's For Sinner I Was Doing A Communion Elsewhere A Few Months Ago And After We Sat At The Table After We Sat At The Table There Was Three People Who Weren't Sitting At The Table Who Sat At The Back I Spoke To Them Afterwards And I Says Tables For Sinners Why Weren't You There Oh We Just Three Black Sheep And I Says You Need To Come And Join The Rest Of Us Then We're All Black Sheep Touched
[78:37] By Jesus Moved With Pity He Stretched Out His Hand And Touched Him And Said To Him I Will Be To Such As The Power Of The Gospel Power And As We Heard Last Night The Preaching Of The Word Of God Is The Means In Which God Saves People And He Want To Be Touched By Jesus As He Offers Himself To Here Tonight He Offers There The Free Offer Gospel To Every Level He Will Say I Love You You Be Clean Let Us Pray And Gracious Lord We Pause
[79:38] And We Pray And We Marble At Your Love And Your Grace And The Mercy That You Showed To God And Father We Thank You For The Words Of Scripture And Lord We See In This Text That We Have Just Studied We See The Love And Grace Of Jesus Father Help Us To Recommit Our Lives To Him If We Are Already His But Lord I Pray That This Evening You Are At Work In The Hearts Of Men And Women Boys And Girls Convicting And Converting And Touching Lord Gracious Lord Would You Go Before Us This Evening And Would You Continue To Bless Us For We Ask It In Jesus Name Always And Forever Amen We're Going To Conclude By Singing Mission Praise Number 31
[80:39] Mission Praise Number 31 Mission Praise Number 31 Amazing Grace How Sweet The Sound That Saved A Wretch Like Me I Once Was Lost But Now I Found Was Blind But Now I See It Was Grace That Taught My Heart To Fear And Grace My Fears Relieved How Precious Did That Grace Appear The I First Believed And It Must Have Been Amazing For That Life For As Much As It Is For Us Amazing Grace Number 31 In The Black Book Before I Do Do the Benediction David Reminded Me To Tell The Congregation That The Session Is Now Open If You Love The Lord And You Want To Profess Your Faith In Him Then The Session Is Open Come And Join Us The Rest Of Black Sheep And The Rest Of Us Cleansed Like We Are All
[81:39] Sinners And We Are All In The Need Of Grace The Session Is Open So I'll Do The Benediction Now May the Grace Of The Lord Jesus Christ And The Love Of God And The Fellowship Of The Holy Spirit Be With You And Abide With You Now And Forever Amen