The Sin Virus (Part 2)

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Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author Dr. Mike Abendroth.

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Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

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Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures verse by verse with No Compromise.

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Do you grasp just for a second how important the incarnation is?

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For all kinds of reasons, but the eternal son of God, the second person of the

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Trinity cloaks himself with humanity and then when I read Hebrews 4, it just floods my mind with emotion and meaning.

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We have a high priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses. Mark says this,

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Matthew doesn't say it, Mark says that Jesus was moved with compassion, with pity. Mark says

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Jesus was emotionally moved. It was his motion, the Greek word is for his guts, his bowels.

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Somebody from the first service knew the Greek word. Does anybody know the Greek word for, used 12 times in the New Testament? Splankna.

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Who said that? Oh, nice. Thank you. 12 times in the

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New Testament, used once of the Samaritan when the Samaritan wanted to be a good Samaritan and help and move with pity and compassion, but all the other times used of God.

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Used of God dealing with sinful people, saving sinners, forgiving sinners, touching sinners.

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It's used in Matthew 9, and seeing the multitudes, Jesus felt compassion for them because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd.

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He felt compassion, but you can feel compassion and not do anything about it. He felt compassion, and Mark says, and so does

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Matthew, and then he touched him. He didn't stop with feelings. Sometimes that's the only thing we could do though, is we can feel bad with people, for people, but we can't change the situation.

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John Calvin said, by his word alone, he might have healed the leper. Couldn't he have done that? Just be healed.

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Why did he have to touch him? He's going to heal the centurion servant in chapter 8, verses 5 and following in the next account.

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He doesn't even have to be there. He could just say, you're clean. Why did he touch him? Because Christ was the compassionate

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Messiah as well. Calvin goes on, but he applied at the same time the touch of his hand to express the feeling of compassion.

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Nor ought this to excite our wonder since he chose to take upon him our flesh that he might cleanse us from our sins.

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Who's compassionate? What God of the Old Testament neighborhood was compassionate?

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Only Yahweh, Exodus 34. The Lord passed in front of Moses and proclaimed, the

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Lord, the Lord God, and what was the first thing on the list? Before gracious, before slow to anger, before abounding in love and kindness, the

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Lord was what? Psalm 116 .5. Yes, our

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God is, James chapter 5, the Lord is full of compassion and here now

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Jesus does what no person would ever do. He touches the leper. And instead of getting contagion on him, it's the holiness of God contagious the other way, purifies.

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It imparts cleansing. Mark says, Jesus stated,

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I am willing, I'm always willing. Look at verse 3, and Jesus, Matthew 8, stretched out his hand and touched him saying,

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I will be cleansed, I will be clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

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This is written so that you realize, I don't have any confusion about this leper being healed. Now think about it for a second.

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No more scaly skin. If you have no fingers, if this was an older leper, no fingers,

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I now have fingers. No more Sharpay looking face, it's just normal.

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No cauliflower ears, it's just normal. Not limping around. He smells good.

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He doesn't look white. Suddenly, his voice is perfect.

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This is a huge deal. Jesus touches the untouchable and cures the incurable. And what

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Jesus says in Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7 must be true. He is the Messiah. No scales, no sores, no scars.

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The worst social stigma that you could have, the most lonesome and the supernatural, eternal

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Son of God affirms his credentials. And how does Jesus heal? He heals unlike people who say, come to the healing that's going to be down at the civic center.

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He heals instantaneously. Mark chapter 5, the lady said, if I touch his garments,

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I shall get well. And immediately the flow of her blood was dried up. Jesus heals completely.

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Jesus heals everyone. Everyone around those towns, laying his hands on every one of them,

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Luke 4, was healing them. He just didn't pick out, well, you know, I think I could heal you because you'd need your leg lengthened.

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But you over here, you can't heal. I won't heal that like these charlatans do. By the way, you can know these people today who say they have the gift of New Testament healings are frauds to the core because I want to see them at Children's Hospital, please.

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You're the most unloving, godless person in the universe if you have the gift of healing and you're not at Boston Children's Hospital.

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And Jesus could even raise people from the dead. Luke 7, and the dead man sat up after Jesus said,

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I said to you, arise, began to speak. And Jesus gave him back to his mother. And fear gripped them all.

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And they began glorifying God, saying, a great prophet has arisen among us. God has visited his people.

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When God does a miracle, then you say, only God could do the miracle. Jesus is God. He has to be divine.

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And then what happens here? Verse 4, Jesus said to him, and this is kind of a curt warning, it's more curt in Mark, but in Matthew, Jesus says, see that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a proof to them.

