Lepers or Leopards

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Announcements, the New Book, and Family Updates

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. Let�s see, what can I announce today? Don�t forget, if you�re a lady and you�d like to listen to a radio show, Equipping Eve. Erin, our friend, No Compromise Radio�s friend, she has that blog, Do Not Be Surprised, and she also has the podcast, Equipping Eve.

You can probably follow her on Twitter or listen to her weekly shows. I do get some emails sometimes from men, and the men say, �Can we listen to her show I tell them, �No, you may not. Why even email me for permission?

I don�t give out indulgences. No plenary indulgences for men listening to ladies� shows. So there you have it. If you want to order the new book, Evangelical White Lies, the only place you can get that is on Amazon.

There�s a Kindle version and a regular version. You just order it through Amazon and they ship it. I�ve been encouraged by some of the folks writing me, telling me that the book was helpful. Amen. Glad for that.

I�m probably, I don�t know, three months away from S. Lewis Johnson�s Colossians commentary coming out, or at least getting to the publisher. It�s probably going to be four or five months before it�s out, but I�m trying.

I�m just not trying very hard. I have a lot of other things going on. It�s been great to have my whole family together. Sometimes you think how many more times in your life will that happen? I have my four kids at home during the Saturnalia holidays and it�s been very good.

I just looked over my son, Luke, and I thought he was listening to me, but he had his headphones on instead. Today, I�d like to talk a little bit about the power of touch. Now if this is the first show you�ve ever listened to, I�ll get to my aggressive self soon enough.

But what about the power of touch? It�s going to lead into a Bible story. That�s what we do here at No Compromise Radio. So hang in there or turn us up to 1 .5 speed, two times speed. Think about it. A pat on the back drags you down.

A pat on the back, a caress on the arm. What about some of these gestures, a firm handshake? Maybe we just take for granted. Yet researchers would say touch is fundamental to human bonding, human health, some say, and even communication.

Now Western cultures, like the United States, most researchers would say we are touch deprived. Ethnologists would say, you know what, non-human primates spend probably 15 to 20 of their day grooming each other, a lot of touch.

If you look at Sidney Girard�s 1960s pioneering work on conversations with people in cafes, here�s what he did. He watched how many times people touched each other during a conversation over lunch or breakfast in different countries.

And in England, he found two friends touched each other zero times. In the United States, sometimes they get really enthusiastic and they would touch each other twice. France, 110 times an hour. And in Puerto Rico, 180 times per hour.

The power of touch. Tiffany Field did some research on touch and preterm newborns. Some who received three 15-minute sessions of touch therapy each day for 5 to 10 days gained 47 more weight than premature infants who received regular medical treatment.

Right, just getting diapers changed and fed, stuff like that. Some more research by Darlene Francis and Michael Meaney. They said, you know what, rats whose mothers groomed them a lot grew up to be calmer, more resilient to stress, and had a stronger immune system.

And that�s why some researchers would say, what do children in orphanages really need? What are they starving for? You know, they�re provided a place to sleep and some food, but they need to have touch.

Michelangelo actually said, �To touch can be to give life. The power of touch. Neuroscientist Edmund Rowles said that touch activates the brain�s orbitofrontal cortex, which gives you feelings of reward and compassion.

It can trigger the release of oxytocin, i .e., the love hormone. Touch also, for those of you that are the pragmatists who are listening, can have economic effects. Well, there�s a psychologist named Robert Kurzban who had participants play the Prisoner�s Dilemma game.

They could either choose to cooperate or compete with a partner for a limited amount of money. And the little article says, an experimenter gently touched some of the participants as they were starting to play the game.

Just a quick pat on the back, but it made a big difference. Those who were touched were much more likely to cooperate and share with their partner. You�d like to get a bigger tip if you�re a waiter or a waitress.

There�s a certain way to touch someone on the shoulder. You think about games, teams, sports, and the journal Emotion found that NBA teams that touch each other, high fives, fist bumps, and all that, win more games.

So there you go. The power of touch. As I was saying before, we have autism studies. Tiffany Field, she was the one I referred to earlier. Lots of things happening with the power of touch. Now, here�s my lead-in to the No Compromise radio.

God is a spirit, and a spirit hath not flesh and bones. So what kind of touch could God have? That�s what I need to do. I need to find out. Let�s see. Michelangelo God touch. I need to think about that for the power of touch.

Now you have Jesus. Jesus is the God-man, and he touches people. That�s pretty amazing to think about. I know it�s obvious. I know it�s a dumb moment. Okay, but Jesus. Okay, he has the credentials of the Messiah.

We understand that. But what does Jesus do? I even think of Luke 4. The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.

The power of touch. The Messiah. Can you imagine? It says in Luke 5 .12. Think about this. While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.

Now it says the similar thing in Matthew 8 and Mark 1, the three synoptics, all dealing with this. The man�s full of leprosy. Mark says he was beseeching him, falling on his knees before him. The news of Jesus is spreading.