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I'd like to fully include you into society. This is the proper step.

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I'm under the law, I'm born under law, and so are you. It's Old Testament law. This is the way you go get cleansed.

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I want you in society. I want you to go give proof to the people. They're going to say, aren't you the leper?

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Yes, I am. Who did it? Jesus. Bear witness and testimony to that, trap them in their denial of Jesus and Messiah.

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Those all could be reasons, but Mark gives us the main reason why Jesus warned him.

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Actually, it says in Mark 1, Jesus sternly warned him. Translated one time in John 11, it's deeply moved, and translated in Mark 14, it's scolding.

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Why was Jesus so stern? The word is interesting. It's the word for a meddlesome horse that snorts.

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You can just see a horse's nostril flare out. You should see your faces right now.

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Flaring out, just kind of angry a little bit, and so here Jesus, of course, with righteous indignation, admonishes and rebukes urgently, don't run out there and begin to tell everyone.

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Mark 1 says, and he began to proclaim it freely and spread the news about to such an extent that Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city, but stayed out in unpopulated areas, and they were coming to him from everywhere.

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Of course, I'm the Messiah, but right now we don't go tell everyone because there needs to be public ministry.

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Isn't it interesting when Jesus says, go show yourself to a priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded for proof to them? So there's something in the

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Old Testament for lepers that got better, and I love the humorous account that S.

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Lewis Johnson describes about what this must have been like. This leper who's been cleansed and the priest who have never done one of these rites for a healed leper, because a leper hasn't been healed for 1 ,500 years.

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Lewis accounts, oh yes, I lived right outside the wall over there.

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There are eight of us and I'm one of them, but Jesus touched me and look, I'm clean. Now I want to offer the sacrifice that's supposed to be offered.

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Jesus told me to come to you, Johnson writes, and the priest has never performed such a sacrifice, so he shouts back, bring me the manual.

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I don't know what to do. It's somewhere in Old Testament law. Finally, after a lengthy time, the leper is still standing there.

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They find it back in Leviticus 13 and 14 and go through the ceremony. Jesus wasn't going to violate the law.

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He wants the Jewish leaders to establish the miracle, and he also wants the man to keep quiet about it after that, so Jesus has more free reign.

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Matthew portrays Jesus as Messiah, and so I ask you the question, do you believe that Jesus is the

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Messiah? Do you believe that Jesus is the eternal son of God who cloaked himself with humanity, lived under the law of God perfectly, died a substitutionary death, not for his own sins, but for the sins of all those who would ever believe, and that God raised him from the dead, and he's the only hope of heaven, your only hope of forgiveness?

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I was shocked one day out of my gourd, as it were, when my professor at Master's Seminary once said, see the people at Grace Church, John MacArthur's the pastor, out of the 10 ,000 people that go there on a given

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Sunday, and I think the professor was trying to be a little hyperbolic to make a point, he said probably 50 % of them are saved, because lots of people go to church, and they're not born again.

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My guess is there's quite a few today who do not really believe the gospel, say, well

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I was baptized, I didn't ask that, I go to church, I serve, the credentials of the king are for a reason, who heals like Jesus?

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Who fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah like Jesus? Who can deal with sin like Jesus?

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The Bible is true when it says you must be born again, because you might not have physical leprosy, but leprosy is a picture, a very gross picture of sin, and so the time that I have left, let me remind you of how your sin is like leprosy, so you say,

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I have no other option except Jesus, if Jesus can't save me, I can't be saved, if he, he has the power to do it, but I just need to know if he's willing,

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I am a spiritual leper, and I'm going to tell you right from the get -go, it doesn't feel that good, because our society is, you're great, you're wonderful, you're special, self -esteem, but the

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Bible is, you want to see the last days, people are lovers of themselves, that's how you know you're in the last days, and we need to be broken so that we can be mend, we need to know, yes, can you imagine if a guy, he's got leprosy there in Matthew chapter 8, but he never thinks he has leprosy, well, maybe

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I, you know, it's just like age marks and stuff, and maybe it's just, maybe it's just psoriasis, that's all

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I have, a little eczema there, no problem, but when you know you're leprous, you go, I'm going to go to the only person who could cure me, every person here,

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I don't care how old you are, you need to believe that Jesus is a Messiah, that's why Matthew wrote it, do you believe that Jesus is a

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Messiah, 2 Corinthians chapter 11, are you a Christian, examine yourself to see if you're in the faith,

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I went to church for a long, long time to hear the message about Jesus and I was a pagan, like leprosy, sin renders men and women as good as dead, unbelievers are just as good as dead, they have a terminal disease, but the stakes are higher, one thing