It goes to all the different nooks and crannies of that area. Jesus has been in their synagogues, and he's been throughout all Galilee, preaching and casting out demons. And now the leper comes to Jesus.

I think we could probably say something about the faith of the leper. His confidence of what Jesus could do and who Jesus was. I think this leper, this leper, my original pastor, not John MacArthur, but the one before that, he would say leper when he saw lepers.

And actually, the Prince of Preachers book, I think when I said Jesus healed the ten lepers, I think it says lepers. And that was not my mistake. It went to the publisher correctly, FYI. This leper was bold, and he didn't keep his distance.

He's got a lot of faith, and he's in trouble. The word lepros means scaly. And we don't know exactly what kind of skin disease it was back in the Bible days. These days, lots of times people call it Hansen's disease.

Medical history says that leprosy goes back to mummies in Egypt and all this kind of stuff. Most people are immune from it. It can't be cured with any kind of medicine. And it just means scaly. It means, essentially, it's going to end up meaning defiled.

And what happens today is you get leprosy, and then things start going numb. And some of the skin and some of the spots that show up on the skin lose their color. And then the skin gets to be thick and then kind of scaly.

Some sores develop and some ulcers because the blood supply isn't working properly. The skin, they say, by the ears and around the nose and eyes starts bunching. And some people think you even kind of look like a lion.

Your fingers drop off. Toes have problems. Eyebrows and eyelashes, they fall out. And according to one article, you can smell a leper because it smells so bad. Their voice box is also affected. And they begin to become very hoarse.

And you can imagine if scaly could affect skin, scaly can affect the voice box. And so now their voice is very raspy. So you've got ulcers having discharges. You've got a lot of hair falling out. They say when you look at the eyes of a leper, they just kind of are staring right through you.

When they breathe, they're wheezing a lot. And you can just imagine how bad this must be. Of course, the nerves now are shot and they slowly get worse. So it really is a death disease because over the next 15 to 20 years, they're slowly going to die.

Can't feel pain. Hold on to tools too tightly. Bump your foot someplace and you're in trouble. Rats could eat your feet or your fingers and you wouldn't even notice it. That's why in modern days, Dr. Brand would give a cat to every room where lepers were staying because the cats would keep the rats out.

When you think of this, leprosy, I think of numbers describes it well. When Miriam was leprous, it says, oh, do not let her be like one dead whose flesh is half eaten when he comes from his mother's womb.

Flesh is half eaten away. No wonder Dr. Brand called leprosy a painless hell because there's not so much pain involved because your nerves are shot. Problem is socially, religiously, in every way, the stigma that went along with that.

The law required in Leviticus 13, as for the leper who has the infection, his clothes shall be torn. The hair of his head shall be uncovered and he shall cover his mustache and cry unclean, unclean. He shall live alone.

His dwelling shall be outside the camp. The only way I can think about leprosy is through some modern experiences. One is AIDS. When AIDS first came out and HIV, it was hard for the family members, hard for anybody else.

Can you get close to them? Can you get it? What's the infection rate? Is it contagious? When my father first got cancer and diagnosed with cancer, back in those days, cancer wasn't talked about. And my friends, the friends of my father couldn't even come and face him and see him face to face.

These lepers cut out from the house of God, couldn't go become a priest, yelling unclean. There were laws in Leviticus about what to do with the clothes, with the doorway of the house and quarantining things.

And here's this leper. He sees Jesus. He falls on his face and begs Jesus, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. If you're willing, you can do it. He didn't sneak up. He didn't try to get behind a rock or something.

He wasn't up in a tree. He comes right to Jesus. I don't think he's thinking anything about his social mores anymore and the stigma behind that. It's just, you know, in Matthew, it's like, look, okay, it's very vivid and you just go, wow.

All of a sudden, out of nowhere, this guy comes up. And when he's saying these things, you can imagine when he says, Lord, if you're willing or if you will, you can make me clean. Think about it. He's got all the wheezing and the gurgling of his voice and the raspy kind of talk.

I can't imitate that. But you can just imagine what it would sound like. He's confident. He knows Jesus could do it. And what's the text say? It's almost like with your teacher, your grammar teacher. When you say, can I go to the bathroom?

Well, I don't know. Can you? But you're saying to me, may I go to the bathroom or can I go to the bathroom? May I please go? Yes, you may. Can you? Yes, you can. Well, here, I know you can heal me. May you heal me?

Of course, that's not the exact way to say it, but you get the idea. I know you can, but will you? Will you? If you want to, I know you can. I'm not saying you have to. Don't you notice how he's understanding the sovereignty and the Lord?

He's the Lord. People name it and claim it and tell God what he has to do. No, I know you can. I'm full of leprosy. And what does the Dr. Luke say? He's full of it. Full of leprosy. And he's gurgling and he's got his palate all messed up.

And the joints in his fingers and toes are probably all shrunk up. Shranken up. They're shrunken. They've shrank. That's what Johnson said. He has come to think of him as a person who is worthy of worship.