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I learned this week about leprosy is, depending on your state before you get it, you've got 10 to 30 years before you mentally decay, go into a coma and then die,

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I found this fascinating, in the Middle Ages one account says, when a person was diagnosed with leprosy they were brought to the church and the priest read the burial service over them for in effect they were already dead though still alive, you've got leprosy,

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I'll give you the last rites now, you're as good as dead, and you know what, because of Adam's sin, when he was in the garden on probation and Adam's sin and then

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God imputed Adam's sin to all of our account and by consequence we are now by nature sinners, we're as good as dead, no wonder

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Paul says in Ephesians 2, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, one day here everyone's going to die and then stand before God and you need the

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Messiah's covering, you need the Messiah's cleansing, you need the Messiah's power, you need his perfect life, his substitutionary death,

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I was also thinking about leprosy and I thought you know, I need a savior, Jesus, because like a leper my whole being is defiled, that's one thing about it, if you think of yourself, well

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I have sin or I do sin, I don't think you think about it correctly because the Bible would teach us that we are sinful and not that we do these,

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I mean I remember one time when I was super angry and I slammed down an Ikea dresser and it broke into a hundred pieces, if it would have been real wood it probably would have only broken into like three pieces and I thought you know what, if I've got an anger problem,

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I go get counseling for anger and then I deal with the anger problem, if I've got problems with other things then

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I go get counseling for that other thing but if I don't have an anger problem, I am the problem, where do

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I go, I'd like a new me please, how well does that work in psychological counseling, yes

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I've got some problems, what are your problems, I need a new me because I'm broken and defiled and corrupt and loathsome and wicked and putrid and I guarantee you that shrink would look at you and go no, no, no, no you're not, yeah, yeah

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I am, compared to you I might not be but I'm wicked before God, no wonder the most holy man in Israel and Judah, he wasn't a

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Hamas terrorist, he wasn't a pedophile, he wasn't a dolterer, he wasn't a murderer,

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Isaiah the prophet stands before God but compared to everybody else he was the best man walking in Judah but compared to God what did

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Isaiah say, woe is me, if Isaiah was a leper he'd say I'm unclean,

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I'm compared to these other people but when

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I see Jesus, John chapter 12 on the throne I'm totally undone, not just on the outside but on the inside too, leprosy everybody thinks is a disease of the skin only but it attacks the nerves, it attacks the brain, it attacks the nervous system, twisting of the limbs and spinal cord issues, our heart is corrupt inside and outside, no wonder

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Isaiah says but we are all as unclean things, all our righteousnesses are as filthy what, rags,

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I need a new me, I need to be born again, I need to be a new creature, only the

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God of the universe who creates things can then recreate things, Spurgeon said the leper was not only loathsome in his person but was defiled in all his acts, if he drank out of a vessel the vessel was defiled, if he lay upon a bed and then the bed became unclean and whosoever sat upon the bed afterward also becomes unclean, if he touched but the wall of a house the wall became unclean and must be purged, all that he did was full of the same loathsomeness as was himself.

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Now this may seem to be a very humiliating truth but faithfulness requires us to say it, all the actions of mankind, sinful natural mankind are tainted with sin, whether he eats or whether he drinks or whatsoever he does he continues to sin against God, in the flesh it's impossible to please

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God, without faith it's impossible to please God. So if I'm so wicked, if I'm so full of spiritual leprosy then

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I need somebody who has more power, I need not somebody who's just powerful, not an impersonal stoic fatalistic

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God, I need a compassionate God, I need somebody who says I've got the power and I'm willing and if you come to me

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I certainly won't cast you out, that's what I need, that's what you need. I think of leprosy and I say to myself you know what, what a picture of sin too because lepers couldn't cure themselves and you can't cure yourself either of the sin issue.

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You need Jesus as a Messiah to cleanse your conscience, to cleanse your will and soul.

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Romans 5 says, while we were still helpless at the right time Christ died for the ungodly, for one will hardly die for a righteous man, perhaps for a good man someone would dare even to die, but God demonstrates present tense, makes conspicuous his own love towards us that while we were yet sinners

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Christ touched us, he died for our sins. I have no other option except for Jesus and the thing is if I could understand the chasm between a leper and society

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I might understand the chasm that isolates me from God, my own sin.

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The leper was isolated from family, from friends, but I just don't think our society gets it today and maybe you're sitting here today and you don't think you need a

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Savior, but I don't think you realize how repulsive your sin is to God. I could even go farther if I'm going to try to make you mad enough to believe.

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You don't realize how repulsive you are to God. To think how repulsive I was.

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I was God's enemy and I didn't do anything. I didn't even come up with my own faith.

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I didn't come up with my own repentance. I wasn't turning good. I wasn't trying to help myself. God just loved me in spite of all my sin and he proved it when he had his son die for me.

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Who dies for enemies? Who dies for sinners? Who dies for helpless? Who dies for the ungodly?

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Who dies for the repulsive? The Messiah does. Jesus, the

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Messiah. He's greater than my sin, greater than my defilement. You know, we don't talk about this around here.

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That's the problem with the church. I don't mean Bethlehem Bible Church. But until you understand sin, you don't really get how great the

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Savior is. We just think, ah, somebody sins and it's kind of forgiven. I just say, I forgive you.

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That's not how God forgives sins. Justice has to be held up. That sin has to be punished.

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And once you're guilty, 5 ,000 years of hell doesn't make you any less guilty. Once you commit a crime against God, you've always committed a crime against God.

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And the only way our separation is going to be dealt was if Jesus shows up. And he did.

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And Matthew wants people to know, you can be religious, you can quote the Old Testament, but you need to be born again.

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You say, yeah, but I'm not really that bad. Well, if you could get to heaven by being good, then the Father's a masochist for killing

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Jesus. Why would he do that? Galatians chapter 2. I think about leprosy and I say, do you know what?

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Like a leper, I need a blood sacrifice. The leper needed a blood sacrifice and so do all sinners because the wages of sin is death.

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The cost of sin is blood sacrifice. Listen to Leviticus 14. The living bird, he shall take it and the cedar wood and the scarlet and the hyssop and shall dip them in the living bird and the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water and he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from leprosy seven times and pronounce him clean.

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There's an issue with leprosy. There has to be a blood sacrifice and a sprinkling of blood. I'm a spiritual leper and there's been the sprinkling of the blood, the removal of all my sins based on the shedding of Christ's blood.

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I need a sacrifice. No wonder Peter, Peter's excited about it.

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You are not redeemed with corruptible things but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot.

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No wonder John on Patmos. I mean, can you imagine? I remember we just took a group and we're standing there on Patmos and John writes in chapter one, unto him that loves us and washes us from our sins in his own blood.

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No wonder Paul just with praise in whom we have redemption, Ephesians one, through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.

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Aren't you glad your sins are forgiven? I knew I was wicked before I was saved and my way was

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I'll just distract myself. I'll get inoculated with enough Bible to say, you know what?

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Yeah, I believe in Jesus. But then God says, I'm willing.

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You're cleansed. One man said, but says one, how am I to know that Christ died for me?

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You will never know it until you are willing to stand in the lepers place full of leprosy.

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If you know this day that you are full of sin, if you are conscious that in you, that is in your flesh, there dwells no good thing, then it is written that Christ died for our sins.

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According to the scriptures, it is just this. If you are willing to stand today condemned as a sinner and nothing more than a sinner, then

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Christ died for you. Your business is to trust your soul in the fact that Christ did hang on the tree for sinners.

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Mark this faith is trusting Christ and having done with yourself.

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Put your finger on any sound place in your flesh. You are a lost man. Point to any good that you trust you can do and there's no heaven for you.

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Rely on anything that you have felt or thought or said or done and you rely on a broken read.

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But trust in Christ alone. Cast your arms around his cross and cling to that.

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If you can. No, the leper said, if you will,

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I know you. You know, one thing I notice about Christians when they realize they're safe from their sins, they can't stop talking about it.

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I'm not saying it's a sin to talk about the Red Sox. Well, am

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I saying that? The San Francisco Giants. But you know what?

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I've had my fill of my own sin. I want to move on and I pretty much had my fill of all the other things that the world can offer.

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I'm not calling you to be aesthetic or to be a monk or anything else because last week after all I preached, I want you to enjoy your life under the sun, under heaven.

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But there's something to be said for some people who have some fire in their bones. No wonder

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Charles Wesley, he breaks the power of canceled sin. He sets the prisoner free.

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His blood can make the foulest leprous sinner clean. His blood availed for me.

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I don't know what else to preach. It's all I got for you. Is Jesus Christ and him crucified?

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And as your view of Christ goes up, who does that to a leper? Don't forget, who did that for you if you're a

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Christian? Jesus paid it all, all to him what? I'm forced to do against my will.

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Thanks for the ministry. I don't think so. Joseph Hart said, come ye sinners poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore.

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Jesus stands ready to save you, full of pity, love and power. He is able, he is willing, doubt no more.