He has, by the grace of God, been brought to the sense of the deity of the Lord Jesus. But the fact that he worshiped him means that we must give the term Lord the fullest senses. He has the confidence in the power of the Lord Jesus.

I think he knows that the Lord Jesus is good. But he knows he's sovereign too, so I'm going to appeal to the sovereignty of God. I know you can. Now, this is pretty amazing because how many lepers have been healed in the lifetime of this man?

Well, as far as we know, zero. In terms of the biblical corpus, when was the last leper healed? Has ever an Israelite been healed of leprosy? I think the last one, you know, of course, Miriam was healed.

But if you go back to Naaman, Naaman was healed. He wasn't even a Jew. It's not like a lot of these people are getting healed. But the fame of Jesus, back to chapter 4 of Matthew, verse 24, I don't hear any lepers being healed.

Here, I know you can, even though it hasn't taken place in a thousand years. But I'd like to know if you're willing. That's why he's begging him. You can make me clean. And that's why he said, Lord, I know you can heal me.

Would you heal me? There's no other choice, no medical treatment. This person is going to die. Some people would think they're dead already. William Barclay, there never has been any disease which so separated a man from his fellow man as leprosy did.

Now, here comes the power of touch to get back on that subject. And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, I will be clean. Mark 1 says of this account, and moved with compassion, he stretched out his hand and touched him.

He stretches out his hand and touches the leper. I wonder if the leper even remembers what it was like to be touched by someone. The disease is so bad. He's outside the camp. Unclean, unclean, unclean.

He has to yell. McLaren said it was the half cure. It was the complete clearing away of the last film of cloud of doubt as to the will of Jesus. It answered the if by someone that spoke louder than any, by something that spoke louder than any word.

Lord, if you will, is it really the will of God that I be healed? And the Lord Jesus put out his hand and touched him. No rabbi would have dared to touch him, but he put out his hand and touched him. And then he spoke the thrilling words.

I will be thou clean. Malcolm McLaren, no. Mr. McLaren, the commentator. Wait a second. This guy's unclean. And here Jesus, he feels compassion. Look at the compassion. It says he felt compassion in Mark.

He was moved with pity. Everything about it, all his inward parts, lungs, heart, liver, all his seat of emotions. The guts of a person, the bowels of a person, the vowels. This has been a hard show. Whenever you don't know what to do, you say, it's Mike Abenroth, No Compromise Radio.

Aren't you glad we don't have any commercial breaks? I kind of wish we had commercials because that means we'd have sponsors. I guess you could sponsor No Compromise Radio. What do you get if you sponsor No Compromise Radio?

I guess my response would be, what do you want? I think it's a raise. I think I'm giving myself a raise next year for No Co-Radio. Moved with compassion. Now, every time you see this splanchna word, splanchnizomai, used 12 times in the New Testament.

Once it's used of the Samaritan's compassion for the wounded guy. Every other case, it's God's compassion. Jesus' compassion for giving sinners. You know, Jesus slash God. And here we have Jesus, right?

He's the one who sees the sheep without a shepherd and he feels compassion for them. His heart's stirred. I feel your pain. Now, with the Incarnation, we can understand that. If the Incarnation wasn't true, God, of course, is a gracious God and loving and compassionate and all that.

But we just wouldn't know. He's gripped with compassion. And he shows his compassion by touching. Rabbis avoid lepers. They don't want any social contact with them. Calvin said, quote, See, that's language that we think of when it comes to compassion.

The power of touch. The touch of a leper. Pastor Hughes counseled an old man who got his hair cut once a week just to have someone touch him. Psalm 116, verse 5. Yes, our God is compassionate. And here, Jesus is so holy, he's not defiled by touching human uncleanness.

But he cleans instead. He loves and he has compassion. He felt the compassion. He showed compassion by touching and also by actually healing. I am willing, right? I will be clean. And immediately, the leprosy left him.

Immediately. This was a big deal. Touch the untouchable. Cure the incurable, as people say. Just think about what was gone. No more scaly, raspy voice. No more scaly, raspy skin. No more bunched up kind of skin making you look like a lion.

The authoritative word of God. There was a rabbinic saying that basically said the healing of the leper was like raising somebody from the dead. I mean, the most loathsome thing. Yet Jesus, the supernatural healing of Jesus, it was awesome.

It was spectacular. It was undeniable. It's amazing. He heals people instantaneously. Remember Mark 5? For she thought, if I just touch his garments, I shall get well. And immediately, the flow of her blood was dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.

Luke 4 .40. And while the sun was setting, all who had any sick with various diseases were brought to him. And laying his hands on every one of them, he was healing them. He could heal anyone. He could heal anyone at will.

Whether it was an organic problem, a congenital problem, blind people to lepers, Jesus could heal. God certainly has visited.

Ministry Information and Closing Disclaimer

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible-teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 10 .15 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.